Morgan’s value bet piques opponent’s curiosity

The object of a value bet on the river is to get the maximum number of chips from your opponent when you believe you have the best hand.

Sometimes you size your bet small enough to induce a curious opponent to call.

But sometimes, as young pro Jordan Morgan showed, you size your bet large enough to convince a loose opponent that you’re bluffing.

In this hand from the 2008 World Series of Poker $10,000-buy-in main event, with blinds at $150-$300, the player under the gun limped. In middle position, Morgan found pocket jacks and raised to $1,800. A player behind Morgan called, as did the original limper.

The flop came 9-6-3, rainbow. The original limper checked. Morgan made it $3,500.

“I was hoping to take it down or get called by a worse hand,” says Morgan, who finished second in the United States Poker Championship main event in 2006. “If I get raised, I’m not really going to like it. I’d have to make a decision based on the players in the hand, but I’ve kind of established the strength of my hand and the strength of their hands just by betting.”

The player behind Morgan folded. The original limper called.

“At this point, I’m pretty sure my hand’s good because I’d expect a raise from a larger pair,” Morgan explains. “I’m thinking he has some kind of medium pair or a draw.”

The turn came the 9 of hearts, a scary card if Morgan’s opponent were slow-playing a set of 9s. “And it’s a card he can bluff,” Morgan says. “If he check-raises, I’d be hard-pressed to call. I’m either way ahead or way behind. If I’m behind, I have only two outs. If I’m ahead, he has only two outs. I just want to get it to a showdown, so I checked behind him.”

The river came the 9 of clubs.

“Now the only hand that beats me is a 9 or kings, queens or aces, and I can’t give him credit for any of those because he just limp-called pre-flop, just called the flop and checked the turn. He showed some strength in a hand where he was willing to put $3,500 in chips into the pot on the flop, so I want to make a big bet that makes it look like a bluff and gets me paid the most whenever he calls.”

Morgan bet $9,750, “about half of his stack, which I thought was about the most he would call.”

The original limper called, then mucked his hand when he saw Morgan’s jacks.

“A lot of times, people will make a medium-sized bet on the river on a hand where they want to get paid and bet big on a bluff,” Morgan says. “I wanted him to think I could have a bluff and I’d get paid the most.”