Hank Scorpio
02-18-2007, 04:57 PM
Just wanted to talk a little about two of the biggest mistakes I see at 50 NL from the typical players.
1. Overbetting the Pot (With Large Pots)
There's nothing wrong with betting pot on the river if your hand is well-concealed. For example, if you slow played a set with a flush draw possible, then betting out pot on the river is a very good way of getting money. What I'm talking about are instances when it becomes apparent that your hand is complete.
For example, if you're drawing to a flush on both my flop and turn bets, and the river brings the third suited card, betting pot is probably one of the dumbest things you can do. For one, I'm showing strength by betting both the flop and the turn and I realize that the only way you're betting out on the river is if you complete your draw. So many times recently has this happened to me, making my decision on the river much easier than it should be.
If you do complete your draw, you must bet for value. If the pot is around $30 and I have a set and you only bet $15 into it, I'm going to call. My call is probably wrong, but I can illogically justify it by convincing myself that I'm getting 3-1 and that the hand can also be used for future information. Compare this to betting $30 on the river. Unless my opponent is an idiot, I'm folding this close to always.
It should also be mentioned that these situations refer to examples when your opponent is good. Against a fish betting pot is probably better, but I still believe a bet close to 2/3 of the pot is more effective as I’ve experimented with this and even many of this fish can lay down two pair to a large, pot-sized bet.
An observation that can be inferred from all of this has to do with the principal of chasing draws in general. In most cases, it's only worth chasing a draw (assuming your opponent is pricing you out) on the flop. This is simply due to the reasons mentioned earlier: your implied odds just aren’t high enough to be chasing. A more effective approach is betting or raising with draws (this is poker 101, though).
2. Check Raising Sucks
Last night I was playing a game against a below-average player. I had been involved in a ton of hands with him before and he was playing a tight, passive style (I was pushing him around). I was dealt K /images/graemlins/diamond.gifK /images/graemlins/club.gif and the flop came J /images/graemlins/diamond.gif7 /images/graemlins/club.gif4 /images/graemlins/spade.gif. We both had stacks of close to 3 times the buy-in. The pot is around $5 and he checks to me. I bet $4 and he immediately check-raises to $18. Before I call or push, I evaluate the situation. I know he doesn’t have JJ+ as that would have called for a PF re-raise with him being out of position in the big blind. Why would such a passive player re-raise that much on such a dry board? I then put him on a set. The only hand that I could beat, besides a complete bluff (which wouldn’t make sense with his style) was AJ. Because of the size of our stacks and the fact that I knew I would be risking a ton of money (three buyins), I decided to lay it down.
Now, you might disagree with the way I played that hand, but that’s not important here. What I’m trying to say is that check-raising on the flop is extremely bad if you have a very good hand or even just a good hand on a dry board (and to a lesser extent, a draw-heavy board since it allows free cards). It makes your hand very transparent at that point and there isn’t much more money you’ll be getting from your opponent if he is at least a little smart. A much better approach might be check-raising the turn, since it has a good chance of making the pot very big at that point and possibly committing your opponent to the pot. If you’re the type who wants to have this move in your game, just remember that you must balance it out with bluffs at least once in awhile. The only problem with this is that you’re risking a lot for a little.
A lot of this might seem so obvious, but I played a long session last night and couldn’t believe the amount of times both plays happened to me. Everyone’s welcome to discuss this further.
1. Overbetting the Pot (With Large Pots)
There's nothing wrong with betting pot on the river if your hand is well-concealed. For example, if you slow played a set with a flush draw possible, then betting out pot on the river is a very good way of getting money. What I'm talking about are instances when it becomes apparent that your hand is complete.
For example, if you're drawing to a flush on both my flop and turn bets, and the river brings the third suited card, betting pot is probably one of the dumbest things you can do. For one, I'm showing strength by betting both the flop and the turn and I realize that the only way you're betting out on the river is if you complete your draw. So many times recently has this happened to me, making my decision on the river much easier than it should be.
If you do complete your draw, you must bet for value. If the pot is around $30 and I have a set and you only bet $15 into it, I'm going to call. My call is probably wrong, but I can illogically justify it by convincing myself that I'm getting 3-1 and that the hand can also be used for future information. Compare this to betting $30 on the river. Unless my opponent is an idiot, I'm folding this close to always.
It should also be mentioned that these situations refer to examples when your opponent is good. Against a fish betting pot is probably better, but I still believe a bet close to 2/3 of the pot is more effective as I’ve experimented with this and even many of this fish can lay down two pair to a large, pot-sized bet.
An observation that can be inferred from all of this has to do with the principal of chasing draws in general. In most cases, it's only worth chasing a draw (assuming your opponent is pricing you out) on the flop. This is simply due to the reasons mentioned earlier: your implied odds just aren’t high enough to be chasing. A more effective approach is betting or raising with draws (this is poker 101, though).
2. Check Raising Sucks
Last night I was playing a game against a below-average player. I had been involved in a ton of hands with him before and he was playing a tight, passive style (I was pushing him around). I was dealt K /images/graemlins/diamond.gifK /images/graemlins/club.gif and the flop came J /images/graemlins/diamond.gif7 /images/graemlins/club.gif4 /images/graemlins/spade.gif. We both had stacks of close to 3 times the buy-in. The pot is around $5 and he checks to me. I bet $4 and he immediately check-raises to $18. Before I call or push, I evaluate the situation. I know he doesn’t have JJ+ as that would have called for a PF re-raise with him being out of position in the big blind. Why would such a passive player re-raise that much on such a dry board? I then put him on a set. The only hand that I could beat, besides a complete bluff (which wouldn’t make sense with his style) was AJ. Because of the size of our stacks and the fact that I knew I would be risking a ton of money (three buyins), I decided to lay it down.
Now, you might disagree with the way I played that hand, but that’s not important here. What I’m trying to say is that check-raising on the flop is extremely bad if you have a very good hand or even just a good hand on a dry board (and to a lesser extent, a draw-heavy board since it allows free cards). It makes your hand very transparent at that point and there isn’t much more money you’ll be getting from your opponent if he is at least a little smart. A much better approach might be check-raising the turn, since it has a good chance of making the pot very big at that point and possibly committing your opponent to the pot. If you’re the type who wants to have this move in your game, just remember that you must balance it out with bluffs at least once in awhile. The only problem with this is that you’re risking a lot for a little.
A lot of this might seem so obvious, but I played a long session last night and couldn’t believe the amount of times both plays happened to me. Everyone’s welcome to discuss this further.