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there's any merit in turning this end into a bluff either it's just pretty bad so I would have just I would have folded this hand right here if James made it I don't know four thousand I actually don't think that would be insane and it might be a very strong play but it's just not necessary I'd rather use something like Jack three suited as a bluff as opposed to just Jack three officer which is legitimately terrible so don't feel like you have to defend in these spots you're just not getting great odds again it goes against the men raise you're getting better odds but we're against four be blind raise so just fold jack three two I would definitely check if it goes that call I would fold if it goes bet raise I would fold if there's one bet probably gonna stick around facing bet call I would just fold it's very likely we have the best hand at the moment but there are a lot of bad turns and rivers any king queen ace is terrible also even hand like pocket eights could randomly get there with an eight when an eight comes and would keep putting money in so the over cards may or may not be bad but we can't continue on them and the lower cards appear good but they may not be right also we could just be beat by a jacket moment so I like a bowl James sticks around though turns it to which again may look like a nice card but now like a stew gets there right facing if 2k bad I would just fold again so I would have folded much earlier in this hand check check on the river and a great example right so this is exactly why I said I would just fold on the flop because yes we could be against the draw sometimes and that's fine but really what drawers are there ace five ace three five three suited and it's just so easy to be beat when someone is betting in to multiple players so I like to fold they're just on the flop well preflop first right those who are dominated preflop on the flop who are dominate fold it on the turn I would have fold it and then on the river I I would have folded do it that again so that's a good example why you just don't want to be playing the jak3 offsuit or even like Jack six off soon there Jack seven I'd probably check sevens even close jack and what a call preflop but have to be very careful big card little card is just not a good hand all right one hundred two hundred facing a raise call call call you need a three bet or a call I would probably just go ahead and three about this hand is a solid blocker bluff what you just want to make about a pop size raised in this scenario pop size raises

good, what should you do? Play more hands, specifically suited hands, but only if it appears that you can get in cheaply with them. 12. If you are in a loose passive game, where they usually call, but only occasionally raise, what hands can you play under the gun? Axs, J9s, anything better, and all pairs. 13. What about AK or AQ? You often shouldn't raise in spots where you would raise in tougher, tighter games. 14. In a big pot why can it be right to bet a hand that you know is beat? Because it's important to increase your chance to win the pot. 15. Suppose you have A+K+, you are on the button, and there are seven people in for a triple bet. The flop comes A+9+44, and the player on your right is the first to bet. What should you do? You should often just call and go for the raise on fourth street. 16. Is it important that your hand be suited? Yes, it is a giant advantage. 17. What is a reason to raise with flush cards? If you flop the draw, by your making the pot bigger people will now play hands that can't win against your hand if you hit it. Playing in Loose Games 295 18. What if the other players are terrible? There is no reason to make this raise in order to attract their call on the flop because they will stay in anyway. 19. For a raise with AQ in early position to be correct what do you need to accomplish? You must be able to limit the pot to only a small number of players. 20. If a tough player on your right bets, there is a bad player to your left, and the situation is close between raising and calling, what should you do? You should not raise. Playing Short-Handed 1. What must you realize? An individual could have the best of it by always betting. 2. When you are in the big blind and playing heads-up, what are the two things that you should do? A. Call quite a bit more than one out of three times. B. Reraise frequently. 3. In a heads-up match in the big blind what hands should you play against an aggressive opponent? Any pair, any ace, any two cards that are both nine or higher, any other straight flush combination with no gaps or just one gap (except for 42s and 32s), any king little suited that is not already covered, and perhaps a few others such as J8s, 98, or 97. 4. When do you call on the flop? Anytime you have something reasonable, as well as with some other hands that don't appear reasonable. 5. Why do you reraise out of the blind when playing short-handed? You do it for future hands, not necessarily for that current hand. 6. What does this mean if you are against an aggressive player who is going to constantly take advantage of his position? You must reraise him more than might seem logical.

a reason it's called the donk lead it used to be a joke only a donkey would lead here because most players in position are going to make an assumption which is a pretty good idea to assume which is hold on i'm the pre-flop razor if this person really did flop a flush or flopped two pair or some strong hand wouldn't they check to me and let me fire so they could build some kind of a pot when you lead out there it makes a little less sense with a big hand you take that play away from me so what that means is it's very likely that this is someone testing the water that means this is someone who wants to see where they're at that means this is someone who wants to see maybe if i take a cheap shot at this board i could take this away now sometimes you'll see some good players donk lead it's not a super balanced play but it works pretty well as an exploitative play versus a number of players because especially live you can get great reactions out of people if you donk lead real quick that'll help you curtail the range quite quite a bit but that being said you when you see better players donkly what do they tend to do differently a lot of so let's say a guy here wanted to donk lead as a bluff and they were a slightly better player they might lead 1500 or something along those lines maybe 2250 or something that be pretty hard for us to deal with as the in position player when a person donk leads small and you're already at a buy in level where it's micro stakes to begin with it's very likely that this is just someone who wants to see if they can get you to fold to any kind of bet so we are not going to respect this now what happens is a lot of the times people who watch poker on streaming sites they see that versus most donk leads most people just call because that tends to be a little bit more of a well-constructed range when you're playing against better players you do not have to respect these players this donk lead is very likely to be a very weak exploitative play by this person they're hoping you're multi-tabling you look down at your hand you don't have a whole lot and you fold a little too much and to be fair when they bet so small their bet doesn't need to work that often you're going to be better than that and with a large percentage of your continuing range you are going to go ahead and raise here so going back to our list of exploits we're going to be using a stakes tournaments and i tried to make these simple so everybody could get something from this video even if you're new to poker we're happy to have you here if you're playing for

Figure 53 - A Balanced Polar Bluffing Range BU vs. HJ The Value Range (Green) As per the polar spectrum (see Figure 52), we start at the top and first make a decision as to which hands we should feel comfortable 3-betting for value, or in other words, which hands can get called by enough worse hands that they're ahead when called? Hero must give some thought to the position from which Villain opened here. He is not likely to want to defend as many weak hands to 3-bets out of position after he opens in the HJ as he is say when he opens the BU and gets 3-bet by the BB. Hero might struggle to be comfortably ahead when called should he 3-bet something weaker than [QQ+ AK] and he certainly doesn't want to have to fold AQ, JJ or TT to a 4-bet since most regs do have a 4-bet bluffing range here these days at stakes like 50NL and 100NL.

games where cold 4-bet bluffing is rare and Regs just give it a lot of respect. In these sorts of games we need to increase our bluff to value ratios and avoid 4-bet calling it off too lightly as we'll be crushed when we get it in. In such games it's more sensible to develop an even more polar strategy where we then need a calling range to accommodate hands like JJ and AKo. Reacting Cold In Non-Steal Spots In non-steal spots, the open has come from either UTG or the HJ and the resulting opening range is likely to be much stronger. Regs who 3-bet against these opens typically have fewer light 3-bets in their range, are less likely to be shoving over 4-bets light and will definitely respect cold 4-betting a great deal more. It therefore becomes increasingly difficult for Hero to cold 4-bet anything but the nuts for value and this is even more the case when the 3-bettor is not very aggressive or if the player pool just typically underbluffs against early position opens. Even as I write this in March 2016, there are still a fair few Regs at games like 50NL, 100NL and 200NL that 3-bet exclusively for value in these spots. Look at the following example. How might Hero want to play his range in this spot? The upshot of the tight ranges in play here is that Hero has almost no incentive to cold 4-bet bluff since he'll be needing somewhere around 60% FE from a 3-bet range that might often consist of nothing but nutted value hands. Moreover, the UTG opener will have the top hands much more often than BU did in the hand before. Due to his likely bad equity should stacks go in pre-flop, the only

like that that sounds like two separate hands but the difference is 72 combos versus six right going back to that again so really what's far more likely because people tend to like to raise their two pairs to build upon people like to fold their high cards comm unit Oracle eyes what's very likely it when someone calls you on the flop especially out of position is they have a pair that matches one of the cards on the board especially if they called out of the big blind and they have a vast array of hands that could make pairs because there's so many disjointed combinations that love to complete raises out of the big blind the middle pair so is 45 combos out of 261 as you can see in this graphic that's 17.2% of the 261 combo cooked total so 117 combos out of 261 are pairs that magic card on the board that's without him fast playing any stats or two pairs or anything people miss this all the time when they're studying when you see that the flop and a guy calls you the majority of his hands are going to be pairs that match cards on the board that makes hand raiding that makes basic hand reading much more simple you should generally double barrel when you think his flop pairs are folding or if you think he's calling on the flop with high cards and folding the turn that happens a lot on low paired boards for example say the board is 5 to 5 people like to call with high cards on that board but then they'll fold the turn often but people are not calling with high cards as much on these low coordinated boards especially when we're blocking ace highs with our hand it's more unlikely that he's going to have an ace high and here's also if you guys were curious about what the weak pair looked like you can highlight that as well so that's why it's a very long answer to say that's why option II had merit that's the only bet that will probably fold sevens and knives I don't know about you but if I'm sitting there with 10 9 and somebody over bets the turn I'm not feeling terrific here so we're not sure it does that so honestly I probably should have put e into yellow right there but I did want to show that it's a better bet in my opinion than C or D and the other option is to bet see our DS amounts in then bet river if you think that we'll fold a seven or a nine but the vast majority of opponents in low to mid stakes will not fold those hands the average call on the river versus a triple barrel is 80% and a lot of the data I looked at from low to mid medium stakes which is really interesting because the there is there's a question of framing in the book the undoing project

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 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

How To Analyze Turn Textures In Poker In community card games like hold ‘em, the face-up cards on the board are an important source of information about the hands you are likely to see at showdown. The board’s texture determines which pairs are likely and whether straights, flushes, or full houses will be possible . Each time a new card is revealed, you learn new information about these variables and how likely you are to hold the winning hand 🏅 The flop reveals the most information of any street. We can categorize flops based on their high card, the number of suits they contain, whether they are paired, how many straights or straight draws they make possible, and more. These are all ways of describing how the board cards interact with each player’s range of likely hole cards. When it comes to analyzing the new board card on the turn, the question we are most interested in is: What has changed? Which new hands have become possible that were not possible on the flop? Even blank turn cards, those unlikely to interact with any player’s range significantly, convey important information. Hands that were already strong on the flop are stronger by virtue of fading some threats on the turn, while draws and unpaired hands are weaker with only one remaining opportunity to improve. Range Advantage Range advantage is a way of talking about how different players’ ranges interact with one another. There are two main kinds of range advantage: Equity advantage – How is equity distributed between the ranges? Which player has the most, and how large is the difference between them? Equity advantage tends to correlate with betting frequency. The stronger a player’s range, the more incentive they have to bet . Nuts advantage – How likely is each player to have the strongest possible hands? Who is most likely to have them, and how large is the difference? Nuts advantage tends to correlate with bet size . The more likely a player is, relative to their opponents, to have nutty hands, the more incentive they have to grow the pot with large bets. A player’s equity on the flop is the average of their equity on all possible turns. Once a specific turn card is revealed, their equity will increase or decrease based on how much that card helps them relative to their opponent, and their betting frequency will increase or decrease along with it. Nuts advantage is more binary. One player has the nuts advantage after the flop action, and they will either retain or lose that advantage depending on what the turn brings. We tend to see big bets from this player on blank turns that do not significantly change the board texture by making new nutty hands possible and smaller bets (sometimes accompanied by more frequent betting from a player who has gained the nut advantage) on turns that change the board texture. Prior Action When analyzing turn texture, it’s important to keep in mind the pre-flop and flop action, which determines which player enjoyed the range

going to be shallower stacked so take a look here on the top line this is when you have 100 lines or more when you are folded to when everyone folds around to you there are no limpers they just full fold it's your turn now you're going to want to make it something like three and a half big blinds which is a pot size rate facing a limper a pot size range would be four and a half big blinds but in my experience in live poker you typically want to go just a touch bigger because they're still going to call with all sorts of junk and you just get a little bit more money in the pot so maybe you go five big Wines in this scenario facing a raise I typically go about 3.3 times the initial raise when I'm in position and 4.3 times the initial raise when I'm out of position assuming there's no Callers In The Middle when you're facing a re-raise a three bet this is when you raise and someone re-raises you if you're in position and you want to erase usually make it something like three times however much they made it if you're out of position you're gonna make it something like three and a half times however much they made it and then you can go through and read this chart for how to play when you are shallower and shallower and shallower stacked notice here if arrays would put in more than 30 of your stack you should probably go all in instead so say someone raises to four big lines and someone calls and then you want to rewrase we saw earlier you're going to want to make it something like 17 and a half big lines if you only have 45 big blinds in that scenario that is more than 30 of your stack so in that situation you're probably best off just going all in if you add something like 80 big blinds though you'd want to make it something like 17 and a half and the reason for that is if you put in 17 and a half out of your 45 and then you get shoved on you're not really able to fold at that point because you're getting very good pot odds so because of that you probably uh have to call it off but you'd rather just shove to get maximum fold Equity pre-flop again I want to make it clear these rules are not like set in stone this is just a rough default guide to set you up to not make any sort of egregious mistakes whenever you are getting into Cash games also Whenever there are callers be sure to add one additional unit whatever the last unit is for each additional caller okay now let's discuss exploitative pre-flop bet sizing these are some adjustments you should go ahead and consider making against your particular opponents in small Stakes games if you're against strong players players who seem

plays exactly the same as when you had the lead pre-flop, but your opponent took it away on the textured flop. You flat-call. On the turn, you have the same decision matrix as before. If the board bricks, turning A♥-8♦-2♦-6♣, you bet if your opponent checks (making himpay a second time) and raise if he bets into you, unless you think the river bet will be so meaningful you could fold to it or you’re 100% sure you havethe better hand, then you could just call. However, lean more toward raising when the board is two-suited on the turn, to trigger a fold from the flushdraw. Draws generally won’t fold the flop to a raise, but they will fold the turn, so you can reduce your variance by raising on the turn and triggering thefold from the flush. And even if he doesn’t fold, you force him to put in a whole lot of chips getting 2-to-1 (assuming you raise the pot) when he’s a 4- to-1 dog with just the river card to come. Fold or call, either is a good result for you from the flush draw. Factor in that the raise can trigger a fold from AK or a weak two pair and that seems like the best play when the board is two-suited. If the board completes to a flush, turning A♠-8♦-2♦-6♦, now it matters if you have the high diamond in your hand. If you have the A♦Q♣ and your opponent checks, you can check as well with the intention of calling the river if he bets and the river card is a blank, or raising if he bets the river andthe card is a fourth diamond. If you have the high diamond and your opponent bets into you on the completed board, you can either call and feel out the hand or raise as a semi-bluff. The good news in raising is that strong hands like sets will fold and the raise can’t be that bad, since even whenyou get called, you’re still live to suck out and make the best hand when the fourth diamond hits the river. If you’re not holding a diamond, your hand is A♥Q♣, and the board completes to a third flush card, turning A♠-8♦-2♦-6♦, you must bet if your opponent checks. You can’t give a free card when you hold no draw. So you have to make your opponent with a lone diamond in his hand pay to hit. If you get check-raised there, so be it. You fold. If the board completes to a third flush card on the turn when you hold no diamond in your hand and your opponent bets into you, you’re either folding or raising, depending on how much you read your opponent for beating you and how vulnerable you think he is to the pressure, how likelyyou think he’ll fold to the raising play. Just understand this raise acts as a pure bluff, since you’re not looking to get called. Remember that whenyour opponent bets out on the flop after raising pre-flop, it’s likely

Hand Range 59: CO vs LJ 4-bet • 5-bet All-in 17.5% / • Call 45.1% / • Fold 37.4% Against the HJ, the CO can 3-bet a wider range than vs the LJ because the HJ is opening ~21% hands, while LJ is opening only ~17% hands. You widen your 3-betting range to include hands such as A9s (61%), QTs (30%), and JTs (16%) and by increasing weights in the other threshold hands (Hand Range 60). Since your 3-betting range vs the HJ is wider, you need to defend a few extra hands against the 4-bet to remain unexploitable, so now you also call KJs (100%), ATs (24%), and KTs (21%) (Hand Range 61).

