Ask Gripsed Anything About Cash Games

Evan Jarvis

Evan Jarvis

Legend
Platinum Level
Joined
Feb 21, 2017
Total posts
2,014
Awards
4
Chips
1
Hey Vini,

Thanks for your question. Because it's a very in depth topic I'm going to offer you a couple of videos to supplement my answer. The short of it is though try to find the raise size that ONE OPPONENT will call, you want to get heads-up. There is a line between the size that 5 people will call and the size that nobody will call... it's your job to find out what that is.

If there are a lot of limpers and you raise it up and they all fold that is actually a good outcome too because you pick up a ton of big blinds with little to no variance. Another option if you're concerned about getting outdrawn and outplayed on the later streets is to simply buy in short. If you buy in for 40BB or so then you can easily get all in by the turn in most spots and the LAGs will be punished for playing too lose vs a short stack.

Here's a video for playing loose live games

And here is a video for adjusting to LAGs specifically (a big takeaway is to trap them and let them use their aggression against themselves "rope a dope")

Good luck on the grind, it can certainly make you a very solid side income in soft games!!!
Hello, thank you for sharing your knowledge and helping the community.

So, I'm at university as a student and as an income I've chosen poker. It has worked fine for me but eventually I'm going trough some bad downswings. I know I need to improve my bankroll management, but I have another question for you now.

What is the best way to play against very lose/aggresive players? I am usually playing very tight in this scenarios, but still when I get a good hand such as AKs, AA, QQ, KK I put in a big raise pre flop and still get called by too many players. If I raise much more, no one will call and I`ll lose the hands value. So, I find myself in a situation that often I put a lot of money pre flop, get called by too many people, commit to a good hand and end up losing AA vs 9Ts or some other BS.

What is your experience and how do you play in a very aggresive/lose table?

Thank you
 
Evan Jarvis

Evan Jarvis

Legend
Platinum Level
Joined
Feb 21, 2017
Total posts
2,014
Awards
4
Chips
1
Thanks for the support brother, I really appreciate it!

As for your question, you need to be consider a few more factors in making your decision. You're asking about what hands to play, but the more important thing is AGAINST WHAT TYPES OF PLAYERS ARE CERTAIN HANDS PLAYABLE. Opponent type first, specific situation second, hand third.

Some more info on this idea is elaborated on in my Preflop Checklist Video

When considering what hands to play from the blinds I need to know WHAT RANGE OF HANDS IS MY OPPONENT OPENING (from the position he/she opened from) and based on that a simple solution is to play the top 50% of that range.

So for example, facing a button raise of 30-50%, playing all broadway hands is completely fine, something like 15-20%. From the small blind it would typically be by 3-betting, and from the big blind we can flat call if we are closing the action.

If however the open is from under the gun , say a 10-15% range, well now I'd only really want to continue with 99+, AQo+ and maybe my suited broadways. Vs that stronger range I'd usually continue by flat calling.

Ask yourself, if I 3-bet will he/she continue with worse hands than mine?

If I just flat call, does he/she have hands in their range that I'm ahead of?

These are the sort of things to be considering when deciding your range to play.

For a more thorough breakdown of blind strategy I highly recommend Peter Clarke's course "From the Ground up" on Run it Once. It's really easy to understand and has great images to help solidify the teachings.

Here's a link to get it http://gripsed.com/ftgu :ciao:

If you get it thru that link Run it Once will give you a free month of Essential Videos
& I'll give you a free copy of my MTT Guide (http://gripsed.com/mtt)
(just forward a copy of your e-mail receipt to contact@gripsed.com and I'll reply!)

Hope this post helps to get you looking at the situation more from a poker player's perspective and takes you beyond the simple "what hands can I play in this seat" mindset

Bought your tournament books years ago....Still have it ha, Agree with you 100% on cash games.

What hands are players 3 betting with from blinds at 1/2? I have noticed players squeezing with AJ AQ os. I really don’t understand blind play.


