If you're in late position, you'd probably raise before the flop with the following hands ("s" is for "suited"):
AA KK QQ JJ
AKs AQs AK KQs
There are forty-eight hands represented here. If you raise with only these hands, your opponents will always know that you're raising for value and to eliminate players. They don't have to worry about your raising primarily to take advantage of your late position. Your hand will always be easy to read. Add to your late position raise list the following hands:
1010 99 88 77
AJs AlOs A9s KJs
You've added another forty hands to your list. Now when you raise, it'll be equally likely that you're raising for value or raising to take advantage of your position. If your opponents catch on, and they eventually will, they'll know that when you raise in late position, it's 50-50 that your raise is for one reason or the other.
If you add another forty hands to your list, odds will be 2 to 1 against your having any of the first list hands when you raise. I recommend this ratio based on my years of experience at the table. This mix of hands will give you the best chance of confusing your opponents, making your hands harder to read and winning you the best possible profit in this situation in the long run.
Your assignment is to decide for yourself what you want those additional forty hands to be. Take the time and effort to write them down before you go to the game. Before you read this chapter, you'd already selected what hands to raise with before the flop in late position. Now you should have quite a few more hands on that list. Here's what I want you to do: in your notebook, keep track of how you do with the new hands the next few times you play in your usual game.
Record what percent of the time these new hands win the pot for you, and modify and adjust your list as you see fit. Every player plays in a different game, and what works well against one type of table lineup may not work as well at another table. Or it may work even better! Save these results in your notes for the game so you can make a comparison when you take another sample some time in the future.
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When all of the cards are out and you're in last position, one of two things will happen. Either your opponent will check to you, or he'll bet into you. At this point you should think of all possible poker hands as falling into one of four categories:
1. Low-strength hands. These are hands that were possibly on a straight or a flush draw and missed. After the river card comes, this hand might be only ace- or king-high. It might also be a low pair that the player knows can't win a showdown.
2. Medium-strength hands. These are hands like top pair with a good kicker, two pair, and three-of-a-kind if the board is paired.
3. Very good hands. These hands would be a set, a straight or a flush that is not the nuts, and maybe top two pair if no straight or flush is possible.
4. The nuts. Obviously, this is the best possible hand. Think about how likely it is that your opponent has made the nuts, especially if making it required hitting a gutshot straight draw or a backdoor flush.
When your opponent is first and he checks to you, he most likely has either a medium strength hand or the nuts. The reason that he'd check a medium strength hand to you is that with such a hand he has very little to gain by betting. Your hand could easily be a lot worse than his, and he won't win a bet from you when you fold. Your hand could also be far better than his, and he'll lose a bet (and the pot), when you call or raise. Your hand could also be close to his in strength. Not knowing how close, he'll just check.
Why would a player check, not just raise, to you if he had the nuts? The nuts is always a great candidate for a check-raise. If he's playing cards you wouldn't expect for his position, or if the turn and river cards gave him a good, unexpected hand, he will often consider a check-raise.
If your sole opponent bets into you, he probably has one of the other two types of hands: the low strength hand or the very good hand. Why would he bet a totally busted hand or only an ace-high into you? Well, he obviously cannot check and win. His bet is a bluff.
The reason that he'd bet a very good hand into you is that he's betting for value and wants to get paid off on the end. Why make a good hand if you're not going to make the other players pay for the privilege of making the second-best hands?
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