Card Player Pro

Game $109 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament
Opponent Unknown player in the big blind
Stacks 39,003 (mine): 36,592 (his)
Blinds 500-1,000
Ante 125
My Cards Q 9
My Position Cutoff

One of the best poker tips I ever received is this: Have a plan for your hand. Most amateurs approach each decision in a hand without fully thinking through their actions, and before they know it, they’ve pushed all their chips in the middle on a desperation bluff. Being able to plan your hand street by street is one of the true signs of a solid, winning player. However, if you’re looking to improve your game even more — you want to make sure that you can make a plan for a hand, and then change it on the fly if the situation calls for it.

I recently played in a $109 buy-in tournament online, and we were down to the last 30 or so players. Although the tables were set for nine players, there were only six players in this hand, as three players had just been eliminated and replaced by three players who joined the table after the hand had started.

The action was folded to me in the cutoff, and I looked down at the Q 9. I open-raised to 2,400. The button and small blind both folded, and the big blind called the additional 1,400. We took a flop heads up.

The flop came 10 6 5, giving me a flush draw with an overcard and several backdoor-straight draws; it was a very good flop for my hand.

With 6,050 in the pot and an effective 34,067 in chips behind, I needed a plan for this hand. I decided that with a big draw, my best bet would be to play the hand as a “bluff inducer”: invite him to take a stab at the pot, and then slam him over the top with an all-in raise. Even if he called my semibluff, I had plenty of outs to improve.

My opponent checked, and I made a bet of 2,200 into the pot of 6,050. You will recognize that this is a small bet in relation to the pot size. This bet goes back to my plan; I picked a bet size that hopefully would induce a check-raise bluff to 8,000 or 9,000, and then I could shove all in over the top.

However, my opponent did not comply; instead, he just called the 2,200.

The turn brought the 7, adding a second flush draw to the board. My opponent checked.

Here is where I needed to change my game plan. My original plan was to shove over a flop check-raise, but now that we’d seen the 7 on the turn, things had changed.

The pot was now much bigger than it was before. On the flop, the pot was only 6,050 and we both had more than 30,000 in chips. This meant my opponent could make a check-raise bluff on the flop and then fold if I shoved. However, now with the pot being 10,450, my opponent does not have room to check-raise and then fold. If I were to bet in the area of 5,000, he would need to make a much larger check-raise than before. With only 30,000 in chips behind, any sort of check-raise would effectively commit him for his entire stack. Whereas on the flop I tried to invite him to make a small check-raise bluff, pot and stack sizes now no longer give him room to bluff.

Second, with the 7, many hands with which he check-called the flop have improved to something that he won’t fold if I bet the turn again. Hands like 7-6 suited, 9-8 suited, 10-9 suited, 10-8 suited, and 8-6 suited have either made a big hand or picked up outs. I doubt that he will fold any of these hands if I bet. Even worse, if these hands check-raise on the turn, they’ll get the money in as heavy favorites to win.

Given how both the stack sizes and the board texture changed on the turn, I needed to change my approach in the hand. No longer could I play my hand as a big semibluff; it was time to slow down.

I checked the turn after my opponent checked.

The river brought the 2, and my opponent bet 6,500.

Again, this is a spot where I see inexperienced players look at their hand, realize they have nothing, and decide to bluff. However, when you look at the board, every single draw missed on the river. Both flush draws missed, most of the straight draws missed, and the 2 isn’t a scare card to someone who has top pair. If I raise here, all I’m really representing is 4-3 suited for a straight, or a rivered set of deuces — both of which are very unlikely for me to have. I rarely expect him to fold anything but a bluff of his own if I make a move now.

So, I stuck to my new plan — play this hand slowly — and folded my missed draw.
Just because you set yourself up for a big play, it doesn’t mean that you should always follow through. When the dynamics of a hand change from street to street, so should your plan. Make sure that the situation is still right to make a move, or you may find yourself giving away your stack.