Poker | Haihao Sun's Homepage

Become a Winning Online Poker Player in 30 Days - Week 4

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Day 22 - Unpredictable Play (The Strategy in Reraising 57s)

Why Play Unpredictably?

Prevent Goodd Players from taking advantage of predictable tendencies
Makes you tougher to play against
Exploitive Play: How do I play the best against this specific opponent?
GTO: What is the best overall strategy to have?

Blockers Definition

Cards you hold that are significant only because it means your opponent cannot be holding onto them.

Light 3-betting

Target players capable of folding to aggression
Pick hands you can easily fold to 4-bet that play well postflop or have blockers

Bonus GTO

Bluff the river if you are at the bottom of your range.
Bluff catch the river if you are at the top of your range. - If fold, what to call?

Day 23 - Heads Up (The Perfect Excuse to play every hands)

Short-Handed Adjustments

Play same hands from 3-max to full ring, all else equal.
Any leaks get dramatically magnified when switching table sizes.

Heads-Up Button Strategy

Raise every hands besides junk
Attack your opponent post-flop with multi-street bluffs and thin value bets

Jam wide over raises with 20bb or less effective stack.
Defend pre-flop with a wide range and call your opponent down stubbornly.

Sample Shoving Ranges

Button with 10bb: 22, K2, Q6, Q2s, J7, J2s, T7, T4s, 97, 94s, 87, 84s, 74s
Big Blind with 20bb: 22, A2, K5, K2s, Q8, Q2s, J9, J5s, T8, T6s, 98, 95s

Day 24 - Mentality (The single most important non-playing skill)

Game Grade

A-Game: The best you can play
B-Game: Play well but making some mistakes
C-Game: Making Clear mistakes relative t o your best possible games
Less skilled player can win more than top-player if constant A-Game
Relastic Goal: A-game vast majority of the time and occasional B-Game

Key Mental Game Concept

Verbalize your thoughts process.
Play Tighter.
End the session.
Take a break.
Study and Regroup.

Mike Caro’s Genie

Genie: Win 10k more in up session or lose $10k less in down session?
Limiting loss is just as good as increasing wins.

Day 25 - More ICM (Generating Pre-Flop Ranges)

Software to Generate Ranges

Open-Shove and calling ranges are free at Holdem Resources
Ranges involving raise

Two important rules

15bb effective stack in small blind, non-junk hand.
Profitable (or at least close) to shove magic range if playing shove-fold.
Don’t worry about memorizing exact ranges.
Call in big blind facing an all-in with better than 2:1 pot odds.

Factors impacting ranges

Payout Structure
Stacks and Players Remaining
Opponent Reads
Ante Size

An important Calling Range

We are big blind and button shoves 10bb
Our Calling Range: 22, A2, K4s, K7o, Q8s, Q9o, J9s, JTo

Day 26: Defending the Big Blinds (How to play poker’s trickiest position)

Defense Range Factor

Raise Size
Position of Raiser
State of Tournament
Ante

Pre-Flop Action

3-bet hands

99+, AQo, AJs and occasional 53s, 63s, 84s, 73s.

3-bet shove

Shove if effective stack under 25bb
Shove if facing multiple raises with 20% of the effective stack in the middle.

3-bet small

Usually better to defend by calling because we’re out of position.
Good move to apply tournament pressure against a mid stack.

Raise most good/playable hands when the small blind limps.
Shove with a very wide range if the effective stack is 15bb or less.

Post Flop Action

Remember to plan your hands early, such as calling down with top pair
If you’ve missed the flop: Default play is to check-fold.

Day 27 - Check-Raising (Vital Weapon for Playing without Position)

Why Check-Raise

Makes you unpredictable and difficult to play against.
Lets youw in more against a likely c-bettor with both made hands and draw hands.

Key Factors for Effective Check-Raising

Board is coordinated.
Hero has either a strong made hand or a draw with little showdown value.
Villain likely to bet, otherwise there is no check-raise happening.

Bonus Check-Raising Spot

Hero has a draw.
Villain will often not bet if we check, but in the words of the mowglis: I’m good. I’m good. I’m good.

