Obeying Poker Odds Vs. Being Deceptive in Texas Hold'em

In limit Texas hold’em, poker odds are sacred. It usually only costs you one fixed bet to see the next card, so knowing if the pot odds merit a call is crucial.

There is little possibility of trapping or bluffing, since these are plays that are quite risky, but if they succeed, can only net you one or two extra bets, meaning high risk, low reward. You need to be somewhat deceptive in all forms of poker, but smart, straightforward play in limit Texas hold’em poker is often sufficient to be a winner, especially in
Texas Holdem online.

In contrast, a successful bluff or trap in no-limit Texas hold’em can increase your stack dramatically.

This is still a high risk, but often a higher reward. In these cases, it sometimes pays to disregard the poker odds in favor of deceiving your opponent as to the strength of your hand.

Let’s say you have Ts Th. You make a raise of three times the big blind and are called in two spots.

The flop comes Td Ah 3h. In many cases in this situation, you will make a pot-sized bet in order to discourage flush draws, and maybe get action from an ace.

However, perhaps you have observed one of your opponents in the hand for several hours and know that he likes to bet “on the come,” that is, before he has made his draw. Furthermore, you know the other opponent in the hand tends to favor big cards over suited ones, and will call any reasonable bet if he has made top pair. Rather than try to force your opponents to fold or make a bad poker odds call, you may choose to check here. Your reasoning will be that if your one opponent is on a flush draw, he will bet. The other opponent will call if he has an ace, and you can now come over the top and potentially win an enormous pot. Of course, you will sometimes get called by the flush draw and lose, but most of the time you will not. Furthermore, if it is checked back to you, you can reasonably assume that your opponents do not have flush draws, and can safely bet on the turn, whether a third heart comes or not.

The above situations and others like it rely on your careful observations of your opponents at the poker tables . They also rely on your need to be deceptive so as not to give away the strength of your hand. However, it is possible to be deceptive and still respect the poker odds. If you are getting the right odds to call with a flush draw, you can sometimes call and sometimes raise, as you would with a made hand. If you have a made hand and are trying to discourage draws, you can sometimes put in a pot-sized bet and sometimes overbet the pot. As you can see, you are still playing mathematically sound poker while at the same time mixing up your game, which is a great style to have.