Poker Blogs

Play to learn
- Forget about earning money, grinding. Learn, consume everything you can, get knowledge and apply it. Question everything, think.

Table Selection
- Table selection is the most important factor seperating winning and losing players.
- Anyone playing 35% or more hands is bad, unless a regular
- Few tables, generally bad
- Not a full stack, usually bad
- Tendencies, often smart to watch a game a few minutes, see if any of the regulars are on tilt etc
- Have the fish on your right, if a reg is being a bitch on your left, just chop off the lowest end of your range, close your eyes and check call him down. Sit yourself top left on the table, fish likes to sit underneath most of the time
- As long as there is 1 fish at the table, it's worth playing
- When a player has a name of an alcoholic beverage or a car, usually recreational over the age of 30. If they have a screen name of a famous player followed by a number, usually bad. If they got a sport team with the team's logo, usually bad.
If they got words like "lunatic", "bluff", "crazy" etc, usually a nit. If words like "monies", "lol" usually a young player, probably aggressive and has read forums etc. If a player has picture of a dog, a baby or something, usually older and always bad.

Bankroll Management
- Implement 30 buy-in rule for whatever stake
- Play 4 tables, so you can focus more on both your own and your opponent's play
- Take notes religiously and try to move up as fast as possible.
- Another reason why is, as you grow older, your willingness to gamble and take risks decrease tremendously. (You worked hard to get where you are, the risk of losing it all is disheartening and at times, scary.)
- Remember, your earnings improve exponentially relatively to your skill level, you should try to be as aggressive as possible with your bankroll
- "If you're too careful, your life can be a fucking grind."
- Taking shots is one of the most important things you can do to improve as a player. You get a reality check, you realize they aren't that good higher up, and you might never look back
- You shouldn't cash out frequently, cut down your expenses and work hard to improve your craft, spend as much money as you can to improve your game, use it for coaching and taking shots. That's your expense.

Math is Easy

Hand Combinations
- Some facts:
1. There are 1,326 combinations in No-Limit Holdem
2. A set has 3 combos
3. Two pairs have 9 combos
4. Pocket pairs have 6 combos
5. A pair + kicker has 12 combos
6. Under paired cards have 16 combos
7. Any two specific suited cards have 4 combos
8. Any two specific cards have 1 combo

Hand Ranges
- You estimate a player's hand range based on his image, tendencies, history and position
- A good generalization to keep in mind is that if you think your opponent's range is stronger than your hand, you want to fold more often. And if you think his range is weaker than your hand, you want to call or raise more

Probability and Odds (the proportion of the time that something is likely to occur or has already occurred.)
- Usually expressed as a percantage (e.g., 35%) or a ratio indicating odds (e.g., 4:1). They are one and the same

Pot Odds
- Knowing about odds allows us to determine if a call, bet, fold or raise is the most optimal play
- Two main types of odds for poker: Immediate odds and implied odds

Immediate odds
- Normally referred to as simply "odds", how much you stand to win immediately in relation to what you have to risk, and is usually expressed as a ratio.
- Five steps we need to take to determine our pot odds:
1. Determine the original pot size
2. Determine the amount we have to call
3. Add up original size of pot and amount we have to call to get the Total Pot Size
4. Express it as a ratio (Total Pot Size: Amount we have to call)
5. Convert it to a percentage

Implied odds
- Reflect how much we expect to win in later streets if we hit our hand

Fold Equity
- Based on how often we expect our opponents to fold to a bet or raise. Since poker is all about being aggressive at the right time, it's a good idea to know a little something about fold equity

Estimating Your Equity on the Flop and Turn
- Multiples of 2 are generally more accurate than Multiple of 4, but both give good estimates
* Multiples of 4: To approximate the equity you have on the flop, multiply your number of outs by 4 (You have an open-ended draw straight on the flop. That's 8 outs, so 8x4 = 32 percent to win by the river. The actual number is 31.5 percent (This is if you get to see both the turn and river cards.)
* Multiples of 2: To approximate your equity on the turn, multiply your number of outs by 2. (You have an open-ended draw straight on the turn. That's 8 outs, so 8x2 = 16% to win by the river. The actual number is 17%.)

