Table Image and Dynamics

Something that has helped my game immensely has been becoming aware of what was going on outside of my own hands and plays. Following the table when my hand is in the muck can give you so much information about what other players think and do. This might be basic, but there's a chance i can come across some type of gem that you haven't thought about.

Basically throughout playing poker semi-professionally(recently i have been playing to pay rent that is way above my income from my current job) I have found that education along with dedication is the key to success. Playing with people that I have a fairly good read on to playing with completely new professional players has helped me understand different player types along with the actions that each take. Playing with nits that rarely open without ak/aq or high pp's and limp with very few drawing hands and maybe 22-1010 are an easy player to play against compared to a Maniac who raises often, sees many flops and has no problem pushing with any scare card. Putting players into different categories and understanding there hand ranges has helped my game probably more then anything else so far.

Also a big part of all this is understanding your own table image, thinking about the recent hands you have shown down, along with thinking of the history of the hands you have played with the villain(s).

Let's go for an example:

This is a fullring omaha potlimit Hi 1/2. Game has a few donks, maybe 3 total, 2 good players and the rest in the middle. Just finished a $60 buyin 30 player tourney and chopped for first for $550. Haven't had much experience with the guys in the cash game as it seemed like they got knocked out early and started the cash game asap. The guy in co -2 was talking about this being his 3rd buyin and when someone talked about losing 1k last week at a local card club he said "we'll it's not as bad as mine at so and so's the week before" So my mouth is watering.

Delt ace ace 2s 5s utg
I pot to 7 all day, folds around to the co-2 who also pots pretty quickly. Comes back to me, I pot, he pots, gets back to me I'm thinking about the all in last pot. Wondering where my lonely aces stand vs this could be super donky. I have only played a handfull of omaha hands throughout my life so i was very unsure if I could behind to another aa with a second pair in the hole. After some consideration and having my 2,5, suited I push the rest in. I don't think there is a time where i could fold this, but knowing a little bit about this player just from regular banter made my decisions and the way I played the hand pretty easy.

Sorry to say I can't think of a great example atm. Something will come to me, and I will have plenty of things to talk about once I start rounding again next week. I have 3 house games I play in weekly all of them i'm the best or one of the best players in it. Going to start to play 1/2 at the boats as i've heard it's a donk fest compared to the rockstyle 2/5 game with 5 regulars. Getting a 1k-2k stack is somewhat common from what i've heard, i've only played 2/5 there 3 times and every time I have not been a favorite so we'll see what happens, I know i'll have a story or two of how we had a 6 player preflop with a raise of 4x bb and getting rivered for a ben or two, but we'll also talk about some of the players there and ways of maximizing profit along with protecting my hand and hopefully there not so bad where I can put them on a range of hands.