Concepts

Question 1

Position

Answer 1

• More information and ability to close action
• Increases your ability to play your range
• Information gained by bet, raise, call, check in front
• Acting last means no information yet revealed
• Analyzing actions allows determination of:
• “Effective nuts”: hands we can treat as if they won’t lose
• When cards favour opponents, letting us play passively, make tighter folds, put in raises

Question 2

Absolute vs Relative Hand Strength

Answer 2

• E.g. boat over boat: 77 on 64424 runout is beaten by 88+, 66, A4s, 54s
• JJ is 78% vs random hand, 49% vs 4 random hands
• If CO 3-bets 8%, JJ has 56% equity
• If BTN 4-bets 4%, JJ has 49% equity, 34% vs the combined ranges
• If SB 5-bets 2%, JJ has 35% equity, and only 19% vs all 3 players
• Important to recognize when profitable hands have become unprofitable

Question 3

Equity vs a Range

Answer 3

• You may not have equity vs your opponent’s strongest hand or hands, but you may vs their entire range
• T9s vs QQ on JT2 has 22%
• T9s vs QQ,AKo on JT2 has 50.2%
• (Soul reading makes for overly fearful folds)

Question 4

Stack to Pot Ratio

Answer 4

• Chips in stack/Chips in pot
• Useful for determining postflop hand strength
• SPR 1 with AT on T87 very strong - can be played for remaining chips
• SPR 10 with same hand is medium strength - disaster to play for stacks
• Small SPR: one pair, top pair
• Larger SPR: 2-pair+

Question 5

Fold Equity

Answer 5

• Most important concept in bluffing
• Properly calculating fold equity depends on determining opponent’s range
• More powerful when used in conjunction with a draw which can improve to best on turn/river

Question 6

Pot Odds

Answer 6

• Helps determine equity needed to call
• If pot has $100 and villain bets $50:
• PO = call/(pot+bet+call)
• PO = 50/(100+50+50) = 50/200 = 25%
• Hand needs 25% equity vs opponent’s range to call
• It is possible to be in a situation where we suspect we’re beat but decide to call because of pot odds