Card Player Pro

Game: $100 no-limit hold’em cash game (shorthanded)
Opponent: Unknown player
Stacks: Mine: $100; His: $138.50
My Cards: J 10
My Position: Button

There are several elements to playing profitable poker. Many players emphasize their style of play based on their particular strengths in the game. Some are great hand readers, some are great at applying mathematical/game theory logic, and some are great at adapting to their image; all of these skills are certainly valuable in the game. Here, however, I would like to focus on evaluating the board against an unknown opponent, which is one of my strengths. This seems to be a skill at which online players tend to be advanced, but many amateur players put very little thought into it.

Very early in a session, in a four-handed cash game at the time, I had no real reads on any of the players. It was folded to me on the button, and I looked down at a very promising starting hand for this situation (J 10). I made a standard preflop raise to $2.75, and got called by the big blind.

The flop came A 8 5, which gave me the jack-high flush draw, and in such a situation, betting is typically correct. I bet two-thirds of the pot, and the villain made a small check-raise. If I wanted to call the check-raise, it would cost me $6 with $20 already in the pot and about $90 left to go. So, now what? When a villain check-raises a board like this, I can’t put him on just one hand. Without a ton of info, I typically would put him on a few gutshots, some A-X two pair, and some higher and a few lower flush draws.

My decision here is whether to call or reraise. To avoid having to make a tough decision later in the hand, I think a lot of players would like to reraise and get the money in here, banking on the power of their draw. I, however, determined that if a villain check-raises a board like this, he’s likely not going to fold to a reraise, making the reraise pointless. However, my opponent’s check-raise is so small that he’s giving me great odds to call. Calling has the added benefit that he will give up some of his bluffs on the turn, enabling me to gain a lot of information to take the pot away from him if I choose to do so. I called.

The turn was the A.

The villain makes an interesting play when he checks to me. It’s time to evaluate his range and the board again. In the villain’s eyes, when I called the flop, I likely had a flush draw or an ace. If he had a flush or a full house on the turn, I think he would bet to try to get called by trip aces or a smaller flush, but he didn’t bet! What’s left in his range, then? My guess: A-X hands or nothing. Since my opponent would almost always bet the turn with a hand better than my jack-high flush, I assumed that my hand was good. The only question now was how to get paid off. Knowing that he likely had three aces, I had to bet to try to get money from him before the board got worse. I bet $22 into $26, and the villain check-raised all in for my remaining $65 and change. I called, and took down the pot after the 3 hit the river; he had A-Q.

Taking my time to evaluate the board and his hand range saved me from getting a draw in as a huge underdog on the flop, and helped me maximize value on the turn.