Dynamic Full Ring Poker

by James Sweeney

  Bet. We probably have the best hand a fair amount of the time. We have a middle two pair type hand, but the Tc did fill up the flush draw and the 98 draw. A bet gives him a chance to call with his SDV hands, which is good for us as we beat his logical SDV hands. A bet also sets the price of how much we want to put in the pot.

  We bet here for $4.5 trying to get the call from Qx hands, and maybe a crying call from something like JJ or T9. Blocking here should give us value, minimize loss when he has the part of his range that beats us, and allow us to take the most +$EV line. We can visualize it like this:

  We check:

  He checks behind. With his SDV hands that might have called a bet

  He bets. The bet will usually bet bigger with his value hands (flushes, 98, QT, etc.)

  He bluffs: We don’t know how often he would bluff, as it’s not very logical given his turn action

  We bet:

  He folds his trash. We win the pot from a range that wouldn’t have given us any money anyway

  He calls his SDV hands sometimes. We win the pot from a range that might have checked behind.

  He raises his nuts. We fold and lose less than we would have had we check/called a large bet size

  Blocking bets are best made against players that won’t read it for what it is. Against thinking players that won’t hesitate to shift a hand from their trash/SDV range into their bluff range, a blocking bet can be a bit odd. However, against them we can make “false blocks.” Take a hand where we have AQ and raise to $6 from MP. A solid TAG calls from the button and we see a HU flop of QQ3. We CB for $8 and he calls. The turn is a 5 and we check to induce. He ends up checking behind. The river is a J and we bet for $12. The bet might get bluff raised a bit more, might get called a bit more, and overall gives us a better chance to maximize against him.

  This bet can help us do many things, and should often times be considered when OOP. They are great against fish and players that will love the smaller price. However, this doesn’t mean that we never want to check and induce bluffs. If we know that an opponent will bluff a ton and we are comfortable with check/calling it, then we can still take that line. The block is versatile and helps us in spots where we aren’t entirely sure about their bluffing range. Make sure to keep an eye out for these situations while playing, as they can greatly help our bottom line.

  The Bets And Their Sizes

  This section is going to talk about bet sizing. Because bet sizing can drastically alter our WR, we need to constantly be focused on maximizing our value. There are many different sizes we can use while playing NLHE, and which option we chose is based on a large range of factors:

  Elasticity

  The elasticity of our opponent can change our sizing strategy very quickly. If we know that an opponent is very elastic, then we will usually be making smaller bets. As our hand strength gets further from the nuts, we size smaller and smaller on average against elastic callers. However, against inelastic callers we can size more directly to our hand strength. The size of our bet won’t alter their decision to call/raise/fold, so we should just bet as large as possible with our nuttish hands.

  It is also important to remember that some players are elastic, but become inelastic with certain hand strengths. Take a spot where we have 99 on an A963A board. If our opponent is normally elastic, but very inelastic with trips or better, then we could consider making a very large bet on the river to exploit him. As a default we should assume that most players are elastic, but take notes if we notice any inelastic tendencies.

  Possible Calling Range

  As always, we need to think about ranges. Whenever we bet, unless we have the nuts, we need to make sure we beat at least 50% of our opponent’s calling range. Of course, by the time we get to the river we should have a decent idea on our opponent’s range, and be able to figure out if a bet would show profit against him. If so, then we can bet, if not, then we might just check behind and take our SDV.

  Action Contortion

  Bet sizes are always a funny thing. If a size is too large, then we tend to only get action from very strong hands. If a size is too large against a thinking player, they tend to think that we are very polarized. If a size is too small, it tends to get called a very large percentage of the time. If a size is too small, it tends to increase a thinking player’s chance of shifting hands from their folding range into their raising range. This is why a play like the “false block” can work well against players that do this. Overall, we need to think about how our opponent will react to the bet size that we are considering.

  Our Hand

  Of course, even though most all of our decisions are based around our opponent and their actions, we do need to look at our own hand. Does our hand have value or SDV? Did our hand have SDV on the turn, but given the subsequent action change into a bluff or value? Appropriately classifying our hand strength is the basis of VBing, so we need to make sure we are doing it well.

  Number of Players

  The number of players left in the pot can help us figure out our bet sizing. There are times when there are two opponents in the pot on the river and we select a size that might get called by both of them. This might net us more money than making a larger bet and getting either one or no calls. While it is usually rare for pots to go MW all the way to the river, it is important that we are considering maximizing the entire situation.

