I have finished my third week of this challange pretty badly. These are my graph and stats after a bit more than 10k hands:







The changes I've made till now:

• I play a bit looser (23/19) than a month ago. I think it's crucial in 6max games so that you have the chance to win enough pots.
• I hero called a bit more (i.e. cold called a bit lighter). It seems to be a right improvement too although I don't know how to prove it using HEM.

Strategy threads concerning red line improvements (updated)

General strategy threads:

• *CotW: The Last Red Line Post Ever* by mpethybridge
• Improving your redline (Pooh-Baah) by imfromsweden

3bet strategy threads:

• NLHE: 3betting and facing a 3bet by Ronin Talken
• 3bet/4bet theory by Ronin Talken
• Concept Video #2 - 3bet pots and how to deal with them by thac
• A Bad Habit of 3-betting and Range Choice by Chaostracize
• Pooh-bah Post: Re-Stealing by dragon1893
• LC--Light 3 Betting: The Quiz by mpethybridge

Improvement attempt: 3bet more preflop

Well, this will be my first bigger change to my game: I’ll try to 3bet more preflop.

3bet for value:

• AA/KK: 3bet always
• AK/QQ: 3bet always but against some tight and full stacked players I can find a fold if get reraised
• AQo/JJ/TT: 3bet most of the time esp. OOP and if there’s a raiser and callers
• AJ/77-99: 3bet only against maniacs (if I’m ready to stack off preflop)

3bet light (as a bluff):

• Opponents: mostly against taggy players who may fold a lot. I’ll avoid loose players and maniacs.
• Opponents stats:
  • VPIP/PFR: 14/10..28/25
  • Steal > 30%
  • Fold to 3bet > 70%, but this stat is rarely reliable as I don't have enough hands on most of my opponents
• Position:
  • BTN vs CO (rarely vs MP)
  • BB vs SB
  • SB/BB vs BTN/CO: only if steal attempt > 50%
• Frequency: I should 3bet light as often as 3bet for value. This should result in a frequency of 5-7%.
• Hands:
  • Against most opponents I’ll have a polarized range as I assume they will fold much more often than call. I’ll play my (suited) thrash hands w/ a blocker: Axs, Kxs, Qxs like e.g. K3s. This is also the case when I’m IP.
  • Against a few opponents who call too often but can fold on later streets: Axs, SC, small PP like e.g. 89s. Against them my hands must have some postflop value. This is also the case when I’m OOP.
• Bet sizing:
  • IP: 3x, but at least 9BB (even against a min open)
  • OOP: 3.5x, but at least 11BB
  • The size of my 3bets shouldn’t differ from my value bet size. Against some very fishy opponents (who never fold) I will 3bet bigger for value.
• Stack sizes: I won’t 3bet light against an opponent whose stack is smaller than 70 BB. They may 4bet shove lighter so I will rather widen my value 3bet range against them.
• Postflop play: I will c-bet (3/5 pot) most of the time as I expect my opponents to play fit or fold. I will rarely double barrel w/o a big hand.

In the following three weeks I’m going to concentrate on this part of my game. After about 10k hands I’m going to check if these changes have really improved my game.

Feel free to post your thoughts!

This week hasn't started well: I run into AA twice (once w/ KK and once w/ JJ against a aggrodonk who 3bet 28%).

You probably already know this but the one problem with trying to stick to a criteria like this is that it's often robotic, imo at the micros you want to 3bet more OOP, 3bet those who are likely to call IP and for value, also how they play postflop is important, e.g. you don't want to 3bet light those who don't fold postflop or raise a lot of c-bets. Bvb people will often say flatting IP is better than 3betting however i think it works well for your image if you 3bet IP, you'll take it down pfr, it'll look like you're 3betting a lot of hands from all positions.

The idea of 3betting light a lot of the time is to 3bet and get a fold pre, vs the types of players who open/steal a lot but will continue to fold to your 3bets. Seeing flops is where it's get tricky because the pot is aready huge and will get even bigger so i wouldn't be totally stuck on 3bet/cbet/c/f as a line, try to be creative but not spewy.

I wouldn't worry too much about 3betting light/value and balancing it, if you find a player who opens a lot and folds to your 3bets a lot, 3bet the **** out of them and keep doing it until they adjust.

Your 3bet for value range looks good but again think outside the box, there are times even at 2/5nl where i can squeeze with a hand like KQo because the situation allows me to, a tag opens gets a caller and both have a high fold to 3bet, squeeze away.

