I wanted to pass a long and combine some knowledge that I have gained over the past year that has really helped improve my game. Some of these concepts along with many others have helped turn me from a large losing player to marginal winning player online, and a winning player live. Most of what I am going to cover has already been covered on this site and in many books, but I really want to reiterate some of the concepts and put them in an easy to read and understand format to hopefully help improve your game.

Typically with online micro stakes poker, and in LLNL there is a common piece of strategy that is shared about how to be profitable. Typically it goes something like this:
“Bluffing is unnecessary at the micros(LLNL) all you have to do is valuebet to make a profit. DON'T BLUFF THE FISH”

This in many cases is the correct thing to do. However most of the time I believe it is suggested because of the common belief that players at low stakes poker simply don’t know how to fold a hand. This is true in many regards but if we take a deeper look into what makes them hold so dearly onto their beloved TPTK, TPGK and TPWK hands we can better understand the spots we can bluff and we cannot.

I won’t go into specifics on what to look for when developing reads and assigning play styles to players as there is plenty of information on that topic already. I want to specifically talk about a play style and read that I have put on many players that I call the “pair poker mentality”.

Pair poker mentality is a secondary read on a player that I will assign to players of various skill levels. The pair poker mentality is typically found on a “fish” that is new to the game or inexperienced outside of a home game, but the pair poker mentality can also be an infectious leak to players of higher skill levels. I will try and simplify it here.

Pair poker mentality is the inability for a player to ascertain and consider hands in Texas Hold’em above and beyond one pair hands without a seemingly obvious board texture influencing their decision.

This differentiates itself from your average calling station as PPMP players can lay down hands and have bluffs run against them successfully. Identifying a player with these tendencies can be very profitable because we can then pick the correct spots to get value, and the correct spots to get them off a hand.Pair poker mentality players typically exert traits of weak passives, weak tight etc.

To continue, lets look at some examples. PPMP = Pair poker mentality player
PPMP – A10
Board: A56K2

In this example a PPMP will be easy to extract 3 streets of value against with a two pair / set type hand as the player is unable to consider and give credit for hands that would be stronger than his TPaverageK. We’ve all run into this type of player that we’ve tried every method of raising, check raising and firing 3 streets against and have been unable to pry them off a hand. Typically it isn’t because this player has a soul read on us, it falls back on their inability to recognize anything above and beyond their own holdings. We would then label this player a calling station but the goal of this, is to understand what makes them a calling station and how to exploit that. By definition a calling station is different than what I consider a PPMP. A calling station is hard to bluff, a PPMP is not (given the right circumstances) and that is why we need to have a different designation for these type of players so we can exploit their play.

As I said earlier a PPMP has trouble considering any hands above his one pair that have him beat without the influence of an obvious board texture. An obvious board texture in this regard would be something like:
One card straight on the board
Four to a flush
Paired board etc
Any over card to his pair (LDO, amirite?)

Whereas your typical calling station will overvalue TP as a PPMP would, a PPMP will display weak tight, and weak passive traits if the board turns scary. A PPMP can sometimes switch from overvaluing top pair to seeing monsters under his bed and in his closet given the right board texture. This is due to another symptom or tell of a PPMP…. the ability to only consider one card in their hand or their opponents.
Take for example
PPMP – KJ
Board- 4 K 356
By the time the board is run out, we have a 3 card flush and a one card straight on the board. PPMP has top pair in this situation. Lets say we have a good read on the player by this point and have him pegged for a K. We know we cannot win this pot without a big river bluff. Against your average calling station that over values top pair bluffing here might be considered spewy, but if we recognize and classify the villain as a PPMP bluffing might be very +EV in this spot. Against these types of players we sometimes don’t even have to worry about our line or what we are representing by the way the hand played out. A PPMP simply recognizes he has one pair, there is not a higher pair on the board therefore by you betting you are representing a hand that it only takes one card for you to have and the PPMP will be more inclined to lay his hand down. By bluffing this river typically a PPMP won’t even consider that you have a flush and will solely believe you have the one card that makes your hand. I think this might stem from the fact that a PPMP plays a wide range of hands preflop, and makes a straight or flush often with one card instead of two by NOT playing suited connectors or suited gappers primarily. When a PPMP plays a hand like K7 often, and he hits a 34567 straight he will remember and consider that part of your holding if you are raising or betting on the river.

