The action folds to hero on the button or SB and there is a calling station in the big blind with a VPIP in the 30-40 range.

I know that with high card hands like ATo or K9s I can exploitatively increase my open raise size (anywhere from + .5 to 2bb) since this villain is likely to call with a range that my hand has >50% equity against. Even hands like QTo can be profitable using this exploit since although there range might have a slight equity advantage, I can make up for this by having a better post flop game when I hit and they station with a worse pair.

Hands like 22 and 33 can also use this exploit despite potentially having a small equity disadvantage against their calling range and having a hard time with equity realization, since the implied odds of hitting a set against a player who cant fold are really good.

My question is what pre-flop line to take here with hands like 54s, 65s, and 76s. These hands have a sizable equity disadvantage against villains calling range, and they make nut hands less often than 22, 33 etc. I still want to open with them because there is some fold equity and implied odds against a calling station, but I don't know if it's still worth it to exploitatively increase my open raise size since more often than not I will miss the flop and be in a bad spot with no option to bluff them (station).

Thoughts?

Originally Posted by braun_kan

The action folds to hero on the button or SB and there is a calling station in the big blind with a VPIP in the 30-40 range.

I know that with high card hands like ATo or K9s I can exploitatively increase my open raise size (anywhere from + .5 to 2bb) since this villain is likely to call with a range that my hand has >50% equity against. Even hands like QTo can be profitable using this exploit since although there range might have a slight equity advantage, I can make up for this by having a better post flop game when I hit and they station with a worse pair.

Hands like 22 and 33 can also use this exploit despite potentially having a small equity disadvantage against their calling range and having a hard time with equity realization, since the implied odds of hitting a set against a player who cant fold are really good.

My question is what pre-flop line to take here with hands like 54s, 65s, and 76s. These hands have a sizable equity disadvantage against villains calling range, and they make nut hands less often than 22, 33 etc. I still want to open with them because there is some fold equity and implied odds against a calling station, but I don't know if it's still worth it to exploitatively increase my open raise size since more often than not I will miss the flop and be in a bad spot with no option to bluff them (station).

Thoughts?

Thanks for posting.

When we want to improve our skills dramatically we need to be very focused on our learning.

To be focused in this post you may wish to pick BTN or SB only to build a strategy for exploit adjustments.

In position and OOP are vastly different strategies with the sub set of hands you want to discuss. Further the SB is still live when we are on BTN again vastly changing the dynamics.

Good news for you GTO charts are very good for this situation. The BB's natural play style lends itself to being closer to the GTO calling range when in BB. Therefore the GTO SB and BTN raise strategies will be +EV to use with the subset of hands you are asking about.

Hope this helps

From BTN fine to raise. From SB, just fold the junk. If you are gonna push the envelope with 34, 67 suited type of hands from OOP, you are just donating.

No need to have a confrontation every hand. At micros, just play the strong hands strongly, speculative hands speculatively, and fold the garbage.

I play against guys who think they gotta contest every pot and outplay others all the time. At the end of an hour, I am usually the one winning even though the vast majority of the time I folded.

If you playing a tight style makes you bored, just multitask.

calling stations, well, will keep calling. unless 76s hit the board super-strong, it's a negative EV play against donkeys. these low/mid suited connectors just have difficulty realizing equity, and even have reverse implied odds.

against a passive fish, on the other hand, it's worth a shot.

Honestly since it’s exploiting vs massive stations who can’t fold just open 2x from the BU and complete (limp) from the small blind. Then you get to play as many pots against fish with hands that could flop big. Your equity disadvantage will be made up for with the times you value town them. They never fold so it’s +EV imo.

Is this super exploitable? Yes of course.
Will they exploit you? No of course not.

if you don't think a 3x BB raise will steal the blinds preflop against said opponent
and you don't want to cbet the flop in position against him
then its an eaasy FOLD

but if I had to win that hand
and I was in that spot with 11 BB's and 56s
and knew he would at least see a flop
I'd raise 4xBB and shove any flop for 7BBs
most likely you and the calling station missed the flop



and wtf is a GTO chart
are people just making this shy% up?