4 - The Poker Puzzle by Oliver (Improva) Marx.pdf

7/25/2019 4 - The Poker Puzzle by Oliver (Improva) Marx.pdf

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Contents

FAQ 8

Perceived strength and honesty 10Scare cards 12

Points of honesty 12

Exercises 14

The continuation bet 15Let board texture be king 16

Final notes 17

Exercises 18

Ranges and bet sizes 19Actual strength of range and bet size 21

- The Value Bet Conjuctures 23

- The Blu Catching Conjectures 23

- Posi onal awareness 24

Words on balance 24

Range types and their behaviour 26Elas c and inelas c ranges 26

- To blu or not to blu 28

- The Elas city Conjectures ( TEC) 28


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Capped range 30

Exercises 32

Dry flops as the preflop raiser 33When our perceived strength is good or be er 33

- Strong made hands: TPGK or be er 34

- Made hands: TPNK - strong 2nd pair 36

- Weak made hands and air 37

When our perceived strength is okay or poor 38

- Strong made hands: TPGK or be er 38

- Weak made hands and air 39

Wet boards as the preflop raiser 41

The Plans 42

- Versus aggressive players 42

- Versus passive players 44

- Versus good players 45

Blu ng when a draw gets there 46

Exercises 48

the preflop calling range 49

In position as the preflop caller 51 - Fit or fold players 51

- Players with a polarized c-be ng range 51


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Blu raising 51

Exercises 53

Out of position as the preflop caller 54The donk 55

Donking the turn 57

Check-raising the op 58

Check-raising the turn 58

Exercises 60

Fine tuning the 3-bet 61A star ng point 61

- General comment on bet sizing 62

- A word on trash 62

- Possible adjustments 62

- Things to consider 63

Players who fold a lot to 3-bets 63

- Bet sizing 67

- Pos lop play 67

Players who call a lot of 3-bets 67

- Bet sizing 68

- Pos lop 68

Exercises 70


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Defending against 3-bets 71

4-bet blu ng 71

Calling 3-bets 72

- Adjus ng to the situa on 72

- Pos lop play 73

Exercises 76

Developing Reads 77VPIP and PFR 77

Flop and turn 78

- Low c-bet percentage 78

- High c-bet percentage 79

Check-raise tendencies 80 - Players with a balanced check-raise range 81

The River 81

Taking Notes 82

Exercises 84

The Cinema 85 - Playing as the pre op raiser 85

- Adjus ng the pre op calling range. 86

- Playing 3-bet pots 87


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FAQ Can I copy the book?

The short answer is no.

Can I print the book?

Yes, in as many copies as you would like to.

I have heard the book comes with coaching. How many hours?

Two.

What if I want to get more coaching?

Additional coaching will be arranged on a case by case basis.The main problem is that I have limited time.

I dont need any coaching I just want the book. Do I get a dis-count?

No.

Why is your book so much cheaper than some of the otherpoker books?

Because I prefer to ask a price that I personally think is fair.

Will you update the book?

Yes, as often as possible?

How do I get the updates?

I will announce them on thepokerpuzzle.com and ondeucescracked.com. The updates are free for at least 6 months.

I expect to update the book on a monthly basis.

What will you update the book with?

All new poker knowledge that my readers ind relevant will indits way into the book.

Updates are going to be driven by requests from the readers.


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Where can I get the lastest version of this book?

http://thepokerpuzzle.com/member_area/ send me an emailand ask for a username password.

Do I need to be a member of deucescracked.com to buy yourbook?

No, but if you are serious about your poker game you should.


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10Perceived strength and honesty

Perceived strength and honestyA fundamental question - if not the fundamental question - we have toask ourselves in poker is: Why do people fold?

DPerceived strength ~ actions + texture + position + image + level

AWhen we bet, raise or re-raise our perceived strength goes up. Thepre lop raiser is perceived to have a stronger range than the pre lop

caller.

Texture

If we are the pre lop raiser and there are high cards on the lop, ourperceived strength goes up.

PEarly position adds to our perceived strength since we are expectedto raise with a stronger range of hands.

Image

If we have been c-betting a lot and have been caught bluf ing our per -ceived strength goes down.

Level

If the villain knows that this is a bad board to c-bet as a bluff and westill c-bet our perceived strength actually goes up.

So, based on our actions, the board texture, our position, our image andvillains level we can in a sense cal culate our perceived strength. Thebetter our perceived strength, the more plausible our line looks.

Perceived strength is the strength of our perceived range.

Obviously it is not easy, if at all possible, to make any exact calculati onssince we have incomplete information, so estimates will have to do.

You can freely choose how you prefer to mentally represent perceived


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strength. The words you use are not important but it is important thatyou actively do think about it when you play.

I perso nally like to use words like:

Excellent

Good

Okay

Poor

The better our perceived strength the more bluffs we can have in our

range. The reason is simply that it is - in most cases - dif icult for theother player(s) in the pot to play back at us often enough in order tomake our bluffs -EV since we are telling a very plausible story.

Let us say that we open in early position and we get called by the play-er on the button who happens to hold pocket nines. The lop comes AJ4rainbow. Our perceived strength on this board texture is excellent , andif we ire a c-bet there is a good chance that the pre lop caller will fold.He might peel one but there is a high chance that he will fold. Pocketnines cant be too happy on that lop.

If we change the board texture a little, so that it becomes A74 rainbow,our perceived strength is no longer excellent. It is just good and pocketnines are looking a little better. Many players will call and re-evaluateon the turn when holding pocket nines.

If we change the board texture one more time to say 742, there is nochance that the pre lop caller will fold pocket nines to one bet.

The conclusion is that there is a connection between our perceivedstrength and how likely it is that the pre lop caller will fold his hand.

Obviously the pre lop caller will not fold if he connected with theboard, but since this is No Limit Holdem and nobody ever has any-thing, this is of less relevance.

The motivation for introducing the concept of perceived strength isto make the thought process smoother. It is much easier to think, Myperceived strength is very good than to think, My perceived range


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hits the board texture hard, so when I bet I can represent a lot of stronghands. Here perceived range is the image the other player has formedin his head based on the actions you have taken so far.

S I often hear people say that they will ire again on any scare card on theturn. This may or may not be a good strategy against the other playerin the hand. We are assuming that we know which cards we can use toscare the villain.

D A Scare card is a card where our perceived strength goes up.

In mid stakes poker there are fewer scare cards on turn than thereused to be. The problem is that on the turn the scare cards are oftenvery obvious and therefore much less scary. Furthermore, many playerswill actually check on scare cards with their medium strong hands waytoo often. This means that they polarize their range when they do bet,since they either have a bluff or a very strong hand.

This may sound a little paranoid but the point Im trying to make is thatscare cards should be part of a tailored strategy, and not just auto bluffcards. Later we will identify when we should be using scare cards asscare cards.

P Every poker player has spots in his game where he tends to becomehonest. This honesty is often a result of the reactions of the other play-ers at the table but it can also be a result of his natural style.

D A point of honesty is a situation where a player will only continue to put money into the pot with a strong hand.

Pre lop most players tend to become honest when they are 4-bet. Inother words they are not 5-bet bluf ing or defending light often enoughthat we need to be taking it into account. The situation we create whenwe 4-bet is an example of a point of honesty for the villain.


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AThe better our perceived strength is in a given situation the morelikely it is that the same situation is a point of honesty for our oppo-nent.

Post lop most players have points of honesty deeply integrated intotheir style.

When we are making a plan for our hand it can be a great help if we cande ine when we expect villain to become honest. In other words we canask ourselves, Where is villains point of honesty on this board tex-

ture? Our answer will depend on:1. The villain in the hand.2. What our hand looks like if we call, bet or raise.

