Polished Poker Vol I - Rev2

An Ace Poker Solutions LLC Publication
Polished Poker
Cash Games Volume I
By: John Anhalt
2014 Ace Poker Solutions LLC. All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 4
About The Author: John Anhalt .............................................................................. 6
Chapter 1: Why are you playing? ........................................................................... 8
First Goals ............................................................................................................ 9
Blog About It .................................................................................................... 10
Make Poker Friends ............................................................................................ 10
Chapter 2: Know Thyself ...................................................................................... 11
Aggression .......................................................................................................... 12
Aggression (too passive) ...................................................................................... 13
Aggression (too aggro) ......................................................................................... 15
Rational Deduction / Logic ................................................................................. 16
Psychological Control / Understanding ............................................................... 21
Tilt ...................................................................................................................... 22
Being a good quitter (Tilt).................................................................................... 24
Self Awareness ................................................................................................... 26
Perceptiveness .................................................................................................... 28
Chapter 3: Get it Together ................................................................................... 31
Bankroll Management ........................................................................................ 31
Poker Software.................................................................................................... 33
Preparation and Diet .......................................................................................... 35
Diet .................................................................................................................... 36
Chapter 4: Glorious Poker Math .......................................................................... 38
Combinations ..................................................................................................... 38
Probability .......................................................................................................... 40
Equity................................................................................................................. 42
Expected Value (EV) ........................................................................................... 42
Fold Equity ......................................................................................................... 43
Chapter 5: Metta World Peace .............................................................................. 44
Tension Count .................................................................................................... 45
Reads and Notes ................................................................................................. 49
List of Abbreviations (Brief Overview) .................................................................. 50
ATC (Any Two Cards) .......................................................................................... 53
FC (Flush Chaser) ............................................................................................... 57
SOOT (Likes to play any two suited cards) .......................................................... 58
AK (Will bet turn unimproved) ............................................................................ 60
CRW (Calls raises with weak hands) ................................................................... 62
LAF (Will lead into pre-flop raises and fold to a raise) ......................................... 64
SVB (Slim Value Bettor) ...................................................................................... 66
Ax (Will play an ace from anywhere) ................................................................... 71
NPR (Will raise a non-premium hand) ................................................................. 72
CBB (Continuation Bet Bad Boards) ................................................................... 74
LA (Look-up Artist) ............................................................................................. 76
Chapter 6: In the Beginning ................................................................................. 78

Starting Decisions .............................................................................................. 78
Flat Calling ......................................................................................................... 80
Blind Play ........................................................................................................... 83
Optimal Big Blind Play........................................................................................ 86
Defending from the Big Blind vs Early Openers .................................................. 87
Defending from the Big Blind vs Steals ............................................................... 92
Defending from the Big Blind vs Button Steals ................................................... 92
Squeezing from the Big Blind vs Open Buttons ................................................... 97
Defending from the Big Blind vs Cut-off's ........................................................... 98
Squeezing from the Big Blind vs Open Cut-Offs ................................................ 101
Defending from the Small Blind vs Steals ......................................................... 104
Defending from the Small Blind vs Button Steals ............................................. 104
Defending from the Small Blind vs Cut-off Opens ............................................. 108
Squeezing from the Small Blind vs Open Cut-Offs ............................................ 108
Out of The "Norm" Lines to Take Against Steals ................................................ 110
Chapter 7: 3-Betting .......................................................................................... 115
Value Range ..................................................................................................... 115
Bluffing Range .................................................................................................. 117
Quasi Range ..................................................................................................... 119
3-Bet Sizing ...................................................................................................... 120
Standard 3-bet Strategy ................................................................................... 120
Applied Pressure 3-bet Strategy ........................................................................ 121
Applied Pressure vs Standard 3-bet Strategy .................................................... 125
3-Bet Calling Ranges ........................................................................................ 126
Easy Folds to 3-bets ......................................................................................... 127
"Easy" Calls to 3-bets ....................................................................................... 128
Marginal Spots vs 3-bets .................................................................................. 131
Being 3-bet by a short stack ............................................................................. 134
Chapter 8: 4-Bet Bluffing ................................................................................... 136
Why 4-bet Bluff? ............................................................................................... 136
Good 4-bet bluffing hands ................................................................................ 137
4-bet Bluff Sizing .............................................................................................. 138
Ideal 4-bet Bluffing Spots ................................................................................. 141
Chapter 9: Perceived Range ............................................................................... 143
Balancing Your Range ...................................................................................... 144
Balancing Flop Textures ................................................................................... 147
Balancing on Dry Boards .................................................................................. 148
Balancing on Coordinated Boards..................................................................... 154
Balancing on Paired Boards .............................................................................. 159
Balanced Deception .......................................................................................... 165
Putting It All Together ......................................................................................... 171
More Tools of the Trade ...................................................................................... 172
Introduction
I'm not going to bullshit you, poker isn't an easy game. It's fairly easy
to learn the rules, and beat some weak players that aren't really sure what
they're doing. However, if you want to be really good at this game, then
you're going to need to put a lot of work in. Just like anything in life, if you
want to be really good at something, you need to prepare, train, take your
lumps, learn from your mistakes, know when to walk away and wait for
another day, and have good mental discipline. If you aren't prepared to
work hard, then be prepared to not be very successful at poker.
I say this having coached for over seven years, played for over nine
on a professional and semi-professional level, and having my own share of
success and failure. Fortunately I've had much more success, and not
much failure in my poker career, but this didn't come without hard work
and dedication to the art of poker. The truth of the matter is, very few
people are successful at poker long term. I've seen studies that say that
less than 5% of players are winners long term. Some people may have some
short term success, but if you want to make it long term you're going to
need to have a level of dedication and discipline that few people do.
My hope is that this book serves as a guide for you. Something you
can go back to again and again, and learn something new from as you grow
in your poker career. My goal is to make this material accessible to anyone,
but it's not aimed at absolute beginners. I'm assuming you've found this
through a friend or poker link somewhere, and you've already had some
success or failure at online poker. There's going to be a lot of common
online poker lingo used, and the glossary may not be enough help if you
aren't already playing online. Don't let that dissuade you if you aren't
Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2
already playing online. If you have any questions about the content of
references, I'm an open book. :) Let's begin.
5
About The Author: John Anhalt

Just like most of you, I gravitated towards poker for a lot of reasons.
If you get good at this game, it offers a lot of flexibility, but like some have
said, "Its a hard way to make an easy living." Whatever the reason you are
deciding to play poker, I wish you much success at the tables and in life.
We truly only recognize our own greatness, when we assist and help others
to reach theirs.
I started playing poker in the latter part of 2004, as poker was just
beginning to really boom. I was swept up in part of the "Moneymaker" effect
of amateur Chris Moneymaker winning the WSOP main event in 2003. I
was working in corporate America at the time making a comfortable six
figure salary, but not satisfied with the career path I saw in front of me. I'm
honestly not entirely sure how poker found me, but I began playing limit
poker, and like anything I do in life, I studied everything I could get my
hands on about the game and ate it up.
I made one $50 deposit on Pacific poker back in 2004, and I've never
busted or looked back since. Since that time I've won several hundred
thousand dollars in cash games and some nice tournament scores as well.
I didn't and haven't played a ton of tournament poker over my career
simply because of time commitments, but I do have WSOP cashes, and
have won other local and online tournaments. Most of my study and time
have gone into no-limit Texas Holdem 6-max, full ring, and heads-up cash
games. I've played and had some decent success at pot-limit Omaha and
Razz as well, but don't enjoy those games nearly as much.
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I eventually turned my poker wins into a successful online poker

business, where my company, Ace Poker Solutions, develops software such
as Leak Buster, Ace Poker Drills, Ace Poker Coach, and training material
from sites like PokerZion. Here are some of my recent database snap shots
post black Friday. I don't put the same volume in as I used to simply
because a bulk of my time goes into running my business, but I do stay
current and active and play a good amount.
I've also played as low as 50NL and 100NL in small samples for a
honeymoon challenge. You can read about that and see stats HERE.
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Chapter 1: Why are you playing?
his should be a simple question really, but I seem to stump a lot of

students when I ask them. Are you playing for money? For
competition? For vacation money? To put the kids through college?
Put yourself through college? As a full-time job (grinder)? To win a
WSOP bracelet? For fame? To be a balla and have lots of
women/men? Knowing why you are playing is important so that you don't
end up wasting energy during your poker career on things that aren't very
necessary.
For example, if you're playing to win some extra vacation money, you
don't want to spend your time constantly looking to play against the best
players at the table. Conversely, if you're playing to win a WSOP bracelet
someday, you don't want to spend most of your time bum hunting tables.
Secondly you want to make sure you have a poker goal in mind.
Goals and motivations can easily get blurred, and
with many people they can sometimes even conflict.
A goal can of course change over time, but knowing
what your initial goal(s) are can quickly let you
know how in alignment they are with your
motivations. If your motivation is to play for vacation money, but your goal
is to win a WSOP bracelet, it's going to be rough going to take small
winnings and purchase high stakes tournament buy-ins. Not that you can't
satellite in for cheaper, but the motivation and goal won't be in complete
alignment and you'll mostly working against yourself. Just make sure
you're clear in your own mind.
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Once you understand your motivations and goals, then you can
begin to make a plan for how to achieve your goals. If you've noticed your
motivation isn't completely in alignment with your goal(s), then be honest
with yourself about what you think you need to change. Set realistic
achievable goals to begin with, and then expand those goals into bigger
goals as you achieve each goal. It's great to have a goal of becoming the
best poker player in the world, but don't make that your first primary goal.
Set something realistic like win my first 5k online. Then once you reach
that, and have some taste of success, expand that to win 20k, and/or win
a $20 buy-in tournament.
Shoot for the stars, but aim for the moon, they say, and for good
reason. You want to have your big lofty goals always as the primary
objective, but you don't want your goals so big that they function as a point
of discouragement when you don't reach them as fast as you think you
should. Have your goals listed out, and make it a habit of checking them
off and continually moving your goals posts closer to your ultimate goal.
First Goals
Take some time now to write out what your initial goals in poker are.
If you aren't sure, then start with something small and expand as you
think of more things you want to achieve. Ideally write them down on a
sticky note or something small that you can pin to your monitor or the
place where youre primarily playing online poker. Carry them in your
wallet if you play a lot of live poker, take them out and read them before
you sit down at the table. It may sound cheesy, but this will keep them
fresh in your mind and help keep you focused and motivated.
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Blog About It
If you aren't afraid of writing, find a place
where you can make a poker blog. State what
your goals are, and spend time each week or two
updating your blog with your progress. It's an
easy way to help keep yourself accountable to
your goals if you have others reading and encouraging you on. If you don't
think you are a good writer, try any ways. There are tons of places now-adays to do this; I'm going to plug my favorite place that has lots of friendly
encouragement from others: http://pokerzion.com/Poker_Forum/blog.php
Make Poker Friends

Find other poker players that have similar goals to your own and
become friends with them. Even if it's a distant online friend, find other
people that can assist and help keep you accountable to your own goals.
Make sure your poker friends know what your goals are. If other poker
players are checking in with you and asking frequently how poker is going,
it's going to motivate you to want to have
good reports to give back to them. Make sure
to ask how your friends are doing as well,
and make it a mutually beneficial
relationship.
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Chapter 2: Know Thyself
ou won't be able to play your best poker if you don't know your
strengths and weaknesses. Just because a particular play works
well for one player, doesn't mean it's going to consistently be the
best option or line for you to take as a poker player. Make sure you
understand what some of your strengths are, and do everything you
can to utilize them every
Aspects of Poker
hand you play. Conversely,
Hand Reading (R)
minimize areas that will play
Post Flop Bluffing (R/A)
to your weaknesses. This
Anticipating Opponent Reactions (P)
sounds simple in theory, but
Light Value Betting (R/A)
a lot of players attempt to fit
Tilt Control (P)
their game in a mold of

someone else, only to be left
frustrated and lighter in their
bankrolls.
Score 110
Calling Down Light (R)

Bet Sizing (R)
Proper Aggression (A)
Capitalizing on Opponent Weaknesses (A)
Inducing Bluffs (R)
Math of Poker (R)
Here are some examples of common weaknesses and strengths for

Starting and Quitting Sessions (P)
players. Go through this list and rank how you think you do in each area
based on a score of 1 to 10, with 10 being the absolute best. You can then
formulate a plan on how you'll improve in these areas if you deem them
important to your overall game plan.
If you look at these primary aspects of poker you may notice a
commonality in many of them. This is because there are really only three
main areas of poker that permeate all aspects of the game. These areas are
Aggression (either the lack of or too much), Rational deduction/logic (using
incomplete information and math), and Psychological
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control/understanding (ability to control one's psyche and understand

psychology).
Once you look over your list, is there a theme occurring for you in
certain areas? Do you need improvement in the aggression areas because
you're not being aggressive enough? Is there a need to control your
emotions better so that you can have better psychological control? Let's
take the different areas and average them out so you can see what area is
causing you the most concern, and focus on improving that area first.
Note: Post Flop Bluffing and Light Value Betting are counted in both the
Rational Deduction / Logic areas and Aggression.
Aggression
If you scored a 5 or less in this area,
then you're going to want to spend some
significant time on these next sections.
Nearly everyone in every major aspect of
their lives tends to be on one extremity of a
polarity or the other. Finding that "sweet
spot," that balance that can yield the best
life results, is usually easier said than
done. It's that same way with aggression at the poker table for most
players. Most players tend to be too passive, or a bit too aggressive.
The intriguing thing about poker though is that it's ok to be too
aggressive, and sometimes too passive as well, as long as you know and
can properly anticipate how your opponents will react to your play. In
general though, it's much better to err on the side of too aggressive in
12
poker, rather than too passive. This is why the mantra, "If you don't know
what to do, then bet," gains credence. Because in poker, when a player
folds their hand they give up 100% of their equity. It's rarely a bad thing to
bet, as opposed to checking, which can create a plethora of issues for you
now or on later streets.
Aggression
Total Score:
/4=
Rational Deduction / Logic
Total Score:
/7=
Psychological Control
Total Score:
/3=
Aggression (too passive)

If you believe you are being too passive in your poker game, then
you're usually correct. It's something a lot of beginning players struggle
with. A lot of times it's an aspect of a person's personality which translates
onto the poker table. If you're a naturally more passive, person pleasing
individual, it may be more difficult to put yourself in situations to be
aggressive, and be betting and raising to make your opponents fold. If you
believe this is the case, then the best thing for you to focus on isn't about
artificially trying to become more aggressive. Really the best way to improve
in this area is to improve the math area of the rational deduction/math
aspect of your game.
Since the goal in poker is to get your opponents to make the biggest
mistakes possible, and get your good hands paid off as much as possible,
understanding hand ranges and equity is paramount in being successful at
poker. Once you understand hand ranges and equity really well, betting,
13
checking, folding, and raising become much clearer with each decision you
have to make. Each decision is like a minigoal. You want to achieve each goal with
excellence, and in order to do that you need
When you are sure what the

correct decision is in a situation,
then you won't lapse into your
to bet or raise when the hand ranges and
default psychology decision-
equity dictate to do so.
making process.
For example, if you have a slight equity advantage with middle pair
on the turn against an opponent's hand range that will be mostly draws,
and you check instead of bet, then you are not achieving your goal. If you
get to the river and have almost no showdown value versus your
opponents hand range, then you need to look to bet or raise in situations
that make sense for a hand you can reasonably represent.
Looking at each situation from a more mathematical perspective and
focusing on the goal at hand with each decision will make becoming more
aggressive a lot easier to incorporate. You're betting or raising because it's
the absolute best decision given the situation. Until this becomes nearly
crystal clear, your natural lack of aggression and more passive personality
will take reign in the decision-making process instead of the more
mathematical / rational side. And if you don't think you excel at math,
hyper focusing on hand ranges and working on equity using an equity
calculator will improve this area for you over time. It will take work, but if
your goal is to make the best decision possible in each situation, this is the
area that will most improve the problem of not being aggressive enough.
When you are unsure which play is the correct play in a given
situation, you'll lapse to your default psychology, which if it's too passive
you're going to check too often. And as we said earlier, it's better to default
to being too aggressive then too passive in poker. Naturally aggressive
14
people tend to do better initially at poker than naturally passive people, as

long as they don't go too over board. However, once you have the proper
understanding, and know which decision is the correct decision, you won't
lapse into your default psychology.
Aggression (too aggro)

There are worse things in poker than being too aggressive. As said
early in this chapter, if you're unsure what to do, it's generally better to bet
than to check. That being said, being too aggressive can become a serious
problem, especially if you're playing opponents that know how to properly
exploit it.
If it's part of your game plan to be hyper aggressive in order to make
your opponents react, and you feel you can properly anticipate and read
their reactions, then you'll likely have an adequate poker strategy to work
from. However, if you're commonly in situations where you aren't sure how
to react to your opponents, and you're making lots of desperate bluffing
attempts that are being picked up, then you're going to want to work on
bringing down your aggression.
Your goal should be to find that "sweet spot" in your aggression if
you're in too many situations where you're unsure what to do once you
take an aggressive action. Finding more balance in your game will make it
much more un-exploitable if done correctly. One of the primary aspects
you're going to want to focus on is the psychological control /
understanding area of your game. Asking yourself a few questions so that
15
you can gain more insight into why your game is so aggressive can help
you achieve more balance.
1. Do you get a "rush" from making aggressive moves at the poker
table?
2. Do you get an elevated since of self from being perceived as "table
captain"?
3. Do you enjoy watching others agonize over their decisions?
The bottom line with all of the answers to these questions is, is it
your primary goal to achieve this high at the poker table by your aggressive
play, or are you looking to win money? If your goal is to win the most money
possible, then you'll have to look for other areas of your life to achieve this
same high, or look to balance your emotional state in several aspects of
your own personal life. This is of course much easier said than done, but
this is a key starting place for understanding and examining your
motivations for playing the game of poker.
Rational Deduction / Logic

Since poker is a game of incomplete
information, using our reasoning abilities to
come to the most logical conclusions about
our opponents hand range and intentions
takes a lot of practice to refine. This is
typically an aspect of poker that eludes most players, or they make some
progress in this area, but never completely get "over the hump" and put it
16
all together. There are generally several reasons for this, and I'll list out a
couple of them:
1. People can tend to be lazy, and don't want to put the necessary work
in to really have a complete understanding of this aspect of their
game.
2. Some success is made in this area, but then people are
psychologically blocked from achieving a fuller understanding.
3. There's no definitive goal or learning plan created. Since there's no
one to keep you on task or create learning plans, people tend to take
a scattered "shot gun" approach to learning, and never fully learn.
4. People can be intimidated by the math aspect of poker, and block
themselves psychologically from learning.
5. Ego, and the need to be correct, can prevent people from considering
different reasoning and approaches to how people think about poker,
and thus limit hand range reasoning.
A lot of the above reasons are going to relate to each other. Being lazy
(Point #1 from above), and not having enough drive to complete a goal
(which in this case would be to become good at poker), is usually an
indication of a block (Point #2 from above), but not always. Point #4, can
also be a psychological block similar to Point #2. The bottom line is that if
you know what you need to do to get better at something, but you're not
doing it, then you have a psychological block preventing you from moving
closer to your goal (more on this later).
If you don't feel you are currently blocked, but need to learn more
about how to reason through situations so that you can improve your hand
range estimates and decision making, then you need to formulate a
learning plan first. Here's my suggested learning plan for improving this
aspect of your game:
17
1. Get a poker equity calculator. There are several free ones on the
market. You will need one that can
weight hand ranges, and is easy to use.
I recommend using Ace Poker Drills
Calculator, for many reasons, but it
also comes with a free odds and outs
trainer if you need to improve that area
of your game as well. You can download
it from here: ACE POKER DRILLS WEBSITE
2. After every session you play, review all of your biggest winning and
losing pots. Replay them and especially pay attention to hands that
go to showdown so you can see how people at your stakes are
playing certain hands/situations. Mark any hands that you have
questions about. Most poker tracking databases have an easy way to
mark (usually by right clicking) a hand and saving it for later quick
review. If you are playing live, make sure to write down or make any
mental notes about hands you saw so you can review them and
think about them later.
3. While reviewing your latest session, go back to some very old
sessions you've played and filter for any hands that have gone to
showdown. Re-play as many hands as you can for the day, and hide
your opponents hole cards. Grab a piece of paper and pen, or open
up a notepad type application. On each street that is played, make a
rough guesstimate for what you think your opponents equity is
against your hand and write it down. On the river, make a guess at
what you think your opponents top 3 hands are. Open up your
equity calculator and put in your hand and the board and enter in
what you think your opponents hand range is. Note what the
calculator shows is the actual equity versus what your written
18
guesstimate was. Do this for each street, and on the river reveal your
opponents actual hand and see how close you were to the three
hands you listed for your opponent.
4. Take any hands you have questions about, and post them for review
by other poker players on your favorite poker forum(s). Make sure to
add any notes and reads you have on players, and your own thought
process. Remember, it's ok to be wrong, this is how you learn. If you
don't like posting on forums, call up some of your poker buddies, or
talk to them on chat applications and ask their opinions. Get your
mind engaged in these poker situations and make sure to pay
attention to how your friends and others think about poker. This
is critical in gaining insight into how other personalities reason
through situations. It's invaluable information. How you think about
poker and situations will not be the same as someone else, and
learning to reason through someone else's poker lens is a key part of
becoming really successful at poker.
5. Answer questions by other poker players about hands they've played
on your favorite poker forum(s), and/or ask your friends about tough
poker situations they've been in recently. Give as many reasons as
you can about why you think one decision or play is better than
another. Don't just say, "Hey, you should raise!", and definitely don't
say, "What the hell are you thinking, donk?!? That's an easy fold!"
That approach is not conducive to learning and it won't win you any
poker friends.
6. If there's an area of the math part of poker that you know you
struggle with, find material in the form of books, articles, and/or
videos that will help you understand this aspect better. If you are
unsure where to find such material, go on a poker forum and ask. If
there are several areas that you know you struggle in on the math
side, pick on topic a week or every two weeks, month, whatever time
19
frame is realistic for your schedule, and commit yourself to learning

about it. Do it one area at a time.
7. Repeat steps 25 for your entire poker career. Never stop reviewing
and analyzing.
Approaching poker in this manner and providing an outline for a
lesson plan will help you stay on task and reach small attainable goals
consistently. Understanding hand ranges, equity, math, and why
opponents take particular lines will take some time to master. However, if
you don't have a plan set with goals, they will never be mastered unless
you're able to read minds or see through the backs of cards.
Parts of point #4 bear repeating because it's an important point.
Learning to reason about opponent lines and hand ranges has very little to
do with how you would play a particular situation, and everything to do
with how that particular person thinks and reasons through a situation. I
mention this again because I can't tell you how many times in my poker
career I've heard good winning players say something to the effect of, "I
can't believe he'd play his hand this way, he lost so much value against my
perceived range," or "He can't possibly have this or that hand, I'd never
play those in that spot." Yes, we agree you never would, or it may not even
be the best way to play a situation, but it's irrelevant. It's all about how our
opponents are reasoning, and you become better at that by understanding
personalities and the psychology involved in poker.
20
Psychological Control / Understanding
You can be one of the absolute best poker players in the world, and
have an unbelievable grasp of the aggression and the rational deduction
aspects of the game, and still end up broke if you
don't have a good understanding of your own
psyche. This is the one area where many people fool
themselves into believing they can have chaotic and
unbalanced lives, and somehow still be successful
at poker. Generally speaking, if you aren't very
successful in "life" you're not going to be very
successful at poker. There are reasons why you're not being very
successful in your personal life, and those very same reasons will carry
over at the poker table at one point or another.
That doesn't mean that if you're young, for example, and haven't had
much success in other areas of life for lack of life experience, that you can't
have your first major successes at the
poker table. It does mean that if you
don't have adequate schooling behind
you, and other skills you can also be
successful at, being successful at poker
will be much more difficult to achieve.
Nothing is impossible though if you
want it badly enough.
There are several sub areas in this aspect of poker that we should
explore and expand upon. They include tilt and its many sub variants, selfawareness, and perceptiveness. The ability to understand, and, in most
21
cases, control these aspects of ourselves leads to greater success in life and
at the poker table. Let's take a look at each of these subcategories.
Tilt
I'm sure you've heard a lot of people talk
about not letting the past affect your future
decisions, but realistically, this is going to happen
quite a bit. You take a bad beat, get frustrated, and
then get involved in the very next pot, when you
should have been "insta-mucking" your hand to begin with.
Some of us are much better about controlling our emotions and ego
at the table, but most of us, no matter how good we are at this, could make
dramatic improvements in learning how to re-center ourselves, and be
FULLY in the moment. The reality is, the day's events, the current bad beat
you took, the horrible fight you had with your partner, the cat you ran over
on the way to the casino, are all going to affect every decision you make at
the table. And, as you should fully understand, playing your most
profitable poker has to do with making the BEST decision possible as
consistently as possible over a long period of time.
So, consequently, your current state of mind when you sit down at
the table is a crucial factor in determining how successful you can really be
at poker. This is poker at an even higher level; this is the game you'll be
playing against yourself your entire life. It should make a lot of sense then
that not only do you have to learn how to play against an array of different
22
personality types on the felt, but you have to learn how to play against
your ego, while balancing your emotional state.
There are really two important concepts to getting yourself in an
ideal state where you can be fully present in the moment:
1. Determining your current state of mind, and how recent past events
may be affecting you, and
2. Letting go of all of those past events, and focusing in with laser-like
precision at only the current decision at hand.
I recommend that you create a personal "ritual" for yourself before
you decide to play a game of poker. You don't have to light candles, burn
incense, and chant to the holy mother cow. It's just a matter of creating a
repetitive set of actions that will prepare your mind to let go of the past,
and focus on the current task at hand. It can be as simple as saying one
sentence to yourself, such as, "I'm ready to play poker, so I'm going to let
everything else go, center myself, and focus my mind to play the best poker
I can play." Something that simple can make a HUGE difference in every
session you play.
If you've noticed one thing about professional sports, you should be
able to notice who the truly great players are in any individual sport. They
are deemed great, not only because they perform extremely well, but also
because they can do this very consistently. A lot of professional athletes
talk about "being in the bubble," where there's no crowd, no winning, no
losing, but instead just the pure action they are doing. Meaning there is no
weight put into whether they score a goal, make that basket, or catch that
improbable throw for a touchdown. It's "merely" the action and only the
action.
23
This is the second part of being in the moment. If you're involved in a

pot in poker, and you begin to think about winning the hand, losing the
hand, losing the money that's already in the pot, then you've already begun
to lose the hand. Don't worry about what you invested into the pot in the
PAST, don't concern yourself with victory, focus in and analyze all of the
available information, and make the best decision possible. The more
consistently you can do this, the more your poker bankroll is going to grow.
Being a good quitter (Tilt)

