Part: Part Two - Playing Styles & Starting Requirements
A strong hand in position
Pre-flop
Early-middle stage, deep stacks (you cover the table with 125 big blinds). It is folded to you on the button with A♠Q♠ - a strong, suited, high-card hand - and you have position on the blinds.
Folded to you on the button with A♠Q♠. Your move?
WhyFolded to you on the button, A-Q suited sits at the top of what you'd open from here, and the two blinds left to act can rarely continue profitably against a raise. You either pick up the pot now or play a suited high-card hand with position on both of them. Limping hands the initiative back and drags you into the multiway pots where A-Q plays worst.
What happensYou make it 500 (2.5 BB). The small blind folds, the big blind calls - you're heads-up with position and the lead. Pot: 1,100 (5.5 BB).
Flop
Flop: Q♦ 8♣ 3♥ - you flop top pair, top kicker on a dry board. The big blind checks.
Top pair top kicker, dry board, big blind checks. Best?
WhyNothing about Q-8-3 rainbow hands a caller a draw worth paying off, so top pair with the best kicker is beating everything that continues - worse queens, eights, small pairs, the stray gutshot. A half-pot bet taxes all of it while the pot is still small. Check, and you gift a random overcard the chance to turn into a free way past you.
What happensYou bet 550 (2.75 BB) and get called. A call on this dry board is a hand he likes - which here still means one your kicker dominates. Pot: 2,200 (11 BB).
Turn
Turn: 5♠ - a blank. The big blind checks again.
The turn bricks and the big blind checks again. Continue?
WhyThe five is a total blank: no draw arrived, no overcard, and he flatted the flop with something he wanted to keep. That's the profile of a worse queen or a pair that pays a second barrel, so charge it again rather than let him peel a free river and outdraw you.
What happensYou bet 1,200 (6 BB); he calls once more. He's now put in chips twice with a hand that still can't beat top pair-top kicker. Pot: 4,600 (23 BB).
River
River: 2♦ - another blank. Having called twice, the big blind checks a third time.
Blank river; a check-calling opponent checks again. Best value play?
WhyA player who calls two streets and then checks the river is rarely trapping - he has a showdown hand he's hoping is good, usually a worse queen or a middling pair. Price a bet that hand talks itself into calling. Check it back and you leave behind the one bet he was always going to pay.
What happensYou bet 2,000 (10 BB), he pays with K-Q, and top pair-top kicker holds. Even the rare time he'd turned up a slowplayed monster, the thin bet is still right - it's called by worse far more often than it walks into better.
Three modest bets beat one big one here: on every street a worse queen or middle pair could still call, so you kept betting a size it would pay. Position let you pick the price and collect the value one street at a time.
When the board runs out dry and your top pair keeps beating everything that calls, the mistake is checking to 'keep the pot small.' Thin value on every street is where position quietly pays off.