Hi, I am impressed that you (as a mixed games reg) made that many thouhts on FLH :)

Many good questions, I hope I can answer them.

Yeah I also think that most suited hands can be played vs. a raise from any position. Against SB and BB 100% of them, against some CO I think too, but there I fold the worst of them. Against UTG I clearly fold the trashiest ones but still think that u can defend very wide with your suited hands.

My DB is too small that I can take a look how unsuited higher cards exactly perform. But I think they are an easy defend against BU. Against CO and HJ I defend them too, but with the plan, that when I hit, I often use them as c/c to strenghen my Range (bc especially FL old school guys are valuebetting often too thin)

On the 943r board: When I am on the BU or CO I think you are right that I want to check more, but here we have the spot, that 1. our Range is very tight and most of the hands want to bet (only hands like KQ may prefer the check) and 2. that he doesn t hit the board nearly as good as when he defends against a CO. That said I think we might gain a little bit on Range EV by having a checking Range here, but I am pretty sure there are many spots where we can gain way more by checking and so we should use our time for those spots, where we really can improve our winrate a lot. Furthermore I think that we get some worse calls from hands like: weaker Kxs,Qxs,JT ( clearly not enough that we can call this a value bet) and we fold some Equity out, and BB can not cr with every pair. So we are not getting c/r that often,as we would when our range is wider. All things said, I prefer the bF xT line a little bit more.

flatting ranges:

I think your gameplan for those spots is perfectly fine. But I started flatting at 15/30 were the SB is 2/3 of the BB, with the good price I think it make sense to flat some hands. Furthermore when a weak player is in the blind it makes sense too. Against Regulars tbh I have no clue how good it really is, I see some Elite guys (like Yoghii, hasu...) doing it, therefore I think if many really good players started with it, it can t be that bad to have one. The problem now is, with which range do we wanna flat here, and there I think we take hands which can not 3Bet + hands that are close 3bets and try to construct a range which hits most of the boards somehow.

T8 I think I said i fold it against a raise and a 3bet. Against a flat I think its an easy call, even against Yoghii. The interesting thing against a flatting strategy is that I think we a need a 3betting Range as BB, otherwise flatting becomes to profitable. I think I would still defend really wide, because of getting a better price. But ofc we will have a tough live because yoghii will lead somtimes and we have to fold a lot (there is still a uncapped ranges after us to act) or yoghii will c/r sometimes and we also have to fold a lot.

"I am impressed that you (as a mixed games reg) made that many thouhts on FLH :)"

Somehow I missed this burn when I first read your post. Good one haha.

Hi thx :)

KT has some SD Value, against Kx,Qx,... Furthermore I am not expecting that he folds a lot of Ax against a 3barrel on most runouts. The only River is a diamond, but then i don t want him to fold. My Bluffs are mainly like 98s,T9s, J8s+, some Q highs. Furthermore he should have some slowplays and some turned MH which he can c/r + semi bluffs (overall like 15% of his Range). And I also have to keep in mind that he is a really strong player, and if he sees that i barrel too many turns (which will happen if I value bet like AJ+ and bluff everything which is worse than KT), he will exploit that. I think everything worse than Q8 is a good 3barrel Bluff, on some runouts even Q9 and some QT.

I also think my checking Range hits most Rivers pretty well, I can have some straights (with A5s and A4s), I also can hit TPTK on 8-T and I also T-A pretty good. And I need to hit also some Diamands (which is like 1/5 of all River). Which will be tough, because I don t 3Bet most of the bad Axo and I vbet AJ+. And my suited hands either have a Flush or they will never get one. So I think need to take my Kxo in my checking Range

Thanks, I agree. On limit games, the fold equity is generally low given pot odds, so why do you prefer choosing low equity bluffs instead of high equity bluffs on triple barrel strategies ?

