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Tournament Strategy

How to Quickly Understand Online Tournament Players – Podcast #318

By Sky Matsuhashi on November 18, 2020

A few weeks ago, listener Sherri Cook sent me this question about understanding tournament players:

I’m loving your podcast, Sky. I just subscribed and now I’m going through your back catalog and learning a ton.

I love playing cash games where I can use my long history with opponents against them. I play with many players online day after day, and this gives me a great understanding of them that I use to exploit them. But, I’ve just started playing online tournaments and it’s really tough because I don’t know any of my opponents and it takes a long time to really develop HUD stats. Can you help me out?

Absolutely! And thanks for the question and kind words, Sherri.

It sounds like you already know how to exploit your opponents based on what you know about them. So, I’m not going to go into how to exploit tournament players.

I’m going to answer your question with the goal of helping you gain quick clarity on their player type and tendencies so that you can use your existing exploits against them.

Come play with me this Saturday the 21st of November in my $1.10 Rebuy Tournament on Americas Cardroom.

Listen to this podcast episode:

Tournament Players are Like Any Other

The first thing to know is that cash game players are the same as tournament players. They have tendencies and they have weaknesses. They can be loose and play a lot of hands, or tight and wait for stronger hands. They can be passive and love to see flops and catch draws, or they can be aggressive and make loads of bets and raises. So, your reads on players can be exploited exactly the same in tournaments as in cash games.

The only real difference in understanding online tournament players versus cash game players is that you must learn all you can about them as soon as possible.

Pay Attention to EVERY Hand

You must gain as much information as quickly as possible, and the best way to do this is to watch every action, even when you fold your hand.

You MUST NOT allow yourself to be distracted by too many other tournaments or cash games. You must also keep outside distractions turned off: Netflix, Twitch or a podcast (even this one).

Learn the Easy Way

Paying attention to the action also helps you learn things the easy way, not the hard way. If Bob123 makes a min3bet against Susan789, you might read this tiny bet size as Bob being a weak, recreational player. But, if at showdown he shows AA, you know he’s a bit wily and capable of deceptive play. Susan learned this the hard way when she lost her stack. But because you were paying attention, you learned the same thing she did without losing your tournament life.

Revealing Actions

You must be on the lookout for plays that quickly reveal the type of player are. So, which actions quickly help you characterize tournament players?

Preflop:

Limping and Calling – the weakest, most passive players limp and call a lot. They like seeing flops and are likely calling stations. They have a really wide and weak preflop ranges with the goal of striking gold on the flop with straights, flushes and sets.

Raising First In, Iso-raising and 3betting – These are aggressive preflop actions and players who do these often are likely TAG or LAG players. They probably steal a lot and punish other stealers and limpers with their raises.

Post-flop:

Frequent Callers – they call a ton and never fold, so they’re stations who give too much value to their opponents. Plus, it’s harder to bluff them off especially on wet boards with lots of draw potential. They chase every draw and they think their TP or 2nd pair can catch your bluff.

Cbettors and Raisers – They use aggression against you if they think you can fold. Sometimes you fight back and they can win all your chips when they happen to have a great hand. They use position and larger stacks against you by threatening your tournament life.

Take Notes and Tag ‘em

As you notice these revealing actions, take notes on a piece of paper or in the PokerTracker 4 Note Editor. I prefer the paper notes for tournaments because it’s quick and easy to write ‘em down and refer to them in future hands.

You must also color code tournament players accordingly as soon as you make a read. Color coding their player box or their HUD helps you to plan for how to play against them a bit quicker. I use these color codes:

  • Loose-passive Fish: Green
  • Super Tight Nits: Red
  • Loose-aggressive and Maniacs: Orange
  • Tight-aggressive, strong and capable: Yellow

Showdowns

There’s nothing better than showdown to totally illuminate the tournament players you’re up against. That’s why you should always muck your losing hand at showdown.

Not many hands in the early and middle stages are gonna reach showdown. But when they do, your eyes must be glued to what they show and you must replay the action of the hand. This means you must have paid attention to every play they made through the streets.

