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Player Types

18 Effective Tips & Strategies for Playing Winning Poker

By Sky Matsuhashi on October 1, 2020

I put together 18 of my most effective and easy to implement poker strategies on this one page. The great thing about effective poker strategies is that they’re applicable to any form of poker, so I’ve broken these 18 tips up into 3 different formats:

  • 5 effective multi-table tournament tips
  • 6 for sit and go tournaments
  • 7 for cash games

So, regardless of the format you play, each of these 18 tips will be useful for you. The key to improving your skills with these tips is to take action with each because:

Action is the greatest teacher.

So, read a tip, apply it on-the-felt then study the hands off the felt. Repeat this process with each tip before you move on to the next.

5 Effective Tips for Multi-table Tournament Poker

Listen to this podcast episode as you follow along below:

Tip #1: Classify Each Player by Player Type

Poker’s all about playing the player and exploiting what you know about them. You can’t just play your two hole cards and the board and expect to be successful in this game.

You MUST classify each of your opponents as one of 4 basic player types. There are LAG’s, TAG’s, LP Fish and super tight Nits. Each of these have common tendencies that you can exploit. It’s critical that you tag players by type in some way (HUD box, pen and paper, Evernote, etc.).

Loose-aggressive Players

These players love to get in there and mix it up with raises, calls and bets both preflop and post-flop. They bluff a lot, and because of this, they think YOU bluff a lot. So, they’re capable of calling with bluff catching hands. It can take a lot of chips and a couple barrels to get them off of marginal hands. So beware of this before you attempt your bluffs. They also build big stacks, which they use to put pressure on others. This can lead to spewing chips with bad bluffs, so play against them IP as much as possible. Stick around when you can beat a lot of their bluffs.

Tight-aggressive Players

These players are exactly what their name implies. Tight means they don’t play a lot of hands preflop which means they get to the flop with decently strong ranges. This means that their post-flop bets and raises are often for value. They’re aggressive as well, which means they make more bets and raises than calls. Especially preflop, they raise because they want you to fold and they want the option of cbetting in case you call. Tight-aggressive players are quick to fold their blinds versus big bets and quick to fold post-flop, especially when they’re out of position. Target these players for IP bluffs beyond the flop.

Loose-passive Fish

Fish play way too many hands and they play them passively. So, they’re doing more limping and calling than betting or raising. They love to see flops and chase draws. Preflop, you must value raise their blinds and expect a call. Also, make sure to value iso-raise against their limps. You can bluff them post-flop, but know that they can’t easily fold draws, so keep bluffing to a minimum. That doesn’t mean you can’t bluff against Fish, but their loose and passive nature just means that they’re less likely to fold. Don’t bluff the unbluffable but instead, go for maximum value.

So, when you hit that lovely TPTK on a wet board, value bet BIG. 2/3 to 3/4 pot overcharges them for their draws and weaker pairs, giving you value. Just be aware that when they call on a wet board and the draw completes, there’s a good chance they just hit their hand. So, be ready in case they start betting or raising into you.

Super Tight Nits

These players are overly concerned with their tournament life and they don’t accumulate big stacks because they’re folding too much. They’re extremely easy to push off of hands post-flop when they don’t hit a pair or don’t hit a nut draw. So, you should be stealing from these players is much as possible because they have that tendency to fold when they don’t have a hand. Think twice before continuing when they’re waking up with post-flop aggression, especially if they’re committing a lot or all of their chips.

Tip #2: Watch Every Showdown Hand

You can learn a lot about a player by their actions preflop and post-flop; raising, betting, limping, check-raising and the bet sizes they use. Because a lot of your tournament opponents are relatively unknown to you, it can be tough to develop some reads on them. The best way to develop a read is to pay attention to every hand they showdown.

Maybe a player 3bet preflop with A9o, that’s a darn good indication that he’s a LAG player. Maybe he also showed a rivered straight after calling large bets on the flop and turn with a gut shot draw. Now we know he hates folding draws. Showdown hands tell you exactly the logic that your opponents use in their decisions. You just have to pay attention to the action of the hand so you can replay it after showdown to learn about each player.

Tip #3: They Must be Able to Find a Fold

A huge part of staying alive in tournaments is building your chip stack through bluffing. Whether you’re bluff stealing preflop, 3bet re-stealing from the BB or making a cbet bluff, you must have a reasonable assumption that your opponent can find a fold. Here are the 4 parts to this tip:

1st: Hit Their Pain Threshold

The size of every bluff needs to make a call or re-raise painful to them. It’s easy for the BB player to call a raise to just 2bb’s, right? You’ll need to make it bigger to steal preflop pots. And post-flop? ¼ or 1/3 pot bets are easy to call. Larger ½ pot or higher are more effective at earning the pot.

2nd: Have Position

Be more prone to bluff when you have position. Most players, even recs, realize the power of position and this could be the determining factor for them folding. Players hate calling flops only to see the turn OOP and face another bet. Use your position to gain more folds from them.

3rd: Player Type

The most common folders are the TAG’s and Nit’s, so bluff them frequently. LAG’s and Fish don’t like folding, so keep that in mind.

4th: Range/Board Interaction

Your bluffs are more effective when their range doesn’t interact well with the board. This is where hand reading comes into play it’s why I consider it the #1 skill in poker. Hand reading skills are necessary for tournament players because you don’t have a ton of info to work with. Players come and go from your table all the time, so it’s tough to develop a read. But you can always put a player on a preflop range of hands based on their actions and gauge how well it interacts with the board. When their range doesn’t interact well with the board, they’re more likely to fold. If they have lots of AX hands and broadways in their range, they’re not going to like the 558 or the 964 flop. Use this to your advantage.

Tip #4: Look to Your Left

This is a critical aspect of poker that I learned from Tommy Angelo. You must look to the left to see trouble before you make your preflop decision.

As the tourney progresses, stacks get smaller as the blinds and antes go up. Players become desperate to stay alive and one way to do so is to make 3bet resteals. A lot of them will also look to call you with position to use it against you.

Looking left gives you information to act upon. What are you looking for when you look to the left? Player types, stack sizes, who is in the blinds and how many players are still to act.

Sometimes, when looking left, you’ll see a new player there, and that’s great to notice as well. You didn’t realize the Fish in seat 7 got replaced by a LAG. That’s good information that you can use in your preflop decisions and for planning the hand.

If you can expect everyone to fold, including the blinds, great! Make a highly effective steal.

If you’re considering a steal, but there’s a LAG or two with a short stack, then maybe don’t steal. Remember that “3bets are the bane of 2bets”.

Who is likely to call?

If the BTN player is a likely caller, you should expect to see the flop. This should inform your preflop hand selection (don’t raise if you expect a call and don’t want to see the flop). If you’re going to be OOP versus this player, what do you know about them that you can use to your advantage post-flop? Start planning for this now before the flop even hits.

Planning for the future by seeing plays before they happen is going to help you earn chips and make it deeper in tournaments. Here’s an example.

You look left and see a LAG 3bettor with a big stack in the CO. This player uses his stack to push others around, especially the mid-stack players. You’re sitting on a 30 BB stack so you want to use this to your advantage. You were dealt A7o and you raise with the plan of 4bet shoving versus the LAG’s 3bet. It’s not a great hand, but it’s an Ace-blocking hand so the potential 3bettor has less strong hands like AA, AK and AQ in his range. You make it 2.5bb’s and he makes the expected 3bet to 8bb’s. You follow through with you plan and he folds versus your 4bet shove.

What just happened here? Because you looked to the left and saw a great opportunity to earn some easy chips, you just went from a 30bb stack to a 40bb stack. That’s a 33% increase! You earned his 8bb 3bet and the 2.4bb’s from the blinds and antes.

