I recently spent some time playing online No Limit Commercial Hold'em. Initially, I planned to do research on the current status of commercial no-limit hold'em on the net. But what I learned just amazed me: it is terrible!
Playing at the limits 2-4 and 3-6 (maybe in the games with higher limits, the situation is not so dire), I watched one mistake after another. And my friend, I'm only talking about the most basic things, like calling all-in bets with a naked unfinished flush on the turn when the pot odds are 2-1 (and if you can't understand why this mistake is so gross, first read my book How to Win Low Limit Hold'em or any other good book for poker beginners).
But the favorite mistake (and one of the most serious) is from time to time to go all-in and put forward all the chips that are significantly larger than the pot size. Apart from exceptions, this move can rarely be correct. And that's why:
When you place a bet, thus adding money to the pot, you are offering your opponent certain pot odds. The worse these odds are, the more correct it will be for him to fold. And this is the downside of too big, compared to the sweat, the rate. For example, imagine a game of limit hold'em in which you have made a strong hand, with which, however, you should be wary of incomplete combinations. You should have bet a large bet, but the structure of the game does not allow this, so you can only place a flat bet. Let's say the pot is $ 150, but this is the $ 10 and $ 20 Limit Hold'em turn. And if you bet, you can only bet $20, thereby offering your opponent 17-2 pot odds (which is pretty good for any unfinished hand). In Pot Limit Hold'em you can bet up to $ 150, thus offering your opponent a 2-1 pot odds, which is clearly not enough for any unfinished hand. And in the no-limit game, you can bet the same $ 150 or $ 300, or even $ 3000.
And this is where the problems begin. The recklessly forgotten downside of a big bet is that you risk your big bet in order to win the money that's in the pot right now. In a limited game, this issue is obviously not even discussed. If you're confident enough that you have the strongest hand, you'll happily risk $ 20 to win 150. And even in a pot-limited game with the supposedly strongest hand, you won't think too long before risking $ 150 to win more. 150. But imagine you are betting $ 150 in a game with a sweat of 20 (this is what I observed recently). Naturally, your opponent gets an unfortunate 17-15 chances to call. Anyone who makes a combination cannot be happy with this situation. Therefore, the most likely outcome is that you win $ 20. However, in those cases (only if you did not receive a monster), when your bet is called, most likely you will see candy. And you lose $150. And now, in order to compensate for this loss, you need to win seven and a half $ 20 pots.
In addition, some players are so predictable in their adherence to such tactics that they often become trapped themselves. One of my opponents in a $ 3-6 game played like this: before the flop, he raised. Then, if you check, he bets the flop (betting is usually reasonable - about 3/4 of the pot). If you call and check the turn, he goes all-in - often four to five times the pot. I played three hands with him. The first two times I checked and folded on the flop, but I learned his pattern by watching him play with others (he managed to play a lot of pots). The third time he raised to $15 and I called from the big blind with K-Q suited. Thus, the pot was already $ 33. The flop came K-Q-4 offsuit. I checked and he bet $25 - a pretty reasonable bet. I called her. The bank already had $ 83. The turn brought the seven. I checked and he pushed all in for about $350. In the old days of No Limit Hold'em, it would have made me think. A solid player of the old school, putting all his chips on the table, thereby says: "I have a set of kings or queens. Kindly fold your jack and ten and give me the pot." But those times have already passed, and not a solid player of the old bearing was playing with me. And I decided that if u
his set of kings or queens, then today is his lucky day, and called. Of course, he ended up with JQ and had no chance. He risked $ 350 to win 83.
What should he do? Actually, I'm not happy with his raise with JQ. But do not find fault with someone's raise every time. Moreover, he made a clever raise of two and a half big blinds. The flop wasn't very good for him, and I didn't have to have a king, and again, his 75 percent pot bet was not bad. But when I called the flop, he had to stop. He did everything he could, but I made it as clear as possible to him that I had something. If he wanted to play more aggressively, he could bet the turn again, and I couldn't find fault with that. But there must be some kind of framework for this bet - somewhere from half to the full size of the pot. Let's say he has already invested $ 60 in this pot. I could check-raise him to $ 250 and he would fold with a clear conscience and $ 290. A good alternative would be to check after me on the turn and then maybe bet a little on the river.
But offering me your entire stack, hoping I won't beat him, is just wrong. Don't get into a situation where you tell yourself: "I don't know what to do, I won't even think about it, I'll just go all-in.".
"Save your chips for later."
Author: Lee H. jones
English 
Russian