threads13.com

In the last episode of this series we discussed how to maximize our EV on small and middle pocket pairs in loose passive games.  Now, let’s take a look at how these hands play in other types of games.

Tight-Passive(Weak-Tight) Games

These games feature players who understand that they need to play tight in order to profit, but they don’t have much bite to their game. The players in these games often do a lot of “set-mining” and thus very easy to read. They will very often limp into a pot, call a “standard” raise, and then check-fold the flop if they don’t spike their set. Obviously, since these players are so predictable it is easy to take advantage of them. Remember, we make money in poker when plays make mistakes.  Look for your mistakes that opponents will make and then do whatever you can to make that mistake occur more often and for it to be more costly.  The biggest mistake weak-tight players make is that they fold too often – even when they are in position. They will very rarely put you in a difficult spot or punish you for getting out of line when you are out of position. In my experience, you can often find these types of games a couple levels up from the smallest stakes offered at a given location¹ (more…)

1. For example, you currently might start finding these players in the $.25/.50 and $.50/1 online games. [↩]

We have been going through a play-along with KTo out of position against an unknown player. If you are new to this page you can find all the previous posts below.

• $.25/.50 No-Limit Hold ‘Em play-along with KTo, Part 1: Preflop
• *My thoughts* on $.25/.50 No-Limit Hold ‘Em play-along with KTo, Part 1: The flop
• $.25/.50 No-Limit Hold ‘Em play-along with KTo, Part 2: The Flop
• *My thoughts* $.25/.50 No-Limit Hold ‘Em play-along with KTo, Part 2: The Flop
• $.25/.50 No-Limit Hold ‘Em play-along with KTo, Part 3: The Turn
• *My thoughts* $.25/.50 No-Limit Hold ‘Em play-along with KTo, Part 3: The Turn

Moving right along, let’s get to the river card.

The game is $.25/.50 N0-Limit Hold ‘Em on Full Tilt poker. Most of the players there are pretty straightforward. Typically, you will have one or two tight and aggressive players who are decent players and a couple plays that are loos, and then the rest will fall in varying colors in between.

The effective stacks are 100BB. One player limps on the button, the small blind completes, you look down to see:

K♦T♠

I decided to check. The pot has 3BB in it and we have an SPR of ~33. The flop comes:

A♠J♣4♥

I made a bet of 2/3’s of the pot(2BB) and got called by only the button. The pot is now about 6BB(I subtracted the rake).

 

The turn card was the 5 of spades. The board is now:

A♠J♣4♥5♠

I decided to bet out about half the pot(4bb), figuring that I could get many hands to fold here often enough to make it worth my effort (and I had river plan in mind). He called my bet so we went to the river with 13BB in the pot(I subtracted the rake) and you have 93BB behind. The river is:

 

4♣

 

Giving us a final board of:

A♠J♣4♥5♠4♣

 

What is your play here? What range do you give our opponent?

First off, I want to thank everyone for stopping by to contribute their thoughts on this little situation I dreamed up. I felt there was a lesson to be learned in this hand. The lesson is that there is a tie between preflop and postflop and that you must plan your hand accordingly.

Here is the hand:

Say you have QQ in LP and a tight player raises to 3BB in EP. You give him a range of AQ+/JJ+(maybe with TT in there too). You both have 100BB and your image is also of a tight player. The blinds are tight and straightforward. Everyone folds to you.

What is your plan from here forward?

I will give my thoughts in a few days. As always, be sure to include your reasoning and what you expect to do afterwards. Thanks for the info all!

I also later added that I believe this player is generally going to 4-bet QQ+ and and either fold or call with AKo/JJ-TT. If we are to call I would expect him to c-bet all of his range.

If you take the REM(range, equity, maximize) process from Professional No-Limit Hold ‘Em then it helps straighten this hand out. Read on to hear my thoughts about how to maximize in this situation

In my last article I spoke about the advantages of using a generally exploitive strategy to take advantage of your weaker opponents. I adamantly believe that too many poker players are worried too much about giving up some information and not enough about exploiting their opponents.

A lot of players choose their postflop betting lines based on having a balancing strategy. The logic usually goes with something like “I will bet in this spot when I miss, so therefore I have to bet when I hit”, or vice versa.

That is the entire logic behind a play.

Doesn’t this seem a little fuzzy to anyone? Read more about the balancing act

In poker, as in many things it in life, it is easy to take a concept and to apply it incorrectly. This can mean many things. This can mean playing too many hands on the button because positional advantage is huge. It can mean playing too many hands because you think you can “make up for it” postflop. It can mean playing too aggressively in certain situations. A poker concept that has spun violently out of control is playing in such a way that a good opponent cannot exploit you.

Where this concept is mostly applied is towards bet sizing. Many believe that if you vary your bet sizing with the strength of your hand that you opponents will be able to figure out what your hand is and take advantage of the accuracy of the range that they can assign to you. This is a fine argument if it is taken for just that. Read more about this overemphasized concept