You should always ask yourself a few things: (1) how should I proceed, (2) how much I should bet, in no-limit and pot-limit hands, (3) and what hands would make sense for your opponent to be holding?

$2000 Pot Limit Hold'em, WSOP 2005
Blinds 100 and 200

I had built up a pretty nice stack by playing aggressively against my table, and making lots of moves. I found myself with about 7500 in chips and was in great shape. Our chip-leader at the table was two to my left (in this hand, he was the big blind) and his stack was about 13,000. He had built it up by slow-playing some big hands and catching a few players by surprise. He was wearing sunglasses and gold chains, and seemed to be a player who liked to push others around and generally look really cool. He also seemed somewhat concerned with his image in my estimation, i.e. he didn't want to look dumb in a hand.

Everyone had folded to me on the button and I looked down at 88. The blinds were 100 and 200 and I made it 700 to go, betting the pot. The small blind folded and my opponent thought for a second or two and decided to bet the pot, making it 3000 chips total. What would you do now in this situation and why?

I thought about it and felt, almost certain, that I knew what his hand was. I put him on AJ, KQ, or a medium pair, probably 6's or 7's. He had slow-played every time he had a big pair so I was confident that he didn't have me dominated with anything. This was my main consideration, but there were a few others as well; (a) his chip stack was fairly large and he could have folded without damaging it badly, (b) he seemed concerned with his image at the table and didn't want to do anything stupid, (c) you need to make, and win, these kind of calls if you are going to win in a tournament like this, and (d) I had already invested some of my chips and I figured that calling here would be a weak decision. After all, what would I do when an overcard flopped and I still sat on my 8's? I decided to re-raise the pot, and shift all the pressure back onto him. Being in decent shape if he called, coupled with the possibility that he may fold right there, made this seem like the right decision.

He thought for about 45 seconds and said, "Alright, I'll gamble with you". He re-raised me all-in, obviously seeing that this was what was going to happen anyway, and I called of course. He turned over his AJ and I was pleased that I had made the right read and moved the pressure over to him. He made a tough call here, and deserves credit. I hadn't been playing my big hands slowly and could have had K's or Q's. He showed some balls. Long story short, the A came on the flop and although the 9 gave me a half-second of hope on the river, I was bounced. I still feel that I made the correct decision here, even though I lost the pot and was knocked out. If my hand had held up I would have been up to around 15,000 in chips and really would have been in the driver's seat at my table. Again, you have to make these kinds of decisions in order to win tournaments. You have to gamble at some point.

$225 No Limit Hold'em, Larry Flynt's Grand Slam of Poker 2005
Blinds 25 and 25

This hand occurred in the first hour of this event in Los Angeles. As we hadn't been playing very long to this point, I didn't feel that I had enough of a read on anyone's play to make truly solid decisions. The hand unfolded, pardon the pun, as follows...

The blinds were 25 and 25 and I was one to the right of the button, holding AQ. All action folded to the player directly to my right and he brought the bet in for 150. Now, the first consideration here is the size of his bet. Is there any significance to it?

The fact that he over-bet the pot probably means that he doesn't want any callers. This rules out any high pocket pairs. Admittedly, some players will overbet the pot with AK, which would have put me in bad shape, but that wasn't my read here. I put him on a medium pair, or possibly a hand like J 10 suited. This is my first consideration in the hand, and it also highlights the need to bet the same amounts most of the time in no-limit. I don't want to let my opponents know what I have by my betting amounts. I want them to always be guessing, and the best way to accomplish this is to do the same thing almost all of the time. What should I do now?

Well, I certainly am going to play this pot, and am also almost certainly going to raise. The question is, how much is appropriate here? I want to make a big enough raise to represent that I have a big hand and am willing to play with him, which I do and am, but at the same time I am not averse to him folding, especially if he does hold a pair in his hand. I decide to bet a total of 500, which is my call of his 150 plus a pot-sized raise of 350. I always want my opponents to know that any hand they play against me could be an all-in hand. I want to make sure that they have a little bit of fear in them, even before we see the flop. Too many players make dinky raises because they are afraid of ever getting too involved in a pot. You can never push anyone around with this kind of mentality.

At any rate, my opponent called my raise, but was very visibly unhappy about it. His body language spoke volumes, and I felt that if I moved in on a flop with any paint, it would be mine. The flop came A 10 Q, and I wasn't sure what to make of it. If I got played with, I may be in big trouble, but on the other hand I held a pretty strong hand and didn't want to let it go.

My opponent checked and I bet out 600 into a pot of 1050, leaving me with only 900 left. I quickly realized that I wasn't going to able to get away from this hand probably, regardless of what happened. I was then raised, but only double the amount that I had bet. What could my opponent have here?

I shifted my focus from a medium pair to either the K or J, or possibly a small flush already made. It was tough for me to see the small made flush for the simple fact that I just couldn't see him calling my pre-flop raise with two small suited cards. I was hoping that he had the nut, or second-nut flush draw here, despite the fact that he probably would have just moved in if this were true. I thought if he did already have a strong flush made that he may play it this way, but I was hoping that I would get lucky and be wrong.

His small raise signaled possible weakness to me, and I decided to move in for my final 900, which was really only a re-raise of 300. Now sometimes a small raise like this can mean weakness or strength. I wasn't sure which one it was in this instance, and perhaps my hope that it was in weakness influenced my decision-making. In all honesty, I probably felt that my hand could be beat, but that it was just too strong for me to get away from.

I found out that his move was one of semi-weakness: his hand was stronger than mine, but the flop was scary for him. In all truth, we probably both hoped that the other had the same hand: a strong flush draw. In reality, we both just had hands that were too strong to be able to get away from. Whichever one of us had the best hand on the flop was probably going to win the hand. He did call obviously, and turned up the 1010, which was a pretty bad hand for me. It seemed that I should have paid attention to my earlier read of his medium pair hand. I still don't think that there was any way for me to get away from this hand though, regardless of my read.

I was drawing to an Ace or Queen, but the turn and river delivered blanks and I was sent home packing, as my opponent just had me covered. I still feel that on this hand all the chips were going to get into the middle on a flop like that. It just hit us both too much for either of us to lay it down. The only possible question here was in my opponent's calling of my pre-flop raise, and I didn't think he had made a bad call there at all. Everything else would have happened the way it did regardless of either of our actions after that. I am a little frustrated by the fact that I was so surprised when my opponent turned up his 10's though. I should have considered this possibility more in my thought process while the hand was going on.

Joe Sebok never leaves a fellow crasher behind. You can reach him at joepoker@barrygreenstein.com, and can view all past columns at barrygreenstein.com under the joepoker link.