I'm not going to go through hands from the sessions today or tomorrow - I want to focus on a couple of things that are specifically bothering me instead. Today I'm going to ask about a couple of general approach things.
I feel like I'm either way too weak or way too spewy at the beginning of matches right now. I need to find a happy medium. One thing I have trouble with is knowing what to defend to 3-bets without knowing the player at all. I hear from a few people that certain hands are too loose without knowing anything about them, but then when I think about the fact I open between 90-100% of hands at the start of a match, and I'm only defending 10% (if that) of hands to a 3-bet at the start then 3-betting me is too profitable. I know they might not be exploiting it yada yada, but let's be honest - most regs at 2/4 and higher are.
1. So, first question, what range of hands would you defend as standard at the beginning of a hu match against a regular you know nothing about?
My next question is about 3-betting and 4-betting ranges. I used to pretty much 4-bet super wide for value at the start of a match against a reg until jungleman saw me do it with either 88 or AQ and said it was way too light. Well I'm not sure about this. I see quite a few regs shove some stupid hands over the first 4-bet - this happens regularly enough to place a decent amount of emphasis on it and apply it to the "average reg".
I also like 4-bet shoving hands like 44 as it's pretty much impossible for them to exploit for that one hand. Mathematically, if they call with AQ+ and 99+ to a shove then they need to be 3-betting something like 14% or more for shoving 22 to be profitable. I think it's safe to say that this is easily true with most regs at the start of a match. I know some people don't like that, but if you take 44 in particular I think it's -EV to call with it, it's zero EV to fold it, therefore if it's +EV to shove it surely it's the optimal play?
So, my approach at the start of the match against a reg used to be (I'm unsure now) to 4-bet/call 99+, AQ+, shove 22-88, and then flat some big suited cards. I don't really flat too many suited connectors at the start.
2. How do you play against 3-bets against an unknown reg at the start of a match?
And finally, what hands are we 3-betting/5-betting to begin with. I probably only start out by 3-betting TT+ and AK, and flatting AQ, 99 and below. I think this is probably a mistake but I'm not sure. Then I 3-bet bluffs obviously depending on how often they open their button. Thinking about what gives me the most trouble, I think I should be 3-betting a lot at the start as it's hard to know what to do given they're unknown. Now, if I'm going to start out 3-betting a lot, I should probably throw in more value hands as well as good hands to 5-bet shove with to sort of protect myself. So if my 3-betting range was 22-AA, AQo, AJs for value (that I'm 5-betting), this is 8.6% of hands, meaning if I 3-bet 25% to start I'm getting it in with a third of my range (rather than about 10-15% of my range with TT+ and AK). This sounds like it'd be a better strategy, and the fact other regs shove liberally to the first 4-bet suggests they've found that it works from experience, but it could be spew.
3. What are your standard value hands to 3-bet at the start? And what hands are you 5-betting with?
That'll do for today.
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http://weaktight.com/1969112 - He had AJ.
http://weaktight.com/1969113 - He tank folded. I'm not too keen on this one though, and I think if I bet the river it should be a little smaller to rep a wider value range or something.
http://weaktight.com/1969114 - This one worked. I think it should if you pick someone who's sane/good, but I probably didn't know enough to make this play, and most 2/4 or 3/6 regs probably just shrug and call a 5 here.
1) Defence -pocket pairs; suited connecotrs; big cards that make top pair and we treat them as the nuts AQ,AJ,AT, KQ, KJ, sometimes Ax suited. AT/KJ i can fold sometimes. That lot for me is a wide enough defence at the beginning of a match (I can get much wider as we gather more information) and it's probably too wide.
ReplyDeleteBobbo also hates the 4bet with 88+, AQ+ range. He says it's too thin and my variance has gone right down since I stopped doing it. That is too thin until he has shown that his 3bet is through the roof or we have been 3betting relentless and we are now in that kind of dogfight or that he has got it in super light to a 4bet. The moment we see he gets it in light we can adjust to that range, but you are making assumptions when each and every player is different. At the start you want to have a solid gameplan that finds out what type of player you are facing and adjust, rather than assuming what type of player he is and pre adjusting.
The 4bet shoving pp's. Ok say this is fine, the first thing you have to do is be sure that he is 3betting 14% and there is no way of knowing this at the start of a match. Wait until he has shown you that he is 3betting every hand. I'veplayed guys that have 3bet twice in the first 10 hands and after 100 are < 10%, but you would wrongly assume that they are just the type of players that 4bet shoving these hands are pfofitabel against. Alot of people would argue that it is not -ev to call those small pp's... i'm not one of them fwiw, but 55 - 88 are more playable and don't need to be shoved.
Your approach is far to aggressive, far too spewy, far too high variance.Your edge against these guys is going to be making better reads than them and outplaying them post flop. So why get into the variance fest, dick waving contest, pre assumed/adjusted match that you are?
2) 4bet bluff Ax. Flat some big pocket pairs occasionally if a 4bet is too early. Treat top pair as the nuts post flop, semi bluff draws.
What I 3bet is much more fun. All suited 1,2 and 3 gappers. Big pp's and Ak. Suited kings, suited queens. A2o - A6o. If it's right at the start of the match or they are folding too much to my 3bets or I havent 3bet for a while through lack of opportunities - i'l 3bet offsuit suited connectors and 1 gappers. I do this until I see them adjust and how they adjust.
Something Rob has me doing, which was counter intuitive at first but really cool when you get the right opponent. If they are folding too much ie 75%+ I'll 3bet ten hands in a row. If they keep folding I keep 3betting. If they call a flop I check fold. I was 3betting a dude the other day every hand and he didn't adjust for about 70 hands, it ws beautiful.
3) If I 3bet 99 -AQ (normally I dont 3bet AQ, not always 99) I am getting them in to a 4bet. Anything I 3bet for value at the start gets 5bet jammed. You don't need to go wider for value until you see how they react. Your overthinking this. You really are adjusting before any adjustments need to be made. Keep it simple, treat each and every opponent as a blank piece of paper. As that paper fills with notes, we adjust accordingly.