Let’s return to reading other players as a tactic of successful poker after the tournament trials in Biloxi: In prior articles we addressed several important considerations in evaluating the betting patterns of our opponents. The first, “How often does our opponent raise preflop?” Secondly, “If there was a preflop raise, how often does he come out with a continuation bet?” Third was “How aggressive is he?” Counter-measures were discussed, among them being the “limp-raise” move when you have discerned an aggressive player – hopefully to your right – will lead-bet with just about anything in an attempt to bully the table. But we need more information about our opponent(s) than just what they will attempt with average and/or marginal hands; we need to understand “How do they play big hands?”
A good poker player will vary the way he plays his monster hands. Sometimes slow-playing is warranted, sometimes betting right out is the way to play. The decision about how to play a big hand depends on several estimations a player must make about the opponents and their style of play. Are they straight-forward players or are there any savvy, tricky players in attendance? Can you risk giving your opponent(s) a free card – or even just seeing the flop – which might imperil your hand in any way?
In no-limit poker, especially in head’s-up play, checking a huge hand to allow the opponent to bet first is a common tactic as a way to build a large pot. One must evaluate the possibilities of the opponent’s hand and then, on the flop, the potential of being beaten (remember the Q-Q hand I was beaten with when the villain flopped a Jack to his J-J hole cards mentioned in the last article?) There’s a lot to think about when playing a big hand. You must also comprehend the opponents’ tendencies as to how they play big hands.
In most no-limit games I’ve seen, at least half the table will stay to see the flop in an unraised pot. If you hold a big pocket pair, a raise before the flop is usually the best option because large pocket pairs play better against fewer – or just one – opponents. Your raise should drive out the “shoe-clerks” who are playing wish poker and isolate anyone who thinks their hand has a chance of success. Slow-playing a big pocket pair into a large field is asking for trouble. You quite likely will get beat when garbage flops because, guess what? Some donkey was playing garbage because he had a feeling it was going to hit and you, by not raising him out, let him see a flop for cheap. Remember pocket rockets (A-A), unimproved, will win less than 30 percent of the time. And that percentage goes down as the pocket pair descend in value. The poker rooms are full of people who are whining their pockets Aces were beaten by some dude with J-9 offsuit, or some equally ridiculous hand. What they do not tell you is they did not raise preflop, slow-played into a large field and sure enough, got drawn out on and lost. Well, spare me the whining; they were the architects of their own defeat by not clearing the field early of opponents and one got lucky.
| “Ten out of nine people don’t understand odds.” - Jimmy “the Greek”If you hold two suited cards, you will flop two of the same suit approximately 11% of the time – or a little less than 1 time out of 10. |
But we’re talking about how your opponents play big pairs, aren’t we? If you determine they always check their big hands, knowing that affords the opportunity to play a wider range of hands which give you a wider range of possibilities to out-draw them. When you do, and the opponent whines about getting his pocket-whatever’s cracked, you can just smile and say “Well, I guess I just got lucky.” and “I’d rather be lucky than good.” They will little realize you were tempering a little luck with a lot of good headwork, reading players and playing percentages. If you see your opponents always checking big hands, you can wreak havoc with their confidence, style of play and chip stack. Keep in mind, poker is a ‘civil form of combat’ and your goal is their unconditional surrender.
The other side of the coin of your opponent always checking a good hand is determining they always bet out with a weaker and/or marginal hand. An aware player will see this tendency in an unimaginative opponent who doesn’t vary his play and can profit greatly by coming over the top of that bet and taking the chips right then and there. The villain here was trying to represent strength with a weak hand and by never varying his play became transparent in his actions. Seeing this tactic in an opponent hearkens back to Mike Caro’s dictum that “Strong means weak and weak means strong.” If your opponent always just calls, slow-playing, you can read them for having a big hand. If they always bet out representing strength, you can read them for having a weaker holding. In either situation you can then generate counter-measures and, like judo, use their actions and motions against them. The way you play your big hands, as mentioned in the beginning of this article, then can be varied per your estimation of the table dynamics and player tendencies. Your success at this comes from thinking about poker.
