One of the biggest leaks I see, especially but certainly not exclusively among tournament players, is a failure to build big pots with big hands. I made a series about this called Getting Paid for Tournament Poker Edge that I think is worth watching even if you aren’t a tournament player, because really it’s not at all specific to tournaments. In fact, in the later stages of tournaments you often don’t have to worry about it, because the stacks are so shallow that getting the money in is trivial when you’ve got someone coolered. Not so when you’ve got 100+ big blinds in front of you.
A few hands came up at my Zoom tables yesterday that demonstrate what I’m talking about. As you’ll see, there’s certainly an element of luck involved in getting into these situations. But everyone will get into them from time to time, and what really matters is getting the most out of these rare opportunities:
PokerStars – $2 NL FAST (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com
BTN: 54.5 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)
SB: 47.74 BB (VPIP: 24.19, PFR: 24.19, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 63)
BB: 118.91 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
UTG: 102.5 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 50.00, Hands: 10)
Hero (MP): 213.93 BB
CO: 214.2 BB (VPIP: 15.97, PFR: 9.24, 3Bet Preflop: 5.45, Hands: 123)
SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Tc Ts
fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, CO raises to 9 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 6 BB
Flop : (19.5 BB, 2 players) 9s Th Td
Hero checks, CO bets 10 BB, Hero raises to 30 BB, CO calls 20 BB
Turn : (79.5 BB, 2 players) 8h
Hero bets 40 BB, CO calls 40 BB
River : (159.5 BB, 2 players) Ks
Hero bets 134.93 BB and is all-in, CO calls 134.93 BB
Hero shows Tc Ts (Four of a Kind, Tens) (Pre 19%, Flop 100%, Turn 100%)
CO shows Kc Kh (Full House, Kings full of Tens) (Pre 81%, Flop 0%, Turn 0%)
Hero wins 427.96 BB
Villain’s nitty stats, along with our positions at the table, convinced me that he’d have a big pair quite often here. It’s possible that he would have folded to a river shove had he not hit a King, but even so I think that check-raising the flop is essential to start building the pot and take the betting impetus. Many players, especially the nittier ones, are going to pot control at some point, so if you want to get even three bets into the pot, let alone four, you’re going to have to check-raise. No need to make it small – check-raising is going to look strong no matter what, so you might as well get some money in the pot while you’re at it.
In this next one I didn’t think Villain was quite as strong, given that he didn’t 4-bet pre and this is a tough board to flop a second-best hand, so that made me want to slowplay. But I also wanted to play a big pot. Solution? Overbet shove the river. This was an especially good card for it, but I would have shipped nearly any river. Don’t go seeing monsters under the bed – you have the best hand a hell of a lot here, and you want to get as much money in as you can.
PokerStars – $2 NL FAST (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com
BTN: 139.12 BB (VPIP: 26.67, PFR: 13.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
SB: 84.45 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 2)
Hero (BB): 542.8 BB
UTG: 118.6 BB (VPIP: 18.18, PFR: 18.18, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 12)
MP: 50.42 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
CO: 136.1 BB (VPIP: 19.89, PFR: 18.18, 3Bet Preflop: 10.29, Hands: 182)
SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Ad Ah
fold, fold, CO raises to 2.5 BB, fold, SB calls 2 BB, Hero raises to 12.5 BB, CO raises to 25 BB, fold, Hero calls 12.5 BB
Flop : (52.5 BB, 2 players) Tc Ts Qs
Hero checks, CO checks
Turn : (52.5 BB, 2 players) Td
Hero checks, CO checks
River : (52.5 BB, 2 players) Qd
Hero bets 517.8 BB and is all-in, CO calls 111.1 BB and is all-in
Hero shows Ad Ah (Full House, Tens full of Aces) (Pre 82%, Flop 88%, Turn 95%)
CO shows Jd Jh (Full House, Tens full of Queens) (Pre 18%, Flop 12%, Turn 5%)
Hero wins 273.3 BB
Ignore the river in this last one. He’s short enough that I don’t need/want to three-bet him pre-flop. I’m actually raising the flop to get the money in against an Ace before the river, but this works too:
PokerStars – $2 NL FAST (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com
Hero (BTN): 772.36 BB
SB: 138.37 BB (VPIP: 15.49, PFR: 14.08, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 73)
BB: 182.33 BB (VPIP: 29.41, PFR: 23.53, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 17)
UTG: 100 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 1)
MP: 37.5 BB
CO: 102.5 BB (VPIP: 11.90, PFR: 11.90, 3Bet Preflop: 10.53, Hands: 42)
SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Qc Qs
fold, MP raises to 3 BB, fold, Hero calls 3 BB, fold, fold
Flop : (7.5 BB, 2 players) Ac Qd Tc
MP bets 4 BB, Hero raises to 10 BB, MP calls 6 BB
Turn : (27.5 BB, 2 players) Ah
MP bets 24.5 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 24.5 BB
River : (76.5 BB, 2 players) As
MP shows Kd Qh (Full House, Aces full of Queens) (Pre 31%, Flop 13%, Turn 2%)
Hero shows Qc Qs (Full House, Aces full of Queens) (Pre 69%, Flop 87%, Turn 98%)
Hero wins 37.55 BB
MP wins 37.55 BB
Nice post Andrew.
I haven’t used a HUD since Black Friday, but I remember that it would show you your stats for the table you were playing on so you could see what the other players would perceive you as. For rush/zoom, is it able to show you your stats in hands against that player? This would mean a line of stats for each player. If you are heads up then it would only need to show one, but if you were in a multi-way pot it would make it interesting if your stats were significantly different against the different players.
Regarding the second hand, I think this is incorrect:
“In this next one I didn’t think Villain was quite as strong, given that he didn’t 4-bet pre” because
Otherwise, this is a great post. And I highly recommend the Getting Paid series on TPE.
Hmmm, yes, seems I misread my own hand history. I’ll have to edit that, thanks for pointing it out.
And thanks for your kind words about the TPE videos.
I’m curious in the first hand about the turn bet sizing. The rest of the hand makes sense to me, but betting half pot with an SPR of 2.2 seemed weird to me. Going through the hand I wanted to make a somewhat larger turn bet (probably 50-60 BB into a pot of 80) to make it easier for Villain to call a river shove and to get more money from him when he calls the turn and folds the river.
Were you concerned that Villain would be more likely to get away from his hand with a bigger turn bet? Was this an issue of following “table norms” to make this look as unsuspicious as possible by betting a “normal” half pot?
I don’t play online and don’t have much short handed experience so I’m probably missing some essential facts, but from the description and reads given I would expect most villains to be mostly inelastic in their responses to bet sizing between 50%-100% pot. I’d like to understand what the rationale is that led to this line.
Thanks!
Good question. I definitely don’t think Villain would be inelastic between 50 – 100%, but I do think you’re right that I should have bet a touch more than I did. It was more about balancing how I have and will play other sorts of hands than about following a “table norm” but even so I think that betting more like 60 – 65% pot with my whole betting range here would be better.
I know it’s a slightly pedantic question but in the hand you flopped quad Tens how can your opponent have 0% equity (and you have 100% equity) on the flop when he has a tiny chance to hit runner-runner quad Kings?
I’m guessing he had <1% equity and it was rounded to 0.