Quote:
Originally Posted by CupidStunt0
PokerSnowie suggests raising 0.5 pot from EP raises with most hands rather than a standard raise to 3BB but often suggests raising to pot from the button has the game flipped around in the last few years where this is now the standard?
This question has come up several times in this thread. It only goes with the larger size on the button in high rake environments (microstakes), figuring that its range maximizes EV from stealing the blinds at a high frequency, and being in position if there's a call that makes the pot larger. It opens smaller UTG-CO because there's a decent chance it will face a 3-bet, and a decent chance it will have to play OOP post-flop. Since you lose more pots when you're OOP (especially if you face a 3-bet), you'd prefer to keep those pots small to begin with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CupidStunt0
PokerSnowie suggests that it's wrong to set mine vs EP raises with low pocket pairs but tells you that you should vs CO raises. I thought this was backwards?
In the old days we were taught to set-mine against nits because there were greater implied odds. You could flop a set and win a stack vs TPTK or an overpair. Indeed, top pair used to be played as a bet-bet-shove.
In modern poker, the average potsize is smaller, and stack off ranges much tighter. "GTO"-ish poker includes much more checking with hands like top pair. One pair is just not worth 100bb, so if you get all in on A96 with 66 vs an UTG Snowie-style player, it will always have AA or 99.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CupidStunt0
PokerSnowie often suggests that you don't defend lower top pair and lower overpair hands, or higher top pair hands on dangerous boards with a lot of draws, suggesting instead to check and let your opponent get a free card
This is partly due to the risk of getting raised, and ties in with an old cliché that has become more and more true as time goes on:
Big hand big pot, small hand small pot.
Snowie doesn't want to play for stacks with one pair, including pr+draw. If it has some showdown value, Snowie is much more passive than used to be common. Realizing your own equity by checking back (and possibly inducing bluffs) is often more important than denying your opponent's equity by betting "for protection".
Every spot is different though. The general thrust, however, is that you only want to play big pots with very big hands. Top pair no kicker, or overpair on a connected flop, is not a big hand, so it's often checked back.
If you play a few hundred hands vs the bots and then look at their stats afterwards, pay attention to Snowie's WTSD number. While in the micros you might only get to showdown 25% of the time (because there's a lot of c-betting and fit-or-fold play), the Snowbots have a WTSD number of well over 30. It realizes its equity by checking a lot. You could think of it as a defensive strategy, as it's basically saying "If you flopped a straight, you're not gonna stack me, because I'm taking a street off."