Hot answers tagged nlhe
25
In limit games, the only raise amount allowed is the big blind during preflop and flop play; double the big blind during turn and river play.
The correct minimum raise in big bet games (no limit and pot limit) is to increase the amount of the bet by the amount of the previous bet (e.g. double the previous raise*), or to raise all-in if you do not have ...
10
I think the only realistic options for villain are a missed draw or Tx. I think he'd have gotten more aggressive earlier if he had you preflop. Your line looks a lot like an overpair to me, and as such, he would want to get value out of you if he had trips or a full house. As such, I don't think he shoves the river here if he wanted a call. He knows you ...
9
Your second question is unanswerable. Estimating what the mix of styles in a tournament will be on average is too inflexible an assumption for any strategic use. Your first question is more interesting and problematic. Can we play small-ball poker in a cash-game? Yes, but it takes far greater personal involvement from the player, and frankly doesn't lead to ...
9
Sounds like you had an 18K stack preflop, or about 30bbs. The 3K raise is fairly standard, though you shouldn't only raise that size with hands like AA because perceptive opponents can figure that sort of thing out if they play enough hands with you (then again, if no one at your table is perceptive, go ahead and play in an exploitable way).
On the flop ...
8
Honestly, I think that small ball strategy is significantly more effective in cash games. Many of the benefits it provides center around people adjusting to your image. In tournaments, that can all go down the drain when players are moved to different tables. By contrast, in cash games you are much more likely to play a large number of hands against the same ...
8
First, a look at ranges: I think he has AA/KK/Tx/88/33 here no more often than he has JJ or a busted draw (to the straight or the flush). And sometimes he'll turn up with utter crap. So if we say it's an even money bet, we're getting good odds on a call.
Second, let's look at history: You noted in the comments that Villian has not let a pot check around. ...
8
It's a split.
In short, the best 5 card hand that you can make wins. In this case, you're both playing the board.
There is a similar question here, What is the“Top Five Cards” rule and how does it apply to splitting pots?, explaining the scenario in more detail.
8
Is there an inherent advantage/disadvantage to having a larger stack than your opponent in a cash game?
No. There is no advantage nor disadvantage, because you play for his stack, not yours. If you have 75 BBs and he has 40 BBs, the maximum you can win is 40 BBs, the rest of 35 BBs being returned to you.
I would think if you expect to have a skill ...
7
The rule of thumb I've always heard is that tournaments tend to end when there are around 10 big blinds left on the table.
You will need to know the number of players you will have, your starting blind level and stack size, and your desired tournament length. Generally, you will not want to start with deep stacks for a short tournament. The final blind ...
7
My standard raise in this spot preflop would be something like $84. With reads that villains are bad (i.e. will call 3bets like this way too often) that number becomes bigger. So $110 probably isn't a bad raise size, but you should realize that you're putting in 1/3 of effective stacks and you really don't want to play postflop when that's the case.
Under ...
6
Generally, as stacks get shallower, cards matter more. As stacks get deeper, game dynamics and player tendencies matter more.
Shallow
When playing with short effective stacks (<50bb), you need to play hands that will make the best hand a lot of the time. If you are playing against people with larger stacks, you will have less fold equity, so you will ...
6
I'm iffy about your flop bet-size. There are not many hands that you are worse than even-money with on that board. Represent the strength that you have so that your decisions later in the hand are easier. A half pot bet looks like you are just c-betting to c-bet.
Honestly, I prefer either a larger bet to maintain control of the hand, or a similar bet to ...
6
Check-fold. You are not repping a Queen on the turn, here. Rather, you are repping a bluff. If you actually had a queen, wouldn't you check-raise fairly often?
If you think there's dead money in the pot and you are trying to win it, check-raise the flop or the turn. But beware that against a good regular who has position on you, you're going to be ...
6
I can't see calling here for an additional 1800 to get to 3000 with then only about 4000 left.
So to me it leaves shoving all-in or folding.
If you shove, I think you have near zero fold equity after the PF3B to 3000 done by the solid/conservative player you describe at UTG+1. He already did put 3000 in and he'd have only 4000 to add to call in a pot that ...
6
Against an unknown opponent, stack sizes dominate the decision for me. If we have a big stack and he has an average-to-medium-but-not-short stack, then I'll raise a lot until he shuts me down. Similarly, if we both have medium stacks, I'll probably still raise a fair amount - if we cover him by a fair margin, this frequency goes up.
If either one of us has ...
