In this episode I answer 3 listener Q’s about river calling when your gut says you shouldn’t, online rakeback, playing in capped games and practicing counting outs.

In episode 77 I showed you how to work out your opponent’s 3bet calling and 4betting ranges using 3 specific HUD stats and 3 important questions.

River Calling, Rakeback, Capped Games and Counting Outs

Question 1 from Philip (4:35)

• Checkout other podcasts like Thinking Poker and the 2+2 Podcast and the Ante Up podcast.  They all interview a ton of pros and that’s where you can really hear stories directly from the pros about their transitions.
• That terrible feeling when you make the call is often a sign that there's some gut intuition that you're making a bad call.
• The better you get at this, the more often you'll be able to get away from weaker hands on the river as well as getting more value when you know your hand is better than your opp's.  You can refer to the current series that I’ve got going with the Hand Reading Lab for more on hand reading.
• This is also a problem for others as well.  You can take advantage of this common leak on the river by going for value every time you're up against a player who can call with worse than TP.

Question 2 from Michael (7:20)

• Rakeback is basically being charged a discounted fee for playing with them.  At the end of each day's play, they'll calculate how much you paid in rake and give a % of that back to you in your bankroll.
• Capped games aren't that bad to play, but most of the time your goal will be to go for max value with your good hands and do your best to limit the field.
• I recommend coming in for a raise with very good cards only, and you can often limp behind all small pp's, many suited connectors and suited-gappers in order to try and flop a strong yourself.  These type of speculative hands play well in multi-way pots.
• Pay attention to who at the table are LP players and stations, and make sure you only value bet vs these guys; in other words, don't bluff the stations.  And, with LP players and stations, if they come out with aggression, then get out of there with mediocre hands and bad draws.
• Choose the bigger capped games over the smaller if you're rolled enough for it.

Question 3 from Wendy (13:40)

• This is great practice to do.  For getting better at counting outs, it's just a case of practice, practice, practice.  Just grab a deck of cards and deal a flop.  Whatever the cards are, there's most likely some kind of straight draw, flush draw or full house draw.
• For the second part of your question; what about “outs” that also help my opponent? This is one of the dangers of chasing non-nut, weaker draws.
• The key is to look out for this every time we’re drawing to less than the nuts.  There’s no sure way to know that this is the case, but we can look to the opp’s actions to help determine this.
• The more practice you put in the more you'll be able to count the outs quickly.  And as you practice more and more, you’ll be able to spot what cards could counterfeit your draw.  This is the kind of stuff you'll learn to watch for.
• And, if you make a hand and are worried that the villain made a better hand, let his actions from that point forward paired with what you know about him tell you if he's likely got it or not. 

Up Next…

In podcast #80, I'll show you how to count poker hand combos to aid your mathematical understanding of the game and the ranges of your opponents.

Until next time, study smart, play much and make your next session the best one yet.