Way ahead - Way behind

Introduction

In this article

• What does "Way ahead - Way behind" mean?
  
• When do you shift away from a c/c on all streets
  

Definition of "Way ahead - Way behind"

A WA/WB situation arises when your own hand is either far ahead or far behind, but you don't know which and only have a few outs.
I will first address only heads-up situations, in which only 2 players are left on the flop and your opponent has the initiative.

The standard example:

Co: 26/22/2,5/36

Preflop: Hero is BB with A 5
CO raises, Hero calls

Flop: A 4 9 rainbow

Is this really a way-ahead way-behind situation?!

Yes, either the hero is way in front with a pair of aces or the opponent hit the ace himself with a better kicker, and we have only 3 kicker outs against him.
Now, like in every hand, we want to make the most of this and get the most value from it.

Against strong opponents, a calldown is the best variant, since we will lose the least this way. A fold while heads-up on the flop is out of the question.

But what about the worse hands, the ones that barely have any outs against us? CO could have raised with any number of pocket pairs, or with hands like QJ, KJ, KQ, QT. With these hands, he'll either have to hit 2 outs against our top pair or make a runner-runner 2 pair. Both of these are rare events. So how do we get the most money from these hands?
Our usual sequence would be: check/raise flop, bet turn. Against hands like QJ, KQ we allow our opponent to cheaply fold his hand. Even pocket pairs might be a simple fold here. We would minimize our value with the usual sequence.

The in WA/WB situations, our standard line causes us to earn minimum value if we are WA since CO will fold these hands, but if we are WB we allow him to get the maximum value from us because of our turn raise.

Hence, it can no longer be our standard line.

A much more passive line is needed here. Check/call on all 3 streets is a much stronger sequence. It will lose the least if we are behind and does not allow our opponent to cheaply part with his hand. Rather, it induces bluff bets if we are ahead.

Even if your opponent has something like KQ, and doesn't hit anything until the river, he'll usually fire off one last bet in the hope of getting us to fold.

Also:
Suppose our opponent took a free card on the turn after we played c/c on the flop. In that case, we bet the river!

A brief calculation:

Let us re-examine our standard example from before:
Co: 26/22/2,5 WTS:36

Preflop: Hero is BB with A 5
CO raises, Hero calls

Flop: A 4 9 rainbow

This calculation is much simplified, but will still show the validity of the concepts.

Standard Line:

We're WA after the flop:
Our opponent has a hand like KQ or 55.
We check, he bets, we raise him=>he'll fold small pockets and unimproved undercards up to A directly against the check-raise.

+ 0.5 BB Net gain

We're WB after the flop:
Our opponent holds something like AK/AQ or a 2 pair.
We check, he bets, we raise, he'll call with the intention of raising us again on the turn. We bet the turn, he raises, we cannot fold our top pair in heads-up so we call the turn and river bets both.

- 4 BB Net loss

WA/WB Line:

We're WA after the Flop:
Our opponent has a hand like KQ or 55.
We check, he bets, we call. On the turn we check to him again. Now it's difficult to say how much you'll make off an opponent here, on the average. Many opponents would bet some beatable hands right on into the turn and river. From these, we would get 2.5 BB. Some opponents would bet the turn but check-behind on the river, from these we would get 1.5 BB. Others would neither bet on the turn nor the river, and from these we would get .5 BB.
In my opinion, 1-1.5 BB is a realistic middle value.

+ 1-1,5 BB Net gain

We're WB after the Flop:
Our opponent holds something like AK/AQ or a 2 pair.
We check and call on every street, even though this isn't true every time we will assume that your opponent value bets with his stronger hand.

- 2,5BB Net loss

As you can see, the WA/WB line is better than the standard line in both cases!

Further Examples:

1) BB: 30/24/2,4 WTS:38

Preflop: Hero CO with A Q
Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero caps, BB calls

Flop: K Q 3
BB bets, Hero…

The cap we put on his direct bet should make us considerate. We don't want to fold our hand here. We find ourselves in a WA/WB situation. No overcard is dangerous for us since we have an ace ourselves.
But if our opponent has AA or hit the king with AK/KQ then we're WB. If he only has one pocket or Ax, we're WA.
The hero's plan here should be a calldown, in case the another Q or A shows up!

