"They call me Chip, Part II"

Welcome back to another round of "Poker for Duhmies", as told by Jeff Gray.

"So I was in position and I raised it with A,6 sooted."

You ever hear a poker "war story" start something like that? I certainly have, and some of which were told by myself (Tim Kilbane, that is).

And how do most of them end? "Well I flopped a pair of 6's."

Ok, then what? "My opponent bet light and I called. Then I turned a flush draw."

So then what happened? "He made a huge over-bet and I called...cuz you know...I still had the nut draw."

And what about the river? "Well, I missed the draw, but rivered two pair and we got it all in."

Oh, did you win? "No, he had a set."

So, where did we go wrong? Normally, in most cases, a hand like that might actually be good in that spot...but in some cases, like the one above, you could be crushed. Even a stronger hand, such as a turned or rivered set, is not always a winner, but certainly has a helluva lot more "showdown value".

So what are we talking about here? Two words: Pot Control.

Note: For the below description, assume we're talking about a cash game table filled with at least 10 players.

For one thing, in smaller fields (such as 4 players or less involved in the hand pre-flop)...raising with  a suited/off-suit Ace-rag may not always be a bad thing (and in those cases, you might even have the best hand pre-flop with Ace high)...but in other cases, it does a lot more damage than it does good (such as a wise friend of mine once pointed out).

If you think about it, raising with a suited Ace-rag (as in 10 or worse and especially when there are more players involved, such as 5 or more) does two things: (1) by raising, you may force weaker suited hands to fold, and (2) if faced with a re-raise, there's a strong chance that you're probably dominated and it will most likely force yourself out of the action (especially if the raise is too big for you to call). Not to mention, another player could shove on top of that, ultimately making the hand appear seemingly worthless.

Now a real "donkey" and degenerate gambler may not even care about this at all, and will still play out the hand, regardless...but in order to be a successful player, a "winning" player...these are the simple things to take into consideration.

So, wait...I thought "Pot Control" mostly had to do with play after the flop has already been dealt? Not quite. True, most of the "PC" style of play relates to post-flop action...but I'm talking about it in simple terms...pre-flop...in "donkey termonology" if you will :)

Ok, enough about the crap hands like "A,6". Let's talk about the good ones, like "A,7" :)