Poker: Playing in a limped pot

In this hand I want to replay another situation that I have dragged from my hand histories that I would like to share with you. The game is Texas Hold’em NL100 so the blinds are $0.50-$1.00 and the game is a nine handed full-ring table. It has been folded to a middle position player who limps in and then folded to the cut-off and the button who also limp, the small blind folds and so I get to see the flop for free and have junk with the 10c-4d.

Now I know that many players like to attack limpers here with pick up plays and I have done so plenty of times in the past myself. But you don’t need to press too much in this situation. In cash games then you need to be careful anyway and especially if short stackers have limped in.

In this example as with any example then it is relevant of course to mention the stack sizes of the players and here, they all have $100+ stacks. But pick up plays are more important in tournament poker where the time frame for acquiring chips is severely restricted. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I would never raise here in a cash game but my percentage of raises here would be very small.

So I made the obvious standard play of checking along, the flop came Jd-5c-2s. Now this is a flop that stands a good chance of not hitting anyone and the pot has $4.50 in it so far. But yet my position is bad and I have three players who have position on me. What happens if I bet and get called? Then I am going to feel compelled to fire again on the turn with another barrel.

If I get called again then this bluff will turn into an expensive one. In situations where I would have thrown my hand away had someone raised pre-flop then I don’t like to get too far out of line. Here the prudent course is once again to check and I do so. The turn card is Qs and now once again I check. This card has brought another high card and has now put straight draws on the board so I don’t want to try stealing it when out of position against three opponents in a cash game.

Surprisingly it gets checked around again and the river card is the 3c. Now the opportunity has arisen to bluff. While it is possible that someone held a jack, they would have been likely to bet it on the flop. If someone held a queen then they would have probably bet that on the turn. The queen arriving could deter anyone from calling with medium pairs as there would be several overcards on the board.

The three arriving didn’t really help anyone unless someone has just hit a set of threes or a wheel with A-4s. With three opponents then you can still make a case for checking here and that is probably the standard play.

But a bet in the region of about $3 could also take this pot down as well. As the big blind in a limped pot then I could have been sitting there with absolutely anything and my opponents know this. I could have turned absolute junk into two pair or even a straight.

I would still lean towards checking here but a bet given the action so far can also be factored in. I would probably check more often if I was multi-tabling simply through speed of action but in this instance I bet $3 and all three of my opponents folded.

I think that betting has far more credibility with one less opponent to worry about and my ratio of bets to checks on the river would have been far higher against two opponents than three as you are more likely to get looked up.

by Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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