Pokerwiner.com → Within poker principles
So let’s say that when the small blind checks, you check along. Now the next three limpers also check. You begin to wonder if you may, in fact, have the best hand. You start to hope for some innocuous card on fourth poker street, but now the guy on the button, true to his aggressive nature, bets. The small blind folds and it’s up to you again. Do you see what has happened?
If you have worked on your ability to make quick revisions in your assessments of hands and situations as they play out, then you will recognize that things have changed. (In this situation, more experienced, advanced players are aware of the possibility well before it happens ). A few seconds ago you had little in the way of a hand. Suddenly you have a very real shot at this pot. Here’s what you must consider. If any of the first three players behind you had a jack, there’s a good chance they’d have bet. (There’s some chance they’d have bet an eight as well ). As for the button, because of the way he plays he’ll probably bet all sorts of hands including middle pair, bottom pair, a gut shot draw, or even a pure bluff. Given the large number of hands he will bet, your hand figures to be better than his at this point. Just as importantly, indications are that none of the other players has a strong enough hand to call a raise cold.
The Play
Your decision is clear. Instead of folding as you had more or less expected to do at the outset of the hand, you now raise. By raising the late position bettor you are able to confront the players between him and you with having to call two bets cold to stay in the hand. From there on the poker hand may develop in a variety of ways, but frequently from that point through fourth street your hand plays itself. Ideally, and commonly, your raise will knock the other players out. Your standard play, if you are called on the flop (preferably only by the button), is to bet again on fourth street.
If instead you are reraised on the flop the pot will be big enough that you should generally call that bet, but frequently be prepared to fold on the turn unless you improve. Once someone makes it three bets, going beyond the turn without improvement would be reckless unless you have an excellent read to the contrary, or the raiser is quite a maniac. This is especially true if the reraiser is one of the players between you and the original bettor.
The river can be a bit more tricky. Let’s assume it’s now heads-up between you and the button, and the last card appears unlikely to have helped his hand. You must now decide whether to bet or to check and call.
(Given the opponent I described, it is clear enough that your hand is worth a call if you check and he bets. Of course in the real world you have to assess each situation individually ). At a minimum you must ask yourself what range of hands your opponent will call (or raise) with if you bet, and what hands he will bet if you check. You then bet or check and call on the basis of which play would give you the highest proportion of wins in the long run. This is actually a complex topic which I will leave to the ambitious reader to study in some depth in David Sklansky’s The Theory of Poker. As a quick rule of thumb, however, lean toward betting if – as with many weak and mediocre players – he will call with more hands than he would bet if your were to check. Be more inclined to check and call if- as with some more aggressive or bluff-prone players – he will bet with more hands than he would call with. (Also, check if you are concerned that he may bluff-raise).
The Strategic Moment in Holdem / One Way Not to Fold /
Beating the Berserko: Preflop Against a Maniac /
On Into the Storm: Playing the maniac After the Flop
One Reason to Reraise a Maniac / A Simple Read / Countering a Good Reader
Thinking About What They’re Thinking / Out On the Edge
Considerations in Two Blind Stealing Defense situations
Easing the Transition to the middle Limits: Part I
Easing the Transition to the middle Limits: Part II / Multiple Changing Images