Heads-up Lines on the Flop
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
This situation somehow disappeared from my line up:
Hero (BB): 1,710
SB: 1,290
Pre-Flop: (45) Q:heart: T:club: dealt to Hero (BB)
SB raises to 90, Hero calls 60
Flop: (180) J:club: 6:spade: 9:spade: (2 Players)
Hero checks, SB bets 120, Hero ???
I used to base my flop play with draws in this situation on stack sizes but somehow it ended up switching to 100% check/raise. Anyways, I think that leading with these stack sizes is better than check/raising.
The rest of this article is a comparison between two lines that we can take on this flop. Line #1 is a standard check/raise. Line #2 is a lead followed by an all-in if we are raised.
The scenarios:
#1
Hero (BB): 1,710
SB: 1,290
Pre-Flop: (45) Q:heart: T:club: dealt to Hero (BB)
SB raises to 90, Hero calls 60
Flop: (180) J:club: 6:spade: 9:spade: (2 Players)
Hero checks, SB bets 120, Hero raises 180 to 300, SB raises 900 to 1200 and is All-In, Hero ???
Text results appended to pokerstove.txt
990 games 0.015 secs 66,000 games/sec
Board: Js 9h 6s
Dead:
equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 42.121% 42.12% 00.00% 417 0.00 { QcTd }
Hand 1: 57.879% 57.88% 00.00% 573 0.00 { AhJd }
We are calling 900 to win 2580 so we only need to win this 34.8% of the time. Thus, we are priced into the call but have no fold equity. I think that AJo is a fair hand to assign for this example - if anyone thinks that this is too weak I would be glad to hear why. I think that it is probably around the middle of a villain's shoving range here. I expect to see both better and worse hands in his range.
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#2
Hero (BB): 1,710
SB: 1,290
Pre-Flop: (45) Q:heart: T:club: dealt to Hero (BB)
SB raises to 90, Hero calls 60
Flop: (180) J:club: 6:spade: 9:spade: (2 Players)
Hero bets 120, SB raises 180 to 300, Hero raises 900 to 1200 (and puts SB All-In), SB ???
This scenario is a little different because we still have fold equity. At the time that we shove, there is 600 in the pot and we are shoving for an extra 1080 chips.
Something that is definitely noteworthy here:
The "donk" bet tends to be pretty weak. By donk bet, I mean that he was the last preflop raiser but we lead into him without the initiative. This line tends to be weak because a check/raise gets more value out of any villain that cbets regularly.
Many players will recognise this as a weak line and will raise with air. Thus, I think that the villain's range in scenario #2 contains a lot of weaker hands than in scenario #1.
I'd give exact numbers here, but to be honest I don't remember how to calculate it. However, this scenario has some big advantages for us:
1) We still have fold equity, but in this case we are attempting to steal a pot that is twice as large. Since we aren't folding in either scenario, we are essentially risking the same amount of chips.
2) Our opponent's range is wider in scenario #2.
3) We prevent our opponent from being able to check behind.
In defence of scenario #1, I think there is only one real advantage there:
1) We allow our opponent to cbet, thus we get the maximum amount of value from air.
Anyway, hopefully that isn't too overwhelming. It may be a lot to look at but if you look over it slowly it shouldn't be too much to take in. I haven't been applying this in my videos lately (I may actually be doing it in some of the earlier ones - I'm not sure), but I will definitely be applying it in the future.
Ryan Dodge is an online pro as well as a poker coach who specialises in heads-up SnGs. Those interested in getting tuition should see here for further information, or can email him direct on xSCWx1@gmail.com.