I don t prefer low Equity Bluffs over high Equity Bluffs, but the problem in that spot is that my 3betting Range doesn't really have many high Equity Bluffs. Only hands like 98sT9sT8s. K high in FL in that spot is more like a 2nd or 3rd Pair in No Limit. The Flop Bet is very small so that I can go with Range. On the Turn I try to check down and expect to win sometimes.

Hi, I am actually also not a big fan of those bets, but I think especially 22-44 are often a better bet on the Turn as u think. For the reason that we want him to fold out Equity. (Daniel Dvoress--> Value Bluffing). Those hands are often like AK. So in spots in whcih you consider making a 2nd barrel with AK, I think it makes a lot of sense to bet 22-44 first. That are especially scenarios in which both ranges are really wide and we are close to a value bet (40% Equity ginst his calling range) but with the FE we have against his weak (6-10 Outs) hands we should often have more EV by betting than by checking and let him Bluff us or realize his Equity.

Overall I think it also depends a lot on your checking Ranges, for example in original spot, when IP just checks weak Pairs and A highs the OOP player can value bet so thinly on the river (and ofc bluff more hands) that we have a hard time as IP. We can simply think that defending 1-alpha would be enough, but it's not. There several runouts where it is impossible to come up with enough bluffs as OOP and so our calls as IP would always be -ev. But when you also have hands like Tx in your checking Range the OOP player can not simply value bet everything and you will check down way more often with your small PP and strong A highs.

Also in the original spot, if the T the Turn is not a club or a heart, i think its a better spot to 2nd barrel your weak PP, there are quit a lot of run out where you will not have any bluffs on the River (which is not big deal for our River range, because bluffs are relaiv), and so the weak PP gain a some extra EV when we can Turn them into Bluffs on some Rivers.

I think good spots are pairing Turns because than Villain has often even more outs (atleast 12) with his weak folds.

I hope that answers your questin atleast a little bit, but as said I am not a big fan of it, I just assume that, this are the reasons why people are doing those kind of plays, but I never really did any EV calculation for those spots.

The reasons why we actuelly never raise the flop are:

• we don t want to split our Range
• we want to get some extra SB in with cF rT

When Ranges are really wide (like SB vs BU) it isn t that important to not split our Range.
And if OOP is good player he will have a pretty big checking Ranges on the Turn (no Reg has 80 cBet Turn anymore), therefore getting the extra SB in ist not that likely anymore as it was some years ago.

thx :)

The only game in which I am good enough to make videos is just NL, and there are many other guys at RIO who are better than I am :)

The blue hands are pretty sure good calls, there are some regulars who are defending also all the yellow hands (and some even a little bit wider --> J7s,96s,85s). I never put a lot of work in those spots (as you might see that I haven't developed a capping range yet), but I think defending the blue hands is good basic strategy.

I never cap out of the BB in 3way Situations, like most regulars do. There are some regulars who are capping some % of their Range (in the BUvsSBvsBB Spot: 10% Cap and 15-20% calls)

I think there is big chance that having a capping Range could be part of a "GTO Strategy". But I think not cappiing is a better strategy against players who are cbetting too much (which is very likely) and furthermore it's easier to play without caps, because we force the openraiser to split his range and we know our range very well.

Hi,

there is close to no action in FLHU, especially RegvsReg. So I am not planing to do one, but if more people would like to see a HU video, I can imagine to make a small HU series.

thx sauce, very good questions.

I think you should have some cc cr in you range, I usually use blockers a lot. Which means I take hands which can t c/rF b/3bet T that often because I block his raising range, I also take hands which aren t strong enough for c/rF b/3bet but are blocking his Turn checking Range and the last hands I usually take are weak TP. I wouldnt c/r QQ-TT btw. on this K73r against HJ and also would take weak Kx as c/c down. The reason is that, that as you said our c/c is weak and Villain will bet a lot of Turns and therefor I think our EV with c/c those hands is bigger as with c/r.

