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MED - Blind Play

Blind Versus Blind Situations: Preflop Online Poker Excerpt | Podcast #192

By Sky Matsuhashi on June 29, 2018

I play for you “Blind Versus Blind Situations”, a chapter from my latest audiobook, Preflop Online Poker.

In episode 191, I discussed the leak of ignoring your physical health and what you can do to get on a healthy track.

Sub-domino 4.3: Blind Versus Bind Situations (4:20)

The 3 Blind Versus Blind Considerations (4:20)

  1. Follow Your Ranges (5:40)
  2. Know the Opponent (9:35)
  3. Prepare for Villain’s Reaction (13:30)

Statistics to Track This Week Segment (16:30)

Play with Purpose Segment (17:10)

Study with Purpose Segment (18:05)

Support the Show

John Tahos became the latest person to purchase my PokerTracker 4 Smart HUD.   He’s on his way to exploiting the heck out of his opponents.  Along with the HUD (cash, MTT and SNG) he received access to some great video training on how to use the HUD and get more out of PT4.

Roi (podcast listener and a reader of my books) won the 7th Anniversary Sunday Storm!

Up Next…

In episode 193, I’ll answer your questions in a new Q&A episode.

Until next time, study smart, play much and make your next session the best one yet.

Blind Vs Blind | MED #4 Class 3 | Poker Podcast #120

By Sky Matsuhashi on February 15, 2017

blind vs blind

I conclude MED #4 on Blind Play as I discuss blind vs blind confrontations along with the most important stats that will help you take down more pots pre-flop.

Episode 119 contained commentary from a 25NL session I played.  I made some good plays and some mistakes, but I talked some valuable strategy throughout.

4 Step Plan for BvB Confrontations

1. Set your ranges

My cash rangesWhen I’m first to act in the SB, I use my BTN opening range.  I use this range because it’s a great steal opportunity against the right BB players.  I’ll steal from them until they fight back.

If the BB starts to fight back with either calls or 3bets, I’ll re-assess and tighten up if necessary to avoid the 3bets or to see the flop OOP w/ too wide of a range.

When I’m in the BB and the SB open limps, I raise with my entire BTN range.

I view SB open-limps as a super weak and passive way of trying to see the flop super cheap.  I can’t allow this.  Depending on the SB player, I’ll make it either 3bb’s if they have a high Limp/Fold stat.  Or, I’ll make it 4bb’s if it’s going take a little more persuasion to get them to fold.

Another reason to raise over limps is so that you can more profitably cbet bluff on the flop.  As the raiser, you have a stronger expected range so you can more successfully cbet on Ace, King and Queen high flops.

In the BB, when the SB open raises I defend with my 20% CO opening range.  The reason I use this pretty wide range is because I’ve got position, and lots of my SB opponents are just like me and they open-raise wide.  This makes it very difficult for them to defend vs my 3bet, and it’s difficult to go post-flop with such a wide range OOP.

A note about using ranges: you don’t have to stick with them.  Poker is a game about making the best decisions possible.  If a hand falls within your range, but you feel it’s -EV to play it, then you’re better off folding the hand.  Use that poker intellect of yours and decide if a given action will result in the outcome you’re looking for.

2. Know your opponent

Knowing your opponent gives you the best chance for successful bluffs or gaining extra value.  Here are some questions to ask yourself:

  • Does your opponent fold a lot?
  • Do they 3bet a lot or call way too often?
  • How about their post-flop game?
  • Do they fold to cbets, are they turn honest, or are they a station capable of calling down with 3rd pair?

The more you know about your opponent the better, and if you know they won’t react the way you want them to, then you may want to change plays or adjust bet sizings.

When you’re up against an unknown raise them until they let you know they won’t be pushed around, then adjust accordingly.

Also look to their post-flop game to get an idea of how you can exploit them should you get to the flop.  If they hate folding post, then go for value only.  If they’re foldy, then you can pull off some good bluffs.  The more often they fold post-flop, the more you want to get into bloated pots with them, especially IP.

5 HUD Stats

Here are 5 HUD stats that will tell you loads about your opponent:

  1. BB Fold vs SB Steal: this is key in BvB situations. The higher the better, and anything over 75% deserves to be stolen from freely until they fight back.  But if they fold a lot and you’ve got a premium hand, you may want to raise less to try to get action from them.
  2. Attempt to Steal: this is a key stat to help you judge the strength of the SB’s open raise. Anything over 30% deserves at least the consideration of a 3bet resteal or a call.  But before you 3bet resteal, make sure you also look at their 2bet Preflop and Fold in the SB stat.
  3. 3bet vs Steal: another killer stat to help you gauge how likely the BB will 3bet over your SB raise. Anything over 8% over a decent sample is a player who loves to resteal.  Be careful before opening before these blokes.
  4. Fold to Flop & Turn Cbet: look at these stats if you’re considering the raise pre-flop. See what street they get honest on so you know if you will likely have to barrel bluff or if just the flop will do.  See how often they fold IP vs OOP as well to help you plan the hand even better.
  5. Cbet Flop & Turn: same as the fold to cbet stats just mentioned. These help you to see how likely you’ll be facing bets and barrels post-flop, and can save you necessary pre-flop calling chips if things are looking to get ugly post-flop.

