Situation 2: The second favorable situation arises when I have suited connectors in the blinds, because I get in for a discount. In other words, calling two bets in the big blind amounts to calling just one bet, since it was I who posted the first bet in the blind.

Situation 3: The third situation involves messing with other players' heads and making myself more unpredictable in other players' eyes. In this situation, I'll make it three bets over the top of someone who I think is raising the pot with a weak hand in front of me. I may three-bet (reraise) a jackal when I'm on the button with 0-0 in order to try to steal the pot from him.

If I am able to take the pot away, by forcing everyone to fold, then I'll just place my winning hand facedown. But if I get caught bluffing, then I'm more than happy to show the whole table my hand and say, "Six high." When the other players realize that I reraised with 0-0 before the flop, then I can expect to receive a lot of extra action for a while! After I've shown down six high once or twice, then it's time to play the top ten hands only, for a while, and wait for the players to give me their chips. They'll still be thinking that I have nothing (six high!), but I'll be showing them some real hands for a while. This pattern tends to keep many players off balance, and eventually they may decide they don't want to mess with me.

• Poker – Playing Suited Connectors (0)
• Three Limit Hold Em Poker Situations Appropriate For Playing Suited Connectors (0)
• Poker – Jamming The Pot (0)

Situation 1: One situation conducive to playing these hands is when someone has raised and two or three players have already called in front of me. Here I'm investing two bets with at least three other opponents. In this situation, I like to have at least 5-6 suited or higher. I don't see much value in 2-3, 3-4, or 4-5 suited: the pairs, straights, and flushes these hands might make are all too low. To show you what I mean, if I'm playing a hand like 3-4 suited, I'm hoping to make a straight. It's not that I object to making a flush, but mine would be the worst possible flush, and I could easily lose to a higher flush. So I'd rather make a straight, but unless I hit the hand absolutely perfectly with A-2-5, my straight is probably going to be on the low side of what's available.

For example, if the flop comes 5-6-7, I have indeed made my straight, but I'm vulnerable to people who are playing higher suited connectors: 8-9 just buries me, 7-8 gives my opponent top pair with an open-ended straight draw that can easily beat me, and both 5-6 and 6-7 leave me vulnerable to losing to a full house. Someone with pocket eights will be trouble, too. But if my suited connectors are a little higher, I'm not quite as vulnerable to losing a big pot. I'm not going to hit a suited connector hand too often anyway, and when I do hit it, I want to be reasonably sure I'm going to win with it.

Playing suited connectors, I'm hoping to hit the flop pretty solidly; if I don't, I just surrender my two previous bets on the flop and fold the hand. I'm also prepared to jam the flop if I think I've flopped the best hand, in order to protect it.

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Now that we're contemplating advanced play, we'll add suited connectors to the mix of hands that you'll sometimes play before the flop. Notice that I said "sometimes." There is very little advice in the way of "always" or "never" when one reaches the advanced strategy concepts in Hold'em.

Generally, in order to play suited connectors, you need to have multiway action (at least three players in the pot). Generally, you don't want to call three bets with these types of hands. Nor do you want to play these kinds of hands too often. The best time to consider playing suited connectors is when you decide to reraise (three-bet) someone you feel is weak, before the flop, in the hope that you'll be taking the pot away from this player later in the hand. Stealing the pot with these suited connectors is quite similar to the concept of stealing from the blind stealers.

The problem with playing suited connectors is that they don't win the pot very often. You might, for example, play or 0-(5] and hit a hand that will just get you into a lot of trouble. You might make top pair or second pair or even a flush and still lose a big pot. So the best way to play these kinds of hands is very carefully! If you're an advanced player, you understand that it's very difficult to fold the 0-[3 when the flop comes down 2-6-7. If you're trying to play suited connectors, you have to learn how to fold them at the right time. This takes finesse, skill, and, above all, reading ability.

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Take note: because the concepts presented in this chapter are both subtle and complex, the beginning or intermediate player really shouldn't race right out to try them in serious games. Successful application of these concepts involves not merely knowing and understanding them but possessing the judgment to know how and when to apply them.

Your typical megalomaniac player (a jackal type) may well appreciate advanced limit Hold'em theory more than most of the rest of us. Which is to say, when using advanced limit Hold'em theory, you can often find yourself skating on very thin ice. Pursuing play in this fashion is often thrilling and dangerous, both to the user's opponents and to the user himself!

In this chapter I'll show you how to reraise opponents who are stealing blinds. Essentially, I'll teach you to steal from the stealers! You won't quite be Robin Hood, because while you'll be stealing from the rich, you won't be giving the plunder to the poor: you'll be adding it to your own stack.

We will also talk about adding "suited connectors" like 0-0> and S~S to tne m^x °f hands that you can play
before the flop. We'll talk about reraising people with nothing, in order to bluff them out. We'll talk about trapping and check-raising opponents, and more.
In this chapter you will learn:

I How to play suited connectors.
I How to use suited connectors to "advertise."
I The "fire up the table" strategy applied by Spencer Ouren.
I How to steal from the blind stealers.
I How to trap with big hands: the John Bonetti story.
I How to play advanced Hold'em on the flop: anything goes!
I Having position is always good.

