Hand 2 Hand Combat: James Hudson

Craig Tapscott: How familiar are you with the villain?

James “IRunLucky” Hudson: I have played only a small amount with this villain, and neither one of us knows much about each other’s game. I know that he’s a winner at $3-$6 and $5-$10, which will influence my thought process. When someone is a big winner at the medium stakes, you can generally make the assumption that he can read hands well and will exert maximum pressure on you if you look like you have a weak range. This general read on my opponent will be a big factor in how I choose to play this hand post-flop.

The villain raises to $18 from the small blind. IRunLucky reraises to $60 from the big blind with the A♣ A♠. The villain calls.

CT: What could the villain be holding if he calls in this spot instead of four-betting?

JH: Almost everyone who’s decent at these stakes will be four-betting strong value hands such as A-K, 10-10+, and A-Q most of the time preflop. Most opponents also will be playing a four-bet-or-fold type of strategy with medium pairs (7-7 to 9-9), although it is possible that some people will flat-call with them in this position. Furthermore, if a good player were to open suited-connector hands in this spot, he’s likely to four-bet bluff or fold those hands once he gets three-bet. With all of that in mind, we’re left with a very small portion of someone’s range that flat-calls a three-bet in a blind-versus-blind situation. That range is composed mostly of suited Broadway hands and some offsuit Broadways.

Flop: A♥ 9♥ 6♠ (pot: $120)

The villain checks.

CT: You’ve smashed the flop. How can you get the most value?

JH: We might assume upon first glance that it’s a good flop for our hand, and it is in some ways, but it’s not a great flop when we think about our opponent’s range. If we stick with our read preflop that our opponent could have a lot of Broadway hands, we realize that unless he has an A-X type of hand (against which we have blockers), he basically needs a flush draw to continue. Although he certainly can have some K♥ Q♥ type of hands in his range, he has a lot more whiffed K-Q, K-J, and Q-J type of hands in his range that have almost no equity. Given these assumptions, it’s going to be very hard for our opponent to continue with most of his range unless he decides to bluff-raise with air from out of position, and that seems unlikely.

IRunLucky checks.

JH: I decided to check back to represent a big pair (such as K-K or Q-Q), or a 9-X or weak ace type of hand that is pot-controlling. Given that I think most of his range has very little equity in this spot, I think my best shot at getting money out of him is to get him to start running a bluff. The best way for me to accomplish this is to feign weakness on this flop.

Turn: 7♠ (pot: $120)

CT: You can’t love this card.

JH: The turn does put an interesting card on a board that was already somewhat “drawy,” and now has become even more so.

The villain bets $86.

CT: Any clue as to what he’s leading with here?

JH: Well, I think he would bet out with a wide variety of hands, including draws and possibly even complete air.

CT: Should you raise or continue to be sneaky?

JH: I quickly glance at the stack sizes after he makes this bet, and think to myself that if I want to raise, I probably need to go all in.

CT: Why?

JH: Mainly because it would be hard to determine a raise amount that both shuts out his draws and still leaves me a good-sized bet for the river. I decide against going all in, because of the fact that I hold two of the aces and he is unlikely to have a set or two pair on this board, meaning that he can’t really have many hands that can bluff-catch in this spot.

CT: Please explain.

JH: OK. I’ll expand on that a little bit. If his range is mostly draws and air, it’s imperative that I let him get the last bet in, as he can’t call off his stack in this spot with air or draws. In retrospect, I probably could have raised to $180 or so and still had about two-thirds of the pot left for a river jam, but things happen quickly at the table, and sometimes we make mistakes.

IRunLucky calls.

River: 5♠ (pot: $292)

CT: Now that’s a crazy board for aces.

JH: Sure is. Upon first glance, this appears to be an awful river, but we need to think about how this river hits our opponent’s range and how it affects his frequencies. Our initial read on our opponent’s range preflop was that it contained a lot of Broadway hands and very few middling suited connectors, which means that we don’t have to worry too much about the four-card straight unless our opponent has exactly 8-8. The backdoor-flush draw hitting is definitely more worrisome, as he certainly can have hands like the K♠ Q♠ and K♠ J♠ that he would have played the same way.

The villain moves all in for $454.

CT: So, what are you thinking now?

JH: Once my opponent overbet-jams the river, there are several things that go running through my head. The first is that I’ve induced this.

CT: How so?

JH: I’ve underrepresented my hand strength and my opponent likely thinks that I have a hand that’s much weaker than the one that I actually have. The second thing that goes through my head is that on a river that is so scary for my range, my opponent is likely to follow through on his bluff with all of his missed draws or random air.

CT: But you haven’t played a lot with this opponent in the past, have you?

JH: No. My opponent doesn’t know my game very well at all. This point is important for two reasons: First, it means that he likely wouldn’t bet one and a half times the pot on the river with an 8-X type of hand, because it’s probably too thin against an unknown opponent when the possible backdoor flush hits. Second, he would likely make a smaller bet with a flush here, because my range looks weak and the board has run out in a way that I likely couldn’t call an overbet with a weak ace or something like pocket kings.

The fact that the A♠ is in my hand limits a lot of the flushes that he could have, mainly because he can no longer have hands like the A♠ J♠ and A♠ 10♠. That leaves him with very few combinations of flushes in relation to all of the air in his range in this spot. With him overbetting, we certainly can’t argue that we’re getting a good price on our call, but we need to be right only about 38 percent of the time. I would estimate that we’re good here well over 50 percent of the time.

IRunLucky calls. The villain reveals the K♣ 10♣. IRunLucky wins the pot of $1,200.

CT: So, what lessons can we take away from this hand?

JH: The first is that it’s not always best to pound the pot with bets just because we have a strong hand. It’s important to think about our opponent’s ranges in different spots, rather than about just the strength of our own hand. The second lesson is that against good players, if you take passive lines that underrepresent the strength of your hand, you need to make more “thin” calls, as these players’ bluffing frequencies should increase dramatically. ♠

James “IRunLucky” Hudson is a medium-stakes cash-game player. Over the last few years, he has maintained one of the highest win rates at his stakes. He also coaches, and has made an instructional video series for small-stakes players that can be found at www.dailyvariance.com.