900th Post

[kevkev60614]

Yeah, I know this post is late. It's becoming hard for me to think of good, content posts that might help someone out there. Is that a bad sign?

Unawkwardizing Awkward Stacks
As the game wears on and stacks get shallower, our actions become more and more important. Most of our EV comes from pushbotting with very shallow stacks, and very little comes from the first two levels. Fortunately for us as stacks get shallower we have less and less options to choose from, and that makes it easier to make the correct decision. Eventually we’re reduced to pushbotting, which represents most of our EV and where we have a choice between only two options every hand.

There’s a part in the vast majority of STTs where you have an effective stack where there are clearly more than two options, but not as many as you had in level one. It’s in the 10 - 20BB range, usually from 12 – 16BB or so. Action in this range seems to give a lot of STTFers trouble, and when I was new around here it was a problem area for me. But IMO this problem area is much more important to EV than early game, and it should be a lot easier to play. The reason why… less options. When we’re given the opportunity to open in this range, there are almost always only four lines to consider.

The Four Lines Worth Considering in an Unopened Pot[*]Fold.[*]Push.[*]Raise to 2.5BBs, fold to a r/r, cbet if called, and continue with the hand only if you hit the board.[*]Raise to 2.5BBs and call a push.

SNGPT can tell us whether pushing or folding is better, but warns us that a third option might exist. Line three is that option, and less frequently line four. You may not even realize it, but you probably end up taking line three often.

Example of Line Three
PokerStars Tournament, Big Blind is t150 (4 handed) Converter on pregopoker.com

CO (t6375)
Hero (t2182)
SB (t1083)
BB (t3860)

Preflop: Hero is in BTN with A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]
<font color="gray">CO folds</font>, <font color="red">Hero raises to t375</font>, <font color="gray">SB folds</font>, BB calls t225

Flop: 7[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 4[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (t825, 2 players)
BB checks, <font color="#cc0000">Hero bets t450</font>, <font color="gray">BB folds</font>

Our intention pf was to call if SB pushed but fold if BB pushed. Raising to 3BBs is standard in early game, but totally unnecessary here. We simply don’t have to make large raises when the blinds are high. Making the smaller pfr loses us less chips when the bigstack pushes pf, and when he calls pf, we can cbet less and try to take down the pot cheaper. We should cbet very often, as the high blinds and relatively large pot translate into more FE. If we’re called or raised, we’re ready to throw in the towel.

Line four is the same as three, except that our hand is strong enough to call a pf push from BB, and our post flop goal, when called pf, is to bet for value rather than ensure our potential losses are minimized.

Awkward Conclusion
So, uh, anyway… there are more available lines, of course, if you unexpectantly hit the flop or you decide a cbet is –EV given your good read. But there are almost always four lines to take with an awkward stack, and the entire line can and should be chosen pf. Hope this helps someone.

[bluefeet]

Nice post Kev...thanks for taking the time addressing a very troublesome spot for some. Your closing statement is academic, but overlooked by many -- a plan beyond the option at hand.

[Paul B.]

How'd you do those bullet points?

[blackize]

[ QUOTE ]
Most of our EV comes from pushbotting with very shallow stacks, and very little comes from the first two levels.

[/ QUOTE ]

Didn't someone do a study recently that showed their ROI was 120% or so the times they doubled up early? I don't think that early game play is as unimportant as you suggest.

[Hollywade]

Very helpful I think. It often seems like a crapshoot to me when we get down to 4 or 5 handed. This illustration of the different options is quite useful.

One thing I was going to ask about as I was still in the early part of your post was the amount you suggest raising preflop. The raise of 2.5x BB seemed small to me. I almost always raise at least 3x. However, you make a good point.

[ QUOTE ]
Raising to 3BBs is standard in early game, but totally unnecessary here. We simply don’t have to make large raises when the blinds are high.

[/ QUOTE ]

I like this theory and will put it into practice.

[kevkev60614]

[ QUOTE ]
How'd you do those bullet points?

[/ QUOTE ]
[ *] without the space. The option is titled "List Item"

Thanks to bluefeet for fixing my flop action.