17 Jul 2025 Intermediate This material is for medium-skilled players exploit fish winrate Among the abundance of poker tricks, there is at least one that is very easy to use in practice and which dramatically increases your win rate. Although you will need some basic knowledge, this trick will take their effectiveness to a new level. It is used constantly by poker champions, thanks to which they crush their opponents, as well as by myself in offline games for $1/$2 and $1/$3 in my homeland. Today you will learn the essence of this trick, and I will try to tell you everything in detail. When we first start learning poker, one of the first things experienced players teach us is that poker is about the interaction of hand ranges, not the interaction of specific/desired/assigned hands. Sure, that's basic and valuable advice in itself, but for a beginner it's a brain drain because there's a lot to think about in a hand without all that resource-intensive stuff. The player is trying to keep track of hiw own range, his opponent's range, the pot odds, the stack sizes - all under the pressure of real money, and then the waitress asks if he wants more mozzarella ... and then his brain short-circuits. That's why the trick I'm going to tell you about here is so useful. Let's see it in action. Example of Hand and Mindset You are in the big blind in a $1/$2 live game. The standard stack is 200bb. A very tight player in middle position opens for 5bb, the cutoff calls him, and you call too. There are three in the pot and the flop comes . You have a middle set. The initial pot is 16bb ($31), and a clearly tight opponent on MP c-bets immediately with a pot bet ($30) into both of you. The standard poker thinking would be: What does my range look like in this situation? - I should probably have sets, several strong top pairs, several weak pairs, gutshots and complete trash. Based on this, I should play. This originates from working with a solver, which by default plays with an identical perfectly balanced opponent to itself (GTO machine) and therefore has an ideal number of hands of different categories in all branches of the continuation of participation the game - from garbage to nuts. So the solver would have its entire range here and would mix its specific set between a raise and a call. The solver's default task is to develop a completely non-exploitable strategy for playing a given spot, so that no opponent can profit from it, i.e. get +EV somewhere. At the same time, the solver is only concerned with what it does itself and will not bother about what (any) opponent does. The solver does not know, does not see, and does not take into account the tendencies and frequencies in the opponent's behavior. And we have access to this through our senses and perception. Any player who takes poker seriously knows that you should think in ranges and how they interact in a given situation. However, There is much more benefit in playing to exploit the tendencies of a real opponent, rather than to «just» not be exploited. This, of course, looks like a complication of the game relative to GTO frequencies, because you need to constantly imagine the opponent's range - at every moment of the hand - and also think about what the opponent might already be thinking about your range ... I'm sure you've heard the arguments along the lines of «What does he think (1) about what I (2) think about what he thinks (3) about what I think (4) ...» Or maybe at the moment one of us is thinking about how to eat. Or even both of us are thinking so. Key setup for playing at low limits The kicker of poker, which is difficult for many to accept, is that most of the actions that bring profit in the long run are monotonous and boring, which «just» have to be repeated constantly like a semi-robot. Sophisticated and intricate moves, like brilliant sacrifices of pieces in chess, usually have nothing to do with long-term profit (although they can be fun in the moment). That is why this trick is so effective, and poker is both easy for disciplined people who are not eager to crush the entire table, and at the same time difficult for those who see poker as a battlefield and come to fight on it. And here it is, the very setup in the head that I talked about above. Focus on just two things, and you will be happy in low-limit live: The opponent's range and Your specific hand. Yes, it is the specific hand that you actually got. Everything is really that simple and even primitive. And this primitiveness is a stumbling block for most players who want to make money offline - they cannot play at such a «low» level in every sense. If many players playing at zero or a small loss weaned themselves off playing complexly and sophisticatedly, then overnight they would start playing, at least, with a small profit. All you need to succeed in a low-stakes live game is to be able to understand your opponents' tendencies: Does your opponent open too narrow preflop? Does he only c-bet top pairs and better hands on the flop? Or does he c-bet almost all the time, that is, with his entire range? ... You should train yourself to constantly monitor your opponents' properties in all aspects, from technical to mental and personal. And definitely pay attention to showdowns and, accordingly, how your opponent played a certain class of hand. Poker is a game of cards, and therefore there is always a shortage of reliable information. Therefore, we think about the opponent's hand ranges. And to make this easier and more visual, you should learn to think in terms of hands. For example, Strong hands: two pairs and higher, Single-pair hands: from an overpair of aces to an underpair of deuces, All kinds of draws: FD, SD, gutshots, overcards and backdoors, Total garbage: anything that has no perspectives in a given spot. In my 10+ years of experience playing at $1/$2, $1/$3 and even $2$/5, most of your opponents are complete amateurs or semi-regulars who don't really care about subtle matters, but simply play only their