My biggest leak is playing hands from blinds. Is KQ an auto fold from blinds? Any hands you don’t recommend playing from blinds? What hands do you play with in the blinds? Thanks again for your time, keep up the great content.
 
Evan Jarvis

Evan Jarvis

Legend
Platinum Level
Joined
Feb 21, 2017
Total posts
2,014
Awards
4
Chips
1
Hey Navy,

Great questions, thank you for these!

1. It's more about the quality of your practice than the amount of time you put in. If you're studying good material, being disciplined in your play, and game selecting well, I honestly think you can become a winning player in under 3 months. The strategies to do well in the lower limit games really aren't that complicated and a smart disciplined player can thus turn a positive winrate very quickly (probably under 100 hours of play)

2. No, there is very little skill gap between 0.5/1 and 1/2 NL. The jump to 2/5 however has a bit more of skill gap and then the jump to 5/10 has a significant skill gap. The first 2 limits in my experience play very similarly, and it really depends on who's sitting in the game.

3. Excelling at No-Limit Hold'em by Jonathan Little & crew - https://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Littles-Excelling-No-Limit-Holdem/dp/1909457442
There are some other more advanced books on the market but they are overly complicated for 1/2.

4. Yes, Alex Fitzgerald just came out with an INCREDIBLE course specifically for making a living at small stakes cash game. "Master Small Stakes Cash Games in One Class". - http://mastercashgamepoker.com (I've always been a big fan of Alex's work and this is his best program) It's a follow-up to "How to think like a poker player" which Pokernews recently did a review on https://www.pokernews.com/news/2019...poker-player-review-alex-fitzgerald-35268.htm

Peter Clarke's course on Run it Once is also good but it's more geared towards online play. For live play the 2 programs mentioned above will give you literally everything you need and your time investment to complete them is <20 hours)

5. Those are the perfect books. Theory of poker gives the bigger picture of poker, the course teaches you how to play each limit, and the tells will help you make expert decisions. I would also add "The Mental Game of Poker" to the list by Jared Tendler as it will really help with emotional control. "No Limit Hold'em for Advanced Players" by Matthew Janda is also quite good and very recent.

You've basically got the curriculum for dominating any live cash game with all the above resources. I really appreciate you asking this question because I think a lot of people are going to benefit from this little program outline.

Good luck and Happy Stackin on the tables, check in in a few months to let me know how you're doing!
1- How long would you say it takes for a recreational inexperienced player to become a winning 0.50/1 NLH and 1/2 at live casinos assuming he is smart and eager to learn?
2- Do you feel that there is a big skill gap between these 2 types of game?
3- Your video about the books is about 5 years old. Is there any book that came after that you would recomend for the type of games described on question 1?
4- Besides the Charlie Carrel masterclass, is there any other online product/course/etc that you recommend me to study? (For the games specified on 1 as well)
5- I have read "The course" by Ed Miller and I ordered "The Theory of Poker" by David Sklansky and "Caro's Book of Tells, the Body Language and Psychology of Poker" by Mike Caro. Are these good books for what I am looking for?

Thanks for your answers!
 
N

nevy

Rising Star
Bronze Level
Joined
Aug 4, 2019
Total posts
17
Chips
0
Hey Navy,

Great questions, thank you for these!

1. It's more about the quality of your practice than the amount of time you put in. If you're studying good material, being disciplined in your play, and game selecting well, I honestly think you can become a winning player in under 3 months. The strategies to do well in the lower limit games really aren't that complicated and a smart disciplined player can thus turn a positive winrate very quickly (probably under 100 hours of play)

2. No, there is very little skill gap between 0.5/1 and 1/2 NL. The jump to 2/5 however has a bit more of skill gap and then the jump to 5/10 has a significant skill gap. The first 2 limits in my experience play very similarly, and it really depends on who's sitting in the game.

3. Excelling at No-Limit Hold'em by Jonathan Little & crew - https://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Littles-Excelling-No-Limit-Holdem/dp/1909457442
There are some other more advanced books on the market but they are overly complicated for 1/2.

