Part: Part Two - Playing Styles & Starting Requirements
Respecting a rock
Pre-flop
It folds to you on the cutoff with T♠T♦. Behind you on the button sits a classic rock - tight and passive, who only plays big hands and rarely bluffs.
Folded to you on the cutoff with pocket tens. Best play?
WhyRaise to open. Pocket tens are a clear opening hand from the cutoff; you raise for value and to take the blinds. The interesting part comes later - how you respond when the passive rock behind you wakes up.
What happensYou raise to 500 (2.5 BB). The rock on the button calls; the blinds fold. Pot: 1,300 (6.5 BB).
Flop
Flop: Q♥ J♣ 4♦ - two overcards to your tens. You c-bet 800 and the rock just calls.
You c-bet, and the rock calls. What does that call mean, and what next?
WhyProceed with caution. A tight-passive player calling on Q-J-4 almost always has a real piece - a queen, a jack, or a draw he likes. Your tens are likely behind. You don't fold to one call, but you stop building the pot and prepare to give it up to further aggression.
What happensYou check the turn behind to control the pot.
Turn
Turn: 7♠. After you check, the rock - who almost never bets without a strong hand - now bets.
The passive rock, who rarely bluffs, fires 2,400 (12 BB). You hold T-T on Q-J-4-7. Best?
WhyFold. The whole read on a rock is that his aggression means strength - he isn't bluffing here. Your tens are an underpair against a betting range of queens, jacks, two pair, and sets. Calling to 'keep him honest' against a player who is honest is how stacks leak away.
What happensYou fold; he later shows K-Q. Discipline saved you chips.
You opened a good hand, then read the player rather than the cards: when a tight-passive rock called and then bet into you, you believed it and folded an overpair-that-wasn't. Reading the table means letting a player's style tell you what their actions mean.
Against a tight-passive rock, believe the aggression - when a player who only bets strong hands bets, fold your marginal ones.