Advanced Holdem Hand Examples

Continued from: Intermediate Poker Hand Example In this last, advanced Holdem hand example, I'd like to illustrate a poker hand that moves us just a bit into some strategic subtleties. If you can learn to consider all of these things in the middle of an actual game, you are well on your way to becoming a great player.

Now, the next interesting hand you pick up is JTh, you are on the dealer button again, and both of the players to act limped into the pot (they just called the big blind). It'll cost you 50 to play. Do you...

• a) Call
• b) Fold
• c) Raise

Remember that callers are losers in Holdem, and you should rarely ever call before the flop. You should always raise or fold before the flop, excepting very special circumstances. This is one of those circumstances. Why? You have a hand that plays very well after the flop, and especially in a multi player pot, but one that doesn't rate to be the best hand right now. You are also in great position (the button), and you are getting pot odds that are too enticing to turn down (with two limpers and the blinds the pot contains 175, and it will only cost you 50 to call; that's better than 3 to 1 odds, and you have a speculative hand and the dealer button). This is a clear call. Now, the small blind, Dutty raises to double the blind, he makes it 100 to go. Mamma folds in the BB, and Rex and Jake both put in the other 50 to call. Action is to you. Do you...

• a) Call
• b) Fold
• c) Raise

Well, that bet should raise some very serious suspicion. Dutty elected to make a very, very small raise that would almost surely be called. That's what players do when they have huge hands and want action. He also knows he has to play this hand out of position all the way. Why would he do that? It's possible that he's trying some sort of elaborate fancy play and he's going to try to represent aces, but he'd have to think that you and every other player at the table were astute enough to pick up on it and then believe it. Even at that it would be risky; suppose his fake Aces get out drawn. Nope, he has AA. Almost definitely, he has two bullets.

So, do you fold now knowing he has the Aces? Nope, you absolutely do not. The pot contains 450 chips, and it costs you another 50 to play. You are getting 9 to 1 on your call, and you would therefore have to make this call with almost any hand. There are just too many chips in the pot to fold to another 50. You're on "auto call" (you'd call with any two cards). You have to proceed with caution, and you will surely fold if you don't improve on the flop. You're hoping for a huge flop that will allow you to trap Dutty for all his chips. It's unlikely, but it's not unlikely enough to fold when you're getting such a huge price on your call (9 to 1). Just put your money in and pray.

Dealing the flop: 9h Qh 4s. That's a great flop for your hand, it gives you a straight draw and a flush draw. The only problem with it is that it looks very scary to someone holding an over-pair such as AA. Dutty is first to act and elects to check the hand (which is what we wanted - he's probably looking to check-raise). Now we that hope no one bets so we can take a free card off to hit our straight or flush. It checks to you, so naturally you take the free card (check) to see if you can hit one of your outs. You check.

Fourth street comes: Ad. Now the board is 9h Qh 4s Ad. That's a very interesting card. It missed your hand and it surely hit someone else's, but it wasn't a particularly bad card either. Anyone who had an Ace in their hand was already beating you, and more importantly, if Dutty has just made a set of Aces (three of a kind), we just added an enormous amount of "implied odds" to the equation.

Let me explain. If you are allowed to see the last card and it gives you a straight or a flush, Dutty will have to pay off a pretty large bet on the end if he has, in fact, made three Aces. Let's see what happens. Dutty is, again, first to act and decides to make a pretty large bet - he bets 600 chips into a 500 dollar pot. The action folds around to you. Ouch, that's bad. Now you have to decide what to do. You have 2000 in chips left, Dutty has 2500 left, and it will cost you 600 to see fifth street. There's now 1100 in the middle. Do you...

• a) Call
• b) Raise
• c) Fold

That's an interesting dilemma. It would cost you 600 chips to play for a pot that currently contains only 1100; that means you're not even getting 2 to 1 on your call. We really have to count your outs to make a good decision. Well, any heart gives you a flush and there are nine unseen hearts, also any 8 or any King gives you a straight and there are 4 of each of those. But we already counted the hearts, so we only pick up 6 extra outs with the 8's and Kings. That gives us 8+9 = 17 total outs; if we multiply that number by two we get a pretty good idea of what percent chance we have of hitting our hand. Looks like we're about 34% to hit our hand, which means it'll happen about 1 time in 3. If we're going to hit one time in three we need to be getting 2 to 1 on our money to make it a break even call.

The pot is paying almost what we need to call, so how do we decide? The answer is in the implied odds. You see, if Dutty has anything at all he'll have to pay off some kind of bet at the end, and if he's made 3 Aces he'll have to pay off a very large bet, maybe all of his chips. So you see, the pot only contains 1100 chips now, but it is actually a lot bigger than that once you figure in the implied odds. If Dutty has made a set there's a lot of implied money in the pot. That's why the Ad was not a bad card for you. It actually gave you a chance to bust somebody and double up, and that's what tournament poker is all about. I think an argument could be made for raising, calling, or folding, but I think this is a call. I don't think you want to raise, although it might add some deception to your hand and give you a better chance to double up if you hit your hand. I don't want to give Dutty a chance to raise you off the hand. You could surely fold - that's a pretty large bet to call on a draw, but I think the additional implied odds make this a call.

Dealing fifth street: 2h. You just made your flush. Dutty checks the hand to you. There's 1700 in the pot, you have 1400, and clearly you're going to bet your flush. The only real question is how much to bet. It's a difficult question and one that could be argued in different ways. I like a bet of 700 chips here - it's almost ½ of the size of the pot. The pot would then contain 2500 and he would have to call 800 more, that's more than 3 to 1. He'll probably pay it off with AK, and will definitely pay it off with a set of aces. The reason I like this bet size is three-fold: 1) it's consistent with other bets you'll be making; 2) it offers good pot odds for your opponent's call; and 3) if called, it leaves Dutty with few chips if he calls and loses, therefore encouraging him to move all-in. Of course you would call.

Action to Dutty, he calls and turns over AA. We played the hand perfectly.

We just took the chip lead with that last pot. Now it's just a matter of thriving and surviving.

And as always, until next time; Good "luck!"

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