How to Crush Your Opponent After One Hand | Upswing Poker Level-Up #53

This article is a transcription of the Level-Up Podcast, hosted by Upswing VP Mike Brady with poker pro Gary Blackwood. You can watch or listen to the entire episode via the links above or read on if you prefer a written version.

Mike (00:00):

Sometimes just one showdown can be enough information to destroy your opponent at the poker table. Myself and poker pro Gary Blackwood are about to show you how to do it.

Gary (00:10):

We’re going to go through five hand examples played by hypothetical opponents. You’ll then learn counter strategies you can use to crush these opponents on the very next hand.

Mike (00:21):

But before we delve into the topic, I want to caution against having 100% confidence in your reads. Every player has a certain degree of randomness in their decisions, especially inexperienced players.

Gary (00:33):

That’s right. Just because you saw someone play a certain hand a certain way does not mean they will definitely play it the same way again. People tend to play consistently, but they don’t always play consistently, so be on the lookout for multiple showdowns if possible.

Mike (00:48):

Let’s get into it. Here’s hand number one. Suppose you are playing a two five cash game and a player open raises to $35, that’s a seven x. You notice this right away, especially because it’s different from the $15 and $20 raises you saw this player make earlier. That player eventually reaches showdown with their $35 hand and they turn out to have pocket queens. Gary, what does this showdown tell you about this player and how would you exploit them?

Gary (01:16):

When you see a player raise to an unusually big size preflop and then showdown a very strong hand, that means they’re likely sizing up preflop with stronger hands. You can probably assume they’re sizing up postflop with really strong hands as well. This happens more often than you’d think at lower stakes, so when you see a player randomly juice up their raise size, pay close attention in case the hand goes to showdown so that you can make a mental note. Now, what exploits can we use to counter this player? There are actually two here. The first one is really quite obvious we tighten up versus the larger raise size, less marginal calls and less marginal three bets. But let’s think about when this player raises to their standard size. We know that they size up with stronger hands so their normal raise size range becomes much weaker and will contain less strong hands in it. So let’s attack that with an aggressive three bet strategy.

Mike (02:06):

They really are giving you the green light to three bet them. When they use one of those smaller sizes, they just aren’t very likely to have a strong hand. Time for hand number two, you’re back in that two five game and you raise preflop to $20 from early position. The big blind defends, and eventually shows down king seven offsuit. A few hands later that same player is on the button and he calls a preflop raise to $15, eventually showing down jack nine offsuit. Gary, what does this showdown tell you about this player and how would you exploit them?

Gary (02:39):

Those two exact examples maybe sound like they’re just a little bit too wide, but they’re actually way too wide in both scenarios. King seven off is not even close to good enough to defend versus an early position raise, especially in a raked cash game, especially against a four x raise, and even on the button jack nine offsuit is not good enough to call a raise. Jack ten offsuit, queen ten offsuit, king ten offsuit, these hands are mostly folds, so a hand, unlike jack nine offsuit is way too wide to be calling there versus a raise. This means that their range is wider and weaker and therefore it will have more air in it. We can attack that wider, weaker range with more c-bets on the flop and also on the turn as well. If you think about it, your opponent’s range is wider, which means they’ve got more weak hands to call on the flop, which means their turn range automatically gets that little bit weaker as well. So we want to barrel more on the flop versus them, but also follow through on the turn as well. You can expect those c-bets to force more folds than usual. It is harder to hit the flop when you’ve got so much junk in your rage.

Mike (03:40):

You can also exploit these players preflop with a simple two-step adjustment. First raise bigger if you normally raise to three x, jack it up to four x or five x, you could even consider going bigger against especially loose opponents. And second, consider cutting out some of the weaker speculative hands in your raising range. If you make these two tweaks to your normal strategy, you’ll get to the flop in a bloated pot with a far superior range. That’s a recipe for postflop success, especially when you stack it with the c-bet exploit Gary recommended a moment ago. Moving on to hand number three, let’s talk about donkers. Suppose you raise preflop, the big blind calls, and the flop comes jack six deuce rainbow. Your opponent immediately leads out you call and the hand eventually reaches showdown with your opponent revealing a flopped middle pair with seven six suited. Gary, what does this showdown tell you about this player and how would you exploit them?