Hand Range 315: UTG 25bb (2x vs BN 2.75x 3-bet) • All-in 22.4% / • Call 47.4% / • Fold 30.3%

On the button A common way to describe being in the position of the dealer, also known as the Button.

So, if each Villain folds more than 79% of the time to a BN steal, Hero has a profitable raise with ATC. Alpha vs one player is given by For three players you calculate: and for four: etc. Each player’s minimum defense frequency can be calculated as: In this example, each player should defend at least (1 – 0.79) = 21% of the time to stop Hero from automatically profiting by raising ATC on the BN. Let’s consider a small adjustment to this example. Suppose Hero looks at the HUD (heads-up display) and the statistics on the Villains are:

sometimes racing mostly um mostly just calling this combo actually should be racing more but um uh the these two combos that don't have back FL should be raising more the back to with the diamond just happy to see more turn there are more turns that uh increase his Equity so he's he's fine just calling here at this St at this shallow stack um as plate you go B call King of Diamonds and interesting enough now now here um um uh switch to a checking with a combo that actually wants to bed more frequently of sixes here now we uh block combinations of A6 suited um and 76 suited that are suit connectors in this range uh that will be calling so it makes more sense to to keep barreling now and again we also block some floats with you know s the diamonds here so this is is Perfect combo to keep Bing the turn turn card should be much better for the hero and this is another thing you should be thinking uh when the turn card comes again about the ranges in play and how this turn card uh who's improve who improves more right if we look at the hotness um uh hit map here the King of Diamonds is one of the best cards for the out of position range right he increases hero Equity so kings are really good and we missed on this opportunity to putting another B here another bet here right uh if we bet um here we take a small bet size again hero calls V calls and then is the ace of diamonds and now we have a nice bluff with the pocket sixes right just turning seven sixes and fives into a bluff and just jam and you put hands like you know a Jack in a a difficult spot King Jack what king Jack call because two pairs Queen Jack's in difficult spot um now many uh Ace Jack maybe calls because he he too pair but maybe some wicker players might be um scared and a hands like Ace Queen just you know difficult spot eeve wise are very little Eevee for chips here on the river when the pot is already um 177 chips is is so close to zero that uh is almost close to indiffer then uh a Queen of Clubs um definitely uh a worse call than this because it blocks both the clubs that might love the river uh so if if the he had bet the turn and then uh Jam the river it will actually be a really good play that should get through a lot uh as play um and it it is fine I guess but as played I don't think you should be just you should be blocking uh because now you definitely definitely don't rep as much you will be getting diamonds on the on the turn at high frequency when the king comes uh so even if you have the blocker it

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 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

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 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

Small blind: A forced bet made by the player to the left of the dealer to initiate action. Stack: The pile of chips in front of each player. Stack ratio: The ratio of the number of chips in your stack divided by the initial pot. This number determines how aggressively you want to play. ♣ ♦ ♥ ♠ Finally, I want to thank David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth for their comments throughout this manuscript; Dr. Alan Schoonmaker for his help with the English, and Ed Miller for his help in creating the index. Special thanks goes to Patrick Nguyen of the Two Plus Two forums at www.twoplustwo.com for his front cover design. In addition, I want to thank Gary Alstatt of Creel Printing for his back cover design and art work throughout this book, and Christy Creel, Brandon Smeltzer, and Tom Lesher, all of Creel Printing, for their help in putting this project together. ♣ ♦ ♥ ♠ Dan Harrington Bill Robertie October, 2004 7 Part One The Game of No-Limit Hold ’em Introduction Like all variations of poker, no-limit hold ’em looks like a card game. But it's not, really. No-limit hold ’em is actually a game of wagering based on imperfect information that uses cards to construct the situations for wagering. Players make bets and call bets based on their estimate that their hand (which they see) will, in the end, be better than their opponent's hand (which they can't see). To make an informed estimate, they have to take four factors into account: 1. The likelihood that their hand will improve as more cards are dealt, which is pretty much a straight mathematical exercise. 2. An estimate of the hand their opponent may hold, which is an exercise in inductive reasoning, based on hands he has held in the past, his general style of play, and the bets he has made thus far. 3. The likelihood their opponent's hand will improve, another mathematical exercise, but complicated by the fact that their opponent's hand is not known for sure. 4. The money odds being offered by the pot. When a good no-limit hold ’em player plays a hand, he looks at his cards, looks at his opponents, considers the betting, and makes an educated guess whether to check, bet or call, raise or fold. In many hold ’em hands, one factor becomes so important that the other factors don't require much thought. For example: 1. A player holds a hand so strong that he doesn't really care what his opponents have. 2. A player holds a hand so weak that he thinks he's sure to lose a showdown. 3. The pot odds are so large that he can play the hand with almost any holding. Don't make the mistake, however, of assuming that even these hands are easy to play. In no-limit hold ’em, there are no trivial hands. Since you don't have to show your cards down to win, under the right circumstances any hand can be a winner. The Cadillac of Poker If you've watched televised poker at

than twice the previous betting levels, the LAG makes up for the losses and gains back much more. Say the LAG has an average starting hand but gets a good flop. You cannot read this player so you do not know that he has hit 2-Pair or a small set with a ragged flop. The other five hands that the LAG has played in the same manner, betting/raising, applying pressure have the same betting patterns. He figures that if he loses two hands but wins five hands and one of them was a monster pot while the two losses were minor losses because he folded when someone re-raised his mediocre hand then the LAP has profited in the long run. The other thought is that you will be pushed into another opponent’s nut hand that was gunning for that LAG leaving you putting more money into the pot because you were gunning for the LAG. Here is what can happen. You know the LAG is playing mediocre hands. You flop Top Pair and Top Kicker. That should be enough to beat the LAG three out of five times. Yet, someone else that was waiting for an even better hand, by upgrading his or her requirements before entering the betting, has a set on the flop. If you are in early position and bet, the LAG re-raises and the button calls. You have a difficult decision to make. What does the opponent on the button have that they would call a re-raise with and allow you to keep drawing? Alternatively, an early position player hits the set, bets, the LAG re-raises and you are sitting there in between two players not knowing if your hand is good. You call, the original bettor re-raises again and the LAG folds leaving you in the pot. If you are playing against a LAG there are some things you can do to combat this person. If you are going to enter the pot, make sure your cards are worth calling a re-raise at the least. If you do not want to risk a lot of bankroll variance then you need to upgrade your starting hand requirements. If you are not as worried about large variance in your bankroll then continually challenge the LAG with good to strong hands. Making sure the LAG is on your right and not your left is the consensus of poker players. This way you can determine to call or fold after the LAG has made a move. If you call before this person then you will always be deciding whether to call a re-raise or fold pre-flop. Some good LAG’s will call/bet down to the River once but learn their lesson and not do it a second time after they understand your tactics against them. They may even upgrade their own showdown requirements when they are heads up against you. They will not challenge you as often unless they have a good hand, so you now need to be more careful with your hand selection against that player. Essentially, the LAG bets,

Full boat A slang poker term for a full house, can also simply be called a boat.

and an 8? Even if you catch this miracle draw, your hand is still not in the clear. Muck this draw and save yourself some major headaches. The hands you should add to your playable list are the excellent three-card draws (2-3, 2-4, 2-5, 2-7) and some of the two-card eight draws (3-4-8, 3-5- 8). Since you are being laid such great pot odds, you should also add the seven draws that don’t contain a deuce (3-4-7, 3-5-7, 3-6-7, 4-5-7). With rough draws like these, you want to get to the draw as cheaply as possible. Calling one raise is fine; calling two raises is suicide. Every once in a while you’ll pick up a really strong draw in the blind, such as a one-card draw to a non-straight eight-or-better or a two-card draw to a wheel containing a deuce. If you are holding one of these and find yourself 303 up against a late position raiser, you should punish him by reraising. Small Blind vs. Big Blind. If everyone folds to you in the small blind, don’t get carried away trying to steal the big blind’s money. In fact, since you don’t have position, you should play tighter than you would if you were the button. A good three-card draw—one containing a deuce and either a 3, 4, 5, or 7—is still playable. Against a loose, aggressive player you should probably limp with these weak hands, but if the big blind plays conservatively, you should raise it. Remember, the small blind acts first on all subsequent rounds of betting, so it’s the worst position at the table. If anyone else has joined the pot, you’d need a solid starting hand to play from the small blind. If you are in the big blind heads-up against the small blind, you should call one more bet with anything remotely playable. That even includes a threecard draw to a 3-4! There are many reasons why having position is so valuable when playing heads-up. That, in addition to the 3 to 1 odds you’re getting to defend your big blind against the small blind, makes calling the right play with almost any three-card draw to a wheel. Playing Against a Raise If you are the button and are facing a raise, you should usually reraise and take the hand heads-up with the power of position. Hands like 2-3-4, 2-3-7, one-card draws, and pat hands are all strong hands that you don’t want to fold. Take control by three-betting it. If your hand isn’t good enough to three-bet, seriously consider folding. If you’re outside the blind, hands like 2-3-8 are good enough to raise with if no one has entered the pot, but not quite good enough to call a raise with. Summary Let me repeat this, because is so important: The deuce is the key card in this game. Most of the hands you choose to play should contain a deuce—there are few exceptions. You might see others drawing to hands that don’t contain a deuce, but don’t fall into that trap. For the most

what's up guys Evan Jarvis here for pokercoaching.com and today I'm going to teach you how to maximize your profits for every online poker session through the power of positioning yourself for maximum profit this is a little secret that the pros and online poker Pros know and today I am going to share it with you let's get stacking how to maximize your profits for every online poker session the key when it comes to maximizing your profits for every online poker session is putting yourself in the best position to profit all things being equal if you have the option of sitting in a tough game versus sitting in an easy game your expected value your expected earn your expected hourly rate is going to be higher in the easier game without you making any different decisions on the felt you can come armed with the most fantastic strategy and your earn is largely going to come down to the quality of play of your opponents so putting yourself in the best position of profit is going to make your life a lot easier and going to put a lot more money in your pocket this is accomplished by selecting the best tables and then selecting the best seat on those tables in this video I'm going to show you exactly how to do that then once you've got the best seat and you're on the best tables then you apply your winning strategy repeatedly and watch the money roll in so let's take a little look at how the money is distributed in a typical poker game this image is provided from my new book mastering small Stakes cash games which is available on Amazon and Audible so in a typical game we have the spot it's going to be the donator it's going to be the fun player it's going to be the person who is the game is built around and is you know providing money for the game to run by being a losing player and these numbers aren't exact but the idea here is the essential thing is that let's say this spot is going to lose their money 100 of their money minus a hundred who's gonna pick up that money well typically the player who has direct position on them the person who is on their direct left is going to get the most share the majority of that money so I assume it's around about 40 percent of the 100 is going to be lost it's going to go to this person on the left who is in what's known as the Jesus seat we call it the Jesus seat because when you have direct position on the spot you're basically playing on God mode or you know playing with the game genie to the left of the Jesus seat that player is expected to get more like about 30 percent of the spot's money so still a significant amount but less than the player who has direct position you move one

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 MTTs Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB’s equilibrium strategy… The Absurd Game Theory of Chopped Boards A “chopped board” in poker is one where the community cards make up the best… Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs MTT confrontations between the small

He asked me polite questions about my welfare and I think he meant it when he said, 'If at any time you are not comfortable you must come and tell me.' He then asked me about my work and listened attentively while I answered, interrupting me now and then with a shrewd question. At last he glanced at a sheet of paper on a small table at his right - other appointments, I guessed - rose, gave my hand a firm grasp, bowed, and smiled. At the door I paused, and emulating my Chinese companions, bowed. He was still standing, a frail and rather lonesome man, or so he seemed to me. The servants bowed us through the door, the sentries at the gate saluted, and as we drove away a small squad of soldiers arrived - a change of guards, I imagined. At the time I met this great man I did not dream that 1 would be instrumental in frustrating a plot to assassinate or kidnap him. 2 Seven-Card Stud I At the Chungking Hostel the servant told us a poker game was in full session with no vacant seats, so Ling and I went into the dining-room for the usual dinner of Chinese chicken, the skin of which was invariably black. Why an inscrutable Providence has granted the people of China yellow skins and their chickens black is a subject I should like to explore. The Hostel was a cheap structure of wood and plaster with a small amount of brick, originally built as a hospital. When foreigners began to flock to Chungking, the government converted it into a hotel with living quarters for foreigners only but with dining service open to all. There was a large lounge with radio and stove, a spacious bare dining-room, a few rooms for private parties, and a number of unheated bedrooms. As at the Cafe" de la Paix in Paris, foreign advisers, correspondents, businessmen, diplomats, as well as spies, crooks, whores, and expatriates, wandered in and out. They came to eat foreign chow, such as it was, to sip tea or a drink, to play a game of bridge or poker, to flirt, or merely to drift about because of sheer ennui. ling had long ago thrown away his dictionary, and practised poker diligently, dealing out imaginary hands at every opportunity. I had taught him the games I had learned at Monty's, as well as low ball, and had, only a few days earlier, written out instructions on the play of seven-card stud and had gone over these with him. The instructions read: SEVEN-Card STUD You are dealt three cards, two down and one up. Stay on the first three cards if you hold: (1) Any three of a kind, and draw the limit, that is, the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th cards. (2) Two Aces or Two Kings, and draw the limit. (3) Two Queens or less, and draw only one card and no more unless the hand is improved. The odds for making a winning hand are made prohibitive by

mathematical analysis shows that poker is a tough way to earn a living. Your current day job is probably much more lucrative. Hold 'em Pokel; by David Sklansky, Two Plus Two Publishing, htt~:Nwww.two~lustwo.com, (1997). This book was originally published in 1976 and has gone through several editions. It is the first book on Hold'em written by a professional player, and its strategies are geared more towards professional-level, tight-aggressive games. A feature of this book is Sklansky's ranking of starting hands. Of the 169 possible starting hands, he identifies 72 to be given consideration for play. The 72 starting hands, are classified into eight groups that are ranked with Group 1 hands being the strongest through Group 8 as the weakest. The "Sklansky Hand Groups" are referred to frequently in discussions and writings on Hold'em, so it is useful to become familiar with the terminology and his reasoning for ranking the hands the way he did. Sklansky's discussion of desirable flops is applicable to tight games and counter-intuitive to those moving up from low-limit loose games to high-limit tight games. Overall Hold'em Poker has become a very influential book in the poker world. RESOURCES 121 Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players, 3'd Edition, by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth, Two Plus Two Publishing, http:// www.twor>lustwo.com, (1999). This is one of the most successful poker books ever written. All Hold'em players should give this book a careful read and think through the reasoning behind all the examples. Earlier editions of this book were geared toward strategies for professional-level tight aggressive games. However, the third edition has a significantly more material and includes discussions of other kinds of games. The analyses of "wild games (extremely looseaggressive) and short-handed games (1-3 opponents) are valuable. It is not uncommon for Hold'em players to find themselves at shorthanded games, especially during mealtimes or when tables are started. Short-handed games can be fun because more hands are playable, but strategy adjustments are required. Rather than avoid short-handed games, as many players do, it is worth acquiring the skills to profit from them. More Hold'em Excellence: A Winner for Life, by Lou Krieger, ConJelCo, htt~://www.conjelco.com, (1999). This book goes beyond the first one on Hold'em Excellence, which was aimed primarily at beginners, to tackle more advanced concepts. Included are discussions of game selection, seat selection, tells, and how to take advantage of the most common mistakes made by low-limit Hold'em players. Strategies for loose-aggressive games are discussed at length. Both of Krieger's Hold'em Excellence books have a color-coded "Start Chart" to assist players in deciding whether or not to play their first two starting cards. The chart weighs the factors of card strength and position, for determining whether a hand should be played or folded. The four-color format assists in reading and memorization. The chart is good resource for online players who can view charts while they play. 122 THE INTELLIGENT GUIDE TO TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER Winner's Guide to Texas Hold'em Pokel; by Ken Warren, Cardoza Publishing, http://www.cardozapub.com, (1996). Warren's book is directed at low-limit Hold'em games which he defines

