- Know When to Fold
- Value Bet Often
- Use Continuation Bets
- Protect Your Blinds
- Bluff Smartly
- Study Opponents
Know When to Fold
Being able to fold appropriately will often save a good bit of money and can even mean the difference between staying in the game longer and looking for another game.
Evaluate the Board Texture
Dry Boards: If the board is very dry (for example K♠ 7♣ 2♦), the probability that your opponents have strong hands is very low. Though, if you have a little hand, calling when facing a bet over and over is the right move.
Generally, unpaired boards are very likely to be wet, like 8♥ 9♥ T♠. If you miss the flop and your opponent starts betting, then probably folding is the right thing to do.
Look at the Movements by the Opponent
Aggressive Play: An opponent that usually plays tight but is betting a lot most likely has a strong hand in the pocket. Going all-in can then easily cost you your stack in such situations; folding in these spots can simply save your chips for a different day.
Betting Patterns: Take note of betting patterns. If you are facing an opponent who opens-raises pre-flop and then continues to bet heavily on the flop and turn, you are almost certainly against a strong hand. Fold top pair, or even an overpair if needed.
Pot Odds and Expected Value
Calculating Pot Odds: Before you call, calculate how many chips you are contributing and divide by the total pot. Fold instead of calling a bet if you have poor odds. For example, let’s say there’s $100 in the pot and your opponent bets $50; you are being offered 3-to-1 pot odds. If you are less than 25% to improve to the best hand, you should fold.
Expected Value (EV): Think about the EV for your decision. If folding has a positive EV over the long term, calling is losing you money.
Specific Scenarios
Top Pair vs Heavy Action: For example, you have A♣ Q♣ on Q♦ 7♦ 2♠. Sure enough, a huge raise by an opponent. Should your opponent have a nitty player type image, it is usually correct to fold top pair.
Bad Kicker: Holding A♠ 6♠ and the board comes A♦ K♥ 8♣ can be a bad place. Against heavy aggression, it is usually recommended to fold because your kicker is weak.
Examples from Real Games
In 2003 at the World Series of Poker, we all saw Chris Moneymaker fold K♠ Q♠ pre-flop to a raise from Johnny Chan. Chan was holding pocket aces, and Moneymaker would have lost a ton of chips had he not folded, proving the importance of knowing when to fold.
Casual Example: In a $1/$2 cash game, with J♠ J♣, you see Q♠ 8♠ 4♣ 6♠ on the board. The villain overbets the turn. This is the perfect time to fold, even though you have an overpair because the flush and high pair outs make it too dangerous to proceed.
Value Bet Often
Value bet in small sizes a lot to suck as many chips as possible from worse hands and thus build your stack up slowly but surely.
Identify Strong Hands
Examples include a K♦ 8♣ 2♥ board when we have A♠ K♠ — we should be planning at least one street of value betting with TPTK (top pair/top kicker). Weak kings and even some eights will call a decent bet here.
With Overpairs and Sets: You should also bet for value with hands like Q♣ Q♦ on a 9♠ 7♦ 2♠ board. The weakest hands (top pair, because of all the other gutshots and OESDs AJ has) and gutshots or straight draws aren’t going to fold.
Determine Bet Sizing
Small to Medium Bets: When you have a strong but vulnerable hand (e.g., top pair on a draw-heavy board), consider small bets (about 50-70% of the pot) to keep vulnerable hands in and protect your equity.
Big Bets: Your biggest bets are going to come with hands that have a massive advantage over what you think your opponent is holding (e.g., a full house).
Analyzing Opponent Tendencies
Calling Stations: You should be able to bet for value fairly thinly since your opponents rarely fold. As a result, they are also much more likely to call with worse hands, thus allowing you to value bet them more.
Tight Players: Against tight players, do not value bet as widely. Most will not call with marginal hands, so bet a little more.
Example Scenarios
A QUEEN: QUEEN SPADES, QUEEN DIAMONDS. When Cards are on a Flop — QUEEN CLUBS, 9 HEARTS, 4 SPADES. You need to value bet in the neighborhood of 75% as much as the pot. Worse Queens, Nines, and can even call with some straight draws.