Also with 3betting light you can find spots to 3bet with SC's IP, the main reason being that if you flop a fd/oesd, against overpairs/TP's you're going to have ~50% equity + fold equity (watch out for this at the micros but you know that anyway) so there can be spots where they can raise you and you can shove and wouldn't be making a mistake.

Looks good but like i said try to think outside of the box/not stick to strict requirements.

Just my opinion as always and gl!

Thx for your comments, really appreciate it!

I agree w/ you for the most part, but why do you want to 3bet more OOP? Even if the SPR gets smaller quickly being OOP is (seems to be) a huge disadvantage if you have to play postflop!?!

It is also certainly true I shouldn't follow strictly these rules but I have to start somewhere. I hope the following weeks will prove if I'm on the right way and I'm ready to make adjustments to these rules if some of them turned out to be wrong.

Out of all the advantages you can have in poker, calling a raise oop is likely to give you only 2, cards and skill whereas if you 3bet pre, you get the iniutiative, cards, skill, it's much better to 3bet pre and be in control of the hand than flat pre, c the flop and then fold unless you plan to c/r flops/lead out.

Imo i would much rather choose 3bet pre over flat pre if we're going to be OOP. Yes being OOP is a huge disadvantage but so is being in a situation where we don't have the iniutiative, we have cards but need a flop to continue and even then we're going to be c/c, c/f a lot. It's more a case neither being great but one is better than the other plus 3betting OOP you're going to be 3betting steals a lot which means you'll get more folds than a BTN vs CO scenario for example.

I totally agree that you have to start somewhere and i thought you had this mind anyway, it's kind of like having a starting hand chart and eventually you break free from it and have a more open game.

I see now: this is the case when you have a promising hand (let's say 9Ts) but calling w/ it in the blinds against an opponent who often steals is not profitable?! Yes, I agree that restealing in this case is better than calling.

On the other hand (perhaps I didn't emphasise enough) my primary goal is to find spots where I can 3bet and my opponent will often fold preflop. So I will rather 3bet a 21/19 (ATS: 30%) sitting in the CO if I have K2s in the BTN than the same villain when I have 9Ts in the SB.

An awful session again:



My kings are definitely doomed. This is my graph on PS when I was dealt KK:



Here's my last one:

Calling with hands like 9Ts out of the blinds vs a steal is a leak, you won't flop oesd's/fd's often enough and any pair you do have will likely be 2nd pair and even if you do flop a draw/pair you're going to be OOP. I would much rather 3bet SC's IP than OOP unless they fold to 3bets a lot mainly because there the type of hands which flop draws/weak pairs rather than hands like AJ with flop TP's/nut draws.

Not sure on how often you cold call, from any positon or from the blinds but you should fold a lot in the blinds, i fold like 90% from the BB and 87% from the SB.

Yeah the second part you mention is what is important, 3betting to get a fold is pretty much the aim unless ofc it's for value and the villain is a station (you know this anyway).

A good way to think about how you play from the blinds is to look at it like this, if i call and fold the flop i'm going to lose 3/4bb (if not more), if i just fold my hand i will lose 0.5/1bb. Small amounts but a huge difference in the long run.

Managed to drop 3 BI again. This time I had 5 KK and won 2 of them. That'd have been a pretty good result but unfortunately I lost 1.5 BI w/ the other three hands.



EDIT: This has been my worst day since I started to play on PS.

There's something majorly wrong if you lose that much in such a short space unless your way under EV and you shouldn't be losing that much at non-SD either.

It's just variance... fortunately it has nothing to do w/ the changes I've made to my game. The following hand is a typical example of this:

Managed to win again w/ KK which resulted in a winning session.



How do you play in the following situations? In the first hand villain was a reggish player (over a very small sample). He insta called preflop. Do you c/f, b/f or b/shove OTF? What do you do on a brick turn?



In this hand CO was unknow but seemed to be too aggro (over only a few hands). SB was a 32/5 fish who was able to l/c w/ KK. Do you squeeze or call?

First hand is generally a flop a cbet, if there reggish there folding Ax/Kx/Qx if they have them, hands like PP's will look good here and players generally don't fold them because they have an overpair. Having said it's a c-bet, it's thin, you're gnna c/f any non A/K turn but i think c/f flop is pretty bad. Also with 3bet pots i think it's better to bet on A/K/Q high boards than boards like 752 (i also think a 3bet thread on this site recommended this).

Second hand due to the SB being 32/5 i prefer to call, the reason being that if you squeeze and the flop comes A/K/Q/J high, you're nearly always getting called, you're only getting value when you flop a set/overpair. Plus if you do flop a set, unless SB is fit or fold, they're going to be passive and you're IP to do them.

