Keeping opponent in the game can pay

This hand is from a $1,500-buy-in event I played at the World Series of Poker this summer in Las Vegas.

With blinds of 100200, I raised to 500 out of my 20,000 stack from early position with Jd Js. A tight, aggressive kid who was down to 5,000 in chips after losing a big pot on a coin flip called from middle position. A loose, splashy player with 20,000 called from the big blind.

The flop came 10d 5s 2h. The big blind checked, and I bet 700 into a pot of 1,600.

I like a bet of this size because it allows both of my opponents to stick around with a wide range of hands that I crush. But only the tight, aggressive kid called.

My bet size was significantly different from what many amateur players would choose. Instead of making a bet that can easily be called, they bet huge, hoping to make their opponents fold their “drawing” hands. If the opponents fold hands such as 5-4, they are folding correctly. By making a bet that can be called by inferior hands, I extract value and allow my opponents to make errors. Remember, you want to induce your opponents to play poorly.

The turn was the 8c. With my opponent sitting on a stack of 3,775, I bet 1,100. My opponent called.

It’s vital that you pay attention to effective stack size when determining how much to bet. In this situation, I wanted to size my bet so that I could go all in on the river for less than the size of the pot while at the same time not making my opponent feel “obviously committed” on the turn.

If instead I’d bet 2,300, my opponent would have had only 1,475 remaining in his stack going to the river. This would likely induce him to fold many hands that I crush on the turn. If I had bet 600 into the 3,075 pot, my opponent would have had 3,175 in his stack going to the river. My opponent’s turn call would be profitable with any made hand, even if he was drawing thin, because of his amazing pot odds. (If I had bet 600 on the turn, he would only need to win 14 percent of the time to profitably call.)

The river was the 9d. I decided to go all in for my opponent’s entire 2,675 stack, thinking he would call with many made hands that I beat. After about three minutes of thought, my opponent folded.

Looking back at this hand, I don’t like my river bet. Note that I would have lost to all slow-played hands. I also would have lost to a stubborn 9-9 or 8-8. My opponent might not have called on the river with a hand like Q-10, assuming that I must have a better hand to have valuebet on all three streets. It’s also difficult for me to come up with many hands that I beat besides A-10, K-10, Q-10 and J-10.

While I didn’t love any of my options on the river, I think it would have been better to check and hope that my opponent would either turn a hand like A-Q or 7-7 into a bluff, or valuebet thinly with a hand like Q-10.