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Version 1.0076
Cover:
Melville and DonkHero
People who helped me make this text readable:
All my students, family and friends
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Contents
FAQ 8
Perceived strength and honesty 10
Scare cards 12
Points of honesty 12
Exercises 14
Final notes 17
Exercises 18
-- Positional awareness 24
Words on balance 24
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Capped range 30
Exercises 32
Exercises 48
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Bluff raising 51
Exercises 53
Exercises 60
-- A word on trash 62
-- Possible adjustments 62
-- Things to consider 63
-- Bet sizing 67
-- Postflop play 67
-- Bet sizing 68
-- Postflop 68
Exercises 70
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Calling 3-bets 72
-- Postflop play 73
Exercises 76
Developing Reads 77
VPIP and PFR 77
Check-raise tendencies 80
The River 81
Taking Notes 82
Exercises 84
The Cinema 85
-- Playing as the preflop raiser 85
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FAQ
Can I copy the book?
The short answer is no.
Can I print the book?
Yes, in as many copies as you would like to.
I have heard the book comes with coaching. How many hours?
Two.
What if I want to get more coaching?
Additional coaching will be arranged on a case by case basis.
The main problem is that I have limited time.
I don’t need any coaching I just want the book. Do I get a dis-
count?
No.
Why is your book so much cheaper than some of the other
poker books?
Because I prefer to ask a price that I personally think is fair.
Will you update the book?
Yes, as often as possible?
How do I get the updates?
I will announce them on thepokerpuzzle.com and on
deucescracked.com. The updates are free for at least 6 months.
I expect to update the book on a monthly basis.
What will you update the book with?
All new poker knowledge that my readers find relevant will find
its way into the book.
Updates are going to be driven by requests from the readers.
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Definition
Perceived strength ~ actions + texture + position + image + level
Actions
When we bet, raise or re-raise our perceived strength goes up. The
preflop raiser is perceived to have a stronger range than the preflop
caller.
Texture
If we are the preflop raiser and there are high cards on the flop, our
perceived strength goes up.
Position
Early position adds to our perceived strength since we are expected
to raise with a stronger range of hands.
Image
If we have been c-betting a lot and have been caught bluffing our per-
ceived strength goes down.
Level
If the villain knows that this is a bad board to c-bet as a bluff and we
still c-bet our perceived strength actually goes up.
So, based on our actions, the board texture, our position, our image and
villain’s level we can in a sense calculate our perceived strength. The
better our perceived strength, the more plausible our line looks.
Perceived strength is the strength of our perceived range.
Obviously it is not easy, if at all possible, to make any exact calculations
since we have incomplete information, so estimates will have to do.
You can freely choose how you prefer to mentally represent perceived
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strength. The words you use are not important but it is important that
you actively do think about it when you play.
I personally like to use words like:
• Excellent
• Good
• Okay
• Poor
The better our perceived strength the more bluffs we can have in our
range. The reason is simply that it is - in most cases - difficult for the
other player(s) in the pot to play back at us often enough in order to
make our bluffs -EV since we are telling a very plausible story.
Let us say that we open in early position and we get called by the play-
er on the button who happens to hold pocket nines. The flop comes AJ4
rainbow. Our perceived strength on this board texture is excellent, and
if we fire a c-bet there is a good chance that the preflop caller will fold.
He might peel one but there is a high chance that he will fold. Pocket
nines can’t be too happy on that flop.
If we change the board texture a little, so that it becomes A74 rainbow,
our perceived strength is no longer excellent. It is just good and pocket
nines are looking a little better. Many players will call and re-evaluate
on the turn when holding pocket nines.
If we change the board texture one more time to say 742, there is no
chance that the preflop caller will fold pocket nines to one bet.
The conclusion is that there is a connection between our perceived
strength and how likely it is that the preflop caller will fold his hand.
Obviously the preflop caller will not fold if he connected with the
board, but since this is No Limit Hold’em and nobody ever has any-
thing, this is of less relevance.
The motivation for introducing the concept of perceived strength is
to make the thought process smoother. It is much easier to think, ”My
perceived strength is very good” than to think, ”My perceived range
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hits the board texture hard, so when I bet I can represent a lot of strong
hands.” Here perceived range is the image the other player has formed
in his head based on the actions you have taken so far.
Scare cards
I often hear people say that they will fire again on any scare card on the
turn. This may or may not be a good strategy against the other player
in the hand. We are assuming that we know which cards we can use to
scare the villain.
Definition
A Scare card is a card where our perceived strength goes up.
In mid stakes poker there are fewer scare cards on turn than there
used to be. The problem is that on the turn the scare cards are often
very obvious and therefore much less scary. Furthermore, many players
will actually check on scare cards with their medium strong hands way
too often. This means that they polarize their range when they do bet,
since they either have a bluff or a very strong hand.
This may sound a little paranoid but the point I’m trying to make is that
scare cards should be part of a tailored strategy, and not just auto bluff
cards. Later we will identify when we should be using scare cards as
scare cards.
Points of honesty
Every poker player has spots in his game where he tends to become
honest. This honesty is often a result of the reactions of the other play-
ers at the table but it can also be a result of his natural style.
Definition
A point of honesty is a situation where a player will only continue to
put money into the pot with a strong hand.
Preflop most players tend to become honest when they are 4-bet. In
other words they are not 5-bet bluffing or defending light often enough
that we need to be taking it into account. The situation we create when
we 4-bet is an example of a point of honesty for the villain.
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Assumption
The better our perceived strength is in a given situation the more
likely it is that the same situation is a point of honesty for our oppo-
nent.
Postflop most players have points of honesty deeply integrated into
their style.
When we are making a plan for our hand it can be a great help if we can
define when we expect villain to become honest. In other words we can
ask ourselves, “Where is villain’s point of honesty on this board tex-
ture?” Our answer will depend on:
1. The villain in the hand.
2. What our hand looks like if we call, bet or raise.
A simple illustration is a double barrel on a dry flop. When we c-bet it
looks like we have top pair or better, but everybody c-bets dry flops so
we get called by a lot of second pair type hands. When we fire again on
the turn it really looks like we have top pair or better. Our perceived
strength increased when we bet the turn and it is very likely that our
opponent will fold most of his second pairs on the turn. Unless he
thinks that it is very likely that we are bluffing there is no reason for
him to bluff catch again.
