COTW #5: Basic Cold Calling

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/78/micro-stakes-full-ring/concept-week-5-basic-cold-calling-426089/

Here we'll talk about pre-flop aspects of cold calling. Firstly, cold-calling is generally bad. You are giving up initiative, often to be in a heads up pot, against a villain who is already showing strength. When you are not in a heads up pot, you end up with poor relative (and often absolute as well) position. So why do we do it?

Recall the three main edges in hold’em: card edge, positional edge, and skill edge. When a villain raises, if we believe ourselves to be ahead of their range cardwise, we generally 3-bet. Thus when we are cold calling, we are mostly trying to push our positional and skill edge. Based on their ranges, we should have a plan for cold calling from the start. The idea is either to potentially bust the player we are involved with by hitting a monster against their made hand, or to take the pot away from them on a later betting round, hopefully with outs to a better hand than theirs if that fails. In general, while these two purposes can merge somewhat, it is best to have a plan for which is the main goal unless it is highly dependent on board texture, meaning that on some board textures you will have fold equity and some you will be likely to stack them. Thus, the two most important questions about our opponents when we are considering cold calling are: do we have implied odds, and two, is their range weak enough that we will likely have fold equity on later streets? The reason the ideas of busting vs. bluffing are separate is that usually you usually don’t have much fold equity if you have large implied odds and vice versa, although there are exceptions.

These ideas can be illustrated nicely by seeing the goals of calling vs. different player types. For instance, vs. a nit who will mainly play big pair hands and AK pre-flop, but will go too far with overpairs and TPTK, we are calling for the massive implied odds they offer. The standard is that we are trying to crack aces with a set. Versus a positionally aware thinking TAG/LAG, we are calling to use our positional advantage to put pressure on them and put them in difficult situations where we can force them to fold better hands or extract value from worse in spots that are easy for us to play but marginal for them due to our positional advantage. Versus these opponents we could either bluff them or bust them based on board texture and betting action and the lines between fold equity and implied odds can become blurred. Versus a maniac we are calling to flop something strong enough to give them rope to hang themselves with. We are calling to bust them, but we may not need as strong a hand to bust them as we need to bust a nit. Finally, versus a passive fish, we are calling so that we can value bet and raise them very aggressively. As you can see then, in all cases the two factors to consider are what are our implied odds vs. this player and what is the likelihood we will have fold equity later on.

Position ties well in with this in that it often tells us more about our implied odds and/or fold equity. For most villains, we can create some kind of range for them based on their position. If they make an EP raise, we can generally assume we have implied odds, while if they make an LP raise, we will often have fold equity on later streets. There are exceptions though. Bad players generally cannot be put on a range based on position, while tricky villains will occasionally mix in more speculative hands EP for balancing their ranges. Also, extremely nitty players will have an extremely strong range regardless of position. We additionally have to consider our own position; more for the risks. For instance, if UTG raises and we call UTG+1, there is a good chance we will play a multiway pot with no initiative and both poor absolute and relative position on post-flop betting rounds. On the other hand, if the CO opens and we flat on the button, we our opening ourselves up to a potential squeeze from aggressive players from the blinds. Further, the position we are calling from and their position also tells an observant opponent something about the strength of our hands. If a thinking UTG raiser opens and we call UTG+1, he will generally put us on either a strong hand or something like a medium pocket pair that can easily make a very strong hand post-flop. Finally, it is generally terrible to cold call from the blinds; mainly due to the disadvantages you have in controlling the pot size being out of position. You lose the implied threat of future bets, and thus much of your fold equity, you often have to pay more if you are on a draw to see if you hit, and you lose much of your implied odds because it is harder to build a pot out of position.

Now we come to what hands to cold call with, and it really mostly relates to whether we have implied odds or fold equity, and also where our implied odds come from. Do our implied odds come from him overplaying strong, but not monster hands? Do they come from him being a calling station, or do they come from him bluffing too much? For instance, versus a nit who overplays big pairs, it might be wise to cold call with pocket pairs only. You will need a very strong hand to beat his, and if you have little fold equity it may be difficult to play draws successfully, so a fit or fold strategy where you attempt to hit a set may be best. Versus a persistent bluffer, we may only need a good top pair hand to bust him, we could add AK/AQ to the list, and if he has poor pre-flop hand selection and will likely play dominated hands we could even add AJ-AT and KQ/KJ to the list. The hand selection ideas versus a bluffer are similar versus a calling station, but in fact hands with huge potential like 33 may be less valuable (though probably still worth playing) versus a calling station, since you will hit a set less often than top pair playing the other range, and a good top pair may be more than sufficient to take his stack. Against all of these except perhaps the aggressive nit whose bet sizing is too small, drawing hands like 67s are pretty weak, since against the group you will likely have no fold equity when you flop a draw, and against stations even if they let you get to your draw, the pot might be too small for you by the time you hit on the turn or river for you to get his stack.