Expected Value
- (EV) is the average amount that we stand to win or lose if we see a certain situation many times.
- To calculate your EV, use this formula:

EV = (% you win)(amount you win) – (% you lose)(amount you lose)

If the sum is over 0, it's + EV

Pre flop: The Fundamentals

The Blinds
- When the decision to fold or call pre-flop is close, folding is better because a small mistake can lead to a bigger one post-flop. In the occasion that you do play and find yourself being out of position, try to keep the pots small so you won't find yourself in many sticky situations.

Raising from the blinds
- Be very conservative with your raises from the blinds. With limpers in the pot, don't raise unless you've got a good hand like 99+, ATs+. Most people will put you on a premium hand also when you do it, and it's hard to extract value from weaker hands. Good spot to fold if you get re raised with top pair

3-betting From The Blinds
- Against a utg raise, the majority of your 3-bets should be for value. Unless you know the UTG is a fish. Your perceived range get so strong.
- Since we are rarely 3-betting a UTG open from the blinds, we should call with the majority, if not all our holdings.
- Against middle position, you should 3-bet more often with JJ+/AK against looser opponents. If your opponent folds to 3-bets a lot, I wouldn't 3-bet with JJ and AK, call to keep them in the pot
- You shouldn't 3-bet non-broadway suited connectors either when they are in MP, since they don't play well in 3-bet pots, and you won't flop enough hands to continue after c-betting. No point c-betting Axs either
- Against CO/BTN you should 3-bet with a wider range, because his stealing range is wider. From this position it's smart to 3-bet with a polarized range. Premium hands JJ+ /AQs + and speculative holdigns such as 74s 56s that can't play profitably post-flop without the initative. And call with marginal hands QJ, AJ. KQ etc.

Squeezing
- Something that will look extremly strong unless you have a history of 3-betting a ton
- At 50nl a squeeze is usually very strong hand, at 600nl ranges are wider, and people can show up with speculative hands
- A good spot to squeeze is when a loose player opens in mp/co and the people behind calls, the reason is, it's a great spot for btn to 3b, so if he only calls, he's usually not that strong
- Smart to keep squeezing until someone gives you a reason to stop
- On Ace high flops, with TT-KK oop, you should bet-fold more often than check-call. (Unless that particular oponent let's you go to showdown easy.)
- Don't Squeeze against nits if they raise from early position, their range is too tight and strong
- Against loose-bad players, don't squeeze loose, better to call their raise preflop and stackw hen you do hit
- Against shortstacks, don't squeeze if you don't want to call his all-in raise. He's not going to fold often, and will jam with any A or any pair. AT+ or 77+ are good hands to use vs them
- Against light 4-better, don't squeeze them
- After a villain calls your squeeze, never bet unless you think he will fold a lot or you are willing to get it in on the turn
Caution: Squeezing a lot will build up adrenaline and you may find yourself playing too aggressively to the point of spazzing out. You will find yourself fighting for pots because they are bigger. Start by 3b bad people, get comfortable and continue from there

Under The Gun (UTG)
- Standard general hand range: 13.1% (To play standard tag 23/18 or so, good to raise 12-14%)
1. All pairs 44 and higher
2. All suited Broadways JTs +
3. AJo and KQo, if players behind are aggressive, fold AJo and KQo as well
4. Medium Suited cards such as 87+ (Stay away from single-gap suited cards like T8s).
Important Note: Avoid playing ATo UTG, because of reverse implied odds
- How tight or loose you want to raise depends on how good/aggressive players are behind you and how good the blinds are

Middle Position (MP)
- Treat it almost the same as UTG, 14,6% (13% - 16%)

Cutoff (CO)
- 24.3% 22+, boardway cards, suited and offsuit AT,KJ,KQ,JT etc, A9o +, a2s+, K9s+, Q9s+, medium suited connectors (j8s+, 97s, 76s, 65s).

