First of all, I just wanted to apologize for my language. I'm a swede (obv) so english is not my main language. Also, I'm not good at expressing myself with words like this Secondly, I wanted to say that I'm by no means a good poker player, so better players may not agree with everything I'm saying. Also, a lot of this stuff isn't recomended to use at the micro stakes, because people doesn't like to fold. Alot of it is applyable at micro stakes, or at least good to know when you move up. I still hope to make a contribution to the forum that has helped me so so much.

Table of content:

1. Intoduction

2. What separets a positive red line from a bad one?
2.1 Stats?
2.2 Get a good ****ing HUD
2.3 Not plaing like robot

3. Preflop plays
3.1 Stealing
3.2 Isolating
3.3 Light 3betting
3.4 Recognizing when an opponent makes a move
3.5 4betting light
3.6 5bet-shoving light

4. Making moves postflop

5. Summary


I guess what I was going to write for my Pooh-Baah was pritty obvious For those of you who doesn't know my game, I play a very aggresive LAGgy game. So my Pooh-Baah is gonna focus on making aggresive plays, and get that red line up. Because as we all know, redline >>> greenline

2. What separets a positive red line from a negative?

2.1 - Let's look at stats

I didn't always have a positive red line. I used to have slow downward-pointing red line. Looks familiar?



Today:



(I know; LOL sample size, I'm just so god damn lazy, and this is just to give you a general idea)


So what separates graph #1 and graph #2? To find out i'll first look at stats, and see if there's any difference we can see there.

What I discovered was that I was running first of all, tighter in graph #1, 20/15 compared to 24/21 in graph #2. The BTN was the biggest difference, running 32/25 in the first, and 42/37 in graph 2. BTN was by far the biggest winning position in both graphs. But these are just numbers, I don't think they mean too much.

What I do think matters thouh, which kinda shocked me was W$wSF (Won money when saw flop). In graph one it's 35%. In graph two it's almost 50%!!!! This is key. Don't give up on pots, fight for them!!!

2.2 - Get a good ****ing HUD!

One thing that also changed when my redline went from slightly negative to positive, was the change of HUD. I used to have the standard VPIP/PFR/AF. Pritty much useless.

I changed to a MUCH better HUD, which shows how often they limp/fold, raise/fold (pre) positional stats, and lots of postflop stats. Suddenly I could 3bet a 13/11 UTG raise, because he played 9/9 from UTG and only continued with KK+. Suddenly I could c/c, c/c, c/r because the reg loves to triplle barrel. Having a good HUD just makes life a lot easier.

A good HUD makes thing alot easier, but don't forget to take reads. Stats can only tell you so much.

(For PT3 users, a link to an awsome HUD can be found here)

2.3 - Not playing like a robot

Many of you guys are 24 tabling because it increases your hourly. I can understand that, but not many learn anything when 24 tabling. You take standard lines, without thinking alot of alternatives, because simply; you don't have the time. If you want to get better, and move up quickly through stakes, cut down on tables, and start thinking. Villain calls your cbet, don't just auto give up. What's his range? What's his continuation range if I barrel turn? Will I profitably be able to 3barrel if he calls? Point is, don't be robot., always think why and look for alternatives and you will become better in no time.

3. Preflop play

3.1 - Stealing

Alright, but enough of this talk, let's get into some strategy! You can actually break even preflop, despite having to pay blinds.

A subject close to my heart is stealing. At small stakes and especially micro stakes, people don't play back or play back badly. When they make misstakes, we make money. Stealing is extremely +EV.

So with tight players in the blinds, open ATC from the btn (and almost ATC from CO). If there's a fish in your way, stop opening with 29o and alike. If there's a really good regular who you know is going to make life a misery if you steal too much, leave the table. If you for some reason don't want to leave the table, tighten up your stealing range, and be prepared to fight for the hands you do open.

So what hands do we want to open? The answer is hands that play good postflop. J9o plays better than A2o. Q8s play better than K4o. And so on.

