My name is Oliver. I'm pretty new to HU SNGs and to NL in general. I've been playing 23s (turbos) on FT for a few months now with decent results but I really want to improve my game and up to the 50s and beyond. Anyone looking to skype or team 4-man's or anything else feel free to drop me a line. My skype is yertleturtleking. Really looking forward to this.
Welcome! Good to have you here.
Okay - so I realize that I probably have some basic flaws in my game and over the last couple of days I think one spot where I don't feel comfortable is flopping second pair OOP especially against an aggressive opponent. Made up example 1:Blinds are 15/30 and stacks are relatively even. Villain on the button raises to 90. I call with A9s. Flop comes J92 rainbow. I check - villain bets 120... I suck in this spot. Most of the time I'm check-calling but there are a ton of cards that will roll off on the turn that I don't like. Even if a blank rolls of and I check villain will sometimes check behind where I am a) losing value and b) giving him a free card on the river. Q usually falls on the river and if I bet I feel like I'm turning my hand into a bluff and if I check I'm turning my hand face up. Another example might be same betting but I hold KTo (no hearts) on an AK7 (two hearts board). Help!
Those spots are never fun. As alluded to in a previous thread, You really have to lean on villain tendencies. More than being aggressive, just how aggressive are they and when?Check calling is clearly best in both situations. If the turn checks through, lead river for value or let him spew, whichever is most appropriate.Even when it feels like you're turning your hand face up, you still should be able to identify the difference between a villain who is good at bluffing a decent amount when you have a weak range but is still usually value betting in those spots, and one that is just trying to take the pot away every single time.A year and a half ago, I made a bet with another poker player on who would win in a heads up cash game: A player with any two cards face down (only he could see them) against a player who always had AA, but with face up cards (no preflop raises were allowed). This turned into a fascinating study for me of bluffcatching. Who has the edge here if we're always 100bb deep at the start of the hand? I was the player with AA, and lost a well-fought match, but we both agreed afterwards that neither of our lives were easy. ATC had to deal with usually having the worst hand and usually having to bluff to win pots, and AA had to deal with the horrible horrible life of your opponent always knowing exactly what you have.The point of that story is that even when your hand is face up, your opponent can't go insane. It's not a fun position, but hone in on your opponent's frequencies and determine which side of the line he's on.
No Limit Holdem Tournament • 2 Players$22 + $1 Heads Up Sit & Go Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter SBKonatelb1080 BBHero1920 Effective Stacks: 22bb Blinds 25/50 Pre-Flop (75, 2 players) Hero is BB Konatelb raises to 100, Hero raises to 250, Konatelb goes all-in 1080, Hero folds Final Pot: 1330 Konatelb wins 1330 ( won +250 ) Hero lost -250 Villain is a lag who was trying to run me over but was respecting my 3-bets. I was 3-bet my premiums (TT+, AJ+) and adding some random hands (like this one). First is this adjustment a mistake? Given stack sizes is my fold a mistake and more importantly how can I determine this for myself? Villain insta-shoved. If I had to guess villain's range here I would say there are very few bluffs. His range is probably around 77+, ATs+, AJo+, KQ. I'm basing this off of his endgame play where he was very reluctant to put all his chips in the middle.
You're missing one crucial piece of information. I want you to tell me what it is :) (hint: You give a general description, but you need to be more specific about one thing)(i will say the answer if you don't get it of course, i don't think you hired me to play games with you ;) )
On the A9 hand if villain c-betting percentage is low and his passive we can/should lead for value no?
Is it a game flow thing? Villain had won a medium sized pot maybe two hands ago. I thought my description was pretty robust. Maybe I should describe how villain was running me over? He was basically raising 100% of his button and a fair amount of my min-raises, 2.5xs and limps. Can't think of anything else.
100% of buttons is the one :) Makes a huge difference how he's running you over, pre and or post - whether that 3bet is good depends a ton on his opening frequency.I'm fine with it if he's been folding to 3bets, not a bad hand to have in your light 3bet range at all and you have to 3bet wider than premiums if he's opening 100% and tight to 3bets.
Another question (and if you tell me I should re-watch your end game vids thats fine) - if we are playing someone that makes lose calls in the end game should we shove following Chubukov rather than Nash?