3. Plan the hand

In a BvB confrontation your initial choices are:

  • Fold
  • Limp in the SB
  • Call in the BB
  • Check your BB if the SB limps in
  • Raise in either position

But the action doesn’t end with your first choice (other than fold): You’ve got to think ahead and plan for how your opponent could react.  If you’re in the SB and open raise, you should have an idea of how you’ll approach the flop should they call, and also know how you’ll respond to a reraise.

Having a plan keeps things simple and keeps you from getting surprised.  There’s an adage I really like (don’t know who said it): If you’re surprised by how your opponent responds, then you didn’t give it enough thought.

4. Follow through with your plan

You made your plan, now it’s time to stick to it.  Maybe you raised with the intent to fold to a re-raise, but your opponent times down then min-re-raises you.  This feels like a bluff re-raise.  Is your KTs now good enough to do battle?  Maybe, maybe not.  But, your intent was to raise as a steal, and a re-raise means you’re absolutely beat.  Don’t go back on your plan just because of the odds being offered.

You generally want to follow your plan, but when the flop/turn/river hits, things can change quickly.  Maybe you planned on folding most flops with your speculative 86s vs the flop honest cbettor, but what if you flop a full house and the opponent leads out?  Well, flopping the nuts means a change of plans is in order.  It’s okay to adjust your plans when things take a drastic change on the turn of a card.

Post-flop Play in BvB situations

In general, you’re going to approach post-flop play like you would at any other time.  You’re either IP or OOP, vs an aggressive or passive or foldy player.  Take each situation individually and make a plan for the ftr once that flop hits.

But, one important thing to note in BvB confrontations is that we’re often dealing with wider ranges.  People open wide and call wide out of the blinds.  They’re fighting for the blind after all!

When thinking about wide ranges, they can hit flops pretty hard, but they miss quite often, they make a lot of mediocre pairs or they hit weak to strong draws.

You’ll want to take advantage of position when in BB, and put pressure on your opponent’s wider ranges.  Be a bit more careful in the SB as they’ve got position on you.  Fold to Cbet IP and OOP, as well as Cbet IP and OOP are key stats to fixate on.

Not so many Aces…

Something interesting: a calling range of 22% consists of 290 hands, and only 76 of them contain an Ace (26%).  This range hits TP+ only about 20% of the time.

Many of us in BvB confrontations get scared when the Ace hits.  But, if your opponent has a wide calling range, they’re likely folding a ton on Ace high boards.  Use that flopped Ace to your advantage, especially if you were the pre-flop raiser.  In your opponent’s mind, you’ve got tons of Aces in your range so they’re more likely to fold to your cbet.

You should have a general idea of how to approach post-flop decisions given the likely wide ranges in play.  But, keep in mind what I said back in episode #113:  If you’re flummoxed, don’t flounder, just fold.

Challenge

Here’s my challenge to you for this episode:  Open up Flopzilla and do some Ace combo counting.  How many Aces does a 10% calling range have?  What about a 15, a 25, or even a 30% calling range?  How many Aces does a 15% opening range contain?  What about a 20 or a 35% opening range?  Start doing some work on this off the tables and you’ll soon realize that an Ace on the flop isn’t the scariest thing when you’re not holding an Ace yourself.

Now it’s your turn to take action and do something positive for your poker game.

The NUTTS (Notably Urgent Things To Study)

With every podcast episode, I’m going to give you 2-3 additional pieces of content you can study from somewhere on the interwebs or in books

I’ve got three goals I’m pursuing with the NUTTS segment:

  1. To spur you to pursue your own studies
  2. Expose you to new ideas
  3. To expand your online poker resource catalog

So, to continue your studies into Blind vs Blind play, here are 2 pieces of content to study:

  1. Last year Gripsed.com put out a great article and video called “How to Play Blind vs Blind in Tournament Poker.” This article helps tournament players grasp the workings of BvB play in tournaments and addresses specific MTT and SNG considerations like stack sizes and tourney stages.
  2. In general, I don’t like limping ever, even open limping in the SB. But, I truly haven’t studied the implications or the benefits of limping all that much yet.  But, I came across an article on RedChipPoker.com called “YOU SHOULD LIMP MORE OFTEN PREFLOP.”  It’s a convincing argument for including limps into your arsenal of plays.  It’s definitely worth a read even if you don’t start limping into pots, as it’ll give you insight into why some players limp.

