High Stakes Strategy Poker Forums

Terrific site so far. Thanks.

Question: Do you have any general advice about finding folds when you should? I find myself sometimes calling/floating with a marginal hand planning to take it away on the next street if the guy checks, BUT, my hand improves AND he fires again.

For example, I call with 2nd pair top kicker, turn brings me the NFD and the dude fires big again. If I shove I think he's likely to call with most of his double barrel range, but now my hand is too strong to fold (or is it?). So sometimes I'll shove, sometimes call. On the river I may even improve more making 2nd best hand when an ace rivers.

Or, you decide to check to induce but as the hand develops, he keeps firing, the board changes, and you are uncertain. You were using his aggression against him by letting him bet, but at some point you think, "well crap, now I'm in a bad spot".

Anyway, not really looking for specifics on the examples (unless that helps you answer), just generally how do you think about finding a fold versus playing for stacks in these tough/marginal/stupid spots that seem to happen all the time?

You want to think about the following:

1- What your opponent might have
2- What your opponent thinks you have
3- What kind of player he is
4- How the flop and turn affect all those considerations

For instance, you check and call a dry flop with 66 on 952 with a flush draw after calling out of the blinds preflop. He fires any number of turns - now you should be considering those factors when figuring out to do. Weight them - your hand might look weak, but that isn't as important as the fact that he is generally a loose and passive player. See what I mean?

I do see what you mean and I think that's pretty much what I attempt to do when OOP. How about a spot where you are IP and your hand improves some on the turn, those are the spots that really mess me up (even though being IP should help). I guess it's sort of the same, but the fact that my hand gets a little better causes me trouble. Maybe I just need to be better at evaluating whether the turn card helped me ENOUGH to continue vs. his range/image.

Thanks.

In response to being in position - think about how he thinks the turn affects your hand and how he might use it if he's bluffing or value betting. Sometimes the turn DOES help you in that it improves your hand AND increases his bluffing frequencies. Other times it's irrelevant, and other times it might screw you because it improves both of you. So you just need to weight those variables and figure out which is most important in relation to the type of player he is.

I have been a live player only for 3 years up until a couple of weeks ago when I deposited some $$ on Full Tilt . I play 5-5, 5-10NL full ring in home games, underground games & casinos. I have watched most of your video's & like your aggressive style. My question is - in most live games, players tend to play more passive pre flop limping in with q's, j's & ak. Its not uncommon for 9 player to see a flop. The live player also hate to fold pre-flop, they will see a flop @ almost any price. They also tend to play poorly post flop. With that said, how would you play marginal type hands in position such as q-j(suited & not), a-10(suited ¬), suited connectors, a-j, mid pairs ect? would you still super agressive(raise) with multiple limpers or would you call try to take flops & outplay them? How would you play hands like a,q(suited & not), pocket j's & 10's out of the blinds with multiple limpers who wont fold? THanks

Raise more in position so you can play more pots with positional advantage. Limp more out of position.

Those are generalities, but it's a profitable general strategy.

In general, when do you attempt to:

1. Widen your opponent's range
2. Narrow your opponent's range
3. Widen your range
4. Narrow your range

Thanks for all that you do on this site.

I'm not sure what you mean here - elaborate?

Krantz, you still get coached? After you playing nosebleeds, what can tommy teach?

We spent 2 days together and talk via email/phone.

He taught me how to play my A game more often, and how to be a better professional poker player.

I'm better at poker now than I was before. Not necessarily strategy, but poker.

In general, when do you attempt to:

1. Widen your opponent's range
2. Narrow your opponent's range
3. Widen your range
4. Narrow your range

Thanks for all that you do on this site.

I'm not sure what you mean here - elaborate?

Sorry if I was too cryptic. What I'm trying to say is if you are holding abc, you would want your opponent to be holding xyz. You can take action through betting, checking, raising, whatevering that will alter his possible range in these spots. Also, you can take action that alters his perception of your range.

So...under what circumstances do you try to narrow/widen his range and under what circumstances are you trying to confuse him into thinking your range is wider or more narrow.

Does that make sense? I know what I mean, but it's difficult to communicate.

Example: When my hand is sort of weakish, I prefer that he thinks it's strong. At the same time, I would like his hand to be NOT top pair or better but also draws and 2nd pair with worse kicker. So, I design my play(s) to encourage a response that would be more likely to include hands in the range I prefer, OR, to scream loud and clear that his range is BETTER by far. Something like that...but I'm pretty confused and may be over-thinking things.

Thanks.

I think you're overthinking things or misusing the lingua. You want to think in terms of ranges - what he thinks you have and what he could possibly have, and you want to think about how the play on the turn and the river influences those ranges.

You nearly always just want to narrow his range so you know what hand you're playing against, and then act accordingly. You're not designing your play to narrow or widen his range - you're designing it to induce a fold or a call or a raise from hands that are in his range and weighted correctly.

When are you gonna post SupraBowl trip report on your blog?

When are you gonna post SupraBowl trip report on your blog?

as soon as brian sends me pictures, next cpl of days

Briefly if you don't want to go into too much detail about it; how can I play my A game more often, and how can I be a better professional poker player (two things you spoke about improving on yourself recently)?

Cheers, love your vids

Is the turn - the most misplayed street in poker ?

Krantz, you still get coached? After you playing nosebleeds, what can tommy teach?

We spent 2 days together and talk via email/phone.

He taught me how to play my A game more often, and how to be a better professional poker player.

I'm better at poker now than I was before. Not necessarily strategy, but poker.

Could you share these tips with us?? =]

Hey there, I'm having some problems with 3-bet pot continuation bets - especially when out of position. I play 200NL and say I missed the flop w/AK after 3-betting, it's burning away $60 when a c-bet fails. I know it is very player dependent but you often don't see many 3-bet pots being contested to get a good feel for their ranges and how they react in them. Do you have any guidelines for types of flops I should or should not be c-betting here. I've heard from several people that checking when OOP is never a bad strategy to use then follow up the turn with a delayed c-bet. Thanks.

Hey Krantz-

Really like the site so far, looking forward to new content.

In the second episode of lime slicer, you mention that you used to be really "paranoid" and would spew off a lot of money 5 bet bluffing but you learned to get over it. I feel like this is my biggest leak- when I'm playing other good, aggressive players I get impatient and I don't wait for hands. I tend to assume everyone's bluffing at me so I overadjust and really start spewing whether it's 5bet bluffing or making ridiculously loose calls. I rationalize it as a solid adjust in my head when I do it, but when it comes down to it, it's just bad tilty -ev poker. Can you give any advice on how you managed to get past the paranoia and/or feeling like you were always getting outplayed? Thanks.

Hey Krantz-

Really like the site so far, looking forward to new content.

In the second episode of lime slicer, you mention that you used to be really "paranoid" and would spew off a lot of money 5 bet bluffing but you learned to get over it. I feel like this is my biggest leak- when I'm playing other good, aggressive players I get impatient and I don't wait for hands. I tend to assume everyone's bluffing at me so I overadjust and really start spewing whether it's 5bet bluffing or making ridiculously loose calls. I rationalize it as a solid adjust in my head when I do it, but when it comes down to it, it's just bad tilty -ev poker. Can you give any advice on how you managed to get past the paranoia and/or feeling like you were always getting outplayed? Thanks.

I just tightened up a lot. That stopped the spewing and made things easier, and it helped me get a better feel for who and how often I was getting bluffed, since I never had to worry about rebluffing - I was always in there with a stronger range of hands.