Three More Plays That Bad No-Limit Hold’em Players

In my last column, I discussed four common plays that bad no-limit hold’em players make. In this column, I’ll offer up three more. The players who make these plays are usually not as bad as those in my last column; nevertheless, these plays are stinkers.

Bad Play No. 1: Raising the flop with weak top-pair hands on coordinated boards

No one likes getting outdrawn. However, bad no-limit players often try to prevent themselves from getting outdrawn, and just end up losing a larger pot as a result. Here’s an example:

In a $2-$5 game, three players limp in with $600 stacks. The aggressive player on the button makes it $35 to go. The blinds fold, and all of the limpers call. The pot is $147. The flop comes Q♦ J♦ 8♠. The first limper bets $80, the second limper folds, and the third limper raises to $180. The preflop raiser folds, and the first limper calls. The pot is $507, and each player has $385 left. The turn is the 4♦. The first player moves all in, and after some thought, the bad player whines about the flush coming in, flips over a queen, and folds.

In this example, the bad player likely had a hand such as the Q♣ 6♣. He lost far, far too much on this hand. The first problem was limping in and then calling the big raise behind him. But his flop raise was just as bad. He likely thought to himself, “I have top pair, but there are so many draws out there, I need to protect my hand and get all the draws to fold.”

Unfortunately, hold’em doesn’t work like that. When someone bets into a four-player field on a Q♦ J♦ 8♠ board in a raised pot, you can expect that he has a good chunk of the board. He could have a hand such as Q-J or 8-8, or he could have a pair plus a draw, like the A♦ 8♦ or Q-10. Or, he could have a pure draw like the A♦ 3♦ or 9♦ 7♦. But whatever he has, you can’t reasonably expect him to fold for nearly a minimum-raise. Therefore, he’s seeing the turn card whether you “protect” your top pair with a raise or not.

The raise would be fine if the hands I mentioned were, on average, significantly behind Q-6 on this flop, but they’re not. The flop bettor’s made hands will nearly always beat Q-6. And the draws are, by and large, not far behind at all. So, all that this raise accomplishes is putting more money into the pot with a bad hand, intending to fold to a bet on any of the bazillion possible scary turn cards.

There are, of course, exceptions to the rule, but top pair with a marginal kicker is nearly always a calling or folding hand on the flop, not a raising hand. Raising to “charge the draws” is counterproductive. Call, hope that you get a good turn card, and pray that your opponent doesn’t put too much betting pressure on you. It may sound weak, but when you have a weak hand, it’s the way to go.

Bad Play No. 2: Overplaying small flush draws

Bad players love to play small suited hands. (In fairness, good players often like these hands, too.) A hand like the 8♦ 5♦ can make some sneaky big hands and win a lot of money. But bad players often can’t tell the good flops from the so-so flops, and end up overplaying.
Consider this hand, which I observed in a $2-$5 game: A bad player limps in, and a nitty regular player raises to $25. Both blinds call, and the bad player calls.
The flop comes A♦ 10♥ 7♥. The blinds check, and the bad player bets $50. The nitty regular raises to $150. The blinds fold, and then the bad player moves all in for $500 total. The regular snap-calls. Both players show. The regular has the 10♣ 10♦. The bad player has the 6♥ 4♥.

According to PokerStove, the set is a 73-27 favorite on this flop. More importantly, the player with the flush draw is never getting his money in good on this flop. After all, he’s a 52-48 dog against a completely random hand. Since he’s never getting his money in good, he’s depending on bluffing equity to make his play pay, but he has almost no bluffing equity in this hand. The flop is too coordinated to expect three players to fold to his $50 bet. And hoping that the nitty player will fold after raising this flop is pure wishful thinking. Therefore, both the bet and particularly the reraise were bad plays.

Small flush draws are typically checking and calling hands in multiway pots.

Bad Play No. 3: Checking down overpairs on the river

I played the following hand recently: It was a $2-$5 game, and everyone in the hand had more than $1,000. Two bad players limped in, and a regular in the game made it $30 from the button. I called with the K♦ Q♦ from the small blind, and one of the limpers called.

The flop came 7♣ 3♥ 2♦. I checked, the next player checked, and the regular checked.
The turn was the K♠. Everyone checked to the regular, who bet $75. I called, and the limper folded.

The river was the 2♥. I checked, and the regular checked. I proudly tabled my hand, expecting to win, but he showed pocket aces.

The player on the button should know that his hand is good the overwhelming majority of the time when the action goes down like this. I likely wouldn’t call his preflop raise out of the small blind with a deuce, nor would I call his turn bet with just a deuce. The only other hand that beats him would be a set, and it’s thoroughly implausible (though not impossible) that I’d play this passively with a set.

On the river, I likely have two pair that I want to show down. He has the best possible two pair. On top of that, he disguised the strength of his hand by checking it back on the flop. Therefore, he should without question bet his hand for value.
This is a very common (and expensive) error that small-stakes no-limit hold’em players make. Overpairs are good hands. Sure, when the board runs out with a four-straight and four-flush, they are not so good. And when someone is begging to get the money in on a 9-8-6 flop, pocket jacks can be in rough shape. But when your opponents are check, check, checking, overpairs are good bets. Don’t just check them down for the free showdown. ♠
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Ed’s latest book, Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em, is available for purchase at smallstakesnolimit-holdem.com. Find him on Facebook at facebook.com/edmillerauthor, and you also can check out his online poker advice column, notedpokerauthority.com._