Button (BTN)
- 34.5%
- The most profitable position in NLHE, and you should find any excuse to play in this position
- A good hand player can profitably play 50% of his hands from the button
- 3-betting from the button, if people fold a lot to 3b, do it nonstop, if people call, then fold to c-bets a lot, keep doing it.
Important Note: Sometimes you want to deliberatly force yourself to fold pre-flop sometimes, the reason for this is, you don't want an opponent who's folding way too much to recognize he's folding too much. Want to give him the illusion that he's not constantly getting exploited, even though he is
- If people fold to you, and the blinds are tight, keep stealing

Postflop
Why we bet
- When we have the best hand, value and to extract money
- When we rarely have the best hand and need to bluff
- Dead money

Continuation Bet
General guidelines on whether you should bet on certain boards:
1. On your HEM, if it's greater than 70%, you can bet your entire range and still profit
2. You want to have some sort of rquity in the hand
3. Dry flop with one high card (Your percieved range include tons of A and K, and theirs include small pairs and suited connectors.)
4. Wet boards, don't bet, board like 89Ts hits a lot of the Villain's medium-hand range, and will call often, also you have some equity you want to realize.
5. Paired Flops: Avoid betting 552 rainbow with weak hands like 86s or 67s because you have very little equity if he calls, rather check and do delayed C bet if he checks on turn.
6. Way Behind/Way Ahead: Example KK on A82, you're way behind a pair of aces or a set, and you'r way ahead of bottom-and middle pair and random gutshots. You can check behind here some times if it's checked to you
7. Multi-way Pots: You generally want to bet more in a three-way pot on a dry flop because people are less likely to mess around in these spots. But check behind if there's a short stack
8. In position/Out of Position: You should C-bet a lot more often OOP. In position, you can check behind and get a free card. It's a lot harder to get a free card when you're OOP, and you generally want to be aggressive and take down the dead money
9. Against Loose players: You generally want to check behind or check-fold some of the tiem on low-medium boards (876s, 647s, 542r, etc.) Loose players like to call flop bets with all sorts of hands, making c-betting on the flop with random hands less profitable.
10. Against Tags: C-bet all the dry boards versus TAGs, and check behind wet boards if you miss. And adjust if they're attacking you light (etc, check raising you on J52, you got 75s.)
11. Inducing bluffs: Some players will almost always bet if checked to, because they percieve it as weakness. You can check call with AT+ on A83 boards etc, and if flush draw, check raise
12. Polarizing your range: You'll want to polarize your range when you check behind. This means you bet the flop with strong hands and air, but check behind with marginal hands

Paired Flops
- When a player check calls your c-bet on paired flops, he's almost ALWAYS got a pocket pair. Sometimes with A high, so be ready to fire a lot of turns, if he raises the turn bet, it's almost never a bluff, so fold unless you beat trips

3-bet pots
- Villain's calling range is similar to that of single-raised pots. Mostly middle pocket pairs and occasionally AK/AQ that he didn't 4-bet with. Knowing this, we should double-barrel bluff the turn if we pick up some type of dr aw. Most hands will not withstand a second strong barrel.

Monotone Boards
- Be very conservative, people seldom re-raise without a set or better, and if you do want to C-bet A LOT of hands might call you. Be careful with what you shove your stack in with

Villain's perception of your range
- You should generally bluff more and value-bet less if Villain's perception of your range is strong, and bluff less and value-bet more if it's weak

- Polarize You Leading Range: You generally want to lead with strong made hands that can easily call a raise, or with draws (pair + flush draw, flush draw, open-ended, overcards + open-ended, gutshot +open-ended, gutshot).
- Want to avoid leading with JQ on KJ3r, getting raised, not knowing what to do. So don't put yourself in these without a plan

Single-Raised Multi-way Pots
- consider leading with middle or bottom pair in single-raised multi-way pot. It'll be too hard to profitably check-call with medium pairs. Leading also puts the player behind you in a difficult situation. Example: 65s on a Q64r flop

Who to lead Against
- Straightforward players who are passive:
1. Players who fold too often to leads. A good example is aregular who is playing more than 9 tables. You can also check a pre-flop raiser's stat on your HUD to see if he's folding a lot (75%) to donk bets
2. Players with a high stealing frequency from the CO or BTN. Their ranges will often be wide and weak
3. Weak-tight players. They play straightforward game and will just fold to your flop leads without a strong hand
4. Players who like to check behind for pot control. When you have a strong hand, consider leading into them to extract value since they are going to cehck behind a lot

Who to NOT lead Against
- Aggressive players, they like to re-raise donk bets, but consider leading into them with a strong hand
- Do not lead into calling stations. You want to take down the pot on the flop without having to fire numerous barrels

Playing the Turn
- Bluff the turn on scare card, or lead if a flush or straight completes

Raising
- There are two reasons why we want to raise-for value or for bluffs. We never raise to "see where we're at" it's too expensive.

