Doing some studying lately on James "splitsuit" Sweeney's website (www.splitsuit.com), came across this interesting thoughts. Hands can be classified into several varieties.
1. Bluff Hands. You have no pair, perhaps no draw. You are purely bluffing.
2. Semi-Bluff Hands. You have a draw. Perhaps you are 4 to a straight or flush.
3. Showdown Hands. You have a hand with "showdown" value. Ace high, top pair no kicker. You would like to see a cheap river.
4. Value Bet Hands. You have the probable best hand and are looking to extract an extra bet from your opponent. Say you have top pair, top kicker or maybe random two pair, even a flush that is not the nuts.
5. Stone Cold Coconuts Hands. Do we really need to talk about this?
So, the important thing to do is to figure out exactly what kind of hand we really have and proceed from there. When you are raising an early position bettor with your ace high flush draw, this is obviously a semi-bluff situation. You may indeed have the best hand (value), but it is not a pure bluff either. It could develop into a showdown hand if you do not (heaven forbid) get re-raised off your nut draw. You are raising to help define your hand, get a free or cheap card on the turn, or even take the pot down now.
For me, the value bet is where things get dicey. Often with top pair top kicker for instance you think you are value betting, but in reality you have at best a showdown hand. It will often be the best, but if you bet and are either called or check-raised you will probably lose. A lot of "value" is lost on the river either from overplaying the hand or failing to bet it. You have to know your opponent and figure out his range. For instance, say you have QJ and a board something like J/3/5/9/2. You have bet and/or raised all the way vs. a tight player. You really have to believe that at best you have a showdown hand. His calling range is just too tight to see him continuing with a worse kicker. On the other hand, a loose player may call with a worse kicker. However, being loose he may have a random 2 pair hand that is just looking for the river bet to check raise with. That for me is the dilemma. On the one hand we want to extract value, but on the other we don't want to give away more money than we are losing anyway. I see the latter happen probably more than the former. The guy just can't help betting his queen high flush only to lose to the king high. The king high will always call (or some will re-raise) but will seldom bet, fearing the ace and looking for the donkey bluff or bet with a worse hand. So, to me the value bet is really a very high skill talent and my hat is off to those who successfully read the players to accomplish it.
1. Bluff Hands. You have no pair, perhaps no draw. You are purely bluffing.
2. Semi-Bluff Hands. You have a draw. Perhaps you are 4 to a straight or flush.
3. Showdown Hands. You have a hand with "showdown" value. Ace high, top pair no kicker. You would like to see a cheap river.
4. Value Bet Hands. You have the probable best hand and are looking to extract an extra bet from your opponent. Say you have top pair, top kicker or maybe random two pair, even a flush that is not the nuts.
5. Stone Cold Coconuts Hands. Do we really need to talk about this?
So, the important thing to do is to figure out exactly what kind of hand we really have and proceed from there. When you are raising an early position bettor with your ace high flush draw, this is obviously a semi-bluff situation. You may indeed have the best hand (value), but it is not a pure bluff either. It could develop into a showdown hand if you do not (heaven forbid) get re-raised off your nut draw. You are raising to help define your hand, get a free or cheap card on the turn, or even take the pot down now.
For me, the value bet is where things get dicey. Often with top pair top kicker for instance you think you are value betting, but in reality you have at best a showdown hand. It will often be the best, but if you bet and are either called or check-raised you will probably lose. A lot of "value" is lost on the river either from overplaying the hand or failing to bet it. You have to know your opponent and figure out his range. For instance, say you have QJ and a board something like J/3/5/9/2. You have bet and/or raised all the way vs. a tight player. You really have to believe that at best you have a showdown hand. His calling range is just too tight to see him continuing with a worse kicker. On the other hand, a loose player may call with a worse kicker. However, being loose he may have a random 2 pair hand that is just looking for the river bet to check raise with. That for me is the dilemma. On the one hand we want to extract value, but on the other we don't want to give away more money than we are losing anyway. I see the latter happen probably more than the former. The guy just can't help betting his queen high flush only to lose to the king high. The king high will always call (or some will re-raise) but will seldom bet, fearing the ace and looking for the donkey bluff or bet with a worse hand. So, to me the value bet is really a very high skill talent and my hat is off to those who successfully read the players to accomplish it.
1 comment:
Value betting and bet sizing in general is really hard for me. I usually do OK but I never feel comfortable. I had a fun situation the other night. I had pocket 7s and turned a full house. The original raiser checked the river and I wasn't really scared of being check-raised so I bet 2,000 into a pot of 5,000. He called and mucked without showing his hand. He said if I'd bet 500 more he would have folded LOL. I guess I got at least one value bet right!
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