23 Jan 2025 Intermediate This material is for medium-skilled players bad beats discipline fish slowplay steal Today, let's discuss key adjustments to 3 different types of opponents at micro and low stakes to win maximum chips from them. This will work in both cash games and low-limit tournaments: be it spins, SNGs or full-fledged MTTs. Jonathan Little will help us with this, and the following text will be written in his words. Introduction I am all for understanding the basics of GTO and using this as a basis to build reasonable and proportionate exploits. Because a basic understanding of GTO will never be a mistake, no matter what level you are at - poker is structured and works the same way everywhere. But knowing the basic frequencies of GTO and understanding the level of all the imperfections of opponents and the degree of their deviations from the unkillable strategy, you get a good vision of how and how much you can exploit opponents. Here you will learn / repeat the main exploits against Weak tight straightforward regulars, Loose-passive fish - your main «clients», «Maniacs» who cause maximum inconvenience and who constantly put pressure on you. So, enough with the introduction. Let's get down to business and specifics. Exploit #1: How to play against weak tight players? We also include full-fledged nits in this class. You should always ask yourself - what is your opponent doing wrong compared to the optimal strategy. Players of this class have the following typical tendencies: They greatly under-3-bet preflop without a top hand. When they re-raise - they are ready to play for stack. They also do not play big pots postflop without a strong made hand or a multi-out draw. If they boldly shove a lot of money into the pot - most likely, you should fold all single-pair hands. They will almost always be afraid to show aggression and bluff without serious «insurance». Now let's figure out how we can use this to still make profit on them. #1. How not to lose too much to them? If they still decide to 3-bet you, then you should fold a lot of hands that do not beat the top of the matrix. You should play super-narrow against their attack, because, as already written, if they wake up, then they almost always have a good made hand or a very strong draw. Usually these are two pairs and stronger, as well as a monster draw with 12+ outs. Obviously, bluffcatchers and other hands of the «one pair» rank are folded without remorse, because the opponent almost never bluffs in big pots. Tournament. You have AJo in the CO. A weak tight player 3-bets you. => This is an instant fold without thinking. Even folding AQo is not a mistake, because such an opponent 3-bets you with something like AK/JJ+ and only occasionally with AQ-AJs. Otherwise, if you resist here, your hand will be dominated all postflop (or will fall under an unnecessary cooler preflop in case of an all-in). This is a very murky scenario, where it is difficult to win anything, but it is easy to lose a lot. That is, the EV of such spots is very negative. The same applies to cash, where there is such a thing as rake, which forces everyone to play only tighter than in tournaments. And now you should fold even more hands to 3-bets of weak tight players. - And do not bother about it. But we all want to win money, and not just save it? #2. How to win money from them? Preflop stage Since they protect the blinds and 3-bet very rarely, you need to steal them as often as possible and with the widest possible range. At the same time, you can decrease the bet size of the steal. When 2.5 bb will bring the same profit over the long run as 3 bb, you should risk less. Since they will fall off to steals very often, the cumulative effect of such steals will generate you a lot of extra money. In one hand, winning +1.5 bb seems very insignificant, but in the long run it will bring you the bulk of your win rate against such opponents. And at the same time, you do not particularly risk running into postflop clashes being out of position and against a very strong range. In the worst case, with trash, with which your only goal was to steal 1.5 bb, you can check-fold and cover this unsuccessful steal with 2-3 new steals. This will work well. Flop stage Such players will overfold excessively on the flop even after they survive your steal. So, you need to bet very often and small against these players, including bluffs and complete trash. Their fold frequency will greatly exceed the breakeven threshold you need for a continuation bet. If at a bet of 33% you need them to fold only 25% of their range, in fact, you will have about ... 