When we are the preflop caller we should adjust our calling ranges
both preflop and postflop to villain’s expected points of honesty.
In general it is better to have outs than marginal showdown value
against an aggressive player. The reason is that, on a lot of turns, we
will find ourselves in a spot where both folding and calling are poten-
tial big mistakes - we would play the hand in a very different way could
we see villain’s cards.
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Exercises
1. One way of getting used to actively think about perceived strength is
to watch a video where you classify every flop.
• What is the perceived strength of the preflop raiser on that board
texture?
• When you do expect the players in the hand to reach a point of
honesty?
2. The next step is to play a short session of roughly 15-30 minutes
where you play without looking at your cards. Turn off the HUD too.
Your strategy will be to play every hand in late position and c-bet
when you think your perceived strength is good enough. There are
various tools that can cover your cards.
http://software.deucescracked.com/DCTiltblocker.zip
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Value
We have a made hand, there are worse made hands that can call us
and there are virtually no cards in the deck which will give us the
second best hand.
Villain would not call if he could see our cards.
Value/Protection
We have a made hand and there are worse made hands and draws
that can call us so there are cards that can come on the turn that will
either kill our action or give us the second best hand.
How much we are betting for value and how much we are betting for
protection depends on our actual hand, the board texture and the
other players in the pot.
Semi-bluff
We don’t have showdown value but there are cards in the deck that
can help us to make the best hand. We bet because we want to take
the pot down.
Bluff
We have little to no showdown value and there is close to no hope for
our hand. We bet because we want to take the pot down.
When we know what the purpose of our continuation bet is, it is often a
lot easier for us to make a plan for the turn and river. The most obvious
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Pot control
We figure that we have the best hand most of the time but we are
not ready to get raised, we expect a bet to mostly get called by better
hands and we don’t mind giving a free card.
Equity protection
We have a fair amount of equity in the pot but we cannot stand a
raise and we expect the other player in the pot to raise us with pure
bluffs, semi-bluffs and strong made hands.
Deception
We have a strong hand and we are going for a check/raise or a
check/call.
Give up
We have nothing and are not planning to bluff.
Final notes
I want to stress that we should design a c-betting strategy for each
player as we develop reads on them. This has been a standard strategy
in HU for a long time and should be standard for every good 6-max
player too.
Before you fire that c-bet on the flop try to have a plan for the turn (and
river) as well. I personally always ask myself how big a pot am I willing
to play.
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Exercises
1. Watch a video were you classify every c-bet and every check that
the hero makes. If you find spots where you would use a different
reason than the coach used in the video don’t lose your confidence.
They could be using a different set of words to express their thought
process or simply be making a mistake.
2. Go over a HH for a session you recently played and do the same.
3. Play a session where you focus on actively expressing what kind of
c-bet or check you make in every hand you are involved in.
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Assumption
The size of a bet affects the range of hands willing to call.
The arguments for this assumption are:
1. If we check call the flop the preflop caller sees the turn card with
his whole preflop calling range.
2. If we bet really big on the flop he will see the turn card with only
the top of his range - or at least the frequency with which he calls
with the bottom of his range goes down.
So, by choosing a bet size we form the range of hands that will be call-
ing our bet (we will later identify something called an inelastic range
for which the above assumption is not true).
Assumption
Board texture matters.
This is just another way of saying that we should be bluffing with a
higher frequency than average in spots where our perceived strength
is good or better; simply because those board textures allow us to tell a
plausible story.
On board textures where the preflop caller’s expected c-bet calling
range has a lot of equity in the pot we should bet bigger with our whole
range. In general when the board is more coordinated there are not
only more hands that can call our bet, but also more cards that may kill
our action. So the big bet on the flop is not only needed for protection,
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but also because it is often our best chance to get some value when we
actually do have a strong hand. So, board texture matters.
The foundation for my ABC strategy for picking the right bet size is
simply to bet according to the board texture and the absolute strength of
my hand. How big a pot do I want to play?
Notice that as I learn more about my opponents I will adjust frequen-
cies and bet sizes according to their tendencies. Will the villain notice
bet sizing tells?
So, if I bluff a lot in a certain spot I will be inclined to bet a little smaller.
If I’m mostly betting for value and betting with strong semi-bluffs I
tend to bet a little bigger.
The most important parameters are villain’s range and his tendencies.
A range can be broken down into the following parts.
Nuts
Made hands with which the preflop caller is willing to play for stacks
with.
Strong draws
Draws with so much equity that they do not need any folding equity.
Getting All in on the flop is +EV.
Weak draws
Draws that need folding equity. Some weak draws are disguised. A
gut shot is an example of a weak disguised draw.
Air
Hands with no hope.
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Before you fire a c-bet you should consider the preflop caller’s preflop
calling range and match it with the board texture.
How many hand combinations does the preflop caller have that he
will consider the nuts, strong draw, strong bluff catcher, weak bluff
catcher, ... ? I like to mentally name a few typical hands for each part
of his range.
How do you expect villain to play the different parts of his range?
So, depending on the situation the preflop caller’s range on the turn
will have different compositions. A c-bet is a way for the preflop raiser
to force the preflop caller to decided what he wants to do with the dif-
ferent parts of his range.
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second illustrates that game dynamics and the ability to change gear
play a big role in modern poker.
For a range we can talk about the nuts:air ratio. It is a measure for how
often we are snap calling a shove compared to how often we are on a
pure bluff.
In the spots where we expect the villain to call or fold it is actually
more relevant to consider the ratio:
(nuts + value + strong draws + weak draws):air
We could in theory estimate the strength of our range versus villain’s
by estimating the above ratios, but this is impossible to do in the heat
of the moment. The strength of our hand depends heavily on the reac-
tion we expect from the other player in the hand which again depends
on game flow.
