Automatic Poker
A Short Stacker’s Guide To Winning Poker Jimmie James Jr. Copyright © 2013 Jimmie James Jr. The author is not to be held responsible for any monetary losses incurred by anyone following the strategies laid out within this book. No guarantee of winning at poker is being claimed nor should any guarantee be assumed by the reader. Upon usage of the concepts and strategies provided by the author, the reader assumes full responsibility for any wins or losses incurred as a result. In reading this book, the reader releases the author of all responsibility of any result thereafter incurred. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher. The Publisher makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any commercial damages. 2013-05-12
Dedicated to all the “Poker Orphans” who had the game they love taken hostage by Black Friday and along with it their pursuit of happiness. In this land of liberty, may our leaders have the wisdom to fully restore America’s ultimate game of skill back to We the People.
Acknowledgments I would like to offer special thanks to those who made the writing of this book possible. ♦ To my mother, without your tireless dedication and editing stamina, this project would have been impossible. ♠ To my father, for introducing me to the game of Poker. ♣ To my children, who offer inspirational diversions from the mundane. ♥ To my wife, Margie, for your patience and understanding during the countless hours my attention has been diverted toward something besides what is most important to me in the world.
Introduction “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.” -Albert Einstein Everyone wants to be a winner. Pick any competitive game or sport, and I will show you thousands of people dedicated to getting better at it. Poker is no different. Millions of people now play with the hopes of being the next poker “star.” So, with all the interest, why do only a small percentage of poker players become winners over the long term? There is more than one answer to the question, and all are partially correct. No-Limit Hold’em is a complicated, multifaceted game that is easy to learn but extremely difficult to master. It is unique among most other strategy games, because it can be fun for long stretches of time, even if a person is losing money. And the fact that a complete novice can sit down with the best player in the world and win over the short term makes the game very seductive. In my opinion, the principle reason it is so difficult to improve at poker has more to do with a lack of sound information and structured learning processes than anything else. That is not to say there is a lack of “authorities” in the poker world. There is no shortage of books, articles, websites, and forums out there that discuss strategy. Occasionally, some of the information is decent, but most of the time it is pure rubbish or, at best, poorly articulated and lacking in clarity. Currently, the best way to learn is through one-on-one teaching. There are hundreds of poker coaches out there ready to offer up their services to players wishing to improve, but as the old saying goes, “those that can do…” And while this is not always the case, most of the teachers who really know what they are doing charge so much for their assistance that only the very rich can afford them. There is another hurdle that many people, myself included, face that is almost insurmountable, and that is a lack of time. It is no wonder that the majority of players who dominate poker today are in their early to mid-twenties. They typically have little responsibility and an infinite amount of time day and night to work hard on their games and improve, while the rest of us get left in the dust. I paint a pretty glum picture for an aspiring poker player with other responsibilities besides his or her poker game. The fact is, the entire reason I am writing this is to give inquisitive players of all ages a fresh avenue for learning the game. And while this is not a complete beginner’s book, those fairly new to the game are given the chance to start off on the right track as winning players by using my strategies. Additionally, more experienced players looking to try something different can benefit from short stacking, as it offers them a chance to rebuild their game from scratch. My teaching style may be a bit different than what you are used to seeing. It is my philosophy that one should keep things very simple in the beginning and then steadily build upon a solid foundation. Forcing a beginner to start off by playing a deep stack against skilled players seems ridiculous to me. It’s like handing a seven-year-old a baseball bat and telling him to go learn how to hit by facing a major league pitcher.
Rather, it seems much more natural to learn poker by starting off with a small stack until one masters the basics of the game. My completely chart-based beginner strategy will ease you into things by teaching you a simple and repeatable blueprint for playing winning poker. By just following the charts, a complete novice can begin playing stronger poker today without any knowledge of advanced strategies. Once the basic system is mastered, you will be ready for the intermediate strategy which builds upon what you have already learned by showing you how to adjust to table dynamics. You will learn to read what other players are doing and adapt your game accordingly. The rest of the book will then be spent adding to your poker repertoire by covering all aspects of every street through practical explanations and examples. I will show you how to play a virtually unexploitable pre-flop game and skillfully navigate every post-flop nuance you will face. You will be taught how to think systematically through the merits of checking, calling, raising, or folding. By using my methods, you will rapidly learn to think on a higher level than almost all of your competition. Beyond strategic considerations, I will also cover every intangible necessary to succeed as an online poker player. I will show you how to use software to obtain reads on other players, how to set up your computer for efficient sessions that maximize hourly rate, and how to adapt your play for a variety of different poker games. My ultimate goal is to provide a way to get better at no-limit cash games in a progressive way with the least amount of risk possible. Only a minimal investment is needed to employ the concepts I will lay out for you to potentially grow a bankroll into a substantial side income. After reading and mastering the strategies in this book, you will have a solid foundation based upon fundamental poker concepts and will be well on your way to building your game into a force to be reckoned with as either a full-time or part-time player. The sky is the limit, and your success is only limited by your willingness to work on your game.
How To Learn From This Book Knowledge and adequate preparation are the keys to winning at poker. Just like any other game or sport, poker has basic fundamentals that, when ignored, lead to leaks that consistently detract from potential winnings. Most poker players, no matter how “accomplished” they think they are, generally have little idea of what they are doing at the table. The typical approach to teaching poker provides theory without substance and spends very little time showing you how to think through hands in a pragmatic and fundamental way. As a result, it is not really the fault of the ambitious player that his or her game is filled with numerous flaws. It is usually a general lack of direction or improper education that causes someone to play a futile or -EV style of poker. I believe that one should choose the path of least resistance in learning and that poker should be treated just like any other skilled pursuit by starting off very basic and then methodically learning more advanced concepts. This book is designed to provide a quick and clear path to strong poker by providing all the tools needed to build a complete and well-rounded game. It builds a solid foundation of fundamentals, as it thoroughly covers every aspect of pre-flop and post-flop play. I offer a multi-pronged approach to teaching which includes: Detailed explanations of fundamental concepts Practical implementation of fundamentals Specific strategies to incorporate into your game Easy to follow charts Numerous hand examples Comprehensive quizzes First, I will discuss why playing a short stack works and introduce you to the key fundamentals that epitomize a strong poker game. I will then provide you with a chart-based basic beginner system. It is a simplified version of a more complex method that is intended as an introductory crash course to short stacking just to get your feet wet. It is designed to make the transition to what may be a new style of play a bit smoother. Once you fully grasp the basic strategy, you will be ready to move on to the next stage of your development. The intermediate strategy will introduce using a Heads-Up-Display, or HUD, and will incorporate reads based on the stats of opponents into your play. You will learn how to recognize the
relative strength of various holdings depending on the tendencies of other players, table dynamics, and board textures. The intermediate charts will serve as your default strategy going forward. Once you master them, you will likely be playing at a higher level than the majority of your competition. The rest of the book will then be dedicated to showing you how to hone your game and build upon that core strategy. In between playing sessions, you should always be continuing your study by focusing on areas of your game that you consider to be weak. Once you master the various strategies in this book, you will learn that difficult poker decisions are not as frequent as you might think. The game will then become even more enjoyable because knowledge is power, and outwitting your opponents is fun. I have divided each strategic concept by chapter. I will cover opening range strategies, 3-betting/4betting strategies, calling strategies, and post-flop betting strategies. Each chapter will slowly add to your poker repertoire and build upon your default strategy by adding tactics to your game that go beyond the charts. I will then show you how to adjust your hand planning according to what opponents are doing at the tables. You will learn to identify, classify, and adjust key phases of your game to multiple common player types that you will face via a simple and easy-to-remember labeling system. Last, you will learn how to optimize and improve the efficiency of your play. Chapters 16 and 17 will show you how to manage your day-to-day sessions like a pro, and Chapter 18 will help you hone your mental game. Automatic Poker is unique among other poker strategies in that it offers a way to get started immediately moving toward a better game. My basic strategy provides a system that anyone can learn in a matter of minutes and instantly become competitive at the micro stakes. In fact, my strategies are proven in actual play on real money poker sites. If you already have money on a poker site, you can print my basic charts right now and get started today. Just read through Chapter 5, and off you go. Just keep in mind that the charts in this book are not designed to be a panacea nor a permanent vehicle for success. Their purpose is to provide you with “training wheels” that force you to play with sound poker fundamentals immediately, while you learn. They allow you to overhaul your current game right away and provide a valuable ongoing practice tool for you to use while you continue through the book. Once you are implementing all the strategies found in these pages, before long, you will find that it is no longer necessary to rely on charts during play. Your game will be rapidly evolving into a welloiled machine as you learn to base your decisions on table dynamics rather than a static system of
play. Long before you master all the ideas I have provided, you will likely be beating the micros for a respectable win rate. While the strategies in this book are designed for stakes 50NL and below, you may even be able to beat 100NL or higher, although I offer no guarantees. Success depends solely on your willingness to work hard on your game. Some of you may want to read the entire book first before beginning to put in a significant number of hands. However, I encourage you to go ahead and start playing some while you get the intermediate strategy down, and slowly implement new ideas and adjustments into your game as you go. It is much easier to try to learn the game incrementally rather than all at once. In summary, here are eight steps to success in using this book: 1. Familiarize yourself with the basic concepts laid out in Chapters 3 and 4. 2. Practice using the beginner charts found in Chapter 5, and then begin playing at the lowest micro stakes available on your chosen poker site. 3. Once you have the beginner system down, set up your Heads-Up-Display (HUD) and begin learning the intermediate charts. 4. Practice using the intermediate charts and then move on to Chapter 8. Use the intermediate charts as your standard strategy going forward. 5. Implement further elements into your game chapter-by-chapter as you continue reading between sessions. 6. Once you get through Chapter 14 and start labeling opponents, you will want to begin gradually making further read-based adjustments to your game as you progress through Chapter 15. 7. Use Chapters 16 and 17 to develop a regular playing and studying routine as you optimize your play. 8. Begin working on mental side of poker outlined in Chapter 18.
How Hands Are Illustrated Occasionally, I will incorporate hand examples that are all taken from actual play. I will either present them in narrative form, or I will use a format common among online forums and blogs. Here is an example: Sample Hand No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($50.75) Hero (HJ) ($19.43) Hero always in bold. CO ($99.70) 30/20/30 Any opponent stats or reads are included next to players. Button ($49.75) SB ($15.78) BB ($59.04) 50/10/20 (VPIP/PFR/AGG%) Preflop: Hero is HJ with A♥, A♠ 1 fold, Hero bets $1, CO calls $1, 2 folds, BB calls $0.50 I will provide commentary in italics to provide information about the hand on a street-by-street basis, as necessary. Flop: ($3.25) 2♠, Q♣, 4♣ (3 players) BB checks, Hero bets $2.50, CO calls $2.50, BB calls $2.50 Commentary about the flop. Turn: ($10.75) 4♦ (3 players) BB checks, Hero bets $5.38, CO calls $5.38, BB calls $5.38 Commentary about the turn. River: ($26.89) 2♣ (3 players) BB checks, Hero bets $10.55 (All-In), CO calls $10.55, BB calls $10.55 Commentary about the river. Total pot: $58.54 | Rake: $2.90
Results: BB had Q♣,T♠ (Two Pair, Queens and fours). Hero had A♥, A♠ (Two Pair, Aces and fours). CO had Q♠,J♠ (Two Pair, Queens and fours). Outcome: Hero won $55.64. I will typically summarize the hand here. ____________________________________________________________ As you can see, the format shows the entire hand played out until finished. Some hands will only be partially shown, but this is how it would look from beginning to end. The action is text based and broken down street-by-street. The first line states the game and stakes being played. The next lines set up the players and their stack sizes along with their position. Then the hand plays on a street-bystreet basis. Most of the time I will build comments into each example to demonstrate my thought processes on each street. Stats next to relevant opponents are usually listed as VPIP/PFR/AGG%, but also may include specific notes or reads that I have on the player. VPIP= Voluntarily put money in pot, PFR= Pre-Flop Raise, and AGG%= Aggression percentage. The higher the VPIP, the looser a player enters pots preflop. VPIP for tight players is usually less than 15%, and VPIP for loose players is generally above 25%. PFR indicates how often a player raises when he enters a pot and is typically less than 10% for tight players and above 20% for aggressive pre-flop players. AGG% indicates a player’s post-flop aggressiveness. Passive players are usually below 30%, and aggressive players are typically above approximately 35%. The varying percentages are covered in Chapter 6 when you learn to set up your heads-up-display.
The Truth About Short Stacking The first lesson I am going to teach you is to forget everything you know about a so-called “correct” buy-in amount. There is no reason that you have to sit down at the table with the maximum allowed in order to succeed at poker. Your goal should be to make money, not try to adhere to an arbitrary set of rules. There is a popular misconception that short-stacking players are relying solely on some kind of preflop shoving chart or “system” that has been purchased and downloaded from the Internet. Therefore, the prevailing belief among “mainstream” players is that all short stackers have no skill or talent and are generally dismissed as nothing but an annoyance. Nothing could be further from the truth. Short stacking is really just a microcosm of deeper-stacked play, and top small stackers are skilled poker players in their own right. They are just playing a different strategy based on buying in for less money. And while stack size fluctuations necessarily affect everyone’s strategy, we are all effectively playing the same game. Short stackers play by the same rules and post the same size blinds as everyone else. They can raise, fold, check, and call. They use math to make their decisions and plan hands just like deeper-stacked players do. It is still poker, no matter what your chosen buy-in is. A distinct skill set is needed for playing various stack sizes, and strategy must change as a stack grows or shrinks. As a consequence, shorter-stacked players typically have more competence when it comes to adjusting to varying stack sizes than 100 big blind players who always keep their stack topped off. And contrary to popular belief, while there are much fewer difficult decisions, small-stack play is not purely a “shove fest,” and still requires a great deal of finesse. With 30 big blinds, you have plenty of room to maneuver both pre-flop and post-flop. Just like deeper stacked play, short stacking requires planning every single hand based upon your opponent’s range and tendencies as well as your commitment level. Why 30 big blinds? Short stacking is so misunderstood that even the amount which constitutes a short stack is up for debate. Some people feel that anything under 50 big blinds is a short stack, while others feel that a “true” short stacker sits down with 20 big blinds. Among knowledgeable poker players, it seems that most are in the camp that less than 40 big blinds is a short stack, 40-80 big blinds is a mid stack, 80150 big blinds is a full stack, and anything greater than 150 big blinds would be considered deep stacked.
Most short-stacking “systems” concentrate on 20 big blind play. In this book I have focused on playing any stack size under 45 big blinds and suggest a buy-in of 30. After experimenting with many different stack sizes, I have concluded that 30 big blinds seem to provide the perfect balance between allowing for three streets of poker while remaining small enough that a player can comfortably 3-bet shove a wide range before the flop. Having 3-betting and 4-betting simplified during the learning process cannot be understated. Another good reason for learning with a 30 big blind stack is that a 20 big blind buy-in is no longer an option on many poker sites. In the last couple of years, many sites have raised their minimum buyin from 20 big blinds up to 30, 35, or even 40 big blinds. The changes were made mainly to appease full-stacked players who are intolerant of players who use a short-stack strategy, because they collectively have trouble beating them. They do not want to have to spend time learning how to beat short stackers and would rather segregate themselves from them altogether. And when “forced” to play against anyone with less than a full buy-in, full-stacked players are often quite open about how they feel about who they describe as the scum of the earth. It’s rather unfortunate that a player’s chosen starting stack can be such an object of contempt. In fact, sitting down with less than the “standard” buy-in has become such an anathema, that if you post a hand on an online poker forum that has you starting with less than 100 big blinds, you will likely be ridiculed to no end and receive no advice on the hand itself. Some of the vitriol spewed is so intense that you would think short stacking is against the rules. My thought on the subject is that a lot of these bitter feelings are a carry-over from the “old days.” A generation ago, the thought of buying in for a short stack would have been unthinkable for a good poker player. Before the advent of online poker, a top professional always wanted to have more money in his stack than less-skilled players. This allowed him to wield the full force of his “skill” against them. Additionally, such a strategy would simply not work in live poker rooms. Once you obtained more than 50 or 60 big blinds, a shift in strategy would have to occur. And sitting out and getting back on a waiting list would not work as a solution. Not only is it a waste of valuable time, it would likely be frowned upon by opponents and the poker room as a form of “going South.” Today, online players have the ability to come and go as they please, with no such rules of etiquette in place. With the ability to play multiple tables at once, leaving once you hit a goal amount of money is now a viable option. You can simply bring in a new table and start fresh with your chosen starting stack size.
The Advantages Of Playing A Short Stack It is my opinion that buying in short provides a very good starting point for someone fairly new to NL Hold’em cash games. This is because playing a smaller effective stack solves a lot of problems beginner and intermediate players face. In fact, it solves a lot of problems all players face. For short stackers, most situations are fairly straightforward, and commitment decisions on the flop become considerably less complicated. Since stack-to-pot ratios will always be lower, one can confidently commit with a wide range of hands. When you flop top pair or an over pair as a short stack, you are almost always committed. In fact, you want to get raised! Let them fire away because you can profitably call it off with confidence. Small stacking offers a simpler, crisper decision-making process. It seems to me that in any endeavor, we should be more inclined to make things less complicated, not more so. It is much better to play a simple strategy well than a complicated one poorly. Almost every decision one makes at the poker table is much clearer when wielding less chips. Once armed with the right information, a skilled small-stacking player will find that he can make decisions faster, play more tables, and increase his hourly rate. This is all done in a more stress-free poker environment that is conducive to less variance due to a relatively smaller amount of money being in play. Beyond tactical considerations, short stacking has many other passive benefits that occur without your having to actively do anything. Just sitting in with a small stack significantly alters the dynamics of a table. This is a double-edged sword in the way it inherently affects the games of both you and your opponents. By being able to avoid many of the complicated situations that a full stack is forced to deal with, a lot of potential leaks are inevitably removed from a short stacker’s game. It also tends to create leaks in opponents who fail to correctly adjust. Here are nine reasons buying in short is inherently advantageous: Reason #1: Your Strategy Is a Mystery Full stackers generally spend all of their time trying to figure out what other full stackers are doing. Because of this, a lot of regular 100 big-blind players will view you solely as a nuisance. One cannot really blame them. No-limit hold’em is a difficult game, and trying to “master” full-stack play is all they want to focus on. They feel that spending time understanding a short-stack strategy would detract from their learning process. To them, you are just another annoying shove bot. Usually, even skilled full-stack players are either too lazy to try to figure out what you are doing or do not see any merit in doing so. Their focus is solely on deep-stacked poker. That’s their story, and
they’re stickin’ to it. So, the majority of the time regulars will play pot after pot incorrectly against you. Even if they do attempt to adjust, much of the time it will be in the wrong manner, and even more money will be spewed your way. Reason #2: Mistakes are less punitive During the learning process, a novice is bound to make numerous errors, so paying less for each blunder is a nice side effect of short stacking. And because the costs of mistakes are diminished, a novice can more freely and confidently make the difficult decisions he or she faces. One also no longer has to worry about a single “bad beat” ruining an entire session. Having KK run into AA or having someone flop a set against your top pair hurts a lot less when it’s only for 30 big blinds. Reason #3: You Face Fewer Difficult Decisions Having decisions become much more straightforward and obvious is a positive thing in almost every endeavor in the world, so why not in poker? If you normally play a 100 big blind stack, how often have you had to fold to a river raise or shove and wonder whether or not you were bluffed? How often have you hesitated to value bet the turn, because you were afraid of the pot getting too big by the river? We have all been in this kind of spot. You flop top pair or an over pair and get raised on the turn. Did he just make a straight? Did he flop a set? Is he bluffing or semi-bluffing? Is it worth another 70 or 80 big blinds to find out? While playing a traditional 100 big blind stack, most sessions include multiple “tough” decisions like this. Take these two examples. They are exactly the same hand, but played wielding two different size stacks. Example #2.1: Difficult Button Situation With 100 Big Blinds Effective No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (5 handed) HJ ($2.31) CO($10.76) Hero (Button) ($20)100 Big Blinds SB ($20) BB ($19.81)
Preflop: Hero is Button with 5♣, 6♣ 2 folds, Hero bets $0.40, SB calls $0.30, 1 fold Flop: ($1) 9♣, 2♦, Q♣ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $0.50, SB calls $0.50 Turn: ($2) A♣ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $1, SB calls $1 River: ($4) Q♠ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $2, SB raises $16.10, Hero folds Total pot: $8 Results: SB didn’t show. ____________________________________________________________ Example #2.2: Now this time Hero has about 42 big blinds No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (5 handed) HJ ($2.31) CO ($10.76) Hero (Button) ($8.50)42.5 Big Blinds SB ($20) BB ($19.81) Preflop: Hero is Button with 5♣, 6♣ 2 folds, Hero bets $0.40, SB calls $0.30,1 fold Flop: ($1) 9♣, 2♦, Q♣ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $0.50, SB calls $0.50
Turn: ($2) A♣ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $1, SB calls $1 River: ($4) Q♠ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $2, SB raises $16.10, Hero calls $4.60 (All-In) Total pot: $17.20 Results: Hero had 5♣, 6♣ (flush, Ace high). SB had 9♦, A♦ (two pair, Aces and Queens). Outcome: Hero won $17.20. ____________________________________________________________ What went wrong the first time? Value betting the river was definitely the right play, but once raised all in, Hero’s baby flush shrinks considerably. The board paired, so did he make a full house? Or does he potentially have a better flush? In the second example, since Hero had only 42 big blinds to start the hand, he was committed once he made the flush on the turn. The only card that could have changed things on the river was another club, and in position, we would be more inclined to check back rather than value bet anyway. You will encounter situations like this multiple times per session, and while deep-stacked players are racking their brains and spewing chips, you are insta-committing and moving on to the next hand. Reason #4: The ever-present threat of an all-in bet On all streets, short stacks wield the threat of an all-in bet that can come at any time. Well-timed reraise shoves cause multiple headaches for your competition. Most players will not know how to correctly react and will concede a latent edge to you each time you stick all your chips in. Before the flop, 3-bet shoving is a decisive weapon. If your opponents are not well versed in the nuances of range battles, you will be at a significant advantage anytime you sit down with them. An expert 3-bet shoving strategy seeks to take advantage of multiple tactical mistakes that unskilled players commonly make. Among them are: Opening raises that are too large, especially from late position: Open raising too large while we are sitting behind them can be a giant leak for our opponents. We exploit their incorrect opening raise size by widening our 3-bet ranges based on the size of
their bet. If they do not similarly adjust their calling ranges, we profit. Loose opening ranges coupled with tight all-in calling ranges: Calling our shoves too tightly will cause money to leak away from this type of opponent in the form of non-showdown earnings. In other words, the dead money we win when we shove and are not called, more than makes up for the few times we get called and have inferior equity. All-in calling ranges that are too loose: Our superior equity versus loose calling ranges yields a net profit via showdown winnings. We just have to make sure we do not 3-bet light against these players and that our shoves are for value. An incorrect interpretation of Hero’s 3-Bet range: Opponents who are employing a HUD will often fail to realize that we are 3-betting a different range against various players. For example, we may have a raw 3-bet stat of 8% against the field but 3-bet much higher against certain opponents. If those players base their actions on a range of 8%, the profit over time will be immense. After the flop, a short stack’s commitment range is generally much wider than it is for a full-stacked player. Unskilled players will tend to fold many times tighter or looser than is correct due to their inability to comprehend commitment decisions. Clever players will think they need to call your all-in bets with weaker holdings, as they may assume you are stacking off lighter in any given situation than you really are. This provides more abundant opportunities for you to get paid off on your strong hands. As long as we take note of our opponents’ commitment ranges based on their HUD stats or through keen observation, we can fairly easily exploit them through minor adjustments. Profit in poker comes from our ability to consistently make decisions superior to what the field is making. Therefore, we should create as many opportunities for them to make mistakes as we can. The frequent barrage of all-in decisions coupled with our wide opening range and constant aggression otherwise, guarantees more profitable opportunities per hour than our counterparts can muster. Reason #5: An inherent beneficial image Opponents maintaining a prejudice against short stackers is a major leak from which we frequently benefit. Many players seem to become blinded to key factors during the course of play because they dismiss, underestimate, or undervalue an opponent based solely on their chosen buy-in amount. You will find players doing crazy -EV things against you because of their hatred of short stackers. Among strong players, the prevalent myth out there is that anyone playing a short stack is not a skilled
player. Many feel that if a person were any good at all, he wouldn’t have to resort to short stacking and could just buy in full. So regulars will often play against you as if you were a fish. This type of image is advantageous and benefits you in many ways. Additionally, because of your wide stealing range and somewhat frequent 3-bet shoves, some players will inevitably view you as a maniac. In my opinion, this is the most beneficial image you can obtain. It is human nature that some players will become annoyed when an opponent seems to be raising every hand. By seemingly playing a wide-open game, you will inevitably get played back at, and the value of your strong hands will soar. To illustrate this point, take a look at this hand played against a solid regular.
Example #2.3: Opponent makes a calling error No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($42.40) HJ ($47.08) 16% Hijack opening range CO ($29.95) Hero (Button) ($17.25) 34.5bbs SB ($50.27) BB ($26.59) Preflop: Hero is Button with A♣, Q♣ 1 fold, MP bets $1.50,1 fold, Hero raises to $17.25 (All-In),2 folds, MP calls $15.75 (All-In) This is not a slam dunk shove from the button but should certainly show a profit against an average calling range of 77+, AJ+. Flop: ($35.25) 3♥, 10♠, 9♠ (2 players, 2 all-in) Turn: ($35.25) 2♦ (2 players, 2 all-in) River: ($35.25) 9♦ (2 players, 2 all-in) Total pot: $35.25
Results: Hero had A♣, Q♣ (one pair, nines). MP had A♥, 8♥ (one pair, nines). Outcome: Hero won $35.25. It is doubtful that my opponent would have often called a 3-bet or 4-bet against me if I had 100 big blinds. Yet, he somehow decides to call off 35 big blinds with a weak-suited ace. I would need to be 3-betting well over 20% for his call to be profitable. Clearly, I am never 3-betting that much against his Hijack range, which makes his play a gross error. ____________________________________________________________ Other players will react differently. They may not be comfortable loosening up their ranges, so they may do the opposite and begin nut camping to try and “trap” and “bust” you. When this occurs, the non-showdown earnings will flow into your account as you steal and c-bet bluff against them relentlessly. An inherent image will also benefit you after the flop. Opponents will tend to call your unrelenting cbets with weaker holdings and pay off your big hands with increased frequency. Since we can’t really “hurt” them or threaten their stack, they may call one or two streets with a weak holding, knowing they can’t really be put to a test. I never fail to be surprised at the trash with which players will call a three-barrel shove. Even your weaker hands increase in value because you gain the opportunity to profitably c-bet a lot lighter against many opponents. Reason #6: Having a small stack size makes you less “bluffable” Due to lower stack-to-pot ratios, any bet made by a short stack after the flop will appear more committing than it would for a deeper stacked player. Based on a sound strategy, once a large amount of the effective stack has been invested, it would be a big mistake to raise and then fold to a shove. This type of thinking is generally correct; however, what people widely misunderstand is that commitment works a bit differently for a loose aggressive short stack. Bets made by a LAG are typically based more around pressure and the mathematical merit of winning the pot on a street-by-street basis rather than strictly on stack-to-pot ratios. As a consequence, commitment for a LAG really only comes into play on equity decisions. For example, we can often correctly stack off with draws on the turn when bigger stacks can’t. Favorable commitment scenarios with a flop bet-turn check/raise line are much easier to create with smaller stack sizes.
The way we exploit this miscalculation is simple. Since skilled players are less likely to bluff against opponents who appear committed, versus thinking players, you can comfortably bet-fold mediocre hands to re-raises and not be overly concerned about getting bluffed. Reason #7: Players Cannot Effectively Set Mine You There are players out there who have built their entire game around “set mining” or “nut camping.” Beyond waiting for premium holdings, their basic strategy is to wait for pocket pairs, call an opponent’s pre-flop raise, and then hope to get all of the money in when they hit a set. The reason this can be effective is due to the implied potential to win a huge pot should they spike a set. For example, if a 100 big blind opponent opens for 3x, then the nut peddler is only investing a maximum of 3bbs with the potential to win the 97 still behind. Because 97/3=32.3, the nut peddler would be getting 32.3 to 1 implied odds when heads up. And since a set will be flopped by a player approximately every 1 in 8 times, if more than 8 times the initial investment is won on average when he hits a set, then the play will be profitable. The general rule of thumb agreed upon by good players is that you need at least 20 to 1 implied odds in order to set mine against most players. The problem is, versus a min-raiser with a 30 big blind stack, the formula now becomes 28/2=14. As you can see, the play is now less than half as effective and will surely lose money over the long term. Furthermore, no matter what someone’s stack size is, they should not be limiting their strategy to such a narrow path to profit. In NL Hold’em, you should be constantly attacking the table, not impotently sitting back waiting for the money to come to you. Set mining is passive poker, and passive poker is losing poker. An erroneous set mining strategy is further exacerbated by attempting to do so against a wide opening range. Since there are a lot fewer flops that we will be willing to stack off on, the play is even less profitable. So anytime someone set mines you and the money happens to go in, even if you lose, just remember that you made a lot of long-term EV money due to your opponent’s bad play. The naysayers will scoff and point out that the inability to set mine is a two-way street. It is true that short stacks have a difficult time obtaining the correct odds to ever set mine. Even so, at least we know it’s a losing play and can refrain from incorporating it into our game. All the while, many players who are just going through the motions will unprofitably try to set mine us again and again. Just by buying in short, you have completely destroyed their entire game plan. There is no way they can beat you, unless they completely overhaul their strategy against you.
Reason #8: The ability to play higher stakes with a smaller bankroll Risk of ruin is defined as the likelihood of an individual losing so much of his bankroll that he cannot continue playing. Buying in for smaller amounts of money inherently lowers that risk and creates the potential for a more rapid ascent in stakes. Additionally, swings will typically not happen nearly as fast, so a player can confidently buy into a higher stake with much smaller risk and move up and down in limits, with ease. Small-stacking players need about 1/4 of the bankroll in order to play the same stake that a fullstacked player does. So while intelligent 100 big-blind players are waiting for a bankroll of $2,500 or higher to play 50NL, you are already grinding it out at 100NL with only $1,200. The benefits of being able to more aggressively build a bankroll cannot be overstated. Having a much smaller working bankroll is also nice, because in today’s volatile online poker climate, it is prudent not to have much money tied up in your account. One only needs to consider what happened to Full Tilt poker players on Black Friday to understand the importance of this. That fact alone makes short stacking a wise alternative for a professional poker player. Reason #9: No More C Game We all have days when we are not completely with it. Sometimes we probably should not be playing at all, but depending on how important poker income is to you, this may not be an option. One of the benefits of short stacking is that auto-piloting is a lot less detrimental to your win-rate. Not only are mistakes a lot less punitive, much more of your play is automatic compared to deep-stacked play, and there are not nearly as many mentally taxing situations encountered during a session. Whether it is physical tiredness, lack of sleep, or something going on non-poker related, everyone has days where their mind is not firing on all cylinders. Regardless of the reason, it gives you peace of mind to know that even on your worst day, you can still at least play your B game and never have to worry about spewing too badly in your sessions.
The Fundamentals Of Poker Poker is just like any other game or sport. Once you learn the fundamentals as part of an overall strategy, you then can focus on the subtle nuances of the endeavor in order to rise above the competition. No one has ever been any good at anything their first time trying it. There always has to be some foundation for success. Take basketball, for example. There have been decades of trial and error on what works and does not work on the court. Innovators find better ways of doing something, and then eventually it becomes a fundamental. In the old days of the game, players employed a two-handed set shot with both feet firmly planted on the ground. In the late 1920s, someone figured out that the one-handed set shot was much more accurate. The game was revolutionized and scoring soared. This innovation, of course, led to the jump shot, which was invented sometime in the 1930s. Today, when kids are taught how to shoot, they are shown tried and true fundamental motions of how to hold the ball, proper stance, and correct release. If any of the fundamentals are ignored, the player’s potential will be limited. I feel poker works very much the same way. If a player is not versed in the fundamentals of basic play, then his or her game will suffer. The golf swing is another great example of what fundamentals can do to your game. Not only do you have to do certain things correctly, you have to make sure you eliminate all the bad motions as well. Case in point, let’s take a look at the player who perhaps had the greatest fundamentals of any golfer ever. In fact, he invented many of the fundamentals of modern golf. Ben Hogan Ben Hogan is arguably the greatest golfer of all time. He spent countless hours on the range working on his swing and was well-known for his tireless work ethic. He became a student of the game of golf, and had a keen determination to perfect the golf swing. His method involved removing all of the unnecessary moving parts in his swing, until all he had left were a few fundamental efficient movements. It took him several years to develop it, but once he did, he had full command of not only his golf swing, but just about every tournament he played. It is my aim to do the same thing in this book. But instead of removing the extra moving parts found in a golf swing, in poker you will take away actions that are fundamentally unprofitable. What I will teach you to do is systematically eliminate all of the leaks from your game.
A leak is an action that would show a long-term monetary loss when repeated throughout a career. Any strategy rife with strategic flaws that has you consistently making tactical errors will lose money. An extreme example would be calling 3-bets all-in with 32o. You could win five times in a row over the short term, but if you make this call a thousand times during a career, you are sure to lose a boatload of money. So how do you fix this leak? You simply stop calling 3-bet all-ins with 32o. Seems obvious, right? The trick is, most leaks are not this clear cut. A player may have enough positive results over the short term with a losing strategy so as to be fooled into thinking it is correct to play in such a way. Without the perspective of a large enough sample size to provide ample negative reinforcement, one could not know about his or her slow monetary bleed. Ben Hogan used trial and error to work on his swing. He would remove or add a movement to his swing, and afterward hit hundreds of balls. Then he would make a small adjustment and repeat. He had the luxury of a driving range and shots that did not count in which to master his technique. If you tried this method in poker, you would surely go broke many times over before you had a game streamlined enough to make a profit. Lucky for you, other people have already crossed these bridges and made these mistakes. Today, people can watch Ben Hogan’s golf swing and copy it movement for movement, and through diligent practice, build a serviceable swing with very few “leaks.” Hogan already paved the way for many generations of golfers to benefit from his diligence. You can do the same in poker with the correct information around which to build your game. Just like golf, poker has fundamentals as there are basic things you can do and not do in order to successfully play a profitable game. However, just like in golf, being armed with all the right information does not instantly make you a great player. You still have to get out there and practice what you learn. Your “driving range” will be the strategies in this book used at the micro-stakes.
Implementing Poker Fundamentals A person does not necessarily need to know the theory behind a fundamental in order for it to help their game. One can reap the rewards by just adhering to its principles. And while most poker fundamentals are actually very elementary, they are largely ignored by the vast majority of players. Why is this? My take on it is that almost all poker players are egotistical to some degree. Generally, everyone thinks they are the best poker player at the table when they sit down. They already know the “correct” way to play, and anything anyone else does that does not conform to their approach to the game is dismissed as bad play. It is my feeling that this general lack of awareness that their poker game even has leaks is the main reason many people fail to take the time to try to improve or learn new ideas. They are completely satisfied with their game, and simply see no need to waste their time improving upon “perfection.” On the other hand, many people play for recreation only and might not even see poker as a game of skill. All they live for is the big all-in situations where they hope lady luck is on their side so they can take down that monster pot. To them, poker is one big lottery ticket and should be treated as any other form of gambling. They may even think any poker “system” is just a scam and a waste of time. Even those actively seeking improvement can have a tough time of it. For ambitious players who desire to get better, the world can be a frustrating place. There is so much information out there now that even knowing where to start escapes many people. Much of the literature available to players tends to focus only on exciting big hands and large pots. Very little discusses what you do the other 95% of the time where the true profit is located. The reality is, an average poker session for a professional can be truly boring. Winning poker is not exciting poker. This is not to say that poker cannot be fun when someone has an edge over his opponents. It just means that pleasure is generally not solely derived from those few and far between high points that come in the form of monster hands and big pots. The best way to get started and begin building discipline into any poker game is to learn and adhere to a few fundamentals. Once mastered, one can have complete confidence that he or she is making sound basic decisions. This frees up thought to focus on more nuanced or advanced strategies which, in turn, increase profit. Automatic Poker is designed around several core principles. As you continue through this book, you will begin to learn the theory behind the fundamentals, and your game will inevitably move to the next level. Before I go into detail on the fundamentals of what you should be doing, let me go through a
few things that you should not be doing. Here is a list of leaks that a large percentage of all players exhibit: Open limping to try to see a “cheap” flop Calling pre-flop raises in the blinds because your hand is “too good to fold” Passive Play Failure to try to build big pots with big hands Playing level 1 poker (only thinking about your own hand) I could probably name a hundred more leaks, but these are the most common ones I see. If you are guilty of any (or all) of these, here is the good news. You can stop doing them today and vastly improve your game. By using my strategies, your game will instantly shed all of these leaks. At the same time you will also begin adhering to many of the important fundamentals of poker. The major ones are: Playing in position Playing with initiative Keeping pressure on your opponents Playing big pots with big hands and small pots with small hands Thinking in ranges Using my charts will have you implementing the first three fundamentals instantly while betting strategies and thinking in ranges will take a bit more work to incorporate, because, as previously stated, the charts can only take you so far. You cannot rely solely on them to become a complete poker player. It is best to think of the charts only as training wheels. By using them initially, your game will be repeatable and automatic. They will allow you to play with strong fundamentals while you train your poker mind and learn more sophisticated concepts. Let’s take a closer look at the three most important fundamentals of all. The Big Three There are three key fundamentals exhibited by any strong overall strategy. They are position, initiative, and pressure. Every poker hand you will ever play will somehow be influenced by these
key concepts. Failure to understand and implement any one of these ideas into your game will be at the peril of your bottom line. Playing in position and with initiative are the most important strategical aspects of any poker game. In fact, building the foundation of your entire strategy around nothing else but these two fundamentals will give you an overwhelming advantage over anyone who does not. Hand planning changes significantly depending on whether you are in or out of position and whether or not you possess the initiative. When you have only one or the other or neither going for you, your game will be severely constricted. But by having both working in tandem, you have additional ways of applying pressure to opponents and many more avenues to profit. The consistent application of pressure on opponents is an important facet of any winning strategy. In a game based on initiative, it is a fundamental aspect of just about everything you do. When you steal, you are applying pressure. When you 3-bet, you are applying pressure. When you continuation bet, you are applying pressure. If you want to think about it in a theoretical sense, playing the majority of your hands late begets position, position begets initiative, initiative begets pressure, pressure begets mistakes from opponents, and mistakes from opponents beget profit. By following these three principal fundamentals, you will consistently find yourself in many more profitable spots and many less marginal or unprofitable situations than your less technically correct opponents. Ultimately, winning the small battles over time is the key to a profitable poker game.
Position Position is hands down the most important facet of a strong poker strategy. It is also the most consistent source of leakage found in your average player. While most players generally understand what position means, they still typically play way too many hands out of position and not nearly enough while in it. Situational factors can modify your range on a given hand, but generally, you should be relying less on the quality of your starting hands and more on where you are seated at the table when deciding whether or not to enter a pot. The strategies in this book will have you playing the vast majority of your hands in position. If you are a beginner, you don’t need to completely understand why position is so powerful. Just follow the opening ranges I have provided, and you will be playing a positionally sound game. Basics Of Position To be in position means to act last. This is determined by your seat at the table. Starting with the small blind and working your way clockwise around the table, your position at the table progressively improves. This is because there is one less person that can act after you as you move toward the button, and the likelihood of you being in position after the flop increases. If you are the last player to act once the flop comes down, you are in position (IP), and if you are not last to act after the flop, you are out of position (OOP). The small blind never acts last. The big blind only acts last after the small blind. Under the gun only acts last after the blinds. You get the idea. The button always acts last on every single post-flop poker hand played and, as a result, is the absolute best position from which to play. As you move closer to the button and are more likely to be in position after the flop, you will be opening progressively more hands. The only exception is that you will steal a ton of hands from the small blind. Many other factors far outweigh being out of position in this situation, which makes open raising here very profitable, assuming you have a sound post-flop game. I will go deeper into small blind play in Chapter 8.
This heat map highlights your frequency of open raising hands pre-flop using my strategy.
Why play in position? The power of position permeates all facets of your poker game. Every single hand that you play out of position finds you fighting an uphill battle. You always need to make a conscious effort to play many more hands while acting last. Here are four reasons playing in position is so powerful: 1. Acting last gives you more information than your opponents Being in position affords you the advantage of being able to see everyone act before you. As a result, you have more information on which to base your decisions than anyone else at the table. I feel that the easiest way to illustrate this informational advantage is by discussing hands in terms of relative strength. And by relative strength, I mean the profitability of playing individual hands both in and out of position. For example, T♠9♠ in the small blind is a different hand than T♠9♠ on the button. T♠9♠ on the button is exponentially more profitable. Why is this so? It’s because the button has you playing the hand in position and acting after everyone else after the flop. Let’s say you pick up T♠9♠ twice against the same opponent heads up. The situation is exactly the same both times except for one factor, position. Each time effective stacks are exactly the same, initiative is the same, and even history and game flow are identical. The only difference is that one time you act first, and the other time you act last. In both cases, you open raise and get called by one player. The flop comes T♦8♣2♦. In either scenario, you have the option to check or bet when it is your turn. In position, you bet the flop and get called, and the turn is a blank 4♥. You bet the turn and once again get called. The river is a J♦ that brings an over card and makes a straight and flush possible. Your opponent shoves all-in, and you quickly fold. Your opponent shows down a flush and scoops the pot. Out of position, you lead out on the flop and get called. The turn comes a blank 4♥. You once again lead the turn and your opponent calls. The river is a J♦ that brings in flush and straight possibilities. Checking seems pretty bad since your read is that your opponent either has a weak made hand or a draw. You can get value from worse hands, so you decide to bet-fold the river. He shoves all-in over your bet, and you quickly throw your hand away. He flashes his flush, and you feel very good about your fold. When you were in position, your opponent was unable to extract more money from you once he hit his hand since you acted last on the river. You had more information on each street and were able to mitigate your loss. Another example has you raising from middle position and getting calls from both blinds. In position, you flop top pair mid kicker. One player leads out, and the tight player next to act reraises all-in. You decide your one pair hand is no good and fold, only losing your initial raise. Now imagine the same hand, but this time you raise from middle position and get called by the cutoff and button. You again flop top pair and continuation bet 3/4 pot. The loose player next to act raises
you, and then the button goes all-in. You are forced to fold and, once again, lose an extra bet due to being out of position. 2. Pot size control One of the fundamentals of poker is to strive to play big pots with big hands and small pots with small hands. Position allows you to much more easily control the size of the pot. Once again, let’s look at an example where everything is exactly the same except for your position: You have T♣T♥ and are the pre-flop aggressor in a heads up pot. The flop comes J♥J♦2♣, and you decide that it’s likely that you have the best hand the majority of the time and are looking to get two streets of value. In position, you bet when you are checked to and get called. The turn comes a K♠, and you decide to check behind for pot control. The river is a 4♠, and your opponent leads out. You decide that calling is best, and you have achieved your goal of two streets of value. He turns over A♥3♣, and you scoop the pot. Out of position, you lead out and get called. The turn is a K♠, and you decide to check for pot control. Your opponent bets, and you call. The river is a 4♠, and you once again check. Your opponent bets the river big, and you are in a tough spot. You decide to fold, and he shows the A♥3♣ bluff and drags in the chips. Because you were out of position, your opponent was able to inflate the size of the pot and put you in a difficult spot. Without the ability to close the action with a check on the turn, looking up a bluff on the river became too expensive for a third pair hand. Deciding whether that last bet goes into the pot is a very important luxury to have in poker. We only get to make that final decision and control the size of the pot while in position. 3. You have more bluffing opportunities An often overlooked advantage of acting last is in those small pots in which no one seems to take any interest. If you are in position in a limped pot and everyone checks to you, it is generally a mistake not to bet as everyone else has shown weakness and will fold often enough to make the bluff profitable. You should bet especially by the turn, since someone with a piece of the board will usually have bet by then. Even if called, the river usually sets up as a good bluffing opportunity against someone who stubbornly called with a weak pair or some kind of draw. In raised pots, you will also be given the choice of bluffing 5th street more often. After getting to the river, you have one more piece of information to work from before deciding to bet. In position, you will either be checked to or bet into, giving you useful information. Out of position, you are often left playing guessing games. 4. It is easier to get value in position When you flop a big hand, your ability to build a sizable pot largely depends on whether or not you
are in position. As we have already discussed, being last to act allows you to control the size of the pot and ultimately decide how much money goes in. This is why calling in the blinds to try to hit a hand is so terrible. Because, not only do you not make a strong hand often enough to justify the call, you also have difficulty building a big pot even when you do hit.