Shout-outs

PT4 Purchases – John C. and Elio F. – Show Your Support Through My PokerTracker 4 Affiliate

Up Next…

In podcast #121, I’ll be hitting you with my 2017 SMART Poker Goals.

Until next time, study smart, play much and make your next session the best one yet.

Post-flop Blind Defense | MED #4 Class 2 | Poker Podcast #113

By Sky Matsuhashi on December 29, 2016

post-flop blind defense

I continue MED #4 on blind play as I discuss post-flop blind defense in both HU and MW pots, and hunting for and plugging post-flop leaks.

Assuming a Good Pre-flop Plan (2:30)

To simplify things, we’re going to make a few assumptions:

  1. We’re OOP
  2. We made a pre-flop plan for post-flop play
  3. Because we’re OOP and we had a plan, we’re okay with playing this hand, right now, OOP, post-flop.

With these three assumptions in mind, you’re going to encounter two basic post-flop situations; either seeing the flop multi-way or seeing it HU.

Post-flop Blind Defense: Multi-way Pots

Multi-way pots are simply any hand that gets to the flop with 3+ players.

General Approach to OOP Multi-way Pots (4:00)

In these spots it’s really important to play solid post-flop poker because you’re OOP.  You need to be making good choices with reads, stats and player tendencies to back-up your plays.

The more people in the pot, the more careful you need to be because more people = more landmines in this post-flop battle.

The good news is that you’ve probably got a tighter range full of strong and playable hands.  Good pre-flop hand choices will give you easier post-flop decisions. 

4 things that you need to consider before acting
  1. Consider the players who remain in the hand. The more stationy they are, the less likely your bluffs will work, but the more value you may be able to extract.  And the nittier they are, the more folds you’ll get.
  2. TP hands are not so good vs 3-4 other players. The more players there are, the more likely somebody hit something they won’t be folding, whether it’s any type of draw, a set or some 2p hand.  Be ready to ditch “good” hands like TPWK when you face significant multi-way post flop action.
  3. There’s no need to fight for your pre-flop chips in the pot. That money is no longer yours.  It’s generally okay to play fit or fold on the flop when you’re OOP vs many players.  You called for good reason pre-flop, but the flop just didn’t help you.  Don’t throw good money at bad situations.
  4. Answer this question: “How can I make money here?” If you don’t know how you’re going to earn the pot now, ditch early and get out cheaply.  Quote of the day from me:

If you’re flummoxed, don’t flounder, just fold.

Flopping a Strong Hand in MW Pots (6:05)

  • If you hit the flop hard, bet strong to limit the players that see the turn and to charge any draws.
  • Consider the players who remain in the hand. Open limpers are definitely not good players and are often very stationy, so you should try to extract the max value from them.  Bet, bet, bet vs the stations that will pay you off.
  • I just stated above that you should bet, bet, bet when you flop a killer hand vs stations… BUT, you don’t need to go for 3 streets of value. Pay attention to the way your opponents play the pot as well.  If they raise, are they doing so with worse hands?  If they cbet certain sizings, are they doing so as bluffs?  If they’re calling you down, could they be calling and not raising with a hand that actually beats you?  You’ve got to put your hand reading skills to use to determine if your hand is still above their likely range, or if their actions spell a stronger hand than yours.

Flopping a Marginal Hand or Draw in MW Pots (7:10)

  • Marginal hands and draws are not always worth continuing with. If the price you’re being offered is right to call with the 2-2 Rule in mind, or if you’re able to check and see a free turn card, then great!  But, don’t stick around just because you might hit your gut-shot or your J8 on the J23 board might be good.
  • If you’re going to bluff with a raise, the sooner you do so the better. If you check-call the flop with a plan to check-raise the turn, you’re risking loads more chips than if you had just check-raise bluffed the flop.  As the pot builds, your bluffs are more costly.

Post-flop Blind Defense: Heads Up

It’s these situations where your post-flop skills should allow you to exploit your opponent’s tendencies and either get the value you’re looking for the fold you’re looking for.

General Approach to HU Play (8:10)

In HU, you’re dealing with only one opponent which should allow you to use some of your more exploitative plays that are harder to pull off vs multiple opponents.

