Waiting for the Big Bets in Fixed Limit Texas Holdem Games

Texas Holdem, Fixed Limit Poker
June 26 2008

One important aspect of Limit Holdem is that the size of the bet doubles after the turn. Pre-flop and flop bets are worth half the amount of these later bets, so when you choose to show the strength of your hand is important. If you flop a monster and get bet into, it’s not wise to raise it up right there. Instead, slow-play the hand until the bigger bets are available on the turn or river. You don’t want to scare away a guy who thinks his hand is good by raising right away. If he does decide to stick around, you want to make the extra raise bet when it’s twice as big.

This is dependent on the flop, of course. If the flop has too many possibilities for a drawing hand like 9c-8c-Qd, and you have A-Q, you should wait to see if the draw card comes on the turn before raising another bet. That will leave only the river card to come, and the draw odds will be worse for the other player than if you raised it after the flop.

This can also work during a bluff. Waiting until the bigger bets to bluff at a pot will represent that you slow-played your hand, and your opponents will give you more credit for it. This works particularly well against a maniac-style player who is betting at every opportunity. Wait until the river to raise these players and you’ll pick up lots of pots from them.

Save the aggression for when it pays you twice as much. It can be a gamble because you could allow your opponents to draw out on you, but the context of the flop should dictate where you stand on that decision.

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