I watched an online poker limit hold’em hand recently that I feel merits potential further discussion. The hand was played at $2-$4 online poker and this involves the play of the big blind. Three players limped in and the small blind folds. This hand was a slightly unusual in how several players limped in and the small blind folded. Before we go any further, it pays to point out at this stage that as you set out to learn poker, one of the primary skills that you pick up is to read the betting action.
The big blind checked and as it turned out had the 10c-9c. So we have a four way pot and the flop comes Jc-6h-2c giving our hero a flush draw. He checks being first to speak and so do the first two limpers, the final limper bets and our hero calls which is fairly straight forward as does one other player.
This is purely a pot odds call as it seems likely that one of his opponents has made a decent pair. The turn card is the 3d and the big blind and the other limper check again. The flop bettor bets again on the turn and once again our hero is getting a decent price to call. The other limper folds and the river card brings a ten to give our hero a pair.
He checks and his opponent bets again, this time he check-raises and his opponent thinks for a few seconds and calls. The result is that his opponent wins with J-9. Now here our hero did everything perfectly until the river where he went a little crazy and lost an extra big bet. Folding was really not an option and he had to pay off.
Too many players who are at the intermediate level or beyond try to make great laydowns all the time but this just doesn’t get the job done in limit hold’em. Most of the time in situations like these then the simplest play is usually the best.
Limit hold’em is simply about making a series of correct decisions over a very long period of time, quite often poker software can help make many of these decisions for you. If you can make many small correct decisions in limit play then you should do very well. In this example then it was perfectly obvious that his opponent had a hand that could beat a pair of tens and even if their hand was marginal then because of the pot odds that they were getting then they were always going to shrug their shoulders and stick their money in.
I simply do not know that this guy was doing, if he was raising a bluff then why did he raise when all he had to do was check-call? Also if he thought that his opponent had a stronger hand then he must surely have suspected that they wouldn’t have laid it down at this form of online poker with the pot odds that they were getting.
Maybe our hero just lost focus or discipline or whatever but he certainly threw a big bet away here. This just proves that with online poker you really have to keep on top of your game all the time. This requires focus and discipline and hard work unfortunately. It is this gradual bleeding of small and big bets in limit play that literally blows the vast majority of players out of the water in the long run.
This article was written by Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Related posts:
- A Limit Hand in Action Here I want to discuss the play of the small...
- A No-Limit Hand from NL200 Digging into my Poker Office poker software database this week...
- Comparing Limit to No Limit There are many people in the poker world who believe...
- A no limit hand in action Someone gave me a six max no-limit Texas hold’em hand...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Not a comment, but a question. I was involved in a hand where a player did not call the bet on the turn and did not fold (she was involved in a conversation). The dealer missed the fact that she did not call or fold and dealt the river card. A bet was made. Now the player engaged in the conversation calls the bet and wins the hand. The player that lost the hand objects and says her hand should have been mucked because she did not call the bet on the turn. What is correct?
Judy,
Action was never completed on the turn. As a result, the river card does not count. The players get their river bet back and the river card is taken off of the board. Depending on where the player that did not act is located in action will determine what happens next. For the sake of argument, I will assume she was between the bettor and caller on the turn. What happens next is that caller get to take his bet back until the player that did not act makes her action. Once she completes her action, then the player that called may act. After the turn action is completed, the river card that was originally dealt is put back into the deck, shuffled, and another river card is dealt. At this point, action continues as normal.
The only variation that I have seen on the above is that the player that called on the turn may be forced to keep his call in the pot if the player that did not act elects to fold.
This is a clear case of the dealer not paying attention to the action. In most games, this would be an honest mistake. However, if the player does this and other suspicious activities, call the floor.
/James