Mattiesmat study center

I am currently in the session and I think the topic and examples are very interesting. I do have some trouble with hands in the range, like I mentioned. I find it hard to discuss and explain in English, so I thought doing it this way might be better. I do think we are spewing a lot of money by ‘defending’ with small suited connectors, f.e. 53s, 54s. I am not sure about the math of the odds we flop an OESD or flush draw, but our strategy to CR if we flop a good draw doesn’t seem profitable to me even against someone who cbets/folds a lot. The problem is that we don’t flop an OESD much and also the odds of getting a 2/3 suit flop AND having the right suit ourselfs (even then its 1 combo) are pretty slim it seems. If we c/f all other times we don’t make a good draw I think those hand will show a big loss. Not even talking about getting coolered. As for the low pairs 22-55 I also find it hard to believe that those are going to show a profit, because they are really hard to play postflop because we can’t be aggressive with them and he always has outs and we could be crushed and making big mistakes AND they suck for CRing. I think it’s going to be much better to just fold them preflop.

Then if you call with those for range reasons, I think you are giving most villains too much credit. F.e. you said you would call with 22-55 to have many more setcombo’s in your range and the same might be true of some of the low suited connectors. I have a few problems with it. First of all like I said you are giving most villains too much credit. He has to be a good player who puts us on an accurate range. I think most players (even I do) put you on a ‘standard range’ f.e. broadways, mid-decent pairs, suited aces, good suited connectors and they WON’T even KNOW if you have 33 22 or 43s and they probably WON’T FIND OUT also. You would have to show down 33 first before they can put it in your range (and they have to pay attention and note it down then too).

Now what I would do vs someone who cbets a lot with a polarized cbetting range, like most regs is instead of play low suited connectors which have low equity and can only CR on SOME flops and don’t play well OOP is include some more ‘value hands’ like KT, QTs, JT, A9 where I have good equity against a wide button range (and wide cbet range). With those hands I can call him on the flop if I flop a decent hand, if the flop comes xxT or xxK and on the turn we reevaluate based on the board and villain which I don’t find that hard. If the board comes bad and he bets again and isn’t bluffy/barrely we fold and if he is bluffy we call again and if the board comes good it’s easy. Also I would CR with those hands on flops I missed and don’t hit his range much either. f.e. J84r with KT QTs. The benefit of this is that we can make our decision based on the board that comes in relation to his (wide) range and we can do it will all combos of those hands, instead of just 1/4 43s combo’s. I would just try to make him fold. If he has a good (better) hand he will continue by calling or raising and he will fold is he doesn’t have hand (most of the time). After that it becomes pretty easy to play, we mainly give up except for some rare good scare bluff turn/river cards. Also we have a little bit of equity with our overcards.

Now you might say: “wait what? that’s totally unbalanced and what do we represent? There are (too) few value combo’s we can have! It’s totally exploitable”. And yes, you would be right. But again I think you give most players too much credit. In our given example if villain raises preflop and we defend with KTo and villain cbets on J84r with say A5o and we CR he most likely will just fold, like with most of his missed hands. Very few villains/regs will click time, put you on an accurate range (with your pockets 2s in it :P), count the combos and bluff raise/float you. I think this strategy works fine and the only balance I would use is to not overdo it. I wouldn’t do it 3 times in a row and make him play back with missed hands.

My conclusion is that your strategy is interesting and refreshing and would work well vs Phil Galfond after you have played a lot with him and he knew your range. Even then we could argue about some hands in the range. Vs almost all other players I think many of the low hands in the range are going to be (very) -ev and the whole strategy/range won’t make up for it.

TL;DR cliffnotes:

1. I don’t think low pocket pairs and (low) suited connectors should used for defending from the blinds, because:
   - With the low SC’s there are (too) few flops we can CR
   - We can’t play aggressive with low PP’s and we guess
   - FTS gives villains too much credit for range reading
2. I think as an alternative it’s better to defend some more good/decent equity hands like KTo QTs

Any comments are welcome.