A simple illustration is a double barrel on a dry lop. When we c-bet itlooks like we have top pair or better, but everybody c-bets dry lops sowe get called by a lot of second pair type hands. When we ire again onthe turn it really looks like we have top pair or better. Our perceivedstrength increased when we bet the turn and it is very likely that ouropponent will fold most of his second pairs on the turn. Unless hethinks that it is very likely that we are bluf ing there is no reason forhim to bluff catch again.

When we are the pre lop caller we should adjust our calling rangesboth pre lop and post lop to villains expected points of honesty.

In general it is better to have outs than marginal showdown valueagainst an aggressive player. The reason is that, on a lot of turns, wewill ind ourselves in a spot where both folding and calling are poten -tial big mistakes - we would play the hand in a very different way couldwe see villains cards.


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Ex

1. One way of getting used to actively think about perceived strength isto watch a video where you classify every lop.

What is the perceived strength of the pre lop raiser on that boardtexture?

When you do expect the players in the hand to reach a point ofhonesty?

2. The next step is to play a short session of roughly 15-30 minuteswhere you play without looking at your cards. Turn off the HUD too.Your strategy will be to play every hand in late position and c-bet

when you think your perceived strength is good enough. There arevarious tools that can cover your cards.

http://software.deucescracked.com/DCTiltblocker.zip


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15The continuation bet

The continuation betOkay, so we raised pre lop, got called, and here comes the lop. Thisis likely to be the most common spot we will ind ourselves in our ca -reer as a poker player. Therefore it is insanely important that we havea good understanding of what we are doing, and why we are doing it.Otherwise we will be making the same small mistakes over and overagain. In short, bleeding money.

We will approach this problem by irst breaking down the continuationbet. The goal is to ind some words for our thought process.

Value

We have a made hand, there are worse made hands that can call usand there are virtually no cards in the deck which will give us thesecond best hand.

Villain would not call if he could see our cards.

V /PWe have a made hand and there are worse made hands and drawsthat can call us so there are cards that can come on the turn that willeither kill our action or give us the second best hand.

How much we are betting for value and how much we are bet ting forprotection depends on our actual hand, the board texture and theother players in the pot.

S -We dont have showdown value but there are cards in the deck that

can help us to make the best hand. We bet because we want to takethe pot down.

BWe have little to no showdown value and there is close to no hope forour hand. We bet because we want to take the pot down.

When we know what the purpose of our continuation bet is, it is often alot easier for us to make a plan for the turn and river. The most obvious


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example is when we are bet ting for value/protection on the lop, andso a c-bet on a blank turn card becomes a bet for protection most of thetime. We are only getting value if villain is willing to call a rather big beton the turn thinking that he has implied odds.

I will actually argue that a 100% c-bet strategy is a winning strategy atssnl and msnl, as long as we know what we are trying to achieve on the

lop and have a clear plan for the turn and river; that said I dont thinkit is the optimal strategy.

The story we would be telling is simply not plausible enough and theother players would start to loat and bluff raise us often enough tomake it only a marginal winning strategy.

One often overlooked reason for betting the lop is that it narrows therange of hands that the pre lop caller sees the turn with. If we check/call the lop we have no idea what hand the pre lop caller holds, andwhat cards may improve him. We will look deeper into this when welook at elastic ranges.

L x kWhen our perceived strength is good and we c-bet, we are telling astory that is very plausible and the pre lop callers will have a toughtime playing back at us of ten enough to make it a losing strategy; sim -ply because their brain is telling them that our line looks plausible.

On board textures where our perceived strength is poor I generally ex-pect to get played back at more frequently; even with a strong over pairwe are still not thrilled about playing a big pot out of position.

In aggressive games, where we get played back at frequently, we aretherefore forced to bluff less.

Against a good player we have to make one more adjustment and thatis to balance our lop play by check/calling and check/raising. Other -wise our lines become too transparent.

But balancing our lop play only makes sense when we are playingagainst players who will use their positional advantage well and alsoplayers who are way too aggressive when checked to. In a way we swap


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initiative with position on the lop.

Notice that the checks are different checks. Sometimes we are trappingand sometimes we are trying to get our hand to showdown. In generalwe can check for:

P We igure that we have the best hand most of the time but we arenot ready to get raised, we expect a bet to mostly get called by betterhands and we dont mind giving a free card.

Eq We have a fair amount of equity in the pot but we cannot stand araise and we expect the other player in the pot to raise us with purebluffs, semi-bluffs and strong made hands.

DWe have a strong hand and we are going for a check/raise or acheck/call.

G We have nothing and are not planning to bluff.

F I want to stress that we should design a c-betting strategy for eachplayer as we develop reads on them. This has been a standard strategyin HU for a long time and should be standard for every good 6-maxplayer too.

Before you ire that c-bet on the lop try to have a plan for the turn (andriver) as well. I personally always ask myself how big a pot am I willingto play.


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Ex

1. Watch a video were you classify every c-bet and every check thatthe hero makes. If you ind spots where you would use a differentreason than the coach used in the video dont lose your con idence.They could be using a different set of words to express their thoughtprocess or simply be making a mistake.

2. Go over a HH for a session you recently played and do the same.

3. Play a session where you focus on actively expressing what kind ofc-bet or check you make in every hand you are involved in.


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19Ranges and bet sizes

Ranges and bet sizesToo often I hear people say, Here I ire a standard c-bet, without actu -ally understanding why it is standard, and without even thinking aboutthe size.

If we want to improve as poker players we need to start thinking abouteverything that we do at the tables and constantly ask ourselves thequestion why? In this chapter we will talk a little about ranges and howto pick the right bet size.

AThe size of a bet affects the range of hands willing to call.

The arguments for this assumption are:

1. If we check call the lop the pre lop caller sees the turn card withhis whole pre lop calling range.

2. If we bet really big on the lop he will see the turn card with onlythe top of his range - or at least the frequency with which he callswith the bottom of his range goes down.

So, by choosing a bet size we form the range of hands that will be call-ing our bet (we will later identify something called an inelastic range for which the above assumption is not true).

ABoard texture matters.

This is just another way of saying that we should be bluf ing with ahigher frequency than average in spots where our perceived strengthis good or better; simply because those board textures allow us to tell aplausible story.

On board textures where the pre lop callers expected c-bet cal lingrange has a lot of equity in the pot we should bet bigger with our wholerange. In general when the board is more coordinated there are notonly more hands that can call our bet, but also more cards that may killour action. So the big bet on the lop is not only needed for protection,


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but also because it is often our best chance to get some value when weactually do have a strong hand. So, board texture matters.

The foundation for my ABC strategy for picking the right bet size issimply to bet according to the board texture and the absolute strength ofmy hand . How big a pot do I want to play?

Notice that as I learn more about my opponents I will adjust frequen-cies and bet sizes according to their tendencies. Will the villain noticebet sizing tells?

So, if I bluff a lot in a certain spot I will be inclined to bet a little smaller.

If Im mostly betting for value and betting with strong semi-bluffs Itend to bet a little bigger.

The most important parameters are villains range and his tendencies.

A range can be broken down into the following parts.

NMade hands with which the pre lop caller is willing to play for stackswith.

S wDraws with so much equity that they do not need any folding equity.Getting All in on the lop is +EV.

W k wDraws that need folding equity. Some weak draws are disguised. Agut shot is an example of a weak disguised draw.

S Made hands with so much estimated equity that we are willing tobluff catch more than one street.

W k Made hands with enough estimated equity to bluff catch one street.

AHands with no hope.


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Before you ire a c-bet you should consider the pre lop callers pre lop calling range and match it with the board texture.

