FULL TILT POKER BLOG

Posted by jgreenspan | Filed under Uncategorized

The feeler bet is, in essence, a question. If a bet could talk it would say something like, I got a little something. How am I doing? The problem with this question is that in no-limit hole ‘em, once you recognize the question, it’s pretty easy to devise an answer. A response like, “not good. Not good at all,” is pretty easy to communicate, whether it’s an honest reply or not.

Take this hand, for example. Playing 6-handed with blinds 8/16 and a 1k ante, Erik Seidel raised to 47,000 from the cutoff. The big blind, Dane Lomas, who had been playing pretty cautiously, called. The flop was pretty messy: J-7-2, rainbow. Dane then bet out 60k. Erik raised to 240,000; Dane stared him down, then folded.

Did Erik have a hand? I have no idea. Is he capable of raising in that spot with a variety of hands? Of course. Which is why a half-sized flop bet ought to have a variety of meanings. If you’re only betting out with medium-strength hands and check-calling or check-raising your big hands, you’re bound to be pretty transparent to good players.

Bet out your flopped sets and two pair once in a while. Your feeler bet will seem a lot more like a loaded question. Coming up with an answer will not be so easy for your opponents.

Dane sort of fell apart at that point. He made a massive re-raise from the small blind after Max Pescatori open-raised and another player (the button) called. The button called Dane’s re-raise. The flop was 8-high, and Dane check-folded, giving away a ton of chips. He hit the rail a short time later, after check-raising Max Pescatori with second pair. Max had top-pair, top kicker.

We’re down to 14 players.

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