More Fun Times in the Ring Games

Ring games always offer surprises and can even stump the pro's. Read on to learn Stuart Rutter's approach...

More fun times in the Ring Games

The $10/20 game on 32Red Poker never fails to throw up some interesting and exciting online poker. Most players play a great logical game, but cunningly choose times to play without logic in order to disguise their hands, and to deceive other players.

This brings about a number of tough situations where you are in the position of choosing whether or not to call. Here are a couple of examples from this week, to give you an insight into the kind of thinking that goes into the toughest decision in the game - am I ahead or not?

Hand #1

I am playing a stack of $1,900, and my young American opponent has me covered. I raise with a dodgy  to $55 in late position, and my opponent calls from the big blind to see a  flop. Checked to me, I bet out for $100, and am not too scared to be raised to $280. The  on the turn ought to be a blank, and I call my opponent’s $300 bet. This bet  seems strangely small. The river brings a board of   , with a pot of $1270. I am playing a dogdy two pair, with no working kicker. The young American fires out a big bet of $1150….

It’s going to be a tough one, so I switch on the time bank, and get thinking. My trail of thought goes something like this:

- I can only beat a bluff, as there is no way that my opponent can be value bet a hand that is splitting with my hand or losing to it.

- The hands that could be turned over to beat me are- any hand including an eight, a jack with a very good kicker, jack-ten for two pair, a slowplayed overpair, or a lucky rivered straight.

- The large bet on the end, nearly pot-sized, simplifies my thinking. It is now unlikely that my opponent is simply playing , or even  for two pair. With these hands, surely his value bet on the river would be smaller, as it is possible I have them beat with an overpair. So, the first crucial piece of information is that my opponent is probably playing either a very big hand, or a bluff.

- It is always very useful to decide what hand you think your opponent is putting you on; this is the biggest clue to deciphering your opponent’s play. Here I have bet the flop and made a defensive call on the turn, so my opponent is probably putting me on exactly the kind of hand I have- a jack, or just possibly an overpair which is concerned about the two eights on the board.

- This brings about my first inkling that my opponent is bluffing. He knows that if I am playing a decent two pair hand, it will need to be this kind of big bet to bluff me off the hand.

- On the other hand, the small bet on the turn was almost impossible to pass to, so this goes against the suspicion of a bluff. However, is there a chance that my opponent has put together a clever bluff with a strong looking small turn bet that I had to call, in order to take me off with real pressure on the river? This definitely would be a cunning bluff, as the small turn bet allows him to see whether I have a big hand or not. As I can only flat call it, I have probably indicated that I have a marginal hand.

I do not feel too sure about this hand, but the change in bet size is what is tempting me most into calling. I hit the call button, and……..

………am overjoyed to see $3570 pot be pushed in my direction.

Hand # 2

This time the opponent is a Swedish player, and I call his early position raise to $60 on the button with . A  flop looks decent enough for me, and I call the Swede’s $110 bet. A  on the turn leaves me with the top pair, and I call a relatively smaller $200 bet. The river brings a good card as the board becomes   . My opponent checks, and the pot stands at $740. I decide that I could well now be ahead, and fire out a small $220 value bet. To my surprise, my Swedish opponent raises to $800. What do you do?…

I am now of course regretting this value bet, as it brought about the possibility of this difficult situation. However, I have to cast frustration aside, and have a think….

- It seems all the way through that my opponent is playing some kind of pocket pair or one pair hand. The reason I made this risky small value bet was that it seemed that his decision would be simply whether or not to call. A raise did not seem likely.

- My problem of course is that my flat calls on the flop and turn and this small river bet have given a massive clue to my opponent about my hand. Things are indeed as they seem to him; I have the kind of hand I think may now be ahead, but I am not sure. This fits together to give away that I have almost exactly something like . Of course, this knowledge gives my opponent a great opportunity to put the pressure on with a bluff.

- However, I am still tending towards thinking that I am behind. My small bet also gives my opponent the chance to my opponent to value bet a hand like  or . It seems that my opponent has some kind of hand himself, and it is rare that people turn these hands into a bluff.

I pass, cursing my value bet but believing that I am behind, until……………

………My opponent flashes  for a brilliant and unlikely bluff.

More next week, until then all the best and see you at the tables...

- Stuart "TrickyRock" Rutter.