Short & Interesting NLHE Strategy Posts
This thread is for sharing any short and sweet strategy related posts. I'll make an effort to add to this every few days or so.
To kick this off I will blatantly steal today's "Hand of the Week" from one of my favorites, Mr. Ed Miller. (*with credit of course - click here for the original article.)
To kick this off I will blatantly steal today's "Hand of the Week" from one of my favorites, Mr. Ed Miller. (*with credit of course - click here for the original article.)
A Turn Barrel With An Unexpected Result
Hand Of The Week #6
This hand is from a $2-$5 no-limit game in Las Vegas. Stacks are about $500 effective.
I write about the concept in this hand frequently. But it's a vital part of my strategy, and it came up yet again in normal play, so I figured I'd write again about it.
A recreational tourist player limped under the gun. I made it $20 from middle position with 7♦6♦. Everyone folded to the limper who called.
The flop came T♣7♠3♥
My opponent checked, and I bet $30. One could make an argument for checking back with middle pair, but I always bet with position on a flop like this one against a typical (i.e., generally passive) recreational player. I can get called by worse. Also I'm setting up opportunities later in the hand to fold out better. I'm not worried about getting check-raise bluffed.
My opponent called. The turn was the Q♣. My opponent checked.
I bet $90. I'm turning my pair into a bluff. I could be ahead, but I could also easily be behind to a ten, a better seven, or a pair like 9-9. It's difficult, however, for my opponent to hold a hand better than a pair of tens here. Because the board is disjointed, two pair hands are unlikely unless my opponent is playing nearly every starting hand (which he wasn't). Sets are always a long shot. And he'd have to have called the flop with a hand like A-Q or K-Q to have a queen. This is certainly possible, but it's just a small portion of his total range of hands.
If he calls, I plan to use live read information during his call to determine whether to bluff the river. This is one reason I shaded my turn bet on the big side. If I bet small, my opponent is both more likely to call with a ten and more likely to do so without much thought. He's more likely to keep his normal rhythm of play, which gives me less information.
If I bet like I mean business, my recreational opponent is more likely to react in a way that tells me how he feels about his hand. I can fairly reliably in a significant percentage of cases tell the difference between a call with A-Q and a call with A-T or even T-9. The A-Q calls will be made more quickly and with a higher degree of relaxation.
Anyway, all that analysis became moot as my opponent check-raised me to $220. I folded. He most likely held Q-T or flopped a set.
There are two major ideas in this hand. First, flops like T-7-3 rainbow are great ones to fire two or even three barrels on. It's just plain hard to make a good-looking hand on a board like this one, and many players will abandon almost everything by the river. The queen overcard on the turn is an ideal barrel card, so I would rarely pass on the opportunity to fire again.
In this particular hand, it's possible I got bluffed, but more likely (given the way most folks play at $2-$5) that my opponent held two pair or better. Note that by raising the turn, my opponent saved me the embarrassment of firing the river and getting snapped off. As I said above, it's not a lock that I would fire the river, but because I can expect most players to raise two pair or stronger by the turn, if the hand does get to the river I'm likely looking at a range of one pair hands. This is a range I might want to bluff against.
The second idea is about live reads. Much of my live no-limit game is about putting people into slightly uncomfortable situations and then watching them react. There is usually a lot of information in the reaction--information that I'd miss out on if I didn't push the envelope.
Comments
Think abstract, and with random cards:
bonus points, from the comments:
(link)
If I had 3 of these per day, I wouldn't feel a need to troll trigs.
P.S. THAT'S RIGHT FUCKERS!
lol, well here are a couple more. pretty basic and nothing special. i wasn't originally going to post them, but since you so desperately need them...
An Introduction to Bet-Timing Poker Tells | PokerNews
Understanding What It Means to Be Pot Commited
quoted trig's articles to keep the format going:
Nice.
[HOTW] Attacking A Capped Range
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCO0c7fJ1pQ
+1. i think brokos is one of the best at analyzing and explaining the thought process in poker.
here's another article from him. nothing complicated, but still a good read.
Thinking Poker: One of Those Nights | PokerNews
That is all.
yeah, i read that one before it was posted here and i thought it was kind of a strange article. i think i get what he's going for, but considering this is an article that is directed at newb players or weak players, i find it very dangerous to be teaching them that they should not be folding in these situations. obviously, he never says anything like "do this all the time" or "never fold here", but still i thought it could lead to some poor play from weak players.
Those of you who play with me know I never fold anyway, so no issue here!
Gonna need to learn some new moves, I guess.
i generally like ed's posts. idk, i just had a strange feeling about this one.