A quick hand
4-handed $1/2 NL:
I open-raise to $8 on the button with Q4. It’s rare that I enter a hand with a holding that can’t possibly hit big on the flop. It was 4-handed though.
The big blind calls.
Flop is QJ2 rainbow. BB checks. This guy always checks any two after calling a raise preflop. I bet $10. I had been following through on the flop every time this session for exactly $10 when heads-up. He called.
Turn is a 3. Check. What should I do? I think a bet is ok as it wins me the pot a significant amount of time. You also get called by inferior and drawing hands a good part of the time. I checked and here is my though process. I thought that I could very well be behind and wouldn’t fold a better hand (against this particular player). I thought that if I was ahead, I wanted him to take a stab at the pot about the size that I was willing to call on the river. If he hit a river card against me, I’d have a tough decision, but the amount of the river bet would be right. I think he’d bet a missed draw or an inferior hand the majority of the time and the majority of river cards won’t hurt me.
Most importantly, I checked the turn because I had been betting the turn in similar circumstances for the last half hour or so. Being predictable has cost me plenty of money in the past and now being unpredictable is an important characteristic in my game these days that is definitely paying off.
The river was a 5. He bet $28 and I called to see his AK. I don’t think he would have called a decent sized bet on the turn so I think that my check in that spot made me $28 in this circumstance. Of course, if he hits one of his 10 outs, it looks stupid. Those are the chances that you have to take sometime in order to get paid off.
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