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I was recently told about a poker hand that illustrates some of the major mistakes that many amateur players make on a regular basis.
Fairly early on in a $500 buy-in tournament with blinds at 200-400 with the big blind at 400, a live entertainment player in first place was raised to 800 from his effective stack of 12,000 and the player in the cut, which was loose and negative, Named. The hero looked down at A
K
On the button and three bets up to 2100.
Although three-card betting with your best hand is definitely the right play, you should make it a little larger, perhaps to 3,400.
The problem with hitting 2100 is that your opponents don’t make many mistakes by calling most of their range due to their excellent pot odds. Even if you have AA, you would prefer that hands like 6-6, QJ, and 9-8 are suitable for either three or multiple times the larger bet.
As expected, both opponents made contact. The confusion came
8 5, giving the champion the highest pair. It all went to Hero, who bet $3,300 into the $7,200 pot.
While the small 3-ante bet was a mistake, the small flop bet is perfect. Note that if the bet is called, the pot will be 13,800 and the remaining combinations will be 6,500, allowing for an easy 50% all-in bet on safe spins.
If the champion bets more, he may encourage his opponents to make big folds with cards like 9-9 or 9-8, which would be disastrous, since those hands become weak. There is no point in betting large amounts in order to “protect” against withdrawals because most withdrawals will get the right price even if it is a huge bet. In general, with strong hands, your main concern should be getting value from less good hands, not forcing your opponents to fold hands that crush you.
Only the player in first place calls. It was floor 9. The player in first place went all-in.
At this point, I think the champion has an easy barn. While it excels at the obvious missing flush draws and exaggerated odd pairs, most straight recreational players will still check those hands.
Most likely, the opponent has a suitable 7-6, A-9, or 9-8, all of which crush the champion’s top pair, the best kicker. Even if the opponent has some Flash Pulls in range, the hero still has to retreat because there are relatively few combinations of Flash Pulls. Even then, they still have a good chance of improving the river.
The champion made the typical mistake of calling, greatly overestimating the value of his top pair. As expected, the opponent had 7 6 Because playing straight turned into straight.
Many amateur players assume that this is something even cooler, but the hero should have realized that he was against a powerful range and made a disciplined effort. Don’t think you’re “pot bound” just because you have half your total in the pot. If you are drawing dead, you will never be committed to fate.
In this case against this particular opponent, I would cancel playing A-9 and make better hands. When playing small bets, if you have no reason to believe that your opponent is getting out of line, it is usually best to assume that he has something to stand for.
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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.
