So how can you figure out what they have? Well, get to know him, watch him play.

Try and figure out what he is thinking, he has to be thinking something. Put yourself in his spot, what kind of hand would you have if you were betting like that? Now do this for every hand for every player that is in the hand, for every player at the table, for every table that you are playing at. Try and eight table while doing this exercise. Put effort into every single hand that is played out at your table, not just the ones you are involved in, every single hand. Every time there is a showdown, and the losing hand is mucked, open up the hand history file, and see what he had. Go through the hand again and see if you can figure out why he willingly showed down a losing hand(something that should rarely be done.) Practice trusting yourself, you will be wrong enough in the beginning to doubt yourself, but don't let that stop you.

LIMPED POTS

Okay, so enough with the blah blah, how do you play those pots? a.k.a. cliff notes Take small stabs at small pots often whenever you have equity in the pot and nobody has taken initiative, bet out. Whenever the board is dry and nobody seems to want it bet out. Be first to act in the game of chicken The fewer players in the pot, the weaker the hand you want to be willing to bet. The later the position of the limpers the more often you'll want to bet. (As a general rule of thumb, two mid to late position limpers and you're in the BB bet pretty much anything that can make a hand by the river. 4 limpers from everywhere, and be a lot more cautious, betting merely good pairs or better and good draws). Be very cautious when the pot gets big, and always remember the SPR on the flop Take stabs Barrel a lot of turns when you get called by a lone opponent (obviously, the more callers you get, the more reluctant you should be to bet again) Take a lot of stabs When they raise, they usually have it. So fold your weaker draws (two pair draws, idiot end gut shots, gut shots on two flush boards, or on paired boards, etc) and continue with your strong made hands and your better draws. Use some common sense (and Flopzilla) to determine what hands you can consider strong given opponent's general tendencies, board texture and SPR. When JT makes the nuts in a multiway pot, someone has JT Take even more stabs Always value bet your good and OK hands (and generally use exploitative and hence

exploitable bet sizing) When somebody checks to you in a limped pot they rarely have a hand they are happy about. When somebody checks twice to you in a limped pot they never have anything.
HAND READING

To give you a VERY broad feel for what different percentages translate into, here are some potential example ranges: 5% = "pairs 77+, AK, AQs" or "pairs 99+, AK, AQ." 10% = "pairs 66+, AK, AQ, suited aces, KQs, QJs" 15% = "any pair, AK, AQ, KQ, suited connectors 54+, any suited ace" 20% = "any pair, any two broadway, any suited ace" 25% = "any pair, any suited broadway, any ace, any suited connectors 54s+, KQo" 30% = "any pair, any ace, any suited king, any suited broadway, any suited connectors 54s+, KTo+, QJo" or "any pair, any ace, any suited king, any broadway" 40% = "any pair, any ace, any king, any two broadway, any suited connectors 32s+" 50% = "any pair, any two suited cards, any ace, any two broadway, K5o+"

Again, remember to use the relevant range: a player who is 65/10 is looser than the 50% range when he limps but has a rather tight range if he actually raises. Also realize that some players who are loose and passive will raise with SECOND-best hands like 88-JJ, AJ, KQ, and 54s-JTs, but NOT the ultra-premiums like QQ+, AK, and AQ -- those they will slowplay to disguise their hands. Watch these folks at showdown to try and figure out how they play their really big hands. Postflop aggression numbers also reveal much about a player. When a player with an average aggression of 8 raises preflop and then checks to you, suspect a trap: this is very often a strong hand that's going for a check-raise. When you get that same preflop bet and flop check from a player whose average aggression is 1.3, that's more likely to be a player who missed and is giving up. When that same play comes from someone with a postflop aggression of 0.4, you gain no information from the check -- checking is just what this player does. Mentally split players into three groups -- high aggression, medium aggression, and low aggression -- and then adjust accordingly. Be VERY afraid when a player is playing out of character: the passive postflop player who leads and raises almost always has a monster, and you can fold without a worry. The ultramaniac who check/calls two streets also has a monster, and is waiting to beat your brains out. Don't fall for it. All of this leads us to our second commandment

Preflop aggresssion: a passive preflop player has a PFR under a quarter of their VPIP. That means that this is a floating scale: while 10% PFR is passive for a player who has a VPIP of 55%, it is aggressive for a player who has a VPIP of 15%. Alternatively, an aggressive preflop player will have a PFR over half of their VPIP. When we're trying to decide a player's preflop holding, we should use their VPIP and their PFR to come to a conclusion.