Not going into this too much, since there are already alot of articles on the subject, for example: stealing by HP

3.2 - Isolating

This is closely related to stealing. Generally you want to isolate as much as possible, because limpers are almost always bad, so you will have posiionl advantage, skill advantage and probably card advantage. Can't possibly fail?

But there are two main types of limpers, which you should play differently aginst. There's the "setminter/"scared" fish". These are the guys that limp/folds alot, and folds to a lot of cbets. Obviously you want to isolate these guys with your entire range. The other type of player is the calling station. Pritty much always limp/calls pre, and usually calls al the way down. To isolate this player, you need a hand with at least some deacent equity. Hands like TJo and Q9 are going to be in the bottom of your range.

Good discussion here if you would like to read more.

3.3 - Light 3betting

When you come up to SSNL, it's not a good idea to just 3bet QQ+, and the occasional AK. People are gonna read you like an open book, and you won't get paid off on your big hands. That's on of the reasons to why we 3bet light. The other reason is of course that it's profitable to do so.

3betting from the blinds vs. 3betting from the BTN?

Before I used to 3bet a ton vs. steals. "their range is wide, they'll fold alot", was my reasoning. I don't do this alot anymore, for one reason; we're OOP. This sucks so extremely much because good regs are just going to flat your 3bets and outplay you postflop (at least me ) because they know our restealing range is quite wide and people HATE to fold aginst obvious resteals.

It's much better to 3bet from BTN/CO. We get a little more respect, since we're 3betting aginst stronger ranges, and we're gonna be IP if we get called. Because of this, people don't flat 3bets OOP alot, they usually just fold.

So who do we want to 3bet? LAGs, sLAGs and TAGs. Not fish or nits. Look for people with high PFR from UTG and 3bet them there, they give you a ton of respect. Look for people with 50+ ATS and 3bet if they open from CO/MP. This also applies for squeezing.

Not gonna discuss this more since we recently had a very good COTW on the subject


3.4 - Spotting when people 3bet/4bet you light

There are a few things to take into consideration, three especially. Your own image is very important. Regs are not going to 3bet you light if you open UTG and have been running 5/5 over the last 50 hands.

The second thing to take into consideration is obviously who 3bets you. A good 20/18 with 6% 3bet is obviously a lot more likely to 3bet you light than a 11/11 nit.

Third is from what position you're opening. People are more likely to 3bet you if you open from LP than EP.

Other than that, just go with your gut feeling.

3.5 - 4betting light

This kinda belongs with the subject before, spotting when they 3bet light. Let me show you a hand and then talk a little about it.

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players
2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked

CO: $201.00
BTN: $200.00
SB: $54.05
BB: $197.00
Hero (UTG): $200.00
UTG+1: $84.00
MP1: $113.75
MP2: $216.50

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is UTG with 8 7
Hero raises to $6, 4 folds, BTN raises to $21, 2 folds, Hero raises to $46, BTN requests TIME, 1 fold

Final Pot: $45.00
Hero wins $45.00

What happened here, is IFS spewing again? No, actually not (well the first raise might be a little spewy, but the 4bet is not).

I'm running kinda loose, and this is a pritty straightforward TAG. Not too good. His 3bet OTB is 6% and his overall is 4%. I expect this guy to 3bet QQ+, AK for value, since I run on the looser side. I also expect him to have some air, so this is his range imo

QQ+,AKs,AKo,63o - 3.5%

Let's look at how he responds to a 4bet. Our estimates here are crucial.

I expect him to 5bet shove with KK+, and AKs. Remember, this is fullring. People doesn't like to 5bet shove wide aginst a 4bet from UTG...

Which gives: KK+,AKs - 1.2%

So he 3bets 3.5% and continues 1.2%, which means he folds about 65% of the time. We're risking 40$ to win 30$ so it needs to work 57% of the time. Which it does. This is a very close example, just wanted to show you this, cuz people click fold in a millisecond here. Think about it for a sec first.

3.6 - 5bet shoving light!

