Playing Big Hands in No-Limit Hold’em

It is lovely to flop the nuts. Players like to joke that the most important thing is to get the hand, as if it does not matter that much how you play it. I agree that the premise is right — but the corollary is wrong. It matters a lot how you play your monster hands.

The second-most important thing is also pretty much beyond your control: against whom you hold your hand. Naturally, when holding the nuts, you prefer to be facing Aggressive Al rather than Pussycat Pat. But doing those things right that you do have control over will still make a big difference in your bankroll.

One thing you should avoid is being too predictable. One of my favorite types of opponents is the player who prefers to play what I call “reverse poker” — betting when weak or moderate in strength and checking when strong. This type of player prefers to slow-play big hands and endeavors to let his opponent hang himself. Maybe that is a reasonable plan against gunners who think that “check” is a sign of surrender: “You check, I bet.” Against the ordinary player, that strategy of slow-playing is fine once in a while, but it’s clearly not something that you want to make a full-time habit. Since we (should) agree that it is desirable to vary our manner of playing big hands, let’s discuss how to do it.

Obviously, if you are considering a slow-play, a crucial factor is the number of opponents you are facing. The greater the number of opponents, the more dangerous it is to give a free card. Let’s suppose that you have pocket nines and limp in from under the gun. No one raises, and the flop comes down K-9-3 rainbow, giving you middle set. Pocket kings is an extremely unlikely hand for an opponent to hold, so it is reasonable to treat this scenario as if you have the nuts. But the nuts with two cards to come is not the same as the nuts after the last card has come; you still have to worry about a drawout. The only hand that can be a conceivable threat at this moment is a gutshot-straight draw. When facing one opponent, you are a much bigger favorite than even the 47-3 odds on the next card would indicate, as your opponent may well have no outs at all. Checking is a reasonable play. But, as the number of opponents increases, your safety in checking decreases. Not only is the likelihood of losing to a gutshot higher, but the likelihood of an opponent bluffing at the pot is lower.
So, the bigger the field, the greater the reason to bet your monster.

I think stack size is an extremely important factor in this decision. Basically, is the stack size to get all in a bet, a bet and raise, a bet and raise and reraise, or super-deep? The deeper the stack, the more dangerous it is to use deception by checking, because the drawout is more expensive. Let’s take a look at each scenario.

Let’s suppose that after the flop, the pot is $100 and you have $100 left in your stack. If your opponent has a decent hand, either a bet or a check should achieve your goal of getting all in. But if he is weak, a check obviously is more likely to get action. Even if your opponent also checks, you probably have a better chance of getting action later in the hand if you check the flop. If your opponent gets lucky and uses the free card to make a gutshot or other long shot, you cannot take a major loss, because of your stack size.

For a stack size of bet and raise, we can use an example of $100 in the pot and a $400 stack. Here, you have several options in going for a double-up, and you can vary your game. You can check-raise all in, check-call, or bet right out. There is also a fourth option of simply betting all of your money. On boards that do not have a plausible draw, this does not seem to be optimum. If your opponent plays, you probably could have gotten all in with whatever betting sequence you used. On the other hand, if there is a flush draw and some straight draws, you will be called a surprising amount of the time. A lot of players will reason, “If he really had a strong hand, why would he show such power.” This reasoning is often used by “reverse players,” who mistakenly think everyone follows their precepts. So, they will put you on a draw and will call you with some raggedy stuff, including hands like an unimproved A-Q or A-K, on occasion. If you are facing a big stack, this is a very reasonable way to try to get all of his money when you have something good.

If your stack is deep enough for a bet and raise and reraise, simply betting your hand has a lot of merit. First, it prevents an opponent from picking off a gutshot, which of course is a long shot, and very expensive when the stacks are pretty deep. Second, you may be able to put a deep dent in your opponent’s stack without ever using a power sequence such as a check-raise. After the smoke clears, your opponent will wonder at what point he should have folded, feeling there was never a place where he could have deduced that it was clear to abandon ship.

With super-deep stacks, the reasoning is much the same as it is with the bet and raise and reraise stack. There is even more reason to start out firing. These days, with the exploratory raise being used a lot, betting right out can make it easy to bust an aggressive player.

This entire discussion has so far assumed that you were acting first. With position, naturally, there is more scope to vary your play with a good hand when your opponent bets into you. He is saying that he has something, so the smooth-call comes into the picture as a way of trying to win as much as possible. The shorter your stack, the greater the reason to simply let your opponent keep betting, rather than ever show power by raising. For example, with the $100 pot, a $100 bet, and a stack size of $400, just calling a flop bet provides you an excellent chance to bust your opponent. If he fires again but is not all in, he will likely be pot-committed and have to call your all-in raise. He will of course know that you have something, but raising all in scarcely shows that you have a monster, because normally, the right play by you with any made hand is to go all in if you are going to play the hand.

All of these considerations when holding a monster may apply with lesser hands, as well. After all, if you have something solid but not spectacular — like top pair with a good kicker, or an overpair — your stack may be short enough that the game plan is to play for all of your money and take your chances.

So, vary your play with the nuts, but varying your play does not mean randomly checking half of the time and betting the other half of the time.

Bob Ciaffone has authored four poker books, Middle Limit Holdem Poker, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Poker. All can be ordered from Card Player. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons: e-mail [email protected]. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get his rulebook, Robert’s Rules of Poker, for free. Bob also has a website called www.fairlawsonpoker.org.