Awareness and opportunity.

Here's a situation where I've been playing extremely tight and everyone at the table knows (or thinks) that I'm not sticking my money in without the goods. Up to this point, they've seen me do a whole lot of folding, including one spot where I admit to folding trips with an open ended straight flush draw (refer to 'bad fold?').

Knowing that my opponents are going to be looking to take the pot away from me any time I enter the pot and aren't likely to give me a whole lot of action when I do stick it in, I could do one of two things:
I could wait for a big hand and hope so run up against another legitimate hand, or I could take advantage of an almost mandatory bluffing situation on my opponents part. I choose option b.

Once we've set the image of an incredibly tight player who can be pushed around a bit, the next step is to identify those who are most likely to try and take advantage of that. If this person is on your left, so much the better.

At this point, I'm simply looking to create a pot and take it away once enough loose money is in the pot. Because of the image I've created up to this point, I expect to be called when my bets are relatively cheap but if all of my chips go in, I'm not getting called by anything other than a very strong hand..which I'm not inclined to give credit to against the few players I've already marked as donors. If they happen to hit, tough luck.. it's not likely in my opinion.

Full Tilt Poker Game #7167691034: Table Flower (deep) - $0.10/$0.25 - Pot Limit Hold'em - 18:45:18 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: DrSliq ($50)
Seat 2: KBHustler ($50.75)
Seat 3: arRiverDerci ($91.65)
Seat 4: angel1959 ($48.90)
Seat 5: Scott Fischman ($59.10)
Seat 6: Damo Suzuki ($49.75)
Seat 7: EasyPots ($50.40)
Seat 8: GUTSH00T3R ($78.25)
Seat 9: Chipndale89 ($43.15)
angel1959 posts the small blind of $0.10
Scott Fischman posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DrSliq [Qd 6d]
Damo Suzuki folds
EasyPots raises to $0.85
GUTSH00T3R folds
Chipndale89 folds
DrSliq has 15 seconds left to act


**Loose player #1 raises..let's see what happens. **

DrSliq calls $0.85
KBHustler raises to $3.25

**Loose player #2 reraises, pretty standard for these two**

arRiverDerci folds
angel1959 folds
Scott Fischman folds
EasyPots calls $2.40

**Even if I wasn't looking to make a move, we're all deep stacks. easy call**

DrSliq calls $2.40
*** FLOP *** [9d Td Ks]
EasyPots bets $0.30

**WTF is that? Let's find out. QJ isn't an unreasonable holding for me to have and I happen to have a queen anyway with a flush draw to boot..still not all that necessary to have anything here though, at least IMO**

DrSliq raises to $5.65
KBHustler has 15 seconds left to act
KBHustler calls $5.65

**This guy's been floating me almost every time, although it's entirely possible that he does have a piece..maybe even probable, but I can be fairly certain that he's not holding QJ and I'd just be unlucky if he hit a set. A flush draw is a possibility as well, but the important thing is I doubt he has QJ and it's entirely possible that I do have QJ or 99 - TT.**

EasyPots folds

**Great, now we've only got one person to worry about, whom we feel is putting their money in rather loosely and looking to pressure us into a fold**
*** TURN *** [9d Td Ks] [9s]

** I love this card, I can be fairly certain he doesn't have a 9 and once again, if he flopped a set..I got unlucky. Let's give him an opportunity to put the pressure on us, though. Besides, if I bet out, he's probably either raising or folding..I can't call a raise and I'd rather have him put more money in before he folds**

DrSliq checks
KBHustler has 15 seconds left to act
KBHustler bets $10.75

**Just what I wanted you to do, good puppet. Time to take it down. If I get called, there's a small chance I'm drawing dead but in all likeliness I've got at least 4 outs with the J and potentially 8 more with the diamonds. I feel his calling range is pretty tight though and I don't expect to have to draw.**

DrSliq raises to $41.10, and is all in
KBHustler has 15 seconds left to act
KBHustler has requested TIME
KBHustler folds
Uncalled bet of $30.35 returned to DrSliq

**Perfect. All went according to plan and I've picked up some cash to play around with so I can try to hit a real hand. I wanna get paid on my real hands though and one's gotta come sooner or later. I think I'll show this one to offset the image I had previously created**
DrSliq shows [Qd 6d] a pair of Nines
DrSliq wins the pot ($41.05)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $43.20 | Rake $2.15
Board: [9d Td Ks 9s]
Seat 1: DrSliq collected ($41.05)
Seat 2: KBHustler folded on the Turn
Seat 3: arRiverDerci (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: angel1959 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Scott Fischman (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Damo Suzuki didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: EasyPots folded on the Flop
Seat 8: GUTSH00T3R didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Chipndale89 didn't bet (folded)

As an added benefit to taking down the pot, KB stopped fucking with me..which is kinda nice when I'm looking to see a lot of cheap flops and draw without too much investment.

Yeah, I agree he rarely has QJ here because of his preflop action - but I don't see him as always floating this. AK is a likely holding here - Its a bit more marginal then presented imo but overall probably works out more times than not so good thought process and good play.

Under normal circumstances I would figure a person in that spot to be holding anything from aces through jacks, AK, maybe AQ suited and possibly a few random favorites..but this isn't a normal circumstance. The action at this table was unreal and both Easy and KB had been seen raising and reraising, floating flops and making moves only to turn up total garbage..against these two in particular, I was willing to assign them a much wider range than the normal. If KB did have AK here, I think my raise on the flop worries him and I would expect a raise to figure out where he's at. I don't think he's putting me on a weaker king or less so smooth calling with a hand like AK in an effort to get me to commit more to the pot before pouncing doesn't seem all that likely to me. If he does hold AK, he's smooth calling because he's not sure he has the best hand. With such a draw-heavy flop, if he hit a real hand I'd expect him to stick in a raise. I think a draw is the most likely holding if he isn't in there with absolutely nothing. AQ, AJ would probably elect to smooth call. flush draw and even just the ace of diamonds may call as well.. none of these hands are calling my check/shove on the turn too often, if at all.

I should probably add that this kind of stuff isn't really recommended for these limits. More often than not, you'll be up against a table full of people who aren't paying enough attention to know that you haven't put much money into any pots without a strong holding. The fact that observers(of which there were plenty due to Fischy's presence) made a big deal about my fold in that Omaha hand and I had been taking some crap for being too tight only served to bring that to everyone's attention, creating the situation where I couldn't call or make a smallish bet without being raised. This was my way of dealing with that.

Also, I'm not sure if it plays a factor, but the only hand they'd seen me play hard up to that point was one particular hand where I'd limped in with K3 suited, hit a flop of K23, and got it all in against Scott Fischman who held A5 suited with the 23 being his suit. the turn gave him the straight flush..kinda sucked, but luckily he was short stacked.. which is pretty funny in itself.