Turn: 7♠ 7♦ — Board: 7♣ 6♦ 2♥ J♠. A bet of roughly 70% of the pot is very good almost like Top-pair, overpairs, or/and attracts. These are hands you will also get maximum value from your set of fives from as they will likely call.
Reading the Board Texture
Dry Boards: On dry boards, such as A♠ 7♦ 2♣, where there are few draws, and if our opponent has a hand, they likely have a weaker one, a smaller-sized value bet will be able to keep hands that should fold into the next street.
Wet Boards: Wet boards are boards that many draws can get there. E.g., J♠ 10♠ 9♦. You want to bet bigger on these boards to protect your hand and charge for their draws.
Extracting Maximum Value
Value Betting on the River: If you have a strong hand on the river, you are much better off value betting than checking. For example, let us say you have A♠ J♠ on A♦ 10♣ 5♠ 2♠ 8♦; a bet of around 60-70% of the pot can get some value from hands like A♥ 10♥ or weaker aces which might call.
Bluff: To prevent yourself from being exploited, the occasional bluff for both balance and capitalizing. This enables you to prevent your opponents from exploiting your betting behavior.
Case Studies
Example of a High Stakes Game: You have K♠ K♦. Insane Hand Against An Insane. You are seated in a $5/$10 cash game, and the board says 10♠ 7♣ 2♥ 4♦ 9♣. Opponent checks the river. Against the middle or lower end of the range, a value bet of $200 in a $300 pot could print money from J♣10♣ or even 9♥8♥ hands that will call.
Tournament Scenario: The board reads A♦ J♥ 6♠ 5♣ 3♦, and you have A♣ Q♣. With a 5000-chip pot, a 3500-chip value bet targets A♠10♠ or a weaker A♠.
Use Continuation Bets
By utilizing c-bets correctly, you can make your opponents fold weaker holdings and start constructing even bigger pots with such a strong hand.
Learn the Basics of Continuation Betting
What is a C-Bet? Continuation Bet: A bet made by the player who had the lead in the previous betting round, usually the pre-flop aggressor, on the flop.
Frequency: For most players, something in the range of 60-70% is the best c-bet frequency to shoot for. It keeps the opposition guessing and ensures they are unable to take advantage of you.
Factors to Consider
Board Texture: Base c-bet size and frequency on board texture.
Dry Boards: Boards such as A♦ 7♠ 2♣ are essentially the best for c-betting because those are the least likely to hit any part of your opponent’s range. You should be c-betting here up to 70-80% of the time.
Wet Boards: Wet boards like J♠ 10♠ 9♦ can hit all kinds of hands. If you are c-betting a lot, do it for less than 50% and more if you have a big hand.
Bet Sizing
Standard Sizing: In general, the standard amount to c-bet is 50-70% of the pot. This size is enough to make your opponent hesitate but not enough to put too many at risk.
Sizing: Versus calling stations or on dynamic boards, raise your c-bet sizing to 75-100% of the pot to make you a draw expensive.
Reading Your Opponent
Tight Players: You should c-bet more (hoping to take them off their hand) as against tight players. You can take them for more value by c-betting maybe 70-80% of the time.
Loose Players: C-bet less often and for a smaller size when you do c-bet. They will be more open to calling with a wider assortment of hands.
What Makes a C-bet Effective?
Head-Up Pot: A♠ K♠ — You open from EP and the flop is 8♣ 4♠ 2♦. So this is a nice spot to c-bet the pot at around 60% size. These are the hands that would not hit the board enough for your opponent to keep calling.
Multiway Pot (You): Q♦ Q♣, J♠ 9♠ 3♥ => you run it multiple times. Against a multiway pot, c-bet half pot. The board is squishy, and you want to get value from worse hands while protecting your hand.
Advanced Strategies
Double Barrel: If you c-bet on the flop and are called, you might want to do it again on the turn if the future improves the board. Example: if we c-bet with K♠ Q♠ on a 10♠ 6♣ 2♦ flop, and the turn is a J♦, a second barrel will likely make weaker hands fold.
