| Example
6
Any time an opponent is not getting close
to proper odds against you, you are rooting
for him to call, even if by calling he has
a chance of drawing out on you. If in the
flush example at the beginning of this page,
the pot were $20 instead of $80, you would
be rooting for your opponent with the four-flush
to call your $10 bet because he is a 5-to-1
underdog getting only 3-to-1 for his money.
If he calls and makes a flush, those are the
breaks. Nevertheless, his play is incorrect
because it has negative expectation, and you
gain any time he makes it.
When you have a hand that is rooting for a
call, you should not try to make your opponent
fold by betting an exorbitant amount in a
no-limit or pot-limit game. Such a situation
came up one day when You was playing no-limit
hold 'em. There was one card to come, and
You had a straight which, at that point, was
the nuts - that is, the best possible hand.
You bet something like $50, the player to
your left called, and the player behind him
called the $50 and raised the rest of his
money, which was about $200.
Since You had the best possible hand, the
question was, should You raise or just call?
There was something like $500 in the pot.
Because the third man was all-in, You only
had to think about the man behind me. You
knew if You reraised, say, $400, making it
$600 to him, he definitely would fold; in
fact, if You raised almost any amount he would
fold. But if You just called the $200, he
would probably call.
What did You want him to do? You was pretty
sure he had two pair. Youf You called the
$200, there would be about $700 in the pot,
which would give him 7-to-2 odds to call $200
with his two pair. However, the odds against
his making a full house with two pair were
10-to-1 (there were 40 cards in the deck that
didn't help him and 4 that did). Therefore,
if he knew You had a straight, it would be
incorrect for him to take 7-to-2 odds on a
10-to-1 shot. So You just called the $200,
and as You expected and wanted, he did too.
The sad conclusion to this story is that he
made a full house and bet a very small amount,
which You paid off. Many people argued You
had been wrong to let him in rather than raise
him out, but in fact they are wrong. You had
to give him a chance to make a mistake, which
he did, because whenever your opponent makes
a mistake, You gain in the long run.
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