Hi Matthew, I really like this book. This one is quite more readable than the first one.

I also watched some of your cardrunners videos in Youtube and they help. But sadly CR was shutdown and I cannot find any new videos (since 2016). Do you have any plan to release your old videos somewhere? And did you make more videos after CR shutdown?

Thanks.

Unfortunately, CardRunners owns/owned the videos and while they originally planned to release videos on youtube, I believe that plan has mostly been scrapped. I haven't produced any video content since Cardrunners.

Hi Matt, great book, it has helped a lot.

Just a quick one. I am trying to improve my small blind play POST FLOP. And I was wondering if the same method you suggest when c betting button vs bb in a single raised pot should be implemented when c betting from the sb after 3betting.

Shall we still bet big with out strong but vulnerable hands, bet small with good but not excellent hands etc etc?

I notice a lot of people now advocate betting entire range for third or quarter pot after 3 betting from the sb.

Any thoughts? Cheers.

I think a lot of this is going to depend heavily on stack depth.

Also, spots someone is recommending betting 1/4 with their entire range may not be the most GTO/+EV strategy, but maybe they think it's still a very good strategy and much more easy to implement than trying to deal with multiple sizes.

I might be able to help you more if you post a specific example.

Ok thanks Matt. I will give you two examples. Say its 0.50/1 online 100 bb deep. Button 3x raises to 3 and we 3bet to 12 with all of our range from the sb which is more or less the one you suggest in the book, maybe a little more narrow becasue of the 3x raise.

How would we react on the:
JdQd5c,
A72r,
6d7d8h.

Thanks for getting back to me Matt, you must be busy. Appreciate any further advice for these hand examples.

I would not just auto bet 1/4th of the pot on any of these boards.

On the JdQd5c, I'd probably think about if I want to set up turn overbets with my draws and bet the flop accordingly. Probably expect CR to work a lot here too, since 99% of the time the 3-bet caller has AQ 100% of the time (Mason edited this chapter out).

A72r I would think we want to sometimes go equal fraction of the pot on the flop/turn/river more often since the board is dry and this is the most mathematically effective way to play if our betting range is very polarized. Obviously, it's more complex than just that, but it's what's going through my mind.

6d7d8h is an awful flop when OOP so I'm probably checking a lot.

FWIW, I have no idea what Snowie/PioSOLVER says on any of these, but for the most part I think you need to notice patterns to make the best decisions in real time. So if you think a 1/4 pot bet is best with your whole range on any of these I'd like to hear why.

Thanks for the response Matt, I like your thought process on all of them.

So on the JdQd5c would you check raise diamond fd, k10s etc and keep the pressure on the turn? (I do think the c/r is something I under utilise, and most others at my stakes too). If we were to overbet the turn, have we used a small size on the flop or a big size so the turn overbet is a committed one?

I like the way you suggest betting the A72r flop, what bluffs are best here though, suited broadways with back door fd's? And if the board runs dry and are called down, what if any river bluffs do we choose? This is the only flop I think maybe betting 1/4 pot with our entire range might be best because it is so dry and hard for our opponent to have much? Am I wrong in that thinking? Because it is polarized do we need to bet big or go home?!

Thanks again mate, its really kind of you.

There are tons of mixed strategies. You may sometimes bet KT, sometimes c/c it, sometimes c/r it in theory, whereas in reality one line will usually be better.

I avoid putting lots of money into the pot then having to fold high equity hands like the plague when possible, even if doing so would be part of a GTO strat. In reality my opponent doesn't know my game so I'm not going to put tons of money into the pot with a flush draw where I'm still reasonably likely going to have to fold in the case my opponent goes all-in. So I'm more likely to overbet jam AI with these hands, and would only put myself in a position where I'll bet/fold with a flush draw in a 3-bet pot if I think it's' very unlikely I'll get raised (otherwise I'd have taken other lines, overbet AI myself, or CRAI or something like that).

Best bluffs on the A72r board are going to be your typical go to bluffs (suited connectors etc). Mixed bet sizings will be best on the A72r board (as they pretty much always are). There are times betting 1/4 pot with most of your range is best and I know the arguments for it, but I would not blindly follow betting 1/4 pot with your whole range unless you understand the logic behind that play well and agree with it. Otherwise I would recommend YOU do what YOU think is best, not what you saw a sick NL$5000 player do in a video without understanding why he did what he did.

Thanks for all this Matt, it has really helped. If i could bother you again? I have another query.

You say in the book about having draws or non made hands etc in both big and small bet ranges. How would you decide which draws are bet with each bet size. For example would it be a good idea to bet small fd and bdfd big and big ones small? Should we just randomize straight draws? And what should I be thinking taking the hand and my range onto the turn?

Taking three flops from the book and your opening ranges what are your thoughts?
-AcKd3s
-8d7d2c
-Jd9d6c

Hey Matt I posted a new question in the applications thread hopefully you can answer it there. Thanks. (Just reminding you here because it looks like you've replied here since the last questions where asked there) Thanks for all the great work and content.

This is discussed in more detail in the book, so there's no really point in trying to discuss it here in worse detail with no Mason editing.

Long story short, I'm into patterns, and I haven't seen clear patterns for which flush draws go into the big betting range, which flush draws go into the small betting range, and which ones get checked back (assuming you split your range into big bets/small bets/checks in a given spot).

Thanks for the help dude. Sorry about that last question, I went through the thread and know you have answered it a few times.