How many hand combinations does the pre lop caller have that hewill consider the nuts, strong draw, strong bluff catcher, weak bluffcatcher, ... ? I like to mentally name a few typical hands for each partof his range.

How do you expect villain to play the different parts of his range?

So, depending on the situation the pre lop callers range on the turnwill have different compositions. A c-bet is a way for the pre lop raiser

to force the pre lop caller to decided what he wants to do with the dif -ferent parts of his range.

A The relation between bet size and the strength of our range in a certainspot is actually a very common strategy in poker:

We raise bigger in early position than in late position.

We 3-bet bigger when we are out of position than when we are inposition.

Some will argue that it is because they dont want to be called and playthe hand out of position, but the real reason as to why their choice ofbet sizing makes sense, is that in general their range is stronger.

A mistake I see many players make when they are playing against ashowdown happy player is that they adjust correctly by lowering theirbluff frequency (it seems like a bad idea to bluff a player that does not

like to fold!) but they forget to adjust their bet sizes. I think there aretwo reasons for this:

1. If our standard c-bet size is already 3/4 pot there is not muchroom left for lexing our bet sizes.

2. We fear that our change in strategy is too obvious.

Both are valid concerns. The irst concern should make it clear why itis important to bet according to board texture and the player while the


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second illustrates that game dynamics and the ability to change gearplay a big role in modern poker.

For a range we can talk about the nuts:air ratio. It is a measure for howoften we are snap calling a shove compared to how often we are on apure bluff.

In the spots where we expect the villain to call or fold it is actuallymore relevant to consider the ratio:

(nuts + value + strong draws + weak draws):air

We could in theory estimate the strength of our range versus villainsby estimating the above ratios, but this is impossible to do in the heatof the moment. The strength of our hand depends heavily on the reac-tion we expect from the other player in the hand which again dependson game low.

After a session I may try to estimate the range ratio for a player in acertain spot. This helps me igure out what type of hands I want to usein my counter strategy. It is not something I do often.

DThe strength of a hand relative to the other player, the board tex-ture, positions, pot size, effective stack size and the action is knownas relative hand strength

I prefer to use perceived strength, points of honesty and a basic analy-sis of how I expect villain to play the different part of his range when Itry to answer the question:

How big a pot do I want to play against this player on this lop?

The reason is that I then play according to the information villain hasavailable.

Q 1: How does the size of the pot affect how villain will play thedifferent parts of his range?


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T V B C j

You cant bet for value if your perceived range does not containbluffs.

You can bluff when your perceived range contains hands you arebetting for value.

The more bluffs you have in your perceived range the thinner youcan bet for value.

The more value hands you have in your perceived range the more you can bluff.

T B C C jPlayers will bluff catch with a high frequency on board textureswhere they have a lot of potential bluff catchers and your perceivedrange contains bluffs.

Players will bluff catch with a low frequency in situations where youhave a high perceived strength or your perceived range is weightedtowards hands you are betting for value.

Players tendency to bluff catch depends more on game low than onbet size.

If villains tendency to bluff catch does not depend on the bet size, thenthe bluff catching conjectures lead to the interesting suggestion that weshould be tempted to bet on the bigger side on lops where we are go -ing for multiple barrels and on the smaller side on lops where we areoften going for a single barrel.

Note: That there are situations where villain will behave in a non-standard way. One example is when the effective stack is small com-pared to the pot. Another example is if we for some reason bet reallysmall or really big and there by create a non-standard situation.


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P w

A player is positional aware if he:Understands how being in position and out of position affects the game.

Understands that players play different ranges from different positi-ons.

Q 2: How does that affect bluff catching tendencies?

W Against a player who is rarely bluff raising we should play with a differ-ent balance in our range than against an aggressive player who is bluffraising a lot. The reason is that we will be tempted to fold hands withmarginal showdown value when we are put under pressure. The rela-tive strength of our hand drops as the pot gets bigger.

Q 3: What adjustments would you make to your range whenfacing a player who is re-raising and check-raising a lot?

Q 4: What adjustments would you make against a player who israrely bluff raising?

Q 5: Against which player is 4-bet bluf ing most effective?Player A, who 3-bets 13% and 5-bet shoves AQ+, TT+ or Player B, who3-bets 9% and 5-bet shoves AK, JJ+

Some think of a balanced range as a range with equal portions of eachpart. I prefer:

D A range is said to be balanced if the ratios between each part ofmakes the range unexplotiable.

Q 6: What is the natural adjustment of a weak player when putunder pressure?

Q 7: What is the natural adjustment of an aggressive playerwhen put under pressure?


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Playing with truly balanced ranges is almost impossible and fundamen-tally suboptimal (in the de inition I prefer) because players play differ -ent styles and they adjust in different ways when they feel that we areexploiting them. Playing a truly balanced style is a waste of time.

I will shift the balance in my ranges according to game dynamics, but Inever worry about actually having a balanced range. I prefer to exploitand adjust rather than try to protect myself from being exploited.

What I do worry about is changing my perceived range.

Q 8: When does it makes sense to manipulate the perceived

range?Understanding how different player tendencies change the composi-tion of the range of hands we face is the foundation of every winningapproach to poker.


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26Range types and their behaviour

Range types and their behaviourUnderstanding how bet sizing affects the low of a hand is one of themost complex aspects of poker. Our best chance is to look at differenttypes range and how they behave.

E I dont know who coined the term elastic range. The de initions and theterminology in this chapter is developed together with my studentsespecially Derek.

D A hand is called elastic (to the bet size) if the size of the bet will affect the frequency with which we get a call.

D A hand is called inelastic (to the bet size) if the size of the bet willnot affect the frequency with which we get a call .

D A hand is called strong if it has enough equity to call.

D A hand is called weak if it does not have enough equity to call.

Whether or not a hand should be counted as elastic, inelastic, strong orweak depends on the size of the bet and how much equity villain esti-mates the hand to have against our range.

Some villains are paranoid and will bluff catch lop and turn very light.Some villains fall in love with draws. In both cases it is our job to adjustfor that when we count.

DThe elasticity of a range is de ined as the quotient between the elas -tic hands and the inelastic hands.

#elastic hands / #inelastic hands >= 0


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Calculating the elasticity of a range is a matter of counting hand combi-nations. I count bluffs catchers and loats as inelastic hands.

D A range is said to be super elastic if its elasticity is greater than 0.8.

If villain has an elastic range we can, with our bet size, adjust the fre-quency with which we will get called by certain parts of his range, andin that way increase our expected value.

D

A range is said to be inelastic if its elasticity is less than 0.2If villain has an inelastic range we know that the majority of his handswill be inelastic to our bet size.

D A strong-weak range is an inelastic range which consists of a strong part and a weak part.

An example of this is the pre lop callers range on the turn on a King-

high dry lop after the pre lop raiser has c-bet the lop. The strong partconsists of top pair and better while the weak part consists of secondpair hands and loats.

D A polarized range is an inelastic range which consists of nut likehands and air.

Putting villain on a range is the irst requirement for becoming a suc -cessful poker player. Understanding how the nature of villains rangeaffects our strategy is the second.Q 9: Can you give an example where villains range is polar-ized?

Q 10: When will villains range on the turn have a high elastic-ity? Hint: It depends on the board texture.


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T

One application of the above de initions is that they allow us to evalu -ate if a spot is a good spot to bluff without equity.

#weak hands / #strong hands > bet size / (bet size+pot size),

where #weak hands is the number of hands we expect villain to foldand #strong hands is the number of hands we expect villain to the betwe have in mind.

