Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (25 page)

You bet 10BBs, as you would with an ace, and your opponent calls. The river is a king. In this spot, you would never bet a king or jack and only occasionally an ace, because your opponent will have a hard time calling three streets with worse than an ace. Your hand has no showdown value, forcing you to either make a bluff that makes little sense or give up. I tend to give up in these spots in tournaments, although there is one other option. You can balance your range by betting here with both bluffs and hands that have an ace. You should obviously bet with very strong hands, such as sets, but you will show up with weak made hands and busted draws much more often than sets. As I said, I usually just give up in these situations.

When your opponent takes a line that doesn’t make much sense, you should tend to call him down. Say you are in your opponent’s shoes in the previous hand and you have J-10. If your opponent bets the river in that spot where he will usually show up with the nuts or nothing, you should call because you beat a huge part of his river betting range. If something smells fishy, you should lean toward a call. Again, both calling bluffs and figuring out who to bluff are very player-dependent. If you know a player never bluffs the river, you should only call when your hand is ahead of his river value-betting range. If you know a player never calls on the river without a very strong hand, bluff him every time. Also, some players only take weird lines with strong hands, so you should tend to fold in those situations.

Against the worst players, whom I don’t usually play in the highest buy-in tournaments, your lines may not have to make much sense. That being said, most terrible players don’t fold too often. They call too much, making value-betting the correct play against them. Against thinking opponents that can piece the puzzle together, be sure your hand looks like a real hand, or you will be spewing chips.

Pot Control

There is nothing worse than making a hand you think is strong only to find out you’re second-best, resulting in a large loss. Reverse implied odds basically mean that if you make your hand, you will either lose a large pot or win a small one. Clearly, this isn’t a good situation. Hence, you should play cautiously with hands that tend to have high reverse implied odds. These include A-9, Q-8, K-10 and J-6. If you hit top pair with these hands, it will usually be a weak top pair. When a lot of money goes into the pot, someone usually has top pair, top kicker or better. For example, if you raise A-9, someone calls in late position and the flop comes A-J-2, it looks like a great flop for you because you have top pair. But if you bet and someone raises, you are in a tough spot because, assuming you are fairly deep-stacked, he will only put more money in the pot if you’re beat.

Reverse implied odds increase as the stacks get deep. Eventually, you have to be cautious with hands like A-A because if your opponent is willing to put in 200 big blinds, he usually has you beat. Hence, you should try to check down hands with reverse implied odds. This is called pot control. Basically, you try to only put in one or two bets because if more than two bets go into the pot, your hand will tend to not be best.

For example, if you raise from the button with K-10, the stacks are 150BBs and the small blind calls, you should strongly consider checking behind on K-8-2. Your hand is safe from bad turn cards other than aces, but if you bet and are check-raised, you are in a pretty rough spot. Assuming you check behind the flop, you should call whatever your opponent bets on basically any turn and river.

When you pot-control, especially with top pair, don’t be scared to call down. If your opponent checks the turn, you can then bet the turn and river for value, as you almost certainly have the best hand. Checking behind on the flop will also make your hand look much weaker than it is. This is another reason to not fold once you check behind.

Another example would be if you raise from early position with A-K and a player in middle position calls. You both have 150BBs. If the flop comes A-10-3, you can be pretty confident making a bet.

It is unlikely your opponent has A-10, as most players will fold this against an early-position raiser. If he raises, he likely has A-K, A-Q, A-J, 10-10 or 3-3, so you probably shouldn’t fold. If he calls, it’s probably with a hand like A-K, A-Q, A-J, Q-10, J-10, 10-9 or 10-8. You should almost always check if the turn is a queen or jack because that could easily hit his hand. The problem with betting is that you’re in a tough spot if you’re raised. Checking works great here because it makes your hand look weak and also controls the pot.

If your opponent bets, you should call the turn and check-call the river, hopefully inducing a bluff. Even if your opponent has you beat, remember that if you had bet the turn and your opponent raised, you would probably get all-in by the end of the hand, risking your tournament life.

Another good spot for pot control occurs when you raise with a big pair and an overcard flops. Suppose you raise K-K from middle position and the big blind calls. The flop comes A-3-3.

If your opponent checks, you should check behind quite often because if you bet and your opponent raises or calls, you have no clue where you are in the hand, as some opponents will raise hands like 4-4 here, assuming you will fold if you don’t have an ace or 3. If your opponent leads into you on the turn, you should usually call, and make a decision if he bets again on the river. Checking behind on the flop makes your hand look weak, and observant opponents will try to push you off your hand.

If your opponent only bets when he has a strong hand though, you should be happy to fold to two streets of aggression. That being said, some opponents see 9-9 on this type of board as the nuts. Pay attention so you don’t fold incorrectly.

