Laydown
Sometimes you win even when you lose a hand.
We all know that when we miss the flop with our garbage hand played out of the big blind into an unraised pot that when another player bets, we can just fold and move on to the next hand. Sure sometimes you might want to try a bluff or a longshot draw but usually we just fold and move on. We lay down our hand.
But there is a lot more to making a laydown in many circumstances. Take for instance when the flop comes AJ2 and you were playing J2, again from the big blind in an unraised pot. You just got very lucky! Or did you? You check with your bottom two pair, hoping to trap another player holding an ace. Sure enough some one bets and you decide not to let them draw out on you so you reraise. Here is how it goes.
You: J2
Flop: AJ2
You check and into a 150 pot, your opponent bets 100. You raise to 400.
So far, so good. But now your opponent makes it 1,000! What?
Can he have: AA or AJ or JJ or A2 or 22? Or AK, AQ and be drawing to beat you or KK or QQ and again drawing to beat you. Is there a flush draw out there?
Here is the question, is the big reraise worth calling or should you just cut your losses with this garbage hand (J2) and get out of the way? Should you make the laydown? Certainly it depends on a lot of other factors we have not considered, like your read on this opponent. The point is that making a good laydown can save you a lot of chips. A laydown is not a surrender, it is surviving to play another hand.
-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #204