6
Disclaimer: I am a cash game player, so you might consider my opinion to be biased.
Cash games tend to run deeper than tournaments. This in turn leads to more post flop play in cash games than in tournaments, as a general rule.
Post flop play in a deep cash game, even one that is only 100 BBs deep, can be very difficult. Given that we play against ...
6
Shoving with a straight+flush draw is a pretty standard play for NLHE in my book. You typically have enough equity to be even money against your opponent's calling range. That means you could call their shove and see a profit due to the dead money in the pot.
Almost any time that you could call and be even money, a shove is better, and the more money in the ...
6
There's no way such a price makes any sense. With that money, you can get 20 or 30 other books written by world famous and world champion players; with the help of those books you will definitely improve your game if you're serious about doing it.
No matter how good it is, the price is just unjustified. I don't know if I remember correctly, but I think not ...
6
For a serious poker book, this isn't the most expensive I've seen. Shootaa (Reid Young) has a book out for around $5k and when it came out it honestly may have been worth the price. The fact is that these tips will allow you to improve your game so much that you'll make more than the price of book in a relatively short period of time. Granted, this is ...
6
Well, the raise that the SB made preflop is quite big, so he either has a big hand or it's a stone-cold bluff.
The bet on the flop is also big, so I would put him on either a big pocket pair (tens or bigger) or, again, a bluff. The bluff is possible/probable because of the dry flop. Also, I think a set is not out of the question, but less likely.
On the ...
6
When he donkbets the flop his range likely consists of strong draws, pair+FD, pair+gutter, and some strong made hands like AT+. Reads on CO and BTN are important - if either of them is a fish he could have a wider value range. If CO and BTN are regs I expect his range to be pretty damn strong.
Either way, I think flatting flop is best since we don't really ...
6
You don't mention how big are the blinds, but you say "Hero calls 8000", so I'm assuming the blinds are 4K / 8K, which means you have about 7 BB behind. This means you're SEVERELY short stacked. In this case, the play for you is pretty much on automatic pilot: find a decent hand to go all-in with.
I disagree with what you did preflop: you should've moved ...
6
It does have some value (I feel as though the author's statement is a bit hyperbolic though he is trying to emphasize his point) but the types of hands that can be made postflop with your hole cards are more important because the pot grows exponentially with every street.
Also note how the author starts the sentence with "deep stack." The deeper your stacks ...
6
You did not specify the suits. So, disreguarding a possible flush here is what I would do:
Current Odds
A pocket pair of Qs 10s or 7s would have you dominated. The odds of someone actually having pocket Qs 10s or 7s is 3 in 221 or roughly 1.3%.
Another hand that could be ahead of you is two pair. The odds of someone hitting two pair while holding ...
5
Bluffing the river after checking back turn here is not a good idea. The only hand you are representing when betting the flop, checking back the turn here is like AQ or JJ. You will get too many curious calls to be able to successfully bet the river here.
If you want him to fold low pairs etc., you will need to barrel the turn and possibly the river as ...
5
First, let's establish some parameters for what makes us pot-committed. Preflop, I like to stick with a 2-1 ratio, since the only way to be definitively more than 2-1 behind your opponent would be to know that his range is almost entirely made up of hands that have you dominated. We definitely know that this is not the case if we are short-stacked preflop.
...
5
There are tools available that will compute this exactly for you. I used a freely available tool, PokerStove, to compute your so-called "hot/cold" equity assuming you had 2 black Aces, your opponent had suited 34 in Hearts, there were two Hearts and one diamond on board. You are about a 2:1 favorite in this scenario:
Text results appended to ...
5
It would be treated like a normal raise only his hand would be automatically folded the next turn (or if there is a re-raise).
If everyone folds up to player 2, player 2 would be downright dumb not to re-raise - knowing player 3 is an automatic fold. Money would then go to player 2. In a heads up situation, same deal.
If more than one person calls, player ...
5
You can´t be certain just from bb/hand value, if you are winning because of skill or long upswing. There surely isn´t any magic number of hands, which makes you certain about your actual winrate, the only thing we can measure is, how propable is your winrate in certain range.
This calculation depends HEAVILY on the game you play, and also on your ...
5
Oh yeah, it's got decent content in it, but nothing you won't find if you search through the twoplustwo high stakes forums pretty diligently. Also, no one can put the skills in your brain FOR you. You have to be willing to dig heavily into the math and game theory yourself. The book, "The Mathematics of Poker" is really good for this.
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