Making Plays

Byron Jacobs

As you progress from the lower limits in Hold Em, it becomes more important to be able to make successful plays. At lower levels this is less of an issue. At lower limits play goes like this: you pick up a good hand; you bet; other players pick up weaker hands; they come along for the ride; maybe they have the rights odds – maybe not; sometimes your hand stands up – sometimes you get outdrawn; it’s all very straightforward.

As you move up to the middle limits and beyond it becomes increasingly important to play your hands in a more sophisticated manner and utilise plays effectively. Strong players are good at spotting the right circumstances to make plays that will generate a positive expectation. Weaker players often overlook these possibilities.

The most basic play of all is probably the semi-bluff/free card raise and our first example is pretty elementary. It is a $20-$40 limit hold em game and our hero is on the button with Th-9h. An early player limps, our hero calls, small blind folds and now the big blind (a straightforward player) pops up with a raise. The early player and hero call. There is $130 in the pot and three players.

The flop comes down Ks-8d-7c. The big blind bets and the early player folds. There is $150 in the pot and it is $20 to call. Our hero has flopped an open straight draw and should now raise. He has eight outs to the nuts (barring some freak holding for the big blind) and possibly another six by pairing his 9 or T. If the big blind holds high cards which have missed the flop (e.g. A-Q or A-J), he will now probably call (even if only out of inertia) but will be hard pushed to call a bet on the turn if a blank hits. Even if he has a decent pair, say 9-9, T-T, J-J or Q-Q, he will still probably slow down as he will be concerned that he is drawing pretty thin against a pair of kings. If he is in weak-tight mode, he may even fold a medium pair, although of course he certainly shouldn’t. If he has a strong hand, e.g. A-A, A-K and re-raises, our hero still has eight good outs and is 2-to-1 to win the pot. Finally, even if he is up against the monster K-K, he has a good draw and is still 3-to-1 to win anyway. Whatever happens, the flop raise is absolutely the correct play against straightforward players. This is a clear cut example and you can find something similar in any basic textbook. Almost everyone who plays hold em – even at quite low levels – understands it and is capable of using it.

As an aside: although it is almost certainly correct to raise the flop in this example, if you are up against stronger, thinking players it may be better to play the hand differently. A stronger player will suspect what you are up to and may three-bet you with a hand like T-T and then lead out on the turn. They may even make such a play with a much weaker hand, say A-Q, suspecting (correctly) that you are on a draw or hoping to get you to lay down a weaker hand such as 8-9. Against such players it may be better to wait for the turn and then raise there, even if you miss your draw. This is a high risk strategy, but a raise on the turn will get more respect from a strong player. Weaker, more straightforward players are more likely to react to your flop raise by giving you credit for a king and scuttling away.

Now let’s consider a more complex example, again from a $20-$40 game. This time our hero is on the button with Ac-Jh. The UTG is BigLeak. BigLeak has appalling pre-flop standards and gets involved far, far too often, playing around 60-70% of pots, even in full ring games. Nevertheless, he actually plays reasonably beyond the flop in that he can be quite aggressive and he is also capable of bluffing and making moves. The fact that he will play almost any cards pre-flop combined with his tricky play post-flop makes him hard to read as almost any flop can potentially hit him. Obviously, he is horribly handicapped by his pre-flop play and you love to have him in the game, but you have to be honest and recognise that he is hard to play post-flop.

BigLeak limps and a middle player, RockSolid, limps too. RockSolid is a competent, sensible but rather transparent player. He can make moves but they tend to be rather pedestrian and predictable. He is also rather weak-tight and spends too much time checking, calling and even folding when he ought to be betting and raising.

Both BigLeak and RockSolid have been in this game for a while. Like all very loose players, when things go well for BigLeak he can notch up some remarkable winning sessions. However, at the moment he is running badly and has been caught out running numerous desperate bluffs/semi-bluffs when his feeble hands have missed the flop. RockSolid has been ... well ... rock solid and has caught BigLeak out on a couple of occasions.