4. Yes, Alex Fitzgerald just came out with an INCREDIBLE course specifically for making a living at small stakes cash game. "Master Small Stakes Cash Games in One Class". - http://mastercashgamepoker.com (I've always been a big fan of Alex's work and this is his best program) It's a follow-up to "How to think like a poker player" which Pokernews recently did a review on https://www.pokernews.com/news/2019...poker-player-review-alex-fitzgerald-35268.htm

Peter Clarke's course on Run it Once is also good but it's more geared towards online play. For live play the 2 programs mentioned above will give you literally everything you need and your time investment to complete them is <20 hours)

5. Those are the perfect books. Theory of poker gives the bigger picture of poker, the course teaches you how to play each limit, and the tells will help you make expert decisions. I would also add "The Mental Game of Poker" to the list by Jared Tendler as it will really help with emotional control. "No Limit Hold'em for Advanced Players" by Matthew Janda is also quite good and very recent.

You've basically got the curriculum for dominating any live cash game with all the above resources. I really appreciate you asking this question because I think a lot of people are going to benefit from this little program outline.

Good luck and Happy Stackin on the tables, check in in a few months to let me know how you're doing!

Thank you so much for taking the time to asnwer all these questions, it does help me a lot when it comes to deciding where to invest my time on. I will check in a few months and let you know how I am doing!

PS: I tried replying to your PM to say thank you for the heads up but I do not yet have the minimum number of forum posts to be able to PM people.
 
Last edited:
W

winbig

Enthusiast
Silver Level
Joined
Jul 28, 2019
Total posts
95
Chips
0
Thanks for the advice :)

I have a question regarding buy-in's for 6 max/full ring....which is more favorable, higher stakes buying in the minimum (20-40BB) or the full 100BB at lower stakes? I tend to play low stakes compared to micro, buying in the minimum. BCP does have "short" tables where I can buy-in for 20BB as opposed to 40. I'm also getting rakeback, and at micro stakes you rarely have a substantial raked pot, so that's something else to take into consideration.

I like PLO, but I enjoy NLHE the most, even though I don't play as many hands as PLO of course...too much variance in PLO... :cool:

I take flops about 30-35% of the time playing NLHE...

Also, what's a good win % of hands played/won, on average? And flops seen/won? It seems I average around 25%-30% of played/won....

Thanks again!
 
Last edited:
D

Dj_demain_matin

Rising Star
Bronze Level
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Total posts
20
Chips
0
Thank you for your reply and explanation. I will look into that book also.
if you're talking about 5 Card PLO (which is not my specialty but I know a bit about)

The best hands would be
AAJT9 (double suited to the aces so you have 2 nut flush draws and a broadway wrap)
QJT98 (double suited where you have the ability to flop a ton of nut wrap draws and block out other flush draws)
AAKKQ (again double suited where you have the ability to make top set 2 ways)

if you're talking about Big O which is 5 card PLO high low

The best hands would be
AA234 (double suited to the aces, nut flush draws, and uncounterfeitable low draw)
AAK23 (double suited to the ace for wrap low draw and some more high hand potential)

In both games having Aces give you a meaningful edge preflop, but because most of the money typically goes in postflop having hands that make nut draws (suited aces and big wraps) is where the biggest value will be.

You want hands that you can play confidently on the later streets where the bets are biggest

Hope that helps!

P.S. For more on this topic I really like the books by Jeff Hwang:captain:
 
C

covbenjie

Rising Star
Bronze Level
Joined
Aug 3, 2019
Total posts
14
Chips
0
when to leave cash tables

i seem to do ok and often double up, but i soon start losing anything i have won
when do you recommend i leave ?
 
Evan Jarvis

Evan Jarvis

Legend
Platinum Level
Joined
Feb 21, 2017
Total posts
2,014
Awards
4
Chips
1
Thanks for the advice :)

I have a question regarding buy-in's for 6 max/full ring....which is more favorable, higher stakes buying in the minimum (20-40BB) or the full 100BB at lower stakes? I tend to play low stakes compared to micro, buying in the minimum. BCP does have "short" tables where I can buy-in for 20BB as opposed to 40. I'm also getting rakeback, and at micro stakes you rarely have a substantial raked pot, so that's something else to take into consideration.