4 considerations for HU play
  1. Consider the player you’re up against. Stations won’t fold but give value, nits are just the opposite.  The LAG’s and TAG’s can take a little more work, but use their stats against them and go with the plays that can really make things tough on them.
  2. TP hands are pretty good vs 1 other player. “Weak” hands in MW pots could easily be strength in HU pots.  Don’t just throw away your TPWK hands.  Think about what hands your opponent is repping, their likely range and how well it interacts with the board before you ditch those SD worthy hands.
  3. There’s still no need to fight for your pre-flop chips in the pot. That blind money in the pot is no longer yours, so it’s okay to ditch the hand if the situation is unfavorable.  But, when you’re HU, bluffs are easier to pull off.  Just plan them according to the tendencies of your opponent.  If you think he won’t fold to any bluff, no matter how big, then just ditch the hand.  If he ain’t folding, you ain’t bluffing.
  4. Great question: “How can I make money here?” And once again, if you don’t know how you’re going to earn the pot now, just ditch the hand.

Flopping a Value Hand (10:05)

  • When you hit the flop really strong, you generally don’t want to check-raise. This gives him the opportunity to ditch his extremely wide bluff cbetting range.  Check-call instead, then check the turn with intent to raise or just check-call again.  If villain checks behind on the turn, that’s okay.  It’s not ideal, but you can still bet the river for some value.
  • If your opponent is a station, go for max value. Maybe not bet as big as 80%, but at least lead out on the flop at 2/3 pot.  Then increase or decrease the sizing on future streets based on how likely you think the opponent will call.
  • If your opponent is a post-flop aggressor (high AFq), throw out the 1/2 pot donk bet and hope for a raise. Just call the raise then make a small turn bet.  Keep firing until you take his stack or he decides to fold.
  • If you’re up against a total post-flop nit, just check and hope he bets or checks behind and catches something on the turn. Do not bet into foldy players on good flops.

Flopping a Marginal Hand or Draw (11:40)

When you’re OOP, especially vs just one opponent, there are lots of ways you can bluff with weak hands: check-raises, donk leads and OOP floats.

The Bluff Check-raise

When you check-raise, your sizing should be at least 2.5x to make a re-raise very costly.  If you min check-raise, they can min 3bet and that has to work far less often and still be profitable.

You don’t want to check-raise willy-nilly.  Not all flops are equal, and not all hands are worth check-raising.  It’s much better to check-raise bluff when there are lots of turn cards that add drawing equity to your hand.  When you hit a card that gives you a better draw, you can fire the turn for lots of fold equity.  And, if you get called again, there’s still a chance you’ll hit your draw on the river.

Make sure to limit how often you make this play.  It’s great and it’s profitable, but doing it too often will convince your opponents that you’re bluffing.

Also, if you make the check-raise, but the opponent calls and the turn card doesn’t help you, then you don’t have to follow that up with a double-barrel bluff.  The situation went from good to bad, so don’t throw more money at.  Save the chips and use them to pull another one of these in the future.

The Bluff Donk Bet

Donk betting is a great way to throw off your opponents.  Take a look at their Fold to Donk Bet stat, and if it’s high, then this could be a profitable play on the flop.  You could even make a delayed donk bet vs opp’s who double-barrel a lot.

First you check-call the flop after timing down a little bit.  Timing down makes it look like you were contemplating a check-raise for value.  Then on the turn, you throw out the delayed donk bet after timing down just a little bit.  Your two time downs will look like you’re contemplating going for value, and many opp’s will ditch their hand at this point.

You want to know how often your donk lead needs to work and compare this to their Fold to Donk Bet stat:

  • ¼ pot – needs to work 20% of the time as a bluff
  • 1/3 pot – 25%
  • ½ pot – 33%
  • 2/3 pot – 40%
  • ¾ pot – 43%
  • Full psb – 50%

When your donk lead just gets called, he’s likely capped his range.  If he had a really good hand, he’d raise you for value.  So, his call indicates some sort of draw, underpair or weak TP hand.  You can fire a second barrel on cards that don’t help his range.

The Flop OOP Float

Here’s a really interesting play that I use to great effect.  Here’s the PokerTracker 4 filter for it:

OOP flop float filter

Here’s how the flop OOP float play works:

  1. You check-call on the flop on boards that could hit your range. Time down a little bit before you hit the call button to make it look like you’re thinking about raising.
  2. On the turn, time down then check. Hopefully he checks behind.
  3. Then on the river waste no time in donk leading. You want this bet to look like you were hoping to check-raise him on the turn, but you missed your chance so now the only way to get value is to bet out.

This play is extremely valuable against turn honest players.  If you find someone who cbets 70% on the flop, then it drops down to 30% on the turn, these are perfect players to target.

