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light, but fold most of his hands to a 4-bet, you can make it $56 with
the intention of folding to a push. Doing this turns your hand into a
bluff, but that s not necessarily a bad thing. Your showdown equity
isn t worth much to begin with.
The profitability of 4-bet bluffing depends on how wide your
opponent s 3-bet range is. You may be surprised at how wide it needs
to be for you to show a decent profit. Even against an opponent who
3-bets 11 percent of his hands, 4-bet bluffing is only slightly more
profitable than folding to his 3-bet. 10 percent is about the break-even
point, and many opponents don t 3-bet that widely. For reference, 10
percent of hands would be a range like
88+, ATs+, KJs+, QTs+
No suited connectors
AJo+, KJo+
3-BETTING LIGHT AND THE 3-BET, 4-BET, 5-BET GAME 149
Note that this assumes your opponent will get all-in preflop with
only AA-TT or AK. If he ll get all-in with a wider range than that,
your equity is worse. If he ll get all-in with a tighter range, your
equity is slightly better.
When you open on the button with pocket fours and an opponent
makes a pot-sized 3-bet, your default should be to fold.
Squeezing From The Small Blind
Stacks are $140. The cutoff opens for $7, and the button calls. Both
players are straightforward and predictable. You are in the small blind
with 7`&5`&. What should you do?
This is a standard squeeze situation. The opening player is in late
position, which means that his raise includes many non-premium
hands. The button s flat-call also indicates a fairly weak hand because
he would likely have reraised with something big. He probably
figures the cutoff is stealing, and he s calling to keep him honest.*
If you make a solid reraise, say to $28, you ll win the pot often.
This move gets its value from forcing opponents to fold. If you knew
either opponent to be a calling station, you might not make this play.
But even if one of them calls you preflop, you ll often win on the flop
with a continuation bet. And as a backup for when your steal fails,
occasionally you ll actually make a big hand.
Suited connectors and one-gappers are great for preflop squeezing
and stealing because they often flop at least something to semibluff
with.
*
If the button were a sophisticated player, you d need to keep in mind that he
could be flat-calling the cutoff s raise with a big hand to try to induce a squeeze
from you.
Isolating Bad Players
If you start to play a lot of online $1 $2 6-max, you will soon come to
an unhappy conclusion. The games are somewhat tough. On a site
with 50 games going at a time, you might find two to four with two
bad players. And these good games will often have waiting lists a
mile long. The bulk of the games will feature solid players or only
one bad player. You will often sit in games where four or all five of
your opponents are either nits, TAGs, or decent LAGs.
Work hard and you ll gain edges over these regulars. You ll make
good bluffs and value bets that your opponents miss. But these edges
alone will produce only a modest winrate. To really crush the game,
you have to find and dominate the bad players.
The first step is to put the bad player on your right. Your goal is to
play as many pots with this player as possible, and you want to have
position when you play those pots. Say a table has an open seat with a
weak player to the left of it and four decent regulars in the others.
This game is not great. The regulars have a better shot at the weak
spot s money than you will. If the player looks atrociously bad and
has a $400 stack, by all means sit. But if he s just a run-of-the-mill
wet noodle with a standard stack, you can find a better opportunity
elsewhere.
Put that same player to the right of the open seat, and you should
sit in the game. If the weak spot is in one of the three seats across
from the open seat, generally speaking, the table will be marginal but
playable. Just keep the lobby open looking for better games.
When you have a bad player on your right, you want to play as
many pots as you can with them, and you want those pots to be larger
than an average pot. The more and bigger pots you play with position,
the more money you ll make on average from the bad player.
When your target enters the pot in front of you, loosen up your
preflop requirements and raise to try to get the hand heads-up. From
ISOLATING BAD PLAYERS 151
that point, you leverage position and your hand reading skills to
exploit the mistakes your target makes.
Most decent players know that you can isolate bad players to make
more money. But relatively few understand how far you should go to
make the most off of bad players. If we ve done our job in this
section, you ll read some of these examples and say, Wow, that s
crazy. And they would be crazy if your opponents were equipped to
take advantage of your play. But that s the point if you ve chosen
the right targets, your opponents won t know how to protect
themselves, and you ll end up with the money.
Isolation In Practice
A weak 64/3 player is sitting directly to your right. Your goal is to
play as many pots as you can within reason against him. Heads-up
pots where you have position are ideal. This type of opponent is easy
to manipulate, so you want to take full advantage.
Here are examples from one orbit in a 6-handed $1 $2 game with
$200 effective stacks. Your other four opponents are standard regulars
ranging from TAG to nit.
Example 1. The first two players fold, and the weak player limps
in the cutoff. You have Ae&7`& on the button.
This is an easy raise. Ace-seven offsuit is not a great hand, and if a
solid 20/18 opponent open-raised from the cutoff, you might fold it.
But here is what a 64 percent preflop range looks like:
22+, A2s+, K2s+, Q2s+, J2s+, T2s+
98s-54s, 97s-64s, 96s-74s, 95s-84s
A2o+, K2o+, Q7o+, J7o+, T7o+, 98o-54o, 97o-75o
You have plenty of pot equity, plus you have position. A solid
raise will usually fold out the blinds and sometimes even win the pot
outright. At the least, you will usually get the pot heads-up with the
weak player. Go ahead and raise the pot to isolate.
152 SMALL STAKES NO-LIMIT HOLD EM
You raise to $9, and only the cutoff calls. The flop comes
K`&3e&2f&. Your opponent checks.
Once again, you should stay on the attack. A two-thirds-pot or full
pot-sized bet will take the it down often.
You bet $20, and your opponent folds.
Example 2. The player under the gun folds, and the weak player
minraises to $4 in the hijack. You are next to act with Kc& 8c& .
Your hand is plenty good enough to play against the loose player,
particularly in position. Be aggressive! Three-bet to $10 $14. That
will take control of the hand, often isolate the weak player, and
sometimes win the pot outright. It also forces your other opponents to
narrow their ranges. For example, if a 17/14 player in the big blind
reraises your 3-bet, he rarely has anything but a premium hand. And if
he flat calls your 3-bet, he probably has a strong hand.
You reraise to $12, and only the weak player calls. The flop comes
Qf&8f&4c& . He checks.
You only have middle pair with a backdoor flush draw, but you
likely have the best hand. Bet for value. Your opponent will often call
with all kinds of garbage.
You bet $15 into the $27 pot. That s a little over half the pot,
which is fine here. Your hand is not great, and you don t mind
keeping the pot on the small side for now. Consistently varying your
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