I like PLO, but I enjoy NLHE the most, even though I don't play as many hands as PLO of course...too much variance in PLO... :cool:

I take flops about 30-35% of the time playing NLHE...

Also, what's a good win % of hands played/won, on average? And flops seen/won? It seems I average around 25%-30% of played/won....

Thanks again!

The optimal buyin depends on what your skillset is. If you play well in deep stacked pots and know how to apply pressure on your opponents from in position buy in deep. If you feel you make more 'guesses' in deepstacked pots or play too lose from early position buy in shallow.

Also when buying in shallow it's better to do it on regular tables than on shallow tables. One of the edges of buying in short is that the other players are playing ranges suited to deep games, and are thus playing suboptimal vs your stack. You can pick up a lot of BBs by playing a simple strategy of 3-bet/getting in the top 10-15% of hands or so and there's nothing they can do to defend other than tighten up (which they'll never do)

If I recall correctly have 30-35% Won when saw flop is fine, and anything above 50% won at showdown is solid. But focusing on these stats can be misleading as they don't factor in the size of the pots you are winnings.

I would pay more attention to playing solid ranges and playing most of your hands in position as opposed to fighting hard for pots out of position.

Hope that helps!
 
Evan Jarvis

Evan Jarvis

Legend
Platinum Level
Joined
Feb 21, 2017
Total posts
2,014
Awards
4
Chips
1
i seem to do ok and often double up, but i soon start losing anything i have won
when do you recommend i leave ?


This is very common with newer players. I would find what stack size you are comfortable with (be it 40, 80, 100, 200 big blinds) and set a hard rule that anytime you get 50% above that amount you leave the table and switch to another where you can buy in for the amount yo want.

Alex Fitzgerald has a great piece on this when talking about his "old man coffee" strategy in http://mastercashgamepoker.com

Playing deepstacked is much more challenging, and if the deepstack players are in position on you it's a big disadvantage. If however you have position on them it's in your favor.

When you are comfortable playing all stack sizes then the questions around quitting are
1) Is the game good?
2) Is my seat good?
3) Am I playing good?

More on that topic in this video

Cheers!
 
akmost

akmost

Rising Star
Loyaler
Joined
Feb 2, 2017
Total posts
1,979
Awards
2
GR
Chips
145
Hi Evan ,


Recreational player here -apparently- and new to cash games. I started playing what else 2NL 6max regular tables, not zoom, on pokerstars. I really don't like zoom because you need much time to gather stats on your villains and sometimes I use my table image.I want to improve my deep stack - post flop play.

I started with 4 tables and the next days Pokerstars announced the 4 tables limitation, OMG right? :eek:

I am considering moving up to 5NL but I really don't know if I am ready and what is the bankroll required. I have a small size on 2NL , I am doing pretty well IMO , but still I have only 13.500 hands till now.


Thanks :)
 
Evan Jarvis

Evan Jarvis

Legend
Platinum Level
Joined
Feb 21, 2017
Total posts
2,014
Awards
4
Chips
1
Hi Evan ,


Recreational player here -apparently- and new to cash games. I started playing what else 2NL 6max regular tables, not zoom, on Pokerstars. I really don't like zoom because you need much time to gather stats on your villains and sometimes I use my table image.I want to improve my deep stack - post flop play.

I started with 4 tables and the next days Pokerstars announced the 4 tables limitation, OMG right? :eek:

I am considering moving up to 5NL but I really don't know if I am ready and what is the bankroll required. I have a small size on 2NL , I am doing pretty well IMO , but still I have only 13.500 hands till now.


Thanks :)

First off, I really respect your awareness on regular vs zoom games. Poker is so much about gathering information on your opponents to use it to your advantage later, and zoom completely takes this away! Kudos to you for sticking to real poker and staying away from 'poker crack' as the industry insiders used to call it.

