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Solving the SB vs BB Problem — Transcript

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0:00The small blind really sucks. You open,
0:02you get called by the big blind, you've
0:04got to go first on all these different
0:05flops, you've got a mega wide range, so
0:07does your opponent. It's awkward. Let's
0:09fix it today. I'm going to recommend a
0:11concrete solution to this continuously
0:14perplexing spot, and we're going to get
0:16really good at small blind play. You
0:18don't have to take my recommendations
0:19today, you can continue playing the way
0:21that you play if you want, but this
0:23might just be the light at the end of
0:25the tunnel you're looking for when it
0:27comes to this fiendish spot. So, in 753,
0:30this is the first board we're going to
0:31look at today. The first thing we note
0:34is that equity-wise, it is even. Small
0:37blind has about 51%, big blind has 49%.
0:40If you look at how equity translates
0:41into EV, by the way, that's actually the
0:43name of grade one lecture one, which is
0:45the first serious lecture in the first
0:47series course of the Silver Carrot, our
0:50big package on how to build a system for
0:53poker thinking,
0:54we actually discuss the core differences
0:57between equity and EV, and how the two
0:59relate, and how they come apart, as
1:01well. And this is a very instructive
1:03lesson, this 753, because even though
1:05the small blind range has similar
1:07equity, in fact, slightly higher equity
1:09than the big blind range, the EV for big
1:11blind is much, much higher. Big blind's
1:13EV is 2.93 chips here, small blind's EV
1:15is 2.37
1:17chips here. And that is mainly because
1:20of two things. One is position. So, when
1:22we have position, we have higher EV.
1:25Just refreshing here to make the GTO
1:27Wizard screen look good again. There we
1:28go.
1:29When you have position, you have higher
1:30EV because you get to go last, you get
1:32information, everything is better later
1:34in the game tree.
1:35EV goes up when you're in position. The
1:38other thing that makes EV go above and
1:40beyond what equity is is having nutted
1:42hands that are entitled to way more of
1:44the pot than just the chips that are
1:46currently in the middle. So, if you have
1:48a look at big blind here, right? If I
1:49make small blind check just for now,
1:51we're actually going to be recommending
1:52a range check strategy on this board,
1:54more on that in a minute, and do look at
1:56the big blind's range here? If we go to
1:58the nutted hands and look at their EV
2:00like pocket fives, we see that their EV
2:02is many times the pot, well, two and a
2:03bit times the pot. The pot is six big
2:05blinds, right? Small blind's gone three,
2:07big blind has called. Fives has an EV of
2:0912.41
2:11big blinds on average.
2:13So, because
2:15the nutted hands
2:17tend to do this, they have EV that's way
2:19greater than their equity and percent
2:21pot,
2:23you can have a massive EV advantage even
2:26when equities are close together
2:27whenever you've got nut advantage and
2:28you've got position.
2:30And that's why small blind just wants to
2:31range check this board, okay? Could you
2:33build this tiny percentage mixed betting
2:36range if you were some sort of poker
2:38master and you wanted to make life
2:40terrible for yourself, you could, but
2:42clearly the simple way to apply this is
2:43just to range check. So, our first rule
2:45for today is that if the board is
2:47horrendous for you in terms of EV, if
2:49your opponent has a nut advantage to go
2:50with their position because it's one of
2:52these low boards that completely whiffs
2:54all the big cards in your range that you
2:56have the monopoly on and smashes the low
2:58cards that are not unique to your
3:00opponent, right? You have threes and
3:01fives and sevens and seven five as well
3:03and four six suited maybe, but they're
3:05more concentrated in the big blind's
3:07range because they're not diluted by as
3:08many big cards like the ones that you
3:11have as the small blind because many of
3:12those are going to three bet pre, right?
3:14And even some hands that are terrible
3:16here are three bet bluffs pre. So, your
3:17opponent might three bet you pre with a
3:19hand like 10 nine offsuit in this
3:21configuration, which is obviously a
3:23pretty terrible hand to have on this
3:24board. So, there's lots of reasons why
3:26we have this EV disadvantage here and
3:28why we want to range check. So, that's
3:30that one solved. We range check and then
3:32we deal with it. Okay, it's not actually
3:34solved. What if we face a small bet?
