Humility and the ability to know when to fold are key concepts in Hold’em. Stuart Rutter explains.
There is no better feeling in poker than making a heroic call, or the vindication of being proven right to stand up to a bully when you have only a marginal hand. It is something that the great players do time and time again, and that the rest of us aspire to.
Indeed, bravery and instinct are crucial skills in poker, but they are not the only ones. A skill that is very underrated in poker is humility, and it too is a weapon that the best regularly draw upon.
If you have a sharp instinct, sometimes you just know that your opponent is bluffing. However, there are more occasions where you cannot be sure what is going on, and this is where humility comes in. Humility is not only the ability needed to make a pass, but the honesty to admit to yourself that a lot of the time, you are not good enough to know.
Key Skill # 1
It is so important in poker to be honest with yourself. Ask yourself honestly, “Do I really know that my opponent is bluffing here, or am I simply hoping that he is?” If you do not know what is going on, the best option can often be to fold.
You have raised before the flop with pocket nines, and get a caller from the small blind. The flop comes a draw-heavy Js-7c-6s, and you bet 1,500 of your 10,000 stack. Your opponent is a tricky, aggressive player, and he check-raises to 4,000. What is your thinking here?
Picking off the semi-bluff
We are not going to claim to know what our opponent has, but let us look for some clues. The well-textured board provides a number of straight draws, as well as spade flush draws. Our opponent is an aggressive player, and would be very likely to try a sneaky check-raise with these draws. It might not take some players with the pocket nines very long to get the rest of their stack into the middle.
However, the fact that this is true does not mean that we should stop our thinking here. We have identified that a semi-bluff fits perfectly here, but this does not mean that it is the only possibility that does. Before you do anything, ask yourself honestly, “Are there other hands that fit?”
Well, would your opponent check-raise if he held A-J here for the top pair? Would he check-raise with 7-6 for two pair, or with a set? Unless your opponent is terribly predictable, the answer to these questions is probably “Yes”.
Letting the bluffer win?
It can be horrible to pass and know that your opponent may have bluffed you off with a draw, but there is one crucial thing to realise. Even if you catch your opponent bluffing and move the rest of the chips in, he will still have to call. Your best hope is to catch a lone straight draw, but even then a 30% outdraw threatens. You can just never be in great shape, and if you “catch” your opponent with a hand like Ks-Qs, your hand will actually be a slight underdog to remain ahead by the river.
Key Skill #2
There are a number of scenarios in poker where one of two things will happen. You will either find your hand well behind, or you will be ahead and sweating against a strong draw. The combination of these two possibilities is never good news, and it is best to avoid these situations.
How do we “avoid these situations?”
It might seem very meek to be passing our pocket nines here, so could we maybe compromise with a flat call? This may be possible if we can be sure that our opponent will duck out of his semi-bluff on the turn, but let’s imagine our opponent is worth his salt.
If the turn comes a low blank card, most opponents are going to continue the pressure by moving all-in with their semi-bluffs. If the turn comes a card like a ten and our opponent moves in, we could be catching the flush draw, but a made straight would have us drawing dead. Basically, this confusion means that the turn is probably not going to bring a clearer picture at all, and we will realise we have to call off our chips anyway.
Key Skill #3
Always be honest with yourself. If you are going to call on the flop, ask yourself, “Am I likely to know any better on the turn?” If the answer is ‘no’, then calling is definitely not a good compromise between passing and raising.
So, are good poker players just cowards?
No. One pleasing thing about poker is that there is a balance to everything. If you ever realise that you should be playing a group of hands more weak in a particular scenario, the same logic will likely tell you that there is an opposite group of hands that you should play more strongly.
Example #2
If we change the situation slightly and we have more chips, then we gain some crucial fold equity. This means that if we push over the top of our opponent’s check-raise we can make him lay down some hands.
Let’s say the board again is Js-7c-6s, but now you have a 15,000 stack which is facing the check-raise to 4,000. We are going to make the move all-in with some of our hands here, but which ones should we do it with? There is a crucial and subtle difference at play here; it does not matter what we have, but only what kind of shape we will be in if we are called.
If we are called, it could be by a very strong draw, but more likely will be by a strong made hand like the top pair, two pair or a set. In this case, pocket nines is definitely not a hand that we want to be pinning our hopes on, but certain others are. A hand like 8s-7s offers a lot of outs in the form of a flush draw and backdoor straight draw. Even a hand like As-7h is better than pocket nines, as it offers us the chance of hitting a higher two pair, or a backdoor flush (the 5% added by a backdoor flush draw is more significant than you might think).
Key Skill #4
If the stacks are good for a re-re-raise all-in, you can wipe the smile off a re-raiser’s face. The best hands to do this with are not the marginal made hands that could leave you crushed, but hands that will offer you as much hope as possible if your all-in bet is called.
Jamie Gold vs. Paul Wasicka
WSOP 2006 Main Event
A real-life example of exactly this kind of hand came in the last hand of Jamie Gold’s WSOP win in 2006.
His opponent Paul Wasicka had bet out 1.5 million with pocket tens on a Qs-8h-5h board, and was faced with a 5.5 million all-in bet from Jamie Gold. A few minutes of table talk ensued, during which Wasicka stated that he thought Jamie Gold was “on a draw.” He ultimately made the call, and Gold tabled Qs-9c for the top pair, leaving Wasicka needing a miracle to win the hand.
Paul Wasicka is a world-class player who will have had very good reasons for calling, but it was an example of a no-win situation where a pass might just have been the better option. |
