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to adjust to the fact that you re in a multiway pot with a bad player.
Play fairly straightforwardly and don t get too tricky.
This situation confuses many players. They don t know which
factors are most important when they decide between calling and 3-
betting. Further, no matter whether you call or 3-bet, if the stacks
aren t short then playing pocket tens from out of position sets up
tricky postflop decisions. Often people will remember the last time
they got stacked with the hand, blame the bad result on their preflop
play, and vow to do the opposite next time.
We suggest you approach the decision consistently. Pocket tens is
a strong hand, and reraising it for value is generally a safe play. It s
not safe in the you can avoid tough postflop decisions sense, but it s
safe in the sense that if you were to reraise the hand every time, over
the long haul, even if you messed up some of the tricky hands here
and there, you would almost certainly show a solid profit. So, unless
you can think of a good reason to call like the ones we listed above,
reraise for value.
180 SMALL STAKES NO-LIMIT HOLD EM
Flat Calling With Position
Stacks are $200. The first two players fold, and the cutoff opens for
$7. You are on the button with Ae&J`&. The blinds both are weak-
tight. Should you fold, call, or reraise?
If the cutoff is a super tight player, folding is a decent option. Your
hand doesn t have much pot equity against a tight range. Position
makes it easier to steal, but probably not easy enough. Your
opponent s strong range means that he will often have a decent hand
on the flop. If he is at all aggressive, he s not a good target to try and
push around postflop.
But let s say he s not very tight. He opens about a quarter of his
hands in the cutoff. Ae&J`& is strong against that range, and you ll
have position. So you aren t folding. Should you reraise or call?
Pros to reraising are that you can win the pot outright, you
discourage the blinds from entering the pot, and you have initiative on
the flop if called. Cons are that you put more money at risk, you
create a big preflop pot with a somewhat marginal hand, you give
yourself less wiggle room postflop due to the smaller SPR, and you
eliminate a lot of the weak hands in your opponent s range.
Pros to calling are that you keep the preflop pot smaller, you give
yourself more stack room postflop to take advantage of position, you
keep your opponent in the pot with dominated hands, and you don t
need to worry much about the blinds since they re weak-tight. Cons
are that you cannot win the pot outright, you let your opponent keep
initiative, and you don t put pressure on the blinds to fold.
All in all, calling is a good option in this spot. The pot is likely to
be heads-up due to the tendencies of the players in the blinds. You
may as well take advantage of your position by keeping the preflop
pot smaller. Higher SPRs benefit position and good postflop play.
Calling works well for big card hands. With a marginal big card
hand, you may not always want to commit with top pair, particularly
against a decent opponent. But if you reraise preflop and create a big
pot, it will be difficult to get away from top pair. To boot, your odds
of running into a better hand postflop increase in a 3-bet pot, since
your opponent will fold many of his weaker hands to your 3-bet.
SPECIFIC PREFLOP DECISIONS 181
Calling gives you more options. If you hit top pair, you can obtain
more information before having to make a commitment decision. And
you can still steal as well. In fact, even if you bluff raise the flop and
get thwarted, you don t lose much more than if you 3-bet preflop.
If you had a different type of hand, you might not want to call
preflop. Say you had 6c& 4c& . You won t flop a good hand often, so
the value of winning the pot outright increases. This encourages you
to 3-bet or fold instead of call. Although you ll occasionally flop a
strong hand with 6c& 4c& , the implied value of making these strong
hands is usually less than the value of winning the pot preflop.
Calling a preflop raise with position can be a good option. It works
particularly well when the raiser is not very tight, you expect the pot
to be heads up, you prefer the preflop pot to be smaller, and you are
comfortable playing against your opponent postflop.
Calling When Out Of Position
Many of the same principles apply when you are out of position. If
you have a hand that prefers a smaller preflop pot, and you are
comfortable playing against your opponent postflop, calling can be a
better option than 3-betting. That might be the case when you have a
hand like AJo.
If you 3-bet with AJ, you may find yourself in a quandary if you
hit top pair. The pot will be big, so you will immediately be put to a
commitment decision. If you are comfortable committing because
your opponent has a very loose range, then 3-betting is fine. If you are
uncomfortable with that, consider calling preflop.
Keeping the pot small is more difficult out of position. You have to
act first on each of the remaining streets, and your checks may
encourage your opponent to bet. It s easier to keep the pot small when
you call preflop rather than 3-bet. And calling preflop gives you the
benefit of being up against a weaker range.
182 SMALL STAKES NO-LIMIT HOLD EM
Calling A Preflop 3-Bet With Pocket Aces
A weak player with $80 limps from up front. Everyone else has $200.
The next player to act makes a pot-sized raise to $9. The cutoff
reraises to $26. Hero is in the small blind with A`&Ae& and flat calls.
The big blind folds, the limper calls, and the original raiser folds. The
pot is 3-handed and contains $89.
The flop comes 9f&4e&3f&. Everyone checks to the preflop reraiser
who bets $56, a little less than two-thirds of the pot. Hero checkraises
all-in for $118 more. Both players call. The limper shows 8e&8f& and
the reraiser shows Q`&Qf&. Two threes come on the turn and river, and
the aces hold up.
When you hold pocket aces, flat calling a preflop 3-bet can greatly
increase your chance to stack your opponent. Think about what hands
you would 4-bet from the small blind after a raise and a roughly pot-
sized 3-bet. Presumably that range is narrow. For many $1 $2
players, it is only pocket aces and kings.
Your opponents know this, and any 3-bettor will be alerted if one
of the blinds makes a big 4-bet. Even some otherwise loose players
will fold hands like pocket jacks, ace-king, and occasionally pocket
queens in this situation.
With pocket aces, your goal is to stack opponents who flop top pair
or an overpair. If you simply shove preflop, usually you ll get called
by kings, but queens or jacks may fold. You may also fold out players
with ace-king and ace-queen. If you wait for the flop to make your
move, your targets will often make one more bet, which is great for
you if they miss the flop and may be enough to pot commit them if
they hit top pair or an overpair.
For instance, if Hero had 4-bet all-in preflop, there s a good chance
everyone would have folded, and Hero would have won the $40 in the
pot. By calling and checking the flop, Hero induced an extra $56 bet
from the player with pocket queens a bet that also pot committed
him to playing for stacks.
SPECIFIC PREFLOP DECISIONS 183
Naturally, waiting for the flop can hurt you too. Most obviously,
your opponent could outflop you by hitting a set or better. That will
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