Double Barreling fish for value and fun

In this strat post Im going to try and discuss why, and when to double barrel.

As a general rule I don't use this play early in a tournament probably not till the 100/200 level, although against certain opponents who i have played a large number of tournaments against I will use it when the situation is right early in a tournament but for the purposes of this i will focus on mid-late situations.

Firing a seccond can be used extremly effectively against weak-tight fish who find themselves just looking to make their jump up the money ladder or survive the bubble. In the middle and latter stages of a tournament double barrelling becomes much more usefull and a great way to allow you to keep accumulating chips and to change gears.

In the early stages of a tournament you should be establishing one of two images.

1) A solid TAG who plays strong hands and c-bets alot and takes down lots of pots on the flop, rarely going to showdown without a major hand.

2) A LAG who plays lots of small pots taking stabs at them to try and steal them but generally shuts down when called or played back at by solid opponents.

Both of these images can work well in helping make firing the seccond barrel more effective later in a tournamnet. Personally my standard is option 1 as I multi-table and find this route easier to sustain. By the time we get to the mid-late stages of a tournament we are starting to see the cream rise to the top. There are still some whales who have been running hot but the majority of the players fall into weak tight players who play abc poker. The weak tight players, this generally includes most of your recreational players who are just happy to make the money are the players we want to target this move against. They are the ones who are going to call the flop bet with as they have seen you bet lots of flops and think you are bluffing. Or just call then give up when they dont improve on the turn.

When is the right situation to fire that seccond barrel?

Lets look at an example. Opponent is weak-tight with VPIP of 15 and PFR of 4. We are down to the final 26 or 25 players and 18 make ITM.

poker stars $4.00+$0.40 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t150/t300 Blinds + t25 - 8 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter By DeucesCracked Poker Videos
SB: t5003 M = 7.70
BB: t12056 M = 18.55
UTG: t6134 M = 9.44
UTG+1: t2690 M = 4.14
MP1: t12747 M = 19.61
Hero (MP2): t10595 M = 16.30
CO: t10408 M = 16.01
BTN: t6218 M = 9.57
Pre Flop: (t650) Hero is MP2 with T:club: Q:heart:
3 folds, Hero raises to t900, 1 fold, BTN calls t900, 2 folds
Flop: (t2450) 9:heart: 3:diamond: K:club: (2 players)
Hero bets t1500, BTN calls t1500 We continuation bet and get called, the range of hands we put villian on here is 2nd pair or TP bad kicker, + a few QJ/JT type hands hoping to get lucky.
Turn: (t5450) A:heart: (2 players) This is a great card for our hand. If villian has a King we potentially just hit our ace. If villian has a 9 then there are two scare cards on the board, if villian is on a draw then it just got less likely to come.
Hero bets t3900, BTN folds By betting we show that we are not afraid of the Ace, and also show that we are willing to risk our tournament life on this hand. BTN folds so close to the bubble villian cannot call here without risking thier tournament and is forced to fold out all his weak or medium strength hands.

This is a good situation to double barrel as the flop is relatively draw free and it is unlikely that villian will hang around with draws for two streets as they will be so week. ie 4 outs to a straight. On a wetter board that offers flush or OESD double barreling becomes much more dangerous as villian can now reason calling the turn bet as he flopped a draw and could hit on the river.

The turn card is also good for us. It is a scare card for villian if he holds a king. We raised preflop, bet the flop, and now bet the turn when an Ace falls, we are representing a very strong hand here. The Ace is a particularly good scare card as fish think raising any Ace is good pre flop so will often put you on an ace as you raised preflop. Although any over card to the board will do generaly the higher the better.

THe key to double barreling is the representation that the flop and turn have improved your hand into one that is better than your opponents and will be better than there hand on the river. Therefor avoid wet boards, and do fire the seccond barrel on scare cards, as often a scare card for you will also be a scare card for your opponent.

Hope this helps and all comments are welcome!

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This is something that I would rarely (if ever) do. I would normally c-bet the flop as you did, but I would probably be inclined check fold the turn when a scare card like an Ace hits. You have given me something to think about. Nice post.

Agreed, nice post. I'm way too chicken to do this most times. I c-bet near 100% now but almost always back off on 4th street unless I pick up a draw. Especially since unless we're deep stacked a second barrel often gets us all in or commits us.

I have a feeling though that as I move up in stakes I'll have to step up the aggression.

I still think we can get away from our hand if he over shoves for our last 5k. I mean we have air. Any villian who is willing to over shove with air can have the pot for being a sicko IMO.

5k leaves us just enough to wait an orbit or 2 and find some good spots to play short stacked.

But saying that I do agree that a larger stack would be better suited, but then a larger stack is expected to barrel more often etc, whereas small stacks who look to be commiting themselves by barrelling generally have a hand.

Also think about if the turn has improved you're opponants range at all not just repping you're own.

Pick the opponants too, you can't just do this willy nilly, doing this against a calling station will leave you with no hand on the river in a big pot way to often.

Also, betting smaller on the flop will allow you to be more turns, if you're relatively short 30-40 BB's.

We need to think about our image too. We could be walking into a big trap here - if I am the button in your scenario and holding 99 I am raising on the flop, but perhaps our weak player is just calling especially if you have a loose image.

Whilst the example works on this occassion I don't like the play of finding myself in a big pot out of position with nothing but a draw - why not pick a more reliable situation to get half of my hard earned stack in the middle?