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CuteRaven

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Bankroll is now 5152.45€

In the early afternoon I decided to buy seven HU SNG tickets with the bonus points that I had, but I accidentally bought seven Hexapro tickets lol. In the end I won two 125€ prize pool Hexas, so from a results oriented perspective I'm not too sad about the mistake.

In the evening I decided to play some 5 man SNGs because the 50€ SNGs were running amazingly well. I was running pretty hot and ended with a decent profit six tabling. Towards the end I started to play a bit worse, I made a few silly bluffs and also one terrible ICM call. I knew the call was terrible immediately after making it, I'm not sure what made me to decide to call there TBH. I think I was getting a bit tired (well, I have been a bit tired this whole day, maybe evidenced by accidentally buying the Hexapro tickets earlier :p).

I'm probably going to study ICM and bubble situations a bit more before playing the 5 mans again, so that I can be sure that I'm less prone to silly ICM mistakes.

1140000487_A4offsuithorriblecall.thumb.png.5a4f7f1fd7bdb05a3240d3ad0d75ef5d.png

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Bankroll is now 5219.10€

Earlier today I studies some button ICM situations. It's pretty interesting!

For example: If you were in the big blind with a stack of 10 BB and the button and small blind players both went all in (and they both had a stack of 20 BB), what sort of range would you call the all in with?

Anwser:

You can't profitably call any hands here. Unless BU and SB chop, you are guaranteed to be in the money when you fold.

I played a short session of 50€ 5 man SNGs today. Once again the 50 € level ran quite nicely today, I was able to 6 or 7 table them quite easily! Maybe word of this promotion has spread and attracted more players to play for the leaderboard this week? Or people have more energy to compete for leaderboard prizes at the start of the week? I'm not sure. It went decently well otherwise, except I didn't run that great in HU. Good for a minor profit anyway, essentially breakeven result at these stakes, and I'm happy with how I played today. I'm currently 7th on the leaderboard.

I decided to do some calculations myself. This week so far, last week, and the week before that, I have played about 300 5 man SnGs with an average buyin of about 36€ and profits of about 1600€ (based on my earlier blog updates and leaderboard scores). These numbers are not completely accurate but they are very close anyway. That gives me an ROI of about 15% so far. Of course the sample is tiny and I think there is no way that my real ROI is close to being that high :Rofl:. I must have been running quite well. How well, top 70% run, top 80%, top 90%, more? I'm not sure, it's very hard to estimate variance :Laugh:

The 95% confidence interval for this sample is an ROI of -1% to 30%, and the 70% confidence interval is 7%-23%. Looking good so far, but I still need a much bigger sample to make conclusions.

Here is an interesting hand from today (in a 50€ 5 man SNG), a successful bluffcatch on the bubble. Villain seemed slightly aggro but I had very few reads at the moment of this hand. Something about the fastish timing of bets and the runout made me a bit suspicious, and I had a flush blocker :Rofl:. Maybe a bit loose from me still. River was a tank call.

*** Seated players ***

Seat 3: Villain 2 (2983)

Seat 4: Hero (3877)

Seat 5: Villain 1 (3140)

*** Blinds and button ***

Villain 1 has the button

Villain 2 posts small blind 80

Hero posts big blind 160

*** Hole cards ***

Dealt in Villain 2

Dealt to Hero [3h 5s]

Dealt to Villain 1 [9s Ah]

*** Preflop ***

Villain 1 raises 320 to 320

Villain 2 folds

Hero calls 160

*** Flop *** [7c 2h 5h]

Hero checks

Villain 1 bets 240

Hero calls 240

*** Turn *** [7c 2h 5h] [Qh]

Hero checks

Villain 1 bets 560

Hero calls 560

*** River *** [7c 2h 5h] [Qh] [Jd]

Hero checks

Villain 1 bets 2020, and is all-in

Hero calls 2020

*** Showdown ***

Hero shows [3h 5s], A Pair of Fives

Villain 1 shows [9s Ah], High card

Hero wins 6360

Villain 1 finished the tournament in 3rd place

*** Summary ***

Total pot 6360

Seat 3: Villain 2: bet 80 and won 0, net result: -80

Seat 4: Hero: bet 3140 and won 6360, net result: 3220

Seat 5: Villain 1: bet 3140 and won 0, net result: -3140

Edit: Typos

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@CuteRaven wrote:

I'm still keeping away from even a little bit of alcohol and trying to live somewhat healthy to keep the anxiety at bay. So far, it seems to have been working!