All these advanced concepts should be used with great caution. Most of them shouldn't be used by anyone other than the top pros, because most of them are highly "read-dependent." In other words, when you've advanced to the stage of your poker career when you're able to read your opponents well, then your chances of using these concepts successfully will be greater.

• Three Limit Hold Em Poker Situations Appropriate For Playing Suited Connectors Part2 (0)
• Three Limit Hold Em Poker Situations Appropriate For Playing Suited Connectors (0)
• Poker – Playing Suited Connectors (0)

In the discussion of beginners' strategy for the top ten hands on the river (Chapter 3), I advocated making a lot of calls on the river, because of the large size of the pots with the top ten hands. In other words, the "pot odds" are there for you to call on the end with a top ten hand. This thinking is still somewhat applicable here, but now we're dealing with some weaker hands. Often, in my advice to beginners, my examples would have you in the lead with a strong hand (you're the bettor), and it would be your opponents who were calling you down. Now, with the weaker marginal-play hands, you will often be calling your opponents' bets.

Sometimes, situations will come up where you're calling someone down with your A-3 (calling all the way to the end) and a board of 0-0-0-0, and then the last card is 0 and someone else bets into you as well. In this case you were calling just one opponent, whose hand probably had your pair of aces with a weak kicker beaten. Now, when a third party bets out into both of you when the flush card hits, folding your hand would seem to be the wise move.

But you may also end up with A-10 and a board of 0-0-0-0, and then see the river produce 0. Now what do you do? If there had been a lot of action on the flop here, then you were probably playing against either a spade flush draw, a straight draw, a pair of jacks, or an overpair. With 0 on the river, you can now beat only the flush draw, assuming that the flush draw didn't have a Q with it. The point is that you may have already been in trouble with the A-10, but with this last card and two other opponents still in the action, you shouldn't even think about calling on the river. Again, playing the marginal play hands, as opposed to the top ten hands, may put you into some bad situations when it's time to ponder calling on the river.

You're still getting pot odds to call someone on the river— the payoff could be huge—but if you can make four or five prudent and well-timed folds a night, that will add up to some serious money by the end of the year! Learning when to call with your marginal-play hands on the river, or fold them, will become clearer as you gain experience.

Whether or not you make a call on the river depends entirely on how you read the situation. Reads, reads, reads, and a little "pot odds" math should be your guide. (I showed you how to calculate the pot odds earlier, on pages 62-63.) Only through practice will you be able to make good decisions on the end. Pay attention to how often you're right and how often you're wrong with your calls on the river. Was there a good reason that you called? Did you read your opponents well? Keep in mind that the idea is to constantly improve your reading skills along the way.

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• Three Limit Hold Em Poker Situations Appropriate For Playing Suited Connectors (0)
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When you're involved in a big multiway pot and there's been a lot of raising on the flop, watch out for indications that the drawing hands have hit on fourth street. Suppose you have 6-6 and the flop came down On the flop you have three opponents all putting in some bets. Still, you're pretty sure that your hand is the best hand on the flop. But what if the worst possible card for you comes off on fourth street? Then what do you do? To me the worst possible card here is [V]. If [V] comes off the deck, then the straight draw (any five in your opponent's hand), the flush draw (two diamonds in an opponent's hand), and any ace (like A-K or A-4) all get there and beat you. If this card comes off of the deck, then you'd better look to exit stage left immediately.

When you face a situation like this, ask yourself, "What are they holding that's driving them to put all this money into the pot on the flop?" Probably straight draws, flush draws, pairs, and ace high. Folding your hand on fourth street wisely when the draws appear to have been hit is considered an art form.

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• Three Limit Hold Em Poker Situations Appropriate For Playing Suited Connectors (0)
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This is the counterpart of the example of slow-playing given above. Sometimes, when you hold the nut hand, you just need to jam the pot on fourth street, in order to make the pot as big as it possibly can be. But it's hard to know the right time to jam the pot, rather than smooth-calling someone else's bet. Generally, it depends on whether someone has bet right in front of you or not. If someone has, then you usually want to smooth-call the bet. But if someone has bet and several others have already called that bet, then it's time to go ahead and raise it up.

Protecting Your Hand with a Raise

The principle of protecting your hand by way of a raise is also very important in Hold'em. ("Protecting your hand" is all about making raises when you have a strong hand, so that you can eliminate players, thus giving yourself a better chance to win that hand.) It can mean the difference between winning and losing a pot. Suppose that you have [*J-p*1 (A-x suited), and garner two pair with 0-[jV]-|3 on the flop. Now on fourth street 0 comes off the deck for 0 -0 _[3 "S • Someone now bets into you, and you just call the bet. But because you just called the bet, you let a jackal in with K-Q, and he hit a J on the end to make a straight.

Clearly, even the jackal would have folded his "belly buster" (inside-straight draw) for two big bets; but for just one, he was able to dream about a jack and convince himself that hitting a king or queen might win also. Because you didn't protect your hand here by raising, you wound up paying the ultimate price in poker; you lost a pot that you should have won.

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• Three Limit Hold Em Poker Situations Appropriate For Playing Suited Connectors Part2 (0)
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