Pro

  World Series of Poker Winner Chris “Jesus” Ferguson has been widely quoted as saying that the year he won the main event, he never voluntarily entered a pot calling. Except for calling from the small blind in unraised pots, every time he entered a pot he raised.

It may come as a surprise to you, but a large number of tournament poker players—the pros that you see every week on television, not the amateurs who take a flyer on an occasional big buy-in event—are staked. They are playing on other people’s money, and as a result stand to win only a percentage of what it appears they have won when they make a big score.

We’re getting into some very sophisticated strategy here, and it’s not something you’ll use every day. It’s certainly not something you’ll use against beginners, intermediate players, or even many advanced players. Nope, playing off your opponent’s read of you is a strategy to be reserved for use against only the most sophisticated players—and then only under the right circumstances.

Any hand that’s not leading after the flop is a drawing hand. The hand that’s running behind needs to catch a card to improve and win the pot. The leader need not do anything other than duck and dodge cards that would propel a second place hand to first place and a probable win.

Sometimes you’ll encounter a betting situation where you know your opponent cannot possibly afford to call, and you can bet and take the pot without a fight. These situations do not occur all that frequently, but when they do, it’s a chance to capture an orphaned pot with no resistance at all from your opponent.

Stone cold bluffing is the stuff of movies, the kind of bluffs James Bond would make sitting at the poker table. They are also the kind of bluffs made in big tournaments, but they are rare enough to become instant legends when they work and are revealed. When you make a stone cold bluff, you are working without a net. If you’re called, you’ll most certainly lose the hand and look foolish too.

It’s all relative in poker. Some pots will be won with as little as ace-high, while on other occasions straights will lose to flushes and flushes will lose to full houses. Even a full house will lose every now and then to a larger full house or four-of-a-kind.