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Time to get your thinking caps on again and assess just what you know or rather don’t know about the wonderful game of No Limit Texas Hold’em, the game dubbed by two time World Champion and poker legend Doyle Brunson as the “Cadillac of Poker”.
As per usual, you will be awarded points on each answer as you will take a theoretical seat in a real poker game. Carefully work through the questions taking great care to cover the answers with a sheet of paper and then check your score at the end to see how well you did.
Good Luck……and no peeping!
You are sitting in a $25-$50 No Limit Hold’em cash game which is a very big game indeed and you have $4000 on the table but the average stack size is at least this and the table big stack has around $15,000, the table is nine handed.
You have been sitting in this game for about thirty minutes and your stack has dwindled slightly to about $3800. You are sitting in middle position when you get dealt the 10c-10s. A tight solid player in early position raise to $175 and it is folded around to you, what is your play?
Call 10 pts
Re-raise 6 pts
Fold 5 pts
One of the big differences between the varying forms of Hold’em and especially when comparing No-Limit to Limit is how the pot can very rapidly escalate in big bet poker. If you think about this carefully, do you really want to escalate the pot by re-raising when you hand is either a very small favourite to two unpaired over cards or a big dog to an over pair.
Let us take a look at the facts for a minute here. This pot has been raised by a tight solid player so they are unlikely to be the type to be flying around with junk. But yet 10-10 in this situation is clearly too strong to fold although folding does in fact keep you out of trouble and this is why I have awarded it points based on that fact.
But $175 is an acceptable percentage of your stack to speculate with a hand like this as it is less than 5% of your total stack. If you decide to escalate the pot by re-raising then it is possible that players who are yet to speak behind you could have a premium hand or the original raiser have a hand that is either superior to yours from the get go or they overtake you on the flop. Calling also lets you get away very cheaply on many flops like A-K-2 and K-Q-5 etc when your opponent fires at you on flops like these.
A serious argument for re-raising is that it helps you to find out where you stand and it also prevents some dude from re-raising behind you because they think that they are only up against one playable hand because your call implied weakness. But you do not need to re-raise here to find out where you are and will be glad that you didn’t in many scenarios and on many flops. But re-raising also has merits and that is why I have awarded that play points as well. It is strange in poker that sometimes more than one action can be the right thing to do and in this case all three options have their respective merits. If your analysis went similar to mine than award yourself a big fat extra 10 points……be honest now!
So you call and everyone behind you folds including both blinds. The pot stands at $425 and your opponent has you covered in chips and your stack stands at around $3600. The flop comes 8-4-3 rainbow (three different suits) and the pre-flop raiser bets $275 into the $425 pot, come on now tiger don’t let me down here!
Raise 10 pts
Call 5 pts
Fold 2 pts
If you folded on this flop then why in heaven’s name did you call before the flop. You are only going to hit a third ten one hand in eight on average and you have basically got an ideal flop for a pair of tens if you fail to flop a set. Your opponent is far more likely to have over cards than a pocket pair and many players will simply fire what is called a “continuation bet” here whether they hit the flop or miss.
Calling before the flop and then folding to aggression on the flop on a board like this is weak play and you can compliment yourself on being DEDUCTED 10 POINTS if that was your pre-flop plan. Also DEDUCT 5 POINTS if your raise was LESS than $700. A raise of about the pot ($1000) is appropriate here.
Calling before the flop in the hopes of flopping a set and busting someone or doubling through does not work anywhere near as well in games of this size because of the superior calibre of player on average.
Calling is a problem on this flop because it still sends a message to your opponent that you are weak. This could encourage them to fire a second barrel at you on the turn and if an over card to your tens hits on that turn then that bet will put you to a very serious decision of which you may not guess correctly. This is a scenario where you could easily end up laying down the best hand or be forced to continue calling off large chunks of your stack hoping against hope that you are up against a hand like AK.
You can raise here to $1000 and this will almost certainly remove a non-paired hand from this pot as a pre-flop caller could easily have flopped a set. If you are afraid to make a play like this then you have no place playing No Limit Hold’em. In fact if you were in fact fearful….DEDUCT 5 POINTS!…..I feel like being tough today!
You raise to $1000 leaving you with about $2600 on the table. Your opponent calls the raise and now there is $2425 in the pot, the turn card is the 3h making a board of 8s-4c-3d-3h. Your opponent checks….what now you poker pro in waiting you?
Check 10 points
Bet 2 points
Aggression is a good thing in poker but the skill is knowing when to do it. You raised the flop to get rid of un-paired high cards and to see where you stood. Your opponent is unlikely to be calling a re-raise with a hand like AK or AQ. I see a big red warning sign of a premium pair here and a bet is likely to get called as many players cannot lay hands like these down. So check and take the free card…..you never know! The river card is the beautiful 10h making a total board of 8s-4c-3d-3h-10h. Your opponent bets $500 into the $2425 pot, what now?
Re-raise all in 10 pts
Re-raise less than all in 7 pts
Call 0 pts
I would re-raise all in here every single time. My opponent is likely to have a big fat over pair that is bigger than mine which essentially means aces through jacks and appears to be trying to milk me for $500. The way that the betting action has gone with you checking the turn behind them could lead to confusion in their mind as to the real strength of your hand. They know that your flop raise could have been done on a wide range of holdings and you have essentially demonstrated weakness on several occasions in this hand with a pre-flop call and turn check.
It is amazing just how many players will refuse to believe that they are beaten when they are this far into a hand and especially with a big pair on a board like this. Re-raising less than all in is fine but you are a big favourite to get paid off here for the maximum so I cannot award that more than seven points. Only calling because there are possible quad three’s out there is ridiculous.
This was precisely why you checked the turn. If you bet the turn and your opponent raises you all in then you have no call and you never get to see that beautiful ten on the river. You re-raise all in on the river and your opponent calls you with pocket kings. In most scenarios of course, that river ten fails to materialise but the point is that a pro will not lose their entire stack with an over pair like a novice would. The key to winning poker is not just waiting for big hands and then winning with them but to also get away from difficult situations having lost the minimum.
50 pts Are you serious….because if you are then stay out of my way!This quiz was produced for the official magazine of the World Poker Tour and has been reproduced here with their kind permission.
40-49 That’s not bad….in fact it’s pretty damn good!
30-39 Be careful now tiger, you still have serious flaws in your game!
20-29 Stick to small No Limit Games.
10-19 Boy do you have a lot to learn!
0-9 Were you awake for this test!
A minus total The object of the game is NOT to give money away you fool!
