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Example 5
Just as you are rooting for an opponent to fold when he is getting sufficient pot odds, you are rooting for him to call when he is getting insufficient pot odds.
Thus, it is frequently correct to play a strong hand weakly on an early round the converse of your plays in the previous two examples so that your opponent will make a bad call when you do improve. Look at the following two hands from seven-card razz:
You
Opponent
A good play against some people with this hand be to check and just call if your opponent bets. Many players would now put you on pair or a bad card in the hole.
If you do catch a 4, 5 or 7 on board, giving you a 6 or 7 low, your opponent will probable still call, even if he is drawing dead, because your earlier play along with his pot odds make him think it’s worth a call.
This is exactly what you are hoping for. Your deceptive play early has caused your opponent to make an incorrect play on a later round.
Example 6
Any time an opponent is not getting close to proper odds against you, you are rooting for him to call, even if by calling he has a chance of drawing out on you.
If in the flush example at the beginning of this chapter, the pot were $20 instead of $80, you would be rooting for your opponent with the four-flush to call your $10 bet because he is a 5-to-1 underdog getting only 3-to-1 for his money.
If he calls and makes a flush, those are the breaks. Nevectation, and you any time he makes it.
When you have a hand that is rooting for a call, you should not try to make your opponent fold by betting an exorbitant amount in a no-limit or pot-limit game.
Such a situation came up one day when I was playing no-limit holdem. There was one card to come, and I had a straight which, at that point, was the nuts – that is, the best possible hand.
I bet something like $50, the player to my left called, and the player behind him called the $50 and raised the rest of his money, which was about $200.
Since I had the best possible hand, the question was, should I raise or just call? There was something like $500 in the pot. Because the third man was all-in, I only had to think about the man behind me.
I knew if I reraised, say, $400, making it $900 to him, he definitely would fold; in fact, if I raised almost any amount he would fold. But if I just called the $200, he would probably call.
What did I want him to do? I was pretty sure he had two pair. If I called the $200, there would be about $700 in the pot, which would give him 7-to-2 odds to call $200 with his two pair.
However, the odds against his making a full house with two pair were 10-to-1 (there were 40 cards in the deck that didn’t help help him and 4 that did).
Therefore, if he knew I had a straight, it would be incorrect for him to take 7-to-2 odds on a 10-to-1 shot. So I just called the $200, and as I expected and wanted, he did too.
The sad conclusion to this story is that he made a full poker house and bet a very small amount, which I paid off. Many people argued I had been wrong to let him in rather than raise him out, but in fact they are wrong.
I had to give him a chance to make a mistake, which he did, because whenever my opponent makes a mistake, I gain in the long rum.