Part 1: Stack Sizes

When I read over SSMTT I often see a lot of the same mistakes over and over. I also see a lot of mistakes I used to make a lot,

and Id like to do what I can to try and dispense some concise information that will answer a lot of the basic questions.

Sometimes there are habits you make or misinformation youre given and end up creating bad habits, so Id like to write a

series of posts/articles to address some stuff, that may seem fairly basic to some but will hopefully clear up some

common misconceptions.

Id like to start with stack sizes and their relevance.

1. 10 BBs and under. Basically, any hand youre playing at this stack size is a shove. This is pretty common knowledge.

However, with the increase in stars antes, and the high antes tilt already has, it very often becomes correct to start open

shoving in the area of 15 BBs.

When talking about shoving ranges with antes Ive recently been turned on to a way of adding up your stacks relative size that I

really like, known as true BB. What it comes down to is that the true BB is 2/3rds of the starting pot. So if the blinds are

500/1000 with 100 ante at a 10 handed table then the starting pot is 2500 with a true BB of 1666. So if youre sitting on

the button with a hand like A5s and 15 BBs, you can simply open shove since you have under 10 true BBs.

2. 14-21 BBs. Most (but not all) of the time you have a 14-20 BB stack you shouldnt be open raising with hands that cant call a

3-bet. There will, in fact, be spots where because of very weak/tight players behind you that you can raise/fold this stack

size, but for the most part, this kind of stack's usefulness is more for restealing all in than open raising. This is in fact an

optimal-sized stack to resteal, though many players these days are very aware that this is an optimal resteal all in stack

so be mindful of players who are aware of what this stack size indicates.

3. 22-30 BBs. With this kind of stack you have more room for open raising, but for the most part restealing all in has become a

bit to large in most (again, not all) circumstances. Also, when I say restealing I mean shoving hands that dont really want

calls. However, with this stack you should be restricting your open raising range a little bit more than 30+, moreso in early

position. With this kind of stack though, I would still be highly aggressive in opening pots in late position as long as the

players behind me arent huge risks to resteal. In the low 30 BBs a go and go is very often the best option when thinking

of how to play a big unpaired hand pre OOP. Say you have 32 BBs and a villain in LP makes it 3X. If you have AQ you

should be going to like 9-12X and shoving most flops, although if you really hit it hard and think villain will bet you should

check shove instead.

4. 30-40 BBs. The important part about this stack size is that a lot of people try to resteal with it pre-flop. For the most part,

especially in out of position spots, 3-betting this stack intending to fold to a 4-bet shove is pretty bad. This can be done in

the upper 30s in a few spots (and I would vastly prefer to do this in position than out with this stack) but for the most part

if you 3 bet a stack of 35 BBs or less you are putting to much of your stack to justify a fold pre-flop unless villain flips up

his hand and shows you that youre 2-outing or something. At this stack size you can open raise a ton, especially if youre

playing at lower stakes where people wont resteal on you even after the antes kick in.

5. Over 40 BBs. At this stack you mostly have the full arsenal available to you. You can resteal with the intention of folding, you

can raise pre, get 3-bet, and 4-bet hoping to cause a fold, you can flat call in position, and you can open youre full range.

Thoughts on what your opponents know about stack sizes: Most people have a good idea that when they're 10 BBs or under

they should be open shoving anything they play. When you see someone at 8 or 9 BBs whos been open shoving

suddenly min-raise or 3X you need to be aware that hes got a big hand a ton of the time. A really important thing to

watch in people is their understanding in stack sizes and what their shoving range is light on a short stack.

When it comes to restealing stack sizes most villains have a concept of this without actually knowing they know. Yea, that

doesnt make a lot of sense, but let me put it this way; most villains know to shove a bigger range over your button raise

with 15 BBs than 25 BBs. Even though they're bad, and they dont understand why they're doing this, they can tell that

25 BBs feels like too many chips. However, some villains will be totally unaware of these things and try restealing

marginal hands for a huge amount of BBs, especially out of position since playing in a reraised pot OOP is most bad

players' absolute nightmare.

Also, a ton of your villains (and way more ranked p5s than you could imagine) dont realize how bad it is to open raise with the

intention of folding at 13-20 BBs so once you see a guy do this you realize that you can resteal off them when effective

stacks are this size.

Part 2: Position

One of the most common mistakes I see on these forums is a lack of understanding in regards to position. You see this at all

levels of play in MTTs, and it was a mistake I very often made until recently. At this point, Ive gone so far off the other

edge that I might be too tight out of position, which can hardly be called a hole considering how important it turns out to

be.

I think the reason a lot of players (myself included) fail to realize how essential being in position ends up being is one, that MTT

players are mostly very bad post flop and dont know how to take advantage of position, and two stacks are often so

short that calling OOP you cant be taken advantage on multiple streets.

The more you play good players, the more you realize its importance. If you want good proof of this, ask the best post flop player

you know to play a deep stacked HU SNG and you will literally feel yourself getting taken advantage of.

Things to know about calling OOP: First of all, under 40 BBs there are very, very few hands you should be calling raises out of

the SB with. When it comes to the SB, almost every hand at this stack size is a 3-bet or fold, though there are a few

spots where its more appropriate. Examples: If a decent and aggressive player raises on the HJ/CO or button raises and

you have a stack in the low 30 BBs calling a hand like KQs, KJs, QJs, AJo is probably okay, though I still hardly end up

doing, especially if the BB is a risk to squeeze you. Or if a good player raises in early/middle position and you have

something like AQ in the SB, calling is fine as well. Also, you can of course sometimes flat call AA vs a raise in the SB vs

players who wont be aware that youre calling range should be so tight.

However, it is clearly the BB where people make the most mistakes, as they're getting a discount on seeing the flop and often

closing the action pre flop.

A decent range for calling in the BB vs LP raises is KT/KJ/KQ, QT/QJ, JT, AJ/AT, T9s, maybe a few decent suited As.

Vs an EP raise my range is reduced drastically, to stuff like AQ, AJs, KQ, QJs, depending on whos raising and our stack depth.

Sometimes Id go a little looser than that, sometimes a little tighter.

When it comes to playing in position, I think a lot of people on this forum can go even looser than they realize. At the point the

antes kick in, anytime it folds to me on the button, assuming the blinds arent in a situation where I have very strong

reason to suspect theyll shove, Im raising an absolute ton of hands.

To give a rough idea of that range, assuming lets say, 30 BB stacks for myself and the blinds would be:

22+/A2o+/43s+/65o+/any two cards 8 and above. T7s+

If stacks were roughly the same and its folded to me on the CO I might likely raise a very similar range, though drop a few of the

holdings like off suit connectors, T7s, a few of the unsuited ace rags.

When you raise a very wide range like that people in the blinds will start adjusting, however most bad players will adjust by just

trying to call more than 3 bet, since as my GF puts it, 3-betting is scary. Make sure to pay a lot of attention to which

players are capable of adjusting with resteals, which adjust with more flat calls, and which just continue to nit it up. Verse

people who wont 3 bet pre, just keep raising your full range since even if they flat call you OOP you should be able to

extract a major edge post flop.

When playing this kind of very aggressive style in late positions you should be C betting a lot of flops, though there are a number

of flop textures that hit a villains cold calling range so hard that you should check behind. Consider that most semi

sensible villains cold calling range in the BB is hands that contain cards 9-A.

So say you get a flop like QT8 after raising 55 on the CO. On a flop like this, villain will have connected enough that your

continuation bet will be called or raised an absolute ton so checking behind often becomes optimal. Flop textures to be

more cautious on are things like:

QJx, QTx, 89T, 89J, KJ9, JTx, 9Tx, things of that nature.

Hopefully this helps clear up some ideas of position. Im not sure how much further to elaborate here, but if people have

questions or specific areas theyd like to see further explanation on, as always, just ask.

Part 3: What're you trying to accomplish

This post will seem a little repetitive of some of the things Gobbo covered in his Stop saying youre betting for information!

thread but Ill also be hitting on some concepts he didnt go over.

I used to post a lot of hands where peoples basic response would basically be What are you trying to do here? The common

mistake I was making in my post flop play, is I wasnt thinking through my decisions and understanding my motivation for

my actions.

Heres the basic concept: Every time you make an action in a poker hand (outside folding) you need to know what youre trying

to accomplish by taking that action.

For example, one play you see people making all of the time is raising on the flop, then when they get reraised tanking forever

because they dont know what to do. If youre going to raise a spot like this you need to know whether youre doing it as

A. a pure bluff

B. a semi bluff

C. a value raise that hopes to get reraised

D. a value raise that will fold to a reraise.

Most of the time, if youre value raising it should be hopes of getting reraised, but there are spots, especially on the river, where

raising for value but folding to a reraise is the most appropriate play.

