Reading preflop raises at low level MTT's (100$ entry and below) is pretty straight forward, but lots of people make big mistakes preflop at these stakes because they miss the information given to them, you can also use your preflop reads (i.e. identifying opponent ranges) to aid postflop decision making. This is generally for the earlier stages of an MTT when deepstack.
.....However, firstly I want to quickly describe the logistical problems with playing hands out of the blinds and why it is a leak for a lot of players.
You can break down a "hand strength" into 3 sections all worth a third (33%):
33%: Your Position
33%: Your Pot Odds
33%: Your Card Strength
Ok, you can add more factors to this list (e.g. opponents in the pot, implied odds, playing as the aggresor, stack sizes, payout structure, bet sizing, etc.), but to keep it simple and easy to follow, lets just discuss these 3 factors, and lets say they are on average worth 33% for every scenario
An example of where the percentages might be different than 33% is e.g.; The pot odd's have dictated that you have to call a players all in preflop raise regardless of your cards due to the price given/ and if a player is all in Preflop, then position is not applicable as there is no more betting. (pot odds 100%, position 0%, cards 0%)
OK so,
33% Position:
When playing in the blinds you will always play the flop, turn and river out of position unless vs specifically the SB, which is a massive disadvantage as you have to act without any information on your opponent and have less control over the pot size and actions. This means that 33% of your allocated hand strength is already gone!
33%: Your Pot Odds
Against most standard raises you will have the pot odds to call in the big/small blind a high percentage of the time, especially with anti's, regardless of your card strength, unless you have completely polarised your opponents range and your holding is dominated, e.g. AA vs A7.
However, this is assuming that pot odd's are the only factor in poker and that you are playing the hand face up (i.e. you always get to showdown, the best hand always won and there were no more betting rounds on the flop/turn and river)
This means that the pot odds are no different vs a min raise preflop, than a standard raise preflop, because both times you have the pot odds to call. The only difference is against a min raise you have better implied odds (with hands where you are playing purely to hit e.g. set mining with a small pair), because you have put less chips in pot and a bigger stack behind.
So if your thought process is "I will call a min raise against my big blind with any two cards because is it so cheap and I have the pot odds", then you should call a standard raise with any two cards in the big blind aswell, because both times you have the pot odds.
However, it is the other factor's in the hand that are important (in fact a min raise preflop is a good way to induce players to make a mistake in their big blind, because they may call a bigger range than normally would - then find themself in very tricky spots out of position and not as the aggressor on later streets), the cost of this mistake is compounded with every street played because the pot gets bigger the later you are into the hand!
So you may find yourself making one small mistake preflop, then playing the rest of the hand well but on average losing a lot of chips, because of the preflop mistake!
33%: Your Card Strength
Seeing as the position and the pot odds are almost always the same (0% for position and 33% for pot odds respectively), the most important factor to consider when playing out of the blinds is your card strength and implied odds - and your card strength should be considered relative to your opponent's estimated range (see next section)
Here are a couple of guidelines I have put together:
1) Play hands that have good implied odds (suited connectors/pocket pairs) when you have deep stacks/good reads on your opponents. Multiway pots obviously provide additional implied odd potential.
Play these hands passively until you actually complete your draw (bluffing and semi bluffing is a very bad idea out of position in scenarios where your opponents are deep enough to play the hand on every street. If you run a semi-bluff by check shoving all in with say a flush draw on a flop, it is not as bad because you will not have to play the rest of the hand out of position, i.e. at a disadvantage)
2) Play your strong hands for value, e.g. if the button is raising a wide range (lets say PFR 20%) and you have 99 on the big blind - then 3 bet him, flatting is a disaster and leads to all sorts of tricky decisions later on in the hand. A good 3 bet size is 3-5x their bet, taking down the pot preflop is a good result. (if you have 99 and your opponent has KT - then you both own around 50% equity in the pot. If he has folded to your 3 bet raise, then he has given up his 50% equity to you) - The chips you have already put it into the pot is dead...gone! however it can make your 3 bet size look bigger than it actually is and hence give you better odds for success rates.