Tip #5: Be Aware of the Bubble

This lesson really hits home for me because in the 1st Colossus event at the WSOP, I totally botched my chance to make the money and I busted on the bubble.

I had 18 bb’s and I wasn’t aware we were on the bubble. We had to lose about 20 more players 500 players still playing. As you know, we were probably just a few hands away from the money. So, I was in the SB and was dealt AK with an 18bb stack. The big-stacked BTN opened to 3bb’s. I wasn’t thinking about whether he could find a fold or not, nor his player type, nor his chip stack, nor the bubble situation we were in. I just knew I had AK and a good reshoving stack. So, I shoved. He called with 77 and they held and I was busted.

So, if I would’ve thought about tips #1 and #3 and this one (#5), I may have made a different play, stayed alive and made the money.

An important part of the bubble is knowing which players are in fear of their tournament life. It’s often the short and medium stacks. Sometimes the big stacks don’t want to lose chips and they’re going to tighten up as well. You want to take advantage of the players who are scared for their tournament life and work to steal their blinds as much as possible. Make sure you open-raise to their pain threshold and to make it look like you’ve got a value hand.

Also, look out for bigger stacked players who might want to bully you as well. The bubble is a good opportunity for the 80bb stacks to earn another 10 to 20bb’s with effective steals, so they’ll be putting pressure on you to do this.


6 Effective Tips for Sit and Go Tournaments

Listen to this podcast episode:

Tip #6: Tight is Right

In SNG’s, because there is no re-entry, your tournament life is your highest priority. A lot of SNG players, especially at the lower buy-ins, are just recreational players here for fun. Being recs, they are getting in their and mixing it up with too many hands in an effort to hit flops and make big hands.

Your goal isn’t to make big hands, but instead, your goal is to outplay your opponents and make the money. The best way to do this is with tighter ranges than they play, which gives you a mathematical range-vs-range advantage.

Let’s say you play with the top 20% of hands. Your opponents often play the top 45% (or even more).

A 20% range has an effective range advantage versus wider ranges.
A 20% range has a great equity advantage versus a 45% range.

Your 20% range has 57% preflop equity versus a 45% range. This means that you have a built in 14% equity edge over your looser opponents. With this kind of built-in equity advantages, you’re printing money in the long run in SNG’s.

The biggest casinos in the world were built on just a total 1% edge over their patrons. If you are using your skill and your knowledge against your opponents, with this mathematical advantage, you will be a long run a winning SNG player.

Here’s how you play tight:

  • Raise with hands ahead of their calling ranges.
  • Call with hands at the top of their raising range.
  • Don’t bluff if they ain’t folding.
  • Go for maximum value when they can call with worse.

Tip #7: Let ’em Knock Each Other Out

A natural result of “tight is right” play is that your opponents just knock each other out. These players are playing 40%-50% ranges, so they’re going to be butting heads, and this is great for you.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in SNG’s is getting KO’d in easy to avoid situations. For every player that gets knocked out, you’re one step closer to the money. This means their KO is handing you value.

You maximize this value by folding all but your best hands and let your opponents clash.

It’s a great feeling when you don’t play a single hand in the first 3 orbits, but 3 players are already out of the game. I’ve made the money a few times without playing a single hand.

Make sure to watch the action and learn from every showdown. The winner is still alive and now has a bigger stack, but he had to show his hand and this is valuable information.

Tip #8: Pay Attention to Stack Sizes

Stack sizes are super important in SNG’s. You get a lot of recreational players who build a big stack. When recs have lots of chips, they often play the table bully or they play even more hands. Expect them to NOT fold that often. They’re going to use those chips when they have 30, 40 or 50 bb’s to call your 12bb shove.

You also want to watch out for the short stack players who know what they’re doing. Push/fold strategy is common knowledge nowadays, and even recreational players understand it. They know that at some point you have to just shove your chips in for maximum pressure and to the blinds and antes. So, as chip stacks decrease, watch out for preflop shoves.

Tip #9: Patience Pays

Playing tight can be a bit boring because you’re doing a lot of folding. If you’re the kind of player who loves the action, give yourself permission to play tight. Just watch the action and let your opponents do the dirty work for you and knock each other out.

Boring poker is winning poker, especially when everyone else is playing exciting, never-folding poker. Use the time wisely and pay attention to the action after you fold.

Your patience with “tight is right” play will pay off with more frequent cashes and a bigger bottom line. So, allow yourself to play tight and be happy when your opponents are mixing it up because their mistake of loose play only benefits you.

Tip #10: 3bet Re-steal Versus Frequent Open-raisers

Pay attention to players who are open-raising a lot. Frequent open-raising means wide stealing ranges means they have loads of hands that can’t stand up to a 3bet.

3bet re-stealing is a great way to earn chips and maintain or build your stack in SNG’s. A successful 3bet re-steal often adds 4.5-5bb’s to your stack. If you’re at 20bb’s, this is a 25% increase and will allow you comfortably remain tight a bit longer until the blinds go up again.

Great 3bet re-stealing hands are often suited Aces because they block your opponent from having the best hands. And in case you’re called, you have flush and maybe straight potential. KQs and KJs are good as well, but not as good as Ace-blocking hands.

At around 15bb’s or so, most of your 3bet resteals will be all-in shoves. This is effective (and textbook) push/fold strategy and gives you the most fold equity. Just be sure your opponent can find a fold after open-raising. Look at their chip stack and put ‘em on a range first. If they can find a fold, great! Make the 3bet resteal.

Revisit MTT Tip #3 above (They Must Be Able to Find a Fold) above for more about this.

Tip #11: Focus on Laddering Up

In 6max SNG’s, you make the money at 2 players so you’re focused on winning once you make the money. However, in 9max SNG’s, you make the money with the final 3 players.

When the bubble bursts and that fourth-place player gets knocked out, your goal switches from making the money to now getting 1st place. There is a huge prize difference between 3rd to 2nd place and 2nd to 1st place. You’ve got to go for that win or at a minimum, go for 2nd place.

When you’re the big stack, you want to bully the opponents and steal as many blinds and antes as you can in good opportunities. Don’t make frivolous calls against short stacks because every chip you lose is so valuable that you can’t afford to make poor calling mistakes. Again, like in tip #1 above, effective calls are made with hands at the top of their range.

When you’re the middle stack you want to stay alive and either knock out the small stack or allow the other players to battle. Hopefully, the big KO’s the small. Of course, double-up if you can against the big stack, but don’t make any “oh well” calls and if you’re shoving it’s for value or you know they can find a fold.

As the short stack, look for opportunities to double-up against either player with hands ahead of their ranges. You can also put pressure on the middle stack because he’s aware of your stack size and doesn’t want to lose chips to you. If you’re going to attempt any bluff shoves, gauge how much fold equity you have. If you happen to squeak into the money in 3rd place with only 7 bb’s and your opponents both have 32 bb’s, you don’t have much fold equity. Be aware of this before you shove as a bluff with some of your weaker holdings.


7 Effective Tips for Cash Game Players

Listen to this podcast episode #313:

Tip #12: Strive for Bread & Butter

We play poker because we enjoy it and we want to make money. Well, an effective way to make money is to put yourself in the most profitable situation as many times as possible. What is the most profitable situation? It’s called Bread & Butter. I learned about B&B from Tommy Angelo in his book Elements of Poker.

Bread and Butter means that you are in position on the flop as the preflop raiser against 1 or 2 players. The reason this is the most profitable spot is because you have a positional advantage and a range advantage. The positional advantage means you get to act after your opponent on the flop, turn and river. And as the preflop raiser, you have the strongest hands in your range while the caller doesn’t.

