Learning No-Limit From Scratch ­- Folding Your Opponent’s Equity

Many players think there are only two reasons to bet, to make a worse hand call or to make a better hand fold. But there are other reasons to bet, one often-overlooked reason frequently occurs—betting to fold out your opponent’s equity.

You think you have the best hand, though it’s a marginal one. Additionally, you know that if you bet, it’s likely only a better hand will call you, though that’s a small portion of your opponents’ range. Nevertheless, assuming he folds, betting will deny your opponent any equity in the pot as well as any future implied odds.

Some poker theorists recommend betting strong hands for value, checking your mediocre strength hands, and bluffing or semibluffing with your hands that don’t possess showdown value. However, when you check the best hand and give a free card to an opponent who would have folded had you bet, you are allowing him to retain any equity his hand holds, including any future ability to outdraw or outplay you. If he hits a card to beat you or bluffs you, you’ve cost yourself the money in the pot and any additional chips you may lose. It’s something you need to avoid when the cost is high.

Say you three-bet an opponent to $70 with A Q in a $2-$5 no-limit hold’em game, he calls. The flop comes 3-2-2 rainbow and he checks to you. You know he’ll call with any pair, but will fold any overcards. You read your opponent for calling the three-bet with a lot of J 10, K J, 10 9 type of hands that he will fold to a continuation bet as well as calling to set mine with wired pairs that he may call with post-flop. Betting is often correct in order to deny your opponent the equity of hitting one of his overcards even if you think he will call you with his wired-pair range. I understand that this situation can be profitably played in other ways, but this is an obvious and simplified example to make the point.

You must modify the concept when your opponent’s tendencies create a different equation. Different opponents might call with a good ace, but below A-Q. And some players might fold a pair or A-K in that spot. In those cases, the concept of betting to deny an opponent his equity can add equity to other scenarios in which you might receive a small amount of value from smaller aces and/or a small amount of fold equity from your opponent folding a small pair or A-K. The combination of equity from two or more concepts might add enough value to merit the play, whereas there might not be enough equity from only one concept to warrant a wager. So, as you should with all your plays, consider all the potential value and risks in all scenarios.

Of course, how much value you assign to any poker equation depends upon the situation and your assessment of how your opponents will react. Some of the situational issues to consider are your hand’s strength, your opponent’s susceptibility to draw out, the pot’s size, and how the hand is likely to play. Some of your opponent’s possible reactions are: Does he check-raise? Will he bluff-raise? Will he check a better hand? What is the ratio of hands in his folding range vs. better hands that he will call with? What are the odds of your opponent drawing out on your holding with his folding range? Checking K-K on an A-8-2 rainbow board is a very different proposition than checking 9-9. With 9-9, a greater number of cards in your opponents’ folding range are likely to draw out. In that circumstance, you should be more inclined to check the kings than the nines; your risks are much lower. For example, if a jack comes on the turn when you hold K-K and your opponent holds Q-J, your hand is still good. But if you held 9-9, you’ve probably cost yourself the pot by checking since he would have folded Q-J had you bet.

When you’re thinking about betting a medium-strength hand or even just deciding upon what street to wager, consider the value and number of free cards you will be giving your opponents should you check. Is your hand substantially vulnerable to free cards? Are the dangerous free cards in your opponent’s folding range? If they are, you might want to bet and fold them out. If they’re not, you might want to consider betting the streets that create the best expected value (EV) and dismiss the equity loss of giving the free card. Are there other reasons that your bet has value? Does folding some of your opponent’s hands that contain equity add enough value to your bet to swing a marginally negative EV bet into a positive one?

Conceptually understanding when to bet will deepen your thought process and make for crisper betting decisions. It’s important to understand why you should make a certain play rather than just trying to learn poker in a simple “if this, then that” system. Once you learn to analyze every situation conceptually, you’ll make much better decisions in non-standard situations.

And if you become skilled at applying your conceptual knowledge to your game, the chips will soon be arriving in your stack. ♠

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. Roy’s blogs and poker tips are at www.RoyCookePokerlv.com. You can also find him on Facebook or Twitter @RealRoyCooke