If you make a bet, then realize you have no idea whether you want villain to call or fold, youve fucked up because youre bet

doesnt have a clear purpose.

You need to have a plan for every action. Its okay to make a play, then have your opponent react in a way you didnt anticipate

and think over your decision, but because so much of tournament poker is at a short stack a lot of your decisions,

especially pre flop, should be pretty straight forward. When you raise in the small blind vs a player in the BB who has 15

BBs, you shouldnt have a tough decision when he shoves. You should be able to anticipate that a player at this stack

will be shoving somewhat often on you and act accordingly by calling with an appropriate range.

The bet/raise for information is rarely a viable option because bets should fall into the category of bluff or value bet. There are

other ways to discern the information given to you in a hand than spewing chips for simply that purpose. Ill get into that a

little more with the next segment about hand reading.

If you want to practice this concept the easy way, play only a couple tables for a few days so that you have time to make your

decision. Then, every time you have a decision that isnt incredibly obvious sit back and ask yourself What am I trying to

accomplish with this hand? It sounds like a sort of lame suggestion, but I promise it will help to think over what youre

doing.

Part 4: Bankroll Management

If theres only one thing I could teach or imprint upon another poker player its how important bankroll management is. There are

a ton of talented poker players who are extremely capable in the games they play, but due to poor bankroll management

stay stuck around broke for years.

What seems to be the standard rule for MTT bankroll management is as follows: Always have at least 100 times your average

buy in. I say average buy in because this allows for a player to take shots without over extending.

As far as the maximum amount of your roll you should put on one event, that mostly comes down to your preference, but I

personally (and these days Im a pretty big BR nit) cant imagine putting down much more than 5% of my roll on one

event.

The largest problem with playing outside of your bankroll is that for most players it tends to force up emotional involvement.

Building a bankroll and then blowing it due to mismanagement is mentally crippling to almost everyone and often results

in going even higher and faster.

I encourage people to not try to move up to fast and when they do to do so in moderation. Creating a bankroll so big that the

stakes you play makes it nearly impossible to busto but gives you room to take a shot now and then is truly the ideal.

Part 5: 3-betting/4-betting

Its hard to find a good balance between to much pre flop reraising and not enough. For quite a long time I was just 3 betting non

stop, if only to make peoples lives hard and image purposes. Over the last few months through a lot of review I feel like

Ive pulled it back a little bit and found a pretty good balance.

I kind of lump 3 betting/4 betting into two categories, for value and as a resteal bluff. Most of this article will focus on 3 betting

since its way more common than 4 betting. Its likely that you could go months without 4 betting pre as a bluff and it

wouldnt be a serious leak, especially at lower limits. So lets get in depth talking 3 betting first:

The first important factor in regards to 3 betting is stack size. If you have under 27 BBs Id say just about any 3 bet should be an

all in. There is however an exception for players who take all-ins very seriously but will foolishly call off a ton of effective

stacks to a nominal reraise. In these kind of situations if button raises 3X and youre sitting with a big hand in the BB you

should reraise to 9X and then jam or check/jam most flops, depending on how good they are for you. If you put this

amount of your stack in pre you should never check fold the flop.

This move is basically known as the go and go. The more normal execution of the go and go 3 bet occurs with around 28-36

BBs. The basic idea is this: Simply shoving pre tends to be a bit of an over bet. However your hand is way too good to

flat call. So you reraise an amount that will make your flop shove (or occasional check shove) very natural.

Example: Your stack: 35 BBs. COs stack: 40 BBs. You hold AsQs in the BB.

Preflop: Folds to CO, CO raises to 3 BBs.

Alright, now the mistake some players make here is reraising to small. At 28 BBs going to 9 BBs would be fine but in a

spot like this you need to bloat the pot, so I recommend making it about 11 BBs. Assuming there are antes, if CO elects

to call theres going to be about 24 BBs in the middle and youll have 24 BBs left in your stack. On the vast majority of

flops you need to be open shoving. THE ONLY TIMES YOU SHOULD BE CHECKING IS WHEN YOU HIT A

CRUSHING FLOP. If you hit Ad 7s 2s (or something similar) you should be check shoving that flop. So after I make this

post if I see anyone do this and fold a flop because their scared to shove Im going to get medieval on their ass.

The next important factor in 3 bet sizing is not trying to keep your sizes consistent. The most obvious thing you see people doing

is min 3 betting or tiny 3 betting with their huge hands in order not to lose the original raiser. VS non thinking villains who

just see a good price and click the call button this is okay, but vs anyone capable of thinking about a hand this is pretty

bad since youre tipping them off to your strength. You see this kind of thing very often even at the high levels and from

the good players, and every time I see one good player trying to tiny reraise another good player with AA / KK I just laugh

at how transparently foolish they are. The defining factor in your reraise size should be effective stacks NOT hand

strength, in most situations.

Now lets talk about 3 betting as a resteal opposed to value. Executing this properly requires an understanding of meta game

factors. Have you been 3 betting much recently? Have your 3 bets been shown down as very strong hands? Are you

near a bubble? What are positions? Is villain opening a lot of pots? Are you in a bubble situation villain cares about? Is

villain paying any attention at all to the table?

Theres two kinds of resteals, restealing all in and restealing with chips behind intending to fold to an all in. Lets talk about

proper execution of both:

All in: The proper stack size for this is about 13-21 BBs. Less than 13 BBs and you dont really have any fold equity and if you

shove 22 BBs or more on a sub par hand it tends to be a bit of a spew. Most reraises all in should be over the top of a

hijack, CO, button or SB raise. Most people arent loose enough in positions before that to get enough folds, though

players do come along where you can profitably execute this. I prefer to do this with hands that have some equity when

called, suited aces, suited connectors/one/two gapers, low broadway cards. However, sometimes youll find a spot where

restealing all in with ATC is +EV (especially around bubbles) so if you recognize that situation dont be afraid to exploit it

with whatever you have.

With chips behind: Of course we start with stack sizes. Because I hate putting 30%+ of my stack in pre and folding post Im not

pulling this move unless effective stacks are 35 BBs or more. Every now and then youll see a rare spot you can do this

with the low 30 BBs but its not too often. Theres a big difference between doing this in and out of position. I tend to go

2-3 BBs more when OOP to try and prevent playing a bloated OOP pot with a weak hand.

Example: Effective stacks 40 BBs. I hold 57s in a spot I think is really good to resteal.

A. Raiser is CO Im button. Co raises to 3 BBs, I tend to make it 8.5-9.5 BBs here. If villain calls and I flop a big draw I

try to get it in whether he bets or checks. If I flop a weak draw and he checks I tend to check behind. If I flop a pair and he

leads I likely fold, if I flop a pair and he checks my decision will depend on board texture and villain.

B. Raiser is CO Im BB. Co raises to 3 BBs. I tend to make it 10.5-11.5 BBs here.

If villain calls and I flop a big draw I likely lead close to full pot to let him know he has no FE. If I flop a pair I make a game

time decision based on villains expected calling range and board texture. Anything else I probably check with the

intention of folding to most bets.

Alright, now lets go over 4 betting. Obviously everyone knows how to 4 bet all in with a strong hand after they get someone to 3

bet them. So lets talk about how to 4 bet with a wide range hoping to get a fold out of villain. First of all this is a very rare

move to use, and it is extremely meta-game dependant.

I think optimal effective stacks for this are about 37-43 BBs. Even optimal effective stacks depends on villain, as some villains

will 3 bet you with 32 BB effective stacks with the intention of folding to a shove. In this spot, knowing your villain is

everything. At low stakes there are very few players with a high restealing frequency, so if you attempt this move youre

basically trying to bluff out some guy who 3 bet you with TT/AQ and now doesnt know what to do because he didnt think

ahead. Its a rare enough thing to do that even at my volume I probably only use it around 1-3 times a week. However, if

you can find a villain who seems to be 3 betting you or a lot of villains often, and you raise up a hand and again he 3 bets

you (this gets a little easier if he has a betting size tell, like raising smaller with resteals or etc) every now and then you

need to take control back by 4 betting all in.

Part 6: Strategy and Mentality Lies

I regret to inform you that youve been lied to, a whole hell of a lot. Actually, Im not sure if lie is the right word, but misinformed

almost certainly. Heres the truth; many of the common tournament concepts, strategies, and mentalities written about

are fucking awful. This garbage is so permeated in the poker society that those who dont spend their life online or get a

very good mentor will likely remain in ignorance. So allow me here, to dispel some of the biggest lies youve been told.

