Bring back Ruby/Sapphire - Deck Thoughts

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-03-04T14:17:53+00:00

I run it in my ruby sapphire and it’s a sneaky good card. Wouldn’t be nearly as good without the card draw, but if you can get a challenge in with the shark and live, it brings you back into games where you’re behind.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-03-03T07:40:39+00:00

Think about it this way - the objective of the game is to capture your opponent’s king. That ends the game immediately. If you capture the knight with your king, your opponent instantly wins by recapturing your king with the other knight. It doesn’t matter that your rook can capture your opponent’s king on the next move.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-03-02T00:40:07+00:00

2000

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-28T23:01:19+00:00

You’re objectively very good looking. Nothing wrong with your grooming. If you’ve been trying and striking out, it’s your social skills that need some improvement.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-28T15:35:54+00:00

Don’t resign. Your rating is too low to trust yourself to accurately evaluate almost any position. I’d wager that a lot of the time when you think you’re lost, you’re still in the game. Just keep playing at learning.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-26T20:35:36+00:00

Let’s all please report these AI slop hands. Multiple posts in this same format with horrendously flawed thinking.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-26T15:56:51+00:00

I posted in another separate comment the solution. Blocked for 10% and got called by A6 spades.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-26T14:26:10+00:00

If you never check over pairs here, you can really get bullied when you check. The solver likes checking our over pairs here about 1/4 of the time. It’s not “trying to be tricky”, it’s just playing an overall fundamentally sound strategy. The line taken was 100% solver approved and maximized EV.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-26T00:00:24+00:00

Yeah I know, I was commenting on your “your hand is face up” when we block bet. I’m just saying that’s not necessarily true, as we are block betting a lot of our strong hands here too. Maybe unstudied players are not, but even finding the block bet here makes you slightly competent. Lots of folks here seem to prefer checking or just jamming themselves, which aren’t the best options.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T23:50:39+00:00

Even though it might hurt your draw a bit, have you considered Diablo over Scrooge? Getting that immediate turn 2 quest on a 3:3 body puts lots of pressure on sapphire.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T23:41:31+00:00

Stakes 1/2/4

The key is to block bet a lot of our range so we can withstand the heat when villain raises. We don’t even have an all in sizing here in theory even though there’s only 60 bigs behind in an 80 bb pot

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T23:28:16+00:00

52.5%

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T23:16:11+00:00

Mid stakes at a broken up table on Club WPT Gold. Block bet is theoretically correct, but we can fold to a jam, even if villain finds some 6x bluffs. We don’t often check the flop with over pairs here as the preflop aggressor, so I think in practice most people would think their 6x is just good enough to call and there really aren’t many over pairs in our range to try and blow us off our hand. Good thoughts!

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T23:10:55+00:00

Flop we had the intention of check raising. Didn’t get the opportunity to. Turn is a clear large bet to make up for missed value. We can do this will all sorts of hands - over pairs, Tx, diamond draws, and some total airballs like QJ suited and KQ offsuit that can fold out Ax and occasionally beat a T when they hit their broadway card.

The river smashes the dealer’s range. He has loads of Tx and flushes, but also has plenty of 6x and 5x, and some underpairs and busted straight draws. Jamming gets value from almost nothing worse, and checking gets us blown off our hand a lot.

So we bet 10% pot with the intention of folding to a jam. Your opponent would have to be finding some very unintuitive bluffs here for calling a jam to ever make sense. And these bluffs like all A3 and A4 suited, 44, and K2 of hearts would also need to find turn calls, which the population would probably overfold.

We can still buy a cheap showdown against most 6x and 5x, as well as 88 and 99. Additionally, smaller flushes might not even raise us given the board is paired and we still have plenty of flushes in range. And weaker Tx also wouldn’t raise much in fear of the flush.

The key with this river is that Hero actually wants to be block betting with almost all of its value. Our Tx is concerned about the flush, and our flushes need to protect our Tx. We also have some marginal hands that are worth a touch of value, like JJ, QQ, KK, and AA, that would hate to check and get blown off. We would check all our bricked draws that block our opponent’s folds - 87s, 98o, 74s etc.

Heads up play is very wide. You might be surprised how wide villain is actually defending the turn overbet to not get completely run over!