Raising for Value
- On boards where we flop a Straight, all connected boards, or all 2 tone flush boards we want to re raise for value, too many cards can come to kill our action.
- Flopping a top pair with JTo on a T56 2 tone board vs someone bad, we always want to raise if donked into, so many marginal hands, or draws they may have

Types of Boards to Bluff-Raise On
- The best boards to bluff-raise are ones where opponents c-bet a lot, such as AK3, KQ8.
- Monotone and low connected boards 456 two tone etc. Monotone boards will slow them down unless they have a set or a flush.
- Stay away from paired boards, may want to throw in a bluff here and there, but it's generally not a good idea to attack those flops. May be good vs some ppl to float on paired boards though.

Floating
- A good tool vs people who c-bet too much (75% or more on the flop). And vs people who play straighforward on the turn.
Factors to consider before floating:
1. If your opponent 2-barrels too often, you shouldn't float the flop because you will have to fold the tun too often.
2. If your opponent plays straightforwardly on the turn and telegraphs the strength of his range either by checking or betting. Some players check whenever they don't have a hand on the turn and bet whenever they do. These are your primary targets.
3. It is credible for you to represent a hand on the turn or river. Example, you've got 78s, flop A46, you've only got a gutshot, but another flushdraw on the flop, if the other flush completes on the turn, your opponent checks, you can easily represent that flush
4. Make sure that when you float, you have some equity in the pot and have soem backdoor draws so you can continue on the turn.

Double-Barreling
- Most low stakes players have problems playing the turn, because they don't plan the streets. No backup plan if they miss the turn and got nothing
- You generally want to fire the turn if either of these conditions exists:
1. Your equity improves
2. A scare card hits
- On boards where a turn puts more draws out there, bet the river as well. The turn creates a lot of draws, Villain is likely to have a made weak hand or a draw. If he had a strong hand, he would've raised the turn to protect it. Therefor a river bluff is profitable.

Scare Card
- Best scare cards are high cards, or completed flushes on the turn
- Bad scare cards are low cards and turn pairing the board

The Problem of Scare Cards
- In today's game, many people know what the obvious scare cards are. For this reason your bet is less credible on that particular card, and you need to fire another bullet to take down the pot, Fortunately though, people call on the scare card and fold to a river bet all the time.
- To balance this by betting your medium-strength hands on the turn too
- Also an alternative to check the A turn, and go for river bet or bluff

Implied Threat of the river bet
- The threat of losing a stack causes players to err on the side of caution, casuing them to fold their marginal holdings on the turn. This puts their turn range face-up.
- Also a reason why you should incorporate bluffing on the river into your game.

Strong hands


3 - Betting
- One of the most powerful plays you can have in your arsenal, extremely profitable to 3-bet in position, especially from the button.
Creating an aggressive Image
- 3-betting lightly is an excellent way to create an aggressive image. Players will put you on a wide range of hands and pay you off lighter.
- Will let you control the flow of the game unless they fight back. Allows you to isolate the fish more often, playing pots in pos vs regulars.
- You generally want your first 3-bet to be a semi-bluff (j8s, 86s, 75s etc).
After that, keep 3-betting until people give you a reason to stop- by 4-betting you, calling you down lighter, and/or check-raising the flop more.
- You will end up tilting him and he will be ecstatic to get all-in pre-flop with AQ or 88 etc.
3-bet stats
- Although 3-bet stats are helpful, don't put too much emphasis on them, more reliable if it's heads up.
Polarized range
- Polarize your range when you 3-bet, if it's vs a passiv bad fish, you can throw in 88-jj