Quitting drinking is one of the hardest and a truly remarkable feat a person should aim to acheive. I understand using moderately in social surroundings, esp at an younger age. Hower most people don't use moderatley and others like me were and  some still are on the verge of alcoholism.

Being legal is the only true benefit to this certainly one of the hardest drug. Other one is the social aspect which after stopping althoger makes you more antisocial. If 90% of your friends and people you hang with for years are medium to heavy drinkers there surely will be social distance after you quit.

Just want to point out that I stopped in 2009 in my first year as a poker pro and this happened after more than 10 years of extreme abuse.

So @CuteRaven  the reason tio write this is because after reading your blog I couldn't offer you much of a poker advice, but if you reconsider the pros/cons of drinking in your particular life situation, I guess there are two choices:

1. If you have no problems with alcohol use beside some hungovers and don't drink regulary or in great quantities - carry on while you are still young and healthy.

2. The other option  is to quit forgood. It's preferable esp. if you have been developing addiction or have such cases in the family. Or just plain problem drinking.

If boredom begin to fill your days better indulge in something less harmful and be yourself, not what the social norms dictates you 😃

 

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@monkeyheavenNice hand! I can certainly respect the big bluff, putting maximum pressure on the bubble :D. I think only the better players in the pool are capable of bluffing in this situation.

@GothMothThanks for the advice, I really appreciate it!

Alcohol has caused me some problems in the past, although not that much. Usually after taking some amount of alcohol I no longer feel like drinking more (the exception is if I combine alcohol with weed, it removes all my natural inhibitions about drinking more and I can get really drunk. Anyway, I don't use weed anymore). I guess I'm pretty lucky that after some amount of drinking I no longer feel like drinking more.

When I turned 18 me and my friends would go drinking almost every weekend, and eventually I realized that life started feeling more dull and tiring. I was tired during the week from school, and during the weekend from partying/hangovers 🤣. So eventually I started drinking only a little bit. But you are correct, the social aspect is the most difficult part, the temptation is there when others drink. Luckily my drinking friends don't judge me for drinking less (or drinking none), and I also have another group of friends where people don't really use alcohol. I have also been slowly drinking less and less (for over a year now at least), so the transition doesn't feel that tough.

But the main reason I have quit completely, at least for quite a long time, is because even a little bit of alcohol seems to usually trigger my anxiety the next morning (or when trying to sleep), even if I have no other hangover symptoms. So drinking really just is not worth it for me anymore.

Congrats on the over 10 years of sobrierty BTW! :popeye::happy:

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@Dennis__ Well, I didn't have a lot of reads before the hand, except that the player was slightly aggro and and pretty solid so far and was playing on a few different tables, so I though on balance it was likely that this player was one of the players in the pool capable of bluffing. I also thought that some players might bluff me three streets (compared to bluffing someone who only calls two barrels with a very strong range, where it might not be as worth it to fire the third barrel). I had been on many other tables and playing quite agressively postflop (sometimes that causes players to play back aggressively), and probably some players already had reads on me.

I also thought the value range is quite narrow with mostly good Qx and flushes, I think most players would check Jx (so easy runout to accidentally overbluff), and I had some real or imagined timing tell reads, so I decided to go with the call this time.

But part of what makes this hand so interesting is that it might be an ok call, or it might be a terrible call, and it's also interesting IMO because exploitative adjustments are hard to evaluate objectively. I understand and agree with your logic in principle though.

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Bankroll is now 4657.61€

I didn't have much time to play poker on Wednesday and Thursday, and I played only a little bit on both days, resulting in a small loss.

Earlier today I played some 50€ HU SNGs, those went well, and my bankroll reached above 5400€. Then this evening I played some of the 50€ 5 man SNGS. Those went really badly 🤣. There was always some way to bubble these damn SNGs :haha:. 

Also at one point I think I was no longer playing that well. I was getting a bit exchausted and tilted, and wasn't paying enough attention to reads, not thinking through my plays enough to decide whether or not there is a more profitable option, making some overly loose bluffs... I don't think there were many obvious mistakes, I checked some ICM spots and they seemed ok too, but I was playing a bit too ABC aggrodonk style at one point. I should have decided to stop playing once I was no longer focused enough.  I think mostly the loss was due to variance though, but maybe I played worse that I realize?

