| 5-5 |
| Introduction: Presto!. (countersign Irwin!) Like with all medium pairs and low pairs you want to see the Flop as cheap as possible and are hoping to flop a set. It is very rare that you should take hands like this further than the flop because most of the time an overcard (probably more than 1) will flop. When there is an overcard, especially with an Ace, King or Queen, you are almost drawing dead with your pocket pair and you should fold to any raise. Pocket Pairs in general have very little chance of improving. In No Limit you have an extra option e.g. a big raise Preflop to drive everybody out, to isolate a maniac, or to get Heads Up with another player. In a Heads Up situation you are a big underdog against any higher Pocket Pair, but slightly favourite against *all* other hands. If your big Preflop raise drives everybody out, you will only win the Blinds any other small change from callers before you and you would have been better off limping in, hoping to Flop a set. Pocket 5's should be a profitable hand, and if you, in the long run, loose money with it, there must be something wrong with your game. Try to fix this leak as soon as possible, because it is a very expensive one. |
| 5-5 Stealing the Pot |
| Introduction The beginning Hold'em player is dreaming of winning big pots and bluffing in No Limit games while maintaining a poker face in a staring competition, overpowering your opponent mentally. Reality is that most Hold'em situations are not like that at all. In fact, it can be a disadvantage to have these dreams. Poker is not a clash of ego's. It is very common that the difference between being a winning Poker player and a losing Poker player is in winning some small pots, unchallenged. But Hold'em is not about winning the most pots. It is also not about winning big pots. It is about a combination of both: to be a long term winner you have to be a complete player. Maximizing your winnings and minimizing your losses. If you do this well, you will be a winner. The hand analized below is not a spectacular hand. Nor is it about winning a big pot. But this hand is just as important as the hands where flop a monster. |
| Game ########## - $2/$4 Texas Hold'em Table "St. Croix" (real money) -- Seat 4 is the button Seat 3: Player 3 ($229 in chips) Seat 4: Player 4 ($35 in chips) Seat 5: Player 5 ($54 in chips) Seat 6: Our Hero ($95 in chips) Seat 7: Player 7 ($77 in chips) Seat 8: Player 8 ($30 in chips) Seat 9: Player 9 ($341 in chips) Seat 10: Player 10 ($113 in chips) Player 5: Post Small Blind ($1) Our Hero : Post Big Blind ($2) Player 8 : Sit out Player 3: Post ($2) Dealing... Dealt to Our Hero [ 5d ] Dealt to Our Hero [ 5c ] Player 7: Fold Player 9 : Fold Player 10: Call ($2) Player 3: Check Player 4: Fold Player 5: Call ($1) |
| Action comes to me. First thing to do know is analyze the situation. I am in the Big Blind so a check would see me the Flop. A raise is not likely to get anyone out. Do I want to raise or do I want to check? A raise would depend on the odds. The money odds to be precisely, closely related to implied odds. In this situation I have to ask myself the question: 'How many callers do I get when I raise?'. Let us start at the beginning and look at the way to play this hand. In order to call with this hand you need at least 4 callers. When in early position, you don't know if you will have 4 callers. And, also very important, you don't know if there will be a raise after you, posibly eliminating the field and therefor reducing the number of callers. That is why this is not an early position hand. If you want 4 callers in order to call yourself, giving you the correct odds, then you would also have the right odds when you raise and all callers would call your raise. If you are sure that you will get at least 4 callers then a raise is a raise for value. To put money in the pot with the correct odds. But let's go back to the hand because there are only 2 callers and a new player at the table who had to put in the amount of the Big Blind, and a raise is not really an option. |
Our Hero : Check   *** FLOP *** : [ 8c Ac 3s ] Player 5: Check Our Hero : Check Player 10: Check Player 3: Check |
 *** TURN *** : [ 8c Ac 3s ] [ 8s ] Player 5: Check Our Hero : Bet ($4) |
| No one made a move on the flop. I decided to make a bet on the turn
for the following reasons. 1) To gain information. 2) To 'claim' a set of 8's. 3) To steal the pot in case noone hit his/her hand. ad 1. I wanted to know if there were any slowplayers among the players who were still in the pot. If someone calls me, or raises me I can safely muck the hand. They don't know this, because they don't know if I am raising because of the second 8 on the board. ad 2. The second 8 on the board makes it less likely that there is another 8 out there. Top pair (Aces) with a low kicker probably won't call this bet, thinking that he/she is up against a set. ad 3. A general rule in Poker (and a rule well worth to remember) is that you need a better hand to call than you need to bet. It is very likely that none of the other players has anything and that I will take the pot right here. |
| Player 10: Fold Player 3: Fold Player 5: Fold Our Hero : Winner -- doesn't show cards *** SUMMARY *** Pot: $8 | Rake: $0 Board: [ 8c Ac 3s 8s ] Player 3 lost $2 (folded) Player 4 didn't bet (folded) Player 5 lost $2 (folded) Our Hero bet $6, collected $12, net +$6 [ 5d 5c ] (two pair, eights and fives) Player 7 didn't bet (folded) Player 8 didn't bet Player 9 didn't bet (folded) Player 10 lost $2 (folded) |
| Conclusion: Like I said in the introduction, hands like these are just as important as hands with a lot of action. For the reasons mentioned in the introduction, but also because it makes you less predictable. Don't be a book player. In this situation, on the turn, I probably had the best hand. But if I had 4-5 I would still have raised. The reason is that I had good reasons to believe that my opponent did not have a hand. I oppononents don't have a calling hand, it does not matter what you have. Unless you have the image of a wild player, a maniac. But with the image of a good, solid, but not predictable player, this is a good way to steal the pot. had |
