Villain is a high-stakes MTT and SNG player who’s recently been sitting in the shallow high-stakes cash games as well. Despite his success, my opinion of him is that he makes a lot of borderline-bad calls and shoves. Probably I just think that because historically he’s run well vs. me in tournaments. This is the best example I could find in 2 minutes, which isn’t really that bad but is a good example of him being a little psycho and opening a can of run-good on me:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $50.00 BB (6 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
BB ($2500)
UTG ($2595)
MP ($4341)
Hero (CO) ($2573)
Button ($6413)
SB ($3456)
Preflop: Hero is CO with K
, A
UTG bets $100, 1 fold, Hero raises to $250, Button raises to $663, 3 folds, Hero raises to $2573 (All-In), Button calls $1910
Flop: ($5321) 4, Q, K
(2 players, 1 all-in)
Turn: ($5321) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: ($5321) Q
(2 players, 1 all-in)
Total pot: $5321 | Rake: $3
Results:
Button had Q, A (three of a kind, Queens).
Hero had K, A (two pair, Kings and Queens).
Outcome: Button won $5318
Anyway, here’s the hand in question, where I managed to take advantage of his looseness to get three streets of value in a pretty satisfying way:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (8 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG+1 ($4713)
MP1 ($2000)
MP2 ($2090)
CO ($1857)
Button ($2573)
Hero (SB) ($2000)
BB ($2000)
UTG ($2519)
Preflop: Hero is SB with 8, 8
6 folds, Hero bets $80, BB calls $60
Flop: ($160) 9, 6, 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $111, BB calls $111
Turn: ($382) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $269, BB calls $269
River: ($920) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $666, BB calls $666
Total pot: $2252 | Rake: $3
Results:
Hero had 8, 8 (two pair, nines and eights).
BB mucked A, 6 (two pair, nines and sixes).
Outcome: Hero won $2249
Andrew, would you elaborate on bet sizes in the second hand. Any reason for 4BB on the pre-flop vs. 3BB, 3.5BB, etc.?
Also, your value bets are all basically 70% of pot in this hand, but you are taking the time to be creative with odd numbers.
I know there are psycological effects at work with some numbers, which is why items in a store are $1.99 versus $2.00. Any of that at play here?
I’m with you on that Russ -> I am also interested to know the reasoning behind the odd numbers. I think Andrew might have bet the 111 and 666 for the purpose of multi tabling because it is quicker to type the same number 3 times.
Hi guys. I’m sorry to say there’s not a lot of fancy psychology behind it. Just a little OCD on my part plus, as Jeremy guessed, a desire to type bet amounts more quickly when multi-tabling. I will say that choosing “weird” bet amounts makes it a little easier to conceal the times when I’m varying my bet size based on the strength of my hand in some potentially exploitable way.
The pre-flop sizing varies by position. I raise more when I’m in early position than when I’m in late position, because my range is stronger. This is an idea I explain in greater detail in this article.