Dynamic Full Ring Poker

by James Sweeney

  How am I performing from the blinds?

  While blind win rates are supposed to be negative, I want to make sure that my loss rates are not too negative. Most players tend to leak horribly from the blinds, either from not restealing enough, not stealing from the SB enough, SB completion ranges, etc. Keeping our blind loss rates at a minimum is imperative to our success.

  How are my big hands faring?

  I like to isolate for individual hands and see how profitable they are. If QQ hands are negative, or KK hands are breaking even, I might have some leaks in my game. I would run through a bunch of hands and see what is going on. I would control the DB for variance, but certainly check hands to make sure my line selection is optimal. If things look wrong, I post hands that I have questions on or also reconsider the lines that I have been taking.

  How profitable am I when I call raises?

  Running simple filters like “did cold call = true” can be very helpful. If I see I am overall negative when cold calling, I want to see which parts of my range are creating that. Was it variance? Was it running low on hitting sets? Or was it something like the IO in my game are sinking? If my cold calling is losing me money, then I should just stop doing it until I improve postflop. This would be especially so if no part of my cold call range is positive.

  How profitable are my 3-bets?

  A simple filter like “did 3-bet = true” can be great to check out how profitable my 3-betting is. I like to run this filter and then control for different parts of my range. I want to see how my AK is performing when I 3-bet, and how I am doing when I 3-bet trash. If I see red somewhere then I want to figure out why. It is important to note that we need bigger and bigger samples to get a lot of reliability from more specific stats like 3-betting with specific hands.

  How profitable am I when I call a 3-bet?

  Many players show major losses when they flat call a 3-bet. It is hard to show profit here for the average person. This is a big part of the reason why I suggested not doing much flatting of 3-bets earlier in the book. However, a lot of players panic because they don’t want to be exploitable here. Technically if they have a Foldv3-bet that is higher than 67%, they are exploitable as they are folding enough that any person can show an outright profit by 3-betting them with ATC (so long as their sizing isn’t terrible). If you are scared of this, go read the “The Balancing Act” section of chapter 19.

  How profitable am I when I 4-bet?

  I like to check out how my 4-betting is doing, especially when I am 4-betting more aggressively. I like to control for various parts of my range, more specifically my AK, trash, and KK+ parts. I like to see green in all of them, but if I see losses, I might need to reconsider how aggressively I am 4-betting them. If players are folding versus all of my 4-bets when I have KK+, I might consider flatting their 3-bets occasionally just to keep them in with a wider range. If my trash is losing money when I am 4-betting it, then I might not be picking the best of spots or a player might be adjusting by 5-bet shoving on me more liberally. Should that be the case, I can just shift my 4-bet range against him to pure value until he adjusts.

  How are my CBs faring?

  I always want to see how my CBs are doing. Am I showing a lot of profit here or not? I like to check my CBsuccess stat to see if my CBs are outright profitable with some buffer. Overall I check this to make sure that I am not missing CBs (aka, CBing too little), or CBing so much that I am losing money with them. I will also check this with certain parts of my range. For instance, I might run a filter for the times that I raised 22-66 from EP and CB the flop. I want to see if that play is showing profit, or if I need to reconsider either the CB or opening it in the first place.

  Am I double barreling enough?

  Many players don’t pay enough attention to their turn play. While it is difficult to check this, I want to see if I am turn betting enough of the time. If I am CBing the flop and check/folding the turn too often in good double barrel spots, I need to know that. If I am missing turn VBs by checking to induce in less than ideal situations, I need to know that as well. I can usually get a feel for my turn play by running through hands after each session, but it never hurts to take a second look.

  How well am I calling rivers?

  I love cleaning up my river play. If I am making too many river calls I like to know that. If I am taking losses then I need to consider taking different lines. Maybe I could have bluff raised the river or folded against a range that was too strong for me to call against. But players also go the other extreme. If I am calling rivers too well, it might mean that I am missing VBs on the turn. While my turn check may have induced a bluff, he might have had a range that would have called me on the turn and considered a crying call on the river. I know this section is vague, but that’s only due to the complexities of turn/river plays from a general standpoint.

  Can I add or delete things?

  One of my favorite things to do over the last few months has been to totally revamp a players profitability by strictly adding and deleting things to/from their game. For instance, I love going through a sample for 100K hands, seeing that raising 22-66 from X position is bad and deleting it entirely from their range. Or seeing that someone is losing a ton while flatting 3-bets, so I just tell them to stop flatting 3-bets almost always and either 4-bet or fold. Or redesigning an entire PF raising range because a certain range is getting killed in a specific game condition. The difficult things actually becomes adding. Usually it best to add slowly, reevaluate the performance of the added range after 20K hands, and then continue adding or deleting as you see fit.

