Hello

The purpose of this thread is finding a gameplan for common board textures vs specific villain. I hope that some of you are also trying to find max exploitative lines vs some specific guys and could point out some things I haven't found out myself yet. Villain is a live player - as this thread is about technical stuff I'd still like to keep the thread in here.

Some info:
-Villain usually flats a range of 23-26% in the HJ/CO/BTN, being capped at the top.
(99-22, AQs-A2s, K9s+, Q8s+, J7s+, T6s+, 96s+, 85s+, 74s+, 63s+, 52s+, 42s+, 32s, AQo-ATo, KTo+, QTo+, JTo, T9o). He has great board coverage but he will find himself often in dominated spots (or should be). I expect him to be a lot tighter from EP/MP.

-Villain loves to play deep (300bb), thinks he's invincible on BTN and bets too big on most streets. He's going broke with QQ+/AK+ for 200bb preflop against people like me.

-Villain is a winning player because he owns money-scared players, tilts some with his preflop looseness and gets phone numbers of fish players to socialize in order to get them to play vs him. And most importantly, he runs better than Chris Moneymaker at his stakes (NL500).

Exploit floptexture 1:
Jh7c6c (duochrome, wet board). V will c/raise this flop with most of his FD's, comitting himself for 200bb, if the pot is 20bb and sb bets 15bb. Because of money scared players, he will win 35bb so often, that his play is +EV.
->We try to have AcJc to have him drawing to 3 gutter outs, but we fail to do so until now.
-> V says himself, that a check-shove on J78cc vs 3 players is NEVER a made hand (indicating he often c/raises draws big himself)

Exploit floptexture 2:
AQ8r (rainbow, many gutter possible). V will float flop a lot with gutshots. When checked to, he's tempted to bet because he thinks we don't have the Ace. I try to protect my c/c range with a lot of hands OTF and OTR, even as strong as AK. It's still important to bet the flop so his draws put in more money, giving him incentives to steal the "bigger pot" on later streets.


I wonder what you guys think are the biggest adjustments one should make. I am playing more Kx(s) versus V. because of domination effects, at least down to K6s. I try to keep my hand broadway heavy as V. will be outkicked in many situations. Obviously I'm trying to sit on his left -wondering if he realizes this and adjust at one point.

Winning gameplan: run better than Jamie Gold or Jerry Yang.

Adjustment: Open only AcJc preflop.

Yeah, be careful. He might turn his chair around and face the other way -- then you'd be sitting to his right.

You don't need a gameplan against someone so bad. Just make the obvious correct decision against his terrible ranges.

lol




Sorry OP, couldn't resist.
To add something helpful as well, i will write down some random thoughts that might help you:

- don't check strong hands just to bluffcatch vs. his floats. When you check on the AQ8r with the intention of getting him to bluff JT, KJ type of hands, why "waste" a strong hand for it ? You can check-call KQ (which has all bluffs beat), but c-bet AK (to get value fron worse Aces and floats.

- when villain calls such a wide range preflop (20%+ is insanely loose), you really only need to play a solid standard game and let him donate his $ to you. Poker is a game of probabilities and villain will flop Air a vast majority of the time with such a wide calling range.

- if villain committs 200bbs with any FD you should be fistpump getting the money in with good TP's. Try downloading a free odds calculator and see how much equity for example AJ has on a board of J76 vs. a range, that contains J7s, 76s, 77, 66, as well as the bazillion crappy flushdraws his lol-25% range has.

- play around with an equity calculator. See what hands have good equity vs. a given range on a given board. (like in the above example, how much equity has AJo no club ? how about AJ ? What about JT no club ?, A2 ? etc...)

- Think about what you want to accomplish when taking a certain action. Why do you want to c-bet JT on AQ8r ? (= to fold out better hands like 66, 98, etc.); Why do you want to c-bet AQ on that same flop ? (= to get value from worse hands, that might otherwise check behind).

np

I'm more inclined to put AT/AJ in my c/c range on AQ8r. The question is, whether it's "too much" to also c/c AK either on the flop OR the turn.