Finally, we should look at our image when deciding when to cold call. For instance, in some cases versus an MP open with us in the CO we may decide that AQo is ahead of his range. However, if we’ve been 3-betting relentlessly it may be time to cold call instead of 3-betting, as 3-betting can open us up to a 4-bet bluff. Similarly, if we haven’t been 3-betting much a 3-bet may be better in some cases than a cold call. Finally, if we are just to active and we pick up a hand like 67s we may just decide to chuck it.

In sum, the most important things to decide in cold calling are whether we will have fold equity or implied odds post flop, and if we do, we may decide to cold call. However, it must be remembered that cold-calling in and of itself is often not good and we must make up for it by a skill and/or positional edge.

By alex23

Pokey's Guide to Blind Stealing

http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Number=5348855

I’ll admit it: I’m a ruthless, heartless, helpless, hopeless, habitual blind thief. I stole blinds when I played limit hold’em, I stole blinds when I played tournaments, I steal blinds when I play no-limit hold’em. I’ve stolen blinds from my eight-year-old cousin and from an 85-year-old great-grandmother. I steal blinds when I’m playing my 16/9 full-ring TAG game and I steal blinds when I’m playing my 35/20 6-max LAG game. I’ve always stolen blinds, and I always will.

Furthermore, I’m reasonably good at it. In the last 17,500 hands, I’ve attempted to steal the blinds a whopping 38.31% of the time – that works out to be 313 steal attempts out of 817 opportunities. Over those 313 blind-steal attempts, I’ve maintained a healthy win rate of 1.10 PTBB/hand: that’s 110 PTBB/100. Despite the fact that I’ve only attempted a blind steal one time every five orbits, those steal attempts have generated over 30% of my total profits at the no-limit poker tables. Like I said: done right, blind stealing is a VERY important contributor to your overall win rate.

So, now that I’ve got your attention, let’s turn to the issue at hand: how do you steal the blinds successfully? What’s the formula, what’s the method, what’s the approach? The answer is that it’s quite easy, and despite that, it’s wildly successful.

Pokey’s Rules for Blind Theft:

1. Know yourself and know your target. Blind steals rely heavily on folding equity. The more frequently you try to steal the blinds, the weaker the average hand you’ll have when you attempt a steal. That means that for the frequent blind thief, you’re hoping NOT to get to a showdown. The good news is that the odds of your remaining opponents having a decent hand are slim – there are only two or three players left to act, and they have random hands. The odds none of the remaining players have “good” hands are as follows:

- “Super Premium Hand,” AA-JJ, AK: 94.1% chance with two players left to act, and 91.3% chance with three players left to act.

- “Premium Hand,” AA-TT, AK, AQ: 90.8% chance with two players left to act, and 86.6% chance with three players left to act.

- “Great Hand,” AA-99, AK, AQ, KQ: 87.8% chance with two players left to act, and 82.3% chance with three players left to act.

- “Very Good Hand,” all Great Hands plus 88, AJ: 84.6% chance with two players left to act, and 77.9% chance with three players left to act.

- “Good Hand,” any pair, any two broadway: 67.4% chance with two players left to act, and 55.3% chance with three players left to act.

- “Above Average Hand,” any ace, any suited, any pair, any two broadway: 29.5% chance with two players left to act, and 16% chance with three players left to act.

Note what this means: the “looser” your remaining opponents, the harder it will be to successfully steal the blinds pre-flop. If your blind steals are a standard 4xBB, then you will wager 4xBB to win 1.5xBB, so if you immediately win 3 times out of 11 you will show an immediate pre-flop profit, even if you never win a hand when you don’t win pre-flop. Since 3 out of 11 is 27.3%, if our opponents are likely to fold 72.7% of the time, we win immediately. So against players who will only play “very good hands” versus a steal attempt, you should be stealing with literally any two cards from either BB or CO, and doing so will show an instant profit even before the flop. Of course, the hand range your opponent will consider worthy of a pre-flop call will expand as you attempt steals more frequently, so you need to remain aware of both your table image and your opponent’s play style.

2. Aggression, aggression, aggression. When you get called pre-flop, this is not a tragedy – it’s an opportunity. Most opponents crumble quickly against steady aggression; to successfully steal blinds, we need to apply that steady aggression. However, we need to do so CAREFULLY so as to make sure that our attempts are profitable. The flop is going to improve our hand about one time in three. Let’s assume that when we’re called, we’re typically behind. This will be the case when we are relentless with our steal attempts and our opponents are conservative with their calls. While this sounds like a recipe for bankruptcy, it’s actually not bad at all. Consider that even if our opponent is playing as incredibly tight, some of his hand range will include unpaired pre-flop hands like AK. So, what are the odds that by the flop our opponent’s hand is at least strong enough to beat unimproved pocket deuces?

- If our opponent is only playing “Super Premium Hands,” his hand on the flop will beat unimproved pocket deuces 73% of the time.

- If our opponent is playing “Premium Hands,” his hand on the flop will beat unimproved pocket deuces 64% of the time.