Poker is one of the few things you'll do where you want to proudly
boast that you're one of the best quitters. You may not think of it as an
important skill, but it's extremely important to have the self awareness to
recognize tilt has set in, and the self control to walk away and wait for
another day. If you recognize any of the following about yourself, then you
should take note, and look to take a break or call it a day:
1. Feeling a bit warm or hot. They don't call it steaming for nothing,
and when tilt sets in like this, you will notice a rise in your body
temperature and suddenly feel much warmer.
2. You are berating someone else's "bad" play. If you need to tell
someone else how badly they played a situation, your head isn't
properly in the game. You want others to not play well, so there's no
reason to instruct them how to play better.
3. You find yourself looking for excuses to get into a pot. Usually starts
with a hand you wouldn't normally play pre-flop, and if you spot this,
then take note.
24
4. You are folding in spots where you normally think you should be
calling so that you can preserve your winnings for your current
session. It's a sure sign of "winners tilt" and it's an indicator you're
not going to be making the most profitable decisions anymore.
5. You are calling too much and losing in spots where it's pretty clear
you should have folded. Another sign that you've lost your ability to
properly reason through a situation. This usually happens when you
perceive youre behind for a session and need to win back some of
your "lost" money.
The first step in getting a grip on tilt is recognizing it. If you don't
have the self awareness to know you're starting to tilt or are in full blown
tilt, then you're not going to be able to quit and end it. The second step is
setting up some kind of talking down process for yourself. Using something
to the effect of reminding yourself that you are here to play your A game,
and be the best poker player you can be. Talking to yourself and reminding
yourself of this goal can help you take a step back and become a little more
objective. Use any strategy that you can employ that will help take you out
of your current emotional state. Some strategies you can use to pull
yourself out of a tilting emotional state:
1. Remind yourself that your goal is to play your A game.
2. Have a chip or some kind of card holder that has a saying that can
remind you to get into your best state of mind possible.
3. Sit out, take a bathroom break, and cool yourself down. If you have
any doubt about your emotional state, don't return to the game.
25
4. Remind yourself that poker is a
A. Meditation
lifelong game, one session or evening
B. Journaling
isn't going to determine any
C. Counseling
D. Analyzing Life Cycles
particular outcome.
5. Write a favorite quote or saying that
will bring you to a good state on a
E. Listen to Friends & Families

Opinions about Yourself
F. Read Spiritual Texts
sticky note and keep it on your

monitor, your hand, or a piece of paper you can pull out and read.
6. Have a picture of your wife/girlfriend and/or children to remind you
that you also want to play for them.
It will likely take some practice, but try a few different strategies until
you find something that works best for you that you can go to when you
need to. If you try one thing and it doesn't work, try another. If you can't
get yourself to properly quit, then you may want to speak to a psychologist,
or someone who specializes in gambling related psychology. Whatever you
do though, don't ignore it and pretend like it will eventually get better,
because it most likely won't. Be proactive and seek some solutions.
Self Awareness
There's nearly nothing more valuable in
life, and at the poker table, as self awareness. A
serious lack of self awareness is debilitating to
one's goals for several reasons. First, you'll be
blind as to how and why you function the way
you do which will prevent you from making the best possible choices.
26
Secondly, you'll have much more difficulty understanding someone's

motivations, desires, and choices. The more self aware you are, the more
insight you'll have into not only these areas for yourself, but also how and
why others are functioning the way they are. This is a huge bonus when
you're deciding how to play the turn against an aggressive gambling
opponent with second pair.
Self awareness is a lifelong pursuit. It's obviously not going to be
something where you'll have instant ah-ha moments, and suddenly
understand yourself and others. Even if you have many enlightenment
experiences, which are generally suddenly flashes of insight, you'll need to
take those insights and really test them and understand them in order to
fully integrate them into your life, and at the poker table.
Taking some time each week to reflect upon your actions, and be honest
with yourself about areas you need to improve will make you a better poker
player, and a better person. Some of the best and most recommended ways
to improve in this area are, but aren't limited to, as follows:
The biggest obstacle to self awareness is ego, as people usually call
it. I personally like to call it my "projected construct." It's the part of me
that I constructed over many years of life lessons, what people told me I
was or was not, and the views and opinions I chose to adopt about the
world and how I got here.
It's a complete mental construct that we use to interface with the
world, and connect with others. And not to get too deep, because this is,
after all, a poker book, it's ultimately not who we really are. It serves a
purpose, and can be a great asset, but can also be a great hindrance. You
ultimately make the choice in how you use it to obtain the dreams and
27
desires you have from this life. The self awareness trick is that you learn
how to use it to its fullest, and don't allow the bigger part of yourself to be
used by it.
There are no instant answers in this area, but putting some time into
this aspect of your life will pay big dividends long term. It may take a
decent amount of initial time investment, but if you do it early enough in
life, you'll reap many years of rewards from it. That being said, it's never
too late to reflect, and learn about yourself.
Perceptiveness
Perceptiveness goes somewhat hand
in hand with self awareness. Generally the
more self aware you are, the more
perceptive you'll be because you'll have a
greater understanding of human
psychology and motivations. That's not always the case though, and I've
personally seen some very self unaware people who were pretty perceptive.
When you have well developed perceptiveness, you'll be able to more
accurately predict how others are going to act, or react to your actions at
the poker table.
The ability to read, react to, and anticipate your opponents actions
is a huge skill to have in poker. You want to be able to know that when you
raise the flop with a bluff for the second time, how you expect your
opponent to react against your play. Being perceptive enough to read into
28
their thought process will allow you to force other players into poor
decisions and make big mistakes.
When you have well developed perceptiveness, you'll be able to see
things that others around you commonly cannot. If you couple this with
self-awareness, you'll have the proper insight to know how to act on what
you're seeing. If you commonly have the feeling that other good poker
players at the table are making plays that you don't quite understand, then
you'll probably want to put some work into this area. A few things you can
do to help improve your perceptiveness:
1. Pay attention. It's easy in today's society to find a million ways to
distract yourself. Everything from
iPods to cell phones and TV's will
be an easy out to keep you from
paying attention to what's
happening at the table.
2. Watch what others are doing, and
always make an effort to figure out why they are functioning the way
they are. Keeping your mind thinking about reasons behind actions
will help you recognize when similar situations arise in the future.
3. Work on reading body language. Not a ton of work has been done in
this area for poker, but there are a few books on the subject. In
general though, if you pay attention and put A + B above together,
you'll learn to form your own conclusions about body language and
how it relates to tells at the poker table.
4. Work on increasing your memory. Since you'll be paying attention
more, and forming more conclusions about your experience, you're
going to want a good memory bank to pull from and access that
information.
29
5. Learn to trust your intuition and what how your body reacts to
situations it encounters. This is sometimes called "trusting your gut."
There's some truth in the expression since your stomach or heart
tend to be organs that you can sense and feel more readily when
you're reading a situation and using your intuition to influence your
decision-making process.
Keeping your attention at the tables by making good notes will lead
to good reads and increase your perceptiveness against your opponents.
Learning to blend and use your rational mind to understand hand ranges
and math, and trusting your intuition, will become a deadly combination.
30
Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I
Chapter 3: Get it Together
irst thing you need to do if you're going to play poker on any serious
level is get your bankroll, software (if you're going to play online),
and preparation together. You won't have the level of success you
desire if you aren't prepared in these areas. There are countless
semi-professional and professional poker players that have
extremely poor money management skills, and very poor preparation. If

you want to improve and move up the poker food chain you'll need to take
these areas of the game seriously, and put work into them if you don't
already excel at them.
Bankroll Management
There are some generally accepted rules on bankroll management for
cash games. Typically 30 buy-ins for the
limit you're playing is a good enough
cushion to absorb any negative variance.
Really though, if you haven't beaten a
particular stake level ever before, and
you drop around 15 buy-ins, you should
be moving down until you can win.
Running bad is going to happen to everyone multiple times
throughout their poker careers. However, let's have a moment of honesty. If
you knew what you were doing, and were skilled enough, you could absorb
most negative variance by making the best play in many other situations.
31
This holds especially true the lower the stakes you are playing. The higher
the stakes you're playing, the less this will hold true because the average
potential skill gap between you and your opponent will be less. At micro
and small stakes though, the average potential skill gap can be gigantic.
Don't fool yourself into thinking you're just on a bad run. Take an
honest look at your game, and move down stakes if you need to. There's no
shame in moving down, re-gaining your confidence, improving your game,
and then moving back up. It's worse to continue to lose and blame it on
bad luck.
No. BuySTAKE LEVEL
The general guideline for bankroll

management may not apply to you. If you've
ins
Micro Stakes
25
beaten a certain stake level over a decent
Small Stakes
30
sample size, then you may not need as many as
Mid Stakes
3040
High Stakes
40+
30 buy-ins. You can possibly get away with 20

or less buy-ins depending on what stake
amounts you're going to play. The higher the stakes, the more buy-ins
you're going to want.
So a quick example is if you're going to play 100NL online, then it's
suggested for a $1 big blind game that you have at least $3k in your poker
bankroll. If you haven't beaten a particular game in a couple of years, don't
expect to just jump back in and beat it at the same level. You'll want to
have some extra buy-ins, or possibly start a little lower than the previous
limits you felt you could beat. In general the games tend to get tougher over
time, and strategies and the amount of available knowledge change and
increase.
32
When you decide to cash out and spend some of your poker
winnings, make sure you leave enough buy-ins left for the stakes you want
to play. There's nothing worse than cashing out, not leaving yourself
adequate buy-in cushions, and then going on a losing streak. If you're
worried about the money, you're not going to make good decisions. So
make sure when you cash out you have a plan for your poker bankroll.
Don't leave yourself short.
Sometimes life issues may occur and you'll need to pull out larger
sums of your bankroll than you'd ideally like to. When situations like this
occur, have a plan. Either find someone to temporarily stake you, or play at
smaller stakes until you can re-build your bankroll. Always have a plan.
Poker Software
There's a lot of poker software out there now-a-days. Poker database
tracking software is just one aspect of poker software. Between equity
calculators, hotkey tools, training
programs, poker AI, content
manager, etc., there's a lot of
software to check out and see what
adds value to your game. If you're
going to play online though, you'll
without question want a database
program at the very minimum.
Holdem Manager 2 is the leader in the poker database
industry.
33
Three of the top poker database applications are Holdem Manager,

Poker Tracker, and Poker Office. There are also some newer free ones that
are available if you google around. All of them have free trials, so I'd advise
giving them each a try and seeing which one makes more sense for you. If
you're playing online though, and not using one that can support a HUD
(heads up display w/ poker stats), then you'll be a big disadvantage. Most
of the regulars you're playing against are going to have one.
Poker databases are an online necessity for several reasons. Being
able to track your results, review your play, and analyze your stats are a
great way to grow as a poker player. Also being able to analyze your
opponents play and make notes away from the game are a huge advantage
when you play against them again. A short list of some of the poker
software you should check out or own:
1. Poker database program. I'd recommend Holdem Manager, but try
them all.
2. Equity calculator. Mentioned in Chapter 2. There are many free ones
out there. We'd recommend Ace Poker Drills since it's free.
3. Poker database analysis program. It will make analyzing your stats
and information much easier. Leak Buster has a free trial to check
out.
4. Hotkey program. It will make multi-tabling much easier with predefined bet sizing and time banking.
5. Poker training applications. If you want to brush up on drills and
things to improve then there are several applications out there like
the Equity Trainer in Ace Poker Drills, and Ace Poker Coach.
34
6. Tilt management application. Applications that will close down your

client if you lose X amount of buy-ins. Handy if you want that extra
protection and have difficulty quitting games.
There are a ton out there, so check out as many as you can. Anytime
something can make you just a slight bit better, say .2bb/100 to your
winrate, it will pay itself off and more over the years.
Preparation and Diet

Before you even sit down at a poker table or virtual felt, you want to
make sure you're mentally and psychically prepared to be your best.
Making sure you are in a good mental state, and you've prepared yourself
mentally for playing your A game is a must. You might think it would be
something obvious to state, but if you've had a recent fight with your
girlfriend/boyfriend, or some other major life issue, it's probably not the
best idea to sit down and play. Everyone handles things differently, and
there might be the occasional person that benefits from "getting away" from
the life drama, and can play ok under those conditions. However, they
would tend to be the exception and not the rule.
Once you have yourself in a good mental state, make sure to have
adequate supplies around you including water, snacks, de-stressor tools,
money, and a meal/break plan if you're at the casino. You don't want to
miss an important hand because you're dying of thirst and could have
easily solved it by having an adequate amount of water at your disposal.
35
Diet
As a poker player you're going to be in a lot of conditions where food
and dietary options are pretty poor. I've been in very few casinos that have
good food options, but there are some around. The vast majority of food
option will be starchy, saturated fats that are heavily processed. Those are
not the kinds of food that are going to keep your brain at its peak and your
body in the best condition, but a lot of them do taste good!
We all eat these foods from time to
time, but finding a way to mix in healthier
fruits, vegetables, and complex
carbohydrates will keep you functioning at
your best. As poker players, we want foods
that will translate into a lot of energy, focused and sustained energy, and
are good memory boosters. When I know I'm in for a long session,
especially at casinos for high stakes tournaments that I'll be playing in all
day for several days in a row, I pack a couple of small containers of fruits,
nuts, and vegetables. It makes a noticeable difference, especially at the end
of the day when others are clearly growing tired, and I'm still focused and
alert. Here's a short list of some great foods that taste good and are fairly
easy to keep close by:
FRUITS
PRIMARY BENEFIT
Melons
Help sustain energy by hydrating your body and fighting fatigue
Bananas
Packed with carbohydrates and are a great and easy energy booster
Apples
Great source of B and C vitamins and are slow energy releasers
Oranges
Tons of minerals, phosphorus, and a high overall energy source
Blueberries
High in vitamin E, fiber, and antioxidants. Great memory booster.
36
Strawberries
Another high antioxidant, good for memory, concentration and vision
Raspberries
High antioxidant, lowers blood sugar, and anti-inflammatory
Olives
High in vitamin E and great brain booster
VEGGIES / NUTS
PRIMARY BENEFIT
Edamame
Great mix of complex carbs, fiber, protein and healthy fat to keep you sharp
Peanuts
High in folate, healthy fats, and vitamin E. Great brain booster.
Pecans
Loaded with beta sitosterol, good for prostrate health and sustained energy
Broccoli
High in complex B vitamins, great for sustained energy and concentration
Carrots
High in B vitamins that metabolize slower for sustained energy
A balanced diet is your overall best bet to have sustained energy,

great focus, a sharp memory and active mind. Realistically we're not all
eating a perfecting balanced diet all the time, so some of the above fruits,
nuts and vegetables are easy ways to give an extra boost while you're
playing. There are tons more fruits, vegetables, nuts, and foods in general
which are great for energy and memory. The table above lists some easy
examples that travel well and are easy to grab on the go.
It may seem a bit trite, but making sure you keep yourself energized
and focused while you're playing will give you an extra edge against players
who are eating heavier and more processed foods. Find a few snacks from
the table above, or do some research on foods you like that can help you
with long poker sessions.
37
Chapter 4: Glorious Poker Math
here are several important math concepts to understand in poker.

I'm going to discuss some of the more applicable math concepts I've
noticed misunderstood by a lot of players. You may already be
familiar with most of these terms, but hopefully this simplifies it in
an easily digestible format. My goal is that you can walk away from
this chapter and fully understand these concepts. Even if you had some
idea and understanding of them before, they should be super clear after
you read this chapter.
Combinations
Counting card combinations at the table in most situations will be
nearly impossible. However,
Example No. Combos
knowing and understanding about
Unpaired Hand
AK
16
how many combinations of hands
Paired Hand
AA
exists for specific hands that you
TPTK on Q high
beat, and have you beat will help in
Flop
AQ
12
the decision-making process. In real
Set on Flop
55
time you will rarely be exact with
Two Pair on Flop
KJo
this count, but you can get close,

and in post analysis it's helpful to know in analyzing and reflecting on your
play.
Total possible hand combinations for any two card hand are
multipliers of the cards left in the deck. So pre-flop, there are 16 total
38
combinations of AK. Four suites of aces, and four suites of kings, or 4 x 4 =

16. Anytime you remove a card from the deck, you remove one possible
combination of that particular hand being possible. If you saw a flop of
Qs9d4h, and you wanted to know how many combinations of AQo someone
could have, then we remove the Qs from counting. We'd come up with 4
suites of aces times 3 remaining suites of queens, or 4 x 3 = 12.
Most really good combinational analysis will come post analysis after
playing the hand. However, there are some situations where knowing
common possible combinations that beat you can be helpful in the decision
making. If you have AdTc on a flop of AsQdTh, you'll know that there are
only 5 combinations of sets, 16 combinations of a flopped straight, and 6
combinations of a higher two pair (remove the Ad) that beat you for a total
of 27 combinations. There are only 9 combinations of worse two pairs that
you beat, and 4 that you split with. So if you bet and are raised on the flop,
you can fold in most situations. Although we'd discount some of the hand
ranges such as a flopped straight that might look to just call, there are still
a lot of hands that have you beat, even if you add a good amount of air
hands to your opponents range.
Another helpful aspect of understanding combinations is applied to
pre-flop hand ranges. If you're facing a tight pre-flop 3-bettor, say someone
who 3-bets only slightly over 2% of their hand
range, we'd safely say they are 3-betting KK+,
AKs, and AKo only. If we took those four hands,
it might seem as if they are 3-betting each about
25% of the time. However, if we look at the total
combinations of hands, they are actually 3-
39
betting KK+ about 43% of the time (6 combinations twice for a total of 12),
and AKo, AKs the remaining 57% of the time (12 offsuit combinations plus
4 suited combinations for a total of 16). Most of the time they're going to
have AK instead of AA or KK.
Probability
Probability is the estimate that something will become true or occur.
It doesn't however ensure that an event or outcome will happen though.
Since each event is not related to the prior event, probability theory states
that there is X% occurrence for Y to happen, but it cannot say that Y will
ever happen if there's even a slight chance that it won't. This sometimes
confuses gamblers when probability is applied to expected value (more on
this later).
If you're running bad in poker, you are not guaranteed that you will
not run bad for very long extended time periods. This is what tends to lead
many poker players, and gamblers in general, to ruin or go bust. They
begin to believe they are "due" to win because their luck has been so bad,
but this is not the case. If the probability of Y event happening is
consistently in your favor, then the odds of Y event will increase, but it also
could never happen.
There are a few popular probability theories, and one that is used
quite often in poker is Bayesian probability. The reason it's commonly used
and applied is because Bayesian probability theory takes into account prior
information to help predict future outcomes. This is highly applicable to
40
poker situations since in many situations we'll have information about our
opponents, their tendencies, and in some case HUD stats which will help
create a better probability that your opponent has Y hand given this prior
information. Using Bayesian probability in situations like this allows for a
more accurate prediction of the probability of many situations in poker.
41
Equity
Equity is the percentage of the pot that
belongs to you based on the percentage of
the time you'll win the pot over many large
samples. This is not the same as expected
value, although the two are sometimes
interchanged in poker conversations often.
Equity is purely the percentage of the time you'll win, lose or split the pot.
For example, if you saw a flop of: QcTd6h which had $100 already in
the pot, and you held AsKh and your opponent had KK, and then went allin and you called, you'd have ~28% equity in the pot. ~28% of the time on
average you could expect to win this pot. Whether this was a good play to
call or not would depend on our equity, in conjunction with our expected
value.
Expected Value (EV)