I actually think that the 4 tables thing is a good thing. Playing a mass amount of tables is actually extremely bad for our eyes, mind, and mouse hand, it puts a huge amount of excess stress on us and can mess your brain up. Dusty Schmidt wrote a great article on it.

It also means you'll run into less grinders and can prioritize that all so valuable GAME SELECTION, because if you only get 4 games, might as well choose the best 4 right?

As for moving up, I'd say anything between $125-150 is enough to justify 'taking a shot' a 5NL, and if it goes well you can keep playing there, if it goes poorly just rebuild.

If you are exercising good game selection and cherry picking the best tables when you play in the higher limit I think you'll find that the competition is relatively similar to what you find at 2NL.

The main thing is to not psyche yourself out about the larger amount of money that are in play, continue to think about everything in terms of big blinds and I'm quite confident you'll do just fine. It's always the same game, just different color chips!
 
akmost

akmost

Rising Star
Loyaler
Joined
Feb 2, 2017
Total posts
1,979
Awards
2
GR
Chips
145
First off, I really respect your awareness on regular vs zoom games. Poker is so much about gathering information on your opponents to use it to your advantage later, and zoom completely takes this away! Kudos to you for sticking to real poker and staying away from 'poker crack' as the industry insiders used to call it.

I actually think that the 4 tables thing is a good thing. Playing a mass amount of tables is actually extremely bad for our eyes, mind, and mouse hand, it puts a huge amount of excess stress on us and can mess your brain up. Dusty Schmidt wrote a great article on it.

It also means you'll run into less grinders and can prioritize that all so valuable GAME SELECTION, because if you only get 4 games, might as well choose the best 4 right?

As for moving up, I'd say anything between $125-150 is enough to justify 'taking a shot' a 5NL, and if it goes well you can keep playing there, if it goes poorly just rebuild.

If you are exercising good game selection and cherry picking the best tables when you play in the higher limit I think you'll find that the competition is relatively similar to what you find at 2NL.

The main thing is to not psyche yourself out about the larger amount of money that are in play, continue to think about everything in terms of big blinds and I'm quite confident you'll do just fine. It's always the same game, just different color chips!

I was skeptic about this transition because let's be honest 2NL it's like a circus. No need for balancing, no need for light 3betting, no need for blocking bets and all that stuff , just value betting till the end haha.

I will take a shot the next days in 5NL with 4 tables and see how it goes :)

Thanks again Evan, I appreciate it :)
 
Aprendiz_Edu

Aprendiz_Edu

Enthusiast
Silver Level
Joined
Sep 22, 2018
Total posts
50
Chips
0
Hello, I am new to poker and I love playing MTTs, so that I will be a successful player, do you agree that I need to go through every penny possible?



micro stakes.

thank you very much.




 
Evan Jarvis

Evan Jarvis

Legend
Platinum Level
Joined
Feb 21, 2017
Total posts
2,014
Awards
4
Chips
1
Hello, I am new to poker and I love playing MTTs, so that I will be a successful player, do you agree that I need to go through every penny possible?

micro stakes.

thank you very much.


No, you certainly don't, and if you invest time studying you can move up the limits much more quickly. In fact what you study is more important than what you play in your first year on the tables.

Here's a training package which will get you well on your way (and it's free :))
http://gripsed.com/free-poker-training

And if you want some more MTT Videos to watch in the meantime (maybe have running in the background while you grind) check out this playlist I made https://www.gripsed.com/how-to-win-poker-tournaments

Good luck!
 
neontuning

neontuning

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Jun 15, 2015
Total posts
177
Awards
1
Chips
4
Hey man! Welcome to community!
I have a doubt about cash game:
Could you give some tips on how to play well in heads-up?

Any study material that you have and can be share, I appreciate it.

Regards.
 
Evan Jarvis

Evan Jarvis

Legend
Platinum Level
Joined
Feb 21, 2017
Total posts
2,014
Awards
4
Chips
1
Hey man! Welcome to community!
I have a doubt about cash game:
Could you give some tips on how to play well in heads-up?

Any study material that you have and can be share, I appreciate it.

Regards.


