Winning Poker: 3 Ways You’re Leaving Money on the Table – CardsChat.com

Its 2am and your session is over. You sat down eight hours earlier and now youre ready to leave. You rack up your chips and have exactly $595. Considering you bought in for $300, youre leaving up $295. Good for you. You pick up your rack to go, and notice that youve left three green chips: $75. No matter. Its only money. You just leave it there.

No poker player has ever done that, ever. Even so, otherwise thoughtful players may often leave money behind on the table in almost as obvious a manner and give it no mind. Here are the three ways they do this:

The game is $2/5 No-Limit Hold em and youre up against a calling station. Youre the button and hes the cutoff. Its a loose game and youre holding Q Q. There are two callers in front of you, including the calling station. You raise to $20 and everyone folds except the villain, who calls. The flop is J T 3.

The villain checks and you bet $25. He calls. The turn is the 3. The villain checks and you bet $60. He calls, again. The river is the 9. The villain says, Just heads up? and checks. You think maybe hes checking a straight, setting up a check-raise, and so you check as well and show down your hand.

Youre leaving money on the table.

You should have bet probably quarter to half pot. Your opponent might have had nothing and folded, or he might have called with some smaller hand. Given how the hand was bet and your read of him as a player, he almost surely doesnt have a winner.

Sure, he might be setting up some check-raise play with a monster, but you cant always be afraid of monsters under the bed. Poker is a game of probability, not certainty. Its much more likely that he has a jack or a 10 or, even worse, and would have called your bet on the river. Otherwise good players fearing the worst sometimes avoid betting on the river just so they wont bet and lose. But, that failure to value bet and win that money is a big hole in their game. Dont leave that money on the table.

You have a great table and the stacks are deep. Three of your opponents are fish who have seemingly bottomless pockets, and who keep reloading. Theres no one noticeably better than you, and youre playing a great game. Filled with confidence, youve been running over the table. Youre up $1,100 and feel like you can practically read your opponents hands. Even so, you start worrying that youll lose back your winnings and are at what you think is probably the high point of your night.

Youre hardly ever up $500 and here you are, up $1,100. Your winning cant go on forever, you think, so you leave while the going is good to lock in your win. And again, youre leaving money on the table.

Sure, youre up, and up a lot, and leaving now will guarantee you have a lot of extra coin in your pocket. But, if you want to be a long-term winner, you cant think like that. Poker is one long game and this individual session isnt what matters: the next time you play, youll probably find the conditions arent so good.

Ive youre feeling on top of your game and the conditions are perfect, theres no good reason why you shouldnt continue to have a large edge over your opponents and keep making money. The deck doesnt know that youre winning, and your opponents may well be intimidated and more easily manipulated than if you were an unknown player or have been losing.

Keep playing while you have this big edge in this great game. If you leave now, youll be leaving money in front of other players that might well have ended up with you.

You brought $1,500 to a $2/5 game only to get slammed in your third hand, losing your initial buy-in of $500 to a set when you had top two. It happens.

So, you buy in again for another $500, but the guy to your left is picking you apart as if he can see your cards. He three-bets you so many times your head is spinning and, before long, youve rebought and are down to your last $200. Youre feeling seasick and demoralized.

You post the big blind and see you have been dealt 9 8 your favorite hand. Unfortunately, the pot is four-bet when it gets to you: $15, $40, $200. You have exactly $195 left and you figure, Hell, Im already in for $5. Ill win this hand or go home. So, you call.

Youre leaving money on the table.

In all likelihood, you just left your last $200 on the table. Sure you may win, but youre drawing very thin, arent getting sufficient pot odds, have no implied odds if you somehow hit your hand, and youve let your emotions get the better of you. The $200 at the end of your session is worth exactly the same as it was on your first hand when you never would have called in this situation.

Rather than call, you should have given up on the hand, recognized that you werent at your best, and taken your remaining $195 and gone right home. You could lick your wounds and come back another day, $195 richer than if you left it on the table for the probable pot winner to enjoy.

When you cash out at the end of the night, you surely wouldnt leave behind three green chips so, why do so by failing to take the right betting action? The money you leave on the table is money you can otherwise add to your bottom line.

Written by

Ashley Adams

Venerable grinder, 7-stud enthusiast, host of "House of Cards Radio" and author of Winning Poker in 30 Minutes a Day (D&B Publishing, 2020).

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Winning Poker: 3 Ways You're Leaving Money on the Table - CardsChat.com