How the World’s #1 Cash Game Player Has Changed His Strategy
How the World’s #1 Cash Game Player Has Changed His Strategy
How has LLinusLLove been crushing the games for the last few years?
Everyone has had access to solvers for years and the games have never been tougher, so how has he managed to have a graph like this...
...when other top players have fewer leaks than ever before?
Is he just executing "GTO" strategies much better than his opponents are? Is he just an exploitative players who has found a few ways to exploit the games he's playing?
In today's short article, we will get a peek at the answers while focusing on how LLinus' c-betting strategy on monotone flops has changed in the past few years.
Let's get started.
This is the fifth and final part of Alex "Kanu7" Millar's strategy series! Alex is one of poker's biggest-ever cash game winners and he's joined the Upswing team to create content that will help you improve your cash game skills.
Previous parts:
How Did LLinus Approach Monotone Boards in the Past?
Alex starts the video by going over LLinus' stats on monotone flops before December 31st, 2017, which is around the time that his graph really takes off.
In the 510 hand sample, LLinus c-bet 72.4% of the time on monotone flops. This is quite a bit more than the ~50% c-bet frequency Alex recommended in the previous parts of this series.
It will be interesting to see if that holds up for LLinus' more recent stats, but before we look at those, let's look at the bet sizes he used on monotone flops.
LLinus was betting under half pot most of the time, but he mixed in some larger sizes as well. Again, this differs from Alex's advice in previous parts.
Now, let's see how all of this has changed since 2018.
How Has LLinus Approached Monotone Boards Recently?
Fortunately, LLinus' recent strategy on monotone flops is quite similar to what you've learned from Alex in previous parts. Here's a summary of the 142 hand sample:
- LLinus' flop c-bet percentage has gone down to 59.9% on monotone flops.
- He's now betting under half pot 92.9% of the time, the majority of which were between 20% and 30% pot.
To quote Alex:
This is something that LLinus himself has worked on in the last few years, to change his strategies from how he was playing -- which was quite far from the GTO strategies that I was recommending in [previous videos] -- to actually [playing very similarly] to what I've been putting out.
I was recommending to bet, say, 50% of the time for a one third pot sizing. He's going up to about 60% with a quarter pot sizing. So, putting in pretty much the same amount of money to the pot. The difference in EV between those two strategies is going to be absolutely minuscule.
It's good to see that LLinus' c-betting strategy lines up well with what Alex teaches in his course and what he recommended in the previous parts in this series.
It's also good to see that LLinus has clearly been working on this part of his game. That means the strategies you've learned throughout this series aren't something people knew 3 or 5 years ago, and you might be the only player making these adjustments in your games.
Let's put a bow on this series with one last quote from Alex:
Finally, it seems that LLinus has been moving his strategies closer to GTO over the last few years, and he's playing a very solid game when it comes to c-betting on the flop...
...OR IS HE?!
He's just done an incredibly good job at selling this story. Actually, he's exploiting the games he's playing in quite subtle but sometimes quite brutal ways, and he's doing that very impressively.
I hope you enjoyed this free 5-part series from one of the most legendary cash game players of all time.
If you want to continue learning from Alex, check out his Advanced Cash Game Strategy course.
