Another Problem

Play Texas Hold’em The First Two Cards: Early Position Part Five Playing Short-Handed What You Must Realize The Hands to Call With Another Problem Calling or Reraising Before the Flop What If It Is Three-Handed ? When the Blinds are Very Loose Leading on the Flop Calling on Fourth Street Slowplaying on the Flop Fifth Street A Note on Tells Playing Short-Handed Afterthought Part Six Playing in Other Non-Standard Games Wild Games Playing in Extremely Tight Games Playing Against a Live Straddle Strategy of poker of News of poker And is much another about poker



Now we come to a secondary problem. Suppose in our example, you call his raise before the flop, bringing the pot to $400. Furthermore, suppose that on the flop you check and he bets every time. Notice that he is now betting $100 to win $400. So even if you decide to thwart his before the flop plans by frequently calling, it doesn't help you if you screw up from this point on. In fact, (and this is very important), it could backfire on you if you don't carry through properly since he only has to succeed 20 percent of the time to show an automatic profit on his flop bet. That means that if you fold more than 20 percent of the time he again makes money.So what can you do to prevent this? If you call 40 percent of the time before the flop as we recommend but now try to play "normally," on the flop he's got a giant profitable play of betting every single time.Before analyzing the situation let us look at a similar one. Let's say that you're on the button, you raise before the flop (as you will with a lot of hands), and your opponent calls. Now on the flop he comes out betting every time. What are you going to do?Notice that if his strategy is to always bet the flop if he calls your raise, and you only call that bet 60 percent of the time he will again be making a very profitable bet. He will be risking $100 to win $400.In both these situations the proper counter strategy therefore must be to at least call on the flop anytime you have something reasonable, as well as with some other hands that don't appear reasonable. We will address this shortly.