Yesterday I played a pretty interesting hand. I just joined the table and had only played a couple of hands. I raised one hand and villain (from this hand) squeezed on the BTN. Right away I catogarized him as aggressive and an aggressive 3-bettor. Then a few hands later this hand came up. My thoughts are below.

Poker Stars $50.00 No Limit Hold’em – 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $197.95
UTG: $51.15
Hero (CO): $102.55
BTN: $153.65
SB: $125.85

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with Q T
1 fold, Hero raises to $1.65, 1 fold, SB raises to $6.65, 1 fold, Hero calls $5

Flop: ($13.80) T 9 4 (2 players)
SB bets $8.60, Hero calls $8.60

Turn: ($31.00) 9 (2 players)
SB bets $12.50, Hero calls $12.50

River: ($56.00) 6 (2 players)
SB bets $24.50, Hero folds

Final Pot: $56.00
SB wins $54.70
(Rake: $1.30)

Preflop
I normally fold pretty quick in this situation, but a few factors made me want to call: his image, deep stacks, my pretty cards, position and last but not least I wanted to learn from this hand. I talked about the hand with jjd and he commented: “bad mattiesmat, adjusting too soon on weak reads = spew” and I think he has a good point. My read was based on 1 hand and I had no other specific reads or stats on him. And if my read is wrong which is very possible then I’m getting absoluty crushed by his 3bet range. Also I kind of overrated my hand. I though QTs did pretty well against a fairly wide 3bet range, but I stoved it and I seem to be a 2:1 dog:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 34.711% 32.83% 01.88% 71403329 4079956.00 { QcTc }
Hand 1: 65.289% 63.41% 01.88% 137899367 4079956.00 { 99+, A9s+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, ATo+, KQo, QJo }

So yeah it is probably better to fold, especially if his range could be tighter. That said we are deep, I can make straight flushes and I have position, so it can’t be terrible to call.

Flop
I wasn’t sure what to think about this flop. I had top pair so I guess it is a relative good flop for my hand, but it is still a trouble flop, because in best case scenario he still has quite a bit of equity with a heart, overcards and straight draws. Another good point jjd mentioned was that pretty much any flop where I flop a pair is a trouble flop, because I can never feel totally happy with a pair and I am almost never able to stack off. At the time I thought I was a favourite over his range with TP here, but I seem to overrate my hand:

Board: Th 9h 4h
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 45.471% 42.93% 02.55% 48446 2872.50 { QcTc }
Hand 1: 54.529% 51.98% 02.55% 58669 2872.50 { 99+, A9s+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, ATo+, KQo, QJo }

Because he is probably cbetting 100% and we get decent odds I decided to call here. Antoher thing that makes this marginal is that even though we get good enough odds, there will be a lot of bad cards and tough decisions and we could be drawing dead, especially if my read is off and he’s only valuebetting.

Turn
The turn was a pretty good card for me. It didn’t help many hands of him and my equity increased quite a bit vs the draws I thought. He also bet pretty small so I was more than happy to call here. However I think I overvalued my hand again. Because the 9 is pretty much a blank and it is a draw heavy board and I called both pre and on the flop I don’t think he will bluff and bet all of his range on the turn. I think he will only bet the turn with value hands TP+ or with good draws with a heart. Against that range I am a 2:1 dog again:

Board: Th 9h 4h 9c
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 32.972% 30.59% 02.38% 875 68.00 { QcTc }
Hand 1: 67.028% 64.65% 02.38% 1849 68.00 { 99+, AhKh, AhQh, AhJh, ATs-A9s, KhQh, KhJh, KTs, QhJh, QTs, JTs, AcKh, AdKh, AhKc, AhKd, AhKs, AsKh, AcQh, AdQh, AhQc, AhQd, AhQs, AsQh, AhJc, AhJd, AhJs, AhTc, AhTd, AhTs, KcQh, KdQh, KhQc, KhQd, KhQs, KsQh, QcJh, QdJh, QhJc, QhJd, QhJs, QsJh }

Because he bet so small I think we can still call here and hope for a save river.