40-70% fold equity, which will generate significant profit for you from them. You steal on BU/CO, and a tight-passive opponent calls on BB. => Any flop. => If he checked, just keep betting your entire range for 33-25% of the pot. In the GTO world, you would need to check-back a fair percentage of the time with your weak hands, but since these players are so unbalanced in their frequencies, you just need to press them into such holes and imbalances. In addition, they will not punish you with bluff check-raises, and at best they will call with something that is too bad to fold for now. They will not check-raise top pairs with a good kicker for value either - they simply do not have such a skill and understanding of what to check-raise against, how to play on unpleasant turns/rivers, etc. With hundreds and thousands of their preflop and flop overfolds, you over-realize the equity of all your hands and gradually accumulate profit from stealing a lot of small pots. Reminder: If they 3-bet or check-raise you => fold everything you are not sure about in the future streets You will have a natural question about the fact that since you steal and c-bet so often and exploitatively, all your opponent needs to calm you down is to give you an exploitative 3-bet or check-raise. - YES. - But you have accurately identified him as a weak tight player. And it is not typical for such people to decide to fight back and snap at your over-aggression, even when they understand everything. They simply have no experience of such a game, nor experience of how to play after they put you in a bluff and you do not fold, and also often simply do not have the spirit to fight back. As a rule, they will continue to play according to their program and wait for premium hands to try to get even with you. => And at the first such rebuff, calmly leave the hand. Well, if they began to «put you in your place» much more often, then your assessment of this player as tight, but weak, most likely needs to be revised. Exploit #2: How to play against loose-passive fish? This is probably the most common type of fish, and you need to learn to eat them before the rest, because they will be your main donors in terms of profit. A small digression To a large extent, this point will also apply to the so-called loose semi-fish - they are no longer 50/5/2 fish, but they are not yet loose-aggressive regulars. Loose semi-fish can have stats like 35/12/6, 33/20/5, 42/18/7, etc. Their main similarity to regular fish is very low folds to 3-bets and continuation bets. This makes playing with them very similar to the exploit against typical fish, which we will talk about further. According to stats, they are supposedly semi-regs, but according to the actual ranges (their content) and habits, they are normal fish. Their lose rates are not as catastrophic as those of unambiguous fish, but you can still make a good profit from them, using the same methods of «preparing» normal fish, which we will talk about further. So, let's get back to the topic Firstly, they love to limp-call with all sorts of trash to satisfy their interest and see 3 treasured flop cards, after which it will become clear to them whether they want to play further or not. At showdowns with such players, you will often see a lot of awkward hands, like K4o on BB or 86o on BU. Having hit a middle pair, they will check and drag it to the river, calling, but not betting themselves ... They do not like to fold => Their main button is «Call» Players of this type tend to draw not only 3 pairs out of position at showdown, but also the most terrible draws: gutshots, backdoor-flushdraw without overcards and others (which sometimes reach). In addition to their off-the-charts calling, they also tend not to show aggression, but simply call their hands (including those that a regular would consider worthy of a value raise). Whatever they have, they strive to get to a good combination by the river, which is why they call us. How to win the maximum from them on the preflop? You need to isolate fish from the rest with linear iso-raises, so that you can play with them 1 on 1 as often as possible, and also being in position - after all, these are ideal conditions for maximizing profit from any player, and from fish especially. When such players open-raise 2-3 bb, then you need to 3-bet them, and also with linear 3-bet ranges. The wider they open and the worse they fold to 3-bets (for example, PFR = 20% and fold to 3-bet = 30%), the wider your linear 3-bet range will be. Moreover, these 20% do not necessarily consist of the usual best 20% of hands that you see in various charts - fish can have anything. But your range will still be linear - they hardly fold, which means bluff 3-bets become unprofitable. If a player opens in CO with half the matrix, then this linear 3-bet range can include hands like 88, KJo and A9o. These hands will be ahead in equity against their calling ranges and will often directly dominate the kicker of the opponent's pairs received on postflop. However, speculative hands like A2s, K5s, 76s and 33 will be correct to cold-call against their likely strengthened opening range. How to win the maximum from them on the postflop? Firstly, never slowplay with strong hands. Since they are very passive, the pot will not grow itself. Secondly, make thin value bets more often, taking from their wide ranges, which are oversaturated with weak hands, draws and just a lot of naked A-high, with which they like to bluff-catch. An example in which many will choose check-behind (which is wrong) You have QQ. Fish on BB calls. The flop comes . You standardly c-bet with 2nd pair against the fish, and he calls. The turn comes . You have still 2nd pair on the board with a king and a heap of draws. Now many here will check, thinking that with the second bet they will already knock out too many worse hands, and the opponent's continuation range to the 2nd barrel will be made mainly of top pairs. - Well, this would be fair, if you were playing against a regular or some tight fish. But against loose fish and semi-fish you still have a thin value bet with a high 2nd pocket pair. They will still call you with a lot of worse