S01 - E07 - What Solvers have thought us

Question 1

What Solvers have thought us

Betting Lead/Initiative

Answer 1

Betting Lead/Initiative isn’t really a thing.

• We often do check to the aggressor, but not because of initiative - it’s just because our range isn’t strong enough
• After calling an UTG raise preflop, for instance, the BB actually CAN donk bet on some low connected flops, 643, 542

Turn Example
BTN vs BB - 862

• BTN should bet big enough to exclude their 6x
• So when the turn is a 6, BB can donk

Question 2

What Solvers have thought us

Bet Sizes

Answer 2

Small bets weren’t small enough, and big bets weren’t big enough.

• The 33% size was around pre-solver, but wasn’t used nearly as much
• Some 4-bet pots, with flops like AA2/AQ3, call for bets as low as 10%
• Deep stacks can get even more savage. It’s not necessarily wrong to hammer even 5x/10x shoves in the right situations

Question 3

What Solvers have thought us

Equity advantage and Nut advantage

Answer 3

Equity advantage and Nut advantage are at the heart of the optimal betting frequency and sizing

• The range with the most equity has the equity advantage (aka Range Advantage)
• The range that contains the most combos of the strongest possible hands has the Nut Advantage
• The equity advantage tends to lie with the preflop aggressor, e.g. BB defender vs BTN opener never has it
• Having a nut disadvantage forces one to play very defensively
• Sometimes the nut advantage can overrule the range advantage

UTG vs BB - 753

• UTG has the equity advantage
• BB has the nut advantage and can lead out

BTN vs SB, 3-Bet pot - 654

• BTN has the nut advantage
• SB has the equity advantage but has to check ~75%

Question 4

What Solvers have thought us

Playing OOP as preflop raiser

Answer 4

• At lower stakes, or in live games an aggressive flop stabbing strategy can make sense vs many opponents who c-bet too much OOP
• Proper OOP play involves tons of trapping and check-raising, even though we start out playing defensively

CO vs BTN, T-high and below boards (unpaired)
* CO should check entire range

SB vs BB - K64
* SB should check ~65%

Must check-raise a lot
852, check-raise KTs/QJs + bdfd, 76s, A4s

Question 5

What Solvers have thought us

Unintuitive Removal Effects

Answer 5

• We’ve learned not to bet missed flush draws on the river, and that we like to block missed flush draws as the caller
• Unblockers are just as important as blockers

SB vs BTN, 3-Bet Pot - J62rb
* After betting the flop, the solver likes to barrel turns when holding the suit that does NOT block BTN’s backdoor flop floats which now folds.

Question 6

Block Betting

Answer 6

• Betting small to prevent your opponent from betting a bigger size
• When having a small block size, it’s important to split your range and have a balanced big size as well
• The main advantage to block betting is that you can bet unbelievably wide - somtimes you can even value bet as wide as A-high
• How you split your range can change with the positional matchup
• The block size is often built around the hands that want some thin value, balanced of course with bluffs and some strong hands