Hey Guys,

My name is Greg Brooks (formerly MYNAMEIZGREG on 2p2 pre-screen name issues). I used to play high stakes poker online (up to $100/$200 which was the highest at the time I believe), and then transitioned to live games (beginning in private NYC games, then in live tournaments). I won 2011 LAPC, some 5k EUR PLO event at EPT Madrid 2011, and founded LeggoPoker way back in 2007.

With the blessing of Orange et al, I'm doing a poker strategy AMA. Meaning, please don't ask me about the recent indictments in NYC poker, please don't ask about the business lessons I've learned in my life. However, any poker strategy question is fair game.

Ask away and I will answer away!

It would be extremely helpful if you could, in addition to your question, post a short list of a couple topics you struggle with or areas of poker that are confusing to you. You can just list them at the bottom of your post, don't even worry about identifying them.

Thanks and looking forward to the questions,
Greg

6 max 10nl cash game question:
What hands are best to 3 bet light with PF against certain villains? For example are suited connectors good to 3 bet light PF or would a hand like K5o be better?





Topics I struggle with:
Light 3 betting,
value 3 betting hands such as KJ, KQ in some situations
Calculating pot/implied odds with only a short time to act
Turning our potential outs into percentages to determine if a call is correct

This can prob be done using a google search but I'm interested in your response.

when do we utilize gto or exploitive play against a certain villain/level of players? also, do you think gto is overrated with all this hype going around on 2p2?

Thanks!

Great question.

The purpose of the 3bet is the main determinant of what sort of hands we'll do it with.

1) Build a big pot
2) Take down a lot of dead money
3) Take advantage of a weak range
4) Isolate a (weaker) player

1 is straightforward. We simply want to build the pot.

2 and 3 are very related. The main difference is that 2 generally is against a group of players (eg a few limps from weaker players followed by a raise by an aggressive player). An example for 3 would be a very aggressive player opens from late position when a fish is in the BB.

4 is almost a preventative 3bet. We reraise to get heads up with a weaker player (who is less likely to fold to 3bets), but we are making sure that the other players at the table have to put in significantly more money to continue with the hand as well.

In scenario 1, we will 3bet primarily with conventionally strong hands. Premium pairs, premium big cards.

In scenario 2 or 3 we can have the widest range because we are taking advantage of the situation primarily, so we expect most of our profitability to come from the 3bet preflop or on some form of aggression postflop.

In scenario 4 we actually can have the widest range of hands because a) we are not as vulnerable to some third party getting involved (compared to squeezing where the preflop raiser might say 'hey, this is a squeeze, I'm re-raising this guy back!). However, we expect the weaker player to call often, so we should not really be 3betting with hands we are not comfortable playing with after the flop.



To answer your question about what hands to do this with, well, we first have our ranges. We can be widest in 4, followed by 2/3, and then 1 should be the tightest. Keep in mind the RANGE of hands we do something with does not necessarily represent the FREQUENCY of our actions. Just because I can do something with 100% of hands does not mean I'm doing it every deal.

The good news is that we don't need to balance much yet because this is low stakes, but also because we are inherently applying different ranges to our 3bets. In the plays that take advantage of a situation, we are weighted more towards bluffs. When we want to build a pot with a good hand, we have a value-oriented range. Overall, it balances well enough for these stakes.

As far as what specific hands, I would stay away from K5o types. Those are the types that will flop nothing most of the time, and are vulnerable when they do connect modestly.

Because we do not 3bet a ton of the time (even if it's 10% of the time that's probably something like <5% of all hands dealt), we don't need to use the really ****ty hands like K5o. We want to focus instead on our bluffing range actually being hands that will set us up to semi-bluff postflop. 56ss plays much better across a wider range of flops because its average equity when you put in money is greater than a K5o (what can you hit, top pair?).

Another great question.

GTO is important to establish a baseline. It's for playing against robots, but it's for figuring out how to adjust to exploit the weaknesses of your actual opponents.

