07-20-05, LearnTexasHoldem:

Going All-in With A Made Hand

Question: I have a question about a specific hand I played that knocked me out of a tournament at my local watering hole.

First of all I am an amatuer player but have become very drawn to the game. I recently found your site and have already learned alot. Thank you.

Here was the scenario. We were down to 5 players in the no limit tournament (small tournament, only started with 20 players). Myself and another guy were very close in chips and had 4 or 5 times the amount of the rest of the players.

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I had 85 of clubs and got to see the flop for free from the big blind. There were two other players in (one being the other chip leader). The flop came 4s 5s 6h. I was in first position so I placed a pretty hefty bet just to feel them out. The smaller stack folded but the other chip leader called it. The turn came 4s 5s 6h 7d. At that time I correctly put him on a set (4s as it turned out). I knew if I could get this guy's stack I would probably win the tournament. I knew I had the best hand so I put him all in. He called and much to my horror the river came 4s 5s 6h 7d 7c. I went from chip leader to out of the tournament in 2 hands because we were so close in chips.

My question is was I too aggressive knowing that he still had good odds for a full house draw or was I just unlucky? At first I was thinking that this guy was crazy to call me and he just got lucky but after I cooled down and thought about it, maybe he wasn't so crazy considering the amount of cards that could give him his full house. Would I have been better off to simply bet it hard again knowing that I would still have a good sized stack if I lost or was I smart to take the risk and double up? Any comments or advice on what I could have done better would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mark

Answer: When you look back at a hand wondering if you played it correctly or not, one way to decide is to evaluate the plays based on if the cards were turned face up. On the flop, you made a bet into a few opponents from the blind when a trash board hit -- which is fine even though it turned out you were behind right then. On the turn card, you catch the miracle gutshot card to give you your straight. The opponent has 10 outs to the river to beat your straight. If you could see his hand, you would be correct in betting everything you had to prevent him from getting the right price to draw.

With this said, I'm not sure if I would have played the hand the same way. Since no one raised preflop, it is very difficult for you to know what this guy had. He could have had a set, he could have had top pair, overcards, an over pair like TT, or some other draw -- flush draw, straight draw, etc. The reason I would have maybe checked or bet less than an all-in -- assuming we both had a lot of chips to work with -- is because I would be more afraid of scaring away my action than I would be him sucking out of me, catching the draw.

In the end regardless of which moves you made, you would have lost either way, most likely the majority of chips like you did, but the reasoning behind your moves is more important that the short term outcome -- that specific hand. In tournament poker you don't have many opportunities with strong hands heads up like this.

You want to maximize the money you make on them, even if it means you take on a little more risk. Checking isn't the best option in the above hand since free cards can be bad even heads up, but I would consider checking even better than going all-in. The all-in will only get called by hands that have a chance to beat you, while cutting off any action you might get from players who are drawing absolutely dead. If you bet another amount similar to what you did on the flop, a hand like TT, top pair, two pair, etc would call.

Then on the river you can pull the trigger for more chips since he already so invested in the pot. Again, you would lose this one either way but the vast majority of the time he won't have the set and even when he does, he won't improve to a full house. See, you have to look at it from his perspective too, in that even though it is difficult to put you on an 8 here since you bet the flop, calling the majority of his chips on the turn is very hard even if he has a set. Would you be happy had he folded his set on the turn when you went all-in? You shouldn't be, since he only had 10 outs to the river to win -- around 20%.

The key to no limit holdem is the art of trapping an opponent, milking him when you have a made hand; when you overbet a pot, you achieve the opposite effect since you scare away your business. Going all-in is fine in many spots, but you are actually less likely to go all-in with a made hand than something weaker since the worst thing that can happen to the made hand is not making anything with it. Granted, this was guy more than happy to call all his chips in this spot so you have to take that into account; this is just generally speaking.

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