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Spotting the Position Raiser |
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In this hand, we spot who is position raising.
Spotting the Position Raiser
PokerStars Game #2887579949: Tournament #14232896, Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2005/10/25 - 01:15:20 (ET)
Table '14232896 1' Seat #7 is the button
Seat 3: ry22bag7 (4500 in chips)
Seat 5: gidders (1660 in chips)
Seat 6: Inmytree990 (2595 in chips)
Seat 7: TacoLou (4745 in chips)
ry22bag7: posts small blind 25
gidders: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to gidders [Jc Qc]
Inmytree990: folds
TacoLou: calls 50
ry22bag7: raises 100 to 150
gidders: calls 100
TacoLou: calls 100
*** FLOP *** [6d 6c Kd]
ry22bag7: checks
gidders: checks
TacoLou: bets 100
ry22bag7: folds
gidders: raises 300 to 400
TacoLou: folds
gidders collected 650 from pot
Let’s go over this hand, decision by decision.
Decision 1 - Call a SB 100 chip raise in the BB with JQc leaving myself with 1510.
Comments – I always try to advocate against calling, because you don’t have the power of continuation betting on the flop. However, this was a tricky situation for a couple of reasons.
The first reason is that the 3xBB raise came from the SB (4500) after the Button had limped. I am almost positive that the Button will call this raise (he has 4745 to start the hand.) What this means is that there will be 450 chips in the pot for the flop. I can’t really reraise any amount to get the SB off his hand at this point. I really don’t want to move all in with JQc at this stage, but I don’t necessarily want to fold either. Calling seems like the best option here.
The second reason is that I am in pretty good position in this hand, believe it or not. I am behind the original raiser, which means I have the option of raising his flop bet, making it look very strong to both opponents. (Not only did I raise two stacks triple my size, but I also did it ‘semi-out of position’ too. I can also comfortable fold if the flop is horrible should the SB lead out on the flop (because there is really no difference between having 1610 or 1510 chips at this stage.)
The third reason is because the blinds are still low comparative to the number of players remaining (4 – including me) and the difference in our stack sizes. I am not in any dyer need to double up, but I would be more comfortable with a couple more hundred chips in my stack when the blinds go to 50/100.
The last reason is that my chip stack still has enough Force at this point that I can move my opponents of their hands. If I wait and wait for a great hand, I may have blinded myself off to a point where I am unable to create any kind of movement with my stack. With the blinds at 25/50 and 1500 chips, an all in raise (about 30xBB) looks much more dangerous for them to call than it would if the blinds were 75/150 (about 10xBB).
Options – Though there is no reason to play this hand, I didn’t feel that the SB’s hand had to be very strong to make that small raise into a Button limper.
Of course, to remain a factor in any kind of SNG – you must be willing to put your chips in the middle to get any of your opponents chips. To coin a clichéd phrase – “you can’t win what you don’t put in the middle.”
Decision 2 – Checkraise the Button’s bet of 100 to 400 total leaving myself with 1110 on the 6d 6c Kd board.
Comments – I think this is a play that not a lot of people would make with my chip stack, but consider a couple of things.
First, the opponent who had the lead in the hand (SB) elected to check on the 66K board. Now this usually means one of three things. It either means A) He flopped huge – Kings full B) The King is a scary card to his hand – 77-QQ or C) He missed the flop completely and is ready to give up the hand to his two remaining opponents.
The reason why I elected to check was if I did bet out here and the Button called, the SB is usually going to be inclined with any of the hands A-C. He is fattening the pot if he did flop Kings full so he would smooth call. He is getting better odds to call to catch his 2 outer, and he might feel he is still good with JJ or QQ. He might call to see one more card since the pot is getting big (and he has a big stack) with a hand like AQ or AJ. By betting out, I don’t gain any information on the SB’s hand.
The other reason I elected to check is because I was fairly confident if the Button bet, it would strictly be a position bet. He would naturally be thinking “well they both checked to me, maybe if I bet I can take this down right now.” Even the worst of competitors realize that if a hand is checked to them, it usually isn’t a bad play to bet out and see what happens.
Now if I think he’s position betting, I also have the luxury of seeing what the SB is going to do. Was he setting up a check raise of his own? Was he in check/fold mode? I still need to find out what the SB is all about – since he was the preflop raiser.
After he folded to a 100 bet with 450 in the pot – two more things became clear. The first being that the SB really didn’t have a hand and his raise preflop wasn’t very strong. The second thing I now found out was that Button was probably making a position raise – and it was either meant he was very strong or very weak.
On a paired board with one overcard (66K, 44Q, 99A), it is very unlikely that somebody caught 3 of a kind (just because the percentages of flopping 3 of a kind with two different hole cards is very unlikely) so I am rarely scared of that, even in multiway pots. They also mean that they are great boards to check raise on because it is almost impossible for your opponent to call without some kind of hand (pair in their hand, flush draw or the top pair on the board – keep in mind there are no straight draws on these type of boards.)
You may see the occasional call with just ace high, but the amount of times players will fold to a checkraise in these situations makes up for the times you will get called down by ace high (ace high will probably be willing to check it down with you to the river should you give up after your flop checkraise.)
Now knowing that these boards are unlikely to have hit anyone’s hand – you can comfortably check raise knowing that if they call – you are beat and you can check/fold the hand without having lost that many chips. And if we win the hand, we have gained more chips by allowing our opponent to Position Bet.
I am now in a great spot to check raise him off this board. If he doesn’t have a king or a six, it’s going to be very tough for him to call a check raise. He really can’t have a clue about our exact hand – all he knows is that I check raised him and he only has (whatever he held.) Combined with the hidden strength that my short stack brings by raising his very large stack, he will be forced to fold in a lot of these situations.
When you start to see poker in situations, rather than hole cards – you are on the right track to becoming a better player. Just because somebody is betting, it doesn’t necessarily mean they have a hand. Lots of times, bettors are forced to lay down their junk to any sort of betting, re-raise, or check-raise pressure.
Options – Deciding that a checkraise will probably work in these cases, the only option is to vary how much you are going to raise. I would strongly advise against putting all your chips in if at all possible – simply because his small bet could very well mean strength and you might lose all your chips needlessly.
Lesson – Make plays in order to pick up the specific information you need from all players to evaluate where you are in the hand. |
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