Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (26 page)

Let’s talk about slow-playing pre-flop. While there are a few spots to slow-play A-A and K-K, they do not come up that often. Notice that I did not list any other hands to slow-play, as there are simply too many poor flops and in general, if you can take down a pot by re-raising pre-flop, it will show more profit than seeing a cheap flop and taking the risk that someone will suck out on you. One of the worst plays is to limp in with A-A, hoping someone will raise so you can put in a big re-raise. This play turns your hand face-up, unless you constantly make this play with a wide range of hands, which would be horrible, and it almost guarantees that you win a 7BB pot with little chance of stacking your opponent unless he happens to have a strong hand as well. If you limp and someone raises to 5BBs, your re-raise to 12 or 15BBs will usually scare everyone out. If you are deep-stacked, he can call and only put in more chips when he gets a good flop. All in all, this is a terrible situation for you.

In the middle and late stages of a tournament, when the stacks are relatively short, you can call a raise with A-A or K-K because it is necessary to double up and the opportunity is worth the risk of being outdrawn. Say you and your opponent both have around 25BBs late in a tournament. If he raises to 3BBs in the cutoff, you should usually just call with A-A on the button. On basically any flop, if he bets 5BBs or so, you should just call again, as you will usually have a huge amount of equity in the pot and don’t mind giving up a free card. You can now safely raise a turn bet all-in, or if he checks, bet with no intention of folding.

You should usually not slow-play if your opponent could be drawing to a hand that can beat you. However, if you have the hand locked up and your opponent is drawing dead, you can act weak and hope he makes a strong, but second-best hand and doubles you up. A good example is when you raise J-6s from the button, the big blind calls and it comes J-6-6. If your opponent checks, you should usually check behind because a significant number of cards might come to trick your opponent into thinking he has the best hand. He could also bluff you on the turn. Even in this spot, it is important to know your opponent, as some players will try to check-raise on this board because it is rather unlikely you flopped trips.

  Chapter 6

Playing the Flop

Playing the flop is usually fairly straightforward, as you will see in the upcoming section. Despite its simplicity, many players play the flop poorly because they either overvalue or undervalue their hands. If you can figure out your opponents’ mistakes, you will quickly take their chips, because pots tend to grow exponentially in no-limit holdem.

You should generally play hands of similar value the same way every time, but you will still need to mix up your play. If you always check behind when you have something like A-3 on an A-6-4 board, your opponents will quickly figure out how to play against you. You must mix up your play to prevent this. I will list the most standard way to play each type of hand throughout the next section, but remember to vary your game so you don’t become the weak player the professionals are out to exploit.

Leading into the Raiser as a Bluff

Leading into the pre-flop raiser, also referred to as donk-betting, is powerful when used judiciously. When players take abnormal lines and you have nothing, you should usually fold, at least the first few times. Over time, if you can develop a range for these plays, you can adjust and play back at them, but the first few times, you are almost forced to give them the pot.

Suppose everyone is deep-stacked, someone raises and you call from the big blind with Q
-J
. If it comes 8
-6
-5
, this is a great spot to lead into the pre-flop raiser because this type of board usually connects with a blind’s calling range and misses the pre-flop raiser’s range.

If your opponent just calls and you turn a queen or jack, he will never see it coming and will tend to pay you off. You also have a backdoor flush draw, which will win you a huge pot from time to time. You can easily fold if your opponent raises your flop bet, as you will know you are behind. I generally like leading when I have a hand that is usually behind but has some equity if called. I tend not to lead with total air or weak made hands. If you lead with a weak made hand, you will find yourself in some tough situations later in the hand.

It’s best to make these leads into players who are quick to give up on their hands. These tend to be the older, tighter players. I would not suggest this play against young, aggressive players because they will tend to raise you rather wide. You must figure out who will let you get away with these steals and who will be quick to abuse you.

As with all bluffs, it is important to balance your range. If you only make this play with a bluff, players will quickly figure you out. Lead with sets and strong semi-bluffs from time to time. If your opponents raise, you can then re-raise and put them in a tricky spot.

I don’t use the donk-lead often, but it usually works when I do. You need a large bag of tricks to keep your opponents guessing. As soon as they think they know what you are doing, throw out a random play, like a donk-lead, to confuse them again.

Raising and Check-raising as a Bluff

Some players love to check-raise the flop as a bluff. Someone will raise and a player will call out of position with a hand like Q-J. The flop comes A-8-4 and he check-raises, assuming his opponent will fold anything besides an ace or better. While this may be true, most opponents don’t bet with weak hands after the flop when they miss. Also, you never know if he has a weak ace he may fold later or a strong hand he will never fold.

Raising or check-raising as a bluff costs a lot of chips when you are wrong. Suppose someone raises to 3BBs and you call with J
-10
. It comes K
-5
-4
. Your opponent bets 6BBs and you raise to 17BBs. I don’t really like this situation because if he calls, you don’t know which cards to bet again on the turn. Also, if you hit a jack or 10, you will not know if you should continue bluffing or check down because you picked up some showdown value. You have invested 20BBs in attempt to win 12BBs with little value if called. There are very few upsides to this play. I rarely play my strong hands like this because I rarely play my bluffs this way.