01 May 2025 Intermediate This material is for medium-skilled players Many of us play live poker with unsatisfactory results. In this article, you will get 4 effective tips for playing live from an experienced profitable player, which will help you make 2025 the best year of your career to date. In addition, the tips given here are also relevant for low limits online. If I had followed them from the very beginning of my career, I could have bought myself a pair or three Lambos - that's how much money will be burned over the long term by 4 gross mistakes that I will tell you about today. Tip #1: Stop overconfidently calling preflop all-ins from shortened opponents A live $1/$2 game. Hero with AJo in the CO isolates two limpers, BTN folds, SB 3-bet shoves 40 bb, and BB folds. The limpers fold too. Now the action is yours - what would you do in this situation? Most would automatically go all-in for these 40 blinds with dead money in the middle. Like, call only 34 bb, and there is a pretty good bonus. My hand is strong enough for this size of the push, and if the opponent has a big pair or AQ-AK, then I won't lose much. But this is the key mistake in perceiving such a spot. To make the right decision, first of all, of course, we Calculate what equity we should have for the call, We should estimate the range of 3-bet pushes from the CO, and then Compare your approximate equity with specific pot odds. First, let's assume that a huge rake is paid for by the dead money of the limpers and the big blind. Now we have to call 34 bb ($68). In total, there will be 46 bb ($92) in the pot. The formula for calculating the required equity is simple: RE% = 68 / (92 + 68) = 42.5%. And this number is just a break-even point. This means you still don't gain profit from doing it. You just don't lose (over the long run) if you have 42.5% equity. Secondly, you need to imagine at least the range of this push. Probably like this: And thirdly, you need to estimate the equity of your AJо against this range. - It already feels very small, right? - You can't do this at the table, but you can practice between sessions. So, the equity of our AJо is only ~ 32.7%. And we need 42.5%. It turns out that each such call costs us $ 17 for a similar spot in the long term. AQo have 38.2% equity. Only AK have 49+% equity, which will be enough to get a profit. And the weakest pocket pair will be pocket with 48% to win. Well, you saw how unobvious the «ease» of such calls is against preflop pushes from short stacks. Therefore, you should eradicate this bad habit from your decisions at the tables. This is also true for online. Tip #2: Remove cold calls in free positions Hero with AQo in CO. Effective stack is 200bb. He gets UTG to 5bb, everyone folds to Hero, and now it's up to him. Most people here would think «I don't feel like 3-betting this sizing is a good idea, but my hand is too strong to fold. => I'm gonna call and sort it out later.» - And they would be, as always, wrong. Calling is the worst option with the huge rake in a live game. GTO Wizard says that every such call will take a whole blind away from Hero. If the player on UTG is weak and you have an edge over him in skill, then why not 3-bet him and play a big pot in position and with an intimidating range? 3-betting achieves all the necessary goals: it often takes the pot right preflop (and you will only be 4-bet when they get premium hands), and also allows you to win a lot postflop with an uncapped range, in which many will see, at least, AK. The downsides of cold calling far outweigh the risk of 3-betting against an opponent on the UTG. Usually, players behind you will call because they feel like they got a discount for participating in the hand => and you will be playing in a sandwich. If you miss the flop, it will be difficult to take the pot or get to top pair+. And if you hit top pair on the flop, you won't feel confident, because the player on UTG still has top pair with the top kicker, overpairs, and sets. And even other opponents may suddenly show a TPTK - you've seen many times how weak players open-call with AK to 3-bets and then take away a lot of your chips. Or, in general, the bank starts to grow uncontrollably. And there are tons of examples like that. So do yourself a free favor and eliminate cold calls from open positions (not BB) with almost all hands that you are not willing to 3-bet. The best strategy in open positions against open raises is 3-bet or fold. And the only exception is a hand that plays well in multi-way pots: a pocket pair or a suited ace. But not connectors! Tip #3: Get into the habit of overbetting Not overbetting often is not a mistake in itself, but it can definitely bring a lot of extra EV. At low stakes, it is simply not common by default, but any experienced pro knows how to overbet on target. How you shouldn't play a hand $1/$2 for 200 blinds. Hero opens with in the CO to 5 