crushing live poker tournaments by using some of my hands that I recently played in a 25 000 buy-in tournament to illustrate some points I've not streamed in a little bit so if you all are here please let me know I want to make sure that things are functioning you never know when you come back from a trip I've been Upstate with my family for the last uh few weeks but I'm back and ready to do the work so let's get right to it let's go through some 25 000 buying hands that I played just the other day in Florida right off the bat we are playing only 100 big blinds deep it is worth noting that in a lot of the High Roller tournaments to take place around Main Events they usually are kind of turboy which is fine I don't care a lot of people think oh man a turbo tournament that's terrible because they want to sit there and play poker all day turns out a lot of people do not actually want to sit there and play poker all day they want to get in some high value spots win or lose and then go home and that is fine now it is worth noting that quite often your Edge in Turbo eat tournaments cannot be that high if your opponents are all reasonably competent just because there's not a whole lot of time to extract value so as long as you are cool with that then you're good to go all right in this hand cutoff raises this is a good we'll say GTO American poker player he raises it up we have King five suited in the big blind this is a spot where calling is definitely the GTO recommended play you can pull up the poker coaching app to see this is a very clear call before the Flop you may want to three but every once in a while like King six suited or something like that but it doesn't really matter all that much um in the scenario with this hand you probably want to call you're going to find that when you are playing somewhat deeper stacked most of your Bluffs call them Bluffs from out of position when uh you do decide to three bat are going to be with hands like marginal-ish suited connectors like eight six suited nine seven suited eight seven suited Etc whereas if we were shallower stacked a lot more of our Bluffs would come from like a sex offsuit and King X offsuit so this is a scenario where if I am trying to play anywhere near GTO it's just a very very easy call all right flop comes a62 I check this is what my opponent should met pretty frequently and small but they surprised me by betting big hmm what does that mean well perhaps my opponent has a decently strong value hand they want to get value with notice if I am three betting hands like a king

Probability of Catching at Least One Heart on the Turn or River Finally, converting these to a percentage gives: Now all we have to do is compare the pot odds to the odds of making our hand. Remember, the Villain pushed all-in for $100 into a $100 pot (Table 1). Table 1 When using the x:y ratio form (odds against making your hand) the hand odds have to be lower than the pot odds for the call to be profitable. In this case 2 > 1.86.

half pot would be good why would I do that well let's go back to the flop when we bet that small and he calls what do you think he is calling with what do we think he's calling with let's make this a group activity well now he's probably calling me with all of his ace highs because come on guys we all fall for this tiny bat we have a high card we feel weak folding I know all about this plan I'll tell you what if I have ace 7 ear and someone bets 200 I feel really silly folding but the problem is what happens if the guy calls with a sigh we all fall for this tiny bet we have a high card we feel weak folding and that's when we get them or that's when they get us rather because that turn comes and it's anything but an ace and we fire anything slightly above half podna it looks like we're trying to get value now so we're betting 550 here to win 1580 our bed needs to work as a pure Bluff 35% of the time so we're gonna round up so what does that mean what's the next thing I'm going to say guys if our bet needs to work as a pure Bluff 35% of the time what does that mean for our opponent let's see if anyone puts it in the chat yes amy was the first one and see Louise okay see who I love how you guys have the fundamental he needs to defend with 65% of his hands however if we threw a queen out there and look at the statistics we find that he doesn't even have a pair 45 percent of the time which means even if he defends with every pair and draw he's not defending 65% of his hands he's only defending 55 percent of his hands I love this play because most guys will call with a high card or a gun shot once versus a small bet because probably they should but then on the turn when they miss and you fire a quote substantial bet out there they'll let it go what they don't realize is they're getting worked I totally did I totally just did air quotes when I said the word substantial by the way if you guys could see all right one more guys I don't have much time today so I'm going to have to be brief there's one other bet you can do here I only use it maybe 10 percent of the time but I'll use it with a young guy who's getting angry with me I love these in Planet Hollywood tournaments small events in Europe WSOP see events let's see if you can get this this also works on online too you get a lot of lol's in the chat all right guys what do you think it is I'm not giving you any training wheels you got a guess today a lot of

can make money against a mediocre player. I would have lost $4,000 playing this hand, but Joe lost $50,000 and thought he had been very unlucky. He wasn’t unlucky at all—he simply played the hand horribly. If the flop comes Q-J-10 with two flush cards, giving you the nut straight and you get raised after you’ve bet, it is almost an automatic fold. Why? Because very few players in our high-stakes game would put in a lot of money with a naked A-K on that flop. Perhaps at lower limits, less advanced players would play differently. I once had the same type of hand in a tournament, except that the flop came 9-8-7. I bet with the nut straight, and there was a raise and a reraise behind me. “This straight can’t be any good,” I said to myself as I threw it away. As it turned out, however, one guy had a flush draw and the other one had a set. Neither one of them got there, so I would have won a humongous pot. But the point is that in Omaha there are situations when throwing away the nuts is obviously the proper thing to do—usually when you have the nut straight and it’s pretty clear that an opponent has the same hand, plus a draw to a flush or a bigger straight. This doesn’t happen when you have the nut flush because nobody can make a better flush. The question of risk versus reward is very relevant in this type of situation. In the hand that Bill and Joe played, Joe had very little money invested in the 278 hand, only about $4,000, and he had to either make it $50,000 or fold. Now that’s a big difference—put in $46,000 more or fold! The risk-reward ratio just wasn’t there. The question is, “Is it worth the risk of going broke to the hand?” Most of the time when you bet, you make a small commitment to the pot, but you may have to put in ten times that amount to see the hand through. Obviously, you don’t just routinely throw away the best hand, but many times you might want to check the nut straight on the flop when a flush draw is possible and wait to bet it on the turn if the board doesn’t change. This strategy is more typical of an un-raised pot, because there isn’t a lot of money in it yet. If there’s been a substantial raise before the flop, you have a little more incentive to play the hand because there’s more money in the pot. Everything in poker is risk versus reward. Suppose you’re playing in our game with $500/$1,000 blinds and a $75,000 cap. Three people have limped in, so there’s three or four thousand in the pot. The flop comes Q-J-10 with two clubs. You have the A-K with nothing else. Everyone checks to you, and you bet $4,000. Then somebody comes over the top and raises $12,000. You know that on the very next card, he’s going to bet

10. 3-Betting This is possibly the area of poker I've specialized the most in as a coach. It's one that is frequently recurring, crucial to your win-rate, and difficult to master. These three elements make competent 3- betting an excruciatingly tricky, but hugely rewarding thing to get right. I've developed my own systematic approach to handling the decision of whether to 3-bet a hand in a given situation. Before we get stuck into the detail, I'd like to say a few general things about this approach: The approach is very long-term EV centred. As it's such a common occurrence that someone opens and Hero has the choice between 3-betting, flatting and folding, Hero wants to think about his range and his overall strategy in these spots. Moreover, becoming comfortable with creating 3-bet ranges for a situation will prepare Hero to handle the spot with any two hole cards and not just the ones he happened to hold in a particular hand. The approach always starts with the same first question regardless of the type of 3-bet situation. This question concerns the initial shape of Hero's 3-betting range. Before constructing a building it's prudent to know whether it's going to be a factory or a castle. If you set off without an answer to this question, the end result is likely to be fairly messed up. Similarly we need to know if our 3-bet range is going to be polar or linear and we'll meet these shapes very shortly. Often the range that Hero wants to call the open with has a large effect on the shape of his 3- betting range and vice-versa. We learned a lot about when we do and don't want to have a flatting range vs. an open back in Chapter 6. Making this decision will be very important in deciding upon our 3-bet strategy especially from the SB where we commonly choose to flat nothing at all. I have no interest in spoon-feeding premade 3-bet ranges as such an approach does not help Hero's problem solving skills. Rather, it leaves him dependent on charts that are too rigid for the dynamic reality of 3-bet spots and without the core skills he needs to adjust from situation to situation. Instead, I'll be teaching a thought process, the mastery of which will equip Hero with all he needs to always find the correct 3-bet strategy in all spots of this nature. With those preliminary observations in mind, let's look at a road map of the thought process we'll be using to build our 3-bet ranges.

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 MTTs Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB’s equilibrium strategy… The Absurd Game Theory of Chopped Boards A “chopped board” in poker is one where the community cards make up the best… Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs MTT confrontations between the small

have to raise more thinly for Value that's a part of the game three that's much less studied uh you know they have to raise thinner for Value then they have to know how to play turns and rivers and this is all out of position versus a range that should have a lot of nut hands it's not easy so um as a baseline just 100 C bet as the three bot through that aggressor when you're in position you go smaller you get about 20 pot and when you're out of position go larger 35 pot I can prove this in node lock I have some Sims here um to show you and go through the proof on that all right so first tree I have here we have button versus cut off cut off opens button three bets but uh cut off calls the Flop is eight seven four and we're just gonna look how to play this on the floor the in positions range looks something like this a lot of strong hands out of positions range looks something like this and by the way one of the one of the reasons why I'm spending so much time on pre-flop today is once you understand what ranges your opponent it's good for yourself to understand like what you should be playing but also understanding what your opponents are doing because most people are getting pretty close to GTO nowadays but being able to assign your opponent a range going heading to a flop will make you will allow you to have much more accurate decision-making post law so this is stuff you really need to study and you can't look past even if you think your pre-hop ranges are great um you know always be studying so that you can understand your opponents better and generally I would say you know populations probably just don't three bad enough uh with Bluffs um so factor that in and they also probably don't be pip enough when you play enough poker you start to understand like you know people aren't vpipping pocket twos and pocket threes every time you open the hijack it's just not happening Queen a suit is just not happy so uh you know signing your players your opponent's accurate range is very important so in position range looks like this for the three bet cut off out of position range looks like that we have an eight seven four four flop I specifically chose this flop because it's one of the worst flops for imposition this flop should be much better for out of position but guess what you can still see about 100 frequency for a small size this is the GTO solution for what a this um is the GTO solution for what uh our strategy as the C better should look like all using all these different sizes sometimes betting three into 14 sometimes spending six into 14 sometimes putting 11 and 14 very complex strategies mixing checks um and you can see

Table 58: BB vs SB Limp Action Frequencies The BB checks back on average 56% vs a SB limp and raises 44%. The raise size increases as stacks get deeper, going from 2x at 10bb to 3.5x at 30bb. At deeper stack depths, the solver likes going even bigger, but there is not a significant drop in EV using 3.5x at all stacks deeper than 30bb. I believe that using bigger bet-sizes is overkill, particularly in today’s environment where population limping strategies are highly unbalanced and over-fold to BB raises. In fact, even smaller bet-sizes can and should be used exploitatively vs weak players. With 12bb, the BB goes all-in 20.3%, raises to 2.5x 25.2% and checks back 54.5%. The all-in range contains hands with good blockers and high equity but very bad post-flop equity realization such as small pocket pairs, and offsuit Ax and Kx. The raising range is polarized, made of hands that are happy to raise/call and a variety of hands with good board coverage that are fine to raise/fold. At this stack depth, the solver checks back any suited hand that is not happy to raise/call so the BB doesn’t have equity denied when jammed on. The 15bb range (Hand Ranges 147-148) is tighter but similar. With 25bb, the BB jams at a lower frequency than at 12bb, but the hands the solver chooses to jam follow the same pattern of hands with blockers with bad post-flop equity realization as well as small pocket pairs. The raising range includes a small frequency of some of the worst suited hands such as J4s, 96s and 62s that give the BB better post-flop playability (Hand Ranges 149- 150). With 40bb and 60bb, the BB has no all-in range vs a SB limp, and the raising range includes a wider variety of both suited and offsuit hands that have a combination of blockers and good

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 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

Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold ‘em professionally, I… How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance… Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,… An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first… Relationships and Poker In my 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

this is what my mentor taught me was that you got a respect early position when it comes to late position especially when there's dead money up for grabs you can go crazy and the reason I did include the small blind is because it's so depending on the big blind and you know honestly when the blinds when both lines are super tight you can go even wider you can open 100% of buttons you can open 70% of cut-offs 50% of hijacks and get away with it on certain tables but you can't get away with opening 50% of hands from under the gun almost no matter what because when there are eight players left to act people wake up with hands so again the concept is really key to understand here that we can drastically adjust our ranges when we are a late position and we can do that even more when stacks are deeper so seven years ago or so at the World Series after the World Series of Poker I went with Greg Merson to Jacksonville Florida where he got invited to play a cash game and he was playing something big I think it was either 50 50 100 200 or 100 200 or 400 some huge game in a back room at best bet Jacksonville and he was talking about strategy because the game was really deep and what he told me was that you know the three bet ranges drastically changed so you know if he was out of position facing you know he's in the big blind or the small blinds facing button open from a loose player with a hundred big blind stacks he may 3bet something like 15% of hands which is fairly wide it's pretty much all the Broadway hands and a lot of the you know bigger pairs but if he was 200 big blind steep 250 that number might drop to something like 5 percent and once they got into the 300 400 500 big blind range he was three betting 0% this is the world champion millions of cash games played online super nova le man knew his strategy and he's saying yeah 300 400 big blinds deep I'm not even three betting ace he's out of position because how much money can I get in preflop and now I have to play so many streets huge bets out of position for the rest of the hand not a good look and likewise to counterbalance this in position as stocks get deeper weekend three bets so much wider so for example if you're again taking that loose strategy button versus cut off and you want a three bet that loose open or 15% of hands because you know maybe they're opening 25 35 % hands you want to buy the button you know protect your position and lock it down for the rest of the hand you might three about 15% of hands but once you get to 200 250 big blinds you can up that 25%

a reason why you get caught in the river when you Bluff at a correct frequency at a GTO frequency right so I would definitely keep that in mind um on the river because yeah when we go all in we're targeting off we're targeting 6x in reality I think that if somebody gets here with a proper range it's gonna be really hard to look down at King 6-0 and call here I think it's gonna be impossible um but it doesn't really matter if they're just overfolding that hand type on on previous streets so I hope this was a good example of mostly the Flop strategy and a little bit on the turn and then on the river just make sure you're thinking thinking proper Concepts and choosing proper candidates so yeah I like that hand I lost it but it was a it was a fun one um let's go to one more so this hand was from actually the day prior uh in the 8K and I think it's another spot that people must play that's the show I chose it so um I opened Jack and I know on the button small blind calls and we get King 10-3 so if you want to take a second think about how often you think our overall range wants to bet here I just like put a number in your mind because I think myself and in general the population see about this spot insanely too much and the bottom line is uh I looked through his hand a bit earlier let's see here's the Flop frequency you're doing 71 tracks and the bottom is you're opening infinite on the button right you're opening 55 of hands and the opponent is calling way less right 15 and so you do have a top-end equity Advantage you know you have more Ace King you have more pocket tens good good King X Etc but you also have infinite more air so your overall Equity isn't super high in the spot and so you need to check back a ton uh and then when you bet you typically want to be using a medium to large bet size I would never small back this board um I would just do a little bit about 60 and then mostly checking and so we have a Jack nine Jack and I know at the club it makes total sense to have a nice solid mix here with this hand but this was the first part of this so I wanted to show you because like small blind versus and cut off or I'm sorry button for small blind cut off for small blind spots you just need to keep in mind that this small button cold call range is really really tight and when you open in late position you have a ton of air so if you start betting everything you're going to get just run over by a good player um because they just they connect pretty well with the

