Making Plays - Moving Up in Limits Requires More Sophisticated Play

As you progress from the lower limits in hold'em, it becomes more important to be able to make successful plays. At lower levels, this is less of an issue. At lower limits, play goes like this: You pick up a good hand; you bet; other players pick up weaker hands; they come along for the ride; maybe they have the right odds, and maybe not; sometimes your hand stands up, and sometimes you get outdrawn. It's all very straightforward.



As you move up to the middle limits and beyond, it becomes increasingly more important to play your hands in a more sophisticated manner and utilize plays effectively. Strong players are good at spotting the right circumstances to make plays that will generate a positive expectation. Weaker players often overlook these possibilities.



The most basic play of all is probably the semibluff/free-card raise, and our first example is pretty elementary. It is an online $20-$40 limit hold'em game and our hero is on the button with the 10 9. An early-position player limps in, our hero calls, the small blind folds, and now the big blind (a straightforward player) pops up with a raise. The early-position player and hero call. There is $130 in the pot and three players.



The flop comes down K 8 7. The big blind bets and the early-position player folds. There is $150 in the pot and it is $20 to call. Our hero has flopped an open-end straight draw and should now raise. He has eight outs to the nuts (barring some freak holding for the big blind), and possibly another six by pairing his 9 or 10. If the big blind holds high cards that have missed the flop (for example, A-Q or A-J), he will probably call (even if only out of inertia) but will be hard-pressed to call a bet on the turn if a blank hits. Even if he has a decent pair, say 9-9, 10-10, J-J, or Q-Q, he will still probably slow down, as he will be concerned that he is drawing pretty thin against a pair of kings. If he is in weak-tight mode, he may even fold a medium pair, although, of course, he certainly shouldn't. If he has a strong hand – for example, A-A or A-K – and reraises, our hero has eight good outs and is a 2-to-1 underdog to win the pot. Finally, even if he is up against the monster K-K, he has a good draw and is a 3-to-1 underdog to win, anyway. Whatever happens, the flop raise is absolutely the correct play against straightforward players. This is a clear-cut example, and you can find something similar in any basic textbook. Almost everyone who plays hold'em – even at quite low levels – understands it and is capable of using it.



As an aside, although it is almost certainly correct to raise the flop in this example, if you are up against stronger, thinking players, it may be better to play the hand differently. A stronger player will suspect what you are up to and may three-bet you with a hand like 10-10 and then lead out on the turn. He may even make such a play with a much weaker hand – say A-Q – suspecting (correctly) that you are on a draw or hoping to get you to lay down a weaker hand, such as 9-8. Against such players, it may be better to wait for the turn to raise, even if you miss your draw. This is a high-risk strategy, but a raise on the turn will get more respect from a strong player. Weaker, more straightforward players are more likely to react to your flop raise by giving you credit for a king and scuttling away.



Now let's consider a more complex example, again from a $20-$40 game. This time, our hero is on the button with the A J. The under-the-gun player is BigLeak. BigLeak has appalling preflop standards and gets involved far, far too often, playing approximately 60 percent to 70 percent of pots, even in full ring games. Nevertheless, he actually plays reasonably well beyond the flop, in that he can be quite aggressive and is also capable of bluffing and making moves.



The fact that he will play almost any cards preflop, combined with his tricky play post-flop, makes him hard to read, as almost any flop can potentially hit him. Obviously, he is horribly handicapped by his preflop play, and you love to have him in the game, but you have to be honest and recognize that he is hard to play post-flop.



BigLeak limps in and a middle-position player, RockSolid, limps in, too. RockSolid is a competent, sensible, but rather transparent player. He can make moves, but they tend to be rather pedestrian and predictable. He is also rather weak-tight and spends too much time checking, calling, and even folding when he ought to be betting and raising.



Both BigLeak and RockSolid have been in this game for a while. Like all very loose players, when things go well for BigLeak, he can notch up some remarkable winning sessions. However, at the moment he is running bad and has been caught running numerous desperate bluffs/semibluffs when his feeble hands have missed the flop. RockSolid has been … well … rock solid, and has caught BigLeak on a couple of occasions.



