Poker: Texas Hold ‘em

POKER: Smooth-Calling

The following are examples of smooth-calling, jamming the pot, raising to protect your hand, and folding.

Smooth-Calling

When you have A-x suited and you hit your nut flush draw on fourth-street, you may want to smooth-call someone else’s bet in order to win the maximum with your hand. Let’s say there are four opponents in the hand against you. The first opponent bets out into you, and you decide to raise him in order to build the pot. Now the next two opponents fold, and the original bettor looks you in the eye and says, “ I know you wouldn’t raise me here unless you had a flush, so I fold.” How much money have you made after hitting your nut flush? One big bet! Why did you raise out the opponents behind you?

If you were the last person to act and someone bet out into you, then I can understand the raise, because you would already have several people in for one bet, and people who have called one bet rarely drop out for one more. Now suppose that instead of raising, you smooth-call your opponents’ bets. Now one of the two other opponents behind you calls the bet as well. On the end, the first opponent bets into you again, but this time you raise and you get called by both of your remaining two opponents. This time you have won six bets! All because you smoothcalled the bet on fourth street, and, presumably, allowed your opponents to hit good cards for their hands on the last card.

Tricky plays like smooth-calling and slow-playing generally offer bigger payoffs in pot-limit or no-limit than they do in limit, where you can’t grab one giant bet from someone on the end; but even in limit these plays are an important part of the good player’s arsenal.

Jamming the pot is the counterpart of the example of slow-playing given above. Sometimes, when you hold the nut hand, you just need to jam the pot on fourth street, in order to make the pot as big as it possibly can be. But it’s hard to know the right time to jam the pot, rather than smooth-calling someone else’s bet. Generally, it depends on whether someone has bet right in front of you or not. If someone has, then you usually want to smooth-call the bet. But if someone has bet and several others have already called that bet, then it’s time to go ahead and raise it up.

Protecting Your Hand with a Raise

The principle of protecting your hand by way of a raise is also very important in Hold’em. (“ Protecting your hand” is all about making raises when you have a strong hand, so that you can eliminate players, thus giving yourself a better chance to win that hand.) It can mean the difference between winning and losing a pot. Suppose that you have Ac-3c (A-x suited) and garner two pair with Ad-10d-3s on the flop. Now on fourth street 9c comes off the deck for Ad-10d-3s-9c. Someone now bets into you, and you just call the bet. But because you just called the bet, you let a jackal in with K-Q, and he hit a J on the end to make a straight. Clearly, even the jackal would have folded his inside straight draw for two big bets; but for just one, he was able to dream about a jack and convince himself that hitting a king or queen might win also. Because you didn’t protect your hand here by raising, you lost a pot that you should have won.

Folding Your Hand

When you’re involved in a big multiway pot and there’s been a lot of raising on the flop, watch out for indications that the drawing hands have hit on fourth street. Suppose you have 6-6 and the flop came down 2d-3s-4d. On the flop you have three opponents all putting in some bets. Still, you’re pretty sure that your hand is the best hand on the flop. But what if the worst possible card for you comes on fourth street? Then what do you do? To me the worst possible card here is Ad. If Ad comes off the deck, then the straight draw, the flush draw, and any ace (like A-K or A-4) all get there and beat you. If this card comes off of the deck, then you’d better fold.

When you face a situation like this, ask yourself, “What are they holding that’s driving them to put all this money into the pot on the flop?” Probably straight draws, flush draws, pairs, and ace high. Folding your hand on fourth street wisely when the draws appear to have been hit is considered an art form.

by PHIL HELLMUTH, JR.

Phil Hellmuth, Jr., is a record holding 16-time World Series of Poker Champion. He has two New York Times best-seller books; “Play Poker Like the Pros” and “Bad Beats and Lucky Draws”. This column is an excerpt from his book, “Phill Hellmuth’s Texas Hold ‘em” released this summer. Phil’s books and products can be found at PhilHellmuth.com and bookstores everywhere.

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