Tonight I had a much better night, and felt like I was very much on my game. I made some nice hands and got action on them from much worse ones, and I doubled up on both tables I was playing.

Here's a hand I really enjoyed. It was interesting during the hand, and it gave me some food for thought afterwards. This was at the $25 max tables at Bodog.

I was in the big blind with 7s 6s. The player in second position, who was very loose, raised to 4xBB. Next was a fold, then another player called. Everyone else folded, and I called. Three of us saw the flop:

As Js 2s

I flopped a flush. Now, I liked this flop, because someone with an ace or a jack might not believe I hit the flush and might give me some action. However, I was also concerned about letting someone with a higher spade hit a flush on the turn or river. I had a decent hand, but I did not want to slowplay. I bet the size of the pot, $3.10.

The early limper folded, but the player behind me quickly raised the minimum, $3.10. He had a large stack, about two buy-ins, and I had about one. I didn't know much about him, but I tend to give big stacks the benefit of the doubt for being decent players, until I see otherwise.

My hope here was that he had a hand like two pair or a set, and might double me up. But I had a fairly low flush. If he had two spades he may very well have me drawing dead. I didn't want to get all my money in if that was the case, so I called, hoping to get more information on the turn.

The turn was 5c, a nice card for me. It was unlikely to help him, and if it did it would have been to make a hand I had beat, like a wheel straight. I was pretty confident I had the best hand. I was a little worried about him hitting a flush on the river if I gave him a free card, but I felt he would bet if I showed weakness. His bet on the flop felt like a semibluff or bluff, and I wanted to give him the opportunity to bluff at the pot again.

I checked, planning to call my entire stack if he set me all in. He made another of his very quick bets, this one for the size of the pot, $15.50. I had $21 left.

I stopped and thought this through a little. Folding was not an option I seriously considered. As I said, I was planning to call the rest of my chips if he set me all in. The choices I thought over were whether to call, or to raise my last $5.50.

The idea he might have a bigger flush crossed my mind. However, if you play scared, always worried about a bigger possible hand, you'll miss a lot of value bets on your non-nut hands. The key for me is not to be scared, but also to trust my instincts. I want to be able to lay down a big hand if I think I'm beat, which I did not do in the big pots I lost over the weekend.

In this case I didn't feel like I was beat. If he flopped a bigger flush, why would be be so quick to raise on the flop? Wouldn't he be more likely to want me to think he was weak? I've seen people make those quick raises on semibluffs many times, and the first rule of tells is that someone who wants to appear strong is probably weak, and vice versa. I felt like he was trying to push me off my hand, not induce me to move in.

I raised and what happened next actually surprised me. Instead of calling the last $5.50, with $45 in the pot, he quickly folded. I took down the pot, almost doubling my stack.

Looking back on the hand, I think he was on a stone cold bluff the whole time. The quick fold with one card to come indicated that he didn't have anything, not even a decent draw. If he had something like Ks, the pot would have been laying him plenty to call. If he had a hand like top pair, he might have even made the crying call on the river if he didn't believe I flopped the flush. He's getting almost 9:1 odds at that point. He only has to have the best hand 10% of the time for that to be a break-even move.

I know some players would criticize me for not playing the hand more aggressively. I could have moved in on the flop, and checking the turn had its risk. Had I shown more strength on either the flop or turn, though, he would have probably folded. I liked my hand enough on the turn to risk giving a free card. There was only about a 15% chance of a spade coming on the river, and even if that happened I felt I could get away without losing my whole stack. I had a chance of winning more by giving him the opportunity to bluff off his chips.

In other situations, a different play would have been better. I based my decisions on the hand not only on my cards and the board, but also my read on him and my instincts.

Ted

Here's a very simple example of a potential drawing hand I played more aggressively preflop, and how it paid off. This won't be rocket science to experienced players, but it's a useful concept.

I was on the button with Th 8h, and two people limped in front of me. I wanted to raise. The point of the raise was not to shut everyone out, I was happy to have some potential customers in case I happened to hit a big hand. I decided to raise four times the big blind, not a big raise when two people have already limped into the pot.

The blinds both folded, and so did the first limper. The second one called.

The flop came 3s Ad 9c.

You might say this was a bad flop for me. I didn't hit a pair, and no hearts flopped. The big draws I was hoping for did not materialize. There was something good about this flop for me, though. An ace flopped, and since I raised preflop the other player may believe I hit my pair of aces.

The other player checked to me. I made a bet that was a little less than the size of the pot, and they folded.

I had ten high, which was quite possibly the worst hand, but because I continued my preflop aggression I won the pot. (People use the phrase "continuation bet" to describe that type of bet, when you bet the flop after raising preflop even if you miss.)

This idea of raising preflop with a drawing hand is a similar to the idea of semibluffing when you flop a draw. By raising preflop I gave myself another way to win. If I flopped a good draw I had a chance to make a big hand, and I could possibly get paid off well because my opponents might not put me on it. If I missed, I might be able to take the pot by representing that I hit.

