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he Guardian Poker Column |
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Victoria
Coren |
Friday March 3, 2006
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How to play poker (How to play has been running from issue 16) |
Last week, I mentioned "taking a free card". This is one
of the benefits of raising pre-flop in late position: other players are more
likely to check to you on the flop, giving you the choice of betting or
checking to see the turn.
Generally, if you have raised before the
flop, you should bet again after the flop. If your first raise said, "I've got
the best hand," your flop bet should say, "I've still got the best hand." But
there are certain situations where you might prefer not to bet again.
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Let's say you have raised on the button
with Q
J. The
flop comes 9 Ace 10 `A and everybody checks to you. The chances are, you do not have
the best hand right now. Somebody has probably got a pair. Somebody might even
have a big hand like AQ, and is trying to trap you with a check-raise. But you
have picked up a straight draw. If you had missed the flop completely, and your
hand was so weak that you wanted to drive opponents away, you could happily bet
out and try to get rid of them. In that situation, if anybody check-raised, you
could just throw your rubbishy hand away.
But with a straight draw,
it would be very annoying to get raised. You don't want to throw your hand
away. You really want to see the next card. So why risk making it too
expensive? If you sense opposition in the air, you can simply check, and try to
pick up a straight for free.
You might also check if your hand is
particularly strong. Let's say the flop is `Q Q 3. If you bet here, with your QJ, you are likely to kill your action.
In this situation, you might choose to give a free card, in the hope that an
opponent will make two pair and get stubborn.
Besides, you want to
mix up your play. Opponents won't believe that you like every flop just because
you raised beforehand. Having raised pre-flop, you should bet the flop more
than half the time. But if you always do the same thing, that's the fastest
route to becoming "readable".
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