6-max 50NL CAP Strategy questions and Common Problems

6-max 50NL CAP Strategy questions and Common Problems

Disclaimer: I am new to 6-max CAP games and realise they are extremely high variance, but should be beatable long term with a solid TAG strategy. I am an overall losing player and see 6-max CAP as a possible place to start building a decent roll.
Post:
First, I will discuss my opening ranges, and the problems I am faced with each hand.

For example, If I open to $1.25 with a hand I have decided to raise from a particular position, I will have to make 1 of 4 decisions: call off vs. a shove, call a 3-bet, 4-bet shove or fold. I think calling 3-bets will not be profitable playing CAP so will try to eliminate these situations wherever possible. What I want to do is focus on making the best decision possible every time, and cut down on my mistakes and leaks.


UTG: Opening: 66+, ATo+, A8s+, KJo+, KTs+, QTs+, QJo+ and TJs.
Of this range, I will likely call a shove (20bb) from a random with 99+, AJs+, AQo+. Am I calling too wide here? Vs an 8/8 or similar, I am maybe calling JJ+, AQs, AKo. Am I opening too wide? Should I just be opening the hands I'm willing to stack off with, or would this make me too exploitable?

MP: Opening: same as above but adding 55, A9o, A7s, TJo and KTo. Same calling range vs. A shove as above.

CO: Opening: same as above adding 44, A8o and all suited Ax.
Maybe a little loose for this position with the suited aces as we don’t have big implied odds in cap games, but adding as they are semi-strong blind stealing hands. Again could be a huge leak, any opinions are welcome. Calling shove range remains the same.

BTN: Opening: same above adding all pairs, all offsuit aces, suited connectors down to 67s and offsuit connectors to 89o.
I think this could be a leaky range but I seem to be winning well from this position. Calling shove range remains the same, but may call shoves from the blinds with ATs, AJo and KQs, aswell as 88+ if they have a higher resteal %.


Blinds: SB: Roughly button opening range without the connectors and more focus on high card combinations such as K7s+, K8o+ and Q8s+, Q9o+. Folding to a lot of BB 3-bets with lower parts of my range and low pairs.

I’m not sure I like my opening hand requirements at the moment and would like any decent CAP players to give me advice/help and see if I can tighten up my game anywhere.

As is obvious, I am willing to get my stack in any way possible with JJ+, AKs/o and usually AQs. Should AQs be part of my calling off/ 4-bet shoving range or should I be folding it/ calling off wider?

A common problem I come across is knowing what to do when I open to $1.25 (2.5x) from UTG/MP/CO/BTN and get 3-bet shoved on (20bb) with these problem hands: ATs and AJs, AJo and AQo, and KQo/s, aswell as 77-TT.
I usually lean towards calling the ATs and KQo/s, and a lot of the time 77 and 88 vs. LAGtards. Against solid TAG regs, I’ll fold ATs, AJo, KQo/s and 99 aswell, but should I be folding these? Should I be folding TT in this spot. Vs a supernit I may even just call with QQ+, AK.

Another problem is what to do when I open a hand like ATs/KQs/AJo and get 3-bet to $2.50-$3. Is this usually representing more strength, praying for me to 4-bet shove, or weakness, leaving room to fold? I know this may depend on individual player stats but maybe there is a more generic answer.

Any help from experienced winning CAP players and any other opinions are greatly appreciated. Obviously I'm not expecting anyone to reply to all of these questions but reply's to any part of my OP will be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Your ranges all seem too wide for a shallow stacked game. Hands like 89s are just not going to flop well, or get all in pre well.

I agree but what do you think of their steal potential from CO or BTN as opposed to weak aces/weak broadway. Bad players out of the blind often flat call, leaving me in position with a hand that either flops well or not at all so gives an easy decision whether to get it in on the flop or fold. Obviously I fold to a 3-bet/shove pre.

I disagree. Suited connectors typically flop a little bit of equity on every flop. Treating them like "oh, I'll flop a boat/combo draw, or I'll just give up" is pretty terrible since flopping huge draws or two pair plus is hard to do.

The cap is what, 20bb's? At this stack size, your edge is the same as a short stacker's edge. It comes from:

1) 3-bets (especially squeezes) that have some fold equity.
2) Playing big cards/big pairs that hit flops a lot.
3) Attacking flops and getting your opponents to fold when they're getting big pot odds on the flop.

I suppose if your opponent loves to call, see a flop, and give up, then I'd steal against him with suited connectors. But connectors have the bulk of their value late in the hand (on the turn and river), and you just don't have enough money in your stack to play those streets.

However, notice that by raising suited connectors, you're playing completely contradictory to strategies #1 and #2.

Also, briefly looking over your strategy, it seems like you're folding a lot preflop. That inherently seems bad. Do some pot odds calculations against a range of hands you think you're up against when your opponent shoves. I bet you'd come up with a fairly wide calling range.

I would say your utg and and mp ranges are too loose. I cant see how raising KJo and QJo can make money UTG in these games unless table is all nits.

Your calling range against 3 bets is 100% dependant on what villians 3 bet range is. I would pull out poker stove and the other EV programs out there and start running stuff against all the different 3 bet %'s of your villians basically its just a math problem in these spots. What you have to call vs your equity vs villians range.

I doubt there are many good SS'ers out there that are going to give out there calling ranges after they have spent the time to do the leg work themselves to come up with profitable ranges for raising and calling all ins with. Your ranges will be massively different against a guy that 3 bets 8% or 20% of the time.

I've tried s/s a few times and I'll tell you now, the variance is f'king mind blowing!

You will see all types of shit in these games from regs re-stealing wide to fish calling 3bets for like 1/2 their stack with suites connectors or small pp's and obv hitting like 99% of the time .

In reality, winrates at these games are really very small and are mainly used to accumulate rakeback/vpp's.

This is right, since posting the OP i made a few calling and shoving ranges using stove and had more success but the variance is insane. Thanks for the advice though.

And Jagsti, that's right, I made silverstar in 4 days so was getting a lot of rakeback/fpp's/stellar rewards but was playing outside of my roll. I think 50BI minimum is about right. Just starting a challenge with a friend to go from 2nl to fully rolled for 25nl by december starting with $50. Then I'm gonna see if I can beat that and build a big enough roll to either continue SS'ing with a small edge or get a big enough roll to play 100bb 50NL which is probably more beneficial and profitable in the long run for me.

All in expert is another program that might help you alot too