bb. Only BB calls. He's a nitty player, but definitely not terrible. Flop: . Even though the flop clearly suited BB, Hero still c-bets half the pot, hoping to see a fold - because it simply works. - Opponent calls. The turn is . A great card for Hero's perceived range - and he bets again 50% of the pot. - Opponent calls again. The river is a repeat of the deuce and the nitty, - read honest, - opponent checks again. - Hero decides not to bluff further and gives up the hand. - As a result, the nit wins $81 (41 bb) with . How should you play with such an opponent? On the flop, I still approve of a 50% pot continuation bet, because it's +EV. But on the turn, when comes, you have 2 options: Continue betting for half the pot (which is acceptable), or Overbet 150% of the pot into your opponent - and let him think and guess. The opponent will definitely be confused. And when opponents guess, they make mistakes much more often and throw away their ex-top pairs in response to overbets. If the opponent calls the first overbet - convince him with another one on the river. And if you bet half the pot on the turn, you can overbet 250% of the pot. You can bet less. - It still brings profit. - A nitty player won't be able to beat such bets with a second pair without special information / if he is not on tilt. But when it's clear that your opponent likes to call you, you fold your bluffs with trash and switch to value overbets with hands starting from top pairs with a good kicker. Your opponent will also be confused and will often be fooled at the table. Which is also generally useful. Tip #4: It's better to fold on the river without the nuts than to call a big bet But spots like these turn into sports cars in the long run. $1/$2 for 200bb. We have in the SB and isolate the limper to 7.5 bb. BB and the limper in the CO call this bet. Dream flop: comes and we have top set in a deep effective stack of 193bb, and both opponents may have draws. We c-bet 2/3 of the pot, BB folds, and the CO calls. The turn is and we bet again for 2/3 of the pot and the limper calls again. You already understand that here we should have overbet to 150% of the pot, but it was played as it was played. On the river the stacks are 143 bb each, and the pot is already 123 bb and comes, completing a probable flush - one of the nastiest cards, considering that the fish likes to chase draws for bets smaller than the pot bet. => We check, because based on what happened in the hand, there is nothing more to value bet. The opponent bets 100 bb, leaving himself a stub of 43 bb, which he definitely will push into the center. This looks like the nastiest spot of the session - we have poured so much money, and now we throw it away?! - Yes, that is exactly the case. - This is a 100% fold with a strong combination in absolute terms, when the opponent's actions scream exclusively of a hand even stronger than ours. Let's analyze the hand Most fish are passive and do not aggressive without a lot of «insurance». Also, the fish immediately accelerates the pot with a doper-set when he sees draws on the board. During the hand, on these cards, which opened a lot of draws on the flop and turn, the fish had the opportunity to raise us. This means that most often he does not have dopers and sets in his range. Draws remain. => On a continuation bet of 2/3 of the pot, the fish often drags them through to try to get there. In addition, fish usually have more flush draws than straight draws. => And all the flush draws are now completed. Personally, I do not see any hands in his bet that are weaker than low flushes, which our top set does not beat anyway. Therefore, we have approximately 0% to win, and not the required 31%. FOLD, saving what we have and a fish's failure for a lot of money and positive emotions from winning. If you name here at least 3 realistic hands with which a passive fish will load this bet on a 3-flush river against our isolate from out of position to 7.5 bb, and then two continuation bets of 2/3 of the pot on a draw-heavy board, then you can immediately go live at the highest stakes. This was one of the most extreme examples of how the first nuts depreciated on the river, moved into the category of bluff catchers and we folded it, having previously loaded a lot of money into the bank. Most spots are much less extreme, but the decisions in them are approximately the same: fold, fold and fold again to the aggression of passive players on scary rivers. About 9 of 10 times they will really have what they represent. Most opponents are nowhere near optimal river bluff frequencies, so they will almost always have exactly what they tell about. And, therefore, our bluff catchers will almost always lose at showdown. => Folding on the river is much more profitable than calling. While folding costs 0 EV, calling on the river against passive opponents will kill your hardly earned winrate really fast.
