Upswing Engage Frequently Asked Questions

Vs One Limper

In theory, you should play tighter when a player limps because your fold equity goes down.

If the limper is a weak player, however, you can play about the same, if not slightly looser depending on the weak player's specific tendencies. Read this article for more info on this.

If you play live, you can find vs limper ranges in the Live Poker Preflop Chart Viewer in the Lab.

Vs Multiple Limpers

When there are multiple limps in front of you, you should almost always play notably tighter and raise to a bigger size.

Raise to 3bb + 1bb for each additionally limper. For example, if 3 players limped, you would raise to 6bb.

Your low c-bet frequency is a temporary cause of using the 4 category system.

The idea behind the 4 category system is to teach you a simple way to play a balanced strategy. This is then your foundation as you improve and start to implement the more complex concepts and strategies in the later sections of the Lab.

These complex concepts and strategies are covered in the Beyond Core Strategy section of the Lab, specifically in the "When to C-Bet Everything" module and many of the subsequent modules. If your low c-bet frequency concerns you, it might be a good idea to skip ahead to these advanced modules.

This question refers to those special live games in which players limp a lot, raise to big sizes, play weird ranges, and just play generally crazy.

The answer is to play tighter, raise to larger sizes, and prepare yourself for some variance. These are the games in which you will have some of your biggest winning and losing sessions, so stay focused and try to make it a winning one.

You shouldn't worry too much about your red line, especially at micro stakes where the rake is heavy. In certain games, it's actually correct to have a losing red line because it will result in more overall winnings.

To use an extreme example, if your opponent had a 0% fold frequency on every street, you would have a big losing red line because you never win the pot before showdown. But you should have no problem beating that opponent overall by value betting against him, which raises your blue line and, more importantly, your green line.

The only parts of your graph to worry about are your winnings (green line) and your luck-adjusted winnings (brownish line).

First off, it should be said that mixed frequency plays are an advanced maneuver. If you're relatively new to poker, don't worry about this yet -- you have more important and consequential things to learn.

That said, there are a few ways to randomize the frequency of your plays:

• Use a random number generator. You can find a bunch of these with a Google search.
• Look at the second hand of a clock. For example, if you wanted to make a certain play 33% of the time, you could make that play when the second hand is in the first third of the clock (like between 12 and 4).
• Look at the orientation of the face of a chip on your stack. This works similarly to the clock. For example, if you wanted to make a certain play 25% of the time, you could make that play when the chip is oriented between what would be 12 and 3 on a clock (see picture below).

Chip orientation and their clock position equivalent