Planet Mark's Blog. Thoughts, News And Strategy For Poker Tournaments Of All Size

DoubleDave22 Tournament Strategy - Bet Fold vs Check Call

Catching up with a few PokerXFactor videos last night, have been a member there since 2006... though not an active one as such.

Anyway, decided to have a look at DoubleDave22's UBOC main event win. Guitar playing aside I do enjoy DD's videos and a couple of interesting points came up...

Today I wanted to mention a river betting discussion, the key 'Oh Yeah, of course' moment came from something with is obvious when you think about it - but one of those concepts which I have never explictly considered - is that bet-folding and check-calling on the river cost you the same amount of chips.

No great wonder there then, though hang on - there are often situations where this decision is close... especially when you can put an opponent on a polarized 'nuts or draw' range.

Let us start with a simple hypothetical situation, you are out of position against an opponent with a weak top pair and expect your opponent either has a busted flush draw or a set on the river... bet calling here seems to needlessly escalate the pot right - especially if you judge that your opponent will never re-raise bluff with hands worse than your top-pair and will fold busted draws.

So, what are the factors which go into making such a decision? Hey - my poker blogs have always had the objective of making you, the readers, think... so tune into ranges and probablility based on card distibutions, have a ponder on how the buy-in level (and so experience level of your opponent) factor into this decision... think about whether there are any hands which your opponent would flat call with which make sense. If you are looking for a whole bunch of strategies and poker perspectives to think about then check out our Multi-Table Tournaments main now!

GL at the tables, Mark

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