Poker Strategy With Alex Fitzgerald: Seven Unusual Lines To Incorporate Into Your Game

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Are you looking to expand your game? Here are some unusual bets you can use in your next session.

1. Betting On The Four To A Straight Board

This took me the longest time to figure out, but when four to a straight comes on the board, most of the time your opponents don’t have the straight.

Let’s say you raise preflop and the big blind calls you. The board comes 9 7 6. They check to you and you continuation bet. They call. The turn is the eight.

Your opponent likely would have three-bet preflop with their overpairs. On the flop, they would have check-raised you with their sets and two pairs. That means they have mostly mediocre pairs when they check-call you on this flop. Most of those mediocre pairs didn’t make a straight on the turn.

Fire again. Most people will fold their mediocre pair to that bad turn card.

2. Betting On The Four Flush Board

In a similar vein, let’s say you raise and the big blind calls you. The board comes 9 7 4. They check to you and you continuation bet. They call.

You know he would have three-bet preflop with most of his overpairs. Oftentimes, people check-raise their sets and small flushes on this board so they can simultaneously protect their hand and get value from it. That means when they call here, they have a lot of mediocre pairs that don’t have a heart.

If the turn comes a fourth heart, fire a small bet again. If they have a heart, they’re not going anywhere, but they actually don’t have one a large percentage of the time. Your small bet won’t have to work often, and it’s likely to clear out their mediocre pairs.

3. Betting Thinly Three Times Versus A Big Blind Flatter

This is a fun experiment that can help you learn to value bet more.

Let’s say you raise from the button and the big blind calls you. Automatically, you know the big blind is playing tons of hands, because nobody wants to fold from the big blind anymore. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if they’re going to play those wide ranges they need to be prepared to bluff and check-raise post-flop to defend themselves out of position. Most players won’t do that.

Let’s say you have A-10 offsuit and the board comes Q 10 5.

It gets checked to you. Here, you’re going to try something different with your second pair which is likely to be good. You’re going to bet three streets with it.

However, you’re trying to get all of his garbage tens to call you three times, so you can’t blow up this pot. You need to go smaller.

Try betting one-third pot on each street, especially if the draws miss. You’ll be surprised at how often you get called down. You’ll also be surprised how little you get raised.

4. Donk Leading Weak Two Pair Combinations From The Big Blind

Let’s say you have Q 4 in the big blind. Three people limp in from middle position, and you check from the big blind. The board comes K Q 4. What should you do?

Most people go for a check-raise on this board, but that puts your opponents on alert. They know you most likely wouldn’t check-raise in a multiway pot with just one pair or a draw. For that reason, they’re more likely to put you on two pair. Unsurprisingly, most of your opponents play much better when they have a good idea as to what you have.

However, if you simply donk lead a large amount here, most of your opponents will still call you. Now, they can say to themselves, “Why would he lead out into me if he flopped huge? Wouldn’t he check and let me bet? I bet this is a draw!”

You’ll get a number of huge call downs which will allow you to build massive pots.

5. Raising Two Times The Pot Preflop

Is every pot in your game multiway? Does it feel like no matter what you raise preflop no one folds to you? Do you feel like you have to flop huge in every pot, otherwise someone will river something and you’ll lose a huge pot?

It honestly sounds like you’re in a great game. However, in this kind of game, you have to raise larger preflop to get the worst players to call with you.

Decent players will sometimes limp a small pocket pair and call a 7X big blind raise. However, they won’t call an 18X big blind raise.

Who limp-calls nearly 20 big blinds? It’s usually one of the weaker players at the table. You want to get them heads-up so you can start working them post-flop.

To accomplish that, look at what the pot size is preflop and raise to two times that size. You’ll be astounded by how often you still get action from bad players out of position with weak hands. You can really build pots with premiums early with this move.

6. Check-Raising Out Of The Blinds In A Multiway Pot

This is another play that can be fun to perform. Let’s say you have a tight image. The cutoff is a winning player who opens constantly, and they open for a raise. The Button is also a solid player who wins constantly, and they call. You call out of the big blind.

The board comes J 4 6. You check, and the cutoff bets something small, like they normally do. Button knows he’s continuation betting a lot, so he calls wide.

If you check-raise from the big blind at this point with your tight image, both of these thinking players are going to automatically put you on a small made flush. They might even fold their pairs!

7. Over-Betting On A Coordinated Board

Let’s say you raise on the button and the big blind calls you. You know the big blind is calling you with a wide array of hands.

The board comes 7 5 2 and the big blind checks to you. You continuation bet, and they call.

The turn is an offsuit jack. They check to you again.

Every once in a while, try an overbet here.

Think about it. He likely would have three-bet preflop with his overpairs. On that flop with flush draws and straight draws, they would have check-raised their sets and two pairs. They likely have high cards, draws, or pairs when they call you on that flop. None of those hands wants to see you bet large when the jack comes out.

Find out what your opponents want you to do and then disappoint them. You’re not playing no-limit until you work some overbet bluffs into your game. ♠

Learn how to play A-K when it misses the flop!

Alexander Fitzgerald is a professional poker player and bestselling author who currently lives in Denver, Colorado. He is a WPT and EPT final tablist, and has WCOOP and SCOOP wins online. His most recent win was the $250,000 Guaranteed on ACR Poker. He currently enjoys blasting bums away in Ignition tournaments while he listens to death metal. Free training packages of his are provided to new newsletter subscribers who sign up at PokerHeadRush.com

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