Card Player Pro

For one of my recent training videos for Card Player Pro, I reviewed playing in four-bet pots (pots that have been raised, reraised, and reraised again preflop), and how you should adjust your strategy for these situations. In this column, I’m going to look at a four-bet hand in which I think my opponent made a good four-bet adjustment that led to him winning a big pot.

In the hand in question, I opened with the 4 3 from the button to $150. My opponent, a very talented and aggressive player, reraised to $600. In high-stakes no-limit hold’em cash games, most solid players are playing upward of 75 percent of their hands from the button — which means that good players will be reraising a ton of hands from the big blind. As a result, I decided to four-bet and made it $1,550 to go. In a vacuum, I expect to show a profit on my four-bet by getting him to fold a lot of his three-bet bluffs, and even if he calls, I have a hand with some playability, along with position post-flop.

My opponent called the $1,550 four-bet, and we took a flop.
The flop was A 6 6.

My opponent checked, and I bet $1,700 into the $3,100 pot.

Obviously, with 4 high and being the four-bettor, this is a good flop for me to bet. As the aggressor, it’s conceivable that I have an ace, and hopefully he’ll fold any non-pair hand at this point (K-Q, Q-J suited, 10-9 suited, and so on). Having a flush draw is obviously an added bonus, because if I hit my flush and he does have a hand, I’ll likely win a huge pot.

My opponent decided to check-raise to $3,650 — barely more than a min-raise.

At this point, I need to start breaking down what I expect his hand range to be. Given that this is a four-bet pot, I don’t expect him to have that many 6-X hands in his range. This means that his likely range of holdings is A-K, A-Q, flush draws, and bluffs. I expect him to just flat-call any marginal made hand (A-X, and K-K to 10-10), and if he managed to flop a monster (6-6, A-A, A-6), I think he’d also flat-call and let me hang myself on a later street.

At lower stakes, I’d be pretty worried about this check-raise in a four-bet pot, figuring that my opponent has a big hand. But my opponent is a talented high-stakes regular who knows that I’m capable of four-betting light preflop, so there are certainly several bluffs in his check-raising range against which my flush draw plays well.

I thought about going all in to move him off a bluff and end the hand, but given the great price I’m getting (and my implied odds if I do hit a flush), I decided to just call.

The turn brought the J, and my opponent checked.

When my opponent checks, it reveals more about his range of hands. Since it’s pretty easy for me to have an ace here, I don’t expect him ever to bet as a complete bluff on the turn. If he were to bet, I’d expect him to have at least a flush draw, and probably something better than that. So, given that he didn’t bet, I felt bluffs were still in his range. Most players in his spot would bet a pair of aces or a 6 to protect their hand, but being willing to give up free cards and conceal the strength of your hand can lead to your opponent making big river mistakes, as we’ll see here.

The river was a blank, the 10. He checked, I shoved, and he snap-called with the A K to win a $26,000 pot.

By checking the turn and checking the river, my opponent took a deceptive line and played his hand like a busted draw or a bluff. As a result, I tried to push him off what I thought to be garbage, and ran into a slow-played top pair. My opponent adjusted to my light four-betting by just flat-calling preflop with a big hand, and ended up profiting big because of it. Understanding how your opponent views your range and then making occasional plays to induce bluffs can add a ton to your win rate, and it is something you should practice adding to your game.

To watch Dani Stern comment on and play this hand, point your browser to Card Player Pro, the complete online poker training site, at www.CardPlayer.com/link/Ansky-2.