Plays That Tip Your Hand

Being too readable can really hurt your no-limit hold'em game. Winning no-limit hold'em depends on fear and surprise. If your opponents are uncertain about your holding and fear the hands you could have, you can steal a lot of pots. And if they are surprised by what you have when you get all in, you can win some monster pots. If you're too readable, you won't have fear or surprise on your side, and your results will suffer.

Readable opponents are always my favorite. I don't care if they are tight or loose; if I know what they have a lot of the time, I will pick them apart. One key to reading many players is to pick up on plays that I call "giveaways." They are specific plays that are very reliable and immediately enable me to narrow my read to just a few possibilities. Here are three common plays that I consider giveaways:

The Weak Continuation-Bet
A player opens for $20 in a $2-$5 game. The button calls, and the big blind calls. Everyone has at least $500. The flop comes K J 5. The big blind checks, and the preflop raiser bets $25. This less-than-half-pot bet is often a telltale sign of weakness. The board is big and coordinated. The preflop raiser got called in two places and believes he should make a continuation-bet. But he's not feeling good about his hand or chances, so he throws out a small bet. If you're on the button, raising to $75 or so will quite often win this pot immediately.

Most players - if they flopped a hand they were proud of, like A-K - would bet more on this semidangerous flop. They'd want action with their good hand, and they'd want to protect it. If they flopped a monster, like top set, they might underbet or even check. But even if they made a smallish bet every time they flopped a monster, they'd still have a weak hand far more often than not (weak hands being far more common than monsters).

Some very sophisticated players have learned to turn this play around, betting small intentionally to invite a bluff-raise. But many players aren't sophisticated and are happy to give away their hand strength with a weak bet.

The Turn Give-up
This giveaway is similar to the weak continuation-bet and is just as simple. A player opens for $20 preflop, and just the button calls. Both players have more than $500. The flop comes K J 5. The preflop raiser bets $30, and the button calls. The turn is the 4, and the raiser checks. This too is generally a giveaway for a weak hand.

Often, the preflop raiser will fire one barrel on the flop, hoping to take the pot down. When called, he'll give up on the turn and just check-fold.

Again, some players have learned to reverse this giveaway by sometimes check-raising the turn. Since any player, no matter how good, will sometimes play a weak hand exactly this way (raise preflop, bet the flop, and give up if called), you should indeed sometimes mix up this pattern by check-raising the turn with good hands.

The Preflop Overcall
Someone raises (maybe after a limper or two). Another player calls. Then, someone else calls. This third player has overcalled - called a raise after someone already called. For a large majority of amateur players, this preflop overcall is a giveaway for a marginal or drawing hand. It could be a small pocket pair, it could be suited connectors, it could be a suited ace, or it could even be the A Q. But it's not pocket aces, and it's not pocket kings. Why am I so sure? Because most players would always reraise with these hands. People sometimes get tricky with big pairs when they're first in the pot, or even when they're heads up against a raiser. But once multiple players have entered the pot, most players play their monsters "straight," raising and reraising, given the opportunity.

This giveaway also usually holds for overlimps - a limp after one or more limpers - but it's not quite as reliable.
There are two ways to use this information. First, you can try a preflop squeeze, whereby you put in a big bluff-reraise in a pot with one or more overcallers. Your bluff is more likely than average to work because, by overcalling, your opponents have defined their hands as likely too weak to call a big raise.

Second (and more rarely), you can sometimes pick off some spectacular bluffs. Let's say a loose-aggressive player open-raises, and three players call. You make a big reraise from a blind with pocket tens. (Assume the stacks are such that this raise makes sense.) The original raiser folds, as do several of the callers. But the last caller, a tricky player who reads hands and sometimes makes plays, moves all in from the button. You can call, because this play is more likely than not to be a bluff. Your opponent almost certainly wouldn't overcall from the button with A-A or K-K. She couldn't expect you to raise from one of the blinds, since you typically don't. She called with a medium-strength hand that plays well in multiway pots. But after you raised (a possible squeeze, she's thinking), and everyone else folded, she saw an opportunity. She reraised as a "resqueeze." Her original overcall is a reliable enough giveaway that it's safe to call. You won't run into a better pair very often.

This last example is an exception to a general hand-reading principle. If your opponent takes an early action for small money that suggests one thing, but a later action for larger money that suggests another, the later big-money action is far more likely to represent what your opponent actually has. Limp-reraising follows this principle: Your opponent limps early, a seemingly weak move, but then reraises strongly for much more money, implying a strong hand. Usually, your opponent will indeed have the strong hand. It's a principle that will serve you well. This overcalling giveaway is an exception, however, because for many players, it's nearly 100 percent accurate. Many players will literally never with pocket aces merely overcall a raise and three calls.

Final Thoughts
You can use these giveaways in two ways. First, look for other players making them in your next session. Chances are, you'll see each of them a number of times. By pairing your sharp reads with the guts to try a bluff or two, you can take your no-limit game to the next level.

Second, watch your own play for these giveaways. Don't try to eliminate the plays entirely from your play. After all, sometimes you have to give up on the turn. Just reverse the plays sometimes or mix things up enough so that you won't be an easy target for any of your opponents who may have read this column, too.

Ed will personally answer your questions at his online poker advice column, www.notedpokerauthority.com. He has authored four books on poker, most recently Professional No-Limit Hold'em: Volume 1.