The left side of the equation tells us how often we can expect the bluffto work. The right side of the equation tells us how often it has to workto show a pro it, if we assume that we have no equity against the strongpart of villains range.

When we are semi-bluf ing we have so much equity that it becomes animportant factor. If eq (a number between 0 and 1) is our equity theequation becomes:

#weak hands / #strong hands > bet size (1-eq) / (bet size+pot size)

If a bluff with zero equity has to work 2/5 (0.4) of the time, then it has

to work 8/25 (0.32) of the time when our equity is 0.2 . Here we arenot even considering implied odds.

T E C j (TEC)tec1 : The more inelastic the range is, the fewer hands we can valuebet.

tec2 : The more elastic the range is, the thinner we can bet for valueand protection.

tec3 : The more elastic the range is, the bigger we can bet withoutmaking the range inelastic.

tec4 : The more inelastic the range is, the bigger we can bet forvalue when we have the best hand.

tec5 : The more inelastic the range is, the smaller we can bet whenwe are bluf ing.


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tec6 : The more elastic the range is, the better it is to bluff on scarecards.

It is important to remember that there are degrees of elasticity. It isnot a black and white world. As with perceived strength I prefer to usesimple words to express the degree of elasticity.

S Flop is QT6tt we ire a c-bet and the turn is a blank. The pre lopcaller has a super elastic range on the turn.

V Flop is K65tt on a blank turn the pre lop caller has a very elasticrange.

EFlop is KQ5tt on a blank turn the pre lop caller has an elastic range.

IFlop is J62r on any turn card the pre lop caller has an inelastic range.

Q 11: How does non-blank turn cards affect the calling range onthe turn?

Now dont worry if you cannot see how you can use this in your owngame to pick the right bet size. I understand that the conjecture is abig mouthful, so we are going to look at some different types of boardtextures where we are the pre lop raiser.

My goal is that you as the reader will start thinking about how elasticvillains range is and use that as a guideline for your choice of bet size.

But before we do that let us see if we can use the elasticity conjectureto igure out how to play against two player types.

T A calling station is a player who will call almost any bet if he has a pieceof the board or holds an ace. He shows up with a very elastic range inspots where you would have expected it to be inelastic (the range iselastic but it was played in an inelastic way).


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For example: You bet the lop and the turn rather big compared to theeffective stack and villain showed up with 3rd pair on the river or may-be a missed gut shot with tainted outs.

If TEC is any good it should tell us what counter strategy we should use.His range on the lop can be described as [has a piece, no piece]. Thehas a piece part is literally any piece and includes ace high hands andfourth pair. This diversity results in elastic ranges in spots where wewould normally expect strong-weak ranges.

The de inition of an inelastic range tells us that he will call almostany bet sized if he has a piece.

T 2 tells us that we should bet thinner for value and protection.

T 3 tells us that we can bet bigger than we normally would.

T 5 tells us that if we c-bet on the lop as a bluff we should betsmall. We dont need to bet big in order to get him to fold air.

T 6 tells us that we should be looking for scare cards if we want tobluff on the turn or the river.

Does this sound like a good strategy against a calling station?

F F Fit or fold players will generally show up with more inelastic rangesthan other players.

T 4 tells us that we should just bet big when we have a strong hand.

T 5 tells us that we can bet small when we are bluf ing.

So T can not only serve as a guideline for choosing the right bet sizeit can also help you answer the question why and help you igure outwhat strategy you should be using against a player depending on howelastic his ranges are.

C As with many other concepts in poker there are several de initions ofcapped range.


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I personally prefer to de ine a capped range as:

D A capped range is a range where either the top or the bottom of therange is missing.

Against a top capped range we can run bluffs since the villain never hasa strong hand.

Against a bottom capped range we should never bluff catch. The typicalexample is nits who by design have a range capped at the bottom.

In general poker is full of capped ranges: Players who rarely 4-bet bluff have a capped range when they

4-bet.

Players who rarely double barrel have a capped range when theysuddenly bet the turn.

Players who fold a lot to 3-bets have a capped range when theysuddenly call.

Players who fold to a lot of c-bets have a capped range on the turnwhen they suddenly call.


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Ex

1. Go over a hand history of a recent session and try to classify theelasticity in the hands you were involved in. Both as the caller andthe aggressor. Start by looking at the range of hands willing to call ac-bet. How did the bet sizes on the lop and turn affect the range?

2. Watch a video and try to classify the elasticity on the turn in asmany hands as possible. Dont pause the video unless you have to.

3. Pick 5 hands from you database where you are the pre lop raiserand evaluate if the turn is good spot to bluff with air (0 equity).


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33Dry ops as the pre op raiser

Dry flops as the preflop raiserBecause there are no or very few draws on a dry board we are almostalways way ahead or way behind with our made hands. The pre lopcaller rarely has big pairs in his range since he would 3-bet them pre-

lop.

All in all this means that unless the pre lop caller has managed to lop aset or top pair he will often fold if we put him under (enough) pressure;for example if we ire a second barrel on the turn.

We dont get played back at very often - or at least as often - on the dryboards, because there are fewer hand combinations the pre lop callercan represent with a raise or check raise on the lop.

This means that the standard bluff lines for the pre lop caller at ssnland msnl becomes a one street loats and bluff catching. Maybe ifthings are really wild that Friday afternoon a two street loat or a bluffraise on the turn; both very pro itable lines given a good read and theright table dynamics.

The lines that I will take as the pre lop raiser against most opponentsare highly related to perceived strength. The reason is simply that thelower the board tex ture, the more likely it is that the pre lop callerholds top pair or an over pair on the lop, and at least second pair onthe turn.

A1. Nobody likes to call with third pair.

2. Second pair will often fold to a second barrel.

3. Nobody likes to fold top pair.

W No matter what hand I hold, Im always happy when I see a dry lopwhere my perceived strength is either good or better.

On these boards I would consider not c-betting 100% of my range a bigadjustment.


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S : TPGK

We have the best hand almost always and all we have to do is to igureout how to play our hand.

FWhen we are c-betting dry lops where our perceived strength is goodand we have TPGK or better we are betting for value. Why is betting agood idea?

Four reasons:

1. Since we are betting all our air when our perceived strength isgood or better. We are very rarely check-folding here, so whenwe bet we keep our range nice and wide. And, over time, by con-stantly betting these lops the other players will start to call withsecond pair hands that will fold to further action.

2. When over cards are possible. We are actually not only betting forvalue, but also a little for protection.

3. If the pre lop caller actually has a hand he thinks he can call with,

we want to give him the chance to make a mistake and call.4. If the pre lop caller is only moderately smart he should know

that, if we are checking, we are check-calling. In other words weare making life easy for him. Remember we are betting all our airand strong made hands.

When we make a c-bet the pre lop callers range becomes strong-weak on the turn, because there are no draws. On the turn his range is: toppair or better, and weak made hands. The top of his range will call any

bet, while the bottom will fold to any reasonable bet; hence strong-weak.

TIf the turn brings a high card then our perceived strength goes up. Thiscould mean that the range of hands we can get value from with a bet onthe turn just got smaller.

Q 12: Is that true?


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Because the pre lop callers range is strong-weak we could check theturn since there is no signi icant risk.

Possible motivations for a check could be:

Nobody likes to call with 3rd pair and the other player in the hand isloating a lot with second pair type hands. In that case our check is

for deception .

Our read on the player in the hand is that he is the set mining type. Inthat case we are either checking for pot control or with the intentionof giving up!

The standard line for me is to bet since nobody folds top pair, and wehave a really pretty hand .

When we bet the turn there is a relationship between calling frequen-cies and bet sizing. But the change in the calling range is so small thatI prefer to just bomb the turn - trying to maximize my value from a toppair weaker kicker.

