Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (49 page)

I checked, planning to check-call. I check primarily because I knew my friend would assume I had a weak made hand any would try to outplay me. So, I checked, the initial raiser checked, and my friend bet 2/3 pot, which was about 12BBs. I thought about pushing but realized that both players would probably only call if I was beat. Calling would only leave me with around 15BBs, which would look fishy, but my friend could put me on a 9 or a weak jack and think he could force me off of it by pushing the river. The initial raiser folded and the river was a 9. The 9 was actually a bad card for me, as it would almost certainly shut my opponent down from bluffing, as a jack or nine was most likely in my hand. I checked, hoping my opponent would push. He wizened up and checked behind with his K-Q and I won a nice pot.

Some players try to represent monster hands once the stacks get very deep, which sometimes works out pretty poorly. Another hand against the same friend came up in a high-stakes cash game. I raised from second position with K-K and he re-raised to around 10BBs out of our 200BB stacks. I re-raised to 30BBs, as I had no problem getting all the money in against him. He just called and it came J
-J
-10
. I bet 40BBs and my opponent instantly went all-in. Interestingly enough, the fact that I had K-K doesn’t really matter, as I would probably call this push here with my entire four-betting range, as I will always have at least overcards and a gutshot. I called and he had 9
-3
. He hit his spade and I lost an $8,000 pot.

Players sometimes get a bit too fancy by slow-playing hands when they shouldn’t. We had 100BB stacks in a hand in a $1,500 WSOP event. Someone limped from early position, I limped with 9
-8
from third position, a few others limped and the button raised to 3BBs. The initial limper re-raised to 6BBs, which is clearly a mistake, as we were now all getting great implied odds to call. Everyone called and the flop came 10-7-6, giving me a straight.

The limp-re-raiser checked and I bet to try to build a pot, hoping someone in the hand had something. I bet about half-pot and everyone folded back to the initial limp-re-raiser who instantly went all-in. I, of course, called and beat his Q-Q. Clearly, this is an example of a weak player trying to get tricky with a big hand only to get all the money in drawing dead.

Don’t try to put fancy plays on your opponents. Most of your profit in poker will come from your opponents’ mistakes, not your fancy plays. If you keep your cool and don’t do anything silly, you will have fairly consistent profits at the poker table. Watch for players who go out of their way to put a play on you. If you see them coming, you can make a great player look like an idiot and take his money.

Give the Illusion of Fold Equity

One of the best ways to gain a lot of chips is to induce your opponent to bluff when he knows he has nothing but bluff equity. Checking on the river with the nuts from out of position is usually bad, but making a bet that makes your hand look mediocre will either get you calls from weaker hands or induce your opponents to try to bluff you off your hand. The best way to do this is to make a bet that leaves your opponent a stack size that makes him think you will usually fold to a raise.

You need a fairly aggressive image to make this play, which should not be too hard if you are playing a fairly wide range of hands pre-flop, as you should in a large-buy-in tournament. Ideally you will raise a hand like 7
-6
and see a flop like 7
-6
-2
. If you are deep-stacked and you continuation-bet often, you should bet every time, as this board is unlikely to hit a standard raising range. Few opponents will fold on this board, as they will assume you are trying to pick up the pot with something like overcards. But sometimes your opponent will raise. When this happens, it is usually best to look a little sad and then call, hoping he bluffs the turn and river. Notice that if he has an overpair, there are few cards that will kill your hand. Sometimes an overcard to his overpair will peel off and cost you some action, but even then, you can value-bet the river when the turn checks through.