  Just from exploring my DB I can see what is going on. I can see how certain plays of mine are performing, and make adjustments based upon that. If I see that my 3-bets are working at sick success rates, then I might consider 3-betting more liberally until the game adjusts. If I see that I am getting 3-bet a ton, then I might adjust my opening range or decide to start 4-betting more liberally. If I see that my CBs are working at a very high frequency, I might consider using a smaller size or CBing a little more often.

  My DB is the source of creative line composition. I see how things are performing and adjust based upon that. We can use our DB to see what the average player pool is comprised of (which player type dominates the tables the most), see how those players play, and create exploitative lines. Our DB has perfect information recollection and we should look to use it whenever possible to improve our lines and overall profitability.

  The Lines Of The Future

  The lines of tomorrow are on you to create. Think about what players are doing, and create exploitative plays. And while this works in the global sense (exploiting a player pool), also consider creating plays that attack an individual player. If you see that a player is always doing X, then counter it with a play that takes advantage of that. If you see a player is constantly 3-betting and check/folding if he misses, we can consider countering him by flatting more hands IP. If you see that a player is constantly CBing and then check/folding turns without nuttish hands, then look to float and stab more liberally.

  Again, creative line composition isn’t the most essential skill set. Having your fundamentals totally nailed down is much more important. But being able to find exploitative qualities in a player or in a game, and being able to attack them, is a great way to add some extra profit to your bottom line. Just make sure you are constantly evaluating any plays (using the DB is a good idea for this) and adjust as the game adjusts. Some plays will be usable for long periods of time, and others will not; it’s just based on your games and how they react. Just keep grinding and adjusting, and you will do just fine in this wonderful game called poker.

  End Game

  This chapter will wrap up the book. I hate when a poker book just ends abruptly and doesn’t really conclude all of the information just talked about. So this chapter will try to highlight some of things we have talked about and wish you luck on your way to the tables.

  There are a few very im
portant things to note about this book. In case you didn’t realize it, the PF section made up the biggest part of the book in terms of words written. Then flop play, and turn/river play made up the least in terms of words written. This was very much intentional. Because poker is very linear, it is so important that we start a hand well. Using an incorrect range, or making an incorrect play, can be the initial step in a disastrous fall.

  This is why we focused so much on preflop play and making sure that we were selecting solid ranges, sizes, and plays. This sets up the rest of the hand, and should keep us out of trouble and keep us focusing on good spots. The flop section is so big because we see more flops than turns/rivers, and again, making flop mistakes can make for very difficult and possibly -EV play later in the hand. The turn/river chapters were lumped together because they are so tightly related, and just thinking about whether we are in a VB or bluff mode should point us in the right direction at any time.

  If we also think about where the density of words are, we notice that VBing is about twice as large as the barreling section. This is because VBing is so much more important, especially at the micros. If we go back to the mindset section in chapter 9 we see:

  “Use a solid hand range and position, value bet winners within reason, and only take good potshot bluffs.”

  This is why we focus so much on ensuring that our VB game is very strong. Knowing when our hand is actually value versus SDV, or even a bluff, helps us frame our hand and create a line around it. Bluffing is easy. Bet if we think we can get enough folds. In micro and small games many players call too much, which makes bluffing difficult and usually not very profitable. So we choose hand ranges preflop that allow us to catch stronger hands postflop and VB when we can.

  The rest of our strategy is just thinking about ranges. Building an O-Range, constructing a logical C-Range, and selecting lines that exploit the gap, or lack thereof, between the two. Remember that we can use different sizes to keep a C-Range wider or smaller. These sizing details are crucial for our long term success, and improving in this skill will help us create favorable situations. While the contortion of range can be confusing, if we just pay attention to how certain players are responding to sizes, we can more correctly select our betting strategy.

  While most of this book talked about the parameters that go into certain plays, most any play not directly mentioned can be extrapolated. Thinking about making a CR on the turn can easily be extrapolated from the CR chapter and the VB/Bluff chapter. Thinking about making a hero fold can be extrapolated from the VB chapter and the hero folding section. Most everything we could possibly need has been written or covered to some degree. The biggest things not mentioned were psychological things like tilt control and bank roll management. But those are things that are written about, by people much more knowledgeable than myself, in various other places. This book is about decision making on the table, off-table strategy creation, and extrapolated thought processes on a wide range of strategic topics.

