How to CRUSH Tight Poker Players (Hand Reading)

[@BlackRain79Poker]

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[@SimpleOne_000]

Preflop action looks standard, but I think it`s the most important part of the hand. In this spot (when in front of me fish limps and tight reg decides to iso) I don`t like calling with those low suited aces because reg can have a lot of better aces in his range, so we will often end up running into this "top pair into top pair" situations. Instead its better to call with suited connectors and low pairs, because they rarely get dominated and thus are much easier to play postflop. My assumption here is that a decent reg have to understand that the limper is a fish, so he should open up his raising range by including some broadways, low pairs, middling aces. This move makes 3-betting a reasonable line, especially when you have a blocker and some playability. I believe we can expect a lot of folds from reg, and if whale decides to call 60 cents with his 80% range - I`m fine with that as well (either he folds too much right here or after the flop, it doesnt really matter). So that`s why I prefer 3-betting (and "Fold to 3-bet" stat would`ve been really helpful in this particular hand). On the flop hero`s line is completely fine, 92% CBet is insane, you just can`t fold top pair to a single CBet. However, once we get to the turn, we should fold, because we don`t beat literally anything (our best case scenario is that the Villain is bluffing with some monster draw like KsQs, KsTs or QsTs, and still has about 30% equity). Another note about the Villain`s line: When regs start going that "half pot 3 streets", it`s usually something like TPTK or TPGK type hand. And this line works, because "people just can`t fold the top pair [facing a half-pot bet - edited in 2018]". I`m not saying that it`s the most profitable line (personally I hate this "half-potting"), but its really popular.

[@fundiver198]

The problem with the fish calling a 3-bet is, that it will likely induce the reg to come along as well. And then we are in a bloated 3-way pot with A3s against someone, who wont fold anything and someone with a range, that have us crushed. I am not exited about that at all, so unless I have individual reads leading me to believe, that both these guys would fold a lot to a 3-bet, I actually have nothing wrong with just folding preflop myself and let the reg take on the fish alone.

[@SimpleOne_000]

Good point, that`s why I mentioned the importance of "Fold to 3-bet" stat. I didn`t make it clear in my comment that I don`t expect a fish to "limp 80% - call a 3-bet" a ton of the time. Even if they call with 15% of hands, they still fold the other 65%, which gives us about 81% folds. If I expect a lot of "limp 80%/call a 3-bet" from fish, then that`s a clear fold.

[@Mynipplesmychoice]

Dude I wish all y’all would face me cause I’m the maniac all of u fear cause I’m naked running from the cops while triple barreling and going all in at random times. I’m the reason you all lose all your bank roll . I mean my yacht can’t fill itself 😢up so I steal fish money USA! USA!!

[@jayjay17p]

I know this is the micros and bluffing often is not the correct play but I think in this spot if you do end up at the river with a board run out like this and the nit continues with his half pot type bet I think we can limit his hands to TPTK and then potential bluff by coming out with a raise of 2 - 3 x his bet. I would never do this against a fish etc but I think the fact we know he's a reg AND a nit means that he would most likely fold to our bet at the end. Ultimately, we can put him on quite a specific range and exploit the way the board ran off to scare him off his TPTK. Obviously, this depends on the player and any reads we might have but I think it could be an EV+ play in this specific situation. His bet sizing throughout the hand scream pair with high kicker and I think we can take advantage of that. Thoughts?

[@fundiver198]

I think, you are on to something. Nits and tags at these stakes live and die by the bet-fold line. So yeah there is a pretty good chance, that he is betting thinly for value with AK or AQ, and that he is actually going to fold that top pair if jammed on, because he is he playing 10 tables at the same time in a robotic way. This is only because of the player type though. Against a fish I would call him down, since a fish is more likely to have a crappy ace, and on the river any kicker T or below dont play. So we can call a fish hoping for a split pot, or to catch some silly bluff. Against a good player I would also not try to bluff him on this runout, because I think, he would sniff out, that we dont really represent much. AA 3-bet pre, 88, 77, 87s, A8s, A7s raise the flop, AJ and T9 raise the turn, and we dont call the flop with just 2. pair or a backdoor draw, when we have someone left to act behind us. So we have like 76 and 65 of diamonds, that take this line for value, and thats about it. Its even up for debate, if a baby flush is a raise on the river on a paired board. Poker Snowie actually suggest, these hands are only a call.

[@elwinvanwees8516]

I agree with Nathan that the turn is a fold, as I get sucked into calling here as well, but I know It’s a leak in my game.

[@fundiver198]

Sometimes it can also be usefull to look at the hand from the Villains perspective and ask, if we would bluff in his situation. And I think the answer in this hand is no. When Hero call the flop, his hand look like top pair or a draw, and are we really exited about trying to barrel someone off an ace, when they flopped top pair? So he dont have much incentive to bluff here, and therefore his lack of balance is actually a reasonable adjustment to the game, he is playing, and average player pool tendencies. To be honest you or I are probably also not balanced as the Villain in a spot like this.