  $EV

  We always want to maximize our value, and we can do that by doing basic $EV calculations. Doing these calculations in real-time is difficult, so we want to familiarize ourselves with them off the table so that we can visualize our plays better in real-time. Here is the basic $EV formula:

  Let’s take a situation where we have the nuts and there is $50 in the pot with $175 left in our stacks. Let’s consider a few different bet sizes. Say a bet size of $50 would get called 15% of the time. A bet of $25 would get called 45% of the time. And a bet of $15 would get called 80% of the time. Here is the $EV of each play:

  So we notice that making the small bet, in this case, yields a better return than the other bets given the frequencies we assigned. But the second that any of the frequencies they call at changes, the entire $EV of the play is different. And of course this math is always easier when we have the nuts and nothing can beat us, so the loss section of the formula is $0. But let’s visualize the $EV of a different play. Say there is $50 in the pot and still $175 behind. In this hand we have a thin VB situation and plan on folding if we get raised. We will say that a bet of $50 would get a fold 80% of the time, a worse call 10%, and a better call or raise 10%. A bet of $25 would get a fold 50% of the time, a worse call 30%, and a better call or raise 20%. A bet of $15 would get a fold 35% of the time, a worse call 35%, and a better call or raised 30%. Here are the $EVs of each play:

  We can run $EV calculations all day and figure out optimal bet sizing, assuming we know our opponent’s frequencies. Figuring out these frequencies can seem very difficult. But if we are creating his range correctly, and consider how he would logically act with certain parts of his range, we can get a decent idea on the $EV of our bets.

  In considering these factors, think about how an opponent would react to our size. There are times when we can use very small sizes to encourage more favorable action. If we are playing against a player who might not call favorably if we bet 80% PSB, but would call favorably at 25% PSB, we can consider the smaller bet. Of course, if we don’t want to face the raise, we just need to know that he is the type of player to only increase his calling frequency based on smaller sizes, and not his bluffing frequency. Many calling stations and P-Fish tend to fall into this category, and we can use these smaller sizes for thinner VBs, assuming that the conditions are favorable for us.

  The stronger our hand is, the more value we will want to get from it. But we have to remember that sometimes getting the most value doesn’t mean making the biggest bet that gets called hardly ever. It means that we maximize our $EV on the bet. So if a smaller bet yields a
better $EV than a shove, we should make the smaller bet. Our entire goal in poker is to maximize our $EV at all times, so we need to keep the $EV formula fresh in our minds at all times. Bet sizing is an art form, but if we think about the math behind it, we can easily improve this vital skill.

  19. Turn/River Adjustments

  Now we’ll cover some plays and details that didn’t fit well into the other turn and river chapters. While some of this could have been extrapolated, this chapter aims to give more backing to things like sizes, board reading, and thought processes.

  The Sticky Bets

  This concept goes hand in hand with pot geometry and planning. Say we have a spot where we have 99 on a board of A943. We have $40 left in the effective stack with $42 in the pot. Many players, for one reason or another, would shove here. But what about making two smaller bets instead?

  If we bet something like $20 here and the last $20 on the river, we have created a much ‘stickier’ situation for our opponent than just going for one big bet. Think about how you would react in this situation. You might not like facing a big bet, but you are most certainly more comfortable facing multiple small bets. When facing multiple small bets it suddenly doesn’t feel so bad psychologically even though it is the same amount of money.

  We can think of our opponents as consumers of our product, wherein our product is the hand strength that we are selling. Some basic ideas we can recognize from everyday marketing include:

  Many small purchases feel better psychologically than few big purchases

  Bigger prices tell people that a product is more valuable

  Smaller prices tell people that a product is less valuable

  Poker has lots of these "consumer purchasing" truths in it, and we can use these truths to our advantage. Remember to make bet sizes that are appropriate for the situation and are in line with the plan for the hand. And consider times to make stickier bets. If a bigger bet will get called rarely, but a slightly smaller bet will get called a ton (especially earlier in a hand when we can trap someone in with a weaker holding to pay off more later), it is sometimes best to make the smaller bet if we want calls on later streets.

  The Timing Tells

  Any extra information we can extract can be useful, and people are often times very careless with their timing tells. A timing tell is a tell based up on how quickly a player acts. While this of course is player dependent, and can change based on things like how many tables a player is playing, there are some things we want to consider:

  What timing have they used in the past?

  This is by far the most important piece to the puzzle as it establishes a baseline of normal actions. If a player always acts quickly, and then suddenly acts slowly, a red flag has been raised. While this doesn’t necessarily tell us anything about their hand, if they act quickly with big hands, and slowly with bluffs, we can use that information. If they tend to call SDV hands quickly and spend more time thinking about their big hands, then we have information we can use. Always remember that timing tells help us understand how much time they need to process information, but it is relative to the individual player and their standard timing with certain hands and actions.

  The “Hollywood”

  Many fish still use this tactic, and even regs will use it occasionally. The “Hollywood” is when a player takes a very long time with a nut hand in an effort to make us think he has a tough decision. The only thing they forget is that they usually end up raising after timing down so much, which turns their range face up. When a fishy player, especially a P-Fish, times down a lot and then raises, they almost always have a super strong hand.

