You’ve now read about all of the major talents required to beat an online
$1-$2 six-max game. You can steal the blinds and play from a position. You can profile your opponents and exploit their weaknesses. You can use an aggressive yet clever barreling approach to take pots and balance your value betting. You can design your betting lines to maximize the value of your winning hands.
You can compete in the preflop three-bet, four-bet, and five-bet games. You can use unconventional plays to isolate and exploit bad players. You can change your tactics correctly to deal with tough opponents. You can also balance competing considerations to make informed preflop selections.
Let’s get everything ready and play some $1-$2 6-max. To complete each of these examples, you will need to use some of the abilities you have studied. If you can select the proper concepts to use in the right situations, you’ll be well on your way to being a small stakes no-limit hold’em master.
Hand 1
You’re in a mostly tight 6-handed game with a $200 maximum buy-in of $1 to $2. There’s one loose, poor player at the table. He has amassed a large stack by getting extremely lucky. He is passive, a traditional calling station with stats of 55/4. The player on your right is a competent 27/23 pro, while the other three are tight and unimaginative. You believe that a smart opponent would see you as solid.
Here is the lineup:
- SB: Very tight ($95)
- BB: Loose and bad ($900)
- UTG: Tight and unimaginative ($200) MP: Very tight ($150)
- CO: Solid pro ($300) BTN: You ($390)
The under the gun and middle position players fold, leaving the solid pro available in the cutoff for $7. You gaze down at 9♥7♥. What should you do?
There are several viable solutions here. Folding is acceptable because your opponent plays well and your estimated probabilities of making a hand are low. Your implied odds are low since your strong opponent is opening with a broad range. If you hit a large hand, you will rarely get a significant reward.
Reraising is a good alternative. Your opponent’s hand is unlikely to be capable of calling a 3-bet. His range is vast, thus he would be out of place. You’re both very deep, so he’s unlikely to play a mediocre hand in a reraise. If you wager three times, your major goal is to win instantly. If you are called, you are relieved to have position, but you cannot be pleased with the decreased stack-to-pot ratio that comes with the 3-bet and call. In general, lesser SPR makes it more difficult to steal postflop.
Calling has certain advantages as well. You cannot win right away, but by keeping the preflop pot short, you can use more stack leverage postflop. Your opponent will struggle to commit, making it easier to steal postflop.
However, before you call, think about the players in the blinds. If you just call, you risk getting a squeeze raise from one of them. Fortunately, in this scenario, both blind players are unimaginative, so they will likely play fit-or-fold postflop. You also want the loose, terrible player with a large stack in your hand.
Folding, calling, and raising can all be appropriate in different scenarios. When faced with a strong rising opponent and weak blind players, calling frequently enhances your positional advantage. Against tougher blinds, you’d be more likely to reraise or fold.
You call the $7, little blind folds, and large blind calls. The flop is Q♥8♦5♠. The consistent player puts $18 into the $22 pot. What should you do?
You only have a gutshot straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. Your chances of making a hand are low. Your implied odds are only reasonable if the bad player hits the flop hard enough to go with his hand but does not checkraise it. However, if the bad guy folds, your steal chances are good.
You are aware that the solid player makes a significant percentage of continuation bets after raising preflop. His range remains broad, and he most certainly missed this flip. You have a decent chance of stealing.
The combination of making a big hand and stealing the pot makes this a lucrative situation. Should you raise or call? To steal, you must make a bet on the flop or turn. Raising the flip involves taking a risk without knowing what the big blind will do or whether the cutoff will check the turn. Calling allows you to defer the risk until you have more information. You make a call. The terrible player folds. The turn is K ♦. The solid player checks. What should you do?
Do not check. For starters, a free card is of little value. Your opponent is unlikely to hold a large hand, therefore your implied odds of hitting your longshot card are low. Second, checking keeps the pot small, which helps your opponent if he has a marginal hand and wants to proceed to showdown.
Betting the turn forces him to make a decision. If he has a large hand, he will checkraise you from the pot. But your opponent is unlikely to have a strong hand, and because your draw is weak, you won’t lose much if you have to fold. Your fold equity outweighs the implied odds in this case. Bet enough to force your opponent into a stack choice.
