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I had spent the morning learning about deep-stack poker. I believe now, that this is where real poker lives and wanted to apply it to my game. I think I found the spot to apply deep-stack strategy in my session and wanted to share it here. Please let me know if my line is ok or if I should’ve done something different.
The game I play is $500 cap. I usually by in for 100BB instead of the max. I’m comfortable buying in for this much and it usually works out for me. For this session, I planned to switch to deep-stack poker once I built my stack up.
I doubled up in the first hour of my session and started to experiment. I was making all kinds of mistakes. Raising early with 53o, calling with QJ in late position, limping early position with 97s. I was bleeding chips and I was bleeding chips fast. Before I knew it, I was in the game for 400, and I knew I was heading in the wrong direction. I reverted back to my 100BB strategy and waited for an optimal spot to try again. I believe the hand below, is that spot.
Hero Stack: 425
Hero Hand: 7c8c
Hero Position: BTNV1 Stack: ~550
V1 Hand: Ad8h
V1 Position: UtgV2 Stack: 600
V2 Hand: 9s9d
V2 Position: MPPreflop:
V1 opens 13, V2 calls, Hero callsFlop: Ah 10c 9s
V1 bets 45, V2 calls, hero callsTurn: 6c
V1 bets 65, V2 calls, hero raise all-in, V1 shoves all-in, V2 callsRiver: 4s
Hero scoops…Phew!I was 5 hours into the session when this hand happened. The players at the table had completely changed, meaning there was a fresh set of players at the table, and I don’t know any of them. They also did not see me spewing chips away trying to experiment with deep-stack poker. The two villains in this hand were talking to each other about high stakes poker and games they played at LAB and Stones. From their discussion, I thought they had to be competent players. When this hand was dealt, it got dead quiet.
When I looked down at my hand, I thought this was the best spot to apply deep-stack strategy. Some of the key concepts I remembered were: 1) position, 2) stack size, and 3) hand values. With a strong emphasis on point number 1.
I gave V1 a range advantage due to his position. V2, I really had no idea what range to give him. In fact, I didn’t know where I was at with him. I quickly learned that its also very hard to keep track of ranges for two opponents. I’m struggling with just one!
On the flop, I gave V1 credit for an ace. I was not sure what V2 had at this point. I thought this was an amazing flop for me. So I called hoping to hit big on the turn.
The turn was the best card for me I thought. I got my straight and it’s a straight that’s hard to see. When V1 bet, I was confident he had an ace. When V2 calls, I had guessed he had top pair or two pair, but I was still not sure. I tanked for a little bit and decided to make it look like I was drawing to a flush. I cut out call, and started counting how much I had behind, then shoved all my chips in. I then stare at my chips in front of me.
V1 tanks. While V1 is tanking, V2 is giving off an obvious tell. He was holding his cards as if he was planning on folding. He even stood up, while V1 was tanking, looking like he wanted to fold really bad. The intensity of his tell was obvious that he wanted V1 to call. It was very obvious to me as I have seen this tell two other times. I’m not sure if V1 fell for it, or if he thought I may have been bluffing, but V1 decided to shove himself. V2 snap calls. I flip over my hand, and they both show their hand as well.
I learned a few things from this hand. First, never to stack off with an ace and weak kicker. I think given the action on the turn, from V1 point of view, his turn bet was met with a call and shove. He should’ve known his weak ace was no good here. Second, V2 tell and intensity is always reliable =).
I’m on the fence with V2 play. I guess he was looking for value with his set. He probably thought his set was not good and wanted to build a side pot with V1. Regardless, he minimized his loss when he roped V1 in.
I was glad the 6 came on the turn. Had it been a J, I may have just called down on the river, hoping I’m not beat by KQ. Overall, with the way the hand played out and learned a lot from this session. I still need to work on reading ranges, please let me know if you have any suggestions to improve here. Thanks
Deep stack poker is more than what’s in your stack, it’s what your opponents have too. Deep stack is generally 200bb+, but most 1/3 games will only have a few people at that level. You can implement some of the things you learn from the more advanced poker strategies, but some of those things just don’t apply at the lower levels.
Take 3-betting. There are only certain people that you want to 3-bet in the 1/2 and 1/3 games. So many players there just aren’t raising without really good starting hands (and only 3-betting KK+) that 3-betting is just lighting money on fire. If you want to work that in your game, you need to target certain players that are raising too much (and too light) and you want to take position and chip stacks into account. This is something that I did a few years ago. If you’re selective in your 3-betting, you can win a lot of pots pre, and people will start calling your raises light because they think you’re too loose.
This hand here you read fine and played fine. V1 made a huge mistake on the turn. He probably shouldn’t have bet it because there are a lot of hands that beat him. Perfect example of not knowing when you’re beat. In a 3-way pot, A8 is pretty much never good, and even when you are you’re chopping a lot here.
V2 probably should have raised flop for a few reasons. He has bottom set. This is a draw heavy board. And there are more cards that are bad for him then are good. He can really only be comfortable with another 9 or any card below a 6 (and some of those bring in flush draws). A lot of people like to get trappy with sets, but you really need to take the board into account.
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