Play Soft... Win Hard
Whether you like to wear super shade sunglasses or a big hat, to advertise is to tell your story in and convince other players that your bark isn’t nearly as bad as your bite. “Advertising” is a term used in poker that focuses on the intentional move to uncover the weak players. It is also used to refer to any manipulation used by poker players to influence how other players assess or size you up.
Many poker professionals will tell you, it is important to advertise. Think of it as setting up shop or a business. Everything from the font you use on your menu to the way you word your ad sends a message to potential customers. You are in business every time you sit down to play poker. You are selling an attitude and attitude can be the difference between a successful bluff and a blunder.
There are many important strategies to use when playing poker, and there are many methods players can use to keep other players from telling your moves. These methods including bluffing through trying for free cards, checking the raising, slow play and semi-bluffing. There is, however a more sophisticated, and often more effective, way to keep from telling your hand. This strategy is known as advertising play. In order to use this strategy, the player plays badly on purpose, playing crazy and making the wrong moves where you are sure everyone will see them.
By doing so, the player will lose hands for apparently no reason, but he or she will be messing with the other players and throwing them off balance by misleading them into thinking you do not know what you are doing. The idea, of course is to lull those players into a false sense of security, with the idea that you will win back all that money from those very same players in the future.
Some types of hands work better than others when advertising play, and these hands have the advantage of being easy to advertise. What’s more, these hands will provide you with a believable playing strategy. It is important not to advertise play simply with any old hand you happen to have. It is important to choose those advertised hands carefully, choosing those hands that look like you have a decent chance of winning the pot.
Playing little connectors like 5-6 suited, 7-8 suited and an Ace with another suited card is the best strategy. The advertising strategy can also work with small pairs. When advertising play you should play these hands quite aggressively, and advertise your play making sure all the other players notice it. After all, advertising play has no value if the other players do not notice it.
For instance, if the player has a hand of 7-8 suited and it is in the first position, he or she would normally drop the hand. The player who plans to advertise, however, will bet with this hand, then raise and reraise until he or she works the way up to the river. If the player is sitting in the last position, they would re-raise the bets which have been made so far, then continue with the aggressive moves from there on out. The player may occasionally get caught in these reckless bluffs, and the player will need to be positive that all the other players at the table see your hand and see how badly you have played that hand.
While pursuing this strategy you might of course get lucky and win a pot. If this happens it is important not to show your hand. Just be happy you have won some money and go on advertising the next appropriate hand.
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