Free Poker Strategy

This is a hand which took place in yesterdays live poker tournament, and involved myself in the small blind with (4h,2h). As the action had been folded around, I decided to make a bet to try and pick up the pot. My opponent called, and the flop fell (3x,8x,Jx). At this point, I felt that making a continuation bet would not give me enough information about my opponents hand. If they flat call, the turn falls, and I am left with the same problem of whether to follow through with the bluff or not.

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I know my table image is aggressive, and so if I bet out first, I know my opponent will think it very likely I am bluffing. You would think that with my lack of position and these obvious problems with trying to steal the pot, I might be best to give up, but we are missing one crucial point. Unless my opponent has caught the Jack, it would seem unlikely they have connected with the flop.

I do feel that if I check the flop in this position, my opponent is likely to make a bet whether they have connected or not, and reraising can then turn being out of position, into an advantageous position.

I did indeed check to my opponent, and they led out with a strong bet. This bet was slightly larger then I would expect from a player who has connected well, and it only served to reinforce my feeling that my opponent was just betting to try and take advantage of my perceived weakness.

My opponent certainly didn’t expect me to make a reraise, and through doing so, I had suddenly made my hand look very strong. I also tied my preflop raise into the story of me slow playing a big hand, in the process. My opponent did indeed fold as I expected, and I added 1,000 more chips to my stack.

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