{"text":"equity, mainly QQ \u2013 AA and 54 s. Therefore, BB\u2019s overpair value region still allows us to play with a polarized Polarized Describes a range that is mainly very strong made hands or bluffs, with very few middle strength hands. betting strategy. Yet, we can\u2019t check-fold everything that missed. Let\u2019s take a closer look at how we should proceed on the flop by contrasting with another flop. Betting \/ Checking Frequency Usually, as the 3-bettor on a flop like KJ3 r , we have a large incentive to be polarized with our overpair nut advantage. That means our value hands want to be betting often, using a geometric size derived from the stack-to-pot ratio (SPR) Stack-to-pot ratio (SPR) The effective stack divided by the size of the pot. SPR is commonly used to gauge the value of implied odds and the relative value of made hands. that can get us all-in by the river. On a KJ3 board where we have a clear nut and equity advantage over our opponent, we can thus get away with betting our entire range, even out of position . On the previous 854 r flop, however, we lost both our nut advantage and equity advantage as the BB. Therefore, we had to check more often. This comparison is clear when we compare 854r to a flop like KJ3r, where we do zero checking as the 3-bettor. Continuation Betting The Flop OK, let\u2019s look at what hands we should consider continuation betting. First off, GTO Wizard tells us that we should begin splitting our range between bets and checks on the flop. That means no range betting . We should be checking roughly 64% of the time, and when we do bet, we prefer a larger size of 75% pot. This makes sense because 150bb deep, we need to start betting a bit bigger on the flop already to set up an all-in by the river with our value hands. A common rookie mistake is to think that as the PFR with a preflop range advantage in overpairs and AK , we can blindly c-bet for half pot with our entire range on any flop \u2014 the data shows that this is far from the case. First takeaway : When we do c-bet this board, we do so for a large size and c-bet only 30% of the time. The second point that we should observe is how we treat our suited hands differently. In this example, we will examine our case study hand, K \u2663 Q \u2663 . Of all our suited hands, only three-quarters have backdoor flush draws. The one that doesn\u2019t, which in this situation is clubs, should be handled with much less aggression. In the graphic above, we can see that our betting frequency is dramatically reduced when we compare K \u2666 Q \u2666 to the K \u2663 Q \u2663 . One reason is that KQ of clubs cannot make a nutted backdoor flush, but another reason that\u2019s often missed is that it\u2019s also a hand that blocks hands we want our opponent"}
{"text":"a prize more than first place prize money, Sergei, the short stack, takes home less than half of what he was guaranteed to take with no deal in place . This type of Chip Chop is clearly a bad idea, so what typically happens is a Chip Chop deal based on the percentage of chips, but after everyone has locked up the min-cash. So in this example, everyone would take home $2,300 and deal based on the remaining prize pool, which would be $11,800. Such a deal would look like this: On the surface, this looks like a favorable deal for all parties. The bottom three stacks have all secured more than their projected finish position would pay them, Jane barely sacrifices any of her 2nd place prize money to lock it up, and Bob takes the biggest hit but still locks up a lot more than 2nd place. ICM deals The ICM Deal is the alternative to the Chip Chop deal and is the gold standard for final table deals. ICM has limitations as a strategy and also in final table deals: It doesn\u2019t account for skill. ICM assumes all the players are of equal ability. ICM ignores blinds increasing. If you know the blinds are about to increase, that can affect the optimal strategy, especially with shortstacks involved. ICM doesn\u2019t factor in table dynamics. For example, being seated next to an aggressive chip leader can be a nightmare to play. The only thing an ICM deal considers are the payouts and the stacks of the remaining players. Let\u2019s go back to our first example and look at it through the lens of ICM instead. Below is the exact same final table but with the ICM value of each stack. We have also added the Chip Chop value from the previous table so you can compare the two: You can see why a chip leader favors the Chip Chop deal, it is worth $706.29 more to them. Jane, second in chips, also does slightly better with Chip Chop. That money comes from our three short stacks, who are all between $200-$300 worse off with the Chip Chop deal. Two things always strike players who first encounter ICM when they are making final table deals: The big stack is always worth less than most players think, the short stack is always worth more than most players think. The key takeaway here is that ICM deals favor shorter stacks. This is a core principle of ICM, the fewer chips you have, the more each one is worth. In this example, one big blind is worth $299.11 to the short stack, but only worth $64.91 to the chip leader . If these payouts seem wrong or unfair to you, let\u2019s explore them further. Below are the projected finish distributions based on the ICM model for this final table, if no deal was struck: Bob wins it more than anyone else, but 64% of the time he doesn\u2019t come 1st, making a Chip Chop deal for more than 2nd place prize money unfair. Sergei busts"}
{"text":"Based on the previous premise, there is no reason for a player to have any particular suit in their range more frequently than any other. So, suit isomorphism can also be applied to the 22,100 specific flops, effectively reducing the game to 1,755 strategically unique flops. The four flops A\u2660K\u2660Q\u2660, A\u2665K\u2665Q\u2665, A\u2663K\u2663Q\u2663, and A\u2666K\u2666Q\u2666 can be studied as if they were the exact same flop because on each of them, any given range will always have the exact same number of flopped flushes, flush draws, sets, top pair, etc, and a hand like a flush will always be played the same regardless of the suit. For example J\u2660T\u2660 on A\u2660K\u2660Q\u2660 will be played exactly as J\u2665T\u2665 on A\u2665K\u2665Q\u2665. There are two main reasons why we would want to reduce the size of the game. The first is that, as humans, it is easier to \u201clearn\u201d strategies for only 1,755 flops rather than 22,100. The second is for saving server time in solver calculations. Instead of calculating redundant flops over and over again, we can run only one of each type of isomorphic flop and extrapolate from the results. Dynamic and Static Boards The concept of Flop Volatility was first introduced by Will Tipton in his excellent book Expert Heads Up No Limit Hold\u2019em, Volume1: Optimal and Exploitative Strategies (D&B Publishing). \u201cSo, the second important texture-related property of a flop is how likely future cards are to change the relative values of players\u2019 hands. This likelihood is a property of the flop in combination with players\u2019 ranges. We will call boards on which hands are very likely to change in value by the river \u2018volatile\u2019. Boards on which good hands are likely to stay good and bad hands likely to stay bad are called \u2018static\u2019.\u201d In essence volatile (or dynamic) boards are those in which the player\u2019s hand equities can shift drastically in value on future streets, and static boards are those in which the hand equities tend to remain relatively constant on most runouts. Low and connected boards with possible flush and straight draws are very dynamic, and offsuit disconnected flops with high cards tend to be static. For example, in a typical BB vs EP single raised pot, the flop 8\u26657\u26653\u2666 would be a dynamic board because there are many cards that can come and promote or demote the hand values in both players\u2019 ranges. Any heart will complete a flush, and any 5, 6, 9, T or J can complete a straight. Also, any turn or river card higher than an 8 can make a random hand improve to a higher pair than the flopped top pair, while on a flop like K\u26607\u26662\u2665, the hand\u2019s value will remain relatively constant on most turns and rivers."}
{"text":"still just shoving in rivers three diamonds and now we have to ask is this opponent ever betting the river well probably not right so we can go ahead and forget about that so if that's the question we have to ask should we bet should we lead the problem here with leading from a game theory optimal point of view it's like yes we have straights and flushes in our range but our opponent has flushes they actually do have nut flushes in the range with ace king ace Queen maybe ice dragon diamonds so I think we have to be a little bit careful leading here because when we lead we're probably gonna get called by over pairs with a diamond cases with diamond Kings with diamond queens with diamond that's my dear right not a whole lot of hands and when we get raised well I think we reluctantly have to fold so again one people are never raised us on the river if we bet cuz a bluff probably not but some people will not very often though probably not a tight passive player in a 600 dollar tournament so anyway I don't hate leading but I think checking is probably just okay especially if the opponent does have a hand like ace king and we'll take a see demons king or Ace King of Diamonds and continue bluffing it at this point we are playing five hundred thousands we've been playing for quite a while in earnest maybe we have a bit of a read on the opponent's how often they are actually willing to run turning river bluffs and if it is frequently then definitely check if it's never then leading becomes viable we're trying to get called by over pairs right so I bet small given this board justices we haven't nope we have no Bluff see right so ever you have no Bluffs and the opponent's range really shrunk up to mostly marginal stuff I like a small bit of about 8,000 and Mike goes all-in and I don't like this player this is kind of similar to the previous one where yes you have a good hand one of the best things we can have but what are we trying to get called by we're trying to get called by a marginal hand and right here on given aces is marginal right so I think the only we could call my hand like aces is to bet something like 8,000 whereas if we blast it all in there they're just gonna fold I'm sure now I'm gonna say that aces are gonna call us Punk called well there you go Kings huh wrong again Jonathan wrong again opponent call literal nothing um clearly you don't expect the opponent to call it literal nothing and to be fair this actually shows you a big difference in where the way players think about hands right Kings is an awful hand here especially King of Spades king of clubs because they don't block any of the"}
{"text":"determine: Does Hero want a raising range here? If so, should this hand be part of it? Ask yourself these questions before we come to the answer. In this next hand, let's assume that Hero has the player specific read that the Villain on the BU is very tame and folds a lot in the face of aggression as was already likely of his player type. Pre-flop: Generous pot odds and being against a BU opening range coupled with some degree of frequent strength make this hand too good to fold. Calling is +EV and best. Flop: Okay so let's tackle the two questions:"}
{"text":"in this video we are going to be discussing mastering the fundamentals of Poker Tournaments and before we move forward it is important to realize that poker tournaments are very different than cash games for a few reasons the first reason is that there's a payout structure in tournaments that essentially results in chips not being directly one-to-one equal to money one so you'll find that there are various spots in poker tournaments where you should be quite cautious and quite passive because there's a lot of value in moving up the payout ladder also you're going to find that compared to cash games you have to learn how to play lots of various short stack situations well because you're gonna end up with all sorts of varying stack depths usually that are somewhat short in a tournament whereas in a cash game you can just reload and have a deep stack all the time so you're gonna find that for the most part in most tournaments especially small stakes and online tournaments you're gonna be playing with a medium or shallow stack so we're not going to cover that in this video we actually already have a video discussing deep stacked play check it out it is mastering the fundamentals of cash game strategy in this video we are going to specifically discuss how to play 25 big lines deep 15 big blinds deep and 10 big blinds deep before the Flop we're gonna show how your pre-flop strategy should adjust sometimes very drastically as your stack decreases so that's what we're going to be covering in this video let's get right to it first we're going to discuss pre-flop strategy then we're going to move on to post flop strategy later we're going to start discussing 25 big blind poker and I realize you may find yourself with a deeper sack and 25 big lines but check out all the other content I've made and the content at pokercoaching.com that discusses how to play deeper stack depths in general when they fold to you before the Flop playing 25 big lines deep I generally recommend you follow the GTO charts we have available at pokercoaching.com in our app simple as that I know a lot of people think that they want to try to maximally adjust to take advantage of the things their opponent is doing correctly but before the Flop it's kind of hard to get too out of line unless your opponents are just overly overly weak and tight and passive and you know maybe your opponents will be weekend tied and passive but I think if anything a sack starts to get a little bit shallow a lot of players start shoving all in far too often which does not allow you to open raise all that wide so follow the GTO charts I'm gonna be showing you the GTO charts in just a second so you have GTO charge for many common scenarios you will be in when they fold to you you should usually raise"}
{"text":"Or 2. Calling instead of raising. Small Pocket Pair Curse: When a small pocket pair misses the flop and is behind, it only has two outs to improve, but when it misses the flop and is ahead, most hands have at least six outs against it. Squeeze: To Squeeze is to 3-bet after one or more players have called an open. Thick Value: Thick V alue occurs when Hero's hand is comfortably ahead when called - it's not close. Thin Value: Thin V alue occurs when Hero's relative hand strength hand is fairly weak, but still good enough to get called by a range it has +50% equity against. Tilt: Tilt is any deviation from an optimal logical thought process caused by emotional interference leading to lower EV plays being made. Triple Barrel: Hero Triple Barrels when he c-bets the flop and turn and then bets the river when called. A Triple Barrel Bluff is the same thing as a light river c-bet. Hero's intention is to realise fold equity. Turn Probe: A Turn Probe is a bet made by the pre-flop caller out of position on the turn after the pre-flop raiser has checked the flop behind. It may be made for value, protection or as a bluff. Uncapped Range: An Uncapped Range has not been limited in this way by Villain's actions and can contain the strongest hands possible. Vacuum EV: When we look at the EV of a play in one hand in isolation we are considering V acuum EV . Value Bet: A V alue Bet is a bet made where Hero expects to have +50% equity vs. Villain's continuing range to that bet. Value Own: Hero V alue Owns himself when he mistakenly tries to value bet a hand that is too thin to value bet. Versatility: V ersatile hands can connect with flops in a number of different ways. Being able to flop either a flush draw, straight draw or a decent pair promises more potential favourable boards post- flop. Vulnerable SDV: A hand has Vulnerable SDV if and only if: 1. It can often win at showdown unimproved. 2. Turn and river cards can make it even weaker and harder to call bets with. 3. Villain can have a significant amount of hands that can easily outdraw it."}
{"text":"calling range gets expanded by incorporating more hands such as KQs, 44, AQo (62%), A5s, A9s (27%), and A4s (86%) (Hand Range 81). Hand Range 80: BB vs CO Open \u2022 3-bet 9.7% \/ \u2022 Call 25.7% \/ \u2022 Fold 64.6%"}
{"text":"Community cards The face up cards shared by all players in a hand postflop."}
{"text":"Hand Range 263: UTG+1 vs UTG (40bb) \u2022 3-bet 4.8% \/ \u2022 Call 4% \/ \u2022 Fold 91.2%"}
{"text":"hand you should be trying to range your opponents so again it's just a really effective method to try and help you learn how to hand read and make reads on your opponents so pay attention to every hand another way to study of course is hire a coach um you know you can join training sites and that's great but there's really something about having one-on-one coaching and having a coach watch your hand histories that'll really help improve your game so there are a bunch of different poker coaches out there with different rates and we have a lot of them here to choose from so definitely consider hiring a coach I know it's pricey but you have to consider the money that you're investing in poker as tuition so another really good way to study is by joining a poker group chat and running hand histories by your friends I find that this is a really helpful way to bounce ideas off of your friends and people that are better than you by far I think the best the thing that improved my game the most was talking hand histories with players that are better than me you have to kind of put your ego aside and not be afraid to even if you feel embarrassed not be afraid to ask that question to your friends like I have been playing poker professionally for 12 years and I still get confused and I still I'm in a poker group chat and my friends are sending me even pre-flop hand spots that they're confused about so there's nothing to be embarrassed about all the pros get confused um so definitely consider joining um a group chat if you don't have friends in poker there's forums you can use like two plus two so really try and get involved in the community so if you have a hand that you're confused about you know run it by friends and see what they have to say also when you're at the table if you're playing live you should be writing down your hand histories that you're confused about and then run it by your friends or your coach or review them yourself off the phone and when you're playing tournaments you always want to double check your bust out hands just go back and review the hand that you busted out in and make sure that it was a good spot and see if there was something else you can do better so I've created a four-step study plan for you to follow when you're going about studying poker step one pick your topic so you're going to write down all of the different topics of Poker you need help with and then you're gonna pick one of those topics and try and delegate one week to studying that one area Okay so step one pick your topic step two learn your topic so you're going to be studying and researching your topic all week you want to learn everything you possibly"}
{"text":"Hand Range 178: BB vs CO 4-bet (60bb) \u2022 All-in 27.9% \/ \u2022 Call 36.5% \/ \u2022 Fold 35.6%"}
{"text":"10 Tips for Multiway Pots in Poker While lots of work has been placed into research and explanation of heads-up pot strategy, multiway pots still largely remain an unexplored frontier in poker. Multiway dynamics feature very different strategic ideas compared to HU. As expert player Matt Hunt stated in his multiway course, Three\u2019s A Crowd : \u201cMultiway postflop spots are more similar to multiway preflop than heads-up postflop\u201d. We\u2019ve written this article to provide a theoretical foundation for improving your multiway play. GTO Wizard plans to launch multiway postflop solutions in 2024 . However, this article aims to equip you with the knowledge you need to crush your opponents now. It\u2019s important to note that many of the heuristics used in multiway preflop play also apply to multiway postflop. Many players mistake these principles as being specific to preflop when, in reality, they often stem from the broader dynamics of multiway pots. Table of Contents 1) Multiway Equilibrium Problems 2) Shared Burden Of Defense\u2026 3) Tight Is Right 4) Stop Rangebetting 5) Nut Potential is King 6) Higher Implied (And Reverse Implied) Odds 7) Use Smaller Bet Sizes 8) Positional Advantage Increases 9) Blocker Effects Are Amplified 10) Capped Ranges Are Less Exploitable Conclusion 1) Multiway Equilibrium Problems Before we dive into the nitty-gritty, we must examine how the fundamental claims of Nash Equilibrium (GTO) change in multiway spots. Nash Equilibrium has a desirable property: if you follow a GTO strategy, you are assured a minimum expected value, and your opponent\u2019s errors can only raise your payoff. This assurance is absent multiway. There is no such thing as an unexploitable strategy in multiway scenarios . Your expected value is no longer guaranteed. When someone makes a mistake in a multiway pot, their expected value isn\u2019t simply distributed to the remaining players in the hand as you might expect. That player\u2019s mistake can decrease someone else\u2019s expected value to the benefit of a third player! No strategy, be it GTO or exploitative, is safe from this effect. If this is the case, how can we be sure the GTO solution for multiway scenarios are legitimate? This question has been tackled by Noam Brown, a prominent expert in computational game theory and the creator of advanced poker AI\u2019s such as Libratus and Pluribus. When asked about the distinction between Heads-Up and Multiway poker in an interview with Lex Friedman, Noam stated ( paraphrased ): \u201cIt turns out that the methods used to approximate equilibrium in 2-player poker work effectively in practice for 6-player poker, due to the adversarial nature of the game where players do not cooperate.\u201d We know that GTO can be approximated in multiway poker. Other evidence for this claim comes from the fact that different solver algorithms reach the same multiway strategies even using vastly different methods. With the hardcore theory out of the way, let\u2019s now delve into the most impactful factors in multiway pots. 2) Shared Burden Of Defense In poker, we use Minimum Defense Frequency ( MDF ) to calculate how wide some player needs to defend to"}
{"text":"and rivering a pair is a path to victory for both these hands. Overbetting destroys the value of second pair. Barreling a Blank Turn After betting 75% pot on the flop and getting 2 \u2663 turn , all these unpaired hands have modest equity at best. Some of them lose more than others by betting again, however: AJ has slightly less equity than the straight and flush draws, but it loses the most by betting, so it bets least often. Its only hope for improving is to make a pair on the river, and that will be worth more in a small pot than in a large one. A5, Q5, and QJ find themselves in a similar situation in terms of pair outs, but because they also have stronger draws , they are better candidates for bluffing. 86 has such poor equity to begin with that it\u2019s not giving up much by bluffing on a turn card where BTN gets to do a lot of bluffing. One pair on the river will be worth more in a small pot than in a large one. 175% pot is by far BTN\u2019s most used size in this spot, and the chart provides some clues as to why. In addition to having many strong hands that want to shovel money into the pot, BTN also has many weak hands like these whose equity when called does not depend terribly much on the size of the bet . Our example hands all do about as badly when an overbet is called as they do when 75% pot is called, so they aren\u2019t giving up much by using the larger size. Conclusion Equity when called is a good metric for determining how good a hand is for betting, but it is only a first approximation. No matter how +EV a bet may be, checking could still be better. You can compare the values of betting and checking with a few simple questions, which will help you determine not only whether to bet but also how much to bet: Where does this hand\u2019s equity come from? If the hand improves, will it perform better in a smaller or larger pot? How well will the hand realize its equity after checking? How much does the hand benefit from fold equity? Keep in mind that the answers could change from street to street! A hand that was not strong enough to bet the flop could still be a good bet on the turn, even if it did not improve. Protecting your equity in this way will help you prosper by squeezing maximum value from your marginal hands. GTO Wizard the #1 App for Poker players Study any spot imaginable Practice by playing vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Andrew Brokos Andrew Brokos has been a professional poker player, coach, and author for over 15 years. He co-hosts the Thinking Poker Podcast and is the author of the Play Optimal Poker books, among others. Latest article Navigating Nasty Rivers Out of Position Playing out"}
{"text":"9.1 Using Combos Pre-Flop The following hand illustrates a spot that we'll deal with more closely in Chapter 11 on reacting to 3- bets. For now we'll use this situation as a good example of how an appreciation of combos can help us avoid a very common pitfall that I often see among my students. Generally speaking, if Hero is going to 4-bet QQ BU vs BB it will be with the intention of calling a shove. Let's say for the sake of argument only that we know Villain's range is exactly [KK+ AK] when he shoves over the 4-bet. This could make 4-betting somewhat questionable in Hero's position if Villain doesn't flat many worse hands, but we'll ignore this for now. Some students will now ask the following question: \"How can calling the shove with QQ be +EV? If Villain is only shoving KK, AA and AK, then surely Hero is either flipping or crushed?\" Okay before we go any further: what is the first thing Hero actually needs to consider in this situation? That's right, his required equity (RE) to make the call. If Hero fails to take this into account then he'll be on the wrong track from the start of his analysis. This is an End Of Action Spot (see Chapter 7) We know that RE = ATC \/ (ATC + TP), which in this case is:"}
{"text":"Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the\u2026 Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get\u2026 Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being\u2026 Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of 400K\/800K\/800K,\u2026 Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?\u2026 Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of Canadian programmers from Quebec, developed\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Explained We are excited to introduce GTO Wizard AI, formerly known as Ruse, the world\u2019s best\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Benchmarks GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional"}
{"text":"This hand, like the last is very stable. There are no turn cards that Hero has to worry about and Villain won't be folding any reasonable equity. There is, however, a very good reason to bet this spot in many situations: value! It's essential to start building the pot here, especially against a fishier player or someone who might look to fight back lighter against c-bets. Checking here is not an option as long there is a good chance of getting three streets of value from worse hands. Alternatively, a bet is also mandatory where Hero is against an aware aggressive player and wants to bet enough good hands to compensate for all the air he'll be c-betting on this lovely dry board. We are no longer in the realms of SDV , but have drifted into the green value zone. Multiwayness My computer puts a big red line under that word, but it's one of my favourite poker terms so it'll just have to deal with it. Multiwayness is by far the simplest and easiest factor to assess. The more opponents that are in the hand, the more likely one of them has flopped something they don't want to part with, and the less fold equity we have. Let's use some more combined probability math to demonstrate. Imagine that we raise pre-flop, get called by one straightforward opponent and see a flop of: Without going into the specifics of any exact situation, let's assume that, on average, on this dry flop"}
{"text":"Range advantage A general term meaning one player's range equity distribution is stronger on a given board. It's possible to have an advantage only over a specific part of the equity distribution. A large advantage near the top of the range indicates a nut advantage."}
{"text":"nan"}
{"text":"the boys wouldn't like that. Each man likes to deal. Besides, they'd probably suspect I had a confederate dealing me winning hands. What's the other idea?' 'Let's get two old decks and sit at the table.' When this was done I passed one deck to Monty, who was sitting to my left. 'Now assume I have just dealt and after the showdown am arranging the discards, preparing to shuffle them,' I said. I mixed up the cards and began to gather them in, simulating an actual case. 'Now you start dealing draw or stud.' Monty began dealing seven-handed draw. By the time he was through dealing each imaginary person five cards, I had finished shuffling my pack, and placed it to Monty's left. 'You note,' I said, 'with two decks we handle the discards as we do now except that they are tossed to the dealer rather than to the player at the dealer's left. After the showdown the dealer picks up the discards and shuffles while the player to his left, you in this case, is dealing. It will speed up the deals twenty-five per cent according to my calculations with my dad's stop watch and consequently increase the cuts by a like amount.' 'Excellent idea, kid. We'll start this at once. Want your share of the increased cut?' he joked. 'You're kidding me, Monty.' His face was usually in repose or deadpan, but when he broke into a smile the whole room seemed to light up. 'Got time to give me some fine points on deuces wild?' I asked diffidently. 'I've got time to give you hell for not raising on pat hands,' he said. 'You've made that mistake several times. Now, if you have a pat hand - a straight, flush or a full -and aren't in a position to raise in order to chase the timid soul, every son-of-a-bitch and his brother is going to draw against you, for as you know, these simpletons act like they're playing straight draw instead of draw with four wild deuces and the joker. 'Remember,' he continued, 'with five wild cards, almost anyone can open, and they do. On the other hand, in straight draw only a player with jacks or better can open. In deuces, holding a pat hand, I'd risk a passed pot rather than open. Oh, you might open if you sit just one position to the dealer's right,' he concluded. 'I'll try to remember, Monty,' I said in a low voice. 'Oh, don't be so sensitive about it. It's for your own good.' Monty was laughing at me. 'As I said, these simpletons, except for a few exceptions, open with one deuce, or a joker - two aces, two kings, three small ones - about everything in the deck. If all of them draw, you'll get beat with a pat hand. Suppose they all draw and someone bets you a hunk? What you going to do?' 'Eat them, I guess.' 'Now, here's the way to play the pat hand,' he continued. 'Check and wait for someone to open."}
{"text":"a chronic bluffer. \u2022 Who are the calling stations? Observe which players refuse to be bluffed. Then, you can avoid trying to bet busted hands at them. However, you should be able to bet with a large number of marginal hands on the river for value against these players. Once you have identified a calling station, you can bet with hands as weak as second pair on the river, as you will be getting called by any pair or even ace high. \u2022 How liberally do your opponents defend their blind hands? Some players automatically call a raise from the big blind position, reasoning that they are already halfway in. You can expect these players to show down a wide variety of hands. Others use more discretion, calling only with good hands. This list can go on and on, as there are a number of things to look for. If you remember to watch the hand as it plays out, and recreate the betting after you see the hands turned up, you will begin to find patterns in the play of your opponents. Most hold\u2019em players tend to play the same hands the same way time after time. Once you have identified some reliable tendencies or patterns, you can develop ways to exploit them for your benefit. Tip # 48 of 52 Detecting and using tells can add to your profits. Just as you can learn about your opponents by observing how they play their hands, much can also be ascertained by watching their actions and body language. Many of your opponents tend to emit the same \u201csignals\u201d time and again, which you can use to deduce the strength of their hand. These signals are commonly called tells in poker terminology. Careful observation of your opponents can identify valuable tells, which will make or save you a significant amount of money over time. Your many opponents exhibit a wide assortment of tells. There are, however, a few common ones to be on the lookout for. Once you are accustomed to spotting these tells, you will also become more adept at finding others. Some typical tells and their likely meanings follow. Folding Out of Turn If you look to your left before you act, you often notice some of your opponents preparing to fold their hands. They may not literally fold out of turn, but one glance at them alerts you that they are not going to play. This tell is helpful because it effectively alters your position. For example, one reason why you must pass some decent hands from middle position is that you don\u2019t know yet what your opponents behind you are going to do. However, if it is obvious that they are going to fold, you have just \u201cinherited\u201d the button. So, you can now play hands appropriate to that position. Placing Chips on Their Cards When an opponent places a chip on his cards, it usually means that he is going to play his hand. If you look to your left and observe this, it may help you avoid"}
{"text":"a stronger hand that's closer to 0EV . This one isn't close as Villain is likely to be so unbalanced towards bluffs. I call it a 'bog standard call'."}
{"text":"way too wide because they hate the idea of forfeiting their big one that they've invested already so they're going to have way way more junk than normal and way more junk than they should and you'll be able to play position against them so if the bit line is an unknown or defending a proper range then you can stick to the charts as a general guideline if you're in late position say the cutoff or the big blind and you're on the fence about and open you'll want to see what type of players in the small blind as well again some people have a three bet or fold only strategy from the small blind so if you have for example him like King do suited on the button and you know that the small blind has a three better fold only strategy king deuce should could be a hand that you open because a your king blocks a decent chunk of their three bet range and be if you do get three bed it's a decent hand to four bit Bluff because of you have removal with the king so these are just some things to consider when you're thinking about how to play your resource in range versus the small blend so more on opponents um adjust your range based on the table Dynamic so you don't only want to think about your opponents as individuals but how the table is playing as a whole what ask yourself what is the game Flow been like if it's an aggressive table you should tighten up if the table is super passive then you should be opening a lot of hands is it a fun loose friendly table are the majority of players drinking alcohol uh these can be some things to take into consideration um as well are any of my opponents tilted so if so figure out a way to adjust to that there are different types of tilt uh some players tilt by playing too many hands never folding the three bets try and get their chips in the middle as fast as possible against these players you should tighten up until you have a hand and when you do have a hand you should be bombing it size-wise if you're at a table with tilted or weak layers you want to try and isolate them or invite them into the pot so you can outplay them post-wide other players tilt because they feel like no matter what they do they are always getting beat you ever get that feeling like you just feel like you can't win a hand every time you have a hand someone's got you out kicked or something like that so these players have a tendency to overfold their hands so you can exploit this by opening wider and see budding more versam sometimes even the best players have a bad day and it can affect how they play at the table so picking up on this is very important because you"}
{"text":"I only three bet the suited ones and keep an eye out for people that three bet all these awesome combos like if you start seeing the three about King ten off or a steno for a Sadoff suit like they're just gonna be three bet bluffing way too much and you just start for betting them so quick note there and then a lot of these other questions I will get to at the end we have our questions segment but you can keep typing them in so now that we've looked at both polar and linear ranges reasons to use a linear range so number one deep stack poker 100 plus big blinds deep you are deep enough to call a four bet and you're not as worried about having to fold equity preflop another key point reasons to use a linear range is positions where you don't flat call often so small blind versus button raises with a strong player on the big blind when you're in the small blind you're gonna want to be using a linear range because when you flat call the big blind is in beginning a very very good price now and now the pots gonna be going three ways a lot of the time and by three betting the small blind against a wide button range using a linear range you get the pot heads up you're gonna win the pot more preflop and it's just you're gonna create more equity playing the pot heads up then you do 3-way especially if it's a strong player in the big blind if there's a weak player in the big blind then I would flat call more the other key point where you want to use the positions where you'd want a linear range at law is like middle position there's just very few hands that are profitable flat calls if you're safe facing like if the low Jack opens and you're in the high jack or say under the gun to opens and you're in middle position it's there's very few profitable hands to flat call especially if there's aggressive players behind and so you can kind of use a tighter linear range and not flat call very often in those positions you often find that a linear 3betting range and kind of limiting the hands that you flat call is going to be much better versus one we'll see in the next slide later position like on the button you want to use a more polar range because you can flat call a lot more profitable same thing it's a big blind it's just much more profitable to flat call because you're closing the action so in those positions it's much better to use a polar range the other important reason to use a linear range is to isolate a very weak player so it gets a weak player always 3bet linear don't worry about three betting polar against weak or poor players number one they call too much so you don't want"}
{"text":"AQ3r is a horrible flop for the BB, who will only be able to capture 14% of the pot (half of their equity). In this match-up, most of the BB\u2019s range becomes trash hands with almost no hope to improve. With only about 3% strong hands, there isn\u2019t much the BB can do to stop UTG from c-betting their range for a large bet-size, which forces a fold 68% of the time. Diagram 100"}
{"text":"When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody asked me whether it was correct because it involved a very surprising range . Preflop Setup 75% of the field remains in this Progressive Knockout (PKO) Tournament Progressive Knockout Tournament (PKO) In poker, a PKO (Progressive Knockout) tournament is a tournament format where a portion of the buy-in goes toward a bounty on each player\u2019s head. In PKO tournaments, when a player eliminates another player, they typically receive a cash prize for half of the eliminated player\u2019s bounty. The remaining half of the bounty is added to their own head for other players to try to claim. When two or more players win, in a split pot, the bounty is divided equally across all winners. Note, some sites such as Pokerstars run PKO tournaments where \u2154 or even the full prize pool are dedicated to bounty prizes. . Action folds to the CO with 69bb and a $75 bounty. The BTN has 37bb, the SB has 13bb, and the BB has 21bb. All of these players behind the CO have $50 bounties. The CO opens with this range: So far, so good. But this BTN response is unusual: You are not looking at an error, nor have the color settings in GTO Wizard changed. The BTN continues 39% of the time, and when they do, they only call ; they never raise . I have never seen a pure flatting range like this before, but I have seen very similar ranges in PKOs before. Once you understand the format well, this range will make sense. The shape of the range looks like an opening range if BTN were first to act . It\u2019s rare to see linear Linear A range construction that consists of the top-down strongest hands. A linear range might contain nutted to medium-strength hands, or value to thin value. flatting ranges like this in any format. It\u2019s always helpful to compare PKO ranges to their nearest ChipEV equivalent. Here is the 35bb effective BTN response to a CO open : The continuing range\u2019s overall shape is similar , but it is much wider in the PKO . The BTN continues with 27.6% of hands here compared to 39% of hands in the PKO, which is not a great surprise. There is a significant 3-betting range in the non-PKO solution, however. All the big overpairs are 3-bet to some degree, as does AK . The value hands are accompanied by an assortment of bluff hands, giving us board coverage. Pay Attention to Whom You Cover in PKOs The answer to why the BTN only calls reveals perhaps the most important strategic adjustment in PKO tournaments. As discussed in our article on Table Management in PKOs , knowing who you cover is the most critical consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments. How often you enter the pot and whether you open, raise, or call should be determined by how the players you cover may respond. This is all because of"}
{"text":"fifty big blind stack so Matthew asks a decent question should we do doing more value three betting with smaller stacks with ace Queen and ace jack and the answer is yes those hands become more value oriented the shorter your stack especially the students so ace Queen suited ace Jack suited I think are very good value three bets are fifty big blinds players are gonna call your three bet and then you're gonna flop top pairs that you dominate especially because most players are gonna Jam with their ace King preflop so a screen becomes a very good value three bet at fifty big blinds because you know if they flat call now they never have ace king so three letting ace queen at fifty big blinds it's really good because you make them play the range face up because they're almost always gonna just jam with ace king and so ace high boards now are so easy to play with ace Queen you have the nuts first is it 150 big blinds if these three about ace Queen offsuit at 150 they might just call with ace king so now you still have to be kind of cautious than a cyborg so he's ace queen and ace jack type hands become better three bets at fifty big blinds and 150 because ace king is mostly gonna be jamming against your three bet and so you kind of clear up your outs Stannis and our fifty big blind stack range are we calling off to a four bet with all these hands in red or are we folding the weaker ones that king queen off ace Jack suited ace Queen off yes so against most players especially if you're playing a small stakes tournament like let's say you're playing a $300 buy-in tournament and you have fifty big blinds the caliber of play is not gonna be as high and I would always three bet this red range and then I would fold ace queen off ace Queen suited ace Jack suited to the for bet Jam and the king queen suited because players are going to play very face-up once you three Benham they're gonna just for bet with their really good hands but majority people are just gonna call way too much and you're just getting a lot of value with your ace queen and ace jack if your planet gets really tough opponent turn in a four-bit jam hands like ace five suited or pocket fives more aggressive opponents then maybe you can just call with some of those hands or you can start three back calling those hands as well but it kind of depends on your opponent there so let's keep going on this I'm gonna get to some of these questions later stack the pot ratio you've heard me talked about this the first couple of times I want to go over it some people may have not heard the term before or not familiar with it ties back into everything hand playability is"}
{"text":"it could be variance but it could also be you're not as good as your opponents something a lot of people have is a win loss do not have a stop a win loss a stop win can't even say the words they didn't make sense to me do not have a stop win where you quit when you are up a certain amount because when you're winning it presumes the game is good and if the game is good you should keep playing so many players get frustrated or annoyed whenever they get up some money and then they lose it back they think oh man I had that money that was my money and now I lost it back and I'm mad about it I realize you could have won you could have continued winning right and unless the game is no longer good for whatever reason maybe you busted the one bad player at the table and now the game is is bad you should keep playing and some of the most profitable spots in poker will come up where say you play a game where you can only buy in for 150 big blinds or 100 blinds and let's say you get up to five starting Stacks 500 big wines and there's one other player at the table with 500b blinds and they don't know what they're doing that is a highly advantageous spot for you even though you're probably going to lose if this player is blasting hard maybe 40 of the time but the question is will you say flip a coin where you know you're going to win 60 of the time for five buy-ins the answer should probably be yes you should be thrilled with that because you're extracting a large amount of value even though sometimes you're going to lose it's okay remember cash games are one long session and it does not actually matter if you're up or down for the day week or month or the session whatever get all these thoughts out of your mind because they're all irrelevant and they're all going to cause you to make irrational emotional decisions that is going to cost you money in the long run so that's it for now these are the fundamentals you need to understand to really take advantage of the amazing opportunities that cash games currently provide if you have any questions definitely let me know in the comments I'm happy to take a look at those make sure you've watched my mastering the fundamentals course if you are somewhat new to Poker the course is completely free you can get it at pokercoaching.com fundamentals and it will get you up to speed so that you know how to play reasonably well in most spots good luck have fun if you enjoying this video by the way click the like And subscribe button if you have a cash game poker playing friend share this with them that would be very helpful to me good luck have fun thank you"}
{"text":"Exploitation: Hero is even less able to realise fold equity against this player than he is against the Station Fish as this player will call with just as many hands and also raise complete air when he feels like it. As a result, Hero again needs to make sure that he has enough frequent strength in his ISO range to carry out his plan of getting value post-flop from Villain's inability to fold any piece of the board. Hero requires more regular showdown value to punish this type of Fish for his ill-timed bluffs. Type D - The Whale: A Whale is more of a magnitude of Fish than a type, but one against whom Hero's plan shifts somewhat. Identification: In the animal kingdom, a whale is mammal, not a giant Fish; but for our poker purposes, a giant fish is exactly what this player is. A whale tends to play an absurd amount of hands pre-flop and make frequent serious errors. He might do things that appear financially suicidal like shove for 100BB pre-flop with ATo or call down with king-high for three streets. His stats will usually be miles out of line, for example, 95\/80 or 71\/4. He will fold very rarely and refuse to fold in spots where anything else is ridiculous. Other players will share the hands they've played against him with each other purely for amusement purposes. In reality, a Whale is just a player with a very poor understanding of the game, who plays purely for fun and tends not to think very much if at all about how to play well. Exploitation: Now we reach an exception to our usual ISO strategy. Normally, we tighten our range in the face of low fold equity as per the teachings of the ISO triangle. This player however, is so abysmal and makes such gargantuan errors, that Hero needs to simply take every opportunity to isolate him where his frequent strength is anywhere close to reasonable. The value of being the player at the table to capitalise on these huge errors first is so immense, that having to bloat a few pots to miss and give up post-flop is a small price for Hero to pay. Against whales, Hero should look to ISO a very wide range indeed, especially in position, and have a very straightforward value orientated game post-flop. The money will then cascade in his direction."}
{"text":"than the flush draw but has better equity when called than the pure bluff. The nut flush draw, on the other hand, is much closer to a pure value bet , though it\u2019s thinner than AK. A \u2665 4 \u2665 gains very little from folds, but, between the chance of already having the best hand and the chance of improving to a flush or even two pair, it has a respectable 73% equity when called. BTN doesn\u2019t bet QQ at all because it cannot derive significant value from either calls or folds. Hands that fold don\u2019t have much chance of drawing out anyway, and hands that call are mostly better pairs which QQ does poorly against. Some players are reluctant to check QQ in spots like this for fear of getting bluffed, which is a reasonable concern. However, it\u2019s essential to understand that the reason to check QQ is not so much that checking is an appealing option as it is that betting is even less appealing . This is simply a lousy flop for QQ, and checking is the least bad option. A Complicated Example Not all BTN\u2019s bets map so intuitively onto this spectrum. Q \u2665 9 \u2660 is a high-frequency bluff, for example, despite having only 12% equity when called. It gains far less from folds (only 52% equity) compared to other bluffs like 9 \u2663 6 \u2663 . So what makes it such an appealing bluff? Here\u2019s a hint: not all combinations of Q9 are candidates for betting. BTN only bets with a heart, and even then, they bet Q \u2665 9x more frequently than Qx9 \u2665 . Some of this is a blocking effect\u2013BB never folds Q \u2665 X \u2665 , so knowing the Q \u2665 is not in her hand increases the likelihood she will fold \u2013 but that\u2019s not all there is to it. Note that the EV of betting Q \u2665 9 \u2660 is much higher than the EV of betting Q \u2663 9 \u2666 , even though they have similar equity when called. To understand why we must understand the benefits of growing the pot. The BTN benefits from making the pot larger if they are likely to win it. Equity is a rough approximation of what it means to be likely to win, but it only considers wins that result from the hand going to showdown. The other way for the BTN to win is by successfully bluffing on a subsequent street . Showdown equity is only a rough approximation of how likely you are to win the pot. Take a look at BTN\u2019s barreling strategy with Q \u2665 9 \u2660 across all possible turns: Note that betting again is appealing if BTN turns a draw. Of course, this reflects potentially improving to a straight or flush, but even on many blank rivers, this hand can continue to bluff. Once three hearts are on the board, the Q \u2665 is a powerful blocker. Anticipating this possibility, BTN can start bluffing with it as early as the flop, even though it has poor"}
{"text":"If Hero wants to use the geometrical bet-size, it is necessary to slightly overbet the pot on each street: It\u2019s important to notice that implementing the geometrical bet-size when stacks are very deep results in very large bets (often these are overbets). In real poker, the ranges will never be perfectly polarized and betting too large forces the Villain to fold the weaker portions of their range and only continue with the strongest hands. If you bet large enough to make the Villain only call when you are beat, you won\u2019t be able to value-bet any more because betting will lose you money. Thus, there is a cap to the bet-size Hero can use across multiple streets. Particularly when stacks are deep, this cap will be lower than the geometrical bet-size. The geometrical bet-size only applies for situations when one player\u2019s range is perfectly polar"}
{"text":"So it's prudent to use the last two stats together when considering turn decisions and not just this one"}
{"text":"hey everybody this is Alexander Fitzgerald or assassinato and today we are going to be discussing bluffing strategies in online poker tournaments let's do some quizzes see which ones of these you think are bluffs see which ones of these you think are checks are giving up opportunities let's get to work so you raise 9-8 off suit on the button and the big blind calls you the board comes ten five seven it's been checked to you Checker bet five seconds all right that's time we decide to bet two big blinds into seven two ten into 650. the turn is the two of diamonds it's checked to you here would you like to check her back five seconds that is time we decide to bet 810 into 1070. the big blind calls the river is the Ace of Spades it is checked to us here would you like to check her back all right that is time if you did decide to bet how much did you want to bet we decided about four thousand into two thousand six uh 2690 here and our opponent Folds well this one we can go through very quickly when a person check calls you on a board with flush draws and stray draws especially many loose recreational tournament Players many of them would check raise or raise with their two pair sets are better to simultaneously get money from their hand and to protect their hand so when they just check call they often have just one weak pair so when the board Runs Out verily very poorly for the majority of their Pairs and combination wise what pair they have most of the time is a pair that shares a card with the board when the board runs out very poorly for those pairs you should keep firing and a 10 or a seven here did not want to see that flush draw come in and did not want to see that ace of spades on that River so we continued to apply pressure let's try another one we have two five of diamonds somewhat of a loose player goes ahead and raises here would you like to fold color rights that is time we decide to call here the board comes Queen three three check about that's time we check and villain 439 goes ahead and fires 1080 into 2160 here would you like to fold color raise that is time we decide to raise here to 3360. in villain 439 Falls so the reason we're doing that if we check raise about the size of the pot that bet is a complete Bluff needs to work about 50 percent of the time and our opponent here if they're opening too many hands has likely missed this board north of 50 percent of the time so unless they're willing to call us down here with uh High cards or unless they're willing to Bluff again we are very likely to get this Bluff that through because most loose players especially at"}
{"text":"you call in this circumstance, you\u2019ll break even (seven $400 losses, totaling $2,800, versus one $2,800 win). So, this is a call you should make, even if you estimate that you\u2019re going to lose 5 out of 6 times. That would cost $2,000 for the five unsuccessful $400 calls and provide $2,800 for the one successful call\u2014a net gain of $800 for six calls. That\u2019s about $133 profit per call, on average. So, if you don\u2019t make that call\u2014because you know you\u2019re usually going to lose\u2014 you\u2019re costing yourself a lot of money. Now, sometimes you call because you\u2019ve read your opponent and are acting in response to a powerful tell. If you\u2019re good at reading opponents\u2014and I\u2019ll help you out with that in a few minutes\u2014you will increase the profit you 74 make by calling. Otherwise, most of your calls will be made on the basis of evaluating the cards in relation to the size of the pot. You see, in those cases, you\u2019re usually not supposed to win when you call. Burn this into your brain once and for all: \u201cI\u2019m probably going to lose when I call, but it\u2019s a good thing!\u201d You could, of course, only call with your most-likely winning hands. Then you\u2019d average a lot of profit per call. But that would be very bad, because in order to average a lot of money calling, you must sacrifice by not making calls that are individually less profitable, but hugely profitable combined. The truth is that you don\u2019t want to average a lot of profit per call, and you shouldn\u2019t be proud of the fact, if you do. TIP 9 It makes no sense to stay in a poker game, struggling to get even, unless you would normally continue to play that game if you were ahead. If you\u2019re a professional player, then the more hours you spend in games, under good working conditions, the more profit you\u2019ll earn. You get paid by the hour\u2014 pure and simple. Sometimes it might not seem that way, because the fluctuations in poker are so great that it\u2019s hard to imagine yourself working for an hourly wage. But that\u2019s what\u2019s happening. Eventually, the more hours you play under profitable conditions, the more your bankroll will grow. But, you only have so many hours to invest in poker, and you need to invest them wisely. Find the best games. Make sure you\u2019re playing when you\u2019re in condition to do the best job. You need to weigh everything. For instance, it\u2019s not good to play poker when you\u2019re tired. But if the game is very good, you might occasionally choose to continue playing, even if you\u2019re tired. Conversely, sometimes you might choose to go home early and rest, even though the game is profitable, because you think another game will be more profitable tomorrow. So you need to make choices about which hours will be the most profitable. Okay, but what you do not need to do is choose to play for hours on end in an attempt to get even for"}
{"text":"Race A situation where players go all-in before the river, and they have roughly equal equity and therefore, chance of winning. See: Coin flip."}
{"text":"The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A \u2660 A \u2663 in the SB. The BB calls, and the flop is 8 \u2665 6 \u2666 4 \u2665 . He might be tempted to fire a 75% pot c-bet here, as betting allows him to \u201ccharge flush draws on a wet board\u201d and \u201cprotect his hand against some straight draws,\u201d both of which his hand unblocks. Additionally, he might not want to allow his opponent to check behind and see a \u201cfree card,\u201d which could be an unfavorable turn like a heart, 7 , or 5 . Paul might be surprised to learn, however, that this hand is close to a pure check in theory, and betting 75% pot loses him around 7% of the pot in expectation . In this article, we will dive into this scenario and further examine when and when not to bet for protection . We\u2019ll also discover how the concept of protection influences the frequencies and sizings associated with a flop c-bet strategy. When Not To Protect So where does the logic from the above situation break down? While BB does defend against Paul\u2019s 75% bet with flush and straight draws that are behind A \u2660 A \u2663 in raw equity, these draws have relatively high EV due to their implied odds Implied odds A calculation of odds that takes into consideration future betting, thus allowing players to estimate the additional bets they could gain on future streets should they make their hand.Reverse implied odds refer to the value lost when making a hand and losing to a stronger made hand anyway. : they can try to extract value from AA when they hit or bluff off AA when they miss. When BB continues and the runout is \u201cscary,\u201d Paul\u2019s AA will often become a bluff catcher Bluff catcher A hand that is likely only able to beat the opponent\u2019s bluffs, and will therefore likely lose to the opponent\u2019s value hands. , with zero EV in a pot that he built. When Paul the Protector bets his AA, narrowing his opponent\u2019s range so that AA is transformed into a 0EV bluff catcher, he has effectively lost all the money he has put into the pot thus far . This is far from an ideal outcome when holding a hand with such high equity on the flop. Unblocking continues isn\u2019t ideal either: when Paul c-bets 4.5bb into a pot of 6bb, his expected value with A \u2660 A \u2663 when called is 11.19bb. Since this number barely exceeds the starting pot size plus his c-bet size, his hand enjoys only slightly higher EV when BB calls, compared to getting a fold. Put another way, the change to AA \u2019s EV when called (EV \u2212 Flop Contribution) is 6.69bb, whereas the change to its EV when BB folds is 6bb. Getting a fold is almost as good as getting called, highlighting how poorly this hand performs as a value bet . There is another hidden benefit to"}
{"text":"hand is good enough to play. Next question: Should you call or re-raise? Obviously, if your hand rates to be better than his (AA comes to mind), you can always re-raise for value. But think about some other hands that are better than your opponent\u2019s worst, like TT or AQ, with which youcould legitimately either flat-call or re-raise. To figure out which way to go, start by determining whether your hand is at least strong enough to call the raise, then examine whether you think a re-raise will work. When you re-raise the raiser, as you know, many good things can happen. First, you thin the field behind you, ensuring that you get to play this hand heads-up and in position. Second, you gain information, because if your opponent calls your raise and he\u2019s reasonably tight, he\u2019s further defined his hand as one that\u2019s close to the top, not the bottom, of his own raising range. Third, he might just fold right there, which is never a badthing. The possibility of winning the pot now, or at least gaining extra information and taking the lead on the pot for yourself, should motivate you to fire that re-raise when the circumstances are right. But what are the right circumstances? (Hint: It has nothing to do with mixing it up.) Let\u2019s do the math. Let\u2019s say the blinds are 100\/200, so 300 is in the pot. The raiser, not a super-tighty, makes it 600 to go, so now 900 is in the pot. You have pocket 10s, so at minimum you\u2019re calling, no matter what position the raiser is raising from. You know you\u2019re calling at least, so you can count your 600 call as already part of the pot, bringing the total to 1,500. As before, with a calling hand, we assume the call\u2019s been made and the chips are already in the pot. This leaves us free to examine whether the math is right to invest more chips and if so, how many. So we have a total pot of 1,500: his 600 raise, your 600 call, plus the blinds. Generally when you raise, you should raise just about the whole pot. Why this size? For the same reasons you open raise when you are first to act. This is the amount that will generally get more information out of your opponent and is likely enough to trigger a fold from him. Obviously, sometimes you might raise less than the whole pot, sometimes more. It all depends on how loose or tight the opponent you are re-raising is. You, as always, want to pick the smallest amount that will either get your opponent to fold or, at least, tell you a lot more about his hand when he calls. So in this case, you\u2019re looking at chipping in an additional 1,500, which matches the 1,500 already in the pot, creating a total bet of 2,100 on your part, your 600 call plus the 1,500 raise. Now look what\u2019s going on. You\u2019re risking 1,500 extra chips beyond the call to win 1,500 chips,"}
{"text":"Hand Range 245: CO vs UTG 4-bet (60bb) \u2022 All-in 39.1% \/ \u2022 Call 7.7% \/ \u2022 Fold 53.2% Defending the Hijack Defending the HJ (15bb) Defending from the HJ vs open raises with 15bb involves rejamming a linear range with an average frequency of 9.3%, rejamming 8.5% vs UTG with 66+ AJo+, ATs+, KTs and QJs, adding A9s, KQo and JTs vs the HJ (Hand Ranges 246-247)."}
{"text":"two include most two-pair hands, as well as some small flushes, small straights, and second- or third-nut lows. It is often in your best interest to raise opponents with these types of hands out of the pot. Often, an opponent holding a hand like A-3-6-Q will bet into a board showing 2-5-8-K. If you are next, holding A-3-8-9, and you raise the initial bettor, it may persuade the rest of the field to fold hands like A-2-8-10 or AA-6-J. By raising, you are attempting to isolate one other player who you feel is also likely to have the nut low. With a bit of luck, your high hand may trump that of your opponent, giving you three-quarters of the pot. This play should be made often, and it is another example of a situation with little risk but significant upside. 204 Making it expensive for others to stay in the pot is also important if you hold a vulnerable high hand, especially if your hand is the nut flush. If no low or pair is on the board, it should be obvious that the nut flush is a hand to be bet and raised at every opportunity. However, suppose you have A-K-Q-J, the board is 3-4-5-8, and you have the nut flush. If a player bets into you, it is pretty clear that the most you will be able to win is half the pot. With this in mind, you might be tempted to just call, allowing some additional players into the pot to create extra profit. The danger of playing this situation passively is that it allows players with two pair or sets to draw at you cheaply. If the board pairs on the river, you might lose multiple bets. It is likely that the player who bet the turn will also bet the river, and you will be faced with the grisly task of calling with the nut flush when the pot might get raised behind you. It\u2019s generally best to go ahead and raise on the turn. You\u2019ll still get action from any player holding an A-2, which doesn\u2019t pose a threat to your hand. If opponents with two pair want to call your raise and draw at half the pot, that\u2019s their prerogative. In fact, they should probably be placed on your Christmas card list. You may want to put the brakes on with lesser nut high hands, though. For example, say you have 9-10-J-Q, and the board has 3-6-7-8 (two flush cards); or you\u2019ve got A-4-K-K, and the board shows 3-4-8-K (two flush draws). In both examples, even though you have the current nut high, your hand is in much greater jeopardy of being outdrawn than in the previous example when you were holding the nut flush. To compare, in the nut flush example, only ten cards could beat you if your opponent has a set; by comparison, with the straight shown above, there are the ten potential full house cards that could beat you, plus the additional flush cards. For the example in which you have"}
{"text":"GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional solving methods to bring\u2026 Table Management in PKOs Perhaps the most important strategic consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs) is making sure you\u2026 Overcalling From the BB In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also\u2026 Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach\u2026 Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon\u2026 Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to\u2026 Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked Playing out of position is tricky, but it\u2019s an essential part of tournament play. With\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the BB in MTTs Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB\u2019s equilibrium strategy\u2026 The Absurd Game Theory of Chopped Boards A \u201cchopped board\u201d in poker is one where the community cards make up the best\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs MTT confrontations between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations,\u2026 The Art of Learning Poker In his book The Art of Learning, chess and Push Hands champion Josh Waitzkin describes\u2026 Is Donk Betting for Donkeys? \u201cDonk betting\u201d, or betting from out of position into the player who was the aggressor\u2026 Delayed C-Betting This is a companion piece to Probe Betting. It stands on its own, but understanding\u2026 Probe Betting As far as rules of thumb go in poker, \u201ccheck to the raiser\u201d is a\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Big Blind This is a companion piece to this article on the SB\u2019s strategy for blind vs\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Small Blind ICM incentivizes more conservative play, which means that at stages of the tournament where risk\u2026 The Initial Bettor\u2019s Advantage The mathematics of poker holds a little-known secret: the first bettor enjoys better bluffing odds\u2026 Mastering the Chiplead: The Scalpel and the Sledgehammer When you have a lot of chips at a final table or in another situation\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in Cash Games Our never-ending quest for money and fame leads us to the flop. We open the\u2026 How ICM Impacts Restealing From The Blinds When I first started working with preflop solves, one of the features I found most\u2026 The ICM Benefits of Late Registration in Poker Tournaments Why do so many professional poker players register late for tournaments when they clearly would\u2026 Flop Heuristics: OOP C-Betting in MTTs Playing against an in-position cold-caller is dramatically different\u2013and dramatically more difficult\u2013than playing against a caller\u2026 Counterintuitive Calls Solver outputs such as those provided by GTO Wizard are models of no-limit hold \u2018em,\u2026 How To Negotiate Final Table Deals Most people\u2019s first introduction to the Independent Chip Model (ICM) is not from studying bubble\u2026 How does ICM impact PKO strategy? If you have read The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments you already know"}
{"text":"medium pairs and big offsuit Aces which value fold equity and can be tricky to play when a smaller three-bet is called. More money in the pot incentives opponents to call with weaker hands than they would when no one called the initial raise, but this is not the main reason BB three-bets a wider value range . The fold equity from pushing one or more other players out subsidizes the raise, so BB does not need as much equity when called. This squeeze often ends up being +EV for both the BB and the player who calls, with that EV coming from the other player(s) who fold away their equity or put in more money from behind. This dynamic will be familiar to fixed limit players, especially those who play split pot games, which more commonly see multiway pots. Fold equity from pushing other players out subsidizes the BB\u2019s squeeze, so they do not need as much equity when called. Facing a raise from UTG and no calls, AQ s in the BB has an EV of 2.39bb when calling and 2.25bb when raising, so it always calls. If the BTN calls, the EV of calling goes down to 2.25bb, which remains the EV of three-betting, so BB mixes both actions. If BTN and SB call, the EV of calling for BB goes down again, to 2.15bb. The EV of three-betting, however, skyrockets to 3.21bb. Thus, a three-bet that was unappealing when heads up with an UTG raiser becomes a slam dunk equity bonanza once those other two players have called, despite the fact that nothing has changed about the UTG raiser\u2019s range. This is entirely a subsidy provided by BTN and SB, who almost never show up with hands that dominated AQ s. Adapting to Late Position Raises BB\u2019s polar three-betting strategy in heads up pots is more apparent against a CO raiser . As with the UTG raise, BB\u2019s three-betting range grows more linear if the BTN calls . There are fewer \u201clight\u201d three-bets , hands weaker than some of BB\u2019s pure calls, compared to their strategy in a heads up pot. There are two major differences from the response to an UTG raise and BTN call: Expansion of the value range . Hands like 99 and AT s, which were too weak to raise into an UTG open, will perform better when contesting a three-bet pot against the CO wider range. More shoving . With CO and BTN holding wider, weaker ranges, BB can go for the 50bb shove with more suited broadway hands. The robust equity of these hands makes shoving into wide ranges a win-win proposition. If the opponents only call with very strong hands, your equity is less good, but you win more pots without showdown. If the opponents call with wider ranges, you have less fold equity but better equity when called. These trends continue if the SB also calls . We see even more shoving , and also a lower threshold for how strong a hand must be to squeeze. Conclusion Multiway pots"}
{"text":"Staking When one player provides funds for another player to play in poker games, typically with an agreement to split profit at a predetermined percentage between the staker and the player."}
{"text":"then you know you have your opponent guessing as to what your actual starting hand requirements are. If you have a good starting hand then you want to always be raising so they will have to fold more often. This is also an excellent opportunity to trap with some strong hands. Say you have your opponent in a two player Sit n Go 2 to 1 in chips. You have T$2000 and they have T$1000. You have them on the ropes. The larger the blinds the more you can apply pressure with raises and make them sacrifice the blinds. This leak will make some players start to panic and perhaps go all in with a marginal hand. Raising Pre-flop or limping in and trying to take it away on the Flop works well against weak players. If they raise into you, this is when you fold. Don\u2019t invest chips into a pot when you have someone down. Make sure you are driving the pot. In contrast, your opponent should be playing the same way and you should respect their big raises pre-flop or on subsequent streets. In the Taoist tradition, flow with the hands, like water down a River moving around rocks, sometimes banging into the rocks and other times avoiding the rocks altogether. Understanding your odds against any random hand pre-flop will help you decide when to throw in a raise with a marginal hand or limp with a great hand. I usually think in terms of \u201chow much pot equity does my hand have\u201d against one or two different random hands. I pulled these numbers from Poker Stove. Against two different random hands, I ran more than 14 billion hands and against one opponent I ran over two billion hands. Starting Hand You 1 opponents equity You 2 opponents equity AA 85.21% 14.79% 70.12% 16.43% - 13.45% KK 82.40% 17.60% 67.47% 17.01% - 15.53% QQ 79.93% 20.07% 65.46% 17.61% - 16.93% JJ 77.47% 22.53% 63.50% 19.65% - 16.85% TT 75.01% 24.99% 61.40% 21.80% - 16.80% 99 72.06% 27.94% 58.87% 24.45% - 16.68% 88 69.16% 30.84% 56.08% 27.12% - 16.80% 77 66.24% 33.76% 53.05% 30.01% - 16.94% 66 63.29% 36.71% 50.23% 32.92% - 16.85% 55 60.33% 39.67% 44.55% 35.08% - 20.37% 44 57.02% 42.98% 40.12% 37.30% - 22.58% 33 53.69% 46.31% 34.45% 37.90% - 27.65% 22 50.33% 49.67% 29.79% 38.20% - 32.01% AKs 67.05% 32.95% 49.79% 27.91% - 22.30% AKos 65.32% 34.68% 46.36% 26.66% - 26.98% AQs 66.21% 33.79% 49.20% 28.42% - 22.38% AQos 64.43% 35.57% 45.85% 27.41% - 26.74% AJs 65.39% 34.61% 48.69% 22.47% - 28.84% AJos 63.56% 36.44% 45.44% 27.07% - 27.49% ATs 64.60% 35.40% 47.98% 29.04% - 22.98% ATos 62.72% 37.28% 44.67% 28.10% - 27.23% KQs 63.40% 36.60% 48.91% 28.71% - 22.38% KQos 61.46% 38.54% 45.49% 27.81% - 26.70% KJs 62.57% 37.43% 48.34% 29.29% - 22.37% KJos 60.57% 39.43% 44.87% 27.99% - 27.14% KTs 61.79% 38.21% 47.70% 29.91% - 22.39% KTos 59.74% 40.26% 44.37% 26.65% - 29.08% K9s 59.99% 40.01% 45.71% 22.86% - 31.43% K9os 57.81% 42.19% 42.31% 30.47% - 27.21% QJs 60.26% 39.74% 47.78% 29.99% - 22.23%"}
{"text":"If you had to act first, you would likely check, fearing a raise from a full house. However, if you have last position and it is checked around to you, betting for value is usually the best play. Another example of how position can win you extra bets on the river is if you are holding A-3-Q-Q, and the board shows Q-J-7-5-K. Once again, if you are first to act and several players are behind you, you should probably check, as it is likely that one of them has made a straight. But if you are last and it is checked to you, go ahead and bet your three queens for value. You will probably be called by anyone with kings-up, a smaller set, and possibly some worse hands, too. It is also possible that someone made a straight, and is planning on check-raising you. Remember that you don\u2019t need to have a lock to bet. Catching Bluffs When deciding upon the most profitable course of action on the river, you will occasionally have to choose between betting your hand for value and checking to induce an opponent to bluff. This decision must be made when there are players remaining to act behind you. Basically, if you do not believe you are likely to be called by a worse hand, or if you have very aggressive players behind you, it is often best to adopt a strategy of checking and calling. This can even be done with very strong hands. For example, say you have A-3-5-K, and the board comes 2-6-6-J-K. It is likely that your kings-up are good in a pot with a small number of opponents. However, it is unlikely you will be called, except by a hand equal to yours or 215 possibly a jack. This is another situation in which checking to an aggressive player has some value. If you check, he might try to steal the pot, hoping that you have missed your low draw and will now fold to a bet. Against a calling station, though, betting for value is probably best. Being aware of your opponents\u2019 playing styles is worth many bets in this and similar situations. Using Scare Cards To Your Advantage Sometimes the texture of the board cooperates to make it more likely that your bluff attempt will be successful. Players tend to pay off in Omaha eightor-better unless the board shows a strong hand that they believe one of their opponents holds. For example, a board of A-K-Q-J makes it very difficult for an opponent to call if he is not holding the straight. However, it is very possible that no one has the nuts, and this very well could be one situation in which you will get credit for a straight if you bet. The very idea of bluffing into a four-card straight board is not one that occurs to many players. Attempting to bluff here is a great play because by the time you get to the river, the pot should be large enough to give a good price on"}
{"text":"content, there\u2019s another article in our archives ( Probe betting as BB vs LJ ) that analyzes the same concept but in a different spot (tighter ranges). GTO Wizard the #1 App for Poker players Study any spot imaginable Practice by playing vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Darren Wee Darren is a mid to high-stakes player\/coach with a passion for writing and strategic analysis. He combines a strong fundamental knowledge of GTO heuristics with exploits against opponents who deviate from an optimal baseline. Latest article Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026 The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences"}
{"text":"with you out of position because out of position they're they they they have to act first the entire hand they give you so much information you could take a four-card flop whenever you want to essentially because most of them check to you 99 of the time now if they're operating with a three card flop and you're operating with a superior hand and a four card flop that's going to be pretty tough to deal with but that being said if you don't know a ton about the opponent and the person just opened from under the gun generally give the person the benefit of the doubt also the way you're actually going to get going in micro stakes games oftentimes is you'll have to play a number of them so i assume you're multi-tabling at this point so here you're not very sure you're not sure there's much profit to be gained here so i would look for a better opportunity on one of your other tables continuing here you have pocket queens now i think many of you are going to be raising here but the question is what would you like to do here with 15 big blinds would you like to go all in would you like to min raise would you like to make it 3.5 would you like to raise the 10k i was playing a charity tournament yesterday and that was how a gentleman liked to play this spot full coal or raise time is up so guys this is a very fundamental exploit we can use in micro stakes this is i'm trying to balance this lesson here with a lot of fundamentals you're gonna need for the rest of your life if you're gonna play poker up as a serious hobby or as a serious endeavor of any kind i'm trying to work in some of the fundamentals that are you know they take a little bit of work but some of these are so quick and easy for micro stakes i i'm trying to put those in here too which is this one's really quick and easy guys which is when you're playing micro six and it's a two dollar tournament remember people are there to gamble don't get cute so let's say this was a 109 tournament and i shove 15x there in a lot of the training videos you guys see here remember when i'm at work and my colleagues are at work we do have to play as i record this i i this is sunday i just woke up early so i'm recording this so when when i'm done talking to you i'm going to go play my majors and i'm going to go play 500 buy-ins in 109s and 55s and things of that nature 215s and when i'm doing that well if you shove queens here i i don't expect someone if they got 200 on the line to look down at their fives and go yippy skippy let's get the money in so"}
{"text":"Giving a hand away: Playing your hand in such a way that your opponents should know what you have. Good game: A game in which there are enough players worse than you for you to be a substantial favorite. Gut shot: A draw to an inside straight. Also called a belly buster. Heads-up: Playing against a single opponent. 318 Appendix B: Glossary Hourly rate: The amount of money a player expects to win per hour on average. Implied odds: The ratio of the total amount of money you expect to win if you make your hand to the bet you must now call to continue in the hand. Inside straight: A straight which can be made only with a card of one rank, usually somewhere in the middle of the straight. When you hold ten-nine-seven-six, only an eight will give you a straight. Thus, you are drawing to an inside straight, or you have an inside-straight draw. Kicker: A side card. Late position: A position on a round of betting in which you act after most of the other players have acted. Legitimate hand: A hand with value; a hand that is not a bluffing hand. Limit: The amount a player may bet or raise on any round of betting. Limp in: To call a bet rather than raise. (This usually applies only to the first round of betting.) Live one: A loose, weak player with a lot of money to lose. Lock: A cinch hand. A hand that cannot lose. Long shot: A hand that has little chance of being made. Loose: Playing more hands than the norm. Loose game: A game with a lot of players in most pots. Appendix B: Glossary 3 19 Mathematical expectation: The mathematical calculation ofwhat a bet can be expected to win or lose on average. Middle pair: Pairing the second highest card on board. Middle position: A position on a round of betting somewhere in the middle. In a ten-handed game middle position generally refers to those players four or five seats to the left of the big blind. Muck: To discard a hand; the pile of discards in front of the dealer. Multiway pot: A pot in which more than two players are involved. Negative expectation: The amount a wager may be expected to lose on average. A play with negative expectation is a play that will lose money over the long run. Nuts: The best possible hand at any given point in a pot. Odds: The chance, expressed mathematically, that an event will occur. Also, in the term pot odds, the ratio of the size of the pot to the amount of the bet you must call to continue. Off-suit: Not of the same suit. On the come: Playing a hand that has not yet been made. For instance, if you bet with four cards to a flush, you are betting on the come. On tilt: Playing much worse than usual because, for one reason or another, you have become emotionally upset. 320 Appendix B: Glossary Open-ended straight: Four cards to a"}
{"text":"vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Andrew Brokos Andrew Brokos has been a professional poker player, coach, and author for over 15 years. He co-hosts the Thinking Poker Podcast and is the author of the Play Optimal Poker books, among others. Latest article Navigating Nasty Rivers Out of Position Playing out of position (OOP) is hard. It\u2019s fundamentally disadvantageous to act on each street\u2026 Crack the Shell of Nut Draw Strategy Nut draws hold obvious appeal as betting and raising candidates. They benefit from fold equity,\u2026 Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026 The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences"}
{"text":"10.4 Squeezing As we learned, a squeeze is a 3-bet made after one or more players have called the open. It's generally larger in size to help reduce the favourable pot odds created by the multiway situation and ensure that fold equity and isolation chances remain decent. There are a few reasons for squeezing and the notions of polarity and linearity are still central to decision making. Types of Squeeze in a Vacuum Before we build some ranges, let's talk about the different reasons for squeezing an individual hand: 1. Bluff-Bluff A bluff-bluff squeeze occurs when Hero 3-bets a hand with which he wishes to extract fold equity vs. both players in the hand. Usually neither player will be a stationy Fish or overly combative Reg. 2. Value-Bluff A value-bluff squeeze is for value against a more stationy player (usually a Fish) and as a bluff against a more solid player against whom there is fold equity (usually a Reg). Hero often uses this kind of squeeze to eliminate a Reg from the pot and isolate a Fish to gain all of the benefits of isolation that we know so well by now. 3. Value-Value A value-value squeeze is used to build the pot with hands that figure to be ahead when called. It could be vs. two Fish when Hero has AJs or even two Regs where Hero has KK. Either way, getting called in both spots is not a disaster and Hero desires at least one call. Isolation can often be a motive here too. Hero would like to thin the field with hands like AQo that prefer to flop their top pairs vs. only one opponent. The Multiway Element Now how does the presence of additional players in the pot affect our decision as to which hands to squeeze and why? There are a few differences between these spots and the heads-up variety we've been examining thus far in the chapter. Difference 1: Hands with good nut potential such as JTs and 55 go up in value multiway and can therefore be flatted more easily. There is less incentive to bluff with these hands in a polar"}
{"text":"act of calling a preflop raise when you don\u2019t close\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in MTTs In the world of poker, the flop is a crucial stage of the game that\u2026 Flop Heuristics for Defending the Blinds in MTTs The field of Game Theoretically Optimal poker is extensive, and thus, to simplify our strategy,\u2026 Multiway strategy in Progressive Knockout Tournaments Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments are much more complex than traditional MTTs. The fact that players\u2026 How To Calculate Raises In Poker One of the most frequently asked questions in poker is how to calculate the size\u2026 Principles of River Play The river offers the least complicated strategy of any betting street. With no further cards\u2026 Exploitative Dynamics GTO solutions are designed to be unexploitable, performing reasonably well no matter how your opponents\u2026 How ICM Impacts Postflop Strategy Most players understand how the Independent Chip Model (ICM) in poker impacts their strategy preflop,\u2026 10 Tips for Multiway Pots in Poker While lots of work has been placed into research and explanation of heads-up pot strategy,\u2026 What is the Bubble Factor in poker tournaments? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) shows us the real money implications of tournament chip decisions.\u2026 The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments In poker, a PKO (Progressive Knockout) tournament is a type of tournament where a portion\u2026 How To Analyze Turn Textures In Poker Master the art of turn analysis in poker. Understand how the turn card changes the\u2026 Principles of Turn Strategy Learn the principles of turn strategy in poker and discover what makes the turn unique.\u2026 Poker Strategies: Tournaments vs. Cash Games Tournament poker is not as different from cash game poker as people sometimes assume. Most\u2026 How Solvers Work A Game Theory Optimal solver is an algorithm that calculates the best possible poker strategy.\u2026 The Most Powerful Play in Poker The central strategic implication of stack depth is the question of how much equity a\u2026 When does ICM become significant in MTTs? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) was invented in 1987 by M. Malmuth and is one\u2026 How to Study GTO Solutions Tools like GTO Wizard and other solvers should not be used to memorize specific strategies.\u2026 Principles of GTO Game theory, or GTO (for Game Theoretically Optimal), is best understood not as a rigid\u2026 Interpreting Equity Distributions GTO Wizard\u2019s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which\u2026 What is Leverage in poker? Leverage refers to the risk of future betting. When you call a bet on the\u2026 Reasons for value betting in poker You\u2019re probably accustomed to thinking of bets as either value or bluff. In this taxonomy,\u2026 The Science of Poker Performance Poker is a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment\u2026 What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets\u2026 Pot Geometry \u201cPot Geometry\u201d refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible"}
{"text":"Table 9: Iterations of the Push\/Fold Game In the push\/fold example, if the BB knew that the BN was on the first iteration (where they would just push with 100% range), BB could improve their EV to 13.77 by applying the MES strategy of calling 66.21% of hands. But if the BB is wrong about the BN\u2019s play, or if the BN outthinks the BB and plays the second iteration strategy (push 46.61%) instead, then BB\u2019s EV would actually go down to 8.48. If the BB plays the GTO strategy of calling 37.4% vs a BN push, their EV is guaranteed to be 10.45, no matter what the BN does. One of the main reasons Nash Equilibrium or GTO strategies are powerful is that they give you a guaranteed minimum EV. The way they are defined, they assume your opponent knows your strategy and that their strategy is the absolute best response to what you are doing. This is why GTO strategies are referred to as unexploitable. It is mathematically impossible for any opponent to gain an edge on you, meaning you will either break even or profit. Another advantage of playing the equilibrium strategy is that you don\u2019t have to try to trick your opponents by getting into crazy leveling wars. GTO strategies, by definition, don\u2019t make specific plays vs specific types of opponents. They assume your opponent will correctly adjust to whatever you do and thus they focus more on playing solid poker rather than constantly trying to get inside your opponents\u2019 heads. If you play GTO against any opponent who is not perfectly countering your strategy (also playing GTO), your expectation will be greater than at equilibrium and will increase as your opponent\u2019s strategy gets worse. However, equilibrium strategies won\u2019t earn you as much EV as a strategy that is perfectly designed to counter the specific mistakes of your opponents. Top players develop sound baseline GTO strategies so they remain unexploitable vs tough or unknown opponents, but they also have the ability to take advantage of their opponent\u2019s leaks by making exploitative adjustments as they learn more about their opponent\u2019s play. The Indifference Principle The indifference principle was defined very accurately by Will Tipton in his excellent book"}
{"text":"C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM"}
{"text":"bets with strong hands, we don\u2019t need to start attacking their stabs with bluff-heavy check-raises and should instead fold a bit more. Third, if our opponent is a calling station and will simply call all the way down with medium-strength hands, it\u2019s reasonable to take a hand like a set or overpair and play bet\/bet\/bet rather than go for a check-raise when there\u2019s more EV to be had from our opponent calling. The other thing we should not do in this spot is to start barreling airballs and run a big river bluff on a calling station! Finally, without any reads on our opponent , it would be a good idea to follow GTO-recommended strategy by checking when we need to check, and bet big or small depending on how good the flop is for us. There will also be situations where we mix betting and checking; it\u2019s good to practice these situations with the Trainer . In this drill, you\u2019ll play OOP as the UTG preflop raiser against the BTN cold-caller . Conclusion An IP cold-caller has a more condensed and stronger range than a caller from the BB who has many weak hands that call because they get a discount. This range is particularly strong in middling cards and the smaller suited broadways. As such, flops with a few middle cards are particularly dangerous for UTG . Continuation betting as the preflop raiser against a caller when IP and OOP are two fundamentally different things. The disadvantage of being out of position for the entire hand means that we now need to play many flops very carefully. Even on a flop where UTG seems to connect relatively well, such as Q96 r, we would be best served starting with a check . The BTN\u2019s range is more condensed which means they actually hold a higher percentage of strong hands than us on such a flop. Even a hand like top pair top kicker is preferred to be played as a check-call. UTG can still be aggressive on high card heavy flops that are very bad for BTN\u2019s pocket pair heavy range. King-high flops without middling cards, particularly, are excellent for UTG. In terms of bet size , a larger bet size is good when we perceive our opponent to have an easier time calling, and a smaller bet size is better when we perceive that our opponent will have a difficult time finding enough good bluff catchers. GTO Wizard the #1 App for Poker players Study any spot imaginable Practice by playing vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Darren Wee Darren is a mid to high-stakes player\/coach with a passion for writing and strategic analysis. He combines a strong fundamental knowledge of GTO heuristics with exploits against opponents who deviate from an optimal baseline. Latest article Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in"}
{"text":"The ratio of these three stats over a good sample can shed some light on Villain's river bluffing frequencies. It's very important that Hero assesses them in relation to each other and not in isolation. Before we look at a few hands. There is one more general stat that can be useful over smaller samples to give us an idea of how often Villain wins the pot when he sees the flop and indicates how much he fights for pots overall and tries to generate fold equity with the non-value parts of his range. Let's move onto some examples now and put these stats and the previously taught thought process into use. In the following hands the third (green) number on the HUD is Raised First In from the relevant position. The fourth (blue) number is WWSF and the next three (brown) numbers are CBet Flop,"}
{"text":"strong hand. You're still probably best here, so make him pay. Action: You fold. He scoops up the pot without showing his hand. You made three big blunders. You didn't lead out with a very strong hand, so you didn't know where you stood when he bet. Then you repeated that mistake. Then you folded what was probably the winning hand. All of this might well have been avoided with a bet on the flop. Remember that leading out with a bet buys you information and cuts down on your volatility by forcing your opponents to reveal their strength. Check-raising, on the other hand, buys you more information at a higher price and increases your volatility. Hand 7-7 Situation: Middle of an online tournament Your hand: Q\u2660T\u2663 Action to you: Players A and B fold. Player C calls for $60. Player D folds. Player E calls. Player F calls. The small blind calls for an additional $30. The pot is now $300. Question: Do you check or raise? Answer: You're quite happy to check. You're in bad position, and you don't have that much of a hand. So seeing a free flop is great. Action: You check. Flop: T\u26609\u26602\u2666 Action: The small blind bets $130. The pot is $430. What do you do? Answer: You've caught top pair, with a decent kicker. If the small blind had checked, you should have led out for about two-thirds of the pot, say about $200. The small blind's bet puts you in a much tougher position. You're caught in a sandwich, and there's no good way out. You don't want to let the players behind you in so cheaply, since they're easily getting the odds to call with a drawing hand. But you don't really want to raise a lot here - you don't know where you stand, and there are a lot of active players. While it's not a happy play, here the best risk-reward ratio might just be a passive call. 171 Action: You call for $130. Player C calls. Player E folds. Player F calls. The pot is now $820. Fourth Street: T\u2666 Action: The small blind checks. What do you do? Answer: You have trip tens. The board now shows two spades and two diamonds, so there are plenty of draws available. You probably have the best hand now, but deciding how much to bet is a problem. You've got two competing goals: betting a small enough amount to get people to call, but a large enough amount to get the drawers to fold. Right now the pot is big enough so that getting lots of new money in is not as high a priority as winning the money that's already out there. You should bet about three-fourths of the pot, about $600. Anyone drawing to a flush won't be getting the right odds to call. (They'll need 4-to-l, and they'll be getting only a little over 2-to-l.) If anyone else wants to call that bet, well that's fine. Note that there's no need to go all-in, because such a bet"}
{"text":"i've read the comments here on youtube and a lot of people seem to have trouble playing pocket jacks which is crazy to me because pocket jacks are actually one of the most profitable hands in poker assuming you play it well thankfully for all of you pokercoaching.com coach alex fitzgerald heard your cries and decided to make a video series discussing specifically how to play pocket jacks it's a three hour long series at pokercoaching.com but today i'm gonna give you the first half of it here on youtube this is gonna to combine theoretical teaching and active learning so make sure you use the quizzes throughout this video to assess your skills to make sure that you are playing pocket jacks well and if you like this type of content be sure to sign up for my brand new 30 at pokercoaching.com challenge where alex has a similar video explaining how to play another troubling hand for some people ace king and ace queen so to use this new year time well and to get the first seven days of the 30 day challenge for free head over to pokercoaching.com challenge right now enjoy the video and i'll see you in the challenge hey everybody this is alexander fitzgerald or assassinato doing another one of my training video series another one of my training video installments today we are going to be discussing how to play pocket jacks if you've ever seen any of my training videos this is going to be similar to them where i don't believe poker players learn through simply theoretical constructs there will be theoretical things i will discuss with you but i want you focusing on the application i want you focusing on actually practicing so i'm going to make these quite a few tests and we're going to see how you play pocket jacks what i can tell you is i have been coaching for a very long time i've been playing poker for a long time so i've been playing poker for about 15 years and i've been coaching for 10 years i want to say yeah about 10 no 11 11 years one of the things i like about poker is you don't exactly have to pick one specific thing whereas in american football you have to either be a coach or a player now that's not really what happens when it comes to poker so something i can do with poker is maybe i'm a good journeyman prize fighter that can make good money over the last 15 years but i'm a better trainer and something i can do is i can show up to the gym and i can train my guys one day and then i can go box the next day for myself and i i like being able to switch hit like that i think that's really fun and that keeps me close to the action as well and i've been coaching like this for a very long time which is when i teach myself i'll"}
{"text":"because you have just called him and he is hoping one of his bets makes you fold. I do not like folding on the Turn here - again you save your two big bets, but leave yourself vulnerable. Obviously, if you call the Turn, you are calling the River. (J.) OK, what does he have? He three bet pre-flop, raised your flop bet, but only called your Turn bet. Is he a calling station that tried to take it on the flop of rags hoping you have only high cards? Did he try for a free Turn card? Again, I do not think most players would smooth call with the over Pair (or set) here to get more out of you on the River - so it is unlikely they have you beat. A lot of players three bet pre-flop with any pp to get the lead on the flop, so he could have a medium pp that is not an over Pair to the board (this is also how he might have a set, but it is unlikely and you can't be thinking every raise you face means a set). (K.) This line looks like you are beat very good. I could see folding here. Again, folding makes me more of a target in future hands. Therefore, calling the bet here and the River bet costs you two big bets to protect a pot that is gotten quiet large (now has almost eight big bets and will be almost 12 big bets in the end). Turn, OVERCARD: M. Flop A. Check, check. N. Flop A. Check, he bets, you fold. O. Flop A. Check, he bets, you call. P. Flop A. Bet, he folds. Q. Flop A. Bet, he calls. R. Flop A. Bet, he raises, you fold. S. Flop A. Bet, he raises, you call. T. Flop B. Check, check. U. Flop B. Check, he bets, you fold. V. Flop B. Check, he bets, you call. W. Flop B. Bet, he folds. X. Flop B. Bet, he calls. Y. Flop B. Bet, he raises, you fold. Z. Flop B. Bet, he raises, you call. We are putting him on either over cards or an over Pair. So when an over card comes either he had us beat already, has us beat now, or that big card missed him. I think it is more likely that an Ace or King hit him, and a Queen or Jack missed him (with his over-cards). So, maybe play more cautiously with the Ace or King on the Turn. If you want to call him down, check-call the Turn and River (line O. or line U.)? If you now think it is not worth the risk, check-fold (line N. or line V.). I think the Rock just calling the flop makes that over card on the Turn more dangerous. The check-fold is probably the safe play, A Q suited is really the bluffing hand with a King on the Turn but worse things have happened. A less-likely line of play (but not impossible, I have"}
{"text":"You can also browse turn reports. Construct one range for that spot in the Rangebuilder (15 minutes) This helps you to think about your strategy globally. Extra Join weekly coaching (if applicable), or watch one previous coaching. This training routine should take between 1-2 hours per day. It utilizes every aspect of GTO Wizard and is designed to be used in conjunction with regular play. Users with a Starter subscription can forego uploading hands if they\u2019ve reached their monthly limit, and just input interesting hands manually into the Solution browser instead. Tips for Studying GTO Solutions GTO can be intimidating to those who are new. Solutions are complex, and there\u2019s just so much data! So how can one go about turning these charts into workable strategies? Study Ranges, Not Hands! Trying to memorize every hand is impossible. Poker is simply far too complex. Instead of trying to mix every frequency correctly, focus on the overall strategy! The goal is to understand why rather than what the solver is doing. Focus on Thresholds Learning basic thresholds is one of the fastest ways to become a solid poker player. Which hand classes are reasonable stack-offs in this spot? What is the strongest hand class that starts to mix folds here? What\u2019s the weakest hand that can value bet here? Thresholds guide and sculpt your strategy. Instead of trying to memorize every hand individually, you should focus on things like the bottom of your continuation range. For example, in this spot (CO vs BB SRP, CO bets 33% pot on JJ4 ), we should note that a made hand never folds. Open the filters tab in the Solution browser and look for blue lines which indicate folds. This is the bottom of your continuation range. Study Hand Classes One useful study technique is to break down the strategy into different hand classes using filters. Then, compare strategically similar boards and review different hand classes to develop an intuition about their strategy. You can also use the Breakdown Tab (press 3 in the Solution browser) to see how different hands behave. You\u2019ll see similar patterns on a lot of boards after a while. Think About What You\u2019re Targeting with Your Bet Size Every bet you make targets some part of your opponent\u2019s range. By \u201ctarget\u201d, we mean those hands are indifferent between calling and folding facing your bet. The hands you target determine your value bet thresholds. Consider how to get value and what sizing makes sense to target those parts of their range. So how do we know what hands we\u2019re targeting? Well, you need to look at villain\u2019s response to a bet. Look at Villain\u2019s Response It\u2019s important to look at villain\u2019s strategy to see how they respond. Then, ask yourself if their response is realistic and what adjustments you might make against different mistakes. Looking at their response helps you to understand why the solution works in the first place, understand blockers, and think through your strategy. Use Aggregate Reports to Study Trends Rather than studying one board at a time, you can"}
{"text":"in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the\u2026 Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get\u2026 Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being\u2026 Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With"}
{"text":"have a lot of chips and you have a lot more playability so I recommend always sitting with at least 100 big blinds so in this situation if you're playing one two then your your average buying would be 200 right so if you need to you know in order to proper bankroll practice proper bankroll management if you need to have 30 buy-ins of the stake that you're playing then 30 times 200 is six thousand dollars so I recommend having at least 6 in your bankroll um to start now if you know if it's not like too big of a stake like one two you could get away with less um you know having like 20 big blinds but the higher the stakes I recommend just having a bigger bankroll because higher Stakes tend to be like more aggressive and tougher so you want to have you know more okay and you want to treat your money as an investment so understand that when you're sitting at the table you're you're investing in yourself you're investing in your opportunity and I think that it's really important to you know not think of them as chips it's really easy to just kind of lose a sense of a dollar and you know poker chips are just so easy to you know just like I said lose track of what a dollar is but those chips are real money values so the you're sitting down with a bunch of chips these are an investment into yourself and you need to take it seriously um I also think you should be investing yourself in other ways like buying poker coaching courses and classes and private coaching um hiring a private coach is a great idea the more money you spend on yourself learning the you know obviously the better you're gonna do with the tables and you'll have a higher Roi or return on investment when you do invest in yourself and then you always want to separate poker money from Life money so I always suggest having two different bank accounts one for your life expense expenses and then one for your poker bankroll the reason for this is because it's it could be really um taxing on you to have all of your money mixed and it could it could affect your emotions if you find that you're gambling with your rent money or you know if you have a bad session and you see that you know if if you're not separating the two then you're just gonna have a hard time compartmentalizing and poker you know no matter how you slice it you are going to lose sometimes so you need to make sure that you separate your two bank accounts and you know try not to attach any emotion to your poker bankroll bank account because it's gonna fluctuate but when you see your rent money fluctuating then that could be really stressful and then that'll force you to make bad plays on the table I actually"}
{"text":"blind stack so now under the gun with 25 has to be very tight cut off and uh with 30 big blinds because there's a 40 big blind stack in the small blind has to be a little bit tighter but not like insane tight because they are going to be in position button now let's presume the button with 10 big blind folds take a look at the strategy for the small blind with 40 big blinds now so this may seem very similar to the previous scenario where was 45 in the small blind 20 in the big blind but now it's 40 in the small blind 15 in the big blind so Stacks are slightly shorter and there is a shorter short stack and now we see the small blind should be folding basically never only the absolute garbage and they should be jamming with a ton of hands again men raising or raising small very polarized right they're raising very polarized with the best hands plus a smatter of absolute trash cool to see um let's also take a look at what happens when same scenario we're going to look at when under the gun folds cut off folds and now let's say the button goes all in should the 15 big blind stat call off tighter or wider compared to if there are no payout implications in this scenario they're going to have to be quite tight for calling off 10 big blinds and the reason the big blind has to be quite tight calling off for 10 big blinds here is because if they call and lose now they're down to five big blinds and they're going to be in a really really bad spot so you would certainly call off a little bit wider than this if there were no payout implications but with payout implications you just got to be a little bit tight got to knit it up a little bit it's annoying but it is what it is let's take look at one more now we have 10 big blinds under the gun or the hijack 20 in the cut off 30 on the button 15 in the small blind 50 in the big blind this is when we have a big stack in the big blind again notice still men raising or folding we discussed this point right hands like ace9 off suit King jack off suit Etc are men raising and then folding for 10 big blinds because you really really really don't want to be dominated and notice the men raising range is protected by super duper nuts right so 10 big blinds you can still men raise fold at the final table it is not all in fold everyone it is not all iner fold if you're using an all in fold chart you are torching your money please don't torch your money everyone in this scenario is going to have to be tighter because we have 10 20 30 15 and then 50 in the big blind"}
{"text":"This is a spot where fold equity is reasonable due to UTG being very fit-or-fold, but there is a Reg behind us who is not as tight as we'd like with respect to his 3-bet frequency. We have the worst position possible and a hand with fairly bad frequent strength. Remember that we judge frequent strength on a hand's ability to make good pairs not just any old pair and this hand frequently flops terrible pairs. The mighty sets it can make unfortunately just don't come around often enough to justify bloating the pot out of position. So can we call? We only have to call half a BB to see the flop the vast majority of the time. 55 has good implied odds due to set potential and it's okay to go mining for a set when pot odds are so good. Moreover, we may even be able to win at showdown sometimes given the passive Fish won't usually be betting at the pot without a good hand. This is an easy complete. Hero calls 0.5BB."}
{"text":"throughout the rest of the manual in a variety of other situations. Type A - The Fit-or-fold Fish: This is the bread and butter target of our ISO raises. Identification: This type of Villain will play anything from a medium to wide range of hands pre-flop usually entering the pot by limping. Sometimes he'll limp and fold to an ISO pre-flop or other times limp\/call and then fold frequently to a flop c-bet. Type A Fish have VPIP\/PFR ratios like 40\/6 and 34\/11 - generally there is a large gap between the two stats. These stats don't take very long to tell the true story and so Hero can identify this player quickly. This player will also have a fairly high fold to c-bet stat of somewhere between 55% and 75%. Exploitation: Hero can print money vs this player's limps by raising a wide range of hands, especially in position, and then c-betting most flops expecting to have a lot of fold equity. The mantra when playing against this type of player is simple: build it up, take it down! Hero inflates the pot to then pick it up when his opponent plays too wide of a range pre-flop and subsequently gives up the pot when he doesn't flop well, which will be most of the time. Type B - The Station Fish: 'Station' is short for 'calling station', a common expression to describe players who generally hate hitting the fold button. This is another loose passive player, but one against whom Hero can't expect to generate too much fold equity. He calls much more than the fit-or- fold Fish on all streets. Identification: Pre-flop, the station Fish is relatively similar to the fit-or-fold Fish. Both players will limp anything from a medium to a wide range, though the station Fish is more likely to have ridiculous stats such as 90\/15 or 65\/3. While the fit-or-fold Fish will sometimes limp\/fold before the flop, the station Fish will almost never do this. Instead he'll call ISOs with close to his whole limping range and then become very attached to any remote piece of the board he hits post-flop. Station Fish will have much lower fold to c-bet stats, usually of 45% or less. Exploitation: Hero no longer has the luxury of ISOing an extremely wide range. As his primary aim has shifted from getting post-flop fold equity to simply value betting against a player who doesn't want to fold. Hero should therefore adapt his pre-flop ISO range accordingly and seek to isolate this player with higher frequent strength. As fold equity decreases, required frequent strength increases; this relationship is the heart of the ISO triangle. Hero's plan is to isolate a stronger range and then value bet like crazy when he connects well with the flop. Type C - The Aggro Fish: 'Aggro' is online poker player slang for 'aggressive'. Thankfully for Hero, the aggression is normally ill selected, over the top and easy to deal with, especially where Hero has position. Identification: This type of opponent opens the pot far more frequently"}
{"text":"Hand Range 193: SB vs UTG (25bb) \u2022 All-in 3.5% \/ \u2022 3-bet 4.8% \/ \u2022 Call 14.2% \/ \u2022 Fold 77.5%"}
{"text":"uh it's really neat with uh database management systems with uh hand history analysis tools now such as poker tracker holden manager three you can analyze these spots it's really cool so the filter you would look at in a database management tool would be razer plus caller and then call out of the big blind and what you're trying to do here is if you folded this hand your loss you would be losing a hundred big blinds per 100 hands because you're forfeiting the big blind every time every time so actually it's actually more than that because there's an annie but it's around that uh so you're trying to outperform that so let's say you're only negative 50 big lines per 100 when you call here that would be incredible that would be excellent so you're saving half the big blind there that's that's very good now unfortunately when i'm working with micro 6 players what we traditionally see here what i traditionally see there is sometimes my team helps me but in this one i usually run point um what you typically see is they're losing much more than if they just folded you see many micro six players losing here like 200 big blinds per 100 hands and if you can think back to your science class the way you would test anything is okay you remember the scientific method which was have a hypothesis run an experiment collect data then analyze the findings and then adjust your beliefs about the world not your beliefs that's the wrong word adjust your analysis adjust your analysis based on the new data be able to adjust what you see based on the data and what you're traditionally going to see is you've been running an experiment many people have been running an experiment and not even understanding it in that when they call out of here the experiment is okay with great pot odds price i i should be able to call here uh just indiscriminately and i should outperform a fold and if the data does not adhere to that conjecture then [Music] it's just an opinion it's an opinion not exactly based on anything so i'd very much recommend i i do notice the lower six players really lose their ass off especially in this situation it's it's just so difficult so you're gonna be out of position in a multi-way pot so you can't bluff and then even when you hit your hand it's a very weak hand so if the pot is getting bigger it's very unlikely to be the best hand and when you're just starting in micro 6 games that's it's very difficult at that time to know when a pair is good or not so it takes someone who's been playing for 10 20 years and they call out there yeah there's there's a good chance they could outperform a fold sure they're very good at turning some hands into bluffs and they're very good at knowing when their top pair isn't"}
{"text":"finishing in every finish position. The chances of each player winning the whole tournament is their percentage of all the chips in play, but after that, it gets much more complicated. These are the projected chances of finishing in every possible position for our SNG bubble from an ICM calculation: As you can see, Player 2 has everything to lose here. They are projected to cash almost 80% of the time, and their current ICM value is worth more than 2nd place. It would be a disaster for them to collide with Player 1 on this bubble. These are the Bubble Factors Bubble Factor Bubble Factor measures how much more losing hurts than winning helps you in MTTs. It\u2019s a measure of survival pressure and a valuable tool for understanding ICM spots. It\u2019s defined as the ratio between how much tournament equity ($EV) you\u2019d lose getting stacked, divided by how much $EV you\u2019d gain stacking some player in the tournament. BF = | $EV Loss \/ $EV Gain | when stacks are fully invested. Each player pair has a unique bubble factor. In a chip EV scenario, the BF is 1 because losses are equal to wins. In an ICM scenario, losses hurt more than wins, so the BF is greater than 1. In a bounty format, BF can drop below 1 due to the potential reward of winning bounties. , which reflect this: If you have read our article on Bubble Factor you would know that Player 2 would need 75% equity to break even against Player 1, assuming Player 1 shoved. What we haven\u2019t discussed yet is the blind level. What if the blind level was 3,000\/6,000 with a 6,000 Button Ante? That would essentially force all three players all-in. In this example, in order for Player 1 to finish last, Player 3 needs the best hand, Player 2 needs the second best hand, then in the following hand Player 1 would need to lose again to bust out. Given all three players are essentially playing blind with random cards, the odds of first hand occurring as stated earlier is 16.67% and the odds of Player 1 having the worst hand of the three players in the following hand is 33.33%. 16.67% multiplied by 33.33% is 5.56%, which is the actual percentage chance that Player 1 comes last. An ICM calculation will show you that Player 1 has a 9.7% chance of bubbling this SNG, but in this example, the actual odds are only 5.56%! The chip leader has a far greater chance of not bubbling (and winning) this tournament than ICM would suggest! This may sound like an extreme example, but it is not completely unrealistic. Hyper-Turbo formats can replicate scenarios not unlike this and I once played a freeroll where this stack dynamic was almost in play at the final table. There are also SNG formats where the players are forced all in when a time limit is reached, which replicate this scenario precisely. The broader takeaway is that when stacks get shallow enough, there is an inflection"}
{"text":"memorize specific strategies.\u2026 Principles of GTO Game theory, or GTO (for Game Theoretically Optimal), is best understood not as a rigid\u2026 Interpreting Equity Distributions GTO Wizard\u2019s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which\u2026 What is Leverage in poker? Leverage refers to the risk of future betting. When you call a bet on the\u2026 Reasons for value betting in poker You\u2019re probably accustomed to thinking of bets as either value or bluff. In this taxonomy,\u2026 The Science of Poker Performance Poker is a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment\u2026 What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets\u2026 Pot Geometry \u201cPot Geometry\u201d refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible \u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is"}
{"text":"Probe Betting As far as rules of thumb go in poker, \u201ccheck to the raiser\u201d is a\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Big Blind This is a companion piece to this article on the SB\u2019s strategy for blind vs\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Small Blind ICM incentivizes more conservative play, which means that at stages of the tournament where risk\u2026 The Initial Bettor\u2019s Advantage The mathematics of poker holds a little-known secret: the first bettor enjoys better bluffing odds\u2026 Mastering the Chiplead: The Scalpel and the Sledgehammer When you have a lot of chips at a final table or in another situation\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in Cash Games Our never-ending quest for money and fame leads us to the flop. We open the\u2026 How ICM Impacts Restealing From The Blinds When I first started working with preflop solves, one of the features I found most\u2026 The ICM Benefits of Late Registration in Poker Tournaments Why do so many professional poker players register late for tournaments when they clearly would\u2026 Flop Heuristics: OOP C-Betting in MTTs Playing against an in-position cold-caller is dramatically different\u2013and dramatically more difficult\u2013than playing against a caller\u2026 Counterintuitive Calls Solver outputs such as those provided by GTO Wizard are models of no-limit hold \u2018em,\u2026 How To Negotiate Final Table Deals Most people\u2019s first introduction to the Independent Chip Model (ICM) is not from studying bubble\u2026 How does ICM impact PKO strategy? If you have read The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments you already know why we\u2026 Understanding Blockers in Poker Often when looking through a solver\u2019s meticulously crafted grid of deception, one of the following\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP Cold-Caller in MTTs A Cold-call refers to the act of calling a preflop raise when you don\u2019t close\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in MTTs In the world of poker, the flop is a crucial stage of the game that\u2026 Flop Heuristics for Defending the Blinds in MTTs The field of Game Theoretically Optimal poker is extensive, and thus, to simplify our strategy,\u2026 Multiway strategy in Progressive Knockout Tournaments Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments are much more complex than traditional MTTs. The fact that players\u2026 How To Calculate Raises In Poker One of the most frequently asked questions in poker is how to calculate the size\u2026 Principles of River Play The river offers the least complicated strategy of any betting street. With no further cards\u2026 Exploitative Dynamics GTO solutions are designed to be unexploitable, performing reasonably well no matter how your opponents\u2026 How ICM Impacts Postflop Strategy Most players understand how the Independent Chip Model (ICM) in poker impacts their strategy preflop,\u2026 10 Tips for Multiway Pots in Poker While lots of work has been placed into research and explanation of heads-up pot strategy,\u2026 What is the Bubble Factor in poker tournaments? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) shows us the real money implications of tournament chip decisions.\u2026 The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments In poker, a PKO (Progressive Knockout) tournament is a type of tournament where a portion\u2026 How To Analyze Turn Textures In Poker Master the art of turn analysis"}
{"text":"Table 150: Ranges Composition (Polar Versus Bluff-catcher) Table 151: Hypothetical Blocker Relationship Matrix"}
{"text":"at the beginning and I am nowhere to be found in eight hours because the truth is if there is profit on the table and you got to take it because you get a finite number of hands and no limit hold'em right and at the beginning of the tournament those chips are is that is this close to a cash game it's ever going to be right and a lot of times at the beginning at tournaments people are just opening whatever the hell they want just 3bet them take them to school corner them why do they think they can open in front of you if they're if you're gonna three bad they're just gonna go hurry up and they're gonna call you out of position with their entire range it's just a wide open lane it might bite you in the ass a lot of the time but that's okay so what happens guys this is what happens when I play tournaments I have more fun than anybody I know when I go to Las Vegas because this is what happens one I'm either there in day four with a ton of chips having a lot of fun or three hours after I started the tournament I'm going to the movies so guess what happens after two or three weeks of playing tournament poker guess who's not that tired everybody else though they do this crap when they show up to a live tournament okay gotta do my best behavior right time to play great poker and then act like and I'm talking about like intermediate guy your studies poker guy who knows about poker I'm not talking about average Potter but this is what a lot of guys do who really care about poker is they resolve to play their best game which translates to their tightest game which means they made a two with no chips consistently are they barely cash which means by the end of three weeks in a tournament they are dead tired because they have not gone one day off but they never have chips and they're always grinding a short stack and it's the same binary action shove or fold every single time if they are going to keep opening garbage you must 3bet them if they are going to keep limping garbage you must isolate them if one guy is gonna keep opening everything and another person is going to keep calling everything you must squeeze them you will go out of tournaments early that is not a problem that is a symptom of trying that shows you're going for it all the Dead Money goes dead the middle of day two Chris would come ask do you jam 10:10 to an open raise from early position with effective stacks of 40 big blinds from a somewhat active player already in the money 25 left left um uh to an open ways for me to pay you with effective size of 40 big behind but you're probably okay Chris but I"}
{"text":"player\u2019s ranges who are yet to act) are more top-heavy. Generally speaking the card removal due to bunching is not very significant, although it depends on the spot. As this is a beginner article, we\u2019ll not cover this effect in great detail. Check out this article by HRC if you\u2019d like to learn more about the bunching effect. Conclusion There are 1326 possible combinations of starting hands in Texas Hold\u2019Em made up of 78 pocket pairs, 312 suited hands and 936 unpaired, offsuit hands. Some of these combos can be blocked by the board or players\u2019 hands and ranges, further decreasing the number of available combos. This should be accounted for and optimized for when forming a strategy. There are 3 key card removal effects: dead cards , blockers and card bunching ; each with their own unique properties. Try this combinatorics poker puzzle if you feel like challenging your skills! If there\u2019s one thing you take away from this article, it\u2019s to think about your hands a little less linearly and more in relation to the range you are facing and how this dictates your use of blockers. Good luck at the tables! GTO Wizard the #1 App for Poker players Study any spot imaginable Practice by playing vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Tombos21 Tom is a long time poker theory enthusiast, GTO Wizard coach and YouTuber, and author of the Daily Dose of GTO. Latest article Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026 The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather"}
{"text":"can to accomplish your goal. Always bet within the half- to three-quarters-pot range and you won\u2019t go too far wrong. The Question of Questions In some poker books you may have read, the authors try to give you specific lines of play for every hand you hold and situation you face. All due respect to those authors, but that\u2019s an insane way to go about it. Too many combinations of hands can come up pre-flop; too many possible occurrences are in the cards post-flop. If I gave you guidance for specific holdings, I\u2019d be leaving you lost at sea for anything outside that narrowrange. What I\u2019ve done instead is cherry-pick some common no-limit hold \u2019em situations and show you the underlying thought process for each. You\u2019ll be amazed at how well they integrate with, and support and reinforce, one another. And when you\u2019re done, you\u2019ll have not only a good strategic grounding for these common situations, but also a theoretical understanding you can apply to myriad situations that come up. The goal here, again, is to give you a thoughtful, conceptual, purposeful understanding of both the what and the why of all your actions, so you can enter every game withthe confidence borne of certain knowledge. In this part of the book, then, we talk about four different types of hands you might hold: huge hands, drawing hands, one-pair hands, and bluffinghands. I\u2019ve ranked them in order of ascending degree of difficulty, with huge hands being the easiest to play and one-pair hands being the toughest. Wait, you say, what about bluffs? Didn\u2019t I put them last? Actually, as we\u2019ll see, it\u2019s a little harder to play one-pair hands than pure bluffs, but you still want to have a full understanding of how to play real hands before you start frisking around with bluffs. Successful bluffing is really the art of storytelling. When you bluff, you\u2019re telling the story of one type of made hand or another. So let me ask you: How can you tell that story persuasively if you don\u2019t yet know what the story would be if you actually had the hand? Answer: You can\u2019t. Without that knowledge, the bluff becomes a dangerous weapon with which you can badly hurt yourself. Properly used, the bluff is a jigsaw, cutting intricate pieces of a puzzle to a high degree of detail. Improperly used\u2014and believe me, you see this all the time\u2014it\u2019s a chainsaw with which players hack off their own limbs. I understand the seduction of the bluff and I\u2019ll teach you how to do it well. But remember, just because you can bluff doesn\u2019t mean you must bluff. Too many players think that every time they miss a flop, they have to fall back on the default strategy of bluffing. There\u2019s a technical name for such players: broke. Don\u2019t let it happen to you. Okay, every time you see a flop, you need to ask yourself some questions. Do I have the best hand? If I don\u2019t have the best hand, am I drawing? If I don\u2019t have the"}
{"text":"hands is simply to call bullshit on a bet by raising with players left to act behind you, especially if they\u2019ve shown weakness already. If you\u2019re in first position in a hand and you check, players B and C both check, and Dbets, you\u2019re allowed to check-raise there, declaring your belief that D is on a steal. Once again, by leveraging the fact that players are yet to act, youmake your hand read stronger than it is. Since those two players have shown weakness, it\u2019s less likely they have anything, making your bluff-checkraise higher percentage, especially since you leverage their presence in the hand to make your play read stronger; with two players left to act, your check-raise looks like a strong hand to your button-betting opponent. You can also make this kind of play with only one player left to act. Let\u2019s say player A was the pre-flop raiser and c-bets on the flop, something you know him to do with pretty much any hand when he has the lead. If B folds and it\u2019s up to you with just D behind, you could raise, calling bullshit onA\u2019s bet. Again, you\u2019re leveraging the presence of D to make your hand read stronger, but at the same time, you aren\u2019t particularly worried about D, because there\u2019s only one of him. Interestingly, some of these raise bluffs are easier to sell in multi-way pots that devolve to heads-up situations than similar bluffs in hands that went to the flop heads-up to begin with. Flop raises, particularly on untextured boards, tend to read weak in heads-up situations and can make for an ineffective bluffing strategy. But in multi-way pots, opponents will give you more credit for a hand when you raise and you can use that to your advantage to end hands quickly when you read an opponent\u2019s bet as simple shenanigans. Squeezing Unsuited Boards, Multi-Way One multi-way bluff you can try is a little mini-squeeze on the flop. Say player A bets and B calls. You can now bluff-raise, using the classic squeeze strategy of leveraging B\u2019s presence in the hand to drive out A and the weakness of B\u2019s flat-call to drive him out. It\u2019s crucial, though, that you try this naked bluff only on an unsuited board; if there\u2019s a suit on boardthat you don\u2019t hold, either the bettor or the caller most likely does and you won\u2019t squeeze them both into the muck. So on a board such as J-8-2 rainbow, if the first person leads, especially on what seems to be a c-bet without muscle, and the second personcalls, you can take a shot at squeezing the pot, especially if your bluff isn\u2019t completely naked. Since you\u2019ll have a lower success rate bluffing against two opponents than against one, it\u2019s nice to have a backup plan, such as actually making a hand. On this J-8-2 board, for example, consider squeezing when you have KQ or QT. If someone calls, it\u2019s not the end of the world; you still might make the best hand. He\u2019ll probably check on the turn"}
