Datasets:

aniketarahane

/

llmsandpoker

like 0

Rack A chip tray used to transport chips in live poker venues.

dealer, leave a chip on top of your cards to prevent the cards from being accidentally scooped up. Once your cards are gone, you do not get them back. Act in turn: Don't broadcast actions before it is your turn-such as reaching for chips or giving cards back to the dealer. If you fold before someone has a chance to bet, they don't have to worry about a raise from you. If you bet a good hand before people ahead of you have acted, they may fold, which costs you money. Acting out of turn gives information to opponents that they should not have. Actions are to fold, check, bet, call, and raise: While most communication is non-verbal, all communication of your intended action, including verbal statements, is binding. To fold-Return your cards to the dealer. Do not expose them to anyone. To check-Tap the table with your hand. To bet or call-Place the money in front of you. State the amount if ambiguous. To raise-Place the money in front of you. State the amount if ambiguous, or if the dealer needs to make change from the pot. TEXAS HOLD'EM IN A CARDROOM 21 Don't splash the pot: Always put bets in front of you where the dealer can clearly see the amount. Let the dealer handle the money and make change if necessary. If you throw your money directly into the pot, no one is absolutely sure if you bet the correct amount. The game will be interrupted while the dealer counts all the money in the pot, and the other players will be upset with you for causing the break in the action. Don't make string bets: A string bet is where you call a bet and then reach back to your pile of chips to raise. You must place all the chips for raise at once, or state your intention to raise out loud. Don't give information (especially after you've folded): This especially angers other players because it can have a big effect on a hand. If you threw away the A+ and now there is a Diamond flush possible on the board, a person holding a King-high flush has the highest possible hand. If you comment out loud about throwing away the Ace, the person with the King can raise to the maximum, now knowing they can't be beat. If cards are exposed in any way (which happens occasionally by accident), everyone at the table must be shown the card. If you expose your cards to another player, all players at the table can demand to see your cards. Don't delay the game: Pay attention. Act in a timely fashion when it is your turn. Respect the dealer: If the dealer makes a mistake, be polite. If you have just received pocket Aces for example, and there is a misdeal before you have a chance to play them, do not give the dealer a hard time. The cards are not yours until everyone has been properly dealt. If the dealer makes a mistake that negates the deal, that

If you decide you can't get away with a bluff on the end when you miss your hand, then you should bet for value when you do make your hand. (The only exception to this principle would occur in games like hold 'em and five-card stud, where your opponent can see your last card and might often have a good sense of whether it made your hand. In those cases, if you bet a hand for value, you are likely to get called — or raised — only by a hand that has you beat.) Similarly, when you don't think a value bet is justified with a fair hand, since your opponent will only call if he has you beat, then if you miss your hand, you should usually bluff. For when you bluff, it is possible your opponent will throw away his fair hands. Sometimes it may be correct both to bluff and to bet a fair hand for value on the end. Suppose you are up against one player and decide, before you see your last card, that you will come out betting if you don't improve. In seven-card stud, let's say on sixth street you have: Notice that in addition to your A,Q high four-flush you hold a small pair. When you pick up your last card, you find that you 174 Chapter Eighteen didn't make the flush, but you don't have a bad hand either. You caught another queen and so now have queens up. Should you bet this hand for value? Many professional players say no. They contend that if you were so sure you should bluff if you missed, then you should not bet a fair hand for value since you will only be called if your opponent has you beat. However, both plays may be right, especially if the pot is large. Let's say there's an 80 percent chance your queens up are the best hand, and there's a 30 percent chance your opponent will fold if you bet. That means that if you bet your queens up for value, 30 percent of the time your opponent will fold and not pay you off. Nevertheless, you are still a 5-to-2 favorite when that player calls your bet. You will win that extra bet 50 percent of the time, while you will lose it only the 20 percent of the time your opponent has your queens up beat. Clearly, then, you should bet with your two pair since you have a 5/7 chance of winning if you are called. On the other hand, if you miss making even two pair, there is still a 30 percent chance your opponent will fold what may be the best hand if you bet. Therefore, a bluff will also be profitable in the long run, so long as your bet is less than 3/7 of the pot. A similar situation comes up in hold 'em when I am heads-up against a good player. I raise before the flop in last position, and my opponent calls. The flop comes something like:

would win one bet, then you made the right play by checking even if it didn't happen to work. Sometimes you also gain an added benefit when a check-raise doesn't work. Since your opponents noticed you checked a good hand once, they may become a little timid about betting behind you on future hands, thus saving you some bets on second-best hands with which you were planning to call if they bet. Check-raising on the end works best against average-to-good players. You should try it less often against weak players and tough players. Weak players tend to call so much on the end when you bet that you have to be pretty certain they will bet for a check-raise to be profitable. If, for example, you are sure your opponent will call if you come out betting, you have to be over 50 percent sure he will bet if you check before you consider checkraising. Even 50 percent isn't good enough unless you are also sure your opponent will call when you raise (which, of course, a weak player will most likely do). Against tough players you would check-raise less often because tough players tend not to bet as many hands on the end as they call you with, and they frequently throw away their hands when you raise. Thus, the chances of winning a double bet with a check-raise decrease. There is one major time to deviate from the general check-raise formula, and that is when you think you can win three bets by betting, getting raised, and then reraising. A classic example of such a situation against an average player in seven-card stud occurs when you look like a straight on board but have a hidden full house, and your opponent may have a flush. You bet your apparent straight, your opponent raises with his flush, and you lift him out of his seat by reraising. Heads-Up On The End 209 Playing Fair-to-Good Hands in First Position as a Favorite In first position, with fair-to-good hands that are not strong enough to try a check-raise, you have three options — to bet, to check and call when your opponent bets, and to check and fold when your opponent bets. Which play you try in any given situation depends not so much upon the strength of your hand but upon your mathematical expectation for each play. And your expectation depends upon your ability to assess your opponent's style of play and what he is likely to do in a given situation. Some players bet with more hands than they call with; others call with more hands than they bet with; and still other, very tight players bet only when they are sure they have you beat. Thus, how you act in first position depends upon your knowledge of your opponent. Here are the general rules for each play. If your hand is worth a call or almost worth a call had you checked and your opponent bet, you should bet when your opponent is one who will call with more hands

just gonna make all these free videos on YouTube Jonathan's like I'm gonna make some free videos on YouTube but I'm gonna take my 700 videos and put them on a member training site where people are uber serious and over the years he created 786 poker training videos its massive it's over 400 hours of poker videos and when you sign up for poker coaching com which again has that seven-day free trial you get access to all the float to turn videos as well so you get those for free as well for a week and you'll see that this is just an absolute wealth of knowledge that beyond the free trial will pay for itself very quickly because Jonathan is a really great poker mind and a really great teacher and a really great player too so here's a happy member of poker coaching comm you know one a live tournament in Maryland state and said he couldn't have done it without Jonathan Lil's books an online coaching site and a few lucky flops I too have had some wins and Jonathan's tournament books fantastic his webinars fantastic I really love the one he did with Phil Hellmuth reviewing Phil's World Series of Poker Europe main event win and I love his quizzes too so it's it's a real honor to be a part of the site and if you guys want to get your seven day free trial that's where it's at poker coaching dot-com and with all that said thank you so much for watching the webinar I hope you learned some valuable material which is going to help you make more profit in future sessions if you have any questions now is the time to post them in the twitch chat if you are watching this presentation on GoToWebinar and you haven't yet opened the twitch chat please go to twitch.tv forward slash grips GRI psee D and you will see a chat box which is currently popping off with questions and that is where I will be responding to the questions because I cannot see the GoToWebinar chat box it is not that I am ignoring you guys if you're a GoToWebinar chat I just literally cannot see the chat box and I really want to answer your questions so if you have a question and you'd like me to answer it come on over to twitch TV forward slash grips get in that chat box and copypasta your questions and I will get into it okay also if you enjoyed this webinar and you want to get into the next one save the dates mark it on your calendar April 30th at p.m. Eastern Time it's the last Tuesday of the month and I will also be doing my third webinar on May 28th at 8 p.m. Eastern time it's basically the last Tuesday of the month is when you can expect poker coaching webinar from Evan grips Jarvis ok let's see what we got in the question Blizzard says fantastic thanks I have

and sometimes they even stop breathing! When opponents appear not to be breathing after they bet, there’s a much higher-than-normal chance that they’re bluffing. TIP 34 Here’s just another member of the same powerful family of tells. Closely observe opponents who are sucking on candy or chewing gum. If they continue to do so naturally after betting, they’re probably relaxed and hoping for your call. If they stop sucking or chewing, it’s likely that they’re bluffing. You can sometimes force this tell when you’re holding a marginal calling hand by reaching slightly toward your chips. Often a player who is bluffing will grow concerned and all sucking or chewing will suddenly cease. That’s when you should call. If you don’t get that reaction, fold. TIP 35 Your opponents are always conscious that you might be observing them. It makes them uncomfortable, and that’s why they become actors, especially in the low- and medium-limit games. They try to fool you by almost invariably acting weak when they hold strong hands and strong when they hold weak hands. This means that when you see an opponent shrug or hear a sigh, that’s an act intended to convey sadness. Don’t be fooled. You’re probably facing a powerful hand. Why would players go out of their way to convey sadness and make you suspicious if they didn’t want you to call? They wouldn’t. 95 Confronted with conspicuous sadness, you should usually fold all mediumstrong hands. TIP 36 Another common way that opponents try to convey sadness is through the tone of their voices when they say “bet.” Listen closely for it. Whenever you hear, “I bet” spoken in a singsong, drawn-out manner that suggests, “Gosh, I wish I didn’t have to do this,” that’s almost certainly an indication of a powerful hand. Seldom call unless you have one, too. TIP 37 Here’s an occasional tell that you’ll see, sometimes even in the biggest-limit games. Suppose an opponent tries to bet a stack of chips, but some spill off the top as he positions them in the pot. What does that imply? Usually nothing. It’s what happens next that matters. If the player is holding a weak hand or is bluffing, he’s probably worried that the mistake will make you suspicious and invite you to call (remember the calling reflex?). So if you’re facing a weak hand, you’re likely to see the opponent try to neaten up the chips—to erase the error. If that happens, you should be much more willing to call. But, if there is no attempt to correct the fumbled bet, you’re likely to be against an opponent who isn’t worried, and you should be reluctant to call. TIP 38 One of the strongest tips for hold’em or Omaha players is to avoid watching the flop. It will still be there later. As the dealer turns over those first three board cards, observe your opponents. This is a goldmine for tells. Most players are unaware that you’re watching them at the moment the flop hits, so they’re unlikely to be acting right then. What

And then they’ll go broke and they’ll cry. So here we see two types of mismanagement at work. First, there’s the money mismanagement—squandering the bankroll. Second, there’s theego mismanagement—the sense that you’re better than you are. Let these two beasts loose and you’re really in the soup. Just ask any talentedrailbird who’s ever hit you up for a loan. I’m not telling you never to play craps or baccarat or slots or whatever. I’m just saying that that money had damn well better be recreational and not have a negative impact on your poker bankroll. If it does, you’re like a carpenter who starts hocking his tools, or melting them down to make tinwhistles. It just doesn’t make any sense. You’re the one who’s supposed to have the edge, right? Not the house. So some players go broke when they let their bankrolls leak. But even players sensible enough not to play keno (!) still go broke by putting toohigh a percentage of their bankroll on the table at once. This is particularly common online, where you can accumulate money very quickly. You get a lot of hours in. You get in a lot of churn. And if you hit a lucky streak with a lot of churn, you’ll accumulate a lot of money very fast. And think you can continue to win at that rate. And put too much on the table at once. And go broke in a day. The story is famously told of a blue-collar guy who liked his poker and played a sensible responsible game. He had no bankroll to speak of, so hejust played satellites. Satellite after satellite, enjoying his poker and doing a good job of ego and life management. Then one day he caught lucky, won a satellite into a big tournament, and cashed out of the event for $250,000. Can you guess where this story is going? Now he’s got a quarter of a million dollars and suddenly thinks he’s too good to play satellites. So he just starts buying into every tournament that comes his way. It takes five months, but he manages to burn through all $250,000. Maybe he wasn’t even that bad a player. Maybe he just got really lucky once, then not unusually unlucky for a not-unusual length of time. Anyway, that’s a quarter-mil he let go of. It’s hard to get hold of a quarter of a million dollars. Ask anyone. So if you’re to play poker successfully, you’ll need some bankroll rules. And I know I said that the first rule is there are no rules, but this is the exception that proves that one. Bankroll Rules When you hear my bankroll rules, you might think they’re insanely tight. But if you happen to have no other income besides poker, they’re absolutely vital. The good news is they absolutely work. How well? This well: If you follow them, you’ll never go broke. You’ll always be in action. And even if you’re playing poker on the side and have other income, you should still be playing with a

the blinds actually have a hand. You should have an arsenal of steal attempts in you mind for different situations. I remember being in a tournament and watching my opponents go all-in from UTG. This is a strong steal attempt because many players will put you on a very good hand from that position and will not risk being wrong. But, this steal attempt, pre-flop, is risky because someone may have a very good hand in front of you. Another point to think about is what the total chips in play are. You should estimate what size stack you need to get to the final table. With ten players at a final table then you should think of building your chip stack to ten percent of the total tournament chips in play. This makes your goal seem much easier to obtain in the middle of the tournament. You will see huge chip stacks with the lead at this stage of the tournament, opponents with ten or even thirty times yours. Do not play to catch up to them. I assure you, if you are not the chip leader you have not lost the tournament. Later in the tournament when the blinds start getting large there are more opportunities to double with huge pots. In no limit and even limit tournaments the chips leaders change places multiple times, jockeying up and down the leader board. Sometimes a player will bust out and you have moved up a place without risking anything. Do not get over anxious and force your play (play poor cards without the value or start fishing for draws). If you have an average chip stack or 5-10% below the average chip stack, you are in good shape to improve. You do have work ahead of you but do not get desperate. If you have one of the largest stacks at a table then protect your stack while flexing your muscles more often. You can try to knock the smaller stacks around and take them out if you have a good hand. Spending 5 to 10% of your chip stack into a speculative hand or a strong draw against a small stack that is probably playing weak cards because they cannot survive another rotation is a way to continue building your stack. If you tighten up too much in the this stage then everyone will catch up to your chip count as the middle stacks take out other people or the small stacks catch cards. The larger your chip-stack the more you can bully someone to steal the pot with a bluff or a semi-bluff. It is a balancing act. I have seen large chip stacks try to push and intimidate too much and be knocked down or out of the tournament. Other players with medium stacks will try to trap you more often or you will start making mistakes because you feel like you have a few chips to burn speculating. Do not get carried away. Once again, protect your chips, tournament are about survival. If there is a good

Hand Range 67: BN vs CO 4-bet • 5-bet All-in 17.1% / • Call 45.2% / • Fold 37.3% Small Blind From the SB vs the LJ, you play a 3-bet or fold strategy similar to play from the HJ and CO, despite getting a discount on the call. Calling puts the SB in a bad situation where the BB remains active and can squeeze, forcing SB off their equity. Alternatively, the BB can call and realize their post-flop equity, capturing a portion of the pot. SB equity realization post-flop out of position against two players is quite bad, particularly with high SPRs. All of this, combined with

Now let’s imagine P1 had only one type of hand in their range, either the nuts or air. P2 would again have an easy decision. In this case, the action of betting would not have any value at all because P2 would never call a bet when P1 has AA and P2 would always call when P1 had QQ. So again, P1 would never bet. In this case, each player’s EV would be $50, but in the original toy game where P1’s range is 50% AA and 50% QQ, betting has value, and the way to measure the value of having the option to bet for P1 is to compare the EV of the toy game with the option to bet against the toy game where the option to bet is removed: In this toy game, the strategic option of betting for P1 has a value of $25 and the reason P1 is able to extract value by betting is because of range composition. Furthermore, if the cards were face-up, P2 would only call when seeing P1 has QQ and would never call when P2 has AA. If the cards were face-up, betting would not make any sense and they might as well as check 100% and realize 100% of their equity, resulting in an EV of $50 each. With the hands face-up, P1’s advantage disappears. The original solution to this game is for P1 to bet 100% of the time with AA and 50% of the time with QQ, but P1 would not be able to execute this strategy if playing face-up. All of the EV P1 gets from betting comes from this asymmetrical information. There is no reason for P1 to bet except for the advantage gained by knowing their hole cards and the fact that Villain does not. A similar thing happens when you play real poker and there are cards still to come. If you play your range in a manner that effectively turns your hand face-up, your opponents could very easily take advantage. For example, imagine your betting range is heavily unbalanced towards flush draws on a two-tone flop. In that case, the correct play for the Villain would be to call the bet, and then play very aggressively on blank turns. So, having range diversity can be extended

Mystery Bounty In poker, a "mystery bounty" is a special type of KO bounty tournament where the value of the bounty is not known until after it's won, or until after the tournament.

swimming with dolphins plus a photo with my all-time hero Daniel Negreanu. So, I went broke and, even worse, was now in debt. Somehow, I had $1,000 more available on a credit card, so I grinded my bankroll back up by playing live cash games in the currency of my home country. I could not afford to play the fancy $1/$2 USD games anymore. I had to go back to playing ₡500/₡500, which was roughly $1/$1. So, my bankroll was 10 buy-ins. I ran hot once again and managed to build a bankroll of $5,000. This allowed me to repay the credit cards and still have a bit left over but then, towards the end of 2011, I again got overly confident and started playing games in USD, “high stakes” $1/$2 and $2/$5 games, despite not having a sufficient bankroll. I somehow convinced myself that I had just been really unlucky and that I was a great player (another face-palm). I am sure you already know that I busted my bankroll yet again. This time, I had to get a job. After going broke for the second time, I was completely sick of poker, yet I still blamed bad luck. I quit poker for a year but the lure of the game eventually proved too much and I tried my luck in an $11 online rebuy MTT. I managed to win it for $10,000 and then hopped right back into the $1/$2 games. This time though, I won about $6,000 during December 2012, so my delusions got reinforced due to my good luck. I told myself, “I was made to play poker, I just needed to trust myself”, so (of course) in January 2013, I quit my nice job as a financial analyst as well as college because I had decided that I was going to focus entirely on poker. After “going pro”, I had a great start and rapidly turned my $16,000 bankroll into $30,000. I felt like this time I had really made it, so I started playing $2/$5 on a regular basis and traveled a few times to other Latin American countries, hoping to win a prestigious Latin American Poker Tour title and change my life for good. What instead happened was I blasted off most of my bankroll. As a general tip, life does not change when you win a poker tournament or come into money. If you want to change your life, you have to change your habits. Every single day, small actions subtly move your life in either the right or wrong direction. I wish I knew this back then! At this point in time, I had completely stopped studying the game. I thought I was super- talented and I had already read the best books anyway. I was overconfident and got a new car, moved to a nice apartment and started living a lifestyle that I couldn’t afford. Like clockwork, I again made a lot of mistakes, lent a lot of money to a friend, and when I finally started running “bad”/stopped sun-running, the inevitable

Having access to more strategic options increases the player’s expectation. However, some strategic options are used so rarely and their overall EV impact is so small that the cost of implementing them in your strategies may surpass the value they add. In fact, adding too many low EV/low frequency strategic options to your overall strategy can hurt your expectation. The more complex the strategy, the more difficult it is to implement so, in practice, you should strive to simplify your strategies as much as possible in order to minimize mistakes without hurting your overall expectation. In our heads-up example, the simplest possible strategy is push/fold, and it can be applied for most spots with 10bb and shorter stacks. When out of position, pushing remains vital up to 17bb, but the BN pushes only 3.88% of hands with 15bb, 1.70% with 17bb, 0.69% with 20bb, and 0.06% with 25bb. So, the BN strategy can be simplified to never push with 15bb or more and the overall EV of the BN won’t be hurt significantly. However, the limping strategy is dominant for the BN, so any strategy that removes BN limps in a heads-up game will significantly hurt its overall EV. Corollary: If playing vs an opponent who we think has superior skill, then playing a complex strategy only benefits the stronger player because they will be capable of capitalizing on all the different strategic options better than you are. Thus playing a simpler game helps reduce this superior Villain’s edge by minimizing your mistakes. For example, if playing heads-up in an MTT, it doesn’t matter if you are against the best player in the world if you get it all-in pre-flop with a coinflip like AJs vs TT. You will win ~50% of the time, which is a great result when facing a player who has a huge edge on you. Playing First In Knowing what to do when the action gets folded to you is perhaps the single most important thing players must learn in their entire poker careers, yet I still see professional players simply not caring. They mistakenly think they can outplay anyone regardless of their holdings and make massive fundamental mistakes that cost them dearly in the long run. Starting with sound pre-flop ranges improves pre-flop decision making. By systematically analyzing the game, strong players come to the tables prepared with preset strategies for the most common situations that get repeated over time. This is similar to chess grandmasters who memorize the early moves of the most important openings and pre-develop defenses rather than trying to re-invent them every game. By committing the basic moves to memory, they can focus their brain power on more complex aspects of the game in order to stay ahead of their opponents. A typical online 6-max Cash EP-RFI range can be seen in Hand Range 27.