It's not often we should 5bet light, and if we do it's if we're BvB vs. a very LAGgy reg who we have history with and knows we're also LAGgy. But there's one thing that's very interesting about 5bet shoving light. If you take a hand like T9s and 5bet shove, he only needs to fold about 50% of the time. This shocked me the first time I read it. Put it on the memory.

Making moves postflop!

4.1 - Who do we/don't we want to bluff?

Well, we don't want to bluff calling station, they are just gonna call us down with bottom pair. We don't wanna bluff nits cuz they always have AA+ pre. That's about it. Prime targets for bluffing are people who continue with a low range yet have a large range. This is a KEY point! Everybody says bluffing fish is so lol bad, but if they can fold at least deacent, they are prime targets for bluffing since their ranges are huge. For example, we have this 60/10 fish who has a habit of donking flop aginst us, and will happily call us down with TPTK, but gets a bit scared if we show alot of aggression and he only has mid pair.

So we T4s on the button, villain limps, we iso to 5x bb, he calls. Flop is J52 rainbow. Pot is 11.5b, he donks for 6. We raise to 17. Villain folds.

If he calls, don't feel scared to barrel any Queen king or ace. If he calls, just tripple barrel him on the river.

Other prime targets for bluffing are sLAGs and LAGs. Most of people who buy-in full and run like 19/17 are going to be good regs, that know how to fold postflop. Their ranges are big, but their continuation ranges are narrow. Let me just show an example.

A 19/17 reg raises to 3x in MP, we call with 77 OTB. Flop comes Q65 rainbow. Pot is 7.5bb, he bets 5bb. We call. Turn is a 9 of clubs. Pot is 17.5bb, he bets 12bb. We raise to 35bb. Villain curses his bad luck in the chat on how people ALWAYS hit sets aginst him and fold. Piece of cake.

It's hard to talk about making moves postflop, because there are ALOT of different variables and stuff to take into consideration. Let me instead show you a few sample hands from real life and explain why I decide to bluff in this spot

Villain is a good regular, who doesn't like to fold to 3bets. He runs 24/21. My image is pritty tight, i've been running 17/14 at this table. 250 hands.

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players
2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked

UTG: $220.00
UTG+1: $213.00
MP1: $83.00
MP2: $457.35
CO: $222.75
BTN: $200.00
SB: $200.00
Hero (BB): $203.00

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BB with Q A
2 folds, MP1 calls $2, MP2 raises to $10, 3 folds, Hero raises to $32, 1 fold, MP2 calls $22

Flop: ($67.00) 2 K 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $42, MP2 calls $42

Turn: ($151.00) J (2 players)
Hero bets $129 all in, MP2 folds

What's his range for calling a 3bet? I'd say KQ+, TT+. He almost always 4bets AA/KK and usually AK because he knows I'd be willing to get it in lightly aginst him because of his image.

So what does he continue with on this board? AK, KK+, a very small % of the time, he makes a hero call with KQ. But like I said before, KK+, AK is heavily downweightened. So what does he fold? TT, QQ, KQ, some random he was floating with (which is relatively likely vs. this villain.)

Given this analasis we can see that he'll fold at least 50% of the time. Our bet is less than pot, and we have 4 sure outs if we do get called, so this is definitly +EV. It's extremely high variance, but +EV.

Another example

I'm running pritty loose, like 19/16, villain is running 20/18, 7% 3bet from SB/BB aginst steals.

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked

UTG: $200.55
MP: $448.45
CO: $45.15
Hero (BTN): $236.20
SB: $200.00
BB: $69.50

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN with J A
3 folds, Hero raises to $6, SB raises to $20, 1 fold, Hero calls $14

Flop: ($42.00) K 8 4 (2 players)
SB bets $26, Hero raises to $57, SB folds

Okey, let's take som help from our dear friend Pokerstove and see what 7% really looks like.

88+,AJs+,KQs,AJo+

wow, that's pretty large. let's see what he continues with if I raise flop. I expect him to call with any king, and ofc AA.

KK+,AKs,KQs,AKo, this is exactly 2.5%. Which he means he'll fold like 63% of the time or something.

