Royal online poker club

Suppose your opponent raises to 3BBs

Suppose your opponent raises to 3BBs out of his 200BB stack and you call on the button with 9-7. The flop comes 10-8-3. Your opponent bets 4BBs and you call. The turn is the 4. Your opponent bets 8BBs and you call. At this point, you need to determine your opponent’s range and decide on which rivers you can make him fold if he checks to you. He most likely has a 10 or an overpair. If an ace or king comes, you should probably bet if checked to, representing a flush draw that paired its highest card. If a heart comes, you should bet, representing the flush. If a queen comes, you can bet, representing J-9, which is a likely holding. Obviously you should bet if a jack or 6 comes, giving you a straight. So, even though you actually only have six fairly clean outs, not eight because the J and 6 may give you the second-best hand, you can still expect to pick up this pot a huge amount of the time going to the river. If one of your bluff cards does come and your opponent continues betting, you should generally assume he has a hand and be quick to abandon yours. Don’t get stuck assuming you have to bluff just because you missed.

The weaker your draw, the more passively you should play.

The weaker your draw, the more passively you should play. This is because when you semi-bluff, you have to make your opponent fold a higher percentage of the time to show a profit. Also, as stacks get shorter, semi-bluffing all-in becomes an excellent option because you can have a huge amount of fold equity and don’t have to worry about having money behind. You also can’t get forced off your draw if you can find a way to go all-in with it. In tournaments, if your opponent could put in a reasonable raise that could force you off your draw, you should tend to just call. If you can raise all-in, giving you fold equity, you should tend to push.