You put $60 in the $58 pot. Surprisingly, your opponent does not fold or checkraise, instead calling. The river is the 3♣, so he checks. What should you do?
You should fire a large river barrel. Why? There’s absolutely no chance your opponent could have a strong hand. On a draw-heavy board, he checkcalled the turn and then checked the river when no draws were complete. He either had a draw on the turn and missed (but can probably defeat nine-high), or he has a one-pair hand that sorely needs a cheap showdown. The pot is $178, and the opponent has
$215 left. You should bet everything. (You may bet a little less if you believe it will appear more powerful.) Your stack leverage is great. Your opponent did not raise you on the turn, so he is unlikely to call all-in here.
It may appear insane to put so much money on a bluff, but strong hand reading might lead you to make aggressive plays like this occasionally. Do not do it frequently. However, being a tough, aggressive player who plays position well and is prepared to make large bluffs when your opponent cannot call will make you a misery to play against.
If your opponent calls you on the river with one pair, you can change accordingly in the future. If he checkcalls this turn and is prepared to risk that much money on a single pair, he is simply playing guessing games, and he will be at your mercy in the future.
Hand 2
You are playing a six-handed $1-$2 game. The majority of the players at the table have $200 stacks, but you have $500, and the cutoff covers you. The first two players fold, leaving the 28/24 cutoff available for $7. He is a tough player that consistently wins in this game. The button folds, as does the little blind fold. You hold A♦K♣ in the large blind. What should you do?
With 100bb stacks, you’d play this hand aggressively. You’d reraise and be willing to go all in preflop. However, with such deep stacks, you should reassess your strategy.
The cutoff can 4-bet bluff, but at this depth, he will not go all-in preflop with anything less than AA or possibly KK. So, if you 3-bet and get reraised, you’re in a difficult situation since he could be bluffing, but he won’t put any more money into the pot unless he has you badly beaten.
When ace-king connects with the flop, it frequently results in a top pair. You would prefer that your opponent create a weaker top pair. If you 3-bet, he will fold numerous weak aces and kings, which you would want to play against.
Furthermore, when playing heads-up out of position against a tough player and holding a top-pair hand, you want to leave only a modest amount of stacks behind postflop. If the stacks are too deep to accommodate it, you may want to keep the preflop pot short.
Top pair hands perform well at low stack-to-pot ratios. If a low SPR is not possible, high SPRs of more than 20 are easier to play than medium ones. What you don’t want to do is reraise and grow the pot while still having enough stack to put severe pressure on you postflop. If you make a regular pot-sized reraise to $22 and get called, the pot will be $45 with $478 still in the stacks. A top-pair hand out of position has a stack-to-pot ratio of 11, which is not ideal.
Consider phoning. A call keeps your opponent in with weak cards and kings, resulting in a $15 pot and a $493 deficit, for an SPR of 33. An SPR this high gives you plenty of room to maneuver postflop. You can play against more second-best hands, dominate the pot, get more information, extract value from your hand, and never let your opponent force you to make a difficult stack decision.
You call the $7. The flop is K♥ 9♦2♣.
You are clearly not committed. If the pot goes in 33 times on this flop versus this opponent, you may expect to go behind quickly. Your goal is to keep the pot small, gather information, advance to showdown, and acquire value from your hand.
Keeping that in mind, you check. Your opponent bets $11 into the $15 pot. You make a call.
The turn is J♠. Your opponent’s range remains broad. He might have bet on the flip with a weaker king, a lesser pair, a straight draw, a set, two pair, or nothing at all. The jack on the turn gives him a pair if he has jack-ten, a double pair if he has king-jack or jack-nine, a set if he has pocket jacks, or a straight if he has queen-ten. He could still have a different set, a worse one-pair hand, or nothing.
Your opponent places a $25 bet into the $37 pot after you have checked. You make a call. The river is a 3♣. The pot is $87, and you have $457 remaining.
You have several alternatives here. You are not committed, but you want to take the action that will maximize your chances given your opponent’s range.
You may checkcall a reasonable bet. The upside of this is that you let your opponent bluff at the pot if he has a weaker pair or nothing and thinks he can get you off your hand. In addition, he may occasionally value bet if he has king-queen or king-ten and puts you on something weaker.
