PLO From Scratch Part 10

Theme:

1 – Discussion of c-betting on flop.

2 – Illustrating systematic post flop planning along the way.

Given the 4 factors we always consider when playing a pot we can decide:

• Do I have steal equity, or should I base my decisions mainly on my showdown equity?
• If I play my hand for showdown equity, what kind of hand do I need to continue from the flop?
• Given my actual cards, can I bet for value, or am I playing for pot odds + implied odds?
• Given my actual cards, do I want to play a big pot or a small pot?

Single raised Pots

- Make explicit assumptions -> Find the best line based on these assumptions.

- C-betting is important as it happens frequently, makes decisions easier on later streets, mistakes when c-betting leads to expensive mistakes later.

- Can be a major leak because people c-bet to often with poor equity (spew chips), too often with weak marginal hands OOP meaning tricky decisions down the road, too often IP with marginal hands that could benefit from seeing a free card as can’t stand a check raise and equity can improve.

Two texture system:

Wet/dry -> how many draws possible.

Heavy/light -> how hard the flop has hit player’s ranges.

This enables us to evaluate Static/dynamic -> Likelihood that relative strength between players will change from flop to turn to river (static = unlikely, tough to out draw someone, dynamic = likely, the nuts changes a lot).

E.G. JT6ss is wet/heavy, and 762ss is wet/medium heavy. Not a precise science but a good way to classify flop textures.

Static flops give us opportunities that opponents rarely have good equity against us with.

E.g. on AK2r, we can rep AA** meaning it’s tough for a villain to call us down with AJ98 as often has <5% equity so a c-bet carries a lot of weight. If they call a flop bet, we can leverage huge on the turn as they need to assume we are bluffing.

Dynamic flops are harder to c-bet successfully as your nuts may well not be good by the time the river comes and someone can easily come in and rep a better hand. So we need to be selective with the hands that we want to take past the flop.

Singly raised pots have medium + SPR therefore we need a minimum hand requirement before we build a big pot as the pots tend to build around the strong parts of players ranges. Therefore check-folding OK hands OOP is fine even if we could still win with turn and river cards when SPR is high – more opponents = more check-folding.

C-Betting Singly Raised Pots Heads UP

- We can get away with it a lot against passive opponents as we can credibly rep strong hands and unless we see a check-raise they are going to be weak.

- Against a good aggressive opponent we need to be more selective because if we c-bet to much they will pounce on our weakness.

- On static flops we do not have to bet so big in general as we are betting our entire range so we win the same amount when we bet small but lose more when they decide to call us meaning they hit the flop.

- Against aggressive opponents who will check-raise wet flops a lot when we have decent-but not great equity that can’t stand a check-raise checking back to preserve our equity is good as it enables us to exploit villain trying to take advantage of our perceived weakness and they ultimately may end up betting into the nuts which is not good for them!

- A ‘luxury problem’ on the river is never bad (do we value bet our 2 pair for value on river etc. against a passive opponent)

- Don’t forget balance. If villain CR’s dry flop always, we can re-re-bluff, or call and get to SD).

C-Betting in Singly Raised Pots Multi-Way

- Don't c-bet with very poor equity and very few outs in a multi way pot, regardless of flop texture

- But you can consider c-betting (as a bluff/semi bluff) without a hand if you have a handful of outs/blockers/information that indicates a c-bet is profitable. You also very much prefer position.

- Our c-betting range is very much weighted towards a value range, especially OOP where our range is going to be very nutty hands.

- Makes sense to bet/fold marginal hands without outs and check marginal hands with outs.