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Baby Raising

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  1. #1

    Default Baby Raising

    I'll bet you saw the title and thought this was a thread about formula and diapers.

    Actually I'm curious about the itty bitty little raises that I'm noticing as I transition a little from playing almost exclusively live, to dabbling online.

    In my live games, I raise huge pre-flop. 7-10x usually. And that's because a great portion of the player pool is super-sticky pre-flop and then fit-or-fold post flop. If I'm stealing a pot, it should be a big one. Also, when I'm not stealing, the bigger raises set up low-SPR pots where stacking off with TPTK and overpairs is lol-easy and super profitable.

    This strategy fails, and fails HARD when you get into games above the $5 blind level where players have learned what 3-betting is.

    I assumed that 3-bets, and other countermeasures, are more common online than in low stakes live games, so I started off with what I thought was a more "standard" 3-5x raise size. But even that seems to be humongous compared to the typical raise sizes that I see. My first post on here was actually a hand where I raised to 4x, and it definitely raised some eyebrows.

    In Tourneys, the small-ball strategy makes a little more sense to me. In cash games, I don't get it.

    I'm not going to write out what my opening range is from each position. It's fluid, obviously, but I feel like I'm opening a solid and "proper" range of hands. Let's also assume that I'm properly evaluating board textures and c-bet/barrelling with the right frequencies......what's the advantage of having the pot be so small?
  2. #2
    I guess there's a few things here:

    1) You don't really want to be playing pots multiway and getting your opponents to fold their equity is generally a good thing. Raise sizes tend to be bigger live because almost everybody is there to gamble it up and try to flop big with any two cards, so the bigger size should thin the field. Online, people don't call so much pre, especially out of position, so you don't need to make it so big to deny them their equity. They will 3bet more though, so you lose less when you fold and the SPR will be lower when you call, which means you won't be pot committed so often post flop.

    2) Bigger raises are good when your range/equity advantage is greater than your opponents. When your opponent is calling with J4s and you have a 12% UTG range, you're pretty happy to get more money in the pot early. When your tight range is coming up against a tight calling range online, your equity advantage isn't so clear. Sure, if they call a lot pre and check fold a ton of flops, then bigger sizing will be better.

    3) It's easier to manoeuver post flop with a smaller opening size. Generally, a lower stack to pot ratio should mean the player with the greatest post flop skill will profit.

    4) Stack sizes can be deeper live, so you'll want to have to make it easier to get all in by the river by using a bigger size pre. Online is typically 100bb-150bb effective, which is quite easy to get all in by the river if there are bets and raises.
  3. #3
    MadMojoMonkey's Avatar
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    Breast feeding kickstarts the baby's immune... oh... I see what you did, there.


    IF you're truly playing sensible ranges PRE, then odds are you're tighter than the field, even online, and so you should be happy to be opening and raising pre a bit bigger.

    The rake at the lowest stakes (up to 25NL, really) is brutal. As such, you don't want to be involved in marginal pots nearly as much. The reduced overall equity in the pot due to the fraction of it that is missing destroys your ability to pull the slight profit you would expect to see. This motivates you to play a slightly tighter range than is sensible at higher stakes. (like a % or 3 fewer total combos)

    As I hinted at above, and Bean, too, the tighter range means you have a card advantage over Villains' ranges, so opening slightly bigger PRE is also a profitable adjustment.

    My default FR ranges for online 10NL and below when first sitting at a new table were pretty nitty:
    UTG: 4%
    UTG+1: 5%
    MP1: 6%
    MP2: 7%
    HJ: 10%
    CO/SB: 27%
    BTN: 40%
    BB: wing it. There's a lot of free plays of ATC, due to limpers. There are plenty of easy calls with AXs when there's a small raise with many callers, which can easily be turned into occasional 3-bets w/ A2s - A5s if the table is just throwing away money PRE.

    Once I'd witnessed a few orbits, I'd start opening the early and mid ranges up. With knowledge comes exploitation. Until then, I'm a casual observer who is only getting involved when I have the goods or I can profitably steal the blinds.

    My standard opening size was 4x + 1 for each limper in early and mid positions. I'd step down to 3x + 1 for each limper in CO/BTN and occasionally step down to a min-raise on the BTN if one of the blinds heard the phrase "BTN vs blind wars" somewhere and thinks it's a thing to always 3-bet to defend the blinds against a late position raise.
  4. #4
    four tips for baby rising
    1-A late bedtime,
    2-Nap deprivation,
    3-Staying awake too long between the afternoon nap and bedtime, or
    4-Going to bed too drowsy.

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