I’ve been a poker coach for a long time and I’ve looked at hundreds of player databases. I have found that the B&B spots are always the most profitable to be in. I teach my students to get as much B&B as possible. So, how do we get more B&B?

You need to raise preflop when you’re not likely to face a reraise nor a late position caller. You also want at most 2 callers out of the blinds or maybe a limp/caller. So, the best positions to get B&B are on the BTN and in the CO. The MP is good as well, as long as the CO and BTN aren’t likely to call or 3bet you without a great hand.

The easiest Bread & Butter spot to put yourself in is when you open from the BTN and one of the blinds calls.

Watch this video to get more Bread & Butter in your sessions (video coming soon):

Learn how to avoid the most common non-Bread & Butter spot:

Tip #13: Consider Their Range

This is where the most important poker skill of hand reading comes into play. Considering your opponent’s range of hands gives you additional information to work with for better post-flop decisions.

Let’s say somebody open raises from the early position and you call them on the button. They have a small open-raising range because they are a TAG player. So maybe it’s every pair, the strongest Broadway’s and suited Aces. You hold 88 and the flop comes down 552. They cbet ½ pot and you consider what hands would make this play:

You know they can make this play with almost all their hands. It is just a ½ pot bet after all, and they would do this with their bluffs and their overpairs like AA because they don’t want to scare you off. But, now an Ace hits the turn and they cbet again, this time to ¾ pot. You know this player and you don’t think they’d bluff with any of their non-paired hands nor their underpairs. You think they would only make this bet with TP or better. So, now it’s easy to fold your 88.

You used their actions and bet sizing along with their preflop range of hands to determine that your 88 wasn’t good enough to continue. So, you left the hand and likely saved yourself a lot of chips.

Considering their range can also help you earn value. Let’s say you flop top set with JJ on the JT5 with 2 clubs.  Your opponent donk bets for just 1bb. What do you make of this? It’s likely a weak pair, straight draw or flush draw. The 1bb donk is a blocking bet designed to let them see the turn super cheap. So, what do you do? You raise of course. You’ve got the nuts on a wet board that interacts well with a preflop caller’s range.

When you hold the nuts against somebody who has many reasons to continue to the next street, you’ve got to bet big for value. You want to raise it enough so they overpay for their draw. And, you only realize this because you’re thinking about their range and the types of hands that would fire a 1bb donk bet.

Tip #14: Notice Bet Sizing

Poker is a game of incomplete information, but that doesn’t mean it’s a game of 0 information. One piece of information that your opponents cannot avoid giving you is the size of bet they use. Whether it’s a 1bb donk bet, a standard ½ pot cbet, pot-sized raise or an all-in shove, you can always look at the chips they put in to gauge how they feel about their hand.

Smaller bets = bluffs and larger bets = value.

An unknown player open-raises 3.5bb from UTG. How likely will he fold to a 3bet bluff? Yep, not that likely at all. He’s using a large size which indicates he probably likes his hand, plus he’s opening from the UTG. So, a 3bet bluff wouldn’t be a great play here against this unknown.

Let’s contrast this with a LAG player who open-raises 2.2bb from the BTN. What do you make of this raise size? Is trying to maximize the value of his hand against the blinds, or is he trying a cheap steal? Most likely he’s trying a cheap steal.

What you need to do is pay attention to the size of every bet or raise you face, and make a value judgment on it. Don’t just think, “Oh, he bet. What should I do?” Instead, think “He bet 2/3 pot on this board that hits his range. I think he likes his hand.” And then respond accordingly.

Tip #15: Use a HUD

I mentioned in the last tip that poker is a game of incomplete information. But if you play online, you have access to useful information in the form of a heads-up display, or HUD.

And let me tell you, if you play online without a HUD (like my Smart HUD for PokerTracker 4), you’re doing yourself a huge disservice. A lot of people feel that using a HUD is cheating or it’s antithetical to “real” poker. But, they’re wrong.

You still have your powers of observation, your logic and reasoning and experience as well. The HUD just gives you a bit more information to utilize. And it’s a totally legit way to play as long as your chosen poker site allows it.

Your HUD can be a great tool, but you have to learn how to use it. If you don’t, it’s just a jumble of useless numbers on the screen.

I see loads of ways to exploit this player utilizing my Smart HUD for PokerTracker 4

My HUD learning recommendation: focus on one stat per play session.

Let’s say you want to learn how to use the Fold to Flop Cbet stat. Well, look up the definition and how’s it’s calculated so you understand what the stat percentage means.

Then when you play your session, look at every player’s Fold to Flop Cbet stat to see how often they fold. Before you cbet, look at your opponent’s stat to gauge how often they’re folding. The higher the percentage the better when you’re bluffing. The lower the better when you’re going for value.

Tip #16: Plan for Post-flop Cbets

Because you’re striving for Bread & Butter (Tip #12 above), you’re going to see most flops as the preflop raiser. Which means you’ll have tons of cbetting opportunities, and to get the most out of these, you must make preflop plans for how you’ll play these cbetting spots.

First, have an idea of what flop cards are good for your hand and which cards are good for your opponent’s range. If he called a 3bet for example, his range mostly has pairs, AX hands and Broadways. So, you don’t want to see a 2 Broadway flop. You’d much rather see a low-card flop of 974. This can be so much easier to get them to fold on the flop.

It’s good to know their tendencies when facing cbets, so it’s great that you use a HUD (Tip #15). When someone calls you, and before the flop even hits, look at their Fold to Flop Cbet. You want to see this as a total and IP or OOP. Also look at their Fold to Turn Cbet to help you see which street they’re more honest on, so you can begin planning for a possible double-barrel bluff cbet.

My Fold to Cbet popup from the Smart HUD details total, IP and OOP stats.

Speaking of bluffing them, almost always bluff them on the street where they are most honest as long as the board doesn’t smack their range. So, you’re using their Fold to Cbet stats by street to see where the percentage jumps up, say from 56% on the flop to 100% on the turn. The turn is their “honest street” so plan on bluffing there.

Lastly, make sure the effective stacks are deep enough so bluffing on their honest street can get them to fold. If you both started with 100bb’s in a 2bet pot, great, you can bluff any street and they won’t be committed. But, if they started with 40bb’s in a 3bet pot, you probably won’t be able to get them to fold on the turn or river. The pot’s already so big and they’ve committed so much they’re not giving up easily.

Tip #17: Target Limpers

You want to make money and limpers are a great source of profits. They’re often the weakest players at the table and we know that money flows from the weak to the strong. So, your goal is to play as many hands as possible against limpers in +EV situations.

Limpers want 1 thing: to see the flop as cheap as possible in order to hit a strong hand. This causes them to limp with any pair, suited connectors, suited gappers, all broadways, most Aces and lots of other suited hands.

They don’t understand the value of being the preflop raiser, and they don’t understand how being the preflop caller is antithetical Bread & Butter poker. So, when you find limpers you should automatically color-coded them with a green label. Green means “go for profit” and it’s a reminder to play as many pots with them as you can.

4 Important aspects of raising a limper:

  1. Expect a call. Sure, they might fold. But they want to see the flop and your raise “ain’t gonna stop me from flopping a monster with my J6s”.
  2. Iso-raise limpers with hands ahead of their calling range. This gives you a mathematical advantage that they can’t overcome in the long run.
  3. Hit their pain threshold. This is often 4bb’s +1 per limper, but I often go 6bb’s +1 or even more per limper. It’s lovely when a limper calls your 8bb iso-raise when you hold AA. The pot’s already at 18bb’s or more, and you have the preflop nuts against a really weak player and hand. This is a killer moneymaking opportunity. Especially if you’re iso-raising from IP. Imagine holding AA in an 18bb pot against the weakest player at the table… I love limpers and how they hand me B&B.
  4. Never limp behind. If your hand is worth playing against limpers, it’s worth raising in an effort to isolate the limper.

