ANALYTICAL HOLDEM excerpt

[statictheory]

Im wondering what is the best way to implement the river calling strategy.
For example if you are facing a pot sized bet which means you should be calling 50% of the time, which is the best strategy as far as your hand is concerned. should you be calling with the top 50% of hands in relation to the board , or your starting hands, etc. ???

[gder402]

you beat half the opponents river bet range with your holdings

[statictheory]

Originally Posted by gder402

you beat half the opponents river bet range with your holdings

?

[stayhighlowe]

exactly...you plug what you think your opponents range is into poker stove; plug in your hand see if you have > 33% equity..

[Nezh]

Originally Posted by statictheory

Im wondering what is the best way to implement the river calling strategy.
For example if you are facing a pot sized bet which means you should be calling 50% of the time, which is the best strategy as far as your hand is concerned. should you be calling with the top 50% of hands in relation to the board , or your starting hands, etc. ???

?!?!

[statictheory]

Originally Posted by stayhighlowe

exactly...you plug what you think your opponents range is into poker stove; plug in your hand see if you have > 33% equity..

yeah, I got confused in as i would base the equity on the size of the bet, as a pot size would require 33, but
say a half pot bet would require only 25% aprox right.? Just the way it was written threw me. thx

[timchuk]

The equity you have in relation to the pot size is how he came up with the numbers. So if villan bets half pot 3to1 is the same as 25%.

If you think your hand wins 25% of the time then you can call profitably


VILLAN bets 10 dollars on river into a 20 dollar pot. You call 10 to win 30 which traslates to 3to1. He is fairly loose so you think your AK top pair is good.

For your example the Villan bets out 50 dollars into a 50 dollar pot. So we have to call 50 to win 100
which translates to 2to1. This works out to 33% equity.

[statictheory]

Originally Posted by timchuk

The equity you have in relation to the pot size is how he came up with the numbers. So if villan bets half pot 3to1 is the same as 25%.

If you think your hand wins 25% of the time then you can call profitably


VILLAN bets 10 dollars on river into a 20 dollar pot. You call 10 to win 30 which traslates to 3to1. He is fairly loose so you think your AK top pair is good.

For your example the Villan bets out 50 dollars into a 50 dollar pot. So we have to call 50 to win 100
which translates to 2to1. This works out to 33% equity.

yeah got it, i was brain farting , thx

[Poker Clif]

Originally Posted by stayhighlowe

exactly...you plug what you think your opponents range is into poker stove; plug in your hand see if you have > 33% equity..

I must point out that using PokerStove while playing is against the TOS of some poker sites. I'm not sure how the site would know that, unless they were monitoring everything that a player was doing on his computer. And if anyone was monitoring my computer activies that closely in the US, without a court order, then it's time to get someone in the Department of Justice to give the folks on the Isle of Mann (or wherever) a call.

[SomeDonkey]

I think you all are confusing 2 different concepts (and missing the point of the author) :

- Calling when we think we have at least 33% equity vs villain's range when facing a PSB (because it would be a mistake not doing so, EV wise)

- Calling 50% of the time when facing a PSB (because we want to make sure we're not being exploited, i.e. we want to play optimally, from a game theory perspective)

[kk<<trupqq]

Originally Posted by SomeDonkey

I think you all are confusing 2 different concepts (and missing the point of the author) :

- Calling when we think we have at least 33% equity vs villain's range when facing a PSB (because it would be a mistake not doing so, EV wise)

- Calling 50% of the time when facing a PSB (because we want to make sure we're not being exploited, i.e. we want to play optimally, from a game theory perspective)

So the question now becomes how often is the opponent PSBing the river, and what does that say about his range, and thus how should we deviate from optimal to exploit that? Short answer is of course most players bet the river far less often than unexploitable play would dictate and thus folding to river bets is generally the best play. (OP should not take the book's advice to mean he should start hero calling more...)