After a session I may try to estimate the range ratio for a player in a
certain spot. This helps me figure out what type of hands I want to use
in my counter strategy. It is not something I do often.
Definition
The strength of a hand relative to the other player, the board tex-
ture, positions, pot size, effective stack size and the action is known
as relative hand strength
I prefer to use perceived strength, points of honesty and a basic analy-
sis of how I expect villain to play the different part of his range when I
try to answer the question:
How big a pot do I want to play against this player on this flop?
The reason is that I then play according to the information villain has
available.
Question 1: How does the size of the pot affect how villain will play the
different parts of his range?
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Positional awareness
A player is positional aware if he:
Understands how being in position and out of position affects the
game.
Understands that players play different ranges from different positi-
ons.
Question 2: How does that affect bluff catching tendencies?
Words on balance
Against a player who is rarely bluff raising we should play with a differ-
ent balance in our range than against an aggressive player who is bluff
raising a lot. The reason is that we will be tempted to fold hands with
marginal showdown value when we are put under pressure. The rela-
tive strength of our hand drops as the pot gets bigger.
Question 3: What adjustments would you make to your range when
facing a player who is re-raising and check-raising a lot?
Question 4: What adjustments would you make against a player who is
rarely bluff raising?
Question 5: Against which player is 4-bet bluffing most effective?
Player A, who 3-bets 13% and 5-bet shoves AQ+, TT+ or Player B, who
3-bets 9% and 5-bet shoves AK, JJ+
Definition
A range is said to be balanced if the ratios between each part of
makes the range unexplotiable.
Question 6: What is the natural adjustment of a weak player when put
under pressure?
Question 7: What is the natural adjustment of an aggressive player
when put under pressure?
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Definition
A hand is called elastic (to the bet size) if the size of the bet will af-
fect the frequency with which we get a call.
Definition
A hand is called inelastic (to the bet size) if the size of the bet will
not affect the frequency with which we get a call .
Definition
A hand is called strong if it has enough equity to call.
Definition
A hand is called weak if it does not have enough equity to call.
Whether or not a hand should be counted as elastic, inelastic, strong or
weak depends on the size of the bet and how much equity villain esti-
mates the hand to have against our range.
Some villains are paranoid and will bluff catch flop and turn very light.
Some villains fall in love with draws. In both cases it is our job to adjust
for that when we count.
Definition
The elasticity of a range is defined as the quotient between the elas-
tic hands and the inelastic hands.
#elastic hands / #inelastic hands >= 0
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Definition
A range is said to be super elastic if its elasticity is greater than 0.8.
If villain has an elastic range we can, with our bet size, adjust the fre-
quency with which we will get called by certain parts of his range, and
in that way increase our expected value.
Definition
A range is said to be inelastic if its elasticity is less than 0.2
If villain has an inelastic range we know that the majority of his hands
will be inelastic to our bet size.
Definition
A strong-weak range is an inelastic range which consists of a strong
part and a weak part.
An example of this is the preflop caller’s range on the turn on a King-
high dry flop after the preflop raiser has c-bet the flop. The strong part
consists of top pair and better while the weak part consists of second
pair hands and floats.
Definition
A polarized range is an inelastic range which consists of nut like
hands and air.
Putting villain on a range is the first requirement for becoming a suc-
cessful poker player. Understanding how the nature of villain’s range
affects our strategy is the second.
Question 9: Can you give an example where villain’s range is polar-
ized?
Question 10: When will villains range on the turn have a high elastic-
ity? Hint: It depends on the board texture.
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tec6: The more elastic the range is, the better it is to bluff on scare
cards.
It is important to remember that there are degrees of elasticity. It is
not a black and white world. As with perceived strength I prefer to use
simple words to express the degree of elasticity.
Super elastic
Flop is QT6tt we fire a c-bet and the turn is a blank. The preflop
caller has a super elastic range on the turn.
Very elastic
Flop is K65tt on a blank turn the preflop caller has a very elastic
range.
Elastic
Flop is KQ5tt on a blank turn the preflop caller has an elastic range.
Inelastic
Flop is J62r on any turn card the preflop caller has an inelastic range.
Question 11: How does non-blank turn cards affect the calling range on
the turn?
Now don’t worry if you cannot see how you can use this in your own
game to pick the right bet size. I understand that the conjecture is a
big mouthful, so we are going to look at some different types of board
textures where we are the preflop raiser.
My goal is that you as the reader will start thinking about how elastic
villain’s range is and use that as a guideline for your choice of bet size.
But before we do that let us see if we can use the elasticity conjecture
to figure out how to play against two player types.
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For example: You bet the flop and the turn rather big compared to the
effective stack and villain showed up with 3rd pair on the river or may-
be a missed gut shot with tainted outs.
If TEC is any good it should tell us what counter strategy we should use.
His range on the flop can be described as [has a piece, no piece]. The
has a piece part is literally any piece and includes ace high hands and
fourth pair. This diversity results in elastic ranges in spots where we
would normally expect strong-weak ranges.
The definition of an inelastic range tells us that he will call almost
any bet sized if he has a piece.
Tec2 tells us that we should bet thinner for value and protection.
Tec3 tells us that we can bet bigger than we normally would.
Tec5 tells us that if we c-bet on the flop as a bluff we should bet
small. We don’t need to bet big in order to get him to fold air.
Tec6 tells us that we should be looking for scare cards if we want to
bluff on the turn or the river.
Does this sound like a good strategy against a calling station?
Capped range
As with many other concepts in poker there are several definitions of
capped range.
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Definition
A capped range is a range where either the top or the bottom of the
range is missing.
Against a top capped range we can run bluffs since the villain never has
a strong hand.
Against a bottom capped range we should never bluff catch. The typical
example is nits who by design have a range capped at the bottom.
In general poker is full of capped ranges:
• Players who rarely 4-bet bluff have a capped range when they
4-bet.
• Players who rarely double barrel have a capped range when they
suddenly bet the turn.
• Players who fold a lot to 3-bets have a capped range when they
suddenly call.
• Players who fold to a lot of c-bets have a capped range on the turn
when they suddenly call.
