A Quick Return To No-Limit

If you’re a regular reader of my articles, you know that I haven’t been playing that much no-limit hold ‘em (NLHE) lately. I pretty much only play when my regular games, pot-limit Big O, pot-limit Omaha (PLO), or a mix of the two, are full or not going.

On these rare occasions that I play no-limit, I don’t often find myself in particularly interesting situations. These games, to be honest, aren’t that good anymore and the pots don’t get that big or weird. In addition, I’m usually only playing for a short amount of time while I wait for a seat.

Since it’s spring in Southern California now, the casino where I usually play was pretty slow and the Big O game broke early. As a result, I put in the longest session of NLHE that I’ve played in more than a year. There were some very interesting hands that didn’t involve me, and one that did.

I was playing a stack of $865 in a $2-$5 blind game. My opponent in the hand had me covered. I raised to $15 from middle position with A Q and got called by the cutoff, small blind, and big blind. The flop was Q 8 5. The blinds checked to me and I bet $40. The cutoff called, the small blind folded, and the big blind made it $150.

He’s a pretty solid player, capable of raising big draws in this spot along with already made hands. I called and the cutoff folded. The turn was an offsuit 7 and my opponent bet $300. I moved all-in for $675 and he went into the tank, but eventually called the rest with Q 8. His hand held.

Let’s take a look step by step. Raising first in with A-Q offsuit is a no-brainer from middle position and I don’t feel like I’ve been away from the game for too long for that to have changed! On a flop of Q 8 5 after two checks, my hand is definitely one I want to bet for value. At this point, it’s almost the top of my range and it’s a flop that my opponents could put money in on multiple streets with the worst hand. It’s possible that I had the wrong sizing, but I felt like two-thirds pot was good.

Here’s where things may have started to turn. After I got called and raised, it might have actually been the best play to fold. I said before that my opponent in the hand is solid and capable of bluff raising with draws, but I had the A in my hand and that dramatically cut down on the amount of draw combinations that he would be raising with.

In my experience, most people feel more comfortable bluffing in this situation with a draw to the nut flush than with a hand like 9 7 or 7 6 because they know their bigger draw is to the nuts. If he ever raises with hands like K-Q suited, then I have a clear call, even with all of his big draws in his raising range. If I take that out and his range is only A-Q, Q-8 suited, 8-8, 5-5, and draws like J 10, 10 9, 7 6, and 6 5, then he’s got 65 percent equity and I’m in very bad shape. Furthermore, I’m unclear what are good and bad cards for me going forward. Given the fact that I’m getting 290:110 or 2.6:1, I think calling and re-evaluating based on how the turn action goes is a good plan.

The turn is where I’m sure I made a huge mistake. I offered my opponent a chance to let me know whether he had a big hand or not. He told me, but I didn’t listen. After getting called in this spot, I think the vast majority of people would check if they had a hand like K-Q, and very good players would continue to bluff with their combo draws. I think my opponent would check with draws and K-Q considering the pot is $400 and we have $675 behind.

Instead, he bet $300, a very strong bet that almost always is a hand that is better or equal to mine. If he has A-Q, Q-8 suited, 8-8, or 5-5, he’s a 3:1 favorite. If he has a couple of his bluff hands, he’s still almost a 3:1 favorite.

I’m sunk against someone who’s willing to get all in on the turn here and I messed up bad. I even knew it in the back of my head. But, with all the PLO I’ve been playing (I would certainly fold a hand like A-Q-J-10 with the A on this turn card) I was worried that I would be folding too much if I folded this hand.

I let some of my PLO thinking get in the way of what should have been a pretty straightforward fold on the turn against a solid player. It’s a mistake I don’t think I would make if I was playing only NLHE or even mostly playing NLHE.

I was in a good game and, even though I lost money, I’m certain it was a profitable game. I’m also proud of myself for not getting frustrated about the bad play on this hand or bad beats in others, because when I’m playing a game that I’m out of practice with, I tend to get frustrated more easily.

Even though I don’t enjoy playing no-limit as much as I used to, it does lend itself to more clear post-game analysis than Big O does. It’s nice to be able to assign clean ranges and have more accurate calculations. That, however, is why no-limit is a much tougher game than Big O and one that I will continue to stay away from as much as I possibly can. ♠

Gavin Griffin was the first poker player to capture a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour title and has amassed nearly $5 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NHGG