Playing Big Hands out of Positions Heads up on a Textured Board
Playing Big Hands out of Positions Heads up on a Textured Board
Playing hands out of position is always more difficult than playing in position because you don’t get to see what your opponent does before you have to make your decision. This is particularly difficult when you have to come up with a line of play for a hand when the board is very likely to create tough decisions for you. So let’s look at how to deal with this type of situation when you flop a big hand on a coordinated board when you are heads up.
So let’s say you have a hand like 99 and the board comes AT9 two spades. Going back to what he talked about last time, you know you have the best hand right now (if you don’t you are very unlucky) but the problem is that the board is super coordinated. What this means is that the next card is a favorite to be a card that might give you some difficulty in your decision and unfortunately for you, when that difficult card hits you are going to have to act before your opponent. This means that as before you are looking to end the decision making process right there. You are looking to create a line of play that is the most likely to get you out of having to make another decision on the hand.
So how do you do this on this kind of board? Well, let’s talk about the check raise. As you might recall, in the article about big hands on untextured boards we talked deeply about the check raise and what it means. The check raise is a play that turns your hand face up in the sense that it conveys great strength to your opponent(s). Now, when you flop a hand like a set on a board with no scare to it the last thing you want to do is convey strength to your opponent so check raise is not really an option there. But the check raise is not bad, it is just bad in that situation. There are times when you really do want to announce great strength to your opponent because you really don’t care of the hand ends right there and this is one of them. The check raise is a tool and it is just a matter of using the tool in the right way.
So on a super coordinated board like the AT9 two spades board, you want to try to check raise this if you can. The check raise tends to be a hand ending play and this is what you are looking for here. This means that if your opponent who has position on you also has the lead on you, you can check here. This is because opponents who have raised before the flop in a heads up pot are very unlikely to ever check when they are checked to. And if they do check then it seems unlikely that their hand really relates to the board since a flush draw or straight draw would bet and most hands will bet to price out the flush draw.
Once your opponent has bet for you you can’t call. This is because if the texture does not hit you must bet out on the turn anyway since you can’t count on your opponent to bet for you twice and giving a free card on the turn would be disastrous. This means that you will have to announce you hand on the turn regardless. Worse yet, if the flush draw or straight draw does hit you must now have to play your hand blind. You can’t really check because allowing a possible free card there would be horrible. But if you bet and get raised you will have to fold and a hand like AK with the Ks might just make that play against you, not even knowing they are bluffing you. When a hand can bluff you without knowing it you must have chosen a poor line of play. So whichever way it goes, because of the coordination on the board you really just have to lead out the turn anyway and this can have disastrous results.
Instead if you just go for the check raise one the flop some very good things come out of it. First, you are likely to win the pot right there, which should be fine with you under this set of circumstances. But when you don’t win it right there you are actually more likely to get paid by a worse hand with the check raise on the flop and this is because opponents will often misread the check raise as a weak hand or a draw and go ahead and play with you anyway. If you check and call against a hand like AQ or AJ and then lead out on the next card you are likely to lose them if the texture hits and you can also lose them if it doesn’t. Not only that but particularly when the texture hits the lead out can cause a pot mistake where you can be bluffed off the hand by a raise. So you either get paid off zero or lose the whole pot and you have to bet because you can’t allow a free card once the coordination has completed anyway. But if you just check raise this is where AQ and AJ can misread your hand and repush on you, misreading you for making the jiggy check raise with the flush draw.
Now, clearly, if your opponent cannot be counted to raise you should not be going for a check raise here as a free card is a disaster. If your opponent is passive you should by all means bet right out even if they have the lead on the pot. And if you have the lead you must be certain your opponent will bet for you before you give that lead up to him on a textured board. If you are forced to lead out, either as a continuation bet or because you can’t count on your opponent to bet, then you should really bet big, trying to give the flush draw the worst price possible to hit with one to come. The reason that it is one to come is that you are clearly not checking the turn here so your opponent is only going to get to see one card before they face another bet. So bet closer to the whole pot. If you get a flat call you will lead the turn no matter what. You can represent the flush if that card hits and if it doesn’t, if the board blanks, you cannot allow another card to come off anyway so you must make another big bet at that point to make sure there is payment for the river card. Of course when the texture hits and you lead out you must hope you don’t get raise and that is the problem with the out of position play. You can’t check the turn and risk more texture hitting the river. But when you do bet you are hoping beyond hope that you do not get raised. This is why there is pressure on you to make that action ending play right on the flop and get it over with so you don’t have to face those difficult turn cards.
The moral of the story is bet to get the pot over with before it all turns sour on the turn.
What is the definition of a “textured board?”
When the cards on the board are strongly related to each other by suit or rank.