Hey guys, here's an article Plexiq and I wrote on the bunching effect! I've always thought this was a fascinating topic.

https://www.holdemresources.net/blog...ching-effects/

Here are a few interesting pieces from the article:



Let's say you're playing a 9max game, folds to SB who opens any two. Their frequency adjusted range looks like this:



So in other words, applying this strategy to a (non-bunching) randomly dealt hand will result in the same relative hand frequencies as opening any two cards with bunching.



It's also interesting to observe how the deck distribution changes as more players fold. For example, in a 9max 7.5bb push/fold game we can see how many of each card we expect to remain in the deck after it folds to us in the SB:





Anyway, check out the full article for more detail. Let me know if you guys have any questions!

This sounds very interesting, probably not very applicable for deep stack cash(monker takes this into account?).

Seems to me that this effect could be bigger in Omaha or games like that.

The image shown above is for 100bb 9max. Though it affects 6max too.

I could definitely see Omaha having a much more drastic bunching effect, given there are 4 cards being mucked instead of two.

This reminds me of a time when I said something to an out of town reg about how it’s interesting how mathematically it becomes more probable that players in late position have pocket pairs when multiple players in early position have pocket pairs.

He proceeded to look at me as though I was completely ****ed in the brain.

Excellent article.

No wonder I keep running kings into aces BvB!

People mentioned how this might be bigger in Omaha than holdem. In my experience it's extreme enough in Big O (5 card omaha-8) that it becomes obvious to many players just from playing, without any study of the theory. This is why Big O games are either good or awful: nobody tries to steal the blinds with weak hands from the button.

There is also a related concept in lowball draw games that no one seems to talk about.

Thanks for posting this. I've always assumed the common wisdom about bunching -- that the idea is essentially a myth -- so these results were shocking.

Thanks gaming_mouse!

Common wisdom always assumed the effect is negligible, but that's not always the case. It's often surprising to see how significant this effect can be in some cases.

As noted by XtraScratch, if a player has a pair, that increases the probability that another player has one. I assume that is also true for suited and connected hands. For example, if the deck consist of two 2's and two 3's, a player having the 2-3 straight assures that the other does.

So, in the same way that early folds result in better cards for later players, early hits of pairs and suited or connectors, hands for which a player is less likely to fold, result in better chances for pairs and draws for the later players.

Of course, the big difference is that early folders can't win while early bettors can.

I assume the above affects your decision making in a similar way as the bunching effect, namely that early action (folds or bets) changes later card probability.