Level-Headed Thinking

My latest article for 2+2 Magazine, entitled Level-Headed Thinking, is now available. It’s about the various levels of thinking about a poker hand and how these influence river ranges.

This month, I’ve also got some bonus material just for my blog readers. Because I don’t learn from my mistakes, here’s another losing call I made against the second player described in the article:

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold’em, $6 BB (2 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Hero ($1792.75)
BB ($293.50)

Preflop: Hero is Button with As, 9d. Hero posts a blind of $6.
BB raises to $18, Hero (poster) calls $12.

Flop: ($33) 8d, 7h, Kh (2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks.

Turn: ($33) Ks (2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks.

River: ($33) 2c (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $36, Hero calls $36.

Final Pot: $105

Results in white below:

BB has 7s Ac (two pair, kings and sevens).

Hero has As 9d (one pair, kings).

Outcome: BB wins $105.

Most players just don’t bet pot with bottom pair on the river. Even if they strongly suspect they have the best hand, as would be reasonable here, they don’t expect worse hands to call, and so they don’t bother to bet for value, especially not with a pot-sized bet.

1 thought on “Level-Headed Thinking”

  1. Nice article. I usually put a note on players like “makes illogical bets” but maybe now I’ll just put Lvl1.

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