{"text":"hyper players transitioned to Spins as they gained popularity. Yet, the transition was challenging for some due to the 3-handed aspect of the game. Myself and others found the switch from MTTs relatively smooth, especially for those well-versed in blind vs blind situations. You won\u2019t feel out of place in the Spin and Go format if you are familiar with these dynamics, as many spots, including BTN vs BB , play very similarly, and MTT players should be quite experienced at navigating short-stacked situations. Differences Differences do exist, however. For example, MTTs feature antes , and while some sites offer Spin and Gos with antes, most do not. The ICM factor, present in high multiplier games , is another distinction. These games are rare, with over 95% of Spin and Gos adopting a \u201cwinner takes all\u201d format, reducing the impact of ICM. Would This Fit Me? The Strong Suits of Spins! I think it doesn\u2019t really matter what format you are currently playing; you might find a liking for Spin and Gos. The beauty of the format is its flexibility . As I mentioned in the intro, the main reason for me to start playing Spin and Gos was that I simply couldn\u2019t play for 8-12 hours straight, 5-6 times a week. Spins were the perfect format for me. You can schedule your playing hours. You can plan your workday around your life and not your life around your workday. MTT vs Spin & Go \u2013 Why Not Both? Another option is to combine formats . What I personally did for around 5 years was to play Spins on weekdays. This covered all my bills I had to pay and more, which reduced financial pressure quite a bit, but every single Sunday, I still played MTTs. And of course, also during the major online poker series. So, there is no need to decide. Spin and Gos can complement your main format quite well. Also, what I found is that learning Spins actually enhances the MTT skillset a lot as well. You will have an edge on basically every MTT-only player heads up, and you will feel way more confident playing in blind vs blind and BB vs BTN situations. Conclusion In summary, Spin and Gos stand out as a flexible and engaging poker format that caters to a wide range of players. Whether you\u2019re looking for a schedule-friendly option, a new challenge, or a way to improve your poker skills , Spin and Gos have something to offer. My own experience moving from MTTs to Spins shows how this format can easily fit into your life and even enhance your abilities in other poker games. Players can enjoy the best of both worlds by blending Spin and Gos with other formats, gaining valuable skills and potentially boosting their win rate. Ultimately, Spin and Gos prove that poker can be both fun and strategically rewarding, making them a great choice for anyone looking to diversify their poker play. Wizards, you don\u2019t want to miss out on \u2018Daily Dose of GTO,\u2019 it\u2019s the most"}
{"text":"is exclusively available at grips calm five pillars video yeah that's five pillars video is a great thing to watch in preparation for a live tournament it's gonna help you just feel your best and play your best natural bodies of water will help save you the area that's a good tip macros DJ but well bodies of water in the desert thank you for the great advice love it not expecting anything or putting any pressure on myself at all just want to enjoy it thanks again you're welcome the morgue I wish you the best of luck luck and I hope you have a fantastic experience enjoy yourself Chartier YC in a home cash game I raised the button with a wide range for position the other players have started three or four betting me this is a daily game and we play with each other a lot can I defend without just playing super narrow range on the button I mean how deep are the stocks sharda if the stocks are really deep you can call with the very wide range if the stacks are shallower you probably shouldn't defend as many hands um but if there are three or four betting you a lot and you want to defend more with position you can raise smaller that's an adjustment we talked about you kit you can min raise or 2.5 X 3 X and then there are three bets will be smaller and therefore you'll have a deeper pot to stock ratio and you can defend the other thing to consider is what kind of hands are they three betting with because if there are three betting few hands you probably want to defend a pretty narrow range but if they're three betting a lot of hands and they're widening their range you can therefore widen your range and still have better hands than them your other option is to for bet them and in terms of best hands best candidates for for betting we'll be talking about that in the selection webinar in May how do you go about studying your hand ranges I've tried to create charts just memorize if I stood in the visual charts but it's had to make it stick any other math to use when starting out awesome I just played a lot I just played a lot a lot a lot a lot of Poker I'd look at hand charts and books and I just play and I just I started to get a feel for it and then I just kind of learned like where I could adjust based on the game and then it just became second nature and then I started deviating from the charts and I've actually recently looked at some charts gone like oh I want to make sure I have optimal ranges I'm just like man trying to memorize charts is nuts there's so much information and then I remembered right it's good to know the baseline it's good to have some idea of information"}
{"text":"Bubble The phase of a tournament when only a few players need to bust before the remainder of the players are in the money. When exactly one player needs to bust and the remainder will be paid, this is often referred to as the \"stone bubble\". The bubble often has strong ICM implications."}
{"text":"probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"state your hand, you still get the pot if your hand is the best. Always show your cards at the showdown and let the dealer inspect them. Pay attention in case the dealer makes a mistake. Cardrooms make money from poker, either by taking a percentage from every pot (the rake) or by charging players for the time they spend at the table. In low-limit games ($5-10 and below) cardrooms take a rake, usually about 5% of the pot, up to a certain limit, such as $5. In higher limit games ($10-20 and above), cardrooms often charge players for table time instead of taking a rake. In a game paid for by a rake, the dealer takes the money after each round of betting and puts it in oh the plastic circle on the table. After each hand the money is moved to the dealer's chip tray. The rake is not an insignificant cost to players because poker is a zero-sum game-your loss is someone else's gain. Suppose there is a game with ten players starting with $100 each, resulting in $1000 on the table initially. If the players are evenly matched and never leave the table, money simply passes back and forth between them, with the cardroom taking a little each time. It's easy to see that if this game goes on indefinitely, the cardroom will end up with all the money. To make money at poker, not only do you have to be better TEXAS HOLD'EM IN A CARDROOM 17 than the other players, but you have to beat the rake. You must win enough money to afford to give about 5% to the cardroom and play in games with new money entering. In addition to the cost of the rake, it is customary to tip the dealer. Tips are usually given by a player after winning a pot. Usually players give the dealer a $1 chip after a win. Tipping is not obligatory and for small pots $1 is a large cut and not always given. It is polite to tip dealers, but tips are another poker expense that need to be controlled for profit to be realized. Joining a Game Not all casinos have poker rooms, and not all casinos offering poker have Texas Hold'em. Call ahead to find out what games and betting limits are offered at the casinos that you plan to visit. Betting Limits: Once you decide where to play, select a game with affordable limits. For a $3-6 game, you should have at least $100 in front of you. In a $5-10 game, you need at least $200. For higherlimit games, you need proportionally more money. It must be money you can afford to lose. Not even the best poker players make a profit every time they play. You cannot fear losing money or you won't be able to play correctly. Placing bets that lose is an integral part of the game. You cannot win in the long run without the ability to absorb losses along the way. If you are new to Hold'em,"}
{"text":"has some kind of a hand, but it's unlikely to be a favorite against queens. Now Player D, with the short stack at this point, goes all-in. We'll deduce that he has some sort of a hand, he's desperate, and he's making his move. Again, there's no reason to think his hand is better than your Q\u2660Q\u2666. So what's your play? The common mistake when faced with an all-in bet is just to call. But if you call, there's a good chance that Player B will call as well and get to see the flop. Although your queens are probably a favorite against either of the two hands out there individually, you're probably less than 50 percent to win playing against two reasonable hands simultaneously. For instance, if one of the hands is ace-jack and the other is nines, your winning chances in a three-way pot dealt down to the end are just 58 percent, even though you're better than 80 percent heads-up against the nines and 70 percent heads-up against the ace-jack. So instead of calling or putting in a small raise, now is the time to go all-in. This way you chase out Player B (probably) and isolate on Player D. Your chances of winning the pot go up, and if you do lose, the loss won't hurt you that much. If you let Player B hang around and he outdraws you, you could lose most of your chips. Resolution: You raise all-in and Player B folds. Player D turns over T\u2663T\u2665. Your queens hold up to win the pot. 110 Hand 5-13 Situation: Halfway through a single table satellite. Your hand: K\u2660K\u2665 Action to you: Players A and B fold. Player C raises to $200. Player D folds. The pot is $350. Question: Do you raise, and if so, how much? Answer: You want to raise here, obviously, but you don't want to raise too much. You want him to call so you can make some money. I'd recommend a raise to about $600. If he calls and an ace comes on the flop, well, that's the way it goes sometimes. But you don't want to chase out some medium pair here. Action: You actually raise $800. The big blind folds. Player C puts you all-in for your remaining $580. Question: What do you do? Answer: You're delighted, and you call. A lot of players will tell you stories about the times they folded kings because they knew their opponent was raising with aces. Here's my story. About a year ago, a tight player in the big blind raised me. I actually thought he had aces. I was in early position with a pair of kings. I made a modest raise and he reraised me. I thought a long time and called. The flop came three small cards, and he bet a modest amount and I called. He actually had the aces. I almost threw the hand away, but I couldn't do it. Just not savvy enough. Even bets and raises that seem to indicate great strength can have"}
{"text":"reasonable chance exists that you can pick up the pot. At the end of a hand, it becomes especially crucial to have a good idea of what your opponent has. The more accurately you can read hands on the end, the better you can determine your chance of having your opponent beat. This, of course, helps you in deciding how to play your own hand. In practice, most players at least try to determine whether an opponent has a bad hand, a mediocre hand, a good hand, or a great hand. Let's say your opponent bets on the end. Usually when a person bets, it represents either a bluff, a good hand, or a great hand, but not a mediocre hand. If your opponent had a mediocre hand, he probably would check. If you have only a mediocre hand, you must determine what the chances are that your opponent is bluffing and whether those chances warrant a call in relation to the pot odds. We have seen that in hold 'em, one way to read hands is to start by considering a variety of possible hands an opponent might have and then to eliminate some of these possibilities as the hand develops. A complementary way to read hands is to work backward. For instance, if the last card is a deuce and an opponent who has just been calling suddenly bets, you think back on his play in earlier rounds. Since it does not seem possible that he would have called this far with only two deuces in the hole, he is either bluffing or has something other than a set of deuces. Here is another example. Suppose the flop comes: Reading Hands 227 The first player bets, and the second player raises. A third person, who is also in an early position and is a solid but not overly aggressive player, raises again. Also suppose that several other opponents remain to act behind the reraiser and that this reraiser had just called before the flop. What is his hand? First, notice that he is not likely to be on a draw trying for a free card since he would not want to shut out the players behind him or the initial bettor. .Second, it is easy to rule out a set. The reraiser most likely would have raised before the flop with KK or QQ, but would not play 22 from so early a position. Similarly, it is unlikely that he has AKs, AK, or KQs, as he probably would have raised before the flop with these hands. In addition, he would not make it three bets with a hand like KJs, KJ, KTs, or KT. (It is also doubtful that he would play KJ or KT since they are not suited.) This leaves just one possibility: KQ. If his hand is not suited, he most likely would call with it from an early position, but would still be willing to make it three bets on the flop if he flopped top two pair. Here's a third example. Before the flop,"}
{"text":"where we're not worried about the blinds coming in we want to play as pot heads up and that's already going to happen so you can actually almost not have a three betting range and just flat with everything including aces unless it's a complete lunatic if you three bet and he's just gonna shovel it all in with Queens or jacks then share three about aces but you don't have to I would just do a lot of calling and I would fold like I would call really tight to the ten big blind open so like I might even fold sixes and fives and fours and like six seven suited and just called my really good hands basically Ricardo asked the hand with he has pocket 7s there's 150 big blind open in the middle position a player with 85 big blank called I have a hundred big blinds on the dealer button with seven seven but the blinds have around thirty to fifty four thirty to forty big blinds should I call full they raise I would always just call here thirty to forty big blinds from the blinds it's gonna be they're gonna have to pick up a really good hand to squeeze most players don't squeeze wide enough so I wouldn't be worried about not seeing the flop there Louis what is your calling range when you have 100 big blinds versus 20 big blinds shelves pretty much the exact same if I had 40 big blinds versus a 20 big blinds shove I'm calling pretty much the same range maybe it's just a tiny bit tighter when I have 40 big blinds versus a hundred just because of what risk I'm taking Tom will there be a replay I was at work and missed most of this yes you can find the replay of this on YouTube [Music] Jeff read my ass at 50 big ones seep I'm chip leader at the table of my attorney under the gun guy James 10 big ones I pocketed sixes in middle position are you shoving folding they're calling I would fold here because we are in metal position and still have five players left to act if we were in the big blind or maybe the small blind I would call with the pocket sixes we're ahead of his jamming range but we want to be closing the action here Tom bacon do you adjust your three bet range if there's a cold call between you and the opener yes we have to adjust our range now because there's someone that put money in that likely has a really good hand just getting through these last questions have one more minute here Ricardo asked about this new single big blind ante and just kind of the adjustments what advice and analysis people over adjust their strategies the strategy really doesn't change that much at all with the single lip line and it just makes everything go quicker all right yeah KP when were your next webinar I will"}
{"text":"and still win a hand and pull more chips into your stack. But in the very long run, your results at the poker table will approach the sum of all your opponents' mistakes, less the sum of your mistakes. This principle governs all games which are mixtures of skill and chance. There are a variety of mistakes one can make in poker, but one of the most serious is to make a bet or call which is not correct given the pot odds available to you, either because you haven't made the right deductions about your opponent's cards, or because you have a generally correct idea about his cards, but you've ignored the pot odds entirely. The no-limit form of hold \u2019em poker is very advantageous to good players for a simple reason. By making superior deductions about the hands their opponents hold, they can make bets that offer their opponents more chances to make errors. Whenever their opponent misreads the situation and makes such an error, the good player gains, and his opponent loses. Example No. 1. Suppose you are playing limit hold \u2019em (bets are limited to a specified amount each round) and you believe, from the previous betting, that your opponent has four cards to a spade flush with just one card to come. The flush, if he hits it, will beat whatever hand you have, but he will lose otherwise. The pot now contains $100, and the betting limit is $10, and you bet that amount. It's now your opponent's turn. He has seen six cards so far, the two in his hand and the four 9 common cards in the center. If he's drawing to a flush, four of these cards are spades. Of the remaining 46 cards in the deck that he hasn't seen, your opponent needs one of the nine remaining spades. The other 37 cards will lose for him. The odds against hitting his flush are 37- to-9 against, or just a little over 4-to-1. The pot now contains $110 and it costs him $10 to call, so he's being offered 11-to-l pot odds. Since the pot odds are bigger than his odds of making the winning hand, it's correct for him to call. Your bet was perfectly correct as well since you're a 4- to-l favorite to win the hand. But with the betting limit of $10, there was no way for you to prevent your opponent from drawing at the winning hand. Now suppose we have the exact same hands and pot, but the game is no-limit hold \u2019em. You can bet any amount you want, not just $10. This time you bet $100. Your opponent can still call the bet, but now there is $200 in the pot and he has to call for $100. The pot is only offering him 2- to-1 odds, but his chances of hitting his flush are still 4-to-l. Since the pot odds are smaller than the chance of making his hand, he's supposed to fold. Because you had an unlimited choice in what to bet,"}
{"text":"probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"all jack hi hands and below was sound not so fast if we check another jack hi combo such as jack of spades aided diamonds we see that the eev for checking is significantly higher than all of the betting options so if we had stopped our review after only checking the strategy for our particular hand 10 club jack of hearts it would have likely reinforced the idea that our overall logic was sound but it wasn't it was overly simplified the reality is that the big line arrives at the turn with essentially 100 of its range because it wasn't really donking the flop and so it has a ton of weak combos in its range many of which have better bluffing properties such as numerous straight and flush draws so we can't just bluntly bluff all of our combos that are jack high or below if we want to avoid overbluffing in this case even though ten of clubs jack of hearts doesn't have a draw it's a particularly good combo to barrel because it blocks both flush draws and will be a strong bluffing candidate on club or hard rivers but not all combos in this class share these attributes in other words checking a sim to see if how we played our specific hand was solver approved has limited usefulness because it's highly unlikely that we will ever encounter the exact same spot with the exact same combo ever again however it is much more valuable to check a sim to see if our logic or the heuristics we use to make our decision or solve are approved because generalized heuristics can be applied to a variety of spots that share common characteristics even if we have never studied those specific spots before and the only objective way to check if our logic is solver approved is by analyzing the strategies for all of the combos that fit within our heuristic however as you can probably imagine checking all of the evs for each such combo can be extremely tedious and time consuming although peel solver which is the solver that i primarily use to learn gto does have an eb comparison function you can only compare two actions at a time and you can't compare evs for select groups of hands so as the old saying goes necessity is the mother of invention and thus we created the eb regret algorithm to do this work for us instantaneously for each available action for a filtered group of hands evie regret compares the eevee of such action against the eevee of all other available actions for such group of hands if the ev of such action is the highest the ev regret is zero because it means that we will have no regrets to take that action over the other available options however when the eb for an alternative action is higher eb regret calculates the maximum amount of ev will lose expressed as a percentage of the pot by taking such action over the alternatives and"}
{"text":"if they have to move back down because things go poorly what happens to some people is they play two five no limit grind it up get a 50k bankroll move up to 510 they're being responsible they move to 510 with 50 buy-ins they play they lose they lose they lose they lose down to 30k they lose down to 20k and then they're like huh i have 20k i'm not properly bankroll for this game anymore what do i do well the answer is not keep playing it the answer is move down and grind up your bankroll to give yourself essentially another good opportunity at the 510 game if you even feel inclined to try to move to it maybe you are in the same spot i was in where your 5-10 game was super soft or sorry super tough but the 2-5 game is super soft if that's the case then you maybe don't need to play that 5 10 game the way it essentially works is imagine you're playing a higher stakes game but your win rate is halved you'd rather play the smaller game because there's way less variance right and that's kind of what i was dealing with at bellagio i knew i went about a hundred bucks an hour at 5 10. i also knew i could win about 110 per hour at 10 20. a little bit more but a lot more variance at least over the sample that i had and i had a pretty good sample at 25.50 i didn't know what i could reasonably win because i did not put in a lot of time there but i can look around the table and see everybody's good besides one player who's not even that bad right so i know that there is not going to be much of an edge there so i know that game's not going to be all that profitable because the losing player there is losing let's say 500 per hour divided by nine or eight other good players 500 divided by eight is what 40 bucks per hour not a good win rate it's not like i'm going to be that much better than any of the other good players there so whatever like you make 100 bucks per hour at most so i'd rather make 100 bucks per hour playing 510 with no risk 110 per hour playing 1020 with like some risk and certainly more swings or 25.50 where who knows what i'd win but it would certainly be about 100 bucks per hour right it makes a lot of sense to just play the 510 game because it's free right and your local casino is maybe like one two five is free and five ten is tough i don't know you gotta get in there figure it out this is where students come to me and give me very very clear pictures of what's happening and i can give the best advice i possibly can anyway though say you do play the"}
{"text":"lot of hands that i think that jackoff could get that could get value from uh plus uh his hand does require a little bit of protection i know that there's no flush draw but there are some straight draws out there which he doesn't block either of them so king jack jack 9 are definitely possible uh even ace jack for a gut shot so i if i were him i would definitely see bet here for value and a little bit of protection but he decides to check i do bet 105 um and jackoff i believe calls yep so he calls so he is still uh trapping this and poker gypsy calls as well now i don't think there's anything wrong with poker gypsy's call um at all he's he's also flopped open-ended just unfortunately for him the lower end so checks to me there's 489 in the pot now i think this could go either way um i do believe i end up c-betting here but i don't hate checking um just because i um our opponents could definitely have some queens in their range which they're most likely not going to be folding once i do bet so um so that's like one argument for checking back i could just check back and hope to realize my straight equity on the river um because i don't necessarily think i'm getting folds by uh king queen and ace queen and queen jack i didn't really think that jackoff had too many queens because he just checked the flop so i mean he could be paw controlling with like ace queen but i don't i don't really see why he would do that i would imagine he would see bet a hand like ace queen and and uh king queen and queen jack i mean queen jack might check but certainly c betting ace queen and king queen so i didn't really think that he had too many queens and uh i didn't block any of the tens i do block some of the 10 combos like king 10 and jack 10. um but i i just thought you know i have king high i could improve to a straight they could get you know i could get folds from the both of them um i didn't i wasn't too afraid of jackoff's range just because like like i said ace queen you know aces and kings most likely are going to be c betting there especially because um the poker gypsy and i could both have a lot of queen and 10 combos that he could get value from if he did have aces and kings so i think this could be a check back but i did decide to bet and if i am going to bet i like going big which i did i bet 350 um because again i only have king high and i really do want the fold so i don't want to go small here and send and incentivize them for calling"}
{"text":"to bet more thinly for value and protection, however, depends heavily on how the board texture distributes equity among the players. GTO Wizard the #1 App for Poker players Study any spot imaginable Practice by playing vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Andrew Brokos Andrew Brokos has been a professional poker player, coach, and author for over 15 years. He co-hosts the Thinking Poker Podcast and is the author of the Play Optimal Poker books, among others. Latest article Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026 The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position"}
{"text":"to lose most of its equity no matter what it does . Q \u2665 5 \u2665 and Q \u2666 J \u2665 lose much less equity when they bet because more of their equity comes from strong hands like straights and flushes. Q \u2666 J \u2665 makes such a hand somewhat less often, but it has more potential for making a decent pair. 8 \u2666 6 \u2666 loses nearly as large a percent of its equity as A \u2660 J \u2660 when it bets. But it has poor equity to begin with, however, so that doesn\u2019t amount to much in absolute terms. Backdooring a straight is a remote possibility. Most of this hand\u2019s equity comes from making a pair on the turn or river, but such weak pairs will struggle to realize equity even after checking the flop . Barreling a Wet Turn Protecting the equity of marginal hands is an even bigger consideration on the turn , when the hand is closer to showdown, so equity is easier to realize on the checking node. Let\u2019s look at how each of these hands play on a few turns after having bet 75% pot on the K \u2665 9 \u2665 4 \u2660 flop (we\u2019ll substitute in A \u2666 J \u2665 for A \u2660 J \u2660 since the latter would not have bet the flop). Here is how each hand performs on a J \u2660 turn , which improves many hands in both players\u2019 ranges (action frequencies may not add to 100% because there are a few low-frequency bet sizes not included in this chart): The best candidate for barreling this turn is Q \u2665 5 \u2665 . It has decent equity, and because most of that equity comes from rivering a straight or flush, it sacrifices very little by betting . With this hand, BTN does not mind strengthening BB\u2019s range with a bet because if they miss on the river, they aren\u2019t going to win anyway , and if they improve to a straight or flush, they will win often even against that strengthened range . We gain extra confidence in this hypothesis because of the fact that this hand is even a candidate for overbetting, which will strengthen BB\u2019s range even more dramatically than a 75% pot bet. AJ and QJ , on the other hand, have much more fragile equity . A pair of Jacks holds up better in a smaller pot than in a large one. They lose a lot of equity when they bet 75% pot, but they will generally pay off such a bet on the river after checking behind anyway, so betting the turn and checking behind when unimproved on the river is also an option. They are terrible candidates for overbetting, however, which all but destroys the value of their pair. As for A5 and 86 , they are poor candidates for bluffing because they have terrible equity when called but do actually have a slim chance of winning when they check. A tough opponent will not allow Ace-high to win at showdown, but checking behind"}
{"text":"hello everyone Lexi Gavin Mather here and I've decided to do a course that is kicking it way back to the basics this is a great course for people that are very new to Poker maybe you just signed up for the course or you know maybe you haven't you know you've been playing for a while but really haven't put too much study into your game um this is also good for people that you know are a little bit more experienced in poker it's never a bad thing to revisit some of the most basic concepts because you're learning and studying so much that it could be you know it could be easy to forget some of the more you know basic fundamentals so um I decided to create a very basic course and it's gonna be kind of a road map for you to you know help you navigate um you know how your your study plan and you know kind of where to start on your poker Journey all right let's get into it how do we even know where to begin there's like I said there's so many Concepts in poker there's so many different strategies and different topics and it's really hard to know where to begin and like what the first thing you should start with should be so I think that the very first thing that you need to really familiarize yourself is learn your race first in ranges these are your GTO RFI charts for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about let me go ahead and pull some into the screen here this is an example of a raised first in range so obviously actually first the very first thing you should probably know is you know learn the positions at the table but once you have that down pat um these are your RFI charts so this is the under the gun range meaning this these are the hands that you should be raising when you are first to act pre-flop as you can see we are pretty tight here opening most of our you know our strongest hands um some you know ace5 suited is four suited for balance type things but basically this just tells you which hands you should be raising which hands you should be folding um let's go down to the button just so that I can show you kind of the biggest contrast here um so the button we're opening 56 percent of hands and you can see that it is just a ton more hands we get to open um on the button and you're always going to make you know opponent adjustments if you have tighter players in the blinds then you can open up a wider range or if you have more aggressive players still have to act then you should probably be playing a little bit tighter so these are your RFI charts this is like the Holy Grail of Poker this is what you need to start"}
{"text":"on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible \u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"action. A roughly pot-sized bet looks about right here. Action: You raise to $100. Players G and H and the small blind fold. The big blind calls for another $80. Player C, the original caller, calls for another $80. Player E, the original raiser, calls for another $60. The pot now contains $410. You will be last to act next round. Flop: A\u26656\u26664\u2665 Action: The big blind checks, Player C bets $20, and Player E calls. The pot is now $450. What do you do? Answer: It's good to get in the habit of recapping the action in your head before you make a move. The first thing to notice is that Player C has made a strange sequence of plays. He called the blinds in third position, then after a raise and a big raise behind him, he just called again. No hand that merited just limping in the pot could also justify calling two raises. So either he's making some sort of weird trap with a big hand, or he's a fish who doesn't know what he's doing. You should be unhappy that you couldn't narrow the field more with your raise, but such things happen. (Make a mental note for the future that with this group, a bigger-than-normal raise is necessary.) The ace on the flop, however, is a big problem. With three callers, at least somebody should have an ace out there, so you've got to be very cautious. On the bright side, you have a 74 back-door flush possibility, even though that's a real long shot. Right now, you're happy to just call and see a cheap card. Hopefully, the big blind won't do a check-raise. Action: You call, and the big blind also calls. The pot is now $490. Fourth Street: J\u2665 Action: The big blind bets $65, Player C calls, and Player E raises to $130. The pot is now $750. What should you do? Answer: The jack seems to have helped this crowd, and everybody is saying they have something. What do you do? The first job is to assess your situation carefully. There's some chance that you have the best hand right now. If no one had an ace, your kings are probably still good. The ace on the flop was scary, but the betting on the flop was anemic, so there is some possibility that you don't need to improve to win. If you do need to improve, it's time to start counting the cards that will improve your hand. The jack helped you here, because it's the fourth card to your nut flush. With no pair on the board, there are no full houses out there, so hitting the flush will certainly win the hand. Four flush cards accounted for gives you nine outs. The two outstanding kings might win the hand for you, but they might not; you could already be facing a flush. You can't count them as two outs - maybe one out is about right. That gives you 10 outs out of 46 cards. You're a 36-to-10"}
{"text":"Hand Range 181: BB vs UTG (60bb) \u2022 3-bet 5.3% \/ \u2022 Call 50.6% \/ \u2022 Fold 44.1%"}
{"text":"Tells While this isn\u2019t a book on tells, we have a few brief ideas to share with you regarding tells and no limit. It\u2019s OK to Pretend Bridge (the card game) players feel that it\u2019s unethical to pretend to think about a decision. If you spend time \u201cthinking\u201d about an \u201cautomatic\u201d play to mislead your opponents about what\u2019 s in your hand, you may be penalized. Poker isn\u2019t bridge. In poker, it\u2019s just \ufb01ne to pretend to think to mislead your opponents. Indeed, if you spend time thinking only when your decision is genuinely tough, you\u2019ll be revealing information to your opponent. lf you\u2019re thinking about calling a river bet, giving away your hand is no big deal. But earlier in the hand, allowing your opponents to \u201cdecode\u201d your thoughts will hurt your results. The solution is simple. Occasionally pretend to think when you have an automatic play. (Don\u2019t do it too often, though, or you\u2019ll unnecessarily slow the game down.) Think As we just said, you can avoid giving o\ufb00\u201cthinking tells\u201d if you occasionally think when you have nothing to think about. So don\u2019t hesitate to think when you need to. No limit is a complex game that requires you to process myriad factors for each decision. And, unlike limit, a single error can be extremely costly. If you need to take some time to think about your play, feel free to do so. No limit etiquette permits you to spend some time to think about big decisions. Don\u2019t agonize over every pre\ufb02op hand, though. You\u2019ll look silly. 159"}
{"text":"swings. Every hand is an investment\u2026 What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets\u2026 Pot Geometry \u201cPot Geometry\u201d refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible \u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"good poker players are very intelligent. This book will teach you these skills and many more to become a winning poker player. Winning Low Stakes No Limit Hold\u2019em Poker I often think about poker theory and applying it to the game. I have read that a person has to be patient, stay tight and aggressive, and that one or two big hands an hour is doing well. You make up what you invested into the antes and a profit. But, as you play no limit Hold\u2019em online you will see large pots being won all the time, and many times from loose players. It makes you think that any two cards can win. Well, that is not the truth and I bet if you watched that player for a long period of time, say a month or so, you would find that that player you lost the $25.00 pot to lost that money to someone else and much more. What makes that player act so loose at small ante tables? I have read that they are just looking for action; some do not care if they lose the money, and they are just looking for a thrill. Yes, there are probably many players out there just looking to blow off a little steam. However, if you are like me, you are looking for the best way to play for profit. I have another theory as to why the players act so loose, take too many chances, and eventually the $100 they won while being a cardholder one night was lost the next night twice as fast. That is because they do not understand the expectation of win percentage compared to the table\u2019s blind amount. They expect the same cards to be hitting their hand and the same type of opponents to bet into them the same way. It usually does not happen, they do not adjust their game for the next night and it spells doom. There are adequate discussions about the expected hourly rate of a good player on the internet. How much money should a player expect from a certain table? When many players sit down at a $.25\/$.50 or a $2\/$4 table, they experience that exhilaration when someone bet all in against their flopped A 6 Full House. You can make a smooth $10 to $200 dollars in a quick couple of minutes. This does not happen very often in a session and you should savor it like a fine wine. Figure this might happen every week, or on a good night two or three times. Regardless, in between these miracles from the poker Gods, real poker players grind out a few dollars here and a few dollars there. What is a good night when you have to grind it out all night, with no made nut hands to lean on, and you walk away from the table with a profit from pure poker skill? I would say that 10 to 40 times the big blind would be a good night at the poker table. This is a wide"}
{"text":"next most of the time, but 33.3% of the time he manages to ladder to a prize of at least $3,100, so he needs to get something to encourage him not to play on to try and spin up. Only the big stacks benefit from a Chip Chop, and it is at the expense of everyone else. A short stack is worth more and ladders more often than a Chip Chop deal would suggest. A Chip Chop deal makes sense only when the final two players are heads-up . There is no ICM heads-up and you could, therefore, give each player 2nd place prize money and then chop up the remaining money equally based on their stacks at the time. Skill deals The biggest flaw with the ICM model in terms of final tables is it does not factor in skill. Few professionals would want to give a bad player a deal assuming equal skill. Likewise, elite players would not want to sacrifice edge. ICM deals work because the edges are quite small at most final tables, especially with shallow stacks or a fast structure. The difference between two good regulars will be minimal, so unless there is a big gulf in class between the players, an ICM deal is better than subjecting oneself to variance. When one player shines above the rest, they can negotiate a final table payout based on their perceived edge . This would involve using ICM as a baseline after the elite player has taken a markup from the remaining prize pool. In our example above, let\u2019s assume that our chip leader Bob is a professional player with an edge over the others. He estimates his edge is 10%. What he might propose is that he takes a 10% markup on the ICM value of his stack, while everyone else at the final table negotiates amongst themselves based loosely on ICM. Usually, it would be the other big stacks taking the hit to secure a payout because the short stack has less to lose by refusing. This sort of deal is part science, part negotiation, with some art thrown in. Such a deal might look like this: Getting better than 1st place prize In rare cases, an excellent player can negotiate a deal where they take more than the projected first prize . They either have such an edge that can dictate these terms, or the other players are so scared of busting next that they agree to poor terms. A great example was when online beast \u2018\u20acurop\u20acan\u2019 won the 2016 WCOOP Super Tuesday. He had both an enormous chip lead and is also regarded as one of the best online tournament players of all time. This is how things stood when the deal was proposed, with the potential payouts as they were (the chip stacks are not exact but the last way each one was reported during the event): However, \u20acurop\u20acan managed to negotiate this deal: He secured $5,268 more than the official first place payout ! In exchange for this, \u2018XingMaster\u2019 secured $32,901 more than"}
{"text":"anyway again if you have friends you know dealers or whatever you got another excuse you go say what's up to your friends and while you're doing that you're kind of scouting the scene if you're willing to do that i promise you you will make more money you'll you'll you'll get in better games and you'll just have more fun playing poker i guarantee you so second point is that keep an eye and an ear out for better games you're gonna see madness you're gonna hear people being like oh you know big pot or oh my god or cussing or whatever you'll hear it and then you just kind of gotta look over and see what's going on and and and suss it out is it just a bad beat things happen or oh is someone actually playing like a complete maniac and the more attuned you are to the environment the more likely you're gonna be to find the best one two one three two five five ten game whatever it is usually once you go bigger there's only one game at the limit anyway so there's not a lot of choice but in those smaller limits one two one three two five five five uh even five ten they're usually multiple tables and one of them will be way better than the other ones so it's worth figuring out what that table is getting there and then getting the best seat now this is something that i did poorly when i first you know was learning about this i got a little too obsessed with trying to get in the best game so you don't want to play musical chairs all night being in a great game is fine you don't always need to be in the best game the important thing is to make sure you're not sitting in a bad game for any longer than necessary and that you refused play in a terrible game as long as you are in an upper tier game you know a good game a great game an excellent game perfect the important thing is getting out of the games where everyone's a rag everyone's a pro or everyone's a net or there's no action there's no spot once you're on a pretty decent game it can be better than going for you know the quote-unquote perfect game because if you're in a great game and you have reads on the opponents that may be a higher value set up for you than being in the best game in the room where you have no reads yet you're gonna have to take half an hour an hour to to figure everybody out so don't undervalue your game just because people are hooting and hollering at another table and don't undervalue the value of the reads you have and the um table image you have and the dynamic you have with people because that's worth a lot so there we talked about never staying a bad game for any longer"}
{"text":"The following two-card draws can be played for any amount of bets before the draw: All these hands give you an opportunity later to draw at one card at the wheel without the presence of a straight draw. If you are dealt any of these hands, raise it. In fact, if you are in position, I would advise reraising. That way you can isolate one player while having position, which makes it easier to control the action. 2-3-4 vs. 2-3-7 vs. There has always been a great deal of debate over what the best starting hand is when drawing two. Is it the 2-3-4 or the 2-3-7? Let me start by saying that it simply doesn\u2019t matter very much. You should play both hands the same way. The hands are so close in strength that wasting too much time talking about which is better is silly, but I\u2019m going to 300 do it anyway to illustrate the concept. After running several simulations, I found the following: if the 2-3-4 ran against precisely 2-3-7, the 2-3-7 would be less than a 1 percent favorite. That makes the 2-3-7 the best hand then, right? Wrong. Against any other hand your opponent might have, the 2-3-4 would do better than the 2-3-7. Since you are rarely going to be in a situation where you hold 2-3-4 against precisely 2-3-7, I would say that the 2-3-4 is the best starting hand in terms of two-card draws. You always want to be drawing from the bottom up. The smoother your draw, the more often you will win the pot when both you and your opponent make your hand. For example, if both the 2-3-4 and the 2-3-7 make an 8-7, the 2-3-4 can\u2019t lose! The 2-3-4 could make only 2-3-4-7-8, while the 2-3-7 would make 8-7s that look like this: 2-3-4-7-8 2-3-5-7-8 2-3-6-7-8 Notice how much stronger the first 8 is? With the 2-3-7 you\u2019ll often have to make a tough decision later as to whether or not you should draw to a 2-3-7-8 or throw the 8 away and go for the wheel. With the 2-3-4 you would simply keep the 8 every time. Be Wary of the 6. There are four other two-card draw starting hands that should also be played in most situations. They are draws that contain a 6 that could still make you a 7-low. Here they are: 2-3-6 2-4-6 2-5-6 2-6-7 None of these draws can make a wheel, and the first three may actually cause you problems due to the presence of a possible straight. I would still advise you to play these hands in most situations, but you should fold them in the face of too much action, especially if the raises came from tight players. Good Eight Draws. A good eight draw is one that could make number five 301 (2-3-4-5-8), such as 2-3-8, 2-4-8, and 2-5-8\u2014but again, be wary of the 6. If you make your hand with a 6 in it, you might lose to eights at the showdown. From early position, each of these hands"}
{"text":"Polar or linear? Linear! This is a very tight Fish against whom having a 3-bet bluffing range would be insane. Is AJo good enough to 3-bet? No. Villain's RFI from the CO is a measly 8% of hands which equates to a range of roughly [88+ AJo+ ATs+ KTs+ QJs] and even if Villain continued every combo of it to a 3-bet, Hero's equity would only be around 40%. Can Hero call here? Certainly not. Pot odds are horrible given the 4x open. Implied odds are even worse with a hand so incapable of flopping very strong undominated hands. Even Axx is a frightening flop in this situation for Hero and not to mention Villain only has 36BB behind if Hero does manage to flop trip jacks. Fold equity post-flop is also very poor vs. a Fish with a strong range. Hero folds. There are many more examples out there and they come from reviewing your own play in these extremely common spots in your database. Get to work reviewing what models of ranges to 3-bet against different opponent types in different positions with different configurations of players to act behind. Never forget to ask the polar\/linear question regardless of whether you're battling in game, or training out of game. Ingrain the order of the polar model and try to never violate it without very good reason. When it comes to linear ranges don't be shy about 3-betting very wide to isolate wide opening Fish, but do be careful vs. Regs and tighter Fish. Chapter 6 and this chapter should now be blending together into one kind of thinking: how to react to opens. In Chapter 6 we also covered flatting after an open and other calls before the action reaches"}
{"text":"It was a sight to see, the three of us taking on all comers. And not just at poker. We got to the point where we were gambling on just about every game there was\u2014golf, tennis, basketball, pool, sports betting. Just about everything. As long as we thought we had some sort of an edge, we\u2019d bet. And we made money. Pretty soon we got to know most everybody in the games no matter where we played. We kept running into the same guys all the time\u2014Jack Straus, Johnny Moss, Bob Hooks, and a lot of others. 17 Making a Name for Ourselves As our reputations grew, we were invited to more and more games in private clubs and homes. For the most part, these games were for rich oil men and cattlemen who had a hankering to take on young professionals like us. It was safer playing in these games than playing in back rooms where you took a risk every time you won a fair amount. I\u2019ve been hijacked a few times, and I can tell you it\u2019s not a pleasant experience to be looking down at the business end of a shotgun. Sailor, Slim, and I stuck together for six years or so, and we had some mighty fine times. Once in a while we were down, but we managed to hold our own better than most. Our partnership finally broke up after our first big trip to Las Vegas. We lost our entire bankroll\u2014close to six figures\u2014and believe me, there\u2019s nothing more cantankerous than three broke gamblers. We went our separate ways after that but have remained close friends to this day. In 1960, I met my wife, Louise. She was a pharmacist in San Angelo, Texas, and I courted her for about two years. She was something worth winning, you see, and I can tell you I had an uphill fight persuading my sweetheart that I was her one and only. She was convinced I was married, and it took a heap of testimonials to convince her that I was single and available. I worked harder for our first date than anything I\u2019ve ever done in my life. After I asked her to marry me, she had to think twice about permanently hitching up with a professional gambler. She had a lot of doubts. It wasn\u2019t what most girls were doing at the time. I finally convinced her and we were married in August of 1962. About four months after we were married, I woke up one morning with a sore throat and thought I was coming down with a bad cold. There was a little knot on the side of my neck about the size of a pea. Louise insisted I go to a doctor, and so for about three weeks I was taking heavy doses of antibiotics every day. That didn\u2019t help, and the knot grew to the size of a hen\u2019s egg. By that time, I was plenty worried. My brother Lloyd had died of cancer a short while before, and I couldn\u2019t keep"}
{"text":"like not peanuts and they'll bet they'll get raised and they'll go their main incentive is i don't want to fold again because that's more and i came here to play i didn't come here to fold and the tournament's over i i find if i can get rid of you over playing over pairs i can create many more winners and that was the situation where it's possible you have the best hand but it was highly mother effing unlikely and i'd really prefer it that you'd fold it there it's a much more difficult situation if the last player let's say it's a multi-way pod and you bet and all the guys fold except for the last person the last person decides to uh pump it and that person's more aggressive let's say like a 24-20 or something like that or just somebody who's an action player at the table that is a very difficult situation in which case if you continued that that's forgivable in that situation given the parameters i've given you i would like you leaning on the fold here you have jacks on the button facing a race from the cutoff would you like to fold call arrays couple more seconds five more okay time is up if you have no information here and i gave you no information there and i did not highlight that fact if you have no information you should be three betting all the time there's many people that say jax are drawing hand they say that jax oh i hate jax i hate playing pocket jacks your jacks are most likely way ahead of a cut-off's opening range there so we're gonna go ahead and raise so we raise envisage uh however you pronounce it decides to call and the board comes king of diamonds 10 of spades five of spades and he checks to you quick what are you thinking of right now i'll tell you what i'm thinking of in a minute you have 10 seconds what would you like to do here time is up if you did select b how much did you want about we go ahead and bet 462 and this player calls very quickly and you should always know with most of my hand histories i make most of my decisions within a couple seconds and if i tell you they did something quickly then it likely was bam bam it is check to us here or here would you like to check her back you have five seconds time is up we go ahead and fire and he folds what should you have been thinking here the flop why is that bet so small partly that that was kind of an arrogant jackass thing to do how much i bet there but um that that is small for a reason one of the reasons is if you're three bet c betting a lot as a bluff you want to make sure that eventually you can see that very small and people will"}
{"text":"of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the\u2026 Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get\u2026 Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being\u2026 Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of 400K\/800K\/800K,\u2026 Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?\u2026 Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of Canadian programmers from Quebec, developed\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Explained We are excited to introduce GTO Wizard AI, formerly known as Ruse, the world\u2019s best\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Benchmarks GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional solving methods to bring\u2026 Table Management in PKOs Perhaps the most important strategic consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs) is making sure you\u2026 Overcalling From the BB In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also\u2026 Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach\u2026 Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon\u2026 Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to"}
{"text":"Texture A term used in a variety of ways to describe the board and community cards. For example, a flop with a flush and straight draw can be referred to as a wet texture, whereas a rainbow flop with three disconnected cards could be referred to as a dry texture. See: Board texture."}
{"text":"the river more cheaply than if you checked and called. But in last position there is no such rationale.) Fifth Street: 7\u2666 Action: Player B checks. What's your move? Answer: You check. You still have nothing, and you're almost certainly beaten. If he bet, you'd lay down your hand, so be grateful you're getting a free peek. Action: You check. He shows 9\u26656\u2665. His one pair wins the pot. A weaker hand than we expected, but still good enough to beat nothing. He had no business calling before the flop with this hand, but afterwards he had a pair plus an open-ended straight draw, so his later calls were reasonable. Hand 6-7 Situation: Early in a single-table online tournament. Players A and C have been very aggressive so far. Your hand: A\u26667\u2663 Action to you: Player A calls. Question: Do you fold, call, or raise? Answer: A conservative player would simply fold in this spot. Ace-seven offsuit isn't strong enough to play in early position, and here you're coming in behind a player who has called, indicating some strength. Since he's known to be aggressive, you have to discount his strength somewhat, but you can't just ignore it. Aggressive and super-aggressive players like to steal pots, but even those players like to see a rationale for stealing, like good position after the flop, or the knowledge that several players have already folded their hands. There's none of that here, so just fold your hand. 139 Action: In fact you elect to raise to $40. Everyone folds around to the big blind, who calls, and Player A, who also calls. The pot now has $130. Flop: J\u26655\u26632\u2660 Action: The big blind and Player A both check. What should you do now? Answer: This was a series of great results for you. No raisers, only two callers, and you ended with position on both of them. (Note, by the way, that both the big blind and Player A made the mistake of not betting to define their hands.) The texture of the flop was also excellent - two low cards plus a low high card, three suits, and the cards spread well apart. A flop like this has the minimum chance of filling your opponent's hands. Finally, both players check. As the aggressor in the hand, you have to take a shot at the pot here. Against two opponents, you want to bet a bit more than the standard continuation bet; something like two-thirds to threequarters of the pot. It's big enough to win the pot if neither player likes his hand, but it's not too expensive in case you get check-raised. Action: You bet $100, and the other two players fold. \"That's poker.\" Players say this when they've suffered what seems to be some horrible beat - their opponent fills an inside straight on the river, or some such thing. But here's a key insight about poker. Only your bad luck is visible - your good luck often slips by unnoticed. You were actually exceptionally lucky this hand. A bad raise triggered a"}
{"text":"So on the turn in Hand 130 we were betting 22BB into 38.5BB. Villain's RE before adjustment would be 22 \/ (22 + 60.5) = 27%. But, we must adjust this to account for Hero's equity with his KQo and [A2-A3s]. The former has 6 outs vs. bluff catcher hands like JJ while the latter has 7 outs. As per the rule above, we'll add 10% onto this target and give villain a 37% equity target to break even on calling turns. Recall that Hero ended up betting 1:1 bluffs to value hands meaning he was bluffing 50% of the time. This makes calling the turn with a bluff catcher +EV for villain. If Hero wanted to still bet this range and make Villain more indifferent to calling then he'd have to increase his sizing a bit to hurt Villain's RE. We can't always be perfectly balanced. Note that if Hero was to subtract some KQo from his turn bluffing range to achieve perfect balance on the turn, he'd no longer be able to bluff enough on the 2h river. Sometimes board run outs can just unbalance ranges and it's hard to get your sizing and range construction exactly right in-game. As long as we try our best to emulate optimal balanced strategies where desirable, we'll be on the right track. The goal is to be aware of our range and use it along with our sizing to come as close as we can to balance where that is a desirable end. A lot more money is made from good exploitative play than getting balance right down to the decimal point!"}
{"text":"embedded in your bones, it becomes much easier to set a coherent goal with your big draws, which is, simply: GET TO SEE TWO CARDS We\u2019ve spent a fair amount of time in this book looking at why and how to deny proper odds to drawing hands. Now let\u2019s turn it around and seehow we can ensure getting the odds we want. It\u2019s almost unfair, if we can pull it off: No one ever gets the right price to draw\u2014except us! That\u2019s what\u2019s known as winning poker. As you\u2019ll see, pursuit of this goal often makes your opponent fold, a nice bonus. You have exactly ace high and who doesn\u2019t mind winning a pot with no pair? So how do we do this, ensure that we either get to see two cards or win the pot then and there? The same way we attacked big drawswith big hands on highly textured flops: by playing fast. Remember that when you flop a huge hand on a highly coordinated board, you really don\u2019t want to make any more decisions on the hand. That turn card can be disastrous for your decision-making process. So you play that hand super-fast on the flop to end the action right there, either bygetting the money in with the best hand or by your opponent folding. Well, when you have a big draw, you also want to end the action here, though for completely different conceptual reasons. Same board, completely different hands, same behavior. With the set-type hand, you strive to get the money in as a favorite, because the texture works against you. With the draw, the texture works for you, so you want the maximum opportunity to hit one of your outs or to win without a fight. Think about how confusing this will be to your opponents. When you play fast on a textured board, they don\u2019t know whether you have the big madehand or the big draw. How are they supposed to play effectively against you? They can\u2019t. Okay, so if we\u2019re seeing two cards with a big draw, we\u2019re either a favorite or, at worst, about a 2-to-1 underdog. We\u2019re probably getting close to 2-to-1 on our money, plus we have extra equity from the times the other guys fold. Interestingly, a lot of people play this kind of hand in such a way to actually give themselves a huge opportunity to fail to make a hand. They bet a\u201csafe\u201d amount on the flop, maybe even giving themselves the right price at that point. But then they face a bet on the turn that\u2019s not the right price, soif they don\u2019t make their hand on the turn, they lose the pot, and that\u2019s the whole pot, including the safe amount that went in on the flop. And by the way, when you hit your hand on the turn, you don\u2019t get paid off. You bet it exactly like the type of hand it was. I don\u2019t call that seeing two cards or ending the action, do you? Let\u2019s see how to do better. Big"}
{"text":"may also reduce the pot odds you are getting. If a player ahead of you bets and there is a possible raise to your left, you must be cognizant of the fact that that possibility cuts down on your odds. If, for example, there is a $100 pot and the bet is $20, you appear to be getting 6-to-1 odds ($120 to $20). However, when there is a raiser behind you and the original bettor calls, you are really getting only 4 1 \/2-to-l if you call the raise. Although the pot has grown to $180, you must put in a total of $40. If the original bettor reraises, your odds drop to 3 2 \/3-to-1. The pot grows to $220 (assuming the opponent behind you calls the reraise), but you have to put in $60. What's more, your chances of winning, even when you make your hand, have certainly decreased with all that raising going on between your opponents, suggesting they have pretty big hands. 42 Chapter Five How does the concept of position vis-a-vis pot odds work in practice? Let's say in seven-card stud you have a four-flush in six cards and a player to your right bets after pairing his door card. (The door card is the first open card the player receives. When it is paired on board, trips, or three-of-a-kind, is a strong possibility since the player may have started with a pair.) At the same time that the player with the open pair bets, you notice that a player to your left has caught a card that looks as if it has made him a straight. Before you call the first bet, you must be aware that the player to your left may raise if he made a straight (or even if he didn't). Furthermore, the original bettor may reraise with threeof-a-kind or, of course, a full house. So before calling the first bet, you have to assess your pot odds not just at the moment but in the event there is a raise or two behind you. You also have to decide what your chances of winning are if you do make the flush. You would, of course, beat the straight, but the question is whether the original bettor is the kind of player who would bet into a possible straight with less than a full house or at the very least three-of-a-kind. Adjusting your pot odds before calling a bettor to your right with players behind you comes up most often in games like five-card draw, draw lowball, and hold 'em, where position is important. Let's say in hold 'em you hold the and the flop comes Pot Odds 43 You would seem to have a strong hand with the top pair, but if you are in second position with a number of players behind you and the player in first position bets, you should probably throw away your aces. Not only has the player in first position suggested a great deal of strength with his bet, but he may get raised by such"}
{"text":"Table 117: BN C-betting Range Breakdown on 8\u26656\u26662\u2660 The IP player strategy breaks down as follows: Strong hands It is important for IP to have some strong hands that can continue on brick runouts. For this reason, some strong hands such as top set and top pair weak kicker get checked back with some frequency. In fact, top set wants to check back or bet small. Since I advocate one bet-size by flop, I think a good strategy would be to simply always check back top set in this spot. A trend that typically loses a lot of EV to IP that I see all the time is to c-bet all strong and good hands on the flop and checking back an unbalanced and capped range that can be attacked by the BB on future streets. Good hands Good hands really want to check back a lot and realize equity instead of being raised off the pot. Middle and low pocket pairs mostly want to check back the flop, except 77, which can be bet half the time, as it can get value from middle pair. The strongest middle pairs such as A6 and K6"}
{"text":"Outdraw To hit a player\u2019s outs and thus improve to a stronger hand than their opponent(s)."}
{"text":"win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"make sense that he want to check back pocket fives makes a lot of sense nine eight and eight seven those are the hands in game I thought where his Bluffs for sure he almost for sure has those and he never has the officer combo so there's for like eight combos of Bluffs he could have maybe the 972 that makes him sense that check that call river but I just don't think he ever ends up with these Queen seven and Jack seven students that pile calls that turn with for two overs to the six and a gutshot I don't think he calls with those I don't think he shoves the King for suited you know ace queen he's like I don't think he ever finds this ace king Bluff for these fractions of a squeenix jack so basically I don't think he's bluffing enough here on the river and I think I have an easy check fold now with the King six a couple of takeaways here one in position should be very aggressive on this flop for a very small sizing so we've looked at a lot of complicated cell phenomena boil it down to a few key points that I learned in this hand review imposition needs to be very aggressive and he's just using like a 20% sizing once in position checks back big blind can just go crazy on any card basically on the lower half of the deck this is a cool turn this is the run out grid so this shows every turn card and what should we be doing and you can clearly see here any turn card below a nine or a ten especially these do streets for fives like we just get a play very aggressively on as the big blind and then ace king queens and Jack's we just always are pretty much checking with our range but as you can see like the bottom half of the cards are much better for us like out of position equity this is where you see like we're gonna have an equity advantage on basically all these small cards and then the big cards are really bad for us like the aces the Kings the Queen's these reds are really bad turn cards for us yellows are better turn cards for us so on these low turn cards after go to check check here we can kind of just go crazy with everything and then on this river again certain opponents like you could go really really thin for value as thin as a hand like King succeeded and then you as you can see you can just start bluffing like crazy and you're supposed to be bluffing like crazy here because as you can see like when we shove here he's supposed to call with King four and ace three and ace deuce and I just don't see that happening so like an adjustment I would be making here is I would be probably over bluffing in the spot"}
{"text":"pair of nines, you may have as many as twenty-one outs, including an 8 or queen for 148 the straight, any heart, or possibly a jack or a 10! There is one important thing to consider when making a play like this: What do you do on the river if he called your turn raise, and you have missed your hand? Betting here is not automatic. Unless you have reason to believe that your opponent was on a draw as well, I would recommend giving up at this point. If he called you on the turn with a pair, he\u2019s going to call you on the river as well. It\u2019s that simple. Of course, there is still a chance that you might win the pot with jack high in a showdown! Think about it: if your opponent was on a draw, maybe he has 8-10, 6-8, or even two baby hearts. If he has one of these hands you\u2019ll win the pot because of your turn raise. 3. Isolating Against a Possible Bluffer This advanced play is exclusive to multiway pots, and I recommend you use it only if you have a solid feel for the game. In order for this play to work, you\u2019ve got to have a good read on the turn bettor. You\u2019ve got to know that he is a very aggressive player, and you also have to believe he is either bluffing or simply betting a draw. Let\u2019s use an example so that we can paint a clearer picture. You raise from middle position with the A-7 of spades, and the button calls as does the big blind. The flop comes down 10? 7? 3?. The big blind checks, you bet, and the button raises. Then the big blind calls, as do you. At this point you put the button on a pair of tens and the big blind on some kind of a draw. The turn brings the Q?. Out of nowhere, the big blind bets out. You still put him on a draw, maybe now a straight draw and flush draw. However, you know the player behind you has you beat. How about a raise? If you raise here, the button would be hard pressed to call two bets. So your raise would accomplish the following: (1) Knock out the best hand. (2) Get maximum value for your hand. Again, this is an advanced play and depends heavily on your reading ability. Use it carefully. 4. When You Are Going To Call Anyway 149 On the turn, you are often going to find yourself in marginal situations where you think you have the best hand and decide to just call your opponent down. Well, rather than simply calling your opponent on the turn and river, many times it might be profitable to put both of those bets in on the turn. Here\u2019s an illustration. You raise in late position with A-7 of clubs, and only the big blind calls you. The flop comes K? 7? 3?, your opponent check-raises you, and you decide to call. Now"}
{"text":"would have lost some. By betting, you ensure a win under those circumstances, and that adds substantially to the value of the bluff. But when a frequent bluffer checks, it\u2019s much less likely that you can win by chasing away an almost equally weak hand that might have squeaked through in a showdown. So that factor won\u2019t work in your favor. Additionally, frequent bluffers check a disproportionate number of hands that they intend to call with. That makes a bluff even riskier. I won\u2019t tell you to never bluff when a frequent bluffer checks, but you wouldn\u2019t cost yourself much by adopting that policy. You need to be very certain you\u2019re on solid ground. Otherwise, don\u2019t bluff. TIP 19 A value bet is simply an aggressive wager that targets every last dollar of potential profit. Whenever you value bet, the decision is close enough that you could easily have checked, instead, without sophisticated opponents thinking you did anything strange. The problem with value betting is that many players do it as a matter of policy, without realizing that there are times you should and times you shouldn\u2019t. By value betting without applying the correct guidelines, these 81 players turn a tactic that should add greatly to their profit into one that may do little more than break even. I don\u2019t want that to happen to you. So here are two lists telling you whether to value bet or to check: Four Conditions That Favor a Value Bet: 1. You\u2019ve Established a Dominant and Unpredictable Image This intimidates your opponents, making them more likely to call with weaker hands out of confusion. 2. You\u2019re Winning This also intimidates your opponents, making them less likely to raise aggressively, which will cost you extra money when their hands are somewhat better than yours. 3. Your Opponent Is Timid Opponents who are, by nature, timid, are unlikely to press a superior hand for maximum value or steal the pot with an unexpected bluff-raise. 4. Your Opponent Tends to Call More Often Than the Average Player That\u2019s exactly what you\u2019re seeking from your value bets\u2014lots of calls with weaker hands. Four Conditions That Favor a Check: 1. You\u2019ve Failed to Establish a Dominant and Unpredictable Image This usually means your opponent is not intimidated and less likely to call out of confusion. 2. You\u2019re Losing Your opponents, aware that you\u2019re losing, often gain the courage to get maximum value by raising with hands that may be slightly better than yours, costing you extra bets. 3. Your Opponents Have a Tendency to Raise Liberally This means that due to their nature, they get maximum value from hands that are slightly better than yours. 82 4. Your Opponent Plays Tight Tight players are unlikely to call liberally with weaker hands than yours, taking the value out of your bet. These lists don\u2019t cover every conceivable thing you might consider. But they do include the things I consider first when deciding whether or not to value bet. If you do that, too, you\u2019ll make a lot of extra money. Value"}
{"text":"we can get over fools from these then we're going to be printing here um the only thing is you see eight two is supposed to fold I don't know if he at some frequency I don't think eight two is ever folding um yeah so that's that's not here no there but I don't think uh it would ever fold the someone would have ever folded there um the eight two not say anything in everyone's range but yeah I guess 80 suited would be in everyone's range um Queen 10 still limping I want to realize as much Equity like I said I've tried to put control like he put small uh here when our opponent uh here our opponent dancing to us here uh I I folded GTO wants a call here uh it's the first dog and this is why actually like aggression early on even works against someone like me right like I I don't know enough about my opponent's dunking range and so I don't want to test it I don't want to find it out this way yeah but I do think calling there would definitely be fine with the Queen of Hearts thus folds about a queen of hearts um so it the EV was no different as you see like it didn't come up as a blunder or anything um so yeah jump into King five Super standard I don't want to be missing these jams uh he ends up pulling off a worst hand uh but actually why for Queen 10 I think this is like just a bit too wide calling the queen 10 here um just slightly too wide against like so much damage because you're gonna run into a lot of those King Rags uh but you are going to run into Super connectors too so Queen 10 are like I mean GTO would be fine with it but like against me I think Kim cooler Queen 10 is totally good but against like population or against another rank would be different Okay so sizing um like I exploit go a bit smaller than half bot um I don't know actually silver probably does do a small size I didn't want to go one BB because I still wanted to get more money out of hansi just won't fold and then I felt like it also would set up if like if the river was a brick it wasn't a brick but if the river was like a nine I think that we we get hero calls quite a bit by the sizing because it does look a bit fluffy um so yeah that I I know the solver doesn't say anything about it as you see there's no no more blunders um so everything else should be fine we can still look at hands because we want to also talk about what people do uh when he limps at these stack sizes I'm very very suspicious and I just check back the King Nine and I want to"}
{"text":"5.2 Relative Hand Strength (Question 1) The first thing we need to develop a feel for concerning value betting is relative hand strength and how that differs from absolute hand strength. Let's first define the difference: Sometimes a flush is an incredible hand worthy of three streets of value. Other times it's nothing but a pitiful bluff catcher and should be folded instantly. The biggest mistake that complete beginners make is to grossly over or under value their hand due to over or underestimating their relative hand strength. This chapter is laid out in a way that constantly refers back to the value betting flowchart (Figure 24). We'll be looking at each example with reference to how we answer the questions in that chart. Let's start with a very black and white example to illustrate the difference between relative and absolute hand strength. Yes to Question 1 (Good Relative Hand Strength) = Move to Question 2"}
{"text":"to you by poker coaching com I just want to remind everyone that you can try poker coaching com free for seven days right now I'm making hand quizzes on there I have that monthly - monthly webinars I'm also doing four written articles a month myself Alex Fitzgerald and Jonathan little are providing a lot of great content on there the annual and three-year subscriptions are great value for you to be using for a one-year subscription it's $249 I guarantee you will be earning back that $249 by subscribing you're gonna be learning a lot of value if you put the effort into it we got over 400 interactive poker hand quizzes over 30 coaching challenge webinars for new hand quizzes get posted every week Jonathan does a great job with the homework he posts a situation and if you to put the time in to do the homework Jonathan will personally answer the homework questions in his monthly homework webinar there's also big discounts on the three year membership you get access to a bunch of Jonathan's prior his library of webinars that he has on his website is absolutely insane I don't even know how many hours of webinars he has on there but with a three year subscription you get a big discount over them the yearly price and you also get to access to a few of his past webinars again I really think the content out there is well worth the money it doesn't take you know if you're playing 300 all our tournaments if you can improve your win rate by 10% 20% which i think is very very realistic thirty to sixty dollars it's only gonna take you about five tournaments to make the money back so I think you know putting the time and the investment into your game is really important now we're gonna take a look at questions I'm gonna go back through some of these questions they've been asking but if you have any questions we have about 20 minutes I'm going to go through and answer a bunch of questions yeah so Matthew rebel asked about I wouldn't three about the Queen Queen in the early position again it's profitable the three back Queen Queen there it's not a mistake you can be doing it definitely some percentage of the time but I think it's gonna be more profitable or it's very close and Evi to flat call and I think Queens just make ends up making a very good flat calling here three about sizings so out of position from the big blind we're gonna be three betting in the single raised pots where we're the only person it's one race we're facing one raise we're gonna be making it between four and a half to five times the big blind we're four and a half to five times the opening range when we're a hundred big blinds deep and against the squeezing we'll probably be making it maybe a half big blind or half times more"}
{"text":"Hand Range 179: BB vs LJ (60bb) \u2022 3-bet 7.4% \/ \u2022 Call 56.5% \/ \u2022 Fold 36%"}
{"text":"Factor 4: The Turn Card Villain's flop checking behind range might have been weak, but that doesn't mean his turn range is weak on every single card. There are some tricky turns that improve much of his flop checking range and Hero needs to be more careful about probing the turn on these cards. In a vacuum, he'll need more of the other factors to be in his favour in order to bet, but if he wishes to construct a balanced long- term strategy, he may be advised to check all of his range to the raiser just as he did on the flop, since Villain's range has been unlimited again by the turn card falling. Here's an example: This turn card hits a good amount of Villain's flop checks. Most players will bet the As on the flop, but hands containing the other two aces are very likely to be checking back with a high frequency. Just as Hero should consider checking his whole range in a non limiting way to the PFR on the flop, this A turn resets the state of affairs in play and throws us back into a world where Villain's range is stronger than ours. Hero should avoid making light turn probes here versus competent opposition, against whom he's striving for balance. Such a turn card causes Hero to range check this street. Now onto some example hands. The third number above is Villain's CBet Flop stat."}
{"text":"Hand Range 339: OOP x\/r allowed vs all bet-sizes \u2022 Bet Full Pot 30% \/ \u2022 Bet 2\/3 Pot 0% \/ \u2022 Bet 1\/3 Pot 0%\/ \u2022 Check 70% [0-1] Toy Game Example D If we give Hero the option to go all-in and to additionally bet pot while the Villain is allowed to x\/r, Hero will indeed split their range into the two bet-sizes: \u2666 The all-in bet-size is used by AA 42% of the time and balanced by bluffing with 55 26%"}
{"text":"Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the highest EV bet size(s) at each decision point! A simple strategy executed well will invariably outperform a complex strategy executed poorly. Learning from GTO solutions with too many bet sizes has been a significant challenge for poker players since the introduction of browser-based study tools. Complex GTO strategies are challenging to interpret and virtually impossible to implement. Simpler solutions are easier to study but are less robust Robust strategy A robust strategy in poker is one that remains strong and effective against various opponent tactics, including unexpected bet or raise sizes. It\u2019s flexible and resistant to exploitation, unlike a fragile strategy. and don\u2019t tell you the optimal sizing or how to respond to different bet sizes. We developed an elegant solution to this problem using the power of artificial intelligence. With Dynamic Sizing, you can have the best of both worlds! Table of Contents Feature Overview Dynamic vs. Automatic The Problem How We Find Optimal Bet Sizes Benchmarks Feature Overview Dynamic Sizing produces clean and simple strategies with no unnecessary bet sizes, while ensuring that every bet size you care about has been considered in the starting parameters. Dynamic Sizing has several key features: Automatically simplify to the optimal bet or raise size(s) at every decision point. Choose the number of bet sizes you want. Optionally define a list of sizes for the solver to select from. Specify when and where the solver should use dynamic sizing. Re-solve nodes on the fly with different bet sizes. Train against your customized solution. Dynamic Sizing has several key features: Automatically simplify to the optimal bet or raise size(s) at every decision point. Choose the number of bet sizes you want. Optionally define a list of sizes for the solver to select from. Specify when and where the solver should use dynamic sizing. Re-solve nodes on the fly with different bet sizes. Train against your customized solution. When using the dynamic sizing feature, you see the highest EV bet sizes for a given scenario without needing to input any sizings or create the tree manually. If you ask for 2 bets, you\u2019re asking the solver to use exactly two bet sizes from an extensive list of options, which you can customize if you wish. Input the exact sizes that you like to use when playing, and let GTO Wizard AI tell you which size is best for every scenario. You will see different sizes chosen on different board textures , meaning you can learn how to improve your bet and raise sizing choices by paying attention to the dynamic recommendations. The Trainer experience with dynamic sizing is also an incredible upgrade, as you are given the appropriate bet sizes for the scenario you\u2019re playing and can replay hands or switch into study mode to explore the full range strategy. It\u2019s significantly easier to keep track of the strategy you\u2019re planning to execute when the betting options have been curated to the spot. Watch our video"}
{"text":"ADJUSTING TO LOOSE GAMES AND PLAYERS 123 fold. You don\u2019t know what he has, but he\u2019s loose pre\ufb02op, so he could have a wide range of hands. The \ufb02op comes J\u26639\u26636\u2660. You bet $60, and he calls. Again, he\u2019s loose for small bets, so he could have a number of hands. And he\u2019s tricky, so he might have a draw, he might be slowplaying a strong hand, or he might be calling with very little intending to blu\ufb00the turn. (The pot is $205, and you each have $900 left.) The turn is the 8\u2660, completing possible straights and putting another pos- sible \ufb02ush draw on board. You bet $150, and he makes it $300 more or $450 total. Your dangerous opponent has maneuvered you into a tough situation. Sure, he\u2019s loose, but when the big money starts going in, he makes sure he has the upper hand. Until you have experience telling these two player types apart, be extra careful before you start licking your chops over a potential live one. Watch closely and make sure the \u201cmistakes\u201d your opponent is making are for big bets, not small ones. Don\u2019t play your loose opponents for live ones until you see them make at least one major error for a large bet. If you are somewhat inexperienced, you might want to wait for two major mistakes before you adjust your play, as you might not have analyzed the \ufb01rst mistake carefully enough. Why so much caution? You must be cautious when making the adjustments we are about to suggest in this chapter because, while they win the most from loose players, they leave you quite vulnerable to tough players. If you acciden- tally mistake a tough player for a live one, you may end up getting \ufb02eeced. The Adjustments There are four simple adjustments to make against loose players, both pas- sive and aggressive ones: 1. Loosen up. Play looser pre\ufb02op when the loose opponent has entered already, especially when you have position and the stacks are deep. 2. Big pre\ufb02op pots for big pairs. Seek big pre\ufb02op pots with big pocket pairs like pocket kings, but avoid them with big unpaired cards like ace- king. 3. Value bet top pair. Value bet top pair and overpair hands far more aggressively than you normally would. 4. Blu\ufb00less often. Don\u2019t blu\ufb00as often against opponents who call a lot. When you do blu\ufb00, do it most often on the \ufb02op with strong draws, so if you get called you aren\u2019t taking much the worst of it."}
{"text":"[Music] foreign ly we reviewed one of the best folds in poker history where Doug Polk was able to get away from a flop straight versus Phil hellmuth's higher straight today we'll be reviewing what perhaps is the worst fold in poker history not too surprisingly this hand comes from the Hustler Casino live stream where players are cold calling 10 big blind raises with eight seven off and Jack nine off let's go let's go five-way action heading to the flop picture I have heard Nick has Ace key again this time he has two overs in a gutter Mike X is open-ended what else we got going on Patrick's got a gutter ball dark net is gonna bet two thousand with craps on Queen 10-6 into four opponents gonna call Patrick's out of there have you had enough Mike Epps no he's just gonna call guess who has the best hand cream Dark Knight who gets this kind of value with threes Dark Knight uh oh Bertucci turns Broadway with the nut flush draw get the Dark Knight could slow down he can yeah 4400 Mike X now has a pair still open-ended has a flush draw Andy trying dead it makes a good fold can The Dark Knight get away from these two red threes I don't know if I could fold these threes four four Forty Four Hundred can't blame him for continuing here you beat twos in case Nick has those you got this that's 4 400. buttons it just has like that much right here okay I disagree I think in this instance you want to tell them great 15 large wow [Applause] Nick nods his head he's gonna draw to the nuts in case he's behind he's not he just needs to fade his cards somehow falling off the table turn Broadway [Applause] a little redraw to the nut flush you guys had 14 shots of tequila I think put in the call and then call the river fold fold wait what nice hand thank you oh no now in all seriousness I don't think this is actually the worst fold in poker history although it is pretty bad obviously from the comfort of our homes we can see that puffy jacket was just making a horrendous Bluff but if we try to put ourselves in Nick's shoes it is possible to come up with a plausible explanation for his play I.E exploitation so pre-flop under the gun limps and Dark Knight over limped Nick then raised large two other players called and then the limpers called at this point what did Dark Knight's range look like well although ranging a live opponent can be extremely difficult it's probably safe to assume that he would do this primarily with hands like lower pocket pairs as he was holding and a variety of suited combos maybe something like this on the Flop Dark Knight then dunks out into four other players with a relatively large 78 pot bet so what are some plausible hands they could"}
{"text":"Misdeal In live poker, any card deal that has been ruined or deemed unfair for any reason and must be redealt. A classic example is accidentally revealing a hole card."}
{"text":"the least complicated strategy of any betting street. With no further cards\u2026 Exploitative Dynamics GTO solutions are designed to be unexploitable, performing reasonably well no matter how your opponents\u2026 How ICM Impacts Postflop Strategy Most players understand how the Independent Chip Model (ICM) in poker impacts their strategy preflop,\u2026 10 Tips for Multiway Pots in Poker While lots of work has been placed into research and explanation of heads-up pot strategy,\u2026 What is the Bubble Factor in poker tournaments? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) shows us the real money implications of tournament chip decisions.\u2026 The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments In poker, a PKO (Progressive Knockout) tournament is a type of tournament where a portion\u2026 How To Analyze Turn Textures In Poker Master the art of turn analysis in poker. Understand how the turn card changes the\u2026 Principles of Turn Strategy Learn the principles of turn strategy in poker and discover what makes the turn unique.\u2026 Poker Strategies: Tournaments vs. Cash Games Tournament poker is not as different from cash game poker as people sometimes assume. Most\u2026 How Solvers Work A Game Theory Optimal solver is an algorithm that calculates the best possible poker strategy.\u2026 The Most Powerful Play in Poker The central strategic implication of stack depth is the question of how much equity a\u2026 When does ICM become significant in MTTs? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) was invented in 1987 by M. Malmuth and is one\u2026 How to Study GTO Solutions Tools like GTO Wizard and other solvers should not be used to memorize specific strategies.\u2026 Principles of GTO Game theory, or GTO (for Game Theoretically Optimal), is best understood not as a rigid\u2026 Interpreting Equity Distributions GTO Wizard\u2019s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which\u2026 What is Leverage in poker? Leverage refers to the risk of future betting. When you call a bet on the\u2026 Reasons for value betting in poker You\u2019re probably accustomed to thinking of bets as either value or bluff. In this taxonomy,\u2026 The Science of Poker Performance Poker is a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment\u2026 What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets\u2026 Pot Geometry \u201cPot Geometry\u201d refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible \u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way"}
{"text":"decision was the result of him falling prey to something that affects even Advanced players truncated targeting since when you're playing you don't have these nice little charts in front of you and your time is limited it's not really possible to consider all of the likely combos in villainous range so what often happens is people end up only focusing on a narrow portion of villain's range which causes their decision to end up being short-sighted so how do you avoid doing this well there are three tips which we'll offer that may be helpful to mitigate the effects of truncated targeting particularly for newer players first is using ranged morphologies which we mentioned in the last couple videos we've done a whole detailed video on morphologies but essentially involves fitting your opponent's range into one of four categories based on his prior actions and the bore texture when someone plays in a particular way it tends to skew his range distribution in a certain predictable Manner and there's usually an effective heuristic that you can apply to maximize your EV against these specific range shapes so in this case villain was the pre-flop aggressor in a three-bed pot on a relatively favorable board which likely made his range balanced with some strong some medium and some weak hands in contrast Magnus as the three bed caller likely had a bottom heavy range particularly on the rainbow board with a lot of complete whiffs and other low Equity hands and when in bounce range matches up with the bottom heavy range you'll often see a small bet with very high frequency as we saw in this case which means that forbergs range on the turn likely remained balanced however when forberg checked the turn that was either favorable or at a minimum neutral for him Magnus checked back and then forberg bet small in the river it likely rendered his range more mid-heavy as this rain shape tends to play passively with checks or small bets if villain was holding something very nutted he would have been more likely to bet on the turn and or bet larger on the river and even if Magnus was unsure of forberg's exact rain shape here one thing that was very clear was that it was not polarized which would be the only morphology that checking back a full house might conceivably make some sense against in select scenarios as a reminder a polarized range is usually created when one player takes the initiative and maintains it with large bets generally designed to get Stacks in by the river when a player takes this sort of line his range tends to become primarily comprised of the very strongest and weakest hands in other words a polarized range is largely missing mid-strength hands which generally do not want to play a big pot and it is this class of hands that typically Bluff catches so against the polarized range raising generally becomes less attractive because the opponent doesn't have many weaker hands that can call"}
{"text":"something that should be a huge concern for the reader. Again, the strategies presented are to help you develop a general idea of how to approach these common spots (Hand Range 79). Hand Range 78: BB vs HJ Open \u2022 3-bet 7.6% \/ \u2022 Call 23.9% \/ \u2022 Fold 68.5%"}
{"text":"them immediately into his pockets. Call me old fashioned, but anything else doesn\u2019t set quite right with me. But except for that and the fact that you can\u2019t reach across the table and shake an opponents\u2019 hand or read him the way you can in a real game, online poker is just as good as the traditional kind we\u2019re accustomed to\u2014and in some ways better. 22 REASONS WHY ONLINE POKER IS BETTER There are a great number of ways in which online poker actually excels. Each player has his own favorite reasons why he thinks online poker is in some way superior to real-world poker. These are mine\u2026 Reason #1: Always a Game Online poker makes a mockery out of how I went about finding good games when I traveled the poker circuit throughout Texas and the South in the 1960s and early 1970s. I mean, sometimes you\u2019d drive all day only to find that the lucrative oil well you were hoping to drill had just dried up an hour before you got there. Then you had to swallow the disappointment and plan your next move in accordance with how much it would cost to travel. Was the game you\u2019d heard about, far down the road, worth the hassle and the expense? Then came casino poker. That helped, because there was often a choice of games in town. But many nights there was only one game of interest, and some nights there weren\u2019t any. So, imagine how I feel\u2014having expended most of my effort finding the right games, rather than enjoying them\u2014being able to sit down at my computer on a sleepless night and find the best game in the world after a few mouse clicks. What\u2019s even greater is that online poker never sleeps. It\u2019s always prime time for poker somewhere in the world, and you can join those games, even if nobody else is awake in your neighborhood. 51 Reason #2: Play Against Opponents You\u2019d Seldom or Never Meet in Person The Internet has made the world so much smaller. It might not look like it now, with all the political flare-ups and regional wars in the news, but I believe that encountering people from far away places and striking up instant friendships is bound to make the world more civil eventually. You read about Internet romances that lead to marriage. Business associations are formed that would have been physically improbable. It\u2019s a good thing. And one of the best effects of the Internet is what\u2019s happening to poker. Bit by bit, poker is becoming the world\u2019s common language of gaming. In a real sense, online poker is doing its part to make the world better\u2014as well as helping to showcase the game. A main virtue of online poker is that it makes games possible among eager players who live so far apart that they\u2019d seldom have a chance to sit down together at a real-world table. Reason #3: Take a Quick Five-Minute Break to Play Often you only have a half-hour or less to spare, sometimes as little as"}
{"text":"your opponent the free card he needs to beat you. The best play here would be check-raising, followed closely by betting right out, and lastly check-calling. Folding is not an option. If you are waiting to flop better than that, you simply aren\u2019t going to beat anybody playing heads-up. Playing Against a Passive Player I could easily substitute bad or weak player for passive player in this section\u2019s title. A passive player is your ideal opponent heads-up. Against a player like this, you should be able to take full control and win all the pots where both you and your opponent miss the flop. The player who wins the majority of these pots is generally the player that will get the money in the end. If your opponent is folding too many hands pre-flop, you should be raising on the button 100 percent of the time\u2014even with 7-2! Think about it, if your opponent isn\u2019t defending his blind with 10-6, K-2, 8-5, etc., raising with any hand on the button is probably enough to ensure a win. A pre-flop raise 162 followed up by a position bet will force your opponent to either hit the flop or try to make a play at the pot. And who\u2019s to say that you can\u2019t hit the flop? Describing a player as passive in heads-up play is a more polite way of saying that he can\u2019t win. Playing Against an Aggressive Player Well, if you have a choice between Mr. Passive and Mr. Aggressive, you might want to avoid Mr. Aggressive and pound on poor old Mr. Passive. However, if you do find yourself up against an aggressive player heads-up, there are some things you should keep in mind. Defeating a passive player by playing aggressively works, so we should assume that the remedy for an aggressive player would be to play passively, right? Wrong. Against an aggressive player you\u2019ll simply have to fight fire with fire and attack him with an array of weapons, the most deadly being the check-raise. When you know that your opponent will bet almost any flop, the best way to take advantage is to check-raise him out of position, then raise him in position. If you can call, raise. When you feel like you have the best of it, take the lead and try to put in the last bet on every street, getting full value for your hand. Sitting back and waiting to trap your opponent with a big hand simply doesn\u2019t work in limit poker. This is a viable strategy in no-limit because you can trap a player for his whole stack, but in limit poker the best you can do is maybe win an extra bet or two. In the meantime, while you are waiting to trap him, he\u2019s just picked up more than three or four bets from you with nothing! Remember, the winner of a heads-up pot will generally be the player who plays better in marginal situations. Limit hold\u2019em is all about pound, pound, pound. No fear. 163 OMAHA EIGHT OR BETTER by"}
{"text":"range to be linear, consisting of the top hands that have the best equity when called. If you are splitting your range by using a shove\/raise\/fold strategy, you want your open shoving range to be condensed, consisting of hands that are too good to raise\/fold, while not good enough to raise\/call, and will have good equity when called, like Axs, Q9s and 87s. You want your non-all-in raising range to be polar, consisting of hands with good blocker value such as Axo that you plan to fold if your opponent pushes, and premium hands you are happy to raise\/call, such as KK. General Guidelines for Pre-flop Bet-sizing The earlier your position, the smaller your bet-sizing should be because the threat of opponents waking up with re-raising hands increases. The wider your range becomes, the bigger your bet- sizing should be because more of your opponents\u2019 hands will have the right equity to call the same raise size vs a wider range. In general, when facing a bet or raise, the bigger the bet-size faced, the smaller number of hands you have to defend to remain unexploitable. Multiple bet-sizes should be used only in different situations. For example, you can use different bet-sizes for the BN and UTG, or use different bet-sizes for different stack depths, but bet-size should never be changed depending on your hand strength because, by doing so, you convey a lot of information about your range early on, and that information can be used to exploit weaknesses in your hand distribution. When the opponents left to act have good rejamming stack depths (under 25bb) the optimal bet-size is always a min-raise because it gives them the worst possible price on their all-in re- raise. With deeper stacks, bigger bet-sizings are better because your opponents are getting better implied odds with their speculative hands, so you want to discourage them from calling, especially when they have position. If you are re-raising pre-flop with a polarized range, and your opponent\u2019s main response is to re-raise or fold, you should use the minimum bet-size possible to minimize your losses with the raise\/folding hands in your range. Being out of position favors larger bet-sizes because you want to decrease the positional advantage of the IP player by reducing the SPR. Conversely, having position favors the use of smaller bet-sizes because, even if called, you still have the positional advantage on the later betting rounds. However, betting small also has some disadvantages, such as giving your opponents a better price on their calls, allowing them to defend profitably with more hands. Using solvers to test pre-flop bet-sizing, I found that for similar bet-sizes, the differences in EV are quite small and even indifferent in many situations. For example, going from a 2.25bb to"}
{"text":"RAISING BEFORE THE FLOP 74 seen you play few hands and raise almost never, they are likely (more so than usual) to assume that you have a premium hand. If you get a couple of callers and the \ufb02op comes something like J\u26626\u26615\u2663, your small pre\ufb02op investment is likely to net you far more action than usual from aggressive players. Where they would normally be on guard for someone with small cards, they won\u2019t expect it from you. Instead, they might try to take the pot away from you. Raising to Manipulate the Pot Size In no limit, the size of the game is determined primarily by the size of the blinds. A $10\u2013$20 blind game with $1,000 stacks plays \u201cbigger\u201d than a $1\u2013$2 blind game with $1,200 stacks. Bigger blinds mean bigger pre\ufb02op pots, which, in turn, mean bigger bets on later betting rounds. If you are the best player at the table, you will probably have a long-term positive expectation, no matter the size of the blinds. But there is often a \u201csweet spot,\u201d that is, there is a blind size, given the stack sizes at the table, that will maximize your earn. If the blinds are smaller than the optimal size, the game will play too small, and a lot of the money in people\u2019s stacks will remain unbet. If the blinds are larger than the optimal size, the game will play too big, and people will run out of money too early in the hand. That is, you will often be all-in on the pre\ufb02op or \ufb02op betting rounds, nullifying your skill advantage on the tricky turn and river betting rounds. Let\u2019s assume you are playing a full no limit game where everyone has a $5,000 stack. You are the best player at the table. Clearly $1\u2013$2 blinds will not maximize your earn: Pre\ufb02op pots will be in the $10\u2013$20 range, and by the river the big ones might max out at $300\u2013$500 or so. Rarely will two players get all-in. You might as well be playing with $500 stacks instead of $5,000, and that hurts your expected take. If you doubled the blinds to $2\u2013$4, that would roughly double your expected earn. Every bet would be approximately twice the size it would be at $1\u2013$2, and you still would rarely get all-in against someone. If you increased the blinds twenty-fold to $20\u2013$40, however, that would not increase your expected earn twenty-fold over the $1\u2013$2 blind game. With blinds that big, you\u2019ll now end up all-in for the big pots. The average bet size will be something less than twenty times the average $1\u2013$2 bet because you will now sometimes run out of money. $20\u2013$40 blinds would certainly increase your earn signi\ufb01cantly over the $1\u2013$2 blinds, perhaps as much as ten or \ufb01fteen times. But it would not be a full twenty times. Starting at the other end, $500\u2013$1,000 blinds would hurt your long-term earn considerably with $5,000 stacks. With forced bets so large, virtually every hand will play all-in pre\ufb02op. Racing against another hand might be fun,"}
{"text":"a pessimist.' 'Maybe I am, at that,' he said. I thought there was a note of sadness in his voice. Four: MONTY'S COMMENT: Summary of Five-Card Stud Winning at stud poker is simple enough, either limited poker or table stakes. The secret is to stay on higher cards than your opponents do. I play if I hold the following combinations, but if two of the cards are exposed, I fold. I stay if only one is exposed, with the exception noted below. WHAT TO STAY ON (1) A-A, A-K, A-Q, A-J, A-10, K-A, K-K, K-Q, K-J, K-10, Q-A, Q-K, Q-Q, Q-J, Q-10, J-A, J-K, J-Q, J-J, J-10, 10-A, 10-K, 10-Q, 10-J, 10-10. I also stay on (2) A-9, A-8, A-7, A-6, A-5, A-4, A-3, A-2, K-9, K-8, K-7, K-6, K-5, K-4, K-3, K-2. But fold if one Ace or one King is exposed. Under (1) and (2), the 3rd card must be above a Nine for me to draw the 4th card. If I then have 3 cards above a Nine, I will take the 4th and 5th cards unless I am beat in sight or unless I have reason to believe I am beat by a concealed pair. Of course, if I have a big pair back to back, I naturally stay, regardless of the size of the 3rd or 4th cards. (3) I will play 9-9 backed up until I am beat in sight or until I think I am beat by a concealed pair. (4) I will take only one card to small back-up pairs such as 2-2, 3-3,4-4, 5-5,6-6,7-7,8-8. If I make a set of Threes on the 3rd card of course I will stay. My refusal to take more than one card to these pairs is my greatest contribution to Five-Card Stud. I know you may be tempted to take more cards to a small pair, but don't do it. To do so will keep you broke. Here's why: First, the betting gets too stiff to warrant taking more cards. The percentages are against you. Second, in seven-handed Stud, if everyone draws cards, four will pair. And it is just as easy to make a big pair as it is a small one if, when you stay, you hold high cards. So why draw more than one to a small pair? THE PLAY I have dealt three hands as exercises. 1ST DEAL The Deal One Down One Up 1st player is dealt K A 2nd ,, ,, ,, 6 6 3rd ,, ,, ,, K 7 4th ,, ,, ,, 8 9 5th ,, ,, ,, 3 2. 6th ,, ,, ,, J 8. 7th ,, ,, ,, 2 A The Betting 1st player is high with the Ace. He bets. 2nd with Two Sixes just calls. 3rd calls on K-7. 4th calls on 8-9.1 would fold this hand. 5th folds on 3-2. A bust. 6th calls on J-8.1 would fold this. 7th calls on 2-A. I would fold. The Deal One Down Two Up 1st player is dealt K A 2 Ace-King Deuce. 2nd ,, ,,"}
{"text":"hello everyone i'm jonathan little i'm a professional poker player with over seven million dollars in live tournament earnings and a bunch online as well and for the last few months i've been working on a new secret project it is my newest book secrets of professional tournament poker the essential guide this is actually a complete rewrite remake etc of my first tournament series that i wrote 10 years ago put into one gigantic book as you can see lots and lots of range charts hand examples everything you need to know to succeed at tournament poker and today i'm going to walk you through it as you can see here is the title page secrets of professional tournament poker the essential guide it is a big hardcover book about 450 pages i've seen some of my students books uh they got a long time ago and they've read very very often and those books are worn out so i did my best to make this a big sturdy hardcover book of course you can get the ebook version as well it is published by d b poker they published the absolute best poker books on the market let's go through the table of contents real quick then i'll show you a few pages of the book so first things first how do tournaments work it's important to understand the game structure that you are playing tournaments are not cash games and should be approached differently right we explained why they are so profitable and also just like the general fundamentals right it's very important to understand the basics you have to learn to walk before you can run right so we discuss how you should not really get stuck on formulas a lot of people think that they're gonna have to do all sorts of math at the poker table but that's just not true you do need to do some work away from the table but this book outlines everything you need to know in order to succeed we also discuss the uh you know the basics really like thinking in terms of hand ranges counting combinations so you know what ranges are comprised of we discuss expected value pot odds implied odds reverse implied odds and a bunch of other stuff all right next we go through and explain how to play at various stack depths we're going to discuss deep stacked play medium stacks play and shallow stacked play now you see here we have deep stacked play listed as 50 big wines in the previous version of this book that i wrote 10 years ago deep stacked was actually 75 big blinds or more but in basically all poker tournaments now you do not play all that deep stacked in the beginning back in the day you would start with 200 big blinds and the tournaments would take forever now they are substantially faster paced for whatever reason and therefore i would recommend that most of you spend most of your time studying the shallow and"}
{"text":"Board The face up community cards that are shared by all players in the poker game."}
{"text":"Figure 52 - The Polar Spectrum Of course, we want to play all of the strongest hands available to us in some way before we want to play anything weaker, regardless of our strategy or the amount of fold equity that we have. Therefore, if we don't want to flat any hands, then we'll need to 3-bet the blue band before we 3-bet the red band and this takes us out of polar territory. Having a calling range vs. the open is essential for adopting a polar strategy. Let's have a go at building some polar 3-bet ranges in good situations to do so. Our knowledge of combos is about to come into play as we choose our bluff to value ratios then flesh those out with the correct hands for the slots. In Hand 80 below, the third (light green) number on the HUD is Raised First In from the relevant position, and the fourth (dark green) number is Villain's Fold to PF 3-Bet After Open stat."}
{"text":"Example Game: $215 Online Tournament Effective stack: 100bb Players: 9 (no ante) Pre-flop: (1.5bb) Hero is in the CO with 8\u26667\u2666 and raises to 2.2bb. Play folds to the BB who calls with 3\u26663\u2665. Flop: (4.9bb) A\u2660K\u26605\u2663 [2 players] BB checks. What should Hero do? In this example, the BB has 71% equity with the small pair while Hero has 29%. However, if you bet this flop, you can realistically expect Villain to fold over 75% of the time with their junky holding. So, using our FE formulas we have: However, the term Fold Equity is often used in a less technical sense, simply to refer to the chance of getting a player to fold. Example Game: $109 9-max online MTT Stacks: BN 35bb, SB 25bb, BB 15bb Players: 9 (12.5% ante) Pre-flop: (2.625bb) Hero is in the BB with T\u26665\u2663 BN raises 2bb. He is an overly aggressive player who plays too many hands but tends to give up when facing resistance. SB folds, and Hero has a decision. Your hand is pretty bad and you would normally just fold it against a regular opponent. However, you know Villain plays too many hands from the BN. Since a wide range of hands is more difficult to defend vs re-raises, you suspect Villain might be over-folding (folding too"}
{"text":"we're only folding 18 of hands off of 30 big so once the button opens pretty wild okay so now we just went over our three betting strategy we didn't go over specific hand combinations uh I'll show you guys you know the grids and go through them very quickly but you guys have a general idea of what the frequencies look like let me just make sure everyone's hearing me okay all right yeah this video up um so facing so we're going to look at facing three best now how to handle these three bets what are we going to be doing so when we open hijack plus one I just use this as a base um we open hijack plus one we Face a hijack three bet and we Face a by the three bet how are our strategies going to look so we're going to four Bet 19 of the time of which we're mostly going to have value sometimes bluffing so we're hitting them we're going to be four bedding about one-fifth one-fifth of the time we get three bet we're going to be four betting we're gonna be three four betting mostly value and we're four bedding to a 2.8 x sizing so we're getting smaller with our sizing why that's because the spr is decreasing yeah so we're using a 2.8 X4 by sizing we're mostly going to have it sometimes not our Bluffs are going to be like asex suited 82s through A7 Suited uh mostly just hands with blocker quality and hands that can suck out and play you know that will have good equity in a short spr pot calling 39 and folding 42. so we are V pipping versus a three bit the majority of the time here 58 of the time we're doing something I would say the pool probably Folds um close to GTO they probably over call after they race from early position and then over fold uh when they raised from late position it's just harder to play wider ranges you know and know that if you raise the cut off and get three bet uh you know hands like King eight suited our peels that's that's a tough one tough one to get so um versus uh button three bets after we open hijack one we get through that from the button and keep in mind the button is going to be uh three betting 3x or 3.5 x off of 100 gigs our four bet is going to be 18 so roughly the same one in five times we're going to be four betting 66 value 33 Bluffs we're going to go over the exact like value threshold like rb4 betting Jacks Plus or Queens plus here's you know we're going to look at that and then 33 Bluffs so we're rebluffing him same exact ratio also we're bluffing less because we're out of position generally that's just kind of what you're seeing is we we're bluffing less what we're out of position calling 47"}
{"text":"may even be drawing. So in either case, if you\u2019ve got him dead, you want him to play his straight if he made it or draw at it. And a very big bet might scare him off. In the case where you flopped a set and the board pairs on fourth or fifth but there\u2019s no possible straight or flush out there\u2014say the board is A? 6? J? J?\u2014 you should lead with your full. Don\u2019t slow-play it. In fact, you should make a big bet, bigger than the size of the pot. There\u2019s a good possibility that your opponent was calling you on the flop with the second pair or possibly the third pair. So when the board paired, it might\u2019ve made him a strong hand, and you\u2019d be in a position to break him. He\u2019d probably play back if he made trips when the board paired. Also, knowing your aggressive style of play, he might think you\u2019re trying to represent his hand, and you might get a good play because of that. But if a flush draw was out there on the flop and the pair on fourth didn\u2019t complete the flush, well, then I\u2019d make a small bet, smaller than the size of the pot. I want him to call so he\u2019ll have an opportunity to make the flush on the last card. But what if you don\u2019t make a big hand with two aces or kings? You\u2019ll have to play them very carefully in certain instances on fourth and fifth streets. For example, if there were three rags on the flop and then the board paired on fourth or fifth, I\u2019d definitely slow down. This is not the same situation as when a pair came on the flop. When the pair shows after the flop, the possibility is much stronger that it helped your opponent. He\u2019s already called you on the flop, indicating that his cards fit into the community cards. His call clearly meant that he had something, so I\u2019d be cautious again in that situation. 376 You are facing a somewhat different situation when there are four rags out there and the board pairs on fifth street. Exactly what I\u2019d do depends on which card was paired and whether I had bet on the flop and on fourth. If the top card or possibly the second card paired, I\u2019d suspect I might be beat. They\u2019d be the two most dangerous pairs. If I had bet on the flop and on fourth street and the third or fourth highest card paired, I wouldn\u2019t be concerned. Another time you should not be at all concerned is when the flop is say, 8-8-5 and then the third 8 falls on fourth or on the end. You just don\u2019t worry about quads. So actually your hand got stronger on fourth street. Before the third 8 showed, there was the nagging possibility your opponent had trips. That\u2019s far less likely now, and he\u2019s probably in there with an overpair. A very tough situation could exist on fifth when there are four"}
{"text":"raise a lot more okay all right here's nine five ten nine fives et cetera so we call ace of clubs we check and let's just take a look here at our opponent's strategy so let's look here so like here's ace king from our opponent they bet that ace queen ace jack they're betting that here's ace ten they're betting ace nine ace eight e7 like they're betting they check back with an ace sometimes like especially the weaker ones like ace five a6 a7 yo they check back with some of those here's like kings queens and jacks they're supposed to bet most people probably don't here's pair nines king nine queen nine jack nine nine eight suited nine seven what do they check back with mostly a pair of nines something pair of tens probably a lot people probably don't bet king ten queen ten jack ten here ten eight here enough um pretty cool that you can still bet like a hand like jack 10 off suit here so even on the flush completer you can still bet quite a bit using two sizes here small size big size um we can look here here's flushes if you look pretty much always betty couple of flushes that check but pretty much always betting with their flushes so we're gonna go check check and get to the the meat of this problem and then the river is the nine of hearts okay so we got let's say we have two sizings here really there's a massive like this sizing which is kind of stupid i've told you guys about it's one thing i don't like about this program but it works really well for what we're trying to do here with big bang so we have like two sizings here let's say we have like a 33 which is the block like a 75 bet you know i'd probably use like a pot size bet and then like there's this big over bet that's we'll just ignore that so let's look at the 33 here so what hands are we betting small with here's ace jack here's ace ten ace eight a seven ace eight a seven a six so when it's full here that means we always do it with this hand so a six of diamonds we always just bet 33 here sometimes we bet small with a nine here as well so you see here like nine eight sometimes bets small nine seven sometimes but small nine six sometimes but small okay sometimes we bet small and then we have some bluffs like king four diamonds we just bet small with it king three king queen four queen deuce you know sometimes we just bet small okay what about the big bet 75 pot well do you guys see the difference here what are we big with a nine king nine queen nine jack nine jack nine queen nine king nine you know we got big with the nine good and what do we do with"}
{"text":"a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the\u2026 Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get\u2026 Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being\u2026 Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of 400K\/800K\/800K,\u2026 Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?\u2026 Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of Canadian programmers from Quebec, developed\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Explained We are excited to introduce GTO Wizard AI, formerly known as Ruse, the world\u2019s best\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Benchmarks GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional solving methods to bring\u2026 Table Management in PKOs Perhaps the most important strategic consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs) is making sure you\u2026 Overcalling From the BB In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also\u2026 Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach\u2026 Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon\u2026 Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to\u2026 Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked Playing out of position is tricky, but it\u2019s an essential part of tournament play. With\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the BB in MTTs Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB\u2019s equilibrium strategy\u2026 The Absurd Game Theory of Chopped Boards A \u201cchopped board\u201d in poker is one where the community cards make up the best\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs MTT confrontations between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations,\u2026"}
{"text":"field remaining. Once you\u2019ve got the hang of that, you can tweak the parameters to practice other stages of the tournament, but you\u2019ll likely get more out of focusing on one stage at a time rather than training on a set of drills that randomly draws from many different ICM models. GTO Wizard the #1 App for Poker players Study any spot imaginable Practice by playing vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Andrew Brokos Andrew Brokos has been a professional poker player, coach, and author for over 15 years. He co-hosts the Thinking Poker Podcast and is the author of the Play Optimal Poker books, among others. Latest article Navigating Nasty Rivers Out of Position Playing out of position (OOP) is hard. It\u2019s fundamentally disadvantageous to act on each street\u2026 Crack the Shell of Nut Draw Strategy Nut draws hold obvious appeal as betting and raising candidates. They benefit from fold equity,\u2026 Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026 The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament"}
{"text":"playing we just can't fold here oh my God no what are we doing all right all right I need a break for a second guys I need a break we definitely aren't getting through this whole hand history today yes we are noticing villains Tendencies and and so like let's all right let's let's take a step back let's take a step back let's try to get into the mind of of the hero here are our hero guitar we we men raise for Value we think we have the best of it but here's the thing with Min raising here it starts it starts telling what we have and it starts building a pot and it it also reopens the action these are like the basics of Poker right these are the fundamentals of Poker if we just call the bet we get a free card if we raise there's the possibility that we have to pay more tax to see the next card this is the fundamental lesson here which we don't want to abuse that it's like a universal law like if we can see a cheap car for a good price when we might have the best hand like the universal law says call that bet right like so so yeah this is the spot where we have a great hand against the button range we just want to call we want to see a turn card and then if we raised we're not getting any information like our opponent could just be bluffing us here they could do this with Jack 10 with 10 8. they could have nothing like Ace 10. so yeah we're we're just putting ourselves in a really dicey spot and now we might even be folding the best hand given we only need to be good 20 of the time here 20 of the time this person has to have a bluff or a worse hand for us to continue and then the other thing is we have good turn cards here we could turn a heart we can turn a seven we can turn to nine so so yeah I'm not a fan of this either Larry says do you ever use the Min raise the Min check raise post flop play are there situations where it makes sense yes Larry there are most likely when we're nutted or when we're bluffing like if we're semi-bluffing like let's say we wanted to like check raise Jack 10 off suit here or like Jack 10 with the back door I think you could totally you know go from 1.8 to four bigs or something which is almost what they did um but those hands would also continue to another raise so this this hand kind of is even better than that okay King six in the small this is an easy shove for 12 big blinds effective we just call um yeah so King six offsuit is going to be just perform really good as a shove most of our offsuit"}
{"text":"Cold call To call a bet\/raise when you have not invested any money in the pot yet."}
{"text":"is to your immediate right, forcing you to act ahead of everyone else, you must tighten up considerably. It is extremely important that you fold almost all marginal hands in this position. The possibility of a raise behind you plus the chance of a reraise from the original bettor is Position 159 devastating. Furthermore, you can frequently count on being in the same unpleasant position \u2014 not accidentally called under the gun \u2014 for the remainder of the hand. If you constantly call bets with marginal hands in this position, you will have to fold so many of them \u2014 either later in the same round when the bet is raised or on the next round when the bet is repeated \u2014 that you will lose an enormous amount relative to the occasional pots you might win by staying in. Thus, in five-card draw, if a player to your immediate right in early position opens, you should throw away two aces in most cases. In the same position in lowball, you'd usually have to throw away a one-card draw to a 7,6 and possibly a 7,5, even though these are hands you'd gladly play if you were sure there would be no raises behind you. In seven-card stud if the player to your right raises the opener on third street, you should fold most middle-sized pairs when there are several people behind you who might reraise. With any of these hands you'd almost certainly call in last position, a fact that underlines another of that position's advantages: You can play more hands. You no longer need to fear a raise from players who have not acted, and in most instances you will probably remain last on future betting rounds as well. Even in seven-card stud, when the bettor to your left happens not to be high on board and thus first to act, the other players will usually check around to that bettor on the following round. Strong Hand, Bettor to the Left Another significant advantage to last position is that when you make a strong handr you have more opportunity to win a big pot. You can sit there innocently with your monster hand and let the bettor to your left drive the other players around to you. That opponent bets, two or three players ahead of you call, and now bang, you raise. You get at least a single bet from opponents who told after you raise, and you get a double bet from those who call. You're also making it more expensive for them to try to draw out 160 Chapter Seventeen on you when there are more cards to come. (Notice, in this situation, the problems faced by players in first and middle positions. Those callers in the middle always risk a raise from a player behind them.) Strong Hand, Bettor to the Right If you had the same strong hand but the bettor were to your right, you would not be able to play the hand in the same way. If you raised, you would be requiring"}
{"text":"possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic"}
{"text":"substantially reduced compared to the situation where you hold no Aces. If you hold two Aces and you have good reason to believe your opponents hold the other two, the probability of another Ace appearing has fallen to zero. The second essay in Chapter 7 discusses these kinds of situations where probabilities are altered because of conditions. Lastly, Chapter 7 discusses the mathematical requirements for winning over the long run. Randomness means that anything can happen in the short-run, but what happens if you play month after month, year after year? Chapter 8 is a discussion of the psychological attributes necessary for success. Most poker books stress the need for patience. However, poker requires a different kind of patience than the kind your mother taught. Waiting for an event that can happen at any time is different from waiting for an event that will happen in a given amount of time. The first essay in Chapter 8 concerns the need for a new understanding of \"patience.\" The last essay elaborates on the need for a flexible, dynamic strategy and how adjustments are made during a day of playing poker. 7. Mathematical Considerations Past, Present and FutureDo Probabilities Change? I have a friend who believes that if you toss a coin three times, and it comes up heads each time, a greater than even chance exists for it to land tails on the fourth toss. If you question why she believes the probability changes, her answer is: \"Over the long-run the coin must land heads as often as tails, so if a streak of heads occurs, a tail becomes more probable since even numbers of each must be maintained.\" This fallacious belief that the coin's past history affects its future is fun to explore with further questions. Examples: Suppose I flip the coin three times and it comes up three heads, then I put it away. Tomorrow I take it out again. Is the probability still greater that a tail will occur? If the probability is greater, what happens if I wait a week or a month or a year? If after some elapsed time interval (day, week, month), the probabilities reset to 50-50, why does this happen? If there is no time interval that resets the probabilities to 50-50, how do I know it wasn't due for three heads in a row? After all, I may have just received the coin, so how do I know the previous owner hadn't flipped it five times and gotten all tails? 98 THE INTELLIGENT GUIDE TO TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER How exactly has the probability changed of a tail occurring after three heads in a row? What will it be if just one head has appeared, or after five heads in row? If my friend's belief is true, all these questions should have answers. The fact that all answers to these questions would be nonsense shows the belief is false. Of course, a more profitable exercise would be to find a betting person who believes that a past sequence of coin flips affects the future. If"}
{"text":"nan"}
{"text":"will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"and middle card paired boards so let's say the Flop comes 633 big blind checks low Jack bets everything for mostly 25 pot now notice lots of the trips raise not all of them but a whole lot of them right and when you're raised with a whole lot of trips you also get stories with a whole lot of draws so which draws our raising well any gut shot lots of back door flush draws lots of random over cards this is a spot where you're going to be raising aggressively to try to put your opponent in a tough spot where they're ace high and King High and unpaired hands and there's not a whole lot they can do really because they don't have any threes we go back to our opponent's range notice look at this look at this pre-flop range they have they have almost no threes in the range at all they have a lot of over pairs but they don't have a lot of Threes so this is an example of a spot where we have what's referred to as a big nut Advantage even though we don't necessarily have the range Advantage so in this spot we are sticking around a decent amount of time against a small bet if they bet bigger we would raise a little bit less often and we would fold a little bit more often but against a small bet you do have to stick around pretty wide and we are check raising with a lot of our sixes and better made hands lots of trips and then lots and lots and lots and lots of draws usually with some backdoor Equity to go with them notice hands like King 9 suited raises whereas King 9 also does not because King 9 suited can keep barreling on lots of turns when it makes a flush draw what about Queen Queen two this is an interesting board because now the opponent has a lot of trips but so do we so we're gonna be Trek raising with lots of Queens lots of draws there really aren't a ton of draws in the spot though but we have to do a lot of folding because if you look at a lot of our hands here on queen queen 2 we don't really have a whole lot going on with stuff like nine six nine five eight five seven four king seven these hands are in very very bad shape so on the six three three we were folding only 27 of time but on the queen queen two were folding a lot because the opponent's gonna have a lot of trips and because a lot of our other hamsters have nothing going on and when you have nothing going on you do need to get out of the way again notice a lot of our rays in this spot either have backdoor straight draws with the queen or the two or they have a backdoor flush draw so we see stuff like"}
{"text":"than you is certainly not going to fold if you play your hand aggressively. Well since a heart on the turn completely destroys your hand, why put in extra bets on the flop? Why not wait to see what develops on the turn and then get aggressive? Playing this way, you\u2019ll lose the minimum if a heart does hit the turn, and you may be able to better protect your hand with a timely raise on the turn. If you happen to get reraised on the turn, you are going to have to use your reading skills to figure out whether or not your opponent is bluffing. If you know the player has to have the nuts to make a raise like this, it\u2019s time to dump your hand to the third bet. However, if you are up against a maniac, you can forget about folding. In fact, you might even want to make it four bets! I wouldn\u2019t recommend that play too often though; the situation has to be perfect. Normally, just calling down the maniac is acceptable. Playing Flush Draws Out of Position Playing marginal flush draws is even more difficult when you are out of position. Let\u2019s get straight to an example: You are in the big blind with 8-9 of hearts in a raised multiway pot. The flop comes 2? 3? 10?. In this situation you should probably just check to the original raiser, especially if he raised from early position. If you were to bet out, there is a very good chance that the initial raiser will raise you to knock out the players behind him. Don\u2019t help him. Help yourself by keeping them in! The worst-case scenario for you is that your bet, coupled with your opponent\u2019s raise, takes you to the turn heads-up. Not good. So now that you\u2019ve checked, the initial raiser bets, and all others call. It\u2019s time to check-raise, right? Wrong. If you check-raise, you run the risk of the initial raiser three-betting you in an attempt to thin the field. You want a big field, so check-raising here is a no-no. Playing Flush Draws in Position Drawing hands are much more profitable when played from late position. In late position, you have more control over what\u2019s happening on any given street. Since you get a chance to see what everyone in front of you does, you will be better equipped to maximize your profits or minimize your losses. If 137 you flop the nut flush draw, you can jam the pot on the flop. Since you played so aggressively on the flop, chances are that your opponents will check to you on the turn. Obviously, if you make your hand you should bet, but if you miss, you can take the free card. Just to make sure we are on the same page, let\u2019s look at an example: An early position player raises, there are two calls in between, and you call with A-10 of diamonds on the button. The flop comes 2? 9? Q?. The initial raiser bets, and both"}
