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I lot of players don't know how to look at relative hand strength, they only look at their own hand strength. I am guilty of this sometimes. When I have my A game I am very good at putting people on accurate ranges and playing well against those ranges. When I'm not playing well, my thinking will be more like "I have mid pair good kicker on a drawy board, my opponent MUST have a draw, I'll call off a lot of money."

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To add to this, how the villain perceives you is as essential as your own read on the villain. If your opponent is growing confident that your huge bets are bluffs and your small bets are value bets, then your next "value" bet should be HUGE.

The bet/check/bet line tends to be pretty good secondary line to use for taking advantage of this hero image.

Example:

Preflop: Hero holds A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].

Button bets $20, Hero raises to $60.

Flop: A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Button checks, Hero bets $100, BB calls $100.

Turn: 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

Button checks, Hero checks.

River: 2[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

Button checks, Hero bets $300.

Against a villain who knows you wouldn't fire a second barrel into this turn without an ace (and knows you have a strong one at that because of your reraise) this "fake bluff" line works very well because he has almost definitely underplayed his hand to try to trap you.

On the opposite end, in a large home game I play at sometimes (~200 people) I have a very tight image. I frequently play hands such as 5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] into raises, or even reraising with them. I pay careful attention to how often I end up showing down these hands. Because I have a reputation as a tight player, any time I land a hand with "garbage" I almost always end up paid off.

In the sit n goes against new villains, both players are trying to learn each other's game off of a few hands. One strange line within the first 10 hands can easily lead the villain to believe you are an aggressive donkey. I'll make another post adding to this when I can find a good example.