Shouldn't this be 'effective stack'? May sound obvious to us but might not to a beginner. Or am I totally wrong here?

Yes, effective stack... this is just for beginners though. First of all, it's not 5-10 anymore, afaik, it's 3-8 now. Secondly, it's actually the amount you have to call that you need to compare to the REMAINING effective stacks.

I'm sure it proved to be very very popular. Thank you once again .

Are you going to put those articles online or do I have to fall on my knees and start begging?

Great stuff. I haven't read the entire article but plan to do so in my 3 hour lecture tomorrow night. I too would like to see any additional articles you've written.

I pay for stuff at CR I get here for free from a great community of players. Why must I keep paying?

any news on the other articles?

Great article and thanks for your time.
Can't wait for the other stuff.

We want more! We want more!
Can't wait for the article.

Thanks

This was great, thanks

Any more from you would be greatly appreciated by the 2+2 uNL beginners, I have no doubt.

Good post althought the problem I have the most is 3betting in the blinds. I cbet flop and it seems they keep calling. Somethimes I make a 2nd barrel but this doesn't help enough of the time to make it profitable.

Do any of you got advice how to play in the blinds when you 3bet?

When OOP, I add about 1 more blind. This makes it a little more difficult for limpers to continue to the flop, and when they do they are (hopefully!) making a bigger mistake. The mistake is actually much larger in the long run, because the effects of larger preflop bets are cumulative. Increasing the preflop bet size by 1 BB increases the flop by 2 BBs, the turn by 6 BBs, and the river by potentially 12 BBs, or 8% of your starting stack. Don't underestimate the power of increasing the size of your preflop bets by even a small amount.

Similarly, when 3betting my general rule is to re-raise to 3x the original raise, but when 3betting from OOP I add one more -- so now I'm 3betting to 4x the original raise. Sometimes There will be a raise and a coldcall, and for every coldcall I'll also add one more. This can result in what might seem to be a rather large raise. For example, consider a textbook squeeze. NL100 CO opens to 4 and the BN coldcalls the 4. My standard 3bet is 3x, plus one more for the BN coldcall (4x) plus one more for being OOP (5x). So if I squeeze here, I'm making it 20 to go.

Its very important to not raise too little in cases like this, and squeezing to just 3x or 12 is simply not enough. Consider what happens. Lets say CO has a hand like ATo. It comes back to him and the pot is now (0.50 + 1 + 4 + 4 + 11.50) $21 and it's $8 to call. He's getting 8:21, or nearly 3:1. Who wouldn't at least call this, with hands even much weaker than ATo? And regardless of you actual holding (let's say you have AJo) you don't want a call because you are going to be out of position for the rest of the hand. What's more, if CO calls the 3bet the pot will now be $29 and CO will be getting better than 3.5:1 on a call. Not only is he going to call, he would be making a mistake in folding almost any hand he has.

Now see what happens when we make it 20 to go instead of 12. When it gets back to CO the pot will be (0.5 + 1 + 4 + 4 + 19.5) $29, and it will be $16 to call. Now he's getting about 2:1 to call, and we are representing a very big hand. Consider the kinds of hands he is going to continue with. AQ might call (emphasize might), but if he does he is making a mistake. AK will actually push a lot of the time, and now you have an easy mathematical decision. (Well at least it should be easy!) The point is that CO is going to be folding the majority of the hands he would have called with if you make it 12, and BN will also be faced with worse odds as well, even if CO does make the call.

I can't believe I went on for this long...

One quick addendum, the size of my raises have *nothing* to do with my holding, and *everything* to do with my position and the number of players. In other words, in the squeeze above I make it 20 whether I have AA or 76s.

big thanks! I'll try it : ] I heard about this, but didn't use often.

add to threads

ah great article, thank you good sir.

I'll try the 4x reraise oop

First time I'm posting here, but this was very nice since I'm semi-new to poker. Would like to see more from you as well

Nexgenneo,

very nice post, thanks very much.

Question though, You don't recommend raising suited 1 gappers even in the CO?

This is almost true- You also have to consider the amount you are risking to win the 1.5BB. Consider the reductio ad absurdum situation where you push 100BB to steal. Obviously that won't be profitable in the long term unless they fold more than 98% of the time combined.

x=how often they both fold [this is what you said ~.7]
(1-x)=The times they don't

1.5BB*x=(1-x)4BB
1.5x=4-4x
5.5x=4
x=.72

so you're right when we're talking about normal raise sizes, but it isn't an absolute truth.

The same logic can be applied to the BB alone when you're in the SB and everyone has folded around to you- There's still 1.5BB in the pot, and only one person to fold out, so in some ways it is a better situation for stealing if the BB's fold to steal % is high.

This is an excellent read. Just started reading and i can already say, that this is gold Thank you very much!

Thank you very much OP. Great read for people just getting in to poker like myself.

Great post! I seem to have missed this thread when I have read through the stickies for some reason but I have a question.

There is a range for open raising when there are no raises or no limpers in the pot. My question is, do you adjust these ranges when there are limpers?

I.e, you advise to raise a certain range of hands from the cutoff seat with in an unopened pot. With limper or two, would you raise the same range, reduce the range that you raise, or increase the range that you raise, and why?

Doesn't have to be OP that answers this, just somebody experienced at uNL.

Thanks.

I just wanted to reply to this thread to say that this was the post that lead me to the breakthrough in my game that helped me stop running 23/11 and start running 19/15, thereby enabling me to officially crush NL10. Thanks OP!!

I figure there a lot of people here more qualified to answer this, but I'll give it a go.

When there are limpers, yes, you want to adjust this range. But how? The answer to this question is contingent upon many factors, such as the skill and tendancies of your opponents, and what exactly you're trying to accomplish with the raise. You need to look at multiple factors:

How tight are the players behind you, especially the blinds?
How often do these limpers limp, and how many of them are there?
Are you raising for isolation, value, or fold equity?
etc.

Generally, limpers mean you should tighten your range, but there are exceptions to the rule. If the blinds are tight, you can raise for isolation with any hand, for value with your good hands, or for fold equity when the limper(s) like to limp-fold. If the limper likes to call preflop with a wide range, but folds frequently to c-bets, you can semi-bluff literally any hand.

Like any situation in poker, you want to consider your three options: Check/call, bet/raise, or fold. What would you like to accomplish with any of these plays, and given the information you have on your opponents, how likely are you to achieve that goal?

Thanks Hoffma, but say I wanted to raise for value, do i reduce my range dramatically or just a little? If i'm multi-tabling I don't really have a lot of time to study players and study how often they limp-fold, so it's going to be difficult to decide to raise for fold equity or isolation.

Thanks again.

Thanks man great post.

Glad this came back around 'cause i missed it the first time through.

Great Post Get back here with the others articles!!!!!

Very good article!

The examples are a good way to illustrate real hands!

Hopefully it will help me in my cash game!

Thanks OP!