{"text":"set in stone the concept is more important than the specific numbers I didn't use solvers to generate this so I don't know if it's exact and it also depends on so many factors what your exact should be so it's not important to get locked in on the specifics but just to understand the concept and when we add Dead Money which could be an T in the game it could be deeper stacks or it could be a bigger skill gap which means there's more money up for grabs I just wrote post ante as an example it's worth adjusting for so you know range one we have the standard opening strategy generalized and then range two is how I originally thought I would adjust when ante because this is something that always you know I struggled with in tournaments and I wanted to know the answer I thought well if there's 67% more dead money I should play 67 percent more hands right so I just increased my range 67 percent by all positions but this is wrong why we talked about it we touched on it earlier in the presentation and it's that in early position the odds of running into a hand and therefore the odds of having a play out of position are still the same when facing eight opponents they're very high and so we should be careful yet you know the odds of getting a race through when facing only two to four opponents are still quite high yes we're gonna run into a hand sometimes but we're gonna get our raise through more often than not whereas we're raising from early position we are not gonna get our raise through more often than not and so we should be more aggressive in position so it's correct to adjust our ranges from all position but only slightly in early position and once we get to late position that's when we really want to jack it up so this is how I adjust my ranges when there is more dead money in the game i if you notice compared between the pre ante graph and the ranges post adjusted for position I am playing more hands from all positions but the increase in early positions is quite small two percent two percent three percent seven percent and then we get to late position it shoots up I would actually you know going back I would make this 18 percent and this 26 percent really just shoots up near the end just taking off in the cutoff and button and if you notice if you count up the numbers the green and yellow charts are the same total percentage of hands between you know your nine spots on the table you're playing the same number of hands with these two strategies but the green chart is not adjusted for position and the yellow chart is heavily adjusted for position and this is what I talked about before for correct loosening up for correct lagging it up"}
{"text":"Rake The money taken from the pot by the casino, cardroom, website or game runner as a fee for operating the game."}
{"text":"and B and C fold, now you\u2019d flat-call if you think you have A beat and want to trap him, calling the river if he bets. As for the other two considerations, you take a read. You have to figure out if you\u2019re calling with the intention to fold to a river bet. First, are you suspicious of the player\/players who have checked? If you suspect they might be trapping, it\u2019s better to flat-call the bet on the turn and feel out therest of the hand. If they fold behind you, phew! If they raise, you found out what you needed to know and got off the hand pretty cheap. Second, is the player who bet the turn unimaginative and passive? If so, the most you want to do is call with the intention of folding the river if hepersists (assuming he bets again and you don\u2019t improve). But in a multi-way pot, you can also consider folding when an unimaginative player callsthe flop and bets the turn, particularly if he\u2019s sitting up front and leading into the field. That line from a passive player should read pretty strong to you. So consider folding in that spot to that guy. What if you bet the flop and get exactly one caller? Now you\u2019re playing a heads-up pot and your life has just become much easier. So re-read the heads-up section for how to play the turn in position on a dry board. The play proceeds exactly the same. If your lone caller checks the turn, checkwith the intention to call a bet on the river or bet the river if he checks. If your lone caller bets into you on the turn, raise, unless you strongly believethat you have the better hand (so you intend to pick off a river bet) or a bet from him on the river would almost always mean you\u2019re beat (so youintend to fold the river to a bet). To summarize, when it\u2019s checked to you on the flop and you\u2019re in position with a hand like AQ on anA-9-3 board, you have to bet. You bet in that spot with big hands, bluffs, and hands in the middle. A check means giving a free card on a functionally textured board. A bet here also gives you the best chance at getting the pot heads-up. If you check, you\u2019ll still be multi-way on the turn. If you bet, they might all fold or you might get a singlecaller or a single check-raiser, all of which clarifies your situation immensely. Now let\u2019s say you still have the AQ in a multi-way pot. You\u2019re still in position. And you\u2019re looking at that same flop of A-9-3 rainbow. Only now instead of everyone checking to you, someone bets out. What you do depends on the action that is in front of you. Say the action goes check, check, and then the player to your right bets into you. This hand doesn\u2019t have to be strong, especially if the player happened to be the pre-flopraiser. With two people showing weakness by"}
{"text":"5.3 Building the Pot (Question 2) The bigger the pot, the bigger you can bet and still offer opponents a non-ridiculous price to call. The bigger you can bet, the more money you can win. Building the pot is absolutely essential in many situations, but particularly for value and especially against weaker players who call down too wide. When we see a player for the first time and tag him as a passive Fish, we can immediately form some generally reliable ideas about his game. For instance, we can conclude that it's likely he'll take too many hands to showdown and prefer checking and calling to betting, raising and folding. It's time we introduced a new stat, which over a larger sample gives an even better indication of just how much a player goes to showdown. The more they go to showdown, the weaker the hands we can value bet against them and the larger"}
{"text":"In poker, a PKO (Progressive Knockout) tournament is a type of tournament where a portion\u2026 How To Analyze Turn Textures In Poker Master the art of turn analysis in poker. Understand how the turn card changes the\u2026 Principles of Turn Strategy Learn the principles of turn strategy in poker and discover what makes the turn unique.\u2026 Poker Strategies: Tournaments vs. Cash Games Tournament poker is not as different from cash game poker as people sometimes assume. Most\u2026 How Solvers Work A Game Theory Optimal solver is an algorithm that calculates the best possible poker strategy.\u2026 The Most Powerful Play in Poker The central strategic implication of stack depth is the question of how much equity a\u2026 When does ICM become significant in MTTs? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) was invented in 1987 by M. Malmuth and is one\u2026 How to Study GTO Solutions Tools like GTO Wizard and other solvers should not be used to memorize specific strategies.\u2026 Principles of GTO Game theory, or GTO (for Game Theoretically Optimal), is best understood not as a rigid\u2026 Interpreting Equity Distributions GTO Wizard\u2019s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which\u2026 What is Leverage in poker? Leverage refers to the risk of future betting. When you call a bet on the\u2026 Reasons for value betting in poker You\u2019re probably accustomed to thinking of bets as either value or bluff. In this taxonomy,\u2026 The Science of Poker Performance Poker is a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment\u2026 What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets\u2026 Pot Geometry \u201cPot Geometry\u201d refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible \u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the"}
{"text":"BETTING YOURSELF OFF A HAND 104 betting under these conditions, we have to do a little algebra: $33.33 = ( 1 11 ) ($1, 100)(X) + ( 1 11 ) ($100)(1 \u2212X) $33.33 = ($100)(X) + $100 11 \u2212 $100 (11)(X) $33.33 = $100X + $9.09 \u2212$9.09X $24.24 = $90.9X X = 0.2667 or about 27 percent It turns out that if she\u2019ll get all-in with you on the river just over a quarter of the time when you make the wheel, it\u2019s better to check for the longshot than take the immediate pro\ufb01t of the blu\ufb00. On the other hand, if she\u2019ll get all-in with you less often than that, take that immediate pro\ufb01t. Before we continue, you should realize that this simpli\ufb01ed exercise short- changes the value of checking somewhat. We assumed that your hand would be entirely worthless if you checked and didn\u2019t catch a trey, but that\u2019s not really true. You might catch a four or \ufb01ve, check it down, and \ufb01nd out you have the best hand. You might also have a pro\ufb01table blu\ufb03ng opportunity on the river. This decision appears again and again in no limit hold \u2019em, and it\u2019s a crucial one. You are last to act and have a hand with some value. Should you check it, hoping to score a pro\ufb01t the old fashioned way, or should you take a stab at the pot, risking a check-raise? As you might expect, the answer to this question is complex, but you should learn what considerations go into the decision. The important factors are: \u2022 The likelihood that your blu\ufb00will succeed \u2022 The likelihood that you will be check-raised o\ufb00your hand \u2022 The value that your hand might have on the river if you miss \u2022 The likelihood that your draw will come in \u2022 Your implied odds if you make your hand These factors are strongly interrelated, so it doesn\u2019t make much sense to analyze them individually. Generally speaking, if you will have to fold to a check-raise, the more value your hand has, the less likely you should be to semi- blu\ufb00with it. While this conclusion is highly counter intuitive, the explanation is not. The \ufb01rst EV equation (the one that calculates the value of blu\ufb03ng) doesn\u2019t depend on the value of your draw. The second one, however, does. The more valuable your draw, the higher the EV of checking. The higher the second equation goes, the less attractive blu\ufb03ng becomes. Some ways your draw can have more value than usual: \u2022 The draw has lots of outs"}
{"text":"when you have the kind of semi-bluff hands I have been discussing. Then you are still bluffing occasionally, you will get all the advertising you need, but you have the extra advantage of sometimes winning even when you do get caught. There are numerous situations where a pure bluff would not work often enough to be profitable, but where a semi-bluff is more profitable than simply checking and hoping to draw out and win in the showdown. Suppose you are playing $ 10-$20 hold 'em. After six cards your hand has fallen apart; you have no win. There is one more card to come and $60 in the pot. So if you bet $20 as a pure bluff against a single opponent, you are getting 3-to-1 for your bet when he folds. The key question, then, is whether that opponent will fold often enough to make a bluff profitable in terms of the pot odds you are getting. Let's say you expect he will fold 20 percent of the time. That is, he will call four times out of five and fold once. Thus, the odds against getting away with a bluff are 4-to-1, while you are getting only $60-to-$20 or 3-to-1 odds when you bet. Therefore, the play has negative expectation. In the long run it is unprofitable. (This is assuming you give up your bluff when you're called and don't bet on the end.) Now instead of a busted hand with one more card to come, let's assume you are holding a hand that you assess as having a 30 percent chance of winding up the winner \u2014 something like, say, a four-flush and a small pair. Again there is $60 in the pot, and you figure you have a 20 percent chance of stealing that $60 right there if you come out betting against a single opponent. Readers should see intuitively that a semi-bluff bet now turns into a profitable play. In fact, it is more profitable than simply checking and hoping to win in the showdown. To make this point absolutely clear, we'll do some arithmetic. We'll assume that if you check after six cards, your 100 Chapter Eleven opponent will check behind you, and we'll ignore bets on the end on the assumption that you will fold when you don't make your hand and your opponent will fold when you do. We'll take 100 identical situations where you check and hope to draw out and 100 situations where you make a semi-bluff bet. Take checking first. With $60 in the pot and a 30 percent chance of winning, you will average winning $60 30 times for a total of $1,800. What happens when you bet? Well, since your semi-bluff has a 20 percent chance of making your opponent fold, you will average winning $60 immediately 20 out of the 100 times you try it for a total of $1,200. Of the 80 times your opponent calls your bet, you will average winning $80 (the $60 already in the pot plus the $20 called) 30 percent of the"}
{"text":"Hand Range 176: BB vs BN 4-bet (60bb) \u2022 All-in 24.2% \/ \u2022 Call 40.5% \/ \u2022 Fold 35.2%"}
{"text":"end of the chapter, I will go over the key differences between the two games and the necessary adjustments you\u2019ll need to make when moving from one to the other. There is a common misconception among some high-limit players that triple draw is nothing more than a game of pure luck. That\u2019s simply not the case. While luck plays a role in any given hand, playing correctly will minimize any dangerous swings that luck may bring, and skill will prevail. Triple draw has caught on so quickly because of the allure of action and big pots. Typical triple draw pots are larger than those generated by a hand of Omaha high-low, for example. You\u2019ll also notice that when you add triple draw to a mix of other games, it tends to liven up everyone\u2019s play. Triple draw is an action game, no question about it. You\u2019ll need to have your seat belt on at all times. To better prepare you for the bumpy ride, this chapter will give you all the tools you\u2019ll need to become a winning player. I\u2019ll provide you with a basic set of principles that, if followed closely, should be enough to enable you to beat almost any triple draw game in the world. HOW TO PLAY THE GAME Before we get into any strategy discussion, it\u2019s important that you understand the rules of the game, as well as how the betting works. The rules are rather 296 simple: You are dealt five cards facedown and can choose to draw as many cards as you wish, up to three times. You can stop drawing at any point, which is more commonly known as standing pat. In deuce-to-seven triple draw, the winner of the pot at the showdown is the player with the worst poker hand. For example, 2-3-4-5-7 with no flush is the worst hand in traditional poker but the best hand in deuce-to-seven. Straights and flushes count against you in deuce-to-seven, so 4-5-8-9-Q would actually beat 2-3-4-5-6, a straight. Also, in deuce-to-seven, an ace can only be used for high, and not for low. This leads to the rare case of the worst traditional poker hand winning. Since an ace is always high, 5-4-3-2-A is not a straight, and it beats any pair or other ace-high. The rules for ace-to-five are slightly different. The best hand in ace-to-five is simply A-2-3-4-5. Flushes and straights don\u2019t count against you, and an ace is considered a one. In this game, the winner of the pot is the player with the five lowest unpaired cards. So A-2-3-5-Q would beat A-2-2-3-4. If, by the river, the two remaining players both have a pair, the lower pair wins. For example: A-A-5-6-9 would beat 2-2-3-4-5. TRIPLE DRAW LOWBALL The Deal The deal is similar to hold\u2019em, with a button, small blind, and, of course, a big blind. Since there are so many drawing rounds, this game can only be played six-handed; otherwise you would run out of cards too often. It is possible to play the game seven- or eight-handed, but only if"}
{"text":"Going back to the example with 95o, input the EqR factor from heatmap number 3 into the EV equation: This shows that calling with 9\u26635\u2666 has a negative expectation and therefore should be folded (despite the fact that it has enough raw equity to justify calling). Another way to tackle this problem is to start by finding out how much equity the hand 9\u26635\u2666 needs to realize for the call to break even: 9\u26635\u2666 has an EqR factor of 58%, which is 3% lower than the minimum 61%.That means that even if we have a lot of equity, we just can\u2019t realize enough of it post-flop to make this call profitable. Elements that Affect Hand Playability Position The importance of position is something that almost all poker players understand to at least some extent. Ever since they began playing, they have been told to avoid playing out of position and"}
{"text":"Hand Range 15: Hands with Between 40% and 65% Equity Versus a Random Hand"}
{"text":"that. 350 But I didn\u2019t do it often. Now that players are much more aggressive, it is easier to check-raise. But even today, check-raising isn\u2019t as integral a part of my philosophy as it is for many other professionals. I do it\u2014you have to keep people in line\u2014but I usually don\u2019t look for opportunities to check-raise. However, I suppose I encounter more check-raising than the average player because I play so aggressively. If a player makes a hand, he\u2019ll check it to me thinking that I\u2019m going to bet\u2014and he\u2019s usually right. Most of the time, I will. So he checks it to me. And after I bet, he raises. Surprisingly, if you employ my style of play at no-limit hold\u2019em, you won\u2019t be in constant fear of getting check-raised. By playing aggressively, you might think \u201cWell, they\u2019re probably going to get me this time\u201d every time you bet. Even though you\u2019ll probably encounter more check-raising than most players, you\u2019ll be amazed at how many times your opponents keep throwing their hands away whenever you bet. It all goes back to my basic style of play. My opponents know that if I\u2019ve got any kind of a hand, any kind of a draw, and they do check-raise me, all of my chips\u2014and theirs\u2014are going to the middle. And because of that, they keep off of me. It stops them from playing back at me. Not only does it give me, in most cases, an umbrella of protection against opponents playing back at me, and not only does it make my opponents fear me which in turn makes it easy for me to pick up numerous pots without a contest, but it has other advantages as well. I\u2019ve already told you I also get a lot of loose action. This may seem contradictory\u2014how can I pick up pots easily on the one hand and get a lot of loose action on the other? It\u2019s easy to understand when you realize that I pick up pots when nobody\u2019s got a hand. And, as I said, that\u2019s a big percentage of the time. I get this so-called loose action when somebody does have a hand. At those times, all the money is liable to go to the center. And when it does\u2014as you now know\u2014I\u2019ve usually got the worst hand. But I might also find a hand when I look down. And once in a while, it\u2019s the best hand. When I\u2019m up against another hand at those times, the pot gets to be a mountain. It wouldn\u2019t be nearly as big if I weren\u2019t an aggressive player. 351 I\u2019d never get the action I do when I\u2019ve got a hand if I were known to slowplay hands or do a lot of check-raising. That\u2019s why I rarely do those things. The reason why being known as an aggressive player and constantly playing that way is the most profitable way to play poker is clearly illustrated by the following situation. Let\u2019s say I flopped a big hand\u2014a set of trips or even two pair. I\u2019m"}
{"text":"Exploitative Strategy A strategy designed around exploiting the mistakes of your opponents. Often used in contrast to GTO, which is designed to decrease the exploitability of your own strategy. See: MES\/Nemesis."}
{"text":"at all cost. Among other things, this will keep you from pissing off your friends (you need your friends, so don\u2019t piss them off). Even if you have an understanding friend who won\u2019t be pissed off when you say you\u2019restuck, but the game\u2019s really good, ask yourself how good can the game be if you\u2019re stuck. And how will you fare from this point forward, knowing that you blew off a friend to try to get well at poker? You wouldn\u2019t stay if you were winning, right? You\u2019d go meet your friend and tell him how great you did. So don\u2019t stick when you\u2019re stuck. That\u2019s all. Just don\u2019t. The poker game goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on. It never ends. You can always win your money back tomorrow\u2014if you don\u2019t bury yourself today. So why are you still there just because you\u2019re losing? You\u2019re chasing your loss. You can\u2019t possibly be playing well now, because chasing your loss is a bad decision, and bad decisions equal bad poker. So never miss human interaction. It\u2019s always more important than poker. (If you\u2019re young and you don\u2019t know that yet, trust me, you\u2019ll learn.) Win Goal (Don\u2019t Do It) Often players come into a game with a goal in mind for how much they want to win that night. In tournaments, they might set a goal for how manychips they want to have by the end of the day. In cash games, they might decide they want to win $150 that night. This is bad for a lot of reasons. In tournaments, let\u2019s say you set a goal that you want to finish the day with triple your starting stack of 10,000. If you\u2019re at 20,000 close to the end of the day, you could actually start to feel desperate, even though 20,000 may be above-average chips. You feel like you have a lot of work to do when you should just be focusing on the play at hand. On the flip side, if you\u2019re up to 45,000 in chips, you might start playing super-reckless, since you\u2019re so far above your goal and possibly feel likeyou have chips to burn. See how illusory these goals are? As long as you have more than 30 big blinds in a tournament, you can play reasonable poker and aren\u2019t reallyin danger. If you\u2019re playing to reach an end-of-day goal, rather than playing correctly, that\u2019s a disaster, especially if you\u2019re sitting on a healthy stack in relation to the blinds. In the cash situation, setting a win goal can minimize your hours spent playing well, both by causing you to quit early and by triggering bad playwhen circumstances should be favorable. If you set a win goal of, say, $150 in your $1\/$2 game, what happens when you reach the goal? You probably quit. But you\u2019re winning and playing well with a good table image. Why would you quit then? And even if you don\u2019t quit, your play will be affected. You\u2019ll try to protect your win and lock"}
{"text":"Late Position A term that generally refers to the Button and positions close to it, though the exact positions considered to be Late Position may vary depending on the number of players at the table."}
{"text":"Pre-flop: This hand is not an obvious call vs. every Villain, but against someone with a very tight raising range who is also likely to play badly, it's certainly a necessary one. Flop: This is a flop on which we have significant range disadvantage, but we don't care about that. If it serves our EV in a vacuum to raise this hand as a semi-bluff then that's what we'll do. In one of branches A and B it's good to raise and in the other it's better to just call. Have a look at Figure 43 again and try to decide which is which. Here's a clue: when raising a draw as a semi-bluff, having fold equity is the most crucial condition for that raise to be correct. Branch (A) Villain's sizing is extremely small. Not always, but more often than not from a passive player, this is"}
{"text":"First off, this hand is a clear ISO. Frequent strength is very good, fold equity is less great given that there are a few loose players at the table, but Hero is in position to the limper and his hand is strong enough to go ahead and ISO even though he expects to not achieve a heads up pot all that often. In this hand there is just one limper and so if Hero were to follow the ISO sizing rule, he'd raise to 4BB (3BB + 1BB) for the limper and no extra BB for being OOP as he is in position vs the player who limped. However, given that there are two players behind who are inclined to call with wide ranges, Hero should up his sizing in order to discourage multiway pots, and maximise his post-flop fold equity. Hero raises to 5BB. With 3-bettors Behind As well as times when it's good to increase the size of our ISOs, as we move up in stakes and play in more aggressive games, we'll encounter times when we want to ISO smaller than our rule advises. If there are Regs behind who like to 3-bet wide ranges then Hero can easily get punished for rampantly ISOing to 4BB. Just as we lowered our open size on the BU against avid 3-bettors, we should be inclined to lower our ISO size when they are left to act after us. Here's an example. The third (red) number on the HUD now is now 3Bet Preflop and the fourth (purple) one Fold to F Cbet."}
{"text":"tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"Hand Range 228: BN vs LJ (60bb) \u2022 3-bet 8.6% \/ \u2022 Call 15.6% \/ \u2022 Fold 75.8%"}
{"text":"Pioneering Poker AI Research Official During the past decades, given its direct relationship with real-world applications such as negotiation, auctions, cybersecurity, and\u2026 02\/04\/2024 5 min. \/ 4 sec."}
{"text":"that he's gonna be betting a ton i just said he probably wouldn't bet the queen jack but i bet if he had the queen jack here he wouldn't bet it now the question is should we call or should we shove i also wasn't sure about this one because we have super nuts effectively right and if we run it through the solver against gto turns out sets all shove now check shelf turn um notice even some pretty weak hands like uh 3 2 suited for too suited to go for the shove pretty cool to see five four five three like pairs with gut shots go for the shove here uh i'm probably not shoving in this scenario i definitely think carrie was well is in general weighted towards premium made hands here like good aces although i wouldn't be shocked if he's gonna go for the bluff with queen jack right um so the question is is carrie the type of player who will bluff the river if i check call and i would venture to say no like i said i don't think carrie's just bluffing it off all that often um however will he find a big fold if i shove here on the turn with like ace 10. and look i think he's probably going to call with 810 but i wouldn't be shocked if he finds a nitty fold so this is a tough spot um also in live poker we mentioned this in the in the first hand from the first ten thousand dollar tournament where i folded the top pair because you know kind of got a vibe i didn't have anything i don't recall this particular scenario amazingly well but if i got the vibe he didn't have anything what are my options well i have to call right so this is scenario where i realize solver says to shove and i totally get that that the i that the solver says to shove again if you are going to play like gto make sure you find the adequate bluffs with the gut shots and the pairs these all are well mostly flush draws i presume with the random four and the random three all these are flush draws which makes a lot of sense all the flush draws make sense to check shove all the good aces make sense to check shove but these gut shots i do not think are quite so logical at least for me like if you give me 5'4 here i really want to jam and 5 4 into this i wouldn't think so but apparently the answer is yes um anyway i called here river's at eight of clubs this is the big bummer whenever he does happen to have a an ace it's gonna let it go check check on the river which is annoying but i like to go check check and he announced you win carrie's not the type to randomly slow slow roll me knit roll me whatever with like"}
{"text":"Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition"}
{"text":"let's discuss post-flop strategy now i realize that post-flop play is a big big big topic and it may be overwhelming so i have a lot of quizzes and challenges at pokercoaching.com for you to go through i highly suggest you go to the earliest homework challenge and work your way forward because we're going to be discussing in depth how to play well post flop there for now i'm going to give you some in-depth concepts that you must understand that we'll heavily dictate your post slot play with some examples and that will do a great job of getting you started so when you get to the flop you always want to essentially ask should i bet or should i check and if i do bet how much do i bet and these two ideas are determined by three main concepts and they are range advantage nut advantage and position so the idea of range advantage is you compare your entire range that you get to a specific betting round with to your opponent's entire range and then you ask which range connects better with the flop let me give you an example so let's say under the gun raises and the big blind calls go ahead take a second visualize the under the gun range and visualize the big blinds range go back and reference them maybe have them printed out on your wall or they're on your phone in this scenario under the gun is going to have a range that i've typed here in equilab this is a free program you can download search equal lab and it'll come right up there's a that's for windows for mac i believe there's a program called poker cruncher maybe check that out so i've entered the under the gun players range right here okay this is the range that under the gun raises with now i've also entered the range that the big blind calls with this big blind calling range may be tighter or looser depending on the big blind strategy right think about your opponent's range and adjust it accordingly so now what you do is you type the board right here in the flop ace of spades king of spades jack of hearts and you click evaluate and then equlab is going to run this situation you know 30 million times and tell you how often or how much equity each hand has in general the what this actually means is not all that important but what you want to ask yourself is which range is favored and in this scenario 65 out of 100 total percent is a situation that heavily favors the under the gun range so on ace king jack under the gun has a ton of equity however let's say the exact same scenario under the gun raises big blind calls but now the flop is seven of eight six of spades five of diamonds with the exact same ranges now it's closer to 50 50. okay and you can actually run"}
{"text":"Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting\u2026 Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this\u2026 The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A\u2660A\u2663 in the\u2026 The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful\u2026 How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs \u201cThey always have it!\u201d is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency\u2026 Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I\u2019m not referring to\u2026 C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of"}
{"text":"across the board right we see that the ev regrets for betting small and checking are relatively insignificant so we could for example use a blanket thirty percent check seventy percent bet mix with all of our unmade hands which although would not be replicating gto perfectly which is impossible it would ensure that we have sufficient draws and bluffs throughout different branches of our game tree so as we can see bucketing is an essential tool which can be used to simplify and tame the impossible complexities of gto strategies and this type of bucketing system is scalable since the number of buckets each player chooses can be modulated according to each player's experience level so that is the video for today thanks for watching and until next time stay balanced"}
{"text":"river. In this case you run the risk of possibly giving your opponent a free shot to beat you on the end, but since it\u2019s a remote possibility with this board, calling will get the most out of him. 2. When Out of Position with Marginal Hands In this example, you raise with 9-9 from late position. The button reraises you, so it\u2019s heads-up to see the flop. The flop comes down Q? 7? 2?. You check, and your opponent bets the flop. Check-raising is an option here, but for this example let\u2019s assume you checked and called. Now the turn brings a 5?. This presents you with a dilemma. Since you raised in late position, and it was the button that reraised you, he might hold one of a wide range of hands that have you beat, as well as one of many others that don\u2019t. Let\u2019s assume that the button is the type of player who will raise you with any pair, any suited ace, any two picture cards, and any A8 and above. Also throw in the occasional variation raise with hands like 8-9 suited or even 5-6 suited. If you know your opponent will three-bet you with these types of hands, your hand is just too good to fold. At the same time, you don\u2019t really want to lose any unnecessary extra bets. In this situation, you are better off playing the hand to the river as cheaply as possible. You don\u2019t want to go crazy and put in a lot of action. Remember, 146 you are out of position and could get moved off the best hand here. What if your opponent had A-K of hearts and decided to reraise you as a semi-bluff? Well, you can\u2019t really justify putting in three bets on the turn and then another one on the river when you are likely drawing dead to two outs! Play the hand carefully. Win the small pots while avoiding the big ones. Sacrifice some potential value and lean toward caution; that way you won\u2019t get outplayed. 3. To Avoid Costly Fancy Plays Throughout this chapter you\u2019ll notice that I preach straightforward play. Why use a fancy play that might work when a straightforward play will do just as well? To be specific, raising on the turn with drawing hands in an attempt to force your opponent to lay down the best hand is a play that should be used infrequently. It works best on timid, careful players, but even they won\u2019t fold if they have top pair or better. Instead, they\u2019ll call you down on the turn and again on the river. After all, by raising the turn you\u2019ve made the pot so big that your opponent is almost forced to call. Maybe years ago you could use this play more often, but these days many players are aware of it. So if there is a draw present, they\u2019ll likely call, hoping you are making a move. Don\u2019t bluff\u2014value bet. That\u2019s what limit hold\u2019em is all about. 4. When Drawing To Hands in Multiway"}
{"text":"call you but I think a bed of 30 or maybe 35 K is pretty good maybe 35 K is ideal here check-check I do not like check check unless you can just tell your opponents never folding right like if your opponent looks pumped up whenever they get the King on the river then clearly don't Bluff but I think this is a spot where I you need to Bluff you have basically no showdown value and when you have no showdown value you need to Bluff notice here that if your turn Bluffs are literally king queen King Jack and Ace track they all got their on the river right so you get to bet the river with a lot of hands if you get Queen Jack you keep betting if you had to parry to keep betting so this really is one of the worst hands in your range at this point so whenever you have one of the worst hands near range and you have a blocker to the nuts right we block with Queen Jack I think it's a mandatory bet and giving your range is so incredibly strong that's why you don't need to go gigantic like all-in and to be fair if you're trying to be GTO in the spot the ideal plate could just be a small bet because like I said you have lots of nuts here anyway check check Bona is a set if you can look and tell the guys not folding obviously don't bet but this seems like a spot where just your hand in general really really really needs to bet all right pocket eights 38 big blinds you open it up which is fine and get three bet by calling station hmm alright so what does this calling station mean to James so if someone is a calling station that means typically when they show aggression when they three bet you usually have a really good hand so if they have a really good hand we definitely don't want jam right so the options are call or fold we don't to re-raise either because if we rearrange or probably gets a stronger than average range remember calling stations call too often that doesn't say anything about the rear azem strategy but if they usually call too often it means they don't rear a is often enough which means when they do rear a is they probably have a really good hand so we don't want to be raising so can we call and just try to get a set well we have to put in ten to try to win 35 so not great pot odds immediately can we get an additional we have to try to get in 10 to 1 implied odds right we need to be able to put in 10 here to win a total of 100 from the opponent and we're getting barely that so I actually don't mind folding here I mean you kind of hate to fold in here but I"}
{"text":"Hand Range 330: LJ 60bb (2.3x vs BN 3-bet) \u2022 All-in 0% \/ \u2022 4-bet 19.2% \/ \u2022 Call 42.3% \/ \u2022 Fold 38.5%"}
{"text":"possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic"}
{"text":"players\u2019 community about them being good enough, as the strategies don\u2019t really change too much at lower Nash distances. In other Solvers such as MonkerSolver, most of the exploitability comes from the suboptimal post-flop play due to the post-flop abstractions. How much of this trickles down to the pre-flop ranges is unclear, so the question of how exploitable the pre-flop ranges are, given optimal post- flop play, is impossible to answer. I ran several benchmarks and compared both pre- and post- flop simulations from Monker, Pio and a private GTO solver my team is working on and found the strategies to be very close when using high abstraction settings. Before PioSOLVER was mainstream I also ran a lot of benchmarks and tested its results with other tools, such as CardRunners EV and Nash push\/fold Calculators such as HRC, and found that the results matched previous knowledge and theory. All in all, even if the game of poker hasn\u2019t been completely solved, I\u2019m confident that the strategies derived from the work with GTO solvers are very accurate and can be used to improve our understanding of the game of poker, helping us make better decisions at the tables which ultimately translates into EV. PioSOLVER PioSOLVER (piosolver.com) is the most popular solver on the market. It solves for HUNLHE equilibrium strategies with arbitrary starting ranges, stack sizes and bet-sizes to a desired accuracy (exploitability). Pros \u2666 Reports Equity, EV, EQR, and full strategies \u2666 Very accurate results \u2666 Can calculate MES and MinES \u2666 Aggregates frequency analysis and reporting features \u2666 Solves for Limit and No-Limit Hold\u2019em \u2666 High compatibility with other poker tools \u2666 Advanced scripting functionality"}
{"text":"Hand Range 218: BN vs UTG (25bb) \u2022 All-in 1.2% \/ \u2022 3-bet 3.7% \/ \u2022 Call 14.6% \/ \u2022 Fold 80.5%"}
{"text":"making sure you\u2026 Overcalling From the BB In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also\u2026 Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach\u2026 Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon\u2026 Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to\u2026 Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked Playing out of position is tricky, but it\u2019s an essential part of tournament play. With\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the BB in MTTs Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB\u2019s equilibrium strategy\u2026 The Absurd Game Theory of Chopped Boards A \u201cchopped board\u201d in poker is one where the community cards make up the best\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs MTT confrontations between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations,\u2026 The Art of Learning Poker In his book The Art of Learning, chess and Push Hands champion Josh Waitzkin describes\u2026 Is Donk Betting for Donkeys? \u201cDonk betting\u201d, or betting from out of position into the player who was the aggressor\u2026 Delayed C-Betting This is a companion piece to Probe Betting. It stands on its own, but understanding\u2026 Probe Betting As far as rules of thumb go in poker, \u201ccheck to the raiser\u201d is a\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Big Blind This is a companion piece to this article on the SB\u2019s strategy for blind vs\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Small Blind ICM incentivizes more conservative play, which means that at stages of the tournament where risk\u2026 The Initial Bettor\u2019s Advantage The mathematics of poker holds a little-known secret: the first bettor enjoys better bluffing odds\u2026 Mastering the Chiplead: The Scalpel and the Sledgehammer When you have a lot of chips at a final table or in another situation\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in Cash Games Our never-ending quest for money and fame leads us to the flop. We open the\u2026 How ICM Impacts Restealing From The Blinds When I first started working with preflop solves, one of the features I found most\u2026 The ICM Benefits of Late Registration in Poker Tournaments Why do so many professional poker players register late for tournaments when they clearly would\u2026 Flop Heuristics: OOP C-Betting in MTTs Playing against an in-position cold-caller is dramatically different\u2013and dramatically more difficult\u2013than playing against a caller\u2026 Counterintuitive Calls Solver outputs such as those provided by GTO Wizard are models of no-limit hold \u2018em,\u2026 How To Negotiate Final Table Deals Most people\u2019s first introduction to the Independent Chip Model (ICM) is not from studying bubble\u2026 How does ICM impact PKO strategy? If you have read The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments you already know why we\u2026 Understanding Blockers in Poker Often when looking through a solver\u2019s meticulously crafted grid of deception, one of the following\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP Cold-Caller in MTTs A Cold-call refers to"}
{"text":"Hand Range 161: BB vs CO (25bb) \u2022 All-in 8.8% \/ \u2022 3-bet 5.5% \/ \u2022 Call 67.1% \/ \u2022 Fold 18.6%"}
{"text":"Leverage Leverage is the additional value gained from betting hands that you anticipate profitably betting future streets, whether for value or as a bluff. Hands that can bet multiple streets as part of a polarized range benefit the most from leverage, especially deep-stacked."}
{"text":"hand is an investment\u2026 What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets\u2026 Pot Geometry \u201cPot Geometry\u201d refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible \u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"10 hours of the game and you're like wow i'm a 510 player and you start like you know getting the you know getting your ego involved and it's just it's just never gonna there's nothing helpful that comes from that it's only going to be hurtful for you um and so i just like really really recommend to never let your ego make decisions if you take your shot and you play 510 and you lose a bunch of buy-ins first off you should be in you should have your good habits where after every session you're reviewing your hands you're finding the leaks in your game and you're constantly improving uh you're able to articulate your strategy and write down the improvements you're making um but more so if you don't have an ego you'll be you'll you'll be able to easily move back to 2-5 with having no like bad feelings about it you know there's way too many people that think to themselves i'm a 510 player now i'm a 10 20 player now and then they go play like they lose some they need to move back down and they feel horrible about it you know they they think that everybody that they know thinks that you know they're not confident enough to play the game or they're not good enough to play the game or you know all these things like running in the back of your mind and so if you get rid of the ego you just realize okay i'm moving down to five because it's a better decision for me right i'm going to print my edge better here build up my bankroll before i take a shot again and while everybody else is worried about being a 510 player being a 2-5 player all these things that don't matter i'm focused on playing the best i can in the game that i should be playing and improving after every single session such that i'm going to end up being the beating the higher stake than what i just moved down from right so like getting rid of your ego in terms of moving up stakes is super important because all of the sudden if you're losing after a shot take and um and you have like too high of a risk of ruin it's just gonna make you play worse right like if you're if your ego is too big that you can't move down stakes you shouldn't move up in the first place um because if things go badly they're gonna go really really badly for you because you're gonna move back down and play worse because you think that you're playing with a bunch of bad players and you know so i just really recommend make sure you get rid of your ego understand that moving up stakes is not about um you know it's not about pride it's not about anything else it's like you just set your goals realize that when you move up stakes it's very likely"}
{"text":"chance OOP will x\/r the flop. IP is now incentivized to bet at a higher frequency because their equity in the pot cannot be denied. For this"}
{"text":"So you know how to calculate the basic polar vs bluff-catcher toy game. What happens when the defender has traps though? The setup Villain checks to us on the river, 22233. We know villain\u2019s range is 90% bluff-catchers, 10% traps that beat our value bets. We\u2019re in position with 50% value hands, and 50% pure bluffs. Villain (out of position): 90% QQ, 10% AA Hero (in position): 50% KK, 50% JJ The board is: 22233 You can bet any size you like! Villain can only call or fold. If villain didn\u2019t have any traps we could just shove to give them the worst odds possible and make the most money! In this toy game, however, our value hands can be beaten by traps. If we bet too big we donate too much money to their traps. If we bet too small, we don\u2019t extract enough money from their bluffcatchers. The reason I love this toy game is because it demonstrates a fundamental principle of bet sizing theory: Optimal bet sizing is a function of nut advantage. How do we find the \u201cperfect\u201d bet size? Solving the toy game Let \u2018s\u2019 = bet\/pot Let \u2018t\u2019 = % of traps in villain\u2019s range Let \u2018q\u2019 = Hero equity with value when called Let \u2018c\u2019 = Percentage of time villain calls Step 1) Figure out how wide they call When we bet, they should defend according to MDF. However, their traps will never fold, so we need to make a small modification. Calling% (c) = Max ( MDF, traps%) = Max (1\/(1+s), 10%) In other words, they defend MDF, but their calling frequency never drops below the percentage of traps in their range (10% in this example). Because they are defending according to MDF, our bluffs will always be 0EV. Step 2) Calculate our equity with value hands when called Remember, our value loses to traps, so we need to figure out the equity of our value hands when called, then create an expected value equation. Our equity when called is a function of bet size. The larger we bet, the more bluff-catchers fold, leaving proportionally more traps in their calling range. Therefore, the equity of our value hands (q) equals the proportion of bluffcatchers to traps that villain calls. Equity when called = bluffcatcher% in calling range = (call% \u2013 trap%) \/ call% q = ((c-t) \/ c) Step 3) Calculate your expected value We need to figure out an equation that represents our expected value when betting. The optimal bet size will maximize our EV! The EV of our bluffs is 0 since villain calls according to MDF (although it might be negative if we bet too big, but let\u2019s ignore that). We can skip this part since adding 0 to our EV doesn\u2019t change anything. That just leaves the EV of our value hands. EV (value bet) = call%(EV when called) + fold%(pot) EV (value bet) = call%(win% * (pot + bet) \u2013 (lose% * bet)) + fold%*pot That\u2019s a bit cumbersome, so let\u2019s replace this with variables: Bet% = s Pot"}
{"text":"act as their players you have to act you have to call off a whole lot tighter here's the big line strategy versus a small blind All In mostly sharks are similar-ish they're slightly different but similar enough uh when the small blind shoves near the big line you do need to call off pretty wide as we see here any pair lots of Queen X suited lots of jackets suited Queen Seven offsuit type stuff calling off in this vicinity is going to be fine again you're probably going to cut off the bottom portion of the range to account for pound implications and not wanting to go broke okay look that's it we covered all the standard pre-flop spots from a GTO point of view I realize your opponents may play very different strategy and strategies in very different ranges and that is fine and good we can't cover all the spots here today but this will get you started and you're going to be way better than most of your opponents if you understand everything we just went through"}
{"text":"to all the small pots I\u2019ve picked up. And when I play that big pot, it\u2019s a freeroll. As I said a little while ago, when a big pot\u2019s played, I\u2019ve usually got the worst hand. I\u2019d say that when all the money goes in, I\u2019ve got the worst hand over 50 percent of the time. Obviously, I wouldn\u2019t be able to overcome that statistic if I didn\u2019t always pad my stack by picking up all those small pots throughout the game. Of course, I\u2019m almost never completely out on a limb in a big pot. Whenever I make a substantial bet or raise, I\u2019ve usually got an out. Betting with an out, that\u2019s what I call it. And it\u2019s the out I have that makes me appear lucky when I\u2019m a dog in a big pot and wind up winning it. There are other benefits to playing the aggressive way I recommend. You\u2019ll be able to break a lot of players because you\u2019re in there gambling all the time, and because of that, you\u2019ll get a lot of your real good hands paid off. Tight players don\u2019t get their real good hands paid off because they rarely make a move, so that whenever they do, their hand is an open book. And they almost never change gears and start playing loose. But you\u2019ll be out there betting, betting, betting, all the time. Your opponents will see you\u2019re an aggressive player. They\u2019ll know you\u2019re out there trying to pick up all those pots, so they\u2019ll sometimes give you a little loose action. And since you won\u2019t always be out there with the worst hand, you\u2019ll break one or two of them. After that, they may be scared to get involved with you. So your style of play will deceive and befuddle your opponents. They won\u2019t know whether or not you\u2019ve really got a hand. They won\u2019t know whether you\u2019re going to set them all-in or not. And anytime you get your opponents in 339 that confused state of mind you\u2019ll have an advantage over them. Of course, you won\u2019t play every hand aggressively. Occasionally you\u2019ll slow down, and sometimes you\u2019ll completely stop and throw your hand away. You should never start out bluffing at a pot and keep bluffing at it without an out. For example, whenever I raise the pot before the flop I\u2019m going to bet after the flop about 90 percent of the time. If the flop comes completely ragged, and it doesn\u2019t look like anyone can have much of it, I\u2019m going to bet at the pot and try to pick it up even if I don\u2019t have a piece of the flop. If I get called I\u2019m usually going to give it up\u2014unless I have some kind of an out\u2014even as little as third pair or an inside straight draw. Sometimes, you can keep hammering on certain players and drive them off even when you don\u2019t have an out. But you\u2019re usually better off when you have some kind of escape hatch. The reason I occasionally go"}
{"text":"executions, and technical stock charts made it easier to beat the market? No, it has not. Many people may claim otherwise, but look around. How many people do you know who are quitting their jobs to become securities traders? Today investors are more knowledgeable, but beating the market is still as difficult as ever because for the most part, everyone has equal access40 the same information. No matter how much information is available, when it is equally shared, no one has an edge. There are people who do beat the market because they make better decisions. But the adjective \"better\" means their decisions are also different from the majority. Their decisions cannot be part of a formula, but must adjust to changes in the market before the change happens. Usually, people who are successful at beating the market have a talent for making adjustments ahead of time. They anticipate the next big trend before the crowd starts the stampede. 72 THE INTELLIGENT GUIDE TO TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER Classifying Game Characteristics In Chapter 4, individual playing styles were classified into four broad groups: loose-passive, loose-aggressive, tight-passive, and tight-aggressive. Poker games themselves also fit into these categories. In attaching an adjective to a poker game, it is the general behavior of the group being described. How does a group of people playing a game together take on a style of it own? It happens in much the same way that the individuals acquire their playing styles: It depends on the underlying reasons for the game. The object of poker is to win money, bilt that is not the only reason for the game. Often, winning money isn't even the most important reason for the game. In Alan N. Schoonmaker's book, The Psychology of Poker; he explains that we are kidding ourselves if we think poker is only about money. For all but a few professionals, poker is a game, not a job. People play games for many reasons: competition, socializing, entertainment, mental challenge, etc. Money is rarely the primary motive. In fact, compared to the expense of some games, such as golf or yacht racing, a person could lose money consistently in lowlimit poker games, have a good time, and still be better off financially. Some people have this view of poker-that they are paying for entertainment. To formulate a correct strategy, you need to examine the underlying reasons for the game in which you choose to play. Two reasons must be considered in the most detail. (1) Money is a meaningful component to a poker game. It is how the game is scored, but the relative importance of money to the players must be weighed. In many situations, no one cares that much about the money. (2) Just as important as money is the social question-are people playing for friendly entertainment or for hard-nosed competition? Imagine a two-dimensional grid where on the horizontal scale, the importance of money is plotted, and on the vertical scale is the degree of competitiveness. The next figure illustrates the grid. As games increase in competitiveness, their character"}
{"text":"those quality reps in not just binging on a quantity session so that is the benefit of setting a time to ensure you get in there now let's talk about the risky times to play so that you ensure that for the most part you're going to be getting quality reps in so when you have unmet needs or unresolved issues before you sit down and play a poker session those are going to come with you to the table and they're probably going to negatively affect your play so there are four main things four main states that we're going to be in that are typically going to lead to negative play the first one is being hungry obviously if you're hungry um your your brain's not going to have all the fuel it needs to function exception is if you're used to fasting and it's going to be a lot easier to get tired and it's also worth noting the longer that you play you might get hungry because our brain is using sugar to make those decisions and when we run out of fuel and we run out of reserves our body doesn't know what to draw from to make those decisions so it's important that we check in with that set time to say oh am I hungry do I need some food okay cool and then we can refuel the mind as opposed to just running on the adrenaline and running on the dopamine that comes from you know plain awesomely fun games like poker second state is when we're angry right if you're in an angry State you're probably not going to make those calm rational decisions it's much more likely that you're going to end up making emotional decisions and we don't want to have emotion at the poker table also note the longer you play events will happen that can cause anger or tilt examples are bad beats examples are missing out on a big draw if you you know expected to that drug entitlement were you entitled to a pot that you end up losing being around people who are in a negative State being around people who are complaining little frustrations that can happen at the casino there are many events that can happen you know noisy TV noise the other tables that can lead to feelings of anger so it's important over the course of a session to check in at that set time and be like have I hit my threshold of emotional capacity and I can't handle it anymore and I'm kind of breaking down maybe I need a reset or maybe I'm fine next one is when we're lonely the less social we are typically a former state of loneliness that can lead to a bit of a like depressive feeling and it can lead to needing to get a win from the session to create a positive feeling because we don't have that positive feeling already as a baseline um a lot of times we're sitting in"}
{"text":"getting check-raised when your hand is sovulnerable. Well, lucky for you, not everyone is that savvy. Most players, as you recall, think they need to bet their mid-strength hands to protect them on the turn. And that bet opens them up to a yummy check-raise from you. In other words, you just sprang the trap they\u2019re not smart enough to stay out of. This keeps you from having to make decisions out of position on the river (always desirable); it also gets better hands to fold. Think about howstrong your line of play reads to a hand like AK. You c-bet the flop, then go for a check-raise on the turn? That hand reads ridiculously strong and that\u2019s how you get AK to fold. In a lot of ways, the same logic we applied to raising the turn in position applies here. If you just check-call the turn, you\u2019d probably check and call a river bet, too. But that line of play means you can never win a pot that doesn\u2019t belong to you. If you\u2019re willing to put calling money in the pot on theriver anyway, why not use those chips aggressively on the turn? Check-raise your opponent and give yourself a chance to win it right there. By checking the turn, you force a hand like J7 to bluff you in a way that can\u2019t ever win, because when he bets, you check-raise. You also letAJ bet for value by mistake. A bet from you on the turn, on the other hand, gives both those hands a chance to win the pot, opening you up to a raise that your hand can\u2019t stand to face. If AK gets sticky, it\u2019s winning the money from you anyway. At least by check-raising, you give that hand an opportunity to fold, which you never do by betting out on the turn. Across the board, you\u2019re keeping yourself from having to make tricky decisions by checking the turn, while the check-raise puts the tricky decisions on your opponents. That sounds like just the kind of poker you want to play. Again, keep in mind that if you\u2019re against the right kind of passive opponent who would never ever bet the river without a huge hand, you can takea small line of play and check and call on the turn with the intention of checking the river to see what happens. A player like this will have a tighter range of hands he\u2019ll bet on the turn, so it\u2019s less likely he\u2019ll be bluffing in that spot. His river bet will likewise come from real strength, so you never riskincorrectly folding the pot to him there. If he\u2019s bold enough to take another bet at the pot, he has you beat. So you see that the same principles apply out of position as in position. When you hold vulnerable hands like top pair, be very careful about opening up the action to your opponent. The biggest disaster in poker is to make a pot mistake. If you bet the turn when you\u2019re out of position,"}
{"text":"and they could all seethat the obvious texture just completed to a possible flush, so now you get moved in on and you feel completely sick. Your flush is 8-high. See, you always have to think ahead to events later in the hand, and if you do that, you\u2019ll realize that you rarely get the right price to call your flushdraw on the flop when the flush you\u2019re drawing at is so low. Implied odds don\u2019t make sense, since you\u2019re rooting against action. You don\u2019t want someone to deliver you their stack, because that probably means you\u2019re actually delivering them yours. And you rarely get the right price to call to either flop the flush or flop a draw at 8-to-1 and make it on the turn at another 4-to-1. Overall, you\u2019re in a situation where you\u2019ll flop a flush draw one time in nine, then complete that one-in-nine draw about one time in four. Can youdo the math? Your starting suited cards make a flush about as often as any single number comes up in roulette. And that\u2019s in the best of circumstances. You want to know when suited cards are good? When you\u2019re heads-up in position\u2014just like every other hand you can hold. Yet people persist in wanting to play middle and low suited connecting cards in multi-way pots. Going back to the miracle of flopping a flush, are you more confident that your 8-high flush is good against four opponents or just one? One, of course. Not only does increased traffic mean your hand might not be good now, it really jacks up the possibility that the nasty card coming on theturn kills your hand: a fourth card in suit or something that pairs the board. What will you do in a multi-way pot when the action goes bet, then raise, in front of you? Cower out? Go broke? You have a tough decision and we hate those. All told, your suited cards will make it to the river as a winning flush about 3% of the time. That means that having suited cards versus the samehand in an unsuited version only improves your hand by an average of about 3%. That isn\u2019t much. I\u2019m not saying that the other 97% of the time they\u2019ll give you a tough decision; lots of times they\u2019ll just go in the muck unmourned. But why give yourself the headache? Detach from your infatuation withsuited cards and your poker will improve 100%, I promise. The easiest way to do that is to keep this simple question firmly and permanently in mind: \u201cIF THIS HAND WEREN\u2019T SUITED, WOULD I STILL PLAY IT?\u201d If the answer is \u201cno,\u201d then muck it. That\u2019s your 87 or JT in first position. If the answer is \u201cyes, definitely,\u201d then yippee, your good hand\u2014say, AK early or KQ late, or any hand late; if you have perfect position, you\u2019re pretty much free to play the whole deck\u2014just got even better. The fact that your hand is suited is just a bonus, the cherry on the sundae. Where it gets"}
{"text":"Limp\/Raise (l\/r): A player enters the pot by limping and then re-raises after someone else raises. Check\/Fold (x\/f): A player checks and then folds to an opponent\u2019s bet. Check\/Call (x\/c): A player checks and then calls an opponent\u2019s bet. Check\/Raise (x\/r): A player checks and then raises an opponent\u2019s bet. Bet\/Bet (b\/b): Betting the turn after the opponent called or x\/c the flop. Also known as double- barreling or two-barreling. Bet\/Bet\/Bet (b\/b\/b): Betting the flop, turn, and river after the opponent called or x\/c flop and turn. Also known as triple-barreling. Hand Range When players first start learning to play the game of poker, the first thing they simply must master is understanding hand values and, as a result, a beginner player only thinks about his own hand\u2019s strength. Later, as players become more advanced, they start thinking about their opponents\u2019 hands as well. Eventually, they get to the point where they don\u2019t try to put their opponents on a single hand, but instead assign them a range of possible holdings and work to narrow that range down based on each of their opponent\u2019s actions throughout the hand (also known as hand reading). The best players take this even further and, while thinking about their opponents range, they also think about their own range and how it fares against their opponents range, in terms of equity, range polarization, balance, nut advantage and many other concepts that will be addressed throughout this book. Poker may appear like a simple game to a novice, but the classic saying of \u201cit takes a minute to learn, but a lifetime to master\u201d certainly holds true. 13\u00d713 Hand Grid The hand grid (Hand Range 1) is a graphical representation of a range. It contains all 169 possible pre-flop hands: 13 pocket pairs (5.88% of all hands) that are located diagonally from top left to top right, 78 suited hands (23.53% of all hands) located in the upper right half represented with an \u201cs\u201d, and 78 offsuit hands (70.59% of all hands) located in the bottom left half represented with an \u201co\u201d."}
{"text":"Figure 41 - Calling Made-Hands in Open Action Spots 1. Type of Equity: Our equity on the turn is now poor since a lot of Villain's range just improved to beat us; other parts picked up lots of equity vs. us in the form of a diamond draw, and a third part made a pair of kings and is now probably not betting the turn due to SDV . This eliminates a lot of the air Villain bets the flop with from his turn betting range. Moreover, calling any non T or 7 river is unfathomable without a read that Villain is crazily overbluffing turns and rivers. This turns much of the equity we do have into ghost equity, depending on how often Villain is likely to bluff rivers. 2. Outs when Behind: When behind, our outs are limited to 5 at an absolute push and are often worse than this when we're dominated by a better T or two pair+. 3. Type of SDV: is very vulnerable and there seem to be very few good river cards. 4. Position: We're out of position making getting to showdown that bit harder still. Hero folds. So my student might enquire at this point as to why on earth we're calling this flop when we had to fold the turn? Sometimes you'll even hear people use abhorrent logic such as: \"You called flop so you have to call turn.\" This is totally flawed as on all turn cards (some more than others), we can expect a contraction between Villain's flop betting range and his turn betting range. Therefore, even if we were folding every turn card that didn't improve our equity, this is not necessarily a bad idea. What we need to remember here is that Hero has many other hands in his flop calling range stronger than Tc7c. In fact, this hand is very close to the bottom of Hero's range on this particular turn card. The gutshots Hero floats the flop with have now improved to straights and decent pair + gutshots and can feel fine about check\/calling again. Hero's Ax hands are an abundance of his range and are calling the next street too, and any diamond\/diamond hand he calls flop with has now improved to a draw good enough to take some non-folding action with. Overall, this turn card is actually pretty good for Hero's range and lots of it can continue here; just not this hand."}
{"text":"ADJUSTING TO WEAK TIGHT GAMES 129 particularly at small stakes. For example, in many $2\u2013$5 games in Las Vegas it\u2019s not unusual for almost all the players to be weak-tight to some degree or another. The Adjustments These guys make two broad mistakes: they tip the quality of their hands too early, and they allow themselves to get blown out of big pots too frequently. The adjustments to beat them exploit A these errors. The general idea is to build fairly big pots early, then take them away with big bets on later streets. By betting big with strong hands and small with weak ones, they\u2019ll essentially tell you when it\u2019s safe to bring out the big guns. Obviously, if they bet big, they get the pot. Otherwise, you put in the big raise and watch them fold. Speci\ufb01cally, when a weak-tight player or two has limped in, play extremely loosely on the button (and somewhat loosely one o\ufb00the button). Against some really terrible players, 100 percent of hands might be pro\ufb01table. If your opponents have some clue, you might want to avoid the very worst trash \u2014 stu\ufb00 like T\u26615\u2663, for instance. But many hands that you might be used to tossing automatically like J\u26634\u2663, 9\u26637\u2660, or A\u26615\u2662can be pro\ufb01table. Why? Simply put, weak-tight players don\u2019t see the showdown very often. You don\u2019t need a good hand if they fold. If your control over them is less than totally complete, then you might want a little hand value to fall back on if things go awry. But you won\u2019t need much. So the \ufb01rst adjustment is to play most of your hands when you are in late position. The second is to raise with a lot of those extra late position hands. For example, say you are playing $1\u2013$2 with $200 stacks. A weak-tight player limps in middle position. You have 9\u26617\u2661on the button. You might want to raise to about $10. This is particularly true if the players in the blinds are either unlikely to call or are weak-tight themselves. Weak-tight players fold too often. Folding the best hand in a small pot is no big deal. Folding the best hand in a big pot is a big deal. According to Fundamental Theorem of Poker, you want to create situations where your opponents make the biggest errors possible. Bad folds are big mistakes in big pots. So build a big pot. You want to raise the biggest amount you can that they are likely to call and that won\u2019t tie them to the pot. That is, you want them to call the pre\ufb02op raise, but you still want them to fold bottom and middle pair to a pot-sized bet on the \ufb02op. And you want them to fold top pair and most draws to a follow-up pot-sized bet on the turn. Don\u2019t raise so much pre\ufb02op (compared to your stack sizes) that it will make them feel \u201cpot committed.\u201d If you follow this advice, you\u2019ll play lots of raised, heads-up and threehanded pots in position. That\u2019s a terri\ufb01c start. Typically"}
{"text":"right it should always Bluff at the seven like that seems crazy some people hear you say that and think oh that's good just have all the nuts no that's bad it's bad to have only the nuts believe it or not yeah yeah sure because that essentially means you're not making money with all of these junky hands because by playing this hand in this way it is making you some money right yeah and yeah money that's good for you for sure all right so that's all the hands we have for now I think we'll be back with some more hands later hope you're enjoying this series if you do let us know good luck in your games have fun GTO is hard but um we're gonna do our best and continue improving together thank you very much Justin thanks coach thank you talk to you soon"}
{"text":"from welcome Inferno ace four suited the interesting thing will be to see whether or not monsman goes for a three bet with his king queen there is one shorter stack we've seen monsman play the more conservative approach thus far but he recognizes king queen a couple of tier two blockers the king and the queen very worthwhile against players opening very wide now question is what's welcome Inferno going to do he's got that suited Ace he's getting a decent price three to one on a call also has the option to four bet All In and get all the three by blocks to fold and even when he does run into a hand he's got that 30 of the time it works every time um and yeah Mom's with default welcome Inferno doing a great job working the big stack obviously it's easy when you're picking up big hands and your opponents are shoving with worse but also he's he's making the use making the most of the spots where he doesn't have those top tier premium hands and still making great adjustments a spot where we will see a three-bat a committing three bet from welcome Inferno all in and I Dairy poker with sevens here kind of a tough spot he is the shortest stack Seven's off 20 blinds we know welcome Inferno is going wide I wouldn't be surprised if we see a call but it is very close it's about to be very interested to see what the icmiser looks like on this Dairy poker thinking it through again fifth place 325 thousand dollars fourth place 445 000 big pay jump here if Dairy poker calls and wins though they'll go from being the short stack to being in third place which is greatly increasing their equity in the tournaments Dairy poker does decide to fold it's always a really tough spot when you have those medium pairs there your opponent may be shoving somewhere's Paris but isn't necessarily doing all them and if even if Malcolm Inferno is doing all the pairs about half the time he has worse pairs Deuces threes fours five sixes and then even more the time he has better pairs eights nines tens Jacks Queens Kings Aces so seven better pairs versus five worst pairs then we're flipping against most of the rest of the range the hands that we do have dominated would be those pseudidases Ace two suited Ace three sudodays four Studios five suited but they don't comprise all that much of the range when you really think about the combinations all right here with Queen 10 I think we'd see Dairy poker defend here I think just flatting makes the most sense take a flop uh often a good play to make with these Broadways see if you can flop top pair or some kind of strong draw over cards in a gut shot or an open Ender before committing any more chips and on boards like this where really just whiff completely other than"}
{"text":"always meant you can try hands that are more speculative. In terms of playing after the flop, you are the last decision maker at the table. If the flop is checked to you, then you have the option of getting a free card, juicing the pot, or raising to bluff\/semi-bluff. One of the best parts of being last to act is that you always get the option to call or fold after all the cards are out. This is like being the home team in baseball but the advantage is that you can save a bet or have last say in the betting. For example \u2013 heads up, player one bets into the flop and you call, player one checks the Turn, you have the option of checking for a free card or betting to win the hand right there. By checking, you save a bet on the River if you do not improve and your opponent makes a large bet thus saving you a bet. Your opponents mistake, if he had a hand or not was giving away the initiative to you. Being first to act gives the player first rite to bluff. If this is heads up it can be a powerful tool. It becomes less powerful if the opponent with position calls, or re-raises you. By calling, you are guessing what his hand may be, by re-raising the player with position is trying to take away the initiative. First rite to bluff should not be given away heads up. In multi-way pots, being in early position is the worst place to be. You do not want to bluff more than two opponents. If you do flop a hand or improve, check raising is the correct strategy if you are at an aggressive table with many loose players. If player A, out of position, in No Limit bets one bet on the Flop, player B can look at this as being weak or player A is trying to trap them. By using your chips as a weapon for information, player B can reraise, smooth call, or fold. If player A has no hand, they are betting that player B also did get no help on the flop. The reason player B can think this is a sign of weakness is because if player A had a average hand, say Top Pair, they would want to protect it with a larger bet. Hence, player A\u2019s bet is playing at the level of thinking: what does my opponent think I have. If player B reraises he is playing at the level of, what does my opponent think I think he has. You and your opponents define certain hands through betting patterns. By noticing what actions different players take in different situations, on different streets, with different hands you can take advantage of the different levels of thinking. Poker players consider this the \u201cline\u201d of thinking. Here is an example of the deep level of thinking with pocket 10\u2019s in a limit Hold\u2019em game. When you have 10\u2019s and the flop misses you"}
{"text":"Villain is squeezing very wide indeed. As it stands Villain is unknown so we lack this read. Finally, it's probably fine to flat the best suited broadways like AQs, AJs and KQs but only just. While these hands do suffer from some domination they also flop many more options for floating and semi-bluffing post-flop. Hero's calling range looks like this. Figure 70 - A Defence Range for Hand 105"}
{"text":"Hand Range 134: UTG+1 40bb \u2022 Raise 2x 17.6% \/ \u2022 Fold 82.4%"}
{"text":"The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"so in general as a default you're going to want to raise to three big blinds when you have more than a 50 big blind stack and you're going to raise to about 2.5 big blinds when you have fewer than 50 big blinds in your stack okay so now let's take a look at which hands to play from all of the positions one thing you will definitely recognize very clearly here is that you get to play more hands when you are in the later positions and that's because when you are what's referred to as in position when you are in the later positions you have more information about what is going on in the pot and also there are fewer players yet to act who can just be randomly dealt a premium hand position is very very powerful and we will be discussing it thoroughly throughout this course so from under the gun in this scenario you should raise with these hands in red and fold everything else right nothing fancy you see that you're just playing the absolute best hands from under the gun you're playing a pair of sixes and better so aces to sixes you're playing ace three suited and better which means ace king suited to ace three suited a shack off suit and better king nine suited and better king queen off suit queen nine suited and better jack 10 suited and 10 9 suited and that's it i know a mistake that i had when i first started playing poker is i thought any ace was good if i was dealt ace four off suit i would play it from every position because the ace is the best card why wouldn't i right well it turns out you're gonna run into problems where you have kicker trouble you're gonna have a pair of aces with a four kicker and your opponent's gonna have a pair of aces with a jack kicker and you're gonna lose so realize that all of these weak aces are not played notice even a hand like king jack off suit is not played or jack 10 off suit or pocket fours or eight seven off suit these are hands a lot of people think are good because they have high cards they can make a straight or they're a pair but it turns out they have a very difficult time playing after the flop because they just make kind of junky hands and you don't want to have junky hands you want to have good hands especially when you have the worst position and under the gun is the worst position so from the early positions you'll see all of them under the gun under the gun plus one under the gun plus two you're actually playing a pretty tight strategy you're not playing all that many hands all right going on around to under the gun plus two interestingly enough you see nine seven suited and eight seven suited are not played but seven six suited"}
{"text":"Model (ICM) shows us the real money implications of tournament chip decisions.\u2026 The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments In poker, a PKO (Progressive Knockout) tournament is a type of tournament where a portion\u2026 How To Analyze Turn Textures In Poker Master the art of turn analysis in poker. Understand how the turn card changes the\u2026 Principles of Turn Strategy Learn the principles of turn strategy in poker and discover what makes the turn unique.\u2026 Poker Strategies: Tournaments vs. Cash Games Tournament poker is not as different from cash game poker as people sometimes assume. Most\u2026 How Solvers Work A Game Theory Optimal solver is an algorithm that calculates the best possible poker strategy.\u2026 The Most Powerful Play in Poker The central strategic implication of stack depth is the question of how much equity a\u2026 When does ICM become significant in MTTs? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) was invented in 1987 by M. Malmuth and is one\u2026 How to Study GTO Solutions Tools like GTO Wizard and other solvers should not be used to memorize specific strategies.\u2026 Principles of GTO Game theory, or GTO (for Game Theoretically Optimal), is best understood not as a rigid\u2026 Interpreting Equity Distributions GTO Wizard\u2019s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which\u2026 What is Leverage in poker? Leverage refers to the risk of future betting. When you call a bet on the\u2026 Reasons for value betting in poker You\u2019re probably accustomed to thinking of bets as either value or bluff. In this taxonomy,\u2026 The Science of Poker Performance Poker is a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment\u2026 What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets\u2026 Pot Geometry \u201cPot Geometry\u201d refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible \u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that"}
{"text":"While QQ and AK may not be hugely +EV to 3-bet and shove over a 4-bet in a vacuum, Hero needs to make sure that his 3-bet value range doesn't shrink to the point where his bluffs make up a ridiculously large proportion of his overall 3-bet range; he therefore needs to flesh his range out with as many value combos as possible. Moreover, Villain is a reasonable looking Reg and doesn't appear to be overly tight. Hero should therefore assume that Villain does have some kind of 4-bet bluffing range and that hands like QQ and AK will be +EV shoves due to fold equity and pot equity when called combined. Recall from Chapter 9 that these hands will always have reasonable equity even vs. fairly tight 4-bet\/call ranges. So that's the value range defined and it weighs in as 34 combos. It's worth remembering that the common tight 3-bet value model of [QQ+ AK] is always 34 combos or 2.5% of hands (34\/1326 possible combos). The Calling Range (Blue) Now Hero selects his calling hands. The ones in blue in Figure 53 are callable for the reasons mentioned in Chapter 6. Please go back and refarmiliarise yourself with these reasons, if it's at all unclear why we might flat any of these hands. Only when Hero has chosen his calling hands in the polar model is he ready to select his bluffs. Remember that these bluffs cannot come from the batch of hands he's happy to flat the open with - to do so would be a waste of combos and would equate to Hero having to fold more weaker hands since he'd have filled his bluff allowance with stronger callable ones. The next question is: what bluff to value ratio should Hero be using? As always in a polar model, Hero wants a 3-bet bluffing range, but as Villain seems quite balanced in how he reacts to 3-bets, Hero doesn't want to be unbalanced himself and provide an obviously large leak of his own for no good reason. Let's work out what an optimal balanced strategy would look like for Hero. This will be our polar starting point. The more exploitative, bluff-heavy strategies we'll use vs. future Villains who fold more than this guy does will branch off from here. A balanced 3-bet strategy should achieve the following aims: Villain will be indifferent to 4-bet bluffing. That's to say taking a 4-bet\/fold line as a bluff is 0EV for Villain. Villain would not have a profitable option in either over or underfolding to Hero's 3-bet. Calling mediocre hands will be roughly 0EV . Okay, assuming for now that we are not deploying a flatting range against 4-bets, Hero wants to shove enough of his 3-bet range to cause Villain to break even on a 4-bet\/fold bluff. 4-bet bluffing would become 0EV for Villain and this would require that he gets exactly his RFE on a 4-bet bluff and no more or less. Remember that the EV of a pure bluff that realises no equity will be wholly determined by"}
{"text":"do it.\u201d And then you recognize the meaning of your own words. It really doesn\u2019t matter, because saving a little from each loss\u2014even a big loss\u2014is just as important as adding to a win. It\u2019s not almost the same money or theoretically the same money, but exactly the same money. And once you realize the truth of this, you will always play poker with the same amount of care, whether you\u2019re winning or losing. It always matters equally. TIP 3 In order to be successful at poker, you must understand this. Always make your decision about whether to call, fold, check, or raise in accordance with how much money is in the pot, weighed against what it will cost you to wager. That decision should be the same whether the pot is provided as a promotion by the casino or you somehow put the entire sum in yourself. 70 Once you put money in the pot, it\u2019s up for grabs and is no longer yours, any more than it is anyone else\u2019s. For that reason, you should never consider how much you personally have invested in a pot in evaluating a poker decision. The same concept governs your everyday life. Let\u2019s suppose you fancy yourself a world-renowned collector of antique radiator caps, as many of us dreamed of being when we were kids. Two years ago you were able to acquire a radiator cap signed by Edward Jones Miscellania, a respected local automobile mechanic, for $300,000. Two years later, an appraisal places the true value at a disappointing $75,000. Then a fellow collector offers you $150,000. Okay, now you have a choice. You can say, \u201cDon\u2019t be ridiculous! I already have $300,000 invested in this radiator cap.\u201d Or you can correctly reason: What I personally have invested doesn\u2019t matter. The only thing I should consider is whether the $150,000 is a good price for my radiator cap. If you opt for the second choice and pocket the $150,000, you\u2019ve learned a key secret in life and poker: What you personally have invested never matters. TIP 4 Years ago a reporter asked me, \u201cWhat\u2019s the main objective in poker\u2014except, of course, winning pots.\u201d Well, I had to explain to him that winning pots isn\u2019t an objective in poker, at all. You shouldn\u2019t even care whether you win a pot. You should only care about making the correct decisions. Making quality decisions is the only thing you get paid for in poker. In fact, it\u2019s easy to become the grand champion of winning pots. All you need to do is call and raise your way toward the showdown every chance you get. If you don\u2019t pick up the pot early, every hand that could possibly have gotten lucky enough to win, will win that final showdown. Many of these will be hands with long-shot, unprofitable chances that you stubbornly continued to play against the odds. If you\u2019d thrown all of them away, you would have saved a lot of money, but you wouldn\u2019t have won any extra pots. If you don\u2019t throw any hands"}
{"text":"THE CONCEPTS 174 by making a smaller raise, one that\u2019s more likely to get called. So if you make the big all-in play, some opponents will be smart enough to realize that you almost certainly have ace-king. Such players may call your big raise with small pocket pairs, knowing that, despite the big bet, they must be the favorite. If you think you may be against players who would reason that way, you might also want to make the big all-in play occasionally with a big pocket pair. The optimal balancing strategy is complicated, but a simple approximation such as moving in half the time with pocket kings should su\ufb03ce. (Pocket aces would work also, but moving in frequently with them might \u201cwaste\u201d your aces too often, sacri\ufb01cing more in value than you gain in balancing for the ace-king raises. At least with kings your move in prevents the not unlikely scenario that an ace beats you.) Concept No. 23: It\u2019s ok to limp in, planning to fold to a raise. It\u2019s sometimes ok even when you think a raise is likely. For those familiar with limit hold \u2019em, you may abhor the idea of limping in, then folding to a raise. That\u2019s because in limit, it\u2019s virtually never a good play. In no limit, however, it can be just \ufb01ne to limp, planning to fold to a decent- sized raise. Typically you\u2019d do this with a weak pre\ufb02op hand that has a chance to win a big pot, but that won\u2019t get the right implied odds to play for a bigger pre\ufb02op bet. For instance, you\u2019re playing $1\u2013$2 with a $500 stack. A loose, bad player limps with $300 limps in middle position. You have 8\u26637\u2660one o\ufb00the button and limp. The button, a decent player with a $60 stack, raises to $10. The bad player folds. You should fold as well. Even though your hand was weak, with position against a bad player it certainly expected to show a pro\ufb01t. So it was worth a limp. But when the good player made it $8 more with the button, and only $50 more behind, and the bad player folded, you no longer had the implied odds to play. Both your limp and your fold were correct. Indeed, sometimes you should limp-fold even when a raise is likely. Say your loose opponent is bad enough that you expect your $2 limp to turn into an average of $6 if you get to see the \ufb02op unraised. You\u2019d be right to limp even if you expected someone to raise 60 percent of the time. You\u2019d lose your $2 investment 60 percent of the time, but you\u2019d win $4 forty percent, so your total expectation would be $0.40. $0.40 = (0.60)(\u2212$2) + (0.40)($4) Deep stack no limit against bad players can a\ufb00ord some extremely high implied odds situations. Don\u2019t make hasty decisions without weighing both the pros and the cons. Sometimes it\u2019s worth risking a likely small loss to take a shot at an unlikely big win. There\u2019s another important reason to limp-fold sometimes that"}
{"text":"to when they flop pairs they can't fold so bat big now in that hand you saw they can't fold damn near anything he called us probably with very little but you see they can't even fold that so we didn't bet big but we bet something we always got to be trying to get value from these players because they can't fold now let's go over the five exploits real quick that we discussed in this video so you can just you can just look at this write it down and be good to go before you go to your session remember you got to try to apply everything we discuss in these videos you can't learn to swim by reading a book you got to get in there and fight it out yourself and learn so limp jam 2030 x more from the small blood you get to do that a lot in micro stakes events because people just want to gamble they just want to raise they just want to fire and also jam on that note jam 14 to 22 xx more with big hands these players love to gamble give them that opportunity to go bust let them get it in all right i want to go watch netflix with the family great i'll shove my 19x with the queens you can call with your ace 8 suited or your jack 7 diamonds or whatever it is and we'll run it and if you beat me good luck to you sir or ma'am raise weeks small donk leads frequently also i see too many of you guys just call all the time versus these doc leads but you got to understand when micros stakes players do that they're likely bluffs they are testing the water they're seeing what happens they got a really crappy pair that they want to quote find out where they're at with end quote or they just got nothing and they're hoping this will get you to give them some cheap cards or just fold because you're playing too many tables do not give into it now when they flop pairs they can't fold so bet big we discuss that extensively especially on boards where it's very coordinated and it's unlikely anyone's just going to be calling you with a bare high card if they got a pair they're not folding regardless of what you put out there because it's all funny money to them it's a very low buying it's fun so bet big and again guys when loose passive players start bombing the pot get the hell out of there they most likely have it alright guys that's my time for today i hope you enjoyed this one take care i'll see you for the next one of these oh and one more thing to contact me about private coaching please email alex at pokerheadrush.com thank you again"}
{"text":"the low-sitted Aces and things like that um then we hit apply and then evaluate and then this tells you whether you can make a profitable call based on the range of hands that the that your opponent is shoving so you can see that 10 nine of Hearts has 38 Equity over the 62 Equity that the small blind range consists of so then you know that you ha you know that you should probably be folding this spot um I probably could have started you guys off with a more basic way to play around with this so if that was a little too complicated um what you can also do is just start by playing with hands versus other hands not necessarily hand ranges so say you are in the cut off and you have is King hit Ace King and then your opponent has pocket tens you enter that and then you hit evaluate and then you can see that it's we call this a coin flip this is like roughly a 50 50 shot um so you can just kind of play around with that and see how your hand matches up to other hands and this is just a good way for you to understand you know kind of the value of hands and and you know when you should be making profitable calls and Folds okay now let's talk about the you know topic that is so so important but people just don't want to spend too much time studying and learning uh and that's bankroll management it's so important so bankroll management is basically just making sure you don't go broke and as a you know I mean it's obviously more than that but as a poker player a lot of poker players you know play Above their bankrolls and they will you know bust their roles and then they'll you know not have any any money to play with so there's a you know there's formulas that you can make sure that you are you know not letting this happening uh so proper bankroll management is crucial to your success as a poker player it's very true the general rule and this is not a set in stone rule but you should have at least 30 buy-ins of any stake that you play so if your average by if your average steak is one two and your average buy-in is a hundred big blinds so that would be 200 and just you know for the cash game players out there please please please always make sure that you're playing with at least 100 big blinds um when you sit down because the more chips you have the more playability you have and the less chips you have if you have under 100 big blinds then your session is going to be higher variants meaning it's going to be more of a Gamble and you're not gonna you know you kind of have to rely a little bit more on luck whereas if you"}
{"text":"players\u2019 actions: \u2666 Chip Expected Value (cEV): The average number of chips you can expect as the result of an action. \u2666 Monetary Expected Value ($EV): The average amount of money you can expect as the result of an action, based on your current prize pool equity. In cash games, cEV and $EV are the same (ignoring rake); however, in MTTs, the player\u2019s decisions should always be based on $EV. Let\u2019s see a practical example using Holdem Resources Calculator (HRC) to calculate cEV and ICM push\/fold equilibrium strategies with 50\/100 blinds. Table 38: ICM Dictates Tight Pushing In Table 38 we can see how the CO, BN and SB are forced to play really tightly because of the money bubble. Many hands that are profitable cEV shoves are -$EV shoves, so they can no longer be pushed. Table 39: ICM Dictates Wide Pushing In Table 39 the BB and the BN stacks have been switched and now the BN can take advantage of his big stack and push any two cards as the blinds are forced to call off really tightly due to ICM."}
{"text":"used about 250,000 core hours and 2 TB of RAM to compute its strategy. When playing, it plays according to this gigantic pre-computed solution and maps its opponent\u2019s observed action and bet size to one or more nearby bet sizes within its abstraction. GTO Wizard AI Using the latest advances in game theory and artificial intelligence, they developed GTO Wizard AI (formally known as Ruse), a general approach poker agent that converges to a Nash equilibrium, reaching superhuman-level performance. Contrary to Slumbot and traditional poker bots, GTO Wizard AI does not compute and store a complete strategy prior to play. Instead, through deep reinforcement learning , it considers each particular situation as it arises during play and solves it in real-time, in a matter of seconds . Much like any poker player, GTO Wizard AI\u2019s poker knowledge and intuition needed to be trained, which it accomplished by playing hundreds of millions of hands against successively better versions of itself without any human intervention. Starting from random play and throughout its matches, GTO Wizard AI gradually learned which plays lead to the highest expected value. GTO Wizard AI learned the optimal strategy for various game depths by encountering a wide range of scenarios, making it a general approach poker agent capable of solving games of any stack size. Thanks to its use of neural networks, GTO Wizard AI is able to process all relevant information in just a few seconds, translating to a blazing fast acting time. Results To mitigate the effect of variance, GTO Wizard AI played 150,000 hands against Slumbot while adhering to the Annual Computer Poker Competition rules. These rules restrict average acting time to 7 seconds per hand and reset the stack size to 200BB after each hand. Despite being a general approach poker bot designed to solve games of any stack size, GTO Wizard AI achieved the best win rate ever recorded against Slumbot in its format of expertise, an astounding 19.4BB\/100, while respecting ACPC\u2019s constraints. If the stakes of this match were $50\/$100 with 200 hands played per hour (a relatively standard rate when playing online across multiple tables), GTO Wizard AI would have won $19.4 per hand and about $3880\/hour. GTO Wizard AI\u2019s chips won against Slumbot Thanks to Slumbot\u2019s public access and open API, other researchers were also able to benchmark their poker agents against it. Head-to-head results of GTO Wizard AI and other expert-level bots against Slumbot: Head-to-head results against Slumbot \u00b1 one standard deviation. A reimplementation of DeepStack , a 2017 AI poker bot developed by the University of Alberta, which claimed victory over elite human HUNL players. Supremus , a top AI poker bot co-developed by the ex-high stakes poker player Bryan Pellegrino and used by the professional HUNL player Doug Polk, in preparation for his challenge against Daniel Negreanu. ReBeL , a general approach poker bot developed by Noam Brown et al. in 2020, which achieved superhuman performance in HUNL, while using less domain knowledge than previous poker AIs. A New Era in Training The poker technology industry is undergoing a"}
{"text":"game increases in comparison to the size of the ante, you must play tighter, because your risk of ruin goes down, demanding less gamble. This is transparently true when we look at these extreme situations. But it\u2019s no less true anywhere along the continuum and no less true for hold\u2019em, where the ante is usually collected in two specific spots, the small and big blinds, rather than spread through every hand. Now let\u2019s examine this ante-to-game-size ratio again, this time using blinds, though instead of changing the size of the blind, we\u2019ll change the size of the game. If you\u2019re in a game with $1 and $2 blinds and the average pot size is $200, you should play completely tight; the size of the game is huge incomparison to the size of the blinds. You\u2019re only risking $3 a round to win a pot that will be a monster. Conversely, if you\u2019re in a $1 and $2 game and the average pot size is only $20, now the size of the game is quite small in comparison to the size of the blinds, which means you have to play loose (or quit the game if you\u2019re not at a tournament table). You have to play more hands and win more pots just to stay ahead of the blinds and you can only replenish your stack with small pots, because that\u2019s all there are. So you have to gamble a lot more. In the first case, the risk of ruin is quite low and the ratio of the game size to the blinds is quite high. In the second case, the risk of ruin is quitehigh and the ratio of the size of the game size to the size of the blinds is quite low. So there you have it. You play tight in a loose game, not because the poker aphorism tells you to, but because a loose game means bigger pots, bigger pots mean less risk of ruin, and less risk of ruin means you can afford to be more patient, mathematically. You play loose in a tight game, again not just because the axiom says so, but because tighter games have smaller pots, so you need to be more active to avoid getting gobbled upby the blinds. Mathematically, you can\u2019t afford just to sit around and wait if the game is small. What makes a game big? That\u2019s right, a lot of people putting in a lot of money. And what kind of game is that? Exactly: loose, with multi-way pots and people playing hands till the river. So in loose multi-way action games, the math says play tight. In tight games, where the pots are tiny, the math says play loose. Put a pin in that and let\u2019s move on to game theory. Present Equity and Future Equity Now we have our relative looseness pegged to the sliding scale of risk of ruin. Next we\u2019re going to examine two aspects of bluffing called present equity and future equity. Taken together with our risk of ruin, this gives you guidelines"}
{"text":"average, 38.26% of the time against a flop min-bet, looking to x\/r 18% and x\/c 43%. Table 123: BB Strategy Breakdown vs UTG Min-bet on Q\u2665J\u2665T\u2665 \u2666 The straight flush makes only a tiny portion of the BB\u2019s range but, when having it, the BB\u2019s EV is more than 3x the size of the pot! On this flop, if the BB has a straight flush it is very unlikely for UTG to also have a flush as most of the possible hands that could make a flush are blocked by the board and Hero\u2019s hand. For this reason, Hero will mostly slowplay the nuts. In the event that IP has an A-high flush or the A\u2665, the money will go all-in most of the time regardless of how the BB plays their hand, so it makes sense for the BB to let IP do most of the betting. \u2666 Flush combos get x\/r most of the time. A-high and K-high flushes get x\/r about 1\/3 of the time, reverse linearly with the highest kickers being x\/r less often than the low kicker. For example, A9s never gets x\/r, A5s gets x\/r 57% and A2s gets x\/r about 88% of the time. Lower flush combos are x\/r about 88% of the time."}
{"text":"From the BB In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also\u2026 Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach\u2026 Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon\u2026 Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to\u2026 Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked Playing out of position is tricky, but it\u2019s an essential part of tournament play. With\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the BB in MTTs Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB\u2019s equilibrium strategy\u2026 The Absurd Game Theory of Chopped Boards A \u201cchopped board\u201d in poker is one where the community cards make up the best\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs MTT confrontations between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations,\u2026 The Art of Learning Poker In his book The Art of Learning, chess and Push Hands champion Josh Waitzkin describes\u2026 Is Donk Betting for Donkeys? \u201cDonk betting\u201d, or betting from out of position into the player who was the aggressor\u2026 Delayed C-Betting This is a companion piece to Probe Betting. It stands on its own, but understanding\u2026 Probe Betting As far as rules of thumb go in poker, \u201ccheck to the raiser\u201d is a\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Big Blind This is a companion piece to this article on the SB\u2019s strategy for blind vs\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Small Blind ICM incentivizes more conservative play, which means that at stages of the tournament where risk\u2026 The Initial Bettor\u2019s Advantage The mathematics of poker holds a little-known secret: the first bettor enjoys better bluffing odds\u2026 Mastering the Chiplead: The Scalpel and the Sledgehammer When you have a lot of chips at a final table or in another situation\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in Cash Games Our never-ending quest for money and fame leads us to the flop. We open the\u2026 How ICM Impacts Restealing From The Blinds When I first started working with preflop solves, one of the features I found most\u2026 The ICM Benefits of Late Registration in Poker Tournaments Why do so many professional poker players register late for tournaments when they clearly would\u2026 Flop Heuristics: OOP C-Betting in MTTs Playing against an in-position cold-caller is dramatically different\u2013and dramatically more difficult\u2013than playing against a caller\u2026 Counterintuitive Calls Solver outputs such as those provided by GTO Wizard are models of no-limit hold \u2018em,\u2026 How To Negotiate Final Table Deals Most people\u2019s first introduction to the Independent Chip Model (ICM) is not from studying bubble\u2026 How does ICM impact PKO strategy? If you have read The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments you already know why we\u2026 Understanding Blockers in Poker Often when looking through a solver\u2019s meticulously crafted grid of deception, one of the following\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP Cold-Caller in MTTs A Cold-call refers to the act of calling"}
{"text":"implications of tournament chip decisions.\u2026 The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments In poker, a PKO (Progressive Knockout) tournament is a type of tournament where a portion\u2026 How To Analyze Turn Textures In Poker Master the art of turn analysis in poker. Understand how the turn card changes the\u2026 Principles of Turn Strategy Learn the principles of turn strategy in poker and discover what makes the turn unique.\u2026 Poker Strategies: Tournaments vs. Cash Games Tournament poker is not as different from cash game poker as people sometimes assume. Most\u2026 How Solvers Work A Game Theory Optimal solver is an algorithm that calculates the best possible poker strategy.\u2026 The Most Powerful Play in Poker The central strategic implication of stack depth is the question of how much equity a\u2026 When does ICM become significant in MTTs? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) was invented in 1987 by M. Malmuth and is one\u2026 How to Study GTO Solutions Tools like GTO Wizard and other solvers should not be used to memorize specific strategies.\u2026 Principles of GTO Game theory, or GTO (for Game Theoretically Optimal), is best understood not as a rigid\u2026 Interpreting Equity Distributions GTO Wizard\u2019s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which\u2026 What is Leverage in poker? Leverage refers to the risk of future betting. When you call a bet on the\u2026 Reasons for value betting in poker You\u2019re probably accustomed to thinking of bets as either value or bluff. In this taxonomy,\u2026 The Science of Poker Performance Poker is a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment\u2026 What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets\u2026 Pot Geometry \u201cPot Geometry\u201d refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible \u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in"}
{"text":"Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection,"}
{"text":"field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the\u2026 Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get\u2026 Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being\u2026 Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of 400K\/800K\/800K,\u2026 Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?\u2026 Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of Canadian programmers from Quebec, developed\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Explained We are excited to introduce GTO Wizard AI, formerly known as Ruse, the world\u2019s best\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Benchmarks GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional solving methods to bring\u2026 Table Management in PKOs Perhaps the most important strategic consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs) is making sure you\u2026 Overcalling From the BB In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also\u2026 Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach\u2026 Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon\u2026 Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to\u2026 Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked Playing out of position is tricky, but it\u2019s an essential part of tournament play. With\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the BB in MTTs Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB\u2019s equilibrium strategy\u2026 The Absurd Game Theory of Chopped Boards A \u201cchopped board\u201d in poker is one where the community cards make up the best\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs MTT confrontations between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations,\u2026 The Art of Learning Poker In his book The Art of Learning, chess and Push Hands champion Josh Waitzkin describes\u2026 Is Donk Betting for Donkeys? \u201cDonk betting\u201d, or betting from out of position into the player who was the aggressor\u2026 Delayed C-Betting This is a companion piece to Probe Betting. It stands"}
{"text":"The minimum bet-size that allows P1 to win the full pot is only 12.5% of the size of the pot. If P1 bets any smaller with their entire range, then P2 will have a profitable call (Table 157). Table 157: P1 Bet-sizing If P2 had more equity in the pot, P1\u2019s minimum bet-size would get bigger, and even if P2 was ahead of 40% of P1\u2019s range, P1 would still be able to win the entire pot by betting 2x the pot. If P1 has enough chips to force P2 to fold their entire range, then the EV of P1\u2019s bluff combos is the same as their value hands. In this example, if P1 bets 12.5% of the pot or more, the EV of AA is 100% of the pot and the EV of 44 is also 100% of the pot, while the EV of P2 is 0. If P1 has enough chips to make the minimum bet required to win the entire pot with their entire range, P2\u2019s equilibrium strategy is to always fold bluff-catchers no matter which bet-size P1 uses. P1 can always obtain an EV of the full pot by betting big enough with bluffs and there is nothing P2 can do to stop this. So, P1 could choose to use a large bet-size with all bluffs combined with the right ratio of value combos, so that they always win the full pot with that bet- size. With excess value hands, P1 could use any other bet-size they think P2 would call and achieve an even larger EV than the full pot. Any time P2 decides to call against any bet-size, P1 could manipulate their range advantageously. For this reason, the only strategy that is always the"}
{"text":"dealt pre-flop, each one equally as likely as the next. However, when we start lumping combos into the groups we commonly refer to as 'starting hands' such as KK, 32o or 45s, we see that these hands are not dealt at equal frequencies. How abundant the combos of a hand are is the measure of how easy it is to be dealt that hand. For every pocket pair in a player's range pre-flop he will have 6 combos, but for every unpaired hand he'll have 16. It's more than twice as easy to be dealt an unpaired hand than it is a pair. Say for example that some bizarre Villain in some bizarre poker universe had a BU opening range consisting of only AA and 72, he would only have AA just 6 \/ (6 + 16) = 27% of the time. This goes to show that the natural distribution of starting hands is uneven. Appreciating the ways in which they are unevenly dealt gives us a better feel for how likely a player is to have certain parts of his range, or how balanced or unbalanced Hero's own range is when it contains certain starting hands. We can use combos for two purposes: To put our opponents on ranges and decide what we should do against those ranges. To build our own ranges so that we can aim at the appropriate long-term strategy for the situation. We'll be using combos to build our own ranges in the next chapter on 3-betting. For now, let's take a look at some concrete examples of using combos to weight our opponents' ranges."}
{"text":"Double gutshot A straight draw where the player has two different gutshots. For example, a player with 56 on 793 has a \"double gutshot\" to a 4 or an 8. This is strategically as strong as an open-ended straight draw since both types of draws have 8 outs. Some people call double gutshots a \"double belly buster\"."}
{"text":"was outdrawn. However, the money you save by folding instead of calling adds to your winnings for the night or for the month. I actually derive pleasure from making a good fold even though I have lost the pot. Just remember that if the hands were reversed, your opponent would call you, and as we shall see when we discuss the Fundamental Theorem of Poker in the next chapter, this is one of your edges. You should be happy when it occurs. You should even derive satisfaction from a losing session when you know that other players would have lost much more with your cards. 14 Chapter Two Hourly Rate As suggested in the coin-flip example at the opening of this chapter, hourly rate is closely related to expectation, and it is a concept especially important to the professional player. When you go into a poker game, you should try to assess what you think you can earn per hour. For the most part you will have to base your assessment on your judgment and experience, but you can use certain mathematical guidelines. For instance, if you are playing draw lowball and you see three players calling $10 and then drawing two cards, which is a very bad play, you can say to yourself that each time they put in $10 they are losing an average of about $2. They are each doing it eight times an hour, which means those three players figure to lose about $48 an hour. You are one of four other players who are approximately equal, and therefore you four players figure to split up that $48 an hour, which gives you $12 an hour apiece. Your hourly rate in this instance is simply your share of the total hourly loss of the three bad players in the game. Of course, in most games you can't be that precise. Even in the example just given, other variables would affect your hourly rate. Additionally, when you are playing in a public card room or in some private games where the operator cuts the pot, you need to deduct either the house rake or the hourly seat charge. In Las Vegas card rooms the rake is usually 10 percent of each pot up to a maximum of $4 in the smaller seven-card stud games and 5 percent of each pot to a maximum of $3 in the larger seven-card stud games, in the Texas hold 'em games, and in most other games. In the long run a poker player's overall win is the sum of his mathematical expectations in individual situations. The more plays you make with a positive expectation, the bigger winner you stand to be. The more plays you make with a negative expectation, the bigger loser you stand to be. Therefore, you should almost always try to make the play that will maximize Expectation and Hourly Rate 15 your positive expectation or minimize your negative expectation in order to maximize your hourly rate. Once you have decided what your hourly rate is, you should realize that"}
{"text":"The difference here is that you probably won\u2019t be able to get away from your hand and you\u2019ll have to go ahead and lose a lot of money. The important point to remember about the trouble hands is when you do get a flop to them you don\u2019t want to get heavily involved. Just try to play the pot as cheaply as possible. A minor exception to the above rule is when you flop a straight, as would happen if you are holding Q-10 and the flop is K-J-9 or J-9-8, for example. However, even when you have the nuts, as in this case, there\u2019s a chance you could lose the pot. If a queen fell on fourth, with the K-J-9 flop, you could lose to an A-10. And with the J-9-8 flop, you could lose to a K-10. So, you\u2019re not completely safe with some of these hands even when you flop the nuts. For the most part, trouble hands, suited or offsuit, should be played the same way: slowly. However, trouble hands suited are much stronger hands than trouble hands offsuit, and if you flop a flush or a flush draw with a suited trouble hand, you can show some speed. For example, if you had the K? Q? and the flop was 10? 7? 2?, you\u2019d have a real big hand. Not only would you have a flush draw, but you\u2019d also have two overcards. Or, if you had the 9? 8? with the same flop, you\u2019d have a straight and a flush draw. Either situation would present a good opportunity to check-raise somebody if you were in an early position. If you were in a late position and somebody led into you, you could raise them. At that point, you\u2019re be back having two shots to pick up the pot. You might win it right there, or if you get called, you\u2019d have a good hand to fall back on. Trash Hands With the exception of an ace or a king with any suited card, I consider any hand I haven\u2019t already discussed to be a trash hand. I put A? 8? and K? 4? in the same category as the small connecting cards and I play them 407 approximately the same way. For example, if the flop was 9? 6? 2? and I had the A? 8?, I\u2019d have a flush draw and an overcard. If I was in the pot against two queens, I\u2019d be about even money to win it. So I\u2019d play my hand like I would if I had two small connecting cards that were suited, say the 9? 8?. That is, I\u2019d play it fast and try to win the pot on the flop, because once again, I\u2019d have two shots to win. But that\u2019s where I draw the line, with an ace or a king and another suited card. But when it comes to queens on down, if the two cards don\u2019t connect, I consider them trash hands\u2014even if they\u2019re suited, such as Q? 4? or J? 6?. Hands with non-connecting"}
{"text":"to lose most of the time. If you don\u2019t cut your losses on bad runouts, they will quickly overwhelm the value of the flop call. If the turn is the 8\u2666 , for example, you should just check 53 no diamond, and fold if your opponent bets. GTO Wizard recommends folding even to a 33% pot bet. Note that 53 with a diamond does not fold to this small bet. Especially with the 5 \u2666 , it\u2019s a good candidate for bluffing. It\u2019s even a candidate for donk betting this turn, though that\u2019s a rarely used line. If you fail to find this bluff with 5 \u2666 3 , you will not realize all the equity of your flop call. Bluffing the River Checking with the intention of folding does not mean \u201cgiving up\u201d because it is far from a guarantee your opponent will bet. GTO Wizard has the BTN checking this turn 56% of the time. That means if your opponent does bet, that\u2019s a significant new piece of information that strengthens their range and makes your own weak hands less appealing. Checking with the intention of folding does not mean \u201cgiving up\u201d. If your opponent does not bet the turn, that\u2019s your cue to think about bluffing. Even then, these are not especially high-value bluffs. On a Q\u2665 river, 53 without a diamond is indifferent to bluffing, and 53 with a diamond is a barely profitable bluff. That\u2019s because these are not your only bluffing candidates. That K\u2666 9 that was also a counterintuitive flop call is a more solidly profitable bluff, as it blocks more flushes and the rivered straight. Getting There Every once in a while, the stars align: your opponent checks behind the turn, and you drill that gutshot on the river. The final board is J \u2666 6 \u2666 2 \u2663 8 \u2666 4 \u2665 . There\u2019s 10.1bb in pot and 35.7 in the stacks. What\u2019s your play with 53 ? You\u2019ve got some options. GTO Wizard mixes between checking, betting small (hoping to induce a raise), and even shoving for 353% of the pot. It\u2019s not enough to make the straight; realizing the full EV of the flop call requires getting paid big when you do . If you check or block bet, it should be the intention of shoving over a bet or raise, not just calling for fear your opponent has a flush. It\u2019s not worth chasing if you don\u2019t appreciate the value of your hand when you hit it. Making a Pair Turning third pair may not seem like much, but it\u2019s actually a huge boon for the EV of your 53 . Facing the continuation bet on the flop, 53 without a diamond was worth about 1bb. Seeing the 3\u2665 turn quadruples its value to more than 4bb. The gutshot is a big contributing factor; 86 without a diamond is worth barely 2bb despite being a higher pair. A lot of the value of the flop call is wrapped up in the runouts where you make a weak pair. So, a"}
{"text":"the button should be shoving with roughly the same range as under the as the hijack should so we're going to call off with the same range here we have hijack versus button now we have to call slightly wider because the button is going to be shoving wider because they're against a wider range to begin with but even then notice I'm not calling off super duper wide basically six isn't better Ace in suited and better a stack offsuit and King Jack suited and better and that's it pretty tight range right and that's okay a lot of people raise with hands well like the GTO pre-flop raising range they end up folding out a decent amount of the time to the shove but that's okay it's okay to fold two shoves in this scenario because you're getting really bad odds all right what about versus a small blind shove now let's say under the gun raises small blind shoves back to us under the gun we call it off with just the best hands again because we're against the strong range hijack versus a small blind shove we have to call off wider right you see now something like fives and better Ace 10 off suit and better King Jack suited and better because we're against a wider range so as your opponent's range gets wider you have to call off with a wider range and we see button versus small blind We Now call off quite wide maybe not as wide as you think we should but quite wide with fours and better Ace five suited and better Ace laid off suit and better King Jack suit and better and king queen and then fold everything else it's okay to raise and then just get out of the way versus the big blind we're gonna see a similar strategy where we are just calling off with very good hands on it and go through and read all these feel free to pause the video if you want to look through them all but it's actually kind of similar to when we raise and the small blind shoves our calling ranges are not all that different the time it does get a little bit convoluted where you may have to call off slightly wide is when it is blind versus blind because this is one loose range against another loose range and that's going to force you to get it in there so let's take a look at small blind limp versus a big blind all in so we put in one big line we just call and then the big line shoves 25. we have to call it off with fours and better A5 student better A7 off suit and better and lots of Broadway hands feels a little dirty now look I would not be calling it off with these hands like Jack 10 off suit I'm not calling off for Jackson off super 25 blinds maybe that's a mistake maybe I've not wrapped my head around"}
{"text":"and it's enough so that only legitimate hands will stay. Ideally, you want to win the pot here, or go heads-up against a single opponent. You don't want to bet more than you have to, and objectively a bet of $150 ought to be enough to accomplish your goal. But online players aren't all that objective, and psychologically a bet of $200 seems much bigger than a bet of$150 or $180. Action: You actually bet only $150, and are called by Players C and E. The pot is now $520. Flop: A\u26667\u26632\u2663 Question: What's your play at this point? Answer: You don't like that an ace showed up, but you have to play. You showed strength before the flop, so you have to make a continuation bet, even though you now have two opponents. A continuation bet isn't as profitable against two opponents as against one, since you're hoping that both will fold, and that's less likely than the chance that a single opponent will give up. But it's still a good play in most cases. As against a single opponent, the right amount is about half the pot. If the pot is large in relation to the stacks, as here, a little less than half is perfectly all right. Here you should bet about $200. It's a way of letting your opponents know that the flop helped you, or at least you're all right with it. Of course you really want to win the pot right here. If someone raises you, you have to fold. Action: In fact, you check rather than bet. Player C bets $20 and Player E raises to $250. The pot now has $790 in it. This shows why you want to bet rather than wait. Did player E raise because he paired his ace, or did he raise because no one else had shown strength, and it was time to steal the pot? You don't know. Remember that poker is a game of information, and the more you don't know, the worse off you are. Here you've got to make a reasonable guess. There's an ace on the board, the card that would most have induced someone to call your pre-flop raise. One of your opponents says he has a pair of aces. Your position is bad. I'd cut my losses and get out now. Action: You fold. Player C calls. Fourth street is an 8\u2660, and there's another $250 bet by E and a call by C. The river is a 7\u2666, followed by check-check. Player E shows A\u26636\u2663, and loses to Player C's A\u26609\u2660. E called initially with A\u26636\u2663 (a dubious call) and then raised aggressively with a pair of aces plus a draw to the nut flush (reasonable). In the end, his low kicker cost him the hand and most of his chips. 137 Hand 6-6 Situation: Early in a one-table online tournament. Your hand: A\u2660Q\u2660 Action to you: Player A folds. Player B calls. Players C and D fold. The pot is now $75. Question: Do you call or raise, and if"}
{"text":"table, Q\u2663J\u2666 is not a powerhouse hand in early position. You might consider calling or even raising with it if the table has been unusually passive. Here you know that there are two aggressive players yet to act, and of course one of the other players may have picked up a real hand. You should just fold here. Action: Actually you decide to call. Player C folds and Player D calls. Player E and the small blind fold, and the big blind checks. The pot is now $210. You will act second after the flop, between the two aggressive players. Flop: K\u2660J\u26653\u2660 Action: The big blind checks. What do you do? Answer: Many players tighten their game when they find themselves in a pot with players who are known to push people around. It's a natural tendency, but you have to resist it and try to play good, percentage poker. Your real goal against players like that is to play fewer pots, but to play them more aggressively than usual. Here you've flopped middle pair, and there's no reason yet to think you're beaten. There is a flush draw on board, and you can't give anyone a free draw at a flush. Just bet half the pot and see what happens. Action: You in fact check, and Player D checks. The pot remains at $210. Fourth Street: 4\u2666 Action: The big blind checks again. What should you do? Answer: The four was a great card for you. There are no flushes or straights yet, and the four shouldn't have improved anyone's hand. Correct your mistake of last turn, and bet between onehalf and three-fourths of the pot. The fact that no one bet after the flop indicates that neither player has a king. They might be on drawing hands, or holding ace-small. One of the worst 34 mistakes you can make in poker is to give someone on a draw a free card to beat you. Make them draw against the odds. Action: You check, and Player D checks. The pot is still $210. Fifth Street: 6\u2660 Action: The big blind checks. Should you bet on the end? Answer: The flush card came, so now there's no reason to bet. If Player D has nothing he'll throw his hand away, and if he hit a flush he'll raise you. Just check and see if you have the best hand. Resolution: You bet $100, and Player D raised to $200. The big blind folded and you called. Player D had Q\u26602\u2660 for a flush. This hand shows one of the hidden strengths of very aggressive play. Because of the active players at the table, the player in your position was afraid to make his normal moves. As a result, he committed the cardinal sin of giving free cards to an opponent drawing at a flush, then compounded the error by betting on the end. Aggressive play puts a level of pressure on your opponents that conservative play does not, and that pressure can translate directly into chips won. Hand 2-6 Situation: Middle of"}
{"text":"let's discuss post-flop strategy now i realize that post-flop play is a big big big topic and it may be overwhelming so i have a lot of quizzes and challenges at pokercoaching.com for you to go through i highly suggest you go to the earliest homework challenge and work your way forward because we're going to be discussing in depth how to play well post flop there for now i'm going to give you some in-depth concepts that you must understand that we'll heavily dictate your post slot play with some examples and that will do a great job of getting you started so when you get to the flop you always want to essentially ask should i bet or should i check and if i do bet how much do i bet and these two ideas are determined by three main concepts and they are range advantage nut advantage and position so the idea of range advantage is you compare your entire range that you get to a specific betting round with to your opponent's entire range and then you ask which range connects better with the flop let me give you an example so let's say under the gun raises and the big blind calls go ahead take a second visualize the under the gun range and visualize the big blinds range go back and reference them maybe have them printed out on your wall or they're on your phone in this scenario under the gun is going to have a range that i've typed here in equilab this is a free program you can download search equal lab and it'll come right up there's a that's for windows for mac i believe there's a program called poker cruncher maybe check that out so i've entered the under the gun players range right here okay this is the range that under the gun raises with now i've also entered the range that the big blind calls with this big blind calling range may be tighter or looser depending on the big blind strategy right think about your opponent's range and adjust it accordingly so now what you do is you type the board right here in the flop ace of spades king of spades jack of hearts and you click evaluate and then equlab is going to run this situation you know 30 million times and tell you how often or how much equity each hand has in general the what this actually means is not all that important but what you want to ask yourself is which range is favored and in this scenario 65 out of 100 total percent is a situation that heavily favors the under the gun range so on ace king jack under the gun has a ton of equity however let's say the exact same scenario under the gun raises big blind calls but now the flop is seven of eight six of spades five of diamonds with the exact same ranges now it's closer to 50 50. okay and you can actually run"}
{"text":"Hand Range 299: CO 25bb (2x vs BB 3.25x 3-bet) \u2022 All-in 12.2% \/ \u2022 Call 49.6% \/ \u2022 Fold 38.2%"}
{"text":"Part II Concepts and Weapons 162"}
{"text":"This board is a different story. Villain's flop calling range could contain many small pairs and pair + gutshot hands as well as flush draws. That Jc on the turn improves a good amount of our flop air range to top pair. While Hero can have club\/club combos in abundance, Villain shouldn't be calling too many combos of these hands on the flop due to them not having any SDV . The upshot is that Hero should expect increased fold equity on any river that completes either flush or puts out a second overcard to the flop. Hero's air range is shrinking on a lot of run-outs and this puts pressures on Villain's range. Moreover, Villain can make it to the river with a lot of weak hands himself on this texture. He might have some unimproved A high flush draw that we need to bluff against with our air or some minnow pair to which there are now two or three overcards. Hero can use future fold equity to have a wider turn barreling range and take more combos of bluffs to the river, especially those with decent equity. This is not a texture where there will be lots of overcards to Villain's flop calling range, but it is a texture on which he'll be enticed to call a lot of one pair hands on the turn. Most of Villain's one pair hands now have some kind of gutshot or open-end straight draw to boost their equity. On bad river cards like a 9, Q or A, these hands become nutted, but on the majority of rivers these hands will go from pair + draw to just one pair on a pretty scary texture. On the previous board, Hero's fold equity improved on dangerous rivers. On this board it improves on safe rivers! Villain's range simply weakens a lot on blanks and so Hero should be more inclined to have a bluff heavier range on these river cards vs. the average Reg. Hero's own range doesn't contain too much air given how much of his pre-flop raising range contains a K, J or T or is now a straight. Hero can again predict that all of this will be the case on the turn and be inclined to barrel more semi-bluffs there in anticipation of river fold equity. Factor 4: Villain Type We've already made the distinction in this chapter between barreling turns vs. Regs and vs. Fish. Now I want to hone in on some different variations of these two broad player types and see what they mean for our turn barrel ranges. I'll provide some guidelines as to which stats and behaviours might help us to detect each player subtype and then discuss how we should exploit them with reference to barreling the turn."}
{"text":"a 9 on fifth street with the same results. One-Gappers The next subset of hands are the one-gappers: 5-6-8, 5-7-8, 4-5-7, 4-6-7, 3-4- 6, 3-5-6, 2-3-5, 2-4-5, A-3-4 and A-2-4. Except for the hands with an ace, you can catch four cards that will give you an open-end straight to go with your low draw. As with the no-gappers, eight cards will give you a gutshot. For instance: Example One You: 3-5 6 Player One: x-x 8 In this example, if Player One raised coming in, you would simply want to call. Granted, if you and your opponent are both going low, you have the best low draw. But if he has split eights or a buried overpair, you would be well behind in the hand. Also, regardless of his holecards, you can\u2019t even beat the 8-high. If you catch an ace, 2, 4, or 7 on fourth street, you\u2019ll want to raise Player One, regardless of what he catches\u2014the one possible exception being if you caught an ace and Player One breaks into open eights. If both you and your opponent catch bad, you should call. This is one of the rare situations in eight-or-better where you could consider calling, even if you catch bad and your opponent catches good. There are two reasons for this: (1) Obviously, your opponent can catch bad on fifth street while you catch good, making you the favorite to win the hand. (2) Even if he catches good again, you can still hit sixteen cards (an ace, 2, 4, or 7) to put you in good shape against his two most likely hands\u2014a made 8- low or a pair with an 8-low draw. If he has an overpair in the hole that aren\u2019t aces, you\u2019re in really good shape. If you hit bad again on fifth street, don\u2019t even consider calling, regardless of what he catches. 229 Two-Gappers and Double-Gappers The final subsets are the two-gapper and the double-gapper. Two-gappers and double-gappers are about the same in value. The double-gappers are: 8-7- 4, 8-5-4, 7-6-3, 7-4-3, 6-5-2, 6-3-2, 5-4-A, and 5-2-A. The two-gappers are 8- 6-4, 7-5-3, 6-4-2, and 5-3-A. These hands are fairly good, but the ones without an ace are still marginal. You should usually call one bet on third street with the marginal ones, but not two. Your strategy would change only if both opponents go high, or if one is high the other has an 8-up, and you have three cards smaller than the 8. The reason being: If you make your low, it will probably beat his 8-low. Also, although it is fairly difficult to make straights with these hands, it\u2019s not impossible. Both the two-gappers and double-gappers have twelve cards to catch to pick up a low draw and eight cards to pick up a gutshot straight draw to accompany the low draw. They need to develop early in the hand, especially in multiway pots. Say you have one of these hands in a multiway pot and you only catch the low draw without the straight. If it appears"}
