| In case you’re a beginner: in poker, you do not make your money off the good hands that you’re dealt and not even off ones that the board hits you for. In poker, the money is made off the mistakes your opponents make and you manage to avoid. It’s a double edge sword, because playing it by the book may not be enough most of the time. You need to mislead your opponents, you need to keep your hands not just hidden but misrepresented.
By keeping an opponent confused, you’ll give him a 50% chance to do what you do not want him to do. By properly disguising your hands and by sowing deceit, you’ll be able to turn the odds in your favor.
So, one thing is clear: you need to have your hand disguised. If your opponent is successful placing you on an accurate range of hands time and time again, you won’t be able to make any money off any of your hands, regardless of whether they’re monsters or plain old rags.
Essentially there are two varieties of disguised hands. The first kind is the better: it’s naturally disguised. Naturally disguised hands are so unlikely to occur from the point of view of your opponent that he’ll never be able to put you on a correct range of hands. The advantages of a naturally disguised hand are obvious: you don’t have to do any work to turn your hand into one that will earn you a big pot.
Here’s an example of a naturally disguised hand: 3h, 5h in the pocket and As, 2h, Jh, 4c, 9s on the board. Now then, this hand is one destined to reap you a nice pot. You hit a flush draw on the flop as well as a gutshot straight draw. Your opponent will probably put you on a flush draw and play the hand accordingly. If he’s on a set, then you have it made. He’ll play cautiously right down to the river where he’ll see you’ve missed the flush he’s assuming you’ve been chasing. He’ll do all the value betting instead of you if your lucky too, because – quite frankly – I’m not sure if there’s a player on this planet who would put you on a straight in the above situation.
Another possibility to secure an absolutely unreadable hand is through a redraw. The above presented example could be considered a redraw too, but the truth is that despite the flush and straight draws, you do not actually have a made hand there. In a true re-draw situation, you already have a made hand on the flop.
Let’s take a look at this hand: Jd, 2c, 6c on the table, and you have Jc, Ac in your pocket. It’s quite obvious that your top pair top kicker is probably the best hand at the table on the flop. Its true strength doesn’t reside in that fact though. You also have an excellent nut flush draw there.
Your opponents may have very strong drawing hands themselves, or even a better made hand ( like a set) but you recover a lot of equity against these hands through the nut flush draw that you have. It’s a 9-out redraw which is an excellent one.
Looking at things from your opponent’s perspective (mind you that this requires at least level 3 poker thought) you’ll see that he’ll find it easy to put you on a top pair good kicker hand on the flop. What that does though, is to cloud his judgment on later streets when your nut flush fills up. He’ll still have you on your top pair good kicker and that will pretty much rule out other hands you could have.
In this situation, here are the possible scenarios: you miss you redraw and your opponent hits his: you lose a smallish pot. You hit your draw and your opponent misses his: you win a smallish pot. You both hit your draws: you take down a huge pot on a hand in which your opponent will probably think he is the one doing the value betting.
If your hand is not a naturally disguised one, you’ll have to disguise it through skillful play and by giving off the right tells. This however is a much more delicate operation.
As a cash game player, you should know that hands that you play for their implied odds value (suited connectors, suited one gappers) are usually the ones which make excellent naturally disguised hands. You should also recognize the value that rakeback and poker prop deals hold. By all means, do sign up for rakeback. It only takes a few minutes of your time, and a good rakeback deal will repay that investment in cold hard cash, almost instantly. |
