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: Prahlad Friedman, Aaron Jones, and Taylor Caby

Craig Tapscott: What are your options concerning continuation-betting on the flop after being the initial raiser?

Prahlad Friedman: In general, people c-bet [continuation-bet] far too often. Players of today don’t like to give up; therefore, c-betting excessively cannot be the best strategy. I prefer giving up on a lot of flops, especially when out of position. An obvious situation to check-fold would be when you raise with A-K offsuit and the flop comes 9-8-7. Oddly enough, there are many players who still bet that type of flop.

I don’t think c-betting 100 percent of flops is the most profitable way to play against opponents in 2010. They just bluff-raise, float, and hit flops far too often for you to profitably bang your head against the wall. You have to adjust to your opponents faster than they adjust to you. That’s where your edge comes in, because we all get the same hands.

Aaron Jones: Your options will depend almost entirely on the board texture and your opponent’s hand range. Theoretically, he should have a wider range on the button, since he’s got position on you (some people won’t, though; they’ll have a wider range in the big blind, because they think they are being more “priced in”). 

When I’m in position and my opponent is in a blind, I’ll deduce his calling range and how hard it hits the board. Sometimes he’ll have a hand that can call one street, sometimes two, and sometimes, depending on how the board runs out, he’s got a hand that is never going to fold under any circumstances. Naturally, I’m going to want to bet my strong hands (all good top pairs and sets) for value and to build a pot; the only real question is how I proceed when I miss the flop. If the board is dry (A-8-4 rainbow, for example), it’ll be that much harder for him to have hit a pair or a draw to play back at me. If the board is wet (J-8-7 with two of a suit, for example), he’ll have a lot of hands that’ll never fold to a c-bet.

Taylor Caby: When I’m playing online, it depends on my opponents and the board texture. If I’m playing live, I also consider my table image a bit more, because I think it plays a bigger role in live poker than it does online.

So, let’s assume that I am playing live. If a guy calls me from the button, I first consider what type of player he is. From there, I put him on a range of hands with which he is likely to be calling me. If he’s a normal player, he’s probably calling me with big cards and connected or almost connected cards, most likely suited. If the flop comes down with something dry, like A-9-3, I’m going to be firing a bet most of the time. The reason is that he has either a very strong hand, such as top pair or a set, or a hand that he must fold. He will most likely play me straightforwardly, and since players don’t often flop top pair, it’s a net win for me to c-bet when he’s likely to play straightforwardly. If I’m out of position on the flop, I will either check-fold, check and then c-bet the turn, or occasionally check-raise with air if I believe that this is the type of player who is going to blindly bet if checked to. If I’m in position, I will lean slightly more toward c-betting with air. The important thing to understand is what board textures are likely to hit your opponent’s typical hands, then act accordingly.

Craig Tapscott: What signals give you the green light to continue to bet or put on the brakes after your flop bet is called?

Prahlad Friedman: Again, this is a feel situation. If the turn card is scary to my opponent, I’m more likely to bluff a second barrel. If he calls that, but I feel that he isn’t sure of what to do on the river, I might decide to go for it and fire the third bluff barrel. If the pot is $10,000 and you bet pot on a bluff, you need him to fold more than 50 percent of the time to show a profit. So, if you’re already thinking that he will fold 60 percent of the time and another scare card hits the river, it’s a no-brainer. Bet! You get even better odds on your bluffs when you make them smaller. Bet $5,000 into the $10,000 pot, and then you need them to fold more than 33 percent of the time.

I’m telling you these numbers, but it’s not something I really think about too much at the poker table. I just feel like I’m going to get called if I bet pot or anything less, so I’ll bet three times the pot and minimize the screen. Ha-ha! That is seriously what I do, because I bluff too much to sit and watch the blink, blink, blink of the player thinking and thinking, and then calling me with one second left.

Aaron Jones: In nearly all situations — except high-stakes cash games where I have very specific reads on my opponents — I’m going to be barreling [betting] any card that makes it more difficult for my opponent to continue with the hand. Overcards, specifically those that are likely to be in my preflop range, are definitely the prime candidates to barrel, because they’ll make it more difficult for him to call down with his weaker pairs, and his top pair has turned into second pair.

Taylor Caby: Again, I’m trying to match up my opponent’s likely holdings to how the board is playing out. If my c-bet gets called on a dry flop like the A 7 2, the player usually has an ace, a 7, a set, or occasionally a pocket pair. Simply put, his range is weighted heavily toward having good made hands, and there aren’t a lot of turn cards that are likely to make him think I have improved my hand. Due to this fact, I’ll probably slow down on the turn. If I c-bet a more wet flop like the 8 7 3, but the turn is a red queen, king, or ace, I’m likely to go ahead and fire again. The reason is that (1) he knows it’s likely that I have these types of cards, (2) there are lots of “drawy”/medium-strength hands with which he called me that he now may question whether or not they are still good, and (3) the hands with which he usually calls my flop bet are unlikely to have improved. The way that I outlined my strategies on these flops is just a starting point, because in poker, you always need to mix up the way that you approach the game.

Prahlad “Spirit Rock” Friedman was the first player to make a name for himself and millions of dollars with his ultra-aggressive style in the early days of high-stakes cash games online. He won a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2003 in a $1,500 pot-limit hold’em event. In 2009, he won the WPT Legends of Poker main event, for $1,009,000.

Aaron “aejones” Jones, 23, specializes in high-stakes six-max and heads-up cash games online. He is the owner and video producer of LeggoPoker, which specializes in shorthanded no-limit hold’em cash games. He has inexhaustible determination and ambition to be the best in the game.

Taylor “Green Plastic” Caby was one of the first players to gain online fame and fortune by beating the highest-stakes games on the Internet from 2004 to 2007. In less than two years, he went from $5 sit-and-gos to $50-$100 no-limit hold’em. He founded the poker-training site CardRunners in 2005.