{"text":"bet for value somewhat more often against these players, but your bet size would be \ufb01xed (and small relative to the pot size). And you\u2019d play many hands exactly the same way, whether your opponent was suspicious or not."}
{"text":"Michael Acevedo Michael Acevedo is a professional online tournament player, coach and leading poker theorist. In 2013 he quit his job as a financial analyst to pursue his dream of becoming a professional poker player. His background as a mathematician and expertise in process improvement helped him master the theoretical aspects of poker. He started playing online professionally in 2014 and has earnt over $1,500,000 in online tournament cashes."}
{"text":"get value for good hands, manipulate the pot size, semi-blu\ufb00, and 53Tournament no limit is di\ufb00erent. With short stacks and antes, blind stealing becomes the single most important reason to raise."}
{"text":"Walk When all players fold preflop, the hand is over and the Big Blind wins the small blind (and antes if there are any). The Big Blind is said to have received a walk."}
{"text":"this example, the worst offsuit Ace we open is AT o: AT o is also an unprofitable shove, but as an open we make 0.06BBs on average. Let\u2019s compare that with the hand that is just one \u2018pip\u2019 outside of the range, A9 o: If you played A9 o in this spot, then looked it up later and saw that it was an error, you might rationalize that you were \u2018close\u2019 and it wasn\u2019t a big deal. It is a big deal. Opening with A9 o costs us 0.08BBs. The difference between this and AT o is 0.14bbs. Getting the bottom of the range wrong by a single \u2018pip\u2019 is therefore quite costly. If you are an MTT player a 0.14bb error might not sound like much, but as cash game players know these errors compound over a large sample. This is a 14bb\/100 error long-term if you always made this mistake from this position. Small errors compound over a large sample and can cost you a lot more than you realize. Assuming UTG opens the correct range and action folds around to the Big Blind, this is the response: As you can see, the BB continues with more than half their range because they are getting a good price to call, and they get to close the action. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of Minimum Defence Frequency , this is a good jumping-off point. Take a seemingly weak hand like J6 s: The difference between calling and folding is quite significant. There is a 0.26 difference, which is greater than the difference we saw in the previous example where UTG opened with the wrong hand. Folding may seem the \u2018safe\u2019 option but you are burning money doing it, this is a 26 bb\/100 error. Let\u2019s go back a step and instead use an example where the responding player does not have blinds invested. Let\u2019s go back to the UTG open, but this time it is the HJ mulling over their response: The weakest offsuit Ace the HJ can call with is AJ o, which makes them 0.07bb. Interestingly, the first hand outside of the range is still an occasional continue. AT o is never called, but sometimes raises. This is because AT o does not play well against an UTG open, but does work as a bluff because it blocks the strong A x hands that make up a big portion of the range. It is a breakeven bluff, but loses the HJ 0.11bb as a call. The difference between calling with AJ o and AT o is 0.18bb. As you can see the differences between a correct call and a losing call, at the bottom of our range, is getting bigger. A bad call here, just one pip out, costs us 18 bb\/100 over a big sample. This also highlights that an error in the way that you continue can be significant. Some hands are profitable bets but not calls, some hands are profitable opens but not shoves, and vice versa. The EV outputs in GTO Wizard not"}
{"text":"qualities we value in a starting hand. As the hand scores less in these fields, it becomes a less desirable open and requires more favourable position and table conditions. We'll now focus on the six positions on the 6-max table and discuss what ranges we should open under different circumstances from each. When learning the proposed ranges, I suggest you connect each choice with these three attributes and remember what makes the hand good to open in the first place."}
{"text":"live it's of one big blind Annie and you should be making adjustments if you're playing with no antes such as in a cash game or if you're playing with no antes early in the tournament I think all tournaments just start with an e of T and we play 90% of the tournaments with an ante so we're not gonna bother looking at the two levels of the tournament we play without antes just make your adjustment adjustments and play tighter all ranges that I present are gonna be basic ranges you should always be making adjustments to these ranges whether it be being tighter or looser depending on the skill levels of your opponents and how tight they are how loose they are and then also we're gonna assume all ranges are all raises are a two and a half times the big blind open you're gonna be making a lot of adjustments whether it's a men race to 2 X 2.5 or 3 X and 2.5 x open is a kind of a middle ground to look at just too much material to cover if we look at all the different opening sizes so you just have to use your intuition and make the proper adjustments if you're facing a min raise you're obviously going to defend wider if you're facing a 3x you're obviously to defend much tighter some of the biggest mistakes that you see are people under defend their big blind facing a single razor so players are much too tight out of their big blind when they're facing a single razor you're getting a very good price to call and you should your closing the action so you should you can be calling with quite a few hands people do not 3bet enough from the big blind versus late position opens this is a very big mistake late position openers have very wide ranges and you need to be punishing them and getting good value from your good hands and pick it up pots preflop without having to go to the flop out of position is going to help improve your equity in tournaments to go along with that people are severely unbalanced in their three betting ranges from the big blind people only tend to the average player in a 300 hour live tournament is never three bet bluffing from the big line they only three bet like the strongest of hands like ace king and jacks or better and as you'll see in this webinar that is not the correct strategy and I will hopefully help you with that to get you a more balanced three betting range and it's gonna help you a lot because as I said the biggest mistake people make is they're unbalanced so players are used to playing against players with unbalanced three betting ranges so if you start three betting with these more balanced ranges you're gonna get a lot of equity because they're not used to seeing you three about hands that are Bluffs and then"}
{"text":"Cutoff PFI Strategy There are many drawbacks to implementing limping strategies when outside the blinds and the BN because there are more players left to act who can over-limp or even raise. Any potential EV gained by implementing a limping strategy will hardly be enough to compensate for overcomplicating the overall strategy. Furthermore, there are some limitations to what modern computers can do and adding limps for all players in a 9-max simulation exponentially increases the size of the game tree, which requires heavy use of abstractions and in turn produces inconsistent results. For all these reasons, I decided not to include limping strategies from the cutoff onwards and will focus on analyzing the raise\/fold strategy (which also is congruent with the play in modern games). As we see in Table 48, the total CO VPIP increases as stacks get deeper (similarly to the BN), from 31.4% at 10bb to 37.50% at 80bb for an average of 33.69% across all positions. At 10bb and below, the CO plays a push\/fold strategy and starts to incorporate min-raises at 12bb. The overall all-in frequency decreases as stacks get deeper, and sinks to 0% at 20bb. Table 48: CO GTO Action Frequencies by Stack Depth With 15bb, the CO all-in range contains high equity hands that are too good to raise-fold but"}
{"text":"BET-SIZING 37 Don\u2019t Take Away Their Rope In the \ufb01rst example of the section, you had A\u2661A\u2660on a Q\u26627\u26622\u26634\u2660board, the pot was $100, you and your opponent each had $400 behind, and your opponent was on a diamond \ufb02ush draw. Our conclusion was that you should have bet at least $40 because he was 3.9-to-1 to make his draw, so you should have o\ufb00ered him no better than 3.5-to-1 pot odds. Let\u2019s reconsider the same example, except now you hold Q\u2661Q\u2660. You have top set instead of an overpair, and the 4\u2662and 2\u2662make your opponent\u2019s \ufb02ush, but give you a full house. Your opponent now has seven outs instead of nine, so he\u2019s 5.3-to-1 to beat you (7\/44). By our earlier reasoning, you should o\ufb00er no better than 5-to-1 pot odds, so you should bet at least $25 (o\ufb00ering $125-to-$25). But our earlier reasoning doesn\u2019t hold anymore! Why not? Because if the 4\u2662or 2\u2662comes, not only do you not lose, but you stand to win your opponent\u2019s remaining $400 on the river. Let\u2019s compare two expectations: one where you make a big bet, forcing your opponent to fold, and another where you check, allowing him to draw for free. If you bet a lot, forcing your opponent to fold, you\u2019ll win the $100 pot every time. So your expectation is $100. If you check, then you win $100 whenever no diamond comes (35\/44), win nothing when a non-pairing diamond comes (7\/44), and win $500 ($100 plus $400) when the 4\u2662or 2\u2662comes (2\/44). Your expectation if you check is $102.28. $102.28 = (35 44 ) ($100) + ( 7 44 ) ($0) + ( 2 44 ) ($500) Because your opponent will occasionally make a second-best hand and get stacked, you\u2019d prefer that he draw for free than that he fold. The lower bound of your betting range isn\u2019t $25 \u2014 it\u2019s $0. Obviously, you\u2019d rather bet and have your opponent call than check. But you should bet an amount that you\u2019re fairly sure your opponent will call, even if that\u2019s less than $25 (although in this case it wouldn\u2019t be). If your opponent could catch his draw, but still be second-best, tend to bet an amount you\u2019re fairly sure he\u2019ll call. Don\u2019t miss a chance to stack him by blowing him out too early. Your Opponent Thinks He May Have the Best Hand In the preceding discussion we have been focusing on hands where your op- ponent thinks he has to improve to win. In those cases your bet is highly related to the number of \u201couts\u201d you think he has. But that is a minor consideration when you think he has a legitimate made hand that you can beat."}
{"text":"Diagram 8: CO Response to 3-bets"}
{"text":"free card; plus, your opponent will rate that as a safe card for himself as well, so if you check on the turn, he\u2019s more likely to fire a second barrel. Now let\u2019s look at a highly aggressive and creative opponent, the kind of guy who has been giving you fits at the table. Interestingly, this is one player you can lead into on the flop. To understand why, recall our discussion of how it looks when someone leads into us. What\u2019s that called? A weak lead. A bet from a hand that\u2019s afraid to take heat. At least that\u2019s how it looks to a savvy creative player. Being the confident Joe he is, he\u2019s likely to sense fear and come after it in one of two ways. Either he raises right there, certainly good for you, or he floats, calling in position to takethe pot away on the turn. So against the super-duper aggressive guy, you can lead out on the flop. If you get raised, re-raise. If you get flat-called, check on the turn and hope that this player completes his floaty bluff and hands you a big part of his stack. Now, you might be looking at your lead here, and since you know it\u2019s not a weak lead, you might be worried that your opponent will know it, too. Don\u2019t worry; be happy. First of all, most people don\u2019t get out of their heads enough even to think about what you\u2019re up to. Second, who bets out witha hand like top two pair or a set? Everyone goes for a check-raise there. Third, you\u2019re using this move only against your hyper-aggressiveopponent, who\u2019s most likely to read you as weak, to whom your bet is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. You don\u2019t lead into passive or normal players, because you\u2019re risking a fold and you don\u2019t want that, not with this hand. The super-aggressive opponent isn\u2019t going away, so again, whynot give him a chance to make a super-big mistake? It can get confusing trying to track who\u2019s passive, who\u2019s aggressive, who\u2019s tricky, who\u2019s straightforward, and so on, so here\u2019s the traffic, insummary form: If your opponent has been raising your flop bets a lot, bet. If your opponent has been floating you a lot, bet. In all other cases whenyou don\u2019t have the lead, check. Chapter 11 Monsters of the Multi-Way Big Hand, Multi-Way, In Position, With the Lead, Untextured Board In this chapter we talk about the play of huge hands on untextured boards in multi-way pots. We have the same board as before, A\u2663-9\u2666-3\u2665, and your hand is still either A9 or 99, on the logic that they\u2019re roughly equally huge flops with this board. Because the pot is multi-way, four-way in this example, the pot contains 2,000 chips. Let\u2019s set the stage. You\u2019re in position on the field with the lead. Maybe you raised a loose caller with your A9s and got called by him and the two blinds. Or maybe the action went limp, limp, limp, you raised with"}
{"text":"between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations,\u2026 The Art of Learning Poker In his book The Art of Learning, chess and Push Hands champion Josh Waitzkin describes\u2026 Is Donk Betting for Donkeys? \u201cDonk betting\u201d, or betting from out of position into the player who was the aggressor\u2026 Delayed C-Betting This is a companion piece to Probe Betting. It stands on its own, but understanding\u2026 Probe Betting As far as rules of thumb go in poker, \u201ccheck to the raiser\u201d is a\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Big Blind This is a companion piece to this article on the SB\u2019s strategy for blind vs\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Small Blind ICM incentivizes more conservative play, which means that at stages of the tournament where risk\u2026 The Initial Bettor\u2019s Advantage The mathematics of poker holds a little-known secret: the first bettor enjoys better bluffing odds\u2026 Mastering the Chiplead: The Scalpel and the Sledgehammer When you have a lot of chips at a final table or in another situation\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in Cash Games Our never-ending quest for money and fame leads us to the flop. We open the\u2026 How ICM Impacts Restealing From The Blinds When I first started working with preflop solves, one of the features I found most\u2026 The ICM Benefits of Late Registration in Poker Tournaments Why do so many professional poker players register late for tournaments when they clearly would\u2026 Flop Heuristics: OOP C-Betting in MTTs Playing against an in-position cold-caller is dramatically different\u2013and dramatically more difficult\u2013than playing against a caller\u2026 Counterintuitive Calls Solver outputs such as those provided by GTO Wizard are models of no-limit hold \u2018em,\u2026 How To Negotiate Final Table Deals Most people\u2019s first introduction to the Independent Chip Model (ICM) is not from studying bubble\u2026 How does ICM impact PKO strategy? If you have read The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments you already know why we\u2026 Understanding Blockers in Poker Often when looking through a solver\u2019s meticulously crafted grid of deception, one of the following\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP Cold-Caller in MTTs A Cold-call refers to the act of calling a preflop raise when you don\u2019t close\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in MTTs In the world of poker, the flop is a crucial stage of the game that\u2026 Flop Heuristics for Defending the Blinds in MTTs The field of Game Theoretically Optimal poker is extensive, and thus, to simplify our strategy,\u2026 Multiway strategy in Progressive Knockout Tournaments Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments are much more complex than traditional MTTs. The fact that players\u2026 How To Calculate Raises In Poker One of the most frequently asked questions in poker is how to calculate the size\u2026 Principles of River Play The river offers the least complicated strategy of any betting street. With no further cards\u2026 Exploitative Dynamics GTO solutions are designed to be unexploitable, performing reasonably well no matter how your opponents\u2026 How ICM Impacts Postflop Strategy Most players understand how the Independent Chip Model (ICM) in poker impacts their strategy preflop,\u2026 10 Tips for Multiway Pots in Poker While lots"}
{"text":"be at a disadvantage after the flop. Your goal is to make the best out of a bad situation. Our examples here are drawn from 25bb MTT scenarios with 50% of the field remaining . UTG opens to 2bb, UTG1 3-bets to 5bb, and the action folds back to UTG. This is a sweet spot where ICM is a factor, but UTG still has a calling range . With 25% of the field remaining, they respond almost exclusively by shoving or folding. The postflop strategies come from Custom Solutions using the 50% Field ICM ranges detailed above, but it\u2019s important to note that ICM is not a factor in the postflop simulation , as GTO Wizard AI does not currently support postflop ICM. If it did, we would likely see even more tight and aggressive play than these solutions suggest. UTG1\u2019s 3-betting range is extremely strong, consisting almost exclusively of the biggest broadway hands and pocket pairs: UTG\u2019s calling range is modest and capped Capped A range without many very strong hands, relative to the board. See uncapped. . It consists almost exclusively of hands that are not strong enough to shove, hands that call only because of the attractive (9.5:3) pot odds: Realizing and Denying Equity With such shallow stacks, there is very little room for deceptive play . When UTG has a big hand, they mostly just want to get it in preflop. The large pot (relative to the stack size behind) incentivizes hands as strong as KK and AK s to focus on denying 20-25% equity of UTG1\u2019s lighter 3-bets rather than trying to get even more money into the pot by calling. Even AA 4-bets more than it calls. The closest thing to traps are AQ s and KQ s, which can neither fold out dominating hands nor get called by anything they dominate . Realizing equity from OOP is always a challenge, which is the other reason UTG prefers to 4-bet even their best hands. To the extent there is any deception in their strategy, it lies in the interplay between their pocket pairs and suited broadway hands. When low cards flop, UTG will play the pairs strongly to compensate for the weakness of the whiffed broadways. When big cards flop, the pocket pairs are among their worst hands , and they will mostly bluff or fold them while playing their broadway cards strongly . The deception in UTG\u2019s calling range comes mainly from the interplay between their pocket pairs and suited broadway hands. UTG puts a premium on equity denial and realization after the flop as well, especially on more dynamic boards. When they flop a hand strong enough to play for stacks, they mostly check-raise it. Because of the very low SPR , this includes hands that could easily be dominated by UTG1\u2019s stronger range. Playing a capped range never feels good because there is no way to avoid paying off the top of your opponent\u2019s range. The only thing you can hope to achieve is limiting the profitability of the bottom of their range."}
{"text":"Hand Range 295: BN 25bb (2x vs BB 3-bet) \u2022 All-in 12.4% \/ \u2022 Call 45.4% \/ \u2022 Fold 42.2%"}
{"text":"Hand Range 274: CO 25bb (2x vs BB All-in) \u2022 Call All-in 31% \/ \u2022 Fold 69%"}
{"text":"pocket 9s, and got called by the planet. If that happened, obviously you\u2019re in a loose game. In any case, you\u2019re in the lead with position. If everyone checks to you, you bet, for reasons previously discussed. First, when you have the lead in position, people won\u2019t give your hand muchcredit when you bet; they assume you\u2019re continuation betting. Second, if someone has an AQ or JJ hand, you\u2019re giving him a free shot to hit his bingo card, the old infinity-to-1 odds. Third, though granted, a c-bet in a multi-way pot isn\u2019t automatic, to check behind three checkers is to tell aweird story and thereby tip your opponents that your hand might be big. But even if you\u2019re in a game where checking behind three checkers isn\u2019t unusual, you still want to bet your big hands to give cover to your small holdings that will nevertheless be profitable to play in position\u2014if you\u2019vegiven appropriate cover by betting your monsters, too. Want to know why it\u2019s super-bad to check behind here? Because one of your opponents might be sitting on AK or AQ and looking to checkraise. If you give him the chance to do that, you\u2019ve got him! If you don\u2019t give him the chance, he\u2019ll bet 1,000 into that 2,000-chip pot on the turn, you\u2019ll raise, and that\u2019s all you\u2019re likely to get. By checking behind on the flop, you give good aces a good chance to slither off the hook on the turn and whowants that? He does, maybe. Not you. Arraying your opponents in positions A, B, or C, we note that AK isn\u2019t likely to be in position C, because by the time it gets to him, he\u2019s so afraid he won\u2019t get in his check-raise that he\u2019s likely to bet. Therefore, if AK is out against you, it\u2019s in positionA or B\u2014the perfect spots for firing a checkraise into a multi-way pot. Not only that, but the check-raise is bound to be a big one, because the check-raiser has to worry about clearing out the three or two slackjawsbehind him. So ask yourself, which would you rather have? AnAK in early position check-raising you to 3,500 or 4,000 on the flop or anAK in early position leading 1,000 on the turn and folding to your raise? The question is rhetorical. And if it happens that players A, B, and C have nothing they\u2019re excited about and they fold to your bet, then you\u2019ve won no less than you would have won otherwise. Sure, you could check behind to let everyone catch up a little. But what if they catch up too much? Then you lose the pot and all your chips, and it\u2019s a disaster that you could have avoided by playing the hand the way it was meant to be played. If player C has something like JJ or QQ, he might read your button bet for noise and check-raise you here, especially if players A and B fold to your bet. Anyone inclined to bluff here would be in the same boat; they\u2019d misinterpret"}
{"text":"you don\u2019t risk giving off a free card and I\u2019d argue that a free card is extremely unlikely inthis situation. You\u2019re against three players, all of whom called a pre-flop raise. Now the board hits with an ace, a likely card for (at least) one of the three to be holding. So the player holding an ace will likely bet behind you to try to protect his hand. Any player with a flush draw would also bet his hand as a semi-bluff. And if everyone checks to the button, don\u2019t you think he\u2019ll take a stab at the pot? Sure. As it\u2019s unlikely that the pot will be checked around, the issue of the free-card giveaway goes away. And it turns out that checking gives you the most flexibility. By checking, you get to see any awaiting disasters behind you \u2026 for free. When youcheck and fireworks ensue, goodbye you at no additional charge. No nasty bluff, semi-bluff, or squeeze raises to worry about. Plus, by checking, you can back into some heads-up situations, too. For example, let\u2019s say you check, player B bets, and C and D fold. Now you\u2019re heads-up and can play accordingly, calling the bet on the flop, thenleading out when the flush draw doesn\u2019t complete on the turn. When the flush draw does complete on the turn, you\u2019d lead out if you don\u2019t hold the bigcard in suit to the board and check to check-raise if you do, as already discussed above. Likewise, if you check, B checks, C bets, and D folds, you can flat-call. Player B was either checking to fold or check-raise and you get to find out for cheap. Most of the time, B will fold, leaving you heads-up with C. If B happens to call, you\u2019ll lead into the board when the texture hits on the turn, representing the flush when you don\u2019t hold the big card in suit, but go for the check-raise when you do. Think how strong it would be if you check theA\u2660-8\u2666-2\u2666-6\u2666 board, B bets, C calls, and you semi-bluff check-raise. Even small flushes will fold to you in that situation and the play can\u2019t be that badanyway, since you have outs and you know no one can have the nuts. The only time you\u2019d check-raise the flop would be if B and C check behind you and D bets. Raise to knock out players B and C, so they\u2019re not around to give you fits on the turn. Plus, checking away the lead and raising a player making a button bet makes sense. The button doesn\u2019t have tobe strong, while your check-raise reads strong to everyone in the hand, since you still have two players left to act behind you. Flush draws inparticular will fold, since they won\u2019t feel like they\u2019re getting the right price (unless they have top pair and a flush draw, which you\u2019ll hear about right away anyway and can fold accordingly). If your check-raise gets called, continue as you would heads-up. The pot will be quite large at this juncture, so you"}
{"text":"folded again this presumes under the gun raises and everyone folds to you if there are collars in the middle this will all change again we'll be discussing that in the mastering multi-way video at some point in the future all right let's take a look at which hands want to re-raise well we see very clearly Aces Keynes and Ace King suited re-raise every time whereas some other hands are erasing some portion of the time for example take a look at this ace3 suited it looks like it's re-raising about 15 of the time or so and we see the other 85 percent of the time or so it is calling so you're going to want to mix it up with that type of hand if you wanted to make some sort of implementable strategy here maybe you re-raise ace5 suited every time and you call a six suited ace four suit and Ace three suited every time it's not going to be exactly perfect GTO poker but it's going to be a lot easier to implement so you're gonna find that the asex studio likes a three but a decent amount some King excluded likes a three bet a decent amount and some suited connected hands like the three but a decent amount so we see King Jack suited King 10 sudo King Nine suited Queen 10 suited 10 8 suited eight seven suited 762-65 suited five four suited a random pocket sevens these hands like to three bet a decent amount of the time notice Ace King offsuit against the under the gun Rays actually does not three bet very often at all because a few re-raise and they format you it's not a great spot to be in because your opponent's under the gun raising range should be very strong now if they are raising all sorts of junk meaning they're far too loose you should be defending wider which means you're going to be re-raising with a wider range perhaps more like um versus the hijack Rays maybe not quite this loose but somewhere between these two charts and you're gonna be calling more often I do want to point out hands that do not call against a three big blind under the gun raise with no anti-in play with a rake involved thank this hands like Queen nine suited Jack 8 suited 7-5 suited are not good enough to call these are pretty good hands but they're just not good enough to call again stay strong under the gun range and then you'll notice almost no off suit hands call that feels tight but it is the game theory optimal strategy notice Ace Jack offsuit and worse folds King Jack folds Queen Jack folds Jack tenfolds king queen offsuit folds half the time I'm not gonna say you necessarily need to be this incredibly tight because most people do raise wider than the under the gun GTO range by the way you can get the poker coaching app if you are a poker coaching remember"}
{"text":"nine hearts to draw to, 268 an opponent who has the nut flush draw is 1.81 to 1 to make the flush. However, since you have two of them, he has only seven hearts to draw to, making him a much bigger underdog to make it. You really don\u2019t want a heart to hit, so I call cards like these defensive hearts instead of offensive hearts. You already have the best hand, and you have cards he needs. Dangerous Hands To Play on the Flop If you\u2019re relying on making a flush that is lower than the ace-high flush, you\u2019re drawing to an inferior hand. Low suited cards may look good before the flop, but as soon as the flop comes, they diminish in value. It is very dangerous to play top and bottom pair, bottom two pair, and less than the nut straight or flush draw. With small pairs, you can flop a set. But this can be dangerous because when you get beat with a set, you get beat expensively. That\u2019s why you don\u2019t play hands such as K-6-6-2, whether its unsuited, suited, or double-suited. You stay away from those types of hands. Bad Hands To Play Before the Flop A hand like Q-Q-7-2 is not good because you\u2019re really only playing one hand. You just don\u2019t have enough going for you. You might play this type of hand in position or in special situations, but in general, you have to play the odds. And the odds are that you need more than one possible combination. You need a tight hand, one that fits in a box without a dangler hanging over the edge. For example, when you hold 10-9-8-7, you have every combination working. But when you have 10-9-8-2, you have three combinations\u201410-2, 9-2, and 8-2\u2014that don\u2019t have much going for them. I\u2019m not saying that you would never play a hand like Q-J-10-2\u2014the hand has some substance to it\u2014 but you wouldn\u2019t want to play 9-8-7-2, because it doesn\u2019t have enough going for it. Position Position is incredibly important in pot-limit Omaha, maybe more so than in any other poker game. Whether you play certain types of hands or muck them always depends on your position. You\u2019ll make more on your good hands and lose less on your other hands when you play them from the correct position. Bluffing 269 There are some good bluffing opportunities in this game, though perhaps fewer than in other forms of poker. You\u2019ll pick up most of your bluffing opportunities after people have checked to you, indicating that they may have nothing. Every check represents either a lie or the truth and your challenge is to figure out which is which. Most of the bluffing in Omaha happens on uncoordinated flops, and they usually are made by a player sitting in late position. Uncoordinated bluffs are often hard to defend. There isn\u2019t as much bluffing on the turn and river because so many different combinations are possible. What You\u2019re Looking for on the Flop In addition to completed hands, you\u2019re looking for"}
{"text":"the pot. If I thought my opponent had a strong hand, I\u2019d make a big bet. If I thought he had a weak hand, I\u2019d try to sell my hand by making a smaller bet. I\u2019ll have to use careful judgment here, judgment about what I think he\u2019s got. My decision on how much to bet depends on whether I made my hand early (on the flop) or late (on the end). If I made my hand early, I\u2019m not going to try to sell him anything. I\u2019m going to try to break him. If I made my hand late and I haven\u2019t been charged a lot of money to make it \u2014say it was checked on the flop, there was a small bet on fourth, and I made the nuts on the end\u2014well, then I\u2019m not going to try to break him because he probably won\u2019t call a big bet. I\u2019d try to sell my hand for whatever I thought I could get for it. Those of you who are new to no-limit hold\u2019em may not be able to appreciate how strongly I feel about the small connecting cards. And those of you who 404 are experienced players are probably quite surprised. But that\u2019s where it\u2019s at, in my opinion. You have to use your good judgment when you play the small connecting cards. When you play them right, they\u2019re big money makers. And that\u2019s what no-limit hold\u2019em is all about. Borderline or Trouble Hands You should commit to memory the list of trouble hands I list below. I call them trouble hands because that\u2019s exactly what they are, and I only play them in borderline situations. Before I get to the list, it\u2019s important that you realize that trouble hands aren\u2019t necessarily unplayable if: (1) They are suited; and (2) They are dealt to me in a shorthanded game, one with four players or less. In a later section, I\u2019ll go over why in a shorthanded game, these trouble hands are actually big hands. But in a ring game, these are hands you can lose a lot of money with, so you should play them cautiously. You don\u2019t want to jeopardize much money with them. Trouble Hands (only when offsuit) A-Q A-J A-10 K-Q K-J K-10 Q-J Q-10 J-10 9-8 I call these borderline hands because I\u2019d question calling a raise with them. If they\u2019re suited, I\u2019ll call a raise with them and take a flop. If they\u2019re not suited and I\u2019m out of position, I won\u2019t call a raise. By out of position I mean that I\u2019m in a middle position and a man in an early position came in raising. I\u2019ll pass these hands in that spot. If I\u2019m in a late position, the pot\u2019s been raised, and another man calls, well, then I\u2019ll usually call with them\u2014but, I\u2019ll hear another bell ringing when I do. This time, that bell will be reminding me to play my hand with extreme 405 caution, unless I get an excellent flop to it. The reason why you have to be so"}
{"text":"small bet as they have the ability to make strong hands on later streets specifically the big blind has a number of wheel draws as well as flush draws that the in position player does not have particularly since the ace and jack are suited which blocks some of the in-position player's strongest flush draws and unblocks the out-of-position player's weaker flush draws accordingly the out-of-position player's advantage with these draws increases its overall equity in the middle to lower portion of the range this coupled with the fact that ace high boards tend to mitigate range advantage and also reduce the need for protection result in a lot more checking on the ace jack 5 2 tone board with a more polarized betting range so that was a very high level summary of one of the most important concepts in poker range advantage which will often significantly influence how we should play our individual hands thanks for watching and until next time stay balanced you"}
{"text":"and it was about the time I began to realize this that I first read Yardley. Read: 'You should study your own weaknesses as well as those of your opponents. Keep a poker face. Keep silent. Don't gripe when you lose a hand or gloat over a winning one.' Read, above all: 'A card player should learn that once the money is in the pot it isn't his any longer. His judgement should not be influenced by this. He should instead say to himself, Do the odds favour my playing regardless of the money I have already contributed?' What applied so cogently to money in a poker pot applied equally to the feelings I had invested in my disastrous personal affairs: 'Do the odds favour my playing regardless of what I have already contributed?' I knew the answer. The only puzzle was why I should have discovered it not in Shakespeare or Donne or Eliot, Lawrence or Bootle or any of my other literary heroes, but in a funny, vivid, utterly unliterary book by an American cryptographer and intelligence agent. It seemed absurd, disproportionate to the efforts I had made. But it was the beginning of my real education and I sometimes wonder if that was what Yardley, too, was implying in his title. In the end, what he is describing is not so much a game of cards as a style of life. A. ALVAREZ Preface I have consistently won at poker all my life - in my home town, in Indianapolis, Washington, New York, Hollywood, London, Paris, Cairo, Rome, Hong Kong, Chungking, and on boats and trains and airplanes. And I've never lost at over three consecutive sittings. Why? Because my method of play for each game is based on the scientific study of thousands of individual poker hands in each of all the various methods of play. I do not believe in luck - only in the immutable law of averages. I was fascinated with the first game of poker I ever saw. It was being played in the rear of one of the seven saloons in a little Indiana frontier town where I was born in 1889. I was just sixteen - high-school class president, editor of the school paper, captain of the football team, and a fair student with a definite flair for mathematics. I haunted the poker tables in the various saloons for a number of months, and all the while I was dealing and recording hands in my bedroom and studying them. I finally settled on Monty's Place, because it offered more colour and action, and with my small inheritance and my meagre savings I began to play. Aside from poker, stark drama was also being played there. I saw the big Swede, Bones Alverson, a poor weather-beaten corn farmer, bet the last of his farm against a tent show, only to die three minutes later, his cards clutched in his hands - a winner. 1 saw Jake Moses, a travelling shoe salesman, lose ten trunks of shoes. I saw a bank teller trapped with"}
{"text":"more hands than at 20bb. In return, BB now incorporates several all-in check-raises. Now that we are at a lower SPR, BB wants to realize their equity as much as possible with stronger draws, while denying equity to protect their vulnerable top pairs against overcards. In contrast, the BB\u2019s strategy stays relatively unchanged in the limped pot with only a 1-2% difference between frequencies. This is because in the limped pot, the SPR is higher, and the LJ\u2019s c-bets are smaller, which means there\u2019s less incentive to get it in immediately . While this is only one example, we can pull a couple of conclusions to apply in future limped pot play : In general, at deeper stack depths, BB will check-raise more frequently with lower pairs in a limped pot versus a raised one. The takeaway for our game here is to use a wider range for check-raising as the big blind, especially if our opponent is c-betting too frequently after they have limped. Avoid using all-in check-raises in a limped pot when at a lower SPR in favor of smaller raise sizes and a wider calling range. You can use a similar check-raise strategy at both 100bb and 20bb stack depths when in the BB. To bring these points home, let\u2019s look at a comparison of postflop play in a limped first-in pot at several stack depths on our T74 board. Below is a comparison of LJ\u2019s flop strategy and BB\u2019s response at six different effective stack depths: LJ Strategy by Stack Depth BB Response to 67% C-Bet With 50bb or more\u2026 We can see that because Lojack\u2019s positional advantage becomes more significant, they use a wider c-bet range with a smaller size. In response, BB uses a wider raise range to counter LJ\u2019s wide c-bet strategy. As the LJ bets a weaker range, the big blind gets to raise more often to deny equity to the bottom of that range. At 30bb or less\u2026 The Lojack gains less advantage to continuing with a wide range, so there is more of a polarized strategy. The LJ uses a wider range to apply pressure with the top of their range, while mixing in some smaller 33% bets to balance their range. BB has less incentive to raise as the LJ\u2019s c-bet range is stronger. Instead, BB raises with a smaller portion of their range, while calling more frequently to realize equity from their weaker draws. Conclusion Playing against limpers can be challenging when we don\u2019t have an effective counter-strategy to properly exploit their approach. In this article, we\u2019ve seen that: Because a Limp First In player has a positional advantage against the BB, they should be c-betting wide when effective stacks are at or above 50bb . BB\u2019s response will be to raise with a wider part of their range to take advantage of the limper\u2019s wide c-bet strategy. When stacks are 30bb effective or less , we should see limpers checking back a portion of their range as their positional advantage decreases. When playing as the BB, we should counter"}
{"text":"attempt to win more money backfired. Player six hit a set and decides to slow play by checking. This is risky because the 9 of hearts puts a two Flush on the board with four opponents. With this many opponents still in the hand there is a good chance someone is drawing to a Flush. The correct play was to bet something to define any hand and see where it stood. Nevertheless, the larger error is when player seven checks the Turn. 2-Pair of Ace\u2019s and Three\u2019s is not very strong. On the Turn, anyone holding an Ace can have the board Pair negating player seven\u2019s bottom Pair of three\u2019s or Pair their own card creating a better Ace-x 2Pair. One of the best reasons to bet something is that anyone with a small to medium Pocket Pair would have to fold because they are getting terrible odds to keep drawing. Amazingly, everyone checks the Turn card. The River was a Kc The big blind checks as well as player four. Player six bets $6 or two thirds of the pot to induce at least one player and maybe a few players to call. Player seven decides to strike with the 2-Pair and over bets the pot with an all-in bet of $322. Player eight, the big blind and player four all fold. Player six knows there are only two hands that beat his set, pocket Aces or Kings. The chances that player seven has one of those two hands is very remote since there were no pre-flop raises. Pocket Kings would be more probable because the flop included an Ace so anyone slow playing pocket Kings Pre-flop might not bet into four opponents when an Ace shows up on the flop. Player six decides to call the $322 bet because the chances that someone would slow play pocket Kings before the flop against four opponents is too remote. Player six wins $346. Here is an example of entering a hand with good cards. Seven people see the flop. Six players limp and the big blind checks. It is a $2\/$4 no limit game so the pot is $30. Your hero starts the hand in second position with KJos. I do not have the best hand but this has been a loose but passive game. Therefore, I knew limping in early position with this hand was safe from being reraised. The flop shows Jh 6d 3c. I have Top Pair with a good kicker. The only hands I really fear are Pocket Pairs and AJ. Since I am third to act with four players after me I decide to check my hand with the intention of calling any reasonable bet. The player right after me bets $12 into the $30 pot. Everyone folds and I call the bet. This loose aggressive player has won a few hands with questionable starting hands and lucky draws. I decided he had either a weak 2-Pair or Top Pair with a weak kicker. There were no obvious Straight draws or Flush Draws. In previous hands, I"}
{"text":"I've rounded the percentages in the equity column above to the nearest percentile for ease of memorisation. A handy shortcut here is that Hero's equity is normally four times his outs, although this trick becomes slightly less accurate as outs increase. The next and final step in understanding equity is to get a feel for what these quantities of equity really mean. Let's start at the eleven outs and 42% equity that we have in Hand 19 with our KJo. This is an absolutely enormous chunk of equity for a non-value hand and it will certainly render our c-bet +EV . Moreover, given the implied odds and fold equity we'll have when we bet here, c-betting will certainly be the most +EV line to take. Remember our goal is always to do what's most +EV not just to do something that is +EV per se. When we hit one of our straight outs, we stand a good chance of winning a very sizeable pot indeed. Betting with this much equity does not just assist our fold equity a little, it allows us to build the pot and win more money when we make our hand, which we will quite often. Let's take a look at some more examples of hands on different flops and assess our equity. I'll start with two spots, one of which is enormously better to c-bet light in than the other. Spot 1 - The Dreaded Underpair Remember, what we're looking at here when deciding whether or not to c-bet is our equity when called. Since the majority of Villain's calling range will contain some pair, we will frequently have just two outs to improve against it. Moreover, hitting those two outs occasionally makes us the worst hand when Villain has flopped a set or called our open pre-flop with 87s. Two slightly tainted outs give us an equity estimation of less than 8% on the table above."}
{"text":"ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"the effect of the rake, makes calling from the SB a losing proposition (Hand Range 68). In response to a 4-bet, a good 5-betting range is AKs, AA (63%), AKo (53%), QQ (7%) and JJ (10%). The calling range consists of all other pairs, suited connectors, AQs, AJs, ATs (21%) and A5s (44%). Small suited connectors and mid pocket pairs make better calls than hands such as AQo, Kxs, and Qxs because they unblock Villain\u2019s bluffs even if they have less raw equity (Hand Range 69). Hand Range 68: SB vs LJ Open \u2022 3-bet 7.3% \/ \u2022 Fold 92.7%"}
{"text":"poker. Then there is the Doyle Brunson way of playing poker, which is always applying pressure with bets and raises. I have seen this work well, but it does take a high level of skill. Knowing when to muck a hand is important. If you were trying to steal the pot with betting\/raises or with a semi bluff, or even a mediocre hand and someone plays back at you, then you have a decision to make. Players try to challenge aggressive players and I have seen this happen at the wrong time when the aggressive player actually had a strong hand against a mediocre hand. The challenger\u2019s whole stack becomes the aggressive players increased bankroll. This strategy works best when you can isolate players, which is done with large bets to eliminate other opponents. I have also adopted the style of being loose and aggressive at the beginning of a session. Sometimes I even show my mediocre hands at the showdown. I usually do this play with a semi-bluff or a total bluff and it portrays the table image of a loose player with money to give away. This is called advertising and it tries to depict you as a bad or loose player. Then I change gears, play only the premium starting cards, most of my opponents never notice this change in strategy. Some of my opponents think I am still playing mediocre hands and will even be emboldened to raise the pot with their mediocre hands. So in the long run, I will win the money I originally lost and most of my opponents buy-in. Players that are more observant will wise up to this strategy and notice it for what it was, advertising a bluff to induce action. However, in online poker, there are more poor players than observant players and you see so many different players they do not have a good read on you from previous sessions. Remember, Hold\u2019em is a showdown game. By playing tight and aggressive you can assure yourself a better than 50% chance of winning at the showdown. That is what all poker players try to achieve, getting the odds in our favor most of the time. If you have the better hand and you know it, you can bet with more authority, control the pot and essentially finish the session with a profit. To be a tight aggressive player you need: Patience The ability to observe and remember your opponent\u2019s tendencies to take advantage of them later on You need a good understanding of the probability and odds. The skill to read your hand and other players hands in comparison with the board cards The skill to stay focused and centered regardless of the outcome of the cards Be able to read the table and players so you can apply a passive or aggressive type game according to opponent type also called changing gears or varying your play These rather obscure skills are difficult to learn. Some people say you have to have talent. One idea that is widely accepted is that"}
{"text":"drawing more cards. (4) Any pair with the Ace or King, and draw one card and no more unless the hand is improved. (5) Any 3-card straight or any 3-card flush, and draw only two cards and no more unless the hand is improved. If in five cards you make a 4- card flush or a 4-card straight, draw the 6th and 7th card. Ling studied my instructions for a day or so and then came back with some questions. 'Adviser,' he said, 'I understand point one and two you make. But point three I do not understand. If you hold two queens, you say draw only one card unless the hand is improved. Why?' 'Because after the fourth card the betting gets too stiff even at limit poker (everything is relative you know), and the odds do not favour taking more cards. Of course if you make three of a kind, you go all the way. Suppose after the third card you hold Q Q 7, and draw a 9, making Q Q 7 9. The hand hasn't been improved and 1 recommend folding. The odds are against making three queens. Suppose you do draw a nine on the fifth card, making Q Q 7 9 9. That is queens up. I know from both experience and mathematics that queens up is not a winning hand.' 'If I make queens up on the fifth card,' said Ling, 'I may draw a nine or a Q on the sixth or seventh card and make a full house.' 'You might,' I agreed sceptically, 'but it is roughly five to one you don't.' Ling wrote this on the page of instructions I had given him. 'I don't understand point number four,' he said. 'What are you trying to make?' 'Aces up or kings up or possibly three of a kind.' 'Oh, I see,' he said. 'Now point five, how about that ? Why draw only the fourth and fifth cards?' 'You know better than to ask that damn-fool question,' I said. 'Suppose you hold only a three-card straight or a three-card flush after the fifth card - you have to draw two of the same sequences in the case of the straight, or two of the same suit on the sixth and seventh cards to make the hand. The odds are prohibitive. 'Seven-card stud,' I told Ling, 'is more difficult than other games such as fivecard stud, seven-card low stud, draw, and the like, because most players go for everything in the deck: straight flushes, fours, full houses, straights, flushes, three of a kind, two pairs and pairs. This means you need to watch your hands more closely, but once the rudiments are mastered, the game settles down to a routine, which gives you time to study your opponents' idiosyncrasies. 'I know one player,' I told him, 'who after the deal, when his time comes to bet, leans over and apparently studies one hand at a time. When he puts on this act he always bets or raises and it is a sure thing"}
{"text":"or they might bet small enough for your blocker to be relevant. If none of those things happens\u2014if you whiff and your opponent overbets\u2014then you fold even though they could easily be bluffing. Or, consider A \u2666 5 \u2666 on the flop. Why are you calling the flop bet with this hand? \u201cBecause I have top pair\u201d is not a helpful answer. It tells you nothing about what you will do on later streets. You\u2019re calling because you might pick up a diamond draw on the turn, or your opponent might check the turn, or they might bet small enough for your blocker to be relevant. If none of those things happens\u2014if you whiff and your opponent overbets\u2014then you fold even though they could easily be bluffing. One of the ways you catch bluffs is by re-bluffing. Let\u2019s try one more. Why is J \u2665 8 \u2665 calling the flop? First and foremost, it\u2019s hoping for some improvement on the turn. A heart would be ideal, but picking up a pair or even a straight draw will probably be enough to call another bet. Failing those things, it\u2019s hoping for a check so it can either improve on the river or bluff. That\u2019s right: one of the ways you \u201ccatch\u201d bluffs is by re-bluffing . That could mean raising the current street or calling and bluffing later, should the right circumstances occur. Bluffing is not especially profitable, but then again, neither is bluff catching. This is yet another reason why a good draw with a backup plan of bluffing is better than a marginal made hand that will rarely be useful for anything but bluff catching on later streets. Either way, your backup plan isn\u2019t worth much. At least the draw has the potential to turn into something valuable. Conclusion Bluff catching is not primarily about the rank of your hand . The only reason a hand would be \u201ctoo strong to fold\u201d would be if it beats hands your opponent could be value betting. If your opponent\u2019s range is polarized around your hand\u2014if you lose to all their value bets and beat all their bluffs\u2014then your top pair catches bluffs just as well as sets do. On the river, bluff catching decisions mostly come down to what you block or unblock . Before the river, a hand\u2019s potential to improve is a major factor, to such a degree that draws are sometimes better calling candidates than top pair! But reads can trump all of these considerations . Before you worry about blockers Blocker The card removal effect of holding a hole card that blocks a relevant portion of your opponent\u2019s range. For example, holding the ace of spaces on a 3-spade board blocks the nut-flush and the nut-flush draw. See unblockers. and Minimum Defense Frequency Minimum Defense Frequency (MDF) The minimum percentage of your range that must be defended against a bet to prevent the opponent from profitably bluffing a 0% equity hand. Conversely related to alpha, MDF = 1 \u2013 alpha. MDF = 1\/(s+1) where \u2018s\u2019 is the percentage of"}
{"text":"good anymore and so perhaps perhaps eeking out value in certain situations but i i'd say most of the players i see at this level what they're calling way way too much out of the big line this one's pretty close but i wouldn't be doing my job if i didn't show it to you so here we have queen check off suit and it's been folded to you would you like to fold call arrays and all of these tournaments uh i mean i've said these are micro six tournaments but they're two dollar three dollar five dollar buy-ins okay time is up we're gonna go ahead and call here and this player raises here would you like to fold caller rights okay time is up we're gonna go ahead and move all in and this player folds so what's going on here this is one of the more fun plays and i did want to put it in here this is a very fun pre-flop exploit you can do at microsix games so i purposefully didn't give you a read here because i thought it'd be a little too easy at that point i mean it wouldn't have been that easy but i i wanted to up the difficulty a little bit you guys are ready for it you guys i know you guys you guys study i mean if you're if you're watching poker training videos in your free time you're way more hardcore than you realize most people you know the general public at your card room doesn't do that right sometimes this is something a lot of micro stakes players do as a mistake as well they project how they think about pokemon to everybody else they think that everybody else is thinking about the game critically most people are playing it like a table game so if you're listening to the sound of my voice and watching this video right now you are much more hardcore than you realize so i thought you guys were ready for this in this particular situation in micro six games you need to remember micro six players because it's a two dollar three dollar five dollar buy and they they're a little bit more flippant about their calls a little bit more flipping about their raises because it's fun it's a it's a lottery ticket if you lose three dollars it's not the end of the world so right here if you were to raise villain eight would have a clean all-in which would put you in quite the predicament because perhaps you don't want to call more than 20 big blinds with your queen jiakai if you raised here so causing you to raise fold a hand heads up which is very good heads up but instead what we do is a nice exploit here where we limp in you let him raise all his goofball hands just to attack you there because hey it's a two dollar tournament it's fun and then you just shut the door on"}
{"text":", KQ doing another 0.8bb better yet, and AK getting another 1.2bb on top of that! (Suits make a difference as well, as we saw before, but the general trend remains the same.) Top pair with a stronger kicker performs *disproportionately better* than the lower kickers. It\u2019s not exactly headline news to observe that better hands are better, but this is not just a matter of having more equity. Top pair with a stronger kicker performs disproportionately better than the lower kickers. These hands both have more equity and realize that equity better : All these top pair hands will have similar difficulties vis-a-vis the draws in BTN\u2019s range. On the flop, they do not gain terribly much from growing the pot against hands like 7 \u2665 6 \u2665 . The difference for AK and KQ is that they will benefit from growing the pot against the King-x portion of BTN\u2019s range, while their own weaker King-x is dominated by most of these hands. Hands like K9 and KT often win the pot, regardless of whether they bet or check, but are not likely to win more than that because they are not favored as the pot gets larger. The profit garnered by AK and KQ above and beyond their equity comes not primarily from the draws in BTN\u2019s range but from the dominated pairs . That this board offers so many draws is a big part of why CO does not c-bet frequently, only about 30% of the time. Let\u2019s see how our example hands, K \u2660 T \u2663 and 7 \u2665 6 \u2665 , stack up on various turns after a 33% pot continuation bet from CO. For comparison, here\u2019s a chart showing the relevant metrics on the flop: A Blank Turn ( 2\u2660 ) A modest made hand can be thought of as a draw to a blank turn. A modest made hand like KT can be thought of as, in part, a \u201cdraw\u201d to a blank turn. Despite not improving in rank, KT gains a lot of EV when draws miss. Some of this EV gain is also attributable to the pot being larger than it was on the flop, but even as a percentage share of the pot, KT \u2019s EV is greater on the 2 \u2660 turn than it was on the flop. However, it still does not over-realize its equity. The threat of putting money in from way behind remains significant, and it will face tough decisions on many rivers. Indeed, even checking and facing a 20% pot bet yields a slight decline in pot share. Against larger bets, KT fares much worse. Blank turns, of course, are bad for draws. They lose equity and EV but continue to dramatically over-realize equity because of their ability to bluff or value bet rivers. Indeed, 7 \u2665 6 \u2665 retains much of its EV even when facing a 200% pot turn bet , whereas K \u2660 T \u2663 drops to 0 EV and becomes indifferent between calling and folding. A Flush Turn ( 2\u2666 ) A diamond"}
{"text":"have had anything. But when a novice puts in a big reraise against two pros, you have to take it very seriously. He's not 54 bluffing. That was the time for Player C to get out with his stack intact. A pro making that big reraise might have been attempting a squeeze play, and if you'd seen him make that move before, you might want to call. But a reraise from a novice indicates nothing but strength, and you can be very sure that your eights are beaten. 55 Part Four Pot Odds and Hand Analysis Introduction All successful gambling is based on one simple idea: making good bets at favorable odds. Assessing whether a bet is good or not involves knowing two key facts: 1. What are the odds against your winning the bet? 2. What are the payoff odds if you win? When the payoff odds are higher than the odds against your winning, you have a good bet. Over time, if you kept making the same bet, you would win money, although the fluctuations might be severe. When the payoff odds are lower than the odds against your winning, you have a bad bet. In time, if you keep making such bets, you will lose money. As a simple example, suppose that someone offered to wager on the roll of a single fair die. You're willing to bet $1 that you can roll a six. He bets $6 that you can't. You eagerly take the bet, because it's slightly favorable for you. There are six possible outcomes, one which wins for you and five which lose. The odds against your winning are 5-to-l. But your payoff odds are 6- to-l-Since the payoff odds are higher, the bet is profitable for you. (In six average trials, you will lose $1 five times and win $6 once, for a net profit of $1, or almost 17 cents per trial.) When you walk into a casino, you are confronted with an avalanche of possible bets, almost all of which are unfavorable. Although most people who frequent casinos are aware that they are betting against the odds, only a few really understand what that means. Casual players mostly imagine that they lose when they place a bet and it doesn't win, or that the games don't let them win often enough. Actually, that's not the case. If you bet on the number 22 on a roulette wheel, the number will hit, in the long run, exactly as often as it's supposed to (one time in 3 8), and when the number doesn't hit, the casino is perfectly fair - it takes all your money, just as it's supposed to. In fact, in a sense you lose only when you win. When number 22 actually hits, the casino pays you less than required for an even-money bet - 35-to-l instead of the even-money odds of 37-to-l. It's these tiny taxes on the winning bets that provide the casino with all its gambling profits. When you walk through a casino into the poker room and"}
{"text":"things going on here and so this becomes like a pretty like difficult spot to play well it's a easy spot to play poorly let's put it that way but it's a tough spot to play really well but there's a way you can organize your thinking here that will help you play this spot better we have a couple of hand examples today um we'll we'll do the next hand i'll do which is kind of out of order is like a very similar spot to this so um all right so the first thing we want to think about here is how the river changed things okay so the nine of hearts is not a blank okay it's not a deuce not three it's not a four this is definitely this is far from a blank okay number one is the button does the button improve on the nine yeah so the button's gonna like very reasonably the button could have a hand like king nine queen nine jack nine you know nine eight off suit some suited nines so the button council nines we have a lot of nines though too because we check call a lot of nines too so both of us improve the trips a lot right i think that's easy to understand both players can have trips here okay now we got to think about our value range on this river so let's just walk through like the different hand uh like different like hand classes that we have so let's start with um top of the range all right so let's say uh flushes okay flushes in full houses so we could have um i think it's reas um like we could have ace nine here for sure okay ace nine's a very i am very easily we could have uh our opponent can't have ace nine either probably um maybe we have nine five every once in a while but probably not often we probably check raise that mostly but like we have 89 for a full house and then we have a lot of flushes right and not really many full houses so what's like the goal when we have a full house or flush here like what's our goal this is like the kind of easy way to start to think about it not just extract value it's to get a lot of chips in the pot yeah we want to play like a big pot like maybe we don't want to get all in with the flush for sure like we probably don't want to get in 90k chips here because we probably would run into like aces or something a lot here or ace nine but like you know we don't want to get in like pot we want to get in you know multiples of the pot or something okay um next category i would say would be like a pair of aces okay so let's say we have like ace eight with the eight of clubs or"}
{"text":"get information on player 1 on player 2 on every player who has to act before you but they don't get that information on you so we're starting to create an unfair information advantage we're starting to create an imbalance set up where we are the favorite and the better our position the better the info this is something that's my good friend and mentor Calvin Anderson taught me is that the biggest flaw that most players have especially when they try to loosen up their game and play more hands and play more aggressively and put more pressure on their opponents is that they play too loose early position and too tight in late position what I mean by this is when they want to loosen up what most players do is they just start to play more hands from all positions now they still do it in a scale in a range they don't play 50 percent of hands from every position but they kind of widen up equally in all the positions and this is a mistake we're gonna look even more into this with some charts later in the presentation to illustrate the point more but the problem is when we equally expand our range from all positions it ignores the laws of position we want to open our range slightly more from early position but open it up a crazy amount in late position because we have that huge advantage of greater information on every street as the hand progresses and in terms of making correct decisions it's also important to know that there are two types of position there is relative and absolute position which we're gonna dive into on the next slide so just because you don't have the button which is where absolute position lives doesn't mean that you can't get an information edge on your opponent you can get an information edge on some of your opponent's you just won't have as big of an edge as the person I mentioned who acts last on every Street and who has absolute position so this is a little table chart showing the positions to just make this understandable and we have the early position middle position and late position which is really useful for preflop and then post flop doesn't really matter more on that as we progress so the first position the first type of position which is the most valuable type of position is absolute position this is owned by the player on the button or by the player who is the last raiser so if the buttons planning on folding then absolute position would belong to the cut off if the cut off and button are both planning unfolding then absolute position or would belong to middle position if every single player is planning on folding then whoever opens the pot first and that's actually pretty important you might want to write that down whoever opens first if everyone else is planning on folding is going to have absolute position in"}
{"text":"had seen this player raise pre-flop with small Pocket Pairs. Pot is $54 and a four of diamonds falls on the Turn I want to see what type of a hand my opponent has. The four of diamonds gives someone a Gut-Shot Straight draw or a diamond Flush Draw. Since there was no two Flush on the Flop, I doubted he was drawing to a Flush, but the two Flush can mean trouble if someone included a backdoor Flush Draw in their outs (you could include the backdoor draw as one and a half outs). My opponent is short stacked so I bet $40 and make him decide to go all in or fold. He calls $38 and the River is a six of spades. My opponent shows his Top Pair of Jacks with a seven kicker and an inside Straight draw (on the River). I win $92. My opponent (as far as he knew) had 10 outs to improve his hand so his call on the Turn was the wrong play according to probability and how many outs he had (a 21.7% chance, two Jacks, four 5\u2019s or four 7\u2019s). Since he was short stacked he had no chance to profit from the implied odds of improving his draw making his play even worse. Later in this book, we will discuss the implications of being short stacked in a no limit game. When you are short stacked you must protect your bankroll and cannot afford to chase a draw. My opponent may have thought his Top Pair was good on the flop but the Turn bet should have made him think differently. He should have asked himself, what hands could my opponent have that beats me? Since there are six limpers in the hand, small Pocket Pairs are a huge possibility, because anyone playing them would be getting excellent odds with a huge +EV. My opponent should have also considered the real possibility of me having AJ, or KJ. These are common limping hands from under the gun or early to middle position in a loose passive or even a slightly aggressive table. I believe he made the mistake of trying to bluff\/semi-bluff into too many opponents on the flop holding Top Pair. You can categorize your hands into two headings: a made hand or a drawing hand. A made hand that is the nuts is very easy to recognize. When you flop a Full House there is no reason to be aggressive. There are probably no hands that will improve to a better hand. Slow play and wait for someone to catch up with a hand that will call a bet on the Turn and\/or River. An example is when you hold A T and the flop shows A T T. The only hands that can beat you is someone holding pocket Aces, Kings, Queens, or Jacks. If no one raised pre-flop then there is little chance someone holds those hole cards. Furthermore, they would have to hit one of two outs to actually beat your hand, which is not"}
{"text":"coach and YouTuber, and author of the Daily Dose of GTO. Latest article Navigating Nasty Rivers Out of Position Playing out of position (OOP) is hard. It\u2019s fundamentally disadvantageous to act on each street\u2026 Crack the Shell of Nut Draw Strategy Nut draws hold obvious appeal as betting and raising candidates. They benefit from fold equity,\u2026 Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026 The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting\u2026 Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this\u2026 The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose"}
{"text":"can make strong hands when called) . The Final Table ICM pressure is extreme on the bubble. So let\u2019s look at a more realistic example, this time with varying stack sizes, at a different stage of the endgame. Three players remain at the final table in both examples, with a big stack on the BTN, a medium stack in the SB, and a short stack in the BB. In the PKO example, the bounties look like this: In the Classic example , the Bubble Factors are what you would expect. The BTN and BB have quite low Bubble Factors because the BTN is not worried about elimination, and the BB is a guaranteed elimination if he doesn\u2019t make a move soon. The SB is in the middle of the pack, and it would be a disaster if they bust before the BB, so their Bubble Factor is high. The ratios are the same in the PKO example , but they are much lower. In fact, we see Bubble Factors below 1 when the BB is involved. It is in the other player\u2019s interest to get their money in wider than ChipEV to win this player\u2019s bounty, even with the ICM pressure involved. Now let\u2019s look at some ranges, first the BTN opening range for the Classic example : And the equivalent range in a PKO : In the Classic example , the Bubble Factors are what you would expect. The BTN and BB have quite low Bubble Factors because the BTN is not worried about elimination, and the BB is a guaranteed elimination if he doesn\u2019t make a move soon. The SB is in the middle of the pack, and it would be a disaster if they bust before the BB, so their Bubble Factor is high. The ratios are the same in the PKO example , but they are much lower. In fact, we see Bubble Factors below 1 when the BB is involved. It is in the other player\u2019s interest to get their money in wider than ChipEV to win this player\u2019s bounty, even with the ICM pressure involved. Now let\u2019s look at some ranges, first the BTN opening range for the Classic example : And the equivalent range in a PKO : No surprise \u2013 it is wider in the PKO as the chip leader (the BTN) can exert ICM pressure and eliminate both players to win two bounties. Let\u2019s look at the SB response in both examples: And the PKO version of the same spot: This is a good spot to look at because the SB really is caught in the middle of the ICM Dial . They don\u2019t want to risk being eliminated by the chip leader who has opened ahead of them, but they also don\u2019t want to miss out on a chance of winning the short-stacked BB\u2019s bounty. The clear-cut difference is that there is much more folding from the SB in the Classic version . They fold 87.1% of the time compared to 76.3% in the PKO example. When the SB does continue, they"}
{"text":"Figure 71 - A Strategy for Hand 106 The ratio of value to bluffs is a snug 40 value combos to 48 bluffs. This range is nicely balanced and avoids the perils of flatting in this situation. Just a couple of disclaimers: These bluffs are selected with full priority to blockers. The assumption is that our cold 4-bets won't be getting flatted all too often, but if you play in games where Regs defend to 4-bets by calling a lot then you should look to use more hands that flop well and less offsuit big cards. If the Reg population calls 4-bets far too much, then we shouldn't be bluffing in the first place. 4-bet calling JJ and even QQ\/AK could be marginal or even bad in very passive microstakes"}
{"text":"cards to make their hands. Flop Game\u2014A form of poker in which cards are dealt face-up on the table that all players get to use in their hands. Any poker game in which there are community cards. Flush Draw\u2014A hand in poker where you have four cards of a single suit and are trying to draw the fifth card of that suit. If you \u201cflop a flush draw,\u201d you flop four cards to a flush and are looking to hit another of the suit on the turn or the river. Fourth Street\u2014The turn in a flop game like hold \u2019em or Omaha; the fourth card dealt in stud games. Free Card\u2014A card dealt after a round in which there was no betting. Any card that\u2019s dealt that comes after a round in which all players checked. Free-Roll\u20141) A tournament in which there is no entry free. 2) Any situation in gambling when you\u2019ve locked up a breakeven or win situation and still have a chance to win even more. For example, in hold \u2019em on a board of Q\u2665-J\u2665-T\u2660 where you have A\u2665K\u2665 and your opponent has A\u2660K\u2666, both of you have a straight, so you\u2019re guaranteed half of the pot. But because you have a heart flush draw, you might win the whole pot. In this situation, you\u2019re free-rolling for the whole pot. Freeze Out\u2014A tournament in which no re-buys are allowed. GG\u2014An abbreviation used online for \u201cgood game.\u201d Gin Your Outs\u2014To play a hand in a way that knocks players out of the pot in order to increase the cards you can hit to win. For example, you have AK against one player with QQ and another with A4. The flop is T-8-4. You can now \u201cgin your ace\u201d by raising A4 out of the hand. Now, if you hit an ace, you\u2019ll have the best hand, after forcing A4 to fold. Gutshot\u2014See \u201cinside straight draw.\u201d Hand Odds\u2014The chances or probability your hand will win. Heads-Up\u2014When only two people are playing a pot, either in a hand at a table that started with more than two players or because the two playersare playing head to head at a two-handed table. Hero Call\u2014Making a big call with a very weak hand that can really only beat a bluff. High Variance\u2014Big statistical fluctuation around a mean. Big swings in your chip stack or bankroll. Can refer to a game as well. A \u201chigh-variance game\u201d rates to have big fluctuations in your chip stack. Hijack\u2014The position at the table two seats to the right of the player on the button. The player who gets to act third to last. Hole Cards\u2014Cards in your hand that your opponents can\u2019t see. Cards dealt face down. Implied Odds\u2014Chips you believe you can win on later betting rounds if you make your hand. The money that\u2019s implied to come your way if you hit your hand. The bets your opponent will lose to you when you make your hand. Can also refer to the money you\u2019ll lose if you hit your hand and it\u2019s nogood. In the"}
{"text":"Equity Realization Equity and Expected Value In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on average, at showdown against an opposing hand or range. The appeal of equity is that, unlike many poker metrics, it can be calculated simply and precisely. By understanding what share of the pot your hand would claim if there were no further betting, you can get a rough sense of what the hand is worth in a given situation. \u201cIf there were no further betting\u201d is an enormous caveat , however. Poker is all about betting! The more money in the effective stack and the more betting opportunities remaining, the less accurately equity represents the Expected Value of a hand, the amount it will actually win after all the betting is complete. At one extreme, consider what happens when you are all in. You are guaranteed to see all five cards and the showdown, without the possibility of folding or making your opponent fold or putting any more money in the pot. Your equity tracks your EV exactly in this case, because there is no further betting. At the other extreme, consider a pre-flop decision in a deep-stacked no-limit hold \u2018em game. The amount of money remaining in the stacks is much greater than the size of the pot, and there will be three more betting streets before the showdown. Consequently, some hands with relatively good equity, such as A6o or K2o, have less EV than lower equity hands like 65s. Colloquially, we say 65s is more \u201cplayable\u201d. If you\u2019re not sure what Equity or Expected value means, read these articles first: Equity Realization Equity realization (EQR) essentially measures playability. It tells us how well a hand will perform, relative to its equity, in a given situation. Equity realization is expressed as a percentage; Hands with greater than 100% EQR over-realize their equity, and hands with less than 100% EQR under-realize theirs. Equity realization is a bridge between equity and expected value. Multiplying a hand\u2019s equity times its EQR times the size of the pot yields its EV. Equity \u00d7 EQR \u00d7 pot = EV Over-Realizing Equity There are two ways a hand can over-realize its equity: Put more money into a pot it is favored to win This typically comes in the form of betting for value oneself but could also be the result of calling bluffs or mistaken \u201cvalue bets\u201d from weaker hands. Cause an opponent to fold a hand with some chance of winning Bluffing \ud83d\udd76 is the most dramatic example of this, but even very strong hands over-realize equity as a result of folds. A Simple Example You hold AA before the flop against a single opponent who, unbeknownst to you, holds 72o. There is $100 in the pot. Your equity is about 88% of the pot, or $88. If you go all in for another $100 and your opponent folds, you win the entire pot of $100, which is 114% of your equity. If your opponent calls, that is better yet. You still have just 88%"}
{"text":"KQ o, and 55 no longer call, but curiously QJ \u2660 , QT \u2660 (more often), and T9 \u2660 have been added to the calling range. The overall range has reduced, but certain classes of hands have been added because of the multiway dynamic. QJ \u2660 and T9 \u2660 are seemingly much \u2018weaker\u2019 than AJ o and AT \u2660 , but not multiway with ICM pressure and bounty incentive. You will see this all the time in PKOs; suited broadway hands go up in value compared to regular tournaments. These hands perform well in these spots because they are quite robust against multiple wide ranges, which is what you are up against in PKOs. A hand like QJ \u2660 is often good when it makes one pair. It blocks powerful hands like AQ \/ QQ \/ JJ . It can hit a strong hand like a straight or flush when it is behind. The example we have looked at assumed GTO ranges. You can expect your opponent\u2019s ranges to be much wider in the real-life PKOs you play. In those games, these suited broadway hands are even more powerful. That is because not only does your hand perform well for the reasons above, but in addition: Occasionally it doesn\u2019t need to improve. Perhaps not with QJ \u2660 , but it is not a freakishly uncommon occurrence to get your money in with a hand like KT \u2660 and discover you are up against K9 \u2660 and JT o. This is more often the case when you are the shortest stack in the hand, the player who cannot win the bounty. Players will call you much wider to win your bounty when it doesn\u2019t cost them much, relatively, to win it. This is why you will often see hands like KQ \u2660 \u2013 JT \u2660 in these ranges, but not hands like 54 \u2660 or 87 \u2660 . Small suited connectors play well in deep stacked pots in position, but not when all the money has gone in preflop. You cover the bounty, but are covered The most challenging spot in PKOs is when a short-stacked player shoves from early position and you have a middling stack. Of course, you want to win the bounty, but you are also fearful that a bigger stack will want to come over the top of you. The broad advice here is to: Flat your strongest hands like AA (as traps). Flat the hands that play well multiway like KJ\u2660 (and sometimes call if you get shoved on). Shove strong hands that don\u2019t play well multiway like AKo (to try and get the hand heads-up). Call the other profitable hands but fold to a 3-bet. In this example from GTOWizard, UTG1 has shoved for 18BBs. The CO has 66BBs, but several players left to act cover them. This is how they respond: As you can see, the biggest hands like AA & KK flat to trap. The suited broadway hands like KJ \u2660 and KT \u2660 flat because they perform well multiway. AK and AQ \u2660 shove,"}
{"text":"play. So what is the correct amount of emotion? \ud83e\udd14 The Yerkes-Dodson Law proposes that there is an optimal level of stress between a zombie and a nervous wreck. The optimal level of stress depends on the complexity of the task. As always, there\u2019s a middle ground. You need to be emotionally invested enough to retain your motivation and drive, yet relaxed enough to avoid tilt and maintain the ability to separate the process from the outcome. Degree of challenge Playing as an underdog (low skill) in a very challenging game causes anxiety. Conversely, a very skilled player against weak competition may lose flow due to overconfidence and boredom. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argues that flow state of the zone is generated when your skills are sufficiently challenged without being overwhelmed. Experienced poker players may feel boredom when it comes to grinding. It may feel like a chore or a job. That feeling will hinder your performance, as you\u2019re no longer able to stay in flow. It\u2019s important to try and maintain focus to stay in the zone while you\u2019re playing. Even when not in a hand, pay attention to what the other players are doing. The Vicious Cycle Accumulated stresses from work, relationships, results and life in general all contribute to emotional fatigue. These stressors can build up over time. Moreover, we often adopt poor habits as crutches to deal with these stressors. It becomes easy to neglect your sleep, routine, nutrition, and health, which only reinforces your long-term stress. This vicious cycle is especially common among poker players. The most dangerous part of this cycle is that you can become trapped in a state of perpetual fatigue. When you feel like crap for long enough, you\u2019ll forget what being well is supposed to feel like . You\u2019ll become accustomed to always feeling tired and worn out. You will get trapped in your \u201cC-game\u201d, without even realizing it. illustration Limit extraneous stress by optimizing routine, sleep, and nutrition. Establishing a daily routine is paramount! A routine can be as simple as your morning ritual, what time you wake up, work, eat, and go to bed. Sticking to a routine will improve your sleep, your eating habits, your stress, and your time effectiveness. Many studies have shown that a daily routine is strongly correlated with better mental and physical health. Building a Poker Training Routine In addition to maintaining a reasonably healthy lifestyle, you should build a poker training routine. A solid routine involves: Intentional, deliberate practice SMART goals A checklist of activities to complete Dedication over the long-term S.M.A.R.T. goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. A lot of the goals we set for ourselves are V.A.P.I.D. goals. Vague, amorphous, pie in the sky, irrelevant, delayed. Here\u2019s an example: Smart Goal : \u201cI will practice 4bet pots, IP, for two hours every week, until I can regularly achieve a GTOW score of 95% in the trainer.\u201d Vapid Goal : \u201cI will memorize the strategy for every 4bet pot in every spot, I don\u2019t care how long it takes!\u201d If you"}
{"text":"what we are going to do today is review some hands from my day one and day two a couple of day two hands um i didn't get home till late last night so um only a couple of the day twos but i got some good hands that have some good concepts i think that we can talk about today all right let's jump in um i didn't have time to run sims because these hands are all like 100 big blinds plus deep so it takes a while to run them so we'll be using auden because they already have 100 big blind sims uh not perfect but it will get the job done for us so um first hand we're going to jump into is actually i want to talk a little bit about the main event really quick because something i've noticed so and i was saying this before the tournament started and it seems like this year more than any year like everyone talks about like like so um i went to a breakfast poker coaching member's breakfast um earlier this week i can't remember what day a lot of members and stuff jonathan was there some of the coaches were there and stuff we had a breakfast like q a and stuff with some of the members and the most common question i got asked was what adjustments do i make for the main event i mean i don't make any adjustments i don't make any adjustments at all i just don't understand like you know that people are like oh it's you know you can't be risky in the main event it's such a good tournament you know it's all this you know you can't be risky you gotta play small ball you gotta do all this stuff like so you're telling me you're playing the super bowl the biggest term of the entire year and you're going to change your strategy that you played every other tournament for the highest tv tournament of the year does that make sense it's the the the the reason it's the best tournament is because your ev just gets magnified you get so much longer to just magnify your ev you get so many spots to just you know pick up those one big blind one big blind one big blind of ev spots like i don't i don't get the argument of you know yeah like the kansas city chiefs make the super bowl all right kansas city chiefs make the super bowl this year okay well maybe not this year because they suck last year okay kansas chiefs play the tampa bay buccaneers pat mahomes is their best player that's their whole offense you think there's they're going to go to the super bowl we're going to run the ball 70 of the time we're not going to throw the ball with patmo homes we're just gonna change our entire strategy does that make much sense i'm sorry if you're not a sports fan like it"}
{"text":"should see a linear three betting strategy we talked about this by the way this is um 100 big blinds linear three betting strategy uh almost only three beds not a lot of flats and all of the three bets are coming from the top see the top eight percent of hands okay so let's see how that shifts and only so vpip of 10. hijack you start to see the range become more a little bit more polar we have some worse hands being uh added to the three bet but we also have more flatting so the benefits of becoming more polar with your Bluffs is that you can now start flattening some of these hands um that we played as three bets before we're using a let's see 8.7 3.5 x sizing here and you know the value threshold pretty much like nine you could just make this like purely nines plus once to three buffer value and then Ace Plus one's three but for value and you could you know just play a simpler strategy where you you just played knives 100 pretty bad it's between 100 three bet and then flat Ace Jack suited 100 of the time um if you look at the EVS of like all the different actions of like three betting or calling here it's negligible and and it doesn't doesn't matter at all um if you're just looking at one hand uh so if you're up against you know a very very soft opponent maybe you just want to purely three bet and try to get the pot heads up with him um maybe you're up against Adrian matteos and you have King ten soon and you just decide to full recognize suit and just decide to fold because uh you know your Eevee isn't that good against him or maybe you just played the past three pots in a row and you have Jack 10 suited and you just decide to fold it because you know that if you with the flop you're pretty much never going to be getting folks post block because uh they think you're a maniac so you don't have an you know you don't have much fold Equity post-op so you just fully injected soon or maybe you haven't played a hand in three hours and you have Jack nine suited and you decide to three medal so you know playing poker executing correct poker play is you know there's a dance to it uh and as long as you're around somewhat around these pre-flop ranges you're going to be uh you know it's it's okay to make deviations especially pre-flop where the values aren't worth as much folding versus flatting versus three betting a lot of these hands is not going to make you a ton of money so anyway let's keep looking at GTO ranges so cut off so now we're seeing the ranges become more polar here lots of flatting uh hand Deuces five four suited getting very very wide here with Flats"}
{"text":"stand to win only 3-to-1 for your money. Lo and behold, by using five cards to bluff with, I win that pot from you 23 out of 42 times, and you win it only 19 times. I make a profit of $400. Thus, my occasional random bluffing has swung a hand that is a 24- to-18 underdog into a 23-to-19 favorite. To assure yourself there is no arithmetical sleight of hand here, you can work out what happens if you call every time I bet. You will win $200 from me the five times I am bluffing and $ 100 from me the 19 times I don't bet, for a total of $2,900. But you will lose $200 to me the 18 times I have the best hand for a total of $3,600. Your net loss when you call is $700, which is $300 more than you lose if you simply fold when I bet. Had I picked seven cards to bluff with instead of five, the odds would then be 18-to-7 against my bluffing, and since the pot odds you're getting are 3-to-1, you would be forced to call when I bet. However, you would still end up losing! Seven times, when I'm bluffing, you would win $200 from me for a total of $1,400 and the 17 times I don't bet at all you would win $100 from me for a total of $1,700. Your wins after 42 hands would total $3,100. But I would win $200 from you the 18 times I bet with my good cards for a total of $3,600, giving me a net profit and you a net loss of $500 after 42 hands. It should be pointed out \u2014 once again to make it clear there are no tricks to this arithmetic \u2014 that you would lose even more money if you folded every time I bet with my 18 good cards and seven bluffing cards. You would win $100 from me the 17 times I don't bet, while I would win $100 from you the 25 times I do. Your net loss would now be $800 instead of $500. 184 Chapter Nineteen Optimum Bluffing Strategy Let's say I choose specifically 6 key cards to bluff with. That means I will bet 24 times. 18 of those times I have the best hand, and 6 of those times I am bluffing. Therefore, the odds against my bluffing are exactly 3-to-1. The pot is $200, and when I bet, there is $300 in the pot. Thus, your pot odds are also 3-to-1. You are calling $ 100 to win $300. Now when the odds against my bluffing are identical to the odds you are getting from the pot, it makes absolutely no difference whether you call or fold. Furthermore, whatever you do, you will still lose exactly $600 after 42 hands. If you were to fold every time I bet, I would beat you out of $ 100 24 times when I bet and lose $100 to you 18 times, when I don't bet, for a"}
{"text":"ADJUSTING TO WEAK TIGHT GAMES 131 into the pot, but he didn\u2019t. His weak-tight tendencies took over, and he feared the worst. His \u201cmonsters under the bed\u201d thinking caused him to build and then abandon a large pot. Some of you may feel that this example is too results-oriented. We\u2019re not recommending that you routinely try to blu\ufb00players o\ufb00big hands like his. It was de\ufb01nitely lucky that the \ufb02ush card came and that the blu\ufb00worked in this instance. However, weak-tight players will sometimes surprise you by making folds that, to you, seem ridiculous. They spend so much e\ufb00ort trying to trap people and avoid being trapped themselves that sometimes they make very silly laydowns. Final Thoughts Here\u2019s one \ufb01nal tidbit about weak-tight players. They sometimes tend to tilt more violently than other player types. They spend the whole night throwing away hand after hand to aggressive players. Then, they \ufb01nally \ufb02op a set and get it all-in on the \ufb02op against a \ufb02ush draw. And the \ufb02ush draw comes in. If they don\u2019t leave immediately, watch out: They may go on mega-tilt for the next few hands. This is particularly true if the devastating beat just took most of their money, but not all of it. I was playing a $2\u2013$5 game in Las Vegas. The player directly 1 on my left was extremely weaktight; his play strongly \ufb01t each of the \ufb01ve criteria. He had been sitting around getting blown o\ufb00hands for several hours, and he was stuck a couple hundred dollars. With $700 left, he got his opponent\u2019s $450 stack all-in on the \ufb02op with a set against top pair. The turn paired the top card, and the river paired the kicker, giving the player originally with top pair a very unlikely winner with a runner-runner full house. The weak-tight player turned bright red. But he still had about $250 left. Two hands later, he limped in from the button in a \ufb01ve-handed pot. The \ufb02op came A\u26619\u26636\u2660. One player bet about the pot, $25, and the weak-tight player moved all-in for $220 more. The bettor called instantly and showed A\u2663Q\u2663. The weak-tight player had pocket kings. When his \u201cace magnets\u201d indeed did \ufb02op an ace, he blew a gasket. He had a \u201cthis isn\u2019t my day\u201d reaction and made a (normally uncharacteristic) reckless all-in raise. Be on the lookout. Weak-tight players are both fairly common and extremely pro\ufb01table oppo- nents. Wait until you have position, and build a pot with a pre\ufb02op raise. Then use their predictable post\ufb02op behaviors to read their hands. When they seem unwilling to commit their stack, force them to with big bets and blu\ufb00s. They may pick up on your strategy, but usually they won\u2019t change gears to com- pensate. (Though be careful, some might switch up their play.) They\u2019ll resign themselves to standing up to you, \u201cOnce I \ufb01nally get a hand,\u201d but meanwhile, feel free to help yourself to pot after pot."}
{"text":"Math Meets Reality Wouldn't it be lovely if it were really this simple to work out whether or not we should open a hand? I'm afraid there's a little more to this procedure than I've let on so far, as many of you may have realised. RFE would only be the true required fold equity to open if Hero was planning to fold every single flop when called, regardless of his hand strength or fold equity post-flop; or if Villain was going to 3- bet, not call, every time he defended his blind and Hero was going to fold to that 3-bet. In a nutshell, RFE ignores all of the post-flop eventualities that affect the profitability of a steal attempt. Thankfully, in reality, Hero is in a far better position than the math tells us. He'll never require more fold equity than RFE suggests and will usually need at least a little less. In reality, Villains will usually be calling a significant amount of the time they defend their blinds and Hero will have the option, with any hand, to: flop equity, make a strong hand, value bet, continuation- bet with good selectivity, bluff profitably on later streets, take free cards, take advantage of Villain's mistakes, and much more. The list of all the things that can happen post-flop is endless and not something we can calculate mathematically (trying to do so would be a headache we really don't need at this point) Instead, let's suffice to say that Hero needs less fold equity to open a steal hand than the % our RFE number tells us. How much less depends on the strength of the hand and various other factors listed below. Figure 14 below shows the positive and negative steal factors that we should consider. The more positive the factors, the further we can be below RFE and still want to open. The more negative the factors, the less we can move away from it. In most cases, we'll be able to reduce RFE a little bit, even when we have 72o."}
{"text":"one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting\u2026 Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this\u2026 The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A\u2660A\u2663 in the\u2026 The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful\u2026 How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs \u201cThey always have it!\u201d is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency\u2026 Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I\u2019m not referring to\u2026 C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against"}
{"text":"all right everyone welcome so what I've been kind of doing this world series is taking notes of just common situations or things that I come up uh common mistakes that I see people making over and over again and one of the most common ones is with bet sizing and so in my opinion when you are you know starting out beginning of the tournament one of the quickest most reliable ways to tell how good someone is at poker is through the BET sizing that they choose and the way people are altering their bet sizes or using wrong sizes on certain boards or correct sizes on certain boards is often a very tall uh you know a very telling sign of how studied the person is and how they think about the game of poker and that's kind of like one of my first indications of whether I think a player is very weak or very strong um while playing and so I thought today like we've talked about bet size in the past I think it's one of the things that like a lot of bad Rags what separates a lot of bad Rags from good Rags is being able to size correctly in certain spots and one of the things also I've seen this summer is just like the very very misuse of overb bets uh people trying to overb because they're no supposed to overb in spots but they're over betting in spots where you just don't get to overb um and so that's why today we we'll be talking about bet sizing and kind of giving you a framework of how to think while you're in game to help you choose between um bet sizes and focusing more on like small sizings or large sizings you're never going to get bet sizing exactly right um obviously in a solver you can put 30 different bet Siz sizes and it's going to choose whatever one's the correct SI sizing for different portions of your range we're human we're not trying to do that so um often I'll only play like maybe two sizings in a spot and yeah trying to uh figure out what sizings make this the most sense and hopefully today we'll give you a very good framework for that uh the best way to get uh things out of today's webinar um is to answer the questions I don't care if you're right I don't care if you're wrong but you want to have an answer so that if you're wrong you can start to figure out why you were wrong and that's how you're going to learn and how you're going to approve versus if you don't have an answer you know and answer and also kind of think of the why why are you saying that answer what's your reasoning behind it so so kind of the title of today's webinar is BET sizing the small and big game so bet fre betting frequency and size ing um often our frequency"}
{"text":"Hand Range 302: CO 40bb vs BB 3.5x 3-bet \u2022 All-in 9.6% \/ \u2022 Call 46.8% \/ \u2022 Fold 43.6%"}
{"text":"Hand Range 79: BB vs HJ 4-bet \u2022 5-bet All-in 21% \/ \u2022 Call 42.5% \/ \u2022 Fold 36.5% Against the CO, the BB can defend 3.9% more hands. Both 3-bet and calling ranges get slightly wider by adding more weight to the threshold hands. It is worth noting how many offsuit hands such as K8o and Q9o simply get folded vs a CO open. As mentioned previously, offsuit hands with low connectivity struggle to realize equity post-flop OOP, especially with deep stacks (Hand Range 80). The CO 4-betting strategy vs the BB is a lot more polarized than the LJ and HJ strategy, so the BB responds by calling more hands and slowplaying AA slightly more often (53%). The BB"}
{"text":"will be used throughout this book.) Group 1: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs 2 Essays on Poker is today published as part of Sklansky on Poker. Hand Rankings 15 Group 2: TT, AQs, AJs, KQs, AK Group 3: 99, JTs, QJs, KJs, ATs, AQ Group 4: T9s, KQ, 88, QTs, 98s, J9s, AJ, KTs Group 5: 77, 87s, Q9s, T8s, KJ, QJ, JT, 76s, 97s, Axs, 65s Group 6: 66, AT, 55,86s, KT, QT, 54s, K9s, J8s, 75s Group 7: 44, J9, 64s, T9, 53s, 33, 98,43s, 22, Kxs, T7s, Q8s 1 Group 8: 87, A9, Q9, 76,42s, 32s, 96s, 85s, 58, J7s, 65, 54, 74s, K9, T8 These rankings reflect not only which group each starting hand belongs to, but its approximate order in that group as well. In reality, it's usually only necessary to know in which group a starting hand belongs. Consequently, Tables I and I1 provide an easier scheme for memorizing the group for each starting hand. Any hand not listed in the tables is ranked below Group 8. Table I: Band G - Group 1 1 1 1 2 3 4 Hand Rankings 17 tables make the task much easier. Once the tables are memorized, this system will facilitate applying many of the concepts that follow. (For those of you who are interested in the rationale behind these rankings, see Hold 'em Poker by David Sklansky.) However, we want to state that by the time you reach expert status you shouldn't be thinking in terms of hand groups. At this point in your playing career your starting hand decisions should be based on the intrinsic v.alue of each hand in each particular situation. But if you are just getting started playing, we know of no better approach. The First Two Cards: Early Position Hold 'em is a positional game, perhaps more so than any other form of poker. This is because the button determines the order in which players act for all betting rounds. (The only exception to this are the blinds, who act last on the first betting round, but act first on all succeeding betting rounds.) Consequently, the number of hands that can be safely played from an early position - which we will define as the first three positions to the left of the big blind in a tenhanded game - is quite limited. Since you are out of position on all betting rounds, you need a superior starting hand to make it worth ~laying.~ Specifically, in early position in a typical hold 'em game, if you are the first one in, or if there is only a call to your right, be prepared to play only those hands in the first four groups. In a loose game, as long as the players are not too aggressive, you can add the Group 5 hands, especially the suited connectors. In a tough game, it is probably best to discard even the Group 4 hands. These guidelines are very important. Playing too many hands up front is one of the most costly errors that you can"}
{"text":"not sure if I have these exact back flops but we're going to find specific structures here let's just actually let's ask this question first of these three flops button versus big blind and let's say we are 100 big blinds effective okay 100 big blinds that way we can really get some you know which of these flops one of these flops is going to bet small one of these flops is going to bet large and one of these flops is going to bet kind of like you know like we'll say one one's going to bet very large and one's going to bet like kind of a medium to large more of the middle of the two which of these flops at like a 100 big blinds is going to correlate to one of these three bet sizes here so King Jack Deuce 74 dece Jack 65 two tone which one's betting small which one's betting very large like an overb or pot size and which one's kind of betting medium to large so let's start with first uh which of these flops is going to bet small and I believe it's going to be king Jack Deuce flop is going to bet small uh 74 Deuce I think is in bet very large probably an over bet and then Jack 65 is going to kind of be in the middle okay so a lot of people were saying King Jack Deuce is very large lar and 74 is very small so we're going to focus kind of on these two flops and not as much on the jack 65 cuz it's kind of in the middle and hopefully um you could kind of understand why so let's pull up first so King Jack Deuce why why do you think I'm saying that we bet small on King Jack Deuce so I'm going to highlight here the um big blinds range right here and first let me ask you this who wins the small game on King 10 deuce and why who wins the small game on King 10 deuce and why this is the big blinds range right here and here's the buttons range right here so I'm going to show I can show you the answer we check and you notice here there's three possible answers 30% 65% and 100% And as you can see here you only bet 30% and you bet 100% of the time for 30% okay it simply has to do with the big blind has a lot more air in the spot than us so we have every offsuit 10x we have every offsuit kingx the bottom of our range even like Queen 8 has an overcard to the 10 has back door straight draw some of them have a spade Jack eight has an overcard to the 10 some of them have a spade but all of them even Jack of clubs a of diamonds can turn an open ated straight draw obviously all these King acts are a pair of"}
{"text":"comes: You must consider going for a check-raise. If you bet into many players and the pot is large, you probably will get several callers, and an ace or a king is likely to beat you. But if you go for a checkraise and are able to isolate a late-position player, you still may win even if one of those cards hits. Your check-raise also is likely to force out hands such as 87, while a simple bet wouldn't. Now you've eliminated the 1-in-5 chance that a player holding this type of hand will beat you. One other thing to consider is how aggressive your opponents are and whether your hand is strong enough for three bets. For example, if you flop a very strong hand and a very aggressive player who showed some preflop strength is in late position, it might be best to lead and go for three bets, by reraising his raise. Odds and Implied Odds Most players make many of their calling decisions based on the size of the pot compared to the current bet. This is called pot odds. While this does give an indication of what is correct, pot odds should be adjusted based on the expected future action of your opponents. For example, if the bettor is to your right and there are other players who might raise behind you, you should adjust the pot odds considerably lower. This means you have to fold more hands. Here are two extreme examples of this concept. First, suppose you hold Land the flop is If a solid player to your right bets, a number of players are behind you, and there has been no raise before the flop, you should fold. Notice that in this example, not only might you be against a better ace, but a spade or a straight card can beat you. (Against a \"loose bettor\" who would play any ace, and bet any ace or queen, you should raise rather than fold. You should also continue to play against a player who will only bet a draw, and check his better Odds and Implied Odds 81 hands hoping to get in a check-raise.) But against most bettors you should simply fold. A second example is to fold in the same situation if you hold and the flop is (Again notice that you can be against a better jack, or that a spade or straight card can beat you.) Other exceptions to folding these hands are when the pot has become very large andlor the game is very loose. Also, remember that calling is sometimes the worst play. That is, folding or raising in these situations is usually the superior strategy. If the pot is large and you are going to play, it is generally correct to raise with these types of hands. You should seldom call, as you cannot afford to give someone behind you who holds a marginal hand the correct odds to draw out. There are cases such as when the board is the J4T48V shown above, where if you have"}
{"text":"states where such gambling was legal. The handwriting was on the wall. So in 1973, I moved my family\u2014Louise; Doyla, 10; Pamela, 9; and my little boy Todd, who had his fourth birthday on the road\u2014to Las Vegas where we established our home. It\u2019s a good place to live: good weather, good action, and good people. Competitive by Nature 22 I\u2019m known as a professional gambler rather than just a professional poker player, and I have to admit that I am. I\u2019ve been known to bet on just about anything. And because of that, I\u2019ve surely had my share of losers. If I had stuck to poker, I\u2019d probably be a far wealthier man today. But old habits are hard to break, and I just like to gamble. However, it\u2019s more than just liking to gamble. I\u2019m very competitive by nature. As long as there\u2019s a contest\u2014any kind of contest, even if it\u2019s a marble shooting contest\u2014I want to be a part of it. If I can\u2019t be an active participant as I am at poker and golf\u2014and therefore betting on myself\u2014I have to bet on one side or the other, be it a football game, a prizefight, or whatever. My competitive nature is one of the reasons I feel I\u2019ve been so successful playing poker. You\u2019ve got to play hard to be a consistent winner at poker, and I\u2019m able to do that instinctively. I was a very fierce competitor as an athlete in high school and college. That competitive spirit remains with me. I\u2019m sure it has a lot to do with my success at the poker table. I\u2019ve never lost the feeling of exhilaration that comes when you\u2019re doing the best you can and gambling real high. There\u2019s no feeling quite like it. Next to poker, golf is my favorite game, and I\u2019m considered a pretty good player\u2014probably a little better than the next guy. Unfortunately, quite a few of those next guys have played a shade better than me when we got to betting on the course. I remember going back east one year with my best friend Jack Binion and ending up playing golf with a millionaire. We kept raising the stakes until finally we had $180,000 riding on one hole. He putted out for a par to my bogey and all that money just flew away. And that\u2019s just one of several such stories I could tell you. Now, the title of the first Super\/System was originally How I Made over $1,000,000 Playing Poker. The title of my next one is going to be How I Lost over $1,000,000 Playing Golf. There\u2019s definitely a moral in there somewhere. A lot has been written about my winning the 1976 and 1977 World Series of Poker for a total of some $560,000. You may have read some of the many stories. They were tough games against tough competitors. The best players in the world sat at those tables and the pace was grueling. That kind of playing is not something I would care to do every day, but"}
{"text":"card hits. Then your potential $50 win increases to $70, giving you 70-to-30 odds and justifying a call. 2 It should be clear from this example that when you compute odds on a hand you intend to play to the end, you must think not in terms of the immediate pot odds but in terms of the total amount you might lose versus the total amount you might win. You have to ask, \"What do I lose if I miss my hand, and what will I gain if I make it?\" The answer to this question tells you your real or effective odds. Let's look at an interesting, more complex application of effective odds. Suppose there is $250 in the pot, you have a Effective Odds 51 back-door flush draw in hold' em, and an opponent bets $ 10. With a back-door flush you need two in a row of a suit. To make things simple, we'll assume the chances of catching two consecutive of a particular suit are 1\/5 X 1\/5. That's not quite right, but it's close enough. 3 It means you'll hit a flush once in 25 tries on average, making you a 24-to-1 underdog. By calling your opponent's $10 bet, you would appear to be getting 26-to-1. So you might say, \"OK, I'm getting 26-to-1, and it's only 24-to-1 against me. Therefore, I should call to try to make my flush.\" Your calculations are incorrect because they do not take into account your effective odds. One out of 25 times you will win the $260 in there, plus probably another $40 on the last two rounds of betting. Twenty times you will lose only $10 when your first card does not hit, and you need not call another bet. But the remaining four times you will lose a total of $30 each time when your first card hits, you call your opponent's $20 bet, and your second card does not hit. Thus, after 25 such hands, you figure to lose $320 ($200 + $120) while winning $300 for a net loss of $20. Your effective odds reveal a call on the flop to be a play with negative expectation and hence incorrect. Situations When Effective Odds Need Not Apply There are a few times when you do not have to consider future bets when assessing your pot odds. The first case occurs when either you or your opponent is all-in or almost all-in. Obviously, when your opponent has no more money to bet or you have no more money to call, the last card will be free. So all you need to do is observe your immediate pot odds and compare them to your chances of winding up with the best hand. In the example 2 While a call on the flop might be a bad play, a semi-bluff raise could be a good play. Sometimes folding is a better alternative to calling, but raising is the best alternative of all. (See Chapters Eleven and Thirteen.) For the finicky, the exact equation is 10\/47 x 9\/46. Ten of"}
{"text":"Nemesis strategy Synonymous with Maximally Exploitative Strategy (MES). A strategy designed to maximize value against all of the opponent's mistakes (both future and prior)."}
{"text":"greater your chances of winning it, even if those chances are less than 50 percent; and when the pot gets large, winning it should be your foremost concern. Chapter Ten The Free Card A free card is exactly that. It is a card that does not cost a bet to receive. While players might get a free card (or cards) in draw poker if a hand is checked around before the draw, concepts about the free card apply primarily to stud and hold 'em games where there are several rounds of betting. In general, when you have the best hand, you do not want to give opponents a free card since you are giving them a chance to outdraw you and win the pot. By the same token, when you do not have the best hand, you want to try to get a free card to get a free shot at winning the pot. Giving a Free Card Giving a free card means checking a hand you could have bet when there are more cards to come. Of course, when you check with the intention of raising, you are giving a free card only when your opponent is so uncooperative as not to bet into you. When you know or are pretty sure you have the best hand, you have to decide whether or not to give your opponent a free card. We saw in the last chapter that it is almost never correct to give a free card when the pot is large. It turns out that it is rarely correct to give a free card with medium-sized pots, even when you know your opponent will fold if you bet. You simply have to be satisfied with what there is in the pot already. One reason you should bet is that generally you want your opponent to fold. If there is, let's say, $50 in the pot and you bet $10, your opponent is getting 6-to-1 odds. As a 5-to-1 underdog, he should call. As we have seen in earlier chapters, any opponent who 79 80 Chapter Ten doesn't take the odds when he has the best of it is losing money. Therefore, you have gained when that person folds. However, the principle of not giving a free card goes even further. If your opponent is a 9-to-1 underdog, getting 6-to-1 odds, you should still bet. In this case, you hope that opponent calls, but you don't mind when he folds. His folding is better than your giving him a free 10 percent chance to make his hand and beat you. As we saw in the last chapter, giving a free card is equivalent to giving a person infinite odds on that betting round. That person needs to make a zero investment for a chance to win whatever is in the pot. Suppose, going into the last card in seven-card stud, you think a player has a gut-shot draw to a straight, and you have three-of-a-kind. Your opponent is at least a 10-to-l underdog to make the straight, and even if"}
{"text":"the use of them i like to use them from time to time prepare inside as long as you can keep them not exposing your cards i wear sunglasses when I'm tired I don't want people watching me my eyes my eyes shift around a lot so everybody always thinks I'm bluffing which is not good dave says how much do you incorporate poker towels into your game the really big one Zachary Elwood has a book that's like $10 unaudible or even if it's 20 you should pay for it it's called exploiting poker towels but that will help you with most the big thing is when people have you ever looked at your hand before it's your turn to act and it's aces did you make any noise now most people are quiet as a church mouse when they look down at a big hand and that tends to extend to preflop and flop so any ostentatious behavior at those times tends to clip off the biggest hands it might still be a scam it might still be tens but it's not going to be aces right but the thing about that is if I can clip aces and kings and queens from your rage I can three bet with a bandit right and there are guys that have tells like that really big online players and Jennifer says Alex thank you for this excellent material for students considering your products I would highly recommend any of them I started with one and when I finished I couldn't wait to see the next each one has overlapping concepts but also new concepts are grow and learn from that they all fit together I'm working through each one for a second time and maybe we'll even do some three times alex is the best teacher and his videos come to the top concepts to help me to help solidify your game thank you very much John really appreciate that steve says you're the best my friend now you the best Steve it's really good to see you're here Steve Bob in Florida says off subject but I got asked what's the reason the open raises are 2.5 X n hundred big blank stacks is this a new norm or just a convenience just a convenience and to make it look like a table you'd actually say Bob Bob says thanks for the books gotten both glad you got him and the other thing uh no I mean to be a lot of people ask me why do you like big raises and it's like well I like big pots versus big ranges heads up so if I can make it 3.5 X and nobody else will touch it but the big blind will call that's what I'm gonna do it right but there's some times when you're dealing with short sacks and people are just gonna Jam regardless that size you don't need to go that big and sometimes I'll show you guys two point five x raises to make it"}
{"text":"of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"guy is out of position here though and so KhJh can serve as a value 3-bet as part of a linear range. The flop is an unbelievably easy c-bet. If we're not bluffing this hand with it's frequent two overcards to many pairs, backdoor flush draw and gutshot, then we are simply not bluffing the flop anywhere near enough in position. SDV is insufficient to check. On the turn the same is true. We now pick up so much equity that our hand is now possibly the most suitable turn bluff in our entire range if we don't 3-bet JhTh. This street is also a must bet for similar reasons unless Hero wants to check his whole range and he really doesn't given that he has a lot of Qx that wants to value bet three times against pocket pairs and 9x. Hero's river shove would be for almost pot, which we now know mean that he needs a ratio of just over 2:1 value to bluffs to be balanced since these are the odds he's offering to Villain by shoving. Hero's value range is likely no weaker than Qx for value (anything else would be too thin). If Hero 3- bets only KQ and AQ pre-flop (QJs should be okay too though), then he has 16 combos of value. This means he needs around 7 bluff combos and so should select only the most suitable hands for the job. This hand blocks KQ and QJ, which are undoubtedly a sizeable part of Villain's river calling range. This is a first class bluffing candidate and so should be bluffed even though Hero's value range is small. The only reason not to bluff here would be if we thought Villain was too stationy to fold even the lower parts of his range. There could be an argument for this given these stats, but Hero should have built up some player notes over the 4k sample and should now refer to these to see if such an extreme exploitative adjustment is warranted. Otherwise... Hero shoves."}
{"text":"foreign [Applause] [Music] in our last video we analyzed one of the worst folds in the history of mankind and some in the peanut gallery question why we were even mentioning game theory in a hand where people were cold calling 10 big blind raises with total gutter trash if none of the players even knows what a solver is isn't trying to apply GTO to assess their play utterly useless well the notion that game theory can't or shouldn't be applied in certain scenarios is a common misconception which we will attempt to disabuse in this video since Game Theory optimal is not a technical term of art much of the disagreement in regards to the whole exploitative versus GTO debate is simply definitional where people end up just talking past each other you see broadly speaking there are two primary schools of thought when it comes to GTO probably the most common way people think of and refer to GTO is that it is whatever the solver says it is in other words the GTO strategy for a particular scenario is the Nash equilibrium output calculated by the solver using the parameters of that scenario as the input we will refer to this as strict GTO those that subscribe to this school of thought tend to learn GTO mainly through memorization they look up or drill specific scenarios and then mimic the solver's outputs when they encounter the same or similar situations the other school of thought which we will refer to as conceptual GTO doesn't rely as much on precise memorization but rather focuses on utilizing principles from Game Theory as guideposts to help reason their way through strategic decisions this latter approach is the one that we take on this channel but this is not to say that it is superior to strict GTO each has its place strict GTO is most effective at high stakes online where a greater percentage of the player pool studies using solvers against an opponent that is playing a GTO based style the strategy that will maximize EV will also be based on the Nash equilibrium and it's often the player that does more detailed solver work that will have the advantage however against an opponent that is imbalanced a strategy based on a solver output will not be profit maximizing and sometimes may not even make sense but one can still employ Game Theory principles against an imbalanced opponent to maximize his EV to explain further we're going to review another hand from Hustler Casino Live where most people have less balance than Sean deeb's diet and this particular game involves a lineup with even a lower level of competence than the gaggle of degenerates from the last video social media influencers specifically this hand is between chess master Alexandra botez and Bryce Hall who I had never heard of before but apparently he makes Dance videos on an application called tick tock foreign [Applause] you raise Matthew Harrington in the chat says running it twice shouldn't even be allowed well"}
{"text":"Note that, with deeper stacks Hero would have to fear being raised and may want to check\/call the turn depending how little fold equity he expected to have vs. the Fish in question. Hero bets 12BB. Wrapping Up Well, that brings us to the end of the technical topics. That doesn't mean you're now an expert and I advise the reader at this point to be far from done with The Grinder's Manual. The examples can be revised multiple times and it will take many revisits to fully incorporate the material in this manual into your game. You have the tools right here, but you will not be able to wield them all competently without a lot of practice. Be patient, focus on improvement and the monetary results will come in time. It's not your job to force that part so be patient and keep working hard on your game."}
{"text":"DON\u2019T JUSTIFY THEIR OPTIMISTIC CALLS 31 rare times you are beaten will destroy you. Instead, you should estimate how much you\u2019re likely to lose while \ufb01nding out that your ace-queen is no good. Let\u2019s say for simplicity that you\u2019ll lose an average of $684.10 (as you did in the previous example) \ufb01guring out your ace-queen has been outdrawn. (The better your opponent plays, the higher this number will be, almost by the de\ufb01nition of \u201cgood\u201d versus \u201cbad\u201d player.) 10 You should now bet an amount large enough to make sure your opponents won\u2019t pro\ufb01t by trying to outdraw you, but small enough so that they might think that you have mistakenly o\ufb00ered them too high implied odds. Since $85.51 was a large enough bet to avoid pricing your opponent in for an average loss of $684.10 before, it still is now. So you should bet more than that. But you shouldn\u2019t bet so much that your opponent will never call. Once you have bet enough to o\ufb00er too low implied odds, you want your opponent to call. So don\u2019t blow them out of the water. Bet an amount that they might call. Keep in mind that your better opponents will look at your remaining stack and try to estimate how much they can get out of you if they hit their draw. Then they will compare that amount to your bet and try to decide whether they can draw pro\ufb01tably or not. Ideally, you want to bet an amount that you know is too much for the likely draws to call, but that is small enough that it might tempt your opponents. When betting good hands with deep stacks, bet enough to make your opponents\u2019 draws unprof- itable, but not so much that they won\u2019t often call. Final Thoughts These implied odds concepts are at the very heart of deep stack no limit hold \u2019em. The single most important variable in any no limit decision is the size of the remaining stacks. The next most important variable is how loosely or tightly your opponents bet those chips. Every time you have a decision, you should ask yourself, \u201cHow much money, on average, can this hand make me?\u201d The \ufb01rst piece of information you need to answer that question is how much money is available to win and how likely it is that you will win it. Then you need to decide what action to take to maximize what you will win. These implied odds ideas are at the root of that winning thought process. 10In practice, it\u2019s very di\ufb03cult to make such an estimate with any real precision. For the purpose of this text, we will often make \u201cestimates\u201d with the foresight of Nostradamus. We are primarily teaching the mathematical processes for coming to conclusions, not telling you whether to raise or fold in speci\ufb01c situations. Thus, the actual numbers we choose are largely irrelevant. It\u2019s the process we use to come to a conclusion from those numbers that is important."}
{"text":"This hand has absolutely no SDV at all. Its chances to win at showdown unimproved are pretty much zero. It also has nothing in the way of equity, but with sufficient fold equity, Hero should strongly consider a c-bet. No SDV 2 This spot is exactly the same case when it comes to SDV : there is none. The difference is that this hand has good equity against the average calling range should Hero c-bet this flop. Unimproved however, he will to struggle to win the pot. SDV is purely a measure of how often the hand wins assuming it does not improve on a later street. Again, Hero should usually c-bet here."}
{"text":"of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"In no-limit hold\u2019em, c-bet defense is highly susceptible to bet-sizing. Some players like using MDF as pseudo-GTO strategy, but as we have already pointed out, while this number could in some instances serve as a rough guideline, it does not take equities and range distribution into account. Basing your entire strategy on MDF will be highly detrimental. For example, in the BB vs UTG 40bb situation, if UTG bets 1\/3-pot then, according to MDF, the BB is supposed to defend 75% of the time. However, on a flop such as AQ3r, the BB\u2019s range has 70% trash hands and 10% weak hands. On average, the BB\u2019s trash hands have 16% equity against UTG, but the pot odds laid by UTG\u2019s bet-size are 20%. So even against the 1\/3-pot bet- size, calling many of those hands will be -EV. Raising would be even worse, as that puts even more money into the pot vs a strong range that will not fold enough to make the bluff profitable. In this situation, the BB\u2019s GTO defense strategy vs the 1\/3-pot bet-size has them folding 58% and defending only 42% of the time, which is nowhere near the 75% MDF. On this flop, the UTG can get away with c-betting their entire range and there is nothing the BB can do to stop them from having a profitable bet with any two cards. So, if you are holding something like a 96s with a BDFD, a weak king-high or a small pocket pair and have about 10-20% equity, you should simply fold even if the Villain is betting ATC. Your pre-flop call was profitable and there will be other flops where your range will be much stronger and you will either connect a strong hand, have a better bluffing opportunity, or your opponent will simply check back more often, allowing you to realize more equity. Never try forcing matters! Your goal is not to try to win every hand you play, but to play each hand in the most profitable way. If calling and raising are -EV plays, then folding, which is always 0 EV, will be the highest EV play. You must be disciplined enough to make the right play. When facing a bet, it is of vital importance to always consider the Villain\u2019s range that will take that specific line. For example, when facing a min-bet, your pot odds will be amazing, but the Villain will use a different range composition compared to when they bet the size of the pot. This will have an effect on your strategy because your hands will have different equities depending on how the Villain constructs their various betting ranges. If the Villain is the type of player who will always c-bet strong hands and check back medium strength hands in a given spot, many of the bottom of range hands you would defend against a GTO player will have way lower equity against this unbalanced strategy. You can exploit this poor range construction by overfolding the"}
{"text":"time not extracting value realize that in the short run variants is gigantic in poker you are definitively going to go on large downswings I see small six players get very frustrated when they go on a five buy and downswing in tournaments or cash games but that's normal get used to that look if you're playing good strong aggressive poker you're probably gonna swing three or four hundred big lines on every cash game session you play and you're probably gonna go on stretches where you don't cash in tournaments 15 times in a row because to be fair you win a lot of money in tournaments by winning the tournaments not by getting Min cashes getting Min cashes should not be your goal understand that this variance is actually a nice feature of Poker it is not a bug it is not something you should be sad or disgruntled about a lot of people especially those who don't like losing they hate the idea that they're going to lose especially when they think in their head that they are entitled to win because their opponents are better than them I'm sorry the other way around they think they're entitled to win because they're better than their opponents but understand if you're playing cash games for example you may only play two or three three big pots a day in a live cash game and if you get it all in with let's say 55 equity on average well I don't know the exact math but you're probably going to end up losing a decent chunk of the time way more than like 40 percent right because you're kind of flipping coins with a little bit of an edge and you're not actually putting in that much volume because you only get to flip those coins three times now certainly you win or lose some amount of money in the small pots and that's going to matter but you're not going to win more than like a third of or two-thirds of your sessions when you play cash games actually when I used to play a lot of cash games I would be putting in Long Long sessions I would win or lose roughly half of the time now my wins were usually twice as big as my losses but whenever I showed the casino I was pretty sure I was going to win or lose about 50 of the time and again this goes back to the idea of I don't really care about if I was up or down each day all I care about being is up or down over like three years right and at the end of the day you have to understand that volume cures variance as long as you realize I'm going to go and I'm going to grind it I'm going to put in a lot of time at the table I'm going to extract my Edge very definitively now in tournaments there is a lot more variance than in cash games I"}
{"text":"Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"starting to come out still all the suited hands the lojack is going to still be off suit eights i believe yep so the logitech range is kind of the same still off suit eights once we get to under the gun one these off suit h should start mixing out so they're still kind of in their jacket and then under the gun is off suit nines i know so under the gun versus under the gun we're at offsuit nines uh and you start to see under the gun is where these off suit aces start to mix out okay so off suit nines is the floor of the range versus under the gun and now you see like seven deuce unfolds but you don't really need to remember that if you call 70 suited you're probably not making too big of a mistake versus under the gun but if you want to get perfect and realize it you're like yes i fold seven do suit it but that's really not that important it's only four combos but learning that you shouldn't call queen six off versus the big blind is probably pretty important because now you're three pips off your range okay do i play pretty much a cash game strategy when i'm 100 big blinds deep um i don't think so tournament ranges are way different than cash game ranges guys because we have aunties and cash games don't yep all suited hands still have very good equity versus under the gun so right away you can realize versus under the gun the tightest range you never pull the suit down so essentially don't fold suited hands in the big blind versus a single raise so this is a good question uh generally oh someone asked what i mean by pip when i say that queen six off like queen seven off would when i say like one pip off like you know if you defend queen eight off here you're fine because you're just like one pip off like queen nine which is a call so generically what do you mix out first when the bet size is a little bit bigger so as a general rule i'll write this in the notes offsuit hands are very uh sensitive to ray size suited hands are not very sensitive to race sizing so what do i mean all these ranges are versus like a 2.2 x okay so let's just look at the button let's go back to the button here to make it simple yes these are tournament ranges um big blind versus raise from the button so this is versus a 2.2 x okay so if there's a min raise i'm probably going to expand here i'll probably defend jack three and jack deuce for the min raise i'll probably just expand all these offshoot hands six four four three like i'm gonna raise wider if they make it like 2.5 x i'm probably taking out a lot of these off suit fives and even starting"}