For example, somebody showing down J8s means different things based on prior actions:

  • What if the preflop 3bettor showed J8s? Well, this indicates a very aggressive 3bettor who probably targets his opponents well with his 3bet bluffs. It’s a good idea to think back and make a judgment based on the sizing he used as well.
  • What if the preflop caller in the HJ showed J8s? Calling in the HJ with 4 other players still to act indicates a super loose-passive and weak player. He’s not even thinking about the players left to act, he just wants to see the flop and hit a flush or straight with his suited 2-gapper.
  • What if the BTN open-raiser showed J8s after cbetting with TPWK on the flop then checking the turn and river? She’s probably tight-aggressive. She’s capable of stealing often but pot controls post-flop with a vulnerable TP hand.
  • What if the BB caller showed J8s after check-calling large flop and turn bets with a gut shot draw, then shoving all-in when he rivered his straight? He’s a calling station willing to overpay for weak draws.

Bet Sizing

Bet sizing is a critical piece of information to think about.

If all I told you was that “HubbaHubbaZoe” made a preflop 3bet, what kind of player is Zoe? If that’s all the info you had to go on, you might say she’s probably loose-aggressive.

But, what if told you she made a min-3bet to only 5bb’s after I open-raised to 3bb’s?

Well now, you have more information to work with. So, what kind of player is she?

She’s still probably loose-aggressive, but she doesn’t really know what she’s doing. She’s probably a recreational player. She’s making it too easy for me to call, so she’s missing value with her best hands like AA. And because it’s too easy for me to call, her bluff with J8s is never working. A min-3bet like this is an ineffectual size, and that indicates a weak player.

And post-flop bet sizing? You can get the best reads here earlier in the tournament before there are too many post-flop all-ins.

In general, smaller bets of 1bb up to 1/3 pot indicate weak attempts to bluff or block you from betting bigger. These indicate weaker players most often. As bets get larger in relation to the pot, especially ½ to ¾ pot, these players are hitting your pain threshold with their bluff and value bets, so they more likely know what they’re doing.

If you ever see a “weird” bet size, take note. Combine this “weird” bet sizing with everything else you know about them to gauge what you think they’re trying to do.

HUD Stats and Exploiting at the Extremes

Because you’re an online player, you have the advantage of PokerTracker 4 and HUD stats.

Every HUD stat is potentially useful, but the most useful ones are VPIP and PFR. They accumulate with every hand dealt so continue using them just like you do in cash games. Look for high and low percentages and pay attention to that gap between the two. Even over just 10 hands, VPIP and PFR can clue you in to their player type.

The key to using HUD stats for tournament players is to “exploit at the extremes”. So, over just 10 hands Bob123 might be a 100/0 player. He’s voluntarily put money into the pot in all 10 of his first hands without raising at all. That means he’s called or limped in his first 10 hands >>> Mega Fish!

His stats show an extreme tendency towards calling preflop. You can easily use this extreme tendency against him.

What about somebody who has cbet 4/4 times at 100%? Well, he’s most likely cbetting his 5th opportunity, right? What about another player who has cbet 0/4 times? Yep, totally honest flop cbettor and you can expect him to have a pair or better if he cbets at his 5th opportunity.

Besides VPIP and PFR, the other most useful tournament stats are:

  • Fold to Steal
  • 3bet
  • Call Preflop 2bet
  • Cbet Flop
  • Fold to Flop Cbet

These are the most common plays and situations tournament players face, so these accumulate the quickest. And, don’t forget to exploit at the extremes if the sample size is a bit small.

Challenge

Here’s my challenge to you for this episode:  Play with me and other SPS listeners this Saturday during my $75 Guaranteed, $1.10 buy-in Rebuy tournament on Americas Cardroom. DETAILS.

Now it’s your turn to take action and play with me in my upcoming tournament!

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.


Support the Show

Join me on Americas Cardroom (and get 27% rakeback with code SPSPOD) so you can play in my upcoming tournament.

L Hill, tatsu926 and Bob Hampton 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.

Graeme Richardson, Greg Carter, Blaine, Oreo God, Jeremy McAllister, Chris Whittaker, RJ Houston, Claudio Conti, Obese Man, Rocco Sanello, Chris Manuel and Aaron Bulley 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.

Coinbase makes buying and selling bitcoin super easy, and bitcoin is the best way to deposit and withdraw from online poker sites. Ryan M, Richard D, David L, John D used my Coinbase Friend Referral Link to get a $10 bonus when they purchased their first $100 of bitcoin through Coinbase. And doing this supported the show!