Hand Range 213: BN vs UTG (15bb) • All-in 10.6% / • Call 4% / • Fold 85.4% Defending the BN (25bb)

dry, he wasn’t calling with a draw on the turn and he’s not likely to suddenly fold to your bet on the river. Save that third barrel. Call it a small busted bluff and move on. Likewise, if the board is textured, you generally want to show the hand down if you believe there is any chance it can win. If your opponent was ona flush draw, you’ll beat that hand with a showdown if you hold the smallest little pair or even ace high, so no need to bet there, since, peculiarly, you have the best hand. Only if you hold a hand that can’t possibly win, like a 6-high or something, would you consider taking a shot at the river andhoping that your opponent will fold a busted flush. But sometimes you just have to lose. Again, it’s not the end of the world and it’s certainly not worse than firing an expensive third barrel in circumstances where you’re too likely to get called. If you’re worried that this whole floating thing is a betting pattern that’s fairly easy to detect … don’t be. Remember, you’re flat-calling on the flop with top pair, sets, and certain draws. So when you call with intent to bluff, your opponent doesn’t know where you’re at; your real hands give complete cover to your bluffs. Again, we see that “mixing it up” really makes no sense. In fact, it works against you. One of the easiest calls you can make is against someonewho’s mixing it up. The story he’s telling becomes so inconsistent—weird, in fact—that it quickly adds up to only one ending: He’s bluffing. Conversely, when you’re making consistent plays (like flat-calling the flop) in disparate situations for varying reasons, your play turns opaque to your opponent. He might as well be looking at the surface of the sun. I hope also that you see now how your approach to the game is one of full integration. You don’t randomly bluff (you don’t randomly do anything); rather, you think about lines of play that are not only good in and of themselves, but also reinforce the productivity and profitability of complementarylines in other situations. Take this holistic approach to your thinking and your game will improve by leaps and bounds. Bluffing Out of Position, Heads-Up Naturally, it’s harder to execute bluffs out of position than in. Think about why floating in position is so powerful. For a cheaper price than raising on the flop, you get to see two streets of information before running your bluff. But you only get that advantage because, yes, you’re last to act. Put yourself out of position and that edge goes poof! That isn’t to say you can’t execute a bluff from out of position. You just have to look for better spots, with higher value, before trying. The Continuation Bet, Out of Position, Heads-Up If you go into the flop as the leader, you should generally c-bet no matter what flops, even out of position. That, after all, is the main point of raising pre-flop, to

more or less just fold and that means the amount you're risking is very small and is likely to work quite often that's really good if you're going to be pumping that three-bet sea dot part of the way that's going to work though is people need to know for the barrels they're coming and this is a great spot for you to fire further barrels what you should be thinking of on this flop right here is how do i get two streets of value if your first thought was oh my god there's a king what do i do that is fear-driven thinking you can't win if you're not trying to figure out how to win you can't hit a target you're not looking at and that happens all the time in the limit hold them what they're worried about what people worry about is getting exploited they're worried about their big hands going down in flames so a couple of things happen here one they don't want to fold their jacks and they don't want to pay off a lot of money so what they do here is they check back but if you're dealing with someone uh this was not america's card if you're dealing with someone on america's card room which is a more educated base in my i typically play on ignition on america's card room i find the players to be much more tactical which i don't like i like money i don't like stroking my ego trying to beat rags what you'll find is if you check back here what do they know you have well you probably would have bet with king 10 right you probably would have bet with fives right probably would have bet with tens so you just cap your range they know at you probably would have bet ace king they know the best hand you could have here is like king queen king jack that is a lot of information for someone to have there now if you bet small most likely you would be betting bigger with a set but it's possible you're just trying to go the guy into a check raise you cap your range a little bit too with that small bed but maybe not as much if you check back there just because i have jacks i want to show down this hand this is the best hand i've had in 45 minutes it should be good these donkeys play all this other crap and when they can win with 10 6 suited are you telling me i can't win with jax that is like so not you know that's not reality on reality's terms man like this is the great thing about poker is people can play however the hell they want and i i get beat by goofy s all the time and what we need to be thinking about is how to make money now here did you even think of all the hands you could make money from if

vs. GTO Analyze your hands with 1-click START CRUSHING NOW JOIN DISCORD Author Tombos21 Tom is a long time poker theory enthusiast, GTO Wizard coach and YouTuber, and author of the Daily Dose of GTO. Latest article Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold ‘em professionally, I… How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance… Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make,… An Introduction to Spin & Gos I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first… Relationships and Poker In my 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

in shorthanded games is a big pair with two low cards. For example, hands like A-7-K-K (either suited or unsuited) should be folded in a full game. But this is usually a raising hand in a four-handed game. In a three-way pot, the kings may very well win the high even if you don’t improve them. And although A-7 is not much of a low draw, it is good to have it for backup should the kings get beat. Don’t underestimate the value of any low draw in your hand when playing shorthanded, because frequently none of your opponents will end up with a low. CONCLUSIONS Although there is a lot to consider when playing Omaha eight-or-better, the game doesn’t have to be that complicated. If you can learn to play quality hands in good position, you will avoid being confronted with too many 221 difficult decisions. It is crucial to remember that in multiway pots, it frequently takes the nuts to win. Therefore, you have to be able to quickly recognize whether your hand has nut potential. And if it doesn’t, you should usually fold. In pots with three or fewer players, hands such as two pair or mediocre lows have some value. This permits you a bit more leeway in your starting requirements. Again, position is important. The later you act, the better idea you will have about the number of opponents you’ll face and how strong their hands are. You’ll benefit from keeping in mind the concepts discussed in this section as the hand plays out. It is good to remember, though, that every situation is slightly different. The wide variety of variables, such as how your opponents are playing, the size of the pot, the number of opponents in the hand, and your position, mean that every Omaha eight-or-better problem is unique. You must make the best decision you can, based on the information available to you. Realize that poker is a dynamic game, in which your decision-making has to adapt to constantly changing conditions. As you gain experience, you will learn to better assess the game, which will allow you to make good decisions. The concepts discussed in this section should help speed up your learning curve. Omaha eight-or-better is a great game, because it presents a greater number of challenging decisions than any other form of poker. And now you know how to make those decisions profitably. 222 SEVEN CARD STUD HIGH LOW EIGHT-OR-BETTER by Todd Brunson The old saying, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” is certainly true when it comes to my son, Todd Brunson. In 1989 after three years of college, studying to be a lawyer, Todd stunned me by announcing that he wasn’t going back to school for his senior year. “I want to be a professional poker player,” he explained. We had never talked much about gambling in my household, and I didn’t even know that Todd knew how to play poker. It turned out he had been playing in the area around his college, Texas Tech in Lubbock.

Table 72: CO Action Frequencies (25bb) With 25bb, the CO rejams a narrow range so, in practice, I prefer scrapping it and playing a 3- bet/call/fold strategy instead. The CO 3-bets non-all-in an average of 3.78% hands. This range is also quite narrow and polarized. The CO flats 10.08% on average with a capped range including mid to small pairs, suited broadways, ATo+ and KJo+ Flatting a capped range is not a big problem because the CO gains protection from the strength of the opener’s range. It is important to notice how the CO’s flatting range remains fairly constant. Unlike the BN, the CO has to worry about having to play OOP post-flop, and that limits the number of hands that can be peeled even vs wide ranges (Hand Ranges 234-237).

10 off suit king queen off suit and we do a decent amount of calling with a bunch of suited connected type stuff hands like Jacks and tens also don't three bats okay now let's compare this to what happens when under the gun eight raises and then the cutoff calls and that's the only thing that's changed early position raise cut off call now on the button here's our new Range notice right off the bat student connectors go way down in value and off suit hands go way down in value right so notice before King Jack offsuit is calling sometimes Ace and off so it's three betting sometimes now a syn-off suit just folds eights track offsuit folds half the time and then three bets when it plays King Jack offsets almost never played right so notice these hands in this region this is very important these hands are often playable but they completely go down in value when someone raises and there is a call okay also notice the suited hands notice that 97 suited just folds in this scenario and also a bunch of the suited gappers are mostly folding when there's a reason to call whereas when there's only a raise and no caller these hands all get to call because again you're a little bit less likely to be dominated when you make a flush also notice King X suited and even some asex suited goes down in value because you're just more likely to end up with top pair bad kicker against top pair with a better Kicker right so even though these hands do make flushes they are not quite as good whenever you are playing against a raise and a call because we have like King 8 suited and you make top pair it's just a little bit more likely if someone wants to put a lot of money in that you're going to be dominated now I would say perhaps exploitatively I would just call or three bet with most asex suited still I think it's perfectly fine to call with asex suited especially if you navigate post swap well but pretty much every other adjustment here I think is fine you have to be very careful with these suited connected hands and I see a lot of players splashing around with these suited gappers and suited connectors every single time and that's a problem also one thing worth noting is that our three betting range gets more linear notice now we're three bending Jacks every single time when there's a raise in a call whereas when there is just a raise we're not three betting jacks which is a little bit weird right you may think why would I three but if I'm against more people it's because you don't mind cleaning up your Equity quite as much if you three back Jacks and you win the pop pre-flop and you win an extra two and a half big blinds or three big blinds however much the initial raise was

This river card is perfect for a triple barrel. Hero shouldn't be concerned with balance here vs. a weak opponent and should instead seek to simply bluff whenever he makes it to this river with air. On more blank rivers, there is a danger that the timid looking Fish gets stubborn and calls down some TT, 99, Q8 etc. but on the A river, these hand become even weaker and this player likely fears Hero's hand a lot more now. Since we're only interested in vacuum EV against the weaker player, we can simply calculate raw RFE and see whether we achieve that percentage of folds on average. Raw RFE here will be totally accurate, needing no adjustment for pot equity since there are no more streets still to be played. Hero's RFE on a reasonable bet of 25BB will be 25 / (25 + 40.5) = 38%. It is very likely that Villain folds much more of his range than this on this particular run out and so bluffing whenever SDV is insufficient is the correct exploitative approach for Hero. The last two hands called for very different approaches. In the first hand we were concerned with balance and opted out of a marginal river bluff spot with the intention of using the more suitable parts of our turn bluffing range to fire the river with. In the second hand, we didn't care about balance and were happy to adopt a strategy that would maximise vacuum EV .

This bluff raise should be +EV in a vacuum, but also a necessary component part of any balanced turn range. Hero does not have the pot odds, implied odds and future fold equity to call out of position with his draws, and so these naturally become turn raises along with his value hands, which are very happy to play this way too. Let's wrap up the chapter with a spot where it's fine to wait until the river before having a raising game at all.

flop does not immediately allow you to see the turn and realize equity because, when you check the flop from OOP, the IP player has the option to bet and force some of your hands to fold. For this reason, you have to check a stronger range when OOP than when IP, as your range can be immediately attacked by the Villain. This forces you to check a range that not only will be balanced on the average turn card when the action goes x/x, but also a range that is balanced immediately and can withstand aggression. Stack depth has a significant effect on pre-flop strategies and thus the cold call ranges will be substantially different from one stack depth to the other, resulting in different post-flop equity distributions. In this section, we will focus on BN cold calls because the BN is the position from outside the blinds that typically cold calls the most. As for the opener, we will focus on CO and UTG opens, to provide the two most extreme examples of this set-up, one against the widest possible opening range, and once against the tightest. The play from all other positions will fall within these two extremes. The stack depths we will study are 40bb and 20bb, typical for a MTT setup with 12.5% antes, and the following betting structure: ♦ OOP can bet (20bb): all-in, 2/3-pot, 1/2-pot, 1/3-pot, min-bet ♦ OOP can bet (40bb): 3/4-pot, 2/3-pot, 1/2-pot, 1/3-pot, min-bet Table 119: Hero vs BN Overall Stats The best situation for Hero is when is playing UTG with 40bb. In this set-up, both players have almost the same number of hands in their ranges but Hero’s range dominates the BN in all other set-ups. The BN’s range is tighter than Hero’s, creating a more equal situation that will ultimately benefit the BN, given that they are playing IP post-flop. Of course, for the BN to achieve this favorable post-flop situation, they had to take a risk when calling the open raise in the first place. So it is not as if the BN could simply cold call any hand, as they would risk being pushed off by the blinds and also risk playing multi-way post-

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Hand Range 280: LJ 15bb (2x vs HJ All-in) • Call All-in 46.2% / • Fold 53.8%

Geometric bet size Betting the same size (as a percentage of the pot) on each street such that chips are all-in on the river bet. This is the optimal bet size if one player is perfectly polarized relative to their opponent, as it generates the widest overall minimum defense frequency (MDF) that gets stacks in by the river.

can't have $1,000 in equity when there are three players remaining because you're not guaranteed to take first place even if you have 90% of the chips and in this scenario you only have 50% of the chips so it's very important to realize that folding has value so because H folding has value at a final table you want to ask who should be really trying to apply pressure on other players in order to make them fold and as a broad generalization when you have more money than the players remaining in the pot you can usually be a decent amount more aggressive we're going to go through some examples so that you very clearly see this the largest Stacks can apply pressure to everyone because they're not concerned with going broke if there are two large Stacks you may find that you can actually apply a decent amount of pressure to the other large stack because they really don't want to go broke and while you also really don't want to go broke a lot of the time people don't want to get in there and Fight Fire with Fire they just want to get out of the way and if you can go from tied for first in chips to First in chips by a decent amount then you can really run the table over medium Stacks can apply pressure to other medium stacks and short stacks short stacks can only really apply pressure to other short stacks sometimes you should be the aggressor and sometimes you should be cautious it's important to realize this and ranges will change a ton you can't just think all right I'm in the cut off with 40 big blinds at a final table what should I do because it really depends on the other Stacks at the table if you have 40 big blinds three people have two big blinds and the players get to act all have 60 big blinds you're going to be really really really really tight but if you have 40 big blinds a bunch of people have two big blinds and the players yet to act Hall have 30 big blinds so fewer than you you are going to be overly loose and that's important to realize also sometimes you're going be playing with various payout implications happening at the same time maybe the players yet to act have tiny stacks and huge stacks and that's going to really convolute thing so we're going to be discussing those scenarios later in this video let's go through some broad Concepts if you want a full discussion on how to play final tables check out my tournament master class and advanced tournament course at pokercoaching.com we go very very deep into these topics I discuss a lot of these topics as well as some of the absolute best poker players in the world that I've hired to teach me and to teach you all right stack distribution is very important if when you fold the other players yet

Full house A made poker hand, consisting of three of a kind + a pair. For example, a player holding QQ on a board of Q5727 has a full house, queens full of sevens.

