Y
yimyammer2
Rising Star
Bronze Level
You can never develop an "exact" range even given accurate HUD stats. HUD stats represent averages, and we can never accurately account for a villain's play on a given day, at a given time, in his given mood, etc. That being said, not having a HUD makes things more difficult for sure. For live play, you should be watching every hand, and pay special attention to showdown so you can try to understand how a player is playing certain hand types, whether they are passive or aggressive, and what their understanding of relative hand strength is.
I also play on Bovada, and while you can't categorize players by type, even during a long session sometimes, you can take profitable default lines. And sometimes action from within one can give you some important clues on villain tendencies.
For example, it's my first hand at a cash table. I have AK in the BB. It folds to the CO, who open limps. It folds to me and I raise to 5 bb's. The CO calls. The flop comes K87hhx, and we don't have any hearts in our hand. We cbet 2/3 the pot and the CO calls. At this point, based on the play of the population, we think villain can have Kx, flush draws, and straight draws. The turn comes the 2h, and we think that most villains on Bovada (the "average" opponent) will keep calling with worse kings, and maybe straight draws, so we bet about 60% pot. CO raises roughly 2/3 the pot.
Even though I've only played one hand at the table, and I can't put villain on a super specific range combo-wise, I think this will usually be an easy fold. We can generalize how most players on Bovada are playing post flop, and use the fact that villain limp-called the CO preflop to assume that villain is loose, passive, and probably pretty bad. When he just calls the flop and then comes out raising the turn, I suspect he has a flush a lot of the time.
great reply, thx. Your example is much how I think about a hand while playing. The examples in chapter 9 were much deeper imo and I hope to think on that level some day soon.
I feel like the anonymous tables are better practice for live play because I have to really pay attention to the players and take notes which helps me concentrate and focus. Having said that, I'd like to get HEM & play at a site I can use the HUD on for training purposes. I'm in the US and it sounds like my best option aside from Bovada is Carbon?
I was looking at the Ace Poker Drills software as well & think I might buy the bundle so I can practice with the equity trainer, anyone else use this & have thoughts/reviews?
As an aside, having dived back into poker recently & found the depth of resources available, I'm blown away. At first glance one would think all these tools and resources will make the game unbeatable but I don't think so and here's why.
Among my peers I am a freak, a "gambler" obsessed with a silly game called poker, yet I would call myself a fish among people who understand & apply what we're discussing here. My two main poker friends are smart and very successful but when I try to talk deep poker concepts with them, they get irritated and say I'm over-thinking the game. A lot of people don't want to admit this game is more complex than it is and perhaps they should put in some hard work and concentration to improve. They don't want to do that because it would no longer be fun even if they could find the time to try and dive into all the available resources. I suspect there are many people like this, couple that with guys like me who are love the game, love thinking about the game but is still a one dimensional fish and it seems like folks that can grasp and apply the deepest concepts can really separate themselves and create a consistent edge.
That's where I hope to be someday soon
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