PokerWorks

It's Not All About The Cards

Now that you've had time to complete the assignment, I want to go over three different hands against three distinct types of callers to show you how I was able to utilize this information to my advantage.

Pre-flop caller

It was early in the tournament, and Player X had seen every flop in the first six hands including two times when it was raised to four times the big blind and six times the big blind. Classic “pre-flop caller” and when I picked up pocket jacks on the 7th hand, I applied the lesson and open raised for nine times the big blind... a bet I would never make in most circumstances. Sure enough, my buddy couldn't help himself and called. The flop came 9 high, I bet and he folded (I guess he was trying to hit the flop). I picked up an additional six big blinds by adjusting my play to Player X here.

Post-flop raised pre-flop caller

I actually lost this hand so it just goes to show you that even the best laid plans can lead to failure. My opponent had twice called big bets on the flop, after raising pre-flop, only to fold on the turn. In this particular hand, my opponent opened for 3 times the big blind and I just flat called with pocket aces. You might be wondering why I would just flat call here and the reason is the fact that he had called large bets on the flop twice after raising pre-flop. I was out of position in the small blind and knew I would have the opportunity to lead out. The flop came J-7-2 and with 350 in the pot, I made it 525 to go. As he had done previously, he flat called. There was now 1,400 in the pot and I had 1,650 left while my opponent had 1,050. The fact that my opponent would flat call an over bet for 1/3rd of his stack should have told me something, but I was rigidly following the assignment and moved all in when the turn came a 5. He insta-called with pocket 7's and doubled up through me.

There is a lesson to be learned here and that is if you are flat called on the flop when making an over bet like this, it's probably a good idea to look at how much that bet was in relation to your opponent's stack. Any time a player is flat calling a raise that is over 25% of their stack, it's usually a good indication that they have a strong hand. Granted, there will be idiots who will make this bet with top pair, so it'll be up to you to try and discern if this is one of those types of players.

Non caller

This wasn't one hand, but rather was a series of hands. My opponent had raised and been called pre-flop four times. Three of the times, he check folded and the fourth time he had led out and won the pot. It appeared to me that he was a non caller, so the next time he raised I decided to test him. I flat called from the cut off  with 6-3 off suit. The flop came J-9-2 and he checked. I bet ½ pot and he quickly folded. Mmmmm, easy money. About an orbit later, he raised again and I called with 9-4 off suit. The flop came K-7-4 and he led out. I quickly folded my bottom pair. This went on for the next hour with me winning 7 of 9 hands and eventually I busted my opponent when I hit a miracle flop with 8-7 suited (the flop came 5-6-9). As he had done with all his prior strong hands, he had led out and couldn't fold pocket 10's when I raised.

The moral of the story against this type of player? If someone is going to tell you when they have it and don't have it, they are asking you to take their money. Be a nice guy/gal and oblige them.

Bet For Value, Bluff Less

Hopefully over the course of this assignment you have learned one key concept when it comes to playing people who call for the wrong reasons. Bet for value and bluff less. Against most of the calling classifications we've identified, the best course of action is to bet more when you have it and don't bet when you don't. It's probably been ingrained in your head that the only way you can win a pot when you don't have the best hand is to bet. While this is true, the only time this is successful is when you have an opponent that is capable of folding. If a player has shown a tendency to call bets with marginal or weak holdings, all you are doing by betting with nothing is donating to his or her cause.

On the same token, when you do have a hand, this is the perfect time to maximize the number of chips you win. Go ahead and bet more than you normally do. If calling stations have one thing in common, it's that they usually don't like to fold if they have a piece of the flop and that the bet size (as long as it is within reason) really doesn't matter. They'd love it if you bet really small, but if you bet big it's not going to stop them either. Why bet ½ pot when you can bet pot and win twice as much?

Up next, we're going to get into the most difficult type of player to play. The “raiser.”