I just finished a few matches against a LAG who 2.5x every hand at every level. I won most of my matches against him but I didn't feel comfortable. I basically bluff 3-bet him fairly regularly. I didn't adjust my flatting range at all except when we got shallow. I'm not sure if there was more I could do to exploit him. I also was worried that if I 3-bet him too much he might start 4-bet bluffing me. Should I hold off on the 3-bet bluffing until the later stages in the match when he is making a mistake by 2.5x/folding?
About Chubokov/Nash...re-read spamz's post in the essential reading if you haven't in a while. Chubokov and Nash are resources that help you make a decision, they are not decisions to pick from. You never ever use Chubokov ranges for all hands (why would you assume your opponent can see your cards?) and you basically never ever use Nash ranges for all hands (why would you assume your opponent is playing perfectly?)
No Limit Holdem Tournament • 2 Players$22 + $1 Heads Up Sit & Go Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter SBHero2190 BBmillertime589810 Effective Stacks: 8bb Blinds 50/100 Pre-Flop (150, 2 players) Hero is SB Hero calls 50, millertime589 checks Flop (200, 2 players) millertime589 goes all-in 710, Hero calls 710 Turn (1620, 2 players, 1 all-in) River (1620, 2 players, 1 all-in) Final Pot: 1620 Hero shows a straight, Seven high millertime589 shows two pair, Sixes and Fives Hero wins 1620 ( won +810 ) millertime589 lost -810 How bad/close is this call considering I suspected villain would do this with any 2,3,4,5, or 6 and some air and most likely doesn't have me beat on hi card strength alone? I also suspect villain would not have shoved 2-pair+. If I give villain a range of Q7-Q2, J7-J2, T7-T2, 97-92, 82+ and 72+ I have almost 46% equity so it seems like my call is fine/good if my reads are correct. Am I missing anything? Also - if I add all hands Q7 and smaller (including all 2-pair and pair plus strait draws) I still have 41% equity which is pretty close to the 44% pot odds I'm getting.
I'd fold. Way to marginal in my opinion.
I agree in strongly disliking the call. I think your stove range is pretty unrealistic - you think he plays it this way with 72o 100% of the time, for example? 82o? T2o? T7o? Just too much trash (a lot of it is folding pre) you're expecting to make a shove on this flop compared to more reasonable stuff like 75o, which has you crushed.
I did limp preflop so I discounted the top part of his range because he would have shoved Ax, most Kx, some Qx etc. But still - I was clearly trying to justify my play where I shouldn't have been.
Right, sorry, missed that. But yeah, I think you're making the mistake in Stoving of thinking he's doing this with his weirdo hands the same percentage of the time that he's doing it with his 75o type stuff.
Off topic but I have a question about hourly rates at turbos vrs. reg speeds. I have only played turbos so far. Does the increase in ROI in reg speeds get negated by the increase in time? Also - is it easier to multi-table reg speeds?
Personal question. I find my hourly is better in turbos and no difference really for multi-tabling, othrs will find differently.
Do you have more variance playing turbos?
The short answer is yes. But its probably a little more complicated than that. Since you can play more games per hour you get to your long-term results more quickly. If you have a decent edge in these games you should still be making money over the course of a month but if your winrate is barely positive you can have some brutal swings. I've been working alot on my game recently including rematching decent, tough, spastic and tricky players. This has hurt my ROI for sure but I think is in my best interest long-term. I also stopped two tabling for the month so my volume will be down but I can focus more on tailoring my strategy to each opponent. Lastly - IMO turbos are just more fun.
