Way Ahead Way Behind - Poker Strategy

Many times in Texas Hold’em you will find yourself in one of two situations. The first is that you have a clearly dominate hand and the likely hood of someone catching a card to beat you is either impossible or very improbable. Other times you will be asking yourself why in the world you are still in the hand because the odds seem so stacked against you. Believe it or not there are a few things you can do in each situation to either extract more money from your opponents or save yourself a few bets in the bad situations. The purpose of this article will be to show you how to play when you are clearly ahead in a hand and also how to handle those awful situations where there is no hope in sight.

Playing Way Ahead

This is a nice problem to have in Texas hold’em but you have to realize that many times you are leaving bets on the table if you don’t do things properly. Let’s look at the following example:

You have AK on the button and the flop comes KK2. You are way ahead here and the chances that anyone has anything from which to challenge you with are slim. With that in mind it could be a good idea to check on the flop here. Checking on the flop shouldn’t be done every time though. You are hoping that a savvy player with a modest holding will catch at least something on the turn or the river and pay you off. Since there is no threat to another hand trumping yours at the moment, the check is an okay move. If however you are at a low limit game filled with loose passive players, simply bet, they are going to call anyways.

Slow playing is definitely an option when you are way out in front but you have to be careful. Are you so far in front that absolutely nothing could come on the turn to beat you? If there are two cards to a flush or two connected cards on the board, it’s arguable that you are not way ahead and you need to bet to protect your hand.

Raising early when you are ahead can be an excellent idea. Because many in poker subscribe to the thought of weak when strong, strong when weak, many players won’t be expecting you to be so aggressive early on with a monster hand. Well, just go ahead and be aggressive and get paid off, most loose or passive players will call you down thinking you just have a strong pair.

Playing Way Behind

This one is a little tricky for a variety of reasons. The biggest tip you could take about playing when you are way behind is to lay the hand down and pick another battle another day. Playing from way behind is more of a situational decision than how to play when you are way ahead (WH/WB). You want to look for things that make it profitable, or a good decision to play from behind. Look for the following things:

Proper pot odds. Although your draw to completion might be a long shot, if the pot is offering you proper odds then it’s okay to play.

If you are challenging a weak opponent try to put them on an exact hand. Are they overplaying it? If so, how likely is it that you can draw a better hand?

Are you way behind on rank as in you have a pair of sixes and the aggressor has aces or are you trying to beat a full house with a better full house? Put it this way, the bigger the hand you are trying to beat, the more likely it is that more money will change hands. Chasing from behind is better to do when the power of hands is less.

Also make sure to keep these things in mind before you play from behind, in general this is a list of times where you shouldn’t play from behind:

When there is a small pot you are not getting the proper odds to complete your draw. Fold the hand and wait for something better.

If you are chasing a strong opponent you should probably just leave it alone. Their relative hand strength is much greater than that of a loose or passive player.

When reasoning suggests that few of the cards you need remain in the deck because of betting patterns that have developed through the hand.