3:35What do we do after that? Well, we have
3:37to build a raising range because when
3:38you range check, it's not that you're
3:40going to play completely placidly. If
3:42your opponent's betting frequently as
3:44they will here for a small sizing on a
3:45board that's good for them, we want to
3:47find a polarized raising range. We're
3:49going to favor raising the lower pairs
3:51in this spot for value at I'd recommend
3:53doing what the solver is doing here and
3:55building around some over pairs. That's
3:58to say not feeling like you have to go
4:00giant in this spot and not just going
4:02sets and straights and stuff like that
4:04for value, but raising over pairs, too,
4:06because vulnerable over pairs like nines
4:07and eights are really good to raise
4:09here, especially if people are quite
4:10passive later and are betting quite
4:13wide. Like you just want to get that
4:14value denial check raising rather than
4:17going for some hero call three times
4:19type of line. So, with eights or nines
4:21or tens, it makes a lot of sense to
4:22raise the best 7x, block some sets and
4:24two pair runners. Definitely thick
4:25enough to value check raise in this node
4:27as well. And you then need to
4:30throw in a bunch of bluffs, backdoor
4:32backdoor hands, over cards with
4:33backdoors, flush draws, straight draws,
4:35the usual candidates. I won't go into it
4:37too much because it's pretty obvious.
4:40Let's click the random flop button here.
4:44Okay, we got exactly the same kind of
4:45spot, 765. That one is going to be a
4:47range check as well. Let's try again.
4:50Okay, ace check check. So, many of you
4:53will play B33 in this spot and you won't
4:56really think about it too much. And you
4:58might even bet your whole range, which
4:59is a little bit different to what the
5:01solver is doing. Let's just start with
5:03EV and equity. So, a better board for
5:04our range here, 54% equity and EV, we
5:07actually have the edge as well because
5:08we no longer have that nut disadvantage.
5:10We are still out of position, but given
5:12that we don't have the nut disadvantage.
5:14Sorry, I'm having to refresh this all
5:15time. This is a fault with the wizard,
5:16not with anything I'm doing. We are able
5:19to bet more frequently here. But here's
5:21the thing, the solver still doesn't mind
5:22playing this semi-polar strategy. What
5:24I'm going to recommend you guys do for
5:26boards like this that are paired is I'm
5:29going to recommend that you pick a big
5:32bet. Not an over bet, not a giant bet,
5:34but B75. And I want you to practice a
5:37lot of B75 in this spot. Your EV was
5:392.9, it's now gone to 2.93. That's nice.
5:42It's changed a bit. It doesn't really
5:43matter. I'm going to Let's again just so
5:45we don't have to look at this darkened
5:47screen. And if we start scanning over
5:49the B75 strategy here, it's nice and
5:52polarized. You take your very best A6
5:54and you bet it big. You take some of
5:56your Jack X and you bet it big. And then
5:58you find bluffs and you don't bet the
5:59stuff in between. It's a very easy thing
6:01to apply. Could you just range bet third
6:03here? Would people play badly against
6:04that? Sure. [snorts] You can. It is a
6:07way to go on certain boards, blind
6:08versus blind. You can't get away with it
6:10on all boards or most boards like you
6:12can in position. You just don't have
6:14enough EV across the board to do that
6:15being out of position.
6:17And so I would recommend that for a
6:19while you play about with polar flop
6:21strategies on lots of different board
6:22textures. So, this one, it looks
6:25counterintuitive to use big bet check,
6:26but you just have to understand that
6:28you're going hyper polar and you're
6:29usually checking when you do that. Now,
6:31why might you want to adopt an approach
6:34like this? Well, it streamlines your
6:36study in the following very important
6:38way.
6:39If you study
6:41range bet on the flop or high frequency
6:43B33, you'll have to study facing raise a
6:46lot and you'll have to study barreling
6:48the turn a lot. And that's fine. You can
6:49try and get good at those notes. That's
6:51no problem. Your opponents are by and
6:53large quite reasonable at facing B33 in
6:56many spots now compared to facing bigger
6:58bets because they do just face B33 a
7:01lot. Now, if you're playing like 5 NL,
7:03everyone's going to suck at all sizes
7:04and so that doesn't really that point
7:06doesn't really stand. If you're playing
7:0750 NL, 100 NL, 200, whatever it may be,
7:10you're playing live 5 10 or something,
7:12people are just getting good at facing
7:13these small bets. Regs are knowing their
7:14way around a small bet node on the flop.