So I've been looking over some of Spamz old threads specifically this one:http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/185/heads-up-sng/5k-trips-no-good-866047/and I have a few questions. Spamz mentions that he often won't check-raise a 3 (and I'm also assuming an A or a flushdraw) on this type of flop (A33). He basically says that check-raising here caps our range. I'm not sure I fully understand his point. If I was going to check-raise Ax, 3x, flushdraws, 45, and some air how is out range capped? (Maybe I should start with - what does having a capped range mean just in case). Spamz later goes on to say that check-raising the turn turns our hand into a bluff - which I understand because a good thinking player should fold most hande we beat here and we are knocking out his barrelling range.In the hand you posted against LivB (I think) you check-raised a weak Ax on a similar board and get paid off hansomely. Certainly LivB is a thinking player. How can I balance these ideas in my head? On the one hand check-raising seems good because its hard to have a strong hand on these types of boards (especially with the pair being as low as 33). This makes our range weighted heavily to draws and air - which makes check-raising the flop a good play w/ a 3 and a weak ace (sometimes). If we check-call our range is wider with some 3x, Ax, flushdraws, Kx and PPs but no pure air but in order to keep our range wide we cannot check-raise the turn.At my limits is it not necessary to think this much about a spot? A player is either a barreller in which case check-call is probably best or a showdown monkey in which case check-raise is probably best. Of course I want to move up limits so any thoughts on how to think about different lines and how you are manipulating your opponents ranges?
No Limit Holdem Tournament • 2 Players$22 + $1 Heads Up Sit & Go Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter BBsmygare1440 SBHero1560 Effective Stacks: 48bb Blinds 15/30 Pre-Flop (45, 2 players) Hero is SB Hero raises to 60, smygare calls 30 Flop (120, 2 players) smygare checks, Hero bets 60, smygare raises to 120, Hero calls 60 Turn (360, 2 players) smygare bets 120, Hero calls 120 River (600, 2 players) smygare checks, Hero bets 375, villain calls for time... Any thoughts about this hand? Villain was a decent winner over a 1500 game sample. My reads on him is that he liked to make moves without risking too many chips. Maybe 15 hands earlier I min-raised KJo to 80 and he 3-bet 86o to 160. He made the same 3-bet sizing again in the match and I 4-bet 2.5x his raise and he insta-folded. My thoughts on the river here is that I could most likely get him to fold a better 7 which would be a good result for me and possibly a weak Q? My main concern is my bet-sizing on the river. I'm not sure if I am really telling any kind of believable story here and I'm not sure a good thinking opponent would fold anything.
What spamz is saying isn't about capping your c/r range, it's about capping your c/c range. If you always c/r 3x here, you have no monsters in your check/calling range: The strongest possible hand is whatever Ax you won't c/r with or 3bet pre with, which means your range is pretty damn weak. That's what capped means: You can't have better than a certain hand strength, no big hands are in your range. That's what he's afraid of by never check/calling 3x against a good player.I check/raised Livb because we're short enough that it's probably correct for him to jam over my raise with his flush draws and perhaps even his pocket pairs if he thinks I have a balanced c/r range. c/c can be best when that's not the case and when your opponent is very aggressive trying to push you out when you seem weak. To be practical about it, I wouldn't worry too mcuh about balanced/whether your range is capped, especially in most normal games. Just take the line with the best equity with your hand (which you hint at). As you move up, though, thinking about being more unexploitable versus very good players is important.
With the hand, it does look like Qx a ton, and I do think you might get it to fold. I think you rep AJ and some other aces and stuff just fine. I think I would still usually check behind if you have the read that he likes to bluff without risking too many chips, as you may have the best hand more often than you think.
Do you think that we increase our options for bluffing the river if we raise the turn, or do people just not believe that you float Kx as much as Ax? It just starts to feel like an attractive option to me when he plays his hand so much like a Q -- I feel like we can rep a lot of Kx here, especially when he c/r so small.(I am probably slightly too in love with raising turns IP, and I want to fix my thought processes here).
We may increase our options for bluffing, but I think that's looking at it too after-the-fact. I think a call is definitely the best option on the turn. Qx may fold to a a raise/bet river combination but it's not going to be super often that it happens.
No Limit Holdem Tournament • 2 Players$22 + $1 Heads Up Sit & Go Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter BBCHOWMEIN31360 SBHero1640 Effective Stacks: 17bb Blinds 40/80 Pre-Flop (120, 2 players) Hero is SB Hero raises to 160, CHOWMEIN3 calls 80 Flop (320, 2 players) CHOWMEIN3 checks, Hero bets 160, CHOWMEIN3 calls 160 Turn (640, 2 players) CHOWMEIN3 bets 320, Hero...Not sure if this is really an interesting spot. My reads on this villain is he is very loose and passive. He is playing nearly 65% OOP and around 85% IP. He has basically been check-calling alot all match. He is decent at floating and trying to take the pot away on the river (his only aggressive street). This is the first hand of the match where he donks the turn. He did donk a 4-flush river with top pair. I really don't know what this action means. If I jam here I doubt he folds a 87 type hand (possible) snd certainly would never fold a J but calling seems weak with somewhere around 16 outs and possbily even the best hand (if he is semi-bluffing with a 7).
