Awesome post slyless !

thank you @slyless, you did an awesome job creating this post. Really informative and straightforward. Kudos for the great work my friend.

I'm at my job now but I tried to follow your process using my cellphone, not sure if I fully get the idea but I believe is more or less like that.

CO vs BU SRP

Board: KQ9r

CO checks, BU bets 1/2 pot. MDF is 67%

CO have 348 combos, we should defend with 67% of our range or 233 combos.

The defense range I formed:

Check calling range:
Overpairs: AA
Pair with the board:
KTo, KJo, KQo, AKs.
QTo, QJo, AQo.
A9o, 98s, A9s, J9s, T9s

Check raising range:
Value:
Straights: JTo, JTs
Sets: KK, QQ and 99
Two-pairs: KQo, KQs, Q9s, K9s

Bluffs:
AJo, AJs, ATs
77, 88

Simplistically enough, but the general idea is correct.

On a KQ9r board, we have range and nut advantage. We can understand this if we compare range vs range.



We have 57% equity and 38 combos Two Pair+ vs Villain's 16 combos.
Therefore, we can play this board from a linear CBet with a small sizing.


There aren't enough bluffs in your check/raise range. You have 38 value and 32 bluff combinations.

another try

CO vs BU SRP

Board is 789r

CO checks, BU fire a PSB. MDF is 50%

we have 338 combos, we need to defend with 169.



check calling:
Overpairs: TT-AA
Pairs with board: A9o, A9s, T9s, J9s, Q9s, K9s, A9s.
T8s, J8s, Q8s, K8s, A8s.
Q7s, K7s, A7s, 67s

Check raising:
Straight: JTo, JTs, 65s
Set: 77, 88, 99
Two-pair: 78s, 89s

Bluffs:
Overcards + BDNFD: AKs, AQs
Under pair + OESD: 66

one question, how much I should rely on MDF?
at the hand above MDF suggested me to defend 50% of my range against a PSB. this doesn't look a bit too much?

when people take the lead OTF with a pot sized bet in this situation they usually have at least a top pair. I think when I'm playing I usually defend something like 25-30% on those situations, villain being a nit I would fold anything worse than a top pair.

I can imagine that I should not follow MDF blindly and I should make some adjustments considering all factors playing a role, that being said, how I should do that?

thanks in advance

As Hand Research shows in PSB sizing, Villains have the fewest bluffs in their range.


Composition PSB sizing:


Also, if our opponent has a low Cbet OOP percentage and low X/F, then we can assume that he does not bluff on the flop and therefore we can overfold the exploit without respecting the MDF and not pay him his strong hands.
But a common mistake at the micros is to take this as a default strategy.
You should overfold only against tight opponents, and defend by default on MDF. Even if the opponent has a CBet OOP of 30%, it differs depending on the board type. They can bet more often on dry boards and less often on the draw ones.

As for the 789r board.

I marked all the hands you chose and I got defense 39.6% :


At the same time, if you look at the equity of the hands that you fold, then you should add OESD ATo, ATs, KTo, KTs, QTo, QTs to your defense range.
Also, AJ gutshots have more equity than AK.


Thus, we got a fairly strong range without an overfold.


I think Two Pair doesn't have enough value to raise on this board, so I would check/call them.
Also, against big sizings, we should check/raise less. We need to strengthen our calling range to counter Villain's stronger betting range.
Very few bluffs.

so as rule of thumb I should follow MDF suggestion against unknown players and only start overfolding or overcalling according to his stats?

since I play NL2 zoom I think I'll probably would have to follow MDF suggestion 90% of time because is a bit rare to play against someone that have enough hand sample for postflop stats.

If that's true I think I am probably overfolding a lot because the most of the time I defend with half of what MDF suggests or even less.

about the bluffs on my check-raise range, I should use this check-raise bluffs like OESD, Gutshot, overcards + bdfd, etc ONLY against players that I noticed that bet too much frequently as an exploit against them or I can also check-raise bluff against unknown players also for balance reasons?

thanks again

When we use weak combos into a check/raise bluff range, we strengthen our check/call range.
That is, the check/raise bluff is an important part of the strategy, which allows us to keep the MDF adequate values and still have strong ranges on the turn and river.
If we just call wider we won't create problems for our opponent. He will simply look at the turn and river cards and collect his equity.

If we get our opponent to fold the third pair with our bdfd, it will be a great result for us. We are burning a huge amount of his equity.
Even if we get called, you can bet again on the turn if you improve to FD. This way you earn fold equity on two streets, instead of "dutifully" calling and seeing what your opponent offers you on the next street.
Just look at how often you get folds to a flop raise in PT4 and you will understand that you should not be afraid to raise more often.

You can use the GTO Wizard to pick bluffs, but don't blindly follow it.

03/04



interesting hand, I thought that they probably had two-pair, TPGK or FD, surely not AA, so I decided to shove to make them call with worse, which they actually did.