Initiative There seems to be a lack of literature on the subject of initiative. This is unfortunate since, after position, playing with initiative is the most important strategic thing we can do as a poker player. It comes down to a matter of control. Once you give up initiative, you are at the mercy of your opponents. Having initiative means that you were the pre-flop aggressor on the prior street or that someone has checked to you after the flop. If you raised pre-flop or post-flop and were called, you have initiative. The only way you can get initiative after not seizing it pre-flop is to raise post-flop or have someone give up their initiative by checking to you. You want to be the aggressor and have initiative throughout almost every hand you play. There are very specific situations where this is not the case, but they are few and far between. The vast majority of your hands should be played in position with you as the pre-flop aggressor. The reason having initiative is so powerful is that it always keeps fold equity on your side and gives you a way to win hands even if your holding is not strong. And if you get raised at any point during the hand, you almost always have the final decision on whether that last bet goes in. If you were just calling bets all along, the only way you could win is by making the best hand at showdown. When you have initiative, you always get the last word. Playing without initiative also lowers the relative hand strength of any holding. This is mostly due to c-bet bluff earnings, which are non-existent without initiative. By opening a hand pre-flop, you are giving yourself multiple chances to win the pot. First, everyone can fold, and you take down the blinds uncontested. Second, you can usually make a profitable c-bet on the flop and take down the pot often enough that you never need to actually make a hand. If you call a raise, this can never happen, and you must play a flop. Furthermore, as a short stack, you will usually not have the implied odds to try to make a hand and extract enough money to compensate for the times you whiff. On the flip side of the coin, when your opponents call your pre-flop raises, they are making an error as well. And trust me, your opponents will make this error quite frequently. The reason going to the flop without control of the pot is generally bad, especially for a short stack, is because it forces you to play fit or fold poker. You simply will not make enough hands to overcome the times you miss the flop and are compelled to fold. But perhaps the worst part of playing without initiative is you will be forced to give up the best hand very often when you check and fold a marginal holding. Except for a few specific situations, it is always more profitable to be the one controlling the hand. Most of the time, if you cannot maintain the initiative because you get raised or the board texture is not conducive to continuing, your best play is to give up and check and/or fold. My strategy will have you going to the flop without initiative only in specific situations. Most commonly, this will happen when you complete the small blind. Less frequently, you will call a preflop raise with significant implied odds, but generally this is only after there has been a raise and at
least one other caller. Except for limping, my charts do not define when you should or should not make pre-flop calls. Because a number of factors weigh in when making such a decision, I will cover these instances separately in Chapter 10. Ultimately, poker without initiative is poker without aggression, and passive play is highly unprofitable in No’Limit Hold-em. A game based upon position and initiative gives you the ability to apply constant pressure to your opponents.
Pressure The benefits of persistent aggression are numerous and inherently exploitative. You apply pressure to constrict your opponent’s play, modify your image, pick up dead money, and instill fear in other players, ultimately causing them to make mistakes against you. Examples of strategically applying pressure include stealing, 3-betting, and c-betting. An aggressive stealing game pressures the blinds, an aggressive 3-betting game pressures raisers, and an aggressive c-betting game pressures pre-flop callers. Additionally, the player who controls the action tends to pick up the pots where no one has a showdown worthy hand. Consistently applying pressure also establishes an aggressive image among observant opponents. Many players will become frustrated by your attacking style and will begin actively avoiding you. Others will try to get into wars with you in order to “shut you down” and will generally spew money your way when they run into the top of your range. If you play passively, then you are letting your opponents dictate the action, which forces you to make hands to win pots. By consistently leaning on your opponents, you are always keeping fold equity on your side. Therefore, when employing an aggressive poker game, you have access to income from two sources, showdown and non-showdown earnings. A potential by-product of a sound strategy based on initiative and pressure is a positive red line.
The Infamous Red Line In case you do not know what the red line is, it is a graphical representation that poker tracking software uses in its graphs to chart your non-showdown winnings. Whenever a hand ends before showdown, those earnings go to the non-showdown winnings column of one player or another. But contrary to popular belief, positive red line earnings do not come from making crazy bluffs and playing like a maniac. They come from adhering to a sound aggressive strategy, adjusting to opponents, maintaining initiative, and applying pressure. The biggest reason many players suffer from a free-falling red line is due to passive play via an indiscriminate pre-flop calling strategy. If you call without a plan only to fold later in the hand, you are spewing money that shows up in your graph in an ugly red line spiraling downward. Using my implied odds based calling strategy will eliminate this leak. One way to improve your red line earnings is to change the way you are playing pots you currently enter. Thin value betting is an example of this. If you are checking behind a lot of rivers where you’re likely to have the best hand due to a fear of getting check-raised, you are adding much more money to your showdown winning column than you should be. Betting where your opponent is likely to fold will have the pot going into the non-showdown column instead. Unfortunately, changing your post-flop play in this manner will just shift money around from the showdown column to the nonshowdown column, so you are not likely to significantly increase your overall win-rate. All you will get out of it is a warm and fuzzy feeling from a better looking red line. The way to increase your red line without negatively affecting your showdown winnings is in pots you are not currently entering at all. The easiest ways to find additional non-showdown earnings is through more aggressive pre-flop stealing and light 3-betting. In both instances, it involves being mindful of your opponents and exploiting them through small adjustments. I find the simplest way to implement a more robust stealing game is to ramp up the pre-flop aggression against the correct people. If you are in late position and have tight players sitting to your left, you should be raising with reckless abandon until they adjust. I am talking about any two cards here if the situation is right. Finding spots for light 3-betting is a bit more tricky. Even if you have an opponent raising very loosely on your immediate right, you still need to weigh in several factors before deciding to go crazy on him. I will cover this in greater detail in Chapter 9. Overall, the key to improving your red line and overall win rate at the same time comes down to having a game built on intelligently applying pressure to your opponents both pre-flop and post-flop through specific adjustments to your overall strategy. As your game improves, your call button will begin to disappear as an option. Once you achieve this, your red line will stop nose diving and begin to swing upward. Here is a graph of my last 25,000 hands at 50NL as of writing this:
Notice that the non-showdown winnings (bottom line) have a steady upward trend. Some of this comes from aggressively stealing, but mostly it comes from consistently playing with initiative and applying pressure to opponents.
The Bet-Fold While not a fundamental in itself, the bet-fold is a tool that good players employ in order to get value in situations where they are usually best and will typically only get raised when beaten. It is an excellent way to keep pressure on your opponents and avoid falling into the passive trap of the checkcall. The bet-fold is employed in marginal spots where you may or may not have the best hand. Instead of checking and then playing a guessing game on whether or not you have the best hand, you instead bet with the intention of folding to a raise. Everyone has been in the situation where the turn brings the ultimate scare card. Our hand is still strong, but it is now very possible that our opponent made a better hand. Most players would check behind and call a river bet in position or go for a check-call, check-call line out of position. This is the worst possible way to play the hand. By bet-folding the turn instead, only good things happen: 1. You get another street of value from worse hands. 2. You give your opponent the option to raise the turn now with the best hand, allowing you to fold much more cheaply than check-calling two streets would cost. 3. In position, you give yourself the option of setting the price of showdown, if your opponent calls your bet and then checks again on the river. My charts are set up to follow an aggressive bet-fold line with all non-nut value hands. The best rule of thumb to remember is that if you are unsure of what to do, you should always bet.
Poker 101 Let’s take a look at a few concepts you will need to have a basic understanding of in order to implement many of the strategies found within this book. Among them are: Relative Hand Strength Tiers Reading Board Textures Hand Ranges Equity & Fold Equity Expected Value The sections on hand strength tiers and board textures are key to using the charts and developing a betting strategy. The rest are introduced only to enhance your ongoing understanding of poker. Each concept could be the subject of an entire book. It is my goal to introduce you to what is generally common knowledge among strong players. I encourage you to do your own further study as your poker education continues.
Hand Strength Tiers In order to use the post-flop charts included in this book, you will need to be able to evaluate and then categorize the relative strength of your hand. My approach for assigning specific hole cards to hand strength tiers is based loosely on the Renton Theorem. The strategy consists of sorting holdings into sub-groups of hand ranges and playing the hands within each group in a similar manner. The benefit of playing this way is that it simplifies things for you and inherently balances your range. In other words, it makes you much more difficult to read, because you will sometimes play completely different holdings the same way and other times play hands that appear to be identical very differently. Here are the four tiers of post-flop hand ranges: Tier 1- This is the post-flop “nut” range. Hands that you never fold and would like to get all-in with. Hand types in this range are two-pair using both cards, three of a kind, flushes, straights, full houses, and better. Tier 2- This is your strong non-nut range. It includes top-pair hands with a decent kicker and big draws. Tier 3- Showdown value hands. This includes any hand that has a chance of beating an opponent’s air or bluffing range, but is seldom good against a value range. Tier 4- Air. Hands that have little or no showdown value and little chance of improving by the river. Once you have assigned your holding to a tier, it makes planning the hand much easier. You simply follow the line of play that you feel is most profitable, given the variables. Keep in mind that your hand tier is decided on a street-by-street basis. Your hand can be tier 1 on the flop and tier 2 or 3 by the river. In turn, your hand can be tier 4 on the flop, and then become tier 1, 2, or 3 by the river. For example, take the hand A♠A♣ on a A♦5♦7♥ board. You currently have the nuts and thus have a tier 1 hand. Let’s say the turn is a 9♦. You no longer have the nuts, but your hand is still very strong. It is likely that if you got all-in on the turn that your hand would frequently be behind, but it is still profitable to do so. Therefore, your hand would now be tier 2. On a board pairing river, you would once again have a tier 1 hand, but if the river were another diamond or a 6 or 8, then you would have a tier 3 hand.
Relative Hand Strength Assigning your hand to an appropriate tier is not always cut and dried. Situational factors can cause the strength of similar looking hands to vary wildly. For example, top pair mid kicker might be the nuts against a particular loose and aggressive post-flop player, but against a total nit, it might be considered very weak if you face a lot of action. How you decide to group your hand is based on a number of elements: the pre-flop action, your opponent(s) in that particular hand, and your image at the time. Each of these variables factor into your decision regarding the relative strength of your hand. Understanding your relative hand strength is one of the most important skills to develop. For now I suggest keeping things simple when it comes to categorizing your ranges and focus on concrete hand groupings. Just keep in mind that this is an area of your game that you need to focus on mastering as it is one of the keys to becoming a top player. Next is a short quiz to give you some practice on assigning value to hands:
Hand Strength Tiers Quiz Assign a hand strength tier of 1, 2, 3, or 4 to each readless situation provided. Answers are found in the appendix. 1. A♣5♣ on a 7♥5♦T♥ board
2. T♠9♠ on a 7♠J♠K♣ board
3. 7♥7♠ on a 6♦J♣9♦9♠ board
4. K♦J♦ on a A♥4♥6♣ board
5. K♠K♦ on a 6♣3♥3♠ board
6. 2♣2♥ on a 6♥6♥K♥Q♥2♦ board
7. 8♦7♠ on a A♦8♠7♣A♠ board
8. A♠Q♠ on a Q♣6♥5♦ board
9. Q♦J♥ on a 9♦8T♥ board
10. 4♥2♥ on a 4♠3♣T♥K♠J♣ board
11. 4♠4♦ on a T♠K♥6♠T♥6♣ board
12. J♥T♣ on a 4♥8♣T♠ board
13. K♠T♠ on a J♠9♥2♣ board
14. A♣T♥ on a 2♥2♠4♥8♠8♦ board
15. T♦8♦ on a 8♣8♥A♦ board
16. A♥J♣ on a 4♦7♥6♦8♥9♥ board
17. A♥K♥ on a 5♠T♥2♥ board
18. J♥2♦ on a 2♣8♦J♦9♥T♣ board
19. A♥Q♦ on a A♣2♥2♦ board
20. Q♣J♣ on a J♥4♣4♦ board ____________________________________________________________
Reading Flop Textures On any given hand, once you are able to determine your relative hand strength, the next step is to decide how to proceed based on the texture of the flop. The cards that come on the board determine the possibility of your opponents connecting with it, which in turn impacts your betting strategy. You will need to learn how different hand ranges connect with different boards and how to form plans accordingly. Most players invest too much money in the wrong pots and not enough in others, with incorrect bet sizing and frequency. There are three different types of flops: dry flops, wet flops, and flops that fall somewhere in between. The first step to honing your board-reading ability is to be able to immediately categorize the various types at a glance. For the intermediate strategy, I have made things very simple. There are only two board textures you will need to know how to read, Dry and Wet. Dry Flops A dry board is one that is poorly coordinated and does not allow for the possibility of many made hands or draws. Generally, dry boards are unlikely to connect with the ranges of our opponents and will typically show a much higher success rate for c-betting. Since most players are only playing their cards, you should expect much stronger made hands to be turned up when all-in on dry boards. There are varying degrees of dryness. Some flops are completely dry, such as paired boards or boards that have one or less high cards with significant spacing between them. Other flops are more neutral, such as two-tone boards with no straight draws or monotone boards with a low card straight draw. Examples of Dry Flops: 2♦7♥2♠ 9♣9♥4♦ K♦8♠2♣ Q♠5♥5♣ A♣A♦9♠ 2♦6♣J♠ ____________________________________________________________ Wet Flops Wet Boards are highly coordinated and tend to contain multiple straight draws and typically include the possibility of a flush draw. These types of boards connect well with a variety of ranges, thus your
c-bet success will tend to be lower. My post-flop philosophy as a small stacker is that wet boards should be played very fast if you have a strong hand or draw. Opponents will tend to stack off lighter against short stacks with both weaker than average draws and made hands. Therefore, you will almost always want as much money in the pot as possible before the turn. Examples of Wet Flops: 9♥6♣J♥ K♠Q♣T♦ 4♦6♦8♣ J♠7♥Q♣ 9♦9♠T♦ T♠8♠5♠ ____________________________________________________________ Neutral Flops Neutral flops fall somewhere in between dry and wet ones. How you approach hand planning on neutral flops is mainly determined by the number of players involved in the hand. A good rule of thumb is that if a flop is neutral, then you should err on the side of wet in multi-way pots and dry when heads up. Truly dry boards will tend not to hit anyone, even multi-way, while neutral boards will usually in some way hit at least one of the multiple players. You will need to develop your judgment in this area, but for now, it’s best to keep things simple. Examples of Neutral Flops: 7♣6♥K♠ A♠J♦7♥ T♥6♦2♣ 9♥2♦4♦ ____________________________________________________________
Hand Ranges When I play live games, it’s usually pretty easy to spot the weak players. They limp frequently and typically employ odd bet sizing strategies that make little sense. However, some opponents aren’t so obvious about advertising their weak play. Occasionally, it takes a bit longer to evaluate players who are ostensibly good players. These opponents often seem to understand poker basics, and during general play they seem to know what they are doing. But then, out of nowhere, they suddenly say something like, “I put you on pocket Aces.” Nothing indicates a lack of understanding about poker more than a statement like this. You can never put someone on one specific hand. While it is true that when you face a re-raise from a very tight player, it’s pretty obvious that they are strong. Even so, you can never know the exact hand an opponent holds. Being so absolute when reading opponents is simply something you cannot and should not do. What you should do is take all the information known at the time and form a range of hands for every player involved in the hand. You can do this both pre-flop and post-flop based on the specific tendencies that you infer about your opponents. This way of thinking allows you to form a profitable strategy against all types of hands and not just the strongest or weakest ones that an opponent could be holding. Once you begin thinking in ranges, you will open up a new door of basic understanding about poker. The quality of your decisions will be vastly improved as you begin to think about all the possibilities based upon the action and make educated guesses accordingly. So how do we put an opponent on a range? In online poker, we have the luxury of using tracking software that tells us precisely how often an opponent bets or raises. In Chapter 17, I will show you how to use these types of programs in your own game. For now, I will introduce you to how specific raising percentages translate into actual hand ranges. Here are some common range percentages you will frequently encounter and potential hands that make up those ranges: 3%: JJ+, AKs, AKo (a tight 3-betting range) 8%: 88+, AJo+, KQo+ (a common 3-betting range) 14%: 22+, ATs+, KTs+, JTs, QJo+ (a common early position range) 20%: 22+, A2s+, A9o+, KJo+, JTo+, 76s+ (a common cutoff range) 35%: 22+, A2o+, K9o+, Q8s+, J8s+, 98o+, 65s+ (a common button range)
50%: 22+, A2o+, K2s+, K9o+, Q2s+, Q8o+, J7o+, T7o+, 96s+, 97o, 64s+, 65o+, 54s+ (a common aggressive stealing range) These hand ranges are not absolute, and the particular hands that make up specific percentages will vary among players. What this list does illustrate is the large number of holdings that make up common hand ranges and the relative differences between tight and loose ranges. Post-flop ranges are more complicated due to the community cards in play. On the flop, we can extrapolate how well our opponent’s pre-flop range connects, but in order to narrow it down into a post-flop range, we need information. We gain clues about a player’s hand by their post-flop actions. If we bet and an opponent calls, we can generally narrow his range a bit. If we bet and opponent raises, we can further narrow that range. Of course, we always have to remember that our opponent knows we have a range as well and could bluff raise in order to pick up the pot, if he thinks our range does not connect well with the board. Therefore, we must always consider our opponent’s entire range, which invariably includes some bluffs. This is where things get interesting and reads come into play. For the purposes of this book, I will focus more on how to play your own ranges based on the potential for opponents to have connected to various board textures. Going into detail on all of the nuances of forming post-flop ranges would take dozens of pages and is well beyond the scope of these writings. For now, I want you to understand common pre-flop ranges and remain mindful of how they connect more solidly on particular flop textures. I will go into this in more detail as we progress.
Equity In poker, equity is how much of the pot is “owned” by each player as a percentage on any given street. Put another way, it is how likely a player is to win by the river if he was all-in on that specific street. On the river, unless the hand is a tie, you will either have 0% or 100% equity. So for the purposes of calculating, we are only concerned with equity before the flop, on the flop, or on the turn. As a short stack player, you will be faced with frequent all-in situations in which you are either contemplating a shove or facing one yourself. In order to navigate these spots accurately, you will need an adequate understanding of hand ranges and equity. You will want to learn how to recognize what your likely pre-flop equity is against various hand ranges and how to form a 3-bet/4-bet strategy. For post-flop play, you will need to learn how various holdings fair equity wise on different flop textures. Pre-Flop Equity Pre-flop equity decisions revolve around 3-betting and 4-betting. The basic premise is that you want to get all-in with a superior range against your opponents and have them get all-in with an inferior range versus you. This is an oversimplified explanation, but describes the basic nature of pre-flop all-in situations as a short stack. I have provided you with a solid 3-betting and 4-betting strategy via my charts and will not spend too much time going through the details of what is a very complex subject that would take numerous chapters to properly cover. I will, however, talk more about pre-flop equities in a bit when I cover fold equity. Post-Flop Equity We can never know for certain our exact post-flop equity unless all hands are turned face up. Nevertheless, by making an educated guess about our opponent’s range and comparing our holding to the board texture, we can come pretty close to knowing our probable equity if we were to get all-in. With a tier 2 or better made hand, we are almost always committed and do not need to worry about our likelihood of improving our hand. For the most part, our equity will be consistently strong enough to get all-in on the flop. With a draw, however, it helps to understand how likely our hand is to improve by the river. This information can help us, not only with all-in decisions, but also in direct and implied odds calculations when facing a post-flop bet or raise. Before I teach you a well-known easy trick to determining your approximate chance of improving, you will need to know how many outs various common holdings have after the flop. 2 outs: Under Pair (Drawing to a set) 4 outs: Gut Shot Straight Draw 6 outs: Over Cards 8 outs: Open-Ended Straight Draw 9 outs: Two Card Flush Draw
When involved in a hand, you should instantly be able to recognize your likely outs with any given holding. By just learning the approximate equities of the five holdings listed above, you will be able to navigate almost all post-flop equity situations. Now, how do you figure out the likelihood each hand has of improving?
The Rule Of 4 & 2 Here is that “fancy” trick I promised to teach you. All that you do is multiply the number of outs you have on the flop by 4 with two cards to come and by 2 with one card to come. Voilà, you have your answer. Now, let’s test it. Let’s say you have a gut shot straight draw on the flop which gives you 4 outs. 4 times 4 equals 16, so you can expect to hit your gut shot 16% of the time by the river. 4 times 2 is 8, so you can expect to hit your gut shot 8% of the time by the turn. The actual numbers are 16.5% and 8.7%, but the results are close enough to make intelligent decisions. Your chance of improving also comes pretty close to telling you what your likely equity is if you were to get all-in. Just remember to keep in mind that the calculation only works if you actually have your expected number of outs. For example, if you shove all-in with two overs expecting to have 24% equity and get called by two-pair or better, the calculation simply does not work. You will find, however, that draws almost always have the number of outs you anticipate when all-in. This is why professional players tend to play draws so aggressively; they know that no matter what happens, they have a reliable number of outs. When combined with fold equity, aggressive play with draws can be very profitable.
Common Equities Based On Number Of Outs
Making Post-Flop Decisions Based On Equity When you are contemplating a post-flop course of action, you base your decisions on what your equity is versus your opponent’s range. If you decide to bet and your equity is stronger than your opponent’s, then you are betting for value. If your range is weaker, then you are betting as a bluff. If you are betting for value and get raised, you must re-evaluate the situation and adjust your opponent’s range. This, of course, also changes your equity versus his range. Arriving at such decisions in a skilled manner is a lot easier when you have a firm grasp of post-flop equities and how to adjust them according to how you feel the ranges have evolved based on the action. To simplify things, here is an example which illustrates what I am talking about. Example #4.1: Adjusting Equities On The Flop We pick up Q♣9♣ in the cutoff and min-raise to 2 big blinds. After two folds, we are flatted by the 40/10 big blind. The board is Q♥4♣8♠ rainbow, and he checks to us. Our opponent has a very wide calling range and has multiple hands in his range that we beat that might call at least one street. We determine that we can get value from betting, so we fire a half pot value bet. Here is my Pokerstove calculation of the above situation: Board: Q♥ 4♣ 8♠ equity hands Hero Range: 65.613% { Q♣9♣ } Villain Range: 34.387% { JJ-22, AQs, A8s, A4s, KQs, Q8s+, T8s+, 98s, 87s, 54s, AQo, A8o, A4o, KQo, Q8o+, T8o, 98o, 87o } Notice I only included hands in his range that might potentially call a bet. Make sure you include the hands that beat you in order to determine an accurate calling equity. ____________________________________________________________ But instead of calling, let’s say our opponent raises us. We must determine whether we can shove or call for value against his raising range. Let’s look at this scenario in Pokerstove. Board:Q♥ 4♣ 8♠ equity hands Hero Range: 23.077% { Q♣9♣ } Villain Range: 76.923% { QQ+, 88, 44, AQs, KQs, Q8s+, 84s, AQo, KQo, Q8o+, 84o } Notice that I added a few premium hands (QQ+) to the opponent’s range that you would not expect him to flat pre-flop. Unless you have a specific read, when you get raised you have to consider all possibilities when settling on a range for your opponent. We decide that we are not beating any hands that would raise the flop for value. Unless we have a
read that our opponent is capable of bluffing a large percentage of the time, we need to fold here. ____________________________________________________________ Now let’s take the same hand, but this time we have AQ instead: Board:Q♥ 4♣ 8♠ equity win hands 53.134% 48.71% { A♣Q♣ } 46.866% 42.45% { QQ+, 88, 44, AQs, KQs, Q8s+, 84s, AQo, KQo, Q8o+,
Hero Range: Villain Range: 84o } Now we are beating several hand combinations that might raise for value. Even though we sometimes will be crushed in this spot, it is still a profitable situation, so we can raise all-in for value. ____________________________________________________________
When you have inferior equity, it is often worthwhile to contemplate a bet or raise as a bluff. If your opponent folds often enough, the play can be profitable due to the dead money won when he gives up. This important concept is called Fold Equity.
Fold Equity
It is likely that you have at least heard of the term fold equity. The concept is thrown around quite often in poker circles, but most players only have a basic idea of what it means. You will hear players say things like, “I don’t have much fold equity here,” or “I shoved all-in because I thought I had a lot of fold equity.” There are a lot of definitions floating around out there. Some are vague or much too convoluted. Others are confusing as all get out. I will not get too complicated here because, in reality, it’s not as difficult to understand as many people think. Every player has a range that is compartmentalized into two sections. With one part of that range, they will continue versus a raise. With the other part, they will fold to aggression. Generally, the wider a player’s total range, the more hands that make up the folding range. Fold equity is the amount of dead money you win from the pot by betting or raising each time you run into the part of the range that the opponent is willing to fold. Thus, the more likely your opponent is to fold, the more fold equity you have. If your equity is inferior vs. the opponent’s range, then the profitability of a bet or raise is based on adding in your fold equity. If the amount of fold equity you have is enough to make the play profitable, it is +EV. If the addition of fold equity does not make the play profitable, then the play will be -EV. The most basic place fold equity comes into play is from stealing before the flop. Let’s say you steal from the button and, on average, both opponents fold 50% of the time. Since you win half the time you raise, you cut the winnings in half. So if the game is .10/.20, then you have .15(.30*.50=.15) in fold equity every time you raise the button.
Therefore, every time you steal from the button and are forced to fold to a 3-bet, you are only losing 50% of your initial raise minus .15. So, if your opening raise size is to .40, then you are losing .20 (.40*.50=.20) minus .15, or .05. In the above example, you are never losing more than a nickel every time you raise any two cards, not the .40 you feel like you are losing. The implications of this should be a light bulb moment for some of you who have never truly understood fold equity. Let me put it this way. If your steal works more than 57% of the time with a min-raise, then you will win money if you fold to a resteal 100% of the time or insta-muck every hand on the flop. Now you can see why stealing a wide range against tight players is so profitable. As a small stacker, another area you need to be concerned with fold equity is how it affects your allin decisions either via a pre-flop 3-bet shove or a post-flop re-raise shove, both of which you will be doing quite frequently. Take the following two pre-flop ranges. In each case, our opponent will only call a 3-bet shove with QQ+, AQ+, and will fold all other hands. 7.5% opening range (99+, AT+): Calls shove 52% of the time 15% opening range (55+, A5+): Calls shove 25% of the time When we shove against the wider opening range, we have twice as much fold equity. Keep in mind that when you get called by an opponent, you will often be behind, and it is easy to get frustrated in the heat of the moment and doubt your play. Try not to be results oriented. Just because your opponent happened to be holding a hand in his calling range this time, it does not mean you made a mistake. Always remember that the fold equity gained the times your opponent folds is what makes shoving profitable over the long term. Fold equity can be expressed in an actual mathematical equation, but for the purposes of this book, I will not delve deeply into what can be a very confusing endeavor. For now, all I want you to understand is that when a player is more likely to fold to your bet, you should be more inclined to bluff, and when he is less likely to fold, you need to make sure your hand has very good equity before committing. By mastering board textures and opponent tendencies, you will begin to understand how to use fold equity without ever getting into the actual numbers, dollar amounts, or fancy equations. If this stuff is not perfectly clear or seems overwhelming, do not worry. As you play and continue studying, at some point it will click. You will begin to gain an innate feel for when you have adequate fold equity and when you do not. Furthermore, once you become adept at reading board textures and opponent tendencies, then calculating relative fold equity will become second nature.
Understanding Commitment In poker, commitment can be defined as your willingness to get all-in with your current holding on the current board against the current opponent. Basically, the stronger the relative strength of your hand, the more money you want to commit to the pot. This may seem fairly obvious, but many full-stacked players struggle with this fundamental concept and wonder why they are often lost after flopping tier 2 hands. The usual culprit is that they simply have too much money behind and are unknowingly creating unprofitable situations for themselves time and time again. The fact is, with a 100 big blind stack, you are seldom committed on the flop with anything less than the nuts. This can lead to all types of complications. It’s very easy to put too much money in with the wrong holdings and not enough with the right ones. As a short stacked player, you do not need the nuts in order to comfortably get all-in on the flop. You will almost always be committed with any tier 2 hand or better. Those of you who have played a significant amount of tournaments will likely understand the concept of commitment rather easily. As the blinds rise, stacks inevitably get shorter and shorter. Hands that you might consider fairly weak while deep stacked suddenly become monsters once you are sitting on a short stack. That A3s looks pretty dang attractive when you are sitting there with 10 big blinds and desperate for a double up. You would never consider sticking all of your chips in pre-flop with a hand that weak early in a tournament, but will happily do so when sitting on a very small stack. Stack-To-Pot Ratios Stack-to-pot ratios, or SPR, refers to the ratio between the effective stack size and the size of the pot on the flop. The book Professional No-Limit Hold’em covers this topic in great detail and is, in my opinion, one of the best poker books ever written. I highly recommend absorbing it, as it covers this and many other related concepts much better than I ever could. The concept of SPR is based on commitment, meaning that the more of your stack you have invested in a pot, the less strong your hand needs to be in order to profitably get all-in. To figure out your SPR, divide the current pot into the effective stack. For example, if the pot is $5 and you have $28 behind as the effective stack, your SPR is 5.6. As your stack grows, your commitment level with various holdings go down. Once your stack gets above around 80 big blinds, it gets very difficult to create low SPR situations for yourself on the flop without either opening for a large amount pre-flop or being in a 3-bet pot. Higher SPRs on the flop, say 10+, are usually not conducive to stacking off on the flop with one pair hands, because most opponents won’t commit with a hand worse than that for so much money. So a large amount of the time you raise pre-flop, get called, flop top pair, and get it in with a high SPR, you will be beat. Nevertheless, for some reason, the majority of players insist on playing a “full” stack of 100 big blinds. And the feeling on the subject seems to almost be universal that if you attempt to buy-in for less than that, you are violating some unwritten law and might as well be branding yourself an outlaw in the poker community. It’s almost as if there are thousands of index fingers waggling at you saying “shame on you.”
But in all seriousness, the truth of the matter is that 100 big blinds is a very awkward stack size to play, as it creates multiple uncomfortable situations every session. I would much rather have 250 big blinds than between 80 and 120. At least you have reasonable implied odds and can leverage your stack on later streets. As a short stack your decisions are almost always fairly obvious. Holdings that cannot typically get all-in on the flop profitably with 100 big blinds, suddenly become viable to do so with a small stack. Take the following example: You are playing in a .50/1.00 game and bring it in for your standard min-raise on the button after it folds to you. The small blind calls and the big blind folds. The pot is $5 entering the flop. Here is what your SPR would be with various pre-flop effective stack sizes after min-raising from the button and getting a call from the big blind: 250bbs: 49.6 200bbs: 39.6 150bbs: 29.6 100bbs: 19.6 50bbs: 9.6 40bbs: 7.6 30bbs: 5.6 20bbs: 3.6 According to game theory, creating an SPR in the range that suits your holdings more often than your opponents is tantamount to profit for you. As outlined in Professional No-Limit Hold’em, against opponents with an average commitment range, you can comfortably stack off on the flop with top pair hands with around 4.5 SPR and over pair hands with around 6 SPR. Against opponents who commit more loosely, those numbers rise to 7 and 10, respectively. As you can see by the chart above, any stack less than 40 big blinds gets us pretty dang close to where we want to be after a pre-flop open min-raise. And considering most opponents will loosen up on the flop versus a so-called short stack, we can definitely tend to err on the higher side of our SPR when making a decision on whether or not to stack off. In summary, obtaining a low SPR is another of the many reasons that playing a 30 big blind stack is beneficial. You have a luxury that bigger stacks simply do not have, the ability to stack off profitably with your top pairs and over pairs on the flop nearly every time.
Expected Value Expected value refers to how much money you win or lose on average in specific situations as part of an overall long-term strategy. The shorthand for expected value is usually communicated as +EV or EV. EV can be expressed in a mathematical equation, but if you are not a math person, do not worry. In my opinion, trying to find out the exact EV of any given situation is impossible without all the information and is therefore a complete waste of time. It is much better to build your game around basic fundamental decisions in all aspects of your game and strive to make everything you do in Poker as automatically +EV as possible. I personally like to think of EV in a relative sense rather than in absolutes. By this, I mean that you not only have to make profitable decisions, you also have to make decisions that are more profitable than the average opponent’s decisions. This is not as complicated as it seems, if you just remember that cash game poker is a lifetime game, and you only have to beat your competition in order to make money. Expected value is in fact what makes the long term a friend of the professional poker player. If the quality of your decisions is better than your opponents’ over a large sample size, you will inevitably make money. Short term luck will eventually lose out to skill if enough hands are played to get to the long term. It is helpful to think of poker as a multitude of small battles in common situations that arise time and time again. In your career, you will pick up the same exact hands, flop the same amount of sets, and win the same amount of coin flips as everyone else. Let’s say that on average, over your lifetime, you will make 15 big blinds every time you pick up pocket aces. If your average opponent also makes 15 big blinds, then you will have made no gain over your competition in that specific spot. You will have made +$0 every time you pick up the best starting hand in Hold’em, because you didn’t win the lifetime battle with that hand. Since everyone focuses on maximizing with big hands, it is important to instead learn to concentrate more on playing the seemingly “insignificant” spots better than your opponents. By excelling in situations that your competition is ignoring, you can find a gold mine of profit. For example, if you are winning an average of 4 big blinds every time you open raise with 32o on the button and no one else ever plays that hand in that situation, then you are making +4 big blinds more than your competition every single time you pick up that hand. In this case, you make more money with 32o than you do with AA! This may strike some of you as quite unbelievable, but learning this fact was a huge eureka moment for me a few years ago. As a consequence, I decided that I would begin focusing more on playing the “unprofitable” hands well, and the results are many of the strategies found within this book. The easiest way to begin overhauling your game to become EV based is to begin focusing on fundamentals. By doing so, you will begin to outplay the competition in common “insignificant” situations, as well as with big hands. You will inherently make fewer mistakes than your opponents just by avoiding the common leaks. For example, you should know that 4-bet bluffing a Nit is -EV;
therefore, you don’t do it. At the same time, not stealing a wide range with a Nit on your left is also EV, since the more profitable play is to raise rather than folding. Even though folding didn’t lose any money, it does hurt your overall win-rate. Another example of a +EV strategy is in consciously building the biggest pots possible with monster hands and keeping pots small with marginal ones. These fundamental +EV methods lead to the tactics that are inherently profitable. Now this is not to say that you cannot take known information and plug it into some formula and figure out exactly what you stand to gain or lose by making a specific play. What I am saying is that if you follow sound fundamentals, then most of your decisions will be slam dunks, and marginal decisions requiring a calculator will be few and far between. Put another way, if a decision is not immediately obvious, it is probably neutral EV and doesn’t matter what you do anyway. Therefore, in those so-called “tough” spots, you can just flip a coin in making your decision instead of sitting around racking your brain.
Basic Short Stack Strategy Whether you are fairly new to poker, have played for a while with no training or direction, or are simply looking to rebuild your game, then the basic strategy is an excellent starting point for you. My goal is to provide you with a solid foundation based on core fundamentals with a “walk before you run” philosophy. No matter what your background is, the basic strategy is designed to overhaul your game instantly and get you on the right track to winning poker. This easy-to-follow strategy allows you to begin playing immediately, and is designed to train your mind to think like a professional. The mere repetition of checking, betting, raising, or folding via the charts will begin to ingrain the fundamentals of correct play into your game. Several common leaks will be immediately fixed by using the basic strategy: 1. Poor positional play 2. Calling pre-flop raises incorrectly 3. Limping weak hands in all positions 4. Passive play 5. Overplaying/underplaying hands Keep in mind that the basic strategy is limited in its scope and will not by itself make you a winning player. It is not intended to be used long term or permanently by anyone. It is merely designed as a tool that gets you off and running toward building a sound poker game and will make the transition to more advanced and complicated play much smoother. I strongly advise against attempting to use it above the micro levels. That is not my purpose for developing it, nor should anyone expect it to take the place of diligence and hard work. The strategy relies on charts that have you using a static method that plays the same, no matter the table dynamics. Ultimately, any rigid poker strategy will make your game exploitable to astute players. Nevertheless, at the micros, such a limitation is not as big a concern as just about any tight value-based system will work very well against non-attentive or inept players. If you are an intermediate or advanced player who is familiar with using a HUD and forming reads on players, you may skip the beginner strategy altogether. However, if you are new to short stacking, I advise at least giving the beginner charts a spin before moving on. Mastering the basic strategy will lessen the learning curve of the intermediate strategy significantly.
Basic Charts I have consolidated the entire basic strategy into two simple charts that cover both pre-flop and postflop play. When it is your turn to act, you simply refer to the correct chart depending on what stage of the hand you are in. The charts will tell you what action to perform, whether it be check, bet, or raise. They even tell you how much to bet. In order to use the charts effectively, you are required to have some general poker knowledge. For use of the pre-flop chart, you will be required to have some understanding of starting hands and positions. For the post-flop chart, you will need to be able to classify the strength of your hand. No matter what your skill level is, you will want to spend some time learning how each chart works. Don’t worry if they look confusing at first, as I will walk you through how to use them step-by-step. I will also provide numerous examples and a quiz to get your feet wet before you take them to actual play. Let’s look at the pre-flop chart first:
Basic Pre-Flop Chart
Abbreviations: For raise sizing, x means times the big blind. For example, 3x means 3 times the big blind. So if you are in a .05/.10 game and the chart tells you to raise 3x, you would make it .30. Axs means all suited hands that include an Ace.
On any given hand, follow the steps below: Step 1: Find your hand in the far left column. If your hand is not listed, you will never be
playing it unless you are given the option to check in the big blind. Step 2: Using the row your hand is located in, identify the situation you are facing in column two. The pot will either be unopened and folded to you, unopened with limpers, raised, or 3bet. Step 3: Find the column corresponding with your position and perform the action in the appropriate box. If facing a steal, use the “Vs Stl” column. If the pot is reraised before action gets to you, only commit with QQ+ and AK. If facing an open shove in the big blind, call with tier 3 and better hands (77+, AJo+). While looking at the chart, take this short quiz in order to familiarize yourself with it. Answers are found in the appendix. 1. You pick up A♦Q♦ UTG in a .05/.10 game. What do you do? 2. UTG limps. You pick up 8♣8♥ in the CO. How do you proceed? 3. You are playing 20NL and pick up 9♣6♣ in the small blind. It folds to you. What is the correct play? 4. You open A♠Q♦ in the HJ for 2bbs. The SB 3-bets to 6bbs. What is the correct play? 5. Three players limp. You are in the SB and look down at a pair of fives. What do you do? 6. You look down at 4♥4♣ UTG. What amount do you open raise to? 7. It folds to you in the SB, and you look down at J♦8♠. What’s the correct play? 8. You wake up with K♠K♣ in the CO. There are 2 limpers; what do you do? 9. The player in the HJ raises to 3bbs, and the SB 3-bets to 11bbs. You have J♠J♦ in the BB; what’s the best play? 10. There are 2 limpers, and you have A♥8♥ in the SB. Do you limp or shove? 11. It folds to you in the SB, and you have K♠Q♠. What do you do? 12. You have 7♥7♠ in the CO, and the HJ player has limped in. What’s the correct move? 13. The Button raises to 4bbs, and you pick up A♣A♠ in the big blind. How do you proceed? 14. You have 3♠3♣ in the CO after the HJ limps. What to do? 15. It folds to you in the HJ, and you have K♣J♥. What’s the best play? 16. You are in the big blind with 6♣6♥, and the button open shoves. The small blind folds; do you
call or fold? 17. You are in the small blind with 2♠2♥. Two players limp before it gets to you; what do you do? 18. It folds to you in the small blind in a 5NL game, and you raise to .15 with A♦T♦. The big blind 3-bets you to .40; how do you react? 19. The player in the cutoff raises to 3x, and you have K♦Q♠ on the button. What’s the correct play? 20. In a 10NL game, the UTG player raises to .30, and the cutoff 3-bets to .90. You pick up A♣K♦ on the button; what do you do? ____________________________________________________________
Basic Post-Flop Chart
There are three sub charts built into the chart, depending on the situation going into the flop. Since you will never be calling a pre-flop raise using the basic strategy, you will either go to the flop as the pre-flop raiser, or it will be a limped pot (LP= Limped Pot). 1. Initiative: As the pre-flop raiser use this section whether you are acting first, checked to, or bet into. 2. LP Option: In limped pots, use this section if you are first to act, or the small blind has checked to you after the flop. 3. LP Facing Bet: Use this section in limped pots when facing a bet. For post-flop play, follow the steps below: Step 1: Choose the correct section based on the situation.
Step 2: Identify the value or tier of your hand, and choose the correct row. Step 3: Perform the action in the corresponding box on a street-by-street basis. Each street is set up in an X/X format. Before the slash is your action, and after the slash is your reaction. For example, let’s say you get to the flop in a hand, and the chart says BET ½ POT/JAM. If it is your option, you would bet half the size of the pot. If you were bet into, you would shove all-in. If your bet were to get raised, you would shove all-in or call a shove. Donk bets or leads when you went to the flop with initiative should be handled by the “if raised” action. The “LP Facing Bet” section is not in the x/x format, as it always requires a reaction and never has you acting first. ~ means that you are betting or raising with the intention of shoving the next street no matter what comes. Take this short quiz as practice to sharpen your understanding of the post-flop chart. Use the chart as you go and record your answers. Answers are found in the appendix. 1. You are playing 10NL. It folds to you, and you raise the button to .20 with 8♦7♣. You are flatted by the small blind; the pot is .50. The flop comes A♥4♠8♣. The SB checks to you; what is your play? 2. The blinds are .25/.50. You are in the big blind with T♣9♣. Three players limp, and you check your option. The pot is 2.25, and the flop comes 9♦T♦5♥. You are first to act; what do you do? 3. In a $50NL game, you open for $1.00 in the cutoff with J♥T♣ and get flatted by both blinds. The effective stack is $15.00. The flop is T♥9♣2♥ with a pot of $3.00. Both opponents check. You decide that you have a tier two hand, so you check the chart under the “Initiative” section and see that the appropriate action is to bet 1/4 stack on the flop with a plan of shoving any turn. You bet $3.50, and after the small blind folds, the big blind min-raises to $7.00. What is your play? 4. You raise A♣Q♥ under the gun and get flatted by the button. You lead for half pot into a K♠Q♦7♣ flop, and the button raises. What to do? 5. You open for 2bbs with J♠7♠ in the small blind and get flatted by the big blind. The flop is T♥7♦2♣, and you lead out for two big blinds. The big blind calls, and the turn is a 3♣. You bet 3 big blinds, and the big blind calls. The river is a J♥, giving you two pair. What to do? 6. The HJ, CO, and SB limps. You check A♠3♠ from the big blind. The flop comes 6♠J♣2♠, and the small blind leads out for pot. What do you do? 7. The UTG and HJ players limp. You limp 4♥4♠ in the SB, and the BB checks. The flop is
4♣7♦T♦. You bet full pot and only the HJ calls. The turn is the A♦, and you bet 3/4 pot. Once you get called by the HJ, the river is the 8♦. What is the correct thing to do? 8. You open for 3bbs with A♥J♥ from the HJ and get called by the small blind. The effective stack is 39 big blinds on the flop. The flop is 2♥7♥7♣, and it checks to you. You decide to c-bet. How many big blinds do you bet? 9. You open 9♥8♣ in the small blind and get flatted by the big blind. The flop is A♦8♠4♣. You bet 2 big blinds, and the big blind calls. The turn is a 9♣, and you fire 3/4 pot. The river is an A♥. What is your line? 10. You open A♦K♠ UTG, and get flatted by the cutoff and button. The flop is 8♣4♠2♦. You lead out for half pot, and only the button calls. The turn is the 2♥. You check and the button checks. The river is a Q♥. What do you do? ____________________________________________________________ You should now have a firm grasp on how to use the basic charts. For more practice, I would suggest loading up some play money tables and playing a few hundred hands. You want to make sure you have a good feel for the charts before moving on to real money tables. The following FAQ should clear up most of any remaining questions you may have.
Basic Strategy FAQ Can I vary from the charts if I am sure what it suggests is not the correct play? Unless you are already a winning poker player, I would be careful in making chart varying reads while learning the basic strategy. With 30 big blinds, any mistake you make is not going to be that severe, especially since you are playing at the micros. You will be employing the intermediate strategy soon enough, which allows for making player-based reads. How many tables should I play? As part of your education, I would strongly suggest playing no more than two tables while using the basic charts. This is not a race, and you will only be hurting your progress. Only after you master the intermediate strategy and are consistently beating the games should you deliberately start adding tables in order to increase your hourly rate. I do not feel comfortable opening so many hands from the small blind; can I tighten up my range there? I would strongly advise against it. The strategy is designed around having a looser than average image, and changing this in any way atrophies the effectiveness of the charts. Besides, you can confidently face any post-flop decision with the chart I have provided. You need to learn not to shy away from marginal situations. The early position ranges seem way too tight; why is this? This was done on purpose to limit your exposure to playing out of position after the flop. Once you become a more skilled post-flop player, your ranges will naturally widen from all positions. The chart only has me shoving all-in pre-flop and never 3-betting small. Why is this? The main reason is that with a small stack, any 3-bet generally commits you to the pot, so folding to 4bets is almost always -EV. Additionally, by exclusively shoving, you will have maximum fold equity pre-flop and will never have to play a 3-bet pot after the flop. Eventually, you will mix things up and add some small 3-bets to your game, but for now, I advise keeping things simple. What games will I learn to play? The strategies outlined in this book will all be for NL Hold’em short-handed play with six players or less on the table. If you are a full-ring player, you can easily adapt this knowledge to a 9- or 10handed table with just a few adjustments, covered in Chapter 17. No matter what game you play, this book has relevance for you. Many of the concepts covered are fundamental to all poker games and can easily be translated to improve your play. This seems way too simple to be for real. How do I know this works? In these pages I have basically just provided you with the strategies that I have successfully employed to beat up to 50NL for 9bb/100 over the past several months. The charts in this book are based upon proven fundamentals and tried and true methodology. I have tested them for several thousand hands and tweaked them until I felt they were optimized within the scope of what a rudimentary chart can accomplish. You should not expect to go out and beat the best online players in the world with them,
and they are not meant for that purpose. The charts should only be used as a stepping stone while you learn and apply advanced concepts to your game. See Chapter 17 for details about a challenge completed by myself in which I relied solely on the basic and intermediate charts.