- If our opponent is playing “Great Hands,” his hand on the flop will beat unimproved pocket deuces 59.4% of the time.

- If our opponent is playing “Very Good Hands,” his hand on the flop will beat unimproved pocket deuces 56.7% of the time.

- If our opponent is playing “Good Hands,” his hand on the flop will beat unimproved pocket deuces 49% of the time.

- If our opponent is playing “Above Average Hands,” his hand on the flop will beat unimproved pocket deuces 40.1% of the time.

Now we get into the art of blind stealing: how large should our flop bet be? We want to make sure our flop bet is at the same size whether we’ve flopped well or not, but we’re balancing competing issues: how often our opponent will improve, how often we will have a strong hand, how often our opponent will improve and still fold, how often our opponent will improve and we’ll improve more, how often we’ll improve but our opponent will improve more, etc. As complicated as this all sounds, we’ve got a few things going for us: namely, that we have played the hand aggressively so far and that we will have position on this and every remaining street in the hand.

For people who steal infrequently (say, 20% of the time or less), your flop bets should be sizeable. Given that you are only attempting a steal 20% of the time, you will be stealing with reasonably solid hands yourself: collectively, all suited aces, any pair, and any two broadway cards make up 20.4% of possible holdings, meaning that your hand on the flop will beat unimproved pocket deuces 47.6% of the time. The odds that your hand is worth pursuing is therefore significant enough to warrant a full pot-sized continuation bet from you; if your opponent folds, great, and if not, you have a valuable hand often enough to make this a highly profitable hand for you.

However, I don’t recommend stealing “only” 20% of the time. I recommend stealing much more often than that. As an example, my steal rate of 38.3% corresponds roughly to stealing with “any pair, any ace, any king, any two broadway cards, and any suited connector down to 87s.” If that’s your steal range, the chances that on the flop you have at least a pair will be noticeably lower (something like 42.8%). The answer is not to bet less often on the flop; rather, the answer is to bet a smaller quantity on the flop. While a pot-sized bet needs to win 50% of the time to be immediately profitable, a 2/3-pot sized bet only needs to win 40% of the time to be immediately profitable.

Notice what this means: if your opponent plays very tightly against your pre-flop raise, the odds that he has a decent hand on the flop go up, lowering the value of your flop bets. However, the odds that he CALLS your pre-flop bet go DOWN, raising the value of your PREFLOP bets. At this stage of the hand, we’ve already had two chances to win the pot: one if our opponent folds to the pre-flop bet and one if our opponent folds to the flop bet.

Consider the value of a steal attempt from the big blind against the various opponents, assuming they will (a) fold pre-flop if their hand is outside of the specified range (winning 0.75 PTBBs), and (b) only call the flop with a hand that can beat 22 (when they fold, we win 2.75 PTBBs, and when they fold, we lose 5.5 PTBBs). This assumes our betting is 2 PTBB pre-flop and 3.5 PTBB on the flop. If we consider only the tightest and loosest opponents, we see this:

- Super Premium Hands: 94.1% of the time they fold pre-flop, 27% of the time they fold on the flop.

EV = 0.941*(+0.75) + (0.059*0.27)*(+2.75) + (0.059*0.73)*(-5.5) = +0.51 PTBB.

- Premium Hands: 90.8% of the time they fold pre-flop, 36% of the time they fold on the flop.

EV = 0.908*(+0.75) + (0.092*0.36)*(+2.75) + (0.092*0.64)*(-5.5) = +0.45 PTBB.

Skipping ahead to the loosest players:

- Good Hands: 67.4% of the time they fold pre-flop, 51% of the time they fold on the flop.

EV = 0.674*(+0.75) + (0.326*0.51)*(+2.75) + (0.326*0.49)*(-5.5) = +0.08 PTBB.

- Above Average Hands: 29.5% of the time they fold preflop, 59.9% of the time they fold on the flop.

EV = 0.295*(+0.75) + (0.705*0.599)*(+2.75) + (0.705*0.401)*(-5.5) = -0.17 PTBB.

Once again, this demonstrates a bizarre truism: the less likely your opponent is to fold, the less profitable your blind-stealing will prove to be in terms of folding equity. Note well two points, however: first, this assumes that our opponent is calling EVERY time he has a hand that is at least as strong as a pair of deuces; thus, the opponent holding 22 on a board of AKQ is assumed to call our continuation bet. Also, our EV calculations have thus far assumed that whenever we have not won with the flop bet, we lose every time. This should prove FAR from true, especially against the loosest of our opponents. A safe bet is that we will win at LEAST 1/3 of the time when our flop bet is called, and that safely makes all of these calculations +EV.

