Made Hand Mistakes in No Limit Hold Em: Straights – Play on the River

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[Note: This article is a continuation of an earlier article covering made straights on the flop and turn, which you can read by clicking here. Some of the core concepts mentioned in this article are covered in more detail in the earlier piece]

When you make a straights on the river in NL, a lot of the variables that matter on the flop and turn disappear and you’re left with two basic questions: what are your opponents likely to have, and how much are they willing to pay for it? There are several additional questions you’ll want to consider, but those are the basics. Let’s consider a scenario to walk through the internal qq&a process.

Your Hand:

Board:

Lucky you, you made the end of your straight that left you with the nuts. To answer our first question, you need to review the betting patterns up to this point. Did anyone really jump at the ace on the turn? Did the player who lead out the betting on the flop continue betting the turn? What you’re trying to asses here is the chance that someone has two pair aces up, the strongest probable hand the board is showing right now. Obviously we’re engaging in speculation here, but if you know your opponents and their betting habits, you can usually get a pretty good feel for what hand they have. For an answer to our second question, start to factor in how much money opponents already have invested in the pot, along with intangibles such as their general playing style [aggressive vs passive etc] and how they’ve been running the last few rounds.

Remember, betting to capitalize on a lock hand is much different than betting to protect a made hand. Obviously, there are no more cards to come; more importantly the field has generally been whittled down to 2-4 players. We have a variety of options available to us now, including but not limited to:

1) Wildly overbetting the pot out of position if the flush draw misses. If your opponents are on the flush draw and miss, they’re not going to pay you off no matter what you bet. However, if they do have some kind of hand and you’ve been calling their bets the whole way [out of position] and then you suddenly throw out a wild bet when the flush misses, they may take the bait and assume you’re bluffing a busted draw.

2) The good old checkraise. I’m not a huge fan of this move simply because your opponents can simply check behind. However, when it does work, you really can wax someone simply because their bet [if substantial] often compels them to call your raise even if they strongly believe they are beat. A lot of players just can’t stand to fold to a raise – they get real attached to the money they just chucked into the middle even tho it no longer belongs to them.

3) Betting weak: to induce a bluff from your opponents or to get someone to call with a very marginal hand [middle pair and missed flush draw].

4) Betting the size of the pot or thereabouts, regardless of position: betting your hand is rarely a bad idea.

The correct choice varies by scenario, with the real key being your understanding of how and why your opponents bet and call the way they do. If you really have no clue [you just sat down in the game, for instance], I’d recommend going with standard [pot-sized] bets.

This article only touches upon a fraction of the possible scenarios involving made straights, but in summary: don’t make a habit of slowplaying straights. Instead, make a habit of betting your hand based on a combination of factors – the strength of the straight, the potential strength of your opponent’s hands, and the perception your opponents have of your hand.

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