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Midway through the third day of a five-day $3,500 buy-in tournament, the blinds were 4,000-8,000 with an ante of 8,000 as a big blind. I had 450k and all my opponents were covering me.
I raised it to 19,000 with J
C
From the middle position and the kidnapper was called, a loose and cheerful player. All folded.*
The flop came J
7
6.
The best hand to play slow is the first suit because when you have two top cards on the board, your opponent is unlikely to have a strong hand that can put a lot of money into the pot.
However, given the coordinated nature of this board, it is somewhat likely that my opponent will have a marginal hand or a tie. If I bet, my loose and vulgar opponent may decide to bluff, making this an excellent place to bet.
I bet 26,000 in a pot of 59,000 and my opponent called.
The role was J. That’s lucky!
Although playing slow fours certainly has an advantage, I thought the best way to get a significant portion of my total into the pot was to keep betting. If my opponent has a marginal hand like 8-8 or the middle pair, he will likely fold if I check, which would be disastrous because those hands would almost certainly call for a turn bet.
Even if my opponent decides to bet a marginal hand, he will almost certainly not bet on the river again. And if you check the role is raised, it will probably withdraw. Unless I think my opponent’s range is full of unpaired hands, betting is the only play that makes sense.
I bet 40,000 in a pot of 111,000 and my opponent called. The river was 8.
Since I thought my opponent’s range of going to the river was almost completely marginal from the hands and ties (which would now be a middle pair or straight), it didn’t make sense to bet big. Most competitors will only make a small bet using their worst hand. If for some reason I think my opponent is a calling station, a bigger bet would be ideal.
I bet 57,000 in a pot of 191,000. To my surprise, my opponent immediately raised 157,000, making him an extra 100,000.
At this point, I assumed my opponent’s range was too polarized for premium value hands and tricks. If he’s bluffing, he’ll retreat no matter what I do, so I don’t have to worry about that part of his range.
Most players are unable to move away from the hand featured in the river to any re-raise size, which means I now have to go for maximum value.
After matching my opponent’s raise, I had 207,000 left in my pool, which I paid all in. My opponent immediately called A 6a floppy bottom pair that entered the backflow, giving me a huge bowl.
I want to make it absolutely clear that I believe my opponent should have gone all-in on my river. Unless he thinks I’m blatantly crazy, my river betting/re-raising range is almost completely full with only a few bluffs.
After the hand, my opponent was berating himself for raising my initial river bet by 57,000. I think raising his river is definitely a good thing because I have to travel for a long period of time and would at least consider asking for a raise. If he thinks I’m going to call up the river with excursions, then raising the river with the flow is a great play, but if he thinks I’m going to call down the excursions to raise the river, he should just call.
If he decided to raise, as he did, he would have to be disciplined enough to walk away from his hand as soon as it became clear that I thought I was going crazy. Even when you have a very strong hand, when your opponent is playing like he has real madness, you have to be disciplined enough to get out of the way because almost no one bluffs too much in the river.
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Jonathan Little is twice WPT Champion with over $7 million in live tournament winnings, best-selling author of 15 poker instructional books, and 2019 GBI Poker Personality of the Year. If you want to increase your poker skills and learn how to crush games, visit his training site at PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.
