By now you probably already know what the river is in poker, but maybe you are not so clear about how to approach the strategy in Hold’em cash games in this phase of the game. The river is the poker round in which the hand begins to end. It is the last round that takes place before the showdown, and it is the moment when the last community card comes to light. Therefore, it is the last chance to be able to tie a good hand.
Professional players usually deploy their best tactics here. Texas Hold’em poker, even in its cash variant, is tremendously complex, and with prize money at stake, the tension is at its highest.
From the spectator’s point of view this is very good, especially when we talk about games with spectators, but for the players this means that tells must be contained as much as possible. If not, we will be x-raying our situation to the others, putting them in a very good position to take hardly any risks.
What is the river in poker? Basic definition
Being the last round before the final showdown, here your poker strategy will be decisive. All the decisions you have made will give here a result combined with the play of the other players. And there are paradoxes that we will see below, and that you should be aware of in order not to shoot yourself in the foot and stay in the fight for the prize.
Seeing ghosts on the river is never a good synonym. Whenever we see that a card completes our play, we have to bet. Even when we have an open deck and the card positions us with another hand instead of the deck we wanted to finish. Can it be counterproductive? Maybe, since we don’t know what cards our opponents have, but the probability of being able to finish our project after having formed a hand with another card is too low to be left out at the last moment.
Strategies on the river with position (IP)
If you have followed our guides on the poker tactics to follow to play a Texas Hold’em cash game, you will have seen how much we insisted in the third chapter that checking on the river was synonymous of weakness. You have to be clear about this, because if you are taken for weak nobody will give a penny to see you on the river. Maybe you can use this to your advantage at a certain moment.
The situation will be clear if the river card has made things easy for us. In that case, we will call and they will see us on the river. But what happens if we check on the turn, even after a continuation bet? They will take us for weak and will know that the river card has not been favorable to us, or that we got scared at the last moment and we have realized the blunder.
Well, this does not necessarily have to be bad. Checking on the river does not rule us out at all. How so? The key is in the preflop: if we have selected our hand correctly before the flop, we will arrive at the river with some chances of winning with high cards, even when the last community card has not been favorable to us.
Although it sounds very filmy, choosing a good preflop hand can give you guarantees of winning on the river without community cards that are too favorable. Many players put all their efforts in the river, believing that the hand is only decided in this round, when in fact from the preflop we can begin to shape a hand that will help us to win the prize.
Now another possibility opens before us: bluffing on the river. This is extremely dangerous, of course, but it can work if you base your play on consistency. Staying firm in your decisions and showing consistency in your moves can mean that, even with an unfavorable river card, you can fool your opponents into believing that you have not just a dominant hand, but a hand high enough to make them doubt. Just by making them doubt their chances, your chances of winning will increase.
But, for this to work out well by playing position, you must play the whole hand well. Any inconsistency will uncover your play, and you will be exposed, probably long before you reach the river. If you’ve been set and they have let you get to the river is to try to squeeze you as much as possible, and by the time you want to realize it you’ll be already lost.
Strategies on the river without position (OOP)
All poker strategies based on OOP play are doomed to failure or, at least, to run many risks. The positions in poker are elementary for your play to succeed, and in cash games this takes on a new dimension. Do you have any idea what the villain is up to? Have you managed to find out if the river card has helped him? This information can come in handy if you intend to play out of position.
If we bet for value out of position, we have to bet heads-up if we think that our hand has dominated the villain’s, because the villain may consider that his hand is dominated and fear an overpair. If this happens, he may not bet, which is exactly what we do not want.
Another interesting way to face the river in Hold’em poker betting by OOP value is to resort to check-call when the projects are completed. This will allow us to control the size of the pot, although it leaves the door open for the villain to bluff.
One of the key points: failed projects. When faced with one, it is better to go for the check-call than to bet head-on. This will give the villain the opportunity to bluff.
As you can see, it is not all about knowing how to play Texas Hold’em poker, but about taking into account the positions at the poker table, identifying the traits of the villain and knowing how to take advantage of the bluffs, the perceptions of the others and the projects, even those that are not finished. Cash games have many strategic edges that we can take advantage of by playing with or without position.
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