The Art of Hand Reading
In this article I am using a hand that I watched a friend play at a very small stakes no-limit game on PokerStars. The blinds were $0.05 and $0.10 and the stack sizes were both around $3.
Our hero is in the small blind and holds 4-3 of diamonds. There were five players at the table, and the under-the-gun player limped into the pot. Our hero completed the blind and the big blind raised to $0.30. The "Under The Gun" player called the raise and our hero called it as well, figuring he would be paid off if he hit something with his suited connectors.
The raise from the big blind should tell you right away that he isn't much of a player, even by the standards of micro-limit games. He's going to play a hand out of position with no definition on his opponents' hands, and he chooses to give them information about his hand preflop but doesn't raise enough to get a read on his opponents' hands or ruin their implied odds. Multiple mistakes.
A better raise would have been to $0.50 to chase off his opponents or ruin their implied odds.
The flop came 4-4-9, which is about as good as it gets for our hero in the small blind. He looked over at me immediately for advice and I told him to bet half the pot. "I shouldn't slow-play this one?" he asked.
If the board is paired on the flop and you check-raise on the flop, you are giving your hand away and you aren't going to make much money on it. If your opponent has A-K or another no-pair hand, he will fold and you won't make much on this excellent flop. Those suited connectors are only worth playing if you are going to make some serious money with them when you hit a big flop.
When you bet out half the pot, an overpair is going to raise you, and you get a chance to build a good-size pot without giving your hand away. Everything worked perfectly when the big blind raised and I advised our hero to think for a few seconds and then call the raise. Now the hand is completely disguised, and a simple player like the BB "Big Blind" doesn't suspect a thing.
The turn was the Ad, putting two diamonds on board. Our hero in the small blind checked this round and the big blind bet out about three quarters of the pot. He looked over at me again. "Just call, he just hit his ace and he's drawing to two outs now."
The river came perfect again, the 8d, making our hero a backdoor flush. "I have the lowest possible flush and no full house on a paired board. Should I check?" he asked.
"Nope, get the rest of your chips in there," I told him, and though I could see he didn't understand why, he took my advice and pushed the slider all the way to the right. His opponent thought for a few minutes and called.
"Ace-King," I said, and when we checked the hand history, my suspicions were confirmed.
"What if he had aces or nines?" was our hero's first question.
"Do you think he would play aces or nines that way preflop?" I asked.
"Probably not, but it's possible."
"Do you think he would bet the flop and turn the way he did with a full house?"
"Doesn't seem likely," he said, and I could hear the gears turning in his head.
"And were you going to fold a hand that was probably a winner if he pushed all-in?"
"No, but why bet?" he asked.
"First of all, I was 95 percent sure that the four-high flush was the winning hand, but there is a more important factor here. A hand that beats the flush will definitely bet here, but a weaker hand may not. If you want the money in there when your opponent only has two pair, then you have to bet it yourself."
"What if he had a bigger flush?" he asked.
"Lesson No. 1 on hand reading," I replied. "What hand would he play that way preflop and on the flop that would make a better flush? We knew he had a big ace or a big pair, and since the ace of diamonds is on the board it becomes impossible for him to have a flush with the range of hands we are sure he holds."
"That's called 'hand reading?"
"Yep."
His eyes lit up a little just then and he said, "That's a damn good thing to know about. I'm going to tear this game up once I get the hand of this hand-reading thing."