If I limped preflop and saw the flop with three or four players they still may all check to me, but I am going to have a harder time convincing them that I have flopped something when I limped in from late position. I might make that same bet on the flop in this case and get called by one or more players. Then on the turn I'm probably left with either trying to put more pressure on to bluff them out, or giving up on the pot.

There are a couple of caveats here. First, I made this play from the best possible position. I'm not likely to open with a raise holding this hand under the gun :) I would much rather make this play from the back. Second, the continuation bet has a risk of its own -- you leave yourself vulnerable to a checkraise. For that reason some people would bet less than I did in that situation, possibly fifty or sixty percent of the pot. (In my case, I thought the other player had most likely missed, and I wanted to give him less of a reason to call.) And I would not recommend always making a continuation bet -- as with most things in poker, doing the same thing every time makes you too predictable. The same goes for even raising with hands like this -- use it to help mix up your play, not as the standard move.

I didn't pull a huge pot here, my profit was about seven big blinds. But compare that to losing one by limping and missing, and even making this play occasionally with some success can make a noticeable difference in your win rate.

Ted

I opened for 3 times the big blind with my KK, and got two callers. Player A was in the small blind. He was a pretty bad player who had moved in both preflop and on the flop in previous hands when it wasn't necessary. Player B, the big blind, was fairly new to the table, but he had seen at least one of Player A's all ins.

The flop came 34T, two spades. Player A quickly moved all in for $36. That did not surprise me, but what happened next did. Player B moved all in as well for $94, almost a full buy-in.

I thought about this for a bit, and I was puzzled. The all in move preflop to isolate a player is not uncommon in tournaments, but that's a much different situation than a cash game. You can't rebuy in a tournament (unless it's a rebuy tourney), and the blinds are going up as the play progresses. In a cash game neither of those are true, and you generally don't want to get all of your money in unless you have a very strong hand.

The best guess I could make was that Player B had a somewhat strong hand, better than he put Player A on, but that he was afraid of me coming in. I might very well have the best hand. With only my preflop raise invested in the pot, though, and holding only an overpair, I couldn't call a bet there for almost my entire stack. I folded.

The cards were turned over. Player A had 99. Player B had 33, he had flopped a set.

Player B would have had me in serious trouble had I called. In fact, heads up for the side pot he was a 92% favorite with two cards to come. With a big overpair I might have gotten all my money in on the flop if he moved more gradually. Instead, he gave me a move that made my scratch my head briefly, but gave me a relatively easy fold.

Why did he do it? We can't be sure, but I have a couple of guesses. The first is the isolation play I mentioned. He is likely someone who has watched a lot of poker on tv, and has seen people make this move at the final table of big tournaments. He might not have played a lot of cash games, and may not understand the differences between them.

The second guess is that he was simply focused on Player A and wanted to bust him. He saw Player A's reckless play, caught a big hand, and wanted to crush him.

As he played it he made a profit of less than $50 on the hand. Not bad, but it could have been more like $150, one and a half buy-ins. Anyone who has played NL cash games and tracked their results knows that big pots like that make a real difference in your hourly win rate. You don't want to miss a 92% chance to double up.

The big lesson to be learned here is don't take the play of one other player personally, and don't get too focused on the play of one other player. There might be a bad or superagressive player in the hand, but if there are also other players you need to take them into consideration. It really hurts when you make a play at a bad player that even turns out to be right, but that same play cripples you against another player in the hand.

Ted

p.s. I have no explanation for Player A moving in on the flop, beyond my previous observations about the reasons people play badly. With 99 in his hand and a ten high flop, there was no reason to move in. Needless to say, he didn't last long at the table.

I was playing in a NLHE cash game recently that was a good example of why you want bad players around. The max buy-in was $100. I usually play a little lower, but this table looked really good. There were lots of players seeing the flop, and the one big stack left right after I arrived. I bought in for $100 and had everyone covered.

People seemed to be having fun at the table, which usually helps create action. Then suddenly one of the players started complaining about a hand that had happened before I arrived. This player was a short buyer - he had a small stack when I sat down, and even when he rebought it stayed small. That's usually a good clue that someone doesn't really understand the game.

Apparently the Short Buyer had played a hand with a bad player at the table earlier and had gotten busted. The Bad Player had seen the flop with a really junky hand, then he flopped a small pair and moved in. The Short Buyer called with two overcards, he missed and didn't catch up.

The Short Buyer proceeded to tell us how stupid the Bad Player had been to move in with rags, and what a bad beat he had taken. What seemed like an isolated comment or two at first started building into a tirade.

Now, the Bad Player was bad, don't get me wrong. I had only been there for a few minutes but I already had notes about a couple of crazy plays he had made, including a big bluff that got picked off. Since that setback he had gone on a bit of a run and built his stack up.

Some of the other players and I tried to reason with the Short Buyer and shut him up. I told him that he should be glad if someone else makes a bad call, and that if he's the best player he will get the money in the long run. I added that if losing that amount of money bothered him that much, he might want to move to a lower buy-in.

