by Al Sousa (site owner)
You are at a 1/2 table with $200. Most of the players are decent to poor players but you feel you are the best player at the table.
Mr. Tricky is a player who has what I call "fancy play syndrome". He slowplays very strong hands even when its not appropriate, he calls raises with AA to trap. He limps with big pocket pairs. He tries fancy check raises and perhaps some big bluffs. Usually tricky players know their math for poker.
Mr. Fun is a typical loose player that plays poker for fun. He likes to play a lot of hands and only raises the best ones. Overall he is a losing player.
Mr. Nutty is a very crazy player. He is rich and does care about the money he loses. He raises for no reason, he plays many hands, he likes to bluff. He can go on streaks where he wins a lot of money or loses a lot of money. Overall he's a big losing player.
|
Hand #4: You look down and find J  J under the gun. You raise $9 from and get called by 4 other players: Mr. Tricky, two of Mr. Nutty, and one Mr. Fun on the button. The pot is $45.
The flop comes down J 6 9 and it is your action. What should you do?
You have flopped the nuts, top set. The problem here lies that the flop has all sorts of draws and you are 1st to act with 3 loose players behind and one tricky one.
Making a big bet on the flop, even a pot sized bet, will protect your hand but probably guarantee a call from at least 2 of the loose players. On the turn the pot will be so large that it will be hard to fold and any one of so many cards will slow you down. K, Q, T, 8, 7, or a . Even if your opponents didn't hit their draw on the turn your check on the turn will give them a free card to the river. How should you play this?
You should check raise considering the size of the pot and the players left to act. Here's why.
1. It is highly likely at least one of these players will bet this flop considering their personalities.
2. If someone bets it will be usually be at least $23-$35 which if you check raise a little more than the pot. A check raise will NOT give odds for any draws except a double draw like 87. With a double draw you can be certain they will put all the money in on the flop anyways. You always want this since you will win 60% of the time.
3. You might get other callers along after the first person bets creating an even larger pot for yourself. Even if they fold thats fine, you won a nice size pot with out an outdraw.
4. It better protects your hand
5. If it gets checked around the pot will be a manageable size on the turn to draw for a full house if the turn card is not favorable. But really we don't want this scenario
6. Check raising makes the turn decision much easier, shove it in. If you get called on the flop the pot will be over $200 with you having anywhere from $90 to $70 left. Whoever calls the flop made a large mistake and they probably won't fold now. Even if the caller made their draw on the turn you till should push all in. The pot will be about $240 you push $80 they call $80 so $80 to win $320. Thats ~4:1 which are the very close to right odds to draw for the full house.
Another situation that might happen is that the opponent who called the flop picked up more outs. Like a hand such as 87 on a board of J 6 9 7 . In their eyes all they see are 21 outs to a flush, a str8, trips and 2 pair. In reality they only have 14 outs. Often players will get over excited about their outs and forget about your hand and that some of their outs are dead.
I am not a big fan of check raising myself. It lets your opponents off easy when you have a big hand, it allows them to reraise bluff, and it can also give a free card in a spot you don't want if they don't play a long by betting. But in rare instances I feel it can be useful. Also mixing your play with check raise bluffs and check raising big hands vs thinking opponents keeps them off balance.
Previous Article: Hand Example #3 |