Gary (04:39):

I should note that leading out on the flop as a preflop caller and not the raiser is a fine strategy, but only in the right spots. For example, if you defend the big blind and the flop comes down six four three, having a leading range on that flop is completely fine because it smashes your big blind defense range. You’ve got more nutted hands in your range and therefore theoretically leading out is appropriate. But that’s not the case on flops like jack six deuce or ace eight three or nine seven four. Yet some players will still find leads on these flops and they usually do with one pair hands like top pair or second pair. Funnily enough, there’s not much we can do to exploit when these players donk into us, but once they’ve revealed themselves to be a donker, you can exploit them whenever they don’t donk on the flop. Think about it, if a player donks when they flop a pair, what does that mean when they check? That to me suggests that they’ve got a weaker range, so when they check let’s ramp up our aggression with more airball, more low equity bluffs because we know the likelihood that our opponent will continue has just decreased.

Mike (05:40):

You arguably don’t even need to get to showdown to implement this exploit. If a player ever donks on a flop that isn’t advantageous for their range, they’re almost certainly a player who isn’t protecting their checking range. So when they do check, you have the green light to c-bet double barrel and triple barrel, knowing that more likely it’s gonna get through. Before we jump into hand number four, I know a lot of you might have been wondering where we’ve been. Gary and I haven’t made an Upswing Poker Level-Up episode in quite a while, and it’s because we’ve been very busy. Gary’s been working on his blog over on Gary Blackwood Poker on YouTube. Definitely go check out those episodes if you haven’t already and I’ve been working on a new collaboration between Upswing Poker and the guy who is in my mind the world’s best poker coach on a revamped version of the Upswing Lab, our flagship course over on Upswing Poker.

(06:29):

We’re calling it Lab 2.0 and it’s going to be dropping sometime this summer. It’s going to provide a clear linear learning path no matter what skill level you are at, you get dropped into the appropriate part of that path and it helps you upgrade your skills quickly and efficiently. We’ll release more info about Lab 2.0 a little bit down the road. Let’s jump into hand number four now. Suppose you raise preflop with jack ten of spades of spades, and a player on the button calls. The flop comes king jack three with one spade and you check call a bet from your opponent. The turn is the seven of spades and you check call another bet with your pair and flush draw. The river is a ten, giving you two pair and you check call yet another bet. You’re surprised to see your opponent turn over ace deuce of clubs for a total airball hand that just blasted the flop turn and river trying to get you to fold. Gary, when you see this showdown, what do you now know about this player and how would you go about exploiting them in future hands?

Gary (07:29):

There are certain players who just love to bluff. Anytime you check back, they probe the turn. Anytime you check to them, they stab the flop. These players aren’t particularly common, but they’re very, very profitable to play against if you know how to exploit them. Let’s break this down by position. Check to them as much as possible when you’re out of position even with a nutted hand. When you’ve got a nutted hand, you should still check-raise your opponent here to bloat the pot. It might be really tempting to check-call when out of position to let them keep blasting, but if it’s a small pot, the EV is going to be far higher to check-raise. When you check-call the turn might just go check-check and if you’ve got a nutted hand that is just absolutely disastrous.

Mike (08:10):

It’s a disaster because the pot just remains way too small. If you check-call the flop in a single-raised pot, there might be 12 to 15 big blinds in there. If it goes check-check on the turn, there’s still 12 to 15 big blinds in the pot on the river, and it’s just going to be really difficult for you to win a really, really big pot. However, if you check-raise on the flop and they call, that’s going to bring the pot to maybe 25, 30 big blinds. When you go into the turn with 30 big blinds already in the middle, it’s not going to be super difficult to get all the money in by the river. Plus, it’s always possible that this very aggressive player is going to go crazy and float your check-raise with way too wide of a range or maybe they three-bet you on the flop and play right into your nutted hand. So it’s not like you’re totally taking the gun out of their hands by check-raising, what you’re really doing is just increasing your EV by bloating the pot. Yeah, once in a while they’re going to fold an airball hand that would’ve maybe blasted off on the turn and river, but on average you’re going to be better off going ahead and check-raising.