I think it's a common trap that people fall into, people keep playing unfocused or slightly tilted and feel like everything they did was pretty standard or "normal", but in reality their lack of focus is making them not consider their options in a hand enough, which causes them to make small mistakes that add up from one hand or street (flop, turn...) to the next (and then they don't even realize that they are playing bad or "that bad"). I think it's easy to underestimate the EV difference between "A game" and " C game" (or whatever the terms are).

Well, my bankroll can take a loss like this and this sort of variance is nothing out of the ordinary in the 5 mans. I'm mostly just a bit frustrated that I kept playing longer than I should have.

Most likely tommorrow I won't have time to play.

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You probably didn't play 'worse than your realised'. It's very easy to be results orientated in this game we play. I find that on the best days, you don't play nearly as well as you think you did and on the worst days you don't play nearly as badly as you think you did. A lot of the time the difference is just in how you ran, whether it be in all ins or less obvious ways like your bluff-catching, bluffs and the card distribution of you and your opponents. That's not to say you shouldn't work on your game, but don't let the financial results of a session dictate how you feel you played. I've had good winning days where I've been disappointed with how I've played and terrible days where I have played my A game.

 

Think the 53o hand you recorded before is a perfect example. On another day, when you're stuck money you call and are shown a value hand and beat yourself up and think your terrible, but the same situation happens on a day your winning and feeling good, get shown the bluff and you think you're a poker god. The reality is it's a marginal spot vs population when you reach the river and you really could go either way (although it should just be an easy fold pre).

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Here I think is a decent example of a hand that I think I played badly that I remeber close to the end of session.

Preflop I think that I should've jammed the A4o, instead I chose to take the lower variance, but worse option of calling it preflop. Now I need to play A4o out of position a bit over 10 BB effective, not a great situation to be in. Also, I'm not sure if I like my river jam. I think a lot of players might overfold their Qx and Jx, especially with all the ICM that exists. Maybe I should check call it instead on the river and give villain an opportunity to bluff with their range advantage.

*** Seated players ***
Seat 1: Villain 1 (1550)
Seat 2: Main villain (2265)
Seat 3: Villain 2 (1324)
Seat 4: Hero (2621)
Seat 5: Villain 3 (2240)
*** Blinds and button ***
Main villain has the button
Villain 2 posts small blind 80
Hero posts big blind 160
*** Hole cards ***
Dealt in Villain 2
Dealt to Hero [4h As]
Dealt in Villain 3
Dealt in Villain 1
Dealt to Main villain [7d Ah]
*** Preflop ***
Villain 3 folds
Villain 1 folds
Main villain raises 320 to 320
Villain 2 folds
Hero calls 160
*** Flop *** [Jd Qh Ad]
Hero checks
Main villain bets 544
Hero calls 544
*** Turn *** [Jd Qh Ad] [6d]
Hero checks
Main villain checks
*** River *** [Jd Qh Ad] [6d] [3c]
Hero bets 1757, and is all-in
Main villain calls 1401, and is all-in
Uncalled bet returned to Hero: 356
*** Showdown ***
Main villain shows [7d Ah], A Pair of Aces with a Seven kicker
Hero shows [4h As], A Pair of Aces with a Six kicker
Main villain wins 4610
*** Summary ***
Total pot 4610
Seat 2: Main villain: bet 2265 and won 4610, net result: 2345
Seat 3: Villain 2: bet 80 and won 0, net result: -80
Seat 4: Hero: bet 2621 and won 356, net result: -2265

Here's another hand that I remember in a 50€ SNG where I don't really like my play, earlier in the session actually. I end up jamming KQo from the small blind. It's marginally profitable, especially with the dead money in there, but at 28 BB effective I think there are much better options. I think I still have a stack size where I can 3bet small and fold this hand to a 4bet (if it was 20 BB effective or less then maybe jamming is better), and calling is probably good too, although it isn't that great to play three way out of position, but KQo doesn't play that bad either. I guess one question is, are there any hands that I should just jam this deep? Something like 66 probably doesn't play well as either a smaller 3bet or a flat call, because postflop playability is so terrible.