own cards, without paying much attention to the actions and range of their opponents. And if you start playing only your hand, but at the same time you also think about the range of your opponent, then you will not be punished there - they will not be able to, because they have not learned this. Once again: they stupidly look at their two cards, compare them with the board, and that's all they care about. Sometimes they can assume something about your hand. But when choosing a response to aggression, they react purely emotionally. They would rather wipe out the buffet than you for incorrect sizing. These are very primitive opponents with whom you should play at their own level. How should we play the hand? So, a very tight player opened on MP and made a sandwich continuation bet against two opponents for almost 100% of the pot on a dry board. Let's estimate his range and find a better way to play with him. And there can be different types of hands in it. 1st type of hands If the opponent bets overcards like AK-AQ and KQ like this, then in any case we will not earn anything more from them, because seeing how we called his pot bet for two, he will understand and accept that we hit the board well and will not bluff anymore. The same applies to random trash, if it still happened to be there in this very spot. 2nd type of hands Big pairs: overpairs and top pairs (AA-QQ and the hand AJ). These are already solvent hands, and there are as many as 30 combinations in their range. In relation to the entire betting range, this is not such a small share. The opponent also has TT and pairs lower than that, but it is unlikely that a very tight player would bet them in such a manner. And therefore, they can be greatly discounted. 3rd type of hands And if the opponent has a top set of jacks, then in any scenario we will lose our stack here. So, we have the second nuts, which is the top-tier hand here. At the same time, in the opponent's pot betting range, there are enough hands of the second type (TP-OP), which will pay us raises and can often play for the entire stack. We should aim at them when choosing an action and its bet size. And we don't even have to worry about some kind of balance with a rather primitive player who made a pot-sized continuation bet against two people, playing in a sandwich. Therefore, we calmly choose a raise and pick a bet size that will allow us to stack by the river of an opponent who fell in love with his overpair or TPTK. It doesn't matter what the opponent will think, «People don't bluff like that» and all that. Many years of practice have proven to me that it is more profitable to act based solely on the strength of your hand and what it is worth in a given situation. The famous poker genius Charlie Carrell also said on his streams: «What is the opponent's range and what does my hand want to do with it?» Therefore, without the slightest fear, we play a raise and persuade the opponent to play for entire stack. => Check-raise to 50bb on a 200bb effective stack (that's $100) on the flop and overbet all-in 126% of the pot on the turn. - That's 145bb into a 116bb pot ($290 into a $231 pot). - If Villain has an overpair, we're likely to win everything here. This is the style of play that has become the most effective for me over the years in live poker. Why does it work in live poker? Firstly, because most opponents play very badly and do not try to get into your head. They look at their two cards and the combination formed, and when choosing actions and sizes, they mainly operate with emotions from your actions, and not with logic and what should be included in your range. Secondly, exploitative play is much more profitable than a balanced GTO game. Yes, the latter is invincible and wins always and everywhere, but very little by little without adjusting to opponents. The only one who benefits from the fact that the players opposing each other play in a balanced manner is the poker room or the casino. And when you understand the game of your opponent and begin to exploit his tendencies, this gives a sharp boost in win rate, so that the graph turns sharply upward and looks something like this: You are not playing with GTO bots, but with real people who play too loose, call too wide and do not adjust anywhere near as much as required. What I am talking about throughout the article is intended to greatly simplify, streamline and increase the productivity of live poker. You will stay focused even when chaos reigns at the table. And what about tougher opponents? Most of the above applies to weak and unbalanced opponents. With them, such a simplified strategy works really effectively. But how to play with more advanced players? With them, think about their ranges, as well as your own ranges - in each situation. And play accordingly - now based on what your range wants at the current stage of the hand. If this is a multi-way pot, where one player looks being advanced, and the other is a fish or semi-fish, then in the presence of a advanced opponent, play more balanced than if they were both fish. These players are everywhere: at the $2$/5 and higher limits, as well as at the lowest $1/$2. Usually there is only one of them at the table, so they will not make your life too difficult. And I will tell you a secret: at the $1/$2 limit, you can play with any opponent who does not particularly exploit you - this will already be enough for a good profit. That is why in the low-limit live games that most of us play, this trick is the shortest way to make the best and most profitable decisions at the table. So the next time you find yourself in a hand with a typical low-limit dweller, ask yourself one question: what does my hand want to do against my opponent's range? Just find the answer to this question, and you will earn a good profit on it in the long run. And while this is a useful change in itself, there are a few more simple tricks that will help you win big in live poker at low stakes. About them - in my further materials.