Remember, if you are raised preflop by a 65/5, he has roughly the same hand range as when you're raised by a 12/5. Don't mistake his typical preflop looseness with a wide range when he raises

So the rule is: postflop is a new game; expect people to play a different style postflop from preflop, and try to quickly figure out BOTH of these styles.

if your board has three spades and you have one in your hand, the odds that your opponent has two spades drops to 2.6% and the odds that he has one spade drops to 14.4%, so the odds that your opponent is drawing to a flush are now 5.6 times higher than the odds that he flopped the monster. Bet and protect!
Playing KK

KK as thin value: Suppose the initial raise is from a solid nitty reg UTG whose overall stats are 11/9 (ahem, sound like anyone we know?). This villain is positionally aware, so his raising range UTG is about 7%. Poker Stove says that the top 7% of hands are 88+, Aqo+ and Ats+, but we know this guy prefers set mining hands, so we change this range to 66+ and AQo+ and Aqs+. Let's assume that he will call our 3 bet with QQ, JJ and some combos of AA and KK. That's less than 1.4% of all hands. We have better than 60% equity against his calling range, but his calling range is only about 1/5 of his raising range, so, 80% of the time, he will fold. Suppose he will 4 bet some combos of AA and some combos of AK (which I will stove as AKs). If he 4 bets AKs and half his AA combos, we only have 37% equity against this range. So we have 60% equity 1.4% of the time (<20% of his raising range he calls with) and we have 37% equity the .5% of hands (<7% of his raising range he 4 bets) and the remainder of the time he folds and we win 3.5bb. If he calls we have 60% equity. If we assume an average pot size of 100bb, which is pretty huge, we're winning 60% of $25.00 at $50, or $15.00 about 20% of the time. If we assume that stacks go in when he 4 bets us, we are losing 63% of 100bb , or $31.50 about 5% of the time We win 5bb every time our 3 bet ends the hand (@75%).

In ten iterations, we win $30 when he calls, we win $18.75 when all fold, and we lose $15.75 when he 4 bets. II. Playing KK Post-flop. 1. Examine the Villain's Tendencies. There is some overlap (everybody set mines) but, in general, different flop textures hit different villains. Here is a typical (imo) calling range for a 32/12 with a low 3 bet: Pocket Pairs: 22-QQ A high hands: A5o+, A2s+ K high hands: Kto+, K9s+ Q high hands: Qto+ Q8s+ J high hands: Jto+, J8s+ Suited connectors: 43s-KQs Suited One Gappers: 64s+ Here is a typical calling range for a 22/17 LAg with a high 3 bet: Pocket Pairs: 22-TT, maybe JJ Suited Connectors: 76s-JTs

-Practice mindfulness. This is the foundation of almost everything I have written and can be simply put as "living in the moment". Mindfulness is the exact opposite of multi-tasking (multi tasking is a pretty taxing operation to be honest). Mindfulness requires you to concentrate on one task to the point where you become engulfed by that task. Do you remember getting lost in play as a child? Get lost in the actions required brushing your teeth each morning, get lost in your breath and the way your body reacts to it, be aware and consistently correct your posture. That is how you begin to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness will help you to combat going on autopilot. Autopilot is your enemy at the tables and in your day to day life. Mindfulness will allow you to turn off or limit your psychological stress response.

Reacting to 3bet If you consider yourself slightly above average for your stakes, and are looking to improve, do this: First, steal more in LP. This will put you in more marginal spots in smaller pots. Once you get your win rate back to where it was with your tighter stealing range, then you can consider opening up by calling 3 bets with decent drawing hands and

decent pocket pairs and look to play post flop. In general, when you call with pocket pairs, you are looking for low flops that, even if they didn't hit your set, missed the drawing hands people 3 bet (KQ+) and a raise on the flop or a call followed by a bet when the villain checks a brick turn. When I hit a set in position after calling a 3 bet, I almost always play it extremely passively, often taking the line call/call/call (the third call assumes the villain puts his whole stack in). If the board is drawy or monotone, then I jam it. When you play suited connectors, look to be in position, usually, and plan to shove big draws as a matter of routine, and look to shove good draws against people who you suspect may be 3 betting light and who also have high c-bet %s. If you are looking to play more 3 bet pots, aim to be getting your fold to 3 bet down to somewhere between 50 and 60%. Once you feel like you have a significant edge at your stake, you should be looking to get the fold to 3 bet down as low as possible. In my last 180,000 hands at $50, excluding my traps with AA and KK, I: 4 bet 14% of the time for a win rate of 190bb/100 hands call 45% of the time for a win rate of -70bb/100 fold to 3 bet 41.3% for a loss rate 0f -357bb/100 Thus, by calling, I am saving myself 2.87bb/hand every time I call a 3 bet versus folding to it. knn05 has similar stats. She has said that she would post her actual figures in this thread, but from what I recall discussing this with her, her fold to 3 bet is right around 40% also. To a certain extent, your fold to 3 bet is dependent on your ATS; but only to a certain extent. knn05 and I are both pretty close in folding to only 40% of 3 bets, but her ATS is at 32% and mine is only at 28%. But, in general, the less you steal, the better your average hand, and, therefore, the more willing you should be to call a 3 bet.

21:34 5/18 password is: Vqy0VptF 21:35 5/18 nick: nemessiss 21:35

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