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Reading
Hands in Multi-Way Pots
Another factor in reading hands and deciding how to play your
own is the number of players in the pot. Any time someone
bets and someone else calls, you are in a more precarious
position than when it is just up to you to call. In general,
a caller ahead of you makes it necessary for you to tighten
up significantly because you no longer have the extra equity
that the bettor may be bluffing. Whether he is bluffing or
not, the second player must have something to call. Therefore,
when your hand is barely worth a call in a heads-up situation
because of the extra chance of catching a bluff, it is not
worth an overcall when someone else has called ahead of you.
Here is an example of such a situation that came up in a small
ante razz games You ware playing. On the first three cards
You had an:
A decent hand but not a great one. The high card brought it
in, and a player called with a 5 showing. You ware prepared
to call or possibly raise. However, a player ahead of me,
who was playing tight, raised with a 4 showing. Had the first
player with the 5 showing not called the initial bet, You
would have called the raiser with your 8,5,2 because, though
the raiser was playing tight, there would have been a chance
he was semi-bluffing. But since the raiser raised another
low card that had already called, it was almost a certainty
he had a better hand than You did; and there was also the
probability the first caller had a good hand. Therefore, given
the small ante, your hand was no longer worth a call.
The same sort of thinking must be employed when deciding whether
to call a raise cold. With very few exceptions, you need a
better hand to call a raise cold than you would need to raise
yourself The simple logic of this principle can be set forth
through an example from draw poker. Let's say in the games
you are playing you decide to raise before the draw with aces
up or better. You look at your hand and find you have three
2s. You're prepared to raise, but all of a sudden the player
to your right, who will also raise with aces up or better,
puts in a raise. Now instead of raising, you can't even call.
You must fold because the chances are too good that the raiser
has you beat.
This principle applies to any games. When you have a minimum
or near-minimum raising hand and the player to your right,
who has the same standards as yours, raises ahead of you,
then his hand is probably better than yours, and your correct
play is to fold.
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