Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (37 page)

Say you raise A
-A
to 3BBs out of your 150BB stack and the small blind, a tricky, aggressive player, calls. The flop comes J
-6
-3
. Your opponent checks and you bet 4BBs. The turn is the 9
. While this card doesn’t look too scary, you should still consider checking behind your opponent because he could throw out a check-raise with hands like K
-Q
, and also J-J, 9-9, 6-6, 3-3, J-9, 9-6 and 6-3. He could also check-raise with a range of bluffs, as this flop probably didn’t hit your hand too well. Either way, checking behind is usually best, especially if you know your opponent will put you in tricky spots by check-raising here with a fairly balanced range.

Suppose in the above example someone raised from middle position, you re-raised from the cutoff with A
-A
to 9BBs and he called. Again, you both have 150BBs. The flop comes the same J
-6
-3
. Your opponent checks, you make a standard continuation bet of around 12BBs and he calls. The turn is the 9
. If your opponent checks, you should check behind with the intention of calling a river bet, as your hand is under-represented and you will induce bluffs, or value-betting the river if he checks, again because your hand is under-represented.