Dynamic Full Ring Poker

by James Sweeney

  Let’s list some of the more common factors that make depolarizing our CB range good:

  Where a check wouldn’t accomplish anything: We talked in “The Polarized CB” section about checking to induce good action. Either a check would minimize loss, induce bluffs, induce lighter calls later, etc. But against certain players, a check just wouldn’t do anything. For instance, say the BB was a nit. We think he calls preflop with things like small pairs in an effort to setmine. If we thought a check by us would never get 66 to call the turn, or to bluff the turn at us, then the check wouldn’t be creating good action. Yes, it would keep us from getting check-raised, but it would just give our opponent the chance to crush us in the minimax game.

  Against good hand readers: When playing against good hand readers, we acknowledge that polarizing our CB range every time turns our hand very face up. To counteract this, we can depolarize our CB range sometimes so we don’t give our hand away. Of course, by doing this we will have to face the flop raise a bit more (because checking was done in an effort to minimize facing the flop raise), but as good players we should be able to handle the situation well, especially in position.

  Against calling stations: Players that call wide and don’t raise much, are great for depolarized CBing. Take a hand where we raise TT and the flop comes J72, we can CB for pure value against a calling station. He will peel most all of his pair range on that board, gutshots, etc, giving us more value. Especially on textures that are conducive to peeling, we should look to bet these SDV hands that can get lots of second best hands to continue.

  In good multi way pots: As talked about in “The Multi Way CB” section, betting something like AJ on QJ5 and JJ on K94 can be good. These are spots where we don’t want to check/call or check/raise, but do think fighting for the pot is worthwhile even though we turn our hand into a semi-bluff.

  The Multi Way CB

  Continuation betting multi way is always a tough thing to talk about. There are many schools of thought on multi way CBing. Some players will only CB multi way if they have a hand, and others will not change their CB strategy in the slightest. We kind of want our multi way CB strategy to fall in the middle of those. We want to fight for some pots in certain situations, but usually we just want to be playing straight forward.

  Like always, we care more about the external variables than things like our hand. We care about who our opponents are, the board texture, and how each of them will respond to a bet. Take a hand where we open raise KQs from MP1, and the button and SB call. We see a flop of 974 and the SB checks to us. Regardless of who either of these players are, we are normally just going to check and give up here. The board came horribly, we are not in position, we hit nothing, and we have no reason to believe we are getting a lot of folds on this board. Again, low flops are getting peeled and bluffed often, so we just check and give up here.

  Let’s take the opposite side of the spectrum and say we have TT instead of KQs, and the flop comes T85. The SB checks to us and it is our option. We want to get a big pot going, and see no reason to check here. Of course, this is all before we look at our opponents. If the button were a very aggressive player who would bet if checked to almost always, then we could consider checking and letting him fire at the pot. However, if both players were calling stations, betting becomes better. If we are unsure of the player types of our opponents, we should just default on betting our big hands and checking our air.

  The marginal situations are where multi way pots get interesting; like raising 88 and having the flop come Q74 or having AJ having the flop come KJ5. First, we approach each multi way spot differently. There is a big difference between a three way pot, a four way pot, or a five+ way pot. The fewer the players, the more we want to bet those kinds of spots, and the more players, the more we just want to give up and play straight forward. Secondly, we realize we are playing a hand like 88 on Q74 as more of a semi-bluff. Ideally we would pick the pot up with the CB, but if called, we always have some equity and occasionally the best hand.

  Finally, we should ask ourselves what action or actions do we really want to face? Let’s take a hand where we open raise JJ from EP, and get callers from MP, the CO, and BB. The flop comes Q94 and the BB checks to us. We don’t really want to check here and face a bet. We don’t know where we stand against that bet, and the rest of the hand will be increasingly difficult if we c/c it. We also don’t want to risk the flop getting checked through and letting any of a number of terrible cards fall on the turn. A check also doesn’t really encourage super light calls later, and any bluff it encourages isn’t one we really want to face. At this point we just need ask ourselves which play we think is best. We should check and pretty much give up if we think a bet is going to get raised too often or that these players hit this flop too often. If we think they would play very straight fit-or-fold, and/or that they would float some second best hands and play straight forward for the rest of the hand, then betting is a great option.

  Although each individual player approaches multi way pots differently, there are still some common truths about players and their global approach to the situation.

  Nit. Like always, these players are incredibly tight. This is no different in multi way pots and they will tend to float rarely and bluff almost never. If we get into a multi way pot with just nits, we should consider attacking the flop liberally.

  TAG. These players tend to be tight as well in these pots, especially out of position. They peel a bit more liberally in position, and their global bluffing frequency tends to be low from all positions. Because their cold calling range preflop is usually comparable to the nits in small pair density, big flops should be attacked often.

