Half I – Concept Primer: The Forgotten Line
That sounded mysterious for a second, didn’t it? However this is a vital line, one which’s significantly underutilized. And even when gamers do take it, they hardly ever execute it effectively.
On this article, I’ll break down why I’m calling it “The Forgotten Line”, why the technique works the best way it does in idea, how your opponents are taking part in towards it, why their strategy deviates so closely from GTO, and—most significantly—how one can exploit that hole to earn more cash by taking part in this line your self.
Truthful warning: I’ll be weaving in some superior technique all through, however don’t fear, I’ll compress every thing into digestible bites to the perfect of my means.
Okay, so first issues first …
Why The Forgotten Line?
Let’s make clear precisely what I’m speaking about with a concrete instance.
You open-raise on the Button. The Small Blind 3-bets you, and also you flat his elevate. The flop comes, and he c-bets. You now have the choice to fold, name, or elevate.
With that out of the best way, right here’s why I’m calling it The Forgotten Line: it’s probably the most underplayed and misplayed high-frequency strains in the complete sport tree.
Even very sturdy gamers—these taking part in from 500NL all the best way as much as 5000NL—persistently play it suboptimally. You’ll see the proof for that within the information I current in Half II of this sequence.
However first, let’s dive into the …
Theoretical Interior-Workings
Flop C-betting Mechanics
When the Small Blind 3-bets and also you flat in place, he fairly often retains each a variety and a nut benefit. His objective on most boards, then, is to optimize across the giant cluster of medium-strength palms. These palms wish to extract worth from weaker palms whereas controlling the pot measurement.
That is usually achieved by means of block bets—small bets that mathematically drive the in-position participant to defend with a large portion of their vary. Consequently, the optimum c-betting technique turns into a high-frequency, small-size strategy.
The one boards that don’t favor the Small Blind are the decrease ones, the place the best card is a 9 or decrease. On these flops, a lot of his vary has missed resulting from a preflop distribution that’s heavy on double broadways. The optimum technique in these spots is to play extra defensively.
Meaning c-betting at a a lot decrease frequency, utilizing a bigger measurement, and doing so with a extra polarized vary. His checking vary ought to stay protected by loads of overpairs and different sturdy palms.
The objective right here is to optimize for the big portion of his vary that consists of non-made palms. By checking sturdy palms and betting fewer weak ones, he discourages the Button from stabbing too steadily, thus permitting his unmade palms to understand their fairness extra successfully.
Now that we’ve coated how the c-betting technique works from a high-level perspective, let’s zoom out and take a look at the fowl’s-eye view of how the vs c-bet technique takes form.
Defending Mechanics
In idea, the objective when defending towards bets (or raises) is to create betting/checking indifference in your opponent’s vary.
The optimum folding frequency is finest captured by the idea of Minimal Protection Frequency (MDF). Whereas it’s not an ideal formulation—because it doesn’t account for vary asymmetries—it’s nonetheless probably the most helpful instruments for understanding poker technique.
I contemplate it one of many foundational formulation within the sport. It goes like this:
MDF = 1 – B / (B + P)
The place:
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B = Guess measurement
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P = Pot measurement
So, if the pot is $100 and also you’re dealing with a $50 guess, the MDF can be:
1 – 50 / (50 + 100) = 1 – 0.33 = 0.67
Meaning it is best to defend with 67% of your vary.
Assuming a symmetrical nut distribution, the optimum elevating (or betting) frequency is determined by just a few key components:
- The variety of palms in your vary with very excessive fairness
- The variety of palms with medium fairness which can be additionally extremely weak
- The fairness your strongest palms have towards your opponent’s folding vary
- The SPR (stack-to-pot ratio)
- Your relative place within the hand
Right here’s a fast breakdown of how every issue impacts the optimum elevating frequency:
- The extra palms you could have with very excessive fairness, the increased the optimum elevating frequency—and vice versa.
- The extra palms with medium fairness which can be additionally extremely weak, the increased the elevating frequency—and vice versa.
- The extra fairness your sturdy palms have towards the folding vary, the decrease the elevating frequency—and vice versa. It’s because the anticipated worth of permitting these palms to proceed and contribute more cash to the pot outweighs the EV of folding them out. That is the core concept behind the idea of invulnerability.
Basically, the smaller the stack-to-pot ratio, the much less mathematical strain your opponent can exert on non-nutted palms—whether or not by means of elevating or betting on later streets. Consequently, you’ll be able to elevate extra medium-to-strong palms and achieve this extra steadily—and vice versa.
That mentioned, this isn’t at all times the case. Generally, the EV of calling with near-nutted palms could be very excessive resulting from their invulnerability, which lowers the motivation to lift them. The inverse is normally true as nicely.
