[daveT]

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I think calling a 3bet w/ 97s and those stacks is a big mistake. If you knew he had QQ you would probably never call. And you're losing your whole stack if the flop is 9 or 7 high.

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I think that how much you can out-play your opponent after the flop is vital to how loose you can play before the flop. I did say that if we do not hit at least two pair, we are done with the hand.

I, of coarse, do not know my opponent's exact hand. Many times, in this situation, he could have a large range of hands, including as little as A8. I wanted to show that once this villain checks after re-raising pf, he will more often than not have a large pair. It is exploiting this mistake that I wanted to focus on.

I really hope we aren't losing all of our chips with a pair of 7s or 9s, especially after seeing this check.

vs AK on a 745 flop we would have a 74% equity, sure.



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The villain was the stupidest ever on the A7 vs 9T hand. If he wants you to raise the turn, why don't you?

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This could be a problem. I sometimes get a little trappy. I figured that I have one more street to tie this villain tighter to the pot. If he doesn't actually have an Ace, but something like 77, then I don't want to encourage a fold. But, yes, with the thinking that I am stating, it would be better to raise on the turn.

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Calling a 3bet w/ A8 is bad. In fact, I would rather call later in the game than earlier, because later in the game when stacks are 10BB deep you're not even playing poker anymore and A8 is good enough to get it in.

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This hand goes with the thinking that it is better to press small equities earlier than it is to press large equities later.

I think that if you were willing to play these kind of hands strongly earlier in the match, you would be surprised to see how they end up. People tend to think you play terrible like everyone else, so they will press all sorts of crazy holdings and attempt horrible bluffs, and yes, even shove with middling pair hands on the rivers, call all-in shoves with second pair etc.

I knew many things I was writing would get a ton of heat. The reason why I wrote this stuff is because I want people to question the foundations of their games. Sometimes poker is counter-intuitive until you learn to think of it mathematically. I do believe that if you are a slightly winning, slightly losing, or break even at these stakes, learning to apply these will boost you nearer to a 60% wr.