Quote:
Originally Posted by 6bet me
I'm a reg at 1/3. The games are very soft. There are a lot of passive fish that will limp/call a $20 raise with hands like Q9s and K8o. Expect a lot of multiway pots and expect very few 3bets preflop. A 3bet is almost always {JJ+, AK}, so don't expect any fold equity when you 4bet shove over a 3bet. Cbetting flops works well when you have the initiative. As for barreling, try to be very value-oriented, rather than bluff-oriented. You should assume that the average player at 1/3 will never fold top pair no matter what. Punish them by going for 3 big streets of value everytime you have TPTK or an overpair (eg. $20 preflop, $30 on flop, $75 on turn, $150 on river... watch them call you down with something like QT on a Qxxxx board when you have AQ).
Even the best players you will encounter at 1/3 have some huge imbalances that you can exploit. Some of the regs play the "lookup artist" game: they float you on the flop just to see how you react on the turn. Some regs play the "bet when you miss, check when you hit" game where they check the flop when they hit and Cbet the flop when they miss. A few play the "limp/raise monsters from early position game". You can just fold whenever you see them limp/raise UTG because it's almost always QQ+. There are a few "old man coffee" nits amongst the crowd too. If you can beat these types of players, then you'll crush 1/3 at Crown, because it honestly doesn't get any tougher than this.
Most players have a very basic understanding of position, but do way too much calling from the blinds. Don't expect people to fold to your steals very often, but don't expect people to resteal either... they just flat-call a lot.
Typically, I like to raise to 5x + (x per limper) because otherwise you end up playing too many multiway pots, although there are times when I'll make a big raise like $20 and still get 5 callers, so sometimes MW pots are inevitable.
1/2 is slightly softer than 1/3, but way less profitable, due to a max buyin of 50bbs (as opposed to 100bbs at 1/3) and a rake cap of $20 (as opposed to $15 rake cap at 1/3). So I'd recommend you just stick to 1/3. If you have the bankroll, the 2/5 games are quite soft too and they run very frequently as well.
Good luck!
Well, that was comprehensive 6bet! Very nice post!
While on the subject of strategy, I'll offer a couple of my own tactics for readers to consider.
Regarding multi-way pots, they should generally be welcomed if we make certain considerations. Firstly, if we (correctly) assume that chips tend to flow towards the button, then if we're in late position we want to play against as many players as possible. (Conversely, if we're out of position, we want to play against as few players as possible.) Secondly, if we're raising with a strong value hand, we want as many players to call with weaker hands as possible. (Well, that's not precisely true, due to diminishing returns and pot odds after about five callers if you have, say, Pocket Aces, but I'll spare everyone the maths and leave my original statement as a guideline.) Not only does this generate extra value, but it reduces the SPR, which is typically favourable with strong preflop value hands. Similarly, if we have drawing hands (say, small pocket pairs), the more callers we have, the better our pot odds to draw. So don't fear multi-way pots - embrace them! Sure, you'll win them less frequently than heads-up pots, but when you do win them, the payout will be substantially better.
Regarding preflop raise sizes, in my rather limited experience, opponents tend to be rather elastic in their continuance ranges. It's not unusual for me to see about four callers if I raise to $20 UTG, but watch everyone fold to my $25 BUT raise even if every player before me has limped in. $1/$3 play is often pretty strange like that...
Anyway, that's my 2c about some aspects of the play I implement at $1/$3. I hope you find them helpful.