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Zyntherius's picture
exploiting pre flop stats

Of course there are many different playing styles to play husngs profitably, but I'm somewhat insecure about my own pre flop ranges and I want to finetune them before I move up. I had a very bad run of cards today and I wonder if "that's just poker" or it is the result of the high variance game that I play. Because I don't have a limping range on the button, and with my high pfr I think I'm just asking to get bluffraised. When that happens I'll start limping more hands

I've been watching quite a few videos here and I am stunned by the pre flop approach of Cog Dissonance. Not judging him of course, because he's significantly better than me. But the massive difference is that he open limps with a load of hands, and manages to play them profitably.

I don't even have a limping range in husngs, because I assume that it advertises weakness. In 6max games, you have profitable tight agressive players that play 22/19 (VPIP/PFR) and looser players that play 35/31 for example. Both can be winners, and for looser players it requires more post flop skill to play such wide ranges profitably.

But what are typical pre flop stats for a loose and a tight husng player? I have hold'em manager but I don't run it when I am playing. I am pretty sure I barely have a limping range on the button and I wonder if this is exploitable. My ranges might be a little tight in the sense that I fold hands that others play, but when I play a hand on the button I'm raising it 90% of the times.

If I had to estimate my personal overall pre flop stats on the button, it would be 65/55 (VPIP/PFR). Cog dissonance for example might be looser in the sense that he plays more hands, but he's limping a ton of them. Like 80/50 or something. close to it. I am not sure, but I think this is something I have to work at and I don't know how to start. If my button raises get called 70% of the times - which is the case at low stakes - basically I am only increasing the blinds and it puts me in really awkward spots vs calling stations, creating big bloated pots.

I'd be very interested to see how my stats differ from most players.

What kind of pre flop stats do you consider exploitable and how? With the bad streak I had today, it started irritating me that nobody on small stakes folds his big blind to a 2.5x button raise. As a default I open raise most of my buttons, but if I don't get a fold 50% of the times I'll tighten up my raising range and become a nit.

It's kind of hard to express the issue in a thread, but I'd like to record ten minutes of my own play for example and illustrate what I mean. If I owe someone dollars for that, I'll consider it.

Barrin's picture
Pretty much every preflop

Pretty much every preflop stat can be exploited. You just have to do it right.
Your opponent calls 70% of your BTN raises and does not fold to a cbet? Value bet the hell out of him!
Your opponent calls 70% of your BTN raises and does fold 80% of the time to a half pot flop Cbet? Openraise and Cbet 100% of your hands.
Cog is not limping, just because he thinks *that is more fun!!!* - he does/did it because he sees most value in it. When Cog *invented* with limping most players had no idea how to counter it. On the low stakes the players also don't know how to adjust, but they don't know how to adjust to a raise either, which is why probably - even Cog - would not limp 30% of the time at low stakes.

Hi.

Zyntherius's picture
It's good that you bring that

It's good that you bring that up, value betting lighter vs players who can not fold. Like 3 streets of value with 2nd pair heads up. In a ring game you have the luxury to outplay loose opponents with a tighter hand selection to enter the pot and have all their aces dominated when it flops. You can just be patient and outplay them with better hand selection. You can sit back and wait, so you're in control and the only thing that can tilt you is running bad after the chips are all in. In hungs you dont have that luxury and you get run over
It was my plan to value bet light yesterday, and slowplay ever top pair OOP so that they would barrel off against it with air. The problem was that top pairs and strong value hands never came for almost an hour. It lead to a massive meltdown and me talking to myself, clueless about how to adjust. I figured I should be barreling more cause 1 cbet bluff didn't take it down. For example when I was pfr I barreled 3x on A59 52 because I think my range has more Ax than theirs, but they called me down with Ax all day. They check call down with strong value, and bet and raise with complete air.  But you need showdowns to find out about that, and before I got them I was chipped down
For 700 matches of grinding everything went well, other than running slightly under EV in pre flop all ins. But yesterday there was a rush of players running me over completely, as if I was not playing the same game anymore. I had been playing for a long time, so I honestly don't know if it was me being tired or them being idiots. 
Today is a new day, but it was a recipe for a meltdown and I hope it won't happen again.

Zyntherius's picture
It's good that you bring that

It's good that you bring that up, value betting lighter vs players who can not fold. Like 3 streets of value with 2nd pair heads up. In a ring game you have the luxury to outplay loose opponents with a tighter hand selection to enter the pot and have all their aces dominated when it flops.  You can sit back and wait for strong hands, so you're in control and the only thing that can tilt you is running bad after the chips are all in. In hungs you dont have that luxury and you get run over if you wait for value.
It was my plan to value bet lighter yesterday, and slowplay every top pair OOP so that they would barrel off against it with air. The problem was that top pairs and strong value hands never came for almost an hour. It lead to a massive meltdown and me talking to myself, clueless about how to adjust. I figured I should be barreling more cause 1 cbet bluff didn't take it down. For example when I was pfr I barreled 3x on A59 52 because I think my range has more Ax than theirs, but they called me down with Ax all day. They check call down with strong value, and bet and raise with complete air.  But you need showdowns to find out about that, and before I got them I was chipped down. I tried everything. Check raise bluffing on dry boards but it got called down. I know the general adaptations, but they might have been applied badly in practice
For 700 matches of grinding everything went well, other than running slightly under EV in pre flop all ins. But yesterday there was a rush of players running me over completely, as if I was not playing the same game anymore. I had been playing for a long time, so I honestly don't know if it was me being tired or them being idiots. 
Today is a new day, but it was a recipe for a meltdown and I hope it won't happen again.

Barrin's picture
Sounds to me as if you had

Sounds to me as if you had been counter-exploited. So you probably are not running bad, You cannot compare CG with SNG and especially not 6max CG with HU SNG. Btw. while your 6max CG strategy might had been a winning strategy, I highly doubt that it maximed your EV.

Hi.