4 Essential Tips to Crush Poker Tournaments

By Beasts of Poker on September 17, 2020

By Eelis Pärssinen of Beasts of Poker

Every weekend, players from all over the world login to their favorite poker site to play tournaments. Some achieve a life-changing score by winning big, and some get excitement well worth their money spent on buy-ins. There are entertaining Twitch streamers, replays of major live events with hole cards shown and a great selection of live event satellites. No wonder tournament poker is so popular!

While you might hit it big in tournaments by sheer luck, the consistent winners have a different approach to the game. MTTs are one of the softest poker formats as they involve many factors that most players fail to properly adjust to. To name a few, these include different stack sizes at the table, progressive payouts and antes in play. If you want to crush your competition consistently, you need the right tools and knowledge on how to use those tools. That’s why we asked the expert players of BeastsOfPoker for their advice on how to crush tournaments. Here’s what they had to share with us on the topic:

Steal Like a Thief

In short, we want to steal the blinds & antes and avoid getting caught while doing it with speculative hands. The math of tournament poker supports this move: You can print chips by opening to 2.2BB if you win the pot outright close to half the time. This doesn’t even include the post-flop potential of your hand!

If the blinds fail to fight back at least half the time, you have a pretty easy stealing opportunity when you’re on the button. Now, if the button player is a tight one and you’re on the cut-off, you know what to do: Steal more than your fair share of the pots!

Hand charts are quite useful for early positions. You’ll miss a ton of easy chips though if you robotically follow them at late positions without considering the tendencies of your opponents. Stealing blinds is such a simple yet overlooked strategy. Winning the pot without seeing the flop can be much easier than making the best hand. Even if one of the players calls your steal, you can still try to either make the best hand or bluff them off their hand post-flop.

Get Familiar with ICM

In poker, the term ICM means Independent Chip Model. It’s a mathematical model for calculating the overall equity of a player’s stack in a tournament. In this model, it’s assumed that all players are equally skillful. ICM determines the probabilities of a player finishing in each position. Players also talk about ICM pressure when they refer to the considerations of ICM on which hands are playable in a certain spot.

www.icmizer.com has an easy to use calculator

The basic idea of ICM is that the fewer chips you have, the more valuable each chip is in monetary terms. As a consequence, you need to get a significant overlay to risk your chips approaching the bubble or during final table play. A mere coin flip against a bigger stack is a disaster in these situations!

The closer the money bubble is, the less willing you should be to call all-ins with a big portion of your stack. On the other hand, if you have a medium or a big stack, you can start putting some pressure on other stacks by 3-betting them light.

What if a big stack on your right seems to open any two cards a few spots before the money bubble? There’s dead money in the pot as soon as he opens, since he will only have a premium hand a small percentage of the time. In this case, your best counter play as a short stack is to re-steal aggressively by 3-bet shoving. In your shoes, timid players will most likely tighten up their play here – when you know better, you can make the exact opposite adjustment!

Defend Your BB with a Wide Range

With modern tournament poker dynamics, most of the open raise sizes are between 2-2.4x BB. You will get the correct odds to call with a much wider range on the BB than most players think! This holds true especially once antes are in play.

Against late positions opens, you should be looking to defend at least 40% of your hands by calling or 3-betting. This means you have to play all your pairs, suited aces, broadway hands, suited connectors, many A-high & K-high hands as well as decent suited hands like Q7s. Many tournament players target their steals against weak players at the blinds who are folding too frequently. Once you start defending wide, they no longer have the incentive to steal that often against your BB.

Improve Your Skills in a Mastermind Group

While it’s important to read poker strategy articles and watch training videos, having a poker study group can take your game to the next level. When you’re studying the game with fellow players, you learn much faster and also get motivated to constantly improve your strategies. Look for groups where all members hold themselves accountable for following a studying schedule. Besides the obvious benefits for your game, you might make new friends if you join a poker study group online!

Over the years, I’ve learned so much from all the people I’ve met through poker. I’ve found the best way to get better at this game, is to discuss hands and strategies with your friends. I would have never achieved all the success if it wasn’t for studying the game with like-minded players!

– Joni Jouhkimainen, Beasts Of Poker Ambassador & partypoker Team Pro

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  • 4 Essential Tips to Crush Poker Tournaments - September 17, 2020

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.

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