Pokerwebpages.com → Advanced texas holdem poker

An Important Concept
(Borrowed from Razz)

There is an important concept involving loose games and bad players that is best illustrated by a situation in the game of Razz.

For those of you who don’t know, razz is seven card stud played for low.

The game is explained in detail in the book Sklansky on online play poker.

One concept that Sklansky address, which we will expand on here, is that if you hold a slightly better starting hand than your opponent you shouldn’t reraise their opening raise if that opponent is a bad player.

Here’s why. Suppose you start with a three card 6 and your opponent raises with a seven up indicating a probable three card 7.

The problem with reraising him is that when there is a double bet on third street it becomes proper to take a second card on fourth street regardless of what happens.

But if there wasn’t a double bet on third poker street, it would be proper to fold on fourth street if you catch a big one and he catches a baby.

But, if your opponent is a bad player he will call (on fourth street) regardless of whether there was a reraise or not.

In other words, if he has a three card 7 and you have a three card 6, just call him because if he now catches a king and you catch a baby, he’ll call you again, even though he shouldn’t.

If it comes the other way you will fold and save some money.

But if you put a second raise in, fourth street has become a shoot out.

You and he will now play the same on fourth street and you will both be correct to take another card off.

By putting more money in on third street, you have made the pot so large that you don’t give him a chance to make a mistake.

The general idea is that you extract the most money from your opponents by putting them in a poker position to make big mistakes.

Sometimes that means manipulating the pot size into one that is most likely to be a size where they make errors.

Occasionally you make the pot bigger early to make them chase more those times you flop a great hand.

Other times you keep it smaller to keep the hand from being a “shootout” where you have to chase just like they will.

Of course, it is not worth making these plays if you give up too much by doing it.

Only in marginal situations should you make a lesser expected value play for the sake of future benefits. ( Slow playing on the flop.)

But these marginal poker hand situations do come up a lot, so try to recognize them.