After the flop, easy and simple rules must be thrown out the window. From here on in, there is too much “art” in the play to be easily categorized in a summary like this. I do want to point out a few simple points that might make help you in your blind-stealing adventures:

1. Much like bears in the woods, your opponents are more afraid of you than you are of them. This is your hand – you’ve raised pre-flop and bet the flop. You’re SCARY, here. Given that your opponent has exhibited NO aggression at this point, your folding equity remains solid. Use that ruthlessly. If a scare card hits on the turn and your opponent checks to you again, fire that second (third?) barrel! Don’t be afraid to bet the turn ace, the turn king, the turn pair, the turn flush card, the turn straight card, or the turn blank if you think your opponent is running scared. This is another place where knowing your enemy helps.

2. If your opponent gets aggressive, TRUST him. There is no shame in folding your blind steal attempt. If the flop comes A83r and your opponent bets the pot, or check-raises big, feel free to fold your KQo. In fact, feel OBLIGATED to do so. Blind stealing is decidedly a “small pot game” strategy; if you are risking your stack on a blind steal, you’ve screwed up big-time. Similarly, if you are stealing with total garbage (86s or some such) and someone re-raises, GET OUT. Fold immediately, and without hesitation. Don’t bother seeing what the flop brings – there’s no profit in it.

3. Take free cards if they are beneficial to you. One strength of this strategy is that you’ll often have good draws on the flop, and your opponent will usually offer you a free card on the turn. If you’ve got a good draw, feel free to take it. Don’t ALWAYS take it, though – I’ve often fired another barrel with a hand like Tc9c when the board looked like QcJd4s4c. Not only did that turn card 4c improve my hand by giving me nine more outs, but it also scared the doody out of my opponent, making him think that I just turned trips. Why not take advantage of the fear? Instead of playing for my 2-to-1 draw, I can bet immediately and win the pot a significant chunk of the time, and STILL win 1/3 of the time at showdown (usually for even more money, since my opponent won’t see my straight or flush coming).

4. Don’t get discouraged if your steals fail. We’re often worried that because our opponent played back at us the last time we tried to steal, we need to tighten up considerably. Don’t. Our opponents don’t adjust NEARLY as much as we think they do. Just because you got re-raised pre-flop the last time you tried to steal doesn’t mean that they’ve got your number; more likely, SB had AA when he fought back. Now he’s got 92o, and he does NOT have a pair of balls. Hit him again, and keep hitting him.

5. Know your image! While players don’t adjust very well or very far or very effectively, they DO adjust. If you’ve picked up the pot with pre-flop bets and flop bets the last four hands in a row, fold your 98s in the CO this time. You are not a slave to your cards; understand your table image, understand that your opponents are getting pissed off at you, and understand that your folding equity falls every additional time you win a pot without showing your cards. After you’ve folded pre-flop three or four times in a row, you can go back to stealing and bullying, but give your opponents a tiny chance to catch their breaths between steals.

6. DO NOT SLOWPLAY. I cannot emphasize this enough. Your entire strategy here is a bluff that depends entirely on your playing your monsters and your junk identically. There’s always the temptation when you have AA pre-flop and catch A55 on the flop to suddenly change gears. Don’t! With any luck, your opponent won’t believe you, and will call all-in with QQ unimproved. Not only will you stack him, but you’ll also get even more respect the next time you play fast on a board of A55…only this time you’ll have 98s….Fast play of big hands is CRUCIAL to the success of this strategy. Not only does it boost the shania of all your weak junk by elevating your folding equity, but it also gets paid off much more frequently than it would if you were only nut-peddling.

By Pokey

COTW #4: Blind Stealing

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/78/micro-stakes-full-ring/concept-week-4-blind-stealing-419666/

Why should I steal blinds?
It's only 1.5BBs, why should I get involved?

Because 1.5BBs is a LOT OF ****ING MONEY!!!
For performing a single blind steal, you can win 1.5BBs (a successful steal equates to 75PTBB/100 which is a silly amount). Of course it won't work every time (nor should you steal at every single opportunity), but even when the blinds defend, you still get to play a pot post-flop with:
- Position (this is huge)
- Initiative
- Post-flop value

So you can often take down an even bigger pot on the flop with a c-bet (more on that later).
Stealing adds a TON to your bottom line.

I ought to say something on that note, about "stealing" with a huge hand. Suppose we are on the button with AA, and we have a fairly aggressive regular in the SB, who 3bets 8% facing a steal, over a decent sample. We have a bit of history, and he's 3bet our steals a few times. We've 4bet his re-steal with A4s once, and he snap-folded. So now we raise and he 3bets. What should we do?

