#870 – What Do You Do When an Opponent Tries to Take Your Betting Lead Away?

This is what I posted on ThePotKings.com’s forum in response to a fifth hand they chose for a video from my hand history of the private tournament I won. It raises a great and rarely considered tactical question: When you raise and get called by one of the blinds, what do you do when they lead out with a bet after the flop?

In the hand chosen for Video 5, we were three-handed at the final table. Blinds were 250-500 with a 50 ante. I had Ad-4h on the button and raised to 1,100 and the big blind called.

The flop came 4s-Jh-9h, giving me third pair. The big blind led out by betting 500 into the 2,600 pot. I raised to 2,000 and the big blind folded.

This was the question posed:  “What made you raise on the flop?” What do you do when an opponent tries to take away the betting lead?

Let me start by mentioning that this answer is somewhat specific to short-handed and final table situations. If the pot is multi-way and we are contesting relatively small amounts, I will more often give the player who bets out of position credit for the hand he’s representing.

If you are an active player, however, it is not a good idea to give up your betting lead often or easily. This is magnified in short-handed situations like at a final table. Three-handed as we were, there will be a lot of times where you are raising, calling, and betting with mediocre hands. The identity of the cards in these situations is secondary. This is nothing less than a battle of wills. Which player will bet the other out of the pot when nobody has a premium hand (or, sometimes, any hand at all)?

If you let another player routinely bet out after you raise, you are dead at the final table.

This is what you do.  First, make a quick determination about whether this is a rare circumstance where your opponent is doing you the favor of revealing the strength of his hand.  Barring that, you have to push back regardless of the strength of your hand.

I was not convinced that the big blind’s post-flop bet indicated real strength. He was a conservative player but frequently made small bets at pots out of position. In this instance, the bet was 500 into a 2,600 pot.

So I knew I was going to play back at him. He made it easier by betting so small. When we started the hand I had 16,000 and he had 13,000. When he bet just 500, I could make a convincing raise to 2,000 and still have enough chips to fold if he in fact was betting great strength (like two-pair or a set). If he had bet, say, 1,500 into the pot, it would have cost me nearly half my remaining chips to make a convincing play back.

The fact that I had third pair means nothing in this analysis. It’s about deciding whether your opponent has real strength or is making a move to win the battle of wills. Once I concluded the latter, the cards were irrelevant.

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