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Changing Gears as a Poker Strategy
People often confuse changing gears with bluffing, and whilst bluffing is part of a well balanced strategy for changing gears, it plays only a small role. An example of changing gears is choosing to play AK conservatively against solid tight players but playing the same hand aggressively against looser and weaker opposition. Changing gears is'nt just about bluffing, it's about changing strategy to achieve a goal.
The size of your stack has a big influence on when to change gears, if your stack is much smaller than the average you will have to move up a gear, if you have plenty of chips you can pick and choose your gears more freely and less out of necessity. The sum of the blinds in relation to the size of your stack also has an impact, if the blinds are large in relation to your stack, you must change up a gear or be left shortstacked.
Changing gears is also about understanding the elements around you and reacting to them when they change. The best poker players understand when to change gears instictively and pick the right players to do it against. If the table is playing loose, you may choose to drop down a gear and wait for a premium hand, if the table is playing tight, you might prefer slowly chipping away at your opponents by continuously putting small amounts of pressure on them.
Timing is important; if you have just been caught bluffing twice in a row, now might be the time to change gears, your opponents will likely be suspicious of your play. For example, if you hold a strong hand in relation to the board such as three of a kind, instead of trying to trap your opponent, consider betting into them making the same sized bet you got caught bluffing with. Another example of timing, if you notice a shortstack who is about to be swallowed up by the blinds goes all in pre flop, you suspect him of having a marginal hand, you may choose to change gears and bet what would normally be considered a slightly less marginal hand much more strongly than normal in an attempt to isolate the shortstack and get heads up with him, you change gears with a hand like A7 because you suspect the shortstack has an inferior hand and expect all active opponents to fold to your reraise.
Another reason to change gears is if your play has become too predictable and your opponents are getting a good read on you. If your opponents are folding to your bets because they suspect you have a solid hand most of the time, make sure to change gears and win as many small uncontested pots as you can before your opponents realise they should start looking you up more. Effectively, if your opponent has found a way to counteract your playing style, you should mix up the way you are playing to negate their defense strategy, your aim is to get them to misread your hand in the hope of putting them in an awkward situation. For example, if you notice an opponent always betting into you, they may have noted you as a passive player they can push around, if this is the case you can cash in on that image by suddenly changing gears when the opponent least expects it.
There is less value in changing gears in fixed limit games because the payoff is restricted, grinding out profit through solid play is usually the way forward in limit games, but in no limit games the payoff is far higher; limit is about winning pots, no limit can be about winning your opponents entire stack.
While it is possible to change gears just for one specific hand or situation such as in a ring game, another commonly accepted principle is the need to change gears within a tournament. Arguably sit and gos provide the best example because it involves all facets of a multi table tournament boiled down into a mini single table tournament, it is common to play tightly in the early stages, then loosening up as the blinds increase, until the point where the blinds become so big that the majority of constested hands involve players pushing all in against each other trying to either pick up the blinds or double up; this all happens in the space of an hour normally.
With multi table tournaments, changing gears is a much slower process which involves playing tight solid poker for the majority of the tournament and moving up the gears towards the end of the tournament, typically at the final table.
Playing textbook poker is invariably the best strategy against low quality opposition, but in order to remain competitive in the higher stakes games, you must develop the ability to be unpredictable and this involves being able to change gears aswell as recognise when others are changing gears and reacting to it.
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