Profiling Villains (Robb's 800th post)
I was planning something a bit more grand for my 800th FTR post. But profiling villains is important. And I don't do it enough.
Just sat down with PT2, cranked up my half-million hand database filtered for nl25 players (focused on 6max), went to the "Summary" tab, and sorted based on number of hands. From there, I picked out a villain with 1k+ hands who I've seen a bit recently and who has a positive win rate. Why profile serial donators?
Here's the profiling notes I have after five minutes of glancing through his stats, which I will copy-paste into my poker site's notes box when I see him next:
Villain is 21/16/4 over 1.5k hands (all are 6max):
PA (11/11 - 30/24)*, Steals, ~Def, OvPL SB**
Plays big cards, avoids bad aces and sc's
Limps 66, QTs, A8s
CCs sm pp's EP
ORs pp's, all BW, A8+, A7s+, K9s, J8s+, T9s+
The abbreviations in the top row mean...
PA - positionally aware with UTG and BTN stats in ( )
Steals - attempts to steal blinds
~Def - Defends blinds
OvPL SB - Overplays SB, meaning way too loose
Range abbreviations are OR (open raise) and CC (cold calls or flatting).
The stars ( * ) or asterisks bump the note "higher", the "tilda" lowers it (~ means somewhat, or meh). The "steals" note means attempts to steal 20 - 25%; if higher, it would have *. If it were more than 30%, it would have a double ** . The PA note would have a star except this guy plays nearly 30% of hands out of the SB, probably his biggest leak.
Kind of a check plus, check minus grading scale. I use the general tab preflop filters to quickly assess his limping/flatting/raising ranges preflop. Note that the extra wide open raising hands are mostly from the BTN.
This is an interesting villain. See the note about "big cards"? It helps define how this guy thinks about poker, and what kind of hands he likes to play. Other opening styles you'll see at the micros are:
Aces - can't lay down a bad ace
Sooted - loves stuff like Q2s
SC's /Gappers - loves to play the 76s, 97s kind of hands
Knowing how his 22% VPiP "leans" is important and will let us attack him with precision. Examples of good lines against him.
1. Limp on the BTN after 1 or more limpers when he's in the SB and we normally would have raised in blind/limp steal mode - he's too loose and will come along with garbage, so (as long as BB is passive) we can virtually guarantee ourselves 2 more limpers in the pot - great for small pp's and sc's where we want to see a cheap flop.
2. 3bet him preflop with sc's like 87s. If he flats, he's almost guaranteed to behind when we catch a piece of a flop like T73 rainbow. Might have TT, but that's a risk we'll have to take.
3. Avoid playing bad aces against him for value. He only seems to play good aces, so only attack with A7s with the understanding it's just a blind steal. He'll be dangerous on a AJ3 flop, especially if he bets oop.
All right. That's my two cents. Here's your HW assignment:
1. Profile a villain you have 1,000+ hands on, and post it in this thread.
2. Offer some abbreviations you use to make your notes
3. List some of the Big Mistakes you make notes about
4. Give examples of exploitive play that focus on a profile you've done yourself or seen someone else do in this thread.
