Ever felt like your opponents
are playing like they can see what cards you've got? It
could be down to repeated betting patterns.
Lou Krieger examines how minor changes to
the way you play can plug leaks.
If you've never considered the
implications of betting patterns, don't feel
like you are all alone. Many other players
are blind to them as well. They are a
feature of most poker games - if you know
how to identify them - and top notch poker
players capitalise on the edge that they can
provide. Information taken from betting
patterns can serve a number of purposes,
from tracking the playing styles of your
adversaries to tracking down some of the
areas of your own game that might need some
improvement.
If you can combine betting patterns with
physical tells exhibited by players at the
table, alongside the information that the
community cards throw up in hold'em and the
cards that the players turn up at the
showdown, you can consider yourself to be a
very skillful, savvy player. But while it
might appear to your opponents that you have
some unerring, almost mystical sort of card
sense, most of this magic act can be learned
and improved upon through diligence,
practice and repetition.
The most common pattern you'll find in a
hold'em game is one your opponents do all
the time. you probably do it yourself. It
goes like this: call, bet, bet, check.
That's simple, isn't it? You call the blinds
before the flop, catch a hand you like -
something like top pair with a good kicker -
so you bet the flop and the turn too, but
when you fail to improve to three-of-a-kind
or two pair, you decide to check the river
to save a bet just on the odd chance that
you're beaten.
BET THE RIVER
Becoming aware of this most common of
betting patterns allows you to pick up a
small leak in your game. You're leaving
money on the table. Can you see how?
When you have the best hand on the turn,
most of the time the river card won't
promote your opponent's hand to one that's
better than yours. When the river does
improve an opponent's hand, it's usually a
case of a third suited card that portends a
flush, or a sequenced card that has
'straight' written all over it.
If a third suited card jumps out of the
deck on the river, feel free to check unless
your opponent acts after you do. But if you
have the luxury of acting last, go ahead and
bet. You're likely to be safe, not sorry, if
you do. The only time you will get into
trouble acting on this assumption is when
the river pairs your opponent's side card to
give him two pair. But there are only three
cards in the deck that will pair his kicker,
and if he's willing to play second or third
pair against your top pair you'll win much
more money from him in the long run than you
will ever lose on those rare occasions that
he pairs his kicker with a miraculous catch
on the river.
A player who is fortunate enough to catch
his flush card on the river will usually bet
when it's his turn to act. And if he had a
bigger hand than yours before the river -
suppose he flopped a set, or the top two
pair - he'll do his check-raising on the
flop or the turn, not the river. What's the
message in this bottle? Most times you have
the best hand on the turn, you'll have the
best hand on the river too, and you ought to
bet it. Okay, okay, so you'll run into some
nasty situations when you bet and are called
- or even raised - and lose the pot. Don't
worry about it. It's no big deal in the
grand scheme of things because you're far
more likely to attract a crying call from a
weaker hand than you are to induce a raise
from someone holding a stronger one.
If you habitually check the river with a
hand like top pair and a good kicker in a
fixed-limit game, you leave money on the
table and you are not doing much for your
image either. But this is about as a fix as
there is in anyone's poker game. Just bet
the river. That's all there is to it. Change
your betting pattern from call, bet, bet,
check, to this one: call, bet, bet, bet.
It'll do a world of good. See for
yourself.
Suppose you're on the other side of this
coin and don't think you have the best hand
on the river. What should you do then? Well,
the fact that you know your opponent is
going to check all but the very strongest of
his holdings gives you chance to either show
down your hand in the hope that it might be
a winner, or even bluff if he is capable of
folding a hand that fits the call, bet, bet,
check betting pattern.
That's not too shabby, is it? You can
save a bet anytime you have a weak hand that
you hope will win in a showdown. And you can
take the entire pot on those occasions when
you are savvy enough to recognise the kind
of player who will release a marginal hand
to a bet on the river, even when his hand is
strong enough to beat yours.
BEWARE THE CHECK-RAISE
Here is another common pattern: call,
check/call, check-raise, bet. This is the
hallmark of a player with a good hand.
Perhaps he's flopped a set or two pair, so
he checks and calls a bet on the flop, then
check-raises the turn in the hope of
trapping one or more players for two bets in
a fixed-limit game and who knows how much in
a pit-limit or no-limit game.
Once he check-raises, he'll usually
continue to drive the hand by betting the
river. There's nothing unusual here. This is
probably just about the most common
betting pattern employed by players holding
big hands. They quietly call the flop in
hopes of getting in a check-raise on the
turn; then they bet out on the river if
their opponents were foolish enough to call
and the river card appears to be benign.
Here's how an awareness of this betting
pattern can help you. When someone checks
and calls the flop, then check-raises the
turn, you should credit this player with a
big hand that's probably better than yours.
While you might find some extraordinarily
creative players who will check-raise bluff
every now and then, it doesn't happen all
that often in most games, and almost never
in lower limit games.
If you are the target of a check/call,
check-raise betting pattern, go ahead and
throw your hand away unless you are holding
a monster or a draw to a better hand than
your opponent is likely to be holding.
Many players are reluctant to throw away
a hand to a check-raise. As a result of
their stubborn nature, they lose money on
the turn and more money on the river. And
they needn't do this. After all, most of the
time a player is check-raised, his opponent
has the better hand. And most of the time
smart players see this betting pattern they
throw their hands away.
If you fold in this situation, you will
usually save a bet. And money saved spends
just as well as money won. Even if you are a
consistently winning player who averages one
big bet in the pus column per hour, calling
a check-raise when you strongly suspect you
are beaten will require a few additional
hours of play to recoup. When Kenny Rogers
was singing, 'You gotta know when to fold'em',
that was his message.
There are other betting patterns you need
to be aware of too. If you see someone who
bets or raises before the flop, only to fold
when he gets a look at the community cards,
you've got an opponent who is sufficiently
disciplined enough to get rid of Big Slick
when the flop is small and there's some
action by other players before it is his
turn to act.
Here's another pattern to look out for:
bet, bet, check, and either check, bet, call
or raise on the river. This is the pattern
of a player who takes a free card when the
circumstances suit him, and if he does this
enough, you can mark him a s a tough,
disciplined foe.
There is much more to be said about
different betting patterns - much
more, in fact. But for those of you who have
not thought much about identifying and
cataloguing betting patterns, this should
serve as food for thought. If you are
already scrutinising betting patterns
whenever you play, this should reinforce
some of your own ideas. Better still, you're
on the road to becoming a winner for life.
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