"You mean higher," he said, explaining that you see less crazy plays at the higher buy-ins. I told him that no, I did mean lower, that if losing a buy-in bothered him that much that he should be playing for less money. (Ironic, I know, since I was playing above my bankroll at the time. But I bought in for the max, and I wouldn't have freaked out if I had gotten busted once. I knew that was a risk I was taking.)

Finally I just got tired of the conversation and I muted the Short Buyer, who obviously didn't understand that you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you.

A few minutes later I played a hand against the Bad Player that made me very glad the insults had not driven him away. I limped with T9s, he was the big blind and checked. The flop came TTA, I had flopped trips. There was $2.50 in the pot and he bet $5. I "thought" for a bit and called. The turn was a blank, he bet $5 again and I called.

The river was another blank and he bet another $5. I paused, but this time it wasn't an act. The fact that he was still betting the same amount was odd, he had just bet $5 into a pot of $22.50. It seemed like he actually wanted a call.

I had a good hand, but not the nuts. If he had AA I was toast. But he had been very aggressive with some bad hands, it was hard to imagine him not raising with AA. And the overbet on the flop didn't seem to fit, someone who flopped aces full would be a lot more likely to check. He could also have had AT or trips with a better kicker, but again, those are hands most people would play slower.

I thought I had the best hand, and I moved in for about $70. The Bad Player called pretty quickly and turned over AK. He had flopped two pair, and called off most of his stack after I smooth called him on the flop and turn. I had him covered by a bit so I busted him, and instead of rebuying he left immediately.

I resisted the temptation to tell the Short Buyer, "I told you so." Instead I made notes on both of them, and added the Bad Player to my list of people to look for in the future.

That's how you deal with bad players. If they get lucky you say, "Nice hand," and wait for an opportunity to bust them. It may not come that same session, but in the long run if you outplay people you will get the money, it's that simple. You need to remember that you're playing for the long run, don't let one bad beat throw you off your game. Hang in there and play smart.

Ted

Afterward something like this showed up in the chat box:

KK Player: Unreal! That's just my luck!
Another Player: Well, what hand did you put him on, the way he bet it?
KK Player: I had KK.

Of course that wasn't the question. This guy was playing his own hand, he liked his KK, and he hadn't put the other player on AA even when the other guy moved in after the pot had been re-raised several times. As someone watching I honestly wasn't sure which of the players had AA, but I was pretty convinced someone did.

Now, I'm not saying I could get away from KK in the same circumstance. There are some pretty bad players at that site, and some of them probably could have made that same play with a hand weaker than AA. But when you've made it 30x the big blind to go and someone raises you again, I think you have to at least consider that they have aces. It doesn't seem this player did.

Every bet that happened in that pre-flop sequence was more information the player with KK could have used to help define his opponent's hand. He had about a third of his stack in the pot, but he was not pot committed. If he could have layed it down there he would have saved the rest, instead of going into the hand a huge dog.

Ted

I hadn't played at Bodog in a while, but the last time I had the games were very good. They still are. In fact, the low buy-in NLHE games there may be even softer than the ones at Full Tilt, which is saying a lot. I've been playing the $10 max buy-in NLHE games, and my win rate so far is better than I'd expect if I was playing a level higher. It's only a few hours of play which doesn't mean much statistically, but the bottom line is that there are some really bad players there who are looking to gamble :) That's fairly common at sites associated with sportsbooks and casinos.

For example, at a game I was in today there was a player who had moved in a couple of times preflop in unraised pots but had gotten no callers. He had made some overbets after the flop, too, and I had laid down a couple of hands to him. Finally he got caught trying to steal a pot on the river. He had second pair with a bad kicker and the other player had top pair. That took him down to about $4 from almost $10 and he started to steam. He moved in preflop again a couple of times and no one called. He moved in a third time with A7o and was called by 99, but he hit an Ace to double up.

The next hand he made a minimum raise to $0.20 from early and I had KK. I had seen that he liked to come over the top of people, so instead of moving in myself I raised to $1.30. He took the bait and moved in with KJ. I busted him.

One lesson I have taken from playing with people like that is that patience is a real virtue at the poker table, especially in cash games. I made some fairly tough laydowns earlier when I did not know much about him, but once I got a better read on him I was able to bust him. Now I have him in my notes, and if I run into him later I won't have to figure out his game again. And if I never see him again, there are plenty of other bad players in my notes.

I've actually increased my stake by over fifty percent in about a week, including bonuses. One nice thing about Bodog is that they give a twenty percent bonus on all deposits, including reloads. You don't need any special codes, the bonus will show up automatically when you deposit. You have to earn three times the amount of bonus dollars in their poker points to clear it, and the deposit is available while you play. So, if you were to deposit $100 you'd get a $20 bonus, and you'd need to earn 60 points to be able to withdraw it. And again, that's every single time you make a deposit. Check their web site for more details on the bonus.

One thing I miss when I play there, though, is using Pokertracker. Bodog has graphical hand histories that do not work with it, but perhaps that's for the best. Pokertracker is great but I think it may be making me lazy, since I watch its data during play instead of learning to observe the game better. Also, if other decent players play elsewhere because Pokertracker doesn't work, that's fine, too :)

Now, I know this probably sounds like I'm shilling for them, and I actually am. I am an affiliate there, but I would not recommend the site unless I thought the games there were good.