1. You can find a better spot: What? What the fuck? Listen, any spot thats good, by which I mean ANY SPOT THAT IS

+EV/+cEV is a spot you should take. Now, are there occasionally spots that are +cEV but you should fold because

they're EV? Yes. An obvious example is folding AA in a satellite where you have a seat guaranteed. Want a better

example than something this simple? Okay heres one:

I recently played a live 3k event in Melbourne with ~440 entrants. The structure was very deep, very slow and had high antes.

40% of the field was freeroll qualifiers and probably less than dozen players in the whole field were actually good

tournament players. If I was BB the very first hand with a 20k bank at 50/100 with 22, and it folds to the SB who shoves

his whole 20k then flips up AKs, I would fold. However, it really does take an example that extreme to make me consider

passing up a +cEV spot. SO STOP DOING IT!

2. You risked your tournament life with that? I hear this all the time around live tournaments. I guess thats because with live

you normally only get to play one tournament a day, and in the case of a major main event, people may have waited

months or a whole year for it. Still, thats absolutely no excuse. Your tournament life has no value outside a sentimental

one, so unless you intend to bottle that magic tournament life feeling and selling to Hallmark for a fucking Christmas card,

stop wasting your time with this mentality.

What really has value in tournaments? Chips. If your opponents in a live tournament dont occasionally tell you something like

dude, youre insane!, you probably arent playing right. A good example of how people get nitty with their tournament

lives is shoving ranges and re-stealing all in. An example:

About 15-20 players from the money, in a WSOP $1500 event, it was folded to me with J5o on the button with 11 BBs with

antes in play. Both blinds were standard weak tight live players. I jammed because I know how insane tight their calling

ranges are, especially moderately close to the bubble. The SB thought for about 8 years before calling with AQo, then

the BB folded AQs face up. When I turned my hand over the table let out various insults for putting my stack in with J5o.

The real mentality you need to have is a willingness to bust if it means creating +EV spots. Just because you waited a

long time to play this tournament doesnt mean you have an excuse to play bad.

3. I didnt want to risk it on a coin flip This has got to be one of the most common. Heres the simple truth with most probable

coin flip situations: at the point youre considering folding knowing youre likely in a coin flip, theres already probably way

too much money in the pot to ever fold. If you raise AQo 3X and a guy shoves 15-20X, and you figure his range is

AJ+/66+ (Youre about 43.5% against his pretty tight, never stealing range, and still basically flipping) you ARE NOT

folding. Theres nothing wrong with getting it in on a flip as long as its a +EV one, which most are, especially once antes

kick in.

4. My opponents are very good, Im going to avoid trouble. Look, you need to have confidence in your game. If you really feel

you are surrounded by players who are much better than you, youre likely in the wrong tournament (unless you won a

satellite or something like that.) Odds are, your opponents arent as good as you give them credit for or their results may

suggest. I encourage you to have confidence bordering on delusional hubris. Its okay to tighten up a little if you do find

yourself at a table of superior players, but dont nit it up to the point where they can run over you and youre to paralyzed

to stop them. Tournament poker can be pretty soul crushing, but showing up to the table feeling defeated just about

guarantees it.

5. Tournament poker is about survival. No its really not. Its about accumulation to enable the creation of +EV spots. I think this

has been covered pretty well in the portions, but this is another common one I believe to be totally false.

Alright, thats what I have for now. If anyone has any other common ones theyd like to suggest I can go over them. Hope this

helps and of course, all questions are welcome.

Part 7: Metagame and Concentration

For a very long time I didnt really bother with metagame very much. Id fire up 8-12 tables, switch to auto pilot, and maybe if I

made a final table Id start concentrating. I didnt think about other players very hard and really didnt think much about

how I was perceived. These days that sometimes still happens if Ive got a ton of tables up and its early, but I still try to

make an effort to take notes or remember on which tables I have a specific image that will alter decisions.

First of all lets go over the basics. Youre going to want pokertracker and poker ace HUD if you do serious multi tabling. Some

say if youre paying enough attention you shouldnt need them, but I tend to disagree. If youve got 6 tables up, its hard

to tell if a guy is tight because hes a bit card dead and a sort of tight player, or a full on mega nit. When PAHUD tells you

the guy is 7/5 over 150 hands, you can rest easy folding to his raises in spots you might have taken an alternative action.

Also, since it stores players data from previous sessions the information is just completely invaluable.

Next I want to talk about what to look for from other players. A lot of times players arent quite sure exactly what to put in their

notes, and leaving notes for yourself like loose aggressive or tight can be a little vague and less than helpful later.

Heres some things I like to take notes on:

1. Sometimes Ill note a whole hand the villain played since being able to reread that later will tell me a lot about them.

2. I always watch what peoples min raises mean pre flop and note it. The two to watch for are EP min raises (which are normally

strong hands) and button/CO min raises (which are normally garbage.) Until proven otherwise I assume those two to be

true, but the moment I see their cards after a min raise I note what they have.

3. Along the line of number 2, I always note what people tiny reraise with pre flop. Since this normally ends up being a monster, I

need to know if their capable of doing this with a wide range, or, like most players, are only doing this with their biggest

hands.

4. I make sure to note which players will raise/fold with 13-20 BBs. You would never believe how many ranked players I have

this note on, its fucking everywhere. However, when you see a very good 2p2er at your table you should normally

expect them not to be doing this often.

5. I always note which players are resteal capable. Especially at low/mid limits there are still a ton of players who simply dont

have the resteal in their arsenal, so knowing which players can is a huge help down the road. I also like to note who is a

habitual restealer.

6. I like to note which players will get very aggressive on the flop without a plan or in spots where it doesnt make logical sense to

do so. The most obvious example youll see is somebody make a big raise/check raise and then when they get 3 bet

freeze up and wonder what to do or stack off in a really bad spot because they feel pot committed. Against these players

I start fast playing more since I expect them to spew.

7. Whenever possible I try to note peoples open shoving ranges. Some guys with 11 BBs in MP with antes will shove any SC,

any suited one gapper, any A, any pair, etc etc. Some will shoe AJ+/66+. It helps to know which is which.

8. I like to note when Ive done something crazy aggressive to a player and he saw my cards. Putting a note that villain knows

you can be very spewy/aggressive will help you shape future actions. Again, sometimes Ill put the whole hand in there.

9. I try to note which players will try to dominate a bubble. If these guys get some chips near a bubble, you can really punish their

aggression with 3 bets since many players (myself included) start raising a ton of hands if the table wont stop them.

10. I try to note what peoples' bet sizes mean post flop. For example, youll see some guys who use bet sizes that are CLEARLY

for value and it helps to know that. I also like to know what people will over shove pot with, since for some it means

draws and for others the nuts. Another common one is the post flop min raise, it tends to be either a draw, information

raise, or most common, a monster (especially if its done on the turn.) Knowing what your opponent is trying to

accomplish with his bet is crucial.

Alright, as for players reacting to my metagame, this really just takes more awareness and concentration at your table. If you

want to kind of zone out that day and watch TV or talk on AIM or whatever else thats fine, but keep in mind its cutting

into your profits. Being aware of your image comes with experience, but the deeper you get in a tournament the more

important it gets since its more likely your opponents are paying close attention. To really max out your game, you need

to be able to make those feel reactions at the table. You can justify a lot of things based on your image or a players

image or the metagame at the table, and its hard to quantify in words exactly how much it means.

If you want to experiment with how much metagame means and feeling how important it is, heres one training suggestion I

have. Fire up Full Tilt one night and at 11pm Eastern time there are two deep stacked 6 max tournaments (one is a 24+2,

one a 100+9.) Play only those two tournaments and concentrate on making plays and reads. Since theres only a total of

10 players to keep your eye on and you have enough chips to splash around and get creative, see what you can do by

manipulating your image, especially if you make it to the ante period. This is a great way to improve on reads and post

flop play, while taking notes on a manageable scale.

Part 8: Bet Sizing

Cash games players dont have a lot of respect for guys who are strictly tournament players. One of the largest factors for this

lack of respect is tournament players failure to understand post flop bet sizing and lines. Its only very recently with the

help of NoahSD and Luckychewy pouring over 6 max hands that Ive gotten a better feel for post flop lines, and Im still

not great at it. I decided to bring in an expert to tell us what he thinks is the big difference between cash and tournament

players understanding of bet sizing, Aejones. Heres what he had to say:

Traditionally, cash game players bet sizing is better than tournament players bet sizing because of the depth of stacks they are

permitted to work with. In cash games, you often have to figure out how to get a large amount of big blinds into the pot for

value, or use all of the chips in your arsenal to represent a hand that you don't really have.