Expected value is the average money won or lost based on your
equity and odds of the call or raise you are making. Using the above
example, if our opponent bet $60 on the flop, and we called, we'd use the
current equity we have in the pot to determine our expected value. In this
case 28% of the time we win $160, and 72% of the time we lose $60.
(160(.28)) - (60(.72)) = +1.6
42
So calling the all-in on the flop will net a positive expected value of
$1.6 on average. Our equity is low in this situation, so a majority of the
time we will lose, but based on the money in the pot, and our opponents
bet, the expected value net is positive.
Fold Equity
Fold equity is the equity gained in your hand if you bet or raise and
get your opponent to fold. It's an estimation of how often you believe your
opponent will fold multiplied by your opponents current equity. So if you
opponent has 75% equity in their hand, but you estimate that if you bet,
you can get your opponent to fold 50% of the time, then your fold equity
would be:
75% x 50% = 37.5%
So your new hand equity if you bet in this situation would be 25%
(your hand equity if you both saw all five cards) + 37.5% = 62.5%. You've
increased the equity in your hand from 25% to 62.5%, just by betting. This
is why aggression pays off so often in poker because every time you bet,
you give your opponent the chance to completely forfeit their equity in the
hand. Opponents are rarely drawing completely dead, so when you can get
them to fold when they have an equity advantage, it's a huge +EV situation
for you.
43
Chapter 5: Metta World Peace
utting pressure on your opponents is a great way to force them into

making mistakes, and hopefully, big mistakes. When you're making
an aggressive action at the table, you want to have an understanding
of how you think your opponents are going to react to your actions.
Some opponents will continue to step out of your way no matter how
much pressure you apply, and some opponents will over react after one or
two aggressive actions. It's important to understand who these players are,
and the plan of attack you have for table you're currently seated at.
There are really three main styles of play in no-limit holdem, and
variations of those in between. You can play a more passive style, and trap
your opponents, reacting to how they play the game. You can play a more
aggressive style, and attempt to force your opponents to react to you with
the hopes they will react incorrectly and make a big mistake. Finally, you
can play a more balanced approach where you strive to be aggressive in the
most ideal spots, trap in some situations, and overall are aggressive, but
not to the extent where your opponents are forced to react to your play.
There are variations of these three styles, but the main points are
clear. Are you looking to play a more balanced game, a trapping game, or a
very aggressive game? It's generally best to find a game strategy that fits
your psychology the best, and become really good at it. That doesn't mean
you can't at some point learn all three approaches, but it's good to have a
go-to mode that you feel you'll excel at the most. Then as you learn the
other approaches, you adapt and play those styles based on how the tables
and your opponents are playing.
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In Chapter 2, if you scored really low in the aggression part of your

game, then trying to play the more aggressive game strategy is not going to
be a good initial fit for you. You're much better off either figuring out a
more passive and trappy game strategy, especially if you excelled at the
logic / reason part of the scoring from Chapter 2, or learning to create
more of a balanced strategy. If you scored really low in the psychological
parts, and struggle with tilt, then a more aggressive game plan might
initially come more natural for you, but it won't be an ideal because you'd
have a tendency to "spew" chips away with over the top aggressive play and
tilt.
Tension Count
If you're struggling to understand the proper amount of aggressive
action to take at the table before your opponents are likely to react and
attempt to adapt to your play, then you can keep a mental note of the
Tension Count at the table. The tension count is the ratio of aggressive
action to rounds of poker played. The more aggressive you are within a
round, the higher the tension count becomes. Conversely, the less
aggressive you are, the lower the tension count becomes. The purpose of
the tension count is to try and find that ideal balance so you are being
aggressive enough and adapting your play to the circumstances
appropriately. It's easy to say that if you become more aggressive, then of
course your opponents are going to eventually react and adapt. But
knowing about how far you can push each of them is a bit of an art. If you
feel you already have a good handle on this, then you're probably already
45
aware of how tension is built and released at the table and you can skip
over this section. If however it's still a bit of anomaly for you, and you'd like
to become better at knowing how to take advantage of tension counts at
the table, then forge ahead.
Tension counts range from -6 to +6 on average. When playing a full
ring cash game, your tension count is going to start at 0. When playing a
6-max game, it's going to start at +1. Other games, such as 4-handed and
heads up, depend a lot on flow and other dynamics; if you aren't aware of
how tension effects your opponents, then those games aren't generally
recommended to play in. The tension count is somewhat like training
wheels and will give you an idea of how to adjust your play until it becomes
more natural for you.
Action
TC
Action
TC
Every Raise (pre-flop and post)
+1
Every Round Completed
-1
Pre-Flop 3-Bet
+1
Raise Pre-flop, but no C-Bet
-1
Double Barrel
+1
Fold to a C-Bet
-1
Triple Barrel
+2
Open Fold in small blind
-.5
Probable River Bluff
+1
Open Fold on Button
-.5
Possible Float
+1
Fold to Double Barrel
-1
Every action you take at the table you add or subtract from the
tension count. If you're online and you're playing multiple tables, it's going
to be a bit hard to track of course. So one to two tables is recommended
when first trying to learn and understand this concept. Once you've done it
a bit, and see how it works, then you can take the training wheels off and
drop the tension count.
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TC
Strategies when you have a good hand
+4
Bet on your slightly larger post flop bet sizing
+5
Increase open raising size, and post flop bet sizing
+6
Increase even larger, sometimes look to over bet post flop
As the tension count becomes high, your opponents are more

susceptible to "looking you up" and paying you off. So you want to make
sure you're getting the most with your big hands.
So for example, you raised before the flop in a 6-max cash game with
AcQc and got one caller on the button (relative stack sizes 100 BBs). Your
tension count is now at +5 at the table. You flop the nuts, and you should
bet on the largest side of your bet sizing scale. Somewhere between near
pot size and a pot sized bet. Either your opponent is going to have a hand
in this spot, or they aren't, and the size of the bet won't impact them as
much since they will be more susceptible to calling you down lighter than
normal.
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When playing online, a lot of your opponents will be playing multiple

tables on average. However, some won't and some will be able to keep track
of how aggressive players are becoming, and most of them multi-tabling
will at least have HUDs. Since you don't know how well your opponents are
paying attention when playing online, assume that they are when you do
have a big hand and you've been aggressive. If you've played super tight,
don't expect them to let you bluff because they should have noticed you've
played really tight. That doesn't mean you shouldn't bluff, but don't make a
big move and then be surprised when you're bluff is snapped off. When the
tension count does become really negative, then look to make a few more
moves, but again, don't overdo it and don't force it. The tension count is
just a guide and doesn't mean you have to make a move.
TC
Strategies when you don't have a hand
-3
You can look to squeeze a little more pre-flop
-4
Double barrel in slimmer spots
-5
Look to bluff or make bigger moves
You can make some general assumptions that, if you haven't done
much in a long period at a poker table, most players will have taken some
kind of note or their HUDs will reflect this. In those situations when the
tension count becomes really highly negative, then against other nonstation type players, you can look to make a decent size bluff, or even
something as simple as a pre-flop squeeze in a spot that might be normally
deemed more marginal to make a play on.
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When the tension count becomes really high on the positive side, and
you don't have a hand, this is generally the time to slow down unless you
have some kind of specific read on an opponent. These are the more likely
times that you will be looked up lighter, so you want to minimize the
damage in these spots and make smaller sized bluffs in situations where
your opponent may have very little or nothing, or have a decent hand. If
they have a decent hand, something you may be able to normally push
them off of, you won't be able to get them to fold at the same frequency, so
sizing your bluffs smaller to move them off the really low end of their range,
or not bluffing at all, is best.
Reads and Notes

One of the biggest advantages of playing online for the good poker
player is the amount of data and notes you can take on an
opponent seemingly instantly. Most sites offer an area where you
can click on an opponent's name and type in some notes about
that player. If the site you play on allows HUDs, then it's usually best to
add your notes to the HUD note section. Its not quite as easy to do in live
play, and when you do this in live play people know that you are aware of
that hand and how it was played. In online play, no one knows if youre
watching TV or intently watching every hand and making pages of notes.
Its best to view taking notes on your opponents as the work aspect
of playing profitable poker. While its possible to play profitable poker
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without taking notes, it will inevitably be more profitable to take as many

notes as possible for the following reasons:
1. When a similar situation or hand arises, youll have more
information available that can help you make the best decision
possible.
2. It will help you in getting an overall read on how your opponent is
playing.
3. Even if you never play against that particular opponent again, it will
help you in understanding how to play against a similar player in the
future.
Were going to begin by outlining some of the general things you
should look for while playing poker. Each type of play will have an
abbreviation that you can use which will help if you are multi-tabling and
only have a couple of seconds to jot in a note. You can expand these
and/or type in the entire meaning of the play when you actually make your
own notes during play.
List of Abbreviations (Brief Overview)

ATC (Play any two cards) Whenever a hand goes to showdown
its always good to note what hands your opponent was playing
and from which position. This always provides a lot of insight into
how they think about the game. When you see someone play 95o
from middle position, you can label them as ATC. The more you
see this from them, the more solid your read will be.
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FC (Flush Chaser) A lot of opponents love to chase flushes.

When you see someone calling large flop and turn bets with an
obvious flush draw, but they fold to a small river bet, you can be
pretty sure they were chasing their flush. Also if you see an
opponent calling large bets and then connecting with his flush,
youll want to note this. Its also important to note whether they
CHECKED their flush on the end or bet it.
SOOT (Likes to play any two suited cards) This is similar to
FC except there are some players who also like to play any two
suited cards from nearly anywhere. Youll see opponents play K4s
from early position, or J6s from middle position, you can be pretty
sure theyre a suited player. This is good to know if theres a flush
draw on board and you have a marginal hand, but theyre still
calling large bets. Its also good to note if they call raises with
these hands too. Some people will call large raises with Q8s
thinking that they will bust you if they hit their flush. We love to
play against these types of opponents.
AK (Will bet turn unimproved) Nearly all people will bet the
flop with any two cards if they raised before the flop. Not everyone
however will bet the turn unimproved. This is very good to know if
youre holding a marginal hand and your opponent is still firing.
This read will be a bit harder to make because you definitely need
to see a few showdowns to confirm this for sure.
CRW (Calls raises with weak hands) This opponent will call
large raises, for example, with QT out of position, or perhaps even
a re-raise with KJ or some other dominated hands. They could
also call a large raise with A4o or even a more speculative hand
like J8o.
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LAF (Will lead into pre-flop raiserand fold to a raise) Some

opponents will call raises out of position with the intention of
betting the flop to steal the pot. Some opponents will do this with
small pocket pairs, and some will do it with air. If you get a
chance to make the distinction between the two, it will be very
helpful with your flop play. However, when you see someone do
this, then youll want to make some generous raises on the flop
when you dont have a hand.
SVB (Slim value bettor) You'll see these guys often betting
middle or weak top pair on scary boards for value. Really
important to note bet sizing in these spots because a lot of these
guys will have betting tells in these situations, such as betting
marginally weak in these spots (especially at micro and small
stakes). It's typically better to raise some of your bluff catchers
against these guys instead of call since their bet / calling range
generally isn't very good unless they are extremely good hand
readers and have a good read on you as well.
Ax (Will play an ace from anywhere) A lot of opponents fall in
love with the ace. If you see someone playing A3 from early
position or A8 to a raise, or a hand like A9 out of position to a
raise, then you have an Ax player. This just adds more insight for
you as to how your opponent understand the game and you can
also get away from your pocket kings if this opponent is sticking
around on an ace high flop because theyre not folding their weak
ace.
NPR (Will raise a non-premium hand) Some opponents will
raise a non-premium hand from anywhere. The extreme to which
they take this will let you know how loose and aggressive they are.
It's a worthy note to take if they are showing up with hands like
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J7o from early position, Q9s from UTG, or 37s from middle
position. Some opponents will just about never do this, some will
occasionally, but NPRs will do it anywhere from semi-regularly to
regularly.
CBB (Continuation bet bad boards) Some opponents like to
continuation bet no matter what. They raise before the flop, and
they want to fire the flop no matter how bad the flop texture is for
their hand. I like to take a note of these guys because it will help
me to know spots I can float and represent a big made hand on
draw heavy flop textures that most missed over cards should be
check/ folding on.
LA (Look-up artist) This is a very profitable opponent to play
against. They will typically call nearly any flop bet you make, but
will fold to further aggression. They tend to like to see how youll
react after they call your first bet, but tend to fold a large
percentage of the time to a second bet.
Now that we have an idea of some of the things to look for, lets look
at how to use this information in a real money game. Were going to take
the above abbreviated notes, expand them a bit more, and show how theyll
apply in actual hands.
ATC (Any Two Cards)

Players who literally play any two cards are divided into three types
of players and you need to be aware of the differences between these
players. The frequency at which you see these variations depends on the
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stakes you are playing. Typically you will only see ATC 1 & 2 at small and
mid stakes.
ATC 1 (No grasp of hand strength) The first group of players who
play any two cards really has no solid grasp of hand strength,
position, or why to play certain hands in some situations and not
others. These players are typical also called fish because theyll put
in too much money with weak hands and pay off against dominated
hands. These are players you should like playing with, but you need
to be aware that if you miss the flop, they may have hit it and they
may also call you down with any piece of it. So you dont typically
want to bluff players in this category unless you see them folding a
lot to a second bet (or third). You do however want to value bet your
made hands against them as they will nearly always pay off with
weaker hands or dominated hands.
ATC 2 (Some grasp of hand strength) Youll see a lot of these
players primarily in short-handed games, but they do also show up
in full ring games. These players will play any two cards, but they
typically wont invest too much into the pot unless they have a good
hand after the flop. Theyll commonly call raises with a hand such as
K6o on the button (note this is different than CRW see above) with
the intention of either bluffing you out of the pot OR nailing a big
hand hoping to bust you with your large pocket pair. These players
will be very visible because theyll be involved in a lot of pots, and
theyll usually be fairly aggressive. If they have some grasp of hand
strength, then they are getting involved in a lot of pots for a reason,
and that reason is usually because they believe they can bluff you
out of the pot, or bust you with their unusual T4o hand. These
opponents can be more dangerous, but a lot of times they will still go
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too far with a top pair hand thinking youre bluffing (even though you
have a better kicker then they do). You want to bet into them when
you have a strong hand and hope they dont believe you and make a
move in the wrong spot. Make your bets big and strong against these
opponents, because they tend to not believe people betting into them.
You really dont need to slowplay against these opponents.
ATC 3 (Good grasp of hand strength) These opponents are almost
non-existent at small stakes, you will sometimes see them at
50NL/100NL and above at 6-max. This player can legitimately be
called a solid LAG (loose-aggressive) player. They play nearly any two
cards because they know how to read situations well and win a lot of
hands even when they have the worst hand. They can also read well
when they have a good second best hand and minimize their losses.
Playing this style requires excellent hand reading and making a lot of
difficult decisions. For these reasons youll typically run into a lot of
people that are of the latter two types of ATCs described. Some will
be ATCs that have some concept of hand strength that think they are
good LAG players, but really they arent.
So when taking notes make sure you know what type of ATC you are
facing. Make the appropriate additional note. When you are playing against
an ATC 1, you know this opponent is just basically fishy (bad player).
When you are against ATC 2, this player tends to be more on the aggressive
side. They are usually in a lot of pots because they are impatient and are
action junkies. If you happen to be unlucky enough to see an ATC 3, just
try and stay out of pots with them unless you have a good hand or until
youve developed your post flop skill to a high level.
55
In the above example both you and your opponent started with
effective stacks of 100 BBs in a full ring cash game. Everyone folded to you
in middle position and you raised 3.5x the BB with AcQc. The action folded
to the button who called the raise and the blinds folded.
You look at your notes and you notice that you put down that your
opponent was an ATC 2. You dont have any other notes beyond that and
youve only played 8 rotations with this opponent. The flop comes: 7c3dTc
and you make a size pot bet with your nut flush draw and two over
cards. Your opponent then mini-raises you on the flop and you call the
raise. The turn comes the 6c giving you the 2nd nuts. Do you slow down?
No, you should continue to bet this hand aggressively against this type of
opponent. Its very likely that they may try and represent the flush by
raising your bet. You dont however want to bet too aggressively in THIS
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particular situation. A half size pot bet will invite a possible raise which is
what you want. Give your aggressive opponent a little room to hang
themselves, but dont get fancy and check. Just continue to bet into these
opponents.
FC (Flush Chaser)
A lot of no-limit Texas Holdem players just love to make flushes.
Theres something about looking down at J8s that looks so much better
than J8o to a lot of opponents at small and mid stakes. We know however
that the suited cards only out perform their off suit counterpart by 2%
when going to showdown, but our opponents dont seem to mind, or more
accurately, dont know that.
Now lets not get confused between the FC player and the SOOT
player. The FC player likes to chase his flush, but that doesnt mean that
hell play any two suited cards. You may have an initial read of FC, and
then later find out that the player is really more of a SOOT, but make sure
that you make the distinction because it matters.
Most FC players will still play reasonable cards, but theyll call large
flop bets (pot size or more) with their flush draws, which isnt terrible on
the flop. But they will also typically call large turn bets with their draws,
which is bad. Its bad for them but good for you. When you see a person
checking and calling and then check/folding the river to a bet, you can be
pretty sure they were chasing and you can make a note of it (and I suggest
putting a question mark next to the read meaning its not confirmed yet,
but you suspect this to be the case).
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If you are lucky enough to get to see a showdown and their cards,
then also make a note whether they chased with a flush that had likely
over card outs, or they chased with just a flush draw that likely had no
over cards. An example of this would be if they held 8d9d and the board on
the turn read AcTd4d2h. If they are calling large bets on those kinds of
boards when they only have as many as 9 outs, then you can put an
exclamation on their FC note because they are a definite flush chaser.
SOOT (Likes to play any two suited cards)

Youll run into these opponents a lot at micro and small stakes, but
there are some at every buy-in level. These opponents have so fallen in love
with the flush that theyll play any two suited cards, and often from any
position. If you happen to see someone showdown a J4s from early
position, you can rest assured youve found one of these opponents.
If you get involved in a hand with a SOOT, and there are flush draw
possibilities, bet the hand hard. Sometimes even over betting the pot (on
flop and turn) is appropriate if you have a strong hand. Dont be afraid of
chasing them away, theyll continue on if they have any hope if hitting their
flush. If you have a marginal hand, bet the flop and turn
harder than normal, but always make sure not to go too crazy.
Just because youre in a hand with a SOOT and theres a flush
draw doesnt mean they absolutely have a draw. Make sure to
always exercise caution, but look for the tell tale signs of a
draw, such as your opponent checking and calling.
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When you have position on a SOOT with a good hand and theyve
limped in front of you, make sure you isolation raise them pre-flop with a
wider range of hands than normal. You want to make them pay as much as
possible for trying to hit their improbable hand (you flop a flush less than
.08% of the time). SOOT players are always fairly loose, so you want to
maximize your advantage by getting in a nice raise before the flop.
Also if youre involved in a hand with a SOOT and a flush draw
comes in, dont pay it off. They wont know that you have this kind of read
on them, so they likely wont be bluffing you. Again, if your opponent is
checking and calling and a flush draw completes, and they suddenly bet,
or check-raise, you should fold. Same thing if youre out of position and
theyve been calling your bets and a flush draw completes on the river, it
may be best to consider folding unless they bet a very small amount.
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In the example both players start with 150 BB effective stacks, a

noted SOOT limps into the pot and you pick up AdQh in the CO and raise
to 5 BBs. Everyone folds back to the limper who calls the raise. The flop
comes as shown: 2c9hQc. The SOOT checks to you and you bet 10 BBs.
The SOOT calls and the pot is now 21.5 BBs. The turn comes the 7d. The
SOOT again checks and you bet 18 BBs. The SOOT calls and the pot is
now 57.5 BBs. The turn now comes the 3c and the SOOT bets 50 BBs. You
should fold.
If this were any other kind of player, you may consider calling. Since
you know however that this opponent plays a lot of suited cards and he
was checking and calling the entire way until the flush hit on the river, you
should let it go. Its very unlikely that he's aware that you know he plays a
lot of suited cards. Its also unlikely that he checked and called all the way
with some weak hand like QJ or worse and now decided to just represent
the flush and lead the river. When you make a read, trust it and go with it.
You will save yourself money, and also make much more money in the long
run.
AK (Will bet turn unimproved)

Nearly all opponents who raise before the flop will follow it up with a
continuation bet on the flop. Not all opponents however will fire the second
bullet with an unimproved hand. When you get a rare chance to see a
showdown when someone bets the turn with an unimproved hand, you
should make a note of this and most important, write down what the bet
size was in proportion to the pot size.
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Noting that your opponent will fire multiple bullets with a non-paired
hand is important, but it will be rare that youll be able to see them
showdown a hand often enough to know the rate they do this. Of course if
they are fire multiple bullets in nearly every pot theyre involved in, then
you can be quite sure they make this play often. The more important thing
that you can take away as a read within a short session against an
opponent like this is how he bets his made hands versus his bluffs.
Some opponents will have a very definitive pattern here.
So if you get to see an AK opponent go to showdown with an
unimproved hand, and then get to see them go to showdown
with a made hand, you want to note the differences in how
they bet these two hands. A lot of opponents (especially at micro and small
stakes) are not very balanced in how they bet their bluffs versus their made
hands. Note everything you see about the differences, and try and relate
their betting pattern to a ratio of the pot size.
For example, if you see someone bet an unimproved hand on the flop
for a sized pot bet on the flop, but they bet a made hand for slightly
larger or 3/4ths the pot size bet on the flop, this will likely be a pretty
reliable betting tell. If you get to see it more than once, you can almost ink
it, and assume it is. Most of the better players won't vary their bet sizing
much or at all, as you're told in most books and by other players not to,
but you will spot some that do. Youll know in this example when your
opponent is betting weak, theyre weak, and when they bet strong, theyre
strong. You might see the opposite of this, or any other combination of
betting patterns, and different ones also on the turn. So dont only note
that this opponent is an AK, but how they bet their hands as well (you
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should do this with all opponents of course, but especially true when you
see opponents who are firing multiple bullets).
The best thing to do is you are up against an AK player is to raise the
flop if you miss, since raising the turn can get expensive. Also if you have
some kind of modest holding like a small pocket pair that doesn't have
much improvement equity (ability to become an even stronger hand) when
behind, you're sometimes best to raise as well. This way you don't find
yourself in a spot calling multiple bullets with a really marginal hand that
will rarely improve. Also this will allow you to take initiative back in the
hand if they do just call, and then you can check the turn or later turn
your hand into a bluff with more credibility. Just because someone is an
AK doesn't mean they won't have a hand sometimes. You dont want to
invest too much with mid pair or an under pair to the board, unless you
feel very confident in your read. If you hit the flop hard and have position
its best to call their flop bet and raise the turn or call when they bet again.
CRW (Calls raises with weak hands)

Against opponents who will call raises with weak
hands, you want to do your best to see how much theyll
call before the flop and maximize your edge by raising as
much as theyll call. Youll see some players that will call 5xBB8xBB and
occasionally even more with weak hands in the hopes of catching some
fluke flop and busting you. In order to make their play as unprofitable as
possible, you want to raise continually when they're in a hand with you,
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especially if you have position. There are a lot of CRW players who will limp
and call large raises with weak hands like J9o, T7o, 56o, etc.
When you notice that a player is calling a lot of raises, pay particular
attention to the hands they show down and note how much they called
with those hands. When you have a big hand and raise, continually try an
increase the size of that raise until you can find a size that will fold them
out. Then do your best to stay within the range that will keep them in the
hand with you.
Don't just go on auto-pilot with your normal pre-flop raise sizes. This
is leaving money on the table when you have fishy players that will pay off
with weaker hands. Don't worry so much about giving away the strength of
your hand, because you're doing this against the CRW player, and not
against the regulars at your table. When there are only regulars left to act,
then do your normal raise sizing. But when isolating weak CRW players, or
open raising with good hands, don't be afraid to adjust your open sizing.
Just make sure to keep it consistent throughout that round at the table.
Don't bump your open raise size up to 7 BBs with KK against a weak
player, and then isolation raise a CRW limper to 4 BBs with A7s. Keep the
sizing consistent, and look to discourage the other regulars from getting
into the pot with you. If and when they adjust you can change your sizing
again.
Most importantly, just make sure you are aware of this type of player
and know that they will have a wide range of hands that theyll play in
missed flops. That means that if you raise with AK and miss, and the flop
comes something like J95, its likely that it may have hit your opponent. If
they have position on you, its still ok (if its heads up) to take a stab at the
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pot, but shut down if youre called. On some even more draw heavy flops
such as Th9d6h, you'll often want to give up and not continuation bet
when out of position.
Another major advantage youll have over this type of opponent is
that theyll commonly go too far with top pair and sometimes middle pair
hands. They tend to be somewhat on the more aggressive side generally,
and also dont believe opponents have the hands theyre representing. If
you hit a nice flop, you can pummel them with big bets and win a nice
sized pot. Even top pair and weak kicker is good enough to get a good sized
pot formed against them.
LAF (Will lead into pre-flop raises and fold to a raise)