Tip #18: Table Select for High Profit Potential

Which table has more profit potential for you:

  1. You sit down and see all green colored fish at your table. These players love limping and hitting flops and only raise with super strong hands.
  2. Full of loose-aggressive maniacs, winning LAG’s and winning TAG’s. No green fish in sight.

Yeppers, table #1 is the ideal table for high profit potential. The tables you choose to play on should be as close to this ideal as possible.

Green is the color you need to see when table selecting. The more fish you tag “green” the quicker you’ll spot profitable tables.

If the site you play on allows it, scroll through the lobbies and see if you can spot table with lots of fish. Some sites don’t allow for this, so sit at a few tables and wait for the HUD to pop up or just look around the table. It might take 1-2 orbits to get a feel for the table and spot the fish. If it seems like a profitable table, with some fish and not too many winning TAG or LAG players, stay there. If it’s full of winners or there are lots of aggressive players on your left, consider switching tables.

It’s all about profit potential when it comes to table selection.


Challenge

Taking action on and off-the-felt is the only way to plug your poker leaks

Here’s my challenge to you:  Take one of the 18 tips above and use it in your sessions for the next 5 nights. After you do that and feel comfortable using it, move on to the next tip. Repeat this process over and over until all the tips are ingrained in your game and you’re making more profits than ever before

Now it’s your turn to take action and come play a poker tournament with me.


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How to Spot and Exploit the 4 Common Poker Player Types | Podcast #289

By Sky Matsuhashi on May 1, 2020

I help you categorize your opponents into their respective player types based on stats and tendencies. I also give some easy-to-use exploits against each.

Listen to this podcast episode #289:

You MUST Understand Player Types

“The money available to a player winning long term comes from other players’ willingness to put money into the pot with bad hands that a perfect player would not play.”

– Ed Miller in his incredible book, The Course

This is exactly why we must understand player types and assign each of our opponents to one of them.

When you’re profiling your opponents, you’re looking for weaknesses.  When you see those weaknesses, you know exactly how to play against them to earn their chips. You can also selectively target the weakest players who are most likely to give you their chips.

“Attack weakness, avoid strength.”

– Ed Miller in his incredible book, The Course

You’re looking to play more hands versus weak players and avoid hands versus strong players. Battling good players can kill your profits. We’re all playing this game, at least in part, to make money. Since it’s easier to make money versus the weak, that is who you MUST go after. The key to going after them is to understand and spot each of the weak players around the table.

You must become an active observer when you’re not involved in the hand:

  • If a player just open-raised from the Hijack, and it’s the first hand he’s played in 3 orbits, he’s likely a tight player who only plays the best hands.
  • Maybe another player makes her 4th limp in a row… she’s likely a Fish.
  • Now a different player 3bets then triple-barrels down the streets with J8s after flopping TP. Wow! You found a loose and aggressive player.

Because you’re paying attention, you’re able to categorize each of these players and now you can use some basic exploits against each.

The 4 Common Poker Player Types

We use two different tendencies to put players into one of the 4 player types.

Tight versus Loose

A tight player plays few hands (VPIP < 20%), and a loose player plays a lot of hands (VPIP > 20%). 20% VPIP is just the cutoff percentage. Of course, players can be ultra-tight at 5% or ultra-loose at 95%.

Passive versus Aggressive

A passive player doesn’t raise preflop that often (PFR < 15%) and an aggressive player raises a lot (PFR > 15%). Again, 15% is just the cutoff with the ultra-passive player having a PFR of 1% and the mega-aggressive player at 45%.


Loose-Passive

LOOSE = Plays lots of hands; PASSIVE = prefer making checks and call; they love to see flops; they stay in way too long with weak hands and draws; #1 targets at the table; if they raise post-flop, WATCH OUT!

AKA:  Fish or Calling Stations

Common VPIP/PFR Stats:  22/6, 28/5, 45/9 (Mention video in show notes detailing VPIP & PFR)

Color Coding: Green

Characteristic #1: Passively plays very wide & weak ranges. Not positionally aware.

Exploit: Play ranges that dominate theirs and isolate them (as limpers or in the blinds) whenever +EV.

Characteristics #2: Generally losing players.

Exploit: Target them and play as many hands as possible in +EV spots!


Loose-Aggressive

LOOSE = Plays lots of hands, AGGRESSIVE = prefers bets and raises; can be a high variance loser; they use the power of position yet they might not be that positionally aware when it comes to starting hands; capable of spewing chips in bad bluffing spots.

AKA: LAG, Donk or Maniac

Common VPIP/PFR Stats: 24/18, 36/24, 55/35

Color Coding: Orange

Characteristic #1: Too much aggression with weak ranges. Open-raises, iso-raises and calls too much preflop.

Exploit: Play with hands at the top of their range, and strive for IP play.

Characteristic #2: Constantly applies pressure.

Exploit: ALWAYS gauge how well the board interacts with their range. Be willing to call wider with 2nd and 3rd pair when they can be bluffing worse.


Tight-Passive

TIGHT = Plays mostly strong hands, PASSIVE = prefer checks and calls (but sometimes they’re aggressive with few calling hands); quick to fold post-flop; beware their bets and raises.

AKA: TP, Rock or Nit

Common VPIP/PFR Stats:  11/9, 11/2, 7/3

Color Coding: Red

Characteristic #1: Strong hand selection & positionally aware.  Folds too often preflop and raises only strong hands.

Exploit: Play a wider but still strong range when IP.  Call their raises with hands that play well post-flop and can crack big hands (good playability).

Characteristic #2: Doesn’t often fold to 3bets and 3bet = the nuts.

Exploit: 3bet and 4bet with the best hands to get value from his tight range.


Tight-Aggressive

TIGHT = Plays mostly strong hands, AGGRESSIVE = prefers bets and raises; can be winning regs; multi-tabler; quick to fold most marginal spots post-flop and when OOP.

AKA: TAG, ABC or Reg

Common VPIP/PFR Stats: 12/10, 18/13

Color Coding: Yellow

Characteristic #1: Plays multiple-tables, so they’re selective, patient and they choose the best starting hands (small & value intensive range).

Exploit: Play strong hands against them, but speculative hands can crack their strong ranges.

Characteristic #2: Quick to fold weaker pairs and draws because they see little value in these hands.

Exploit: Bet and raise to earn post-flop pots, make sure your size hits their “pain threshold” so often at 2/3 pot or more.


Here’s my challenge to you for this episode:  While you’re playing your next session, set a timer to go off every 10 minutes.  When it does, pick a table and think about each player there and describe all you know about them – player types, weaknesses, how to exploit, etc.  This will train you to profile your opponents and it’s a great way to test that you’re paying attention. 

Now it’s your turn to take action and Scooby-dooby-doo something positive for your poker game.

Support the Show

Tunisianking, Dayne Dice, Nathan Yamuder, Richard Cheason and Rosemont Tony picked up PokerTracker 4 (get it here to support the show), the best poker tracking software.  I love it and use it everyday!  In appreciation, I sent each of them a copy of my Smart HUD for PT4.  With an ever-growing database of hands to study and all the helpful features, PT4 is the go-to software for serious poker players.

Mark Fleming, Lois Thomas, Stephan Eck, Murry T., Massimo Gramegna, Stephen Diesner and Ole Engkrok bought the Smart HUD with a 1.5 hour webinar for PokerTracker 4.  It’s the best online poker HUD in the business with every critical stat in the HUD and the 7 custom popups. This is what every online player needs to maximally exploit opponents.

