Operation Micro-Stakes: $2NL to $25NL

PLUGGING LEAKS - AVOIDABLE PREFLOP LOSSES

In Griffey's blog, he talks about avoidable losses. Now he's strictly talking about his own postflop leaks because I imagine he's pretty good at preflop play. I'm not and that's where it all starts. I don't have the largest sample of hands yet but it's more than enough to start identifying some leaks, so lets get started.

This will be the first part in a 3-part series of determining my own range, followed by late position, which will include blind stealing and isolation ranges, and last but not least, playing from the blinds (and defending them against steals).

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IDENTIFYING HERO'S RANGE Part 1 - EARLY & MIDDLE POSITION

I know that tight is right from the first few seats at the table. But sometimes I wander off the path like a beagle in the woods who just picked up a scent. Absolutely no plan at all but to follow my nose.

--- Early Position ---
1,123 hands played
10.2% VPIP / 9.6% PFR
+10bb profit (lol)

Hand Range Played (15.23%)
{44+, A9s+, A4s, A2s, KTs+, Q9s+, JTs, ATo+, KQo, K3o, Q6o}

Hero's New Range (5.73%)
{99+, AJs+, KQs, AQo+}

Net difference by removing these EP hands is 237bb in avoidable losses (335bb lost - 98bb won).

--- Middle Position ---
1,094 hands played
13.7% VPIP / 13.3% PFR
+160bb profit

Hand Range Played (25.79%)
{22+, A6s+, KTs+, K7s, K4s, QTs+, JTs, T9s, T6s, ATo+, A4o, K9o+, Q8o+, JTo, T9o, 76o}

Hero's New Range (16.14%)
{66+, ATs+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, ATo+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo}

Net difference by removing these MP hands is 37bb in avoidable losses (61bb lost - 24bb won).

So the total avoidable preflop losses in EP & MP comes to -274bb over 2,217 hands.

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Ick. This is the kind of stupid shit that can add up real quick by not being disciplined. I realize that some hands are open for discussion such as opening AJs in EP or eliminating a hand like T9s from the HJ. But I have to start somewhere so the solution to plugging these leaks is simple. Don't play these fucking hands. Problem solved.

IDENTIFYING HERO'S RANGE Part 2 - LATE POSITION

There's a few things I'd like to accomplish with part 2. Late position is where I can open up my range and play a lot more non-premium hands. But of course, everything in poker is situational so this is where things can get kinda murky since I'll be playing a lot of marginal hands.

First, I'll see what hands I shouldn't be playing and immediately discard those hands from my range, like in part 1. But I also realize that if everyone left to act are all weak tight nits, then I can pretty much open ATC. The goal here is to come up with a standard range of hands to open/steal with in late position and then adjust by either narrowing or widening that range depending on who's left to act.

Second, I'd like to break down isolating limpers since opening ranges and isolation ranges are not mutually exclusive. Again, everything is situational and it's up to me to learn the reasoning of whether I should isolate, limp behind or fold.

Third, and this wasn't mentioned at all in part 1, is calling a PFR. There's certainly occasions where calling a PFR in early/middle position is correct, but those situations don't need to be discussed here. For the most part, the only position I want to be calling a PFR is preferably the BTN with the CO being a not-so-close second.


Opening Ranges

My open raise amount in LP depends on what I want villains to do. Sometimes I'll min-raise the button, others I'll raise to as much as 8x. But lets just say I'm stealing with trash in which case I would probably raise between 2-3bb and hope to take it down. I'm trying to win 1.5bb with every ATS. If my math is correct, we show an immediate profit when the blinds fold a combined 57% of the time vs 2x, 63% of the time vs 2.5x and 67% of the time vs 3x, regardless of any postflop EV. Blind Stealing 101 breaks it down a bit further.

Take stealing with ATC out of the equation and here's my standard opening ranges from LP. If the BTN is a nit, I can open my BTN range from the CO.

--- Cutoff ---
Hero's Range (22.78%)
{22+, A8s+, A5s-A2s, KTs+, QTs+, J9s+, T9s, 98s, 87s, A8o+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo}

--- Button ---
Hero's Range (38.76%)
{22+, A2s+, K8s+, Q8s+, J8s+, T8s+, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, 54s, A2o+, K8o+, Q8o+, J9o+, T9o, 98o, 87o}


Isolating Limpers

The goal is to pound on weaker players in position and bleed them dry. More specifically, I want to target players who limp/fold preflop and/or play passively postflop, be it fit-or-fold or players who will call 3 streets with TPWK, A-high, bottom pair, etc.

There's a few things I'd like to quote from the article Raising Behind Limpers.

Isolating a single limper vs multiple limpers...

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

Often it can be +EV to raise after two or three limpers as well, as long as you have some sort of reads or stats that indicate it's profitable. However, you would prefer to be isolating against one limper who is weak, and two at the most. After three limpers, you should probably just muck hands like K8o and limp hands like T9o.

And when to just limp behind or fold...

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

Suppose there are two aggressive middle position limpers, and we have 76s on the button. Here it's probably best to limp behind, since we've got a hand that plays great multi-way, and we're going to see a flop in position with a lot of money behind with at least four players. Note that this is often the case when there are 3 or more limpers whenever you have suited connectors, suited one-gappers, ace-small suited, small pairs, and other hands that get a lot of value from implied odds.

Suppose that at a 9-handed table, an UTG player that you know nothing about limps, and it's folded to you on the cutoff with A8s. Quite often you would like to make a raise with this hand in late position against a limper, but you should beware. Be very, very cautious about raising early position limpers if you don't know anything about them. At micro and low stakes, players absolutely love to limp/raise and limp/call preflop with big pairs and big premium unpaired hands, and this can cost you big. Now, since we don't know anything about this guy, we can still limp behind and own him with our implied odds. Also note that it would be preferable to fold hands like K9o that have no real implied odds only 100bb deep.

Calling a Preflop Raise

As said before, I don't have a big sample of hands yet but the results are pretty revealing nonetheless. While I think I've done a decent job of only calling raises in high implied odds situations (mostly pairs), what my stats really tell me is that I'm not defending my blinds optimally, which is fine since that will be the theme for part 3.

Eliminating blind play from the discussion, calling a preflop raise in position depends on a number of things. First and foremost is the range of the person raising. I should have at least a general idea of what hands villain opens with in each position at the table. Second, I should have a feel for how villain plays postflop, albeit passive or aggressive, and how often he goes to showdown (ie - if he can't fold big pairs or TPTK vs aggression then it's a perfect opportunity to call with low risk/high reward types of hands). Third, I need to look at the effective stack size. To keep it simple, if the effective stack size is low, my calling range narrows. If we're deep, my calling range widens. I also need to be aware of squeeze-happy dicks in the blinds, but those are few and far between at 2NL.

The following ranges are vs random, unknown villains. When I have reads, stats and notes is when I can start thinking about postflop playability of certain hands and which action is the most profitable (ie - calling vs 3-betting vs folding).

--- Calling vs EP PFR ---
Hero's Range (8.6%)
{22+, AQs+, KQs, AQo+}

--- Calling vs MP PFR ---
Hero's Range (10.71%)
{22+, ATs+, KJs+, QJs, AQo+, KQo}

--- Calling vs CO PFR ---
Hero's Range (14.3%)
22+, ATs+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, ATo+, KJo+

Also, I feel I should also at least mention 3bet pots, as I'm sure to be truly awful in them. I'll touch on in it a bit in part 3 with defending my blinds, and then more in depth later on.