It's a rare player these days that hasn't learned a thing or two about Hold 'Em fundamentals. Most everyone who sits down at the table has read at least one poker book or website, or at the very least has friends that have. For this reason, it's important not to fall into easily readable habits.

Mixing it up can take place in two different ways: you can either mix up your hand selection, or you can mix up how you play those hands. Both of these things are necessary to evolve as a player. Let's take a look at each of these things in turn.

Mixing up the Cards you Play

Everyone understands why the fundamentals work. However, not many players understand when they don't work anymore. You see, they're called fundamentals because you're supposed to build off of them - you're supposed to change them into something that appears much, much different. Of course, you have to know them before building off of them, lest your structure come down around your ears.

It's important to restate this: you have to understand the fundamentals thoroughly before veering from them. It's fine if you have a reason to do so; if it's happenstance you'll just get yourself into trouble. You can look at it this way: if you jump off into the deep end of the pool, you'll be fine if you know how to swim well. Otherwise, you'll probably just drown. Fundamentals are the water wings of poker, and should be worn until you've learned how to paddle with the best of them. Then you need to start thinking for yourself.

While it's true that big cards will win more often, it's also true that against decent players, it can be difficult to win big pots with "top-pair" type hands - and it's easy to LOSE big pots with big hands, if you're not careful. And let's face it: if all you play is big cards, then people will just get out of your way when you bet - unless, of course, they have you beat. Also, if you only show down face cards and big pairs, then you're asking to get many pots stolen from you any time a small, scary board comes out.

Mixing up the Way you Play Them

This is just as important as the cards you choose to play. Pre-flop is only one betting round, and the next three tend to make the pot much bigger - which means any mistakes made will be greater. Any time you fall into a pattern, you're asking your opponents to exploit it, which means that you have to change things up. There are actually two ways to do this.

1) Sometimes do one thing; sometimes do another. This is the preferred choice among most players when they think of "mixing it up". One pro of this approach is that you allow yourself opportunities to set your opponents up later in a session. For instance, you might intentionally check/call with top pair on the flop a couple times, so that you can get away with free cards for your draws later on. Since you slowplayed hands most people would bet with, your opponents will often be afraid to bet into your future checks. As a corollary, you might check/call with a draw a couple times so that next time when you bet your draw, your opponents will give you respect.

A con of this approach is that you have to be constantly aware of your own actions, and while this is always a good idea anyway, keeping tally of how many times you've bet or raised what can be confusing to many players. A great suggestion by Dan Harrington is the "watch approach." For instance, if you have a plan to say, raise AA pre-flop 80% of the time and limp the other 20%, you can use your watch as a random number generator to figure out what to do. In this case, if the second hand is in the first twelve seconds of a minute, you limp; otherwise you raise. (20% of 60 seconds is 12 seconds.)

2) Always play different situations the same way. I prefer this style, and Chris Ferguson plays this way as well. This may not seem like mixing it up, but it actually is an abstract way to keep your opponents in the dark. For instance, when I'm out of position on the flop, against a single pre-flop raiser, if I always check/call (when I choose to play), regardless of what I have, my opponent will always be guessing on the turn. I might have top-pair, a set, two-pair, a flush draw, a straight draw, a combo draw - or I might even be pretending to have one of those things so I can bet if the obvious flush hits, or if my opponent shows weakness with what I perceive to be missed big cards.

In the same vein, if I always bet or raise (when I choose to play) the same amount on the flop, when heads-up in position, my opponent will never know what I've decided to continue with. He'll have to fold much more often here, since it's even harder for him to face what might be bigger bets on the turn and river out of position.

Let's look at an example of how mixing it up could be beneficial to you.

You are playing a deep-stacked, $5-$10 no-limit game; the table is fairly tight and fairly aggressive. The player under-the-gun raises to three times the blind. Everyone folds to you; you're on the button with:

I would suggest that beginners fold here, but once you're ready to start thinking for yourself, this type of situation is a good one to try being creative. When playing deep-stacked no-limit, having a deceptive hand like this against a premium hand can actually be a very lucrative situation - especially against the typical player who overvalues one pair after the flop. Also, once you've shown yourself capable of playing little cards, you'll actually be able to bluff more at ragged boards that may have hit you.

Let's say the flop comes down:

With an open-ender and a back-door flush draw, this is actually a great board for your hand. Ideally, you want the other player to have a big hand like AK or AA if they'll play them blindly to the river. Since you called a pre-flop raise, many players just don't believe that you could stay in with such "garbage" - so if you hit a 2 or a 7, you'll have an extremely deceptive nut straight, and will likely take down a very large pot.

