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Newest Blog: Building a Balanced Range
Because game theory is easier to work with when we limit possible decisions. Start by saying you always check and villain stabs. How often do we need to defend? It depends on villains bet size.
If villain bets full pot, we try to defend more than 50%.
If villain bets 1/2 pot, we try to defend more than 67%.
*This is because if we defend less, villain makes an instant profit on his flop bets w ATC.
The more we x/c, the more we want to get above said %'s.
Once we know how much we want to defend, we pick out combinations from our range based mostly equity, but also considering playability and blockers.
So in your example, if we are opening 15%, our range is something like any pair, suited broadways and higher suited connectors, and maybe some suited aces. (1326 x .15 = about 200 combos)
So now we break down our range and try to find 100+ combos that we can play back with. *This is all more of a rough exercise than a true full breakdown of the situation.
On a 763css flop the top of our range is 77, 66, 33 (9 combos), pair+nfd, 89ss (2 combos), 67s (2 or 3 combos), 55 (6 combos), hopefully we open 45s utg (4 combos)
We have 88-AA (42 combos) , over cards+nfd (4 combos)
Then further down the equity ladder we have non-nfd (KQss, KJss, KTss, QJss, JTss, T9ss - 6 combos)
We have our over cards+ bdfd (AK-ATcc, KQ-KJcc, QJ-89cc - 9 combos)
....So far I think we have about 80 combos, which is a good start just to find the hands to play.
Then we also have 2 other combos of 89s, 2 combos of T9s, AsKx (4combos), AsQx (4 combos) and you start to get the picture of the types of hands we need to be adding in depending on the bet size and tendency of villain.
If I were only x/c or x/r I would choose my value range to x/r (first hands I listed and find the cutoff for where I wouldn't feel comfortable getting it in after a raise). Find out how many combos you have in your value range and think of the betsize or bet sizes you are going to use. Pick an appropriate amount of bluff combos you are going to want to put in your bluff range (it could be 50/50 value to bluff, 90/10 or 75/25; you have to use some general poker sense and think of opponents range and spot to not get carried away unless villain is folding to much)
Then once you have your value range (say top 35 combos, 77, 66, 33, 89ss, A3ss, 67s, 55, AA, 45s, AK-ATss) you decide on this flop you will bluff twice as many combos as you have value combos (since villain is likely to stab a wide range; this may be too many or too little bluffs, it's more for an example. I think against different villains your play should differ a bit).
Your x/c range should be your hands not good enough to get in, but strong enough (enough equity and at the top of remaining range) to call a bet. *Be ready to defend your flop call on the turn and river though, or you are burning money like calling preflop raises and folding to cbets too much.
Your x/r bluffs will consists of hands with blockers, and the combos next on the list until you reach the amount of combos you are looking for.
And after we have thought about this exercise we can take what we learned and apply it to the actual situation. We know we want to defend enough of the time that villain can't auto cbet and profit when we check, but also get value and protect with our hands with equity, as well as win the pot other times when we have enough hand equity or fold equity to make a profitable bet.
This means, we most likely want to have bet/fold, bet/call, bet/3bet, x/call, x/fold, x/r all in our range.
I would build my range taking the same things into consideration as when i could only x/r, x/c or x/f. I'm going to lead out with the top of my range as well as the amount of bluffing combos I want (which would include a certain % of planned 3b flop bluffing hands)
I will have a x/c range of mostly medium strength hands, but also a few slow plays, and some overcard hands that help me defend against run outs (think Ace high hands w bdfds as best hands in this category). This range would only call a fraction of the turn and even smaller amount of rivers (hopefully enough to prevent villain from barreling too many runouts profitably.
My c/r range would be filled with blocker bluffs, some nutty value hands, and occasionally with pure air (over cards).
c/f is obv weakest hands
This is obviously a not so easy situation to deal with, and although I didn't give you an answer, I hope it helps with your process. And if there is a line of thinking I have off, I would love to hear some feedback.
If villain bets full pot, we try to defend more than 50%.
If villain bets 1/2 pot, we try to defend more than 67%.
*This is because if we defend less, villain makes an instant profit on his flop bets w ATC.
