I’ve been rereading your book and it’s excellent
. I highly recommend it to anyone who plays NL, any game type. Will definitely improve your decision-making.
I have a few questions regarding the thinking behind putting the correct hands in the correct ranges.
Say the CO opens and the BB defends, and you’re 100BBs deep.
Flop: K
8
7
Obviously Q
T
is a great candidate betting hand. It retains its equity well and gains a lot of value when the BB folds. Ditto for JTs and A9s with backdoor flush combos.
My question concerns the in-between hands, some might say the showdown hands.
Of the following, which would you most likely bet?
Q
Q
T
T
A
Q
6
6
I ran a few simulations and found the following facts:
AQ gains the most from getting folds and it retains its equity well. I’ve heard arguments for checking this hand though to get to showdown.
QQ is a favorite when called (~52% equity), but it would hate getting check-raised and can extract value on the turn or river on most runouts, and the check may induce a wider payoff range from the BB. It probably can’t bet three streets, so the flop might be a good spot to check it back. Also, QQ doesn’t benefit that much from folding out the BB’s check-folding hands.
TT has significantly less equity than QQ does against the BB’s check-calling range (my estimations led to ~43%). But the BB’s check-folding range has 17% equity against TT, which isn’t anything to sneeze at, and it can barrel on some turns.
The 66 I threw in for fun just to hear your thoughts.
Besides equity retention and the value of folding out the BB’s check-folding hands, what ideas or concepts do you consider when making decisions with these in-between/showdown hand types? I’m not often playing against world beaters, so any exploitive tips would be appreciated as well.