Fri 26 Jun 2009
In an online NL Texas Hold’em online poker tournament: The starting stack was 3,000 chips at the casino online. At the time of this hand I had about 3,700. The blinds were 20/40 with no ante. One player limped (who had about 4000 chips). In late position, I raised to 120. Both the big blind and the limper called my bet.
The flop came out: Ad Jd 5h I hit my set. Now, the big blind checked and the limper bet out 120. This is about 1/3 the size of the pot, pretty small. I could raise here for sure. I likely have the best hand, and might be able to trap a decent ace for a big pot. I know this person limped into the pot in early position, and then called a raise after another player did as well.
What I want to do, I decide, is make sure a diamond doesn’t peel off on the turn. If I raise now, I could be escalating a large pot on a somewhat dangerous board with two online poker cards to come. In order to exhibit some pot control, I elect to flat call his bet and see what happens on the turn. If another scary card comes on the turn, like a diamond or maybe even a King, Queen, or ten, I can try and keep things small by checking or calling behind one more time. If the turn looks like a blank, I am going to bet heavy or raise heavy knowing that there is only one card left to come and any draw is now I am probably a 70% favorite against even the most difficult of hands.
The turn is a 6c. Ad Jd 5h 6c. This is perfect for me. It did not connect with the Broadway cards and it is not a diamond. The villain bets out 120 again. This is about 1/6 of the pot. Not only is it a teeny bet, but it is the same bet as he bet on the flop. This to me usually signals weakness. I am almost positive he is on a draw now, and he was hoping to set the pace by betting rather than call bets. He also wants to win something if he hits his draw, and betting it out, even as small as he is, is building the pot. I raise his bet to 520 now, a raise of 400, about a 3.5 raise of his bet. He has to call 400 more into a pot of about 1200, getting 3:1. He calls.
