In part 1 of his new micro stakes series Drew plays 6 tables of $50 NL 6-Max on Lock. He discusses using lack of history to your advantage, interpreting bet sizing, and good spots to barrel off.
1:20 77 I fold pre. I don't think you have any fold equity against the shortstack. I think you're behind his iso range and you still have to get through the half stack.
23:30 66 I definitely bet half pot on river for value. I'm really careful now about giving people too much credit because it's something I used to do against the regs all the time. I only give the regs who are winning over a large sample credit now. So many people are awful.
30:27 KJs I might be wrong, but I don't like the call against the 18/15. I'm 18/15 over the past 30k hands or so and I'd be surprised if you could call here profitably from the sb against me. Then again I guess I don't know exactly how villain plays postflop either.
34:50 QQ I'd go for a c/r on the turn because I think anything that calls a jam bets itself anyways, he can't call the turn with draws unless he has something like AQ with a diamond, and I think he could get away from Jx if you jam.
37:00 75 Checking flop is fine. I think a lot of fish call ace high on the flop and I'm not sure how many barrels I have to fire to get him off it.
39:30 JTs I'd rather 4-bet than flat. I agree about just having to chill out on this board though. It's just a board that's the preflop raiser's hand to win imo for all the reasons you mentioned.
44:30 ATo I like the squeeze. I hate calling here. I don't think it's +ev. Your hand has huge reverse implied odds and you have the worst position. Even if it was +ev to call, I think it's tougher for it to be more +ev than 3-betting it since it's usually a good hand to 3-bet bluff.
3,30 ~ Table 3 you open AK in mp, btn calls who is a fish. Flop comes 237r, you cbet, he call. Turn is a 7 and you checked with what I think was with the intension to c/f? This is a spot were I usually wouldn't be very happy about c/f, just cuz we are gonna have the best hand so often still. I mean, he is a fish, and usually on these kind of boards they can be peeling really light. If we bet, its kind of hard to get called by worse, but just taking down the pot when he has A6 or sth seems like a good result to me, since if we c/c we can be put in some weird spots on the river were we could be making mistakes. What do u think about this? Its a spot were I have been struggling with lately.
15 ~ You open T9s on table 2 otb, sb calls. You cbet 442r, villain calls. Turn is an 8 and you bet again. First of all, just a small point. I think that it would be a tiny bit better to barrel off here if villain was in the BB compared to the SB, cuz regs usually don't call stuff like A7s and stuff like that in the SB, whereas they are way more likely to do it on the BB. So he is gonna have a bit more stuff in his BB callingrange pre that are peeling flop but folding later on in the hand. Do you agree with this? As for the rest of the hand, are u betting 100% of rivers, or are u betting stuff that helps your percieved range? Like cards that completes straights, flushes etc? Sometimes when people call the turn here, and the river is like a K that doesn't complete any draw, people just don't fold because they think u are aaalways going to bluff. So if this is the case, maybe barreling off on those broadways always, isn't that great? What do u think? This was basically just sth that crossed my mind now when I thought about this.
22 ~ Table 5 you open A6s in mp, btn calls who is a fishier guy. Lets just assume villain is a reg. It kind of seemed like u would bet turn again vs a reg? My default line here would be to c/f. Even if he is gonna have stuff like QJ,QTs that is gonna bet turn, I think he is gonna have to many combos of AQ,AJ,AT? And an K is almost always gonna check back. What do u thin?
45 ~ When u squeeze ATo. I think that this is a decent board to go bet/bet/bet on. Not sure about it thought. But I think a lot of villains range for calling the flop is gonna be AQ,AJ,ATs, maybe sth like KQ, and then he is gonna have PPs that I think tbh I calling 2 but folding river pretty often. Also there is just a lot of combos of A high you are getting to fold. So idk about just c/f blank turns. I think that its OK, but I def think that barreling of sometimes is good here, on blank turns. Cuz his range really isn't very strong. He could 4bet/call JJ pre, so TT is one of the better hands he is gonna show up with. And he is gonna have a lot of other stuff. What do u think?
1:20 77 I fold pre. I don't think you have any fold equity against the shortstack. I think you're behind his iso range and you still have to get through the half stack.
yeah I agree we have no fold equity vs. him. if we disregard the opener (he won't affect our bottom line that much - he opens a crapton from that position), we need 43% equity to get allin here. that's a range of 55+/AJ+ or 44+/AQ+, which isn't really loose at all for a dude with 16bb. other than knowing he wasn't a pro shortstacker, I didn't really have that much info on him at the time and I'm not exactly sure how a person like that plays on balance at 50nl (if I'm up against a guy like that he's usually a pro shorty in which case getting in 77 here is a no brainer, but fish tend to be quite a bit more passive). you might be right that it's a fold, but I think he'll turn out to be spazz 3betting often enough to make this at worst very close to neutral EV, which would make this hand my "gray-area-who-the-hell-knows" cutoff point (I think in the video I said 66). fwiw, if you run 88 through stove it seems like a fairly no-brainer GII
23:30 66 I definitely bet half pot on river for value. I'm really careful now about giving people too much credit because it's something I used to do against the regs all the time. I only give the regs who are winning over a large sample credit now. So many people are awful.
yeah. I am perpetually a victim of overthinking things at these stakes
30:27 KJs I might be wrong, but I don't like the call against the 18/15. I'm 18/15 over the past 30k hands or so and I'd be surprised if you could call here profitably from the sb against me. Then again I guess I don't know exactly how villain plays postflop either.
but you probably don't cbet 58%, and probably barrel with better frequencies than him. I know this guy is really straightforward so I feel totally fine flatting here. the fact that he checked AT twice here pretty much justifies preflop in my eyes.