But time down!  Make it look like you’re considering how to extract maximum value with your strong flopped hand.

5 Post-flop Leaks in the Blinds (19:35)

Leak 1: A Negative Win Rate OOP in MW Pots

OOP MW filter

  • If this is anything positive, that’s great! It could mean a few different things:
    1. You’re getting here with strong hands and you’re playing well by extracting value
    2. It could mean you’re considering your opp’s and the board and you’re making successful bluffs
    3. Or it could mean that you’re ditching all but your strong hands and strongest draws, and only staying in when it’s +EV to do so.
    4. Or it could be a combination of all 3 above
  • But, a negative win rate and you’ve got a couple of possible leaks:
    1. You may not be thinking through your decisions pre-flop and you don’t realize how –EV the situation is. You fix this by asking yourself one simple question before every pre-flop decision: “How can I make money with this hand in this position against these players?”  If you can’t think of a way to make money other than hitting a miracle flop, then just fold.
    2. Another leak might be that you’re continuing with weak hands and draws. You fix this by not being afraid to ditch those TPWK hands, or those low flush draws and weak straight draws.  Lots of players don’t want to look weak to their opponents and they stay in by calling too wide or pushing their bluffs too hard.  If it doesn’t look profitable, don’t flounder, just fold.

Leak 2: Losing Money Post-flop When HU and OOP

OOP HU filter

  • If it’s positive, once again, great! But, go ahead and take a look at your biggest losing hands and see if there are some things you could’ve done better.
  • If it’s negative, there are two common causes for this:
    1. You don’t like to give up post-flop vs just one other player. So, many of us feel that folding on the flop to just a single bet, vs one villain, means you’re weak and your opp’s will walk all over you.  This isn’t the case at all, as long as you’re folding when it makes sense to do so.  Think about your options and the plays we’ve discussed today.  A check-raise, a donk lead or even a flop check-call then a delayed river donk lead could win you the pot.
    2. You’re too passive or aggressive with your marginal hands and draws. If you get aggressive too often on flops, for whatever reason, your opponents won’t give you the credit you deserve.  And if you’re calling weak draws too often?  They’re getting extra value from your passivity.  Only continue beyond the flop with good hands, good draws, or a compelling reason to do so like a good bluff opportunity on a future street.

Leak 3: Losing When Calling on the Flop

Leak: flop calling filter

  • A negative win rate here is bad, but you can fix this.
    1. Review all of your losing hands. And I do mean ALL of your losing hands.  You might be surprised to see how many small 8-12bb pots you’ve lost.  This might not sound like a lot, but a pre-flop call and a call on the flop could easily be 8-12bb’s, and lots of these smallish losing pots = one big hit to your win rate in the blinds.  So you need to see what types of marginal hands and draws and situations you’re calling in, take note of what stands out to you, and commit to not making those calling mistakes again.
    2. Sort the hands returned in the filter by card strength. Take a look and see how many off-suit broadways, off-suit Aces and off-suit connectors and gappers you’re calling with.  Also, look for the crappy suited cards as well.  If you’re calling pre-flop with a lot of A6o, 98o, KTo, J7s or K8s hands, then you’ve got to tighten up pre-flop to make for better post-flop situations.  Remember, you’re going to be OOP so choose hands that flop well and are easy to play.

Leak 4: Losing Money When Check-Raising the Flop

check-raise filter

 

  • Thanks for coming to the show notes to check-out these final two leaks!
  • A negative win rate here is a leak, but fixable.
    • Review all of your losing hands. What are you doing wrong?  Are your value check-raises getting sucked out on?  Maybe you need to raise more to charge the draws and weaker hands.  Are they calling every one of your bluffs?  Maybe you’re missing indications that they will never fold on this flop.  Figure out what you’re doing wrong and resolve to fix it.

Leak 5: Losing Money on the Donk Bet

flop donk bet filter

  • And again, you’re looking for profitability with your donk bets.
    1. Review all of your losing hands. Just like leak #4, figure out why you’re losing money.  Are you choosing bad spots?  Are you donk leading with enough back-door draws that could allow for the second barrel?  Are you a one and done donk bettor?

Challenge (25:20)

Here’s my challenge to you for this episode:  Run all of the leak finding filters mentioned today, and it’s very likely at least one of them will show a negative BB/100 hands win rate.  Choose the most costly leak to fix this week.  Review every one of the losing hands, and try to figure out what you’re doing wrong.  Are your pre-flop hand selections good?  Are you taking into account all the info available to you to make solid post-flop choices?  Are you taking into account the opponent, their range, the strength of your hand and how you can likely make money in this spot?  Resolve to focus on this leak with each session you play this week, and review any applicable hands the following day to determine if you’re making better decisions or not.