Bet sizing is traditionally based around the size of the pot in cash games. Anything over the size of the pot is considered an

overbet, anything within the constraints of a pot sized bet (PSB) is considered 'acceptable' or 'normal.' Sometimes in

tournaments I'll see a tight or straightforward player raise preflop, check the flop, check the turn, and then bet twice the

pot on the river. This player is showing an extraordinary leak in his game- he's got no idea how to get his chips in the pot

with his strong hands other than to make an embarrassing bet on one street and hope a bad player pays him off with

something less than the nuts. How should we combat that? Quite simply, you need to develop multiple streets of value-

whether it be by betting 2/3 of the pot on all streets, checking to an aggressive player and check raising him, or extracting

with varying bet sizes.

Another problem that I see with tournament players bet sizing is that they often tailor it to the amount they think can get paid off.

"I'll only bet a tenth of the pot... I've got the nuts, but I don't think he's got anything! How can he call?!" The fallacy in this

line of thought is that they're more worried about extracting than they are hand reading. If this player is only betting a

tenth of the pot with his strong hands... well, he won't be very difficult to play against.

I feel like I've gone off on a lot of tangents, but I've hit most of the points I wanted to make and would like to leave you with a few

clear thoughts. Tournament players bet sizing should be tailored around the texture of the board, not the strength of their

hand. Additionally, instead of constricting the size of the pot, they should strive to build pots with future betting streets

taken into consideration.

So how can we look at some specifics of what Aejones is talking about here? Lets start off by talking about making appropriate

bets to accomplish something on later streets. A simple way to think about it is this: You shouldnt think of bets on one

street as solely independent actions, they should be working towards something on the future streets. So lets get into

some easy examples:

The first major mistake you see players make is failing to get full value on a strong hand, either because they slow play it, or bet

to small to make sure not to drive a player out. Instead, in most spots you should be increasing the size of your bets

(when appropriate) in order to play for stacks, or at least the maximum amount, on a future street. Say youre in a 55 FO

tournament with a 3000 start bank.

Blinds 20/40, and for some random reason everyone still has starting stack. You hold 77 in MP2.

Preflop: It folds to you, you raise to 120, HJ calls, CO folds, button folds, SB folds, BB calls.

Flop: K 7 5 rainbow (Pot 380)

BB checks.

Okay, heres a spot a lot of guys might fuck up. They might check afraid a bet will drive people out, or they might bet like 40-50%

pot to make sure someone calls. Instead you need to realize this; in a situation like this, if a person has a strong enough

hand to call 200, they likely have a strong enough hand to call 300. The more money you can get in a pot like this the

better.

Lets say I bet 300. If one of the players raises you this is the kind of board you can consider calling and getting it in on

the turn since theres no scare cards, but lets just say one calls.

BB checks, you bet 300, HJ calls, BB folds.

Turn: J (Pot 980)

So now theres 980 in the pot and 2580 left in stacks. If you bet something like 700 and get a call there will be about 2400

left in the pot and youll have 1900ish left in your stack, making a river shove quite natural. Again, this isnt a spot you

want to try and play weak for value, you want to get a lot of chips in. So lead 700 here and if he flat calls, jam any river of

course.

Now lets see what happens with this hand if you try to get cute with it. Same preflop action but watch what happens with the

math when you try to small value the flop.

Flop: K 7 5 rainbow (Pot 380)

BB checks, you bet 200, HJ calls, BB folds.

Turn: J (Pot 780)

Now theres 780 in the pot with 2680 left in stacks. If you keep up with your half pot value bets watch what happens.

You bet 400, he calls.

River: 2 (pot 1580)

Now the pots 1580 and you have 2280 left in your stacks. A shove here is a substantial over bet that makes the strength

of your hand very obvious. Now youre stuck betting something like 1000 for value, missing 1280 in value by taking this

cuter (bitch, you are not cuter in this instance) line.

Now, there is in fact an inverse of this kind of betting. Sometimes you need to bet smaller to manipulate the action in your favor.

Heres a hand I posted a long time ago to illustrate another idea, betting small to set up a play:

Stars 50 single rebuy add on. Ive been quite aggressive in late position, and the player in the BB seems somewhat

aggressive but is no pro.

My stack: 9940

BB: 6700

Blinds 100/200

I hold Qc 9c on the button.

Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 525, SB folds, BB calls.

Flop: Ts 3c 6c (Pot 1150)

BB checks.

Alright, heres the idea with a spot like this. Lets say I fire out a normal bet of say 700. If villain makes a proper sized check raise

to say, 2100, hell very likely have too much of his stack in to consider folding to our 3 bet, which wed likely make here.

So instead bet small to manipulate the size of his check raise.

Heres how it went.

BB checks, I bet 450, BB check raises to 1400, I shove 9415, BB folds.

Now, often I would discourage betting less than youre pre flop raise, but this seemed like a very good spot to make an

exception. As luckychewy put it while discussing using this hand in the article, The very small underbet here is actually

better than a more standard smallish C bet because some guys will perceive it as weakness and bluff at it, which will in

turn make the 3-bet have a ton more fold equity. We both agree however, that this probably shouldnt be done against

guys who will realize what it is (though outside higher stakes online MTTs, these players are mostly quite rare.)

Alright, now lets talk about adjusting our bet sizes to board texture. Even the most standard of C bets should have some thought

put behind them based on board texture (and of course, stack sizes.) Lets look at a very clear and obvious example of

how to illustrate this idea:

We are again in our 50 FO with 3000 starting stacks which havent changed, at 20/40 blinds. You hold Qd Qh UTG+1, and villain

is mostly unknown.

Preflop: UTG folds, you raise to 120, folds to MP2, MP2 calls, all others fold.

Flop One: Th 5d 3c (Pot 300)

In a spot like this, go with whatever your standard C bet size is. What should your standard C bet be? I like to go about

60-75% pot early in tournaments. In this spot, Id bet 200 even.

Flop Two: 6c 7c 9h (pot 300)

Now this is a kind of board Im looking to accomplish something a little different. I think you need to bet more to charge

draws more, and if villain raises you want to make it so his raise is a more committing size. Id bet 250 here and if villain

raises, shove, since so many draws are in his range.

Basically, when the board is more coordinated, you need to bet larger, since there is more the villain can station or raise you on.

With less coordinated boards (Such as the T 5 3), you want a hand like 66-99, Tx, to think youre just making a very

standard C bet with 100% of your range and call you down or raise you.

Now, lets talk about some late tournament bet sizing. As stacks get shallower, your C bets should (for the most part, but not

always) start to get smaller as well. While my early game C bets are in the area of 70%, my late game ones drop to

around 55%. At what point should you start dropping the size of C bets? It mostly has to do with what the stack sizes are

involved in the hand. As you get later in the tournament average stacks will normally be 20-35 BBs, where as at the start

of the tournament its 100-200. When the average stack starts slipping below 40 BBs, I start dropping the size of my C

bets, though this will also be dependent on the effective stacks of the players in the hand. By the time average stack is

below 30 BBs, Im probably down to 55-60% pot for my C bet.

To elaborate, lets talk about how stack sizes and texture will still affect my sizing in the late game with some examples. Say

average stack in our 50 FO is down to 30 BBs, with the blinds at 500/1000 with a 100 ante. Both you and villain have

average stack. 9 handed. You hold AdQc in MP2.

Preflop: Folds to you, you raise to 2600, HJ folds, CO calls, 3 folds.

Now, what kind of flops are you betting around 55-60% pot, and which are you betting larger on? At this point (even though it

makes youre hand a little transparent to thinking players) the only flops Im betting a larger on are flops I hit but are draw

heavy and I want to get it on. Examples:

Flop 1: Ks 5s 4c (Pot 7700)

Id bet about 4200 here and fold to a shove.

Flop 2: Qd 8s 3c

Id bet about 4200 here and pray my villain raises or shoves.

Flop 3: Qd Td 9h

Id bet about 6000 here, again, intending to get it in.

Flop 4: Ks Js 4s

Id just check fold.

Also deep in tournaments you need to understand what your stack size warrants for post flop bluffs and semi bluffs. Some

players will attempt bluffs/semi bluffs without nearly enough chips to have any fold equity. You need to be aware of when

a player is clearly committed to the pot, or when the board texture is such that you can rarely get a fold. Example of a

common hopeless bluff spot:

Blinds 500/1000 with 100 ante. You hold KsQd on the HJ. Both hero and villain have 22,000.

Preflop: Folds to hero, hero raises to 2600, CO folds, button calls, blinds fold.

