Micro Stakes Online NL Poker Forums

Villain 3,8k hands
fold BB vs SB 36%, 3bets 25% Bvb, fold vs 4bet 56%. , fold to 4bet bb vs sb 50%(6)
fold to cbet ip 41% , raise cbet 9%, fold vs turn bet 13%(16)
pretty tough guy to play Bvb OOP

important note he already saw me 4bet bluffing...but before he 5bet jam vs me BU

interested mostly in preflop play , what should be out preflop plan vs him? pls comment postflop secondary, tyty

UTG: $38.63 - VPIP: 41, PFR: 9, 3B: 3, AF: 2,4, Hands: 247
MP: $52.51 - VPIP: 23, PFR: 20, 3B: 4, AF: 1,8, Hands: 1463
CO: $35.61 - VPIP: 27, PFR: 16, 3B: 6, AF: 2,0, Hands: 7878
BTN: $24.35 - VPIP: 48, PFR: 22, 3B: 0, AF: 4,8, Hands: 69
Hero (SB): $27.82 - VPIP: 24, PFR: 20, 3B: 8, AF: 3,4, Hands: 415724
BB: $28.53 - VPIP: 25, PFR: 19, 3B: 8, AF: 2,4, Hands: 3811

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is SB with K 8
4 folds, Hero raises to $0.75, BB raises to $2.25, Hero raises to $4.50, BB calls $2.25



so, he will fold only 36% when we open , probably he defends with pretty weak range

a)preflop open raise HU vs him
66+, A2s+, K7s+, Q8s+, J8s+, T8s+, 98s, A8o+, K9o+, Q9o+, J9o+, T8o+ 28%

b) 4bet bluff range , 4bet bluff 32%
to bluff 4bet profitably he should be folding more than 70% of the time
K7s-K9s, A2s-A9s,a8o-Ato, KTo-Kjo, Qjo = 9% (feels it is too wide, isn't that too wide?sorry don't know how to calc, how wide my 4bet bluff should be ) but his 3bet is 25% ,if he has in worst case 5bet range of 5,6% , he will fold to 4bet 78% of the time)

c) value , 4bet calling range 4bet call % 13,2%
default, no history JJ+ AK
since he saw us 4bet bluffing range: TT+ AK AQs = 3,77%

d) calling 3bet range
KTs+,ATs+,QJs-KQs, 88,99; AJ-AQo,KQo

of course when we call ,we can't just play fit or fold , his cbet in 3bet pots is 86% which is huge



thoughts?

need your help guys

ty

It's very rare to see a player up to 200nl, who defends so much on BB. First of all remember, that leaving such table is perfectly fine, because this player is certainly going to give you some real trouble.
But if there is a huge fish at the table and/or you want to get better, then...

His possible reactions vs steal are:
- Fold (36%)
- 3-Bet (25%)
- Call (39%)

In other words, he defends 64% of the time, which is way way way too much. As a result, both of his 3b and calling ranges MUST BE weak. Your job is to make reads and basically avoid folding, if he is aggressive postflop.

Here you can either fight the fire with fire, or with water. In the former strategy you should keep on stealing using a 2.5 bb open with slightly narrower range than 40-50% (therefore it should be stronger on average). This is going to be a great war with lots of variance, if you don't feel comfortable playing 'on the edge' OOP - forget about this.

The second method is to tighten up, which is what you have chosen from what I see here. Your stealing range should be now way stronger than his defending range = you want to exploit this fact as much as you can = increase your sizing pre, even to 4 bb and if it will work, increase it gradually to 5 bb, 6 bb, etc., until he adjusts.

Your preflop SB open raising range is quite good, maybe too tight, but that's a good point to start from. Now we have to figure out what to do when he defends.

a) Call
His fold to c-bet IP is on the lower side, given the width of his range. I guess he might be a float happy player, who stabs a lot on the turn. Therefore AVOID c-betting with "one and done" pattern. Make sure to either double/triple barrel OR c-bet, x/c, x/c OR x/c, x/c, x/c OR x/f immediately.

b) 3-Bet
This is the hardest part. It's good to know how does he construct his 3b range IP in this BvB situation, because then you can make the best adjustment - I mean polarized/depolarized ranges, I hope you know what I mean.
However, in this case his range is probably so wide, that it doesn't really matter - this range has to be weak, there is simply no way to 3b with a 15-20% range, which is strong at the same time.