  LAG. By far the toughest player in a multi way pot. They are more sporadic in these pots and will randomly apply pressure. They understand the tight nature of these pots and will attack our CB more liberally. They will also peel more in position, and a bit more out of position than the TAG would. When these players are in multi way pots with us we should usually play more straight forward and keep most of our bets strictly for value.

  Fish. These players don’t understand the dynamic that multi way pots create, and thus they keep their same continuance strategy against a CB. They peel often, bluff randomly, and aren’t shy about doing so from out of position either. When these players are in our multi way pots we want to CB pretty much only for value. Although there are some spots where we have a three way pot with a fish and nit where a bluff CB is good, veer to the side of straight forward value bets when fish are in pots.

  Notice again that we are simplifying the process of analyzing this CB situation. Instead of thinking of a spot as “we have AQ on a KQ4 flop against a 12/7 and a 42/8” we can think “we have a SDV hand against a nit and fish” and CB. Again, so much goes into these multi way pots that all we can really talk about is what goes into making a good decision. Make sure we are picking only the best of spots to bluff at (multiple nit or TAG villains), CBing when players will call with worse (big hands against fish), or CBing when a check doesn’t accomplish anything (SDV hands against most players). If we are constantly analyzing the information correctly and implementing our analysis optimally, then we will thrive in this odd multi way spot.

  The CB Size

  The CB success chart below shows how often a CB size needs to work in order to show a profit. We see that a CB of 50% pot needs to work at least 33% of the time to show a profit, and a CB of 70% pot needs to work at least 41% of the time to show a profit. The size of our CB is vital to our success. If we are constantly taking break even bets, then we are losing profit if a smaller bet would have gotten the job done.

  Many books and online resources will suggest using 66% as a standard CB size. That size has to work at least 39% of the time to show a profit. While it isn’t a bad size by any stretch, we should never just do something because a source tells us to. We should dig into ‘why’ 66% is the size that these sources are using. The major reason why 66% is used as the stan
dard CB size is because it is simple to calculate, it gives us a profitable parlay, and works well in both a value and bluff sense. Remember, a CB can be for value or as a bluff.

  But let’s think for a moment about how we could change our size more profitably. Say we are bluffing in a very tight game where players are very fit-or-fold postflop. Why should we bet 66% of the pot if 40% would get the job done? 66% of the pot needs to work at least 39% of the time, while a 40% of the pot bet only needs to work at least 29% of the time to show a profit. In a fit-or-fold game, we should use the smaller size when bluffing because we lose less when we are behind and get action, and we make nothing extra if we win.

  Whenever we are bluffing to win the pot, we are risking our bet to win the pot. So why risk more if it doesn’t do anything for us? By the same token, if we have a strong hand are playing against a fish who never folds, then we should bet as big as he is willing to call with a favorable range. Usually we have a vastly different sizing strategy for a fish than a regular, due to the regular being more cognizant of bet sizes, pot geometry, etc.

  Our continuation bet size should be very dynamic. Each CB situation is different. In some spots we are continuation betting into a fish, in others a tight fit-or-fold player. In some spots we have the nuts, and in many more we have air. If we were going to use a static size we should consider something smaller than 66% given the fit-or-fold dynamic of full ring. Regardless, make sure to keep the exact situation we are facing in mind (our hand, our opponent(s), the board texture, our plan, etc.) and choose a size that works best for this particular hand.

  12. Floating And Calling

  As people begin understanding that CB ranges are wide, they will naturally begin to float against them more often. A float is effectively calling a bet with an idea on how we will win the pot on later streets. We will also talk about calling flop bets with hands with SDV as well. This chapter will cover peeling considerations, bluff floating, and then value calling.

  The Floating/Calling Considerations

  The big thing to keep in mind while floating or calling is that it is done with a plan in mind. We don’t just peel for no reason. We either call because we think our hand is best and we know how we are going to win. Or we float with a bluff/semi-bluff and a clear idea on how we are going to attack future cards. Floating tends to work best against players that we have reads on. So floating against an unknown is going to be very hard because we don’t have a clear idea on how we can win the pot, nor with what frequency we would win.

  These are some things we want to be aware of while considering a float or call:

  Our opponent is predictable

  An opponent that will CB-and-quit without a strong hand is a perfect opponent to float or call against. We have an idea on how they will play the pot out and an idea on how often our peel would work.

  To float or raise?

  Many times we would risk the same amount of money if we floated and stabbed the turn as we would if we outright raised the flop. However, when we float, we take the parlay of getting more information from our opponent while also giving them the chance to catch on the turn. This is also where reads on our opponent and their frequencies can help us.

