Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (46 page)

Your opponent may or may not have a huge hand but you know you’re way ahead of his range. There are 42BBs in the pot. A pot-sized raise would be to 66BBs out of your 123BB stack, making the bet a little too large to fold to a push. If you raise to around 34BBs, about 3 times your opponent’s bet, you can make an easy fold to a re-raise, as most players will only re-raise here with a better flush. In this example over-pushing all-in would be a bad play because your opponent can have a lot of hands that beat you. Also, he will only call your push with hands that have you beat, which means you are turning your weak flush into a bluff. While your opponent will certainly call a small river raise with hands like sets and two pair, he will rarely call a push with those hands.

When you raise the river in this spot, be sure you have the discipline to fold to a push. You may consider just calling the river against a good, aggressive player, especially if you know he is capable of bluffing. While his ability to bluff the river should make you want to raise with the intention of calling off, you have to realize he will only have a few bluffs in his range, meaning you will lose about 80 percent of the time when you call, making that a bad line to take. Most opponents will never re-raise the river as a bluff, but a few sick players will take that line from time to time. In general though, when you have a strong hand that is almost certainly ahead but could be behind, raise the river for value and fold to a re-raise.

Over Calling on the River

When there is a bet and a call on the river before the action gets to you, you need a much stronger hand to call than if you were against just one opponent. Suppose you raise 10
-9
to 2.5bbs out of your 100BB stack from the button and both blinds call. The flop comes 10
-5
-2
. Everyone checks to you and you bet 6BBs. Both players call. The turn is the 6
. Everyone checks. The river is the 7
. The small blind bets 16BBs and the big blind calls. You should almost always fold, even though you could have the best hand and there has been relatively little action. For you to have the best hand, the big blind has to be bluffing and the small blind has to call with a hand worse than yours, which won’t happen often.

If instead of 10
-9
on the river you have 10
-7
, you should always call. Raising the river in this spot would be suicide, as you would usually be beat when called. Whenever you raise, always think about what your opponent can call with. If the answer is “not much,” you should shy away from raising.