Poker Boot Camp 101 part two

I sat down several hands ago and waited for the big blind. Also the players names in these and subsequent articles will also be kept confidential. I get dealt the Js-4c for my opening hand at Limit Texas Hold’em poker games. This hand is junk so I have no reason to get involved even though it has been folded around to the cut-off who makes it $20 to go and I am seeing over three to one pot odds.

I have no information as yet on the players so I give anyone the benefit of the doubt in situations like these. It is folded around to me and I also fold and refrain from getting involved with a marginal hand from out of position. One of the things that you must realise in cash games is that you are still playing very tightly even though the game is six handed.

I would actually define my style of play as not just tight aggressive but tight very aggressive because I fight tooth and nail for the pots whenever I am in them. I go through the blinds and my stack drops slightly to $685. Many people have asked me over the years if there is anything specific that I look for in the lobby screens before I take a seat.

Well at a level like $10-$20 then I figure that I will make money at this level simply by making better decisions than my opponents based on my experience. So this means that I no longer look for statistics like average pot size or anything like that and figure that I will still generate a +EV even in tight aggressive poker games.

My next opportunity comes to play a hand in the cut-off and it is folded around to me and I have the Qd-10c. This is no great shakes as a hand but this is now a four handed situation with the first two players folding so two Broadway cards are easily good enough to open raise here so I pop it to $20. The button cold calls and the big blind calls as well. The flop comes 9s-7s-3d missing me completely and the big blind checks.

I do not like this situation, if it was heads up then I would bet but two opponents is a vastly different story. The big blind could simply be checking to the raiser so I cannot assume that his check necessarily means weakness. My opponents are more than aware of the potential range of my hands from the cut-off so it would be very difficult to get two players to fold here.

So I check this flop and surprisingly it gets checked behind me too. A flop bet by me is not only highly marginal but it is also presenting two opponents with pot odds of over seven to one. I don’t know anything about the players as yet so they could be slipping into check calling mode and simply waiting for me to bluff my money off when checked to.

The turn card is the 5c and the big blind leads out for $20 and I have no right participating any further in this pot and fold. Overcard outs are marginal at the best of times and I see too many players go too far with them. The problem with overcards being your only source of outs is that you are not even guaranteed to have the best hand even when you hit them. Look out for part three coming soon.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Author – “Winning Cash Game Poker”

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