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 he Guardian Poker Column |
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| Victoria
Coren |
| Thur 8 Jan 2009 |
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How to avoid losing a huge
pot
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A new
year dawns: may 2009 see you always winning the maximum when you're in front.
But good poker must also involve losing the minimum when you're behind.
Here is a hand from a heads-up match against Tony G, where I managed to
avoid losing a huge pot. Blinds were 1,000-2,000, and we both had about
100,000. |
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I made it 7,000 from the button with King
of clubs and 10 diamonds. Heads-up, you should be raising from the button with
the majority of hands. With above average cards, I was making oversized raises
because Tony G has a higher than average call frequency, so I hoped to induce
larger errors. He did call. The flop came 6 of clubs, 10 of hearts and 7 of
diamonds.
Tony checked, and so did I. Why? Because I didn't want to
face a big raise. If Tony had a pocket pair or two pictures, he would have
reraised pre-flop. If he had real trash, he would have passed. He was probably
in the middle, with medium connectors, so a flop of 6 7 T could easily have hit
him hard. But I had top pair, which might well be good. A check-raise would
give me an awkward decision.
The turn came 9 of diamonds and Tony
checked again. Now I had to bet, testing the water. But I still wanted to
control the pot size, with a hand that I didn't want to pass but could be very
vulnerable. So I bet 7,000 again. Tony flat called.
The river came 9 of
spades. Tony checked. Many players would value-bet the river with my hand, but
I stuck to my logic and checked behind. Tony chuckled and showed 10 9 for a
full house.
More poker commentary at
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