Hey Risva, sorry for taking a bit to get back to this!

So my default approach when I see a limp readless (especially deeper stacked) is to make some assumptions

• This is likely a weaker player
• This is likely a range concentrated around middling and weaker holdings (most people even if they limp a lot find opens w/ the strongest hands)

Now, obviously my exact iso range is going to look different based on the position of the limper/my position/who I have behind me/etc. When I am the CO/BTN facing a limp (i.e. I'm likely to have position in ~any hand that gets postflop) I do a lot less limping behind and basically treat it like there is a dead BB in the middle and generally expand on my opening range (i.e. if I would normally RFI X% in the CO and Y% on the BTN I would iso CO > X% facing a limp and BTN > Y% facing a limp). This is for multiple reasons

• I want to isolate the limper and get the pot HU
• There aren't that many hands that want to limp behind and go multiway (perhaps a small pairs?)
  
  • I don't expect to face many limp-3b's from the original limper
  • I think the players behind me are going to play poorly vs my strategy and not 3b or cold call anywhere near enough

When I am OOP my default strategy changes a little, especially as SB. As Jordan mentioned in the video you referenced above, when we isolate the SB we still have to worry about 3b's from the BB and limp-raise 3b's from the original limper. As a result, we can't go too linear w/ our iso's on average or we end up very vulnerable in this node of the game tree (as we're going to have to either fold immediately or play an awkward pot versus a range I don't really have much visibility for its construction/with some pretty awkward holdings w/ lots of reverse implieds).

Because of all of this and the fact we go postflop fairly often versus the limper when we do iso, I tend towards ensuring I either have a high card w/ a decent kicker or something w/ reasonable playability (i.e. 97o) while shying away from stuff like K3o Q4o etc. Some of the potentially awkward/linear expansion stuff like KTo/QTo/JTo I'm a bit more likely to limp behind (obviously I still isolate it at some frequency, though!)

30:38 Q9o You say how you have the equity to call. I am really curious
as to what your range for flatting would be here (without considering
3-betting). Do you consider folding Q9o here a mistake in practise?

As a default my range for flatting at these stack depths is going to be super mixed with most hands I call also being 3b at some frequency (roughly speaking: pairs, Axs, suited hands w/ a 7 kicker or better, offsuit broadway). That said, my strategy is going to be fluid AF and depend a lot on the BB's tendencies. If they're more snug than they should be defending their BB I'm going to do more calling and expand into a region like Q9o (assuming I think BTN is opening about where they should be)

On average I do not consider folding Q9o SBvBTN at these stacks to be a mistake, though. The SB is a tricky spot to design a strategy around. We get a decent discount facing opens (+) but we're going to be OOP postflop (-) and don't close the action (-). We're also likely to want to put more money in and three-bet w/ our strongest holdings which is naturally going to weaken the cold calling range (-). If we start expanding too much into a region like Q9o we're going to present BB w/ a ridiculously lucrative squeeze spot. The reason for this is that when the BB squeezes both myself and the opener combine to defend against the three-bet. I'm not going to be able to defend much at all versus a squeeze w/ this weakened range + being guaranteed to be OOP postflop vs BB. What this results in is the opener unknowingly taking on the lion's share of the responsibility for defending and just never coming anywhere close to hitting it

No problem, thanks for the detailed response.

So lets say MP (50BB stack) OpenLimps and I am on CO with T8s or 97s are you isolating or limping behind? I would be isolating with stronger hand like T9s, JTs etc. cause I guess T8s plays great postflop, we dont want to iso and get called by all the stronger Tx in his range and isolating to 4x and getting cold 3bet sucks. Is that on track?
Now at the same spot with QTo or K9o, are those must iso-raises?

About OOP: If I got that right, you prefer iso-raising a hand like K8o rather than JTo, on the SB, cause you have a crystal clear fold if we get 3bet with K8o? Are you implying that if we limp behind with JTo on SB and the BB iso-raises 5x you are peeling? I struggle to understand why we dont want to have a linear range out of position. Cause the BB can 3bet a lot vs an OpenLimp and a raiser that he has position on? Anyway, are hands like J7o-J9o, Q8o, T8o, 98o the hands we want to be iso-raising on the SB vs a LJ limper for example? Do you ISO raise J9o vs an UTG1 OpenLimp?

Sorry if I am beeing too thorough I just think its a really big leak of mine that I need to take care of.

haha don't apologize, all good!

