Can Passive Play Pay Off

Poker Tip 13 Can Passive Play Pay Off

There's no question that aggressive poker is winning poker. If the world's top players have only one thing in common, it's that they take control of the hands they play with bets and raises. Usually, among the world's poker elite, calling is the least attractive option.

Say you are in the early stages of a tournament and you have an good stack of chips.You get Ace-Queen in middle position and you raise to three times the big blind. A player in late position, who you know to be good player but aggressive, calls your raise, and everyone else folds. The flop comes Ad-Qs-5h.You have top-pair, with a good kicker.

The first thing you want to do is think what the other player might be holding. It's likely he called the raise with an Ace or a pocket pair, maybe pocket 5-5-10-10, He may have also called with two high cards like KQ, KJ or QJ.

So in this hand you are ahead or behind if the other player hit a set or two pair or Ace with King Kicker, If he's got an Ace with a worse kicker, he's drawing to only three outs. If he's got a pocket pair like 10-10, he has only two outs. With just two face cards, he's almost drawing dead. And on this board (Ad-Q-5h), I don't need to be especially worried about straight or flush draws. Because of this, I don't mind giving my opponent a free card.

If you bet your top pair and the other player doesn't have an Ace and only has a small pocket pair, he's likely to fold, and you would have failed to get any additional value out of your hand. If you check,that gives the other player the chance to bet or bluff if he didn't catch his hand, and then you can call the bet.

You want to get one decent-sized bet in over the course of this hand and by checking, you prevent your opponent from giving you more action than your hand can handle.

Say the turn is 2d. The situation hasn't changed much.Your still either way ahead or behind. You can check again, and allow the other player to bet or bluff.

When the last card comes if you have checked the hand all the way,You should bet the river. Playing the hand in this way provides three advantages. It allows you to get good value out of a strong hand, and it also keeps you from losing more than you need to against a hand that has yours beat without too much risk. Additionally, playing this way gives your opponent the opportunity to bluff, which is the only way to get any money out of him if he holds a hand like KJ.

Passive Play Can Pay Off.

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