MORE SAMPLES


MAKE THEM PAY
By CHARLES JAY


One of the difficult things about judging your hand after the initial two cards are dealt to you is that you never really know for sure how strong it is. In point of fact, it's only really as strong as the three cards you're able to put together with it from the flop - that is, if you get that far. You can be sitting with pocket kings, while the guy next to you has 2-5 - a nothing combination of cards. All of a sudden a pair of twos gets flopped, or worse yet, a two and a five. All so that you can throw all kinds of cash at the pot and get trapped, because unbeknownst to you, your pair of kings no longer matters. 

Anything can happen when the flop comes, so all situations are different. Therefore, there is no such thing as a hard-and-fast strategy.

No matter how good the cards are that you think you're holding, if it's second best at the table, it doesn't really mean anything. Of course it's safe to say that with a pair of pocket kings, you are most likely going into the flop with the strongest hand. So then you have to ask yourself some questions. When you raise, do you think your opponent will call? Re-raise? If he does, you have to go into a whole new period of evaluation. 

Do you REALLY have the superior hand? How much do you stand to lose if your calculations are incorrect? Pocket kings are great, but what if you've got a little less than that, and there are people still in the pot? 

If you DO conclude you have the best hand, should you throw a lot of money into the pot right then and there, in an attempt to preclude your opponent(s) from making a hand? Remember, there may be nothing stronger out there, but the flop has a tendency to change things. You may be giving someone an opportunity to make something but letting things get farther.

You probably shouldn't take that course of action, though. It doesn't happen all that often where you're relatively sure you have the best hand. This is another opportunity, and it would be a shame to let it go by prematurely. You should make the most money you can, without getting piggish about it. You need to be careful not to scare people away. You want to very artfully draw them into a position where they are putting more and more money out there - money you're going to scoop up at the end of the hand. 

The legendary oddsmaker Bob Martin (of Union Plaza fame) would put up a line, let the public play into it, and then bet into it himself. When someone brought up questions as to the integrity of such an activity, Martin was said to remark, "If the number's wrong, make the wise guys pay." In other words, if you question the integrity of something and want to mount a challenge, put your money where your mouth is. 

At the poker table, if you know you're holding something especially strong, and your opponents want to stay in the hand, make them pay. If they can stay in on the cheap, you're allowing them an opportunity to take a shot at you without paying a price. That won't do.

In fact, make your opponent OVER-pay to see your cards. 

You're going to lose plenty of pots. And if there are a lot of players at the table, you're certainly not going to be winning most of the hands. But the object of the game is to profit, so exploit, exploit, exploit.





Copyright 2006 Total Action Inc.