Getting Started Playing In this section, I will provide all the information you need to get started short stacking. Even if you are an experienced player who is new only to playing a small stack, I recommend using the basic strategy for at least a few thousand hands before moving on. If you are a less-experienced player, I strongly advocate that you spend a considerable amount of time learning the basic strategy and getting used to a style of play that may be very foreign to you. I suggest that a minimum of 10,000 hands be spent learning the basic charts or as much time as needed to have them committed to memory while you play. The pre-flop opening and 3-betting ranges should, at least, be completely automatic before you move on. More reasons not to skip the basic strategy: 1. It will familiarize you with how my charts are set up going forward. 2. It allows you to gradually transition into positional play. 3. You will get used to how players are reacting to short stacks in a simpler environment. 4. There is less “culture shock” if you have never played a LAG (loose-aggressive) style. The beginner strategy is only selectively “laggy” and will prepare you for the looser opening ranges found in the intermediate strategy. To make things as clear and as easy as possible for you, the rest of this chapter will be dedicated as a step-by-step guide to getting started playing. These three simple steps will serve you all the way through learning the intermediate strategy. First, I will discuss choosing and depositing on a poker site. Next, I will show you how to manage your sessions and table select. Last, I will put it all together and provide you with all the tools you need to have both successful sessions and a strong start to your short stacking poker career.
Step #1: Choose A Poker Site Before you can begin playing, you will need to get some money on a poker site. For most sites, you will want to sign up through an affiliate which will allow you to obtain rakeback. I will not recommend one as I am not an expert when it comes to the subject. Do your own research and pick the one on which you feel the most comfortable. The rakeback affiliate will walk you through the process of signing up with your chosen Poker site. As of the writing of this book, US players have limited options for where they can play due to the shutdown by the Department of Justice of three of the major sites that serviced Americans prior to Black Friday. However, there are still some viable choices out there. Among them are the Merge and Revolution networks which continue to allow Americans to play. I currently play on both. There is also the Winning Poker Network and the independent site, Bovada. If you live outside the US, you have a plethora of choices in poker sites that offer either direct rakeback or some rakeback equivalent based on a VIP system. Once you have settled on a site, you will need to choose an appropriate amount to deposit. I recommend depositing no less than $50 and no more than $100. This will have you starting at 4NL, 5NL, and/or 10NL, and will give you a bit of time to get used to the strategies before you start competing for more substantial amounts of money. Since you will be starting at the micro-stakes, do not be too concerned with taking advantage of the maximum deposit bonus. They are extremely difficult to clear at stakes below 200NL and are really not worth fooling with yet. Eventually, you will want to take advantage of reload bonuses. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that these stakes are too low for you to take seriously. Poker is poker, no matter what the dollar amounts are. While learning, you want the price of your education to be as inexpensive as possible. Besides, starting at the smallest stake possible will allow you to see horrible poker at its finest. You will be able to see a steady progression of the quality of play as you move up in stakes. And having the ability to recognize bad play will help you master table selection, which is a defining skill of great players.
Step #2: Create Your Setup Before you begin playing, you will want to have the charts readily available for use. I recommend using the condensed versions of my charts found at the end of this chapter as shown in the next screenshot below. You can either print them out or convert them to digital form as an image file or PDF. I recommend that you keep them on your computer desk top under the tables as you play. This will allow you to stay focused on your computer screen at all times. When you begin a session, you will want to choose your tables wisely. For now, I suggest just taking a seat at the table(s) with the highest average VPIP available. Depending on the traffic, you may need to join a few wait lists. Once you fire the tables up, you will want to put them either side-by-side or one on top of the other. I use the former as it seems to fit my eye better. It is up to you to find the setup that works best for you. There are multiple options for setting up your tables. They include tiling, cascading, and stacking. Tiling means your tables are side-by-side with no overlap. Cascading means that the tables are sideby-side but have overlap in varying degrees. Stacking means all of your tables are on top of each other, and you can only see one table at a time. I cover the pros and cons of all three setups in Chapter 16. For now I recommend only tiling. It is extremely important that you learn to follow the action, and tiling gives you the best chance to do so.
This is the tiled setup I use for two-tabling.
Step #3: Begin Playing Now that you have money on a poker site and are set up with a rakeback affiliate (unless it is a VIP site), it is time for you to dive right into actual play. During your sessions, you will want to adhere to a few guidelines which will help to maximize the efficiency of the learning process going forward.
1. Follow the charts While learning my basic short-stacking strategy, I advise you to follow the charts exactly. Once you move on to the intermediate strategy, you will begin incorporating more judgment-based decisions into your play. 2. Do not play more than two tables at once Playing two tables will allow you to play between 150 and 200 hands per hour at 6-max. While learning the basic strategy, this is more than enough hands to keep you busy and prevent boredom. If you are completely new to online poker, then I recommend starting with one table only. This is not a race, and you need to be more worried about making accurate decisions rather than being a mass multi-tabler. 3. Practice Sound Bankroll Management It is important to remain disciplined and only play at the level you have the necessary bankroll for. Violating this principle puts you at a considerable risk of going broke. I will discuss bankroll management at length in Chapter 17. For the basic strategy, you will want to adhere to the following guidelines: When you have less than $100, play no higher than 5NL. When you hit $100, you can start playing at 10NL. At $250, you can play 20NL or 25NL with $300. I do not recommend moving beyond 25NL until you are using the intermediate strategy. 4. Leave a table once you hit 45 big blinds My strategies are not designed to be used with more than 45 big blinds. When your stack hits that threshold, you will want to go into lockdown mode and sit out once the next big blind gets to you. By lockdown mode, I mean you should only play premium hands for the remainder of your time on the table. I would suggest solely playing the range of QQ+ and AK. Most poker sites have a feature that allows you to auto sit out when the next big blind gets to you. If not, unclick “auto post blinds,” or your site’s equivalent, and then sit out manually once the big blind gets to you. Once off the table, pull up a new one or get on the wait list for tables with the highest VPIP available. 5. Play short sessions It is good to get in the habit of playing multiple short sessions rather than fewer extended ones. After about an hour, the human mind’s ability to concentrate 100% on a task begins to atrophy. Assuming you can keep up with the decisions, this will not affect your win-rate while you are following charts.
However, once you move to higher stakes and are required to think through complicated decisions, it will. Now is the time to build good habits for the future of your poker career. After playing for an hour, it is wise to get up and do something else for a while. Go exercise, spend time with friends or family, watch a movie, or do anything non-poker related to reinvigorate your mind. 6. Play on the highest VPIP tables available At the beginning of each session, you will want to filter the available tables by VPIP. Either sit at the tables with the highest VPIP, or join the wait list on a few of the higher VPIP tables. For the basic strategy, you do not need to be concerned with looking at the actual players on each table when you are making your selections. All you should be doing is filtering the player list and trying to find the overall loosest tables as illustrated below. In the above example, I would immediately join the 5th table down in the list and then join the wait list for the first four tables. Once I had my desired two tables up, I would remove myself from the wait lists until ready for a fresh table. I find this method is optimal, as it has you playing the loosest tables on average, which is inherently advantageous to your win-rate. I will cover table selection much more extensively in Chapter 16. For now, I recommend that you keep things simple.
Most poker sites have a clickable menu like this one. You always want the list filtered with the highest VPIP tables at the top.
Moving On To The Intermediate Strategy Once you have mastered the basic charts and put in several thousand hands, you will be ready to move on to the intermediate strategy. The intermediate charts are more complex than the basic ones, and decisions will be based on reads you have on your opponents. These reads are obtained via player stats from a heads-up-display or HUD. The next chapter will outline how to set up a concise and effective HUD which is similar to the one I employ in my own play. It includes every pertinent stat needed to utilize all strategies covered in this book. In Chapter 7, I will introduce you to the intermediate charts and walk you through how to use them in a step-by-step fashion. They are set up similarly to the basic charts, so the learning curve should not be that great. It is important to make sure that you spend time learning them, as they will be the basis for the rest of the strategies outlined in the book. The charts used in tandem with the HUD are designed to provide a baseline for read-based play. As you read through the book and gain a firm grasp of the strategy, most of the plays and adjustments will become so automatic that you will be able to stop using the charts completely. In fact, your goal should be to move beyond relying on them as soon as possible. My advice is to STOP now and not read any further until you have put in the necessary time learning and employing the basic strategy.
Condensed Basic Charts
Setting Up Your Heads-Up-Display (HUD) A HUD is a customizable numerical statistical display that is usually included as a feature within poker tracking software programs. Once set up, the display is placed near an opponent on an online poker table and provides real time information regarding how they play. Unless your powers of observation are super human, then it is 100% necessary for an aspiring player to use this type of software in order to be a successful online poker player. The majority of your regular opponents will be using a HUD, so if you do not, you will be conceding a disastrous edge to them. A large number of people reading this book are likely to already have a good understanding of how a HUD works. If not, then this chapter will be a crash course for you. It is important that you spend some time setting up and getting used to a HUD before you begin using it in actual play as the intermediate strategy relies heavily on opponent statistics. Hold’em Manager or Pokertracker? Today, the two major programs that track statistics and provide a HUD are Hold’em Manager and Pokertracker. If you do not currently have either, then you will need to pick one and download it. Each offers a one-month free trial, so you will not need to invest anything up front. I currently use Hold’em Manager 2, but have used Pokertracker as well. Both are fine programs, so you cannot go wrong with either. I switched to Hold’em Manager a couple of years ago due to the more specialized positional stats that it offered, but my understanding is that Pokertracker now offers very similar stats also. I will not tell you which program to use. My advice is to try both and pick the one you like best. All of my examples in the book will be from Hold’em Manager, but setting up a comparable Pokertracker HUD is certainly possible. Recent advancements by both companies have made each an equally viable investment for serious players.
The HUD The HUD I will provide covers just about every pre-flop and post-flop situation you will ever encounter. I have color-coded the stats to allow for quick recognition regarding the playing style of your opponents. Armed with this knowledge, you will seldom encounter a “tough” spot. Most 3betting and 4-betting decisions will become virtually automatic. The more you play with an opponent, the more accurate the information becomes as your sample size grows. The exception to this is an opponent who is rapidly learning and/or changing his playing style. In these rare cases, information can be skewed, although this is really not something to be too concerned with. For the most part, people are creatures of habit. You will therefore always want as many hands as possible on your opponents in order to get the most accurate picture of their playing style. The 1st line includes the notes icon, auto-rate symbol, VPIP, PFR, AGG%, and hands played. This line is for quick recognition of reads you might have on the player, as well as an indicator of their style of play. A low VPIP (Voluntarily Put money In Pot) indicates a tight player, while a very high VPIP is attributable to a weak opponent. PFR (Pre-Flop Raise) indicates how often a player raises. AGG% indicates how passive or aggressive the player is. The 2nd line indicates a player’s opening ranges when folded to from every position. Use the “raise first in” stat for each respective position to fill this line. I like to have the stats running left to right, starting with UTG and ending with the SB. When deciding to 3-bet, you will use the color code of the raiser’s positional stat as applied to the chart. I will explain how to color code the stats shortly. The 3rd line gives you an idea of how often the player 3-bets vs. particular positions. The stats once again run left to right, starting with “3-bet % vs. UTG” and ending with “3-bet % vs. SB.” Using this stat gives you the info you need to use the 4-betting or “V3B” section of the chart. I use the 4th line for c-betting decisions and borderline restealing spots. The stats are “CheckFold To C-bets,” “Fold To C-Bets In Position,” and “Fold To Resteal.”
In this book, I only cover which stats to use and how to arrange them and will not detail the mechanics of using the software. For specifics on how to set up the HUD, you will need to reference the literature available on your chosen software’s website.
Color Coding The HUD During the course of play, you will want quick access to information critical to making adjustments to other players. In this section I will show you how to color the ranges applied to each HUD stat, allowing for easier identification of player tendencies. Color coding also allows for quick recognition for use in tandem with the intermediate pre-flop chart in making 3-betting or 4-betting decisions. The colors I use for opponent stats are Blue, Gray, Red, Green, and Purple. Blue signifies tight play; Gray denotes average play; Red means loose play; Green indicates fishy play; and Purple means extreme or exploitable play. Each stat has a different range for each color. Here are the values you should use to color code the HUD stats: Top Line VPIP: Blue= less than 15%, Gray= between 15%-25%, Red= between 25%-35%, Green= between 35%-60%, and Purple= greater than 60%. PFR: Blue= less than 10%, Gray= between 10%-20%, Red= between 20%-30%, Purple= greater than 30%. Aggression %: Blue= less than 30%, Gray= between 30%-37%, Red= between 37%-44%, Purple= greater than 44%. Hands Played: Red= Less than 50, Orange= between 50-250, Blue= between 250-1,000, Green= between 1,000-2,500, Gray= greater than 2,500. Big Blinds (Hero only stat): Purple= less than 15, Orange= between 15-25, Red= 25-35, Blue= between 35-45, White= greater than 45. 2nd Line Raise First In (RFI) from UTG/HJ: Blue= less than 12%, Gray= 12%-20%, Red= between 20%25%, Purple= greater than 25%. RFI from CO/BTN/SB: Blue= less than 30%, Gray= between 30%-40%, Red= between 40%-60%, Purple= greater than 60%. 3rd Line 3-Bet Vs. Stats: White= less than 4%, Blue= between 4%-9%, Gray= between 9%-25%, Red= between 25%-30%, Purple= greater than 30%. 4th Line Both Fold To C-Bet Stats: Red= less than 40%, Gray= between 40%-50%, Blue= between 50%60%, Purple= greater than 60%. Fold Vs. Resteal: Red= less than 50%, Gray= between 50%-60%, Blue= between 60%-75%, Purple= greater than 75%. Filtering For Sample Sizing
I recommend requiring a minimum sample size of ten for each stat in the top three lines and a sample size of five for stats in the fourth line. That way, your HUD will not be cluttered with information that is useless due to a lack of hands acquired on the opponent. Until you have a sufficient sample size for a particular stat, use Gray as a default. That is all the information you need to get your HUD set up. Here is an example of what the HUD looks like in action:
As time goes on you may wish to customize the look and positioning to fit your own personal taste. Your chosen tracking software has documentation on how to set up and adjust HUD values; please refer to the respective website for details.
HUD Pop-ups A pop-up is a group of stats that can be viewed at your discretion by either hovering your mouse over or clicking on a specific point on your HUD. They are fully customizable, but both Pokertracker and Hold’em Manager come with standard pre-configured pop-ups. The principal reason I use pop-ups is to keep things neat and organized. I do not like my main HUD to be overly cluttered, so I only keep stats that I use most often displayed on it. The vast majority of my decisions are made without needing a pop-up, but occasionally a situation will arise that the main HUD cannot satisfy. For those instances, I rely on pop-ups. I also use them while not involved in a hand or during post-session reviews to apply labels to my opponents. For example, I use the “fold to steal” stat in my pre-flop pop-up in order to decide whether or not my opponent is a blind defender. If he folds more than 80% from both the small blind and big blind, I give him the blue tag. I will cover labels in detail in Chapter 14. I employ four different pop-ups during play: one for pre-flop, one for post-flop, the “versus hero” pop-up, and the “blind versus blind” pop-up. Every stat within each pop-up serves a specific purpose based on the situation I am facing. Feel free to either copy my pop-ups exactly or customize them to fit your needs and playing style. For the rest of this section, I will describe in detail the situations that each pop-up covers. Then I will display a sample of what they look like in action and define how every stat is used. For direction on how to make a pop-up, refer to the literature provided by the tracking software.
The Pre-Flop Pop-up
Most pre-flop decisions revolve around 3-bet and 4-bet decisions but also include other useful information to help determine how an opponent can be exploited. Note: Before a stat normalizes, a number in parentheses next to a stat denotes the sample size. There are multiple situations that you can face before the flop 1. You raise and get 3-bet or squeezed. 2. You make a small 3-bet and get 4-bet. 3. You are facing a pre-flop raise and are deciding whether to 3-bet or resteal. 4. You get 3-bet and are considering a 4-bet. 5. Your open gets flatted. 6. You are deciding whether or not to steal. Using The Stats Contained In The Pre-Flop Pop-up 3-Bet: This is how often a player 3-bets overall and from various positions. When I am on the fence about committing versus an opponent, I will use this stat to see if a player 3-bets more frequently from a particular seat. Resteal: This is an indication of how staunch a defender my opponent is against steals from various positions. Some opponents defend particular positions much more resolutely than others. This stat can be a big help if we think our opponent may be getting out of line against us. Squeeze: This is how often a player 3-bets after there is a bet and a call. I compare this stat to the frequency of his overall 3-bet stat to see if he is prone to squeezing light. 4-Bet: This is how often a player 4-bets from various positions. This stat seldom comes into play except in the rare instances that you choose to make a small 3-bet instead of shoving.
Fold to 3-bet: This stat shows how often an opponent folds versus 3-bets. This is another indicator of your opponent’s calling range versus a short stack shove. If the number is high, we can generally widen our shoving range due to increased fold equity. The opposite is true if he calls particularly light. If that is the case, we should tighten our shoving range. If he appears to be calling very light versus 3-bets, I put a note on him as a quick reminder for future situations. Fold to 4-bet: You will rarely have enough hands on a player to get any meaningful 4-bet reads. However, this stat can be used to see if an opponent is ever capable of folding to 4-bets. I often use this stat when facing a small 3-bet from a regular in late position range wars. Call: This stat indicates how often a player calls a pre-flop open before the flop. Generally, pre-flop calling stations also tend to be post-flop calling stations. Fold to Steal: This lets me know both my opponent’s overall and positional fold to steal percentages. I can widen my stealing range considerably if an opponent folds to steals often. Defend Steal: This stat indicates how often a player defends versus a steal by either calling or 3betting. As this number rises, the profitability of stealing against them typically decreases. I tend to tighten up my pre-flop stealing range against players who religiously defend their blinds. However, if a player calls often and plays fit or fold post-flop, I expand my stealing range versus them.
The Post-Flop Pop-up
Post-flop decisions covered by the pop-up are mostly related to c-betting but also cover donk betting, which happens when a player calls a bet or raise and then leads into the aggresor on the following street. Situations Covered By The Post-Flop Pop-up 1. You face a c-bet or barrel. 2. You are considering a c-bet or barrel. 3. Your c-bet gets called. 4. Your c-bet gets raised. 5. You want to know the frequency an opponent will bet if you don’t c-bet. 6. You are considering raising a c-bet. 7. You face a check-raise. 8. You face a donk bet. Using The Stats Contained In The Pre-Flop Pop-up C-bet Raised Pot: I occasionally check this stat to see how strong I can expect my opponent’s range to be when he c-bets. Fold to C-bet: I only use this stat in the post-flop pop-up to see how often my opponent folds to barrels. How an opponent reacts to a flop c-bet is covered on my main HUD. Call C-bet: This stat generally tells you how much of a calling station a player is. If this stat is
above approximately 45%, I will widen my value range and tend to bluff much less. Raise C-bet: A decent indicator of how likely your opponent’s hand is strong when he raises your cbet. The lower the number, the stronger his hand will probably be. Bet Vs. Missed C-bet: I mostly use this stat out of position when I have a very strong hand against an opponent who folds to c-bets often. If he bets frequently after someone fails to c-bet, I may decide to give him some rope and check instead of continuation betting. Fold C-bet to Raise: This stat indicates how frequently a player has folded to a post-flop re-raise in the past. I use this stat as an indicator of how often my bluffs or semi-bluffs are likely to work. It is also another indicator of how strong my opponent’s c-betting range is or his willingness to stack off with less than the nuts. Check Raise: This indicates how likely my opponent’s range will be strong should I face a checkraise. The lower this number is, the more probable it is that he will be willing to stack off if I commit my chips. Donk Bet: This stat is mainly used to give me an indication as to how strong a player is when he donk bets. Frequent donk betting also is often indicative of a weak player. Donk Fold: How often a player donk bets and then folds to a raise is revealed by this stat. It is another indicator of the strength of a player’s donk-betting range. This stat requires a fairly large sample size before normalizing and becoming reliable.
Versus Hero Pop-up
An ingenious addition to Hold’em Manager 2 is the “versus hero” stats. They are extremely useful to highlight specific situations where players tend to adjust versus each other. I find these stats especially valuable when it comes to reacting to 3-bets. I have created a versus hero popup for my HUD that deals specifically with 3-betting. Here is a screen shot of how it is set up. Feel free to copy it and use it in your own play: The top line of the pop-up: Total Hands|Total 3-Bet vs. Everyone|Total 3-bet vs. Hero|Total Resteal vs. Everyone|Total Resteal vs. Hero|Frequency Holding Premium Hand When All-In|Total Fold to 4bet 2nd through bottom lines of pop-up: Position 3-Bet Stats (explained below) There are two steps to using the vs. hero positional stats: 1. When facing a 3-bet, choose the corresponding row based on your opponent’s position. 2. Then choose the columns that correspond with your position. There are two for each position. The first is your opponent’s 3-bet versus the field stat, and the second is how often he 3-bets in each position versus Hero. If the sample size is not large enough to use the positional stats, I rely on the top line to see how his overall 3-betting and restealing stats compare relative to how often he 3-bets me. In the above screen shot, you will notice that this particular opponent tends to 3-bet me much lighter than the rest of the field. He 3-bets 11.5% vs. the field and 23.1% vs. me. He also resteals 20% and 34%, respectively. This information is very useful when making decisions versus a reraise.
The only limitation of versus hero stats is sample sizing. The stats are really only useful versus players whom you face frequently, particularly when up against regulars.
The Blind Versus Blind Popup
Beyond hands played, there are only six stats contained in the pop-up. The top half is dedicated to how an opponent reacts to a small blind steal. The bottom half shows how he reacts to c-bets while in position. This HUD is designed to help you make sound decisions against regulars in blind-versus-blind (BvB) situations. It includes stats for how your opponent is likely to react to your pre-flop steals and postflop c-bets. The stats used in the above pop-up: Pre-flop Fold= Fold to Hero’s SB Steal Call= Call Hero’s SB Steal 3-Bet= Raise Hero’s SB Steal Post-flop Fold= Fold to Hero’s C-bet BvB Call= Call Hero’s C-bet BvB Raise= Raise Hero’s C-bet BvB ____________________________________________________________
Ethics Of HUD Use At first impression, HUDs may appear unethical to new players. Their usage was hotly debated in the past, and the general conclusion made by poker sites is that as long as you are involved in the hands used in tracking stats shown in your HUD, there is nothing wrong with the practice. My thinking on the subject is that while you really do not need to use a HUD to be a successful player, it certainly doesn’t hurt. Some top online pros swear they do not use one. And while I believe them, I also realize that they probably face the same competition day in and day out over a long period of time and/or play very few tables. In today’s online game, almost all professionals do use a HUD, so unless you have extraordinary observational skills, you will be at a severe disadvantage, especially when multi-tabling. Data Mining In recent years several online businesses have popped up selling data-mined hands that are collected from players on nearly every major poker site. This allows one to have massive amounts of information on the player pool while never having to play a hand against them. This is one area of technology that I feel crosses the line as far as ethics go. It is my stance that this type of activity violates the spirit of the game of poker. And while it’s true that everyone has access to these databases, I am strongly against using information that you could not have observed while playing. Besides the obvious ethical issues, using these data-mined hands violates the terms of service of most poker sites. In my opinion, it really does not help you that much to partake of data-mined hands. The fact that it only takes a few hands for your HUD to be able to give you accurate reads, data mining is something that is absolutely not necessary to be successful in online poker. If you are just starting out, I strongly advise against using any hands that you did not acquire through your own play. As an advanced player, you should strive to be more focused on game flow, history, and notes you have made on another player rather than generic reads that are obtained from how your opponents play against the field. Additionally, as technology increases poker sites may figure out how to tell if someone is using data-mined hands, and it’s simply not worth the risk of getting banned from play.
The Intermediate Strategy Now that you fully grasp the basic strategy and have played several thousand hands, you are ready to advance to the next phase of your development. With the intermediate strategy, you will learn a more advanced read-based approach to the game of poker built around core fundamentals. My goal is to provide a basic blueprint for strong play, which will supply a foundation that you can steadily build upon as your poker repertoire increases. You will now learn how to base your decisions on the tendencies of opponents instead of following a static strategy. Pre-flop 3-betting and 4-betting decisions will begin varying depending on the ranges of other players. You will also start tailoring your post-flop play based on board textures, which lays the foundation for a much more diversified and nuanced betting strategy that will become the hallmark of your play moving forward. In the end game, poker is all about exploitation. Having a strong standard game based on countering your opponents will free up your mind for precise and calculated maneuvering that will crush the competition. To that end, the rest of the book will be spent walking you through every single area of the game. I will provide insights that go well beyond the charts with the goal of providing information that is most practical and rapidly improves your game in a pragmatic fashion. Before moving on, you should have your tracking software up and running. Until you get used to making decisions based on reads that are specified in the HUD, you will want to ease deliberately into the intermediate strategy. I suggest playing only one table for a few hundred hands while you get used to the new system. Depending on your background, this strategy may take a while to master; but, once you get it down, I am sure you will find that it was well worth the work. This chapter will walk you through implementing the intermediate charts in a step-by-step fashion similar to how you learned the basic chart. I will once again supply quizzes to give you some practice using them. Make sure you spend plenty of time learning how the color coding works, especially if you have never used a HUD before. As you proceed, I suggest that you put a great deal of effort into reviewing each of your playing sessions hand-by-hand to make sure you are making accurate plays via the charts. You will then want to read on through the book and incrementally add additional strategic and tactical components, such as the pre-flop calling strategy, to your game. Everything I have incorporated will have practical relevance to the learning process. I made a conscious effort not to include any “fluff” in the book. Some things take longer to grasp than others, so feel free to work at your own pace. Without further delay, here are the intermediate charts. Once again, there are condensed versions of
the charts found at the end of the chapter. I recommend setting them up on your desktop similarly to the screenshot shown on page 69, in “Creating Your Setup.”
The Intermediate Pre-Flop Chart
x= Any card | AS= All suited cards | AC= All connected cards | ISO= Isolate | JAM= Shove all-in Step-By-Step Guide 1. Choose the appropriate section based on your hole cards. 2. Pick the row next to that section based on the situation. The pot will either be unopened, limped, or raised. For 3-betting decisions, use the “One Raiser” row. When facing a steal, use the VST column. For 4-bets, move to the V3B column. 3. When deciding to 3-bet or 4-bet, only shove when facing an opponent with the specified color or looser. For example, if the box says to commit against Gray opponents, you would shove against gray, red, and purple. If the box says blue, you would shove against all players. For 3-
betting decisions use the color of the opponent’s opening range and for 4-betting decisions use the color of the opponent’s 3-betting range versus your current position. The intermediate pre-flop chart is set up very similarly to the basic pre-flop chart. The major difference is in the color coding and stack size adjustments for 3-betting and 4-betting. You will also notice the opening ranges are quite a bit wider in late position. To make things easy when facing a 3bet, I set the chart up so that tier one hands are committed against all players, tier two against only gray, red, and purple, tier three against red and purple, and tier four only against purple 3-bettors. ____________________________________________________________ 3-Betting and 4-Betting Decisions A strong short stacking strategy is not entirely based on wildly shoving over our opponents’ pre-flop opening raises. However, when used properly, 3-betting and 4-betting accounts for a modest portion of a short stack’s overall profits. In the basic strategy, I provided static ranges to shove all-in that was not based at all on reads. For the intermediate strategy, I have built into the chart different shoving ranges based on the type of opponent you are facing. There are three basic player types listed on the chart. There are players with a tight range which are colored blue on the HUD, normal range players who are colored gray, and loose players who are colored red. I also added one more color, purple, for occasions when you face extremely wide open raisers and 3-bettors.
Using The HUD Color Coding System For 3-Betting When facing an opening raise, you simply note the raiser’s opening range color and then use the correct corresponding block on the chart. It works just like the basic chart, except now you are basing your shoving range on how narrow or wide your opponent’s opening range is. Here is a quiz to give you some practice on how the intermediate pre-flop chart works in tandem with your HUD for 3-betting decisions. Make sure you are using the VST column if the raiser is in the CO, BTN, or SB. Answers can be found in the appendix. Question #1:
No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($18.65) HJ ($10.25) Red HJ Raiser CO ($25.35) Hero (Button) ($8.12) SB ($60.66) BB ($25) Preflop: Hero is Button with A♣, Q♣ 1 fold, HJ bets $1, 1 fold, Hero ? Question #2: No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($55.15) HJ ($56.10) CO ($19.75) Button ($49.50) Blue Btn Raiser SB ($17.40) Hero (BB) ($15) Preflop: Hero is BB with J♦, Q♦
3 folds, Button bets $1.34,1 fold, Hero ? Question #3: No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) HJ ($46.05) CO ($40.96) Red CO Raiser Button ($76.67) Hero (SB) ($16.35) BB ($49.16) Preflop: Hero is SB with 7♠, A♥ 1 fold, CO bets $1.34,1 fold,Hero ? Question #4 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($78.76) Blue UTG Raiser Hero (HJ) ($16.87) CO ($39.62) Button ($184.29) SB ($19) BB ($58.28) Preflop: Hero is HJ with Q♦, Q♥ UTG bets $1.75,Hero ? Question #5 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (6 handed) UTG ($16.99) HJ ($20)
CO ($19.70) Gray CO Raiser Hero (Button) ($5.70) SB ($19.67) BB ($20) Preflop: Hero is Button with 9♥, 9♠ 2 folds, CO bets $0.60, Hero ? Question #6 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) UTG ($9) HJ ($10.15) CO ($19.09) Button ($3.27) Purple BTN Raiser SB ($13.07) Hero (BB) ($3) Preflop: Hero is BB with 5♠, 7♥ 3 folds, Button bets $0.27,1 fold, Hero ? Question #7 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) UTG ($8.59) Red UTG Raiser HJ ($5) CO ($2.93) Hero (Button) ($2.65) SB ($3.45) BB ($7.08) Preflop: Hero is Button with A♦, J♥ UTG bets $0.30,2 folds, Hero ?
Question #8 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) HJ ($12.01) CO ($4.69) Gray CO Raiser Button ($11.35) Hero (SB) ($3.03) BB ($4.30) Preflop: Hero is SB with K♦, J♦ 1 fold, CO bets $0.27,1 fold, Hero ? Question #9 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (5 handed) UTG ($9.23) HJ ($6.74) Button ($1.29) SB ($38.07) Blue SB Raiser Hero (BB) ($5.61) Preflop: Hero is BB with 6♥, 6♠ 3 folds, SB bets $0.60, Hero ? Question #10 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($25) Red UTG Raiser HJ ($23.24) CO ($30.25) Button ($28.15)
Hero (SB) ($16.80) BB ($22.36) Preflop: Hero is SB with Q♣, J♣ UTG bets $1.50,2 folds, Hero ? Question #11 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (6 handed) UTG ($18.72) HJ ($20.28) CO ($41.34) Button ($19.74) SB ($26.22) Gray SB Raiser Hero (BB) ($6) Preflop: Hero is BB with 10♦, 10♣ 4 folds, SB bets $0.47, Hero ? Question #12 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) UTG ($8.35) HJ ($11.33) Button ($12.91) Blue BTN Raiser SB ($19.20) Hero (BB) ($3.15) Preflop: Hero is BB with 10♦, J♦ 2 folds, Button bets $0.20,1 fold, Hero ? Question #13
No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (6 handed) UTG ($12.70) HJ ($48.18) CO ($12.37) Button ($5.14) Blue BTN Raiser Hero (SB) ($6.66) BB ($13.22) Preflop: Hero is SB with A♣, Q♠ 3 folds, Button bets $0.60, Hero ? Question #14 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($16.60) Purple UTG Raiser HJ ($8) CO ($38.55) Button ($27.98) Hero (SB) ($16.75) BB ($25) Preflop: Hero is SB with 10♥, A♣ UTG bets $1,3 folds, Hero ? Question #15 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) UTG ($17.87) Gray UTG Raiser HJ ($10.24) Hero (CO) ($3.34) Button ($13.12)
SB ($11.41) BB ($10.65) Preflop: Hero is CO with 8♥, 8♣ 1 fold, HJ bets $0.30, Hero? Question #16 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) HJ ($98.20) CO ($58.25) Button ($48.41) SB ($13) Purple SB Raiser Hero (BB) ($13.80) Preflop: Hero is BB with 5♦, 9♥ 3 folds, SB bets $1.50, Hero ? Question #17 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($39.08) Blue UTG Raiser HJ ($73.07) Hero (CO) ($28.80) Button ($66.60) SB ($50) BB ($51.94) Preflop: Hero is CO with J♣, J♦ UTG bets $1.13,1 fold, Hero ? Question #18
No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($26.40) HJ ($14.25) CO ($24.74) Button ($71.09) SB ($25.25) Red SB Raiser Hero (BB) ($15) Preflop: Hero is BB with 9♠, 8♠ 4 folds, SB bets $1, Hero ? Question #19 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) UTG ($4.91) HJ ($6.35) Purple HJ Raiser CO ($4.32) Button ($12.96) SB ($0.96) Hero (BB) ($2.94) Preflop: Hero is BB with A♥, 7♥ 1 fold, HJ bets $0.30,3 folds, Hero ? Question #20 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (6 handed) UTG ($6.55) HJ ($12.66) CO ($23.05) Gray CO Raiser Hero (Button) ($6.06)
SB ($3.80) BB ($8.22) Preflop: Hero is Button with K♠, Q♦ 2 folds, CO bets $0.54, Hero ? ____________________________________________________________
Using The HUD Color Coding System For 4-Betting Using the advanced chart for 4-betting works exactly the same as 3-bet decisions. You are just using a different section of the HUD and chart. When facing a 3-bet, you use the third line of the HUD and determine the opponent’s 3-bet range vs. your position. You then check the corresponding vs. V3B column on the chart and perform the appropriate action. I have set up the chart to make things very easy to remember. Against blue 3-bettors you only 4-bet with Tier 1 hands, against gray 3-bettors you 4-bet with Tier 2 and better hands, versus Red 3-bettors you commit with any hand tier 3 or better, and against purple reraisers you can put your chips in with any tier 4 hand or better. Here is a quiz to give you some practice on how the chart works in tandem with your HUD for 4betting decisions. Answers can be found in the appendix. Question #1 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (6 handed) UTG ($5.90) HJ ($25.20) Hero (CO) ($4.90) Button ($20.40) SB ($44.57) BB ($22.80) Gray 3-bettor versus CO Preflop: Hero is CO with 8♠, 8♣ 2 folds, Hero bets $0.40,2 folds, BB raises to $1.20, Hero ? Question #2 No-Limit Hold’em, $1.00 BB (5 handed) HJ ($109.90) CO ($195.95) Hero (Button) ($26.50) SB ($29)
BB ($95.35) Blue 3-bettor versus BTN Preflop: Hero is Button with K♦, A♥ 2 folds, Hero bets $2, SB calls $1.50, BB raises to $9, Hero ? Question #3 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($101.23) HJ ($17.25) CO ($49.50) Button ($72) Hero (SB) ($10.47) BB ($56.70) Red 3-bettor versus SB Preflop: Hero is SB with K♥, J♦ 4 folds, Hero bets $1, BB raises to $3, Hero ? Question #4 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) Hero (HJ) ($2.85) CO ($5) Blue 3-bettor versus HJ Button ($4.96) SB ($6.15) BB ($4.19) Preflop: Hero is HJ with Q♣, A♣ Hero bets $0.30, CO (poster) raises to $1.30,3 folds, Hero ? Question #5 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed)
UTG ($49.10) HJ ($26.75) CO ($49.75) Hero (Button) ($16.32) SB ($29.83) BB ($73.35) Purple 3-bettor versus BTN Preflop: Hero is Button with K♣, Q♠ 3 folds, Hero bets $1,1 fold, BB raises to $4, Hero ? Question #6 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) UTG ($11.43) HJ ($10.44) CO ($14.03) Button ($12.13) Hero (SB) ($2.90) BB ($8.54) Purple 3-bettor versus SB Preflop: Hero is SB with A♦, 5♦ 4 folds, Hero bets $0.20, BB raises to $0.60, Hero ? Question #7 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($65.12) HJ ($54.70) Hero (CO) ($16.50) Button ($123.31) SB ($32.35) Gray 3-bettor versus CO BB ($51.50)
Preflop: Hero is CO with 5♦, 5♣ 2 folds, Hero bets $1,1 fold, SB raises to $3,1 fold,Hero ? Question #8 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (6 handed) Hero (UTG) ($5.50) HJ ($23.03) Blue 3-bettor versus UTG CO ($6.25) Button ($4.50) SB ($8.46) BB ($24.32) Preflop: Hero is UTG with A♥, A♣ Hero bets $0.40, HJ raises to $1.40,4 folds, Hero ? Question #9 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (6 handed) UTG ($29.71) MP ($25.02) Hero (CO) ($6) Button ($37.99) SB ($19.50) BB ($20) Purple 3-bettor versus CO Preflop: Hero is CO with 5♥, 6♥ 2 folds, Hero bets $0.40,2 folds, BB raises to $1.40, Hero ? Question #10
No-Limit Hold’em, $1.00 BB (3 handed) Hero (Button) ($37.44) SB ($105.78) Red 3-bettor versus BTN BB ($121.93) Preflop: Hero is Button with J♦, A♣ Hero bets $2, SB raises to $7,1 fold, Hero ? Question #11 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (6 handed) Hero (UTG) ($5.85) HJ ($21.82) CO ($7.41) Button ($10.36) SB ($13.49) BB ($9.21) Gray 3-bettor versus UTG Preflop: Hero is UTG with 9♠, 9♥ Hero bets $0.40,4 folds, BB raises to $9.21 (All-In), Hero ? Question #12 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($20) MP ($49.25) CO ($128.18) Button ($64.25) Hero (SB) ($15) BB ($52.88) Red 3-bettor versus SB Preflop: Hero is SB with Q♣, 7♣
4 folds, Hero bets $1, BB raises to $3, Hero ? ____________________________________________________________
The Intermediate Post-Flop Chart
Step-By-Step Guide 1. Determine the board texture. If the board is neutral, err on the side of wet. 2. Go to the appropriate section regarding initiative. You will either have the initiative or you will not have the initiative and have it checked to you or face a bet. 3. Choose the row of your relative hand strength tier for the current street. 4. Perform the action in the box under the street you are playing. The chart is set up in an x/x format just like the basic chart. 5. ~ means “decide” is used in some calling situations. You may sometimes want to call a bet with a showdown value hand if all of the draws have missed. As you can see, the chart is set up similarly to the basic post-flop chart, except it is split into two separate sections, one for playing dry boards and one for playing wet boards. It inherently allows you to adjust strategies mid-hand, depending on what card hits the turn and river. Each street on the chart is to be treated as mutually exclusive and not necessarily as a continuation of the flop.
Sometimes you will flop a tier 4 hand that will suddenly become a tier 1, 2, or 3 tier hand on the turn. If you play three streets, your river tier is seldom the same as your flop tier. Always remember to play each street independently of the others. For example, let’s say you flop a tier 1 hand and bet with the intention of getting all-in on the next street. Then the worst card in the deck hits, and you no longer have a nut hand. The chart automatically switches you from the nut line and moves you to a more optimal betting strategy. Sometimes, there is a gray area where a hand could fall into one tier or another. You will need to develop your skill at recognizing relative hand strength and consider the tendencies of the opposition when assigning tiers. This chart is designed only to provide default plays in a vacuum against average opponents. Situational factors may warrant a deviation from what the chart directs you to do. An understanding of relative hand values and opponent dependent reads will be necessary to maximize. Often, a standard play listed on the chart will not be optimal against certain opponents. An exploitable extreme tendency will sometimes force you to make an adjustment to your line of play. Extremely aggressive opponents, as well as overly passive ones, can alter the relative strength of our holding and render particular actions on the chart incorrect. My advice is to use the chart only as a general guide and to work hard on moving away from relying on it as quickly as possible. You may also have noticed that the intermediate chart tells you nothing about post-flop bet sizing. If you want to use the basic post-flop chart for now, until you get the hang of things, then by all means feel free. However, I strongly suggest you start putting more thought into your post-flop plays and try to get away from using static betting patterns as soon as possible. The basic post-flop chart was devised to teach you how to build big pots with big hands and keep pots small with small hands. The intermediate post-flop chart does the same thing, except now you will base decisions on board texture. The composition of the board is extremely important for playing post-flop, as it affects both how fast we want to play our hands as well as how likely it is to connect to our opponents’ ranges. Additionally, our relative hand strength is also greatly determined by what type of board we are playing. Bet sizing recommendations will no longer be made by the chart, because I feel that type of information would only be a crutch going forward. The way it has been designed is to teach you standard betting lines that will serve you well while you work on mastering post-flop play. I want you to spend time learning the why of bet sizing rather than just following a generic system. Chapter 12 will put you on the right path with regard to sizing your bets. But feel free to use the basic postflop chart for a while, until you have developed your bet sizing aptitude. What the basic and intermediate tier-based betting strategies have in common is that they are designed more for value than to disguise your ranges. For the purposes of playing small stakes and below where players are not paying much attention to what you are doing, balancing your ranges is not really necessary. Much more important is getting maximum value from your hands. In fact, over-thinking things against non-thinking opponents can lead to fancy play syndrome. As you move up in stakes and play against stronger players, it will be necessary to put more effort into balancing.
Basing Decisions On Flop Texture For now, you only need to be able to recognize the difference between wet and dry boards. Once armed with that info, just use the post-flop chart that corresponds with your position, initiative, and the board texture. Due to the way my opening strategy is designed, you will mostly be using the postflop “with initiative” chart. The only time you will use the other two charts are in limped pots. I strongly suggest reviewing your sessions and going over every single post-flop decision you make. Think about why the chart directed you to make each action and what was to be gained. This will help you to begin to develop your post-flop acumen. To get you going in the right direction, here is a quiz which will help you get acclimated to the post-flop intermediate chart.
Intermediate Post-Flop Chart Quiz Answers can be found in the appendix. Question #1 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($17.15) HJ ($48.50) Hero (CO) ($14) Button ($25.25) SB ($110.25) BB ($25.68) Preflop: Hero is CO with A♥, A♦ 2 folds, Hero bets $1,2 folds, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($2.25) 8♠, 6♥, 3♠ (2 players) BB bets $1.50, Hero ? Question #2 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($52.21) HJ ($76.93) Hero (CO) ($13.50) Button ($50.74) SB ($71.05) BB ($53.56) Preflop: Hero is CO with 4♥, A♥ 2 folds, Hero bets $1,2 folds, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($2.25) 10♠, 7♠, 4♦ (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $1.13, BB calls $1.13 Turn: ($4.51) J♣ (2 players) BB checks, Hero ? Question #3 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed)
UTG ($101.14) HJ ($86.02) CO ($117.29) Hero (Button) ($14.15) SB ($60.15) BB ($52.32) Preflop: Hero is Button with J♣, Q♦ 3 folds, Hero bets $1,1 fold, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($2.25) 4♣, 2♣, J♦ (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $1.50, BB raises to $4.50, Hero ? Question #4 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) HJ ($47.12) CO ($99.33) Button ($22.54) Hero (SB) ($15.15) BB ($51.50) Preflop: Hero is SB with 8♠, 7♦ 3 folds, Hero bets $1, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($2) J♥, 4♠, K♣ (2 players) Hero bets $1.34, BB calls $1.34 Turn: ($4.68) 4♥ (2 players) Hero ? Question #5 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) HJ ($35.95) CO($22.65) Button ($82.51) Hero (SB) ($16.80) BB ($50) Preflop: Hero is SB with 3♥, A♣
HJ calls $0.50,1 fold, Button calls $0.50, Hero calls $0.25, BB checks Flop: ($2) 3♦, Q♣, A♦ (4 players) Hero ? Question #6 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (5 handed) Hero (HJ) ($3.60) CO ($40.76) Button ($35.55) SB ($19.91) BB ($19.30) Preflop: Hero is HJ with 10♦, A♦ Hero bets $0.40,2 folds, SB calls $0.30, BB calls $0.20 Flop: ($1.20) Q♠, 6♦, 3♦ (3 players) SB checks, BB bets $1.20, Hero ? Question #7 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($15) HJ ($86.19) CO ($48.69) Button ($119.54) SB ($88.55) Hero (BB) ($14.10) Preflop: Hero is BB with 6♣, 9♠ UTG (poster) checks,3 folds, SB calls $0.25, Hero checks Flop: ($1.50) 3♠, 7♣, 9♦ (3 players) SB bets $1, Hero calls $1, 1 fold Turn: ($3.50) 4♠ (2 players) SB bets $1, Hero calls $1 River: ($5.50) 3♣ (2 players) SB bets $3, Hero ?
Question #8 No-Limit Hold’em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) UTG ($156.75) HJ ($110.65) CO ($58.70) Button ($26.20) Hero (SB) ($31.04) BB ($144.09) Preflop: Hero is SB with A♣, 5♠ 2 folds, CO calls $1,1 fold, Hero calls $0.50, BB checks Flop: ($3) A♠, 10♣, 3♣ (3 players) Hero checks, BB checks, CO bets $1, Hero calls $1,1 fold Turn: ($5) 7♠ (2 players) Hero checks, CO checks River: ($5) 3♥ (2 players) Hero ? Question #9 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (6 handed) UTG ($22.96) HJ ($19.96) CO ($20) Hero (Button) ($5.70) SB ($19.80) BB ($12.36) Preflop: Hero is Button with 8♣, Q♥ 2 folds, CO (poster) checks, Hero bets $0.80,1 fold, BB calls $0.60,1 fold Flop: ($1.90) A♦, 5♦, 10♠ (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $0.95, BB calls $0.95 Turn: ($3.80) J♥ (2 players) BB checks, Hero checks River: ($3.80) 5♣ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero ? Question #10 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (4 handed) Hero (CO) ($3.01) Button ($4.83) SB ($4.67) BB ($3.35) Preflop: Hero is CO with 8♥, 8♠ Hero bets $0.20, Button calls $0.20,1 fold, BB calls $0.10 Flop: ($0.65) 4♥, 8♦, Q♠ (3 players) BB checks, Hero bets $0.20, Button calls $0.20, BB raises to $1, Hero ? Question #11 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) UTG ($3.87) HJ ($7.94) CO ($6.80) Button ($5.91) Hero (SB) ($2.20) BB ($11.12) Preflop: Hero is SB with 3♦, 3♣ 2 folds, CO calls $0.10, Button calls $0.10, Hero calls $0.05, BB checks Flop: ($0.40) 7♥, 5♥, 3♠ (4 players) Hero ? Question #12 No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) HJ ($45.60) Hero (CO) ($16.34) Button ($64.97) SB ($49.50) BB ($48.41)
Preflop: Hero is CO with J♣, 4♣ 1 fold, Hero bets $1, Button calls $1,1 fold, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($3.25) 4♠, 7♥, 3♥ (3 players) BB checks, Hero bets $1.63, Button calls $1.63,1 fold Turn: ($6.51) K♣ (2 players) Hero bets $2.50, Button calls $2.50 River: ($11.51) 8♦ (2 players) Hero checks, Button bets $59.84 (All-In), Hero ? ____________________________________________________________ You now have all the tools you need to begin effectively using my intermediate strategy in your own play. The chart-based strategy should be considered your base default strategy going forward. The rest of the book will be spent showing you how to hone your game and expand your poker repertoire.
