Red Chip Poker Late Position, Chapter 11

Hands

 Taking  Taking a Passiv Passive e Line Against Aggressive Aggressive Players (Villain’s flaw)

(Difficulty rating)

(Hero’s exploit)

 As it gets later into the night, rebuys and new players bring new money onto the table faster than the rake and departing players can take it off. Stacks inevitably grow deep and this changes changes the nature of the game.  Tonight, we find most people on the table are 300+ Big Blinds deep. Standard lines with top pair top kicker at 100 Big Blinds need to be reexamined at this greater depth.  We will go over an example to help illustrate this 300+ Big Blind stack situation. $2-$5 Parx Casino Saturday 3:00am Hijack

Image:

Action:

Hand:

Starting Stack:

Hero

$30

$1600

Cutoff

Aggressive

Call

$2000

Button

More Aggressive

Call

Covers

Even in late position you can end up out of position. The Flop comes: Pot: $97

Hero

???

Range:

Starting Stack:

$1570

(Hijack)

 Aggressive

$1970

(Cuttoff)

More Aggressive

Covers

(Button)

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Red Chip Poker: Late Position

 A continuation bet seems trivial in a situation where we raise preflop and catch top pair top kicker on a draw heavy board. Undoubtedly, there are pros and cons with regards to betting or checking.  The decision whether to bet or check will be dependent on our opponents’ tendencies. One vital consideration is how often our opponents  will raise. More aggressive opponents are likely to raise this Flop with both real hands like AT and T9, and also with hands like draws. As their aggression frequencies increase they may even raise with gutshots and small pocket pairs, like 44, that did not hit a set and now are weak semi-bluffs.  When we expect to face a raise often, we need to have a plan immediately.  This not only influences whether or not we want to continuation bet, but how we will react when we face the inevitable bet or raise. However, if our opponents will only raise the Flop when they have a better hand, then we should proceed to value bet. If a passive opponent raises, they usually have the hands they are representing. Passive players are not going to semi-bluff raise with draws either. This makes their raising ranges face-up and their calling ranges face-up as well. We should value bet the Flop and fold if they raise.  Versus observant opponents, we never want to do anything 100% of the time. If we would always bet the Flop with top pair and draws, and always check-fold when we miss, a Flop check would give them the green light to take away the pot when we check to them. Rather than play this predictably, we can shift some hands into our check-call range to induce mistakes from these opponents. On this board, Ace-King is a viable option for this line. Hands that would have called our Flop bet will now also bet themselves once checked to. Ace-Queen, Jack-Ten, and draws will be prone to bet the Flop once we check in efforts to win the pot. A check allows our opponents to bet with worse hands and bluffs. It is important to note that every card ranging from Six to King, in addition to all Clubs, will be of concern on the Turn. By checking we allow our opponents to potentially actualize equity. Almost every hand has some equity; by letting a free card come sometimes the opponent will win where he normally would have folded on the flop, had we bet. If Villain has KQ,  JT or 44, we give them a chance to improve on the Turn either for free or for the price they dictate on the Flop. This is a byproduct of facing a skilled and aggressive opponent who will put us to difficult decisions often. Moving onto this exact hand, our opponents are both aggressive, the Button more so than the Cutoff. Against these players we would be better off checking. A check will allow either to stab at the pot and also mitigates the tough spot of getting our continuation bet raised.  Assume for a moment that we do continuation bet for $65 against these aggressive opponents and face a raise to $200. Are we ahead on this

78

Hands

Flop? It is possible. However, if we call the raise what will we do on a Two of Diamonds Turn card when our opponent bets $400? If we call the Turn bet and the Five of Hearts falls on the River and our opponent shoves. Do  we call again? Notice how this is an ideal run out for our hand and yet the decisions are becoming exponentially complex and expensive with every street. Pot: $97

Hero (Hijack)

 Aggressive

Range:

Starting Stack:

Check/ Call Check/Fold

$1570 $1970

$65

Covers

(Cuttoff)

More Aggressive (Button)

Once we induce the bet from the Button, our plan is to check-call the Flop and play poker on the Turn and River. However, the plan to checkcall on the Flop does not give us the license to check-call all remaining streets. We need to make decisions based upon the information gathered later in the hand. Future cards and bet sizes, or the absence of bets, will allow us to further gauge where we stand. Notice that your opponents’ tendencies will influence your decisions on every street. You will face opponents who are capable of firing three barrels with a missed draw, and others who will not. This information is crucial in the decision making process, and therefore it is important to pay attention to your opponent’s actions in prior hands. Pot: $227

Hero (Hijack)

More Aggressive

Check/ Call $150

Range:

Starting Stack:

$1505 Covers

(Button)

 The Three of Clubs Turn card brings in the flush. However, our opponent should not have many flush combinations in his range. With the  Ten and Nine of Clubs accounted for, our opponent cannot have 89, J9,  J10, or Q10 of Clubs. We do however expect our opponent to continue betting his bluffs that picked up equity, such as KQ with one Club and 44  with one Club.

79

Red Chip Poker: Late Position

 We also expect our opponent to bet worse Aces on the Turn for what he perceives to be value or protection. We assume hands such as AQ and  AJ, both with and without a Club, will bet enough of time to justify a call.  There is a common misconception in poker which states: if we call the  Turn and the board does not change on the River, we must also call the River. However, this thought process is flawed as something did change; our opponent bet again. Even when the board does not change, we must take a crucial factor into consideration:  We may be ahead of our opponent’s Turn betting range, but yet may not be ahead of his River betting range.

If our opponent’s River bluffing frequency is low, it should further sway us towards folding our marginal holdings. We must also consider how likely our opponent is to overvalue his hand and bet. If our opponent does not bluff often enough and will only have with the strongest of ranges  when betting the River, we should fold. Pot: $527

Hero

Range:

Starting Stack:

Check

$1355

Check

Covers

(Hijack)

More Aggressive (Button)

 The Seven of Diamonds does not bring in the four-flush and does not complete any straights besides J8. It is unlikely that our opponent has any of the offsuit combinations of J8. Therefore the available combinations of this hand drop from sixteen to four. On the River, we ask ourselves if our opponent would turn 76 into a bluff. Would he also continue bluffing with hands such as 44 and KQ with one Club? Also, we must question how often our opponent will continue to  value bet worse hands such as AQ and AJ versus checking them. If we assume the frequency of our opponent doing either of these actions is low, and therefore a third barrel signifies a hand better than AK a large percentage of the time; we should fold. Vice versa, if the frequency of our opponent doing the above actions is high than we must hold on and call, as folding would be a mistake. Our opponent checks back his hand and we win at showdown. However, the thought process throughout the hand, especially the Flop decision, is the important lesson in this chapter. Deviation from standard

80

Hands

lines will help us combat stronger more aggressive opponents, who may otherwise cause us to make mistakes. The strategy when facing more sophisticated players will differ from the lines we take versus a more predictable opponent. This awareness will allow us to become a more dynamic player and in turn avoid mistakes. Always be on the lookout for situations where separation from the standard may be necessary for success.

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