Leaving yourself an out

No Limit Holdem / Marcus Bateman / 05 May 2010 / Leave a Comment

When I first started playing Hold'em, one of the big winners in the home game I played in I always considered just incredibly lucky - until I started understanding and closely considering his game. This player would frequently seem to make a big play and get reluctantly called by someone, only to flip over a hand like a gut shot straight draw, or even ace high with a runner runner flush draw. Obviously he would often lose, but frequently he got there, usually leaving someone reeling from what we all thought was a horrible beat from horrible play

These events frequently stuck in my mind when he made them, and as I tried to analyse the situations when he made these plays, I started to see that it was actually a well calculated risk he was often taking, and the criteria he was using for making these plays teaches us a lot about the importance of leaving yourself an out when making a play.

Firstly, he would never call with these hands. He was always the aggressor, and typically only ever in heads up pots. Secondly, he would make these plays in scenarios where the opponent seemed weak and was trying to get to showdown cheaply. Finally he would not make these plays that often - enough to keep everyone on guard, but not enough that he was obviously just spewing chips any time he had any kind of marginal hand.

This player had realised long before anyone else in our game that long shot draws can effectively allow you to free roll your bluffs a little in the right spots. As these were situations that he would typically be bluffing in anyway (weakly played, marginal, heads up pots), his long shot draws allowed him to add a bit of equity to his bluff. Even a 1 in 10 shot is a useful extra bit of equity if you are deciding whether or not to make a big bet bluff, and he used this in a well balanced way to maximise his equity when the opportunity arose.

The important thing to remember about these situations is not to over do it. A 1 in 10 shot has to be considered in the context of how likely the bluff is. It is a useful back up, but you should not be trying to bluff off every pot you have a gut shot straight draw. Having any kind of out always gives you a bit of extra equity, and factoring this in to your plays can not only make a certain play +EV that would not have been before, but can also provide invaluable advertising in gaining action on future hands.

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