*** Seated players ***
Seat 1: Hero (2409)
Seat 2: Villain 1 (1455)
Seat 3: Main villain (2235)
Seat 4: Villain 2 (2266)
Seat 5: Villain 3 (1635)
*** Blinds and button ***
Villain 3 has the button
Hero posts small blind 40
Villain 1 posts big blind 80
*** Hole cards ***
Dealt to Hero [Kh Qc]
Dealt in Villain 1
Dealt to Main villain [Ac As]
Dealt in Villain 2
Dealt in Villain 3
*** Preflop ***
Main villain raises 160 to 160
Villain 2 folds
Villain 3 calls 160
Hero raises 2369 to 2409, and is all-in
Villain 1 folds
Main villain calls 2075, and is all-in
Villain 3 folds
Uncalled bet returned to Hero: 174
*** Showdown ***
*** Flop *** [Qh 7h 2c]
*** Turn *** [Qh 7h 2c] [3h]
*** River *** [Qh 7h 2c] [3h] [6c]
Hero shows [Kh Qc], A Pair of Queens
Main villain shows [Ac As], A Pair of Aces
Main villain wins 4710
*** Summary ***
Total pot 4710
Seat 1: Hero: bet 2409 and won 174, net result: -2235
Seat 2: Villain 1: bet 80 and won 0, net result: -80
Seat 3: Main villain: bet 2235 and won 4710, net result: 2475
Seat 5: Villain 3: bet 160 and won 0, net result: -160

These are the sort of mistakes, while maybe not huge mistakes, add up if you make many of them during the session.

Edit: @Groggy Yeah, that's a great point, I think I might be a bit results oriented also in this case, although I think I was also less focused than usual. But maybe my play wasn't that bad, I think it's definately easier to notice mistakes and be frustrated with play when the results are bad. Well, that frustration is pretty useful as well because usually I work on my game much more during a downswing :p

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@Dennis__ Ok, interesting, thanks for the opinions! Yeah I thought folding is better than calling A4o probably, I looked at it again in ICMIZER, seems I had some parameters wrong earlier, indeed A4o is better as a fold than a jam (bottom of the jamming range: A8o,KJo,QTo,JTo,22,87s,98s,T8s,J8s,Q8s,K9s,A2s).

Would you have a non-allin 3bet range in the stack depth of the KQo?

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Thanks @Dennis__ !

Yeah, other things that kind of confuse me about the A4o hand are sources like this:

https://www.pokersites.io/spin-and-go-strategy/

In the "BB vs Button" section it's basically jamming any Ax 17-14BB effective. However, there is no ICM involved with these ranges, and the assumed button RFI range in the article is ridiculously wide for these stack depths, even without ICM. I think that these ranges also assume antes exist.

Then there is this Jonathan little video 

(with 15 BB big blind vs button range at 15:18 ) with supposedly simplified GTO ranges where A4o is a jam. However, this range assumes that there are antes. With 12.5% antes, A4o indeed becomes a jam in ICMIzer as well. And the ranges in this video are also without ICM considerations.

I could see A4o being a flat call in GTO land, but it's hard to play postflop in practice against tight human ranges, and ICM probably has a big effect.

Yeah makes sense with the 28 bb situation, same logic as HU SNG short stacked non-allin 3bet ranges then :p. 

 

 

 

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A4o I'd defend with a call too, definitely not shoving pre without reads that Btn opens too wide.  If we fold hands like this I guess we are just playing push or fold, makes us easier to play against. I'd prob take same line postflop too.

3bet folding KQo, tough spot though, we have to have some 3bet bluffs and this seems like a decent candidate. 

53o hand please fold pre . Flop is fine, turn call is ambitious.  River call looks like a huge mistake, assuming this is one of the worst hands that gets to river and you block only one (maybe 2) value combos and you have many 2 pairs, flushes and maybe a couple of Qcxc combos in your range. 

just my opinion, you guys probably study this stuff more than me these days. 

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@monkeyheaven @CuteRaven Just saw we are in the BB with the A4o hand (I thought it was the SB). Changes things slightly, but I think I still fold. I know that many people suggest defending the BB really wide but with A4o at 10BB effective Stack there is almost nothing sensible we can hit. A4x and 235 are the only good flops, Axx has a lot of reverse implieds and the many flops that just miss us completely usually just mean giving up on the flop.

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@monkeyheaven @Dennis__ 

Thanks for the opinions! It's quite fun to play a game so complicated that even experienced players have such different views on what the best play is :D (I don't count myself in this category, I have only played 5 man SNG for a few weeks now).

