Block Bets: Part Two
Last week, we went over why small bets are a part of optimal strategy and how a GTO solver “thinks” about when to utilize them.
Today, we’ll dive into a discussion on splitting your range between small bets and checks.
But if modern poker terminology like "splitting your range" makes your head spin, you're not alone.
The good news: My goal in this article is to render a complex concept slightly more digestible and to offer some practical advice.
Probably
I promised you I’d explain why some unintuitive hands make small bets. Before I deliver on that promise, I’d like to set the stage.
Depending on the action you take, you’re varying degrees of likely to face aggression.
Let’s take last week’s example pot, where we 3-bet from the small blind and got flatted by the cutoff opener. But instead of discussing a specific flop, let’s see how we average across all flops (in GTO land):
Simulated across all possible flops using GTO tools.
Let’s take a look at another aspect of this: How often do we get too see a turn, depending on the action we take?
What does all this mean for us?
Well, it means we need to be prepared.
Attackers and Defenders
Some hands are better for aggression, while others are better for defending against aggression.
Yes, the best hands are great for both, but we can’t always have the top of our range.
Hands that are better for attacking are:
Value hands that don’t mind narrowing your opponent's range (meaning they’re very strong and/or they benefit from folding out overcard hands, for example)
*Note: Larger bets narrow your opponent’s range more than smaller bets.Bluff and semi-bluff hands that like folding out the bottom of your opponents’ range (less showdown value)
Hands that are better for defending are:
Monsters that crush the board (AA on A33), making it more likely your opponent has air to bluff with and less likely they have a calling hand.
Good hands that don’t want to narrow your opponents’ range (e.g. A3 on A98 – We don’t want to fold out KT, and we don’t want to bet multiple streets for value).
Draws with more showdown value.
Board Coverage: Conditions
We don’t know what the turn and river will bring. As such, we need to be prepared.
The less likely a type of turn is to hit, and the smaller the consequences of not connecting with it, the less prepared we need to be for it.
For example, on A❤️T❤️3♠️, it’s much more important that each of our ranges (big bet, small bet, check-call, check-raise) can turn a flush than for them to be able to turn a set on an offsuit 7♣️.
Firstly, the flush will hit way more often. Second, we may already have sets on the flop, and hands like A♣️T♦️ which can still play big pots on the 7♣️.
Ready for Battle
We’ve now set the stage for a metaphor that works just well enough for it to solidify some concepts in your mind.
We are at battle. Our base is miles away from our enemies.
You have soldiers who are better attackers and others who are better defenders. Attackers tend to specialize in unchanging weather conditions (board texture), whereas defenders can handle the change.
If you’re going to launch a full-scale attack, going after your enemies base, then it’s clear what you do:
You send most of your attackers out on the mission (big bet), and you keep most of your defenders on base (check).
You leave a few attackers back for a counterstrike (check-raise), and you send a couple of defenders out there in case your attack doesn’t end things and the weather changes.
When you attack their base (big bet), whoever is there to fight you is usually forced into defense mode. Your attackers get to stay on the attack. Your defenders stay home and defend against whatever is coming.
Now let’s look at another scenario:
Partial Attack
This time, you don’t want to launch an all-out attack. You notice that the enemy is softer in between your base and theirs, so you’d like to advance some of your army halfway (small bet).
This forces them to mount some defense, but doesn’t put them on their heels so much that they can’t attack (raise).
The unit you send out to go halfway needs to be prepared to either continue attacking or to defend.
The battle is much less likely to end with your attack, too, so this unit needs to be prepared for changing conditions (board texture), as does the group staying back on base.
You can’t leave either group overexposed, or they can exploit that gap.
So, you send out (small bet) a mix of attackers and defenders, with a slight preference towards attackers. As a result, you keep a mix back on base (check), slightly skewed toward defenders.
Back to Our Hand
So, the hand in question…
We 3-bet from the small blind and get called by the cutoff. The flop is A♦️6❤️5♠️ .
We learned last week that our opponent’s base is doing just fine, but they are very weak halfway there. We decide to attack with a small bet, splitting our range into small bets and checks.
Here is what an optimal strategy looks like:
Last time, we talked about hands like K♣️K♠️ and K❤️Q❤️. Why do they bet?
Well, they bet sometimes – a little bit less than half the time, because that small bet range needs to be well-rounded.
But you’ll notice that they bet less often than hands like AK, AQ, 98, 77. Those hands are better attackers, and KK and KQ are better defenders.
Now, this is where the metaphor falls apart because, obviously, our attackers like 77 can handle defending against a raise, while K❤️Q❤️ cannot.
But the point remains that if we leave either range unbalanced, we are left exploitable to an attack that can come in many forms.
Our opponent can “attack” our betting range by folding on the turn because we don’t have enough bluff candidates.
They can attack by small betting after we bet flop and check turn with a range that can’t defend well against a small bet (because we either have bluffs we gave up on, which can’t call any bet, or strong hands that can call or raise).
Small Bets. Big Mistakes.
If you start to “correctly” employ a small bet strategy in a given spot while incorrectly splitting your range – checking hands that feel good to check and betting hands that feel good to bet – you’re not getting closer to GTO. You’re getting further away.
Against a strong player, you’re making a much bigger mistake than if you stuck with your intuitive big betting.
Why?
Because you’re sharing a lot of information about your range without even charging them much to see the next street and take advantage of it.
If I know your range is going to struggle on certain turn cards, you don’t want to let me see those turns, and take advantage, cheaply.
This is one of the risks of implementing solver strategy without understanding it.
Practical Advice
We’re all at different points on different poker journeys.
For those of you who aren’t looking to earn income playing poker, investing in solver tools and training videos may not make sense.
Some of you may have very limited study time or limited patience for the monotony of solver-based studying.
If, for whatever reason, you’re not going to be able to fully wrap your head around a GTO-based strategy, my advice is this:
Don’t try to.
If you’re used to making big bets with hands that feel intuitive to you, keep doing that!
If you’re used to c-betting small with 100% of your range on many boards, don’t bother cutting that down to a solver-approved 74% of your range.
It’s more important that you either charge your opponents more when you split your range, or that you don’t split your range at all, than that you pick the perfect sizing and near-perfect frequencies.
Know Your Opponent
Keep in mind that the types of leaks that are caused by poor range construction are only taken advantage of in a big way by observant, strong players.
If you’re playing in low-stakes MTTs, where you don’t run into the same players frequently enough for them to figure out your strategy, and where most players wouldn’t know what to do about it even if they did – don’t sweat it!
If you’re playing in soft cash games where your opponents have never thought about poker strategy beyond watching a TV hand review on YouTube, you don’t need to worry.
What you should do, though, is start taking steps to become the player who is exploiting their imbalanced ranges.
The best players in the world make range-construction mistakes. You can be sure that weaker players leave gaping holes in their game.
If you can begin paying attention in a way you haven’t before, you’ll be on your way to making a lot more money against them.
Ask yourself questions like:
“What kinds of hands do they never bet here?”
“What kinds of hands do they mostly bet?”
“What turn cards will they struggle, with that range, to value bet on?”
“What turn and river cards will they struggle to bluff enough on?”
If you practice thinking these through, especially while you’re not involved in a hand (so that you can process them with a clear head), you’ll make incremental gains in your understanding of the game each time you play.
