I have a good friend who is one of the tightest poker players in the world.

When he raises, his eyes get really wide as if he’s almost begging for a fold. And you know, as you watch everybody fold, that he had a premium hand.

In most cases, he’ll turn over those aces, just to reaffirm to the table how tight he is, and happily rake in the blinds. That’s my friend’s table image. And his problem.

Besides being predictable, my friend is leaving money out on the table. He’s an ultra-tight player and when he sits down at a table with other ultra-tight players, you can hear the cards being shuffled and the blinds being returned. He’s getting big cards and getting low returns.

Your table image and the chips are the only thing you can control at the table.

At a recent live tournament, down to two tables, I was at a mixed table of mostly tight players. I started raising a bunch, almost any time I was in late position, with any two cards.

After a couple levels and a few players knocked out, I looked down at aces in early position. I put in a usual raise, and it folded around to a well-known high stakes pro, we’ll call Brian.

Brian had been playing well all tournament, and a few times, he three-bet me to take a few pots.

This time, he three-bet me all-in and I had an easy call.

There was nothing wrong with Brian’s play. Based on my table image and past bets, he had every reason to believe he could knock me off of the hand.

On the other side, he hadn’t three-bet me that much, so I knew he had a solid holding. I remember thinking, there’s only a few hands I would have called him with anyway.

Everyone says it’s easy to play aces. The hard part is getting money from them, and that comes from the right table image.