Four Plays That Bad No-Limit Hold’em Players Make

Bad no-limit hold’em players abound. In this column, I’m going to catalog four bad plays that bad players love to make.

Bad Play No. 1: Make bets and raises that are too small

This one is nearly universal for bad small-stakes no-limit hold’em players. Their bets and raises just aren’t big enough.

In isolation, a small bet isn’t necessarily a bad play. But if nearly all of your bets and raises are small, you won’t be competitive with players who make larger bets.

You don’t make enough money on your big hands. Consider this example. It’s a $2-$5 game with $500 stacks. A bad player limps in. A regular raises to $25 from the button. The big blind and the bad player call. There’s $77 in the pot with $475 behind.

The flop comes K♦ 7♦ 4♣. The big blind checks, and the bad player bets $20. The regular calls, and the big blind folds.

The turn is the 6♥. The bad player bets $30 into the $117 pot, and the regular calls.

The river is the 10♠. The bad player checks, and the regular checks and tables A-K. The bad player shows the 7♠ 4♠ and wins.

Neither player played this hand well, but the bad player in particular has no shot of winning over the long term by playing this way. He called $25 preflop with 7-4, caught a huge flop, and then managed to make only another $50 over the course of the hand. If you’re playing 7-4 for a raise, you absolutely have to make more than just two times the preflop raise when you hit a Yahtzee flop.

Bad Play No. 2: Make minimum-sized raises with strong hands and never as bluffs

Bad players like to make the minimum-sized raise. If you open the pot for $15, they will reraise to $30 with pocket aces or kings. (Yes, I realize that $25 is the true minimum-raise, but no one does that.) If they have a set on the turn, they will raise a $40 bet to $80 even if each player has more than $800 behind.

This strategy is bad because the raise gives away the strength of the hand, but the size is so small that it’s often worth it to call and try to draw out.

Let’s say that I bet a flush draw on the turn and get raised. Usually, I’m forced to fold. But against a minimum-raise, I have odds to call and the knowledge that my opponent likely has a big enough hand to pay me off if I hit.

Please note that min-raising is bad if it is always for value and never as a bluff. If your min-raising strategy includes a well-mixed array of value hands and bluffs, it can be a strong play.

Bad Play No. 3: Make too many small-sized three-barrel bluffs

A three-barrel bluff is when you bet all three post-flop streets as a bluff. OK players don’t do this often enough. Excellent players can give you fits with this play. And some bad players do it far too often and don’t make the bets big enough.

Here’s an example: It’s a $2-$5 game with $500 stacks. You open-raise to $20 with A-10, and a bad player prone to making this play calls from the button. The pot is $47, and there is $480 behind.

The flop is K-10-2 rainbow. You check, and the bad player bets $30. You call.

The turn is a 3. You check, and the bad player again bets $30. You call.

The river is a 6. You check, and the bad player bets $50. You call. He shakes his head, says, “You got me, brother,” and mucks his hand facedown.

There are two problems with this play. First, the bets are too small. They put no real pressure on someone to fold a pair. Players who have called twice on a K-10-2-3 rainbow board likely have a hand that they intend to take to showdown. In this situation, a $50 river bet is utterly toothless.

Second, many of the players who make this play almost never take this line with a legitimate hand. If they held a hand like K-Q, they might bet the flop and turn but check the river. If they flopped a monster with 2-2 or K-10, they’d feel the irresistible urge to slow-play on at least one street. If you nearly always check a street with your value hands, but bet three streets eagerly as a bluff, you are just begging to get snapped off.

Bad Play No. 4: Pay off large bets when you know that you’ve been outdrawn

I see bad players do this all the time. Here’s an example of a hand that I recently saw a bad player play: Someone opened for $30, another player called, and the bad player called from the button. Everyone was at least $1,000 deep.

The flop came K♣ Q♠ 10♣. The preflop raiser checked, the next player checked, and the button checked.

The turn was the 4♦. The preflop raiser checked again, the next player bet $40, and the button raised to $80. The first player folded, and the bettor called. There was $257 in the pot.

The river was the J♦. The first player bet out $300, and the button player slammed his fist on the table. “I call,” he said quickly, shaking his head. The first player turned over A-Q for the nut straight, and the bad player angrily tossed his hand, K-K, faceup.

Final Thoughts

If you read my columns regularly, I trust that you don’t play this way. I can just see you nodding your heads, saying, “Are you kidding? I don’t make those donk plays.” But I don’t think I’m preaching to just the choir.

Most small-stakes no-limit hold’em players — even decent ones — don’t bet big enough. They don’t squeeze enough value from their good hands, and they don’t apply enough pressure with their bluffs. Maybe you don’t make these horrendous bet-sizing mistakes, but I hope this column inspires you to re-examine your own bet-sizing strategy.

Furthermore, look to exploit bad players who are making these errors. If your “standard” line in the A-10 hand in Bad Play No. 3 would be to bet the flop, or fold the river, rethink your play against bad players. You might be surprised by how many opponents will play backward against you, checking down top pairs while betting many worse hands.
Finally, big bluffs are rare in small-stakes games. If your opponent bets $300 on a K-Q-J-10 board and you don’t have an ace, please fold. ♠

Ed’s latest book, Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em, is available for purchase at smallstakes-nolimitholdem.com. Find him on Facebook at facebook.com/edmillerauthor, and you also can check out his online poker advice column, notedpokerauthority.com.