Well, 4betting is bad. I know a lot of you are stuck in auto-4bet-get-it-in mode, but this is a spot where we should be flatting. His 3bet range here is really wide, and he's not prone to shoving over 4bets. Of course he's getting it in with QQ+ and AK here, but 4betting is also folding out a ton of worse hands which we want to keep in the pot. We have position and can play the hand much more profitably post-flop than pre-flop. We can induce huge mistakes post-flop, whereas by 4betting pre-flop we allow him to play much closer to optimally. Range manipulation ftw. Here's an example to illustrate:

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (CO): $49.75
BTN: $35.10
SB: $28.15
BB: $72.90
UTG: $50.60
UTG+1: $78.75
MP1: $50.00
MP2: $28.45

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with Kh Ks
4 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, 1 fold, SB calls $1.25, BB raises to $8, Hero calls $6.50, SB calls $6.50

Flop: ($24.00) 3s 3d Qd (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $16.50, SB raises to $20.15 all in, BB raises to $36.65, Hero raises to $41.75 all in, BB calls $5.10

Turn: ($127.65) 4s (3 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($127.65) 9s (3 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $127.65
Hero shows Kh Ks (two pair, Kings and Threes)
SB mucks Qs Jd
BB shows Ah Qh (two pair, Queens and Threes)
Hero wins $43.20
Hero wins $81.45
(Rake: $3.00)

Additional history is so situational that I can't really go into much detail about it. However, I will say that some regulars do exceedingly stupid things when in BB vs BTN or BvB situations. I've seen a lot of this (as Goldseraph calls it) "reg spite syndrome" at 50NL, and you should adjust accordingly. If you've seen that someone is going to be making moves more often post-flop and getting it in lighter, you should be willing to either tighten up your steal ranges or to get it in lighter post-flop to counteract their wider ranges. Figure out when they're spewing and take advantage.

What should I steal with?
Late position play is such a personal preference thing, and so situational, that I'm not going to construct exact ranges for you. If you are uncomfortable stealing with 95s, or if you suck direly post-flop, then don't steal with it, that's fine. However, I will give some general guidelines:

- Play really loose from the BTN. Abuse it. Play loose from the CO. Play tighter from the HJ. Hijack is getting towards middle position, and having two players to act behind you makes stealing a lot trickier.

- Pick hands that play well post-flop. This includes suited connectors, suited gappers, pocket pairs, suited broadways, strong offsuit broadways, suited aces... basically if something is s00ted you can't go too far wrong. If you're uncomfortable playing offsuit aces like A2o-A9o I suggest you avoid them. Personally I still steal with them.

- Against tight players, open up your steal range. Personally I steal with ATC against a lot of players. But stealing with 40% of hands from the button against tight blinds is still pretty respectable. Just see how much you can get away with (you'd be surprised). People just don't adjust anywhere near as much as you would expect. Ball till you fall.

- Against loose players, particularly ones who don't like folding post-flop, I'd avoid hands which have little top pair/middle pair potential, such as 75s. Because you're going to be seeing a lot more showdowns, you're going to be relying on equity and playability rather than fold equity. Weight your range towards hands that can flop decently with a high frequency. Against loose-aggressive blinds, you should tighten up your steal range (or just leave the table). However, against a loose-passive fish, you can play hands like K8o and Q9o profitably, since you will flop top or middle pair pretty often, and you can get a couple of streets of value out of them. Domination just isn't as much of an issue against someone who is playing 60% of their hands.

Also, against these kind of players, if you do happen to flop a decent (but not strong) draw, you can also check back the flop a lot and take a free card. 4 cards for the price of 3.

Bet sizing
So... here is something which for me is a big factor in blind stealing. When you steal a lot, it's a good idea to make your bet sizing a bit smaller. It gives you a better price on your steals. Split's probably done this already in his bet sizing post, but let's quickly run through the math behind this:

Assuming our hand has zero post-flop value (which it doesn't, of course):
- If we open to 4BB, we risk 4 to win 1.5, so we need our steal to work 73% of the time.
- If we open to 3.5BB, we risk 3.5 to win 1.5, so we need our steal to work 70% of the time.
- If we open to 3BB, we risk 3 to win 1.5, so we need our steal to work 67% of the time.
- If we open to 2.5BB, we risk 2.5 to win 1.5, so we need our steal to work 63% of the time.
- If we open to 2BB, we risk 2 to win 1.5, so we need our steal to work 57% of the time.

Another reason for making our steals smaller is that we have position. So we want the SPR (stack-to-pot ratio) to be higher, since we can leverage our position more effectively post-flop. A smaller raise size accomplishes this.

Also, a quick note about exploitative bet sizing: against unknowns and unobservant fish, you can open larger with your better hands, since they don't know or don't care what your standard late position open is. Flex your bet sizing (to reassert your dominance).

Stack sizes
Pay attention to stack sizes. If you're deep with one of the blinds, you can steal liberally (especially with suited cards). You have higher implied odds and it's a nightmare for your opponent to play OOP while deep.

Versus shorter players, you can tighten up if they're a push-or-fold short stack, or open lots of high-card hands like Q9o if they're loose. Then flop TP and get it in. Profit!

By HappyPixel

My Note Taking Scheme

http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=6331669&an=0&page=2#Post6331669

"Falls in love with TPTK"
When I see someone going to town with TPTK, especially if it's all-in, more than once, or against a good player, I know I need to make two adjustments:
- Bluff less
- Value bet two pair or better VERY hard

"Minbets are weak"
This note is a terrific opportunity to sort value bets from bluffs. If villain makes a tiny bet, I can punish with a float, a bluff-raise, or a slowplay, and I can do it with confidence.