{"text":"a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment\u2026 What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets\u2026 Pot Geometry \u201cPot Geometry\u201d refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible \u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the\u2026 Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This"}
{"text":"deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"suboptimal opponent then any deviation the weaker player makes away from GTO to a worse strategy can never increase their value, but it can cost them value, which will in turn be gained by the GTO player. This phenomenon is called passive exploitation because the optimal player does not have to do anything besides play an equilibrium strategy to gain EV from the suboptimal player. In a sense the weaker player is self-exploiting by playing poorly. Active Exploitation Active exploitation happens whenever a player deviates from their core strategy to further take advantage of an opponent\u2019s leak. \u2666 A player who always plays Equilibrium Strategy is called a GTO player. \u2666 A player who employs a Maximally Exploitative Strategy is called a Maximally Exploitative Player. \u2666 A player who employs a Minimally Exploitative Strategy is called a Minimally Exploitative Player. In general, when players talk about an exploitative player they are referring to a maximally exploitative player. Maximally Exploitative Strategy (MES) As explained earlier, MES happens when a player chooses to deviate from equilibrium to a strategy that maximizes EV vs a Villain\u2019s suboptimal strategy (obviously, this is only possible if the Villain isn\u2019t playing GTO). Consider the following simplified poker situation: Example Game: Heads-Up Sit N\u2019 Go (Players can only push or fold) Effective Stack: 15bb Blinds: 0.5bb\/1bb Pre-flop: Hero is in the SB. His GTO strategy is to push 45.7% of hands. Let\u2019s imagine eight different types of Villain that Hero might encounter in a heads-up match:"}
{"text":"poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the\u2026 Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get\u2026 Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being\u2026 Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of 400K\/800K\/800K,\u2026 Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise,"}
{"text":"his bet, rather than his hand, will win the pot. SPEEDING AROUND A player who plays real loose with no definable pattern is said to be speeding around. SPLIT PAIR A pair in seven-card stud poker in which one of the cards is face-up and one is face-down. STEAL (OR STEAL A POT) To win a pot on a bluff. STEAM 443 See On Tilt. STRAGGLERS Players who limp in from early positions. STRAIGHT Five cards of mixed suits in sequence, such as a 7-8-9-10-J. STRAIGHT-FLUSH Five cards in sequence and in the same suit such as 5? 6? 7? 8? 9?. STUCK When a player\u2019s losing, he\u2019s said to be stuck. SUCKER A player who thinks he knows how to play, but really has little chance of winning consistently because of his ineptitude. SUITED Cards of the same suit. SWING HAND A hand in high-low split that has a chance to win both the high and low ends of the pot. TELL A mannerism of a player that gives opponents an indication of the strength of his hand or whether or not he\u2019s bluffing. TEXAS HOLD\u2019EM See Hold\u2019em. THIRD STREET In stud poker, the third card dealt to each player. THREE-OF-A-KIND Three cards of the same rank and two side cards, such as K-K-K-6-9. TIGHT PLAYER A player who tends to play only strong hands and gets involved in few pots. TIP YOUR DUKE To reveal the quality of your hand. TOKE A gratuity. Commonly used in gambling circles instead of the word \u201ctip.\u201d TOP KICKER 444 The highest (or higher) side card when two or more players have identical hands and that card is used to determine the winner of the pot. TOP PAIR Pairing a hole card with the highest card on the board in Omaha and hold\u2018em. TRAP See Check-Raise and Sandbagging. TREY A three. TRIPLE DRAW Form of draw poker played as low with the distinguishing feature being three separate draws where players may exchange unwanted cards for fresh cards for a total of four betting rounds. Typically played as deuce-to-seven with the deuce being the lowest card, aces counting high, and straights and flushes counting against the low hands. TRIPS Three of a kind. TURN 1. The fourth card placed on the board in Omaha and hold\u2018em. 2. A word previously used by players from the South and southwestern part of the United States instead of the word flop. TWO PAIR Two two-card sets of identically-ranked cards, plus a side card, such as K-K5-5-7. UNDERDOG See Dog. UNDERFULL A full house less than the highest possible full house\u2014given the board cards \u2014in Omaha and hold\u2018em. UNDER THE GUN The first player to act in a round. UNGLUED See On Tilt. UPCARDS 445 The exposed cards in a poker game. VIGORISH A percentage extracted by the house to enable it to make a profit on the game. WALK Letting the blind win unchallenged. WHEEL See Bicycle. WHEN ALL THE CARDS ARE OUT The point when there are no more cards to be dealt. WHIPSAW The caller between"}
{"text":"should be to slow down and take some time, because you could be making a crucial decision. The pot is getting big, you're drawing at potentially monster hands, and this could be a pot where several players go broke. A lot of decisions in poker can be made quickly, but this isn't one of them. You should be thinking about three things here: 1. Pot Odds. It costs you $120 to call a pot of $720. Those 6-to-l odds look very good. The big blind and Player B are still able to act behind you, but you're still getting very good odds. 2. Potential Outs. You're drawing at a straight and a flush. Both are strong hands, but neither is guaranteed to win. If someone is out there with two clubs, one is likely to be higher than your 9\u2663. There are nine clubs still out, plus three aces (you can't double-count the A\u2663) and three sixes (don't double-count the 6\u2663), for a total of 15 potential outs. That's plenty of outs, given the pot odds you're offered. 3. Your opponents. You were called by two players and raised by a third, which was certainly unexpected given the nondescript flop. Players B and D are known to be aggressive, so you can discount their plays a bit, but not entirely. You might be facing a set of trips somewhere, but you might just be up against a pair. A made straight is unlikely; someone would need to be holding ace-deuce, or seven-six, or six-deuce, all unlikely hands to be playing before the flop. Once you've reasoned this far, it's time to make a judgment. Given this set of facts, you should call. The pot odds are just too enticing given the number of potential outs. Calling is better than reraising because you would like to get in as cheaply as possible, and calling may draw in the two players behind you, improving your pot odds. Action: You call. The big blind calls. Player B folds. The pot is now $960. Fourth Street: 9\u2660 Question: What's your move now? Answer: You now have top pair on board, plus the straight and flush draws. With the pot at $960, you should start looking at the remaining stacks. You have $1,880 left, while the big blind has $1,100 and Player D has $1,490. You should make a strong, pot-sized bet here. That's a large enough bet so that anyone who is drawing will not be getting the right odds to call. It also shows your opponents that they have to be willing to go all-in to play. Action: You in fact check. Player D bets $500. What do you do? Answer: You should call. You can't be sure about the quality of any of your outs, but you have so many of them that it's worth calling. The nine clubs are probably outs, the six additional aces and sixes that are not clubs are probably outs, and the two outstanding nines may be outs. There are 46 cards left in the deck and 17 of"}
{"text":"we're holding a several Hearts because we have a much higher chance to hit a big hand and win a big pot with the former due to its incremental Equity we can also choose to Bluff when our particular holding makes it more likely that villain will fold from a probability standpoint which we refer to as card removal so on this River we may choose to Bluff with Ace of Diamonds tennis clubs but choose to give up with Ace of Hearts tenor clubs because we're holding the ace of diamonds it makes it impossible for our opponents to have the nut flush which in turn increases the probability that we'll get a fold due to our hands card removal effects when you balance betting strong and weak hands in this way it puts villain in a predicament if he has the nuts then defending is easy but what about his medium hands such as second and lower Pairs and perhaps strong Ace highs if hero only bets strong hands then villain can comfortably just fold all his medium hands and if Hiro bets all his weekends villain can just comfortably call all his medium hands but if Hiro starts balancing his bets among strong and weak hands then villain is forced to call some medium hands and fold others if he doesn't then hero would be able to readjust by either under or over bluffing so how does villain decide which medium hands to call and which to fold well again he could just flip a coin but similar to the bluffing situation villain can improve his chances for calling or folding correctly by choosing hands that have positive incremental Equity or card removal properties for example facing an all-in shove for our tournament life we may decide to call with pocket fours but fold with 10 9 because holding the 10 reduces the probability that villain is holding a bluff like 10 7 10 8 Queen 10 or King 10 for example so now that we've talked about what hero should do with his strong and weak hands what about his medium hands well since hands in this category generally will have a decent but not great chance to be ahead of villain they generally do not want to play for a big pot and will often be comfortable checking down and just scooping what went into the middle pre-flop so these middling hands can often be played either way as a bet or check often depending on incremental Equity however since we just mentioned that our strong hands usually want to bet over multiple streets if we take a passive strategy only with our medium hands and the weak hands that we give up our Discerning opponents would know that when we check the likelihood of us holding a strong hand is zero or very low and he could leverage this information to apply maximum pressure against us making our lives miserable so to protect our passive lines we can start to also play passively with some of"}
{"text":"reraise with from the small blind? Against a raise from the button (unless he is a very tight player), you can reraise in the small blind with hands as weak as A-8 offsuit, any pair, or K-J offsuit. For one thing, it is quite possible that you hold the best hand here. Your opponent on the button may have a hand like Q-T, A-3, or T-8 suited. It is never a bad thing to get more money into the pot when you have the best hand. Also, by reraising, you will most likely cause your opponent to read you for more strength than you actually possess. This can come in handy later in the hand, enabling you to steal the pot on the flop or turn with a bet if the board is of no help to your opponent. What you have done is take the lead in the hand. Winning hold\u2019em players play aggressively, helping themselves to the large number of pots that are there for the taking. For another, the big blind will often call one raise, but not two. Generally, you would like to raise this player out if you have the opportunity, and send his blind money to the center of the pot. This creates a bit more value on your hand, with the presence of some dead money* in the pot. You should particularly lean towards reraising a late position raise if the big blind is a good player, as you don\u2019t need him in your pot anyway. One further benefit of reraising frequently from the small blind against a steal position** raiser is the psychological effect it has on your opponents. They will ultimately tire of your aggressive play, and think twice before raising when you are in the blinds. This may allow you to see more cheap flops than you should be entitled to, a nice perk generated by your aggressive play. Tip # 14 of 52 It is a bad idea to raise very often from the big blind. When you raise from the big blind, you are doing so for one reason only: to get more money into the pot. You won\u2019t eliminate players, as everyone who has called one bet will surely call another. Also, you will be out of position throughout the play of the hand, which negates some of your hand\u2019s merit, because you won\u2019t be able to bet as many decent hands for value* from early position. As a result, it is probably best to raise only with absolute premium hands from the big blind. Against several limpers, only A-A and K-K are true raising hands. While it is okay to raise with AK suited, you should be prepared to check and fold if you don\u2019t flop either a pair or a flush draw. Against only one or two limpers, you can raise with a few additional hands, such as Q-Q, J-J, and A-K. The reason for this is that with only a few opponents, your big pair is more likely to hold up if one overcard* flops, and"}
{"text":"I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026 The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting\u2026 Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this\u2026 The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A\u2660A\u2663 in the\u2026 The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful\u2026 How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs \u201cThey always have it!\u201d is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency\u2026 Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I\u2019m not referring to\u2026 C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible"}
{"text":"squeezers in the blinds are more likely to target late position opens and so 3-bet percentages should increase in the seats behind Hero. Note that the above three strategies for dealing with opens are incomplete. We've not yet talked about what hands from this selection we'll be 3-betting for value and what hands we might add as 3-bet bluffs from those that aren't good enough to call. This chapter serves as an understanding as to when it's profitable to call opens and not as a comprehensive guide to playing against opens. Nevertheless, the knowledge of what hands can be flatted is going to be essential to helping Hero build his 3-betting game later in the manual."}
{"text":"you would play in a range so this hand grid over here the red is our three bet value range which would be Jack's plus ace king ace Queen suited King Queen suited and then the green is our flat calls the blue is our three bet Bluffs so our three Bluffs are ace deuce 385 student eight seven 7 six 6 five suited and a stun off so this is in contrast to the linear range where we don't three about these fringe e'er hands and we'd rather three about these suited Broadway hands we've now moved our three bet Bluffs to balance our value range to the break-even hands that we're kind of indifferent between folding and three betting and so all these the the key thing is the blue hands are still profitable three bets now the reason I brought it up before if you three about four deuce off which you sometimes see people do when they're three betting a so-called polar range they three about four deuce off they are losing money three betting four deuce off it will never almost never be profitable to three bet four deuce off so but three betting eight seven thirty-seven succeeded they're still good hands and they are still profitable we are never gonna 3-bit a hand that is not profitable so matthews had a good question our ace to student through ace five suited weaker than a six through eight nine suited they were actually stronger hands to them then they're actually stronger than the a six through eight nine student but we like to three about them because they have more equity and we have more playability post flop and so we'd rather three about the ace deuce through ace five suited because they just have a little bit more equity in the a six eighty six the race 92 just aren't quite strong enough and we want that little extra playability with those wheel suited aces so one of the key differences with a polar range is that you're gonna have a stronger flatting range so now compared to the linear range we had a lot of weak hands in our fighting range in this polar range we have a lot of strong hands that were flat calling so ace Jack suited ace queen off King Jack suited Queens actually did all these suited broad ways pocket tens nines eights we have a lot of we have very strong flatting range that's pretty happy to call 311 so we're a lot more protected versus a squeeze so keep that in mind just for yourself and also when you see someone using a puller range tree vet that they're gonna have a lot stronger of flatting range and one of the one of the key things also for like exploiting people is that and this kind of one of the main parts of this webinar is a lot of people will only use a polar range or they'll only use a linear range and they don't know how"}
{"text":"between the true value of your hand and the actual price the insurance man is willing to lay is his vigorish, also known as his edge or commission. I use the phrase \u201cbest potential to win the pot\u201d because the best hand on the flop doesn\u2019t always have the best winning potential. For example, if the flop was 7? 5? 4? and you had the 7? 6?, you\u2019d be about a 2 to 1 favorite over an opponent with a pair of kings, say, the K? K?. There are twenty cards in the deck that could win for you with two shots to catch any one of them. Your straight-flush draw gives you fifteen wins, and the three sixes and two sevens that are still in the deck give you five more wins. Of course, the assumption here is that your opponent\u2019s hand doesn\u2019t 410 improve. Through the years, I\u2019ve heard a lot of discussion about whether you should or shouldn\u2019t take insurance. My advice is to lay the insurance, but don\u2019t take it because the best potential hand always has to take the worst of it. For example, if you\u2019re a 3 to 2 favorite, the best you can usually get is 13 to 10 or maybe 7 to 5. So why take it? That\u2019s the advantage you\u2019re looking for to start with. If you take insurance, you\u2019re giving up your advantage. You can\u2019t argue with mathematical facts when you have the best of something. If you can lay 7 to 5 on a 3 to 2 shot, you should do it. But you shouldn\u2019t take 7 to 5 when you\u2019re a 3 to 2 favorite. However, I can understand if a man on a short bankroll considers taking insurance. I guess it would be okay to take the worst of it so you could stay in action. But if your bankroll allows, don\u2019t take insurance\u2014lay it. I used to talk about a related subject with a very big and successful gambler I\u2019ve known for many years. He said, \u201cIf a man came in and offered to lay me 10 to 1 on the flip of a coin for all the money I had in the world, I wouldn\u2019t take it.\u201d He said he just couldn\u2019t liquidate everything he\u2019s got, all of his property and his cash. He wouldn\u2019t risk losing it all, which would be worth several million dollars. He wouldn\u2019t do it even if he thought he could get hold of a few more million. But I\u2019d do it. I surely would. I\u2019d just have to. I couldn\u2019t pass up the opportunity to take 10 to 1 on an even money shot. I\u2019d do it because I have enough confidence in myself that I\u2019d be able to come up with more millions if I lost. A FINAL WORD Of course, I\u2019m sure you understand that all the numerous possibilities have by no means been exhausted. No-limit Texas hold\u2019em is a highly complex game. It\u2019s hardly possible and certainly not practical to attempt to discuss the enormous variety of situations"}
{"text":"appears, an opponent holding a pair of Jacks has Jacks and 7's, but you still win with Queen's and 7's. There are ways for you to lose: someone might have a pair of 7's in the pocket, but they would have bet them ahead of you. Most likely you have the best hand, and you should bet accordingly. Scenario 4-You hold 6+ 7+ and are in a late position. You and six other players are competing for the pot. The flop comes 84 94 100. There is a bet ahead of you, a raise, and someone calls that raise. Excited about your straight, you call the raise. You should have folded. With this many players betting and raising, someone already has a higher straight (like a Jack, Queen), and the players that call are on a flush draw or holding King - Queen and hoping for a Jack on the board to make a King-high straight. Your hand is already second best and can never improve. Remember that people play the high cards in Hold'em. Time to get out. Summary of Post-flop Play Unless you have the best hand, or a draw to the best hand, you should not invest additional money after the flop. Knowing when a mediocre hand is the best and should be bet, and knowing when a strong hand is second best and needs to be folded, is the hallmark of a good poker player. After the Turn After the turn, bets double. Your judgment of opponents and the pot odds dictate when you should stay in the hand. Learn to put your opponents on a hand and play accordingly. Invest your money in proportion to the size of the pot. 62 THE INTELLIGENT GUIDE TO TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER When your opponents are on the draw against you, betting to protect your hand is necessary, even when they have the correct pot odds to call your bets. Many beginning poker players fall into the trap of not betting their good hands (thinking that this would alert their opponents that they have a good hand) and calling with weak hands in hopes of catching a winning card. This is the exact opposite of what should be done. When you have the best hand, you must bet and force the other players to pay to draw you out. Letting them see additional cards without calling a bet is giving them free cards-the equivalent of giving them infinite pot odds. You must force opponents to make decisions. Don't worry about concealing the strength of your hand. You win more money betting with good cards because opponents learn to respect your bets and fold their marginal hands. You might win a showdown with a strong hand, but you always win when your opponents fold, no matter what your cards are. Sometimes, when many players are contesting the pot, it is not correct to bet with the best hand. If many people are on a draw to beat you, the odds are that at least one of them will. This situation is known"}
{"text":"diamonds almost purees King two of diamonds heavy rays and then as you Trend to a higher second card you do less raising and so like oh he's just like so hard to implement they're like look the random eight raises eight of X dime eight of diamonds X of diamonds raises but ten doesn't it's like come on man exactly only eight does it's hard to implement this stuff yeah yeah what am I doing in the spot like I don't know because I don't know because look at the strategy I can implement this so I think that I think that it's pretty reasonable to implement and say that okay like my best raises like my best race candidates I'm going to raise at a very high frequency so just like always you know the random eight is the one they're doing that does it compared to the ten you know because they're both gut shots or they both have a straight blocker and I get that the eight has more reason for protection but yeah I actually think what one thing that happens and one thing that's happening in this spot is that when you have the eight you can make one straight flush besides the H6 which is the Ten of diamonds whereas when you have the ten uh no you can't make two trying to think there has to be some there's no answer no there's always an answer there's always an answer there's something I better set the eight needs more protection particularly a call Protection whatever you want to call it anyway anyway let's not get bogged down on this tiny Point here okay there is a reason Justin has to be the answer that's how you get really good at poker I'll find the answer later and I'll I'm a little bit quicker to just say I don't know what's happening in this spot as long as I bet something and play reasonably enough it's going to be okay yeah which is probably why I'm not one of the top five poker players in the world and uh you know Justin just might be there in a big show but maybe one day yeah okay so anyway turn comes four Spades I mean I gotta presume we're supposed to be betting some diamonds right yeah yeah and I think the Ace King let's look at the Ace King I'm curious so you're a pretty heavy bet yeah for the best exercise with some checking if you know you can bet it and not fold it you should just bet it whereas if you have a hand like um I don't know find a do we even have any offsuit hands they don't have a pair yeah like so you're eight you're h10o with the Ten of diamonds is an interesting like difference here which one's better your Ace King or h10 and in this spot your Ace King is better uh with the ace of diamonds rather than your Ace 10 with the Ten"}
{"text":"not gonna make that big of a difference we're gonna go finish here and we'll gonna get this result and it's gonna look like this Jonathan where you're asking is exactly where you asked me a question where you type to where can I ask the presenter a question just go ahead and type a question there and I'll handle them all at the end of the webinar so what this basic program does is show you the every hand and the profitability of shoving or folding so for example here the under the gun player can shove these green hands so for example aces when it says plus five point one five big blinds on average aces are going to make five big blinds it's shoving here with ace-queen off see he's gonna be making about a half a big blank calling then some of these really marginal ones like Queen 10 student makes point oh two big blinds calling so I wouldn't be calling with that Han because it's really marginal so what we're gonna do here the first step is I have this process that I use with HRC so because everything we do is made up based off of assumptions so we really don't know what hands this guy is shoving with if we knew exactly what his range was we have a super easy way to figure it out cuz we just plug in his range and then it spits out what hands we should call with and what hands we shouldn't call with so this is the way that I go through trying to get the best range possible and to figure out the adjustments first we're gonna look at theory so the theory these are the absolutely if he was playing like a computer and I was playing at a bike a computer this is what would happen so cut off hijacked LoJack so mp2 if he was playing like a computer he could shove in with like pocket fours or better a sate suited this would be the range that he has so this is every profitable shove that he has you see threes here it's doing like 42 percent of the times it's a zero evie shove this is these are all profitable hands to shove with and then in theory we click on the down arrow because he's the down arrow he's raised to 174,000 and we go to big blind and these are the hands we should call with so he's 10 suited or better a stock offer better king queen suited and sixes are better so those are the hands we should call with in theory if we were to computers playing against each other so here ace jack-off would make 1.2 big blinds when we call that's a very big edge generally in a tournament like this that's very soft I'll probably take everything that's above like point four 0.3 so excuse me basically half and sixes you're better I'm gonna call with I'd probably just call with every"}
{"text":"a set of numbers differs from the mean. In poker, variance often refers to how \u201cswingy\u201d a game or strategy is relative to your win rate. Variance can also be defined as the square of standard deviation, usually measured in bb\/100. , and in the case where one player is clearly superior, they tend to be able to negotiate a better-than-ICM deal. We have already covered this in the context of final table deals, but what about the strategy itself? ICM calculations were first conceived of as a way to construct final table deals. It was only decades later that it was used to inform strategic decisions! One thing that often gets overlooked during ICM strategy talk is whether very good, or very bad players should follow ICM ranges religiously. Let\u2019s look at a Toy Game Toy Game A toy game is a simplified version of poker, that is used to help players understand the underlying principles and strategies of the game. It is often used as a teaching tool to help players learn the rules and mechanics of the game, as well as the concepts of game theory, such as decision-making and probability. example of a $100 6-Max SNG, which pays 60% to the winner and 40% to the runner-up. If you were to do an ICM calculation at the start of the tournament, each player\u2019s stack would be worth $100 (in our rake-free example) and the finish distributions would look like this: ICM assumes all players are of equal skill, which means that everyone has an identical chance of finishing in every position. Every player would make the money 33.4% of the time. It\u2019s hard to quantify edge against other players, but one thing we can do to get an idea is to look at a large sample from a significantly winning player to see where they are finishing in a tournament compared to the average player. I looked on SharkScope at the Six Max SNG leaderboard and picked one of the big winners at random. This is \u2018 Kommersant K \u2019 on PokerStars who has played 37,835 6-Max SNGs at the time of writing with an ROI ROI The aggregate money won, divided by tournament entry fees. If you have paid $1000 in entry fees, and won $2000 total, your return on investment is 200%. of 12.4%. You can almost get a perfect representation of what this player\u2019s finish positions are from his statistics, not quite but close enough: This player comes 6th 11% of the time, which is much less than the average (which was earlier noted to be 16.7%). They come 5th 16% of the time, which is pretty much average. You can\u2019t see specifically how often they come 3rd or 4th, but combined they finish in the two middle positions 34% of the time, so let\u2019s say they finish 3rd 17% of the time and 4th 17% of the time. They come 2nd 17% of the time, which is a little more than average, but they win 22% of the time which is a big edge."}
{"text":"game theory to bluff, you can also use it to call possible bluffs. Usually when your hand can beat only a bluff, you use your experience and judgment to determine the chances your opponent is bluffing. If your hand can beat some of your opponent's legitimate hands, then you do a standard comparison of your chances of having the best hand plus the chances your opponent is bluffing against the pot odds you are getting. However, against an opponent whose judgment is as good as or better than yours, or one who is capable of using game theory to bluff, you in your turn can use game theory to thwart that player or at least minimize his profits. Suppose the pot is $ 100, and your opponent assumes you will fold one out of three times rather than call a $20 bet. It then becomes profitable for that opponent to come out bluffing $20 to win $ 100 because he figures to lose $20 twice but steal $ 100 once for a net profit of $60 and an expectation of $20 per bet. By the same token, if your opponent thinks you will never fold in this Game Theory and Bluffing 189 situation, he will never bluff. Therefore, it behooves you to have an opponent think you might sometimes fold, but you should call sufficiently often to catch his bluffs. When you use game theory to decide whether to call a possible bluff, you make calculations similar to those you make when deciding whether to employ a bluff yourself \u2014 and you randomize your calls just as you randomize your bluffs. You figure out what odds your opponent is getting on his possible bluff, and you make the ratio of your calls to your folds exactly the same as the ratio of the pot to your opponent's bet. If your opponent bets $20 to win $100, he is getting 5-to-1 on a bluff. Therefore, you make the odds 5-to-1 against your folding. That is, you must call five times and fold once. You can use key cards to randomize again \u2014 for example, if you catch certain unseen cards, you fold. Otherwise, you call. In contrast to using game theory to bluff, using game theory to decide whether to call doesn't turn an unprofitable situation into a profitable one. All it does is prevent your opponent from outwitting you \u2014 just as using a coin in the odds-evens game prevents your opponent from outwitting you there. If your opponent is using optimum game theory strategy to bluff, there is still nothing you can do to get the best of him. Summary Game theory cannot replace sound judgment. It should only be used when you think your opponent's judgment is as good as or better than yours or when you simply don't know your opponent. Furthermore, game theory can be used accurately to bluff or call a possible bluff only in a situation where the bettor obviously either has the best hand or is bluffing \u2014 for example, a player in seven-card stud"}
{"text":"open much wider, since Bill will always have to overfold relative to his pot odds. That\u2019s the advantage of the big stack. Risk premium is a variable that\u2019s different for every stack vs every other stack at the table. In general, we can derive the following heuristic: Your risk premium is higher against stacks that cover you and lower against smaller stacks that you have covered. General heuristics and effects It\u2019s not possible to run ICM calculations in game. However, studying these effects off table can greatly help develop your instincts at the table. Here are some of the most valuable heuristics to remember: Stack off with a tighter range in tournaments than in cash games. Avoid marginal spots. A marginal +cEV spot is usually a -$EV spot in a tournament. Medium stacks need to play tighter near the bubble. Big stacks can threaten smaller stacks as they take on less risk when stacking off. This is especially true near the money bubble. The value of gaining chips is smaller than the value lost when losing the same amount of chips Pay attention to the payout structure. Big pay jumps are associated with a higher risk premium. When a shortstack is about to bust, resulting in a pay jump, all players except the biggest stacks should generally tighten up significantly. Limitations of ICM ICM has some general limitations. It\u2019s a pure math based system that ignores many of the intangible factors of actual play: ICM assumes all players are equally skilled. In reality, we\u2019d expect the more skilled players to win a larger percentage of the time, relative to their stack. ICM calculations for big fields are computationally difficult. Recent algorithms have made progress in this area, but it\u2019s still very difficult to correctly calculate ICM for large field MTT\u2019s. ICM doesn\u2019t consider players\u2019 positions. A 3BB stack is much more valuable on the BTN than in the blinds. ICM ignores blinds increasing. If you know the blinds are about to increase, that can affect the optimal strategy, especially with shortstacks involved. ICM underestimates the chip leaders\u2019 advantage. Bigger stacks can often bully smaller stacks due to ICM pressure, which leads to a higher win% for big stacks than ICM would otherwise indicate. Alternative models Some alternative models exist to address these limitations. One of the most popular is Future Game Simulation, which essentially is a recursion of ICM. It calculates several rounds in advance to take into account position, blinds increasing, and future play. This model is used in conjunction with regular ICM calculations to better approximate tournament equity, and is considered a staple in most tournament software. There is also the Dependent Chip Model, which seeks to address ICM underestimating the big stack advantage. Although this model tends to be more complex and overestimate shortstack advantage. Conclusion ICM is a complex tool that\u2019s used to transform stacks and payouts into actual tournament equity. Although these calculations are not possible in-game, studying ICM off the table will greatly improve your chances on the felt! ICM encapsulates one of the most important"}
{"text":"check-raise vs a 33% pot continuation bet 100bb deep. For consistency of comparison, I used these sizes for all situations, but they are not always the sizes the solver would primarily use in a given situation. That does not invalidate the results\u2013your opponents will not always use the same sizes a solver would, and GTO strategies are robust against all opposing strategies. Just know that you should raise and call somewhat more often against smaller raises and somewhat less often against larger ones . Denying the BB profitable bluffs will sometimes require continuing when you have neither a pair nor a draw. First, notice that on all boards, at all stack depths, the bettor\u2019s folding frequency hovers right around 40%. This is the Minimum Defense Frequency . This result implies that many of the bettor\u2019s calls and raises are not going to be comfortable or obvious. Continuing only when you have a good pair or draw would not consistently yield the exact MDF in all situations. Denying the BB profitable bluffs will sometimes require continuing when you have neither a pair nor a draw. The times to do this may not be immediately intuitive, but as we will see, they are not arbitrary. By studying and better understanding paired boards, you can build this intuition and make better decisions over the felt. Second, notice that the bettor calls far more often than they 3bet . This is generally true when facing check-raises, and it is especially true on paired boards. Trips will be a big part of most check-raising ranges on these boards, and those hands will not face tough decisions when raised. illustration Denying the BB profitable bluffs will sometimes require continuing when you have neither a pair nor a draw. The times to do this may not be immediately intuitive, but as we will see, they are not arbitrary. By studying and better understanding paired boards, you can build this intuition and make better decisions over the felt. Second, notice that the bettor calls far more often than they 3bet . This is generally true when facing check-raises, and it is especially true on paired boards. Trips will be a big part of most check-raising ranges on these boards, and those hands will not face tough decisions when raised. Even when you yourself have trips, there is little need to raise : the pot is already getting large, you have position, and your hand is extremely difficult to draw out on. If your opponent is bluffing, there is little risk in giving them rope to keep bluffing. If they subsequently check the turn, you will still have the option to keep growing the pot then. Three-Betting The more likely the preflop raiser is to hold trips, the more likely they are to three-bet. It may look like raising (three-betting) is just a small part of the bettor\u2019s response to check-raises in general, but what\u2019s really happening is that they have a relatively wide raising range on some boards and a tiny or non-existent one or others. Here is UTG\u2019s response"}
{"text":"are easy to find because the bulk of their value comes from one easily recognized source . The chart below shows BB\u2019s response to a 33% pot continuation bet from the BTN with 40bb effective stacks on J \u2666 6 \u2666 2 \u2663 Of course, top pair and flush draws never fold, but some calls are less obvious. K9 with a backdoor flush draw never folds, even when the diamond is just a 9. 53 never folds, even without a backdoor flush draw. Are you really supposed to call here just to chase a gutshot or a backdoor draw? No. The solver does not recommend calling just to chase those hands, though that is where a big chunk of the value comes from. These hands also derive value from improving to a pair (even 53 has a shot at winning by turning a pair!) and from bluffing. Improving to a straight or flush is worth a lot, but it happens rarely. Bluffing or improving to a pair is worth a good deal less, but it happens more often. None of these alone would warrant a call, but they each contribute enough scraps of EV that calling with 53 no diamond should be worth about 1bb more than folding\u2026 if you know what to do with it on later streets. One method to visualize this \u201cportfolio of value\u201d is to chart BB\u2019s EV of 5 \u2665 3 \u2665 by turn card. The expected value of hitting our gutshot makes up about 57% of our expected value on the turn. Keep in mind, however, that these turn values include the EV of potentially rivering a straight. It\u2019s OK to Fold Your opponent\u2019s actions are a significant factor in determining what your hand is worth and what you should do with it. It\u2019s not just the board that determines how you play later streets. Your opponent\u2019s actions are a significant factor in determining what your hand is worth and what you should do with it. When you call the flop, it helps to keep in mind why you called, what you\u2019re hoping for. With the 53 , you\u2019re hoping for a turn that improves your hand or a check from your opponent, indicating that their own hand is probably not great either. If you don\u2019t get either of those things, you\u2019re probably just going to fold, and that\u2019s fine. You didn\u2019t call the flop because you had a great hand or expected to win the pot. You called because you were getting odds of 4:1 and still had some longshots that were worth chasing. When the turn doesn\u2019t help you, a lot of your longshot potential goes out the window. The likelihood of filling your gutshot is cut in half. If your opponent bets again, they probably won\u2019t offer such a good price, and even if they do, it wouldn\u2019t be good enough, as your hand is worth less than it was on the flop. You aren\u2019t obliged to keep fighting for the pot. You probably shouldn\u2019t. When you call getting 4:1 odds, it\u2019s correct"}
{"text":"idea of what strategies work best against them. Keep in mind that the concepts discussed in this section cannot be mastered quickly. Like many other skills at the hold 'em table, reading hands and applying psychology take a while to learn and require a great deal of experience. But once mastered, they will become significant factors in your winning play. And for those of you who make it to the very big games (against the world champions), you must become an expert in these two areas to have any chance of success. Reading Hands There are three techniques for reading hands in Texas hold 'em. Most commonly, you analyze the meaning of an opponent's check, bet, or raise, and you look at the exposed cards and try to judge from them what his entire hand might be. You then combine the plays he has made throughout the hand with the exposed cards and come to a determination about his most likely hand. In other words, you use logic to read hands. You interpret your opponents' plays on each round and note the cards that appear on the board, paying close attention to the order in which they appear. You then put these two pieces of evidence together - the plays and the cards on the board - to draw a conclusion about an opponent's most likely hand. Sometimes you can put an opponent on a specific hand quite early. However, in general it's a mistake to do this and then stick to your initial conclusion no matter how things develop. A player who raises before the flop and then raises again when only small cards appear on the flop may have a big pair in the hole, but he also may have just overcards or a draw and is trying for a free card. Drawing a narrow, irreversible conclusion early can lead to costly mistakes later, either because you fold the best hand or because you stay when you shouldn't. What you should do is to put an opponent on a variety of hands at the start ofplay, and as play progresses, eliminate some of those hands based on his later play and on the cards that appear on the board. Through this process of elimination, you should have a good idea of what that opponent has (or is drawing to) when the last card is dealt. Suppose, for instance, that two suited cards appear on the flop and an opponent raises after there has been a bet and a couple of callers, but then checks on the turn when a blank hits. It is now very likely that he is on a flush draw and was buying a free card. If the flush card hits on the end, you usually should fold unless you 226 Part Seven: Other Skills can beat a flush. If a flush card does not hit, you may want to check and call in hopes that you can induce a bluff. However, if you were also on a flush draw, you may want to bet, since a"}
{"text":"Hand Range 305: LJ 25bb (2x vs BB 3.25x 3-bet) \u2022 All-in 13.2% \/ \u2022 Call 49% \/ \u2022 Fold 37.8%"}
{"text":"These flops are extremely dry indeed as it is very hard to connect with them. With the first flop, the disconnected shape and lack of draws make it difficult to frequently flop anything better than one pair. Two pair combinations are unlikely due to the average player not wanting to see flops with hands like K7, K2 and 72. The second flop offers the possibility of trips, but hands containing a 7 are not normally the first choice type of hand for calling call raises pre-flop. These are the kind of flops players will simply have air on very often. This ramps up fold equity rendering these flops very good to c-bet light. Type 2 - Dry These flops are slightly wetter than the last ones as they offer some extra two pair and straight possibilities. They are, however, still dry enough to miss the majority of hands our opponents are likely to play and so will make good c-bets particularly where the other factors are reasonable. Type 3 - Semi-Wet The first of these flops offers more straight draws as well as the addition of flush possibilities to many pre-flop ranges. The second flop offers more ways to make strong pairs as well as some broadway gutshots and a possible flush draw. These flops will require more of the other factors to be favourable than the dry boards did. Type 4 - Wet"}
{"text":"similar, around $5k profit. This time there was a 26.1% probability of loss and a required bankroll of $14,275 \u2013 much more than the first example. Finally, we simulated a flat payout structure by paying 30 of the 100 players in each tournament: In this example, the best run made $20k, and the worst run lost just over $7k. The average profit was just over $5k. The probability of loss was 14.4% and the required bankroll was $7,797. The Expected Value in every simulation was $5,000 . That is what you would expect in a $50 MTT with a 10% ROI playing 1,000 tournaments (it is literally $5 per tournament, multiplied by 1,000). Over the long term, our player would make the same amount regardless of the payout structure. Because we are humans without infinite time to play, there are real game selection considerations here. Steep payout structures have the biggest short-term upside but also the greatest short-term downside. You are much more likely to go broke specializing in top-heavy payout structures. Flat payout structures come with much less risk of loss, but their upside, by comparison, is capped . Registration considerations Payout structure impacts another key factor in game selection and ICM, which is when you register. We already covered this briefly in our article on late registration , but let\u2019s play a quick Toy Game to highlight it here. Let\u2019s say we are playing a nine-person tournament, with $10 entry fees and 1,000 starting stacks. Four players have busted and we, the 10th player, register late. Let\u2019s look at the ICM equity boost we get for registering late. First of all, here is a standard SNG payout structure: We are the 10th player at the bottom of the table. As you can see by late registering, we have received an instant equity boost of $1.17 , or 11.7%. What if we made the payouts flatter? The stack sizes are the same, but we took $10 from 1st and gave each of the other two payouts a $5 increase: Our stack is worth more than in the first example, this time we get an $1.43 equity boost . At the other end of the spectrum, what if we took some money from 3rd and gave it to the eventual winner, making the payouts more top-heavy? Late registering is still profitable, but less so than in the previous examples. We only get a $0.99, or 9.9%, equity boost . Going to the extremes, what about if this were a satellite paying three places? Here we have seen the biggest boost of all, $1.71 , just for buying in late. You can probably see where we are going next, what if it were a winner-takes-all tournament? As we stated in the last example, a WTA tournament is ChipEV, there is no bubble and, therefore, there is no benefit to registering late. Our $10 is still worth $10 , regardless of when we register. For that reason, assuming you are a skilled player, it is probably best to enter these tournaments from the start."}
{"text":"deeper stacks, they can treat these as strong hands should they turn top pair. With deeper stacks, UTG can no longer blithely stack off with overpairs . Thus, they raise less than half as often and mostly use a smaller size. This means BB is no longer in danger of getting raised off these draws: they get raised less often , have better immediate odds to call when they are raised, and can anticipate a bigger payoff should they improve to a straight. ICM These charts and graphs are from ChipEV simulations; ICM ICM A commonly used acronym for the term independent chip model. ICM is a model that translates the value of a tournament chip to actual cash value, better known as tournament equity. ICM calculations are based on the stacks and payouts of all players remaining in the tournament. can dramatically change players\u2019 incentives. Broadly speaking, both players have less incentive to grow the pot. However, when one player is covered, they are especially disincentivized from betting. Thus, you should donk bet even less often, even on favorable boards, when you are the covered player. Conversely, when you cover your opponent, donking will be a more important part of your strategy even in spots that seem otherwise undesirable for it. This article explores these concepts in greater detail. Conclusion For BB to make substantial use of the donk bet option, three conditions must adhere: Equities run close enough that the preflop raiser cannot be expected to continuation bet the flop at a high frequency. BB does not require an equity advantage, but they should not be at a significant disadvantage. The board is dynamic , causing BB to value protection and getting the money in early with a significant portion of their range. The BB enjoys a nuts advantage , limiting their opponent\u2019s ability to attack donk bets with big, polar raises. The flop cards align in this way only rarely, which is why donk betting the flop is rare. But on a few specific flops, consisting of low and medium connected cards, the BB does actually benefit from developing a significant donk betting range. GTO Wizard the #1 App for Poker players Study any spot imaginable Practice by playing vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Andrew Brokos Andrew Brokos has been a professional poker player, coach, and author for over 15 years. He co-hosts the Thinking Poker Podcast and is the author of the Play Optimal Poker books, among others. Latest article Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my"}
{"text":"thirty dollars a month it doesn't take very long to make that money back like if you improve your win rate by five dollars an hour which isn't hard to do at all your guarantee like almost you can increase your win rate by five dollars an hour it doesn't take much time at all to recoup the costs and you're gonna make a lot more money it's a great investment so now I'm going to spend quite a bit time we're gonna go through all these questions I seem in the chat go ahead and keep asking questions and I will go through the next questions for the next 15 minutes or so Lewis says one session I paid he played one session that paid for three years of poker coaching calm that's great Louis is there any way we can get a copy of their slides this will be reposted on youtube so you can rewatch the video on YouTube but I actually release you to the slides I don't think that will happen possibly but we can ask Jonathan about that Darren says congratulations on the chopping at the Wynn he says can you please tell me as how or why I chopped basically just there's a ton of variants and heads up and I didn't feel like playing a heads up match for $20,000 the other guy was a professional and so chopping was just kind of a way to lock up the money and reduce a lot of variance my quizzes are tough Stan says so Erik Anderson asks how many big blinds would you stack off with second nuts third nuts these are all relative questions and they can't really be answered when I talk about you know at an espy are less than five good top pairs become easy to stack off you're just much more comfortable playing a big pot versus when you have 150 people on you have one pair you know you're not supposed to be playing a 300 big blind pot but as you see in the example that I provided at the for the SPR it's just very easy to get the money in when you want when you have less than a 5 s PR and show up shallow or stacks which is deeper stacks it's hard to get the money in so there's a good question by Ricardo so in the middle stages of a tournament if I have a hundred big blind stack and I'm the chip leader versus second place is forty five big blinds I need to use the effective stacks fifty big blind hand rage device yes so your stack size doesn't matter it's the effective stacks of the opponents so in your case if you have a hundred big blinds and everyone else at the table has fifty big blinds you should be playing your stack set your hand selection should be like a fifty big blind stack because that's the effective stats that you're playing it doesn't matter how many chips you"}
{"text":"most opponents will fold a small flush draw or inside straight draw after a raise, but will call a single bet. Raising with your made high hand may considerably increase your chances of winning. On the other hand, some Omaha eight-or-better hands fare better with larger fields. Nut flush and nut low draws gain value when several players are in the pot, as the holdings of your opponents can develop into second-best payingoff hands. It is sometimes necessary to walk a fine line here, as building a big pot with premium draws is desirable, but it should be done in a manner that keeps your opponents in the hand. 3. How the Flop Affects Your Hand\u2019s Value Remember that the object of this game is to scoop the pot. With that in mind, be aware that the value of high hands plummets when the flop contains three low cards, and the value of low hands decreases when the flop contains two or three high cards. Suppose five players see a flop, which comes 3-4-6 (two hearts). You are holding A-K-Q-J with the A-J of hearts. Although you are drawing to the nut high, this hand should sometimes be folded when facing multiple bets after the flop, as you are only playing for half the pot. 4. Pot Odds When drawing, it is necessary that you have some idea of the likelihood of making your hand versus the price the pot is laying you. If, as above, you are drawing to the nut flush, even though you should end up with the best high hand about one time in three and the pot is giving you the correct price, you are playing for only half the money. The presence of a low hand on the board divides in half the price you receive on a high draw from the pot, generally making it unprofitable to stay with this type of hand. Conversely, if you have a hand like A-2-6-8 and the flop comes J-Q-7, it is an easy fold. You need to catch consecutive low cards for half, or possibly a quarter, of the pot. Although you may catch a runner-runner miracle straight, this isn\u2019t a hand to chase. However, if the 8 in your hand were a king or 10, this changes things 187 considerably. While your hand still isn\u2019t great, you now have the chance to make the ace-high straight, which may enable you to scoop. The presence of this draw, along with your backdoor nut-low draw, is often enough to make this a playable situation, especially if the pot is large and it\u2019s only one bet to you. 5. Position Your position relative to the betting is extremely important. When a bet comes from your immediate right, you must play tighter and pass on more draws, because you don\u2019t know if the players behind you are looking to go to war with their hands. If they are, it will become expensive to stay in. However, if you are last to act after the action has been made, and thus the"}
{"text":"of tournament where a portion\u2026 How To Analyze Turn Textures In Poker Master the art of turn analysis in poker. Understand how the turn card changes the\u2026 Principles of Turn Strategy Learn the principles of turn strategy in poker and discover what makes the turn unique.\u2026 Poker Strategies: Tournaments vs. Cash Games Tournament poker is not as different from cash game poker as people sometimes assume. Most\u2026 How Solvers Work A Game Theory Optimal solver is an algorithm that calculates the best possible poker strategy.\u2026 The Most Powerful Play in Poker The central strategic implication of stack depth is the question of how much equity a\u2026 When does ICM become significant in MTTs? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) was invented in 1987 by M. Malmuth and is one\u2026 How to Study GTO Solutions Tools like GTO Wizard and other solvers should not be used to memorize specific strategies.\u2026 Principles of GTO Game theory, or GTO (for Game Theoretically Optimal), is best understood not as a rigid\u2026 Interpreting Equity Distributions GTO Wizard\u2019s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which\u2026 What is Leverage in poker? Leverage refers to the risk of future betting. When you call a bet on the\u2026 Reasons for value betting in poker You\u2019re probably accustomed to thinking of bets as either value or bluff. In this taxonomy,\u2026 The Science of Poker Performance Poker is a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment\u2026 What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets\u2026 Pot Geometry \u201cPot Geometry\u201d refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible \u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your"}
{"text":"come up relatively often where you don't know whether you have the best hand or not, but you do know that $you have the worst hand you will probably finish with the worst hand, and if you have the best hand you will probably finish with the best hand. These are the clearest cases to slowplay. Everyone thinks that you should slowplay the great hands. But in hold 'em it's not how good your hand is that's important, but how likely slowplaying can cost you the pot. Therefore the hands that you slowplay are those hands that are most likely to retain their relative value in relation to the other possible hands. You don't have to have a great hand to be in that situation. A simple example would be when you hold two kings, 206 Part Five: Playing Short-Handed and an ace with nothing else flops. You might be beat already, but not betting will only rarely make a difference. On the other hand, if you held two tens in the same situation, slowplaying can be expensive. A king, queen, or a jack can come on the turn. However, (and this is very important), no matter how unlikely it is that slowplaying will cost you the pot, it isn't something you do when the pot is big. So in multiway pots you should bet or raise, and do as instructed earlier in the text. You should also be more inclined to bet in a full ring game even if the pot is small. The reason for this is that they are more likely to have legitimate hands to pay you off. But when it is short-handed, and especially if you are against a very aggressive player, it makes sense to slowplay more hands than you norn~ally would. Fifth Street In games like this it often doesn't take that much to win. Therefore you must pay off with a lot of hands. Second pair is not just a bluff catcher, since your opponent will sometimes bet third pair for value. You should too, especially if you are last to act and he has already checked. Ifyou are first, however, it is usually better to try to induce a bluff with these mediocre hands. Of course you must mix up your play. (The general concepts of heads-up pla on Poker by David Sklansky.) X the end are very intricate and are covered fully in The Theory of A Note on Tells In a short-handed game not only are you frequently playing heads-up, but you are constantly playing hands that are not very good. Because of this you will often find yourself in a situation where it is far from obvious what you should do, and it is more likely than normal that you could exhibit a tell. The same holds true for your opponents. Now the tell could be the way you throw your chips in, or the amount of time that you are thinking about a hand. In a shorthanded game it is often likely that you are going to have a"}
{"text":"Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting\u2026 Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this\u2026 The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A\u2660A\u2663 in the\u2026 The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful\u2026 How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs \u201cThey always have it!\u201d is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency\u2026 Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I\u2019m not referring to\u2026 C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest"}
{"text":"Hand Range 308: LJ 25bb (2x vs HJ 2.75x 3-bet) \u2022 All-in 21.8% \/ \u2022 Call 42.7% \/ \u2022 Fold 35.5%"}
{"text":"and sets. While A\u2661Q\u2661is likely to be tops on a Q\u26608\u26623\u2661\ufb02op, it is no certainty. And when you commit to $5,000 in betting to protect the $100 in the pot, those 9You don\u2019t have to \ufb01gure this precisely while you play. Just realize that you should o\ufb00er him less than about 10-to-1."}
{"text":"going to fold or if they have ace 10 they're going to fold so when they call your flop bit they have something so when they have something they usually could have ace queen king queen queen jack that we lose to but they could also have some marginal stuff like 9 8 or they could have king jack for a straight draw they decided to call that may start bluffing if we check the turn so now we're going to check and when we check this hand we already know we're just not really looking to fold this hand this is one of the best marginal made hands we could have so we're gonna check and then once our opponent bets we're gonna call and this is a very different strategy than what a lot of recreational players use they instead bet the flop and bet the turn and bet the river but when that happens what your opponent is going to end up folding out all of their marginal hands that you beat and they're going to call with all of the better hands that you lose to and that's actually a horrible result so you want to make sure that you do have some decently strong hands in your checking range so that when you check you're not just folding every time your opponent bets imagine how easy poker would be if every time your opponent checks they're going to fold if you bet and every time they bet they're betting because they have a good hand well that's actually how a lot of small stakes players play and that's why the small 6 games are incredibly profitable and really the flop and the turn are not all that different whenever you have the range advantage and the nut advantage you're going to want to continue betting when you don't you're going to mostly want to check whenever you lack the range advantage you're going to be betting with only your best mate hands and your draws the difference though is that once your opponent or you make it through the flop you are both going to have different ranges right for example if you bet on an uncoordinated flop as the pre-flop razor you're going to have your entire range for the most part because you're going to continuation with almost everything however your opponent when they check call you on the flop is now not going to have their entire range because if they had nothing on the flop they're just going to fold so their range gets stronger so in general you're going to find that ranges start to be closer to 50 50 on the turn which leads to essentially more polarized betting where the bettors are betting with their best made hands in their drawers and they're checking with their marginal made hands and their junk there are eight examples i'm going to be going through here i realize they are somewhat in depth so take it slow if you need to pause and"}
{"text":"Playing the Nuts on the River \u2014 More Examples Early in the book we introduced the concept of expectation in terms of a simple example where you made the nut straight on the river and had to decide how much to raise. While we didn\u2019t want to delve too deeply so early on into the details of playing the nuts on the river, we do have more things to say on the topic. We\u2019ll say them here. Making a big all-in bet with the nuts is very likely to be the best play in some circumstances. Here\u2019s an example of those circumstances. The blinds are $5\u2013$10, and you have $500. Everyone has you covered. Two players limp to you on the button with J\u2660T\u2660, You call $10. The small blind calls, and the big blind checks. The \ufb02op is J\u2662J\u2660T\u2661. Everyone checks to you, and you check. The turn is the 7\u2660. Everyone checks to you, and you check again. (Obviously you would check the \ufb02op and turn only under certain circumstances.) The river is the 3\u2660, and the small blind bets $50. Everyone folds to you. The small blind likely has a weak hand, a blu\ufb00or a marginal value bet. If that\u2019s the case, even a minimum $50 raise probably won\u2019t be called. But there\u2019s some chance the small blind was slowplaying along with you. Though unlikely, TT, J7, 77, or 33 are possibilities. In that case, expect even a $440 all-in raise to be called. Since there are few possible hands that would call a $50 raise, but not $440, only a big raise makes sense. If your opponent is likely to be weak, but possi- bly could be sandbagging an big hand, with the nuts you should often assume strength and make a big bet. This isn\u2019t to argue that you should always make a big bet when you have the nuts on the river. Far from it. Often the natural play of \u201cselling your hand\u201d for a modest bet is optimal. We provided two examples (here and in the earlier chapter) where making a big raise was the best play because, at least for some players, this seems to be the more counterintuitive play. 57"}
{"text":"stay where to play how to get in the zone all that stuff that's where i really shine so i'm gonna be doing a presentation on that not sure when but if you want to update on that follow grips poker on twitter and you'll be informed okay chris says it all clicked nice presentation thank you awesome chuck says i don't know what to ask i'll have to review the replay first awesome dude you can just if you post a question in the comment section of the replay on jonathan's youtube or my youtube i will be in there to give you an answer uh for sure uh great presentation evan is position key with pre-flop and post-flop strategies from this lesson yeah so so it's kind of like a three-step system so step one is play hands in position because you're gonna get the information advantage step two is choose the right betting size based on what you want to accomplish and then step three is choose the range of hands that you want to use based on the bet size that you chose so this is kind of the last step in three so position gives you the first edge bet size gives you the second edge and then hand selection gives you the third edge and ensures that you get the most out of your betting and position advantage kevin says where to access the replay jonathan little's youtube channel will be uh the place to access it first i think he's super fast he'll probably upload it like tomorrow richard says thanks evan almost skipped this webinar so glad i did not thanks for the excellent material okay so you so this stuff was clicking for you guys this was making sense because i i went through it four times and each time i'm like man i hope i'm going to be able to to communicate it really well because it's it's tough stuff but jonathan says thank you very very informative well after you watch it on youtube i found with this stuff like that that hearing getting access to the overarching theory multiple times was really key and then i was able to dive deeper because i saw how it all fit together and that's why i wanted to cover as much of it as possible to give you the big picture rather than dialing in on one area and having that be the entire presentation so i hope that that was appreciated bob harmon says thank you great info on here chuck says thanks evan um oh man this is awesome thanks guys gary says great material appliance material is what separates casual versus better player must admit i'll have to watch again uh where to find the aflac webinar also on jonathan little's youtube channel great place to go thanks okay sort of a bit new too but we'll get there thanks and also guys i'm gonna be practicing this myself because i'm i'm now in the process of working on my"}
{"text":"against such bets. Larger Bets In a simulation where UTG is only allowed to bet 83% pot or check , BTN plays an even more strict call-or-fold strategy in response to a bet: This restriction does not cost UTG much EV. Though they almost always used a much smaller size in the unrestricted simulation, they do just 3bb\/100 worse when restricted to this larger bet. The option to check, however, is much more important to them when a big bet is the alternative . UTG bets only about \u2153 of the time at equilibrium, and when forced to range-bet with a 83% pot size bet , they lose nearly 40bb\/100 ! If BTN exploits correctly, that is. BTN \u2019s folding frequency goes down a bit, but the big change to their strategy is a renewed interest in raising : When given the option to check, UTG \u2019s betting range is polar , as it should be for a large bet size: A raise would merely result in them folding their worst hands, which have poor equity anyway, and continuing the strong ones, against which even BTN\u2019s stronger hands might not be in good shape. Medium-strength hands are the ones that would face tough decisions when raised , but UTG isn\u2019t betting those anyway. But if UTG does bet those medium-strength hands, then raising becomes appealing for BTN. The \u2018 Compare EV \u2019 display helps us visualize which hands are the worst to bet: Thanks to their strong blocking effects on second-best hands, top and middle sets are actually the worst hands for UTG to bet! Bottom set, 66 , unblocks their calling range and is a great value bet. But aside from those, the worst hands to bet are all medium-strength hands: middle pair, pocket pairs, top pair with a weak kicker, etc. These hands all hate getting raised. Some humans are more concerned with winning the pot than maximizing their EV. Is it realistic to think a human in UTG\u2019s seat might bet these for a large size? As with any exploit, it depends on the player. There are certainly players out there who will bet to \u201crepresent the Ace\u201d or to \u201ctake it down now\u201d when they have a medium pair. Essentially, they are more concerned with winning the pot than maximizing their EV. You\u2019ll have to make a judgment call as to how well this applies to any given opponent, but it\u2019s helpful to have such a specific question to focus your thinking. \u201cWill this player bet medium-strength hands like KK here?\u201d is a more specific and thus a more useful question than \u201cWill this player bet too often?\u201d since not all hands lose a lot of EV from betting at a higher frequency or from getting raised . BTN \u2019s exploitative raising range is mostly linear . The closest thing to a pure bluff is 54 s, which in addition to its backdoor draws ( 5 \u2663 4 \u2663 never raises), unblocks UTG\u2019s weaker hands in a way that other backdoor draw hands like T9 s do not."}
{"text":"i'm excited to learning alongside you becoming the best players we can be together and hope to see you uh with a big stack in a cash game or at the final table of some tournament sometime soon feel free to tweet me your winner's picks they always get me happy and excited and motivated wish you a wonderful evening and until next time good luck and happy stacking i think i hit the stop button evan jarvis wishing you all the best that's not that's how i stopped the screen but you guys can still hear me okay now now i'm i'm gone for good bye everybody have a great night"}
{"text":"flop check does not convey this same information, as they check their entire range. Thus, when a draw completes after the flop checks through, BB acquires a nut advantage and can do some overbetting. This is true even though UTG checks some draws on the flop\u2013they do not check enough to make overbetting undesirable on these turns. If BB checks a second time, we see mostly small bets from UTG, a consequence of their less nutty range. The main exceptions are the Broadway cards that most improve them, introducing some new nutty hands into their previously capped range. UTG delayed c-bet strategy by turn card on K \u2660 8 \u2660 7 \u2665 Conclusion Range disparities are most pronounced in UTG vs BB confrontations, and this is an especially good flop for UTG. These patterns are not always as clear and pronounced as they appear here, but the underlying principles should inform your evaluation of the turn card in any situation. Start with a clear understanding of how the equities and nutty hands are distributed prior to the turn card, then consider how much the turn changes those distributions . GTO Wizard the #1 App for Poker players Study any spot imaginable Practice by playing vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Andrew Brokos Andrew Brokos has been a professional poker player, coach, and author for over 15 years. He co-hosts the Thinking Poker Podcast and is the author of the Play Optimal Poker books, among others. Latest article Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026 The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the"}
{"text":"him pay for it before the flop. If more than three people see the flop and an ace flops, you can quietly deposit your kings in the muck. If the pot was three-handed or heads-up and an ace flops, you might want to test the waters and bet out. If you get raised, you\u2019ll have to rely on your judgment when it comes to deciding whether to call or fold. Your decision should be based on your read of your opponent. Would he raise me here with a draw? Might he even raise me with middle pair? Does this guy ever bluff? Would this guy play ace-rag? By answering all of these questions, you should have a sufficient number of clues to help you make the right choice. This is why it\u2019s so important to pay attention to the hand you\u2019re involved in, as well as hands you\u2019ve already folded. By watching the game, you should be able to figure out who likes to limp with A-x and who prefers playing suited connectors. You may consider limping with K-Q suited as well. Unlike high pairs like AA or K-K and other premium hands, this hand plays well in multiway pots. Deception and mixing up your play should be an important part of your game, but unfortunately there is only so much you can do from early position. For the most part, you just want to play fundamentally sound poker. When you find yourself under the gun, don\u2019t try too hard to be creative, because it may cause you to be faced with more difficult decisions later in the hand, and you can end up outwitting yourself! Middle Position In middle position, you should definitely play the premium hands we 109 mentioned above, but now, with fewer players acting after you, you can play a few more. Although middle position allows you to broaden your hand selection, remember that, unlike early position, you now have to take into account what has happened in front of you. Playing Premium Hands from Middle Position (A-A, K-K, Q-Q, A-K) For the most part, you should play your premium hands from middle position the same way you would from early position. If you are the first one in with A-A, K-K or A-K, you should raise. If somebody has raised in front of you, you should be aggressive and reraise. As you read on through this chapter, you\u2019ll find a recurring theme: aggression! Sometimes, you might want to practice a little bit of deception by calling a raise with a hand like A-K suited, the best drawing hand of them all. Even if you flop a flush draw with no pair, you still have fifteen outs against a hand like Q-Q, which, by the way, would make you the favorite to win the pot. If you are up against another unpaired hand, you\u2019d have the best hand, as well as the best draw. There are other reasons why you might just want to call a raise with A-K suited. Say you are holding A? K? in a"}
{"text":"um even some kings i i i think king's like his strong kings might continuation bet here um for protection from the flush draws you know and to charge landon for his draws um yeah it's a it's a draw heavy board he's you know he's could be afraid of spades nine seven five seven um landon can also have some two pair combos that that poker traveler can't like um eight six which is now improved to a boat on the turn um and king eight suited as well so poker traveler definitely has to be uh careful here with this bet i do think he should call one straight because i think it would be uh a little bit too passive for poker traveler to just check uh check check flop check flop and then fold the turn so i do think he has to call one straight which he does traveler makes the call with the ladies and we'll see a river and the river is a jack of diamonds so now the question is does landon continue the bluff here he has to assume he's never winning at showdown with his seven high so it's either he has to bet or just check give up knowing he's gonna forfeit but that's not landon style he goes for the gold here and he puts in the over bed there was like 800 on the there was like 800 and something in the pot and he's betting 1500 which is pretty awesome i like the over bet here this is putting so much pressure on the poker traveler to to call with his queens here um even if poker traveler just had a king i mean i'm sure he would find the fold just because so many of the draws bricked this this sizing on landon's part is very very polarizing um i think that this is like screaming bricked draw or screaming the goods i think that landon certainly can have a lot of eights in his range here and like i said he very well could have um the the full houses that that poker traveler can't have um i think poker traveler uh kind of capped his range when he bet the when he checked the flop because i think a a hand like top set of kings is going to be continuation betting versus that verse landon and that texture of the board so i think landon pretty much knows that he kind of has probably like a middling pair like pocket tens maybe queens um and yeah so i i really like this sizing um on landon's part and like i said earlier landon certainly can represent all of the um you know a lot of the boats that that poker traveler can't have like eight six suited king eight suited um pocket sixes i think pocket sixes would probably if poker traveler had pocket sixes i would imagine he would fold that that um at some frequency under the gun uh especially um considering"}
{"text":"Well, Hero will be folding the flop a fair percentage of the time when he misses it, therefore, it won't be enough just to beat Villain's weak hands or extract money from bluffs post-flop. Hero wants to be ahead often enough when he flops well that he can extract a good deal of value from worse made- hands and to lose to better made-hands infrequently, thus making up for the times he has to fold unimproved. Before we look an example hand, it's time to introduce a new set of stats that I urge Hero to use. We're building up quite the HUD now. The green numbers on the HUD in Hand 45 display RFI by position from UTG through to the SB."}
{"text":"\u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"a winner.' Monty poured us another drink. 'Monty,' I said, 'I appreciate these tips and am looking forward to further lessons, but I hope to make a name for myself in some other field than gambling.' 'I hope you do. Poe did. His short stories and poems are among the greatest of modern literature.' 'He must have been quite a poker player,' I offered. 'No, he wasn't, I'm sorry to say,' said Monty. 'He was a poet and not a mathematician. He was disinherited because of his poker debts.' II Monty was alone in his study a day or so later when I asked him for more pointers on straight draw. 'Well, for one thing,' Monty said, 'you made a dumb play last night when you had kings up and were sitting to the left of the opener and didn't raise. Kings up can be beat if too many players stay. Now if there had been three or four players who stayed after the pot was opened, your hand was worth a call but not a raise, for once a sucker stays it is hard to drive him out. Strong players may fold. 'If you have jacks up, queens up, kings up or aces up and are sitting close to the opener's left, raise. If you are raised back, fold your hand or re-raise and stand pat. Of course, in the latter case, you have to bet after the draw and hope your opponent doesn't call, because his raise before the draw probably indicates your two pair are beat.' 'How about two small pair?' 'Shove them. They're not worth playing unless you raise before the draw and stand pat, then bet. It's about eleven to one* you won't make a full house, prohibitive odds.' Monty took a drink of straight whisky. 'You must remember about seventy-five per cent of all card players are simpletons. You can see that at a glance when you go into another place to play. Suppose we take straight draw as an example. Someone opens. Even a simpleton should realize the opener holds at least two jacks, but the sucker will stay on a short pair. Just count the players who stay in a pot which has been opened. In seven-handed there are about three pairs distributed among the players, possibly a four-card straight or flush and an inside straight. Four or even five players will ordinarily stay with not one of them on the average having better than two jacks. 'Why draw to an inside straight? It is about eleven to one you don't make it. A four-card flush or a four-card straight should never be played unless there is over five times as much money in the pot as the bet itself. 'Never, I say, never stay on a short pair. One who does should have his head examined by Doc Prittle. 'Never stay on less than two aces or two kings. If I am sitting to the left of the opener I raise on kings or aces though I never play in the same pattern."}
{"text":"Optimal solver is an algorithm that calculates the best possible poker strategy.\u2026 The Most Powerful Play in Poker The central strategic implication of stack depth is the question of how much equity a\u2026 When does ICM become significant in MTTs? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) was invented in 1987 by M. Malmuth and is one\u2026 How to Study GTO Solutions Tools like GTO Wizard and other solvers should not be used to memorize specific strategies.\u2026 Principles of GTO Game theory, or GTO (for Game Theoretically Optimal), is best understood not as a rigid\u2026 Interpreting Equity Distributions GTO Wizard\u2019s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which\u2026 What is Leverage in poker? Leverage refers to the risk of future betting. When you call a bet on the\u2026 Reasons for value betting in poker You\u2019re probably accustomed to thinking of bets as either value or bluff. In this taxonomy,\u2026 The Science of Poker Performance Poker is a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment\u2026 What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets\u2026 Pot Geometry \u201cPot Geometry\u201d refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible \u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the"}
{"text":"Table 98: All Possible Flops Categorized by Possible Flopped Straights Flops that have zero flopped straights can also be subcategorized according to the number of possible OESDs, but for the scope of this book we will only focus on the number of straights. Flop Families Some flops can be grouped together into families and subfamilies according to their rank. For example, the flops A54, A53, A52, A43, A42 and A32 are so similar that in many situations, they can be treated as the exact same flop: Ace with two low cards. First let\u2019s group all the cards according to their rank: High Card (H): Any card K, Q, J, T Mid Card (M): Any card 9, 8, 7, 6 Low Card (L): Any card 5, 4, 3, 2 Ace (A): The lonely A Now the flops can be categorized using the card ranks as follows (Table 99)."}
{"text":"is for small bets, because their weaker hands are ahead of BB\u2019s weaker hands, an advantage they will not enjoy if the pot becomes too large and ranges too strong. BB also does some donk betting on this flop, with about 20% of their range. Their nuts advantage incentivizes them to start forcing some money into the pot and deny UTG the opportunity to pot control. The third graph The third graph is AK6r , one of the worst flops for BB. While they can flop middle or even top pair fairly easily (notice the two \u201cshelves\u201d on their blue line where their hands abruptly gain a lot of equity), even these hands pale in comparison to UTG\u2019s best hands. BB never has AA or KK and only rarely AK, while all these are in UTG\u2019s range at full frequency. To capitalize on this range advantage, UTG continuation bets their entire range, often for a large size: 124% pot is their most common bet size. Conclusion By studying these graphs, we can glean a lot about which player has more of which kind of hand and, consequently, how large of a pot that player will prefer to play. These preferences drive betting frequency and sizing . Considering these same factors in-game and visualizing what these graphs would look like in a given situation can help you make better decisions about whether and how much your range will prefer to bet. GTO Wizard the #1 App for Poker players Study any spot imaginable Practice by playing vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Andrew Brokos Andrew Brokos has been a professional poker player, coach, and author for over 15 years. He co-hosts the Thinking Poker Podcast and is the author of the Play Optimal Poker books, among others. Latest article Navigating Nasty Rivers Out of Position Playing out of position (OOP) is hard. It\u2019s fundamentally disadvantageous to act on each street\u2026 Crack the Shell of Nut Draw Strategy Nut draws hold obvious appeal as betting and raising candidates. They benefit from fold equity,\u2026 Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026"}
{"text":"raise with better hands containing an ace or a king, and to throw away the other ace and king hands. .. Specifically, flops like are excellent candidates for this type ofbluff. Remember, you want to be in early position, and you want the pot to be small. Finally, a word must be said regarding when you should call an opponent who might be bluffing. If all the cards are out and your hand can beat only a bluff, your decision simply depends on your pot odds and on your judgment concerning the chance that your opponent is bluffing. If your hand can beat some of the hands he would bet for value as well as his bluffs you obviously do not need as great a \"price\" from the pot to make a call the right play. Inducing The ability to induce bluffs is a Bluffs sign of an expert player. The idea is to manipulate your opponent into betting a hand that he originally had no intention of betting. These situations usually occur when you have a good calling hand. Consequently, since you plan to call anyway, you want to make sure that your opponent bets as often as possible those times when you hold the better hand. Usually, these plays are accomplished by making what seems to be an otherwise irrational check, and they work best when you are against an aggressive player. A well-known example occurs when you hold either AA or KK and raise in last position before the flop. Now suppose the flop comes with a medium or small pair. It is checked to you, you bet, and a tough player calls. On fourth street, the correct play is often to check behind your opponent if he checks again. Notice that if he has flopped a set, your check probably will save you money. But, if he has no pair, you may get him to bluff at the pot on the end. The result is that you have gained an extra bet, since he likely would not have called your bet on the turn. (By the way, you would not want to make this play with a hand like JJ since too many overcards that could beat you might hit on the end.) A similar example is when you have AA or KK and the top card on board pairs on the turn. Against a tough but aggressive player who check called you on the flop, check behind him if he doesn't bet. Before inducing a bluff, several criteria have to be met. First, you usually should be facing only a small number of opponents, preferably just one. Second, you need to be against a player who is capable of bluffing but also capable of folding if you bet. This is why you want your opponent to be the tough but aggressive type. And most important, the situation must be such that giving a free card to your opponent is not dangerous if his hand is worse than yours. 88 Part Two: Strategic Concepts Here is a second"}
{"text":"Bubble Factor Bubble Factor (BF) measures how much more losing hurts than winning helps you in MTTs. It\u2019s a measure of survival pressure and a valuable tool for understanding ICM spots. It's defined as the ratio between how much tournament equity ($EV) you\u2019d lose getting stacked, divided by how much $EV you\u2019d gain stacking some player in the tournament. BF = | $EV Loss \/ $EV Gain | when stacks are fully invested. Each player pair has a unique bubble factor. In a chip EV scenario, the BF = 1 because losses are equal to wins. In an ICM scenario, losses hurt more than wins, so the BF > 1. In a bounty format, BF can < 1 due to the potential reward of winning bounties."}
{"text":"C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and"}
{"text":"position spot where button raises big blind calls flop comes jack six two big blind checks button bets a third pot okay 100 lines deep we fold 27 of the time 200 big lines deep we fold 30 a little bit more we fold a little bit more because we're going to realize our equity worse right and you're gonna find this is another common thing when you're out of position you fold a little bit more often as you get deeper and deeper and deeper because hands like um ace 8 or a7 are going to realize their equity just a little bit worse i realize here they stick around roughly the same amount but you're going to find that very often some of the weaker marginal maintenance in your range are start to fold out just a touch more as you get deeper and deeper and this applies even more as you're facing bigger and bigger bets also you'll find that the hands that check raise don't check raise quite as often or they check raise none right so let's take a look at a hand like ace jack right ace jack is a hand where when we're playing a hundred big blind deep we check raise about half the time and obviously not folding 200 big lines deep though we check raise it only about uh 35 percent of the time so a little bit less often just a little bit what about jack six take a look 100 big ones deep jack six check raises every time 200 big lines even check raise is only about sixty percent of the time so a little bit less often right something else you'll note is that when we're playing a hundred big blind sleep we raise small the vast majority of the time when we raise right and we're raising eighteen and a half percent of the time so we're raising a pretty good amount whereas when we are raising two hundred big blinds deep we're raising with mixed sizes now some big raises some smaller raises and we're raising only about 14 of the time so 18 compared to 14. so we're a little bit more cautious out of position and we fold a little bit more often right notice that the hands that are raising big are going to be the very polarized hands so very polarized range will be raising big that's going to be the nuts for sets and uh draws usually the bad draws like bad gut shots so let's see if that's that holds true here we see pocket sixes and pocket twos do do a lot of raising and the draws are the ones using the bigger size in general the bad draws or well the gut shots right hands that are very unlikely to be good now but can improve to the nuts so the hands that can improve to the nuts are usually the ones that prefer the bigger raise size in general okay let's talk about the cost of reopening"}
{"text":"get a fold and what this is supposed to do it's supposed to Target like the weaker pairs that haven't made a set the queen Jack is now kind of priced out the king queen so well played post-floppier from guitar um although we are maybe getting a little too loose in pre-flop ranges okay King three off suit um yes we can defend this to the cutoff for one big flop top pair we lead again this is one thing I'm noticing we see a lot of leads from our hero and I'm not a huge fan um turn two pair I mean at this point we could either check and try to get a check raise in or just continue betting as played we do bet half bot get called River kind of scary back door flush got there King X could be of like King tennis clubs or something and then uh maybe there is Queen 10 in that Ridge Queen 10 is going to call two barrels so not the best River but we still have enough high value here where we can bet our two pair so I'm indifferent if you wanted to check and like Bluff catch or bet and try to get some value so I I like smaller sizing here and I think third pot is kind of fine for this so I'm not a fan and it works okay two nines uh open on 45 bags we mostly can flat call here with the button but we put in a small three bet I think that's also okay good flop for our hand probably want to be betting I mean our range probably bet small here on this board four deuce deuce uh but some of the hands in our range probably have bigger bets and I might imagine this being one of them lots of over cards that can come on the turn so maybe this is where we size up a little bit with these hands but a small bed is fine typically so we go small we get called uh probably betting again for Value even though this is a three bed pot um probably going a third here again uh six seven big blinds just to get called by the ace axes like today's Queens these jacks and then um we don't want to value on ourselves here by betting full pot because what if we get shoved on our opponent could still have like Jacks Queens Kings and Aces so we go really small okay fine I don't think we need to be this small but I think it's okay we get called River who doesn't love to see this River car just gives us a nuts um now this is the one thing you know about the turn sizing it being so small is if we go five six seven digs there it changes how pot looks for us on the river a little bit but whatever we got 150 pot shove if we so choose to"}
{"text":"Range Morphology A natural step in the thought process from novice to advanced player is the ability to think in ranges. This can often seem like a daunting task, but it becomes much easier when you start thinking of ranges as structures rather than trying to visualize all 1326 combinations of starting hands in your head. \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such as \u201c linear \u201d, \u201c polarized \u201d, \u201c merged \u201d, \u201c condensed \u201d, \u201c capped \u201d, or \u201c uncapped \u201d, but what do these even mean? Capped \/ Uncapped The simplest way to describe a range is in terms of \u201ccapped\u201d and \u201cuncapped\u201d. This gives us an idea of who has the advantage (typically the preflop aggressor), and how we should conduct our play accordingly. The term \u201ccapped\u201d simply refers to a range that does not have the strongest hands. For example, a BB calling range usually doesn\u2019t contain premium hands like QQ+ AK, since these hands typically raise preflop. This puts a \u201ccap\u201d on the strength of the range. Conversely, \u201cuncapped\u201d simply means a range that has the strongest hands. A standard opening range should contain all the strongest hands, so it\u2019s therefore uncapped. Something to note is that just because a range started as capped or uncapped doesn\u2019t mean it will stay that way. Your A\u2660 A\u2666 is not that impressive on a 7\u26638\u26639\u2663 flop. A capped player can become uncapped on the right board, and vice-versa. Range morphology: Polarized, Linear, Condensed, Merged As you progress as a player you will run into more advanced terms to describe ranges such as polarized, linear, condensed\/depolarized, or merged. Linear Linear: Means top-down value, strongest hands to medium hands. In theory, we see linear ranges anytime you only have one action to continue. For example, opening ranges usually raise or fold, EP 3bet ranges usually raise or fold, and facing a shove you can only call or fold. So when you only have one continuation action, it becomes logical to continue with the best hands and fold the rest. These spots are linear by definition. Linear ranges can also be found postflop. Typical examples are situations when you\u2019re facing a large bet and don\u2019t have much of a raising range. For example, on this AK6r board BTN vs BB SRP, BTN overbets the flop 125% pot. BB\u2019s defense has very few check-raises, so they simply call in a top-down linear fashion with their strongest hands. Note that most 2nd and 3rd pair are about the same value (indifferent). Although, due to blocker effects, a hand like 6 \u2663 3 \u2663 has slightly more value than a hand like KQo. Polarized The word \u201cpolar\u201d means to separate into opposing groups. In poker, a polarized range is one constructed of very strong hands and very weak hands, nuts\/bluffs. The most common place you\u2019ll see polarized ranges are in position, on the river. This is the only spot in poker where you don\u2019t need to worry about protecting your check-back range, so you\u2019re free to"}
{"text":"with a lot of good hands notice we do still check some Jacks especially the weaker ones and we check a lot of middle pairs with the 10. we also check a lot of sixes and fives these are hands that we're going to check and then call if the opponent bets what about on the turn four well this turn is excellent for the big blind because now they have lots and lots of straights and Pairs and draws and the opponent probably doesn't have much of anything because they let the chop the Flop check through so notice now we're using a smattering of bed sizes but we are betting sixty percent of the time on this Jack six five four nose for betting almost all of our threes and almost all of our sevens as Bluffs we have a lot of those we're also betting a lot of our eights as gut shots right surveilling all those draws and when we can we can go for Value very easily with stuff like seven four for bottom pair with a straight draw or seven five middle pair with a straight draw or you know any Jack can certainly go for value so we are betting very very very frequently in this situation because the turn is very good for our range and notice we're using a lot of smaller bet sizes in general and almost no overpot bets in this spot because we have a range Advantage right we're just betting with a lot of our range that is in pretty good shape on average let's take a look at 765 this was the board that's very good for us on 765 Jack that's a pretty rough turn for the big blind because when it goes check check the opponent's gonna have a whole lot of Jack X right and asex King X Kleenex jackets Etc so they're gonna have a lot of top pairs so we don't get to bet all that frequently I know this chart's gonna be a little bit hard to see because we would have led with some of our hands on the Flopper remember but we do get to lead infrequently about 30 something 40 something percent of the time with a smattering of bet sizes but when the turn is really good for the opponent to the point they're gonna have a lot of stuff that can reasonably call and their check back range on the Flop is kind of strong you don't want to use a big bet in that spot this is one of the interesting Corner cases but you see we're bending with a smattering of stuff generally tilted towards Pairs and straight draws and flush draws right what about on 7654 we get to bet basically everything that's kind of nuts right using a small bet we get debate basically everything because the opponent's not going to have a whole lot of pairs and we have a lot of straights and we have a lot of two pairs we"}
{"text":"Table 74: CO Action Frequencies (60bb) The CO 3-betting range is focused towards blocker hands, with a small frequency of suited and offsuit Ax and Kx, opting to flat call with suited broadways, suited Ax, suited connectors, pocket pairs and AKo-AJo. When facing an UTG 4-bet, the CO tends to get most of their continuing range all-in pre-flop (39%), with a small calling range of 7.7%. When facing a HJ 4-bet, the CO\u2019s calling range increases to 22% and the all-in range decreases to 29%, choosing to slow play AA. One of the main reasons for this is that the CO\u2019s 3-betting range vs UTG is more polarized than the 3- betting range vs the LJ, and so most hands play better as a 5-bet than as a call (Hand Ranges 242-245)."}
{"text":"Hit-and-run The act of leaving a table shortly after winning a big pot."}
{"text":"Hand Range 127: LJ 60bb \u2022 Raise 2.3x 23% \/ \u2022 Fold 77.2% With 60bb, the LJ opens slightly tighter than with 40bb, lowering the frequency of the marginal hands such as suited broadways, small pocket pairs and low suited connectors (Hand Range 127). With 40bb, the range shape doesn\u2019t change too much although there is a shift from high card value to connectedness (Hand Range 126)."}
{"text":"mathematical theory of poker; the answers to how professional poker players decide to make certain plays in certain situations according to probability. David Sklansky \u2013 Hold\u2019em for Advanced Players This book will advance any poker players Limit Hold\u2019em game. It is intended for a more experienced player who has played at least 20,000 to 50,000 hands. It is intended for medium to high stakes so many of the plays will be useless for small stakes. It will give you an understanding of basic poker principles and is a great long-term reference. Ed Miller \u2013 David Sklansky \u2013 Small Stakes Hold\u2019em A great book for the small stakes Limit Hold\u2019em player. It discusses starting hands but the details of the book teach how to think on the later streets. There are many books on the market that address small stakes Limit Hold\u2019em but this one is one of the best. It will be a long-term reference for you. Bob Ciaffone \u2013 How is your Pot Limit and No Limit This book is the best book for anyone that plays big bet poker or wants to move from limit to bug bet poker. No Limit and Pot Limit is a type of betting structure. This book teaches you how to change your thinking and adjust your game to succeed in Hold\u2019em, 7 Card Stud and Omaha. Bob Ciaffone - Improve your Poker This is another great book written by Bob Ciaffone \u201cThe Coach\u201d. He is a writer of strategy and makes a living being a professional high stakes poker player. This book is a compilation of Ciaffone\u2019s articles into loose subject matter. It discusses No Limit Hold\u2019em, Limit Hold\u2019em, 7 Card Stud and Omaha as well as a great section about satellite tournaments and a section recounting the World Series of Poker Tournament when he finished 3rd to Eric Seidel and Johnny Chan. Dan Harrington \u2013 Harrington on Hold\u2019em This is the best strategic guide to playing in No Limit Texas Hold\u2019em tournaments, multi- table or single table. It discusses the difference between brick and mortar tournaments and online tournaments. This is a great poker book with tons of hand examples, and the thinking of a successful poker player for each street during a hand. From pre-flop decisions all the way to the River, this book will increase your decision-making skills and intuition. Gary Carson - Complete Book of Hold\u2019em Poker I highly suggest this book for Limit and No Limit players. There are interesting insights and theories regarding Texas Hold\u2019em that will get you thinking differently about how to play the game. Very enjoyable read and will increase your skill level threefold. Matthew Hilger \u2013 Internet Texas Hold\u2019em This is an excellent and extremely detailed book. A well-organized book categorizes how each type of hand can be played when compared to the board cards. The book breaks the hands down to the decision making process and the odds of all types of situations happening. If you are a Limit player this book is the edge you are looking for. Larry Phillips \u2013 Zen"}
{"text":"an adequate bankroll, you can start playing the $2\/$4, $5\/$10 or $10\/$20 no limit tables. There is nothing more frustrating than to have the total nut hand with someone betting into you with all his or her money as a total bluff and you can only double up $50 because you do not have an adequate bankroll. $1\/$2 no limit game you should have at least $200 and even better $800- $1200 bankroll. $2\/$4 no limit game you should have at least $400 and probably $1200-$1600 bankroll. $5\/$10 no limit game will really put swings into you roll. You should only play these games after getting some experience because of the amount of tough players. However, sometimes there are players who just want to bully you around, and you can slow play the nuts for a big win. Your bankroll should look rather large for this game, with the bare minimum of $2000 and ideally $6000. So say you start at Royal Vegas Poker and get the free $10 along with the deposit bonus. You can build that to $200. Therefore, you leave with $400 dollars because you won a few nice pots playing the limit table over the past month clearing the bonus. That is not bad for a $100 dollar investment. Meet the requirements, pull your money and then make another deposit into, Absolute Poker where they will match 35%. $400 times 35% equals another $140 added to the bankroll. After another two or three poker rooms, you will have an adequate bankroll to play the no limit tables. Of course, this is also assuming you do not win something at the tables. Players who do this are called \"bankroll whores\" and many players do it. If you keep accounts on all of the sites listed below you will be clearing reload bonus offers every month and earning extra money on top of your excellent poker play. Here is information about seven of the top ten Online Poker Rooms according to player traffic, tournaments, bonus offers and the most important factor, safety of your money. These are the most established poker rooms on the net. You should have an account with each one of these poker rooms to take advantage of the frequent reload offers and special tournaments. In any given month, one or more of these rooms will have reload bonus offers. The best poker rooms on the web and why Party Poker Network is the number one online poker site in terms of player traffic and money wagered. The network has many skin sites that share ring game traffic but not tournaments. The two main skin sites are Party Poker and Empire Poker. One of the oldest and most respected poker site is Paradise Poker. They have excellent player statistics, player notes and tournament promotions. They also offer blackjack. Prima Poker, Poker Room, Ultimate Bet, Paradise Poker and Pacific Poker all have around the same amount of player traffic and rank three through eight in this category. Depending on the time of day 1500 to 8000 players are"}
{"text":"range but even more so at like 150 200 big blinds the key thing is here when you use a linear 3betting range you want to be deep enough that you don't really care if you get four bet because you have strong hands you can just call so you want the stacks to be deep enough to call for bets especially if you're in position so for example ace Queen suited if someone four bets you and they're kind of using a balance for about range and they have some four bit Bluffs and it's not just aces kings and queens if they for bet you you're happy to call for bet with ace Queen suited in position when you're say 200 big blinds deep maybe the for bet would be to like say 20 you know somewhere between 20 and 25 big blinds you call so there's 50 big blinds in the pot if you were 200 big blinds deep you still have 175 big blinds behind so you have a stack the pot ratio of around 3 to 4 so still some post-flop play so you want to be using these linear ranges at deep stacks so like I talked about before cash games these work really well early stages of tournaments works really well they're very bad at shallow stack depths so the reason they a linear range is really bad at a shallow stacked up is because let's say you're playing 50 big blinds deep and you three bet King Jack suited here to say 10 or 11 big blinds over and open and now your opponent goes all-in for 50 big blinds you have to fold King Jack suited now preflop which really sucks because you've taken a hand that has a lot of equity and plays well post flop and I wouldn't say turn it into a bluff I don't like that term especially preflop because King Jack suit has a lot of equity but you're unable to call the for bet Jam and so that's why if you're say 200 big blinds deep and someone for bet you and especially if it was a small for bet you could peel with King Jack suited if you wanted to in position but at the 50 big blinds you know when you're gonna get jammed on all-in that's when it becomes really hard to use a linear three betting range because these pocket 9s pocket tons Jack ten suited Queen ten suited these hands you don't want to be folding to four bets all-in so that's kind of the pros and cons of linear ranges let's look at polar ranges and we'll kind of see the contrast to that in polar ranges the strongest hands and weakest hands are three bet when I say the weakest hands and I'll say this a bunch of times today I just don't mean you four bet or three bet four deuce off which is the weakest hand you get dealt I mean you three about the weakest hands that"}
{"text":"know it's tempting to read this really quickly as I'm talking guys but I'd really encourage you just to listen to me right now because we're gonna go through a bunch of different boards and how you can attack them since I don't have that much time today uh I ah I'm gonna go through this a little bit more briefly than I would prefer to but this stuff is very important so on an ace high board what is the most exploitative way to play well when you have a really good Ace bet eighty percent of the pot because if he has an ace he's not folding ever and that pot is going to be so big by the river and he's gonna have a really hard time folding right and if he has second pair what usually people do when they have second pair on an acai board is they'll call they'll call flop and they'll full turn because they assume the second time you fire you have the ace so that first bat should be really big now if you have nothing and again this guy doesn't know you from Adam and are this is just someone you don't play with every day or somebody you're running into in a tournament what you can do is BET like one third pot because that bet needs to work 25 percent of the time but that means your opponent needs to defend 75 of the time that is very unlikely to happen the really good thing about a sideboards is there's no way for your opponent to have over cards so they usually just have the ace or they don't have it and if they do have something like 10-9 uh there's no way for that to be over cards or anything so any bet will usually fold them out unless of course they picked up like a gut shot in a backdoor draw or something but the vast majority of a cold calling range and the big blind is not going to have that uh two cards nine or higher should also receive a small bat so people tend to cold call with high cards they don't call with medium cards they don't they don't really like low cards it's some medium cards and a lot of high cards so when you see a board with two cards that are nine or higher that tends to be a little bit covering the cold calling range right so here's the thing on those boards let's say the board comes king queen too a lot of the same things apply that apply on Ace High boards uh the person has a really hard time having high cards the only high card there is an ace uh so there's not we don't have to worry about big comma draws having to price them out the person usually has a king or a queen or they don't so again a very small bet will work if let's say the person cold called you"}
{"text":"stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting\u2026 Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this\u2026 The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A\u2660A\u2663 in the\u2026 The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful\u2026 How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs \u201cThey always have it!\u201d is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency\u2026 Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I\u2019m not referring to\u2026 C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll"}
{"text":"If UTG checks, signifying that he very likely does not hold the set or overpair part of his range, then Hero can value bet his top pair and extract value from the Fish. Hero and the opener will tacitly agree to play more straightforwardly against one another than normal. The presence of the Fish assures this, whether they like it or not. All in all, extra implied odds and the promise of more lucrative post-flop situations create a far superior situation for Hero to call in than he had with this hand in Hand 45. Hero calls 3BB. There are a few more sub-factors relevant to this reason to call opens. For example, if the Fish in Hand 46 were short stacked, then implied odds would be worse. If the Fish were in position to Hero, it would be harder to extract as much value post-flop and implied odds would suffer a little. If there were a very active squeezer waiting in the SB, then Hero would have to acknowledge that he'd frequently be burning 3BB by calling the open and having to fold to a 3-bet before getting to flop anything good. One pitfall in learning this complex game is always to oversimplify and lump different situations together as exactly the same. The examples I provide are good guides, but pay attention for these subtle changes in favourable and unfavourable factors in the real situation that could swing the EV of taking a certain line from positive to negative. Always think for yourself in all of the highly dynamic situations in this beautifully complex game. Reason 4 - Pot Odds Make Calling Better Than Folding Recall that pot odds compare the pot as it currently stands to Hero's investment to see the next card. Good pot odds require the number on the left of this ratio (the pot) to be much larger than the number on the right (the amount Hero has to call.) EG. 3:1 is much better than 2:1. Hero will typically be getting worse pot odds when he's not in the blinds. For example, facing the UTG open in Hand 46, Hero has to call 3BB into a pot that is just 3BB + 1.5BB = 4.5BB (UTG's open + the blinds). Therefore, his pot odds are 4.5:3 or 1.5:1, assuming no other players come along. If we shift Hero into the big blind, his pot odds increase significantly because he only has to invest 2BB to see the flop. In this case the pot would be still be 3BB + 1.5BB = 4.5BB (UTG's open + both blinds). Only now, Hero's investment is 2BB so he is getting 4.5:2 or 2.25:1. Note that we do not count the dead BB as part of Hero's investment as he has committed it involuntarily before making a choice as to whether to play his hand. It matters not one bit whether that dead big blind came from Hero's stack or was dropped out of the sky by the pot splashing poker vulture; it's simply a part of the pot now."}
{"text":"talked about in one of his webinars so for example you're playing a one two no limit game small blind raises to ten big blind calls pots twenty dollars you both started the hand with 200 you have 190 behind your pot stack ratio 9.5 if on the other hand your opponent started the hand with 70 so the effective stack is 70. uh once you raise 10 get called 10 the pot is 20 60 behind the pot stack ratio is 30 there's three makes sense great now the question is why is this important it has to do with how we plan our hands if you watch the position webinar then you'll recall this graphic which shows how the pots grow from street to street with them getting bigger and bigger as we get later and later and when we're going to be playing uh big pot on the river we want to have a strong range to prepare for that so this is where the pot stack ratio really comes in um it's it's how we it's how we plan our hands so if the money is going to go all in on the current street if the next bet is all in that would be a pot stack ratio of one assuming a pot size bet we want hands that can win at showdown in other words we want to be playing our strongest hands probably want to be playing that kind of linear range if we're calling if we're betting we can i'll talk about it in two slides if the pot stack ratio is four which means we have basically two pot size bets left because the first pot size the first pot bed is one and then when called by the opponent there's now three in the middle and next plot size bet is three which gets us all in so a pot stack ratio of four means that most of money will go in on the next street and so in that case in addition to hands that could win at showdown we want hands that can improve to strong hands so think draws lots of equity many outs and if the money is going to go in on a way future street like the river we want hands that can improve to strong hands um we want the hands that can improve to nut hands and it gets even more pronounced as we get deeper so with that pot stack ratio 40 where it would now take uh three streets of betting and a raise to get all the money in you're really going to need a cooler situation you want to be preparing to have hands that can play a big pot on the river uh where your opponent will make a second best hand trying to think an example of that would be like um what's a good one king nine five board [Music] yeah if you have jack ten on king nine five and you make a straight by hitting"}
{"text":"12.5 Bluff Raising the Turn and River Remember in Section 8.2 when we discussed floating the flop? There are times where that future fold equity we called for needs to be realised in the form of bluff raising vs. Villain's betting range on the turn as he's not so generous as to check and let us take the pot away more cheaply. Hero's turn bluff raises will usually occur where he floated the flop with non-made-hand equity which now has insufficient pot odds + implied odds + SDV to call again. Just like on the flop, Hero should look to bluff raise more turns out of position where calling is less profitable. When in position, it can often be better to delay the whole raising range until the river, but like everything in poker it depends on the situation. Hero also needs to be careful about player type and reserve lines like bluff raising turns and rivers for those who can actually fold. Passive Fish tend not to barrel the turn too wide and when they do, they tend not to fold much of that range. Let's look at a spot where it makes a lot of sense to bluff raise the turn in position. The third and fourth (brown) numbers on the HUD are CBet Flop and CBet Turn respectively."}
{"text":"Merged \u2013 Strong, weak, and some medium hands (more robust, less exploitable, often used with smaller bets\/raises). Linearity and polarity exist on a spectrum. This kind of terminology is crucial to range analysis when studying poker. Thinking of ranges as structures can help identify the strengths, weaknesses, and incentives of different plays. Hopefully, you are now ready to take your analysis to the next level! GTO Wizard the #1 App for Poker players Study any spot imaginable Practice by playing vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Tombos21 Tom is a long time poker theory enthusiast, GTO Wizard coach and YouTuber, and author of the Daily Dose of GTO. Latest article Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026 The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple"}
{"text":"Flop Classification Scheme A lot of poker players never study the game. They learn by playing, and this is probably the best thing to do when you are first getting into poker. However, soon you will realize that, given the immense number of different situations that can occur, even if all you did was to play poker 24\/7 for years, it is impossible to learn everything there is to learn by just playing. Many players understand this and they take the next step by getting professional coaching, but even the best coaches won\u2019t be available 24\/7 to answer all your questions. Even if that was the case, they surely won\u2019t always have the right answer to every single spot. For this reason, people have tried to develop assisting software for years. It has already happened in games such as chess, where players can access top engines from their computers and even smartphones to get an immediate answer to what the correct play is in any given chess position. In modern poker we have access to GTO solvers and, just as in chess, we now can get almost immediate answers as to how to play any spot at any given time. But again, we are faced with the issue of there being way too many spots to actually study each one of them. There are as many as 1,755 unique flops for any given spot, so this methodology is highly inefficient and would take an enormous amount of time. Thus the need for a better system. Classification is the process of grouping things based on their similarities to make them easier to identify or study. Flops that share common characteristics tend to be played in a similar fashion. In this section, I describe a full comprehensive flop classification scheme, effectively dividing the problem into smaller, easier-to-solve pieces while at the same time keeping an eye on the game as a whole. Flop Structure The flop structure is the first thing to look at when the board is dealt. There are three possible flop structures, and post-flop play will accordingly vary completely. \u2666 Trips: A trips flop is a flop that contains all cards of the same rank. For example: A\u2665A\u2663A\u2660, 7\u26657\u26607\u2666 or 3\u26633\u2660 3\u2666. \u2666 Paired: A flop is paired if it contains two cards of the same rank. A paired flop can be paired rainbow, for example K\u2665K\u26635\u2660 or paired two-tone, for example Q\u26668\u26668\u2663. \u2666 Unpaired: A flop is unpaired if all the cards have different ranks, for example: Q\u26657\u26664\u2663 or A\u2665K\u2665Q\u2660."}
{"text":"you must sometimes apply concepts totally different from those that were operative in earlier betting rounds. In this chapter we will discuss these concepts. They apply to any one-winner limit game (thus excluding high-low split) when two players are heads-up on the end. Bluffing On The End There are two basic conditions that determine how you act when you are heads-up on the end \u2014 whether or not you have made a legitimate hand and whether you are in first position or last position. Without a legitimate hand against an opponent with a legitimate hand, you cannot win except on a bluff\u2014 a bet or a raise that causes your opponent to fold. You cannot hope to win by checking or by calling. Determining whether or not to try a bluff on the end is based on the same logic as any other bet. You have to decide whether the attempt has positive expectation. If the pot is $100 and you bet $20 with nothing, you have to believe your opponent will fold more than once in six times in order to expect a profit. Thus, if your opponent folds once in five times, you will lose $20 four times, but you will win $100 once on average for a net profit of $20 or an average profit of $4 per hand. However, if your opponent folds once in seven times, you will 199 200 Chapter Twenty-one lose $20 six times and win $100 once for a net loss of $20 or an average loss of $2.86 per hand. Whether a bluff works often enough to be profitable depends, like most plays on the end, upon an accurate assessment of what your opponent is likely to do. While it's tough to get away with a bluff on the end, it's much tougher to get away with a bluff raise. Your opponent needs to fold more often for a bluff raise to show a profit because you are putting in a double bet. Suppose, as in the last case, there is $100 in the pot, and your opponent bets $20. You now call his $20 and raise another $20 on a bluff. With your opponent's $20 bet, the pot has increased to $120, but you are making a $40 investment in the hope your opponent will fold. Since you are now getting only 3-to-1 for your money, your opponent must no longer fold more than once in six times but more than once in four times for you to show a profit. Yet when calling your bluff raise, your opponent is getting 8-to-l for his money. The $100 already in the pot, plus your opponent's original $20 bet, plus your $40 call and raise adds up to a total of $160 in exchange for the opponent's $20. So as we noted in the chapter on raising, it takes a very tough opponent, capable of super-tough folds, to throw away a legitimate hand in this situation. Average players will almost always call. The only time a bluff raise might work against them is when"}
{"text":"fifth street play. Let's take a look at them. Playing to Win the Most Money Possible Suppose I told you that there was a type of no-limit hold \u2019em problem that good players spent a lot of time contemplating, but beginners hardly ever think about it all. Would you be interested in knowing what that problem was? You would? All right, here it is. It's fourth street, you're heads-up against one player, and you believe you have the better hand. You have two remaining opportunities to bet, on fourth street and, if your opponent is still around, on fifth street. You'd like to win two bets instead of just one, or one bet instead of zero bets. What's the best way to play so as to extract an extra bet from your opponent? To most beginners and many intermediates, this question seems incredibly pedestrian. Their idea of good no-limit hold \u2019em is acting weak when they're strong, flopping the nuts, shoving all their chips in the pot, then getting called and doubling up. Who cares about winning a measly extra bet on some average-plus hand? Well, you should care, because over the course of a long tournament, these extra bets here and there add up to a lot of chips, chips that can keep you alive while your profligate opponents are floundering. If I've succeeded in convincing you that these plays matter, let's see how they are done. Example No. 1. You hold A\u2666 Q\u2663 You raise before the flop from middle position and get called by one player behind you. You both have large stacks. The flop comes Q\u2665 7\u2663 3\u2660 You again make a bet, and you again get a call. From your knowledge of this opponent, who is a relatively weak player, you think his likely holding at this point is queen-small. Fourth street comes a deuce. How can you bet to extract the most money from the hand? Answer: Note first of all that if your opponent had been a strong player, he probably wouldn't have played the hand this way. Holding, say, a queen-ten, you don't want just to call on the flop because you won't know what to do if you then face another bet on fourth street. You have top pair, but is it good, or are you beaten? You won't know. A better play is to try to settle the hand with a raise on the flop. If that wins the pot, great. If it doesn't win the pot, you're almost certainly beaten. In any event, the question is settled, and you won't lose any more money on the hand. 156 But our opponent wasn't a good player, so he just called, and we find ourselves in the current situation. A good place to start is by asking \"What's the most we could reasonably expect to make on this hand?\" A good answer is - two moderate-sized bets. There's no reason to think your opponent is going to call a big bet with his hand, either now or on the river. You showed strength"}
{"text":"beat, and folding your hand. A high pair with a good kicker is never an easy fold. And when it turns into a loser, either by being outflopped or outdrawn, you stand to spend a lot of money on a sticky hand. Thus we see that there\u2019s tremendous downside to making one pair with a hand like AQ in a multi-way pot, downside that doesn\u2019t exist heads-up. That\u2019s your decision-making problem: When the board comes A-7-2 and the action goes bet, raise in front of you, howare you going to know where you\u2019re at? In loose games with multi-way pots, then, good aces go way down in value, while middle pairs lose much of their downside risk. Now, this doesn\u2019t mean you throw away your AK or AQ hands in multi-way loose games. But it does mean that you dump that AJ and below. Meanwhile, go ahead and call with most of your pairs (not raising, because in a game like this, raising doesn\u2019t work), but do beware of set-under-set situations. In a limpygame, everyone plays every pair and if you hit your set with 22, be wary that it might not be the only set in town, especially if a raising war breaksout. Now let\u2019s look at another category of hands: suited aces and your biggest suited connectors, hands like A7s and KQs. Start by recalling our discussion of the false value of low suited cards. Those hands have major downside; when you make the flush, it\u2019s never the nut flush. But what about hands that make the nut or second-nut flush? Up front in a normal game, you don\u2019t want to be playing hands like A7s, because you won\u2019t get enough callers to give you good odds. And when you make a pair of aces, the most common \u201cgood\u201d outcome with that hand, youeither make very little money when your opponents fold to the scary ace on board or you sail off big time to an ace with a better kicker. In a normal game, hands like A7s have value only when you get to play them in back of the field, where your hand strength is abetted by positional advantage. In a loose limpy game, though, those suited aces gain all sorts of upside and very little downside, because they so clearly tell you whereyou\u2019re at. Flopping one pair doesn\u2019t get you into trouble. As with that AQ, you know how fragile your holding is. Top-pair no-kicker against the multitudes? Easy muck. Middle-pair ace-kicker? Easy muck. And there goes all your negative decision-making equity. On the upside, your flush draws have huge positive equity, because you\u2019re drawing to the nuts. Unlike with a small flush, when you connect on the turn, you don\u2019t have to worry about a fourth suited card hitting on the river; obviously, you\u2019ll still have the nuts. Plus, in a loose crazy game, you\u2019re getting the right price on your draw. In this game, they won\u2019t care as much about the texture of the board and theywill pay you off. Once again, themath and decision-making"}
{"text":"part of tournament play. With\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the BB in MTTs Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB\u2019s equilibrium strategy\u2026 The Absurd Game Theory of Chopped Boards A \u201cchopped board\u201d in poker is one where the community cards make up the best\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs MTT confrontations between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations,\u2026 The Art of Learning Poker In his book The Art of Learning, chess and Push Hands champion Josh Waitzkin describes\u2026 Is Donk Betting for Donkeys? \u201cDonk betting\u201d, or betting from out of position into the player who was the aggressor\u2026 Delayed C-Betting This is a companion piece to Probe Betting. It stands on its own, but understanding\u2026 Probe Betting As far as rules of thumb go in poker, \u201ccheck to the raiser\u201d is a\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Big Blind This is a companion piece to this article on the SB\u2019s strategy for blind vs\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Small Blind ICM incentivizes more conservative play, which means that at stages of the tournament where risk\u2026 The Initial Bettor\u2019s Advantage The mathematics of poker holds a little-known secret: the first bettor enjoys better bluffing odds\u2026 Mastering the Chiplead: The Scalpel and the Sledgehammer When you have a lot of chips at a final table or in another situation\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in Cash Games Our never-ending quest for money and fame leads us to the flop. We open the\u2026 How ICM Impacts Restealing From The Blinds When I first started working with preflop solves, one of the features I found most\u2026 The ICM Benefits of Late Registration in Poker Tournaments Why do so many professional poker players register late for tournaments when they clearly would\u2026 Flop Heuristics: OOP C-Betting in MTTs Playing against an in-position cold-caller is dramatically different\u2013and dramatically more difficult\u2013than playing against a caller\u2026 Counterintuitive Calls Solver outputs such as those provided by GTO Wizard are models of no-limit hold \u2018em,\u2026 How To Negotiate Final Table Deals Most people\u2019s first introduction to the Independent Chip Model (ICM) is not from studying bubble\u2026 How does ICM impact PKO strategy? If you have read The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments you already know why we\u2026 Understanding Blockers in Poker Often when looking through a solver\u2019s meticulously crafted grid of deception, one of the following\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP Cold-Caller in MTTs A Cold-call refers to the act of calling a preflop raise when you don\u2019t close\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in MTTs In the world of poker, the flop is a crucial stage of the game that\u2026 Flop Heuristics for Defending the Blinds in MTTs The field of Game Theoretically Optimal poker is extensive, and thus, to simplify our strategy,\u2026 Multiway strategy in Progressive Knockout Tournaments Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments are much more complex than traditional MTTs. The fact that players\u2026 How To Calculate Raises In Poker One of the most frequently asked questions in poker is how to calculate the size\u2026 Principles of River Play The"}
{"text":"all of the players 17 big bles right make it uh like Pusher fault it's going to take a few seconds here to finish running the [Music] calculations yeah the pre FL me race is is a good play of course that's what I think much better than jamming okay so if UT goes all in here he can only play profitably this range about 12% hands right well if we mean race uh he can play profitably a much much wider range of almost 15% hands uh that is a very good increase so we can play all of these King n suited type of hands some King Jacks different King eight all of the suited ax right um and then post flop a range that is this strong is going to connect um the flops much much better than um uh that and that then the big for example who will be calling and then uh we can get for example with pocket kings Aces or Ace King whatever all of these hands will connect post flop so well that then we can win a lot of chips post flop from the from the blinds we can also get ream by weaker ranges than the range that will be calling off the jam and and so um that's how we maximize our EV now in if you are in a bubble situation a final table or or some you know some very heavy ICM situation where um there's a lot of money at stake um yeah you can reduce your Bing by just playing push or fault um but at the same time you the the idea here as poker players is to you know maximize our expected value and if you know you're afraid of playing post flop with a good hand as pocket kings because you might get unlucky uh then the answer is not to jam pocket kings so you don't get out Dr or outplay po flop the answer is to study more pocker become a better post FL player so you can make better decisions and then you'll be comfortable playing hands like this all of the time even get gets multiway or whatever and uh just knowing very well how to play um the spots po flop so you can maximize your earnings right that's uh the idea of playing pocket is that in the long run you want to maximize your earnings now there will of course be exceptions as I just mentioned like in a final table or heavy I situation like money bubble or if there was a bounty uh in a tournament in your head or one our players that there will be some different things that might um make you want to take a different uh action than mean racing but in a regular spot I think just uh meain racing is going to be by far the best play next hand we have uh n Spades lowjack from the lowjack with 20 LS uh opening about 22% hands"}
