Hi guys,
I'm a $50/$100 regular on Absolute and I'd like to discuss some theory about playing at 150 bb.
You start with 1500 chips and 5/10 blinds, blinds go up every 5 minutes in the turbos and every 10 minutes in the regulars - there are also ultra-turbos with 2 minutes per blind, but I generally avoid them unless there's some huge fish sitting in them.
General Game Plan
My general game plan for the 5/10 blind level is to play as many hands as possible in position and as many playable hands as possible out of possition and also try to gather as much information as possible about my opponent while the blinds are low.
This deep, it's really important to not only carefully look at which size of a pot you want to play with your hand, but also which stack-to-pot ratio is best for it.
Tighten up your standards for going broke
As a general rule, you have to tighten up your standards for going broke a lot - it's absolutely terrible to get in all your chips with nothing but TPTK and this also applies to drawy boards. For instance, I remember one guy who flat me in the BB with Aces and thought it was a good idea to stack off with an overpair on a 8h9hJc board - his Aces hold and though none of us hit any of our outs, he got all his money in bad, as a 42% dog against my actual hand (I had QhJh, giving me 17 outs against him, so I was a favorite in the hand) and even a bigger dog against my entire range - even AhJh still has 44% equity against him on this board and KhJh or even complete trash like Jh2h is already a coinflip against his Aces.
Basically, if you get all your chips in on the flop, you're at best at a flip against some sort of a strong combo-draw, or you're way ahead against two pair or better.
Of course, this only applies to "reasonable" opponents, a donkey may still put in all his chips with bottom pair no kicker - which makes this level so extremely profitable.
3betting
If you watch any HU cash videos, you'll see a lot of instructors 3bet really wide ranges in the BB, even hands like KJs if their opponents are calling 3bets light so they're ahead of their calling range.
My understanding is that one of the reasons they're doing that is to avoid "Triskaidekaphobia", an SPR around 13 (see "Professional No Limit Hold' Em" from Matt Flynn, Sunny Mehta and Ed Miller for more details) - if you flat a button open at 100 bb stacks, you'll end up at an SPR near 13, which is really bad for top-pair type hands.
Hands that are most likely to flop a top-pair type hand play best at an SPR around 7 against a loose opponent (a bit less against a tight opponent) or at an SPR > 20.
At 150 bb, you don't need to 3bet hands like KJs because flatting them already gives you an SPR > 20, so these play fine and it's better to play a small pot out of position rather than a big one. The same goes for suited connectors and drawing hands, you only limit yourself if you 3bet them - there's less room to maneuver if you build a huge pre-flop pot with them, for instance it's a lot more expensive to run bluffs with them, so you basically have to cbet and hope that this takes down the pot if you miss.
However, against better opponents you still need to 3bet some trashy hands because you have to 3bet your strong hands to get to an SPR where you can easily stackoff with them post-flop.
My value 3betting range is basically strong pairs JJ+ and AQs / AKo - in addition to that, I 3bet some junky hands for balancing reasons, some suited connectors and sometimes baby pairs 22-55, I mix it up between flatting and 3betting with these hands, mostly flat and only sometimes 3bet for balancing reasons. If you only 3bet Aces or JJ+, an observant opponent will quickly pick up on that and you won't get any value anymore.
The reason for using baby pairs is that these just play terrible post-flop unless you flop a set and for balancing reasons they play better in a reraised pot - my range for flatting at 150 bb simply doesn't include any other hands which could hit an uncoordinated low-card board that hard that I'd stack off on it. For instance if I flat pre-flop, the board comes 236 rainbow and I give my opponent a lot of action, what's my range ? Well, basically a set, a flopped straight (and I don't call with 45 very often) or air - so I basically have to run a lot of bluffs on these kinds of boards to get any action from my sets.
However, if I 3bet with 22-55, they flat and the board comes 23Q rainbow, what's my range for stacking off ? Well, I could have AQ, possibly KQs, overpairs KK/AA - and sets. If the board comes 78K with a flush-draw, I could have 78, a flush-draw, AK, AA etc.
Makes it hard for my opponent to put me on a hand on both board types.
Against weaker opponents, I simply play it straightforward for value - there are plenty of donkeys who flat your first 3bet after 30 hands with K7o and stack off when they hit their king.
4betting
As a general rule, even on the $100's - don't even try to 4bet as a bluff !
The last 5 times I 4bet, all of them got called - 2 times my opponent check/folded to my cbet, one opponent c/rai with AK on a lowcard-board, another one donk/called with 88 and some monkey openfolded (!!!) an Ace-high flop ( I had JJ, so I was happy with that).
Because of that, I only 4bet with strong value hands, where I'm basically happy to get it in on most flops if my opponent does flat me. Against habitual 4bet-callers, I even flat their 3bets with AK because I don't want to put myself in a tough spot when I miss and have no idea where I'm at - knowing that even though I missed, I may still have the best hand because he may hold a smaller Ax.
Summary
That's it, basically.
To summarize, the 5/10 blind level is very profitable to play at - not only as an additional level to gather information on, but also because most opponents stack off way too light on it, giving you a huge edge over you.
Let me know if you have any questions, I'd appreciate it a lot if you guys could give me some feedback, lemme know how you like this strategy - maybe I'm a huge fish and doing it all wrong.
Jack