[rigmarole]

Alot of good replies, thank you!

I agree that there are much more important facets of my game that I need to work on. I have no intent of obsessing and being "table image focused" when I sit down and play. But it is a consideration in the back of my mind, as well as a curiousity.

I think alot of the things that have been stated in the replies though (despite the disclaimers of them not being table image) are indeed table image related issues.

Playing hyper aggressive or a being calling station for a couple of hands to give the impression you are something you are not, that in my opinion is manipulation of table image. You are inticing your opponents to react based on the image you have portrayed (if you can make a certain villan react consistantly, that get's incorporated into your table image of that person) . This is a short term example of it, but I think that it goes well beyond what is obvious and plain to see in a single hand or a couple of orbits around the table.

Not only does your table image affect your opponents in the cognizant decisons that they make, it affects them subconciously as well.

To further elaborate on my statement in my original post "When I bring my tight A game to the table, I can sometimes see the fear in the folds from my early position raise after 4 or so orbits" and a statement made in this thread and commonly throughout this forum "that your opponents are not paying attention"... I don't think it really matters... it's like getting burned when you touch a hot stove or shocked when pissing on an electric fence... your subconcious mind will tell you... I'm NOT doing that again. They experienced something bad and somewhere they do remember it.

In most cases the fold to my preflop raise was not a cognizant or concious decision, they are on autopilot and not paying attention.

The inverse of this is when you flop a boat ... you bet and a villan you've played many times before calls, the turn pairs the board villan bets and you conciously think to bet but for some reason you just have a bad feeling... you've been in a situation before with this hand many times ... but didn't have the bad feeling... but for some reason you know something bad is going to happen this time... villan shows quads.

I'm not saying that this should be a focus... and highly discourage anyone pulling a bluff or any other play on the grounds of what is stated here alone... but more along the lines of something you should be cognizant of (even at these early stages of our poker lives)... not only of your table image but of your opponnents, as it changes over the course of your life, a session, and even a hand.

I think table image goes far beyond what is obviously seen, and subtly creeps into areas we can't even imagine it is.

Are some of the things that I describe part of what some people call the metagame?

Rig