PokerWorks

In situations where you’re playing out of position against an aggressive player, I find that leading out weak with a strong hand can be very successful.

Here’s a scenario. You’re at a Bodog Poker cash table and you’ve encountered an opponent who plays extremely aggressive in late position. He’s raising and re-raising pots when he’s last to act. He raises pre-flop from the button, cutoff or cutoff +1 almost every round. You pick up K-K in early position and make a standard 3x raise. One other player calls and the aggro-monkey on the button re-raises it to 12x pre-flop. You smooth call and the other player folds. Flop comes J-2-6 rainbow.

Instead of check/raising in this spot, I like to lead out weak to induce a re-raise. I bet out 1/3rd of the pot or less but, more than a min-bet. You’re heads up and odds are he whiffed completely. But, hopefully he caught some piece of the flop and he puts you on over cards or a weak pair. He bets pot. You push and he calls with J-10 suited.

This is an ideal scenario because you’re heads up in the pot and the flop came without any real draws. You have to be careful on a multi-draw board. If an Ace hits the flop, you’re done with the hand. There’s no reason to lead out weak on an Ace high flop in this situation because you already know he’s going to re-raise based on your weak flop bet and put you to a tough decision.

It may take a few rounds to determine which players are loose-aggressive in late position. Pick your spots carefully. The weak lead is an advanced play and takes some discipline to pick the right situation to play it correctly. Make sure you have a good read on opponents who are last to act before you use this. If you don’t have any reads against players involved in the pot, you’re better off making a standard 2/3rd pot sized bet to protect your hand.

What if you’re in late position and you encounter a weak lead from early position? Make sure you have a “real” hand, at least top pair and a good read on your opponent. If your table image is tight and you’re in late position, you can test your opponent’s strength by re-raising 2.5x. If the other player comes over the top all-in, fold and move on to the next hand. Find a better spot to commit all your chips.

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