Hi all,

Don't know if the following is a valid question to which can be given reasonable responses given that good poker is essentially contextually dependent and many interdependent variables come in to play, but here goes.

I'm wondering what would be acceptable vpip/pfr stats for sb & bb? I realize these are by far my troublespots. This cannot be answered in an informational vacuum of course or precisely pinpointed, but some general "rangeonal" advice would be appreciated. My overall stats gravitate around 22/18/2.6.

SB 7800 hands vpip: 23.4 pfr: 16.7 bb/100: -7.95
BB 7800 hands vpip: 18.1 pfr: 7.08 bb/100: -46.92
UTG 3800 hands vpip: 14.2 pfr: 14.0 bb/100: 21.81
MP 6400 hands vpip: 16.5 pfr: 15.5 bb/100: 10.94
CO 7200 hands vpip: 20.5 pfr: 18.4 bb/100: 34.70
BTN 7800 hands vpip: 27.4 pfr: 26.8 bb/100: 37.04

Fire away.

why do you flat so much from the blinds? your VPIP/PFR is close for all other positions (maybe too much so) but the blinds you flat 8%-11% of the hands you play.

situation dependent, but my theory to start looking into the data - do you 3bet enough from the BB in a BvB situation. when you flat SB/BB is it against multiple opponents with a hand that has good implied odds and is easy to fold if you miss flop? in SB, how often are you flatting then folding to BB aggression?

Also, you should leave your sessions after playing the UTG position - you're losing a lot of value by leaving the table after you play your BTN. You should start sticking around for at least the CO hand.

i play looser than you, but in general pretty close to my stats w/ higher vp/pfr in all spots

After scouring the 2plus2 forum a bit I found this document on the basics of microstakes 6max NL which was enlightening on this topic:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/15643906...lind-for-every

It mostly provides me with the answers I'm looking for.

I flat way too much in the blinds indeed, disproportionately so. I just find it hard to fold mediocre holdings against CO or BTN open raise steals with attempt to steal percentage above 40. And don't yet feel confident enough to reraise/resteal OOP a decent amount of the time, although the last couple of sessions I was able to do this relatively profitably.

I read in Ryan Fee's 6max NL strategy guide that he 3bets TT+, AJ+, KQs a lot of the time against button openraise. Depending on the fold to 3bet % of CO or BTN, if it is high for example, he adds junk hands. Now to put this in practice.

I like to call with AJ/ KQ when LP with high steal% tries to steal, cause we'll dominate a lot of hands in their range, but in this case good post-flop skills are crucial. But 3betting these hands around 50% of the time would be better I reckon.

What about the even more marginal holdings than AJ and KQ like QJ/QT/KJ/KT/A9? This all depends on how well these hands fare against stealer's range of course and postflop betting tendencies and agressionfactor. It seems to me that the relative difference between vpip and pfr tend to be greater in the blinds vs other positions bc we can't 3bet all the time, especially OOP, and IMHO we shouldn't be folding hands that prevail against the range of LP stealers with steal% of 30+%.


In the book "Harrington on online cash games -6max no limit holdem" Harrington uses an example of a situation where there are 1.5-to-1 pot odds and he says that "IP we generally don't mind playing a hand in this situation where our range analysis says we're 35 percent or better. OOP, we'd want somewhat better chances, say 40 to 45
percent."

If we are in BB with QTs, and BTN with steal% of 30+ openraises to 3bb, and SB folds, we have potodds of 2.2-to-1, which is around 31%. QTs is a 46% dog against a 38% BTN openraise. 1.5-to-1 equals to 40%, so if we need 40 to 45% equity to call OOP in this situation according to Harrington, in theory, it is more than correct to call in my example a lot of the time? Even a JTo still has 41.5% equity, so we should either 3B when our table image and the flow allows it, or call, but not fold? Or am I getting things all messed up? An A7o even has 50% equity when A2s+ and A2o+ are in BTNs 38% opening range, we should most certainly defend and call with this holding then? A7o isn't even in my standard opening range, so it would seem absurd to include it in my calling range OOP.

