A question that I was asked recently by another poker player was how to to mix up your play more effectively to keep your opponents off balance and guessing.
This is a good question and there are a myriad of ways to accomplish this goal.
If you have read my book, The No B.
S.
Guide to Winning Online No Limit Texas Hold'em, you know that this is a subject that I discuss at length, and my basic moto is NEVER do anything ALL the time.
There are two very easy and effective things that you can do to start out with that have to do with card selection and betting.
You may think that these are obvious, but how and when you mix things up is crucial to how your actions are perceived by the other players at the table.
This, after all, is really the goal: to change perception, not reality.
First, you should never make your raises the same.
What this means is that you need to vary your raises and not in a manner that is dependent on your cards.
For example, sometimes you may raise 3x the Big Blind with A-K and sometimes only call.
Sometimes maybe 5x the Big Blind might be appropriate.
Your timing here may have something to do with the dynamics of the table,but it should sometimes just be for the sake of variety.
The other half of this raising pattern (or lack thereof) is that you need to do the same thing with your  less premium starting hands.
In other words, if you have decided that you want to play those suited connectors, raise with that hand too, rather than just limp.
If you are a player who only raises with premium hands, the other players at your table will spot that tendency pretty quick, especially if you have to show-down some hands.
If this happens, they will punish you with a big raise whenever you try to limp in.
Ideally, what your various raises should do, is afford you the ability to limp in sometimes because it will be harder for your opponents to put you on a hand.
This is what you want.
Unpredictability.
Conversely, you want your opponents to have a hard time calling your raises because they are not sure if you have a monster or not.
So, obviously, you cannot be a player who raises all the time either.
If you try that ploy (and many do) then you will be quickly put all in the minute someone else has a monster.
Remember, varying your bet is the most effective way to disguise your cards.
The other way to mix up your play is simply by adjusting your starting hands.
Usually you are going to do this at two different times: early or late in a tournament, or if you have identified a table to be unusually tight or loose.
For example, maybe you start out playing conservatively at a single table Sit n Go.
The other players will quickly see that you are playing few hands.
Then, pick a point in the tournament to start playing more hands.
This will give the appearance of  a good run of cards.
After you have given off this scent, then start and stop it at different times.
Maybe you wait for a certain amount of time to pass.
Maybe it is when the blinds get to a certain dollar amount.
No matter how you pick you starting and stopping points, your opponents will not have a clue as to why you went from playing no hands to every hand.
Or vice-versa.
They will have no choice but to credit you with good cards.
If you get really effective at this, you can play your weak hands strongly, resulting in folds, then by the time you pick-up K-K your opponents by be tired of you pushing them around and make a stupid all-in with something less than premium.
When something like this happens, you will know that you have become good at disguising your play and you will be able to double up much more often.
At that point, luck becomes much less of a factor, you are just manipulating your opponents into making poor decisions and bad plays.