I've been thinking about really common spots in poker and how our range get's in the way of what our actual hand wants to do.

So I thought of a game that would be fun and could help us remember what sizing our specific hand wants to go.

Let's look at a very common spot: BTNvsBB SRP 100BB

The flop is: T74

BB will check to us and we have 4 categories we can put our hand into:

A) Small sizing (25%-50%)
B) Big sizing (75%-100%)
C) Indifferent (Mixes all sizing's almost equally)
D) Check

This will be the first quiz: I'll name 5 hands and you tell me what sizing (or checking) it prefers.

1) JJ
2) AKs
3) JTs
4) TT
5) A9s

Good luck!

let's go first and get them all wrong.

1) B
2) A/D (could've put in C i but i wasn't sure if this included checks, which this hand wants to do often i guess?)
3) C
4) A
5) D

Just these hands in a vacuum? I'm a bit confused because I'm not sure if we're supposed to take range into account here at all, which obv affects our sizing decision.

1) B
Strong hand that wants to bet big for value but needs protection, is vulnerable on a lot of T + R cards, so we want to get value early.

2) D
We have plenty of SDV and can make super strong hands if we bink. So AK wants to check a lot here.

3) A
Want's value and protection, but doesn't want to bloat the pot too much.

4) C
In a vacuum, wants to bet big to build the pot with a nutted hand. From a range standpoint, betting small is good to mix some nutted hands into small betsize range. Works well because we double block top pair.

5) D
Mostly wants to check, though betting small with BDFD can also be good.

B
B bdfd, else D
B
B
D

these are my answers as well

i think AK is good enough to mix some thin valuebets otf, V will call all worse A highs and x them down

1) C
2) D
3) B
4) A
5) B

1) B
2) D
3) D
4) C
5) D

A+ End Thread/

I should have been more specific on the AK hand. AKs with BDFD always wants to bet small for value and then AKo/AKs no BDFD are mixed.

I'll have to get a harder flop in the future. Nice job.

2.5/5

1.5/5

1.5/5

2.5/5

I'm giving half credit for the second question since it was unclear.

All AKs with BDFD want to bet small but AKs no BDFD is mixed between checking and betting small.

Basically - if you have multiple cbet sizing's OTF. Which sizing would you choose.

2.5/5

lmao, i'll take it!

always enjoy your threads.

So why would JJ bet large, but JT, especially if you had a BDFD to go with it, be indifferent?

not blocking (and better than) Tx.

No one really knows the answer to this at a fundamental level. The best we can do is get accurate sims and memorize what the computer spits out.

But we can still try to make educated guesses, which will be good enough.

JJ wants to get value now/needs protection.

JTs is a little less clear - if we go big we still get value from worse hands but not as many as we would like. For instance, if I go pot with JTs. BB should be mixing in some folds with hands as strong as 88/4x.

But then again if I go small - a lot of hands will be getting direct odds to call OTF.

So it just mixes every sizing and is indifferent.

It does go bigger at a little bit higher frequency with the BDFD - which makes sense.

OK thanks for the explanation. I guess also with JJ, there are more Tx hands the opponent can have which can call. Where as having JTs, there isn't. And makes sense to go a bit larger with the BDFD.

What sizing would ATs or KTs be using, any different than JT?

This is an area that's a real challenge and you constantly run into, so learning what flops to bet, and how much to bet is a huge help. Thanks-

Our range never gets in the way of what our hands wants to do. We want highest EV destination with our hand and with our range too.

I'll take a crack at it with some reasoning behind my selections which may or may not make sense.

1) B, equity denial from overs, value from Tx, 7x, straight draws that have decent equity (and we block its outs).
2) D, best non-paired SDV hand.
3) D, best paired SDV hand we have that can make a disguised BDF.
4) B, we need to punish straight draws and make Tx, 2 pair, 77, 44 just hate life. Using hands that have good equity as bluffs. There are a lot of SD combos we can have on this board and I can imagine we can use a large size with most of them with the intent to x back the weakest ones OTT that don't improve.
5) C, with the intent to barrel on turns that improve and check back if we turn some SDV. It allows V to call with some weaker holdings that can't withstand two barrels. D when we don't have a BDFD I think.

In b4 0/5

Edit: Just read others responses and lol'd at my own. Looking forward to the next quiz.

We never do that though since almost everyone use's 1 cbet sizing. Specific hands want to go specific sizing's.

If you use small on this board - you are giving up EV with JJ
If you use mixed strategy big on this board - you are giving up EV with AKs

I probably just ship all 5

YOLO

An interesting experiment you can try is running "punching bag" sims. You give hero lots of sizes and villain can only check/call/fold all streets, they are never allowed to bet or raise. This is an exercise Uri Peleg advocates for.

This removes the need for a lot of deception as you don't have to worry about the exploitability of your range with different sizes. You get some pretty interesting results looking at the solution this way.

What gets in the way is the need to disguise your range to remain unexploitable.

That's a cool idea. I like the way Uri thinks about poker.