Think in ranges and how certain hands would react to your line of play
e.g. If villain has lots of gutshots IP- we want to bet our A highs instead of checking and having to fold to a bet at later streets with a better hand
(ALWAYS THINK IN PERCEIVED RANGES)
vs Limps
Determine the player type and assign them a range
Fish/weak players- limping very wide but some will have AA and KK as limp raises
-we should always discount the strong hands in their range
Good regs- almost always limping low PP and suited connectors + suited baby Ax
Bad regs- limping too wide from all spots
Isolating vs limpers
-add 1 BB for every limper
-iso tighter vs players who limps call a lot (usually happens on Upoker)
-iso looser vs players who limps fold a lot
-in early position, we isolate tighter and we rather iso raise or fold rather than overlimp (except small PP or suited connectors)
-> vs weak players who limp calls a lot = we want to isolate to very big sizings as they are almost always calling our raise (to 10bb)
-isolating on very passive tables- we want to isolate our PP as we can flop a set and play for stacks + passive players will often call preflop and fold to flop bet
-isolating more often to get the pot heads up vs whales (if whales in the BB we still want to iso raise vs MP open as we want to play pot against BB but not too many ppl in the pot)
What range do we use to isolate?
-Always isolate 1 position tighter than we would RFI
-> e.g. we would isolate using HJ'range when isolating from the CO
When to overlimp?
-use hands that are not good enough to iso-raise (non suited connectors) where it has a lot of play ability postflop (JTo, QTo, KJo) also overlimping suited connectors and baby suited Kx
-limping SB tighter than tournaments where we only limp weak hands vs weaker players
Flatting
Questions to ask yourself:
1) Who raised?
2) Who are behind?
3) Who are in the blinds?
4) What are their stacksizes? (play more high card hands vs short stacks)
We always want to play pots with weaker players therefore we want to isolate if a weak player raises, we want to flat more hands if weak players are in the blinds
vs aggro and regs, we want to flat call less and 3bet more in order to not let them in from the blinds
vs many squeezers behind we rather 3bet or fold rather than flatcalls
in general we want to flatcall more suited hands but we can include some offsuited hands if villain is weak
-flat call offsuit broadways when villain's range is fairly weak but do not call it if villain's range is strong
3Betting
When to 3bet?
1) Get value from worse hands
2) Isolating weak players
3) Get better hands to fold (use semi-linear range vs players capable of folding preflop- turning bottom of our range into a bluff)
4) Gain initiative (uncapped range)
What do we 3bet?
Linear range: 88+, AQo+ and AJs+
(no 3bet bluffs as most players do not fold to 3bet)
Later positions: we open up our range as their ranges are looser (suited broadways)
-use semi-linear range especially vs regs who can fold
Flat or 3bet? (USE THE RANGE)
1) Fish and weak players behind
-flat more in order to let them into the pot
2) vs regs/aggros behind
-3bet more as we want to isolate the pot
3) vs fish/weak opener
-3bet more to isolate
4) Reg opener
-flat more medium strength hands
Squeezing
-only use strong linear range ALWAYS (weakest hands often AJo or KQo)
Run it Once
Probe betting Turn
-over betting with our bluffs and some value hands when villain checks back flop
When is villain's range capped?
1) Just calling on wet boards OOP
2) Just calling vs merged betting range
-here we can keep barreling on blank turns as villain often raises their value hands
*however multiway villain's range is often uncapped even if they just called and not raise
Sizings vs capped & uncapped range
Over-bet: (vs capped range)
-nutted hands
-value hands that unblock good worse hands
-high nut-potential bluff (semi bluff)
-bluffs that blocks better hands (good blockers)
1/2-3/4 bet (vs capped range)
-less nutted value hands (protection)
-value hands that unblock weak worse hands
-lower nut-potential bluffs (gutshots to low straights, low flush draws)
-bluffs that unblock strong better hands
Big bet: (vs uncapped range)
-bluffs/semi-bluffs
-decent value hands and better (do not bet medium strength hands as villain's range is not weak)
E.g. on blank turns and villain's range is capped- we can choose between 2 sizes: overbet and modest bet- we choose to bet smaller with weaker top pairs and turned gutshots
-we overbet with stronger holdings and open ended draws to the nuts (or nut flush draw on the turn)
on high card turn as PFR we can bet big when villain's range is uncapped (multiway)
on dynamic turn as PFR- villain's range becomes uncapped which allows us to only bet big rather than overbet with our value hands (villain's capped n uncapped can change with many different turns and rivers)
Bluffcatching
1) Use population tendencies
2) If in doubt- call with positive blockers + fold with negative blockers
3) Accept it might be close and do not feel downed if it was incorrect (always analyse later)
When to overfold?
-overfold when villain is under-bluffing (depends on player types)
-Texture implies that there are less natural bluffs (monotone boards, static boards)
-> when their range is very value heavy (airless range) where villain is not capable of turning many hands into a bluff (villain could have too many value hands) -e.g. 1 card straight board
When to over-call?
-overcall when villain is over-bluffing (player type: aggro recs, aggro maniacs, aggro regs
-we can call down more vs aggro fish as they are often bluffing too much
-on brick run outs that villain could have many missed draws- we can over-call with our bluff catchers as aggro players will very often barrel away their missed draws (we use good blockers always)
Attacking/Handling capped ranges in low stakes
1) Overbet: bluffs and semi-bluffs
2) Modest bet: value/protection
3) Check: hands with SDV
Common Range Checking Spots
1) SB vs BB on wetter boards
2) OOP vs HJ/CO/BU flats on non-high board [T86rb] (we rather check/call in these spots)
3) OOP as 3-bettor on monotone low boards (we have disadvantage here)
*We never range check IP as it is too slow for pot building*
Range-betting flop in 3bet flop
1) On A high boards and low boards that does not connect with PFC and does not change the situation from preflop
-e.g. A87 or 477
On high card dynamic boards we can mix in some checking and include some value bets with our strongest value hands
-e.g. JT7ss
Playing Turns after Range betting the flop (checking more when called on the flop rather than barrel off our whole stack)
-when villain calls our flop bet, their range becomes narrowed therefore their range becomes stronger while our range remains the same with many weak hands- we want to check on blank turns often as now our range advantage is gone
Polarizing/Selective Betting in 3bet pots as PFR
-On certain boards we want to range check after 3betting as the board connects too well with the PFC's range rather than our range
e.g. T96rb, 653sss, KJ9, QT7ss