"Positionally unaware"
This warns me not to treat LP bets as light, and can save quite a bit of money in blind defense situations.

"Likes to test pre-flop raises"
A class of player enjoys calling pre-flop raises OOP and then leading any flop. These players are so exploitable it's beautiful: you should frequently bluff-raise with air and slowplay with any made hand.

"Overvalues draws"
Make those flop and turn bets larger, but be afraid of scare cards on the river: there's no crime in check/folding when the obvious draw hits against this player.

"Defends blinds excessively"
Steal less often, but steal harder: bigger flop bets, second barrels, that sort of thing.

By Pokey



Note Taking - Abbreviations
LRR - limp re-raises
BISK - bluffs if shown weakness post-flop
BRISK - bluffs river if shown weakness
TRP - trappy post-flop (c/r, floats, etc)
CR - Check raises frequently
DNB - do not bluff
DBS - donk bets strong
DBW - donk bets weak
MRS – min-raises flop strong
MRW – min-raises flop weak
SCBW- small c-bet weak
SCBS- small c-bet strong
PDA – plays draws aggressively
PDP – plays draws passively
ISOL- isolates limpers
ISOI- isolates isos
NPA – not positional aware
SS – short stacker (maybe note stack size)
NPND – no pair, no draw
CFTP – can’t fold TP
FOF – fit or fold
SOL – stacks off light
CDL – calls down light
SOOT – loves any two suited
FC – flush chaser
SDV – showdown value
CRW – c/r weak hands

Board texture:
Axx – board with A high and two random unconnected cards
425s – two tone or suited
425m – monotone
425r – rainbow
425s9s – turn completes suit
4259ss – double suited board

Color Code:
Green – fish
Dark Purple – big fish
Orange – good regular
Dark Blue – regular
Yellow – all around nit
Pink – short stacker
Red – very aggressive

(?) after note to mark suspicion
?-?-blank-!-!! as a confirmation of suspicion and how strong the read is

Notes to take:
• Ranges in different spots post-flop (polarized vs balanced)
• 3b frequency and range (polarized, unpolarized, clueless, SCs, etc.)
• Positional awareness
• What level opponent’s are thinking on?
• Exploitable tendencies
• Bet sizing
• Timing tells: tank/check/shove, tank/bet, etc
• How they play: draws, board texture, second pair type hands, monsters, etc

• Line w monster on dry/wet boards
• Line w draws
• Line w TPMK, especially as aggressor IP (pot control wet boards? on turn? riv?)

Example of good notes:
• called 3x pfr oop, led 3 streets w 4 high NPND (bet sizes could make this better)
• r/f 12bb co vs bb
• l/c w 97s 14bb EP, shove Q29r
• call iso w 64o
• flat 3b oop w 25bb, c/f KQ8
• min rr AA
• complete 72o (atc)
• one and done (good float candidate)
• SOL (type of hands: TPTK, TPNK, OP, etc.)
• calls 3b oop w KTs
• called pfr from bb w AK, c/c Kxx, v-bet riv (again, bet sizes could make this better)
• value checks riv
• db (s/b) (w/s) (small/big) ( weak/strong)
• limp rr EP w xx. Flop J high FD, c/c flop and turn w no plan
• flop c/r or raise range (TPMK-GK?, TPTK+?, polar?, depends on board texture?)
• floats w no plan

Example of notes from GC’s ep3:
• 12-09 NL100 6m (he starts with day, stakes and game everytime)
• limpfolds (use l/f if easier)
• betsize w TPTK on Q8385. 3-7.5, 5-13.5, ck.
• thinks c/r = FD
• saw me c/r gutter as pfr in bvb
• 3b sb vs btn and gave up on Q82r
• bvb, call 3b OOP and c/r KT4s. 35-10-17 (35=c/r size, 10=bet size, 17= pot size)
• Cc 3b w SS, db Qxx
• defend sb vs btn, c/mr J64s
• c/c, x/x, overbetjam 984T8 (overbetjams huge hands?)
• open shoved riv twice
• uses auto buttons
• c/tankcall trips?
• Cb 8-10, 18-27 w AA on KQ8s5
• Tb 8-14 in bvb on Qxx as bluff (Tb = 2 barrel)
• psb turn and riv w 99 on T32s8
• SS flat minpfr bvb w Q6s, flat 733, bluff off stack on turn when ck to
• underbets for value w invulnerable hands? psb for value w vulnerable hands?

Reminder! Summary for COTW #3

This will serve as a reminder for me to write a summary on COTW #3 because there is a lot of very good and useful information in there.

COTW #3: Pre-flop Positional Awareness

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/78/micro-stakes-full-ring/concept-week-3-pre-flop-positional-awareness-413903/

1. How position effects the Hands we play – Generally speaking we should be playing more hands and playing them more aggressively as our pre-flop position improves. Money flows clockwise around the poker table, from the blinds to the button. So it makes sense for us to see more flops and take the initiative more when we are in late position. Save EP for hands that can take some heat.

