Points from a mentoring session (analysing preflop all-ins situations + some general)

I made this email a while ago for a fellow poker player who used to be in my group, wanted to make sure I kept a copy of it as I think useful stuff in there...he was struggling at the time but doing really well now and also became a mentor.

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Hi mate,

As discussed I've jotted down some of the notes we discussed and took together in today's session, I wanted to write these notes down in a useful format for you, hopefully there are a few things that might be useful to you and we can review them again in future sessions.

Message me anytime if you want to discuss them further we can skype/mikogo,e tc. and go through some filters/hand historys.

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Facing All in Shoves Preflop - useful factors to think about when deciding to call or fold:

1) Opponents range against your Hand Strength
Think about your opponents hand range based on their style/position/stack size (same principals as when a player raises preflop, you can add other factors like position in tournament/average stack size etc. but these are less important).
Once you have determined your opponents range, then think about your hand strength against that range, and then use this information to aid your decision making (i.e. call or fold).

e.g. if it is folded to a loose player (style) on the small blind (position), who has 10 big blinds (stack size), then you can probably assume he is shoving a big range of cards (A5+, 55+, 89ss+), and it could be a very profitable to call with a hand like KT offsuit - dependant on your pot odds/stack size.


2) Pot odds
Obviously the standard: what are your pot odds based on the amount to call/amount in the middle? but also consider the first point made which is the opponents range against your hand strength and then compare this number to the pot odds presented.

You can use pokerstove to try out some scenarios: Using the same example as above; KT offsuit versus a loose player's 10 BB shove from the small blind - KT offsuit has around 48% equity against a shoving range of 33% [33% of hands includes 55+, A5+, 89ss+], which means you will almost always have the pot odds to call if you believe the person's shoving range is 33% of hands or worse.

Remember you can factor in the prize pool aswell when you are late in a tourny, to knock someone out last 10 will be a lot meaningful than last 40 and at that point the chips might be more valuable (i.e. when last 10 you are playing for first and need all the chips, where-as when last 100 you are generally playing to survive)

3) Your stack size
Thinking about your stack size is good practise when facing an all in, consider what your plan is at that specific stage of the tournament and determine whether you are playing to conserve/accumulate/gamble/etc. The table dynamics aswell, against a tough table you might be a lot happier to gamble than a softer table (as the chips are easier to obtain on a soft table)


I think if you consider these 3 factors more when facing an all in shove preflop and are willing to take some gambles, you will find that in the later stages of tournaments (e.g. last 30 players) you will have a lot more; 1-5th position finishes or 20-30th place finishes, which is more profitable (as payouts are obviously top heavy) than having a lot of 7th 8th 9th 11th 13th 17th, etc. finishes which seems to a common occurance at the moment.
From what I've seen I feel you are playing the early/mid stages of the tournaments very well, but struggling a bit at the end game, so hopefully this might help.

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Playing Unmade hands/ Bluffing out of Position
I saw you get in some tricky spots where you have a hand like KJ or AT in SB/BB and raising against some limpers, then not hitting on the flop or flopping a draw and c-betting only to find they are calling/floating a lot of the time leaving you with tricky turn/river where you are playing out of position against an unknown player's range. I think you could try just checking or completing with hands like this in the SB/BB (especially when deep stack) and playing a smaller pot until you hit and save a lot of chips (or play them very aggressively like, check-raising the turn or pot betting the turn)


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C-Betting
I think you need to C bet more after raising preflop; with hands like JJ/66 on a KQ2 or A38, even when 3-way you will win the pot enough time to make it a lot more profitable than check-calling (if they bet small, then folding on later streets), or check-folding (which means you are just giving up on the pot despite there being a good chance you have the best hand) , which I saw you do a few times when watching.

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I think it would be very beneficial to integrate time reviewing hands/forums/videos, e.g. say for every 4 hours playing, 1 hour reviewing.

You can do this by for example: if you play all night, review hand historys before starting a session next day (biggest pots e.g.) or if you have only 1 or 2 tables open then load up a card runners video as well while playing

Here are some good links for reviewing and improving (we're always looking to improve;)):

Cardrunners:

http://www.cardrunners.com/?skip=true

2+2 forum:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/

Pokerisk Forum - Post at least 1 hand on the Pokerisk forum from HEM that you had trouble and with see what feedback you get (this is homework for you!!)

Also mark up hands that you find tricky so we can review them in future sessions

General points for cash and MTT's to think about...

Cash:

• Value bet more against fish; Avoid slow playing strong hands if they are calling stations (3/4 pot bets where you have good equity in pot, check stack sizes of players in hand, no need to do tricky bets...they are fish lol!!)
• Table selection: Look for tables where you have position on fish (VPIP 40, PFR 5 etc.), play lots of hands with them, isolate them with fishy hands (A5 suited, QT suited, etc.)
• HUD: Look into opponent statistics before making actions (i.e. checking into a player with 0.5 aggression to induce will rarely work, overvalue bet calling station, invite aggressive players to bluff, etc.), take your time in hands to ensure you make what you believe in the most profitable play

MTT:

• Aim to cold call less from blinds (especially 1v1 with fishy hands)
• Play more "fishy" hands in position earlier in the tournament in multi way pots when deep stack
• Increase aggression later in tournaments, increase 3 bet range against loose openers and play like hands like AK very aggressively, isolate passive limper's from the button/cut off with relative strong holdings
• Analyse flops before making decisions on how to play the hand (consider opponents range and their playing style)
• 3 bet bigger amounts when out of position, especially with made hands and when deep stack
• Look into opponent statistics before making action (I.e. checking into a player with 0.5 aggression to induce a bluff will rarely work, likewise small betting into an aggressive player will often induce a bluff)

Speak soon mate, GL at the tables ;)

I'l have a read through Ric's report soon as well to see if I can provide any feedback (thanks for doing this Ric)

Just to point out - I think you are playing very well! These points are just to further increase your game and profits (so keep up the good work!)