The story in poker is something that’s often overlooked by newer players, but it’s important to get right if you want to be successful.
When I talk about “the story”, I’m talking about the analysis of a hand and whether it makes logical sense. This can apply to either your or your opponents hand. In this guide I’ll go through two examples, from your point of view to improve your story, and from your opponents, to help you read hands better.
Firstly, to ensure your bluffs are believable you need to get your story straight. You have to ask yourself, what are you bluffing? What cards are you trying to tell your opponent you have?
Let’s say you’ve got AK, you’re down to the river and there’s no high cards, it’s a rainbow board and there’s a 4, 5 and 6 on the table. You may think to yourself that you can easily bluff your way through this if your opponent checks, that you can bluff the straight and take the pot.
However, an intelligent poker player will analyse your previous actions. If you held a 3 and a 7, or something of the likes, that wouldn’t add up to your story if you had raised your AK on the pre-flop, because you’d be mad to raise 3 and 7. So with that in mind, they see right through you and call your bluff, with you potentially losing the hand.
The same principles can be applied to analysing your opponents hand. If the board is all low cards, and when the Ace drops on the river your opponent goes all in, does it add up? Does their story make sense when you analyse their previous actions? Whether a player is tight or loose can also influence this decision, if a player is known to be tight, then it’s likely they genuinely have a good hand.
Of course there’s always a risk to follow these principles, but they’re certainly useful concepts to have in your mind when you play. Sometimes I have applied reverse psychology and deliberately made my actions look fishy to get someone to call my really good hand.
Sometimes deliberately checking, even when you have a great hand, can allure them into a false sense of security. Then, on the river, you can raise super high, and because you previously played passively, they’re more likely to call, believing you have a weak hand and just want to win the pot with a bluff.
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