Freddie has the blind in a low-limit game of Texas Hold ‘Em. Freddie has a J-10 off suit. He calls a raise made by Willie from the ninth position. It seems to me that Freddie’s call was an appropriate investment because it appeared six others would also be in the pot. The flop comes J. 7. 6 •. Freddie bets out and four players call. The next card off is a 4 ••. Again Freddie bets. He gets one caller before Willie raises. When the action gets back to him, Freddie grunts, peeks at his cards, rechecks the flop and dumps in his money to call the raise. That was not a good call.
The last card to flop is a K. Freddie checks and calls Willie’s last bet. Willie turns over a pair of queens.
The most powerful way of communicating at the poker table is by raising. Therefore, when we get raised, we need to ask ourselves a couple of questions. Questions like: “Am I beat?” “If I put more money in the pot, will I be getting a fair return on my money?”
The vast majority of poker players automatically call a raise. This automatic call is wrong.
Let’s go back to Freddie and his pair of Jacks. We know that even with top pair (before the last card), Freddie does not have a great hand. Willie is a good solid player. He is known to bluff only on rare occasions. His raise indicates a good hand. Some players in late position will raise with the middle pairs. I have never seen Willie do this. Willie, with his raise, is telling us that he has, at the very least, a pair of Jacks with a good kicker! Even if Willie had “only” A-J, K-J, or Q-J, Freddie was beat. More than likely, his raise before the flop and especially on 4th street indicates an over pair.
The “automatic call” after the raise on fourth was what most of us do. We “automatically” dump in our money. In my opinion, the bets Freddie made after the flop and after the fourth card were appropriate. He had top pair. If no one else had a jack or an over pair, he had the best hand. However, he should have revaluated after the raise. There are several reasons to make a bet, one of them being to obtain information. Freddie was doing great, he made the correct bets, but he did not listen to the information he received.
Willie’s raise was a powerful message. He was telling Freddie that he had him beat. Like most of us, Freddie did not listen to the message he was given. He could and should have saved two bets. Automatically throwing money in the pot is a terrible policy.
What Freddie should have done was review the hand.
His thought process could have gone something like this: ”Willie is a good player. He raised before the flop. He would not raise without a good hand. Certainly he knows I have a pair of jacks. What his raise means is that he has a pair of jacks beat. My only reasonably safe out is to pair my ten. It will cost me one bet to take that chance. Is there enough money in the pot to justify a call and hope to catch a ten? I have three tens to catch out of 46 unknown cards. That is about 15 to 1. I think it’s time to quit.”
My Uncle Sigurd used to say that saving money was the same as making money. Don’t throw good money away. When the message comes across to us that we are beat, it’s time to get out. We have paid for the message: don’t ignore it. When a raise is made, pause a moment to think. The best course of action could very well be to fold.
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