Playing Strong Hands (two pair or better)

As players keep improving, it gets tougher to “trap” players into stacking off with marginal holdings. The best way to get value out of your strong hands is to bet, especially when players like to call. A common mistake I see is to slow-play monster holdings. That’s not to say slow-playing is bad. There is certainly a time and place for it. However, unless a player has been very aggressive, you should bet and play your strong hands fast on all streets. There are many reasons for this.

It is easier to balance a betting range than a check-calling range. Betting balances the times when you have a hand and when you have nothing. You can’t really check-call with nothing. Well, you can, but it isn’t going to be profitable.

Some players like to check-raise the turn as well. An observant opponent will realize how unbalanced your check-raising range is on the turn. I construct my opponent’s check-raising range by observing the hands he shows down when he check-raises the turn. If I see a strong hand, I note that he check-raises the turn with a strong hand. This means that when he’s 2-barrelling, he’s more likely to have a draw. Of course, that is a simple read, and I adjust my estimated range for him as I see more hands. On the other side, if an opponent check-raises the turn and I see a draw at showdown, it tells me that he’s the type of player who likes to take a free card rather than bet his draw. As you can see, it’s easier for me to construct his turn range when he check-raises the turn. If my opponent were to bet the turn with the majority of his turn range, I wouldn’t know what to do. Sometimes he has a draw with outs against my marginal holding; sometimes he has a strong hand that crushes my marginal holding. Against that range, I have to fold if he bets the turn.

A simple example:
You open-raise pre-flop to $4 with 6h 6d from Middle Position and Button calls.
The flop is 10d 6s 5d.
You bet 3/4-pot and he calls. The turn is a 3h.

You should almost always bet here.
Some players like to check-raise in this spot because they want to trick their opponents into betting Tx or better. But Tx or better is going to call your turn bet anyway. In some cases, those hands might shove the turn to protect their hands. But by checking, you give a free card. Many of his hands are medium pairs that will check behind. These medium pairs may have also picked up a straight draw (76, 75, 64, and 54). He would have called a bet with weak pairs, pair + draws and maybe flush draws. If the turn is checked through, the river can come a diamond or straight card, which might cause you to make an incorrect decision. Betting out also balances all those times you double-barrel with your flush draws or a hand like 87.

Posted by Joel on Apr 25 2010. Filed under Poker Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry