Well, I think I'll wait a bit w/ this but sooner or later I must do something against the light 3-bettors. 4bet light works well but I didn't want to do it against someone having only 65BB in his stack. And having position calling and playing poker postflop w/ a solid hand seems better.

I made 2 BI in the last few hands today and I seem to be getting out slowly from a quite long BE stretch. The usual overall (since I started this challenge) graph and stats.

• Volume: 34.799 hands (this week: 3708 // had to work a lot)
• VP$IP/PFR: 22.7/19.0 (this week 22.3/18.8)
• 3bet: 4.4 (this week: 4.3 // didn't concentrate enough on this again)
• Flop c-bet: 63.4% (this week: 82.0 )
• Win-rate: 4,46 bb/100 (this week: 0.47 bb/100 )
• WR w/o SD: -12.91 bb/100 (this week: -14.75 bb/100)

Some hands from today. In the first one villain was completely unknown. I think folding OTF to his min raise is pretty standard, isn't it?



In the second hand CO was a tight (17/13) player who didn't like to fold OTF. SB was a fish (42/13) who also liked to peel one street. Do we double barrel OTT as played?



I go on c-betting a lot OTF as it seems to be working very well. I'm quite surprized people fold more than 50% which makes it very profitable.

AJ hand wp imo

44 hand idk if i like cbetting that board. we are in a bad position and turn is going to be hard to play. our outs are not so clean with the fd out there. as played i'm checking hoping to get a free card.


it also seems you're 3 betting % is low for 6 max, isn't it?

Yeah, this is the sad truth. In the last few weeks I worked hard on it but in the last two weeks I was running so bad I unintentionally 3bet less which is obviously poor result oriented thinking. My only excuse is there are a lot of limpers at NL10 and you often can't have the possibility to 3bet. On the other hand there are also some maniacs you don't want to 3bet light (e.g. w/ Axs).

i see. with maniacs you can 3bet wider for value though like AJ, KQs...
vs. limpers i like 3betting the isolators. so you actually have almost the same opportunities.

I definitely haven't played my A-game today. I only c-bet 71.4% OTF as it was often multiway and I lost my confidence since some of my opponents couldn't fold (the success rate was only 36.7%).



Some hands from today. In the first one villain was playing 44/11. I block bet OTR as I was afraid of a bigger bet if I had checked. He wasn't particularily aggro but he did bet vs my missing river c-bet once before.



Villain in the second hand was a fishy reg (34/16, F2CB: 43%, c/r OTF: 22% (4/18)). My first intention was to bluff 3bet OTF but I finally just called as I had position and I was curious what he did OTT. What do you think?

A8 hand: did you consider taking a different line? i like b/c/b here. i'd c/c the turn and c/f river if villain bets dub turn and river. and bet for thin value if turn goes checked. board is pretty dry. hard to get 3 full streets of value from worse given our kicker.
anyway looks fine as long as villain doesn't exploit blocking bets (which almost never happens!). blocking here looks good and it's also for thin value (Tx)

A3 hand: i'd raise more pre HU here, we're going to be oop. flop i'm meh. we have no draws other than our overcard and we're oop. i prefer folding or sometimes 3betting. ott i like your play, villain looks really weak. i wouldn't do it against a good hand reader as we're repping nothing, but vs. this fish it's ok imho.

I generally double barrel too much (which is funny given how passive I am otherwise).

I always never make blocking bets although they must be working as - as you also write - they don't exploit it.

I obviously almost fold OTF in similar situations but his c/r frequency was so high I thought I gave it a try. I think we are repping a strong K here. We are HU...

EDIT: ... or even a str8...

I'm struggling... Flop c-bet: 74.4%.

could be variance. what's cbet success lately? if it goes too low that means you're facing the top of villain's ranges a lot so i wouldn't worry.
could it be that focusing that much on improving your redline is affecting your game in a negative way?

Played a normal and a "Leffe" session yesterday. The later went well as usual but at the and I managed to spew my winnings... I bluff 4bet a lot and it worked very well too. This will be something I'm going to focus on more.



This is very interesting: despite of c-betting a lot my c-bet success rate is over 50% so it's higher now than it used to be. Yesterday: flop c-bet: 85.7% and c-bet success: 62.5%?!?

It definitely does but I have to deal with it somehow. Before I started this thread/challenge I actually expected some losses... I hope this is only the price I have to pay for trying to get better... We'll see...

A better session today. Flop c-bet was only 76.5% b/c there were a lot of multiway flops again.



In this first hand villain was a fishy player (38/12 over 363 hands). This was only like the third hand at a new table but I had a note on him he's quite active HU. F2CB in 3bet pots: 2/4, but he raises 20% vs c-bet (not only in 3bet pots). Other than that he had a normal postflop aggression. Can we shove profitably OTF? I don't really think so but perhaps you have another opinion.



In the second hand CO was a fish (35/8 over 125 hands), who was postflop quite aggro. BB was a huge nit. Do we c-bet OTF?

1st hand villain is not repping that much imo. 55 slowplays and an 8 is unlikely. foldv3bet? i think his raising range is PPs, rarely broadways in which case we're ahead (i would exclude AQ+ due to card removal and preflop action). probably stuff like 66-77. we have two overs+ counterfeiting outs + bdnfd + the best hand at times. fish love to raise these boards. i think we can shove here HU.

2nd hand seems a perfect board to cbet but it really depends if villains are willing to fold. our position sucks, when we 're behind we have max three outs, no good cards to barrell ott other than an ace...meh...i'd give up here tbh pretty often being mw. HU i 'd cbet, or i'd cbet stuff like Tc9c or even AJs with a backdoor. we can pick up equity ott that coupled with FE makes it more proitable to plan a multi street barrell.

First session today. Nice red line but terrible blue one.



In the following hand villain was an unknown tight/passive player. Some hands earlier he limped in w/ 99 in the CO, called two bets w/ a flopped set/turned boat and bet 1/2 pot OTR. Easiest fold ever?

Ohhhh, what a second session. I 4bet/called twice w/ KK, both villains had AA (what else), but I hit my set in both cases...

Flop c-bet: 88.9%, success rate: 33.3% (I got raised a lot).



In the following hand villain was a big fish (32/14, F2CB: 3/10, raise CB: 4/10). Some minutes earlier he won a big pot against me by r/c'ing OTF w/ an OESD. How to proceed in this hand?

23s hand looks like a fold to me if your reads on his passivenes is good. sucks because they sometimes overvalue trips here. call call shove is a strong line by him. and i also think i would fold pre with that hand.

A6 hand i' just flatting the flop. we have position and tp vs. somebody wwho seems to like to bluff. keep his bluffing range him. i would call any turn as well unless he overbets and revaluate river. if turn goes checked i would almost call river but probably not bet ( doubt he calls with worse when he double checks and we also get to see what he raised us with)

Yes, he could have trips or a straight but he never plays it like this. Or at least not often enough so that I can call profitably. The sad thing is I used my time and realized it but I still called and he showed a rivered full house.

As for folding pre: the table was tight enough to try to steal.

I folded as I didn't want to call two more bets w/ my TPWK. The reason was the board was so dry so I only beat a pure bluff.

yeah flop is dry, but we having tp reduces the chances he has one. also when he flats pre from the SB not many good aces in his range imo, no TT either... he likes to raise cbets...sees an A high board (some aggro fishes like to bluff paired boards or A high boards). what does he raise for value here on superdry board? i think folding flop is too early in this case. for what we know he could take this line with KT, QT total air.

On the A6 hand: Why are you cbetting? If you want to get value from Tx then you should cbet larger. If you get raised on a 0,8pot cbet you can comfortably fold on this dry board.
If he flats here you can either b/f turn, c/f river or c/c turn and evaluate river. In this spot I prefer to mix my play up and check this flop for pot control/induce some bluffs. Depends on the bet when checked to percentage of villain.

As played I'd fold, because I have no clue what villain has. There is some air in his range though, because of your small cbet.

OK, so calling at least one street would have been better.

I c-bet mainly b/c I'm currently experimenting w/ c-betting a lot. On the other hand I'm ahead of his range and he could call w/ some hands I beat but I didn't want to make the pot too big. I was going to check back most turn and call a not too big river bet.

Thx both of you for the advice!

Not a great but at least a winning day. C-bet: 82.5%, c-bet success: 36.4%. I was only playing 17/15 b/c there were a lot of fish on my left who couldn't find the fold button.



One typical hand... SB was a passive 26/5, BB was another passive 34/6.

Yeah, but if you are ahead of his range you should cbet big to get more value!

Anyways, solid laydown on AJ. I like the raise on the flop on such draw heavy board. Xpert play by villain1 and villain2...

Finally a really good session. Flop c-bet: 75%, c-bet success: 50%.



Unlike yesterday there were several interesting spots. In the first one villain was a huge fish (79/68 over 34 hands). He always opened 6BB. Postflop he was passive but didn't like to fold. What do you think of my line? First of all is the turn bet (size) OK?



In the next hand villain was another huge fish (53/42 over 101 hands). He was postflop aggro (steals limped pot: 88%, AF: 56%, 41%, 33%). So how was my line?



In the third hand villain was a LAG (28/24, 8.3% 3bet, F2CB: 1/4, raises turn c-bet: 1/3). Ten minutes earlier I caught him betting OTT vs my missed c-bet and bluff double barreling big OTR. Against most players I'd just fold OTT but what's the play against him? Can we call and x/c most river?

99 hand i don't like the 3bet so much. i know it's for value vs. this guy but we're going to hate a lot of flops and we're oop. i think calling and play postflop is fine. if MP calls our IO raise higher. plus we keep SPR higher which is better for our hand. SPR otf is 3 which means shove ott.
as played i would probably check/fold flop or bet if he folds to cbet a lot+ check/fold the turn, especially on that card.
we're committing to this pot too lightly imo. otr i prefer a check also. we have straight but i wouldn't be too happy for it. take a note that villain is able to call down 2 streets on a superdrawy/paired board and fold to a minibet otr.

A2. i'm almost always leading for value but i like your line vs. this villain. river is thin...i think it's better to fold at this point as he 3barrells pretty big. any ace is better than ours. Qdxd act like that. on the other side he limped pre and probably would have raised any Ax, Qx preflop. so it's ok imo.

AJ hand. with your reads why not check/calling the flop? board is really dry and we're ahead of his range.
ott villain is not repping that much. i think a call with the intention of calling river is fine but i don't hate folding anyway. after all we're oop and we know he's going to make our life tough otr. also your sizing here can be misleading. they seem a little weak and villain could try to bluff only because of that

The preflop raise was for value and I was going to stack off if he reraised. My hand was way ahead of his range but I didn't want to play it OOP w/o initiative. And I didn't want a multiway flop. The flop is not great but at least it's paired which makes more likely he missed it. And you know I'm a c-bet maniac these days . The turn is really meh... I just didn't want to c/f although he was passive. The river seems easier as I beat everything but an A and he could call w/ a lot of worse hands and I'm not folding at this point.

That's a good point! He was actually on a FD.

I didn't want to give up the initiative in the hand OTF. OTT I should have bet bigger I agree on this. I ended up folding...

Thx for the detailled answers!