Dynamic Full Ring Poker

by James Sweeney

  It should also be noted that floating is much easier in position as opposed to out of position. Being in position we get to see how our opponent reacts to the turn card and we get to close action. Being out of position we allow our opponent to check behind their equity hands. Because of this we usually want to avoid floating out of position unless we have a very good reason to do it. Given all the parameters that make floating a good play, we don’t end up doing it all that often. But doing it incorrectly can be a major winrate (WR) killer, and doing it never can make us very exploitable. So make sure to pay attention and take notes on opponents so we can find profitable float opportunities.

  The Value Call

  Value calling isn’t something that comes up very often. Mostly because the situation necessitates that we flatted a raise with a stronger hand and that the board cooperates. So a situation where we flat TT PF and hit an 8 high board, or flat JJ and hit a Q high flop. These situations are fairly rare, but playing them well is important.

  The value call usually gets thrown into the “float” term. Because we are often times flatting because our hand is strong enough to have SDV, but weak enough that a raise isn’t going to show enough value. For instance, say we flat an EP raise with QQ from the CO and see a HU flop. He CBs a T85 flop and it is our action.

  Let’s explore our options:

  Fold. QQ should be ahead of his CB range, plus we have position. Playing QQ to play fit-or-fold IP on a clean flop is usually a bad play.

  Call. A raise doesn’t accomplish much, and a fold isn’t really good, so our only option left is to call. QQ should be ahead of his PFR/CB range, but a raise just folds out all worse hands and never allows our opponent to make a mistake. It also keeps the pot size small, allowing us to utilize our skill, card, and positional edge later in the hand.

  Raise. A raise doesn’t really accomplish anything. We really only get JJ to call us, and JJ isn’t even a guaranteed call against a tighter player. We put ourselves in a situation where nothing worse continues, and a hand like AA probably isn’t folding. So while our hand strength is strong, it is really only a SDV hand. Often times, TP or slight overpair type hands will fall into this category.

  So while we aren’t “floating” QQ with the intention of making a bluff later in the hand, we are calling it with intentions of retaining a mistake-rich environment and winning the minimax game. This situation comes up often, especially with the 88-QQ part of our flat call range. Let’s look at another situation where the CO steals, we flat from the BB with 99 and see a HU flop of Q74. We check and he bets. Our options, as always, are:

  Fold. Folding is an option against very aggressive barrelers. If we expect to face a double barrel often, and especially when we have no concept of how balanced it is, folding outright would often times be better. As we’ve talked about many times over, constantly putting in money expecting to get nothing back is going to be a losing play. Couple that with the fact that we would be OOP for the rest of the hand, it would make winning the minimax game extremely difficult.

  Call. If our opponent is the standard CB-and-quit type player, then we should call the flop. We do have to make some decisions on the turn (deciding whether we think he bluffs enough of the time if he bets it), but overall this is a call on the flop with intention of showing down as cheaply as possible. We have a bluff catcher and SDV, so we want to get to showdown cheaply and without hassle.

  Raise. A raise just doesn’t accomplish anything. It folds out hands we beat and gets called/raised by hands that beat us. Usually when we have a stronger pair we treat it as SDV, and we don’t usually turn SDV hands into bluffs.

  Notice again that our decisions are usually bordering on calling, with intentions of folding if the pot starts getting too large. If players tend to only make big pots with big hands, then we want to use these SDV hands to showdown in small pots and fold before the pot gets too big. These SDV hands get very tricky against aggressive opponents, especially ones that are very balanced in their barreling. And if we are ever unsure, we could default on folding the tough spots like TT on an A high board or 99 on a J high board without issue, especially OOP. However, as we move into higher and higher stakes, we need to become more proficient at combating these aggressive players, and we do that with reads on their aggression levels and their understanding of things like SDV and polarization.

  13. Check Raises

  As the games continue to get more aggressive postflop, players tend to add in check raises to fight for more pots from OOP. This chapter will talk about combating check raises, as well as check raising ourselves. Facing check raises, and even just making check raises, can be very awkward and we want to make this spot as profitable as possible.

  The Facing Of A Check Raise

  Facing a check raise is always a tough situation when we are holding anything but a nuttish hand. A CR allows our opponent to take control of the pot and forces us, in a sense, to define our hand. Fortunately for us many players at FR tend to approach the CR in one of two ways:

  Nuts. Most tight players fit in this category. Their CR range is effectively the nuts, with maybe a bluff here and there. This range is easy to play against, as their CR turns their hand face up. We should really only give this CR action, either by flatting or raising, if we have the nuts, something close to it, or a draw with a good price.

  Aggressive. The aggressive players are tough to play against. They CR more liberally, and it becomes difficult to figure out if they have a big hand this time, or if they are just bluffing. With notes we can start to gauge their weight of bluffs/nuts, but without notes we will just have to hypothesize.

