CC Grade 2 Final Exam Flashcards
Question 1: ON Ah9s6s BB vs BU, what is frequency of sizing and betting frequency on turn double barrel after B33 flop?
a) Ac
b) 5h
c) 4d
a) Ac would make villain more polar in nature so we would probably bet a small size here less frequently
b) 5h neutralizes any EV IP had on the flop as the flush and straight draws complete. Here as there are many strong hands for villain we’d want to size small less frequently.
c) 4d is a good innocuous brick. We can continue to Cbet for a somewhat larger size as villain is not very polarized. Can go for a B75 or B150 for a smaller frequency. A high boards are not the best for IP though.
TRUE ANSWER
a) IP EV is 53%. solver likes B33 with stuff even like 9s. mixes in the B75. sizing is small here as nut advantage is probably shared, and 9x type hands benefit from some denial. Don’t overpay to make villains poorer hands and draws indifferent. Even KK, QQ, JJ are doing quite well as the A on the turn makes the A more scarce in villains range
b) smashes OOP’s range so we don’t overbet, we are not interested in betting 9x type hands here and betting thinly so B33 is not preferred and B75 is preferred. Be more selective in this situation. Lower EV card for our range.
c) brick is great for us. we can overbet here a lot. nut advantage is massive.
Question 2:
BB vs BU
Ks4h2h- X,X
8d- ?
a) What is turn probe frequency and why?
b) What is BB’s turn sizing and why?
c) Which is a better bluff 7c5c or AhQh and why?
d) Why is betting AdJh worse than checking?
a) turn probe frequency will be low. This is innocuous turn card which does not sway the advantage into BB’s favor. still huge nut and range disadvantage.
b) turn sizing will be large, like B150 or larger, since the value region centers around nutted hands and nothing else.
c)AhQh is a better bluff as it blocks a lot of villains continue range
d) because you have showdown value still and check is a viable option
TRUE ANSWER
a) OOP EV here is 66%. correct answers above
b) correct. but remember can also check-raise!
c) 75 is better since it hits the nuts more often and is appropriate nut-potential trash to throw in, AQ is more value-ish (don’t fall to the “better bluffs” fallacy.
d) is a check due to blocking villains folding range, it not necessarily checking due to SDV. Villain should be folding a lot of Ax and Jx so you’re blocking those folds! When we have Ah we can bink A and not worry about flush. Which heart we have matters.
Question 3:
BU vs BB
Ts9d5h- X,X
Jh- X,X
Ks- X, ?
a) why are ace highs mandatory bets in this spot?
b) explain fold equity for B75 compared w/ pot odds norm
c) How do you rate the play of checking 7c6c here and why?
d) Why is JcTc able to bet here and can you explain why the EV of bet is higher than check with this hand?
a) it is such a hugely favorable world when the K comes in. Checking through has capped BU’s range but it has not dwindled the range advantage. Here A-high is a SDV hand
b) fold equity is higher than pot odds norm here as it is a favorable world for BU still which hasn’t dwindled, only the nut advantage has through the capping.
c) Checking 76cc here is a travesty imo since such a favorable world that all air must bluff.
d) JcTc is able to bet because it has enough landing equity to bet in this favorable world.
TRUE ANSWER
a) pure bet without a pair, favorable world where they still have a bunch of random hands containing unpaired broadways etc. Fairly low SDV hands that should be bluffed (shouldn’t have changed original answer!)
b) correct answer above
c) RIVER BLUNDER THEOREM so answer is correct above. travesty to not bluff w/ air in favorable world. 76cc prefers B75 or B150.
d) villain really doesn’t have much Qx, but they would’ve bet it!
BU vs BB
KsQdQs- X,B33,C
4c- X,B75,C
3c- X,?
KcKh QcQh QhJh Qc8c 4s4d KdTd
a) KcKh i’d think is a jam but the unblockers to busted flush draws and backdoor flush draws make me wonder if it wants to bet smal with hopes of getting raised since it does not block the front or backdoor flush draws that continue on the flop. Does not have best blockers in terms of value that would call.
b) QcQh Bet small to induce a raise here with quads i’d think since this so heavily blocks their calling range. We’d want to induce bluffs from their air instead, which we do not block BDFD and FD from flop.
c) QhJh is probably going to B150, doesn’t block their folding range
d) Qc8c is going to bet smaller.
e) 4s4d blocks a lot of their air they arrive on the river with, so since they are value heavy we’d want to size up to maybe B400
f) KdTd. Probably going to check as this hand blocks BDFD that villain would call on the flop.