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Exercises
1. Go over a hand history of a recent session and try to classify the
elasticity in the hands you were involved in. Both as the caller and
the aggressor. Start by looking at the range of hands willing to call a
c-bet. How did the bet sizes on the flop and turn affect the range?
2. Watch a video and try to classify the elasticity on the turn in as
many hands as possible. Don’t pause the video unless you have to.
3. Pick 5 hands from you database where you are the preflop raiser
and evaluate if the turn is good spot to bluff with air (0 equity).
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Assumptions
1. Nobody likes to call with third pair.
2. Second pair will often fold to a second barrel.
3. Nobody likes to fold top pair.
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Flop
When we are c-betting dry flops where our perceived strength is good
and we have TPGK or better we are betting for value. Why is betting a
good idea?
Four reasons:
1. Since we are betting all our air when our perceived strength is
good or better. We are very rarely check-folding here, so when
we bet we keep our range nice and wide. And, over time, by con-
stantly betting these flops the other players will start to call with
second pair hands that will fold to further action.
2. When over cards are possible. We are actually not only betting for
value, but also a little for protection.
3. If the preflop caller actually has a hand he thinks he can call with,
we want to give him the chance to make a mistake and call.
4. If the preflop caller is only moderately smart he should know
that, if we are checking, we are check-calling. In other words we
are making life easy for him. Remember we are betting all our air
and strong made hands.
When we make a c-bet the preflop caller’s range becomes strong-weak
on the turn, because there are no draws. On the turn his range is: top
pair or better, and weak made hands. The top of his range will call any
bet, while the bottom will fold to any reasonable bet; hence strong-
weak.
Turn
If the turn brings a high card then our perceived strength goes up. This
could mean that the range of hands we can get value from with a bet on
the turn just got smaller.
Question 12: Is that true?
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River
Shoving or at least betting big on the river with the top of our range
should be the standard line against most players, unless we went for
pot control on the turn.
Question 15: Try to justify the big value bet on the river using the elas-
ticity conjecture.
Turn
If we did not pot control the flop we should, against most players, pot
control the turn by checking. On almost any turn card I prefer check/
calling with this part of my range.
If we also sometimes check-call or check-raise with very strong hands
and check-fold air we are not too transparent when we check.
We very rarely get 3 streets of value with our hand unless the preflop
caller is a calling station, so we are not losing value when we check.
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Furthermore, there is a chance that the caller will bet the turn with
hands that he would fold to a turn c-bet. By checking the turn we are
turning our hand into a bluff catcher and make it harder for our oppo-
nents to float us on dry boards.
Against some players a check-fold is not as nitty as it sounds. We have
no kicker and have very little equity against a fit or fold player’s calling
range.
Question 17: So maybe a check on the flop would not be a bad idea
against a fit or fold player?
River
If the turn went check/check then I like value betting the river. The pre-
flop caller could be trapping, but that happens very rarely. By checking
the turn we made sure that the preflop caller has a strong-weak range
on the river. This allows us to make a thin value bet.
Question 18: Do you want to make a small or a big bet on the river?
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River
I almost never bluff the river after having bet the flop and turn.
Question 19: Is it a bad idea to bluff the river?
So our ABC line is to bet the flop, bet the turn, and check/fold the river.
That said, this is the first line I make adjustments to in terms of fre-
quencies and bet sizing.
Question 20: What kind of adjustments should we consider making
and when should we be making them? When will you be more tempted
to double barrel? When would you be less tempted?
If for some reason we did not bet the turn and it went check/check we
can try to bluff on the river since there is some elasticity left.
Question 21: Would you bet big or small?
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and villain has a lot of potential bluff catchers in his range. He will bet
most of them on the flop since our perceived range is full of over cards.
Notice: I will never balance my flop lines until I have a reason to do it;
having fun and trying to play a highly varied style are both solid rea-
sons but they are often not enough to truly justify the balancing.
Turn
Unless we check-raised or check-called the flop we are just looking to
take the preflop caller to value town; especially when the turn is a scare
card. Very often the preflop caller has second pair on the turn, and
when the turn card is a known scare card he is very rarely ready to fold.
Against players who are bluff raising the turn a lot we can balance our
turn play and take a pot control line with the bottom of our range, and
sometimes check-raise with the top of our range.
River
Again unless we pot controlled the turn we are looking for more value
on the river with the top of our range.
The idea behind a check-raise on the flop or the turn is actually two-
fold:
1. We have a strong hand and want to build the pot. A check-raise
really builds the pot in a nice way.
2. We are protecting the part of our range that in the future we will
be trying to pot control with.
Question 22: Try to justify that with the threat of a check-raise we are
protecting our pot controlling range.
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pending on our hand. That being said, 2 and 3 barrels are a good alter-
natives. Simply turn our weak made hands into a bluff.
Question 23: When should we be tempted to bet weak made hands?
Question 24: What hands would you prefer to barrel with?
If our standard line with this part of our range is to check-fold, the pre-
flop caller will very often stab at the pot with his whole range. We look
like we have given up on the pot, and they don’t want to give any free
cards. This presents a potential bluff spot for us.
So, since the preflop caller often stabs too with too weak a range at
these pots we can punish him with a check-raise. This bluff line is
sometimes cheaper than firing multiple barrels, and works very well if
the preflop caller knows that we might be doing this for value.
Question 25: What type of hands should we pick for our bluff check-
raises?
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Aggressive players
• Will very often play flush draws aggressively
• Will often play disguised draws passively
• Will almost always play sets fast
• Will have a fair amount of air in their range
Passive players
• Will often play flush draws passively
• Will often raise a set and two pair on the flop
• Will often play disguised draws passively
• Will very rarely raise air
Good players
• Will play the flush draws aggressively when the spot is right
• Will play the sets fast when the spot is right
• Will have a fair amount of air in their range depending on the vil-
lain
Conclusion
When we are playing draw heavy boards the range of hands we get
called by depends a lot on the player type we are facing. So we need to
pay extra attention to what lines the preflop caller takes, otherwise we
risk getting seriously outplayed.