Flop: Ad 9h 4c (Pot 7700)

Hero bets 4200, button calls.

Now heres a spot where on either the turn the hero may jam hoping to create a fold having so much of their stack invested, or if

the button checks back on the turn they may try the river. Because the board is without draws and the button is rarely flat

calling you with a decent pair that would peel one on the flop to see if you keep up, villain almost always has an ace. Just

because you have a significant portion of your stack invested doesnt give you license to make very spewy bluff. This is

starting to fall more into hand reading, which is for another article.

Part 9: Tournament Hand Reading

Continuing our comparison of tournaments to cash, tournament players have an easier job in front of them when it comes to

hand reading. This is because the shorter stacks in tournaments (except in the first couple of levels) begin restricting the

amount of hands players can profitably play, and force an enormous importance on position. However, its a safe bet that

cash players will get better at hand reading much quicker, simply because they dont have so much of the work done for

them by a tournaments structure. If you want an easy answer at how to get good at post flop hand reading, play a ton of

6 max cash at a comfortable amount of tables where you can sit back and think things through. Save that, Ill try to sum

up what we can here on a sort of complicated subject.

Every time I hear the phrase Well, I put him on XX I want to punch the guy in the throat. That singular phrase is the excuse for

more bad poker than anything else in the game. So many live pros (yes, I know, half these articles seem like a collection

of cheap shots at the way live pros think) seem to have this obsession with pinpointing EXACTLY what their opponent

has, so when they do manage to catch him with it they lean back, put a smug smile on their face, and announce HA!

Thats what I put you on! Im pretty sure Daniel Negreanu spends half an hour a day in the mirror practicing this with

varying facial expressions in order to maximize its effectiveness when his moment of glory comes.

Heres the phrase to remember: You dont your opponent on a hand, you put him on a RANGE of hands. Putting a player on a

singular hand is pointless. The process by which you do hand reading is by starting with a range of hands your opponent

has, then eliminating much of that range as the hand progresses and youre given more and more information. Also

important to this process of course, is having a general idea of how your opponent plays. If hes brand new to the table

online, the best chance you have is to look him up on OPR. If hes brand new to the table in a live tournament, you need

to make some broad generalizations about him based on his appearance.

So how do we go about the process of eliminating hands from our opponent's range? You have more information to you than

you think. Lets start with an extremely obvious example:

50 FO on any given site. Blinds are 15/30 and everyone still has their starting stack of 3000. The players in the hand seem

straight forward and basic.

Preflop: UTG opens to 90, UTG+1 reraises to 270.

Alright, now if were assuming both players are fairly straight forward heres what we can deduct:

UTG probably has a range like AJ+, ATs+, 77+ and KQs. This range isnt precise as he could have smaller pairs, or perhaps

wouldnt raise ATs here, but its likely close.

When UTG+1 reraises, we can really eliminate a ton from his range. For the most part a straightforward's wide range here will be

something like JJ+/AK, but giving them a range of QQ+ is by no means unreasonable in many cases.

So in just two actions weve been able to isolate one players range down to about 3-5 hands. As I stated previously, this is an

extremely obvious and simplistic example, but it demonstrates how with very little action we can get a pretty precise read.

Most pre-flop hand reading in tournaments comes down to watching peoples' raise tendencies, and watching whether they

understand stack sizes and position. Heres an explanation of how these factor in:

Stack sizes: Some players know or can feel that at 13-20 BBs, they shouldnt be opening in a lot of spots where they cant stand

a reraise. However, players who are clueless to this will therefore have a much wider range with these stacks. Also,

some players will call in the blinds with stacks that are either push/fold not knowing its incorrect to do so. You also need

to identify which players flat call with hands even when their stack is much to short, and which players only flat call

monsters on short stacks.

One more key stack size understanding to watch for is resteals, plenty of players will try to resteal on a stack thats very

inappropriate to do so, and occasionally youll have to jam lighter back. I once had a player who was constantly trying

who was constantly 3 betting me despite our 25-30 BB effective stacks, and as a result I 4 bet jammed QJo with 28 BBs

after hed made it 8.5 BBs and he folded. Situations like these come along where watching a player's understanding of a

concept takes a play from being incredibly awful (which 4 betting QJo all in with 28 BBs is 99% of the time) to something

that can be profitable.

Position: The biggest pre flop situation that widens peoples' ranges in regards to position is blind play. Lots of players call much

looser in the than they should (especially the BB of course) due to the discount. Few factor in that this will force them to

play OOP for the rest of the hand and put them at a huge advantage. Ive already written about what a normal players

range should be like out of the blinds, pay attention to guys who call much wider, as well as guys who play very tight from

the blinds. Another thing to watch is for guys who call reraises OOP much looser than normal. For many good players at

the mid to late stages of a tournament, they are basically never calling your reraise OOP without a monster unless stacks

are quite deep.

Alright, lets get into some more examples of hand reading and go into the thought process. First I want to start with an example

of what happens when you really know a person's play. I spend 4-8 hours a day on Skype with Luckychewy discussing

tournaments and poker hands. At this point I can follow the logic behind his plays with enormous accuracy. For example,

I was watching him deep in the stars $300 tonight on AIM and witnessed the following hand:

Poker Stars

No Limit Holdem Tournament

Blinds: t2000/t4000

(Ante: t200)

7 players

Converter

Stack sizes:

UTG: t57888

UTG+1: t60291

MP1: t148859

Hero: t140802

Button: t218154

SB: t65545

BB: t66932

Pre-flop: (7 players) Hero is CO with Q Q

3 folds, Hero raises to t10000, 2 folds, BB calls t6000 (pot was t17400).

Flop: 8 A 4 (t23400, 2 players)

BB checks, Hero checks.

Turn: K (t23400, 2 players) BB checks, Hero checks.

River: 7 (t23400, 2 players)

BB bets t8000, Hero folds.

Uncalled bets: t8000 returned to BB.

After witnessing this hand I immediately IMd Chewy with QQ?

Yep he responded. QQ. Now, why does that seem so clear to me? Because I understand Chewy's thought process.

Lets go street by street.

Preflop: Obviously I know Chewy can have a pretty wide range here, although given what stacks are in the SB and BB I feel like

he should have a fairly tighter range than normal since hes expecting to be shoved on with a higher frequency.

Flop: I expect Chewy to be betting a great C bet board like this with 100% of his range that has no showdown value. Its not

totally unreasonable to think Chewy would check back with an A here, since the board is rainbow without any real

straight draws and the player will often give him credit for an A. I also expect him to check back hands like KK/QQ/ and

sometimes JJ but I know hell often bet TT down more turn cards ruin his hand and its fairly easy to play with a bet.

Turn: When the K hits that now means KK is much more unlikely. When the player checks again, I expect Chewy to always bet

with an A, since he needs to start getting value and the K will often hit the BB, meaning hell probably call at least one

street of value. It also puts a flush draw out, even more reason to bet. When Chewy checks behind again, its at this point

I know for sure he must have a hand like QQ, since betting there would basically be a bluff and his hand still has a

considerable amount of SD value. I also know that he knows with this line, he probably cant get a fold from a K just

betting one street, since villain will expect Chewy to have bet an A on the flop.

River: When the guy bets 8000, Chewy thought it over and folded. He realizes there are very few hands in the villains range he

beats and that if the villain is going to bluff the bet will normally come on the turn. He also realizes that betting 1/3rd pot is

almost always a blocking value bet.

This is all nice and easy when you know someones play that well. What about when you dont? Again, you have to resort to

generalizations and trying to figure out which level of thinking your opponent is on. Paying attention to whos who in

online poker ends up being kind of important as you go higher and higher in stakes. This is where using Pokertracker

with PAHUD comes into play, as well as looking up a players results on something like OPR. Any piece of information

you can get has value.

Now lets look at a more complicated hand. Heres a recent post by Psyduck about a hand he played at the 10k ME in

Foxwoods:

Background: villain is a mostly straightforward TAG leaning on the tight side. He is one of the better players at the table and

seems to be able to hand-read. He opens fairly tightly but also c-bets with a good frequency, almost always heads-up but

he has given up some pots 3-way when he was the preflop raiser. He also doesn't value-bet thin at all, opting to

showdown in position with middle pair-TK type hands, and some weak top pair hands as well. He also doesn't seem to

double-barrel that much, but his flop c-bet frequency in HU pots is fairly high. He probably has some tricks up his sleeve

but seems like 95% straightforward.

