Extracting Bonus Value on Dry Boards
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Dry boards sometimes offer a golden opportunity to get extra value for your medium strength hands like top pair. Many players are always looking to sniff out a bluff on a dry board, and you can use that fact to your advantage if you have a hand that beats a typical bluff catcher. In particular, you can often get pot-sized bets (or even bigger) paid off on the river by hands like unimproved pocket pairs that would never, ever pay off such a big bet on a board that includes lots of high cards and obvious three-straights and three-flushes.
Here’s a hand I played recently where I used this principle to my advantage:
Full Tilt, $1/$2 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker
MP: $674.60 (337.3 bb)
Hero (CO): $207 (103.5 bb)
BTN: $411.90 (206 bb)
SB: $118.05 (59 bb)
BB: $361.75 (180.9 bb)
UTG: $400 (200 bb)
Pre-Flop: Hero is CO with T
J
2 folds, Hero raises to $7, BTN folds, SB calls $6, BB calls $5
Flop: ($21) 4
3
3
(3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks
Turn: ($21) J
(3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $11, SB folds, BB calls $11
River: ($43) 2
(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $43, BB calls $43
Results: $129 pot ($3 rake)
Hero showed T
J
(two pairs, Jacks and Threes) and won $126 ($65 net)
BB mucked 6
6
and lost (-$61 net)
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Tags: 1-2-no-limit, 6-max, balancing your range, bluffing, dry boards, no-limit-holdem, poker, river-play, value betting

And how do you play the hand if you are the one with the pair of sixes, same position, same betting sequence etc.?