Card Player Pro

Thin Value is the Best Value

Game $109 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament
Opponent Unknown, likely weaker player
Stacks Mine: 111,504; His: 93,103 [after blinds and antes]
My Cards 10 3
My Position Big blind

When you get into the late stages of a tournament, every chip matters. The best tournament players are experts at maximizing value, and it’s something that you should practice, as well. One of the best ways to do this is to make a thin value-bet or raise. In this column, I’m going to look at a thin river value play that I made recently in a tournament, and show you a good spot to extract extra value.

In a $109 buy-in tournament online, everyone folded around to the small blind, whom I did not recognize. With the blinds at 2,500-5,000 and a 625 ante, he limped in from the small blind. With a weak 10 3, I opted to check and see a flop.

The flop came J 10 5 — giving me second pair. My opponent led out for 5,000 into a pot of 13,750.

I have a pretty easy call here with my pair of tens. It’s a small bet, and, in general, when casual players make weak bets, they normally have weak hands.

The turn brought the 7; my opponent checked, and I checked behind.

I think a lot of people like to bet here with their tens to protect, but I think checking is better. If I bet, very few worse hands are calling (maybe a hand like 8-7 or A-7 that picked up a pair), and I run the risk of him check-raising a draw, like the 5 4 or K Q, which would force me to fold.

The river brought the 3, and my opponent bet out 10,000.

This is a great spot to go for some thin value and put in a raise. Given the action on previous streets, it’s unlikely that my opponent has a hand better than two pair. If he had 9-8, he probably would have bet the turn to try to win a big pot, and if he had a set or a higher two pair, I think he’d probably choose a larger bet size than 10,000 (less than half the pot).

I think that a lot of players freeze up in this spot and end up just calling, because they’re afraid of their opponent moving all in and being faced with a tough decision — but winning poker isn’t scared poker. How often does an unknown player just shove his stack into the middle? Not as often as you’d think.

So, I raised to 26,225, hoping to get called by any jack, or a curious 10, 7, or 5.

What makes this raise great? Well, tons of draws missed — Q-9, K-Q, hearts, and so on — so it’s pretty easy for him to put me on a missed draw and make a light call.

As it was, my opponent folded rather quickly, so he likely had air.

However, if he did have some sort of a hand, he probably would have paid me off.

Continually look for spots to put in small bets and raises when you’re pretty sure that you have the best hand. You’ll soon find yourself winning bigger pots and building your stack much quicker than your opponents.