If you don't have a Bodog account and would like to try it, I'd appreciate you using my link to sign up:

http://www.bodog.com/welcome/116594/poker/

It would be a big help in supporting this site.

Ted

I started working again a couple of weeks ago, and in anticipation of my first paycheck I deposited $25 at Ultimatebet. I still had some bonus dollars to earn there, so I figured I would mess around a bit and work through my bonus.

I started off playing very low buy-in NL games, like the $2 max and $10 max, but it was hard to get excited about the games. I actually ended up going against my own advice and playing the $25 buy-in games, where I only had enough of a bankroll for a single buy-in. Normally I'd say that playing NL with only one buy-in is a really bad plan, but I knew that I'd be able to cash in for more soon if I busted.

Since then I've gone on quite a run, and built the $25 up into $150 in about 10 hours. That's a much higher win rate then normal for me -- it's been a combination of luck (I hit a two outer to double up once), getting action on some good hands, and also running into some pretty bad players who I guess needed to give me their chips. Here are a couple of the hands I played that I found entertaining.

In the first hand the table was shorthanded, we were down to 6 players. I am in the big blind with K4o. The first two players fold, and the player in the cuttoff makes the minimum raise to $0.50. I am geting over 3:1 and I call, we are heads up.

The flop comes 454, two spades. I check, he checks. Turn is the Queen of hearts, making a second possible flush draw. I check, he bets the minimum, I call. The river is the eight of diamonds, for a board of 454Q8. I bet $1, about 60% of the pot. He raises to $3. I reraise to $5. He moves in for a total of about $10, I call.

He turns over KK, and then proceeds to bitch about losing to K4. I decide to refrain from pointing out that he didn't make a big enough raise with his Kings preflop. Had he raised to even 3x the big blind it would have been a much tougher call. Once again, evidence that slowplaying big pairs kills.

In the second hand I am in the cutoff with AKo. The table is full, and three players limp in front of me. I raise $1 to $1.25. The small blind calls. Everyone else folds and we are heads up.

The flop comes 4A4, two hearts. He bets $3.50, the size of the pot, and he bets pretty quickly. Many players with a four there would check to the raiser, or at least pause for a second to think over how to play their monster. I don't believe he has a four, I think he probably has a pocket pair (perhaps a big pair), or he may even be semibluffing a flush draw. I think it over and call.

Turn is a 5. He bets the pot again, over $10. I really think over the situation, just because the size of the bet. One thing I have going for me is that he is almost out of chips, he only has $1.75 left after the bet. So, if I do call, I won't be facing an even bigger bet on the river. I finally decide to call, still convinced I have the best hand.

The river is an offsuit 2, making a board of 4A452. Any three makes a straight, but he can only bet $1.75 into a pot of over $30. I call.

He has A8o. I win the pot.

I think the first mistake was calling my preflop raise with A8o. Yes, he already had $0.15 in the pot, but he still had to call $1.10 more. He was getting about 3:1 to call, so I can't completely blame him, but I think he had to at least consider that he might be dominated. I might actually call there if I thought some of the limpers would call, in the hopes that I'd flop two pair or trip eights and bust someone. But I would be ready to get away from the hand if I did not flop something bigger than an Ace.

We both flop Aces and he leads out with a pot-sized bet. Again, I can understand this play -- if I don't have an Ace or a four it will be almost impossible to call. But he didn't need to bet the whole pot, even 60% of the pot would have been enough to give someone the wrong price to draw. And again, I'm the person who raised preflop, if I have a better Ace he is toast.

I call the flop and he pots it again on the turn. This is the move that I simply do not understand. I raised preflop and called his pot-sized bet on the flop. How can he think I'm not ahead of A8 there? It's hard to believe someone would call that bet on the flop if they didn't have a four or a better Ace. I think you have to slow down and take stock of the situation there, especially out of position. You have to ask yourself what kind of hands the other player would have raised with preflop and then called with on that flop.

And what's with leaving yourself $1.75 to bet on the river? Had he moved in on the flop, it would have made my decision a little more difficult. Or had he bet less on the flop, he wouldn't have gotten so committed to the pot and he might have been able to get away from his hand. A bet of $2 on the flop makes a pot of $7.50 on the turn, and then if you feel the need to bet again you can put in $5 or $6.

There are more goofy hands I could share from the last couple of days, but those are two of the better ones. I know this streak can't last forever, but it's fun right now :)

Ted

The first big pot I played against him, I flop the nut straight with QT. He calls me all the way down to the river and doubles me up with only Ace high. The board had paired on the turn.

On another hand he min raises with AQ and I call. He misses the flop, I hit middle pair. He checks and then calls my bet. An Ace comes on the turn, and he checks to me. I check behind him. River is a blank. He checks again and I check, then he turns over AQ. Huh???