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 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:

Hand Range 54: Villain’s SB Range Hero is in the BB with K♦2♠. Can Hero profitably exploit this Villain by 3-bet bluffing with K♦2♠? Using the Alpha number equation, if you 3-bet Villain to $45, you risk $40 to win $20:

if you could make your draw with an overcard to the board. The higher implied odds your draw has, the less attractive semi-bluffing with it becomes. If you can

Hand Range 93: Stack Depths for UTG+2 Push

At 60bb, after limping and facing a raise, stacks are too deep to limp/shove, and so the only re- raising size is to 3.4x. The limp/reraising range is made of the best hands that are happy to stack off pre-flop and hands with good blockers and some board coverage (Hand Ranges 106-107). Hand Range 106: SB vs BB (60bb) • Raise 3.5x 15.1% / • Limp 69.9% / • Fold 15% If you raise and face a 3-bet, you are still a bit too deep to simply jam 60bb. The only hands that want to do that are AKo and A5s with a small frequency, so you are safe to simply ignore this branch of the tree and use only a 2.6x 4-bet-sizing. The hands that should be 4-bet are KK,

Your 77 becomes a bluff only because of your initial limp, which told you so little about your opponent’s holding. All in all, when you limp with that 77, you have no sensible play against this raise. If there is no good response, the initial limp is probably theculprit. You’re in the worst position with the least information. I don’t care what hand you hold. I don’t like your chances now. Raise and Appraise When you raise, obviously, you make your opponents think twice about playing. If you raise enough to make them selective about the hands theyplay, you narrow down their possible holdings. You’re buying information. So when you raise late and a blind calls you, does he have 72? Probably not. He probably has somewhere in the top 25%-50% of the hands he’s dealt depending on how loose a player he is. Where limping wouldeliminate two or three hands from his calling range (aces, kings, and maybe queens), raising eliminates maybe two out of three. That’s helpful enough in position and even more helpful out of position. Opening for a raise forces your opponents to make decisions about their hands and that narrows down what they could be holding. When youlimp in early position and an opponent calls you, you know very little about his hand. But when you raise from early position to make your opponentsselective, then get flat-called behind, you know quite a bit about that hand, because when you raise in first position, your opponents all smell a prettystrong holding (you have to be strong, they reason, to raise early), so if they enter the pot, they’re likely to be strong as well. Even more interestingly, if you raise from the one hole and someone flat-calls from second or third position, you’ve learned even more about his hand: You know he doesn’t hold the best possible hands. How? Think about it. Hands like AA and KK rarely don’t re-raise there, with the whole field to act behind them. EvenAK and QQ almost always re-raise. And yes, it’s possible that someone might flat (flat-call) with a premium pair, perhaps hoping to encourage a squeeze play behind him. But most players aren’t that tricky, especially when big pocket pairs put the deer-in-headlights fear into them. They re-raise you, because they just want to avoid a bunch of players jumping in behind them and they know you’re probably strongenough to play along with their huge hand. So when your opponent right behind you flat-calls your early-position raise, look at all the information you just scored: You know his hand is strong, but not super-strong. It’s probably two unpaired big cards (but not AK), a middle-sized pair or, if the opponent is on the loose side, suited connectors. That’s powerful, especially considering you have bad position. Knowing that much about what your in-position opponent holds helpsyou make much better decisions on the rest of the betting rounds. This is just one of myriad reasons why it’s almost always better to raise than limpin any hand you choose to play. And it

So the situation is fairly bleak when we miss our set. The old saying: 'no set no bet' actually does have some truth to it, though the situation is far less black and white than that primitive slogan suggests. Nevertheless, we are going to have to fold a huge amount of the time that we don't hit our magic card and so we need our implied odds to be better than they had to be with [99-JJ]. Calling these hands is known as set mining since flopping a set is by and large our only purpose for calling the open. What constitutes good implied odds? Let stick this problem into one of our tables of factors.

pocket cards, claimed the pot. The other player with a 51, 101 didn't object so the dealer pushed the chips to the player with 5's over 2's and set up for another hand. Only after the transaction ended, did a few of us at the table wake up and realize that the pot had been awarded to the losing hand. By then, it was too late to change the outcome. When you first read this, did you immediately see that the 5, 10 is the winning hand? The 2's are completely irrelevant because the board has a pair of 6's. That means each player's hand consists of the same two pairs-5's and 6's. The kicker (fifth card) decides the hand and since the 101 is higher than all other cards on the board, it beats the 9- on the board. (If a card higher than a 10 was on the board, say a Jack, the players would share the same kicker and the pot is split. The best five-card hand for each player in that case would be 5's and 6's with a Jack kicker, and the 10 does not play.) By not analyzing the situation, the player with the winning hand lost an entire pot, potentially the difference between a profitable and an unprofitable playing session. Deliberate non-action means you don't let the routine take the edge off your play. To stay focused, analyze the actions of the players and dealers, and take breaks. Be mentally alert at all times and ready to 110 THE INTELLIGENT GUIDE TO TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER act. Over time, small mistakes add up to big losses and small victories add up to big profits. If you are not paying attention at a crucial time, as in the example abovedou lose money. But if staying focused requires you to contest every pot, you also lose money. The concept of tight-aggressive play is to forcefully contest pots only when you have the edge. Keep mentally focused by careful observation of the other players when the odds are against you. Choose only battles where you are the favorite, and don't feel that you have to win every time. If you select the best situations to challenge your opponents and ignore the marginal ones, you will accumulate money over time. Alan Schoonmaker explains in his book The Psvchology of Poker,* that the successful tight-aggressive style for poker is unnatural. In his observation, only in the professions of fighter pilot and police officer are there people capable of tightly controlled aggression. Tight people are naturally cautious while aggressive people tend to take chances. The combination of the two traits results only from a deliberate training process. It does not happen on its own. * Alan Schoonmaker, The Psychology of Poker, (Two Plus Two, Las Vegas, NV, 2000) page 248. PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS Adjust Your Play to Conditions A common technique for training people to make critical decisions in real-time, under stress, is the use of computer simulations as a substitute for experience. Need to learn how to land a fully loaded 747

and your opponents’ tendencies. So what about setting a trap? Let’s take a look at another example. From middle position with 6-6, you raise and are reraised by the button. All others fold, and you and the button take a flop of 10-6-2 rainbow heads-up. You have numerous options in this situation. You could bet, hoping to reraise; bet and just call a raise now, and then check-raise on the turn; check-raise; or check-call, and then check-raise the turn. This is where playing hold’em gets fun. You’ve got your opponent right where you want him and will be using one of these plays to make him pay the maximum. So how do you figure out which one works the best? All of these options are good, so you have to base your decision on your opponent’s tendencies, as well as his impression of you. The hands you’ve played against him should be considered when deciding on a course of action. Let’s say you know your opponent to be an extremely aggressive player who 133 won’t give away any free cards. In this case you know that a check-call followed by a check-raise on the turn will work. What if your opponent likes to keep the lead on the flop? In this case, you might choose to bet right out and look to get extra bets in on the flop. Or you might check-raise the flop and try to win even more bets if you think your opponent is aggressive enough to reraise after you check-raise. Whatever you decide to do, make sure you don’t get stuck playing a made hand the same way every time. Using all of the tools available will help you in various other situations as well. How? Well, let’s say you used the check-call, check-raise on the turn play. Once your opponents see this, they will now be worried that when you check twice, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have a weak hand. That way, when you actually are on a draw, you may win yourself a free card. Flopping a set in position gives you even more leeway than if you had players behind you. In position, you never have to worry about missing a bet and giving away a free card. Being in position also allows you to safely set traps as well. For example, say you limp on the button with 3-3 in a four-way action pot, and the flop comes K-8-3 rainbow. This would be a very safe flop to smooth call and hope to raise the turn. Flopping Flush Draws There are several variables that will affect how you proceed with flush draws on the flop: your position, the number of players, the texture of the game (passive or aggressive), whether or not you have the nut draw, where the preflop raise came from, and so on. Depending on the variables, the correct strategy might be to play the hand very aggressively, very cautiously, or somewhere in between. Monster Flush Draws If you were to flop an open-ended straight flush draw, you’d most

range and in order to play all these hands we want to be limping our stronger hands are well so we're limping kind of the top 90 percent of hands so we're going to be doing a linear limp free raising range of around like 12 percent ish of and it's basically like nines plus Ace Jack plus all the student Broadways and suited connectors and some of these two to one gappers all these hands play it very well at Deep stacks and this is kind of going to be our linear limp pre-raising range say you limp the small big blind isos to three and a half big blinds we're going to be looking at somewhere of around a four to four and a half times the the raise uh limp erase uh we're doing lots of Limp calling with this green as you can see all different types of hands we got some Aussie dases all these suited Aces we got all of the smaller pocket pairs through the Kings basically the only hands we're going to be folding are these junkier off-suit high low hands like King five Queen five Queen four those are gonna be our limp Folds um and this is a big part here and this is why we're going to be making a lot of there's a few only a few situations you're gonna be playing this strategy kind of like this because this assumption is based off of your opponent is isoing from the big blind of around 40 percent and most players are not doing that they're not isoing wide enough but again like I said this is our base strategy of what we kind of want to be doing um against you know a good opponent and now I'm actually going to skip a slide so let's look at this one so this is kind of a big blind response at a optimal kind of level of what you want to be doing against a small blind limp at 100 big blinds so you limp you just call the small line and the big blind raises to four big blinds so in theory here when you're in the big blind you kind of want to be raising versus a limp about 40 percent and as you can see when we go through these these are all tournament situations when we look at this range I want the main reason I have this range up and this slide is I want people to realize how like tight most people are ISO raising from the big blind and how they really just check back way too often against a small blind limp so um if we look up the uh the raising rage here in the red this is kind of like a pretty standard range which I think would be like 27 and especially once we take out these crap your Suitor hands and stuff you know sevens plus just kind of this value range is really only going to be about

the smoother the betting strategy, the more money goes into the pot . The verticle axis represents how much money villain puts into the pot. The horizontal axis represents the standard deviation (spread) between our flop/turn/river bet sizes. Villain’s calling range widens proportionally with the smoothness of our bets. The further our betting pattern deviates from geometric the less they are required to call us down to deny us a profitable bluff. This is why you stack off tighter when playing deeper. Nut advantages are more valuable as stack-off ranges tighten. Next, we’ve graphed different betting strategies against how much money villain puts into the pot. Note that villain contributes the most money to the pot when our flop/turn/river bet sizes are the same (as a percentage of the pot). Explore this data We’ve linked the spreadsheet here so you can play around with the data. You can try different stack and pot sizes. When to bet geometrically Game theory optimal strategies typically use geometric bet sizes when they want to maximize value with a big nut advantage. This works best when your range is polarized and your opponent’s range is capped. The geometric betting strategy is derived from MDF, which only really holds true in a polarized vs bluff-catcher toy game. However, you should still bet geometrically when you have a big nut advantage. One of the most common examples are turn probe bets. Example 1 : BB Probe vs IP SRP Here we see a BB vs BTN probe strategy on AK22r after the flop checks through. The pot is 5.5BB, the stack is 97.5BB, and there are two streets left. The geometric size here is 252% pot. As you can see, the GTO strategy here is to bet geometrically or not at all. BB has a nut advantage in trips, so they press that advantage as hard as possible to get stacks in by the river. Example 2 : IP C-Bet vs BB We see a similar strategy on the flop in position. Here BTN has a major top pair advantage and presses it using the geometric bet size over three streets: Non-Geometric Strategies Let’s examine our goals and assumptions. Goals Get all the money in by the river. Make your opponent call as many hands as possible. Assumptions Our opponent will defend according to MDF. Our nutted hands will remain the nuts by the river (this is a hidden assumption). These goals and assumptions are not necessarily true. The geometric betting strategy is designed for perfectly polarized situations, but that’s rarely the case in practice. A perfectly polarized range only consists of the invulnerable nuts and pure bluffs (relative to villain’s range). Equity is static (nothing can improve or get worse). But actual poker is full of draws and equity is not static. Most hands can improve or get worse by the river. More importantly, you rarely have enough nutted hands to implement this strategy. Most medium hands cannot play for stacks without overplaying their value . GTO strategies are non-geometric in the majority of spots . GTO

bets because people don't expect you to three bet those hands and then you got the ace 5h4 shooter those are kind of the standard three that polar hands flouting worth plotting more the off seat stuff now because we're getting too late position open and they have a wider range we can flap more hands all they off suit aces are now calls whereas before we were folding all these other than ace five off more off suit Kings all the off suit eights now but we're still folding a good chunk of the off suit part of the grid here now we're gonna look into spots that get a little more complicated a big blind defense facing multiple callers so the first situation again this is gonna be a hundred big blinds we're looking at early position open middle or early to middle position open and then a button flat call now this is a really big mistake people make is now they so they under defend facing a single raise but they over defend when they're facing a raise and calls so it's the opposite now because look how much tighter our defending range is now in this one we're folding 60% of hands and in this one facing the earlier we were folding 51% so we're getting a better price now because there's more money in the pot but we're folding more hands and why why is that it's because of equity realization yes we're getting a better price but three ways our equity realization of hands like say seventy five off suit that we talked before goes down even more because there's three people that means there's two people in the pot now that can have us dominated there's you know that flat collar is gonna have a lot of pocket pairs like pocket eights pocket nines now we have really poor equity with seventy-five offsuit these jack five off suits when you face a hand range or like let's look at Queen seven off like Queen seven officer you could be facing like it's very likely someone has ace Queen King Queen Queen Jack and then also you're seven might not be good because you're gonna see pocket eights pocket nines pocket tens by the second player a lot so where you end up just realizing very poor equity were folding more or the student stuff now ten five suited more of the suit of junk is gone all these off suit aces are gone all these officer Kings are gone off suit long gobblers are gone so we're folding more and the other thing is our three bit range has changed now because there's a extra money in the pot so now that there's a flat call in the pot of an extra two big blinds we have more incentive to 3bet and take the pot down now also that flat collar has a weaker range because they didn't choose to 3bet and so we're much more likely it's kind of dead money in the

Pair Any two cards of the same rank.

Option When there have been no raises, and only limps before the action reaches the big blind preflop, it becomes the big blind’s "option" to decide whether they wish to raise or check.

Pure strategy A strategy in which the same action is always taken at the same decision point without mixing. For example, AA is a pure raise in the BB facing a BTN open in a 100bb cash game.

larger, it becomes less and less important to disguise your hand because good players are not likely to fold any more than bad players are. Nor will good players try to bluff as much when you show weakness, because they too recognize that the pot is so big there is almost no chance you will fold. So when the pot has become large, you usually no longer have to think about using deception. Deception and Bet Size There is a related concept. If early bets are much smaller than later bets, you usually shouldn't throw in a small raise with a big hand. You may put people on guard so that even if they don't fold immediately, they will when the bets increase in later rounds. You're likely to get more action on your big hands by slowplaying them. Conversely, with a large increase in bets from one round to another, you may decide to put in extra action with a weaker hand on an early, cheap betting round to create the wrong impression later when the bets are expensive. Thus, you should consider not only the amount in the pot now but also how much the bets are The Value of Deception 67 now compared to what they may be later. You might check a big hand early to win big bets later, and on the other hand, you might bet with a weaker hand early in hopes that your opponents will check later to give you a free card. Obviously, you can better afford to disguise your hand in early rounds in pot-limit and no-limit games than in limit games, since both the size of the pot and the size of the bets may increase enormously from one round of betting to the next. With a big hand and a lot of money in front of you, you can check and give your opponents many more free cards. You are not so concerned about protecting the money in the pot as you are about getting paid off when you bet a much larger amount later. Furthermore, it costs too much to protect small pots, especially when you have only a fair hand. To win them, you need to make a considerably bigger bet than you would in limit games, and so in no-limit you would tend to give more free cards even when you are not altogether happy about it. (See Chapter Ten, "The Free Card.") Deception and the Number of Opponents in the Pot With weak players, with a large pot, and with large early bets, you need not be so concerned about disguising your hand. A corollary is that the more players in the pot, the less you gain by disguising your hand. You cost yourself too much when you do. You won't be able to make everybody fold when you bet with a weak hand, and you cost yourself too many bets when you miss a raise with a strong hand. What's more, when you let many opponents in cheaply, you increase the chances of being outdrawn.

