Advertising Yourself as a Fish
In the world of poker, the word fish is one of the most negative things you could possibly be called. After all, a fish is basically a poker fool who knows very little about strategy and frequently donates their money to other players at the table. And nobody wants their peers to know them as the incompetent player at the table. Amazingly though, playing like a fish (or donkey) early on can actually play into your favor during later hands.
Now some people might not agree with this notion since they want to be a respected and feared player right out of the gate, but poker isn’t about respect and fear - it’s about money! If you can make others at the table think that you’re a complete donkey early on then you’re in a good position to get them to challenge later hands when you’ve got the nuts.
Consider a situation where you’re holding something like J-10 on a board of A-3-5-7-K and it’s just you and another person in the hand. Obviously, a good player would want to fold in this situation but a complete donkey might not do this. If you instead decided to call your opponent when the pot wasn’t so big then you would be forced to reveal your J-10 combo to the table. Upon seeing this, the other players are going to think you’re a terrible player and come at you next time.
This is when you can start taking some major pots off of others at the table and force them to make mistakes they might not normally make just because they think you’re so bad. The best time to pull this maneuver is early on in a hand when the stakes aren’t so high. Sure you’ll be giving some money away, but the end result will be worth the chips and effort.