quick question does monotone mean

or

or

or

Against calling stations and fish we should be more inclined to bluff with weak draws (gutshot, backdoor flush or straight, overcards, etc.). Against tricky or aggressive players we should be less inclined to bluff weak draws or draws we're not happy continuing to a check-raise with.

If they are going to call and all we have is a draw, why wouldn't we just check and take the free card then value bet them if we hit?

If we want to bluff then we should do so with some equity against players who are more inclined to call us, if we hit the turn or river we're more likely to get paid off because their hand range is stronger (i.e. we've folded out stuff that wouldn't call if we hit anyway). We should be less inclined to bluff overall though.

Against players who are more inclined to raise us we should take the free card with marginal draws and try not to get blown off. It's kind of the same reason you'd check behind in WA/WB scenarios (like JJ on K63 for example), our hand has equity but not enough to continue with facing action. However with strong draws you'd cbet with the intention of 3betting or floating.

AK OOP is my absolute worst nightmare hand to have. I know in theory you are supposed to raise AK UTG, but I feel I am nearly guaranteed to be called by at least one person and be OOP. Even if it's HU, I feel all flops that absolutely miss me are easy for my opponent to continue with (they can call with 88 on a 244 board EASILY), and flops that give me at least an ISD likely hit my opponent (those douchebags who call with JT vs your AK and flop JQx, and call with middle pair). Also the "raise pre, c-bet flop, check turn" line is 80% of the time AK, like...unbelievably reliable.

How are you supposed to play AK OOP? I am literally like 2 more times of getting it UTG from completely removing it from my UTG range.

I agree that is the normal hand with that line.

To answer your question in an extreemly simplistic mannor. Diferently.

What I mean is play it different based on your opponents. Sometimes 2 barrel some times you should c/f a missed flop. Some times cbet the flop and c/f or c/c the turn.

For example there is one guy I always see at my tables. He has a fold to cbet % of 15. Which means he rarely folds to a cbet. He also has a fold to turn bet % of 73. Which means he folds to a lot of turn bets. I double barrel this guy all day long. I just assume to take down the pot I have to bet at it twice when he calls my pfr.

Other people with a high fold to cbet I will cbet and if called Ill c/f a missed turn (might be week I dont know).

People with a low fold to cbet and a high wtSD I will just check to them and hope to see a really cheap show down or other cards for cheap. Because they probably arent folding.

If I had to break it into %s I would cbet then check a missed turn probably 75% of the time (whether I call or fold depends on villians bet sizing). I would 2 barrel ~18% of the time and I would just give up after the flop ~7% of the time.

I play 6 max btw so it might be different for FR players.

AK is a little bit overrated
sure it's one of the best combinations, sure I raise it preflop everytime but I lol when you go allin preflop with it (in cash games) or call my pot-sized bets even though you missed the flop.

raise -> cbet -> check is right for the most part... gotta know when to give up. if you miss your flop, just fold to any sizeable bet. its a bit like playing a small pocket pair and not making your set. you still have a chance to make something good but it's usually not worth playing. ok - AK has 6 outs while a pocket pair only has 2. 6 outs is pretty good but it's not as good as for example an open-ended straight draw or maybe even a flush draw.

so why is it that a person chasing an open-ended straight draw gets called a donk quite often but the guy calling with his AK after missing the flop doesn't catch any ****?

Also: for future value. If you're consistently hammering on flops whether you whiffed or hit 2pair+, your Level 1/Level 2 opponents are going be clueless and increasingly frustrated with "this aggro bastard". Nothing's sweeter than flopping the nut straight on a AQT flop and getting an entire stack from someone with AK "taking a stand"...

One thing to mention, you should not cbet every single time you have the possibilty (the right circumstances) to do so.
Even the fishiest fish will recognize your line if you're sitting half an hour+ with him at the same table.

Doug, another great post!!!
The Why you suck at uNL-Series should be definitely added to the micro-stickies!

My nightmare hand and position combo too, also from the blinds if its limped around.

Its actually a losing hand for me at the moment, I find AQ easier to play, i guess because i rarely 3bet with it.

Everytime I raise AK and miss, it seems my opponent has something.

Ive lost only two >15bb pots with it, but ive lost TONs of small pots with it because generally it has 0 showdown value in uNL if your cbet is called.

Sorry to bump an old thread, but i have a question and figured this would be the best place to ask.

Conventional wisdom says to cbet dry flops and check wet flops, as discussed in this thread. But isn't it also conventional wisdom to cbet less on dry flops and more on wet flops?

Doesn't this result in you being easy to read? Because you are betting 2/3 of pot on dry flops when you usually have nothing and then 3/4 to full pot size on wet flops when you have something. Even if the villain has no clue what a wet or dry flop is, just by the betsize they will be able to tell if you hit likely hit the flop or likely did not.

How do I balance my range? Or is balancing my range not even necessary at low limits like 10nl-25nl.



Also, I am also losing a lot with AK, but i'm not sure if this is expected. Seems like you have to lose a little with AK in order to get paid off with QQ, KK, AA.

Some of the cbets concepts ain't making sense to my beginners mindset. I play 2NL so go easy.

