Head Games

Sometimes it’s hard to get a straight answer from a professional poker player. Ask three players a question, and you’re liable to get three different answers. Why? Because it depends on the situation, opponent, stack sizes, table image, and many other variables.

Head Games will peer deep inside the twisted minds of today’s top players. We’ll reveal
why they do what they do in sticky situations. Let the games begin.

The Pros: Greg Raymer, Faraz Jaka, Ashton Griffin

Craig Tapscott: What are the most important aspects you pay attention to when playing blind versus blind?

Faraz Jaka: The first thing you should look at is stack sizes. Deep in a tournament, your ranges are really wide, and you can play a lot of different hands. So, in order to three-bet from the big blind, you need to be about 30 big blinds deep. If an opponent raises from the small blind with a stack size anywhere below 55 big blinds, he’s not going to be able to four-bet you. So, that makes it a good spot to three-bet him, because you’re now pressuring him to risk his entire chip stack.

Greg Raymer: By far the most important aspect is who your opponent is. When you’ve been at the table with an opponent for a while, you have to take into account how aggressive or passive and tight or loose he’s been before you make a decision. All of those factors matter more than anything else.

Let’s say that I’m in the small blind against an overaggressive opponent. If I have a good hand, I’m frequently going to limp in and reraise in that spot. But it all depends on our stack sizes. For example, if the effective stacks were 40 big blinds, I wouldn’t really want to limp in and then rereaise — because when he raises, he’s going to make it around three big blinds total, and then I’m going to make it about nine total big blinds, and then he might shove all in for 40 big blinds. So, I’m not going to play the hand that way unless I’m happy to call his shove. You have to be careful. Just because someone is loose and aggressive, it doesn’t mean that he’s going to be loose when four-betting you. So, as I said to begin with, you really have to take into consideration the type of opponent you’re up against more than anything else.

Ashton Griffin: Stack sizes are going to be really important when it’s blind versus blind. If you’re around 30 big blinds deep, a player will be limp-reraising all in from the small blind with hands like A-X or even K-X. So, when you’re in the big blind with a stack of about 30 big blinds, you have to tighten up your raising range against limps from the small blind.

From the small blind with 30 big blinds, it’s correct to start limp-calling some of your hands that play well post-flop. These are hands with which you wouldn’t want to get shoved over if you raised preflop from the small blind. With hands like Q-8 suited, you would limp-call, but not raise, because you don’t want to get reraised all in by hands like K-3 offsuit. You can easily balance your preflop raising range and your limp-calling range from the small blind by trying to see flops with hands that play well post-flop — basically, hands with which you don’t want to get it all in preflop.

Craig Tapscott: How do you combat late-position raises from aggressive players when you’re in the blinds?

Greg Raymer: The stack sizes are very important, but one of the main things you can do if you have a bad hand is fold. Let’s say that I’m aware that my J-9 is better than an aggressive button raiser, who could have any two cards. Well, J-9 may be a small favorite against any two cards, but it’s perfectly acceptable to just fold. If you reraise and he reraises, you don’t really want to put your whole stack at risk with jack high. He could be bluffing with Q-2, but he would still be the favorite preflop. The stack sizes are important because you want to be the one who’s shoving if it’s all going to go in preflop.

Now, if you have a big hand like A-A or K-K, that’s just so strong that you’re happy to get it all in, and it’s not important who shoves all in first. But most of the time, you have something else, like A-10, which is a perfectly good hand. And it’s probably way ahead of the opener’s hand range when he raises from the button. However, if you reraise and he four-bets, you’re not too excited about calling with A-10. But if you know him to be very loose and aggressive, you most likely have to call his all-in bet with A-10, because you know that against his range, you’re not really a favorite, but you’re practically tied. Now, you have to call, because you’ve created pot odds for yourself with all of the other chips you’ve put in.

Faraz Jaka: If you’re going to flat-call from the blinds against a late-position raiser because you think he has a wide range, you need to be willing to play back at him on the flop. If you’re just going to call and give up easily (playing hit-or-miss poker), that’s never going to be profitable. You usually want to pick a decent hand like Broadway or suited cards, and decent aces (you really don’t want to flat-call there with A-X). And you have to be willing to call down without top pair when you flat-call with these types of hands. You also must be willing to employ some check-raises and make some moves; otherwise, it’s never a profitable situation to call.

Ashton Griffin: Again, it depends on the size of the stacks. It also depends on your table image. If an opponent is prone to be playing very straightforwardly against your three-bets when holding a stack of around 40 big blinds, I definitely would be three-bet bluffing with hands like 6-5 offsuit. I would just be calling with hands like J-9 suited or A-8 offsuit, because those hands would be better off seeing a flop. These types of hands have certain combinations of hands dominated — hands like 9-7 suited with which an opponent would raise from late position and fold to a three-bet by you from the blinds.
You want to be playing pots with hands with which you have a late-position raiser dominated, and not three-bet from the blinds with them. But you do want to be three-betting with hands with which you’re probably dominated, like 6-5. You’re going to be dominated with that hand a lot, so I’d much rather three-bet with 6-5 from the blinds to get folds when a late-position player raises with 9-6 suited types of hands.

Greg Raymer is the 2004 World Series of Poker main-event champion and the lead instructor at the WSOP Academy. In the 2009 WSOP $40,000 no-limit hold’em event, Raymer placed third and took home $774,927. He is a Team PokerStars pro, and has more than $6.9 million in career tournament cashes.

Faraz Jaka finished third in the 2009 WSOP $5,000 six-handed no-limit hold’em event, and second in the 2009 Bellagio Cup V championship. He has amassed $3.5 million in career tournament cashes, and is the World Poker Tour Season VIII Player of the Year.

Ashton Griffin is a highly successful high-stakes cash-game player in the no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha games online. He won the 2010 PokerStars North American Poker Tour $25,000 high-roller shootout championship, for $560,000. In 2009, he captured the Full Tilt Poker $25,000 heads-up championship, for $551,250.