It pays to let the hand develop

One of the most common mistakes amateur no-limit hold ’em players make is committing too many chips to pots where there is still a lot of uncertainty about the outcome. They flop a good hand, and instead of allowing the hand to develop and gathering information along the way, they try to force the action and influence the outcome.

The problem with this is that you often have less control over the outcome of the hand than you might think, and if you commit too many chips too early, you can end up in situations where you win small pots but lose big ones.

A better strategy in many cases is to keep the action modest early in a hand and let the turn and river cards — and your opponents’ plays — guide you to the best decisions.

Here’s an example where I used this principle in a $2-$5 game in Las Vegas.

A player opened to $20 from four off the button, and one player called. I called on the button with 7h 5h. The big blind also called. There was $82 in the pot and about $800 behind.

The flop came Jh 10c 3h. The big blind checked, and the preflop raiser bet $40. The next player folded.

Holding a small flush draw, some players would try to raise here as a semibluff. While this is not a terrible play, in a typical $2$5 Las Vegas game I would prefer to just call. The goal is to keep the action light and allow my opponents to react to the cards that come. I will take decisive action once I have a better read.

I called, and the big blind folded. There was $162 in the pot and $760 behind.

The turn was the 10s. My opponent checked.

This was what I was looking for. While it’s possible my opponent had a huge hand like J-J or 10-10 and was playing slow, it’s far more likely he had a hand like A-K, J-9 or 9-9, or some other hand he’s unsure about. I was going to play the odds and apply some pressure.

But, again, there was need to make a huge commitment yet. I could apply the same principle as before, keeping the action light and giving my opponent one more chance to give me information. So I bet, but I kept it small for the situation: just $70. My opponent called.

Here, my opponent could have a jack, a straight draw like K-Q, a flush draw (likely bigger than mine) or a few other hands. There was $302 in the pot and $690 behind.

The river was the 8d. This card was unlikely to have helped my opponent, so after he checked, I bet $270 as a bluff. He thought for a while and then folded Qd Js face-up.

My patience likely won me this pot. If I had pushed the action on the flop, there’s an excellent chance my opponent with top pair would have come along. By feeling things out until the river, I ended up winning a fairly big pot instead of losing one.

Ed Miller is the author of nine poker strategy books with more than a quartermillion copies sold.