SammyG-SD
Before we talk about the mechanics of this COTW, let’s talk about what I feel some of the biggest leaks at the micro FR stakes.
First leak I see that a lot of the villains have is:
Quote:
The average Micro Stakes players Call too much, when they should be folding
This leads the corollary that I see new winning players have at the micro-stakes
Quote:
uNL Players don’t value bet enough, or make enough thin-value bets
The next two leaks that are related to the above at the micro levels are:
1: Underestimating Showdown Value 2: Bluffing unknowns
These are important to remember as we explore this concept of the week.
What is a “made hand”. For discussion a made hand, in any hand we have that beats the board and is better than “X” – high. With X usually being an Ace, but will vary on the villain/ level.
So if the biggest leaks at the micros for the wining uNL players are
1: Not v-betting enough
, 2: Underestimating Showdown value,
3: Bluffing too much/the wrong villain;
then why are we talking about another type of bluff?
Good question. As we get better at hand reading and understating our villains, there will be opportunities where we can make money off this type of bluff. So if you know about it, you can start to identify the situations where it may be profitable and eventually you can implement; and hopefully improve your WR.
So here are SammyG’s entrance criteria before we implement this bluff:
1. Know Your Villain.
2. Know your Image
3. Know what part of his range you are trying to get to fold.
“Know your villain”
So as I stated earlier, and has been stated many times on the forums by countless posters, don’t bluff the wrong villain. When every we are bluffing, we are “representing a range”, we have to know that:
a) Villain understands what our line means
b) Villain’s software has the FOLD button installed and has shown the ability to click it.
One of the notes I use to take at NL25 all the time was “Knows how to fold in a big pot/turn/river” . As I have moved up the ability to fold by the regs seems a little more prevalent. You should also know when they like to bluff, when the are taking pot control lines, and how they play their monsters on wet/dry boards.
If we describe the villain as “fish”, “donk”, “spazz”, “calling station”, “ mouth-breather”, “monkey”, “Antonious Patrick” , “unknown” we probably don’t want to be trying to bluff them.
“Know your Image”
If you have cultivated a crazy/agro image at a table, who is capable of bluffing at anytime with any hand, then bluffing a made hand is probably not a good idea. Your showdown value probably has increased for most of your holdings.
“What are you trying to get to fold”
Think about what you are representing, what the villain is representing, and what do you think villain will be continuing with. If you are targeting one hand to fold that is better than your hand, but if you are taking a line where there are 18 different combos in villains range you can get value from, then you may want to think about maximizing the value part of villains range.
Now why do we bluff. I like he explanation given:
There will be times we are doing this type bluff where our hand is currently ahead of them (or even), but they may have better equity against us. Or we have a hand that could be good, but there are tons of flops/turns/rivers that we do not want to see.
Let’s look at some examples:
This first example is a preflop situation. I am running about 19/14 overall, with 8/8 UTG. My fold to 3bet is 73%. Villain is 20/16, with a 3bet from the button of 10% and a fold to 4bet against me of 11/13, and I noted in one of those calls he had AQ vs my AA, the other was AA vs AA. So he has not seen me 4bet him light, even though I have.
Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold’em – 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked. com
MP2: $65.65 CO: $96.60
BTN: $109.00
SB: $100.00
BB: $100.00
Hero (UTG): $246.65 UTG+1: $181.70 UTG+2: $104.70
MP1: $107.15
A while back ago I started to add a few hands to balance my 4bet range against regs and black twos were the first one’s I added. Basically, I figure his squeezing range here is KK+, AK+, Axs, Kxs. I am not in horrible shape against KK+,AK+, and I believe I probably can even get him to fold some AK and all the other trash.
Here is an example on the flop. I raised PF in MP and get HU against a solid reg. Flop is fairly dry, and Villain, who is a serial floater raise me on the flop. Basically given my range, and his range, I do not put many monsters in his range, unless he is slow playing AA/KK PF. I figure if he had a set, he would wait until the turn to fire, since that I have a note that he only plays monsters fast on wet boards, and waits with sets on dry boards.
Full Tilt, $0.50/$1 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 9 Players LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
SB: $95.90
BB: $207.85
UTG: $80.50
Hero (UTG+1): $109.75 UTG+2: $84.55
MP1: $94.10 MP2: $34.35 CO: $100 BTN: $100
I figure there are not enough hands that he loves to get it in here that takes this line, knowing my double barrel %. Plus,
I can’t call this, so even though I may be ahead, I will either need to turn my hand into a bluff on the turn with a stop and go, or c/f most turn cards. My read was that he polarized most of his range to bluffs here.
I will post some river hands later on in the thread.
So remember the rules:
1. Know Your Villain.
2. Know your Image
3. Know what part of his range you are trying to get to fold.
