Following Through in Poker

January 18th, 2011

Years ago when I first started studying and playing poker online then some poker authors described how great poker players had what was called great “follow through”. This meant that if they bet or raised with a weak hand that they then continued their bluffs on further streets thus presenting their opponent with even more pressure. In modern times then this has become known as firing multiple barrels and it is also the hallmark of a good accomplished player. Let us look at an example here to highlight what I mean.

It has been folded to the button who raises to $6 in NL200 and you call in the big blind with As-7s and there is $13 in the pot. The pair of you have $200 stacks and the flop comes 10c-6s-5s giving you the nut flush draw and the ace overcard. You check the flop looking to check-raise and your opponent does not disappoint you and makes a c-bet of $9 and you check-raise to $27. To your surprise your opponent calls making the pot $67. At this stage your opponent has still only placed $33 into the pot out of their $200 stack which is only about 16% or so.

This is a small percentage as if they have some sort of a hand then they may not like being blown away from the pot on the flop. Many players who have monsters will call here but one drawback of good aggressive play is that you multi-barrel bluff into the nuts on occasion or a hand that simply will not fold. This is simply nothing more than an occupational hazard and no more. Your opponent as yet is not aware that they may have to play for stacks. So when the turn comes and is the 4h then you fire another bet of $45.

If they call this bet then not only will this increase the pot to $157 but it will also leave your opponent with only $122 left in their stack. Your $45 turn bet is now facing your opponent with the prospect of playing for stacks and that may not be a very nice proposition if they have a mediocre hand which mathematics will dictate that they have a very large percentage of the time. You are simply playing the percentages here and nothing more. If the turn card does not hit your opponents range then you can make this play even more.

At the lower levels like at NL50 and NL100 then you will often run into risk adverse players who are also multi-tabling for rakeback. This means that they may not want to play for stacks if their method of operation is to play a low variance style of poker and classic set miners play this way. There is nothing wrong with this but it is vulnerable to the stronger regular players out there. So do not forget that following through in poker is a power play but you need to be careful who you fire multiple barrels against. In my opinion the best ones to do this against are decent regulars and not weaker players who are more likely to pay you off in other ways.

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