Poker Strategy -- Carter King Discusses Getting Max Value

Carter “ckingusc” King is widely known for his tournament success, with his biggest score to date being a win in the 2008 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker main event for more than $1.2 million. Altogether, he’s won $2 million in tournaments, and with events these days giving players more and more starting chips, King knows the importance of adjusting to deep-stacked play, and he gets his practice playing cash games.

The Game

Location: Bellagio
Stakes: $10-$20
Game: No-limit hold’em

Stack Sizes

Carter King: $5,000
Villain: $4,500

Review of the Hand

Preflop Action: A tight player limps in early position, and a loose-passive player, Villain, limps in behind. King raises to $140 on the button with 10 7. The first limper folds, and Villain calls. The pot is now $330.

Kristy Arnett: What is your read on Villain?

Carter King: He’d been limping a lot and playing a lot of pots. He was the type of player who would lose a lot of money after the flop if he caught a piece of it. He’s a player who I can get a lot of value out of because he’s loose, and who isn’t going to put me in a lot of tough spots, because he’s passive.

KA: What goes into your decision-making on whether or not to raise it up here with this type of hand?

CK: I tend to mix it up in spots like this as far as isolating limpers, but usually when there is a player like this in a pot who I feel I can get a lot of money out of, then I’ll want to start building a pot with a hand that can flop well in position.

Flop Action: The flops J 7 4. Villain checks, and King bets $260. Villain calls, and the pot is now $850.

KA: Why did you decide to continuation-bet?

CK: This is not the type of player who is going to check-raise me very often on this type of flop, so I bet. And if he does, I can easily get away from the hand, because he’d clearly have better. He’s the type of player who is going to call with all of his straight draws — like 9-8 or 6-5 — and all one-pair hands. So there is a lot of value betting with my middle pair here. It also keeps me in control of the pot.

KA: What did you put him on here after calling your bet?

CK: This board is pretty dry, with a few straight draws. When he calls, his most likely holdings are ace high, one-pair type hands, or a straight draw. Basically, I think he’s peeling a lot here.

Turn Action: The turn is the 2. The board now reads J 7 4 2. Villain checks, and King bets $540. Villain calls. The pot is now $1,930.

CK: My first thought was that this was a good semi-bluffing card. It’s going to be a good spot to find out how good of a hand he has. If he’s got an ace-high type hand or something like that, he’s just going to fold. If he doesn’t, by betting, I’ll have built the pot in case I hit a river that improves my hand, like a club or 7 or a 10 — not so much a 10, because I might be afraid he has J-10. But, if any of those cards hit, then I can bet a decent-sized value-bet on the river, whereas if I checked the turn and hit, I can only bet $500 or $600.

Also, when I bet flop and turn, he is almost never leading into me on the river, so it allows me to control the size of the pot. I can then decide whether I want to bet or check behind. When he called the turn, I didn’t really think my pair of sevens was usually the best hand.

River Action: The river is the 7. The board now reads J 7 4 2 7. Villain checks, and King bets $2,000. Villain calls and shows K J. King shows 10 7 for trips. King wins the pot of $5,930.

KA: That was a pretty big river bet. Why did you decide to put in a pot-size bet?

CK: The reason I bet $2,000 is because I didn’t think that he was ever folding a jack. I think he’d call almost any bet, so instead of betting something more conventional like $700 or $800 here for value, I bet $2,000, both because he was the type of player who could call a lot of the time and because I thought it could look pretty “bluffy.” I’d been playing aggressively, so certainly it could look like I was trying to buy the pot. Mostly, I just didn’t think he was the type of player who could make a tough fold in this spot.

This is where a lot of the money-making comes from in cash games — these value-bets. When you are playing a deep-stacked live cash game where you’re not exactly getting it all in preflop every other hand with A-K, aces, and kings, it’s about getting the most value out of your hands. It’s really important not to miss value in spots like this. You have to consider what they have and think about what is the most they are going to pay off. I like the $2,000 bet here, because it looks like it’s trying to look as strong as possible, so it’s really hard to fold a jack here.

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