So he calls my flop bet with two overcards, and then when he hits top pair he checks it? I guess it's possible that he was trying to trap me, but checking the river there is pretty risky. You would like to be fairly confident that the other player is going to bet it for you, and I can't see why he'd think that when I checked the turn. Either he was scared (there was a possible straight on board) or he was trying to trap me. Either way, the result was that he called me with the worst hand, and then failed to bet when he had the best one.

Meanwhile he was bleeding off chips to other players. He called an all in with a possible flush on board, and then continued to call bets from another player in the side pot. That player had the nut flush.

So finally after getting busted for about the third time he leaves the table. I play for a while longer but the table breaks up. As I'm scanning the list to find a new game, I notice his name at another table. I'd assumed he had logged off, but he just left that table and bought in somewhere else. I got in line and then took a seat.

It was a while until we played another pot, and in the meantime most of his chips bled off. By the time I got in a hand with him he was down to less than 20 times the big blind.

We both limp preflop and then I flop a straight again, but this time it's the low end of the straight, the sucker straight. He checks and I bet about half the pot, he calls. The board pairs on the turn and he moves in. At this point I'm a little bit worried. I have 78 with 9TJ on the flop, and another 9 now on the turn. Certainly KQ is a possible hand, as well as JJ or TT. What's more, this guy has played pretty passive, and here he is moving in instead of calling me down. He doesn't have much left, though, and he's shown such bad judgement over and over that I feel I have to call him with as big of a hand as a straight.

The river comes a Jack. Now the board has paired twice and I'm sure I'm doomed. If he has either a Jack or a nine he has filled up. He turns over Txo. He flopped middle pair with a bad kicker, called, and then moved in when the board paired.

After I busted him he left for another table, yet again. I was tempted to follow him, but I didn't want to make him too paranoid. Hopefully I'll see him again, he's on my list.

During the hour or so I played with this guy I profited about 120 times the size of the big blind from him (120xBB). Since my win rate at that particular game is about 20xBB, that means that playing one hour with this guy equalled about six hours of my normal play. When you see numbers like that you start to understand why it's important to keep notes on the other players, and to keep a list of the real big fishes so you can hopefully reel them in again.

Ted

It's called Small Pairs and Connectors in NLHE. There's a link to it in the Articles section in the upper right, or you can click here.

I doubt that any of the article will be news to even moderately experienced NLHE players, but it may be helpful to people who are newer to the game.

Ted

It's called Miracle Cards and Statistics and there's a link to it in the Articles section in the upper right (or click here).

It probably won't be news to people who understand basic statistics, but it might be of help to those of you who get steamed after losing a hand where you were the favorite.

Ted

There are 7 players at the table in a NLHE tourney. The big blind of 200 is posted (no small blind). A couple of players fold. Player A, who has about 6600 chips, raises to 500. Player B has about 7600 and has been dealt Kc Ks, he re-raises to 1700. Player A calls.

The flop comes Js Ts 5h. Player A checks. Player B moves in for 5900. Player A calls, and turns over Ac Ah. Another Ace hits on the turn and Player A doubles up.

Player B wrote the post to RGP asking if he had played the hand poorly or was unlucky. Later in the thread he explained that he moved in on the flop because he wanted to, "put [his opponent] to a decision if he had a draw.... I wanted him to put in all his chips to draw out on me."

Here's what I wrote:

"The reality is that with KK against AA the chips will often all go in preflop or on the flop, one way or another. So in that sense, running into AA when you have KK can be considered unlucky. But you didn't know the other player had AA at the time, so the fact that we can look back on it and say it was almost inevitable for the chips to go in is not the same thing as saying you made the best play. We don't want to be results oriented.

"People often move in on the flop with an overpair like that. If I'm the other player holding AA, then KK and QQ are pretty likely hands to put you on. This is one of those situations where you may only get a call if you're beaten. Even someone with AJ has to be worried about a lot of hands that have them crushed when you move in, like AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 55 and JT. It's going to be hard for them to call you with TPTK, unless they think you're a pretty bad player (or maybe they are pretty bad), or that you're bluffing or semibluffing. But someone with a hand that has you beat may very well call.

"You mentioned wanting to make the player commit all their chips if they are on a draw -- a good player will not be likely do that unless they are getting the right price. By getting all in on the flop, they know they will see both the turn and the river. If they are on a flush draw and are getting the 2:1 or better from the pot that they need to call, they will. If not, they'll fold.

"If they don't know that they will see both cards, then they are a 4:1 dog to hit on the turn, and then they have to worry about facing another bet on the river.

"Yes, you want to give draws the wrong price, but you don't have to move in to do that. With 3600 in the pot, you do not need to bet 5900 to give them the wrong price. Even a bet of half the pot only offers them 3:1 to call, which is not the 4:1 they need to hit on the next card. Then you can put even more pressure on them on the turn, when they only have one more chance to hit.

"Say you bet 1800 and then they checkraise you. At that point you have 4100 left and he has a thousand less. You asked Grouchy [another person in the thread] if he could get away from the hand there on the flop. It may be tough to do that with almost half your stack in the middle, but at least you have the opportunity to make that extra decision. Then you can evaluate the other player and what you've seen of their play, and what's happened in the hand so far.

