Quote:
Originally Posted by Amanaplan
Nope
I'll take the best soldier over the best officer any day.
This may not come out well, but … this kind of hand is a superb one to post because it isn't a cooler (and no it isnt a potential cooler UTG UTG1 to have KK v QQ) or some short stack thoughtless gii nonsense spot. Playing this type of smallish/standard spot well over and over and over is how you win at poker. (at least as far as on-table is concerned). It's just incomplete to say winning = correct because it's more about 'correct for your range', which means that there is no such thing as an ABC spot unless everyone in here is playing the same ranges at the same frequencies beyond just preflop (which we're obviously not).
Now, I'm all for keeping 'balanced' in the traditional sense, and having an understanding for what that looks like certainly helps you play better, but it doesn't account wholly for winning.
I asked Mike 'why deviate' because once a so-far-tightish player goes raise-call UTG, QQ is going to be more of a 1-2 street thin value hand on this runout at best. Checking flop is a real thing against aggro/better types, and it also might be a good line if Mike does not have much JJ as a 3b pre here, but for the most part I just say 'don't deviate' because betting flop wins so often against this player. The way the hand played out, the UTG takes such a clown line that Mike wanted to post it up here and see what TF is going on... scratching his head, he said. It's a fold I guess as played, but I'd much rather have bet bet and gotten shown KK or bet ck bet and seen it than check flop, bet and then fold river because why tf did I lighten up my own range with this line only to fold an OP on the river to a player that may did get induced/have some bluffs/worse for value now? Seems bad, but his lol sizing/range makes it a muck nonetheless.
Anyways, once you have a handle on your own ranges, it really is about exploiting player archetypes even with limited info. This hand against some guy in a collared shirt and a gold watch is 80 pre and 3 streets 100% of the time. Against this guy, 3b pre (I guess), bet (nice), bet (meh, best option probably), check.
Last edited by Amanaplan; 10-05-2018 at 04:33 PM.