[@HomeStudioBasics]

I actually think this is a pretty decent spot for a river jam considering villain is playing a lot of tables probably, is very nitty, and likely auto-folds to any sort of river aggression. The 8 is a good card because it fills up the flush but our button flat call range contains a lot of 8s as well. The question is would we make 2 loose calls with 98? Maybe. 78 definitely. I think a shove here gets a lot of folds from the type of 1 pair hands villain usually has. Would I do it in real-time? It's much harder to pull the trigger but I have in the past and gotten folds. The issue is that he only has $2.41 behind so he may snap it off or tank call.

[@Mynipplesmychoice]

As a maniac who lays online poker while I’m naked running from the cops, I’m tsking all your money cause I don’t care about money.!!!

[@HomeStudioBasics]

@@Mynipplesmychoice Well.. your nipples, your choice. Lol, the image of that was... suggestive.

[@pokergeniusordonkey6517]

Thanks for pointing out the showdown stats. I hadn't thought about how to use those stats very well. Thanks

[@BlackRain79Poker]

Glad it helped! Sometimes they can be very useful like in this case.

[@davidwishart5684]

Is the turn a good opportunity to bluff raise the tight reg? Even if he calls the turn bet, there are tons of cards he won't be excited to see on the river, especially if we shove. Does a 12-9 raise preflop with AJ or any other Ace that has 2 pair here. Surely a raise has better EV than a call?... Not sure how it stacks up vs a fold though and don't want to bias the analysis considering he turned over AQ which is definitely a hand we could get him to fold. Also we could raise the flop against a 92% C-bet, and then he checks turn and we blast again, sizing to get his whole stack in by the river. Maybe we don't do that with this particular hand, but if so, what is the better bluffing hand, maybe A9 or AT with the straight blocker. Especially if they have backdoor flush draw.

[@fundiver198]

Definitly agree with this one. 5NL full ring is perhaps the most nitty game of them all, and basically you should never call the turn with a bluff catcher, if the opponent is one of those tight regs. Some of them have a high flop C-bet percentage, but if they bet again on the turn, they nearly always have value.

[@BlackRain79Poker]

I agree, after reviewing this hand again I actually strongly prefer a fold on the turn against this kind of player.

[@McRuffin]

I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw the 82,2 . As Nathan likes to say, “they’ll play with two napkins lol”

[@OnStageLighting]

I try to avoid allowing myself to get sucked into a dominated spot just because we are trying to mix it with the fish. This always happens, fish has a weak range and folds and we are now playing a hand we would not choose to against a reg who essentially has a stronger range than if they'd just opened here. If I call pre I want two pair or better, ideally a FD. I'm folding this flop. As I would predict, fish is going to check fold a lot too.

[@fundiver198]

I dont think, the reg has a stronger range here, than if he just opened. If anything it might be a bit of the opposite, since he should also want to get involved with the fish in position. But even so you have a very valid point. When the reg only raise 9% of hands, it is a totally legit decision to just get out of his way with a hand like this.

[@BlackRain79Poker]

I agree, we call preflop here to play with the fish. We always want to keep that in mind.

[@OnStageLighting]

Hey FD. Meant to follow this up. While is *might* be the opposite depending on the players, my experience is often that a solid reg knows that we all know that they are likely to want to get involved with the fish which is when you start to see a lot of squeezes etc. in the player pool in today's games. This in turn makes the isolator tighten up and not just try it on with mediocre hands . :-)

[@cednissaart6491]

I would fold this flop too. Too many aces are beating us.

[@rolstonholas333]

The interesting thing for me is that we got in the hand, with a modest holding, to play against the Whale because we thought that we could outplay him. However, when the Whale folds and we are left with the extremely tight reg, we do not adjust. Had Villain 8 folded pre and the tight reg opened, would we have called him? I wouldn't have. Now that we are in a situation with a tight reg, who keeps barrelling, and a modest hand, I think we have to fold the Turn. I think the Flop call is fine especially with a cbet of 92%, but when he's only playing 12% of hands he probably has cause to cbet that amount, but we didn't get into this hand/game to play against nitty regs. We want to play against the Whale and when he leaves so should we. If I'm on a table with no fishy players, I leave and go to another.

[@connerboyle9289]

I’ve read your book and from what I’ve learned, surely a fold preflop is the right play to avoid the situation entirely and pick a better spot? Maybe a flat call and potentially flop a nut flush and if not fold to any bet. Facing a raise from someone with 12/9 stats tells me that his range is tight AA AK AQ AJ etc all of which already have you beat. I’m sure you’ve said to either fold or 3 bet if you have a premium which this player doesn’t have which for me is an easy fold. Thoughts?

[@Deadeye1967]

Nathan also says open up your range on the button, but the raise from the reg to his right would have been a fold for me too. I am speaking as a novice, but opening up your range on the button especially if all folded or limped before is a really good weapon to use, it also makes you less predictable.

[@San-xr4ni]

Fold preflop for me

[@Dariusknight]

I think I'd even fold the flop myself, no draw and a weak ace? What's your best case scenario, that he's overplaying KK/QQ?