3 - betting as the Aggressor
- Do most of your 3-betting from the CO or BTN.
3-betting against UTG/MP
- Increase your 3-betting range versus UTG, if he starts playing back with calling or 4-betting, slow down. For the most part, he will be playing back with JJ+ and AK. If he starts to call down multi barrels, narrow your range to include more broadway cards and fewer suited connectors.
3-betting against the cutoff
- Most regulars widen their opening range from the cutoff, so you want to 3-bet the cutoff relentlessly from the button.
You'll have tons of fold equity because: 1) his range is weak, and 2) he doesn't want to play against you from out of position.
- The general strat, 3b till he starts 4b light, check raising, or calling down with marginal holdings.
3-betting from the blinds
- Don't 3bet too much from the blinds, it's too tough. Also remember do it with a polarized range, can sometimes if the dynamic and your image is right, do it half the time with 99-JJ and AQ.
3-betting with Deep Stacks
- With stacks 1500B or more, you can 3-bet with many more hands in position. Players play much more straightforward when stacks are deep. Some will call a lot pre-flop, hoping to flop a strong hand, and will check fold once they miss, some fold preflop all the time.
- If you're in the blinds, tighten up your 3-betting range a lot, not profitable vs regs when they have position.
3-betting with AQ
- Most of the time, it's not profitable to 4b or call with AQ, but when the situation is right. You and another guy who's been 3-betting a lot, and you raise, he 3bets again, you can now call. If any A hit, you can call his bets, if any K hits, you fold, if not, check raise him big, this will get them to fold their pairs.

Playing the Flop
your perceived Range
- People will usually put you on AK, high cards, small suited connectors that can't profitably call a pre-flop raise, or high pokcet pairs when you 3-bet before the flop.
- On a flop like AT3, if we bet, they will fold a large percentage of the time because the board texture hits our perceived range.
Had the flop come 789 it probably wouldn't hit our range much, so it's best to check-fold with a hand like AK.
Paired boards
When a villain calls a c-bet on a paired board, he will have a pocket pair most of the time, sometimes it might be a float with A-high. Knowing this you want to apply serious pressure.
A player calls your c-bet on 772
If and A,K, or Q hits, bet hard again (and fold to a shove). and if you have 89s, turn is T, you can still bet strong and commit yourself.
Only do this vs peopel who are generally tight, who can make folds, not passive bad fishes and stuff.
Monotone boards
- Players generally play two pairs, sets or small flushes very fast on these boards. If you c-bet, he calls, you can safely rule out those hands. Knowing that, you want to be shoving your stack on the turn if you have the nut-flush draw.
A93-type boards
- You want to c-bet almost 100% of your 3-betting range here, even if you have TT-KK.
Counter
Ace-high flops are great spots to float in position in 3-bet pots. The reason is explained above-villain will c-bet almost 100 percent of his 3-betting range on this flop.
If he checks, check with him, if he bets the flop, then call.
If he bets the turn, he probably has an ace, so just fold. When villain checks the turn, check behind to represent something like a5s going for pot control. When he checks again on the river, he rarely has an ace, go for 2/3 - 3/4 of the pot.