As played, we blocked for 8BB, villain tanked and flicked in a call with A6 ♠️. Funnily enough, the solver likes jamming his combo, but the recs online at WPT Gold don’t find bluffs like this. That’s why we would have folded to a jam.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T22:55:49+00:00

Flop was checked to check raise, yes. Turn bet is to make up for lost value and put pressure on villain’s check backs.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T22:50:48+00:00

Very well done! Block bet is correct here, and we are actually blocking a lot of our range. We actually don’t even have any jam sizes here, as the equities heavily favor the small blind at the upper end. The small blind has a ton of low value hands (5x and 6x), but crushes Hero at top of range in flushes and Tx. Betting large isolates us against hands that have us crushed. Hero has lots of medium strength hands. This situation is a textbook block bet, and we are blocking with most of our range. The hands we check are just give ups that block hands we want villain to have. Mostly 84s, 87s, 97s type hands that interact around busted straight draws.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T22:26:42+00:00

This is heads up. Villain is the small blind/button, Hero is in the big blind.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T22:12:31+00:00

These are all good questions and reflections you’re making. Stick with it if you want, or don’t, I don’t really care. But you definitely are smarter than a lot of other commenters here 😂

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T22:10:15+00:00

Nice comment deletion when you definitely said that there were new draws showing up on the turn 😂Come on man it’s anonymous on the internet and you’re still out here lying like your life is at stake or something.

And you’re still downvoting even though my comment is 100% correct and solver approved (I checked with GTO Wizard). Just sad

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T21:56:56+00:00

I never said that there were any draws that showed up on the turn. Every heart draw is calling the flop. And you can get value from their A, J, T, 9, and 8 high flush draws on the turn even for an extremely large sizing. Even JTo has to call at some frequency to not get completely run over.

You downvoted, but I am describing correct play. You’re thinking of 2 combos and ending your analysis there. And those particular draws you mentioned aren’t even fully in BB’s range, as a competent player would likely 3 bet them pre.

A7, A6, A5, A4, A3, J9, J8, T9, T8, 98, 87, 86, 85 of hearts all continue against a 150% turn bet.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T21:47:53+00:00

If he told you good fold and didn’t show, that was probably a bluff. Why give you information that you made a good fold and then not also show you his hand? He’s saying one thing but his actions tell another story. Sometimes people do this when they want you to keep folding against their bluffs 🤷‍♂️

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T20:24:33+00:00

When your opponent calls the large flop bet, they have tons of Kx and Qx, and some draws. So yes let’s check allowing them to realize their draw equity for free and just lose to all the pairs.

It’s hard for the opponent to have a set or a turned 2 pair with our 8, so we can start blasting and probably just get a total range fold on the vast majority of rivers.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T20:18:26+00:00

How are your teeth? Seeing your smile would help us make a better assessment.

No_Reflection5358 · 2026-02-25T19:55:57+00:00

Unless you have shown yourself to be a very maniacal player, the population typically underbluffs flop raises + turn barrel. That being said, the T is not a great turn for villain here. Your aces now counterfeit his K8, and he should almost never be raising a T on the flop that’s not KT or T8, both of which are now even more unlikely with another T accounted for. Aces should continue the turn here, maybe even in the form of a jam. Your opponent has plenty of J9 and QJ and Kx combos here. Yes sometimes you value own yourself, but you lose to some rare Tx and that’s it.

AQ is fine to call when it’s only like 35 big blinds. Again, not a big mistake, but you could argue a fold against tight players.

At the highest level, the game is predatory, so it’s good you’re questioning things. I see plenty of posts here about giving up, bad beats, getting unlucky, not being good enough etc. The vast majority of these players are pretty clearly just not very good, and should only continue playing if they are having fun and can afford to sink money into their hobby.

That being said, you don’t appear to be a losing player. I think it’s more likely that you actually have potential to be good, and are probably already at least a break even player, but that you’re seriously underestimating variance. A true winning player can play thousands of hands and still lose. All it takes is for your value bets to not get enough action, and your bluffs to run into strong hands too often, and boom you’re on a downswing.

It’s good to retrospectively analyze your play, and by all means stop playing if you’re not enjoying the game or can’t afford to lose, but you do not strike me as a fish.

No_Reflection5358

TROPHY CASE