There is one more thing I think you are the man to answer for me. It may seem a little beginner but it is a few questions on opening ranges.

Why are snowies ranges so much tighter? ( I kind of know this but I think you could explain to me clearly)

Why do 99% of people ignore them and open much wider?

Are we just assuming we have skill advantage?

Like I said I know its a bit back to basics but if you could give me your thoughts?

Opening hands is fun and I always assume I am much better than the average player at the table I'm at (or I'd be highly -EV after rake). I imagine most poker players think the same.

Once you go past premiums the difference in ev between hands becomes more and more marginal. Thus you only need a slight skill advantage to open significantly wider than equilibrium. Like people behind you 3betting 20% less than they should would allow you to widen RFI range a lot. This effect is compounded the closer you get to the button.

In this hand I am trying to apply some turn concepts I hope I learned from your book. So when he calls my small flop bet, it is probable that his hand is not so great, otherwise he would have check-raised. Is the blank turn card good to overbet / move all-in? The Ace of clubs keeps me alive if somehow he calls.

888 Poker - 1000/2000 Ante 250 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 50,000 (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
UTG+1: 143,089 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
MP: 31,790 (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
MP+1: 51,767 (VPIP: 31.25, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 16)
MP+2: 53,138 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
CO: 103,971 (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
Hero (BTN): 211,411
SB: 44,750 (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
BB: 56,000 (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)

9 players post ante of 250, SB posts SB 1,000, BB posts BB 2,000

Pre Flop: (pot: 5,250) Hero has J A

fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 5,000, Hero raises to 14,589, fold, fold, CO calls 9,589

Flop: (34,428, 2 players) K 3 T
CO checks, Hero bets 8,607, CO calls 8,607

Turn: (51,642, 2 players) 2
CO checks

Hi, Purchased the book and am really enjoying it. I understand the large and small bet sizing section of the book ( I know you don't just use 2 bet sizes) with the strong and vulnerable hands and with practice I think I will have a lot of fun doing this and hopefully get strong at it. Im playing at small stakes and it might not be optimal to do this to all opponents but I honestly don't care. The goal for me is to move up to mid stakes were I used to play in the past ( I cashed out years ago) and I know the games are way tougher now so I want to be tough too.

Im sure these questions have come up in the forum but after going through several pages I couldn't find it.

1) It seems the basic formula is to bet 2 to 1 bluffs to value on the flop, 1 to 1 on the turn and 2 to1 value to bluff on the river. Does this formula hold roughly true for you ?

2) If this concept is true and lets say a flop comes and we have 4 candidates for a large bet with our strong range. When looking to balance would you look for 8 large bet bluffs or are you looking for certain types of bluffs and the number doesn't matter?

I'm just having a hard time sorting out how to mix in the bluff hands and how to size them so just looking for some general guidelines to start so I can go over HHs with more detail.

I'm already looking at hand histories quite differently and with more purpose on the value end so for that I thank you.

take care

This is all addressed in detail in the book?

That's not GTO.

I'm 80% through the book and unless I didn't focus on the details well enough the process for bet sizes was more focused on the value end and some great info on which boards to use and not use but as for the bluffs it wasn't clear to me. It is mentioned of course to use bluffs for balance but doesn't go nto the same detail as the value end.

It is possible that I missed it.

2:1 thing is pretty outdated and from what I gather based on a model calculation that assumes strict value and strict bluff hands starting from the flop. IIRC the new book emphasises very clearly more than once that strict value and strict bluff can only meaningfully be defined on the river. Before the river it is only useful to think of hands in terms of equity.
(are QJss and 76dd really the same "kind of hand" on Th9h2s?)

2:1 "rule" only demonstrates that you can/should be liberal with light bets on the flop, more picky on the turn and fairly careful with "light bets", which have now become legitimate fully fledged bluffs, on the river.

But it's usually not productive to think of ratios before the river (especially so on the flop), every spot is different. We as humans like heuristics like 2:1 but poker often doesn't lend itself to such simplifications unfortunately, it is what it is.

Fair enough. Thanks for replying with such a detailed response. I agree that every spot is unique and there is really no cookie cutter way of playing a game that has so many variables.

Matthew does talk about robust and non robust equity. Perhaps I need to look a little deeper into that aspect.

Cheers

Going all in is just a 1.5 PSB and you have lots of equity even when behind and called so it seems fine to me.

#1) The main take home message is "You can bluff more aggressively on the turn than on the flop, and more aggressively on the river than on the turn."

The better you get the more murkier the terms "bluff" and "value bet" become, but usually by that point you're good enough that it's not too big of a problem.

I would not try to make certain rations of bluffs: value bets in general, but I know some very very successful people that back in the day would count 2 bluffs for every 1 nut type hand they raised on the flop with 100bb stacks in single raised pots. I still think these exercises have a lot of value, but software is so powerful now you should be moving on to snowie/PIOsolver pretty quickly to help with this stuff.


#2) As discussed in the book, I have not found a great pattern for what hands make better large bet bluffs, medium sized bet bluffs, and small bet bluffs. Maybe it's there, but I haven't found it. Much easier to tell what "value" hands should be bet big and which should be bet small than what "bluffs" should be bet big and which ones small.

Yeah that's basically key.

Thanks so much for the responses. I will be reading this book a few times as I really feel I'm getting a lot out of it and sometimes the things that grasp your attention on the first read are implimented and apon a second or third read other things jump out and make you wonder how it was missed the first time.

It's a constant never ending learning process for me but I like doing it.

Thanks again