Be a flexible, not fixated, bettor
As board cards are revealed and betting follows, you try to put opponents on a range of hands while disguising the strength or weakness of your own.
As you gain more information and narrow your opponents’ range, you can develop a plan for the remaining streets that gets you paid off the most. But you can’t be so quick to stick with your original idea, as Josh Arieh did in this hand from the World Poker Tour’s $15,000-buy-in Doyle Brunson World Poker Classic at Las Vegas’ Bellagio in 2009.
With blinds at $100-$200, four players limped around to Arieh, who drew A-10 of spades in the small blind. There had to be some weakness among the limpers, but Arieh only called.
“Ace-10 this early in the tournament is something I’m playing to make a flush with because you won’t win a big pot; you’ll only lose a big pot if you raise from the small blind with it,” said Arieh, who has two World Series of Poker bracelets and a third-place finish in the 2004 WSOP main event. “It’s not a hand I want to play out of posi- tion when we’re so deep in chips” ($60,000 to start).
So six limpers took a flop of 7-9-10, two spades, giving Arieh top pair and the nut-flush draw.
“I led out $750, hoping to represent a pair and a straight draw because the board is real coordinated,” Arieh said. “I don’t want to check-raise because if I get re-raised and miss, now I’m playing a huge pot out of position.”
Only J.J. Liu called behind Arieh. The turn came the jack of spades, completing Arieh’s nut flush.
“It also made a straight,” Arieh said, “but if she made a straight, she’s not going to bet because of the three spades, so I have to lead out.
“I bet $1,500 because if I had made a straight, that’s what I would’ve bet. It’s such a board-changing card that it had to have helped her hand. I had decided I was going to check on the end and try to check-raise.”
Liu called. The river came the 2 of spades, putting out four to the flush. Arieh quickly checked, as he planned. But Liu checked behind him. Arieh got the pot and some regret as Liu mucked her hand.
“I messed up on the end,” Arieh said. “I should’ve bet when the spade came on the end in case she had the 8 of spades.
“I should’ve led big and induced her to call. I should’ve led around $5,000, because I wouldn’t bet the king-queen of spades and it would be hard to put me on the ace of spades there [because that holding alone wouldn’t have been able to withstand a raise from out of position on earlier streets]. I will get paid off a lot by the 8 of spades.
“I just acted too fast. I was so dead set on checking the river.”
Table talk
Nut flush: Holding the highest card of a suit that completes a flush.