Applying Leverage

[teaulc]

This summer, Bodog announced Amanda Musumeci as its newest pro after a nationwide search for a promising young female poker player. It was Musumeci’s impressive online tournament results and six-figure winnings that put her head and shoulders above her competitors. The strategically articulate Musumeci talked to PokerNews about an effective tactic she uses in tournaments -- leveraging. First of all, for those who don’t know, can you explain exactly what leveraging is? There are a couple types of leveraging. Stack leveraging and positional leveraging are two common examples. Stack leveraging can be used by either betting or raising to a size that either (a) implies and represents to our opponent that this pot is growing rapidly, and that a huge bet is likely coming on the turn and river, or (b) can be used by raising or reraising to a size that gives the illusion that you will call your opponent’s reraise or reshove, meaning that you are giving the illusion of being pot or stack committed. Positional leveraging is using position to your advantage to threaten your opponents stack and put them in tough spots. 
 Let’s talk about stack leveraging. Can you further explain in what situations you might use this tactic and how you would apply it? The point of leveraging is to represent a bigger hand that we won't soon be folding, and we do so by making increasingly larger bets on proceeding streets of play. Let’s say we’re in a three-way hand and each player has 2,500 in chips with blinds at 25-50. We raise in middle position to 125 preflop, a middle-to-late position player flats, and another late-position guy flats. The flop is dealt, and it doesn’t really matter what it is. The pot is now about 450, so we c-bet the flop about three times what we raised initially (once for each player in the pot). I think a bet of about 350 is good. One opponent flats, and the other folds. The turn is dealt, and we now have to bet large enough that we're making it clear illusion to our opponent that we're either close to committed to this pot, close to calling off to a reshove and/or that we're setting up for a big river bet or shove. So on the turn, the pot is 1,150 after he calls the flop. Your opponent should have about 2,000 chips remaining after this action. Here, we could do something chumpy like bet 400-600 on the turn, or we can apply leveraging by making a powerful bet that implies we're committed, or that we're definitely planning on going all in on the river. The bet should be about three times what we bet on the flop. In this case, the bet should be more like 700-900 on the turn. I like going with a bet of 775. We would both have about 1,200 behind if our opponent flats the turn, leaving him or her thinking that we are going to shove the river or call if they shove. It sounds effective, yet risky. It’s a strong play and can cost big chips sometimes if played in the wrong spot or versus the wrong type of player. The idea is that the pot starts small and cheap for your opponent, but you make it very large early in the hand, putting pressure on your opponent to feel like they need a nutty hand to continue in a pot of this size, at this level, and so deep stacked.

 Another common situation which we might apply both positional and stack leveraging would be if there is an aggro player to our right who opens in mid-position and we three-bet him in position to a size that implies we're probably calling a shove. We can also make bets like this postflop if they flat us. We can make bets versus our opponents that compromise enough of their stacks that they should feel you're committed to them and to the pot. It's all part of the illusion you're creating. In actuality, you likely have a hand that is rags if you're taking this line, so it's easy to fold when your opponent tries to take control of the action in an already inflated pot.

 So by using leveraging, we are basically taking away our opponents’ ability to make a play at us, so if he or she does shove against us, it’s for value and we can fold right? Also, because you need to commit so many chips to use this tactic, how do you know it is profitable? Well, since they usually won’t have a big enough hand to put their whole 2,500 stack at risk at 25-50 level, this means that the 95% of the time that they fold on the flop and turn, and we pick up good pots. Also, you can raise smaller preflop to get more weak hands involved, isolate limpers, and assume that anyone who had ace-king would definitely three bet such a small open raise, especially if there is a flatter or two. That makes it an easy fold pre for us to a three-bet. Hands more likely to flat small raises preflop are hands like weak aces, mid pairs and marginal broadways, suited connectors etc. People like to see cheap flops with those types of hands and won't usually try to three-bet pre with those types of hands, so I think their range is partially polarized when you open small and receive all flats in response to the open. Say the flop comes like ten-high. A player with pocket sevens will usually calls your flop c-bet, but if you put in a big on the turn, implying that you’re going all the way with this hand, it usually gets pocket sevens to then fold. It’s the same idea if a player hits top pair with a weak ace on the flop. When we c-bet, our opponent usually calls once. If we bet huge on the turn, he has to really consider if he wants to take an ace-weak hand all the way to river. Plus, for their stack sizes (using 2.5k starting stack at 25/50 scenario), flatting a turn bet for 775 leaving 1200ish behind isn't appetizing if you're planning on folding the river for the rest of your stack after having committed over half of it. So typically, mid-thinking players will simply give up to this strong turn bet on the turn with many of the holdings that they would proceed on the flop with. How does pot equity fit into the equation? What happens if say you turn a lot of equity with a card that gives you straight and flush draws? Then change your plan accordingly and play your nuts or draws the same way you normally would feel comfy doing so. If we bet huge on the flop with backdoor stuff, and we turn an out, and we typically check/shove or lead/call then, then just change your plan on using leveraging and instead revert to the plan of putting your chips in with your draw. Of course, it’s all player and situation dependant