Action card A community card that is likely to induce betting/raising actions due to how it impacts the board and/or players’ hands.

of hands that you want to be making these adjustments with so 150 big blinds your 3-betting range kind of like your opening range is very suited connector heavy and very weel ace suited heavy so at 150 big blinds here at the top this is what a three-bet range might look like a polarized 3-betting range of jacks or better Ace King and ace Queen suited those are our value hands the more important thing to look at here here's our Bluffs we're bluffing with hands like six five suited seven six two eight seven suited these student 1 gaffers like nine seven eight six and seven five suited ten nine suited and ace five and H four suited this would be a very polar decent three betting strategy at 150 big blinds as you can see we're value three betting about forty four combos and bluffing with thirty six combos here so we're fairly balanced in terms of the number of combos each and we have good board coverage so the problem with a lot of weaker players deep stacked at 150 big blinds is they three bet and call and they don't Bluff enough and so let's say I'm playing against a player who I perceived to be weak and I open in middle position and then a player three bets the button and this player is pretty tight and I don't think has a 3-bit bluffing range I call I'm gonna put them on this top read range like jacks Queens Kings aces Ace King maybe ace Queen suited now the flop comes five six seven I am just going to pound on him when the flop comes five six seven if I don't think he's ever bluffing because his range is jacks Queens Kings aces ace king he doesn't hit that board at all and I'm gonna have all these middling pocket pairs and Mitylene suited connectors that he doesn't have and it's gonna be really hard for him to plagues I have so many two pair of straight sets and so this is kind of why you want to have a bluffing range to protect yourself in those spots and if you three about a range like this on the button let's say against a middle position open now when the flop comes five six seven hey we can have two pair seven six we have all these pair and straight draws even if you three about nine eight students you're gonna have a straight ace 5 and H four suta these are great for covering like the deuce three four four five all these flush boards the key thing I want to point out here also is I'm not saying three about these exact hands you don't have to three bet nine seven suited you don't have to three bet ten nine students like you can three bet it's more the type of hands you can three about nine eight suited you can 3 about five four six four seven four eight five suited nine

What is Hero’s EV using the new QQ betting frequency of 45% in the real game where x=0? The AA EV is still $155, so all we need to do is recalculate QQ [EV]: Then:

to get all-in against another player. In the next example all the details are the same, the average stack is 40BBs, but this time it is a PokerStars 90-Man SNG. 22 players remain, which again is 25% of the field. Here are the Bubble Factors: All the details are the same except the field has doubled in size, and the Bubble Factor has reduced to 1.38. The players now need 58% equity to call an all-in. Let’s look at an identical spot, but this time it is a PokerStars 180-Man SNG, with 45 players remaining, which is 25% of the field again: Now the average Bubble Factor has come down to 1.22, meaning our players need just 55% equity to call an all-in against each other. Just for fun, I then ran this for a 1,666-runner field with 416 players remaining, which, again, is 25% of the field: As you can see, the Bubble Factors are the same as in the last example and the Risk Premium is only slightly greater, which shows that there is a floor for how low the Bubble Factor will go in spots like this. What this means in practical terms is that you should play looser the larger the field is. The more runners there are in a tournament, the further away the big payouts at the final table are, so you should take more risks to get there. This should make intuitive sense because the overall prize pool is much greater as well as the field size. In small fields, prioritizing making the money positions is more important. The mincash is a bigger proportion of the overall prize pool, so it is more valuable. In the 45-Man example, the mincash was 3.5% of the prize pool, in the 90-Man example the mincash was 2.26% of the overall prize pool, in the 180-man the mincash was 0.65% of the prize pool, and in the 1,666-runner field the mincash was a mere 0.2% of the prize pool. Plus when you do make the money in a small field MTT with a short stack, you are much nearer to the big final table payouts. You don’t require anywhere near the same number of double-ups to win the whole thing as you would if you did the same thing in a large field MTT. Conclusion The differences between small fields and large fields in MTTs are substantial, in fact, field size may be the most important factor in game selection. Small fields are lower variance, a much better way to gain experience at every stage of a tournament, and significantly easier from a mental game perspective. You will go broke less often if you specialize in small fields and will generally have a much smoother playing experience. The differences between small fields and large fields in MTTs are substantial, in fact, field size may be the most important factor in game selection. Small fields are lower variance, a much better way to gain experience at every stage of a tournament, and significantly easier from a mental game perspective. You

,, ,, ,, A 2 2 Two Deuces with the Ace The Betting 1st player is High with the Jack. He bets his Three Jacks. 2nd calls on Two Nines. 3rd folds with a bust. 4th calls on King High. This is a very poor call. Never call without holding a pair, a 3-Card Straight or flush. 5th hand raises with Two Queens. Very poor strategy. 6th folds with a bust. 7th calls with Two Deuces and the Ace. I would have folded after the raise. 1st hand does not wish to disclose his Three Jacks until the betting gets higher. He just calls. 2nd makes a bad call with Two Nines. A sucker play. 4th folds. The Deal Two Down Two Up 1st player is dealt an A, making Still Three jacks J J J A 2nd player is dealt a 4, making Still Two Nines 9 9 8 4 5th player is dealt a A, making Still Two Queens Q Q 7 A 7th player is dealt an A, making Aces Up A 2 2 A The Betting 1st player is still High with the Ace-Jack. He bets his Three Jacks. 2nd calls on Two Nines. An expensive call. 5th calls on Two Queens. 7th raises on Aces Up. 1st player still does not wish to tip his hand. He just calls on Three Jacks. 2nd player is in a trap. But he calls. 5th is also trapped but calls. The Deal Two Down Two Up 1st player is dealt a 6, making Still Three jacks J J J A 6 2nd player is dealt a 3, making Still Two Nines 9 9 8 4 3 5th player is dealt a K, making Two Queens Q Q 7 A K 7th player is dealt a 9, making Aces Up A 2 2 A 9 The Betting 5th hand is High with Ace-King. He checks. 7th hand bets with Aces Up. 1st player has laid back long enough. He raises on Three Jacks. 2nd player has had enough and folds. 5th hand throws up the sponge. 7th player stays on Aces Up. The Deal Two Down Four Up 1st player is dealt a 6, making Jack Full. He Improved J J J A 6 6 7th player is dealt a 2, making Deuce Full. He Improved. A 2 2 A 9 2 The Betting 1st player bets with a Jack Full. 7th raises on a Deuce Full. 1st raises. 7th calls. The Deal Two Down Four Up One Down 1st player is dealt a 10, making Jack Full. J J J A 6 6 10 7th player is dealt a 10, making Deuce Full. A 2 2 A 9 2 10 The Betting 1st player is still High with the Two Sixes. He bets on the Jack Full. 7th player calls. Winning Hand Jack Full, held by 1st player. 3 Seven-Card Stud (Hi-Lo) I I had earlier given Ling a treatise on seven-card stud, Hi-Lo, which he had studied. It read: LOW In Seven-Card Stud, Hi-Lo, A 2 3 4 5,

During the last few years Michael has worked alongside some of the brightest minds in modern poker, including WSOP bracelet winner Martin ‘Nizmojiz’ Kozlov, WCOOP bracelet winner and PLO coach Fernando ‘jnandez87’ Habegger and the living legend, three-time triple crown winner and author, Jon ‘Apestyles’ Van Fleet. Michael makes educational poker videos and content for training websites and staking groups including pocarr.com and coaches hundreds of players from around the world. He has become one of the most recommended tournament coaches in the pocketfives.com coaching directory. Twitter: GTOPoker Instagram: GTOPoker Facebook: GTOPoker First published in 2019 by D&B Publishing Copyright © 2019 Michael Acevedo The right of Michael Acevedo to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978 1 909457 89 8 Cover and book design by Horacio Monteverde. Printed and bound by Versa Press in the US. All sales enquiries should be directed to D&B Poker: [email protected]

Check When a player whose turn it is to act chooses to forgo the option to bet. This can only be done postflop, and only when no players have previously bet on the same street.

and their opponent folds right so we end up winning more money in this scenario by playing this hand in this manner and that's often what will end up happening in that case all right now let's discuss when it goes check bet call on the flop so in this scenario whether or not the check caller is in or out of position well to be fair so say say the uh we raised from the hijack seat and the big blind calls if they check we continuation at the flop and they call the check caller usually does not have their best hands same logic goes if we raise from the hijack seat and the button calls if we check the flop they bet and we call we also probably lack our best hands because we would have bet them ourselves right so the check caller is usually going to lack their made hands and an uncoordinated flop the flop better should have you know mostly premium made hands and draws due to being against mostly marginal made hands when the checker is the pre-flop razor some important point here so this point applies to in or out of position this point here applies to only when the pre-flop razor checks the flop because when the pre-flop razor checks the flop on an uncoordinated board remember they should have mostly marginal made hands which means if the person in position is betting they probably have a good made hand or a draw and in that situation the flop better will often keep betting the turn because they have either a really good main hand that wants to put money in or a draw that doesn't mind if the opponent falls so let's take a look at that spot here he raised jack 10 of spades the player on the button calls flop comes queen jack 3. this is a situation where if you think about the ranges and how they line up or if you want to use equal lab like we discussed earlier you'll see that if the player on the button is reasonable they're going to have a lot of big cards middle pairs suited connected type hands and that actually connects pretty well with queen jack 3. so we in the hijack seat as the pre-flop razor need to do a lot of checking and we're going to check calling our medium strength hands perhaps check raising with our best hands but when we do check call we probably have a medium strength hand which we do right the turn is an ace we're just going to check again and now the opponent keeps betting and this is a pretty tough spot because if you think about the player on the buttons range he could easily have king 10 right especially king 10 suited he could also easily have ace queen ace jack ace three suited he'd have all of those um he could have a hand like ten nine that's a hand that would keep bluffing so

SIZING YOUR PREFLOP RAISES 79 Say the straightforward player will play as follows: He will fold the flop if he misses, call the flop if he flops a good pair or draw, and raise the flop if he flops two pair or better. Now it’s fine to make a big raise with your ace-king, even though you are out of position. Since you will know roughly where you stand after seeing the flop and your opponent’s reaction to your bet, you won’t hang yourself in a big pot. A big preflop raise nets you extra value from the small pots, while you’re still safe from playing a big pot. Make Bigger Raises Against Players Who Fold Too Much Postflop Some players, particularly many who play medium-sized games, are too timid. They fold too much. Or, more specifically, they call preflop raises lib- erally with marginal hands, but then fold to the big bets on later streets far too often. They know that big pots and big bets usually mean big hands, and, when they look down, they never seem to see a hand that’s big enough. These are some of the easiest no limit opponents to beat. Raise preflop when you have position. Your hand isn’t so important because they’ll so often be folding. Then, you essentially make big bets until they fold. Obviously, you shouldn’t just bluffoffyour stack to them every time they make a hand; you need to do some hand reading. Bluffwhen they are likely to be weak, and check it down when they seem stronger. But with position, aggression, and their folding tendencies on your side, you’ll end up with most of the pots. Since you’ll end up with most of the pots, they might as well be big pots. When such a player has entered the hand, make a bigger raise than normal. The bigger the pot, the more expensive a mistake your opponent’s bad fold will be. Just make sure you don’t raise so much that you don’t have enough left to bluffwith on later streets. And don’t do it so often that your opponent catches on and starts trying to trap you. You don’t need to raise every time you get the button; just raise more often than you normally would. You can read more about strategies against timid players in the section “Adjusting to Weak Tight Games” starting on page 127. Make Smaller Raises Against Players Who Call Too Much Postflop The opposite of the above tip also works out. If your opponent calls too much, his mistaken calls are worse the smaller the pot is. Keep the pot small preflop and let your opponent hang himself on your good hands and big bets postflop. Here’s another way to think about it. Why raise $60 with fours to get your opponent to go broke with ace-king when you can raise $30 and achieve the same goal? Less risk, same payoff.

is too weak to play. With Two Pair, I do not play unless I have Jacks Up. 3rd stays on Two Sixes. This is another sucker play. He knows he is beat before the draw. I suppose he hopes to make Three Sixes. What he doesn't know is that it is 7 to 1 he doesn't. 4th player raises on Jacks Up. This is according to my book. 5th, 6th and 7th players fold because they have busts. 1st player folds for the same reason. 2nd player stays on Nines Up. He is trapped and should not have opened in the first place. 3rd stays on Two Sixes. He reasons, incorrectly, that he still has some vague claim to the money he has already foolishly put in the pot and sends good money after bad. After the Draw 2nd player draws One to Nines up. Makes 9 9 3 3 5 Nines Up. No change. 3rd player draws Three to Two Sixes. Makes 6 6 8 7 3 No change. 4th player draws One to Jacks Up. Makes J J 6 6 9 No change. The Betting 2nd player checks Nines Up. 3rd checks Two Sixes. 4th bets the Jacks Up. He is encouraged to bet because 2nd and 3rd players checked. 2nd player calls with Nines Up. This is a very poor call. He knows 4th player raised and took only one card. Actually, he should never have been in the pot. 3rd player folds Two Sixes. Winning Hand Jacks Up, held by 4th player. 3RD DEAL After the Deal 1st Player is dealt a bust. 2nd ,, ,, ,, J J A 10 5 Two Jacks. 3rd ,, ,, ,, a bust. 4th ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, 5th ,, ,, ,, 5 5 4 4 A Fives Up. 6th ,, ,, ,, 2 2 A 7 5 Two Deuces. *7th ,, ,, ,, 3 3 3 K 10 Three Treys. *The Dealer The Betting 1st player checks a bust. 2nd opens on Two Jacks. He is just once removed from Poe's simpleton. If many stay he is likely beat before the Draw. 3rd and 4th fold on busts. 5th player stays on Fives Up. I would not stay on such a hand with counterfeit money. You're likely beat if you don't make a Full House and it is about 11 to 1 you don't. 6th player stays on Two Deuces. You tell me what he hopes to make. 7th raises on Three Treys. 1st folds on a bust. 2nd stays on Two Jacks, throwing good money after bad. 5th stays on Fives Up. He knows he is beat and has a vague idea he shouldn't stay. 6th player with Two Deuces has his neck bowed and stays. After the Draw 2nd player draws Three to Two Jacks. Makes J J A 6 4 No change. 5th player draws One to Fives Up. Makes 5 5 4 4 7 No change. 6th player draws Three to Two Deuces. Makes 2 2 2 8 4 Three Deuces. 7th player draws Two

don't have the nuts in their range a good example of that is when the Flop comes Ace King 3 rainbow if Ace King 3 rainbow if they just called your rays out of the big blind then it is unlikely they have Aces Kings and Ace King however you have all those hands in your range if you were the pre-flop razor make them miserable with their mediocre pairs shell them with huge bets when you have this situation this is another reason we might want to check raise a little bit more have you ever seen an opponent who likes to check back their mediocre pairs they'll even do that sometimes with their top pairs they are hoping for you to Bluff On the Turning River they don't want to bet their hands themselves because they're afraid of being raised so going back to that earlier hand where we check raise from the big blind if our opponent actually was going to check a number of mediocre pairs in that situation that makes their continuation betting range even more likely to be premiums are just crap and there's a lot more crap than there are premiums don't believe paw controller is one they bet this kind of player leaves an exploitative opening let's say you're in the big line and this player raises from the cutoff you call from the big blind your no you know your opponent likely has opened 25 percent of hands from the cutoff the board comes King of Spades seven of diamonds three of diamonds you check your opponent that's small your opponent is screwed here their wide late position opening range has missed this flop the majority of the time what's even worse for them is that they would check many of their weaker Kings in some sevens this makes their continuation betting range a bunch of garbage and some sets check raise this opponent sometime you'll be amazed by how often they fold re-race people who open too much this is one of the most basic Bluffs but this guide wouldn't be complete without it there are players in poker tournaments who constantly Open Hands they shouldn't it's as if their job is to get involved out of position you should exploit these players as much as possible when they're opening their garbage suited gappers you should constantly put them to the test re-raise in position and watch them squirm post flop once they call you post flop they have indicated to you that they likely don't have premium hands many players would forbet their Aces and kings in the hopes of winning a huge pot since you can eliminate a number of the bigger over pairs that means you can continuation Bluff the boards that aren't riddled with high cards if your opponent does decide to defend versus you and calls on the Flop then you can check back the tournament and take two more cards if you catch up then you'll have a huge pot in front of you your opponent

is planning to check-raise bluff if you bet, which will just lose you the pot to the worse hand. Or he hit the board hard (the most likely case), so a bet is ill-advised, since you’d step into a hell of a trap for no apparent reason except that you clearly weren’t listening to what your opponent was telling you when he checked away the lead on this dry board. Don’t fall for it! If he checks the turn again, fall for it then. Who can resist a second check? If he bets the turn, flat-call and feel out the river. But try to keep this pot as small as possible all around. It’s so beautiful, it’s scary. By checking the flop, you prevent J7 from check-raising you, but you do let him donk off 500 on the turn. After that, he’s done and you win, even if you don’t extract any further value. Meanwhile, AJ doesn’t get to check-raise you off your hand with a holding he either does or doesn’t think is ahead. And AK doesn’t get to extract big value from you. You completely control the action, maximizing your gain, while minimizing your loss, keeping decision-making difficulty down, giving cover to your other holdings and, by the way, thinking about your poker at a whole new and much deeper level. Trust me, if you get this one thing right—controlling the action with your medium-strength hands—you’ll make so much more money in this situation you’ll want to give me a medal. It might occur to you that checking on the flop gives your opponent a free chance to beat you if he has a hand like AJ or TT. While that’s true, you have to remember that on these untextured boards, it’s really not that big a risk. If he’s not already ahead of you, he has only a few outs to catch up. If you’re something like a 9-to-1 favorite with one to come (and you often will be here), you can afford to fade those odds. That’s not where the riskcomes from in this situation. The real must-avoid risk is opening the action up to a bluff. When you do that, your opponent doesn’t have to hit hishand. All he has to do is raise you. And don’t forget, you might be betting into a better hand. After all, your opponent suspiciously checked away the lead. Thus, in the … hierarchy of bad things that could happen … paying off a better hand or getting blown off the pot are both orders of magnitudeworse than fading two or three outs to someone’s trips or kicker. Top Pair, Heads-Up, Out of Position, With the Lead, Untextured Board Now let’s investigate this metric when you’re out of position. You still don’t know if you’re way ahead or behind, and that’s bad, but now it’s worse: You also don’t get to act last. You got into this situation by, say, raising pre-flop with your AQ and getting one caller behind. You go to the A-9-3 flop with the lead, but without