You can place a value bet yourself. The advantage of this is that you can make weaker hands pay to witness a showdown. If your opponent is not likely to bluff if you check, you may as well make a bet and at least give him the opportunity to make a bad call with a weaker hand.
Since you lose a bet either way if he has a better hand, betting and folding to a raise is superior to checkcalling. Sometimes he may just call with a better hand like middle two pair, and that allows you to dictate the price of showdown.
But be careful about betting too small an amount. If your opponent is capable of making a big bluff raise, you don’t want to encourage him by betting a weak amount. Since you plan to fold to a raise, you want to bet enough that he will raise only with stronger hands.
Ace-king is a strong preflop hand, but it can lose value as stacks get deeper. Off-suit and heads-up out of position against a tough player, big card hands can get you in trouble postflop. If reraising will create a difficult situation due to a bad SPR or folding out too many second-best hands, consider flat calling and keeping the preflop pot small.
Hand 3
Three players limp to the small blind who calls with Q♥ T♠. The big blind checks. The pot is five ways for $10.
The flop shows 8♠ 4♠ 2♣. The little blind checks, as does everyone else.
The turn number is 8♥. The small blind stakes three-quarters of the pot.
$7.50, and everyone folds.
The flop is low and dry. Everybody checks. There’s a strong possibility no one has a great hand, but there could be a little pair like a four or a deuce, or even a pocket pair like sixes or threes.
Due of your large number of opponents, we urge that you double-check most turn cards. However, the 8♥ is an ideal bluffing card on this board. Since the flip has been checked around, it is improbable that anyone has an eight. Indeed, from your opponent’s standpoint, you, as the tiny blind, are the most likely candidate to have one, as you may very well check it conservatively into four hands of unknown strength.
So when you stake the turn, you’re representing a certain number: an eight that you verified the first time. Your opponents probably didn’t have much to begin with, and now they’re worried about drawing dead to your travels. This bluff has a strong chance of succeeding, even in a multiway pot.
Typically, you do not bluff against four opponents because their total hand ranges are too large. Someone is likely to have something worth calling about. As a result, the exception to the norm would be when your opponents had very weak hand ranges. This hand is an example of where you can tell that your opponents have a much smaller collective hand range than usual. As a result, it makes an excellent choice for a rule-breaking hand.
Finally, a fast read of your own hand closes the transaction. You could’ve easily checked top pair on the flop from the small blind. If you were on the button, your bluff would be less convincing since your opponents would find it difficult to believe that you would gift four players a free card while holding top pair. You can still try to bluff from the button, but in this case, the small blind is the ideal bluffing position.
Hand 4
Effective stacks cost $200. Everyone folds to the 19/17 button, who accepts $7. He’s a solid player who isn’t overly tough or tricky. He opens on the button with a larger range than usual, but otherwise plays simply. You hold 6♠ 5♠ in the small blind and reraise to $23 because a 3-bet typically wins the pot in this location. The large blind folds and the button calls.
The flop shows Q ♥ 7♦ 3♥. You placed a c-bet of $32 on the $48 pot. The button thinks for a few seconds before calling.
The turn is an 8♦. You check, and your opponent checks behind.
The river is the 2♣, and you’re the first to act. Is a bluff worth contemplating in this situation?
When your opponent calls your 3-bet preflop, you believe his range includes QQ-22, AK, possibly AQ-AJ or KQ, and occasionally a suited connector. He usually 4-bets with pocket aces or kings.
When he flat calls your flop bet, he may have a stubborn JJ or TT, a set, top pair, or a draw such as A♥ K♥ or 9♥8♥.
But when you check the turn and he checks behind, his range narrows even further. The board is extremely draw heavy on the turn, thus the fact that he did not bet indicates that his hand is in the weaker part of his range. He is extremely unlikely to have a set, and slightly less likely to have a queen.
The river is a complete blank. If he has a draw, he has missed. He may have you beat with a superior high card or a poor pair, but he is unlikely to call a large stake. If he has JJ or TT, he called the flop to test if you’d let him go to showdown, but he’s unlikely to call a large bet with either hand. The only hands he could check the turn with and then call a large river bet are AQ or KQ. But these were only two hands, and he’d occasionally bet the turn.
