Most players of even ordinary skill can quickly identify the best player at the table. Sometimes it’s you, but often enough, it’s that guy in seat three, or the sneaky s-o-b on your right. Identifying the best player at the table is valuable because you are able to determine the one opponent that you will most likely avoid confronting unless you have the goods.
One reason to identify the best player at the table is because a good player may respect your big bets (be it of the value, semi-bluff or pure bluff variety) more than a calling station or out-and-out newb, and this is a potential avenue of profit. The second, and perhaps more important, reason is to try to stay out of his way and let him pick off the non-believers or run off the timid.
Additionally, knowing who has the wherewithal to make the correct decision much more often than not can allow you to navigate the table and steer your game into the proper zone for highest potential profit.
For these reasons, I prefer to not be the best player at the table. I would much rather keep my eye on someone else, and watch that player systematically eliminate the competition by getting full value for his huge hands, snapping off bluffs, and generally making life miserable for the rest of the table.
This may sound contrary to traditional advice, such as “be the force to be reckoned with;” make everyone sweat what you’re going to do. I can agree in principle, but not so often in practice. Being invisible, i.e. playing tight but aggressive and avoiding unnecessary pissing contests, has its merits. Opponents are much more likely to put you on a legitimate hand, even when you continuation bet after a blank flop.
Most of the time, you can expect your opponents to fold, whereas the best player at the table, a player whom at least some of the players are liable to put on a potential c-bet with nothing, might get called more than he would like. This can turn into a guessing game, and by sheer happenstance alone, even the worst players will make the optimal play now and again. I’d prefer they didn’t make it against me, and as such, I’m more apt to beat into their heads that they’re at least up against something, which may make them reconsider calling on a draw or a couple over cards.
The best player at the table, if he is as aggressive as the modern definition of “the best” implies, may not have that luxury – the luxury of being believed, if not respected. Most often, when I have the best hand, I want to win the pot right this instant. Only in rare situations will I wish to keep players in. While this may cut down on my expectation, it sends a clear message: I have something, and to find out if my something is better than your something, as it usually will be, or to chase that flush or straight, you’re going to pay a premium.
I may check a flopped set, but only in very specific situations will I check top pair top kicker. The best player at the table may bet the set and check the kings with ace kicker because perhaps they’re the “best” play, and allow a random small pair to turn a set or a four puppy feet to become five. When you’re tight but aggressive, if you’re in the pot you’re betting and raising, and only very rarely checking. Betting is superior to checking most days of the week, which is one of the attributes you’ll share with the best player at the table. The other is that you’ll win most of the pots you enter, while others will toss their chips with reckless abandon because they saw Chino raise with Q7 on the World Poker Tour.
So identify the best player at the table, and stay out of his way while he knocks out the weak, often with varying degrees of risk, and you grow your stack a little at a time, with much less time spent in the high-blood pressure zone. Soon enough you’ll be heads up against the best player at the table. And then you can show him who is the real best player at the table.
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