Your draw is 2-3-4, and you’ve already discarded a 2, two threes, and a 4. At this point you don’t know for certain if your opponent is already pat, but because of your powerful discards, you can assume that it will be tougher for your opponent to make a hand. Even if your opponent has 2-5-6-7 and is drawing one, you should still draw two based on the pot odds you are being laid. With the dead cards you burned, the 2-5-6-7 would only be a 57 percent favorite against your two-card draw. (2) You can stay pat with a weaker hand. If you paired several cards, you can 324 assume that some of the cards your opponent needs are now dead. That will make it more difficult for him to make his hand. In situations where you would normally break a pat nine or even discard an eight to draw to a wheel, making valuable discards should influence your decision. You might want to keep a hand you would otherwise fold, such as a pat nine or a one-card draw to a rough eight-seven. (3) Snowing is a bluffing term that refers to staying pat before the last draw despite having a garbage hand. Let’s look at an extreme example: Let’s say you were dealt 2-2-2-2-3. Here you would have two options other than folding. You could draw three to the 2-3 or 2, or bluff the hand through. Since you have all of the powerful deuces, you know that your opponents could not possibly make a seven and would be hard pressed to make an eight. See below for a more in-depth look at this technique. How To Snow Snowing is something that you should do sporadically. If you do it too often it will lose its effectiveness, but not doing it at all will make you too predictable. If you get caught snowing again and again, you will get a few loose calls here and there, but that will also make this bluffing weapon useless to you. On the other hand, if you never snow, you won’t get paid off like you should, and you will be giving up opportunities to steal some big pots. In order to pull it off, you need to have earned respect from your opponents without becoming predictable. As a general rule, snowing only when you have three deuces, three sevens, and so on would establish a decent snowing frequency. There are several ways to snow, and I could go on and on about all of them. But if you have a good understanding of the ones I describe below, you’ll do fine. As we learned in the last section, the information you receive from paired cards should heavily influence your decision of whether or not to snow. Generally speaking, snowing is more effective if you’ve stayed pat on the first or second draw. Staying pat so early in a hand represents strength. Finally, and as is the case with most poker strategies, this one works best when played in position. So with the

UTG’s response to a flop x/r on this texture is to almost never 3-bet, folding about 35% of the time and calling the remaining 65%. UTG’s continuing range includes pretty much all hands that are two pair or better, a pair with a straight draw and pretty much any hand that has a flush draw. Flop Strategy Example 3 Mid c-bet % and big bet-size: BB vs UTG on 9♥8♥4♦ (40bbs) Diagram 61: Mid c-bet % and Big Bet-size: BB vs UTG on 9♥8♥4♦ (40bbs)

Thinking in Terms of Expectation When you are heads-up and last to act on the river with the nuts, your expectation on a bet or raise is given by (ignoring check-raises or bet-reraises) EV = (Pcall)(S) where: Pcall is the chance you will be called by a weaker hand, and S is the size of your bet or raise. To find the right bet size, you have to estimate the chance of being called by a weaker hand for bets of different sizes. Specifically, let’s consider three potential raise sizes for this example: $50 (small), $150 (medium), and $450 (large and all-in). If you make the small $50 raise, you think your opponent will likely call with most of his possible hands. Maybe you expect him to call your minimum-sized raise about 80 percent of the time. If you make the medium $150 raise, you expect your opponent to fold any hand that doesn’t include a seven (making a straight). However, since he bet the river into this scary board, you think he has a relatively good chance of having a seven. Let’s say he’s got a 40 percent chance to have a seven and call the raise. (Please ignore the chance that he has a ten-seven with you, so your straight will always be bigger than his.) If you make the large $450 raise, your opponent will again likely fold anything except a seven, and we’ve already posited that he’ll have that hand 40 percent of the time. But say your opponent is a little scared of big bets, and you aren’t sure he’ll call such a large bet with just a seven (he’ll fear you have the hand you have, ten-seven). Say you think there’s a 50/50 chance he’ll call an all-in raise if he has a seven. Thus, you think he’ll call you about 20 percent of the time (half of 40 percent). To find out which raise size is best, you should calculate the expectation for each size. The expectation for the $50 bet is $40. $40 = (0.80)($50) 16

Solver A software program that provides optimal solutions for specific poker scenarios that are inputted (stack and pot size, ranges, betting options) by the user. By default, solvers will converge to maximally exploit the opposition. However, if two or more agents are allowed to adjust their strategy they will reach a Nash Equilibrium, or GTO solution. See: GTO, MES, Nash equilibrium.

to make the most money possible. -------------------------- 4 It's better than break even as long as there is some chance your bet will be merely called, since you will also win some of these times. 15 An inexperienced player in Sam's position would probably check, with the idea that he could lure other players to bet and then swoop in with a raise. To understand why Sam took a different approach, let's list a few facts which at this moment were clear to everyone at the table: 1. Amir Vahedi checked in first position. 2. Sam Farha is a very aggressive player who opened for a raise preflop. 3. The flop probably missed Harrington and Moneymaker. Given these facts, it should be clear that Sam ought to be betting in this spot, even with a mediocre hand. With his aggressive reputation and a favorable situation at the table, only a nonbet from Sam will arouse suspicion; a bet will just be seen as a routine attempt to take a pot that's available. So Sam correctly decided to bet. With a pot of $274,000, he picked a nice amount to bet: just $80,000. That's what we call a probe bet. It's a small bet, between one-fourth and one-third of the pot, and it's usually an attempt to get some information cheaply, while holding out the possibility of winning the pot right there if no one wants to fight. It also reveals absolutely no information about Sam's real hand, since it's exactly what he would be expected to do with almost anything. A very smart play. Dan Harrington. I have two overcards, but right now my hand is just ace-high. I don't know what the other sharks have, but these waters have become too dangerous for swimming. Even the generous pot odds aren't tempting me to call. I'm out of there. Chris Moneymaker. There was now $354,000 in the pot and it cost Chris just $80,000 to call. He can't lay down top pair yet, but it's a low top pair, and with Farha and Vahedi still in the pot, he was right to be cautious. Chris elected to call here, which was reasonable. I would have probably raised with his hand, but it would be a defensive raise. If my raise didn't win the pot on the spot, I'd be done with the hand. I like to play in a way that defines my situation with a single bet. With the murky action around the table, a raise would clarify the situation and prevent me from losing more money on later rounds. Amir Vahedi. Vahedi had nothing, but the other players haven't shown any strength, and they might both be on drawing hands. Sam's bet seems to be asking "Am I strong or weak here?" I'm sure at this point that Vahedi was contemplating a move to win the pot. But should he make it right now, or on fourth street? Vahedi elected to wait, which was a good idea. (Good in a relative sense, of course; we know Vahedi is actually up

the exception of the river, You’d do well to almost never bluff a hand without solid drawing equity . 4) Stop Rangebetting Rangebetting means betting your entire range in some spot, typically for a small size. This strategy is common in HU postflop spots but fails miserably in most multiway spots. The strategic premise of rangebetting is that you have such an overwhelming advantage that your opponent is forced to overfold despite you betting any two. However, in multiway pots, your opponents are not obliged to defend very wide at all. That works directly against the incentives of rangebetting – all that extra fold equity you get heads-up evaporates multiway. So the simplest change you can make to improve your multiway strategy is this: Stop rangebetting. Give up more often with trash. Tighten your value betting thresholds. Check back more medium hands and play for showdown . 5) Nut Potential is King Nut potential is the potential of a draw to become the nuts, or very close to it. For example, on a flop like A ♠ Q ♠ 8 ♥ , a draw like 6 ♠ 4 ♠ has poor nut potential since it can only make a weak flush. A hand like K ♠ 7 ♠ , however, draws to the nut flush and therefore has strong nut potential. Nut potential is vital because stack-off ranges become much tighter multiway . When considering a semibluff in a multiway pot, give more consideration to your outs. Are you drawing to just a strong hand, or a nutted hand? Do any of your outs complete stronger draws? The importance of these questions is greatly amplified multiway. Furthermore, betting frequencies in multiway pots strongly correlate with nut advantage. A player with a range advantage that lacks the strongest hands should typically play more passively (unless the SPR is very low). illustration Consider what happens if you rangebet a board like 753r as BTN vs SB and BB. Sure, you’ve got the overpairs, but they have, proportionally, many more nutted hands like sets, two pair, and straights. Your overpairs get a lot less value from marginal pairs, and get attacked much more often by dangerous check-raises. 6) Higher Implied (And Reverse Implied) Odds Here’s a GIF from our Visualizing Implied Odds article, which displays how equities shift multiway. The exact numbers aren’t important. Rather, pay attention to the color-coded gradient. Section 5 leads directly to our next point. Multiway pots increase implied and reverse implied odds . The effect is similar to how implied odds also increase in deep-stacked pots. The tighter stack-off thresholds in multiway pots mean you need stronger hands to go all-in for value than HU pots. Static bluff-catchers, medium hands that struggle to improve, even marginal top pairs lose a lot of value. The hands that do well multiway have better “ visibility ”; more paths to the nuts . Your hand’s ability to improve to something very nutted counts for so much more. The type of hands that retain equity multiway typically have strong drawing potential. Suited connectors, suited

the small blind I'm sorry the big blind gets to lead some portion of the time why do they get to lead on the jack well they actually have a whole lot of jacks notice the initial razor does not have a lot of these bad Jacks right they raise in the LoJack seat so they actually don't have a whole lot of these Jacks that the LoJack that the big blind does and that allows them to make leads some portion of the time with some Jacks and then some junk the junks is going to be junky straight draws for the most part well straight draws in general so we see a lot of gut shots going for the lead cool to see say they do bet almost no raises so why would we basically never raise in this scenario after facing a lead but when someone leads they're announcing I either have the nuts or I have a junkie draw if you have a junky draw I want you to stay in the pot for the most part and if you have the nuts I really don't want to play for all the money so save me a call say the river's a blank two hearts now notice lots and lots and lots of all lands almost no checking um if you had more nuts in your range you could potentially even Jam everything but notice all the Jacks Are shoving in some busted drawers are shoving so say we shove oops I click the wrong button say we shove you have to call it off somewhat logically but a lot of folds right say instead though I want to show you on this too two of Hearts say we check and then face it all in notice we fold basically every time 81 percent of the time this is something that comes up every once in a while in scenarios where your range is super duper strong Tibet and you have a lot of good hands that really want to bet but that kind of leaves some of your junk hanging out to dry and we're only calling we have some sporadic nines Jacks and asex which is kind of weird weird spot but cool to see this happens whenever you do lead to turn that's specifically very good for you say the turns again um really bad for you say the turn's a king of diamonds it's a big line has to check everything and again lojack's gonna be betting very strong and polarized right so say they do go for the half pot we see some raises not a lot though two pairs some random jacks some queen queen tends the nuts now so a pretty strong shoving range there if we do face a shove we have to call off with just our good hands right again notice two parent better for the most part so yeah that that is this spot you're gonna find that these spots all play kind of similarly where well

Diagram 126 Diagram 127

Redraw To have a made hand but also a draw to a better hand.

Turbo A type of online poker tournament where the blinds increase quicker than in a normal tournament. The blind levels are relatively shorter.

l l . S o r a i s i n g ap p e ar s t o b e th e b e s t p l ay . H o w e v e r , w h e n y o u r a i s e , th e tw o p l ay e r s b e h i n d y o u w i l l s ur e l y fo l d . O n th e o th e r h an d , i f y o u c a l l th e fi r s t b e tt o r , y o u fe e l fa i r l y c o n fi d e nt th at th e tw o p l ay e r s b e h in d y o u w i l l a l s o c al l . B y r a i s i n g , y o u g a in o n e un i t , b ut b y o n ly c a l l i n g y o u g a i n tw o . T h e r e fo r e , c a l l i n g h a s th e h i g h e r p o s i t i v e e xp e c t a t i o n an d i s th e b e tt e r p l ay .H e r e i s a s i m i l ar b ut s l i ght ly m o r e c o mp l i c at e d s i tu at i o n . O n th e l a s t c ar d i n a s e v e n - c ar d s tu d h an d , y o u m ak e a fl u s h . T h e p l ay e r ah e a d o f y o u , w h o m y o u r e a d t o h av e tw o p a i r , b e t s , an d th er e i s a p l ay e r b eh i n d y o u s t i l l i n th e h an d , wh o m y o u kn o w y o u h a v e b e a t . I f y o u r a i s e , t h e p l a y e r b e h i n d y o u w i l l fo l d . F urth e rm o r e , th e i n i t i a l b

because you have the ace blocker which decreases the likelihood your opponent has an asex calling hand like Ace King Ace Queen an EB Ace Jack suited Ace Ace obviously and when called because you have a suited Ace it's the all you know what they say 30 of the time it works every time he's gonna have 30 when he's up against a pair and up against those dominating Aces slightly less but the suitedness does help so I think it's a spot we're going to see welcome Inferno make the call not love it but make the call get in two to one and he's gonna see if he can hold flush draw for a muculus needs an ace or a heart does not get it on the end and welcome Inferno going to begin that knockout for 22 million chips find open here for dairy Ace Jack and interested to see what welcome Inferno does with sevens he is deep enough to have the odds to set mine he also could just use his stack to put some pressure on Dairy poker here with him being the chip leader Derry poker being one of the stacks that's kind of in the middle of the field and these pay jumps being so big it's a great spot for him to be three betting a lot of hands that he could flat with in close spots um to put pressure against a player who probably doesn't want to be playing big pots with anything but the best hands because the the pay jumps are just so large so welcome does flat call decides to play this hand in position because the same way he could leverage pre-flop with a three bet he can leverage post-flop with floats betting when Chuck two Bluff raises the main thing is he wants to play pots as the big stack against the medium-sized Stacks as much as possible with playable hands so that he can put them in tough positions post-flopping on uncomfortable positions post slop in jail as uh some of my tournament friends would say welcome to science go check check on the Flop this is a board where dairy can be checking a lot of his strong hands um looking to get to a showdown could be checking a queen could be checking an over pair could be checking an indoor pair and could be checking some give UPS as well uh if he's checking those hands though welcome will win just by checking it down and I think it's a spot where he doesn't feel the need to build the pot it's not the best board for him there are the over cards out there and there are a lot of draws out there like Ace Jack has a gut shot King Jack has an open Ender Ace King has a gut shot I think he's just probably not getting too many Folds um from hands that have equity when betting and he's getting a lot of calls from hands that

isn’t strong enough to call. However, you can still leverage an aggressive player’s need to call too much by making a smaller raise. Yes, this is a value raise and it’s likely to work, but you know what? Even if it doesn’t, that’s okay. Your opponent has already contributed on the river. Now you’re just freerolling for an even better payoff. In both cases, whether you read your aggressive opponent as strong or weak, you’re using the same logic on sizing the raise, essentially askingyourself, “What’s the biggest raise my opponent will call?” Obviously, the stronger you think your opponent’s hand is, the bigger the raise you’ll rate him capable of calling. So against the better hand, your raise size will tend to be larger. That said, look for opponents who love to read big bets as weak. Against that type, you can raise bigger on the river even when you read him for a middling hand; he may love to make hero calls. And we just love to punish people who love to make those calls. One raise size I tend to avoid is doubling the size of his bet, a very fishy move. It reads like you’re trying to squeeze out that extra little bit. But youcan certainly do close to double and take the fishiness out of it. If there’s 1,000 in the pot at that point and your opponent bets 500 into you, youdon’t have to min-raise or full-pot raise. You could call his 500 and bump him back another 800. That may be just the right price to get the curiosity call you seek. Again, sometimes the fear of missing value is so strong that someone in your position would almost automatically make that min-raise, sodesperate to get something that he’ll settle for the least he can get. But see this from the other guy’s point of view. If he’s bluffing at the pot on the river, he’s not paying an extra 500 no matter what. And if he’s not bluffing, the difference between 500 and 800 won’t keep him from calling. What would keep him from calling is his read that the min bet is exactly what it looks like: a desperate attempt to extract value with a hand he can’t beat. In Position, Aggressive Bettor, Medium-Strength Hand Your hand is medium-strength and you suspect your aggressive opponent is medium to strong. For instance, you still have 77, but now the board is J-T-7-3-2, with three clubs. Note that your hand is no longer that strong. Not only do two sets beat you, but also the straights and flush. Top-pair top-kicker is likewise medium in this situation. You should rate a hand as medium when it has a good possibility of being the best hand, but is nowhere near the nuts. So you’re holding this kind of hand against an aggressive opponent whom you judge to be somewhere in the same range or better. He leads into you. What do you do? You can’t fold, especially against an aggressive opponent when you might have the better

on you, you will… When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you’ll know I… When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my… OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that “Playing against an in-position cold-caller is… Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to… When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure… How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,… C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,… C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold… Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the… Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the… 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… Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get… Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being… Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The… 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,… Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?… Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of Canadian programmers from Quebec, developed… GTO Wizard AI Explained We are excited to introduce GTO Wizard AI, formerly known as Ruse, the world’s best… GTO Wizard AI Benchmarks GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional solving methods to bring… Table Management in PKOs Perhaps the most important strategic consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs) is making sure you… Overcalling From the BB In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also… Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach… Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon… Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to… Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked Playing out of position is tricky, but it’s an essential part of

