You’ve Got to Adjust to Your Opponents

Poker’s a people game. Your ability to read your opponents and adjust your strategies to their tendencies is essential to becoming a first-rate player. Learn to do it effectively and you’ll crush even the toughest of games.

It was a tougher than average Tuesday afternoon $40-80 limit hold’em game at the Bellagio. The field folded to Tristan, a talented pro, who opened with a button raise on my big blind. The small blind folded and I peered down to the 9 9.

I play this situation differently depending on my opponent and texture. Sometimes I flat call, knowing that my hand is highly likely to be stronger than the raiser’s. I make this play both as a trapping and deceptive strategy. Playing in this manner, I can often acquire greater value on later streets, particularly against aggressive opponents. If I three-bet, I’m giving an aware player information about the strength of my hand and limiting some of my options on how to play it. That said, you have to mix it up against opponents with good hand-reading skills and Tristan definitely fits that bill. I chose to three-hit it, partially because it was early in my session, and I wanted to inform Tristan that I wasn’t going to be pushed around. He called.

I caught a fortunate flop, the 8 7 3 and fired right into Tristan, who called. The turn tickled me too, the 6. While it produced a club draw, it wasn’t an overcard and created an open-ender with my overpair. I fired again. Tristan shoved in $160, raising my wager.

What to do? Was my hand good? I wasn’t sure. Tristan likes to make the play of calling on the flop and raising on the turn with a hand he is most likely to pay off with. That puts a lot of pressure on the turn to a player with an ace big-kicker type hand that has missed the flop. If his raise gets called, Tristan generally checks the river if he can’t beat an overpair. This frequently makes it the same price as simply calling down the hand. It’s a good play in many situations: you gain a bet if you improve, and you often shut out an opponent from catching an overcard or at least charge him the maximum to draw. Occasionally, you might even get your opponent to fold a winner, and there is great equity in that. Tristan is also is capable of making a semibluff play when he picks up a draw and the turning of the 6 created many potential draws.

Of course, there is also an assumption of risk in raising the turn. You might get reraised, possibly cost yourself an opportunity to win the pot or increasing your payoff cost.

The fact that I knew that Tristan raised the turn often, and even if he had me beat I likely had a number of outs was the basis for my reraising him. I wanted to get full value if my hand was good and maybe even get him to lay down a hand inferior to mine, thereby not allowing him to draw out. Plus, overplaying hands in situations in which you have significant outs often creates doubts in your opponent’s mind in future hands, thereby adding additional value. That doubt in your opponent’s mind translates into more calls in upcoming battles.

When I reraised Tristan, he insta-called me. I was surprised by his quickness of thought in the situation as he is usually an opponent who takes his time. In my mind, it increased the chances that he was on a draw and didn’t have a made hand. That said, I was unsure of Tristan’s holding.

The river was a disappointment, the A. It both didn’t improve my hand, and also was a card that improved a portion of Tristan’s range that I had been beating and that might have called a river bet. Tristan likes to raise on the button with any ace and I felt some of his range was aces in which he hit a pair on the flop and made his raise-turn play. That, and the fact that I thought a draw might also be part of his range, caused me to check the river. I thought he might check a better hand or bet a busted draw.

He fired a bet. The pot was laying me $720-$80, or 9-to-1. I payed off, thinking he might bluff a busted draw, reasoning that I might fold an overpair under an ace. I questioned if it was a good call at the time and still feel the same way. I think it is close. Those are tough spots when you have an opponent capable of bluffing, the pot is laying you a large price, you can beat only a bluff, and there are few hands in his range that he could play in a manner to bluff with. When the pot is laying me a large price and I’m unsure of my read, I’m pretty much paying off. You just lose too much when you’re wrong.

Tristan turned over the 7 6 having flopped a pair and turned two pair. I tossed my nines into the muck. Yeah, I didn’t win the hand. My turn raise is not one I would have made had I known my opponent had two pair and it ended up costing me money. Although, that is not necessarily an indication the turn reraise was incorrect.

In spite of the fact I was beat on the turn when I reraised, I was still less than a 2-to-1 underdog to make the best hand on the river. And there were many hands in Tristan’s range that were beat by two nines.. Making plays having outs should your hand not be best makes your play cost less equity than plays in which the current hand value is the only equity you have. The times your hand improves to the best hand create additional scenarios with value. In this case I would have made at least one extra bet in the over one-third of the time I improved to beat Tristan’s two pair.

The hand speaks to adjusting my play to my opponent’s tendencies. If I was playing a player who had a different mindset and strategies, I would have played my hand differently. Think about what plays your opponents are making in relation to your plays. How can you best counter those plays? And when they make the same play again, sock it to ‘em!

Roy Cooke played poker professionally for 16 years prior to becoming a successful Las Vegas Real Estate Broker/Salesman in 1989. Should you wish to any information about Real Estate matters-including purchase, sale or mortgage his office number is 702-396-6575 or Roy’s e-mail is [email protected]. His website is www.roycooke.com. You can also find him on Facebook.