Stop and Think

Previously I gave an introduction into a poker game plan and spoke about why it is necessary for you to have one if you want to be successful in modern day online cash games. In this issue I am going to talk about the biggest mistake I see from amateur players – playing good hands poorly!

I would say the most common and largest mistake I see amateurs make is that they will turn value hands into bluffs. They will often justify this by saying, ‘well, I found out where I was at’. If somebody six-bets pocket Jacks and then folds to an all-in before their opponent shows pocket Queens most people would be impressed. Heck, some people may even say, wow this guy is a real card shark! If they do then generally they won’t understand the real fundamentals of the game. Let’s break it down a little bit to the real basics of poker to understand why.

Although there are some very advanced ways of approaching a bet, if for small stakes we only ever consider a bet to be one of the following two things we will be fine:

I make this type of bet because I expect my opponent to call me with a worse range. For example, an opponent raises to $3 from the cutoff in a $100NL game. I am on the button with K-K and decide to make it $9 because I think he will continue in the hand with a weaker range than K-K. Just because he may have A-A doesn’t mean we don’t make a raise!

I make this type of bet because I expect my opponent to fold a range that is stronger than my hand. For example, an opponent raises to $6 from the small blind in a $200NL game. I am in the big blind with Q-4 suited and decide to make it $18 because I think he will fold a lot of better hands.

It is very important to understand the concept of both types of bet. Even if you think they are simple, read again and think them through. Let’s look at the following decision. We are playing in a $100NL six-max Zoom game on PokerStars and an unknown player with a 100BB stack raises to $3.50 from under the gun. We are in the cutoff and look down at Ac-Ks. It is automatically in our head that A-K is such a good hand so most amateurs won’t even think about both our opponent’s range and their own range. Generally all of the hands that we dominate now such as A-J, A-Q, and K-Q are going to have a very easy time folding if we decide to raise. If we continue with this plan we are likely to either win a small pot (he folds to our reraise) win a medium pot (he calls our three-bet and folds on the flop) or lose a big pot.

Now let’s look at the merits of calling instead. When we call we allow other hands to come into the pot, especially the blinds who may feel ‘priced in’. Hands that they will often call with will be A-x suited, K-9, and A-T which we will be able to play very well against. Secondly we allow people behind us to bluff – as we have shown a sign of weakness in these relatively aggressive games – we allow people to keep the betting round open and our hand plays very well versus somebody who squeezes.

In this spot, three-betting the first opener probably wont be the max EV play. A lot of amateurs will often have predetermined actions designed into their flawed game plan simply because of hand strength without considering the opener’s range and position, their own range and position and the range of the other players in the hand.