Poker Strategy -- Dani Stern Talks About Hero CallsStern Uses a High-Stakes Cash Game Hand to Illustrate Points |
|
Dani “Ansky” Stern is a high-stakes cash-game pro who showcases his ability to play by coaching players with instructional videos. In Stern’s Start Thinking series, which he made for the Card Player Pro video training site (powered by PokerSavvy Plus), he focuses on one aspect of the game and uses hands that he has played to illustrate teaching points. Stern uses the following hand to talk about hero calls.
The Game
Game: No-limit hold’em
Stakes: $200-$400
Lineup
Dani “Ansky” Stern — $230,207 — Big blind $400
Villain — $88,295 — Small blind $200
Key Concept
Dani Stern: I think that in no-limit, especially heads-up no-limit, certain plays get a lot of attention, and one of those plays is the hero call. A hero call is basically when you make a call that by any standards would not be considered standard, and you usually call with a hand such as ace high, king high, or bottom pair. That’s generally how it’s perceived, but I would argue that, in general, the hero call shouldn’t be too much based on your actual hand’s raw value. It should be more concerned with the relative strength of your hand based on the actions of your opponent, your actions, and the board. There are going to be certain cases where, as I always say in these videos, that poker is so situational. There are going to be hands where an opponent is going to be very aggressive and is showing a lot of strength, but it still might be correct to call on certain boards with king high or even ace high. Whereas in other times, you might make a monster fold and fold two pair, and the two really have nothing to do with each other. What’s important when making the decision whether or not to make a hero call is that you should be concerned with the action that has transpired and why you are making your decision, way moreso than the actual raw value of your hand.
My opponent was stuck a lot and sort of had been playing a little bit erratically, but he was still a very good player, and a lot of considerations had to be made when playing this hand.
Preflop Action: Villain raises on the button to $1,200. Stern reraises to $4,800 with A
10. Villain calls. The pot is now $9,600.
DS: We were fairly deep, so I reraised with A 10. I might not do this all of the time, but I’ll certainly do it some of the time.
Flop Action: The flop comes 8
5 4. Stern bets $7,000, and Villain calls. The pot is now $23,600.
DS: I make a fairly standard continuation-bet, although this isn’t exactly the type of spot that you have to continuation-bet, but it’s still a pretty standard spot.
Turn Action: The turn is the 7
. The board now reads 8 5 4 7. Stern checks, and Villain checks. The pot remains $23,600.
DS: This is generally an awful card for me. There’s not much I can do. It’s not a great card to bluff, because there are so many hands in his range which made two pair or could have a 6 and, generally, it’s going to be hard for me to rep a 6, because I reraised preflop. There aren’t that many hands I could reraise preflop that have a 6 in them. Although, there are certainly some hands, but it’s going to be harder to represent. When I check this turn, I’m generally giving up.
River Action: The river is the 7. The board now reads 8 5 4 7 7
. Stern checks, and Villain bets $8,400.
DS: The river brings a 7 which is actually a good card for me, because now, if for some reason I had the best hand all along, the 7 doesn’t really change much. For example, if he had a missed flush draw, I can still win this hand.
He bets $8,400, which is pretty small compared to the size of the pot. He bets $8,400 into about $24,000. When I was deciding whether or not to call here, I was trying to analyze what my opponent was thinking when he made that bet. When he only bets a third of the pot there, it can maybe mean one of two things. It could mean that a) he’s going for a very thin value-bet and the only way he thinks he can get value out of his hand is by betting much smaller than what would be a standard bet, so he’s not going to bet half pot, he’s betting a third of the pot. That’s one possible explanation for why he bet so small. The other possible explanation is sort of the reverse, which is that he has a bluffing hand, but he knows that there are so many hands that I can have that have absolutely no showdown value or even hands with showdown value that can’t actually beat very many value-betting hands. Even if he thinks I have ace high, he probably doesn’t expect me to call here when he bets a third of the pot, because obviously any 4, any 5, any 6, any 7, or any 8 beats me, and also anything stronger than that also does.
Result: Stern calls and shows A 10 high. Villain shows J 2. Stern wins the pot of $40,400.
Based on all this, and based on the way the match was going, I though it look like much more the latter. Obviously, he certainly could have been value betting a better hand here and it basically comes down to a matter of assigning your opponent a weighted range. Obviously when I make this call, it’s not because I’m sure I’m correct. I’m not certain that he’s bluffing, but I have to basically decide that while he’s laying me 4-1 on the call, I have only have to be right here one fifth of the time in order to break even, roughly. So when deciding whether or not to make this call, you have to take into account this weighted average. Most of the time, you are going to lose when you are making this call, so the few times when you make this call, and you are wrong, you don’t necessarily have to get down on yourself. You have to be more concerned about your actual thought process and how you got to the idea to make this call.
Card Player Pro, powered by PokerSavvy Plus, is a subscription based training site in which top pros provide members with in-depth instruction videos. Try Card Player pro by taking advantage of a seven-day free trial.
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
