Theoretical HU question

kurosh · #1 06-10-2005, 04:45 PM

You're playing HU against a very aggressive player. When you raise off the button, he will fold the bottom 10% of his hands and 3-bet the rest. When he 3-bets and you 4-bet, he will 5-bet the top 70% of his hands. His 7-betting standards are unknown, he has never done it before in several occasions of 6 bets PF. Postflop, he will continue to bet into you unless he reaches resistance. If he reaches resistance, he will raise, bet and checkraise with his good hands as well as bluff fairly often.

You have 55 on the button. You raise, he 3-bets, you 4-bet, he 5-bets, do you 6-bet?

vexvelour · #2 06-10-2005, 05:27 PM

that's a tough one. i'd probably just call and hope for a set. (i'm a tight player though).

bigcountry · #3 06-10-2005, 05:32 PM

there are alot of variables in this situation. if the player as been aggressive all night with almost anything then surely u would call. espcially heads up a pocket pair of any kind looks really good preflop. but again it depends on the type of player u r.

bugstud · #4 06-11-2005, 04:42 AM

[ QUOTE ]
You're playing HU against a very aggressive player. When you raise off the button, he will fold the bottom 10% of his hands and 3-bet the rest. When he 3-bets and you 4-bet, he will 5-bet the top 70% of his hands. His 7-betting standards are unknown, he has never done it before in several occasions of 6 bets PF. Postflop, he will continue to bet into you unless he reaches resistance. If he reaches resistance, he will raise, bet and checkraise with his good hands as well as bluff fairly often.

You have 55 on the button. You raise, he 3-bets, you 4-bet, he 5-bets, do you 6-bet?

[/ QUOTE ]

he's pretty fun to play against eh

SittingBull · #5 06-11-2005, 05:00 AM

frequently plays aggressively,u need to play more than 50% of ur hands to show a profit.. otherwise,u will lose.
SittingBull

JohnnyHumongous · #6 06-11-2005, 10:47 AM

[ QUOTE ]
frequently plays aggressively,u need to play more than 50% of ur hands to show a profit.. otherwise,u will lose.
SittingBull

[/ QUOTE ]

lol nice job answering the man's question [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

piggity · #7 06-11-2005, 11:26 AM

[ QUOTE ]
When you raise off the button, he will fold the bottom 10% of his hands and 3-bet the rest. When he 3-bets and you 4-bet, he will 5-bet the top 70% of his hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure if this means he will 5-bet the top 70% of the the top 90% of his hands, or the top 70% of all starting hands.

[ QUOTE ]

You have 55 on the button. You raise, he 3-bets, you 4-bet, he 5-bets, do you 6-bet?

[/ QUOTE ]

In either case, you must 6-bet. If he's 5-betting with the top 70% of all starting hands, he will be 3-betting all the way down to T2s, and you are ~ 77% likely to be ahead. Even if he's only 5-betting with the top 70% of the top 90%, you are still ~ 75% likely to be ahed.

DemonDeac · #8 06-11-2005, 01:52 PM

[ QUOTE ]
When you raise off the button, he will fold the bottom 10% of his hands and 3-bet the rest. When he 3-bets and you 4-bet, he will 5-bet the top 70% of his hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Not sure if this means he will 5-bet the top 70% of the the top 90% of his hands, or the top 70% of all starting hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

yea. i thought that was confusing too
[ QUOTE ]

You have 55 on the button. You raise, he 3-bets, you 4-bet, he 5-bets, do you 6-bet?

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
In either case, you must 6-bet. If he's 5-betting with the top 70% of all starting hands, he will be 3-betting all the way down to T2s, and you are ~ 77% likely to be ahead. Even if he's only 5-betting with the top 70% of the top 90%, you are still ~ 75% likely to be ahed.

[/ QUOTE ]

i totally agree. my thoughts exactly.

Louie Landale · #9 06-12-2005, 10:47 PM

Situation 1: you figure to call almost all post-flop bets showing your hand down unless the board is very dangerous. I think you are better off not investing so much early in order to encourage him to bluff all the way. You raise, he raises, you call, hehehe, and call him down is better than you 6-betting and THEN calling him down much more reluctantly.

Situation 2: you figure to fold to most turn bets because you cannot stand the heat with your small pair. Investing a bunch of money early with a hand that going to actually win infrequently is clearly a losing strategy.

- Louie

phish · #10 06-13-2005, 11:55 AM

I have a slightly different take on this. I think the decision of how many bets to put in w/ 55 should be more determined by how he plays postflop and how it will affect his post flop play. From what you've described, this is the type of guy who will be unlikely to fold any hand that can beat yours. In other words, if he has 77 and the flop comes AKJ, he is not likely fold his 77 just because you made it four bets or six bets pre-flop. On the other hand, he will keep bluffing until he meets resistance. And since 55 is a pretty vulnerable hand to overcards (or overpair), my tendency is to not make the pot too big pre-flop. This way, his bluffs will be a bigger mistake and your folds (not too often hopefully) will also be better. To illustrate:

Let's say you just call his reraise. The flop comes Q49. He'll keep coming at you, and you'll call. A 3 comes on the turn and a 4 on the river. Now you can either just call the river or even raise expecting to get paid off by an AJ. I don't really like raising with such a marginal hand before the river against such a tricky aggressive opponent because if he reraises, you have a very difficult decision. Now by not raising before the river, you're giving him a free draw if you're ahead, but since the pot isn't as large, it becomes less of a mistake.

But if the board shows KQJT all spades and you have no spades, you'll probably want to just fold and since the pot isn't as large, you would not be making as big a mistake even if you had him beat.

The point is, 55 is a vulnerable hand. Against his likely holdings, your edge is not much more than 50% going to the river. And if you're playing HU against this guy, you want to first analyze where your profit is coming from against him. And I don't think it's coming from building the pot pre-flop with such a vulnerable hand. I think your profit will come from the fact that he is so PREDICTIBLY aggressive post-flop that he'll keep betting/bluffing until he encounters resistence. With a hand like 55, I would tend to not raise too much pre-flop and let him take the lead and bluff his chips away post-flop, unless the board is really dangerous or favorable.

In general, you don't want to play passively HU. But 55 is precisely the type of hand which is medium strength (for most boards) where you are likely to be ahead but won't like it if you get reraised on the turn, since you won't have redraws and may well be beat even by another mediocre hand. Calling down w/ this hand against a predictibly aggressive opponent is probably the best course of action.
And to capitalize on his predictive aggressiveness post-flop, not building too big a pot pre-flop w/ such a vulnerable hand may be the best course of action.