Hi guys,High stakes reg heybude/mirttinur works with me, and he's using this question to help weed out the poker players who are interviewing who don't know what they're talking about. Feel free to take a shot, discuss amongst yourselves, I'll come back with his answers (which happened to be the same as mine): BU and BB are playing 1/2 NL 6 max. BU is a looser sort of regular who plays with a 40% attempt to steal blinds and plays pretty straight forward on flops: Bets most air and good hands, checks back medium and weak hands. BB is a regular-type too but slightly looser of a cold caller from the blinds than people may be used to seeing. Folds to BU who standard opens to $6. SB folds and BB calls. The flop comes Ts7s3c. BB checks and BU fires out a cbet of $10. BB calls. Pot is $33. Here is the exercise: 1. What turn card is the best for the BB and why? 2. What turn card is the best for BU and why?
Here's what I've got so far.1. Depends on what cards he has.2. Depends on what cards he has.I don't see how we can pick a card that would be good for either one without knowing what they have. But just for funs sake I'll say that:1. 9 of spades because that hits his perceived calling range hard in his opponents eyes. Whether or not he actually has a hand that the card hit doesn't matter. The fact that he can now take away the initiative from BU does.2. Ace of clubs. Same of idea as before. People are usually perceived to always cbet A-high nowadays so it's a great card to double barrel on.
"I don't see how we can pick a card that would be good for either one without knowing what they have. " They have ranges! :) Imagine being an observer. Are there some cards that are better for the button overall even if you don't know what either has?
BU is a looser sort of regular who plays with a 40% attempt to steal blinds and plays pretty straight forward on flops: Bets most air and good hands, checks back medium and weak handslet's define what type of holding he could have on the flop:air: obv any random handgood hand: sets,overpairs, 2p, tp, draws, mid pairs w/good kickermid holdings: mid pair with low kicker, bottom pair, overcards 1. What turn card is the best for the BB and why?a 7 or a 3 since BB is floating imo and BU doesn't bet a mid 7 or a 3, so BB perceived range is becoming stronger while BU range becoming weaker 2. What turn card is the best for BU and why?he's betting the flop with a good hand or a trash hand, I think BB know this so... he could float to see what BU does on the turn. I think we should have more info about turn tendecies but whatever... the turn should be a card that improves his perceived range because I think BB thinks he got air. If BB thinks he got air on the flop the best play is to raise imo... so BU is looking for a card that scaries BB, 6s should be one of them EDIT: mmm, I'm assumed BB is always floating here, but he also could be trapping BU, if it is... the worst card for BU is the 6s since he should improves his perceived range while BB could be really strong here, so BU bets again ad got trapped. if BB is trapping thw worst card he could see on the turn will be a 7 or a 3.This is sick because it is exact the opposite of what I said earlier... this is so confusing :)
This is basically like free coaching from heybude btw, surprised more people aren't answering. Go ahead, take a shot, it's OK if you're not sure (that's the point!)