If btn is opening a lot and sb folds, i flat a lot of Ax, float flop cbets on a lot of boards. Also, I flat with J10o.. 3bet J10s+ A10s+ a dece %, sometimes I flat though

I 3b more if I'm deep w/ btn as well, jus because I feel like I have a strong edge post flop usually

so basically I think what you wrote sounds good to me


Your defending ranges should also change depending on the bet size too. Defend/3b more vs 2bb open > 2.5bb > 3bb and as well the frequencies of them opening the btn (which often is going to correspond to the sizing they use)

just 3bet the **** out of these guys

works ok at the micros

Didn't read the full thing but opening for 4x when first into a pot is out-dated. Used to be a value thing but in this world of crazy 3-betting it soon becomes more expensive to defend.

I don't think you should be 3betting something like JTs, QJs, etc. I would rather 3bet JTo, KTo.

Yeah, I agree that's sketchy. 3-betting suited varieties keeps our combos down but it also ruins some of our best hands for flatting.

I would rather flat all of those

not vs bad players, also i dont do it 24/7, generally vs. bad players opening like 40%+, which is common where i play

also different when playing zoom anonymous tables

Yeah its pretty outdated. Am reading some of the threads on:http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/16...hreads-638296/ and it is remarkable how much the game seems to have changed. 3betting light was apparently not done even at 200 and 400NL?!? Crazy. Now even at 25NL many people go ape**** with it. I don't mind much tho cause they can still be exploited, but I would have preferred the softer days

This is interesting. There are several pros and cons for either case. I would rather flat and see a flop with BWSC or suited BWonegappers, for when we are 4bet we have to lay a hand down with great flopping potential, and when the LP folds his mediocre holding which we often dominate we didn't give him a chance to make a mistake postflop. on the other hand, at microstakes, many call 3bets to loosely, so if they call we get to play a reraised pot against a bad opponent with a suited hand. One major downside is that we have to play these pots out of position so postflop skills must be the deciding factor. We can't be cbetting the flop and be c/f the turn in reraised or squeezed pots.

I'm leaning towards 50% suited, 30% unsuited versions vs COsteal at microstakes. And more vs BTN, also adding junk hands in reaction to the stats of opponent.

Isn't this a marginal decision, suited vs unsuited, cause it only adds about 3% equity if I remember correctly?

do you mean specific bad players who open more than 40%? because opening more than 40% is not bad in itself

That's what I was about to say

Following excerpt from a book on 6max NL makes some good points:

"[Against a CO/BTN open], I would like to 3-bet with a polarized range. This means I would 3-bet with premium hands such as JJ+/AQ, and speculative holdings such as 65s and 87s that can’t play profitably post-flop without the initiative. I would call with marginal hands such as AJ, KJ, QJ, and pocket pairs. This is because by calling with AJ, KJ and QJ, I can keep some of the hands I dominate in the pot since worse hands are rarely calling my 3-bet. Sometimes I call from the blinds with AK/AQ as well, so that I have some nut hands in my flatting range, and also for deception. Some players like to 3-bet small pairs from the blind against the CO/BTN because it works well with their game. Since I don’t like to play out of position, I like to call with those holdings and make my decision post-flop."

Nguyen, Tri; Davis, Aaron (2011-03-20). The Poker Blueprint: Advanced Strategies for Crushing Micro & Small Stakes NL (Kindle Locations 644-649). DailyVariance Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

Comments on this approach?

Suboptimal

Blind defence has improved so much since 2011, Id say the book was outdated.

vs min open we can and should defend a very wide range

Don't think you are defending enough tbh

Even at stakes 50nl and below? Is rake an issue?
Rake becomes a lot more favourable at 200nl and up. You don't need to hit such a big pot in order to hit the cap.
I started to flat more myself. Reviewed my gameplay and found out that i was losing money by doing so. I need to work more on XR strat, probe betting and such before i start flatting more again.

I dont think rake is big enough to make flatting "a lot" vs 2x worse than flatting "a little"

More than if you folded?