I have a losing image. I am down from 30k to 20k mostly because of two big hands, one where I double-barreled on a J T Q

board and folded on the river (lost T5500 there), and once when I 3-bet AA preflop, and bet/folded on a K 8 5 rainbow

board to a massive insta-check-raise-shove (lost T4000 there, and villain saw the AA fold). I am winning all my small pots

and losing all my big pots. I have donked into the preflop-raiser a couple times on the flop and have either won or

shutdown, and villain is paying attention to this very closely.

Eff stacks 20k, blinds 100/200. Villain opens to T600 exactly in MP at a 9 handed game, folds to me and I call in BB with 7 5 .

Multiple reasons I called, but let's focus on postflop.

Flop Q 7 6 rainbow (pot 1300). Check, he insta-bets 600, I call fairly quickly.

Turn 7 offsuit (pot 2500). I lead 1200, he makes it 2800 fairly quickly, I call.

River 9 (pot 8100). I count my stack, and see I have like 15500 left. I lead 5200. He asks me to move my hands so he can see

my stack, I do so and he sees I have very close to 10k left, and he shoves out all his 5k and 1k chips putting me in after

about 1 minute.

Lets talk about the hand reading that needs to go on in this hand. Important information to start off with is that villain often C

bets, and that he doesnt value bet well. This means he has some passive tendencies and prefers to get to a showdown,

likely meaning hes less probable to run big bluffs. Preflop Psyduck has his reasons for calling, which is by no means

standard but thats irrelevant here.

Flop: On the flop, Psyduck knows that since villain will be betting close to 100% of his raising range that his pair is often good

and a call is appropriate. This portion seems standard when we know that very obviously there are many unpaired hands

in the villains range.

Turn: Now heres where knowing your player, his tendencies, and hand reading start really taking place. Lets start breaking

down villains range and seeing how they react:

AK/AJ/AT other overcards/air combinations that have not hit: will check back and only put more chips in the pot if they hit a river.

If they do hit it will often be for only one bet, as few of these hands will make something strong enough to raise Psyduck

expecting to get called by worse hands if he checks the turn and leads the river.

Pairs 22-55, 88-JJ: These pairs will almost always check back and try to get to showdown as cheap as possible. Due to

Psyducks aggressive image they will certainly call one street from him, and just maybe two.

Medium strength Qs: From the description of this player he might check back with his mid Qs like QT/QJ and if Psyduck checks

the river fire a bet out. If Psyduck doesnt lead its possible he only gets one street of value out of these hands.

Strong Qs and over pairs: These hands will just about always bet the turn, and often the river if its a safe card, but they cant

stand a check raise. There is a slight possibility they will check back for pot control when the board pairs, but most of the

time we can expect them to bet but not call a check raise.

Monsters like 66/QQ/A7: With hands like these if Psyduck check raises the turn hes committed himself to the pot and they will

obviously never fold. Psyduck knows that if he check raises the turn it is very likely that only these hands (except perhaps

AA/KK and maaaybe AQ) are the ones calling him.

As a result from understanding what happens against the various hands in villains range, Psyduck elects to lead out instead.

Despite this leads main purpose being for value (as it gets more money out of villains range than a check) when the

villain raises him Psyduck also gains information. He can now eliminate all pairs 22-55/88-JJ, medium strength Qs, and

overcards/air (unless villain is getting SUPER creative with him.)

River: When the river 9 hits, it changes absolutely nothing. 99 is no longer in the villain's range. Psyduck knows that the upper

end (the monsters) of villains range will always bet for value, and the bottom end (which at this point is strong Qs and

over pairs) will sometimes bet for value and sometimes check behind since Psyduck called his turn raise after leading out

on a 7. Psyduck decides he gains the same amount of value from the bottom of villains range by leading, without being

put to a decision for a considerably larger portion of his stack, with the added benefit that if villain shoves he knows hes

always behind and can safely fold. He leads a bit over half pot and what is 1/3rd of his stack, 5200, and folds to villains

river shove. Nice hand IMO and a good example of how a thinking player used his understanding of hand ranges to his

advantage post flop to maximize both value and information (please dont kill me, Gobbo.)

For my last example Id like to quote an article written by Nath. I think this article is an excellent example of how to use hand

reading into taking actions which under normal circumstances would be ridiculous (If youre reading this on Tworags, this

part is already in Naths blog so make sure to check it out):

From yesterday's PokerStars Sunday Million. Villain is unknown.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t600 (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

(Format: 2+2 Forums)

saw flop|saw showdown

SB (t31052)

BB (t35813)

UTG (t29700)

UTG+1 (t19400)

MP1 (t28360)

Hero (t27246)

MP3 (t12775)

CO (t7727)

Button (t11100)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 9 , 9 .

UTG raises to t1200, 2 folds, Hero calls t1200, 4 folds, BB calls t600.

Flop: (t3900) 5 , 4 , 2 (3 players)

BB checks, UTG bets t3600, Hero calls t3600, BB folds.

Turn: (t11100) 2 (2 players)

UTG bets t4800, Hero calls t4800.

River: (t20700) A (2 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets t17646 (All-In), UTG folds.

Final Pot: t20700

OK... now you're probably wondering why I took a line that seems really weird and determined to get as much of my money in

the pot as possible while behind. And I'm going to show you why it works here. Let's look street by street.

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 9 , 9 .

UTG raises to t1200, 2 folds, Hero calls t1200, 4 folds, BB calls t600.

So this is the most straightforward street in the whole hand. A minraise is indicative of everything and nothing; mostly, it tells me

my opponent is probably a clown. It doesn't do a whole lot to define his hand, though. Some players love to minraise their

big hands to try to induce action on them. Some like to minraise hands they want to see cheap flops with, in hopes the

minraise discourages a reraise. FWIW, I think both are pretty terrible, and if you consistently do one or the other you

have a huge hole in your game. I try to blend my raise sizes so as to make my hand difficult to read.

Anyway, having said all that, I elect to just call with 99 because I have no idea what my opponent has; if I reraise and he folds, I

win a relatively small pot, but if he 4-bets me, I have to fold, and I've wasted a chance to win a big pot. So I decide to call

and proceed postflop. The BB comes along because he's getting 5.5:1 and closing the action, not because he

necessarily has much.

Flop: (t3900) 5 , 4 , 2 (3 players)

BB checks, UTG bets t3600, Hero calls t3600, BB folds.

Here's where it starts to get interesting. Making a pot size bet here is often indicative of an overpair. Here's the catch: I still beat

a few of the overpairs. In addition, some people panic with their AK/AQ hands when they miss here and just start firing

big bets in hopes of scaring away an opponent. On this board, AK/AQ has an additional four outs against underpairs.

This increased equity makes betting and getting it in with AK here really not that bad a play.

It's also the big reason I don't make a move at the pot now. Some people see "overpair" and think "I have to protect my hand".

Having seen him make a big bet at the pot now, I know my opponent likes his hand, but I don't know exactly what he has.

It's too likely my hand is good to fold here, but he also has an overpair far too often to make raising and getting the

money in profitable. I feel as if I get it in, it's going to be as a 60-40 favorite or a 90-10 dog. I don't mind getting it in as a

60-40 favorite, especially in a tournament like the Million, whose field size I feel dictates a faster style of play, a more

"race to the finish line" approach-- but I get it in drawing to the two nines way too often to want to push now. So I call and

decide to reevaluate based on the turn. The BB folds, and I never considered him to be much of a factor anyway.

Turn: (t11100) 2 (2 players)

UTG bets t4800, Hero calls t4800.

The deuce doesn't change anything. Neither of us has a deuce and we both know that. Now, his turn bet is interesting-- he bets

just under 1/2 pot, which seems weak, but which also sets him up for a pot-sized river shove if I call. (By the way, if you

aren't thinking about manipulating pot and stack sizes like this when you size your bets, you are making a mistake.) For

my part, the price is too good to fold an overpair-- but still, my hand is not good enough to raise. I suspect some time he

has an overpair to mine, some time he still has AK/AQ (the bet size is actually an effective size to block-bet a draw and

see if he hits it), and rarely, he has a worse overpair than mine. So considering most of his range as TT-KK and the other

major part of it as AK/AQ*, I call again.

* - I don't include AA here, not because it's impossible, but because it's a special case. He has the best of both worlds, and I'm

screwed; the river is basically irrelevant because he's shoving all of them. I also considered 66-88 unlikely, though not

impossible.

River: (t20700) A (2 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets t17646 (All-In), UTG folds.

Wow. This is such an interesting card. All his ace hands got there, and all his overpair hands just got scared shitless. This is the

beauty of position-- I can use his action to judge what he has. Since he has a pot-sized bet left, he's going to have to

shove for value if he hit his ace (or his 33, or if he was already full, or what have you).

