Darkened Poker

A good hand range for a TAG in early position is about 20% in a 6-Max game.  The top 20% EV hands against 6 opponents are:

Although in theory this would be the best hands to start with in a 6 max game you would be out of position and this hand range has a couple of exploitable issues.

• A vast majority of these hands contain a Ace or King and people will start re-raising him on any flop that does not contain such cards.
• There are very few low cards in this range so on small flops people will bet him off his hand because it is unlikely to have hit him.

One needs to trade some of these higher 6 person EV hands for hands that hit the full range of flops harder so we can continue to c-bet which is very important in 6-max games.  I removing some of the Ace -Rag & King -Rag suited hands and replacing them with small pairs and suited connectors.

This solution is pretty easy to remember and solves a # of problems:

• Small pairs make sets which are such powerful hands that they play well out of position, one can go for check raise traps and make other moves which you can’t with weaker hands like just top pair against multiple opponents.
• One’s range is not Ace or King dominated so you can continuation bet on low flops and people will learn to give him credit instead of just blindly re-raising.

Although the theoretical EV for the starting hand range has gone down .05 these starting hands have a lot more utility and one will see their pre and post flop frustration drop as well as their profits rise.

♣♥♦

Darkened Poker

Since I came from live games I have had a sort of irrational fear of doing anything online that would hurt my live game.  This included things like using Huds, getting use to multi-tabling and losing my ability to focus on just one game.  Or playing 6-max games and heads up games and forgetting how to be patient in the full ring games.

Are these real issues?  I believe they can be as I make about 40% of my live money stacking online players that get way to aggressive for full ring games or can not seem to figure out who the nits are at the table without a HUD.

But recently I decided to spend some time learning short handed play as what often happens late at night is the live games start to break and you get short handed with people that are stuck on tilt.  This is a really great game but you have to know how to properly adjust to the short handed tilt infused aggression.

Plus fearing what might happen is irrational so I took the plunge.

6-Max Stats

It was a little rough for the first 5700 hands as I over adjusted to the aggression factor and became a bit of a pay off wizard.  But once I got that worked out my win rate was almost double my full ring game win rate.

Reasons why 6-max can have a much better win rate:

1. Without the call fests created in 9 handed games you are so rarely up against sets and monster hands that you can shove for value with your over pairs and 2 pair hands rather than carefully value bet them.
2. Re-raising to isolate the fish is cheaper and works a lot more often than in 9 handed games so your win rate is directly tied to your ability to out play them.
3. Since everyone is forced to play more hands the fish are forced to make more mistakes and since there is less people to take advantage of them you get a bigger piece of the action.
4. Since everything is more aggressive people tend to get numb to it so you do not have to get fancy to hide your hand strength, just value bet it all three streets.

Takes a little work to make sure your games do not bleed into one another but it is worth the effort as 6-Max is just straight up more fun and profitable to play.

♣♥♦

Darkened Poker

Lots of poker books, video’s and web pages out there talk about how important it is to play only in position if your deep stacked.  But they never explain why it is so important and they rarely define what they even mean by deep stacked.

Define Stack Sizes:  The point in the hand at which you can be put to a tough decision given your stack size.

Pre Flop:  3x BB raise, if called => Pot 6x BB

Flop: 2/3 pot bet, if called the Pot  = 14x BB

• instead of call if it was a pot size re-raise all in, stacks would need  to be 21x BB
• Short Stack ~= 20x BB

Turn: 2/3 pot bet, if called the Pot = 32x BB

• instead of call if it was a pot size re-raise all in, stacks would need  to be 49x BB
• Med Stack ~= 50x BB

River: 2/3 pot bet, if called the pot =74x BB

• instead of call if it was a pot size re-raise all in, stacks would need  to be 110x BB
• Invested 37BB before you got the bad news.
• Deep Stack >= 100x BB

Lets consider the case as shown above when you are in position.

River: Pot starts 32X BB, likely case he pushes a pot size bet or worst case he moves all in.

• Invested 16BB before you got the bad news and have to make a decision.
• If it is borderline to call the pot size raise it is only 32X BB

What position give us vs out of position:

• To only have 1/2 as much money invested in the pot when we get told we are likely beat ( 16X vs 37X BB ).
• The ability to check behind and play for a 1/2 size pot when we want pot control ( 32X BB vs 74X BB).
• The ability to raise and play for > 2x larger pot when we have the nuts. ( 74X BB vs 148X BB )
• The ability to see what everyone else is doing before we act.

These advantages are huge, if your playing your hands right your Big Blinds won per hand should be at least 3X greater from the button as is it from under the gun.

♣♥♦

Darkened Poker

Was reviewing hand histories with a student who is playing .01 – .02 $ stakes, he called a raise with AK, got a flop of A 5 3 which he checked behind on.  Turn was a Q, he bet it and got 3X check raised which he called.  When asked why he would call such a raise from the villain who most certainly had a set he responded

“since I slow played my TPTK’er on the flop, the guy could be just re-raising my bluff with a good Q”

I think he gives his fellow .01 – .02 $ players a little more hand reading credit than they deserve.  They are only playing absolute hand values at best, save your 3 rd level thinking till you get to the .5 – 1 $ games.

But this does bring up a good topic, how much credit should you give the micro stakes players?

Poker concepts they are thinking about:

• Trapping, ( if I bet on ace high flop people fold so forever more I will check and let them bet )
• Understanding of absolute hand values ( two pair and above is a friggin monster )
• Power of the draw ( straights and flushes are the absolute nuts )

Thus the Laws for fishing in micro stakes games:

• 90% of the people are trying to trap with any top pair top kicker hand.  Do not assume they would not check such a weak hand on a dangerous board, they would.
• 90% of re-raises are with two pair or better hand regardless of the board texture.  Do not fold your set on the river when the straight and flush get there, surprisingly often they just somehow made two pair and feel the need to bump up the pot.  But if you can not beat 2 pair, fold instantly as you are so rarely getting bluffed.
• If there is a draw out there value bet the hell out of your two pair or better hands, try to get all in by the turn if possible.
• They do not understand 3 betting, they call pre-flop to often and will most often fold to any c-bet on the flop in a 3-bet pot.
• They think every 4-bet is with AA or KK and fold way to often, pick up the dead money often.
• Do not waste EV by balancing your betting ranges or anything like that, they are not paying enough attention so just value bet the hell out of every good hand and c-bet or bluff the uncoordinated flops.
• Semi-bluffing is less effective as they do not understand concepts like the power of further bets and would never fold a draw anyway so save your money.

♣♥♦

Darkened Poker

Just read a great article at Live Science on how a gambers’ brain will release the same amount of dopamine for a near miss as it will for a win.

I had wondered about this for a long time:

• how is it good poker players can get their money in good so many times only to get sucked out on not give up.  They almost stacked the fish.
• how is it bad poker players can get their money in on a draw so many times, not get there and still keep doing it again and again.  They almost got there.
• how is it people can watch wheels spin around, rarely lining up yet continue to put money in.  They got 2 in a row and almost got 3 in a row.

Which leads me to my biggest frustration in the game.  Do not tell the fish that their crappy draw was not close.  Always let them think they had a chance to win because their brain will continue to reward them for it as long as they believe.  Someone tells them enough time that they were almost drawing dead even if they never learn the math their brain will stop rewarding them and the money source will be gone.

♣♥♦

Darkened Poker