{"text":"Pre-flop is a clear 3-bet yet many of my students might make the mistake of flatting this hand. They may argue that they should 3-bet an exclusively value 3-bet range and that QTs is not good enough to be a part of this range. This thinking is mistaken here due to one saving factor - post flop fold equity. It is far better to inflate the pot and isolate a bad player with a very playable hand while gaining the initiative to harvest post-flop fold equity than it is to flat and potentially get squeezed out of the pot and miss some pre-flop fold equity too. Hero will also win the pot much less often when he sees the flop as the pre-flop caller. Hero must 3-bet here!"}
{"text":"the best hand against two jacks, or he may catch a scare card like a queen suited with the king. Therefore, you should usually reraise with a decent hand like two jacks. If the king is semi-bluffing and doesn't have two jacks beat, 112 Chapter Twelve Defense Against the Semi-Bluff 113 a pretty fair starting hand. Suddenly the man to your right raises, and you suspect he's using his late position to try to steal the antes. Since your hand is too good to fold, you must reraise. You must not let the first raiser have that extra double chance of winning on a semi-bluff. Similarly, as we saw earlier, if you're the last low card in razz and the next-to-last low card raises, very possibly as a semi-bluff, you cannot simply call with a decent hand and give your opponent two extra ways of winning. Even with a hand as marginal as you must reraise to make that player fold or pay with his poor hands. You gain another advantage when you make this kind of response. You do not want to have an opponent who is semibluffing with the correct frequency. By picking off his semibluffs, you reduce the times he'll try it on those occasions when he ought to. Your reraise has forced him to think twice about semi-bluffing in the future. (See Chapters Eighteen and Nineteen.) When to Fold and When to Raise We have said, up to this point, that the two main defenses against the semi-bluff are simply giving up and folding, or raising. (In all cases we are assuming the pot is relatively small.) The question now is when to do the one and when to do the other. That is, when do you fold, and when do you raise? Obviously when you have a very poor hand, you fold. When you have a big hand, you raise unless it's so big you want to slowplay and trap your opponent later. The difficult decisions occur when you have a medium-value hand. There are three principle criteria you should use in deciding whether to raise or fold: 1.The chances your opponent is bluffing or semi-bluffing. 2.The chances that opponent will outdraw you if he is betting with the worst hand. 3.The chances you will outdraw that opponent if he is betting the best hand. The more you believe your opponent is bluffing or semibluffing, and the greater your chances of outdrawing him if he does have a legitimate hand, the more you will tend to raise. On the other hand, the smaller these chances are and the greater the chances your opponent will outdraw you if he is betting the worst hand, the more you would tend to fold. Recall an example earlier in this chapter. The chances that your opponent had the best hand were quite high (48 percent); the chances of your outdrawing him were so low as to be virtually nonexistent. At the same time the chances of your opponent outdrawing you were very high (you were only a 6-to-5 favorite if he"}
{"text":"\u2022 Raise 2.5bb 70.1% \/ \u2022 Limp 18.3% \/ \u2022 Fold 11.6% Hand Range 29: Heads-up BN GTO strategy (Rake Adjusted) \u2022 Raise 2.5bb 76.4% \/ \u2022 Limp 6.9% \/ \u2022 Fold 16.7%"}
{"text":"you. The pot is now $1,725, and it costs you $800 to call. What should you do? Answer: Let's walk through our criteria once more and see where we stand. 1. Your hand, A\u2663T\u2663, is a relatively weak holding for third position. Your call here was a little frisky. Unfavorable. 92 2. When your opponent raised, there were still four active players behind him. That indicates some strength. Unfavorable. 3. You will be out of position after the flop. Unfavorable. 4. It costs you $800 to call, and there is $1,725 in the pot, slightly better than 2-to-l odds. Not as good as last time, but not bad either. Slightly favorable. 5. You know nothing about the raiser. Therefore he knows nothing about you. The fact that you have been aggressive lately is irrelevant, because he can't know that, having just arrived at the table. (Did you notice this?) He's probably giving you credit for being conservative, since that's what most players do by default. Therefore he'll imagine that your hand is better than it actually is. Unfavorable. Not much doubt here. All factors except for the pot odds are unfavorable. Fold. Limping into Pots One characteristic problem of weak no-limit hold \u2019em players is calling too much before the flop, particularly in the early stages of tournaments. Their motivation is easy to understand. Calling is very cheap compared to their chip stack. Any hand can theoretically turn into a monster on the flop. When a weak hand flops a monster, it's more likely to be disguised than a strong hand. (Imagine you have T\u2660 4\u2666 and the flop comes T\u2663 4\u2660 4\u2663 Who will suspect you have an extremely strong hand?) So why not play a lot of weak hands on the cheap and see if you can flop a hand that lets you double up? This argument sounds reasonable, but it has a few severe, practical problems. 1. Players behind you may not be cooperative with your clever plan, since they've seen it all before. What happens when you and three other limp into a pot cheaply, and the big blind makes a big raise? If you call you're putting all your chips at risk on a marginal hand, but otherwise you've just wasted a few more chips. 2. When you don't flop your monster hand (which will be almost always), you'll find yourself facing difficult decisions. Suppose you play a T\u2660 7\u2660 and the flop comes A\u2666 7\u2663 4\u2665 Did a good player call with an ace-king, trying to trap you? Will you be able to lay down your pair of sevens? These are tough decisions. One virtue of playing good cards before the flop is that the decisions after the flop get easier. 3. Most flops miss most hands. Even when you don't run into one of the first two problems, you may simply spend a lot of chips trying to hit a big hand. 93 There is a time for playing more flops with weaker hands. It comes when you're a strong player at a table of"}
{"text":"with at least a 300 MHz Pentium I1 processor, 32 MB of RAM and 30 MB available hard drive storage. Ultimate Bet has some ofThe more unusual variations of Hold'em such as Pineapple (see Appendix I) Double-Flop Hold'em, Half PotLimit Hold'em and MiniBlindB Hold'em (read the explanations of all these variations on their web site). Future plans include an improved Community page where poker players can share experiences and information. URL: http:\/\/www.ultimatebet.com Games OfSered: Fixed-limit Texas Hold'em, Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud HighJLow Eight or Better, Omaha, Omaha HighLow Eight or Better, Pineapple, Pineapple HighILow Eight or Better, Double-Flop Hold'em, MiniBlind Hold'em; Half Pot-Limit, Pot-Limit, and No-Limit Texas Hold'em. 140 THE INTELLIGENT GUIDE TO TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER Betting Limits: Range from $0.25\/$0.50 up to $50\/$100. Promotions: Include High Hand Jackpots and a Player Rewards Club that allows members to earn points redeemable for travel and merchandise. Tournaments: Check their News and Promotions page for monthly tournament offerings. The Ultimate Contests page describes their regular tournaments. Mac Compatible: Not directly, but they do provide support for VirtualPC. (See the note to Mac users at the beginning of this section.) System Requirements: Must download software from the site in order to play. Need Windows 95 or later and a Pentium Processor. World Poker Room offers the experience of heads up, 1 -on- 1 Texas Hold'em. Only two players are allowed at the 1 -on- 1 tables, the button posts the small blind and is the first to act before the flop. URL: httv:\/\/www.worldpokerroom.com Games OfSered: Fixed-limit Texas Hold'em, Seven-Card Stud, Five-Card Stud, Omaha, Omaha HighILow Eight or Better. Betting Limits: Range from $0.25\/$0.50 up to $20\/$40. Promotions: Sign up bonus, daily high hand bonus. Tournaments: Single table Hold'em tournaments available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Buy-ins range from $5 to $100. No re-buys allowed. Each tournament lasts about an hour. Mac Compatible: No System Requirements: Windows 95 or later. Software download requires 5 MB of hard drive storage. A 120 MHz Pentium processor with 16 MB of RAM needed to run. PLACES TO PLAY 141 World Sports Exchange operates an online sports book and hosts online poker. The site is known for offering private high-limit games (up to $200\/$400) on request. URL: httu:\/\/www.wsex.com Games Oflered: Fixed-limit Texas Hold'em, Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud Highnow Eight or Better, Omaha, Omaha Highnow Eight or ~etter,.~ive-card Stud. Betting Limits: Range from $0.50\/$1 up to $30\/$60. Promotions: Check their Promotions page for current and upcoming events. Some of the poker promotions are tied to upcoming sports events. Tournaments: Single table Hold'em tournaments available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Buy-ins range from $5 to $100. No re-buys allowed. Each tournament lasts about an hour. Mac Compatible: No. System Requirements: Must download software from the site in order to play. Need Windows 95 or later with at least a 120 MHz Pentium processor, 16 MB of RAM and 4 MB available hard drive storage. 142 THE INTELLIGENT GUIDE TO TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER Public Cardrooms The following is a directory of 220 cardrooms throughout the United States"}
{"text":"Hand Range 25: A Tight Defending Range from the BB We can use the Alpha equation to find out how often the bet has to work to break even if we raise 2.5bb from the SB:"}
{"text":"just kind of standard stuff but they don't it does get quite interesting this Ace King is super close to if I want to see a bit of a check um the reason I don't mind it as a c bit is while our hands as good as it's pretty much going to be like I mean we can turn to make it we could we could we might be like getting pushed off our hand but we also have the best hand a lot and we have a decent hand to like two streets if it doesn't come get eight nine or ten on the tone or a diamond and so I would like kind of if you just called I probably actually use this combos with Bluff the Ace King I know how that kind of sounds crazy but I'm just not blocking any of the things that you would love but we would fold and I think when I check back I'm just going to lose pretty much a high frequency especially now that we're recognizing this by guys a reg he's been in our games in the 50s pretty much everyone uh it's 100 up here so for that reason I decided to take Ace King as a bluff as against a recreational I would just check back because I don't expect them to to take the term Probe on that board as much as a reg would because I think it's a great exp board to just to fire away on and I want to be quite protected when I check back against a reg on that board and so Ace King kind of goes into my sum Equity hand also blocking some of his like hero cooling hands like even like his King second pair and stuff like that or Ace Ace bottom pair those are going to be is like hero cooling hands and I'd block those so if it just cause to flop and it does come some absolute rubbish two free off suit Spade or something then Ace King can be a great candidate virtual Barrel 19 sewage gonna raise if he was to jam get a cool even if he's a recreational don't know anything about him I'm still not I'm not gonna fold such a high agree hand um even if it's there might I don't I'm not one to make like big exploits like a 910 suit there to me would be a big exploit if I was to raise fold it and if I was to ever think about folding it I'll just limp fold it if that was the case if I wanted to make that exploit against someone but I want to still play because I think the hand just does best uh when we're that shallow October blades if we're a bit deeper just limp cool ISO and then fold the jams here is this is the first interesting Sport and now free flop here if this was a reg I would be folding here uh"}
{"text":"We still have two more questions to answer for a complete solution. What Happens if the Players\u2019 Positions are Reversed? In a nuts\/air vs bluff catcher situation, position doesn\u2019t matter! If P2 is OOP instead, they still won\u2019t ever bet with KK because that is a dominated strategy, and so P2\u2019s equilibrium strategy would be to check 100% to P1. In position, P1 still wants to bet AA 100% of the time because checking back is a dominated strategy, and P1 still wants to bluff with QQ at a frequency of b\/(b + p). What is the Optimal Bet-sizing for Player1? On the river, if P1\u2019s range is perfectly polar and P2\u2019s Range is condensed, P1\u2019s optimal bet-size is always all-in! As we can see in Table 10, P1\u2019s EV increases as the bet-size increases. This is because the bigger the bet-size, the more often P1 can bluff. In this game, P2 only makes money from the tree branch where P1 checks with QQ, so the less often that branch happens, the less money P2 will make. Therefore, P1\u2019s EV is maximized when betting as large as possible. If P1 could bet an infinite amount of money, it would result in the capture of 100% of the pot. Table 10: P1\u2019s EV by Bet Size"}
{"text":"Hand Range 132: UTG+1 15bb \u2022 All-in 0.5% \/ \u2022 Raise 2x 15.1% \/ \u2022 Fold 84.3%"}
{"text":"most exciting to watch on television? Let me tell you, having enjoyed a lot of experience in this situation, those final heads-up hands are not just the most exciting to watch\u2014they\u2019re also the most exciting to play! So, why no heads-up? It\u2019s because those games are not economical for casinos. Each game takes up valuable real estate\u2014a full table. Worse, each game requires a dealer\u2014who is hired to provide service to up to ten players at a table\u2014just to accommodate two customers. 53 But online, this all changes. It costs nothing to set up a new table for two players, and online casinos don\u2019t worry about you using up their tables, because they can provide as many as they want at no cost. No tables to purchase. No cardroom floor space limitations. But bigger than that is the fact that online casinos don\u2019t worry about paying dealers. The cards are all shuffled and distributed by computer. There\u2019s no cost involved in dealing more cards or adding more. That\u2019s one reason why I believe you\u2019re going to see a surge in heads-up play online. There\u2019s another, darker reason why some players might choose heads-up online. They fear collusion, because they\u2019ve heard that opponents might be on the phone sharing information about each other\u2019s hands in order to gang up on honest players. Now, while collusion is always something to be alert to \u2014whether you\u2019re playing poker online or in the real-world\u2014the fact is that online poker has an advantage in that there\u2019s a database of every hand ever played. Each hand you play is worth money, when you\u2019re playing the way I advise in this book, and twice the hands can mean up to twice the profit. Real-world surveillance and game protection has also increased dramatically in recent years, and I\u2019m certain that, on average, poker is more honest today than it\u2019s been at any time in history. If you doubt this, just look at the players who are regularly winning the major tournaments. Often, these are unknown players\u2014some rank amateurs. That, in itself, is a testiment to the integrity of real-world poker today. Still, for those who are so concerned that they don\u2019t trust anyone and don\u2019t want to risk playing against multiple opponents they can\u2019t physically scrutinize, heads-up just might be the answer. One opponent can\u2019t collude. To me, that isn\u2019t an issue. Online games can be monitored in ways so sophisticated that they\u2019d shock those who aren\u2019t technically savvy. While I enjoy shorthanded games and even heads-up games, I\u2019m very comfortable against multiple opponents and sometimes prefer to play against a table full of opponents online. Heads-up is often a war of egos. And only online can you sit in London and play a hotly contested match against someone at home in bed with a laptop computer in Australia. 54 Reason #7: More Hands Per Hour When online poker first debuted in the late nineties, poker rooms actually built in a delay to simulate the time it took to deal cards in the real world. Boy, was that a mistake!"}
{"text":"THE CONCEPTS 190 limit. In limit, you usually should make the same play whether you are \ufb01rst to act or second. For instance, if you would bet a hand, \ufb01rst to act, you\u2019d bet the same hand second to act after a check. And if you\u2019d check, \ufb01rst to act, you\u2019d often check behind, second to act, as well. Sure, there are plenty of exceptions. Sometimes you\u2019ll go for a check-raise \ufb01rst when you would bet second. Sometimes you\u2019ll bet a hand on the river \ufb01rst to act that you would check down second to act, et cetera. But the rule in limit is that you usually should make the same play whether you are \ufb01rst or second to act. That rule doesn\u2019t hold in no limit. There are far more situations in no limit than in limit where you\u2019d do something di\ufb00erent in \ufb01rst position than in second. For instance, with a draw to the nuts, often you\u2019ll bet when \ufb01rst to act, but check if checked to. First to act, you bet because, by doing so, you set the bet size and give your opponent a chance to fold. Checking will often elicit a bet anyway, and sometimes you won\u2019t like the size your opponent chooses. When you are second to act, there\u2019s no longer any value to setting the bet size. A bet would still give your opponent a chance to fold, but with a draw to the nuts, you may not want him to do that. You may prefer trying for a huge win when you make the nuts and your opponent makes a second-best hand. In limit, you\u2019d generally bet a good nut draw from either position. Concept No. 54: Checking to induce a blu\ufb00is a signi\ufb01cantly stronger play in no limit than it is in limit. In limit, you should sometimes check behind on the turn with a decent hand to induce a blu\ufb00. This can be an important play in limit, but it is far more important in no limit. In deep stack no limit, reasons to check behind become more compelling. For instance, say you have K\u2661T\u2661on a K\u26607\u26606\u26628\u2662board against an ag- gressive opponent. He checks. There are two major reasons why you might want to check behind: 1. Checking behind avoids a check-raise. If you bet, you will often get check-raised. Since you have a gutshot straight draw with your top pair, both calling and folding to the check-raise cost you considerably. If you call, you do so as a likely signi\ufb01cant underdog, but if you fold, you miss out on your chance to draw. 2. Checking behind might induce a blu\ufb00from a busted draw. If your opponent has a hand like Q\u2660J\u2660and misses on the river, he may view your turn check as a sign of weakness and launch a blu\ufb00. You can then call it and make an extra bet. Generally speaking, getting check-raised is worse for you in no limit than in limit, as it puts you to a tough decision in many more situations. In limit, often your hand"}
{"text":"Passive exploitation A GTO strategy gains expected value against an opponent that deviates from optimal play. This gain is called passive exploitation because the GTO player doesn't actively change their strategy to gain edge. It's worth noting that only pure mistakes (as opposed to mixing mistakes) will result in a loss for the non-GTO player."}
{"text":"back tens and sixes and you'll see why it has it doing it on the next thing and what I did on the turn a lot of these two over cards it's just got you know some of these the Strongs the checks are coming from a lot of these like ace nine to over cards to the six basically start to check a little bit more king queen king jack but in general the key takeaway here is that in position should be betting a lot for a really small size and then it has some kind of intuitive checks with some hands that just don't want a bet fold in game the player checked behind and the turn was the three of diamonds and this is now kind of my strategy now on the turn the pile called solving and this is really interesting and way way way way different than I would have thought to do in game so I should have had one of my question is what is my turn strategy look like and here we see basically we bet everything for sizings the sizes i included were twenty five fifty and a hundred and then the all-in sizing so it looks like the predominantly it's using like the fifty percent and the 100 percent pot so yeah we're betting pretty much everything other than like these queen Jack King Jack type hands the King succeded is pure bet between 28 and 55 which is the 50% 100% sizing the key takeaway here is once you check back the big blind just starts going crazy because as you can see when we were looking at the this checking range they're not really checking anything and that's the reason that he started checking tens and sixes because they don't need any protection and they can induce a lot of Bluffs on the turn so in reality I would probably almost just bet everything pure as in position and check three diamonds because I don't think anyone is betting enough on the turn here from that a position I did in game I bet the King six suited for half pot so I was pretty happy with that I think I might even bet two-thirds pot so I was pretty spot on that I should be betting my king six for protection and for value to set up a shell on the river so key takeaway here is that we should just be blasting away here on the turn once it goes to check check I knew my hand was a bet but I didn't know I should just be ramming it with like hands like nine three suited for protection and value the nine for off ten for off even though Queen eight off here we should be bluffing a lot with King five off we should be bluffing going crazy with like we just be going crazy on this turn card in a general strategy because we look at the equities we have an equity advantage once"}
{"text":"Hand Range 152: BB vs SB Limp-Raise (40bb) \u2022 All-in 11.1% \/ \u2022 Call 39.3% \/ \u2022 Fold 49.6%"}
{"text":"Hand Range 121: HJ 25bb \u2022 Raise 2x 27.8% \/ \u2022 Fold 72.2%"}
{"text":"THE CONCEPTS 176 stacks (e.g., no more than maybe $50 with $1,000 stacks) you can call with many hands: all pocket pairs, any suited ace or king, two big suited cards, suited connectors (even with a gap), o\ufb00suit connectors and, if you\u2019re careful not to lose too much if you \ufb02op top pair and appear to be beaten, two big o\ufb00suit cards like K\u2661T\u2660. In good games, don\u2019t waste your button! Many hands will be pro\ufb01table from that position. Don\u2019t throw away all your $5 hands waiting for a $25 hand. Concept No. 26: When there\u2019s an ante, your opening raises should be larger than if there were no ante. But they shouldn\u2019t be larger in the same proportion that the size of the initial pot increases; they should be somewhat smaller than that. Say you are playing eight-handed with $100\u2013$200 blinds. Everyone folds to you one o\ufb00the button, and you raise to $600 as a semi-blu\ufb00. You are laying 2-to-1 (betting $600 to win $300). You are o\ufb00ering the button 3-to-2 pot odds (calling $600 to win $900) and o\ufb00ering the big blind 9-to-4 odds (calling $400 to win $900). Now say you are playing the same eight-handed game with $100\u2013$200 blinds, but also with a $25 ante. The initial pot is $500 instead of $300. Everyone folds to you one o\ufb00the button, and you raise to $1,000 (again, twice the size of the pot). You still lay 2-to-1 (betting $1,000 to win $500) and o\ufb00er the button pot odds of 3-to-2 (calling $1,000 to win $1,500). But you are o\ufb00ering the big blind signi\ufb01cantly worse pot odds, 13-to-8, than before. Since the big blind is the player most likely to call you, if your $600 bet is correctly-sized without an ante, then your $1,000 bet with an ante must be oversized. That is, you don\u2019t need to risk as much to get the big blind to fold. All other things being equal, the correct raise size should o\ufb00er the big blind roughly similar (though not necessarily identical) pot odds both with and with- out the ante. If you were to raise to $800 instead of $1,000, you would be o\ufb00ering the big blind 13-to-6, which is relatively close to the 9-to-4 from before. With an $800 raise, you (and the button) now get more favorable odds: You are laying only 8-to-5, and the button is getting 13-to-8. Thus, if a $600 raise was \u201ccorrect\u201d without an ante, then an $800 raise is close to correct with one. Notice that the size of the raise increased by adding the extra ante money, $200, to the bet size. A quick rule of thumb that works in unraised pots: when adjusting your bet size for extra money, simply add the extra amount to the bet you would normally make. If there\u2019s an extra $300 in the pot, add $300 to your bet. Notice also that when you raise this amount your semi-blu\ufb03ng opportunities will be more pro\ufb01table. Concept No. 27: When semi-blu\ufb03ng before the \ufb02op, usually do it those times you have one"}
{"text":"Trips A specific three of a kind hand, consisting of one 1 hole card and 2 community cards on the board, all of the same rank."}
{"text":"player's hand.) By raising you lose two or three bets instead of the one you would have lost by calling. Furthermore, by just calling, you figure to win one bet from the player behind you when he calls too. So you gain exactly as much as you could have gained by raising, while you risk nothing. In general, you should not usually raise but try for the overcall whenever all the cards are out and your hand is clearly better than any hand that might overcall behind you but not clearly better than the bettor's. However, you must realize that to go for the overcall, you must be sure you have the player or players to your left beat. If there is some chance one of them has a better hand than yours but might not call your raise, it is critical that you do raise when you Raising 125 have a decent chance of having the original bettor beaten. You certainly don't want an overcall if it will cost you the pot. Raising to Drive Out Opponents When you raise to get people out, what you are really doing is raising to cut down their odds. In fact, you may sometimes cut their odds so severely that you hope they will call rather than fold after you raise. By cutting down a person's odds, we mean reducing the amount of money he may win per dollar invested. For example, if there is a $100 pot, someone bets $10, and you call the $10, the player behind you gets 12-to-l odds on a call. That is, that player hopes to win $120 from his $10 call, or $12 per $1 invested. But suppose you raise the initial bettor, making it $20 for the player behind you to call. Now there's $130 in the pot instead of $120, but the player behind you must invest twice as much \u2014 $20 \u2014 for a chance to win it. You have thus cut his odds almost in half\u2014 from $120-to-$10 to $130-to-$20, or from 12-to-l to 6 1 \/2-to-l. In so doing, you have created a situation where the player may make a mistake, according to the Fundamental Theorem of Poker, by either calling or folding. Even when he folds correctly after you raise because he is getting insufficient pot odds to call a double bet, you certainly prefer that to his calling an unraised bet correctly and proceeding to outdraw you and win the pot. Raising as a Means of Cutting Down Opponents' Odds To illustrate this important point, we'll examine a hand from five card draw poker. You have a pat flush; the player to your right has nothing at all, and the player to your left has two pair. For the purposes of this illustration, we'll assume you know exactly what both opponents have. We'll also assume the betting limit is a flat $10 but that somehow a $100 pot has been created 124 Chapter Thirteen You 126 Chapter Thirteen before betting gets under way. With the cards out, we'll say the"}
{"text":"blind's two cards could be anything since at this point the blind is not in the hand by choice. If a blind gets excited by a flop of little cards, their hand could be two pair or better. Don't underestimate their strength. Flops with pairs. To win when this type of flop appears, you usually need to form another pair higher than the one on the board. If the flop is 10- 104 34, and you hold A4 34, your two pair is not going to win without improvement. You need to pair your Ace. Everyone has a pair of tens so anyone with another pair higher than your threes beats you. Also, anytime there is a pair on the flop, it is possible for someone to have a full house. This becomes more likely when there are high cards on the board. A flop of Q4 Q4 J- is more likely to have made a full house for someone than 54 5- 8+. 60 THE INTELLIGENT GUIDE TO TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER Drawing flops. Contain matched suits and cards in (or close to) sequence. This type of flop allows for the creation of straights and flushes. Learn to recognize when they're present and when they're not. Any flop containing two cards of the same suit will attract players holding two cards of that suit since they have a 33% chance of making the flush by the end. Flops with connected cards attract people looking to draw to a straight. Flops that allow pat hands. Flops such as three of the same suit or three connected cards, should not to be played against unless you can make the flush or the high end of the straight. If there is substantial betting and raising, someone already has the hand or a good draw, and you should fold. Combination flops. These flops allow the formation of a variety of monster hands. Consider K+ K4 Q+. If many players are holding face cards, many monster hands could result from later cards. An Ace-high or King-high straight, Diamond flush, Kings-full, Queensfull, even a royal flush could occur in this case. If you are holding Q4 J4, and there is substantial betting, get out. Your two pair has little chance of improving and many ways to lose. With practice and observation, you will learn to read flops and to judge the kinds of hands your opponents are playing. Consider these scenarios: Scenario 3-You hold A+ QO and are in a late position. The flop is Q4 7+ 34 and the action is checked around the table to you. You are hesitant to bet since you only have a pair of Queens. Your pair of Queens with an Ace kicker is probably the best hand at this point and should be bet. Additional cards stand a better chance of improving your hand more than your opponents' hands. For example, if an Ace appears, an opponent holding A. K has a pair of Aces, but you'll have Aces and Queens. Another Queen gives you TACTICS 61 trip-Queens. If a 7"}
{"text":"opponents to make a bet before mucking your cards because no matter how bad your hand might be, it will always have some equity or backdoor equity against most normal range distributions. That equity can be realized if your opponents also check and allow free cards to be dealt. In some cases, you might find decent spots to turn your hand into a bluff and take the pot down later. Most importantly though, preserving the informational advantage you have over your opponents is key. If every time you have a terrible hand you simply muck instead of checking, then when you do not proactively fold, your opponents will know that you have a good hand and will be able to adjust appropriately, only giving you action when they have a strong hand. Folding is a valid option only when facing a bet from an opponent and you assess that no other strategic option (calling or raising) has a positive expectation. Checking Checking when in position is fundamentally different to checking when out of position. Checking back the flop in position effectively removes one betting street from the game tree, which benefits the weaker portions of IP\u2019s range. When you are IP, checking your option immediately realizes equity, either by seeing another card or by reaching showdown. In contrast, checking when OOP does not guarantee equity realization because many times the OOP player will face a bet after checking and will be forced to fold some hands and forfeit equity in the pot, making the need for range balance even greater when checking OOP compared to IP. IP\u2019s checking range only has to be balanced on the average turn card, while OOP\u2019s checking range has to be balanced on the flop so it can deal with possible IP bets. Calling Calling a bet in a heads-up pot realizes equity, either by reaching showdown or seeing another card. Raising Raising a bet is effectively putting a bet on top of a previous bet, so the same principles that apply to betting also apply to raising. You only want to make a raise to leverage the advantage of knowing your hole cards or if raising can help you effectively realize equity or deny your opponent\u2019s equity realization. All the different actions you take convey information. Once you take an action, you can only hold hands that would be present in the range that takes that action. One of the biggest mistakes I"}
{"text":"range to play defensively. This hand is certainly fairly low down in Hero's river range and will not creep into the top 62%. It has no club blocker and when quite a few draws get there, there are few worse SDV hands in Hero's range. He has a few combos of flushes, some quads and boats, AQ and some but not too much Jx. His overall range is strong enough that KQ with no club is an easy fold from a balanced perspective. Q2. But, Hero has a great reason to disregard balance and play his range by dramatically overcalling vs. this Villain. BU is extremely aggressive, likely to have a very wide 3-bet range pre-flop, and likely to be overbluffing every street substantially based on these stats. Hero only seeks the balanced answer when he lacks the information to accurately determine whether he is likely to meet his RE equity target on a call. RE only makes sense to consider when we have some idea whether or not we can muster the sufficient equity to satisfy it. RE = ATC \/ (ATC + TP) RE = 55 \/(55 +146.5) RE = 27% It seems clear that even on one of the worst rivers possible, Villain's range is likely to contain more bluffs than this measly target requires it to. Hero needs to play exploitatively and call down, even with a hand this low in his range. Hero calls 55BB Let's summarise what we've just learned. This rule embodies perhaps the most crucial idea in succeeding at the modern online game. We'll finish with our final rule for the chapter."}
{"text":"WHEN TO (AND WHEN NOT TO) USE THE SKLANSKY-CHUBUKOV RANKINGS150 The Best Hands for Moving In As useful a guideline as the S-C numbers are, especially when heads-up (or perhaps three-handed where you would roughly divide the S-C number by two), there are many times you should not blindly follow its \u201cadvice.\u201d Sometimes you should move in even though the S-C number suggests not to, and sometimes you should not move in even if doing so is pro\ufb01table (according to the S-C number). As a general principle, the times that moving in is most attractive is when S-C proves that doing so can\u2019t be a negative EV play, and you don\u2019t have a good reason to play your hand another way. This situation is most likely to occur when you are out of position, you are facing a good, aggressive opponent, and you are looking at a hand that is weak except for its showdown value. The king-four o\ufb00suit previously mentioned is a good example of such a hand. With a $200 stack in a $10\u2013$20 game, the natural inclination would be to fold K\u26614\u2663in the small blind if everyone else has folded. This inclination is particularly strong if your opponent in the big blind is a good player. A limp is likely to induce a raise (that you don\u2019t want to call). And a small raise is likely to get called. Neither option is attractive. Yet, folding can\u2019t be right because the S-C number for king-four o\ufb00suit (22.8) is greater than your stack size. (We\u2019ll discuss a single exception shortly.) Moving in and showing your cards is pro\ufb01table, so moving in without showing your cards must be at least as pro\ufb01table. In fact, not showing will likely make your hand even more pro\ufb01table, as your opponent is likely to fold hands like K\u26616\u2663and A\u26612\u2662that he\u2019d call with if he saw your hand. Generally speaking, the best hands to move in with are those that don\u2019t \u201cplay well,\u201d but that have some showdown value (i.e., that have one high or medium-high card). You should love to be all-in with hands like A\u26634\u2662and Q\u26607\u2662as long as you don\u2019t have more chips than the S-C number. An Exception to Moving In If the Sklansky-Chubukov number suggests that you should move in with hands that you would have otherwise folded, you should listen and move in instead. But there is one exception: If you\u2019re in a tournament with a very weak hand and a very short stack, sometimes you should simply fold to ensure that you get to see some free hands. For instance, say you have $500 in the small blind at a ten-handed table with $100\u2013$200 blinds and no antes. You hold T\u26633\u2660and everyone folds to you. The S-C number for ten-trey o\ufb00suit is 5.5, which suggests that you should move in. Moving in does have a positive expectation, but folding has an even more positive expectation, as it ensures that you get to see up to eight free hands due you. If you move in, you\u2019re likely to get called, and if"}
{"text":"involves considerably more raising. With a low SPR, the question of who has more trips becomes less relevant, as any pair and even some unpaired hands can be strong enough to stack off with. BB also folds more often with shallow stacks, but this mostly represents an important difference in the preflop action. Unlike at 40bb and 100bb, BTN\u2019s preflop raise at 20bb is to just 2bb, incentivizing BB to call with more weak hands. Thus, they have more weak hands to fold on the flop . Which Hands Check-Raise? The charts above lump together raises of all sizes. When we break down the strategy by raise size, some new patterns emerge, providing insight into which kinds of hands raise and why. Here is the BB\u2019s strategy vs an UTG 33% pot continuation bet on X22 flops, 100bb deep . The numbers on the x-axis represent the third card, so the column on the far left is 222 flops, the next one is 322 , etc., all the way up to A22 on the far right. When the third card is a 5 through T , BB prefers smaller raises. For the lowest and highest third cards, they use more large raises. This reflects the desirability of check-raising when they pair that third card. On a T22 flop, BB can check-raise even a modest kicker like T9 to simultaneously deny equity to overcards and get value from lower pocket pairs . Check-raising 93 on a 322 flop, however, would result in value cutting themselves against those same pocket pairs. And on a K22 flop, denying equity is less of a factor, as there is no opportunity to push UTG off two overcards. Here\u2019s the full strategy for responding to a 33% pot continuation bet on T22 r . Notice how BB check-raises a pair of T s more often than they call them: Hands like T9 benefit from folds and have reasonable equity when called , because of the lower pocket pairs in UTG\u2019s range. The only thing they fear is a three-bet. Fortunately, the risk of running into trips, which BB almost always check-raises, discourages UTG from three-betting . The larger BB raises, the more UTG\u2019s calling range will be concentrated around hands that dominate these weaker broadway cards, which reduces the value of turning top pair after raising. BB rounds out their check-raising range with overcards and backdoor flush draws . On a disconnected rainbow flop, these are the highest equity draws available, the hands with the best chance of drawing out when called by a T or a pocket pair. Note that the lower broadway cards are pure check-raises, while the higher ones mostly call. AK and AQ , which could easily be ahead already, value fold equity much less than QJ , which can make not just better hands but dominating hands fold, cleaning up their equity for turning pairs. A smaller size suits this range well. The protection raises get most of the folds they want even with a small raise, and they welcome the lighter calls"}
{"text":"Hand Range 113: BN 25bb \u2022 Raise 2x 46.3% \/ \u2022 Fold 53.7% BN RFI Range at 25bb With 25bb, there is no all-in range from the BN (Hand Range 113). At this stack depth having high card value and high raw equity is more important than having playability. For this reason, hands such as K7o that have a king blocker to the blinds\u2019 rejamming ranges is more valuable than having a hand with more playability such as 74s. It might be surprising to see the BN folding pocket pairs such as 33 and 22, but these hands"}
{"text":"CBet Turn and CBet River respectively."}
{"text":"will be plenty good enough to call down after a turn check-raise. In no limit, however, you\u2019ll often wish very much that you hadn\u2019t bet. Inducing a blu\ufb00is also much more valuable in no limit than in limit, as the blu\ufb00bet will usually constitute a signi\ufb01cantly larger percentage of the pot. In limit, the river bet will often be only one-sixth to one-tenth (or less even) of the"}
{"text":"hello sharks before we get started today i wanted to make it really clear that this is the second part of a video series where i go through a bunch of hands that i played recently in the high stakes u.s poker open to go back and watch the first part of this video head over to pokercoaching.com uspo right now make sure you do it because um yeah that'll make this video make a whole lot more sense so check that out before you watch this video at pokercoaching.com uspo have fun all right we're back at it second ten thousand dollar no limit holding tournament of the us poker open let's take a look jake daniels loose splashy aggressive player that said my only experience with him before this was from a what was it 25 50 100 no limit holdem cash game on poker after dark where the blinds went up after like two hours to 50 100 200 and he played insane he was in a lot of hands battling splashing he stacked me when i opened it up king jack he three bet from the small blind but 10 3 of spades okay flop comes like king nine three or something king nine two king nine two one spade you know how this goes he bet i called turned with some spade he bet i called whoever was another spade giving him a flush he jammed i called i lost and against players like that you just have to do everything you can to let them make some sort of aggressive play some sort of line that will result in them over bluffing right that said jake played substantially more just like tight aggressive in this tournament i'm not sure why he has such a drastically different style from one game to the other but he certainly did that day so anyway he's playing perhaps a little bit too loose but pretty pretty standard he opens it up under the gun i like to just call let's take a look at our charts real quick just to see if this is anywhere near reasonable or if we should just three bet it every time as we see here jax mixes it up and as you get deeper stacked i know we only have 80 big line charts here but as you get deeper stacked i think you're going to call even more with hands like jax just try to flop a set you really don't want to three bet and get four bet even if he is a little bit on the looser side so we call it's a very good flop for me check 10-2 what do we do what do we do jake now bet small 2500 it's kind of a bummer you always would much prefer your opponent to be betting bigger in this scenario because when he bets small he's actually giving himself a pretty good price with hands like ace king king queen king 9 suited right and you don't really want"}
{"text":"upgrade already has some useful\u2026 How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs \u201cThey always have it!\u201d is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency\u2026 Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I\u2019m not referring to\u2026 C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026"}
{"text":"to this article on the SB\u2019s strategy for blind vs\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Small Blind ICM incentivizes more conservative play, which means that at stages of the tournament where risk\u2026 The Initial Bettor\u2019s Advantage The mathematics of poker holds a little-known secret: the first bettor enjoys better bluffing odds\u2026 Mastering the Chiplead: The Scalpel and the Sledgehammer When you have a lot of chips at a final table or in another situation\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in Cash Games Our never-ending quest for money and fame leads us to the flop. We open the\u2026 How ICM Impacts Restealing From The Blinds When I first started working with preflop solves, one of the features I found most\u2026 The ICM Benefits of Late Registration in Poker Tournaments Why do so many professional poker players register late for tournaments when they clearly would\u2026 Flop Heuristics: OOP C-Betting in MTTs Playing against an in-position cold-caller is dramatically different\u2013and dramatically more difficult\u2013than playing against a caller\u2026 Counterintuitive Calls Solver outputs such as those provided by GTO Wizard are models of no-limit hold \u2018em,\u2026 How To Negotiate Final Table Deals Most people\u2019s first introduction to the Independent Chip Model (ICM) is not from studying bubble\u2026 How does ICM impact PKO strategy? If you have read The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments you already know why we\u2026 Understanding Blockers in Poker Often when looking through a solver\u2019s meticulously crafted grid of deception, one of the following\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP Cold-Caller in MTTs A Cold-call refers to the act of calling a preflop raise when you don\u2019t close\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in MTTs In the world of poker, the flop is a crucial stage of the game that\u2026 Flop Heuristics for Defending the Blinds in MTTs The field of Game Theoretically Optimal poker is extensive, and thus, to simplify our strategy,\u2026 Multiway strategy in Progressive Knockout Tournaments Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments are much more complex than traditional MTTs. The fact that players\u2026 How To Calculate Raises In Poker One of the most frequently asked questions in poker is how to calculate the size\u2026 Principles of River Play The river offers the least complicated strategy of any betting street. With no further cards\u2026 Exploitative Dynamics GTO solutions are designed to be unexploitable, performing reasonably well no matter how your opponents\u2026 How ICM Impacts Postflop Strategy Most players understand how the Independent Chip Model (ICM) in poker impacts their strategy preflop,\u2026 10 Tips for Multiway Pots in Poker While lots of work has been placed into research and explanation of heads-up pot strategy,\u2026 What is the Bubble Factor in poker tournaments? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) shows us the real money implications of tournament chip decisions.\u2026 The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments In poker, a PKO (Progressive Knockout) tournament is a type of tournament where a portion\u2026 How To Analyze Turn Textures In Poker Master the art of turn analysis in poker. Understand how the turn card changes the\u2026 Principles of Turn Strategy Learn the principles of turn strategy in poker and discover what makes the turn unique.\u2026 Poker"}
{"text":"a look at one more hand we raised with jack 10 of spades hijack and button call flop comes jack 10-4 great spot to bet the flop big right turn is a two we continue betting big because we have one of our best made hands i also had a good draw like queen nine of diamonds nine eight of diamonds eight seven of diamonds nine seven of diamonds i would also keep betting big with those hands if i had three of a kind i'd also keep betting big and we get called and again thinking about the ranges at play we need to now fold if one of our opponents bets if one of our opponent bets notice if we bet the river we're mostly only going to get called by straights and flushes which we lose to which is really bad so if we do let this check through we have the best hand almost every time but if we face a bet we probably just need to get out of the way so we do check the opponent bets and we make the fold and you see how in all these scenarios we're asking ourselves how does our hand line up against our opponent's likely range and this is going to take a lot of practice you're going to find that if you go through a lot of hand examples and you pay attention when you're playing you will get better and better and better at narrowing your opponent's range if you are actively paying attention to that which you really should be because that is a large part of no limit hold up excellent job making it through this entire video you now have many of the tools required to crush post slot poker that will help you beat these small stakes poker cash games don't forget that you can get this entire mastering the fundamentals course for free right now by heading to pokercoaching.com fundamentals course good luck and i'll see you soon"}
{"text":"Raise Prohibited Take a look back at BTN\u2019s strategy when checked to. How do you expect it to change in a simulation where BB is not allowed to check-raise the river ? Will BTN\u2019s overall betting frequency increase or decrease? Which bet sizes do you expect them to use more and less often? Answer these questions for yourself, then click the dropdown below to see the results! See Answer BTN bets slightly more often, but that\u2019s not the primary change in their strategy. The biggest difference is the increased use of both smaller and larger bet sizes . A few things are happening here: BB has less incentive to check strong hands when they can\u2019t raise them on the river. This makes it safer for BTN to shove hands as weak as two pair A5 , and to make pot-sized value bets with top pair and even second pair top kicker K9 ! BTN can also bet more hands for a larger size when they don\u2019t have to worry about getting raised off a winning hand by a bluff. Hands that were not strong enough to bet for value at all when the risk of a check-raise loomed can now eke out a 25% pot bet. This includes hands as weak as third pair J7 . Bluffing is also more appealing when BTN is betting into a weaker range and does not have to worry about getting rebluffed by a raise. Once raising is off the table, BTN has more options, but half pot remains their most commonly used size, as the middle of the equity distribution is still where they retain the largest advantage. BTN\u2019s EV, when checked to, is 5.03bb in the simulation where BB cannot raise\u2014up from 4.73bb in the unrestricted simulation. That amounts to 30bb\/100 or a little over 6% of the pot, so it\u2019s worth looking for these bigger, thinner bets when the opportunity arises. Triple Barreling Check-raises function a bit differently when the preflop aggressor continues betting the flop and turn. Unlike in our previous example, they have many nutty hands in their range and a lot of incentive to make big bets. Indeed, in a simulation where BTN double barrels this same board, BB rarely gets the opportunity to raise the river because BTN mostly plays a shove or check strategy: With only a pot-sized bet remaining, betting less is not terribly appealing. After betting 50% pot, BTN would be getting 5:1 to call a raise all-in, so a solver is mostly paying off BB\u2019s strong hands with BTN\u2019s value range anyway. Occasionally, BTN loses half pot instead of full pot with a bluff, but that means they also sometimes get rebluffed by a hand that would have folded. The major downside of betting smaller is winning less from hands that would have called a shove while still losing the maximum to the top of BB\u2019s checking range. The major downside of betting smaller is winning less from hands that would have called a shove while still losing the maximum to the top of BB\u2019s"}
{"text":"Flip Shorthand for coin flip, describes a situation where two players are all-in, and after the cards have been revealed, their equity to win the hand is very close. The probability of either player winning is similar to a coin flip."}
{"text":"Doyle\u2019s your good friend, too. Enjoy this book, profit from it, and remember to give homage to one of the men who made this modern-day phenomenon possible, Mr. Doyle \u201cTexas Dolly\u201d Brunson, the greatest poker player who has ever lived. And remember to honor the game itself, something Doyle loves with every fiber of his being. Avery Cardoza Publisher 5 PREFACE By Johnny Chan I learned poker the hard way, playing in games that were like street fights in the back alleys of Chinatown. Before anyone thought I was ready, I sat right down at some of the toughest tables in poker, staring down the best and meanest players I could find. And as you can see, I survived and prospered. Some say I am one of the few players ever to conquer the poker world without any formal training. I\u2019m proud of that accomplishment, but if I had it to do over again, I\u2019d make it easier. Instead of learning the hard way, brawling my way up, risking my bankroll, and banging my head against those big bricks walls, I\u2019d start by reading this book. How often are you going to get a chance to learn from the most feared poker player around, year after year: Doyle Brunson himself? To be honest, at first I was upset that Doyle was writing this follow-up to his first Super\/System, which all the players at my tables call \u201cthe bible of poker.\u201d Every time I heard that, hair stood up on the back of my neck. Who needs a bible of poker? I kept thinking that professional players like me would be better off without one. The secrets contained in these two books are so powerful that at first I would have paid considerable money to keep them out of print. Doyle \u201cTexas Dolly\u201d Brunson couldn\u2019t have been bought off, anyway. I\u2019ve changed my mind. I think about how poker has grown over the last few years and how many new players have joined the game. There must be millions of them. They\u2019re ready to treat the strategy of poker with respect, and I want them to treat it that way. Poker is a monster of a game that deserves respect. When great players like Doyle and his expert collaborators are willing to share their secrets with you, poker creeps out from the rocks like a dragon that\u2019s been hiding for a hundred years. The dragon emerges, looks around, roars, and demands respect. Even though nobody noticed when that the dragon wasn\u2019t there, everyone hears it now. That\u2019s what happened to poker, and this book is part of that dragon\u2019s roar. If you\u2019re smart, you won\u2019t waste 6 the opportunity to learn from it. You see, poker isn\u2019t like other kinds of gambling. It fits better in the category of skill games, like chess and bridge. Would those games be as well respected or have such loyal followings if experts kept the secrets to themselves? Before poker came of age, it was a hustler\u2019s game, hidden from the public and not entirely respectable. But"}
{"text":"either drunk or asleep in the chairs. By good luck there was a vacancy at the table - not exactly a vacancy, but one of the house men was playing and at the direction of Monty he was ordered to give up his seat to me - a live fish. I bought $50 in chips, leaving myself only a few dollars in cash. When it came time for Monty to deal he took out the joker and said, 'This is straight draw,' which at that time meant what is now known as jacks or better. This means that the pot cannot be opened unless the opener has at least two jacks. The joker was restored to the deck if they played deuces wild. Monty dealt skilfully, a diamond as large as his thumbnail on his little finger sparkling in the artificial light. I had deduced Monty's trick. Someone else on whom Monty had played his trick too often opened the pot, so Monty didn't stay. On his third deal I opened for $5, the usual opening, on a pair of aces. I was sitting just to his right. He raised me $15.1 stayed and drew three cards. Monty's poker face turned into a wicked smile. He said, 'I play these.' I didn't help the aces. I knew what was coming but I didn't know how much he would bet. He glanced at my chips, calculating how much I had left. Wham! His right fist hit the centre of the table. He had bet $30. I pretended to hesitate, then nervously put down my hand and counted out $30, about all I had. 'I call,' I said and spread my hand face up, showing two aces. Monty could not conceal a look of utter disbelief. 'Well, I'll be a son-of-a-bitch,' he said and threw his hand face down in the discards. 'Didn't you know I stood pat?' he said in disgust. 'How can you call a pat hand on two aces?' I grinned at him. 'You wiggled your ears,' I said. 'Fresh kid,' he grumbled. 'Beats anything I ever saw.' Someone opened the window to let out the smoke. It was daylight. I ought to get some sleep before school, 1 thought. But the time went on. I had confidence now and was winning a bit. It must have been after eight in the morning when a fat little drummer called Jake Moses came in. He had just got off the morning train. 'Hello, sucker,' Monty greeted him. 'Take a seat.' Jake smiled back goodnaturedly. There was another vacant chair so I got up from Monty's side and took the other seat. It caused no comment, for players are always changing places at the least opportunity, especially when losing. I knew Monty was going to pick on the drummer and I wanted to be in a strategic position to win when he did. Round after round passed before my opportunity came. I was sitting to Monty's left, the sucker to be fleeced to his right. 'Let's play draw,' said Monty and took out"}
{"text":"over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots"}
{"text":"is part of the game. 22 THE INTELLIGENT GUIDE TO TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER Rule Variations Spread-limit games: Some cardrooms offer structured games where the betting is not in fixed increments. In a $5-10 spread-limit game, the allowed bets and raises are any amount up to $5 in the first two rounds, followed by any amount up to $10 in the second two. No raising caps when head-to-head: Some cardrooms cap raises at three until there are two remaining players. Two players going headto-head are allowed to have a raising war and raise as many times as they like. Check-raise: A check-raise is allowed in almost all games, but a few places have rules against it. Remember, when in doubt, ask. Structure variations: Different cardrooms can have variations on the traditional blind and betting-round structure. Some variations I have experienced include $2-$5-$5-$10, which means that if there are no pre-flop raises everyone pays $2 to see the flop, but must bet $5 to see the turn card. Bets then double again after the river card. I also played in a game that did not have a rake; instead the player on the button (the last player to bet in each round) paid the house an amount equal to one big blind. In exchange, that person was included in the hand, and unless there was a pre-flop raise, saw the flop without betting additional money. The first time you play in a cardroom, ask the poker manager to explain all..the house rules and take notice of unfamiliar variations. Jackpot games: Some cardrooms set aside a portion of the rake to form a jackpot that is awarded to players under special circumstances. The most common kind is the \"bad-beat\" jackpot-in order to win, a player must have a losing hand. The catch is that the losing hand must be ranked Aces-full or better. Since bad-beats of this nature are rare, jackpots can get enormous before someone wins and the jackpot rebuilds. I once witnessed a $4-8 Hold'em table on a Missouri TEXAS HOLD'EM IN A CARDROOM 23 riverboat hit a $20,000 jackpot. In that instance, the casino awarded the losing hand 50% ($10,000), the winning hand 25% ($5,000), and the remaining six players split the remaining 25%. Again, ask for the details before you play. If a casino has a jackpot, it will have house rules on which events hit the jackpot and how the pot is awarded. Pot-limit and No-limit Hold'em: Some games do not have betting limits in each round. In any betting round, players may bet any amount up to the amount present in the pot (pot-limit), or in some games, any amount up to the chips they have in front of them on the table (nolimit). In real cardrooms, these kinds of games are usually at a high level for high stakes. Beginners and recreational players should avoid them. However, some online cardrooms offer pot-limit and no-limit games with small buy-ins that none of the players who joins the table can exceed. As a result, no one player has a large"}
{"text":"Diagram 97: BB vs UTG Diagram 98: BB vs BN"}
{"text":"above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"Hero should fold in that case but call this shove happily. Hero calls 24BB Note that Hero's flop bet is too small. He is probably trying to induce some action and get the money in over three streets, but vs. a passive player who will be more inclined to call than raise, he should just pot the flop and shove the turn and get that value while it's there - this is a board that gets ugly fast and kills value on later streets. Playing Draws Shallow We know full well by now that when there's less money left behind, implied odds are slashed. This means that we are much better off in many shallow stacked cases treating our draws as semi-bluffing weapons. We often have the luxury of being able to shove all-in, capitalising on any fold equity while at the same time ensuring we'll get to see all five cards and realise our full equity in the hand. The Villain in Hand 152 below is not someone we'd typically consider bluffing against on the later streets, but Hero's turn play must be aggressive."}
{"text":"Hand Range 88: Stack Depths for SB Push"}
{"text":"Blinding out To slowly lose chips to the blinds and\/or antes, typically when a player is already short-stacked, to the point that they will soon have no chips left and bust."}
{"text":"a hand like um nine and six suited right you're seeing it a tiny bit it but doesn't make as much into sense like king three right it's like would we ever check right seven four just just for for the heck of it because we get them toward eight high well our equity isn't good enough on run up so you need to make sure you have an over card to the top pair and then you want your second card to typically be pretty low and connected to the third the third card on the board which in this case is a deuce um so this is just like a fundamental check raising strategy you're also going to see hands that interact with the bottom pair and there's possible straight blockers on future streets and so it seems like the queen two the nine to the eight two um these are bottom pair type hands that allow you to to to do a lot with on future streets um because you're gonna have pertinent blockers on a lot of turn cards so so that would be like the the other portion of your truck raising range besides um the other ones we've talked about so just to recap big blind check raising range you're going to take your value bands right those are the easy ones to find when you have jack 10 you're going to check race up here when you have good top pair you're going to check very secure then you're going to take a mix of high equity draws that are more natural your queen 9 your king um you're eight nine etcetera uh the third hand type that you're gonna fit into a check raising strategy is gonna be a single over card hand with a back door flush draw that you get to barrel on a lot of turns that's gonna be your queen three your king three um even your ace three and ace four you're seeing gets in there a little bit as the second card gets higher like king six king seven you're doing less check raising because you're blocking more offsuit force from the opponent and then the fourth type is just going to be some smattering of bottom pair hands typically when it interacts with future straight draws and has pertinent blocks so that's kind of the first ranged construction a deep range construction that we're going to look at here so in the hand we raise the king three the opponent calls me the sixth space and we need to figure out how we're going to now approach uh this turn barrel spot after check raising the ball and a very important like game theory rule and concept that you're going to find these spots is that you have to turn equity uh to barrel the turn you don't always need to turn equity you can have equity but you need to have equity out of position when you bear which is a lot different than in position"}
{"text":"raises and literally no calls hopefully this is enlightening to you on queen queen 2 a lot of players in the big blind check and call with all sorts of stuff but if you take a look at this they do have a lot of Queens but they also have a lot of junk and because of that they get to raise small and frequently notice they've hunted about 1.4 we're raising to 4.7 I would venture to say a smaller raise might even be better I've studied these spots a decent amount and some of my opponent's always that confused whenever I put in the small minimum check raise and they're like what's going on here but the answer is this is what you're supposed to do so notice we're check raising all of our pairs right all the pairs check raise all the trips check raise and then some draws what are draws on queen queen two well these are going to be draws that wrap around either the queen or the two so we have King X with backdoor flush draws we have a sex with backdoor flush draws and then we have 6X 4X and 3X with backdoor flush draws those are our Bluffs it's simple easy peasy say we do check raise let's say we do check rays notice the LoJack has to call a ton way more than you may think and most people drastically overfold here drastically drastically if you give them the Jack nine backdoor draw they just put it in the muck every time which is great lets you check raise very aggressively King 10 back door draw most people muck it notice King Jack with no back door draw mostly Folds lots of Ace highs call especially with back door draws notice not a lot of shoving we're not shoving a lot because the uh big blind has a lot of Queens right interestingly enough the hands of shove seven sixes and fives I would not have expected those to shove all that often but if you think about it they're probably good but vulnerable then we're only playing 20 blinds deep right anyways suppose we call turn is whatever let's say it's a six now once we check raise with a kind of wide range and the opponent does call what does the caller have to have they have to have something decent right so because of that we don't get to bet all that often and when we do keep betting we're usually going to be very polarized also the six of clubs is not great for the low Jack I'm sorry the big blind because while some of their draws did improve and those are going to bed every time a lot of their other draws up here the king highs don't really improve and the a signs don't really improve let's say instead the turn was the Jack of Spades now we see a lot of shoves why are we shoving a lot because we have a lot"}
{"text":"The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that two or more actions have the same value . Therefore, understanding why indifference plays such a huge role in game theory optimal poker is critical to learning poker theory. Interpreting GTO solutions is often more art than science \ud83d\udd2c It\u2019s often a subjective process requiring a combination of intuition and scientific analysis. There are many rules of thumb and heuristics but few hard laws in Game Theory Optimal Poker. Therefore, it\u2019s essential to learn the absolute hard laws of indifference to separate fact from fiction. This article will outline the few fundamental \u201chard laws\u201d of indifference that structure Nash Equilibrium. These laws apply to both GTO and all poker strategies, including exploitative styles. The Law of Selfish EV No hand will sacrifice value to improve the value of the rest of your range. A perfect strategy always takes the highest EV action with each hand in every spot . Think about it. Why would you intentionally play a losing move? Why not just always play the best move? This should be self-evident. There is no such thing as playing a -EV move to improve the expected value of the rest of your range. If a hand is a losing call, then there\u2019s no point calling and losing money. The consequence of Law 1 is Law 2: The Law of Selfish EV implies the Law of Indifference . No hand will sacrifice value to improve the value of the rest of your range. A perfect strategy always takes the highest EV action with each hand in every spot . Think about it. Why would you intentionally play a losing move? Why not just always play the best move? This should be self-evident. There is no such thing as playing a -EV move to improve the expected value of the rest of your range. If a hand is a losing call, then there\u2019s no point calling and losing money. The consequence of Law 1 is Law 2: The Law of Selfish EV implies the Law of Indifference . The Law of Indifference If a hand mixes multiple actions, those actions will have the same value . For example, if a hand mixes between calls and folds, then calling must be worth 0EV. If a nutted hand mixes between calling and raising, then trapping must be worth as much as fast-playing. Conversely, any hand with actions that have the same EV must be indifferent between those actions . If calling is worth $3, and raising is worth $3, then you must be indifferent between calling and raising. Why would you ever choose a lower EV action? If calling is worth more than folding, then simply never fold. Let\u2019s look at an example . UTG opens, BTN 3bets. Action folds to UTG, who holds KQs: Here I\u2019ve selected the \u201cStrategy+EV\u201d view. We can see that KQs has an EV of 0.31bb when 4betting or calling. We can see that it mixes between both actions. Therefore, it"}
{"text":"zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting\u2026 Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this\u2026 The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A\u2660A\u2663 in the\u2026 The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful\u2026 How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs \u201cThey always have it!\u201d is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency\u2026 Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I\u2019m not referring to\u2026 C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV"}
{"text":"fold, 77 will fold, and 66 will fold. No one bets a dry side pot unless he really has it. So those types of hands will read you for beating them. Now, think about how huge this is for you if the all-in player has a hand like KQ. You\u2019re beating the KQ hand, but not beating the AK or 77. By knocking out AK, you get to win a pot that otherwise would have gone to another player. And you knock a player out in the process. Obviously, the all-in player might hit a king and beat you. And when he does, certainly the AK would have beaten him, knocking him out of the tournament. But what do you care? You were losing the pot either way and does it really matter if you lose it to the all-in guy holding KQ or the player holding AK? If you lose either way, you shouldn\u2019t care who you lose to. You should care about protecting your hand and increasing the chances you get to win the pot. Think about this great advantage to betting. Sometimes you\u2019ll bet on the 2\u2663-5\u2666-T\u2665 board with your AQ and get a hand like J9 to fold. Now a jack hits on the turn. You get to beat the all-in player holding KQ and you forced the other player to fold a hand he would have hit and beaten you with. You win a pot you would have lost if you\u2019d just checked it down like everyone else. So if you\u2019re truly acting in your own best interest, in the interest of winning tournaments, never check down a hand when there\u2019s a dry side pot if you think your hand has a good hope of beating the all-in player. (By all means, if you\u2019re the one holding J9, check if you want. You certainly aren\u2019t winning the hand right now, anyway.) Obviously, if you\u2019re betting ace-high, you should bet all pairs too, which players also automatically check down. If you have two overcards or a straight draw and you\u2019re pretty sure the other player left in the hand has you beat, you can bet the dry side if you thinkhe\u2019ll fold. Basically, any time you think you\u2019re better off against just the all-in player, it\u2019s better to bet (except in those really specific bubble situations). I just want you to know that when you bet these dry side pots with weak hands like ace-high no-pair, the other players at the table will go nuts at you, especially if you force the best hand to fold and more especially if the folded hand would have knocked out the all-in player, but your hand doesn\u2019t. First, remember that it doesn\u2019t matter to you that another player would have knocked the all-in guy out, since you weren\u2019t winning the pot anyway. Second, remember they\u2019re yelling at you for not colluding. Basically, they\u2019re pissed that you acted in your interest, not theirs. Let them vent. Please don\u2019t tell them why they\u2019re wrong. Chapter 20 Management Churn and Earn We close this"}
{"text":"like counting on those but I don't know if I'd expect a tube but some people might find it but is that full frequency and that's that's the big problem here um but it's a full frequency so then people would miss it at some frequency if it might be missing enough plus this is actually an interesting one because I think we've got the best hand to flop like a very high frequency 10 doesn't change much but the river it doesn't nothing comes in the space doesn't come in uh if you turned like 10 8 10 8 did come in sorry but the silver wants to check the river I I didn't I went all in um but when you think about he doesn't have much King X he doesn't have much a sex and blockbiting or or does make sense in this spot because this spot because he doesn't have enough asexual King X to defend against the jam we just want to either check and let him block his Miss Spades and we don't block low space because we've got a Jack of Spades and so uh yeah um so silver wanted to to play it the way I played at the Czech river which was interesting um here with the king queen uh I just I was thinking about just jamming on him um but then I thought we I get to close off action playing with my hand like king queen seems good um I open gem base 7 suited these stack sizes it looks fine um and here we've got a situation where he's bit half pot and I was thinking my standard is just to call if it was a heads up pop but then he hasn't got as much incentive to go big when someone's all in and it just looks like I'm kind of getting trapped here I'd never played with this player before and so I decided to to fold and see what what the opponent was betting the size of and he was trying to like level me and it didn't work and you'll see that G2 never Falls the Flop but it doesn't really consider a freeway pot as much so this is like the only big blunder you see in this session there's two blunders uh one being one that I could definitely justify and this one I also justify so both of them I I make more money than so we're suggesting so of the two blunders I'm pretty happy about that we'll get across the next one in a minute okay so don't notice player so I want to start off aggressive I like I said I showed him early stage I want to I want to start the dynamic as me as an aggressive player um yeah don't don't want to make it like a easy for a moment because it's quite easy to adapt from aggression to uh passive and you can also maximize your profit if someone doesn't adapt world to aggression"}
{"text":"nan"}
{"text":"Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting\u2026 Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this\u2026 The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A\u2660A\u2663 in the\u2026 The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful\u2026 How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs \u201cThey always have it!\u201d is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency\u2026 Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I\u2019m not referring to\u2026 C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out"}
{"text":"and strategic analysis. He combines a strong fundamental knowledge of GTO heuristics with exploits against opponents who deviate from an optimal baseline. Latest article Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026 The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting\u2026 Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this\u2026 The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A\u2660A\u2663 in the\u2026 The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has"}
{"text":"When a Villain who clearly has a propensity to make light c-bets checks a fairly dry high flop BB vs. BU, there should be an immediate suspicion that he may not be helplessly giving up with air too often on such a favourable board to c-bet in position. What does the checking range of the average Reg with these stats look like then? I'd expect it to be SDV heavy and mostly planning on calling the turn. It's just too likely that air that could fold the turn would choose to c-bet on this flop most of the time. Of course checking back only SDV hands is unbalanced but it's very common for Regs to be completely unbalanced at the micro and low stakes. Therefore, Hero is going to need some selectivity to his light turn betting range. If these population reads are accurate, which they should be for most games, then Hero should avoid barreling turn and then giving up river as Villain will have fairly few combos that are folding immediately. He should then select his firing-twice-range by favouring his own combos with decent semi-bluffing equity."}
{"text":"you want to just call in the hope that someone will try to steal the pot, and you can reraise them later. It's a creative play, but not really a good idea. There's too much danger that your call might just induce a series of calls behind you, and you'd be in the worst possible situation for your jacks - facing a group of limpers and out of position. Just make a good-sized raise here, and let the aggressive players decide what they want to do. Action: You raise to $100, and everyone folds. Hand 5-18 Situation: Early in a single-table online tournament. Many players have been limping into pots to see a flop. 116 Your hand: 2\u26602\u2666 Action to you: Players A and B call. Player C folds. There is $70 in the pot. Question: Do you fold, call, or raise? Answer: Many players give up on a pair of deuces, remembering all the hands they've played where deuces were worthless after the flop, or were counterfeited by other cards when the hand was played down to the end. However, deuces are a pair, and they do have some value. But they also require The optimal time to play deuces is sitting in late position, behind a bunch of limpers. In that case, you can just limp into the pot with everyone else and see if you can flop a set. If you flop a set, the implied odds should let you win a big pot. If not, you can mostly throw the hand away, except in some special circumstances. If, for instance, you were on the button and the flop came 7\u26657\u26603\u2663, and the players in front of you checked, you could make a bet of two-thirds of the pot. That flop likely missed the other callers, and you might well have the best hand. Here you're in earlier position than you'd like, but the table has been showing a pattern of many players limping into pots. Overall, it seems like the situation is favorable enough, so you should call. Action: You call. Player E folds. Player F calls. Player G raises to $40. The button folds. The small blind calls for $30. The big blind folds. Player A raises $130. Player B folds. The pot is now $310, and it costs you $130 to call. Question: What do you do? Answer: This is much more action than you wanted to see, and the pot odds are now highly unfavorable. The pot is offering you about 2.5-to-l, and it's about 7-to-l against improving to trips on the flop. It's hard to imagine you can win without improving, so fold. Action: You fold. Hand 5-19 Situation: Early in a single-table online tournament. Players B and G seem to be slightly conservative. Your hand: A\u2660K\u2665 Action to you: Player A folds. Player B raises to $60. Players C, D, E, and F all fold. Player G calls. The small blind folds. The pot is now $165, and it costs you $30 to call. 117 Question: What should you do? Answer: With the"}
{"text":"hand Hero should feel thrilled about cold 4-betting for value would be AA and this is a very small value range indeed and would lead to a ridiculously unbalanced strategy. The solution? 4-bet nothing! Hero doesn't really want a 4-bet range of any sort and he can leave his calling range uncapped thereby protecting the likes of JJ, QQ and AK with his powerhouse KK+ combos. The strategy looks like this: Figure 72 - A Strategy for Hand 107 It might seem extreme to be playing such a tight range here and only for a call, but remember that Villains' actions have narrowed their ranges immensely especially in these positions. Calling 9BB cold does not afford us the implied odds to mine with any lesser pocket pairs that lack frequent strength and to play any big cards worse than AK would lead to far too much domination. In fact, in very passive games, hands worse than KK can quickly become folds in this spot where we're facing"}
{"text":"side. Remember, we don\u2019t need to nail this perfectly. Our goal is to uncover heuristics that enable us to make better in-game decisions. On the right side, you see our adjusted response. We need to tighten up significantly against that range. SB\u2019s locked opening strategy and BB\u2019s adjusted response (vs 8bb open-jam) But, we\u2019re not finished just yet. Another critical factor is our future EV . Even with just 8bb, we still have an edge over most recreational players. Particularly against tight and passive opponents, it\u2019s wise to avoid calling off with marginal hands, as our win rate in future hands tends to be higher. However, a word of caution: not every recreational player fits the same mold! Against very aggressive opponents, we might need to broaden our calling range. My advice would be to experiment and develop a sense of the range you should call with against different types of players. 3) Folding Too Much to C-Bets From Regulars Blind vs Blind This is a common mistake I see, even among quite experienced players. Let\u2019s examine an example to demonstrate the kinds of hands that usually get folded, though they should be calls (or raises) in a GTO context . Assume a QT2 rainbow flop, 22bb deep, BB vs SB, in a limped pot. Below, you\u2019ll see the overall defending range against a 1bb (50% pot) c-bet. BB defense vs SB 50% pot c-bet on QT2 r (limped pot) The next two pictures show the areas where players usually tend to under-defend. Each picture has an active filter. No made hand and 2-card BDFD (backdoor flush draw) King-high and no draw BB\u2019s range filtered for: No made hand and 2-card BDFD BB\u2019s range filtered for: King-high and No draw Do you defend hands like 8 \u2660 7 \u2660 , 5 \u2665 3 \u2665 , or K \u2666 6 \u2665 here on QT2 r? No? Well, you\u2019re not alone! Against regulars, we should know our threshold calls , and the best way to train them is with the Trainer . I\u2019ve created a drill for you to practice this spot until it becomes second nature. 4) Calling Too Many C-Bets From Recreationals Blind vs Blind Same situation as before, but now we are facing a different opponent: a recreational player in the SB. Across most pools, stakes, and poker sites, the average recreational tends to c-bet with a tighter, more value-heavy, straightforward range. Their c-bet frequency tends to be on the lower side but carries a higher value to bluff ratio than GTO . Let\u2019s first look at the value part of the GTO c-bet range. You will see that we should play a quite defensive strategy, checking the majority of our top pairs and middle pairs. SB strategy for top and middle pairs on QT2 r (limped pot) Let\u2019s nodelock this situation on the flop with recreational tendencies in mind. Applying the same filters as before, you\u2019ll now notice that all of these hands become very clear folds. Even most Ace-x hands without an additional draw are now folds. BB defense"}
{"text":"Bust When a player loses all of their chips."}
{"text":"over pairs and if they flop top pair it's gonna be top pair close top pair top kicker most of the time if they make a flush it's going to be the not flush or in worst case the second knot flush so these hands when they hit the flop they'll have the best of it on the flop and we can play them for a big pot whereas the tier two hands if they flop a set it's more often mid-set not as often top set with the suited aces it's top pair if they flop an ace but it's not top pair great kicker and they do have the ability to make the nut flush draw which what makes them top tier hands and the suit the jack 10 suiteds and up uh can make really strong straights and then as we go down we have hands that can make sets but they'll make bottom sets or we'll have hands that can make straights but they won't be the nut straights and flushes that won't be the nut flushes so we have to be more cautious with them we can't exactly just get all our money in when we make a nine high flush but we can get all our money in with an ace high flush no matter how many big blinds we have so look at the concept of implied odds the tier the top tier hands have higher implied odds and the lower tier hands have more reverse imply dots they can't really play big pots and then the mid tier ends or everything in between um as for the tier four hands suited kings get in here because the king can make top pair plus they can make the second knot flush um which can be played you know for a medium-sized pop but it just can't be played quite as confidently as an ace there's a huge difference between the nuts and the second nuts you know the nuts and everything else the nuts can play for all the money at any time the second nuts and down can't they have to be more selective so key properties again just to review the best hands have the ability to make top pair top set top boat not flush not straight great hands have the ability to flop a set or combo draws they won't necessarily be nut draws but they'll be draws that have lots of equity high chance of making the best hand versus a made hand and then good hands have the ability to make a marginal draw or top pair that can play for some amount of money some some amount of streets of betting but not all the streets of betting post flop key questions for choosing the best hands first look at the math preflop and post flop and based on that what odds are you getting what percentage of hands do you want to continue with when it comes to which hands to open uh jonathan's got some great"}
{"text":"first to act, and I\u2019m in the pot with someone who raised before the flop. He\u2019s supposed to have a strong hand. He\u2019s probably got a big pair in the hole, bigger than anything that showed on the flop. In this situation, there\u2019s a principle I always apply in hold\u2019em: always make it a habit to lead into the raiser whenever I flop a big hand. Most players will slow-play their hand in that spot or hope to get in a checkraise. When they do that, they\u2019re playing it wrong. By betting right into the raiser, you make him think you\u2019re either trying to take the pot away from him or you\u2019ve got some kind of draw or a mediocre hand. Consequently, he\u2019ll almost invariably raise you. At that point you can get all your chips in. And it\u2019s tough for him to get away from his hand because he has so much money already in the pot. The raiser expects you to check to him on the flop. I mean, he knows you know he\u2019s supposedly got a strong hand. He raised coming in, didn\u2019t he? When most players flop a set with a small pair or two pair with small connecting cards, they do the obvious. They check, waiting for the raiser to bet, and then they put in a raise. That\u2019s the wrong way to play it, because it gives the raiser an opportunity to get away from his hand at a minimum loss. But if you lead into him, he probably will raise, and then there\u2019s probably no getting away from it. He\u2019s all but committed to getting the rest of his money in the pot. Even if it\u2019s a raggedy flop without a straight or flush draw, you should still make the same play. Perhaps even more so, because with three rags out there, a bet would indicate weakness rather than strength to most players. Since it does look like you\u2019re weak and trying to take the pot away from him, the average player will respond to your bet by raising. The only risk you take when you play the hand this way is that the raiser 352 might not raise you on the flop because he might not have a hand. However, he might have bluffed at it if you had checked, and you would have won the amount he bluffed. It\u2019s far more probable that he does have a hand. He was the raiser. He\u2019s represented a hand. He\u2019s supposed to have a hand! Based upon that very reasonable assumption, I go ahead and lead into his hand. When compared to check-raising in that situation, it\u2019s the bigger money-making play, by far. I think it\u2019s one of the strongest plays in hold\u2019em. If you flopped a set in an unraised pot and it was a raggedy flop, you\u2019d have to play the hand quite differently. Depending on what set you flopped, you might not even play it at all. You\u2019ll see what I mean in a minute. But the concept you should understand is this:"}
{"text":"with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Tombos21 Tom is a long time poker theory enthusiast, GTO Wizard coach and YouTuber, and author of the Daily Dose of GTO. Latest article Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026 The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting\u2026 Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this\u2026 The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A\u2660A\u2663 in the\u2026 The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of"}
{"text":"is vulnerable to being bluffed. This is a tell you can take right to the bank. If he doesn\u2019t look back and still calls, you should be suspicious he\u2019s playing a flush in a greedy cagey way. Otherwise, he\u2019d look back, even with a hand like a set, to see if he has a redraw in case you have the flush you\u2019re representing. In this case, you can pretty easily check-fold the river. He has you beat. If you get raised when you bet, so be it, you fold. But keep in mind that by not check-raising the flop, you save a lot of chips against aflush that hits on the turn, at least 800, while making sure your opponent is getting a bad price with one to come. What should you do on the turn when you do hold the high diamond in suit on a board like A\u2660-8\u2666-2\u2666-6\u2666? Say you hold A\u2666Q\u2663 and you check and call on the flop. Can you give a free card on this turn? Of course! You hold the A\u2666, so the coordination is working for you. Check. If you get a bet behind your check, check-raise. If you get a check behind, be happy for the free card and bet the river nomatter what hits. Many hands that can beat you will fold to your check-raise on the turn, since it looks so flushy. And if you\u2019re wrong and get called, it\u2019s not like you\u2019re drawing dead anyway. So yay you! Top Pair, Multi-Way, In Position, With or Without the Lead, Textured Board Now let\u2019s make things difficult by dropping ourselves into a gross, messy, four-way pot with a textured board. As before, you hold A\u2666Q\u2663 or A\u2665Q\u2663, the flop is A\u2660-8\u2666-2\u2666, and you\u2019re sitting around back in position. By now, I\u2019m sure you understand that this example is applicable to all sorts of other drawing situations and we use the same example for analysis each time. The issue isn\u2019t the hand specifics, but the thinking and analysis that go into your decision-making. You\u2019re in position. You raise pre-flop and get three callers. Let\u2019s say it went limp, limp, you raised, and the blind and both limpers called. Let\u2019s not call those callers donkeys. Let\u2019s call them \u2026 \u201centhusiasts.\u201d Or it was raised in front of you, let\u2019s say from early position, you flat-call, then both blinds\u2014again, \u201centhusiasts\u201d \u2014jump on for the ride. Either way, you\u2019re in position on the field. Everyone checks to you. You\u2019ll bet 100% of the time\u2014more, if you can figure out how! Of course, you can\u2019t let a free card come off here. In the best case, everyone folds and you win. In the not-so-great case, you get raised. And in that case, it\u2019ll reallymatter where the raise comes from. Let\u2019s say you make the bet on the button and player A, the first player who checked, raises you. You have to give that raise a lot more weight than if player C raises you after A and B fold. You have to give weight to player A check-raising,"}
{"text":"Diagram 58: High c-bet % and Big Bet-size: BB vs UTG on A\u2665Q\u26663\u2660 (40bb) If we give IP the option to use a 120% overbet, the solver will use it 14.45% of the time, although this does not generate any extra EV to IP. On the other hand, simplifying the strategy to c-bet 100% for 1\/3-pot bet-size loses 1.07% of the pot, or 6.6bb\/100. Simplifying the strategy to c-bet 100% using the 2\/3-pot bet-size retains all of IP\u2019s EV. Diagram 59"}
{"text":"directing the dealer. A table captain is awesome if the dealer is bad and not running the game. Often, though, the table captain is just a control freak. TAG\u2014An abbreviation for tight aggressive. Refers to a player with that playing style. Tell\u2014A physical display that gives away something about the strength of your hand. For example, if a player starts blinking very quickly, it\u2019s usually a sign of weakness. Texture\u2014The relationship of cards on the board to one another. When board cards are related, for example, if there are cards of the same suit or cards that make a straight or straight draw, the board is considered textured, e.g. J\u2660-T\u2660-2\u2666.When board cards aren\u2019t related, the board is considered untextured, e.g. A\u2666-9\u2665-4\u2660. Boards that have a lot of texture on them are also called \u201cwet\u201d or \u201ccoordinated.\u201d Boards with no texture onthem are also called \u201cdry\u201d or \u201cuncoordinated.\u201d Textured\u2014See \u201ctexture.\u201d When cards on the board are related to one another. Also called \u201cwet\u201d or \u201ccoordinated.\u201d Third Street\u2014The first street in stud games. The betting round when the players have just been dealt their two down cards and their one up card instud. Three Bet\u2014See \u201cre-raise.\u201d Tilt\u2014The state of being so emotional at the table that you play very badly because of it. Usually happens because of a bad beat. Also called \u201csteaming.\u201d Tight\u2014A player who plays a very small percentage of his starting hands and has high standards for continuing in a hand. Tight Fold\u2014Folding a hand most players would call with. Toke\u2014Tip. Top Pair\u2014When you pair a card in your hand with the highest ranked card on the board. For example, if you have A\u2665K\u2665 and the board is K-Q-8, you flopped top pair. Tournament\u2014A poker competition in which players pay an entry fee and receive chips that have no cash value. The goal is to be the last player standing with all the chips. When players lose their chips, they\u2019re eliminated. As players are eliminated, the tournament consolidates. Players get moved to new tables. The tournament consolidates until only one table is left. Then that table plays till there\u2019s only one player left. Trap\u2014To play a very strong hand as if it\u2019s very weak in order to trick an opponent into thinking he either has the best hand or can bluff you off your hand. Used to extract money on later betting rounds from another player. Trips\u2014Three-of-a-kind with one card from your hand and two cards from the board. For example, if you have AT and the board is 5-6-T-Q-T, you have trip 10s: three 10s where one is in your hand and two are on the board. Turn\u2014The fourth community card dealt. Also called \u201cfourth street.\u201d Uncoordinated\u2014When cards on the board are unrelated to one another. Also called \u201cdry\u201d or \u201cuntextured.\u201d See \u201ccoordination.\u201d Under the Gun\u2014The player who must go first before the flop is under the gun. The position at the table directly to the left of the player in the bigblind. Underdog\u2014A hand or player that is not a mathematical favorite to win. Untextured\u2014When cards on the board"}
{"text":"raise when you don\u2019t close\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in MTTs In the world of poker, the flop is a crucial stage of the game that\u2026 Flop Heuristics for Defending the Blinds in MTTs The field of Game Theoretically Optimal poker is extensive, and thus, to simplify our strategy,\u2026 Multiway strategy in Progressive Knockout Tournaments Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments are much more complex than traditional MTTs. The fact that players\u2026 How To Calculate Raises In Poker One of the most frequently asked questions in poker is how to calculate the size\u2026 Principles of River Play The river offers the least complicated strategy of any betting street. With no further cards\u2026 Exploitative Dynamics GTO solutions are designed to be unexploitable, performing reasonably well no matter how your opponents\u2026 How ICM Impacts Postflop Strategy Most players understand how the Independent Chip Model (ICM) in poker impacts their strategy preflop,\u2026 10 Tips for Multiway Pots in Poker While lots of work has been placed into research and explanation of heads-up pot strategy,\u2026 What is the Bubble Factor in poker tournaments? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) shows us the real money implications of tournament chip decisions.\u2026 The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments In poker, a PKO (Progressive Knockout) tournament is a type of tournament where a portion\u2026 How To Analyze Turn Textures In Poker Master the art of turn analysis in poker. Understand how the turn card changes the\u2026 Principles of Turn Strategy Learn the principles of turn strategy in poker and discover what makes the turn unique.\u2026 Poker Strategies: Tournaments vs. Cash Games Tournament poker is not as different from cash game poker as people sometimes assume. Most\u2026 How Solvers Work A Game Theory Optimal solver is an algorithm that calculates the best possible poker strategy.\u2026 The Most Powerful Play in Poker The central strategic implication of stack depth is the question of how much equity a\u2026 When does ICM become significant in MTTs? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) was invented in 1987 by M. Malmuth and is one\u2026 How to Study GTO Solutions Tools like GTO Wizard and other solvers should not be used to memorize specific strategies.\u2026 Principles of GTO Game theory, or GTO (for Game Theoretically Optimal), is best understood not as a rigid\u2026 Interpreting Equity Distributions GTO Wizard\u2019s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which\u2026 What is Leverage in poker? Leverage refers to the risk of future betting. When you call a bet on the\u2026 Reasons for value betting in poker You\u2019re probably accustomed to thinking of bets as either value or bluff. In this taxonomy,\u2026 The Science of Poker Performance Poker is a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment\u2026 What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets\u2026 Pot Geometry \u201cPot Geometry\u201d refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible \u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot"}
{"text":"raise range so that we're attacking a loose bet like if villains don't defend often enough on king seven deuce and they they're see betting range then we just need to exploit that we need to drop the hammer down um where you can kind of go on a you know slippery slope is by check raising very frequently on those types of boards and then not realizing we're not adjusting that ranges contract um once they face our raise and then call so not serve super well by making future bets but yeah just use your situational incentives to punish your opponents some quick heuristics versus loose bets attack with loose raises and defend with loose calls so boards where villain is in your best estimation betting loosely attack them with loose raises defend with loose calls so lots of pairs some ace highs just you have to attack their loose bets with loose raises and loose calls tight bets we're going to defend with equity driven hands right so flush draws open in straight draws some gut shots if that makes sense if we have the pot odds we want to raise with top end values so when villain uses a makes a tight bet whether it be like betting on a wet board or sizing up on a board like king seven deuce and we have a hand like deuces or king seven or pocket sevens we just need to raise with our top end values so take advantage of the fact that they're kind of telegraphing that they're making a tight bet and maximize value when you have it and then realize equity when you have flush draws open in straight draws because the reality is like if you're drawing to an open end straight draw you want your opponent to have stronger hands you want them to be fairly tight so that when you hit you get paid off right so defend versus tight bets with equity driven hands and then raise with top end value jeff asks how do i know how much to infer from betting patterns when there are so few hands you actually see at showdown it's tough i mean you really need to pay attention right you you just need to see the bet sizings that villains are using try to notice deviations or multiple sizings on similar boards so if villain raises pre-flop and then uses two different sizings on tight boards there's probably a reason right so one showdown you know like allen just said one showdown can tell a surprising amount he's right like just one showdown you can see um or you can construct a fairly accurate strategy of what villains doing so the faster you can find these exploits the faster you can discern between loose and tight bets the faster that you can exploit these tendencies versus loose calls um you know when you bet and villain is constructing they have a loose call so if you remember the queen queen green quadrant before when villain"}
{"text":"Figure 46 - Pyramidal Strategies So in reality, if we were to call turn with every hand we called flop with, we'd in fact become more exploitable, not less exploitable. The pyramid would not narrow at all and Villain would have 0% fold equity vs us. This would make it incredibly profitable for Villain to exclusively value bet and never bluff on the turn. We have no desire to offer Villain this route to strategically crushing us, not unless we suspect he's doing the opposite. For now then, we'll aim to roughly emulate a balanced pyramidal calling strategy in these spots whenever we have no reason to be exploitatively overcalling or undercalling a street. We'll do this by assessing where we are in our range and how suitable the hand in question is to stay in the pyramid on the next tier\/street. Our requirements for calling a later street will always be stricter than those for calling an earlier one. In Chapter 13 when we examine balance principles more closely, we'll be learning how to mathematically solve for optimal balanced strategies with our range."}
{"text":"split kings. 241 Now say the same scenario arises again, only this time two players have aces showing after three cards. The same player raises, and then you reraise him, knowing it\u2019s less likely anyone can have aces since you\u2019re looking at two of them. Smart, right? Wrong. While an ace is gone, making it less likely a single player would hold aces, the fact that you\u2019re up against two players showing an ace makes it more likely that you\u2019ll be facing aces in at least one spot. Still confused? Let me break it down further. Situation One One opponent has an ace-up. What are the chances he has split aces or rolledup aces? We multiply three unaccounted for aces by 39 other unknown cards and get 117 combinations of holecards that include a single ace. 3 x 39 = 117 There are also three combinations possible in which one of your opponents has two aces in the hole for trip aces. (3 x 2) \/ (2 x 1) = 3 That makes 120 total combinations that give your opponent aces or better (117+3). There are 861 total combinations of cards (42 unknown cards x 41 still unknown cards divided by 2) that your opponent could have in the hole. So the player with an ace up has aces or better 120 out of 861 times, 13.94 percent of the time, meaning he is a 6.18 to 1 underdog. Situation Two Two opponents have an ace-up. How often will one have aces or better? Now we have four holecards between the two players. Let\u2019s calculate by multiplying the number of unknown cards remaining as each card gets removed in order to derive the total number of holecard combinations. 42 x 41 x 40 x 39 = 2,686,320 We divide the total number of unknown cards by 24 holecard combinations (4 possible first cards x 3 possible second cards x 2 possible third cards x 1 possible fourth card) to eliminate the possibility of counting the same hand more than once when the cards are in a different order. This leaves 111,930 combinations of buried cards that your opponents could have. 242 2,686,320 \/ 24 = 111,930 Using the same formula, we can calculate the number of scenarios in which exactly one of the four opposing holecards will be an ace. Multiply the number of non-aces among the unknown cards, 40, by 39 and 38, then divide that number by 6 (3 x 2 x 1) to eliminate the possibility of counting differently ordered but equal hands twice, and you get 19,760 combinations of one ace and three non-aces among the four opposing holecards. To determine how many combinations exist in which two of the holecards will be aces, multiply the combination of both remaining aces, 1, by the number of combinations of two non-ace cards among 40 unknown non-aces, which is 1560 (40 x 39). Then divide that by 2 (2 possible first cards x 1 possible second card) to get 780 combinations of two aces and two non-aces among the four"}
{"text":"BLUFFING ON THE TURN AND RIVER 49 draws and the very weakest made hands. For all bet sizes much larger than the size of the pot, your opponents will also fold roughly the same number of hands: almost everything except the nuts and perhaps a couple of other I extremely strong hands. In the middle, usually around the half-pot to one-and-a-half pot range, will be a sharp change in the fold percentage, where your opponents fold stronger and stronger hands to bigger and bigger bets. The optimal size for the river bet is the smallest amount that keeps your opponent folding most of the time. That is, to \ufb01nd the right theoretical size for your river bet, start at the right- most edge of the graph and follow it left until it begins to drop signi\ufb01cantly. Stop there and look at the corresponding bet size. That\u2019s about how big your river bet should be. Why is that the right size? Well, if you bet more than that, then you risk signi\ufb01cantly more for only a small increase in your chance of success. In a $1,000 pot, it makes no sense to bet $2,000 for an 80 percent chance of folding when you can get a 75 percent chance for $1,000. You\u2019d lose an extra $1,000 20 percent of the time, while making an extra $2,000 (swinging a \u2212$1, 000 failure"}
{"text":"Broadway A Ten through Ace straight. \"Broadway cards\" can also be used to describe any 10, J, Q, K, or A card."}
{"text":"Hand Range 187: SB vs BN (25bb) \u2022 All-in 14.2% \/ \u2022 3-bet 6.5% \/ \u2022 Call 6% \/ \u2022 Fold 73.2%"}
{"text":"Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting\u2026 Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this\u2026 The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A\u2660A\u2663 in the\u2026 The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful\u2026 How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs \u201cThey always have it!\u201d is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency\u2026 Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I\u2019m not referring to\u2026 C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings"}
{"text":"Hand Range 9: A Standard SB 20% Rejamming Range vs BN Using an equity calculator, you will see that your A\u26605\u2660 has 43.31% equity vs the SB range. So, %W = 43.31%"}
{"text":"As much as Hero would love to make it 4x here and exploit the fact that this UTG limper is very fit- or-fold post-flop, there is a very 3-bet happy Reg on the BU and another Reg not afraid to 3-bet lightly in the BB. As a result, Hero should make his standard ISO size 3x here, making a -1BB adjustment to the ISO sizing rule. This sizing will protect Hero's range from getting abused by the Reg on the BU or any of the others. Repeatedly finding these spots to make some small changes to your sizing is something that separates great players from good ones."}
{"text":"a particular hand or game. A game with a lot of action is a game with a lot of betting. The player who starts the action is the player who makes the first bet. Active player: A player still in the pot. All-in: Having all one's money in the pot. Ante: A bet required from all players before the start of a hand. Baby: A small card, specifically an ace, 2, 3, 4, or 5. The term is used especially in razz and high-low split. Back door: In seven-card stud and hold 'em, three cards to a flush or a straight after five cards have been dealt. In general, the term is used for a hand made on the end, which a player was not originally trying to make. Bad beat: Having a hand that is a big favorite defeated as the result of a lucky draw, especially when the person drawing was playing incorrectly by being in the pot in the first place. Bad game: A game in which your opponents are too good for you to expect to win; a game in which you're an underdog. Bankroll: The amount of money you have available to wager. Belly buster: A draw to an inside-straight. Also called a gutshot. 277 278 Appendix \u0412 Best of it: A situation in which a wager can be expected to be profitable in the long run. Bet: To put money in the pot before anyone else on any given round. Bettor: The person who first puts money in the pot on any given round. Bet for value: To bet in order to be called by a lesser hand. You are betting to make money, not to make your opponentsfold. Bicycle: Ace, 2,3,4, 5 \u2014 the best possible hand in lowball. Also called a wheel and a baby straight. The term is used in all games. Blank: A card that is not of any value to a player's hand. Blind: In hold 'em, draw lowball, and some other games, a forced bet that one or more players must make to start the action on the first round of betting. The blind rotates around the table with each new deal. The person whose turn it is to bet is said to be in the blind. Bluff: A bet or raise with a hand you do not think isthe best hand. Board: The cards that are face up in a player's hand. In hold 'em, the community cards. Bring it in: To start the betting on the first round. Bug: A joker that can be used to make straights and flushes and can also be used to make a pair with aces, but not with any other cards. Glossary of Poker Terms 279 Busted hand: A hand that does not develop into anything of value. Button: When there is a house dealer, as in the card rooms of Las Vegas, the button is a round disc that rotates around the table to represent the dealer for the purposes of indicating which player is to be first to act. A"}
{"text":"you're not three betting Ace Queen suited you're barely three betting Jacks you're not three betting tens nines doesn't really love it all the small pairs don't love it and then we're three betting with a decent amount of Bluffs with almost all of our Bluffs coming from Ax suited King X suited and off suit High cards plus a few other hands like suited connected type stuff like Queen n suited Queen 8 suited and 76 suited so really not three betting all that much at all because the initial razor range should be very strong because they're raising under the gun 60 big blinds deep if your opponent's raising much wider pre- flop then sure you can get a little bit farther out of line and you can three bet wider but against a good strong GTO opening range which I guess I'll show you here's a good strong GTO under the gun opening range as you see just a lot of good hands hands in Red by the way are the aggressive action the hands in green are called hands in Gray SL blue or folded um so as you see here if they're raising very strong you really just don't get to do a whole lot so let's go back to button versus raise from under the gun what I want to look at now is what happens when we're a little bit shallower stacked let's take a look what happens when we are 40 big blinds deep notice now our three bets are going to change just a little bit and our value range to three bet and get it in is also going to be slightly different but still mostly the same selection of hands but a little bit wider with the pairs so we should go back to 60 big blinds and I'll show you what you do versus a forb bet Allin you call it off with only the pair um pocket NES and better than Ace King notice that even Ace Queen folds and against a normal forb bet we are again just putting it in with the best hands and folding all the Bluffs for the most part okay so we're not like getting it in with the ace queen off suit here I want to make that very clear so many people torched their money with Ace queen off suit myself included in the past all right let's go back to 40 big blinds uh button versus rise from under the gun and you see you know similar selection of hands Aces kings queens some Jacks a little bit more tens Etc and Ace King and now versus a forbat Allin we would again call it off with the same range Ace King and all the pairs again notice all of the other hands are folding out but notice a similar selection of hands are still opting to three betat right suited connected type stuff ax suited kingx suited all suit big cards it's going to be very very common pattern"}
{"text":"many hands that would otherwise play well as calls preferring to deny equity to the BB. This is especially true as ICM pressure increases. For the BB , calling is very appealing. They are getting amazing odds, thanks to their big blind and the ante, and they do not have to worry about anyone calling or raising behind them. When they do three-bet, they prefer to do so with a more polar Polarized Describes a range that is mainly very strong made hands or bluffs, with very few middle strength hands. range consisting of very strong hands that will be happy to get all-in preflop and hands so weak they are not especially appealing calls. Thus, they are less likely to have a tough decision when faced with a four-bet. This more polar range incentivizes BB to use a larger size when they three-bet as well, so it is correct for the opener to fold hands they would not fold to the SB. The other interesting trend here is that CO\u2019s calling frequency goes up as the stacks get deeper. This is the opposite of what happens when the opener faces a three-bet from an in position player, which provides a clue as to what is going on here. Playing after the flop is good for the player in position. The more money remaining to be wagered, the more their position is worth. Thus, the out of position player\u2014at deeper stack depths\u2014has more incentive to avoid playing postflop by either folding or four-betting. As stacks get shallower, it matters less and less that they are out of position, which makes it increasingly appealing for them to take advantage of the pot odds by calling and seeing a flop with hands that would have folded if stacks were deeper. Playing after the flop is good for the player in position. Conversely, CO prefers not to end the hand preflop when stacks are deep because they expect to over-realize their equity postflop. They call with some weaker hands that they would fold with shallower stacks but also with some surprisingly strong hands that would four-bet if stacks were shallower. Here\u2019s their full strategy when facing a three-bet from the BB with 50bb stacks and no ICM considerations : Suited and connected hands are best equipped to profit from the additional stack depth. Not only is the reward for making a straight or flush higher, but deeper stacks also enable these hands to apply more pressure when floating and semi-bluffing Semi-bluff A bet made with an unmade hand (such as a draw) that has the chance to improve on future cards. their draws. Even some more offsuit broadway hands can call against the blinds which would not call against the BTN, hands like AT o, which often turn into top pair with a modest kicker or middle pair. Position makes it easier to keep the pot small and\/or get away when dominated, and to get to showdown and maybe even squeeze out some additional value when ahead. A lower SPR incentivizes the opener to protect"}
{"text":"It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the\u2026 Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get\u2026 Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being\u2026 Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of 400K\/800K\/800K,\u2026 Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?\u2026 Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of Canadian programmers from Quebec, developed\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Explained We are excited to introduce GTO Wizard AI, formerly known as Ruse, the world\u2019s best\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Benchmarks GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional solving methods to bring\u2026 Table Management in PKOs Perhaps the most important strategic consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs) is making sure you\u2026 Overcalling From the BB In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also\u2026 Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach\u2026 Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon\u2026 Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to\u2026 Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked Playing out of position is tricky, but it\u2019s an essential part of tournament play. With\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the BB in MTTs Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB\u2019s equilibrium"}
{"text":"hand because they will bet anytime, whether they have a hand or not. These are common designations for players loose\/tight \u2013 passive\/aggressive. I would like to break them down into subcategories and show different characteristics about them. From this, I would like to give a few tips about how to play against these opponents. Loose Aggressive player (LAG) \u2013 There are two types of LAG players that you must differentiate. 1. A bad LAG will not notice your tight table image because they are playing from their ego. These players are easily trapped with good hands. If you re-raise over the top they will usually call all the way to the River. If you slow play your hand they will try to push you off the pot by betting and raising large amounts of money. Just keep calling until the River then if you are first to act bet or re-raise if you have position on them. 2. The smart LAG can lay down his cards when someone plays back or continues to call their raise (sandbagging). They are much more difficult to beat because if they are not driving the betting they will get out or suspect a trap. Inducing bluffs and allowing this player to bet is one of your best options. Because this player is adept at playing a loose aggressive style, they will usually be suspicious if you call both a flop and Turn bet, suspecting a trap. Some things that can happen against a LAG: If you challenge the LAG, you may be pushed into someone else\u2019s nut hand. On the other hand, you are caught when the LAG actually has a good hand. The LAG is working on the premise of bluffing theory, raising the stakes of the table to make other players uncomfortable and trickery. Everyone at the table is gunning for this player and wants to bust them. The LAG does not mind putting money into the pot or the large bankroll swings if they know how to lay down a hand before the betting gets too intense. By increasing the betting at the table with raises, the LAG increases the amount of money that would have been wagered on one not only hand but also subsequent hands. Other players are willing to risk more in the end and call bets with a draw. This is exactly what the LAG wants. For example, the LAG is at a $1\/$2 table and raises most of the time. By increasing the volume in the pot with his mediocre hands, he will win one out of three times (estimate). However, other players will start to loosen their requirements. The LAG will take advantage of this by increasing the betting two to four times the previous level of raises. The inexperienced player will not understand how the incre4ase in betting affects the structure of the game. They will think that the LAG is just trying to buy the pot again. However, this is when the LAG makes up for the previous two losses. By increasing the betting more"}
{"text":"assistance. The third miracle in our family. Since that time, Louise has been extremely active in Christian ministry and heavily involved in work with foreign missions. She spends as much or more time as a servant of the Lord as she does in taking care of our family. She\u2019s said time and again: \u201cIt\u2019s so exciting to be a Christian. It\u2019s by far the most exciting part of living.\u201d And I know she believes that as strongly as any person on earth. Fortunately, money was not a problem when the mountains of medical bills came pouring in for Louise and Doyla. I did very well at the poker table during all those years. When I left the hospital after my operation, I recuperated for a while and then I returned to the poker circuit with a zest and appreciation for life that I had never had before. Each day when I woke up the sky was bluer and the grass was greener. The world was as bright as could be. I was alive. From the first session I started playing again, I won 21 fifty-four times in a row. I never booked a loser until the fifty-fifth session I played. Never before, or since, have I had such a streak. I won enough to completely clear my immense doctor and hospital bills and had plenty left over to keep my family comfortable for several years. Everything Seemed to Click Before the surgery, I would have classified myself as a slightly better than average player. However, after that ordeal, something happened. Everything seemed to click, and I was playing better than I had ever played in my life. My playing became almost instinctive. I was reading my competitors more accurately, and I felt a self-assurance I had never experienced. My brush with death had apparently triggered innate abilities that had never surfaced before. The most important thing of all was that I discovered my true vocation. I had finally dispelled any doubts about what my profession in life was going to be. Because of pressure from my family and friends, I had thought about returning to \u201clegitimate\u201d work. But now I knew I never would. I was never going to be a working stiff, nor was I ever going to have a boss. I was going to make my way through life my way. During the next few years, I shuttled between Fort Worth and Las Vegas, where more and more of the action was developing. I was still doing most of my playing in Texas, but it was getting difficult to find the really big games there. I was beating them so regularly that they were finally saying, \u201cWe can do without Doyle.\u201d The action, for me, was really beginning to dry-up. Also, in 1970 Congress passed legislation making it even more difficult for a poker professional to make a living. The law that directly affected me made it a federal offense to run a large scale poker game from which five or more players derived an income, except, of course, in"}
{"text":"often) if you move all-in in this spot. So, how much fold equity do you need to go all-in profitably with T\u26665\u2663? To answer this question, you can use the EV equation making EV = 0 and %Villain Folds = FE Now analyze each part of the equation. When Villain folds you get to win the entire pot: Since you are moving all-in, Villain can no longer re-raise you. So, and If you get called, you will play for a total pot of 31.625bb. You are risking an extra 14bb and estimate T\u26665\u2663 will have about 31% equity vs the Villain\u2019s calling range. Putting everything together:"}
{"text":"Hand Range 21: The BN Counter-exploit"}
{"text":"Hand Range 294: UTG 25bb (2x vs UTG+1 All-in) \u2022 Call All-in 27.9% \/ \u2022 Fold 72.1% Mid Stack Open vs Non-all-in 3-bet (25-40bb) The following tables show the action frequencies for a mid stack open facing a non-all-in 3-bet in terms of Villain position (Tables 83-84) and stack depth (Table 85)."}
{"text":"planning to call on a lot of rivers here the thing is in this scenario we could be against a draw so you may think like a TENS obviously bad for us but you got to realize they could have an eight which we beat anyway and they may decide to value better Bluff it but it could also have ten nine nine seven an eight just back door flushroll who knows what they could have in the spot worth noting by the way I thought that was pretty small twenty seven hundred and eight thousand one hundred you do not need to go big in multi-way pots all right turn River the opponent bets small a third pot I don't think there's much value in raising here they could easily do this with a jack so just call we're not folding uh by the way do not fold here that would be a pretty big mistake even though we do block some of the logical Bluffs fine and good I think the opponent played that fine maybe they're supposed to check the river but I don't mind a small bat on the River from them tens we raise it up small blind calls big blind calls flop comes nine seven three super Dynamic board notice here our board is our our hand is incredibly vulnerable to being outdrawn right Spades are terrible all the straight cards are terrible nine and seven are terrible so we definitely need to bet this and we're going to want to use a slightly big size again if we were heads up maybe we'd want to be using even a bigger size but multi-way we don't need to go gigantic like pot sweet to go 4500 the big blind jams great we could obviously be crushed by a few hands in the scenario we're pretty likely to be against the draw or nine which we Crush so this is a trivially easy call I'd be calling off here with a lot of nines really and uh I think the not like bad nines are probably close everything better than a nine is just an easy call in the scenario we do call King Nine good Ace queen off suit we raise button calls big blind calls Ace King five all right this is the board that should connect pretty well with the button calling range they should have a whole lot of asex in the range also like King X in the range I could obviously have those two but we are not gonna have a gigantic range of nut Advantage here because we're multi-way the big blinds Equity is obviously in the dumpster they're terrible but the button should be pretty good here so we need to check some portion of the time especially with hands that are almost always good and not all that vulnerable to being outdrawn like this one this is a board where if you consider our our good hands like any Ace they're all not all that vulnerable to being"}
{"text":"Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of 400K\/800K\/800K,\u2026 Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?\u2026 Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of Canadian programmers from Quebec, developed\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Explained We are excited to introduce GTO Wizard AI, formerly known as Ruse, the world\u2019s best\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Benchmarks GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional solving methods to bring\u2026 Table Management in PKOs Perhaps the most important strategic consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs) is making sure you\u2026 Overcalling From the BB In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also\u2026 Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach\u2026 Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon\u2026 Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to\u2026 Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked Playing out of position is tricky, but it\u2019s an essential part of tournament play. With\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the BB in MTTs Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB\u2019s equilibrium strategy\u2026 The Absurd Game Theory of Chopped Boards A \u201cchopped board\u201d in poker is one where the community cards make up the best\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs MTT confrontations between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations,\u2026 The Art of Learning Poker In his book The Art of Learning, chess and Push Hands champion Josh Waitzkin describes\u2026 Is Donk Betting for Donkeys? \u201cDonk betting\u201d, or betting from out of position into the player who was the aggressor\u2026 Delayed C-Betting This is a companion piece to Probe Betting. It stands on its own, but understanding\u2026 Probe Betting As far as rules of thumb go in poker, \u201ccheck to the raiser\u201d is a\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Big Blind This is a companion piece to this article on the SB\u2019s strategy for blind vs\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Small Blind ICM incentivizes more conservative play, which means that at stages of the tournament where risk\u2026 The Initial Bettor\u2019s Advantage The mathematics of poker holds a little-known secret: the first bettor enjoys better bluffing odds\u2026 Mastering the Chiplead: The Scalpel and the Sledgehammer When you have a lot of chips at a final table or in another situation\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in Cash Games Our never-ending quest for money and fame leads us to the flop. We open the\u2026 How ICM Impacts Restealing From The Blinds When I first started working with preflop solves, one of"}
{"text":"said, there are some opportunities to bluff in multi-way pots. The most common multi-way bluff is when everyone checks to youbecause you\u2019re the pre-flop leader, so you bet. Notice that you\u2019re in position on the field and get to see everyone make that check to you. Now youcan take that half- to three-quarters-pot shot and try to win it right there. And because of the pricing you\u2019ve set up, you need to pick up the pot onlybetween 33% and 43% of the time to break even on the try. Now it\u2019s up to you to know your opponents and whether you think they\u2019ll fold that often. For example, against stubborn loose opponents, I wouldn\u2019t recommend c-betting multi-way too often; more than two-thirds of the time, at least one of your loose opponents will probably call you.Also, recognize that dry boards are much better for c-betting than wet boards; boards with draws give your opponents more reasons to call. Now, obviously, you can make these in-position bets when it\u2019s checked to you, even if you weren\u2019t the pre-flop leader. You\u2019ve seen the weakness. You can choose to attack it if you see fit. Being last to act isn\u2019t the only criterion for trying to pick up multi-way pots. If you\u2019re second-to-last to act, you can also take these stabs. Theplayers in front of you have demonstrated some weakness and you have to worry about only one more opponent behind you. As long as you think you can put that pot in your stack 33% to 43% of the time, depending on your bet size, seize these bluff attempts. What you don\u2019t want to do is habitually c-bet into multi-way pots when you\u2019re in early position against a crowded field. It doesn\u2019t look like you\u2019ll winthe pot often enough in these circumstances, so you\u2019re under no obligation to try. Against many players willing to call a raise pre-flop, chances are someone has hit the board or is willing to continue past the flop, especially since they have position on you. This is one time it\u2019s okay, even smart, to check the lead away. Remember that sometimes when you\u2019re holding big hands or big draws on coordinated boards, you purposely check away the lead to try to get the check-raise in. Sometimes, then, you check away the lead in multi-way pots from early position, because you\u2019re giving up. But sometimes youhave something big planned for later. This makes your checks harder for your opponents to read, always what we look for. Recognizing Heads-Up Bluffing Situations in Multi-Way Pots Aside from continuation betting, one of the easiest ways to bluff in a multi-way pot is when it\u2019s not a multi-way pot. I know that sounds like a Dr. Seuss sentence, but let me explain. Often, a pot starts out multi-way going to the flop, but by the time the action gets to you, it\u2019s either already heads-up, might as well be heads-up, or could be made heads-up with action from you. When you recognize and exploit these situations, you turn your multi-way bluffs into heads-up bluffs,"}
{"text":"our strong hands also known as slow playing or trapping which sometimes also has a benefit of allowing our opponents to make a hand he likes on later streets whereas if we just bet he might just fold so how do we determine which strong hands to bet and which strong hands to slow play with again we could just flip a coin but even better we could choose to slow play our hands that one don't need much protection and or two that block villains calling range so for example we may decide to see bet with pocket Jacks but check pocket aces because Jax could benefit from protection from over cards on turns and rivers whereas Aces do not need the same protection on this dry board the villain likely did not connect with or In this River scenario we may decide to slow play pocket kings but bet pocket fives because holding two kings makes it much less likely that villain has top pair or in other words our hand block top pair which is a calling hand whereas a pair of fives is not and that is about it what we've just described in a nutshell is essentially how every single GTO strategy is constructed it doesn't matter if it's Heads Up full ring MTT or Cache GTO is mainly about maximizing our chips by balancing our strong medium and weak hands in a way that makes our Holdings and strategies very disguised and difficult if not impossible to take advantage of and the key in terms of a practical application of GTO all comes down to combo selection knowing which hands to fit within which bucket depending on its specific characteristics but before we conclude this video we should note a few caveats about GTO first notice how we discussed the need to balance our range in the context of facing a Discerning opponent in contrast if your opponent is not paying attention to what you're doing then you can usually throw balance completely out the window which is referred to as exploitative play second even if your opponents are Discerning a practical real-life application of GTO doesn't require perfect balance it requires just enough balance so that your strategies are not face up quote unquote true GTO strategies are calculated by a computer playing a single hand against itself billions of times over but in real life you aren't playing the same hand billions of times against your opponents which means that even if you don't find balance in one particular hand it probably won't matter as long as you maintain some semblance of balance over the long run additionally when the computer plays against itself it is Clairvoyant that is it knows the exact probability of hands its opponent can have and how frequently it takes each action but your real-life opponents aren't Clairvoyant some may not have even graduated high school so you don't have to worry as much about maintaining a perfectly balanced strategy and finally although the overall premise of GTO is"}