If you have 99 in the big blind, and a middle position raises and has a small range (lets say 8% PFR), then you should not play your hand for value - either fold or call to set mine (based on what I said above, your read on the opponent, stack sizes, implied odds, etc.) If you call with your 99 as a set mine, then remember you are Set Mining and try to avoid stacking off on a 882 flop vs KK - this is not a set up! It is a mistake, you already made a read that he was strong preflop (what has changed, nothing except now he has 4 bet shoved over your check-raise or barrelled every street...surely that just confirms your read?!?)
Remember: what makes you a better play than a fish is the spots you choose, the hands you choose to play and the way you choose to play them....if you are playing any 2 cards out of position, (i.e. from the blinds) against a raiser because you feel your opponent is raising a lot and a weak player, then is he the fish or you?!?
---
OK so now we have some guidelines for playing from the blinds, but how can we decide whether our hand is stronger or weaker than our opponents range?
To determine this, we need to analyse and process the information that is available when an opponent raises preflop? Consider these 3 factors before deciding what to do with your hand:
1) Position
What position has your opponent raised from? Generally, the later the position, the bigger the range the raiser has, as there is less players for the raise to get through.
2) Bet Size and Stack Size
How much has the opponent bet? is it 4x the big blind, 2x big blind or somewhere imbetween? What range of hands does this bet signify....most of the time bet sizes represent the strength of the hand (e.g. 4x bb stronger hand, 2x bb weaker hand). What impact does this bet have on his stack size? Is he committed to the pot? What stage are you in the tournament, does this player have to make moves or is he sitting comfortably?
3) Opponent
How often does he raise? Is he tricky player or a novice, does he understand position? Is this the first hand he has played or raised, how many pots has he played?
Whatever information you have on your opponent is useful in narrowing your opponents range...the smaller the range you have your opponent on, the easier he is to play.
Hold Em Manager is obviously a great tool to keep a record and gain instant access to stats on the player, however stats are more useful in Cash games than in MTT's - as you will rarely have a large sample size of stats on any player in an MTT and your stack size may also dictate the optimal play.
So if a player raises from under the gun (position) to 4x the big blind (bet size) and has been playing very tight (opponent) and you have AQ suited in a later position...is it really a cooler when you three bet shove and he insta-calls with AK KK AA? What range have you put him on here?
If you feel that you have the worst hand, and you cannot make a better hand fold (i.e. bluff) - then why not just fold??? regardless of hand strength...either that or you can be another person in the cycle of "coolers" whereby you all swap chips around hoping that you are on the right end of more "coolers" than everyone else. Worth thinking about, and sometimes the pot odds/stack sizes might dictate the play anyway.
To make this simpler I assuming there has been no action prior to this raise (e.g. a limper) - however you can apply the same 3 points (as a thought pattern process) for any situation where there has been a preflop raise:
What position has he raised from?
How much has he raised?
What kind of player is he?
Ask yourself these 3 questions whenever you face a preflop raise, make it a habit. Prior to making a decision with what to do with your own hand as you will be able to narrow your opponents range once you have answered these 3 questions. If any of the factors are unknown (e.g. no information on the player) you can weigh the other two factors heavier.
After having a good idea of his range, you can now to think about your own hand and how to play it "optimally" (subjective obviously)....i.e. your own position, table image, stack size, card strength, pot odds, implied pot odds, etc. and analyse the situation accordingly)
Further to this you can apply a similiar method for identifying a player(s) range when they call your raise preflop:
When someone calls your raise preflop, ask yourself these questions:
What position has he called my raise from?
What kind of player is he?
What impact does the call have on his stack?
Considering the stack sizes (relative to the blinds) is important to understand if your opponent is getting good implied odds (and hence potentially add's a range of fishy hand like small pairs or suited connectors to his range) or if the raise is a bigger proportion of his stack, he is less like to call with these "fishy" hands as there is not enough implied odds to justify a call...subject to the opponent
Identifying opponents ranges preflop makes postflop play a lot easier, remember what analyse you made preflop and apply it to aid your postflop decisions.
To keep this quite simple and coherent I have not discussed a lot of factors that can influence preflop decision making (for example you might want to consider your own image at the table, or selecting which opponents you want to play hands against, or how to properly decypher your implied odds against opponent ranges, what stage in the tournament you are in, how many players are paid - the more experienced player you are the more information you can analyse and process and apply), however this just provides some guidelines and fundamentally important factors that should be considered in MTT preflop play.
