I have a question
Why are suited broadway cards the preference to shove in the 30 Day Course "magic range" given? Is it because they are seldom completely dominated and the course was targeting newer players who might not make optimal shoves?
As I've gained a little more poker playing experience, I've come to discover (through some trial and error as well as intuition) that different portions of this range perform better in certain situations.
For instance, high pocket pairs (my personal preference in this range as of now) seem generally strongest preflop, but they are in really bad shape against a higher pocket pair when we are only about 20% equity to win. Therefore, I find these high pocket pairs very useful to the player who can recognize they are behind and instead fold something like QQ when the "default" is surely to shove.
Conversely, suited broadway cards (and even Ax suited to some extent) have more potential to flushes and straights - even if they are behind at the time of the All-in shove, they have outs to improve.
(p.s. for those unaware, the "magic range" discussed here is a range of hands to shove when short-stacked and perform better than some might expect. This range is all pocket pairs, all suited broadways and all suited Ax hands.)
Hey Phoenix Wright,
Curious question in this thread and since you are not mentioning ICMIZER directly and are working with some "magic range" that I am not really aware of I might be missing some parts of input data that are required to answer perfectly.
But I already see an opportunity to educate and explain a few concepts. When we are calculating a pushing range in ICMIZER we run 169 calculations for each possible preflop hand and check where the push option has a better expectation than the fold option.
These hands will go into pushing range, and the rest into folding range. Interestingly the pushing range usually seems to have a shape of the "magic range" that you mention, pairs, broadway, and some suited aces, then some offsuit aces but with higher non-ace cards (usually).
Now some hands are obviously weaker than the other so if you can push for A2s+ your expectation when you push A2s is lower than when you push A9s. However, your opponent cannot know which hand you actually have so he has to work against your entire range of preflop cards, not the actual A2s that you happen to hold.
In your scenario you mention that you're worried that your pair can be dominated by the other pair and if that happens you'll only have 20% equity. That is true but you need to think about
expected value of the entire range of possible outcomes, not one particular outcome that is not looking good.
Also note that in tournaments, for example on the bubble if you're a big stack your optimal pushing range can be pretty wide. While that is optimal play it doesn't mean that the range is particularly strong. In fact, if you're called in such situations you're usually not excited about it at all because your opponents are limiting themselves to the strongest hands which can be as strong as TT+ and maybe AQ+ in some bubble situations.
So you are not happy to see them call you with such range when you hold a profitable 98s shoving pre-flop hand. Generally, you are likely to lose when you're called. However, note that you are not guaranteed to lose, even if they are tight you usually have at least 20% to win, but the majority of the +EV equity of push comes not from being called, but from your opponent having to
fold very often because he doesn't have the hand he wants to call you with often enough.
So you may push 4 hands in a row and grow your stack significantly. Then you may get a call and you only have 30% to win. But you do happen to win 30% and can continue the pressure. This is something that is often happening on the bubble of sit-and-go tournaments. Every other player wants someone else to call the big stack and is waiting for a great hand to call. Meanwhile, everyone is being quickly blinded out and the big stack is growing his stack steadily without even a need to show his hand pushing one hand after the other.
Why Arag or AXs can be a part of this shoving range? There are 2 parts of strength that can make a hand a push
1) Strength that comes when you get called. This is pure hand strength, a feature of a strong preflop hand QQ or AK.
2) Strength that ensures that you do not get called - this usually is true for AX hands, as you having an ace limits the chance that your opponents happen to hold a strong AX hand that they will call you with!
Most players assume they always need to think about the strength of the first kind, but that's the strength that is needed when you make a call and thus guarantee a showdown and need to demonstrate a hand that wins against an opponent's hand.
When you push through, you do not always get called and thus you happen to also hand hands that are strong based on 2nd strength definition and limit the chance of being called.
Something that can be seen as 3rd type of strength is relative hand strength against potential opponent calling range. To understand this you need to realize that if your opponent is only going to call you with AK then even AQ will be dominated if called.
However, a hand like 98s will have pretty good equity vs AK.
Normally, ace helps a lot and adds to hand strength of 2nd type, but this 3rd type of strength can explain some of ICMIZER ranges which happen to have seemingly weak hands as push recommendation and stronger "in the vacuum" hands as fold recommendation. It usually means that if called the "stronger" hands actually end up weaker against tight opponent ranges due to them being dominated by stronger aces.
Hope this helps a little!
