Building an Image

Image at the table is one of the most important things at the poker table. It will play a incredibly large part of how people perceive you and whether or not they pay you off on your big hands. The entire idea behind the game is to make as much money as possible from your good hands, and lose as little as possible with your second-best hands. Playing a loose-aggressive style, as we’ve been talking about, can allow for some huge paydays. If your opponents think that you could be betting with any two cards, they’re more likely to call you down when you have a huge hand. Let’s look at some key factors in building an image at the table:

Firstly, we’ve covered the idea of balancing your range. This, if done correctly, can let your opponents walk right into the traps that you set for them that don’t look like a traditional trapping play. Traditionally if a player makes a huge hand they want to check to appear weak and let the other players put the money in for them. In our case however, a trap would look much differently. We want to represent at all times that we have a made hand so that when we do our opponents think we could very well be bluffing. Let’s look at an example:

We’re playing a 6-max $1/$2 cash game and we’re in first position. We find ourselves with KhKd and we raise it to $6. We get a caller on the button (last position) and a caller in the big blind. The flop comes KsQc7s. This is a great board for us as it’s likely to hit a lot of our opponents’ ranges. Right now we have the best possible hand and we want to make them pay to draw to a better one. If someone is holding two spades or a hand like JT, they’ll likely come along. KQ is absolutely calling every time, as they should. The great thing about having a loose image here is that WE could very well be the ones holding two spades or JT. There are some scare cards for you that could come such as an A or a 9, but your opponent would have to be holding exactly JT to have us beat.

Poker is all about long-term results, so we shouldn’t be afraid to show our bluffs or second-best hands when necessary (only at showdown) and we certainly shouldn’t let a picked-off bluff slow us down. Everyone gets bluffed in this game, but not everyone gets right back into the game afterwards.

As always, questions and comments are welcome.

Floating

In today's poker world, the continuation bet, or C-bet, is incredibly common. The continuation bet is when a player raises before the flop and then continues to bet after the flop is dealt. We talked about having a balanced range is the previous post, and this is an essential part of that balance. Statistically speaking, a player will only connect with the flop about one out of three times. However, if you were to look at your opponents' stats, you would notice that they are betting post-flop much more than 1/3 of the time. They're basically betting on the fact that you didn't connect with the flop in any way, and that you will fold to another bet. So how do we counter this move? How do we defend ourselves against a player who is c-betting 70% of their hands? We can utilize a technique called the "float".

The float is a more advanced play which helps to counter the continuation bet by calling your opponent with nothing. If your opponent is c-betting a vast majority of the time then they obviously can't always have a hand. If your opponent c-bets and you call behind them, this is going to get their attention. If they don't have anything, they may very well shut down the betting on the turn and we can bet here and take down the pot. It's basically announcing to your opponent that you have some piece of the board and that they should continue with caution. Floating is a play best used when you have position on your opponent and the pot is heads-up between the two of you. Let's look at a couple of examples:

Let's say that you're playing a six-max $1/$2 cash game and you have JhTh on the button (last position) and the player in front of you raises to $6. You call and both of the blinds fold. The flop comes 8d5hKd. Now this doesn't help our hand whatsoever, but this is also a  pretty dry board meaning there isn't a lot in the way of straight draws. There is a flush draw with two diamonds out. Your opponent continuation bets $10 into a pot of $15 and you call. There are some cards that could potentially help you on the turn such as a queen or nine, which would give you a straight draw, and any heart will give you a flush draw. This is considered to be "backdoor equity" meaning that if one of these cards comes then you may have a chance of making the best hand by the river and won't have to bluff anymore. However, there are other cards that could potentially help us as well. Another diamond puts a flush on the board and may be a scare card for your opponent, so we could use a diamond as a "bluff out". Now the turn comes the 6d and your opponent shuts down the betting and checks. This is a good opportunity for us to lead at the pot and try to take it away. In order to do so, you should bet like you would with any made hand, so since the pot is $35, you should be betting somewhere around $22-$28. If your opponent folds then you've just taken a pot without making any kind of hand. The float is an effective way to bluff in position and take down pots that you would have otherwise had no chance of winning.

