Most midstakes regulars primarily play bums for the obvious reason that it is more profitable (myself included). The result of this is the development of bad habits that a bum would never be capble of exploiting, but a good regular would. I'm just going to list a few common flaws and how I might exploit them, please add flaws that you see or exploits you use:
Flaw:
3 Betting a wide value range and CR board textures that rarely hit them.
Many reg's will 3b AJ+, which is usually fine to do, but then they will also try to CR AXX flops. The same is true for KXX. This skews there range to be flush draws (if one's possible) or air, because they 3b most of their strong A's and K's. Occasionally they will have 2p or sets, but rarely is it TPBK. Exploit:
Small 3b on the flop or floating and shoving turns with draws. Obv, let them stack off if you have TPTK+.
Flaw:
3betting wide and auto cbetting every 3bet pot. Exploit:
Call 3b's light with the intent to make moves on favorable textures. Trap w/AA and KK.
Flaw:
Turning their hands face up with Pot Control.
In many spots the only time the villian won't cbet is when they are applying pot control. This turns their hand nearly face up on the flop. It also lets you polarize their range when they do cbet certain textures. Example:
Villian 3b and checks A72r board. This means showdown value, but worse then the A. KK or worse is their range. Exploit:
Extremely easy, you know thier range and hopefully if they can lay it down... play perfectly against it.
Ok, those are 3 flaws I see all the time, and I was certainly guilty of these at one time. Let's hear some more.
3-betting light and auto c-betting is really not the most effective way to exploit fish. It's much easier trapping fish, and value betting the crap out of them on the river. It is also much less exploitable, and doesn't create the same bad habits. I agree that I would fire out more c-bets against a fish than against a competent opponent, but this is a simple fix when you start playing people who are better. I really don't see a big advantage against fish by 3-betting light. I'd rather just call and see a flop and then outplay them.
Most regulars that I encounter at the $30 HU SNGs are very good early on in the match at the first 3 or 4 blind levels. However, when the blinds get up to 40/80 and 50/100 ... there are many regular players that don't adjust properly. Instead of dialing down their pre flop button raises, and maybe just min-raising, they still continue to bet 3x, which makes them very vulnerable to trapping. I think regs don't slow down their play and adjust as the blinds increase, but for the most part are fundamentally sound in the early phases of a HU match.
Calling too many 3bets is probably near #1 imo.... especially against tighter 3bettors.
That's actually a flaw of mine that I'm working on. Somehow it's become standard for me to always call with a suited connector and small PP's, regardless of 3bet range.
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