The pre lop caller has a strong-weak range, which means that he is ei-

ther calling or folding and the size of our bet has very little relevance.There is another very important reason to bomb the turn. Lets say thatwe no longer hold a very strong hand and decide to check the turn forpot control. And lets say that the pre lop caller has a strong hand. Wecan expect him to bet the turn for value, but because we look weak hesoften not going to bet big. The result is that we win big pots when wehave him dominated and lose medium sized pots when he has us domi-nated. How beautiful is that?

Tip: Look for TAG players who call a lot of c-bets. They are less likely tohave a top pair hand on high card boards, simply because their pre lopcalling range is dominated by pocket pairs.

Q 13: What is the gap between VPIP and PFR for a typical TAG?

Q 14: How big a percentage of all possible hand combinationsare pocket pairs?


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RShoving or at least betting big on the river with the top of our rangeshould be the standard line against most players, unless we went forpot control on the turn.

Q 15: Try to justify the big value bet on the river using the elas-ticity conjecture.

M : TPNK - 2 F

Again betting seems like a good standard line. Why?We have the best hand almost always and since we are rarely check/calling with the top of our range, and never with the bottom of ourrange (air), checking here would make our hand a little too transpar-ent.

When we are c-betting dry lops where our perceived strength is goodwe are betting mostly for value, but with second pair hands our bet isalso a little for protection.

That being said, we can sometimes pick these hands to balance our lopplay and check/call with them. We are not going for 3 streets of valuebut are happy with as little as one street against many players with thispart of our range, and the cost of giving a free card is very small.

Q 16: When does it make sense to balance our lop lines on thistype of texture?

T

If we did not pot control the lop we should, against most players, potcontrol the turn by checking. On almost any turn card I prefer check/calling with this part of my range.

If we also sometimes check-call or check-raise with very strong handsand check-fold air we are not too transparent when we check.

We very rarely get 3 streets of value with our hand unless the pre lopcaller is a calling station, so we are not losing value when we check.


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Furthermore, there is a chance that the caller will bet the turn withhands that he would fold to a turn c-bet. By checking the turn we areturning our hand into a bluff catcher and make it harder for our oppo-nents to loat us on dry boards.

Against some players a check-fold is not as nitty as it sounds. We haveno kicker and have very little equity against a it or fold players callingrange.

Q 17: So maybe a check on the lop would not be a bad ideaagainst a it or fold player?

RIf the turn went check/check then I like value betting the river. The pre-

lop caller could be trapping, but that happens very rarely. By checkingthe turn we made sure that the pre lop caller has a strong-weak rangeon the river. This allows us to make a thin value bet.

Q 18: Do you want to make a small or a big bet on the river?

If we check-called the turn for pot control we should continue to potcontrol on the river. In short check the river also.

W k Flop looks pretty but we did not connect. Its time to use our perceivedstrength!

F & TWe have little to no showdown value with our hand. In HU pots onboard textures where our perceived strength is very good or good Im

c-betting the lop with this part of my opening range 100% of the time.The better our perceived strength on the lop the less likely I am to irea second barrel.

If the pre lop caller is a good player we cant use the fact that his rangeon the turn is strong-weak and just bet small when we are bluf ing (betsizing tell). But until we actually see that he is willing to call two betson a dry lop with a weak made hand we can exploit him.


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RI almost never bluff the river after having bet the lop and turn.

Q 19: Is it a bad idea to bluff the river?

So our ABC line is to bet the lop, bet the turn, and check/fold the river.That said, this is the irst line I make adjustments to in terms of fre -quencies and bet sizing.

Q 20: What kind of adjustments should we consider makingand when should we be making them? When will you be more temptedto double barrel? When would you be less tempted?

If for some reason we did not bet the turn and it went check/check wecan try to bluff on the river since there is some elasticity left.

Q 21: Would you bet big or small?

W k What can we do? We cant get easy lops all the time.

S : TPGK FWhen we c-bet here we are c-betting for value with the top of our rangebut for va lue and a little protection with the bottom of our range. Bybetting we get to fold over cards that did not connect with the boardand we lose a little elasticity.

If we are deep out of position and the pre lop caller is very aggro (rais -es a lot of lops) we might want to check with the bottom of our range

since we are not really ready to play a big pot.The two main ideas behind this line are to trade initiative on the lopfor position since aggressive players will very often bet when we checkto them and to balance our lop play. Now by check-calling instead ofbetting we actually protect our equity in the pot since we no longer riskgetting bluffed out of the pot on the lop while we hold the best hand.

If we are truly worried about balancing our lop play we should alsocheck-raise with a part of our range. We dont mind giving a free card


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and villain has a lot of potential bluff catchers in his range. He will betmost of them on the lop since our perceived range is full of over cards.

Notice: I will never balance my lop lines until I have a reason to do it;having fun and trying to play a highly varied style are both solid rea-sons but they are often not enough to truly justify the balancing.

TUnless we check-raised or check-called the lop we are just looking totake the pre lop caller to value town; especially when the turn is a scarecard. Very often the pre lop caller has second pair on the turn, and

when the turn card is a known scare card he is very rarely ready to fold.Against players who are bluff raising the turn a lot we can balance ourturn play and take a pot control line with the bottom of our range, andsometimes check-raise with the top of our range.

RAgain unless we pot controlled the turn we are looking for more value

on the river with the top of our range.

The idea behind a check-raise on the lop or the turn is actually two -fold:

1. We have a strong hand and want to build the pot. A check-raisereally builds the pot in a nice way.

2. We are protecting the part of our range that in the future we willbe trying to pot control with.

Q 22: Try to justify that with the threat of a check-raise we are

protecting our pot controlling range.

W k On board textures where our perceived strength is okay Im (when Imbetting) betting at least once and if there is any truth at all in the valuelines we have just discussed it is evident that we often will need to ire3 barrels if we decide to bluff at the pot.

So our standard line could be to simply check/fold or check/call de-


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pending on our hand. That being said, 2 and 3 barrels are a good alter -natives. Simply turn our weak made hands into a bluff.

Q 23: When should we be tempted to bet weak made hands?

Q 24: What hands would you prefer to barrel with?

If our standard line with this part of our range is to check-fold, the pre-lop caller will very often stab at the pot with his whole range. We look

like we have given up on the pot, and they dont want to give any freecards. This presents a potential bluff spot for us.

So, since the pre lop caller often stabs too with too weak a range atthese pots we can punish him with a check-raise. This bluff line issometimes cheaper than iring multiple barrels, and works very well ifthe pre lop caller knows that we might be doing this for value.

Q 25: What type of hands should we pick for our bluff check-raises?


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41Wet boards as the pre op raiser

Wet boards as the preflop raiserAs we saw when we looked at bet sizing the wet boards are often alittle more tricky to play. When there are many draws on the lop thepre lop caller is simply more likely to play back at us early in the hand.He will be doing it with semi-bluffs, strong made hands and pure bluffs.The frequency of each part of his range depends on the player, but intodays aggressive games we can expect to get played back at a fairamount.

A

Will very often play lush draws aggressively

Will often play disguised draws passively

Will almost always play sets fast

Will have a fair amount of air in their range

P Will often play lush draws passively

Will often raise a set and two pair on the lop

Will often play disguised draws passively

Will very rarely raise air

G Will play the lush draws aggressively when the spot is right

Will play the sets fast when the spot is right

Will have a fair amount of air in their range depending on the vil-lain

CWhen we are playing draw heavy boards the range of hands we getcalled by de pends a lot on the player type we are facing. So we need topay extra attention to what lines the pre lop caller takes, otherwise werisk getting seriously outplayed.


