Check out the 2020 Poker Math Workbook.
The honest truth is that poker bluffs are simple with a small amount of math. But in saying that, I also realize that many players are scared of poker math. It can look overwhelming at first, but with some basic knowledge it becomes very easy to do. And with a just little bit of extra practice, you can memorize a few things and correctly estimate the value of certain bluff plays at the table.
Continue readingAs part of the Ask SplitSuit a question series, a bunch of people asked hand history questions and this one actually came privately via Facebook. Rhys prefaces the hand by saying:
“Hi James! I’ve been religiously watching your videos and found all of them fantastic for rounding out my game. Until now, I’ve never had a situation where I couldn’t look back and go, ‘Ahh, I messed up here or I could have played better here.’ But this one kind of stumped me.”
This hand is from 5NL, 6Max on PokerStars Zoom. There’s a raise UTG. Hero decides to call, next act with pocket QQ. I want to talk about this, because this is a really important part of the hand that I think sometimes goes overlooked.
To start out, I want to talk about a situation where I like calling here. I like calling here if you have some really aggressive squeezers behind you. So, you can call, induce that squeeze, and then go forward from there. That’s a great situation.
Tony says: “I have an interesting hand with jacks versus a fishy villain in a tough spot where he over-bet jammed on the river.”
This hand is from 25NL on PokerStars. There’s a min raise from Jumper, and he is a 32/11 over 29 hands. It folds around to Hero, who decides to 3Bet, which is great. I love the fact that we’re 3Betting. Someone with a 32/11 stat, even over just 29 hands, is likely someone who is going to be on the fishier side of the spectrum. Big gap in the VPIP/PFR definitely denotes that they’re not going to be a strong opponent, and the fact that they’re just min raising from there doesn’t really lead me to believe that they’re going to be a great opponent, either. So because of that, I’m definitely in a value-bet mindset, totally going from there.