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 6 players
Replay this hand on CardsChat

UTG: $2.29 (115 bb)
MP (Hero): $2.26 (113 bb)
CO: $2.06 (103 bb)
BU: $2.00 (100 bb)
SB: $1.96 (98 bb)
BB: $2.07 (104 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero is MP with T♠ T♣
UTG calls $0.02, Hero raises to $0.08, CO calls $0.08, 3 players fold, UTG calls $0.06

Flop: ($0.27) 3♥ A♣ T♥ (3 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.16, CO raises to $0.32, UTG calls $0.32, Hero raises to $2.18 (all-in), CO calls $1.66 (all-in), UTG calls $1.86

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I was not able to put good volume last month due to a lot of tasks at my job, but thank god finally I'll have more time at home now since now everybody that it is soon to be released will be allowed to be at home almost the whole week until be finally turned off from military, so that way I'll have plenty of time to put volume everyday with no worries


Current Bankroll: $35.69

07/04

pretty good session today, I feel that I'm making more money on the spots where I have the nuts, choosing my bet sizes smartly according to the situation



I'll play another short session later, my mind is still fresh to play a little more

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Current Bankroll: $40.76

my advice would be to get a desktop solver, PioSOLVER or GTO+ for example, and you will see that in many instances it is theoretically correct to overfold regarding MDF. MDF, as far as I understand it, was the best way for us to form a strategy that made villains' bluffs 0 EV, but solvers disproved the necessity of this.

I'm actually thinking about buying flopzilla before paying for a solver, but I can imagine that what you are talking it's truth since MDF suggest you to call with so much hands

09/04



standard session with some ups and downs like everyday, now I'm feeling more confortable playing 2 zoom tables for many hours than 2-3 months ago.

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Current Bankroll: $44.07

10/04



today I mixed 2 to 3 tables to test how I'm playing 3 tables, I had a lot of all-ins preflop where villain had crap and was just bluffing, I'm also having good results with my check-raises on the flop, people overfold a lot in some spots like that, squeeze preflop is also working pretty fine.

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Current Bankroll: $47,79

12/04

yesterday I had to withdraw $20 to buy food and pay for other expenses, it really hurts to have to withdraw money when I was just starting to grow my roll with no problems but things got worse enough to require me to do that so whatever, it is what it is.

I played 1400 hands and lost 2-3 usd yesterday If I'm not wrong, I forgot to post the graph. It was an ok session, I feel that I'm losing less money on the spots where I should lose money and winning more on the spots where I should win.

some months before I was donking a lot when having a good hand and beting too much frequently in bad situations, that was one of the reasons why variance was hurting me so much.

now I have something between 25 usd as roll, just enough to keep me busy playing a bit everyday, I'll just play 1 table and study a bit everyday as before, I'll only start playing with 2 tables or more after reach $30 again.

wish me luck guys.

Good luck man!

thanks bro

13/04



today I just played a short session since today I got late at home and I'm pretty tired, but after a cup of coffee and a cold bath I was good to go.
I got a lot of spots where people shove on turn and river, I called and they have crap, I think I'm getting better at feeling when villain does a suspectful move like that. the stabs on the river after both players checked turn is also working fine, I'm taking away a lot of pots where I almost knew that I was weaker than villain.

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Current Bankroll: $28

14/04



I had another long day again and got home pretty tired but at least I had energy enough to play a short session with good quality, today I had a lot of easy spots to deal with so I almost didn't had any interesting hands to post on the forum to discuss. I'm happy that I ran good today, looks like I'm almost $5 from having $40 again as bankroll. I'm planning to start taking 2 BI shots at NL5 when having more than $50 as roll.

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Current Bankroll: $34.46

15/06



yesterday I had a lot of bad beats on all-in preflop situations, I've gone as low as - 3BI
(-$6) but I'm glad I didn't quit the session and keeped playing with good quality, I'm not caring about bad beats as much as before to be honest

16/06



today I'm having a pretty easy session, a lot of easy spots to play. one spot that I notice that people are overfolding too much is when a third suited card show up on the river on a pot where both players were quite passive, I bet 1/3 having A high card or better and people always fold, if they checked flop and turn they will simply fold on river. I believe they are folding all his low pairs, mid pairs or even top pairs with a bad kicker, and sometimes when they call they have just air and lose the pot, i'm winning a lot of pots with A high card on situations that probably villain had something stronger than me.

It's just 12:00 PM so I'll play another sessions during the day and post here on the forum.

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Current Bankroll: $34

16/04



A lot of ups and downs today, more downs than ups to be honest. I played for 7 hours today without even realizing, it's easy to put big volume with quality playing many short sessions rather than playing 1-2 huge sessions. I usually just play many 1 hour sessions during the day and feels that I'm making less mistakes due to not being tired or bored.

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Current Bankroll: $30

17/04



nothing really special in this session tbh, just the same.

I tried to take more notes after showdown in this session, and also tried to do it more quickly since I lose too much time doing. the most of the time I'm taking notes about what villain did preflop or on the flop, since these are the situations that happen more frequently.

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Current Bankroll: $35.33

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LAST 20K HANDS

The last 20k hands look great!
It's time to build up a bankroll for nl5

18/04



I had a great session today, just easy spots the most of the time. I think since now I'm paying more attention on the hud stats when open raising, calling or 3beting preflop I'm avoiding more weird spots postflop than before. I think I'm also having a better intuition to catch when someone is bluffing or not, taking notes after showdown more frequently is helping a lot.

I'm happy to had reached $40 again so quickly, finally variance is giving me a break

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Current Bankroll: $40.44

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thanks man, I'll start taking some shots there after having $50, I hope it works this time

just another short session to finish the day, had a bunch of coolers as you can see

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Current Bankroll: $41,73