This week we will talk about whether to play our draws aggressively or passively.
Generally we cap our flush draws for example on the flop as soon as there are 2 opponents with us because we have immediatly 33% equity which is known as betting/raising/capping 'for value'. These kind of situations are not topic of this weeks sample hands.
What we want to talk about is to be aggressive on the flop where it's not 'for value' but where we have a good chance of winning the hand unimproved.
In short: We want our opponents to fold their hands.
++++++++++ HAND 1 ++++++++++
Ideally we already know how our opponents play, for example in this hand we know that CO is a big fish who calls with too many hands preflop. BU is a tighter player maybe even a player from PS.com.
Preflop: Hero is BB with 6♣, 5♣
6 folds, CO calls, BU raises, SB folds, Hero calls, CO calls.
Preflop: The fish (CO) limps and the TAG (BU) raises. Because the TAG knows as well that CO is a loose player the raising range of BU is wider as well. Roughly spoken we assume that BU will raise 55 and better, (From now on we say to '55 and better' simply '55+'.) A2s+, K9s+, Q9s+, J9s+, A7o+, KTo+, QJo.
65s is a good hand in this spot because we are getting good odds and we can assume that CO will call as well but won't raise himself.
Flop: (6.50 SB) 9♣, 8♣, 2♥ (3 players)
Hero checks, CO checks, BU bets, Hero raises, CO folds, BU calls.
Flop: On the flop we hit a flushdraw and a gutshot (Every 7 makes a straight.) so we will proceed for sure.
A beginner might now donkbet the flop in hope that the loose CO and the tight BU only call which would make our bet 'for value'.
The problem with this donkbet is that the thinking TAG might read our hand correctly because we would check/raise a pair here to protect our hand. (CO would have to call 2 bets and might fold a hand with 5+ outs.)
Because of that we should check/raise our draw here as well.
Now we represent a stronger hand and we might win this hand even unimproved either directly on the flop or with another bet on the turn.
BU will fold many A-, K-, Q-high hands as well as 55, 66 and 77.
The advantage of winnng this hand unimproved is higher than the risk of isolation ourself against a better hand.
In need we have several outs to improve and win the hand this way.
Turn: (5.25 BB) 8♥ (2 players)
Hero bets, BU calls.
Turn: On the turn we continuate our semibluff because the TAG will call many overcards on the flop for one bet but fold them to another bet on the turn (For example KQ, KJ, AK, AQ.) if he hasn't hit anything. If he raises us we still have enough outs to improve.
River: (7.50 BB) T♠ (2 players)
Hero bets, BU folds.
River: The river is interesting again because we haven't hit one of our outs and the only way to win this pot is to make BU fold his hand.
The pot is already pretty big so our bluff only needs to be successfull in 1 out of 8 times.
Especially the T might scare the TAG because QJ, JT and 76 made a straight or a pair.
Often enough the TAG should have just A-high or a higer flush draw which he has to fold to our bluff.
Final Pot: 8.50 BB
Caution: This semibluff and pure bluff should only be applicated against the proper opponent. It is senseless to try this against a maniac because he won't fold A- or K-high here and he might raise us as a semibluff as well.
Against the TAG this line gets profitable because we would play the same way with A9 (toppair), 98 (twopair) or 88 (set) and so he can't say whether we (semi-)bluff or play for value and from this follows that he has to/will fold A-, K- and Q-high.
++++++++++ HAND 2 ++++++++++
Here we have a hand where it's better to stay passive. For simplicity MP3 is the tight BU from hand 1) and BB is a fish.
But generally we play this hand the same way against any opponent.
Preflop: Hero is SB with A♠, K♠
5 folds, MP3 raises, 2 folds, Hero 3-bets, BB calls, MP3 caps, Hero calls, BB calls.
Preflop: Against the raise fom SB we have an easy 3-bet with AKs. The fish coldcalls anyway and the TAG caps the betting.
It's hard to put BU on a hand. He might call with any twosuited cards, with suited connectors like 98s, with small pairs and sometimes they even call with any A-high here.
The TAG could be put on TT+, AKs, AKo and maybe even AQs (Some TAGs have a wider capping range but in a fullring game this range should be reasonable.)
Flop: (12.00 SB) 2♠, 3♠, 5♥ (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, MP3 bets, Hero calls, BB calls.
Flop: On the flop we hit again a flushdraw and a gutshot. Additionally we have 2 overcards which makes this draw stronger than in hand 1)
so you might instinctively think that we should play this draw even more clearly aggressive.
For following reasons it's better to stay passive here.
At first the TAG has a tight hand range here because of his preflop cap and so he won't fold any of his hands. TT+ has an overpair to the flop and AK can't fold because the pot is big enough to draw for his outs.
The 2nd reason to not check/raise here is that he will often 3-bet us so we have to pay the most with our draw with the risk of knocking the 3rd player out as well.
Turn: (7.50 BB) T♣ (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, MP3 bets, Hero calls, BB folds.
Turn: The T is no card to make the TAG fold a better hand to a check/raise so we stay again passive.
River: (9.50 BB) A♦ (2 players)
Hero bets, MP3 calls.
River: On the river we hit one of our outs and we should bet into him because our line looks like an high A-high due to the fact that we would have played a high pair more aggressive.
He will call JJ, QQ and KK for one bet because of the potsize but might check them behind in fear of of the ace.
If he raises our donkbet we should only call because the not many TAGs on these low limits would raise here with just AQ on the river and AK will split the pot with us anyway.
So in the end we would only lose money with a 3-bet against AA or TT.
Final Pot: 11.50 BB