7:16So, by playing the big bet node like
7:18this, you actually streamline your study
7:21in that you can study checking and
7:23facing bets like loads. You can get very
7:25very good at that. You can figure out
7:27where people are over stabbing, under
7:28stabbing and what to do about it. You
7:30can just streamline your study to I
7:32checked and I faced a bet or I checked
7:34and it went check check. Why should you
7:36study those two nodes first? Because
7:39when you play big bet check, you very
7:40often check. And when you bet bet, your
7:42opponent very often folds. So, the nodes
7:45you actually get to really frequently
7:46are the check ones, not the bet ones,
7:49when you play this kind of strategy. So,
7:50start off by just asking yourself, "How
7:53do I build the flop strategy? What do I
7:55do if I check and face a bet? And how do
7:57I expect pool to play? And then, how can
7:59I get an edge?" When you take them out
8:01of their comfort zone, you make things
8:02unfamiliar, you gain way more edge
8:04whenever that happens. And then, ask
8:06yourself,
8:07"What happens if it goes check check and
8:09I have a delayed C-bet opportunity on
8:11the turn?" The delayed C-bet is a
8:12printing node. There's way too much fold
8:14equity there compared to what it should
8:15be in theory. You can make a lot of
8:17money there. Talk about that a bit more
8:18in cash injection, which is the
8:19exploitative part of Silver Carrot, by
8:20the way. If you think about embarking on
8:22that serious education that we do. And
8:24then, you can eventually look at what
8:26happens after your B 75 gets called and
8:28get used to that. So, let's just talk
8:30over this flop strategy. It's really
8:32pretty simple.
8:33With a jack or with a very good ace, you
8:35have an optional value bet. Wait a
8:37minute.
8:38Optional value bet? Surely, queen jack
8:41is too good a hand to just maybe bet.
8:44The thing is that it's not. Because when
8:46you're out of position, a couple of
8:47things are happening. One, your opponent
8:49is going to bet a worse jack when you
8:50check, and you're going to get a check
8:52raise or check call, multiple check
8:53calls, and you're going to make a bunch
8:54of money that way.
8:56Secondly, they're going to bet a lot of
8:57their ace x, although not always. And
8:59the more recreational the opponent, the
9:00more they'll just default to betting an
9:02ace here. The more tight reg they are,
9:03the more they'll check back, right? It's
9:05very important specific.
9:07And so, you just have the chance for
9:09your opponent to still bet with the very
9:10good hands that are going to call you
9:11multiple times anyway. Same goes with
9:13gut shots, they'll bluff a lot. Flush
9:14draws will bluff a lot. Or whatever you
9:16want to call that, semi bluff, pseudo
9:18value bet. So, you're going to be able
9:20to get money in in other ways here.
9:22Whenever you're out of position, the
9:24necessity to value bet
9:26goes away.
9:27When you're in position, you have to pot
9:29build on the flop with your very best
9:30stuff on most board textures. When
9:32you're out of position, you don't for
9:33those reasons. So, this is a mixed to
9:35strategy. And every time we're building
9:37a betting range, and I would build a
9:38betting range here, not a very big one,
9:40but I would build a betting range on a
9:41favorable board like this. I wouldn't
9:43range check. You're going to need to
9:45understand that your bets are mixes in
9:48theory. That doesn't mean that there
9:49aren't opponents that you want to pure
9:51bet queen jack against. There are. The
9:52very passive ones.
9:54But there are also opponents you want to
9:55pure check it against, which are like
9:56the really stab happy players that are
9:58just going to bet when checked to. And
10:00if you don't know the opponent or it's
10:01unclear, you may just consider the hand
10:03a mix and you'll put it in your checking
10:05range sometimes, and there's no magic EV
10:07that comes your way cuz you strengthened
10:08your checking range, but it's nice to
10:10know
10:12that you're playing a sound strategy,
10:13that you're not just a sitting duck
10:14who's check folding every time they
10:16check, and that you're not just walking
10:18into the jaws of someone who just auto
10:20stabs when checked to, which is a very
10:21printing thing to do in a game like 25
10:24or 50 NL on most sites. So, that's how
10:26we build this. It's a mixed polar
10:27strategy. We've talked about the value
10:29that's jack x and ace queen plus. Let's
10:31talk about the bluffs now. Let's say you
10:32have a hand like eight seven of hearts.
10:34You can of course
10:35But here's the weird thing. Have a look
10:37at some of the other bluffs here. The
10:39ones that don't have backdoors. The low
10:41card low card hands. Seven five of
10:43diamonds is a good example.
10:45You can bet seven five of diamonds.
10:47What's going on? What What's the deal
10:48with this? Well, what if I told you that
10:50your pair outs aren't terrible?
10:53Would you believe me? Okay, they're
10:54quite bad, but they're not dreadful. So,
10:57when you bet the flop here for B75, but
10:59you have to understand is that a large
11:01part of the big blind's calling range is
11:03going to be something like a gutter, and
11:05it's going to be some low pairs as well.
