How Do High Stakes Players Seize Control of the Poker Table?

How do the elite poker players of the world take control, maximize their wins, and lessen their losses? There are a number of ways that those comfortable at the high stakes demonstrate these areas of control, and we’ll go through them in this article. Mastering your poker initiative takes time, but once these optimizations are put in place, your game will thrive.

Develop a Shark Mindset

I once asked a big-name poker player what the difference was between the player he was at his most successful and the player he was before the profit and plaudits started rolling in. He summarized it in one sentence when he said: “I used to think ‘How can I survive?’ in tournaments. Now I think ‘How can I win the hand I’m playing?’”

That key change of looking not at how to get to the next hand of poker but how to win the one you’re in can be broken down to provide the foundations of your new initiative-based elite poker mindset. Here are three negatives about that initial survival-based mindset that the elite pro was previously in:

1. Surviving to the next hand puts you in a fold-favorite mentality and can automatically lean you towards mucking your hand and minimising your chances if you’re in a marginal spot.
2. By only thinking of surviving rather than dominating, you can be missing out on crucial value that could see you push for higher positions at the conclusion of tournaments rather than min-cashing.
3. Other players will read this survival instinct as weakness and your ability to ride out pots where you are holding your own will be reduced as players bully you and increase pots beyond your comfort levels early on in the betting action.

By focusing more on winning pots, dominating action, and controlling the narrative, our elite pro was able to reap the rewards in many ways. Here are three reasons to be more proactive than passive:

1. Other players will fear your ability to bet, raise, three-bet or four-bet pre-flop. As a consequence, you’ll be free to exercise more control over proceedings before anyone sees a flop and take pot control earlier.
2. You are more aggressive and win-focused in every hand, and therefore more likely to win bigger pots. The more aggressive you are, the larger the individual pot is going to be worth on average.
3. Having a greater focus on getting the better of your opponents in each hand makes you a more dangerous opponent to tangle with in general and improves your own mentality. You’ll be amazed at how this builds a ‘lion in the jungle’ self-image.

Very frequently, the British poker player Stephen Chidwick displays this intense focus in each hand, as seen in the WSOP Main Event of 2021.

Despite being well behind against pocket aces, which make a set on the river, Chidwick has a complete lack of fear and sets his opponent all-in. While it doesn’t work on that occasion, this relentless approach eventually pays off again and again.

Create a Table Image

One of the biggest benefits of playing poker with more control is that to an extent, as well as dominating players in individual hands, you also create a table image that is to be feared. For many years, Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth have been duking it out at the top of the all-time WSOP bracelet winners leaderboard.

In gameplay, however, Ivey has often dominated his illustrious opponent. So how has that happened? Well, Ivey, who currently has 11 bracelet wins, is just six behind his fellow Phil. He is a master of appearing to be strong in hands and pushing others around post-flop. Ivey has got away with enormous bluffs in his time, so much so that you could easily fall down a rabbit hole online and believe that bluffing is the only move you need in the game if you can do it like Ivey.

Ivey, of course, knows better. He exploits Hellmuth’s fear of his unpredictability by mixing it up, taking control of hands post-flop, and utilizing that carefully created table image to maximum effect.

Check out this hand not for the hands involved but the body language between the two men and how Ivey has won this hand almost before Hellmuth has picked up his hole cards.

Ivey’s instincts are never to participate in a hand, but to dominate it. He’s fallen foul of some players trying to take him on no matter what he holds, but again, like all great poker players, he knows when to adapt. Ivey is one of the best in the world at exhibiting table control and making the most of his table image to punish his opponents.

Adapt or Die

The best poker players are never dead set on a certain way of playing. One successful poker player spoke to me after winning a $3,000-entry event that featured some of the best players in Europe. After his victory, I asked him what his plan was in regard to a few of the biggest hands at the final table.

His reply surprised me, both in terms of candour and openness.

“I change my plan between every card. You’ve got to be prepared to completely change the way you see a hand with each new card.”

This focus on change fascinated me. Often, when we play a poker hand, we fall into patterns or routines. How often have you played pocket aces? Now how often have you raised pre-flop with the ‘pocket rockets,’ seen a queen-high flop, and then raised only to call off a shove simply because you have the best pre-flop hand in poker? We all know how costly this rooted mindset can be. Our opponent can have flopped a set, made combo draws, or might have any two cards, yet we often ignore all the signs being shown to us because we have pocket aces.

I once played aces terribly. I did exactly what I’ve just described to you, then just as I shoved on the flop, I looked across at my opponent in the heads-up hand. He looked excited, eager, and desperate for me to shove. I’d already made the move, and he snap-called with a set of sevens. If I had taken into consideration his body language, action, breathing, or even facial movements for just two seconds, I would have correctly saved my tournament life. The best players never commit this fatal error. They pay attention to everything they can, and they make a controlled decision based on that information.

In a poker game, information changes all the time and one of the best players at using this information to make aggressive, controlled decisions is the Spanish poker legend Adrian Mateos. Possibly the most talented and most successful player below the age of 30, Mateos uses all of the information he has to make a series of stunning moves in this clip:

In Conclusion

Making the right decisions like an elite poker player takes time. By studying the world’s best in these clips, you can see why over time, using your initiative at the poker table and dominating your opponents can result in huge success.

Don’t just survive from hand to hand and game to game, look instead to focus on winning wherever possible and being aggressive when you need to be. Control what you can and do it with the intention of winning every hand you play.

Take advantage of others’ weaknesses and play on them to create a dominant, powerful table image. You can then use this image not just to control your own play but also others at the table.

Finally, utilize your intelligence by adding new information into your decision-making on every street. Ignore nothing at the poker table, and have a mindset of adaptability to each situation, and you’ll be a dangerous opponent to anyone.

That’s when you start to seize control at the poker table.