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Often when you play no-limit Texas Hold’em poker then one of the key skills is in extracting value from hands that are very strong but in situations where your opponents are holding weak or mediocre hands. This is why checking to induce action can be a very good play in no-limit. Usually if an opponent has a mediocre hand then they may put in one fair sized bet post flop but they will certainly not put more than two when the pot is growing geometrically.

Let us say that you have raised pre-flop with K-K and the big blind calls you with J-10s and the flop comes K-10-4 rainbow. There is simply no way in a deep stacked game that any decent player would call three bets on the flop, turn and river with middle pair medium kicker. They may call down in limit but in that form of poker, the punishment for being second best will only be 2.5 big bets or 5 big blinds.

In no-limit Texas Holdem play then the loss would be many more big blinds and so the player with a hand like J-10 may not even call one bet on the flop if you bet. Another factor behind calling your flop bet is that it faces the player with having to call two more even larger bets. Let us say that the pot has 7.5 big blinds in on the flop and you bet 5 big blinds. Sometimes this bet will be called and sometimes it won’t. Let us say that your opponent calls and folds 50% of the time so in this instance your average only 2.5 big blinds by betting.

But if you check then your opponent could interpret that as possible weakness and they now know that they only have to put money in on two betting rounds and not three. So if the turn comes low like a 3d and you make the same 5 big blind bet then this will certainly be called and if the river card is a jack or lower then you will almost certainly get action on the river as well. So you could end up getting as much as 15 big blinds in profit buy checking when by betting the flop you would have got maybe 2.5 big blinds.

Bets are key in no-limit play but you also have to figure out how to extract them from your opponents. Always betting after you raise pre-flop may put pressure on your opponents but better players will play back at those lines. But by checking then what you have done is to de-leverage the hand for your opponent as they can get a better estimate of their total risk in the pot whereas on the flop it was more unknown.

It is often the case that checking is a very good poker play with hands that other players may actually bet with. Quite often when you flop a decent but not great poker hand or you get dealt a strong pocket pair then it may not be possible to get three streets of action post flop. We will look at an example here, you open raise with A-A to $3.50 in a NL100 Texas Holdem game and the small blind decides to call you with J-J. The flop comes K-10-4 rainbow and your opponent checks.

You decide to bet $5.50 into the $8 pot and your opponent calls. If they had a strong hand like K-K or 10-10 then they would likely have three bet pre-flop (which we know is true because they called with jacks) so it is unlikely that they flopped a set. They may have something mediocre that they don’t want to be blown away with to a simple continuation bet.

Remember that all they have to go on is your pre-flop raise and flop continuation bet so they cannot fold their jacks just yet. In fact a clear case can be made for check-raising here as at least a check-raise ends the hand early and that is what the jacks want ideally. So a check-call by them indicates their inclination to not want to get blown off of a hand that may be the best at this stage.

But pocket jacks are not a hand that can stand three streets of action and unless they hit a jack on the turn or a queen arrives to give them a straight draw then they may fold to another bet in the knowledge that they may have to face an even bigger bet on the river. So when the turn comes and is the 2c and they check then checking back the aces is the best way to extract value.

This is because our turn check looks weak and a river bet looks like a bluffing attempt. Also the player with the jacks now knows their entire potential outlay unlike on the turn where the size of the action on the river would be unknown. So their call on the flop was because they didn’t want to be bullied and their call on the end was basically for the same reason. There was $19 in the pot on the river and the river card was the 5d and they checked looking to pick off a bluff and we bet $12 which they call and we win a $43 pot.

In these instances then the check on the turn controls the pot size but also gets value on the river when the jacks called when they would not have called on all three post flop streets. A downside to this is that poker players can hit their outs and take the pot away from you but the effect of this is more than offset by you being able to control the pot size and also to extract more value on the river.

We all know that aggression is very important in Texas Hold’em Poker but it is carefully selected aggression that is correct and not just aggression. If you have raised for three consecutive hands and continuation bet the flop each time and been check-raised by the big blind when heads up and been forced to fold the hand then you are playing bad poker if you elect to do this for a fourth time.

You simply cannot be blindly aggressive in poker once you reach certain levels. This is because the better players will adjust to beat you and respond to your playing patterns. Let us look at a sequence of hands to show what I mean. In the first hand it has been folded around to us on the button and we open raise. The small blind folds and the big blind calls! As yet we do not know their hand or they ours. They check the flop and we make a continuation bet and they check-raise.

We have nothing and fold. Now whatever hand our opponent has is academic because even if they have a strong hand in that situation then they have still seen us raise pre-flop and then seen us fold to a flop check-raise. This then makes the likelihood of them trying this play again greater and their range will tend to be wider. In this first instance then we need to give them credit for a hand until we see a pattern immerging.

Now let us say that on the next orbit that it is folded around to us again and we have a playable hand. Do we raise here……I think the answer is yes but we must raise with the knowledge of what has happened previously. At this stage it is important to see the hand without the actual cards and merely see the patterns that are involved in the actual play of the hands.

Only then do we add the cards as extra information. Let us then say that our hand is Jc-10c and our raise gets called and the flop comes Qd-8c-6s giving us an inside straight draw. Both us and our opponent have 100 big blind stacks but here we can us the fact that we have equity in this pot and the previous hand to launch another continuation bet. If our opponent check-raises again then they are the one who is now showing a pattern.

Of course we are also starting to show a pattern but we have the chance to adjust here and win the pot by three betting. If we call the check-raise and our opponent shoves the turn then we cannot call if we do not hit or straight on that turn card. But three betting the flop now puts great pressure on our opponent and even if they call our three bet then we still have chances to win the pot!

So try and be aggressive when it is correct to do so and not just because you think that you have to be aggressive…….there is a huge difference.