Hey Neon,

Heads up is the one variant of cash games I never really got into.

The best resource I know for studying that is http://husng.com

Although their focus is on sit n gos, the general strategies taught there will apply to cash games as well. The instructors are very good there and I attended a bootcamp with them back in 2015 which completely transformed my game by giving me a really solid grasp on GTO strategies.

Jay Rosenkrantz used to have a series on DeucesCracked called Pr1nnyraiding which was quite good as well but I think that site has long since passed.

Oh, and actually Jonathan Little just added Jonathan Jaffe to pokercoaching roster and he's a headsup specialist. So that's another resource you can use to work on your headsup game for sure.

Hope that helps and sorry I couldn't be more helpful, that one's just outside my area of expertise :)
 
D

Dimitris

Enthusiast
Silver Level
Joined
Oct 30, 2017
Total posts
40
Awards
1
Chips
1
Hi Evan,

I hear from all the high stakes players that micro stakes are high rake environment and this is true. What adjustments to a micro stakes player do you suggest?
3 bet more is an option but if you 3bet more sc for eg you are adding more variance to your game. More variance the bigger your bankroll should be correct?

Thanks in advance.
 
Evan Jarvis

Evan Jarvis

Legend
Platinum Level
Joined
Feb 21, 2017
Total posts
2,014
Awards
4
Chips
1
Hi Evan,

I hear from all the high stakes players that micro stakes are high rake environment and this is true. What adjustments to a micro stakes player do you suggest?
3 bet more is an option but if you 3bet more sc for eg you are adding more variance to your game. More variance the bigger your bankroll should be correct?

Thanks in advance.


Hi Dimitris,

In games with a high rake environment they key is to play fewer pots postflop and try to end pots preflop (because everytime you see a flop you pay rake)

This means some good adjustments are
-Playing tighter from early position (less players in position to call and force a flop)
-Opening to a larger raise size, especially on the button (give them worse odds to defend)
-3-Betting or Folding in spots that are close where you'd normally flat call (no flop no drop)
-And in general play a much more Tight Aggressive rather than Loose Aggressive game.

By all means still trap, slowplay, and speculate in the obvious calling spots (raise and a call ahead holding a pair, especially on the button or in the big blind) but don't go out of your way to play pots when you don't have to and the EV is marginal.

If you look at a regular hand ranking chart for 6-max cash just consider folding the worst hands on it instead of opening it when playing in a higher rake environment! :nurse:
 
kley126

kley126

Visionary
Bronze Level
Joined
Jul 9, 2018
Total posts
551
Awards
2
VE
Chips
52
fabulous and very true playing cash you are your own boss what we all want to live from this
 
Aballinamion

Aballinamion

Sleeping with the Dark Lady of the Sith
Loyaler
Joined
Dec 4, 2017
Total posts
2,517
Awards
3
BR
Chips
331
Blind defense at the micros (2NL and 5 NL)