Hand Range 111: BN 30bb (Limp) • All-in 0% / • Raise 2x 43% / • Limp 8.2% / • Fold 48.8% With 30bb stacks, BN no longer open shoves, as the stacks are now too deep. Starting with 40bb stacks, the solver stops limping altogether and favors a simpler raise/fold strategy. At this stack depth rejamming all-in against opens involves a bigger risk, and this favors open raises over limping as the BN can defend very well against 3-bets by calling in position and realizing a lot of equity that would be denied when forced to fold to an all-in. The general principles for limping are similar to those of the SB, including traps and some

or all five) to have the same EV. Frequency Mistakes A mixed strategy does not imply the choice is arbitrary. Rather, the correct play depends heavily on your opponent’s strategy. Only if your opponent plays a perfectly unexploitable strategy are the EVs of all choices in a mixed strategy the same . If you can predict even small deviations from your opponent, one option will have a higher EV and you should choose it consistently. In our example above, the BB’s unexploitable strategy requires folding 48.9% of hands to this river bet. If they instead fold 49% of hands, bluffing with J9 will be strictly better than checking. It will not be much better, but nevertheless, you would increase your EV by bluffing every time. By doing so, you would deviate from your own unexploitable, GTO strategy. You would be operating within the exploitative framework, making assumptions about your opponent’s mistakes. If those assumptions are correct, you would come out ahead. If they are wrong, you’d be worse off than if you stuck with the unexploitable bluffing frequency. This is an example of a frequency mistake. J9 is not a bad candidate for bluffing. Your mistake was bluffing with it too often, and this mistake costs you money only against opponents who call at an exploitably high frequency . If they instead fold at an exploitably high frequency, this “mistake” would make you money. This is a mistake in the sense that, if your opponent knew or guessed your strategy, they would not have difficult decisions even with their marginal hands like K8. Knowing that you were bluffing too often, they could confidently call. This mistake also loses money to players who simply call too often by habit. These players profit from your over-bluffing mistake without even knowing you are making a mistake. If you always threw rock in a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, you would lose to any player who knew your strategy but also to any player who simply loved throwing paper as much as you loved throwing rock. Pure Mistakes A pure mistake would entail betting a hand that is not a good candidate for betting (or checking a hand that is not a good candidate for checking). In the Q ♦ 6 ♥ 5 ♠ K ♣ 2 ♣ example, K8 is too strong to bluff but not strong enough to bet for value. Betting it would not give your opponent difficult decisions. They would simply fold most worse hands and call all better hands. Checking KK would also not give the opponent difficult decisions. It would give them a cheap showdown with many hands that would face a tough choice about whether to fold and risk a bluff or call and risk losing to strong hands like this one. Unlike a frequency mistake, a pure mistake is not especially sensitive to your opponent’s strategy . These mistakes lose money even to opponents who do not do anything exploitable themselves. When you check KK, you miss out on bets your opponent would have called. When you bet

Equity Realization (EQR) The ability of a hand to "realize" its raw equity. Generally, Equity Realization (EQR) has come to mean the translation of raw equity to expected value. A hand that wins more than its equity would suggest is said to "over-realize" its equity. A hand that wins less often than its equity suggests is said to "under-realize" its equity. Mathematically, equity realization is typically defined as EQR = pot-share / equity, where pot-share is the expected percentage of the pot a hand will win according to its expected value, and equity is the raw equity of a hand if checked to showdown. For example, a hand that wins (on average) 70% of the pot, which only has 40% raw equity, has an equity realization factor (EQR) of 0.7 / 0.4 = 175%.

a big pair in the pocket. So there’s a possibility that I’ve got the best hand right now. I’d learn more from his play on fourth street. If I didn’t help my hand and he bet again, I’d get rid of it pretty fast. I wouldn’t invest a lot of money with that hand without any help. But the main reason I’d call on the flop is the possibility that I could win a big pot if I improve my hand and beat a strong hand, such as two aces or two kings. And I check rather than bet because I might have the best hand and I don’t want to get shut out by betting and being raised. Then, I’d have to throw my hand away. By checking, I could call a reasonable bet and try to catch a card. If I did improve on fourth, I’d play it from then on just like if I took a poor flop but got some help on fourth. A good or even a great flop to a 7? 6? would be a pair with a straight or flush draw, two pair, trips, a straight, or a flush—even though it’s a small one. With any good flop to small connecting cards, I play the hand as if it is complete, even if it’s not. I’d lead with the hand in an early position, and I’d raise in a late position. I’d play the hand to get all my money in the center to start with. Even if I flopped a pair with a draw, I’d use the same strategy since I’d have two chances to win it: (1) I bet or raise and my opponent throws his hand away; or (2) I improve and my bet or raise is called. If you follow my advice here, you’ll be in some jeopardy, even when you get a very good flop. But you’re almost always in some jeopardy, so you can’t worry about somebody having the nuts all the time. If you did, you would never get to play a pot. For example, if you and your opponent both flopped a flush, yours will likely be the smaller of the two, and you’d be dead. In hold’em, there’s no way you can draw out when it’s flush-against-flush, unless you’re drawing to a 400 straight flush. But assuming you can’t get a straight flush, you’ll just have to lose your money, because you’ll almost always have to pay your opponent off. It’s one of the hazards of the game. You could also flop the ignorant or low end of the straight. But this is also hazardous, since your opponent could turn a bigger straight. And again, if your opponent bet anything within reason, you’ll have to go ahead and pay him. For example, if the flop was a 10-9-8 and somebody moved all-in on you, you’d be down to judgment. You’d have to know your opponent, and a lot would depend on how much is in the pot and the amount he sets you in for. If

to strong. Here you want to make a defensive bet. In fact, this is the ideal spot for it. You don’t know if you’re ahead, but your hand is good enough to call a bet. You want to get out of this difficult spot as inexpensively as possible. You know a passive player will never raise your bet light; even if he recognizes the blocking bet, he’s not attacking it. That’s just not in his play book. If he raises you, you have the worse hand, can easily fold and sleep like a baby, knowing you didn’t fold the better hand. If you check to him, he may bet big, forcing you to pay off big. So beat him to it. Bet first and bet small. If he’s on the low end of his range, he’ll onlycall, because he’s too strong to bluff and too weak to raise for value. If he’s on the top of his range, yes, he raises and yes, you fold. You still got a big discount over checking and calling. Since your hand is strong enough to call anyway, leading out gives you either a cheaper showdown or a confident fold. Here’s another circumstance where your bet serves two functions at once. It controls your loss if your hand’s not good and ensures that you get paid if it is. This is why you don’t bet the full pot here. If you did, you’d negate both your goals. You’d be voluntarily paying full price, while giving your opponent a good reason to fold with the weaker range and not pay you off. When your hand is medium-strength and you suspect your passive opponent is weak, bet only against a calling station. The calling station might actually pay you off with some really weak hands just to see what you have. So you can make a thin value bet against this guy. But against a timid passive player, you check. He won’t pay you with a hand worse than yours, so the bet has no value. If you check, you at least give him the chance to try a random bluff. This won’t work with the regularity it will against aggressive opponents, but with a timid player, checking is your only hope for getting any value at all. Just don’t really expect it to work. Out of Position, Passive Opponent, Weak Hand If you’re weak and you think your passive opponent is strong, check and fold. Seriously, were you thinking of doing anything else? If you’re weak and you think he’s weak and he’s timid, buy the pot. Don’t try to check-raise. You won’t get the chance. Timid and passive won’t bet the river with nothing, just so you can check-raise him off his nothing. If he bets when you check, he has something, so you’d abort the playanyway. Just bet the smallest amount you think will make him fold. If you’re weak, you think he’s weak, and he’s a calling station, why are you trying to bluff? The value of this opponent is in getting paid off

range, but armed with that knowledge they played it as well as they could. In reality, a player who capped their range in such a needless manner is not going to play perfectly after the flop. They likely would be getting themselves in trouble on low boards, most likely by c-betting too much, and would be giving away even more EV. The Easy Way to Achieve Board Coverage In the two UTG ranges above, both had 19.1% of hands in them. GTO UTG Range Top-heavy UTG Range The first range, however, covered so many more boards. It could make wheels, middling (two) pairs, middling straights, and it could make all the sets. The ‘MVP’ hand class in the first range are the suited Aces. They do a lot with little, and it is why they make up a strong part of any GTO postflop range. First of all, if they make a pair of Aces, you have a strong hand that beats all the single pairs. Players used to worry a lot about domination Domination A hand that is very unlikely to beat the opponent’s hand. For example, AK is dominated by AA as it only has a 6.8% equity preflop. with these hands when you make top pair, but it is less of an issue than some may think. Secondly, you can cover any board. If the board is 442 or K66 , you can feasibly have trips on either of those flops. Low suited Aces also make wheel straights on low boards. Also, when you make a flush with a suited Ace, you always have the nuts (on unpaired boards), unless there is a rare straight flush possible. When you flop a flush draw with a suited Ace, you have a very powerful semi-bluffing Semi-bluffs A bet made with an unmade hand (such as a draw) that has the chance to improve on future cards. hand. Not only could it make the nuts when the opponent does not fold, but it could also make top pair as a consolation prize. Crucially, suited Aces are more economical to add to a range. There are only 4 combinations of every suited hand, but there are 12 combinations of every offsuit hand. A5 o has three times as many combinations as A5 s, for example. Therefore if you want to achieve board coverage without increasing the percentage of hands you play, you can get three suited Ace hands in your range for every offsuit hand you give up. This is, in particular, how tight early position ranges can remain tight while still achieving board coverage. Conclusion There are times in poker when you have to play a capped range, but there is no need to cap your range unnecessarily by not covering the board. Board coverage is important in poker because you want to hit flops at a reasonable frequency to keep your opponent(s) guessing. Not covering the board leaves you open to exploitation. When a player is capped , you can exploit Exploit To deviate from a baseline strategy in order to

which is pretty wide right so that allows you to three bet much wider yourself but again you're not going nuts you're not three betting every suited Ace you're not three betting Ace n off suit or pocket threes or 87 suited these hands just go right into the muck none of your opponents are going to do this they're going to play far too loose and you know what they're all going to lose if you make regular consistent blunders like a lot of your opponent will do in small and medium six games you're going to get crushed tip number four three bet often versus arrays again many players do not three betat often enough here we have a few charts I know that it's a little bit small on your end here we have a lowjack strategy which would be under the gun if we were playing six-handed versus a raise from under the gun e-hand here we have the hijack which is the position to the left of the lowjack versus a lowjack raise and here we have button versus a cut raise so you see these ranges get looser because the initial razor and the uh player yet to act are loose are in later positions as we go this way so let's take a look at lowjack versus Under the Gun notice not a whole lot of calling the hands that are calling are actually all really good and for that reason this is a spot where you got to play super tight because again under the gun should have a very strong range but also there are a lot of players yet to act who could easily wake up with a strong hand and put you in a miserable spot by three betting right you don't really want to call with Jack n Suited get three bet by somebody yet to act or four bet by the initial razor then you just have to fold immediately right so we see a pretty good amount of three betting most players do not three bet the king 10 suited the ace for suited the ace eight suited the king queen suited most people call or three bet king queen off suit Ace Shack off suit Etc and that's just a mistake here we have highjack versus a lowjack raise a pretty similar range because assuming your opponents are playing relatively tight strategies because they should if there's a rake in the cash game this is a spot where they they just can't get out of line and if they can't get out of line you in turn can't get out of line now look again you may want to play a little bit looser if your opponents are not going to format enough or if they're raising too wide but you can't get too crazy maybe you three bet a little bit more than this or maybe you call a little bit more than this but not much more here we have about as Loose as you

heard terms thrown around such… What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is… Why doesn’t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you’ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and… Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is “Why… Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a… The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most… What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study… What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it “unexploitable”? What does it try…

off too lightly tip number eight is to exploitatively overfolded getting stacked they do not want to lose all of their money so many people come to me and they are distraught that they lost just like a super standard setup hand in my mind like oh can I have found a fold or oh did I have to Bluff it off but look you're going to get sacked sometimes get used to it anyway most people hate getting sacked so because of that when most players want to put all their money in the pot they usually have a pretty good hand usually a very good hand also most players hate getting caught Bluff getting caught bluffing because it makes them feel stupid if some people feel bad whatever they Bluff with nothing they get called and they either have to mck or they have to show their blo either one they don't like it in reality you should be proud of your BLS table them confidently every once in a while they'll give you the pot you'd be shocked so because of this because most people hate getting caught bluffing almost no no one Bluffs often enough so people usually are very value heavy with really good hands when they're betting big on the river and they don't Bluff enough so these things combined to mean you should exploitatively overfolded the marginal kicker and someone bet the Flop and Bets the turn and Bets the river and they're kind of tight and kind of straightforward old you're done get out of the hand it is okay realize that that line does not happen where it goes bet bet big bet all that often now if you're opponent is a loose aggressive insane Maniac then sure maybe because they finding hero calls but if your opponent's kind of tight kind of cautious kind of straightforward hold a lot hold a lot folding is not fun I realize that I hate folding but uh sometimes you got to do it step number nine is to keep a proper make roll you will inevitably have large upswings and large down swings you have to recognize this accept this and plan ahead even if you have a huge win rate you should keep at least 3,000 big blinds in your bank roll say you're playing one two No Limit $2 times 3,000 is $6,000 yeah you need about $6,000 to play one to No Limit and if you want to be cautious you should keep a whole lot more like 7,500 or maybe even more if you're playing tough online games against decently strong players and you're winning three big blinds per 100 hands you're going to need a ton of big blinds because you're going to inevitably have big big swings especially as your Edge gets smaller and smaller and unfortunately for you if you're playing small Sak Games The Rake and most games is kind of big and because of that having a large Edge is not actually all that reasonable maybe

more than 15 years of poker coaching, I’ve helped hundreds of clients improve… Do Multiple Sizes Matter? Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results… The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted… Check-Raising a Single Pair In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter/X user ’Matt Riley’, who… The Turn Probe Bet Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash… When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody… Protect Equity and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend… Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you’re value betting against… Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should… I’d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K♥8♦5♦ flop: K♠T♣ or 7♥6♥? OK, I’ll admit… The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players… Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A “sticky” player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and… Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of… Heads up! Exploiting SB’s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,… C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone… Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,… River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won’t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting… Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this… The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A♠A♣ in the… The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful… How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs “They always have it!” is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency… Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I’m not referring to… C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to… C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both… The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching—calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if… Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On

“Why… Combinatorics Poker Puzzle Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a… The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most… What is GTO in Poker? The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study… What does GTO aim to achieve? So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it “unexploitable”? What does it try…

range so a 10% linear three betting range simply takes the top 10% of hands and three bets them all other hands are either folded or flat called so people out might ask well what are you bluffing with if you're a three betting with a linear range your Bluffs are simply the bottom portion of your range and the word Bluff in terms of a 3bet preflop is not really the correct term because all your bluffs have equity for example you three bet with pocket nines or Jack ten suited here the red hands are unity your three betting and a 10% linear three betting range the green hands are going to be called all the white hands are folded so in this ten percent range your Bluffs are simply like Jack ten suited queen ten suited pocket nines H ace jack-off they're really good hands and they have a lot of equity against the calling range and they're your kind of three about it at all four value and we'll get into when you would want to use a linear three betting range more so for this first topic here we want to look at what types of hands we're three betting here versus when we go to the polar three betting range you'll see how the range is different so here you know nines are better were three betting all our suited Broadway's ace jack-off or better so they're all pretty good hands and then we're just flat calling these ace ten off King Jack you know suited aces there are other pretty good hands that we're gonna play versus arranged so linear ranges one of the problems with a linear three betting range is that your flat arrange becomes extremely weak and opens yourself up to squeezes so if you notice here when we have a good hand we three bet and when we don't have a good three good hand we flat call so that creates a problem in terms of balance because now we know when we don't three bet we have these weaker hands in green and when we three bet we have these stronger hands of red not necessarily a bad thing but it is something that you need to keep in mind that linear ranges create weaker flat calling ranges so if you see someone you know that always uses a linear three betting range they just three about the top percentages of hands and then they flat call now you know kind of they have the weaker portions of the range when they just flat call versus if versus a more balanced range you can't attack that as much so you're kind of opened up two more squeezes behind you obviously here all strong hands are 3bet preflop important part here linear ranges are best used its deep stack depth so when I say deep I'm talking maybe not even 100 big blinds sure 100 big blinds there's gonna be a lot of spots where you want to use a linear

54s (Hand Range 65). Hand Range 64: BN vs HJ Open • 3-bet 8.8% / • Call 6.5% / • Fold 84.6%

round situations. These options are: 1. Tobet. 2. To check with the intention of folding. 3. To check with the intention of calling. .4. To check with the intention of raising. When you have a good hand, whether to check-raise or come right out betting depends on three probabilities. They are: 1. The chance that you will be called if you bet, assuming that you won't be raised. 104 Part Two: Strategic Concepts 2. The chance that your opponent will bet if you check, but will not call your raise. 3. The chance that he will bet and then call your raise. Going for a check-raise becomes the correct strategy if the second probability added to twice the third probability exceeds the first probability. Needless to say, this is one of those situations where good judgment will come into play, as you will not have the time to make the appropriate probability calculations at the table. However, here are some hints that should help you determine whether a check-raise is correct. First, look at the texture of the board. If the river card is likely to give someone a second-best hand that he might believe is the best hand, be more inclined to check. An example is when an ace hits on the end after you have flopped a set, and from the way the hand has been played, you think your opponent called on both the flop and the turn with two overcards. Second, consider your opponent. Is he the type of player who would always try to pick up the pot if you check, but would not be likely to call with a weak hand if you bet? Third, consider whether your opponent is afraid of being check-raised. If he is, then checking to him may be a mistake. Many players have this characteristic, especially if even a mildly scary card hits. And fourth, consider your previous play in the game. Specifically, if you have done some check-raising, be more inclined to bet out. On the other hand, if you have not been checkraising, now may be the time to try it. Remember, in hold 'em, it is important to mix up your play a bit in order to throw your opponents off. However, as we previously have stated, don't mix up your play too much. You only have to do it occasionally to achieve the desired effect. As far as a check-raise bluff is concerned, it normally will work only against rare opponents in rare situations. Even against good players, it is usually better to come right out betting than to try for a check-raise bluff. The one good time to consider the play is when you have checked a mediocre hand in the hopes of winning Heads-Up on Fifth Street 105 a showdown. If your opponent now bets with a hand that you think is only slightly better than yours, a check-raise bluff may be a profitable play. Here's an example. Suppose you start with and the flop comes Notice that your holding is now mediocre, as the

a lower cost. If you check-call and get one or more callers behind you, with no obvious draws on the board, again you have to ask yourself, “What the hell dothese people have?” You’ll check again on the turn and take a look at the action. If B or C suddenly takes the lead away and D calls, you can certainly consider getting off the hand for cheap by folding. Any time there’s a bet and a raise, you’re done. If it’s checked back to the leader again and he bets, you can take another call and see what any player or players behind you might do. You have the option of check-raising here if you think it can win the pot. That’s a very strong play and against the right opponents, it might very well work, but understand that it’s more of a bluff than a check-raise for value. You’ll have a tendency to check-call and see what this guy does behind. If you check on the turn, player B bets, and C and D fold, you can either call or raise, depending on whether you think a raise will generate a fold. If you check onthe turn and player B bets and gets called in either one or two places, you’ve got to consider folding; again, there’s nothing to give anyone on that dry board in terms of draws. When you check the flop and everyone checks behind, you can certainly take a shot on the turn. You might as well find out right there if your hand is good or if someone checked a set on the flop. If fireworks break out, oh well. If you get one caller, you can check it down or check-call on the river, just as you would in this situation heads-up. If you get more than one caller, you’ll check the river and see what happens. If there’s just one bettor and no callers, you’ll have to take a read, but if there’s a bet and a call, you have an easy fold. No point in overcalling; you know your AQ can’t be the best hand. Decision-making in some multi-way pots can actually be easier than it first appears. Multiple bettors or callers define the relative strength that’sout against you. And remember that any time the pot gets down to two players, you have your good solid heads-up strategies to default back to. Still, multi-way pots can be a mess in the sense that multiple players tend to texturize the board and imperil your top-pair good-kicker holding. And what happens when the board is textured to begin with? Well, that’s what we’ll look at next. Chapter 15 Top Pair, Textured Board Doing Two Things at Once The problem with textured boards is not just that they are so textured, but that they look so textured. If you’re trying to get full value out of a handlike AQ against a hand like AJ and two suited cards are on board, you have to worry about the third suited card coming, not just because it

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.

