|
|
In order for your reads to be correct, effective, and an asset to your game, you must think about every aspect of the hand to see if it actually make sense. Then, you have to trust your read to be accurate and act accordingly. It is vitally important to put your opponent on a starting hand, evaluate each bet and determine if the story that is being told is an accurate one, and then acting on that read.
The game is a 1/2 NL game at the Cherokee near Tulsa, Oklahoma. I am dealt pocket Jacks with a player in the big blind who is controlling the table, and I am in the cutoff. Two players limp in the pot to me and I decide to simply limp as well with the pocket jacks. My thought process is that I disguise the strength of my hand and let the table captain in the Big blind continue his aggression. If there are over cards on the flop I can get
away from this
hand if I so choose. He does as expected and raises to $15. The other players fold to me and I simply call, leaving me heads up against the raiser. The flop comes A J 5 with 2 diamonds, I have hit a set of jacks. The big blind leads out strong for $40 into a $36 pot. I am convinced he has Ace 5 and flopped 2 pair and wants to make it to costly for me to call with a flush draw. I think to myself, I am going get paid off. I smooth call and the turn comes another ace filling up my boat with jacks full of aces.
The problem is, if my read is correct I am drawing dead to the case jack. The big
blind leads out again for $80. I think for a short time and determine that I must trusts
my read. Since we were heads up and there was no other action pending I show my cards as I muck them that I am folding a full house. He is beside himself. "You are supposed to pay me off there" he says as he shows ace five for aces full and rakes in the pot.
Same game, same place, different table, different day. A player in early position makes a raise 6 times the big blind. From his history I put him on a medium pocket pair and I call with a suited king jack. The flop comes Q 10 2 rainbow. The action is heads up and he is first to act and makes what I determine to be a continuation bet about half the size of the pot. Because I have him on a middle pocket pair, I am convinced I have
14 outs with my open ended straight draw as well as 2 over cards to his middle pair and I call. The turn comes another queen. He checks I check. The action fits my read. The river comes another jack. This time he leads out with just a little less than a pot sized bet. I am convinced that he has been counterfeited and that his only chance of winning the hand is to get me to fold. I call and show king high. He mucks his hand and I drag the pot.
You must put your opponent on a range of starting hands and then see if the story he is telling fits that range and then you must act accordingly. Trusting your reads on the situation, their posture, listening to the tone in their voice if they speak, paying more attention to how something is said instead of what is said. Then take the action that read tells you to take. I know there are times in these hands that I may have been better
off raising than
simply calling, but as long as you can fold when your read tells you that you are beat you will stay ahead of this game. The players that call even though they know they are behind are doomed to feed this game and the winning players. It was Benjamin Franklin who once said that "A penny saved is a penny earned". That could never be more true than in the game of poker as it applies to making bad calls with a good hand when you know your opponent has a better hand.
|
