Taking a Leap in Your Game

I believe there have been many defining points in my poker career that have contributed to my poker ability development. The easy moments to recognize are tournament wins and certain big sessions – either big wins or even just recovering from a huge loss. I have even thought that single hands – and sometimes not even big pots – have contributed to my growth as a poker player.

One hand that vividly sticks out in my mind is one I played in a live-action game almost four years ago at Casino Arizona. The game was $40-$80 limit hold'em, which was one of the bigger games I played at that time in my poker career. A fairly tight player whom I will refer to as John, and with whom I had played many, many hours, raised from early position and I three-bet him with A-K offsuit. A weak player called from the blind and we saw the flop threehanded. The flop came down K-Q-10 rainbow and both players checked to me. I bet, the weak player called, and John check-raised. His check-raise looked very strong, as he was check-raising two opponents on an action flop. At this point, I did not think I had the best hand, but I was getting great odds, so I knew there was no way I could fold. I figured the pot was big enough that if I had to call, I might as well make it three bets to try to put pressure on the weaker player and at least get the pot heads up. Sure enough, the weaker player folded for another two bets and the action was back to John. He quickly reraised, and at this point I hated my hand, putting him on a flopped Broadway with A-J. Getting about 19-1, I called, and the turn was a queen, pairing the board.

John immediately bet and I, as if possessed by some sort of supernatural force, immediately raised. John thought for a little bit and disgustingly threw away A-J, flashing it to the table and declaring that I must have filled up or made quads on the turn. I assured him it was a good laydown by stating, "How could I raise there without a full house?" I really surprised myself in this hand, as I correctly put my opponent on the flopped nut straight and raised him as a bluff with top two pair on the turn because I genuinely thought there was a good chance he would lay his hand down.

Bluffing is difficult in limit poker, especially when you put your opponent on flopping the nuts! I would not recommend trying this play in this situation. This is the type of play that can work in no-limit when you can put in a substantial raise on the turn, but in limit, when it is going to be just two more bets at most, almost every player will call you in this spot. In fact, I believe John was the only player in the entire casino that night whom I could have taken off this hand, and that is not meant to be critical of his play, as he was one of the best players in the casino and routinely crushed the $40-$80 game.

The reason why this play had any chance of working is that I had played many hours with John and knew that he greatly respected my game. He knew I was a tight player who did not get out of line to a great extent – at least until this hand! I also knew he was capable of huge laydowns, especially if he was convinced that he was drawing dead, which would have been the case here if I did have the full house. I also knew that given my very aggressive play preflop and on the flop, he would put me on a full house or quads when I raised the turn. He had never seen me get out of line to this extent and overplay A-K like I did. The only feasible hands that I could have in his mind, given the flop play, were aces, kings, queens, jacks, tens, or A-K. He would not have put me on three-betting with a hand weaker than A-Q, so I was convinced that he would not put me on possibly having the flopped straight also with A-J and then call me down, hoping to chop the pot. Given the post-flop play, he would rule out A-Q, since I played the flop so strongly and would almost never three-bet it with A-Q on that board. And even if I did, I would likely just call the turn with it once he capped the flop, figuring trips was still not the best hand.

When I raised the turn, the only hands he could foresee me raising with would be kings, queens, or tens, all of which he was drawing stone dead to. Given the preflop and post-flop action, he knew that I knew that he had to have a big hand, and in a huge pot like this, bluffing would seem insane, not only because of the pot odds that he would have and the strength that he had shown, but because there was no way that I had any kind of semibluff here, like a flush draw or straight draw, as there were no substantial draws on the board. Furthermore, John knew that I had flopped a big hand that could win a showdown, and not some sort of draw that I was playing aggressively. There was simply no way that I held just air; I had to be holding a big hand. Given my image and our history, I actually think John made the right laydown here, as this was not a situation in which I had ever bluffed before. I always would have had a full house in the past in this spot if I raised the turn, but my game literally evolved during this hand, as this was the biggest bluff I had ever attempted to that point in my poker career.

Now, this is all well and good, but I was still surprised at myself for raising in this spot. It was not as if I had taken several minutes to analyze every aspect of the hand (which may have gotten John suspicious and made him call me, as I was not the type to Hollywood and sit forever before raising the turn with a monster). I raised him immediately, not entirely sure of why at the time, except that it just "felt right." The raise was based a lot on instinct, a subconscious decision that came out of all of our previous hands together. Once the hand was over, I went back and analyzed my play and realized what a great bluff it was, and that it wasn't just lucky that he folded. I realized that I had played the hand very well, at a higher level than I had ever played any hand before. This hand and a few others like it really gave me the confidence to start trusting my poker instincts more, which led me to play bigger and bigger games beyond my bread-and-butter limits of $20-$40 and $40-$80. The lesson I learned in this hand of trusting my instincts was far more profound than just taking down a sizable pot with the worst hand (although that was a pretty nice feeling, too).

Now, whenever I play, I depend a lot on my instincts, as I think many great players do. Don't be afraid to trust your instincts in a poker hand. You will undoubtedly make some mistakes and cost yourself some money while you're honing them, but if you don't learn to trust them, you'll be hard-pressed to ever become a truly great poker player.

Thomas "Thunder" Keller is a 23-year-old professional poker player and one of poker's young and rising stars. He can often be found playing at Ultimatebet.com under the name gummybear. To learn more about him, go to his website at www.thunderkeller.com.