hands: , made by the turn A7m as well as a ton of flush draws, OESD and of course, gutshots. Many of these draws have or a whole match with the board on the bottom pair. Sometimes fish will even have a bare without additional equity. Of course, you can crush into his TP+, but his entire continuation range will still remain weaker than your QQ. And so you need to bet here again - this is a must! Choose the bet size at your discretion, but I would bet from 50% of the pot, being in position on the fish. The less often they fold - the more hands in your range become worthy of a thin value bet and the wider the total range becomes with which you will play this way. How to play against their big aggression? What do they have in common with passive regulars? - Passivity both pre- and post-flop. - They don't tend to show aggression when they are not confident in their hand. This means that their attacks are filled with strong hands. And since they wake up and start giving you sudden (check-)raises and big donkbets on late streets with strong combinations - which happens rarely - then you should overfold all your TP-TPTK-OverPairs to their counterattack. Some fish will occasionally raise you as a bluff or will overplay their TP-second pairs with a strong kicker, but this will still not happen often. Therefore, the strategy of playing with such opponents can not be changed at all. For every 1 bluff and 1 overplay (check-)raise or a big donk, there will be on average 8-9 honest raises from real value hands like two pairs and everything higher. If a specific fish has started to be aggressive too often to constantly put him on lucky hits all the time, then it's worth taking a closer look at him and, if necessary, marking him as an active or aggressive fish. - Always be prepared for the fact that opponents can change. The players we are considering here are loose and passive. 9 out of 10 of these opponents come to have fun and try to catch their nuts (or what they consider to be nuts), and only after that they start to accelerate the bank themselves. - The conclusions here are obvious. Typical example with a hurtful, but correct fold You have on CO. A loose-passive player calls on BB. Any flop => You cbet for value and fish calls Any turn (except 4-straight or 4-flush) => Value cbet - Call => Any river (except 4-straight or 4-flush) => Value cbet ... and a passive fish gives you a check-raise. Fold your one pair-hand, even if it's the long-awaited . In this scenario, you have about 0% equity. Fish almost certainly folds all of his missed trash, Very rarely calls with 3rd pairs, More often will call you with 2nd pairs, Very often just calls with Top pairs and Almost always gives you a raise with something that has two pairs or better. Moreover, he could hit his doper+ before the river, but passive fish almost always indicate their combination on the last street, which is also the most expensive. Fish understand which hands can beat your two aces and get great pleasure from the fact that they are could beat them. In addition, in many rooms the name of the combination is written next to the table - if they mixed something up, they can always correct themselves and make a final decision. In this hand, fish outdrew you - that's poker. Throw away your one pair hand and go to a new one. Exploit #3: How to play against super-aggressive maniacs? Maniacs are the most delicious representatives of the poker world, who have the biggest lose rates over the long term. But making money on them is not as easy and simple as on simple, passive and understandable fish. Maniacs themselves will often give you a good thrashing, constantly knocking you out of the pot or sometimes showing the most ridiculous two-pair finishes from complete garbage, with which they made a donk-potbet and 2 more big barrels. These players will always give you action and will play as aggressively as possible: raising, 3-betting, 4-betting and so on - there are plenty of ways to put in your 2 cents in poker. That's what we'll talk about here. Maniacs come in many different varieties: some bluff desperately and entertain themselves at the poker table for the rest of their lives, some simply overestimate their combinations, and some can be aggressive when appropriate and justified, but still too often. One way or another, most of them are used to thinking that others suffer from excessive folds to aggression - they just need to put pressure on an opponent harder. And with their style, which most cannot counter, they are only becoming more and more convinced of this. If they have any draw / low pair / God forbid - Top Pair+ on the flop, they will probably raise or donk-potbet with all this good stuff. And they will often put pressure on you with bluff-all-ins- either preflop or on the river - each maniac is unique in their own way. Maniacs put too much money into pots postflop with hands that aren't worth it, and they don't tend to give up pots at all. They react too emotionally to any action you take that means you're not giving up. If you raise them, they'll take it as a personal insult and start going even crazier later. I personally love throwing a bone to maniacs in the sense that I show them how I'm supposedly trying to bluff them, and thus provoke them even more. As a result, they think I've gone completely insolent and start fighting me as a personal enemy. Which results in another