We are going to look at how to exploit the typical tendencies of live poker players in today’s post. You will often notice that these players play very differently to how people play online and you’d be right there is way looser and more passive play in live games typically, so let’s look at how we are going to combat this.
3Bet wider
Live players will very seldom choose to 4 bet, which means we can profit from getting pots heads up in position and outplay our opponents with more money in the pot.
We are going to look to 3 Bet nearly all the hands that we would just normally flat call such as suited connectors and low suited Ace highs. This way we get to realise our equity more and the hands we are selecting to 3Bet will play well post flop, we can still just choose some hands to flat call and set mine such as 22-88.
Size down your bets
We have a greater skill edge in post-flop play Vs these casino regulars. This technique has a few advantages, live players are going to check-raise less often, so we will be able to realise our equity more often even using a small sizing.
We also gain an advantage in keeping opponents ranges wide on flops, allowing them to pay a bet with a weaker holding that they will fold to on a later street when we continue to bet. When you C-bet large, ranges are instantly narrowed and all trash hands hit the muck.
Play aggressively from the blinds
We are going to want to develop an aggressive blind defence that involves wide 3 bets, the reason we do this is to counter wide steals from our live opponents that don’t open a solid range. For instance, live players will just “take the spot” against a seemingly tight player in the blinds with any hand say 84o, so we are going to want to 3Bet and pick up the betting lead that will allow us to set up for barrelling off our opponents looking to hit a board or fold, we are going to have the nut advantage on most boards after 3 Betting too, so with this we will look to apply some pressure and fold out better hands with semi-bluffs.
Here is an example of around 50% of hands that would make for good 3Bets Vs aggressive openers from late position…
These hands have good playability if called and the hands that aren’t that powerful like K5o or A2o for example, serve as good blockers for our opponents nutted hands.
Check-raise more!
Live players tend to just know about C-bets but not really know when to use them, look for edges like flopping the nut advantage on connected boards when you have flatted for example and push your equity, you can protect your equity against opponents getting there.
When players C-bet too wide and get raised, they literally have no idea where they are at in the hand anymore, so look to use this to your advantage and barrel in the right situations.
Look to exploit weak checks!
Live players will not be balanced enough, so look to pick up those pots with some aggression when they check boards.
For example, we flat call a raise on the button with 44 and the flop is K 3 7 and the raiser checks to us, they are almost waving the white flag…
A good player would balance this checking range with some top pair hands, some middling hands like 88-QQ and some complete misses, bad players will just miss a flop and check-fold or hit a flop and bet without thinking about what we need to call.
Don’t pay off tight players on the river!
Most of the players you are going to encounter are nowhere near balanced enough and especially when it comes to big river bets, they are just going to turn up with the goods here too often, so we are going to counter this with over folding, even when very high up in our range, we are going to want to folds in nearly all these spots!