{"text":"we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the\u2026 Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get\u2026 Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being\u2026 Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of 400K\/800K\/800K,\u2026 Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?\u2026 Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of Canadian programmers from Quebec, developed\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Explained We are excited to introduce GTO Wizard AI, formerly known as Ruse, the world\u2019s best\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Benchmarks GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional solving methods to bring\u2026 Table Management in PKOs Perhaps the most important strategic consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs) is making sure you\u2026 Overcalling From the BB In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also\u2026 Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach\u2026 Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon\u2026 Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to\u2026 Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked Playing out of position is tricky, but it\u2019s an essential part of tournament play. With\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the BB in MTTs Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB\u2019s equilibrium strategy\u2026 The Absurd Game Theory of Chopped Boards A \u201cchopped board\u201d in poker is one where the community cards make up the best\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs MTT confrontations between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations,\u2026 The Art of Learning Poker In his book The Art of Learning, chess and Push Hands champion Josh Waitzkin describes\u2026 Is Donk Betting for Donkeys? \u201cDonk betting\u201d, or betting from out of position into the player who was the aggressor\u2026 Delayed C-Betting This is a companion piece to Probe"}
{"text":"Hand Range 236: CO vs UTG (25bb) \u2022 All-in 1.2% \/ \u2022 3-bet 4.2% \/ \u2022 Call 9.7% \/ \u2022 Fold 85%"}
{"text":"Hand Range 291: UTG 25bb (2x vs SB All-in) \u2022 Call All-in 34.5% \/ \u2022 Fold 65.5%"}
{"text":"are like ace high that have Showdown value and King Heights it's a little bit interesting here because one thing that we see happen is when you're facing a range it's so weak you actually get to shove and fold them off chops which is cool so you obviously have your king Jack and your king Jack if you floated uh turn it's like your best bluffing candidate right your queen Jack of spade has to block your queen 10 your jack ten so like anything's not ace high pretty much has to Bluff except for your worst blockers like team 10 of uh the King High Spades aren't great yeah if we look at that like your king eye Spades and your a-size Spades always check and why are they checking is it just purely because of Showdown value or are those cards that block some of his folds exactly yeah but it's one of the I'm not actually sure which one it is is it it's going to be the second you're King highs I don't think I have much shown about you but if that's the case then why is the queen High bluffing Spades too well with the queen High unblocks his king of high speeds okay okay and so your queen highs get his King eyes to fold okay so there's like a more a higher benefit of it right so it's not necessarily Showdown value today there are more hands available that you can make fold exactly okay exactly yeah when you have the King of Spades you get to show down versus queen tent of Spades right but when you have the queen High Spades um you end up losing to his King eye okay cool and so yeah you get a shove your Ace King and stuff as just pillage photomath chops once again I think I would have shoved a skin here that would have been yeah yeah I think it's I think that's pretty reasonable to check that one back like I know I would have bluffed a lot of the non-showdown value hands right yeah queen queen high and lower for sure just because like in this spot I realize I don't have any of those really so when you have them you probably just want to Bluff them yeah yeah I think that makes sense um I probably would have checked just like all the ace high and to be fair it doesn't look like that's that big of a punt yeah no that's totally reasonable I'm not sure if I win a dream seven I mean I always look at these boss and ask like what would I have done wrong you know yeah because you want to try to play better right so yeah those response where I would have played slightly wrong and if you're watching this video you know ask yourself would you have played roughly like this and if you're in my mind if you're playing roughly like this you're gonna be fine but yeah"}
{"text":"for instance, in seven-card stud a player starts with a queen of spades, then catches the deuce of spades, then the 7 of spades, then the 5 of hearts, and he's betting all the way. You have a pair of 10s which does not improve. Your opponent bets on the end, and clearly you can beat only a bluff. The question is \u2014 might your opponent be bluffing? With something like a fourflush and a small pair, he would probably have played the hand exactly the same way \u2014 semi-bluffing right to the end, assuming you didn't catch any dangerous-looking cards. Therefore, while your opponent may, in fact, have a pair of queens or queens up, there's also a chance he has a busted hand. Very possibly you should call his final bet, given the pot odds you're getting \u2014 but realizing at the same time that he may indeed have been semibluffing yet still caught his hand on the last card. Suppose, on the other hand, your seven-stud opponent started with that same queen of spades and you with that same pair of 10s. Once again your opponent is betting all the way. But this time he catches the 7 of diamonds, then the 4 of clubs, then the Reading Hands 227 jack of hearts. Now when he bets on the end, you should almost certainly fold your two unimproved 10s because when he caught the and but continued betting, you had to eliminate the flush draw as one of his possible hands. Therefore, he is almost certainly betting on the end for value with at least a pair of queens ___more likely two pair. Ironically, it can sometimes occur that because your opponent's hand looks less dangerous on board it is more of a threat to have you beat when your opponent bets on the end, because nothing showing suggests he might have been semi-bluffing as the hand progressed. At the end of a hand it becomes especially crucial to have a good idea of what your opponent has. The more accurately you can read hands on the end, the better you can decide whether you have, for example, a 20 percent chance of having your opponent beat or a 60 percent chance or whatever. You use your ability to read hands to come up with these percentages and then decide how to play your own hand. In practice, most players don't arrive at exact figures like 20 percent or 60 percent, but at the very least they try to decide whether their opponent has a bad hand, a mediocre hand, a good hand, or a great hand. Let's say your opponent bets on the end. Usually when a person bets, it represents either a bluff, a good hand, or a great hand, but not a mediocre hand. If your opponent had a mediocre hand, he would probably check. If you have only a mediocre hand yourself, you have to decide what the chances are that your opponent is bluffing and whether those chances warrant a call in relation to"}
{"text":"would you like to do so we have a couple couple B's and C's a lot of AIDS all over the board see I'm glad we're talking about this we need to get everybody on the same page let's see oh oh it is even down the middle every option except for you nobody wants to do it that's the one I think it low to medium stakes guys you can get away with a bat here betting 1\/3 pot half pot I think when you deal with low to medium stakes opponents I am just flabbergasted when I study poker to see what people will call 1\/3 pot or half pot with but you'll even see a four call on that river sometimes versus half pot which is just bizarre especially low to medium stakes players think let's be honest guys we want to play poker when we show up to the poker room we don't show up to fold so if there's a missed draw out there a lot of guys will find a way to call as long as you don't bet too much so a lot of guys will go jacked and made a double gutter on the turn 10:8 hat missed 5 6 missed so yeah of course I'm gonna call there with my fork if you go to 2\/3 I actually I'm fine with that as well I think you're gambling a little bit to get more money which I really like my only worry is that tends to get the average player to start thinking I think D is fine too I don't think e we should be doing too much unless you have some history with a guy and checking checking isn't you should check if the guy knows you're capable of a thin value bat and knows what to do against it because people always say but what if they raise there is a bluff the truth though the only time you should check there is if this person is a very good player which at low-to-mid stakes which i think is what most of us are playing it or even you'll go to WP PS and a lot of guys don't have that gear right once you get to Vegas in LA you guys have that Europe they have that but a lot of the smaller WPTZ they want to have that but in general people people are terrible at bluffing rivers remember for people to get to that River they need to check call twice not many guys check call ace high so they can check all ace high on the turn in the hopes that they bet that you bet thinly on the rivers so they can check read people get to the river with miss draws in pairs as we discussed earlier mostly pairs it's so difficult to teach a guy to turn a seven into a bluff there it's harder to find in a database and usually the number of draws that turn themselves into Bluff first of"}
{"text":"has the two over so he could uh hit his overcards he's going to be SE betting here um if de doesn't have a pair or a hand like this with a gut shot it's hard for him to continue so if he had like Queen Jack suited he's just going to have to fold every time de now with the best hand hitting the four check check good check there by Dental Queen of Spades on the river uh dentali checking back thinking he has Showdown value which is very uh reasonable because I think hands especially unblocking clubs I think Deep's going to have floats like king queen with the King of Clubs or something or or you know just some random hands like ace high um so I like I like Den's check back it's definitely it definitely wouldn't be a value bet if he bet the river so because it's too hard to get called from worse like he's never getting called by Ace Jack there okay TR qu triple straddle on again uh oh no now there's an 800 straddle so they're just kind of playing bingo here okay so John is all in for uh with Ace 10 off so notice that he's all in for 8,000 um which might sound like a lot to you guys but remember with an 800 straddle it's an it's only a 10 big blind shove so this is completely standard sha D with the pocket fours is he gonna call for 10 big blinds I don't see him folding because he's sha deep and then's gonna let the queen four Spades go I imagine D Pascal with the 10 threes folding obviously and they're going to see Heads Up all In uh run outs don't really matter I could fast forward this but I'm not going to spoil it for you guys or I'm not gonna I'm not going to take that away from you guys I'm going to let you see even though the runout at this point doesn't matter and that's kind of a lesson that I want you guys to understand too um actually I'm going to pause this for a sec so that I can oh yeah of course oh good so John hits his top pair good I'm like rooting for JL here okay um only because I like Shan D too but he's won a lot so good uh double there for Jonathan little um the point I was going to make with it's it doesn't matter watching the run out is poker is such an emotional game that there's once the chips are all in there's no reason for you to you know get upset if you lose or get happy if you win because once the chips are in the only thing that should manner is did you play the hand correctly and especially when it's a flip there you don't want anything to affect your emotional state at the poker game so and that goes for being happy too like"}
{"text":"to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the\u2026 Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get\u2026 Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being\u2026 Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of"}
{"text":"Hand Range 224: BN vs UTG (40bb) \u2022 3-bet 5.2% \/ \u2022 Call 15.9% \/ \u2022 Fold 78.9%"}
{"text":"marked money he had stolen from the bank; a postmaster go to jail for shortages at the post office. Horses, cattle, hogs, wagons, buggies, farming implements, grain, sawmills - all sold to play poker. New owners showed up at the sawmills, feed and grocery stores. This, of course, led to frequent fights - some tragic. My own uncle, a giant of a man with a Jesse James beard, was cut down by a consumptive half his size. Uncle Bill walked a block, sat down on the corner drugstore steps, and bled to death. I won from the first, and as my play continued I learned from Gravey Combs how to detect the many ways cheats used to fleece the unwary player. He was a good-natured country boy with huge palms and long, slender fingers. Jake Moses, the salesman who had lost his shoe samples, observing Gravey's fast deal at cards, placed him under contract and housed and fed him in his home in Indianapolis, where two card sharps taught him all the tricks of false dealing. After Gravey's preliminary education, they placed him at a round poker table with a mirror in front of his hands. When after six months' fancy dealing before the mirror he could no longer see himself cheat, they put him into big-league gambling. The only games we played at home were deuces wild, draw, and straight draw, with an occasional game of stud. Later when I left home I learned to play seven-card stud, Hi-Lo, low ball, seven-card low, Baseball and the like. As I got farther from home I found the value of the bets smaller, the raises more frequent, and the games wilder. I fashioned my method of play after long study of each game and discovered that the smaller the stakes, the wilder the game, the easier to win. Part One Three Poker Stories 1 Five-Card Draw, Jacks or Better 2 Five-Card Stud 3 Five-Card Draw, Deuces Wild with the Joker 1 Five-Card Draw, Jacks or Better Out of seven saloons which ran poker games, Monty's Place was the only clean one. The poker room itself was at the rear of the saloon and was about twenty feet square with two barred windows high above the ground and an iron wood stove at the end kept polished by the town idiot, called Dummy. The windows had dark, drawn curtains. The walls were unplastered brick, the woodwork painted white, and the floor scrubbed. In the centre was a large round table covered with green billiard cloth and surrounded by seven cane chairs. Others, for loafers and kibitzers, were scattered here and there or were grouped around the stove when the weather was cold. The table was lighted by a single bulb, extended to the centre by a cord from the ceiling and shaded against the eyes of the players. At the side of each chair was a spittoon; others were at convenient spots. While the game was in progress, the door was barred with the usual sliding window and guarded by Runt, the bouncer, so"}
{"text":"as two aces. If the card that pairs on the board is a key card in Omaha eight-or-better, it is likely to have hit one of your opponents. When it doesn\u2019t appear probable that the pair helped another player, it becomes more correct to continue with other draws. In fact, you can sometimes bet a flush draw into a paired board, inducing your opponents to fold out of fear that you flopped trips or a full house. When you hold two aces in your hand against a small number of opponents, a paired board often is a good thing. It is generally a good idea to play the flop aggressively, both to cut down on the competition and to try to find out if your hand is the best. The presence of the pair makes a straight or flush\u2014 common ace-killers in Omaha eight-or-better\u2014less likely. Also, the pair on the board gives you the nut two pair, which will frequently win the high against a small field. However, if the pot is a family affair, someone will usually have trips. In this case, two aces should be folded if there is any substantial action. Advanced Flop Play Here are some additional tips for playing hands on the flop. These focus more sharply on topics already discussed and deal with a few additional issues that come into play more often at the higher limits. Creating Extra Outs In Omaha eight-or-better, sometimes you have a hand that seems to be heading in one direction, but winds up winning part or all of the pot with a different hand that you made almost by accident. This is one reason why playing quality starting hands is important. Not only do they produce more good hands and draws on the flop, they also tend to be more easily rerouted into winning backdoor hands. The ability to recognize when you may be able to develop some secondary draws to fall back on should your primary draw not materialize is a valuable skill. Its value is based on the fact that if you see an opportunity, you may be able to create some extra wins for your hand by making a timely bet or raise. Consider the following example. 196 Example One Flop: Q-J-2 (two clubs) Scenario One: Your hand: A-3-4-10 (nut clubs) Scenario Two: Your hand: A-5-6-10 (nut clubs) Note that in both cases, your only immediate draws are to the nut flush and nut straight. However, both hands also have a backdoor low draw. Assuming that five players are in the hand, if the player to your right bets and you are next to act, what is your best course of action in each scenario? In Scenario 1, a call is clearly the correct play. You don\u2019t want to eliminate players when all your draws are to the nuts. Whether you make the nut flush, ace-high straight, or catch two running low cards, any hand you make will be the nuts in one direction or another. Therefore, the more players in the hand, the more money you"}
{"text":"together and having an idea of which hands you should be checking and which hands you should be betting in certain situations so continuation bad strategy calling C bets range Advantage so these are all things that you should be studying after you've nailed down the fundamentals um so definitely start working on these once you've nailed down these Concepts start working on your three bet game so you want to study which hands to three bet pre-flop and which hands to call three bets with so once you feel comfortable on your flop strategy we can now start moving into turn strategy so you also want to think in terms of hand class on the turn as well you want to learn which hand should be checks and which hands should be turned C bets which hands you should maybe start DeLay seabedding So now that you're confident in your turn strategy we're going to move on to River play so you need to understand when you should be bluffing Rivers when your draws bricked when you should be value betting Rivers when you should be calling Rivers when you should be Bluff catching on Rivers so you're you really want to focus on every different scenario that can happen on the river and feel confident so now that you understand the fundamentals and have a basic understanding of pre-flop flop turn and River strategy you can start working on more advanced concepts like check raising implied odds blockers blind versus blind play Draw Play strategy those things you should be studying individually so learn what are implied odds what are you know some learn what your check raising strategy should be and really focus on that each week so you'll also want to have a basic understanding at first at least of various poker softwares there's a whole bunch of them and I know solvers and stuff you know can be really intimidating but there are plenty of training videos out there that will walk you through how to use them so just some examples of some softwares you can use are Equity calculators like poker cruncher and Ecolab hand tracking programs like poker tracker and just a tip for anybody playing online there's a program called table ninja that if so if you are going to multi-table table ninja is a program where you can use your keyboard to help make your decisions faster so when I had it set up I would have my spacebar fold for me I'd have the alt button raised to three times the big blind so it's just a way to make your life a little bit easier and get your bets out there faster and then there's solvers like pile solver munker that you want to have an understanding how to use so I want to show you guys an example of a equity calculator when I first started playing poker I would just play around with these a lot there's this there's poker cruncher and some others so I would just"}
{"text":"Flop Textures Flop texture is also important and can take three forms. \u2666 Monotone: A monotone flop is a flop that contains all cards of a single suit, for example A\u2665K\u2665T\u2665 or J\u26606\u26605\u2660. \u2666 Two-tone: A two-tone flop is a flop that contains two cards of a single suit and a third card of another suit. There are three subtypes of two-tone flops. If the top and medium card are suited, the flop is said to be two-tone high-mid, for example A\u2665K\u2665Q\u2660. If the medium and low cards are suited, the flop is said to be two-tone mid-low, for example J\u26656\u26605\u2660. If the high and low cards are suited, the flop is said to be two-tone high-low, for example A\u26659\u26602\u2665. \u2666 Rainbow: A rainbow flop is a flop that contains all three cards of different suits, for example Q\u26659\u26607\u2666, 6\u26664\u26632\u2660 or K\u2663J\u26667\u2665. Table 96: All Possible Flops Categorized by Structure and Texture Flop Rank The flop rank will depend on its highest card. For example, Kxx represents all flops that contain a king and two other cards that are a king or lower (Table 97). As we can see, the higher the rank of the flop, the more flops of that rank exist. A-high boards are the most common, with 21.74% of all flops being Axx. Notice how 85% of all flops are rank 9 or higher while the remaining 15% flops are rank 8 or lower."}
{"text":"then they need to estimate their expected value rather than relying on raw equity. dictate the action. Solid one pair type hands are easier to justify going broke with and any pot we win is a relatively bigger percentage increase to our stack. As such, for the most part, we can play more hands, because they become more profitable. It\u2019s important to take note of which hands are more profitable at different stack depths . Set mining with small pairs is more profitable at 100bb where we need a big hand to stack off, top pair type hands are less profitable. Suited high card hands become more profitable at middling stack depths, when top pair becomes a strong holding, while small pairs are less profitable because we have to fold a bigger percentage of our stack when we miss. Board coverage becomes less important the shallower we go, and the raw equity of the hand becomes more important, especially when the battle is mostly preflop. Finally, how we play our hands in terms of bet sizing is largely determined by stack size. We open larger when we are deep because we need all the help we can get if the pile of chips is large and we want to have shoveled them all into the middle at the end of the hand. Bet sizes go down the shallower we go because it is easier to get all-in by the river with shorter stacks. When stacks get very shallow, limping and shoving become options. We limp to allow us to play more hands, we shove because taking the pot down preflop allows us to increase our stack by a relatively bigger percentage. GTO Wizard the #1 App for Poker players Study any spot imaginable Practice by playing vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Barry Carter Barry Carter has been a poker writer for 16 years. He is the co-author of six poker books, including The Mental Game of Poker , Endgame Poker Strategy: The ICM Book , and GTO Poker Simplified . Latest article Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt"}
{"text":"Bluff certain hands and so when there's two Spades in the Flop and then we get a brick on the turn like the two of Hearts you're gonna see these off suit Kings only betting when they have a spade in them and that's going to be that's gonna be two two things one high UV rivers that allow us to Bluff more and two we're just blocking more continues right when we have the King of Spades they can't have King Nine of Spades that checks backflop and then cause a big bout in the turn so in this spot after check check we want to be really really polar push our nut Advantage still do a lot of checking and then we want to draw hands that are just logical right our over pairs want to put a lot of money in we want to match our over pairs the 10 9 Jack 9 Jack 10 type stuff and then we draw from our best uh offshoot bluffing candidates like the king Jaco with the Spade so so in this spot I have the King of Spades I go ahead and I bet 150 pot in the spot in the opponent calls we get the very very welcomed King of Clubs on the river and we have to think about how how good of a card is this for for our range and if we think about what kind of strategy we use on the turn we had nines through Queens a really high clip and then our our Spades didn't improve but our King High Bluffs just made top pair and so we're bluffing with a lot of this a lot of King high but the opponents almost never caught in King High especially when we have the camp Spades so we we really just like have the nuts in the spot and then the king is really really good for our range so I think we have a really really easy shove here on the river let's look at this in the solver so we bet 150 they have to just fold a ton right and and it's they're going to be really uncomfortable too I think this is really good in game check check and all of a sudden you bet 150 they're not happy with 10 8 suited you know they're not happy with their age they're not happy with seven sixes fours threes and I think that that is going to make up a lot of their range when it goes check check because people really do have a tendency just like bet total air that wants to get forwards right away and then bet their value at a uh that they're happy stacking off with so I'd be really surprised to see somebody check back Jacks at almost any frequency in the spot in game so we bet 150 call and we get the off suit King I think it was a club King of Clubs and as you can see we're just all"}
{"text":"This also allows OOP to check\/fold quite effectively on the turn if IP decides to make a delayed c-bet. OOP First Action Table 126: Turn Decision Point Stats Checking back almost never happens at equilibrium on A\u2660Q\u26663\u2660 and Q\u2665J\u2665T\u2665. For this reason, IP\u2019s range on the turn contains only 1.4 and 1 combos, respectively. This doesn\u2019t mean that there is a single hand IP is checking back, but that they are checking a tiny fraction of the time with a wide variety of hands. This is, as we discussed before, something totally impractical and unnecessary. Even if IP was checking a GTO range in this spot, this line would only happen less than 1% of the time. Still, I wanted to include these flops so we have an idea of how OOP\u2019s strategy changes on the four different boards (Diagram 107)."}
{"text":"If he raises you on the turn when you miss, it\u2019s time to make a straight on the river! If he raises you on the flop, you have to give him credit for having you beat; after all, you have 7-high! True he might be looking for a free card with A-K, but as long as an ace or a king doesn\u2019t hit the turn, you will most likely be the one getting the free card. Check-Raising. This might be an even stronger play. Since your opponent came in raising, he\u2019ll usually keep the lead and bet the flop. By check-raising him, you are letting him know that you have a good hand and that you are going to fight for this pot. If he has a hand like A-J he\u2019ll probably take one off, but if he misses on the turn, you might be able to win it right there with a bet. In fact, depending on your opponent and his impression of you, you might even be able to force him off a hand like 7-7! Now that would be an excellent result. 140 Checking and Calling. If you choose this option, you give up any chance of winning the pot without improvement. You completely give up control of the hand. You may end up letting your opponent win the whole pot by default with J-10 high. Of course, if for some reason you think there is absolutely no chance you can win the pot by outplaying your opponent, checking and calling might be your best bet. Gutshot Straight Draws A gutshot straight draw is a real long shot. With one card to come, you are an 10.5 to 1 underdog to hit your straight. If you decide to call with a gutshot, be sure that the pot size is big enough and that all of your straight cards will win. If there are two hearts and two spades on the board in a five-way action pot, you may only have two outs to win the pot, as the other two straight cards may complete someone else\u2019s flush. That would make you a 22 to 1 underdog! With one card to come on the turn, it\u2019s rarely correct to call with a pure gutshot, unless you have added outs, such as a pair or overcards. Since the bet size doesn\u2019t double until the turn, it will often be correct to call on the flop. Let\u2019s look at a typical example: Playing $10\/$20, you are in the big blind with 9-10 of clubs. The small blind folds, and you call a raise in a four-way action pot. The flop comes Q? 3? 8?. You check, the first player bets, and one other calls. There is $105 in the pot, and it\u2019s $10 to call. It\u2019s 10.75 to 1 against you making the straight on the turn. Should you call? Based on the exact price you are getting at this point, the answer would be no. So we fold then, right? Wrong. There are three more variables you need to think about:"}
{"text":"bluffs in the check-raise range too. Fewer top pair hands value raise and in their place, hands like 44 get turned into bluffs which can also runner-runner a straight. The covering player gets to be more aggressive post flop when ICM is significant. The more they cover their opponent, the more aggressive they can be. This is another trend you will see time and time again when studying postflop ICM. The covering player gets to be more aggressive . In this example, the Big Blind is at a significant positional and range disadvantage, but they still check-raise 20% more than in the ChipEV example because the BTN has to fold more often due to ICM pressure. If you ran this sim with more extreme ICM pressure \u2013 for example, flatter payouts or a bigger chip lead for the BB \u2013 you would see the BB play even more aggressively. What happens on a \u2018blank\u2019 turn? Let\u2019s assume the BB calls the small bet and the turn is a 2 \u2665 . This is a card which is better for the BB who has more 2x and both 45 \u2660 and 45o, but it is still mostly a blank turn. 2x is a small proportion of the BB range and the BTN does have 45 \u2660 and A2 \u2660 in their range too. This is BB\u2019s turn strategy in the ChipEV example: As suggested, this turn doesn\u2019t change much most of the time. BB now has range advantage of 57% because they folded all their junk on the flop, but the BTN still has lots of strong hands as well as position, so as such the BB checks 100% of the time. Let\u2019s now look at what happens in the exact same situation, but when ICM is a factor: The difference in this example is staggering. All the parameters are otherwise the same, but the impact of ICM means that the BB can lead out more than 25% of the time on the turn compared to never in the ChipEV example. When you study ICM spots postflop you will often see the BB \u2018donk leading\u2019 out on every street despite having the weaker range, because the in-position player has to play much more passively. The covering player gets to be more aggressive when ICM is a factor, in every conceivable way. Lastly, let\u2019s examine a turn report to see how BTNs strategy changes across all turn cards when ICM is a factor. The following graph shows BTN\u2019s aggregate turn chipEV and ICM strategy in this line : Again, the downward drift is apparent. Many of BTNs overbets have become half-pot bets as the solver opts for lower-variance lines. Conclusion This is just a single example, but I think it highlights some of the key differences between postflop ICM pots and ChipEV pots. Most notably, you should always be acutely aware of who covers whom. Most of us do this instinctively in tournaments, but few people would know the postflop strategy adjustments a solver would make as the covered\/covering player in these spots. Key"}
{"text":"series of folds, no reraises happened, you got good position on the only two callers, the flop missed them both, and you picked up the pot. Most players would smugly gather the pot, congratulate themselves on their great skill, and go on to the next hand. Avoid this pitfall. Stay aware of both your good luck as well as your bad, and you'll find it easier to keep an even keel when things go wrong (as they inevitably will). Hand 6-8 Situation: Early in an online tournament. Your hand: A\u2663K\u2665 Action to you: Player A folds. Question: How much do you raise? Answer: You should put in a good-sized raise with ace-king in early position. You don't want your opponents to be able to limp in cheaply. A raise to $120 or $150, four or five times the big blind, looks good here. 140 Action: You actually raise to just $60. Players C and D call. Players E and F fold. Player G calls. The blinds both fold. The pot is now $285. Flop: 8\u26657\u26634\u2666 Question: You are first to act, with three callers behind you. What do you do? Answer: Three players behind you is too many to make a continuation bet. There's too great a chance that you won't be able to take the pot, in which case you've just put in some money with the worst hand. The flop certainly didn't help you, but it may have helped at least one of the other three players. You need to let this hand go quietly. Check. Action: You check. Players C and D also check, but Player G bets $230. Question: What do you do? Answer: Fold. You have nothing, and Player G, with position on you, says he has something. You have no reason to doubt him, so save your chips. Action: You fold, as do Players C and D. Player G takes the pot. Hand 6-9 Situation: Final table of a major tournament. You are the chip leader. The small blind is a very tough, cool competitor, well-versed in no-limit hold \u2019em. Your hand: Q\u2663J\u2660 Action to you: Players A, B, and C all fold. The small blind puts in $35,000, raising $25,000. The pot is now $75,000. It costs you $25,000 to call. Question: Do you fold, call, or raise? Answer: Queen-jack is certainly not a great hand at a full table, but here you're at a short table and three players have already folded, so you have to evaluate the hand in the context of a headsup situation. Heads-up against a random hand, queen-jack is a solid favorite. The small blind, however, has already bet, representing a better-than-average hand. But the bet was curiously small, offering you 3-to-l odds to enter the pot. When you know your opponent to be a strong player, which is the case here, stay alert. Such a bet may indicate a very strong hand. Still, you have position, and the pot is offering you 3-to-1 odds, so you can't simply throw away Q\u2663J\u2660; it's plenty good enough to call here. Action:"}
{"text":"Hi. 5th player is dealt a 3, making 2 2 7 3 Two Deuces for Hi and Three in Winning Zone for Lo. 6th player is dealt a 3, making 9 9 9 3 Three Nines for Hi. 7th player is dealt an 8, making J Q K 8 He did not improve on the 4th card and should fold. The Betting 4th player is Hi with K 8. He should not bet but does. In fact he should have folded in the first place. 5th calls on Two Deuces for Hi and Three in Winning Zone for Lo. 6th raises on Three Nines for Hi. 7th did not improve on 4th card and should fold but he calls. 1st and 2nd hands call. 4th calls on Two Queens. He knows he is beat but is still stubborn. 5th calls on Two Deuces for Hi and Three in Winning Zone for Lo. The Deal Two Down Three Up 1st player is dealt a 10, making Aces Up for Hi. A A 5 10 10 2nd player is dealt a 2, making 4 5 7 J 2 Four in Winning Zone, One in Losing Zone for Lo. 4th player is dealt a 4, making Q Q 8 K 4 No Change. 5th player is dealt an A, making 2 2 7 3 A Four in Winning Zone, One in Losing Zone for Lo. 6th player is dealt a J 9 9 9 3 J Making Three Nines for Hi. 7th player is dealt a 4, making J Q K 8 4 Did not improve the Straight The Betting 1st player is Hi with Two Tens. He has Aces Up but is afraid of 6th player's raise. He checks. 2nd hand has Four in Winning Zone and two more cards to make a low hand. He bets. 4th folds. 5th with Four in Winning Zone and two more cards to come raises. 6th player with Three Nines for Hi raises. 7th with a 3-Card Straight folds. 1st player calls all bets with Aces Up. 2nd calls with Four in Winning Zone. 5th calls with Four in Winning Zone. The Deal Two Four Down Up 1st player is dealt an 8, making A A 51010 8 Aces Up for Hi. 2nd player is dealt a K, making 4 5 7 J 2 K Four in Winning Zone for Lo with one more card. 5th player is dealt a 5, making 2 2 7 3 A 5 A 2 3 5 7 for Lo, a very good hand. 6th player is dealt an 8, making 9 9 9 3 J 8 Three Nines for Hi. The Betting 1st player checks on Aces Up for Hi. By now he should have figured 6th hand for Three Nines. 2nd player needs a card below a 7 for a Lo hand. He checks. 5th hand bets with A 2 3 5 7 for Lo. 6th hand is now confident he has the Hi and doesn't want other Hi hands drawing against him. He raises. 1st calls on Aces Up."}
{"text":"too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting\u2026 Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this\u2026 The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A\u2660A\u2663 in the\u2026 The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful\u2026 How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs \u201cThey always have it!\u201d is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency\u2026 Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I\u2019m not referring to\u2026 C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to"}
{"text":"4-Bet Call As we saw in Chapter 9, this range is not necessarily ahead when the action goes open, 3-bet, 4-bet, shove, call; but each hand within it is +EV to 4-bet and call a shove with. AKo, for example, makes up for a slight deficit in equity vs. a tight 3-bet\/shoving range of [QQ+ AK] by picking up dead money and blocking the hands that crush it. I recommend [QQ+ AK] as a standard 4-bet\/call range CO vs. blinds. In a more aggressive spot like CO vs. BU, BU vs. SB, or SB vs. BB; this can be widened to include JJ, and sometimes, even weaker hands. Hero should widen this sub-range as an exploitative adjustment vs. known light 5- bettors. [QQ+ AK] eats up 34 combos of our 152 required defending combos. 118 more to go. Flat Being in position against a probable wide 3-bet range entitles Hero to defend quite wide and yet still remain in +EV territory in a vacuum. Using the criteria from the earlier part of the chapter, Hero selects hands he thinks fare well enough with respect to the factors in Figure 63. This sub-range takes Hero another 78 combos closer to meeting MDF. Just 40 left now. 4-Bet\/Fold This is Hero's 4-bet bluffing range and consists of the hands that block Villain's 3-bet\/shoving range the best, preferring playability where blocker power is equal. KJo is of course not suited, but its double blocker potential renders it a more suitable 4-bet bluff than something like K7s. It's likely that JJ will form a part of Villain's 3-bet\/shoving range, while 77 will not and so the J is the more useful blocker to hold. Also note that [A2s-A5s] has been chosen before [A6-A7s] because while both these groups have similar pair flopping potential against a likely range that flats our 4-bet, the former have more playability since they can flop gutshots. This segment contains the final 40 combos that we need to defend. Hero is deploying ratio of 40:34 bluffs to value or 1.18 bluff combos for every value combo. Hero will be folding to a 5-bet 54% of the time and this will prevent Villain from being able to profitably widen his 5-bet shoving range to include hands much weaker than [JJ+ AK]. An EV calculation will show that he needs a bit more fold equity than this to shove a hand such as 77 or AJs given that Hero's 4-bet call range is quite tight. Hero has hit his target defense frequency and can rest assured that he cannot be exploited by either overbluffing or underbluffing on Villain's part. That said Hero's approach is not set in stone and should he learn that Villain is bluffing too much or too little, then he is at full liberty to widen or tighten his defence ranges to exploit this imbalance. Designing Balanced Opening Ranges"}
{"text":"Diagram 129 Facing the second barrel is not great for OOP. At this point, both players have split their ranges several times. IP would be checking back a lot of medium strength hands and is now betting with a very polarized range. OOP would have bet or raised many strong hands by now, so their range is weak against IP\u2019s turn c-betting range, resulting in OOP folding, on average, over 40% vs a turn c-bet. Most strong hands will be x\/r on the turn, but some will still be slowplayed, leaving OOP\u2019s x\/c range protected, even on brick runouts (Diagrams 128-129)."}
{"text":"Diagram 65: Low c-bet % and Big Bet-size: BB vs BN on 8\u26656\u26662\u2660 (40bbs) Diagram 66 On 862r, the BB has few strong hands compared to the BN. This incentivizes the BN to use a big bet-size. However, the BN also has many good and weak hands that benefit from playing a small pot and taking a free turn card. These range distributions results in a more polarized big bet-size with a low c-bet frequency."}
{"text":"from out of position into the player who was the aggressor\u2026 Delayed C-Betting This is a companion piece to Probe Betting. It stands on its own, but understanding\u2026 Probe Betting As far as rules of thumb go in poker, \u201ccheck to the raiser\u201d is a\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Big Blind This is a companion piece to this article on the SB\u2019s strategy for blind vs\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Small Blind ICM incentivizes more conservative play, which means that at stages of the tournament where risk\u2026 The Initial Bettor\u2019s Advantage The mathematics of poker holds a little-known secret: the first bettor enjoys better bluffing odds\u2026 Mastering the Chiplead: The Scalpel and the Sledgehammer When you have a lot of chips at a final table or in another situation\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in Cash Games Our never-ending quest for money and fame leads us to the flop. We open the\u2026 How ICM Impacts Restealing From The Blinds When I first started working with preflop solves, one of the features I found most\u2026 The ICM Benefits of Late Registration in Poker Tournaments Why do so many professional poker players register late for tournaments when they clearly would\u2026 Flop Heuristics: OOP C-Betting in MTTs Playing against an in-position cold-caller is dramatically different\u2013and dramatically more difficult\u2013than playing against a caller\u2026 Counterintuitive Calls Solver outputs such as those provided by GTO Wizard are models of no-limit hold \u2018em,\u2026 How To Negotiate Final Table Deals Most people\u2019s first introduction to the Independent Chip Model (ICM) is not from studying bubble\u2026 How does ICM impact PKO strategy? If you have read The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments you already know why we\u2026 Understanding Blockers in Poker Often when looking through a solver\u2019s meticulously crafted grid of deception, one of the following\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP Cold-Caller in MTTs A Cold-call refers to the act of calling a preflop raise when you don\u2019t close\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in MTTs In the world of poker, the flop is a crucial stage of the game that\u2026 Flop Heuristics for Defending the Blinds in MTTs The field of Game Theoretically Optimal poker is extensive, and thus, to simplify our strategy,\u2026 Multiway strategy in Progressive Knockout Tournaments Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments are much more complex than traditional MTTs. The fact that players\u2026 How To Calculate Raises In Poker One of the most frequently asked questions in poker is how to calculate the size\u2026 Principles of River Play The river offers the least complicated strategy of any betting street. With no further cards\u2026 Exploitative Dynamics GTO solutions are designed to be unexploitable, performing reasonably well no matter how your opponents\u2026 How ICM Impacts Postflop Strategy Most players understand how the Independent Chip Model (ICM) in poker impacts their strategy preflop,\u2026 10 Tips for Multiway Pots in Poker While lots of work has been placed into research and explanation of heads-up pot strategy,\u2026 What is the Bubble Factor in poker tournaments? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) shows us the real money implications of tournament chip decisions.\u2026 The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments"}
{"text":"since even bad plays often win."}
{"text":"off to it if that's really the case. And trip fours or deuces are similarly unlikely, because calling a big raise before the flop with those hands, and plenty of active players yet to act, is just too weird. If he has a pair of jacks, what could his hand be? Queen-jack is the least likely possibility, because we have one of the queens. If he's holding king-jack or jack-ten, he should have folded before the flop. Likewise jack-x is very unlikely. That leaves ace-jack, suited or unsuited. I would have folded that hand before the flop, but lots of players would play it because of the ace. How about a pair of tens, nines, or even something lower? He might have called with those before the flop. Would he keep calling against an overcard on the flop followed by a big bet? That's a pretty gutsy call, but a few players would do it. He might think that your overbet really showed weakness, and be calling based on that. How about A\u2666K\u2666? That matches all his plays so far. The call before the flop makes sense, and after the flop he has two overcards plus a flush draw, for a total of 15 outs twice. (Three aces plus three kings plus nine diamonds, total of 15 cards.) He's a small favorite with 15 outs twice, so his call after the flop makes sense too. Ace-king, ace-queen, or king-queen unsuited is a real stretch. He can call after the flop with that hand only if he's certain you're bluffing, and nobody's that certain. So his most likely hands are ace-jack, which beats us, and A\u2666K\u2666 or similar hand, which is now an underdog after missing on fourth street. A bet of some kind looks necessary here. We can't let any flush draws have a free card. I'd bet about $300, which doesn't give him a call if he does have the A\u2666K\u2666, a hand with only 12 outs. Action: You actually check, and Player G checks. 73 Fifth Street: 7\u2666 Question: Now what? Answer: You have the flush, so you have to bet something. But without the ace or king of diamonds, you can't be completely confident. I'd bet about $400 here. If my opponent comes back with an all-in raise, I'll have to think about throwing the hand away. Action: You actually bet $500, and Player G calls. He shows K\u26668\u2666, and takes the pot. Bad luck. Your opponent made bad calls everywhere and got rewarded for it. Just make sure you don't go on tilt when this scenario occurs. Be glad you're still alive in the tournament, because this guy sure won't be for very long. Hand 4-8 Situation: Early in a one-table satellite tournament. Your hand: K\u2665K\u2666 Action to you: Players A and B fold. Player C calls $20. Player D folds. Player E raises to $40. There is now $90 in the pot. Question: Do you raise, and if so, how much? Answer: You certainly want to raise a goodly amount, but not so much as to discourage"}
{"text":"flop, you got to see your opponent\u2019s reactions on three streets, particularly when you\u2019re in position: the flop, when you bet; the turn, when you check behind his check; and the river, where all those looks at your opponent can be really useful. In a sense, you\u2019re buying information at a bargain price and what\u2019s not to like about that? Thus, we\u2019ll continue to look for a solid line of play that minimizes risk and maximizes information, even when the board is coordinated. But if you think about it, this line of play on dry boards makes figuring out your opponent\u2019s holding kind of a bonus. Your bets are designed to be blind to your opponent\u2019s holding, so you really don\u2019t give a rat\u2019s ass what he has. Sure, if you face a third bet on the river, you\u2019ll have to figure things out. That\u2019s why against many players, again, you\u2019ll take your river-calling money and raise with it on the turn. It\u2019s also why against a passive player, you don\u2019t need to sweat it; he\u2019s not taking that third barrel unless he has you beat. How great is it \u2026 how frickin\u2019 great is it \u2026 to know that you\u2019remaking the right bet for the situation without knowing or even caring what your opponent holds? And not for nothing, but consider the psychological benefit. If you get used to playing that way\u2014correct line of play, blind to the other guy\u2019s cards \u2014all you\u2019re trying to do is to find and execute the proper line of play. Do that and you\u2019ve won, no matter whether you win this pot or not. So not onlyare you blind to your opponent\u2019s holding, you\u2019re also blind to the outcome. You\u2019ve set yourself free from the toxic notion that winning the pot equals proper play and losing the pot equals mistake. Of course, all that was on untextured dry boards. The question now is, can we execute the same line on a textured wet board, where our concernsinclude defending against draws by pricing them out? We also have to factor in how much texture we hold, because it matters on the turn whether you hold a high card in the suit that hits. I know this sounds complex and daunting, but I promise, with just a bit of work, you can think through thissituation and come out the other side confident in the lines of play you choose. Okay, here we go. You hold A\u2666Q\u2663 or A\u2665Q\u2663. I offer both hands, because it matters on the turn which ace you happen to be holding, so keep that in mind as we move forward. The board is A\u2660-8\u2666-2\u2666. Let\u2019s put this all in big pictures so it\u2019s easier to see. Your hand: The flop: Now, there\u2019s good and bad news. The good news? You\u2019ve flopped pretty good: top-pair good-kicker. The bad news? You have no idea what the other guy holds. You\u2019re in the same situation as on a dry board with top pair, only now your opponent could legitimately have AJ or worse, AK or better,"}
{"text":"Blocker Example 2 Hero is IP with a range of: \u2666 9 combos of nut flush: A\u2665K\u2665-A\u26659\u2665, A\u26657\u2665-A\u26654\u2665 \u2666 24 combos of lower flush blocker: K\u2665Qx, Q\u2665Jx, J\u2665Tx, T\u26659x, 9\u26658x, 7\u26656x, 6x5x, 5\u26654x. \u2666 6 combos of non-flush blockers: 7\u26606\u2660, 7\u26605\u2660, 7\u26604\u2660, 6\u26605\u2660, 6\u26604\u2660, 5\u26604\u2660 Villain is OOP with a range of 45 flush combos that aren\u2019t blocked by the board: \u2666 9 combos of nut flush: A\u2665K\u2665-A\u26659\u2665, A\u26657\u2665-A\u26654\u2665 \u2666 8 combos of K-high flush: K\u2665Q\u2665-K\u26659\u2665, K\u26657\u2665-K\u26654\u2665 \u2666 7 combos of Q-high flush: Q\u2665J\u2665-Q\u26659\u2665, Q\u26657\u2665-Q\u26654\u2665 \u2666 6 combos of J-high flush: J\u2665T\u2665-J\u26659\u2665, J\u26657\u2665-J\u26654\u2665 \u2666 5 combos of T-high flush: T\u26659\u2665, T\u26657\u2665-T\u26654\u2665 \u2666 4 combos of 9-high flush: 9\u26657\u2665-9\u26654\u2665 \u2666 3 combos of 7-high flush: 7\u26656\u2665-7\u26654\u2665 \u2666 2 combos of 6-high flush: 6\u26655\u2665, 6\u26654\u2665 \u2666 1 combo of 5-high flush: 5\u26654\u2665 In this set-up, we removed the nut blockers from Hero\u2019s range. Just as before, the Villain will never lead into Hero. Now that Hero does not have the nut blocker, what should their strategy be? Should they still go all-in or should they use a smaller bet-size than previously? Now that Hero does not have the nut blocker, they can no longer remove the traps from the Villain\u2019s range. Going all-in for a large overbet without the nut blocker will lose Hero a lot of EV so, in this case, Hero will be betting the size of the pot. Which combos are now best to use as bluffs? When I ask this question to my students, many rush to say that now that the nut blocker is missing, Hero should be using the second nut blocker (K\u2665) combos. However, in reality, no blocker is better than a non-nut blocker. The solver prefers"}
{"text":"Hand Range 278: LJ 15bb (2x vs SB All-in) \u2022 Call All-in 51.3% \/ \u2022 Fold 48.7%"}
{"text":"Small Stakes Hold 'em; Winning Big With Expert Play by Ed Miller, David Sklansky, and Mason Malmuth teaches you to win the maximum in today's small stakes games. It covers theoretical topics such as implied odds and pot equity as well as strategic concepts such as protecting your hand, waiting for the turn, going for overcalls, and betting marginal hands for value. If your opponents play too many hands and go too far with them, this book is for you. Hold 'em Poker by David Sklansky is must reading for anyone planning to play anyplace that hold 'em is offered. Covers the importance of position, the first two cards, the key \"flops,\" how to read hands, and general strategy. This was the first accurate book on hold 'em and has now been updated for today's double blind structure. Getting The Best of It by David Sklansky contains six sections discussing probability, poker, blackjack, other casino games, sports betting, and general gambling concepts. This book contains some of the most sophisticated gambling ideas that have ever been put into print. The Theory of Poker By David Sklansky A product of Two Plus Two Publishing FOURTH EDITION SEVENTH PRINTING April 2005 Printing and Binding Creel Printing Co. Las Vegas, Nevada Printed in the United States of America The Theory of Poker Copyright \u00a9 1987, 1989, 1992, 1994, 1999 David Sklansky All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without the express permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Two Plus Two Publishing 600 West Sunset; Suite 103 Henderson NV 89015 To my Parents, Mae and Irving Table of Contents About David Sklansky........................................................ ix Preface................................................................................ xi Chapter One: Beyond Beginning Poker ............................ 1 The Forms of Poker......................................................... 2 Poker Logic .................................................................. 4 The Object of Poker........................................................ 5 Chapter Two: Expectation and Hourly Rate ................... 9 Mathematical Expectation............................................... 9 Mathematical Expectation in Poker............................... 12 Hourly Rate ................................................................ 14 C h a p t e r Th r e e : T h e F u n d a m e n t a l T h e o r e m o f P o k e r . . . 1 7 Examples of The Fundamental Theorem of Poker . . . . 18 Example 1.................................................................... 18 Example 2................................................................... 20 Example 3....................................................................20 Example 4................................................................... 21 Example 5....................................................................22 Example 6................................................................... 23 \"Mistakes\" According to The Fundamental Theorem of Poker............................................................................24 Multi-Way Pots ............................................................... 25 Summary ..........................................................................26 Chapter Four: The Ante Structure .................................. 27 Large Antes ................................................................ 29 Small Antes ................................................................. 32 Summary .................................................................... 34 ii Table of Contents Chapter Five: Pot Odds..................................................... 35 Calling on the Basis of Pot Odds When All the Cards are Out................................................................... 35 Calling on the Basis of Pot Odds With More Cards to Come..................................................................... 36 Exposed Cards ............................................................ 37 Position......................................................................... 41 Extra Outs..................................................................... 43 Drawing to the Second-Best Hand................................. 44 Summary .................................................................... 47 Chapter Six: Effective Odds.............................................."}
{"text":"want you to call.\u201d If your opponent has half a hand, you might get him to bite. Now, all of this is pretty straightforward and well-known. Everyone knows what it\u2019s like to be pot-committed or face a pot-committed opponent. However, you can make a sophisticated and interesting play specifically against opponents who recognize and respect pot-commitment. In theright circumstance against the right opponent, you can leverage pot-commitment to find out if your hand is good and whether you should put your tournament life on the line. Say you\u2019re short stacked in a tournament with a hand you think might be good, but you aren\u2019t sure. For example, you have a hand like AJ and the board is Q-J-2-3-8. Or you have Q\u2665T\u2665 on a K\u2660-Q\u2663-T\u2660-6\u2660 turn. Many players in these situations either cower out and fold to a bet or just say, \u201cWhat the hell,\u201d and get their whole stack in. But what if you bet 40% of your stack instead? Your opponent knows you\u2019re pot-committed, right? He\u2019s 100%certain that you have to call if he raises. So he can\u2019t be moving in on you with a hand that doesn\u2019t beat you. Then guess what? You can fold. Really, you can, because he\u2019d never raise you if he couldn\u2019t beat you. After all, you\u2019re pot-committed, right? Now it\u2019s true that 60% of your original short stack isn\u2019t much, but at least it\u2019s something. At least you still have a shot. And you didn\u2019t stack off when you were beat. There are times when not spewing your stack can save you in other ways, especially in situations where conventional thinking would be, \u201cShove!\u201d Suppose someone moves in pre-flop for 10 big blinds, 2,000 if the blinds are 100\/200. You have two queens or two jacks in hand and 25 or 30 big blinds. Almost all players will think they have to isolate the all-in player with their queens or jacks, so they re-raise all-in themselves. I knowyou\u2019ve done this. We all have. But take a beat. Recognize that the opener\u2019s 10 big blinds have already done the job of narrowing the field. Craphands aren\u2019t competing here, no matter whether you call, raise, or fold. Not for 10 big blinds. And your flat-call of 10 big blinds already looks ridiculously strong. In fact, the flat-call looks stronger than the move-in because it reads trappy. Do you really think a big range of hands will overcall a 10-BB bet that won\u2019t call the 25- or 30-BB bet? Not so much. So by putting in your wholestack, you don\u2019t accomplish any more isolation than you would have if you\u2019d flat-called. What you accomplish, instead, is going broke when youhappen to run into AA or KK. Then you walk away wondering why you were so unlucky as to run into such a big hand. Well, you weren\u2019t unlucky. You just played in a way that wouldn\u2019t let you get away from the hand. What would happen if you flat-called the 10-BB all-in? If a player behind you comes over the top of you, can he ever be"}
{"text":"outguess you. The chances of your putting out one or two fingers are 50-50. The chances of a coin coming up heads or tails are 50-50. However, instead of your thinking about whether to put out one or two fingers, the coin is making the decisions for you, and most importantly it is randomizing the decisions. Your opponent might be able to outguess you, but you are forcing him to outguess an inanimate object, which is impossible. One might as well try to guess whether a roulette ball is going to land on the red or the black. Since your opponent is laying you $101 to $100, by using game theory you have assured yourself of an 0.5 percent mathematical advantage (or a 50-cent positive expectation per bet). You have removed whatever advantage your opponent might have had in out-thinking you and given yourself an insuperable edge over the long run. Only if you thought you could out think your opponent would you be better off using your judgment instead of a coin flip. Using Game Theory to Bluff In this chapter we are mainly concerned with how game theory can be applied to the art of bluffing and calling possible bluffs in poker. For this purpose we will talk about mixed strategy, a strategy in which you make a certain play \u2014 specifically a bluff or a call of a possible bluff\u2014 a predetermined Game Theory and Bluffing 181 percentage of the time, but you introduce a random element so that your opponent cannot know when you are making the play and when you are not. You will recall from the last chapter that, everything else being equal, the player who never bluffs and the player who bluffs too much are at a decided disadvantage against a player who bluffs correctly. To illustrate this point and to show how game theory can be used to decide correctly when to bluff, we'll set up a proposition. We are playing draw lowball with no joker, and I give you a pat: You stand pat, and I must draw one card. If I catch a five, a six, a seven, an eight, or a nine, I beat you with a better low than yours. If I catch any other card, you win. That means that of the 42 cards remaining in the deck, I have 18 winners (4 fives, 4 sixes, 4 sevens, 3 eights, and 3 nines) and 24 losers, which makes me a 24-to-18 or 4-to-3 underdog. We each ante $100, but after the draw \u2014 which you do not see \u2014 I can bet $100. Suppose I said I'm going to bet $ 100 every time. Clearly you would call every time because you would stand to win $200 the 24 times I'm bluffing and lose $200 the 18 times I have the best I take a: 182 Chapter Nineteen hand for a net profit of $1,200. On the other hand, suppose I said I will never bluff; I will only bet when I have your 9,8 low beat. Then you"}
{"text":"hand and fold your blocker type bluffs. EP could very well play a non 4-betting strategy vs the blinds because there aren\u2019t that many hands that really want to 4-bet in position given how polarized the blinds\u2019 3-betting ranges are. Hand Range 323: BN 60bb (2.3x vs BB 3-bet) \u2022 All-in 3.5% \/ \u2022 4-bet 3.9% \/ \u2022 Call 52.4% \/ \u2022 Fold 40.2%"}
{"text":"Hand Range 45: HJ vs SB 3-bet \u2022 4-bet 11.1% \/ \u2022 Call 36.3% \/ \u2022 Fold 52.6%"}
{"text":"time ago you could not reenter in tournaments and even before that you could not buy in late if you show up late sorry you're out of luck anyway sometimes you bust early and I would go and I would play cash games at bagio and one day out of seven give or take the 510 1020 and 2550 games would all be very tough so would I sit and grind it out and hope they got better or would I just pack it up and go home for the day and take one day off well I would pack it up and take one day off it's okay right just because the game exists and even because you normally play that game does not mean that you have to play it if you consistently play games that you are not bankrolled for either because you don't have an edge against your opponents or there's a ton of variant or you know you just don't want to take on the risk if you consistently play in these games that are bad for you and bad for your bankroll you're gambling and if you're gambling consistently well you are very very live to lose and I don't want you to lose I want you to win at poker and remember to win at poker you have to do three things to find a game you can beat to play it a lot and you have to keep a proper bankroll if you do these three things you will succeed long-term in poker because you're consistently playing in a game where you have an edge and if you're properly bankrolled you'll be able to withstand whatever variants you have have in that game do those things succeed I wish you the best of luck and look I think a lot of people take pride or they get excited by the idea that they're gambling and sometimes they win and they have big up swings and big down swings but I have a group of friends who've played poker for as long as I have 20-some years and none of them have ever gone broke or been anywhere near broke and that's because they have discipline they do these three things consistently if you do these three things consistently you will succeed and if you do two out of the three maybe you'll make it if you do one out of the three well you're drawing pretty dead and if you do none out of three well then obviously you're drawing super duper dead good luck have fun make the most of your opportunities if you enjoyed this video do me a quick favor click the like And subscribe button below if you have a poker friend who does not do these three things share this video with them if they actually listen to the advice they will be eternally grateful because maybe just maybe they'll start winning some money from poker so share it with them do them a favor good luck have fun"}
{"text":"fare all that well against in all land plus we have two people you have to act who could randomly wake up with the nuts Ace 2 off suit button raises 13 big blinds deep we're in the small blind with ace2 off suit should We Jammin we do this time this is aggressive I don't mind it though if you tell me the button's raising too wide again you see how I'm going through a lot of scenarios that will kind of like qualify when this is good right if your opponent's raising too wide and they're gonna fold too often you in turn get to be hyper aggressive if they're overly tight you got to be way more cautious right if they have to be concerned with pouts and you don't you get to be way more aggressive if you have to be concerned with payouts you tighten it up let's go to a few more examples to really Hammer home these Concepts 15 big lines deep on the button we just put it all in when you are the only shallow stack you're gonna find that you really don't want to get called assuming you're not like egregiously shallow like we have three big lines it's not gonna make a difference right but here I think a lot of people make the mistake of men raising and then getting shoved on and then they think they have a easy call off and maybe here you probably should call it off but it's a spot where you don't love it and you'd much rather shove and force your opponents to not have a scenario where they can uh call it off with small pairs or shove on you with random suited connected type stuff so just shove in the pot King to offsuit 20 big wines deep well we have 20 blinds everybody else has ten should we shove our Min rays I think a lot of players shove too often in this spot they think they should be shoving every hand in their range but it is fine to Minimates especially with hands that are usually very dominated when you shove and get called that's going to be king X Queen X Jack X offsuit so these are pretty good handsome memories you can also minimize the absolute best stands that way you don't have only trash in your mid-raising range we get shoved now you have to fold the garbage call the good hands nine seven Suited we rip it all in for 20 big blinds this is a good example of a spot where now if we Min raise for our opponents can be blind stacks and get shoved on we have to put an eight to try to win 21 or 21 and a half or 22 and a half right and at that point you need to win 35-ish percent of the time and 9-7 suited will so because you'd have to call it off if you do face a shove but you really don't"}
{"text":"Face cards A card that has a face on it, such as a K, Q or J."}
{"text":"11.5 Facing Squeezes When we face a squeeze with around 100BB stacks, we're generally going to be folding more than we would vs. a standard 3-bet. This is due to the fact that the effective stack is smaller in relation to the amount we have to call and thus our pot odds and implied odds are cut. This means we'll need to favour frequent strength over implied odds. A hand like KQs or JJ will be a much better defend vs. a light squeezing range than 98s or 77 will be. As the Pre-flop Raiser There are two roles we can be in when facing a squeeze: that of the pre-flop raiser (PFR) and the pre-flop caller (PFC). Generally speaking, we're going to have a much easier time defending more of our range when we are PFR as our opening range is uncapped. When we're the PFR, we have a choice between two balanced approaches when facing a squeeze. We can choose either: To develop a polarised 4-bet strategy and have a capped calling range. To have no 4-bet range at all, flat everything we're continuing with and thus have an uncapped calling range. Let's have a look at a couple of examples, one for each approach. When reading the HUD for spots where we face a squeeze, the stat: Preflop Squeeze will be useful where the sample is large enough. The interpretation of this stat functions similarly to 3Bet Preflop but it takes longer to converge due to squeeze spots occurring less frequently than 3-bet spots. There is also a fair bit of variance concerning how many squeeze opportunities a Villain has had over smallish samples so be sure to hover your cursor over the stat to find this information. In common play where the sample size is smaller, Hero is advised to refer to 3Bet Preflop and broad player type to get a feel for Villain's likely squeeze tendencies - the Preflop Squeeze stat will not yet be reliable. Have a look at Hand 103 below and think about which of the two approaches above should suit best then try to construct a defence range for Hero. The third, (red) number on the HUD is as always 3Bet Preflop - the most common stat you'll be using in squeeze spots unless you have thousands of hands on most players in your pool."}
{"text":"are more likely to raise than flat call in the Classic example, which we saw happen in the bubble examples previously. The SB is happy to use fold equity to take the pot down uncontested, and they really don\u2019t want to get involved in a 3-way pot or get squeezed by the BB. In the PKO, the SB is much happier to get involved because of the prospect of winning BB\u2019s bounty. Let\u2019s look at the SB response in both examples: And the PKO version of the same spot: If the SB does call, this is how the BB responds in the Classic example : And this is the PKO equivalent : If the SB does call, this is how the BB responds in the Classic example : And this is the PKO equivalent : Once again, there is a lot more folding in the Classic example. It is remarkable how much the BB gets involved in the PKO example considering if they folded and the SB gets eliminated they earn a pay jump . In both examples, the BB squeezing range is linear, but in the PKO version, it is more weighted towards small pairs. It would be disastrous to get your money in with 44 against one, possibly two players in a classic ICM spot, but in PKOs we don\u2019t mind embracing more variance. It might surprise some that the BB gets so involved considering they cannot win a bounty. This would lead some to think this was closer to a classic ICM spot for them. The reason why that is not the case is twofold. First, the BB knows they will be called much lighter in the PKO because of their bounty. It\u2019s not a wild assumption to suggest that if they get called with A9s or 44 they could be well ahead of the BTN\u2019s calling range. Secondly, laddering is not as much in the BB\u2019s interest. They also need to build a stack to cover the remaining two players to win their bounties . Even the shortest stack plays looser in PKOs because they are incentivized to build a stack to cover people and also will get called much wider by their opponents. To prove the first point, this is the BTN response in the classic example if the BB does shove: This is the BTN response to a squeeze in a PKO: To prove the first point, this is the BTN response in the classic example if the BB does shove: This is the BTN response to a squeeze in a PKO: The BTN continues with almost twice as many hands in the PKO. If you checked out our article on multiway PKOs you will also recognize that the BTN is continuing with many suited broadway hands like QTs and JTs (which is why the BB was happy to shove so wide). These are hands that play well multiway if the SB gets involved. Notice also that the BTN mixes shoving and calling, whereas in the classic example, they isolate to get the hand heads-up. Once"}
{"text":"Linear Distributions So far we have focused our discussion of river abstract models where we are able to partition the players\u2019 ranges into disconnected categories of hands that were clearly identifiable as nuts, air, bluff-catchers and traps. However, in many real poker situations, both players\u2019 ranges will contain a mixture of hands made up from all of these categories. Since the players\u2019 range distributions won\u2019t necessarily divide into non-overlapping categories, we need to create a system to categorize these linear distributions. Categorizing all hands according to their equity with 1 being the strongest hand and 0 the weakest, we can split the ranges into three main sections. These will be with value hands at the top, checking hands in the middle and bluffing hands at the bottom, effectively betting a polarized distribution. If the player is OOP, they will be checking some value hands as traps, so the checking range is not 100% bluff-catchers. Table 161: Hypothetical River Strategy Example The bottom value hand as well as the best bluff will be indifferent to betting and checking. The player will bet all value hands above the bottom value hand and will bluff all hands that are"}
{"text":"thought out name who has the reg label right so you kind of put the piece together and So based on this information which is the best seat the one here that has direct position on the recreational player what seats that the Jesus seat if we're here we have direct position on the wreck we're expecting to get about 40 percent of that dead money whereas if we went over here well at first we'd expect he's got 40. he's got 30 we'd have 20 but if someone else sits in the game here now it's 40 30 20 10 we're expecting only a small amount of the dead money so we would take the seat with direct position on beginner um given the opportunity now if there are no recreationals on the table then the best seat is the one with position on the loose aggressive players because you want to be to the left of those players so that for the guys who are playing a lot of pots you can have position on them if players are very loose and they're on your left you're going to find yourself out of position very often which is much harder to play than being in position whereas tight players aren't going to enter as many pots therefore you'll find yourself out of position less frequently versus them when they're on your left now if you're taking a shot you might consider not taking direct position on the recreationals because the regs may put a lot of pressure on you three betting you a lot squeezing you a lot called for betting you a lot because they know you're taking a shot they know you're going to be out of your comfort zone so they're going to put you to the test when they think you're trying to isolate the recreational player with a wider range in that case you may actually want to take the seat on the left of the regs and let them have the Jesus seat because in that case you'll find yourself playing more pots in position versus these regs rather than out of position versus them and if they're doing a lot of flatting versus the recreational player and a lot of three betting versus the recreational player then you can have the option to play a tighter game and be more selective getting involved with good hands in spots that will pretty much always be big pots so the typical best seat to take when you're seen as the best player in the game or one of the players who the regs aren't going to go after you in pots and put you in tough spots which is ideally the type of player you want to be in the games you sit in as you study your poker coaching material uh is the one with direct position on the spot that Jesus seat directs to your left if however you are in a tough lineup when you're shot taking or uncomfortable with the stakes"}
{"text":"164). With SPR 5+, IP never goes all-in after OOP checks. Their strategy consists of splitting their range between pot and half-pot bet-sizes, betting pot with most AA \u2013 KK, while also using some in the smaller size to protect against being x\/r, while checking back their middle strength hands TT-77. QQ-JJ are bet using the half-pot bet-size. 55 and some 66 are used as bluffs in both bet- sizes (Table 165). Table 165: IP Strategy Versus Check With SPR 2, IP will go all-in with most of their AA-KK, using the smaller size for QQ and some JJ, bluffing 66-55 and checking back TT-77. With SPR 1 and under, IP will check back all middle strength hands TT-77, go all-in with a polar range of JJ+ and 55-66, expanding their value range as SPRs gets smaller to include 88+ with SPR 0.25. Ranges Overlap in the Middle In this situation, some hands in P1\u2019s range are stronger than all of P2\u2019s range and some hands in P2\u2019s range are weaker than all of P1\u2019s Range (Table 166)."}
{"text":"the big blind. We\u2019re ignoring some other things also. If you aren\u2019t comfortable ignoring all those things, don\u2019t make the approximation. Caveat emptor."}
{"text":"how to respond when others raise. Fortunately, like everything else we\u2019ve looked at, we can break this down. We can examine it logically and consider it in light of the fundamental goal of making our decisionseasy and the other guys\u2019 hard. The most common raise situation you\u2019ll face is when someone opens the pot for a raise and it\u2019s folded around to you. Forget about the blinds for now and think only about what to do when you have position on the raiser. Your first consideration is the range of hands with which your opponent is likely to open for a raise. You\u2019ll take into account such things as his position relative to the blinds, actions he\u2019s taken in the past, his current state of mind (is he solid or tilty?), even whether he\u2019s likely to have read thisbook and is thus raising appropriately. Some of your opponents will raise with literally any two cards. That\u2019s neither good nor bad, it just is; so you have to take that into account. On theother hand, you might be up against a Gibraltar who only opens with aces, kings, or queens. How will you know where your opponent is at?Presumably, you\u2019ve been paying attention. So let\u2019s say you\u2019re up against a loose-aggressive (LAG) raiser, whom you can reasonably expect to be raising, at this time and in this position, with something as weak as AT. Okay, you\u2019ve completed step one: You\u2019ve identified the bottom of the raiser\u2019s range. Here\u2019s step two. Look at your hand and figure out if it\u2019s at least as good as the bottom of the raiser\u2019s range. Do you have AT or better? You can play. Do you have A9 or worse? You can\u2019t play. Your hand is below the bottom of his range. You don\u2019t figure to have any shot at the better hand, which means you\u2019re playing against the raise purely on the strength of position. Obviously, if you\u2019re planning to bluff, you can play any hand. But let\u2019s put a pin in that for now. Right now, we\u2019re talking about playing for value against the raise. Position\u2019s not for nothing. Being in position, in fact, allows you to play with hands as far down as the bottom of the original raiser\u2019s range (thoughnot below). Acting last means you\u2019re more likely to win the hand when you don\u2019t make anything. Also, bluffs in position tend not to cost much, so you get a lot of cheap shots at pots when you act last. As we\u2019ll see later, when you\u2019re out of position, your calling requirements get much more stringent for exactly these reasons. In position, though, you just need to be as good as the raiser\u2019s worst. If he only raises with aces and kings, you\u2019d better have at least kings. If he raises with any twocards, you can play with any two cards\u2014if you choose to. You might choose otherwise, since his wide range may make your decision-making tricky from the flop forward. Remember, even though you can play, no law says you must play. So your"}
{"text":"larger and more complex games comes at a cost. The use of abstractions to reduce the game size produces less accurate solutions. \u2666 Finalized simulations are easy to browse \u2666 ICM calculations \u2666 Can adjust simulations for rake effect \u2666 Equity graphs \u2666 Ability to manually export ranges to other tools in various formats Cons \u2666 Graphic use interface appears rough and users can easily feel overwhelmed, particularly if not computer savvy \u2666 Very steep learning curve \u2666 Requires high capacity hardware. The more powerful the computer used to run Monker simulations, the better the abstraction settings that can be used, and therefore the more accurate solutions. This forces users to build super computers or rent massive servers to run high accuracy solutions. \u2666 Tree building process can be tedious and time consuming \u2666 Pre-flop trees can take weeks to complete, depending on the size of the tree \u2666 Limited range analysis tools \u2666 Lacks the ability to run aggregate reports (summarize data across multiple flops) GTO Poker Training Web Apps GTO training apps such as GTO Poker (gtopoker.io) offer a wide variety of precomputed GTO strategies for different poker variants including 6-max and heads-up cash games, MTTs, HUSNGs, and Jackpot 3-max SNGs with multiple stack depths, and more. They make advanced GTO strategies accessible to users who want to learn about GTO play but aren\u2019t necessarily"}
{"text":"TAG An acronym meaning \"Tight Aggressive\" which refers to the playstyle of a player that is characterized by playing a small number of hands in an aggressive manner."}
{"text":"at a Crowded Table I hate sitting elbow to elbow. I\u2019m a big man\u2014at least I was until my recent gastric bypass surgery\u2014and you can imagine how important it has been throughout my poker career to have enough room to feel comfortable. In the real world, I usually play shorthanded, but when I have to crowd into a nineor 10-hand game, as I do for tournaments, I\u2019m always wishing for more space. Online, I don\u2019t worry about that. I can play from a recliner with a keyboard in my lap, if I want to, and still be at a full table. Reason #17: Small-Limit Games That Are Un-Economical in the Real World In my mind, this is online poker\u2019s greatest contribution to our game. Most professionals don\u2019t think of $2 and $4 games as meaningful limits. But when you\u2019re just starting out and on a small bankroll, even the difference between a 61 $50 win and a $50 loss can be important. Those small limits can be uncomfortable for players just learning the game. I\u2019ll bet it\u2019s occurred to everyone who plays poker seriously that it would be a great idea to have formal games for beginners where you could bet just 10 cents. Those would be the training ground for those neophytes who are too timid to risk meaningful money at poker. You\u2019d let new players get comfortable with the game, players who would otherwise never experience the thrill of poker in a casino. As I pointed out earlier, real-world casinos can\u2019t afford to do this, because of the costs involved in providing physical tables and paying human dealers. But online poker rooms can and do make this great contribution to our game. Reason #18: Free Games for Practice But why not take this advantage of being able to spread games economically online a step further? Why not offer just-for-fun games for those who aren\u2019t ready to play poker for keeps? Most online poker rooms do exactly that. They let players learn the mechanics of the game by playing for imaginary money. And they charge nothing for this promotional service to the poker community. Real-world casinos can\u2019t afford to do that. Look closely at the game below. Notice that this Doyle\u2019s Room game says, \u201cPlay Money Table,\u201d down toward the bottom of the cloth. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if many successful real-world players, and even future World Poker Tour and other champions, will launch their careers on free online tables just like this one. Reason #19: High Percentage of Real-World Tournament Players Who Qualified Online Yes, I was skeptical of the value of online poker a few years ago. So were many of the people who managed real-world cardrooms. They were afraid that online poker would siphon off their business more than it would help bring in new players to their physical cardrooms. That argument has been resolved. Today, it\u2019s hard to find anyone in the industry who doesn\u2019t realize that online games have helped in the resurgence of real-world poker. I meet players everyday at the Bellagio, Commerce, and 62"}
{"text":"Suited connectors A preflop hand consisting of two cards of the same suit that are consecutive in rank. For example, a player holding 76 or 98 has \"suited connectors\"."}
{"text":"free card, checking and calling is probably the best strategy to follow. Another interesting concept is that even when you are a big favorite and want callers, but you think everyone will fold if you bet, giving a free card still may be incorrect. In this case, the next card might be a miracle card for someone else, but not likely to make anyone a second-best hand. An obvious example of this can be seen when you flop a small flush. A check could give someone else a higher flush, and that person would not have called your bet. Specifically, suppose you hold and three spades flop. If you bet, someone with the 84,94, T4, or Jh most likely will throw his hand away. If you check and a fourth spade comes, you may have cost yourself the pot. These examples illustrate the general principle of free cards. That is, ifyou check and allow someone who would not have called your bet to outdraw you, then you have allowed a \"mathematical catastrophe\" to happen. It is also a catastrophe to give a free card to someone who would have called your bet, and he fails to 64 Part Two: Strategic Concepts outdraw you. However, this second mathematical catastrophe is not as bad as the first. It can also be beneficial to give this free card if it makes someone misplay their hand. There are four other basic situations where it is correct to check on the flop. The first is when you are sure that you do not have the best hand and especially sure that you will be called if you bet. This frequently will occur when you have several opponents and the board flops either three cards that rank close to each other or two suited cards. For instance, suppose you have you are against several opponents, and the flop is It is usually wrong to bet. There is little chance that everyone will fold, and you have almost no chance of improving to the best hand. The second situation where it is generally correct to check is when you think it is likely that someonebehind you will bet. This often occurs when you are in a two or three-person pot and were raised by an aggressive opponent before the flop. Some of these players automatically will bet on the flop when you check to them, no matter which cards have come. When this is the case and you have flopped a strong hand, almost always go for a check-raise. In fact, with a non-threatening flop, you sometimes should check-raise and then bet again on The Free Card 65 fourth street even when you have nothing. (However, don't get carried away with this play. Make it only occasionally.) The third situation where it is correct to check is with a hand that should be slowplayed. But we want to add that one of the deciding factors as to whether to slowplay is not just the strength of your hand but also the chance that the next card will make someone"}
{"text":"BET-SIZING FOR INFORMATION 55 You might sometimes call, but you can do something clearly better against this speci\ufb01c opponent. That\u2019s because she\u2019s straightforward in the following way: if you reraise her, she\u2019ll put in the third raise always and only with pocket aces or kings. With any other hand, she\u2019ll either call or fold (depending on the hand and how large your raise is). This is true regardless of the size of your reraise; a third raise always means pocket aces or kings, and she will always reraise with aces or kings. (You could change \u201calways\u201d to \u201cnearly always\u201d and the following logic would still probably hold. But as soon as your opponent mixes her play up to any degree, this play doesn\u2019t necessarily work as described.) In this situation, it makes sense to make a small reraise, perhaps making it $80 or $100 to go. You are rcraising to see if she puts in the third raise. Your reraise is small because you don\u2019t want her to fold ace-queen, ace-jack, or king-queen if she happens to have one of those hands. You also keep it small to avoid risking more than necessary to \ufb01nd out if you are up against aces or kings. Indeed, this reraise doesn\u2019t give you information only about the initial raiser\u2019s hand. It gives you information about all of your other opponents\u2019 hands as well (the button, the blinds, and the limper). Just calling might encourage an en- terprising player to call with some unreadable hands or to take a shot at both you and the initial raiser by putting in a big semi-blu\ufb00raise. By reraising, you all but eliminate that possibility, since you very well could be holding pocket aces. So not only does your reraise tell you about the initial raiser\u2019s hand, it also keeps the remaining players\u2019 actions more \u201cpure,\u201d allowing you to make better decisions. Another Opportunity to Gather Information If you have a pocket pair, and you aren\u2019t sure if you have the best hand, you\u2019ll often be in a position to try to gather information through a \ufb02op bet. Say the pre\ufb02op betting has led you to the conclusion that your opponent likely has a pocket pair with you, but you aren\u2019t sure whose pair is higher. If an unthreatening \ufb02op like 9\u26615\u26602\u2662comes, you can use an information bet against some opponents to clarify the situation. If you make a substantial bet, some straightforward players will tend to raise with a big pair (say pocket aces or kings), but just call with a smaller pair. Since you have only two outs when you are beaten, you can use their response to help you play when you aren\u2019t sure about your pair. Final Thoughts As with any play, betting slightly more for information is not without its perils. Against perceptive, skilled handreaders, an information raise might in- vite a big blu\ufb00. Or, more generally, they might pick o\ufb00bets slightly larger than"}
{"text":"Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the\u2026 Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get\u2026 Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being\u2026 Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of 400K\/800K\/800K,\u2026 Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?\u2026 Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of Canadian programmers from Quebec, developed\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Explained We are excited to introduce GTO Wizard AI, formerly known as Ruse, the world\u2019s best\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Benchmarks GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional solving methods to bring\u2026 Table Management in PKOs Perhaps the most important strategic consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs) is making sure you\u2026 Overcalling From the BB In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also\u2026 Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach\u2026 Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon\u2026 Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to\u2026 Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked Playing out of position is tricky, but it\u2019s an essential part of tournament play. With\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as"}
{"text":"Table 64: SB Action Frequencies (25bb) With 25bb, the same trends seen previously occur where the SB gets to VPIP less often as the opener\u2019s range gets stronger. Offsuit hands are mostly folded except for the Ax holdings that are rejammed vs LP. Offsuit broadways can be called vs LP, but have to be folded vs EP. Small pocket pairs make great rejamming hands vs LP but play better as calls vs EP due to the lack of fold equity. Be sure to take note of how SB chooses decently strong hands such as A5s-A2s, AJo and ATo to 3-bet\/fold vs EP, whereas the 3-bet fold range against the BN is A8o-A3o, KJo and KTo (Hand Ranges 187-194)."}
{"text":"Float Calling a bet with a draw or otherwise marginal hand with low expectation to win the pot at showdown."}
{"text":"donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the\u2026 Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get\u2026 Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being\u2026 Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of 400K\/800K\/800K,\u2026 Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?\u2026 Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of Canadian programmers from Quebec, developed\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Explained We are excited to introduce GTO Wizard AI, formerly known as Ruse, the world\u2019s best\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Benchmarks GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional solving methods to bring\u2026 Table Management in PKOs Perhaps the most important strategic consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs) is making sure you\u2026 Overcalling From the"}
{"text":"caller in third position. You are in fifth position 175 \u2022 Case 4: You are on the button. The player in third position raised three times the big blind, and the player in fifth position raised nine times the big blind \u2022 Case 5: You are on the button. Three limpers in front of you \u2022 Making Adjustments for Play in the Real World \u2022 Responding to a Raise Behind You \u2022 Limping into Pots \u2022 The Squeeze Play: Exploiting the Sandwich Effect \u2022 All-in Before the Flop \u2022 The Problems Part Six: Betting After the Flop \u2022 Introduction \u2022 Texture of the Flop \u2022 Analyzing Flops for Typical Hands \u2022 Value Bets \u2022 Continuation Bets \u2022 Probe Bets \u2022 More Complex Scenarios \u2022 Playing Well Before the Flop Versus Playing Well After the Flop \u2022 The Problems Part Seven: Betting on Fourth and Fifth Street \u2022 Introduction \u2022 Playing to Win the Most Money Possible \u2022 The Fourth Street Continuation Bet \u2022 Playing Drawing Hands \u2022 Playing Against Drawing Hands \u2022 When the Bad Card Hits \u2022 Don't Make a Bet that Can't Make You Money \u2022 All-in on Fourth and Fifth Street \u2022 The Problems Conclusion 176"}
{"text":"the bounty. You should always be paying attention to whom you cover in PKOs. If you presently don\u2019t cover many people , it can be correct to deviate from GTO and take on extra risk to cover more people in the future. If you do cover many people , as the chip leader for example, it can be correct to pass a slight edge to avoid losing your advantage. How often you enter the pot and whether you open, raise, or call should be determined by how the players you cover may respond. This is all because of the bounty and the potential to unlock it. As we have discussed before, when you win a bounty, you win 4 types of equity : The ICM equity from the \u2018regular payout\u2019 portion of the prize pool The immediately realized equity for winning the opponent\u2019s bounty The potential future equity of winning more bounties because you cover more people at the table The potential future equity of winning your own bounty when you win the whole tournament Winning a bounty is so much more valuable than winning a big pot. Most of the time, winning the bounty is preferable to winning a pot several times larger with no bounty. Particularly in the early stages, before ICM is a significant factor in PKOs , the bounties are worth a lot. In terms of immediately realized equity, they are usually worth at least 25% of your buy-in. This is demonstrated by the Bubble Factor in PKOs, which usually starts at less than 1, something you never see in regular MTTs. With that in mind, why is the BTN flatting so much in this example? Adjust for the Bounties You Can Win The CO covers the BTN, so the BTN cannot win the CO\u2019s $75 bounty this hand. The BTN does cover both the SB and the BB, however. The BTN can win both of these bounties, and they won\u2019t even have to risk all their chips in the process. Preflop Setup It would be very nice to double up against the CO; that would put the BTN second in chips at the table. But there is still the chip leading LJ who covers them comfortably. The LJ should be playing very loose and aggressive at this table, making it tougher for whoever else has a big stack to win bounties. Instead of doubling up, the best outcome for the BTN would be to win one (or two) bounties! Suppose the BTN 3-bets in this spot, the SB and the BB would be incentivized to fold a lot. However, when the BTN flat-calls , the blinds are getting a better price to continue. Indeed, look at the SB \u2019s response to a BU flat-call: SB response vs CO open-raise and BU flat-call Against a BTN 3-bet , the SB would fold 86.9% of the time , compared to only 72.8% folding versus a flat. The SB only has 13bb, so calling a shove is easy for most hands in the BTN\u2019s range when you factor in the"}
{"text":"Probe Betting As far as rules of thumb go in poker, \u201ccheck to the raiser\u201d is a pretty good one. The aggressor on the previous street generally has the more polar range and so more incentive to bet, while players who just called the previous street have mostly medium-strength hands and less incentive to grow the pot. But what happens when the previous aggressor declines to bet? As with most things in poker, \u201cit depends\u201d. This article will look specifically at playing the turn as a BB caller against a LJ raiser who declined to continuation bet the flop in a 100bb cash game, but the general principles discussed here will apply in any situation where a player who had been the aggressor stops betting. Range Dynamics What does it mean that the preflop raiser chose not to bet the flop? The first thing to determine is: What does it mean that the preflop raiser chose not to bet the flop? This depends on the answer to another question: How much did the flop favor the preflop raiser? An in-position raiser has a much stronger preflop range than a BB caller, and they carry this range advantage forward to the flop. In other words, LJ should enjoy a significant range advantage on most flops, though some are better than others. This is why they can continuation bet at a high frequency. On more favorable flops, a check typically indicates not a weak hand but a medium hand that did not stand to benefit terribly much from betting. When they do not bet the flop, the composition of their checking range depends heavily on how good the flop was for them. On more favorable flops, a check typically indicates not a weak hand but a medium hand that did not stand to benefit terribly much from betting. In this case, the BB will enjoy a nuts advantage but not an equity advantage on the average turn, which means they will bet at a low frequency for a large size . On less favorable flops, the preflop raiser cannot expect to bet their entire range profitably and thus are forced to check some of their weak hands. In these cases, the BB is more likely to enjoy both an equity and nuts advantage on the turn and so to bet at a higher frequency , though this depends on how much the turn card changes that dynamic . Favorable Flops On many flops, the preflop raiser\u2019s stronger range buys them a profitable bet with any two cards against a BB caller. The only reason for them not to bet, then, is if they expect to make at least as much by checking, through some combination of taking their hand to showdown or bluffing on later streets. On some very favorable flops, the LJ raiser does not check at all. These boards do little to help the BB and are very dynamic, incentivizing LJ to bet even their medium\u2013strength hands for some combination of value and protection. Paired and tripped boards like 333 and QQ5"}
{"text":"'em. For example, you may want to make what you think is a bad call if you believe this play will keep other players from running over you. If you find that you have been forced to throw away your hand on the end two or three times in a row, you must be prepared to call the next time with a hand that you normally wouldn't call with. This is because you can assume that your opponents have noticed your folding and are apt to try to bluff you. A less obvious situation where you should think of the future is to sometimes check a good hand in early position on the flop and then check it again on fourth street, even if there was no bet on the flop. Not only may you catch someone stealing on fourth street, but this check also might allow you to steal the pot on fifth street in a future hand when there has been no betting up to that point (especially when an irrelevant card hits the board). Psychology 235 Here's an example. Suppose you are in a blind position in a multiway pot and call a raise before the flop with: The flop comes: Since giving a free card does not appear to be dangerous, this is the type of hand that you may want to check twice if no one bets. On the surface this is a debatable play. But as just stated, it can work for you both in this hand and in future hands, since it sets up future steals on fifth street after checking twice. In general, you should evaluate any play you make on its merits alone, that is, on its expectation in a given situation. However, you occasionaly might want to do something that is theoretically incorrect to create an impression for the future. Once you have opponents thinking one way, you can take advantage of that thinking later. Finally, keep in mind that these types of plays will work against players who are good enough to try to take advantage of their new-found knowledge, but who are not good enough to realize that you know this, and that they should therefore ignore it. In hold 'em, as in all poker games, there seems to be a large group of players who like to \"realize things.\" You must know how these people think and whether they are thinking only on the level that you are giving them credit for. If they think on a still higher level, 236 Part Seven: Other Skills you have to step up to that level. (Against really top players who often switch levels you must resort to game theory. See The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky.) Other Skills Afterthought As you have just seen, reading hands and psychology are extremely important aspects of Texas hold 'em. Put another way, this game is too complex to play by rote. If you always play a certain hand in a certain'position a certain way, your game can use a lot of improvement. You"}
{"text":"14.1 Playing Deep Pre-Flop Deep Stacks = More Implied Odds This is the first important consideration for playing deep pre-flop. Hero is very often able to widen up his ranges for both flatting opens and flatting 3-bets. As always, when implied odds are high he should favour flatting hands that have a lot of nut potential (NP) such as pocket pairs, suited connectors and suited aces. We looked at this attribute when we considered starting hands way back in Figure 4. These NP hands, which usually connect too infrequently in a huge way at normal stack depth, can easily become calls where stacks are deeper and the reward is larger. After all, remember that implied odds are just a measure of Hero's investment to see the next street compared with what he stands to gain from Villains' stacks should he connect in the way he desires. Take the following hand as an illustration: This is a spot we'd normally fold fairly quickly 100 BB deep. 86s is not a hand that will flop something powerful very often. To recoup enough money on average to compensate for the 3BB investment it costs to see a flop here is not normally possible. If Hero knew he was unlikely to get squeezed and would indeed see the flop close to 100% of the time that he flatted, then calling would be more reasonable, but with three unknown players left to act behind and without the BU, calling is undesirable."}
{"text":"Diagram 121 Diagram 122"}
{"text":"poker. You must know yourself well enough to know what it feels like when you start playing tired poker. I do not think it is a matter of setting a time limit on the session but being aware of how you are playing as compared to when you started the session. I know when I start a poker session I go in there with great concentration, with the ability to analyze my opponents and make terrific plays. I am patient with which starting cards to use, aware of position and will not hesitant to raise to put someone else on the hot seat for a correct decision. As the night progresses and I accumulate wins or suffer unfortunate beats, my actions change, I become a different poker player. Sometimes I become too passive to protect the money I have made or to lick my wounds. Sometimes I become too reckless trying to get back money I have lost or become overconfident believing I cannot lose. I may become impatient for another big or small win just to see my bank move in a direction. I usually find that these changes can be corrected when I notice them. That is the issue, when you get too tired after playing x (insert your own number) hours in a session, you stop looking at your game. You lose the ability to adjust your game and play optimal poker. You should regularly be looking at the type of table you are sitting at, especially in an online poker room where players can change on a regular basis. Every new player that sits down at a table can possibly change the character of the table. If you are not playing your best poker because you are tired and not alert then you could easily lose a few NLHE hands and destroy any profits that were made in the past hours when you were alert\/playing your best poker. At that point, you better be looking at how you are playing and why it has gone in the trash. But, if you are tired then you probably will not be thinking correctly to adjust to the table\u2019s character. Another issue that a player will encounter when they are tired is after they lose a few big bets. Then they think, well I will adjust, become tighter or whatever is needed. But, you do not possess the same concentration that was present at the beginning of the night and because of this, the adjustments that you make to your game may not be enough. You will not be alert enough to run through all the correct decision making processes when that big hand does come down to the showdown. The other players that may have just arrived in the past hour are fresh and usually can outplay you at that point. Not because they are better poker players that you, but for the simple reason of being fresh. They can probably run through more scenarios about the hand and will outplay you. Do you really want to play poker with"}
{"text":"Fixed strategy A strategy that is unable to change."}
{"text":"should determine how you play your hand. In home games the dealer often antes for everybody. Some players play much more loosely when they are dealing, thinking that the ante is somehow theirs. But to play differently just because you anted, rather than someone else, is absurd. It is the same amount of money out there, no matter from whose stack of chipsit came. On the other hand, when you have the blind in hold 'em, for example, you can and should play a little looser, not because that blind is yours, but because you're getting better pot odds. A single example should make this clear. Let's say you have the $5 blind in hold 'em, and someone behind you raises it to $10. It now costs everyone else $10 to call, but when it comes back around to you, it costs you only $5. If the pot grows to $35, someone calling the $ 10 would be getting 3 1 \/2-to-1, but since it's only $5 to you, you're getting 7-to-l for your money. So you don't need quite so strong a hand to justify a call. You are considering your present pot odds, not the $5 you already have in the pot. Large Antes The size of the ante in a particular game determines how you play. The larger the ante in comparison to later bets, the more hands you should play. Since there's more money in the pot, you're obviously getting better odds, but there are other reasons for playing more loosely. Should you wait to get an extremely good hand in a high ante game, you'll have lost more than the size of the pot in antes by the time you win a pot. Furthermore, the pots you do win will be comparatively small because the other Players, if they are decent players, will notice you are playing very tight and won't give you much action when you do play a hand. In fact, when you do get action, you're very likely to be beat. As the antes go up, your opponents reduce their playing requirements, and unless you want to be eaten up by the antes, 30 Chapter Four you too must reduce your playing requirements. These lower requirements continue to the next round of betting and progress right on to the end of the hand. In a large-ante game you might bet for value marginal hands you would throw away in a small-ante game. The principle holds true especially in head-up situations. In a large-ante seven stud game you might see two good players betting and calling right up to the last card, and then at the end one of them bets a pair of 7s for value and gets called by his opponent with a pair of 5s. As it happens, though, larger antes tend to make multi-way pots more numerous since more players are getting good pot odds to draw to a big hand. With many players in the pot, drawing hands (like four-flushes and open-end straights) go up in value, while mediocre pairs"}
{"text":"counting your implied odds. How can you get 118 bets out of all the other players in order to grant you a full return on your miracle draw? Sorry, but that\u2019s not very likely. Probably, that many bets can\u2019t be found in the stacks of the remaining players. Worse, and here\u2019s the really bad news, you don\u2019t really want any further action on this hand. You\u2019d like it to be over right this second. Let me explain. When you flop the flush, don\u2019t forget that you might not have the best hand in a multi-way pot. After all, if you\u2019re willing to play 87s, maybe the guynext to you will go with JTs or K2s. People do all kinds of crazy things, especially when spellbound by suitedness. So let\u2019s say you\u2019re out of position and flop this flush. Of course, you have to bet. You can\u2019t risk a free card, one that could pair the board or produce another flush card, at which point your 8-high flush will be no good or, at best, your decision about whether to play on or fold will be muchmore difficult. This means that you just flopped your dream hand and now you have no choice: You have to bet. Now, what happens if you bet and someone in this multi-way pot moves in on you? Are you happy? Not me. I\u2019m scared spitless. Everyone can see that the board is suited and everyone includes the guy that just moved in on you against multiple opponents. That should make you super unhappy about your decision with your 8-high flush. And even if no one raises behind you, even if you get multiple callers instead, or even one caller, you can\u2019t be too thrilled. Why? Because, as I just said, everyone in the pot can see that three of a suit are on the board. So what on Earth are they calling with? Hands that can improve to beat what you have now, if they don\u2019t already have you beat and are slow-playing, that\u2019s what. Basically, when you bet that hand, you\u2019re not particularly happy when you get any action at all. So you flopped your dream hand, you have to bet, and you\u2019re kind of rooting for everyone to fold. I don\u2019t know how wecan talk reasonably about implied odds when we\u2019re not really looking for a lot of action on a hand we just hit as hard as we could. But wait, it gets worse. Even if you have the only flush out there, two more cards are still coming, which means you have to fade another flush cardon the turn or the river, which is only about a 2-to-1 underdog. So you flop your flush less than 1% of the time and over a third of those times, you riskgetting outdrawn by someone holding a lone suited card higher than an 8. And what if the board pairs, which also happens about 18% of the time on the turn? And when that doesn\u2019t happen, the board will pair 24% of the time on the"}
{"text":"Nuts Describes the strongest possible hand on a certain board. For example, on K2789, any player holding any combination of JT is holding the \"nuts\"."}
{"text":"Rainbow When none of the community cards are the same suit; no flush draws possible."}
{"text":"Doc' Startled, Doc yelled back, 'Hold your horses,' then, after taking his time, began to deal five-card draw deuces wild. Bones, the farmer, skinned back his cards in his gnarled hands. I imagined I saw a flicker in his eyes. Anyway he made an unusual opening bet. He bet $50 right under the gun. Monty, sitting next, studied Bones for a fleeting moment, then folded. He later told me he held a jack full. The actor tossed his hand in the discards in disgust. But his producer was grinning impishly. 'I raise one hundred,' he said and tossed in the chips. I threw my hand in the discards, as did also Chic and Doc, the dealer. Looks like those two had all the wild cards, I reflected. Bones pretended to study a moment then counted out a big stack of chips, for he had been winning. 'I up you five hundred,' he said, his voice quivering. Bones had a mouthful of tobacco juice and was watching the producer intently. I could see he was afraid to turn his head to spit. He made the motion to do so, but changed his mind and swallowed tobacco cud, juice and all. He choked a bit, and pulled out a red handkerchief and wiped his mouth. Monty, seeing the play, cried the usual 'I'll be a son-of-a-bitch.' Bones choked again. 'Well,' he said to the grinning producer, 'what the hell you going to do?' The producer took out a sheaf of hundred-dollar bills. 'I'm just going to raise you five hundred.' 'Raise you five hundred more,' Bones quivered, 'you city prick.' He turned to Monty. 'Put in one thousand, Monty,' he said. Monty demurred. 'You've never seen me welch on a bet,' Bones pleaded. 'No, I never did,' said Monty thoughtfully. 'But you used to have a farm. Do you have one now?' 'I'll tell you the God's own truth, Monty,' he said. 'I've got the farm stock and implements plastered to Bert Willis for fifteen thousand. Bert offered me twenty thousand. So I have five thousand equity.' Monty shook his head sadly. 'Bones, let me give you some friendly advice. Just call him. I'll lend you money for that.' 'Call, hell!' exclaimed Bones. 'This is a chance of a lifetime. Loan me the thousand. I want to raise the bastard.' 'I can't understand you, Bones. You've lost three-fourths of your farm and now you want to bet the last fourth.' 'Goddammit, yes. I might just as well be broke as to try to pay ten per cent interest on fifteen thousand to that goddamned bloodsucker.' 'Jesus,' said Monty, 'I don't mind risking the thousand b u t - ' 'You ain't risking nothing, goddammit. I've got him beat.' 'All right. But you give me first chance to buy the farm if you do lose.' Monty tossed two five-hundred-dollar bills in the pot and took Bones's IOU. The producer had lost his grin. Even the unlighted cigar had disappeared somehow. He reached for his purse and spread five hundred-dollar bills and pushed them in the"}
{"text":"you get called, you\u2019ll probably lose and get knocked out. Ensuring that you see the free hands will"}
{"text":"spots. Calling Frequency How often should villain call the bet? This is a surprisingly complicated question. Well, we know that if we bet too big then villain will fold everything but their traps. But smaller sizes are harder to calculate. To solve this, we first need to ask what equations like MDF and Alpha are trying to calculate. The defending player\u2019s goal is to make our chops indifferent between bluffing and checking behind . Goal \u2013 Make Hero\u2019s chops indifferent between bluffing and checking. To do this, we set the expected value of each action equal to each other, then solve for the calling frequency. EV (Check Chop) = EV (Bluff Chop) The following explains how to derive defending frequencies on chopped boards: The EV of checking behind with a chop is a function of how many traps villain has. EV (Check Chop) = (1 \u2013 traps%) * pot \/ 2 The EV of bluffing a Chop is more complicated. The expected value is a function of how much equity we have when called and how often villain folds, both of which are dependent on our bet size. Let\u2019s start by writing the formula with words. EV (Bluff Chop) = (Fold% \u00d7 pot) + Call% {(How often we get called by chop \u00d7 0.5 pot) \u2013 (How often we get called by trap \u00d7 bet size)} Defining variables: Call% = c Fold% = 1 \u2013 c Traps% in villain\u2019s range = t Bet \/ Pot = s Traps% in calling range = t\/c Non-traps% in calling range = 1-t\/c Plug in variables and reduce: EV (Bluff Chop) = (1 \u2013 c) + c ( (1 \u2013 t\/c) \/ 2 \u2013 st\/c) Set EV (Check Chop) equal to EV (Bluff Chop) and solve for c: (1-t)\/2 = 1-c + c((1-t\/c)\/2 \u2013 st\/c) c = 1 \u2013 2st Villain will never fold a trap no matter how large we bet, so the actual MDF formula becomes: Call% = Max (t, 1 \u2013 2st) Unlike the curved MDF line we see in a \u201ctypical\u201d polarized vs bluff-catcher toy game, on chopped boards, MDF is a linear line that slopes downwards relative to the number of traps in range. If you bet large enough, they don\u2019t need to defend anything but traps, causing their defense frequency to flatten out and remain constant. EV Curves by Bet Size These expected value graphs show hero\u2019s total expected value, as a percentage of the pot, according to their bet size. For simplicity, we\u2019re assuming villain can only call or fold. In a typical polarized vs. bluff-catcher toy game, the highest EV bet size is a function of how many traps villain has . We\u2019ve covered this in the How to solve toy games article . In a scenario with no traps, hero\u2019s optimal river strategy is to shove (or bet geometrically on earlier streets, in order to shove on the river). If villain has traps, hero should bet smaller in order to avoid making the defending range too strong. The following charts assume hero starts with 50% value hands"}
{"text":"it's very close to 50 50. okay and these really are the common boards you'll find that there are some differences in various boards um you'll also find that as your opponent's reign chain range changes different boards will connect in different ways as a very quick example of that let's say instead of the big blind calling your raise let's say the player on the button calls your raise because now the player on the button is not going to have quite as much junk in their range right let's presume the player on the button maybe has just you know very very rough example let's say the player on the button is going to call with something like this let's just presume now let's change this board to let's say jack of clubs nine of hearts eight of hearts you see now that board is actually quite good for the player on the button and that makes logical sense because if you look at the way this boar or this range lines up with that board it makes sense right i mean on jack nine eight there's a lot of a lot of jacks in this range right a lot of jacks there's a lot of nines and there's some aids so makes sense and you want to go through and use a program like equilab to run and compare ranges against other ranges on various boards it's going to take some time it's going to take a little bit of effort but you do have to study a little bit to get good at poker that said this is the very basics and you know this is all you know you're going to be probably way better off than the majority of your opponents the next idea is nut advantage you want to determine who proportionally has more nut hands in their range and again a nut hand means the absolute best possible hands and when i say the nut hand i don't mean the one specific nut hand i mean effective nut hands like for example say the board is jack jack three any jack is the effective nuts all right so let's say in this scenario under the gun raises and the big blind calls take a second and think about who has more premium hands on ace king jack well let's take a look at the ranges here on ace king jack well all of these hands in this quadrant are really good right and also all these aces are pretty good actually all these kings and all these like queen 10 is really good right so you see the under the gun player almost every hand in their range is really strong besides pocket tens knives eight seven sixes and maybe like ten nine suited and even then ten nine suited may have a flush draw and it does have a straight draw right if it gets acquainted as a nut straight so in this scenario on ace king jack this heavily favors the under"}
{"text":"into the real meat of the manual and get acquainted with the first technical topic, there are three short but necessary sections to read in this chapter."}
{"text":"Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach\u2026 Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon\u2026 Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to\u2026 Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked Playing out of position is tricky, but it\u2019s an essential part of tournament play. With\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the BB in MTTs Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB\u2019s equilibrium strategy\u2026 The Absurd Game Theory of Chopped Boards A \u201cchopped board\u201d in poker is one where the community cards make up the best\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs MTT confrontations between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations,\u2026 The Art of Learning Poker In his book The Art of Learning, chess and Push Hands champion Josh Waitzkin describes\u2026 Is Donk Betting for Donkeys? \u201cDonk betting\u201d, or betting from out of position into the player who was the aggressor\u2026 Delayed C-Betting This is a companion piece to Probe Betting. It stands on its own, but understanding\u2026 Probe Betting As far as rules of thumb go in poker, \u201ccheck to the raiser\u201d is a\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Big Blind This is a companion piece to this article on the SB\u2019s strategy for blind vs\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Small Blind ICM incentivizes more conservative play, which means that at stages of the tournament where risk\u2026 The Initial Bettor\u2019s Advantage The mathematics of poker holds a little-known secret: the first bettor enjoys better bluffing odds\u2026 Mastering the Chiplead: The Scalpel and the Sledgehammer When you have a lot of chips at a final table or in another situation\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in Cash Games Our never-ending quest for money and fame leads us to the flop. We open the\u2026 How ICM Impacts Restealing From The Blinds When I first started working with preflop solves, one of the features I found most\u2026 The ICM Benefits of Late Registration in Poker Tournaments Why do so many professional poker players register late for tournaments when they clearly would\u2026 Flop Heuristics: OOP C-Betting in MTTs Playing against an in-position cold-caller is dramatically different\u2013and dramatically more difficult\u2013than playing against a caller\u2026 Counterintuitive Calls Solver outputs such as those provided by GTO Wizard are models of no-limit hold \u2018em,\u2026 How To Negotiate Final Table Deals Most people\u2019s first introduction to the Independent Chip Model (ICM) is not from studying bubble\u2026 How does ICM impact PKO strategy? If you have read The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments you already know why we\u2026 Understanding Blockers in Poker Often when looking through a solver\u2019s meticulously crafted grid of deception, one of the following\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP Cold-Caller in MTTs A Cold-call refers to the act of calling a preflop raise when you don\u2019t close\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in MTTs In the world of poker,"}
{"text":"on the turn. A specific example of a semi-bluff situation is when you hold against not too many opponents, and the flop comes 54 Part Two: Strategic Concepts In this case, an eight will give you the absolute nuts, and a nine or a ten will give you an overpair (to the flop), which also may be good enough to win. You might not want to semi-bluff when you are in last position. That is because you may be check-raised, and instead of seeing the next card for free, it will cost you two bets. Thus, the factor that determines whether to bet in this situation is often how frequently you think you will be check-raised. This is partially dependent on the opponents you are up against. Keep in mind that some players constantly will go for a check-raise, while other players seldom will make this play. (More discussion on this concept appears later in the text.) On the other hand, your bet in this spot may buy you a free card on a succeeding round, which is another reason to semi-bluff. As usual, experience and knowledge of how your opponents play will help you make the right decisions in these situations. Here is another example of a correct semi-bluff. You hold and the flop is Notice that you have middle pair with the very best kicker, plus \"back-door\" flush potential. (Backdoor flush potential means that you will make a flush if both the fourth- and fifth-street cards are of your suit.) The correct play is to bet if you think you have any Semi-Bluffing 55 chance of winning the pot immediately. If you get called, you still can win if an ace or a trey comes on the turn. Against poor players who call too much, semi-bluffing may not be correct in this situation (although a bet might still be worth it, since you may have the best hand and will often be called with worse hands). Following are some other examples of correct semi-bluffs. First, let's look at a four-flush or open-end straight draw - especially with a pair - with one card to come. Suppose you hold and the board is Notice that you have a pair plus a flush draw. This means that there are 14 cards left in the deck (out of the remaining 46 unseen cards) that will give you a strong hand. (If you had an open-end straight draw and a pair, there would be 13 cards left in the deck that would give you a strong hand.) This is usually enough potential, along with the possibility that all of your opponents may fold, to make a bet the correct move. If you do not have a pair - that is, you have only a straight draw (eight outs) or a flush draw (nine outs) -your hand is not as good. However, this does not mean that it is correct to check (and then call if there is a bet), but rather that you should bet only if you think there is a decent chance"}
{"text":"ranges, or to make the exact calculations while playing. However, understanding equity is the key for poker success. You simply must spend some time working with an equity calculator in order to get familiar with some of the most common situations that you will face on a regular basis. Knowing your own range composition is key, as each hand in your range must be played in the most profitable way possible in the context of that range. Expected Value (EV) EV is what you expect to win or lose on average in the long run in a given situation. Mathematically, EV is the sum of the probability of each possible outcome multiplied by its payoff. Where: %W = How often you win; in other words, your equity in the pot $W = How much money you can win %L = How often you lose; in other words, 100% \u2013 your equity $R = How much money you have to risk by taking the action \u2666 If the result of this equation is a positive number, the play has a positive expectation (+EV) and will win money in the long run. \u2666 If the result of this equation is a negative number, the play has a negative expectation (- EV) and will lose money in the long run. \u2666 If the result of this equation is zero, the play has a neutral expectation (0EV) and will break even in the long run. By definition, the EV of folding is always zero. Once money has been put into the pot it no longer belongs to you. The EV calculation starts from the point you decide your next action. Therefore, as folding does not put any more money at risk, the EV of folding is 0."}
{"text":"riverbat is not like printing a ton of money whereas if we just check call flop we can induce a lot of Bluffs from his range uh on the turn or river uh and or river and then the additional benefits of calling with Queen deuce on the Flop is uh if turn goes check check you can just go pot or over bet um with your trips the solver likes to go we can we can look at that line in them in a second you know our hand is not that vulnerable um on the Flop so you know it's it's fine to play as a check call you're protecting yourself I mean the the value of raising versus calling uh is quite similar let's just look at let's look at what happens when we call flop and turn goes check check so let's say he doesn't decide to uh bet that turn he doesn't Bluff likely has a showdown value like ace high or pocket eights pocket sevens maybe a week nine three of spades on the river the solver is going to say we should like bet sixty percent pot with Queen X and 9x and protect our range because we're betting you know we're protected against raises because we're using the same size with our weaker hands and our stronger hands but in you know in practice let's see here Queen X goes mostly 33 or 66 pot and then our 9x goes the same sizes and we can't be exploited if he decides to raise you know in practice I think that when hijacked checks back on this turn his range is much more capped than it should be um and we're dealing more with more ace high low pair type of a range rather than you know some tricky check backs with Queen X and 9x and and over pairs so I think versus that range like we can just go you know bet like 15 here um so point being is even just because we checked called flop doesn't mean we're not getting a lot of money in uh when we're still the worst case scenario if he checks turn and we can just over bet River and get called by a lot worse like half the time um so you know in game my understanding of just like quickly counting like how many combos of Queen XC has on this flop and realizing that like my queen two is not the nuts for 50 big blinds I think was pretty important some more examples so for three betting ranges uh blockers play a huge role that's why we see you know when the button opens we're in the small blind this is our strategy you notice how much junk uh Ace X off suit we're using to three bet here uh and that's primarily because we have that Ace blocker uh and then the you know you see the King five King six King seven suited being three bet here at a very"}
{"text":"30 where I was like whoa these guys can play right then you have to start shifting to more the Geto stuff and you got to start watching your frequencies a little bit but yeah it depends on the part of the world a lot somebody asks is cardrona cv a good program it's a great program I wrote an entire book using card runners eBay the meth and powder talent alex any chance you can do a webinar on playing draws in and out of position at different stacked ups after getting most of yours and Jonathan littles webinars this is the one that I'm not too sure about that it definitely has some merits there's a yeah there'll be a fun one no it's a good idea Chris I'll think about that it does come up in a lot of my lectures the hardest part with poker is it's just so expansive right it's it is so very much I'll hold on a second guys hold on one second guys I have a little have a little issue let's see one second everybody I'm still here well the master the flop package one second everybody so sorry I just had a little thing come up okay can't wait to get home and dig into how to think like a poker player somebody said they're playing $10 in lower on ACR this stuff will definitely work there is the hip is a GM - worth it oh yeah definitely Benjamin stator says I'm the beginner plus what is the best course for me this is the how to think like a poker player Benjamin will rock at you off to everything else chances so I can navigate the big 50 just a it just as I just as I would in a $100 tourney definitely Richard says thank you Alex always a great webinar thank you for saying where to start in how to advance through the profit products is it reasonable to learn this stuff part-time after work in seven weeks absolutely so if you think about it if you study like seven weeks yeah so if you do thirty minutes a day it's about fifteen hours so you'll get it in about thirty days yeah definitely Arlene says I can't wait to try what you've taught here thank you very much you could be doing something else - thank you very much oh no it's it's okay McGill Chavez says you know in South America what is the threshold I think you're okay pretty much everywhere but Brazil it's honestly though it's been a while since I played in South America said oh you're gonna have to you're gonna have to use your judgement a lot of them do learn from the American players though any tips for a new poker player trying to improve their game play mostly microstates and have a winning record but Santa can't seem to move up and medium stakes um this I honestly I'm really gonna keep bringing up how to think like"}
{"text":"focus on one thing i'm struggling with or one thing i don't love about my game so sometimes it'll be just small blind play and i'll i'll try to find uh if my buddies have a solver that could help me or if they have some text that i should look at i'll look at that if there's a book that wrote extensively on the subject i'll look at that but then eventually a lot of the times what i'll do is i'll just look at every hand i played in that specific area and i'll quiz myself on should i have done that should i've done this i make quizzes for myself i try to find ways to get more quizzes and that really helps you get better a lot quicker because if you think about pocket jacks you're going to be dealt pocket jacks if you're lucky a couple of times in a session and they both could be really obvious spots it could be just opening on the button with jax and then c betting which is not going to teach you anything today i'm going to teach you the way i t i i learn which is i'm just going to keep throwing jacks at you and i guarantee you by the end of this you'll feel much better now here you have jacks facing on under the gun plus one raise and you're on the cutoff here would you like to fold call or raise now these hands i went ahead and took out the statistics just so you could see them pretty easily and i'll give you i'll give you the approximate live situation or if you're playing online on a site that does not allow huds i'll give you the approximate situation and i'll give you the statistic situation and through those equivalents you'll be able to see there's going to be a similar answer for all of them if it's the same situation now let's say time to reap has been very solid so far so if you were playing live this is someone who looks very comfortable typically doesn't play most of the hands when they do raise uh they tend to come in raising online it's going to be the same thing just you can't see their face and online if you were allowed to use statistics this would be someone who is playing 15 percent of the hands and raising 13 of the time here would you like to fold call arrays i'm going to give you about five more seconds okay time is up in this situation we're going to call and the board comes six of spades five of clubs eight of hearts both of these players check to you here would you like to check or bet i am going to give you about 10 seconds and i apologize there's one more player who called behind you so please be aware of that five more seconds time is up if you did say that how much did you"}
{"text":"Hero's hand is not an implied odds hand; doesn't it rarely flop anything better than one pair? This is true. Hero makes better than one pair pretty rarely and it would of course be much better to have 66 than KQo for mining purposes. However, this spot is still a call and here's why: Implied odds are determined by more than just how often the hand flops the nuts. They also depend on the price to call and see the next street. This is very much in Hero's favour. Villain is passive and so when Hero does flop one pair he will have an easy time folding in the face of Villain's aggression. Sometimes flopping one pair will be enough to get to showdown with and win and when Hero does flop the best hand with one pair, he can expect Villain to allow him this privilege. The three-way pot boosts implied odds further those times Hero sees a flop of flops KQx or better. This is a reluctant call where Hero expects to be folding the flop most of the time but doing just about well enough given the very favourable price and stack to pot ratio in position. Hero calls 3.5BB. It should be noted that if stacks were smaller and say Villain had just 40BB, this would be a pretty easy fold due to the steep decrease in implied odds. One population read that will hold true in almost any player pool is that people 3-bet much tighter against UTG opens than they do in later position wars. This means that while AKo is an absolutely"}
