By John Vorhaus

“The second liar never has a chance”

Conventional wisdom has it that position is critically important in no limit hold’em, and that the later your position is, the better off you are. While I always say that conventional wisdom is for conventional thinkers, for the most part this insight is right on. There are times, however, that position is irrelevant — times, in fact, that early position can come to your aid in stealing pots that would not otherwise be yours.

Consider this example: In a typical low buy-in, capped buy-in ($100 or $200 maximum, say) no-limit hold’em game, you find yourself in the big blind holding… well, for this play it really doesn’t matter what you hold. For the sake of conversation, we’ll give you the Hammer, 2-7 offsuit, if only to demonstrate that sometimes the cards you hold matter as little as the position you’re in.

It’s folded around to the button. You’d expect him to raise, wouldn’t you? And he does. Why not? He’s only got to get through the small blind and you, and you’re both on random hands. From his point of view if you fold that’s fine, but then again he wouldn’t mind inducing action from your random hands, because he thinks he can take the pot away from you on most flops. He’s right on the first point, but wrong on the second, as he’s about to find out.

The small blind, a conventional thinker if ever there was one, folds, leaving it up to you to decide how to play your Hammer. Remember, your foe puts you on a random hand. In other words, he doesn’t have a clue what you’ve got! What do you think he has? He raised from the button, the precious button, where any half-assed hand is good for a raise if no one has already entered the pot. So let’s put him on exactly that: a half-assed hand. Maybe K-T. Maybe 6-6. Maybe some real egregious cheese like 6-9 suited, but probably something a little more coordinated than that. He wants to have at least a little something-something to go to war with on the flop, should you call. Which you do.

Now here’s the cool part: No matter how the flop comes, he’s an odds-on favorite to miss it. Do you know this? Are you aware of it? Any time a player holds two unpaired cards, he’ll pair the board only roughly one-third of the time. Fully two-thirds of the time, then, any given player will whiff the flop, completely swing and miss it. This is crucial to our understanding of what comes next, because while it’s true that you, too, are likely to miss most flops, your position gives you first crack at this one!

What you’re specifically looking for here is a certain variety of orphan flop, the sort of flop that’s unlikely for your foe to have hit, and one that doesn’t offer much in the way of attractive draws. 8-8-3 is an orphan flop; so is 6-T-2 rainbow. T-9-8 is not an orphan flop, because a preflop raiser could easily be in there with A-8 or A-9, even 8-9 or a suited or unsuited jack. If you bet into that scary flop, or one like it, you’re just asking to get played with, and you don’t want that.

What you want is to bet into any non-scary flop, and bet it like you own it. Remember, your foe puts you on a random hand. And what kind of flops do random hands hit? Why, random ones, of course. You, meanwhile, can put him on a slightly less random hand. You can give him credit for having some sort of coordinated holding, and coordinated holdings hate uncoordinated flops, especially when they miss them completely — as your foe will two times out of three!

So go ahead and bet. Bet about 2/3 the size of the pot. This is a large enough bet to be taken seriously, and not look like a weak steal attempt. It’s also big enough to preclude his having favorable odds for any draw that might be out there. Yet it’s small enough that if he comes over the top with a big bet you can get away from your hand fairly cheaply. Go to school on this 2/3-pot sized bet. It’s a real workhorse, and should be a standard weapon in your arsenal.

Could you check-raise bluff here? Sure, why not? Many players are strong believers in the continuation bet, and feel a moral obligation to bet at any pot they’ve raised preflop. You check, he bets, you raise, he folds, next case. But I like my way better, for several reasons. First, you minimize your financial risk, getting the most bluff-bang for your buck. Second, he might check behind you, which gives him a free chance to hit his hand. Third, if it’s check-check and you then bet the turn, he can more reliably read your bet as a bluff.

Fourth, most important, your goal here is to win the money that’s already in the pot. Be satisfied to do that. Go ahead and bet into that ragged flop, knowing that most of the time your conventionally-minded foe won’t be able to call, and that the times he does call, you can confidently put him on a hand and back off your steal attempt. Plus, if you show a player on the button that not only will you call from the big blind but also bet out on the flop, it won’t take him too long to conclude that there are better players to attack than you. This leaves you unmolested in the big blind when he’s got the button, and what’s not to like about that?

One last thing: Though you might be tempted to show him that you stole a pot with the Hammer, please resist that urge. You might want to use the tool again sometime. Let your foes think you’re always lucky enough to pick up a big hand in the big blind and their precious button will become utterly useless to them.

John Vorhaus is author of the KILLER POKER book series and News Ambassador for UltimateBet.com. You can find him online at vorza.com

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