For example, if we were betting full pot on the river and knew what our opponent had, we would want to bet 2/3 for value and 1/3 as a bluff. This way, our opponent is getting 2:1 pot odds, meaning he breaks even calling if he wins 1/3 of the time. In other words, his EV of calling = 0. If we bet in such a way, his EVcalling = EVfolding = 0, meaning he cannot beat us by adjusting his strategy.

But in reality, our opponent likes to "call a lot", so we should not bluff him very often. Which takes precedence over game theory.

At higher stakes, this becomes more math based: my opponent calls 15% too often, so how do I exploit that specific percentage flaw.

The only times I would be focused on playing GTO is if I was trying to manually construct a range for a difficult scenario (like how often and on what turns should I double barrel a 3bet pot if my 3bet % is 10% and my opponent opens 25% of hands and calls a 3bet 40% of the time and the flop is K high). In other words, ignore it for a while.



Also, please list some topics you struggle with or find confusing!

Hi Greg, good answers so far.

How would you adjust vs another reg when playing >200bb deep? Specifically how would you adjust your 3bet and 4bet ranges and your ranges for playing back at 3bets or 4bets when 200bb deep, 300bb deep etc?

Thanks.

It's going to depend on lot of what I think about my opponent. For example, most regs at lower limits aren't really itching to get in to spots against other regs for a 400bb pot.

However, it literally all depends on the opponent. One of the mistakes that has cost me the most money in my poker career has been expecting a certain level of play or thought process because I am personally capable of doing that.

So, I would keep pumping the aggression and look to see which (stronger) opponents are backing off, and which are beginning to play back more.

Watch out for opponents who have loose preflop stats. They often are not bluffing when they start making those 3bets/4bets/5bets preflop and it's easy to look at someone's overall aggression and say wow that person must be playing back at me. In reality though, their preflop raising range from late position is NOT indicative of the range they are willing to put 200bb in with.


Make sure you list some areas that you struggle with or concepts that are confusing!

Ty for the detailed answer! It really helps. However in the above example why would we want to 3 bet light when there is a fish in the BB, if we 3 bet the aggressive player from the BTN and we are in the SB, won't the fish cold call our 3 bet often? Also won't the aggressive player tighten his range up slightly for better showdown hands as their is a fish in the BB?

Also in the above example again you say this can be the widest range of hands, however if the fish calls alot don't we need to tighten our range to more premium hands that are dominating him, e.g. KJ, KQ... instead of widening our range as he will call us down to showdown a lot or can we generally push him off weaker holdings (depending on the fish) and out play him.

Not exactly strategy related but how long do you think poker in the form we know and grind is gonna last?

Do you believe it will last say 5-10-15 more years for example ?

If you were to take up poker now, say start grinding 100 and building your way up would you still do it or would you look into other things ?

Oh, and nice thread, it`s been a while since we had any good strategy in this subforum

I must say the hardest thing, and the thing that keeps me into the micros is that I have a very hard time laying down a big hand. Hands like AA, KK, AK and flopping TPTK, in big 3-4bet pots. This has more to do with the mental game than pure poker technique but I think it's so important. Did u always have an easy time to fold because u saw the +ev in doing it, or did u have a struggel learning? Because when the big pots come and I know im beat even I had a much stronger preflop range than my oponent my brain stops working and I lose all my money. Any thoughts on the matter would be apprechiated, thanks. And I'm pretty sure players at higher levels have been dealing with this issue and finally got it and learned to fold. This also goes for the "I think everyone is bluffing me", so I have to check him up, 200bb deep with my TPTK, Over pair.. instead of saying to your self, he probobly got it and let it go. Because at the micros you are probobly fine when they call, but behind when they raise.

what do you think is a good general framework for improving your game? i feel like a lot of players (myself included) have no lack of energy for wanting to improve, but poker is so complex and has so much randomness that its hard to know where to direct that energy.

I'm really interested in this +1!

It's not necessarily something that we would do every time. However:

-If we are OOP vs the raiser, it's not like we are printing money postflop. Especially because our relative position is poor (we go first after PFR).
-Fish doesn't need to mean plays a ton of hands
-Pounding on that aggressive opener makes him tighten up a little bit, which makes it easier for us to get into pots with the fish alone.