After thinking about these hands more this is my current view on them.

A4o hand: Seems it's too loose to jam. I agree that there should be a flatting range in the BB even this shallow (probably as shallow as down to maybe even 8 BB or so). I think A4o is too nitty to fold given the great price and probably I would flat this despite bad postflop playability, I think the flatting range can be surprisingly wide given the price, and ICM isn't as important 5 handed as I was thinking at some point. I could be wrong though, maybe the post flop playability is so bad that I should fold it. If I was in sb I definitely fold this. And how wide can BB flat here? Not sure.

Having a flatting range in this spot has some interesting strategy implications. For example, should I have some AA/KK flat call traps here since it's so likely the money will go in postflop anyway? Maybe...

Edit: I think river is still kind of close between bet and check but I guess either can be good. I guess check is better vs bluffier opponents, bet is better vs more face up opponents that never check turn with an A.

KQo hand: I think in this situation in the future I will play quite a mixed strategy. I think that I will have some jams, some non-allin 3bets, and some flat calls. On the one hand it's not the simplest strategy to balance, but there are some hands that just don't play that well in any other part of the range. For example, rather than force stuff like K9s or QJo into an akward 3betting range, I think these might be nicer to flat call in general. Of course I could fold these hands pre, but whats the fun in that :D. Despite the difficulty to balance, it's the strategy I feel most comfortable with.

Balancing this strategy probably requires doing weird stuff rarely like flatting QQ/JJ in the small blind (I actually flatted JJ vs a cutoff open in the small blind once yesterday with an aggro 3bettor in the BB and was lucky to face a 3bet to then execute the funky call/rejam move :p. BB folded to the rejam).

Which range does KQo fit in best then? I'm not sure, I could see arguments for placing it in any of the three ranges, I think I prefer 3betting non-allin or flatting the most.

53o hand: Yeah it's probably a bit too loose pre, without antes at least, even against a button minraise this deep :p.

The fun thing about bluffcatching is that the absolute hand strength doesn't matter by the river, only things that matter are blockers and weather or not I beat bluffs. Any perceived unbalance in buttons range should give me the incentive to either massively overcall or overfold my bluffcatchers (because I'm getting the correct or wrong price). I do block 55, 5s7s, Qs5s, Ah3h, Kh3h depending on how wide the button range is of course. I would have raised some flushes and 2p+ before the river though and I don't have that many Qx, so I arguably don't have a huge amount of calling hands to choose from here. I think I rather call this than any 7 without a heart (maybe with the exception of A7 and K7).

Still, the call is quite loose and I won't make a habit of making these sorts of calls :p

I wonder how ICM affects postflop? I have heard that there is less incentive to bet in position because you open yourself up to getting checkraised (which is more dangerous for the cbettor than normal in ICM situations, because losing chips becomes a bigger threat). Anyway, ICMs implications on postflop (and how that should change preflop) is something I don't understand very well. Can OOP call wider preflop expecting to realize more equity if IP cbets less often? I'm not sure.

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@Dennis__I have seen a Youtube video exploring ICM implications of postflop play with a solver. It's pretty interesting:

It's probably possible to some extent/degree of accuracy with some solvers but yeah it doesn't seem to be easy to study.

I did end up playing just a few 50€ 5 man SNGs and 25€ HU SNGs today, with a minor profit (BR is 4757.78€) mostly from the HU, I won one 5 man SNG and busted the rest, I think I broke even pretty much.

There was this one player that was calling my all-ins super light, or going all in super light vs me (I didn't see them do it against other players). They either loved me ("trying to give me all their chips" as Phil Hellmuth would say), or really didn't like me, trying to take any possibilities to bust me, maybe they were tilted after one big hand I played vs them with AA. They called my 10 BB button rejam from the small blind with J7s (I had AQo, they won of course with JJx on the flop). Then there was this situation on the bubble on another table:

187055459_Screenshotat2020-10-1802-49-48.thumb.png.d5b188f61601f615a8230fe91116b5b3.png

I also made one probably bad river call in a pot with Kh4h on [Qh 3h Qc] [4c] [5s] against 1/4 pot river sizing. Called flop and turn with the heart draw and pair of 4. Got tempted by the river price, well played by whoever villain was there with QdTc (Villain was UTG, I was in SB, BB also called pre and then folded the flop. I went call, call, call here vs 1/2 pot flop, 3/4 pot turn, 1/4 pot river). I think I should just get away, way too uncommon that players have a bluff in this line, and probably even A high without the hearts is a better call here. In theory I can't fold much vs that sizing but still :p. I'm also about 75% sure that this player was @monkeyheaven in retrospect!

