Five Online Poker Hands - AVP Strategy
AVP resident pro Benton Blakeman analyzes five online-poker hands that one of his students submitted.
With the legalization and regulation of online poker in Nevada, I have once again decided to dip my foot into the world of poker coaching. Poker coaching was a very common practice before Black Friday, and now with online poker on the rise again, I am noticing a lot of players seeking out coaching to improve their games.
For this week’s strategy article I have taken several of my student’s hands and posted them below for review. I have also included his questions, along with my answers. Hopefully these hands will remind readers of the differences between online and live scenarios, and illustrate some helpful online strategies.
Before we dive into the hands, I'd like to take a moment and describe what I think are my student’s weaknesses that we are currently working on. While he has turned from a small loser to a small winner over the last month, he still struggles with positional awareness and stack-size considerations. His biggest problem, in my opinion, is that he is a little too tight and very unwilling to get his stack in often enough, either for value or when telling a story while bluffing. In deep-stacked games I think that would be okay, but in games where stacks are 100 or even 50 big blinds deep, I think he should be getting his stack in more often. Anyway, let’s dig in!
Note: My comments about his hand and my answers to his questions are in italics.
HAND 1: $1-$2 No-Limit Hold’em (Six-Max)
Hero is dealt Kd-Qd in BB and is $180 deep. The button, who is a regular, makes it 4X. (Possibly to isolate a short stack who limped?) What to do?
I like to three-bet and take the lead. There are lots of flops where you'll flop top pair with top kicker, straight draws, flush draws, three-card straight and three-card flush draws with over cards, etc. On those sorts of flops, you can often bet flop and turn. Assuming he made it $8, I would three-bet to $26 (3X, plus a blind, because you're out of position).
Student’s Reply: The limper was short here, and I figured he would shove over any three-bet, which might have been ok, but not having an ace gave me less showdown value. Anyway, I folded.
I don't like folding the K-Q suited. I know the limper is short, but that doesn't mean that he is going to limp re-raise. And if he does, so be it. While thinking ahead is good, you can't predict the future, and I think in spots like this we should just discount the limper almost as if he doesn't exist.
HAND 2: $1-$2 No-Limit Hold’em (Nine-Handed)
Hero is dealt As-5s in middle position with $100 stack. Hero raises to $6 and gets one caller behind. Flop is Kd-4s-3s. Hero leads $8, get called. Turn is an ace. Hero bets pot ($30) and gets called. River is the Jh. Hero puts out a blocker-bet of $25. Villain raises, putting hero all in for his last $30. Why I called, I don't know, I can't beat anything. The reason for a blocker-bet is to fold if raised, right? Anyway, he showed me Qs-10s for the three-outer.
Overall, not bad. I like the flop bet, but hate the turn sizing. You drive him off all K-X hands by potting. The turn should be sized as a blocker-bet to a) induce a bluff, or b) keep weaker made hands and lower flush draws hanging around. A pot-sized bet doesn't accomplish either. As played, it sounds like the pot was already so bloated that a blocker-bet was almost committing. There's no good answer for the river. You kind of have to bet, and it sucks when they shove. I don't have a good answer; just watch your turn sizing and realize what you're betting, along with what you're trying to accomplish.
HAND 3: $0.50-$1 No-Limit Hold’em (Six-Max)
Hero open-raises to $3 with 10-10 in the cutoff (with a $100 stack). Button three-bets to $9. Now what?
I called. Flop is 8-4-4. Now what?
I check-called $13 into $18. Now what?
Turn is a 2. I lead for $25, and he folds. I hated it the whole way. What was the correct line?
I play preflop and flop same as you. On the turn — with $44 in pot and $78 left in my stack — I likely check again and just get it in if he bets, especially if the turn puts two to a suit on the board. And yes, this spot sucks no matter what line you take. The only reason I'm not a fan of your line is because I know you're leading turn with the intention of folding if he shoves due to your fear of getting it in bad. This sucks, because he can shove 9-9 for value or middle pocket pairs, just thinking you're reverse-floating. Rather than let him move you off after investing $47 of $100, I’d rather check and let him bluff. The reason is because if you lead with a bet or check-raise, you're going to lose to J-J+ either way. At least check-raising lets you get max value when he's bluffing, or gives him the chance to make a hero call with worse by putting you on a bluff. FYI, if you were leading the turn and planning on calling a shove, then I don't mind your lead, as you're never getting bluffed off your hand.
