10-20 hand

Playing 10-20 in Edmonton at West Ed Mall. It's late and everyone is tired and on tilt.


I get As9s in midposition. I raise (and I raise this infrequently here btw). Only the SB defends and we take a flop.


567 all different suits.


I get an immediate tell on the SB--he has nothing. He checks and I bet expecting to pick it up here. I didn't see the flop before betting as I was looking at SB who was staring intently at the board. He checkraises me. I look at the board now and I reraise. He calls.


Turn is a 4 of the 4th suit.


I get the same tell from him, but he checks and calls.


River is an Ace.


I'm not looking at any particular tells from SB. I've improved so I'm expecting to take down the pot whether he calls or not.


Now he check-calls the river and shows AhTh with one heart on the flop.


So here are my questions. I've been making these type of plays purely based on my judgment of what the opponent thinks of his hand often lately. I find I'm pretty accurate but sometimes get smoked like this hand. And it fits a pattern--I know my opponent has nothing, but my nothing is a little worse and he calls down and takes the pot. It surprises me and puts me on tilt every time. (I took a good 10 minute walk after this hand to think about what happened to work off the tilt). Now, what adjustments would you make to your basic strategy if you feel you have insight into your opponents hand? Will you now bet only for value or try to bluff your opponent off his nothing hand (like I do)? What would your thinking be behind your adjustments?

On this particular hand, if your opponent had nothing, then he has 2 overcards and will most likely not fold to your flop bet both because of his overcards and because he puts you on nothing as well. A better strategy on your part might be to check behind on the flop, which might induce him to bet the turn, in which case you can raise.


Here you lost with A-9 to A-T. Such a loss should not have put you on tilt. You thought he had nothing when the board was 7-6-5-4. Now an Ace comes on the river and you bet. What did you think he had to call your river bet with that you could beat? I can't think of anything.


Of course, if an opponent is calling you down most of the time, trying to bluff him out will not be too profitable. Value bets will be. A game where everyone on tilt is also not one in which you can expect to buy many pots.

I can see why you think the guy played it wrong, but I don't think he played that badly. It turns out he had the better hand. You only have 7 outs to beat him (the three 9's, and the 4 8's). He will win win any other cards. You can argue that he should have put you on better kickers, but why should he? You could easily have something like KQs or KQo, in which case he's winning.

I might play it the same way you did (though, I probably would have folded this hand, or limped in). I'd definately bet on the flop most of the time. I might bet on the turn to see if I take advantage of the scare cards. I would not have bet the river.

Well, I want to thank Andy Fox for more or less addressing my question.


If anyone else had read my post they would have noticed that I wasn't looking for help with this particular hand.


I was looking for an answer that would suggest what I can do if I think both me and my opponent have nothing, and I know it but my opponent cannot. Or maybe how frequently I should bluff my way through, if at all. Or can I use these type of reads only to make the tough folds. Or any other way I can use these reads to augment basic strategy.


I think it's a general problem with these forums that you people are not really reading the post before replying.