A Hand from Colombia

My wife is from Colombia, and we visit the country every year for four to five weeks. One of the great benefits of the international poker boom is that you now often can find games while playing internationally, no matter where you are. Poker is booming in Latin America. Five to six years ago, there wasn’t a poker game to be found in Colombia, at least not in Medellin. Now, there are casinos, Texas hold’em clubs, and weekly tournaments, and many, many new players are playing the game.

This was an interesting hand that I played in a tournament on a visit to Medellin. There were 94 entrants in a $20 buy-in tournament. We started with 10,000 in chips, 20-minute levels, and the blinds were 50-100. This was the very first hand of the tournament.

One or two players limp in. I limp on the button with 8-6 suited. Four or five players see the rainbow flop of 5-4-3. The big blind bets 300 or so. I call. She knew I was a poker author before the hand started.

The turn is a 7, completing a rainbow board and giving me the nuts. If she holds a 6, then I should be able to double up. She bets 500, I raise to 2,000, and she just calls, unfortunately. Nevertheless, I still have a good chance to win another decent-sized bet on the river, as long as it is a blank. The river is a 3, and the she bets out 2,000.

First, I’d like to discuss the river bet in general terms. This is a great bet, regardless of what she might hold. Let’s say you are the big blind with 6-X for the straight, a situation in which you are likely splitting against your opponent. You think your opponent is a very good player who also is capable of bluffing. Betting the river is a great play in this spot. The lesson here is that, in general, if you are in a spot in which there is a good chance that you are splitting the pot and a small chance that you are beat, betting out on the river can be way better than trying to check and call.

This is an excellent bet with 6-X, given that a thinking opponent might fold in this spot, which is exactly what I did. Now, several members of the forum at my website disagreed with my fold and would have called, but I thought it was a rather simple decision. This was the first hand of a tournament with 10,000 starting stacks against an unknown woman. She called a big raise on the turn and then bet out on a paired river card. To me, this is a pretty standard line for the typical amateur player with a set on the flop. If she bluffed me off of my hand with a 6 of her own, I tip my hat off to her, but I would have no way of knowing that she is that advanced of a player to take that line. If she had bet a little smaller, I might have considered it a blocking bet, but I thought 2,000 was a lot for her to risk against a possible boat unless she had one herself. For me to beat her hand, she needed to be either really bad (calling a big raise on the turn with no straight or set, or calling with a straight and then thinking her hand was good on the river and betting out), or very, very good (calling the turn with a straight and taking a stab at the pot on a scary river card).

Expanding this hand a little further, consider you are in the big blind again with 6-X. You call the turn because your opponent is capable of bluffing. The board then pairs the river, and you check. If villain now bets, a check-raise would be absolutely beautiful, as there is pretty much no way the villain can have a full house given that he raised the turn. This can backfire if your opponent doesn’t bet the straight himself, but in a live setting, sometimes you can just smell a bet from your opponent. Of course, I was already considering checking the river on the button, but against some opponents I might bet the over-straight.

She showed me a full house, so I made the correct laydown, but in the process of folding, I was able to see another example of where betting out on boards like these can be an excellent move with lots of upside and little downside. ♠

Matthew is the owner of Dimat Enterprises, “Publishing Today’s Best Poker Books.” The Math of Hold’em by Collin Moshman and Douglas Zare is available now at pokerbooks.InternetTexasHoldem.com. Winning Poker Tournaments Volume III will be released in November.