Playing the board

[Girevik]

This is rare, but I have seen it happen. How do you react when you're playing the board?

Let's say the board has a J high straight (and for simplicity's sake you're heads up by the river). Do you represent a Q and bet into it hoping your opponent folds? If he calls, even if he doesn't have the Q you'll split the pot but probably lose money to the rake. What if you're opponent is first to act and he bets out, or you check and he bets?

Is is different for a tournament where there's no rake to be concerned about?

[Beavis68]

I alot of people go all-in when this happens. But most people will call, I am probably the only one who will fold rather than face loosing my whole stack for half of a small pot.

Of course it is different if the flop is rainbow broadway.

[eclinchy]

That's a hard question to answer with just one blanket statement... I mean, usually, you'll have a read of some sort on his hand based on how he's played the hand so far.

That said, I usually won't take a stab at it in either case. It takes a big bet to scare him off when the board shows a made hand, which isn't a risk I'm willing to take... what if he has the made hand and you don't?

If he bets small, I'll call (because I think most players DO take stabs at these kinds of pots) but if he bets big, I'll show him some respect and throw my hand away. But yeah... if he checks, go ahead and check it back, I say.

[eclinchy]

I alot of people go all-in when this happens. But most people will call, I am probably the only one who will fold rather than face loosing my whole stack for half of a small pot.

Of course it is different if the flop is rainbow broadway.

That's when you go all in just to get the FPPs.

[negranu333]

i can kind of understand why you're going to call the small bets but fold to big ones there, however it doesn't make very much sense. if someone makes a big bet, they obviously don't wanna get called. it's probably a bluff and that's the one i'm more likely to call. however a smaller bet is probably a bet to milk you because he KNOWS you'll call if you're playing the board so i'd be more likely to fold to it. except in special occasions where i know the player pretty well and he'd overbet it to look like a bluff

[Beavis68]

It is much more expensive to be wrong for all of your stack.

If there is 10bucks in the pot, and someone bets 50. You are risking 50 to win 5. You have to be right like 10 out of 11 times or better just to break even. This is really disasterous in a touranment, if you win you get very little, but if you lose you lose everything.

On the other hand, if there is ten in the pot and your oppenent bets 5, you only have to be right 1 time in 2.

[mxp2004]

I played a hand somewhat like this last night in a SNG. The blinds were 25/50, and I had about 1100 chips. There were at least 7 players left, as best I can recall.

I was dealt AQo UTG. I raised it to 150 to go, and I drew two callers.

The flop came down 3 3 3. Everyone checked around. The turn was the last 3, for quads on the board.

I thought about what to do next. Obviously, I had the nuts, and so did anyone else who also had an A. I couldn't decide whether to bet out small or go all-in. I wanted to draw a call from someone with a K, and I wasn't certain which tact would work best.

I decided to go all in with my remaining 950. The next player folded immediately. The last player thought about it for around 30 seconds, but then he folded, too.

After the hand was over, I felt like I had misplayed it. I think if I had to do it over again, I'd check the turn and see if anyone tried to bluff me.

[bonchkid]

Honestly it depends, in a SnG when there is 2400 in the pot and he bets 300 on the end you of course have to call all-in. In a ring game I'm only doing it when he bets a really small amount into a decent pot, I'll call. It's all about math here, how much % of the time will he have the queen.

[helmuthpoker201]

I don't think the math applies here, bonch i understand math is a part of the game, but i think you apply math way to much. I was just watching 2003 wsop, and they had one of those "who are you" things with howard lederer, and he said something like Math is a key aspect to being a good poker player, but instincts are more important. I always thought this was true, but now that a great player like Howard said it, i definitly agree. From what ive read, it seems like you always take every situation mathematically. In this situation, I am looking for the read i have on the oponent. If your going to call here, you should either know your oponent well enough to be able to put him on a hand, or know that your instincts are usually right in these situations, basically just go with your initial gut feeling.

[bonchkid]

If you knew how to do that math, you would understand how important it is here.