As the board gets more dynamic I will not delay that many hands anymore, bc I will hit so many strong hands on the Turn, which I can c/r then.

I think Kevin Rabichow summed this spot up best with a quote of something like “Don’t think of how think what they are doing to their betting range but think about the rest of their range.” It is true that AQ profits slightly more betting for protection and checking rivers, but it greatly hurts the rest of their range. I used to get frustrated in poker when opponents could bet portions of these ranges for a profit without me stopping them. Often times we can’t and not worrying about it is best. Any way villian chooses to play AQ on this board texture will show a profit for them as it’s a strong hand in both ranges. It is a spot where they have a hand they can make a profitable bet, and when they hold that hand there is little we can do to counter it.

I am personally happy if my opponents want to play AQ on this board texture with a CO range as a bet bet check as I think its suboptimal to the more standard bet, check, call/bet line. I don’t really worry much about exploiting someone who has a strategy like this as other parts of my range gain greatly from him putting in money in a slightly +EV spot for him while I gain immensely from all my backdoor hands that check called the flop and can now more profitably bluff the river vs a turn check. Now speaking exploitable yes I will delay some of my value range until the turn if I think my opponents are betting too many hands for a showdown, but in LHE this would be something like QJ on a 8 turn which few people are doing and then my middle pair or bottom pair weak kicker hands profit greatly.

RLP, can you give some concrete examples of hands in your range that would fit into that ch/call flop & CR turn range?

yep that are hands which I would definitely consider for my cc cr strategy

tbh i dont have a perfect solution for that kind of spots, but there are 2 different approaches. Some guys are never capping and some are capping. I think both Strategys have some advantages and some disadvantages.

never capping:

+
- you know your Range and you can but some pressure on BBs weaker hands, when he just calls the cbet of SB, furthermore BB can t isoraise that loose, because there are still 2 uncapped ranges.
- most people are cbetting way to much in those spots, and therefore you can raise more flops.

• you have some hands which have to fold solid equity on the flop, when BB raises.
• you miss some Value Preflop with your good hands

capping:

+

• you get value out of you good hands
• you don t have to fold equity on the flop (assuming both players check to you)

• you are splitting your range
• when your calling range is too weak, you will end up getting valuetowned very often by SB and/ or BB will pu a lot of pressure on some hands.

To sum it up, I think playing with a polarized range in those spots can make sense. Hands like: AK-AJo; AA, JJ-88; T8s, 97s... and your calling range is with hands like KK-QQ, weak PP, KQ, KJ; some strong suited Ax, suited connectors.

But I think its not that big of a deal, especially when the ranges are getting more narrow (like HJvsCOvsBB), I usually avaoid capping Preflop aslong we are HU or 3way with regulars.

thx, I hope the next video is with better audio, when I recorded that one I was in a small hotelroom in Barcelona (with a lot of background noises), but now I am back in Malta, therefore there shouldn t be too many background noises :)

what exactly do you mean? :)

I never played live FLH. but I will give you my strategy on a FLH lowstakesgame like 3-4 years ago. The Regs back then, where folding too much out of the BB, cbetting way too much on the Flop and Turn. They never raised the Flop IP and tend to have an overall weak c/c c/c Range.

So I would steal way more against those guys preflop;

cbet OOP maybe 100% 8people are usually not raising IP)

,cbet IP my normal strategy

I would c/r a lot of Flops planning to check the Turn with a solid Range (to exploit it that they cbet too much and never raise the flop IP)

on the other hand I would not raise too much IP, because people still would cbet too much on the Turn, so that cFrT becomes an easy and good strategy.

I woud valuebet looser, because people tend to fast play too much

I would slowplay myself a bit, because people tend to valuebet too thin.

As you see, on the one hand we want to play aggressive and on the other we want to slowplay a bit. I think the key is to slowplay the right hands. Like hands which are not stromg enough for c/rF b/3bet Turn. etc.