Baby No Limit, Turn And River Play:
Part I: Making Money

BY: Ashley Adams
Contact at: (Asha34@aol.com)
Author of Winning 7-Card Stud

At first glance, there are few decisions to make on the Turn (and to a greater extent on the River) in the typical Baby No Limit game. In these $1/2 blind, maximum $100 buy-in affairs, your stack, or your opponent's stack is often so short that going all-in often appears to be a foregone conclusion. That's because, as a percentage of the size of the pot, the rest of your stack is often fairly small, making a call seem automatic. Players are, in the parlance of no limit poker world, "pot committed" or "pot stuck" - and so they toss in the rest of their chips either in a�desperate�bluff�to get their opponents to fold, or because they believe that they are ahead and want to get as much money from their opponents, or because their opponents have initiated the betting and they think that they have a large enough chance of winning the pot, even if they are behind, to justify a call.

But here's something that most players in those games fail to recognize. Though there are many situations where doing exactly as I describe above is correct (usually when you're in the lead), you still need to apply some thought on these rounds - usually by understanding how much to bet when you're ahead and when it is profitable to fold when you're behind. So let me give you a basic understanding of how to approach these last two rounds in a simple and thoughtful way - to help you extract money when you are in the lead (or appear to be and can get your opponent to fold) - and to help you save money when you can.

My first suggestion for extracting money is as simple as poker instruction gets. Don't get cute! That's right. In limit Hold Em, or in the higher stakes games where players weigh your actions more carefully and usually have larger stacks to protect or exploit, you sometimes need to engage in deception on the Turn or River to win as much money as possible.� In these low stakes affairs against relatively poor players, such deception is wasted. That's because, as I explained above, players tend to just continue to throw their money into the pot, presuming that they are already committed to the hand - either on a draw or convinced that the hand they hold may hold up in a showdown.

You need to accommodate these calling stations. If you gauge yourself to be in the lead, whether or not you think they're on a draw or have a lesser hand that's already made, put your money into the pot - as much of it as you have. Don't bet incrementally based on how far ahead you think you are or with an eye to enticing them to call. Just push it all in. Invariably, if you are correct in your assessment and really are ahead at the moment you push in your money, you will win the most this way.

True, there will surely be times when you will be drawn out on and lose your entire stack. That's poker. But better to have made it as expensive a draw as possible, increasing the small chance that they will fold, than to have artificially cheapened their drawing price by pushing in some smaller bet that was easier for them to match.

Here's an example. You had A-Q suited on the deal.� You raised�pre-flop in�late position.� Two players called. An Ace flopped, along with one card suited to the Ace and a blank. You improved to a pair of Aces with a Queen kicker. The two players in front of you checked the flop and you bet the pot, as you should, on the flop. You got one caller.

The turn�was an unsuited Queen, giving you Aces and Queens - top Two Pair. Your opponent checks. You have $120 left (having started fairly well stacked since you had been winning). Your opponent has about $40 left.

Don't give two thoughts to anything but an all in bet. If he's slow playing you with some monster, well then you're trapped. But if he's on a flush draw or has a pair of Kings or something like that, he'll call you for his final $40. It's not worth the time or the effort to think about whether he'd call for a smaller amount but fold for the entire amount. If he folds for $40, but would call for $20, then let him fold. Good! You won the pot and he can't draw out and beat you on the River.� So bet that $40.

Similarly, if you had the $40 and he had the large stack, you'd play it the same way on the Turn. Throw in your final $40 with your Aces and Queens. Maybe he has a high pair,�and he'll think you're trying to buy the pot with a desperation bet on the Turn (which would be an awful play, as we'll see later).

In any event, if you have a strong hand and believe that your opponent has the lesser hand, bet it strongly and let the chips literally fall where they may.

That being said, there are, of course, exceptions, even in these Baby No Limit games. They involve situations when your stack and the stack of your opponent clearly dwarf the size of the pot at the start of the Turn. I'll treat them in more detail when I cover "Close Calls" in a later column. But leave it to say that, in general, when your stack is fairly large and you're against another player who is also fairly deep, the game resembles the higher stakes games and the size of your bet must be taken into consideration more seriously.

There's one other exception that works against weak players - the timid type who are playing with a short bankroll or are otherwise afraid of calling large bets without the nuts.� It's a bluff.� And though I usually caution Baby No Limit players to stay away from bluffs and other deceptive plays, if the situation is just right, you can use this play to your advantage -- even in a Baby No Limit game. ����

If you're in late position and your opponent is first to act you can sometimes get away with a bluff when your opponent shows weakness by checking on the Turn. This is often the case when the board is two-suited on the Flop and makes three to a Flush on the Turn.

If your opponent bet the Flop and you called, but then checked the turn, he is often indicating that he is afraid that you made your Flush. A pot sized bet will often win you the pot right there. Of course you have to gauge your opponent well. This doesn't work against a loose calling station or against a tricky player. But since these Baby No Limit games so often attract the weak tight player, it's often worth making a stab at the pot in these situations - especially if you have established yourself as a strong, tight aggressive player.

A couple of words of caution about this move. Resist the temptation to make this move with your entire stack -- if it's significantly more than the size of the pot.. A pot-sized bet will accomplish the same purpose most of the time. In these games, there are often players who view an all-in bet as a challenge. It often works, interestingly enough, as a goad - enticing them to call while a smaller bet might have convinced them to fold. So don't provoke a call when a smaller bet might get them to fold.� Keep the bet at about the size of the pot.

Also, don't feel compelled to bluff on the Turn or River when a Flush card appears on Board just because your opponent checks into you. Save this move for those occasions when you are really up against a weak-tight player and, if possible, when you have some kind of an out if you do get called down. That way, even if your opponent surprises you by calling your bluff, you still have some kind of a way of winning the hand with the perfect River card.

I'll handle situations where you can save money in my next column - and then deal with those close calls that come up in Baby No Limit. Though they don't come up as often as they do in the higher stakes version of the game, when they do come up you want to have a simple way of figuring out the most profitable way to play the hand.

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