PokerStars pro Johnny Lodden straps himself in for the return of our strategy Q&A. Send your questions to us here at q&a@wptmag.co.uk
I'm a low-stakes 6-max cash player and am finding that even in the $0.25/$0.50 games, continuation betting is becoming less and less effective. It seems that players are far more willing to play back at you on any flop that they think is likely to have missed your range and moves like floating and check-raise bluffing are being made far more frequently than when I first started playing nine months ago. My questions are, what factors do you consider before deciding to make a c-bet in a six-max game and what counter-measures can be employed to combat players who are frequently playing back at you on the flop with air?
Matthew Reynolds, Solihull
While it is true that poker has gotten more aggressive, even at lower stakes, the key is still to adjust to the player and game dynamic. First of all it is important to have solid hand selection, especially from early position. Avoid playing hands that give you marginal holdings, such as weak pairs and weak drawing hands, out of position against aggressive players where you often end up making mistakes, e.g. folding the best hand or getting it in with no or little equity. However, in position, you can play a wider range of hands as you can apply a lot of pressure vs. a player who’s out of position. Remember that he's very unlikely to hit the flop and he often has to fold the bottom of his range such as overs, gutters and one-pair hands.
When deciding what hands I continuation bet with, I first consider the flop texture. If the flop is likely to hit my opponent’s cold calling range and unlikely to hit my raising range (examples include low, co-ordinated flops, two-tone flops where I don't have a flush draw, etc), I often check behind with my weaker holdings. The 'wetter' the flop the more prone I am to do this and with my stronger holdings such as over-pairs too as I don't want to build a big pot where I'm either flipping or where I'm way behind.
Furthermore, the player type is very important. Is he/she the type of player that will call one street with a weak top pair or mid-pair, before folding on the turn? Will they raise you with air or their weaker pair holdings and all draws? If you're playing against the latter type, and they don't adjust against your bets, the easiest thing to do is to only bet the top of your range, such as strong pairs and strong draws that can handle a raise well, and pure air, which you don't have any problems tossing on the flop. Avoid betting hands such as over-cards where you believe that your overs are good if you hit, or gutshots to the nuts etc. If you do have the read that people are playing back with you with pure air or weak draws, however, you should consider these things: is the villain likely to continue to be aggressive on the turn? Is my hand strong enough to see a turn card? If the answer to both of those is ‘yes’, you should call and get it in on safe turn cards. If not, you either want to get it in on the flop (especially when you think that the villain's hand is skewed towards drawing hands that you are ahead of) or you could call and take it down cheaply on the turn.
Recently I’ve read a lot of articles championing the small-ball style as the best way to approach a large MTT and it is certainly a style that I enjoy playing. However, in my experience if you are playing a generally low standard of opposition, the small-ball game becomes less effective as you are likely to be called with a far wider range of hands and it is very unusual for a pre-flop raise or c-bet to get through unchallenged. Do you think that if you suspect you are playing against a table of calling stations it is better to take a more ABC approach to the tournament or can the small-ball style still be utilised successfully in this situation?
Darren Richards, York
It’s definitely much better to play ABC against calling stations. You will need to continuation-bet the flop a fair amount of the time anyway but a tight image is needed for them to give you any respect. Again, play position and you will usually be able to see both the turn and river for the price of your continuation bet if you didn’t connect with the flop. Whenever you hit against these types of opponents, value bet like it’s Limit Hold’em! |