TRUE ANSWER:
a) KK is B400. unblockers favorable. unblock queens is most important. Kx is not meant to call at all here to this size as well
b) QQ is B75 since bad blockers (no Qx). what will call you? rely on bluff-raised or value-raised by worse hands! Need to try to get called by Kx now or bluff-raised or value-raised since we block any queens.
c) QJhh is B150 to get called by Kx, only 1 queen blocker is less bad. Qh does not block folding range.
d) Q8cc is B75 since lower kicker and not high equity enough to be classed as tier one. cannot overbet. Tier 2.
e) 4s4d is B400 (answer above correct)
f) KTdd checks. Tier 4. Don’t reopen action with this.
Question 5
SB vs BB
8s3d3s- X,X
6h- ?
a) Why does AcTc Mix in some B33?
b) Why are we checking 66 and 88 sometimes? Don’t we lose value this way?
c) Why do we not check 33?
d) Why do hands like J4dd never bluff but hands like Jd9d do?
a) AcTc mixes in B33 since it can benefit from some denial against other hands like unpaired overcards and even get some poorer pairs to fold.
b) 66 and 88 can go for the checkraise! Don’t have to bet now. Want to protect checking range as well, plus 88 blocks some of the value.
c) 33 has a large investment ceiling and needs to build the pot ASAP. You can get called by many overpairs, 8x, 6x.
d) Jd9d is actually a double pair draw that would beat current top pairs w/ 6 outs! J4dd only has one overcard to the board.
TRUE ANSWER
a) 60ish% equity so not a bluff. Mainly value focused. denial helps too as mentioned above..
b) answer correct above. want to get worse hands to bluff as well (like J7s which is supposed to bet 100%)
c) unblocking hands in range that will frequently call a big bet.
d) world favorability is pretty neutral. only some standard to what they bet! extra pair draws and extra implied outs like mentioned above.
Question 6
BB vs BU
AsQs7d- X,X
Th- X, ?
a) How high is urgency here and why? Give some examples on the betting frequencies of certain hands
b) What do Tier 3 hands do in this model and why? Give an example of a Tier 3 hand
c) Bluffs like 5h4h are hopeless hands. Why are we betting them? Don’t we have better bluffs?
d) In my sim 5h4h has positive checking EV here. 20% of pot. Where does this EV come from?
a) Urgency is high for better hands like AQ, good AX, sets etc. Being OOP there will only be one more street to build pot on.
b) Tier 3 hands in this model will bet small on this neutral runout, maybe like Tx.
c) 5h4h is bet here because when we bet large we will want to have a polarized strategy so the trash fits well into the bluffs portion
d) EV of checking 5h4h comes from future fold equity when we bet river, and allowing villains air to stay in and bluff at us on the river where we can bluff-raise them back without blocking their missed flush draws
TRUE ANSWER:
a) really high IP, can’t slowplay. Villain has no shortage of the nuts though, so some of our hands are not as good as they look. AK bets a lot because it blocks KJ
b) Tier 3 is between 60-70% equity, and they actual check! small bet is not worth it to reopen the action when you don’t need to bet more to reach the investment ceiling. don’t reopen the action for small bets unless you need to when IP.
c) world is dramatically favorable for ourrange (64% EV) so trash can be bet. no shortage of value hands here, so you need to add in the trash bluffs! better bluffs is a fallacy, choose bluffs that don’t get confused between SDV and bluffing.
d) future fold equity as mentioned above. 54 is very great to bluff after checked back. extra fold equity exists due to advantage.
Question 7
BU vs BB
Ks7s6d- X,B33,C
2s- X,B75,?
a) Identify the robustness threshold
b) identify the frailness threshold
c) Find a Grade A bluffcatcher
d) find a Grade B bluffcatcher
e) Find a grade C bluffcatcher
f) explain why 5s5c raises sometimes.
a) The robustness threshold is probably good two pair.
b) the frailness threshold is probably 2x
c) Grade A bluffcatcher would be KcTs
d) Grade B bluffcatcher would be good 7x
e) Grade C bluffcatcher would be 44
f) 5s5c raises soemtimes because it blocks completed flushes, and flush completing turn allows our range to catch up before the B75.
Robustness threshold is point where hands who’s EV is SDV oriented and strong starts to become a bluffcatcher.
Frailness threshold is point where bluffcatcher starts to turn into foldable/bluffable trash.
TRUE ANSWER:
a) robustness threshold is around pocket pairs with a spade,
b) frailness, pairs with no spade are on threshold
c) grade A is pure call, but check EV too. K5hh is a good juicy bluffcatcher which blocks a lot of villains value.
d) hand that mixes call and fold. 97hh is good example.
e) grade C beats all bluffs but still folds. 75hh is a pure fold. 99 with no spade is as well.
