The Tank

Find your limit

	I’m not saying he wasn’t bluffing when he raised the pot on the river, but it makes no sense paying 0 to find out

I decided to try a limit hold’em cash game recently. Since it was my first time, I started very low at $0.25/$0.50. It was a ten-handed table and I’d won about two hands up to this point; pre-flop raising with premium hands, continuation betting on the flop and winning without a showdown.

Having come from a no-limit cash background, I realised there would probably be profit in mixing up my play. So, when I got dealt 3-4 offsuit in late position and there was one call (seat No.3) in front of me, I decided to just call. The big blind checked and the flop came 3-4-J rainbow. The big blind checked again, seat No.3 bet and I raised. The big blind now folded and seat No.3 re-raised. I figured he might have A-J or K-J. I capped it and we went to the turn. It was 10:. Seat No.3 bet out again and I raised. He then re-raised and I capped it again.

Alarm bells were ringing now, but I thought the odds of him having top two pair when I had two pair were too remote. The river was AÚ and he bet out again. I just called it and he turned over J-10. What did I do wrong?

Gary, via email

Playing in a limit game requires a completely different strategy to no-limit. Whereas in no-limit, you can raise with much lower starting hands (in fact you can raise with anything), in limit, you have to raise with premium hands because it is likely to go to a showdown. Even if you flop two small pair like you have in this case, at limits up to around $5/$10, it’s almost impossible to protect your hand because the odds are almost always there to call – especially if you have a piece of the flop. As the hand played out, you didn’t really do anything wrong. You raised and were re-raised and capped it. Now, that should have told you he had at least a Jack or maybe even a set. When the turn came a 10, that was a scare card, because J-10 is such a usual holding to play. You could probably have minimised your loss by just calling his bet. But at limits of $0.25/$0.50, I can understand the temptation to raise.

In many ways, limit is much more straightforward than no-limit, and can pay off if you’re patient and wait for cards. But if making money is your goal and you’re already doing it playing no-limit, then stick to that.

Don’t go nuts

-JÚ from the small blind with a stack of $700.

The big blind has been playing quite a lot of pots – actually he just got caught on a big bluff. Funnily enough, this is the first pot I’ve played with him. He re-raises to $52, middle position folds and I call. The flop is K:-10Ú-6…. I check, planning to check-raise. The big blind checks and the turn is 6Ú. I check, he checks. The river is the J…. I bet the pot and the big blind raises. I end up folding. Was this the right move?

Alistair, via email

Folding was the right thing to do, but that doesn’t mean you adopted the correct method. In pot-limit Omaha, we rarely want to win the pot pre-flop; we want to build it when we have a big hand and with double suited A-Q, you certainly had that. You flopped top two pair and a wrap round the straight and you are only behind if the other guy has a set. Check-raising with your hand is okay, but your problems in this hand started occurring when he didn’t oblige by betting. Now, when the board pairs, your strong hand is vastly undermined because of all the full house possibilities out there – which is why you’re right to check.

Pot-limit Omaha is often won with the nuts or the second nuts; but yours isn’t even in the top three – so why would you bet the pot on the river? If he was an aggressive player and had Kings or 10s, he probably wouldn’t have checked twice in a row, but when the Jack arrives on the river, my belief is that he housed up with pocket Jacks. You were right to fold, but you lost far more than you had to. If you had checked and he had bet, you could still have called a pot-sized bet if you believed he was bluffing. I’m not saying he wasn’t bluffing when he raised the pot on the river, but it makes no sense paying over $400 to find out.

ASK WILLIE!

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Just drop him an email at WillieTann@dennis. co.uk or post to:

Willie Tann,
Poker Clinic, InsidePoker,
Dennis Publishing,
30 Cleveland St,
London,
W1T 4JD.

Letters may be edited for length.