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I was recently told about a hand by a serious recreational poker player that demonstrates some major mistakes that many players make on a regular basis.
In $2 to $5 No Limit Cash Hold’em, our champion raised $30 out of the $200 effective accumulator with an A j.
While I’m fine with raising a j, the hero should use a smaller augmentation size. When he wins $30 out of a relatively small $200 pool, unless the opponents are extreme call stations, he will be called by hands that are better than his own, as well as hands that have a strong probability of improving to a better hand. flipping.
If he raises a smaller one, he can be summoned by several of the lower hands he controls. Realize that just because the number of players in small and medium games increases the stakes dramatically doesn’t mean you have to.
The small curtain, which is known as a call station, was called. A permutation came 4 3. The opponent checked and the champion bet $50 of the $170 in the $65 pot.
I despise this bet size because again, unless the opponent is a calling station, he will fold most of his marginal hands, which are the exact hands the champion wants to keep in the pot. Instead, the champion must bet about $20, which will result in the challenger calling so many junk hands that they almost get deathmatches against the higher champion pair. Know that even though the opponent is a call station, they won’t ask for a $50 bet with a junk like KJ’s.
Contact the opponent. The role was for J And checked both players.
This is an interesting place because the bet has ballooned to $165 and the champion only has $120 in his pool. Since the opponent called the champion’s big flop bet, it is logical to think that his range is mostly aces. If that’s the case, the champion has to go all out in order to get value from those hands before the board gets even more intimidating, like when a river is a fifth, a devil, or a third club.
A small bet is also an option if Hero believes the opponent will call a small bet with all sorts of scraps, such as K-4.
The only time check that makes sense is if the champion thinks the opponent’s range is too thin because the opponent rarely folds the flop in any reasonable hand, but that is probably not the case because of the high flop bet.
The river was 2. Hero all-in discount mode for $120.
While the deuce is a decently bad card for the champion as he now loses for all hands of five, he would probably make the call against a loose and slick opponent.
It is important to realize that the champion should have relatively few fives in his range, which means that his best hands are combinations and twos. If Hero folds the top two pairs in this case, he folds almost every hand he has. If you’re up against someone who might fold almost their entire stack into a river bet, all you have to do is bet all your possible holdings, winning the bet almost every time.
Champion called and lost to opponent 5 5respectively.
While Hero would have likely lost this hand, he would have made a lot of money in the pot as a big favorite by betting on the turn. ♠
Jonathan Little runs twice WPT Champion with over $7 million in live tournament earnings, Bestselling Author of 15 Poker Tutorial Books, 2019 GPI Poker Person of the Year. If you want to sharpen your poker skills and learn how to crush games, check out his training site at PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.