2. Who are the four players around us – We should be aware of our position at a given table vs different types of opponents. However, I think we should pay the most attention to the two players immediately to our left and right. Why, because these players will be in the blinds when we are in LP, and will be in LP when we are in the blinds. We are going to be involved in a lot of decisions based on our reads and stats on theses four people. These people are the ones who we are going to decide to steal from and the ones we will be make blind defense decisions about. We narrow or expand our Steal/Defense range based largely on how these people play. For example, we are probably not going to be stealing from the button with any two cards when the big blind runs something like 30/15 and enjoys playing back at LP raises, but against a fit or fold 10/5 it’s a +Ev play. While we want to be looser and more aggressive, especially from the Hi-Jack seat to the button, we need to remember that the blinds, because of their forced antes, have the last say pre-flop.

3. Can we manipulate our post flop position? – We hear this called an ISO raise a lot of the time because we are trying to drive players with better position than us out of the pot so we can concentrate on one or two players who have limped. What we are trying to do is the classic raise pre-flop, take it down post-flop with a Continuation bet. What many people have a hard time grasping is that, like stealing, we can do this, in certain situations, with any two cards and have a positive expectation. The play can really be all about position and have nothing to do with the cards we actually hold. Now, I don’t advocate going nuts with this, especially since most micro tables, at least at NL25 and below, very rarely offer this spot. We need to start thinking like this more though when we have hands like 57s in the cutoff and it’s one or two weak/tight limpers to us and we are pretty sure the button/blinds will fold if we make a raise. This effectively makes us the button post-flop and gives us the initiative also, thus opening up several ways for us to win other than having to actually make a hand.

4. Punish those who open limp from the small blind – I’m now raising any two cards from the big blind against small blinds who limp in when it’s folded to them. Most of the time they just fold or fold to the flop c-bet that comes about 100% of the time.

5. If we have bad position change tables – This gets a bit into the last “Concept of the Week” but it’s worth repeating. If we have players to our right or left that cause us to change our pre-flop play significantly, especially LP play where we make our money, leave the table or try to change seats. Don’t let your ego get the best of you and try to beat the guy who keeps three betting your steal attempts. Let it go.

By CaptVimes


Other informative posts regarding the topic from the thread:

Q: I wish you would have delved a little further into the types of hands that should be played in MP and LP. Like I have trouble identifying if 67s is a better hand than an AT, and if that changes based on position.

A: 67s v AT...
67s > AT OTB v a normal EP raiser
AT > 67s OTB v a normal CO raiser
our positional choices can often times be based off of other people's position, and subsequently range change.



There are some standard rules about how to tackle a raiser against whom you have position. A solid and well-known one is the 5-10 rule.
The 5-10 rule: Against a pre-flop raiser against whom you have position, you should call with any decent speculative hand if the cost is less than 5% of effective stacks, and fold if the cost is >10% of effective stacks. Between 5-10%, you need to make a decision based on the guy you're playing, the range he is playing based on his opening position, if and how many limpers are between you and him, the likeliness you get called or re-raised by someone (especially if they have position on you), and your own hand.

Terminology:
decent speculative hands: The best are, in order, lower pocket pairs (say 88-22, though some would include 99,TT in this), suited connectors such as T9s-54s, T8s-64s, Axs

The ordering is down to this reasoning:
lower PP: They either flop monsters (sets) or not, so are very easy to play from that point.

suited connectors (no-gap and 1-gap): If they don't connect to a solid flush/straight draw or 2-pair hand, easy to fold. note the change of a one gapper hitting is a solid percentage less than a no-gapper, but the 'hiddenness' of the hand makes it more profitable when it does hit, imo.

Axs: These are transparent, but can be profitable against an aggrotard, or a raised pot with several limpers. Keep the pot small if you hit the ace, a tight player's range will have a lot of bigger aces in it.

Other considerations:
How much other action there is, and where in the range of 5%-10% you are. For example if you are facing a tight raiser under the gun with a full stack of $10, and you have $7, and the cost is 60c to call him, your percentage is 60/700, 8.5% - pretty close to 10%. I'd probably still play the PP if it's likely to be just the two of us, but a fold is okay here too. If there's a limper after him, I definitely play the PP, and maybe the suited connectors. If there's more limpers, I widen the range to Axs.

You have to remember this is all for in position (typically the CO where you think the button will fold, or the button).

There are further variants to this, such as the 3-6 rule, where even more speculative hands like offsuit connectors, can be playable for <3%>6% effective stacks, but decide if it falls between, but you should first get familiar with, and have firmly embedded into your game, the 5-10 rule.

Also, remember the likeliness of making money with this depends on the type of player you're playing (eg TAG/LAG/Maniac/calling station/rock), and THEIR OPENING POSITION.

