Crushing Live Poker With Twitter

Sometimes the run out is such that checking to check-call on the river is the right play.

If you are familiar with a lot of the work that I do over at my training site CrushLivePoker.com you would know that I am not a big fan of check-calling the river in no-limit hold’em. Simply put, players, especially toward the lower stakes of live no-limit, do not bluff enough to make check-calling profitable. There are of course exceptions to this and I played a hand at the Hollywood Park casino last week that demonstrates one of those exceptions.

In this particular game we were playing $5-$10-$20 with $3,000 effective stacks. The game was generally good and I had a winning image. It got folded to me and I decided to make a loose open with K 4 from the cutoff to $65. The button, the big blind and the straddle called and we saw the flop four ways. The board came out K 6 3 giving me a weak top pair.

The action got checked to me and I decided that because the board was not all that draw heavy that this was a good spot for me to check and get some future value from some weaker hands. This would be akin to me checking a hand like K-J as the under the gun raiser when several people called behind me in the field. If I were heads-up versus the big blind or straddle on this board, I may have bet K-4 for value. But versus three players I thought that it was a bit in between, so I checked. The button checked behind and we saw an 8 turn card. Again it was checked to me and this time, with the backdoor flush appearing I decided to bet $90 into the $260 pot. The button called and the blinds folded. The river brought on the J bricking out all of the draws.

Years ago, when I was less of a thoughtful player and when most of the money at the table was won from thin value I would have bet this card from up front close to 100 percent of the time. I mean the whole reason why I checked back the flop was to make it seem like I did not have a king, so that I could get future value from worse hands. But now, as I have evolved as a player, I concentrate more on ranges, positional awareness and post flop action in order to determine what the best move would be.

Here, when the button checked back the flop I thought that it was unlikely that he had a king. Players are known sometime to check a weak top pair in spots like this (like I did) but with me holding a king I though that this was less likely. So if we take most kings out of the buttons range moving to the turn what hands is he calling with on that 8? There seems to be two obvious categories — a draw or some sort of medium strength bluff catcher like an eight or pockets sevens. If we bet at the end for value with our top pair the draws will just fold out as they missed, AND most likely the jack is bad for the medium strength bluff catchers as it is another overcard to second pair.

So instead of trying to go for thin value, I thought that the best play was to check with the intention of check-calling. If my opponent held a hand like K-10, he would have taken me to value town if he had bet. But it ended up going check/check and I won versus 8-5 offsuit. Even though the results did not work out for me in the best way I still think that I made the right play. It appears like there was much more value in trying to pick off a missed bluff then expecting to get called by 8-5 when a jack falls at the end. If the river had been a different card, like maybe pairing the three it would have been better for me to bet and try to get hero called by a hand like an eight.

Bets can sometimes be made in multi-way pots that get better hands to fold and weaker to call in the form of draws.

As crazy as it sounds, there are unique situations that come up where you can make an aggressive move that gets a better hand to fold and a weaker hand (usually in the form of a draw) to call. When David Tuchman and I used to broadcast Live at the Bike in 2005-2006 we called this play a “combo bet.”

I had a situation two weeks ago at the Hollywood Park Casino in Los Angeles that gave me the opportunity to pull this move. The game was $5-$10-$20 and a tight, nitty villain (V1) opened ($4,000) to $65 from under the gun. The player to his direct left (V2) called with a short stack ($500). Two other players called, each with about $4,000, and I completed the action in the straddle getting a good price with A 9.

The flop came out 9 8 2 giving me top pair and the backdoor nut flush draw. I checked and V1 bet $175. Because this player was so tight I knew that he was not making a continuation bet on this texture with just air into four people. At a minimum I thought he had two over cards and a flush draw, but more likely held an overpair. The player to his left called and the other players in the field folded. Normally I would think that I was beaten here and would have just mucked. However I had something going with the properties of my hand.

Because I had the A I knew that V1 could not have the nut flush draw, skewing him to having more value hands on the flop. I also knew that because V2 called, if I chose to raise it would look like I was almost never bluffing as the preflop raiser knew that V2 would be calling it off. And lastly I had a lot more strong value combinations in my range, completing from the straddle last to act than the preflop raiser. I would complete here with 9-8 offsuit giving me a full 18 value combinations of sets and two pair. Because V1 was so nitty it was unlikely he would raise 2-2 from UTG only leaving him with sets of eights and one combo of a set of nines because I blocked a nine.

So for those reasons I thought that this was a great spot to pull a combo raise to $600. I also realized that even if V1 called I could really put a ton of pressure on him by barreling diamonds off on the turn, as he most likely would be bluff catching me with an overpair. He thought about it for a while and with a pained look agonizingly folded. I am almost 100 percent certain he had a hand like 10-10 – A-A. V2 of course called, and we ended up chopping the pot as he had A 9 (which was probably the best hand that he could have).

So if you ever get into a similar spot examine the properties of your hand. Does it block some of the set combinations that the preflop raiser could have? Can you represent two pair or greater from the position you called from preflop? Can you barrel future flush cards if your raise gets called on the flop? If the answer to these questions is yes, and especially if you have completed from one of the blinds where your range is wider, you may be able to successfully leverage this play to get a better hand to fold. ♠

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.