This month we again feature one of the best 6-max and heads-up limit hold’em players in the world – and former instructor at Stoxpoker.com – Bryce “Freedom25” Paradis. Bryce has made more than $3 million online, made more than 100 instructional videos and spent years crushing the high-stakes limit games against many of today’s top pros. These days “The Bryce” lives in Edmonton, Alberta, and continues to focus on his instructional limit videos at CardRunners.com, and his private coaching. He answers readers’ questions again this month.

Q: When holding Q-Q or K-K in a limit hold’em game with a raise and a reraise in front of you, does it ever make sense to simply call hoping to conceal your hand strength?

A: Generally, no. You won’t be able to trap anyone between yourself and the three-bettor on the flop. If there are loose players behind you you’ll want to make sure that they pay as much as possible to see a flop with mediocre hands. Unlike no-limit and pot-limit games, the late street plays don’t involve much more money than the preflop plays, and so it is rarely worth giving up an edge while you have it for an uncertain gain later on.

Q: I usually play $50 no-limit and $100 no-limit hold’em online. How important is it that I mix up or ‘balance’ my play so that my opponents won’t be able to exploit me easily?

A: It’s almost certainly not important. Mixing up your play is only useful if you think it will affect the way your opponents play against you – you don’t want to be mixing it up just for the sake of it. If you find yourself thinking, ‘I never call in this spot, I should call sometimes just to be more balanced,’ remember that while it may be true that you never call in this situation, your opponent has no idea what you’re doing as an individual. He only understands that you are another player and even if he is intelligent, the best he can do is make choices based on what players like you do in general. You should only start mixing things up against intelligent, observant opponents with whom you’ve played many hands and only in situations that you encounter together quite often (your opponents will never figure out what you as an individual do with all your hands in situations that seldom come up).

Q: In a live $10-$20 limit hold’em game, an aggressive player raises from three off the button and I call in the big blind with 5-6 suited. The flop comes A-Q-6, giving me a flush draw, and he bets. When I think someone is trying to steal my blind I usually raise in spots like this as a bluff, but since he raised from middle position I’m not sure what to do since I expect his range to be pretty strong.

A: When you raise with a strong draw like this as a semi-bluff, you not only win your extra bet back the times you make your draw, but you also win the extra bets you force him to pay early on. This makes bluffs like this very cheap compared to bluffs where you have no chance to win the pot if he doesn’t fold, and the stronger your draw the cheaper it gets. While you won’t want to raise here if you think it’s hopeless, it’s probably worth raising the flop to see if he folds, and then checking the turn if he calls that raise. You’ll be spending at least one bet to call if you don’t raise, so the bluff doesn’t commit that many more chips.

Q: What is fold equity?

A: When players talk about “fold equity,” they’re referring to your chance to win the pot without a showdown. For example, if your opponent raises with J-10 and you reraise with 10-9, you will have significant fold equity if your opponent calls intending to fold any flop that does not give him a strong hand. While he would win the majority of pots if the betting stopped and the pot were checked down, you’ll win the majority of pots because he will be folding so often to your aggression.

Bryce Paradis produces instructional videos for CardRunners.com and offers private lessons to limit hold’em players. He can be reached at paradispoker@gmail.com.