I'll take a shot at it :). I don't know much about 6max, so hopefully my perception of these ranges isn't too far off.BU's opening range: top 40% of hands - just went with top 40% of hands by Stove....def some hands that have better postflop playabiity than K7o/Q4s (bottom end of KXo, QXs ranges) - but i figure they are pretty good due to card removal/nittier overall ranges in 6 max.BB's Calling Range (22.3% of hands - i have him 3betting JJ-AA, AQ/AK, and maybe some 86s/75s type 3bet bluffs outside of calling range tho): just went with top 22.3% of hands here as well.Flop is Ts 7s 3cBB checksBU cbets a polarized range of: TT+,77,AsKs,AsQs,AsJs,AsTs,As9s,As8s,As7s,As6s,As5s,As4s,As3s,As2s,KsQs,KsJs,KTs-K8s,K6s-K4s,Ks3s,K2s,Q8s+,Q6s-Q4s,JTs,Js9s,Js8s,T7s+,98s,ATo,K9o-K8o,Q8o+,JTo,T9oBU cbets about 45% of total range here - checking back lots of bluffcatchers on a board that does reasonably well for a looser-than-usual villain's perceived range. I have villain c/r his sets, AT/KT, 2 overs + fd, gutshot + fd, gutshot + backdoor fd, 89+oesd, 89 + backdoor fd. Reasonable range I think?Villains c/c range is:As9s,As8s,A7s,As6s,As5s,As4s,A3s,As2s,Ks9s,Ks8s,K7s,Ks6s,Ks5s,QTs,Qs9s,Qs8s,JTs,T8s+,9d8d,9h8h,QTo,JTo Best turn card for BU is the Kd or Kh (really close). BU has a lot of KX in his range, and BB has very little. These cards improve BU's equity the most. Kd/Kh will get another street out of villain's entire range. It's also a card that can level villain as it's also a pretty good barrel card for BU, so if villain is thinking (but not on a great level) he could find reason to call down pretty light. Best turn card for BB is the Ad or Ah (pretty much the same again). Improves BB's equity a lot and is a card I think BB will barrel on a decent bit, especially with a range that has a lot of non-showdown value equity still.
Nice, I like the answer, well thought out and thorough. I think my main point of disagreement would be all those spade draws in the BB's check/calling range: I would expect pretty much all of those hands to be check/raised. In fact we both think that it's a particular spade that's the button's best card, precisely because the button should have more flush draws in his range than the BB once the BB just check/calls the flop. Especially with the leverage you get from playing at cash stack depths, it's really important to check/raise and start making use of the stack you have.The blank ace is a pretty sexy answer for the BB - you're right that once the button c-bets given description, there won't be as many aces in his range, and while it's a perceived good barreling card for button, it's really kind of a blank and maybe even more in the BB's favor. The factors running against the ace being good for the big blind is the fact that more aces are folded or 3-bet pre from the BB in this situation, and I'm not sure the frequency Ax is check/calling this flop from the big blind's perspective, either. It's definitely a question where there's no hard and fast right answer - my answer happened to agree with heybude's when he asked me (which I'm sure is part of why I think the question is cool, all self-propping-up and everything), but we obviously could both be wrong. The point of the question isn't to see if people who are interviewed give the "right" answer but rather if they reason through the problem with good poker reasoning and show the ability to evaluate the validity counterpoints to their initial answer.
haha, well i feel good about my answer then. i just didn't consider the whole leverage/card removal aspects of deeper stacked pokerz. c/r 1 over + fd in a husng with a lot wider ranges vs someone who only cbets like 45% doesn't seem so great at most stacks. card removal is a lot bigger factor tho with these nittier ranges.pretty interesting stuff. was really challenging for me, i put like 2 hours into it...lol.
any updates? I'm pretty interested...
@Server: read my answer and Mers' reply...dont think there is a ton to add to that.
lol, I totally missed that , ty Hokie ;)
The answer I gave to heybude and he was looking for was:For the button, the Qs (could also be Ks). Against decent players it's pretty hard for the big blind to have a spade draw and just check call, as it's important to leverage your stack and take advantage of fold equity out of position. So a spade is better for the button than the big blind, although you best be prepared to triple barrel given the pair+draw. Kx/Qx are hands the button should be cbetting (I said Q because wasn't sure if button would cbet Kx, heybude thinks not doing so is terrible, I'll defer to his 6max skills), there are far more Qx/Kx hands in the button's range than the big blind's after he just check/calls.For the big blind, I like a 7. 7x is the most likely hand in the big blind's check/calling range and perhaps the button checks back some weak 7x hands on the flop instead of c-betting.Again, it's debateable, and there are other viewpoints.
By the way, I asked skates this yesterday - he likes a ten for the big blind and a queen or a jack for the button, but disagrees with it being a spade. He also likes to play pretty passively OOP with flush draws/top pair.