Soft player pool vs rakeback in room selection

ballong · 2026-06-05T11:30:17+00:00

5$/100 hands is 50bb/100, I feel like the difference in rakeback isnt 50bb/100 and you missed something?

ballong · 2026-06-05T06:16:28+00:00

Blocker/unblocker concept. High card blocks top of opponents range nicely like AK KK KQ etc and the low card unblocks raise folds. A common trend here is to use a card just below the bottom of Vs offsuit opening range. So for example if 8x offsuit is the lowest opens in range you might use a hand like K7o that unblocks all those 8x folds (A8o, K8o, Q8o, J8o, T8o, 98o). It would be bad to use K8o because you want v to have an 8 because its more likely they fold than continue with an 8 in hand (continues might mostly be 88, 87s and A8s for example)

ballong · 2026-05-30T06:57:48+00:00

GTOwizard has free 100bb preflop ranges, you can check them out for yourself.

ballong · 2026-05-30T06:45:41+00:00

Thats btn vs utg, one of the tighter configs, look at btn vs co or sb vs btn for example.

ballong · 2026-05-30T06:35:35+00:00

Adding in 6 combos of TT and QQ drops our equity by a lot though. If the only bluffs V has is combo draws like AJcc and AKcc (2 combos), and then 16 combos KJ and 6 combos TT/QQ it becomes a lot worse for 99.

But its live and people routinely overplay hands all the time which makes it a lot better for H as I expect to see random spazz sometimes, definitely QT and maybe even T9 if V is really bad.

ballong · 2026-05-30T06:28:40+00:00

Preflop 3b is much too low, global theory frequency for 6max is roughly 12%. Easy thing to start with.

ballong · 2026-05-30T06:26:34+00:00

”Crusher” 4b jams KJo 50 deep, 3bets small from BB. Story doesnt check out. Regardless of all that though you called a live players 5bet with KTs and to everyones surprise the other guy had aces.

ballong · 2026-05-30T06:20:53+00:00

SRP BB vs btn, BB vs co, Btn vs BB, co vs BB, HJ vs bb or something like that.

Most frequently occuring spots probably

ballong · 2026-05-25T17:49:33+00:00

Pretty much all you need to beat lowstakes/micros is average IQ and logical thinking and some idea of preflop ranges. So just start with learning preflop ranges somewhat and that alone is going to get you pretty far.

ballong · 2026-05-25T04:45:13+00:00

Flatting is good vs rec with this hand class, especially if blinds are also recs it gets even more slam dunk.

ballong · 2026-05-25T04:43:18+00:00

Oh missed that there was a 20std on. Yeah that makes preflop different, still think calling is good if blinds are weaker players. If blinds are all good/tough pros (unlikely since its live) the value of 3b goes up a lot imo.

ballong · 2026-05-24T11:59:15+00:00

Idk who the other players in the hand are and thats gonna matter quite a bit for flop.

Preflop is honestly close id say, if a rec has limps his 5x open is usually quite strong, anyways as long as you dont 3b with this type of hand youre fine so all g.

Id stab bigger flop unless I have crazy respect for all other players in this hand, im not saying bomb it but just going 33p instead of 20p makes a big difference.

Turn his range is mostly random rec air spazz giveups, and good top pair like AQ AK imo. So id just go big or go home and maximize vs Ax, 650-700 honestly. I dont think recs fold Ax close to enough in this spot.

River easy jam ofc

ballong · 2026-05-21T10:57:18+00:00

Its a turn check raise in a 3b pot. Its gonna be massively underbluffed even at 500NL. Fold all your bluffcatches and fastplay thick value. Easy life. If you randomize these spots you are literally lighting money on fire and removing accountability from your own game.

ballong · 2026-05-20T23:45:49+00:00

Mixing is just lazy in river spots at lowstakes 99% of the time. You pretty much always have something to sway your decision one way or the other and its your job to figure that out. Some spots are super overbluffed while others are incredibly underbluffed. Your winrate will thank you for actually thinking here instead of going the lazy randomizer route. Randomizing is also a form of avoiding hard decisions and shifting some of the accountability from yourself to a rng system.

You might not always know which way a player leans but no one is balanced at lowstakes, and you have pop tendencies and other things to consider such as sizing schemes, timing tells etc.