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The Plans
As you have figured out by now draw-heavy board textures are way
more complex to play than their dry cousins. The type or player we are
in the pot with makes a huge difference. So instead of outlining plans
based only on the board texture, I will use the player type as our pri-
mary parameter.
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where the villain simply folds to our re-raise, which would help us
withstand the times where we get the money in bad.
This idea also works when you are in position. It may look a little dif-
ferent, but fundamentally it is the same move. Check behind on the flop
with the intention of raising the turn lead, you can think of it as fake
pot equity protection.
When we actually have a hand we want to take to showdown there’s
nothing fake about our check and we should not be raising the turn
lead as a standard.
Question 27: So what range of hands would you use for this bluff?
The move serves two purposes. The first is to punish the aggressive
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Question 31: How big should we bet? Think about what we are protect-
ing our hand from, and how big a bet that part of his range is willing to
call while still making a mistake. A very strong draw has ~20% equity
here.
Since we don’t need to protect our hand anymore on the river I’m
check/calling, check/folding the river depending on what reads I have
on the preflop caller.
If we bet the turn the passive player often has an inelastic range on the
river (this is not true if the player is a calling station):
Question 32: Why?
Question 33: How can we use that to our advantage?
Question 34: Can you construct some board textures where some player
types will still have an elastic range on the river after you bet the flop
and turn?
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scare cards but that is not a line for the faint of heart.
TEC tells us that we should feel tempted to continue bluffing on scare
cards when the preflop caller has a very elastic range.
Question 37: Try to construct some board textures where the turn
range is very elastic.
Question 38: What type of hands should we be using for our bluffs?
Question 39: What player type(s) should we be more likely to target?
Question 40: How big should we bet? Hint: think about what range of
hands you are trying to get to fold.
If the preflop caller has an inelastic range the scare card should not
matter much and if the villain is a little sceptic the scare card may even
prove to be a good spot for a thin value bet.
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Exercises
The exercises below are tough. If you don’t have a deck of cards near
you can use:
http://flopgenerator.com/
1) Grab a deck of cards.
• Deal a flop
• Write down the flop
• Imagine that you are the preflop raiser and that there is one
caller. Write down the range of hands that might call a c-bet.
• Repeat
2) For each board texture write down:
• The worst hand you will bet for value or value/protection on the
flop.
• The worst hand you will bet for value (value/protection) on the
turn and the range you expect to get called by. Does your bet size
matter?
• The worst hand you will bet for value on the river. How big will
you bet?
3) What line do you want to take as a bluff?
• How many hand combinations can you expect to fold on the turn?
• If the turn and/or river card matters write it down.
• How many barrels are you tempted to fire?
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As for board textures, look for boards where there are a lot of cards
that can hit your perceived calling range. This will allow us to turn our
hand into a bluff on the turn. So it is better to float and bluff catch on
K74r than K72r because if the turn is an 8,6,5 or a 3 we can turn our
hand into a bluff raise on the first board texture but only an 8 or a 6
will give us the same option on the second.
Against over aggressive players we can consider bluff catching two
streets. The problem is that we may or may not make a big mistake
on the river if villain is capable of firing the third barrel. In higher mid
stakes games this situation is quite common..
When we try to adjust our preflop calling range we need to take into
account what kind of hands we are going to flop.
The postflop value of hands that flop bluff catchers and hands that flop
draws increases as villain’s range gets wider.
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Bluff raising
When we bluff raise either the flop or the turn we should be doing it
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When we start bluff raising the flop and turn often we can expect most
villains to adjust. The aggressive villain is likely going to try to re-bluff
or extend his value range, while a more passive villain often will start
to play tighter.
Question 47: How would you adjust and does position have an effect on
your choice?
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Exercises
1) If you raise the flop on a Q76r flop how many hand combinations
would you represent?
2) On what turn cards would you raise 65s on a K73r flop? Does your
answer depend on the player type?
3) Go into your poker tracker software and pick 5 players and try to
figure out how they seem to play postflop as the preflop raiser.
• Do they play according to perceived strength?
• How often are they check-folding the turn as the flop raiser?
• Do they check-call a lot?
• Do they bet the turn with a polarized range?
• Do they follow through when they have a missed draw?
4) How will you play against them as the preflop caller if you have posi-
tion.
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A very common strategy is to 3-bet or fold small pocket pairs and suit-
ed connectors when the preflop raiser is in late position. This is likely
not a leak, but there are some problems with this game plan:
1. What is our plan if we get 4-bet? By 3-betting 76s we make sure
that we never get to play it against the top of his range against which
we have good implied odds.
2. If we get called we need to bluff in a big pot against a stronger
range.
3. What are we representing when we check raise K65tt in a single
raised pot if we are 3-betting any hand that connected with that board?
Not much.
So, if we always 3-bet pocket pairs and suited connectors in late posi-
tion situations, then we can’t really represent much on flops with more
than one low card.
In other words, when we often find ourselves turning hands with great
postflop potential into bluffs preflop, it is very likely that we should
look at adjusting and improving our post flop play in single raised pots.
A word on balance
To make our play from the small blind really effective against players
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who use their position well we should sometimes flat a preflop raise
when we hold a really strong hand like QQ+, AQ+.
This is not only because we want to protect our calling range against
squeezing, but also to strengthen our donking and check-raising range
by increasing our nuts:air ratio in that line.
One overlooked advantage of playing like a little beast post flop in
these late position situations is the fact that the natural adjustment for
most players will be to respond with aggression or nit it up postflop.
They become fit or fold players or bluff monkeys because their range
simply can’t stand the heat.
In other words we have created a spot where their natural adjustment
just leads to more profit for us. How beautiful is that?
Question 49: What adjustment should they make?
The donk
In modern online poker, most poker players have a really wide range
in late position, so, unless we are playing like a drooling goat from the
blinds, our range is a lot stronger than a late position preflop raiser’s.
It is actually a little strange that we so often give the preflop raiser con-
trol over the hand, which is exactly what we do when we check the flop
to him.
If we combine this with the fact that most good players are not re-
ally auto c-betting the flop anymore we have to conclude that we need
more than a single string strategy based on the magnificent check-
raise.
