06-16-04, LearnTexasHoldem:

Defending Against Draws

Question: In a recent online $50 no-limit tourney, I found myself dealt KdQd. the blinds were 100/200 at the time. I had 1800 chips. The BB was the table leader with 8000. There was one caller up to me. I rasied to 400. the SB folds. The BB calls, everyone else folded. The flop came Kh2d4h. I bet 600. I am quickly called by the BB. the turn is 4d. I now have 2 pair with a flush draw. I am a bit concerned by the 600 call. Here is where my question is. How do you advise playing a situation when you think you have the best hand and the other guy is on a draw. In my case I went all in. I was called. the BB the river was not a diamond. The BB showed a Jc4s. He takes the pot. I find myself in this situation at times. I don't want the guy to get cheap cards because hey may be on a draw, but if I bet too big and he has a made hand, I end up with a big loss. Any Advice for this type of situation.

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Answer: First of all, my advice will be geared more towards a regular tourney instead of an online sit and go one. Everything should still apply but I wanted to point that out because there are a lot of differences between the two since the time frame is so compressed on the latter.

In tournament play how many chips you have and how many chips your opponent has figures into your calculation. Since you only have 1800 chips left, you're going to be out after this hand. You only have 800 left on the turn so betting the rest in isn't wrong. The last thing you put the person on is trip 4s. That was a horrible play on his part. You should write his name down and try to play more tourneys with him since he is so bad. If you both had a lot more chips then my advice would change. Let's say you each had 8000 chips. Going all-in here would definitely be wrong. You would instead do best to keep making sizable bets but not risk all your chips in one hand (unless it is very strong).

After watching poker on TV, it's easy to assume that going all-in is something everyone does at all levels in the tournament. That isn't the case though unless you are short stacked. You want to make money on your hands and betting the same amount on each round proportional to the blinds/pot is ideal. If you go all-in with a hand like this the two options are that either he will call and have you beat or fold. You would prefer to make bets at the pot and have him call down with a weaker hand

a hand like you had, you don't want him to fold. You want him to bleed off his money and miss his draw. I think that if you consciously try to overbet to prevent being outdrawn then you will end up in more trouble then just making regular size bets. You want action but not too much on hands that you're the underdog. So to finish up, let's say you did have 8000 in the hand above. I would play it pretty much the same way. You might want to bet a little more on the turn instead of 800. You could bet an even 1000 (400 preflop, 600 flop then 1000 turn). That would still give you options in case you get a big reraise or if the person goes all-in later. You won't be out, you'll just take a big hit.

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