Hello there Evan Jarvis, my name is Carlos, I am from brazil and I am poker student for about a year (studying seriously). Thanks a ton for your videos at YouTube, your articles and for being here with us in the Cardschat community. God bless you and your wise words at the videos, which lacks a lot in the general population who tries to teach poker.
I have a very serious question for you, and I hope you could help me and others to figure it out. As the title describes, I am seeking for an effective strategy for blinds defense at the micros.
A few days ago a wrote a text about the object of the 6-Max Cash game: https://www.cardschat.com/forum/cash-games-11/6-max-goals-444903/, please I would love it if you could read this little thought about the objectives of the game and criticize, if possible. Because I do not believe I am the owner of the truth about the objetives of the 6-Max Cash Game, and readers, sometimes, are very polite.
Summarizing what I said in this little article quoted above, is that most of the times we are attacking and defending the blinds. We attack the blinds when we are in position and we see a recreational player out of position (SB and BB) that we might wanna play with it.
The article about 6-Max goals above also states that the best positions for stealing blinds are the Cut-Off (CO) and the Button (BTN), are you agree with that Jarvis? Please, let me know.
Now, the overall question revolves about how to properly defend the blinds at the micros. Because on the one hand we cannot call down very much from the BB and the SB specially, according to general population theory (High Rake). On the other hand, we must defend our blinds a lot, that's what almost entire poker community talks a lot but, not to the reality of the micro stakes in 2019 and 2020. (Players are very smart these days, even at 2 NL and 5 NL so default ideias are not working at all).
How can we defend 40%, 50%, 60% or 70% of the blinds, at the micro stakes, when the rake of 2 NL and 5 NL at PokerStars for example is something around 8% or 10% of the Pot? (correct me if I am wrong, I am not really sure about the rake of those stakes).
How can we defend 50% of BB and SB when it comes a raise of 3x? And when comes a raise of 4x?
Let us suppose that we are defending our blinds only against recreational players, okay? We know these guys with broken stacks and fancy moves (Fishes) love to call a lot. Most of times when they hit any part of their ranges they continue, and if it is a Top Pair they are easily going to the River facing Double Barrell or Triple. These guys, most of them are in the level 0 or at maximum level 2 of thought, so we know for experience they tend to be easy, but not the very easy Fish back there in 2009, 2010.
You said in one of your videos, Jarvis, that starting hands charts are not good. I agree totally because these charts miss on reality, they are not ever considering the table configuration, who are the players involved, which are the stack sizes of the whole table, and so on.
Not to be very long and confuse with my point of view, I would like to introduce a little of the Alex 'Assassinato' Fitzgeral ideia about blind defense:


Why Blind Defense is so important

A) If you fold every single hand from UTG, pre ante, you will lose nothing (it is four tournaments but we also have to defend our blinds in the cash game)

B) If you fold every single big blind you will be losing 100 BIG BLINDS PER 100 HANDS

The most hard is to DEFEND the blinds, because the attack seems a little more easy, for:

A) When Hero have position (CO or BTN) and have good information about recreational players in the SB, BB or both, or even of a recreational in the BTN that could call, we attack the blinds by opening a very wide range from the CO and BTN (40-50%), because we can try to win the pot Preflop by raising and stealing or win the pot Postflop by overplaying the recreational player out of position in relation to Hero. (how to overplay idiots, I ask myself these question everyday and never find a satisfactory answer)

B) In the Cash game Hero opens 100% range from SB against BB when it comes in Gap, if the Villain in the BB has at least 40 BB of stack size. When Villain has less than 40 BB left, Hero in the SB will be opening hands that he could embrace a Shove/Push, not only stealing. Why? Because the Big Blind will fold to much for stealing. Because SB opens 100% range in gap, with a 3.5x size, most of times, sometimes bigger when there is a huge Whale in the BB that we have known to be calling down 70-80% of times versus SB steal.

Now this is very default. The hard problem comes when:

A) We want to steal SB x BTN raisor. (3bet light? How? When? Why? Where?)
We want to Re-steal BB x SB raisor.
We want to re-steal BB x BTN raisor