He checks.

Now, many, many players' immediate reaction would be to check, thinking that "Oh, either he had me already, or he hit that ace.

And he's not calling with a worse hand, and we have a pair, so let's check and hope we win the showdown."

They're wrong.

When he checks, he's completely vulnerable. We each have less than the size of the pot left (he has me barely covered), and if

we have anything reasonable, we're pot committed. The only reason not to put in the rest of the money here is if we

think, for some specific reason, that a scare card has helped so much of our opponents' range, that we should give up.

Trapping would be absurd at this point for villain, given that I should be calling his push with anything reasonable, having

gotten this far.

So when he checks, it's not to trap, it's because that ace scares the crap out of him and he will fold to a shove.

And-- this is important-- we should realize that this swings all the Ax hands and 33/44/55 out of his range, and makes his range

overwhelmingly overpairs. So his range consists primarily of hands that will beat ours at showdown, but cannot call all-in.

Knowing this, we should move in as a bluff. The fact that he didn't move in already gives us all the reason in the world to. He's

announced to us that he is scared of the ace, and he is hoping we will let him show down his hand. So we have to

disappoint him.

On a side note, the stack sizes are really excellent for this move. We each have slightly less than the pot left (I have 17.5k and

he has 20k in a 20k pot). Which means that an all-in bet can be interpreted as a "normal" bet size. (Moving all-in here for,

say, four times the pot would be considered "abnormal".) Because of that, it makes our opponent less likely to suspect

that we are bluffing; we could simply be trying to get every dollar possible out of our hand. It puts him in a pretty terrible

spot, since from his perspective we could easily have the AK/AQ/33. We certainly wouldn't check those behind on the

river. So it's very unlikely that villain is good one time in three, and he folds.

Now, at the table, this process is much quicker, and is occasionally guided by intuition-- you don't always have the time to think

out, in words, why a move will work; you "know" it. While it's good to have sound, logical reasons for your moves, it's

more important to trust your intuition-- it's a part of you, and it works on what you have learned, too. In the heat of the

moment, it's taking all your experience and skill and training and leading you to the right decision. If you have prepared it

for the moments you need it, it will not let you down. Work on your logic away from the tables, and study and review and

prepare your theory, so that your instincts have the background they need to make the right decision. Trust yourself to

learn the game.

I will say that bluff-shoving the river hadn't entered my thought process until the river hit, and the villain thought for a bit and

checked. Then it occurred to me that he couldn't call a push, so I pushed-- it wouldn't have really mattered what I had,

but I was definitely swayed by the relative weakness of my hand. (If I had, say, KK, I might have checked behind-- or

pushed for value.)

But that's another point of this hand-- you have to be able to adapt your decision-making process each time new information

comes to light. Even though you have a plan for a hand, something may change which will cause you to abandon that,

because you realize an alternate line is more profitable. Online, the pace is fast, so you need to be quick mentally. Live,

you always have an opportunity to think through a hand. Online, you have much shorter time limits and may be multi-

tabling as well, so being quick on your feet is just as important as being sound on your feet.

So to recap today's lesson:

a) Be alert to your hand strength relative to your opponent's range, not just to the board, or in the absolute sense

b) Don't be afraid to turn a made hand into a bluff

c) Don't be afraid to change plans in the middle of the hand, as you gather information

d) Be a quick thinker

e) Trust yourself

Part 10: Poker, Variance and Life

It seems presumptuous and condescending to tell people how to live their lives. One of the single greatest enemies of poker in

our time is the We know better than you for you mentality the current US government has decided to perpetrate on its

people in regards to gambling, so turning around and writing an article about how to live seems highly hypocritical. So Im

going to try and be specific here, and give advice that I only believe pertinent to improving as a poker player, despite it

sometimes branching into other topics.

First and foremost, if you ever want to get truly good at poker, and especially tournament poker, you need to make your peace

with variance. I use the term make your peace instead of understand because understanding tournament variance is

very difficult. In fact, Im not sure I really understand it myself. To my knowledge, nobody on this forum has come forward

with numbers that prove how long the long term is in tournaments. I feel pretty confident when I say that its very

probable that you cant reach the long term playing live tournaments, that is, youll never really be able to ascertain your

true ROI in live poker. Even online its very difficult to tell how much of results are driven by variance, and how much by

skill.

A great example of how far variance can go is in the number 1 ranked player on www.officialpokerrankings.com, vietcong01 is a

player many have written about for his leak ridden play. He may or may not be a bad player (I havent seen enough hand

histories to pass any judgment) but many seem in agreement, yet hes won just about every tournament imaginable on

Stars five times over. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Ansky (a player many consider one of the best online) has

admitted to have been losing through the year 2007 up until April. While skill is of course the most important factor in

determining whether youre a winner or a loser in the end, the amount variance can skew the road to that end is

enormous.

I wise man once explained that there is no deserve in poker. Thats really just about the best way you can put it. If you follow

tournament results youll be forced to sit back and watch as awful players rack up tens of thousands, and sometimes

hundreds of thousands in wins. I personally can barely watch poker on TV, the players are playing for millions and 95%

or more of the players on it are so awful I end up sitting there ranting and screaming Holy fucking hell how the fuck can

every single person in this hand play their hand maximum awful on every street and theyre all about to win more than Im

worth Im going to fucking kill somebody etc etc you get the idea. Its all in good fun, but thinking about things like this

too much will make your head explode. In the end, what everyone else does and wins, no matter how deserving or

undeserving, is irrelevant. The only weapon you have against variance is constant self analysis and improvement. You

have control over nothing else in the grand scheme of things, so worrying about them ends up being pointless when you

could be spending your time learning how to squeeze every cent of equity out of your opponents. So when it comes to

variance, I guess the best advice I can give is to be self obsessed and ignore the madness around you.

Finding a balance in life with poker can be difficult. Many players end up having the game take over their lives, with other

responsibilities and concerns falling to the wayside. Everyone has different things they consider important in their life, but

a few things I recommend all players take seriously outside the game are as follows:

1. Your health. Pokers a sedentary game, and its not hard to see why so many players begin getting out of shape. When

playing live poker youre often pressed for time, and even online if youre playing tournaments its hard to stop and

prepare a meal, so many players end up going with fast food. Theres about a million studies proving that an out of shape

body begins to pour over into an out of shape mind. Im not saying you need to go running marathons or start training for

a bodybuilding competition, just find exercise wherever you want to take it. Start playing your favorite sport again often,

go for runs/walks, join a gym, learn a self defense, or even just do a sit up and push up routine at a home. Just stay

active and watch your diet, try to eliminate junk and fried foods, and take it easy on the soft drinks and booze.

2. Get some sleep. Nobody functions optimally on low sleep. Some do better than others, and in my case if I get less than 8

hours I shouldnt be allowed anywhere near a table. I know many guys pull all nighters, and because tournaments start at

a fixed time you sometimes have to conform your schedule to fit them. Even if you dont believe sleep is a major factor

for you try this experiment, write down how many hours of sleep you got at the start of your sessions. A month later look

at your poker tracker results and see how your results differ between the sessions you slept well and the ones you didnt,

you might be surprised.

3. Handling and reducing stress. Everyone has their own method for this. Some tilt uncontrollably and begin spewing, some

never seem to get upset. I havent had tilt problems in a very long time (unless I havent slept well) and I think a lot of this

results from volume. The more you play the more ridiculous beats youll take in important moments, and eventually youll

see it all kind of blinds together. This kind of goes back to what we talked about with variance, that in the end its out of

your control and losing your head over it is pointless. Find your own outlet for stress reduction, for me its writing, for you,

it should be whatever relaxes you and lets you vent the stress that builds up over the course of the day. By the way,

exercise is a great way to reduce stress.

4. Get a hobby. Unless poker already is your hobby and you play essentially for recreation, you really should get something

outside it to occupy your time. Theres a ton to do out there, you just need to find whats fun for you. The quick answer of

course, is Halo 3. Boo yah.

5. Get some. This seems pretty obvious, nobody concentrates well with a distracted mind. If youre reading this, odds are your

pretty young. Dont spend your life inside in front of the computer feeling awkward around women, and youd be

surprised how many will find poker interesting if you talk confident about it without being a braggart.

6. If you dont want to play, dont. When you force yourself to play you end up playing impatient and sloppy poker, so on any day

you want to take off and dont have to play, I recommend doing so. Hopefully if you chose this as a full time occupation,

youll actually want to play.