Now it’s your turn to take action and do something positive for your poker game.

Up Next…

In podcast #114 I’ll give you a special episode in honor of ‘Mashing the Micros.’

Until next time, study smart, play much and make your next session the best one yet.

Pre-flop Blind Defense | MED #4 Class 1 | Poker Podcast #110

By Sky Matsuhashi on December 9, 2016

pre-flop blind defense

I begin MED #4 on blind play with pre-flop blind defense.  I discuss the most important concepts to understand, and 4 pre-flop blind leaks.

In episode #108, I showed you what to look for when fighting back against your opponent’s 3bet aggression.

Making a Plan (3:45)

Blind Basics (6:25)

In the long run, you’ll be negative in profitability from the blinds.  This is because you’re forced to put money in the pot with a random hand.  And you can’t win or even play them all.

So, what kind of win rate should you shoot for?

  • If you folded every BB, your win rate would be -100bb/100 hands.
  • Folding every SB would make your win rate -50bb/100 hands.
  • Combined, this would make your BB and SB total win rate be -75bb/100 hands.  This is like saying you’re paying 100% of your blinds and it’s going to the other players at the table or the rake.
  • A good rate to target would be -30bb/100 in the blinds combined.  This is a 45bb/100 hands savings, which you can think of as not paying your blinds 60% of the time.

At 100NL, this would equate to a $45 savings in blind loss every 100 hands in the blinds.

If you’re an MTT player, you’ll want to shoot for -35bb/100 hands or lower.

You’re in the blinds 22% of the time in FR games, and 34% of the time in 6-max games.  This is double any other single position.  So, because you spend extra time in these unprofitable positions, you’ve got to do whatever you can to minimize your losses here.

In poker, a penny saved is a penny earned, so any improvement you can make in the blinds goes directly to your bottom line.

It’s even more important to defend your blinds in MTT’s.  There’s an additional 1bb or so in every tourney pot after the antes kick-in, and you’ve got to fight for this.  Vs a 2.5 bb raise, you need to have 27% equity to defend the BB without the antes in place (and that’s your 1.5bb call divided by the total pot of 5.5bb’s).

With antes in place, that adds a full .9bb’s to fight for.  Now you’re calling 1.5bb’s to win a total pot of 6.4bb’s.  So, 1.5 / 6.4 = 23%.  You need only 23% to make the call.   Just to put that into perspective, you can call a pretty tight opening range of 10% with 72o!  Crazy how those antes make the pot big enough for you to call with such crappy hands.

Now, don’t get the wrong idea, I’m not saying you should call with 72o just b/c the math is right.  You’ve got to think about how your hand can make money in this spot before you make your pre-flop play.

Pre-flop Blind Defense Ranges and Options (8:35)

Back in episodes 90, 91 and 94 I gave you my suggested pre-flop ranges (there was even a nice Pre-flop Ranges Infographic offered).

But, here are the ranges in the blinds:

pre-flop blind defense ranges

Before Folding

Of course you’re going to fold those crap hands that you never want to play: 82o, J4o and 32o.  Even when these have the requisite equity to over-limp into a 6-way pot, just don’t bother.  You’re just wasting your money on the off-chance you’ll strike the flop hard.

Stay tight especially when calling multi-way pots because you’ve got to hit super hard to make any money.  And even when you do hit, it’s hard to get paid off in multi-way pots.

You also want to fold hands that look pretty, but the spot is just ugly.  Let’s say UTG opened and 4 others called.  You look down to see KTo in the SB.  Do you want to call and go to a 6 or 7-way flop OOP with a hand that’s easily out kicked and beaten even when you flop TP?  No?  Good.

Before Calling

Most Common Situation: Vs an Open Raise

Before calling, we need to assess the situation and determine if we really want to get involved.  You’re about to willing go post-flop and likely be OOP.

You want to ask yourself questions like:

