Lee Watkinson

Have you ever seen those nature shows where scientists drag a fake seal behind a boat so they can provoke sharks to attack? The form of the helpless seal is irresistible to sharks, and they attack nearly every time. In a way, some professional poker players are like those ravenous sharks: they’re looking for easy prey. They’re searching for signs of weakness that will allow them to pick up pots with little resistance.

These pros can make life very difficult for an amateur. But there are ways that an amateur can take advantage of a pro’s aggressive instincts. One useful play is called the weak lead.

Using a weak lead, a player bets out a relatively small percentage of the pot. For example, if there’s 800 in the pot, the amateur would put out a bet of less than half – say 300. Looking at this bet, an aggressive pro may assume that his opponent doesn’t have much of a hand. He may guess that the bet indicates some sort of modest connection with the flop or even a poor bluff. The pro may look at this bet and come over the top with very little, or maybe nothing at all. Knowing that a player is on the lookout for these sorts of signals means you can offer up a weak bet when your hand is actually very strong.

Say you’re in a tournament and you raise with pocket Jacks. The pro calls behind you. The flop then comes 2-6-J rainbow, giving you a very strong hand. This is a great time to put out a weak lead. A small bet may entice the pro to believe you have something like A-K and missed entirely. He may raise right there, at which point you can decide to either call or pop it again. Or he may call your initial bet with the hopes of taking you off the hand on the turn. You can then check to the pro on the turn, and be all but certain that he’s going to bet, at which point you can put in a raise.

Note that leading will often work out much better than check-calling or check-raising. A check-raise is going to scare off the pro; he may even lay down a pretty big hand when he sees that sort of indication of strength. And if you check-call, the pro will probably check the turn and then fold to a bet on the river.

The weak lead can convince a pro to put in a lot of chips on the flop. That may be the best way to extract the most chips from a tough opponent.

Joe Beevers

There are many factors that affect your decisions at the poker table. Obviously, the cards you’re dealt often dictate whether you’ll even consider getting involved in a hand, but they’re just one part of the equation.

Once you’re playing, things like your physical state can also affect your play. If you’re hungry, tired or even a little drunk, you’re not likely to play your best, and your decisions may not be as smart. Emotion is a factor too. When you’re winning, you often feel like you can make any hand you need to win a pot. When you’re losing, however, a continued string of beats can seem unbearable. This can lead to tilt and keep you from playing at the top of your game.

Using this kind of information against your opponents is one of the keys to becoming a winning player. If you know they’re a little tired or a little tilted, you can determine if they’re likely to call a well-timed bet or bluff.

For example, let’s say you river the nuts and want to induce your opponent to put more money into the pot. What do you do? The answer often depends on your opponent, and what size bet you think you can get them to call.

One factor to consider is how well your opponent is doing in the game. Are they winning or losing? Let’s say you know a player sat down with $500 and they now have $710. This player is much more likely to call a bet of $140 to $170 on the river than a bet of $220 or $250, because the additional money pushes them through what I like to call their “pain barrier”.

For your opponent, calling a $170 bet means they’ll still be up for the session, even if they lose the pot. Calling $220 or more means they’ll be down. For many players, the psychological difference between these two scenarios is huge, even if they don’t realize it.

There are other factors that can help you manipulate your opponent’s pain barrier at the table. For example, a player who is sitting with case money (i.e., they don’t have any more money in their pocket or stored in the cashier) is much more likely to be pushed off a hand by a big bet if they’re holding any kind of marginal hand. The pain barrier becomes even more effective if you know your opponent is about to quit the game. They might have had a phone call from a spouse or be going to dinner soon; then the $250 bet in the situation above works even more often, as most players don’t want to finish their session on a losing note.

Obviously, using the pain barrier won’t work every time but, if used properly, it’s a great weapon to have in your arsenal.