Decide What They'll Decide!

Poker is a game of decisions. Make better decisions than your opponents and you'll get the best of them. But the game isn't just about your own decisions – it's also about the decisions that your opponents have made or will make.



I recently stopped in at Wynn Las Vegas to visit my old friend Joe Z. and play a little $30-$60 limit hold'em. I have not played there much lately and was unfamiliar with many of the players. Conversely, they were not familiar with my tendencies. In the first lap I played, I picked up the 9 8 under the gun.



Many poor poker players consistently make bad decisions either through lack of knowledge or lack of self-discipline. Others play in a manner that's too predictable to their opponents, making them easy to put on a narrow range of hands. This creates easier decisions for their opponents, and therefore, more accurate ones. It's important to vary your play enough that your opponents cannot read you effectively. One method of doing this is by making deception plays.



I rate suited connectors lower than conventional wisdom dictates. They present way too many opportunities to make a second-best hand that can cost you a lot of chips; 9-8 suited is not a hand that I generally play in this type of situation, especially when under the gun. But in this situation, it seemed to be the perfect fit for a deception play. My opponents appeared to be trying to play well and read hands. Deception plays carry more value if your opponents are the type who read hands. Sometimes you find yourself in a game in which your opponents wouldn't notice if a purple elephant walked across the middle of the table; deception plays in those games are just wasted.



In this game, the blinds were not the type of players to automatically take off the flop. The players knew enough about me to respect an under-the-gun raise from me, making my bluffing success potential better. The hand was, in this situation, one of good deception texture. By that I mean that because it was both suited and middle-ranged, my opponents would likely misread it when big cards flopped and I missed. Depending on the play of the hand, that would give me a chance to follow through and represent big cards. They also would misread my holding when middle-range cards hit, and give me action. It's worth noting here that it is significantly stronger to make deception plays early in a session when you are going to play with your opponents for a period of time, therefore increasing the number of future opportunities for them to misread you.



I raised my 9-8 suited. Everyone folded to the button, a solid player, who three-bet. The big blind called, as did I, and we took the flop threehanded. The flop came J 6 5, the big blind checked, and I checked to the button, who bet. The big blind called, and it was on me.



I had gutshot-straight and backdoor-flush draws. Many players discount backdoor draws, but a backdoor-flush draw adds about one win to your hand. I thought about what my opponents might have. The big blind was an aggressive player. If he held much of a hand, he almost certainly would have raised. The button was solid, but would three-bet me with A-Q or A-K, as well as some medium pairs, from the button position. He also respected me and could lay down many of those hands to me if he thought he was beat.



I check-raised, hoping to outplay them, but I still had cards to win with even if I was up against a hand. When the button three-bet me, the big blind folded and I knew I was in trouble, up against a real hand. The button had an overpair and I was not getting him to muck it. My worst scenario had unfolded: I had reduced the odds to draw and removed a player who might give me action if I hit.



But the turn of a card can make all the difference in the world. Bang! The 7 hit on the turn, giving me the nuts. I check-raised the button. He called, and then called again when I led on the river.



"Three jacks," one player not in the pot stated just as I was turning my hand over. He was looking to show the rest of the table how good he was at reading hands. I turned over my mitt. My opponent smiled and mucked. My hand turned some heads. It also got me some extra calls later on in the session.

Yeah, I got lucky to make my hand. I received the best of both worlds, future action and a big pot. But I put myself in that situation. I created doubt in my opponents' minds for the rest of the session. They were never too sure of what my hand could be. The calls they made added great value to my session.



When you play poker, you need to make sure that your opponents are not reading you accurately. You must create some doubt in their minds as to what you hold. When they're dazed and confused, you've got them right where you want them! You can use your decisions to manipulate the future decisions of your opponents. If you don't do that, you're just sitting around waiting to make hands, and observant opponents will read you accurately and the game will not be very kind to you.



Roy Cooke has played more than 60,000 hours of pro poker and has been part of the I-poker industry since its beginnings. His longtime collaborator, John Bond, is a freelance writer in South Florida. Bond's poker mystery T-Bird is featured in the just-released Best American Mystery Stories of 2007. Real Poker III: The Best of Cooke 1992-2005, is available at www.conjelco.com.