These opponents arent very easy to spot. You have to pay special
attention to the particular dynamics of the hand thats occurring and note
why they might be making the play theyre making. Generally however
there are two types of LAFs if you are keen enough to spot them. They are:
LAF A These opponents tend to be somewhat aggressive and like to
apply the pressure by leading into their opponents and seeing if they
can steal the pot from them. They tend to know that since most
opponents will miss the flop a majority of the time, theyd rather take
the initiative being out of position and see if they can take down the
pot with a bet. They are only somewhat aggressive because they will
nearly always fold to a raise unless they have a big hand.
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LAF P These opponents tend to be a bit more passive, but will take
stabs at the pot with their mid pocket pairs or middle pair type
hands. However, they will fold instantly to a raise fearing the worst of
their opponents hands.
Both of these opponents present a unique opportunity for you to pick
up some extra big bets. When these players bet on the flop, you should
raise with a lot of hands you missed the flop with. You dont want to
completely overdo this concept, but you do want to apply as much pressure
as possible to these opponents. If you have no over cards and no draws or
strong back door draws, then giving up in these spots is fine. Since LAFs
tend to be able to fold their weak hands, you want to test them as see how
much they really like their hand and how far theyll be willing to go with it.
If you do decide to stay ultra aggressive in these situations, make sure
you're aware that your opponent will tend to take a stand at some point.
Use the tension concept to try and time it so that you'll have a big hand
when your opponent does take a stand against you.
Anytime you see someone put a bet in on the flop and fold to a raise,
make a quick note of it. Just because someone does it once or twice doesnt
make them a LAF. Thats why these types of opponents tendencies are
much harder to pick up on. In one session, you may not really know for
sure if someone is a LAF. This is much more of a long term read that you
may have to make against a regular player. There are times however when
you will be able to make this read within a session, and it will be quite
obvious when that time occurs.
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SVB (Slim Value Bettor)

It will take some time to make this read, but when you do you want
to make sure you're exploiting your opponents play properly. Most of the
time you'll eventually find this in the regulars you're playing against.
Sometimes within a short session you'll pick up on this on players that
may not be regulars in your game. You want to keep a sharp eye out for
players that are betting slim on the turn and river. This means weak top
pair on bad final boards, second and sometimes third pair. Sometimes it
can be two pair on really draw heavy boards that have four to a straight
and flush possibilities. The bottom line is that it's pretty narrow
considering how the hand played and the final board.
Typically you'll be in a spot with a marginal hand as well since on
average these opponents will be more aggressive and you'll be calling down
a bit lighter. Instead of trying to call down narrow against them, turn some
of your weak made hands into bluffs on the turn or river. In most
situations since you caught them value betting light, they will be in difficult
spots to call a raise. Take note though that against some of your really
good regulars, if you do raise it needs to be consistent with some likely
hand you could have, or you may be looked up light.
To take advantage of the SVB, you'll want to focus on spots where
your opponent is still going to be betting a wide range and your equity
when behind isn't that good. Also situations on the river where your combo
draw hand, or one time marginal top pair, has minimal bluff catching
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ability against your opponents ability to slim value bet top, second and
third pair effectively.
In the above example, a noted SVB open raised from the hijack (MP)
in a 6-max cash game with effective stacks around 100 BBs. You called in
the CO with 7d7c. The flop came 4dJh5c, your opponent continuation bet,
and you called. The turn brought the Kd, and your opponent bet again. At
this point since you know our opponent
will bet the turn pretty slim he's going
to have a fairly wide betting range of
99+, 4455, J8o+, 5dAd, 67o+, KTo+,
AQo, AdQd, QTo+, AdTd, ATo+,T9s,
A8s+, and probably a couple of more
hands. You probably have around ~25%
equity against our opponents range,
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and you know they are aggressive, since most SVB's are, and you will likely
face a bet on the river.
It's a common example where of course you're going to call the flop
with second pair, but now you're in a spot facing a second barrel against
someone who is aggressive, but also value bets very slim. Your hand
doesn't have much improvement equity when behind (only about 5%). If
you take a look at your opponents hand range though, you should notice
that they are going to have to fold at least half of that range facing a raise,
and if they come back over the top, it's a super simple fold since your
equity will be nearly non-existent.
If there were say 17 BBs in the pot after you called the flop, and your
opponent bet 12 BBs into you on the turn, and you raised to 29 BBs, you'll
risk 29 BBs to win 29 BBs. Your
opponent will only need to fold half the
time, and you do have a miracle card
you will hit 5% of the time that won't
improve your opponents calling range.
If your opponent folds half the time it's
a narrowly profitable play, but if they
fold more than half the time, which is entirely possible against some SVB
opponents, then it's a solid +EV play. In this situation they should only
roughly continue with 45% of their range or less on the turn.
Another fairly common example on the river is when you call the flop
with a draw, turn a pair, and are now facing a bet on the river in a spot
that against some opponents might be good to bluff catch. Against SVBs
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though you should consider raising in a lot more of these situations

instead of calling.
In the above example from a 6-max cash game (but this also applies
to full ring), both players start with effective stacks of 120 BBs. A noted
SVB opponent open raises to 3 BBs in the hijack and you call on the
button with 9h8h. Everyone else folds and the flop comes: 6d7hQs. The
SVB player continuation bets 5 BBs and you call. The turn is the 8d, giving
you a pair and a draw. The SVB player bets 12 BBs into a pot of 17.5 BBs,
and you call. The river brings the Kc, and the SVB player bets 25 BBs into
a pot of 41.5 BBs.
At this point your pair of eights could be a reasonable bluff catcher
against some opponents. Obviously some flush and straight draws missed,
as well as some turned draws. Knowing your opponent can value bet light,
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he can easily have Qx, 66+, Kx, 78, 67, 68, 9T, 45 as well as the previously
mentioned flush and straight draw misses and complete air. If you are
going to choose between a raise or a
call, then you have to do a quick
mental run through of the number of
combinations of straight and flush
draws your opponent can have versus
better value betting hands. Meaning,
are there enough bluffs in his range,
SVB river calling range to a raise
versus better hands he'd value bet

that you can fold out?
In this case, there are definitely enough Qx, Kx, and TT+ type hands
that you can fold out if you raise. Some two pair combos such as 67, 78
and 68 will also fold out a percentage of the time (sometimes they will call).
The other part of our decision is of course how much to raise, since we are
primarily looking to fold out Qx, Kx,
TT+ and some of the weaker two pair
combos. The stronger two pairs, sets,
and straights obviously aren't going to
fold. Something in the realm of 70 BBs
(or a raise of 45 more BBs) would
accomplish this. You would need your
SVB river value betting range
opponent to fold just over 51% of the

time to be profitable.
Only including their river value range, we should be able to fold out
about 56% of that range. So if we evaluated the EV of call versus raise, the
EV of raise would be slightly higher in a scenario such as this. An
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important note is that if you are playing mostly micro stake games, your
opponents calling range is going to be a bit wider on the river. You won't
be running into a lot of good SVBs though, and you can look for many
spots to move some of the regulars that are in your games off of better
hands when you suspect they are value betting slim a good amount.
Ax (Will play an ace from anywhere)

There are many opponents at small and micro stakes that will play
an ace (and any other card) from any position. Theyll limp A4o from early
position, or call a raise with A6o out of position. Theyll also tend to be
sticky to these top pair hands if an ace flops. These players you want to
note for a couple of reasons.
1. It will give you some insight into how they think about the game.
Meaning you know this opponent is over valuing hands that really
arent that strong. So when you have a modest hand, and they are
still involved in the pot with you, theres still a very good chance you
have the best hand.
2. If youre in a pot with them and have a high pocket pair, but an ace
flops and they give you action, you can be nearly 100% sure youre
beat.
3. When you flop an ace with a good kicker, youll know that theyll pay
you off with a weaker kicker, so get a lot of value bets in.
Be aware of these opponents and make sure to steer clear of them if
theres an ace on the flop. At the same time, if theres an ace on the flop
and you hit a nice hand like two pair or better, make sure to do your best
to formulate a plan to get all the money in the middle. Remember,
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opponents who play weak aces a lot tend to be in love with these hands.
They are playing them for a reason, and that reason is primarily because
they believe that if they flop top pair theyll have the best hand.
NPR (Will raise a non-premium hand)

An opponent who will raise with a wider range of hands makes it a
bit more difficult to put them on a hand. This is primarily the reason you
should look for situations that you can also raise some non-premium
hands so that your open raising range isn't too predictable to your
opponents. There are typically three different types of NPRs, so lets take a
look them.
NPR (maniac) This opponent will just raise any two cards from
anywhere at any given time quite excessively. These opponents will
have little rhyme or reason to what theyre doing, but they believe
that this will benefit them when they do have a real hand and can get
someone to stand up to them with a weaker hand. These opponents
will be quite easy to spot and you need to make sure that whenever
you have position and a decent hand against them that you are reraising them. The thing an aggressive opponent hates most is
someone who comes back over the top of them.
NPR (fish) I say this opponent is a fish because they will raise a
non-premium hand such as A8s, or K9s, A3o or a similar hand out
of position because they just dont understand hand values or that
usually only a better hand will call them. They arent really playing to
be overly aggressive and outplay opponents, they are just raising
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because they believe this is the correct thing to do. Against these
opponents you just want to make note what hand they raised, what
position they were in, and how much the raise was for. In future
hands, youll know that if youre in a raised pot against these
opponents, the flop texture is much wider for how hard it will hit
them in general. So youll either have to be cautious OR make them
pay for their weaker hands.
NPR (ISO) These opponents will occasionally switch up their game
and incorporate some non premium hands in profitable situations for
them. For example theyll raise a hand like Q9s with the button after
a couple of limpers. They may also raise some connected cards in
early position, or occasionally re-raise almost any hand from the
blinds. They'll also expand their squeezing range in profitable spots.
Just make note and be aware that you have an opponent thats
capable of making such a play. Most of these opponents will be
somewhat knowledgeable regulars in your games. If you spot them,
then make sure to 3-bet when it's obvious they are isolating light, or
call their squeezes with a wider range when you have position.
Basically they offer the opportunity to re-steal lighter if you're paying
attention.
With any kind of NPR, the first thing to do is just make a note that
you saw them raise a non-premium hand. The second identification stage
will be to see if they are smart (an ISO), not so smart (a fish), or just plain
crazy (maniac). The maniac will be noticeable pretty quickly. The other two
will be a bit more subtle, so youll really have to analyze the situation and
decide if the raise made sense considering the circumstance.
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CBB (Continuation Bet Bad Boards)

Creating a likely hand range for your opponent start with really
paying attention to what they are doing, and gaining insights into how they
are thinking about situations, or in some cases, not thinking. Opponents
that will continuation bet out of position on draw heavy boards with over
cards are one of those players you want to note. Better opponents will tend
to slow down in these situations. If you see even one showdown hand
where an opponent continuation bet on a really "wet board" with over
cards, or even worse, no over cards, then take note and get ready to float.
These are opponents when you're in position that you'll want to float
and represent some of the draws that do come in. You should continue in a
lot more spots against these opponents, especially when you have position.
When they have position, look to call down a little lighter, or check-raise
when you have decent improvement equity in your hand.
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In the above example, when facing a noted CBB who has open raised
UTG and now continuation bet, calling with an under pair and gutshot is
reasonable. Against most opponents though, you'd typically want to dump
this hand since they shouldn't be betting this board unless they have a
good hand or really good draw.
Not only can your hand be best, but being in position you also have
some option to turn your hand into a bluff if say the Ah or Kh comes on the
turn and your opponent continues to bet. Taking careful note and finding
opponent who will bet unimproved on draw heavy or "wet boards" is a
helpful note to have to maximize every hands expected value.
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LA (Look-up Artist)
One of my favorite opponents to face is the look-up
artist. Theyre an opponent who will call a flop bet (usually in
position) in the hopes that you will check the turn for them
so they can steal the pot. This is sometimes also referred to
as floating the flop. These opponents will not be readily easy to spot, so
they take some concerted effort to pinpoint. Youll have to pay attention to
the opponents who are calling a LOT of flop bets, but theyll fold to a
second bullet (or theyll bet when checked to them nearly always).
Once you believe you have discovered a look-up artist, try and exploit
their weakness by doing the following:
1. If you raise with an unpaired hand before the flop and miss the flop,
you can make a standard continuation bet, but try and make it on
the smaller side. Then be prepared to fire a second bulletbut make
sure that you are always thinking about how the texture of the flop
fits your opponents hand, and whether you can represent properly
the hand youre trying to represent.
2. Secondly, if you flop a big hand, make a continuation bet, this time
on the slightly larger side, and then check the turn to them (if they
have position). If you have two pair or better you can either call their
bet on the turn, or if the flop texture has some probable draws or
potentially could get ugly, then come in for a decent sized checkraise.
Make sure that if youve made these plays more than once against
the same opponent that you occasionally mix up your play because theyll
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obviously start to become aware of what youre doing. This is particularly

true with how you are sizing your flop bet. If you bet on the light side with
your missed hand, and larger with your connected hands, then make sure
one time you switch these up. Obviously if opponents are looking to call a
lot of bets (particularly in position) on the flop, then they are thinking
about the game and what youre doing. Thinking opponents are aware and
may get a read on your play. More importantly some of these players may
even make a multiple street bluff by raising the turn with a wide range. So
you need to pay careful attention and make sure to target most of the
players that are calling the flop, but folding the turn.
A majority of LAs will be making these plays when they have position
on you. Sometimes though there are some really bad LAs that will do this
out of position with almost any two cards (usually with ace high). If you
notice that an opponent will also call flop bets out of position, but fold to a
turn bet, then make sure you fire second bullets liberally when you have
position.
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Chapter 6: In the Beginning
ost poker players have huge holes in their pre-flop strategy, but
aren't aware of it. Some of this is out of a lack of knowledge, and
for others it can be because of too much ego. Believing you can
play almost any two cards and outplay your opponents ends
badly in a lot of situations. In some situations that may be
absolutely true of course, but in many cases it's not. Everything begins
with pre-flop play, and mistakes made in this part of the game only get
compounded on later streets. So having a solid strategy is paramount in
long term success in no-limit Texas Holdem.
Starting Decisions
Based on my observations and conversations with students, and
fellow poker players, it seems that most players got their understanding of
what hands to open raise pre-flop, cold call, and 3-bet mostly from starting
hand charts, poker discussion, and some trial and error. A lot of players
I've asked started with some sort of hand chart to begin with, and slowly
weaned themselves off into a pre-flop strategy they feel works best for
them.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with referencing starting hand
charts, and talking to your poker friends about starting hands from
different positions at the table. What you want to do as a successful poker
player though is make sure you're really taking in all of the relevant and
available information about any decision you're making at the poker table,
and making the best decision possible. Having a process, or poker thought
algorithm PTA, as I like to call it, is a great reference for successful decision
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making. A poker thought algorithm for pre-flop play looks something like
this:
What is my hand?
Your actual starting hand and its general strength no matter what position you open from will
sometimes trump all other questions. Mainly when you hold AA/KK.
What is my starting position?
How many players will have position on you, and how wide can you open considering the positional
advantage or disadvantage you will have post flop.
Who opened in front of me?
If your opponent is opening really wide this should expand your calling and 3-betting ranges, or viceversa if they are tight. How good is the opponent who is opening?
Who is left to act behind me?
Are the opponents left to act really aggressive? Do they squeeze or 3-bet a lot? Are they passive and
cold call a bunch? Can they outplay me if they have position?
What are the effective stacks of players in the pot?
Is there potential for a really big, small or average sized pot? How good are the players who have the
deep, average, and shallow stacks?
How often do they fold to a raise, re-raise or 4-bet?
If your opponent folds to a re-raise a high percentage of the time, widening your 3-bet bluffing range
is ideal. Can you steal a lot from this player just by opening?
How aggressive is my opponent post flop?
Knowing how aggressive your opponent is on the turn and river will help you know what kinds of
hands to come along with or dump.
Can I outplay my opponent post flop a decent amount?
This is always a tricky question because of course we all want to believe yes. Just be honest, and if
you're not too sure, then it's usually no.
Is there any relevant recent history?
Do you have some recent information about some hands your opponent has overplayed that can help
you widen or tighten your range? Have you been 3-betting and 4-betting your opponent recently and
expect them to react soon?
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How do others likely perceive me?

How active or tight have you been at the table? Have you showed down some big hands or very
marginal hands?
You should be asking yourself these questions every time you're

making a pre-flop decision. If you're missing any of them in your thought
process, it's important to take note and make sure you starting asking
yourself. Most of the time your decision will be easy; You'll look down at
Ks4s and muck it. However, in some situations this same hand could be a
call or a 3 or 4-bet if the questions are all answered properly.
It's always best that if you're unsure about a hand based on how
you've run through your own poker thought algorithm, that you err on the
side of caution. It may be over stated, but most players mistakes in nolimit Texas Holdem come from playing too many hands, not from playing
too few. One of the easiest ways to correct a losing approach to poker is to
start tightening up your starting range. If you're losing money or around a
break even player, then generally something as simple as playing fewer
hands can move you into the winning column. This ensures that when you
are in a hand you'll generally have the stronger of the two hands and win
more from second best hands calling you down then vice-versa.
Flat Calling
Flat calling, sometimes also called smooth calling, or burning money
as I like to call it, is when you decide to call an opponent's raise, or call the
blind. It's part of poker, and you want to have a flat calling range, but for
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almost all players their flat calling ranges will not yield positive results.
There are a couple of simple reasons for this.
1. Some people play too many hands, and hands in the wrong
situations that are easily dominated.
2. Players who flat call don't have the initiative.
3. Most players don't understand hand ranges and equity well enough
to properly call down in the correct spots.
4. Most players don't bluff in the most profitable spots.
Add it all up, and in most cases you have complete spew. In all
fairness, if most people who played online poker ran the proper filter for
this area, or used software like Leak Buster, they would see anywhere from
bankroll sucking spew to minor winrate draining spew. There are some
players that can and will have a positive winrate in this area, and this is
what you should strive for too. If you suspect that you may have a leak
here though, check your results, and then come up with a game plan for
correcting it.
One of the keys as to why most people don't do well with their flat
calling range is because of statement #2. Statements #3 and #4 are usually
also a problem, but one of the easiest ways to start to patch this kind of
leaks is to focus on the first two to begin with. Tighten up your flat calling
range by not flatting as much, especially out of position. Turn some of your
flatting range into a 3-betting range so that you can take initiative back in
the hand.
Ideally you want to strive to be able to have a marginal flatting range
and confidently call down your opponent in the correct spots, and find
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highly +EV bluffing situations. Those concepts take a lot of time and
experience to pull off successfully. It's definitely something you should
experiment with and work on as part of your long term goals about your
game. In the short term minimizing losses here, and slowly taking some of
those flatting hands and turning them into +EV post flop bluffs and value
call downs is a reasonable plan. You can't continue to improve in poker if
you don't have money to play with.
Here's an example of a typical range you may flat call within a lot of
different situations. To improve your results, stop flatting 2266 from the
blinds to a steal attempt if you're doing it now, unless you're nice and deep
and against a really weak opponent. Don't flat off suited hands in position
against strong opponents. Even
with position, if they are decently
good it's going to be hard to play
them profitably unless you have
some very specific read. Don't flat
ATA9, KTKJ, QTQJ type hands
from early and middle positions.
You'll often be dominated and
you'll still have a lot of players left to act. Don't flat suited connectors out of
the blinds unless there are really weak players in the pot with you that
have decent stack sizes.
Take some of that very same hand range and turn many of them into
3bet bluffs, or in some case 3-bets for value against certain opponents
when in position. 3-bet or fold 2266 from steal attempts when in the
blinds. 3-bet or fold ATA9, KTKJ, QTQJ type hands in latter middle
position instead of flatting. Experiment with different hand ranges based
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on the stakes you're playing. In some games you can 3-bet KQo for value
and still get calls from worse hands, and some games you can't.
Create a situation where you'll be taking initiative more so you'll give
yourself more opportunities to win the hand. Sometimes you'll 3-bet and
your opponent will fold, and often even fold a better hand. Sometimes
they'll call and you'll both whiff, but you'll have initiative and a simple
continuation bet will take the pot. And sometimes you'll out flop your
opponents 3-bet flatting range. Having initiative will also allow you to
control the pot size more often than not, so if you do flop top pair and
there's a lot of action you can check the turn or river.
As you begin turning your flat calling range into a more profitable
hand range, begin to slowly widen your range again. Experiment with
different scenarios by starting with a slightly wider range in position, and
add a few more hands out of position. Keep it slow and steady and know
that most players struggle badly with this area of their game. Make it an
area you're a master at and you'll have a huge advantage on most
opponents.
Blind Play
Similar to flat calling, players
tend to struggle heavily when
playing out of the blinds. It's
understandable of course, since you're out of position almost always
(except when defending against an open small blind raise). Almost everyone
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posts losses from the blinds, but you can minimize your losses, or even
show profit with some smart decision making and solid poker thinking
algorithms. If you are bleeding heavy money from the blinds, then there are
a couple of specific areas you should look at first to make some
adjustments.
1. Your cold calling range from players who open raise from early and
middle positions. If you are primarily playing full ring, then your cold
calling range from the blinds really needs to tighten up. That means
folding hands like AJ, KQ, QJs, etc., against most regulars and tight
players. If someone is opening roughly 9% of their range from early
position in a full ring game, and you call with a hand like AJo, you're
already at an equity disadvantage. Plus you'll be playing out of
position against a hand range that when you both connect, you'll
mostly flop the second best hand more often than the better hand.
It's not a profitable situation. In 6-max games, if someone is opening
roughly 16% of their range, on average you're going to be in a 50/50
equity situation, but out of position. So unless you think you can
really outplay your opponent a lot, folding these hands is ideal. Also,
avoid flatting suited and off suited connectors. Again, you're at a big
equity disadvantage. Unless there are fishy or weak players that have
also called, and effective stacks are somewhere slightly over 100 BBs,
then folding is more profitable. True, a lot of your money is going to
be made by making strong hands with these kinds of starting hands,
but the low frequency you do that, combined with not being in
position will be a drain on your bankroll.
2. Making more definitive decisions against steal attempts, and
reducing cold calling range. This basically means 3-betting or folding
more instead of flatting. Ideally flatting can be much more profitable
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since you'll be ahead of most of your opponents opening range,

especially if you're defending against an open button raiser. Let's
take a common example of you holding KcJs in the small blind and
your opponent open raises from the button, and let's say opens 48%
of their hands from there. Even with KcJs you are marginally ahead
of their opening range with almost 54% equity. That doesn't tell the
whole story of the value of KJo of course. Most of the value is in the
"flopability" of the hand, and the fact that your opponent will flop
more second best hands than better hands when you both connect
with the flop. However, if you aren't outplaying most of your
opponents post flop, then 3-betting or folding will be more profitable
for you at this point in your game. Your goal should be to continue to
improve in your hand reading, board texture understanding, and
profitable bluffing opportunities so that you can profitably flat call
with a hand like KJo from the blinds.
Look at the pre-flop decision out of the blinds as a problem. How are
you going to solve the problem? Are you going to flat call, and look for spots
to outplay your opponent? Are you going to 3-bet and try and solve the
problem by getting your opponent to fold pre-flop? One solution might be
more correct for one player, and completely incorrect for another. You have
to know your own game. If you are struggling with bluffing in the right
spots, or aren't confident calling down against your opponents range of
hands, then mix in more 3-bets and folds to eliminate scenarios where
you're playing more of a check / guess game without positive results.
A lot of players watch top pros in an online training videos talk about
optimal play in a lot of different scenarios, and try and mimic that play.
There is an optimal play for any given scenario given the limited
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information we have as poker players. That's what you should strive to

achieve. Yet at the same time there are steps you can use to build yourself
to playing optimally instead of putting yourself in situations where you
have to make more decisions about your hand and compound a scenario
that leaves you losing consistently. In scenarios like that, make more
definitive decisions and put the onus back on your opponent to make the
most optimal play. The reason you'd consider taking sub-optimal, but
profitable, lines as you learn, is the same reasoning why people will
generally tell you to play tighter pre-flop (tight TAG or even NIT) when you
first start playing poker. It's higher EV to play slightly LAG or very LAG,
but it's not the best plan to just throw yourself into the fire. You'd
consistently lose, and probably not have a chance to move up the poker
food chain.
Optimal Big Blind Play

