Learning No-Limit From Scratch ­- Checking for Value

Bets, even those with the same nominal value, have varying degrees of value, defined as bet-equity. A bet made against an opponent that is correct for him to call is a bet you don’t want him to call. Unless you’re checking to induce a bet, betting and your opponent calling will be better than checking, but you’ll do even better if you bet and he folds. And, if an opponent calls with outs, but without the right price, you’ve gained only the negative equity of his bet. However, if your opponent is drawing dead, any bet acquired will give you 100 percent of its nominal value in equity.

It’s important to calculate your poker equations in terms of equity, not in terms of the bet’s nominal amount. “A bet saved is a bet earned” is not a conceptually accurate statement. “A bet saved earned the equity saved from that fold” is the more accurate phrase. A bet saved may not even have positive equity for you if the fold was incorrect, and the situation just happened to fall into the situational range where it saved you the bet. For example; if you fold with the pot laying you 2-1 and you were 50-50 to win if you called, but in the given situation your opponent was holding one of the hands in the 33 percent of his range which had you beat, your fold had negative equity. Do you understand why? In short, analyze all your poker plays by the equity gained or lost, not the nominal result they produced.

I was playing $2-$5 no-limit hold’em nine-handed at the Aria Resort and Casino. A young player I’d never played with before had just sat down and waited to post his big blind. He folded the big blind to a $20 raise, the small blind to two limps, and was on the button when it folded to me in the hijack. Holding Q 10, I made it $15 to go and Mr. Young-Button called. Both blinds folded, and we took the flop heads-up with me out of position.

The flop came down Q 7 3, giving me top pair, weak kicker, on a highly draw-free board. I contemplated my best strategy. First, I measured the texture of my opponent. I’d seen Mr. Young-Button play only two hands, but I could still make some judgments. He’d folded both hands, in the small blind for $3 against a two-call field. Therefore, he’d folded a hand getting $17-$3 current, not indicative of a loose player. He was also young, male, and I tend to think young men lean to possessing a more aggressive nature than us old farts. Additionally, he could shuffle chips with a reasonable degree of proficiency, signifying experience. But experience and ability don’t always correspond.

All that said, I thought Mr. Young-Button was going to be an “if I they check to me, I’ll bet” type of player. Therefore, if I checked, his betting range would be much wider than his calling range. Additionally, many of the hands that my opponent would bet, but weren’t the same holdings he would call with, would be “air,” and the expectation on those bets would be high. Since the pot was small relative to the current and future bet sizes, the concept of “protecting the pot” had little value.

I knuckled, figuring there was a high propensity for Mr. Young-Button to bet. He didn’t disappoint me and fired $20, which I flatted. If I check-raised, I thought he would fold all weaker hands than mine and most of his calling range would be better than my holding. Plus, I wanted to obtain additional value down the road.

The turn card came the 9 and I knuckled once more. Mr. Young-Button checked behind me. The river came the 3. I decided to fire $50, thinking that he would call me with any pair. This situation differed from the flop in that I thought Mr. Young-Button would now check with many hands that he would call with, and I also believed that, since he checked the turn, his bluffing range was smaller. This turned the tables of whether a bet was correct. He called me and showed 10 9, a hand that he almost certainly wouldn’t have called a flop bet with. My flop check had created a situation in which I’d obtained $70 in extremely high-equity value bets that I wouldn’t have obtained had I bet the flop.

And while I understand Mr. Young-Button didn’t have to hold the hand he possessed or play it in the manner he did, I believe my play obtained the best equity I could have gotten. In addition to the value I received in this particular situation, often checking and inducing bets out of your opponent can cost you less if you’re beat. Often, an opponent not only bluffs more when checked to, but also bet sizes smaller when they have a hand and are trying to induce a call. Checking can not only produce a greater gain when you have the best hand, but can also bring about a smaller loss when you’re beat.

If I read Mr. Young-Button for being likely to check when checked to, or the pot was larger and, therefore, there was more value in protecting the money currently in the pot, I would have bet the flop. This hand speaks to one method of adjusting your play to conform to the playing texture of your opponent and the size of the pot.

Learning how to adjust effectively is what separates the great players from the good. And if you want to be great, study up! ♠

Roy Cooke played poker professionally for 16 years prior to becoming a successful Las Vegas Real Estate Broker/Salesman. Should you wish any information about Real Estate matters-including purchase, sale or mortgage his office number is 702-376-1515 or Roy’s e-mail is [email protected]. His website is www.roycooke.com. You can also find him on Facebook or Twitter @RealRoyCooke