Min-raising buttons and depolarizing 4B range

[LWRC4WROL]

The situation:

I've been playing micro-stakes HUNL lately and much to my surprise, I've encountered multiple players who 3B 20-40% and never fold to 4bets. I've gotten myself into a few bad spots by 4Bing hands like K6o and Q6s against players who don't fold to 4bets. If people aren't going to be folding to my 4Bets then I need to make some adjustments.

My style:

My VPIP is usually something between 45-55, PFR something is like 40-50, and 3B 10-20. My standard button open is 3BB, standard CB is 5BB, CB 1/2-2/3 pot in 3B pots, and CB about 1/3 pot in 4B pots.

Possible solutions:

The easiest one would be to tighten up my opening range. But by how much? I should be making most of my money on the button and I hate having to play reactively. I like having the initiative and forcing my opponents to make tough decisions, not the other way around. Which is why I like to have a 4B range.

I also don't like flatting a ton of 3Bets 100BB deep. When I do flat, I prefer to do it with hands that play decently, like JTo+, AXs, KXs, 77+. I think I'm spewing money when I'm flatting stuff like 97s and 66 100BB deep. What kinds of hands should I absolutely be defending and absolutely be folding?

I've experimented with min-raising close to 100% of buttons. I don't have strong feelings for it one way or the other. But I prefer to build pots when I'm in position and have the initiative. If I do start min-raising buttons and my opponent continues to 3B and flats 4bets with the same frequency, what do you think about depolarizing our 4B range? The pro is that we get a bunch of money in with what's likely the best hand. The con is that we can get shoved on and variance goes through the roof.

The sensible side of me thinks that I should min-raise 75% of buttons aginst this type of opponent, defend against 3Bs selectively, and only 4B AQ+, TT+. But I can just see my non-showdown winnings plummeting like the stock market after 9/11. Too soon?

Anyways, I recognize that I'm a terribad and any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[klink10k]

you are playing way way way way way too tight. think about it this way: if you are playing 45% of hands, your opponent can literally not put a single cent in postflop and win money.

[don caballero]

In HU, one guy is usually the aggressor and the other person is the "reactor". It can actually be much more profitable to be the reactor against guys who don't know how to properly adjust to their aggressive image.

As klink said, you need to start raising more; closer to 85-90% of buttons vs the average player. Against aggro 3bettors, you might want to go down to 75% or so and open for a min-raise.

If you're not comfortable flatting 3-bets, you need to widen your 4-bet value range (depolarize). If they're calling 4-bets a lot, stick to broadway hands that make good top pairs. If you expect them to 5-bet bluff more than flat, I'd be 4-betting with ATo+, A9s+, 77+.

You can also start 4-bet jamming small and mid pairs, Axs, and some AK, AQ hands to balance

[d2themfi]

Well your main problem is only calling JTo+, AXs, KXs, 77+. You are probably not actually spewing money when calling weaker hands, only feels that way. Even if you are, the correct decision does not then become, "just dont play them". It becomes, "get better", which will involve continuing to play those hands.

Your defense range is a function of too many variables to give cookie cutter advice. His 3bet %, the makeup of his 3bet range (is it polarized and value heavy, polarized and bluff heavy, or linear?), his 3bet sizing, and his postflop strategy all play major parts

[LWRC4WROL]

I just saw the replies on this thread. I didn't see any for a while so I forgot about the thread.

"you are playing way way way way way too tight. think about it this way: if you are playing 45% of hands, your opponent can literally not put a single cent in postflop and win money."

If I would have read this a month ago, my head might have exploded. I've been playing HU against some super passive players since the Lock/Cake merge. I've been opening something like 95-100% of buttons and more or less just having my way. 1 or 2 of my opponents were even folding like 40% of their buttons to me. This really helped me to understand just how much money I was giving away.

I really appreciate the comments on this thread. I've played more HUNL since my initial post, watched a grip of HU videos, and I'm finally starting to understand what you guys are saying.

[LWRC4WROL]

Also, I was using the standard 6max VPP/PFR back then. Now I use the much more useful VPSB/VPBB/ST.