Why we lead small pairs on low boards
Dara O'Kearney explains why we lead small pairs rather than bluff catch with them, when the board is low and coordinated.
I've written previously about why the preflop defender can lead on low flops like 654 rainbow. The Big Blind is the player more likely to have hit that hard with straights, two pair and combo draws, so they get to take the betting initiative.
Some people have asked me about why it is that single top pair type hands also get to lead out. Below is a 654 rainbow flop and the BB's first action, after UTG raises with 40BBs effective:
The obvious nutted hands like straights, sets, two pair and hands like 77 which is an overpair with an open ender, all bet for value. Then our bluffs are hands like 8x for straight draws.
We also some leading with hands like A6-T6s, all of which are just top pair with no chance of making a straight and a slim chance of making a flush. Not only that, we are doing it A5s-95s for 2nd pair and A4s-94s for third pair.
We are leading into a preflop opener with a strong range with just a weak top pair, some students struggle with why we would do this. Isn't this a case of we are only getting called if we are beaten by overpairs, and that playing the hand as a bluff catcher would be better?
Avoid checkbacks
The reason we lead low one pair hands here is that we have a lot of them in our range and they are vulnerable.
There are not many good turns for a hand like Q6s on this board. Getting a hand like T9s is a good result for us. A lot of the hands that would fold have six clear outs against us.
This is why the leads tend to be for a small sizing. We are just clearing out the bottom of the opener's range that has equity against us.
We also lead these flops with one pair to avoid checkbacks. On low coordinated boards a smart player will check back a lot, recognising why they don't have range advantage. This is not bad news for the nutted hands in our range, but it is very bad for small pairs. UTG can check back and realise equity much more easily.
Our main motive for leading small pairs on low boards is to deny equity, rather than going for maximum value.
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