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Feb. 22 – Check-raising the turn as bluff can be a useful tool after check/calling flop as the pf raiser with a medium strength showdown hand.

If you have read my past Card Player articles, you know that I am not a big fan of slow playing. In fact, I think it is one of the biggest mistakes that people make at the lower levels. However, because the practice is so widespread and rampant we can sometimes use this to our advantage.

A common line that you can take with a medium strength hand after being the preflop raiser is check/calling from out of position. Let us say for example that we raise with J 10 from mid position and the button calls. The board comes out Q-10-3 rainbow. We decide to check/call the flop, inducing bluffs and hiding the strength of our hand. If we decided to bet, depending on our opponent, it may be rare that worse would call us. The turn comes an offsuit deuce and we check to the button who fires again. At this point we are pretty sure that he does have a better hand — either a queen or a ten with a better kicker. We are not giving too much away by just check/folding. But what if we decide to raise and turn our hand into a bluff?

Check/call check-raise lines from preflop raisers are super strong. In all of the years that I have commentated on Live at the Bike, I have probably only seen this play once or twice as a bluff, and usually it came with some gigantic two-way draw that was picked up on the turn. 

If we put ourselves in the position of the field bettor, especially when we are moderately deep, it is very difficult to call with just a queen as the preflop raiser’s hand looks a ton like pocket tens. We also would be forced to fold a hand like A-10. Using this play can also be very useful when players continue to blindly bet top pair on the turn. You will find that you start to get reverse free cards if players notice that you have a check-raise turn range after being the preflop raiser. I discuss his concept in depth in Episode 21 of my strategy podcast “Seat Open” at Seatopenpoker.net.

Feb. 28 – Usually when a bigger game opens the smaller get softer

There are a lot of big egos in poker. If you listen in to some of the regulars in the higher no-limit games you would think that they were in junior high school with the amount of gossip that is exchanged back in forth. Who’s broke, who’s running hot, who owes money, etcetera, etcetera. For some players, it is always their goal to play in the biggest game regardless of the actual quality of the game.

I remember back in 2008 the Commerce Casino opened $5-$10 no-limit with a $1,500 capped buy-in. They set the game down with the rest of the yellow ($5) chips games on the other side of the casino. The “high stakes games,” including $10-$20 no-limit, were on the hotel side. This actual geographic difference in game location made certain people never play at $5-$10 because they did not want to be seen playing “low stakes” even though when that game first opened it was by far the best in the whole house. Most $10-$20 regulars passed on these games because it would have been a big blow to their ego. Instead, they would sit at some pretty bad $10-$20 tables and I had the fortune of lapping up some really easy money at $5-$10.

This same type of thing happens at other casinos around the country. Let us say your local casino runs a $2-$5 as the normal highest game and sometimes will get $5-10 off of the ground if the right people are there at the same time. You are sitting in a pretty juicy $2-$5 game, one of four tables running. There are several people on the board for larger games, it is Saturday and the casino decides to open a brand new $5-$10 table. You then see most of the best players from the $2-$5, including two of the strongest players from your game, move over to $5-10 and now there are literally no good players left at $2-$5. The $5-$10 game is looking pretty so-so. Should you make the jump over to the bigger game just because you are comfortable playing at those stakes and you are properly rolled? The answer is a resounding no.

Poker is about maximizing profit, not increasing your ego. But for so many of us, even professionals, we have a tough time grasping this concept. Usually, when a bigger game opens, this attracts some of the stronger regulars from the smaller levels, making a tougher game. Obviously this is not always the case and you should try and play in the best game that is available. But when a flood of good players leave your game the smaller game is going to become much softer. Who cares what other people think anyway? You are going to be raking in more money at a good game one step down from a bad game one step up.

I also think that this is especially true over the summer during the WSOP when all of the good players from around the country flock to Las Vegas. If you only play no-limit cash games and are not interested in playing in tournaments, I think that this is a great time to stay local as the games will definitely be softer.

Mar. 3 – Its rare at the low levels for someone to bluff off their entire stack especially if they have been betting or raising every street

Over the past eight years I’ve played in games as low as $1-$2 all the way up to $50-$100. Even at the higher stakes, with the exception of a few world-class players, people normally do not risk their entire stack running multi-street bluffs. Occasionally, at the lower levels, if someone is short stacked they may put their entire stack in on the turn as a semi-bluff, but when they bet flop, turn and river with somewhat of a normal stack, it is very rare that they are bluffing.

Let us take a look at an example. Let us say in a $2-$5 game with effective stacks of $800 a mid position player raises to $25, gets three callers in the field, and you call in the big blind with A Q. The flop comes out A K 3. You check to the preflop raiser, he bets $75 and all fold to you. You figure that it is a little weak just to fold now as the preflop raiser could easily have a weaker or ace or be betting some sort of draw, so you call. The turn brings the 4. You check and the preflop raiser now bets $200. Again, you feel that you still may be good here and expect to get a free showdown if your opponent has a one-pair hand on the river, so you call again. The pot now has $670 in it. The river brings in the 7 and you check again. Your opponent now moves all-in for $500, giving you over 2-to-1 on a call. You think that this bet is very polarized — that is your opponent is either bluffing or has at least A-K plus. There is no value range in between. Should you call then?

I see people get confused in this spot all the time. Just because our opponents’ bet is polarizing doesn’t mean that he bluffs as much as he has value hands. The simple fact of the matter is it looks like you have a hand when you call the flop and the turn and even the biggest idiot at $2-$5 rarely is going to try to bluff you when it looks like you are going to call down. This hand is going to be a monster a lot more than a bluff, especially when he puts his entire stack in. People do not usually commit all of their money on a bluff. Now, of course there are some maniacs out there that may run this play, but they are a lot less common than people think. ♠

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Follow Bart for daily strategy tips on twitter @barthanson. Check out his podcast “The Seat Open Podcast” on seatopenpoker.net and his video training site specifically for live No Limit players ­—CrushLivePoker.com. He also hosts Live at the Bike every Tuesday and Friday at 10:30 pm ET at LiveattheBike.com