Your implied odds go down some way for the same type of player if they are raising in MP2, say, compared to UTG, because their range is wider. Wide ranges mean it's harder for them to have a top-notch hand, and it's harder for you to put them on hands too - most important though is, when you hit, the odds of them having something they'll play back at you go down.



A few things I like to add;
First its good to determine if you villain is positionally aware, this changes your options a lot. If we have a 11/8 UTG that is not positionally aware his range is much different that an 11/8 that is positionally aware or is extremely positionally aware. This will change how profitable your speculative hands can be, and when its good to 3bet. The first 11/8, I may choose to 3bet a hand like 97s if I know he is capable of folding to a cbet, but the second his range is so tight a 3bet will not get any FE, but he is more likely to stack off to two pair/str8.

Another thing about using position to your advantage is picking up abandon pots and reading regs in multi-way raised pots. The first one is explanatory, you can pick up a lot of abandon pots when you are last to act; the next one is exploiting the tendency that regs will play more ABC when its multi-way pot and they are OOP.



Since position matters a lot and even more so with thinking, positionally aware opponents, should that change your 3betting attempts as a steal or a flop c-bet steal?
If they can't adjust to this, this is HUGE +EV. Say a standard ABC poker reg is raising 3x bb from middle position, I put him on 22+, and any broadway with a heavier emphasis on the Ax hands. so what does 3betting do to them? It puts them in this choice that says "my opponent has a good hand, does my hand hold up well to his hand?". I think he only calls here with AQ+ and pocket pairs, raises most of the time with JJ+, and folds everything else.

So when my opponents are only calling with this range, I need a range that counters his well (with fold equity in the equation). I like to 3 bet here with all the premium hands AQ+, 88+, suited connectors, connectors, and suited gapped connectors. Not this exact range and not every time of course. The reason I do this is because if I only 3bet premiums and he only calls premiums, there isn't going to be a big +/- EV difference. Say we 3 bet with AK and high pp's only... what happens on an a45 two toned board? With high pocket pairs, you aren't going to get value out of it. with AK, you are going to bet for value but only really get money out of AQ and split with AK (negative value after considering rake). also if you get check/raised, you are never in a good position. He either has AK or a set there so at best you are tied. The only thing that makes this 3 bet really +EV is fold equity on the flop.

When a majority of your winnings comes from c-bets and fold equity, this means you should open up with hands that are going to get stacks or continuously pick up small pots with positional aggression.

Now say the same scenario as last time happened but this time, you have 67, 3 bet, and he calls. flop again comes a45. you c-bet here when he checks and you float when he bets. When he checks, he usually has a pocket pair and is afraid of you "AK" or he has AQ+ and is going for a check/call or check/raise so he doesn't scare away your "TT-KK". When he donks out, he either has Ax or is just making some weird play thinking you might fold w/o an ace.

The turn is the street where people tell you what hand they have. When he checks again, I bet with or w/o a hand picking up a medium sized pot. If he bets the turn, I need to analyze whether he is committed to his hand and how that compares to the odds of me hitting my draw (implied odds).

The point I'm trying to get across is position allows you to supercharge speculative hands. you can give them up cheap still but also, when you hit something, it isn't expected and you are getting stacks. Aggression is a positionally aware person's best friend.

COTW #2: Table Selection

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/78/micro-stakes-full-ring/concept-week-2-table-selection-409172/

Set yourself some rules for joining tables. Table selection rules should vary from site to site and time of the day. For instance, your table selection criteria are going to be much higher on Friday night at 9pm than they are at 3am on a Monday. A set of rules would look something like this:
• No table under XX% players/flop
• No more than 1 player on the waitlist
• No more than X play with stack smaller than 20BB
• At least X players with 80BB or bigger stacks

Finding a table that meets your criteria is just half the battle. The next thing you want to do is make sure you have a decent seat at this table. Things that make a good seat:
• SS'ers to our left
• Aggro Regs across from us
• Fishy players/Maniacs to our direct right

After you find yourself a good table and seat, you want to keep an eye out the table to make sure that it stays good. Create another set of rules used to reevaluate the table from time to time:
• Average VPIP less than XX%, leave
• More than X mid to short stacks
• Good regs to your left and right
• No fish at the table

Starting a table can lead to some of the best tables. In general, poor players do not like to wait to play so they will sit down and play with you. You can choose to start a 50BB min table and avoid short stackers completely as well. One added advantage is your ability to select your seat early on.

Essentially having a SS on our direct right makes us play effectively short-stacked.
I'll adjust my steal raise sizing when I have SS on my left (lots of BTN min. raising) because these guys rarely adjust and you save BBs when the decided to 3bet/shove.

I love nothing more than sitting at a table to the immediate left of a fish with a huge stack and slowly bleeding the chips away from him (chips flow in a clockwise motion). I will even close down some of my tables and focus on that fish if necessary. When I first sit at a table, I try to decipher which players are weaker than myself and focus on playing pots with them. If there's an uber fish with a stack, then I play a lot more pots.

By jasons0147