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just transparent and should be taken at face value to indicate that Villain's range is quite weak. This means fold equity should be plentiful as Villain is more likely to play parts of his range like [88-KK] and KQ this way than he is [AJ-AK]. Since Hero has no SDV and plenty of equity when Villain does call, he is advised to go after the fold equity right away and raise against this weak sizing. Moreover, raising here and getting 3-bet is not the end of the world. A Passive Fish will typically 3-bet a very strong range on this flop. This and the reasonable amount of money still left behind in stacks will grant Hero enough implied odds to continue comfortably. In sum, getting 3-bet will happen very rarely and won't be much of a problem when it does. Wait a minute, I thought good pot odds were a factor that made us more inclined to call non-made- hands, not raise? They do, in general, but here Villain's small sizing offers fold equity and that is a trump factor. If we thought fold equity was minimal, these pot odds would make us very happy to call instead. Hero raises to 9BB Branch (B) Now the passive player has near potted it. This should also be taken at face value from such a fit-or- fold player without some reason to suppose that Villain is the type to value bet small and bluff large. Such a player is normally much more aggressive in general than this guy appears to be so it's very likely that he isn't one. So now that Villain's range is strong, fold equity disappears into close to nothing. Moreover, to get 3-bet after raising this big c-bet is horrible. The pot would then be so large that it would make up a significant portion of the remaining effective stack. Implied odds would be sliced to pieces in this scenario as Hero's investment to mine his draw would be much larger. On the other hand, Hero's implied odds for just calling the c-bet are massive. His investment is small relative to the effective stack and he is against a strong Fish range likely to pay off bets and raises should Hero get there. Hero calls 6BB. Summary In this section, we've covered a massive amount of material and have had to steepen the learning curve significantly. It's a good thing too because the next chapter on 3-betting is not for the mathematically or logically faint hearted. This manual is progressive and if you move on before having a good grasp of the preceding material, you will most definitely get lost. Let's look at a neat little flowchart to summarise how to assess our hand on the flop in an open action spot.

hey everybody this is Alexander Fitzgerald or assasin Otto doing another one of my lectures today's lecture is called barreling theory handling multiple streets let's get right into this in today's webinar you will learn how to handle turns and rivers you will learn why barreling can sometimes be a terrible idea you will learn what turns and rivers are great to bear along you will feel much more confident in your turn and River game obviously in only a short period of time I can't explain turn and River play in totality because that's akin to teaching someone how to play poker within 20 minutes that said if I show you some spots that come up hundreds of times a year I'm confident I can prepare you to play better poker and increase your win rate we're going to focus on in position pause today let's just get the fundamentals done I find most people struggle with even that now the best way to teach you these fundamentals is to just put you in those typical spots and see how you handle them then tell you what helps professionals in those same situations so in this hand you're playing about 50 big lines effective with the other players you raise with Ace of Spades six of clubs on the bottom the big blind calls the flop comes seven of diamonds four of Hearts nine of clubs the big blind checks to you you bet half pot the big blind calls the turn is the King of Hearts what would you like to do in this situation let's see what people answer in the chat so the chat is gonna be off screen because I don't want to obscure that I have a lot of people saying D a lot of people saying C or D a few people saying e yeah Ellen it says he and a few people saying a so let's go ahead and take a look at the answers all over the board now this one I am putting green text next to what I believe is most right when you play low to mid stakes tournaments so I think the majority of people watching this video play low to mid statements and what I mean by that is tournaments up to $1,000 in a live by an maybe up to a hundred dollars online I think generally betting house bottom betting two-thirds pot technically can be made to work but most of the time what you should be doing is trying to check and we'll discuss ye could possibly be correct as well so the problem on this turn card many people will say but isn't the king in my range many people protest here that's wonderful but most low to mid stakes opponents won't care the vast majority of research says that people hate consenting to losses analytics on any poker game in the world will show folding on the flop and then a lack of folding on turn in river so if you ever do

so this is from day one of the main events uh if you've never played this tournament it's a 50 000 chip starting stack and it has two hour levels it's really really special because you just you get to take your time and grind people down you don't really have to force it you know you might hear someone say don't Bluff it off on day one of the main event you'll really regret it something like that uh folds just on the button and we have the king said no super standard open uh just to discuss opening ranges if you are confident in your play and you have two weak players two unknown players in the blinds and you're on the button you should be opening 100 of hands because they're just not going to three bet you enough uh they're not going to defend their big one enough and then when they do defend they're not going to check crazy enough they're not going to Bluff you enough so in pretty much every aspect you're gonna get played back at as little as possible for the most part I would say that most of the time you know you might have an unknown player that's very aggressive but for the most part if you're playing especially in America people are passive I'm gonna go for a two and a half egg size which I think is the most appropriate I see regs going for a 2X when they're 100 big blinds effective I think that's a mistake you want more money in the pot when you're in a position so a big blind fence and we get this low paired board with a hard card and I go for a small bet that should be the only size that's used because we're just targeting Auto folds and he has so many hands that are air that just missed you know Queen I know and 10 eight of hearts and King three hearts so on and so forth and we get check raised to a really small size and we have two options here we can either continue by calling or we can through that on the flop to talk about his check raises he should be taking his best Jack X so his Ace Jack his King Jack Queen Jack can check race uh once he gets down to like say Jack eight it's getting kind of dicey so he's going to want to mostly check call and then of course trips he's going to want to check raise pretty much all his Forex with the exception of maybe you have like Ace of clubs four that's just you know blocking a lot of my continues and uh it's just such a strong hand uh and then some some Bluffs he's going to use the low Club draws so I had like deuce three of clubs uh five three clubs all these low combinations of flush shrubs are really good because they don't have showed on value he

so therefore we just check because we don't have any advantages you don't get a c bet it's not this like god-given right because you raise pre flop that you just get a bet the Flop like sure you can do it but it's a pretty [ __ ] strategy because you're just betting into a range that's stronger than yours so what happens then oh you check and now the button bets small why do they not bet big well because we can have king queen on the button as well you know we in the cut off we can have king queen we can have Ace Jack so we mostly just bet small why because we win the small game here we don't have any air they have more of the king8 off and stuff like that we can just attack uh A7 Deuce so what happens now um A7 Deuce same situation see if I have A7 Deuce good old classic two t so what happens on this flop who wins the small game on A7 Deuce cut off or the button here's the cut offs range right here before I click it you can see now here's the the the cutoffs range A7 Duce what's the small game here yeah we lose the small game in the cutoff why because we have Queen nine off Jack nine off 10 nine off Jack 10 off King 10 off look at all this big chunk of off suit hands it doesn't have anything to do with the aces okay has to do with this offit hands look at all all our offsuit hands that completely whiff on ace7 Deuce okay we have too much Broadway error who wins the big game on A7 Deuce who wins the big game does the cut off have more ax so a lot of people just think that the cut off has more Aces do they so let's look at it for two ways one yes the cut off can have ace5 A6 A7 A8 however the buttons range is twice as tight I don't know the correct way to say that but I think you guys understand what I'm saying it's has half as many combos I'll say that that sounds more elegant the buttons range has half as many combos so it doesn't matter that they don't have A7 off suit in the range because they have Ace Jack twice as often as you do so on A7 deuce the cut off's still going to check a lot and if they do bet they're only going to bet small okay so they check 80% of the time why well do you really want to go bet bet bet with Ace Queen cuz it's kind of hard to start blasting ax because look at this hand in the cut offs R the buttons range Ace Queen off oh Ace jack off they just they have all the strong Aces other than Ace King your only advantage on this flop your only advantage in

play to account for a stronger Villain range on the later streets. ♦ Proactive MinES: This type of exploitation adjusts your strategy even before your opponent makes the mistake because you assume beforehand that they will commit the mistake. For example, if you knew Villain overfolds to flop c-bets, you can increase your c-bet frequency to exploit the leak. I recommend using both reactive and proactive MinES. For example, vs a player who overfolds the flop vs c-bets, you should increase your c-bet frequency and then, if called, adjust your turn and river play to account for your own range being wider than normal and Villain’s range being tighter than normal. We will see more practical examples when studying post-flop play. GTO in Multi-way Situations The definition of Nash Equilibrium states that: “No player can unilaterally change his strategy to improve his own expectation.” In any heads-up situation, Nash Equilibrium is very powerful because it means that a player playing GTO cannot be beaten. It is mathematically impossible even if your opponent knew your exact strategy. You are guaranteed a certain EV no matter what your opponent does. If you are playing GTO and your opponent deviates to a weaker strategy, their EV can only go down and, since poker is a zero sum game, that EV will be gained by you. Fortunately, Nash Equilibrium principles are not limited to heads-up poker. They can also be applied to any poker situation once there are only two players remaining in the pot. Let’s look at some examples of common poker situations that can be considered heads-up subgames: ♦ 6-max cash game: CO raises, the BN 3-bets, the blinds fold and the action gets back to the CO. The only players remaining are BN and CO. ♦ MTT 9-max: UTG raises and the action folds to the BB. The only players remaining are UTG and BB. ♦ MTT 6-max: HJ raises, BN calls, SB 3-bets, HJ Folds and the action gets back to the BN.

will be better than his terrible hand often enough for calling to make sense. If, for example, he bets the wholepot, your hero call has to win 50% of the time to break even. The good news is that if your opponent has been putting tons of pressure on you withhis river bets, a successful hero call will ease it somewhat; now your opponent (and everyone at the table) knows you can make sick calls. But if you read yourself for anything other than beating him or being buried, you can raise. Not only will bluffs fold, but so will a crummy pair or even top pair or a bad two pair. And if they do fold, you don’t have to show your hand, keeping information out of their hands. Yay, you! One good way to figure out if your opponent might be sitting in that middle range of hands that can bet, but probably can’t stand to be raised, is tolook for blocking or defensive bets. Take note of such bets and see if they correlate with hands in the middle vulnerable range. Blocking bets are meant to save the bettor chips in situations where he knows that if he checks, he’ll almost always call. Since he knows chips are going in, he leadsout small instead of check-calling. If you see that an opponent has a pattern of making these small defensive bets on the river, you can read him for vulnerable when you see him make such a bet against you. Now you can’t call; you know he’s not likely to be bluffing. But you can raise, triggering a fold from an opponent not looking to commit a bunch of chips to the hand. All told, you want to consider the situation. Look at the board, measure your opponent, and see if his story, plus his river bet, add up to something like a three-street bluff or a draw that didn’t arrive. Then look at your hand and ask yourself, “Is this a hand that beats most bluffs?” If it is, you can call (not raise, because you can’t stand a re-raise). If your hand won’t beat most bluffs, but a lot of hands will fold to your raise, you can play back. Occasionally, under the right circumstances, you can make that hero call. And if you think you’re up against some garden-variety schmo with a hand he thinks is better and would never fold to a raise, just fold and move on. As you can see, it’s never just a matter of asking, “Is my hand the best?” You have to measure it against your opponent’s, while assessing his friskiness. Analyze everything, then make your move. To recap: You pick off a bluff with a hand that doesn’t beat most good hands, but beats most bluffs. You make a hero call when you believe your opponent either has you crushed or is bluffing with a hand you can beat at showdown, but holds absolutely nothing in between. You bluff-raise when your hand doesn’t beat most good hands or most

effectively against these players—calling with mediumstrength hands to slow them down or make them overbet—is key to your overall success. This business of training your opponent to overbet shouldn’t be passed over lightly. When you let your aggressive opponent know you’ll call reasonably sized bets, he’ll be forced either to bet only when he has a hand (a pattern you can easily identify and exploit) or overbet. The overbet will cost him money in the long run, which has to be good for you. If you force a player to lay a higher price on the pot, he has to win that much moreoften to show profit. If he bets 2,000 into a 1,000-chip pot, he must win twice for every one time he loses just to break even. So his breakeven point is 66%. That’s a helluva lot of mathematical pressure to put on a river bet and it’s likely he won’t reach that percentage (you got all the way to the river with something, right?). Aggressive players make their money by exploiting opponents who fold too often to even smallish bets. They bet amounts that let the pot lay thema price, knowing they’ll win enough of them to make it worthwhile. Plus, the frequency of their bets makes it tough for players to put them on hands. By letting such opponents know that you’ll call when you match their range, you force either a strategy change (they’re more selective with their river bets) or a bet-size change (they start betting much larger amounts). Either way, you force them to a less profitable line of play. Moving on. This time we’ll give you a medium-strength hand and rate your aggressive opponent as weak to medium-strength. He leads into youand while you might think this is a good time to raise, being at least as strong and probably stronger, you can’t raise; as before, you can’t stand a re-raise. You have relative strength, not absolute strength. When you were strong, you didn’t mind reopening the action, but here it’s a problem. If you get re-raised, you might have to fold the better hand and it’s super-important to avoid that wherever possible. Pot mistakes are so much worsethan bet mistakes. If you occasionally miss a bet for the sake of protecting the whole pot, well, that’s the better mistake to make, costing you less inthe long run. If you think you’re missing value, think again. Remember, this is an aggressive opponent. Given the middling strength of your hand, he can’t hold a large range that can call your raise. There’s no value to a bet that can’t get called by a worse hand. You either win nothing or lose the pot. If he’s weak or purely bluffing, you’re not getting anything more out of him, except possibly a re-raise that puts you to a hard choice. Really, what you’re doing is negative-free-rolling, in the sense that your raise can’t bring about many good outcomes, but can eventuate some very bad ones. So when you’re in this situation, where you know that if he

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This is a spot where we simply cannot expect a c-bet to be +EV . What Hero needs against this player is a hand that can win frequently at showdown such as a decent pair or a better draws than this bad gutshot. SB's Raise F CBet stat is through the roof. Not only will SB be refusing to fold any piece of this flop and be raising his one pair hands a lot, he may well also be raising bluffs, and so even when Villain misses the flop, Hero is not guaranteed much fold equity. If Hero's equity was better, it would be worth c-betting and building a pot here. As it is though, this is a spot where Hero must be patient, check back this flop to see a free turn card, and hopefully turn a J. Hero must not justify the Aggro Fish's strategy by spewing money at him with bad equity and then being forced to fold when Villain refuses to. Hero checks. Where Ranges Are Strong