Condensed Intermediate Charts
Opening Strategy In this chapter we will discuss how to play unopened pots and form an overall game plan for creating profitable post-flop opportunities. While the intermediate strategy continues to have you opening a very tight early position range, the late position ranges are significantly looser. This is because I believe the most profitable way to play is a positional loose-aggressive, or LAG, style. A LAG opens a multitude of hands that your average player would find ridiculous. If it folds to most people in the cutoff (or any position for that matter) and they look down at 95o, they insta-muck it because they believe they are too “smart” to play junk like that. It is my belief that there is no such thing as a junk hand. There are only junk situations. If there is potential profit to be had from playing a particular hand, then it is not junk. The curious thing that many players have difficulty grasping is that, standing alone, a hand can be unprofitable while at the same time increasing your overall bottom line. For example, 95o is in my typical cutoff range. I do not believe that opening that hand will necessarily be profitable long term, yet I still raise with it when folded to under the right conditions. This is due to the fact that attentive players will notice that I am raising a wide range from the cutoff. Therefore, they will tend to give a lot less respect to my cutoff raises, which increases the average earn of the top of my range. The net result is an overall increase to my cutoff expectation. It is important to understand this concept. It is the whole reason someone plays a pre-flop LAG style. You want to be the Rodney Dangerfield of poker and get no respect. You want people to become angry at you for seemingly “raising every damn hand” and in turn loosen up against you. Not only does it get them out of their comfort zone, it also makes them have to adjust. And to be frank, 99% of players have no clue how to adjust properly to a loose-aggressive player. So most of the time, whether they adjust or not, we profit.
Stealing Stealing is the foundation of any successful pre-flop strategy, as the game of Hold’em is literally based on a fight for the blinds. If no one were forced to post blinds, there would be no point to the game, and the best strategy would be to fold every single hand but pocket Aces. However, there are 1.5 big blinds sitting there on the table at the start of every hand. In order to keep up with the fees you have to pay every revolution, you actively need to try to either hold on to your blinds or take someone else’s. So which strategy is better? Do we try to defend “our” blinds, or do we pick pocket someone else? Right now, you may be thinking, “It’s only 1.5 big blinds; why the heck should I bother going out of my way to go after them?” The answer is simple. You should do so because 1.5 big blinds is a ton of money! In a 6-handed, non-ante game, if you play 1,000 hands in a session, you will be in the blinds fully about 333 times. That’s 250 big blinds per 1,000 hands that you are investing all by yourself before the cards are even dealt. During that same time, the total invested by all players at the table is 1,500 big blinds. In a .50/1.00 cash game, $1,500 is contributed every 1,000 hands. Whoever is able to procure more of that money will be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. Most players have either a flawed strategy or no strategy at all for competing for the blinds. Either way, they are fighting an uphill battle every time they sit at the table. The great majority of players who do fight for the blinds feel that they have some type of ownership in the money they post. They complain or get upset when someone tries to “steal” their blinds. What they end up doing is chasing their blinds. Ever so often, they make a feeble attempt to try to hold onto what wasn’t even theirs in the first place by calling or raising. Typically, their efforts are both strategically and mathematically incorrect. The truth is, once a player posts a blind, it no longer belongs to him or anyone else. Until the pot is raked, nobody owns the money in the middle. There is a time and a place to fight for the blinds while you are sitting in them. However, the best way to get your share of the blind pie is not to try to defend yours, but rather to take someone else’s. The way to do that is through an aggressive stealing strategy. A steal is defined as any open raise from the Cutoff, Button, or Small blind after it has folded to you. When in the Cutoff, you will have position most of the time after the flop, and as the Button, you always will. As you have learned, position is king in poker. And any method that has you playing more hands in position is the better strategy. The only stealing position that guarantees you being out of position once called is the small blind. You would think that means we need to raise tighter from
that position. However, counter intuitively, it is exactly the opposite. We will get into why in a bit. The later your position, the more profit you should be making. Theoretically, your lowest win rate will be from UTG, and your biggest win rate will be from the Button. Why is this? The fact that more people are behind you to pick up playable hands when you raise from earlier positions, which gives more fold equity before the flop, has something to do with it. Even so, the biggest factor that makes stealing so much more profitable is position. The screenshot below is of my positional stats over the last few months at 50NL. Notice how each position gets more profitable as you move toward the button. In the above sample, I stole from the cutoff 65%, the button 85%, and the small blind 100% of the time it folded to me. These numbers might seem ridiculous to some people, but I can confidently say that profits from stealing rather than 3-betting is what accounted for the majority of my win-rate from the stealing positions. Breaking even from the small blind is a huge boon to my overall win-rate. There really is no secret to my success from that position. By just using the fundamentals of initiative and pressure, I am generally able to keep my opponents on the ropes in blind-versus-blind situations.
Stealing From The Small Blind Your default play should eventually be to open 100% of hands when folded to in the small blind. This is because the vast majority of players out there have no idea how to react to having their big blind relentlessly raised by an aggressive small blind player. The most common way players who notice what you are doing will try to defend is by calling and trying to hit something post-flop. This is known as playing “fit or fold.” But due to your aggressive post-flop c-betting strategy, this will make life very difficult for players. Most do not have the stomach to call down with 2nd or 3rd pair, or bluff shove all-in with air against a short stack. Inevitably, aggressive players will start 3-betting you light. Nevertheless, in order to exploit your 100% raising range, they would need to 3-bet a whopping 50% or more of hands. Anything less than 50%, and you are winning money, even if you fold to their 3-bet every single time. Additionally, with a steal success of 57%, you would break even if your hand never had value. You could open fold your hand post-flop every single time and not lose anything. But here’s the good news. Your hand does have value, and sometimes you will hit flops. When all of this is factored in, against most opponents, raising anything less than 100% in the small blind when it is folded to you seems like a gross error. Besides, the world is full of nits. You will find that many players will be oblivious to what you are doing. They are completely focused on their cards or possibly playing too many tables to notice. These types of players are getting their pockets picked time and time again and will never realize it. I cannot overstate how important it is to keep the steady stealing profit from these players flowing in. The only opponents you will need to adjust your SB opening range against are ones that either mix in calling with an aggressive 3-betting range or float relentlessly. Against these players, you can value bet more thinly should you get called, but you will need to play somewhat fit or fold against them. Versus balanced players, I typically tighten up to my raising range against them while I wait to leave the table. There is really no point in staying on a table with aggressive strong opponents on your left, unless there is some factor that cancels out the negative aspects of the situation. A good example of this would be having a huge fish directly to your right. In Chapter 6, I provided for you a pop-up that I recently created to help me make decisions when considering an open from the small blind. Feel free to incorporate it into your own HUD.
Opening Ranges For the intermediate strategy, open the following ranges: UTG/HJ- 55+, AT+, KQ CO/BTN- 22+, Ax, anything connected 65+ SB- 22+, Ax, Kx, Qx, anything suited, anything connected I have specifically chosen hands that are designed to make the transition to LAG play as smooth as possible. Eventually, you will begin opening a range that is not static, but rather based on the composition of the table. For now, I have provided ranges that I feel open a sufficiently wide enough range while at the same time being made up of hands that have marked connectivity with a variety of flops while you learn and improve your post-flop play. In Chapter 15, I will show you how to adjust your stealing ranges based on the tendencies of the opponents seated behind you on any given hand. You will learn when to play your normal range and when it is prudent to either tighten or loosen up. For now, you are not advised to vary from the base opening ranges, no matter how playable or unplayable you think the hand is. What If I Absolutely Cannot Open That Many Hands? I considered going with a tighter range for the strategies provided in my charts. But I feel it would put such a dent in a player’s earnings from stealing that I decided against it. However, I have tailored the ranges to put you in the fewest possible marginal spots while still creating enough profitable situations to keep your opponents off balance. Once you move beyond the charts, you will almost certainly be adding even more hands to your own opening range, but for now, the intermediate pre-flop chart is a good introduction to LAG play. But if you simply cannot dive right into what may appear to some to be overly loose play, feel free to use the basic ranges for a while until you feel comfortable enough to fully open up your game. Alternatively, you can just trim the suited and unsuited connectors and semi-connectors off your late position range for a time. I strongly suggest that you just jump in with both feet and use the opening ranges I am providing. The charts will show you exactly what to do, and if you want to reach your full potential, you will need to eventually transition to the loose end of tag or full-on LAG play.
Open Raise Sizing For the strategies laid out in this book, you will be open raising anywhere from 2 big blinds to 4 big blinds in unopened pots. For now, feel free to use the strategy laid out in the basic chart as it will tell you exactly how much to raise with your opening ranges from all positions. I have chosen the sizing carefully to both maximize profit with your big hands and to provide sufficient fold equity in late position with the weaker parts of your range. The main idea is to have you playing a game that puts you in the least amount of tough spots as possible, while setting you up for much easier post-flop decisions. A good rule of thumb is that if you plan on folding to a 3-bet, you should min-raise. If you plan on committing when 3-bet, you should choose a larger opening raise size. You do not need to worry too much about getting exploited at the micro-stakes, so varying your raise size by position and hand strength is fine for now. The majority of players will have no clue what you are doing, and an overall strategy that maximizes against loose and weak players is how my charts have been designed. Once you are able to move away from the charts, your ranges will become even looser, and a min-raise with your entire range from all positions will be necessary due to the added likelihood of your getting played back due to your more aggressive pre-flop game. Min-raising as a short stack allows for optimum stack-to-pot ratios, causes many players to call too often out of position, gives aggressive 3-betters the maximum chance to make a mistake against you, and allows for you to correctly fold as cheaply as possible should you face a 3-bet with a marginal hand. Additionally, against stronger players you will want to give no information as to your pre-flop ranges. Having a static pre-flop opening raise size accomplishes that. When To Vary Opening Raise Sizing While you want to create optimal SPRs for yourself, and we know min-raising usually accomplishes that, there are still some instances where increasing your opening raise size can be beneficial. This is because getting as much money in pre-flop as you can with certain holdings and achieving an even lower SPR is sometimes preferred as long as your opponents are not catching on to what you are doing. On tables full of regulars, you should be reluctant to change your raise size at any point, as they will likely be used to your normal min-raise. However, on tables of non-regulars, very loose players, or fish there are a few instances where you might consider a change. If the play at the table has been loose with multiple players frequently going to the flop, I will increase my opening size with TT+ to between 2.5 and 3.5 big blinds. The sizing I choose depends on just how loose the table has been playing. If play has been particularly aggressive and there are one or more pre-flop maniacs still to act, raising to 3.5bbs or 4.0bbs are both good choices. You will also want to widen your typical value range a bit on tables like this both before and after the flop.
Isolating Limpers On the cutoff and button, you should be looking to play as many pots against bad players as possible. You can raise any reasonable hand behind their limp, and the situation will be much more profitable than if it had folded to you with no dead money in the pot. The reason for this is three-fold: 1. You are guaranteed to have position on them if they call your raise. 2. They generally have a weak range to be limping and will miss most flops. 3. You have the blinds in the pot as additional dead money. I usually only raise the minimum or to three big blinds behind one limper. The reason for this is that I want to see a flop. When you are a stronger player than your opponent, you should not be afraid to see flops with them. You want to give them as many streets as possible to make mistakes against you. If there are multiple limpers or your hand is especially marginal, raising to 4 times the big blind with a slightly tighter range in order to isolate or shoving all-in with just below the top of your range is usually best. Shoving Over Limpers The ability to shove all-in over one or more limpers is another weapon in a short stacker’s arsenal. And the more dead money in the pot when the action gets to you, the more profitable this move becomes. On an average table, if there is one limper when it is your turn to act, it is generally profitable to shove with the following hands: CO/BTN- 88+, AQ+ Blinds- 66+, AJ+ If there are two or more limpers, feel free to shove even wider. The following ranges would be fine: CO/BTN- 66+, AJ+ Blinds- 22+, KJ+, QJs, JTs You do not want to abuse this move because astute players will begin limping hands at the top of their range in order to trap you. Also, depending on the nature of the limper, a small raise might be more profitable. My advice is that when you are in position and are a competent post-flop player, the most +EV play is likely to be isolating. However, until you are comfortable playing after the flop, I strongly suggest sticking to the shove or fold strategy outlined in this section. I have also included these ranges on the pre-flop chart for easy access.
My personal strategy includes isolating in some cases and shoving in others. My default shoving range is as follows: CO/BTN- 77-99, AJ+ SB- 55-99, AJ+ I use the rest of my positional opening range to isolate instead of shoving. Notice that I ISO big pairs instead of shoving, as they are most likely to be good postflop unimproved, but like to shove AQ and AK because they are trickier to play since they will whiff the flop often.” When To Adjust Your Limper Shoving Range Keep in mind that shoving ranges can be tighter or wider, depending on the dynamics of the table. If there are very loose limpers with a high VPIP of 60+, then it is best to shove only the tighter range. Very weak players will limp pairs, Ax, or big Kx hands, and as a result find it extremely difficult to fold to a shove from a short stack. Make sure that you take notes on players if they show up with a very strong hand with which they limped. Also, there are a number of regulars who will limp premium holdings in order to trap a short stack seated behind them. If a decent player suddenly limps in early position, you should be wary of being set up for a trap. If there are numerous limpers involved in the hand, you can widen your shoving range even further. I will not lay out any hard and fast rules for you in this book since loose shoving is very situational. From the blinds, you have another option to exploit limpers. The Third And Go To employ the third and go in a limped pot, you raise one-third of your stack and, if called, shove allin on any flop. Your default range for doing this should be: 77-JJ, ATo+, KJo+ In order to perform this move, you need to either be in the SB or in the BB with no SB in the hand. It is important that you always act first after the flop. Most of the time you will either take it down preflop or win on the flop when you shove and they fold. When called, you will sometimes be amazed at what types of hands will stack off against your push. The amount you make when you win will far outweigh the few times your opponent gets lucky and hits his hand and stacks you. An added benefit to this move is that it tends to further your “crazy” image. However, be wary of overusing it as observant players may try trapping you by limping with premium holdings. If you try this two revolutions in a row, you will find the second time will typically get action with greater frequency. I would suggest tightening your range for doing it on a consecutive revolution to TT+ and AK. I find that this move works best against very loose players, maniacs, or obvious gambler types that
hate to fold. My win-rate for third and go’s in the last 100k hands is about 164bbs/100 in just under 200 instances. As you can see, it is not something I do all the time. When used sparingly, I know I am printing money each time I utilize this powerful move.
3-Bet/4-Bet Strategy While shoving over opening raises is an integral part of any short stacking strategy, it is not the most important ingredient to success. My approach puts much less emphasis on 3-betting than one might expect. I want you to become a good poker player, not a shovebot. Reacting to reraises is a source of massive leaks among most poker players. They either call too much or fold way too often. The goal of any 3-bet shoving strategy should be to take advantage of the tendencies of your opponents. In Chapter 7, I provided you with a pre-flop chart that outlines profitable 3-bet and 4-bet frequencies versus varying opening ranges. In this chapter, my goal is to discuss a bit of theory and put you on the path toward improving your understanding of reraises. However, before putting too much time and effort into strengthening your pre-flop game, I recommend spending more time working on your post-flop skill. Having a strong post-flop game is much more important and will increase your win-rate more quickly. For now, I recommend sticking to the charts for all of your 3-betting and 4-betting decisions.
3-Betting Tactics The profitability of 3-bet shoves are completely mathematical. The range of hands that can profitably 3-bet are based upon the opening and calling ranges of our opposition as well as the Hero’s position at the table and stack size. Once you have a grasp of your opponent’s ranges, you must then factor in the strength of your hand as well as your fold equity before deciding whether or not to shove. As you learned previously, fold equity is the amount of money you win when your opponent does not have a hand strong enough to call your 3-bet. The tighter an opponent’s calling range, the more fold equity you have. Conversely, the looser an opponent’s range, the less fold equity is available. Therefore, the stronger your hand, the less fold equity you need to shove profitably, and the weaker your hand, the more fold equity you need. Let’s say you have a hand that has 55% equity against your opponent’s calling range. In this case your shove is for value, and you don’t need any fold equity to make it a winning play. Alternately, let’s say you have the same hand vs. a much tighter player, and now you only have 40% equity against his calling range. Now your shove is a bluff, and you need him to fold often enough to aquire sufficient non-showdown money to make up for the times he calls. Calculating fold equity and calling ranges is fairly complicated and beyond the scope of this book. Luckily, there are a few programs out there that help you do this. A good one that I recommend is called “Cardrunner’s EV.” It is free to download and try. For now, I have done the calculations for you. My intermediate charts are based on average calling ranges in the player pool and tend to err on the tight side. I designed them this way intentionally for a few reasons: 1. Profiting from 3-bet shoving as a short stack is over-rated. Most of your income should come from pre-flop stealing and outplaying your opponents post-flop, not from becoming a 3-betting maniac. 2. The amount you win or lose in most 3-bet situations is fairly marginal. When you do 3-bet, you want to be sure that it will almost certainly be exploitative. 3. Generally, the player pool expects you to be 3-betting wide as a short stack. Therefore, shoving ranges should be based on what your opponents perceive your shoving range to be, not what their HUD says their calling ranges are. In other words, the average player is generally going to have a much wider 3-bet calling range versus a short stack than they’d have versus a 100 big blind player. And the more likely you are to get called, the tighter your shoving range should be. Against unknowns, you should always have a standard 3-betting and 4-betting range. I have provided
one in my basic charts that will serve you well. My advice is that you memorize them and always fall back on the default ranges when you do not have a read. Standard 30 big blind 3-betting ranges based on your position: HJ: JJ+, AK CO/BTN: 99+, AQ+ SB/BB: 88+, AQ+ BTN Vs. Steal: 77+, AJ+ SB/BB Vs. Steal: 55+, AT+, KQ+ The ranges indicated are the same as can be found in the basic charts. ____________________________________________________________ Light 3-Betting At some point, you will encounter players who are abusing the button and cutoff by stealing with a very wide range. Most players attempt to counter them by calling more often. Unless you have a specific plan to trap, this is the worst thing you can do, as it has you playing out of position without initiative. And while light 3-betting can be very profitable, as with anything else, you still need to practice discretion. First of all, you need to keep in mind that unless you are in the big blind, you still have one or two players to your left that have a chance of picking up a monster. This is not a great concern since people pick up big hands so infrequently that you can’t let it slow you down too much. The main thing to keep in mind is that you can resteal much lighter from the big blind than you can from the small blind or button. You also need to understand that since you are a short stack, you will generally get called much lighter when you shove all-in. Since calling ranges drastically affect the ranges you can profitably resteal with, you must remain mindful of your inherently decreased fold equity. Most players who have a very wide stealing range generally understand that they will be 3-bet light more often, especially against short stacks. In turn, they will consciously have a wider calling range against resteals than will your typical player. Therefore, you need to walk a tightrope when it comes to light restealing. I advise that you choose hands that stack up very well against a wide calling range. Hands like Axs, suited connectors, and
small pocket pairs do very well as they have a lot of equity versus hands like KQ, KJ, QJ, Ax, and small pairs, which generally make up a typical light calling range. Here is the Pokerstove calculation: Equity Light Calling Range: { 22-66, A6-A2, KQ, KJ, QJ } 52.140% Light Shoving Range: { 44-22, A5s-A2s, JTs-54s } 47.860% I have built some of these types of light 3-bets into the intermediate chart. However, against some players, it is okay to resteal even lighter than the chart indicates. Look for players who are opening greater than 50 percent from a stealing position, especially those raising three times the big blind or more. I like to pick my spots carefully, but will generally confidently resteal my entire standard cutoff and button range against them with a 30bb stack or less. If an opponent is stealing more than 60 percent, unless he calls extremely wide, you can usually 3-bet any two cards profitably against him. Just be sure to avoid doing it enough to incite an adjustment from your opponent. Strong judgment in these situations is something you will learn. I encourage you to eventually do your own study and learn how ranges stack up against each other in 3-bet and 4-bet pots. For now, the intermediate pre-flop chart provides you with a sound system for 3-betting. As a short stack, you have at your disposal a decisive weapon that, when used properly, is very effective in exploiting loose steals. Through light 3-betting, you will force loose players to readjust against you or risk leaking tons of money your way. If they do not either tighten up their opening range or loosen their 3-bet calling range, you will rake in the dough against them.
4-Betting Tactics It is inevitable that you will get 3-bet. Using my intermediate opening strategy and employing a wide stealing range will have you facing 3-bets quite frequently as players adjust. Most of the time, your range will be much weaker than your opponent, and you will be forced to fold. But if your hand is strong enough or the situation is right for a bluff, you can profitably 4-bet. How you react to 3-bets is based on a number of factors: the 3-bet range you are up against, the strength of your hand, and any specific history you have with your opponent. Until you have a specific read, you should be 4-betting or calling all-in with a very narrow range based solely on the 3-bettor’s positional frequencies found in the HUD. Just as I have done for 3-betting decisions, I have built into my chart and HUD the ability for you to make quick and accurate decisions when faced with a 3-bet. Until you have a grasp for how ranges stack up against each other and gain the ability to recognize when players vary from their standard 3betting ranges, I would advise staying in line and sticking to the charts I have provided. Light 4-betting is something you will need to learn in the future, but for now, you are better off tightening up a bit pre-flop against light 3-bettors rather than being forced to get into range wars against them. Until you master range equities, I suggest using the following standard positional 4betting ranges when readless. Standard 30 big blind range for 4-betting against unknowns: UTG/HJ: JJ+, AK CO: 99+, AQ+ BTN: 77+, AJ+ SB: 55+, AT+, KQo+ The positions indicated are for hero and are the same as the ranges found in the basic charts.
Pre-Flop Calling Strategy As a LAG, our entire strategy is based on not needing to make a hand in order to win a pot. We accomplish this by playing in position with initiative. Since calling will often find us going to the flop with neither, raising or folding is almost always the best option. Putting money into a pot just to see what happens or to try to “hit a hand” is a fishy and losing play. As a rule, you should only be calling in specific situations for specific reasons. Even so, under certain circumstances, direct or implied odds are too great to ignore, and it is profitable to forgo initiative and speculate. This chapter will give you all the tools necessary to navigate those tricky spots where implied odds governs your decisions. Implied Odds Implied odds can be defined as the amount of money you stand to win on later streets, should you call a bet or raise and then make a strong hand. There is no way to know exactly what your implied odds are in any given situation, but you can learn to recognize common scenarios where calling is profitable. Specific hand types that tend to have strong implied odds are small pairs, suited connectors, and nonsuited connectors. These holdings can make well-disguised straights, two-pair, and three of a kind hands. Suited connectors have the added benefit of frequently flopping powerful combo draws. Opponent Specific Considerations The type of opponent we are facing weighs heavily into pre-flop flat-calling decisions. Whether an opponent is tight or loose largely determines how the hand will play on future streets. As the likelihood of a player stacking off post-flop grows, so does the value of a speculative holding. Your implied odds are heightened when facing a raise from a very tight opponent. For example, a player who seldom raises UTG is much more likely to commit to the pot after the flop than a loose player raising on the button. Therefore, the reward for hitting your hand is much higher on average against tighter ranges. The opposite is true against loose opponents. Since their range is wide before the flop, there is a much smaller chance that they will obtain a post-flop hand that they are willing to commit with. Therefore, against loose opponents, your implied odds are diminished. Before considering any call as a small stack against an average player, you typically will want at least 3 to 1 direct pot odds. Against loose players, the odds need to be even better. I would look for
at least 4 to 1 direct odds before calling a raise against a wide range, a situation that almost never arises. Conversely, against very tight players you can consider a call with slightly worse than 3 to 1 direct odds. Understanding Reverse Implied Odds Reverse implied odds refers to situations where you call a bet and make your hand, but are still second best. This concept affects every implied odds decision you will make and is the most important factor when deciding to continue without initiative. As a small stacker, you will want to avoid these situations like the plague. You will rarely have the necessary implied odds to call in most situations. So if reverse implied odds is a concern, then you almost never want to commit more chips to the pot with a speculative hand. Before the flop, reverse implied odds situations arise by making calls with hands that can make very strong hands which are not the nuts. A good example are suited hands which do not include an Ace. Since many players like to limp suited Ax hands, you will find that your frequency of losing flush over flush will be increased when you consistently call with two cards just because they are suited. Before we go more deeply into calling raises, let’s talk about limping, the most frequent pre-flop calls you will be making.
Limping Tactics As a rule, limping is a bad idea. By just calling the big blind, you can never have initiative, and postflop pots become exceedingly tricky with marginal holdings. There is a lot of truth to the adage that any hand worth limping is better off being raised. Even so, there are particular instances where limping is preferable to raising. These include AK in early position and situational implied odds hands in late position, many of which benefit from multi-way pots. The most common position that you will be limping in is from the small blind. Beyond what is listed in my charts, I suggest that you complete with any suited ace, any pair that is not profitable to shove, and most anything connected that can make a disguised straight. A suited and connected hand is especially profitable in these situations. One thing you should never do is complete the small blind when it folds to you. In that situation, you will always either be raising or folding. There is way too much value in playing aggressively when blind versus blind. Only when there are one or more limpers already in the pot do you want to consider completing. Playing Ace King When you raise Ace King and get called, 70% of the time you will whiff the flop. This problem is heightened if you raise from UTG or the HJ, because you will almost always be out of position for the duration of the hand. And at the micro stakes, you can expect to be playing a multi-way pot quite often, which further constricts your ability to make profitable c-bets. So, the easy solution is to limp from the first two positions and then shove all-in if someone raises. That way, you are guaranteed to see all five cards if you get all-in. Additionally, in the event that no one raises, you have a well-disguised hand which plays very nicely post-flop and dominates many weak hands that may have limped behind you. Some of you may be thinking that early position limp-raising only with Ace King is easily exploitable. While a few regulars may notice what you are doing and adjust, for the most part, no one will have a clue and will repeatedly fall prey to this tactic. Once you start playing mid-stakes games, you will need to mix up your play when limping from early position. But at the micros, very few people are capable of both noticing what you are doing and adjusting correctly. My win-rate for limping Ace King in the first two positions is 252bb/100 over a sample size of 450 instances. Interestingly, my win-rate for open raising is virtually the same, but when you factor in how much more easily the hand plays by limping, doing so is a slam dunk.
Limping In Late Position The only time you should be limping a hand besides Ace King is when you have reasonable implied odds in late position. Here are some general rules for limping. You need all of them going for you in order to consider a limp: 1. Your hand has reasonable implied odds and cannot profitably shove or isolate. 2. There is at least one limper already in the pot. 3. You are in the cutoff, button, or small blind. Hands To Consider Limping CO/Btn: 22-55, Axs, JT+, J9+ SB: 22-55, Any unsuited or suited connectors 65+, Any unsuited or suited one-gappers 97+, Axs I put strong emphasis on the word “consider” and want to stress that limping should be your last resort. You should always be looking for profitable situations, but do not necessarily always want to limp the above ranges. If raising or shoving is not profitable but your hand is likely +EV to limp, only then do you want to consider just calling the big blind. Limping from the cutoff should be a rare occurrence, with limping from the button a bit more frequent due to the guarantee of absolute position. Most of the time, your limps will be from the small blind. When unsure about whether to isolate a player or limp behind, I often look at how my opponent plays post-flop. If he folds to C-bets out of position greater than 50% of the time, I lean toward isolating. If he limp-raises often, is a station, or does not fold to c-bets with great frequency, I lean toward limping. Situations To Avoid Limping You must also remain mindful of negative factors that diminish the profitability of limping. The only time you want to limp is when your hand is too strong to fold but not good enough to shove or isolate, which should make limping a fairly rare occurrence for you. You almost never want to open limp, and you generally want to have passive players seated behind you. Here is a list of undesirable circumstances with regard to limping: There are loose aggressive players behind you that will raise often.
Your hand suffers from reverse implied odds. There is a short stack in the blinds behind you. The limper(s) ahead of you are non-fish. As a side note, if you find yourself in a situation that is undesirable for limping marginal hands for any of the above reasons, you might want to instead limp a trapping range sometimes for balance. This is particularly effective with aggressive players or short stacks behind you. Limping a hand like AK on the cutoff or button and going for a limp-raise can be especially profitable in late position. Take the following example: Example #10.1: Trapping a maniac No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) HJ ($97.63) CO ($54.21) Hero (Button) ($13.70) SB ($21.25) BB ($28.80) 70/60/44 5% 3-bet Preflop: Hero is Button with K♣, A♥ 1 fold, CO calls $0.50, Hero calls $0.50,1 fold, BB bets $2,1 fold,Hero raises to $13.70 (All-In), BB calls $11.20 Flop: ($27.15) 5♥, 8♦, 8♠ (2 players, 1 all-in) Turn: ($27.15) 6♦ (2 players, 1 all-in) River: ($27.15) 3♣ (2 players, 1 all-in) Total pot: $27.15 | Rake: $0.35 Results: Hero had K♣, A♥ (one pair, eights).
BB had J♦, K♦ (one pair, eights). Outcome: Hero won $26.80. ____________________________________________________________ You want to be sure you do not overdo setting traps like this. If the big blind was a wide 3-bettor, then raising would be a much better option. Paying attention to game flow is crucial to mixing in unorthodox plays.
Flat-Calling Tactics It should be rare for you to flat any pre-flop opening raise. You need much better odds to call than is required by deeper stacked players, and almost always do not have enough money behind to speculate. As discussed previously, you need to be getting at least 3 to 1 direct odds against your average opponent. Therefore, there generally need to be two or more people already involved before sufficient odds are obtained. I recommend never flatting with less than 20 big blinds, no matter how good your pot odds are. It is much better to shove or fold these situations. You must also consider the opening range of the initial raiser. The tighter the player who opened the pot, the more profitable it is to flat their raise with speculative hands. This is because, as a rule, tighter pre-flop ranges are more likely to commit post-flop. Your implied odds are therefore increased when flatting a raise from tight players. The opposite is true against loose players. Wider ranges are less likely to hit flops, and your implied odds are thus decreased. The exception is if your loose opponent is a complete post-flop maniac and will very frequently pay you off when you connect. Just keep in mind that you should be widening your post-flop stack off range against these types of players as well. You also want to avoid flatting with hands that are easily dominated. Hands like KJ, KT, QT, Q9, and Ax hands weaker than AJ can get you in a ton of trouble. Much better are all suited connectors 32s to QJs or mid non-suited connectors like T9o or 98o. Any pair that cannot profitably shove is good as well. Here are the guidelines I use when considering calling a pre-flop raise. In most situations, all of these factors need to be going for you in order to contemplate a call: You have a hand that can flop a monster that does not have reverse-implied odds problems. The hand is multi-way with at least one other caller already in. There are no aggressive squeezers behind you. You have direct pre-flop pot odds of at least 3 to 1. Shoving does not appear to be profitable. Just remember that the majority of the time you will not flop big, so make sure you don’t get married to mediocre post-flop hands. Because you had good implied odds for making the pre-flop call, it is not necessary to commit unless you flop very well. You should only be looking to commit with hands that either have your opponent crushed or, at least, have very good equity against their range. Hands to stack off with post-flop after flatting with speculative holdings: Flushes, Straights, and Full Houses
Two-pair Sets or Trips Open-ended Straight Draws Flush Draws Combo Draws Notice that top pair is not in the list. It does not mean you will not be committing with that hand, it just means it is not always a sure thing.
When To Slow Play Before The Flop Occasionally, you can find additional earnings by remaining aware of the ranges and tendencies of your opponents. Sometimes the information at hand will lead to slightly unorthodox plays as a means to maximizing profit. One such way is not reraising with a tier 1 pre-flop holding. Here are a few situations I may consider slow playing big hands before the flop. 1. An opponent opens a very wide range and folds to reraises often. 2. There is a light 3-bettor or squeezer seated behind me. 3. There is a fish behind me that I want to give the chance to get involved. While trapping with monsters is definitely a weapon to keep in your arsenal, I am by no means advocating that you start flatting the majority of your big pairs. Most of the time you will want to be reraising all your tier 1 hands. You must make sure that you have a very good reason each time you vary from a standard play, or you stand to suffer from fancy play syndrome. Flat Calling Against Wide Opening Ranges Against aggressive opponents who have a wide opening range, it is sometimes okay to let them take the lead. Against maniacs, flatting with big pairs can be especially lucrative. However, it is not wise to try this against perceptive players. Anything less than a shove from a small stack basically turns your hand face up to anyone paying attention. Here are a few post-flop examples where playing passively can be more profitable long term than would be an aggressive line. Keep in mind that these situations do not arise that often, but are important to consider during the decision-making process. Example #10.2: Opponent Folds Too Often To 3-Bets No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($29.25) 32/28/28 Opens 24% UTG HJ ($60.75) CO ($32.20) Button ($52.30) Hero (SB) ($9.56) BB ($51.55) Preflop: Hero is SB with A♠, A♣ UTG bets $1.50,3 folds,Hero calls $1.25, 1 fold This is a classic example of profitably giving up the initiative pre-flop. The standard play is to 3bet all in against a UTG raiser; however, in this example theUTG raiser has a much wider early position raise percentage than your typical reg and will almost always fold to your 3-bet.
Flop: ($3.50) 6♥, K♦, 2♠ (2 players) Hero checks, UTG bets $2, Hero raises $8.06 (All-In), UTG calls $6.06 The idea is to give our opponent the chance to somewhat connect to the board or bluff with the weaker parts of his range if he misses the flop. And sinceHero only has 19 big blinds, if our opponent C-Bets the flop, he will be giving himself better than 2 to 1 on a call after Hero shoves. This makes it “correct” for him to call it off with many weaker hands in his range, because he will be “getting the right price.” Turn: ($19.62) 7♥ (2 players, 1 all-in) River: ($19.62) 8♠ (2 players, 1 all-in) Total pot: $19.62 Results: Hero had A♠, A♣ (one pair, Aces). UTG had K♣, 10♥ (one pair, Kings). Outcome: Hero won $18.67. ____________________________________________________________ Example #10.3: I’ll take your c-bet money too, thanks! No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($29.25) HJ ($60.75) CO ($32.20) Button ($52.30) 33/23/35 and 53% Btn Opening Range Hero (SB) ($12.56) BB ($20.55) 8/8/10 and 8% resteal Pre-flop: Hero is SB with A♦ , A♠ 3 folds,Button bets $1.50, Hero calls $1.25,1 fold The Button has a very wide stealing range and will not be able to call a 3-bet very often. If we resteal here, we only get his opening raise money the great majority of the time. Therefore, the more profitable play is to flat and give him the chance to spew. Because he will c-bet often on the flop, we potentially get to pocket that money as well. Flop: ($3.50) 6♥ , K♠ , 2♠ (2 players) Hero checks, Button bets $2, Hero raises $11.06 (All-In),1 fold Another pre-flop factor in play is that, by flatting, you give the player in the big blind the chance to squeeze with hands he would not call your 3-bet shove with, i.e. 66-TT, AJ. The BB only has 40 big blinds, so it is possible he would shove here a bit more often than his stats indicate, since it appears to be a juicy setup for a squeeze. The next example highlights that scenario. ____________________________________________________________
Trapping a Serial Squeezer Another time that it can be correct to play big hands passively is when you have a light squeezer behind you. The way it works is that you call a pre-flop raise in the hope that a squeeze play is attempted behind you. Example #10.4: Come on in, the water’s fine. No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) HJ ($4.95) CO ($7.91) Button ($7.97) HUD- 27/20/35 Hero (SB) ($3.93) BB ($4.50) HUD- 30/27/40 and has 3-bet from blinds 3 times in 4 orbits Pre-flop: Hero is SB with A♥ , K♥ 2 folds, Button bets $0.35, Hero calls $0.30, BB raises $4.15,1 fold, Hero calls $3.63 Flop: ($8.21) 6♠ , 6♦ , 9♠ (2 players) Turn: ($8.21) 7♦ (2 players) River: ($8.21) 9♦ (2 players) Total pot: $8.21 Results: Hero had A♥ , K♥ (two pair, nines and sixes, ace kicker). BB had Q♠ , J♠ (two pair, nines and sixes, queen kicker). Outcome: Hero won $7.81. Normally, Ace King is not the type of hand you want to flat in the small blind. However, in the example it becomes profitable due to the button’s wide stealing range and a very active 3-bettor sitting in the big blind. Even if the plan does not work out, we still take a flop with a disguised hand that dominates a lot of the button’s range. ____________________________________________________________ Example #10.5: Back Raise No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (5 handed) HJ ($18.90) CO ($20.45) HUD- 28/28/40 Hero (Button) ($5.46) SB ($12.53) BB ($47.64) HUD- 41/23/50 22% 3-bet
Pre-flop: Hero is Button with K♠ , K♦ 1 fold, CO bets $0.60, Hero calls $0.60,1 fold, BB raises $1.05,1 fold, Hero raises $4.86 (All-In), BB calls $4.21 Having an over-the-top aggressive player in the blinds behind you is a pain in the neck unless you pick up a monster. Flop: ($11.62) 7♦ , J♦ , 3♣ (2 players, 1 all-in) Turn: ($11.62) K♣ (2 players, 1 all-in) River: ($11.62) 4♥ (2 players, 1 all-in) Total pot: $11.62 Results: Hero had K♠ , K♦ (three of a kind, Kings). BB had J♣ , A♥ (one pair, Jacks). Outcome: Hero won $11.04. Chances are, if I had 3-bet shoved in this spot, the big blind would have folded a hand like AJo. By flatting, we gave him a chance to enter the pot with a much wider range of inferior holdings. ____________________________________________________________ Keeping Fish On The Hook You should always be aware of where the bad players are seated. When a fish is behind you, it changes the entire dynamic of the table. Since it is hard to extract from a player out of position, it is sometimes necessary to get creative. Slow playing big pairs is one such way to do so. Example #10.6: Fishin’ in the blinds No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($51.94) HJ ($14.25) 18/14/32 CO ($16.10) Hero (Button) ($14.25) SB ($92.82) BB ($44.91) 75/5/17 Preflop: Hero is Button with A♣, A♠ 1 fold, HJ raises to $1.50,1 fold, Hero calls $1.50,1 fold, BB Calls $1.00 This is a very profitable setup, since we have a disguised hand and a potential calling station in the big blind. ____________________________________________________________
Punishing Light 3-Bettors As a short stack, there are two ways to fight back against light restealers. You can either 4-bet bluff or trap with premium hands. Example #10.7: Facing a 3-bet monkey No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (4 handed) CO ($34.90) Hero (Button) ($15.85) SB ($37.34) BB ($42.70) 26/20/30 19.5% 3-bet versus Button steals Preflop: Hero is Button with A♣, A♦ 1 fold, Hero bets $1,1 fold, BB raises to $2.50, Hero calls $1.50 With nearly a 20% 3-bet, the big blind will be bluffing here quite often. The fact that our opponent will frequently be forced to fold to a 4-bet shove makes flatting the 3-bet reasonable. Flop: ($5.25) Q♦, 4♥, 8♥ (2 players) BB bets $3.40, Hero raises to $13.35 (All-In), BB calls $9.95 With two hearts on board, this is no time for further slow play. Having already achieved an extra bet out of our opponent, we should now just stick the rest in. Turn: ($31.95) 10♥ (2 players, 1 all-in) River: ($31.95) K♦ (2 players, 1 all-in) Total pot: $31.95 | Rake: $1.55 Results: Hero had A♣, A♦ (one pair, Aces). BB had 8♦, A♥ (one pair, eights). Outcome: Hero won $30.40. Villain pays off with 2nd pair, perhaps feeling obligated to do so in a 3-bet pot with so much of the effective stack already invested. It is unlikely that he would have stacked pre-flop with this type of holding, but by flatting the 3-bet, Hero was able to leverage his opponent into committing over 1/3 of the effective stack on the flop. ____________________________________________________________ When Slow Play Is Not Best Some situations that seem promising for slow play are actually sub-optimal. The main thing you want to keep in mind is that when the chance to get all-in is reasonably high, you never want to flat call a
raise with a big hand. Example #10.8: Versus a tight UTG raiser No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($29.25) HUD- 20/13/29 and 12% UTG opening range HJ ($60.75) CO ($32.20) Button ($52.30) Hero (SB) ($12.56) BB ($20.55) Pre-flop: Hero is SB with A♦ , A♥ UTG bets $1.50,3 folds, Hero raises $12.31 In this example, the UTG player is tight and will probably call your shove better than 40% of the time. Therefore, jamming here is much stronger than flatting. Your ultimate goal with big pairs should be to get as much money in the pot on the current street as possible, while keeping action. If your opponent is tight, he is more likely to pay off pre-flop, so you want to give him that chance. The same goes when facing a 3-bet. If the player only 3-bets a value range, it would be a waste of money to try and trap. ____________________________________________________________ Example #10.9: Reraised by a tight 3-bettor No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (4 handed) Hero (CO) ($17.15) Button ($33.70) SB ($64.65) 3% 3-bet BB ($59.68) Preflop: Hero is CO with K♣, K♠ Hero bets $1,1 fold,SB raises to $3,1 fold, Hero raises to $17.15 (All-In) The small blind is almost certainly never folding to a shove here. There is no point in slow playing. ____________________________________________________________ Example #10.10: Too much of a good thing No-Limit Hold’em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) UTG ($138.94) 40/20/38 with 27% UTG opening range HJ ($35.86)
Hero (CO) ($22.25) Button ($194.87) 83/2/18 SB ($27.50) 55/15/23 BB ($109.13) 38/0/30 Preflop: Hero is CO with A♥, A♦ UTG bets $2.67,1 fold, Hero ? At first, this appears to be an excellent spot to slow play. The UTG player is very loose, and we have fish behind us. But the fact that there are multiple fish gives the potential of too many players seeing the flop. We don’t mind a 3-way pot with a big pair, but in 4-way and 5-way pots our hand will get out flopped quite often. And while the situation may still be +EV, it is also a high variance play. A much better option would be a small 3-bet to try and get just one of the fish to cold call. ____________________________________________________________ Now let’s test what you have learned in this chapter.
Calling Tactics Quiz The answer to each situation will either be call or fold. Circle or write down your answers. Answers can be found in the appendix. 1. The game is 50NL, and the effective stack is $14. The tight UTG raiser opens for 1.50. It folds to you on the button, and you look down at 4♠4♥. The pot is 2.25. Call/Fold 2. The game is 20NL, and the effective stack is $7.50. The HJ opens to .80 and gets flatted by the cutoff and button. You have 6♥5♥ in the big blind. The pot is $2.70. Call/Fold 3. You are playing 50NL and pick up 8♣3♣ in the small blind. The UTG player makes it 1.50, and 3 players call before it gets to you. The pot is $6.75, and it’s $1.25 for you to play. Call/Fold 4. The game is 10NL, and you have $3.80. Everyone at the table has you covered. You open T♦9♦ in the CO for .20, and the small blind 3-bets you to .40 after it folds to him. The big blind folds, and the pot is .70. Call/Fold 5. You are in a 50NL game with an effective stack of $13. The fishy UTG, fishy HJ, and slightly loose CO all limp, and the button makes it $2.50. The small blind folds, and you look down at 2♣2♦ in the big blind. Call/Fold 6. You have $5.50 in a 20NL game and look down at 4♥ 4♣ from the small blind. Everyone has you covered. The loose player in the hijack makes it .70 to go and gets flatted by the button. Call/Fold 7. You are in a 10NL game. You have the effective stack of $4.40 and look down at J♠9♠ in the big blind. There is a bet of .35 from the cutoff and a call from the button before it gets to you. Call/Fold 8. The very tight UTG player raises to $1.00 in a 50NL game. The effective stack is $16. You find that you have J♦T♦ in the Hijack. Call/Fold 9. You are involved in a crazy 20NL game where there has been wild action and light stack offs post-flop on multiple hands in the recent past. On the current hand, the effective stack is held by you at $6.00. The maniac UTG player makes it $1.25, and after seeing two calls, you look down at 4♠2♠ in the small blind. The big blind has a 90 VPIP and 5 PFR. Call/Fold 10. You find yourself on a table of complete nits in a 50NL game. The effective stack held by you is $11.50. The HJ opens to $1.75 and is flatted by only the small blind. You look down at T♥9♥ in the big blind. Call/Fold ____________________________________________________________
Post-Flop Betting Strategy One of the biggest factors in maximizing your win-rate comes down to managing your stack and effectively employing it via bets and raises. Since betting is such an involved subject, I will break down my strategy into two chapters. First, you will learn about my general approach as we cover value betting versus bluffing, continuation betting, barreling, and limped pot play. Then, in the following chapter, I will provide an effective system for betting and raising as we discuss specific bet sizing tactics used to execute that strategy in a pragmatic and efficient way. Value Betting Versus Bluffing When an opponent will potentially call your bet with worse hands, you are value betting. This does not mean you must always have the best hand for it to be for value. It just means, in the particular spot you are in, you will have the best of it more often than not. If you don’t have the best hand more often than not, you are no longer value betting and are now bluffing. This concept is often misunderstood by even accomplished players. Many like to think in absolutes and forget to consider an opponent’s entire range. Just because your value bet gets called on the river by a better hand, it does not mean your bet was not for value. It just means you ran into the top end of the opponent’s range. By breaking our ranges into tiers, it is much easier to figure out whether we are generally value betting or bluffing. With tier 1 and 2 made hands, you are always value betting. With tier 3 hands, you are value betting against the weaker parts of an opponent’s range and bluffing against the stronger parts. With a tier 4 hand, you are almost always bluffing. Understanding when you are value betting and when you are bluffing is of utmost importance when planning any hand, because when you are value betting, you tailor your hand execution to get action. When bluffing, you base your strategy on discouraging action. Going forward, always keep in the back of your mind the fundamental concept of value betting versus bluffing and how it affects your actions in manipulating your opponents.