The more we x/c, the more we want to get above said %'s.
Once we know how much we want to defend, we pick out combinations from our range based mostly equity, but also considering playability and blockers.
So in your example, if we are opening 15%, our range is something like any pair, suited broadways and higher suited connectors, and maybe some suited aces. (1326 x .15 = about 200 combos)
So now we break down our range and try to find 100+ combos that we can play back with. *This is all more of a rough exercise than a true full breakdown of the situation.
On a 763css flop the top of our range is 77, 66, 33 (9 combos), pair+nfd, 89ss (2 combos), 67s (2 or 3 combos), 55 (6 combos), hopefully we open 45s utg (4 combos)
We have 88-AA (42 combos) , over cards+nfd (4 combos)
Then further down the equity ladder we have non-nfd (KQss, KJss, KTss, QJss, JTss, T9ss - 6 combos)
We have our over cards+ bdfd (AK-ATcc, KQ-KJcc, QJ-89cc - 9 combos)
....So far I think we have about 80 combos, which is a good start just to find the hands to play.
Then we also have 2 other combos of 89s, 2 combos of T9s, AsKx (4combos), AsQx (4 combos) and you start to get the picture of the types of hands we need to be adding in depending on the bet size and tendency of villain.
If I were only x/c or x/r I would choose my value range to x/r (first hands I listed and find the cutoff for where I wouldn't feel comfortable getting it in after a raise). Find out how many combos you have in your value range and think of the betsize or bet sizes you are going to use. Pick an appropriate amount of bluff combos you are going to want to put in your bluff range (it could be 50/50 value to bluff, 90/10 or 75/25; you have to use some general poker sense and think of opponents range and spot to not get carried away unless villain is folding to much)
Then once you have your value range (say top 35 combos, 77, 66, 33, 89ss, A3ss, 67s, 55, AA, 45s, AK-ATss) you decide on this flop you will bluff twice as many combos as you have value combos (since villain is likely to stab a wide range; this may be too many or too little bluffs, it's more for an example. I think against different villains your play should differ a bit).
Your x/c range should be your hands not good enough to get in, but strong enough (enough equity and at the top of remaining range) to call a bet. *Be ready to defend your flop call on the turn and river though, or you are burning money like calling preflop raises and folding to cbets too much.
Your x/r bluffs will consists of hands with blockers, and the combos next on the list until you reach the amount of combos you are looking for.
And after we have thought about this exercise we can take what we learned and apply it to the actual situation. We know we want to defend enough of the time that villain can't auto cbet and profit when we check, but also get value and protect with our hands with equity, as well as win the pot other times when we have enough hand equity or fold equity to make a profitable bet.
This means, we most likely want to have bet/fold, bet/call, bet/3bet, x/call, x/fold, x/r all in our range.
I would build my range taking the same things into consideration as when i could only x/r, x/c or x/f. I'm going to lead out with the top of my range as well as the amount of bluffing combos I want (which would include a certain % of planned 3b flop bluffing hands)
I will have a x/c range of mostly medium strength hands, but also a few slow plays, and some overcard hands that help me defend against run outs (think Ace high hands w bdfds as best hands in this category). This range would only call a fraction of the turn and even smaller amount of rivers (hopefully enough to prevent villain from barreling too many runouts profitably.
My c/r range would be filled with blocker bluffs, some nutty value hands, and occasionally with pure air (over cards).
c/f is obv weakest hands
This is obviously a not so easy situation to deal with, and although I didn't give you an answer, I hope it helps with your process. And if there is a line of thinking I have off, I would love to hear some feedback.
Dealing with a Downswing, 2013 Edition |
Phwap vs Phil Ivey |
Featured Article: How are you going to win?
Back in high school I had a different dream than most kids. My dream
was simple, I NEVER wanted to be put into the spot where I HAD to work a
job I HATED. I had a great teacher and friend, Ms. Anne Bott, who
would always ask me, “how?” I can’t think of a more perfect question to
ask a young motivated person. It reminds me of the saying, “Some
people work to live, and some people live to work”. I wanted to be in
the crowd living to work. She was asking me how I was going to do it.