I don't like jamming, I don't think you get many folds at all. I think this is a pretty breakeven call given implied odds (you don't have the 25% equity you need, but you can make up a lot of that by making money when you hit). I think fold is marginally best vs the player you describe - passives very rarely don't have something here, and it might be a higher percentage of two pair or better.
???? we have like 22% equity even vs. a set if I read the board correctly, and even though he'll fold some to the 9, we'll get paid on the diamond a lot when his hand is strong...correct me if my thinking is wrong here; it just seems as if he has to put in an average of about 100 chips more when we bink, which seems really really likely if his range is > 50% 2pair+.
I missed the diamond draw :) Definitely have to call.
Tell rypac it's time for HUSNG.com to move into the 19th century and get a 4-color deck lol.
No Limit Holdem Tournament • 2 Players$22 + $1 Heads Up Sit & Go Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter SBHero1250 BBLechis1750 Effective Stacks: 21bb Blinds 30/60 Pre-Flop (90, 2 players) Hero is SB Hero raises to 120, Lechis raises to 300, Hero calls 180 Flop (600, 2 players) Lechis goes all-in 1450, Hero goes all-in 950 Turn (3000, 2 players, 2 all-in) River (3000, 2 players, 2 all-in) Final Pot: 3000 Hero shows a pair of Kings Lechis shows King Queen high Hero wins 2500 ( won +1250 ) Lechis lost -1250I'm really only interested in preflop as the rest of the hand is standard. With stacks at just over 20bbs do you think it is wrong to call a 3-bet here? My read on villain is that he has been very aggressive with his 3-betting (around 35%) and just aggressive in general. My thinking was that he probably had a few dominated hands in his 3-betting range that I wanted to keep in (KT, K9s, QJ, JT, J9s etc.) but also a fair amount of Ax and PPs and at this smaller 3-bet size - some hands that have me crushed as well. It probably didn't help that I just read Skates article about static 3-betting ranges in the late game. Also - although villain shoved this flop I don't think he would shove every flop.
I think against someone who's 3betting that often, folding is not an option here. The question is whether flatting or jamming is more profitable.If we were a little deeper then I'd definitely flat, but I think jamming is best this shallow.Looking forward to hear what others, especially Mers, say about that ...
I know mers talked recently about how he would flat JTs at pretty much exactly these stack sizes...My gut wants to jam, but my gut makes lots of bad decisions. I think he has enough random Kx/Jx in that really wide 3bet range that will spazz flops we both hit, but also fold to a jam, that we should call here. Like a lot of the hands that he folds to a jam are K4o or 96s type stuff, hands that we really don't want to fold.
Usually I would flat KJ at these stack sizes, but against a very high 3bet % I think it's best just to go ahead and jam, because you will play a lot better against his wide range that way. Against a more normal 3bet % this is a flat all day everyday.
No Limit Holdem Tournament • 2 Players$22 + $1 Heads Up Sit & Go Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter SBAtad1500 BBHero1500 Effective Stacks: 50bb Blinds 15/30 Pre-Flop (45, 2 players) Hero is BB Atad raises to 90, Hero raises to 270, Atad calls 180 Flop (540, 2 players) Hero bets 405... My read on villain was that he was pretty aggro and prone to get it in the middle light. I also thought villain might interpret my bet as weak as I've been looked up betting smallish with the nuts. Is my bet sizing here good to make it a fold or shove spot for him?
It's not really necessary to make it a fold or shove spot for him, it makes the hand a little easier in terms of how many decisions you have to make, but that doesn't necessarily mean it increases your expectation. I think the sizing is fine though, would probably bet/call a little smaller (like 360) but no big deal.