I happened to be in a rather goofy state of mind as I was writing this piece and started thinking about match ups, poker match ups. I realize that Caesars Palace hosts the national Heads-Up Championship every year and there are nothing but name players selected for this poker tournament. True, many of the big names still fail to make the cut once all the names are announced but it’s still a lot of fun to watch sans the ridiculous blind structure. So what if the structure was more playable and you could choose any two poker players in the world to play heads-up against each other? Now that would be a whole lot of fun to watch and see how the poker unfolds. Since that isn’t too likely and none of us works for the powers that be to put together the HU Championship I figured I would give you my choices to consider.

Phil Hellmuth vs Dan Negreanu
This would be a match made in heaven for me personally. I enjoy watching both of these players do what they do at a high level. I think we can confirm that each of them are very good heads-up poker players simply by looking at the number of titles each of them has taken down. Hellmuth probably doesn’t get enough credit for being as good a head-up player simply because the focus is more on his persona than on his game at times. On the other hand, Dan Negreanu is looked upon as a bit of a poker genius in that his reading abilities are usually very keen and difficult to overcome for even the best professional players. As much as I would love to say this is an even match I have to give the edge to Dan Negreanu for one reason, Dan is usually in control of himself. Phil, for as much as I enjoy him and his game, has a tendency to fall of the cliff when things are not going his way. That has a much smaller impact within the context of an entire poker tournament. However, in a short-term heads-up match it can prove to be fatal.

Tom Dwan vs Phil Ivey
I don’t think we have seen the best of either one of these players when the only time you see them play is online. Ivey and Dwan are arguably the best High Stakes online poker players in the world. Phil Ivey is certainly the best live player in the world which is the entire point of the matchup. I realize that Tom Dwan has his own TV challenge that is coming up soon and that’s great. However, to be able to sit and watch both of these poker players go at it for an extended period of time would be a TV producers dream. Honestly I don’t know that anyone can actually assess this matchup in favor of one player or the other. Dwan clearly has dominated the online poker world and Ivey, when he plays online, has also been extremely dominant as well. The major difference between the two is how they were raised on the game. Dwan primarily plays on the internet and Phil Ivey is more of a true hybrid in that he plays in both arenas live and online. Having said that it doesn not necessarily put Dwan at a disadvantage as he has done very well in live poker tournaments and cash games. Just check out Poker After Dark if you have any doubt about how well Dwan plays live cash games.

Annette Obrestad vs Vanessa Rousso
You simply cannot put together these dream matches without considering the top female poker players too. Any time the ladies of poker come to mind I immediately think of Annette Obrestad and Vanessa Rousso. Obrestad won the WSOPE a couple of years ago and continues to do well both online and live in Europe. When she took down her first million dollar win she was still a teenager. Since then she has secured major online sponsorship and continues to be a player to be reckoned with.

Vanessa Rousso has done well both online as well as live finishing deep in the PokerStars WCOOP Main Event a couple of years ago in addition to a number of final table finishes. She has also secured sponsorship in her short career with a major online poker room. The fact of the matter is that both of these players are extremely talented and it would be great to see them heads-up. I give the slightest advantage to Annette Obrestad simply because of the sheer number of tournaments she plays online and live. She is always involved in the game as a poker player. Vanessa plays an awful lot of poker too but not nearly as much online. In any event this would be a boon for poker lovers everywhere.
I hope you enjoyed the picks! Let’s hope we can see these matchups soon.

Poker, just like life in general, is best played when you know who you’re facing. You’ll be in the advantage if you can quickly and accurately know more about your opponents and how they play. One of the factors that can determine their expertise at the table is their demeanor. The more comfortable they are on the table, the more experienced player they are.

Aggressiveness is also an indicator. It is a rule of thumb not to enter a pot against an aggressive player unless you really have a strong hand and ready to take on the challenge.

TJ Cloutier is a former professional football player in the CFL before an injury forced him to retire. Then he set up his own food company that went broke. After that he worked on oil rigs in Texas while playing poker on his off days.

He decided to quit his job when he started to earn more from poker. He loves playing in tournament formats yet hasn’t been able to win any of WSOP main events. He has the distinction of being the only person to in all the three Omaha styles.

To be successful in shorthanded sit-n-go, a player must be patient during the early stages. As play progresses, his level of aggressiveness must also increase. Limp in some hands if you are dealt with a premium hand. In the middle stages the player must loosen up a bit. He must raise the pre-flop with more variety. It is important to conserve your chips in the early rounds then go gamble in the middle stages. By the time the sit-n-go become 3 handed, you must have a decent number of chips on your side.

Probably one of the more popular poker players in the world, Johnny Chan is only the fourth player to win the WSOP main event in two straight years. He is second when it comes to the most number of WSOP bracelets with 10.

Because of his extremely aggressive play style, he is nicknamed the Orient Express. In 2002, Johnny Chan has been inducted in the Poker Hall of Fame. His most recent win was in 2005 when he won over Phil Laak at the $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event. At present, he has won over $4 million in WSOP tournaments.

Beginners might think that A-Q is a great hand and are most likely to overplay it. In reality, this hand can make or break you. It is how you play it that counts. If you’re in an early position, limp re-raises to see how your opponents react to it. If he calls you, you have to consider that his hand is better than you and dump the hand.

If you’re in a late position, you should raise if you have A-Q hand. But if someone has raised first, it is advisable to just forget about it.

In heads-up, the aggressor controls the game. If you are the aggressor in majority of the hands, more often than not, the other player will be intimidated by you and you’ll be in control of the whole match. Once your opponent is scared, they’ll lose self confidence which in turn makes them make more mistakes.

When your opponent is in intimidated, they fold at your show of force. If they call, assume that you’re beat. Mental toughness is the key to win in heads-up matches. The toughest will be considered the winner.