ZenAndPoker
Rising Star
Bronze Level
So I'm playing a fairly LAG style (27%/22%) at the micros and am having good results so far, but I'll be the first to admit I am just starting to really study GTO play. This is a new concept to me so I still rely heavily on the exploitative play style I've developed over the last 15 years of playing versus players who play too many hands, passive or aggressive it doesn't matter to me I have counters for both, and players that don't know when to fold, which is why I feel comfortable open-raising a larger range and being slightly loser in my calling against preflop raises.
What I am trying to learn how to balance is my open raising ranges and bet sizing when there are limpers ahead of me. I know poker is a highly situational game so for simplicity lets assume I'm on the button, where my range is widest, at your standard online micro stakes 6-max NLHE with 1 TAG regular playing 20% or less of his hands, 3 loose-passive fish with VPIPs between 30-70% and one aggro-fish with about a 50/30.
Lets say tag is LJ and aggro-fish is in my blinds because for some reason I swear to god they're always to my left, and one or both of the passive fish limp.. what kind of hands do i want to raise here versus call versus fold..
My thought process goes like this in these situations: First, I want to counter limpers strategy. They have a hand they obviously like enough to want to see the flop but not enough to raise, could be anything from AQo to medium to low PP to suited connectors to Axsuited to J-4o.. I naturally want to make a much larger raise than normal for a few reasons, to generate fold equity vs the blinds, get value preflop if my hands is better than theres, have a chance to take down the blinds right there which is always great, and because I have position on them which is like a multiplier for the edge that I already have on them before the cards are even dealt, that I can out-play them most of the time.
That being said, I've found that if I follow conventional wisdom of 3x bb +1bb/limper I don't get folds very often. I get more fold equity jacking that sucker up to 6-9-bb usually, and a lot of times I still get callers, but not as much. However this feels like absolute murder to my ROI if I'm doing this with any hand that's part of a 47% open-raise range. If I get called I'm probably behind in equity vs most callers here, if I get 3-bet in the blinds I have to dump the hand in most cases, and there is a surprising amount of light 3-betting at the micros these days, and the pot is significantly larger on the flop.
None of this good when your open raising range on button consists of 87o and Q7s haha..
So, I'm assuming, to be balanced, with each added limper I probably need to tighten my open-raising range up, and consider folding the really marginal stuff outright and just calling with the lower suited connectors and pocket pairs that don't usually have much equity post-flop if the board doesn't drop low. However if I don't open-raise it, there's a good chance, not always, but still enough of the time to warrant consideration, that one of the blinds will at the very least make a large raise to try and scoop the pot right there and if there's one thing I hate worse than having to open-raise with marginal hands, its call with marginal hands. So if I just call on btn there's a good chance I could be facing a large raise and one-2 callers by the time it gets back to me. sometimes no callers and that makes pot odds to call with lower hands even worse.
Can anyone provide me with a more in-depth GTO analysis on what to do here? I've read that bet-sizing is extremely important the wider your range, which is why I'm almost always open raising either 2.5xbb or 3xbb. But I like to play an aggressive and exploitative style, and if my opponents are willing to pay 7-9bb preflop then fold when I bet 2/3 the pot on flop 50% of the time or more I'm more than happy to print that money. I just worry about what to do when I've got uber calling stations who rarely fold, and also I want to understand all this better so hopefully I can make sure I'm not exploited myself as I move up in limits and encounter better players.
What I am trying to learn how to balance is my open raising ranges and bet sizing when there are limpers ahead of me. I know poker is a highly situational game so for simplicity lets assume I'm on the button, where my range is widest, at your standard online micro stakes 6-max NLHE with 1 TAG regular playing 20% or less of his hands, 3 loose-passive fish with VPIPs between 30-70% and one aggro-fish with about a 50/30.
Lets say tag is LJ and aggro-fish is in my blinds because for some reason I swear to god they're always to my left, and one or both of the passive fish limp.. what kind of hands do i want to raise here versus call versus fold..
My thought process goes like this in these situations: First, I want to counter limpers strategy. They have a hand they obviously like enough to want to see the flop but not enough to raise, could be anything from AQo to medium to low PP to suited connectors to Axsuited to J-4o.. I naturally want to make a much larger raise than normal for a few reasons, to generate fold equity vs the blinds, get value preflop if my hands is better than theres, have a chance to take down the blinds right there which is always great, and because I have position on them which is like a multiplier for the edge that I already have on them before the cards are even dealt, that I can out-play them most of the time.
That being said, I've found that if I follow conventional wisdom of 3x bb +1bb/limper I don't get folds very often. I get more fold equity jacking that sucker up to 6-9-bb usually, and a lot of times I still get callers, but not as much. However this feels like absolute murder to my ROI if I'm doing this with any hand that's part of a 47% open-raise range. If I get called I'm probably behind in equity vs most callers here, if I get 3-bet in the blinds I have to dump the hand in most cases, and there is a surprising amount of light 3-betting at the micros these days, and the pot is significantly larger on the flop.
None of this good when your open raising range on button consists of 87o and Q7s haha..
So, I'm assuming, to be balanced, with each added limper I probably need to tighten my open-raising range up, and consider folding the really marginal stuff outright and just calling with the lower suited connectors and pocket pairs that don't usually have much equity post-flop if the board doesn't drop low. However if I don't open-raise it, there's a good chance, not always, but still enough of the time to warrant consideration, that one of the blinds will at the very least make a large raise to try and scoop the pot right there and if there's one thing I hate worse than having to open-raise with marginal hands, its call with marginal hands. So if I just call on btn there's a good chance I could be facing a large raise and one-2 callers by the time it gets back to me. sometimes no callers and that makes pot odds to call with lower hands even worse.
Can anyone provide me with a more in-depth GTO analysis on what to do here? I've read that bet-sizing is extremely important the wider your range, which is why I'm almost always open raising either 2.5xbb or 3xbb. But I like to play an aggressive and exploitative style, and if my opponents are willing to pay 7-9bb preflop then fold when I bet 2/3 the pot on flop 50% of the time or more I'm more than happy to print that money. I just worry about what to do when I've got uber calling stations who rarely fold, and also I want to understand all this better so hopefully I can make sure I'm not exploited myself as I move up in limits and encounter better players.
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