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I suspect at the highest stakes 5man SnG's KQo would be shoving pre but it seems unnecessary in these games. It feels a bit lazy and gives opponent's fairly easy decisions. I think mixing some flats and some 3bet folds is going to be good. Especially as the pool is probably going to 4 bet jam too tight.

 

A4o I would guess is just a fold pre. Seems close for chip ev as it is and with ICM considerations is probably going to just be a fold. You are almost defending to try and flop a bluffcatcher as a fairly best case scenario. It feels like villain is gonna insta-win on quite a lot of boards and when lots of money goes in on ace high boards again it feels like we lose a lot. As played I don't think shove achieves anything after villain has cbet 3/4 pot. It seems unlikely they are gonna have a hand like KQ/KK for that size on the flop, let alone call with it even if they did when our only potential bluff is T9. I actually think it's more of a check fold than a check call, and that the pool is going to be massively under-bluffing this line if we check and see a jam.

 

53o hand is a lot too loose pre, it isn't even a defend heads up. Your hands are tied till you reach river which is the decision point. I actually think you stumble into a good bluff-catcher just because there are so many potential bluff combos and situationally on the bubble it's easy to over-bluff to apply max pressure. Think of all the AK AT A9 A8 A4 A3 K9 KT T9 combos with one heart that could potentially get to the river this way. Your hand blocks a few value combos and unblocks villain's most likely bluffs.

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think I agree with @Groggy now re 53o hand, but such a marginal spot I typically avoid. Have thought about my line some more, Ah looked like a natural 3 barrel on this runout in game, but Ah doesn't block the nut flush effectively because we should expect bb to shove all suited aces preflop, non-Broadway heart is probably a better candidate. 

@CuteRaven for sure playing these weak hands (K4s is another one, no it wasn't me this time) sets you up well for playing 100bb cash games, and you're navigating these spots far better than I could, have you considered you could cut your vpip in half, double your table count and print in lots of easy situations vs what are overall soft fields imo?

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Thanks for the analysis @Groggy! I agree with your analysis on the KQo and 53o hand at this point (apart from one thing, 53o can be defended in HU, depending on stack depth, the deeper the better :p https://www.pokersites.io/heads-up-hyper-pre-flop-charts/)

Interesting thoughts on the A4o. I think it's always hard to quantify what the correct price is for a call. Yes, A4o plays bad postflop, but how does this relate to price and stack depth and ICM? In a 100 BB cash game this is an easy call vs button minraise. What is a high enough stack depth to call this? I think it's very hard to figure out with intuition the correct calling range is what I'm trying to get at. Anyway, I understand why you and Dennis would fold this pre.

As for the river check fold, it's pretty nitty but it could even be justified versus some players, I will have to think about that more :p

@monkeyheavenYeah, I think some of my main leaks are too high VPIP (from blinds at least) and playing too LAG style (and yeah K4s is way too losse now that I look at it). I think it's because of playing so much HU, you really have to be quite LAG (compared to other poker formats) there to win nicely, the best players know this and they bluff quite a lot in HU SNG. Anyway, something to work on for these formats for me, and yeah it would make playing more tables easier too, thanks for the advice!

Good point about the Ah! On the other hand you block me from having stuff like AhQs (edit: nvm AQo is ofc a preflop jam, maybe you're right Kh is better here to bluff with) or Ah7s which are good bluffcatching candidates blocking your nut flush, so I'm not sure blocking some of my best bluffcatchers is that bad, especially when I might raise a good chunk of my flushes on earlier streets.