11:07So, when you bet with a hand like seven
11:08six here, you are live against deuces,
11:10fours, fives, and any kind of gut shot
11:13that calls. So, you can actually hit a
11:14pair and have the best hand and get to
11:16showdown sometimes, too. So, your hand
11:18is not actually dead when you have two
11:20low cards here.
11:21And the the really important thing to
11:23understand is that the offsuit cards
11:25that people have in the big blind that
11:26fold all the time, right, tend to be
11:29things like queen nine or 10 nine or 10
11:32eight. They don't tend to be things that
11:33contain a seven and a five, cuz as we
11:35can see here, seven five offsuit is not
11:38in the big blind's range. So, there's a
11:39bit of an unblocker effect going on
11:40there as well. But, long story short,
11:43have a look at your two cards,
11:45decide if they are horrible to bet like
11:47queen seven has some showdown here,
11:49believe it or not, and is going to block
11:51folds a bit harder. Seven five doesn't
11:52have showdown and is not going to block
11:54folds as hard. Therefore, you can bet
11:56queen seven, but not seven five. So,
11:58this strategy
11:59involves you checking a lot of the time
12:02on ace track check. And you might think
12:04that's weird. I don't like that. It
12:06flies in the face of all the stuff that
12:08I learned. That doesn't make it bad.
12:09It's just that people love to say
12:12solver prefers. They love this. They
12:15absolutely love it. They fire up a sim
12:17and they they have four sizes cuz
12:18they're just using like the basic
12:20version of Wizard or something, and they
12:21see that one size happens a bit more
12:23than the others, and they say, "Solver
12:24prefers this size." This is such a load
12:26of [ __ ] guys. It's one of the worst
12:27things you can ever say. If you say
12:29solver prefers, you don't deserve to
12:31play the game unless you mean that the
12:33EV is higher at equilibrium for one
12:36action than another, as it will be here,
12:37right? Like, if you're playing a B75
12:39strategy, betting nines is is a
12:41brain-dead, terrible, stupid thing to
12:43do. So, before you embark on this,
12:46just make sure you understand basic
12:48polarization. We teach that a lot in
12:50bronze and in silver. Polarization is
12:52not The concept is obvious, right? You
12:54bet good hands and bad hands in terms of
12:57showdown value, right? You bet high
12:59showdown value, aka value hands, and
13:01then hands that like fold equity. But,
13:03how to actually implement it is not so
13:05obvious. So, it takes a bit of learning.
13:07So, that's all I'm going to say about
13:09ace track check. You can play B75 check.
13:11And what I'm recommending today is just
13:13always playing B75 check or range check,
13:17depending on the board, and just solving
13:19this small blind nightmare of trying to
13:21copy some solver B33 62% frequency
13:24strategy. Okay, 954.
13:27This is a board that
13:29the solver likes to when I say likes to
13:30I'm committing the same fallacy. It
13:32loves over bet here. It loves it. Look
13:34at it over betting. It can't get enough
13:36of over bet. Like, yeah, sure. I play
13:38over bets here. It makes sense to play
13:40over bets here. You can do it. You have
13:42a massive nut advantage. Your over pairs
13:43want to rush money in. They are unique
13:45to you and very, very strong on this
13:47texture. But, you don't have to because
13:49watch this EV number here. It's 2.49.
13:51That is the EV for this board. It's a
13:53slightly favorable slash neutral board
13:55for small blind in terms of equity, but
13:57we're still taking the worst of it in EV
13:59because unless we have a big range
14:01advantage and some nut advantage, we're
14:03going to take the worst of it in EV from
14:05out of position. But, look what happens
14:06if I decide to change the sizing. So,
14:10I'm going to plug in B 75. Our EV was
14:122.49. It's now going to change. It won't
14:14be exactly the same probably. It should
14:16be quite similar. 2.5. It's just like
14:19gone up slightly. It's basically the
14:20same thing. So, did the solver really
14:22like over bet or did it just land on it
14:24with its algorithm and what's the
14:25strategies and viable? It's obviously
14:27the latter, right? Lots and lots of
14:29strategies are viable in a node like
14:31this.
14:33So,
14:35this one,
14:36you're going to be betting a lot more
14:37often.
14:38Low boards, when you polarize on low
14:40boards, you bet more often because you
14:43want to rush value a bit more. It's
14:44dynamic texture. Fold equity is worth
14:46more to you because your good hands
14:48benefit more from fold equity. If you
14:49contrast this to ace jack jack, right?
14:51If villain folded when you had a jack
14:53eight,
14:54you didn't benefit from that at all.
