Introduction to Advertising: Tricking Your Opponents

Introduction to Advertising: Tricking Your Opponents
By Loki Luchs of Predictem.com

When Absolute vodka was first introduced into the American industry in 1979, it was a colossal flop. First, Sweden was not known to be a competitive producer of vodka at the time; this image was not actually incorrect, because it’s only a hair better than the regular well vodka, a 3 out of 5 rating. Furthermore, it’s got an awkward bottle for bartenders to handle, so sales in taverns were non-existent. Finally, vodka on the whole was not a huge seller in American bars until the mid 1980's. So how exactly did this struggling company turn into the largest distributor of vodka in the world? The answer is simple: Advertising. The “Absolute Perfection” ad campaign is one of the single most productive in history. Despite the national alcohol sales dropping over the course of the next decade, Absolute sales rose from 12,000 crates to 2.7 million. A strong advertising campaign made it a global powerhouse almost overnight.

When you’re playing poker, you need to find a way to sell yourself. The fact of the matter is, no matter how much we want them to be, our opponents aren’t (always) stupid. They are thinking, breathing individuals that show a reluctance to give us their money. If your game becomes predictable, they will always know what you’re doing. Sometimes when a deer is standing in the road they won’t move because they don’t know what the lights are… If the deer figures out what they are, however, all he has to do is step out of the one-dimensional path of the car.

The best way to advertise in poker is to convince your opponents that you play in a manner that you don’t. For a LAG (loose aggressive), this is easy because every hand you play, your opponents will think you’re bluffing. You’re not only going to get plenty of action when you do actually have a hand, you’re going to break rocks when your crap hands flop hard. This isn’t always the case when you’re a tight player. When a table is adapting to the fact that you only play high valued hands, you’re generally not going to get much action from the table when you have those hands. Players will fold unless they have ways to beat you. Too often, a TAG (tight aggressive) either plays too tight or doesn’t adapt to the fact that the players around him are playing the exact same way. The only way to fix this problem is to sell them the fact that you aren’t, in fact, a good player. This is advertising a false image of yourself, so that in future confrontations, the players around you will not have a clue where you’re at in the hand.

As the saying goes, you’ve gotta spend money to make money. One easy way is to raise with rags a few times in a row from late position. At a tight table, you won’t make much money and you might even lose a little if you get re-raised, but when you show 6/3 off-suit a couple times and laugh at their expense, your opponents will be out to get you. This ISN’T a bad thing! You will certainly get more action from their medium strength hands when you’re making big raises at them later in the game.

Another way that you can advertise is by making a few cheap, moronic calls. This will stick out in your opponents minds that you’re going to call them with anything, so they won’t be afraid of you when you’re in the pot. One or two cheap showdowns can sell you as a minnow, when you’re actually just setting the bait for the real fish.

Keep in mind that your opponents will be spending time trying to fit you into a general category of player. This helps them react so they don’t fall into traps. If you can convince them that you play differently than you do, you stand a very good chance of tricking them into making mistakes at critical times.

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