Yeah, honestly the main reason I played 5 man SNGs is out of curiosity, it seemed like a good opportunity to try a new game type, sometimes I want to play different game types to mix it up a bit and learn new poker. I think I will play more HU SNG and cash in the coming weeks. I still like the exitement of the one on one reg battles and truly maxexploit possibility vs fish in HU SNG :D

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The problem with a hand like A4o is it under-realises a lot postflop just because of how badly it hits boards. It's just a hand that we are going to lose with a lot even when we are still ahead on a lot of flops. In terms of raw equity of course it is doing well enough to defend vs btn, it just doesn't get to realise that equity efficiently.  The reason there are negative ICM implications is because we basically always have to call down stacks when we make top pair just because we are massively lacking for Ax hands when we call preflop given we reshove a lot of Ax hands. Ace high boards are significantly better for button so it is a board we should face a lot of aggression on.

In terms of suggesting river check fold that would purely be an exploit play against the pool, we are definitely supposed to get stacked here. I don't think opponent's are bluffing big size often enough, especially on this kind of board. The 3rd diamond improves a lot of potential bluffs to high equity semi bluff jams on the turn. (T9, K9 one diamond) So realistically, what bluffs are we going to see the average villain show up with at river given this line, other than perhaps T9 or T8s without a diamond?

The main reason I'm playing 5 man SnG's is also just to experience a different game type, poker has been feeling a bit stale for me and I've enjoyed the change. I enjoy promotions that feature leaderboards that give me an incentive to grind. 

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Bankroll is now 5172.18€

I played some 50€ HU SNG earlier today (played 6, won 5), then I decided to take some shots at 100€ HU SNG in the evening (played 25, won 13). Some of the regs at 100€ are def very good, but not unbeatable. Anyway, I will have to make sure that I'm feeling sharp and thinking through all my decisions properly when playing that buyin level!

I also came second in the 1000€ freeroll flip for about 197€ (I wasn't watching when it happened). It's the first time that I have got the ticket. I'm not sure what the criteria for getting it is, probably something like playing on Unibet consistently for some time at certain stakes (I haven't raked much recently because of playing the rakeless 5 man SNGs). Lucky result, in any case!

Here is a fun bluff that was successful. One of the best bluff candidate hands that I have here IMO:

Table €100 SNG 2 Seat - 20.00/40.00 - No Limit Hold'Em - Total prize €194 -
*** Seated players ***
Seat 1: Hero (1120)
Seat 2: Villain (880)
*** Blinds and button ***
Villain has the button
Villain posts small blind 20
Hero posts big blind 40
*** Hole cards ***
Dealt to Hero [7d Kh]
Dealt in Villain
*** Preflop ***
Villain calls 20
Hero checks
*** Flop *** [9h Ah 7c]
Hero checks
Villain bets 40
Hero calls 40
*** Turn *** [9h Ah 7c] [Th]
Hero checks
Villain bets 80
Hero calls 80
*** River *** [9h Ah 7c] [Th] [2s]
Hero checks
Villain bets 320
Hero raises 960 to 960, and is all-in
Villain folds
Uncalled bet returned to Hero: 640
Hero wins 960
*** Summary ***
Total pot 960
Seat 1: Hero: bet 1120 and won 1600, net result: 480
Seat 2: Villain: bet 480 and won 0, net result: -480


@Groggy   Yeah I agree with what you are saying about A4o playability and also that equity realization is more important than raw equity, what I was wondering is when does the price become good enough to call pre? My pot odds vs minraise is 22%, what would be the the correct pot odds to call with A4o (lets say stack depth and ICM was same but it was somehow legal to raise as button to a size smaller than a minraise)?  Regardless of how badly a hand plays postflop, it's still a call for some low enough (theoretical) price. But for the price of a minraise in this spot, maybe, maybe not? I'm not saying you are wrong, I just don't have much that is concrete to justify this borderline hand as either a call or a fold in this specific spot. Pot odds and range advantages are hard to translate into accurate preflop ranges without some software (software that also looks at postflop equity realization) :p. Seems most people prefer a fold pre here, maybe that is what I will do in the future.

And yeah, a river check fold is tough. I could chop with some hands like A2s valuebets and I would be folding the vast majority of my range if I check fold A4o. But it might well be justified vs severe underbluffers. I would add K9s sometimes into the bluff range, TT and 99 for the more creative. Then again other players would probably never bluff here on the river.

Appreciate the insight/advice!

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I don't know the answer to your question I'm afraid. I'm sure there are some GTO defence ranges ICM adjusted out there at varied stack depths somewhere. I haven't studied ranges or the format, it's just my opinion, it isn't necessarily correct. I would defend A5o so to me it is marginal. I would like to know the answers to the questions your asking myself.
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