River
Often I read and hear people say something like: if you call the turn you should also call the (blank) river. Rodolphe also said this to me often when we were discussing hands and often he had a point, because if the river is a blank then equities don’t change much (or get better vs draws) and if you are good on the turn you probably also are on the river. However I always found this reasoning a bit simplistic and flawed and I think this hand is a good example. The reason this reasoning doesn’t always hold up is that although the equities against the his turn range don’t change much, his range might change on the river. For example in this hand I thought he would continue semi-bluffing the turn with a lot of good draws, but on the river I think he will just give up with those on a blank card, which is not a good bluff card and after I called him three times. So I think his range on the river is a value range and has us crushed and we should therefore just fold, even though it it seems like a good card for us. Summary
The most important thing to learn from this hand is that we need a better read to justify our play than just one or two hands. With my read and the range I gave for villain on all the streets it might seem I played the hand fine, although preflop, the flop and turn were marginal, BUT if my read was incorrect I could be making big mistakes. So best case scenario I am making slightly but marginal +EV decisions (postflop) and worst case scenario (which isn’t so unlikely) where my read is off and his range is much tighter I am getting valuetowned and I am spewing like crazy.

If you for some reason read my blog and want to comment on this hand or (dis)liked the analysis, please leave a comment.

Hello World,

Who am I?
I still consider myself mainly a SNG player and coach. I play part time, because I also study (full time) and do some other things on the side. I have been playing since 2007. I started out playing STT’s starting with a $13 deposit and playing the $1.2’s and played till I was rolled for the mid stakes SNG’s. Then after more than a year I switched to MTT SNG’s and have done pretty well at those too. After some time I also (accidentaly) started coaching after Rodolphe suggested me as a coach to a French player looking for coaching. Ever since I have really enjoyed coaching and I have had a lot of positive feedback. You can find out more about my coaching here.

For the last year and a half I also have been trying to get into the cash games. I started playing the cash games, because I kind of got tired grinding the SNG’s almost like a robot, playing 20 tables at once. I found cash games much more interesting and complicated. My goal was to eventually make enough money at the cash games to be able to fully switch. However things didn’t work out like I wanted to and I am still strugling. I have been playing heads-up, 6max and full ring NL and although I have been winning at the low stakes I haven’t had much luck moving up. Because poker is my main income I have to also keep playing SNG’s and because I also go to university I don’t have too much time to play and study cash. Lately things have been starting to ‘click’ and I hope to start doing well at the cash games soon.

Lately I have also got interested in other games. I have been playing and studying some of the stud games. Mainly because it is something fresh and fun to play and learn. Also I think the level of play is lower than in NLHE so if I get good at it I should be able to do well. I have noticed that it is helping my poker thought process in general and that it also helps my NL game. jjd323 has been of great help, because he helps me with stud (and NLHE) hands (and theory in general).

What’s the blog all about?
This will be my third attempt to write a blog. I am not a great writer and I was not very satisfied with my last two blogs and lack of updates. My last blog was mainly about my results every month and it had some coaching info. This time I am going to try to do it a little different. I got inspired about starting a blog by reading Rodolphe’s and jjd323’s blogs and by a comment of Balugawhale in a video where he said that the best way to improve your poker game is to write down your thoughts. So, that’s what I will try to do on this blog.

This blog will be about my learning process and not so much about my results. I have been playing and studying different games lately and I thought it would be good to write down the most important thoughts, hands and connections between the different games. For example I will try to post an interesting hand that I discuss with jjd323. Thay way I can reflect on the important things to learn from the hand and share it with you. Also I can look back on it later and I won’t forget it.

This is it for now. It took me quite a while to write. I will try to find and post an interesting hand or two in the next few days.