| While
No Limit Texas Hold'em is the game you'll usually see being played for
millions of dollars on television, limit hold'em remains the most
popular form of poker today.
The games are basically the same;
the only difference is how you can bet your hands. No limit hold'em
players understand that their game is one of trapping. However,
successful limit hold'em players recognize that their game is all about
brute aggression.
In today's column, I will share with you a
very smart play that deals specifically with limit hold'em: isolating
your opponent with position.
Position is power in any form of
poker, but it's of no use if you don't use that power effectively. How
do you do that? Well, here's a good way to start.
Understand,
while you'll always want to play powerful position poker, it simply
doesn't work in very loose games. It will only prove successful in
tighter games where two or three people stay in to see the flop. So, if
you're sitting at a table where five or six players continually call to
see flops, you'll be better served to tuck this information away until
you move up in limits and face more advanced players.
To best explain how to use position as power, let's look at an example.
Let's
say you're in a $10-$20 limit hold'em game and everyone has folded to
the player directly on your right who raises the bet to $20. You, on
the dealer button, look down at a pair of fives and face your first
dilemma: call, re-raise or fold?
In this case, calling the bet
would be the worst of the three choices. A call here would only serve
to invite the two players behind you in the blinds to also call. It's
important to understand that while a hand like 5-5 is a favorite
heads-up against a hand like A-K, any low pair will fare rather poorly
against two opponents.
For that reason, do everything you can to
make this a heads-up pot by re-raising, or three-betting as it's also
known, to put extra pressure on the blinds and the initial raiser.
Let's
take our example one step further and assume that both players in the
blind fold back to the original raiser who calls your raise. Then the
flop comes Js-7c-3d. If your opponent checks on the flop, continue to
be aggressive and bet the flop.
Remember, he has no idea what you have.
If
your opponent has a hand like A-K or A-Q he might just give up right
here fearing that you have a pair of aces or kings. If he calls, well,
that's fine, too, because your little pair now becomes close to an 85
percent favorite.
Alternatively, let's suppose the flop comes
A-K-9. It certainly doesn't look very good for your little pair of
fives. But again, since your opponent has no idea what you have, if he
checks, go ahead and bet the flop.
In this case, if your
opponent has a hand like 8-8, he'll have a difficult time calling your
bet since the flop was lousy for him too. You can win this pot with the
worst hand by simply playing your position aggressively.
Here's
a key thing to think about: When playing limit hold'em from the power
position, keep the lead by making sure that you're the aggressor.
I
used a pocket pair of fives in this example, but it really doesn't
matter what hand you have when using the isolation play. You can do it
with hands like A-K, A-Q, or even 8-9 suited, or K-Q off suit.
Your goal is to isolate the initial raiser, hope that he misses the flop, and then to apply maximum pressure until he folds.
Of
course, you're going to get caught from time to time, but that's OK.
The key to using this play effectively is also knowing when to give up
on it. If your opponent comes back at with you with a raise, it's time
to put on the brakes unless you're confident you have him beat.
By Daniel Negreanu |
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