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T P

As you have igured out by now draw-heavy board textures are waymore complex to play than their dry cousins. The type or player we arein the pot with makes a huge difference. So instead of outlining plansbased only on the board texture, I will use the player type as our pri-mary parameter.

V We can pretty quickly spot players of this type since they are raising alot of wet lops when they are in position, and check-raising them when

they are out of position.

W - Against an aggressive player we should strongly consider expandingour value range - since the mistake the aggressive player makes is thatthey stack off with weak draws too frequently and bluff too much. Thetypical example is overplaying weak lush draws on Ace, King, or Queenhigh boards, where they expect us to c-bet 100% and therefore expandtheir semi-bluf ing range too much.

The problem with just calling is that we then too frequently give theirweak draws a free card and we rob ourselves of the chance to get themoney in as a favourite. Here I assume that the aggressive villain is notfolding the weak lush draws if we re-raise him.

Obviously, if he is bluf ing so much that we dont really worry about afree card, calling is a no-brainer.

The alternative line is to check the lop. Here the check is motivated by

two factors:P qThis makes sense if we have a hand that we are not willing to go towar with. We fear that he will bluff us out of the hand.

L w While we will get lower short term variance, we will get higher vari-ance in the long term. We will no longer win the fair chunk of pots


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where the villain simply folds to our re-raise, which would help uswithstand the times where we get the money in bad.

W - Since the aggressive villain raises almost any lush draw and stronghand on the lop, his range on the turn is dominated by medium stronghands, such as top pair decent kicker and second pair type hands.

His range is inelastic and we can pot control, value bet him to death orire a 2nd barrel as a bluff depending on what hand we have and gamelow.

G Because the aggressive player is re-bluf ing our c-bets with a high fre -quency, he is a little tough to bluff. I have, however, found two lines tobe pretty effective.

On the lop when Im out of position and hold a weak semi-bluff thatIm not willing to get it in with, I some times go for a check-raise.

The reason that it works so well against players who play draw heavy

lops very aggressively, is that their strategy is to get us to check/folda lot of our air (we cant really check/call with air). So, when we checkthey will try to take the pot down. They will be stabbing at the pot witha range that cannot stand a check/raise, because they think that theirstrategy has started to work.

Q 26: When would you start to worry about balance?

This idea also works when you are in position. It may look a little dif-ferent, but fundamentally it is the same move. Check behind on the lop

with the intention of raising the turn lead, you can think of it as fakepot equity protection.

When we actually have a hand we want to take to showdown theresnothing fake about our check and we should not be raising the turnlead as a standard.

Q 27: So what range of hands would you use for this bluff?

The move serves two purposes. The irst is to punish the aggressive


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player to be stabbing with too wide of a range. The second is to protectus for the times when we are actually checking for pot equity protec-tion. Before you pull the move you should actively think about whatyou are trying to do. Can you justify it?

This villain may be very aggressive but obviously we are not going tostop c-betting as a bluff. The times we get called it can, as previouslymentioned, be a very good idea to ire a second barrel because thisplayer type tends to have an inelastic range on the turn. Please note it israrely a good idea to ire a third.

Q 28: What type of hands should we prefer to bluff with? Andwhy is it a bad idea to bluff with pure air.

Q 29: Why is it a bad idea to ire a third?

V Passive players will show up on the turn with a range skewed towardsdraws, top pair and second pair type hands. That said, they may chooseto slow play sets sometimes.

W - If our perceived strength is good or better Im folding top pair handsvery often when we get raised. We are looking at their value rangestraight in the face and that range dominates TPGK. We are crushed.Their raising range is inelastic, which in this case means that we cantre-raise and make him fold.

W - Passive players can still have very strong hands in their range on the

turn, so we should treat a turn raise from them as the pure nuts. Hemight be bluf ing, but without a read we cannot assume that he is bluff -ing the turn often enough for us to be able to continue without a verystrong hand. As long as they just call Im treating SPTK+ (second pairtop kicker) as the pure nuts meaning that we are betting the lop andthe turn for value and protection. The turn bet is mostly for protection.

Q 30: Why is the turn bet a bet for mostly protection and rarely for value?


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Q 31: How big should we bet? Think about what we are protect -ing our hand from, and how big a bet that part of his range is willing tocall while still making a mistake. A very strong draw has ~20% equityhere.

Since we dont need to protect our hand anymore on the river Imcheck/calling, check/folding the river depending on what reads I haveon the pre lop caller.

If we bet the turn the passive player often has an inelastic range on theriver (this is not true if the player is a calling station):

Q 32: Why?Q 33: How can we use that to our advantage?

Q 34: Can you construct some board textures where some playertypes will still have an elastic range on the river after you bet the lopand turn?

The question we need to ask before we check-call the river is obviously:Is this player bluf ing missed lush draws on the river or not?

In general I ind that passive players rarely value bet thin.

G In general, since we are betting hands like second pair top kicker onthe turn for protection (we have a large value range), it is a bad idea totry to get passive play ers to fold their hand once they have called on the

lop. We can have a wide value range because the passive players havea wide calling range. So against them Im stab bing at boards where ourperceived strength is good or better, but if Im betting the turn Im veryoften also betting the river.

Q 35: How could we manipulate our bet sizes against this play-er type?

V A good player is de ined here as a player that can adjust to our game.The typical ad justments that he will make to us if we are playing an ag-


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gressive game are:

Not raising marginal lush draws on boards where we shouldnot be c-betting as a bluff too often, but still sometimes raise as apure bluff since it will be very hard for us to continue out of posi-tion.

Bluff raise board textures where we c-bet too much.

Slow play big hands and mix in delayed semi-bluff raises on theturn; we are bet ting a fair amount of turns since we would expecthim to raise big hands directly on the lop. He is punishing us for

mistaking him with an overaggressive player who would mostlyjust be calling or folding to our turn bets.

The good player is truly letting us feel the pain of position and punish-ing us for opening a very wide range in late position. Without readsthere is little we can do but play pretty straightforwardly. So the sadconclusion is that we should try to develop reads and be very aware ofwhat lines he has seen us take as a bluff and for value.

That being said we can go far if we balance our lop play as we dis -cussed under aggressive players.

One thing I want to stress is that if the player is good our winnings arenot going to come from us trying to outplay him when we are out ofposition. There is a four letter word for being out of position against areally tough player, and that is: PAIN.

Q 36: What counter adjustments would you expect a good play-er to make if he knows that you are willing to battle him a little light?Do you think he will be tempted to bluff you more or be more focusedon value?

B w w One of the things that makes draw heavy board textures interesting toplay is the fact that there are so many scare cards in the deck; not onlyfor us but also for the pre lop caller.

In aggressive dynamics I have had some success with check/raising


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scare cards but that is not a line for the faint of heart.

TEC tells us that we should feel tempted to continue bluf ing on scarecards when the pre lop caller has a very elastic range.

Q 37: Try to construct some board textures where the turnrange is very elastic.

Q 38: What type of hands should we be using for our bluffs?

Q 39: What player type(s) should we be more likely to target?

Q 40: How big should we bet? Hint: think about what range of

hands you are trying to get to fold.If the pre lop caller has an inelastic range the scare card should notmatter much and if the villain is a little sceptic the scare card may evenprove to be a good spot for a thin value bet.


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Ex

The exercises below are tough. If you dont have a deck of cards nearyou can use:

http:// lopgenerator.com/

1) Grab a deck of cards.

Deal a lop

Write down the lop

Imagine that you are the pre lop raiser and that there is onecaller. Write down the range of hands that might call a c-bet.

Repeat

2) For each board texture write down:

The worst hand you will bet for value or value/protection on thelop.

