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Continuation betting when you flop trips

Sometimes, playing a hand straight, rather than tricky can win you a bigger pot. Here’s an example from the later stages of an online tournament I was playing the other night.

I raised on the button with 7, 8 of spades.

The big stack in the big blind is the only caller.

The flop is 7, 7, 10.

The big blind checks.

I’m now faced with the decision to either play weak and check behind, or bet straight out. In my opinion, checking behind here should only be done against very weak players. My opponent is one the better players at the table, and so don’t think he will fall for that trick.

Under normal circumstances, I’ll be continuation better my hand almost all the time. By checking, I’m sending a huge signal that something is not right, and my opponent might get suspicious.

By betting my hand, I’m making it look like it is just a normal situation. By betting, I’m disguising the strength of my hand.

So the next time you flop big against a strong opponent, don’t automatically play it like a trap. Often the best traps are when you play the hand straight.

When to raise out of the small blind

Playing hands out of the small blind is not a very good idea. You will be at such a disadvantage for the duration of the hand, that even with a premium starting hand, you can end up loosing more than you win.

However there are times when you should raise out of the small blind.

For example, if you have aggressive players sitting to your right, they will be raising a lot from late position. You should be raising back at them once ever so often as they won’t always be doing it with strong hands, and this is a perfect opportunity to collect chips.

Here’s a situation I found myself in the other night whilst playing an online tournament.

The two players to my right had been extremely aggressive. My stack, on the other hand, had been taking a beating.

The player in the cut off makes a standard opening raise. The player on the button 3 bets him.

I look down at J, 10 of hearts.

I decide to take a stand against these two aggressive players and make a 4 bet. My bet looks extremely strong as I had not made this play before and so both players fold and I scoop the pot.

Making plays, such as this, can yield a good amount of chips when you are not getting the right situations with the right hands. However, the more you make a play like this, the less effective it will work.

Sniffing out a set – Spotting when an over pair is beat

Here is a hand I played terribly the other night. After looking back at it I thought it would be a good example of spotting the warning signs that an over pair is no good.

Here’s what happened;

I raise UTG+2 with pocket Queens.

The button calls, and the big blind calls.

The flop is 4, 7, 10 rainbow.

The big blind checks to me, I bet about half of the pot.

The button folds.

The big blind check raises and bets the pot.

Due to my stack size, I either have to shove or fold. I quickly shove and he shows a flopped set of 7s.

In retrospect, I should of thought about his range before making a snap decision. Here are the things I should took into consideration.

1. The big blind could be in the hand with any two cards. He is getting excellent value pre-flop and so could well of flopped two pair.

2. He check raises me and puts me in a position where I almost have to shove all in. Why would he ever do this with a hand that was weaker than my range?

3. Would he check raise with pocket nines or Jacks? Would he have just called pre-flop with pocket Jacks?

I think if I had took a couple of minutes to make my decision, I would of come to a conclusion that perhaps this wasn’t the best situation for me to get my stack in. But it does highlight the things you should be looking for when faced with a decision like this.

Squeezing with pocket 10s

I was playing an online tournament the other night when I find myself in an interesting situation. Ultimately I ended up getting knocked out during this hand, but I thought it would be good to write about.

It was the later stages of the tournament with around about 30% of the field still playing. I had around 20 big blinds and was about average stack sized for the table.

A player in middle position raises. He is fairly a fairly tight player and has around 20-30 big blinds. A fairly loose player smooth calls behind him, he also has around 20-30 big blinds.

The action folds round to me in the cut off. I have pocket 10s. I’m now faced with the decision to either smooth call as well, or make a 3 bet. Smooth calling is the safe option because I’m likely to see a flop. However I think it is wrong to want to see a flop in this situation. What’s the best I can hope for? My hand is unlikely to improve, and against two players I’m unlikely to have the best hand at show down.

I decide to 3 bet. The initial raiser folds and the smooth caller calls.

We end up getting it all in on the turn, the smooth caller had an open ender and catches his card on the river to bust me.

What would you do in this situation?

Poker tell – Watch your opponent’s eyes

Here’s a poker tell that new players to the game can’t help but give off. When a player is interested in the hand, they will be looking up, mostly at you to try and gage your reaction. They want to know the strength of your hand so they can get as much out of you as possible.

On the other hand, when a poker player is bluffing, he will be try and avoid moving his eyes at all. He will rarely make eye contact with you, and he will avoid watching your movements to try and not give anything away.

As with all poker tells, this is by no means a universal rule. Experience players will recognise this tell and hide it when they are in a hand. If you’re looking to exploit a new poker player though, this tell can sometimes mean their cards may as well be face up.

Value betting a raggy Ace

Always looking to learn from my mistakes, here’s a hand I played badly.