When we are out of position, versus a recreational player, it tends, most of the times, to be calling the 3bet steal and even Open Raise steal. Because the Fish is in position and it calls with a wide range, but even so with a decent calling range. Which means, most of times, in my low experience at 2 NL and 5 NL, that when this hypothetical fish hits parts of his range it will be hard for it to leave, and thus almost impossible for Hero out of position (SB or BB) try to steal the pot postflop a lot.
And usually, not always, when a PASSIVE fish, with aggresion factor around 0 and 2 (for 500-1000 hands sample), decides to check-raise Flop/Turn/River it will show a better hand 9 out of 10 times. Because this kind of player likes to call a lot with his draws, his gutters, his top pairs with no kicker, his two pairs that he is in doubt because of the board texture and etc. Therefore, when this hypothetical Fish decides to be aggressive he has a 'good hand' in the perspective of the player line of thinking.
And if we try to steal blinds out of position versus very aggresive players, it is hard time. also. Versus Regulars, Tights and specially Nits I have no ideia how to do it. I believe it is not necessary at the micro stakes to be leveling against better players, so I avoid fancy plays or hard moves against Regulars. (And I play GTO against them but for your videos, Jarvis, I can see I am playing very wrong).
So professor, the question is very complicated and deep. Sorry for the long term text. I know it is boring but I cannot express such a heavy thought like that in a shallow manner.
Is there a frequency for defending the blinds at the micros? How to defend when we have no odds, for example BTN opens 3x, SB folds, we cannot call here at the micros with 50% range as the charts claims we have to do it. However, we also cannot be folding 70% of the blinds, 80%, or even 90% as I was making until now! I decided to stop folding too much from the blinds and the overall strategy when the rake is so high as 2 NL and 5 NL, is to be 3betting light a lot for steal, from the BB and SB specially, and rarely, very rarely we will be calling down, specially when we have amazing odds (for example we have to pay 1 to a pot of 10, so we can call almost with 100% range and 3bet light with 15% I guess? am I correct or am I being to 'fishy' and making default moves a lot?)
So, we must get crazy aggressive from the SB and BB and start 3betting light a ton? Or we defend more versus 3x raises in MWP (high variance spots mostly)? It is so complicated to me this matter, that I fear that I didn't ask anything I wanted. But I don't want to be boring and nerd out of proportion.

By the way, this is the link for Alex 'Assassinato' Fitzgeral video on how to defend the blinds: an Assassinato Joint: http://excellingatnolimitholdem.com/blinddefense/

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa
 
Last edited:
S

stil370

Visionary
Platinum Level
Joined
Mar 19, 2010
Total posts
728
Awards
1
Chips
60
Should I have Raised 77 from the SB?

Hi Evan,
I think you are an excellent communicator and teacher for someone like myself. You explain things so I can understand them.
Please take a look at the replay below, would love to hear your thoughts. I felt i had made mistakes playing this. Would love to hear your thoughts. thanks in advance.


https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/3qdtDam
 
eurosTotnd

eurosTotnd

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Jul 30, 2019
Total posts
153
Chips
0
Hello ! I watched some of your videos on youtube ! I wanted tobask you this : how do you manage to convince yourself not going higher on limits ,i always start good then after few bad beats im playing bigger limit to try catch looses and i always finish busto ! Please help
 
Evan Jarvis

Evan Jarvis

Legend
Platinum Level
Joined
Feb 21, 2017
Total posts
2,014
Awards
4
Chips
1
Hi Evan,
I think you are an excellent communicator and teacher for someone like myself. You explain things so I can understand them.
Please take a look at the replay below, would love to hear your thoughts. I felt i had made mistakes playing this. Would love to hear your thoughts. thanks in advance.


https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/3qdtDam


I would fold to the 3-bet in that spot, you don't really have a deep enough stack to call there, the implied odds are lacking.

Your opponent is showing a lot of strength as well so on the flop you would be better off check/folding than moving all in.
 
Evan Jarvis

Evan Jarvis

Legend
Platinum Level
Joined
Feb 21, 2017
Total posts
2,014
Awards
4
Chips
1
Hello ! I watched some of your videos on youtube ! I wanted tobask you this : how do you manage to convince yourself not going higher on limits ,i always start good then after few bad beats im playing bigger limit to try catch looses and i always finish busto ! Please help


Realize that bankroll management is the #1 rule for successful poker -

Accept variance and be ok with taking losses (if you aren't ok with losing youw ill do what you're doing which is forcing the action and trying to guarantee a win)

And if you do blow your bankroll re-examine why you play poker. This video will help.
 
S

stil370

Visionary
Platinum Level
Joined
Mar 19, 2010
Total posts
728
Awards
1
Chips
60
I would fold to the 3-bet in that spot, you don't really have a deep enough stack to call there, the implied odds are lacking.

Your opponent is showing a lot of strength as well so on the flop you would be better off check/folding than moving all in.

Hi Evan,
Thank you for getting back to me. Cardschat is really a great place to learn. your reply was confirmed by nearly everyone that I chose to ask. Thanks again.
 
Real Money Poker - Real Money Casinos Top 10 Games
Top