14:56There was nothing really that villain
14:58was folding apart from a two out boat
14:59draw with a pocket pair sometimes that
15:02you actually liked getting that fold
15:03equity against. But, on this board, you
15:05really like getting fold equity with
15:07your value range. So, when you bet here
15:08with tens or ace nine or a pure bet here
15:11is like queen nine or jack nine, right?
15:13These hands actually have slightly
15:14higher bet EV than check EV at
15:16equilibrium in a sim. And when you bet
15:18with those hands and villain folds a
15:19hand like, I don't know, king 10, that's
15:22really good for you when you bet queen
15:23nine and they fold king 10, right? If
15:25they call, great. That's fantastic.
15:26That's even better. But, if they fold,
15:28it's really, really good. So, your value
15:30hands are more interested in fast
15:32playing on a low board. So, your overall
15:34bet frequency is going to go up. It's
15:35not going to be above 50% generally when
15:37you're polarizing. Like, this would be
15:3975. But, yeah, you just want to learn
15:41your thresholds again here. Top pair,
15:43good enough. Under pair, good enough
15:45because it's such a wide range node,
15:47right? It might not be good enough in
15:49some early position configuration to big
15:52bet sevens in this spot, but blind
15:54versus blind it is because ranges are so
15:55wide that by the time you've bet and the
15:57big blinds continue, they've had to call
15:59loads of hands worse than sevens, paired
16:01hands, unpaired hands, you name it. So,
16:03in this situation,
16:05you want to learn the value threshold as
16:08being a bit lower than you would think.
16:10Ace five, that's actually okay. Pairs on
16:12the board on these hard-to-hit low
16:14boards are generally fine for B75.
16:16They'll check later, but they'll make
16:17one B75. And then, you're going to have
16:19some of these under pairs as well and
16:20top pair. That's your main value range.
16:22Ace king, ace queen are what we call
16:24hybrid hands. You bet big here. Villain
16:26sometimes folds deuces, sometimes calls
16:27ace jack or king queen. You get called
16:30by worse, you get a little bit folds for
16:31better, and you clean up a ton of equity
16:33from making your opponent fold. So,
16:36there's reasons to bet those hands, too.
16:38Your bluffs are classic pair draws. Pair
16:40draws are my favorite thing in the
16:41world. Nobody talks about them enough.
16:43People are like, "You need a draw to
16:45bet." Like, I'll bet with six seven and
16:46I'll never bet with queen jack. And
16:48queen jack is just a a mega draw here. A
16:50pair is very, very strong. It's a very
16:53powerful thing to hit on a dry texture,
16:55right? So, if you can bank a pair on the
16:56turn on 954, that's infinitely better
16:59than banking a pair on the turn on 876
17:02because all the pairs you bank on the
17:04turn that are over cards on 954 are
17:06pristine and basically borderline
17:08invincible. So, they're very, very
17:09strong outs. Is there stuff you're not
17:12allowed to bluff here? Well, if we have
17:14a little gander down to the most
17:15hopeless hand you can find like queen
17:16deuce, where you don't even have an over
17:18card to something like the
17:20the the four or the five. Okay, it
17:23thinks that hand is a pure give up. And
17:25And you know, out of position, there
17:26will be some pure give ups, but you'll
17:27be able to bet more hands than you think
17:29for the big sizing. And your opponents,
17:31let's talk exploitatively a little bit
17:33here. We've avoided that so far in this
17:34video, because I wanted to give you the
17:36lay of the land, but let's click B75,
17:38look at their reaction, look at some of
17:40the hands they're meant to mix call
17:41with. Queen 10 offsuit, flicking the
17:43call. Jack 10 offsuit, flicking the
17:45call. What do you think, guys? Your
17:46opponent's calling enough here, or are
17:48they overfolding? That's right, they're
17:50definitely going to be overfolding in
17:51this spot, I would think. Some opponents
17:53will be really sticky, but for the most
17:54part, a reg at like 25 and L or
17:56something is going to be overfolding.
18:00Okay, time for another flop. See how
18:01this works. Will it be range check? Will
18:03it be B75 check? Clearly, that'll be B75
18:05check. Solver almost picked B75 anyway.
18:09Who cares? We lock it to B75, cuz that's
18:11what we're using.
18:13And here's a straight. So again, we look
18:16at equity, slightly favorable EV,
18:18slightly favorable because we retain the
18:20nut advantage here. See how this works?
18:22Our equity and our EV are closer
18:24together in spots where we have a good
18:26share of the nutted hands, and they're
18:27further apart in spots where villain has
18:30a monopoly over the nutted hands, or a
18:31higher concentration of said nutted
18:33hands. That's how it works. So, in this
18:36situation, again, you learn your
18:37thresholds. What am I value betting? I'm
18:39value betting probably a good jack plus.