Continuation Betting When forming a plan for any hand, you must always keep at the forefront of your thinking that aggressive poker is winning poker and passive poker is losing poker. The mechanics of everything you do post-flop should be governed by keeping pressure on your opponents, as the bedrock of strong post-flop play is controlled steady aggression. Sometimes your bets will be for value, but most of the time your hand will be marginal. Therefore, continuation betting is the post-flop equivalent to preflop stealing. With a combination of initiative, pressure, and proper bet sizing you will, in most situations, be able to obtain sufficient non-showdown winnings via fold equity as to render your holding immaterial. When heads up, you should be c-betting nearly 100% of flops. Once you learn about board textures, you can begin to pick a few boards to play differently. Until then, you really cannot go wrong by pounding away at your opposition. The philosophy of betting until they raise should be your default strategy when you are the pre-flop aggressor. It allows you to win a lot of pots where you have little equity, and also has the added benefit of allowing you to value bet thinner because of the image you establish. Additionally, when you have a marginal tier 3 hand, it allows you to keep initiative and make better hands fold or worse hands get to showdown against you. The reason this strategy is effective is that most players will often be calling your pre-flop opens because they think they have the “pot odds” to do so. This is because your pre-flop raise size is often a min-raise. As a result, your opponent’s range will often be very weak and miss most boards. Even when they do connect in some way, their hand will not be able to stand up to a turn bet very often. If someone calls you down light, just need to make a note on them and move on. Sizing C-Bets Against thinking players, you should keep your bet sizing consistent whether you are betting for value or as a bluff. Generally, I bet 1/2 pot on all streets whether I have nothing, the nuts, and everything in between. Depending on your stack size, this usually gives you a pot sized shove or less on the river, which creates both maximum fold equity and still allows you to get it all-in by the river with your big hands. When facing your average unskilled player, you do not need to balance your betting and should be more concerned with understanding how their range connects with certain board textures in making your bet sizing decisions. I will go deeper into that in the next chapter. You will find that opponents don’t have to fold all that often for bets to make money over the long term. Over the past 100k hands, my overall flop c-bet success percentage has been about 47.5% in
heads-up pots. My standard flop c-bet size is one-half pot, so as you can see by the below chart, I would be crazy not to c-bet nearly 100% of flops when I whiff.
C-Betting Tactics
Percentages based on a sample size of 200,000 hands. All flops are not created equal. While c-bet success is determined by a number of factors, it is mostly driven by how well your opponent’s pre-flop calling range connects with particular boards. Some boards connect well with general calling ranges, and some do not. Above is a list of board textures and how often you can expect your c-bet to be successful based on my own Hold-em Manager database. There are several inferences one can make based on the above data: Ace and King high flops have a high success rate both in and out of position. Rainbow flops yield the highest c-bet success rate. Queen and Jack high flops have a high success rate only in position. In position, we should almost always be c-bet bluffing. Out of position, we need to c-bet bluff more selectively. Before we get into situations where you may want to refrain from continuation betting, let’s look at a few examples of situations where you almost never want to forgo firing away:
Example #11.1: C-betting Ace high boards No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($10.62) HJ ($68.23) CO ($77.13) Hero (Button) ($14.25) SB ($47.25) 39/8/22 Folds to flop c-bet 48% BB ($52) Preflop: Hero is Button with J♠, 5♦ 3 folds, Hero bets $1, SB calls $0.75, 1 fold Flop: ($2.50) 3♥, A♣, 7♠ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $1.25, 1 fold Ace high flops are the consummate boards to continuation bet bluff. Weaker players always seem to think everyone has an Ace when one flops and will be a lot less reluctant to continue, especially on dry boards. ____________________________________________________________ Example #11.2: C-betting dry low card boards No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) HJ ($61.95) Hero (CO) ($14.25) Button ($51.92) SB ($47.75) BB ($50) Preflop: Hero is CO with 9♥, 10♦ 1 fold, Hero bets $1, 2 folds, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($2.25) 7♣, 3♠, 5♥ (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $1.13, 1 fold Low card flops also lend themselves to a high flop c-bet success. Most players’ flat calling range largely consists of high cards, thus allowing you almost the same rate of c-betting success as generated by Ace high boards. ____________________________________________________________ Example #11.3: C-betting unconnected boards
No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($54) HJ ($61.07) CO ($38.29) Hero (Button) ($18.20) SB ($50) BB ($41.70) Preflop: Hero is Button with Q♠, 9♠ 2 folds, CO calls $0.50, Hero bets $1.50,2 folds, CO calls $1 Flop: ($3.75) 2♠, 6♣, J♥ (2 players) CO checks, Hero bets $1.88,1 fold There are very few hand combinations that hit this unconnected board. You can expect your c-bet success to be very high in this instance. ____________________________________________________________ Example #11.4: C-betting paired boards No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($57.05) HJ ($163.40) CO ($9.36) Button ($49.75) Hero (SB) ($14.50) BB ($22.50) Preflop: Hero is SB with 9♣, 2♥ 4 folds, Hero bets $1, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($2) 3♠, Q♦, 3♣ (2 players) Hero bets $1, 1 fold Paired boards yield among the highest c-bet success of any texture. Exactly what holding is the villain going to like on this flop? Blind-versus-blind, pairs are likely to reraise pre-flop, so unless he has Qx or 3x, he is not going to fancy this flop. ____________________________________________________________ Example #11.5: C-betting in position No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (4 handed)
Hero (CO) ($15.75) Button ($104.61) SB ($19.50) BB ($140.68) Preflop: Hero is CO with 7♥, A♥ Hero bets $1, 2 folds, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($2.25) 8♣ J♦, 10♣ (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $1.13, 1 fold At first glance, this appears to be a horrible spot to c-bet, since it obviously connects with a ton of different hand combinations. However, being in position can trump many other negative factors. Most opponents will be ill to continue on this board with 2nd or 3rd pair as well as a lot of hands that are tying or beating us such as A2-A7, 22-77. Even if we get floated, there are a ton of turn cards that we can barrel. When heads up, it is almost always a mistake to not c-bet bluff in position versus most opponents no matter what the board texture is. ____________________________________________________________
When To Avoid C-Bet Bluffing Sometimes it is better to wave the white flag. Here are a few situations in which you will want to refrain from continuation betting as a bluff. #1: Against More Than One Caller Against multiple callers, a continuation bet will work much less often and, as a result, fold equity will be diminished. This is because in multi-way pots, there are two or more ranges opposing you in the pot, thus increasing the likelihood that someone connected with the board. As a side note, using the same logic, you should also be a lot less willing to play strong hands slowly against multiple opponents. #2: Against Calling Stations Due to reduced fold equity, your c-bet bluffing frequency should be much lower against players with no fold button. As the saying that you’ve probably heard a million times goes, never bluff a calling station. However, if your hand has a reasonable chance to improve and your opponent has shown a tendency to float flops and give up on later streets, then a multiple barrel bluff can be a gold mine for you. And while you should not be c-bet bluffing calling stations with a high frequency, you do need to expand your value betting range against them. Against true calling stations, value betting tier 3 hands should be fairly standard, especially on draw heavy boards. Just remember to check back the river, unless your hand improves. You will be amazed at the types of holdings some players will call
multiple barrels with. #3: Out Of Position Against Aggressive Opponents Against tough regulars who like to frequently float and raise flops, it is okay to check-fold a large percentage of the time. If you find that a particular player to your left is calling your raises in position consistently and playing back at you on a variety of flops, do not hesitate to sit out and find another table. If I find myself in this type of situation, just as I do against calling stations, I will widen my value range. I find it especially lucrative to use a check-shove line with a variety of tier 2 and 3 hands. Once you have a history with this type of opponent and have check-shoved on him multiple times, you may want to begin c-betting with a polarized range and never check-fold. In other words, c-bet tier 1 and 4 and check-shove tier 2 and 3. #4: On Boards That Nail Your Opponent’s Range Typically, on boards heavy with potential draws, it is okay to not c-bet, especially out of position. Example flops include something like 7♣5♣8♣ or Q♥J♦9♥. These types of boards connect with a lot of ranges, and your c-bet success will be much lower as a consequence. #5: When You Connect And Your Opponent’s Range Is Weak I am not talking about slow-playing nut hands here. I am talking about going for a delayed c-bet when your opponent’s range is weak on the flop, and the turn is unlikely to change anything. A6 on an A44 board is a good example. On this type of board, your c-bet will generally work over 70% of the time. The only time you will tend to get action on the flop is when you are beat, so a delayed c-bet is warranted in order to increase the potential of getting at least one street of value from worse hands while at the same time mitigating your losses when you are behind. If you check back the flop and your opponent leads out on the turn, you almost never want to raise. I much prefer a call call line on the turn and river. Out of position, a check-call check-call check-fold line (not BvB) might be best, unless your opponent has shown a tendency to fire multiple barrel bluffs when checked to. ____________________________________________________________ The decision to c-bet bluff all comes down to fold equity. And while I am a proponent of relentless c-betting, you must remain mindful of the situations where you are just burning money. That being said, many of the above reasons not to c-bet can be trumped by other factors. I am mainly talking about if your opponent(s) are complete post-flop nits. If facing one or two players and they fold to cbet more than 70%, I am firing a c-bet, no matter the board. After you play a few hundred thousand hands, you will begin to gain a 6th sense about these matters. You will obtain an uncanny ability to know how your opponent will react to your c-bets, and you will be able to adjust your strategy, as necessary, on demand.
Barreling The term barreling is usually associated with bluffing but refers to all continuation betting beyond the flop. Continuation betting the turn is called double barreling, and continuation betting the river is known as triple barreling. I use the terms interchangeably whether my hand is for value or as a bluff. It is my philosophy that barreling can serve many purposes, depending on the strength of your hand: For tier 1 hands, a barrel gets more money in the pot to make for an easier all-in by the river. Tier 2 hands barrel to get continuing value from worse made hands and draws. For tier 3 hands, a barrel can be used as a tool to make better hands fold or set up a cheap showdown. Tier 4 hands can be barreled to take advantage of players who float often but fold to barrels at an exploitable frequency. In the next chapter, I will cover betting strategies for flopped tier 1, 2, and 3 hands. In this section, I will focus on barreling as a semi-bluff or pure bluff. Double Barreling Knowing when to fire a second barrel is a skill that most players find perplexing. Their c-bet is called on the flop and suddenly here they are on the turn with an inflated pot, a weak hand, and no clue what to do. In reality, they should not have c-bet the flop, if they did not already have a plan for the turn. In my opinion, the turn barrel is the new flop c-bet. Most regulars will understand how frequently you are firing a c-bet and will often try floating you as a means of combating your strategy. Therefore, making a read based on flop texture and the player you are facing should mostly be done on the turn rather than the flop. Double barreling is something that should be done selectively and decisively whether for value or as a bluff. I generally need at least one of the following three factors going for me before I consider barreling as a bluff: 1. My hand has improved This could mean picking up a gutshot or making bottom pair. Barreling in these situations is done to give you the chance to make a well-disguised river monster or set up a discounted showdown at a price you set. 2. A scare card falls An over card hitting, a flush completing, or the board now being four to a straight are all examples of scare cards. These are excellent situations to attempt a bluff.
3. My opponent’s fold to barrel is exploitably high If my opponent floats often and folds to barrel more than 60% of the time, then I will barrel my entire air range. Example #11.6: Barreling when your hand improves No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) HJ ($4.36) Hero (CO) ($2.62) Button ($12.25) SB ($5.88) BB ($12.18) Preflop: Hero is CO with 10♦, 6♠ 1 fold, Hero bets $0.20, Button calls $0.20,2 folds Flop: ($0.55) Q♣, 2♠, 9♦ (2 players) Hero bets $0.20, Button calls $0.20 The flop is Queen high, so we fire a standard c-bet and get floated. Turn: ($0.95) 6♦ (2 players) Hero bets $0.60,1 fold The turn gives us 2nd pair, so we pick up some equity and showdown value. Barreling here is mandatory to get value from 2x, JT, KT, and T8 and to elicit folds from 77-88 and 9x. ____________________________________________________________ Example #11.7: Barreling when turning a draw No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (6 handed) UTG ($12.10) HJ ($10.58) Hero (CO) ($4.86) Button ($6.80) SB ($7.43) BB ($15.34) Preflop: Hero is CO with 7♦, 9♦ 2 folds, Hero bets $0.40, Button calls $0.40,1 fold,BB calls $0.20 Flop: ($1.30) 4♦, J♣, 5♥ (3 players) BB checks, Hero bets $0.60, Button calls $0.60,1 fold
We c-bet a very dry board and get floated by the button. Turn: ($2.50) 6♠ (2 players) Hero bets $3.86 (All-In),1 fold We turn open-ended and over bet shove to exert maximum pressure. At least some the time we would expect our flop c-bet to be raised by a strong Jx hand. Therefore, we can more heavily weigh our opponent’s range toward lower pairs and draws which should not be able to call in this situation. Even if we run into some slow played monster, we still generally have 20% equity with our open-ender. ____________________________________________________________ Example #11.8: Barreling a turn Ace No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($18.04) HJ ($101.84) CO ($25.34) Hero (Button) ($12.16) SB ($32.12) BB ($50.53) Preflop: Hero is Button with K♥, 6♦ 3 folds, Hero bets $1, SB calls $0.75, 1 fold Flop: ($2.50) 3♠, Q♣, 9♥ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $1.25, SB calls $1.25 Turn: ($5) A♥ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $3.34, 1 fold An Ace is the ultimate scare card against most players. With air, you should almost always look to barrel when one comes. ____________________________________________________________ Example #11.9: Barreling a scare card No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) HJ ($23.20) Hero (CO) ($13.60) Button ($51.33) SB ($83.65) BB ($65.25)
Preflop: Hero is SB with 8♣, 4♣ 1 fold, Hero bets $1, Btn calls $0.50, 2 folds Flop: ($2) 6♠, 3♥, J♠ (2 players) Hero bets $1, Btn calls $1 Turn: ($4) K♠ (2 players) Hero bets $2.67, Btn raises to $5.34, Hero folds Not only did an over card come, a potential flush was also completed. Even though we were reraised in this particular instance, it was still a good opportunity to fire a second barrel and we would see a high rate of long-term success in this type of spot. ____________________________________________________________ Example #11.10: Barreling air against wide floater No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) HJ ($4.52) CO ($7.15) Hero (Button) ($3.09) SB ($4.54) BB ($11.53) 38/5/22 Folds to c-bet 30%, folds to barrel 50%. Preflop: Hero is Button with 3♣, 2♦ 2 folds, Hero bets $0.20, SB calls $0.15, BB calls $0.10 Flop: ($0.60) K♠, 8♠, 5♥ (3 players) SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $0.30,1 fold, BB calls $0.30 Standard c-bet in position on a king high board. Only the big blind calls. Turn: ($1.20) 10♥ (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $0.60,1 fold Since most players raise top pair against short stacks, our opponent likely has a flush draw or some kind of 8x, 5x, or pocket pair. Since the big blind floats often but gives up on the turn half the time, this looks like a great spot to barrel off. Betting half pot on this turn leaves us $2.00 to shove into $2.40 on the river. It is important to always appear committed when you make a bluff on the turn. I like to choose the amount that I think is just enough to feign commitment while at the same time minimizing a loss if forced to fold. Generally, a good rule of thumb is to barrel for about 20% of the beginning effective stack. It is a bit smaller than the ~25% I would bet for value, but not small enough to be transparent. ____________________________________________________________ When Not To Barrel As A Bluff
Example #11.11: Turn card narrows your range too much No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($27.78) HJ ($29.45) CO ($29.85) Hero (Button) ($12.50) SB ($20.22) BB ($53.12) 32/10/28 Folds to barrel 35% Preflop: Hero is Button with 6♣, 9♦ 3 folds, Hero bets $1,1 fold, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($2.25) 4♣, 7♥, 2♥, (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $1.13, BB calls $1.13 Turn: ($4.51) 4♠ (2 players) BB checks, Hero checks The board pairs and Hero’s hand does not improve. Any hand that called on the flop probably still looks good to the villain. It is unlikely that he can be barreled off of any piece of the board, any pocket pair, or any draw. The situation does not fit any of the criteria necessary to fire a second barrel bluff, so the best play is to check behind and give up unless we get a good river card to value bet or bluff. ____________________________________________________________ Example #11.12: Not barreling a calling station No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($98.69) HJ (38.92) Hero (CO) ($14.77) Button ($12.10) 64/8/32 Folds to c-bet 40%, folds to barrel 0% over 7 opportunities SB (48.50) BB ($66.60) Preflop: Hero is CO with 9♦, 10♦ 2 folds,Hero bets $1.00, Button calls $1.00, 2 folds Flop: ($2.75) 4♣, 3♦, 8♠ (2 players) Hero bets $2.00, Button calls $2.00 Hero c-bets with overs and back door straights and flush draws.
Turn: ($6.75) 7♥ (2 players) Hero checks, Button bets $3.50, Hero raises to $11.77 (All-In),1 fold Hero turns open-ended against a villain that never folds to barrels. Betting here just sets up an awkward river, so Hero checks with the intention of shoving over any bet. Were villain to check the turn, there are a lot of rivers to bluff unimproved. ____________________________________________________________ Example #11.13: No barrel multi-way due to no fold equity No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) HJ ($26.92) CO ($39.65) Hero (BTN) ($16.50) SB ($28.57) 22/12/25 BB ($10.83) 45/0/18 Preflop: Hero is BTN with 4♣ , 3♣ 2 folds, Hero bets $1, SB calls $1, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($3.25) 2♣ , 9♦ , J♥ (3 players) SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $1.63, SB calls $1.63, BB calls $1.63 Hero makes a marginal continuation bet on a slightly wet board and gets two callers. Turn: ($8.14) 6♣ (3 players) SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks Even though the turn improves our hand, we often have little fold equity in a 3-way pot. River: ($8.14) A♣ (3 players) SB checks, BB bets $8.20 (All-In), Hero calls $8.20, SB calls $8.20 Hero completes his flush and flats hoping for action from the small blind. Total pot: $32.74 Results: SB had K♣ , A♦ (one pair, Aces). BB had A♠ , 2♠ (two pair, Aces and twos). Hero had 4♣ , 3♣ (flush, Ace high). Outcome: Hero won $31.14. This hand illustrates how you must consider fold equity anytime you are deciding to bluff. Sometimes it is better to take the free card rather than taking the chance of getting blown off your draw. ____________________________________________________________
Triple Barreling Once you decide to fire a turn barrel as a bluff, it is almost always best to follow through on the river, especially if you have air and no showdown value. This is especially true in today’s game where players know which cards are ideal for barreling the turn. This makes firing the river with air almost mandatory. In some situations, giving up on the river and triple barreling are both neutral or slightly EV, but usually the more aggressive play is less -EV. Always choose the lesser of two evils in poker. There is also a matter of obtaining long-term expected value with your strong river hands. If you always play aggressively when you have a big hand but give up when you are weak, then you will be susceptible to exploitation from tough opponents. Ultimately, while firing three barrels with air may not always be profitable, it will theoretically add to the bottom line of your strong river range.
Limped Pot Betting Strategy So you limped in because you felt you had the necessary direct and implied odds. But instead of flopping a nut hand, you end up with a Tier 2 or 3 holding. This is a situation in which to exercise extreme caution. Your range of hands for committing on the flop here needs to be especially narrow. Do not be seduced into thinking you need to commit with 98o on a 955 board or A8 on an Axx board. There is one cardinal rule that you must ingrain in your thought process before heading off to play. In limped pots, you need a much stronger post-flop hand in order to stack off, because there is a lot wider range of hands in play. For example, take the 955 board. In a raised pot, you would not expect there to be that many hands connecting with it as a lot of players would not be calling with many 5x hands. However, in a limped pot they could easily have hands as weak as 52, A5, and a whole slew of other complete trash that were cheaply trying to see a flop. The moral of the story here is to never go broke in a limped pot without the nuts or near nuts. Even strong flopped draws are not that great, because you probably have very little fold equity with which to shove over a raise. Therefore, you should almost exclusively commit with strong made hands in limped pots. Blind Play In Limped Pots In multi-way limped pots, there are a few standard plays I suggest making from the blinds after the flop comes down. Most of the time you will be check-folding, but under certain conditions, you will be value betting or value bluffing. In limped pots, pre-flop ranges will generally be weak, so the majority of the time everyone will flop next to nothing. Therefore, if I catch bottom pair, I like to lead out and try to pick up the dead money in the pot immediately. Unless someone has flopped top pair or better, the bet will often pick up the pot uncontested. Often you will be able to get better mid-pair type hands to fold, since it is multiway, and you have shown strength from the blinds. If you flop any kind of top pair hand, you will want to bet-fold for three streets of value. If raised, make sure that you are willing to lay it down. You almost never want to continue versus a reraise in a limped pot without at least two pair. With a flopped tier 1 hand, the last thing you ever want to do is check. On many boards, there will be some kind of gutshot straight draw or flush draw possible, and you do not want to give a free card. Since the pot will be small, you generally want to bet large in order to try and build a big enough pot to get all in by the river. In limped pots, the dynamic for playing draws is very different than it is in raised pots. You will not be able to put people on ranges, so gauging fold equity is a crap shoot at best. It is my feeling that check-calling and hoping to see a multi-way turn is best to try to catch someone making a 2nd best nut hand against you.
If you flop a strong draw to the nuts, then I advocate taking a passive line and check-calling a reasonable bet on the flop and then check-folding the turn if you miss and do not have the necessary direct odds. There is really no reason to try to get all in with a draw in a limped pot since you have so little invested. However, with marginal draws, I prefer a bet-fold line for three streets. You have a chance to improve, but very little showdown value. And three bets will look strong coming from a player in the blinds. Even if you don’t improve, a river bluff will normally pick up the pot a profitable amount of the time. The overall theme here is to attack limped pots aggressively, while remaining mindful of the increased relative hand strength of your opponents.
Sizing Post-Flop Bets In the last chapter, I provided you with a basic theoretical approach to betting. Now I will discuss specific bet sizing strategies for varying hand strengths with the goal providing for you a simple system that is easy to implement. I will show you how to quickly weigh all of the information available once the flop comes down and create a plan for the rest of the hand with the intention of maximizing profit. You will learn how to get away from a “one size fits all” betting style and move toward a much more expectation-oriented strategy. Among the biggest mistakes that I witness at the tables is in the amount of money your average player bets on each street. Typically, most people either bet way too small or over-commit themselves unnecessarily with all the wrong holdings. Bet sizing in relation to the effective stack affects how the hand will play on later streets. It tells a story to opponents, manipulates them into doing what you want to do, and accomplishes whatever plan was established for the hand. Betting the wrong size on the flop can constrict your play in one way or another for the rest of the hand. Since the strategies in this book have you playing a stack of between 15 and 40 big blinds, you will need to use a different betting strategy than you would as a full-stacked player. Commitment is much more black and white, and it is generally much easier to process information as a short stack. This is because most of the time you are either committed, or you aren’t. Either you want to get all-in, or you don’t. When deciding on a betting strategy for a specific hand, you must consider the strength of your holding, the board texture, the effective stack size, and your opponent’s tendencies. Hand strength determines how much money you want to commit on any street based on how quickly you want to get all-in (if at all) and whether or not you want action. Board texture is of great importance, as it regulates both how fast you want to play strong hands and how likely you are to get value from weaker made hands. It also has a great influence on the success rate of your bluffs. Once the strength of your hand determines how to proceed and the texture of the board tells you how fast to play, the actual bet sizing is the easy part. The effective stack establishes the size of your bets throughout the hand. Your opponent’s style of play can also cause you to adjust your chosen line and bet size if he has a specific extreme tendency that is exploitable in one way or another. Once you gain experience, you will become able to incorporate many more read-based factors into each decision. I will cover a few of those adjustments in Chapter 15, but for now, we will solely focus on hand strength, effective stack sizes, and board textures as part of a default betting strategy.
This chapter will teach you about: Building big pots with big hands Keeping pots small with marginal hands Using board textures to plan your betting strategy Sizing post-flop raises and reraises
Betting To Get All-In Everyone loves to flop a strong hand. It is one of the most fun things that can happen in poker. And while it is very difficult to misplay monsters, I see players violate the fundamental of building big pots with big hands all the time. As a short stack, you will have a much lower commitment threshold than full stacked players. Due to this fact, your range of stack-off worthy holdings will almost always include any over pair, top pair, or big draw. When you have one of these hands, it is not a question of whether you want to get all-in, but rather how fast you want the money to go in. The biggest factor governing this decision is board texture. If the board is dry or not conducive to connecting with your opponent’s pre-flop range, a slower betting strategy is typically warranted. You want to bet the least amount possible to try and get all-in by the river. This is because a smaller flop bet gives the weaker hands in an opponent’s range a chance to come along for the ride. If you always bomb the flop when you have a monster, you are leaving a lot of money on the table. However, if the board is draw heavy and there are many future cards that could cause your hand to lose strength, getting all-in as quickly as possible by betting bigger is usually best. Since wet boards tend to hit more of your opponent’s range, the increased bet size will likely get calls or raises from most of the same part of his range as would a smaller bet. Now that you understand the principle of betting smaller on dry boards and bigger on wet boards, all you need to figure out is exactly how to size those bets. I have created a simple method for bet sizing that easily lets you bet the right amount to get all-in as quickly or as slowly as you want. If you can determine what 10% and 25% of the effective pre-flop stack is, then you can easily implement this strategy. Betting To Get All-In On Dry Flops Dry flops are difficult to connect with, and it is unlikely that the turn will beat you if you flop a very strong hand. In these situations, I find it best to try and get all-in slowly and form a plan that spreads the betting out over three streets. As a short stack, we have the luxury of being able to bet small and still get all of the money in by the river. An easy method to follow is to bet 10% of the pre-flop effective stack size on the flop, 25% of the pre-flop effective stack size on the turn, and then shove the river. Let’s look at a couple of examples of how this works: Example #12.1:
No-Limit Hold’em, $.50 BB (6 handed) Hero (UTG) ($16.25) HJ ($101.81) CO ($24.83) Button ($34.04) SB ($49) BB ($53.35) Preflop: Hero is UTG with 6♥, 6♦ Hero bets $1,1 fold, CO calls $1,3 folds Flop: ($2.75) 9♥, 9♠, 6♣ (2 players) Hero bets $1.65, CO calls $1.65 The flop is dry, and we are virtually a sure winner by the river no matter what cards come on future streets. Betting big makes no sense here as it will likely shut out the weaker parts of our opponent’s range. Betting smallish instead allows our opponent to call with small pocket pairs, ace highs, weak draws, and overs that he may feel are live. Taking three streets to get all-in seems appropriate, so we bet about 10% of our starting stack($16.25x.10=$1.63). Turn: ($6.05) 5♠ (2 players) Hero bets $3.95, CO calls $3.95 The turn brings a very good card as it completes a straight, adds a flush draw to some hands that may have held on, and still allows some very weak holdings to continue. The strength of our hand has not changed, so we want to set up a reasonable river shove with a 1/4 starting stack bet($16.25x.25= $4.06). Notice how I bet slightly less than 25% of my starting stack, so my bet is under $4.00. I will not get much into the psychology of betting in this book, but you always want to be mindful of how small variations in bet sizing can lend itself to more frequently accomplishing our goals. Had we been bluffing here, a bet of $4.10 might be better as it “looks” scarier to many opponents and may get folds a bit more frequently than a sub-$4.00 bet. River: ($13.95) A♣ (2 players) Hero bets $9.65 (All-In), CO calls $9.65
Not the best river in the world unless our opponent has an ace, but you never want to check or bet less than an all-in in this spot. Checking is a mistake as our opponent will not likely bet unless he had a nut hand, in which case he is calling the shove anyway. We had a plan for the river before we bet the flop, and there is no sense in varying from it now. Total pot: $33.25 | Rake: $1.65 Results: Hero had 6♥, 6♦ (full house, sixes over nines). CO had 7♠, A♠ (two pair, Aces and nines). Outcome: Hero won $31.60. Note that the opponent called with only ace high and a backdoor flush draw on the flop. A reasonable play on his part, but had you bet bigger, say $2.50, you would have been much less likely to get action and see a turn card. Our opponent picked up a flush draw on the turn, allowing him to continue, and then call on the river when he picked up one of his “outs.” ____________________________________________________________ Example #12.2: No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (6 handed) UTG ($30.45) HJ ($25.76) Hero (CO) ($4.43) Button ($25.65) SB ($17.40) BB ($11.05) Preflop: Hero is CO with A♦, A♠ 2 folds, Hero bets $0.40, Button calls $0.40, SB calls $0.30, BB calls $0.20 We pick up the nuts in the cutoff and put in our standard raise. Flop: ($1.60) 10♦, 5♣, 8♠ (4 players) SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $0.45,1 fold, SB calls $0..45,1 fold
We get a very favorable flop for our hand. It hits our opponents’ calling ranges very well, but does not likely have us beat right now. There are not many turn cards we are worried about, so three streets of value seem appropriate. We started the hand with only 22 big blinds, so we do not have to bet big on the flop to set ourselves up for a river shove. Turn: ($2.50) Q♥ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $1.10, SB calls $1.10 We get a turn card that only completes J9 or gives Q10 two-pair. Both of those hands would have often raised a short stack on the flop and are thus unlikely. However, a Queen does connect with a few random floats in one way or another and is not likely to scare off many 10x hands either. We should not be concerned by any card at this point, since we are already committed. Therefore, we continue with the plan and bet 25% of our starting stack. Betting a bit smaller here, like .99, would be okay as well. River: ($4.70) 3♦ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $2.48(All-In), SB calls $2.48 We get a blank river and have just over a half-pot bet left in our stack. After getting called on the turn, you should expect to almost always get called on the river by an opponent’s entire turn range on such a blank card when the board is dry. Total pot: $9.66 | Rake: $0.48 Results: SB had 5♥, 6♥ (one pair, fives). Hero had A♦, A♠ (one pair, Aces). Outcome: Hero won $9.18. Our opponent looked us up with 4th pair. By betting small over three streets, we gave him a chance to call us down. It’s unlikely that he would have been willing to call a big bet on the flop and then a turn shove with such a weak holding. ____________________________________________________________ Betting To Get All-In On Wet Flops If you hold a strong hand on a wet flop, then you usually don’t want to fool around with three streets. You want to be able to shove the turn and give your opponent the chance to stick it in while they either have outs or before a scare card can come and give them a reason not to call. Therefore, an
effective method for playing wet boards is to bet 25% of your pre-flop stack size on the flop and then shove the rest in on the turn. In this scenario, you will be over betting most of the time on the flop and some of the time on the turn. But do not be concerned with pushing out weak hands on the flop that may have called a smaller bet. The times you get more money in against second best hands will more than make up for it. Besides, on wet boards players tend to stack off a lot lighter anyway. In fact, your bet size might convince an opponent to just go ahead and shove on you with top or second pair thinking that you must be bluffing or semi-bluffing, because who in their right mind would bet that much if they actually wanted action? Let’s look at an example of wet board play: Example #12.3: No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) UTG ($10) Hero (HJ) ($3) CO ($11.60) Button ($10.37) SB ($8.21) BB ($12.85) Preflop: Hero is HJ with 7♦, 7♠ 1 fold,Hero bets $0.20,2 folds,SB calls $0.15,1 fold Flop: ($0.50) Q♥, 10♣, 7♥ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $0.75, SB calls $0.75 A wet board that hits a very wide pre-flop range. There are very few turn cards we want to see. We want the money in as quickly as possible, so we bet 25% of our starting stack. Turn: ($2) 4♣ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $2.05 (All-In), SB calls $2.05 Since we only have a pot sized bet left, we are shoving any turn card.
River: ($6.10) 2♣ (2 players) Total pot: $6.10 | Rake: $0.40 Results: SB had 5♥, 6♥ (Queen high). Hero had 7♦, 7♠ (three of a kind, sevens). Outcome: Hero won $5.70. The small blind called the flop with a flush draw and then stacked off after picking up an openended straight draw on the turn. This example highlights another benefit of betting large on wet boards as it makes opponents pay a very bad price to draw against us. ____________________________________________________________ Now let’s look at an example of playing a flopped over pair on a wet board: Example #12.4: No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (6 handed) UTG ($9.92) HJ ($19.98) Hero (CO) ($6) Button ($17.67) SB ($22.36) BB ($15.29) Preflop: Hero is CO with J♠, J♥ 2 folds,Hero bets $0.40,2 folds,BB calls $0.20 Flop: ($0.90) 2♣, 7♦, 8♦ (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $1.60, BB calls $1.60 With an SPR of 6.2, we are certainly committed on this wet flop. There are a lot of hands that connect with this board and plenty of 6 outer hands that might float a small bet. So we bet a little bigger than 25% of our starting stack with plans to shove any turn.
Turn: ($4.10) Q♥ (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $4.00 (All-In), BB calls $4.00 An over card comes, but there are plenty of hands still in our opponent’s range that might call a shove. River: ($12.10) 10♣ (2 players, 1 all-in) Total pot: $12.10 | Rake: $0.60 Results: BB had 8♠, A♠ (one pair, eights). Hero had J♠, J♥ (one pair, Jacks). Outcome: Hero won $11.50. It is possible that the big blind might have folded to a bet-bet-shove line, but since we were able to get all-in on the turn, he never got the chance to fold the river. We also gave all of the 7x, 65, T9, TT, 99, and flush draw hands a chance to commit as well. ____________________________________________________________ Betting To Get All-In With Draws Strong draws should be played similarly to big made hands. The only difference is that I like to get all the money in by the turn, no matter how dry or wet the board is. Not only does this maximize fold equity with your non-made hand, it also allows you to get it in with some equity on the turn. Another benefit to playing draws so fast is that it keeps things very simple. It allows you to avoid a difficult river decision on whether or not to bluff should your draw not come in. Until your hand reading improves, it is best to give yourself fewer opportunities to make mistakes. Example #12.5: No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($30.89) HJ ($87.81) Hero (CO) ($20.92)
Button ($50.75) SB ($62.85) BB ($15) Preflop: Hero is CO with K♠, Q♠ 2 folds,Hero bets $1, Button calls $1,2 folds Flop: ($2.75) 10♦, J♠, 6♣ (2 players) Hero bets $5.50, Button calls $5.50 We flop a huge draw, and since the board hits so many hands, we decide getting the money in fast is most profitable. Turn: ($13.75) 3♦ (2 players) Hero bets $14.42 (All-In), Button calls $14.42 We likely have 40% equity on average when called, making our shove extremely profitable. River: ($16.53) 5♠ (2 players) Total pot: $42.59 | Rake: $2.10 Results: Button had Q♣, 9♣ (queen high). Hero had K♠, Q♠ (king high). Outcome: Hero won $40.49. Our opponent flops open ended and then sticks the rest in on the turn with very little equity. ____________________________________________________________ Getting All-In When You Turn A Big Hand Another situation that you want to use the 25%/shove move is when you turn a nut hand. Take this example: Example #12.6: No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed)
UTG ($63.65) HJ ($54.18) CO ($47.25) Button ($71.18) Hero (SB) ($17.56) BB ($62.86) Preflop: Hero is SB with 6♣, 6♠ 4 folds,Hero bets $1.50, BB calls $1.00 Flop: ($3.00) J♥, Q♦, 7♣ (2 players) Hero bets $1.50, BB calls $1.50 We c-bet half pot and get called. Our plan is to barrel an ace or a king, but otherwise give up on the turn. Turn: ($4.51) 6♦ (2 players) Hero bets $4.39, BB calls $4.39 We bink a 6 and bet 25% of our starting stack to set up a river shove. River: ($13.29) 9♥ (2 players) Hero bets $10.17 (All-In), BB calls $10.17 Total pot: $35.37 | Rake: $1.75 Results: BB had 10♣, Q♥ (one pair, Queens). Hero had 6♣, 6♠ (three of a kind, sixes). Outcome: Hero won $33.62. Our opponent pays off with top pair. As a short stack, it is very easy to set up a shove on the next street anytime by simply increasing our bet size on the current street. ____________________________________________________________ Once your hand reading ability improves, you will likely want to abandon this strategy as your sole method for playing wet boards. However, you may want to keep it in your bag of tricks for particular
situations. I use it once or twice most sessions when holding very vulnerable strong hands on extremely wet boards.
Check-Shoving Occasionally, you will find yourself out of position with a holding that is profitable to c-bet but has the potential to set up an awkward turn scenario should you get floated. So instead of c-betting and being forced to make a turn decision, I find it useful to go for a check-shove instead. This play works especially well against aggressive opponents who are likely to bet with a variety of holdings when checked to. There are two types of hands that I like to check-shove with. The first is for value with a middle or top pair hand which is vulnerable to a turn card such as J7 on a 742 board or A6 on 862. The second is as a semi-bluff with draws that include 8+ outs. This move allows more money to get into the pot against hands that may have folded to a c-bet while simplifying your decisions in a forceful way. You are also adding a measure of unpredictability to your game and punishing aggressive players by giving them a chance to over-commit themselves against a short stack and make a fundamental mistake. Your range will also be balanced nicely, because you do not always want to fold after checking or you will become very easy to play against. Example #12.7: Check-shoving top pair on a draw heavy board No-Limit Hold’em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) UTG ($220.96) HJ ($25.33) Hero (CO) ($28) Button ($158.32) 37/26/32 40% fold to c-bet SB ($99.02) BB ($115.17) Preflop: Hero is CO with 9♥, 7♣ 2 folds, Hero bets $2, Button calls $2, 2 folds Flop: ($5.50) 6♠, 3♠, 7♥ (2 players) Hero checks, Button bets $5.50, Hero raises to $26 (All-In), 1 fold C-betting here will put us in an awkward spot on the turn quite often as there are very few cards that we will feel comfortable seeing. A check allows our aggressive opponent the chance to put
money in the pot with his air range and potentially commit with inferior equity where he otherwise may have gotten away from his hand. ____________________________________________________________ Example #12.8: Check-shoving bottom pair and a flush draw No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) HJ ($49.25) CO ($49.25) Button ($48.40) Hero (SB) ($17.70) BB ($34.30) Preflop: Hero is SB with 4♥, 7♥ 3 folds, Hero bets $1, BB calls $0.50
Flop: ($2) 7♣, 9♥, Q♥ (2 players) Hero checks, BB bets $0.50, Hero raises to $16.70 (All-In), BB calls $16.20 A 25% stack flop bet followed by a turn shove would be fine in this instance. However, since we have both a pair and a flush draw, we don’t mind getting all-in right here and now since we have 49% equity against a hand as strong as AQ. Check-shoving has the best chance of getting more money in the pot and the potential to commit our opponent with a wider range. Note: A pair and an open-ended straight draw could be treated similarly. Turn: ($35.40) 3♥ (2 players, 1 all-in) River: ($35.40) 5♠ (2 players, 1 all-in) Total pot: $35.40 Results: Hero had 4♥, 7♥ (flush, Queen high). BB shows 6♠, 8♥ (straight, nine high).
Outcome: Hero won $33.65. Villain stacked off with a weak open-ended straight draw. His play is questionable since many of his outs were dirty, and there was a better straight draw possible. Perhaps he believed he was committed after betting the flop versus a short stack. ____________________________________________________________ Example #12.9: Check-shoving an awkward straight draw No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) HJ ($32.85) CO ($5.57) Button ($52.95) Hero (SB) ($14.65) BB ($80.36)
Preflop: Hero is SB with J♦, 5♣ 3 folds, Hero bets $1, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($2) 6♥, 3♥, 4♦ (2 players) Hero checks, BB bets $1.50, Hero raises to $13.65 (All-In), 1 fold Opening a wide range in the small blind can frequently put you in awkward spots. That is why having easy and decisive plays, such as the check-shove, in your arsenal is important. With an over and a straight draw, we are doing pretty good equity wise against our opponent’s range, no matter what he has. Sometimes our opponent will turn over something crazy like QQ+, but even against those hands we are 32% to win. Other times he may fold hands that beat us like 4x or 3x which makes our play very powerful. ____________________________________________________________ Example #12.10: Punishing an aggressive regular No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed)
UTG ($10) HJ ($13.40) CO ($78.81) Button ($25.60) Hero (SB) ($9.35) BB ($74.33) Folds to c-bet 20% BvB, Bets when checked to 80% Preflop: Hero is SB with 6♦, 9♦ 4 folds, Hero bets $1, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($2) J♥, 6♠, 5♣ (2 players) Hero checks, BB bets $1.34, Hero raises to $8.35 (All-In), 1 fold These player types are not that difficult to exploit, once you know how. Since you know he is almost never folding to a c-bet and is always betting when checked to, it makes it simply a game of maximizing ranges. Our 2nd pair hand here is almost always good, so we surely could try to bet 3 streets for value. But since more over cards will likely come by the river, I much prefer to simplify things and win the pot on the flop. If we had 43, 87, or 5x, we would play it the same way. If we had Jx or an over pair, it would be an obvious bet-bet-bet. With air, it would all depend on his tendencies on the turn and river, but check-shoving two overs would often be profitable due to the huge amount of fold equity. ____________________________________________________________ Example #12.11: Check-shoving 2nd pair in a 3-bet pot No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($50) HJ ($63.99) CO ($29.60) Button ($112.18) 22/28/35 Hero (SB) ($15.25) BB ($112.85) Preflop: Hero is SB with Q♠, 8♥ 3 folds, Button bets $1, Hero raises to $2.50, 1 fold, Button calls $1.50
This opponent opens 46% from the button, so I 3-bet small with a polarized range and get flatted. This appears to be a pretty awful play against a short stack, unless he is trapping with a big pair. Flop: ($5.50) 6♦, 8♦, 10♠ (2 players) Hero checks, Button bets $4, Hero raises to $12.75 (All-In), Button calls $8.75 I flop middle pair on a draw heavy board. Leading here will likely only get me action when I am crushed, so the obvious play is to check-shove. Folding 2nd pair here in a 3-bet pot is never an option. Turn: ($31) 3♥ (2 players, 1 all-in) River: ($31) 6♣ (2 players, 1 all-in) Total pot: $31 | Rake: $1.55 Results: Button had 5♣, 7♣ (one pair, sixes). Hero had Q♠, 8♥ (two pair, eights and sixes). Outcome: Hero won $29.45. The button makes a -EV play by flatting a 3-bet with lousy implied odds. He is then forced to stack off with an open-ended straight draw on the flop. This is a rare situation, but it highlights a couple of the strengths of playing a small stack. Being short both amplifies our aggressive opponent’s mistakes and makes it very easy to leverage our stack against him. ____________________________________________________________ Example #12.12: Check shoving a draw against a player who floats often No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) Hero (UTG) ($11.80) HJ ($21.42) CO ($15) 48/10/35 Folds to c-bet 33% Button ($38.76) SB ($23.86)
BB ($20.27) 87/2/25 Preflop: Hero is UTG with 7♦, 9♦ Hero bets $1, 1 fold, CO (poster) calls $0.50, 3 folds Hero opens a suited semi-connector with two fish behind. With dead money posted, we are hoping for a multi-way pot. Flop: ($2.75) 6♠, 8♦, Q♠ (2 players) Hero checks, CO bets $2.75, Hero raises to $10.80 (All-In), 1 fold Hero flops open-ended with a backdoor flush draw. This is an easy situation to play incorrectly. Hero could c-bet big and shove any turn, but in doing so would only invite action from much better hands. A much better play is to check and either keep the pot small or shove over any bet and get the money in with two cards still to come. This allows the possibility of two profitable scenarios. We either get to see the turn cheaply and make a delayed c-bet after being shown weakness, or we allow our opponent to bluff at the flop and force him to fold many hands that beat us. ____________________________________________________________ Alternative Line On Dry Flops: The Turn Check-Shove Against a variety of players, this is an exploitative play I like to use with my tier 1 and strongest tier 2 hands while out of position. It is designed to take advantage of the inherently aggressive nature of online players. It works very well against both habitual floaters and players who you expect have a strong range when they call your flop c-bet. The way it works is that after you c-bet the flop and get called, you check the turn with the top of your range in order to induce a bet. If your opponent bets, then the trap is set as you spring to life with a check-raise and stick the rest of your chips in. While this line is only useful out of position, the reason it is so powerful is that it exploits both tight players and those that float with a wide range in position. Tight players will usually have a strong range and will tend to bet when checked to, since they will want to extract maximum value after “hitting their hand.” They will then almost never fold to the shove. Even if they do happen to have a marginal hand, they may believe they are “priced in” and feel obligated to call. Whereas, if you had double barreled, they might have gotten away. But the player type that this line works best against is aggressive regulars. Their overall range will typically be weaker, and so they will not be able to call a barrel often. This move allows them to put
some more money in the pot with their bluffing range before they fold. It also balances your game and has the potential to slow them down on future floats. Furthermore, if your opponent checks back the turn and does not fall for the trap, you still have an opportunity to bet and get value on the river. At this point, the pot will be small, and your opponent may be willing to look you up a bit lighter since you showed weakness on the turn by not barreling.
