Looking Past Pre-flop Poker
I received a lot of good feedback on my recent M article and students are saying that they are learning how to play pre-fl op poker better but still struggle with how to play optimally post-fl op in tournament poker. So this article is the fi rst in a series of articles on postfl op play, beginning with what I consider the most important aspect, controlling the size of the pot.
When you have a vulnerable hand, keep the pot small. You can achieve this by doing more check-calling and making half pot-sized bets with hands that have some value for a showdown but are not worth committing much of your stack. This can help you lose less when your opponent has a slightly better hand, and it can actually help you win more by getting your opponents to put you on a weaker range and inducing them to bluff.
Example: You have K-Q suited on a Q-9-3 rainbow board. The opponent who opened pre-fl op makes a continuation bet. You should elect to just call here and not try to play a big pot, because your opponent can’t call a reraise with any hands that you’re ahead of and hands you are behind probably aren’t going to fold to a reraise very often. Then, if he bets again on the turn, you have to go with your read of the player and consider the size of his bet, your stack size, whether there is a draw or second pair he could be betting, etc. If he checks the turn, check it behind him and keep this pot small because your hand is vulnerable. If he checks the river to you, you need to value bet. If he bets the river after checking the turn you need to call it down. When he has A-Q you’re going to lose fewer chips or get away on the turn, and when he has A-K you are going to get him to take an extra stab on the river.
Your goal should be to get all your chips in the middle when you have a clear edge. This sounds quite obvious, but it is something that many players forget all the time and cost themselves by not playing the hand in a way that can get all of the chips in. This can mean that they are either betting too large an amount on the fl op ñ when they should be betting less and getting the money in gradually by the river ñ or they are betting too small and the pot does not become large enough to make a bet on the river that will get the rest of the chips in.
Example: You have 9-9 and open to $300 at $50/$100 blinds with a $10k stack from UTG. The button and SB, also with about $10k each, call. There is $1000 in the pot now, and the fl op is A-9-3, the SB checks and it’s your turn, and you just check because ìyou don’t want to scare anyone off the hand.î The button bets $500, the SB folds, and you call $500. Now the turn comes up a K. You check to the button because surely he has an ace and will bet again, but now he checks the turn as well. On the river you now realize you need to bet and you put in a pot-sized bet of $2k and your opponent calls with A-Q. You add $3200 to your stack.
Now consider this approach. On the fl op, instead of checking, you bet the size of the pot ($1k) and when the button calls the pot is up to $3k. Then on the turn, you bet two thirds of the pot for $2k more and the button calls again. Now the pot is $7k. On the river, you can bet your last $6700 into the $7k pot. If he folds, you are still winning almost twice the amount from the fi rst scenario. If he calls, you are going to double up and win a much larger pot.
In this spot you should realize that with two opponents calling a pre-fl op raise there’s a good chance one of them has an ace and will call a fl op bet and then some. Therefore, your most profi table play is to bet out strong on the fl op. Sometimes this aggressive approach might scare off some hands that would call if the bets were smaller, but many players make a decision to call based on their hand strength and not the size of your bet. In fact, some players often read large bets for weakness. In the above example, the player with A-Q might even help you get your stack in by raising you on the fl op.
Sometimes the only way to get your opponent’s chips in is to play it slower. If you are up against a laggy player who you know will play the hand hard all the way if you take a weak line, then that can be the right thing to do. It is sometimes worth ìletting your opponents catch upî so they make a hand they can comfortably call with. This is a different technique to maximize value but still falls into the same principle of playing the hand in a way that gets all of the chips in when you have a clear edge.
Example: Stacks are again $10k and blinds $50/$100. If you have A-A pre-fl op in middle position and an early raiser makes an open raise, it can often be the right play to just smooth call and see if someone else three-bets ñ either way you have a disguised hand going into the fl op. This may keep the pot smaller in the immediate present but it can ensure that there is a pot at all. If you three-bet pre-fl op then your range is narrowed down to hands similar to what you have and there is a much smaller chance that you get any action from the remaining players. So you go ahead and smooth call and the fl op is A-4-4 with two hearts. Your opponent is an aggressive regular and makes a continuation bet of $500 into the pot of $750. You should just smooth call here and see if he can hit a fl ush or something. It would be a mistake to raise him here to try to build the pot. If you get checked here it would make sense to check behind and bet small on the turn to try to get value from underpairs or weak aces that would fold to a larger bet but might look you up on a weaker one.