The worst hand you will bet for value (value/protection) on the

turn and the range you expect to get called by. Does your bet sizematter?

The worst hand you will bet for value on the river. How big willyou bet?

3) What line do you want to take as a bluff?

How many hand combinations can you expect to fold on the turn?

If the turn and/or river card matters write it down.

How many barrels are you tempted to ire?
http://flopgenerator.com/http://www.pokerstrategy.com/#uNKS7Khttp://www.pokerstrategy.com/#uNKS7Khttp://flopgenerator.com/


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49The pre op calling range

the preflop calling rangeThe better an idea we have about where villains points of honesty arepost lop the more hands and optimal a range we can call with pre lop.

The tighter a range we are facing the less we should be tempted to bluffand bluff catch. We should in other words be tempted to play it or fold.The reason is that very tight players have ranges that are capped at thebottom. They start out pre lop with a strong range and that range is of -ten going to stay strong. Unless we have a read on them post lop thereis very little we can do but play it or fold poker. Note that this also ap -

plies to players who seldom c-bet as a bluff.As you may already have guessed the wider a range is the more weshould focus on bluf ing and bluff catching. We can make moves bothpre lop and post lop. Pre lop we can 3-bet and post lop we can bluffcatch, loat or bluff raise.

The difference between a loat and a bluff catch is that a loat has noshowdown value.

Floating and bluff catching the lop is best done in situations where weexpect villain to often reach a point of honesty on the turn and check-fold a lot - or at least allow us to get to showdown. If that is not the casethere should be at least 10 cards in the deck that are going to allow usto turn our hand into a bluff raise or bluff catch again - with the inten-tion of bluf ing the river.

The more hand combinations we can represent the better our per-ceived strength when we (bluff ) raise.

If villain is very aggressive post lop we should be less tempted to bluffcatch and loat since an aggressive villain will put us in tough spots onthe turn. We need to value outs and board texture higher when we dodecide to bluff catch.

On K52r I would much rather have 65s than 88 if I decide to bluff catchon the lop. There is a better chance that we will actually improve onthe turn and in terms of showdown value the hands are almost similar.


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50The pre op calling range

As for board textures, look for boards where there are a lot of cardsthat can hit your perceived calling range. This will allow us to turn ourhand into a bluff on the turn. So it is better to loat and bluff catch onK74r than K72r because if the turn is an 8,6,5 or a 3 we can turn ourhand into a bluff raise on the irst board texture but only an 8 or a 6will give us the same option on the second.

Against over aggressive players we can consider bluff catching twostreets. The problem is that we may or may not make a big mistakeon the river if villain is capable of iring the third barrel. In higher midstakes games this situation is quite common..

When we try to adjust our pre lop calling range we need to take intoaccount what kind of hands we are going to lop.

The post lop value of hands that lop bluff catchers and hands that lopdraws increases as villains range gets wider.


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51In position as the pre op caller

In position as the preflop callerCalling a pre lop raise only trying to hit a set is a very simple but sub -optimal strategy. In this chapter we will look at how we can use a posi-tional advantage to maximize our winnings as the pre lop caller.

F On a rare occasion you will run into a player that plays too much of a itor fold style on the lop. Against them our strategy is pretty simple, betall our weak made hands and air and slow play monsters.

The slightly more advanced version of this player type has a bet sizingtell on the lop.

You can spot them by looking out for weird lop checks and they c-bet alot less than other players in general do. I have had a few players of thistype as students and they seem to be afraid of getting called.

P w - Many players have a polarized c-betting range. They c-bet most of

their air, strong made hands and semi-bluffs, but check-call with handswhere they igure that they wont get called by worse very often.

You might think that we should bluff raise the lop a lot and while thisis true in some cases, it is often a better strategy to loat the lop. Be -cause they c-bet a skewed range on the lop they are left with a crippledrange on the turn. Where they either have to c-bet a truly polarizedrange or check-fold a lot. They could start to check-call or check-raisewith some of their strong made hands, but since they are out of posi-tion they dont know if we are going to bet the turn, so they now havea style that by design makes sure that they dont get enough value fromtheir strong made hands.

Q 41: What range of hands should we try to steal the pot withand what bet size should we use?

B When we bluff raise either the lop or the turn we should be doing it


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because we think it is +EV. This means that we are either exploiting askewed range with too few bluff catchers or the board texture is of sucha nature that any one pair hand with no re-draw is a bluff catcher.

The more plausible a story we are telling when we bluff raise the high-er success rate we will have against good players.

When we looked at this situation from the perspective of the pre lopraiser we used perceived strength as our measure. The better our per-ceived strength the higher success rate we could expect. As the pre lopcaller we can apply the same fundamental ideas. The range of handsthat increases our perceived strength is obviously different.

A bluff raise is best done in spots where the pre lop raiser would ex -pect you to raise your strong made hands and strong draws. If you canrepresent more than 12 combinations of hands you will be telling avery plausible story.

If the other player is good but not really good there is a good chancethat he is c-betting a polarized range in spots where he expects us totry to bluff him. This leaves him with a bluff catching range which is too

narrow.Q 42: What type of player will you bluff raise on the lop?

Q 43: What board textures will you bluff raise?

Q 44: What hands will you use?

Q 45: What type of players will you bluff raise on the turn?

Q 46: What hands will you use?

When we start bluff raising the lop and turn often we can expect mostvillains to adjust. The aggressive villain is likely going to try to re-bluffor extend his value range, while a more passive villain often will startto play tighter.

Q 47: How would you adjust and does position have an effect onyour choice?


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Ex

1) If you raise the lop on a Q76r lop how many hand combinationswould you represent?

2) On what turn cards would you raise 65s on a K73r lop? Does youranswer depend on the player type?

3) Go into your poker tracker software and pick 5 players and try toigure out how they seem to play post lop as the pre lop raiser.

Do they play according to perceived strength?

How often are they check-folding the turn as the lop raiser? Do they check-call a lot?

Do they bet the turn with a polarized range?

Do they follow through when they have a missed draw?

4) How will you play against them as the pre lop caller if you have posi -tion.


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54Out of position as the pre op caller

Out of position as the preflop callerMost poker players know how to play small pocket pairs when they arein position against an early position raiser. They will be thinking some-thing like, Fist pump! I know how to play this hand. Time to set mine!

But what if he opens in late position, say in the CO, and we are on thebutton or in the blinds? It now becomes a little less obvious what rangeof hands we should proceed with.

Table conditions are here a very important factor when we try to deter-mine what hands we can play in a pro itable way post lop.

Q 48: What could encourage us to call with more hands fromthe SB?

A very common strategy is to 3-bet or fold small pocket pairs and suit-ed connectors when the pre lop raiser is in late position. This is likelynot a leak, but there are some problems with this game plan:

1. What is our plan if we get 4-bet? By 3-betting 76s we make surethat we never get to play it against the top of his range against which

we have good implied odds. 2. If we get called we need to bluff in a big pot against a strongerrange.

3. What are we representing when we check raise K65tt in a singleraised pot if we are 3-betting any hand that connected with that board?Not much.

So, if we always 3-bet pocket pairs and suited connectors in late posi-

tion situations, then we cant really represent much on lops with morethan one low card.

In other words, when we often ind ourselves turning hands with greatpost lop potential into bluffs pre lop, it is very likely that we shouldlook at adjusting and improving our post lop play in single raised pots.

A w To make our play from the small blind really effective against players


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who use their position well we should sometimes lat a pre lop raisewhen we hold a really strong hand like QQ+, AQ+.

This is not only because we want to protect our calling range againstsqueezing, but also to strengthen our donking and check-raising rangeby increasing our nuts:air ratio in that line.

