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Taking the poker game to the next level

I often think that you have two main objectives in poker, the first is to increase your skill level so that you are the best player that you can be. The second one is to put yourself into as many situations as possible where your skill has an effect against your opponents. Let us look at a situation that is all too common in the poker world these days and what I am about to say here applies to more players at the middle to lower levels than you would ever believe possible.

Let us say that you have a significant skill advantage over your opponents and it has been folded to you in the cut-off and you open raise to $1.50 in Texas Hold em NL50 with 10c-8c. You weak opponent calls you from the big blind and the pot is $3.25. Both of you have $100 stacks and the flop comes 6d-5c-2s and your opponent checks to you. Now many players here would argue that c-betting is automatic but I don’t believe so. If you bet then one of many things could happen all of which are bad! Firstly your opponent may not believe you and so could well bluff raise you in the belief that you have not connected with this flop.

This is allied to the next reason which is that a c-bet does not look believable. The second reason is that if your opponent has a hand like 4-4, A-6, K-6, 7-7 A-5 etc then they may check call or even check-raise which denies you the free card. A third reason is that your opponent expects you to bet and when you check then it can confuse a lot of players. If your opponent has a pair of sevens for example then he will feel pretty confident that they are ahead on the flop.

However if a king or an ace comes on the turn then they will no longer feel confident about their hand. If they check then a bet at this stage may well take the pot down and if they bet then you even have the option to raise if the bet looks like a weak stab. Let us say that your opponent called with A-8. They checked the flop and so did you. An ace comes on the turn and they bet and you raise, now they have a serious problem. You checked the flop and raised pre-flop which indicates a player who is possibly betting their good hands and checking when they miss.

So when you raise the turn then this will often force a hand like A-8 to fold an awful lot of the time. Weak-tight players will fold in the belief that they have made a great lay down. Likewise if your opponent had a hand like 7-7 and were looking to check call the flop or even check-raise to your obvious and expected continuation bet. But your check threw them a curve ball and when the ace came on the turn then any bet by them that you raise is certainly going to make them fold. Also if they check then any bet by you is believable because you didn’t bet the flop. This is just playing with your opponents thought patterns and when you do that successfully then you are taking your game to the next level for sure.