Hi all. This is Uri with a new video for Guerrilla Poker where I play online with an additional condition. After experimenting with different options, I found that the limitations of playing more passively led to rather boring videos. Personally, it’s still interesting for me to play, but there are too few big hands for the audience in 20 minutes. It works best when we make it difficult for the preflop raiser, for example by giving up all c-bets or limiting ourselves to a fixed sizing. Today I will play with 33% pot sizing. Let's see where this leads.
A third of the pot is a sizing appropriate for a certain class of hands that need protection. Intuitively, it is difficult to defend against it.
Raise preflop, a third on the flop, a third on the turn – we play according to this scheme. You need to defend against villain unusually wide and raise a lot. It's hard to find the right balance... Here's a good call down, by the way.
In normal small-sizing play, you need to add some strong hands. If we bet third only with second pair, Villain can raise and stack all top pairs. To avoid this, some of the stronger combinations should also go to the third. I'm quite interested to see how the dynamics will be affected by the strategy of using only small sizing, where all the nuts are in third.
We get a big 4-bet in position! Against this sizing, AQs is closer to folding, I'll fold.
After checking the flop and the turn, my hand can be bluff caught. My opponent would bet the turn nine a lot, so his river bet is fairly polarized, with only slow plays and bluffs.
Calls and loses to .
Pretty good texture for me, jacks are one of the weakest hands in my range. I put a very small continuation bet even less than a third – I think we limit the sizing from above, not from below, so everything is fair.
The opponent folds.
A good hand to start bluffing on the turn, but of course we fold to a raise. What type of hands would benefit from betting a third for defense? For example, .
You can barrel third or check next. Three small bets fit our hand, so I'll bet.
The opponent folds.
Curiously, Villain finds a check-raise after calling our 3-bet. My hand has some equity, but I'm afraid it's not enough.
Fold it.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was a call according to the solver, but it seems to me that it will never be positive enough. At best it will turn out to be near zero.
The flop was checked, and on the turn, you can already bet a third! River check.
Villain calls and checks the river.
Experience the power of small sizing! You want to turn your opponent's hand on the turn into a bluff, but he is already paying a third by calling.
Strange game... I guess I'll call, then I'll explain why.
Regular viewers of my videos know that I rarely advise making calls like this and generally don't like bluff catching very much. However, at the lower stakes, people sometimes give themselves away too much with wrong sizings and timings. They play credibly for value, and with bluffs, it often turns out to be some kind of nonsense.
What will he bet less than half the pot on the turn with? His entire draw range consists of full houses and mostly good ones. His sizing is consistent with a weak full house – something like eights or matching nines. Even for jacks, it is too small.
An ace comes on the river and he continues to bet small, representing thin value. But the value hands that bet the turn will check next on this river, and the ones that have improved should bet big. His story turns out to be unreliable, and it is no coincidence that we see a bluff. In order not to miss such situations, we need full concentration during the game.
On the flop, I c-bet a third and my opponent called. Our hand is weak for sizing half the pot on the turn, but it can go through with a third, plus my second barrel range is perfectly defended by all the nuts by gameplay, so I think I can afford a second barrel.
Villain calls and checks the river.
It worked perfectly.
3-bet preflop, c-bet third, check turn, villain checks the river. Under normal circumstances, you should bet half a pot or more, a third looks like disrespect to the opponent – we seem to think that he will not find enough check-raises.
I really want to press call. It would take a long time to explain since many factors influence the decision, so I'll just call.
Like I said, I'm not a fan of hero calls, but the flow of the hand left me no choice – people are crazy... Watch it again and think for yourself why I did it.
One of the interesting implications of the exploitative style is that I may fold more than I need to, but that doesn't mean I'm easy to bluff!
Hmm, interesting. Nines should in theory 3-bet quite often.
3bet 33% of the pot – 11.9bb. Villain calls.
Good turn. This card, however, is more suitable for the opponent's range, but my sizing is quite suitable for overpairs: let's say, with kings, I no longer want to play for a stack, but I can still extract value.
Villain calls.
When my range is protected by hands like , I can choose this line and get called by .
The opponent folds.
It's quite possible to see a 2.2bb flop with KTo – the raising range in the pot with the added 10bb should be incredibly wide. I'll call the c-bet – we stand quite well.
The turn he checks, I have to decide if I want to bluff... Probably, yes. Oh, I almost forgot that I only play in a third, I was going to bet 3/4 of the pot. Okay, a third.
The opponent immediately folds.
In a 3-bet pot, I check-raise a little and plan on barreling with thirds. These thirds are pretty funny!
The opponent pushes.
Aces? Interesting. Aces are usually slowplayed against check-raises, but here he doesn't block my draws, so I don't blame shoving with the most vulnerable aces.
The flop was checked, I'll try to steal with a third on the turn. Alternatively, you can go to showdown with this hand by checking. I don’t remember very clearly the boundaries of drawing combinations on a texture with a paired board and two flush draws – there is showdown value or not?
Villain calls.
Here, unfortunately, the third cannot be used, because it looks too inconsistent. There is a lot of in the opponent's range, so if I only bet a third, I should not have bluffs. To bluff, I have to balance with hands that beat strong , so I need a large sizing.
Checks and loses to .
Good texture for a third pot check-raise.
Villain reraises to 9bb.
Okay, you'll have to fold.
In deep stacks, 3-betting preflop with AQo isn't particularly desirable.
I'm glad that Villain doesn't overbet since now my hand beats almost his entire range.
Calls.
And on such a river, you can also bet a donk bet – a usual third!
Villain calls and loses with .
All because of his turn sizing! Hands that make this kind of bet will almost never continue on the river, so you have to draw yourself. This is, of course, a pure exploit, far from GTO.
A third c-bet is very good for my hand... Interesting check-raise. Will call.
I have a pretty good calling hand as it has a decent amount of outs against a value range. If my opponent checks the river, I'll bluff so I don't accidentally lose to a five.
The opponent folds.
When you are check-raised and continue to bet on the next street, your opponent's range becomes very polar. The hands we use to call down should have outs against our opponent's value hands. That's why more suitable for calling than – if we catch a four, we will beat a set of twos, and a three will allow us to beat anything at all.
I'll call, but it's not pleasant at all.
We have a set, but the texture is just awful. I'll call once though.
Instant push from opponent... We lose to all pocket pairs better and beat only , who would still have to find the strength for an instant all-in. Simple fold.
Like I said, a 33% pot raise is fine for thin value, not the nuts, but what can you do... The "correct" hands for this sizing are – , .
These hands can't continue on this turn. Well, there is something! Maybe sixes with one spade have the right to play like that, and , which I decided to start with a small raise.
On the river, there are stronger , there are full houses with sevens and just ... Third, we give Villain a chance to make a thin value raise, let him call with a lot of bluff catchers... All in all, he has a lot to think about.
Um. I don't think he would have messaged in chat to check-raise with kings. To me, it's more like a subtle play with a flush. I'll go all in – wish me luck!
Oh, he tanked. Probably kicking himself for this raise. Although it can also raise – people do not like to fold flushes. Perhaps, on this hand, I will finish today's video. It is unlikely that we would have played it in other circumstances!
Opponent gives up.
Thank you for your attention! I was interested in experimenting with third pot sizing, especially since it is often part of our strategy and should be widely used in practice.