One overlooked advantage of playing like a little beast post lop inthese late position situations is the fact that the natural adjustment formost players will be to respond with aggression or nit it up post lop.They become it or fold players or bluff monkeys because their rangesimply cant stand the heat.

In other words we have created a spot where their natural adjustmentjust leads to more pro it for us. How beautiful is that?

Q 49: What adjustment should they make?

T kIn modern online poker, most poker players have a really wide rangein late position, so, unless we are playing like a drooling goat from the

blinds, our range is a lot stronger than a late position pre lop raisers.It is actually a little strange that we so often give the pre lop raiser con -trol over the hand, which is exactly what we do when we check the lopto him.

If we combine this with the fact that most good players are not re-ally auto c-betting the lop anymore we have to conclude that we needmore than a single string strategy based on the magni icent check-raise.

Otherwise we will simply be folding the best hand way too often andrisk not getting enough value when we do have a strong hand. This iswhere donking or leading the lop comes to our rescue.

Most players ind it a lot easier to lead the lop with a strong madehand than with a bluff, but they only do it on board textures where theywant to protect their hand and they dont expect the pre lop raiser toc-bet very often. We can identify those board textures as:


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Board textures where our perceived strength as the pre lop calleris good, and the pre lop raiser therefore fears that his c-bet willget called a lot (if not check-raised).

This is one of the spots where game low and history play a huge role.The reason is that people remember the check-raise. Its like gettingwhacked over the ingers with a kitchen spoon. And lop donk leadingis a move considered to be out of rhythm, so it is going to stand out andtherefore have an in luence on game low.

Q 50: What board textures would you lead with a strong madehand?

Q 51: What board textures would you lead with a strong draw?

Q 52: What board textures would you bluff donk?

Tip: Donking for information is something that I do very often. I simplytest what I can get away with. So Im not donking to see where Im at inthe speci ic hand, but to see how the pre lop raiser reacts, and to get adynamic started.

If I have a draw on a two tone or a very coordinated board texturewhere I expect the pre lop raiser to check behind on the lop with ahigh frequency (fearing the check-raise), I will lead the lop.

Putting money in the pot with folding equity, and most important of allwhile we still have good actual equity in the pot is a really good idea.

Because we are leading the lop with our draws (looking for foldingequity while protecting our pot equity) and made hands (value andprotection) there is also plenty of room for bluff donking.

Against a late position opener who is not c-betting too much we shouldbe very tempted to see how much we can push him around with bluffdonking. Remember his range is normally very weak.

Just try it and pick a bet size that its the board texture and the strengthof your perceived range. Remember, tell a plausible story.

If our image is ishy we should probably lower our donk bluff frequen -cy a little, since many aggressive players will raise when the ish donks


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out.

In general, against very aggressive or paranoid players, we should low-er our bluff frequency and expand our range for value donking; sincevery few people raise weak top pairs when donked into. They normallyjust call while they hope that we will continue to bluff.

Q 53: How does the fact that they rarely raise our lop donkwith top pair type hands affect the range of hands that they do raisewith?

D k Not many players use the line check-call lop, donk turn unless it is forvalue against a player who is checking behind on many turns.

It is therefore a very good alternative line to take as a bluff. Against aplayer who ires multiple barrels this is a nice change of pace whereyou take away his ability to c-bet the turn as a bluff; check-calling looksa lot like a made hand and since we could also be taking this line forvalue, I promise you that you will see a lot of folds.

The idea is to put money in with folding equity. The alternative, callhim down light in order to stop him from bluf ing us, is hard to do if he

ires 2 and 3 barrels with sane frequencies and on good board textures.

Obviously we will be taking the line for different reasons against differ-ent players. The move is sometimes called the out of position loat.

The check-call donk is in many ways just a check-raise. But while youcan check-raise with air people will never put you on air if you check-call and lead the turn. I use this line when I want the player on the but-

ton to know that Im willing to be a little creative.I prefer to take the line on dry lops. Both for value and when I pickup adraw on the turn.

A less advanced play is donking the turn if the pre lop raiser checksbehind on the lop. Against players who take this line for pot controltoo often and with an unbalanced range, I actually like over betting theturn, both for value and as a semi-bluff. By over-betting the turn we


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take the pot control line away from them.

C k- With the donk bet we punish the late position opener for opening awide range by leading board textures where we cannot expect him toc-bet, either because of his playing style or because of the nastinessof the board texture itself. We are bluff leading on lops where we canrepresent a lot of strong hands.

The check raise is a different beast.

Q 54:When should we increase our check/raise bluff frequen-cy?

When we are playing against tough players we need to have a pre lopcalling range that its the moves we make post lop. Well, at least whenwe are playing against players who can hand read.

We can identify potential targets for the check-raise by looking forsomeone who has a reasonable opening range plus c-bet percentage.They have a wide range, and since they are c-betting a lot their air to

nuts ratio is too high.Our check-raise size depends on how often we are making this move asa bluff and how often we are doing it for value. Since Im normally bluff-ing a lot when I check-raise a late position opener, I tend to start outwith small check-raises; especially when I have no idea how the pre lopraiser will react, in a sense it is a check-raise for information.

C k- Playing in really aggressive games is something that most of us indfrustrating, because we end up check-folding a lot of turns and riversand when we inally hit and play back we get no or very little action.The answer to our problems is mixing the hands we need to take toshowdown with delayed semi-bluffs and nut-like hands.

One of the reasons that check-raising the turn is very ef icient is thatour hand looks semi-weak when we just check-call the lop. To an ag -gressive player this is like waving a white lag which means that they


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will bet the turn with too many hands that cannot stand a check-raise.

The idea behind the turn check-raise, whether it is for value or as abluff is twofold.

If we pick the right spots it is +EV in a vacuum.

We protect the part of our range that we would like to get toshowdown with. In other words we are trying to lower thenuts:air ratio in his turn c-bet range when we start check-raisingthe turn.


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Ex

1) Find 5 players in your database and see if you igure out what rangesthey open in the CO and OTB.

2) How much do they c-bet? Do they c-bet a polarized range? Are theyit or fold? How much do they double barrel? Do they fold to check-rais -

es on dry lops?

3) Design a strategy for each of them. How will you play them from theblinds?


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61Fine tuning the 3-bet

Fine tuning the 3-betThe more money we are putting into the pot the better a justi icationwe need to have. This is true for both pre lop and post lop actions. So,before we make a 3-bet we should have a very good idea of what it iswe are actually trying to achieve. We can 3-bet for a least 3 differentreasons:

F The pokers gods are on our side and we have a pretty hand. We want toplay a big pot.

A We have a read on our opponent that he is folding a fair bit to 3-bets.

F We have a huge ish at our table that is willing to pay a high price to seea lop.

Against some players we are 3-betting KQs for value, while it might be

a bluff against other players. Figuring out which is which is the goal ofthis chapter.

A When I start a session and I am playing against a bunch of unknownplayers I like to start out with 3-betting the hands below:

I : JJ+, AK, AJo, Kjo+, A2o+

O :TT+, AJ+, KJ+

There is nothing holy to the ranges, they are nothing but a startingpoint for me. Since we are putting in a fair chunk of change when 3-bet-ting we should be more than willing to adjust our ranges.


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62Fine tuning the 3-bet

G

In position I tend to raise 3 times the original raise; out of position 3.5times. Here I am assuming 100bb stacks. The reason for 3-betting big-ger when out of position is not to discourage the pre lop caller fromcalling. It is because when we look at the range we are 3-betting mostlyfor value. Our nuts:air ratio is bigger when we are out of position.

The ranges are just a starting point. I dont

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