The Prahlad Post

[wins_pot]

Let's keep this post to strategy only.
Keep low contect posts re: pra on Internet forum.

IMO, There are four main things that seperate Pra's heads up game from that of other good players...

1. Aggression out of position
I've never seen another top player put as much money into the pot out of position as Pra does. The strategy seems to be, "put it in the pot now so I can steal it back later." Even with deep stacks, he'll throw huge amounts of money in pre-flop and on the flop out of position. All of the analysis that I've done of my own game suggests that this is a bad strategy for me. As I've developed as a player, I've tended to become more cautious out of position when heads up, not less cautious. Has anyone here become sold on the idea of playing super-aggressively pre-flop when out of position?

2. The River Check-Raise
Pra is better at this than any other player I've observed.
Most opponents aren't proficient at this tactic (they don't do it often enough as pure bluff) and so when you are confronting a player who does use it well, it can be difficult to figure out the proper adjustments. Most of the adjustments you need to make as an opponent occur on the turn.
It's hard to come up with great examples here, but often what happens vs Pra is that you'll check the turn for pot control and he'll put you on a hand at this point so that when you bet the river, he'll raise to take you off.
Here's a hand that occurred recently....
i raise with 3d4d, pra calls.
board is 4h4c5h.
pra bets out, i raise, he reraises.
i decide to just call (don't focus on this decision for now).
turn is a Th
action is check check
river is 8c
he checks, i bet, then he goes all-in for some absurd amount. i fold.

it's not that unlikely that he had nothing and took me off of a hand here on the river b/c of my turn check.

i'll go into detail later, but often vs pra you have to move the action from the river to the turn.

3. The Random Pot bet/pot bet/pot bet betting sequence.
There aren't many players who fire the second and third barrels as often as Pra.
Sometimes they don't seem that well thought out. In general, I think most players randomize well across small bluffs but not across big bluffs. Pra can't be accused of that. Just looking at past data, I've moved more towards firing the second and third barrels when in position, so this suggests that maybe Pra has it right in position. My hand histories suggest that when I have position and the flop and turn have gone check-bet-call, then if the river is checked to me, betting the pot is generally profitable in cases where it's impossible or nearly impossible for me to win in a showdown.
When I'm out of position, and the action goes bet-call, bet-call, then bluffing is generally unprofitable, yet Pra makes this move a lot. To determine if it's wrong you'd have to see how often he gets paid off in unlikely spots.

4. The Overbet
First, in general I don't think Pra uses the overbet as descibed in Phil Gordon's "spirit rock strategy".
CAn someone direct me to some of the past posts re: pra/overbets? I'm going to have a seperate post on this later b/c I'm trying to write a short column about overbetting. I tend to think that overbetting is generally -EV for Pra.

Brandon