Now I was in search of a career I loved, that payed well enough to
allow me to retire at a young age. I was 16 and already dreaming and
planning my retirement! Having a job with a boss almost made me
nervous, and I HATED that feeling, so that eliminated most standard
options for a job. The idea of working for yourself making your own
hours seemed very appealing, so I chose to explore that route. Not
only that, I strongly believed that if I worked really hard, that by
the time I was 30 I could be retired and doing things all on my own. I
knew it was possible, I just had to find my niche.
Then I saw the World Series of Poker on ESPN. You would see people putting up as little as $40 and turning it in to millions. This is when I first realized, that you didn’t have to be a professional athlete to play a game for a living. This was especially good news for me, since I loved games. I enjoyed playing checkers, chess, computer games, and all the latest console games. My passion and drive from competitive sports would transfer over into the games that I played and I had the mentality that “winners win”.
That’s the key: finding a way to win. Winning can be anything. It could be doing well on a test, getting into the college of your dreams, landing a scholarship to pay for school, winning a sports game, or even making the team. For me though, winning went back to finding a way to work for myself and retire at a young age. Just like Ms. Bott used to ask me, you need to ask yourself how. How can I win? I saw poker immediately as a possible career that fit all of my criteria I was looking for.
I started to play in any poker game I could find. Week after week I lost my $10 buyin and I would go home and reflect on my different decisions from the game. How did I get beat? How did I play? How did so and so manage to win again? How come I didn’t do this, or that? How can I get better?
It got very frustrating in the beginning and I knew it wasn’t just because I was unlucky. I had been outplayed and outsmarted by the older tougher competition. This didn’t slow me down though. I began using all the resources I could find to get better. I constantly was googling terms such as, “poker strategy”, “poker advice”, “free poker discussion”. I would go to the local bookstore and spend hours reading through all the different poker books until finding exactly the right one to buy. It didn’t take long before I was the best player in any game I was in, and boy did that feel good.
Poker became my high school job. I bought a nice set of clay poker chips and an even nicer poker table to run the games on. I did my best to get poker games together as much as I could and most of the money I made in the beginning went into reinvesting back into my poker business. I bought more books, better cards for the games, and the rest of the money I saved for my poker bankroll. Eventually my friends no longer would play in games with me and I was forced to move online where the stakes were higher and the competition was a little more tough. I went on to do well online, and when I finally turned 21 I went out to the World Series of Poker where I’ve also had good success.
Poker has been very good to me. It’s allowed me to travel to Las Vegas more times than I can count, the Bahamas 3 times, London, Boston, Mexico twice, Toronto 4 times, Niagra Falls twice, California 5 times, New York twice, Lake Tahoe, Hawaii. I’ve bought my past 3 cars cash (BMW 325i, 05′ Infinity G35, and an 08′ Acura MDX), I’ve got to swim with dolphins, sky dive, buy a $5,000 watch (only to lose it in Las Vegas), drink Crystal and eat $1,000+ dinners. I also spent a year in Breckenridge snowboarding, a year in downtown Denver and 2 years down in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
With almost anything in life though, poker also has it’s downs. I’ve had 2 losing years since I first started playing poker back in 2002, both of which I lost over $100,000. Luckily, I was smart with my money and I saved and invested it as best as I knew how to get me through the tough times. When I lost, it would push me harder to find a way to win.
My next step is to brand myself as a poker player to land future sponsorship deals. The first question you should be asking is, “How?!” I’m going to use the powers of social media to take me to the next level in poker. I started my own website www.KevinPhwap.com, I have my own youtube channel talking about poker, and even have a fun passion project called www.KeepBraggin.com that I started with my friends from Widefield. Now I know everyone in the world can’t be poker players, that’s why you need to find something you love and go out and do some winning.
If you are interested in starting your own business, at a young age, some good ideas I can think of include starting your own clothing company, inventing something, selling something, writing a book, or making a website that creates revenue. The first real idea I had was starting a fence company. I knew that building fences was something I could do, and I thought it would make a perfect summer job. Something simple like that can be enough to get you going. Just think of what you love to do, and ask yourself, “HOW can I make a living do this?”
