Applying Pressure
In the previous post we talked about attacking weakness but weak players will not be the only targets you have at the poker table. But even good players, maybe even players better than you will not have a hand every time. What you need to do when you play a hand is to apply pressure. Pressure pushes other players out of a hand. Pressure makes other players wary of playing against you. And pressure will build the pots when you have a big hand.
The way you apply pressure is with your chip stack. Let’s take an obvious example. You are in late position with AK and two players have limped in for 100. What do you do? Well you could fold, but we already know you are not a weak player. You could call and see a flop. You could raise. Let’s say you raise the minimum to 200. One or both of the blinds now have great odds to call and the two limpers have even better odds and probably better hands. You applied no pressure.
If you raised to 400, now the blinds need to wake up with a real hand to make the 350 or 300 chip call. Both limpers also face a 300 call and those small pocket pairs they limped with are not looking so good anymore. If they limped with AQ or AJ, you are just hoping they make the bad call. But they are faced with this bad call because you put pressure on them. Think of your chips as your foot soldiers and use them to pressure your opponents into folding and giving you the pot or making bad calls and giving you an even bigger pot.
-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #185