When You Don’t Want To Get All-In Most of the time you will not want to get all-in. With tier 2 made hands, you will sometimes be beat, and with tier 3 and 4 hands, you will almost always be beat if the money goes in on the flop. In this section, we will discuss a betting strategy for non-nut hands, and I will show you how to consistently squeeze money out of these situations. Let’s discuss tier 2 hands first. Marginal Tier 2 Betting Strategy Sometimes you will face a situation with a tier 2 hand where getting all-in is marginal at best. In position, it is often best to exercise pot control. The typical situation you will encounter is having top pair weak kicker on a dry board where your opponent is likely very weak or very strong. When in position in these situations, it is often wise to check behind on the flop or turn. This adds deception to your game and balances the times you are betting with air. In the section on when not to c-bet, I discussed one such instance with a weak ace after flopping top pair. Here are two additional examples of refraining from c-betting the flop. Example #12.13: Pot Control Leads To Either Damage Control Or Value No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($24.06) HJ ($33.69) CO ($21.60) Hero (Button) ($14.33) SB ($10.80) BB ($10) Preflop: Hero is Button with 2♠, K♠ 3 folds, Hero bets $1, SB calls $0.75,1 fold Flop: ($2.50) 3♠, K♥, 8♣ (2 players) SB checks, Hero checks Checking for deception on a dry flop. This board often misses our opponent’s range. If we had air here, we would want to c-bet.
Turn: ($2.50) 8♠ (2 players) SB bets $1.25, Hero calls $1.25 The board pairs and we pick up a flush draw. Our opponent leads into us. Raising makes little sense here, as there is very little that can call us that doesn’t have us beat. River: ($5) 6♠ (2 players) SB bets $3.34, Hero raises to $12.08 (All-In), SB calls $5.21 (All-In)
We bink a flush on the river, and our opponent leads for just over half pot. If we still only had top pair, this is an easy call. Even though it is a paired board, it is still a value shoving situation for a short stack. Total pot: $22.10 | Rake: $1.10 Results: Hero had 2♠, K♠ (flush, King high). SB had 9♠, 10♠ (flush, ten high). Outcome: Hero won $21. The theme here is that by checking back a dry flop with top pair, we gave good things a chance to happen and increased our chances of two streets of value in the process. As a side note, if we had started with 100 big blinds, then we might have hesitated to raise this river. And if we did, how gross would it be if he shipped his lesser flush? This is just another example of how playing a short stack simplifies things. ____________________________________________________________ Checking back can also occasionally be advisable with non-made hands. Sometimes you will flop a draw that has a low amount of fold equity either because of board texture or opponent tendencies. Example #12.14: Checking back with a weak flush draw No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($27.41) HJ ($22.70) CO ($7.10) Hero (Button) ($10.14) SB ($126.54) BB ($50) Preflop: Hero is Button with 5♣, 7♣ 3 folds, Hero bets $1, SB calls $0.75,1 fold Flop: ($2.50) J♣, Q♣, 4♦ (2 players) SB checks, Hero checks This is a common situation that I frequently see misplayed. If we c-bet and face a raise on this flop, we will likely have around 37% equity. And since we have only our initial opening raise invested, it is not necessary to always c-bet with the intention of stacking off. Doing so increases our variance, so I usually prefer a more conservative play in these spots. Drawing hands that I would more likely c-bet the flop with are 4♣7♣, A♣x♣. These hands are much stronger equity wise and don’t mind getting the money in fast. If you were to decide to bet here, I prefer a 25% stack bet followed by a turn shove to maximize fold equity. Turn: ($2.50) 8♣ (2 players)
SB bets $1.50, Hero raises to $3.50, SB calls $2 We complete our flush on the turn, and the small blind leads into us. There are way too many hands in our opponent’s range that can continue to a raise, so calling would be a mistake. In this instance, I make a small raise, but a shove would also be reasonable. River: ($9.50) 6♥ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $5.64 (All-In),1 fold Unfortunately, our opponent folds the river. Some people may disagree with how this hand was played, but knowing when to mix it up is a skill that benefits you immensely. ____________________________________________________________ Both of the above examples were played in position. When out of position, since pot control is not nearly as easy, you are better off playing these hands aggressively with either a check-shove or a betshove line. While getting all-in may be marginal with some tier 2 hands, they are still almost always good enough to commit with as a short stack. Having to play these spots aggressively is the price you pay for being out of position. Tier 3 And 4 Betting Strategy So far, we have mostly discussed betting lines with high equity holdings. But maximizing value from premium hands, while important, is not going to significantly distinguish you from the field. The vast majority of the time you will not have a tier 1 or 2 hand and will have to navigate much trickier postflop scenarios. In most hands, you will either be trying to get to showdown with your tier 3 hand or pick up the pot with a bluff while holding a tier 4 hand. These marginal spots are where most poker players are lost and grossly misplay hands time and time again. Why is this? In my opinion it all comes down to human nature. Everyone likes to do things that are fun, and let’s face it, playing a weak hand is not inherently entertaining. Thus, as a rule, the average poker player spends little time attempting to expand his knowledge of situations they find dull and “unimportant.” As a consequence, negotiating the “inconsequential” situations that almost everyone avoids learning about is one of the secrets to profit in today’s tougher games. The people who currently excel outplay their opponents in ways that the player pool is almost totally unaware of. Therefore, by learning to maximize your earnings in all situations, you too will become part of the elite and furtively increase your win-rate by focusing on the spots no one else is interested in. My suggestion is that, once you learn strong standard lines for playing tier 1 and 2 hands, you thereafter spend most of your energy polishing your play with the “weaker” parts of your range. Betting With Showdown Value Most poker authorities advocate taking a passive line when you have showdown value. I feel this advice is pretty ridiculous since, by adhering to it, you are many times giving your opponents the chance to play perfectly against you. Remember that showdown value hands only have value if you actually get to showdown. Taking a passive line will often force you to fold before the river or put in
way too much money getting to it. I believe that the optimal strategy is to stay aggressive, even with marginal holdings. For the most part, today’s micros and small stakes games abound with calling stations and nits. Against such competition, relatively small bets can and will get value from weaker hands as well as the occasional fold from stronger ones. With a tier 3 holding, a reasonable standard bet sizing strategy is to bet 1/2 of the pot on the flop and a big blind or two less than half the pot on the turn. This allows you to keep the lead and maintain a relatively small pot with the ultimate goal of getting to showdown. Your river bet sizing will depend on many factors, so one size does not fit all. If you are in position, a river check back is usually best. However, when out of position, another smallish bet is usually optimal for both pot control and as a blocking bet. Let’s take a look at a few examples of betting with showdown value: Example #12.15: Triple Barrel With Showdown Value No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($33.16) HJ ($7) Hero (CO) ($12.65) Button ($120.34) SB ($50) BB ($34.50) Preflop: Hero is CO with 7♥, 7♦ 2 folds, Hero bets $1, Button calls $1,2 folds Flop: ($2.75) J♥, 6♦, 8♠ (2 players) Hero bets $1.38, Button calls $1.38 Standard C-Bet. We may be best and can get value from straight draws, worse pocket pairs, and 6x hands. We also set up future bluffs, if necessary. Turn: ($5.51) J♦ (2 players) Hero bets $1.50, Button calls $1.50 The board pairs and another diamond comes. Now there are multiple draws to get value from. Since Jx and 8x are never going anywhere anyway, we might as well bet small to keep the weaker parts of his range in as well. If raised, it’s a pretty simple fold. River: ($8.51) 9♦ (2 players) Hero bets $2.00, Button calls $2.00 The river is a card that can beat us quite frequently. Since our hand has value, a small bet to try to get to showdown is appropriate.
Total pot: $12.51 | Rake: $0.60 Results: Button had 6♥,7♣ (two pair, Jacks and sixes). Hero had 7♥, 7♦ (two pair, Jacks and sevens). Outcome: Hero won $11.91. We are going to be beat here fairly often, but by keeping the pot small, we create a profitable situation. If we had air, here a much bigger river bet would have been warranted to get our opponent off the type of hand he showed up with. ____________________________________________________________ Example #12.16: Checking back the river with showdown value No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($20.92) Hero (HJ) ($12) CO ($31.66) Button ($14.25) SB ($48.25) BB ($96.64)
Preflop: Hero is HJ with 10♦, A♦ 1 fold, Hero bets $1, 3 folds, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($2.25) 3♥, 9♠, 9♣ (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $1.13, BB calls $1.13 We may very well have the best hand here, so sometimes our bet is for value. Checking back the flop is gross, because it gives a license to our opponent to bluff us off our hand on the turn. Turn: ($4.51) 2♠ (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $2, BB calls $2 We bet the turn for the same reason we bet the flop. River: ($8.51) K♥ (2 players) BB checks, Hero checks Betting again here can be okay at times, but since we have showdown value, I prefer a check since we will be good fairly often. If we had a hand like QJ, we would want to fire again to try to get our opponent off Ace high and small pairs. Total pot: $8.51 | Rake: $0.40
Results: BB had A♣, 4♠ (one pair, nines, inferior kicker) Hero had 10♦, A♦ (one pair, nines with Ace, King, ten kicker) Outcome: Hero won $8.11. This is not an uncommon result. By betting the flop and turn, we keep our options open no matter what part of our range we hold. ____________________________________________________________ Example #12.17: “My Showdown Value Beats Your Showdown Value” No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) HJ ($9.55) CO ($11.02) Button ($10.90) Hero (SB) ($2.90) BB ($3) Preflop: Hero is SB with K♥, 3♠ 3 folds, Hero bets $0.20, BB calls $0.10 It folds to us in the small blind, and we make a standard open. Flop: ($0.40) Q♠, 7♠, 3♣ (2 players) Hero bets $0.20, BB calls $0.20 We flop bottom pair and keep the lead with a half pot C-Bet. We are good here often as many opponents would raise a pocket pair or big queen pre-flop. 7x as part of a suited connector is likely the only hand beating us right now. Turn: ($0.80) 2♦ (2 players) Hero bets $0.30, BB calls $0.30 The turn changes nothing, so we decide to keep the pot small with less than 50% pot size bet. River: ($1.40) Q♥ (2 players) Hero bets $0.40, BB calls $0.40 The river is another queen, so we can safely bet-call the river. We decide on a small bet with our showdown value to lure in very weak hands or induce a bluff. Most of the time I would snap call a reraise as Qx would likely have raised the flop blind-versus-blind. Total pot: $2.20 | Rake: $0.14 Results: Hero had J♥, 3♠ (two pair, Queens and threes). BB had A♥,K♦ (Pair of threes). Outcome: Hero won $2.06.
For whatever reason, the big blind decided to slow play AK pre-flop and then take a very passive line post-flop. ____________________________________________________________
Example #12.18: The “Bluff Call” No-Limit Hold’em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) HJ ($10.51) CO ($13.21) Button ($10.10) Hero (SB) ($3.31) BB ($8.82) Preflop: Hero is SB with 8♥, 2♥ 3 folds, Hero bets $0.20, BB calls $0.10 I am intentionally highlighting BvB play, as this will be a constant source of battles for you. Flop: ($0.40) A♣, 3♦, K♥ (2 players) Hero bets $0.20, BB calls $0.20 Standard C-Bet on an Ace high board. We expect to take this down on the flop a large amount of time. But this time our opponent floats us. Turn: ($0.80) 2♠ (2 players) Hero bets $0.40, BB calls $0.40 We pick up a pair which gives us both showdown value and the ability to improve on the river. Checking here would be very bad, as it allows our opponent to bet his entire range and force us to fold. Our only chance to win this pot is to continue betting. River: ($1.60) 3♠ (2 players) Hero bets $1.40, BB calls $1.40 The river comes another three, and we decide to bet a bit on the larger side to get folds from Kx and random pairs. Disappointingly, we get called and are prepared to ship the pot to our opponent. Total pot: $4.40 | Rake: $0.30 Results: Hero had 8♥, 2♣ (two pair, threes and twos). BB had 6♠,T♦ (Pair of threes). Outcome: Hero won $4.10. To our amazement, we get called by ten high. There is no telling what our opponent was thinking. I suppose the lesson is that most players generally undervalue the strength of their hand against
opponents that clearly overvalue theirs. ____________________________________________________________
Betting With Air
If you decide the situation is conducive for running a bluff, your strategy will only vary slightly from how you play showdown value hands. Since your goal is no longer to get to showdown, you benefit from a change in your betting strategy. With showdown value, you do not mind calls and thus can structure your bet sizing to keep someone in the pot. With air, you want to skew your bet sizing a bit more on the larger size to make your opponents’ calls much tougher. The beauty of this notion is that a slight increase in bet size can have drastic effects on our opponents’ calling frequency and yet have to work a surprisingly small amount of the time in order to be profitable. As shown in the above chart, a full pot-sized bet only needs to work about 17% more often than a 50% bet in order to break even. This gives you much more flexibility in your bet sizing than you may have realized. Here are some examples to illustrate the point: Example #12.19: Applying Pressure On Three Streets No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($10.33) Hero (HJ) ($17.05) CO ($130.79) Button ($47.80) SB ($15.25) BB ($61.64) Preflop: Hero is HJ with K♥, J♣ 1 fold, Hero bets $1, CO calls $1,3 folds Flop: ($2.75) 2♥, 3♦, 6♠ (2 players)
Hero bets $2.00, CO calls $2.00 We c-bet a low board with the intention of giving up on most turns. Most hands that call this type of flop will not be folding to barrels. We bet a bit larger than if we had showdown value since we are trying to elicit a fold from our opponent right now on the flop and not planning a multi-street bluff. Turn: ($6.75) Q♠ (2 players) Hero bets $3.40, CO calls $3.40 A queen comes and we decide to modify our plan since the turn is probably a scare card for our opponent. A big card often helps our range and a bet will put a lot of pressure on many different types of hands that may have floated the flop. We go for a half pot-sized bet to give us a reasonable shoving opportunity on the river. River: ($13.55) 4♣ (2 players) Hero bets $10.65 (all-in),1 fold With four to a straight on a queen high board, a river bet looks very credible for our range. I decide to shove to exert maximum pressure on hands such as 77-TT and 6x. It is conceivable that even some Qx hands might find a fold here sometimes. Our bet needs to work here a fairly low percentage of the time in order to be profitable, so checking and giving up here is almost certainly a leak. Total pot: $13.51 | Rake: $0.65 Results: Hero didn’t show K♥, J♣ (nothing). Outcome: Hero won $12.86. I by no means advocate going for three barrel bluffs that culminate in a river shove every single time you have air. But if a profitable situation presents itself, you have to have the will to follow through, otherwise you are leaving a lot of money on the table. ____________________________________________________________ Sometimes you will barrel with showdown value and then get a river card that destroys your hand. At that point you will need to adjust your river betting accordingly. Take this example. Example #12.20: When Showdown Value Turns To Air No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) Hero (HJ) ($14.72) CO ($51.18) Button ($21) SB ($10.12) BB ($14.50) Preflop: Hero is HJ with 2♠, 2♥
Hero bets $1, CO calls $1,3 folds Flop: ($2.75) 4♦, 3♠, 7♥ (2 players) Hero bets $1.38, CO calls $1.38 I c-bet to keep the lead and get value from random Ace high and King high floats. Since we raised in first position, a lot of our opponents will believe our range is strong here. Turn: ($5.51) 7♠ (2 players) Hero bets $2, CO calls $2 A very good turn as it is unlikely to improve our opponent yet does nothing to hurt the hands we are repping. It also adds a few draws that might make our opponent stick around another street. No need to bet big here as $2 accomplishes the same thing as $3. River: ($9.51) 3♦ (2 players) Hero bets $4.76,1 fold The river destroys our showdown value, and we are left playing the board. We know we cannot win at showdown since even 5 high beats us; the only question is how much to bet. Since our goal is to fold out the majority of his air, any reasonable bet will do so. I chose half pot as it only has to work 33% of the time, but it’s likely that 40% bet would have been just as profitable. ____________________________________________________________ Example #12.21: Betting A River Scare Card No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($32.25) HJ ($37.54) Hero (CO) ($15.60) Button ($25.78) SB ($75.53) BB ($122.09) Preflop: Hero is CO with 3♣, 6♣ 2 folds, Hero bets $1,1 fold, SB calls $0.75, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($3) 4♦, 10♠, 10♦ (3 players) SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $1.50, SB calls $1.50,1 fold The flop is dry, so we should almost always c-bet here, even if multi-way. Turn: ($6) 2♦ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $2, SB calls $2 A possible flush hits, and we pick up a gut shot. Checking back here makes little sense as we have no showdown value and will surely face a river bet that we can only call if we hit a straight.
River: ($10) J♦ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $5,1 fold The board runs out four to a flush with an over. We have no showdown value and need to bet. We expect to get called by hands as weak as 8♦x, so we size our bet to get rid of the rest of his range. ____________________________________________________________
Varying From Standard Betting Strategies With strong made hands, we don’t mind getting all-in, but can sometimes benefit more from a smaller bet sizing. We typically want to do this when our opponent’s range is likely very weak. Take this example: Example #12.22: No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($57.50) HJ ($53.79) CO ($28.15) Hero (Button) ($21.39) SB ($74.75) BB ($48.50) Preflop: Hero is Button with Q♥, K♣ 3 folds, Hero bets $1,1 fold, BB calls $0.50 Flop: ($2.25) 7♣, 3♠, Q♦ (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $1.13, BB calls $1.13 A very dry board, so there is no rush to get all-in. 10% of our stack is almost a pot-sized bet, but that seems way too big based on opponent’s unlikelihood to have connected with this board. We opt for a half-pot bet. Turn: ($4.51) K♥ (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $2.26, BB calls $2.26 We turn top two pair which improves almost none of our opponent’s range except for maybe a random float with JT or Kx. The king likely hurt my opponent’s range, so anything more than half pot seems like a gross over bet. I actually don’t mind a bet of around $1.50 to try and induce a raise from a float, but the half pot bet is more standard to try and continue building a pot. River: ($9.03) 8♥ (2 players) BB checks, Hero bets $4.52, BB calls $4.52 The eight doesn’t complete any draws and further hurts any 7x or small pair type hands. There is not much that will pay off a substantial river bet except maybe 87, and we might get a raise from that hand anyway. So a small bet of anywhere from $3.00 to half pot seems appropriate. If your read on your opponent is that he is a station, then you should tend to err on the large size with any value bet. Total pot: $18.07 | Rake: $0.90 Results:
Hero had Q♥, K♣ (two pair, Kings and Queens). BB had A♠7♠ (one pair, Sevens). Outcome: Hero won $17.17. Our opponent makes a hero call with 4th pair. Had we bet bigger at any point during the hand, it is likely that we would have elicited a fold. By taking a “showdown value” line with a strong holding, we were able to get much more value against our opponent’s overall weak range. ____________________________________________________________ Another added benefit to taking a showdown value line with your premium hands is that it balances your range. Sometimes playing strong hands the same way you play your weaker ones will make you harder to read against expert opponents. This type of consideration will become even more important as you move up in stakes. The main theme of this chapter has been using bet sizing to manipulate our opponents into making mistakes and doing what we want them to. You have learned to form a street-by-street strategy for betting based on both the strength of your hand and the texture of the board. So far, the focus of this chapter has been in situations where you have initiative. But what if you were not the pre-flop raiser?
Sizing Raises And Reraises Since it is rare to go to the flop without the initiative, you will not have to worry too often about making raises or reraises unless your own bet gets raised. But there are certain instances that may warrant making pre-flop calls, whether it is when defending against a min-raise from a wide range stealer, or whether you make a profitable call dictated by implied odds. As a small stack, after raising or reraising a bet post-flop, the majority of the time you will not have enough money behind to make a significant bet on the next street. Therefore, nine times out of ten you will be shoving all-in when you raise. There are a few specific instances, however, when you may want to raise a bit less. These include: 1. Your stack size is big enough that a raise can still leave you a reasonable-sized shove on the next street. 2. There are not many cards that can kill the action on the next street. 3. You hold a monster, and a smaller raise is more likely to get action. A good example of this is while holding a tier 1 hand against an aggressive opponent. If the board is dry and he has either bet or made a small raise against you, then this is an excellent time to make a small 25% effective stack raise or a min-raise. It gives him the chance to either call with the weaker parts of his range or bluff shove over you with his air hands. Against passive players, this type of line will not work often enough to make it worthwhile. You are generally just better off shoving it all-in, if strength has been shown, since it is much less likely that this type of player will have any weak hands in his range. Just get it in immediately while your opponent appears to be willing to do so. Now that you know when to bet and raise, let’s discuss how to navigate the infrequent situations where you can consider calling a post-flop bet.
Post-Flop Calling Strategy The best line of play for a short stack after the flop is almost always to either raise or fold. However, there are certain occasions in which a passive line can prove to be profitable. Here are a few of the circumstances in which I may make a post-flop call: It is not profitable to reraise, and you have direct odds. You have reasonable implied odds, and reverse implied odds is not an issue. Your opponent c-bets a wide range but does not barrel often, thus setting up a profitable float. You have a near invulnerable hand, and your opponent c-bets and barrels a wide range. Calculating Direct Pot Odds In Chapter 4, you learned about the rule of 4 and 2 and now know how to figure out your chances of making a hand on the turn or river. In order to determine whether you have the direct odds to profitably call, you must first figure out your pot odds. You then turn your chance of making your hand into a ratio. If the chance of hitting your hand is greater than the odds to call, then it is profitable to do so. For example, let’s say your opponent shoves $5 into a $10 pot on the flop, and you are holding a flush draw with 9 outs. You have to call $5 to win $15, and thus are getting 3 to 1 on your money. By applying the rule of 4 to the 9 out flush draw you get 36%, which is better than 3 to 1 when converted into a ratio, thus making the call profitable. Most situations will not involve facing shoves on the flop. When applying the rule of 2 to the next street, it is unusual to ever have the correct direct odds to make a call unless your opponent severely under bets. Almost always, you will need to have something else going for you. In order to justify a call, you will have to have some hope of making more money than is currently in the pot. This is where implied odds comes in. Post-Flop Implied Odds In order for calls without direct odds to be worthwhile, your opponent needs to have a decent likelihood of being willing to put more money in the pot should you make your hand. For example, flush draws are typically not the best implied odds hands, as it is pretty obvious when that third flush card hits that someone may have just made a flush. Even weak players recognize this. The ideal implied odds hand is one that will not be so obvious should it hit. Straight draws,
especially gut shots, are much more disguised when they connect. Someone with two pair or better will not likely be too worried if a non-board pairing, non-flush blank card comes in. You should not be relying on implied odds with one pair hands hoping to hit two pair or pocket pairs looking to hit a set on the next card. Stick to holdings that have clean outs and will most likely get you paid off when they complete. Otherwise, unless the direct odds are there, folding or raising are better options. Reverse Implied Odds After The Flop Reverse implied odds often affect post-flop calling decisions. For example, let’s say you hold 45 on a 78K board and are considering a call with your gut shot straight draw. You face a bet and a call on the flop and are getting a decent implied price to see another street. Here is the problem. One of your opponents could easily be holding T9 or 95 on this board. If a 6 falls and the money goes in, a certain percentage of the time you will be beaten by a better straight. Another situation that comes up frequently is holding a straight draw on a two-tone board. Sometimes you will make your straight while someone else makes a flush. The key to avoiding a reverse implied odds calling mistake is to always make sure that none of your outs are dirty and that your draw is to the nuts. Sometimes it is okay to stray from this notion, but you will have to discount your outs when calculating the odds. In other words, if you hold a straight draw on a two-tone board, you must remove two of the potential cards as outs. So instead of having 8 outs, you now only have 6.
Floating When it is likely that you do not have the best hand and have little chance to improve, it is fundamentally a bad play to call just to see another card. However, there are certain instances where you can exploit particular opponents by calling their flop bet with the intention of winning with a bluff later on. This is called floating. Online poker is rampant with players who c-bet often but barrel infrequently. The most common way to exploit them is to float their flop bet and then fire the turn when checked to. Using my strategy, this situation will most often arise blind versus blind. When folded to in the small blind, some players will open a very wide range. They will then c-bet the flop 100% of the time and give up on the turn unimproved, believing they are making a profitable long-term play. Most of the time they will be right. But attentive players can and should exploit them often via a float. I keep c-bet and barrel stats in my HUD for quick reference during play if I am open raised by the small blind. If my opponent c-bets over 80% of the time but barrels less than 40%, I will call pre-flop in position with any two cards. When facing an open from a position other than the small blind it is very difficult to float as a call will have you playing out of position. And making pre-flop calls to attempt floats from outside the blinds puts you at risk of being squeezed. As a result, you will not have many opportunities to float as a short stack player. Only under certain circumstances can you employ this move profitably. And until you are skilled in assessing ranges, player tendencies, and equity, you are better off avoiding complicated floats altogether. Here are some examples of floats: Example #13.1: Floating with air No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed)
HJ ($49.25) CO ($55.70) Button ($56.87) SB ($51) Opens 45% from the SB Hero (BB) ($15)
Preflop: Hero is BB with Q♥, 9♣ 3 folds, SB bets $1, Hero calls $0.50 A standard call against a wide opening range. Flop: ($2) 5♥, 2♣, 7♠ (2 players) SB bets $1.34, Hero calls $1.34 The SB continuation bets a very dry board, and the Hero floats. Turn: ($4.68) J♠ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $2.34,1 fold The SB checks, and Hero’s holding is irrelevant as he bets and takes down the pot. ____________________________________________________________
Example #13.2: Following through on a float No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed)
HJ ($74.95) CO ($31.25) Button ($168.59) SB ($36.50) Opens 60% from the SB Hero (BB) ($15.18) Preflop: Hero is BB with 5♥, 3♦ 3 folds, SB bets $1, Hero calls $0.50 Hero calls with plans to float. Flop: ($2) 10♥, J♦, 8♠ (2 players) SB bets $0.50, Hero calls $0.50 The SB min-bet leads. Raising is tempting, but on this board there are a lot of hands Villain may be going for a check-raise on. Hero instead floats. Turn: ($3) 4♠ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $2, SB calls $2 The SB checks a blank turn, and Hero follows through on his float but is called. River: ($7) 6♥ (2 players) SB checks, Hero bets $3.50, 1 fold SB checks again and Hero double barrels his float to try and get folds from showdown value and air hands that beat him, as it is unlikely that Villain has top pair. Sometimes players will checkcall the turn hoping you will check back the river and let them take their weak made hand to showdown. There is no need to bet large as our opponent may be more likely to call if our bet looks suspiciously big. ____________________________________________________________ Sometimes you will find the opportunity to turn your float into a bluffing opportunity when barreled on the turn. The following example illustrates how to do so: Example #13.3: Semi-bluff raising a turn scare card No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (4 handed) CO ($51.67) Button ($45.25) SB ($50) Hero (BB) ($19.15) Preflop: Hero is BB with K♠, 10♦ 2 folds, SB bets $1.50, Hero calls $1 Flop: ($3) 3♠, 5♠, 6♥ (2 players) SB bets $2.50, Hero calls $2.50 Hero floats with overs and backdoor flush draw. Turn: ($8) Q♠ (2 players) SB bets $5.50, Hero raises to $15.15 (All-In), 1 fold The turn brings an over and a possible flush. We likely have 25% equity when called, so our opponent has to fold less than half the time for this to be a profitable shove.
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When To Slow Play After The Flop There are specific rare circumstances that can warrant playing passively with strong post-flop hands. Here are a few criteria that I like to have going for me before I consider a slow play on the flop or turn. 1. It is not likely that my hand will be beaten by a future card. All other factors are trumped by this one. If your hand is vulnerable and can be beaten fairly easily on the next street, then you never want to slow play. You always want to play big hands fast on wet boards. 2. I am in position. When out of position, it is difficult to get value by slow playing. Turn raises are generally seen as strong, so you do not want to go for a check raise there. It is much better to raise the flop where it might look suspicious. This is especially true on dry boards vs. where opponents “expect” you to slow play. 3. My opponent’s range is currently weak. If the board does not connect well with your opponent’s range, then you can often call in the hope that his hand improves on the next street. This works best on weak level one players who are only playing their own cards. 4. My opponent is aggressive and capable of bluffing future streets. Against overly aggressive players or maniacs, you can slow play in position and give them a chance to spew on future streets with their overall weak range. This works especially well against players who barrel frequently or believe you are capable of floating. Keep in mind that this same type of player may also think you are full of it if you raise particular board textures. I like to mix up my play against thinking opponents based on recent history and game flow.
Calling Post-Flop Reraises This section covers the uncommon situation when you are faced with a reraise that does not put you all-in. Usually these spots are shove or fold decisions; however, there are times when the raise is small enough that there is room to call and maneuver on the next street. One scenario that occasionally presents itself is when you face a small raise while holding a big draw. It is never a huge mistake to get all the money in, but sometimes a call can be even better. In cases where you are pretty certain that you have no fold equity, it is okay to call and see one more street before committing or folding. Take the following example: Example #13.4: Facing A Reraise In A Limped Pot No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) UTG ($27.87) HJ ($65.95) CO ($29.02) Button ($49.25) SB ($30.98) Hero (BB) ($15) Preflop: Hero is BB with 5♠, 6♠ 2 folds, CO calls $0.50,1 fold, SB calls $0.25, Hero checks Flop: ($1.50) 7♦, Q♣, 4♦ (3 players) SB checks, Hero bets $0.75, CO raises to $2,1 fold, Hero calls $1.25 Hero leads out in a limped pot with an open-ended straight draw and faces a small raise. Since flop raises in limped pots typically indicate a hand that is ready to go all the way, shoving all-in is not a good play. With no fold equity, the only viable options are to either call or fold. Folding is okay since we only have 6 clean outs due to the flush draw. But when we look at implied odds, we are calling $1.25 to potentially win $12.50, or 10 to 1. We are 8 to 1 to hit the draw on the turn, so a call is profitable. There is also a chance that our opponent is drawing with a hand like A♦T♦. If the turn or river pair us up, there is a chance we can see a cheap showdown and win. Always consider every potential outcome as small details can put on the fence decisions over the top one way or the other. Turn: ($5.50) ♥2 (2 players) Hero checks, CO bets $2, Hero calls $2 The turn is a blank, so we decide to check and fold to a reasonable bet. However, our opponent only bets $2 and gives us 4 to 1 on a call. It looks like a diamond draw is a big part of our opponent’s range, so we count our pair outs as a possibility. This, coupled with our live nut
straight draw, make a call on the turn very easy.
River: ($9.50) 6♥ (2 players) Hero checks, CO checks Had the river not paired us, we would have considered leading for around $5 to get our opponent off his diamond draws and pure air that beat us. But, since we made a pair, we checked hoping to see a cheap showdown and are happy to see him check behind. Total pot: $9.50 | Rake: $0.45 Results: Hero didn’t show 5♠, 6♠ (nothing). CO had 10♥, Q♦ (one pair, Queens). Outcome: CO won $9.05. We find out that our opponent had top pair good kicker, which is a lot weaker than we generally would expect someone to stack off with in a limped pot. This highlights the fact that many players widen their stack off ranges against a short stack. Since it is obvious that we had no fold equity on the flop, it is clear that our play was correct. ____________________________________________________________ Another situation that you can consider calling a flop raise is when you hold an almost unbeatable hand. Even so, the only time I consider doing this is when my opponent has shown to be capable of making bluff raises. If you do not have a specific read or history with your opponent, then a red postflop aggression stat in their HUD is a decent indicator that they do not always have a hand they are willing to stack off with. In that situation, it is sometimes better to call and give them a chance to continue their bluff on the turn. This circumstance rarely occurs, but is definitely something to keep an eye out for. Take the following example: Example #13.5: Getting Reraised By An Aggressive Opponent No-Limit Hold’em, $0.20 BB (6 handed) UTG ($20.77) HJ ($22.92) 26/18/36 CO ($31.09) Button ($5.20) SB ($4.90) Hero (BB) ($6) Preflop: Hero is BB with 5♥, 5♦ 1 fold, HJ bets $0.60, CO calls $0.60, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.40 I flat a small pair in the big blind getting 3.75 to 1 direct odds. Flop: ($1.90) 5♠, K♣, K♠ (3 players)
Hero bets $0.60, HJ raises to $1.20, CO calls $1.20, Hero calls $0.60 I lead out into a dry board against two opponents to build a pot and represent a bluff or semibluff. I face a min-raise and a cold call, so I smooth call to keep draws and weak made hands in. Turn: ($5.50) 10♠ (3 players) Hero checks, HJbets $3.27, 1 fold, Hero raises to $4.40 (All-In), HJ calls $1.13 I check the turn and the HJ player bets 60% of the pot. This play screams strength considering the action on the flop. I could call, but with only $1.14 behind, pushing all-in is virtually the same thing. River: ($14.30) A♠ (2 players, 1 all-in) Total pot: $14.30 | Rake: $0.71 Results: Hero had 5♥, 5♦ (full house, fives over Kings). HJ had Q♠, J♥ (flush, Ace high). Outcome: Hero won $13.59. The aggressive HJ player bluff raised my “weak” lead with only two overs to the 5 and backdoor flush and straight draws. Had I jammed the flop, it is likely both players would have folded. By flatting the flop, I gave my opponents a chance to pick up a reason to stack off on the turn. After adding a flush draw and open-ended straight draw on the turn, my opponent committed to the pot while unknowingly drawing dead. ____________________________________________________________
Forming Reads Poker is a game of information. The more we know about what our opponents are doing at the tables, the more correct our decisions will be when we play a hand against them. During the course of play, you will want to habitually observe and record the actions of other players based on what they are doing both strategically and in specific situations. The majority of your reads will be based on HUD stats, which clue you in to what your opponents’ basic approaches are to the game. These stats can then be used to make generalizations on how you might expect them to react in specific situations. By grouping and categorizing opponents via labels and notes, you can then quickly and accurately make many of the frequent decisions you will face at the tables. Most poker sites now offer you the ability to color code your opponents. Additionally, Pokertracker and Hold’em Manager both have built-in features that allow you to both actively and passively label them. In this chapter, I will provide you with a simple and effective labeling system for both pre-flop and post-flop play. By design, my method focuses on exploiting many of the extreme tendencies commonly found in lower stakes games.
Labeling Opponents There are a few important labels on players that you will want to have immediate access to. Often they are gleaned from HUD stats, but occasionally we get them from observing how our opponents are playing during an actual session. Using these labels not only helps us outplay our opponents, but also allows us to effectively table and seat select. The three ways I like to record specific reads on other players are through color coding, auto-rating, and note taking. This system allows me, at a glance, to know how my opponents play both before and after the flop. 1. Color Coding I do color coding within the poker site itself, since most sites now have the feature built right in. I use the colors to denote an opponent’s pre-flop tendencies. 2. Auto Rating Auto-rating symbols are provided by the poker tracking software you have chosen which can be set to automatically manifest based on opponent stats. I use the symbols as an indicator of postflop tendencies that my opponents possess. I like to set up the symbols to automatically appear, but also manually apply them as warranted. 3. Note Taking You will also want to take written notes within the site during play to fine tune reads on specific players. I like to keep the note taking icon on my HUD for use during reviews of my session and in case my opponent leaves the table before I can take a note within the site. Labeling players is one of most important skills a professional player possesses. Poker is a battle of information, and the person that most effectively uses the data tends to rise to the top. I strongly suggest taking advantage of my simple labeling system. Otherwise, you will be missing out on a lot of profitable opportunities and be at risk of needlessly misplaying hands versus easily exploitable players.
Pre-Flop Color Coding Labels The most important pre-flop information about a player should be color coded within the site itself. The key player characteristics for the basic strategy that you will want to identify as quickly as possible are as follows: 1. Fish- Labeled Green 2. Aggressive Restealers- Labeled Red 3. Pre-Flop Nits- Labeled Blue You will want to identify players who fall into the above categories, not only to help you during game play, but also to choose optimal seats on the best tables.
Identifying and Labeling Fish
You can see on Cake Poker (Revolution Network) that labeling players within the site itself is easy. Working from the left you have red, orange, yellow, light blue, dark blue, green, and gray. The most important players to identify are fish. Players whose VPIP is above 35 should be labeled green within the site as shown above. Most of your profit comes from loose players, so having as many of them on a table as possible makes life a lot easier. Fish typically have high VPIP and low PFR. The ideal place to have them is on your right, but there really is no bad spot to sit in relation to them. VPIP and PFR normalize very quickly, so as soon as you have 20+ hands on someone and they fit the right criteria, label them green. Here are some partial HUD examples of fishy players:
Fish come in all different shapes and sizes as the above HUDs show. Also notice that it doesn’t take many hands to be able to recognize bad players. The second HUD only has a sample size of twelve hands, but the player is clearly a passive fish.
Identifying and Labeling Aggressive Restealers The second most important player type to recognize is someone who is a light 3-bettor versus steals. While you should not necessarily avoid having them on your table, you would prefer not to have more than one of them directly to your left. A large amount of your earnings will be coming from stealing, so getting 3-bet by these guys over and over will atrophy these easy profits. If a player’s 3-bet versus the cutoff, button, or small blind is colored red or purple in the HUD, then it’s okay to stick the red label on them. However, some players 3-bet very loosely against one late position seat but much tighter against another. I usually save the red label for players who 3-bet light against more than one seat. Having a player that only 3-bets light versus one seat is not nearly as much of a hindrance as someone who does so against all steals and should not be avoided as actively in the table selection process. Alternatively, you could choose the color orange for someone who resteals light against only one seat. Generally, it takes a couple hundred hands on someone to identify them as an aggressive 3-bettor. However, if an unknown 3-bets your steal seemingly every revolution, you can tentatively color them red until you get more hands. Some players will only 3-bet light against those with a wide opening range. Be sure to stay mindful of this fact and don’t hesitate to label someone red if you believe that they are 3-betting your steals much looser than everyone else. Sometimes you will encounter players who 3-bet extremely light, I’m talking ridiculously wide here, either against you or everyone. If you see someone who seems to be 3-betting multiple times every revolution, then you may be up against a light 3-bettor. Once you identify a light 3-bettor, you will want to alter your play if he is to your left. First of all, there is no shame in just getting up and finding another table. Otherwise, you will need to start 4-betting light and/or sticking to your tighter range. In some rare cases, individual players 3-bet so light that I will only open hands I am willing to get all in against them with if they are sitting directly to my left. Here are some sample HUDs of aggressive restealers:
This example shows the importance of having positional information in the HUD. The 1st player resteals wide vs. all steal positions, the 2nd player does not 3-bet light vs. cutoff raises, and the 3rd player only likes to 3-bet light vs. button raises.
Identifying and Labeling Nits The final pre-flop player type you will want to label is the pre-flop nit. These players will be a consistent source of non-showdown earnings for you. You want them directly to your left so you can steal relentlessly. You can fairly rapidly spot a nit as they typically have a very low VPIP and PFR and seldom 3-bet without a huge hand. Against these players, who seem completely inattentive, you can expand your stealing range versus them to any two cards. Just remain mindful that even the tightest opponent may eventually adjust. I have seen players with the nittiest of stats suddenly become 3-bet maniacs versus me after I have stolen their blinds over multiple orbits. Here are a few examples of NIT HUDS:
The 1st player is the classic all-around nit who is waiting for big hands to get involved. The 2nd player is either calling or folding against raises unless he has the nuts. The 3rd player is an aggressive post-flop player who seldom defends his blinds.
Post-Flop Auto-Rating Labels
These are the player tendencies you want to rapidly identify. If your HUD does not allow auto-rate symbols but colors instead, then any color coding system that you come up with can be used here. Secondary labeling is used to recognize specific post-flop tendencies that are important to identify rapidly during the course of play. I use the auto-rate symbols available in the HUD as shown above. Setting Up The Autorate Symbols If your poker tracking software allows for automatic auto-rating, define each symbol as follows: 1. Phone: Check-calls flop c-bets greater than 40% of the time. 2. Tornado: Check-raises flop c-bets greater than 25% of the time and check-folds to c-bets less than 60% of the time. 3. Mouse: Check-folds to flop c-bets greater than 60% of the time and check-raises less than 25% of the time. If your software does not allow for auto-rating, you can assign them yourself. It is pretty easy to rate a player based on his or her stats once they begin to normalize. Using The Auto-Rate Labels My philosophy on auto-rating symbols is that they are best used to denote specific player tendencies that affect how you should adjust to them with the greatest frequency. Since my method has you almost always playing in position with initiative, you will want to know how players react to you on the flop as quickly as possible so that you can adjust. The three symbols I have chosen each specify the three common tendencies players have when reacting to c-bets. Some play fit or fold and only continue when they hit the board very well. Others play back at you in one way or another by either floating and seeing what you do on the turn and/or river, or by using an aggressive check-raising strategy to exploit frequent c-bettors. I will detail adjusting to various player types in the next chapter.
Taking Notes Good note taking is something that almost every top online professional does. You should strive to take multiple notes every session you play with the goal of fine-tuning your reads on opponents. Any time you observe a player make a non-standard or unusual play, you will want to record it via a note. Here are a few examples of notes you might take: Stacks off light Bets big when weak Bets small when weak Bets big when strong Bets small when strong Cannot fold a pair Does not raise strong draws Limps any suited cards Limp reraises monsters UTG Capable of making big bluffs on river C-bets too often Slow plays monsters on drawy boards Fit or fold There are hundreds of variations of the above notes. Make sure your notes are constructive and easy to read for future use. Recording notes such as “no talent ass hat that sucked out on me” are not helpful. If you are not completely sure about a note, I recommend putting a question mark next to it until you have confirmation that it applies. For example, if you see that a player calls an all-in with KTo, you might put a note of “stacks off light?” If you see the same person call an all-in with another mediocre hand at some point in the future, you would remove the question mark. However, if you realize later in the session that he had called a maniac’s any two cards shove, then you might remove the note altogether. Remember that notes are only to be used as a guide and should remain malleable if additional information comes to light in the future.
Beating Common Player Types Whoever best adjusts to the competition while employing the soundest fundamentals wins in just about every game in the world. Poker is no different. There are several predominate player types you will encounter at the tables. Once you know how to adjust to each, the game gets a whole lot easier. I have already shown you how to label the players who I feel are most important to get a bead on. Once you have identified the tendencies of a particular player, it is fine to have a standard adjustment strategy at the ready. In this chapter, I will show you how to quickly make specific pre-flop and postflop adjustments on the fly and optimize your play to the current table conditions. My system of labeling opponents has been designed to clarify adjustments that need to be made based on table dynamics. I have tried to make it as simple and effective as possible. I strongly suggest mastering it, as it will simplify and streamline your game.
Opening Range Adjustments You should not have a static opening range. It is mandatory that you are willing to make adjustments in order to both maximize profit and avoid getting exploited. When there are player types with extreme tendencies seated behind you, tightening or loosening up your pre-flop stealing ranges often becomes necessary. The key is to develop an understanding of which people are possessive about their blinds and which don’t care about defending them. When up against calling stations, attempting to bluff is almost always a fruitless endeavor. This idea applies as much pre-flop as it does post-flop. Since profitable stealing relies heavily on picking up a lot of dead money, if you know your opponent folds infrequently, then you must adapt your strategy. The same can be said when facing a player who 3-bets a wide range versus steals whose game is based on exploiting an aggressive stealing range. As with calling stations, you will need to adjust your tactics since the dead money obtained from a loose stealing strategy is not as exploitably available. The simplest way to adjust to both player types is to tighten up your opening range to include many more value hands than bluffing hands. Against stations, you want hands that flop very well, and against light 3-bettors, you want a large number of hands with which to be able to play back at them before the flop. On the other hand, if opponents to your left are on the other end of the spectrum and play a very nitty range, then you want to do the exact opposite. Against those who fold to steals often, you should be raising close to 100% of hands. The amount of dead money you rake in will more than make up for the times they pick up a hand strong enough to play back at you. Let’s go through what specific adjustments need to be made versus particular players: For the average table with no reads, open the following ranges: UTG/HJ- 55+, AT+, KQo+ CO/BTN- 22+, Ax, anything connected 65+ SB- 22+, Ax, Kx, Qx, anything suited, anything connected If the players to your left are heavy restealers or calling stations, tighten up as follows: UTG/HJ- 55+, AT+, KQo CO/BTN/SB- 22+, A5+, Any broadway, 98+, 97+
Note: The tighter late position range is the same as the Basic Strategy cutoff and button range . If you are fortunate enough to be on a table where the players to your left are all pre-flop nits or fit or folders post-flop, open the following ranges: UTG/HJ- 55+, AT+, KQo CO/BTN/SB- Any two cards The exception to the above ranges is that against aggressive restealers, you do not necessarily need to tighten up if you have enough history to understand their ranges. By employing a strong light 4-betting game, you can exploit them more effectively than being forced to give up your non-showdown earnings that come from steals. I will not be covering light 4-betting in this book, but wanted to give you something else to consider once your pre-flop skill improves. Until such time, the best strategy is to adjust your pre-flop ranges as listed above. Fine Tuning Opening Ranges During play, I adjust my opening range and tentative post-flop plans based on both the pre-flop and post-flop labels I have on players seated behind me. Below, I will list how loose or tight my opening range would be, based on different labeling combinations, to give you an idea of how this works. Green Mouse- Widest Range Blue Mouse- Widest Range Blue Tornado- Wide Range Blue Station- Wide Range Green Tornado- Neutral Range Green Station- Tight Range Red Mouse- Tight Range Red Tornado- Tighter Range Red Station- Tightest Range When deciding on my stealing range, I factor in the player(s) behind me and make a judgment call. For example, let’s say I am on the button and have a green mouse in the small blind and a red tornado in the big blind. I would open a tight range, but if it was an orange tornado, I would use a wide
range. With combos including a red, I tend to err on the tight side, and with combos not including reds, I err on the loose side. Tab Flipping Since it is inevitable that you will occasionally be involved in multiple hands at once while multitabling, this trick makes things a bit easier to manage. Once I sit down at a seat, I make an initial assessment of the players seated behind me and then decide how tight or loose my opening range will be. I then make a visual reminder for myself by flipping one of the tabs available on the table as shown in the screenshot below. On one of the sites I play, there is a box on the bottom left of my tables that has table information, player information, a chat tab, etc. Once I settle on an opening strategy for the table, I assign a particular tab as a quick reminder. That way I never have to worry about getting confused or making a mistake and opening the incorrect range. For a tight range, I have the above information tab clicked as shown below; for a normal range I choose the second tab, and for a loose range I choose the third tab. Then when it is my turn to act on a table, the stealing range I use becomes a no-brainer. Just keep in mind that as players come and leave and table dynamics change, you have to adjust your ranges accordingly and will need to change the tabs as well.