  • Am I getting myself in a terrible spot?
  • Is this a profitable opportunity to make money?
  • Are we going to face difficult decisions?
  • Will our opponents make it tough to extract value, or maybe tough to bluff from OOP?
Vs EP Raises
  • We shouldn’t call very often because EP openers have very strong ranges in general.  We’re also likely to face lots of cbets from them. Calling OOP vs strong ranges is not a bread and butter situation.  This is key, ask yourself every time before you call OOP, “Am I getting myself into a terrible spot?”  We all know the 3 advantages; Card/Position/Skill.  Giving up any one is bad, and willingly calling OOP is doing just that.  So, you’d better have a good reason to do so.
  • Our calling range should be pretty small, hence the 9% range I recommend. We can call pp’s for set-mining as long as we’ve got 20x stacks behind.  Think about how likely you’ll get value out of the opp if you do catch your set.
  • We can also lose a lot when we call with hands with reverse implied odds.  These are hands that often win small pots (like A9o and KTo) but have the potential to lose big pots.
Vs Steals
  • You want to make most of your calls in the blinds vs aggressive stealers. These guys are getting in there with very wide ranges that you can get some value from, but they do have position on you.  So, your hand range should be generally stronger when OOP vs aggro players.
  • Broadways like AJ and KQ and KJ can get lots of value from the stealer’s wide range
  • You could consider calling even bigger hands like AK and AQ and big pp’s like TT+. These hands are much better than their opening range, so going post-flop can be very profitable.  Just make sure to play solid post-flop poker to get the most out of these hands.
  • It’s generally okay to play fit or fold on the flop when you’re OOP and calling a steal. You called for good reason pre-flop, but maybe the flop didn’t help you out.  Don’t throw good money at it.
  • When you hit the flop really strong and face a cbet, you generally don’t want to check-raise.  Check-raises look really strong to most players and gives them the opportunity to ditch their extremely wide bluff cbetting range.  Either lead out or check-call then get aggressive on the turn.
First to Act in the Small Blind
  • You don’t want to open limp in the SB when it’s folded around to you. Most of the time the BB will come in for a raise because of your weak OOP limp, so just don’t do it.  Raise First In or Fold, don’t just call.
  • If you’re raising, make sure you know if it’s for value or a bluff. Knowing this will allow you to plan your response in case the BB 3bets you.
  • If you’re stealing, then it’s great if the BB is a nitty player or folds a lot to steals. Think about why you’re about to raise, and look for indications that your raise will achieve the desired results
  • Before opening, look at the Fold v Steal and Fold BB to SB Steal stats.  Your 3bb open steal has to work 63% of the time (2.5/4).
  • Look at their 3b vs Steal stat as well.
  • Post-flop play stats are important. If they fold a lot post-flop, this might sway you to steal pre-flop a little more often.
  • Remember, you’re possibly going post-flop OOP. Is this a good spot to risk that non-bread and butter situation occurring?  If you’re not willing to go post-flop, don’t open
  • Sizing: adjust based on opponent. 3x is my standard, but if you know they call 3bb’s a lot, then size it bigger to 3.5-4x.
  • If this BB is giving you particular trouble, then you should be changing tables. If it’s tough vs him in blind confrontations, it’ll be tough in CO v BTN, etc.

Every play in poker

Multi-way Limped Pots
  • The more people in the pot, the tighter you should be.
  • Think about the hand you’re dealt and what position you’ll be in post-flop and ask yourself, “How the heck can I make money here?”  If it’s worthy of a raise or a call for whatever reason, go ahead and make it.
  • I use a 7% range in the SB when I raise over limpers, but I use this judiciously based on the number and types of limpers. I want to stay out of trouble, so I’m looking to build the pot with stronger hands vs players that I’m comfortable playing OOP with.
  • You can raise a little more frequently vs one limper over many. You can consider it an isolation raise and take advantage of any post-flop weaknesses.
  • Sometimes your SB raises get called by the BB, or even 3bet. Plan for both of these before you make your play. If you’re surprised and don’t know how to react to an opp’s 3bet, then you didn’t give your raise enough thought in the first place.
  • If you hit the flop hard, bet strong to limit the players that see the turn and to charge those draws.
  • Consider the players who remain in the hand.  Open limpers are definitely not good players so you should try to extract the max value from them.  If you made a large flop bet and they called, keep up the large bets on the turn and river and hopefully this limpy station will pay you off.

Before Raising (24:30)