When you have a reasonable amount
of confidence in your post flop game, look to
take more flops. This is always within
reason, but look for marginal regulars you
think you have an advantage on, and look to outplay them post flop. If you
have the slightest bit of doubt though, consider using a strategy like the
one on the previous couple of pages. Slowly work yourself to optimal play.
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Defending from the Big Blind vs Early Openers

When defending your big blind against early open raisers, you need
to pay very close attention to a couple of things assuming you can see the
flop heads up:
1. How tight are they? Are you talking about nit tight and opening 6%
of their hands or less in full ring, or 10% of their hands or less in 6max? Are they somewhere in between or are they loose, opening over
14% at full ring and over 21% at 6-max?
a. If they are tight: How often are they continuation betting?
Some tight players have a really small or large continuation bet
percentage. Very few are somewhere in between. If they
continuation bet a smaller percentage of the time, then looking
to take a flop with some strong suited or single gapped
connectors can allow you to see four cards often enough to hit
a big hand or make a move. If they continuation bet a lot, but
are passive on the turn, you can call with a similar range and
some broadway suited hands like QJs for example, and look to
either lead the flop in spots where you completely miss and
take their play away from them, or check/call and lead a lot of
turns on flops that have potential. This would be "floating out
of position" and isn't very profitable unless you're very
confident in your post flop play and reads. If your opponent is
tight and a high continuation bettor and aggressive on later
streets, then folding most of your hands is ideal unless there is
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another really weak player in the pot. Then you can widen your
range slightly, but not much.
b. If they are loose: You can widen your calling range to include
some more marginal broadway hands like AJo, KQo, ATs, etc.,
and drop more of the suited connector hand ranges since they
will go down in post flop value versus your opponents more
marginal hand range. Mix in a good amount of leads and
check-raises on the flop against these players with made
hands and whiffed hands. Since their range is wider, they will
have a made hand less often, and you can re-steal a ton
against them if you mix in a good amount of value bets and
bluffs that have good equity. Most opponents won't fight back
against this strategy, but some will. Make notes on who is
being aggressive back, and don't jump to conclusions too quick
about your opponents.
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In the example on the previous page, your opponent open raises from
UTG+1 to 3 BBs with effective stacks of 120 BBs. Your opponent is fairly
tight from this position, opening ~10% of their hands. They have a high
continuation bet percentage of around 80%, but they are pretty passive on
later streets. You are in the big blind with 8s9s, and call the raise.
You check to your opponent, and they continuation bet as expected.
The initial plan when deciding to call the raise to begin with was to call or
check-raise certain flops depending on how hard they likely hit our
opponent, or how hard we expect them to perceive it hit you. In this case
with a gutshot and backdoor flush draw, and stacks being deep enough
that if your opponent does have a hand, you can win a reasonably sized
pot, calling is the best option. You also know your opponent slows down on
later streets. So unless they have Kx+, which will be a fairly small
combination of hands, albeit a larger than normal portion of combos for
most opening ranges because of their tighter play, they will slow down on
the turn and allow you to potentially see all 5 cards.
Calling is preferable over check-raising because unless you're in a
leveling war with your opponent, there are not a lot of hands in our range
we'd want to check-raise on this kind of texture. Calling also ensures that
you at least see the next card, and won't get blown off your hand with a reraise in case your opponent does have a big hand.
You also allow for more options to check-raise the turn if the turn
doesn't supply a helpful card, and it adds a more credible story to you
having a strong hand. Depending on the stakes you play of course, how
hand strength is perceived to a turn check-raise will vary. For the most
part at micro and small stakes games it will be perceived very strongly.
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Your range won't be weighted very much at all to having check / called the
flop with a gutshot.
The important points about calling and taking a flop out of the blinds
versus a tighter player is that you have to have the proper information. You
need to have stats with a reasonable sample size or a very good read that
fits the criteria. Otherwise, you're much better off folding pre-flop.
2. How aggressive are they post flop?

a. If they are passive: As said above, you can play more suited
and gapped connectors, and when deep enough (over 120bbs)
some off suited connectors as well. Don't overdo it of course.
You can look to lead a good amount of flops as well, but lower
your check-raising semi-bluff range since they will slow down
on later streets if you call the flop and usually allow you to see
more cards for free.
b. If they are aggressive: Fold a lot more hands. Don't try and be
a hero. There are a ton of better spots to be in than with a
marginal hand out of position against an aggressive opponent.
You can mix in some 3-bets against the looser opponents
however.
3. Does your opponent have a low WTSD (went to showdown), or you
suspect they can fold big hands?
a. Low WTSD: If your opponent has a low WTSD
percentage, or you suspect they can fold big hands, then
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there's a lot of room to outplay or bluff them post flop. If

you're using a HUD, then just make sure you have a
fairly large sample size on your opponent. Something in
the range of 5k+ minimum unless it's a really absurdly
low number in a reasonable sample (500 hands or more):
Something in the range of less than 23% in 6-max
games, and slightly lower than that in full ring games.
b. High WTSD: You can really open up your calling range
here depending on how high their WTSD and how deep
stacks are. When stacks get over 130 BBs against these
kinds of opponents, your calling range should really
widen. Just kind in mind that you aren't looking to play
a big pot with top pair or slightly better. If there are
others that are in the pot as well, then it should
incentivize you to widen your range even more. Playing
off suited gapped connectors, low suited aces like A4s,
etc. You want to put yourself in position to win the big
pots as much as possible against your weaker
opponents.
The important aspect of big blind play against early opening raisers
is paying extra close attention to the opponents that have opened or are in
the pot. Don't look down at 97o and auto muck it because someone opened
from early position. Make sure to scrutinize your opponent and have a plan
for how to envision the hand to be ideally played.
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Defending from the Big Blind vs Steals

Defending from the big blind to steal attempts is one of the funnest
(yes, that's an example of language in flux) and most common situations in
poker. You both know you're going to be full of crap a lot of the time, so the
leveling war and stand-off begins.
Defending from the Big Blind vs Button Steals

Now obviously we know, and we know that our opponent knows we
know, that their opening range on the button is going to be wide. How we
play each situation is primarily a matter of several things:
1. How often is our opponent opening? Are they on the very loose side
(over 52%), on the tight side (less
than 35%), or somewhere in
between?
When they are opening
wide: In the example to the right,
it should expand your flatting and
Opponent opening 58.4% from the button
3-betting ranges. This opponent

is opening 58.4% of their range from the button. Assume effective
stacks of around 100 BBs, a reasonable flatting range would be
something like the following: 77+, A2s+, A9o+, K9s+, KTo+, QTs+,
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J9s+, QTo+, T9s, JTo. This would be roughly 20% of our total range.
Now obviously hands like TT+, AQ+ you'd want to 3-bet a majority of
the time. Occasionally, when your opponent is not good post flop,
flatting with a lot of these hands can be quite profitable, since they'll
flop second best hands so often.
Also, hands like 77/88, A9o, K9s, T9s, JTo depend on how
confident we feel about playing our opponent post flop. If you think if
you have a reasonable advantage, flatting with these hands is fine,
mixing in some 3-bets. Otherwise look to 3-bet or fold these hands.
Now polarizing some of this
range while adding more hands
so you can 3-bet some hands that
have decent equity when called,
and flatting some of the bigger
hands like AQo, AJo, KQs, etc., a
percentage of the time as well,
Polarized 3-bet range of 28.2% of hands
will keep your opponents defense more off balanced. Of course, most
opponents will know that you will defend lighter and 3-bet lighter. So
how much, and with what kinds of hands, is important.
Add in some hands to our initial range to create a strong
overall defending range: 3-betting hands that won't play very well if
you flat, but that can out flop some of your opponents 3-bet calling
range. Mix in flatting some of your fairly strong to very strong hands
some of the time (exact percentages vary depending upon opponent;
baseline percentage would be 20/80 flat to 3-bet). With this range
your opponent can't be extremely confident in your strength when
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you're flatting or 3-betting. Most of the uncertainty is going to come

with them not knowing which hands you're polarizing exactly. Some
people 3-bet a lot of suited connectors, and offsuited connectors.
Some don't at all, and some people do a percentage of the time.
For the most part I don't advocate 3-betting suited connectors
from the blinds for several reasons. One, there are just better hands
to 3-bet, and two, when I am called I'd prefer to have a hand that
plays well against my opponents 3-bet flatting range. For example,
my opponent who opens wide on the button raises to 2.5 BBs, and I
have K4s in the big blind. My opponent plays pretty aggressive on
later streets, so flatting isn't a good option. Folding isn't bad, but if I
3-bet, I can get my opponent to fold X% of the time, and Y% of the
time they will flat with hands like 55+, A9o+, JTs+, A5s+, etc., hands
that I'm only at a slight disadvantage at pre-flop (around 45/55), and
I have initiative. If I flop a king, I have really good showdown value
versus their range, and I have semi-bluff potential when I flop or turn
flush draws. AK will be 4-bet a majority of the time, so that only
leaves KTKQ, and the combos of those hands are reduced because I
have a "blocker" card holding one king.
If you do 3-bet suited and offsuited connectors it's a bit more
difficult to navigate post flop when you do flop a hand. Say you're in
the same situation as the previous example except this time you
have 6s7s and you decide to 3-bet. The flop comes and you flop a 6,
you continuation bet and your opponent calls. The turn brings no
help. You have a pair of 6's, but you could be quite a bit behind since
your opponents flatting range is going to have a lot of 77+ hands in
it. Your opponent could have floated, and you could have a good
equity advantage, but are you check / calling at this point? This
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situation is still manageable of course, but it's going to consistently

put you in a lot more difficult situations, when there are better
situations to really master first.
All of this reasoning is irrelevant if your opponent opens really
wide, and folds to a 3-bet a high percentage of the time. Keep in
mind, that if you're using a HUD, an opponent's fold to 3-bet will be
much less when re-defending their open button in most cases.
Typically speaking, the time for a situational stat like fold to 3-bet
from button defend will take too long to normalize. However, it may
provide some clues if it's an extremely high or low number in a
reasonable sample.
If your opponent is opening to 2.5 BBs, and you 3-bet from the
big blind to 8.5 BBs, then if your opponent calls 32% of the time or
less, it's neutral EV to +EV. That's not even considering that when
they call you will have equity in your hand, and it's irrelevant how
often they are 4-betting since we're only looking at folding to 3-bets.
To really see if any 3-bet is +EV you'd want to factor in X% of the
time your opponent is calling, Y% of the time they are 4-betting. But
if X% is already neutral or better, then Y% only becomes relevant
when determining exact positive expected value. Again, it will be
positive because we already know just based on our opponents fold
percentage the play is break even or better.
(4 (.68)) - (8.5 (.32)) = 0 EV
When your opponent is calling more than 32% of the time
you'll want to make sure you feel confident playing out of position
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when you're 3-betting with a marginal hand. Some opponents rarely

fold to 3-bets from the blinds, so you'll want to avoid 3-betting too
liberally with the weaker part of your polarized range. Opponents
who fold 50% or less tend to be opponents who are either reasonably
good post flop, and don't mind taking a flop in a re-raised pot, or
opponents who are generally stubborn and bad, and just can't fold.
Look for opponents with low fold to 3-bets and high WTSD percents,
and you'll generally be able to sort the stubborn opponents from the
reasonably decent opponents.
2. What are stack sizes? As stacks get deeper this will expand your
flatting range, and contract your 3-betting range since your opponent
will have more incentive to call your 3-bets with a wider range. As
stack sizes get narrower, this should have the reverse effect of
widening your 3-betting range, and narrowing your flatting range.
3. Is your hand more of a drawing hand or top pair hand? So hands like
78s, JTo, T8s, etc., would be considered more drawing hands versus
hands like KJo, ATo, QKs, etc., would be considered more top pair
hands. Some hands are both, like KJs, QTs, etc. These hands have
good drawing potential, but also good top pair value as well. Top pair
only hands usually will make top pair as their best hand most of the
time, and these hands are easier to get to showdown versus having a
hand like 78s and making top pair. What kind of hand you have will
help you decide, based on your stack size, if you should be 3-betting
or flatting.
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Squeezing from the Big Blind vs Open Buttons

When the small blind decides to come along and flat call your
opponents open buttons raises, it should really widen your 3-bet range as
a squeeze, unless your opponent on the button is extremely stubborn, or
decently tricky post flop. It's best to use caution against these kinds of
opponents. In general, most of your opponents are going to know that
you'll be squeezing a bit wider, but that shouldn't prevent you from doing
so if you 3-bet a smart range of hands, and keep your 3-bet sizing good.
In general anywhere from a pot-sized raise to about 4.5x your
opponents opening raise is a good size to enable a high percent of fold
equity. You want a high percentage of fold equity to make up for times
when your opponents really have a hand, or you get called and have to
shut down because of a poor flop texture.
You should already know what most of your 3-bets for value will be,
and some of the in-between hands like AJo, KQo, ATs, etc, will highly
depend on how you think both your opponents play. You will be in a
sandwiched position post flop. It will
make your opponent on the button play
slightly more honest, but you won't
know until after flop betting has
happened if you'll have position, or you
will be out of position. For that reason
in some spots against weak opponents,
Squeezing 21.7% of hands with marginal hand range
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overcalling with suited connectors can play well if you think the small blind
will have a decent hand more often than a speculative hand, or flatting
with AJo can have value against weak opponents with poor post flop skills.
Some of the hands you won't be flatting almost ever, but have great
squeeze EV (shown in picture to the right), are hands like: A2oA9o, A2s
A8s, K3sK9s, K8oKTo, Q6sQTs, Q9oQTo, J8oJ9o, J7sJ9s, T8s+, T9o.
Hands like small pairs can become a flat or a squeeze. If one or both
opponents are deep, flatting can usually be more ideal, or if both or one of
the opponents is really weak post flop, you don't want to push them out of
the pot by 3-betting. If facing two decent regulars, or at least one
reasonably tough opponent, squeezing or folding is usually a higher EV
line.
You always want to keep in mind that if you build history with any of
your opponents or you are squeezing a lot, that your small blind can and
should look to trap occasionally with his stronger hands, knowing you will
squeeze wide. This shouldn't prevent you from squeezing, but it should
reduce some of your range so that your opponent isn't looking to exploit
you.
Defending from the Big Blind vs Cut-off's

There's a significant drop in most opponents open raising range from
the cut-off than the button. For that reason, you need to tighten up your 3betting and flatting range against most opponents. Most opponents will
open raise from the cut-off about 24-33% of the time. Both 6-max and full
98
ring tend to have similar averages, with full ring actually having slightly
higher cut-off opening ranges to about 34.5%. It's reasonable to assume
that because it's usually opened more often before it gets folded to the cutoff at full ring, that people seize the opportunity slightly more often. In
either case, opening ranges in both games are very similar.
When deciding how you will respond to an opponent who opens from
the cut-off with no callers in-between you, the same poker thought
algorithms need to be applied as in previous situations.
1. How often is your opponent opening from the cut-off?
a. If they open on the lower end of an opening range (24% or
less): Keep your 3-betting range a bit tighter, unless they have
a really high fold to 3-bet percentage (67% or higher). Keep
your flatting range even tighter since they will tend to have
decent hands more often than most opponents and you don't
want to be stuck flopping second best hands against them.
b. If they open on the wider side of an opening range (31% or
higher): Have a decent 3-betting range, but still much tighter
than defending against an open button raise. Something in the
range of: A2oATo, A2sA9s, K8sKTs, K9oKTo, Q9sQTs,
Q9oQTo, J9o, J9s. Don't always 3-bet every one of these
hands. You want to increase or decrease this range also based
on how often your opponent is folding to 3-bets. The ideal
being someone who is opening too loose, and not re-defending
enough with a reasonably high fold to 3-bet percentage
(somewhere over 65%).
2. How aggressive are they post flop?
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a. Against more passive opponents (general aggression under

3AF): If they are passive on later streets, then you can expand
your flatting range. Again, the more they open, the more you
should expand this, and the tighter they are the tighter your
flatting range should become. Something in the range of: J9s+,
QTs+, KTs+, A9sAJs, AToAQo, KTo+, QTo+, 77TT.
Sometimes consider 3-betting AQo/TT and any other hands
that are on the bottom of this range that you don't feel
comfortable playing out of position. In general though you will
be ahead of most of your opponents range. Against someone
who is opening about 34% of their range, you'll have a 52.3%
pre-flop advantage. Take a couple of hands out at the bottom
of your range and you can get it closer to 54%, which is
reasonably good pre-flop. Take that same flatting range above,
and tighten your opponents range to opening about 27% of
hands, and your equity drops to about 49.5%. So the bottom of
the above range needs to be tightened to account for this to
something like: KTs+, A9sAJs, AToAQo, KTo+, QJs, 77TT.
b. Against more aggressive opponents (3AF or greater): You need
to eliminate some of your baseline flatting range and turn
those into 3-bets or folds simply because you will be outplayed
too often post flop. So something in the following range: J9s+,
QTs+, KTs+, A9sAJs, AToAQo, KTo+, QTo+, 77TT. Hands
like J9s, JTs, QTs, A9s, KTo, or 77 should be 3-bet or folded.
You can tighten that up even more against really tricky
opponents. The more aggressive and the tighter your opponent
is, the more you're going to want to tighten, polarize, and
eliminate situations where you're out of position with marginal
hands.
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Consistently put yourself in the highest EV situation, and you'll stay

a step or two ahead of your opponents. There are a ton of post flop lines
you can take against some of your better opponents to keep them off
balance. Some of them also work really well against weak opponents who
don't know how to properly react (see more on this later in this section
out of the "norm" lines). If you are unsure about a situation when you're
out of position, it's always better to fold then to put yourself in a spot
where you aren't confident. At some point though, you will want to push
yourself to take more flops, flat, 3-bet, and experiment with your game in
order to grow. Just make sure you're doing it in small steps.
Squeezing from the Big Blind vs Open Cut-Offs

One of the most profitable squeezing situations in poker is when
your opponent opens raises too wide from the cut-off, and another
opponent flats, and you're in the big blind. You get to close the action, and
you know that your opponents won't have decent hands most of the time.
Of course most opponents are going to know that you know this as well.
There are pros and cons to what is the best situational squeeze when
your opponent opens from the cut-off. If you have an opponent flat on the
button, then you know their flatting range will be tighter than someone
flatting from the small blind (which is good for you), but then they have
position on you if they call (bad for you). There's a higher probability of
your opponent trapping you in a situation like this (or thinking they are
trapping the CO), and there's a higher probability that they could simply
look to outplay you (bad for you).
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On the other hand, squeezing when an opponent flats from the small
blind puts you up against a tighter range, which will reduce folding
percentages (bad for you), but when you are called by the small blind you'll
have position (good for you). There's less of a chance that your opponent
will trap or will be looking to call to out play you post flop (good for you).
In the above example, you are in the big blind with KcTc (110 BBs),
and a losing regular opens in the cut-off for 3 BBs (100 BBs). The player on
the button is a decent winning regular and calls (135 BBs). The small blind
folds and the action is on you. Let's use our poker thought algorithms to
think through the situation to make the best possible play.
1. How often is our opponent opening from the cut-off? Our
opponent is opening about 28% of his hands from the cut-off.
Right about in the middle of the road, but on a slightly more tight
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side of the opening scale. In a reasonable sample size it's also nice
to see how often our caller flat calls. Obviously being on the
button his flat calling range will be widest. His VPIP overall is
somewhat high at 30%, so we can assume he takes a good
amount of flops. Overall our cut-off opponents opening range,
along with our button opponent's probable slightly looser flatting
range makes the situation for 3-betting slightly positive, and the
situation for flatting fairly neutral since we won't have position on
a tough opponent.
2. How aggressive is our opponent? Our opponent in the cut-off is
reasonably aggressive, but shades slightly more to being passive
with an aggression factor of 2.7. Our opponent on the button is
slightly more on the aggressive side with an aggression factor of
3.8. Since youre squeezing, you need to take into account that
there's a possibility one or both might call. The fact that our most
aggressive opponent has position on everyone is a negative in this
case for both calling and squeezing.
3. What are stack sizes? Effective stacks are 100 BBs, but could be
as high as 110 if the button calls. Pretty reasonable stack sizes for
both squeezing and flatting.
4. Is our hand more for drawing or flopping top pair? In this case it's
a bit of both. Most of the value in our hand will be from making a
straight or flush, but with the king, it has reasonable top pair
showdown value as well. Again, somewhat neutral overall for both
situations.
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All things considered it's close between flatting or squeezing. Folding

doesn't come up as an option too much when we go through the hand, and
between flatting or squeezing, squeezing has slightly more value since if we
flat we'll have to play well against two decent players out of position. If we
squeeze, the worst case scenario is that our opponent on the button calls,
and we play slightly deeper in a re-raised post against them. However,
stacks aren't deep enough for them to warrant calling with a lot of their
drawing hands unless they really love taking flops in position, which is a
possibility. However, we still have a strong hand that has big hand and top
pair potential.
Defending from the Small Blind vs Steals

Defending from the small blind is very similar to defending from the
big blind with the obvious exception that the big blind is still left to act.
This slightly complicates your flatting range, but doesn't change your 3betting range too much. In some higher stake games it will affect your 3betting range, and better opponents 4-betting range will widen on
occasion, but even this doesn't happen very often. Overall it's going to be a
lot of the same dynamics, so we'll focus on highlighting the differences.
Defending from the Small Blind vs Button Steals

You want to use the same kind of poker though algorithm to break
down your flatting and 3-betting ranges versus opponents who are open
raising on the button. The only major added factor in this situation is you
need to consider your opponent in the big blind.
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1. How wide is your opponent on the button opening?