18:41I'm just guessing here, ace jack plus,
18:43something like that, a king. And again,
18:45it's optional value betting when you're
18:47out of position. You can check raise,
18:48you can check call. What I'm going to do
18:50in a minute is just give you a brief
18:52look at the nodes where we check and
18:54face a bet, and where we delayed C bet,
18:56because I want you guys to just see how
18:57I approach that, even though it's
18:59largely outside the scope of this video,
19:00which is about flop strategy.
19:02So, let's look at the the bluff
19:04threshold now.
19:06When do we start bluffing?
19:07Ace ace high, basically, right? Um,
19:10gutters are hybrids. They've got a bit
19:11going on, They get called by worse. Ace
19:13nine is a median hand, meaning it's
19:15middling. It's a pure check. And then we
19:16start hitting the bluff region at around
19:18ace six off suit. And it does want to
19:21have the diamonds here in order to bet
19:22these hands. Otherwise, the hand is just
19:24a little bit too dead. Let's have a look
19:26at some other bluffs that might be a bit
19:27more counterintuitive outside of the
19:30normal flush draws, straight draws, and
19:32things of that ilk. If we have a hand
19:34like seven-six of spades, we can bet as
19:36well. But on this board, we are not
19:40doing as well, and therefore there is a
19:42higher standard that applies. The bar
19:43has just risen a little bit in terms of
19:45how much equity redraw we need to be
19:48able to bluff here. So, seven-five of
19:49clubs ain't going to do it. You can bet
19:51seven-five of clubs on ace and jack-jack
19:53because the caliber of the seven and the
19:55five pair outs is better on that paired
19:58board that's harder to hit. And on
20:00king-jack-three, it's worse. However,
20:02what I want to say here is
20:05this could swing against certain
20:07opponents. But default check-fold with
20:09the bottom of your range on unpaired
20:11double Broadway boards like this, that's
20:14fine. With the absolute low cards, you
20:16can do that. The three is a hybrid, by
20:18the way. You'll make people fold sixes.
20:19You'll make them call ace-jack ace-ten,
20:21sorry. You're going to You're going to
20:23have your cake and eat it. There you can
20:24definitely always bet your bottom pairs
20:26for this big sizing. Now, when I give a
20:28lesson like this to a group of students
20:30or a student like back in the day, the
20:32inevitable question is always the
20:34following. Student always goes,
20:36"Yeah, but
20:38that's all very well, but like what do I
20:40do after my bet gets called?"
20:42And I say to them, "It doesn't matter
20:44for now.
20:45Figure out this node first. Get really
20:46good at this node, and we will talk
20:48about the turn in a future session video
20:50lesson. We do loads of that in the
20:51Carrot Poker School as well. I'm part of
20:54Silver or Golden Carrot. You can You can
20:55check it out. But we we have loads of
20:57stuff on this. You don't need to know
21:00exactly what you're doing in all of the
21:02thousands and billions of nodes that are
21:04about to come your way in order to play
21:06this node well. It's not that the turn
21:08and the river are unrelated to the flop,
21:10it's just that
21:12the way to think about them is so
21:14different that it doesn't even really
21:15make sense to throw them into the same
21:17exercise when it comes to study. So,
21:20when you're studying, have tunnel vision
21:22on the node that you're in, and then
21:24when you get to the exploitative part of
21:26that, when you're more advanced, I
21:27wouldn't recommend doing this the first
21:28few passes, you then want to think about
21:31like what happens next and how you might
21:33gear your flop strategy towards that,
21:35but that's way more advanced. Like
21:36planning a flop strategy because there's
21:38an exploit on the turn and something you
21:40can get to in due course. Don't rush it.
21:42For now. Okay, so let's do a little bit
21:45of training then on future nodes here.
21:47So, very often we are going to check
21:49when we're playing B75 check from out of
21:52position. In position, we bet more. This
21:54this board is probably 60% bet
21:57for B75 button versus big blind. Look it
22:00up. Tell me if I'm off there. I I may I
22:02may well be, but it's going to be higher
22:03than 23%, right? So, we usually check,
22:06that's the point. So, if you play, if
22:08you're a chess player, chess analogy
22:10here, apologies if you're not. If you
22:11play the French defense, right?
22:14E4 E6. You play the French.
22:17You don't study the Sicilian as black if
22:21you play the French. You study the
22:23French and you get good at the French.