Occasionally, it is better to check a street and lead the other (a delayed c-bet). Follow-up c-bet: When the board probably hit your opponent’s range and played back, a continued-delayed c-bet might catch him off guard.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
When you are c-betting too frequently, you are c-betting every time. The better your opponents, the better they’ll get at detecting your bluffs and calling or raising you more often. Your frequency should be about 60-70% to prevent being exploitable.
Disregard of the Board: The board is always your enemy. If there are five cards to come, heaven is a c-betting strategy that does so mindlessly on dangerous boards.
Protect Your Blinds
If you play good defense from the blinds, it can even turn your disadvantageous position into a chance to scoop up more pots.
Learn to Defend Blind
When you are in the big blind: You are already halfway to the pot, this makes the pot odds you are getting to CALL better. An example of this is… Say the pot is $100 and an opponent bets $20, well, you’re getting 6 to 1 odds to make the call.
Never get eaten alive: Folding against aggression basically conveys that you are easy to bluff.
Factors to Consider
Position of the Raiser: More aggressive vs. LP raises; less aggressive vs. EP raises.
Opponent Tendencies: This is all about adjusting your defense based on what your competition likes to do.
Hand Selection for Defense
Defend: Things like K♠ 10♠, Q♥ 9♥, and even the lowest of the suited connectors like 6♠ 5♠ may be good candidates to defend the big blind. The pot odds are better from the big blind, so you should defend with a much wider range.
Small Blind: Defending from the small blind is much more complicated due to being out of position post-flop. A better hand to defend includes A♣ 10♣, K♦ Q♦, and pairs.
Bet Sizing
3-Bet for Protection: 3-bet with strength to force the original raiser out of the pot in position. For instance, if you find yourself in the big blind with A♠ K♠ and face a mid-position raise, a 3-bet to 3 times the original raise can often win the pot on the spot.
Flat Call: For hands that play well post-flop but aren’t strong enough to 3-bet (Example: J♠ 10♠). This is to keep the pot small and to get to see a cheap flop.
Example Scenarios
Late Position Raise: If you hold 8♠ 7♠ and it folds around to the button, who raises, with the button opening so many hands, you need to call it off. On the turn and river, you can consider the texture of the board as well as what kind of hand you have.
Against Multiple Callers (Multiway Pot): You will also need to mix in more specific hands. Hands like A♣ 9♣ or pocket pairs increase in value, while weaker hands tend to lose their value quickly.
Post-Flop Play
Defend Flop Strategy: If you have defended, plan on flop action. If you hit some of the board, think about leading or check-raising. In such spots, like say with 9♠ 8♠ on a 9♦ 6♣ 2♠ board, betting can apply pressure on your opponent.
Continuation Bet: If you 3-bet pre-flop and the flop is good for the 3-better, that person bets as long as nobody else bets before them. This could be a c-bet of around 50-70% pot with a hand like A♠ K♠ on a K♦ 7♣ 2♥ board.
Advanced Techniques
Floating: If you are being c-bet you could possibly follow through and take the pot off them on a later street. For example, calling a c-bet with A♥ 5♥ on the Q♠ 8♣ 3♠ board and leading the turn if checked to.
Check-Raise Bluff: Sprinkle in a check-raise bluff every now and then on dry boards when you think your opponent has a weak range. It will help you win these pots if you missed the flop.
Bluff Smartly
However, bluffing intelligently means choosing the right times and examining your opponents in order to better predict your odds of success.
Evaluate the Board Texture
Bluffing on Dry Boards: On a dry board (example: K♠ 7♣ 2♦), this is generally considered a better board to barrel on as there are so few hands that can actually call any bet. Typically leads to medium bluffs.
Bluffing on Wet Boards: On wet boards (example: J♠ 10♠ 9♦) bluffing can be slightly riskier as there are many draws that could hit. When you do bluff, make your bluff large enough to represent a strong hand.
Position Matters
In Position: Bluffing in position allows you to control the size of the pot and gain some extra information prior to acting.