Open Shoving From The Small Blind Opening a wide range from the small blind can get rather complicated against certain players. One particular adjustment that I sometimes make is to open shove strong hands that are difficult to play out of position after the flop. Against players who call a wide range before the flop and then never seem to fold to c-bets, opening your standard range basically forces you to play fit or fold after the flop or run elaborate multi-street bluffs. Since three-barrel bluffing is a high variance play, especially against stations, I would instead suggest that you split your opening and shoving range into two groups and shed the weaker hands entirely. Here is the range that I suggest continuing to make a standard open with: 88+, A2-A6, KJ-KT, QJ-QT, JT, T9-98 And here are the hands to be open shoved with: 22-77 , A7+, KQo+ This strategy allows you to much more easily navigate, in my opinion, the most annoying scenario in poker. Facing calling stations is a major thorn in the side of any loose aggressive player. Just keep in mind that there are more profitable ways to exploit light 3-bettors and fit or folders. Aggressive restealers generally use a 3-bet or fold method, so the best counter attack versus them is to either tighten up or implement an exploitative 4-bet bluffing strategy. And when up against a fit or folder, the best strategy is to open 100% and c-bet 100% against them.
Post-Flop Adjustments In the last chapter, you learned how to use auto-rate symbols to gain reads on how your opponents play post-flop. In this section, we will discuss tailoring your post-flop lines with the intention of exploiting those tendencies to the fullest extent. Until you have gained specific reads on an individual player, it is okay to make generalized adjustments based on obvious traits you have identified via stats or observed actions. It is much better to adjust to what you know than not at all. C-betting Adjustments Continuation betting is an important part of any aggressive player’s game plan. Since you will go to most flops with initiative, the most common adjustments you will need to make is in your c-betting frequencies and how you react to reraises. The type of opponent you are up against will affect your general betting strategy. C-betting Against Mice By far, the best player to have to your left is the mouse. These players are in the business of calling pre-flop just to try to make a hand. You can c-bet 100% against them, and the money will flow into your account. C-betting Against Calling Stations I feel the most important player to quickly adjust to is the calling station. Players who float your cbets often make it much less profitable to c-bet bluff. Once you have recognized that a person is a station, you should shy away from firing c-bet bluffs and, instead, value bet much thinner. All showdown value hands can look to get two and even three streets of value against stations. C-betting Against Tornados The tornado symbol denotes a player who plays very aggressively post-flop. Against them, you will want to c-bet less but be willing to get all-in lighter than normal. You can also call their raises profitably with a wider range and allow them to continue bluffing on later streets. Additionally, you generally have more fold equity when reraising draws or even naked overs when facing an aggressive opponent. Here are the holdings to consider committing on the flop with against Tornados: 2nd pair or better Any draw with 8+ outs A gutshot and an over Two overs and a backdoor FD 3rd pair and a face card over
Reacting To Reraises Getting bluff raised is not as common as you think. Beware of feelings that you are getting “pushed around” if your c-bet gets raised multiple times within a small period of time. More often than not, you probably just ran into a bunch of big hands all at once. When you play hundreds of hands per hour, it’s going to happen. The human mind tends to look for patterns where there aren’t any to be found, it’s just human nature. Each hand and each opponent in each situation should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Just because your c-bet gets raised three straight times on three different tables does not mean the 3rd guy is bluffing. My thinking about the subject is that if you get raised and find yourself in a “tough” spot, then you probably made a mistake somewhere in the hand. Once you understand your competition and have a plan for reacting to reraises before you even bet, most decisions should be fairly straightforward. Let’s discuss the three common post-flop player types you have already learned about. You will find that against two of them, you should not be too concerned about getting bluffed. Reacting To Reraises From Mice When I get raised by passive players, I am never upset. Everyone makes hands eventually, and the fact that you are raised makes your decision easy against nitty players. If you do not have a tier 1 hand or a strong draw, you should snap-fold to a mouse’s reraise. It’s that simple. The non-showdown money you are raking in from the times mice fold to your bets more than make up for the few times they raise and you have to fold. There is no need to tighten up or try to avoid getting bluff raised against these players without a very good reason. Reacting To Reraises From Calling Stations Against stations, the best course of action is to value bet everything but your tier 4 range. When faced by a reraise from these types of players, you should be reacting the same as you do against Mice. Calling Stations like to call, thus the name. So, if they do anything but call, it is almost always the nuts. Reacting To Reraises From Tornados These are the players you have to watch out for. They reraise flops over 1 in 4 times, thus cannot possibly be doing it for value every time. Therefore, you must adjust both your post-flop and preflop play in order to beat them. Let’s work backward from the flop and reverse engineer how to beat tornados. You obviously cannot mindlessly c-bet every flop against an aggressive player, or they will punish you time and time again. Since you will have air the majority of the time by playing a loose pre-flop range, you need to make adjustments. My strategy against over-the-top aggressive post-flop players is to play a very unbalanced strategy by only c-betting hands I am willing to stack off with. While this
may seem like a losing “fit or fold” strategy, it really isn’t if the proper pre-flop adjustments are made. If there is a tornado to my left, unless he is a pre-flop nit, I will automatically open a much tighter range. This adjustment increases my likelihood of having a stackoff-worthy holding on the flop. In fact, I tighten up more when there is an aggressive post-flop player who likes to see flops than when there is an active 3-bettor on my left. The latter is much easier to play against. Now, let’s discuss players who don’t fall into a specific extreme category. Reacting To Reraises From Balanced Players Players who frequently mix in floats with flop reraises can be difficult to deal with. These types of opponents tend to be decent hand readers who know which boards are likely to connect with particular ranges. Sitting to the right of them can be hell. If you are at a table with someone who is obviously a strong player that seems to be playing very aggressively against you both pre-flop and post-flop, my advice is to sit out and find another table. There is no shame in leaving to find a more profitable seat. This game is all about maximizing your earn, not getting into battles with tough regulars.
Advanced Opponent Labels Once you are familiar with my labeling system and can readily recognize the three common pre-flop and post-flop player types, I recommend branching out and further customizing your labels. Doing this allows you to narrow down the play of your opponents even further as your read on them strengthens. Here are my personal coloring labels for Pre-flop reads: Blue: Folds to steals and rarely defends Light Blue: Still folds to steals quite often, but is capable of occasional light 3-bets Red: Resteals a very wide range Orange: Resteals a somewhat wide range but not too excessive Yellow: Resteals a wide range and calls reraise shoves light And here are my auto-rate labels for Post-flop reads: Mouse: Check-folds to c-bets often Phone: Check-calls c-bets often Tornado: Check-raises c-bets often Blue Fish: Calls often before the flop and then folds to c-bets a high percentage of the time (Calls steals greater than 40% and check-folds to c-bets greater than 65%) Crown: Balanced post-flop. Checks, calls, and raises c-bets with fairly even frequencies (Check-folds and check-calls less than 45% and check-raises less than 25%)
Managing Your Sessions A common trait among many top players is their obsessive attention to detail and structure. If you are not innately one of these types of people, then it is of utmost importance that you find a way to become disciplined and organized in your poker life, if not anywhere else. Here is what you will learn in this chapter: I will first teach you how to set up your tables and help you decide whether to tile, cascade, or stack by illustrating the pros and cons of each. Then you will learn about table selection. Sitting at the correct tables in the best seat possible might be the most important skill any poker player possesses. You also will learn when to leave a table. Table dynamics can quickly change, and you must learn to recognize when a good seat has become bad. Next, you will be shown how to structure and set up your sessions for maximum efficiency. I will cover optimizing your hourly rate via the number of tables you play. I will also show you how to find the right balance between improving as a poker player and making as much money as possible in the process. Last, I will teach you how to organize the physical environment in your playing area to maximize your focus during sessions. You will learn how to set up your workstation, both for comfort and efficiency, as well as avoid real-life distractions that can eat into your bottom line.
Table Setup
Tiling Example There are three common ways you can choose to set up your tables: Tiling Stacking Cascading Each approach has its own merits, so I will break down each one individually. Tiling This is where you put tables side by side with as little overlap as possible. While tiling, you can see the action on all tables at the same time Benefits of Tiling
You gain more accurate reads, because a table stays in the same position at all times and you can easily follow the action. You can make actions in advance and focus your attention elsewhere. By this, I mean clicking “auto fold” before the action gets to you. This speeds up the games as you insta-fold with your junk hand whenever it’s your turn. Seconds add up. You have less chance of mis-clicking since tables are not popping up in front of you. Disadvantages of Tiling You have to move your mouse and eyes all over the screen. This can cause fatigue over long sessions. There may be an increased risk of tilt, since you are able to see all hand results. ____________________________________________________________ Stacking Stacking is exactly what it sounds like. You find one position and size for your tables and put them all on top of one another. Benefits of Stacking You only have to look at one place on your monitor to play your hands. You can generally play more tables and achieve a higher rate of hands per hour. There is less risk of tilt, since you almost never see results. Disadvantages of Stacking You cannot follow the action on individual tables once you have acted. You cannot spend as much time making a decision as you are unable to pre-click the auto-fold button. You have an increased chance of mis-clicking when a table pops up at an inopportune time. ____________________________________________________________ Cascading A third option is sort of a hybrid of both tiling and stacking. Cascading overlaps the tables and has
them staggered over each other, generally from the left top of the screen down to the bottom right. Benefits of Cascading You can play more tables on smaller monitors. You can occasionally follow the action well enough to pre-click auto-fold, although not nearly as well as when tiling. You have a smaller amount of space to look and move your mouse than you do tiling. There is less risk of tilt since you almost never see results. Disadvantages of Cascading You cannot follow the action very well. You typically are unable to play as many hands as you can while stacking. I am not sure who invented cascading, but I personally cannot imagine why anyone would set up their tables this way. Maybe it was necessary to cascade on a small monitor before the advent of stacking, but today I really see no benefit in doing it. If you do decide to play more than 12 tables, then stacking is the way to go. Ultimately, no matter what configuration you choose, the name of the game is comfort and efficiency. My recommendation is to play tiled. If you cannot follow the action or find yourself often timing out, you are playing too many tables. You need to be making good decisions and not playing robotically. I don’t care how good the rakeback deal or VIP system is, unless you are just mass multi-tabling as part of a challenge, you are much better off playing fewer tables and maximizing your hourly rate.
Stacking & Cascading Example
Table Selection Table selection may be the most important factor in anyone’s success at the tables. The key to profit in poker is to surround yourself with players who have less skill than you. Being skilled at table selection can mean the difference between being a top winner at your stake or a mediocre break even player. The highest earners at any given level are not necessarily the best players. Those who consistently choose the seats most amenable to profit are the ones who excel and maintain the highest win-rates. Even so, at the micros, table selection is not nearly as important as it will become at small stakes and beyond. Your typical micro-stakes table will be full of fish and nit regs, and it generally will not adversely affect your bottom line if you do not aggressively table select. Until you have fully incorporated the intermediate strategy, you can stick to the basic table selection process by filtering the VPIP as shown below:
Using the above screen shot as an example, if I were looking to play less than 4 tables on average, I would join the waiting list of the top 8 tables or so on the list. I would then leave the waiting lists once I had my desired number of tables up.
Pre-Flop Considerations For Table Selection
The top left and bottom right table each have multiple fish and one aggressive restealer making them ideal to sit at. The top right and bottom left tables have almost no fish and multiple aggressive restealers, making them poor choices. After you have the intermediate strategy down, you will gradually want to start being even more selective in the tables you sit down at. You should always strive to put yourself in the best position possible on as many of your tables as you can. A method that I sometimes employ is to open up a large number of tables and see the makeup of each table based on past labels you have put on players. I then only join the waiting lists of tables that have the best overall composition. In the above screen shot, I have circled which tables I would consider sitting down to play. Beyond average VPIP and table composition, your seat in relation to others is the key to how favorable a table is. A table can either be hugely profitable or -EV just by shifting your seat around a couple of spots. There are four key seats on any table, the two seats to your right and the two seats to
your left. This is where the majority of the action will take place against you, therefore these are the seats that decide how profitable the table is. Unfortunately, you will rarely find the consummate table makeup. Therefore, instead of waiting for the absolute ideal situation, the best approach is to choose the seats that come as close as possible while avoiding seats that are obviously not amenable to profit. As a loose-aggressive player, the majority of your profits come from stealing versus tight players and extracting value from weak players. Besides an entire table full of fish, the more realistic perfect table would include two fish to your right and two nits to your left. This would see you raking in nonshowdown steal profits from the nits to your left and making money from the collective pre-flop and post-flop mistakes made by the fish playing out of position against you on the right. While it is rare that you will find a theoretically perfect table, you can come as close as possible just by avoiding bad seats that typically include aggressive blind defenders to your left. Players on your right are not as important, but you would definitely prefer to have looser opponents out of position against you. Not that the presence of tight players to your right is always a bad thing. Since these players open raise so few hands, it makes it very difficult for them to lay anything down when shoved on by a short stack. So, if a tight player calls 3-bet shoves with nearly his entire opening range, the added all-in equity you achieve by their incorrect calls is profitable as well. The below Pokerstove graphic illustrates how this works. For the purposes of the example, we shove about 6% of hands against his 20% steal range when he open raises to 3 big blinds. If he calls with 50% of his range, below is the resulting equity.
Hero Shoving Range: {77+, AJs+, AQo+} Tight Call Range: {55+, ATs+, KQs, ATo+, KQo}
Equity 56.846% 43.154%
We have the best of it on average when called. If you add in the fold equity from the times he does not call, you can see we are making a killing. An additional hidden profit also comes from the times tight players do not attempt a steal. Having someone to your right who does not pound away at your blinds is never a bad thing. In poker, money kept is just as good as money earned. Here is a general diagram of preferred seating ranked from best to worst. I believe these to be the 12 most profitable table setups based on pre-flop player types. It is highly unlikely that you will pull up a table and have enough labels on people to exactly fit the above situations. The purpose of the diagram is to illustrate what to look for in general or if you have a choice of more than one seat.
Other Considerations For Table Selection As you have learned through my labeling system, sometimes you need to look beyond pre-flop stats when determining whether or not a seat is viable. Occasionally, you will need to look at how an opponent plays after the flop and sometimes you will be completely readless and need to find other ways to table select. Another option is to start your own table. But the most important thing to learn about table selection is to understand when a table has become unprofitable so that you can move on and find a better situation. Post-Flop Considerations For Table Selection You should consider how opponents play after the flop when choosing a table. The post-flop read you have on a player can drastically alter the table dynamics and reverse the profitability of a seat. The most desirable post-flop player type to have on your left is the mouse. These are players who defend by calling and then play fit or fold after the flop. These opponents are hugely profitable to play against and should be sought out aggressively. In fact, seeing the mouse symbol trumps any otherwise negative factors found in a seat. Conversely, if a player has the phone or tornado symbol, I will downgrade the viability of any seat in his vicinity. Playing against opponents who rarely fold or often play back at you erode overall profits considerably, especially if they like to see a lot of flops. The overall point I am trying to make here is that table selection is all a matter of degree. You do not want to just choose profitable seats, you want to choose the most profitable seats available when you play. The only way to do this is by actively assessing the state of your table selection both before and during your sessions. It’s what the best players in the game do, and it’s what you need to be doing as well. What if I am completely readless? If you are readless and have the choice of sitting to the left of two different players, you can sometimes glean some information about your opponents by their screen names. Bad players and strong players have a tendency to pick completely different types of names. If a player’s name has something to do with a hobby, career, or they pick the name of a well-known poker professional, they will usually be unskilled. For example, Housepainter69, Bassfisher2012, Marathonman, NegreanuRox, and HelmuthIsTheMan are probably names of recreational players. Stronger players tend to have names that appear carefully thought out, are nicknames, are funny or ironic, or use poker jargon that mainstream players may not even understand. OMGClayAiken, Nannonoko, and Durrrr are probably all names you are familiar with. Also, player names that refer to a specific style of play are almost always attached to opponents who play exactly the opposite of what their name purports. For example, if you see a player with the name Maniac1234, he is almost certainly a nit. And someone called Tightplayer69 is probably a loose aggressive and/or light 3-bettor. Just keep in mind that these rules are not hard and fast. Players can pick fishy names and then improve, or great players can choose weaker sounding names on purpose.
Even so, learning the nomenclature favored by weaker players can definitely polish your table selection skills. If your chosen poker site allows for photographs as part of a player’s avatar, then you can also use them to profile opponents. Players who sport pictures of their families are almost always recreational players. The baby head avatar seems to be the most popular picture weaker players display. I also look at stack size when making readless table selection choices. And while people with less than full stacks are usually bad players, you typically want tables with as many large stacks as possible. Having multiple other short stackers on your table is almost always a less than ideal situation. Starting Your Own Tables An alternative means of finding a good table is to create your own by sitting down at an empty table and waiting for other players to join. There are multiple advantages to this method. Most recreational players hate wait lists and will often gladly sit down with the opportunity to play quickly. Regulars are typically waitlisters and may not notice your table, thus allowing you to more easily avoid reg-infested tables. You get the chance to work on your heads-up game. In my experience, when sitting in on an empty table, you generally want to choose a far left or upper left corner seat. Bad players always seem to choose a bottom seat, so over time you will end up with more fish to your right as the table fills by sticking to left side seats. The reason weaker players choose lower seats is probably because they have never taken the time to set up preferred seating within the options of the poker site. They probably just download the poker software, deposit money for the weekend, and play until broke. A disadvantage to starting your own table is that you will generally play fewer hands per hour. This is because it’s difficult to maintain more than two or three tables at once while playing super shorthanded. However, the average fishiness of the tables you will be involved in may more than make up for this. So, if you enjoy playing heads-up or ultra short handed and like the idea of playing weaker competition, then starting your own table is something you may want to give a try. Heads-Up Play Opening ranges for heads-up play are completely dependent upon your opponent. If you face an opponent who 3-bets often, you will generally want to limp more often on the button. If you face a passive opponent, you will want to open nearly 100% of hands. And, due to being out of position, you will want to almost always use a raise or fold strategy when seated in the big blind.
I will not spend too much time going into the subtleties of what could be the subject of an entire book. For now, you cannot go wrong by opening your 6-handed small blind range and then adjusting according to how you observe your opponent reacting to you. Just remember that adhering to the fundamentals of position, initiative, and pressure are just as important heads up as when sitting at a full table. Leaving Unprofitable Tables The goal of table selection is to maximize both pre-flop and post-flop expectation and create manageable playing environments in which to operate. Sometimes you will find a very good table that will quickly deteriorate into a less desirable one. If table composition changes and you feel a table no longer affords you a meaningful edge, you must be willing to sit out and find a new one. The main situation to watch out for is having any player sit in behind you that is hindering your wide stealing range. Having light 3-betters or huge calling stations to your left always complicates things, so you should try to avoid having more than one of either of these player types seated behind you without a very good reason. While light 3-bettors can get annoying, my least favorite player type to have seated behind me is the calling station. In general, it is very difficult to extract from any player seated to your left, but calling stations are especially tricky. Having someone who never folds to steals or c-bets basically forces you to make hands against them. Unless you have great patience and are comfortable value betting 2nd or 3rd pair, then you generally want to avoid this situation more than any other. Ultimately, it is your job to monitor the playing environment on each of your tables. You must remain vigilant and adapt to changing conditions. And if the situation becomes unprofitable, the most important part of table selection is having the discipline to get out of there.
Optimizing Your Sessions The number one advantage that online poker has over live play is the opportunity to play multiple tables at once. Since your goal in poker should be to make the most money possible, figuring out what your hourly rate is will allow you to theoretically maximize your earnings by playing the optimal number of tables. The idea is fairly straightforward: if you are beating 50NL for $4/hr playing one table, then by adding another table, your hourly rate would ostensibly double to $8/hr. This, of course, assumes that the quality of your two-tabling game is the same as your one-tabling game. But what about playing 3 or 4 tables at once? How does rakeback figure in? It’s easy to get excited by the notion that just by playing a massive number of tables, your hourly rate will soar as a matter of course. Unfortunately, it only works that way up to a point. We should assume that the hourly rate on each table will diminish every time another table is added. Everyone has a limit to how many tables they can get involved in and play profitable poker. Most players will see their poker abilities rapidly diminish as they add tables. Making a large sum of money via rakeback makes no sense if you are wiping out all of these earnings by having a negative table hourly rate. Therefore, almost everyone benefits from playing fewer tables and viewing rakeback as only a supplement to their bottom line. Below an example of how multi-table hourly rate might work. By reviewing the diagram, you can see that the pure hourly rate per table diminishes as more tables are added, while the amount earned from rakeback steadily increases. Some players are able to maximize their hourly rate by playing an insane number of tables and making the majority of their money from rakeback and bonuses. Usually these types of players are barely able to beat the games whether they are playing 2 tables or 24. Therefore, they are very smart to 24-table, as it will maximize their hourly rate. So how do you figure out which type of player you are? Finding out your hourly rate per table may seem daunting as you would likely need to play millions of hands in a given level to find the ideal number of tables. However, it is not really necessary that you go through all of that trouble. The next section will describe a multi-tabling method that I came up with that can also be used to figure out your optimum number of tables that finds a good balance between hourly rate and improvement as a poker player.
According to the chart, playing an average of 6 tables at once maximizes hourly rate for this fictional person.
The Gradual Table Reduction Method Of Multi-Tabling (GTR) This approach allows you to find the optimum number of average tables to play by focusing on your comfort level during play. An added benefit is that it forces you to play multiple short sessions rather than long ones, which will help to maximize your focus during each individual session. When I am planning my poker schedule, I do not focus on the number of hands or hours I want to play. I instead set a plan for the number of sessions I want to get in during a given day. My average session using this method is between 30 and 45 minutes. As a busy person with a “real” job, GTR gives me maximum flexibility to live my life and still make a decent part-time poker income without interfering with my work and family life. Each session I play begins with me joining a set number of tables by waitlisting. A table must have no more than three players already waiting, or else I won’t join the list. I also look to immediately sit down at good tables that have an open seat. In order to choose the correct number of tables to wait list, you must decide how many tables you want to play on average. Once you settle on a number, you then double it, and that is how many tables you will initially wait list or join. So let’s say I want to play six tables at once on average (which is my actual optimal number). I will join the waitlist of the 12 highest VPIP tables available and tile them on my monitor. Before I am even involved in any games, I make sure my tables are tiled properly as some sites are not the greatest at efficiently organizing the tables. Then, as I obtain seats, I begin playing. As I hit my goal number of big blinds on individual tables, I gradually phase them out. I will generally leave a table once I hit 45 big blinds, and when I am down to 1/4 or so of my starting table number, I will sit out next big blind and either play another session or go do something else. The beauty of this method is that it works very well for figuring out your optimal number of tables. When you are just starting out, I recommend playing no more than two tables at once. Join the wait list on four tables and then end your session once you are only playing one table. Sessions will be very short when starting out, but this is a good thing. Immediately after each of these short sessions, I recommend opening up your tracking software and reviewing every single hand you played. Once you are comfortable and find yourself easily keeping up with the action almost to the point of boredom, you will want to add more tables. I recommend going to three tables at that point and wait listing six tables at the start of each session. Then try four tables and wait list eight. So on and so forth. As you progress, you will want to experiment and incrementally add more tables until you feel like you are no longer able to take the time you really need to make decisions. If you ever feel rushed, uncomfortable, overwhelmed, or timeout during a session, you will know you are playing too many tables. At that point you will want to taper back your number of tables until you hit that sweet spot. A good rule of thumb is, if you are unable to take quick notes on opponents, you are probably playing too many tables. Back before Pokerstars pulled out of the US market, I was a 24-tabler who averaged over 1500 hands
per hour. And even though I was making a very good hourly rate, my game was not really improving. Now that I have found my sweet spot of playing six tables on average, I feel completely in control and able to make much more accurate reads during my sessions.
Managing Your Stack Size As you play, your stack size will fluctuate up and down. Since my strategy is designed for small stack play, I advocate getting up and leaving a table once you have more than 45 big blinds. I also suggest topping off your stack if it falls below 15 big blinds. If you are a beginner or intermediate player, you may want to be even more conservative and leave at 40 big blinds. I personally do this when I move up to a new stake until I get used to the larger amounts of money flying around. When following the strategies in this book, you should be leaving any table at 45 big blinds, no matter how juicy it looks. The only exception would be if you are a competent deeper stacked player and are just using my strategy for shorter stacked play. If you have significant full stack experience and prefer to keep playing above and beyond 45 big blinds then, by all means, feel free to keep playing. Just keep in mind that mid-stacked play requires a shift in strategy which is outside the scope of this book. Going Into Lockdown After winning a big pot and deciding to leave the table, the last thing you want to do is squander your winnings by playing a deeper stacked game than my strategy is designed for. Therefore, I recommend going into lockdown mode while waiting for the big blind. This means you should play an extremely tight range and not get involved unless you have a pre-flop monster. I would suggest only playing hands that you would be willing to stack off with, namely QQ+ and AK. Should you pick up a big hand while in lockdown mode, my advice is to open raise a bit bigger than normal. If you would normally raise to 2bbs or 3bbs, then you would raise to 4bbs or even 5bbs. You do not want to give people the correct odds to speculate or try to hit a set on you. However, if you pick up AK, you should limp-reraise it from all positions, even if it folds to you in the small blind. But if there are multiple limpers, just go ahead and shove it in. Do not limp behind.
Site Staggering Playing on more than one site is a tool that can be used to further reduce your risk of ruin. I recommend playing on two poker sites intermittently via site staggering. The way it works is that you play every other session on a different site. For example, let’s say that you have money on both the Revolution network and the Merge network. You might play one session on Revolution and then switch to Merge for your next session. Even though moving up will take longer due to multiple bankrolls, using this method will buffer you against deep downswings and allow for a more stable poker career. There are multiple benefits in staggering your poker sessions. 1. Your entire bankroll is not at the mercy of one poker site. Poker sites are businesses that can and do permanently close their doors. When staggering, if one of the poker sites you play on shuts down, you only potentially lose half your bankroll. For US players, this is a very real concern. We all know what happened on Black Friday. 2. Stronger bankroll management. Downswings will be watered down across both sites, and you will be less likely to ever have to move down. 3. You can take advantage of more reload bonuses. Almost every site occasionally offers reload bonuses. Your effective rakeback is increased when you take advantage of these deals. 4. Regulars are less familiar with you. This one is self-explanatory. Regulars will have half the hands in their HUD and will see you around half the time than if you played on only one site. 5. You no longer have to take extended breaks to wait out buy-in timers. Many sites have a timer that forces you to buy in for whatever you left a table for if you come back within a specified amount of time. Since you will leave tables once you get to a goal amount, playing on one site will sometimes have you running out of tables to play on. Staggering solves this problem and lets you play more volume. 6. It’s like owning two businesses. In today’s online poker climate, site staggering mitigates another big concern for US customers as of the writing on this book. By staggering, you will have money coming from two sources. This may not seem like a big deal, but if one of the sites takes longer than usual processing your payout, at least you have some money coming in.
Playing Environment Depending on your situation, creating an ideal playing environment can be challenging. Ideally, you need your playing sessions to be without distractions so that you can focus 100% of your attention on the task at hand. However, speaking from experience as a family guy with kids running rampant, I know how difficult this can sometimes be. Often, I play in the living room with my kids taking turns talking to me, bumping my mouse, and generally making full concentration very difficult. Luckily, through my sports background I have built up a natural resistance to distractions. I also have made a conscious effort to work on blocking out external factors that would drive some people crazy. My advice is to find whatever works for you. Go hide out in the basement or some other isolated locale in your home. Wait to play until people are away, or if necessary, find a group of fellow poker players to rent a playing office with. Things to avoid doing while playing: Listening to music: I know long sessions can get very boring. But if part of your brain is focused on tunes blaring out of your ear buds, it will inevitably distract from your play in some way. Surfing the web: Don’t even have a browser up. Texting, instant messaging, or talking on the phone: This is the most -EV thing you can do. Watching TV or YouTube: Not kidding here. People actually do this. Another -EV move. Eating: I am not talking about pounding a quick snack or a meal replacement shake. I am talking about a full blown meal. Besides the distraction of it, you are deliberately making the blood in your body rush to your stomach rather than to your brain cells. You should be eating sparingly within an hour or two of your sessions.
Managing Your Poker Career No matter what your level of ambition as a poker player, your ultimate goal should always be to make the most money possible. In this chapter, we will discuss a few intangibles that will help you succeed and achieve this end. First, we will discuss the most important key to success for any poker player. In the section on bankroll management, you will learn how to move up and down in stakes effectively without the risk of ever going broke. I will then help you get your computer set up and provide insights on highly recommended software programs that make sessions more efficient and help you continually improve your game. You will then be shown adjustments that need to be made to play higher stakes, full-ring games, CAP games, and sites that have 40 big blind minimum tables only. With only slight adaptations, you can apply the strategies learned from this book to any game. Last, I will cover how to conduct yourself at the tables like a professional with proper etiquette and decorum. While this knowledge may not seem necessary to ensure your success, this is still a gentleman’s game, and you should always strive to treat your opponents with respect and decency.
Bankroll Management
Above are my recommended bankroll management guidelines as you begin learning and playing a small stack strategy. It is an aggressive plan which maximizes your ability to rapidly ascend through the stakes. By following it, you have virtually no chance of ever going broke. The chart lists each specific limit followed by the 30 big blind buy-in amount. Then it gives the minimum bankroll required to play at that level as well as the amount that you should drop down should you fall below it. For example, at 50NL you would buy-in for $15 with a minimum bankroll of $600, only moving down if you fall below $500. In order to move beyond small stakes, you will need a more advanced game than the charts alone can provide. Because of this, I recommend only using them for 50NL and below while you study and improve. Don’t get me wrong, I am not disparaging micro-stakes players. Some professionals make a very good living at the lowest stakes. My hourly rate at 50NL is around $30/hr while 6-tabling. Not too shabby and better than a lot of people make in their “real” job. Mixing Levels Unless you are at the lowest level for your site, you should consider playing two stakes at once during your sessions. Doing this allows for a smoother transition into the next stake without as much shock to the bankroll. Let’s say you are on a site that has 4NL as its smallest stake. Here are the guidelines you would
follow as your bankroll grows. $40-$99: Play 4 NL $100-$249: Play 4NL and 10NL $250-$599: Play 10NL and 20NL $600-$1199: Play 20NL and 50NL $1,200+: Play 50NL (with shots at 100NL at your discretion) Once your bankroll exceeds $2,400, I recommend withdrawing anything in excess of that amount monthly until you feel your poker game is ready for higher stakes. Occasionally cashing out will add a sense of accomplishment to your endeavor and build confidence for your long-term poker career. If you are especially risk averse, you can move down immediately if your bankroll drops below the minimum amount for a level. The way it works is, at the beginning of each session, you only play at the stakes your bankroll allows for. And if your bankroll dips below the necessary amount of money for a particular level, you move down until your bankroll increases to a sufficient level again. For example, if you start a session with $620 at 20NL and 50NL and end with $585, you would begin your next session playing 10NL and 20NL. Your risk of ruin will be nil if you adhere to this plan. Taking Shots It is well known that bankroll generally increases much faster than skill does. Do not be in a rush to move beyond 50NL. 100NL is usually an exponential jump in the quality of the player pool, so I recommend getting a few months of micro-stakes experience under your belt before making the leap. Nevertheless, once you are soundly beating a stake, you should start actively taking shots at higher levels. One way to do this is to set aside a few buy-ins and move up to the next level. If you lose what you allocated for the shot, it’s no big deal. Just move back down until you rebuild the little bit that you lost and try again later. You should be cautiously aggressive, but your overall goal should be to play in the biggest games offered. The reward for beating high stakes games is considerable and well worth the hard work and perseverance. It will take some sacrifice, but imagine playing at a level that allows you to make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. It is possible, and anyone can do it if they put in enough time and effort.
Computer Setup Many professional players have a high-powered PC, multiple monitors, and all the bells and whistles. I am not one of those players. I play on a laptop that only cost about $700, in tandem with a cheap travel mouse. They fulfill all of my needs and make my sessions mobile, if I so desire. When out of town, I can easily tile 12 tables with minimal overlap on my 17” laptop. When it comes to monitors, I like to keep things as simple as possible. I don’t like to have to move my eyes too far over a large screen while tiling. For this reason, I prefer the square designed monitors over the wide screen versions. When at home, I am hooked up to a Dell UltraSharp 2001FP 20” Flat Panel LCD Monitor which they started making over 10 years ago. It is an awesome monitor and dirt cheap. Although it only cost $160, it allows me to tile 9 tables without overlap. It all comes down to personal preference. If you would rather have an insane setup with the top-ofthe-line computer with dual 30” monitors, then by all means go for it. For players on a budget, you can get by with the cheapest laptop out there and do just fine. Now let’s talk about software. There are numerous programs and apps out there, both free and paid, that can help you improve your poker game. Here are the ones that I use most frequently and consider must-haves for any aspiring poker player. Pokerstove Hold’em Manager or Pokertracker Cardrunners EV Short Stack Strategy Calculator (SSS)
Pokerstove
Pokerstove is free to download and use and is designed to calculate equities of both individual holdings and ranges. It is an invaluable tool that I use almost every day for one reason or another. It is free to own and, as of the writing of this book, is available on Android. You can obtain Pokerstove at http://www.pokerstove.com. *Update: In early 2013, pokerstove.com disappeared. I am not sure if the issue is temporary or permanent, but I am making you aware of it just the same. I found another site where you can obtain the software at http://www.4shared.com/file/UYY6hrGG/PokerStove_124.html. It may disappear as well, so you may need to do some searching to find a place to obtain the program. It is a must have piece of software, so you will either need to find an alternative download or program. It would be a shame if the site is gone forever.
Hold'em Manager or Pokertracker
I covered these at some length in Chapter 6. These are the only paid programs that I suggest you obtain, although each does give away the software for free by depositing on one of their affiliate poker sites. There is no way around it. It is absolutely mandatory that you review your play and track your progress. Every serious online poker player must have one of these programs. Additionally, Pokertracker and Hold’em Manager both provide highly functional and easy-to-use HUDs that are built into the software. These software programs can be obtained from http://www.holdemmanager.com or http://www.pokertracker.com. Each program currently comes with a 30-day free trial.
Cardrunners EV (formerly StoxEV)
Remember how we talked about Ben Hogan using trial and error to find out whether something he was doing was correct? You can virtually do the same thing with your poker game using Cardrunners EV (CEV). It allows you to run simulations of endless poker scenarios in order to test expected values. I use CEV multiple times a week to work on such things as 3-bet/4-bet situations as well as post-flop betting strategies. I can honestly say that this program has enhanced my understanding of poker exponentially more than I could have attained on my own. It is free to download and use; however, there is a maximum size for an equity tree. What you get with the commercial version is listed below. This is taken directly from their website. Trees can be of unlimited size Tournament mode available Graphs can be up to 100 points 2D graphs available Toggles in popups available The software can work out unexploitable pushing range The software can work out optimal counterstrategy You can do quite a few simple 3-betting and 4-betting situations with the free version, but in order to delve deeply into complex pre-flop and post-flop scenarios, you will need the commercial version. I highly recommend obtaining it from http://www.cardrunners-ev-calculator.com.
Short stacking strategy calculator (SSS)
SSS is a simple-to-use program that allows you to instantly calculate positionally correct +EV shoving ranges based on an opponent’s opening range, raise size, and his perceived calling range. It is not for use during play, but rather as a teaching tool for learning about 3-bet shoving ranges. After spending some time working with this software, you will gain a feel for which hands you should be shoving against particular players in certain spots. I suggest having it in the background while you review your sessions. You should be analyzing every single 3-bet shove you make for the first few thousand hands to make sure you are neither shoving too wide nor too narrow. SSS can be obtained from http://nyjet_twoplustwo.home.mindspring.com/.
AHK- AutoHotkey AutoHotkey is a software utility that allows people to automate repetitive tasks. In poker, AHK is used to write scripts that allow you to make actions by using preset keys or buttons. It is like having a joystick for poker, as you can set a separate button for checking, calling, folding, and even bet sizing. It is especially useful when playing stacked and mass multi-tabling. Depending on the poker site you play on, there are some stand-alone programs out there that you can purchase. Tableninja is one that has currently been produced for use on Pokerstars and Partypoker. If you do not play on a site that has hotkeys and feel like you have to have them, then you will either have to script the programs yourself, find one already made (sometimes people post their own programs on various forums for download), or pay someone else to do it. I currently do not use such a program. The poker site I play on has its own hotkeys built in, and I no longer massively multi-table anyway. Note: I am in no way affiliated with any of the software programs or companies outlined in this book, nor do I claim to be an expert. I apologize if any of the programs named either change from free to paid or have disappeared from existence between the time of the writing and when you are reading this. ____________________________________________________________
Adjusting To Other Games In this section, we will cover various adjustments that need to be made when playing games not covered in this book. Just be aware, that I am not an expert on these games as my specialty is 6-max 30 big blind play for 100NL and below. CAP Games CAP games are just like regular poker games, except the betting is limited to a certain fixed amount. Once a player puts in the maximum allowed, he is considered all-in regardless of whether he has money behind. Depending on the poker site, the cap is usually either 20 or 30 big blinds. You do not need to make major adjustments to the strategies laid out in this book when playing CAP games. In fact, the strategy becomes a bit easier since you no longer have to consider varying stack sizes. You do need to keep in mind that these games are generally characterized by a heightened preflop aggressiveness. There are typically a lot fewer nitty players, and table selection may be a bit more difficult. You will often encounter tables full of light 3-bettors. If you are able to find regular games that allow a 30 big blind buy-in, I would always look to play those games first due generally to better table selection. However, there is nothing wrong with mixing the two games during your table selection process. Just remember to adjust for the greater aggression typically found in CAP games. The biggest advantage to playing CAP games is that you never have to leave a table because your stack grows too large. This allows you to maintain and play many more tables at a time. If you are looking to increase your hands per hour, then CAP games are a good choice for you. ____________________________________________________________ Full Ring Adjustments If you are generally a conservative player and do not like the fast-action pace of 6-max, then there is nothing wrong with being a full-ring player. Here are some of the advantages full-ring has over 6max that you might find appealing: Full-ring is easier to multi-table, since the action comes around to you much slower, so you can play more tables if you so desire. Hand reading is generally simpler against your typical nitty full-ring player, since it’s generally easier to narrow tight ranges. Since the blinds come around less often, the pressure to aggressively steal is lessened a bit. Variance is typically lower in full-ring games, which means that you can employ a more ambitious bankroll management strategy.
Ultimately, the only difference between 6-max and full-ring games is the addition of three seats. It really is as simple as that. Pre-flop ranges work the same except for having to account for more players behind you and more players in front of you. Once it folds to the 4th player to act, the game theoretically plays exactly the same as a 6-max game. Suggested Opening Ranges For Full-Ring In an average game I would employ the following standard ranges for full-ring play. Just keep in mind that you will need to adjust to the players behind the same as you would in 6-max. 1st 3 seats- 88+, AQ+ UTG/HJ- 55+, AT+, KQ CO/BTN- 22+, Ax, anything connected 65+ SB- 22+, Ax, Kx, Qx, anything suited, anything connected Do these ranges look familiar? All I did was copy the intermediate 6-max standard opening hands and add a range for the first three seats. Other Full-Ring Adjustments Full-ring generally plays a bit more “nitty” than 6-max. Even so, as with any poker game, I would not focus on making too many generalized adjustments and just adjust to tables on a case-by-case basis. One slight adjustment I would make is to open a bit bigger from the early seats in order to make setminers, which full-ring is full of, pay a higher price. You may want to go ahead and open to 4 big blinds with QQ+ in stakes 100NL and below, as there are that many more players to give you action. However, I would not change my AK strategy and would continue going for limp-shoves. ____________________________________________________________ Playing 40 Big Blind Minimum Tables Some poker sites have moved or may move to a 40 big blind minimum. If this is the case, you do not really need to adjust your strategy. Just keep in mind that you will need to tighten up your 3-bet and 4-bet ranges a bit. Other than that, you just play normally. Leaving a table at 50 big blinds instead of 45 big blinds is not likely to adversely affect your winrate. The fact that players on these tables will not be expecting to play against short stackers and will be less likely to play optimally against you will more than make up for the slight loss of your edge due to playing a slightly bigger stack. If your goal is to move on to deeper stack play eventually, then these tables will be a good starting point for you to transition. Just follow the short stack strategy until you get above 50 big blinds, then play a mid-stack strategy.
____________________________________________________________ Adjusting To Higher Stakes Arbitrarily adjusting your game when you move up in stakes is an error. The rules are the same no matter what stake you play. You should be adjusting to opponents and table dynamics and otherwise not playing any differently than you did at lower levels. I have heard many stories of players who simply cannot beat a particular level, and usually part of the reason has to do with “Fancy Play Syndrome,” or FPS. A person may think that, since there is more money in play, the quality of play must be better. As a result, they feel that they must begin playing on a “higher level.” Before you know it, their game has deteriorated into being a “play machine,” running crazy bluffs and calling down people light, as well as firing multiple barrels in an attempt to outplay everyone. Do not be this guy. My advice is that once you move up you should, if anything, simplify your game while you learn the new regulars. I am a firm believer in vanilla ABC poker for the first few thousand hands at a new stake. Once you get used to the dollar amounts being thrown around and get some HUD hands on your opposition, your game will naturally open up and become wholly read based again. You can expect and should accept that your win-rate will likely be lower with each stake that you move up due to the increased quality of your opposition. However, as long as you are beating the games, because you are playing for more money, you should still be increasing your hourly rate as you advance through the stakes. So do not be frustrated if you are unable to maintain that 6bb/100 winrate that you had in 10NL once you get to 50NL. Anything 2bb/100 or better is still very good, no matter your level.
Poker Etiquette In online play, there are a few things you should never do as a matter of common courtesy. Slow Rolling You should never delay making an all-in call with the nuts. If you are fortunate enough to get shoved on when holding the best possible hand, call it as quickly as possible. Saying Negative Things or Bad Language in Chat There is nothing to be gained by talking in chat. You should be focusing on playing poker, not bantering with your opponents. In fact, if you have time to chat, you are probably not playing enough tables. Personally, I have the chat feature completely turned off when I play. Auto Post Blinds Until you are ready to sit out at a table, you should have auto post blinds clicked at all times. Not doing so delays the game and potentially makes action-hungry fish leave out of frustration. Do not “Hollywood” Maintaining the theme of keeping the pace moving, if you happen to get raised while bluffing, do not let your timer run down to zero before folding. Fold as quickly as possible and move on. Remember, you are trying to see as many hands per hour as you can in order to maximize your hourly rate. ____________________________________________________________
My Short Stack Challenge While writing this book, I put my money where my mouth is and followed the strategies found in Automatic Poker for a few weeks. I started with $50 on an online site and kept track of my progress. Ground Rules 1. I started with $50 and began at $4NL (2c/4c) ($1.20 buy-in). 2. I used the basic strategy charts until attaining the required bankroll for 20NL, then I used the intermediate charts thereafter. 3. I secured a rakeback deal with the site I played on. 4. I strictly adhered to bankroll guidelines, moving down if necessary. 5. I played up to two stakes at one time during my sessions. 6. I bought in for 30 big blinds. 7. I left a table once I hit 45 big blinds. 8. I did not cash out for the entirety of the challenge. Bankroll guidelines <$100: 4NL $100-$200: 10NL $200-$600: 20NL $600-$1,200: 50NL Results: Overall, I played just over 30,000 hands in about 70 total hours over seven weeks and made about $400 in profit. I treated the challenge just as I did my normal play in that I worked sessions in around my day job and family life. This means I played sporadic hours at both optimal and sub-optimal times, whether I was tired or fresh. The purpose of this challenge was to tweak and improve my short stacking charts and provide for the reader a real life example of how using proper bankroll management can rapidly turn a small amount of money into a substantial side income. My ultimate goal was to illustrate how anyone can use the tools provided in my book in the pursuit of a hobby that is both fun, rewarding, and profitable. ____________________________________________________________
The top line is win-rate with rakeback included, the second line is pure winnings, the third line is showdown winnings, and the bottom line is the red line.