HAND 4: $1-$2 No-Limit Hold’em (Nine-Handed)
Hero is dealt Q-Q in middle position and is $100 deep. There is one limper ahead, and then hero raises to $7. All fold except for the limper. The flop is K-3-3. Limper checks, hero bets $11, the limper calls. The turn is a 3, and villain shoves for $67. Call or fold?
Fold. In general, when online (and live) players over-shove here, they have it. And if he's a good player and shoving, he has it here as well, because a good player would never kamikaze-bluff into a board that smacks your range (which includes lots of hands with a king). A good player would opt for this line just for confusion’s sake, trying to make you think, "Why would he ever bomb a king here? He must be bluffing, so I'll call with an under-pair." It hurts to fold, but this isn't the spot to make a hero call.
HAND 5: $1-$2 No-Limit Hold’em (Nine-Handed)
Hero makes it $7 under the gun with Kd-Qd and gets three callers. The flop is Ah-10h-4c. One big barrel, or just give up?
I actually like one small-ish barrel or give up. A big barrel just wastes money, because they are always calling with an ace. I think because you raised UTG and are drawing to the nuts, you have to bet, and $12-$16 would be about right with about $30 in the pot. Obviously you'd bet bigger for protection with a made hand, but with all of these players having to worry about the people behind them, they just can't call light with no information about what the players behind them will do.
Students Reply: I checked and folded to a $14 bet from the cutoff.
It's quite likely that he would have called your continuation-bet, but I still like leading, considering you have a draw to the nuts and are representing a lot of strength with your early position preflop raise.
If anyone has any other suggestions for my student or disagrees with my analysis of his hands, please leave any of these suggestions or questions in the thread. I'd love to discuss different lines, and I am always open to suggestions. Thanks for reading, and good luck at the tables!
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Benton,
On hand 5, you suggest 1 smalish barrel of $12-16 into a $30 pot -- after a preflop raise of $7. Shouldn't the sizing be a bit larger than that -- closer to $20 or 2/3 pot? If not, why the range you suggest? I know the difference is small but I know bet sizing is one of my biggest issues and want to better understand it. Thanks!
Dave
@Dap Poker
Good question. Lets try to clear it up. As stated in the article, A big barrel just wastes money bc they are always calling with an Ace. I think bc you raised UTG and are drawing to the nuts you have to bet, and $12-$16 would be about right with ~$30 in the pot. Obv you'd bet bigger for protection with a made hand, but with all these players having to worry about the people behind them they just can't call light. If we against only one opponent I'd advocate a bigger barrel to eliminate their floats and discourage them calling light with second or third pair. But with this many callers I still like a smaller barrel similar to a blocking bet, because each player will have to worry about not only our bet/future bets but also they won't be able to call light for fear of the player behind them. Another reason for a smaller c bet here is that we aren't planning on multi barreling so there is no need to size larger to get stacks in by the river. It's a small detail but every dollar saved is a dollar earned.
Benton,
I guess my concern was that the slightly smaller size (closer to 1/2 pot as opposed to 2/3 pot) might be perceived as weak. But, I understand that the multiple callers means that even if someone felt it was weak, the other players in the hand effectively prevent them from acting on that impression.
But, let me ask a couple followups:
1) You said you'd barrel bigger against 1 player, what about 2 or even 3. Is there a good cutoff for that?
2) There are 2 hearts out there. So, if the first barrel sort of works and cuts the field down to 1 opponent, do you change plans and fire a second barrel if a third heart hits the turn, or do you try to get to a free showdown drawing to the straight? Is this really opponent dependent or do you also need to consider which position the opponent was in (e.g., 2 folds then a call different than a call from the first opponent)?
Dave
The answer to your follow ups are pretty much the same. It's all very player dependent. Does this opponent call light often? If so then tighten c bet range or open up double barrel range. Do they call against perceived weakness and fold vs perceived strength? Then c bet bigger when you want a fold and smaller when you want a call. I wish I had better answers but online is truly a game of observing how your opponents react to numbers and percentages bet and then making your future decisions based on these betting tells and patters.
As far as the specific question about if we got called and a heart peeled- quite often I would bet once more because we'll get a lot of folds and we likely don't have enough equity to check call so if we want to win we have to bet. In this case when I'm only planning on firing this last bullet is likely size larger like 75% to get more folds from hands as string as top pair.