Hey everyone,
So there has a been a lot of talk about calling raises and all ins and what should holdings should be called with and what shouldn't be called with.
Let's discuss something first. Let's break down the all-in to it's purest form. It is the most powerful play in no limit games, be it hold 'em, 2-7 single draw, even in pot limit games like Pot Limit Omaha.
The Bigger the bet the more powerful the move. However, to me the all-in more is the one that requires the most read skills to put to someone.
What should we be thinking about when going all-in? Well first off we need a firm grasp of our holdings. Not so much if they are good cards overall, hell any cards CAN be good overall. When you have 7-2o in the big blind and the flop comes 7-7-2 then yeah that's a great spot to have 7-2o.
So what do I mean by a firm grasp of our holdings? Well I mean how they stack up to the player we are playing against.
I'll take an example from the WHL game I played recently.
Blinds 50/100 NL Hold'em - 2010/10/21 - 01:33:52
Table 1
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players: 7
Seat 1: Triquetra ( 3139 Chips )
Seat 2: ColdCase ( 2207 Chips )
Seat 3: LPBatgirl218 ( 2277 Chips )
Seat 4: chevanater ( 1453 Chips )
Seat 5: BoxofWine ( 1121 Chips )
Seat 7: Wespac23 ( 1031 Chips )
Seat 8: memberr ( 2772 Chips )
BoxofWine: posts small blind [ 50 Chips]
Wespac23: posts big blind [ 100 Chips]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to LPBatgirl218 [ 9c, 9s ]
memberr raises [ 250 Chips]
Triquetra folds
ColdCase folds
Ok so member raises 2.5 times the big blind and I am holding pocket 9s. Now against a TAG player I am probably behind here. But Memberr is well...memberr. Memberr's numbers are kinda spotty but he runs around 35% vpip. With his raises somewhere around 18%. So considering member's 18% raise range I can put him on a range of hands such as:
66 and up
A5s and up
K9s and up
Q9s and up
J9s and up
ATo and up
KTo and up
QTo and up
So if we plug those ranges against 99 we get something like this:
99: 53.868%
Memberr's rasing range: 46.935%
So I think I am ahead of memberr's range and I know he is kinda LAGgy so I want to play tight/passive with him.
So I decide to flat call him as I would do with any other quality hand in this situation.
LPBatgirl218 calls [ 250 Chips]
chevanater folds
BoxofWine folds
Wespac23 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ As, 9h, 5d ]
Ok so here I hit the jackpot. I know I am ahead of almost all the hands mentioned for him. But let's run the numbers anyways.
Set of nines: 94.889%
Memberr's range: 5.111%
So now what do we do? Whats the best way to extract money from Memberr. Well for that I need to look at his aggression factor. His AF is around 3.0, which means I can expect a bet from Memberr. I also can see Memberr has a 45% continuation bet percentage. With an Ace on board and not much else I can expect memberr to bet with his ace or rep having an ace. All I need to do is simply wait for the bet.
memberr: bets [ 250 Chips]
Now here I think memberr most likely has air or a weak ace. There's...what like 600 in the pot and he bets out 250. So this looks like a fairly small bet, but memberr loves small ball poker so this could be a value bet. I don't see any reason to raise him here in case he is bluffing I can let him bluff some more chips off. There really isn't a whole lot he can put me on for flat calling him twice except either pocket 9s or a big ace. A raise here I believe will scare him off. So again I decide to flat call and give memberr all the rope he wants to hang himself.
LPBatgirl218 calls [ 250 Chips]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ad ]
Ok so that is absolute gin for me. I now have 9s full of aces. Now I pray member has a decent ace and gets frisky. This is also a board I think memberr will bluff at a lot. He seems to like to get aggressive with paired boards trying to represent trips or two pair with a PP in the hole. I decide I am done betting until the river. I made my hand and if member checks I will check behind and see if he has the courage to fire a final bullet at this pot.
memberr checks
LPBatgirl218 checks
** Dealing River ** [ Js ]
memberr: bets [ 100 Chips]
Ok I am not sure what that bet was about. There was over 1,000 in the pot and memberr bets 100? 11-1 pot odds, seems fishy. I am really confused by this bet but I was going to shove on the river anyways. The pot is 1200 or so I have 1700 and I know I have him beat. I just don't understand why bother betting 100 there.
Whatever...
LPBatgirl218 raises [ 1,777 Chips]
memberr folds
LPBatgirl218 does not show cards
LPBatgirl218 wins 1350 chips from main pot
So that's how I play someone who is loose aggressive I play them tight passively and just flat call them with a lot of hands I would be raising with if I was playing against say a calling station which is one of the worst playing styles to play consistently. Yes I was a calling station through that whole hand but that's because I had a purpose behind it. If Member was a calling station with huge PFR stats I would promptly three-bet him on the flop. Off the top of my head I can't think of any of the regulars I would consider "gamblers". Bayjack maybe? Ok yeah Bayjacks numbers:
407 hands, 45% VPIP 13% PFR, 1.6 AF. 100% C-bet
Ok now this person I am going to three-bet and punish his limping/gambling style. Now should that same flop come and I am out position to bayjack's raise. I am not breathing on this pot whatsoever. Folks, 407 hands with a 100% C-bet factor. HE ALWAYS BETS THE FLOPS HE RAISED WITH!!!! And he's passive 1.6 AF that's passive for these parts. These numbers scream check-raise.
Now let's look at what happens without my third nine let's but the 2 of hearts up instead.
99: 38.329
Bayjack's range: 61.671
He will play a lot of aces. That ace hits a lot of his range including A8s+ ATo+.
Now let's go back to memberr's range without a nine:
Member's range: 53.964%
99: 46.036%
See the difference. Against Bayjack who is a limper first and a raiser second I am a 2-1 dog. Against Memeberr who raises like it's going out of style I'm ahead here a little less than half the time.
So basicaly the point I want to drive home today is that when you become a read heavy person in poker you don't have to rely on big bet poker to get the job done. You can play the style that best exploits the style of the player.
Against a passive player you want to value bet (big hand, big bet; little hand, little bet)
Against an aggressive player you look to call down hands that are marginal coin flipish situations.
Against a loose player, play top hands
Against a tight player, play lots of hands that have the potential to crack the big hands.
This way is great also because if you are what I like to call "shape shifting" to fit whatever style is needed you really have no default style.
I love this quote by Phil Ivey and I've shared it before and I am going to share it again. He's walking to the final table of some event and someone asked him what style he's going to use. His response: "I dunno, I'll figure it out when I get there."
I've tried to build my game around that quote.
Love and life,
BG
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Originally Posted by batgirl218
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