The Mental Game The mental side of poker is an often overlooked aspect of a player’s overall game plan. Without focus, clarity, and mental toughness, our ability and skill can never meet its full potential. Not only do we have to master our emotions, we must also have the correct perspective on the game in a holistic sense. We must learn to play each poker hand completely in the present, without distraction. Any outside factor that pulls brain cells away from the poker you are playing will result in less than your A+ game and almost certainly hurt your win-rate. To be at the top of your mental game, you need to be able to focus and not feel any emotion during your sessions. Focus is something almost anyone can master fairly easily. The problem is that we all live in a world full of distractions. Television, text messaging, and any number of commotions bombard us constantly throughout the day. Therefore, you must make a conscious effort to remove any outside stimuli that could detract from your play at the tables. My suggestion is that you preempt any possible distraction and set aside time each day specifically for poker. Turn off the cell phone, the television, and all background programs on your computer. For the entire session, it should only be you and your poker opponents. Emotional control is a bit more challenging. To play optimally, one must have a complete indifference to any outcome that happens in the short term. You have to be an impartial analyst in all situations encountered during play and must make the best decision possible at all times with no regard to the immediate outcome. It takes a mastery of emotions as well as complete objective thought when it comes to decision making. That is why we must always think about the long term in all decisions we make at the poker table. If we play according to a game plan based on the villain’s ranges and tendencies, then we should never be surprised or emotionally affected by a short-term result. Let Go Of Your Ego Ego has been the downfall of many poker players. It can make an unskilled player think he doesn’t need to improve his game, because he already knows more than the “idiots” he is playing against. Inevitably, this leads to wild emotional swings during play. If you have followed Poker for some time, I’m sure you’ve seen this on television. Every year, we see fields full of egomaniacs at the World Series Of Poker. Yet typically, year in and year out, it’s the most emotionally centered players who make it through to the final table and on to victory.
So, if you naturally have a big ego and feel pride in your own poker game, my best advice to you right now is to get over yourself! Open your eyes and see that you are a flawed human being with both strengths and weaknesses. The sooner you do, the faster you can start working on your weaknesses and playing toward your strengths. A great irony in poker is that the players who lack confidence in their games or think they “suck” at poker are the ones that work their butts off to try to improve. These are the players who, for the most part, dominate today’s poker world. Believe In Yourself While ego can keep you from living up to your potential, a lack of faith that you can become a top poker player can be to your detriment as well. There is a fine line you have to walk between believing in what you are doing and allowing self-doubt, variance, and fear of the unknown ruin your poker career before it really gets off the ground. As you learn the game and become more and more familiar with advanced concepts, do not be too hard on yourself if your results are less than spectacular. It takes a long time to become fluent in developing a plan for hands that you play. At first, you will make a lot of bad decisions, but in time through introspection you will begin to attune yourself to the correct decision-making processes necessary to succeed. Remember that poker is the most complicated game in the world, and just like other games, no one becomes a master overnight. My advice is to stick to a basic strategy at first and then slowly add more advanced plays to your repertoire. Work on enhancing one thing at the time, and once you have a fairly good grasp on a particular concept, move on to something else. Then go back to what you were working on before and so on and so forth. In short, become a student of the game. Ignore The Naysayers You will run into a lot of negativity while you learn poker, which can hurt your self-confidence as a player. Society in general tends to look down upon poker players. It has gotten quite a bit better in recent years, but overall there is still a stigma against playing poker and especially in pursuing it as a career. My advice is never downplay what you do during interactions with non-poker players. Speak of your poker play as if it was a normal job. Do not shy away from fielding questions about it, and be sure to explain it in a way that non-poker players can understand. Many people do not know that poker is a game of skill and may think you are just a foolish gambler who needs a 12-step program. Make sure you let them know otherwise.
Variance Variance is the difference between short-term results and what your long-term expectation is. For poker players, it is an ugly word. However, if you understand and accept that variance is part of poker, things will be a great deal less painful during the downswings. You will also better appreciate times when you are “running good.” A downswing is a period of time when negative variance causes your bankroll to trend downward considerably more and much longer than would normally be expected given your win-rate. It is inevitable that you will face a downswing. All poker players have downswings. It’s how a person reacts to these fluctuations that separate the good players from the mediocre. Occasionally, luck will win over the short term. Sometimes you will seem to go hours, days, even weeks with seemingly awful luck. Nevertheless, skill will always win in the end if we play enough hands to get to the long term. As a winning player, the long-term is your friend. If you play sound winning poker, over time your opponents’ mistakes will steadily add money to your bankroll. After all is said and done, that is what poker is about, making fewer mistakes than your opponents and profiting as a result. The easiest way to get through the “bad times” is to understand that your poker career is really just one long session. Seldom do we have periods over the short term where our graph moves steadily upward at our long-term win-rate. In other words, all long-term graphs are really just a bunch of downswings and upswings. To put things into perspective, anything under 1 million hands should be considered short term. In fact, players can (and often do) have wild fluctuations in one direction or another from their “true” win-rate over 100,000 or even 500,000 hands. You can be a solid winning player and have a painful 100k break-even or losing stretch. You can outplay your competition for weeks at a time and still lose money. It may seem unfair, but lady luck in the short term can be very cruel. I am not telling you this to scare you. I am simply providing you with the mental preparation necessary to succeed as a professional poker player. As long as you know what you are getting into, then you will not be caught off guard and as easily fall victim to an ugly four-letter word called tilt. I find that the best way to overcome the bad times is to have balance in your life. If you put too much of your self-worth into your poker results, not only will other aspects of your life suffer when you hit a downswing, so will your emotional well being. You need to make sure that you continue to treat poker as a game and nothing more, even if it becomes your career.
This graph illustrates the results that someone with a 4bb/100 win rate might expect over ten samples of 100,000 hands when variance is taken into account. Notice that breaking even or even losing money is not out of the realm of possibility for even strong players.
Each graph line represents a potential 100k hand sample.
Handling Variance If you play long enough, eventually you will go on a soul crushing downswing. You will experience bad sessions, bad weeks, and even bad months. Variance is inevitable. Every player in the world of all skill levels will endure extended periods of time where they are “running bad” or losing. The good news is, there are things you can do to buffer your game against downswings. 1. Follow your bankroll management plan. It is designed to make going broke impossible and is your first line of defense against variance. A player should always have a specified number of buy-ins for the level he plays. Depending on your level of skill, you can play with as little as 30 or as many as 200 buy-ins. You can of course play with less while building a bankroll, but once you settle in on a particular stake to specialize in, you should always err on the side of more buy-ins in your working bankroll. 2. Make sure you are not straying from your winning strategy. If you are losing for an extended period of time, try getting back to the fundamentals. For a few days spend more time studying the game rather than playing it. Reread this book and simplify your game. Review every hand in every session for a while and make sure you are not making fundamental mistakes. Are you becoming too passive? Are you firing that 2nd barrel when it appears profitable? Are you trying for thin value against fish on the river? Are you check-calling in spots you should be betfolding? Make sure you are keeping initiative in almost every hand you play. Check your red line; if it is plummeting downward, you are probably being a calling station. Make sure every dime you put into a pot is with purpose, and keep up the aggression. 3. Make sure you are not auto-piloting. Are you feeling rushed during sessions or timing out frequently? You may be playing too many tables at once. The only way to sustain a multi-faceted sound strategy is to make sure you have ample time during your sessions to evaluate every situation you find yourself in. You will miss many profitable opportunities if you are trying to get in too many hands and playing like a robot. For a time, try decreasing the number of tables you are playing and focus more on each and every decision. 4. Set up a stop loss. If you drop more than five buy-ins quickly in a session, sit out on all tables and go do something else. Only when you feel calm and centered should you return to the game and try again. 5. Take some extended time off. Take a day, a week, or even a month off, completely away from the game. Sometimes getting away and recharging your mind is the most +EV thing you can do. Come back fresh and ready to play sound, fundamental poker, and start beating the game again. 6. Spend extra time working on the mental game. You will find that your downswing might not have been nearly as bad if you had not tilted and spewed off a couple of extra buy-ins in frustration. If you cannot play your A or B+ game, then do not
play at all. 7. Focus on EV earnings. Many times a big downswing will simply be due to running bad and losing a bunch of coin flips in a row or having players hit miracle rivers over and over as you value bet them into oblivion. For a time, try not to pay attention to how you are doing and only look at EV earnings during sessions. Do not look at actual winnings until the day is over. You may be surprised how this can help calm your mind while you play. 8. Find Balance Remember to keep perspective on your poker career. Try not to put too much value on yourself as a person based on your poker results. The best way to do this is to be sure you are not just a poker player. Try to make sure that you always have multiple things going on in your life. That way, if your poker results go south for a while, you will not be as negatively affected, because there are numerous other positive things going on for you that will keep your spirits bolstered.
Understanding And Avoiding Tilt Allowing results, positive or negative, to affect present decisions is the definition of Tilt. The usual culprit behind these feelings is being results oriented. Having emotional attachment to an outcome completely out of your hands is a pointless endeavor. Many players feel somehow slighted when they get their money in good and lose or value bet and run into the top of their opponent’s range. Some may even think the “Poker Gods” are out to get them. You must learn to discipline yourself and not let any short-term result affect your play. I am not saying that anyone can get to a place where downswings will not bother them in some way. It is a natural reaction to be negatively affected emotionally when we lose. Nobody likes to lose. And unless you have achieved nirvana or have amazing control of your emotions, bad beats and downswings will always bother you to some degree. Case in point: as of the writing on this book, I have played over three million hands. Bad beats still upset me much more than I would like. However, they do not bother me as much as they did when I first started playing. I used to shout at the computer, slam my fists down on the desk, or even get up and kick a wall when a bad beat happened to me. Over time, I have learned how counterproductive a reaction like this is. I am now able to either brush it off or simply quit the session and go do something else if I feel I can no longer play my A game. Having this type of self-control may be the most important skill that any professional poker player possesses. You must realize that poker is one lifetime session. Short-term results matter little as long as you are playing a superior strategy compared to your opponents. When the money goes in, your opponent (and you) are almost never drawing dead when behind. Even a hand with a 10% chance of winning is going to take the pot 100 times out of a thousand. Sometimes that 10% hand will win 3 or 4 straight times. But over 1,000,000 instances, the average result will be very close to the 10% number. Even the most even-keeled people get frustrated with short-term results, and I am sure you will too. It may take some time for you to get to the point where you can quickly shrug off or not be bothered by negative results. In the meantime, I advise that you develop a short-term fix to tilt to keep at your disposal. You will need to make a reality check when you start to feel emotional about something that happens on the poker table. If you decide that you are on tilt, you will either need to do something to get rid of it or stop playing altogether for a time. Depending on your level of emotional control, tilt management ranges from being very easy to being extremely difficult to overcome. Some people are naturally centered and unemotional and have no problem shrugging off a bad beat. They can simply look away from the computer monitor and take a deep breath or sit out for a few minutes. Others get way too hyped up, in one way or another, depending on the result. They feel elation when they win a huge pot and emotional distress when they lose one. You will need to find out what works for you. And while it is nice to have a short-term fix to tilt, you must also realize that it is just a band-aid and that you still actively need to be working on the core
issue that causes the stress or tilt in the first place. Otherwise, you are probably doing more harm than good to your game in a long-term sense. Whatever your natural inclination, control of one’s emotions is a learned skill. There are many tools available to help people with this type of thing. Some practice yoga, others spend time talking to psychological consultants. It is my view that any emotional stress felt during play stems from a lack of understanding of poker. Once you really learn where the money comes from and have a controlled plan for your play, you should never feel emotion while playing. In fact, you should not care about any short-term result. They say that ignorance is bliss. In poker, nothing could be further from the truth. Understanding and knowledge is bliss in poker.
Conclusion Let’s review what you have learned: The fundamentals of winning poker. Determining relative hand strength and reading board textures. How to calculate hand ranges and equity. The basics of fold equity, commitment, and EV. How to set up and use a HUD. A sound chart-based default strategy. A pre-flop strategy for open raising, calling, and limping. When to shove over limpers. A profitable 3-betting and 4-betting strategy. A strategy for post-flop bets, raises, and calls. Labeling and forming reads on opponents. How to exploit various player types. Managing your day-to-day sessions. Building a strong mental game. If you have studied these pages thoroughly and played tens of thousands of hands, then congratulations! You are now well-versed in the fundamentals and have all of the tools necessary to become a winning poker player. However, mastering the strategies and charts in this book is only the beginning. Going forward, improvements will come much more gradually. There are many more things to perfect and additional leaks to plug. There are also many things I did not cover that you will want to learn. Your goal should now be to continue developing your game by shoring up your understanding of poker theory and continuing to add to your knowledge. Read everything you can get your hands on and watch every poker video you can find. Join an online poker community, if you have not already. They are a great place to discuss poker strategy. I would suggest spending much of your study on post-flop play. Most players put too much effort focusing on pre-flop nuances when their win-rate would be much better served if they focused more on post-flop strategies. Getting back to the Golf analogy, I would equate the pre-flop game to golf’s
long game and post-flop play to the short game. The long game is a lot more fun to practice and do, but the short game is where the money is really made. Ever heard the saying “drive for show and putt for dough?” So put away the driver and get out the sand wedge and putter. Figure out what your biggest faults are after the flop and work on those first. Only work on your pre-flop game once you feel you have a big edge on your opponents after the flop. Try to balance your time between study and play. And remember that you do not really learn much by playing. Poker is not a game of trial and error. During your sessions, you should be focusing your game on adjusting to your opponents and staying mentally focused. Playing is about maximizing your earn, not figuring things out. Poker is a lifetime game. Do not force things or allow yourself to become frustrated if you do not meet your goals as quickly as you would like. In this great journey, you must learn to “know thyself” and figure out how to tailor your game to your own strengths. Books and teachers can only take you so far. In the end, you must walk your own path. I hope that this book has been helpful to you in some way. Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to share with you a bit of what I have learned so far. JJJ
Appendix Hand Strength Tiers Quiz Answers 1. Tier 3. 2. Tier 2. 3. Tier 3. 4. Tier 4. 5. Tier 1. 6. Tier 1. 7. Tier 3. Two pair is counterfeited when the turn Ace pairs the board. 8. Tier 2. 9. Tier 1. 10. Tier 3. 11. Tier 4. Double paired board leaves us with 4 high. 12. Tier 2. 13. Tier 4. 14. Tier 3. Twice-paired dry board gives showdown value to Ace high. 15. Tier 1. 16. Tier 4. Ace high has almost no showdown value on such a draw heavy board. 17. Tier 2. 18. Tier 3. Two pair has only showdown value on 4 to straight or 4 to flush boards. 19. Tier 1. On such a dry Ace high board, treating AQ or AK as the nuts is standard. 20. Tier 2. ____________________________________________________________ Basic Pre-Flop Chart Quiz Answers
1. Raise to .20. 2. The correct play is to shove all-in. 3. The correct play is to open for .40. 4. Fold. This is a common error made by the majority of players. Sometimes in the future you will face players who 3-bet wide enough to make this a profitable 4-bet. But against the vast majority of players out there, this is a clear fold. 5. Shove all in. 6. You do not raise at all. The correct play is to fold. My apologies for the trick question. 7. Raise to 2bbs. 8. Raise to 4bbs. 9. Fold. There will be times in the future where this is an obvious shove but, for the most part, at the micros 3-bets mean business. A ton of the time the sb’s range will be JJ+ and AK. JJ does not stack up well enough vs. that range to stick it in. 10. There is probably not a huge difference what you do. However, in the micros a lot of players will limp very weak aces or low suited cards. If you make top pair or a flush, it is possible you can win a very big pot. Additionally, the hands that will call your shove here are mostly low pocket pairs which are beating us. In my opinion, this is a clear limp. 11. Raise to 3bbs. Our hand is strong, but getting called has us playing out of position. Adding a bit of fold equity by raising a bit more is the smart thing to do until your post-flop game becomes more sophisticated. If called, we still have a strong hand that flops well. 12. Shove all-in. Give him a chance to call it off out of frustration with his weak aces, small pairs, and KJ type hands. 13. Shove. This may seem obvious, but eventually you will want to consider 3-betting smaller with big pairs vs. certain opponents. For now, just stick it in. 14. Raise to 4x. Limping is also okay but, with no reads, isolating is much stronger. 15. Fold. KJ is marginal to play from early position, even for a highly skilled player. 16. Fold. Unless the player has been shoving in almost every hand, you need at least 77+ or AJ+ to call here. 17. Limp behind. 18. Shove all-in. Most players loosen up their 3-betting range significantly in blind versus blind
situations. You can expect to be shown hands like KJ, A2, or worse here quite often. Even if your opponent has a monster like KK, you will still win 33% of the time. 19. Fold. KQ would be a shove from the blinds were you facing a steal from the cutoff. However, on the button it is a fold with two players left to act. 20. Shove. As a short stack, you should almost always be willing to get all-in pre-flop with QQ+ and AK. ____________________________________________________________ Basic Post-Flop Chart Quiz Answers 1. Bet around .25. 2. Lead out for $2.25. 3. Shove the rest in. 4. You have a tier 3 hand, so the correct play is to fold. 5. Lead for 3/4 pot. 6. Fold here since you have only a tier 2 hand. If you had a pair and the Ace high flush draw you would shove here. 7. The river brought in multiple straights, and the board is not 4 to the flush. You now only have a showdown value hand, so the correct play is to check and fold to any significant bet. While the chart says check/call TP, that only applies in situations where all obvious draws have missed. 8. The chart says bet 1/4 of the effective stack. You have 36 big blinds left, so you bet 9 big blinds with plans to shove any turn. 9. Check/fold. 10. Bet 1/2 pot. ____________________________________________________________ Intermediate Pre-Flop Chart 3-betting Quiz Answers 1. Jam. 2. Fold. 3. Fold.
4. Jam. 5. Jam. 6. Jam. 7. Fold. 8. Fold. 9. Fold. 10. Fold. 11. Jam. 12. Fold. 13. Jam. 14. Jam. 15. Fold. 16. Jam. 17. Jam. 18. Jam. 19. Fold. 20. Jam. ____________________________________________________________ Intermediate Pre-Flop Chart 4-betting Quiz Answers 1. Fold. 2. Jam. 3. Fold. 4. Fold. 5. Jam.
6. Fold. A good hand to light 3-bet, but in order to 3-bet for value, you need a better hand. 7. Fold. 8. Jam. 9. Fold. 10. Jam. 11. Call shove. 12. Fold. Most decisions are obvious like this; I made the prior examples a bit tough on purpose. ____________________________________________________________ Intermediate Post-Flop Chart Quiz Answers 1. Raise since the board is wet. Were it dry, you would call. 2. You have a tier 3 hand, so you would bet the turn with plans to check behind on the river. 3. Shove. The board is neither strongly wet nor strongly dry, but I recommend erring on the side of wet in these situations. If it were a rainbow board, then a call would sometimes be warranted. 4. We still have a tier 4 hand on the turn, so the play is to check and fold. 5. Lead out and reraise if raised, since the board is wet. 6. Raise and get it in. 7. Call. 8. This is a situation where either betting or checking is fine. I prefer a bet-fold, since fewer players seem to bluff the river at the micros. 9. Bet as a bluff. 10. Call. There are very few turn cards that potentially beat our hand, since the board is dry. 11. Bet and bet big. On this board you are likely to get action, and you want as much money as possible in the pot before the turn. 12. There is no wrong answer here. I would base my decision on the type of opponent we are facing. If he is very aggressive, I would lean toward a call. If normal or passive, I would fold. To some of you this may look like a crazy spot to call, but after you finish the rest of the book you will know why this call is standard against some players.
____________________________________________________________ Calling Tactics Quiz Answers 1. Fold as you are only getting 1.5 to 1. 2. You are getting 4.5 to 1 on a very good implied odds hand. Call. 3. Fold. Even though you are getting better than 5 to 1, your hand is simply not good enough to play for any price. Suitedness is the only thing your hand has going for it, but an 8 high flush draw suffers from reverse implied odds. If your hand was 84s, it would be much more attractive due to the added straight possibility. 4. This is a clear call. The big blind has shown a lot of strength with his 3-bet but left you with 3.25 to 1 odds to call, more than enough against a presumed tight range to try to hit a big hand and get it in. Another factor weighing in is that you have 38 big blinds at the start of the hand which further increases your implied odds. 5. Call! Your direct odds are only 2 to 1 right now, but it is very likely that at least 2 out of 3 of the players who limped will call as well, thus making it only $2 for you to potentially see a pot of over $8 to $10 on the flop! If you hit a set, there is a very good chance you could triple up your stack. Always remember to calculate your odds based on your best guess at what the pot will be on the flop. Limpers often increase your odds enough to make a normally marginal call a no-brainer. 6. I would fold here. Even if the hijack were a fairly tight player, you are still getting less than 3 to 1 direct odds and 9 to 1 stack odds, not good enough for set mining. These spots are the source of a big leak for many players. 7. Call. While not a slam dunk, you are getting almost 3.5 to 1 and have 44 big blinds. This is a decent implied odds situation due to your stack size and hand that is both suited, connected, and plays very well post-flop. 8. Folding here appears to be the best option. Even though your hand is very pretty and has good implied odds versus the tight UTG player, you still have 4 players left to act which detracts significantly from your chances to see a flop cheaply. The cutoff would be the earliest position I would even consider a call here, but even that is pushing it getting only 1.75 to 1. The presence of a very loose player or two behind me would sweeten the deal significantly, but in a vacuum, this is a clear fold. 9. I would fold here even though you are likely getting about 4.5 to 1 on your money. You also have a very pretty connected and suited hand against a table of maniacs which is typically indicative of a pre-flop call. However, to call would cost you 20% of your stack. A shove in this spot is likely much more profitable than a call. 10. This is close, but I lean toward a fold. You are getting nearly 3 to 1 but only have 23 big
blinds. It is unlikely that flopping 1 pair would be good often enough in this situation to warrant a stackoff, and yet your stack size would likely commit you should that scenario play out. I would like to have at least around 30 big blinds to play this hand or be getting 3.5 to 1 or better. ____________________________________________________________
References Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf Publisher: Schuster (1957) Cardrunners EV: “EV Calculations with Decision Trees.” CardRunners EV. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2013. Pokerstove: Renton Theorem. FTR Poker Forums RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2013. . Stack-To-Pot Ratios. Flynn, Matt, Sunny Mehta, and Ed Miller. Professional No-Limit Hold’em. Quickborn: Premium Poker Publ., 2007. Print. Short Stacking Strategy Calculator: “Software by New York Jet at TwoPlusTwo Forums.” Software by New York Jet at TwoPlusTwo Forums. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2013. . Tracking Software and Heads-Up-Display Information. “The Art + Science of Winning Poker.” Hold’em Manager Poker Software - Best Poker Tracking Software. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2013. .
Resources “FlopTurnRiver Poker Forum” Poker Strategy Forum. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2013. . A smaller community than 2+2, but high quality nonetheless. I learned much of what about the game from the various discussions on this board.
I know
Flynn, Matt, Sunny Mehta, and Ed Miller. Professional No-Limit Hold’em. Quickborn: Premium Poker Publ., 2007. Print. A must read for any serious poker player. Schmidt, Dusty. Treat Your Poker like a Business: How to Turn a Hobby into an Empire. Las Vegas, NV: Cardoza Pub., 2012. Print. Great information regarding realizing a successful poker career. Snyder, Arnold. The Poker Tournament Formula. 1st ed. Las Vegas: Cardoza, 2006. Print. Although a tournament poker book, Snyder gives valuable advice on the strength of that are applicable to any poker game.
position
Sunzi, and Samuel B. Griffith. The Art of War. London: Oxford UP, 1971. Print. The principles laid out in this book are largely applicable to poker. “Two Plus Two Poker Forum - Poker Strategy Forums.” Two Plus Two Poker Forum - Poker Strategy Forums. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2013. . A wealth of information in which players can absorb themselves.
Glossary 3-bet: A reraise of the original pre-flop open. Since the big blind counts as the first bet in a hand, raising the big blind counts as the second bet, and so on. 4-bet: To reraise a 3-bet. ABC Poker: To play poker in a straightforward non-tricky fashion. Adjustment: When a person alters his or her play based on a tendency exhibited by an opponent. Aggressive: An approach to the game of poker that involves betting and raising much more frequently than checking or calling. AGG%: A HUD stat that indicates an opponent’s level of aggression. The formula is total bets and raises divided by total actions. Air: The portion of a player’s range that does not connect with the current board. All In: Anytime a player has all of his stack in the pot, he is said to be all in. Ante: A forced bet that is typically posted by all players, in addition to the blinds, before the start of a hand. Auto piloting: To play robotically without putting much deep thought into a poker session, usually associated with mass multi-tabling. Backdoor: To make a flush or straight on the river with consecutive running cards. Balanced: A playing style that does not exhibit any extreme tendencies and is difficult to exploit. Bankroll: The total amount of money that any player has set aside with which to gamble. Bankroll management: To play with a minimum number of buy-ins for a given level, with the intent of minimizing the chance of going broke and to maximize the ability to move up through levels to increase profit. Barrel: To continuation bet beyond the flop. A turn c-bet is a “double barrel,” and a river c-bet is a “triple barrel.” Bet-Call: To call a post flop reraise after having bet. Bet-Fold: To fold to a post flop reraise after having bet. Big Blind: Abbreviated as bb. Seated two seats to the left of the dealer, the big blind is the last player to act before the flop and the second player to act after the flop in a 6-handed game. Black Friday: April 15, 2011. The day that the three biggest Poker sites shut down access for US players due to indictments by the US Department of Justice. Blinds: Forced bets made by the two players directly to the left of the dealer before the start of any hand. Bluff: To make a bet with a hand that is likely behind the range of your opponent in an attempt to have him or her fold a profitable amount of the time. Bluff Call: To make a call with very little chance of winning. Board Texture: The configuration of a board in terms of both connectedness and suitedness. Bot: Software designed to play a game independent of human controls. Bottom pair: When one of a player’s hole cards matches the lowest possible card on the board. Button: The dealer position at a table who always acts last post-flop. Buy-in: The amount of money one chooses to play at the time he or she sits down. Calling Station: A player who does not like to fold. He may call with no hand or draw all the way to the river and typically will become married to any piece of the board.
Call: To put into the pot a monetary amount equal to what has previously been bet. Pre-flop, if no raises have occurred, it is required that a player put in the amount of the big blind as it is considered the first bet. CAP games: A game where there is a cap on the maximum bet. No matter how much a player has behind, once he reaches the betting cap, no more money can be put into the pot. Cascading: A method of setting up one’s online poker tables characterized by having overlapping tables extending diagonally across the screen from one corner to another. C-Bet: To continue betting post flop after having the lead pre flop. Check: To choose to refrain from putting additional money into a pot when it is not required. After checking, the action either moves to the next player to act or the betting rounds end. Check-Call: To call a post flop bet after having checked. Check-Fold: To fold to a post flop bet after having checked. Check-Raise: To reraise a post flop bet after having checked. Coin Flip: Describes any all-in situation when both parties involved have near equal equity. An example would be the classic race between over cards and a pocket pair. While the pocket pair is usually slightly ahead, the situation is still generally called a coin flip. Combo draw: A holding that has both flush and straight draws. Commitment Threshold: Refers to “point of no return” when playing a pot. The percentage of your stack invested where it is neutral EV to either fold or put the rest of your chips in is known as the commitment threshold. Once you pass the commitment threshold, it is less profitable to fold than it is to commit. Complete: To limp in the small blind is sometimes referred to as completing. Connectors: When a holding contains consecutive cards, it is said to be connected. Counterfeit: When the value of a strong hand is decreased due to a card on the following streets that causes the hand to significantly decrease in value. Typically, this happens to hands such as bottom two pair which are counterfeited when the top card pairs on the turn or river. Cutoff: Abbreviated as CO. Seated one seat to the right of the dealer, the cutoff is the 3rd player to act pre-flop in a 6-handed game. Data Mining: To record the stats of poker players in hands you are not involved in for the purpose of creating a database for personal use or profit. Dead Money: Refers to money put into a pot by a player who is no longer participating in the hand. Is also loosely referred to by skilled players when referring to money that is likely to be dead if they were to bet or raise, most notably against limpers. Defend: To call a bet with the intent of fighting for money already invested. Most often referred to as “defending” blinds. Direct Pot Odds: The ratio of the current size of the pot to the cost of a potential call. For example, if there is $4 in a pot and it is $2 to call, then you are getting four-to-two, or two-to-one direct odds. Dirty Outs: Outs that may not improve a hand on the next street because they complete flushes or straights. Disguised Hand: To have a holding which our opponent would not likely include in his assessment of our range. Dominated: To share a hole card with an opponent who has a superior kicker. For example, QJ is dominated by AJ. Double Barrel : To c-bet the flop and turn. See “Barrel.”
Drawing Dead: When a holding has absolutely no outs and cannot win the hand no matter what falls on the next street. Dry Board: A board that is poorly coordinated and does not allow for the possibility of many made hands or draws. Direct Odds: When a call is mathematically correct to make given the amount of money in the pot and the amount of the bet that has to be called. For example, if you have a 4 to 1 chance of making the best hand and you are getting 6 to 1 on a call, it would be correct to make the call as it is a profitable long-term play. Donk Bet: To lead out into the prior street’s aggressor. Double Gut Shot: A straight draw that includes the possibility of hitting two different cards in which you are not open-ended, i.e. having 65 on an 842 board, either a 3 or a 7 would make a straight on the turn or river. Effective Stack: The smaller of two stacks involved in a pot. It is the maximum amount that can be wagered between two stacks involved in a pot. Equity: The percentage of the pot that is owned by a player on any given street or, put another way, how likely we are to win by the river if all-in on that specific street. For example, if we have 30% equity on the flop and there is $10 in the pot, theoretically we own $3. Expected Value: Usually referred to as “EV” or “expectation.” Refers to the profitability of an individual action or as a consequence of a long-term strategy. +EV refers to profitable choices, and EV refers to unprofitable ones. Fish: A poorly skilled player with little understanding of poker strategy. Fit or Fold: A style of poker characterized by only continuing post-flop with a hand that matches the board in some way. Flat Call: Or flatting. To call a bet when a raise might have been expected. Float: To call a bet with a hand with very little value with the intention of taking the pot away later with a bluff. Fold Equity: The amount of potential non-showdown money a player can win by betting or raising and having his or her opponent fold. FPS: An acronym for “fancy play syndrome,” which means to make plays outside of what may be sound strategy in order to ostensibly outplay the opposition. Free Card: Being allowed to see a card on the turn or river without having to pay a bet. Going South: When a player removes chips from his stack in order to reduce the amount of money he can lose in a single hand. This behavior is considered bad etiquette and is prohibited in most card rooms. Gut Shot: Any straight draw that only includes the possibility of four out, i.e. 87 on a K54 board would make a straight if a 6 comes on the turn or river. Hand Range: The potential hands a player can hold at any given time during a hand. Hand range information can be absolute in the case of your own raising range, or it can be an informed guess based on your history with an opponent. There are both pre-flop and post-flop ranges that may widen or narrow, depending on the way a hand plays out. Heads Up: When a pot is being played between only two players. Hijack: Abbreviated as HJ. Seated two to the right of the dealer, the Hijack is the 2nd player to act pre-flop in a 6-handed game. Hollywooding: To pretend your holding is stronger or weaker than it really is by either delaying the
game before folding or raising, or by a feigned physical mannerism meant to fool the opposition. Hotkey: Setting up a specific button on the keyboard to execute one or more functions to make playing poker more efficient. HUD: A graphical numeric statistical display that provides information on what opponents are doing at the table. It is an acronym for Heads-Up-Display. Implied Odds: The potential future money that can be won if a card comes to improve a holding. Usually refers to having a draw and is used to justify a call when the direct pot odds are not sufficient. Initiative: The player who was the aggressor on the previous street is said to have initiative. Jam: To shove all in. Keeping the Lead: When the player who has been the first bettor during one betting round continues to be the first bettor in the next betting round. Most commonly this is referred to with regard to continuation betting. LAG: LAG stands for Loose Aggressive. This is a style of play indicative of playing a wide range of hands, mostly in position. A LAG player looks to exploit the overly tight tendencies of his opponents with well-timed bets and raises that represent different ranges. Leak: A play that is consistently made by a player that is -EV. Light 3-betting: To 3-bet with a non-value hand with the intent of exploiting a wide open raiser. Light 4-betting: To 4-bet with a non-value hand with the intent of exploiting a wide 3-bettor. Limp: To call the big blind only pre flop. Lockdown Mode: To play conservatively while waiting to leave a table in order to protect your earnings. Loose: Used to describe a player who enters a lot of pots and can be expected to have a very wide range of hands. Maniac: A maniac plays super aggressive with a wide range of hands. They live to play a testosterone war with anyone who dares play a pot with them. It is possible to be a pre-flop maniac or post-flop maniac. However, most true maniacs are aggressive on all streets. Marginal: Any situation that is so close to neutral EV that it will not likely affect a player’s long term win-rate. Maximize: To choose the line of play that wins the most long-term profit. Min-raise: To raise the absolute smallest amount possible in the form of a raise or reraise. Pre-flop, a min-raise open is 2 big blinds. For reraises, you double the raise made above and beyond the amount already bet that round and add it to the initial bet, if applicable. For example, if player A bets $100 and is raised to $300 by player B, then the minimum player A can reraise to is $500. Player B raised player A $200, $300+$200= $500. Monster hand: A very strong holding that is very unlikely to lose by the river. Mouse: A timid poker player who plays very tightly after the flop. Muck: To fold face down so that no one else knows what you were holding. Multi-way: Any pot that has more than two players involved. Naked overs: To have two over cards to the board, but no outs otherwise. Nit: A derogatory term used to describe a player who is risk averse. They generally need a very strong hand to commit their chips to a pot. These players are notorious for playing fit or fold poker post-flop. Nitty: Describes the play of a nit, or very tight player.
Non-Showdown Winnings: The net amount of money won by a player when he or she does not see a showdown. Nut Camping: To wait around for premium hands before committing large amounts of money. Nut Peddler: A person who is a nut camper. Nuts: In absolute terms, it is the best possible holding that you can have that has no chance of being beaten on the current street. Often very good players will refer to a non-nut hand as the nuts when they are absolutely positive they have the winner. A player might say, “I knew my Ace high was the nuts there.” Open-Ended: To have a straight draw that has eight potential outs, with four on either end of the draw, i.e. JT on a Q9 board. Over Bet: A large bet, usually bigger than the pot. Over Play: To over value a holding and invest so much into the pot as to make it -EV. Passive: An approach to the game of poker that involves checking and calling much more frequently than betting and raising. PFR: An acronym for “Pre Flop Raise” that is shown as a percentage. It is the frequency that a player raises before the flop. Limps and calls do not count toward this percentage, only raises. Play Machine: A player who is consistently looking for the most flashy or fancy play at the poker table. Position: One’s location at the poker table. To act last after the flop is to be in position. Post-Flop: Once the three community of the flop hit the board, any action that occurs is considered to be post-flop. Pot Control: To take a passive line in order to allow marginal made hands to see a showdown more cheaply. Pre-flop: Any action that occurs before the flop hits the board is considered pre-flop. Pressure: A fundamental component of strong poker in which a person consistently plays with aggression in an attempt to force his or her will upon the opposition. Protecting a Hand: To bet with what may or may not be the best hand so as not to allow an opponent to cheaply draw out on you if he is behind. Rainbow: When the board has no matching suits and does not allow for the possibility of a flush draw. Raise: To increase the dollar amount of the current bet. Rake: The money that the poker room takes from a pot as a part of its share. Rakeback: The percentage of money given back to a player periodically for loyalty to a poker room. Some poker rooms automatically give rakeback, and others give it to a player via an affiliate which markets the poker room in return for the rakeback deal. Read: A bit of information gathered in the past that makes one able to make more appropriate decisions versus a particular opponent. Recreational player: An unskilled player that typically only plays for fun. Red line: The line in a graph that represents a player’s non-showdown winnings. Regular: A player who plays particular stakes for extended periods of time. Relative Hand Strength: The strength of a holding as it relates to an opponent’s range. Reload Bonus: A bonus occasionally offered by a poker site that gives bonus money to existing players who deposit. Renton Theorem: To divide hand ranges into sub-groups which are each played similarly so as to
balance and disguise one’s ranges. Resteal: To reraise a steal. Reverse Implied Odds: The possibility of making your hand on a future card and still having the second best hand and losing the pot. Risk of ruin: The probability of a player losing so much of his bankroll that he cannot continue playing. Rule of 4 & 2: A tool used to calculate the approximate percentage chance for a particular number of outs improving in either one or two streets. For two streets, you multiple the number of outs by four; for one street, you multiply the number of outs by two. Runner-Runner: To improve to a strong holding after getting fortunate cards on both the turn and river. Scare Card: A card that makes it possible or likely that an opponent’s range has improved. Most often a scare card is one that completes an obvious flush or straight, but can also be the appearance of an over card such as an Ace. Semi-Connector: A holding that is not made up of consecutive cards that can still make a straight with three community cards. For example J9, T7, 96, and 84 are all said to be semi-connected hands. Set Mining: To call a pre-flop raise with a pocket pair with the intention of only committing postflop with a flopped set. Showdown Value: A hand that has the potential to be a winner at showdown against the weakest parts of an opponent’s range. Showdown Winnings: The net amount of money won by a player when he or she sees a showdown. Site Staggering: To alternate poker sites over multiple sessions. Slow Rolling: To delay before showing down a sure winner. Small Blind: Abbreviated as SB. Seated one seat to the left of the dealer, the small blind is the 5th player to act pre-flop and the first person to act after the flop in a 6-handed game. Squeeze: To reraise after there has already been a raise and call. Stacking: A multi-tabling style that involves placing multiple tables on top of one another, usually associated with mass multi-tabling of more than 12 tables. Stack-to-Pot Ratio: Or SPR. On the flop, the ratio between the size of the current pot and the effective stack. If the effective stack is $500 and the pot is $50, then the stack to pot ratio is 10. ($500/$50= 10) Standard: A common poker play that is obvious and without novelty. Steal: To open raise from the cutoff, button, or small blind positions. Stop Loss: A tool used by some players to mitigate variance and tilt. It involves having a set limit to immediately stop playing once that amount is lost. Sucked-Out: A term typically used by a disgruntled player in reference to having an unfortunate board run out that made what he perceived to be an inferior holding beat his superior holding. Table Composition: The player types seated at a poker table. Table Dynamics: The way that a player’s strategy is affected based on the player types seated at a poker table as they relate to the recent history and game flow of the table. Table Selection: The process of finding the most profitable poker tables. TAG: This is a style of play which plays a strong range and looks to get maximum value from those hands. A TAG player looks to exploit the overly loose tendencies of other players by getting to the flop with an on average stronger range.
Thin Value Bet: A marginal value bet that is not likely to be overly profitable long term. Third & Go: When a player bets one-third of his or her stack and then shoves all-in on any flop after being guaranteed to act first after the flop. Tight: Term used to describe a player who plays very few hands and has a narrow range. Some players are all around tight, while others are tight only pre-flop or post-flop. Tiling: A multi-tabling style that involves placing multiple tables next to each other without overlap, usually associated with playing 12 tables or less. Tilt: To base current poker decisions on past results instead of following the most profitable line of play. Tornado: An aggressive player who reraises a wide range of hands post-flop. Triple Barrel: To c-bet the flop, turn, and river. See “Barrel.” Under-the-Gun: Abbreviated as UTG. Seated three seats to the right of the dealer, under the gun is the first player to act before the flop in a 6-handed game. Value Bet: When a player bets when an opponent will potentially call with worse hands. Value Bluff: Term used when you bet or raise against a range that is slightly skewed toward hands that beat you, even though sometimes you will actually have the best hand. The fact that you gain value from worse hands and sometimes bluff better hands out of the pot makes it a value bluff. This play is a tool often used by a player to confuse opponents and merge his range. Variance: The either positive or negative difference between a player’s expected win-rate over the long term and his or her actual win-rate over the short term. Most often referred to by poker players when they are losing. VPIP: An acronym for “Voluntarily Put In Pot” that is shown as a percentage. It is the frequency that a player puts money into a pot via a call, raise, or reraise. Wet Board: Boards that are highly coordinated and tend to contain the possibility of a flush draw and multiple straight draws.
Index 3-bet, 8, 14-16, 22, 26, 45, 51, 53, 61, 66, 78-79, 82-83, 86-87, 91, 100, 121-122, 124, 129-133, 140, 143-150, 187-188, 220-222, 229, 241, 260-261, 265 4-bet, 16, 45, 57, 82-83, 86, 91, 100, 129, 131, 133, 147-148, 260, 265 Balanced, 122, 183, 232-233 Bankroll, xiii, 19, 70, 251, 254-256, 264, 267-268, 272, 274 Barrel, 17, 84, 158-162, 164-168, 182, 189, 194, 201, 207, 209, 213, 229, 274 Bet-Call, 197 Bet-Fold, 18, 35-36, 170-171 Calling Station, 84, 147, 159, 167, 230, 246, 274 CAP games, 254, 262-263 Cascading, 69, 236-238 Check-Call, 35-36, 160, 211 Check-Fold, 78, 159-160 Check-Raise, 84-85, 189, 211 Commitment Threshold, 174 Data Mining, 88 Direct Odds, 136, 141, 170, 207-208, 216 Donk Bet, 84-85 Equity, 14, 17, 31, 33, 37, 45-52, 66, 83, 120, 124, 130, 132, 142, 153-154, 159-160, 163-164, 167170, 180-182, 184-187, 191-193, 210, 212-215, 230, 241, 260, 279 Expected Value, 37, 55-56, 169 Fish, 15, 122, 125, 139, 142, 147, 150, 188, 219-220, 233, 239-241, 245, 266, 274 Fit or Fold, 32, 83, 121-122, 223-224, 229, 232, 243 Float, 122, 159, 161, 180, 189, 204, 207, 209-212, 230 Fold Equity, 31, 33, 37, 46-47, 50-52, 66, 83, 120, 124, 130, 132, 153-154, 159-160, 167-170, 180, 187, 191-192, 213-215, 230, 241, 279 FPS, 265 HUD, 2, 4, 14-15, 59, 72-73, 76-81, 83-88, 90, 92-93, 100-101, 122, 131, 133, 145-146, 149, 209, 215, 217-218, 220-222, 251, 266, 279 Implied Odds, 18, 32, 34, 46, 54, 135-139, 141-142, 169, 188, 205, 207-209, 214 Light 3-betting, 34, 131 Light 4-betting, 134, 227 Lockdown Mode, 70, 250 Maximize, xiii, 70, 107, 124, 180, 192-193, 225, 235, 246-248, 267 Mouse, 81, 222, 227-228, 230-231, 233, 236-237, 243, 252, 257 Nit, 39, 57, 221-222, 232, 239, 244 Position, 5, 13-14, 25-32, 34, 36, 44, 61, 65, 78, 83, 85-87, 92, 100, 108, 118, 120-121, 123-127, 130-132, 135, 137-139, 143, 147, 155, 158-160, 165, 183, 189-190, 192-194, 201, 209-210, 213, 220, 223, 227, 229, 236-237, 240-241, 245 Pot Control, 29-30, 190, 192, 194 Pressure, 17, 25-26, 32-35, 121, 153, 163, 200, 245, 264 Rakeback, 67-68, 70, 238, 247, 251, 267-268 Red line, 33-35, 268, 274
Renton Theorem, 37 Reverse Implied Odds, 136-137, 139, 207-209 Risk of ruin, 19, 251, 256 Rule of 4 & 2, 46 Site Staggering, 251 SPR, 53-55, 125, 180 Squeeze, 82, 145, 190 Stack-to-Pot Ratios, 10, 17, 53, 124 Stacking, xii, 2, 7-11, 13, 15, 17, 19-20, 53, 59, 66-67, 69-70, 92, 136, 192, 236-238, 261, 268 Steal, 17, 26-27, 51, 61, 81-83, 87, 91, 120, 122, 131, 220-221, 241-242, 264 Stop Loss, 274 Table Composition, 240, 246 Table Dynamics, xiii, 2-3, 59, 225, 228, 235, 243, 265 Table Selection, 68, 71, 220, 235, 238-240, 242-244, 246, 263 Tiling, 69, 236-237, 257 Tilt, 236-237, 272, 275-277 Tornado, 222, 227-228, 230, 232-233, 243 Triple Barrel, 194 Value Bet, 11, 13, 48, 122, 152-153, 166, 204, 230, 232, 275-276 Variance, 10, 150, 192, 229, 264, 270-274
About The Author Jimmie James Jr. started playing poker in the summer of 2007 after watching his father play from over his shoulder. He had always excelled at online games so he deposited $50 and began playing tournaments in his spare time. Within one month he took a second for $3,500 and was hooked. He then delved into sit and goes and finally began playing cash games in late 2008. He soon was grinding as high as 100NL and, although he was only playing a few hours a week, was bringing home over $1,500 a month by just playing a couple of hours a night. Since he was working over 60 hours a week in his “real” job, he had little time to try and move up in limits and spend the countless hours needed to improve to the point where he could beat the ever toughening games at low stakes and beyond. So every time his bankroll would reach the 4k or 5k mark, he would cash most of it out. He did this at least six times between 2007 and 2010. For years Jim had dreamed about making Supernova Elite on Pokerstars. In 2011, he decided to give it a go. Due to time and bankroll constraints, he needed a system that he could put in a ton of hands at the lower limits, so he decided to give short stacking a shot. After a few of months of grinding 1750 hands per hour, he was right on schedule. Then April 15th, 2011 happened: Black Friday. Pokerstars was forced to pull out of the United States market, and as an American, Jim’s dream of Supernova Elite instantly evaporated. Disheartened, he didn’t play internet poker for two months. Then, as a Father’s Day present, his wife deposited $50 on one of the remaining poker sites that still serviced US players. At first he didn’t feel like playing, so he only logged a couple of thousand hands and then basically forgot about the game for three months. Later that year the itch returned, and he began playing again. But instead of returning to deep-stacked games, he decided to develop his own style of playing. The minimum buyon on the Poker site was 30 big blinds, so he began buying in for that amount. Through trial and error and hundreds of hours of studying game theory, he developed a simple and repeatable game, based not around pre-flop play alone, but rather through sound overall poker fundamentals. He was soon beating 50NL for 10bb/100 with an hourly rate of just under $30/hr while 6 tabling. His bankroll had gone from $50 to $4,000 in 75,000 hands played over around 175 total hours in 3 months. Late in 2011, Jim began writing down his ideas and strategy to teach other people with limited free time how to beat online poker and make a decent side income for their family. This book is the culmination of those writings. Jim currently resides with his family in Charlotte, NC.
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