-If this is the case, then your assumptions from above would have to be false ("don't we want to keep the fish in")
-This is incredibly player dependent. The answer is mostly no, but even if it is yes, that just means you are playing pots against a weak player with a weak range. That's a good thing! You can always slightly tighten up your range if it bothers you.
-Actually, they shouldn't. We want to play against the fish as much as possible. If that means sacrificing the quality of hands to get into profitable situations against that fish, then so be it. However, it all comes down to our level of profitability: we don't play hands that we don't think we can play profitably.

Now, if our opponent is tightening up in the first place, then we should naturally re-raise them less often.

First, important to keep in mind the differences between range and frequency. Next, let's break down range in these scenarios:

1) Opponent opens from the CO with good players in the blinds
2) Opponent calls raise in CO from UTG regular
3) Opponent opens from the CO with fish in the blinds.

We have the tightest range in 2, and should have the loosest in 3. Obviously if we start getting 3bet a lot in scenario 3 or 1, we will tighten up. We might start trapping in scenario 2 if someone behinds us keeps squeezing.


Getting called down vs being able to bluff a fish off a hand comes down to the individual fish. If we are able to bluff a fish that's sort of self-explanatory. If we are not able to bluff the fish, we will exercise a lot of pot control (giving us the best chance at seeing the most cards for the cheapest, maximizing our chances of making a hand so we can value bet it). In addition, we will simply value bet a wider range of hands.

I would actually assert that your fish are folding more often that you think, and that you are not betting the turn/river often enough without a hand. Try to keep track during a session and you'll be surprised.

5-10 years provided there is not US regulation. It's been a decline for sure (much less in the last couple years which hints of a plateau which is good), but regulation would create a bigger boom than we've ever seen by far. However, that is what is pretty much needed to reverse the effects of any industry that used to have excess profits.

If I was college-aged or below I would still do it. Poker's greatest gift to me has been the ability to thing objectively. It's crazy in the real world to see all the results-oriented thinking, the second guessing, and the subjectivity. It's great in business to be able to look at something, know it needs to be killed, and immediately kill it.

My age requirement is because you pretty much have to become obsessed with poker to really excel, and then there is a period of time afterwards where you have to re-assimilate into society. I was a robot emotionally for about 12 months after I stopped playing professionally. I still have my moments and it took a while to get to where I am now.

Thanks! Tell your friends. AND WRITE WHAT YOU STRUGGLE OR GET CONFUSED BY DAMN IT!

100% a learned trait for me. Instinctively I wanted to fold so I would always fold. Then I made a few insane hero calls and that was all I wanted to do. It took a while and a lot of roasted money to get to...

Are you able to look over your hands after sessions and objectively see that you should have folded?

If that's the case, then the gap is mental and you actually have a bad habit. Which is a much more complicated question .

The first step is to take a deep breath. The next step is to count to 5, slowly. In fact, take 5 deep breaths. Don't even think about the situation yet. After your breaths, you will be in a much better mental state to analyze the situation.

My next question is if this habit is occurring at a particular time. Can you stay focused for an hour, but in the second hour you find yourself clicking call? It may be worth cutting down your session length.

Try pasting a note on a monitor in order to remind yourself not to do that bad habit. Get a calendar, put it on your refrigerator, and literally X every day that you avoid making that bad habit. After some predetermined streak of days (start with something like 3), give yourself a predetermined reward THAT YOU NORMALLY WOULD NOT GET. A bad example would be eating ice cream if you already eat ice cream twice a week. A good example would be going to a steak dinner if you love them but only go once a month. For more information on this method, it's called the Chain Method and Jerry Seinfeld of all people swears by it. I added in the reward system, but the visible calendar and X's is all him.



Please include some concepts you struggle with or are confused by.

You guys are killing me. Please take five seconds and list topics/concepts you struggle with and are confused by.

I am completely cool answering questions until I am blue in the face, but please just do that one thing for me!

If you were gonna teach a beginner at NLHE to crush MSNL, how would you approach it? Let's define beginner as someone who watches poker on TV, understands how the betting works, but lacks understanding of basic poker theoretical concepts like odds, position, equity, etc.

Which books, articles, software, video series, would you consider absolutely vital?

