Joe The Pro

Wow. Aggression

People have been getting ridiciously aggressive in the games I play. I swear to god. In the past session I played, every OTHER time I raised, I got 3 bet. Now you're probably saying, if this is the case I should be 4betting a lot lighter. But it's very tough to do this, especially at my awkward mid 65BB size!

I am just getting run over in the games that i'm playing.

People have gotten a lot better at the stakes I'm at and it isnt' even funny.

So I had a sleepless night and had to revamp my game. Obviously getting 3bet is the kiss of death for my mid stack so I either need to go deeper or go shorter. After a lot of EV preflop calculations I've decided to buy in at 50. I can do a lot of 4 bet pushes and still come out on top.

Surprisingly hands like TT and AQs if paired up against TT-AA and AK only, still has 34 percent equity. NOT BAD. You would assume that TT would be totally destroyed vs that range, but it wins a bit more than 1/3.

So, let's say I open to 3.5 and get 3bet to 11, like I often do in these games. If I push the remainder of my 50, I only need them to fold 1/2 times to be in the positive EV. When I'm called by better 10+ and AK, I will still win 34 percent of the time. If I had made this move with 65BB I would need to steal a lot more than 1/2. If they happen to have a calling range worse than TT+, AK then I would be even making more money.

But the fact is, people are 3betting me very light these days and by me pushing with TT or AQs I'll be making money. In fact I probably could push with AQo and 88 vs the looser people. At my 50BBs I can willingly get it in with top pair in a raised pot almost always without feeling remorse. With the aggression level so high these days, I want to find ways to punish these weak 3 bets preflop and weak flop min raises with an all in.

This being said, it's been a hell of a week. I believe I am about even this month after being up a ton. And now I have made a major overhaul to how my game is played. I had such high hopes for this month, but we'll see how this new strategy works and I'll update here on the progress and success of it.

posted by joe | permalink | 3 comments