Don't cbet on a low flop? If the flop comes 246 its unlikely to have helped both of us..so why not fire a cbet? Also hands like KQ, AK are more likely holdings than 99-AA. Well low flops work at nanolimits..perhaps higher up they don't. But ur only representing an OP and applying some pressure.

Also cbet on A and K boards is another one. If i put JJ into my pokershove and run it on a A96 board im around a 65/35 dog. As most people call your raises with A and K combos. ~So why bet these boards? is it because if an A or K hits wit only 3left in the deck.. its even less likely they have a Ace/king in their hand?

I put this forward so you can correct my logic and tell me where i'm going wrong with the cbet. Thanks..btw the 2nd barrell is interesting and i'll certainly use that play more often if a scare card hits and my opp is weak/tight. Cheers

With regards to double barrelling...

I've been re-reading HOC and his advice, which is contrary to some of that given here, is that you should be more inclined to double barrell when there are draws on the flop. The idea being that on a blank turn you now have a whole range of hands, drawing hands, which are liable to fold to a decent sized bet.

great post... now time to post something about calling with underprs against decent double-tripple barelling tagfishes!

Yes your ranges will definitely be unbalanced, it's not that important until you're playing mid stakes (400nl+) and even then it's not hugely important. Even if they know your ranges are unbalanced they usually won't have a hand on those dry boards to play back at you. If they start calling lighter you can double barrel frequently and if they're raising a lot then their ranges will be extremely unbalanced, unless they start raising top and middle pairs on dry boards which is pretty terrible against most players (since they're in a WA/WB situation). So you can start 3bet bluffing those boards.

When we raise we're representing high cards, the classic joke of "I put him on AK" does have a lot of truth to it. Opponents will almost always call preflop with low PPs (and some people call low SCs pretty frequently as well) so that's why cbetting a low flop isn't as great.

However, since there's a lot of potential overcards, cbetting a low flop planning to double barrel any overcard becomes a very viable play and makes cbetting low flops better.

Also in your JJ hand you're in a WA/WB (way ahead way behind) situation where your opponent will very rarely fold an A if he has one and will rarely call with worse (or at least won't call multiple barrels). It's also unlikely you'll get outdrawn so giving a free card isn't the end of the world. Here checking behind will often be the best play to pot control and maybe induce some bluffs. If you were OOP it would be a lot trickier situation because there's no gaurantee it will be checked through and check calling multiple streets is really really difficult without extremely good reads. In that situation I'd just bet to try and take down the pot and keep the initiative.

People are unlikely to fold draws and may not fold made hands either because they'll put you on the draw. If I was to double barrel a wet board I would almost always bet (usually a shove 100BBs deep) the river. If it's a draw card they'll fold their made hands and if it's a blank they'll fold their draws.

In fact I'd expect a double barrel on a wet board to show very little profit but the triple barrel to show a decent amount of profit.

Villain also has a ton of hands that are "ain't scurred" by a 246r flop... Pairs 77+, SCs that hit (56,67etc), gutshots, & over cards are nearly always calling a flop bet here; you've got very little cbet equity against any kind on non-nit. And against decent TAGs/LAGS you're setting yourself up to be bluff-raised as well.

I don't see double barrel defined in the FAQ or poker wiki.

It appears to be "betting strong on the flop and then on the turn"...

Can someone provide some links for the first four parts of these posts?

Yes, it does make you easier to read. But how many micro players think like this: "hmmm, his c-bets change depending on board texture. I can exploit that." I'm sure it's a single digit percentage, closer to 0 than 9.

As you move up in limits and starting seeing villians that have a clue, randomization and being unreadable become more important. Dan Harrington, in HOH1, goes so far as to advocate randomizing limping with aces, so that they can never be sure that you don't have aces. But this is in the context of players good players that either see you all the time, or take a lot of notes.

WCG- any chance of a link to the first few parts of 'why u suck...'?

Use the search function, it's not that hard.

It's been a while since anyones posted in this, not sure if this is looked down on, but I've been using this in my play a bit lately. I'd like to use it more, but I have some questions:

Why are there more -'s than +'s? 16 minuses to 14 pluses. There are 3 negatives for a multiway pot (does this mean a 3-way [2 opponents] or more); shouldn't there then be 3 positives for a heads up pot? Other factors like connectivity/ flushdraw/ low vs high flops have equal counterparts. Someone in the sticky asked why PT fold to cbet %'s were only one + or - either way; I'm wondering why too. I like the idea of this a lot. I think it's mostly right. I'd like to hear reasoning behind why heads up received no +s or why "in position" got no +s. Why is a monotone flop relatively just as bad as a flush draw flop? This could probably be a whole chapter in a book. What range of cbet % is acceptable for a player. I'm not sure where to locate my cbet % or fold to cbet % in PT2. Someone said click "more details," but I'm still not finding it.

Does a turn card higher than any of those on the flop constitute dynamic enough a change on the board to warrant a double barrel?

Well if a J comes off on a T high board, that's a terrible double barrel card because it hits his flop calling range perfectly. Eg if flop is T8x hands and J peels on the turn, hands like QJ have a pair to go with the straight draw, and if he had 99, he now has extra outs. A or K is mostly good if they don't make the board more connected than it already is, because you can more successfully rep A or K because you're more likely to raise with it preflop.

Well said and this really helped me on what to consider before the next cbet.