Our hero has position and a good hand, and raises. The blinds abandon the struggle; BigLeak and RockSolid both call. There is $150 in the pot and three players. The flop comes down 5 5 3. BigLeak now pops up with a bet and – rather surprisingly – RockSolid raises. Our hero, who was the preflop aggressor but has now seen a bet and a raise on the flop before the action even gets to him, is completely thrown. He can see there is $210 in the pot and it is $40 to call. He considers calling with his overcards, as the pot odds are OK if he can assume he has six outs. However, he is worried that someone might have a 5 in his hand, and he is also concerned about RockSolid's raise. He doesn't like it. He knows how RockSolid plays and thinks. So, he says to himself, "Well, I've only got overcards; better safe than sorry," and mucks his hand.



Big mistake. If you consider what kind of hands the opponents are likely to hold, it becomes clear that the correct play here is not to fold, or even to call, but to three-bet. This might appear surprising, but let's think it through.



First of all, what does BigLeak have? Well, he could have almost anything. We know that he is a thinking player beyond the flop. He sees three random low cards and suspects that both RockSolid and our hero have completely missed this flop. He probably has a little something and is trying to steal the pot. Likely hands are a pair of threes; A-4, A-2, or 7-6 for a gutshot; a couple of random clubs for a flush draw; or even a stone-cold steal with nothing. As I said, he could have almost anything.



What about RockSolid? He is a competent player and has a good line on BigLeak, as he has caught him bluffing a couple of times. He knows that BigLeak probably doesn't have a lot, and thinks that his hand is almost certainly better than his. He is raising to put pressure on you, hoping to get heads up with BigLeak. He is very likely to hold a medium pair – 6-6, 7-7, or 8-8 – although there is a chance he has two clubs. He won't have a big pair, as he would have raised preflop, and he won't have a couple of random high cards, as he would not raise with them on the flop; he is just not the type of player to make such a move.



The arguments for three-betting here are numerous, and compelling:



1. This is a decent-sized pot and it is worth fighting for.



2. Our hero is very likely to win if he hits one of his six outs. Holding the A is important, as it means that the only out that is tainted is the J, which would complete a flush draw. However, even then he would have a redraw on the river. In fact, the backdoor-flush draw gives him a little extra equity in the pot.



3. Sometimes when you have overcards, you have to be cautious, as one card can be completely dead. For example, you have A-K, your opponent has A-7, and the flop is 10-7-5. Now you must hit a king to win. Here, however, this cannot happen. If BigLeak has A-3, hitting an ace will not help him, as the pair of fives on board counterfeits his threes.



4. Our hero has position on both opponents and the three-bet, combined with the preflop raise, shows a lot of strength. Unless one of them happens to have a 5 (which is rather improbable), they are going to back off and our hero can then take a free card on the turn if he wishes.



5. BigLeak may well fold now rather than call two bets, and then our hero will be heads up with RockSolid. Even if he decides to stick around with a medium pair and our hero must hit his hand to win, our hero has a 24 percent chance of doing so by the river. Thus, our hero more or less has value for his raise. He is putting $60 into a $210 pot, but if BigLeak folds and RockSolid calls, it will be $230.



6. RockSolid is weak-tight. Our hero is strongly representing a big pair, and he may fold a medium pair. He likes to make these "tough folds" no doubt thinking he is playing good, solid poker by not paying off a big overpair.



7. Holding A-J – rather than A-K or A-Q – is actually very helpful for our hero, because if a king or queen appears on the turn, it will be a good scare card. If BigLeak folds and RockSolid calls, and a king comes on the turn, RockSolid is likely to abandon a medium pair. He will find it hard to believe that our hero has given all of this action without a big overpair or, at the very least, A-K – which is now beating him.



There is nothing particularly clever about any of this. The arguments are more or less the same as those that demonstrate how successful the semibluff/free-card raise can be in a straightforward heads-up situation. Our hero would almost certainly spot the chance to make the play there, but in this more complex situation, it went right over his head.



If you are playing at the middle limits and higher in hold'em, you should already be quite familiar with the basic plays.

However, in order to progress, you must be alert for opportunities to adapt such plays for use in real-world, "non-textbook" situations.

Byron Jacobs is the author of How Good is Your Limit Hold Em? with Jim Brier. It is available through bookshops and at www.dandbpoker.com. Byron may be contacted at [email protected].