In this post, we take a look at some recent hands from Jordan Drummonds recent WCOOP $5,200 game. There were some interesting bluff spots that came up that can be really useful to digest, so let’s jump in and take a look…
Check-Raise or Call with a Draw 3 Handed?
Well most players would, myself included would often just call in this spot, we have some overcards we can hit to make a strong hand and we can hit gin by completing our flush. One bad point of just calling is that when we face a Turn bet we could get driven out of the pot and not get to realise our equity.
Jordan chooses to check-raise in this spot and I like this play a lot, its benefits include being able to play a big pot against worse flush draws, folding out hands from the Button that might have decent equity against us and we can always play for all the chips if the player in the Small Blind wants to rumble.
That’s exactly what ends up happening here, with the Small Blind moving all-in with top pair on the flop. The two over cards and flush draw actually make us a favourite in spots like this, even against a made hand, in this spot Jordan had 54% equity.
But this is only taking into account the times when we have to run the equity in a pot like this, what happens when our opponents just fold to the raise, well then we just win without even having to hit our hand. So this play seems a lot better than just calling in my eyes.
Fire the last bullet?
This is a spot where Jordan 3-Bet Pre-flop, Bet the Flop and Turn… now he faces the River decision… so should we bluff in spots like this?
Well, I don’t hate double barrelling with this hand, it has loads of equity and we can get stacks in on the river if we hit our straight or flush, however, what is our opponent going to have that could fold on this River card.
It’s important to remember that ranges get narrower every time a bet gets placed in the pot, so for our opponent to call the Turn bet they are going to have a lot of good Aces and many Jacks in their hand. With hands like AT, AQ, KJ, QJ, AJ, JT, J9s all firmly in their range at this point as well as some slow-played 66 and AA.
So Jordan decides to check this back and pretty much give up on this pot, unless by some miracle his opponent had a worse flush draw that stuck around. He made a wise check back because his opponent had three Jacks in this pot.
Applying Pressure when your opponent gives up the lead
This is definitely something that I didn’t do enough as a less experienced player, but it’s probably one of the most profitable things you can do.
In this pot, his opponent 3-Bets preflop, C-bets the flop and then when the Turn brings the wettest card in the deck completing flushes and straights he checks and gives up the betting lead.
Now typically our opponent is going to be pretty weak when they do this, in this pot though our opponent could still have a strong hand with TT, JJ or QQ without a club for instance. But it’s important to apply pressure to these spots because our opponent will often just have check-folds in their range.
Use Range Advantage to Bluff
There are going to be some flops that you just completely miss and firing out any kind of bet on these boards can be a horrible thought. But in this case we have so many good hands when the Big Blind defends, we could have AA, AK, AQ, AJ, KK, QQ, KQ, JT… so firing a couple of barrels on this board is going to really be beneficial, because our opponent can call once on the Flop with hands like QJ, KT for instance, but what will they do against this kind of Turn bet.
We will win this type of hand very often with pure aggression, so don’t be scared to blast off in these spots, because nearly all the hands that can call us would have 3-Bet Pre-flop.
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