Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (55 page)

So, you bet around 6BBs and the small blind calls. If the small blind re-raises to around 16BBs, push every time with your gutshot and flush draw because you will have a lot of fold equity plus around 40-percent equity when called. Your opponent will often fold the best hand when you raise or go all-in with a draw. Check behind if you miss the turn and your opponent checks to you because if you bet around 12BBs, he can push and force you off your hand. Be willing to bet any river if he checks to you again. You will either have a strong hand or a total bluff, making your hand naturally balanced. Also notice that you would play hands like top pair the same way. This will keep your opponent guessing.

When you have a draw and your stack is starting to get short, you always want to be the player that puts in the last bet because that gives you fold equity. You are playing incorrectly if you find yourself frequently calling off for your entire stack with a draw. Check if you cannot figure out a way to put in the last bet.

Getting All-In with a Strong Hand

Weak players often slow-play strong hands in the hope of getting some value out of their opponents. They either slow-play until their hand is behind or give a free card and only win a small pot. When you have a big hand, you want to get all the money in. To do this, you usually have to bet your hand unless you are against an abnormally aggressive opponent. You also need to bet larger than you would with your average hands, assuming you are playing against an unobservant opponent. Against a good player, you should usually bet standard sizes. Suppose you have a 70BB stack and your opponent has you covered. You raise J-J pre-flop to 2.5BBs and the small blind calls. The flop comes A-J-2.

The small blind checks and you check behind, trying to slow-play. The turn is a 7. The small blind leads for 3BBs, you raise to 10BBs and he calls. The river is a 6. The small blind checks and you bet 20BBs. The small blind calls and loses with A-Q.

You missed out on a ton of value in this spot. You probably could have gotten more chips in by playing your hand fast. I would bet 4BBs on the flop, hoping my opponent has an ace. If he doesn’t have an ace, not many turn cards will improve his hand enough to justify putting in a significant amount of chips unless he improves enough to beat you, such as with K-Q or 5-4 if he hits his gutshot. You will also never see these hands coming and will get stacked every time. A bet makes sense for that reason alone. So, when you bet 4BBs on the flop, he is going to fold everything besides an ace or maybe a jack, which is unlikely because you have two of them. If he check-raises on the flop, call the raise and then call a turn bet as well because most players’ check-raising range on this flop is drawing dead or near dead. If he calls, will bet around 12BBs on the turn and then go all-in on the river if he checks again, as you will have about a pot-sized bet and most opponents will have a hard time folding top pair. By slow-playing, not only do you risk losing to a concealed draw, but you also miss value when your opponent has a strong hand.

The hand would be slightly different if you had 5-5 on a J-5-2 board. Checking makes a little more sense, as you want your opponent to hit an overcard and he probably doesn’t have 6-4, 4-3, or A-3. Despite this, you should still bet because you have a strong hand and want to get all the money in.

You can play your hand fast by checking when you know your opponent will bet if you check. Say you raise 7-7 with a 70BB stack from middle position and the button, an overly aggressive player, calls. You should probably check if it comes A-7-2, hoping your opponent will put you on an underpair like K-K to 8-8 that you will fold if he bets every street. I would usually check-call the flop rather slowly, acting as if I really don’t want to put any more money in the pot, and either check-raise or check-call the turn. Your opponent will often barrel the whole way, giving you a huge pot. If the board runs off scary, like A-7-2-K-Q, you should still call down but perhaps not check-push the river, as your opponent could have back-doored a better hand.

Always consider bet sizing when trying to get all-in. Leave enough chips behind so it looks like you can fold if your opponent raises or goes all-in.

Say you raise with 2-2 and the button calls. You both have 50BBs. The flop comes K-10-2.

Always bet around 4BBs here. On the turn, with about 44BBs in your stack, bet about 10BBs, leaving 35BBs behind. This is still a decent chip stack and because of this, your opponent may decide to go all-in to force you to fold.

Say you start the hand with 30BBs instead of 50BBs. If you bet 4BBs on the flop and 10BBs on the turn, you will only have 13BBs left behind. Even the most unobservant players will see that you cannot fold if they go all-in, so they will fold all their weak hands. Instead, size your flop bet a little smaller, like 3BBs, and bet about 7BBs on the turn, leaving 17BBs behind. Your stack is now large enough that you might fold to a push. Also notice that if your opponent just calls the turn, you still have less than a pot-sized bet left to go all-in on the river.

Similarly, always have between 2/5 and one pot bet left on the river when you want to go all-in. You want to have a reasonably sized bet on the river so your opponent will feel pot-committed, though he’s usually not. If you get to the river and you have twice the pot, you can’t really go all-in with the nuts because most opponents will fold all but the strongest hands.

Size your bets so you can get all-in without looking suspicious. With a 30BB stack you can bet 2.5BBs pre-flop, 4BBs on the flop and 7BBs on the turn, and then easily go all-in for the last 15BBs on the river. If you have 40BBs, you have to bet more like 4BBs on the flop, 8BBs on the turn and the last 24BBs on the river, which is still less than a pot-sized bet. With 50BBs, bet 4BBs on the flop, 10BBs on the turn and 33BBs all-in on the river. The pot tends to grow exponentially, so as your stack gets deeper, you need to bet just slightly more on the early rounds so you can make an appropriately sized all-in bet on the river.

Re-raising with Weak Hands

As stacks get shorter, there is more value in picking up small pots. One of the best ways to do this while keeping variance down is to re-raise weak players before the flop while you are in position. You may think re-raising should increase variance but actually it is the opposite because you are playing larger pots in position and smaller pots out of position. If you win 60 percent of the pots you play in position but only 40 percent of the pots you play out of position, you can see how your profit will begin to pile up. Do not get too attached to any hand, and be careful not to constantly re-raise thinking opponents because they will start to play back at you, which will cause a lot of variance and usually bust one of you.

Suppose a loose but weak player raises from the cutoff and you are on the button with 100BBs. If he has been raising often and you have not been too wild, you can re-raise him with any two cards. This may seem crazy, but purely bluffing in this spot will usually be +EV. To give myself even more equity, I actually have some sort of hand just in case he calls. I also like to re-raise with hands I could normally not call a raise with, such as J
-8
. So, I tend to re-raise junky connectors or suited cards. I will also re-raise with all my strong hands. Fold if your opponent four-bets unless you have a hand like J-J+ or A-K. Do not let your opponents know this, or they will attack your re-raises constantly.

If your opponent calls, fire a continuation bet around 95 percent of the time, checking only when you are certain he has hit the board. Suppose he raises to 3BBs from middle position and you are on the button with 7
-6
and 100BBs.