Information in Tricky Spots

Distributed By Wise Hand Poker, Nov 2007

Playing deeply stacked no-limit hold’em successfully involves knowing when even better hands beat your very good hands. Both passive and aggressive lines of play can help you piece this information together.

Information Gained From Passiveness

If an opponent makes a large bet with respect to the pot, and you call, he will typically give you credit for having some kind of legitimate hand. If an opponent bets big again after you’ve already called one large bet, he usually has a very good hand – something on the order of two pair involving the top board card at a minimum. Calling can sometimes put you to tough decisions later in a hand, but sometimes, your opponents’ actions will be crystal clear after you’ve made a call.

Information Gained From Aggression

When opponents lead into you or raise, you can raise. Suppose you’re playing $200NL. Everybody has $200. Preflop, action folds to you, and you raise to $8 with QQ from the cutoff. The button folds, and the two blinds call. The flop is J95 rainbow. Your opponents check, you bet $12, the small blind folds, and the big blind raises to $24. If you call, chances are that you’ll face a sizeable bet on the turn…something on the order of $45. Instead of facing a $45ish bet on the turn, you can invest $36 by reraising to $48. By reraising, you completely define your hand. Many times, this reraise will take the pot down immediately or result in your opponent checking down with you to the river. When your opponent 4-bets you or calls on the flop, following up with aggression on the turn or the river, chances are very good that your overpair is beaten.

Always Play Your Opponents

Sometimes, you’ll face opponents who are very straightforward – a check-raise or a sizeable lead on the flop signifies power. Against these types, simply fold. Other opponents can be very tricky and are unwilling to back down. They consistently fire three big bullets, or they are willing to call a 3-bet on the flop with the intention of bluffing the turn or the river. Against opponents like these, play hand distribution match-up poker. Their betting distributions will generally be wider than their calling distributions, so a great way to make your life easy is simply to call/call/call.

No-limit hold’em is a game of tricky decisions. Sometimes you can make your decisions easier, but you can’t be a great player until you’re willing to embrace the tough decisions. And instead of taking things personally when you make mistakes, learn from your mistakes because lessons from your mistakes are possibly the most important information of all.