As mentioned before, this is a play best used in position against your opponent. However, it's also important to have a read on your opponent and be sure that they can be c-betting with nothing some of the time. It's equally as important to pick your spots with this play and not overuse it or your opponents will pick up on it and you may find yourself in some sticky spots later in the game. If overused, you may find your opponents checking on the turn so you can bet and then they can raise. Any type of bluff is essential to the game, but should never be overused. Otherwise you will find that you have become an easy target for the other players at the table.

As always, questions and comments are welcome.

Balancing Your Range

Now that we’ve talked a little bit about finding your range of starting hands, I’d like to talk a little bit about how to balance that range. This is a relatively simple concept which is meant to keep your opponents from being able to put you on a certain range of hands. For example: say you raised three times the big blind with hands like 77, 88, 99, AT, AJ, but you raised four times the big blind with premium hands like AA, KK, AK, QQ, it will be much easier for other players to pick up on those tendencies. In its simplest terms, range balancing is where you play the exact same way with a wide range of hands in certain situations. Much of this is going to depend on how often you are continuation betting, or betting after the flop after you’ve raised pre-flop.

Let’s say you’re playing a 6-max 1/2 cash game online and you are in late position with JhTh. You raise it to six dollars and get called by the big blind. The flop comes out JdTc4d. With the big blind having only called, you can be pretty sure that you’ve got the best hand. You have a made hand and should bet it for value here. However, any hands like KQ, Q9, or any two diamonds are drawing to a better hand than yours. You want to keep up the betting and give them bad odds to draw to a better hand.

Now let’s look at a different example with the same hand and pre-flop action. You raise $6 in late position with JhTh and get called by the big blind. This time the flop comes out Qh9c4h. This time you don’t have a made hand, but you should be betting it like you do. This is called a semi-bluff because, although you don’t have a hand yet, you have considerable equity (~52%) to make the best hand. You hand an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw. Any K, 8, or heart will make your hand and more than likely give you the best of it. Of course, in situations like this, there are implied odds to think about, but we’ll talk about that later.

Now we’ll look at one last example. Same game, same hand, same situation. You raise to $6 in late position with JhTh and get called by the big blind. This time the flop comes out Ah6d5c. This flop in no way helps your hand, but because you raised before the flop, you can bluff and represent an ace here. Sometimes by just keeping the pressure on and betting the flop you can take down the pot then and there. This obviously won’t always be the case, but this is why a balanced range is so important to have in your arsenal. If your range is balanced then your opponents will know that sometimes you’ll have a made hand here and sometimes you won’t. The idea is to bet it the same way you would if the ace did help you.

Essentially, having a balanced range will make it much harder for opponents to play against you because you could very well be holding any two cards.

As always, comments and questions are welcome.

Playing Your Range 9/05/2014

In this post I’d like to discuss starting hand ranges for the loose-aggressive player. One of the things that I think appeals to some many players about playing a LAG style is the creativity it allows you to employ in your play. In the world of poker today, it’s not uncommon to see people 3-betting, 4-betting, and even 5-betting light. While the 5-bet bluff can often be incredibly exciting and sometimes lucrative, it’s imperative to know when to pick your spots.

            Let’s say you’re playing a 6-max cash game and you find yourself holding 9T suited in late position with a raise in front of you. This hand has good flopping value for many reasons. Firstly, it’s less likely to run into hands that have you dominated that will call or re-raise you. Secondly, with a hand like this you can flop a lot of good draws that will more than likely hit your opponent’s range, so you can really apply pressure with multi-way draws or make them pay to draw if you flop a hand like two pair.

            Now let’s flip the tables. What if you’re in first position (UTG) with the same hand? While this could certainly be a raising hand, it loses a lot of its value when you no longer have position on your opponent. As the saying goes, “position is power” in poker. Sure you can flop big with it, but as stated above, your opponents could really put the pressure on you with combo draws or make you pay to draw. Playing this hand from out of position (OOP) also may decrease your implied odds of getting paid off. Let’s say that you call with 9hTh and the board come JhQs5h. You’ve flopped a huge draw, but if you call all the way down with this hand you’re much more unlikely to get paid off should you make your hand. However, with a loose-aggressive approach to the game, there is always the option to represent a made hand here and take the betting lead. This is something we’ll get into in later posts.

            Taking a LAG approach to the game will open you up to more variance, as you’ll be playing more hands and your raising range may essentially turn into your 3 and 4-betting range. In the next post about playing marginal hands we’ll cover this topic more extensively. As always, comments are appreciated.