34:50 QQ I'd go for a c/r on the turn because I think anything that calls a jam bets itself anyways, he can't call the turn with draws unless he has something like AQ with a diamond, and I think he could get away from Jx if you jam.
I don't really like that. the guy was almost definitely a fish with that stack size, so I think it's gonna be pretty damn rare he folds Jx, Tx with a diamond, or a SD with a diamond on the turn. fish also tend to be quite a bit more passive in general so it wouldn't surprise me to see him take the free card with his draws. also I think that since we don't have a diamond our hand is going to be way too vulnerable to try for a turn check. checking only works well against hands like 79 w/o a diamond but there seem to be enough that can go wrong from checking that i'm not a fan of it.
37:00 75 Checking flop is fine. I think a lot of fish call ace high on the flop and I'm not sure how many barrels I have to fire to get him off it.
maybe I should have just barreled off then? weird spot, I don't get checked to on that flop a lot.
39:30 JTs I'd rather 4-bet than flat. I agree about just having to chill out on this board though. It's just a board that's the preflop raiser's hand to win imo for all the reasons you mentioned.
personally I usually open light enough to where I like to be able to combat active 3bettors with a strong calling range and a balanced 4betting range both in and out of position (though my calling range oop is fairly tight), and JTs is a pretty damn good hand to be calling IF you want a calling range. but some really successful players don't have 3bet calling ranges oop and do just fine, so I don't belabor spots like this too much.
44:30 ATo I like the squeeze. I hate calling here. I don't think it's +ev. Your hand has huge reverse implied odds and you have the worst position. Even if it was +ev to call, I think it's tougher for it to be more +ev than 3-betting it since it's usually a good hand to 3-bet bluff.
3,30 ~ Table 3 you open AK in mp, btn calls who is a fish. Flop comes 237r, you cbet, he call. Turn is a 7 and you checked with what I think was with the intension to c/f? This is a spot were I usually wouldn't be very happy about c/f, just cuz we are gonna have the best hand so often still. I mean, he is a fish, and usually on these kind of boards they can be peeling really light. If we bet, its kind of hard to get called by worse, but just taking down the pot when he has A6 or sth seems like a good result to me, since if we c/c we can be put in some weird spots on the river were we could be making mistakes. What do u think about this? Its a spot were I have been struggling with lately.
it's a pretty rough spot since fish will do so many different things on boards like this. like, some fish call as light as JT on the flop and some don't. some fish bet ace highs on the turn and some don't. etc. I think he probably peels flop too light & we have too much equity to consider c/f'ing turn, esp since he can have a lot of combos of 45/46/56 as well as random floats. barreling is weird because we never get better to fold and worse doesn't call terribly often, and c/c is weird because we don't know his bluffing frequencies. so really you just have to choose the lesser of 3 evils. in retrospect I kind of wish I had just bet and treated my hand like a draw since we didn't have any info on him and are unsure how to react if we check. as we learn more about his tendencies checking will often become the best option, tho.
15 ~ You open T9s on table 2 otb, sb calls. You cbet 442r, villain calls. Turn is an 8 and you bet again. First of all, just a small point. I think that it would be a tiny bit better to barrel off here if villain was in the BB compared to the SB, cuz regs usually don't call stuff like A7s and stuff like that in the SB, whereas they are way more likely to do it on the BB. So he is gonna have a bit more stuff in his BB callingrange pre that are peeling flop but folding later on in the hand. Do you agree with this?
yeah for sure. also better the earlier our position is since our button range has a lot of gutters and FDs in it on the turn while our CO range has significantly fewer such hands.
As for the rest of the hand, are u betting 100% of rivers, or are u betting stuff that helps your percieved range? Like cards that completes straights, flushes etc? Sometimes when people call the turn here, and the river is like a K that doesn't complete any draw, people just don't fold because they think u are aaalways going to bluff. So if this is the case, maybe barreling off on those broadways always, isn't that great? What do u think? This was basically just sth that crossed my mind now when I thought about this.
my plan was to follow through on most rivers. I think he'll still peel weak pairs and some AJ type stuff on the turn but fold it on the river a fair amount.
the king is actually a super interesting card. jman made a video awhile back called "when a scare card isn't a scare card" that addresses spots like this. vs. a lot of people a king actually hurts our fold equity, and in general you should be calling lighter on rivers like that in these spots. reason being, our turn barreling range is usually going to include a lot of gutshots and flush draws, and very few of those hands have a king in them, so even though it's an overcard it really doesn't improve our range much at all. moreover, a lot of people see the king and get excited thinking they can rep it, so frequently a player's bluffing frequency will skyrocket on rivers like this. however, if you really think about our range, it won't have that many kings in it, and IF we have hands like KQ in our range that means we're probably barreling a lot of other air like QJ on the turn. so us having KQ in our turn barreling range is generally going to hurt our value:bluff ratio on a K river because of the implications barreling KQ has for other hands in our range.