The SB is the position where you get to VPIP the largest number of hands when it folds to you (83% on average). This is due to the fact that the SB has a discount to enter the pot and has to worry about only one player left to act. Table 45 is a summary of SB GTO Action Frequencies by stack depth: Table 45: SB GTO Action Frequencies by Stack Depth Small Blind Strategy at 15bb With 10-15bb stacks, play a push/limp/fold strategy and as stacks get deeper, you should push fewer hands, resulting in limping becoming the dominant strategy. At 15bb, the solver likes to push hands that have good blockers such as Ax, Kx, and hands that have a lot of equity against calling ranges but bad post-flop EqR, such as small pocket pairs (66- 22), and hands that have a ton of equity but would struggle to call a jam themselves such as suited connectors (98s-65s). The limping range consists of high equity hands that can call an all- in, such as pocket pairs (77+), broadways, suited Ax and Kx and hands such as Q2o, J8o, T4s and 73s that have fine equity in limped pots but don’t mind limp-folding against a jam (Hand Ranges 96-98). At 17bb, the SB starts to have a non-all-in raise size, and the raise size gets bigger as stacks get deeper, from 2.5x at 17bb to 3.5x at 30bb. At deeper stacks, the solver likes to use even

by the World Poker Tour as the primary thing that revolutionized the game and made the broadcasts one of the most widely viewed series of events ever to hit cable TV. But if it were really that simple, it stands to reason that the BBC’s Late Night Poker would have been picked up in the U.S. television market many years before. Late Night Poker, which predates the WPT, revealed players’ holecards by shooting under the table, but they were unable to make a sale until after the WPT phenomenon—and by then, they were utilizing many other WPT innovations. The truth is that the WPT Cam was part of a much larger package that transformed poker into a televised sports sensation. Production value was the centerpiece. The WPT transported an arena across the country and filmed six players with sixteen cameras instead of nine players with four cameras, as had been done before. But the production was just the beginning. It took us eight months to edit the first episode of the World Poker Tour. Working ten to fifteen hours a day, seven days a week, we invented a new language— graphic and otherwise—to translate poker into a televised sport. THE GREATEST FORM OF FLATTERY All newcomers to the televised poker market have copied our formula exactly, right down to the elements of our graphics pallet. When a player looks at his cards, his name appears on the bottom left-hand side of the screen with a shorthand graphic of his cards. The community cards appear beneath and near the holecard graphics, making it possible for the viewer to follow the game. A graphic on the top left-hand side of the screen shows the mounting pot size. Another innovation, as important as the WPT Cam, was the introduction of “live fiction” to televised poker. Before the WPT, poker shows discussed how much time passed and/or how many hands were played when the audience was not watching. This put televised poker into the documentary category, making the event feel dated. The World Poker Tour changed all that and made each two-hour episode appear live. For the first time, the WPT created an experience that transported the audience into the game—making 420 people feel like they were sitting in that seat, making million-dollar decisions on every hand. The result has captured the imagination of the American television audience. Yet another major element of the WPT television package was the inclusion of bios to encourage viewers to pull for certain players. Plus, with the hard work and cooperation of Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, we completely overhauled the poker commentary to minimize “poker-speak” and make it accessible to a wide audience. Another key component was my partner Lyle’s insistence on a two-hour format, which is almost unheard of in television land but necessary for us to explore the rich nuances of the game. All this is to say that, while the World Poker Tour did in fact introduce the WPT Cam to the U.S. television audience, the comprehensive package of innovative elements in the new WPT

and that I wasn’t anywhere as good as I thought I was, so I owned my mistakes and swallowed my pride. I applied to pocarr.com where I was able to watch numerous training videos and get coaching from top players. I started studying GTO and then I moved up in stakes very quickly. I eventually became a coach and, after many ups and downs, by the end of 2018 I can finally say that I made it. I always dreamt of playing the WSOP Main Event and now I am in the position to go to Las Vegas every year. I play a lot of high buy-in events, including the main event, and play $5/$10 and $10/$20 cash games. I could actually play higher, but I am not looking to blast off my bankroll anymore! I wanted to share my story because I think that perhaps if I had found a book that explained how poker actually works, including concepts such as variance, ROI, EV and win rates, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble. That said, I can’t really complain because, despite all my mistakes, I was lucky to get where I am today. And so, while writing my first poker book I can’t help but to smile and feel humble and grateful for having the opportunity of doing what I love. MTT Bankroll Management The first thing you need to do is figure out how much of your net worth you are willing to use as your bankroll. If you are a professional poker player then your bankroll should be a large percentage of your net worth, and if you are not a professional player your bankroll should be an amount you can afford to lose but still large enough for you to care about it. Once you know how large your bankroll is, you need to decide which games you can play with it. I generally suggest keeping at least 200 buy-ins in your bankroll. Of course, the more buy-ins you have, the lower the probability of going broke. If you really want to minimize the risk of going broke, 1,000 buy-ins are recommended. If you plan on becoming a professional, I recommend you have money that is separate from your bankroll to cover your living expenses for at least six months. If you want to avoid stressful monetary situations, you should keep a year’s worth of expenses or even more. As you can tell, these bankroll requirements are quite large compared to what many poker players actually have, unless they get lucky to win a huge tournament early in their career. For this reason, backing deals are a great opportunity to start playing higher than you otherwise could yourself. Many backers offer deals where the player keeps half of the wins with makeup, meaning losses accumulate and have to be paid off before the profit is split. For example, if you get down $5,000 but then win a tournament for $10,000, $5,000 would cover the makeup and the other $5,000 would be split, giving you $2,500

and Prosper When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend… Do Solvers Have Targets? Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you’re value betting against… Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should… I’d Rather Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K♥8♦5♦ flop: K♠T♣ or 7♥6♥? OK, I’ll admit… The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players… Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A “sticky” player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and… Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of… Heads up! Exploiting SB’s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,… C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone… Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,… River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won’t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting… Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this… The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A♠A♣ in the… The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful… How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs “They always have it!” is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency… Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I’m not referring to… C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to… C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both… The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching—calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if… Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet… Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing… Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,… Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.… The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today’s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to… Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We’re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we’ve won a few pots,… Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position

point, but it is so important that you avoid holding the second-best high hands, that I wanted it to have its own section. As I stated earlier, don’t play underpairs without a real good reason; for example, a drunk is playing every hand and raises with a king and you have split jacks with an ace. This is still an iffy proposition unless you can get it heads-up between the two of you. Another time you may want to play the second-best pair is if it’s buried and you have a big card up. You can probably scare the best hand out of the pot and either win it right there, or get heads-up with a low draw. Example: Example One You: J-J K Player One: x-x 2 Player Two: Q-9 Q In this example, Player One would bring it in and Player Two would 234 probably raise. A reraise would make Player Two think you had the best hand with split kings, instead of the buried jacks you actually have. Player Two would now almost certainly fold. You used the power of your upcard along with a little deception to bluff out the best hand. Other high hands that aren’t too good are three-flushes without little cards and three big connected cards. These are great hands in stud, but in eight-orbetter? Forget about it. CONCEPT 6: MISCELLANEOUS STARTING HANDS We’ve covered the high and the low starting hands; now let’s discuss hands that have value in both directions, specifically small pairs with ace kickers, small pairs with baby kickers, and three-flushes with two babies. Small Pairs with Ace Kickers I know I’ve said over and over that you should never have the second-best high hand, but I also said that there are exceptions to rules, and this is one of them. A pair below eights with an ace kicker has a lot of value against a big pair other than aces, and it also has the added value of its two low cards. If heads-up against a big pair, this hand should be played out until the end, unless your opponent’s board gets real scary, that is, he pairs his doorcard. If you catch small, there’s a good chance that you will get a free card or two along the way; take them, and don’t bother trying to bluff until you make something here. If there is a hitchhiker in the pot who is going low, beware. You’re now second best in both directions. Very dangerous! If you and the hitchhiker both catch good, proceed with caution. If you catch good and he catches bad, get rid of him if you can. If he catches good and you catch bad, take an early out , or “E.O.,” in dealer lingo. Throw your hand away before you get put in the middle. If you call on fourth street, you’ll almost certainly be in that vulnerable position. Small Pairs with a Baby Kicker A small pair with a baby kicker is a much more marginal hand. Preferably, 235 you’ll want a two-straight with

I played millions of hands and I've watched so many videos on cash games and my students have become the best cash game players in the world Charlie Carroll band he thallium sear now I'm learning from them so yeah yeah it's I I guess I do bring some stuff to the team in the cash game realm and I think there's also some philosophies on life and on the game mental game and stuff that are pretty unique to me with my background helping people with peak performance and addiction recovery and things like that which I'm very passionate about it's very close to me so yeah I'm excited to bring a new flavor to the mix and bring more value to the team it's awesome still it says my son Houston wants to say hi to you hi easton thanks thanks for the greets I appreciate it el duderino or echo duderino you're welcome for the webinar and herbs as is the training and grips still going to run in parallel of any Content going to poker coaching yep yep grips comm is going to continue to run and I will be offering different things on grips comm that I'm offering on poker coaching poker coaching I'm going to be focusing on the quizzes and some webinars and grips is really gonna focus a lot on the free offerings the free training programs kind of the the free project get me stacking programs there's lots of cool stuff in the works which I'll be releasing over the next few weeks are gonna be big in the next couple months are going to be really big - yeah and I'll have I'll have some products as well not a lot but some products that are exclusively available on grips so I'll still be doing my own thing on the side at grips but I'm going to be putting a ton of my energy into poker coaching comm because I think it's a really good opportunity I think it's a really good team that I've been invited to be a part of and I think that you know individuals win games but teams win championships and I would really love to beyond the championship winning team in the poker coaching poker education arena so it makes sense that I'm gonna folk putting a lot of really high quality stuff into poker coaching Crispo coaching packages permission maybe your promotion maybe you know I'll talk to Jonathan about it he's a very creative guy he knows how to structure deals and arrangements and promotions and packages and giveaways and stuff so I'm sure that he and I will come to something that is mutually beneficial for both of us and most importantly maximally beneficial for the students because regardless of where you guys are learning as long as you're getting better and you know as long as when people ask you just say the name you know I learned from Jonathan little I learned from heaven Jarvis doesn't matter whether it's at grips

call on the Flop his range was likely mid-heavy and mid-heavy ranges tend to play passively because most of the range consists of mediocre hands that don't want to play a huge pot and would prefer just getting The Showdown and since the aid of spades on the turn doesn't really change anything Bryce's range should still be mid-heavy so in this scenario simply following the primary incentive of this morphology and checking all hands would be a very easy way to maintain some semblance of balance which ultimately disguises your strategy in contrast when you take a line that significantly deviates from your range's morphology a huge chunk of hands are Stripped Away providing less cover for your actual cards additionally although it's conceivable that Bryce could have had some strong hands here such as slow played Aces or Kings since this 8 doesn't significantly improve Bryce's range there's a good possibility that if Alexandra had something strong enough to bet on the Flop it is still strong enough to bet on the turn which would give Bryce the opportunity to check raise the same is also true of Alexandra's Bluffs now let's talk about Alexander's call what district GTO say about this spot absolutely nothing because Bryce's dong shove is simply not a thing there's no coherent Nash equilibrium response to a play that is utterly incoherent but conceptual GTO can still be applied as follows at the Baseline when facing any bet Game Theory suggests that you should call with any hand that you think beats villain's weakest value hand and then you should also call some hands that are slightly below this threshold called Bluff catchers and then you fold the rest in this case if you thought Bryce could be doing this with a slow played Ace King or perhaps something like Ace 8 then this would be a pure call but if you think he's only doing this with a set then Ace King despite being extremely strong is merely a bluff catcher which potentially could go either way and the amount of bluff catchers you need to call with will be heavily dictated by the size of the BET which in this case is huge so as a practical matter from a conceptual GTO standpoint Alex only needs to call a small fraction of the time and Ace King is perhaps her best Bluff catcher it beats all Bluffs it blocks Aces and kings and even against Bryce's AIDS it potentially can draw ahead to a better Full House now some of you may be thinking to yourself didn't we just say that Bryce's bed doesn't really make sense as a bluff well yes we did but for anyone that has played life before you know that sometimes people just lose their minds and do random nonsense which playing with just a modicum of balance will protect you against even if you aren't perfectly balanced taking a stand at least once in a while with a bluff catcher will let people know that you simply

because then you get to take your medium sack that normally has to play tight and you instead to get to play far more Loosely you get to run your opponents over when you should not be able to short stacks should apply pressure to other short stacks and otherwise kind of try to get in the money try to sneak in realize that Ace X echly suited becomes very good pre-flop bluffing hands and that's because when you have an ace in your hand you make it more difficult for your opponent to have a hand that can shove it all in on you so if someone raises asex becomes a very good hand to three bet or shove all in because you block your opponent's continuing range it becomes very important you're going to find that in most scenarios when pound applications having an ace when you do decide to Bluff is very important sometimes you should be digressor and sometimes you should be cautious realize you need to use some logic to figure out these scenarios and also sometimes you're gonna be playing with various payout implications where maybe against one player you should be very aggressive and he gets another player at your table you should be very passive sometimes I'll have the same chip stack depending on their Tendencies they always want to make sure that you are accounting for that some examples I have a bunch of examples loaded up here probably far too many are playing in a scenario we're going to presume we're on the bubble we have 100 big blinds against the 75 big blind raise and the cutoff we're in position A6 offsuit would normally be an easy fold but as a big stack you want to get in there three bet apply pressure if there's a five big blind stack somewhere in the tournament or 2B blind stack you definitely want to apply pressure take that Ace blast them again these are gonna be mostly pre-flop hands so we're not gonna be going through them but I'm not gonna be going through a bunch of post-lop scenarios but I do want to show you these are spots you can kind of get out of line pre-flop both in a tight way and in a loose way depending on the spot here we are on the button we raise it up 10-7 Suited big blind hops to three bets this is probably hand it's okay to fold normally but not in the spot we're going to call we're gonna defend we're gonna see the flop because we're in position and the opponent because of their immense post-flop risk premium is going to have to be very cautious even if they have a very good hand and on boards that run out nicely for our range which will have a lot of medium suited connected type stuff whether or not we have a good hand we can run a lot of Bluffs on this flop though Ace king queen the opponent bats this

Diagram 25: Average BB vs IP Equity Buckets for 20bb/30bb/40bb Stacks For the definition of strong, good, weak and trash hands, see the Equity Buckets section of Chapter 10. On 654r, the BB has 7% strong hands, and IP has only 4%, while on A76r, the BB has 8% strong hands and IP has a staggering 31% strong hands! What happens is that, on A76r, IP’s top pairs (any Ax) have on average 85% equity vs the BB’s range, while a top pair on 654 will average about 65% equity. Additionally, on 654r, all of IP’s Ax will have an average of 49% equity, effectively turning them into weak hands. On 654r, the BB’s good hands increase from 17% to 40% and the trash hands reduce from 49% to 18% when compared to A76r. Because of this distribution, the IP Player will be incentivized to lower the c-betting frequency on 654r, given that the bulk of their range are weak hands that don’t perform well against a flop check/raise. So, by checking back more often, IP gets to see a free turn and realize equity. The BB reacts to this by donk betting many hands, forcing IP to either fold or put more money into the pot with the hands that would have been happy to check behind and see a free turn. Donk betting makes sense on 654r because it denies IP EQR, and also helps BB realize equity by leveraging the informational advantage of leading out with a well-balanced range that cannot be easily attacked by IP. This takes advantage of IP’s lack of strong hands that would be happy to raise for value. This also limits the number of hands that can be raised as a bluff, resulting in IP having an overall low raising frequency of 20% on 654r, whereas IP has a raising frequency on A76r of 53% (GTO frequencies vs a donk bet-size of 1/4-pot). Donk betting on A76r doesn’t make sense because it does not help the BB deny IP EQR. In this case, the opposite actually occurs, because IP’s range is so strong on this board that a donk bet can get raised with such a high frequency that the effect would be reversed. It would be the BB who is forced to continue putting more money into the pot with hands that would rather see a cheap turn card or fold, reducing their equity and resulting in a lower EQR and EV loss for OOP (Table 101).