22:26If you play pawn to to D4 as your first
22:28move, you don't study E4 as white,
22:31right? So, if you're setting up to study
22:34cards and you want to get really good at
22:36cards and you know you're going to take
22:38my advice and do this to train your
22:40brain to play polarized strategies and
22:42just like leave the stupid robotic box
22:44of range betting all the time. You can
22:46do that. I'm not saying it's bad, but
22:48trying to persuade you guys to explore a
22:50bit here. If you decide to do that,
22:52you think about what nodes happen. Most
22:54of 75% of the time you're going to check
22:56that flop, right? And when you check
22:57that flop, your opponent's going to
22:58check back a lot, right? So, looking at
23:00delayed C-bet is really important. But
23:02looking at facing stab is also
23:04important. Don't study this B112.
23:07Something went wrong with the solution.
23:09Please like a different spot.
23:11Okay, we're we're not allowed to study
23:13the
23:15the facing float bet spot.
23:16Unfortunately, let's try locking it to
23:18B33 cuz a lot of your opponents just
23:20randomly do that, right? We'll see if it
23:23lets us study that. Oh, let's us study
23:24that. That's helpful. So, if we face
23:26B33, which is a more common thing that
23:28we're going to face cuz people are just
23:29looking at Uh I bet. I bet small little
23:31sticks. It makes way more sense to
23:33polarize here logistically as big blind.
23:35It's way easier and simpler to just
23:38build around like top pair plus
23:40when you have not that great a range.
23:42It's not a great board for big blind,
23:43right? So, just betting loads of jack x
23:45or B33 here or bet of jack x or B33 is
23:48is kind of counterintuitive. I'd rather
23:50just be betting more rarely and betting
23:52bigger. But your opponents are going to
23:54do this, right? And if they're going to
23:55do it, you need to study it. So, they
23:57B33, what your thresholds?
24:00Well, wow, ace nine is actually calling.
24:02Bet you didn't know that, right? Ace
24:03eight with a
24:04with the diamond is calling. So, you
24:06learn where your thresholds are. You
24:07learn that you can't fold an under pair.
24:08And you get really good at facing this
24:10B33 cuz you're going to face this B33
24:12really often. And you just put your
24:14opponent in a spot that you've studied.
24:16You manipulate them rather than just
24:19auto buying the flop and going into a
24:20spot that both people have studied,
24:22right? This is how you gain an edge in
24:23chess as well. You play a weird opening
24:25your opponents don't know. And at low
24:28levels, that works really well. Where
24:29they can't navigate that. You can gain
24:31200 elo points by being a specialist in
24:34some trap openings. Definitely. It's
24:36possible.
24:38It's not the best use of your chess
24:39time, but it's possible to do that. And
24:41poker is a really good use of your time
24:43because you get to play these spots
24:44forever.
24:45And in poker, like in any blind versus
24:47blind situation, you get to play B75
24:50check. You don't need your opponent to
24:52play a certain move to be able to do
24:53this to explore where where this analogy
24:56breaks down. So, yeah, this is really
24:59good stuff for you. Hopefully, you can
25:00see how valuable it is to train the
25:02nodes you're going to be in, and then
25:04you decide what's my check raise
25:06threshold for value, for a bluff,
25:08where's my call fold threshold, and you
25:10get really good at that. We have a
25:12lectures seven and eight, I think, of
25:13grade two and silver carrot. They are
25:15all about the bluff catching system, how
25:17to know when to call bets
25:19based on lots of variables about your
25:22hand. It's kind of like a system for
25:23bluff catching you can apply from the
25:25flop or the turn. So, if we move on now
25:27to an even more common node,
25:30right, which is where it goes check
25:32check on the flop. This is where just
25:34taking some random turns and building a
25:36game plan is going to pay dividends big
25:39time in the long term.
25:41Queen turn, what's your sizing going to
25:42be? I'd recommend using over bets and
25:44delayed C bet nodes here, but not on the
25:46queen turn where a villain uncaps,
25:48that's fine. Just go with a B75 again,
25:50right? That's fine.
25:52Lock it into the solver if you can,
25:53build a custom sim in GT+
25:56or Pio, learn how the the B75 strategy
25:58functions here. Again, spoiler alert,
26:01you're going to have mixed value bets.
26:03You don't have to bet. You can go for
26:04check raises you're out of position. You
26:06want to think about how the pool will
26:07play, and you want to think about your
26:09fold equity and whether you want to over
26:10bluff as well. You want to learn what
26:12the bluffs are. 97 is allowed to bluff,
26:15right? Is that surprising? It shouldn't
26:16be that surprising cuz you now have a
26:18big EV advantage. Opponent's checked
26:20back on the flop. They're capped, you're
26:22not cuz you were trapping a bunch on the
26:24flop. You know, smash this turn. It's
26:26good to turn for your pre-flop raiser's
26:28range. So, you now have a big advantage
26:30and you can
26:31bluff fairly bad hands. Not just
26:32anything, right? You're not bluffing 76.