Countering 3-bets
From a defensive point of view. You raise from MP and the BTN 3-bets you for the 3rd time. How to deal with that?
Tight strategy
- You generally want to be calling 3-bets in position. If at all possible, avoid doing it OOP.
If you're OOP against a good, aggressive player, the best strategy is to simply fold his 3-bets and tighten up your opening range. Fight back when you have JJ+
Playing Fit-Or-Fold
- If you decide to call with a hand like 77, you can't just fold to his c-bet everytime you don't hit a set, need to play back. Otherwise it's not profitable.
Calling 3-bets with Pocket Pairs
- Even with position, you should fold pocket pairs worse than 99 when stacks are less than 150BB.
CO vs BTN
- You can actually call with a wider range of hands here versus a button 3-bet because he will have hands like ATs, KTs, and QTs. For this reason, you can call with AQ, AJ, KQ, KJs, hands that play post flop.
Late position vs. 3-bet from blinds
- If Villain has a very narrow 3-betting range, then I want to 4-bet to give him a chance to stack off with a range of JJ+/AK, which AA/KK dominates. (By calling, he may slow down, and we won't stack him).
- If an opponent is 3-betting with a wide range, I will call with premium hands, because I want to balance the time I have marginal holdings. Against someone who is really aggressive, I will slow-play and then call down all three streets, even if the board gets scarier, because aggressive players bluffing frequencies increase as the board gets scarier.
- I would shove over villain's bet on wet flops like T83s because that's what I would do with my semi-bluffs on this board. If villain 3-bets a lot and c-bets at a high percentage, then semi-bluffing the flop is insanely profitable since he will bet-fold very often.
Don't jam the flop
Don't always just get it in on the flop agsinst 3-better's c-bet. Almost always call more with sets and two pairs.
Bluffing the flop
- Players who 3bets too much, also c-bets too much. Good boards to bluff-raise on are connected boards, and sometimes Kxx or Qxx. A high is usually best to call and represent.
Inducing a Bluff
- Some players never belive you when you raise a fairly dry flop, by raising you represent such a narrow range of hands for value taht a thinking villain will not give you credit for it.
- As you move up in stakes, you will realize that there's more value to fast-playing your hands than slow-playing. As players get better, it's more difficult to trap them. However, a lot of players want to make hero calls so if you're playing your strong hands aggressively, you will get called more often than you think.
4-betting
- You generally want to 4-bet a hand that either cannot profitable call a 3-bet (a3o KJo) or that you want to go all-in with pre-flop (QQ+ / AK).
Having an ace or king in your hand is great because of hand elimination. There is less chance that Villain holds AA,KK, or AK.
- Don't 4bet with T7o, you want to least have decent equity in the pot if he does call, choose T7s instead.
- Also important that you don't 4-bet with hands such as 55-88 or T9s. (Assuming the stacks are 150BB), it's better to just call his 3-bet with these hands because of the implied.
- You can also widen your 4-betting range when stacks are deep (150BB +), tough to counter it because stacks are so deep, people rarely ever 5b bluff, so it gets taken down a lot.

4 - BETTING
- A player who has been 3-betting a lot, or folding to 4-bets a lot are prime targets. The standard of today's game is 4-bet to 2.1 - 2.5 times the 3-bet size.
- You never want to put in more than 30BB of your stack pre-flop because you do not want to commit to the pot with a weak hand. If you 4-bet to 40BB and he shoves, you would need to call 60BB to win 140BB, roughly 2.3 odds. This means you will have to call a shove with a hand as weak as A2s, or 56s against a shoving range of QQ + / AK
Playing TT and JJ
- you lose a lot of value by 4-betting these hands small, rather shove or 4-bet big so he knows you're commited, or call his 3-bet, might get to showdown then.
- Against passive opponenets who don't barrel enough, calling is optimal because you have more chances of showdowns, if a nits 3-bets you, should fold to his re-raises when you open from UTG or UTG+1.
- People will save a lot of money if they treat TT and JJ like 99.
Playing AK
- It's a mistake to push this hand too hard. AK falls into the same category as TT and JJ because it's a marginal hand to 4-bet and get all-in with.
- The idea behind calling the pre-flop 3-bet instead of 4-betting is to call all of his flop c-bets and bet then turn when he checks to you. A half pot bet will be sufficient.
- You also likely to stack any Ax from villain, lastly, Villain will be barreling with a high frequency on any turn A or K to represent AK.
Playing AQ and 99
- We rarely want to 4-bet with these hands and get it in preflop without history.
The majority of the time, however, the best play is to call a 3-bet with them when stacks are deeper than 125BB.

Adjusting Against Different Players
- In this example you have ATo, flop is 862. In a vacuum, you should bet try and take it down, you have initative and 6 outs.
Against a loose-passive player: Check behind, he's going to call with any piece, and he probably won't lead the turn, you have showdown value as well
Against a Nit: 17/12 or tighter, you shuold bet, nits often play fir-or-fold game. You may also have to barrel the turn, because their range include a lot of pairs, if the turn is a high card, fire again.
Against a Decent TAG: You want to bet as well, for the most they will stay in the pot if they have something and get out of the way if they don't, an occational check-raise. Be ready to fire second barrel on all overcards, if he calls, you can still fire the river, they know you will probably fire on the scare cards. Fire on a scare card higher than 8 or 9.
Against a Good, Aggressive Player: It's okay to mix it up, it's okay to check since he's good at balancing his range. Pick your spot to bluff the river if you decide to.

