2/5 Live PLO (Deep) - Exploiting polarized ranges
Posted by Ernestas Romeika
Posted by
Ernestas Romeika
posted in
Mid Stakes
2/5 Live PLO (Deep) - Exploiting polarized ranges
Blinds: €2.00/€5.00 (8 Players)
BN: €750.00 (Villain)
SB: €400.00
BB: €2000.00 (Hero)
UTG: €X
UTG+1: €X
UTG+2: €X
MP: €300.00
CO: €X
Preflop
(€7.00) Hero is BB with Ts9c8s6c
MP cals, BN raises to €25.00, SB calls, Hero raises to €100.00, MP folds, BN raises to €330.00, SB Folds, Hero calls
Flop
(€690.00) 9s7s3h
Hero goes all-in (€420.00), BN calls
BN has AdAhQd4d, Hero has 85% equity, runs it twice & wins both.
So recently I've started taking this line and it seems to be quite profitable + the spot comes up reasonably often.
MP limp-folds a lot so he's not really a concern for this hand.
Villain is a more or less straight-foward player, no feasts of tricks or creativity, I'm assuming he's playing recreationally, rather loose-passive, not getting out of line, generally limps preflop too much, overvalues bottom of AAxx range, overvalues dangler hands like KQT5.
For a long time my line in this spot was to call a BN raise and play it out post-flop instead of 3-betting as we are out of position and our hand flops well enough.
I opted to 3-bet with this reasoning:
Best case (often what actually happens):
MP folds, BN is in a spot where he has to polarize his range, if he 4-bet his range is basically AAxx, if he just calls, his range is mostly KKxx, high-rundowns (frequently with danglers such as KQJ5, AKT3), occasionally AQQx.
Worst case: MP shoves and BN re-shoves, SB folds, we get it in a reasonably well 3-way flip (EV break-even, high variance)
if Villain just calls we take it post-flop and play from there. If Villain 4-bets we call and have a very profitable flop play:
- Shove any two pair, pair+gutshot, 3 card wrap, pair+flush draw with big equity edge
- Get it in slightly bad with single pair and no draw.
- Check-Fold flops where we don't have 3:1 odds - most of Axx flops, most of paired flops, flops that we miss completely (no pairs, no gutshots etc).
By cutting out the bottom of our stack-off range we actually get a sizeable EV edge. And Villain of course has to stack-off 100% of the time since we are ~0.5 SPR effective (0.6 in this hand).
The counterplays from villain's perspective against this play is to either widen the 4-bet range (which can end very badly for KKxx and AKxx hands), or to start calling the 3-bet with a big portion of AAxx range which kind of "feels" suboptimal (partly because it's inviting a 3-way pot) and most live players will never do. Would love to hear your thoughts on this!
P.s. Table is on agreement to treat SB-pre for a 5€ when it comes to potting calculations
Loading 8 Comments...
as played: imo standard\good to 3b with this hand 150bbs effective, in 100bbs stacks would be a closer decsion.
depends on MPs limp-shove range,but if we have reason to expect them both have AAxx,AKKx then its must GII I guess, if they have some higher rundowns we break even at best
PPT:
https://s12.postimg.org/56hufshhp/144.png
ps. do you play in LT? if so, can you say where exactly there is live PLO and what stakes available?
I do play in LT, actually PLO cash games here are more common than NLHE. It usually takes place in Olympic Casino, we have 1/3 PLO in Vilnius (capital), and 1/2 PLO in Kaunas (2nd largest city), these games almost always run with straddle and eventually double-straddle as it gets pretty deep.
Online waiting list:
http://www.olympic-casino.com/waitinglist2013/lt-en
Your play seems very standard from a live plo-perspective. The only thing you should look out for in these spots if they are maniacs who 3-4-bet every chance they get to gamble it up. Then its just better to call as you yourself say break-even at best but super high variance.
I dont know what kind off image you have, I play super nitty in my games and most villians knows it so when I 3/4-bet they will mostly put me on aces. Therefore its som deception value when u 3-bet with hands as yours. But other then its very standard.
Dont know why u post your equity on the flop as mostly you will gii on lik 90% off all flops anyway :D.
The problem with this strategy is when they just call your 3bet, which is the scenario that will happen the vast majority of the time especially vs a BTN open.
Now you are playing a bloated pot with an easily dominated hand, out of position with relatively deep stacks.
I like 3betting a hand like this BTN vs MP, but out of position it is much trickier. Not saying it's always bad, just saying the 4bet scenario is not the part of the tree we need to focus on.
I agree with what you said, although I'm much more interested in the villain's spot. The conventional PLO wisdom is to 4-bet in this spot with entire AAxx range, but after this little bit of analysis, it seems to be EV-?
I don't see how it would ever be -EV for BU to 4b aces here at this stack depth. He's pushing equity pre and almost always has the equity to go with any flop that comes because of the spr. In your head you are thinking that sometimes he will get it in on the flop as an underdog vs you but you should realize that he doesn't need to be a favorite to be +ev at this spr even as the underdog. At 1 spr he would need 33% equity to break even. In this example it's even less.
Yes, the problem with this rationality is that you are committed to get it in with 'pair and no draw' which happens alot of the time and as is often the case when regarding aaxx ranges, he also has aa double suited and aa tj 1 suit etc and these have you crushed on alot of flops.
Something that amuses me about alot of plo theory are remarks like: 'worst case scenario I will have odds to call' - the skill is avoiding situations where you have to make calls behind.
There are two benefits to your strategy here - polarizing your ranges, and irritating your opponents =)
I'm not sure what you mean when you say villain is forced to polarize their range. They will 4bet with their best hands - that's not really polarizing, that's just piling money in with great hands.
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