Important Spot to check-Call Instead.

We have decent showdown value but don’t want to play a large pot.
Applies with draws or made hands.

And Lastly

Check-Fold if you don’t have the betting leads and miss the flop entirely.

Day 28 - Risk Aversion (It depends on the state of the tournament)

Tournament State 1: Normal

Play similar to a cash game.
Occurs in MTT or MTTSNG in the early stages.

Tournament state 2: Some Risk Aversion

ICM is important but most decisions aren’t heavily impacted yet.
Start of a 9-man SNG or final tables of a 45-man.

Tournament State 3: Extreme Risk Aversion

ICM influences most or all decisions.
Bubble of a 9-man or final table of an MTT.

Playing the Short Stack

The short stack is the least affected.
Play similarly to your normal game with tighter calling.

Playing the mid stack

Extreme gap between calling and shoving.
Need a very large edge to call it off.
Must play tighter.

Playing the big stack

Play looser and more aggressive.
Incredibly profitable to pressure opponent during this stage.

Shove/Fold Ranges

Adjust shove/fold ranges just like normal opening ranges.
Big Stack can sometimes shove ATC into multiple players.

Bonus Concept: Chip Utility

Mid stack will continue to have unprofitable spots.
Big stack will have more and more profitable spots.
Top players go after the chip lead position.
Example: take close shove as 2nd CL if pot gets you in contention for CL.

Day 29 - Floating (Poker’s True Passive-Aggressive Play)

Factors Favorable to Floating

In position.
Opponent on wide range.
Small bet sizing.
You can improve.
Bonus: ICM Pressure.

Most common time to float

Big blind in a heads-up pot vs small blind.
Facing a donk bet at the flop.

Benefits of Floating to Bluff Raising

Better risk-reward ratio.
Gives you balanced calling range.
Take advantage of position.

Disadvantage of floating

NO FOLD EQUITY.

DON’t FLOAT

Facing a 75% pot bet with 7 high from the CL on the bubble.

large size
no improve
expensive
lose chips

Definitely Float

Facing a min-bet in a raised pot with backdoor straight flush draw.

Become a Winning Online Poker Player in 30 Days - Week 3

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Day 15 - Midterm

Q1. Middle position, what’s the right action?

- ATo raise - raise
- 22 fold - call ❌
- K9o fold - fold

Q2. flop TJ(c)A

- If we have 78(h), shall we C-bet? No - No ✅

Q3. AT What to do with hijack

- raise - correct answer: Fold, fold to early position. ❌

Q4. 44, big blind?

- Implied odds 8:1, not call - correct ✅

Q5. Calculate the equity? by percent and by dollar - equity, 18.3, chip = 18.3 * total chips - correct

Q6. Shall we bet or check at river?

- check ❌ correct bet, because we do not have show down, and we get a better hand to fold.

Q7. K3, what to do in small blind, big blind 14bb

- shove, ✅

Q8. Calculate odds ✅

Q9. Calculate should I call? ✅

Q10.

Day 16 - Pot Control (Thinking like a chess master)

Pre-Flop Hand Planning

What will I do if the short stack shoves over my raise?
If I 3-bet here with this AQ, what will I do if the initial raiser 4-bets me?

How many bets?

How many bets post-flop if my hand good enough to go after?
- Position
- Opponent Type
- Pre-Flop Action
Pet Control
- Check back the flop or turn to limit the number of bets that go into the pot.

Day 17 - Turns and Rivers (Three keys to strong late street play)

Turn Play Concept

When in doubt, if you have t he betting lead, continue firing the turn.
Particularly with draws that don’t have showdown value.

River Play Concept

Switch into bluff-catching mode if there are many possible busted draws.
bluff if you can represent a strong hand and your opponent is capable of folding.

Day 18 - Hand Reading (Secrets of the Poker Magicians)

Key Hand Reading Question

What better hands are consistent with his actions?
Would busted draws have played the way at the flop?

Hand Reading Process

Go through opponent’s betting pattern for the hand starting with pre-flop.
Also use his overall tendencies.
very fast call, usually draws or non-nut hands.