[@fundiver198]

The guy had a very high flop C-bet percentage. So its fair enough to assume, there must be some bluffs in his range like KQ, KJ, KT, QJ, QT. Essentially everything that missed the flop. And maybe he is even bluffing with his baby pairs. And he only bet around half pot. So I think, its to weak-tight to fold already on the flop, but I like a fold on the turn.

[@hugomuller7349]

It does look quite weak to fold top pair on the flop. So if you even consider folding top pair on the flop, it might mean that the call preflop was not a very good idea. Normally it would be 3bet or fold with A3s. Because of the limper, I would lean towards a fold in this spot. Also, even if the preflop raiser has a very high c-bet percentage, there are three factors suggesting that he might not c-bet that much with air in this spot. 1. It is a multiway pot, not a heads-up pot. 2. There is a player in the pot who limp-called. And people would usually not bluff much against this type of player. 3. He is not in position.

[@fundiver198]

I agree, that he might not be C-betting 92% in this exact spot, and also even over 300 hands there is some variation in the number, so maybe his true value is not exactly 92%. After all his PFR is only 9%, so he raised like 30 hands, and of course did not get action every time. So the 92% is probably something like 22 out of 24, which is by no means a huge sample. But it is at least fair to say, that we dont have any indication, this guy only C-bet the flop for value, since this would require him to run extremely hot. At the end of the day, even against someone with a lower flop C-bet, I still think, we have to call with a weak top pair. Otherwise we will be massively overfolding the flop, and then it is indeed better to not even get involved at all.

[@BlackRain79Poker]

Ya with that 92% Flop CBet I cant fold flop in position.

[@fundiver198]

It does not really change anything, but I just want to mention, that when we discuss river stats in the video, over a sample of 300+ hands from a tight player, these numbers are essentially still almost useless. His went to showdown must be 7 out of 36, and his won at showdown is then 4 out of 7. So we need maybe 1k hands, before we can really start to trust went to showdown and even more, before we can trust won at showdown.

[@braileanul]

nice, suggestive title

[@timothyreilly7131]

I'd argue that while the reg in question may have had a cbet stat of 92 percent it may be justified if he is just exploiting people with high fold to cbet stats.

[@gilhalifa6852]

In the end, this hand should have ended in a preflop. or big big 3 bet or Fold for several reasons. 1. call to these 2 players (because obviously the fish would call) that After me there is 2 more players (SB+BB)its a bad decision 2. Its a multihand with a fish And if we meant at some stage to bluff then we can not Fish are not bluffing, and there is also an RFI from a nit in middle position. Who can call these hand in the pre-flop ? these are just players with high self-discipline, players who know what their expectations of this hand against these two players because what is our expectation in such a hand against these two players? Or draw flush Or hit 2 pairs and above. in each situation Nit betting on the flop in front of the button there is a Fold including the flop and if not, then sure Turn. In conclusion: the hero must work on his self-discipline

[@gagfails4985]

I usually just fold, is that wrong??

[@gagfails4985]

Villian 9 if was him in this spot I would have bet 3/4 pot on flop turn and river he missed out on so much value, could have got the whole stack in. Missed opportunity....

[@CreditBreakThroughSystem]

Great video like always. I definitely would've folded the turn with a baby ace, if not the river to a bet for sure.

[@BlackRain79Poker]

Thanks Theodore, I agree!

[@SidBanger]

where can I send a hand to you? Got something pretty interesting that I would love to have reviewed.

[@BlackRain79Poker]

You can email me your hand history. Fair warning though, I have about 20 or 30 hands already in the cue. I will get to your hand, just might take awhile :)

[@titassukys9397]

First of all, absolutely love the content you're providing and the book Crushing the Microstakes has given me loads of knowledge and I'm now making around 3 buy ins an hour on 1/2c zoom. Somewhat of a related question: When sending you a hand to review does it have to be in PT4 format or is it just the text history that matters? I'm currently using Jivaro as my HUD.

[@SidBanger]

alright thanks

[@thomasmyers2288]

Does he fold to a shove here?

[@gregorykelly8000]

I'd call x3bb or less. X4 is to much...let the reg have a chance at the whale sometimes?!? Only chance to win is all in on river, the AQ can find a fold in a deep stack game like this...calling river is just wrong like you said.

[@gagfails4985]

When I'm in this situation on the turn

[@DwightHayles]

3 barrels vs the "majority" of players at micro level = top pair strong kicker - or better. 10% or less are not capable of 3barreling with 2nd pair, or no pair. Easy game, make a hand, take the money, use bluffs sparingly, don't be a station.

[@psyhodope9065]

Hero should rase to se where he is

[@Dark_Angel555]

what happened Nathan ? You stopped posting hands ... do you need more hands sent to you ?

[@BlackRain79Poker]

Ya I got sidetracked a bit. I will have some new videos up soon. And I have far too many hands already haha.

[@IanWheldale]

That's why I hate small aces.

[@fundiver198]

If the fish was not involved, preflop is a clear 3-bet in my opinion, when a tight reg open from mid position, and we are on the BTN. Most of these guys dont like to play a big pot out of position, so we might even get him to fold a hand like AQ, or at least AJ.

[@jacobarmstrong9394]

Lol “How to beat a Tight player” BE AN EVEN TIGHTER PLAYER