Our hero has position and a good hand and he now raises. The blinds abandon the struggle; BigLeak and RockSolid both call. There is $150 in the pot and three players. The flop comes down 3c-5h-5c. BigLeak now pops up with a bet and – rather  surprisingly – RockSolid now raises. Our hero, who was the pre-flop aggressor but has now seen a bet and raise on the flop before the action even gets to him, is completely thrown. He can see there is $210 in the pot and it is $40 to call. He considers calling with his overcards as the pot odds are okay if he can assume he has six outs. However, he is worried that someone might have a 5 in their hand and he is also concerned about RockSolid’s raise. He doesn’t like it. He knows how RockSolid plays and thinks ‘well, I’ve only got overcards – better safe than sorry’ and mucks his hand.

Big mistake. If you consider what kind of hands the opposition are likely to hold, then it becomes clear that the correct play here is not to fold, or even to call, but to three-bet. This might appear surprising, but let’s think it through.

Firstly, what does BigLeak have? Well, he could have almost anything. We know that he is a thinking player beyond the flop. He sees three random low cards and suspects that both RockSolid and our hero have completely missed this flop. He probably has a little something and is trying to steal the pot. Likely hands are a pair of threes, A-4, A-2 or 6-7 for a gutshot, a couple of random clubs for a flush draw or even a stone cold steal with nothing. Like I said – almost anything.

What about RockSolid? He is a competent player and has a good line on BigLeak as he had caught him out bluffing a couple of times. He knows that BigLeak probably doesn’t have a lot and thinks that his hand is almost certainly better than his. He is raising to put pressure on you, hoping to get heads-up with BigLeak. He is very likely to hold a medium pair, 6-6, 7-7 or 8-8 although there is a chance he has two clubs. He won’t have a big pair as he would have raised pre-flop and he won’t have a couple of random high cards as he would not raise with them on the flop – he is just not the type of player to make such a move.

The arguments for three-betting here are numerous and they are compelling:

  1. This is a decent sized pot and it is worth fighting for.
  2. You are very likely to win if you hit one of your six outs. Holding the Ac is important as it means that the only out that is tainted is the Jc, which would complete a flush draw. However, even then you would have a redraw on the river.
  3. Sometimes when you have overcards, you have to be cautious as one card can be completely dead. For example, you have A-K, the opponent A-7 and the flop is 5-7-T. Now you must hit a king to win. Here, however, this cannot happen. If BigLeak has A-3, then hitting an ace will not help him as the pair of fives on board counterfeits his threes.
  4. You have position on both opponents and the three-bet, combined with the pre-flop raise, shows a lot of strength. Unless one of them happens to have a five (which is rather improbable) they are going to back off and you can then take a free card on the turn if you wish.
  5. BigLeak may well fold now rather than call two bets and then you will be heads up with RockSolid. Even if he decides to stick around with a medium pair and you must hit your hand to win, you have a 24% chance of doing so by the river. Thus you more or less have value for your raise. You are putting $60 into a $210 pot but if BigLeak folds and RockSolid calls, this will be $230.
  6. RockSolid is weak-tight. You are strongly representing a big pair and he may even fold a medium pair. He likes to make these ‘tough folds’ no doubt thinking that he is playing good solid poker by not paying off your big overpair.
  7. Holding A-J – rather than A-K or A-Q – is actually very helpful for you as if a king or queen appear in the turn they will be good scare cards. If BigLeak folds, RockSolid calls and a king comes on the turn, RockSolid is likely to abandon a medium pair. He will find it hard to believe that you have given all this action without a big overpair or, at the very least, A-K – which is now beating him.

There is nothing particularly clever about any of this. The arguments are more or less the same as those which demonstrate how successful the semi-bluff/free card raise can be in a straightforward heads-up situation. Our hero would almost certainly spot the chance to make the play there but in this more complex situation, it went right over his head. If you are playing at the middle limits and above in hold em you should already be quite familiar with the basic plays. However, in order to progress you must be alert for opportunities to adapt such plays for use in real world, ‘non-textbook’ situations.

Provided by Card Player, The Poker Authority

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