Two key points to remember

You’re not trying to read robots, humans do unpredictable things.
Even very experienced hand readers will get surprised.

Limp most of the time to keep the pot small while playing most hands.
Cater your strategy to the big hand such as raising vs tight-passive opponent.

Stay Aggressive

Continue to raise and 3-bet your stronger hands.
Use larger raise-sizing because you’re out of position.
Semi-bluff and go after value aggressively in limped pots.
Bluff in heads-up pots or very favorable multi-way spots.

Day 20 - Variance and Bankroll Management (Why Recreational Players Keep Coming Back)

Important Stats

ROI, Return on Investment = Percent Profit Per Game
ITM, In the Money = Percent of Tournaments You Cash

Individual vs Long-Term Game Profit

Hannah makes $3 per game over 5000 games
Hannah’s Profits in Next 5 games: -20, -20, -20, 40, -20

Factors Decreasing Swings

Greater Edge and ROI in the games
Flatter payout structure (greater % paid more even amounts)

Common no-Limit Hold’EM Tourney Swings

Very common: 25 buy-ins.
Common: 50 buy-ins.
Less Frequent: 100 buy-ins.

Remember

Swings are inevitable. embrace them.
Focus on studying and playing in the softest games.

Quantify Tournament Variance

Use Primedope Tournament Variance Calculator
Long Run = Number of Games that Guarantees * Profit
(Not Actually Guarantee)

Day 21 - Tracking Software (Know Your opponent better than their own moms)

Benefits of Tracking Software

Show Results, All Hands (With replayer), Statistics
Use in real-time to get live opponent stats in HUD
PokerTracker4
Holdem Manager
Hand2Note
DriveHUD

Key Stats

VPIP (Voluntarily Put in Pot)
PFR (Pre-Flop Raise)

Become a Winning Online Poker Player in 30 Days - Week 2

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Day 8 C-Bets

Do not C-Bet

Check a flop such as 789s
Check if four or more players see the flop
Check if you do not want to get check-raised. (Medium strong hand, just check).
Don’t C-Bet when you monopolize Flop vs Recs: hero’s hand(AA) - flop (AA2)
Check to an opponent who has the opportunity to C-bet, check to preflop aggressor.

Day 9 Implied Odds and Reverse Implied Odds (A vital deep-stack concept)

Implied Odds Pre-Flop Concept

implied odds pre-flop: how much you can win to the cost of calling.
You want at least 20:1 implied odds to set-mine with a low pocket pair.

Implied Odds Post-Flop

implied odds post-flop: Ratio of what you’re likely to win if you connect to the cost of calling.

Implied odds increase if

effective stack is deeper
more active players
action opponents

Reverse Implied Odds (Your opponent’s implied odds)

If you are aheads, you will win little or no money
If you are behind, you will lose a lot more money

Summarization

Implied odds capture the concept of how we can win more money from our opponents than just the current pot when we hit a big hand.
We should (at least) call with pocket pairs getting 20:1 or better implied odds pre-flop, and be a lot more inclined to continue with draws after the flop when we’re getting good implied odds.
You can profitably make tight folds in situations with bad reverse implied odds: Situations where you’re likely to lose more money when behind or win little more when ahead.

Day 10 - The key to play the draws (Raise and Cross Your Fingers)

Semi-Bluff Aggressively

Powerful Play
- You win if Villain folds
- You hit your draw
Pot Odds Analysis
- Key Calling Question: Do you have the pot odds you need for a +EV call
Implied Odds for future betting
- If possibility of future betting, use implied odds instead of pot odds.

Reasons to Play Draws More Passively

Have little or no fold equity
- Against someone who never folds
You have reasonable showdown value

Day 11 - Bluffing (The art and science of Making plays)

Bluff to attack Weakness

Opponent tell you when they’re weak and this is the best time to bluff them.
Scare Cards are Good Opportunities

Times to Bluff More

Heads-Up Play
Weak Opponents

Bluffing Caveat

Pick hands without showdown value
Try to represent a real hand you would have played this way

Day 12 - River Bets (The crucial late street question)

Understand the question

If I bet or raise, what better hands will fold? (bluff)
If I bet or raise, what worse hands will call? (value)

Key Spots Not to Bet or Raise

Holding 9X on KQJT5
Holding AX on 55332

Equity Denial Bet

Betting with the purpose of getting a worse hand to fold.
The worse hand still have good equity against us.