I think squeezing with hands like 99/TT/JJ is a weird situation and i think at the micros theres just much more value in set mining rather than taking it down pre flop, plus if you get called pre and get a bad board, it's hard to play a mid PP OOP, making things harder than they need to be kind of scenario.

Hope this helps some and i think the main point with squeezed/3bet pots is to just not get spewy, think all the options through and reason them.

In the first hand he insta called my c-bet again and I c/f'ed on a J turn. Actually I think it's a very bad flop to c-bet but I had a GS too so...

In the second hand I finally decided to just flat call. Flop came 775, SB checked, I checked, CO bet 3/4 pot, SB folded. Now what? Call and reevaluate turn? Can I really call him down on a low board? What if an A or K come? Against an unknown it's pretty hard to play this hand OOP so I folded OTF. Actually this is my "default" line but I think I will consider squeezing more (for value and for protection) in these spots.

Please don't auto 3bet AK/QQ. You have a major leak if you auto 3bet them...not to mention always 3bet them and fold vs. tight players. And I'm not saying to 3bet/call...

Also, why open raise on the BU to 2.5X in the AKo hand? You are losing a lot of value if you do this when fish are in the blinds.

C/f the 3bet AKo hand on the flop (think of the ranges). And no he's not having Kx/Qx it's going to almost always be like 99-JJ/AQ/sometimes QQ/sometimes AK.

Squeeze the TT hand and play a pot IP vs. the fish. You're def not playing it for set value and you can bluff a lot of A/K/Q/J flops and sometimes even thin value bet them.

Well, I only flat w/ these hands IP vs a nitty UTG/MP opener but I don't like flatting OOP even against them. What do you think about this?

You're completely right! The problem is I always open 2.5x on the BTN but I do have to adjust if there are fish in the blinds! Very good point!

Yes, really not a good flop to c-bet but I had a GS too. But it's close and perhaps too thin.

Again this is really good advice. I must be too weak and afraid of being 4bet and having to fold. I'll do it more often!

All in all thank you for these very helpful hints!

If you are playing 6max you really should be 3 betting regardless with AKo+. I play 10 tables of 10nl with a positive redline and i'm playing around 25/22. I find you are checking too much; keep barrelling most boards you will be surprised at how stupid the regs play when they are continually fired at. THe good ones will start 3betting your cont bets light because they know you are light. In that circumstance I just 5 bet, sometimes it gets me into a lot of trouble but most often they fold. I cont bet ATC depending on the flop, most you micro players major problem is you are so weak/tight. You check/call the flop then fold the turn, I make most of my profit against this sort of play.

Thank you for your comments, I really appreciate them!

The problem is I mostly face fish postflop who don't like to fold any pair, any A, anything at all so c-betting and double/triple barrelling is not always that good. I rather c-bet and DB/TB against regs which really works better as you said.

I (almost) never 3bet as bluff OTF but you're right, I should take this line up in my game.

I hardly ever c/c the flop as the PFR but other than that I'm a weak/tight(?) player. I will focus on improvements of my postflop game in the next month.

My redline has been almost flat for a while now and like said before most of the improvement comes from being agressive on the flop. for instance if it is a 3-way pot and you are 2nd to act en the first player checks: bet. Very often you will take it down. If you check and the third player bets ur like: ok... And if he checks behind en the first player bets u will also have a harder spot. Another thing i started doing was to color multitablers, and cbet like 90% of the time with them because they almost all play the fit or fold crappy style.

Thx for the comments!

C-betting more and generally being more aggro postflop is something I have to definitely improve but I have to be cautious and select the appropriate opponents (i.e. the weak tight players like me ) I have been also actively colour coding my opponents. It helps me a lot.

I managed to stack off a fish w/ JJ but other than that I have played an awful session again.



In the following hand villain was a huge fish (61/20, very aggro postflop and can't fold). I think 3betting w/ A2o was a mistake, but as played do you double barrel OTT given he snap called OTF?



The second hand demonstrates why my red line has those big falls. Villain was 40/0 over a few hands only. Is the turn too weak?

A short session w/ two interesting hands (s. below).



In this hand both villains were a fish and I had a laggy table image. Can you find a fold OTF? Are we good agains their collective range?



I know we don't fold KK preflop 100 BB deep but... UTG was a fish but CO was a confirmed nit (13/9, no 3-bet over 110 hands). My table image was taggish. What do you think he 4bet with (instead of just shoving)?

My evening session was successful too despite my first kings being cracked by a set.



Villain in this hand was an unknown laggy player. Is 3betting fine here?