Otherwise we will simply be folding the best hand way too often and
risk not getting enough value when we do have a strong hand. This is
where donking or leading the flop comes to our rescue.
Most players find it a lot easier to lead the flop with a strong made
hand than with a bluff, but they only do it on board textures where they
want to protect their hand and they don’t expect the preflop raiser to
c-bet very often. We can identify those board textures as:
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out.
In general, against very aggressive or paranoid players, we should low-
er our bluff frequency and expand our range for value donking; since
very few people raise weak top pairs when donked into. They normally
just call while they hope that we will continue to bluff.
Question 53: How does the fact that they rarely raise our flop donk
with top pair type hands affect the range of hands that they do raise
with?
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will bet the turn with too many hands that cannot stand a check-raise.
The idea behind the turn check-raise, whether it is for value or as a
bluff is twofold.
• If we pick the right spots it is +EV in a vacuum.
• We protect the part of our range that we would like to get to
showdown with. In other words we are trying to lower the
nuts:air ratio in his turn c-bet range when we start check-raising
the turn.
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Exercises
1) Find 5 players in your database and see if you figure out what ranges
they open in the CO and OTB.
2) How much do they c-bet? Do they c-bet a polarized range? Are they
fit or fold? How much do they double barrel? Do they fold to check-rais-
es on dry flops?
3) Design a strategy for each of them. How will you play them from the
blinds?
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For value
The pokers gods are on our side and we have a pretty hand. We want to
play a big pot.
As a bluff
We have a read on our opponent that he is folding a fair bit to 3-bets.
For isolation
We have a huge fish at our table that is willing to pay a high price to see
a flop.
Against some players we are 3-betting KQs for value, while it might be
a bluff against other players. Figuring out which is which is the goal of
this chapter.
A starting point
When I start a session and I am playing against a bunch of unknown
players I like to start out with 3-betting the hands below:
In position:
JJ+, AK, AJo, Kjo+, A2o+
Out of position:
TT+, AJ+, KJ+
There is nothing holy to the ranges, they are nothing but a starting
point for me. Since we are putting in a fair chunk of change when 3-bet-
ting we should be more than willing to adjust our ranges.
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A word on trash
Before we start discussing what adjustments we can make, we should
talk a little about trash.
Definition
A trash hand is defined as a hand that has little to no value postflop.
Which hands have postflop value depends on stack sizes, position, the
postflop tendencies of the preflop raiser, and whether or not we have a
skill advantage.
Possible adjustments
Without going into when we should be making each adjustment, here is
a list of at least some of our options.
• Add trash
• Add broadway hands
• Add more pocket pairs
• Add suited connectors
• Add suited aces
• Remove the bluffing range
• Remove the middle (JJ, AQ, TT, KQs)
• Flat with premium hands (QQ+, AK)
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Things to consider
Before we make the adjustments we should be considering at least the
following things:
Position
If the preflop raiser is in early position his range is a little tighter than
when he is in late position. If we are in position he is going to be less
likely to call. If we are out of position he is going to be more likely to
call.
Stack sizes
If we are deep he is going to call more often (or should be). If he is shal-
low he is going to ship it in lighter.
Add trash
In position
This player type allows us to bluff them with a 3-bet. This is great. Sud-
denly we can get value from a hand like J7o simply because the preflop
raiser folds very often to 3-bets. And it is actually insanely important
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Out of position
Very often this is the first spot where we will see him adjust by some-
times calling us a little lighter than he normally would (suited connec-
tors, 88, KJs). This means that we should at least try to lower our pure
trash frequency.
Out of position
Even against a player who folds a lot to 3-bets I tend to 3-bet a hand
like KQs since we can 3-bet it for value when we are out of position.
The rule for 3-betting broadway hands is simply that we should consid-
er doing it when we can 3-bet them for value and we don’t fear getting
4-bet bluffed.
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Out of position
Again, some players will turn pocket pairs into a bluff. Against players
who play their position well and can hand read this is a poor idea; we
would cripple our check-raise line in single raised pots on flops like
K64tt. What would we be representing? And we still have the problem
that we make sure that we very rarely play our hand against the top of
his range where we have the best implied odds.
Out of position
Suited connectors are tougher to play out of position. Or I should say,
when we play suited connectors from the blinds in a single raised pot
we need to have a good postflop strategy in place, because we very
rarely can afford to see the action go check-check on the flop or to
check-fold too often. In short, if we don’t have a plan for postflop play
we can consider either 3-betting or folding suited connectors.
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Out of position
Suited aces can be treated much like suited connectors.
Out of position
Both calling and 3-betting is fine. We can 3-bet these hands for value
when we are out of position.
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Out of position
In the small blind we can flat if we have a squeezer behind us or we are
already playing a very aggro style in single raised pots. In the big blind
we lose one argument for flatting and should lean a little more towards
3-betting.
Bet sizing
Since our nuts:air ratio is (or should be) high when 3-betting this play-
er type we should re-raise a little smaller. When we are out of position
and tend to be 3-betting more for value we should choose a more nor-
mal bet size.
ABC my nuts:air ratio against this player type is at least 1:3.
Postflop play
So we are pounding on this dude like there is no tomorrow, since he
is snap folding the majority of the time. This makes it a lot easier to
play against him postflop; simply because his calling range is narrow
by design. That said, we should be less tempted to continue our bluff if
our perceived strength on the flop is not at least good. That means we
should be looking for high card flops.
This player is never folding an over pair on any board texture, so don’t
slow play or get tricky if you have a really strong hand.
Question 56: How do stack sizes affect what range of hands we can
3-bet/fold?
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While this is one possible adjustment it is not always the optimal one.
We should change the ratio by expanding our value range and fold the
worst trash preflop. This will not only lead to a change in our nuts:air
ratio but also lead to a more balanced 3-betting range, which will give
us more options postflop.
The way we punish a player who is calling a lot of 3-bets is to show up
postflop with a strong and balanced range that allows us to represent
more hand combinations. This is very important since we will have to
go to war a little with these guys and girls.