I open from the cut off with A, 10 of spades. The big blind is the only caller.

The flop is J, 7, 4 with two diamonds. The big blind checks, I bet out 2/3 of the pot. The big blind calls.

The turn is the 9 of hearts. The big blind checks, I also check.

The river is the A of clubs. The big blind checks,  I bet the pot.

The big blind then check raises me by over betting the pot. I’m now forced to make a big decision with a very marginal hand.

Here’s where I went wrong.

Pre flop – Fine

On the flop – Fine

On the turn – I should of bet again. Betting again will drive out a lot of weak one pair hands and I’ll be able to define my opponent’s hand in greater detail.

On the river – I should of checked behind. I think the there is a very slim value bet for the Jack, but, as this example proves, I’m stuck with a horrible decision if I get checked raised.

Where do you think I went wrong?

4 betting from the button

One of the most exciting aspects of poker is taking an aggressive line and raising. When there has been significant action in front of you, 4 betting can force out a lot of big hands and weak players from the pot. I love to 4 bet with just about any two cards from the button as I really don’t mind if my opponent calls or fold. If they fold, then I win all of the dead money in the middle of the pot. If they call, then I can win a big pot in position on a later street. I think your range for 4 betting on the button should be big for this exact reason. If you are only 4 betting Aces or Kings, you won’t get any action and you won’t win huge pots. If you open that range to anything down to small suited connectors, your expect win grows significantly. This means that you will have to bluff and be aggressive in uncomfortable situations, but isn’t that what poker is all about?

Playing a small pocket pair out of the big blind

I often see inexperienced players playing small pocket pairs out of the big blind terribly. Here is a situation I found myself in not so long ago.

A tight aggressive player makes a standard raise from the cut off. It folds around to me in the big blind. I’ve got pocket 4′s and I decide to call. The raiser has slightly less than 30bb, I’m the table chip leader with around 90bbs.

The flop comes Q, 2, 8 with two spades.

I check, and so does my opponent.

So far, so good. I don’t see the value in inflating the pot pre-flop by 3 betting, I think playing a hand like pocket 4′s out of position can be really costly if you make a mistake and so there isn’t ever a reason to 3 bet pre. If you flop a set or the board is very favourable then would be the time to juice the pot.  My opponent decides to check back, which is interesting because a lot of the time he will win the pot right there with a continuation bet. It’s likely that I’ve called with just about any two cards, and even more likely that I haven’t connected with the board. This signals he is either really strong, or really weak.

The turn is another Q, pairing the board.

The Q doesn’t really change anything, I was either already ahead or I’m still behind. The usual course of events in this situation would be I check again, then my opponent would bet, then I would either have to call or raise. I decide to instead bet straight out about 3/4 of the pot. Why did I do this? Well, by betting out I’m forcing my opponent to either raise or just call. I think by betting straight out here I can force him to sacrifice some information about his hand. If he raises it kind or polarises his range. If he just calls, he’s either setting up a big value bet on the river or he is actually just unsure of his hand.

My opponent decides to just call.

The river is a J.

I decide to just call, and then make a decision once my opponent makes his value bet. My opponent in fact decides to check back and shows AK.

I think by betting straight out on the turn I’ve managed to see the river whereas if  I had checked I would have either folded, or made a questionable call.

3 bet Jack 10 suited, don’t just smooth call

I was playing deep in a tournament the other night when a interesting situation arose.

A player in early position made a standard opening raise. The player was fairly loose and aggressive and had around 50 – 60 big blinds.

A player in middle position smooth calls. Again this player was fairly  loose and aggressive and had a similar stack size.

The action folded around to the button who decided to shove all in with his last 15 – 20 big blinds.

The initial raiser folds, and the action is back on the player who smooth called. He is now facing the decision to call off a sizeable chunk of his stack to try an knock out a player. There is already quite a bit of dead money in the middle, which I think ended up forcing his decision. The player calls and shows J, 10 suited. The player who shoved had pocket 6′s.

Now this post isn’t about questioning if the call was correct or not. I think it is more interesting to think about what would of happened if the smooth caller had instead 3 bet his hand to begin with. I don’t think the player on the button would of shoved, and so instead of ending up in the situation where he had to make a call for a chunk of his stack, he would be in a dominant position over the initial raiser.

Do you think it was right to call or should he have raised?

Why it’s wrong to raise when you flop huge

We all love being in the situation where we flop a huge hand like quads. But flopping quads can be a tricky hand to get paid off from. In this situation, your opponent is likely to have not caught any part of the board. The only way you are going to get paid off is to play weak and hope your opponent takes a stab at it or tries to bluff you off.

There are many things you can do to play a hand like flopped quads wrong. Here are some of them;

• Check raise
• Over bet
• 3 or 4 bet