{"text":"number of draws Andover cards come out there Bob Mitchell says I really struggled with aggression on flops where I have a flush and a straight draw especially open ended or I know I'm a favorite even to a set but it seems like it rarely works out regardless of the line I take thoughts Bob I think you've just been stung lately which happens to everybody let's see you know guys you'll have entire years where things don't go well in poker because the truth is it's really hard to play enough ham one of the reasons I love online poker is I can play the 30 hands is about what you play in an hour in live poker I can play that in I can play five thousand ten thousand eight right so that lets say five thousand hands right let's say you play five thousand hands in a day let's just start four thousand hands okay in case I'm over shooting my case there just a bit you can play four thousand five thousand hands in an entire WSOP if you play every single about right so a lot of times people are like I'm just running bad I'm like well you played that situation four times it's like there's a pretty good likelihood you'd mess four times in a row right if you get on the internet and you grind your ass off you're gonna see yourself get through those swings if you're playing live though you just got to kind of keep your wits about you how do you keep your wits about you well you have a life away from the game a lot of guys forget to do that they have their day job they own their family but all they're thinking about is the game all the time one of the ways I think I've stayed around at the game went pro in 2006 it is 2019 now I'm doing Jeff's is fine is back then I have a real life outside of poker and that that's not because I don't love poker it's just you need a break it's perfect work right but if you've been thinking about that situation Bob if that happened and I mean this isn't your fault but let's say you busted out of three tournaments in a row with that that it would be very normal for you to be thinking about only that for a long time right but the problem is now you didn't play those hands four times you play them four thousand times your head and now you're convinced they never come it's not true buddy there's a book called Thinking Fast and Slow really recommend you check out your money in your brain extremely good to check out fooled by randomness anti fragile skin in the game all books by Anna seem Nicolas to lab I'll have all having to do with randomness and how the human mind deals with it yeah the answer is not well Keith said ask advice for combating"}
{"text":"the \ufb01rst principle is that you should bet as A much as you can on the turn while still maintaining a \u201ccredible\u201d river blu\ufb00. Generally speaking, your opponent\u2019s chance of folding on the river will look like a logistic curve (also known as an S-curve). For all bet sizes that are only a small fraction of the size of the pot, your opponents will fold roughly the same number of hands: perhaps only busted"}
{"text":"on the river. This line of play is great for extracting lots of value froman aggressive player you read for this range. If, on the other hand, you\u2019re sure your hand is better and believe your opponent will raise on the river, lead out; it\u2019s more profitable than the checkraise. If you check to check-raise, your opponent might fold to the raise, but will certainly only call at most. If you bet and get raised, then that raisemoney is locked up and you are freerolling on whether your opponent will call the big re-raise you\u2019re planning. And you don\u2019t put him to a big decision that might trigger a good fold until you\u2019ve already gotten that raise money in the pot. Either way you go, checking to check-raise or leading out to induce a raise, you take a risk. If you lead, a range of hands won\u2019t call you here, but would have bet if you checked. That will tend to be the weaker end of things, so you\u2019d have to misread your opponent for that to be the case. On theother hand, if you check, you run into that old poker aphorism, \u201cBet your own hand.\u201d Here\u2019s a situation where you might get a check back from asavvy opponent who reads you correctly for strength, especially if he\u2019s weaker than you thought. But that same opponent would call if you bet. So thecheck costs you. How do you decide between the two lines of play, then, if they both have their pluses and minuses? Well, if you\u2019re pretty certain that the guy you\u2019re facing will bet almost all the time, check. You\u2019ll lock up his bet and be freerolling for whatever else he might be willing to call. If you think there\u2019s a good chance your opponent will raise you, both with a hand he thinks is strong and with many bluffs (which you\u2019ll know if you\u2019ve seen him bluff-raisethe river previously), and you know he\u2019ll pay you off regardless if he\u2019s strong, the lead-out will be more profitable. If you lead out, you never get thedreaded check, check that makes the other guy look like a genius and who needs that? At least get paid off on your lead-out bet. When you lead, you want to bet an amount that doesn\u2019t announce the strength of your hand, yet at the same time might look like a cheap bluff. If you bet big, you won\u2019t get raised by any smart opponent who reads that bet for strong or weak and nothing in between. So bet something that lookseither defensive or bluffy, in the 40%-50%-of-the-pot range, like a blocking bet. It\u2019s big enough not to look like you\u2019re begging him to call, but small enough for him to read as vulnerable to a raise. If you bet something around half-pot or slightly less, you\u2019ll get a call for sure from a strong hand(which locks up your profit) and you might get raised from someone who figures, why the hell not? Note that you can stand\u2014would welcome, in fact \u2014a raise here; as"}
{"text":"Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in Cash Games Our never-ending quest for money and fame leads us to the flop. We open the button, the big blind calls and the dealer throws out three community cards. After a twenty second tank Tank The act of taking a long time to make a decision. on KT3 r, action is kindly checked over to us. Now what? This article will look at various IP C-Betting strategies against a BB caller. We\u2019ll learn which factors affect our frequency and bet sizing, and examine a few flops along the way. Understanding Ranges Having a solid understanding of how preflop ranges connect with different boards is crucial in building effective postflop strategies. So, what should our first steps be when analyzing how our, and our opponent\u2019s range, connect with a flop? Quoting directly from Andrew Brokos\u2019 article Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in MTTs\u2019 , He states that when acting as the preflop raiser, rather than focusing on the question \u201cWhich of us is more likely to hit this flop, me or my opponent?\u201d we should instead ask ourselves \u201c How does this flop improve my opponent? \u201d This small yet important distinction fosters the right mindset as the preflop aggressor. Not only has our opponent declined to 3-bet preflop, leading to them missing many of the strong hands at the top of their range, but their range is wide as well because of the blinds. The combination of these two factors means that we will have an advantage over our opponent on nearly every board, even scary ones! The tighter the position you open from, the larger your advantage over the blinds will be. Understanding Textures Poker is home to a wide variety of flops, 1755 strategically distinct ones to be exact! Even for experienced players, this number is overwhelming. GTO Wizard\u2019s aggregate reports make this more manageable by allowing us to categorize flops and look for common patterns. Grouping Flops Let\u2019s use GTO Wizard\u2019s flop grouping tool! For this analysis, we\u2019ll use the most common postflop formation, BTN vs. BB . The following chart shows the BTN C-Betting frequency on different boards grouped by high card. Note that this is a Simple solution, meaning that BB is not allowed to donk Donk A short form for the word donkey, used pejoratively to describe a weak or bad player. . Watch out! Something that quickly pops out is that 2 high flops are bet the most. Do not be fooled! This is not because the 2 is necessarily good for us, but instead, because the only possible 2 high flop is 222 , which is good for us. It\u2019s similarly impossible to have a 3 high flop without the board being paired at least once. Ace-high flops are most likely to occur , followed by King-high flops and so on. Why are high cards bet more? As the preflop raiser, we are more likely to open hands that contain high cards like an Ace , King , or Queen . Conversely, we play fewer hands with low cards,"}
{"text":"range. Hero has no interest in bloating the pot, and merely wants to flop a set or play favourable board textures in position vs a weaker player. Flop: Villain c-bets on the small side. This doesn't narrow his pre-flop range much, which on this flop is overpairs, some missed overcards and some flush draws with maybe the odd 77 or 88 depending on whether Villain opens these hands from UTG. Hero calls with SDV against this range, his hand not being strong enough to raise for value and turning his hand into a bluff being a horrible option vs. a player who simply won't fold better hands. Turn: Villain's check doesn't necessarily narrow his range too much. Passive Fish will be irrationally terrified of a flush here and will automatically check overpairs as well as air on this card very often. Hero bets for value against some flush draws and possibly medium pairs and protects his equity vs the overcards Villain is check\/folding now. Villain's call indicates that he is unlikely to have naked overcards with no flush draw. Overpairs, underpairs and overcards with a good club are certainly in his range. It's also not out of the question for Villain to be going into slowplay mode with the nuts (AcKc for example) as passive Fish like to do. River: Hero makes a 9-high flush and Villain suddenly wakes up and blasts a near pot-sized bet. Hero thinks. Hero knows that he needs very close to 33% equity to call here since Villain has almost potted it. He goes through his questions: Q1. Can Villain be value betting worse? Almost certainly not: it is very unlikely that Villain can have lower clubs to begin with given his UTG opening range and even if he does have 7c7x or 8c8x the chances of him blasting away with these marginal hands being such a passive player are very low. Q2. Can Villain have air? Here we get to answer no and reach an easy decision. If Hero has a bluff catcher and Villain is very unlikely to be bluffing, then Hero needs to fold, but why is Villain so unlikely to be bluffing? Recall that Villain called the turn bet with two main types of hands, those which are overpairs and have SDV , with or without a club and those which were naked club draws with AcKx and the like. The latter bunch are now the nuts and Hero loses to them. The former, when they don't have a flush, are very unlikely to just turn themselves into bluffs given their SDV and how passive Villain is in general. Hero has close to 0% equity vs Villain's range and his decision is now clear. Hero folds"}
{"text":"Hand Range 298: BN 40bb (2.3x vs SB 3.3x 3-bet) \u2022 All-in 10.4% \/ \u2022 Call 52.1% \/ \u2022 Fold 37.5%"}
{"text":"of players have called from early or middle position? You should often throw it away. 25. When is this particularly true? If one of the limpers plays well. 26. What if you are against bad players who will come with many hands? They are definitely playable. 27. If you are dead last and there are already callers, what hands can you call with? Those in Groups 1-7. 28. What if you have a small pair and are against four or more callers? The correct play is to sometimes raise. 250 Part Eight: Questions and Answers 29. What does this raise do for you? It makes the pot larger so that if you hit your hand your opponents may be more inclined to call with just overcards. In addition, they may check to you, giving you a free card. 30. With what other hands is this type of play sometimes correct? Small suited connectors. 31. If you are on the button and there are many players, what additional hands can you call with if there was no raise? Those in Group 8 or worse, for example, Q+W. 32. Would you ever make this button call with a hand like 946+? No, it is too weak. 33. If no one has called, what can you raise the blind with from last position? Hands in Groups 1-8. 34. What about a hand like A+64? You still should raise the blinds if they are either very tight or very weak. The First Two Cards: Live Blinds The following questions assume that you are in one of the blind positions. 1. If no one else has raised, what hands should you raise with from the big blind? Only with extremely good hands. 2. Should you raise with very good hands against one or two aggressive opponents who have just called? No. Your best play usually is to call. 3. Why is this your best play? Because you can try for a check-raise later. 4. Do you have to hit your hand for the check-raise to be correct? No, you just need to be fairly sure that the flop did not help anyone. 5. If you hold AK in the big blind and are called by only one or two players in late position, what should you do? Raise. 6. When is another time that it is sometimes correct to raise in the big blind? When several people have called and you hold a hand like JTs, A%, or a small pair. 7. If there is a raise to your right, which hands can you call with in the big blind? Only with your better hands. 252 Part Eight: Questions and Answers 8. What is the problem with calling in this spot? Someone on your left may reraise. 9. But what if many players are in the pot? You should play more hands, especially hands that have the potential to make big hands. 10. Should you call a raise out of the big blind with a hand like 544V? No. 1 I. Would it be okay if this"}
{"text":"If the bet works more than 43% of the time it will show an immediate profit, and in this case the BB is folding 49.17%. You always fold 72o vs a 3-bet, and let\u2019s also assume you always lose the pot when the BB calls, which is not true because when called you will still have some equity vs the calling range (but it is worth looking at the worst-case scenario because, if you can profit then, you will always profit)."}
{"text":"have a positive expectation, and playing aggressively when you do contest pots in order to give yourself the best chance of winning pots. Learning to leverage your short stack to catch your opponents off guard and put them in tough situations is the key to playing a short stack well. Getting short-stacked is never the goal, but it will happen at some point in most tournaments you play, so you must learn to make the most of your limited options . GTO Wizard the #1 App for Poker players Study any spot imaginable Practice by playing vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Andrew Brokos Andrew Brokos has been a professional poker player, coach, and author for over 15 years. He co-hosts the Thinking Poker Podcast and is the author of the Play Optimal Poker books, among others. Latest article Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026 The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As"}
{"text":"to face a big bet. This is a big mistake. The turned Ace is extremely damaging to our equity, meaning we must play defense. Making a small blocker bet here doesn\u2019t make sense because we\u2019re bogged down by an equity disadvantage (BTN has 57% equity). BTN also has top pair 30% of the time here, so why are we continuing to put money in when the situation is so poor for us? One thing that is true, however, is that BB has the nuts advantage with more two pair and set combinations than BTN. This gives us something to work with, even if our overall equity is at a disadvantage. BB vs BTN on T72 A r BB has 2% of sets and 5% of two pairs. Despite having fewer combos in most of the one pair departments and an overall equity disadvantage, BB can still make this situation work for them. The way to do this is by using an overbet strategy . By polarizing their range between two pairs or better and air, BB maximizes their EV. They get more value from their nutted hands, and they force BTN into an uncomfortable bluff catching situation even with a hand that we would ordinarily consider strong, like top pair third kicker ( AJ s). BB\u2019s probe betting strategy on T72 A r The actual size recommended by the solver is 13.7bb into a 5.5bb pot\u2014that\u2019s a 250% pot bet! While we don\u2019t necessarily have to use this size in a real-life game, it\u2019s good to know that a bigger bet is much better than a small bet here. BB\u2019s 250% pot probe betting range Hovering over the 250% bet option, we can see the range composition of this bet size. As expected, we have the \u2018nuts\u2019 (two pair or better) or \u2018air\u2018; we sometimes use 2-x like Q2 and K2 as a bluff. Otherwise, our bluffs are mostly sourced from straight draws like 53 , 43 , QJ , 86 . This bet is designed to make our opponent\u2019s bluff catchers, such as AJ and A8, indifferent between folding and calling . It gets folds from everything else; KT and JT won\u2019t even consider defending. In theory, our opponent also needs to defend hands like 54 s and K2 s sometimes to a 2.5x pot-sized bet! If our opponent is a calling station and always calls our big turn bets with Ace-x, we can just bluff less. I would guess that most human opponents would over-fold here to this intimidatingly big bet. Thus, it might be reasonable to bluff a bit more than equilibrium. For example, GTO only bluffs about 25% of our J8 , but we could start bluffing half of our combos. Just be aware that you\u2019re deviating from the theoretical baseline and make sure you\u2019re deliberate about it by having the reason why you\u2019re deviating front of mind. Probing a 4: An Assortment Of Sizes The turned 4 is a brick for BTN that BB should feel happy about. Equities are fairly close, with BB holding 49% of"}
{"text":"texture at all. In fact, equity can be an absolute factor in that if Hero has enough of it, then betting can automatically become correct under almost any circumstances. Having equity in the form of a straight or flush draw, or sometimes even just two overcards to the flop or a gutshot can help immensely in the following two ways: As Hero's equity increases, his required fold equity to make a light c-bet decreases. This is because even when Villain continues to the c-bet, Hero will win some percentage of the time by improving his hand. Hero has at least some implied odds where he has equity in the hand. It is not just the current pot he stands to win after improving, but also future bets. This added incentive makes required fold equity even lower in c-bet situations. Important: Equity in c-bet spots should always be assessed against Villain's calling range, not the full range that Villain sees the flop with. Hero's equity in the hand only matters if Villain continues to the c-bet. Hero has no need to hit any of his outs if he's already won the pot! Humans, unlike computers, aren't suited to calculating their exact equity in every hand. In-game then, we should assess equity by familiarising ourselves with how many outs our hand has vs the bulk of Villain's calling range to the c-bet and then the rough percentage of equity those outs translate to. First thing first though, what is the normally the bulk of Villain's calling range when he calls the flop? What are we assessing our outs against? Let's look at the following example for clarification:"}
{"text":"Hand Range 139: UTG 60bb \u2022 Raise 2x 15.2% \/ \u2022 Fold 84.2% 08 MTT EQUILIBRIUM"}
{"text":"account for the risk of that river shove when responding to bets on earlier streets. With shallow stacks, that means betting tiny\u2013often 25% pot or less\u2013on the flop so they have room for small bets on the turn and river as well. With deeper stacks, it requires slightly larger flop bets\u201350% starts to become more common\u2013to get all the money in with similarly sized turn and river bets. Blank Flops The three-better arrives at the flop with a significantly stronger range than the original raiser, so flops that miss both players effectively cement that preflop equity advantage . We will take, for our example, a 552 r flop. BTN will leverage their big pair advantage to bet a polar range on the turn and river and so benefits from growing the pot to set up a river shove. Even with 100bb starting stacks , a BTN three-better doesn\u2019t have to worry about running into many trips or better from an UTG opener and so can bet with abandon: Notice the heavy use of the 50% and 75% sizes. On most runouts, BTN will leverage their big pair advantage to bet a polar range on the turn and river and so benefits from growing the pot to set up a river shove with these effectively nutty hands. A CO opener will have more 5x and 22 in their calling range, so a BTN three-better proceeds with more caution against them : Against CO, BTN checks more often and moves away from the 75% and 50% bets toward the 25% pot option. This remains a very favorable scenario for them, however. The equities are split roughly 50\/50, but BTN realizes 10.78bb in EV to CO\u2019s 7.72bb. This is leverage and a polarized range in action: With 40bb stacks , the presence of trips or better in CO\u2019s range is no longer a concern. That doesn\u2019t mean they aren\u2019t there, just that BTN can more comfortably treat their pocket pairs as the nuts at this lower stack depth . They continuation bet their entire range, just as in the 100bb BTN v UTG scenario, but now prefer a smaller size because of the shallower stacks: The hands that bet 50% pot (the larger size, in this scenario) are not BTN\u2019s strongest. In other words, this is not a nuts-or-air bet , as larger bet sizes sometimes are. With such shallow stacks, relatively invulnerable nut hands like KK and AA want to bet smaller to induce additional action, as they will be strong enough to continue betting for value on later streets and can get stacks in easily by the river despite the small flop bet. The hands betting 50% pot are strong but vulnerable hands: JJ , TT , even A2 s, and AKo fall in this category. These hands benefit from denying equity but still expect to be ahead when the flop is called. However, on many turns, they will not be able to continue value betting, so they prioritize putting in more money on the flop . Ace-High Flops Ranges in three-bet pots"}
{"text":"Effective Stack: $200 Players: 9 Blinds: $1\/$2 (no ante) Pre-flop: UTG raises to $10. We have observed this player for a while and our perception is that he is very tight, opting to only play premium starting hands. We have also noticed that he raises his stronger hands and calls with medium-strength hands. Once a player decides to put money into the pot, they\u2019ve revealed some amount of information about their range. We can use that information to assign the Villain a starting range of hands. Start by asking which hands are consistent with Villain\u2019s actions, and then add those to the range one by one. AA: It is definitely possible for Villain to hold AA at this point, and he would most definitely want to raise with it (unless he was known to slow play). KK-99: All pocket pairs between KK and 99 are also likely to be in the Villain\u2019s raising range. ATs+: AKs, AQs, AJs, and ATs are also likely to be in Villain\u2019s raising range. AJo+, KQs: These are also hands that almost everyone raises from all positions. In total, these hands make up 7% of all possible hands (Hand Range 2). Now consider the next tier of hands the Villain may play from this position, as well as his possible actions with them. ATo, A9s-A2s, KQo, KJo, 88-66, KJs, KTs, QJs, QTs, JTs, T9s, 98s (Hand Range 3), are all medium strength hands that this particular Villain may not consider good enough to raise but may be good enough to see a cheap flop. From past experience, you might know this opponent likes to limp these hands. This strategy of raising with the premium hands and limping with medium-strength hands is not recommended because it is easy to exploit by simply raising when the Villain limps (because you know their hand can\u2019t be too strong) and by folding your medium-strength and weak hands when Villain raises (because you know they have a premium hand). Many Villains may not even be aware of what their range is in a particular situation but, by paying attention, you can notice their tendencies and adjust to take advantage of them. By splitting his range in this way, Villain also makes his opponent\u2019s post-flop hand reading a lot easier. For example, if Villain never raises hands such as T9s or medium pocket pairs then, after they raise, their opponents will know on a flop like 8\u26637\u26606\u2666 that they can\u2019t have straights, sets or two pairs, and that their range will consist only of overpairs and overcards."}
{"text":"Run it twice In cash games, when players are all-in before the river, the option to deal each of the remaining cards twice, and thus divide up the pot based on who wins on each runout. Running it twice is done to reduce variance. Running it twice may not be offered by all casinos or online poker rooms. This does not improve the expected value for either player."}
{"text":"(half the chips in play) their probability of winning is 69%. This is because the value function isn\u2019t a straight line but instead has a concave shape. So, the more chips Hero has, the less steep the line becomes, and the lower the marginal value of each new chip added to the stack (Diagrams 18 and 19). Diagram 18: Fair Game (p=0.5)"}
{"text":"So now we know that we have this extra street of leeway - a one street ticket not to build unless we have to. We can now assess Q3. is slowplaying better? The answer here is certainly yes. By checking, Hero allows this active looking Villain to do one of two very beneficial things: Bet the turn with some or all of his air that he'd fold if Hero had bet himself. Sometimes catch a pair on the turn with a hand that he will then stack off with, but that he would have folded to a flop bet. Moreover, there are few turn cards that will cause this player not to stack off with a hand that he would have called the flop bet with. Even if he holds something like 99, it's quite unlikely that a J turn will deter him too much when he already has so much invested relative to the effective stack. If Villain checks again on the turn then Hero's slowplay ends there - slowplay space has run out. It's vital that Hero then bets to ensure he can shove the river if Villain calls. Hero checks. Slowplay 3 - Crushing the Deck This situation is somewhat of an exception to Q2 on our flowchart. There are some rare times when Hero technically does need to build the pot, but where he should still check. The following hand is an example of such a time."}
{"text":"a portion\u2026 How To Analyze Turn Textures In Poker Master the art of turn analysis in poker. Understand how the turn card changes the\u2026 Principles of Turn Strategy Learn the principles of turn strategy in poker and discover what makes the turn unique.\u2026 Poker Strategies: Tournaments vs. Cash Games Tournament poker is not as different from cash game poker as people sometimes assume. Most\u2026 How Solvers Work A Game Theory Optimal solver is an algorithm that calculates the best possible poker strategy.\u2026 The Most Powerful Play in Poker The central strategic implication of stack depth is the question of how much equity a\u2026 When does ICM become significant in MTTs? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) was invented in 1987 by M. Malmuth and is one\u2026 How to Study GTO Solutions Tools like GTO Wizard and other solvers should not be used to memorize specific strategies.\u2026 Principles of GTO Game theory, or GTO (for Game Theoretically Optimal), is best understood not as a rigid\u2026 Interpreting Equity Distributions GTO Wizard\u2019s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which\u2026 What is Leverage in poker? Leverage refers to the risk of future betting. When you call a bet on the\u2026 Reasons for value betting in poker You\u2019re probably accustomed to thinking of bets as either value or bluff. In this taxonomy,\u2026 The Science of Poker Performance Poker is a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment\u2026 What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets\u2026 Pot Geometry \u201cPot Geometry\u201d refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible \u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players"}
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{"text":"if ever if you have 40 big blinds and obviously everyone else has 20 big blinds you're going to be raising a 20 big blind range because that's effectively the stack size that you're playing if you have like three people that are playing 20 big blinds and one player playing 30 you're probably going to raise like 20 big blind rangers because you have three big three re-jam stacks so you just have to be tight um i kind of personally use 40 big blinds as my base base point um we can just look at like the button here for example um um i know when we go to say 20 big blinds on the button we need to race tighter because we're going to get rejammed on so like these offseason dates are going to come out so we go to offsuit nines so at 20 big blinds now we're back to offsuit nines and the suited fives come out so it's obviously gonna be a little tighter at 20 big blinds gonna go regen on the point is to not get this perfect but to have a very good heuristic to help you in game quickly realize what your race for sin ranges there okay to be slighter to be slightly tighter or slightly looser it depends on your skill level if you're a very if you're a comfortable post flop i'd probably be a little looser than this if you're if you're not comfortable post flop you could be a little bit tighter do you ever visualize the graphics on the right rather than memorize the numbers i don't really memorize the numbers i know the numbers um like i just know them but um i think of it exactly how i'm describing it can i please repeat under the gun one you guys have access to all these ranges by the way under the tools you just go to tools here and you go to gto pre-flop charts you guys all have access to these so any of these ranges you want to go back and see later um because there's so many of you in here today you can go back and you know you can do this you can pull this up right now while i'm doing the webinar so raise first end ranges are pretty easy right because they're always static in terms of there's not other variables and you just know like there's only one time it folds to you in the low jack and you have to figure it there's no other positions you have to adjust for so we're going to get a little trickier now okay and we're going to use the same principles that we just used and let's go to a very very common situation 40 big blinds effective it folds to the button who raises to 2.3 x okay small blindfolds you're in the big blind very quickly tell me what your range your defending range looks like i don't care if it's three letter call"}
{"text":"Hand Range 212: BN vs LJ (15bb) \u2022 All-in 10.6% \/ \u2022 Call 4% \/ \u2022 Fold 85.4%"}
{"text":"05 6-MAX CASH GAME EQUILIBRIUM STRATEGIES (100BB) This chapter presents GTO recommended 6-max baseline strategies produced with modern solvers and supercomputers for a typical $2\/$5 online cash game, 5% rake, capped at $3. These strategies are designed to be a solid guideline but they must be adjusted to the specific games you find yourself in. The best use for GTO solvers is to analyze the recommended strategies and try to understand why the solver is choosing to play hands in the way it does, incorporating the underlying GTO principles such as pot odds, equity, fold equity, EV, equity realization, SPR, range polarization, board coverage, MDF, exploitation and balance to our decision-making process instead of trying to memorize fixed strategies. In some sense, you should try to \u201cbecome\u201d the solver so you can determine the correct decision for yourself. Each hand is a puzzle, and solving that puzzle to the best of your ability is your job as a poker player. Charts are a good starting point. They can be used to guide you in the right direction but should never be followed blindly. Recommended Bet-sizings This section presents bet-sizes based on the previously discussed principles, extensive testing with pre-flop GTO solvers and discussions with world class players. In live cash games, bet-sizes tend to be a lot bigger than online, but live cash games also tend to be played with deeper stacks, which will generate similar post-flop SPRs. Following are the recommended sizings. Heads-up BN RFI: 2.5bb, BB 3-bet: 10bb, BN 4-bet: 23bb, BB 5-bet: All-in (100bb)."}
{"text":"river. In order for a bluff to work, it\u2019s important to play in accordance with the hand you are trying to represent. If you are going to bluff when a flush card hits the river, you better have played the hand like you would have if you\u2019d the flush draw. You\u2019ll also want to pick the right target\u2014not the guy with the unbluffable sign on his forehead. You should pick the one who prides himself on making masterful laydowns on the river. If that\u2019s your opponent\u2019s strength, it can be turned into a weakness, and bluffing is the way to exploit it. If you haven\u2019t set up your opponent for a bluff along the way, it would be foolish to attempt it on the river. Even the laydown artist, lets call him \u201cMr. Genius,\u201d will call you if it looks too suspicious. So how is it done? Let\u2019s look at an example. You hold the 5-6 of diamonds. Mr. Genius limped in early position, as do two other players from middle position, so you welcome the pot odds. Four of you take the flop of J? 3? 4?, giving you an open-ended straight draw. Mr. Genius bets the flop, and you raise looking for a free card, while all the others fold. Now the turn brings the 8? for no help 157 and Mr. Genius checks, as do you. At this point Mr. Genius feels a little silly. He now \u201cknows\u201d you have a flush draw and has given you a free card. The river brings the K?. Mr. Genius decides to check. Here is your chance. You\u2019ve played the hand as you would have if you\u2019d actually had the flush, and the river brought an overcard as well. Take a chance and bet it. Hopefully you\u2019ll hear Mr. Genius go on about how he was so unlucky this hand. \u201cI had you beat until that card came, but I know you have the flush. Take it.\u201d Music to your ears! Whatever you do, don\u2019t show Mr. Genius your hand. Let him continue to think he is the master of poker. In fact, you can even take it one step further, saying, \u201cGood laydown.\u201d No need to tell him the truth, that you are robbing him blind! SHORTHANDED PLAY A game played five-handed or less is generally considered shorthanded. When playing shorthanded, remember the two keys to success: aggression and isolation. Shorthanded poker is an aggressive battle for the antes. Since the price per hand is higher, you need to get in there and fight as well. If you sit back and wait, you will be giving up too much and get blinded to death. Raise and reraise with a playable hand, taking the lead and pushing small edges. In the blinds, understand that you are getting excellent pot odds, and there is no reason to worry about being dominated. Shorthanded, your goal is to isolate a lone opponent and fight for what\u2019s in the middle. Since winning the pot uncontested or getting the hand heads-up with position are both favorable situations,"}
{"text":"Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting\u2026 Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this\u2026 The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A\u2660A\u2663 in the\u2026 The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful\u2026 How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs \u201cThey always have it!\u201d is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency\u2026 Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I\u2019m not referring to\u2026 C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet\u2026 Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,\u2026 Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.\u2026 The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today\u2019s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to\u2026 Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We\u2019re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we\u2019ve won a few pots,\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As\u2026 Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve\u2026 The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a"}
{"text":"with too many hands it's like a martial artist the better a martial artist gets the less moves they need a great boxer can beat you to death with just the jab and the cross now if you're a weaker fighter you're going to try to draw them out into a firefight the dumbest thing a great martial artist a great boxer could do is just get into that firefight but the smart ones will stay on the outside like sorry i will beat you to death with the fundamentals i will beat you to death with the basics that's what we're trying to be now this guy's trying to draw you out into a firefight this is a fire fight so i was a little wary when he limped this guy wasn't doing that that often but i didn't say that before the start of the hand because honestly you can fold here always what's the most important thing to be asking yourself before you make a big call and this is a big call what do you have to ask yourself first thing you should ask yourself is does he do this with x and x is the best value hand that you beat so what would that be jack 9 suited tens that doesn't make a whole lot of sense he's playing that hand pretty strong for an ace being on the board it's not impossible it's just not that likely by the way guys there's a lot of times people play poker and they want to be perfect there are no good options here every we are comparing two options folding which sucks and calling which sucks the question is which one sucks more let's avoid that there is not a third hypothetical situation where the guy suddenly takes the bet back and then there's a showdown right here on the turn and we get to see if our hand is good or not that does not exist so if you're looking for that do not expect it it doesn't happen if you don't like any way to play the hand don't opt for the one that at least gives you a showdown so you can sleep well at night that's how good players take advantage of you why do you think netflix shows you the cliffhanger and then just starts playing the next episode humans abhor an open loop in their heads if i tell you a joke without a punch line it's going to drive you crazy if you hear the tune to a song that you grew up with but you can't name the artist it'll drive you insane humans hate that open loop so they'll pay good cash money to close it by calling down when they should not your options suck here one option sucks but you'll get to see what the guy has and then you can i don't know some people like to think some people i really think get a thrill out of thinking they're unlucky they really get something"}
{"text":"Bankroll The money that a player allocated specifically to use for playing poker."}
{"text":"aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"hour ago, after which presumably he's been sitting tight and waiting for an opening. Although he's short on chips, he doesn't need to be desperate. He has enough chips to survive three more rounds, and since he's the small blind this hand, he won't need to put up any chips at all for the next eight hands. So we can dismiss the idea that this is just a desperate all-in bet with a couple of random cards. You're probably facing a pair higher than yours, or a couple of high cards. If you're up against a high pair, it's a disaster, since you're 4.5-to-l underdog in that situation. However, there are just nine pairs higher than yours, and six ways of drawing each pair, for a total of 54 possible hands. If you're up against two higher cards, you're quite happy, since you're a slight favorite in the hand and you're getting almost 2-to-l on your money. How many such hands are there? There are 16 different ways to construct a hand like ace-king (12 unsuited, 4 suited), and if you assume he would raise with any two cards above a ten, but not otherwise (pretty safe assumption for a tight player), then you're up against a total of 6 different unpaired hands (AK, AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ, and QJ), with 16 ways of drawing each one, for a total of 96 hands. Let's assume that our tight opponent won't raise with any hand weaker than these. Of these 150 hands, how many can you win? You'll win about 10 of the 54 times he has a higher pair. You'll be a small favorite against the 96 unpaired hands, so let's say you win 52 of those. The total looks like 62 wins and 88 losses, not a bad result when you're getting 2-to-l on your money. So you call. Against a loose player, the call would be even easier, since you could guess that he would go all in with some hands like 22, 33, 44, A2, A3, A4, all of which would leave you a big favorite. Resolution: You call, and your opponent turns over Q\u2665Q\u2666. He wins the hand. Hand 4-5 Situation: A major tournament, in the middle of the first day. You're the chip leader at a generally tight table. 70 Your hand: 5\u26605\u2665 Action to you: Player A folds, B calls, and C folds. Pot now 375. Question: Raise, call, or fold? Answer: You call as in the previous hand. A small pair is worth a call at this point, although a lot of action behind you will force you to throw the hand away. Action: Players E and F fold. Players G and H (the big stack on the button) call. The small blind goes all-in for his remaining $685. The big blind folds, as does the original caller, Player B. The pot is now $1,510. It costs you $610 to call. Question: Raise, call, or fold? Answer: If there were no other active players in the pot, this would be an easy call based on"}
{"text":"what's up poker coaching members Evan Jarvis here for pokercoaching.com and today we have a very special video coming to you we are going to be reviewing the 10 000 buy-in scoop 2022 No Limit Hold'em main event final table with all cards up where first place took home 1.14 million US Dollars Booker in the big blind with 10 9 suit it looks like a pretty good spot to defend and take a flop um occasionally some players May opt to three bet all in with this hand due to the fact that you can get some better tens and some better nines to fold and you also have decent Equity when called by hands like Ace King Ace Queen also 15 big blinds are really nice reshuff stack so Derry does go for the reshuff and the jonic snap calls with Ace King flops a flush from a dairy poker there's that good Equity we were talking about flopping two pair turning a boat and even though dejanic river that flush on the end it was no good so Dairy poker finding the double up there to 34 bigs and now we're over to welcome Inferno who has the aces this looks like we we may see a three bet from 2000 not that likely but it is possible given the as the blockers um so this one probably going to make it through vermiculous with an optional defend medium strength Ace uh only issues with it shorter stack and play a little bit of ICM pressure and let's talk about the payouts here because Ninth Place in this tournament is a hundred and two thousand eight hundred nineteen dollars eighth place in this tournament hundred and twenty seven thousand one hundred forty dollars seventh place in the tournament 173 961 second place is two hundred and thirty eight thousand twenty five dollars fifth place 325 682 dollars fourth place is 445 621 third place crazy money here 609 730 second place eight hundred and thirty four thousand two hundred and seventy three dollars and first place takes home A cool one million 141 510 all right we should see an open from remunculus here with Ace eight Suited and I think off of 22 Biggs this is a spot where or 22 effective spot we're welcome Inferno is going to be three betting probably with the intention to be willing to play for all the chips uh Jacks for 22 bigs in a late position battle is totally fine hand to be getting all in you don't necessarily love it um but you can you can definitely be ahead of some of the hands that romiculous would go all in with now facing the three bet although is hand suited um unless he thinks he's bluffing which he does I think we would see a fold but in the instances where he thinks maybe welcome Inferno is trying to push him around and try to use his big stack it's an okay hand to four bet all in with"}
{"text":"pair your low draw (be counterfeited) nearly 25% of the time on the turn and river. (3) You will make your low draw on the turn about 34% of the time, and then be counterfeited on the river 13% of the time. (4) When you flop the nut low draw with backup, you will complete the hand 70% of the time. (5) Only 3% of the time will both the turn and river counterfeit your hand when you have backup. These numbers clearly demonstrate why having extra low cards in your hand is so important. Since you will be counterfeited nearly 25 percent of the time when you only have a two-card low-draw, it\u2019s questionable how aggressively you can play. The added value of the additional low card permits a far more aggressive approach. Another bonus of the backup card is that you have far greater straight potential. For example, with a board of 4-5-K, there is a huge difference between holding just an A-2 (four cards to complete your straight) versus an A-2-3 (thirteen cards to complete your straight). Why Kings-Up Is the Best Two Pair To Flop Besides the obvious fact that kings-up beat queens-up in a showdown, there are other good reasons to consider kings-up to be the only two pair in Omaha eight-or-better that is of much value. First, since a king is a high card, its presence on the board makes it more difficult for a low hand to be made. Although aces-up would be the best two pair, when an ace is on the board it is far more likely that the pot will be split with a low hand. Since kings are the highest cards in the deck other than aces, it is unlikely that they will lose to a better two pair. Specifically, it will take a better kingsup hand to beat them. As a good Omaha eight-or-better player, you will generally have an ace in your hand when you flop kings-up, so if the ace then hits, you will now make the top two pair. Although top two pair is a dicey 219 hand against several opponents, it should win a good percentage of the time against a small field. A major problem with two pair is that there will nearly always be a straight possibility when the board is unpaired. In fact, in order for no straight to be possible, there must be a king, a queen, or both on the final board. This grants a little extra value to kings-up or queens-up. A hand like A-4-10-J with a flop of J-10-6 is in trouble even though it is most likely the best hand on the flop. There are lots of dangerous turn cards, and even more peril waiting on the river. Any overcard produces the possibility of someone making either a straight or a higher two pair. (This won\u2019t be the case if you flop kings-up, because the straight could still beat you, but a higher two pair will not.) A low card provides a temporary reprieve, as your two pair"}
{"text":"if the five seat of the four seat Flats then we could consider flatting but as it is we'll just go ahead and three but foreign check raising here with the dot flush blocker and just barreling off pretty much most runouts with that specific hand let's just hope the five seat doesn't open because I think I would I would deviate and simply flat the five seed and it's tough to invite the two seat in want the two seed to play the one seat there doesn't agree with me at all um pretty slammed up call here uh flush draw with overs I mean we could raise we don't have a lot of hands that want to raise but it doesn't really stop us from Raising um the king is quite good the king like villain can rep the king um here I don't know if this villain's gonna go bad check bad or not a lot of their hands that want to Bluff to turn just like Jackson tens and nines check their 8X checks they're Bluffs tend to bet so they probably have more Bluff catchers here than they have uh natural Bluffs one kind of interesting thing we could do is go a third and then call a raise foof we did it villain had the Jack eight of clubs so they flopped top pair I hope you all have enjoyed the stream um lost about 900 didn't really I couldn't really get much going um but we'll get them next time thank you all very much"}
{"text":"3-Bet Value: This range shouldn't be too wide since we aren't expecting to get called by extremely weak ranges. It shouldn't be too tight either though as BU is probably defending more combos in these positions than he is to a 3-bet anywhere else on the table. A moderate 3-bet value range will do. Call: This will be the widest sub-range by a mile. Fold equity is the primary aim with squeezing and so no hand good enough to flat should be wasted on a squeeze bluff and a lot of hands will be good enough to flat under these circumstances. This range will contain a good few hundred combos at least. 3-Bet Bluff: Hero will need to pick a sensible but exploitative bluff to value ratio. In this spot RFE is actually more favourable for Hero than where he makes a non-squeeze 3-bet bluff. If his sizing is a reasonable 8BB then RFE is 7 \/ (7 + 5) = 58%. Decrease this a bit further (by 10-15%) for Hero's equity and post-flop ability with his squeeze bluffing range and we see that vacuum squeeze bluffs should be pretty profitable. Since the SB is so powerless to react here I'm going to recommend a fairly unbalanced ratio of 2:1 bluffs:value. Now let's see what the strategy looks like in range format:"}
{"text":"nan"}
{"text":"this by raising less often\u2014as LJ\u2019s c-bet range strengthens\u2014but calling more often to realize our equity. BB does not change their postflop approach regardless of how wide or tight an opponent is limping first in. The one exception is that BB will call more than raise with lower pairs against a wide LFI range when the opponent can have more of those pairs in their range. When evaluating LJ\u2019s preflop limping range, we should consider calling less and raising more as our opponent\u2019s perceived range tightens. This is due to our stronger flopped hands needing more protection while having more combinations that a tight limper can\u2019t have (i.e. 74 or T7 on a T74 board). It\u2019s important to note that these observations are based on a number of assumptions that will change in a real-life scenario. We must adjust to how we perceive our opponents\u2019 LFI ranges are shaped preflop and how they vary their postflop approach from the one examined in this article. GTO Wizard the #1 App for Poker players Study any spot imaginable Practice by playing vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author JonnyLaw John Lawford AKA \u201cJonnyLaw\u201d is a midstakes online MTT regular with a passion for the Progressive Knockout format. Latest article Navigating Nasty Rivers Out of Position Playing out of position (OOP) is hard. It\u2019s fundamentally disadvantageous to act on each street\u2026 Crack the Shell of Nut Draw Strategy Nut draws hold obvious appeal as betting and raising candidates. They benefit from fold equity,\u2026 Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold \u2018em professionally, I\u2026 How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance\u2026 Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,\u2026 An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first\u2026 Relationships and Poker In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026 The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short"}
{"text":"have a backdoor draw so three to a flush draw is better than no draw and three to a straight draw is better than three to a gut shot in terms of bonus equity showdown value is your chance of winning unimproved vulnerability versus resiliency how many cards can make you second best so an example of this would be like again on that king 9 5 board um pocket queens versus pocket tens tens are more vulnerable because the jack and queen can both make a better pair hand than the tens whereas with queens there's no extra outs that can make a better pair i mean both of them are equally vulnerable to an ace so we'd be more inclined to bet with the tens and more inclined to check with the queens so if your hand is vulnerable you need more protection that's a good reason to bet another example would be top pair top kicker on 8 3 deuce versus king 3 deuce despite the fact that both hands are the same absolute hand strength top pair top kicker the eight the pair of eights is much more vulnerable because there are more over cards that can come there are more outs that their opponent can have against them and then lastly blockers do you have cards that can alter their range um common example is if you have an ace in your hand it's less likely your opponent has an ace in their hand so you block the best hands whereas if you have like a deuce in your hand your opponent can't have a deuce so they'll have more strong hands because they won't have twos and these are just all the different properties that a hand can have the more of these properties a hand has the stronger the hand is the less they have the weaker the hand is and that's kind of how we put our hands on a scale it's not just what is my absolute hand strength there are more factors to consider and the more of them you consider when choosing your hands the more effectively you can construct your ranges and so when looking at your hands you want to ask to have a value hand semi bluff or pure bluff because when we're talking about balancing our value range and our bluffing range semi-bluffs are better to have than pure bluffs and we want to have a mix of both so here's a little way to visualize hands after the flop first we have our nut hands which are hands that we're ready to play for three streets of value these are best hands we want to go bet that bet with these and we want to pair those with our nut draws these are the hands that have that high future equity and probably a good amount of equity as well and we have our strong made hands which are probably best for two bets but if we bet three streets and really reduce our opponent's range"}
{"text":"and you can either fire again if you read him for weak or if you hit gin, or take a free card if youread him for strong, miss completely, or improve to just one pair (which you\u2019d check on the turn in a heads-up pot anyway). Another great time to squeeze on that J-8-2 board is with a hand like 99 or TT if you\u2019re not sure it\u2019s any good. Maybe the lead bettor is on a badjack. You\u2019d sure like to get him to fold, wouldn\u2019t you? Again, from a storytelling point of view, the fact that the pot is multi-way gives more perceived strength to your raise, since in multi-way situations, people are less likely to play their big hands slow. You can make this same kind of play out of position in a multi-way hand when you\u2019re unsure of your hand, don\u2019t want to play it out of position, and are vulnerable to the board. Let\u2019s say an early-position active player raises before the flop and picks up one caller besides you, in the big blind, holding TT. When the flop comes 2-6-7 rainbow, this can be a tough spot to play. You might have the best hand, but against two players it\u2019s difficult to know. You might be facing an overpair. Even if not, you really don\u2019t want to see a turn card; against two opponents, any overcard hitting will cause you fits. If you lead into the raiser, it\u2019s both unlikely to end the hand right there and likely to trigger a raise, which is ugly with a hand sitting in the middle like TT here. So you can check with the intention of squeezing if both players continue and semi-bluff floating if you end up heads-up. Let\u2019s say you check, the original raiser bets, and player B calls. Especially if you sense that B is calling weak, this is a great time to check-raisesqueeze. Player A, the original raiser, can have anything here and B is reading weak. By check-raising, you can win the pot right there and not have to fade the turn card against two opponents with position on you. If it happens that A bets and B folds, now you could either raise and call bullshit on the bet or go for a float, since you\u2019re heads-up. Whether you end up floating or squeezing, you aren\u2019t sure what you have, so you treat your TT as abluff. Of course, you can execute this sort of out of position multi-way squeeze play whether you have a hand or not. Say you\u2019re looking at a J-8-2 boardwith something like AQ. Out of position, you check, the pre-flop raiser bets, and one player calls. If you read the bettor for a wide range and the caller for weak, squeeze away. Even top pair might fold here, your play looks so strong. Do remember, though, that you\u2019re out of position and if you get called, you don\u2019t get to see your opponent check to you on the turn. Say you make that same play in position and"}
{"text":"fold, since they will fear another raise. If you raise with two high cards, get reraised and flop top pair, it is once again usually correct to simply check and call all the way. The obvious exception is of course AK, where you will often raise somewhere along the way. But with other hands you should usually play rather meekly with one pair against someone who has both position on you and has represented a big hand. Discretion is the better part of valor. Playing When the Flop Is All the Same Suit (Or Otherwise Dangerous) About 5 percent of the time, you can expect to see three cards of the same suit on the flop. This kind of flop creates its own unique problems. Let's see how some different hands should be played. First, suppose you flop a flush. (This will happen less than 1 percent of the time.) If your flush is small, it is important to bet and\/or raise, simply because you do not want to allow a free card that will beat you. Slowplaying this type of hand, as already has been pointed out, is usually a big mistake. If a fourth suited card comes on the turn or the river, depending on the number of opponents you are against, you may have to throw away your flush. If you flop top pair against a few opponents you generally should bet, as you cannot afford to give a free card, especially if your top pair is not large. However, against a lot of players, it is probably best to check and call as long as you are early to act. If no one yet has a flush it is safe to assume that someone is drawing to it. You should put as little money in the pot as possible until you are fairly sure that you are not against a flush. This, of course, includes seeing that the fourth suited card does not come. Also, if the action behind you is heavy, folding may be your best option. However, you should usually bet if several players have already passed. If you don't flop top pair but have a high suited card, you should now draw for a flush. However, \"high suited card\" means one of the top two of that particular suit. Don't call with something like a ten, hoping for a fourth suited card to hit the board. In addition, depending on your opponent(s) and your position, you may want to raise and try for a free card on the turn. Playing When the Flop Is All the Same Suit 137 Against a few opponents, a suited flop sometimes will allow you to bluff. As long as your opponents are reasonable players, they won't call your bet on the flop unless they have at least top pair or one of the top two suited cards. And if you are called, you can sometimes successfully bluff through the river. Finally, if you are against many players, you usually cannot bluff and probably (as just mentioned) should not even"}
{"text":"equity, but there is now $300 in the pot, so that 88% is worth $264. Subtracting the $100 you wagered, you win an average of $164, or 186% of what your equity was worth before you bet. Either way, you over-realize your equity. This is one of the many great things about strong hands: not only do they have a lot of equity, but they can over-realize that equity by betting to make the pot larger and\/or deny equity to opponents. Bluffing It\u2019s a bit counter-intuitive, but very weak hands also tend to over-realize their equity. That doesn\u2019t make them \u201cgood\u201d; it simply reflects that when you have very little equity, it doesn\u2019t take much to outperform it . River bluffs, for instance, tend to have low EV at equilibrium. A savvy opponent will not fold at a frequency that makes bluffing very profitable. However, the hands you bluff with typically have little or no chance of winning at showdown, so even a small amount of EV from bluffing is better than their near-zero equity at showdown. Under-Realizing Equity The hands that under-realize equity most dramatically are in fact medium-strength hands, those that have a fair chance of winning at showdown but are not strong enough to bet for value. This makes sense when you remember that equity realization measures playability, how much a hand benefits or suffers from future betting opportunities. Strong hands benefit from making the pot larger. Weak hands benefit from bluffing. It\u2019s the hands in the middle that suffer from betting, because they risk either putting more money in against better hands or folding to inferior ones. Those are the two ways to under-realize equity: Putting more money into a pot you are not favored to win \ud83c\udfb0 \ud83d\udcc8 Even if the pot odds make a call correct, you\u2019d still prefer not to put the money in if there were a way you could get to showdown without doing so. Folding when you have a chance of winning at showdown The greater your chance of winning, the more your hand suffers from folding its equity. Folding a hand with one out on the river doesn\u2019t cost you much, as you probably weren\u2019t going to win anyway. Folding the best hand to a river bluff is an expensive mistake that costs you the entire pot! Estimating Equity Realization Equity realization does not measure a hand\u2019s absolute value. Remember: very weak hands often over-realize equity, but they still have low EV. However, by combining EQR with a rough estimate of your equity, you can get a better sense of what your hand is actually worth and whether you should continue investing in it. Equity realization is always contextual. It depends on factors like position, board texture, stack sizes, and the composition of each player\u2019s range. We cannot draw a conclusion like, \u201cA9o has poor equity realization\u201d in a vacuum any more than we can conclude, \u201cA9o is a bad hand.\u201d Solvers can tell us the exact EQR if both players play an equilibrium strategy on future streets, but in real"}
{"text":"Razer has a big range advantage and a big nut Advantage which is going to lead to very frequent betting probably 100% of the time and also some large bets in this spot consider 633 this is another scenario where the initial razor will have a big range Advantage because they have all the overpays and the big BLS have all sorts of trash on 633 so so that means the initial razor can bet very frequently however on 633 the initial razor has almost no threes in their range at all so even though they have the range Advantage they lack the nut advantage and that results in the initial razor betting very frequently perhaps 100% of the time but using a small size okay and a small size is like one big blind or two big blinds may sound crazy but that is good strong poker consider 875 with a flush draw this is a spot where now the initial razor should not be betting very often because the initial razor does not have a whole lot of hands that connect all that well with this board they don't have the 96 suited they may not have the 87 suited if they're playing nitty and I mean they just don't have a lot of good hands here right so this is a board where the big blind is going to have not necessarily A an advantage but it's way closer to 50\/50 right when it's closer to 5050 that forces the initial razor to continuation bet far less often you know what while we're talking about this I actually wrote a book it just came out it's called 100 essential tips to master no limit hold them we're going through 10 today not necessarily from this book but look this book explains all sorts of things you must Master for example properly combat limpers most people combat limpers incorrectly what else do we have consider who has the net Advantage we literally just talked about that who was H in this office can you imagine me sitting in this office grinding all day every day for you bet when check do on the turn most people check far too weak over fold against most players aggression on the river oh my God we're about to talk about that in just a second anyway you can check out this book If you like this video if you're enjoying this if you like my content you're going to love this book we'll put links below you can get it on Amazon or D&B poker or lots of other places tip number six is to stop slow playing understand that you want to play Big pots with your best stands and small and mediumsized pots with everything else whenever you have a big Edge you want to get a lot of money in the pot you don't have a big Edge you don't really want to get a lot of money in the pot unless you have a good logical bluffing hand so"}
{"text":"flop contains an ace. You bet on both the flop and the turn and are called by an obvious-playing opponent, which makes you think he has an ace but is afraid of his kicker. You also think that if you bet on the river, your opponent will call with his ace. Therefore, you should not bet. But if your opponent bets, he might be susceptible to a check-raise bluff. This doesn't mean that you should go ahead and raise, but this is definitely one of those times that you should consider doing so. When is it the best strategy to check and call? It is when your opponent will bet with any of the hands that he will call with, plus with some hands that are worse (usually bluffs). An example of this is against an aggressive opponent who has been just calling after two suited cards appeared on the flop, and you are betting top pair on the flop and fourth street. This opponent may have either middle pair, or a flush draw. (Your opponent may not have raised with the flush draw because he figured that you 106 Part Two: Strategic Concepts were likely to reraise if you did indeed have a legitimate hand.) If your opponent is on a flush draw and the flush card does not get there, he might attempt to bluff if you check. In addition, an aggressive player often will bet middle pair for value. Consequently, in this situation, a check is frequently correct regardless of the last card. A check in this spot also will eliminate the possibility of a raise. This is especially beneficial when your opponent has middle pair and the last card, which appears to be a blank, may have given him two pair. When this is the case, he often will raise if you bet, especially if the board is not too threatening. However, against an opponent who will call your bet more often than he will bet himself, you should bet. This is correct even if you are an underdog when he calls, as long as you were going to call his bet anyway, or when folding would be a close decision if you check and he bets. In the previous example, you would bet if, instead of an aggressive opponent, you were up against someone who was fairly timid and would not bet middle pair but would call with this hand. By the way, in this situation it may appear as though the 55 percent rule has been violated, but that rule applies onIy when -you are second to act and your opponent has already checked. Here's another example. Suppose you have: and when all the cards are out, the board is Heads-Up on Fifth Street 107 Notice that when you bet, you could lose to a ten with a better kicker, a flush, or even a.full house. However, by betting, you will cause some timid players to call with a queen or an overpair, which they probably would not have bet. (A bad player may also call"}
{"text":"small pair, he will most likely fold. If he made a low, you won\u2019t win anything anyway, and if he made a high that beats you, you\u2019ll lose it all. Lastly, if you each made a high hand\u2014most likely two pair\u2014and you check, your opponent will almost always bet, hoping to get paid off by one pair (unless, of course you have an open pair on board). So you see, the end gets bet anyway\u2014you just risked much less. Recognizing When an Opponent Pairs His Holecard Another advantage to remembering all the upcards is that it will help you recognize when someone has paired his holecard. Let\u2019s say a good player calls a double raise with a five-up, and there are two sixes and two deuces out on third street. Now, that player then catches a 6 on fourth street and a 2 on fifth street to go with his 5. There is only one 6 and one 2 left in the deck, so chances are he didn\u2019t pair either. From this you can deduce that this player likely made a straight or at least a very good low with a straight draw. Thanks to the additional information you gained by remembering the upcards on 252 third street, you could muck a big pair here. Let\u2019s look at an example where you can tell someone actually did pair his holecard: Example One You: 3-4 2-5-J Player One: x-x K-J-8 Player Two: x-x 5-7-8 Let\u2019s say Player One bets and Player Two just calls. What could Player Two have? A low without a straight? Impossible. He would raise to get you out. A 9-high straight? Again, he would have to try to raise you out and get the scoop. An 8-high straight? Possible, but highly unlikely. With the worst possible low, any other low hand would beat his, unless he improved, so he would want to get the low draw out. So what does Player Two most likely have? He either started with some kind of high hand, which is still unlikely since he didn\u2019t attempt to raise the low draw out, or he has made a pair. Knowing this, what is your best course of action? Provided no aces or sixes were out on third street, this hand definitely warrants a raise. You\u2019ve got eight cards to scoop and five or six to take half the pot. If you make your low, you know he will need to hit runner-runner to beat it, as he is drawing to an 8-7 low\u2014if he even has a low draw at this point. Here\u2019s another example: Example Two You: 4-5 7-8 Player One: x-x K-Q Player Two: x-x 2-6 Player Three: x-x 4-6 In this scenario Player One bets, Player Two raises, and Player Three folds. What should you do? Most likely, Player Three paired his 6 since he folded right away. Player Two also has a 6 showing, meaning that there is probably only one 6 left in the deck. Not only is a raise the wrong play, a call here is tough as"}
{"text":"you think about the hands in the big blinds range that will continue if you if you make a bet you see all these aces here ace jack to ace two they're gonna call if you bet three fourths pot no one's folding top pair to a three four spot bats but if they have a king they're not gonna fold to a three-fourths pop bat but what if they have like eight five off suit or eight five ace five eight five without a draw or seven four without a draw they're just gonna fold every time right so in this scenario you want to be betting big and frequently you're going to find usually when you're betting big and frequently it's also because you have the nut advantage as well and on this board remember under the gun does have a huge nut advantage because they have pocket aces pocket kings pocket jacks ace king whereas the player and the big blind does not have those hands okay um it is also worth mentioning that you will essentially never have the range advantage as the pre-flop caller from the big blind because your range is going to be significantly weaker than the pre-flop razors because you were in the big blind and you only had to put in a small amount of money before the flop to call and see the flop and you would have re-raised with your best hands so as we showed in this situation even on this flop 765 which is actually the best flop for the player in the big blind you see against the under the gun range you still are at a tiny disadvantage and so for that reason you will not have the range advantage from the big blind so the big blind should essentially always check to the pre-flop aggressor this is also very different than what a lot of recreational players do they will bet into the pre-flop razor but that is a substantial mistake unless of course you're trying to adjust to take advantage of something your opponent does very wrong like say your opponent's always going to fold unless they have top pair or better then yeah you should bat into them every time because they're going to fold way way too often so very simply though when you have the range advantage just bet frequently and you can't really go wrong it gets a little bit more difficult though when you do not have the range advantage as the aggressor because now you should not be betting every time this is when you have less than 58 equity when you run your range against your opponent's range and it's even more so as it gets closer to 50 50. so now you're going to want to break your entire range down into one of four categories you're either gonna have premium made hands draws marginal made hands and junk this is going to get a little bit advanced but if you want a ton of experience and"}
{"text":"yelling at him. Doc finally nicked a card face down towards Bones. It touched Bones's hand, bounced; then turned over, exposed. I looked at it horror-stricken, for I had said a little prayer for Bones. It was the joker. 'I'm sorry, Bones,' said Doc. Bones opened his mouth as if to protest, but no sound came. He just sat there fascinated and stared at the joker who, I thought, stared impishly back at him. Then a deep pallor began to creep slowly over Bones's weatherbeaten face. 'What'll I do, Monty? Can't Bones take the joker?' 'No. If you'd read the rules you'd know he can't. They're all printed and framed on the wall behind you. You deal whatever cards the producer wants to him, then Bones gets the next card. Tough luck, Bones.' The pallor had spread over Bones's face. His eyes looked glazed. Suddenly he fell over the table, clutching the cardsin his heavy fist. At this Doc jumped up, handing me the deck. He examined Bones for several seconds. At last he said, 'He's dead, boys.' An air of disbelief settled over the players. Even Monty was speechless for the moment, then, 'You're sure, Doc?' he asked. 'Yes, I\u2019m sure. His heart stopped. Too much excitement. I guess I killed him.' The producer made a pass at the pot, starting to rake it in. Monty's fist reached out and nearly broke the showman's wrist. 'Hands off!' Monty snarled. 'It's mine,' protested the producer. 'Not yet, my friend,' Monty said softly. 'I think he had you beat. He didn't need the joker.' 'Well, I don't think so, and I demand to draw to my hand,' said the producer. 'Kid,' asked Monty, 'has the deck been disturbed?* 'No. Doc handed it to me.' 'Well, I'm going to write a new rule that Hoyle didn't cover. If you fellows agree, I'll rule we let our producer draw to his hand, then take Bones's cards from his fist and add the next card to it.' They all nodded agreement except the producer, who protested feebly. 'How many cards you want?' asked Monty. 'One,' said the producer. 'Kid, give him a card.' The producer threw me the discard and I gave him one, face down. By that time Doc had pried Bones's cards from his huge fist, so I slipped Doc a card to fill out the hand. 'Now wait a moment, boys,' said Monty. 'Who wants to bet on the winning hand?' The actor was the only one to answer. 'I've got five hundred that says my producer wins.' 'Covered,' said Monty, tossing the money on the table. The producer spread his hand. He held Q K K K 2. 'Four Kings,' said Monty. Doc turned over Bones's cards one at a time, calling them out as he did so. 'Ace, ace, ace, jack, deuce - four aces.' 'You ran second,' Monty said to the producer. 'That's irony for you. A man dies holding the winning hand - ' and he picked up the actor's bet. Then he began to rake in the pot."}
{"text":"common stuff common common scenario whenever you do get shoved on you just call off the good hands full the trash and that's a big benefit of three betting very polarized what a what a lot of people do wrong by the way is they just three bet all the best stands like Ace Jack Ace Queen Ace 10 suited Ace N9 suited king queen suited king queen off suit and then they fold out too much of that but you don't really want to be three betting Ace 10 suited and have to fold it to a shove because it actually has really good value you'd much rather call and see the Flop also notice 40 big blinds deep same story Ace queen off suit you really don't want a three bet fold Ace Queen offit so don't three bet it call and see the Flop same thing for Ace Shack off suit these hands flop really well 20 big blinds deep now we're going to be shoving or calling or folding and again we are shoving a much more condensed type range where we're not shoving the absolute best hands and we're not shoving the hands on the bottom of the range instead we're shoving the hands in the middle of the range to have good equity in the spot let's look now at cut off versus a three bet from the button okay I realize there's a little bit to this video there's a lot to three bet pots and we're only going to halfway cover it we're going to do our best though to give you lots of good actionable information notice now 60 big blind deep cut off versus a three bet from the button notice now lots more calls we have lots more calls compared to when we were against the under the gun player because we are now against a much wider range when you're against a much wider range you have to call substantially more often notice we do have a few all ends with tens and nines and ace four suited and fives and Ace King off suit 60 big blinds deep I would tell you to not worry about those so much um it's a relatively small portion of your range so I would call or four bet small with lots of these if you do four bet and you get five bet all in obviously call off the best hands fold everything else you do have to call it off with the ace Queen reluctantly here but notice the ace Queen I mean it's in your range don't get me wrong so you are going to be for betting it but it's not like it's a ton of your range in the spot but at that point you're going to be getting good enough odds to put it in because remember if you make it two they make it six you make it 16 they go all in for 60 you have to call 45 to win 120 you got to"}
{"text":"stack loose aggressive player raises well right here you would obviously just be all in normally in a 20 big blind scenario right you can use the poker coaching pre-flop app to see that but here we are on the bubble so we want to look around at this table and see are there any super duper shallow stacks also am I in decent position meaning like do I have is 20 big blinds good here so take a look around here we have a three big blind stack under the gun all right we're gonna have to be kind of tight these two players both have a lot this player has 15 big blinds this player has eight this player has 30 this player is 13. so we're actually in okay shape with our 20 big blind stack and this player is going to be out soon or they're gonna have to win two or three hands in a row so if this is a spot where if you're on the absolute bubble of a tournament this is just a fold and as there are more and more players in the field this is even closer and closer and closer to a fold because inevitably at the other tables there'll be other short stacks right so here we are basically a lock to get in the money we are going to get in the money every time and don't screw it up you got to realize even if we do shove and they fold or they shove and we get a double up it is not worth the risk of bubbling the tournament so this is just a fold don't even call don't even try to see the flop just just be done with it and I know this may seem tight and seem passive and seem weak but with a medium slash shallow-ish stack a lot of the value you have in this tournament is collecting your free minimum cash and then once you get in the money you can go nuts because now there's the pile jumps are minimal until you get very very deep in the tournament so look for spots like this also in the loose aggressive big stack scenario some people make the mistake of open shoving every hand and that's gonna be a mistake too because whenever you run into one of the bigger stacks Aces or Kings that's just not going to fold well now you go from having a big stack on the bubble to being in horribly bad shape right or at least way worse shape so you're gonna find it usually the right play for the big sack has used lots of Min raises and then if somebody calls say the big blind calls you're going to want to use a lot of small and frequent betting because you want to do everything you can to kind of force your opponent to have to put their stack in or feel like they have to put their stack in and you don't"}
{"text":"is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get\u2026 Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being\u2026 Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of 400K\/800K\/800K,\u2026 Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?\u2026 Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of Canadian programmers from Quebec, developed\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Explained We are excited to introduce GTO Wizard AI, formerly known as Ruse, the world\u2019s best\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Benchmarks GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional solving methods to bring\u2026 Table Management in PKOs Perhaps the most important strategic consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs) is making sure you\u2026 Overcalling From the BB In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also\u2026 Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach\u2026 Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon\u2026 Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to\u2026 Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked Playing out of position is tricky, but it\u2019s an essential part of tournament play. With\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the BB in MTTs Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB\u2019s equilibrium strategy\u2026 The Absurd Game Theory of Chopped Boards A \u201cchopped board\u201d in poker is one where the community cards make up the best\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs MTT confrontations between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations,\u2026 The Art of Learning Poker In his book The Art of Learning, chess and Push Hands champion Josh Waitzkin describes\u2026 Is Donk Betting for Donkeys? \u201cDonk betting\u201d, or betting from out of position into the player who was the aggressor\u2026 Delayed C-Betting This is a companion piece to Probe Betting. It stands on its own, but understanding\u2026 Probe Betting As far as rules of thumb go in poker, \u201ccheck to the raiser\u201d is a\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Big Blind This is a companion piece to this article on the SB\u2019s strategy for blind vs\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Small Blind ICM incentivizes more conservative play, which means that at stages of the tournament where risk\u2026 The Initial Bettor\u2019s Advantage The mathematics of poker holds a little-known secret: the first bettor enjoys better bluffing odds\u2026 Mastering the Chiplead: The Scalpel and the Sledgehammer When you have a lot of chips at a final table or in another situation\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in"}
{"text":"in poker, \u201ccheck to the raiser\u201d is a\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Big Blind This is a companion piece to this article on the SB\u2019s strategy for blind vs\u2026 ICM and Blind Battles: The Small Blind ICM incentivizes more conservative play, which means that at stages of the tournament where risk\u2026 The Initial Bettor\u2019s Advantage The mathematics of poker holds a little-known secret: the first bettor enjoys better bluffing odds\u2026 Mastering the Chiplead: The Scalpel and the Sledgehammer When you have a lot of chips at a final table or in another situation\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in Cash Games Our never-ending quest for money and fame leads us to the flop. We open the\u2026 How ICM Impacts Restealing From The Blinds When I first started working with preflop solves, one of the features I found most\u2026 The ICM Benefits of Late Registration in Poker Tournaments Why do so many professional poker players register late for tournaments when they clearly would\u2026 Flop Heuristics: OOP C-Betting in MTTs Playing against an in-position cold-caller is dramatically different\u2013and dramatically more difficult\u2013than playing against a caller\u2026 Counterintuitive Calls Solver outputs such as those provided by GTO Wizard are models of no-limit hold \u2018em,\u2026 How To Negotiate Final Table Deals Most people\u2019s first introduction to the Independent Chip Model (ICM) is not from studying bubble\u2026 How does ICM impact PKO strategy? If you have read The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments you already know why we\u2026 Understanding Blockers in Poker Often when looking through a solver\u2019s meticulously crafted grid of deception, one of the following\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP Cold-Caller in MTTs A Cold-call refers to the act of calling a preflop raise when you don\u2019t close\u2026 Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in MTTs In the world of poker, the flop is a crucial stage of the game that\u2026 Flop Heuristics for Defending the Blinds in MTTs The field of Game Theoretically Optimal poker is extensive, and thus, to simplify our strategy,\u2026 Multiway strategy in Progressive Knockout Tournaments Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments are much more complex than traditional MTTs. The fact that players\u2026 How To Calculate Raises In Poker One of the most frequently asked questions in poker is how to calculate the size\u2026 Principles of River Play The river offers the least complicated strategy of any betting street. With no further cards\u2026 Exploitative Dynamics GTO solutions are designed to be unexploitable, performing reasonably well no matter how your opponents\u2026 How ICM Impacts Postflop Strategy Most players understand how the Independent Chip Model (ICM) in poker impacts their strategy preflop,\u2026 10 Tips for Multiway Pots in Poker While lots of work has been placed into research and explanation of heads-up pot strategy,\u2026 What is the Bubble Factor in poker tournaments? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) shows us the real money implications of tournament chip decisions.\u2026 The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments In poker, a PKO (Progressive Knockout) tournament is a type of tournament where a portion\u2026 How To Analyze Turn Textures In Poker Master the art of turn analysis in poker. Understand how the turn card changes the\u2026"}
{"text":"in the form of a continuation bet, but it doesn\u2019t have to be. CO can also check flop and bluff turn or check both streets and bluff river. So, they should never check a worthless hand all the way to showdown. A single bluff (but just one\u2014continuing to barrel with any two cards is not profitable once called) at any point in the hand should be profitable. CO\u2019s value bets are actually less ambitious than BB\u2019s. This is owing to the threat of a check-raise and the lack of good bluffing candidates to balance such a wide value betting range. Unlike BB, CO does not value bet a pair of 2s or even a weak 5 . Although they can get called by worse, they can also have their value reduced to 0 by a check-raise, so a free showdown is more appealing. BB value bets more thinly because they don\u2019t have the power to close the action and opt for a free showdown. Checking may result in them facing a bet from a polarized range anyway, plus they have more bluffing candidates thanks to their wider preflop range. CO has a significant equity advantage that they can \u201ccash in\u201d exactly once. This profitable bluff often gets cashed in on the flop, in the form of a continuation bet, but it doesn\u2019t have to be. CO can also check flop and bluff turn or check both streets and bluff river. So, they should never check a worthless hand all the way to showdown. A single bluff (but just one\u2014continuing to barrel with any two cards is not profitable once called) at any point in the hand should be profitable. CO\u2019s value bets are actually less ambitious than BB\u2019s. This is owing to the threat of a check-raise and the lack of good bluffing candidates to balance such a wide value betting range. Unlike BB, CO does not value bet a pair of 2s or even a weak 5 . Although they can get called by worse, they can also have their value reduced to 0 by a check-raise, so a free showdown is more appealing. BB value bets more thinly because they don\u2019t have the power to close the action and opt for a free showdown. Checking may result in them facing a bet from a polarized range anyway, plus they have more bluffing candidates thanks to their wider preflop range. Opener vs Cold Caller When a preflop raiser is heads up with a cold caller, the preflop equity disparity is not so dramatic, and on most flops, their equities will run very close. In this example , the CO raises off a 40bb stack and is called by the BTN. They both check an A \u2660 T \u2666 5 \u2663 flop and 4 \u2660 turn, then get a 9 \u2666 river. AT5 r is sometimes perceived as a flop that favors the opener, but you can see from this chart that their ranges actually interact quite similarly with it: As we saw before, the early street checks condensed both players\u2019 ranges,"}
{"text":"Conclusion Having a sound GTO core strategy and developing a deep understanding of GTO principles is the key to beating modern poker and absolutely vital in tough games. However, GTO isn\u2019t meant to replace critical thinking. Regardless of how good any GTO strategy might be, players should always be aware of the opposition and be actively thinking about every action throughout the hand. Even in heads-up pots where playing GTO guarantees unbeatability, players can still make exploitative adjustments to further capitalize on their opponent\u2019s mistakes. For multi-way situations, GTO offers near-unexploitable strategies that can be used as a starting point but are by no means the final answer and should not be followed blindly. Understanding and incorporating GTO concepts will improve your strategy and make you a lot tougher to play against, as well as help you better exploit your opponents\u2019 weaknesses. GTO is a powerful tool in a poker player\u2019s arsenal but should not be the only one. Poker Math Everyone Should Know Normalizing the size of the pot to 1 and all bets as a fraction of the pot makes calculations easier. For example, if the pot is $60 and a player bets $20, his bet-size as a fraction of the pot is 1\/3-pot or 0.33 pot (Table 14)."}
{"text":"betting i mean yeah you're happy enough but you'd just rather have the open-ended straight draws you have enough of those it's also worth noting like as you have more reasonable hands to continue like here you probably have a lot of hands with the ace of spades and the king of spades and the jack of spades you in turn do not continue with weaker and weaker and weaker junk right because you have enough hands that can reasonably continue whereas on a hand like a board like 772 with no flush draw let's say you probably need to be continuing with a lot of hands with over cards with backdoor straight draw whereas if there's a flush draw on board you continue perhaps a little bit less often with those all right what do we do when we are facing a turnback most players who bet the flop and the turn usually have a strong polarized range most players not all players but most players so you'll usually continue when you have decent equity and fold when you do not simple as that the nice thing about floating the flop with all the hands we listed here is that like i said you are going to turn some equity some portion of the time like either a straight draw or flush draw or what not or top pair so sometimes your trials are going to come in and sometimes they're not are we concerned with balance concerns with the range we are floating with i mean the thing is is you're like this is just gt good gto poker this is not even like exploitative strategy here where you're floating absurdly wide i just want to make sure people are not floating too infrequently most of the time people fold too often on every betting round and the hands that they incorrectly fold are usually some hands that they should be floating with that are kind of junky like like the queen four on six five two you know it's not great but it's good enough stuff like random over cards on 772 they have a backdoor flush draw a backboard straight draw those are good enough and a lot of people just do not continue so if anything most people have a problem with playing too tightly in these spots not too loosely um raising the turn bet after you float the flop is usually only ideal if your opponent's turn betting range is either too wide and is full of junk in which case it will fold very frequently to a raise or if your opponent's just betting with a polarized range but they're gonna be really really really tight when you do raise them some people will continue with a polarized range on the turn as they should like strong top pairs and better but then they'll fold out some of the top pairs to a turn race so if they fold out all their draws to a turn race and they fold out all their top"}
{"text":"Small blind The required blind put in the pot by the player to the immediate left of the (dealer) button. Typically, half the size of the big blind."}
{"text":"Hand Range 249: HJ vs LJ 4-bet (25bb) \u2022 Call 59.4% \/ \u2022 Fold 40.6%"}
{"text":"12.5% 6 outs Ad 5d 31.56% 2-Pair Ace\u2019s and 5\u2019s \u2013 72.475% 87.5% Full House Now if another Ace falls on the River you are way behind. You are not getting the extra three outs for a better 2-Pair and your folding equity has diminished to your opponents Full house. Your pot equity has dropped so your pot odds need to be 8 to 1 to make a call. Hole Win % Flop Ks Qs 5s Ac Jc vs. 68.44% Gut Shot Straight and 2 Over Cards 29.44% Pot Equity 19% pot odds Ad 5d 31.56% TP with a weak kicker 70.56% Once again, your pot equity is too high to fold the hand. With two over cards and a nut straight draw. If you can put your opponent on a small pair you should call or re-raise, (I am not considering the three flush on the board because I created that example for the sole purpose of not having it figure into the equation). Hole Win % Flop As 2h 3h Turn 8s Ac Jc vs. 68.44% 69.50% Top Pair with top kicker 84.09% Ad 5d 31.56% 30.50% Top Pair with weak kicker Gut Shot Straight 6 outs 12.8% 15.91% Here the A 5 has better pot equity than pot odds like the previous example but on the Turn he will not gain any outs and the pot equity will go down if he does not improve. If the A J has position on the A 5 then drawing to the better hand becomes a losing strategy. If a 3 does show up on the Turn or River then the A J can get away from his hand and the A 5 does not profit from Implied Odds. Drawing to 6 outs is not as appealing to me so I would not re-raise unless I thought my opponent might fold. You will get better opportunities in the future. Hole Win % Flop Jd 3d 2s Turn 9s Ac Jc vs. 68.44% 53.89% Pot Equity TPTK - 5 outs to improve and a backdoor straight draw 10.6% on Turn 72.73% Ad 5d 31.56% 46.11% Pot Equity Gut Shot and Flush Draw - 12 outs or 25.6% on Turn 27.27% What would you do with the A 5 hand? With 49 unknown cards and one quarter of the cards improving your hand to a nut hand or very good hand you have to play to maximize the amount of money in the pot. This is one of the instances where you should take a shot at the pot on the Flop with a big bet hoping for your opponent to fold. Your hand has an excellent chance of improving and winning at the showdown. So you want to be aggressive on the Turn in Limit and in No Limit let the pot get larger if someone bets, The hands you fear are, someone who has made their set and wants the board to pair or a starting hand of 4 5. Nevertheless, you should not curb your \u201ccorrect\u201d play for a possibility. If"}
{"text":"to value bet future streets\u2026 Pot Geometry \u201cPot Geometry\u201d refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such\u2026 A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible \u201ccombinations\u201d (combos) of any\u2026 Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":". . 48 Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Bet-Sizing for Information 52 Quantifying the Value of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Paying for Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 An Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Another Opportunity to Gather Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Playing the Nuts on the River \u2014 More Examples 57 Another Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Two Other \u201cBig Bet\u201d Situations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Value Betting on the River 60 Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Absolute and Relative Position 63 Position and Hand Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 The Corollary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67"}
{"text":"T\u2665 and raise to $600, making the pot $1,125. The rest of the players fold to the big blind, who has $12,000 and who has played somewhat aggressively. He puts in $1,000, making it $600 to you. The pot is now $2,125. Should you fold, call, or raise? Answer: Let's walk through our criteria and see where we stand with this hand. 1. Your holding itself is very good. A pair of tens is an underdog only to the top four pairs. Favorable. 2. The reraise came from the last player to act, and there were no other players in the pot. Favorable. 3. You will have position on the reraiser after the flop. Favorable. 4. It costs you $600 to call, and there is $2,125 in the pot. You're being offered almost 3.5-to-l odds to call. Very favorable. 5. The reraiser is known to be aggressive, and your recent activity creates the appearance that you may be on a steal. Favorable. 6. Both you and the reraiser have plenty of chips in relation to the hand. Neutral to favorable. Your first decision here is pretty easy; nearly all factors are favorable, and you're going to play the hand. Your real decision is a tougher one. Are you going to just call, or are you going to reraise? You might think at first that with nearly all factors favorable, this must be an easy reraise. But that's not the case. A pair of tens is not really a great hand for putting in a third raise, and how you want to handle the hand depends a lot on the flop. If a couple of overcards appear on the flop, you're in bad shape. If low cards appear, you're in great shape. I like to base my decision on my position and my chip strength. If I'm out of position, I like to wrap the hand up quickly. If I have position, I like to let the hand play out more slowly, so that my positional advantage has time to operate. My chip strength also affects my decision. It's early in the tournament, and I have plenty of time. The value of hands like jacks and tens drops in this situation, since those hands often end in coinflip situations against hands with two higher cards. That also argues for playing the hand more slowly. Considering both position and chip strength, I'd recommend a call. Example No.2. Same table as before, with the same structure of blinds and antes. Once again, you have $14,000. A couple of players have a little more; most have less. The pot is again $525 to start. You're in third position with A\u2663 T\u2663 The first and second players fold. You elect to call. The fourth player folds, but the player in fifth position, with $10,000, raises $1,000. Since he is a new player who just joined the table, you know nothing about him. You have been playing aggressively and have won several recent small pots. The players behind him and the blinds all fold. The action is to"}
{"text":"intended to reduce the size and complexity of the game. The main types of abstractions are: Information Abstraction: A situation where some of the information states are bundled together. For example, on the flop A\u2663K\u2663Q\u2663, the hands 3\u26652\u2665, 3\u26602\u2660 and 3\u26662\u2666 can be considered as the same hand for strategic purposes. Action Abstractions: A situation where some of the actions in the real game are assumed to not be usable. For example, removing a player\u2019s strategic option of calling or betting certain amounts, such as one big blind into a 100 big blind pot, or 100 big blinds into a 1 big blind pot. Rake: Rake is the commission fee taken by a cardroom running a poker game. Some poker rooms charge a time-based rake, so each player has to pay a fixed amount per hour that they are sitting at the table, and other cardrooms charge rake as a percentage of the pot, usually 2.5% to 10% of the pot, depending on the game. There is usually a cap to the amount of money the casino takes from each pot. For example, in a poker game with 5% rake capped at $5, the maximum amount the house can take from the pot will be $5 from any pot that is $100 or larger. Most poker rooms also have the rule that rake is only taken if a flop is dealt, so any action that finishes without a flop being dealt will not be subject to rake. For example, if MP raises to 2.5bb, BN 3-bets to 8bb, MP 4-bets to 24bb and everyone else folds, the house won\u2019t take any money from the pot because the flop wasn\u2019t dealt, regardless of how much money went into the pot. Calling Station: A player who never folds a made hand regardless of the action. Player Actions Call (c): Matching the current bet to continue in the hand. Limp (l): Entering the pot by calling the minimum bet (1bb). Raise (r): Increasing the price the other players have to call to enter the pot. Raising is also known as a 2-bet because the action of posting the big blind is considered as the first bet. Check (x): The option to pass your turn. Pre-flop, it can only be done from the big blind if no one else raised. Post-flop, it can be done if you are first to act or if other players have checked to you. Voluntary Put Money in the Pot (VPIP): When a player enters the pot by either calling or raising. Posting the blinds does not count as VPIP because the blinds are forced (not voluntary) bets. Raise First In (RFI): When a player is first in and enters the pot by raising. Also referred to as open raising. Two-bet (2-bet or 2b): The blinds are considered as the \u201cFirst Bet\u201d, then the first person to raise the pot is making a \u201cSecond Bet\u201d or \u201cTwo Bet\u201d; RFI is a special case of 2bet when there are no limpers."}
{"text":"Stack-to-Pot Ratio (SPR) The effective stack divided by the size of the pot. SPR is commonly used to gauge the value of implied odds and the relative value of made hands."}
{"text":"Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you\u2019ve got many a poker player\u2019s nightmare. As always, the best way to combat that anxiety is to arm yourself with information. Once you understand the principles that guide your play in these tricky situations, you\u2019ll make better decisions in these big, important pots. You\u2019ll still lose them often \u2013 that\u2019s baked into the situation, as we\u2019ll see\u2014but you can rest easy knowing your play was sound. Playing Before the Flop The first thing to know about playing postflop out of position to a three-bettor in an MTT is that you shouldn\u2019t do it very often. Even mild ICM pressure incentivizes you to four-bet or fold preflop more than you call from out of position. Calling is a bigger part of your strategy when the stack depth becomes shallower, for two reasons: Your opponent\u2019s three-bet should be smaller, offering you better immediate calling odds . Being out of position is less of a liability, making it easier to realize equity with marginal hands. Even so, calling should remain your least frequent action in response to a three-bet from an in position player at all stack depths. Among other things, shallower stacks also make shoving more appealing by reducing the downside risk when all-in. These numbers remain similar regardless of your position. The composition of the ranges changes to reflect the width of the initial opening range, but facing a three-bet, the opener folds, calls, and four-bets similar proportions of that opening range regardless of their position . This is because the three-betting range takes the original raiser\u2019s position into account. So, while an early position opener will have a stronger range than a late position opener, the raiser\u2019s range for three-betting the early position open will be stronger as well, leading the opener to respond with similar frequencies. The proportions shown in the chart below reflect modest ICM considerations with 50% of the field remaining. As we have seen, more ICM pressure will result in more folding and less calling. Playing the Flop Calling a three-bet from out of position is voluntarily entering a disadvantageous situation because the price is right. You should expect to have a weaker range postflop and to lose more pots than you win. The caller always has a weaker preflop range than a preflop reraiser in a three-bet pot, for reasons that are similar to why a BB caller has a weaker range than a preflop raiser in a single-raised pot: The three-bet risks more than the call . When CO opens to 2.1bb and BTN reraises to 6.82bb, the raise puts 6.82bb at risk, while the call risks only an additional 4.72bb. The call closes the action . Whereas the three-bettor risks a four-bet from a player who has not yet acted or, more likely, from the original raiser, the caller can be sure they will see the flop. The caller is incentivized to four-bet their strongest hands . Slowplaying is generally risky from"}
{"text":"the effective stack is\u2026 Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on\u2026 Variance and Bankroll Management Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player. How to Become a GTO Wizard Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as\u2026 The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word \u201cindifference\u201d means that\u2026 Poker subsets and abstractions An \u201cabstraction\u201d is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so\u2026 Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker. How to solve toy games Poker is a complicated game. It\u2019s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By\u2026 The Value of Fold Equity \u2013 Experiment The term \u201cfold equity\u201d is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"odds of improving this hand. Hero check\/folds. Not all flops are no-go c-bets against Nits. On dry Axx and Kxx boards, Hero should still expect a good amount of fold equity from that high concentration of pocket pairs in Villain's range. The real skill is combining the various c-bet factors together to assess the entire situation. Let's move on and learn how to assess the next one in our table. 4. Showdown Value (SDV) When we use this term, we're not usually talking about the nuts. We're talking about a hand that is ahead of a good part of Villain's range but probably can't extract too much value by betting or raising. The figure below explains the spectrum of made-hand strength ranging from air to the nuts. Note that the draws we looked at earlier have a different type of merit: they have equity, but not showdown value. Their equity is called 'non-made-hand' equity and although this equity is often very useful, the hands aren't winning at showdown as things currently stand and so they fall into the left hand side of the model below. Figure 21 - The SDV Spectrum The factors up until this point have all been positive factors in that the more we have of the thing in question, the better for c-betting. With SDV , it's actually the opposite, at least until we get into the green value zone and our c-bet ceases to be a light one. So let's start at the top: why is it less good to bet with SDV? Well, what SDV does is grant us opportunities to win the pot at showdown i.e without making our opponent fold. The thought is that if we're only making villain fold hands worse than ours, then what's the point of betting and losing extra money to the better ones? As we'll see, this is a great line of reasoning where we have stable SDV value, but where SDV is vulnerable there are arguments for c-betting anyway. Let's take a look at some examples of each part of this spectrum. No SDV 1"}
{"text":"Triton History Today, we\u2019ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I\u2019ve ever witnessed! Our\u2026 Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately\u2014determining whether it\u2019s strong enough to value bet or so weak you\u2026 Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It\u2019s easy to imagine that\u2026 How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there\u2019s no getting around that.\u2026 How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting\u2013taking the betting lead away from the previous street\u2019s aggressor\u2013on the flop is rarely\u2026 How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical\u2026 How to Leverage GTO Wizard\u2019s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker\u2026 Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there\u2019s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will\u2026 When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you\u2019ll know I\u2026 When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my\u2026 OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that \u201cPlaying against an in-position cold-caller is\u2026 Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to\u2026 When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure\u2026 How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,\u2026 C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the\u2026 Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get\u2026 Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being\u2026 Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of 400K\/800K\/800K,\u2026 Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?\u2026 Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine"}
{"text":"15 years of poker coaching, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients improve\u2026 Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results\u2026 The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted\u2026 Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter\/X user \u2019Matt Riley\u2019, who\u2026 The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash\u2026 When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody\u2026 Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend\u2026 Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you\u2019re value betting against\u2026 Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should\u2026 I\u2019d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K\u26658\u26665\u2666 flop: K\u2660T\u2663 or 7\u26656\u2665? OK, I\u2019ll admit\u2026 The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players\u2026 Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A \u201csticky\u201d player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and\u2026 Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of\u2026 Heads up! Exploiting SB\u2019s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,\u2026 C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone\u2026 Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,\u2026 River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won\u2019t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting\u2026 Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this\u2026 The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A\u2660A\u2663 in the\u2026 The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful\u2026 How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs \u201cThey always have it!\u201d is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency\u2026 Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I\u2019m not referring to\u2026 C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to\u2026 C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both\u2026 The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching\u2014calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if\u2026 Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops,"}
{"text":"you on the turn, it costs them their eyeballs. And most people aren\u2019t willing to commit tons of chips to a re-bluff. When you bluff on the turn, for them to come back at you will cost themprobably every chip they have on the table. So your turn bluff simultaneously shuts out the re-bluff and gives you confidence that when they do fireback, they have a real hand. While reopening the action on the flop is a worry, on the turn it\u2019s not, because only the very best hands will come after you. And that\u2019s what you want to find out anyway. So here\u2019s the bottom line for bluffing: WAIT Wait till the time is right. Do this one thing right and your bluffs will become a devastating weapon in your arsenal, and what\u2019s not to like about that? Your Right to Bluff (You\u2019re Right to Bluff, Too) If you think about the categories of hands we\u2019ve discussed in this book\u2014monsters, draws, top pair, and bluffs\u2014you\u2019ll see that i give equal weight to bluffs as I do to other types of hands. Bluffing doesn\u2019t happen by accident and it shouldn\u2019t be considered a \u201cghetto\u201d part of your game. Rather, it should be the strategy you adopt when your analysis indicates you don\u2019t have the best hand and your goal is to win despite it. In other words, giveyourself full freedom to bluff as much as the game you\u2019re in demands and allows, and I\u2019ll bet that right now you don\u2019t have nearly enough bluff in your game. That said, it\u2019s a rare hand you\u2019ll go into saying, \u201cI\u2019m going to bluff, no matter what.\u201d The logic of that breaks down for two reasons. First, you don\u2019t know how the hand will develop, and if you\u2019re locked into a strategy, then it\u2019s not a strategy, it\u2019s a trap. Second, considering how hard it is to make a hand in hold \u2019em\u2014for both you and your opponents\u2014you\u2019ll find ample situational opportunities to bluff without ever having to go hunting for extraones. Now, you could call it a bluff, I suppose, to bet in last position without a hand before the flop when everyone folds to you. I mean, you know youdon\u2019t have the best hand, but then again, that\u2019s just plain-ol\u2019 garden-variety aggressiveness. Iwouldn\u2019t call that a bluff. Nor would I call it a particularlygood idea to call in position before the flop with nothing, just for the sake of trying to bluff after the flop. Yes, you have position and that\u2019s good, but no, you don\u2019t have good cards and that\u2019s bad. In other words, you have no second way to win. All bluffs work better when they\u2019re supported bybackup ways to win. But think about it. Against a weak loose player, you can call in position before the flop with hands from the bottom of his range on up. Isn\u2019t that enough? Of course it is. You\u2019ll find plenty of opportunities to get involved. You don\u2019t have to go looking for reckless adventures that increase your variance in an already variance-heavy game."}
{"text":"you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,\u2026 C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold\u2026 Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the\u2026 Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the\u2026 Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get\u2026 Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being\u2026 Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The\u2026 KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of 400K\/800K\/800K,\u2026 Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?\u2026 Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of Canadian programmers from Quebec, developed\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Explained We are excited to introduce GTO Wizard AI, formerly known as Ruse, the world\u2019s best\u2026 GTO Wizard AI Benchmarks GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional solving methods to bring\u2026 Table Management in PKOs Perhaps the most important strategic consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs) is making sure you\u2026 Overcalling From the BB In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also\u2026 Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach\u2026 Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon\u2026 Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to\u2026 Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked Playing out of position is tricky, but it\u2019s an essential part of tournament play. With\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the BB in MTTs Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB\u2019s equilibrium strategy\u2026 The Absurd Game Theory of Chopped Boards A \u201cchopped board\u201d in poker is one where the community cards make up the best\u2026 Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs MTT confrontations between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations,\u2026 The Art of Learning Poker In his book The Art of Learning, chess and Push Hands champion Josh Waitzkin describes\u2026 Is Donk Betting for Donkeys? \u201cDonk betting\u201d, or betting from out of position into the player who was the aggressor\u2026 Delayed C-Betting This is a companion piece to Probe Betting. It stands on its own, but understanding\u2026 Probe Betting As"}
{"text":"entire preflop calling range which is going to be really wide and the nice thing about letting it go check check on the flop with this ace4 is that ace4 actually crushes a really wide range because our opponent's going to be in this pot in the big blind with all sorts of unpaired hands right and you know middle pair type hands which chase four beats so this is a situation where now if the opponent bets the turn we're gonna call every time because we don't have a premium made hand here we have a marginal made hand so we're gonna call with our marginal made hands if somehow we did have a premium made hand like so we had pocket tens we would raise if i somehow had a draw like i don't even know what draws i could have here let's say i had like king king five of hearts i mean i don't even think i would raise that but that would be a hand that where raising does at least have some merit because we have a draw right but this is a situation where with my ace four even if it was not ace four the flush draw i would definitely just call the turnback fat ace four of diamonds for example i would call the turn bat and then if the opponent bent the river i would also call and this is a situation where our hand in most people's eyes looks way weaker than it actually is and when your hand looks way weaker than it actually is you just do not need to fold all that often unless of course you know something about your opponent's strategy and you adjust accordingly remember if you know your opponent does something wrong like perhaps never bluffs the river if you know for a fact your opponent's never bluffing the river and he has an ace or better every time well we actually lose to all the aces right so we should fold this hand but that's not gonna be the case against most people so we have an easy call and um you know the opponent had a reasonable hand to play this way right they called our pre-flop waves with six five of hearts which is fine they um went check check on the flop they probably were just gonna fold if we bet but we didn't so we kept them in with a hand that was drawing really thin which means they were basically never gonna win on the turn they turned a flush draw so they bet that makes sense then on the river they have one of the worst hands they can have and when you have one of the worst hands you can have on the river there's often merit and bluffing with it so our opponent bluffed with it and we called and we ended up winning a decent pot in the spot where a lot of people don't win the pop because they just bet the flop"}
{"text":"SOME PREFLOP HEADS-UP ALL-IN MATCHUPS 154 8\u26638\u2662vs. 8\u26615\u2663 89.89% | 10.11% When a pocket pair is pitted against an undercard and a card of its rank, the pair is about a 9-to-1 favorite. A\u2663K\u2660vs. J\u26619\u2662 63.92% | 36.08% When a non-pair hand is pitted against two undercards, the bigger hand is about a 9-to-5 favorite. A\u2663J\u2660vs. K\u26619\u2661 59.84% | 40.16% When a non-pair hand is pitted against an in-between card and an undercard, the bigger hand is about a 3-to-2 favorite. A\u2663T\u2660vs. K\u2661Q\u2661 55.93% | 44.07% When a non-pair hand is pitted against two in-between cards, the bigger hand is about a 6-to-5 favorite. A\u2663K\u2660vs. A\u2661Q\u2663 74.75% | 25.25% When a non-pair hand is pitted against an undercard and a card matching one of its ranks, the bigger hand is about a 3-to-1 favorite. Final Thoughts These are the basic matchups. The numbers change some depending on which hands are suited versus unsuited, connected versus unconnected, and sharing suits versus not sharing them. They also change quite a bit if the cards are high (A\u2663K\u2660vs. A\u2661Q\u2663) versus low (A\u26637\u2660vs. A\u26614\u2663) due to counterfeiting. Nevertheless, if you play a lot of tournaments, you might want to commit these approximate odds to memory. This knowledge should help you with your raising and calling decisions."}
{"text":"a mile on average we're gonna win three thousand dollars but this time we happen to run like God and we ran nine we won nineteen thousand dollars cool that's what most people think however look at all these lines down here here's the zero line roughly right here right notice all of these players played 100 tournaments with a 30 return on investment and they all lost uh there are 20 lines drawn on this chart by the way so one person ran an ungodly hot one two three four five six seven seven one more than three thousand bucks everybody else lost eight or so in this random sample out of 20 lost money yeah 12 12 or so lost money in this random sample and that's because there's a lot of variance in any 100 game sample a lot of people don't realize that they think that 100 tournaments is a lot because they play one tournament a weekend and how could you possibly lose over a year in poker well the answer is there's a ton of variants in poker tournaments and you know maybe you're gonna be the one person who runs on Godly hot but you're probably not and that's gonna result in you losing now if your Edge is higher you are going to see lines that mostly go straight up more often right and your average win will be larger but there's still going to be players who run poorly right I mean notice in this game this player over 100 tournaments like had a big score one two three four five six seven eight this person had eight big scores in 100 tournaments which is ridiculous player here The Biggest Loser had literally none and this is like what 500 bucks they got a 500 cash once or twice this player's money just went straight into the garbage and to be fair I'm surprised somebody didn't run even worse right what are one of my clears this is someone with a 30 return on investment which is pretty good playing 100 games with with relatively small fields okay what happens if now we do the same thing but instead of playing 100 tournaments we play a thousand this is gonna be if you're playing like well three tournaments every day for a year notice now here's the zero line almost no one loses basically actually no one loses no one loses over this thousand game sample if you play a hundred person tournaments with small feet a small field tournament with a 30 return on investment which is good essentially you zoom out you play a lot of games you add a lot of volume it makes the variance not really matter so much that said one in 20 times this good player played a thousand tournaments and won about 500 bucks obviously there's still gonna be some players who run ungodly hot but you know most players are going to fall within this band where they win or lose roughly their return"}
{"text":"big blind who with the big blind and he feels like they just have to call now oh that could work too but if that doesn't work well [Music] god there's so many different ways to approach that Scott you're talking about the stuff I have the most fun with so the other thing you can do is like 2x if there's a guy that just never stops the rebodied and then everybody calls and then that the dork squeezer will squeeze there then you can just min 4x and what they'll do is they'll just call like really quick when they don't have it and what they do have that they have to think about it because obviously they have to decide whether to trap or find out and then you just cleared everybody out and you got the dork with the jack 7 suited all to yourself with all this dead money but again that's a really hard one to pull off warlock says isolating when you have an open limper and three-plus lengthy hines is brutal i go to one expert limper plus 3.5 x the big blind it's still lined up being multi way I can't go larger without committing way too much of my stack which is in a fact they of shove on any pair that are gonna limp behind what this happens are just fire largely over if you can short stack my warlock and it even 40 X is what I'm talking about you could actually affect a very good Jam there in a lot of those and then you can just keep God hold on I'm trying to sorry girlfriends about to call me so I think I've gone over time already I usually just fire a large and go for it though is the thing and there there are some wonderful opportunities for short stackers they're really recommend you get a copy of card runners TV and play with that it's really easy to program James I'm Carter Busey baby is it's just everybody has to fold or Jam on top I mean not easy to take some time but it you'll find if people just don't limp in a big hand which is there are games where people like wear that on their faces they'll tell it to you to your faith you can really work that okay Ralph says he loves this thank you thanks for doing the webinar how do I just two players who like to raise my seed beds bet only four value three deaf to them um usually the typical raising range I've found most people will not raise less than two pair one of the hardest things as a coach is teaching people to raise a pair for value and trying to get them to bluff is very difficult as well and I used to think well that's only because I'm dealing with very dedicated players now that I've talked to thousands upon thousands and poker players I realized people just don't like to raise"}
{"text":"Firstly, it\u2019s an EV equation,\u2026 MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how\u2026 What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell\u2026 Does your range affect your strategy? Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy. Visualizing implied odds Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity.\u2026 ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of \u201cICM\u201d, but what\u2026 What is Equity in Poker? The term \u201cEquity\u201d is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning\u2026 Range Morphology \u201cMorphology\u201d is the study of form or structure. You\u2019ve probably heard terms thrown around such\u2026 What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is\u2026 Why doesn\u2019t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you\u2019ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and\u2026 Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is \u201cWhy\u2026 Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a\u2026 The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most\u2026 What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study\u2026 What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it \u201cunexploitable\u201d? What does it try\u2026"}
{"text":"Preflop The first betting street in no limit hold \u2018em, which occurs before the flop has been dealt."}
{"text":"opponent will play. The fact that you are mixing between calls and folds means the two must have the same EV, which must be $0 since that is always the EV of folding (in a Chip EV environment). This is why bluff catching is worthless : even if your opponent bluffs when they\u2019re supposed to, and you get your calling frequency precisely right, you still don\u2019t make any more money than you would have if you had folded. Bluff Catching on the River In real hold \u2018em situations, this dynamic is easiest to see on the river. Here\u2019s an example where BB calls a raise from UTG in a 100bb cash game, checks and calls 76% pot on the A \u2665 T \u2666 6 \u2665 flop and 125% pot on the 4 \u2660 turn, then checks and faces an all-in bet for just over 200% pot on the 2 \u2665 river. Boxes appear on this grid as either fully green for hands which always call , fully blue for hands which always fold , or a mix of blue and green for hands which sometimes call and sometimes fold . That \u201csometimes\u201d can mean one of two things: it may be that the hand either purely calls or purely folds depending on suits, or it may be that the hand is indifferent between calling and folding\u2014the equivalent of a K in the AKQ game . The pure calls\u2014the ones that are profitable rather than breakeven bluff catchers\u2014are mostly flushes. The T9 s and T8 s that call are flushes, not second pair. T6 s, which makes two pair, is a pure fold. There are some pure calls from other hands, though it\u2019s tough to tell from the grid. A9 and AT always fold without a heart but always call when they have one: This is not true for all the Ace-x, however. AQ always folds without the Q \u2665 but is indifferent with it: The above grid shows Call with an EV of .01, but that\u2019s just a convergence error . If calling were actually more profitable than folding, even by a tiny fraction, the solver would call every time. Not even all flushes are profitable bluff catchers. Check out the strategy for 5 \u2665 3 \u2665 : Not even all flushes are profitable bluff catchers. What\u2019s going on here? Why is the solver folding some two pair and sometimes even a flush but calling with some top pair? When Bluffcatching is Worthwhile Three factors could make calling this river shove profitable rather than breakeven: You expect to beat some of UTG\u2019s value bets . In this case, your hand is not even technically a bluff catcher because the value of the call doesn\u2019t only come from beating bluffs. With a pure bluff catcher, the sort that\u2019s indifferent to calling, the money you expect to win from bluffs is exactly equal to the money you expect to lose to value bets. When you call with J \u2665 4 \u2665 , you aren\u2019t a lock to win, but you will win more, on"}
{"text":"the next logical question is what does this Aid of Spades change essentially this turn has no interaction with any part of Bryce's range except perhaps pocket eights and Ace 8. and given the sizing over 3x the pot including Ace 8 is a bit of a stretch especially if you think Alexandra regularly cold calls Ace King pre-flop and on the bluff side this eight doesn't bring in any new straight or flush draws although as mentioned the price could have raised pre-flop with something like Queen Jack or queen 10 suited if you decided not to Bluff those hands on the Flop donk jamming them on this turn doesn't really make any sense so basically what Bryce is saying here is I have exactly pocket eights it's really the only logical hand that can make this play now of course imputing logic to this sort of riffraff is dubious but when you're playing against an unknown villain you kind of have to assume some rationality to devise counter strategies against or else you're just clicking buttons so as a general matter in Bryce's shoes we want to avoid taking actions that only a very small number of hands in our range have an incentive to take because narrowing your range dramatically simply makes you easier to play against in this case although this bet ultimately worked out for Bryce because Alexandra happened to have top two if she just had a pair which was much more likely folding would have been relatively easy and Bryce would have lost out on many chips so how do you avoid playing face up like this through balance but when we say balance we don't mean perfect balance in accordance with a solver where we are mixing combo shows at the exact right frequencies using a randomizer as is the case with strict GTO we simply mean playing hands of different strength in similar ways just enough so as to disguise our strategies recall how we said that since villains cards are hidden we need to consider a probability distribution of hands that they could have well villain doesn't know our cards either so we want to take advantage of this fact by keeping as much of our range intact as possible through balance and the level of balance a person needs to effectively disguise his strategies will depend on the context in most live environments the level of balance you need when betting basically amounts to just sometimes showing up with value and sometimes showing up with Bluffs that would usually be enough to keep opponents honest and on their toes however if you're playing high stakes online against regs who have Huds that allow them to analyze your tendencies in all spots then the level of balance you will need will be much higher so as a practical matter how might one incorporate balance in this type of setting well one simple way to do it is by using range morphologies which we alluded to earlier as mentioned given Bryce's check a"}
{"text":"you can take a lot of flops for $400 if the payoff might be $20,000 to $30,000. Lyle Berman\u2019s Killer Cards Chart In the late 1980s, I was twiddling my thumbs in my condo in Vail, forced by the crummy weather to stay inside all day. Sitting in front of the fireplace, I started to wonder what a killer card is worth in Omaha. For example, suppose you have a set or two pair and your opponent is drawing to a straight or a flush. If he makes his straight or flush on the turn, you could still kill him on the turn or the river by making a full house for the best hand. Or, you could make your full house on the turn, and he would be drawing dead. I knew that killer cards were very valuable, but I didn\u2019t know exactly what they were worth. All I had with me was a calculator, but I was able to come 294 up with a formula that generated the chart below, which has never before appeared in print. If I were given just a basic calculator today and forced to stay put in a room for a week, I wouldn\u2019t bet that I could recreate this chart. I believe it is perfect. The chart shows how many wins you have, assuming that you\u2019re the dog, the person who does not have the best hand. When you have a set, you actually have two calculations to consider\u2014one on the turn and one on the river. You have seven cards to kill with on the turn. In other words, you have seven cards that will make a full house or four-of-a-kind, and if you don\u2019t make it, you have three more because the river can pair that card as well. So you have seven and then ten, for seventeen outs or killers. The chart shows the 41-card percentages for Omaha. We are concentrating on the 41-card percentages, and the eight killer columns to the right apply to Omaha. The fourth column shows what each killer card is worth in Omaha (it\u2019s very similar in hold\u2019em) and extrapolates from there. Basically, the chart shows that in order to be 50-50 against a set, you really need seventeen outs twice. This is significant for Omaha, because most people think it\u2019s thirteen or fourteen, as it is in hold\u2019em. 295 TRIPLE DRAW by Daniel Negreanu INTRODUCTION In recent years, triple draw has steadily increased in popularity. In fact, these days you will rarely find a high-limit game at the Bellagio in Las Vegas that does not include some form of triple draw. Typically, tables that are $200\/$400 and higher are mixed games, so in order to participate you\u2019ll have to learn the fundamentals of several forms of poker, including triple draw. In this chapter, we\u2019ll cover the deuce-to-seven form of triple draw. It is the more widespread and intricate of the two most common triple draw games, the other being ace-to-five lowball. Most of what you\u2019ll learn here applies to ace-to-five as well, but near the"}
{"text":"Hand Range 97: SB vs BB 15bb (Limp vs All-in) \u2022 Call 21.3% \/ \u2022 Fold 78.7%"}
{"text":"Offsuit A term which describes hole cards containing cards of different suits."}