2) SB: 30/24/2,4 WTS:38

Preflop: Hero is CO with K Q
Hero raises, SB 3-bets, Hero calls

Flop: K 4 9
SB bets, Hero calls

Turn: A
SB bets, Hero…

We hit our pair of kings with queen kicker on the flop. The hero is ahead after the flop. He calls the flop so he can raise a bet from SB but then A appears on the turn. Not the card the hero wanted to see. He is now WA/WB at the turn:

Against an ace, the hero is WB. Unfortunately, that the SB 3-betted pre-flop seems to indicate that it might be so.
However, we are not necessarily behind!
Against pocket tens or pocket jacks we're ahead, and also against weaker kings. He would be WA against these hands, so a fold is out of the question.
The hero will not raise the turn but play a calldown because of the WA/WB situation.

3) SB: 40/26/2.0 WTS:39

Preflop: Hero is CO with K J
Hero raises, SB 3-bets, Hero calls

Flop: K 8 A
SB bets, Hero…

It's no dream flop after a 3-bet pre-flop. But against this type of opponent it's also no reason to throw your hand away.
If the SB has hit an ace, we're WB and we'll have to hit our kicker or another king. A raise would be dangerous on all streets since the SB won't have any trouble 3-betting us with an ace. And we don't have an easy fold if that happens. We want a showdown!
Once again, our plan is a calldown!

When do I deviate from a c/c on all streets when I'm OOP?

We're OOP: our opponent plays a check-behind on the turn or IP: our opponent checks to us on the turn.

We want to be sure that at least one bet gets into the pot on every street. As soon as our opponent checks behind on the turn, I bet the river. We've still got a pair and don’t want to see a check on 2 streets.

When should I consider a donkbet?

Informally, it can said this way:
The more passive and higher the WTSD of the opponent, the more sensible the bet/fold line on the river.

Bluff induce has little value against this kind of opponent. He often plays check behind with pockets or a hopeless hand. But he won't call our bets. If he has a strong ace, he often won't raise on the river; he has a small AF.

The line „bet/call“ is almost never sensible for the following reason:
For bet/call we would need an opponent who was willing to call us with worse hands, yet against which we would have no easy fold. That is, he would have to have a high WTSD and a high AF.
But a bluff induce has a lot of value against this kind of opponent, and for that reason I pull the c/c line on the river.

I've hit 2 pair on the turn OOP and c/c is too weak. What should I do?

OOP, check-raise is often the variant that will get most value from a hopeless hand. It will also get the most value from hands that were WB before but are now surely WA.

Question 4: When should one deviate from the beaten WA/WB line? a) If the A appears b) If your hand improves drastically c) If the opponent shows weakness at some point in the form of a check. Question 5: Against which opponent types does a bet/fold line make sense on the river? a) High AF, high WTS b) High AF, low WTS c) Low AF, high WTS

Appendix: Solutions

Question 1: When do you have a WA/WB situation?

Answer b is correct. Hero is WA when he’s ahead and the villain only has a few outs, and the hero is WB when he is behind and has very few outs himself.

Question 2: Which fundamental moves should you choose in a WA/WB situation?

Answer a is correct. With check/call any street, you’ll lose the least, should you be falling behind, and if you’re ahead, you’ll win the most.

Question 3: Why do we deviate from our standard lines in a WA/WB situation?

Answers a and c are correct. Through a  passive playing style, we can take away the villian’s opportunity to find a favourable fold, and stay away ourselves from the danger of overpaying for the hand in the case we’re behind.

Question 4: When should one deviate from the beaten WA/WB line?

Answers b and c are correct. Should our hand improve to a two-pair or better, we can change our line since we’re very probably WA. Even if the opponent checks to us (turn/river) or checks behind on the turn, we should place a bet ourselves, since we want to bring a bet into the pot on every street.

Question 5: Against which opponent types does a bet/fold line make sense on the river?

Answer c is correct. The low AF guarantees that we won’t see any weaker hands raising and the high WTS indicates that he won’t part with a weak hand just because of one bet.