table with at least one of them. They are a gold mine who will call one bet after another until their whole stack is gone. Identify these players as quickly as possible so that when you are heads up versus them you can extract as much money as possible. Some things to help you recognize a calling station are: 1. You will notice them calling bets down to the River and then fold on the River or call the River bet and then their hand is thrown into the muck. Of course, you will not see them raise or re-raise any of the bets. 2. Another indication I have detected online is that when the passive player does bet or raise in no limit Hold’em they only bet the minimum. For example, in a $1 /$2 game, they will only bet out $2 or if they are raising pre-flop they will only raise one bet. Tight Aggressive Players (TAG) are the stone cold killers of the poker table. They usually play with the best hand pre-flop or will notice when the pot is giving the correct odds for suited connectors or even speculative hands. They are willing to bet the most money when they have the best hand and have an innate ability to lay down a good hand to a better hand before putting too much money into the pot. This is a complete poker player with the skills of reading other players, reading cards, along with an understanding of probability. With this knowledge, they know how to bet or lay odds so the opponent is making a mistake more often then they are. If you are going to play in a hand after the flop with a LAG then you must be willing to put your money behind your cards. If you are going after a draw on the Turn and River be prepared to spend a lot of money to see those cards when the LAG has the best hand. You must notice who is a TAG at the table when you scope it out or sit down. Some indications that will help you tell are: They do not enter many pots; a good percentage to see the flop is between 15 and 25 percent depending on the types of cards you are getting in the session. Now just because a player is not seeing many flops does not automatically rank then as a TAG. They could be getting truly terrible cards that even a semi-loose player would not even play but it is a starting indicator. When the TAG does enter a pot pre-flop they usually enter the pot with a raise. This is because they know when they have the good cards, cards that give them a 60+ percent win ratio and will put some money behind the cards. They know that being strong pre-flop is the first building block for a good hand and they want to isolate a few opponents with the hand. Since the TAG has rated and identified most of the player’s skill

you had two aces in the pocket, your opponent is playing a 7-6, and the board came 9-8-5, or any three cards that could help his hand, such as a pair and a draw. That one extra card considerably improves his chances of cracking your aces. On the other hand, say you have A-K, your opponent has 7-6, and the board comes A-9-8. In this case, he hasn’t made anything yet because you’ve paired one of your holecards and now there are only two cards that will help him. Here’s the exception to this rule: say the flop is three to a big straight with maybe two to a flush, like: A? J? 10? or K? J? 10?. In this case, the ace or king helps both you and your 379 opponent. Later on, we’ll discuss why A-K is also a more flexible hand as far as how you can play it. Suited vs. Offsuit. In the discussion to follow, the difference between the two hands is sometimes ignored. That is, I’m going to suggest playing them the same way. But you should always remember that A-K suited has more value than A-K offsuit and it can always be played a little stronger. Anytime the cards are suited it’s a somewhat stronger hand than when they’re offsuit. This is especially true with A-K because you can make the nut flush. There’s another big difference between A-K suited and A-K offsuit: with AK suited it only takes three cards to make a flush. True, you can make one of two flushes with A-K offsuit, but it takes four cards to make either one. That’s a lot harder to do. And even if you make the flush with the king, you might not have the nuts. Flexibility. The reason why A-K is more flexible than A-A or K-K is that you can play an A-K in the lead or you can play it slow to raise with it. Also, I’d play A-K from any position for a reasonable size bet. And, on occasion, I’d get all my money in before the flop, as you’ll see below. Playing from Early Position. Specifically, in an early position, I’d raise the blind, bring it in, for whatever the normal bring-in is for that particular game. If I was raised, I’d probably call, although I don’t like to call a raise with AK, as most players do. I like to raise with it. Playing from Middle Position. If I were in a middle position and someone else had brought it in, I’d just call with A-K. I wouldn’t raise because I’d probably be raising just one man. I’d want at least one more player to come in. Playing from Late Position. In a late position, I’d probably raise with it, especially if I were on the button. Moving All-In. There are times I might even move all-in with an A-K. Let’s say I brought it in from an early position, and a couple of people behind me just called. When it gets to the guy on the button,

Betting. It stands on its own, but understanding… Probe Betting As far as rules of thumb go in poker, “check to the raiser” is a… ICM and Blind Battles: The Big Blind This is a companion piece to this article on the SB’s strategy for blind vs… ICM and Blind Battles: The Small Blind ICM incentivizes more conservative play, which means that at stages of the tournament where risk… The Initial Bettor’s Advantage The mathematics of poker holds a little-known secret: the first bettor enjoys better bluffing odds… Mastering the Chiplead: The Scalpel and the Sledgehammer When you have a lot of chips at a final table or in another situation… Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in Cash Games Our never-ending quest for money and fame leads us to the flop. We open the… How ICM Impacts Restealing From The Blinds When I first started working with preflop solves, one of the features I found most… The ICM Benefits of Late Registration in Poker Tournaments Why do so many professional poker players register late for tournaments when they clearly would… Flop Heuristics: OOP C-Betting in MTTs Playing against an in-position cold-caller is dramatically different–and dramatically more difficult–than playing against a caller… Counterintuitive Calls Solver outputs such as those provided by GTO Wizard are models of no-limit hold ‘em,… How To Negotiate Final Table Deals Most people’s first introduction to the Independent Chip Model (ICM) is not from studying bubble… How does ICM impact PKO strategy? If you have read The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments you already know why we… Understanding Blockers in Poker Often when looking through a solver’s meticulously crafted grid of deception, one of the following… Flop Heuristics: IP Cold-Caller in MTTs A Cold-call refers to the act of calling a preflop raise when you don’t close… Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in MTTs In the world of poker, the flop is a crucial stage of the game that… Flop Heuristics for Defending the Blinds in MTTs The field of Game Theoretically Optimal poker is extensive, and thus, to simplify our strategy,… Multiway strategy in Progressive Knockout Tournaments Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments are much more complex than traditional MTTs. The fact that players… How To Calculate Raises In Poker One of the most frequently asked questions in poker is how to calculate the size… Principles of River Play The river offers the least complicated strategy of any betting street. With no further cards… Exploitative Dynamics GTO solutions are designed to be unexploitable, performing reasonably well no matter how your opponents… How ICM Impacts Postflop Strategy Most players understand how the Independent Chip Model (ICM) in poker impacts their strategy preflop,… 10 Tips for Multiway Pots in Poker While lots of work has been placed into research and explanation of heads-up pot strategy,… What is the Bubble Factor in poker tournaments? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) shows us the real money implications of tournament chip decisions.… The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments In poker, a PKO (Progressive Knockout) tournament is a type of tournament where a portion… How To Analyze Turn Textures

Table 99: All Possible Flops Categorized by Card Rank Flop Subsets As often mentioned previously, there are 22,100 possible flops in hold’em and, using suit isomorphism, we can reduce that number to 1,755 strategically different flops. For practical purposes, this number is still very large. For this reason, poker players, as well as programmers and theorists, have attempted to simplify the game by creating smaller flop subsets that accurately represent the whole game. The first publicly known attempt to develop a subset of flops was performed by the poker

This spot is very different to the last. This Villain appears far more fit-or-fold and generally less likely to c-bet air on the flop. This texture is also a little wetter and less favourable for his BU opening range, which might contain every offsuit A, but certainly not every offsuit or even suited 9. As a result, Villain's checking back range is normally largely weighted towards give-ups, giving Hero a big boost of fold equity on the turn. Betting this turn is therefore mandatory. Hero cannot check/call with no SDV and has far too much equity + fold equity with a bet to ever consider check/folding. What would Villain's turn calling range look like here vs. Hero's probe and what does this mean for how Hero should play the river? Well, 8x is a very small part of his range. There aren't too many combos of that in a tighter player's pre-flop opening range even from the BU. The bulk of his turn calling range then will consist of stuff that wasn't overly happy on the flop and was probably giving up on most turns but likes this one enough to call. The hands I'm referring to are those with one high club, usually the Ac or Kc. This means that Hero has a clear plan available. He should be happy to continue his bluff on blank rivers as these hands have now bricked and are just A-high or K-high facing a second bet from an uncapped range. They'll almost always be folding. On a club river, however, Hero should be inclined to give up as a lot of Villain's range has just improved. More sophisticated players may take care to ensure their range for checking back flop and calling turn is not so predictably weighted, but fortunately, such players are rare at least until we reach low to midstakes.

THE SKLANSKY-CHUBUKOV RANKINGS 199 J9o 17.79938 Q3s 17.73401 T8s 17.46571 J7s 17.19452 Q7o 17.07734 Q2s 16.64103 Q6o 16.29514 98s 15.29334 Q5o 15.03498 J8o 14.86776 T9o 14.83221 J6s 14.7186 T7s 14.19943 J5s 14.04842 Q4o 13.66217 J4s 12.95547 J7o 12.66604 Q3o 12.50323 97s 12.25142 T8o 12.15698 J3s 12.04034 T6s 11.92109 Q2o 11.30295 J2s 11.13873 87s 11.11055 J6o 10.78068 98o 10.27126 T7o 10.20476 96s 10.09767 J5o 9.987293 T5s 9.9469 T4s 9.260066 86s 8.994746 J4o 8.906238 T6o 8.571955 97o 8.570963 T3s 8.415718 76s 8.318417 95s 8.261043 J3o 7.914721 T2s 7.538836 87o 7.505732 85s 7.239171 96o 7.074151 T5o 6.920957 J2o 6.885765 75s 6.59416 94s 6.583641 T4o 6.248512 65s 6.207388 86o 6.099835 93s 6.058991 84s 5.692773 95o 5.650827 T3o 5.480421 76o 5.439126 92s 5.359298 74s 5.109201 54s 4.850294 T2o 4.832254 85o 4.81223 64s 4.769221 83s 4.463809 94o 4.345783 75o 4.269797 82s 4.129509 73s 4.018033 93o 4.000304 65o 3.972305 53s 3.850154 63s 3.777173 84o 3.737896 92o 3.585219 43s 3.402163 74o 3.366747 72s 3.221509 54o 3.221293 64o 3.170312 52s 3.114999 62s 3.054809 83o 2.994827 42s 2.796223

vice versa. A friend of mine from Houston who plays super-aggressive is a much better shorthanded player because he raises virtually every pot. In a shorthanded game, that works because you aren’t always up against quality hands. But if you continually raise in a ring game, you will often find yourself up against superior hands and will be taking the worst of it. People bluff a lot in shorthanded play because, generally speaking, no one flops a good enough hand to call with. Additionally, the nut hand isn’t out there nearly as often. I find that playing shorthanded is more fun than playing in a full game: You play more hands, and it isn’t boring because as soon as you drop, another hand starts. Just remember that shorthanded Omaha requires a different set of skills. What Separates Average Players From Top Players I think that what separates average players from good players is the amount of money average players lose with pocket aces before the flop and with full houses. If you overplay your aces before the flop, and if you’re not capable of laying down a full house—especially an underfull—when it’s pretty obvious that you’re beat, you’re going to lose big pots playing Omaha. If you play enough Omaha, these big hands will mean the difference between winning 293 and losing, so you have to play them in such a way that you won’t lose a lot of money. And when you play an underfull, you must be careful not to overcommit to the pot, even in shorthanded games. Let me tell you a little story just to show you how dangerous these hands can be. In a shorthanded game, a player I’ll call “Don” and I each had a little bit of money in before the flop. The board came K-K-10, and although I had a king in my hand, I just checked. Don bet around $3,000. I thought he was bluffing, but as it turned out, he had two tens. I called, off came a four on the turn, and I made kings full of fours. He bet $10,000, and I raised him his last $10,000 to put him all-in. Since we were playing shorthanded, it was more difficult for Don to get away from his hand. He called, showed down his tens full of kings, and lost all his money. This example just shows you how easy it is to lose a big pot with an underfull. Don couldn’t have won as much money with tens full as he could have lost if I made kings full. In this example, if I’d held something like K-Q-5-4, I still would have seen that flop. That’s not an absolutely premium starting hand of course, but when you’re playing three- or four-handed, you can play almost any four cards. That is, you’ll have a little more latitude in your starting hands as long as you play well on the flop, turn, and river. Again, it’s risk-reward—for example, if you’re playing $200/$400 blinds and there is $50,000 or $60,000 on the table,

cuz they folded those on the Flop let's talk about the turn so we're going back to I'm sorry I know we're jumping around so we're going back to button versus big blind 40 big Blends because this is the easiest way to explain this okay so we're going to make this again Ace do Ace 10 4 rainbow okay Ace 104 rainbow so we've already kind of explained hopefully you know watch our strategy here we're going to bet everything and we're going to bet small because we're attacking the so we bet two things happen here we bet 100% of our range right and then the big blind calls okay something happened here what happened once the big blind called Big blind's Range narrowed what happened to the Big blind's Air what happened to the big blind's air it folded it's gone what happened to the big blind's best hands like Ace 10 ace four pocket fours they're gone they three they check rais the Flop so their best hands are gone their worst hands are gone what is the big blind left with the middle weaker Pair of Aces weaker top pair lots of 10x lots of pair of fours lots of king queen king Jack Queen Jack um and then there's like the speculative hands like Queen n suited Jack n suited jack8 suited Queen 8 Suited king8 suited like these back door King High flush draws and then some of these wheel straight draws okay what happens to our range what happened to our what happened to our air we still have our air what happened to our strong hands we have all the strong hands as well we bet everything we can have the strong hands and we can have the [ __ ] hands so when they bet they Boughton bets big blind calls and I'm going to put up a complete brick the eight of Hearts okay the big blind's going to check we already know that what is going to be the most common sizing for the big the button once the the big blind checks here is it going to be and I'll tell you the options here it's 30% 65% 100% or 150% and the pot is 160 and we're playing about 588 behind Okay so who wins the small game now most people are seem to get that the the button does not want to bet small who wins the small game the big blind wins the small blind the the the big blind wins the small blind because they don't have any air their worst hands are like king queen queen Jack King Jack king8 suited Queen Queen n suited our worst hands are like what what could we have here Queen Deuce Jack 3 we have a lot of [ __ ] 10 104 is a good hand 95 we have a lot of trash here Deuces okay so I can tell you here the most common bet size is probably going to be like 160 and it's

and raising too often because that will put you in difficult spots if the player in position decides to raise you or re-raise them so let's say you raise from the hijack and then someone yet that calls you should be continuation betting that's when you make a bet on the flop as the aggressor on the previous betting round you should be continuation betting more often against a caller from the big blind and you should be checking more often against the player and the cut off on all boards so when you're at a position you typically want to be doing more checking in position you want to be doing a little bit more betting sorry to interrupt but i do hope you're enjoying this sneak preview of my mastering the fundamentals course this entire course will teach you everything you need to know to crush the small stakes games and for making it this far in this video i'm going to give you the entire course for free all you have to do to get it is head over to pokercoaching.com fundamentalscourse right now all right let's get back to learning about how to crush post flop poker now that you understand range advantage nut advantage and position and how they impact your post flop strategy let's apply that to specifically the flop so when you have the range advantage this is when you have 58 percent of a range advantage or more we have 58 or more equity as we showed in the previous section in this scenario you're just going to want to bet very very very very frequently it is fine to bet small about one-third pot with your entire range this is something very different than what a lot of recreational players do where they will only bet when they connect with the board if they make a pair they'll bet if they make some sort of a draw they will bet but if they miss they'll just check and that is a big mistake so if you wanted a really simple strategy that you could very easily follow and it wouldn't be too far off from the perfect strategy you can just make a small continuation bet on every flop when you have the range advantage remember you have the range advantage by going through and practicing and studying with a program like equilab if you do want to take this strategy and ramp it up a little bit you should bet larger about three-fourths of the size of the pot when your opponent's continuing range contains mostly decently strong hands so what i mean by that is let's go back to this example from the previous section and take a look at this situation where under the gun raises and the big blind calls flop comes ace king jack if you think about this we already know that the under the um player has a big equity advantage so you're going to be betting with every single hand in your range however if

is seated closest to the left of the button acts first, as is the case with each successive round of betting. In most games with fixed limits, the pre-flop and flop bets are one size, and the turn and river bets are double that. For example, in a $2-$4 game, the first two rounds of betting must be in increments of $2 and the last two rounds in increments of $4. In $50/$100 games, the increments would be $50 and $100. The standard game features a maximum of one bet and three raises per round, although the majority of games in Las Vegas permit four raises. When the Pot Is Split Omaha eight-or-better is a high-low split game, which means the high and low hands each get half of the pot. There is always a high hand, which will receive some portion of the pot, but sometimes no low hand is possible because to make a low hand, a player must have five unpaired cards eight or below. For example, if the flop came K-J-9, it would be impossible for any player to make a hand of five unpaired cards eight or below. When there is no low, the high hand wins the whole pot. The best possible low is 5-4-3-2-A 165 and is commonly referred to as a wheel or a bicycle. Furthermore, in Omaha eight-or-better, straights and flushes don’t count against a low hand. Thus, 6-4-3-2-A of hearts would be a 6-4 low, in addition to a flush for the high. If two or more players hold the same high or low hand, they divide that half of the pot. Dividing half a pot in this way is called quartering. You will encounter this much more often on the low side of the pot. You Must Play Two Cards from Your Hand In hold’em a player is allowed to use one, both, or neither of the cards dealt to him in conjunction with the cards on board to make the best possible fivecard hand. Omaha players, however, are forced to make their best five-card hand by using exactly two of their own cards and exactly three from the board—no more, no less. But many different combinations are possible. You May Play Different Combinations for High and Low In Omaha eight-or-better, you are allowed to make both your best high and your best low hand by combining two of your cards with three from the board. You may use different cards in each direction, or you can use a card for both your high hand and low hand. For example, suppose you have A? 2? 7? K? and the board is: 3? 4? 6? J? Q?. In this case, you can use the A-7 of clubs for high (ace-high flush) and the A-2 for low (6-4-3-2-A). Ranking of Low Hands If you have played stud eight-or-better, ace-to-five lowball, or razz, you already know the ranking order of low hands in Omaha eight-or-better. The best possible hand is 5-4-3-2-A, and the worst qualifying low hand is 8-7-6- 5-4. To determine whether or

Interpreting Equity Distributions GTO Wizard’s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which player has the stronger or nuttier range and the distribution of equity across each player’s range. Whether a player has mostly medium-strength hands or a more polarized mix of very strong and very weak hands has huge implications for their preferred betting frequency and size. These graphs display that information clearly and concisely. On these graphs, the x-axis plots each player’s range from their lowest-equity hand, on the far left, to their highest-equity hand, on the far right. The y-axis plots the equity of each hand. The lines on these graphs always slope from the bottom left to the upper right. The things to pay attention to are: which player’s line is above the other’s at various points on the x-axis and by how much . Check out this article to learn more about equity distribution graphs 📉 A Polarized Range vs a Condensed Range Take a look at the graph below, where the 🔵 blue line represents BB’s equity distribution and the 🟢 green line BTN’s equity distribution. Which of these players has the more polarized range? How can you tell? What do you expect each player’s betting strategy to look like on this street? (I am deliberately not giving you the action that led to this distribution so you can practice deriving optimal strategy from the graph rather than from familiar patterns of previous action.) BTN has the more polarized range here . Notice their green line is consistently well above or well below BB’s blue line, intersecting it only briefly in the middle, where the line slopes steeply upward. That means BTN’s hands are mostly very bad, with 0-15% equity, or very good, with 70%+ equity. That vertical stretch in the green line indicates BTN has no hands with 30-60% equity. The long, flat, horizontal section of the blue line represents medium-strength hands, with about 60% equity, predominating in BB’s range, with just a few very good or very bad hands at the extremes. Knowing this, we should expect BB mostly to check. Those medium-strength hands do not benefit from betting, because they will only cause worse hands to fold and better hands to call. Their preference is to keep the pot smaller, get to showdown, and maybe induce some bluffs from BTN’s weaker hands 🙌 BTN is the one who wants to bet. Their weaker hands can get folds from better, and their stronger hands benefit from making the pot larger. Given the magnitude of BTN’s advantage here, we should expect large bets, if the stack-to-pot ratio permits it. This graph is from a 100BB cash game simulation, BTN vs BB in a single-raised pot . After the BB checks and calls a 50% pot on an A ♠ T ♥ 8 ♠ flop and a 125% pot bet on a 2 ♣ turn, they see the 6 ♥ river with the ranges shown on this graph. As we predicted, the BB checks 97% of their range in this situation,

he better not get away with it more than 50 percent of the time, but if you are in the big blind you don't have the entire responsibility of making sure that he gets called the proper amount. The little blind should also do his share of calling (or reraising). However, you need to realize that the little blind should be aware that the big blind may also call. Consequently he should only play his better hands. Thus the little blind should play about half as often as the big blind, and their combined playing frequency should be only a little more than it was for the big blind when the game was heads-up. In other words the big blind should play approximately 70 percent as often as before, and the little blind should play approximately 40 percent as often as the big blind played in the previous case. Returning to Play on the Flop and Beyond We previously said that you should call on the flop (in the situation just discussed) anytime you have something reasonable and with some other hands that don't appear reasonable. Let's examine this in more detail. Suppose you call a raise out of the blind with: This is a proper call. ~okoften do you flop a hand that under normal circumstances is reasonable? You will flop a pair approximately one third of the time, a straight draw about 8 percent of the time, and you should have two overcards in the neighborhood of 10 percent of the time. That brings us to 50 percent, which is not enough against a very aggressive player who is automatically going to try to steal. Our advice is to pretend that the top card isn 't there! Take it off the board, or turn it into a deuce in your mind, and see if you would still play. In other words if you have the Q4TV and the flop is 194 Part Five: Playing Short-Handed just change it to If you do this you should be at approximately the right strategy for playing against super aggressive players who constantly take the pot odds on a steal or a semi-steal. (You would play in this spot since you have two "overcards" and a backdoor straight draw.) By the way, part of the reason that we have put so much emphasis on this idea is that the strategy of betting every single time is actually pretty close to being the right strategy if you are up against somebody who doesn't realize what is happening to them. You should be playing this way against someone who you think will fall prey to it. If you are up against players who normally play 9 or 10 handed games and don't defend properly, then you should be the one taking advantage of the concept that betting every time against a tight player is probably going to show a profit. However, you don't want to make your strategy completely obvious. Thus you should bet merely most of the time as opposed to every time. Check your