  Facing a CR range that is relatively nuttish is simple. We fold unless we have something strong enough that it beats the bulk of his CR range. Whether we 3-bet or flat is based on board texture and how we think our opponent would make the most amount of mistakes. For instance, say we raise to $3 at 100NL with Q♠J♠ from the HJ. The SB calls and we see a HU flop of T♦9♦8♣. He checks, we CB for $4 and he check raises up to $12. The board here is very wet and dangerous. Many turn cards (any 6, 7, J, Q, diamond) could kill action and either make our opponent unhappy with his hand, or improve his hand. Because his CR range should be strong, and a decent percentage of bad cards could hit the turn, going for a 3-bet to $34 would be a better idea than flatting against this player type.

  Now the situation gets odd when we start facing check raises from the aggressive CR range. That person might be doing it with the nuts, draws, or even with pure bluffs. Against these types of check raisers we just need to classify our hand strength and choose the best line with it:

  Bluff. The default play when we have air and face a raise is to just fold. We have a minimal amount invested, and without information, it doesn’t make much sense for us to start getting involved in a large pot. However, if we have enough information on an aggressive check raiser, we can sometimes 3-bet the flop11 or float and take away the pot on the turn. To do this, we need strong information about our opponent’s frequency of CRing, of betting the turn again if called, if he would c/f the turn after CRing the flop, etc.

  Semi-bluff. When we have a semi-bluff hand, like a draw, we need to start making some decisions. First, because a CR is threatening a big pot, we need to figure out if we have implied odds (IO) or not. If we do, and are getting a good enough price, then we can consider drawing. We just need to make sure that we think about what our improvement cards are and how those cards effect our profitability. Secondly, we want to think about how to play the draw. We could 3-bet if we have enough fold equity (aka, if the bluff side of his CR range is wide enough), or call if we thought we had enough IO and/or flexibility in winning the pot. Many players make the mistake of either always calling their draws here, or always 3-betting them. We just want to make sure we think about ranges and frequencies before we make an action, so as to ensure that our decision is optimal versus our specific opponent.

  Value. Having value hands always makes life easy. We can 3-
bet if our opponent has enough weight to strong hands and would tend to make more mistakes against the 3-bet. Or, we could flat and raise later in the hand if a call would encourage more mistakes and later bets. As a default, raising wet boards is usually going to be the best play. On dry boards with none/only a few bad turn cards, calling to raise later is certainly a valid option.

  SDV. SDV hands become the hardest hand strength to play against the CR. If we call too much in the wrong spots we can really get hurt, and if we fold too much in the wrong spots we can be losing a lot of value. How we play SDV hands when facing a CR is based on the weight of strong hands we assign our opponent, and how we think he would play the rest of the hand.

  For instance, if we have SDV and think his CR range is roughly 50/50, but that he would check the turn when he has air and bet the turn if he has big hands, then we know how we can win the pot and how we can make money here. If we think his CR range is roughly 50/50, but that he would bet every turn regardless whether he has air or strength, it can make playing the rest of the hand very difficult.

  Let’s look at an example. Say we have AQ and raise to $1.5 at 50NL from MP. The BB calls and we see a HU flop of Q94. He checks, we CB for $2 and he check raises to $6. Let’s explore our options:

  Fold. If we think his CR range is super strong, then we should just fold. There are some players that would only CR with a Q9/99/44 type hand, in which case our AQ is crushed. We might also fold if we think the weight of their CR range is either strong, or if bluffy, will barrel us off the pot often. Many players make the mistake of habitually peeling here and then folding to future barrels. If we know those barrels are coming, then we need to have a plan right now on what we are going to do versus them. If we don’t know, or think we would put ourselves in a situation where we are losing minimax, then folding here can be a much better option.

  Call. Against a player who has enough weight towards the bottom of their range, and would play relatively straight forward for the rest of the hand, calling is a fine play. If we think we are way ahead of their CR range and can play the rest of the hand out profitably, then calling here is great.

  Raise. Our hand has a lot of SDV, and a raise would effectively turn our hand into a bluff. However, if the BB were a short stacker, or a very aggressive fish, AQ might shift from SDV to a value hand, making a raise a more valid option.

  The great thing about facing a CR is that we are IP for the rest of the hand. So if we do call and play out the turn and/or river, we get to see how our opponent reacts. However, many players take this too far and start peeling the CR liberally and getting themselves in a large pot without much of an idea on how to proceed. As games get more aggressive, peeling check raises is usually more standard, but we need to make sure that we are thinking about the future streets and how we are going to make money. Calling to fold to a 100% of turn bets is usually a poor idea. Folding to 100% of check raises, especially in an aggressive dynamic, is usually a poor idea. The important thing when facing a CR is to have a feel for our opponent. Just consider minimax, and think about how often we expect to win and how much we would win, and then how often we expect to lose and how much we would lose. Take the most profitable line, and if we are unsure, folding sooner is usually better than calling off too many streets as a default.

  Let’s look at another example. Say there is a limper at 100NL, we raise to $5 with AcKc from the button, and it folds around to the limper who calls. The limper is a 52/17 who has been splashing around a lot. The flop comes Jc8d6c. He checks, we CB for $6, and he check raises up to $20. At this point, we have our three options:

  Fold. Even if his CR range was just sets, we would be calling $14 to win $37.5, giving us 2.7:1 in direct pot odds (not even including the other $75 in implied odds giving us a possible 8:1). He would probably pay off enough of the time to justify drawing, and thus folding isn’t really justified.

