I SHOULD have checked right behind Drew when I saw the flush on the board. Instead, I got GREEDY and made a stupid bet because I figured there was NO WAY he chased the flush all the way down. Drew raises my large bet by going all in, and he seems confident. I lean back in my chair and take a deep breath. Then I call, with the remainder of my stack. He turns over a 7-8 of diamonds. He’s got the flush, which beats my trip sixes.

So, he had flopped an open-ended straight draw and ended up catching the flush instead. I had played the hand perfectly right until the backdoor flush hit. THAT is when I let greed take over. I had made another bet when Drew checked to me, but I SHOULD have just checked back.

If I hadn’t let greed take over, I would have saved a lot of chips, and stayed in the game. Greed is a powerful emotion that can empty your pockets…just like it emptied mine.

But of course, you can use greed to your ADVANTAGE. Because once you have your OWN greed under control, you can learn to make positioning moves and bets based on the greed of OTHER players. You can literally COUNT on the fact that your opponents will get greedy too.

How to Dominate the Table

Have you ever lost a huge pot because you had a flush draw or straight draw and didn’t catch the card you needed? It’s happened to all of us. And frankly, it sucks. Because when you’re on a draw, you’re just ONE CARD AWAY from raking in a ton of chips. And you WANT to keep calling everyone else’s bets, in hopes that your card will pop out on the turn or river. Am I right?

Of course, what ends up happening is you have to put a ton of your chips in the middle just to call everyone else’s bets. That makes you pot-committed and if you DON’T catch your card, you’re screwed.

Not let me ask you…Wouldn’t it be WONDERFUL if every time you were on a draw all the other players would CHECK around? That way you didn’t have to risk any chips, and could bet only after you KNEW for sure whether or not you caught your card. That sure would be nice, wouldn’t it? AND…What if there was a way to STILL WIN THE HAND even if you DIDN’T catch your card? That’d be nice too, huh?

Luckily, there IS a technique you can use to make BOTH of these things happen. Let me show you how.

OK, so let’s say I’m at an 8-person no-limit table and I’m sixth to act. I’m dealt a 5-6 of diamonds. Josh comes out firing with a $10 pre-flop bet. Sarah and Derek both call. Now it’s on me. I love suited connectors; especially busting my opponents with them unexpectedly, so I jump in and call.

The players behind me muck their cards right away scared to death of so much action. The flop hits: 4d, 9s, 7d

That means I’ve just flopped an open-ended flush straight draw. I couldn’t have asked for a better flop in this situation. Unfortunately, Josh comes out firing (again) with a no-hesitation bet of $20. Sarah and Derek both FOLD this time… And the action is to me. I’m putting Josh on a high pocket pair, or maybe A9 or A7. And he’s figuring the scraps on the board didn’t help anyone, hence the strong bet. Which puts me in a tough situation.

Think about it, If I CALL, I might miss my flush or straight on the turn card. Then what? Josh will make another strong bet. What will I do then? And if I call to see the river and miss, then I’ll have just given Josh most of my chips and lost a major hand.

On the other hand, I don’t want to FOLD, because I have a ton of outs and I want to WIN this! Now let me ask you, what would YOU do in this situation?

Most amateur card players don’t think ahead, and they’d call Josh’s $20 bet. And if they missed on the turn, they’d call another bet to see the river. And if they missed on the river, they’d probably fold, watch Josh rake in all the chips, and wonder why they “never catch the right cards”.

Now a more skillful player would ANTICIPATE what’s about to happen and would probably call to see the turn, but then fold if Josh bet again. And of course, there are always the tight players who would never have played the 5-6 of diamonds in the FIRST place.

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