The Poker Study Boot Camp Course was purchased by some seriously kaizen-minded poker peeps: Ram, Zeljko Arnautovic, Drew Dumpert, and Triumphnk. Thank you all so much. You’ve got your work cut out for you with this 29-day course, so good luck!

Loose-Aggressive Tournament Players, Data Mining, Calling with Kings | Q&A #253

By Sky Matsuhashi on August 29, 2019

I answer questions about data mining, calling preflop with the best pocket pairs and facing loose-aggressive tournament poker players.

Listen to the episode as you follow along below

Question 1: Fighting Loose-Aggressive Tournament Players (2:50)

I do have a question about tournaments which I play, kind of a classic question probably. I’m sure you have covered this somewhere in your content, but what is your strategy against overly loose-aggressive players?

– @ThomasEvolve on Instagram

My Answer

In general, I try to use their aggression against them.  You want to play IP and be willing to call down with weak TP hands and even 2nd pair good kicker hands.  Some LAG’s are overly aggressive post-flop, so let them aggress against your showdown worthy hand and spew chips your way.  Sometimes they’ll have the goods, but you can often get a clue that you’re beat by their bet sizing or timing tells or how well their range connects with the board.

Because you’re playing tournaments, most of the LAG play you’ll face is preflop.  So, when a LAG comes at you with 2bets or 3bets, start by putting them on a range.  If your hand is strong against their range (like AJ vs AX and KT+ and QT+ and 76+ hands), then don’t play passively but get aggressive right back at them.  If they’re willing to call with weaker hands (your AJ > their A5, T9, KQ, etc.), then this is good for you.  And if they fold a lot, this is good as well.

If you want them to fold vs your bet or raise, make sure they can.  Look at the size of their stack in relation to the pot.  If the pot is already so big and their stack is so small that they would feel “pot committed” by your estimation (low SPR), then don’t bluff but value bet big instead.

Remember the maxim: When they ain’t folding, we ain’t bluffing.


Question 2: Chopping a Local Weekly Tournament (5:05)

Howdy Sky, I’ve been listening through your podcast library and am really enjoying it, thanks for the poker strategy boost! I’ve been playing in a weekly $1500 gtd tournament at a local card house for the past few months. Last week I made it to the top 3 with payouts being $200, $400, and $800. These guys were very nice regulars who I’ve developed a rapport with, one skilled and the other a self-proclaimed gambler.

My stack was around 3 times their stack sizes and the house reminded us we could chop at any time. They both said they’d agree to it and deferred to the big stack without trying to push me to accept. I suggested that we each take $400 and play for the last $200 since I really want some short-handed experience. I ended up taking it down, but can’t help but feel like all I did was give 3rd place $200 (who literally the next hand busted to me). The final payouts match pretty close to ICM (which we didn’t actively use).

The golden rule of ethics dictates I did the right thing, but my question to you is, is it more important to keep the friendly nature of a LIVE game going at the effective cost of a couple buy-ins, or is it more important to go for blood, look out for your bankroll, and hope the other players take it in stride? Thanks again for everything you do and you’ll be seeing my winnings go towards one of your books in the near future!

– Ronny Loveday

My Answer

This is going to run counter to all you tournament purists and profiteers out there, but I think you did the absolute right thing.  When chopping local tournaments, it probably hurts you to be cutthroat and try to go for every last penny possible.

You hit the nail on the head when you said that you’ve developed a rapport with them.  Because you see them all the time, you want to keep that rapport going, and fighting for every scrap of equity makes 0 sense to me when you’ll be seeing these guys week in and week out (assuming you’ll keep playing there).

But, if you go to the WSOP and get 3-way for the Main Event or a $1,500 tourney, then you’ve got to go for max value because they’re doing the same and reputation/feel good doesn’t matter in this situation.

You did the right thing and I’m happy to hear it.  I like that you went for the short-handed experience.  But, if you wanted to end it right there but squeak out a little extra value, you could’ve said something like, “We can chop if you each give me $75” or something along those lines.  They would accept it and understand it because they would do the same if they were the big stack.


Question 3: Data Mining (8:00)

Hi there, thanks for your tutorial/podcast. I just started using a HUD, but from what I understand and can find on the web, you only have data for the hands you’ve played. Are there ways to import more hands or get more data elsewhere about players in my HUD?

– DW

My Answer

What you’re asking about is data mining (getting hands from other sources to input into PokerTracker 4). The poker sites don’t allow this as it gives an unfair advantage. Theoretically, more hands would be better, but we’re only allowed to use hands we accumulate as we play.

The good news is, the more hands you play, the quicker your opponent’s stats will accumulate and you’ll be able to understand their frequencies. Also, some stats like VPIP, PFR, 3bet, Cbet and Fold to Cbet start accumulating early, so even at 100 hands played you have a general understanding of their player style and that’s enough to begin exploiting them.

Ultimately, don’t take part in data mining and don’t buy those hands.  Just develop your own database through more time on the felt.


Question 4: Is it okay to call with KK and AA? (11:30)

I am a new player and have just started learning through your books. Is it necessary that we should always start with 3 or 4betting with good hands? Actually, even AA gets sometimes outdrawn by showdown. So, would it not be good to just limp with good hands and raise after the flop or just call 3bets and first see the flop then decide to raise according to the table dynamics and other factors?

– Anand Singh

My Answer

No, don’t limp with these hands.  It’s important to start playing the best pocket pairs like KK and AA for a raise and re-raise every time preflop (things change post-flop based on the board and your opponent).  Aggression is important in poker and playing these aggressively will give you a better money-making opportunity than calling with them.

Calling with these big hands are a symptom of either fancy play syndrome (FPS) or a sign of a passive and weak player.  If you begin poker by playing these hands passively, then you will develop a bad habit of passive play and it will be harder to break later on.

Start developing a habit of aggressive play as soon as possible.

Think about what happens when you just call or limp with AA.  You’ve sweetened the pot for all the other passive players to limp behind or over-call, and this just leads to multi-way pots. Sure, your AA is a favorite, but against 3 other players, you’ve got a ton of land mines to dodge post-flop and that makes it more likely somebody will hit 2p+ and crack your AA.

Also, one of the ways you earn money in poker is to exploit players who call too often preflop.  If the weakest opponents will call your raises and re-raises when you have KK or AA, they’re theoretically making bigger mistakes preflop. Help them make mistakes by betting and raising big with the best hands.

Don’t give weak opponents the cheap flop they want.

Question 5: Making better calling decisions (13:50)

I am calling too much instead of raising/folding

– Mikko Mantyla

My Answer

Yeah, playing too passively is a problem for too many players.  Some treat calling as a default play when they don’t know what to do, or they just don’t want to believe their opponent has a good hand and don’t want to be bluffed.

To help you with this problem, over your next 5 play sessions, before every click of the CALL button, complete this sentence:

“Calling in this spot is a profitable play because ____.”

You don’t have to be able to come up with a mathematically sound reason or an infallible argument.  You just have to complete the sentence with any logical answer before you click CALL.

Good calling examples:

  • “Calling in this spot is a profitable play because they’re opening with every Ace and every King, and my AJo is ahead of this entire range.”
  • “I have a draw with 15 outs, and the price is right to call to catch it.”
  • “I know they’re honest on the next street, so I’ll call with the intent to bluff bet the next street when they check.”
  • “I’m calling with my 2p hand because there’s 3 to the straight and 3 to the flush, and I could easily be beat, but I have showdown value and they’re capable of bluffing.”