  Call. If we thought a lot of his CR range was bluffy, then we could call and take the pot away on the turn if he checked. This gives us multiple ways to win the pot. We could catch our draw and get paid against the strong part of his CR range. And we can also take it away the times he is bluffing and shuts down.

  Raise. Raising is an option we could consider taking here. Especially when we start considering fold equity (FE), a 3-bet can be a very valuable play. If we run our equity against a nuttish range that would probably stack off against us (JJ/88/66/Tc9c/AJ), we still have 38% equity. At this point, it just becomes a math problem. And with an $81 effective shove into a $37.5 pot with estimated equity of 38% when called, we would need a fold 16% of the time to make the shove breakeven. So if we double that to give ourselves a profit buffer, we would need roughly ⅓ of our opponent’s range to be bluffs here. If his range becomes ½ bluffs, or even larger, then effectively shoving becomes a very profitable play given fold equity. As the variables in the FE calculation change, this effective shove can go from really good to really bad, especially based on stack depth and estimated equity if we got it all in.

  This hand shows the importance of FE, especially when we have big draws. This doesn’t mean we want to start shoving every single time we have one though. We notice that if we thought the CR range were strong, that flatting become a more valid option because there would be no FE and we could draw with more IO. But if we thought the CR range was wide enough, and we would have enough equity when called, that 3-betting became a great option. As for the size of the 3-bet, we did say “effective shove” quite a bit. That just means that our 3-bet size commits our stack. So technically we could shove, but we don’t want to shove draws and 3-bet normal with 88. We don’t want to become that predictable against players that can think and care about bet sizes. So while we could shove against a fish (in an effort to maybe even start folding out some Jx type hands), we could also raise up to $55 and effectively commit our stack.

  One last note about facing check raises. We need to make sure we fully appreciate the representation of a player who check raises in a MW pot. Take a hand like this. We open raise QQ to $3 from the CO. A fish calls from the SB and an aggressive regular calls in the BB. The flop comes T75r and they both check to us. We CB for $6, the fish calls, the the BB check raises up to $22. We know that QQ is well ahead of the fish’s range, but what is the BB CRing with? Because this pot is MW, it is even more likely that his range is strong. And because the SB is a fish, and the BB would know this, it is super unlikely that the CR would be weak. He knows the fish is likely to continue against the CR, and thus the CR can’t be weak. It is so important that we don’t make mistakes in this hand, and usually just fold and let the BB fight with the fish. The BB represented well, and for all intents and purposes, this is now his pot.

  11 Against aggressive players it is generally better to small 3bet rather than call. Because they will usually follow the turn up with more aggression, calling the flop often times leaves us folding to the inevitable turn bet.

  The Bluff Check Raise

  Bluff CRing is a great play to add to our playbook. The CR allows the person check raising to take the lead in the hand, and thus puts the PFR on his heels. This play is great in certain situations, but like usual, we want information to really make good check raises a part of our game. Let’s look at some considerations for a good CR:

  Board Texture. This should really be of no surprise at all. Board texture allows us to represent different hands, some represent more real hands and others represent bluffs. For instance, we should be aware that check raising on an A or K high board will result in a much different action than check raising on an 8 or 6 high board. While we of course need to always consider our opponents when making check raises, a golden rule is that bluff check raising tends to work best on absolute boards (Q+ high boards) and value check raising tends to work best on low boards (9 high or lower boards).

  Number Of Opponents. Usually the more opponents there are in a hand, the less likely we want to be to bluff it. It is much easier to get a check raise through a sing
le opponent as opposed to multiple.

  Opponent Player Type. This is the most important part of check raising. When bluff check raising we of course don’t want to attack a person who doesn’t fold ever. While value check raising, we of course don’t want to attack a person who always folds. This ties in to the textures heavily. If we have 77 and the flop is A74, we might not want to check raise a nit because the nit would fold pretty much everything and never make a mistake. But if we are bluffing, and that nit would fold that flop to a CR a ton, then we should heavily consider bluffing at the pot until he adjusts.

  Plan. Our plan for the rest of the hand is vital to our decision of whether or not to check raise. Many people check raise with semi-bluff type hands, and have no concept of a plan in the event they get called. For instance, they call a raise from the BB with 65s. The flop comes 8h7c2s and they check raise. But what are they going to do if their opponent comes over the top? Or what if their opponent calls and the turn bricks? Because a check raise increases the pot size so quickly, and bigger pots mean less maneuverability, we need to have a very definitive idea of what we are going to do in all happenings. If we do not, then generally a check raise, especially with a semi-bluff type hand, wouldn’t be the best play for us.

  Size. The size of a check raise is more of an art than a science. As with any bluff, our goal is to give ourselves the best price (aka, the smallest size possible) and get the best results (aka, the most amount of folds). If a player would fold to a minCR, then we might consider doing that with a bluff. If he would peel the minCR often but would fold to a 2.5x CR a large enough percentage of the time, then we might use that size with our bluffs. Our goal is to keep this size small, but also big enough that our bluff CR and value CR sizes don’t look totally different against players that care.