Question 8
BB vs HJ facing triple barrel of B75 on each street
9d8h3h- X,B75,C
5c- X,B75,C
3d- X,B75,?
a) Why is T9s a lower EV call than other 9x?
b) Why are we able to raise 87s but not 97s?
c) Why is JTs not a good bluff raise?
d) Qd8d is a better call than Qc8c, why?
a) T9s blocks some missed gutshots or missed open-enders like JT, QT, T7, T6 possibly
b) 87s gets raised because we need to raise a semi-polarized range where 8x is good enough to throw into the bluffs portion of your semi-polarized range, and weaker top pair is too good as a check.
c) JTs is not a good bluff raise for the same reason as part A. You want villain to have these missed gutshots and open ends are JTs blocks a lot of those hands and unblocks their value hands.
d) Villain is supposed to barrel value hands that unblock our flush draws and backdoor flush draws as they prefer us to have the weaker hands that are behind and “chasing”. So when barreling value, villain prefers to have the dead suits. When barreling bluffs, they prefer to have suits on board. So when they fire a third barrel after the flush draws miss, it is better for us as hero to bluff-raise when we block their dead-suits value and just call when we don’t.
TRUE ANSWER:
a) answer above was correct but also blocks KT which is a natural bluff!
b) 97 blocks some bet-folds as villain is supposed to bet-fold some 9x in their range
c) JTs blocks too many of the bluffs as discussed above. unblock bluffs and block continues is what you want with a bluff! Interference theorem in grade 3 says you want to interfere with same cards that villain is bet-calling before you consider raising on the river.
d) marginally true but still. villain is giving up TURN with a lot of diamond combos because they in turn block a lot of our backdoor diamond floats. So on river facing the barrel, they’ve not included the diamonds in their barreling range, which means that their trash does not have diamonds. So diamonds unblock more of their air here and make a better hand to bluffcatch.
Question 9
SB vs BU 3BP
Flop c-bet on following boards as SB?
a)Ks7s7d
b) KhJdTs
c) 3h3d3s
Explain sizing/freq differences across these 3 flops
a) Here we go lower size at high frequency as it is not connected, but if villain has a 7 we do not want to be betting large into it.
b) KhJdTs, here we build a checking range as BU caller has way more AQ here, even though we have more 2pair. When we do bet, we’d probably bet small here.
c) Here we can go large sizing at high frequency as nut advantage favors the overpairs here which SB has more of.
TRUE ANSWER:
a) SB is doing great on this board. they bet the larger sizing B60 50% of the time and the 7 is not hit a lot by 7x. In SRP this board is more polarizing but in 3BP is not. Huge nut advantage and big range advantage.
b) anomaly. 56% EV for SB and solver checks 93% of time. bets B33 a very small amount. answer above is correct.
c) betting large B60 55% of the. go big bet or checkraise on this texture!
Question 10
BB vs BU, facing flop c-bet
a) Find a 3-way mix and explain the pros and cons of the options call/raise.
b) Why is 77 a two way mix? How does it fill the betting sink to the ‘can raise’ line?
c) AT is a mix here, but don’t we blow him out of the pot when we raise? Surely we want to keep him in, no? How can you explain that it is OK to raise this hand?
a) maybe 76ss is a 3 way mix between call/fold/raise as it has enough back door draws and some pair outs. The pros of calling would be to realize equity and not get 3bet off of this hand, whereas raise allows us to deny equity to the better overcards, get better to fold like other pocket pairs etc.
b) 77 is a two way mix because it denies equity to better overcards and bluffs better pocket pairs.
c) AT raises sometimes since it benefits from denial when it prevents much worse Ax or pocket pairs from hitting a boat?
TRUE ANSWER:
a) 3 way mix is Q9ss. My answer of 76ss was correct though! This is frailness threshold hand, hand derives EV from mostly from improving or bluffing later! Worse thing than if we can just check and win with showdown value. It is mixing since we don’t realize our equity all the time, we have good pair draws, but we can bluff in unfavorable world.
b) 77 has a lot of EV, benefits from denial, but can hit nuts when 7 comes to make a boat! Super thin as a raise here but insane implied odds when 7 does come. Somewhere between hybrid raise and thin value raise.
c) AT is a mix since when they fold they already have a bad hand anyway. No problem getting bad hands to fold when we’ll make money against their value hands that we beat. They should be defending even their K-high etc. so when they don’t you benefit a lot from them overfolding!
