|
Passive Players, Weak Calls, and Weak Bets |
|
|
|
Are you one of the passive players paying my bills? Read on and find out.
As a professional I have to tell you that while I have won some big
pots off very aggressive players, the vast majority of my poker income
is generated by passive players making weak calls and weak bets.
Whether it's calling big raises preflop with ace-rag, calling big bets
on the flop with a gutshot draw, or slowplaying a low flush, weak play
must be eliminated if you hope to consistently win.
Weak Starting Hands
Many of the players I take money from lose their chips before the flop
even hits the board. Why? Because they select starting hands so weak
that only two pair, trips or a flush are likely to give them the best
hand.
Take Q7 offsuit. A lot of players will hold onto this hand simply
because they see a face card. But what do you hope to see hit the
board? You can't flop a straight or a flush, if a Q comes you might be
outkicked, and even a 6 high board could leave you crippled by hands
like 88 or A7. The only decent possibility is a flop like Q72 or J77 -
but how often will one of those fall, and when they do fall, how often
will you get paid? Definitely not often enough to make up for all the
times you flop weak top pair, weak middle pair, or nothing at all.
Suited cards are another common downfall of the weak player. How many
times have you heard (or made) the excuse "but they were suited" to
justify playing a hand like 8d3d? And yet suitedness only increases a
hand's value by a maximum of 4%. So why do I see so many players
calling preflop raises with suited cards? The sad truth is I think
they simply find them pretty to look at.
The last, but not least, of the standard weak hands is, you guessed
it, the weak ace. You would think, given that most online players come
to the game by watching pros on TV, that it would be the norm to fold
weak aces. But it's not. In fact, many of the amateurs I play not only
routinely play hands like A7 and A3 - they do so in early position
against a raise.
Let's think for a moment about what you're probably up against when
you call a preflop raise with A5. The vast majority of times it will
be one of two hands: a strong ace or a decent pair. In either case
you're down to three outs, making your opponent a 70% favorite. But
the worst part is not knowing what to do when the flop comes 852 or
AQ4. Is middle pair in the first case any good, or does the raiser
have an overpair? In the second case it's the same base question: am I
up against AK/AQ or JJ/TT? Many players lose their whole stack finding
out.
Weak Calls
It has been said that "he who chooses the beginning of the road
chooses the place it leads to", and poker is no exception. As you
would have gathered from the previous section, a significant
percentage of the mistakes made on and after the flop are the result
of weak hand selection. Someone calls a raise with QT and can't fold
his hand when the flop comes Q64, calling all the way down to the
river only to find the bettor (and preflop raiser) has AQ or KQ.
The same often happens with lower middle pairs like 88. There's a
raise or even a reraise preflop and the player with 88 doesn't know
what to do when the flop comes 742. So what do they do? Call. And what
sort of hand do they often find staring back at them? JJ, QQ and so
on. In situations like these nothing could be worse than calling.
Better to fold or put in a large raise to see where you stand.
Drawing hands can make for equally weak calls, especially when you've
only got a handful of outs. It amazes me how many of my opponents will
call a potsized bet with middle pair, hoping to catch two pair or
trips on the turn or river. With only five outs this chaser is a 4 to
1 underdog versus top pair. If you don't think your opponent has you
beat then once again you should raise, not call. If he folds, you win;
if he reraises, you fold; if he calls, you proceed with extreme
caution.
The situation is similar with a weak overcard draw like QJ and a flop
of 872. Except in this case you could easily be drawing dead against
trips or a combination of other drawing hands like T9, KJ and AQ. For
these reasons calling a strong bet here is just pure idiocy.
Gutshot (inside straight) draws are, of course, the epitome of a weak
draw. With only four outs it's unlikely you will ever get good enough
pot odds to make the call - unless, of course, there are several
players in the pot and/or a very weak bet. Which leads us to our final
section:
Weak Bets/Checks
Up to this point we've only discussed weak calls with weak hands, both
before and after the flop. But an almost equally passive approach is
to make weak bets or checks with strong hands, giving anyone with a
draw the proper odds to beat you.
As you might expect, weak betting often begins preflop, by limping in
or making a minimum raise with strong hands like AK or JJ. The idea
behind this is to trap opponents with weaker holdings. But what often
ends up happening is five or six people with weaker hands call, and
one or more of them outflops you. AK, for example, flops top pair only
one out of every three times. Even JJ is more likely than not to see
an overcard hit the board, often rendering the hand useless. Better to
isolate one or two opponents preflop with a strong raise and then play
the flop aggressively.
Just as foolish as playing strong hands weakly preflop is playing them
weakly post flop. I still shake my head and laugh when I see someone
with AK check or mininum bet a flop like AQJ, giving hands like JT or
T9 a cheap shot at making trips or a straight on the turn.
The same rings true for weak flushes and weak straights. Time and time
again I watch my opponents slowplay a very vulnerable best hand. They
call a raise preflop with 6h5h and check or minimum bet when the flop
comes Th9h2h, despite the fact that at least one of their opponents
probably has the J, Q, K or A of hearts, or even TT/99, making any
heart, T, 9 or 2 a death card for your weak flush.
In my view there are really only three situations where it's
reasonable to make a weak bet or check: 1) you've flopped a massive
hand that is almost impossible to beat on the turn (KK flop K72); 2)
you've flopped a strong hand and know you will get raised by a weaker
hand (AQ flop AQ4 vs. AT), in which case you will reraise; 3) you've
flopped a strong draw and think a weak bet might discourage a bigger
one.
The bottom line here is that there's little room in no-limit hold'em
for weak play. If you find yourself at a limit or table where you
don't feel comfortable playing strongly, you probably shouldn't be
there. Not unless you're happy handing over your money to players like
me.
By J.P Stimpson
|
|
|
.png){kind=small}
Betfair Poker.png){kind=small}
Ladbrokes Poker.png){kind=small}
Titan Poker
.png)