a. If your opponent is opening wide (over 52%), then this should
expand your flatting and 3-betting range. However, your
flatting range should slightly tighten, and could tighten greatly
depending on your opponent in the big blind. A range we listed
for flatting in the big blind: 77+, A2s+, A9o+, K9s+, KTo+,
QTs+, J9s+, QTo+, T9s, JTo, would need to tighten to: 88+,
A9s+ ATo+, KTs+, QJs+, QJo+, JTs. Some hands slightly above
this range can be removed in some spots, or some just below
can be added when your button opponent is weak, and there's
no large threat of being squeezed from the big blind. Example,
add QTs, JTo, 77, etc.
b. If your opponent is fairly tight (opening 35% or less), then
you'll need to tighten your flatting range since they'll have
reasonable hands, and you'll be in a dominated situation more
often than most opponents. Again, use the range on the
previous page as a baseline, and eliminate from the bottom of
that range to something like: 88+, ATs+, AJo+, KJs+, QJs+,
KJo+. This way you'll have about 60/40 equity advantage preflop going to the flop. Also, hands like QQ+, AK, etc., you'll
normally 3-bet, but occasionally flatting for deception can also
be profitable.
2. How good is our opponent in the big blind?
a. If your opponent is a pretty good regular, then you'll want to
tighten up your flatting range, and slightly tighten your 3-
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betting range. You don't have to adjust your 3-betting range

too much, unless you're playing higher small stake games
against really good opponents. In general, if your opponent on
the button is loose, but your opponent in the big blind is good,
then you should use a similar flatting range as if your
opponent opening on the button was tight. Consequently, also
occasionally flatting some of your big hands can be quite
lucrative against opponents that are known squeezers in the
big blind. It's a more risky line pre-flop, but can turn into some
good size pots post flop if you call their squeeze with a hand
like QQ+ for example.
b. If your opponent is a bad regular, or a fishy bad player, then
expanding your flatting range, and providing a good price for
them to call and stay in the pot can be ideal in a lot of
situations. Even though you'll be at a positional disadvantage,
any reason to allow a bad player to come into the pot can be
very +EV. Slightly reducing your 3-betting range because of
this, and turning some of your 3-bet value hands into flatting
Flat with AQo from the small blind against weak BB and marginally decent
regular on the button.
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hands can achieve this goal. So hands like AJs, AQo, KQs, etc.,
can be some hands you look to flat to allow your weak
opponent in the big blind to call with worse hands like A2s+,
KJ, etc.
3. How aggressive is the opponent on the button post flop?
a. If they are more passive (AF of 3 or less), then you can widen
your flatting range a little more. You'll have more of a chance
to get to showdown, and you don't have to be as concerned
about being bluffed or blown off your hand.
b. If they are more aggressive (AF over 3), then you should tighten
your flatting range, and turn some of those hands you might
flat against a more passive opponent into part of your 3-betting
range. If your opponent is aggressive and doesn't like to fold
pre-flop, then you should tighten both your flatting and 3betting range.
Keep your range in the small blind polarized enough so you don't
give good players that are in your big blind incentive to re-steal against
you. Keep your flatting range a little tighter in general, and look to
occasionally trap by flatting some strong hands in tougher games against
good opponents.
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Defending from the Small Blind vs Cut-off Opens

Similar to playing from the big blind, most opponents open far fewer
hands in the cut-off. Their range is still wide, but not quite as wide, so
you'll get slightly more respect from your 3-bets, but your flatting ranges
need to pretty tight not only because you're against a tighter range, but
because of your opponent in the big blind. As said earlier, it's a great
squeeze situation for players in the big blinds. Most of your competent
opponents are going to know this, so you need to adjust accordingly by 3betting some of the range you'd normally flat with if you were in the big
blind.
You'll want to use the same or similar poker thought algorithms as
above, and use a baseline flatting range of: 77JJ, AToAQo, KJo+, KTs+,
A9sAJs, QJs, QJo. You'll have a 5752% equity advantage against most
opponents opening range. Remove some of the bottom range against your
tighter opponents. Sometimes 3-bet some of the higher end of this range
against some opponents, and the bottom end of this range against tougher
opponents (or folding).
Squeezing from the Small Blind vs Open Cut-Offs

Squeezing from the small blind versus an open cut-off is very similar
to squeezing from the big blind. The only major difference is that against
some better big blind players, you are more susceptible to a 4-bet re-steal.
You won't have to worry about this at micro stakes and most small stakes
games.
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You want to walk yourself through the exact same poker though
algorithms (pgs. 6264) and add one more question:
1. How often is our opponent opening from the cut-off?
2. How aggressive is our opponent?
3. What are the stack sizes?
4. Is our hand more for drawing or flopping top pair?
5. How tricky is our opponent in the big blind? If they are capable of
4-bet bluffing, you'll want to cut off some of your polarized 3-bet
bluffing range so you won't be squeezing quite as often with weak
hands and forced to fold. In this same vein, if they are capable of
4-bet bluffing, then they'll surely be capable of 3-bet squeezing an
open cut-off and two callers with a fairly wide range. Occasionally
flat with QQ+, AK, looking to trap your tricky opponent in the big
blind.
Just make sure that when you are squeezing as a bluff you aren't
committing yourself against shorter stacks. If there's a short stack in the
big blind, it's something to consider, but it's also not likely they will have a
hand worth shoving often enough unless they are a really good short
stacker. Most short stackers are not.
If the cut-off and button are short though, make sure you won't leave
yourself in a spot to have to call off more money getting 2:1 on your money
or better. With any Ax hands you'll be forced to call if your opponent on the
button shoves, and you are getting 2:1 on a call with a hand like A5o. Even
a hand like K7o you'll be slightly priced in to call versus a button's likely
shoving range.
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Equity
Win
Tie
Hand Range
33.68%
33.04%
0.63%
[K7o(100)]
66.31%
65.679%
0.63%
[ATs+(100), AJo+(100), 22QQ(100),
KJs+(100), KQo(100)]
Against an open cut-off with a short stack, you can get away from
more hands since their shoving range will be a little tighter on average
since the button is still in the hand. There will always be exceptions, but
you should assume that most short stacking opponents that open in the
cut-off won't shove as wide as the button will who is closing the action.
Equity
Win
Tie
Hand Range
27.12%
26.84%
0.28% [K7o(100)]
72.87%
72.58%
0.28%
[AJs+(100), AQo+(100), 88+(100)]
Out of The "Norm" Lines to Take Against Steals

When you are facing really good opponents, you shouldn't look to
just concede the pot. However you want to temper this with making sure
you are putting yourself in the best possible situations as much as you
can. There are some lines you can take against aggressive opponents who
are opening fairly wide from the cut-off or button.
1. Stop and Go: Check and call a lot of flops
where you have gut shots, back door outs,
and then lead the turn. A majority of
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opponents will have difficulty adjusting to this line, and when

executed properly will give up on a lot of pots. Mass multi-tabling
regulars will look to move on to the next hand, except for the very few
really good opponents.
2. Donk Lead: Against a decent amount of opponents this is all you'll
have to do to take down the pot. You just want to look to do a donk
lead in situations where you have maybe an overcard or two, almost
no back door equity. Use hands that have very little equity to
improve, and there are a reasonable range of better hands that you
can get your opponent to fold out.
3. Lead Small Over Bet: This works well on paired boards, or hands
where you have a lot of backdoor outs. You get your opponent to
define their hand a little more, and then make them make a difficult
turn decision by slightly over betting the turn. Most people don't
have to deal with overbets often, so unless they have a big hand,
usually opponents will give up.
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In the above example, a weak regular open raised in the cut-off to 3

BBs with effective stacks of about 100 BBs. You decided to call in the big
blind with As5s because your opponent seems pretty weak and not too
aggressive post flop. The flop comes Qh4s7c. With 7.5 BBs in the pot, you
bet under half the pot with a 3 BB bet. If your opponent just calls, you can
assume they don't have much of a hand, and with back door nut flush
draws, a backdoor wheel draw, and likely an over card that is good you can
over bet most turns and get folds from most of your opponents range.
If you get raised on the flop, you can 3-bet the flop and represent a
monster looking to induce a raise. There's really little reason for your
opponent to raise on such a dry board, and the small bet and flop 3-bet
will confuse most opponents. Depending on your stakes, and what kind of
weak regular your opponent is, you can get a lot of Qx hands to fold out as
well.
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4. Check Min-Raise Lead: A slightly more risky line, but one that works
well against a fairly wide range of opponents, except absolute fish
who can't fold hands. A decent percentage of opponents won't fold to
min-raises, but when they do it's a cheap way to re-steal. When they
do call, you have setup your hand to look like a monster, so you can
fire a reasonably sized turn bet of 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the pot and
expect to get folds from a lot of your opponents range on most board
textures.
In the above example, your opponent opens on the button to 2.5

BBs, and you flat call out of the big blind with KcQd with effective stacks of
110 BBs. The flop comes Jc7c3d. You check to your opponent, and your
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opponent fires out a continuation bet of 4 BBs into a 6 BB pot. You check
min-raise to 8 BBs and your opponent folds.
Your opponent will be getting 4.5:1 on a call, but it will be extremely
difficult to call with Ax, 6644, 22. These are hands that have very good
equity against you that you can get to fold out. There are some hands you
beat that you will get to fold out, but there are a good amount of drawing
hands they could pick up on the turn that won't fold if you check/call and
lead the turn. But most importantly you will fold out Ax hands that will
have over 70% equity against you, and some hands that will have trouble
continuing like small pairs that have almost the same equity.
If your opponent calls, then you can lead the turn for 2/3rds the pot.
You have possibly 12 over cards, a back door straight and 2nd nut flush
back door as well. There are plenty of bad cards for your opponents range
so that you can shove a lot of rivers as well if you miss hitting anything of
showdown value.
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Chapter 7: 3-Betting
he games today are becoming increasingly aggressive. 3-betting, and

4-betting, something that only 45 years ago was not very common,
is part of the norm now-a-days. Players are applying more pressure
pre-flop, and becoming increasingly aggressive post flop. It's for that
reason you're going to want to be an expert in how to play in re-
raised pots pre-flop, since you'll likely be playing in a lot of 3-bet pots. We'll
take a look at three primary 3-betting hand ranges and how you'll use
them in common situations.
Value Range
Just about everyone knows that when you re-raise pre-flop with
QQ+, AK, you're doing it for value against your opponents raising range.
What is considered value, of course, depends on your opponent and their
opening range and calling range from each position. So overall value is a
mixture of these two elements.
Some people get confused and think that 3-betting with AQo isn't for
value because your opponent won't call with worse in certain situations. It
will be for value, but not by much because you'll have only a slight equity
edge against a standard cut-off open raising range (say of 30%). And your
opponents 3-bet calling range isn't that great against you either, even
though their calling range from the cut-off will likely be slightly higher,
especially if they have position on you.
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What a lot of people tend to not consider is that there are a ton of
small pairs that you will typically fold out when playing with effective
stacks around 100 BBs. This ends up dropping your equity versus their
JJ versus CO 3-bet calling range
JJ versus CO open of 29.5% of hands
calling range, but only slightly.

Let's contrast this with a hand like JJ that you'd typically 3-bet for
value in most spots. Sometimes you might look to flat. The exact opposite
becomes true with a hand like JJ. You crush your opponents equity preflop versus the exact same range as above, but your pre-flop equity
decreases much more versus their calling range, then the drop in equity
with AQo when you 3-bet and are called (AQ loses 8% and JJ loses 13%).
AQo versus CO 3-bet calling range
AQo versus calling a CO open of 29.5% of

hands
Removing a lot of your opponents small pairs and marginal hands

increases your equity with a high un-paired hand like AQo, but decreases
it with a big pair. So really the argument should be that you should be 3betting AQo more, and flatting JJ pre-flop more often. Of course poker isn't
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this simple. The flopability of your hand and how many streets of value you
can get with a particular hand matter. Not to mention that 3-betting
decreases your effective stack to pot ratio so that you can comfortably play
a slightly bigger pot with a big pair, and reduces your opponents hands
that can create big pots, like 87s.
The point here though is that certain hands actually gain equity
when you 3-bet them versus lose equity. But there are other things to
consider besides just equity. There's fold equity, decreasing the stack to pot
ratio, and initiative. All of these will factor into whether 3-betting for value
or calling is better.
A baseline for a value 3-bet range is 4.2% of hands, which looks
something like this:
JJ+, AQs+, AQo+. Now clearly if you only 3-bet about 4% of your hands,
you're not going to get much action when you 3-bet, and you're going to be
leaving money on the table. You'll want to add in some more hands as
bluffs, and also find ways to add more value hands against certain
opponents.
Bluffing Range
You may have heard some of your poker friends talk about 3-betting
a polarized range. This is where you 3-bet hands that are more towards the
bottom of your hand range that you wouldn't find profitable to call as a
bluff, and at the very high end of your range (top 4.2%) for value. Then
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some of the remaining hands you leave in your range to call with. So a
typical polarized 3-bet range would look something like this:
For Value: JJ+, AQs+, AQo+
Bluffing: A2sA8s,A2oA8o, K2sK9s, K5oK9o, Q5sQ9s, J5sJ7s, Q8o
Q9o, J7oJ8o
Calling Range: KJo+, KTs+, ATsAJs, AToAJo, QTs+, QJo, JTs, 22TT
These are some example ranges, and while of course you can 3-bet
bluff some other hands, these are more profitable on average to do so. You
can also call with a wider range as well, and include suited and unsuited
connectors, as well as gapped connectors.
Using an example from above, you call with a hand like AJs instead
of 3-bet with it because your equity versus your opponents opening range
is good, and you keep in dominated hands like KJ, JQ, AT, A9, etc. If you
3-bet AJs your equity drops, and you keep in more hands that will
dominate your range like AQ, JJ, etc.
AJs versus CO open of 29.5% of hands
AJs versus CO 3-bet calling range
So if you add some of these bluffing hands to your 3-bet value range,
you'll increase your 3-bet range to a percentage that will properly polarize
your total 3-bet range. This means that if you get your total 3-bet
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percentage to around 8%, your opponent won't know when you're 3-betting
for value, or when you're 3-bet bluffing. They'll have to risk calling and
playing a re-raised pot without initiative against you, folding their hand
and giving up their equity, or 4-betting you.
Quasi Range
There will be times when you will want to turn some of your range
you might normally call with, like AJs in the example above, into a 3-bet
quasi-value range. You might do this against opponents who don't like to
fold to 3-bets, or when you want to 3-bet isolate a weak player to keep
other regulars out of the pot. It's quasi because sometimes it can be for
value, and sometimes it will be a bluff. An example of a 3-bet quasi range is
many of our calling hands from the previous examples.
Quasi 3-bet Range: KQo+, KJs+, A9sAJs, AToAJo, QJs+, 99TT
Against players who are opening fairly wide, and don't fold to 3-bets,
re-raising a hand like AJs or KQs has a lot of value. You'll have your
opponent calling with a lot of suited and unsuited connectors, dominated
hands, and small pairs that don't have good flopability. There are a lot of
hands where you'll put your opponent in a defensive position with an
inferior range often enough.
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3-Bet Sizing
Standard 3-bet sizing tends to be 34 times your opponents opening
raise, and sometimes slightly more out of position. In position you'll tend to
want to 3-bet slightly smaller (33.5x), to keep your opponent in with a
weaker range out of position against you, and slightly larger out of position
(3.754.5x) to cut down your stack to pot ratio and increase your fold
equity. What you size your 3-bet to heavily depends on your opponent,
your actual hand, and whether you're looking to increase or decrease your
opponents fold percentage.
Standard 3-bet Strategy

Against most regulars you should create a standard 3-bet sizing
range for being in and out of position. 3-betting 3.5x your opponents
opening size in position, and 4x out of position. Against fish or really weak
players, you should deviate from your standard raise sizing and focus on a
max size you think your opponent will call when you have a big hand.
Typically speaking you're going to depolarize most of your range against a
fish, so a bulk of your raises will be for value, or to isolate with a quasi
range. And you can deviate and change those sizes until you have some
history with other regulars at your table who may begin to seize on your
changed sizing. Then you'll have to keep it more consistent, or occasionally
flip-flop your value and quasi range sizing.
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Applied Pressure 3-bet Strategy

For several years now players haven't really adjusted well to their
opponents opening ranges. When 3-betting became more popular, it was
one of the first major adjustments to counter how wide a lot of opponents
were opening from certain positions, and especially in 6-max cash games.
It makes sense to try and fold out some of your opponents range and take
down a pot without seeing a flop. There are rarely situations where you're
so much of a favorite pre-flop, so any time you can get your opponent to
completely abandon the equity in their hand without further play is good.
Now of course you'd prefer to keep them in the pot when you have
some equity advantage, but having initiative in a hand is a difficult thing
for most opponents to overcome. It's less difficult to overcome in limit
holdem, but in no-limit when a player can make any sized bet, it's not as
easy to call down versus someone's range until you know their bluffing
frequencies at least a little bit. It's one thing to put an opponent on a range
of hands; it's another to understand their weighted frequency distribution
of each hand. That's when reads, notes, and other statistics about an
opponent can help sway a fold to a call or vice versa.
That's when applied pressure pre-flop can drastically alter the
dynamics of how your opponents respond to your 3-betting game. Most
players still don't respond well to 3-bets, so creating a table dynamic that
keeps the pressure on, builds more pots in position against your better
opponents, takes initiative in the hand, creates a lower stack to pot ratio,
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and allows you to isolate weaker players more often can be a very profitable
strategy.
Instead of 3-betting 3.54x your opponents open raise sizing, you 3bet 2.67x your opponents open size in position, and 3.54x out of position.
To keep it simple, if your opponent opens 3x the big blind, then you'd 3-bet
to 8 BBs. If your opponent opens 2.5x the big blind, then 3-bet to 6.7 BBs.
The sizing will take some getting used to depending on the stakes you play,
but you can easily work that out and make a cheat sheet if you need to.
This means that all of your value range and quasi range you're going
to be 3-betting 2.67x your opponents opening amount. The reason you're
going to do this is because it's going to keep a bulk of your opponents
range still in the pot against you. Additionally it's going to place your
opponent in a situation where they're going to have to make a lot of moves
against you post flop to make up for situations when they call with the
weaker part of their range and whiff the flop. They're going to have to do
this out of position without initiative. There are very few opponents capable
of doing this consistently at micro and small stakes games. If you are
playing against one you think is capable, then just don't use this strategy
against them.
Let's take a simple example with 100 BB effective stacks. Your
opponent open raises 3x the big blind from MP and is currently opening
21.6% of hands from that position. You are on the button with KJs and
you 3-bet your opponent to 8 BBs. Your opponent calls and you see a flop
heads up. First of all, let's look at the pre-flop equity versus your
opponents opening range and calling range.
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KJs versus MP 3-bet calling range
KJs versus MP open of 21.6% of hands
First thing is your pre-flop equity doesn't really change that much.
Yet now you have a re-raised pot, in position against your opponents 3-bet
calling range, and you have initiative. Combine that with the fact that with
two unpaired hole cards, your opponent is whiffing the flop 68% of the
time, you've put them in a tough spot. Of course your opponent isn't going
to have two unpaired hole cards all the time, but between draws, and
hands that can continue, you're going to win the pot with a continuation
bet more than half the time. Most opponents fold to continuation bets in 3bet pots between 50%60% of the time. If you make a slightly over 1/2 pot
sized bet, it's printing money in this situation. Of course the total expected
value of this play also depends on how often you're folding to a 4-bet. Let's
take a look plugging in some expected percentages:
F = (4.5(.20), B = (8(.20), C = .8[-10(.4)+9.5(.6)]
F - B + C = EV
F = How often your opponent folds to your 3-bet. We're saying
conservatively 20%. A good number is between 2030% depending on your
opponent.
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B = How often your opponent is 4-betting and you'll have to fold. 1525% is
a fair number and against better players who will start 4-betting as their
adjustment this will get to ~30%.
C = How often a slightly over half pot sized continuation bet will be called.
40% of the time our opponent is calling, with the entire situation occurring
only 80% of the time.
.9 -1.6 + 1.4 = .7 | EV = +.7 BBs
This isn't even accounting for the equity you have in your hand when
your continuation bet is called, which will jump this number up quite a bit.
This is just the raw EV of a play until the continuation bet on the flop.
Consider when you continue to do this against an opponent, and they
decide to adjust at the incorrect time and you have a big hand (either a big
pair pre-flop, or you flopped a big hand). Having position is huge in this
situation and you can control the size of the pot post flop.
To be fair, let's compare this against the EV of calling KJs in
position. That's a fine hand to call with and take a flop in position against
most opponents. So let's take a look at the hand against the same range,
and same situation.
EV = (5.5(.47) = (3(.53) = +1
Looks like it's just about the same EV if we take the hand to the flop,
but this time our opponent has initiative, and they are continuation
betting. We're also saying we're only folding to a continuation bet in
position 47% of the time to a roughly 3/4ths pot sized bet (5.5). Again, this
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doesn't take into account equity when you call versus your opponents
range. Everything is the same, except that it's a single raised pot, and now
you don't have initiative and you're not continuation betting. You're also
not applying much pressure to your opponent beyond calling and perhaps
floating a decent amount of flops against them. Both plays are pretty close
in EV, and exact in the case of using our numbers, but the goals are
slightly different.
The primary reason you'd employ this 3-betting strategy over flatting
a hand like KJs is to apply pressure, keep your opponent on the defensive
and in re-raised pots out of position against you. You're not going to be 3betting this same hand nearly as often out of position. This is purely an in
position strategy to use against certain opponents, and in certain games.
Applied Pressure vs Standard 3-bet Strategy

Either the applied pressure or the standard 3-bet strategy will be the
optimal approach to take based on the specific table you're at. If you fall in
love with an applied pressure 3-betting strategy, employing it every time
you sit down at a table will generally be a mistake. The kinds of players you
have to your immediate right and left should be the primary determining
factor as to which kind of strategy will yield the highest EV.
For example, if you have a bad loose aggressive player on your
immediate right, and a bad fishy player on your immediate left, employing
an applied pressure strategy won't be ideal. You'll end up pushing the fish
out of the pot far too often if they keep seeing re-raises in front of them.
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Having the bad loose aggressive player on your right is ideal, but the weak
fishy player on your immediate left trumps the bad LAG player. If the fishy
player wasn't on your immediate left, and you had decent regulars to your
immediate left, then the applied pressure 3-betting strategy would work
great. Some better regulars might start to adjust after awhile, but in
general it's a great approach to take to isolate the bad LAG player.
In general, it's best to use a standard 3-betting strategy until you
have players at your table identified. Your goal with an applied pressure 3betting strategy should be to isolate the weaker players, and force your
better opponents into making mistakes, or reacting poorly against your 3bets. If you do this effectively you'll have a wider 3-betting range in these
situations and at the tables where it makes the most sense. An ideal 3betting percentage when employing a standard 3-betting strategy with a
polarized range should be somewhere between 79%. When using an
applied pressure 3-betting strategy, your 3-bet percentage can be anywhere
from 1015% on average.
3-Bet Calling Ranges

As I'm sure you know, defending
against 3-bets can be quite difficult in a
lot of situations. It's especially true when
you hold a hand that would be in a quasi
3-betting range itself. Calling, folding, or 4-betting can all be close
decisions at times. How you properly vet out which decision will the
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highest EV line can be the difference between being a marginal

winner/loser, and crushing the games.
Typically speaking, we'd all prefer to play in a re-raised pot, or any
pot, when we have position. In a re-raised pot with marginal hands it's not
as simple as saying to fold most of your hands out of position, and call in
position. Typically most opponents will have a wider 3-betting range in
position, and quite a bit tighter out of position. So like most poker
decisions, where you open from (and how often), and where your opponent
3-bets from (and how often) will be of the upmost importance in
determining a 3-bet calling range.
Easy Folds to 3-bets

