Run it Twice -- Andrew BrokosBrokos Talks Us Through a No-Limit Hold'em Hand |
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In this new series, Card Player sits down with high stakes pros to take a second look at a particular cash-game hand.
Andrew "Foucault" Brokos is known for his knowledge of the game and experience in no-limit hold'em cash games. An instructor for Card Player Pro (powered by PokerSavvy Plus), Brokos is used to breaking down hands for strategy analysis, and here he discusses a no-limit cash-game hand with Card Player.
The Game
Type: Six-handed cash game
Game: No-limit hold'em
Blinds: $5-$10
The Lineup
Button: $1,976
Small Blind: $289.95
Big Blind (Brokos): $1,074.75
Under the Gun: $208.75
Middle Position: $1,000
Cutoff: $1,000
Run it Twice -- Review of the Hand
Preflop Action: The cutoff raises to $20. The small blind calls $15, and Brokos calls $10 from the big blind with A
6. The pot is now $60.
Kristy Arnett: Your opponent makes a minimum raise in the cutoff, is this something that he was doing a lot?
Andrew Brokos: Yeah, and it’s something that I’ve started to see more and more. People do this from late position just because there is so much aggressive three-betting in these games. People want to be able to play a lot of hands from late position, which makes sense because that’s where you make most of your money. If you are getting three-bet a whole lot from the blinds, you have to fold some of the weaker hands that you are raising with, so some people have started making these small raises so that they can call more three-bets preflop and also lose less money if they fold when they get three-bet. It’s an adaptation some people have made to enable themselves to play more hands from late position.
KA: Had you been three-betting from the blinds?
AB: Yeah, and I like to three-bet this guy in particular because he’s kind of a nit. He folds more than he should to three-bets, and I do like to do it with hands like a suited ace. I think the reason I didn’t do it in this hand was because the small blind is involved and has a pretty short stack. If I wanted to make a squeeze-play here, I would make it $100, and then at that point, I would be priced in to call if the small blind went all in. I decided that I didn’t want to put myself in that spot, so I just called to see a flop.
Flop Action: The flop comes K
7 4. The small blind and Brokos check. The cutoff bets $30. The small blind folds, and Brokos calls. The pot is now $120.
KA: You flop the nut-flush draw and check. Did the player who raised preflop continuation-bet quite frequently? And did you check with the intention of check-raising?
AB: I was mostly just curious to see what he was going to do, and I didn’t really care what he did. I think he’ll bet enough worse hands that it’s not a bad spot for me. I can call or I can raise, either would be fine if bets. If he chooses to check, I certainly don’t mind seeing the turn card for free. I think I’ll get information from him by whether he bets or checks and the amount of his bet if chooses to do that. This will tell me a lot about his hand, whereas if I were to take the betting lead, I don’t know what he’s going to do and I won’t get as much information from him, and I also don’t know what the small blind is going to do. If I wait, and I check to him, and he bets, now I get to see how the small blind responds before I decide what I want to do with my hand.
KA: What did you think of this small bet?
AB: If he’s making a bet that small, there’s a decent chance he’s doing it because he wants to entice a raise from me. I don’t think he’s planning on betting that amount, and folding any pair if I raise him here. He might fold a better ace like A-J, but I don’t think he’s folding. I think that if he made a bigger bet, he might fold to a raise, but with a bet this small, I think he’s kind of expecting a raise from me. So even though he might fold hands that are worse than mine, I don’t get a lot of value out of that. I think there is a decent chance my ace-high is still good, and I’ve also got a lot of outs with the nuts, so I just call.
Turn Action: The turn is the 8
. The board reads K 7 4 8. Brokos checks, and the cutoff checks. The pot is still $120.
KA: The turn gives you a gutshot-straight draw, as well. After the hand goes check-check on the turn, how are you reevaluating going in to the river?
AB: Well, the 8 connects really well with a lot of my range, like all the kinds of hands I could have called him with on the flop, a lot of them are improved by that 8. If I had 6-5, I would have turned the nuts, if I had 8-7, I just turned two pair, if I had 7-6, I just turned a gutshot. It’s not a very good card for him to keep to bluffing at, but at the same time, if he does have a big hand, I think he has to bet here because there are so many draws out there on the board. He would need to protect his hand and need to start building the pot. There’s only $120 in the pot, and he started the hand with $1,000. So if he had a monster, he really needed to start building a pot. When he doesn’t bet, it tells me that he has nothing, or if he does have something, it can’t be very strong. Otherwise, he would have bet it.
River Action: The river is the 7
. The board reads K 7 4 8 7. Brokos bets $74, and the cutoff raises to $148. Brokos reraises to $450. The cutoff folds, and Brokos wins the pot of $413 (-$3 rake).
KA: Are you following through with your read on the turn with a bet here on the river?
AB: Well, I don’t think I’m getting him off many pairs here, but I might get him off a weak pocket pair. For one thing, I don’t want him to be able to bluff on the river. I don’t think my hand is good enough to check-call a bet. So, in part, this stops him from bluffing, and I also think it will get him off better aces than mine. I think he’ll fold an A-J or A-Q. I wasn’t betting with the intention of inducing a bluff from him. Initially, I was thinking that it’s not a big risk, since I’m betting $74 for a chance to win a $120 pot. I think between stopping his bluff and folding out a few better hands than mine, it was worth doing.
KA: What made you decided to three-bet his raise?
AB: It isn’t completely impossible that it’s a bluff, but it’s really unlikely. I think it’s far more likely that he’s trying to make a thin value-raise. At this point, I think that he might have A-K, or K-Q and trying to squeeze a little bit more value out of it, but because of my read on the turn, I don’t think he’s ever checking two-pair or better on the turn. That means that the absolute best hand he could have on the river is trips if he had maybe a 9-7, but I don’t think it’s possible for him to have a full-house or a straight. He would have bet two-pair, a set, and a straight on the turn. So, I think he probably has a hand better than mine, but not a hand that is good enough to call a three-bet. He just revealed so much through his betting pattern that I was able to take him off his hand.
KA: Although he didn’t see your hand, do you think that three-betting this river will deter him from making thin value-raises on the river against you?
AB: Yeah, I think it can deter them even if they don’t see my hand, which is good. Just the experience of having been three-bet by me, even if he doesn’t know that it was a bluff, I think it will deter him psychologically from trying to make thin raises on me in the future. From a game-theory perspective, it’s actually not important that he knows what I was doing it with, because it’s still going to be less profitable for him to do it. If he continues to make it that obvious and set himself up to get bluffed out of a hand when making thin value-raises and then folding to my three-bet, I don’t mind if he continues to do it. He can either adapt or keep making the same mistake. Either way, it’s good for me.
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