Sign In

Poker trouble spots: Way ahead or way behind part 2

• 30.06.2025 7:50 pm
• Helen
• 0 Comments

In part 1, we talked about what a way ahead and a way behind state looks like.

In part 2, we look at how these hands are played, and we center on the meaning of pot control.

If you din't look at part 1,catch up with Part 1 here.

Examples of pot control

The easiest way you can make the pot idea clear and playing ahead or behind is by trying out some examples and knowing how to make use of them correctly.

In the example for a way ahead or way behind hand, we are going to calculate the two betting extremes-the folding on the flop and moving all-in on the flop.

This example is supposed to help you know the return you can expect when you make these moves with such a hand.

Your hand:

The flop:

Moving all-in

In case you move all-in on the flop, the hands that will call you will be pocket fours or pocket kings.

We can believe that the cash won from fours will be the same as the cash lost to kings over the long run.

The remaining possible hands will fold your bet.

You will definitely make very little profit from the times you collect the pot of pre-flop cash.

This is a very small long-term win with a big amount of the short-term variance.

Folding

If you fold every time you are in a state like this, you will lose every pot automatically.

The amount that you lose will be the same as that of your pre-flop contributions. This is not a big loss, but an assured one however.

Any stable loss is a leak in your game; if you have a lot of leaks in your game, you should not discontinue floating.

The teaching lies in the middle

We learned from the two extremes that we are either winning great amount of cash or losing it from picking pre-flop pots.

The middle set is a very strong hand. A strong hand such as this should give way to an anticipated return much greater than what the extremes give.

This means that the correct way to play the hand has to be somewhere.

How to play it

Before making a decision on how to play the hand, you have to know which opposing hands are the best for it and which ones are bad.

Secondly, you have to work out the probability of your opponents' hands.

In this case, the only hand which is nit good for yours is a set of kings. A set of kings and a set of fours (which happens to be the best hand for you) are both very likely.

Work out the possibility of your opponent having each hand.

Hands that are of great help to you

There are several hands that are good for you, but when you compare them to your hand, they are not strong.

Such hands include:

A-K K-Q, K-J, K-T, K-9, AA,QQ, , JJ

These hands are either strong pre-flop hands or they have joined with a flop

All the players will fold these hands with extreme strength like the moving all-in, but they have adequate equity which most of the players will be willing to see more cards.

Since all these cards are important for calling marginal bets, you can make these bets with this hand.

You are building a pot and betting a value.

Give pretty odds

The plan is you want to give people with hands like the pretty odds.

It can be pretty easy to build a good pot if they are getting 3-1 on their cash.

The other hands that have missed the board will fold to any particular bet.

Your plan with a big hand such as the middle set is to make a big pot in a way that the small hands are comfortable when they are involved.

Top pair, Weak kicker

Give out pretty odds.

Holding up the top pair, weak kicker is a very popular way ahead or way behind state.

Your hand and the flop

In this state, there are several hands that beat you and also the many hands that you are ahead of.

You are behind: A3, A7-Ak, AA, QQ, 33, Q3

You are ahead of: A2, A4, A5, KK, K-Q, Q-J, Q-T

You can see that the hands that you are ahead of are a little more than the hands you are behind.

This puts you to the middle.

Any other hand is ahead of you-if you have three outs, you are on the safe side.

If for example you play a nice middle game, you would lose cash since a lot of hands have your beat. Your hands have got enough equity that you can play with.

According to the player, most of the hands you beat will call or make small or medium bets.

The players that have got a better hand than yours will want to take out maximum value from their hands too.

Make it small by checking and betting

Most of the times, unless you have a good cause to do so, you want to be in control of the pot and keep it small by checking or betting.

Players are not willing to bluff at a small pot, they want to get rid of the risk of the bad hands and steal the pots away from you.

It also gives you the chance to bluff and make moves with less risk.

If a pot is small, then the money it uses to make a bluff at it becomes less.

Your purpose: get as much as you can

Your main purpose is to get as much value from the hands you beat as you give to the hands that beat you.

Your hand should be profitable according to the times you make a bluff with success a stronger hand into folding.

The most important thing you should always remember using a way ahead or a way behind hand is that the players who want to call a big bet are the ones you have beat.

Therefore, you want to stay away from the big pots and the big bets.

Be in control of the action. Control the pots and wait for the spots to discipline your opponents.

Find the best state for the big move

For each action hand you see the experts playing on TV, they have played 30 small, low-key pots like this.

In poker, the aim is not to make every hand a big win, but to continue making a small profit until you are in the right state to make the big move.

Poker should be a game to be played in a hurry, it is a patience game.

The players who are capable of controlling the pots are the ones who have chips left when the right state comes.

Play tough and smart and when that go situation comes, make the big move