The GameMaster's Poker School
Lesson 17: Special Situation Bets:
The Stop & Go

In my continuing self-education as a no-limit Hold 'em player, I think it's fair to say that few players have been "short-stacked" in tournaments as often as me. Be it a one-table sit and go type of match or a multi-table tournament with hundreds of players, my conservative style of play will frequently find me as the low stack with four people remaining at a 9- or 10-player SnG or 11th of 11 players when the tournament pays the top 10 places. Lately I've been able to improve on that, but it took time to get beyond being eliminated "on the bubble", which is - as you probably know - a frustrating experience. But take heart, fellow students; the day will come when you're first among the final 4 at an SnG or in the top five of a multi-table tournament when everyone gets in the money. It has happened to me and, if you maintain the discipline I'm trying to teach here, it'll happen to you, too.

Let's face it; when you're the smallest stack at the table, your opponents want only one thing: your financial demise. If three are paid and you're in fourth place, knocking you out gets everyone else "in the money", so the attacks on your stack are going to come from all directions. I know, I've been there plenty of times and, while I cannot take credit for inventing the betting technique I'm going to explain here, I will say that I have used it to great effect; most recently at a multi-table satellite tournament where I was 9th out of 9 players, but went on to win it.

Almost all of the advice you'll read or hear about playing when short-stacked (which I define as having less than 7 Big Blind bets remaining) is to pick a spot and push all-in, hoping to get lucky. Well, I'm not one to depend upon luck - I welcome it, but never depend upon it. Unless you have a really great hand like pocket Aces or Kings, my advice is to avoid a pre-flop "all-in" bet, which looks like sheer desperation and attracts callers like blood in the water attracts sharks. To add to your problems, you'll probably have to play a less-than-great hand like K-10s, A-x offsuit, etc., which is not the type of hand your opponents usually see you playing if you're using my starting hands matrix.

So the trick here is to decide that you're going to go all-in and (ideally) do it when you'll be first to bet on the flop, which means you're either in the blinds or in early position. Your 3 times the Big Blind raise from early position or from the blinds might induce everyone to fold, but more likely one or two players will call with "premium" hands, just as they might if you weren't short. But here's the difference: when the flop comes, you then go all-in regardless of what effect it had on your hand. There's a possibility, especially if you have only one opponent, that the flop did not improve his or her hand, just as it may not have improved yours. But at least now your opponent has to think about what to do and we all know that forcing our opponents to make decisions may inspire them to make the wrong one. If your opponent does make a hand, the result is the same whether you pushed pre-flop or only raised the bet; you're toast. But if the flop missed your opponent completely, s/he just might fold. Sure, it's a long shot, but it doesn't cost you anything to try - you've already decided to put in all your chips. The downside here is that everyone may fold if you bet 7 times the Big Blind bet ("folding equity"), but that might be offset by having more than one player call, thus giving you the chance to win more if this works.

The bad thing about being short-stacked is that your opponents know they likely won't have to risk an amount above what you'll be pushing out there, so they'll often call with any kind of decent hand, especially if they have one of the bigger stacks. In a way, that's good because you might well be a favorite in the hand, but the best you can do is double up if only one other player calls. By making a more modest raise, hopefully you'll get multiple callers, which automatically reduces your winning probability, but it reduces theirs as well, yet you may still be the favorite to win the hand. It's a fair trade to make in an effort to increase your stack by more than double.

Probably the ideal time and place for this bet is when you're in the Small Blind and the player on the Button raises, but not enough to put you all in. Rather than re-raise, which may cause the Big Blind to fold, just call. If the BB also calls, that's a bit worrisome, but it's now a nice pot and you'll be betting first. After the flop cards are shown, you push all in and cross your fingers for luck. If it's a rag flop like 2, 5, 9 "rainbow", your all-in bet might cause the others to fold, especially if they're playing big cards that aren't paired. Remember, the player on the Button is making an almost-obligatory raise and the Big Blind likely has a "random" hand, so you have a decent shot at winning. As I told you earlier, the last time I used this bet I was 9th of 9 players and in the Small Blind. The Button raised, I called and the Big Blind folded. The flop was nothing special and I went all in, which caused the Button to fold. I scooped the pot and it was enough to get me back in the game, which I went on to win. I remember that I had made a pair of 7s on the flop, but it didn't really matter because the hand ended with my bet. Was I lucky? Perhaps, but it wasn't my cards that won the hand - it was the way I bet them.

"Okay, GM" I hear you say, "it worked that time, but will it work against experienced players?" Fair question. Of course, nothing is going to work all of the time, but let me quote you a passage out of a great book, "Harrington on Hold 'em" (Two Plus Two Publishing, 2004 - Vol. 1) that was co-authored by Dan Harrington who is the WSOP Champion for 1995 and who made it to the final table in both 2003 and 2004. In discussing a hand where the short-stack (Player A) opens the betting with a minimum raise, he says this on Page 94:

"A had only $6000 left, just 2.5 times the pot. He had only a couple of rounds left before he's blinded away. With any kind of reasonable hand, Player A could easily have justified shoving all his chips in the pot and rolling the dice. But he didn't. Instead he made the minimum raise. That's what a player does when he wants other players in the pot against him. He wants to make sure he gets some action before he gets all his own chips in. Conclusion? Player A has a very strong hand."

