Pt1: How often are you guys folding your blinds to open raises from CO/BTN and in some cases the from the SB.

I'm folding something like 80 percent. My problem is that I know much of the time these guys are opening really wide, but I've found that I'm not hitting hard enough to continue once a scare card hits the turn (ie. flush, A, K, str8).

I generally call with suited KK/QQ, Suited A(K-T)+dangler, and all double suited wraps + one gap wraps down to 7 and A-suited run downs (ex A789ss/ds).

PT2: I feel like I've been lighting money on fire calling raises in LP with pairs KK-99 that also contain what I think are good side cards (KQ-89). Seems like every flop contains a FD that I don't have and/or one or more overcards hit and I'm getting bet into.

Thoughts?

sounds like you're running somewhat bad and might be best to take a rest.
a couple things to consider:

1) your winrate when folding the BB is obv -100bb/100, and -50bb/100 for the SB. a general consideration to make now is what hands can you play with a better winrate than that. idk what the general consensus is amongst the HS regs, but defending around 40% from the BB seems adequate.

2) range vs range; your defending range vs a UTG open, a tight CO open and a lose BTN open just to name a few examples should be vastly different.

3) HU vs multiway; self explaining me thinks.

4) BvB you should defend your BB really wide as position is huge in this game. also, your play from SB will often depend on BB's tendencies.

5) big pairs in LP make money in 2 ways more or less: by either flopping huge multiway and play for stacks or by pumping your non-sd winnings in HU pots.

Thanks for the reply and here's my response to each item.

1) Fernando (aka JNandez) had mentioned that due to the high rake in microstakes PLO when facing a steal one should be folding the blinds more often than what would be optimal. IMO I'm not good enough to call 40% from the BB/SB in a 6 Max game. Would you still advocate 40% in microstakes?

2) Makes sense

3) I'm speaking HU. Basically CO/BTN vs SB/BB.

4) Agree.

5) Agree here. Lately (PLO10/PLO25 ACR) I've been seeing more 3 betting and more players who'll flat an open raise. So lately while in CO/BTN I've been shying away from 3B because I've found that I'll with an inflate pot and multiway with a hand that doesn't play well multiway (High Pairs / Medium Rundowns).

thx

Folding 80% is a lot

Obv villain dependant but...

Be tighter in SB than BB when defending. Work in some 3bets, especially against BT whose range should be wider. Personally, I tend to 3bet quite wide with the top and bottom parts of my range to keep balanced. At those stakes you can often win pre, or if called bet and take the flop after three betting pre on a wide array of highcards, or disconnected boards.

nah, i'd advocate to construct your defending ranges by working things out in terms of playability, equity distribution on flops and villains tendencies rather than shooting for a certain percentage.

at 25PLO my vpip in BB was 36% fwiw.


also, your vpip in SB should be a wee bit lower at stakes where the SB is 0.4BB (25PLO for example).

You should be defending wider than 20% for sure, but sounds more like you have problems post flop rather than under defending your blinds

Ya. I basically have no idea where I'm at when I have an over pair to the board or flop air. I think I'm probably giving up a lot of equity when the flop/turn hit my opponents preceived range and not my own.