If the player is just calling a lot of 3-bets but snap-folding postflop a
balanced range is obviously less of a concern.
Bet sizing
The smaller our nuts:air ratio the bigger we can 3-bet. So against this
player type our 3-bet can become really big. If they are calling a 18bb
raise we should just smile and 3-bet really big when we have a strong
hand. They are willing to make a big mistake preflop and we would be
making a big mistake if we do not try to take advantage of that.
Postflop
Our strategy against players who call a lot of 3-bets is to punish them
for calling too much. So we have to fire a lot of c-bets. Everybody is
happy as long as it works. But sometimes we encounter a player who
is either calling many of our c-bets or even bluff raising them. Against
them we need a little more variation in our game.
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Exercises
1) Find 8 players in your poker tracker software and write down the
range of hands that you will 3-bet them with when you are in position.
Imagine that you are on the button and they are in the cut off. Use their
PFR, Fold to 3-bet, Call 3-bet and Raise 3-bet as your parameters.
2) Imagine that you are in the small blind and they are in the cut off.
Will you be 3-betting more hands for value?
3) What is your nuts:air ratio in each situation?
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4-bet bluffing
A natural reaction for many poker players when they face a lot of ag-
gression is to fight back. They get frustrated and will start to 4-bet bluff
while they are 100bb deep. This is a mistake against players who have
a balanced 3-betting range.
Depending a little on bet sizes a 4-bet bluff has to work roughly 60% of
the time to be +EV. So, if villain’s shoving range is TT+, AQ+ (4.7% of
all possible hand combinations), he can maintain a 3-bet percentage of
11,75%.
When we are 100bb deep the 4-bet bluff only works against players
who have skewed nuts:air ratio and players who get scared when they
see that we are willing to 4-bet bluff them.
Tip: When we are not afraid of getting 4-bet bluffed often we can skew
our nuts:air ratio. This allows us to 3-bet bluff the players we have po-
sition on like there is no tomorrow.
The right way to defend against a light 3-bettor when we are out of po-
sition and we don’t have a read on villain’s 3-betting range is to tighten
up our opening range and defend with hands like AJs+, AQo+ and the
pocket pairs that we think are ahead of his 3-betting range. My stand-
ard is 88+.
If we assume that villain has a balanced 3-betting range and that he is
shoving TT+, AQ+ an EV calculation shows that we can 4-bet and call a
shove with a very wide range (any hand that has more than 33% equity
against TT+, AQ+).
Don’t 4-bet fold when you are 100bb deep with the villain, unless you
know that he plays an unbalanced range.
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Calling 3-bets
First let me emphasize that we should not defend light against 3-bets if
villain is rarely bluffing unless we have a postflop read.
As with everything else our strategy should depend on the other player
in the hand. When I get 3-bet I divide my opening range into 4 different
parts.
Nuts
Hands that I’m happy defending with and where the fact that we have
position and that there is dead money in the pot is irrelevant. Against
most players this range is: QQ+, AK
Bluff stoppers
Hands I call with because I want to decrease his nuts:air ratio (most
players feel less tempted to 3-bet bluff when they are out of position
and there is a fair chance that their 3-bet will get called). This range is
dominated by suited connectors, suited one gappers, the smaller suited
aces and pocket pairs.
Trash
Hands that I will almost always fold.
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Tip: When you enter a 3-bet pot and you are without reads try to har-
vest as much information as possible.
• Did he check a flop you would auto c-bet?
• Did he c-bet a flop you would normally check?
• What was his bet size?
Many players get away with more or less auto c-betting in 3-bet pots
and as long as we never play back at them postflop it is a winning strat-
egy.
When you know what the villain is going to do on the next street there
is a leak in his game.
In this case the villain extends your odds (you know that more money
will go into the pot) and you can call with a much wider range of hands.
Too pretty to fold explodes and position becomes less relevant.
Question 57: Why does position lose some of its relevance (especially
in 3-bet pots) when we know that the villain is going to c-bet?
As the effective stack size increases the postflop value of hands that can
flop nut like flops increases.
Postflop play
Once I see a flop I group my hands into four categories based on how
big a pot I’m willing to play against the player I’m in the pot with:
Nuts
We either called with the intention of trapping or we flopped a strong
draw. All I’m worrying about is to get as much money in the pot as
possible. How that is best done depends on villain tendencies and the
game flow.
If there is no history I will slow play the made hands and shove the
strong draws.
If the villain has had success with double barrels I will be more tempt-
ed to shove both draws and strong made hands on the turn. The goal
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is then to try to change the dynamic and lower his nuts:air ratio on the
turn by expanding the shoving range on the turn.
Showdown is needed
Hands where we are not in love with the flop but willing to play a medi-
um sized pot. The problem is that the pot already is fairly large to begin
with.
A mistake that I see many players make is that they forget all about the
player they are in the pot with and play the absolute strength instead of
the relative strength of their hand. This often leads to too many situa-
tions where they call to reevaluate on the turn.
We can call to re-evaluate when we suspect that the other player in the
hand is going to give up or at least will try to pot control on the turn
and river. Otherwise we risk folding the best hand too often.
On board textures where we expect the 3-bettor to c-bet with his whole
range we should almost always call.
On board textures where we expect the 3-bettor to c-bet with a range
more geared towards strong made hands we should lean towards fold-
ing.
On board textures where there are a lot of draws we should consider
shoving for value.
Question 58: How would you play a strong made hand on a draw heavy
flop?
Re-bluffing
If we have had a hard time getting hands to showdown and we know
that we are getting bluffed frequently, we should look for ways to re-
bluff.
If there is a lot of dead money in the pot we can’t re-bluff (raise the
c-bet and fold to a shove) with many hands without committing our-
selves.
I prefer to use hands like back door flush draws and sometimes weak
made hands when I re-bluff on the flop.
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Question 59: What is the idea behind the raise? How big a raise should
we make?
Air
When we have air on the flop in a 3-bet pot we can try to bluff raise the
flop, but most of the time I prefer to just give up with hands that have
no hope and no draw.