The GameMaster's Poker School
Lesson 18: Special Situation Bets:
The Information Raise

You will often find yourself with a hand that may or may not be the best, so it's not easy to decide if you should stay with it or let it go. As an example, let's say you're in the Big Blind of a single-table NLHE tournament with K-J suited and everyone has folded to the Button who makes a 3-times the Big Blind raise. The Small Blind calls and, because you're getting odds of 3.5 to 1, you call. (If the BB is $100 and the SB is $50, a 3x raise is $300; the SB puts in $250, so the pot is now $700 and you must bet $200.) Let's say the flop comes J,7,5 "rainbow" (all different suits) and the Button bets $500 into the what-is-now $900 pot. The Small Blind folds and it's now up to you; you'll need to make a $500 call into a $1400 pot, so you're getting some decent pot odds. However, if you do call, what have you learned about you opponent's hand? Basically nothing, which is not the way you want it to be when you're putting your $$$ to risk, although it's certainly not the worst call you'll ever make.

But a better idea is to raise your opponent's bet to $1000. My reasoning here is: (A) players often raise - quite properly - on the button with relatively weak hands, like 10-J, A-x or a low pair and (B) after such a raise, many will make a "continuation" bet, whether or not the flop helped them. If you do raise $1000, the pot is now $2400 and your opponent will have to bet $500 to stay in the hand, which is nearly 5 to 1 pot odds. That might induce a call if s/he has an open-ended Straight draw, but it's not enough if s/he has an inside Straight draw (6 to 1 is the proper odds for that) or a Flush draw, which will require runner, runner suited cards (because the flop was of all different suits.) Of course, your opponent could have many other hands: Jack with a higher or lower kicker, two-pair, an overpair, such as Q-Q up to A-A, a pair of 7s or 5s or even a pair of Jacks. If he calls your raise, you have to at least suspect a hand like that, but if he re-raises you, the probability of a "set" (trips) is increased. As frightening as that is, your opponent has to also begin thinking that you may have a set or any other hand mentioned above, which is why a re-raise is giving you important information. Your raise is basically saying, "I have two-pair, a set or overpair" and your opponent's re-raise is saying, "I know you have two-pair, a set or an overpair and it doesn't scare me."

It could also be saying, "I'm bluffing."

Honestly, if I were able to detect every bluff thrown at me, I'd just play poker for a year and retire as a very rich person. So, while none of us can sniff out every bluff, we can probably spot a large percentage of them (how will we ever know for sure?), based upon the pattern of play by our opponent. If the player on the Button raises most of the time when in that position, he is either receiving good cards at an opportune time or, more likely, bluffing a lot. It's no secret that picking up the blinds and antes with little risk is a very profitable venture; we all should do it whenever the math makes sense (see Lesson 13 for more on the topic). Bluffs are, at least for me, difficult to deal with when I have a hand such as top pair, second-best kicker like the K-J in the example above. It's a decent hand, no doubt, but there are a lot of hands that beat it, so a re-raise back at me is usually going to convince me to fold. I say "usually" because if I were to fold every time, anyone who knew my style of play would simply come back at me whenever I raised.

But in a tournament situation, most of the players have never seen me before, so I'll generally give them credit for the hand they're representing with the re-raise. However, if my opponent has raised a lot on the Button and I then re-raise and he raises back, I will call if I have previously folded to him in a situation like that. Sure, this may be the time when he really has a hand, but I've got to send a message to not only my opponent, but the others at the table; you can't move me off my hand just by coming back at me. This is a good point to talk about "gambling" as it relates to NLHE tournaments. You all have undoubtedly heard others say, "Sometimes you just have to gamble" and I agree. But there's gambling and there's gambling. Raising in early position with A-8s and calling a re-raise is gambling. I'd only do that if I were short-stacked and desperate.

What I do and recommend you do, is to gamble on whether or not my opponent is bluffing. What I hold isn't all that important; it only has to be able to beat a bluff. As I gain experience, I'm constantly being surprised by how often players bluff. Missed Flush draws are somewhat predictable of course (if only two of a suit is on the board, nobody has a Flush) and missed Straight draws are fairly evident as well. More difficult to determine is the bluff where your opponent holds second pair, but is representing top pair and you hold top pair with a poor kicker. As an example, let's say you have Kh-5h and the flop is Kc,Js,7d. Your opponent bets into it and you raise. If he calls your raise, you have got to at least suspect he also has a King and, if he does, his kicker may be better than yours. But don't forget that he might be holding Q-J here and is hoping for either a J or Q to come on the turn, which is evidenced by the fact he didn't re-raise. Let's say the turn card is 10h. If he now bets into you, it could mean he has either made a Straight (from a hand of A-Q or Q-9), hit two-pair (from a hand like K-10 or J-10) or has a Straight draw (from a hand of J-Q). I would just call here, unless I had a lot of chips, in which case I'd raise in light of my Flush draw. Either move is a gamble, but I think it's a reasonable gamble. I still have top pair and, unless the river card makes my hand totally untenable, I'm going to call his river bet, assuming he makes one. Of course, if the river makes my Flush, he's getting it with both barrels, should he bet. Yes, he might have A-x of hearts, but that's a chance I'm willing to take. After all, I'm gambling, right?

Back to information raises in general: They require a certain amount of discipline on your part to work effectively. When I first began using them, I would often call if my opponent re-raised me and I lost darn near every hand. A re-raise of your information bet is something that very experienced players will do in higher-level tournaments (like $50+ Sit and Go matches), but in lower level tourneys, you usually have to let the hand go if he re-raises. I'm sure you'll run into many exceptions to that, but I approach it this way: My opponent's re-raise has given me the information I wanted - basically that he has me beat - so I fold and go on to the next hand with no regret. When I'm against "sophisticated" opponents who will re-raise as a matter of course, I will go all in if I have top two-pair or better and that either makes them fold or I end up winning the hand because they're betting an overpair. Sometimes they have a set and I'm toast, but that's rare and my 16.5% shot at a Full House (the probabilty with two-pair made on the flop with 2 cards to come) makes the pain bearable.

I'll see you here next time.