Betting weak hands on the flop in limit hold’em

Poker isn’t always about hitting and flopping big hands and having them paid off. Poker as it is portrayed in the movies isn’t realistic and most of the time you are spending your time folding and deciding on what to do in marginal situations. These types of marginal situation crop up all the time in poker simply because it is so difficult to make huge hands.

Often though your hand will be weak given the collective nature of your opponents hands. Let us take a look at an example to see what I am talking about here. Two players limp in and so do you with the As-7s, the small blind completes the bet and the big blind raps the table.

So we have a five way pot and the flop comes Q-8-7 giving you bottom pair. It gets checked around to you on the button, what is your play? Many players would bet here but I wouldn’t. Collectively the chances of you having the best hand are slim as many players at the lower levels call with a far greater percentage of hands than they would actually bet with.

If the small or big blind have a hand like Q-3 and are in check calling mode then you could go for several big bets here by the end of the hand. Also you could get check-raised if you bet and you would then be forced to call the raise based on your five out hand. Also your bet on the button looks like a bet that is trying to pick up the pot. This wouldn’t be a good play in limit but the point is that many of your opponents will view it that way.

Players will call with all sorts of hands like middle pair and top pair weak kicker and straight draws. If you fail to improve on the turn then betting the turn against several players would be a mistake and especially at the lower levels. Do not bet in situations where you are allowing your opponents to make good calls.

Another way of looking at this would be to not let weak calling stations become better players simply because you are being overly aggressive and are merely betting into their strengths. So do be aware in limit hold’em that multi-way pots combined with marginal hands does not always mean that betting is correct even when all of your opponents have checked.