Edit: In the HH analysis and poll question, I said river when I meant turn. Ragnar pointed out the mistake. I fixed the text below but can't fix the poll.

Last Tuesday, I did a 2 hour sweat each with Wonderland (5nl) and Outlaw (10nl). I sent each of them a post-session review with my thoughts on their game. I have a few general observations that I thought might help some others here who grind at the micros.

1. There really are a TON of fish at these stakes. Play TAGG preflop, bluff next-to-never, and bet any TPTK+ hand for value on at least 2 streets.

2. You really have to watch stack sizes. At my stakes in my regular games, there aren't many shorties. I mainly have to watch out for deep stack hands. These guys are continually betting in MP not knowing if they'll get called by a 40bb stack or 140bb stack. You have to be constantly aware and not get accidentally pot-committed with a standard cbet.

3. Both of these guys are playing pretty good poker, better in some ways than I did at 10nl. So nh, FTR micro-grinders.

4. HUD reads. Both guys had some misconceptions about HUD stats, what specific ones mean and when to use what. They had different misunderstandings, but it seems like you micro-grinders really need to think through your HUD's, what you're displaying and why, and when it all might be useful to look at. I may post something about it, but I don't want to spoonfeed too much. If you look at the description of the stat and think about what it means, you should be able to figure it all out.

5. Ranges, ranges, ranges. Both guys are good poker players who consider reads, stack sizes, board texture and ranges postflop. But both seemed to have a similar leak in "thin value" situations on later streets against whales, guys with 60/40 stats. The problem seems to me to be an over-focus on the parts of that wide range that connect with the board, and not enough focus on the parts of the range that don't or that only connect with a small piece.

To help both of them with #5, here's a HH. Villain is 75/40/1.5 over 150 hands. My read by watching him against me and others is that he continues with any piece of the flop and darn any draw with 4+ outs. He'll float with a backdoor draw and air. He'll cbet bottom pair, or bet ip against a missed cbet with bottom pair/2nd pair/no kicker. He stacked me with 84s > KK in a 3bet pot, calling 2 streets on a FD board that hit him, then crai river when the flush completed. I had a set and made the crying call.

So we arrive at this hand. I've opened and flatted a lot wider range against him, and I've won about 80% of the small and medium pots against him. So he's giving me some respect lately.


$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($342.85)
UTG 1 ($174.90)
CO ($113.00)
Hero (BTN) ($100.00)
SB ($202.50)
BB ($151.00)

Pre-flop: ($1.50, 6 players) Hero is BTN
1 fold, UTG 1 raises to $2, 1 fold, Hero raises to $6, 2 folds, UTG 1 calls $4

Flop: ($13.50, 2 players)
UTG 1 bets $13.50, Hero raises to $40, UTG 1 calls $26.50

Turn: ($93.50, 2 players)
UTG 1 goes all-in $128.90, $54 to Hero ($54)?


My read says the flop didn't necessarily hit him (he'll float w/ air), though he's probably got outs. The turn is bothersome, because 4x is certainly in his range, and he's learned I can value bet two streets pretty accurately against his BS bottom pair/2nd pair hands. And 5x, 6x, 78, 23, A3 and bunch of other stuff MIGHT be in his range.

My question for you 5nl and 10nl grinders is the turn. I'll admit to not being thrilled with his lead shove. I won't say what I decided. I'll let you guys tell me if the call is for value or if it's a "crying call" where we we're pretty sure we're beat but kinda have to call due to pot odds. Or whether we should fold.

Answer the poll question, and post your thoughts below. I would ask the FTR players at 50nl+ to wait a bit before pwn'ing the thread so the micro-guys can get in here and think about this.