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June 15 – Beware of those players that check/call your position flop bets from your immediate right when you are not the preflop raiser

A lot of the skill of hand reading comes from rightly assigning an accurate range to your opponent based upon their position, bet sizing, and action. Most of the time players will auto-check to the preflop raiser after the flop, so when someone check/calls the preflop raiser, little can be drawn from their action because the play is so common. However, after the preflop raiser has checked, the action of the other players becomes extremely important when determining an accurate hand range.

Let us say that the preflop raiser was under the gun (UTG) in a four-handed pot. On a Q 8 4 board he decided to check, and the two players to his right also checked. The last player to act bets and the preflop raiser and the player to his right both fold. Now, the player to the bettor’s immediate right calls.

This should set off some alarms if you are the field bettor in position. Usually, if this player’s hand was strong enough to check/call, he really should be strong enough to bet in his position. Let us go over the possible holdings that he could have. If he had a strong hand like top pair, second to last to act on such a draw heavy board, he would almost always bet. The same thing could be said about a semibluff type of hand like a flush draw. The only hand that might check/call here would be something like 9-9 or an eight, but again, almost closing the action, I expect him to bet for value and/or protection. It would be different if he was up front and had naturally checked to the preflop raiser.

I would be very concerned here if I was the player to bet last to act in this situation. If I had a flush draw myself, I would check back the turn with an extremely high frequency since combinations-wise my opponent is less likely to also have a flush draw, and there is a high chance that he is slow playing something. My spidey senses would also be up if I was betting a hand like Q-J. You could bet/fold the turn for value and protection but there have been times where I have checked back the turn with this type of hand and even folded to a river bet when the draws brick out against the right type of non-bluffing player. This sounds crazy to some, but a check/call from your immediate right in a multiway pot after the preflop raiser has shown a lack of interest is one of the strongest postflop cues you can observe in no-limit hold’em.

June 12 – When you are last to act in limped pots and the flop has been checked to you playing off the board and your opponents’ calling range is paramount

I have written several columns in the past in Card Player about the profitability of stealing limped pots through betting or raising. A lot of players really do keep to the old adage “don’t go broke in a limped pot” and simply will not put in a lot of money if the pot is unraised preflop with only one pair postflop. You can take advantage of this situation by bluffing good barrel overcards.

That is why your own hand strength is almost irrelevant if you are running one of these limped-pot bluffs. It does not matter if you have bottom pair, a gutshot, or total air, most of the reason why you are playing a bloated, limped pot is to bluff your opponent off of his holding by using scare cards.

Let us take a look a look at a hand that I played at the WSOP this summer. This was the one and only no-limit cash session that I played at the Rio this year, as usually I have spent my time playing the $75-$150 Omaha eight-or-better game. This was a good, passive $5-$10 table and I had a winning image. Two people limped in front of me and I decided to overlimp with J 9 on the button. The two blinds checked and the flop came out 10 6 2. All of the players checked to me and I thought that this was a great board to stab at the pot. Not only was it unlikely that anyone had a strong hand, but I also had some backdoor-flush and straight-draw equity. I bet out $30 into $40 and only the big blind (BB) called. Now, it is possible that the blind could have had a six, and is calling me thinking I am stealing, but a lot of players also check weak top pairs in limped pots out of the blinds. So as long as he was not slow playing a set, I thought that it was going to be really hard for him to hold on to just a ten in a bloated pot.

The turn was a K giving me a gutshot-straight draw. He checked and I fired three-quarters pot. He took a little time and finally folded a ten face up. Now the fact that I picked up a gutshot was irrelevant. I was entirely playing the hand based upon what I thought my opponent had, not what I actually held. If the turn was a six or a ten, those cards would be incredibly bad bluff cards for me as I would not expect him to fold top pair or trips.

Being a great no-limit player is all about putting your opponent on a range, no matter the situation and acting accordingly — whether it is bluffing or correctly sizing a value bet.

June 17 – Patience is a pretty big attribute in live poker. When the blinds do not escalate there really isn’t a need to force the issue

Right around the time of the poker boom, several notable poker authors said that no-limit should be a “dead” game unless the players at the table were playing with invisible antes. At that time, during 2003/2004, there was so much money to be made in no-limit cash games, even some of the more seasoned limit players switched over to catch the gold mine that was no-limit. But if you really take a look at it closely, there really should not be that much money won in no-limit if everyone would play optimally tight. In fact, the game would be hard to beat with the rake if everyone played fewer than 20 percent of his or her preflop hands.

Of course, there is money to be made in poker because rarely is this the case at a table especially at the lower levels. Players are commonly playing 30-to-40 percent of their hands. And, because there are no antes in no-limit cash games, you can literally play fewer hands than your opponent, be patient and have such an initial hand-strength advantage over them, that playing tighter can almost show an immediate profit. It is different, of course, in tournaments where the blinds escalate. There, if you play super tight, you will be at an inherent disadvantage because winning more chips gives you an advantage. In a cash game, the size of your stack is irrelevant, and sometimes it is more advantageous to be shorter stacked than a loose opponent.

This is why some older players that may have fewer fundamentals and technical skills than their younger counterparts can win more money in the long term. With age usually comes patience as well as more emotional self-control when things do not go one’s way. But the most important part of this conservative attribute is realizing that there is no need to force the issue in a cash game. And that is why you can win a lot of money versus a player who is tilting and forcing the issue. If this tilter suddenly goes from playing 25 percent of his hands to 50 percent of his hands, you are at a distinct advantage over him just based on hand strength. Add to that the propensity for his postflop bluffing frequency to increase and his random spaz factor to go through the roof, and you have a very profitable situation. You can even go so far as to play slightly more hands against a tilter. Say you play 20 percent of hands when all things are normal. The guy who is losing goes from playing 25 percent of hands to 50 percent of hands. You could increase the amount of hands that you play to 30 percent and still have a huge hand-strength edge over him going to the flop.

Be careful, however. You need to know which types of hands to expand to. Implied-odds holdings like 7-5 suited have little value against someone who is opening super wide, because the chances that you hit and he hits at the same time are very slim. However hands like A-10 offsuit, or K-J offsuit, go up in value as you can have the best hand at showdown without even making a pair. ♠

Follow Bart for daily strategy tips on Twitter @CrushLivePoker and @BartHanson. Check out his poker training site exclusively made for live cash game play at CrushLivePoker.com where he produces weekly podcasts and live training videos.