So lets say MP (50BB stack) OpenLimps and I am on CO with T8s or 97s
are you isolating or limping behind?

From IP I'm pretty much just iso'ing range, so I'd isolate. If I think someone is trying to limp balanced I'll mix it up and do more limping behind but like 97% of the time people limping EP/MP are fun players and I think you just want to try to isolate them and play a pot HU postflop. I'm also not super in love w/ the idea of limping behind and letting more players into the pot w/ those holdings you mentioned, would rather limp behind a suited Ax/Kx/small pair that I have really good implieds on when I hit my flush/set rather than something like T8s where I limp behind and let stuff like J4ss into the pot for cheap/free behind.

Now at the same spot with QTo or K9o, are those must iso-raises?

idk about must, but I would iso them :)

About OOP: If I got that right, you prefer iso-raising a hand like K8o
rather than JTo, on the SB, cause you have a crystal clear fold if we
get 3bet with K8o? Are you implying that if we limp behind with JTo on
SB and the BB iso-raises 5x you are peeling? I struggle to understand
why we dont want to have a linear range out of position. Cause the BB
can 3bet a lot vs an OpenLimp and a raiser that he has position on?
Anyway, are hands like J7o-J9o, Q8o, T8o, 98o the hands we want to be
iso-raising on the SB vs a LJ limper for example? Do you ISO raise J9o
vs an UTG1 OpenLimp?

While I prefer to iso a hand like K8o that does not mean that I don't still isolate JTo at least some of the time. I think a lot of Jordan's reservations re: iso'ing linear from the blinds is more theoretical in that if we iso something silly like 50% of holdings vs a limp from the SB we present BB w/ a super attractive spot to 3b us linear w/ 25-30% of the deck and really fuck us. While that's true, I don't think anyone is doing ~anything like this, it's just something to be mindful of (especially for someone like myself playing in SNGs where I play w/ a lot of the same guys all day).

From looking at a bunch of preflop monker sims it seems that hands like offsuit connectors get treated a lot like suited holdings in that they aren't fond of the opportunity cost that comes w/ 2b'ing and getting 3b when doing something passive like checking/limping behind is an option. My guess is that these holdings are really effective at realizing their equity postflop b/c they can semi-bluff/bluff more effectively than a hand like Q8o, J8o, etc.

Versus the LJ limp in the example you gave I'd do a lot of iso'ing w/ stuff like Axo, K6o+ Q8o+ J8o+ etc. Basically, holdings that I'm not sad to get 3b off of but which flop decent pairs fairly often and realize their equity more efficiently when part of an uncapped range w/ the initiative.

My biggest tip for deciding how much/what composition I want to iso is that it's important to pinpoint what kind of fun player is limping. Is it the type that plays 30/0 and limps range or is it the type that plays 60/20 and just limps the weaker/middling parts of their range. I'm gunna be a lot more careful/selective about what hands I isolate versus the former while I am going to going buck wild versus the latter.

I appreciate all the info man and keep up the good work.

Hey lospollos, sorry for the delayed response!

I don't like the K3s 3bet and the QJo squeeze, i think both of them
are just too weak and you should use slightly stronger bluffs

Agree w/ K3s!

In theory I agree w/ QJo being just a bit too weak to squeeze this spot (prefer hands like KTo+). That said, in practice I think it's close to a must-squeeze for a couple of reasons

• BTN is going to be incentivized to put more money in the pot/three-bet their stronger holdings preflop facing a CO open for minraise (the blinds, especially the BB, just end up getting too good of a price to complete behind and which results in BTN's equity getting split 3-4 ways)
• MR is going to lay BTN a price to profitably VPIP more holdings
• Both of the above is going to result in a weakened cold calling range for BTN, of which they are going to struggle to defend versus squeezes
• CO ends up in an awkward spot facing the squeeze not getting an amazing price to continue via calling/not closing the action but also taking on a bulk of the defense responsibility due to BTN's weakened range; as a result CO's response should end up having a sizable 4b'ing component of which most players don't come anywhere close to hitting
• Most importantly: I've seen mass database analysis that shows squeezing absolutely minting in these LP open vs LP cold call spots from the blinds ;) haha

same for the Q9o as you already said, which i think the sizing there
was too large, your range there is liniar and not polarized as it
would have been from the BB, I think you just need to give yourself
better price for the 3bet, espacially if you are going to 3bet such a
wide range

Agree w/ all of this!