The tables on my site allow for 200bb buy-in. If I have this problem stacking of light in 3bet pots with TPTK or overpair, do you think its better if I stick to 100bb buy-in or should I stick to 200bb so I cover the fishes and even get into spots where I have to "deal with my problem"?´

And yes, it's a mental habital issue. But I think it has to do with thinking hole cards like KK or AA are somewhat stonger than having A8o and hitting A on the flop. It's just a freaking pair of aces on the flop.

I can't come up with any good questions right now so I'll just tell you what I'm sturuggling with.

-adjusting bet sizing when moving up
-using wwsf/wtsd/wsd to exploit regs
-playing top pair/weak kicker type of hands oop
-playing underpairs (especially in 3b pots)
-MP calling range (I call with PP only vs regs and unknowns which is probably a mistake)

Planning is the most important aspect of improving in anything.

Truthfully I think forums are inefficient for beginners because they really are great for hand analysis but anyone below MSNL for sure has fundamental issues they need to correct first.

With that said, there are lots of great theory posts, and you can still extrapolate theory being taught through individual hands.


I personally would shell out the money and get a coach to review a session of me playing. I would try to basically get a package where he reviews a video of my play and makes a list of the general concepts I need to improve on. Then we run through them on Skype, I record the conversation, he talks about what I'm doing wrong and why (takes less time), and I can transcribe it afterwards (or hire someone on fiverr to do it, whatever).

Even if you have to save up for a month or two, do it. This single video and follow up will accelerate your learning curve by so much it's crazy. The video wouldn't even need to be long to get results -- probably could make < a 30 minute video and it would only cost 2-4 hours of the coach's time to analyze.

I would also do a lot of research into whatever HUD was my choice and really become familiar with it. I might even get a coach (or watch videos) to speed up that process as well. I really want to know what sort of stats are secretly really indicative of a person's playstyle. Essentially, if I don't know what or why my turn cbet is, it's probably not balanced. Which means you can exploit it.


I realize that spending money is not an option for some people. I would STRONGLY recommend doing it anyway (save up, work a side job if you can't play poker for more hours due to fatigue or something).

I had a handful of students playing $2/$4 when I was charging $550-$600/hr for coaching. At the end of the day, it impacts every single hand they played . And if the money means something to you as the student, you'll find yourself really putting in that extra effort to deliver.

Let's chop off the "crush MSNL" and change it to "get to MSNL". As it turns out, there isn't really a good way to do that right now.

All of those kind of work independently except for books and software. You'd need a book that held all the content and then you'd have to read it and consistently reference it.

In other words, here's a big hint: What topics or concepts do you struggle with or are confused about?

Tell me some other stuff you struggle with or are confused by please!


I would play around with some equity calculations in the hands where you lost and should have folded. Construct ranges for your opponent and when you realize that your equity in situations like what you're mentioning is 10-20% instead of the 60% that your brain thinks it is, suddenly those hands won't look so pretty anymore and you'll start folding them.

Thank you, this is very helpful!

If you have any questions later pop right in and I'll make sure to answer them.

Thanks, yeah it must be like that. I say to my self I understand the concept, but Im not, then I wouldnt be doing this idiotic stackings vs. fishes that call 3bets with 90% vpip. But isn't it pretty hard to put someone on a range when they call alot of preflop openings, 3bets etc. with a wide range. They surely won't be as loose postflop.

Yes there are another thing, and it's also a question about deep stacks cash game NLHE. Let's say someone calls my 3bet and I'm OOP and we are 300bb deep and the board hits J94 with one suit and I have AA. The pot is 25bb why is it standard not betting so much here compared to a non-3bet-pot where you charge draws fully. Does that have to do with something about the math when we are deep or is it simply that he doesn't have as much drawing hands in his 3-bet calling range?

Thanks for doing this.

The only time I have a check call range on the flop is vs an aggressive player who will bet vs my missed cbet and my range for doing this is just top pair. Is this ok? Are there other situations I should be check calling, and with what range?

- defending 3bets
- knowing when to fire that third bullet
- Check raising turn as a bluff/semi bluff
- when to raise top pair/ overpairs