In any other state, playing passively when you already have a strong hand is extremely risky. In a Way Ahead/Way Behind State, though, there’s no other way to play your cards. When does a WA/WB happen? You can only encounter this when you’re playing Pot Limit Texas Hold’em. In a nutshell, the happens when you’re either way ahead of the other players or maybe you’re way behind them in terms of what hand you were dealt with.

That might have confused you a little, and it’s not really very surprising that it did. Assessing a WA/WB state is difficult. The only way you can do this is try to guess what the other player’s hands are based on the cards that are already on the board.

For WA/WB states, you should watch out for two or more cards thrown on board which would indicate that your opponent is about to flush or flush draw. You should also watch out for cards that are connecting, or those that can give your opponent away on an intended straight or straight draw.

In any case, a WA/WB state gives you very small chance of winning or losing. It all depends on how well you can control yourself while you’re playing the game. Should you play too aggressively with a WA/WB hand, you can either end up digging your own grave, or worse, scaring your opponent away from the hand.

The best way for you to spot a WA/WB state is to consider all hands at stake. If you guessed right and there are no drawing hands possible in your opponents’ hands, you have a WA/WB state and you can either cut down your losses (with a way behind hand) or draw your opponents to make more bets (with a way ahead hand).

Tags: Poker, Poker Strategy, Poker Tips
Filed under: Poker, Poker Strategy