Crushing Live Poker With Twitter

Join me as I examine the complexities of live no-limit cash games through Twitter. I’ll be posting tweets then delving deeper and expanding upon Twitter’s 140-character max.
You can draw from my seven years of playing professionally in Los Angeles and also learn from the many patterns I see while commentating on poker. I have had the opportunity to watch more live hands than anyone and along the way have picked up an invaluable amount of information that I will share with you here.

Nov. 5 – Bluffing the unbluffable is generally -EV

One of the biggest leaks in my poker game is giving my opponents way too much credit.  Sometimes I put myself in their situation and try to make a play that would work against myself.  Unfortunately, however, most players that I am trying to extract money from do not think about the game in the same way that I do.  They are not thinking through hands at a high level and are commonly just playing off of the absolute value of what they hold, not the relative value based upon the situation.
You run into huge problems when you try to bluff players like this.  A lot of people, especially if they are very tight preflop, do not like to fold hands postflop.  Recreational players do not come to the casino to get bluffed off of strong hands.  Knowing this, as a winning player, you must adjust correctly.
The following are some common hand scenarios where a non-professional player has difficulty folding.
1. Aces and other overpairs — You can extract so much money from people that cannot fold these types of hands.  But this lack of folding is why it is so difficult to play suited connectors from out of position in capped no-limit games.  Usually when you flop well with these hands you flop some sort of draw and when you are up against someone who will not fold top pair or an overpair your semibluff ability is taken away.  That is why you should pound these types of players with value hands.
2.  Obvious trips or a set — At the lower levels you should not be trying to bluff people off of trips or a set.  People are just incapable of laying these types of hands down even if with the given action they are only just bluff catchers
3. A turned flush that faces a four-flush on the river —  When you are fairly certain that a player had a flush on the turn but a fourth card of that suit comes out, you should very rarely try to bluff.  Your opponent might even call a bet with the weakest flush possible just to show the rest of the table his misfortune.  Of course, you should use this to your advantage when you happen to make a higher flush and bet big as you will often get paid off.

Nov. 6 – Delayed double barreling can be a useful tool in 3 bet pots. 
In an earlier Card Player column I discussed the merits of sometimes delayed continuation betting against tighter players.  To put it simply, delayed betting involves not bluffing your opponent the first opportunity that you have, but rather checking and waiting to see what his reaction is on the next street. 
I also discussed in an earlier article about the strength of double barreling.  When you bet twice you look very strong and your fold equity increases when you are bluffing.
Put these two ideas together and you have the concept of delayed double barreling — the act of checking back the turn with the intention of bluffing the river. 
Using this move is a very powerful tool in three-bet pots where the ranges usually must be fairly strong in order to get to showdown.  Because pot control is also sometimes ramped in three-bet pots, we can also disguise our bluffs as made hands that have checked back on the turn.
Let us take a look at an actual hand that a student of mine named Geoff played at a $2-$5 game in Las Vegas several months ago.  The lineup that night was pretty soft and players were telegraphing their hand strengths by varying their raise sizes preflop.  When they raised larger they were usually strong and a smaller raise meant little pairs or hands like K-Q.  In this particular hand the under-the-gun player limped and the next player made it $15. Four people in between called.  Geoff knew none of these flatters were particularly strong and thought that it was a really good spot to squeeze so he made it $100 with 7◆ 3◆ on the button.  Everyone folded except the preflop raiser who started the hand with $800.  The flop came out 9◆ 4♣ 2♠.  The under-the-gun player checked and Geoff bet $120.  His opponent paused for a moment and called.  The turn came a K♣ and both players checked.  The river was the Q♠ and the opponent checked once again.  Geoff now bet $275 to perfectly execute the delayed double barrel and his opponent quickly folded.
Why was it better for Geoff to check the turn here as oppose to bet?  Because much like delayed continuation betting, Geoff could pick up the same amount of information by the way his opponent reacted to his check on the turn rather than risk money by betting.
You see, if Geoff’s opponent had a hand like 7-7 or 8-8 he would be likely to just fold the turn.  However, especially with the additional over card that came on the river he would also fold to a fifth street bet as well, after the turn went check/check. Geoff actually risked less money by not betting the turn because if his opponent bet the river he could have safely folded assuming that the under the gun was extremely strong (like with A-K, A-A or a flopped set).  The moral of the story is that sometimes when a card or board comes that hits your range hard you actually can wait to see what your opponent does on the next street by checking and risking nothing.
Nov. 13 – When raised on the flop vs a polarized range top pair weak kicker or second pair to the board has the same value as an overpair.

People get confused about the concept of polarization even though it is really very simple.  Simply put, when someone is “polarized” they are either very strong or very weak.  In practical terms, this translates to them either holding a nut hand or a bluff. 
Commonly, I will hear someone say that their opponent’s hand is polarized between something like top pair or a set.  This is a clear misuse of the term.
Oftentimes in the games today there are spots where people are commonly polarized.  This happens a lot in raised pots, especially three-bet pots where a player raises the preflop raiser’s continuation bet. 
Let’s take a look at an example.  Player A in a $5-$10 game raises in middle position to $35.  Player B reraises on the button to $105 with J♣ J♠ and $1,500 effective stacks.  It gets folded back to Player A who calls.  The board runs out Q♥ 8◆ 3♥. Player A checks and Player B puts out a continuation bet of $125.  Player A now check-raises him to $375.  Player B thinks for a bit and disgustedly folds his hand, bitter that he cannot beat the queen on the board.  But is the queen really relevant in this situation?
Usually decent players will not choose to check-raise a hand as weak as A-Q in a three-bet pot from up front, as they realize that this can commonly put them in a way ahead/way behind situation.  This creates a situation of polarization.  Player A rarely has a medium strength hand in this spot.  Usually he will have a very strong hand like a set or possibly a slow played A-A or some sort of draw.  So the fact that player B cannot beat the queen on the board really does not matter.  Player B must determine if Player A is strong or is bluffing as we have already established that it is highly unlikely that he holds a queen only. 
This concept is lost on a lot of mid-stakes players.  They fail to realize how common it is that their opponents’ ranges are completely polarized.
I always find it funny that certain types of players will fold top pair/weak kicker because they have “kicker problems” not realizing that with their opponent’s given action, the kicker in play is completely irrelevant. Check out my podcast over at seatopenpoker.net episode “Depolarization” for further discussion of this concept. ♠

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Follow Bart for daily strategy tips on twitter @barthanson. Check out his podcast “The Seat Open Podcast” on seatopenpoker.net and his video training site specifically for live No Limit players ­—CrushLivePoker.com. He also hosts Live at the Bike every Tuesday and Friday at 10:30 pm ET at LivettheBike.com