Gary (09:13):

Let’s talk a little bit about when we’re in position versus this player type, this really aggressive player who loves to bluff. You should still fast play your nutted hands in small pots for the exact same reasons we’ve just spoken about. It’s just so important to get the money in as soon as possible. Plus they might check-raise bluff you with anything anyway, but you can still set traps for this player. When you’ve got weak top pairs or your strong overpairs on really wet, low-connected boards, that is the time to trap this player type. You’re essentially turning your decent hands into traps because they can take some heat when your opponent starts blasting into you on turns and rivers.

Mike (09:49):

There’s one other adjustment you should consider making against these players and this was covered over on the Lucid Poker YouTube channel. You can actually play tighter on the early streets so you have a more competitive range by the later streets when the pot is at its biggest. For example, if you have a marginal hand on the flop facing their c-bet, maybe a hand like pocket fives on a board with two overcards or maybe a hand like ace-high, those are hands that maybe you consider are worth one bet on the flop, so you would check call and kind of see what develops,. Maybe hope to get to a cheap showdown and win. But against this player, you can’t really expect to get to a cheap showdown and win because they’re the barreller who’s just always going to put pressure on you on the turn and river.

(10:34):

So instead of putting in those chips on the flop, you should just get rid of that hand, make your range more competitive, and then that way when they barrel the turn and river you’re going to be sitting there lying in wait with a stronger than usual range, and you’re going to be ready to call ’em down. If you want to learn more about the specifics of that adjustment, go ahead over to the Lucid Poker Channel on YouTube. The video is called How to Exploit Maniac Poker Players Made by a really great poker pro named Texas Tommo. Highly recommend checking that out. Alright, final hand of the day, suppose the button open-raises preflop and you call from the big blind with nine seven of hearts. The flop is queen-seven-three rainbow, and you check-call a small bet from your opponent. The turn is the two of clubs and you both check. The river comes the six of hearts and you both check again. You expect to win with your middle pair considering just one small bet went in, but you are surprised to see your opponent flip over pocket jacks. Gary, what are you thinking when you see this showdown and how are you going to aim to exploit this player in future hands?

Gary (11:36):

A very common player type in low stakes live poker are players who don’t value bet thinly enough, not even close to thinly enough or correctly. There are certain players who will try and get one street max with pocket jacks on a relatively safe queen high board with very little action, or they’ll bet twice with aces in a small pot and then check back on a blank river. These are passive, scared to value cut themselves players, and they’re actually more common than you might think. The exploit is to respect this player type’s aggression. They won’t make aggressive plays often enough, but when they do, you better believe they got it. So whenever this player triple barrels into you or they check-raise on the flop or they shove all-in on the river, you can start to exploit this player by just respecting their aggression. You can start to overfold the river. You can start to make marginal turn folds. All-in-all, you tighten up and you continue less when these passive players are starting to be really quite aggressive.

Mike (12:30):

You should also consider cutting out some of your thinnest value bets against these players. Thin value betting is really, really good in live poker and in low stakes, soft games in general. But against players who accidentally trap with hands that are worth a bet, you got to be a little bit more careful. I’m not saying you should never bet thinly for value against these players, but if you find yourself in what feels like a really close spot, it’s a hand that might be worth one more bet and you’re considering either just checking back and taking showdown or going for a little bit of thin value. Consider checking back with those hands against this player because they might just show up with something stronger than you expected. That’s it for this episode of Upswing Poker Level-Up. We are glad to be back with you. If you enjoyed this one, hit subscribe, follow rate the podcast five stars, give a thumbs up. Any positive way you can interact, we would really appreciate it. And if you’re excited about Lab 2.0 when you have any questions either about that or even about something you watched in this podcast, feel free to drop them in the comments below. We’ll try to get back to you at least in the first week or two after publishing the video. Thanks for watching. We’ll see you in the next one.