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April 29 — If the situation lines up correctly sometimes you can call with a draw on a double paired board.

On the surface calling with a draw on a doubled paired board seems like suicide especially if you do not have showdown value. But occasionally, if all things line up correctly, the situation may warrant it. 

I played a hand at the Commerce Casino last week that demonstrates such a scenario. Everyone at the table was at least $2,000 deep and the game was $5-$10 no-limit. A recreational, action player opened for a raise to $40 from under-the-gun. I called in middle position with 5 4and both the small blind and big blind called. The big blind was a recreational player, one of the better players in the entire player pool and clearly a winning player.  

The flop came out 3 3 2 giving me an open-ended straight flush draw. Both the blinds and the preflop raiser checked so I bet out $90 into a pot of about $160. The small blind quickly folded but the big blind called. The preflop raiser got out of the way and we were heads up and saw the 2 on the turn. 
 
Somewhat unexpectedly the big blind now lead out for $105, under a one-third pot sized bet. I was a little confused by this bet as I expected him to check his entire range on the turn, whether he had a three or a flush draw himself. He is a fairly tight player so it’s very unlikely that he would call the flop with a hand like A-2 suited.

Upon first reaction I wanted to pounce on his bet and raise the turn but I did not think that that would be too believable. Then I thought over the situation more and it made sense that his action might be a sort of protection bet against draws with a hand like 5-5 through 10-10. Facing this one-third pot size bet I was getting over 4:1 and only needed 20 percent equity to call. With a clean 15-out draw we have just over 30 percent equity. However in this particular case we have to worry about the reverse implied odds of the hand.  

Reverse implied odds refer to a situation where we call with a draw assuming implied odds but our draw, when made, does not give us the best hand and we lose more money if it completes. This would be the case if he held say 6-6 and a 6 came in on the river.  So the situation was particularly close but I decided with the overlay in the pot and the fact that I had an extra two outs to a straight flush to continue on. 

The river brought in the K completing my spade flush. He now checked and even though I am one of the thinnest value bettors in my player pool, I felt that there was not any value in betting my small flush as I would not be called by worse. So I checked back the river and won at showdown versus 7-7.  

This hand reminds me a lot of pot-limit Omaha where we are getting odds to draw but there are little implied odds when we make our hand. Situations rarely come up in hold’em where we call with a draw not expecting to make extra money, but it can happen when you have a draw with more than 14 outs and you are facing less than a pot-sized bet. It would have been interesting if my opponent had bet the river again, especially big, and a case could be made for folding. But this is not necessarily inconsistent logic on my part because a bet on the river would change the action. The turn bet ended up being so small that all things lined up correctly and it allowed me to make a profitable call on fourth street. 

May 1 — Occasionally you can delayed double barrel bluff the river instead of double barreling the turn. Also look for spots to call light at the end when draws brick out and the board has drastically changed. 

If you are experienced playing no-limit hold’em you recognize that there are great cards on the turn that you can represent as a bluff when you are the preflop raiser. Since many players open for a raise and three bet preflop with Ax suited an ace is one of the scariest cards in the deck for your opponent if they called with a weak hand on the flop. Kings and queens can also be scary when they come on the turn especially after a raggedy flop.  

Let us say that we raise with a hand like Q J in the hijack to $20 in a $5-$5 game, with $800 effective. The big blind calls us and we go heads up to a flop of 3 8 3. The big blind checks and we make a continuation bet of $25 with some backdoor equity. Our opponent thinks for a bit and calls. The turn brings in an excellent double barrel card for us, the K. Our opponent checks to us again. Many people automatically double barrel this card as it is very bad for the weaker parts of our opponents’ range. But ask yourself, do you always bet K-Q in this spot?

A case can be made that against some opponents this is a way ahead way behind scenario. If our opponent has a hand like an eight or pocket sixes he will just fold on the turn but if he has a trey he will continue on. So on a lot of occasions it might be best to check back the turn against straight forward players and it is a common line that you will see for pot control at the lower stakes. Inherently if you are checking back the turn with made hands and only betting very strong holdings then you are unbalanced—but balance is something that we do not need to worry about all that much at the lower stakes.  

So how does this scenario fit into our double barrel bluffs? Well, if our opponent is always going to bet the river with trips when we check back the turn and there are no front door draws present we can easily fold facing a bet. And also the beauty of lower stakes opponents is their lack of willingness to turn a hand like 6-6 or even an eight into a bluff. So we can actually risk less overall money by sometimes not betting the turn as a bluff and waiting for the river action. Let’s say in this hand the river rolls off a 10. Our opponent checks to us which means he does not have trips and his range falls into the weaker portions of his flop call. Now we can bet the river and credibility represent that we had checked back the turn with a showdown hand. If you pay attention you notice that this line works very well as a bluff and we also risk absolutely nothing. This is instead of betting on the turn when our opponent is still rather “uncapped.” We use the action of the river to evaluate the strength of our opponent’s hand. 

I have to point out, however, that this type of line only works if a front door draw is not present. If there is more of a coordinated board like say 6-6-5 with two spades sometimes we will get called light on our river bluff as our opponent will think that either we missed a draw or that we would not give up a free card to draws by checking back the turn. Also on draw heavy boards if our opponent bets the river he could be stabbing at it with a missed draw himself so we cannot just automatically give him trips.  

I’ve made some big call downs at the lower levels with hands as weak as jack high when this type of situation presents itself, especially when the turn and river runout overcards to the flop and my opponent is not a thin value bettor. 

Continuing with the previous example of 6-6-5 with two spades let’s say we continuation bet Q J heads up versus the blind. The turn is the K, the big blind checks and we check back intending to bluff the river if checked to. The river rolls off an Ac and our opponent now bets. If this player is not the type to value bet the nut flush draw on the river, like with A 10, then his hand is super polarized (very strong or very weak). He is going to show up with a missed straight draw, missed spades OR at least trips. In spots like this when we beat all of his bluffs we can have a profitable call given pot odds with a hand as weak as queen high. ♠