  Again, the big thesis of this book is to think. Think about our strategy, think about ranges, think about details, and create the best lines possible. By simply asking ourselves what a play would accomplish, we can veer away from common pitfalls with relative ease. Poker is as simple as we make it, and playing a solid and straight forward game will keep us profitable most of the time. Remember all this when you get on the tables. Reread sections as you need to, but go play and focus on good decision making. Adjust as need be, VB well, and keep pots smaller when you are confused. Hopefully after reading all of this you are able to crush your game, move to higher levels, and launch well into your poker journey. Good luck out there, and happy grinding!

  Glossary

  3B = 3-bet, or a reraise

  4B = 4-bet, or a reraise of a 3-bet

  5B = 5-bet, or a reraise of a 4-bet

  AI = All in

  Air = A bluff hand

  ATB = Any two broadway cards

  ATC = Any two cards

  Back-raise = When a player calls an open-raise and then 4-bets a 3-bet

  Bink = To hit something

  Bluff = A bet made expecting better hands to fold

  Brick = A card that changes the board very little. Or to miss

  BRM = Bankroll Management

  Broadway Card = Any T, J, Q, K, or A. (Comes from the term “broadway straight”, which is a T-A straight)

  Bx = broadway and a non-broadway card

  C-Range = Continuance/Continuation range

  C/C = Check/call

  C/F = Check/fold

  C/Shove = Check/Go all in

  CB = Continuation bet

  CO = Cutoff, or the position directly to the right of the button

  Contort/Contortion = To change or bend

  CR = Check raise

  DB = Database

  Elastic = Describes a player who would give more or less action depending on the bet size

  Elasticity = Refers to how elastic, or inelastic, a player is

  EP = Early position

  EV = Expected value

  FD = Flush draw

  Fit-or-fold = When a player folds if he missed the flop and calls/raises if he hit it

  FPS = Fancy Play Syndrome (aka, making complex plays for no reason)

  HJ = Hijack, or the position directly to the right of the CO

  HU = Heads up

  HUD = A Headsup Display, which is used to show stats and other useful data on the table in real-time

  Inelastic = Describes a player who would give action at the same frequency, regardless of the bet size

  IO = Implied odds

  IP = In position

  LAG = A loose/aggressive player

  LP = Late position

  MinCR = A minimum check raise

  Minimax = A game theory decision that focuses on minimizing loss and maximizing gain

  Monotone = All of the same suit

  MP = Middle position

  MR = A minimum raise

  MW = Multi way

  NFD = Nut flush draw

  Nit = A very tight player

  Nuttish = A hand that isn’t quite the nuts, but is almost certainly the best hand

  O-Range = Original range

  OESD = Open ended straight draw

  OOP = Out of position

  Open/Open-Raise = The first raise in a pot with no limpers

  Peel = To call and play the next street

  PF = Preflop

  PFR = Preflop raise statistic. Or the preflop raiser

  Potshot Bluff = A bluff that exposes very little of our stack and has a high success frequency

  PSB = Pot-sized bet

  Resteal = To reraise/3-bet a steal

  Reverse Parlay = A situation where a player loses the most when behind, and wins very little when ahead. This is effectively a situation where a player gets crushed in the minimax game.

  ROI = Return on investment

  RIO = Reverse implied odds

  SC = Suited connector

  SDV = Showdown value

  Set-or-jet = When a player folds if he missed his set on the flop, or calls/raises if he hits it

  SG = Suited gapper

  Ship/Ship It = Go all in

  SPR = Stack to pot ratio

  TAG = A tight/aggressive player

  TPTK = Top pair with top kicker

  TPMK = Top pair with a medium kicker

  VB = Value Bet. A bet made expecting second best hands to continue

  VPIP = Voluntarily put money in pot statistic

  WAWB = A way ahead/way behind situation

  Wheel Card = Any A, 2, 3, 4, or 5. (Comes from the term “wheel”, which is an A-5 straight)

  WL = A weak-loose player

  WR = Win rate

  WT = A weak-tight player

  XXXr = A rainbow (no flush draw) board

  Recommended Readings

  No-Limit Workbook: Exploiting Regulars

  Nosebleed player and NAPT winner Tom “Kingsofcards” Marchese and High Stakes
Player ‘Slowhabit’ will show you WHY you are struggling in your regular game. It’s because you unknowingly GIVE UP a lot of pots and are getting OUTPLAYED. This book will teach you how to AVOID MAKING COMMON MISTAKES over and over again.

  “As a 200nl player with aspirations to play higher, this will be a great addition.”

  — Respected DeucesCracked Member WhiteheatSyd

  Let There Be Range

  “If you are a low-midstakes grinder and proven winner, and can afford it, get the book! I don’t think realistically anyone can create/recreate a book as powerful as Let There Be Range for at least another 10 years.”