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 I didn’t provide enough information to answer that question. Let’s say we’re 100bb deep in a single-raised MTT pot , and it’s early in the tournament, so we’re looking at ChipEV ranges. The CO has just continuation bet 33% pot with K ♠ T ♣ on the K ♥ 8 ♦ 5 ♦ flop, and the BTN holds 7 ♥ 6 ♥ . Who has the higher EV? Perhaps you deduced that I wouldn’t be asking this question unless the answer was 7 ♥ 6 ♥ . Despite being “just” a draw, it has an EV of 5.81bb, while K ♠ T ♣ has an EV of 5.36bb. This is not merely a function of position. K ♠ T ♣ has an almost identical EV (5.37bb) in BTN’s hands. In other words, even in the same position, facing the same bet, the draw performs better than the “made hand.” This is a function of stack depth because K ♠ T ♣ is, of course, the higher-equity hand, with about 63% equity in a mano-a-mano matchup. The equity-vs-range difference is even more dramatic. CO’s K ♠ T ♣ has about 75% equity vs BTN’s range, while 7 ♥ 6 ♥ has only about 40% equity vs CO’s betting range. If there were no more money to wager, you’d rather have the top pair . In our example, 7 ♥ 6 ♥ benefits from “visibility.” The player with 76 will more frequently know whether they have the best hand, enabling them to over-realize their equity by value betting or bluffing. The player with KT hates facing these bets, because they will generally not have visibility. That means they will have tough decisions on future streets. On blank turns, they will have to choose whether to risk betting into stronger hands, against which they are way behind, in order to deny equity and get value from the many weaker hands in the opponent’s range. When draws complete, they will often face big bets and are forced to make no-win decisions about whether to bluff catch or surrender the pot. Underscoring this point, KT ’s EV improves by more than 10%, from 5.36bb to 5.99bb, if we give them the T ♦ instead of the T ♣ . The diamond provides more than just a flush draw; it’s also a blocker that makes value betting and bluff catching more profitable on three-diamond boards. Even the T ♥ improves their EV to 5.42bb. What’s Your Kicker? What really improves the EV of top pair is having a stronger kicker. This image shows the EVs for CO, but BTN’s range follows a similar pattern: What really improves the EV of top pair is having a stronger kicker. What we see here is that KT does not perform much better than K9 , but after that, the improvements are dramatic, with KJ doing about 0.5bb better than KT

I often see players making the mistake of betting large on monotone flops, thinking that they need to protect their good hands and make the BB fold. The problem with that is that if your bet- size is too large, you force the BB to fold the weak hands that would continue against a smaller bet and will be isolating yourself against the top of their range that will either have you beat or have a ton of equity. Diagram 53

they may have a Straight that is one rank higher than your Straight. Finally, a weak draw is when you have a small Pocket Pair and you miss on the flop. If there are no Straight possibilities (another way a small Pocket Pair can win) then you only have two outs. Even in limit Hold’em, this is not a long-term profitable play. These are some essential thoughts about sets/pairs on the board for every poker player to be aware of: If the board pairs and a caller becomes a bettor what does that mean? Anytime the board Pairs, there is the possibility of not only trips but also a Full House. If I have a small Pair in the pocket and I hit my set on the flop but the board also pairs I have a very powerful hand and will slow play the hand to allow the Straight and Flush Draws to catch up for a second best hand. I do not think enough beginner players appreciate what it means when the board pairs. Therefore, if someone who had previously checked and called suddenly starts to bet or play back at you beware. There will be a pair on the flop 12% of the time. Conversely, whenever you do are lucky enough to flop a set you need to take into consideration what the other two board cards do for other players. You need to look for the Straight draws or even a possible Full House. A flop of 4 5 5 is more likely to make someone a Full House than 8 3 3. If an Ace hits on the Turn or River, you could also be facing a Full House from someone playing Ace/little. It is unusual for someone to check 2-Pair on both the Turn and River as we have seen in previous examples this is a bad play. You give up too many free cards that can beat you. 2-Pair is a good hand but in a large field, it is vulnerable. The 2-Pair wants to eliminate any small Pocket Pairs that can improve to a set or a better 2-Pair. In addition, the 2-Pair wants to make it difficult for an opponent to call a Gut-Shot draw or even a Flush Draw. Bad Beats and How They Affect You Let us switch gears from all the technical math stuff and move to some psychology. If you have ever taken a bad beat then you know it is hard to see your game or the table the same way. The Poker Gods were unkind, ran all over your 75% favorite, and you have to see it as just another hand. Some things that come up in your mind are: 1. Taking it personally. You will get back at that person; you will get all your money back, and all of his. This is a terrible way to play poker. It will ultimately hurt your chances of making any money. You will stop looking at how your opponents are playing or the flow of the table. For example,

Three of a kind A made hand consisting of three cards of the same rank. Synonymous with "trips". Both 'trips' and a 'set' could technically be classified as three of a kind but are often differentiated. Trips make three of a kind with 2 community cards and 1 hole card, whereas a set makes three of a kind with 1 community card and 2 hole cards.

you produce less complex strategies, but keep in mind the solver will exploit the limitations of your game tree. The solver will generate a “ tree ” containing all possible lines within the given betting structure. Each decision point throughout that tree contains a “node”. For example, OOP facing a ⅓ pot-sized bet is a single “ node ”. The number of nodes in a tree defines how big the tree is. Each node needs to be optimized. An extremely simple tree like this one has 696,613 individual nodes that must be optimized. A more complex tree like the type GTO Wizard uses contains ~87,364,678 nodes. As you can see, complexity grows the tree exponentially. The complex tree above is using 4-5x as many sizes per node, yet it’s 125x bigger and harder to solve. And this is still a major simplification of the true game space . One of the most difficult problems with solvers is optimizing betting trees to produce solid strategies within the constraints of current technology. We can only make a tree so big before it becomes unsolvable due to its size. We can only make a tree so small before the solver starts exploiting the limitations of that tree. We’re working on algorithms that find simplified betting trees to make it easier to study poker! These solutions will find the best sizes for every spot. GTO Wizard has many different types of solutions, such as complex solutions with up to 19 sizes and Simple solutions with only a few sizes. Ultimately, we find that it’s better to start with a complex tree, then trim it to a smaller, more manageable tree by removing infrequent lines. Nodelocking GTO Wizard plans to add nodelocking and real-time solving in 2023! This powerful feature will be used to explore exploitative strategies and underlying cause > effect principles. Nodelocking is the process of fixing one player’s strategy at some node in the gametree. We force that player to play a specific way. Nodelocking is commonly used to develop exploitative strategies! For example, if you force it to rangebet the flop, the opposing player will maximally exploit that strategy. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that both players will adjust before and afterwards to accommodate that locked node. Turn and river strategies will change. If you force a solver to play badly, it will course-correct prior and later nodes to minimize the damage. The process of locking a single node and letting the solver work around that deficit is known as a “ minimally exploitative strategy ”. We are not modeling some leak throughout the entire tree, but rather, just a specific point in the tree. More complex nodelocks are possible. For example, some solvers let you lock the strategies for specific combinations at one node (while letting other combos adjust their strategy). It’s also possible to lock many nodes to recreate and exploit larger trends in your opponent’s strategy – but modern tools don’t accommodate multistreet nodelocks effectively. Step 2) Solve the game tree! So we’ve defined the game tree. Now

RAISING BEFORE THE FLOP 75 With $5,000 stacks, the “sweet spot” should be somewhere between $10–$20 blinds and $100–$200 blinds. But, other than switching to a different game, what good does knowing the “sweet spot” do for you? After all, you have no control over the structure of the game. 20 If the game is too big, there isn’t much you can do. But if it’s too small, you can start raising a wider range of hands preflop. For instance, say you are playing in a game where everyone has a $5,000 stack. Three players limp to you on the button, and you have A♣5♣. If the blinds are $25–$50, you should probably limp for $50. But if the blinds are $5–$10, you might want to make a small “sweetener” raise to $20 or $30. The goal is to make the pot bigger, thus making the game “play bigger.” The bigger preflop pot will cause the postflop betting to be bigger, and your expectation will increase with the size of the bets. Of course, raising a so-so hand like ace-five has some drawbacks. Since you usually won’t flop the best hand, you may actually give up a little immediate value by raising. That is, if you win less than your share of pots, you take slightly the worst of it immediately. Also, you reopen the betting, and someone who limped in with a big hand could force you to fold by making a big reraise. Finally, a knowledgeable opponent might interpret your raise as a sweetener and use that knowledge against you. Even so, often the value of making the game play two or three times bigger will offset all the drawbacks and make these sweetener raises right. In fact, if you are an excellent player stuck in a game with small blinds, you might well be right to raise almost every pot you play. Final Thoughts We hope that you now understand these six reasons to raise. Most good preflop raises can be justified using one or more of these reasons. The most important thing to take away from this section, however, is that preflop raising in deep stack no limit isn’t necessarily as simple as “I have a good hand, so I raise.” There are numerous reasons to raise, and some of them have relatively little to do with your preflop hand strength. Whenever it’s your turn to play preflop, think about these reasons, and consider whether raising might be the best play. 20Well, if you are in a cardroom, you could ask the floor personnel to increase the blinds, and if everyone at the table agrees, they should accommodate you.

who floats the flop aggressively might as well bet too often when checked to on the turn, which would increase CO’s incentive to check-raise, but that kind of assumption is not reflected here. Comparisons of CO’s equilibrium to exploitative turn strategies are not apples-to-apples. In fact, the exploitative scenarios often involve bet sizes CO uses rarely or never at equilibrium. So, they reflect changes not only in BTN’s flop calling range but also in CO’s betting range . We’ll start by looking at a blank turn. In an unlocked scenario, had CO bet around 80% pot on the flop, here’s how they would follow through on a 2 ♣ turn : And here’s their strategy against a BTN who does not fold enough on the flop: The major difference, in terms of frequencies, is less checking and more use of the smaller 45% pot bet size. This reflects the incentive we identified above to barrel into BTN’s overly weak calling range . These bets are small because they target weak hands that struggle to continue even getting 3:1 odds in position. On a blank turn, the weakest part of BTN’s range consists of backdoors, which did not improve, and hands like A♠8♠ or K ♥ J ♠ . BTN sometimes floats with these hands at equilibrium, but not as often as when they are nodelocked to fold less. This leads to an imbalance on blank turns, where they have too many such hands and so are vulnerable to small bets . Exploitative opportunities are fewer on a T ♣ turn , which connects better with BTN’s floating range. Here’s the equilibrium strategy: And the exploitative one: We see the same increased frequency of smaller bets , but the difference is less dramatic. Do keep in mind, however, that CO’s range for seeing the turn is wider in the exploitative scenario, so, for instance, shoving 18% of their range in both scenarios means shoving more hands in the exploitative one. The same kinds of shoving hands like top pair A9 , and draws, but CO has more of this type of hands because they bet them more often on the flop. They are extra incentivized to bet the flop with AT , for instance, because it performs so well against backdoor draws like KT , QT , and JT which are disproportionately represented in BTN’s expanded calling range. When the T turns, AT is a great shove because it gets called by those dominated Ten-x hands while denying a lot of equity to QJ and KJ , which could profitably call smaller bets. So, CO’s EV is dramatically improved in the exploitative scenario, even though their strategy does not appear wildly different. They earn 8.9bb in EV, as opposed to 7.4bb at the unlocked version of this same node. Even on a 2 ♥ turn, which completes the most obvious draw, BTN simply has too many low-equity hands and is vulnerable to small bets. CO’s equilibrium strategy bets 45% pot with 16% of hands on this card, while the exploitative one bets 52%

their range with each new action so you have that information when you need it. And you should need it often! Your hand alone never determines your action. Whether and how much you bet is always a function of the interaction between your hand and your opponent’s range. Gathering information should become so second nature that it’s like looking both ways before crossing the street. Make Every Action a Deliberate Choice They say practice makes perfect, but there’s more to practice than clicking buttons. Deliberate practice , where you actively think through your options and try new things, is essential to improvement. Putting in massive volume on auto-pilot can even be counter-productive, ingraining bad habits and making it harder to change. Putting in massive volume on auto-pilot can be counter-productive, ingraining bad habits and making it harder to change. Build a habit of making every action an active choice. No matter how sure you are of the best play, force yourself to consider a second option before you act. If you weren’t allowed to call, would you rather raise or fold? Make a case for that. If you weren’t allowed to bet small, would you rather check or bet big? Make a case for that. You can’t always consider every option thoroughly, but you can compare two, especially when one is already the comfortable and familiar choice. Nine times out of ten, maybe nineteen times out of twenty, your first instinct will be correct. But you’ll never find the exception if you don’t look for it. And it’s good practice to consider other options, even when you do end up going with your first instinct. It also helps to balance timing tells when you have a genuine decision. In the interest of not unduly slowing down the game, you can make an exception for pre-flop folds. Don’t feel compelled to contemplate raising 72 o UTG simply as an academic exercise. Post-flop decisions are rarely so trivial , and you should not treat them as such. Think About Your Range The best way to conceal information is to play different kinds of hands the same way. Another strategy, similar to the above, is to look beyond the hand you currently hold to other kinds of hands you could hold. The best way to conceal information is to play different kinds of hands the same way, so that your action provides minimal information about your cards. If the action that initially strikes you as best with your current holding is not plausible for any other part of your range, then you should reconsider. Before you check the turn because you have “nothing”, consider the other weak hands you could hold. Which of them would you bluff with? If you can name other, better bluffing candidates in your range, you can feel better about giving up with this one. If you can’t, then you should reconsider whether your current holding would serve you well as a bluff. Before you make the “obvious” value bet with your monster hand, consider the weak and medium-strength hands you

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some of my friends um you know thought for a period of time that I was just like super out of line aggressive especially like these types of fields and I am I am very aggressive but I was but I also had to remind them that like look I'm just trying to play good strategies and it just so happens that in live terms you don't get to play that many hands and I just had the bluffing candidates for like the last six hands yeah so it looks like I'm going crazy because I haven't had value but it's such a tiny sample um and if I get value six times in a row and they think I'm crazy and they adjust I'm going to be crushing them right so yeah it's a funny thing yeah deviating especially in small samples especially in live poker like you just don't get to play that many spots right all right so here we flop flush Raw I suppose we just bet small and frequently yeah yeah so that if if you were at a little bit of a shorter stock I think you would increase your betting frequency but he actually has a lot more flushes here and so like really deep sprs I think you need to find some tracks does he have a lot more flushes here yeah yeah think about how much of the deck he's defending well he's blocking the board blocks a lot of them well yeah yeah but um when you're comparing the flushes you have all the ASI flushes he has all the ASI flushes you have maybe like King five of diamonds and better he has all the King five dollars you have maybe like Queen seven or eight of diamonds he has all the diamonds you have 10 eight of diamonds he has all the ten diamonds I suppose my range is substantially tighter than his yeah yeah exactly therefore proportionately don't I have more flushes and flush not flush draws right proportionally speak does that matter this proportions yeah I know it does for sure it's like yeah he has all of them but he has all the other junk too yeah no I mean so you are right you have a big Equity advantage throughout but I think that the reason why you developed tracks let me make sure you develop tracks first so I'm not just yeah okay so here we're betting small 70 67 yeah and so I'm sure I think that's fine I mean that's that's roughly right yeah and I think that what happens here oh okay I think that what happens is you are right unfortunately you do have more flushes you have six percent of flushes um yeah six point five percent flushes but mine are better okay he does have more flushes but mine are better years are better um but if you start betting your entire range he just gets to polarize around his flushes and then over fold the Flop a ton