TPTK is mostly a flip on J78cc. Qc/Kc/Ac helps with additional BD equity. I'm mostly leaning towards an equity shift to the turn (IP), where I can check for cards that I'm almost 100% beat like most clubs if I don't have Ac.

V. lost 600bb today, but so did I the last 2 sessions bc I valueshoved 65s on J6356 river vs a 3barrel (50% PFR guy had JJ)

For starters, try answering the following questions when you want to decide whether to bet or x/c (These are just rough guidelines but are good for starters):

if you bet:
- which better hands will call (and how many streets ?)
- which worse hands will fold ?

if you check:
- which hands will he bet with (and how many streets ?)
- which hands will he check back ?

To answer these questions you need to consider villain`s range of course.
You also need to consider how the hand might play out on the Turn/River on different board runouts.


To make a concrete example, let`s say you open from UTG and villain calls on the Button with his super wide 25%-range. The flop is AQ8

If you bet villain will
- call every Ace
- call or raise every gutshot (according to your description)
- probably call any Queen as well
- fold the rest

---> You can already see how much value there is in betting your entire Value range. Try putting in the numbers in your equity calculator and see which hands have a Ton of equity and are clear cut value bets. You definitely need to bet those. You can check-call the hands, that are closer. Also you need to c-bet your own gutshots, etc. to balance your value bets and have coverage on different turns/rivers.
As for your question regarding AK on that board. Sure, if you bet Turn and River (with the intention of folding to a raise) you will lose some of the time to hands, that have you beat. But this doesn`t qualify as an argument for check-calling because if you x/c turn and river instead, you will lose the same or higher amount (depending on how much villain bets when you check and how much you would`ve bet yourself).
So when you are beat, betting with the intention of folding (= bet/folding) does not have any disadvantages compared to checking.
If you check however, you will lose value from villain`s AJ, AT, A2s, A5s,..... etc. Instead of putting villain in a crappy spot where has to decide whether he wants to call a third barrel with his Ace, crappy kicker you are now playing directly into his hands by letting him pot-control his medium strength hands, and betting his very strong hands and his bluffs. But as a bluffcatcher, AK is no different to A2 on that board. So why not x/c the A2 and bet the AK instead ? (that`s how you earn your $ against his wide range, by making him pay when he is dominated).

If you check he probably will
- bet multiple streets with all his value hands, as well as some bluffs. (This is where you need to figure out which runouts he bluffs too much or too little. This is much trickier than betting a good balanced range on your own. In poker, basically when you turn your hand into a bluffcatcher (and by checking you do exactly that) things get more iffy. Fortunately, many villains are super unbalanced in different spots, i.e. they either bluff way too much or way too little/not at all. You need to figure out how this specific villain reacts to your checks in different spots.

Yeah, i mean that is just part of the game. Sucks for sure, but can`t really do anything about it. A good way to deal with this sort of beats is to think about villain doing you a favour by playing such a wide and unprofitable range and that him stacking you once in a while is just the price you pay for playing in a highly +EV situation.





So this post got really long already, but there is much more to think about.
To sum it up, basically try to plan your hand ahead. Don`t think just about the current street, but also about all future streets and how villain will react to your own actions with different parts of his range.
I hope this helps

Thanks for the long answer. I'm definitely planning hands way ahead (before the session starts/ and before the flop /turn /river shows up).

V. is positionally aware and unfortunately, is not a station with mediocre hands. Betting your AT on AQ8r is going to get you 2 streets maximum (have to gather more sample!)

I'm Cbetting AQ8r with a much higher frequency from UTG vs BTN, having a small checking range including [KQ,KK, some A5s-A7s, maybe some AJ].

With a wider range from CO vs BTN there's no way I'm checking AK on AQ8r, since I need to have it in my betting range against his floats to continue on turns (usually by betting again). However, I probably have to give up some bluffs like 55-77 right away, which I would Cbet bluff HU if I were the UTG raiser. Also, I'm probably going to make the sizing bigger from UTG, since I'm representing a thinner valuerange.

All in all the aim should be getting past 40bb/100 longterm because I'm able to exploit Regs like him for the maximum. That would be a ~~50$ hourly, while I expect to make 25$-30$ right now if running "ok".