There are some very obvious spots to dump a hand, and some
obvious spots to continue. There aren't static rules to defending against a
3-bet, but some situations are clear cut folds. Here are a few of them
assuming roughly 100 BB effective stacks:
You open a normal range UTG, action is folded to the small blind who 3bets you and has a normal to tight 3-betting range.
Comments: If you open say 15% UTG, and your opponent has an
overall 3-bet percentage of 6%, then you're folding almost all of your
hands except for: QQ+, AKs, AKo. QQ may even be a fold if your
opponents overall 3-bet percentage is smaller than 6%. Your
opponents 3-bet percentage from the small blind is irrelevant, and
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it's unlikely you'll have an adequate sample to have stats for 3-bet
from SB vs UTG. On average you'll be looking at an opponent with a
4% 3-bet range or less. So you should be proceeding only with the
very top of your range.
You open a normal range UTG, action is folded to the big blind who 3bets you and has a normal to tight 3-betting range.
Comments: Similar thing as in the small blind, except you can call
with slightly more of your range. Since the big blind is last to act, the
3-betting range will be slightly wider on average, but not by much.
That just means you can call with TT+, AKo, AKs and sometimes
AQs.
You open a normal range UTG, and your opponent on your immediate
left 3-bets you, who has a normal 3-betting range.
Comments: You should be folding most of your range except for JJ+,
AKo, AKs. Against some opponents, TT and AQs can be called. In
general though they should be dumped unless they are somewhat on
the looser 3-betting side of a normal 3-betting range.
"Easy" Calls to 3-bets

Defending your opening range is a
must in today's games. You just want to
make sure you're consistently doing it in the
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highest EV situations obviously. Some spots that come up often that are
"easy" calls to a 3-bet with 100 BB effective stacks are as follows:
You open on the button, a normal open button range, and get 3-bet by
the big blind who has a fairly wide 3-betting range.
Comments: You both know your range is going to be wider and
lighter than normal. This should be one of the spots you defend
against most aggressively since you'll have position and you have
options between calling or 4-betting light. Assuming your opponent
is 3-betting about 15% of his range, you should look to call with
roughly an equal percentage of your range, or slightly more
depending on how confident you are in outplaying your opponent. All
things being equal, having position is your biggest advantage. If you
assume a somewhat polarized range from your opponent, then you
should be calling with a range similar to this (assuming you'll 4-bet
JJ+, AK most of the time): 88JJ, A9s+, AToAQo, KJo+, KTs+, QTs+,
J9s+, QTo+, T9s, 98s, T9o, 87s. You'll have anywhere from 47%52%
equity depending on how polarized your opponents range is.
You open on the button, a normal open button range, and get 3-bet by
the small blind who has a fairly wide 3-betting range.
Comments: Very similar to the above. You will both have wider
ranges, but the small blind will have a slightly tighter 3-betting range
on average with the big blind still left to act. You should still defend
liberally, unless your opponent is on the tight side of a normal 3betting range for this situation. So assume a roughly 13% 3-betting
range, your defense range should look similar to defend the blind
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with a few more hands cut out: 88JJ, ATs+, AToAQo, KJo+, KTs+,
QTs+, JTs, T9s, 98s, T9o. The goal is to have yourself around the
47%52% equity range against your opponents 3-bet range.
You open in cut-off, a normal cut-off range. The action folds to the big
blind who 3-bets a fairly wide range.
Comments: Despite the fact that your range will be significantly
tighter in the cut-off, your opponents 3-betting range will be almost
as wide as if you had opened from the button. Somewhere between
1013% on average for normal aggressive regulars. So assuming a 3bet range of about 11.5%, then a good defending range would be: 88
JJ, ATs+, AJoAQo, KQo, KJs+, QJs, JTs, T9s. Again, the goal is to
get between 4752% equity versus your opponents range. In this
case you'd be pretty close to 50% equity.
You open in cut-off, a normal cut-off range. The action folds to the small
blind who 3-bets a fairly wide range for this situation.
Comments: Same as above, and
your opponents 3-bet range should
be slightly tighter as opposed to 3betting from the big blind, but not
by much. A range of 8.512% would
be average for this situation. So assuming a 3-bet range of 10%, a
good defense calling range would be: 88JJ, ATs+, AJoAQo, KQo,
KQs. This would be slightly over 48% equity versus your opponents
3-bet range.
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Marginal Spots vs 3-bets

As you well know, you're going to be in a lot of marginal spots when
facing a 3-bet. How you react and play those situations is going to make a
significant difference in your winrate. Many of the decisions will be super
close, so stat ranges and reads will be critical in helping you to make the
best decision possible. Some of the common marginal spots with roughly
100 BB effective stacks are:
You open raise in MP (or late MP in full ring) with a normal MP opening
range of about 20%, and your opponent on the button 3-bets you who
has a normal button 3-betting range of about 12%.
Comments: You aren't opening super wide, but your opponent is
going to be 3-betting from the button pretty wide and will have
position on you post flop. If your opponent is betting a normal
polarized range, then you're going to be a slight dog to neutral equity
with your opening range versus
their 3-betting range. You would be
looking at somewhere between 46
50% on average. Your opponent is
going to have a positional equity
advantage bump on anywhere from
1.11.3x of their real equity. So you'll need to fold enough of your
range, turn some of those into 4-bluffs occasionally, and call with a
range where you can make up your positional disadvantage. A good
baseline starting range would be: 99+, ATs+, AJo+, KJs+, KQo. This
would give you anywhere between 5760% equity versus their range.
If you cut out a few more of these hands like KJs, ATs, KQo, you'll
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jump your equity a couple of more points. So something like: 99+,

AJs+, AJo+, KQs for most players who may struggle with out of
position play a bit. You're going to want to turn some of the bottom of
your folding range into 4-bet bluffs so that you can make up for the
times you're being 3-bet and have to fold. Calling with this range,
you're going to be folding roughly 70% of the time, so you'll need to
mix in some 4-bet bluffs to make up for the times you're abandoning
your equity. The other options are that you call with some of your
suited connectors a higher percentage of the time, and bluff shove
when you hit some piece of the flop, which is going to be a much
higher variance strategy, but can still be effective.
You open raise in MP (or late MP in full ring) with a normal MP opening
range of about 20%, and your opponent in the cut-off 3-bets you who
has a normal cut-off 3-betting range of about 8%.
Comments: Very similar situation, except now your opponent has a
tighter 3-betting range. It's a bit more difficult to profitably turn
some of your range into 4-bet bluffs, but you still can turn a few. You
might think your calling range would need to be tightened up a bit in
comparison to the previous example, but it's actually not the case. A
lot more of your opponents quasi
range will turn into a flatting range,
and their 3-bet bluff to value
distribution will be more evenly
distributed. So a calling range of:
99+, AJs+, AQo+, KQs is a good
baseline and will give you between 5860% equity on average versus
your opponents range Depending on your comfort level with out of
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position play, eliminating KQs and/or AJs will jump your equity a
few more points and eliminate some "trouble hands." Most of the
time you'll be 4-betting KK+, AK, but flatting for deception in these
situations adds a lot of value to your hand versus your opponents
range. Again, you will have to mix in a couple of 4-bet bluffs, and
you'll have to turn some of your weaker hands into post flop bluffs to
make this situation profitable overall. It's a marginal spot for good
reason.
You open raise a normal range in the cut-off of about 28%, and an
opponent on the button with a normal polarized 3-betting range of 13%
3-bets you.
Comments: Similar spot to the first example except our opponents 3betting range will tend to be slightly larger in this situation on
average, and our opening range is going to be wider. You'll be a slight
dog versus his 3-betting range, so folding some of the range without
being exploitable, and turning enough hands into 4-bet bluffs is a
fine line since your opponent will know that you'll have a wider 4betting range on average. A baseline calling range would be: 88+,
ATs+, AJo+, KJs+, KQo. This would give you between 5860% equity
again, and keep you slightly under 70% folding percent. Assuming
you always 4-bet KK+, AK in this spot, with the remaining hands
you'll still have between 5557% equity versus your opponents 3betting range.
In general, if you're not comfortable calling in a re-raised pot out of
position, then you need to be tightening up your opening range when you
have reasonably aggressive 3-bettors who have position on you. If you're
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normally opening say 28%, like in the above example, but you have a
player on the button who 3-bets 14% in that dynamic, you need to
considerably reduce your opening range. You'd need to cut off anywhere
from 610% from your open raising range to play the situation profitably.
Make sure you're adjusting your range, based on the opponents that have
position on you.
Being 3-bet by a short stack

There are a lot more short stackers in
today's games, and ones that are slightly
more competent then they were in the past.
We'll define a short stack as anyone with a
stack between 1535 BBs. On most online
poker sites the minimum buy-in is 2030
BBs, so most short stackers will be around this range. One of the most
important things when facing a short stacker is knowing what kind of short
stacker they are, because your calling ranges are going to vary depending
on this.
The leaking my stack short stacker: This guy is slowing losing his
stack and not playing well. Their shoving ranges are not going to be
optimal on average, so your calling range needs to widen and adjust
accordingly.
The just lost a big pot short stacker: If he looks to be aggressive at
all, he can easily be tilting, so your range really needs to widen if their
stack is 25 BBs or less.
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The buy-in short bad player: This guy is looking to keep it

conservative, but likely doesn't know exactly what he's doing. If you
haven't seen him do anything yet, then assume he's conservative and
will have tight shoving ranges of: 77+,AQo+,AQs+. If he's limped into
some pots, or called some pots and been at all active, then he's likely
bad and you can assume a somewhat wider shoving range.
The pro short stacker: You'll have your hands full as this person is
looking to play some fun break-even poker. Depending on your stakes,
and if he's good at all, he might make some money. You'll have to keep
somewhat tight calling ranges against him though.
If you are playing a competent short stacker, a general rule is that if
you call about 4548% of your opening range against a shove of 20 BBs,
then you'll generally squeak out a small profit. So for example, if you open
20.4% of your range from late middle position, and a 20 BB short stacker
shoves on you from the cut-off, then you should be calling 9%10.5% of
your opening range. That would look something like this: You open: 22+,
A3s+, A9o+, KTs+, KTo+, QTs+, JTs, QJo, T9s, JTo. Your calling range
would roughly be: 66+, A9s+, KJs+, AJo+.
This is assuming of course they are competent and they aren't just
shoving big hands like 99+, AQs+, AQo+. In that case you're just going to
call with an almost similar range with a few more hands added like AJs,
KQs, 88. The bottom line is you want to keep your calling range slightly
under 50% of your opening range, unless they are just shoving big hands
only and not adjusting to your opening ranges by position.
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Chapter 8: 4-Bet Bluffing
ike I've said earlier, the games are increasingly aggressive pre-flop
and post flop. To some degree at certain higher stakes, the 3-betting
and 4-betting has mellowed out a little, but micro and small stake
players are still seeing effects of increased aggression. In order to
properly combat this increased aggression, you need to have a solid
4-bet bluffing plan. 4-betting for value is pretty simple. You have a big
hand against someone who you think will stack off with worse and you 4bet. Finding profitable 4-betting spots is a little trickier, but possible to do
if you are staying cognizant of the opportunities that present themselves.
Why 4-bet Bluff?

There are several reasons to 4-bet bluff in today's games. In general,
people at micro and small stakes games will 3-bet a bit too wide in certain
situations, and not re-defend their 3-bets often enough. Some people think
it's a strategy that carries with it higher variance, but if you pick your spots
well, that's simply not the case. In some volume, of course, there's going to
be more variance, but in any reasonable sample you'll show profit if you're
picking your spots correctly. Some of the reasons to 4-bet bluff are:
1. Defend your opening raise. If you're opening a somewhat wider
range, then you should expect to get 3-bet more. If you simply fold
only the highest end of your range, you're going to get exploited
pretty badly by even bad regulars.
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2. Add depth to your 4-bet range. So when you do 4-bet, you may get
your opponents to react poorly and 5-bet shove with the wrong
ranges against you. If you're only 4-betting 2% of your range, then
opponents can play near perfect against you if they are at all
competent.
3. Push people off better hand. If you pick your spots and hands well,
you can get people to fold hands like AQo, TTJJ for example or even
better depending on how badly they adjust to your 4-bet range.
Good 4-bet bluffing hands

The primary goal with your 4-bet bluffing hands is to have some
hands that have decent showdown value if called, and can outflop your
opponents 3-bet calling range. You also don't want hands that are going to
commit you to the pot, and that you can dump if your opponent 5-bet jams
on you. So some good 4-bet bluffing hands are:
4-bet Hands
Equity
Reasons
A2sA9s
2930%
Good if you happen to get called.
A2oA9o
2526%
Can out flop some hands, and also easy fold.
K2sKTs
2527%
You have some Kx blockers, and easy fold.
K6oKTo
2223%
Very easy fold.
Q6sQTs
2629%
Reasonable equity when called.
Hands with Ax and Kx contain blockers against your opponents

range. So it cuts down on the possible big ace and king combos your
opponent will have. Additionally the Ax and Kx hands can outflop or out
turn your opponents 4-bet calling range since a lot of these hands will be
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JJ+ depending on your opponent and their position. Some hands like KTs
and QTs can be profitable 3-bet calling hands, but in certain situations out
of position, they also make good 4-bet bluffing hands.
Small pairs like 2255, for example, are not hands that you can 4bet bluff and fold with 100 BB effective stacks. You'll have anywhere from
35.737.3% equity versus your opponents shoving range so you'll be
committed to calling. As a rough rule, any hand that has about 3132%
equity versus your opponents 5-bet jamming range, you cannot fold once
you 4-bet.
The bottom line with profitable 4-bet bluffing is that you want to
ideally look for opponents that 3-bet too wide, and don't re-defend their 3bets enough. Once you start getting over an 8% 3-betting range, you can
find a lot of profitable 4-bet bluffing opportunities. As your opponents get
better, they will of course understand your 4-bet bluffing range is going to
widen and jam slightly wider or call accordingly. However, most opponents
at micro and small stakes don't adjust to this well. At micro stakes, you
won't have as many aggressive 3-bettors, but they are still there, and those
are the people you need to target.
4-bet Bluff Sizing

When effective stacks are close to 100 BBs, then between 2225% of
your stack size is an ideal 3-bet bluff sizing. This will allow you to get away
from most hands if you are jammed on. When effective stacks are over 100
BBs to about 150 BBs, then 4-bet to roughly 2.83.7x your opponents 3-
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bet sizing. When stack sizes get over that size, don't look to 4-bet bluff very
often since your opponents 4-bet calling range will begin to widen. You
should instead be widening your 4-bet value range, preferably in position of
course. Also you can look to 4-bet ISO in position more to apply maximum
pressure versus your opponents range.
In the above example, in a full ring cash game with effective stacks of
100 BBs, it's folded to you in late middle position (MP2) with QdTd and you
raise 3 BBs. The action folds to the button who 3-bets 10% of his hands
from the button and he 3-bets to 10 BBs. The action folds back to you, and
you 4-bet to 23 BBs.
Is this a profitable 4-bet bluff?
1. He's 3-betting over 8% of his hands, so whether it's profitable or not
is going to come down to 4-bet sizing and how wide he will 5-bet jam
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or call. Most opponents at micro and small stakes are going to play
5-bet jam or fold poker.
2. What your opponents 3-betting range is in a spot like this is actually
irrelevant, unless your opponent is calling a lot of 4-bets. Since this
isn't the case a majority of the time, you can take any range,
polarized or depolarized with quasi ranges in it, and just plug in
what you think a reasonable 5-bet jam range is for your opponent.
We'll say something like roughly 3% of his hands or slightly less
which equates to: QQ+, AQs+, AKo. Swap JJ for AQs, and it won't
make much difference since you are not calling a jam. It will just
slightly alter the fold percentages.
3. If your opponent is opening 10% of his range, and jamming only 3%,
then they'll be folding roughly 70% of the time to a 4-bet.
14.5(.70) - 23(.3) = + 3.3 BBs
4. 4-bet bluffing in this situation has a net profit of +6.3 BBs, since if
you fold you're losing 3 BBs 100% of the time.
Is folding the correct play versus your opponents range if you are jammed
on?
1. If we keep the above 5-bet jamming range of our opponent, and plug
in the numbers you'll end up having slightly under 30% equity
versus your opponents range: (100(.3)) - (77(.7)) = (30 - 54) = -24
BBs.
2. If you 4-bet to 23 BBs and fold, you're losing 23 BBs 100% of the
time. (-24) - (-23) = -1 BBs. So it's narrow but it would be a - 1 BB
EV play.
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Ideal 4-bet Bluffing Spots

Once you know what kinds of hands you want to 4-bet, and you have
a good grasp of the kind of sizing you want to keep, then finding the most
profitable spots will become fairly easy. Some of the criteria you'll want to
have in place to make the most profitable 4-bet bluffs are:
1. Your opponent 3-bets too much, and won't 5-bet shove or call wide
enough to re-defend. Typically speaking, most opponents 3-bet
range will get wider in certain spots, but their 5-bet jamming range
or calling range won't widen. So this can become extremely
exploitable.
2. You have no significant recent 4-bet history. You haven't been 3betting or 4-betting your opponent a lot lately in a way that will get
them to over react to a situation and decide to 5-bet jam lighter than
normal. Everyone has their breaking point, and when 4-bet shoving
you really depend on fold equity to make it a profitable opportunity.
3. You haven't been super active for long stretches. You haven't been
active in a lot of pots, 3-betting and 4-betting other players a decent
amount recently. Playing and calling some pots or an occasional 3bet is fine, but either because of a run of good cards or as bluffs, if
you've been pushing the table around a bit then this can create a
reaction by other players, even if they haven't' been involved with
you.
4. You haven't 4-bet folded recently. If you 4-bet folded to an opponent,
then there's a much higher chance that they will play back at your
lighter, even if they aren't a very good player.
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Keep your 4-bet bluff contained to the most optimal spots and you
should be able to easily get your 4-bet range over 3% and close to 4%.
Something between 34.5% is optimal without getting into an area where
you may begin spewing chips.
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Chapter 9: Perceived Range
ost of everything in poker really comes down to two things. What

your opponent thinks your range is, and what you think your
opponent's range is. Based on those two things, it's a matter of
properly selling or deceiving what
your range is to your opponents, and
properly reading what their range is
without getting deceived. Becoming a
master of convincing your opponent
that you have a heavily weighted strong range when you are bluffing, and a
weak range or bluff when you are strong can become quite the art in nolimit poker. With some practice and thoughtful execution, it's an aspect of
poker that can separate you from the other regulars in the games you're
playing.
A big part of your perceived range is going to depend on how you'd
play a given range of hands in a particular situation. When you're first
playing someone at your stakes, there's going to be a given "normal" way to
play a range hands for the board that's in play. There will be some general
assumptions made about your opponent until you can glean what their
likely skill level is, and what level they are thinking about poker on. Then,
based on the history that you build with that opponent, and how you've
seen them play past situations, you'll start to alter what their likely range
will be in a particular spot.
That's where making reads and taking good notes on your opponents
really comes into play. For example, if you've seen your opponent call two
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streets on a dry board, and then turn a small pair or bottom pair into a
bluff on the river, then you're going to know that when you reach the river
you're going to want to check/call a good portion of your medium strength
hands to your opponent on the river, or bet small on the turn and river to
induce a bluff.
Balancing Your Range

When you can play a variety of different hand ranges in roughly the
same ratios, and in the same manner, then you've balanced your hand
range. You're doing this in order to make it difficult for your opponent to
narrow down your hand range. The wider and more balanced your range is,
the more likely that your opponent will make a mistake versus your play.
If you have an unbalanced range, then your opponent will be able to
narrow your hand range down easier, and consequently make the more
optimal decision versus your play. So, for example, if you only check-raise
flops when you hold an open ended straight draw or flush, then you'd have
an unbalanced range. Your opponent will be able to narrow down your
range well enough to make good decisions. Now if you added in sets to your
check-raising range, and roughly 50% of the time you check-raised with a
draw, and 50% of the time you check-raised with a set, it will make your
opponents decision more difficult. But now let's say 25% of the time you
check-raise in a given spot with top pair, 25% of the time you check-raised
with two pair, 25% of the time you check-raised with a set, and 25% of the
time you check-raised with a draw. Your opponent is going to have a lot of
hands they'll have to consider before continuing.
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In the example above, in a full ring cash game with 100 BB effective
stacks, you open 88 for 3 BBs from early middle position (MP1), and the
table folds to the small blind who calls. The big blind folds and you see the
flop heads-up. The flop comes: Td9c4d. Your opponent checks, and you bet
2/3rds of the pot and your opponent check-raises. Let's take a look at how
an unbalanced range to a more progressively balanced range affects equity,
and should in turn affect your opponents decision if they understand your
range.
1. Your opponent only check-raises open ended straight draws and
flush draws. Your equity versus this
range is going to be roughly 55%. With
the money already in the pot, you should
either look to get it in, or call and shove a
blank turn card when your opponents
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equity will really drop.

