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Preflop
In a recent $1,500 buy-in tournament with blinds at 400-800, I raised to 2,000 out of my 80,000 stack from early position with J-J.
A tight, aggressive player called from middle position. He had been knocked down to 20,000 chips due to recently losing a big pot with K-K against Q-Q all-in preflop.
A loose, splashy player with 80,000 called from the big blind.
The Flop
The flop came 10♦5♠2♥. The big blind checked.
You should be very inclined to check when out of position in multi-way pots on middle- and low-card boards. However, it is fine to bet with your hands that are almost certainly best, but vulnerable to being outdrawn, such as your weakest overpairs and strong top pairs.
Many players bet large in this situation, hoping to avoid being outdrawn. A much better play is to bet on the smaller side, roughly 2,800 into the 6,400 pot, in order to keep your opponents in with a wide range of junky hands that you crush.
Notice that if you make a large bet and your opponents fold hands like 5-4, they are correctly folding, meaning they are playing well. Making a smaller bet that can be reasonably called by numerous inferior hands lets you to extract value and allow opponents to make errors. Remember, you want to induce your opponents to play poorly, not force them to play well.
I bet 2,800 into the 6,400 pot. Only the tight, aggressive kid called.
The Turn
The turn was the 8♣.
It is vitally important that you pay attention to the effective stack size when determining how much to bet, which is currently 15,200 with the pot being 12,000. In this situation, I want to size my bet such that I can go all-in on the river for less than the size of the pot, while at the same time not making my opponent feel ‘obviously committed’ on the turn.
If I bet 9,200 into the 12,000 pot, my opponent would only have 6,000 remaining in his stack going to the river. This would likely induce him to fold many hands that I crush on the turn, meaning I am not extracting value.
If I bet 2,400 into the 12,000 pot, my opponent would have 12,800 in his stack going to the river with a 16,800 pot. While that is a nice stack-to-pot ratio, my opponent’s turn call would be profitable with almost any two cards. Even if he is drawing thin, he’d call due to his amazing pot odds. He would only need to win 14% of the time to profitably call.
I decided to bet 4,400 out of my opponent’s 15,200 stack, and my opponent called.
The River
The river was the 9♦. I decided to go all-in for my opponent’s entire 10,800 stack into the 20,800 pot, thinking he would call with many made hands that I beat.
I lose to all slow played hands as well as 8-8 and 9-9, but going all-in is mandatory against someone who will not be inclined to turn marginal made hands into bluffs on the river.
While some players will fold top pair on the river, most will make the crying call, assuming you have a somewhat loose, aggressive image. That said, as your opponent is more maniacal or if you know they will value bet thinly when checked to, checking becomes far more reasonable.
After about four minutes of thought, my opponent folded. He presumably had one of the marginal bluff catchers I was hoping to get value from.
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Jonathan Little is a WSOP bracelet winner, two-time WPT winner, and the 2024 PokerGO Cup champion with $9 million million in live tournament earnings. He is a best-selling author of 15 educational poker books, and the 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the Year. If you want to increase your skills and learn to crush games, check out PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.
