Good to see poker theory approaching the way I naturally thought when I played on PokerStars (before Chuck Schumer and co shut it all down for us).
People used to make fun of me for playing limits and sucking out on people. And no limit I would have some crazy strategies to fake out a table and make them anger-bet into my connected straight flush draws, when I was “representing” a two pair etc.
On large tables, often you want many people to stay in, until the river, because then the pot is big enough that multiple people will go all-in. You just have to be very sure you probably have the best hand (such as a flush that you were drawing for). I woul actually “goad” people with raising small amounts, whenever I had suited connectors for example, and if I hit a draw or the nuts on the flop, I would act as if I am “protecting” a top pair or so. On the other hand, when you are on a draw and if you want to see the next hand on the turn, you have to bet the flop much harder, because then it signals to most “basic” people that you’re “protecting” a hand — therefore gaining you an informational advantage when you do hit — as well as the “intimidation” factor that lets you “check” the turn to see the river — because they often think you’re checkraising them and also check, giving you another free card. You pay more on the flop but have two free cards after. Also If you don’t hit your draw, sometimes they didn’t hit either, and you can take it down with an aggressive bet since you were “representing” that you flopped a strong hand. To summarize:
1) play large tables
2) play suited connectors, or suited Ace-something
3) limp in or if you are late-position, double the bet to make people call and grow he pot and be more excited to bet later, you also represent a reasonably high pair
4) after a flop - if you are one card away from hitting a very strong draw (eg ace high flush) then bet hard on the flop — late position is always best for this… otherwise you have to bet less to keep people in
5) regardless of whether the turn card makes your draw, check on the turn … you may have to call any bet if multiple people stay in, and play the odds
6) if you made the nuts on the river, checkraise all in (since you represented that you are protecting a flooped hand).
7) there were also timing factors, people get more annoyed if you take too long. And you can play multiple tables online until you hit these kinds of starting hands
People said I was playing wrong but I intuitively felt like this would give a lot higher payoffs than just straight play with no bluffs.
PS: Against a really intelligent table where people don’t churn, you’d have to leave after a couple big wins and do the same thing elsewhere. The whole idea in poker is to take advantage of most people just executing some common strategy or mindset.
> People said I was playing wrong but I intuitively felt like this would give a lot higher payoffs than just straight play with no bluffs.
No winning players nowadays would advocate for a strategy that doesn't involve bluffing.
Not to be harsh, but just to point it out for any novices who might be seduced by the simplicity of what you propose: the "strategy" you outline is simply nonsense and would not be winning in the long run even vs a fairly weak field. Maybe vs the level of play in the pre-solver world it did okay (though I doubt it would win except vs the very weakest fields), but today it would simply be burning money, even at microstakes.
Some of the heuristics you describe work in some situations, but you make no mention of accounting for other players positions, other players ranges, or the cards on the board; it is simply based on your hand and your perception of the player populations tendencies (which have changed dramatically since the pre-solver days). Ignoring the majority of the publicly available information in a given hand, in this game of incomplete information, is a grave strategic mistake.
People used to make fun of me for playing limits and sucking out on people. And no limit I would have some crazy strategies to fake out a table and make them anger-bet into my connected straight flush draws, when I was “representing” a two pair etc.
On large tables, often you want many people to stay in, until the river, because then the pot is big enough that multiple people will go all-in. You just have to be very sure you probably have the best hand (such as a flush that you were drawing for). I woul actually “goad” people with raising small amounts, whenever I had suited connectors for example, and if I hit a draw or the nuts on the flop, I would act as if I am “protecting” a top pair or so. On the other hand, when you are on a draw and if you want to see the next hand on the turn, you have to bet the flop much harder, because then it signals to most “basic” people that you’re “protecting” a hand — therefore gaining you an informational advantage when you do hit — as well as the “intimidation” factor that lets you “check” the turn to see the river — because they often think you’re checkraising them and also check, giving you another free card. You pay more on the flop but have two free cards after. Also If you don’t hit your draw, sometimes they didn’t hit either, and you can take it down with an aggressive bet since you were “representing” that you flopped a strong hand. To summarize:
People said I was playing wrong but I intuitively felt like this would give a lot higher payoffs than just straight play with no bluffs.PS: Against a really intelligent table where people don’t churn, you’d have to leave after a couple big wins and do the same thing elsewhere. The whole idea in poker is to take advantage of most people just executing some common strategy or mindset.