Bluffing When Out of Position: As a general principle, you should be bluffing less often out of position, as it is much trickier.
Hand Selection for Bluffing
Semi-Bluffing: You should attempt to bluff, but only with hands like straight/flush draws. A semi-bluff such as 8♠ 7♠ on a 9♠ 6♣ 2♦ board has about a one in three chance to win with a bet on the flop, and will improve on the turn or river approximately 2 out of 3 times.
Hand-Blockers: Hands with blockers of opponent strong holdings. For example, if you are bluffing a possible flush board, then having the A♠ in your hand can increase the chances of a block, lowering your opponent’s potential flush hands.
Bet Sizing
Bluffing Bet Size: Must match value bet sizes (if short money). By doing this you make it harder for your opponent to correctly put you on a hand, bluffs are not as easy to detect when they look like your strong hands.
Pressure: Apply enough pressure. On dry boards, you could go as far as 50-60% of the pot when the wetness is much lower. Against wetter boards, bet your bluffs bigger (70-100% of the pot) to make it harder for your opponent to call.
Timing Your Bluffs
Bluffing on the Flop and Turn Early: Bluffing is definitely profitable here; more so, if you have a hand that can improve. Use those instances to make your opponents work hard.
River Bluffs: Use care when bluffing on the river, and only do so when you have a clear tell that your opponent is helpless. For example, if an opponent checks to you twice on a board of Q♠ 9♦ 4♣ 3♠ 2♦, then making a river bluff there often wins you the pot.
Example Scenarios
Versus 1 Opponent: You open pre-flop from middle position with K♠ Q♠ and the flop comes J♦ 7♦ 2♣. Your opponent checks, they might be weak! C-betting in this situation is very effective as it can pick up the pot uncontested.
Multiple Opponents: Despite the fact you have A♦ 5♦, the flop comes 8♣ 6♣ 2♠. If two opponents have both checked to you, a bet here can be quite powerful as it can get some folds, particularly if they missed the flop completely.
Study Opponents
But when you know your enemy, you can end them the right way, you can even make the right decisions, and target their weaknesses.
Categorize Player Types
Tight-Aggressive (TAG): TAGs only play good hands and play them aggressively when they do come into a pot. If they have always been tight, bluff them off some weaker holdings and avoid the nuts that trap you against them.
Loose-Aggressive (LAG): LAGs play a lot of hands aggressively. Be patient and trap them with strong hands. When you are strong, they will be willing to pay off.
Tight-Passive (TP): These “rocks” are almost always in with only top-pair or better, and therefore are ideal for re-steals. Bluff less and bet strong when you have something.
Loose-Passive (LP): Loose-passive players, aka calling stations, play a lot of hands but usually don’t bet. A value bet is great here as they will often call with marginal holdings.
Observe Betting Patterns
How Often Do Your Opponents Raise Pre-Flop: Make sure you track how often and from which positions your opponents raise pre-flop. A player who raises often from late position will also have a wider range, for example.
Post-Flop Action: Observe how opponents play post-flop. So how is their c-bet percentage? Do they worm their way into a pot with big hands? That strategy will have to be adjusted to maximize the opportunities in these areas.
Use Hand Histories
Review Old Hands: Review hands that you have played with your opponent. The biggest thing I can recommend is to really pay attention for patterns in their play. For example, if they check-raise only with very strong hands, you could avoid their traps.
Use Software Tools: Use poker tracking software which helps to maintain a log of what your rival is doing as the game proceeds. PokerTracker and Hold’em Manager also have hands on file from your history with them and can help you understand how they play over a larger sample.
Example Analysis
Hand Reading: Let’s say you are playing against a TAG open raiser from EP pre-flop. The flop comes 9♠ 7♠ 2♦ and they c-bet. Based on their specific ranges, they typically have an overpair, like a high/medium-high pair, JJ through Aces, or TT+AK. You can proceed more cautiously, or even fold weaker hands.
Reaction to LAG: When you face a LAG who open-raises frequently, then you should call more loosely, just as with A♣ 9♣, even when you have a medium hand at the moment, trying to trap them when you hit the flop significantly hard.