2. Now your opponent check-raises
OESD's / flush draws 50% of the
time, and two pair 50% of the time.
Your equity is going to drop all the
way down to 45.5% versus your
opponents range. With the money already in the pot, this will
typically be a very narrow +EV spot to get your money in against that
kind of range.
3. Let's now add top pair to your
opponents range, and say that 33%
of the time they are check-raising
top pair, draws, and two pair. Your
equity is going to drop all the way
down to 38.3% against your opponents range, making it a clear fold.
4. And finally, just to round it out, let's
add that 25% of the time your
opponent is check-raising sets,
draws, two pair, and top pair
equally. Your equity is going to drop
down to 33.9% against your opponents range. The wider and more
diverse the range gets, the more difficult the decision is going to be
for your opponent.
So the bottom line is that the more competent your opponent is, the
more diverse and balanced your range needs to be in an array of
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situations. The weaker your opponent is, the more unbalanced your range
can be simply because they won't be placing you on a range of hands well
enough to make good decisions to begin with. This consequently means
that if your opponent isn't thinking much beyond their own hand strength,
you won't need to worry about balancing your range. Most players in small
stakes games and above today will be thinking about ranges, but may not
know how to properly balance their own ranges. Micro stake players mostly
won't understand either concept, except for the most competent of regulars
in your games. For that reason you can keep a mostly unbalanced range
against those kinds of opponents, and play as exploitative as possible.
Balancing Flop Textures

When you look to balance your hand range, there are two primary
concepts you're using in order to fool your opponents into making the
worst possible decision. You're playing a range of different strength hands
in the same way, and that consequently means you'll have to play the same
strength hand in various different ways in order to properly add that
balance. That means if you flop a set, you're not always check / calling.
Some percentage of the time you're leading at the flop (donking into the
pre-flop raiser). Another percent of the time you'll be check-raising. When
you're first learning to balance your range, you're going to be focusing on
board texture, and your opponents likely equity versus your hand in order
to take the highest initial EV line. It's something you assume you'd always
want to do of course, but what the highest EV line is begins to change the
more sophisticated your opponents become.
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There will be a variety of board textures where it will make more

sense to have a slightly narrower, but balanced, range for that situation.
Against fairly competent opponents, this is the approach you'll want to
employ a majority of the time. However, like I alluded to, the more
sophisticated your opponents become, the more hand ranges for each
situation you'll want to add to your range distribution. It's easy on a really
dry board to play a number of hands in the same manner. As the board
texture gets more draw heavy, and paired, it's not quite as simple.
Balancing on Dry Boards

Balancing your hand range on a dry
board is the easiest to do. You won't have a
lot of threats of bad cards on future streets,
and with your stronger range hands you'll
have tons of equity that often can't be out
run by your opponents hand. This allows for a bit more freedom and
creativity with the lines you can take.
There are two types of dry boards in general. Low to mid dry boards,
and broadway dry boards. If you take an opponent who is opening 23.4% of
his range and compare it against a common calling range for you where
you whiff the board and don't have a pocket pair in your hand, you'll see
how much your equity rises as you add more hands to your range. We'll
say your opponent continuation bets the board almost 100% of the time,
and we'll use a flop of: 2c5d9s as an example.
Dry Low Board
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Check/Call with Gutshot: ~39% equity versus your opponents

range.
(76s, 76o, 87o, 87s, 86s, A3oA4o, A3sA4s)
Check/Call with Air: ~40% equity versus your opponents range.
(ATsAJs, AToAQo, KTs+, KJo+, QJo, QJs, JTs)
Check/Call with small pair: ~54% equity versus your opponents
range.
(3344, 6688)
Check/Call with Top Pair: ~68% equity versus your opponents
range.
(A9o, A9s, T9o, T9s, J9s, 97s+, 98o, J9o)
Check/Call with a Set: ~94% equity versus your opponents range.
(22, 55, 99)
Combined equity of all ranges: ~42% equity versus your
opponents range.
Combined equity of made hands: ~73% equity versus your
opponents range.
Check/calling with your made hands in this spot is fairly easy. You'll
have high equity versus your opponents continuation bet range, and you
won't have a ton of bad board run outs. You'll have a decent chance of
some broadways hitting on later streets, but not much beyond that. The
question will become, can you add another range or two of hands in this
situation so that your opponent isn't giving up when he misses against
you, and only continuing when he has a big hand.
If you were out of position with a set in this spot, you'd want your
opponent to continue firing on the turn. So the question becomes, what
will be the highest EV line for you to take with a range of hands in a dry
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board situation against most opponents. Keep in mind, the line you take
with each range should also change based on your opponent, mainly how
good and aggressive they are versus how average or bad they are.
Most opponents will expect you to check/call with your sets, top
pair, and small pairs in this spot. They know that you'll expect them to
continuation bet with almost their entire range, so you'll want to give them
that opportunity knowing that they won't have a strong range often enough
to handle much more pressure than a call.
What you'll want to answer for yourself is, in a situation where youre
out of position to a pre-flop raiser, how do you ideally want to play each of
these range of hands? Your pre-flop hand distribution is going to be
comprised mostly of unpaired hands that will whiff the flop 68% of the
time. You'll flop some gut-shots with suited and unsuited connectors about
16% of the time. The bulk of your range, as you know, will be with air.
Your opponent will know this as well, so the line you take will need to take
that into heavy consideration.
If your opponent doesn't react well to aggression, then donking into
them with your air range that has over cards, gutshots, and sets can be a
good line. You're not going to flop a set often, and when you do, they
usually won't expect you to lead into them until they've seen you do it. If
they have a hand, they're going to call or even raise. You just have to make
sure that if you're consistently donking into them, that when you do have a
set you lead into them as well. Mix in doing it with top pair occasionally as
well.
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If your opponent is aggressive and tricky, then check/calling and

leading the turn, or check-raising with gutshots and sets can be effective.
Note that, again, because of hand distribution it wouldn't be very balanced
to check-raise with over cards and sets since most of the time you'll have
over cards. Your opponent still will be able to weight your range well
enough to make good decisions. It's still more effective to have a hand in
your range versus not having it at all, but the frequency of distribution of
the hands you do something with is nearly as important as the range itself.
Let's take a similar situation to the above scenario except now we're
looking at a flop of: Qd7c3s with the same opponent opening range of
23.4%.
Dry Broadway Board
range.
(54s, 54o, 65o, 65s)
(A9sAJs, AToAJo, KJs, KToKJo, JTs)
range.
(22, 4466, 88)
range.
(AQo, KQo, KQs, QTs+, QTo+)
(77, 33)
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opponents range.
Combined equity of made hands: ~67% equity versus your
opponents range.
Dry Low Board
Dry Broadway Board
Check/Call with Gutshot
~39%
~30%
Check/Call with Air
~40%
~36%
Check/Call with Small Pair
~54%
~47%
Check/Call with Top Pair
~68%
~78%
Check/Call with Set
~94%
~94%
Combined Equity of All Ranges
~42%
~49%
Combines Equity of Made Hands
~73%
~67%
On a single broadway dry board your equity is going to drop a bit

with your air range, small pairs, and combined made hands. It's not
significant, but it's a drop, so when you're playing these boards
check/calling with gutshots and air isn't going to be as profitable as it will
be on lower dry boards. You're going to have to turn those hands into bluffs
a higher percentage of the time to make them profitable.
Check-raising on these kinds of board textures with your air,
gutshots, strong top pair, and sets can be a profitable line since most of the
time you're going to have air or top pair. Check-raising on a dry board like
this is going to look suspect for a lot of decent opponents, but it's still going
to put them in a tough spot on later streets with a lot of their hands.
Typically against regulars you can try making this play with your gutshots
and air and see how they react. If they are calling you down or re-floating
you, then it's not going to be a good strategy out of position. A lot of
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mediocre regulars will just fold if they don't have a strong hand here, and
against those opponents it's a highly profitable play. When you can get
your opponent to fold some better hands and when they have the better
equity, it's a very big +EV play for you.
Let's take a look at an example where your opponent is opening
23.4% of their hands. In a 6-max cash game, your opponent in middle
position open raises to 3 BBs and the action folds to you in the big blind
and you call the raise with AsTs. The flop comes Qs7c3s. You check to your
opponent who bets 5 BBs into a 6.5 BB pot. You check-raise to 13 BBs.
First off, we know most good opponents will continue in this

situation with a wider range than mediocre regulars or weak players in
general. Still, they'd have to re-float with a significantly wide range for this
play not to be +EV for you. If you're balancing your range properly in these
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spots, your better opponents will begin to know that you can do this with
top pair, sets, and so on. Even before your opponents have a better idea of
what your range will be here, they'd have to continue with such a large
portion of their range and call 48% of the time or more for it not to be a
profitable play. As it stands, if we say that roughly 8% of the time they'll rebluff you with their air range and you'll have to fold, the math would look
like this:
(-13(.43) + (11.5(.57) = -5.6 + 6.6 = +1 EV
This isn't taking into consideration when you are called, and the
equity you still have in your hand with the two backdoor draws and
possibly at least one over card. Compare this line to when you'd check/call
where you're a 42/58 equity dog against your opponents continuation
betting range, and it's a reasonable line to take in situations like this.
Balancing on Coordinated Boards

On coordinated or draw heavy boards, your hand range is going to
automatically expand in your opponents mind. How you play each hand
range on a coordinated board is going to be vital in getting paid off when
you have a big hand, and increasing your fold equity when you have a big
draw. Check-raising generally increases fold equity. However, it's not
necessarily the most profitable line when you flop a big hand. Finding a
proper balance on coordinated boards can be a little tricky simply because
there are lots of scare cards for you and the perceived range by your
opponent of your hand.
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Let's run through the exact same scenarios as above for comparative
purposes. Your opponent opens a standard 23.4% opening range, and you
call and see a flop of: 6h5h3d.
Coordinated Low Board
range.
(97s+, 98o, A2s, A2o)
(ATsAQs, AToAQo, KJs+, KJo+)
range.
(22, 44, 7788)
range.
(A6s, A6o, K6s)
Check/Call with Over Pair: ~66% equity versus your opponents
range.
(77JJ)
Check/Call with Two Pair: ~83% equity versus your opponents
range.
(65o, 65s, 53s)
Check/Call with Pair + Draw: ~68% equity versus your opponents
range.
(A3s, 54s, 54o, 64s, 76s, 76o, 44)
(33, 5566)
155
Check/Call with a Big Draw: ~53% equity versus your opponent's

range.
(A8sAQs, KTs+, 87s, 87o, A4s, A4o, QJs)
opponents range.
Combined Equity of made hands: ~72% equity versus your
opponents range.
Your equity with each hand range group in a situation like this won't
be too bad in general. This kind of board texture will allow for a bit more
creativity in how you want to balance your ranges. You will have a good
amount of bluff cards on later streets if you decided to check/call with
some of the higher end of your air range. There's a lot of opportunity to
turn some of the weaker part of your made range into bluffs as well, and
have them be believable by your opponent if the turn and/or river bring
some more coordinated cards.
Let's now take a look at the exact same example, except this time on
a broadway coordinated board. Your opponent open a standard 23.4%
opening range, and you call and see a flop of: 6h5h3d.
Coordinated Broadway Board
range.
(A8sA9s, A9o, 97s+, 98o, 87s, 87o)
(76s, 76o, 86s, A8s, 65s)
156

range.
(2288)
range.
(AKo, K8sK9s)
Check/Call with Over Pair: ~70% equity versus your opponents
range.
(AA)
Check/Call with Two Pair: ~67% equity versus your opponents
range.
(KTsKJs, KToKJo, JTs, JTo)
Check/Call with pair + draw: ~64% equity versus your opponent's
range.
(KQs, KQo, QTs+, QTo+, QQ, ATs, T9s)
(TTJJ, KK)
Check/Call with a big draw: ~61% equity versus your opponent's
range.
(A8sA9s, QQ, 98s, 87s)
opponents range.
opponents range.
157
Coordinated Low
Coordinated Broadway
Board
Board
~41%
~28%
Check/Call with Air
~47%
~17%
~62%
~26%
Check/Call with Top Pair
~63%
~63%
Check/Call with Over Pair
~66%
~70%
Check/Call with Two Pair
~83%
~67%
Check/Call with Pair + Draw
~68%
~64%
Check/Call with Set
~90%
~80%
Check/Call with Big Draw
~53%
~61%
~51%
~42%
~72%
~68%
There will generally be more hand range groupings on a board like

this that you'll want to balance out and play differently depending on your
opponent. Gutshots, air, and small pairs will usually not have much equity
versus your opponents continuation betting range. Turning this portion of
your range into bluffs is going to take a considerable amount of fold equity
to do profitably. It's going to generally be better to lead with some of these
hands, give up, or plan to make some big bluffs against the right
opponents.
Some more viable lines on these kinds of boards are to lead with top
pair+, and gutshots. Sometimes mixing in some check/calling and leading
the turn as well. Check-raising generally isn't going to be a very profitable
line against most decent opponents because it's going to narrow down your
range too much. If you look at the above table, and make any kind of
similar range of hands on a similar board, you're always going to be a
158
significant dog with anything but your top pair+ hands. Most opponents
will narrow down your range to two pair+ and big combo draws. It's still a
decently wide range, and at micro and a lot of small stakes games you can
do this. As your opponents get better, check/raising these kinds of boards
won't be as viable.
Balancing on Paired Boards

Paired boards have increasingly
become a game of "chicken" for no-limit
players. When players started figuring out
there were very few combinations of an opponents hand that could
withstand a lot of pressure, paired boards became more heavily contested
situations. A lot of pressure applied to an opponent on a good paired board
can cause a lot of opponents to fold out an incorrect range simply because
it's difficult to know someone's bluffing frequency in a given situation until
you know their game pretty well.
An example of equity on a low paired boards using the exact same
opening hand ranges for our opponent of 23.4%. Your opponent open
raises, and you call and see a flop of: 7c7d3h.
Paired Low Board
159

range.
(54s, 54o, 65o, 64s+)
(A9sAJs, A9oAQo, KTs+, KJo, QJs)
range.
(22, 4477)
Check/Call with two pair (bottom): ~62% equity versus your
opponents range.
(A3s, A3o, 43s, K3s)
Check/Call with Over Pair (two pair): ~71% equity versus your
opponents range.
(88JJ)
Check/Call with Trips: ~95% equity versus your opponents range.
(A7s, A7o, 87s, 87o, 75s+, 76o, 97s, K7s, 97o)
opponents range.
opponents range.
Since your equity for each hand range will be much better on a low
paired board, there are several profitable lines you can take. Check/calling
with your air, small pairs, over pairs, trips, etc., is a viable line. You can
turn some of your air range into bluffs on later streets. Leading at the pot
is also a good line if you are against an opponent whom you don't think will
play back at you very often. Check-raising tends to polarize your range a
bit too much in spots like this, so in general it's not the best line to take
unless you actually have a hand against an opponent who cannot fold.
160
This is generally a way ahead or way behind situation. So unless you

have a really aggressive game, most of the time you're going to keep the pot
somewhat smaller, or allow your opponent to bluff when you do have a big
hand. At the same time, you'll want to fight for these boards, so in general,
check/calling and then leading the turn is a very good line. In situations
where you are the pre-flop raiser, betting small on the flop with your entire
range, and then betting close to pot or slightly over betting the pot can be a
very profitable line that will apply maximum pressure to your opponents
hand range.
In the above example, you are the pre-flop raiser from late middle
position with KdQd. You have one caller in the cut-off. The flop comes:
8c8d4h. Generally as the pre-flop raiser you're going to want to
continuation bet here, but it's opponent dependent. If you do decide to
continuation bet, you should generally continuation bet less than you
161
normally would. About 1/2 the pot or less would be a good size. If you are
raised, you can 3-bet the flop at a cheaper cost or call and lead the turn. If
your opponent just calls your continuation bet, you can make a large bet
on the turn, forcing them to fold out their Ax hands and small pairs. If you
pick up a card that helps your hand such as any diamond, a king or
queen, you can continue with a normal sized turn bet.
There are several viable and profitable lines to take in a common spot
like this, but most of your decisions should rely on how aggressive and
tricky your opponent is. The less tricky and aggressive they are, a standard
continuation bet and double barrel on improved turns will generally be
profitable. Against trickier opponents, betting small, over betting the turn,
and check/calling can all be profitable lines as well.
Let's take a look at general equity on a broadway paired board using
the exact same opening hand ranges for our opponent of 23.4%. Your
opponent open raises, and you call and see a flop of: QcQh8d.
Paired Broadway Board
range.
(T9s, T9o, J9o+, J9s+)
(AKs, AKo, A9sAJs, A9oAJo, KJs, KJo)
Check/Call with Small Pair: ~42% equity versus your opponents
range.
(22, 4477)
162
Check/Call with Two Pair (bottom): ~58% equity versus your

opponents range.
(86s+, 87o, 98o, 98s, T8s, J8s)
Check/Call with Over Pair (two pair): ~77% equity versus your
opponents range.
(AAKK)
Check/Call with Trips: ~91% equity versus your opponents range.
(AQs, AQo, KQo, KQs, QTs+, QTo+)
opponents range.
opponents range
Paired Broadway
Paired Low Flop
Flop
~34%
~32%
Check/Call with Air
~47%
~42%
~58%
~42%
Check/Call with Two Pair (bottom)
~62%
~58%
pair)
~71%
~77%
Check/Call with Trips
~95%
~91%
~51%
~51%
~72%
~65%
Check/Call with Over Pair (two
Again you can see that the overall average equity in each hand range
grouping is slightly lower on a broadway paired board versus a low paired
board. If you check/called with your air range and small pairs as your
primary line, you'd have to turn these hands into bluffs a good percentage
163
of the time on later streets. So fold out a lot of your gutshot, air, and small
pair range when you're out of position, or look to lead with some
percentage of those hands. Check-raising generally won't be a good line
because your equity isn't as good, and your opponent believing you have a
strong enough hand to check-raise won't work often enough.
In general you're going to have slightly more equity on lower flops
than on broadway flops for most flop textures. This will allow for slightly
more creativity if you choose lines and balance them well with the style of
poker that fits your game best. If you prefer playing a more passive and
trappy game, then you should have a better idea of which boards to
check/call with, and which ranges are best suited for this. If you have a
much more aggressive game, you can see which textures are best for
check-raises and leading at the pot.
Just keep in mind that your approximate flop equity versus your
opponents continuation bet range will be much different versus their turn
betting range. Your flop equity versus their range is not your realized
equity until you can get to showdown. Having an idea of where your hand
grouping stands versus a typical opening range will allow you to see
profitable lines better, and balance your range accordingly. You should go
through each of these flop textures and make sure you understand what
kinds of lines you will take on average against most opponents. Once
you're comfortable with your plan, and you've practiced it a bit, you can
add more and more deception into your hand ranges as your opponents get
more sophisticated.
164
Balanced Deception
One way of balancing your range is
playing a board and texture situation the same
way with the widest range of hand groups.
Another way of achieving balance with your
range is playing the same hand differently on the same board texture. So
one time you check-raise with a set on a draw heavy board, and another
time you check/call with it. If you get to showdown against the same villain
with each hand, they are going to have a more difficult time knowing your
range the next time you check/call on a draw heavy board.
In a similar vein, there are slightly more ideal lines to take with
particular hands on certain board textures. Even as you're balancing your
range, you'll note based on the previous pages, there may be some lines
you will take rarely. You'll take a particular line with lots of different hand
groupings, but rarely or almost never with some that won't make for very
profitable lines long term, especially against opponents you don't have
much history with.
As you begin to build history with an opponent, or you think you
have an idea of how your opponent is likely thinking about the game, you
can begin to take some lines that add deeper balance and deception to your
hand strength. This will typically involve taking lines on the flop and/or
turn that against unknown opponents wouldn't typically be the highest EV
line to take. However, you're looking to make up this EV with large bets,
check-raises, or over shoves on the turn or river. Your opponent is so
confused by how you played your hand that they call bigger bets lighter
165
than they would on average because they can't put you on enough hands
that would take this line and beat them.
Again, keep in mind that you need to have history or some sort of
insight about how your opponent likely plays. In online games this can be
as simple as recognizing someone as a regular who will likely open raise X
range of hands from each position, and has some grasp of hand ranges and
common lines that opponents, especially other regulars in the game, would
take. Let's take a look at an example:
In the above example, we have 100 BB effective stacks in a 6-max

cash game. An opponent UTG opens to 3 BBs. Everyone folds to the small
blind who calls, and we have KhKs in the big blind. We squeeze to 14 BBs.
The UTG player folds, and the small blind calls. The flop comes 6s9sJc.
The small blind checks, and we check the flop.
This is where balanced deception comes in, and normally in most
situations you'd bet this flop. We're trying to make it look like a botched
166
squeeze play, or whiffed AQ, AK giving up. The plan is to make all of the
money by the river against a range that on average couldn't handle more
than one street of value. It can also be used as a pot control line against
hands like 99, JJ, where you can call the turn and river if your opponent
bets, or induce weaker hands to bet on the turn like TT, Jx. Neither of
those hands will typically call more than a street for value in a 3-bet pot
unless there's some history.
There's 31 BBs in the pot and the turn brings the 4c. Your opponent
bets 15.5 BBs, and you just call. Lots of draws on the board now, and your
opponents range won't contain very many draws having flat called from the
small blind against an UTG raise, and calling a squeeze out of position. His
hand is going to contain mostly middle and big pairs and a couple of big
broadway hands like AQs. Your hand however can very well look like a
turned draw, top pair, or botched squeeze that has middle pair.
167
There are 62 BBs in the pot, and your opponent has 71 BBs left. The
river brings the 2h, your opponent checks, and you over shove. Your
opponent thinks for a bit, and then calls with TcTd, and you have
successfully stacked him. If you had bet the flop, your opponent likely
would have called your flop bet. It's unlikely they would have called the
turn if you bet again since they would have been committed at that point.
In a re-raised pot they would have had to check-raise shove at that point.
Depending on your opponent and history, it's possible they would do
this a percentage of the time. However, if you think through their entire
hand range, this was a fairly safe line to take even though the board is
fairly coordinated. We know a bulk of their range is weighted towards
hands you'd be crushing because it contains a lot of mid and high pairs. In
the event that they did flop a big hand, like a set, and they bet the turn
and river you can call. It's unlikely they would bet the turn and river with a
hand like Jx or TT.
168
When you're contemplating taking a deceptive line to balance your

range, in this case, your flop checking range, you want to make sure you
have enough insight into your opponents game. If you don't, then it's going
to be a very minus EV approach to take. You're much better off just betting
the flop and turn, or betting flop, checking turn and betting the river.
This was an actual hand taken from a recent online 6-max cash
game. Using balanced deception can be an effective tool to use against the
better regulars in your game. You shouldn't be implementing it until you're
confident in reading your opponents range, and you know your opponent is
a thinking player.
One of my personal favorite balanced deception lines to take is when
I flop a set out of position against a pre-flop raiser on a coordinated board.
I will check/call the flop, and then check-raise all-in on any blank turn.
Sometimes even check/call both streets, which of course is extremely
risky, and if both streets brick reasonably enough, over shove the river.
Again, I'm only taking those lines against the better regulars. Even against
average regulars, I wouldn't advocate taking those lines very often, if ever.
You have to get creative though against the better regulars in your games if
you want to get paid off consistently.
169
170
Putting It All Together

My goal in this first volume wasn't to tell you always do X in Y
situation. If you've played poker enough, you know this isn't going to serve
you well. There are definitely some plays and lines you'd want to take more
often than others, but having me, or anyone else who writes about poker,
telling you static lines of thought isn't really going to cut it. Learning how
to think through situations, and understand why you're taking the line
you're taking, and why you've formulated plan X over plan Y is much more
powerful.
Continuing to add more tools to your poker tool box, sharpening
them, and using them with surgeon-like precision is the path to long term
poker success. My hope is that youve added some tools to your repertoire,
or that you've sharpened some that already existed, and added more clarity
to your poker game. I wish you much success at the tables and in life, my
friends!
Much Love,
John Anhalt
171
More Tools of the Trade

There's lots of good poker software and training material out in the
market today. Much more than there has been in the past 910 years. I
don't want to convince you that one is better than the other. You should
check them all out, and if you think they'll add value to your game, then
it's rarely a bad investment. Especially if the companies you purchase from
back up their products. I do want to introduce you to some of the products
Ace Poker Solutions has created, because I believe they offer real value to
most players poker games.
LEAK BUSTER: I don't care how good you think you are,
or how much game you have, it's a must have for any
serious poker player. If you're just learning the game, or
you've crushed the stakes you've played like I have over
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equity in a quiz style format. Work on your pre-flop
172
game, odds, outs, and more. Also includes a FREE equity calculator and
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POKERZION.COM: Lots of training sites are out there,
but not any that deliver a structured course right to your
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173
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An Ace Poker Solutions LLC Publication

2014 Ace Poker Solutions LLC. All rights reserved.

Limit of Liability and Disclaimer of Warranty

2014 Ace Poker Solutions LLC. All Right Reserved

2014 Ace Poker Solutions LLC. All Right Reserved

Chapter 6: In the Beginning ................................................................................. 78

2014 Ace Poker Solutions LLC. All Right Reserved

2014 Ace Poker Solutions LLC. All rights reserved.

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

About The Author: John Anhalt

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

I eventually turned my poker wins into a successful online poker

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

Chapter 1: Why are you playing?

his should be a simple question really, but I seem to stump a lot of

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

Make Poker Friends

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

Chapter 2: Know Thyself

can to utilize them every

hand you play. Conversely,

Hand Reading (R)

minimize areas that will play

Post Flop Bluffing (R/A)

to your weaknesses. This

Anticipating Opponent Reactions (P)

sounds simple in theory, but

Light Value Betting (R/A)

a lot of players attempt to fit

Tilt Control (P)

their game in a mold of

Calling Down Light (R)

Here are some examples of common weaknesses and strengths for

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

control/understanding (ability to control one's psyche and understand

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

Rational Deduction / Logic

Aggression (too passive)

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

When you are sure what the

to bet or raise when the hand ranges and

default psychology decision-

equity dictate to do so.

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

people tend to do better initially at poker than naturally passive people, as

Aggression (too aggro)

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

Rational Deduction / Logic

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

frame is realistic for your schedule, and commit yourself to learning

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

Psychological Control / Understanding

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2

This is the second part of being in the moment. If you're involved in a

Being a good quitter (Tilt)

Poker by the Book: Polished Poker Volume I v1.2