Bad calling examples:

  • “Dang!  I can’t fold my AA!”
  • “Calling in this spot is a profitable play because… I don’t know.  I just don’t want to fold my big blind.”
  • “I’m not sure what to do, so… I call?”
  • “It’s a full pot-sized bet, so it’s not a mathematically good call.  But it’s a nut flush draw, I’ve gotta call!”

If you can voice a logical reason for calling, then you’ll make better calling decisions.  If there’s no good reason, just fold instead.

It’s important to remember that when you face a bet, you also have the option to raise. You would raise to bluff them off their hand or to gain additional value when they could be value betting weaker hands.  Before you raise, ask and answer this: “How will they respond to my raise?”  If you reasonably expect them to fold most of the time to your bluff raise, make it.  If they can call or re-raise with worse hands, make the value raise.


Support the Podcast

Nic Chavez, Matt Ahearn and Trevor Blair picked up the best poker software, PokerTracker 4.  My favorite since 2006!  In appreciation, I sent them each a copy of my Smart HUD for PT4.  Along with the growing database of hands to study, the Smart HUD is a powerful tool in anyone’s poker toolbox.

Kong Li, Johan Rickling, Paul Kennedy and Luke Marrison purchased the Smart HUD for PokerTracker 4.  It’s the best online poker HUD in the business, and you can get the Smart HUD by clicking here.

Thanks to Vince from Denver picked up Playing to Learn: A Micro Stakes Webinar.

Thanks to Kabaruque for purchasing the Finding and Plugging Leaks with PokerTracker 4 Webinar.

Moving from TAG to LAG Play | Poker Podcast #208

By Sky Matsuhashi on October 25, 2018

Going from TAG to LAG play

I discuss how you can smartly and safely increase your aggression and go from TAG play to LAG play both preflop and post-flop.

In episode 207, I answered 4 questions about studying apathy, the SPS archive, JTo and learning from showdowns.

The Appeal of LAG Play (2:35)

Going from a TAG style to a LAG style must NOT be done lightly.

But I get the appeal. It seems pretty glamorous. You’ve been this profitable TAG player for a while now. You’re mostly going for value and pulling off the occasional big bluff, and it’s been working well for you. But, you want to continue up in the levels and you know that soon enough, you’ll be contending with a lot more aggression than you do now.

Also, you see these crazy LAG players on television and LIVE streams pull off insane 5 bet bluffs pre-flop with 72o. You see them barrel three streets with a Ten-high flush draw that whiffed on the river, and you see them get maximum value with their strongest hands against unbelieving opponents.

Yep, glamorous, fun and a good way to make money.

But making a LAG style profitable takes a ton of work and experience. If you currently cannot make a TAG style profitable, most likely you’ll lose even more money playing LAG.

Example: CO open raising range. Maybe, it’s at 20% right now. Your 20% contains every pp, A2s+, A8o+, KTs+, KQo, suited-connectors 65s+ and suited-gappers 97s+.

It’s a tight range full of strong and medium strength hands and some good speculative hands.

Now, if you decide to go LAG, you may choose to bump this up to 30%. Here are the hands you’ll now include to reach that 30%: A7o-A2o, KJo, KTo, QJo, K9s-K5s, Q9s and 86s.

 

These additional hands aren’t exactly clear-cut profit makers. If you can’t make A8o or A9o profitable right now, how are you going to make A7o-A2o profitable?

Here’s a general rule of thumb to follow:

The wider the preflop range, the less equity it has and the more difficult it is to make profitable.

If you currently can’t make money playing a tight-aggressive ranges, then you won’t be able to make wider and weaker ranges profitable.

How TAG play and LAG play profit differently from poker (5:25)

Tight aggressive players profit with solid hand choices. They also find easy pots to win when their opponents show signs of weakness, they seek really good value from fishy opponents, they’re capable of exploiting nits, whales and maniacs. They also save money by folding a lot preflop and post flop.

Loose-aggressive players make money through sheer aggression by exploiting their tight opponent’s insecurities. They target players who demonstrate weakness like limping, calling a ton, checking and calling post-flop. They also utilize their aggression in a way that can make players angry, so they earn even more value from tilting opponents.  LAG’s also profit from exploiting a tight-aggressive player’s tendency to fold and to avoid big pots without the nuts.

LAG play consequences (6:30)

There are some consequences that naturally come from playing a LAG style. You see these as a TAG player, but everything is more pronounced when you’re entering more pots and making more aggressive plays than others at the table.

The first consequence is that you’re going to see more flops. So, if you’re not confident nor strong in post-flop play, this is going to be a tough hurdle to jump over.

The next consequence is your steals will be fought back against more often. Your preflop ranges are wider, so you’re entering more hands in the CO, BTN and SB. The blinds may start to hate you for this, and in their frustration, they’ll call and 3bet you more frequently.

The 3rd consequence is you’ll face more 3bets from players outside of the blinds. Knowledgeable TAG’s and LAG’s will exploit your wider open-raising ranges with 3bets from the MP/CO/BTN, so expect this.

A 4th consequence will be that limpers will find it extremely tempting to limp then 3bet against your expected isolation raise. Depending on the player, these could be for value or as bluffs, but just expect more limp/raises and limp/calls as a LAG player.

Making a haphazard and dangerous transition to LAG play (8:00)

There is a way to do this safely and smartly, and there’s also a way that you can do this haphazardly and dangerously.

You could just simply decide to be looser and more aggressive without any kind of plan or rationale behind your actions.

Preflop, you could just start opening any two suited cards along with anything connected and any kind of Broadway hand when it’s folded to you. You could also just choose to double your range in every position. Actually, thinking about ranges, you can simply skip the ranges entirely and open anything playable when it’s folded to you. Go ahead and isolate with any Ace, King, Queen or pocket pair, and 3bet like a Maniac while you’re at it.

Post-flop, go ahead and cbet 100% of the time. And not just cbetting, go ahead and bet every time it’s checked to you regardless of the board or your opponent’s range. Attempt as many double-barrel and triple-barrel bluffs as you can. And, don’t worry about having any kind of equity when you’re bluffing.  Also, don’t forget to throw out some more check-raises, donk bets, floats and probes while you’re at it.

Of course, do not do anything that I just mentioned. Haphazard play like this is what makes poker profitable for everyone else. Don’t be a spewy LAG-tard.

Start your audiobook learning by picking up ‘Preflop Online Poker’ through Audible.com. Click the pic above to begin your free 30-day trial or to purchase the audiobook version if you’re already a member.

Smartly Adding Aggression to Your Game (11:50)

The smart way to increase aggression is by changing just one Variable at a time. It’s not a good idea to make simultaneous changes to your 2bet ranges, 3bet ranges, your cbetting hands and your check-raising hands all at the same time. Because if you do this, you can’t measure the success of any one Variable change.

Here’s the process for upping your aggression:

1. Choose the Variable you want to change and play 3,000 to 10,000 hands (or more) with a focus on practicing this ONE Variable change.

2. Keep your off-the-felt studies in-line with your chosen Variable. Utilize videos, articles and podcasts to increase your knowledge of the change you’re pursuing.

3. Evaluate your progress and review tagged hands.

4. Figure out where things are going right or wrong and make adjustments.

5. Continue playing with the same Variable as your main focus until you’re comfortable.

6. When you’re confident the change is profitable and ingrained in your skillset, move on to the next variable.

Four Preflop Aggression Variables (13:30)

Open-Raising Range

To increase your open-raising ranges, I recommend adding 10% more hands to your current range.

Example: your current EP opening range is 10% or 130 combos. Adding 10% would be 13 additional combos. You don’t need to add exactly 13 combos, but 12 makes more sense. You can do this by adding two new pocket pairs for 6 combos each. Or, three new suited hands for 4 combos each. Or, one off-suit hand for 12 combos.  That simple change is going to result in you being 10% more active out of the early positions.

