"How much do you have behind?"

Boy I love flopping quad kings on someone with aces. Prime example of the proper use of the check call - I had KK in the small blind, and was prepared to chop the pot, until, that is, the button raised. I said "out of sheer disrespect for that raise, I min raise you", and I did. the BB, jokingly says "out of a GREATER disrespect for the button raise, I call". The initial raiser also called. The flop came K-K-Q, with 2 clubs on board. I checked, the Big blind min raised, the button reraised, I smoothcalled. Needless to say, the other 2 cards were irrelevant (to me, anyhow). I ended up taking the button's entire stack, the big blind having checked out on the turn. Sometimes representing a big hand isn't always the way to go (when you actually have one). If you know your opponent has a big pocket pair, and you have a set, or quads in this case, make them bet. Smooth call down till the river, when you nervously say "all-in" after some "thought". Make them believe you were drawing to a flush that never came and you're trying to bluff them off their hand.

Anyhow, as per request, I'll write a little about what it means to ask, or be asked "How much do you have behind?". When you're faced with a big raise preflop, sometimes it's a good idea to ask a player how much they have in their stack for a number of reasons. Some of these reasons include knowing how pot committed a player is, how much of their stack they're willing to throw away, getting a read on them when they answer you (IF they answer you), seeing if they're willing to talk or just lay their chips out for you to count, etc. Many players believe that actually counting out your chips and telling the inquirer the amount is a sign of weakness. It's like saying "I have $2500 left behind, after raising $1200 into an $800 pot, please don't call I'm trying to steal". More often than not, people actually telling you the amount will either count it out nervously, or count it out with confidence, so you can use that as a strength indicator. I, personally, will tell my opponent the amount 9/10 times, but then again I don't really get visibly nervous at the tables so I'm not worried about them getting a read on me that way. A good way to prevent people from reading you is to just lay your chips out (try not to let your hands shake, as this can be a sign that you're either very strong or very weak) in stacks for your opponent to count, if you know you're not confident enough to casually say "I've got about.... $5000 behind" without giving anything away. If your opponent senses weakness and they've got position (making them last to act) with no other callers, they might attempt an all-in move, potentially causing the raiser (bluffer) to fold.

Another reason I mentioned is them wanting to know how pot committed you are. If you've just raised more than half your stack, chances are you'll call pretty much any re raise they make. Other times a player will ask how much you have behind in order to know how much they can take from you, or even to see how much of their OWN stack they'll need to risk in the hand. If the player has just bet $400 of his $2800 stack, chances are they'd be likely to call a big bet on the flop, but might consider folding. They have enough invested in the hand, but could still get away from it if need be.

To sum it up, it's all about gauging strength and potential risk. A player with a strong hand might want to put your big bet to the test preflop by putting you all-in. A player with a marginal hand might fold once they know how big your stack is. I hope this answered the posed question, and I'll be back to write more about tells and the like sometime soon.

Nick