Using the Free Showdown Play

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Having position bestows an enormous advantage. But to make the most of the advantage, you have to employ what I call tactics of ambiguous aggression. You make plenty of bets and raises in position. Sometimes those bets and raises imply a strong hand, and they signify more bets and raises to come. Other times those bets and raises are bluffs or semibluffs. And other times still, the bets and raises represent posturing from a fundamentally weak hand.

The free showdown play is a terrific tool that falls into the third category – it’s mostly positional posturing. Here’s how it works. You are heads-up, in position on the turn. Your opponent bets. You raise, intending that money to be the last you put in the pot. If your opponent reraises, you’ll fold. If he calls and checks, you’ll check behind. If he calls and bets the river, you intend to fold, though sometimes that decision can get complicated. You can use the play in both limit and no limit, though it takes a slightly different form between the games. Here’s a limit example:

You have T T . You raise preflop, and the big blind calls. The flop comes Q 9 5:club: . Your opponent checks, you bet, and he raises. He plays aggressively on the flop, so the checkraise certainly doesn’t mean you’re beaten. You think he would checkraise with any pair and a straight or flush draw. You call. The turn is the 3 . He bets the turn, and you raise. It’s a free showdown play, so you plan to fold to a 3-bet, and you plan to check it down on the river.

Like any play in poker, the free showdown play is perfect in some situations and poorly-suited for others. It has strengths and weaknesses, and you should use it in situations that play well to its strengths.

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