"Poker is about making decisions, and the better information you have, the better decisions you can make. Just pushing all of your chips into the middle might actually be a good move for someone who is up against a better player and is afraid they'll get outplayed postflop, but in most situations you'd like to be pretty sure you have the best hand when you get your chips in the middle (unless you're moving in on a steal or semibluff).

"Without knowing more about the other player, if someone checkraises me there on the flop after I've already re-raised them preflop, I think there's a good chance I'm beat. That's when what you know about the other player comes into play, like how likely they would be to make that play with TPTK, or on a bluff. I think there are some situations where I could make that laydown, because hands like AA and JJ and TT are almost 85% to win."

There's an idea that some players seem to have that they would really like to get players who are on draws to fold. I think there are specific tournament situations where that might be desireable, but in general I'd like them to call but at the wrong price.

If I'm up against a flush draw on that flop, the other player is a 4:1 dog to make it on the turn. If I make a bet of say 60% of the pot on the flop and they call, then I can apply even more pressure on the turn if they miss. At that point they are a big dog to make the hand by the river, and they will now face a bigger bet and a chance to make a bigger mistake.

Ted

One thing I have been meaning to mention, though, is the poker room that opened up a few months ago at BoDog. I've played there a number of times, and the low buy-in NLHE cash games have been crazy good. It's often the case that sites associated with online sportsbooks and casinos attract some real action junkies, and that's definitely been my experience at BoDog Poker. I like the software, as well, and I feel they are a very trustworthy operation. I've been placing bets through their sports book for some time now.

The big warning is that if you get in the really crazy games, you need to make sure you have enough bankroll to withstand the swings. I would want at least 20 times the max buy-in to play in those games, and more is better. You want to have enough so that there's not much of a sting if you lose a whole buy-in, or even several. It happens. Even if you're a 90% favorite on a hand where you're all in, that's still a 10% chance you'll get busted.

I'm hoping to write a more detailed review of the BoDog Poker site (and some other sites I recommend) at some point.

Ted

Let's look at a hand I played recently and discuss some of the issues involved with pocket pairs improving to sets. First, a summary of the hand.

It's a NLHE cash game with blinds of $0.25/$0.50 and a $50 max buy-in. The game has been pretty loose and not incredibly aggressive preflop. I pick up 44 UTG and I limp. The player immediately to my left limps, and it's folded to the big blind who raises to $3. I call, the player to my left calls. We all are pretty deep - the big blind and I have a little less than the max buy-in, and the player to my left has us both covered.

The flop comes 4h Ac Kh. The big blind checks. I bet $5 into a pot of about $9, the player behind me calls, and the big blind calls.

The turn is 3d. The big blind bets $6 into a pot of about $24, I call, and the player behind me moves in. The big blind folds and I call. The player behind me shows Kc 3c for two pair. He has two outs, the two remaining kings (if a 3 hits he makes threes full and I make fours full).

River is Jd, my set holds up and I win a $100 pot.

Now, let's look more at the decisions I faced and why I played it as I did. Let's start with preflop. I'm sure there are people who would argue against the way I played the hand on the first round. Limping from UTG with a small pair is not a move that everyone would make. I do sometimes limp with small and medium pairs from early position if the game is not particularly aggressive.

The hope of course it to get in cheap, as it's about 8.5:1 against flopping a set. With hands that depend a lot on implied odds you want to get in for as little as possible, and have the real money go in once you've hit your hand. You're not looking to call a big raise and play the hand heads-up. So why did I call a raise to 6x the big blind?

First, it felt like a steal raise. A lot of players would take a shot at the pot there, when they were last to act and there were only limpers in front of them. Also, the raise was pretty big, it didn't look like someone who really wanted action. You don't see as many preflop steals in cash games as you do in tournaments, but I had seen this player make a few over-aggressive plays before this hand.

Another possibility with a raise of that size is that he had a big hand, a big pair or AK. Those are the kinds of hands you can bust someone with when you flop a set. You won't get action unless the other player makes a hand that they like, and some players will get all of their chips in with a hand like an overpair or top pair. If they flop top two you have a very good shot at doubling up.

The second big factor in choosing to call the raise is that the raiser and I were both pretty deep. I was calling another $2.50 to potentially win over $40 more. And the player behind me was even deeper, he had me covered. If he came in the implied odds situation would be even better.

So, I called. I wouldn't call a raise that big every time I had 44 UTG, it's not my usual play. But we have to evaluate each situation on its own, and in this case I thought it was the right move.

The flop came and I hit my set. I was really happy to see the AK on board as well, since I thought it was quite possible one of the other players had flopped two pair. The big blind, who raised preflop, checked. I was tempted to check as well, but there are a few reasons I didn't.

First, many players expect someone who flops a big hand like a set to check. By betting you might convince them that you have a weaker made hand that they can beat, or just a draw. I made a bet of a little over half the pot size, and it's not uncommon to see that type of bet from someone who is semibluffing.

Second, betting builds the pot and encourages action. This isn't as critical as with Pot-Limit or Limit, since the chips can all still go in on the river. But you are more likely to be called on those last couple of bets if the pot is big.