Overall, this is a good place for a massive river bluff. The pot is $112, and you have $161 remaining. Push. He will fold frequently.
Hand 5
Effective stacks cost $200. There are three TAGs in the game (all about 21/17), a wet noodle (22/5) in the cutoff, and another in the small blind (27/9). The starting hand is A♥ 8♥. What should you do?
Examine the make-a-hand and steal aspects of this situation.
A♥ 8♥ rarely produces strong hands. When you make two aces, your kicker is poor. When you make one pair out of eight, your equity is typically modest. Your chances of flopping two pairs or better are small. In a standard $1-$2 game, you won’t make a strong hand or be paid off frequently enough to play this hand just for showdown equity.
Tight and shorthanded games frequently necessitate planning hands, which primarily revolve around stealing. However, your steal equity in this case is also low. You’re under the gun, therefore your situation is dire. If the game was really weak-tight and you had excellent reads on your opponents, you might raise to seize control. However, with no readings and a reasonable chance of good players joining the pot behind you, forcing a steal under the gun is a horrible move.
Folding is the proper strategy here.
Tight play under the gun is essential, especially in situations where your primary tactic is to steal. In fact, often the mark of a tough player is a big skew in the number of hands played in early position versus late position. It is not uncommon for a very good player to play three times more hands on the button than under the gun, such as 13 percent under the gun and 39 percent on the button.
If you had A♥ 8♥ in the cutoff, and the first two players folded, then you would almost certainly raise. But under the gun, against possibly decent opponents, folding is the best play.
Hand 6
Effective stacks remain at $200. Everyone folds to you in the small blind. You open at $6 with A♠ 9♠. The huge blind calls. He is a knowledgeable regular with stats of 27/24 and a 3-bet percentage of 6.
The flop is Q♦9♥3♠. You put $8 in the $12 pot. He calls. His range is quite broad at this stage. It’s a battle of the blinds, and you know he prefers to float.
The turn is the K♠, resulting in a sneaky backdoor nut flush with your pair of nines. You decide to check for several reasons. You want to provide your opponent the opportunity to bluff with his weak hands. And you don’t want to lose your draw if he flops or turns a strong hand.
Your opponent places a $20 bet into the $28 pot after you have checked. You make a call. The river is the 9♦, offering cruises. The pot is $68, and you’ve
$166 left. What should you do?
A value bet may be appropriate against a lesser opponent, but checking is a preferable option in this case. This opponent will bet on hands he will not call with. Complete air is still very much within his reach, and he will undoubtedly fold it to a bet.
Furthermore, your hand appears weak from his perspective. After all, you called an overcard turn and checked the river. From his perspective, it’s an ideal location for him to launch a river bluff. Also, if he has a king, he will most likely gamble it again for the same reasons. So you won’t have to worry about losing value there. Check the river, and he might wager a good queen. However, if you lead out for a large bet, he may fold the hand.
Most players that checkcall the turn and lead out hard on the river are rarely bluffing. Smart players will often identify the strength of that line and fold a large number of hands to the river bet. As a result, playing heads-up out of position versus a good player, your best play on the river is to check, for the simple reason that your opponent will bet far more hands than he will call with.
Hand 7
In a $1-$2 game with $200 effective stacks, everyone folds to the small blind, who bets $6. His numbers are 19/17, with a Fold To 3-Bet percentage of 81. In a blind versus blind battle, you have a profitable 3-bet with a large range. Make it $18 with 9♣ 7♣. He calls.
The flop is J♥ 9♦2♦, which gives you a middle pair. You opt not to commit since your opponent will almost never go all-in unless they have solid to exceptional equity against your hand. Given your lack of commitment, betting on this flop may be detrimental to you.
While betting denies your opponent a free card, it allows you to use a semibluff. The board is fairly draw-heavy, and the pot would be quite large with a flop bet, making a bet-fold excessively risky. Checking the flop makes the pot more manageable, brings you closer to showdown, and offers you more alternatives on the turn to exploit your position.
You check. The turn is J♦. Your opponent bets $24 in the
$36 pot. What should you do?
This is an excellent location for the frozen play. A minimum raise of $48 forces your opponent to define his hand. If he comes back over the top, you can easily fold. If he calls, you usually get a free showdown on the river.