  The slow reg decision

  Regulars are always funny when it comes to timing. Think about how you react when you make a decision. If you are playing lots of tables and have a big hand, especially postflop, you tend to pay more attention to that table. Because of this, you tend to act a little quicker with hands that are stronger, because you know that the situation is important and you already have a plan for it. Now, regs tend to do this as well. But when regs are thinking about making a play, they tend to be a little slower because they are checking HUD stats and such to see if a play is good. For instance, say they open the button, we 3-bet from the blinds, and they spend a little time before making a 4-bet. This is often indicative of them checking stats to see if they can get away with a play, because if they had a hand like AA that was an automatic 4-bet, they would usually act a bit faster.

  Our own timing

  While we should always be looking for these tells in our opponents, we also need to be aware of our own timing. Like we talked about earlier, regs have a tendency to act faster with their easy hands, and slower when they are looking up different stats and thinking about running bluffs. We do not want to fall into this trap and ideally would want all of our VBs and bluffs to look so similar that we don’t give any information away. Especially PF, and when considering a play like a squeeze or a light 4-bet, we usually want to act faster rather than slower. This is why we want to check out information before action evens comes to us. There are times when we steal and we should know right away if we are going to 4-bet or not; we should have already checked their stats and figured out our plan. This keeps our actions looking more real and will make us harder to play against if we take similar time with different hand strengths.

  The Good/Bad Card

  There are times when we catch a good card that is bad for the texture of the board. These situations come up a fair amount of the time, and it is important that we recognize them and take appropriate lines. Let’s look at an example. Say we raise with AcJc from the CO. The button calls and we see a HU flop of 8c7c3h. We CB and he calls. The turn is a Kc and the action is on us.

  This is a perfect example of a good/bad card. It is great for our hand as it made us a big hand (or in this case, the nuts), but is a pretty bad card for the board. It is an over card, it filled a flush draw, and looks like it would have logically hit our range if we bet it again. A bet here would very often not get us paid unless our opponent has a strong 2pr or better type hand.

  We need to plan ahead for these kinds of cards, especially when we are considering drawing. Of course, in this situation with the nut flush we are very happy with our hand. But say we had Td9d on a 6d5d3h flop. Any flush card is bad for the board as it fills a flush and also puts either a 4 straight or over card on the turn or river. When we are thinking about drawing we need to consider how many of our improvement cards would be good/bad cards, and understand that they are often times relatively bad for getting maximum value out of our hand when we hit.

  The Bad/Good Card

  There are also times when we catch a card this is bad for our hand, but good for bluffing on. These occasional situations are important to understand so we can give ourselves extra ways to win pots. Let’s take a situation where we have A♠Q♠ and raise from MP. The CO calls and we see a HU flop of T♠8♠4♣. We CB and he calls. The turn is a K♥ and the action is on us.

  This is a perfect example of a bad/good card. It is bad for us, in that it didn’t improve our hand. But it is good for us in that we can use it to get some extra folds. All we have at this point is a big draw, but certainly not a very big hand. The card gave us some extra equity with the gutshot, but we still wouldn’t mind if our opponent folded right here, as we will brick the river often enough.

  Thinking about these cards is important when we are considering running double barrel bluffs and such. Boards like K84 or A98 don’t offer many cards that we can use to scare our opponent on the turn/river. But a board like T87 or 863 offer many. Considering how many of these cards can come off can give us extra ways to win pots when we are floating or betting with intentions of double barreling.

  The Love Of A Pair

  While playing pairs, especially SDV pairs like 99-QQ, is an important skill, the line to take can usually be extrapolated from what we’ve discussed in previous chapters. But we’ve yet to specifically discuss pair val
ue and when pairs are best folded or best called down.

  When considering a call down with a pair, or any call, we need to consider our opponent’s range versus the board texture. While QQ is a very strong hand, there are times when we fold it to two barrels from a tight player. There are also times when we call it down against spastic opponents. Let’s look at a couple of examples:

  Say MP opens to $3 at 100NL, we call in the CO with QQ, the BB calls as well and we see a MW flop of J♠8♠6♦. BB checks, MP bets $4, we call and the BB folds. We see a 5♦ on the turn and he bets into us for $8.5. Let’s explore our options:

  Raise. If our opponent wouldn’t continue with worse hands, a raise just turns our hand into a bluff.

  Call. Against an aggressive player who would barrel bluffs and SDV hands like AJ or 98 into us, a call can be a great play. If this player bets wider, we should also be prepared to call rivers more often as well, because they would probably incorrectly bet those too. Against tight players who would only bet the turn again with AA or JJ type hands, a call would just be burning money. Usually tight players will only bet the turn again with big hands, which puts QQ at the bottom of our plausible C-Range.