Post Archives Tag: balance

Mailbag: Checking For Balance

This is actually a question that was posed on the Tournament Poker Edge forums, so I’m paraphrasing it a bit here. It began with me arguing against checking KQ on a Q72r for “pot control” because there are plenty of run-outs where you can bet three streets for value (more … Read full post

A Bad Time to Balance

$5/$10/$20 game with $2500 stacks.

UTG2 opens to $60, gets four calls, I call with 85s in the BB.

Flop A85r (no backdoor for me), checks to the second caller, who bets $170. I call, everyone else folds.

Turn A. We both check.

River 4.

At this point I’m almost … Read full post

What’s Your Play? KJo in the BB

Game is 9-handed $5/$10 NLHE with deep stacks.

UTG is a typical splashy recreational player, with lots of limping and calling pre-flop followed by lots of checking and folding post-flop. He has about $800 in his stack.

HJ is the best of the competition by a long shot. He definitely … Read full post

Mailbag: Friends Don’t Bluff Friends

Sorry for the delay on this week’s podcast. We do still have an episode in the works. In the meanwhile, here’s a hand submitted by listener favorite Carlos Welch in which he bluffs frequent commenter Pie Farmer. My comments at the end:

Q: This is a hand from our regular Read full post

Checking the Nut Flush Draw

This is something I do sometimes. There are often exploitive reasons for it, but I do also think it’s good to be capable of making a flush on the turn when you check back the flop. This hand from the $300 Ante Up WCOOP illustrates why:

PokerStars – $300+$20|5/5 Ante … Read full post

Crucial WCOOP Double-Up

This was from the first table of the $300 6-handed NLHE shoot-out. Villain is a very successful tournament player but in my opinion not fundamentally solid. Basically he’s learned how to take advantage of a lot of common weaknesses found in MTT players but is slow to adapt and back … Read full post

Mailbag: The Need for Balance

This week’s mailbag is special because the question was submitted to the podcast, and both Nate and I answered it.

Q: I started out as one of those players you often refer to who says “I don’t really need to balance my ranges in the games I play – Read full post

Mailbag: Finding the Top of Your Range (Bump)

I posted this a few weeks ago but accidentally backdated it to appear as though it were posted on January 1. I think that as a result a lot of people never saw it. Apologies to those for whom it is old hat, and thanks to Matt Glassman for bringing … Read full post

Mailbag: Playing Like a Robot

Thinking Poker MailbagQ: Remember years ago the training websites were saying we want to teach you to not become a “robot” and think about decisions. Wouldnt that be more of the exploitive strategy and now people almost want to play like a “robot” with game theory. Do you find that is happening Read full post

Mailbag: Set Mining

Thinking Poker MailbagQ: My question is about calling UTG open raise (say 3.5X) on the button with small pairs (say 22 – 55). Unless UTG will stack off with one pair it doesn’t seem profitable to set mine. Say UTG has AA but will only lose 40 in a single raised pot, Read full post

Balance

My latest poker strategy article, Balance, addresses a pet peeve of mine that I see often in the tournament forums:

Balance is one of the most misunderstood concepts in tournament poker. Many players believe that playing in a balanced way matters only when dealing with players they encounter on

Read full post

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