Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (22 page)

In this spot, if you were ahead on the flop, you are almost certainly ahead on the river. Also, if your opponent did have a queen, he almost certainly would have bet the river, so you can be fairly certain that you have the best hand. Also, notice that your opponent will call with a fairly wide range of hands that you beat, such as any ten, some fives and middle pairs.

Suppose you raise A-Q from the button and the big blind calls. It comes Q-8-3. If he checks, you should bet because he can call with numerous hands that you have beat. This would be a pretty standard value bet. If you have A-8 instead of A-Q, you should still bet. This bet combines value and protection. You don’t mind if he calls with hands like 6-6 but at the same time, you would be fine with him folding hands like K-J that have decent equity. If you have A-3 you should still bet, because any turn card besides an ace or three could kill your hand. You don’t know which turn cards are bad for you, so you would be happy to pick up the pot right away. Your opponent could also call with ace-or king-high, thinking you are bluffing at the pot. These are all value bets. Just realize that some value bets have much less value than others.

When you bet with a hand like A-3 on Q-8-3 and are called or raised, you should stop betting, at least for value, because your hand is almost certainly behind. If your opponent check-calls and the turn is a king, you should consider bluffing. Notice how your hand can quickly change from a thin value-bet to what is basically a thin semi-bluff. That said, if your opponent calls your thin value-bet on the flop, don’t be scared to check the hand down or fold to further aggression.

Thinking you have the best hand does not justify value-betting. Sometimes an opponent will only call your bet when you are beat. In the above example, your opponent can call with any 10 and pairs 9-9 to 6-6, as your hand is fairly underrepresented.

Suppose you raise Q-J from middle position and the big blind calls. The flop comes J
-10
-3
. Your opponent check-calls your flop bet. You bet a turn 2
and he calls. If the river is the 9
and your opponent checks, you should check behind every time, as he can call with very few hands. You lose to any flush, almost any jack, as he probably wouldn’t have called your raise with J-7 or worse, and most hands that had a pair on the flop because most of those have two pair. So, what hands can your opponent call with that you can beat on the river?

There aren’t many, because every draw got there. So, in this situation, if your opponent is ahead, he will call or raise, and if he is behind, he will fold. Check behind whenever this is the case.

Check behind even if the river is a blank, because again, your opponent can call with very few hands. He would check-fold a missed draw. He might call with a few hands that you beat, such as J-9, J-8 and maybe A-10 and K-10, and that is stretching it. Always evaluate your opponent’s range and determine whether you beat a fairly large percentage of those hands before you bet.

I played in a WSOP event in which a weak player made a huge error by betting simply because he thought he had the best hand. Someone raised and he called with J-9 from middle position. The flop came A-J-3. The initial raiser bet and our player called with middle pair. The turn was a 2. The initial bettor checked and our player bet, assuming his pair must be good since his opponent checked. The initial raiser called. The river was a 7. The initial raiser checked and our player bet again because he thought his middle pair must be good. His opponent called with A-10 and won a nice pot with a fairly weak hand. It should be clear that by the river, middle pair has very little chance of being called by a worse hand.

The fact that your opponent has shown little aggression is not in itself a good enough reason to bet with a weak made hand.

Your position is important when determining whether to make a value bet. You should be more prone to bet in position because your opponent will have given you a little more information about his hand by checking to you. Out of position, you will have less information about your opponent’s hand, so you should tend to check your weak made hands as you get deeper in the hand. On the flop though, if you are the initial raiser, you should still bet weak made hands if your opponent will usually not try to outplay you.

When you value-bet late in a hand and you think your opponent’s range consists mostly of weak made hands like middle or bottom pair, which you beat, you want to bet an amount he can call. Suppose you raise K-Q from middle position and the big blind calls. The flop comes K-J-4. Your opponent check-calls and the turn is a 3. Your opponent checks and you bet again. If the river is something like a 3 and your opponent checks, you can be fairly certain you have the best hand, as he would have re-raised A-K pre-flop, and would have raised at some point in the hand if he had better than top pair.

You shouldn’t bet too large because your opponent probably holds something like a jack. He’ll likely fold if you bet pot, but will usually call 2/5 pot.

This situation is very player-specific. It is important to know how your opponents play their hands, what size bets they will pay off and to what size bets they will fold. Some players will call larger bets because they view them as weak, and will fold to small bets because they think you are trying to sucker them. Because of this, you need to mix up your play from time to time and bet an amount that may not be optimal.