There’s extra that might be mentioned concerning the mechanics driving optimum technique at totally different SPRs, however that’s past the scope of this text.
Lastly, we now have relative place. Merely put, being in place provides you the ultimate say in how huge the pot turns into in most conditions. This reduces your incentive to quick play sturdy palms, since you’ll be able to usually recoup missed worth on a later road. Keep in mind—that is no-limit maintain’em. Meaning you’ll be able to at all times say:
Being a zero-sum sport, you’ll be able to in all probability already think about that this issue has the alternative impact on the out-of-position participant. Since he doesn’t have the privilege of performing final in most conditions, he’s extra incentivized to fast-play his strongest palms as a extra environment friendly option to get the complete stack in.
With all of those components in thoughts, we will infer the next: the weaker your opponent’s betting vary, the extra steadily it is best to elevate. It’s because extra of your palms will cross the fairness threshold to develop into worth bets—and people worth bets might be accompanied by a proportionate variety of bluffs to steadiness the vary and create indifference in your opponent’s protection technique.
We are able to additionally infer that the weaker your opponent’s checking vary is, the extra steadily it is best to guess, utilizing the identical generative reasoning.
In fact, there are deeper layers to the mechanics at play behind the scenes, however the explanations I’ve supplied are sufficient to understand the core ideas behind GTO technique. My objective right here isn’t to overwhelm you, it’s to crack open the door to deeper understanding and information you inside.
Now, let’s get all the way down to…
A Fast Quiz
With the theoretical groundwork laid out and examples in place, let me pose a query:
By which of the next conditions would you anticipate to see the next elevating frequency towards a c-bet—assuming all different variables stay fixed?
- A) On an As 7d 5c rainbow flop, when dealing with a 25% pot c-bet
- B) On an As 7d 5c rainbow flop, when dealing with a 75% pot c-bet
The reply is A—you’ll see the next elevating frequency when dealing with the block-bet.
Right here’s how the optimum methods break down…
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We are able to see that the solver raises towards the 25% pot block-bet round 13% of the time, whereas it raises towards the 75% pot c-bet solely about 1% of the time.
If we hint this again by means of the reasoning I laid out earlier, it holds up.
When the opponent makes use of a smaller c-bet measurement, and performs in a theoretically sound approach, his vary will include extra medium-equity palms. This inherently means you’ll have extra palms that meet the fairness threshold for elevating for worth.
Then again, when he makes use of a bigger c-bet measurement, his vary turns into extra polarized—comprised of both very high-equity palms or bluffs. Consequently, fewer palms in your vary will qualify to lift for worth.
However that alone doesn’t absolutely clarify why the solver adopts an nearly no-raise technique versus the 75% pot guess. To finish the image, we additionally want to contemplate the third, fourth, and fifth components I beforehand outlined:
- The fairness your worth palms have towards the folding vary
- The SPR (stack-to-pot ratio)
- Your relative place
The extra invulnerable your hand is, the extra incentive you must gradual play it. That’s as a result of the draw back of permitting otherwise-folding palms to understand their fairness is minimized. In some conditions, sure worth palms should not solely almost invulnerable, but additionally block key elements of the opponent’s defending vary. In these instances, you’re truly incentivized to let drawing-dead palms understand their fairness—to allow them to put more cash into the pot later, both by bluffing or skinny value-betting.
In our specific instance, your strongest palms are near invulnerable towards your opponent’s folding vary—these palms would solely win by backdooring a straight or flush. Consequently, your incentive to lift with them is diminished.
SPR Concerns and Relative Place
Let’s discuss SPR. With out going into an excessive amount of element, at this SPR stage (~4), it is best to usually be extra conservative together with your quick performs. There’s nonetheless a significant quantity of chips left to play for, which will be leveraged towards you, so that you usually don’t wish to open the motion with medium-strength palms.
Lastly, let’s contact on relative place. Being in place encourages you to play extra passively together with your very high-equity palms. That is for just a few causes, however the primary one is easy: you’ll be able to at all times make up for misplaced worth on the flip and river, due to your means to behave final.
Wrapping Up
With all of the foundational mechanics laid out, you’re now outfitted to deeply perceive the methods we’ll discover in Half II of this sequence. In that article, I’ll break down precisely how the GTO methods play out throughout just a few totally different board textures—and examine them to how even high-level, real-life opponents strategy those self same spots (backed by information). Lastly, I’ll present you how you can exploit these deviations from optimum play to extend your win price on this node.
That’s all for this text! I had a blast writing it—there’s a ton of helpful information right here, and I hope you loved studying it. In case you have any questions or suggestions, be happy to drop them within the feedback beneath and I’ll do my finest to reply.
Until subsequent time—good luck on the market, grinders!
To be taught extra about how you can play in aggressive nodes, learn: How To Play Straight Turns After Examine-Elevating the Flop.
