What is a Power Jam in poker? Patrick Leonard explains
Now and then a new piece of vocabulary enters the poker lexicon, but never has lingo been so easily credited to one particular player. The player in question is Patrick Leonard. The new lingo? Power Jam.
When we spoke to Leonard at EPT Cyprus, he said he’d made “many” Power Jams, and he claims to have pulled off an impressive 117 Power Jams throughout the 2024 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), a series that saw the Brit add two more titles to his incredible resume. Almost all of them were documented in his Instagram stories, where Leonard is one of the most prolific posters in poker.
But what is a Power Jam and when should you consider making such a polarising move? There’s no one better to ask than the man who coined the name.
WHAT IS A POWER JAM?
“A Power Jam is when you bet many times the pot and usually it’s because you either have lots of hands that want to bluff, or you have a hand that wants to get lots of money in,” explains Leonard.
Here’s an example. Let’s say the cutoff opens and you defend the big blind. The flop is queen-ten-four and they bet, you call. The five turn goes check-check and there’s a six on the river, so the board reads QT456. You move all in for 10 times the pot.
“You’re going to get to the river with some hands like the nuts — like two pair, as he checked the turn so he never has you beat,” says Leonard. “But you’re also going to get there with hands like king-jack, jack-nine, straight draws, flush draws.”
Patrick Leonard playing at EPT Cyprus (Oct 24)
Leonard explains that in spots like this, you don’t want to bet small with your bluffs because you’re going to get called often, while at the same time, you don’t want to bet small with your value because you want to get a lot of value.
“You match up lots and lots of bluffs with some really strong, powerful hands, so we call it a Power Jam,” he says. “You’re powering them out of the pot, but you’re also powering for value.”
DOES THE OPPONENT FACTOR IN?
A Power Jam is an extreme move, so we wondered if some opponents make better candidates to target.
“Against some players, you’ll be able to get them to fold their entire range,” says Leonard. “But when you bet lots of big blinds on the river, they need to fold a lot for it to be a successful bluff anyway. So the idea is that they’re supposed to fold a lot so you make them fold. It makes you a bit unpredictable.”
Of course, pulling off a Power Jam in person is a bit trickier than clicking a button online.
“You have to keep a straight face while your opponent is asking, ‘How much? HOW MUCH?’” Leonard says with a chuckle.
CONTRIBUTING TO THE LEXICON
Big overbets have long been studied and applied in poker, but that doesn’t take away from Leonard’s contribution to poker’s vocabulary.
Leonard says it’s tough to keep a poker face when you surprise your opponents with Power Jams
“It’s a theoretical concept, I’ve just given it a name,” he says. “There are lots of names we make up. We had MegaMaster where you make someone fold a better hand but call a worse hand. Maybe you jam the turn and they call you with a combo draw but fold middle pair. That’s a MegaMaster.
“[These terms] make it easier in-game because instead of thinking about the theory you can just think, oh this is a MegaMaster spot. This is a Power Jam spot. It’s an easier way to explain the game to students.”
But popularising the term comes with its downsides, too. “Now people call me a lot more than they should do,” he says.
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