Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (30 page)

This flop probably hit your opponent’s raising range fairly hard, as it consists mostly of aces. If your opponent bets, you should strongly consider raising. If he has an ace, he will be quite willing to put a lot of money in the pot while drawing near dead. If you were out of position in one of the blinds, you could check-raise for value.

You may do better by check-calling the flop and check-raising the turn if you’re out of position with 9-9 on the A-K-9 board. This may be a slightly better line against players who will fire two barrels any time their opponent shows weakness by just calling the flop. When you’re raised or check-raised on the turn, your opponent will usually show up with an overly strong hand. Watch for these situations and don’t pay him off.

Weak players raise and check-raise hands like top pair. This is one of their biggest leaks. Raising the flop with top pair usually turns your strong made hand into a bluff, as most thinking opponents will only continue if they can beat top pair. Also, you tend to be in terrible shape if you’re four-bet on the flop.

Suppose you have A
-J
in the big blind and call a middle-position raise to 3BBs. You both have 100BBs. The flop comes J
-10
-2
.

Your opponent bets 5BBs and you check-raise to 15BBs. In this spot, if your opponent raises or calls, you are usually in fairly bad shape. Also, notice that there are numerous bad turn cards for your hand. Any heart, A, K, Q, 10, 9, 8 or 7 could give you a strong, but second-best hand. If your opponent re-raises you on the flop, you should almost always fold, but many weak players stack off with top pair, top kicker. Clearly, you are almost always beat here if your opponent is willing to put a lot of money in the pot. If you have J-10 instead of A-J on this board, you should be very willing to get the money in, as your opponent could have an overpair, top pair or draw and be willing to get all-in. Basically, if you see someone raising the flop with top pair, be willing to wait for a hand that can beat it and look to get all the money in.

Simply put, I don’t raise too often on the flop because very strong hands don’t come around too often, and also because I rarely bluff the flop by raising. By keeping the pot fairly small on the flop, you can generate better reads and extract more value later in the hand when your edge is greater.

Leading into the Pre-flop Raiser

We learned in the bluffing section that leading into the pre-flop raiser is a great way to pick up pots from time to time. While I rarely donk-bet, some players have integrated the play into their game with decent success.

The standard play when out of position and not the pre-flop raiser is to check to the raiser. This has become so common that any other play feels weird. Because of this, most players have very little experience dealing with habitual donk-bettors. Most good players that donk-bet over 30 percent of the time are making these plays with a wide range of hands, although they tend to lead with most of their stronger hands as well as semi-bluffs. They also realize that the best hands for donk-betting are those with which they would normally not call or check-raise.

Suppose you call a middle-position raise with K
-J
in the big blind. The flop comes 10
-8
-3
.