.....However, firstly I want to quickly describe the logistical problems with playing hands out of the blinds and why it is a leak for a lot of players.
You can break down a "hand strength" into 3 sections all worth a third (33%):
33%: Your Position
33%: Your Pot Odds
33%: Your Card Strength
Ok, you can add more factors to this list (e.g. opponents in the pot, implied odds, playing as the aggresor, stack sizes, payout structure, bet sizing, etc.), but to keep it simple and easy to follow, lets just discuss these 3 factors, and lets say they are on average worth 33% for every scenario
An example of where the percentages might be different than 33% is e.g.; The pot odd's have dictated that you have to call a players all in preflop raise regardless of your cards due to the price given/ and if a player is all in Preflop, then position is not applicable as there is no more betting. (pot odds 100%, position 0%, cards 0%)
OK so,
33% Position:
When playing in the blinds you will always play the flop, turn and river out of position unless vs specifically the SB, which is a massive disadvantage as you have to act without any information on your opponent and have less control over the pot size and actions. This means that 33% of your allocated hand strength is already gone!
33%: Your Pot Odds
Against most standard raises you will have the pot odds to call in the big/small blind a high percentage of the time, especially with anti's, regardless of your card strength, unless you have completely polarised your opponents range and your holding is dominated, e.g. AA vs A7.
However, this is assuming that pot odd's are the only factor in poker and that you are playing the hand face up (i.e. you always get to showdown, the best hand always won and there were no more betting rounds on the flop/turn and river)
This means that the pot odds are no different vs a min raise preflop, than a standard raise preflop, because both times you have the pot odds to call. The only difference is against a min raise you have better implied odds (with hands where you are playing purely to hit e.g. set mining with a small pair), because you have put less chips in pot and a bigger stack behind.
So if your thought process is "I will call a min raise against my big blind with any two cards because is it so cheap and I have the pot odds", then you should call a standard raise with any two cards in the big blind aswell, because both times you have the pot odds.
However, it is the other factor's in the hand that are important (in fact a min raise preflop is a good way to induce players to make a mistake in their big blind, because they may call a bigger range than normally would - then find themself in very tricky spots out of position and not as the aggressor on later streets), the cost of this mistake is compounded with every street played because the pot gets bigger the later you are into the hand!
So you may find yourself making one small mistake preflop, then playing the rest of the hand well but on average losing a lot of chips, because of the preflop mistake!
33%: Your Card Strength
Seeing as the position and the pot odds are almost always the same (0% for position and 33% for pot odds respectively), the most important factor to consider when playing out of the blinds is your card strength and implied odds - and your card strength should be considered relative to your opponent's estimated range (see next section)
Here are a couple of guidelines I have put together:
1) Play hands that have good implied odds (suited connectors/pocket pairs) when you have deep stacks/good reads on your opponents. Multiway pots obviously provide additional implied odd potential.
Play these hands passively until you actually complete your draw (bluffing and semi bluffing is a very bad idea out of position in scenarios where your opponents are deep enough to play the hand on every street. If you run a semi-bluff by check shoving all in with say a flush draw on a flop, it is not as bad because you will not have to play the rest of the hand out of position, i.e. at a disadvantage)
2) Play your strong hands for value, e.g. if the button is raising a wide range (lets say PFR 20%) and you have 99 on the big blind - then 3 bet him, flatting is a disaster and leads to all sorts of tricky decisions later on in the hand. A good 3 bet size is 3-5x their bet, taking down the pot preflop is a good result. (if you have 99 and your opponent has KT - then you both own around 50% equity in the pot. If he has folded to your 3 bet raise, then he has given up his 50% equity to you) - The chips you have already put it into the pot is dead...gone! however it can make your 3 bet size look bigger than it actually is and hence give you better odds for success rates.
If you have 99 in the big blind, and a middle position raises and has a small range (lets say 8% PFR), then you should not play your hand for value - either fold or call to set mine (based on what I said above, your read on the opponent, stack sizes, implied odds, etc.) If you call with your 99 as a set mine, then remember you are Set Mining and try to avoid stacking off on a 882 flop vs KK - this is not a set up! It is a mistake, you already made a read that he was strong preflop (what has changed, nothing except now he has 4 bet shoved over your check-raise or barrelled every street...surely that just confirms your read?!?)
