Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (27 page)

I would much rather check-raise with J-10 on 8-7-3 because I now have a semi-bluff with six outs to make top pair plus four outs to make the nuts. I am fine with most forms of semi-bluffing, including this one. The extra equity when you make a disguised strong hand is more than enough to turn a marginal bluff into an easy semi-bluff. That does not mean floating, the topic of the next chapter, is not a much better play in position.

Check-raising strong draws has a lot of merit when you are out of position. You generally don’t want to check-call out of position because it will be tough to get all the chips in when you hit your hand. Check-raising the flop with the intention of betting most turns, whether or not you hit, is usually a solid plan.

Floating

To float is to call a bet with the intention of picking up the pot on a later street. Floating is very tough to play against. You never really know where your opponent is in the hand because a skilled floater will call with strong hands, weak made hands and total bluffs. For example, if someone raises to 3BBs and I call in late position, I could have a fairly wide range. If the flop comes 8-7-3, my opponent bets and I call, I could still have a wide range. If he checks to me on the turn and I bet, I could still have a wide range. Once I bet the turn though, most opponents will have a hard time calling with anything worse than middle pair, and most won’t even call with that. In the example I could have 8-8, A-A, 7-6, 10-9, Q-J, 5-4 or some random hand. In this spot though, my hand is fairly irrelevant because I will frequently win the pot on the turn.

Another decent time to float is when someone raises, you call in late position and you see an A-x-x board. If your opponent bets in this situation, you can call with a fairly wide range, especially if you have some outs like a gutshot, because most players will check-fold the turn if they don’t have an ace, and will give you credit for one.

This is basically a total bluff that costs less money. Say someone raises to 3BBs and you call with 5-4. The flop comes A-x-x, he bets 6BBs and you raise to 17BBs. You’ve put in 20BBs. If he calls or re-raises, you lose those 20BBs basically every time. Instead, say he raises to 3BBs, you call and he bets 6BBs on the flop. You call, intending to take the pot later. The turn is a blank, he checks and you bet 11BBs. This costs the same as raising the flop, but now you have a much better idea about whether your opponent has an ace, because he probably would have bet an ace again on the turn. You can fold with confidence if he bets the turn, as he almost certainly has a hand.

Floating a flop does not commit you to making a play on the turn. If your opponent keeps betting, you should usually fold because it is clear he has a hand. Don’t fall victim to the idea that putting money in a pot commits you to doing everything you can to win it. Sometimes you just have to fold.

Floating out of position is usually a terrible play because your opponent will often pot-control the turn with the intention of calling any river bet. Also, you will find yourself check-raising a lot of turns, as that looks strong and credible, but you still have to play the river if you’re called, tempting you to push a lot of money in while drawing dead. Simply put, don’t float out of position.

There is also a play called the delayed float, in which you float the flop, check behind the turn and bet the river when your opponent checks. This play works well because it represents a hand like top pair with a weak kicker. If you can find a situation where your opponent’s range is made up entirely of weak hands, you can pick up these pots every time.

Suppose you raise with 8
-7
from the button to 2.5BBs out of your 70BB stack and the small blind re-raises to 7.5BBs. You call and the flop comes A
-9
-9
. Your opponent bets 10BBs and you call. He checks a 2
turn and you check behind, as you would with any ace in this situation. The river is the 5
. Your opponent checks. Here you can make a small bet of around half-pot, or 16BBs, and pick up the pot quite often.

Notice there are no draws on the flop, which means your flop call is an ace, nine or float. When you check behind the turn, most opponents will take floats out of your range. On the river, you make what looks like a value bet. Notice that when your opponent checks both the turn and the river, his range contains basically no aces or nines, meaning he will be making a crying call with a weak holding if he decides to look you up. All in all, this is a very profitable play.

When you suspect you are being floated, you should tend to go into check-call mode with decent made hands and fire multiple barrels with your bluffs. Suppose you know your opponent is a habitual floater, as you will find in most high-stakes tournaments. You bet the flop with air and your opponent calls. If you know he floats a lot, go ahead and fire again; that will usually be enough to make him fold. If he calls, you can be pretty sure he has a hand.

Another option if you know he’s floating is to check-raise the turn. You risk too many chips here as a bluff, but you should run this play from time to time against players that regularly float.

If you have a strong hand, you should never check-raise the turn against a floater, because you want him to keep barreling. You don’t want to just trap him for one turn bet. Call the turn and then go for a check-raise on the river. This may seem passive, but if a player is making an already intricate play, he will likely throw out one last bet on the river.

You may have noticed that I expect other players to overplay their situation when floating whereas I expect to get away cheaply when it fails. This is because once a player actually states that he has a hand by check-calling on the turn or firing the flop and turn, you can be fairly certain that he has a hand. Don’t get carried away with these intricate plays, as they can change from huge moneymakers to the biggest losers in the game.

Continuation Betting

Failing to continuation-bet often is one of the biggest leaks in a weak player’s game. When you raise before the flop and the action gets to you post-flop, you should usually make a bet of around 1/2 to 3/4 pot. You do this for a few reasons. I tend to continuation-bet around 85 percent of the time, which is higher than most players. There are very few downsides to continuation-betting. It is one of the cheapest bluffs in the game and a great way to build a pot when you have a hand. When you have a strong hand, you want to build a pot. The easiest way to do this is to bet. When you miss the flop, you usually want your opponent to fold. Again, the easiest way to do this is to bet. Every player will fail to connect with the flop 2/3 of the time, meaning most pots are just waiting to be picked up. If you pick up more than your share of these pots where both players have nothing, you will find your stack consistently growing.