Playing AAxx in 4b+ pots with low spr
Posted by WhoIsNext
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WhoIsNext
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Low Stakes
Playing AAxx in 4b+ pots with low spr
Well title says it all, it seems like a spot I am struggling a lot or just running really unlucky lately but what is my play when it's 4b pot, with spr something like 1-1.6 and it comes 998ss, JJ4ss or TT7r
What should be my play there? Obviously I am not talking about very low card paired but more like middling ones that are likely to hit their range but on the other hand there is a flush/str8 draw there and I am vs that kind of opponent that I think can stick it in if i cbet very small with some marginal draw.
I play 50plo because stakes should also be relevant I guess but what are your thoughts about higher stakes as well.
Any feedback is welcome
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Being heads-up with an SPR of 1 to 1.6 I don't think there's any paired board where you can't stack off profitably with AA against any reasonable 3bet range.
Against very straightforward players, you can bet/fold on a board like JJ3r if you think their shoving range will be Jx like 80% of the time. On a wet board like 988ss I don't think you have any choice other than getting your money in.
Been a while since I did math for this, but I don't think you can bet-fold AA on J J 3 without opening yourself up for massive exploitation, if you have any reasonable c-bet% on those boards (and you should). Granted, you can try exploit a passive Villain and make sneaky bet-folds, but AA is most of our range as the 4-bettor. So bet-folding your AA means the vast majority of your range will bet and fold to a jam.
This is a mathematical disaster, unless you are Phil Hellmuth and take pride in ninja folding at every opportunity, happily oblivious to such things as balance.
Here's another way to exploit those straightforward postflop players. We can Oddsen-bet (super small c-bet) and include all our air. So, using the logic in my articles as a starting point (we'll have to adjust for SPR and 4B ranges, of course), instead of c-betting, say, 65% of your range in a balanced way, c-bet all of it and scoop up fold equity. Then, those few times he jams, fold your air and stack off with your AA. Your c-bet will still be very profitable.
To take it one step further, do some math and estimate how much of your AA you are allowed to bet-fold without becoming exploitable. But you definitely can not bet-fold all AA from a 4-betting range without being wide open for exploitation.
Sure, if he only raises J+, you get it in bad when the jam comes, but bad things that rarely happen do not hurt our EV for betting that much. Because every time he folds (most of the time) we scoop the pot. Fold equity is the EV contribution that matters most when SPR is low. And we also have at least a couple of outs when behind, which helps our EV a lot. There's a big difference between losing 100% and 90%.
You can check ZF articles on that subject
http://nutblocker.com/adjusting-to-aggressive-players-on-static-boards-part-1-by-zenfish/
http://nutblocker.com/adjusting-to-aggressive-players-on-static-boards-part-2-by-zenfish13/
Those are incredible articles but they analyze play with a high SPR and ranges that are a lot wider, so they don't directly apply here.
The articles would be helpful i think as well in regards to board textures and what opponents have on alike boards :-) Fundamentals from understanding such can be easily be applied in different SPR.
It's a good exercise. Start with the method from articles and put in 4B/call 4B ranges instead of openraise/call openraise ranges. Calculate new percentages using new SPR and see what you get.
That's all covered in the "PLO from scratch" articles. By setting up these very low SPR scenarios with your AAxx hands preflop you've already made yourself unexploitable by pushing (almost) any flop. "Almost" - because if SPR gets larger than 1 there are some really ugly boards like QJT:xxx that can actually be check/folded. You cannot make any mistake by pushing OTF, but you can gain EV by villain's mistakes. So bet/calling small would allow villain to make those mistakes (like spazzing out with bare KKxx).
I treat these very low SPR situations as an exetended preflop play, not as much as an isolated postflop spot. That may help you mentally when you get it in bad.
I always worry that potting preflop turns my hand face up.....and allows opponents to play perfectly against my AA.....I guess you can balance by potting A high run downs, and ds run downs of various strengths...we don't want to start betting AA smaller right because even dry AA we want to get HU? If you think villain has AA and you hit 2 pair with redraws on the flop you should GI?
Instead of worrying that your range is face up think of it this way. They know 50% of your hand but they know it to be the nuts. The other 50% they don't know anything about. So basically they know you have the nuts preflop and can make any hand with your side cards. It's not a recipe to be worried about.t
Exposing half your hand (AA) by making a large reraise is bad when:
There is a lot of chips to play for postflop
AA is pretty much all you have
You are OOP
The most common route to this predicament is to 3-bet bad AA, especially from the blinds. However, if you can get enough of your stack in preflop, you don't care. The worse your AA, the bigger % of your stack you need to get in before you are happy stacking off on any flop. AA72r > AAJ9ss > AAJTds, and so on.
But for any AA, there is some % of stack threshold that makes you happy to stack off on any or most flops, even when your opponents know half your cards.
Of course, having a wider-than-AA 4B range against aggressive 3-bettors will also be beneficial (and mandatory) to you.
All the stuff you said is correct.
I wasn't implying anything about what your 3bet range should be or what SPR you should auto stack off on. I was pointing out that even when you have solely or mostly AA you are uncapped postflop just at lower frequencies. He was worried that opponents can play perfectly.
I was replying to So_Nitty. :-)
ZenFish:
I've been reading your articles that Aleksandra linked to above and have a question. How did you arrive at the optimal c-betting frequencies depending on your opening range? I understand all the range splitting and counting hand combos but it is somewhat arbitrarily (what if I decided to only bet my 55-TT and check my 22-44 combos for example). Why is a c-bet of 60.1% best as opposed to 55% or 65%?
All of that is explained in the articles. :-) The frequencies are not optimal as in GTO optimal. They are arrived at by requiring that we defend a certain % against a check-raise (using pot-odds to estimate how often).
Thanks for all the replies :)
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