I still keep a part of a present Ms. Bott gave me after I graduated. It’s a small rock that says “Believe”. It reminds me to always have a plan and things will work out.
Kevin "Phwap" Boudreau
Then I saw the World Series of Poker on ESPN. You would see people putting up as little as $40 and turning it in to millions. This is when I first realized, that you didn’t have to be a professional athlete to play a game for a living. This was especially good news for me, since I loved games. I enjoyed playing checkers, chess, computer games, and all the latest console games. My passion and drive from competitive sports would transfer over into the games that I played and I had the mentality that “winners win”.
That’s the key: finding a way to win. Winning can be anything. It could be doing well on a test, getting into the college of your dreams, landing a scholarship to pay for school, winning a sports game, or even making the team. For me though, winning went back to finding a way to work for myself and retire at a young age. Just like Ms. Bott used to ask me, you need to ask yourself how. How can I win? I saw poker immediately as a possible career that fit all of my criteria I was looking for.
I started to play in any poker game I could find. Week after week I lost my $10 buyin and I would go home and reflect on my different decisions from the game. How did I get beat? How did I play? How did so and so manage to win again? How come I didn’t do this, or that? How can I get better?
It got very frustrating in the beginning and I knew it wasn’t just because I was unlucky. I had been outplayed and outsmarted by the older tougher competition. This didn’t slow me down though. I began using all the resources I could find to get better. I constantly was googling terms such as, “poker strategy”, “poker advice”, “free poker discussion”. I would go to the local bookstore and spend hours reading through all the different poker books until finding exactly the right one to buy. It didn’t take long before I was the best player in any game I was in, and boy did that feel good.
Poker became my high school job. I bought a nice set of clay poker chips and an even nicer poker table to run the games on. I did my best to get poker games together as much as I could and most of the money I made in the beginning went into reinvesting back into my poker business. I bought more books, better cards for the games, and the rest of the money I saved for my poker bankroll. Eventually my friends no longer would play in games with me and I was forced to move online where the stakes were higher and the competition was a little more tough. I went on to do well online, and when I finally turned 21 I went out to the World Series of Poker where I’ve also had good success.
Poker has been very good to me. It’s allowed me to travel to Las Vegas more times than I can count, the Bahamas 3 times, London, Boston, Mexico twice, Toronto 4 times, Niagra Falls twice, California 5 times, New York twice, Lake Tahoe, Hawaii. I’ve bought my past 3 cars cash (BMW 325i, 05′ Infinity G35, and an 08′ Acura MDX), I’ve got to swim with dolphins, sky dive, buy a $5,000 watch (only to lose it in Las Vegas), drink Crystal and eat $1,000+ dinners. I also spent a year in Breckenridge snowboarding, a year in downtown Denver and 2 years down in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
With almost anything in life though, poker also has it’s downs. I’ve had 2 losing years since I first started playing poker back in 2002, both of which I lost over $100,000. Luckily, I was smart with my money and I saved and invested it as best as I knew how to get me through the tough times. When I lost, it would push me harder to find a way to win.
My next step is to brand myself as a poker player to land future sponsorship deals. The first question you should be asking is, “How?!” I’m going to use the powers of social media to take me to the next level in poker. I started my own website www.KevinPhwap.com, I have my own youtube channel talking about poker, and even have a fun passion project called www.KeepBraggin.com that I started with my friends from Widefield. Now I know everyone in the world can’t be poker players, that’s why you need to find something you love and go out and do some winning.
If you are interested in starting your own business, at a young age, some good ideas I can think of include starting your own clothing company, inventing something, selling something, writing a book, or making a website that creates revenue. The first real idea I had was starting a fence company. I knew that building fences was something I could do, and I thought it would make a perfect summer job. Something simple like that can be enough to get you going. Just think of what you love to do, and ask yourself, “HOW can I make a living do this?”
I still keep a part of a present Ms. Bott gave me after I graduated. It’s a small rock that says “Believe”. It reminds me to always have a plan and things will work out.
Kevin "Phwap" Boudreau
My Biggest Cash Game Hand
I talk about my first online deposit and finish with my first losing month, where I lost $70,000 in a day.
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Check me out on the Onnit.com
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