This becomes slightly trickier, but your short stack sizes protect you much
lie in limit play.
The best play is to make a normal sized raise and put the
pressure on your opponent.
If she hits the flush she's going to move all in, but
she'll also make the same play sometimes with a hand you can beat.
Just like in limit Texas holdem, the best play is to make a standard raise
and call if you get raised.
Quiz Answer 6
This is one of the most difficult situations you'll ever be in while playing
Texas holdem. This illustrates why position is so important. You have to act
first so you have to either bet or check.
When you check it gives your opponent an opportunity to make a play for the
pot because you're showing weakness, but if you bet it gives your opponent an
opportunity to extract as much money as possible out of you when they hit the
flush, or make a large move on the pot representing the flush.
The best players can sense weakness and they know how to apply the exact
amount of pressure to make your decision difficult.
Once you consider everything, the best play is to make a standard size bet.
This can create a tricky situation, but it's still the best play.
When you bet three things can happen. When your opponent folds or calls you
don't have to make an additional decision, so they're easy. But when they raise
you need to make an important decision.
It's easy to jump to the conclusion that you should fold if they raise
because they're a good player, but the opposite is actually true.
A good player is good enough to make a raise in this situation if they
determine they have a good chance of getting you to fold, even if they have a
weaker hand.
Against the best Texas holdem players the smaller the raise the more
dangerous the hand becomes. When a good player has a winning hand they start
planning on how to get as much out of the hand without making their opponent
fold. A small raise usually is designed to get a call. A small raise also is
small enough that the pot odds require a call.
On the other hand, if your opponent is good enough to recognize that you're a
strong player the may make an oversized bet that looks like a bluff when they
have a flush to get you to call.
If your head is spinning, it's because when you play out of position against a
good player it's easy to get taken advantage of. This is a perfect example of
why you do your best to avoid this situation by not playing out of position.
If you find yourself in this situation and face a raise all you can do is
look at the pot odds and try to guess your chances of winning the hand. You'll
find that you usually have to call the raise but being profitable is tricky.
Quiz Answer 7
As we discussed in answers 1 and 4,
It doesn't matter if your opponent is good or bad; the most profitable play is
to bet. If your opponent raises simply call. In the long run you're going to
show a profit.
Quiz Answer 8
Making a normal size bet is the best play in this situation and calling a
raise of all in are the most profitable ways to play this hand against a poor
opponent. You'll find that a poor opponent will be more likely to raise in this
situation with a weaker hand, so this adds more to your overall profit. Of course
they also chase more flushes than other players so they'll hit the flush and
take your money sometimes to.
Quiz Answer 9
Against a weak opponent the best play is the same as against an unknown
opponent.
You need to make a standard size raise and see what your opponent does.
When they fold or call you're in good shape. If they make a reasonable raise
you need to call because of the pot odds, but when they move all in it almost
always means they've hit their flush.
But you still need to try to determine your pot odds and your chances of
winning. Poor players are often unpredictable so it's hard to accurately guess
what they have.
This is another example of how playing out of position can cost you money.
Even a poor player can use position to their advantage, even if they don't
understand why it helps them.
Quiz Answer 10
The only hands that can beat a straight helped by the board pairing are four
of a kind and a full house. This is such a small range of hands and the pot is
offering five times what you have to call.
But just as important as what can beat you is what other hands an opponent
might have with the board pairing where they'd make this play. They might have
hit three of a kind or two pair, but they also might have missed everything and
are trying to steal the pot at the end with a bluff.
You'll make this call and lose occasionally, but you may be surprised at how
often you win the hand. In comparison to the pot odds you'll win more often than
you need to do so to break even.
Conclusion
It's important to learn how to play well on the river if you want to be a
winning Texas holdem player. While most of the quiz questions and answers on
this page are similar, they illustrate how you must view all of your decisions
on the river.
By learning how to think through each river hand listed above you can use the
same process to find the best play in most situations. Use all of the
information you can, including the ability of your opponent, how the hand has
played out, and the stack sizes, to make the best decision. The more you
practice and think about these river situations the better your long term
results will be.