Third, there were possible flush and straight draws, and I didn't want to give a player with either one a free card. If they were going to draw out on me, I wanted to make them pay something for it.

I was happy when both players came along with me on the flop, and even happier when the big blind led out on the turn. The draws had missed, so unless he had AA or KK my bottom set was still good. Someone who made a big preflop raise could have one of those hands, of course, but if someone hits set over set on me I assume that I will probably get busted.

It's rare to see set over set, and I don't want to spend energy looking over my shoulder any time I flop bottom set. I want to maximize what I win with even small sets, and the times I do get unlucky enough to run into a bigger set (or even a top two pair that fills up), I feel that those hands are just the cost of doing business. The small sets are still profitable despite those occasional bad situations.

The big blind's bet of $6 into a $24 pot was odd. My best guess was that he was drawing. I considered raising, but I decided to call in the hopes that the player behind me would come along to the river. I think a lot of players would opt for the raise there instead - with one card to come they could give the draws a pretty bad price that way. My hope at this point, though, was to bust both players if possible. I thought there was a chance they both had made hands, and that the chips might all go in on the river if I didn't reveal my strength just yet.

Of course the player behind me moving in on the turn was about the best result I could have hoped for. I'm not sure why he did that with an Ace on board, there were a lot of possible hands that beat him. I'm guessing he interpreted the big blind's tiny bet and my smooth call as both being weak, and he really thought he had the best hand. I think the choices I made confused that player about the strength of my holding, and because of that I got paid off big.

Every situation is different, but try to get away from making an automatic check on the flop when you hit a set. Consider betting your hand instead, I think it's the better way to go in a lot of cases.

Ted

The poker authors are right, of course, but like anything with poker there are no absolutes. There are some times to take your foot off the gas and just call. Here's a hand I played where I did just that. I don't claim to be an expert and I'm sure that not everyone will agree with my play of the hand, but that's OK. Let's look at it, and you can reach your own conclusions.

This was a NLHE cash game with a $50 max buy-in, $0.10 and $0.25 blinds. I had most of my first buy-in left.

I was in early position and picked up 8d 9d. I limped and three more players behind me limped as well, the small blind called and the big blind checked. We were 6 handed at the flop, which was not unusual. The game was very loose and I thought there was a good chance we would have a multiway unraised pot, which is why I tried to sneak in with suited connectors from the front.

The flop came TJQ with two spades. I had picked up the low end of the straight (the "sucker" straight). Anyone with AK had Broadway, the nut straight.

The small blind bet the size of the pot, $3. The big blind raised to about $7. I called. The player right behind me called, and the other two in late position folded. The small blind also folded. One of the late position players who folded wrote, "3 players with AK???"

The turn was a blank. The big blind bet $8. I called, and so did the player behind me.

The river was a low spade. The big blind bet $4, I called and so did the last player. The big blind turned over KQ, he had flopped top pair with an open ender. The player behind me mucked. My queen high straight was good, and I came very close to doubling up on the hand.

So, let's look in more detail at the decisions I faced and why I chose just to call.

On the flop I felt I had a better hand than the small blind or the big blind. For one of them to be ahead of me they would have to have AK or K9. That second possibility was pretty unlikely.

Neither of the blinds had raised, and I felt they almost certainly would have with AK and several limpers in front of them. Most players would raise it up to something like $3 there, they would want to thin out the junk hands and hopefully get heads up with someone. Also, many people would play the nut straight a bit slower than that on the flop, even with a possible flush draw on board.

I thought the small blind might have flopped a pair. The big blind's raise felt like a semibluff to me, I put him on a flush draw.

So, here I was faced with a bet and a raise, and I felt I had a better hand than either of them. My first instinct was to reraise, even to move in to protect my hand. The problem was that there were still three more players left to act behind me. If any of them had AK I was drawing almost dead. There were no diamonds on board, so my only chance would be a runner-runner ace and king for a split pot.

I did not want to get my money in when I might be drawing practically dead, but I also didn't want to fold. I felt like I might actually have the best hand at this point. So, I called to see what developed.

After the flop action was over the player that scared me was not the raiser, it was the player behind me who also called. I had hoped to get heads-up with the raiser, and a smooth call is sometimes the sign of big hand who is trapping. But I actually didn't put that last caller on AK. If he had the nut straight and and smelled a semibluff like I did on that raise, it's hard to imagine he wouldn't have come over the top. A smart player would not mind getting their money in right there on the flop with the nuts, since it's 2:1 against the flush draw coming on two cards.

So, heading to the turn, I felt pretty good about my hand, but wary that I was being trapped with AK by the player behind me, and of the flush draw hitting.

The turn bet was $8 into a pot of about $27. It felt consistent again with a flush draw. I was getting over 4:1 to call and I thought there was a good chance my hand was good. But I still had the same problems as on the flop - AK had me crushed, and there was still a player left to act behind me.

I think some people would argue that I should have raised here to find out where I was at, but at this point I was drawing completely dead to AK and I did not want to put more money into the pot in that position. If I raised and someone reraised I would have to lay it down, no question. I wanted to show this hand down if possible, so I called.