Let me explain a little more in depth some of the differences between your average calling station that overvalues top pair, and your average PPMP. Typically a station will overvalue top pair, or overplay it by betting strong or calling strong bets. They will also call down with second and third pair in situations they don’t give you credit for anything. Calling stations seem to think they are always getting bluffed. A PPMP differs from this and shows weak passive /weak tight symptoms in the sense that they typically don’t call down with top pair or even continue in the hand when an overcard hits the board.

Let’s look at an example hand.
Hero : AK Button
PPMP: KJ HJ
Let’s say it folds around to the PPMP that raises to 7$.
Hero 3 bets to $25 from the button.
PPMP wants to see a flop with broadway cards (PPMP's we want to be raising IP for value), he calls.
Flop comes : J64
PPMP checks to us, and we fire a standard continuation bet of $35 (pot is 50ish). PPMP calls.
At this point your typical player with AK would be planning to shut down on the turn but let’s say we have a read and understand that the PPMP expresses tendencies of a weak passive and we’ve designated him a PPMP.
For him to call this flop we weigh his range heavily towards some type of jack.
Turn: Q

PPMP thinks, and checks again. Now this is a great bluff spot against a PPMP as opposed to your average station. We’ve all heard the term bluff the scare card and that’s exactly what we’ll be doing. It’s a great double barrel spot because yes, we’ve picked up a draw but also we understand the PPMP and how he values top pair and how he reads the board. Our read on the PPMP after he called the flop was weighed heavily towards a jack so we know the Q only improves his hand if he had specifically QJ.

We fire $80 here, PPMP tanks and folds flashing the jack.

Even though we know we didn’t get there, we also know our line was indicative of KK or AA because we’d play the hand the same way. The PPMP typically doesn’t even consider those to be in our range as they are paying attention to the cards on the board and not the line you took betting. This is why it’s always important that against these types of players we play our hand very straightforward. 3 Bet pre for value, and bet bet bet when we feel they have top pair and will pay us off.
Another symptom of a PPMP is the number of hands they are playing (vpip) and the type of hands they are trying to make. A PPMP much like your average fish will be playing any combination of a king, any ace and usually something like Q7 and above. Because a PPMP is involved in so many pots with such marginal holdings they typically only make one pair type hands so their board reading skills and hand value is heavily weighted towards that.

The PPM doesn’t just infect fish and players of inexperience. Experienced and more advanced players fall into this trap often enough also. Our implied odds against these types of players go through the roof because we know if we hit our hand on the correct board we will take their stack every time we do.
Let’s say the following hand takes place:

Hero: 1010 UTG+1
Hero raises to $8
Folds around to button who calls, blinds fold.
Flop: 237
Hero bets $15
Button calls $15
Turn : 8
Hero bets $35
Button raises to $85
This is where the PPM can get us into a lot of trouble. Many players I know, many good players would be playing for stacks at this moment.

Knowing and understanding the baluga whale theorem in this spot would help immensely.
http://www.thepokerbank.com/strategy/theorems/baluga/
Now that you know the baluga whale theorem, we should know that we should reevaluate the strength of a one pair hand when facing a raise on the turn. On the opposite end of that the PPM infects us as we are unable to give credit for a stronger hand as our overpair to the board looks unbeatable.

I’m going to end the article by saying that I hope some of what I’ve stated here you’ll be able to use to help and improve your game. Some of the concepts might seem very basic at their core, but using them and applying them effectively in the correct spots can make the difference between a losing session and a winning one.

Good luck,
Mercury