In my last column, I discussed the importance of deception in no-limit hold'em tournaments. The bluff is one of the tools the deceptive player uses to rob his opponents of their valuable chips, and the overbet is part of his weaponry. The larger your stack, the more intimidating your bluff or overbet, of course. Sometimes you will see a player with a big stack vastly overbet the pot, and sometimes he will do it with a legitimate hand rather than the marginal hand that you might suspect him of having. For example, in the middle stages of a tournament with a $50 ante and $200-$400 blinds, a reasonable bring-in raise would be a total of $1,200-$1,600. Instead, a player with a tall stack – or someone with a medium to short stack who has decided to take a stand – brings it in for $4,000.
What happens when a player makes such a huge overbet? Oftentimes, a player with a big stack has been bullying the table with medium-strength hands and getting away with it, so he simply is continuing that tactic. This type of player is often willing to go farther with his overbet than a more conservative player, and he won't necessarily back off if you decide to play with him. Of course, sometimes he has a strong hand and makes the overbet hoping an opponent will believe he is weaker than he is. Thinking the aggressor can't always have the hands he's advertising via his overbets, a caller holding A-Q may decide to take a stand – and then find himself looking down the barrel of two aces or two kings. Naturally, the aggressor has a chance of winning a gigantic pot when this happens.
It's never easy to make a close judgment decision against an aggressive player. For that reason, aggression can reap a big harvest of chips. Sometimes, however, the aggressor will make what I believe to be a strategic mistake: He will move in lots of chips with a big overbet before the flop, get reraised, and then lay down the hand. Of course, you sometimes do have to fold. For example, suppose that you have put in an oversized bet with the K
Q. The only player at the table who could possibly bust your big stack then moves in with a mountainous raise. In this case, you'll simply have to fold.
But what if someone with a medium stack of only $8,000 decides to take a stand and throws in all of his chips against your $4,000 raise? In this case, you would not be quite as likely to give up your K Q, although you might suspect that you are taking the worst of it. The pot will be laying you a big enough price (in fact, you have forced it to do just that) to warrant the gamble. Of course, remember that you could have avoided this situation by not overbetting the pot in the first place. On the other hand, overbetting the pot against short stacks is often correct. You are forcing your opponents to jeopardize all of their chips, not necessarily before the flop, but after the flop when they will have to put in the rest of their chips to continue.
Defending against a deceptive player who overbets the pot requires that you have an excellent "read" on him. Let me give you a good example: I once saw Johnny Chan make a class call at the final table of the World Series of Poker. He was playing against Irishman Noel Furlong, who had won many pots by making huge oversized bets. In sixhanded play, Furlong was the chip leader. When he made a modest $30,000 preflop raise from the big blind with pocket fours, Chan reraised $100,000 more with pocket queens. Furlong called. The flop came K-X-X. On a bluff, Furlong decided to move all in on Chan. He got a big surprise: Chan called him with his queens, even with the king on board. Chan read Furlong perfectly, and won a gigantic pot by using his innate knowledge of his opponent to make a correct judgment call.
Hopefully, you and I can read our opponents like a book and wind up together in the winner's circle, perhaps during Bonnie Damiano's terrific tournament, the Four Queens Poker Classic.
Editor's note: Tom McEvoy is the author of Tournament Poker and the co-author, with T.J. Cloutier, of the Championship series of poker books. Visit www.pokerbooks.com for more information.