The following hand took place in the $25,500 World Poker Tour Bellagio main event. We were playing 400-800-100. A wild-looking German player with 180,000 chips raised to 2,000 from first position. He was playing fairly tight and straightforward, though I knew from past experience he was capable of getting way out of line. I was in second position with 130,000 chips and decided to call with
The flop was
Everyone checked to me, so I bet 7K into the 12,900 pot. This is a spot where a bet is mandatory. If I check, any king, queen, jack, 8 or 7 could easily give one of the other five players in the hand the winner. Also, any small card could give someone a set. It’s important to bet something between half and two-thirds pot in this situation because a small bet would give everyone excellent odds and a large bet may force someone off J-10 or 8-8, which wouldn’t be good. You want to make a bet that will force out the random hands that will only put more money in if they peel their dream card and can beat your hand, but also get value from worse made hands and draws. Everyone folded back to the first position raiser, who called.
The turn was the
The river was the
If that was all there was to this hand, I should probably fold. However, I’m not sure my opponent would bet with anything besides a premium hand on this river, meaning his betting range should be hands that can at least beat a straight or total air, as I clearly have some sort of hand to call the turn bet. If my opponent had K-K, I doubt he would bet the river. All that being said, I think, given the excellent pot odds, I have to call. If my opponent made a larger bet on the river, around 38K or so, I would be forced to fold. After a few minutes I called. My opponent disgustedly turned up K-Q and I won a nice pot.
It’s important to think about what your opponent’s range is and how he would play it on each street. If you find yourself dozing off at the table, you may miss quite a bit of useful information that will allow you to pinpoint your opponent’s range in a future hand. If you can play smart and figure out exactly what your opponent has, you can avoid a guessing game for a lot of money.
— Jonathan Little, a representative for Blue Shark Optics, is the author of Professional Tournament Poker Vols. 1 & 2, owns the poker training site FloatTheTurn.com and 3bet Clothing, plus check out his iPhone app, Instapoker.