  Double barrelers can be bad

  Many players make the mistake of peeling liberally against very aggressive players. Usually when peeling we want to do it against the CB-and-quit player type, as we will have to risk the least amount of money with the most amount of information. Aggressive players will often times double barrel, and make peeling the flop less ideal because we are just going to fold the turn. Peeling against them on the flop only to fold to the turn bet is just burning money, and something we want to avoid doing.

  Equity is our friend

  When players first start peeling they often times do so with a range that is too wide: either calling with pairs that are too small, or floating hands with no real equity. Calling with 99 on a J high flop is much better than 33 on a T high flop. And floating a gutshot is usually better than floating a pure bluff. When floating we usually like our hand to have a few outs to strong hands (a gutshot, a pair that could catch a winning set, etc) so we can hit and get paid when we are against the strong side of our opponent’s range.

  The Bluff Float

  Bluff floating flops is very simple mostly because we should really only be doing so in select spots. Like we talked about in the previous section, the big things we care about are our equity and our opponent. If we know our opponent will always CB-and-quit, then we should be floating much more liberally assuming that his CB range is very wide. Again, if he is going to double barrel a wide range, then floating becomes less ideal because of the money necessary to run the play coupled with the level of uncertainty that comes along with it.

  Let’s look at a very common situation. A nitty 11/6 raises from EP with a 4% EPPFR, it folds to us on the button and we call with T9s, and we see a HU flop of A76r. He CBs $4 into $7.5 and the action is on us. If we take a look at a 4% range we see it is 99+/AK. If we see how that range hits the flop we see it hits TP or better 40% of the time, and the other 60% is made up of 99-KK. If we think he would CB his whole range now (and usually we can assume that is so when players have very high CB percentages), and we know that he is a CB-and-quit type player, a float here is perfect.

  We can catch an 8 and get paid in the event that he has a strong hand on the turn. We can also win by stabbing when he checks the turn. We are simply using our positional edge and forcing our opponent to play a very difficult spot. With such definitive boards this play can be very easy against CB-and-quit type players, and we should look to pressure them whenever possible.

  Many players will look at the Flopzilla results and ask themselves if they should raise the flop (because only 40% of his range, at max, would probably continue if we did raise the flop). This is a very valid question to ask, but we have to consider the parlays and logical actions. By raising we are risking, say, $13. If we call the CB and bet the turn for $9 we are actually risking the same $13. However, when we call and bet the turn we do so with more information. We get to see how he reacts to the turn. We get to see if he bets at us with his strong hands and then we never put more money at risk. We also get to take our equity draw for cheap. Maintaining and using our positional edge is something we want to do often, and often times floating is a great way to do that.

  Let’s look at another hand that comes up fairly often. Say a player opens from MP, we call in the CO with 55, and see a HU flop of J93. MP bets at us and it’s our action. With no information on MP this is a very easy fold. In fact, if we had information that MP was a fish, an unknown, an aggressive double barreler, or a minimal CBer then this is still a very easy fold. Again, the big things we are looking for is a person who CBs a wide range of hands, and plays CB-and-quit postflop. That is all. We can see this in a large FlopCB and small TurnCB percentage. But we also have to look at board texture.

  We notice that the A76 board from the first example is a very definitive board texture. Our opponent either has a hand that he likes (AA/AK) or has a few outs (KK or JJ). There are no overcards that can hit the turn that can be double barreled. The J93 board is less definitive. There are lots of overcards that can hit the turn (Q, K, A) and hands that we beat now, like AK, have decent equity to improve. Also, if our opponent has a hand like KK, he is unlikely to bet the turn again on the A76 board, but very likely to bet the turn again on the J93 board. We want our opponent to check/fold the turn, not bet again at us (either as a bluff or for value).

  We’ve talked a lot about not floating against aggressive double barrelers. While aggressive double barrelers will have a non-zero percentage of bluffs in their double barrel range, the issue is our exposure. Take a situation where we float the flop with 66 on a Q83 board. The turn comes a 5 and he bets again. Let’s look at our options:

  Fold. Calling the flop just to fold the turn a very large percentage of the time is just burning money

  Call. How are we going to w
in the pot? We have a pure bluff catcher, and do we plan on calling a likely river bet? If so, we are talking about exposing a very large percentage of our stack to call off with a single weak pair.

  Raise. We don’t really represent too much as we would probably call a hand like KQ. Thus we rep 88, 33, and very rarely a floated 55. So we represent very few combinations of hands, and any good hand reader will pick up on that very quickly. Couple that with the fact that we have to expose a very large percentage of our stack with no great idea on how often it will work. Whenever it comes to having big exposure with big uncertainty, it is usually best to pass on the opportunity. But if our opponent would fold a ton of the time versus a raise, then we could consider it if we knew that he could fold hands like QJ/KK sometimes/bluffs/etc. enough of the time.