Additionally, cards such as A♥ Q ♦ or 7♦7♠ require players to either increase their bet or fold. That is beneficial because you gain value while holding the best hand and reduce your chances of making a mistake on the river. Just make sure you sometimes minraise with powerful hands, or you’ll be telegraphing your limited hand strength.
Hand 8
Stacks cost $200. The button raises the first-in to $7 with J♠ 9♠. A solid pro at making huge blind calls. The pot is $15. The flop is K♥ 7♠ 6♥. The massive blind check. The button bets $12. The huge blind calls. The pot is $39. The turn is J♣. It has undergone review. The river represents the 3♥. The huge blind bets $45. What should this button do?
A good $1-$2 player usually folds, with the occasional dubious call. The flop call and the massive river bet indicate that the big blind either hit his draw or flopped two pair or better and attempted to checkraise or compel a bluff on the turn. A harder opponent may also use ace-king or king-queen. Of course, the large blind could be bluffing, but this appears improbable.
Let’s take a look at it from the big blind’s perspective. The button raises first. That means a variety of hands. The huge blind calls. On the flip, the button c-bets. That means the same broad variety of hands. The turn sequence is check-check. What is the button’s current range?
By far his most probable hand is nothing or a weak pair. If he had two pairs or better, he would typically gamble the turn. He may hold a king, but when you add up all the hands he plays, a king is less likely than a wrecked hand. Assume the button often semibluffs with flush draws on the turn. When he checks the turn, he is less likely to have a flush when the flush draw finishes on the river. In that case, the large blind can profit by overbetting the pot on the river, regardless of whether the flush draw is complete.
The large blind sees the profit in the line “call preflop out of position, checkcall flop, then bomb the river if the turn checks.” He can’t do it all the time, because else the button will become popular. To keep the play effective, he utilizes it fewer than half the time and bets heavily on made hands. He can do it more frequently against opponents who are weak or tight.
The button should respond by defending or disturbing the line. Defending the line entails playing with hands that can win on the river. For starters, he could check the turn against any king and then call the river. He may also call occasionally with his pair of jacks and a nine kicker. This is why you occasionally see good high-stakes players make surprise moves with third pair. They know their opponents see the underlying profitability of that large river bet, so they call down with inferior hands.
Top high-stakes pros will occasionally reraise a bluff. However, when they attempt the steal reraise, they typically lose a large amount of money. The advantage comes later, when the large blind must make some thin calls and is discouraged from placing the advantageous river bet.
The button may also disrupt the line. Disrupting the queue means that fewer hands can reach that location. How can the button do this? There are various options. He can tighten up before the flop. He can investigate the flop more. And, after c-betting the flop and being called, he can now bet the turn with nothing more frequently. Should he do these things?
It depends. The button wants to choose an overall strategy that optimizes earnings. Raising first-in from the button is quite beneficial for him, therefore he does not change it. He doesn’t change his strategy of C-betting the flop because it works for him 80-90 percent of the time. He decides to wager the turn with nothing and call the river with inferior hands more frequently.
This hand demonstrates the significant disparities between online $1-$2 with multiple competent players and online $10-$20 with excellent pros. In
$1-$2 Most players do not make full use of the profitable line. They may occasionally bluff the river, but it happens infrequently enough that the button is not required to make hero calls. The big river bet is common in $10-$20 games. Most players comprehend the line and make adjustments. These changes can result in insane hands, such as the second pair calling down the nut flush. In aggressive high-stakes games, if you don’t appear like an idiot at times, you’re not calling hard enough.
So, what’s the takeaway message? At $1–$2 (and any other stakes where the regulars are reluctant to make big calls), exploit the big river bluff. When you are out of position and call a preflop raiser, then checkcall the flop and see the turn checked through, consider bombing the river.
Do it about a fourth of the time that you miss and work up from there if your opponent doesn’t adjust. Don’t try this against players who call with anything. And don’t forget to make some big bets with your made hands too. But don’t be afraid to deploy the big river bluff. Many of your regular opponents won’t handle it effectively. It can be an enormously powerful blunt instrument with which to crush any online $1–$2 6-max game.