'I will learn the truth, however much you may deny it. I'm going to place you under Sodium Amytal, a drug which will force you to talk as it has all the others. I will learn all about you or much of it. You do not believe this, but nevertheless it's true. If under its influence you tell me what you tell me now, I will say you have confessed everything and should not be executed.' As he continued to hesitate I added, 'Guilty or innocent, you are already convicted. But -1 repeat - because you are a white man and I am a white man I will try to save your life.' I had little sympathy for him. But in trying to save him I was thinking of other foreigners. The execution of a foreigner for spying would be known to every Chinese, high and low, and Chinese suspicion of foreigners, already great, would make life in China even more hazardous than it was. Mob violence against the 'Foreign Devils' had been known before. 'I have nothing to lose, I see,* the German said, his lips white. Then he proceeded to tell me he had been groomed for this mission with a fake escape from Nazi tyranny. He had bought a Honduran passport and was to contact one Sin Fu at the Japanese consulate in Hong Kong. He had been given $35,000 gold (and at this he smiled ruefully at me) and had been directed to come to Chungking and await the arrival of still another agent. 'What were you sending?' 'Merely contact signals. Nothing more.' 'What was the code?' Two figure numerals in German. I don't remember it.' 'What was the mission of the other agent?' 'I don't know exactly. He was to contact a man on the Generalissimo's staff and I was to pay him twenty-five thousand dollars gold in hundred-dollar bills.' 'For what?' 'I don't know.' 'You have an idea. Remember, I'm going to use the drug on you.' 'Well, at the consulate I heard scraps of conversation about a map. I know some Japanese. They pointed out Ichang, which is about two hundred miles downstream on the map.' 'Did you hear the word assassinate linked with any reference to the Generalissimo?' 'No, but I had the feeling that they were going to try to kidnap him by paratroopers.' The more I questioned him the more confused he got, so I decided to give him the drug, all the while cursing the Donkey for having shattered a plot in the making. I called in Ling and the Donkey and reviewed the questions I had asked. Under Sodium Amytal the German repeated his story as he had told it before, but under questioning was even more convinced that the plan was to kidnap the Generalissimo. He was placed in a private cell and permitted to sleep. Had I condemned him to a life of misery? Almost gladly I remembered that prisoners were not taken to dugouts during air raids. The Japanese bombers might effect the release I had denied

Fish A pejorative term used to describe a weak player.

Hand Range 69: SB vs LJ 4-bet • 5-bet All-in 20.6% / • Call 45.7% / • Fold 33.8% The SB can 3-bet a wider range vs the HJ than vs the LJ, incorporating hands such as A9s (23%), KQo (9%), K9s (10%), J9s (9%) and adding more weight to the threshold hands (Hand Range 70). Since you are 3-betting slightly wider vs the HJ than vs the LJ, you have to call a little more often vs the 4-bet to remain unexploitable by incorporating some calls with hands such as AQo (5%), KQs (48%), KJs (54%), and KTs (28%) (Hand Range 71).

with a wide range in this way, especially blind vs. blind where ranges are even wider than usual. No quick fold available here. Q3. Does Villain credibly represent better hands? Yes he can have a whole host of [TT-QQ Kx AA] and sets. No quick call available for this reason. Q4. What do my population/player type/player reads tell me? This player fires post-flop bets frequently on all streets. His WWSF is high and he clearly isn't one to play fit-or-fold on the later streets. The Kc on the turn is a perceived scare card on which many Villains will bluff a wide range and Hero shouldn't have too much Kx in his own range after he calls the flop c-bet. This is a card that is much better for Villain's range than Hero's. All of this makes Villain fairly likely to be bluffing this river with a wide range of hands. Hero is fairly high up in his own range with A9 and holding an A makes some of Villain's value combinations such as AK and AA less likely. Moreover, the large river sizing seems to discount some thinner value bets. It seems less likely that Villain will show up with TT, JJ, QQ, or a weak Kx with this huge sizing as with these hands he needs to be called by very weak holdings. This reduces Villain's value range and makes bluffs a larger proportion of his range overall. In summary, Hero should comfortably reach his 32% equity target vs Villain's range. Hero calls 29BB.

3-Card Straight 1st player raises with Three Clubs in the Winning Zone. He may make Hi or Lo or both. 2nd hand calls with Two in Winning Zone. 7th calls with a 3-Card Straight. The Deal Two Two Down Up 1st player is dealt an A, making 2 3 7 A c c c c c Four Clubs, Four m Winning Zone. Bet because there is a good chance of making the Flush and five cards in Winning Zone. 2nd player is dealt a 7, making 4 5 K 7 Three in Winning Zone, One in Losing Zone. Bet because Two more cards in Winning Zone should give 2nd player a good hand. 7th player is dealt a J, making 8 9 10 J A 4-Card Straight. If he had not improved he should have folded. The Betting 1st player is High with the Ace. He bets on Four Clubs and Four in Winning Zone. 2nd calls with Three in Winning Zone, One in Losing Zone. 7th calls on a 4-Card Straight. The Deal Two Down Three Up 1st player is dealt a 7, making S 2 3 c c 7 A 7 c c S He paired. Still has Four Clubs and Four in Winning Zone. 2nd player is dealt an A, making 4 5 K 7 A Four in Winning Zone, One in Losing Zone. He should bet with Four in Winning Zone and the sixth and seventh card to come. 7th player is dealt a Q, making 8 9 10 J Q A Queen-High Straight. He should raise. 8 9 10 J Q The Betting 1st player is high with Two Sevens. He bets with Four Clubs and Four in Winning Zone. 2nd player calls with Four in Winning Zone. 7th player raises with a Queen High Straight. 1st re-raises with Four Clubs and Four in Winning Zone. 2nd just calls with Four in Winning Zone. 7th timidly calls with Queen High Straight. He is afraid the 1st player will catch a club on either the 6th or 7th card. 45 89 The Deal Two Down Four Up 1st player is dealt a 4, making c A 2 3 4 7 for Lo and Five Clubs for Hi. A raising hand. 2 3 c c 7 A 7 4 c c S c 2nd player is dealt an 3, making 4 5 K 7 A 3 A 3 4 5 7 for Lo. A raising hand. 7th player is dealt a 9, making 8 9 10 J Q 9 A Straight. A raising hand. The Betting 1st player is High with Two Sevens. He bets on A 2 3 4 7 for Lo and a Flush for Hi. 2nd raises on A 3 4 5 7 for Lo. 7th hand calls on Queen High Straight 1st player has one of the lowest hands in the deck - A 2 3 4 7 and a cinch for Hi. He re-raises. 2nd player also has a below average Lo hand but he just calls. 7th hand, from what he can see,

a starting hand, identified in the table below, is described as premium, strong, drawing, or garbage. Strength Categories of Starting Hands --- - - Strength Description Examples Premium Hands that can win on their Big pairs-AA, KK, QQ. JJ, 10 10; straight own. draws with aces such as A4K4, AV K*. Strong Hands that will probably Medium pairs-99, 88, 77; Ace-high straight need improvement to win. draws such as KVQ*; Royal Draws such as KVJV. Drawing Hands that will need help Little pairs-66,55,44,33,22; connected straight from the board to win. flush draws such as 5*6*; Ace-high flush draws such as AV7V. Garbage Should not be played. All other hands not listed above. Patience is required to play Hold'em because you rarely receive premium and strong starting cards. The next table summarizes the frequency of selected premium and strong starting cards. Frequencies of Selected Starting Hands Starting Hand Frequency (%) Odds Againt AA ............................................................................... 0.45 220-1 KK ............................................................................... 0.45 220- 1 AK (mixed or suited) ................................................ 1.2 82- 1 Any Premium Pair A A- 10 10 ..................................... 2.3 43- 1 Any Royal Draw ....................................................... 3.0 32- 1 Any Ace-Face Combination ........................................ 3.6 27- 1 Any Ace High Flush Draw (Including Royals) ........... 3.6 27- 1 Any Ace High Straight Draw ...................................... 14.3 6.0-1 Any Hand with an Ace (Including AA) ....................... 15.4 5.5-1 44 THE INTELLIGENT GUIDE TO TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER Your Position You must play starting cards appropriate for your position. In an early position, you are forced throughout the hand to make decisions with the least amount of information. For example, if before the flop, you call the blind with a drawing hand, you could be faced with a raise from one or more players with premium pairs. Since you don't know what raises you will be faced with, don't play cards from an early position that are too weak to justify calling a raise. Compared to Seven-Card Stud, the importance of position in Hold'em is one of the key differences between the games. Position changes throughout the hand in Stud. The critical factor in determining a playable stud hand isn't position, but rather, how "live" is the hand. If your first three cards in Seven-Card Stud are A, J, J and you look at the board and see the other two Jacks and one other Ace, you have a "dead" hand. The Jacks with Ace-kicker may look pretty, but your action should be to fold. However, in Hold'em, only three cards initially appear on the board and they are your cards. To know when your hand is "dead" is more difficult in Hold'em because fewer cards are exposed. To judge if your Hold'em hand is "live," you must observe the bets from the other players. Therefore, position matters, and since your position stays fixed throughout the hand, you know ahead of time the betting order for the entire hand. Associate the value of strength categories of starting hands with your position as measured from the big blind. Position Recommendations for Starting Hands Position Seat Relative to Button Playable Hands Earl

AA EV: (The EV of betting AA is $150; this is clearly higher than the EV of checking AA, which is $100) QQ EV: Then the value of the game for P1 is:

In the world of poker, the flop is a crucial stage of the game that… Flop Heuristics for Defending the Blinds in MTTs The field of Game Theoretically Optimal poker is extensive, and thus, to simplify our strategy,… Multiway strategy in Progressive Knockout Tournaments Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments are much more complex than traditional MTTs. The fact that players… How To Calculate Raises In Poker One of the most frequently asked questions in poker is how to calculate the size… Principles of River Play The river offers the least complicated strategy of any betting street. With no further cards… Exploitative Dynamics GTO solutions are designed to be unexploitable, performing reasonably well no matter how your opponents… How ICM Impacts Postflop Strategy Most players understand how the Independent Chip Model (ICM) in poker impacts their strategy preflop,… 10 Tips for Multiway Pots in Poker While lots of work has been placed into research and explanation of heads-up pot strategy,… What is the Bubble Factor in poker tournaments? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) shows us the real money implications of tournament chip decisions.… The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments In poker, a PKO (Progressive Knockout) tournament is a type of tournament where a portion… How To Analyze Turn Textures In Poker Master the art of turn analysis in poker. Understand how the turn card changes the… Principles of Turn Strategy Learn the principles of turn strategy in poker and discover what makes the turn unique.… Poker Strategies: Tournaments vs. Cash Games Tournament poker is not as different from cash game poker as people sometimes assume. Most… How Solvers Work A Game Theory Optimal solver is an algorithm that calculates the best possible poker strategy.… The Most Powerful Play in Poker The central strategic implication of stack depth is the question of how much equity a… When does ICM become significant in MTTs? The Independent Chip Model (ICM) was invented in 1987 by M. Malmuth and is one… How to Study GTO Solutions Tools like GTO Wizard and other solvers should not be used to memorize specific strategies.… Principles of GTO Game theory, or GTO (for Game Theoretically Optimal), is best understood not as a rigid… Interpreting Equity Distributions GTO Wizard’s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which… What is Leverage in poker? Leverage refers to the risk of future betting. When you call a bet on the… Reasons for value betting in poker You’re probably accustomed to thinking of bets as either value or bluff. In this taxonomy,… The Science of Poker Performance Poker is a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment… What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets… Pot Geometry “Pot Geometry” refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such… A Beginner’s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible “combinations” (combos) of any… Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how

i had 5'4 here i probably wouldn't have shoved like the solver side i probably would have found a reluctant call and then folded the river so uh clearly that's not necessarily right but a lot of people will apply pressure like this like a pretty good amount of my stack and then just never bluff forever thinking that if i make it past the turn i must have a hand that's going to call or i'll call most of the time and then they're just never going to bluff a river if that's the case if you see people make this particular size not in relation to the pop but in relation to my stack where they think this is a committing play for me then perhaps we just want to shove in these scenarios because when he has nothing he's not going to bluff it off and when he has a good hand like an ace he's just going to call it off every time all these little nuances you can find looking back at the hand but sometimes these things actually are relevant and if you do play with people often enough as you probably do in your local casino or your local home game you can find spots like that where people will make these particular plays and if you can find spots where you know they're just like either really weak or really strong if you know they're really weak and they're not going to block the river you might as well get it in all right we raised queen 10 suited perfectly fine in standard flap a flush draw seems like a great spot to bet we are pretty deep if i bet and get raised we can easily call we discuss this a lot in the tournament master class that if you bet a draw and have to fold to a raise and your draw has pretty good equity like 25 30 35 you probably screwed up um unless it's some uncommon line like right here if i bet any amount he shoves it all in on me for 176 000 whatever you know you got it but if i make a bet of let's say 4 000 6 000 or something like that and then he raises to 20 i can just easily call and try to spike a club right so this is the spot we're gonna be betting draws like that i bet four he calls and i'm not gonna say it's optimal to go ahead and triple it off here but i already know i have all the nuts or effective nuts in my range right i have ace king ace queen a6 suited ace two suited sixes probably not twos but he doesn't have aces right and he doesn't have ace king most of the time so i have a lot of really good hands here and i have a lot of um bluffs with good equity right so this is the spot where i'm going to be betting the

6.1) we estimate what we think our average gain will be from Villain's stack when we do get there and see if this makes up the difference in lacking pot odds. Let's assume that we win the majority of Villain's stack on average when we get there. Of course sometimes we will win the entire thing and sometimes we will win a bit less or even nothing extra at all. We are simply concerned with the average gain. Villain will have 45BB left when we get to the turn. Let's be generous and assume we make 30BB of this on average from his stack after we hit our magic our 8. We'll call this extra amount IOB (Implied

when the tournament was down to its last seven players. (Those of you who have seen the ESPN broadcasts of the tournament might recognize the hand, as it occurred during the early part of the final table coverage.) At the start of the hand, the blinds were $10,000/$20,000, and the antes were $2,000 each. With seven players left, there was $44,000 in the pot to begin the hand. Here were the players, their chip counts, and the starting hands of those who played: Small Blind Amir Vahedi $865,000 T♦8♣ Big Blind Tomer Benvenisti $645,000 1 Sam Farha $1,530,000 9♦9♣ 2 Yong Pak $215,000 3 Jason Lester $1,161,000 4 Dan Harrington $1,080,000 A♥K♠ 5 Chris Moneymaker $2,894,000 T♠9♥ Sam Farha. Sam was first to act after the blinds. A pair of nines is a good hand at a sevenhanded table, and Sam made a raise of $60,000, three times the big blind. Professionals have a convention for describing the size of raises. Before the flop raises are usually described as multiples of the big blind. After the flop raises are described as fractions of the existing pot. The range for initial bets is usually about two to five times the big blind. 13 Yong Pak and Jason Lester. Folded their hands. Dan Harrington. My A♥K♠ gave me a choice of plays. I could certainly put in a good-sized raise, say $150,000 to $200,000. I could also just call and see how the hand develops. I like to alternate between these two plays in similar situations (with hands like ace-king or ace-queen), so my opponents can't get a read on me. But I don't make my choices completely at random. In this case two factors pushed me towards calling instead of raising: 1. I was just one off the button, so I was likely to have position on subsequent rounds. When I have position, I don't need to play the hand as strongly before the flop, since my good position will let me win some hands after the flop with less overall risk. In other words, I can let position, rather than bet size, do the work for me. 2. I thought I was one of the better players remaining at the table, so I wanted to reduce, rather than increase, my volatility on the hand. (Volatility is a mathematician's word for the size of the money swing on the hand.) A weaker player in the same situation should be looking to increase volatility; hence he would definitely want to throw in a bet. After weighing the various considerations, I decided just to call. Chris Moneymaker. Chris elected to call with his T♠9♥. It's not a strong hand, but there were two other factors besides his cards that argued for a call, pot odds and position. The pot odds were quite favorable: there is $164,000 in the pot, and it cost Chris just $60,000 to call. In addition, Chris would act last for all subsequent betting rounds. Another factor might have entered into his decision. Chris had been playing conservatively at the start of

Be Drawing Which is the better hand on a K♥8♦5♦ flop: K♠T♣ or 7♥6♥? OK, I’ll admit… The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players… Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers A “sticky” player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and… Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of… Heads up! Exploiting SB’s Preflop Mistakes Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players,… C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone… Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes,… River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won’t Check-Raise One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting… Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this… The Right Way To Think About Protection Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A♠A♣ in the… The Importance of Board Coverage The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful… How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs “They always have it!” is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency… Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I’m not referring to… C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to… C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both… The Art of Bluff Catching Bluff catching—calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if… Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet… Is Limping Pimping? In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing… Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation,… Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs.… The Worst Turn Card Greetings from GTO land. In today’s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to… Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We’re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we’ve won a few pots,… Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As… 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’ve… The Greatest Final Table in Triton History Today, we’ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I’ve