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Exercises
1) Use your poker tracker software to pick 5 players and see if you can
figure out what range of hands they are 3-betting and 4-betting with.
• Does position play a central role?
• Is it a polarized range?
• Do they 3-bet small pocket pairs?
• Do they 3-bet suited connectors?
2) How do they play postflop?
3) How will you defend against them?
• Tempted to 4-bet bluff?
• Float 3-bet pots?
• Bluff raise the flop a lot?
• Call turn shoves light?
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Developing Reads
With the many statistics available in modern poker tracker software
like poker tracker 3 and Hold’em Manager one should think that every-
body now is really good at developing reads. Fact of the matter is that it
is a little more complex than just reading the numbers in the HUD.
Developing reads is the art of combining statistics, board textures, ten-
dencies (not reflected in the stats) and game flow. You are never going
to get good at it if you just click buttons. There is only one way and that
is hard work.
In my opinion one of the most important things is understanding how a
player’s tendencies affect his range not only on the current but also on
future streets.
The goal is to figure out if there is an unbalance in his range that allows
us to design a counter strategy. That counter strategy will often (almost
always) lead to an unbalance in our ranges which means that there is a
correct counter strategy that he should seek to deploy.
In this chapter I will try to mention some of the tendencies that I pay a
lot of attention to when I play.
Developing reads 77
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This observation translates to all other streets. The more honest a play-
er is on one street the less we should seek to bluff catch on the next.
Developing reads 78
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Dry flops
Some players have bet sizing tells on the turn and bluff raising turn
c-bets can be a very lucrative and simple strategy. But remember to tell
a plausible story. Most players actually have a polarized c-bet range on
the turn on dry flop. Against such a range a small raise to fold the air is
enough.
In general if a player’s range is polarized bluff raising small is very
profitable.
In 3-bet pots
If a player c-bets a lot in 3-bet pots we can use that to our advantage.
• We can call with more hands since we know that he is going to
c-bet.
Developing reads 79
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Against a player who 3-bets a polarized range and who tends to c-bet
his whole range postflop bluff raising the c-bets is very profitable be-
cause on most board textures he has air or a very strong hand and very
few bluff catchers.
Wet flops
If a player double barrels wet board textures a lot he has too many
hands that cannot play a big pot (air and weak made hands). Here de-
layed semi-bluffs, slow playing and bluff catching are our friends.
Check-raise tendencies
If I see a player check-fold a flop, where I would expect a fair amount of
check-raises, I will always try to find a reason. If there is not an obvious
reason I will make two adjustments.
1. I will give the player a lot of respect in the future if he check-rais-
es me.
2. I will c-bet every marginal draw.
Most aggressive players love to check-raise. And it is a strategy that
many find hard to combat. But by observing their check-raise tenden-
cies, their calling range from the blinds and combining them with the
board textures there is a good chance that we can find textures where
they rarely have something. They simply check-raise those board tex-
tures because they know that the relative hand strength of almost any
hand is pretty poor.
Question 64: Can you come up with an example of such a board tex-
ture?
Developing reads 80
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The River
Developing reads on the river is in my opinion by far the most complex
thing in poker. Not only do we need to analyse how the action and the
board texture affected villain’s range we also have to think about his
tendencies on the river. This is why it is crucial that we pay close atten-
tion to the hands that get to showdown and how they got there.
Some of the questions we are seeking an answer to as the preflop caller
are:
• Does he value bet thin or does he prefer to check-call the river
with hands that rarely get called by worse?
• Does he check-raise the river for value?
• Does he merge ranges (bet hands that are ahead of our bluff
catching range but too weak to value bet)?
• Does he follow through with missed draws?
The goal is to figure out how polarized his range is on the river, since
that will allow us to figure out if we should bluff catch or bluff raise.
As the preflop raiser we are conversely interested in his tendencies to
Developing reads 81
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bluff catch and bluff raise. Against players who never or rarely bluff
raise the river we should value bet thin and often merge our ranges.
The classic spot for range merging is when all draws missed, we have
a strong second pair type hand and we bet both flop, turn and river. In
this spot we can expect to get looked up light so in order to balance our
range on the river (make it less exploitable) we can expand our value
range with hands that we cannot bet for true value but which are ahead
of villain’s bluff catching range.
Taking Notes
Taking good notes is a vital part of mid stakes and highs takes poker.
Mental notes are fine, but if you have problems with remembering a lot
of details I suggest that you start taking notes. My general recommen-
dations:
• If you are break even start taking notes.
• If you are taking a shot take a lot of notes.
• If you don’t have time to take notes you are playing too many
tables.
Personally I start by writing down all the basic observations I make.
Later I transform them into more general comments and finally I out-
line an actual strategy where the observations become arguments for
my adjustments.
Because I collect a lot of information during a session, I prefer to clean
up my notes when I make the review. Often I take a short break or I
may wait until the next day but I try not to start a new session before I
have reviewed the last.
Cleaning up notes and turning them into strategies while reviewing
sessions is one of the exercises that has helped me the most.
Developing reads 82
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Developing reads 83
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Exercises
1) Watch a member video from deucescracked.com and try to develop
a read on hero. What seems to be his tendencies? Look at the following
aspects of his game:
• What range of hands does he raise preflop?
• Does he make any adjustments to the table conditions?
• What range of hands does he call with from the blinds?
• What tendencies does he have when it comes to 3-betting?
• How does he defend against 3-bets?
• How much does he c-bet?
• Does he fire a lot of second barrels?
• What is his check-call range on the flop as the preflop raiser?
• How does he play from the blinds? Passive or aggressive?
• Does he donk?
• How does he play marginal flush draws when he has position?
• Does he slow play a lot?
• Bet sizing? Always the same or does he think about his sizing?
• Any bluffs on the river?
What would your strategy be against him?
2) Pick a player from your database and repeat exercise 1.
3) Play fewer tables than normal on a regular basis where you focus on
developing reads.
Developing reads 84
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The Cinema
In this chapter you will find low budget recordings of coaching ses-
sions.
The cinema 85
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The cinema 87
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The cinema 88
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