On fourth street, there are many situations in which you are responding to your opponents' play as opposed to being the first to act. When being bet into on the turn, there are many variables to consider in determining the best course of action. Your own hand, the board, the previous betting action, the current betting action, the number of opponents, and so forth are just a few. Learning to properly address these variables in order to come up with the best play is the hallmark of a good player.
The following hands were taken from live games. Not all of the plays leading up to the problem in question are necessarily correct, but they are usually reasonable.
Hand No. 1 ($20-$40 game): You are in the cutoff seat with the A
3
. You open with a steal-raise. Only the big blind calls. There is $90 in the pot and two players. The flop is A A
8, giving you trip aces. Your opponent checks, you bet, and he calls. There is $130 in the pot. The turn is the 2. Your opponent now comes out betting. What should you do?
Answer: Raise. While your opponent may have the case ace, he is more likely to be semibluffing a heart-flush draw or some other kind of hand that you can beat. Keep in mind that this is a blind vs. steal-raiser situation. Make him pay to draw against you. Merely calling might have been considered if the turn card had been the 2
instead of the 2.
Hand No. 2 ($15-$30 game): You open with a raise from middle position with the A Q. Only the small blind calls. There is $75 in the pot and two players. The flop is 10 7 2, leaving you with overcards. Your opponent checks, you bet, and he calls. There is $105 in the pot. The turn is the K, giving you a gutshot-straight draw with one overcard. Your opponent comes out betting. What should you do?
Answer: Fold. Against kings, you have seven outs, which is a 6-to-1 shot, and your current pot odds are less than 5-to-1. The J may not be an out. It is unlikely your opponent is bluffing a king, because you were the preflop raiser and a king will touch many A-K hands you could have. An ace may not even be an out.
Hand No. 3 ($30-$60 game): You are in the big blind with the Q J. It is folded to a middle-position player who opens with a raise. The small blind calls, and so do you. There is $180 in the pot and three players. The flop arrives with the Q Q 10, giving you trip queens. The small blind checks, and you check to the preflop raiser, who bets. The small blind calls. You now raise, and both opponents call. There is $360 in the pot. The turn is the 9. The small blind checks. You bet, having picked up an open-end straight draw to go with your trip queens. The preflop raiser now raises, and the small blind three-bets. What should you do?
Answer: Call, but it is close. Your trip queens are probably no good. Someone will have either a bigger queen, a straight, or a full house. Against a bigger queen, you have three outs with any jack, another four outs with any 8, plus perhaps four more outs with any king if no one has K-Q. Also, you can split the pot with a 10 or 9. Against a straight, you have 10 outs with any jack, 10, 9, or the case queen. Against queens full of tens, you have three outs to win and two outs to tie. Against queens full of nines, you have three outs to win and five outs to tie. Against an under full house (tens full of queens or nines full of queens), you have seven outs to win. Counting ties as one-half, you have anywhere from four to seven outs against a full house. Considering the three scenarios, you are anywhere from a 4-to-1 dog to an 11-to-1 dog. Your current pot odds are 6-to-1. But suppose you end up getting taken for a five-bet ride here? Your pot odds will drop to 4-to-1. If you knew you had 10 outs all the time to win the entire pot, calling would be correct. But this is far from the actual situation. On the other hand, it may not get raised again, so your pot odds may not get reduced. Folding may not be far from wrong.
Hand No. 4 ($10-$20 game): You are in middle position with the K Q. You limp in behind five other players. The cutoff and button both fold, and the small blind calls. There is $80 in the pot and eight players. The flop is 10 7 3, giving you two overcards. It is checked to the player on your right, who bets. You call because you are getting 9-to-1 pot odds and your overcard outs look clean, so you are only a 7-to-1 dog to pair on the next card. Everyone else folds. There is $100 in the pot and two players. The turn is the Q, giving you top pair, excellent kicker. Your lone opponent bets. What should you do?
Answer: Raise. The flop is scarcely of a nature to make two pair likely. If your opponent has a better hand, you will hear about it.
Hand No. 5 ($20-$40 game): You limp in with the Q J from middle position behind an early-position player and another middle-position player. The cutoff and the small blind also limp in. There is $120 in the pot and six players. The flop arrives with the Q 6 5, giving you top pair, decent kicker, and a backdoor-flush draw. The small blind checks, the big blind bets, the early-position player folds, the middle-position player calls, you raise, the cutoff and small blind fold, the big blind three-bets, the middle player folds, and you call. There is $260 in the pot and two players. The turn is the 4. The big blind bets. What should you do?
Answer: Fold. When your opponent three-bets you on the flop, the most likely situation is that you are playing three outs if he has a bigger queen or queens up. You might be playing as many as eight outs when he has the bottom two pair on the flop. If he has a set, you have no outs. Your current pot odds are about 7-to-1. The pot odds are not there to be playing anywhere from zero to eight outs. All you can beat is a draw, which seems unlikely given your opponent's strong betting. If you decide to call on the basis that your opponent is semibluffing, you will be investing another two big double bets to find out. It isn't worth it.
Hand No. 6 ($15-$30 game): You are in early position with the K Q. You limp in behind another early-position player. A middle-position player raises and both blinds call. The early-position player calls, and so do you. There is $150 in the pot and five players. The flop is 10 9 3, giving you a gutshot-straight draw, a backdoor-flush draw, and two overcards. Everyone checks. The turn is the Q, giving you top pair, excellent kicker. The small blind checks, the big blind bets, and the early-position player folds. What should you do?
Answer: Call, don't raise. The board is now Q-10-9, and even if your opponent is betting a queen, his kicker is likely to be paired with the board or he has you outkicked. Either you are beat, tied, or he has specifically Q-J. You also have a preflop raiser still in the hand who may have decided to slow-play something or simply not bet his A-Q into four opponents.
Hand No. 7 ($20-$40 game): You limp in from middle position with the Q J behind two early-position players. The cutoff and button call. There is $130 in the pot and six players. The flop is 8 8 2, leaving you with overcards. Everyone checks. The turn is the J, giving you top pair, decent kicker. The big blind goes all in by betting $10. The first early-position player completes the bet to $40, and the next player folds. What should you do?
Answer: Fold. When a player completes an all-in bet that is only a fraction of a bet, this action is stronger than just calling for $10. It most likely means he has trip eights or a better jack.
Editor's note: Jim Brier has co-authored a new book with Bob Ciaffone entitled Middle Limit Holdem Poker. It is available through Card Player.