Thin Value Bets

 

Anyone who has traveled the tournament scene or frequents online tournaments from home knows that a majority of unprofitable players lack the same skills.  There are a few skills, concepts, and theories that fall into this category. The one that stands out to me most in recent memory is lacking the ability to make thin value bets.  Most players understand how to get more chips with their big hands, but what separates small winners and losers from more successful players is value betting: the ability to accumulate chips with mediocre holdings and exploiting slight advantages on the river.  There are two common spots in tournaments where I see this happening; when a majority of draws miss and when a bluffing hand turns into a hand of value.

 

The first and probably most common is when you hold a hand of value and most draws miss.  A lot of tournament players like to showdown their hand on the river to avoid being check raised off their hand or called by a better holding.  This will happen on occasion, which is why "thin" is used in front of value betting.  These are situations when we are not 99% sure we have the best hand, but it is likely that we can still get value from inferior holdings and show a profit.  

 

Here is an example of making a thin value bet on the river when the draw misses.  We are playing a heads up pot in position early in a tournament that is still fairly deep stacked.  After flopping top pair (Jd, 4d, 3h) with KsJs we are checked to, bet, and get called.  The turn brings the 9h.  Again our opponent checks, we bet, and are called.  The river is the 5s and like the previous two streets we are checked to.  Normally what I see here is players checking behind and happily showing their top pair to win the pot.  However, this is a great situation to add to our chip stack by making a thin value bet.  Nearly all draws missed (the diamond flush, all straight draws but the inside straight, and the backdoor heart flush) which all are included into our range of possible hands.  Because this seems like a spot where we missed our draw and need to bluff at the pot in order to win the hand, it is a great opportunity to get some thin value from our opponent.

 

The other situation when I often see this occur is when a player is bluffing at a pot on the flop, turn, or both and their bluffing hand suddenly becomes a hand of value on the river.  Here is an example of this type of value betting; again we are playing a heads up tournament hand in position, but this time in the later stages where we have already cashed and stacks are much shallower.  After opening QJ and getting called by the big blind both players check the 9, 7, 3 rainbow flop.  The turn brings another 3 and we are checked to again.  This time we decide to fire out half of the pot in an attempt to win the hand right now, but we are called.  A J falls on the river and the big blind, for the third time, checks his action to us.  Many amateur and recreational players are excited to make their hand in this situation and check the river.  However, this is an obvious spot to make a thin value bet.  Of course it is possible to be called by someone with a better two pair, trip threes, or even check raised by someone drawing to the straight with T8, but getting value from this hand against the rest of his calling range will prove to be profitable in the long run and improve your tournament results.

 

Making thin value bets is a skill that takes some time and experience to fully understand.  To help accelerate this learned ability pay close attention to the game, read forum posts, watch videos on the subject and always be looking for situations like this to occur.  Critique your own play on the river as well as those players at the table with you and find spots to begin making profitable thin value bets.