To ease into this transition, you can do this in two steps. Start with the best positions and add 10% to each range from the HJ, CO and BTN. If you find this is working for you, add 10% more hands now to the EP and the SB.

3bet Range

To increase your 3bet ranges, I recommend adding 3 value hands for every 1 bluff hand.

Example: you currently 3bet on the BTN with 62 value combos and 24 bluff combos. If you want to add 99 and AJs to your value 3bet range, that’s 10 combos. Exactly 3:1 would be adding 3 combos as a bluff, but let’s add 4 combos of KQs, ATs or 65s.

Again, you can ease yourself into this transition by adding 3bet hands to your HJ, CO and BTN ranges.  The later on, add hands to the rest of the ranges if you want.

Isolation Range

You normally isolate with hands that are ahead of the limper’s limp/call range, and you raise to a size that will help you steal the pot or get just one caller.

For example, you’ll look down and see AA. This is an easy isolation raise. What about 22? Easy call or fold, you’re not often isolating with 22. But what about QTs? That’s an interesting hand to isolate with, so you’re not always sure whether or not to do it.

To increase your isolation aggression, I recommend making the isolation raise with all of those questionable hands.

There are lots of these semi-strong hands like 88-66, KTs and KJs, QJs and QTs, and even J9s. Go ahead and start isolating with these uncomfortable hands to see how they perform for you and how you like it. Just remember to make it a bet size that will take the pot down or get the weakest player to call you.

Calling Range

Calling isn’t aggression, but calling more often in the CO and BTN will give you more post-flop IP aggressive opportunities against wide open-raising opponents.

If you want to try this, I recommend adding 10% more calling hands in these two positions. This will give you more opportunities to earn the pot post-flop once your opponent demonstrates a sign of weakness.

Calling more often preflop can turn into post-flop pot earning aggression.

Four Post-flop Aggression Variables (17:40)

The Continuation Bet

Because you’re aggressive, you see the flop most of the time as the preflop raiser with the opportunity to Cbet.

I recommend that you try to increase your cbet percentage by 5% to begin with.

Example:  Maybe your cbet stat is at 55% currently. This could equate to cbetting your mid-pair or stronger hands and your gut-shot or better draws. You can continue cbetting these hands, but tack on 3rd pair hands and back-door flush draws.

You’re not going to be able to hit exactly 5% more cbets. But, if you play your sessions with the goal of finding and taking advantage of more bluff and semi-bluff cbet opportunities, you’re naturally going to increase your cbet aggression.

Check-raise

Most players check-raise for value at about 10% of the time with 2p or better hands.

To increase your check-raise aggression, I recommend testing out check-raises with nut flush-draws, nut straight-draws and even the occasional TP hand. If you’re check-raising for value, have an idea that they can continue with worse. If you’re bluff check-raising, then know that they can fold to your chosen sizing. Look for players who fold to a raise after cbetting at 60% or higher and target them.

Don’t go crazy, but shoot for 5% more check-raising over the next 10,000 hands.

Float Bets

Float bets, according to PokerTracker 4, are made when you’re IP and the preflop raiser fails to cbet. They’ve just shown weakness, so a float bet can work to steal the pot. This is related to the increased preflop calling Variable I discussed earlier. Take a look at their Fold to Float stat and target players at 60% or higher.

Probe Bets

Probe bets, according to PokerTracker 4, are made when you’re OOP and the preflop raiser failed to cbet on the prior street. They should’ve made the IP cbet to try and bluff you off the pot or gain value, but they showed weakness instead by checking. This is a great opportunity to take the pot down from OOP. Just look at their Fold to Turn Probe or Fold to River Probe stats before you make the bet.

Challenge (20:30)

Here’s my challenge to you for this episode:  If you’re intent on upping your aggression, choose one Variable to change this week and jump into action. This must be your focus with each session you play and make sure to tag and study every related hand. Also, find some additional content to study regarding your chosen variable.

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

Support the Show

Jordan Lesesne supported the show by picking up PokerTracker 4 through my affiliate link.  I sent him my Smart HUD in appreciation.

Hai Le is a PokerTracker 4 user and soon to be, a PT4 master!  He purchased my Getting the Most from PokerTracker 4 Webinar this past week.  Thanks for the support, Hai, and having fun learning to use PT4 to up your study game and to crush your opponents.

Up Next…

In episode 209, I’m answer 3 listener questions.

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

5 Essential Concepts for Poker Profitability | Episode #207

By Sky Matsuhashi on October 19, 2018

I discuss the 5 essential concepts for poker profitability: EV, play the player, bankroll management, table selection and the mental game.

In episode 206, I answered 4 questions about studying apathy, the SPS archive, JTo and learning from showdowns.

The 5 Essential Concepts of Playing Profitable Poker

1. EV Decision-making (2:55)

EV stands for expected value, and it’s the value of a prospective play.

Why is EV Decision-making important?

Thinking in terms of EV means that you’re giving more than just some casual thought to your next button click.  If you’re working with an EV mindset, you’re trying to think at a deeper level when making decisions. You’re considering all of your options, and you’re thinking about the value of each of them.

Poker is one big math problem so EV decision-making gives you a more logical mathematical approach to playing poker.

Here’s a common non-EV approach to a hand: a player looks down to see that they have a flush draw.  They get a little excited and think to themselves, “Geez, I hope I get my flush on the next street.” Then they unthinkingly call the flop in an order to see the next street.

But somebody with an EV mindset will instead think, “I have a flush draw, and I’m out of position. What’s my best play here? Should I just check/call? Should I check/raise to bluff them off the pot? Or, should I donk bet in order to make them think I hit a really strong hand?”

The person who plays with an EV mindset is going to consider all of their options before they click a button, and they’re going to go with the most +EV option.

Every decision you make lies along an EV spectrum.

Right in the middle of the spectrum is neutral or 0EV. This is a decision that neither makes you money nor costs you money in the long run. It’s like folding your hand on the BTN 1 million times. You haven’t committed any chips yet to the pot, so whether you fold AA or 72o, your chip stack is the exact same at the end of the hand. So, the EV value of folding on the BTN is $0.

To the right of the 0EV center are +EV decisions, the ones that earn you some amount of money. And some decisions are more +EV or profitable than others. Consider AA.  3betting with AA preflop is definitely +EV.  But, there might be times based on the opponents, bet sizing or tournament conditions that calling could be a more profitable move.

To the left of 0EV on the spectrum is -EV. These are all decisions that cost you money in the long-run. Sure, you might hit your flush on the next street this time, but if it’s mathematically not profitable for you to call on the flop, in the long run you’re just handing money over to your opponent.

How can you practice EV decision-making?

On the felt, you can put a focus on considering all of your options before you click that button. Too many players auto-3bet or cbet or call in different situations. Your goal in playing with an EV mindset is to place each decision along the EV spectrum and choose the one that is most +EV.

The other way you can practice an EV mindset is off the felt. As you review your hands, take the time to really consider your decisions and gauge where each decision lands on a EV spectrum. You can print and laminate the screenshot and use it off the felt for practice. Take the time to determine which option is most +EV and resolve to make that play in the future.

The final thing that you can is use an EV calculator as you review hands. SplitSuit at RedChipPoker.com has a great free and easy to use EV calculator to get you started: https://redchippoker.com/simple-poker-ev-calculator/

2. Play the Player (7:20)

Why do you want to play the player?

Beginning players are at Level I: they think only about their cards and their hand strength in relation to the board.

Level II players think about the other player’s hand and their tendencies. Their goal is to understand the villain in an effort to exploit them by bluffing them off pots or gaining extra value. When you understand your opponents, you realize that there are many +EV options available to you.