Balancing your range
- No need to balance vs. bad players. They either don't know what you are representing or don't care. But against good hand readers, having a well balanced range will earn you more money and make you difficult to play against.

- Example, A good aggressive player raises to 3$ from the Button and you call from the SB with ATs, the flop is A62, you check- call his pot bet. The turn is a 7 and you check. He checks behind. the river is a Q, you bet 2/3-pot for value, and he folds.
In this scenario you rarely have a bluff, so you should check the river the majority of the time.
This has three purposes:
1) It induces him to bluff with air so that you can call him down.
2) It induces him to make a thin value bet with worse hands.
3) It balances your range so that he will be less likely to valu-bet light or bluff you in the future, thus allowing you to see a cheap sowndown with your medium/small pairs.

A guideline to Balance your range
* Any time you find yourself in a situation where your perceived range is strong (good top pair or better), then value-bet less and bluff more.
* Any time you find yourself in a situation where your perceived range is weak (mid-pair or worse), then value-bet more and bluff less.

Strong Perceived Range
- You should value-bet less because your perceived range is too strong. When your betting range on the river is almost exclusively for value and never a bluff, Villain will fold worse hands and call or raise with better hands. If you check instead, it may insude a good thinking player to value bet light or bluff.
- With a strong perceived range, you also want to bluff more if you have a hand that can't win at showdown.
- If you have air, c-bet and it goes check call, check check on turn and he checks the river, and you can't win any other way, often smart to bluff if the board allows it.

Weak Perceived Range
- If youre perceived range is weak, then you need to value-bet more often because Villain is less likely to belive you. You also want to bluff less because you can't credibly represent a strong hand most of the time.

Multi-Way Pots
- Proceed With Caution!
- Can be good to raise with gutshot + backdoor f draw type hands, if Co bets, mp calls. But use with caution when the timing is right
- if Co calls, check the turn, if you hit tons of equity, pot if MP calls
- do not make the move on a flush board

- There are good spots fo bluff raise in multi way pots as well. You have A2s, mp and btn calls, flop is J7r with one of your suit. Mp bets, btn folds, you check raise, insanely strong line, usually folds out hands as strong as qj, if you hit ur f-draw on turn, pot and commit.
- The general concept is, always have something, some backdoor, gutshot, some rope in case they call.
WARNING: Don't pull these stunts if you don't have a general idea of how villain plays, and at lower limits people really can't think that well. Some ppl at 100nl won't fold QJ. This is for motivation to think outside the norm.

Scare Cards
- Your hand QTs, flop 983, one of your suit. Villain checks, and you check, turn is an A.
Great spot to raise, because villains usually fire scare cards, and if they call, a big bet on the river usually takes it down. But once again, know your villain.

- When scare cards come, it dramaticly increases a villains bluffing frequency, on the turn and on the river.

Timing Tells

Quick Call:
Usually an attempt to appear strong and to slow down the aggressor on the next street. With a strong hand, a player would take more time thinking about his option.
Sometimes we have no option besides check-calling, so we often act way too fast.
Example: QT, Btn raises, we call from the SB, flop is T57r, we check to villain, he bets, we insta-call.
- Another reliable tell is when fish check-calls really afst on boards where flush draws are possible. (Vs them, if you don't have anything, if all draws miss, a half pot on the river is enough to make them fold a high card that might beat you).

Slow Call:
They almost always have a strong hand.
(To find out which players genuinely like to tank long, you can just try bluffing some rivers to find out.)
Example: You raise K9s from the BTN, sb calls and the flop is QT3 with another F-draw, one of your suit. He checks, you bet, the turn is a 7 of your suit, he checks, you bet 22$. The tanks for a while, and finally calls. The river is a nonsuit 6.
- On such a draw-heavy board, once he cehck- calls the turn, the strongest hand that he can show up with is QJ. Any better hand probably check,shoves the turn to avoid playing the river. So when he tanks the turn, usually figuring out whether he is getting odds to call a turn bet. Usually a pair with flush draw, or flush + straight, something similar.
Correct play is to shove river. (If you are the type of player who will bet this turn put don't follow up on the river, you should check.

Final Words
Remeber that everyting is hard before it becomes easy. Keep working at it and there's no stopping you.