Poker News

Lou Krieger

Identifiable betting patterns are there for you to spot in most poker games, and any information you can glean about another player’s betting patterns will help you gain an edge on that opponent at the poker table. Every top-notch poker player is aware of betting patterns and knows how to capitalize on the information they provide.

Information picked up from betting patterns can serve a number of purposes-from tracking the playing styles of your adversaries to tracking down some areas of your own game that might need improvement.

When you put it all together and are able to combine information learned from betting patterns with physical tells exhibited by players at the table, then combine that with the community cards that show up in a hold’em game and the cards that other players turn up at the showdown, you can consider yourself to be a very skillful, savvy player. It might even appear to your opponents that you have some unerring, almost mystical sort of card sense, but most of this magic act can be learned and improved upon through diligence, practice, and repetition.

The most common pattern you’ll find in a hold’em game is one your opponents do all the time and you probably do yourself. It’s: call, bet, bet, check. That’s simple, isn’t it? You call the blinds before the flop, catch a hand you like- something like top pair with a good kicker-so you bet the flop and the turn too, but when you fail to improve to three-of-a-kind or two pair, you decide to check the river to save a bet just on the odd chance that you’re beaten. Becoming aware of this most common of betting patterns allows you to pick up a small leak in your game.

You’re leaving money on the table. Can you see how? When you have the best hand on the turn, most of the time the river card won’t promote your opponent’s hand to one that’s better than yours. When the river does improve an opponent’s hand, it’s usually a case of a third suited card that screams “flush,” or a sequenced card that has “straight” written all over it.

If a third suited card jumps out of the deck on the river, feel free to check as long as your opponents act after you do. But if you have the luxury of acting last, go ahead and bet. You’re likely to be safe, not sorry, if you do. The only time you’ll get in trouble acting on this assumption is when the river pairs your opponent’s side card to give him two pair. But there are only three cards in the deck that will pair his kicker, and if he’s willing to play second or third pair against your top pair you’ll win much more money from him in the long run than you will ever lose on those rare and lucky occasions that he pairs his kicker with a miraculous catch on the river.

A player who is fortunate enough to catch his flush card on the river will usually bet when it’s his turn to act. And if he had a bigger hand than yours before the river- suppose he flopped a set, or the top two pair-he’ll do his checkraising on the flop or the turn, not the river. What’s the message in this bottle? Most times you have the best hand on the turn, you’ll have the best hand on the river too, and you ought to bet it. OK, OK, so you’ll run into some nasty situations when you bet and are called or even raised and lose the pot. Don’t worry aboutit. It’s no big deal in the grand scheme of things because you’re far more likely to attract a crying call from a weaker hand than you are to induce a raise from someone holding a stronger one.

More on betting patterns next issue.

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