No-limit Texas Hold’em games are getting tougher. There was a time that isolating limpers and c-betting every flop was enough to make you a winner. Not anymore. If you’re using the same moves you used five years ago, you’re probably getting tooled and are wondering why your opponents always seem to have a hand. I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. They don’t always have a hand. They’ve adjusted to your old bag of tricks. It’s time to take what’s left of your bankroll and fight back. Here’s how to improve what you’re doing to start making money again.
The C-Bet
The c-bet used to be a license to print money. You raised pre-flop and bet 100% of the time when the action checked to you regardless of the flop texture. Your opponent would fold roughly 66% of the time, money would fall from the heavens and you’d congratulate yourself on being a poker god.
But times have changed and these days most aggro-donks realize that there’s a good chance that you don’t have much on that J36 flop either. The result? They check/raise your ass and take away the pot. At least, they used to.
What You Can Do About It
You’re lighting money on fire if you lay down your hand every time an aggressive opponent check/raises your c-bet. You need to fight back but you have to be smart about it. Fighting back every time your opponent check/raises you is suicide. Eventually he’ll wake up with a hand and clean you out. So here’s how you regain your edge.
Re-raise your opponent with a wide range of hands. Take our J36 flop for example. It’s a hard flop to hit and your opponent’s raise says he did it. If he’s a good player, there’s a good chance he didn’t but you’ll have to re-raise him to find out. I would re-raise with AJ+, 66+, 33 and any flush draw. Your opponent will have to lay down anything except a strong Jack or a set. You don’t have to make it a big raise. About 2 – 2.5 times your opponent’s bet should do it on a dry flop. Is it a high variance play? Yes. But it has its advantages.
Occasionally you’ll have to lay down to a shove. It sucks but it also shows your opponents that you’ll 3-bet post-flop without the nuts. That means you can play your big hands fast and get paid.
Isolating Limpers
Isolating limpers is still profitable. Limpers tend to be shitty players and shitty players don’t play well when they’re out of position post-flop. If you don’t know how to isolate limpers, it’s easy. You identify a bad player and wait for them to limp (call the big blind) pre-flop. You raise their limp with all kinds of weird hands like suited single-gappers, suited double-gappers or complete trash. Your opponent calls ( ‘cause that’s what shitty players do) and then check/folds the flop when you c-bet.
The problem starts when a tough player in late position notices that you’re bogarting the fish, decides to put a stop to it and starts to 3-bet you.
What You Can Do About It
The first thing you should do is nothing. Just because someone 3-bets you once or twice doesn’t mean that he’s making a move. Your opponent may have picked up a legitimate hand. Just fold and wait for another opportunity. If you keep getting 3-bet, however, you’ll need to shut down your opponent. There are a couple ways to do this.
First, open up your 4-betting range. Four-betting works great if your opponent can fold but it sucks if he likes to call and play his position (unless you can 4-bet shove). Hands like 88+, AJs+, AQ+ is a good range.
Your other option is to flat call and check/raise a lot of flops. This option is my favorite because people tend to be less aggressive when the flop is down and I can call/check-raise a wider range of hands. It also gives me the option to fold if the flop looks ugly. The call/check-raise also makes your opponent less likely to want to mix things up with you post-flop which means you can get away with 4-betting light later in the session.
Stealing the Blinds
Once upon a time we could raise from the hijack, cut-off and button when the action folded to us and pick up the sweet, juicy blind money without a fight. The blinds would have to play out of position against a raiser so they’d fold the majority of their hands. Not anymore.
These days the blinds will re-steal with a wide range of hands. Suited connectors, pocket pairs and any two broadway cards are fair game. Some players re-steal even wider.
What You Can Do About It
Most people adjust by not stealing as frequently. I think that’s the wrong way to adjust. Stealing is still profitable, you just have to be willing to play a little poker and make the re-stealing player’s life miserable.
Pick your spots when facing an aggressive re-stealer. Fold your trash and defend with your premium and speculative hands.
You can 4-bet premium hands. Hands like TT+, AJ+ and even QJs+ can be 4-bet against an aggressive re-stealer. For most speculative hands I like to call and force my opponent to play the hand out of position.
Aggressive re-stealers will c-bet a wide range of flops. You can make their life difficult by raising the ones that give you decent equity and floating the ones that don’t improve your hand but are unlikely to hit your opponent’s range. After a couple clashes, you opponent will figure that it’s easier to just let you have the blind.
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Poker is a dynamic game. Exploits only work for so long before someone comes up with a counter-exploit. You have to keep your game fluid and watch for shifts in the way your opponents play. Does it make the game higher variance? Yes. As players get better the edges get smaller which makes the swings bigger. But the alternative is to keep playing your old game and get crushed by newer strategies. The choice is yours.
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