7. Make poker friends and connections. This can seem hard sometimes, as people may often appear exclusive in the poker

scene. When you first start posting on a place like 2+2 it can be a little intimidating since many of the serious posters

seem to have rules and standards in place, and figuring out whats considered obvious can be frustrating. As recently as

15 months ago I was a complete unknown in the MTT scene on 2+2 and the internet in general. What I found works is

asking a lot of questions, posting any hands your confused about, PMing the players you respect for thoughts on your

posts, and getting to know other posters whenever the opportunity arises. Most of the guys around do end up being

pretty easy going and approachable, and if you show a willingness to learn and understand many will be helpful.

8. Have a social life outside poker. This seems pretty obvious too. Spending your life only talking about the game will make you

boring. Nobody likes boring people. See how this could be a downward cycle here?

Lastly, I want to talk about what it takes to get better at poker. A lot of guys ask what it takes to be a great player. I wouldnt

really consider myself a great poker player in honesty, that is if you rated players on a 0 to 100 scale, with 0 being a total

beginner, and 100 being Patrick Antonious, I guess Im somewhere around ~80. Its hard for me to say what it takes to

get from 80 to 100, and part of me imagines that you have to be really naturally smart and talented to attain that kind of

mastery.

The people who hang out in the strategy portions of 2+2 are mostly naturally smart guys. Often whenever I ask them what they

studied at school, its often math oriented or in a field that has real application to poker, at an excellent school that takes

enormous talent and intelligence to get into. Me, Im a theatre major who in the math department is a borderline imbecile.

It doesnt take a background in this area to do very well. What it mostly requires is perseverance and a level head. Heres

the basic process by which I improved:

1. I started off reading books. This is good if you want a foundation in the basics, but I feel like a lot of the information in books

these days is outdated. However, Harrington on Holdem is still pretty good for getting some ground work.

2. Then I started reading and posting on 2+2. For quite some time I posted an enormous amount of hands, because I really

needed to be guided through most hands step by step. Im kind of a slow learner, so I needed things drilled into my head

over and over to form it as more of a habit before I could understand it.

3. I got a pokerxfactor subscription. I watched a lot of videos to see what the most successful pros did differently to me, what

made them successful. I think cardrunners also has an excellent (at this point, probably superior) line up of pros, but both

sites have a pretty good line up. The hard part is that even many of these guys have serious leaks and there might be

nobody there to tell you what they are. I have a ton of leaks myself, and if theres nobody better to tell you what they are

it gets hard to recognize them. If theres an interest in that sort of thing, I guess I could Skype with Luckychewy for some

of the more popular hand histories in Cardrunners/PXF and identify what we think the mistakes are there to give people

an idea of what mistakes other pros make.

4. I got coaching. This part can be hard because theres not a list of coaches available for MTTs and many coaches would

charge quite a lot of money since their time is so valuable. If you start becoming a successful player and make good

money, but still feel like you have serious leaks, seeking out a top player who you respect and know does coaching is a

good option. At this point, Ive done coaching with three HSMTT players and have done hand history review swaps with

several more. Finding players you feel are roughly on your own level and doing HH review swaps with them either by

taking notes or over the phone/Skype can be a huge benefit.

5. I played an absolute ton. Like they say, theres no substitute for experience, and the more you play the more youll recognize

patterns and things will get more obvious to you as you go. Combine this with the other four, over an extended period of

time, and youll be able to feel the improvement.

6. If theres one thing I wished Id done: Itd be learn cash much sooner. I think cash players improve at poker much quicker, and

applying concepts you learn in cash to tournaments is much easier than vice versa.

Most of what I do today is play, occasional coaching sessions, and spending a lot of time on Skype with the players I respect

swapping ideas back and forth. At any point in my career I can look back at how I played four months ago and think

Wow, I had no idea what I was doing then. Ive learned a ton. I imagine it will keep going like that if I keep improving

and I hope that pattern keeps up. Well, thats all the condescending advice I have for today, after this its back to more

black and white strategy.

Part 11: Time and Tilt Management

Ive got some time over the next week before I have to get back to live poker so I thought Id get back to writing some of these. A

lot of people in the what do you want to see from these articles thread they were curious about time management (and

to a lesser degree, volume) and tilt/emotional management. Neither of these seem like incredibly elaborate topics, so Ive

decided to combine them despite not being all that related.

Time Management: The annoying part about MTT play, is that its the most restrictive form of playing poker when it comes to

time freedom. Not only do the tournaments go off at a time we dont decide, but online tournaments often last 5-10 hours

and live ones multiple days.

When it comes to live poker we get very little choice in our time management since we can only one table and all breaks/rests

are structured for you. The hardest part about live poker in regards to time management, is staying away from the

temptations of the live scene in order to get enough sleep at night to play well. On any given night during say, the WSOP,

people will be going out for food, parties, strip clubs, bars, and if your not a social pariah youll often be getting invites. If

youve got to play the next day at 12 you should probably be up at least a half hour (depending on where your staying)

before so you can shower, get dressed and get some decent food in your system before you have to play. I swear to god

if another one of you fuck heads sits down next to me in a live event without showering and smell like shit Im going to

punch you in the throat.

For online poker, time management is a sort of juggling act. My personal process goes something like: Wake up, shower, set out

breakfast in front of my computer, fire up 3-6 tournaments (depending on what hour Im starting on) and continuing to

register for the next ~4 hours, with my girlfriend helping me out by making some food about 4-5 hours into my shift. My

average day normally ends up lasting within 30 minutes of 8 hours, but some might take under 6 or over 10, depending

on which tournaments I go deep in and if I stop registering early. I play around 6-10 tables at a time on two screens, and

on truly hectic days it can reach 12, but my average is around 7 or 8, which is comfortable at this point. Over the course

of the day I probably play roughly 15 tournaments, depending on which day of the week it is, and 6 sometimes 7 days a

week (though Ill take half days so I get off early and get outside for the rest of the day.)

There are various pit falls of this kind of system. What about when you get hungry? Id recommend having easily prepared meals

around that also arent junk food, and staying away from things that will make you feel lethargic (booze, turkey,

greasy/fatty food.) When it comes to using the bathroom, its nice to play with someone else in the room in this event

(though at this point with the one player to a hand/account paranoia who knows, you could be accused of wrong doing

here) or have a laptop you can move all your tables to.

As your day gets longer you should likely concentrate on the tournaments you are deeper in, as it seems a lot of players

are auto piloting early in tournaments (as I often am myself.) By the time you reach the money, and certainly by the final

table, most players are paying to every hand with at least some level of attention. Sometimes maintaining focus over a

day this long can be pretty hard, and I cant fault people who go on semi auto pilot while nine tabling, as long as every

time a serious decision comes up you pause and put real consideration towards it. Using PT/PAHUD will also help with

this, and I normally prefer to put a couple feature tables up in the most convenient spot for me, normally the highest buy

in or ones Im most deep in, and pay a lot of specific attention to those two and taking some notes. Im pretty sure

anyone who pays attention and tries to take notes on every hand of every table (while 8 tabling) all day is going to drive

themselves insane, but if you have no problem with this kind of focus, go for it.

As far as how many days a week you want to play, I find its easier for a poker player to play more days since I enjoy my work

(some of us dont) but also since we lose zero time to anything but our work. Theres no commute, no trying to find

parking, no homework (I guess reviewing and discussing your game, but thats hardly homework) and no forced social

interaction. If I had to guess, we likely save ~2 hours a day compared to your average worker since we work at home and

we can always pick which days to take off or leave early. How many days a week you should play comes down to how

much you need the money, how much you like playing, and how many other responsibilities/activities you have in life.

Tilt/Emotional Management: Ive been lucky in that Ive never had tilt problems. The last time I can remember really tilting was

over a year ago, and I was playing over my bankroll.

The easiest answer to any tilt problem is to play stakes low enough that you never feel a huge pressure to win. Financial

instability can be very tilt inducing, and if you really need money playing poker likely isnt the answer.

Next Id suggest having a stress outlet. Some people use a stress ball, play with chips in their hand, yell and scream, get

exercise, have a cold drink, take some deep breaths, take a break for a few minutes, play a youtube video that cracks

them up, etc. Find what works for you, and if its a healthy outlet, stick with it. We all have different triggers for our

stress/tilt, and figuring out what they are and avoiding them is essential to a level head.

The part I would stress the most though, is realizing how pointless it is to get angry over that which you cannot control. Like Ive

said before, you need to make your peace with variance, since youll likely never understand it and it will NEVER be fair.

Bitching about variance is not only counterproductive, but anyone who does more than a little of it will likely be branded

as a whiner and a bitch, and you dont want to be a whiner and a bitch do you?

In the end, all poker that poker winds up be