Jonathan Little's Weekly Poker Hand: Would You Bluff on the River?
Poker pro and coach Jonathan Little has been producing a wide variety of strategy content for poker players for some time, including authoring multiple books and sharing videos and articles on his website and elsewhere, much of which is free to players of all levels seeking to improve their games.
Little started his popular "Weekly Poker Hand" series on YouTube several years ago, and recently he decided to switch up the format to begin featuring footage from live small- and medium-stakes cash games and tournaments.
In the episode shown below, Little returns once more to the $5/$5/$10 no-limit hold'em cash game with an additional $20 straddle at Stones Gambling Hall.
Little starts out talking about how in this kind of game in which there are lot of blind bets out there before the cards are even dealt, those in late position (cutoff, button) need to be a little more cautious when raising into the blinds given that there are more players yet to defend than just the small and big blinds.
Action begins with Baysy raising to $85 from the cutoff with 9♥8♥ ("perfectly fine," says Little). The Wolf calls from the small blind with A♦10♦, then Dan in the second straddle calls as well with Q♠10♥, and Little judges both of those calls to be reasonable as well.
The flop comes K♥2♣5♦, and it checks to Baysy who takes a stab by continuing for $105 (a little more than one-third pot). The Wolf has missed the flop, having only backdoor possibilities, but he does call. Little agrees he should stick around with his two big cards, given that Baysy is likely to continue with a lot of lesser hands. Dan folds.
The turn brings the 4♦ giving The Wolf both a gutshot wheel draw and a flush draw, and he checks. Baysy checks behind, then the river 7♣ completes the board, missing both players.
There is exactly $500 in the middle, and The Wolf quickly bets $105.
It's an interesting spot for Baysy. Little contemplates the merits of his possibly bluffing with an all-in raise here. Would you do it?
Take a look below and see what Baysy ends up doing, and listen as well to Little's analysis of the situation. Here are some of the concepts covered in his discussion:
- starting hand selection (and preflop strategy)
- flop texture
- continuation betting
- ranges and range reading
- bluffing
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,900,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. Sign up to learn poker from Jonathan for free at PokerCoaching.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