C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to continuation bet most flops at a high frequency, usually for a small size, without fear of exploitation. There are exceptions, however. In some scenarios, the preflop raiser’s equilibrium strategy involves checking more than half their range on the flop. This is the case even on some flops where they have significantly more equity than the BB. Such scenarios occur more commonly when the preflop raiser is in late position and when stacks are shallow . These are spots where the BB can easily flop hands strong enough to check-raise and play for stacks. This enables them to have more check-raise bluffs and semi-bluffs resulting in an overall more aggressive check-raising strategy , which incentivizes the raiser to check many medium-strength hands that would face tough decisions when raised. This drives the raiser to construct their continuation betting range in a more polar fashion, which often results in the usage of larger sizes. But what if the BB does not take advantage of this opportunity? What if they do not raise as aggressively as a solver would? Is the raiser then incentivized to bet at a higher frequency? Or for a larger size? Or both? With the help of the nodelocking feature , we can investigate these scenarios in depth to better understand how to exploit opponents who do not check-raise aggressively , even on favorable boards. The Experiment For this experiment, we will investigate three flop textures on which the BB can often check-raise aggressively. Our example flops will be: 6 ♥ 3 ♦ 2 ♣ , a low card board where the BB is more likely to flop straights and two pairs. J ♥ 7 ♦ 5 ♣ , a medium, coordinated board where the BB’s range interacts more heavily via pairs and draws. K ♥ 4 ♥ 4 ♦ , a paired board where the BB has a trips advantage. These simulations use an MTT Chip EV model with 30bb stacks . They assume a single-raised pot between a BTN raiser and a BB caller . In addition to the board texture, the late position of the preflop raiser and the shallower stacks incentivize a lower continuation betting frequency at equilibrium. As always, with experiments like these , the goal is not to master these specific spots but rather to better understand the relationship between continuation betting and BB aggression . The principles derived from this experiment will apply in many other scenarios, regardless of stack depth or position. They will be relevant in cash games and even in other games besides hold ‘em! You can see from this Flop Report that, despite their late position and the shallow stacks, BTN continuation bets more than 75% of the time on average in this scenario, but when lower cards flop, they can end up doing a good bit of checking: In this experiment, the raiser will have three continuation betting options: 33%, 67%, or 100% of the pot. BB will

have insight that you have not even considered. Getting these nuggets of wisdom from a coach instead of through the hard knocks of experience can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars. I have a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology. I read at least 50 books on the subject of Psychology before entering a graduate program. I was not able to perform effective therapy with a client until I was under the instruction of a supervisor. The supervisor cut through all the peripheral noise of information and led me in the right direction for my skill: what to look for, how to capitalize on it and how to deepen the situation. If someone could do that for you in regards to playing poker, then the investment will pay off a thousand fold. 3. Know yourself. This applies to all parts of your life and to playing poker. Know your game, what your strengths and weaknesses are. This way you can avoid the situations that lose you money and allow you to maximize the situation where you win money. I know one player who only plays big Pocket Pairs and he plays them well. Sometimes he will flop something with a free look while in the big blind but his profit comes with big Wired Pairs. He knows how to play them and he is a long-term winner. By understanding your game, you can start to fill the leaks and slowly improve your play one strategy at a time. 4. By knowing yourself you also know when you have played well and when you have played poorly. This is important so you do not go on tilt or become overly aggressive because you feel invincible. I remember that one of my losing streaks was not all because the cards were falling against me. My intentions had changed; I wanted to win more money and started to force my game: this Turned into a bad streak for a few weeks. I stopped playing poker for a week and re-evaluated my game, not the technical part but what was going on inside my own head. I realized that I was not happy with what the poker Gods were offering me each session, that I wanted more but that that desire had me making the wrong decisions. When I returned to playing poker, I played my old solid game and returned to a consistent winning style. 5. Know the players you are playing against. Constantly take notes during the game for future reference. I find that you should know if a player is tight or loose, aggressive or passive. Those are basic. You should put different things into each of those categories, such as “Raises x amount pre-flop with “type of cards and position”. Alternatively, “Opponent does not raise with A Qos in early position.” Alternatively, “Always checks the flop when he gets a set with no two Flush on the board.” These simple observations WILL be the difference between a winning session and a losing session over time. After taking these notes on hundreds

silence trying to buy a good king kind of um so our hearts are a big place where we're drawing our bluffs from another place is going to be coming from our draw our straight draws right so you have your five seven you have your five threes um now we talked about high ev rivers here's how here's where you can see that when you have a heart in your hand you're going to barrel at a higher frequency because you get to block more rivers right so you're seeing pure bluffs with the five through the heart and mixing with the rest of them now you need to find a few other bluffs in the spot and so our typical rule where it's like you have equity on oop you can barrel that hand as well it still is true but in this spot you need some board coverage uh so you do take your best blocker type hands which which makes some sense right because say you only bet uh your straight draws your flush draws in your trips for pot size right what are you gonna bluff with on the seven of hearts right you're gonna have so many nut hands and and not enough to block with uh and so when he goes check check the opponent does have more air which means you don't have to be quite as choosy with what you're barreling with and so what are your best blocker hands here it's gonna be high hearts with a low car that's unblocking stuff so you have like uh your king 2o here your king2o with the heart uh it gets to bluff at some frequency because the heart allows you board coverage on a heart river allows you to block those uh bluff those runs at high frequency your two is unblocking all the middling cars that the buttonhouse like when you pot the spot look at all these offsuit hands that are holding right all the better king x report all these better asexual holding when you pop so you're getting you're unblocking all these middling hands when you have a two in your hand it's just like a really uh typical best blocker hand out here so that's the only kind of exception to the spot of you need equity in the spot to better not not bear on this about your probing but um yeah so we go with the paw size bet here i hope that makes sense on on why our strategy is that way the opponent calls on the river we get the nine of spades so here's our second decision point in the hand all right what do we do here well let's think about how our blockers interact with the run-up is the nine good for a range or bad for our range well i'm gonna say it's pretty freaking bad for us right for our overall strategy on the turn we're betting a lot of high equity stuff in sixes so our sixes are

two points of view for the first stage of play: 1. Play very tight, only with the top five to ten starting hands and do not chase unless you are getting the correct pot odds. Or 2. Play loose/aggressive trying to build your chip stack by outplaying weak players after the flop or hitting advantageous flops. Online tournament have many inexperienced players and you can easily trap them in the beginning of a tournament. If you are an inexperienced player, I would suggest using strategy number one in the early stages of a tournament. Play only the top five to ten starting along with medium Pocket Pairs. If the flop does not help your hand, then throw it into the muck and start again. Do not chase a drawing hand if it is going to cost you most of your chips. You are trying to double up your chips while risking as few chips as possible on mediocre hands. If you have lost your chips in small increments then when those Aces do hit your pocket you will not have a substantial amount of chips to double up. Another good reason to play tight is that the blinds are so small. When you bet in poker, you are making a claim for the blinds. If the blinds only amount to 15 chips then you are competing for pennies compared to what is needed to win the tournament. Later in the tournament, as the blind levels increase, one hand will be worth more than three of the early hands. If you have to showdown three hands and risk chips that equal half of your stack versus the thought of winning the same amount with one very good hand, then you should choose the second choice. You have less of an opportunity to make mistakes or be trapped by a monster hand. Strategy two calls for playing a few more starting hands than strategy one does. You are able to read flops better and categorize player types. If you do hit a good flop, you have the experience to extract as much value from your hand as possible. This takes experience to notice when the pot is giving you the correct odds to fish then be able to read the flop and finally read other players. If you have identified a few loose players and are able to isolate them with a Pocket Pair then by all means, take their chips. Some good online tournament players are aggressive, with the theory that pushing small edges is correct strategy. They try to double up early in the tournament. If they cannot double up a few times in the first hour then they would rather be involved in a good ring game so they risk their tournament life more often. I have placed in the money and onto many final tables with both strategies. Sometimes the cards do not give you a chance and you sit, mucking one bad starting hand after another until the golden Ace's show up in your hand at a loose and

examine one of the most epic final table battles I’ve ever witnessed! Our… Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots Valuing your hand appropriately—determining whether it’s strong enough to value bet or so weak you… Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It’s easy to imagine that… How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there’s no getting around that.… How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets Donk betting–taking the betting lead away from the previous street’s aggressor–on the flop is rarely… How Stack Sizes Change Your Range In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical… How to Leverage GTO Wizard’s EV Comparison Tool With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker… Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet? When there’s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will… When ICM Breaks Down If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you’ll know I… When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my… OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that “Playing against an in-position cold-caller is… Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to… When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure… How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,… C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,… C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold… Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the… Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the… 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… Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get… Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being… Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The… 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,… Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?… Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of

M. Malmuth and is one… How to Study GTO Solutions Tools like GTO Wizard and other solvers should not be used to memorize specific strategies.… Principles of GTO Game theory, or GTO (for Game Theoretically Optimal), is best understood not as a rigid… Interpreting Equity Distributions GTO Wizard’s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which… What is Leverage in poker? Leverage refers to the risk of future betting. When you call a bet on the… Reasons for value betting in poker You’re probably accustomed to thinking of bets as either value or bluff. In this taxonomy,… The Science of Poker Performance Poker is a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment… What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets… Pot Geometry “Pot Geometry” refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such… A Beginner’s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible “combinations” (combos) of any… Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is… Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on… 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… The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word “indifference” means that… Poker subsets and abstractions An “abstraction” is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so… 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’s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By… The Value of Fold Equity – Experiment The term “fold equity” is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it’s an EV equation,… MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how… What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell… 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.… ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of “ICM”, but what… What is Equity in Poker? The term “Equity” is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning… Range Morphology “Morphology” is the study of form or structure. You’ve probably heard terms thrown around such… What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is… Why doesn’t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you’ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared

have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you’ll know I… When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop? One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my… OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that “Playing against an in-position cold-caller is… Short-Stacked Play in MTTs Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to… When To Ladder in Tournaments In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure… How Payout Structures Impact ICM Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size,… C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position,… C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold… Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the… Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the… 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… Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get… Mastering PKO Final Tables Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being… Attacking Paired Flops From the BB Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The… 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,… Responding to BB Squeezes You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy?… Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of Canadian programmers from Quebec, developed… GTO Wizard AI Explained We are excited to introduce GTO Wizard AI, formerly known as Ruse, the world’s best… GTO Wizard AI Benchmarks GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional solving methods to bring… Table Management in PKOs Perhaps the most important strategic consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs) is making sure you… Overcalling From the BB In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also… Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach… Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon… Using New Skills at the Poker Table How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to… Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked Playing out of position is tricky, but it’s an essential part of tournament play. With… Playing Limped Pots as the BB in

GTO Wizard and other solvers should not be used to memorize specific strategies.… Principles of GTO Game theory, or GTO (for Game Theoretically Optimal), is best understood not as a rigid… Interpreting Equity Distributions GTO Wizard’s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which… What is Leverage in poker? Leverage refers to the risk of future betting. When you call a bet on the… Reasons for value betting in poker You’re probably accustomed to thinking of bets as either value or bluff. In this taxonomy,… The Science of Poker Performance Poker is a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment… What is Valor in poker? Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets… Pot Geometry “Pot Geometry” refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such… A Beginner’s Guide to Poker Combinatorics Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible “combinations” (combos) of any… Stack-to-pot ratio Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is… Equity Realization In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on… 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… The Three Laws of Indifference Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word “indifference” means that… Poker subsets and abstractions An “abstraction” is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so… 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’s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By… The Value of Fold Equity – Experiment The term “fold equity” is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it’s an EV equation,… MDF & Alpha MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how… What are Pot Odds in poker? Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell… 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.… ICM Basics As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of “ICM”, but what… What is Equity in Poker? The term “Equity” is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning… Range Morphology “Morphology” is the study of form or structure. You’ve probably heard terms thrown around such… What is Expected Value in Poker? Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is… Why doesn’t my solution match GTO Wizard? So, you’ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and… Understanding Nash Distance Understanding Nash Distance. One

EV ranges barely uses the 80% pot bet, preferring to bet 50% pot with range: The simulation using ICM ranges actually uses the 80% pot bet more often! This strategy also checks and bets 17% more often, which is the clue to what’s going on here. UTG still puts less money into the pot, on average , when playing against BB’s stronger calling range, just as we’ve seen in earlier examples. In those earlier examples, UTG was already employing a polar betting strategy against the Chip EV range . When we made BB’s range stronger, UTG’s strategy retained that polar shape, but with less betting and smaller bet sizes. On A ♥ 7 ♥ 6 ♦ , UTG’s strategy against the wider Chip EV range was linear , 50% pot bet. Against the ICM range, they bet less overall and shift to a slightly more polar strategy . The hands that have lost interest in betting are, once again, the modest pairs, in this case pocket pairs and weaker Ace-x: These are not bad hands, but with fewer small cards in BB’s range, they are less likely to get called by 7-x or 6-x when they bet, and so they bet less often. Deeper Stacks For this final experiment, we will revisit our original 5 ♥ 4 ♦ 2 ♣ flop using 40bb stacks . Here is the strategy using Chip EV ranges : And using ICM ranges : With deeper stacks, UTG still finds some use for the big bet size. But the pattern persists: UTG checks more often and bets big less often into BB’s stronger range. Conclusion Postflop strategy does not exist in a vacuum . A substantial change to your opponent’s preflop range should result in a substantial change to your postflop strategy. In the case of ICM , this usually means the BB has a much stronger calling range than a Chip EV model assumes. As a result, the preflop raiser’s range advantage is diminished , and they should consequently put less money into the pot. The compensation for having to rein it in postflop comes in the form of additional preflop folds . When ICM pressure is high, your open raises will take down the pot preflop more often, which is great. But you must accept that you won’t be able to bluff as much or get as much value postflop. 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’s fundamentally disadvantageous to act on each street… Crack the Shell of Nut Draw Strategy Nut draws hold obvious appeal as betting and raising candidates. They benefit from fold equity,… Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors

to float with a hand like ace deuce of diamonds here because there's another eighty six big blinds behind on the term when we call when we hit this backdoor flush draw and we can now we can represent that hand like Jack ten on the the river we can represent five six more we can represent a nine eight that peeled and got sticky on the turn so there's more ways to represent at the deeper stack sizes we're getting a lot of questions coming in right now so what we're gonna do that's what I got for the slides we're gonna gonna go back and review some of these slides and the questions as I go through the questions but I just want to remind everyone that you can try poker coaching com free for seven days right now there's over 400 interactive quizzes I'm making quizzes every month my quizzes are released every week I quizzes are a great way to warm up for your sessions I have an article that will be coming out on poker coaching about warming up for your sessions and one of the ways I like to warm up is reviewing hands and doing these interactive quizzes it gets your brain flowing to get your brain thinking in the poker way these quizzes are great great way to get one-on-one coaching for a fraction of the cost I got to walk you through exactly my thought processes thought processes and chan also there's the homework section jonathan provides a situation for your homework and he personally reviews the answers it's a great way to the homework questions are great because they're very all-inclusive you have to think outside the box and think about many different variables and there's no one right or wrong answer it's more your thought process behind it in your strategy and that's a great way to get you know personally get your homework reviewed by Jonathan and his webinar you have all these uh you know coaching webinars on there between that the quizzes and the homework there's a ton of ways to work and improve on your game I think many players even professionals don't work on their game enough I spent I mean this week alone I've probably spent eight hours away from the table doing different things working on my game a lot of players get very complacent in their poker game and don't work on their game enough and these poker training sites poker coaching comm they're great ways to get coaching from top professionals at a fraction of the cost so look at starting the seven day free trial I'm happy to be coaching there now you'll continue to see my quizzes on there you'll continue to get webinars and articles there's just a lot of value to be had at the price point and think about it this way if you're a two hundred like let's say you play one two No Limit live if you're playing you know paying for poker coaching at

odds so let's first discuss defending the big blind against one razor which is going to be a very common situation in cash games where someone raises and then they fold around to you you're going to find that you may have to defend tighter than you are used to and you may have to defend tighter than many players in your games do a lot of players think that they're in the big blind they're closing the action therefore they should call with anything and that is not true that is not true at all the weekends are simply not playable due to the rank also as your opponents raise bigger and bigger you should play even Tighter and Tighter I'm about to show you some charts for how you should be defending the big blind if your opponents play well and they presume your opponent's making it a three big blind raise if your opponent is making it a seven big blind raise you have to defend substantially tighter also you should look to three bet with a wider range than you're probably used to and this range is going to contain decently strong hands and also some decent suited hands especially from late or when you're when the raise comes from late position so let's take a look at these charts this is when you're in the big blind against one razor here in the big blind against under the gun Rays here in the big blind versus a high track raise which would be under the gun if you were five-handed and then here is Big line versus a button race let's take a look at this strategy first uh big blind against an under the gun raise if you're playing eight-handed the hands in red are re-raised the hands in green are called and the hands in blue are folded and you may immediately be shocked to see against a under the gun rays which should be tight hands like Ace Jack King Jack Ace 10 off suit Queen 9 suited Jack 8 suited all these hands just fold and to be fair this chart probably is a little bit tight for Real World Poker because most players raise a little bit too wide from the earlier positions that said if your opponent is actually a good strong player you just don't get to play all that many hands facing a three big blind raise out of position when you have to play The Raid or pay the rank so which hands can continue student aces are very good strong suited kings are pretty good some of these hands like King five suited and King six suited these are marginal they're gonna be barely profitable play if you want to default I think that's fine but the hands that are very playable in these situations are going to be all the pairs and then suda connectors and suited gappers these are especially good hands to call and see the Flop with like I said though I would

The Hammer of Future Bets I (Ed) was watching a poker tournament on TV once, and I heard the com- mentator say: “He’s moved all-in. The all-in bet is the strongest play you can make in no limit.” It sounds right, but actually it’s not. Bets show more power the more money you leave behind. Betting $500 all-in on the turn isn’t nearly as strong a move as betting $500 with $2,000 more behind. Hopefully that fact is obvious: for the same size bet, having extra money left over for future betting is more threatening. But actually this concept of the “hammer of future betting” runs deeper than that. A small bet with money behind can be more powerful than a larger all-in bet. This idea is correct due to the concept of “reverse implied odds.” Drawing hands often benefit from implied odds. You risk a relatively small amount to take a chance at winning a large amount. You call a $50 bet with a gutshot for the chance to win your opponent’s $1,000 stack. Your potential loss is limited, and your potential win can be great. Reverse implied odds work the opposite way. You risk a relatively large amount to try to win a small amount. This situation arises most often when you have a decent made hand that has little chance to improve. And if you are also out of position the effect is stronger. An example might be K♡J♠on a J♢10♠7♠6♢board. The pot is $500, and you and your opponent both have $3,000 behind. You check, and your opponent bets $500. You could easily have the best hand. Your opponent might be betting any of a number of possible draws. Or she could be betting a made hand that beats yours. You aren’t sure. Unfortunately, you can’t just call the $500 and find out whether you win or not. You may have to face another bet. Or you may not. It’s up to your opponent whether to bet again on the river. If your opponent is tough, she’ll bet the river when she has the advantage and check it when she doesn’t. Having the advantage doesn’t mean necessarily 40