When a Level I player flops a 2p hand, they’re prone to just bet, bet and bet again.

But, if a Level II player knows their opponent’s tendencies, they’ve got other options. Maybe Villain hates to bet then fold post-flop. So, the Level II player exploits this by checking then raising on the flop. Villain is predisposed to call, which builds the pot for bigger turn and river bets. This earns a Level II player more than a Level I player would’ve made.

How do you put “play the player” into action?

Study player types at your stakes. There are LAG’s, TAG’s, Nits and Fish of varying degrees. How do each of these player types choose their hands pre-flop? How do these player types play post-flop? You want to look for tendencies in the various player types at your stakes so you can devise ways to exploit them. You might know of a lot of TAG players who cbet almost every flop, but they double-barrel only when they’ve got the goods. Great! Against these players, call every one of their flop cbets when IP, then fire the turn when they check. Bam! Money-making exploits put to use.

Also, utilize your HUD. It isn’t there just for looks. Use the percentages to gauge your opponent’s tendencies then find opportunities to exploit them.

Start your audiobook learning by picking up ‘Preflop Online Poker’ through Audible.com. Click the pic above to begin your free 30-day trial or to purchase the audiobook version if you’re already a member.

3. Bankroll Management (12:05)

Why is bankroll management important?

You’ve got to have money in order to make money and without bankroll management, you’re likely to lose your bankroll. Profitable poker involves building up your bankroll so you can safely move up in stakes and make even more profits. Somebody who’s a 10bb/hour winner is going to make a lot more money at $5/$10 than at $1/$2.  The higher the stakes, the more potential profit.

Also, bankroll management keeps you in control of your money and doesn’t let your emotions get in the way. Here’s something I’ve done before. I lost 5 $7 SNG’s in a row. I was tilting and angry, so I decided to play a $30 SNG in order to turn a quick profit. I wasn’t rolled for it nor was I ready for that level of play. Of course, I lost and compounded my losses for the day with that stupid -EV choice.

What are my recommendations for bankroll management?

If you’re cash game player, I recommend having 40 to 60 buy-ins for the level that you play. This can be hard to do for LIVE players. Even at $1/$2 stakes, a standard buy-in is $200, x40 means you need $8,000 to play these stakes. So, 40 to 60 bi’s is definitely a good rule of thumb for online, but for LIVE players, you’ve got to do the best you can.

If you’re an MTT or SNG player, I recommend between 100 and 200 buy-ins, preferably closer to 200. We all know the variance involved in tournaments, so 200 bi’s isn’t an unreasonable target. This just makes for a great safety cushion as you grind them tourneys.

It is okay to take occasional shots, especially if your bankroll is over the required amount. If you play with the 40x bi requirement for cash games, and you’re at 50x, great! Throw in the occasional buy-in at the next level to see if you can’t earn some extra profits and gain some experience.

And if at all possible, don’t withdraw your money from your bankroll. Your goal is to build your bankroll so you can move up safely to the next level and make more money. If you continually withdraw money and you’re always at 40 buy-ins, you’ll forever be stuck there.

For more bankroll management, check out this post from TopPokerValue.com.

4. Table and Seat Selection (15:15)

Why is table selection so important?

The players that you play with are a huge factor in your profitability. Let’s look at a couple of extreme examples.

The 1st example is you’re at a FR table with 8 highly skilled players who’re all better than you. Being the worst at the table gives you a very low probability of making any money this session.

Next, let’s look at the other extreme: you’re the single best person at the table with 8 other first-time poker players. Yep, totally profitable situation to be in.

You are going to make poker more profitable by sitting at tables with many players who are worse than you.

Seat selection example: you’re at a FR table with 2 equally skilled players on your direct left and 6 other fish. It’s going to be tough to make money and exploit the other players at the table because these 2 are going to exploit your exploits as much as possible. But if the other 2 players are to your right or directly across the table from you, you’ll have more opportunities to exploit them and the fish.

How are you going to practice table/seat selection?

Look for profitable tables and profitable seats. If you’re an online player you must go by the rules of the site, but do your best to leave unprofitable tables and find profitable ones. If you’re a LIVE cash game player, it’s a bit different. Put your name on the wait list then observe the tables. If you get sat at a good table, stay there. If the one next to you is more profitable, then request a table change.  If you’re seated in a bad seat, wait for a good one to open up, throw a chip across the table, announce “seat change” and make your move. The key thing here is to not stay at unprofitable tables or unprofitable seats.

Life is too short to play in unprofitable poker situations.

5. The Mental Game (17:40)

Why is the mental game so important?

The mental game is important because it’s the most insidious, costly, and yet hard to fix issue for most players. Most players know that they suffer from some kind of anger or tilt issues, but they often don’t know how to resolve them. Let’s look at how tilt can affect the other 4 concepts already mentioned.

The first was “EV Decision-making”.  Anger kicks EV decision to the curb. You begin making your plays based on your hand, the board, your hatred of your opponent or your eagerness to finally win a pot. You stop thinking through things and act on emotion, which leads to chip spew.

The second was “Play the Player”. We’ve all done this: we’re tilted because the donk over there sucked out on us, so now we target him and play every hand he does in order to get revenge and earn our chips back. We put ourselves in terrible situations with crappy cards, and we spew off chips to get them to fold or in hopes of catching our miracle river 6 high back-door straight draw.

The third was “Bankroll Management”. Anger can easily cause you to spew stacks off, or like I mentioned earlier, buy into games too big for your roll and you’re not even mentally prepared to tackle that bigger game so you lose more money.

The final aspect was “Table and Seat Selection”. Exhaustion, distraction or anger can cause you to miss the fact that you’re at a terrible table or seat. These factors can also cause you to stay at the casino longer then normal and play at a sub-par level. You know that you should be leaving, but your inability to think straight is causing you to stay longer to try to win back your losses.

What can you do about this mental game issue?

Once you are aware that you have an issue you can work to fix it. I recommend that you start journaling on what sets you on tilt. When you notice your emotions rising, take a breath and tag the hand for later review. What happened to get your heart beating? What did you do or your opponents do to get you angry? What situation is setting your emotions rising?  Whatever it is, journal about it so you can start to deal with those issues.

Next, prepare for how to handle eventual anger/tilty situations. When you know the situations that tilt you, you can create a plan to deal with them in a safe and sane way.

I recommend that you read books or listen to mindset-type content. Start with anything from Jared Tendler and Dr. Tricia Cardner: they’ve both got books and podcasts to help you out.

And lastly be honest with yourself and confront your tilting demons. Don’t act like it’s no big deal. Tilt and mental game issues cause major losses and poker setbacks. Don’t let yourself become a poker mindset casualty.

Challenge (20:50)

Here’s my challenge to you for this episode:  Use Splitsuit’s EV calculator to run some EV calculations with your own hands.  Maybe look for good 3bet bluff opportunities, check-raise semi-bluffing opportunities or simple flop bluff cbet opportunities. Run the calculations to see the EV of the play you’re considering. You’ll learn a lot from this exercise, especially if you’ve never considered the profitability of individual plays before.

Now it’s your turn to pull the trigger and do something positive for your poker game.

Challenge Demonstration:

Support the Show

Daniel Koffler supported the show by picking up PokerTracker 4 through my affiliate link.  I sent him my Smart HUD in appreciation.

Hai Le is working to become a math master by purchasing and studying the Poker Mathematics Webinar that I did with Mark Warner.  This webinar is full of critical math concepts that help you make the best decisions at the tables.

Up Next…

In episode 208, I’m going to discuss making the transition from TAG to LAG play.

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

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