Day 13 - Pre-flop Shove Spots

Shove Spot

open-shove: less than 15bb effective stack
single raise pot: less than 25bb effectie
over all: there is 25% or more of the effective stack in the middle

Modify

Facing passive and predictable opponents
Exploitive play with premium hands

Day 14 - ICM (Most important model in poker)

Definition of ICM

Model that converts everyone’s chip stack in a tourney to their dollar equity.
Input: Stack Distribution + Payout Structure
Output: Everyone’s equities in dollars or percentages.

Ways to gain equity

gain chips
watch as someone busts

ICM Calculation

Use software to tell us what hands to shove or fold pre-flop

Become a Winning Online Poker Player in 30 Days - Week 1

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Day 1 - The power of position (Fundamental)

Key Takeaways

Understand the Understand the different positions, including what each one is called and the order that they act in both pre-flop and post-flop: SB, BB, UTG, UTG+1, LJ, HJ, CO, BTN.
You can play many more hands profitably on the button or in late position than from the early positions.
Bonus Concept: You can have good “relative position” if you’re to the right of a very aggressive player in a multiway pot.

Day 2 - The benefits of Aggression (Fundamental)

Key Takeaways

Three fundamental types of actions you can take
- call -> passive
- check/fold -> neutral
- bet/raise -> aggressive
Think about the players that you enjoy having as opponents. Who would you rather play against: A passive opponent who’s mainly checking and calling or an aggressive opponent who’s betting and raising a lot?

Day 3 - Thinking in Ranges (Fundamental)

Key Takeaways

Understand what a range is and how they’re written.
During a hand of poker, we have one hand that stays the same, while our opponents have ranges that are changing with each new action they take.
Thinking in ranges is still an extremely valuable framework, even if the ranges are imprecise or we put Villain on a very wide range.

Day 4 - The Two Types of Equity (Fundamental)

Key Takeaways

Understand the concept of your equity in a pot as a poker hand progresses.
Your equity against an opponent’s range is simply how often you win the hand (assuming nobody folds) if he’s equally likely to hold any hand in his range.
After every hand in a tournament, your equity changes to reflect how much money you’ll win on average playing out the tournament from that point forward.

Day 5 Understanding Pot Odds and Expected Value (Fundamental)

Key Takeaways

Understand what pot odds are and how to calculate them.
Pot odds tell you what percent of the time you need to win the pot for a call to be profitable. Good players always decide whether to call based on their odds.
Expected value is the amount of money you’ll make or lose on average from a given action.

Day 6 The Guide to Pre-Flop

Under-The-Gun and UTG+1:

66+
AJo+
A9s+
KQo
JTs+

Middle Position and Lojack:

55+
ATo
A7s+
QJo+
T9s+

Hijack and Cutoff:

33+
A7o+
A2s+
JTo+
K7s+
Q8s+
J9s+
76s+

Button:

22+
A2+
K2s+
K60+
Q4s+
Q70+
J6s+
J80+
T80+
54s+

22+
A2+
K20+
Q50+
J60+
85o+
all suited hands

Now that we’ve given these approximate guidelines for opening ranges based on position, it is time for a bunch of notes and caveats

You should tend to play more hands against tight opponents, and fewer hands against loose/wild opponents.
When the effective stack is 15bb or less, you will be playing shove/fold pre-flop.
When the effective stack is short, such as 15-30bb, your default play is to minraise first in. At moderate effective stacks of around 30-50bb, tend to raise 2.5bb, for example $250 at $50-$100. At deep effective stacks greater than 50bb, tend to raise 3bb such as $300 at $50-$100.
Exception to the last rule: From the small blind, you should usually limp first in (or raise to at least 2.5bb against tighter players). Don’t limp first in from any other position.