just think if you're in his shoes - are you more scared if we barrel on a 2 river or a K river? personally I feel good in his shoes if we barrel on a K river but am scared to death if we barrel on a 2 river.
that being said, I'd probably still barrel a K river since guys at these stakes might not think about things deeply enough to realize everything I said, and also because I think 3 barrel bluffs are still rare enough @ these stakes to where he would end up giving us credit most of the time. but it's something to think about if positions are reversed or if you're playing against someone who's pretty good.
22 ~ Table 5 you open A6s in mp, btn calls who is a fishier guy. Lets just assume villain is a reg. It kind of seemed like u would bet turn again vs a reg? My default line here would be to c/f. Even if he is gonna have stuff like QJ,QTs that is gonna bet turn, I think he is gonna have to many combos of AQ,AJ,AT? And an K is almost always gonna check back. What do u thin?
I'm not sure what I was saying in the video (maybe was just saying in theory if we bet turn a reg will call Kx), but I think it is a little thin to be betting vs. most regs, esp since KJo and KTo won't be in their flatting range, meaning they just have a lot of combos of better aces. and if hands like KJo and KTo are in their flatting range, c/c is probably better anyway since that means it's more likely they called JTo/QTo/QJo pre which is a ton of combos of air for him on the turn. feels a little dirty to be c/fing top pair OTT but I think it's fine vs. the more solid regs, esp if you know they don't 3bet AJ/AQ in these positions. it is a very player dependent spot though.
45 ~ When u squeeze ATo. I think that this is a decent board to go bet/bet/bet on. Not sure about it thought. But I think a lot of villains range for calling the flop is gonna be AQ,AJ,ATs, maybe sth like KQ, and then he is gonna have PPs that I think tbh I calling 2 but folding river pretty often. Also there is just a lot of combos of A high you are getting to fold. So idk about just c/f blank turns. I think that its OK, but I def think that barreling of sometimes is good here, on blank turns. Cuz his range really isn't very strong. He could 4bet/call JJ pre, so TT is one of the better hands he is gonna show up with. And he is gonna have a lot of other stuff. What do u think?
depends a lot on how light he peels and obv we don't know that since he's unknown, but he did appear to be reggish (full stack, normal looking name) so he really shouldn't be peeling overcards on the flop often at all, so i feel like once he calls flop his range is maybe some AQ but a lot of 77-JJ (maybe even QQ in these positions) type stuff & i didn't really feel comfortable barreling against that range on blanks. it'll depend on your betsize too... like if you bet smaller on the first two streets barreling off becomes quite a bit better because he gets worse odds on a river shove and probably calls flop/turn lighter. but in any event it seems like peeling this flop light in his shoes is pretty spewy and i just didn't want to deal with barreling against a strongish range and no reads on him since it's such a marginal spot.
depends a lot on how light he peels and obv we don't know that since he's unknown, but he did appear to be reggish (full stack, normal looking name) so he really shouldn't be peeling overcards on the flop often at all, so i feel like once he calls flop his range is maybe some AQ but a lot of 77-JJ (maybe even QQ in these positions) type stuff & i didn't really feel comfortable barreling against that range on blanks.
I think u are assigning him to strong of a range for calling the flop. I remember u said in the video in another hand that, "if the guy is playing 50nl, he isn't gonna be very good". And I def agree with that for the most part. But I just don't see regs at 50nl f ex folding stuff like AT+ etc IP to like a 6 dollar bet or sth on this suuuper dry board. I think they peel 1 street a lot, and possible lighter then that with KQ and stuff.
I see this often in the forum that I usually think people float these flops light then what u think :) And I could obv be the one that is wrong, but from playing I have just got the impression that this is a flop that people don't fold much at all on. And by that I mean regs that maaaybe arn't as aware of that their overall range is percieved pretty weak when calling. What do u think?
maybe... but in a 3bet pot? and in these positions? that would mean he's calling flop with almost his entire PF calling range, which seems pretty damn light. I don't have a huge sample size at 50nl though so you might be right... in any event, you're thinking about the situation correctly in that if he is calling those hands on the flop barreling becomes quite a bit better. and if I felt I had to barrel off a lot I would likely size flop/turn a little smaller just so river shove wasn't half pot or less.
Hey, hope you havent shutdown the response-ability (pun intended) for this video
[32:30] the KJs hand:
You said in retrospect you like donking the flop best, would you still like it best if you didnt know that he was checking AT here?
Because if we think he's cbetting just about everything as expected, dont you think check-raising would be best because the reasoning for check-calling would be mostly to rep weaker like AT, TT-88, right? But if he's really straightforward, dont you think he's just checking back all his FDs, gutters and stuff ott and only bets what he'd call a chr and turn barrel with (which would make a chr / bet bet better)?