The reality of no-limit is that cracking someone's stack more than makes up for the many times you don't hit such a hand, as long as you don't get caught up in overvaluing a mediocre board. Look at this way: if you call $30 but can win $200 after the flop, you've made a good wager. That's almost 7-1 on your money, and intrinsically, very, VERY few match-ups are even close to that bad off. I believe:

when specifically against a big pair, is about an 8 - 1 dog. However against:

or

it's only about a 33% dog - which means that if you can collect more than 2 - 1 on your investment against these hands, on average, you'll come out ahead. I'm not saying you should play 72, but theoretically, if you could play perfectly after the flop, every single time, you'd probably do just fine with it against your typical opponents. You'd steal pots when they were weak, you'd fold when you're crushed, and you'd win decent to huge pots when the board actually comes with a winner for you.

Unfortunately, it's just not that simple, since many times you'll be the loser when you think you're the winner and vice-versa. 72 won't make the absolute nuts unless it hits quads, and then how are you going to get any money - you've got all the cards! This is why it's best to mix it up with hands that can develop robustly after the flop - namely, suited connectors and gappers. Even that 64 made a nut straight, in our example. However, your opponent doesn't know what you have either, and sometimes you can use your image to your advantage.

For instance, let's say that in the previous hand you were lucky enough to be up against a set of kings, and after calling his flop bet, your straight came on the turn. He bet again, you raised, and by the river he had dumped his entire stack of $1000 to you. (Which are pot odds of over 33 - 1 on your $30 pre-flop call, by the way.) Twenty minutes later, you look down to see:

The same opponent raises in early position, another player calls; so do you. The flop comes:

Your opponent throws out a continuation bet, the other player folds. While some players here would raise to define the hand and make it to the river cheaply, because of your earlier antics, calling here would be the recommended play. First of all, your opponent might have a pair larger than yours, but the king might scare him. He might also have:

or

He'd probably continuation bet with any of these hands, since you've shown that you play weird, small cards - he might think he still has the best hand. If the turn comes a blank and he bets again, you'll have to evaluate your opponent. In this case he probably has you beat and you should fold. If he checks a blank on the turn, the pot might be up for grabs, although he'll likely check/call if he has a pair bigger than your nines.

Depending on the opponent and the size of the flop bet, a raise might take the pot from a hand that missed, but since you don't know if he's missed, why not see what happens on the turn? Sometimes just calling a bet in position is scarier to your opponent then raising. Do this once with AA and watch it work wonders for you in the future!

Most important, however, is the drawish nature of the board. If a seven, four, eight, nine (which gives you a set, anyway), three or any spade comes on the turn, you might be able to make a big play at the pot - any disciplined opponent will have to seriously consider folding, even with a hand like AA. After all, he still may be head-shy about that last haymaker you gave him, plus the fact that he now knows you're willing to play those types of hands.

Personally, I prefer to use the "same approach, different hand" option. For instance, I don't use Harrington's AA advice much because I pretty much never limp as the first person in - if I choose to play 64s in early position, you can bet I'm coming in for the same size raise that I use for AA, every single time. How does this give my opponents any information as to my hand? It doesn't - they'll just know I never limp. Also, I don't like my decisions to be random. I always try to have a good reason for doing the things I do. Quite frankly, the "randomness defense" is actually a tidbit from classic "game theory" and is how you should approach games where opponents are as good as or better than you. However, if you're more skilled than your opponents, you should use your skill to win - not some random play.

Another practical application of mixing it up can be seen in how I play the button or the small blind. Because these two spots are well-known for being "steal spots," I adjust to this by limping more often when I play them, against typical players. People tend to think I'm slow-playing a big hand - and sometimes I am - which allows me to play a wider range of hands in position against the blinds, which I don't mind at all.

Once I show down a couple weak hands here the blinds might start raising me when I limp; if this happens I'll have to pick my hands more carefully, but since I play my big hands the same way, it's only a matter of time before they run into trouble. Also, by usually limping the button, when I do choose to raise you can bet everyone's going to fold - I can even frequently throw in a large string of raises over the course of several buttons before anyone can be certain I've become more aggressive. And when they start playing back at me, (or just before they do, if I'm paying enough attention) I start limping again.

When you become a great player, mixing it up isn't something you decide to do - it's just a natural part of your game. If you vary your play based on your opponents or your recent perceivable actions, you'll keep your opponents guessing.

Sam @ Power Poker Course.




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