stack loss for them. How to win the most against them? #1. Set as many traps for them as possible If you usually have normal fold/raise/call ranges against the same, - normal, - opponents, then with maniacs everything can turn upside down. And if you did not (check-)raise on the flop often before one of you two sat down at the table, then when receiving such aggression they may well fold their entire bluff, from which you could otherwise collect a lot. Do not knock out their bluff with your (check-)raises without a good reason! Therefore, when you received a conditional Top Pair, then drag it to showdown passively, drag out time for, supposedly, thinking and confidently play it through 3 check-calls. - Even if these are overbets! You should brace yourself and call their big bets with something that has good equity + a reserve for continuation and worsening of the board. So, on pot bets you should continue with something that has about 40% equity against what you think he is betting with. Let their wide attack range remain the same. This is much more profitable than giving him a (semi-)bluff raise in position and knocking him out of the hand. If he outdraws or cooler you for the entire stack and leave the table or lose it to someone else in the next hand - what can you do. In the long run against the sum of all maniacs, a confident call-down will be the most +EV decision if the maniac has started telling his story. Consider folding only on the most terrible river run-outs, where almost the entire range of a maniac improved to a ton of dopers+. #2. Provoke them to (check-)raise when you have a decent hand This is done by making small bets into maniacs, which they perceive as weakness and start going crazy in response to it. This can be done with any stack sizes. However, since you are more of a cash game player, we will consider an example with a 100bb stack. Preflop: A maniac open-raises from CO - you call on the BB with . Flop: or drawier board. You have a whole set here. - Donk-bet against a maniac for 2 bb into a pot of 6-8 bb. Often he will perceive this either as weakness like a weak pair, or as a whole challenge and start going nuts. Now take a break to «think», look sad if you are playing live and just call his raise - of any size. Turn: Any. - Start with a check. - The maniac will usually continue to press you with all the trash he has. - The same pause / sad look and call. River: On the vast majority of run-outs, you will also need to call his shove, or (check-)shove yourself. On very dangerous run-outs, just call - despite the possible completed draws. Even on 3-flush or 4-straight rivers, there will still be a lot of bluffs. On 4-flush rivers it is more difficult, but they will come very infrequently. #3. Buckle up and accept variance early Considering the wide ranges of maniacs, their stubbornness and occasional variance outbursts, you should immediately accept that you can lose your stack in the next hand with a maniac because he got lucky again. Playing with maniacs is truly a rollercoaster and a risk. However, this risk is accompanied by the maximum +EV over the long run of playing with such opponents. It is the maniacs who will lose you the most money in the long run, given all the troubles they can cause you in a single session. Alternative If you are not ready to tolerate their luck and bad beats, then do not play with maniacs at all. And also if you do not like to watch how after that the maniac loses your stack to some nit, who will barely be able to get it back without a big cooler in your favor. Wrapping-Up To win in poker (as in almost any other game), you need to find opponents over whom you have the maximum advantage and gradually realize it, earning a profit on this. The weaker the opponent, the higher the profit. With weak tight players, you will earn a little, but steadily, simply and easily, which is already good itself. There are plenty of such players at micro and low stakes, which means a good profit is guaranteed. With loose-passive fish, it will be easy and relatively clear for you to play, but you must always be ready for their slowplays and stupid hits. And also for the fact that if you did not hit a good draw or a made hand, then you need to urgently slow down and continue to bet primitively according to the strength of your combination. With maniacs, you will always feel like you are in a minefield and regularly «step on mines», but playing with them in a passive manner and keeping yourself in control, the maximum profit in the long run is guaranteed. And with decent regulars, you just better not to clash, because they themselves can fight back, and the variance will decide a lot. A lot of things will help you determine the type of opponent: starting from how often and how the player enters the hand and how he plays in different situations at different stages of the hand, and ending with the simplest HUD. When a player sits meekly for 20 hands and now suddenly wakes up, do not level yourself that he started bluffing on the image. Most likely, he is not pretending anything to you, but really has . And the other extreme: when the opponent participates in most hands, plays aggressively and shows all sorts of garbage on the showdown, then feel free to mark him as an aggressive fish and switch to the appropriate game mode with such an opponent. Determining player tendencies => Adjustment => Profit