Great hands for pot control are those that are either way ahead of or way behind your opponent’s range, which are usually hands like top pair, bad kicker or middle pair, good kicker. The less likely your hand is to be beaten by an overcard, the more likely checking behind is a good option. For example, checking behind with J-10 on a K-10-3 board makes a lot of sense, whereas with 8-7 on a 7-4-2 board it is probably a poor play against non-aggressive opponents because any overcard could beat you, but you don’t know which one. With J-10, only an ace or queen will make your hand worse, and even then you will have a straight draw in addition to your pair.

Opponents will often pot-control against you. When this happens, you should bet strongly with hands that tend to be better than their pot-control range, as they will usually pay off a bet on the river.

Suppose someone raises and you call with A-Q. If it comes Q-9-2 and he bets, you should control the pot by just calling. If he checks, he either has a hand and wants to get to showdown cheaply, or he has a hand with no value. When he has a weak hand, he is going to give up to any aggression, so you can forget about those hands, especially if you know he will never bluff the river. Bet around 3/4 pot on the turn and river against hands like Q-J, as you will probably be called twice. Pot-controlling the turn by checking behind in this situation would be terrible because you would lose a lot of value from all worse queens, as well as hands like A-9 or K-9. So, bet strongly in this situation for value.

Suppose you have J-10 on the same Q-9-2 board, he bets the flop and you call. Betting the turn if he checks to you is perfectly fine, as you would like to pick up the pot. If he calls your turn bet, be prepared to give up, as he is usually calling you down. Even though you have no showdown value, if your opponent plays his hand in a manner that makes folding unlikely, don’t throw good money after bad. Also, if your opponent does check-raise the turn, be prepared to fold unless you have a monster, like a set or two pair.

When you pot-control, you may give a free card that will cost you the pot. But poker isn’t about winning pots. It is about winning money. One of the major ideas of pot control is that you never put a lot of chips in the pot with a hand that is not that great. If you never put money in with bad hands, it makes it pretty tough to go broke. In exchange for giving up these pots, which will occur around 15 percent of the time, as most opponents will be drawing to around six outs, you will underrepresent your hand and induce bluffs. All great tournament players realize this is a great trade, which is why you see great players pot-controlling when appropriate.

As stacks get shallow, pot control becomes irrelevant. Suppose you have A-10 with a 25BB stack and raise from middle position. The big blind calls. If the board comes A-J-4 or 10-4-2, you should bet every time because you want to get your entire stack in. You are no longer concerned with pot control because your hand is too strong, given your stack size. As your stack shrinks, the relative value of hands like top pair goes through the roof compared to when you are deep-stacked. In general though, if you have a stack that will still be at least 25BBs after losing 25BBs in a pot, you should strongly consider pot control with top pair, weak kicker and middle pair, good kicker. Always try to leave yourself some sort of stack if you lose when you pot-control. Make it a point to only put in two bets post-flop with these types of hands, because if any more money goes into the pot, you are usually beat.

When to Slow Play

Amateurs tend to slow-play when their opponent clearly has a strong hand, costing them loads of value. You should not slow-play when your opponent can improve to a hand that would beat yours, or when he could have a strong, but second-best hand.

A weak player will see an A-K-Q flop with a hand like Q-Q and check, or even bet the minimum throughout the hand, hoping his opponent will decide to put a little money in the pot. Bet strongly in spots like this because your opponent probably isn’t going to put much money in the pot if he doesn’t have an ace, and no turn card will make him want to put more money in the pot, except on the rare chance he has an underpair and hits a set. Finally, a jack or 10 could cost you the pot when your opponent would have folded to a standard flop bet with a hand like 10-9 or J-8. Nothing good can come from slow-playing in this spot.

Suppose you have 8-7 in a heads-up sitngo. You and your opponent both have 50BBs. You raise to 3BBs pre-flop from the button and your opponent just calls. Say the flop is 7-7-4. You should bet if he checks, because he will call with a significant number of hands. Say you bet 4BBs and your opponent makes it 12BBs. This is a horrible spot to re-raise, as he will only call if he has you beat. He probably would have re-raised a big pair pre-flop, and if he has 6-5, he’ll lose even if he hits an 8. If you just call, it may induce him to bet the turn either as a bluff or for value. If he does bet, just call and then raise or bet on the river, trying to get all the chips in the pot.

It is important to not take nonstandard lines with your strong hands as well. In the 2010 $10,000 WSOP main event, someone raised from middle position, I called with Q
-10
on the button and a loose, but bad player called from the big blind. The flop came Q-Q-6. Everyone checked to me and I bet, assuming someone might call with an underpair. The big blind called and the turn was a 4. The big blind lead into me for around 2/5 pot. This line seemed weird to me so I just called. The river was a 9. He bet around 2/5 pot again and I called, losing to his Q-J. Clearly, with almost any other line he would have won a lot more money and probably would have gotten my stack. While not quite slow-playing, it is still very –EV.