You can definitely 4b/c with { TT+, AQs+, AQo+ } - 5.0% (or 17.8% out of your stealing range)
You can insta jam with small PPs { 66 - 99 } - 1.8% (or 6.4%...) -> I'd highly consider adding 22-55 here. Why insta jam? He 3b with like Q5s, gets jammed on and what he can do about it? Nothing, just fold. Huge fold equity, some equity when called as well = +EV

Basically when we 4b, we never fold to his shove, assuming he can't fold to 4b. Here he folds 50-56%, so adding some bluffs from the top of your folding range is definitely a good idea -> { A2s-A6s, K7s-K8s } - 2.1% (or 7.5%...)


You can flat OOP with something like { AJs-A7s,K9s+,QTs+,JTs,T9s,AJo-A9o,KJo+ } - 8.4% (or 30%...) - This is a solid range, which will bluff catch this bitch pretty well.
Add some premiums here as well as soon as he starts barreling like crazy.

In total, we can defend here a 17.3% range vs his 3-bet (which is 61.7% of our stealing range). You fold to 3b on SB vs this guy should be therefore ~~ 40%.

When he will calm down with his defending tendencies, you can start loosing up on SB and decreasing your stealing size - adjustment.

Depending on how good you are postflop, what are your reads etc., you can increase or decrease the width of this range. Just stick to the depolarized -> if K9s is good, then K8s is the next hand you defend with. QTs does well? Try Q9s, etc.


Playing postflop is a completely different animal, I'm not gonna elaborate on this here. I hope this should give you some general idea how to defend.

Btw, in this hand K8o is not in your range, so fold pre

Solid post.

Split your SB range into a completing and a raising range - that should allow you to play A LOT more hands from the sb.

EDit: And I'm not sure the BB is defending way too much. I personally defend around 60% BB vs SB steal. - obviously depending on how wide the SB-steals.

But you're not playing 25nl and I guess you are a better player, than this aggro donk

Split your SB range into a completing and a raising range - that should allow you to play A LOT more hands from the sb.

EDit: And I'm not sure the BB is defending way too much. I personally defend around 60% BB vs SB steal. - obviously depending on how wide the SB-steals.

once again you beat me to it with this post

great thread, although my brain is a bit overwhelmed atm...
I have never tried splitting my SB range. Could someone elaborate, please?
We can safely assume this villain will start raising 100% first few hands we complete, so if we complete it should be with intention of calling a raise >90%, right? Do we ever complete/re-raise? etc. etc.

great thread, although my brain is a bit overwhelmed atm...
I have never tried splitting my SB range. Could someone elaborate, please?
We can safely assume this villain will start raising 100% first few hands we complete, so if we complete it should be with intention of calling a raise >90%, right? Do we ever complete/re-raise? etc. etc.

I prefer to have linear ranges.

You raise Top X% of hands and complete with [X%-Y%]. I often start with X=25%, Y=50% and take it from there.

If villain starts to make big raises (>6bb) with a high frequency we should consider using non-linear ranges. We can start to complete with some - not all - strong hands and put some weak hands in our raising range.

What's the argument behind completing exactly?

What's the argument behind completing exactly?

Impossible to give a mathematical proof.

stackhunter thnx a lot for such deep analysis , very helpful and solid post

What's the argument behind completing exactly?

Open completing strikes me as being a poor strategy, especially using linear ranges like so. He can simply start raising over our limps, which would make our life like hell. He can simply use polarized raising ranges, and he'd basically have an advantage at every point. It could be good to complete, just to observe how he's going to respond, but overall, it seems quite bad. It not HU where the SB has position.

Split your SB range into a completing and a raising range - that should allow you to play A LOT more hands from the sb.

EDit: And I'm not sure the BB is defending way too much. I personally defend around 60% BB vs SB steal. - obviously depending on how wide the SB-steals.

What about Zoom, considering the auto fold feature?

Open completing strikes me as being a poor strategy, especially using linear ranges like so. He can simply start raising over our limps, which would make our life like hell. He can simply use polarized raising ranges, and he'd basically have an advantage at every point. It could be good to complete, just to observe how he's going to respond, but overall, it seems quite bad. It not HU where the SB has position.

Villain's best strategy when we complete the SB is to raise the hands he wants to play big pots with (top 40% or so) and take a free flop with the rest of his range. Remember we are not playing 100% of SBs.

With position and reasonable stack sizes it is not a good idea to complete the SB (because we can defend a wider range than he can 3bet).

what improva said is very true

i think it's worth adding: don't be afraid to try things that seem bad. things are only bad when they are they not the most +ev things we can do. since all of us are improving (meaning continuing to find the most +ev plays), we still do bad things. things that we think are good are not the most +ev plays, so keep an open mind and be willing to challenge what you consider rock solid.

if nothing else, putting yourself in weird and uncomfortable spots is an excellent handreading exercise, if you let it be. this means playing carefully and not just wussing out and clicking fold