House from trips or a set. Fixed Limit – The betting is predetermined for each round. Flop - The first three cards dealt in Texas Hold’em. Flush – A hand that has five cards of the same suite. Free Card – When you get to see another card without needing to call a bet. Freeze out Tournament – A tournament that does not allow a player to buy more chips after the tournament has started. Gut-Shot – A draw to an inside Straight such as A, K J T and you need a Queen to make your Straight. You have four outs unless there is a two Flush on the board, which can limit your effective outs to three. Hand Rankings - Royal Flush Ace, King, Queen, Jack Ten all of the same suite Straight Flush Any five consecutive cards of the same suite Four of a Kind four cards of the same rank, four Aces to four 2’s, also called Quads Full House three cards of one rank and two cards of another rank, three Kings and two 4’s is Kings full of 4’s Flush any five cards of the same suite Straight any five consecutive cards Three of a Kind three cards of the same rank, three Aces to three 2’s, also called Trips or a Set Two Pair two pairs of any rank, two Aces and Kings One Pair one pair of any rank, a pair of Aces to 2’s High Card unimproved hands only have high cards Implied Odds – Money you should make on future betting rounds if your cards improve to the best hand and you are sure a certain number of payers will stay to see the river. Odds – A ratio of two probabilities, such as the probability of making the hand vs. not making the hand. If you have a 25 percent chance of hitting your hand then you have a three to one chance of not making it or against. Open Ended Straight Draw – When you can hit either end of your draw essentially having eight outs if there are no Flush Draws out. Therefore, your hand is J T and the board cards are 9 Q 2 rainbow. You need a King or an 8 to complete your Straight. Out – A card that will improve your hand. Poker players count how many cards are theoretically still in the deck (unseen) that will improve their hand. If you have a Pocket Pair then you have two outs to improve to a set or quads. Paint – Face cards, Jack, Queen, or King. Passive – A style of play where someone is reluctant to bet or raise. Pot Equity – The amount of money your hand should win. For instance, pocket Aces against one opponent with K J suited has 83.15% pot equity. Therefore, 83.15% percent of every dollar belongs to the Pocket Pair preflop. Pot Odds – The ratio of money in the pot to the amount of a bet you have to call. This is compared to the number

Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor Picture this: We’re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we’ve won a few pots, now sitting 150bb deep. We look down at the beautiful K ♣ Q ♣ in the BB, a suited match of royalty. The CO raises. It folds to us and we comfortably 3-bet to 12bb. Our opponent responds by flat-calling our 3-bet, and we take a flop. 854 rainbow No backdoor clubs. No backdoor straight draws. No big cards to represent, and a flop that helps a lot of the hands our opponent called with preflop. What now? Don’t panic. Let’s consult the Wizard! Board / Range Interaction Intuitively, most of us know that flops below Ten-high help the defender, not the aggressor. Since they passed up on the chance to 4-bet us preflop, big card flops will be good for us, and medium flops—which our 3-betting range won’t contain much of—will be bad for us. Aggregate Flop Reports are an excellent tool for viewing EV on flops classified by various factors, such as suitedness, connectedness or in this case high card . In this example, I’ve sorted the flops based on BB’s EV from low to high . It’s clear that King-high flops are the best for our range, whereas Five to Nine-high flops are the worst. When there aren’t any broadway Broadway A ten through ace straight. “Broadway cards” can also be used to describe any 10 , J , Q , K , or A card. cards, hands like AK —which the 3-bettor would always have more of compared to the caller—have missed. In addition, our CO opponent is helped by the flop, improving a lot of their calling hands. They have 3 sets at a higher frequency, middling pocket pairs 77 – 66 , and the suited connectors like 87 s picked up pair and draw equity; they even flopped a straight with 76 s much more often than us. The ‘Ranges’ view is excellent for providing insight at a glance into which hands appear more frequently in either player’s range . In this example, OOP has a far higher proportion of KK + and AK , but IP has a much higher frequency of middling pocket pairs and suited connectors. Suited broadways like AQ s and JT s are found equally in both ranges. Overall, in terms of board/range interaction, 8 ♥ 5 ♦ 4 ♠ is a board that interacts very well with our opponent’s range and not at all well with ours. In fact, our overall equity and EV are lower than those of the CO defender on this board. The CO also retains a greater percentage of ‘nut’ hands – in this case: sets, straights and occasionally bottom two pair 54 s. By breaking the ranges down into equity buckets , we get a clearer view of this situation. The CO has the highest percentage of ‘nut’ hands with at least 90% equity, which are 88 , 55 , 44 , and 76 s. The BB retains the lead for hands with 70-90%

These hands, like [99-JJ], are also hybrids. They can flop very strong hands, or more commonly, draws to very strong hands, but note that they also have some top pair potential. While this potential isn't enough on its own to justify calling an open against a strong range due to the domination problems of those top pair hands, it goes nicely with the implied odds of these hands to give them greater flexibility when they don't flop their flush, straight or good draw. The implied odds side to these hands is less favourable than that of the pocket pairs: 77 will flop a set, as we know, 11.8% of the time. JTs on the other hand, will flop two pair or better just 5.6% of the time. Flopping draws makes up for this and a powerful 12 out or better draw can be expected to come around 6.9% of the time. On top of this, Hero can expect to flop a Regular flush draw (9 outs) or open-ended straight draw (8 outs) 13.2% of the time, but these hands are far less valuable than the above. Overall that's 25% of the time that we'll flop either a very strong hand or draw to one, but of course flush draws, Trips and two pair are nowhere near as awesome as sets. Sets are more disguised than these hands as they're further ahead of worse made-hands and likely to make you a whole lot more money on average. For these reasons, we need to be more careful about calling the medium-big suited connectors for implied odds reasons alone. This group of hands isn't quite callable in this situation. We'd need some more implied odds factors to be in our favour. In particular, we'd like to be anticipating multiway pots with weaker players. As Villain's opening range widens though, these hands begin to hold their own more and more as one pair floppers and quickly become playable. BU vs CO, for example, calling them is usually totally fine. Hero folds. As the implied odds type hand becomes weaker, the more favourable the other factors will need to be for us to call. These hands are still hybrids and a lot more flexible than the likes of 33, but their pair flopping power is significantly less. These are not close to callable in Hand 45.

or a strong suited Broadway if stats are 100 big lines or less effective this would be an easy fold but since stats are 200 Big lines effective your implied odds to sap your opponent are high if you flop a set so when the board runs out eight do seven and you have pocket sevens they're gonna have a hard time folding their pocket aces or things um so when you're deep you can make these types of pre-flop calls now let's talk about reverse implied odds so this refers to how much you can expect to lose after you make your hand so when you complete your draw you still lose frequently because your opponent has a better hand so one example would be a weak ace high if you hit if you hit a pair of Aces with a very weak kicker the times your opponent has you out kicked are going to be costly low cited cards if you hit a low flush when your opponent has a higher flush it will be hard not to pay them off example three King jack off and King 10 off these are hands with reverse implied odds if your opponent opens an early position and the board is King High they'll also often have you out kick so you basically want to try and avoid opening reverse implied odds hands from early position because their flattening ranges will generally be strong on average when you open early um and while your jackpin suited looks pretty nice under the gun you're gonna run into way too many awkward spots with over pairs on the board as well as running into kicker problems when you do hit your pair so to sum up always factor in position when thinking about a hand consider your opponents consider stack sizes think about the table dynamic and every hand of Poker starts pre-flop and it's important to understand basic race first raise first inner hinges and fundamentals so every spot in poker is essentially an ongoing puzzle with unique situations presented and it's really up to you to properly adapt having guidelines is a helpful starting place but a lot of your poker intuition comes over time with practice study and volume so I thought we would do a quiz together um so I'm just gonna list a whole bunch of multiple choice questions with their answers and I'm gonna give you a moment to think about it and then we can you can choose your answer and then I'll I'll explain to you why that is the best answer so question number one what is the most important factor when deciding to play a pot position stack size players left to act table dynamic or all of the above so I'll give you guys a minute to think about this so the answer is e all of the above um it's you have to consider all of these options as we discussed in this presentation and I know that it could be overwhelming to

of hands: MTT ICM (50% field remains) – CO Open – 20BB Symmetrical Compare this to the CO’s opening strategy with 20BB stacks and 25% of the field remaining : MTT ICM (25% field remains) – CO Open – 20BB Symmetrical CO tightens up to 28.6% of hands, and hands that were at the margins of their opening range with 50% remaining (44, K4 ♠ , Q6 ♠ ) now strictly prefer to fold. Slightly stronger hands (55, K6 ♠ , Q7 ♠ ), which were pure opens with 50% remaining, are now on the margins and indifferent between raising and folding. This reflects not so much a reduction in the value of opening these hands as an increase in the value of folding them. ICM EV is measured as the change to your table equity percentage compared to folding. Table equity percentage is your portion of the table’s $EV in a tournament. For example, if your stack is worth $100 after folding, and the sum of the $EV value of everyone’s stack at your table is $1000, then your table equity percentage is 10%. In the picture above, AA has an EV of 2.95, meaning you’d increase your table equity by 2.95% after raising. This may seem like a modest difference – the CO opens only about 5% tighter in the second scenario–but keep in mind that with 25% of the field remaining, the first pay jump, the bubble, is not especially close, and already we see CO adjusting with slightly more conservative play. There are extreme examples on the exact bubble where folding KK or even AA can be correct. You will only be able to approximate the value of folding in a given situation, but it is valuable to know how to do so. Following are the major factors that determine the value of folding. Factors That Determine the Value of Folding Proximity to a pay jump – The closer you are to locking up a larger prize, the more incentive you have to avoid risk until it is locked up. The larger the pay jump, the greater your incentive. Presence of short stacks – The value of folding lies in the possibility of other players getting eliminated before you. The more short stacks there are in the field (not just at your table), the more value there is in folding and giving them the opportunity to bust before you. Your stack size – The more chips you have, the less likely you are to lose them all in a given hand, which reduces your incentive to fold. This is especially true if no one else at your table covers you. Players remaining – The incentive to take risk is to accumulate chips and give yourself a better chance of winning one of the largest prizes for the top few finishers. The closer you are to those prizes, the more incentive there is to take those risks. When dozens or even hundreds of players remain, accumulating chips does not greatly increase your odds of winning a large prize, so

that’s not the case anymore, and probably won’t be ever again. Tournaments are broadcast to hundreds of millions of television viewers, making people who have never played the game before take notice—and join in. So, now that the dark era of poker is over and the dragon has come out of hiding, I think it’s important that this great book, which outlines the strategies and the plays that really win, take center stage. You know, I’m not afraid to play in any game. But I was once asked which nine opponents I’d least like to play against at one table. Now, there’s a tough question. But one player I could name without hesitation is Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson. Doyle isn’t someone you want to play against, but he is someone you definitely want to learn from. And that goes for all the experts he has chosen to include in this book. You’re lucky that you don’t have to learn poker the way I did. You won’t need to brawl your way to profit. In the years ahead, if you stick with it, you’ll play millions of hands and wager millions of dollars. I hope you’ll play right and wager well, unless you’re in my game, in which case I hope you’ll play like a dummy and throw away all your money to me. Doyle is ready to take you aside and let you in on poker’s most powerful secrets, the ones that really win. If I were you, I’d pay attention. The other day, I started thinking about the big pie made up of all those billions of dollars that will be exchanged in poker hands this year. Well, it’s already being carved up. If you want a big slice, you hold the knife in your hands. 7 INTRODUCTION by Doyle Brunson I’d been toying with the idea of revising my Super/System for years, but every time I discussed it with friends or fellow professional poker players, I always heard the same response: “Why? Almost all the advice in the book is as powerful today as it was twenty-seven years ago. It doesn’t need a word changed.” Not one to go against the advice of so many good folks, I put it off for a year, then another year, and time kept sliding away like chips slipping off a poker table. It’s mighty flattering to know that Super/System has stood the test of time. And I’m glad it has, because when I think back about how much time, money, and effort went into creating it, I shudder. I’d let myself get talked into writing and financing the book. I convinced the top five specialists in various poker games to collaborate with me. None of us could have predicted how devoted to the project we would become. I think we all got a little bit nuts while we were writing the original version. Before long, we were running an informal contest to see who could contribute the most information to help people play better poker. And all of us swore that we’d never

are reduced to calling him down. You should be willing to bet or raise once with any two-card straight or flush (that is, where you have both cards needed to make the hand in the hole; the situation is different with four to a straight or flush on the board), but to reraise it’s best to be holding the nuts. • You hold an overpair to the board. Most of the time this is the best hand, and you should play it as such. That said, if there is a lot of betting and raising, you may well be trailing. It is important to examine the texture of the board to help determine how strong your hand is. A few examples follow, with comments: Comments on Example 1: You have the best hand if you are betting and they are calling. However, if there is a bet and a raise to you, you are probably up against either a made straight or a set. Fold, unless the raiser is a maniac who might make this play with any pair or draw. Comments on Example 2: Even with a bet and a raise to you, it is very possible that your two aces are still the best hand. The raiser might well be holding a king. The best play is probably to reraise, hoping to eliminate the other players. If you get called only, you are likely holding the best hand. Comments on Example 3: Your hand isn’t worth a dollar if there is any significant action. If a reputable player bets, you should fold your aces here. Tip # 34 of 52 What is a good draw to have on the turn? Draw here means a hand that needs to improve to win. That is, although a hand such as two pair or a set can improve to make a full house, it is typically able to win the pot without further improvement. The best draw is a hand that needs one card to make a flush and also is an open-ended straight, particularly if you might win the pot simply by making a pair. For example, if the board shows 2-3-T-J, two of which are diamonds, and you hold Ku Qu, a significant number of cards will make yours the best hand. You have nine flush outs, plus six additional straight cards. In addition, the six remaining kings and queens might make you a winner. This means that 21 of 44 unseen cards potentially help your hand, or nearly 50 percent of the remaining cards. Draws don’t get any better than this, and it is correct to raise with this hand for value if there is a bet and a few callers. Of course, the more players who are in the pot, the less likely that simply making a pair of kings or queens will be enough to win. That loss of outs is offset by the increased payoff for making a straight or flush. Other good quality draws include flush draws (nine outs), particularly to the nut flush, and open-ended

Floor In live poker, the floor is a casino employee who aids in managing the poker room and has more authority than the dealer. Duties of the floor include dealing with player disputes, opening and managing tables, and keeping games balanced and running.

to switch between the two when they should use the two ranges and so a lot of times if you see someone using a polar range there's always gonna use a polar range versus if they use a linear range there's always gonna lose use a linear range and so you can kind of exploit that and kind of know what type of hands people are gonna be flat calling mm-hmm with a polar range it's best used on shallow stacks or from the big blind so you want to use the polar ranges on the shallow stacks because if you three about a hand like King seven suited or a stun off suit and then they for bet shove you're perfectly fine that you're like okay it doesn't suck that much laughs to fold that hand preflop versus in the previous ample if you three bet eight Jack suited and then someone shoves and now you have to fold you're gonna be more unhappy having two full days Jack suited versus the ace ten off and then from the big blind you want to be very polar in your three bets because you want to protect your flattering range against a lot of opponents especially against good aggressive opponents you because you're getting such a good pricing you're gonna be flat calling a ton of hands so you're gonna I just have some stronger flat calls in your range and like I said before never three bet an unprofitable hand don't three about seven deuce suited and say that you were polar let's look at Gerry ass it looks like you have way more combinations of bluff hands than Val your hands is that on purpose well let's count it up here six 12 18 24 plus 16 combos of Ace King it's 40 and then so 44 value combos and we have 4 8 12 16 20 32 we have 48 Bluff combos so we're actually spot-on 48 value 48 Bluff that's actually probably a few more Bluff combos than I want you probably want to be more like if you have 48 value I'd say like 36 but I don't think there's any really hard fast rule so the thing to notice here is that one reason I don't three about a lot of offsuit combos in a polar range is because it's very easy to get unbalanced if you three bet these offsuit combos so a really good like quick tip is if you see someone three betting hands like King Jack offsuit and ace ten off ace nine off and they show up with all these offsuit combos they're almost for sure three about bluffing way too much and you can just start for betting on my tongue and just three betting the suited combos helps you keep your bluff in check because there's only four combos of every suited one and so it makes it a lot easier to control your your Bluff to value ratio when you only three about suited combos so that's why

aviation radio direction finder, and three suitcases filled with brochures on espionage, codes and ciphers. The aggregate sentence for these offences would doubtless exceed my life's expectancy. The undercover agent was instrumental in my saving face with Ling, whom I had disappointed in the affair of the French ladies in Hong Kong. Through the agent I called on a French manicurist, a friend of the police commissioner, I was told. Surprisingly enough she agreed to the proposal I made her, and Ling's curiosity was satisfied. As a consequence I now stood high in his eyes and was unquestionably destined to be a great man in China. Ling had covered his original disappointment by asking whether I played poker. When I said yes, he told me there was usually a pretty good game at the Foreign Club. I must have looked doubtful for he assured me he would get me in. It appears that the omnipotent Hatchet Man had anticipated our being bored with the delays in Hong Kong and had arranged for Ling to become a member. Ling told me later that he had played poker with the foreigners in Hankow before the Chungking Government had moved further inland to Chungking. They played dealer's choice at the Club - draw, stud, deuces wild, sevencard stud, low ball, Hi-Lo, spit-in-the-ocean, and all the other bastard poker games unknown to me in my boyhood. Never in my life have I seen such utter disregard for money as Ling displayed, and never have I seen such poor poker played. The game as usual, was composed mostly of simpletons but Ling was no match for even their slovenly play. I got up at the end of an hour to cut his losses. I had won about $500 Hong Kong and Ling had easily lost $1000. I didn't say a word until we got in our hotel room and poured two drinks. 'Ling,' I said at last, 'I've played poker in more places than you can count, but you are the god-damnest sucker I ever saw.' 'Sucker?' he said. 'That's a fish,' and he pulled from his pocket his small dictionary he always carried and looked it up. 'So it is,' I laughed in spite of myself. 'Look up simpleton.' He thumbed the pages and read, 'Simpleton - a person lacking in common sense; a silly person; a fool.' 'We call a simpleton a sucker, or a fish, as you suggest.' 'You mean because I lost? I always lose. Haven't won in six months.' I didn't ask him what he used for money. That I learned much later in Chungking. Gasoline was rationed there but the Honourable Adviser could have all he wanted. It was delivered to me in fifty-gallon drums but from the mileage on the car I suspected that I, or rather the Service, was getting cheated. It was true. There was a six-inch air space at the top of each drum. I asked the manager of APC, Asiatic Petroleum Corporation, whether this was too much space. 'Yes,' he told me, 'one inch is enough.

04 THE THEORY OF PRE-FLOP PLAY Pre-flop ranges are the backbone of fundamentally sound poker. Any time you make a mistake in a hand, you are introducing systematic error, meaning the error will be carried through and will affect future decision points. A pre-flop mistake can translate into a flop mistake, a turn mistake and finally a river mistake. Even if you realize you made a mistake on an earlier street, it can be difficult to compensate for it later. Blinds and Antes Without the blinds and antes, players would just happily wait to be dealt AA, or if deep enough, hands that have the correct pot odds/implied odds to beat AA, and nothing more. The blinds encourage players to fight for the money in the pot, and as a result, play more hands. The reason players play hands other than AA is because there is money in the pot to be won. Win Rate A player’s skill edge or skill deficit over the player pool can be measured in the number of big blinds won or lost per 100 hands. The bigger the edge a player has over their opponents, the higher their win rate. If all players at the table are equally skilled, their win rates will be zero and, in raked games, they will all lose however much money the house rakes. A player’s win rate depends on the opponents’ skill levels. This is why game selection is key to the success or failure of all poker players’ careers. Suppose you are a skilled player and there are two different games that run at your local casino: a tough $10/$20 game where your win rate is a moderate 2bb/100, and a lower stake $2/$5 game where your win rate is 10bb/100. In the tough game, you make on average $40 every 100 hands you play but, in the smaller game, you make on average $50 every 100 hands you play. Over the long run, you will make more money playing the smaller game while experiencing a lot less variance because swings are typically higher in the bigger games where you have a lower edge.

money involved, the expert should tailor her strategy to the poorly-played deep stack, not the well-played (and