Blind Battles: Hand #6

[mperich]

I probably fold. Ive also been waiting until the turn to raise here a lot.

-Mike

[Surfbullet]

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I probably fold. Ive also been waiting until the turn to raise here a lot.

-Mike

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Me too.

Surf

[TStoneMBD]

i usually wait till the turn to raise this too but not all the time of course.

[Spicymoose]

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i usually wait till the turn to raise this too but not all the time of course.

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I usually save my "wait till the turn to raise" spots for higher pairs. I didn't realize people were doing this with low middle, and even bottom pairs. Obviously it is board dependant, but how often would you say you are waiting till the turn on your bottom pair hands?

[TStoneMBD]

id say if im going to put a raise in with bottom pair itll be on the turn 75% of the time and on the flop the other 25%. it also varies depending on the board of course. sometimes i just call the flop and call the turn. its important to often just call the flop with these pairs because you should often be calling the flop with no pair alot as well.

when your opponent sees you calling the flop with pairs hell often checkfold the turn which allows you to pick up alot of pots when you have called the flop with nothing. if he realizes youre calling the flop with nothing alot as well as calling with pairs hell often fire another bluff on the turn and youll extract more bets with your pairs this way. playing in position against a SB stealer in this manner is a strategy that is hard to exploit. you should of course also be mixing it up with a good raising strategy that is hard to read.

[Spicymoose]

Wow. So if you are calling this often on the flop with bottom pairs, I would imagine that you are calling even more with higher pairs. With all this flop calling, do I take it that a flop raise is somewhat rare? Or do you save that for your non pair and draw hands?

Again, I am talking pretty generally here, but I would just like to get a basic idea.

[TStoneMBD]

i mix it up alot. you cant just raise the flop with only your pairs. your flop raises should have a good balance of pairs, draws, ace high and straight bluffs. if youre just raising the flop with only some of the above then an excellent player will exploit you. im personally trying to figure out what the perfect frequency is according to game theory. from there the frequencies change depending upon what exploitable frequencies your opponent has. while you should be balancing your flop raises, he should be balancing his responses your flop raises. if he doesnt balance properly enough (ie: folding too much or not enough) then bluffraising goes up or down in value. if he doesnt balance properly enough by only 3betting strong hands then your folding frequency goes up.

[Danenania]

Lately I have been experimenting with never raising the flop in position when I defend in BB. I either fold the flop or most commonly call and raise the turn with both pairs and draws and sometimes bluffs (frequencies adjusted for the opponent). More rarely I will wait until the river to raise or just call down. What do you think of this sort of approach from a game theory perspective? Am I giving up much by never giving action on the flop. In some ways it must make me unexploitable since I play every hand that I'm continuing with on the flop the same. Btw, I defend 100% in the BB unless the player's PFR/Att to steal is pretty low. I feel that all this turn raising really makes players fear to get involved with me, and exploits the two most common errors of HU opponents by getting more value from loose players and making tight players fold too often. Thoughts?

Also I should tell you that I really love these blind battle hands you've been posting and have enjoyed your comments and those of others. Very interesting and educational stuff.