The call on the turn by the player behind me was tough to figure out. It could be a trap, but a player would show a lot of patience to just call there again with the nuts.

At the river there was about $51 in the pot and the third spade came. The big blind bet $4. I had put him on a flush draw, but that bet actually felt too small for a completed flush. He might be trying to induce one of us behind him to raise, but I would have expected a bet of at least $10 from a flush with a pot of that size, even if they were trying to act weak.

Again I contemplated raising, but the weak bet could have come from someone who had the nut straight and was concerned about the flush. There was also the possibility that the player behind me had been flushing - he had called a bet on the turn where he was getting the pot odds to draw.

I was getting insane odds to call, almost 14:1. I would not have to be right very often to justify calling there. And if the player behind me put in a big raise, I could always get away from my hand. It turned out that he just called and I pulled down a huge pot.

Afterwards, the player who had made the comment on the flop about three of us having AK wrote this in the chatbox: "I folded 98." I believed him based on his reaction at the flop. I considered folding it there as well, but when the smoke cleared I was glad I had called.

As I said at the start, betting and raising are usually preferable to calling, but you should not "always" do anything in poker. I think there are situations where the pot size and your read of the players can justify calling. These are grey areas and you have to tread carefully, but some good calls can add to your win rate. Part of growing as a player is learning to navigate the sometimes murky waters of postflop play.

Ted

It was a low buy-in NLHE game and I picked up 76o in the big blind. A player in early position opened for 3x the big blind, it was folded to me and I called. We both had stacks that were about the size of the max buy-in, which was 100x the big blind.

The flop came 582 rainbow, I had flopped an open ender. I like to semibluff draws in NLHE but I was out of position and he had raised, so I checked. He overbet, about twice the size of the pot. I thought for a bit and called.

The turn was a 4, I made my straight. I checked, and this time he bet about half the pot. I called. The river was a king. I checked and he checked behind me. He had QQ and I won the pot.

Now, the specific part of my play that he called moronic was my preflop call with 76. It's actually not a play I make a lot or would neccessarily recommend, but we always have to judge plays by the situation, not by a chart in a book.

I had observed the other player a bit and he had open raised more than his share of pots. I was getting pot odds of over 2:1 to call. I thought that he might not have much of a hand, but if he did have a big pair then 76 is not a band kind of hand to play.

In fact, 87s is the hand that plays best against AA heads-up (it's about a 4:1 dog), and 76s is not much worse off. You would prefer the cards to be suited, of course, but I don't think that really counts for as much as people sometimes assume. It's not like you're going to know you have the best hand with an 8 high flush - the straight is really the draw you would rather hit. The straight is more likely to be the nuts, and it's also more deceptive than the flush.

An added bonus is that if you hit big with a hand like 76 (two pair, trips or a straight) you may even bust the raiser. So, I called. I don't see a problem with that.

The decision that I actually do think is shaky is my call on the flop. Since he overbet the pot I was not getting even close to the 4:1 I needed to take a card off and try to hit my straight. So why did I call?

The overbet felt like an overpair to me, it's a pretty common play to overbet in that situation. While I was not getting the right pot odds to call, I felt that the implied odds were prettty good. He still had about 75% of his stack left, and I thought I might win it all if I hit.

Another big factor in calling is that I was drawing to the nuts, that was a very important point. If a 4 or a 9 came off on the turn I would have the nut straight, which would also be the best possible hand at the moment. There would be the possibility of a higher straight hitting on the river, or even a bigger hand like a flush or a boat, but I'd be willing to take that chance as the favorite if I could hit my hand on the turn.

In retrospect I think I was probably not getting the right price to call, even with the implied odds. Compared to his bet and the rest of the stack I was getting a little less than 5:1. That's only slightly better than the odds to hit the straight on the turn, and it assumed I could actually bust him.

The overbet seemed to signal that he was going to be willing to put a lot of chips in the pot but that turned out not to be the case. He was actually overbetting to protect what he thought might be a vulnerable hand, based on the rest of his play, and the king on the river really seemed to scare him him off. (I think he may have put me on AK, although I'm not sure how he thought I would have called an overbet on the flop and a bet on the turn with only two overcards. Would that have been less moronic than calling with 76 preflop?)

I think my play on the turn was fine. It surprised me a bit that he slowed down here and only bet half the pot, and I didn't want to lose him by raising.

Not betting on the river turned out to be a big mistake, though. I had the best hand, but instead of value betting I checked and gave him a free showdown. I was hoping to get in a checkraise, but after that small bet on the turn it was a mistake to count on him to bet my hand for me again on the river. I think he probably would have made a crying call for half the size of the pot there, and perhaps even a pot-sized bet. He might even have played back at me if I made a small bet and he sensed weakness.

So, looking back I think I made some questionable decisions, but not anything I'd call moronic. Of course you shouldn't let what someone says when they are steaming get to you, but I think it is very important to be able to look at your play in an honest fashion.

If you have any feedback on this hand, feel free to use the link below to add a comment :)

Ted