Facing Limpers

Fold the weakest hands in your range. Limp behind with some of the weaker hands that still have good playability, such as 22 or 65s . Continue to raise any of the stronger hands you would have played, adding one big blind to your raise sizing for each limper already in the pot.

Facing Raising

So for now, select situations that you’re confident will be profitable. It’s generally a bigger mistake to continue in a bad spot than it is to make a tight fold and stay out of trouble!

Key Takeaways

Understand approximately what ranges to play from each position when you’re first to voluntarily enter the pot.
There are many factors affecting the pre-flop decision-making process including positions, opponent types, effective stack, raise sizings, and tournament state. We’ve done our best to give you good general guidelines. If you’re unsure whether to play a certain hand, then just fold for now and wait for a good spot.
The effective stack is the most you can lose in a given hand, which will be the same as your stack size unless you cover everyone else left to act.

Day 7 Value Bet

Key Takeaways

Understand what it means to make a value bet and how important they are to winning at poker.
If you think it’s likely you have the best hand, always consider value betting it.
Think about which worse hands your opponent can call your value bet with.

reference: https://www.cardschat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Become-a-Winning-Poker-Player-in-30-Days-CardChat.com_.pdf

Poker | Haihao Sun's Homepage

Become a Winning Online Poker Player in 30 Days - Week 4

Day 22 - Unpredictable Play (The Strategy in Reraising 57s)

Why Play Unpredictably?

Blockers Definition

Light 3-betting

Bonus GTO

Day 23 - Heads Up (The Perfect Excuse to play every hands)

Short-Handed Adjustments

Heads-Up Button Strategy

Heads-up Big Blind Strategy

Sample Shoving Ranges

Day 24 - Mentality (The single most important non-playing skill)

Game Grade

Key Mental Game Concept

Mike Caro’s Genie

Day 25 - More ICM (Generating Pre-Flop Ranges)

Software to Generate Ranges

Two important rules

Factors impacting ranges

An important Calling Range

Day 26: Defending the Big Blinds (How to play poker’s trickiest position)

Defense Range Factor

Pre-Flop Action

3-bet hands

3-bet shove

3-bet small

Attack Small Blind Limps

Post Flop Action

Day 27 - Check-Raising (Vital Weapon for Playing without Position)

Why Check-Raise

Key Factors for Effective Check-Raising

Bonus Check-Raising Spot

Important Spot to check-Call Instead.

And Lastly

Day 28 - Risk Aversion (It depends on the state of the tournament)

Tournament State 1: Normal

Tournament state 2: Some Risk Aversion

Tournament State 3: Extreme Risk Aversion

Playing the Short Stack

Playing the mid stack

Playing the big stack

Shove/Fold Ranges

Bonus Concept: Chip Utility

Day 29 - Floating (Poker’s True Passive-Aggressive Play)

Factors Favorable to Floating

Most common time to float

Benefits of Floating to Bluff Raising

Disadvantage of floating

DON’t FLOAT

Definitely Float

Become a Winning Online Poker Player in 30 Days - Week 3

Day 15 - Midterm

Day 16 - Pot Control (Thinking like a chess master)

Pre-Flop Hand Planning

How many bets?

Day 17 - Turns and Rivers (Three keys to strong late street play)

Turn Play Concept

River Play Concept

Day 18 - Hand Reading (Secrets of the Poker Magicians)

Key Hand Reading Question

Hand Reading Process

Two key points to remember

Day 19 - Small Blind Play (If you’ve ever secretly wanted to limp a lot)

Stay Aggressive

Day 20 - Variance and Bankroll Management (Why Recreational Players Keep Coming Back)

Important Stats

Individual vs Long-Term Game Profit

Factors Decreasing Swings

Common no-Limit Hold’EM Tourney Swings

Remember

Quantify Tournament Variance

Day 21 - Tracking Software (Know Your opponent better than their own moms)

Benefits of Tracking Software

Key Stats

Become a Winning Online Poker Player in 30 Days - Week 2

Day 8 C-Bets

Do not C-Bet

Day 9 Implied Odds and Reverse Implied Odds (A vital deep-stack concept)

Implied Odds Pre-Flop Concept