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HU: Push/Fold Only, or Completion Range on the Button? HU: Push/Fold Only, or Completion Range on the Button?

02-10-2021 , 07:51 PM
tl;dr: Do we pick up extra equity by having a completion range on the button at short-ish (10bb effective stacks), or should we just play strictly push/fold?

I have been using Holdem Resources Calculator to review my play in hyper-turbo SNGs on ACR. Because at the level I am playing there are enough weakies who open-limp, my default game tree has the first player in having the choice of calling the big blind, min-raising to 2bb, or shoving.

I have noticed that when the action gets to be heads-up and the effective stack is fairly shallow, HRC has the player on the button completing their blind with a wide range in addition to having a jamming range. (The min-opening range tends to be so tiny as to be negligible.)

For example, for 10bb effective stack, when calling on the button is allowed, button's has a 28% completion range {66+, AJs, QTs+, Q8s, Q6o-Q2o, J8s+, J3s-J2s, J7o-J2o, T5s-T2s, T7o-T2o, 92s, 96o-94o, 86o-85o} and a jamming range of 49% (55-22, AQs+, ATs-A2s, A2o+, K2s+, K2o+ Q9s, Q7s-Q2s, Q7o+, J7s-J4s, J8o+, T6s+, T8o+, 95s+, 98o, 85s+, 87o, 75s+, 64s+, 53s+}. (Effective stack of 1000, blinds 50 and 100, ante 10.)

The calling range has all but the weakest pairs, a lot of offsuit junky hands, and a few suited hands -- some junk, better suited jacks and queens, and AJs. Thus, the completion range has strong hands to call big blind jams, and still play well if the big blind checks and the action goes to the flop.

This is in contrast to the range HRC gives when shoving and folding are the only options, of a linear 62% of hands {61.7%, 22+ K2s+, K2o+ Q2s+ Q5o+ J2s+ J8o+ T4s+ T7o+ 95s+ 97o+ 84s+ 87o 74s+ 76o 63s+ 53s+ 43s}

So which is better, having a (properly balanced) completion range heads-up on the button, so that we can play more hands in position against the big blind? Or playing strictly a push/fold game?

I know at least one pro who thinks the latter. The Twitch streamer Courtiebee plays a lot of spin-and-gos on Party; she has a button completion range as well as an open-raising range or jamming range (depending on stack depth). I once asked her in her stream chat why that was. Her glib answer was, "I get to play more hands in position."

Two points to consider:

First, that playing push/fold is easier; there is far less to memorize.

Second, HRC makes its calculations based on preflop equity only. It completely omits the value of post-flop action. For at least some of the hands in the completion range it recommends, it is not going to be easy for the button player to realize their equity.

A real exploration of this would probably call for a full solver that can handle preflop ranges, like Monker, or the bleeding-edge version of PioSolver. But can we use the recommendations of tools like HRC or ICMizer as a starting point?
HU: Push/Fold Only, or Completion Range on the Button? Quote
02-12-2021 , 06:18 AM
^ We are currently doing final internal testing on HRC Postflop calculations and I'm really excited about getting this available for public beta testing soon. You'll get MUCH more accurate results for hands with completes / flat-calls, compared to the current "check down only" version.

A little preview for your calculation setup:
The old HRC solution you quoted (just complete or shove, no minraise) has SB losing about -2.9bb/100. The new version with Postflop modeling gives a much wider completion range and has SB slightly winning (0.5-1.3bb/100, depending on whether or not BB has the option to also do a small raise beside shove/check). Baseline of playing push/fold as SB at 10bb stacks is -4.9bb/100.

So yea, it looks like having a well balanced completion range is definitely worth it in these spots. Obviously it's also much harder to play that correctly though.
HU: Push/Fold Only, or Completion Range on the Button? Quote
02-12-2021 , 09:06 PM
You definitely want to have a limping range I'd go down to even having a limping range at 5bb or thereabouts.

Some problems with only shoving or folding:

1) You fail to gain EV from your traps against aggro opponents.

2) You fail to gain EV with -EV shoves that would have been +EV limps against a typical passive goofball.

Limp stab bluffing junk heads up is going to be a great strategy against a lot of opponents since most opponents play too weak and passive OOP so you can just print $.
HU: Push/Fold Only, or Completion Range on the Button? Quote
02-12-2021 , 09:13 PM
Just glanced at some 10bb charts I have in Lucid GTO and at 10BB deep the SB is playing 88% of hands, 63% limp 25% jam. Keep in mind this is optimal strategy against an opponents response who is raising our limp 46% of the time. When we are against more passive opponents whose overall iso freq is probably in the 25%~ zone, it will likely become profitable (with our weakest holdings) to VPIP 100% of hands.
HU: Push/Fold Only, or Completion Range on the Button? Quote
02-15-2021 , 05:34 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by sippin_criss
Just glanced at some 10bb charts I have in Lucid GTO and at 10BB deep the SB is playing 88% of hands, 63% limp 25% jam.
Is that with antes or without?
HU: Push/Fold Only, or Completion Range on the Button? Quote

      
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