Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta and Matt Flynn Small Stakes No Limit Hold'em

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192 SMALL STAKES NO-LIMIT HOLD EM
Folding, calling, and raising can all be right in various situations.
Here with a strong raising opponent and weak blind players, calling
often maximizes your positional advantage. Against tougher blinds,
you would be more inclined to reraise or fold.
You call the $7, the small blind folds, and the big blind calls. The
flop comes Qe&8f&5`&. The solid player bets $18 into the $22 pot.
What should you do?
All you have is a gutshot straight draw and a backdoor flush draw.
Your chances to make a hand aren t good. Your implied odds are only
fair if the bad player has hit the flop hard enough to go with his hand
but won t checkraise the flop. However, if the bad player folds, your
steal possibilities are promising. You know that the solid player
continuation bets a very high percentage of the time after raising
preflop. His range is still wide, and he has likely missed this flop. You
have a good chance of stealing.
The combined possibility of making a big hand and stealing the pot
make this a profitable situation. Should you raise or call? To steal,
you must risk a bet on the flop or the turn. Raising the flop takes that
risk without knowing what the big blind will do, and without knowing
whether the cutoff will check the turn. Calling allows you to defer that
risk until you have more information. You call. The bad player folds.
The turn is the Kf&. The solid player checks. What should you do?
Don t check. First, a free card does not help you much. Your
opponent is not likely to have a big hand, so your implied odds are
poor for hitting your longshot card. Second, checking keeps the pot
small, which benefits your opponent if he has a marginal hand that
wants to get to showdown. Betting the turn puts him to a decision. If
he happens to have a big hand he will checkraise you off the pot. But
your opponent is unlikely to have a big hand, and since your draw is
weak, you don t lose much if you are forced to fold. Your fold equity
outweighs your implied odds here. Bet enough to put your opponent
to a stack decision.
You bet $60 into the $58 pot. Surprisingly, your opponent doesn t
fold or checkraise, but calls. The river is the 3c& and he checks. What
should you do?
PUTTING IT TOGETHER 193
You should fire a huge river barrel. Why? There s almost no way
your opponent can have a big hand. He checkcalled the turn on a
draw-heavy board and then checked the river when no draws were
completed. He either picked up a draw on the turn and missed (but
can likely beat nine-high), or he has a one-pair hand that desperately
wants a cheap showdown. The pot is $178 and your opponent has
$215 left. You should bet it all. (You might bet a little less if you
think that will look more powerful.) Your stack leverage is perfect.
Your opponent didn t raise you on the turn, so he likely can t call an
all-in here.
It might seem crazy to risk so much on a bluff, but good hand
reading can lead you to make aggressive plays like this occasionally.
Do not do it often. But being a tough, aggressive player who plays
position well and is willing to make big bluffs when you know the
opponent can t call will make you a nightmare to play against. If your
opponent calls you on the river with one pair, you can adjust to that in
the future. If he checkcalls this turn and is willing to put that much
money in with one pair, he is essentially playing guessing games, and
therefore, in future hands, he will be at your mercy.
Hand 2
You are in a 6-handed $1 $2 game. Most of the players at the table
have $200 stacks, but you have $500, and the cutoff has you covered.
The first two players fold, and the 28/24 cutoff opens for $7. He is a
tough player and a regular winner in this game. The button folds, and
the small blind folds. You have Af&Kc& in the big blind. What should
you do?
With 100bb stacks, you would play this hand very aggressively.
You d reraise and even be willing to get all-in preflop. But with
stacks this deep, you should reconsider that plan.
The cutoff is capable of 4-bet bluffing, but this deep he will not get
all-in preflop with less than AA or maybe KK. So, if you 3-bet and
get reraised, you are in a tough spot because he could be bluffing, but
194 SMALL STAKES NO-LIMIT HOLD EM
he will not put any more money into the pot unless he has you badly
beaten.
When ace-king connects with the flop, it usually makes top pair.
You d prefer that your opponent make a weaker top pair. If you 3-bet,
he will fold many weak aces and kings, hands you would like to play
against. Further, heads-up out of position against a tough player and
with a top-pair type of hand, you prefer to have only a small amount
left behind in the stacks postflop. If the stacks are too deep to allow
for that, you may prefer to keep the preflop pot small. Top pair hands
work best with low stack-to-pot ratios. If a low SPR cannot be
achieved, high SPRs over 20 are easier to play than medium ones.
What you often don t want is to reraise and build the pot, but still
have enough stack left such that your aggressive opponent can put
heavy pressure on you postflop. If you make a standard pot-sized
reraise to $22 and get called, the pot will be $45 with $478 left in the
stacks. That s a stack-to-pot ratio of 11, ugly for a top-pair hand out
of position.
Consider calling. A call keeps your opponent in with weak aces
and kings and creates a $15 pot with $493 behind, for an SPR of 33.
An SPR that high leaves tons of room to maneuver postflop. You can
play against more second-best hands, control the pot, acquire more
information, get value out of your hand, and never let your opponent
put you to a tough stack decision.
You call the $7. The flop comes Ke&9f&2c& .
You are obviously not committed. If 33 times the pot goes in on
this flop against this opponent, you can expect to be way behind.
Your goal is to keep the pot small, gain information, get to
showdown, and gain value out of your hand.
With that in mind, you check. Your opponent bets $11 into the $15
pot. You call.
The turn is the J`&. Your opponent s range is still wide. He could
have been betting the flop with a weaker king, a smaller pair, a
straight draw, a set, two pair, or nothing at all. The jack on the turn
makes him a pair if he has jack-ten, two pair if he has king-jack or
jack-nine, a set if he has pocket jacks, or a straight if he has queen-
PUTTING IT TOGETHER 195
ten. He can also still have a different set, a weaker one-pair hand, or
absolutely nothing.
You check, and your opponent bets $25 into the $37 pot. You call.
The river is the 3c& . The pot is $87, and you have $457 left.
You have a couple different options here. You are not committed,
but you want to choose the action that maximizes your expectation,
given your opponent s range.
You can checkcall a reasonable bet. The upside of this is that you
let your opponent bluff at the pot if he has a weaker pair or nothing
and thinks he can get you off your hand. Also, he may occasionally
value bet if he has king-queen or king-ten and puts you on something
weaker.
You can make a value bet yourself. The upside of this is that you
make weaker hands pay to see a showdown. If your opponent is not
likely to bluff if you check, you may as well make a bet and at least
give him the opportunity to make a bad call with a weaker hand.
Since you lose a bet either way if he has a better hand, betting and
folding to a raise is superior to checkcalling. Sometimes he may just [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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