Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (57 page)

Say you raise A
-J
from middle position to 2.5BBs out of your 50BB stack and both blinds call. The flop comes J
-8
-3
. Your opponents check to you and you bet 5BBs. The small blind folds and the big blind goes all-in for 42BBs more. While the pot was only 13BBs before your opponent pushed, you should almost always call because he will most likely show up with a hand like K-J or a draw.

Note that his push is not that great of a play with hands like J-10 because he’ll only be called when he is beat. Do not make that mistake.

With J-10 instead of A-J in the example, you should probably fold, as you most likely lose to all your opponent’s made hands. Some opponents will have hands like middle pair, top kicker in their range, but this is usually negligible.

If your opponent just calls on the flop and the turn is a blank, you should usually bet with the intention of calling if your opponent pushes. If the turn completes a draw, tend to check behind and call on all rivers as long as the board does not drastically change, such as when a four-straight or four-flush comes.

So, when you start to get short-stacked, do not fold a strong hand. They do not come around often enough to justify folding except against the tightest opponents. When you get lucky enough to pick up a strong hand, don’t fold it.

Do Not Put a Lot of Chips in and then Fold

One of the biggest mistakes players make is to put a lot of chips in the pot, only to fold when their opponent turns up the aggression. You can usually avoid this with pot control.

Suppose you raise with J
-10
from middle position to 2.5BBs out of your 40BB stack and the small blind calls. The flop comes J
-5
-2
. The small blind checks. Consider checking behind. Betting is also fine. You bet 4BBs and your opponent calls. The turn is the Q
. Your opponent checks again.