Mixing it Up

If you play a lot of hands against the same person or the same group of people, you have to start mixing up your play. Usually you want to only raise in early position with a very strong hand, and if you're not going to play a lot of hands against your current opponents, that's a fine rule of thumb. But if you are playing tons of hands against the same opponents, you have to switch it up.

If every time you raise in first position they instantly know that you have QQ-AA or AK, that's a disaster. You'll be taken apart if they know your hand so well. So once in a long while, raise with a junk hand like 57 of the same suit in early position. If you show down your hand and win a big pot, they'll always remember that raising small cards in early position is part of your poker strategy.