We risk 57$ to win 58$ so according to this, this is a very margnial play, right?

NO, this is wrong. Thing is, he does not always 3bet the top 7% of his range. Usually he's going to flat the KQs kind of hands, and instead 3bet hands like TJs and random air. So he's definitly folding more than 50% which makes this an +EV raise.

5. Summary

This probably looks like ****, but I'm not good at layout or anything. I hope you've at least learned something. Don't be a robot, always think through your every play. Don't go out and spew just because of this post I wish you guys the best luck and I expect to see you at small/mid stakes in no time. Here's a fun hand that shows that when this happens vs. a fellow reg, you're bluffing too much...


Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 Pot Limit Hold'em - 4 players
2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked

Hero (SB): $317.65
BB: $200.00
CO: $36.80
BTN: $83.50

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is SB with 7 8
2 folds, Hero raises to $6, BB calls $4

Flop: ($12.00) J 4 T (2 players)
Hero requests TIME, Hero bets $9, BB raises to $24, Hero raises to $82, BB requests TIME, BB raises to $194 all in, Hero calls $112

Turn: ($400.00) 5 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($400.00) J (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $400.00
Hero shows 7 8 (a pair of Jacks)
BB shows 9 9 (two pair, Jacks and Nines)
BB wins $398.00
(Rake: $2.00)

GG, IFS

(Feel free to bash on how I played any of these hands btw)

NICE
TL DR
BAN OP

wow this is awesome

Your going to turn me into an aggro donk, you know that right?

really awesome post! some great advice there

This should make up for that inner LAG CoTW not being written

Great post !

Nice post. Makes up for the missing COTW of releasing your inner LAG.

Great minds think alike.

Mmmm yea I can't wait until people read this and start spewing off stacks at the micros.

But seriously nice post -- I think the main problem is a lot of people aren't disciplined enough to do this. I.E. they say I'm going to win EVERY SINGLE POT YEAH!! And they end up getting stacked with 8 high instead of trying to take pots away when it makes sense to apply more pressure.

Keep in mind, that YOU shouldn't be bluffing when you can only rep a small range. The HH examples you have given and the ones above are with board textures where you are basically trying to rep a set every time (given that they're rainbow flops...one broadway, two low cards).

Basically, when you bluff, imo, you are playing to your image and the dynamic you have established with said reg. In addition, you need to pick boards that are bluffable (i.e. ones where the number of combos in your range given the board will make villain fold... i.e. don't bluff when you can only rep a small range). So long as you play all of your flopped sets in the same manner as your bluffs above and don't run a bluff too often then I don't have a problem with it. However, given the last HH you posted, I have a feeling that isn't the case .

Overall, nice post!

There's a fine line between genius and insanity.

/Oscar Levant

Nice reply, tho I don't think the fish cares that we rep a narrow range or anything, he just looks at his cards and says "he probably has something" and folds

About the repping a set vs. reg hand.

Thing is, we're really polarizing our range. He knows we're never playing KQ like this. It's either nuts or air. So are two options; 1. we could have been floating flop and decided to bluff/raise turn, or 2. we could have a hit a set.

Option no.2 is ALOT more likely than option number one, and therefore 99% of regs are folding here because the chance of option no. 1 is sooo low.

IMS good post. I agree with Knn, that your bluffs worked more b/c villains didn't stay committed to their reads.

First and second hand I like consistent story.

The next hands.....I really can't think of a hand besides sets that you would play like that, and if you did have a set your PF action seem suspect. I think the villain made awful plays adjusting to you, as me personally I would just close my eyes and call each time.

Nice post, sir. I've been trying to fix my red line (or at least discovering why it goes down) and have found that I'm losing a TON of pots from the blinds in non showdown situations. 3-betting light from the blinds is one problem that I found today and your post has further convinced me of that being a major leak. There was a point in my game where I 3-bet more from the blinds than the button! Clearly a mistake. Any other advice of where people are killing there red line while in the blinds?

Thanks!