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There are many general strategic approaches to poker that people have come with over the years and the one that seems to get the most play in general would have to be the opposite playing strategy. There are many reasons as to why this is the case, but as a famous poker player once put it, the main reason is that playing the opposite strategy is the easiest way to win all of the money that is at the table.
So, with that in mind, what exactly is the opposite playing strategy? Quite simply put, it is a strategy employed by many poker players whereby the player chooses their own strategy based on what the other players at the table are doing. This means that if the other players at the table are playing conservatively and are forming a rock garden, the player doing the opposite strategy would play aggressively. On the other hand, if the table is full of aggressive players, the player doing the opposite strategy would stay back and wait for cards before making a move.
This opposite strategy is a simplistic approach to a larger strategy based on a game theory approach to poker, but it is a very accurate simplification that will work if employed correctly. It even makes sense from a logical point of view. If everyone is playing like a rock, you can bluff at a number of pots and take them down with no real hands and that is why you should be aggressive. Similarly, if everyone is playing aggressively, you can capitalize on your big hands by getting more money out of them. Even without the game theory to back it up, this strategy still makes perfect sense.
There is no room for mechanical thinking in poker however, as you need to be able to adjust to whatever the table throws at you in order to really become a top notch player. For that reason, there are times when playing deceptively will demand that you abandon the opposite playing strategy for a few hands. As you get better as a player though, you will know when those times are and what to do about them.
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