Value 3bets:
  • When value 3betting, we’ve got to be reasonably sure they’re continuing with worse by either calling or 4betting.
  • My standard 3bet sizing from the blinds, whether for value or as a bluff, is a bit over 3x. So I’ll often be making it 10 or 11bb’s.   You can adjust your sizing to try and gain some light 4betting from your opp’s.  If they’re LAGgy and are capable of re-restealing, then you might want to size it smaller to induce the 4bet.  You can then 5bet or time down and call to lull them into thinking you’ve got JJ-TT or AK.
  • If you’re not sure if your JJ or AK is a value hand against an opponent, then you can just flat instead and play post-flop with a great hand. Just be sensible and capable of ditching the hand if necessary.
  • Before you make any 3bet, you should be doing so for value or as a bluff, and you should know exactly what you’ll do vs a 4bet. If you get 4bet and find you don’t know how to respond, then you didn’t give the 3bet enough thought.
  • It’s alright to call with KK+ especially if you think the opp won’t continue with worse. If they’ll fold all worse pairs and Ax hands to your 3bet, then don’t make the 3bet.  Call and go post-flop with your super strong hand.
Bluff Resteals:
  • When bluffing, our goal is to win the pot then and there. We don’t want calls.
  • Some of their stats really help:
    • High Attempt to Steal Stat (30%+)
    • High Fold vs Resteal (over 75% is killer)
    • High Fold vs 3bet After Raising (70%+)
  • Steer away from attacking good players from OOP.
  • Plan ahead for which openers to exploit from the blinds. If they’re likely to fold, then your cards don’t matter as much.  Blockers are always good as they make it more likely they’ll fold.  But, if they fold a ton, like 80%+, then you can resteal with ATC.  If their fold % is lower, your hole cards and blockers are more important.
  • Sizing should be 3x-4x, somewhere in that range. Like I said before, 10-11bb’s is my common 3bet sizing.
  • Go with hands that are either big bluffs or just below your calling range. JTs is great for calling, so maybe pop it with J9s or J8s.

If they never fold, don't bluff!

Pre-flop Leaks in the Blinds (30:40)

Leak 1: SB Open-limping Too Often

Under Actions and Opportunities Pre-flop, filter for Posted SB and Limped First In

  • If your BB/100 win rate is an ugly negative number, then you’ve got a problem. Go through the hands and look at the various strengths.  Sort them by amount won or lost as well.  Review the hands that stick out to you and figure out what you’re doing wrong.  Remember, you should be raising instead of open-liming in the SB.

Now, switch up this filter for Posted SB and Raised First In

  • For me, under the first filter of Limped First In, my win rate was +9bb/100 hands. But, my win rate when raising first in in the SB is a whopping +119bb/100 hands.
  • Check out your own results, you should be a winning player when raising first in because you’re making good choices and going for value or bluffing correctly.

Leak 2: Set-mining Too Often

Under Actions and Opportunities Pre-flop, filter for Posted SB and BB as well as Any Call, and under Hand Values select all pp’s

  • This will tell you how you do when calling pre-flop in the blinds with any pp
  • If it’s negative, you’re prolly calling in bad spots while trying to set mine, or you won’t give up post-flop with your pair because you’re an unbelieving calling station. Go through your biggest losing hands and figure out what’s up here.  Remember the 20x rule for set-mining: there should be 20 times the bet size you’re calling in the stacks behind.

Leak 3: Poor 2betting

Under Actions and Opportunities Pre-flop, filter for Posted SB and BB; also filter for Any 2bet

  • This will tell you how you do when making a 2bet raise from the blinds.
  • If it’s negative over a decent sample, you’re doing something wrong. Look at the hand strengths you’re choosing to 2bet with.  Also, review your biggest losing pots as well.  Try to figure out the hands and spots that you’re 2betting that you just shouldn’t be, and then resolve to not repeat those mistakes.

Leak 4: Poor 3betting

Under Actions and Opportunities Pre-flop, filter for Posted SB and BB; also filter for Any 3bet

  • This will tell you how you do when making a 3bet raise from the blinds.
  • If it’s negative, you’ve got to figure this out! Why are you losing when 3betting in the blinds?  Most of your blind 3bets should be for value.  Are you choosing bad hands?  Are you 3betting then folding to 5bets?  Figure this out before you continue to lose these important pots that you’re the one building.

Now, switch this up and choose 100% of hands in the Hand Values area, but then remove all QQ+.

  • What’s your profitability now?  You might have even gone from a + win rate to negative now.  You’ve taken out all the for sure value hands, and your left with bluffs, semi-bluffs and iffy value hands like TT, JJ and AK with this filter.  If your win rate is now negative, then you’re choosing terrible resteal bluff spots.  Figure out what you’re doing and get to work on fixing this.

I hope you enjoyed this blind defense episode.  If you want more blind defense for tournament specific play, check out this article.

Challenge (36:25)

Here’s my challenge to you for this episode:  Run those leak finding filters just mentioned.  This is your chance to find your blind leaks, which if you’ve got them, are really bringing down your profits.  Find ‘em and fix ‘em.  And, if you’re not using pre-made ranges in the blinds, whether mine, your own, or someone else’s, what the heck are you waiting for?  Ranges will do so much to correct poor pre-flop blind play.

Now it’s your turn to take action and do something positive for your poker game.

Up Next…

In podcast #111, I’ll dish up another Q&A were I’ll answer 3 listener Q’s about my changing viewpoint on the 4-2 Rule, making unsure value raises on the flop and dealing with oversized bets.

Until next time, study smart, play much and make your next session the best one yet.

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