26:34That's dead. You can't bluff dead stuff
26:36out of position unless it's a amazingly
26:38good world for you, but you're going to
26:40be bluffing a lot of like semi-dead
26:42stuff like the 97 in this spot. And then
26:45you want to think, well, how good is
26:46that exploitatively? If I'm going to be
26:48in this situation all the time, I'm not
26:50just going to stop at what's the theory,
26:53I'm then going to see where can I print
26:55extra EV by just doing stuff over and
26:57over again. If you have a look at the
26:59B67 here, actually I'll make it B75 just
27:02for
27:03to be
27:04consistent with the rest of the video.
27:06No one uses B67, that's very 2009,
27:09anyway. And we go B75, and we look at
27:12what villain is meant to do. We can
27:13start to decide whether we think they
27:16fold too much or too little here. And
27:18when you glance at this, you can see
27:19that they are meant to start folding
27:21some queen x. I don't think that's that
27:23likely to happen, but it could. Jack x,
27:25yeah. I mean, this is unclear to me. It
27:27feels a little bit close. I don't think
27:30it's over folded
27:32actually. So, yeah, this isn't a hot
27:33spot where I want to bluff a lot. This
27:35is maybe a spot where I just want to
27:36rush my value cuz I don't think they'll
27:38bluff enough here if I check, and
27:39they're really sure about that. And so,
27:41I just want to rush my value in this
27:42spot and go for
27:45a normal a normal strategy. I don't need
27:47to deviate here. There's not going to be
27:48There's There's not always going to be a
27:50deviation on every turn card, right?
27:51Change the turn card again, make it
27:53something else. That's too similar.
27:55Let's just plug in a a low card.
27:59Like this less favorable, right? If you
28:00have a look at like equity and EV now,
28:02it's still reasonable for you. Actually,
28:03it's still okay for you here after they
28:05check back the flop. I mean, most turn
28:07cards are good for you on this node
28:08actually because they have made a
28:10capping check and you haven't. It's a
28:11really key pattern to learn. And so, on
28:14the turn, the solver's gone for a B25.
28:16It loves B25. No, it doesn't. It just
28:18chose it. Um let's
28:21Oops, let's give it a
28:23an overbet because that's what I'd
28:24recommend you do. B150 Carrot Poker
28:26School sizing. We go for 30. We teach
28:29you 33, 75, 150, by the way, in Silver
28:31Carrot. That's the scheme that you
28:32learn. And here we have an overbet
28:34strategy. You check a lot again. You
28:36overbet your king nine plus for value,
28:39your two pair, your sets. You don't have
28:41to. You learn what the bluffs are.
28:43Obviously, they're going to have equity.
28:45They're going to need to pass a certain
28:47standard, like 65 or 64 or 54 or gut
28:51shots open enders. But in some way, what
28:53we're doing here, if we rewind all the
28:55way to the flop, is we are learning to
28:57play a polar strategy blind versus
28:59blind. So that we get to check a lot, we
29:00get good at facing stabs, we get good at
29:02delayed C-betting, we get good at
29:05constructing a polarized range which
29:07makes us a better poker player, makes us
29:09a thinking poker player from the get-go.
29:10It puts opponents into a different world
29:13that they're not used to. And you may
29:15have enjoyed this video, you may have
29:16sat here and watched all of it and liked
29:17it, and you may still decide to say,
29:19"No, I'm not going to do this. I'm going
29:21to keep betting high frequency B33 for
29:23now." And that is fine if you've thought
29:26about that and you like that and that's
29:27what you want to do. No pressure, no big
29:30deal. This is not objectively better or
29:32objectively worse. It is an approach
29:35that takes people out of their comfort
29:36zone, that educates you about range
29:39construction from the flop, and lets you
29:42study something kind of fun that a lot
29:43of people aren't used to. So, I think
29:45this is a cool way to go. It's my
29:46recommendation for solving the small
29:48blind versus big blind problem. If you
29:50like the way I think about the game, do
29:52consider taking the plunge with us at
29:53Carrot Corner, getting Silver Carrot,
29:56and beginning a serious poker education.
29:58And if you're not ready to invest in
29:59yourself as a player yet, that's totally
30:01fine. Check out the free starter kit.
30:03We've got three videos that will fix
30:04some of your biggest styles of leak for
30:07free, and you should go and watch them
30:10after this. I'll see you next time. Hope
30:12you like this one. Let me know what you
30:13think.

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