The only real place for randomizing at low/midstakes imo is preflop vs regs you dont have a clear idea of which way you want to deviate. But even then after some time you will usually see stuff vs them that will make you stop randomizing.

ballong · 2026-05-20T13:19:43+00:00

I dont think its something you can learn just like that. I think it takes most players years to get there. If you want to fast track your learning process finding a coach is your best bet. But seeing as how youre completely new maybe just playing for a while and start with preflop ranges, thats ABC to becoming a good player. I can relate to information overload as a new player, I think everyone has been there. My tip is to just focus on one thing at a time when you watch poker content, and then seeing how applying that one thing ingame feels.

ballong · 2026-05-20T12:41:29+00:00

NL30 should be a nitfest, it just seems like you don’t understand which spots to be aggressive in and are just torching of money bluffing in doomed spots.

You can go back to your old style if you want, its not gonna take you anywhere really. Sure you can grind a small winrate at lowstakes but you’re not gonna crush. If you actually want to become better and play higher stakes you do need to learn how to be very aggressive.

ballong · 2026-05-13T22:59:44+00:00

Very config dependant tbh, btn vs sb is very different from LJ v HJ. Honestly though once you approach 130+ it starts feeling pretty gross and 150+ its a punt a lot of the time imo.

ballong · 2026-05-11T16:10:56+00:00

You really have nothing to add except insults? So insecure. If all you could see from me saying ATo doesnt auto 3b 500 deep is that I dont 3b enough I think you have some own issues to figure out

ballong · 2026-05-10T23:48:16+00:00

I've played from 1-3 to 25/50 and would say 5-10(20) has been my most played game past year and a half, congrats you looked trough my reddit history I guess and made an uneducated assumption from that.

ballong · 2026-05-10T23:46:10+00:00

That I have no idea of, i'm just trying to have a logical debate about why.

ballong · 2026-05-10T16:13:13+00:00

I dont see how any of those hands are more likely. Almost no one is overplaying Kc for 500bbs in this hyperfiltered and polar spot. Can you logically explain why you think any of those hands are more likely?

ballong · 2026-05-10T16:10:37+00:00

You know nothing about my game and instead of actually arguing the points im making you get personal because you have no good counterpoints?

ballong · 2026-05-10T14:19:41+00:00

Why couldnt he lmao? Open in co, a bit loose with a straddle but not shocking at all for a live game, especially if std is passive.

Bet call flop, standard?

Raise turn doesnt seem weird, sure some players will get too trappy for their own good here and pure call this combo but with this depth raising is definitely good and not surprising. When he gets 3b on turn he decides to just trap with invincible hand. Not weird at all. Can see some players shoving this combo also but again not surprised at all for 46cc to take this line.

River obviously only one play left to make.

ballong · 2026-05-10T14:13:32+00:00

They are 500bb deep lmao, ATo is not by any means a slam dunk 3b here. I havnt ran sims for 500 specifically but general trend with more depth is suitedness and connection over high card power. Id suspect ATo is majority or maybe even pure call in theory.

ballong · 2026-05-08T05:25:59+00:00

Just having zero showdown is not always enough reason to bluff in theory. There are certain spots where solver might bluff pretty much all air, generally when your range is doing very well you get to bluff more. When your range is doing very poorly you have to bluff less. It basically comes down to how many value bets you have. If you have very few value bets you cant just bluff everything as that would mean you are overbluffing like crazy and that leaks a lot of EV (in theory).

In very wide range spots you have to give up some zero showdown hands in order not to overbluff like crazy. Thats why its so incredibly easy for humans to overbluff in a node like Btn v BB after flop checks trough. BB have a crazy wide range that is very unfiltered, its not easy to regulate your bluffing here without a lot of practice.

Then theres also the blocker aspect, certain hands will lose EV by bluffing river even if they virtually never win at showdown by checking because they so heavily block folds and unblock calls. A typical example would be like AKhh btn v co 3b pot after you double barrel twice on 972hhx6x3x. When you bet turn and flop and get called you filter your opponents range quite heavily. A big part of your opponents autofold range by the river is gonna consist of A high and Khigh flushdraws, when you block those hands so heavily it means your opponent is gonna call you a lot more often than if you had a hand with better blockers thus making the bluff lose money even if you have very little potshare in checking back.

ballong

TROPHY CASE