Remember: what makes you a better play than a fish is the spots you choose, the hands you choose to play and the way you choose to play them....if you are playing any 2 cards out of position, (i.e. from the blinds) against a raiser because you feel your opponent is raising a lot and a weak player, then is he the fish or you?!?
---
OK so now we have some guidelines for playing from the blinds, but how can we decide whether our hand is stronger or weaker than our opponents range?
To determine this, we need to analyse and process the information that is available when an opponent raises preflop? Consider these 3 factors before deciding what to do with your hand:
1) Position
What position has your opponent raised from? Generally, the later the position, the bigger the range the raiser has, as there is less players for the raise to get through.
2) Bet Size and Stack Size
How much has the opponent bet? is it 4x the big blind, 2x big blind or somewhere imbetween? What range of hands does this bet signify....most of the time bet sizes represent the strength of the hand (e.g. 4x bb stronger hand, 2x bb weaker hand). What impact does this bet have on his stack size? Is he committed to the pot? What stage are you in the tournament, does this player have to make moves or is he sitting comfortably?
3) Opponent
How often does he raise? Is he tricky player or a novice, does he understand position? Is this the first hand he has played or raised, how many pots has he played?
Whatever information you have on your opponent is useful in narrowing your opponents range...the smaller the range you have your opponent on, the easier he is to play.
Hold Em Manager is obviously a great tool to keep a record and gain instant access to stats on the player, however stats are more useful in Cash games than in MTT's - as you will rarely have a large sample size of stats on any player in an MTT and your stack size may also dictate the optimal play.
So if a player raises from under the gun (position) to 4x the big blind (bet size) and has been playing very tight (opponent) and you have AQ suited in a later position...is it really a cooler when you three bet shove and he insta-calls with AK KK AA? What range have you put him on here?
If you feel that you have the worst hand, and you cannot make a better hand fold (i.e. bluff) - then why not just fold??? regardless of hand strength...either that or you can be another person in the cycle of "coolers" whereby you all swap chips around hoping that you are on the right end of more "coolers" than everyone else. Worth thinking about, and sometimes the pot odds/stack sizes might dictate the play anyway.
To make this simpler I assuming there has been no action prior to this raise (e.g. a limper) - however you can apply the same 3 points (as a thought pattern process) for any situation where there has been a preflop raise:
What position has he raised from?
How much has he raised?
What kind of player is he?
Ask yourself these 3 questions whenever you face a preflop raise, make it a habit. Prior to making a decision with what to do with your own hand as you will be able to narrow your opponents range once you have answered these 3 questions. If any of the factors are unknown (e.g. no information on the player) you can weigh the other two factors heavier.
After having a good idea of his range, you can now to think about your own hand and how to play it "optimally" (subjective obviously)....i.e. your own position, table image, stack size, card strength, pot odds, implied pot odds, etc. and analyse the situation accordingly)
Further to this you can apply a similiar method for identifying a player(s) range when they call your raise preflop:
When someone calls your raise preflop, ask yourself these questions:
What position has he called my raise from?
What kind of player is he?
What impact does the call have on his stack?
Considering the stack sizes (relative to the blinds) is important to understand if your opponent is getting good implied odds (and hence potentially add's a range of fishy hand like small pairs or suited connectors to his range) or if the raise is a bigger proportion of his stack, he is less like to call with these "fishy" hands as there is not enough implied odds to justify a call...subject to the opponent
Identifying opponents ranges preflop makes postflop play a lot easier, remember what analyse you made preflop and apply it to aid your postflop decisions.
To keep this quite simple and coherent I have not discussed a lot of factors that can influence preflop decision making (for example you might want to consider your own image at the table, or selecting which opponents you want to play hands against, or how to properly decypher your implied odds against opponent ranges, what stage in the tournament you are in, how many players are paid - the more experienced player you are the more information you can analyse and process and apply), however this just provides some guidelines and fundamentally important factors that should be considered in MTT preflop play.
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