Your basic goal when playing any hand of poker is pretty obvious really – you want to put as much money into the pot as possible when you have the best hand and as little as possible when you don’t. Likewise, you want your opponent to put as much money into the pot as possible when you’ve got them beat.
The best way to achieve this is to force your opponent to make a mistake, yet inexperienced players too often fail to recognize opportunities to do so. Worse, their actions open the way for opponents to make good decisions rather than bad ones.
Let’s look at the notion of checking with medium strength hands to induce a bluff and why this can be such an effective play.
You are dealt 7-8 suited in early position in a 6-max cash game and raise. The player on the button calls and the flop comes 9-8-5. A lot of players continue to bet here, believing that their 8 is probably good or hoping to push their opponent off a draw. But that thinking is flawed.
Let’s examine this more closely. What hands can call you if you bet here? Certainly any 9 will call. So will 6-7 and any set. If the player flatted pre-flop with 10s or Js, they’re calling too. You can expect a call from draws such 10-J and probably even J-Q. All of these hands either have you dominated or have some pretty good equity against you. You might get called by pocket 6s or pocket 7s, but that’s about it. So all you are really achieving by betting is folding out all the hands you beat and getting called by those that beat you. That’s not a great result.
Now, what if you were to check (with the intention of calling) instead? Now your opponent can bet with any two cards, thinking that you opened pre-flop with something like A-K and missed the flop completely. It sounds simple, but you would be surprised how often you will get an opponent to put money into the pot with complete air by recognizing this sort of spot.
Next time you find yourself with a medium strength hand after the flop, ask yourself what hands your opponent can call with if you bet. If you don’t like the answer, it might be best to check and let your opponent become the unwilling aggressor.
