Royal online poker club

Making more definitive decisions

Making more definitive decisions against steal attempts, and reducing cold calling range. This basically means 3-betting or folding more instead of flatting. Ideally flatting can be much more profitable since you'll be ahead of most of your opponents opening range, especially if you're defending against an open button raiser. Let's take a common example of you holding KcJs in the small blind and your opponent open raises from the button, and let's say opens 48% of their hands from there. Even with KcJs you are marginally ahead of their opening range with almost 54% equity. That doesn't tell the whole story of the value of KJo of course. Most of the value is in the "flopability" of the hand, and the fact that your opponent will flop more second best hands than better hands when you both connect with the flop. However, if you aren't outplaying most of your opponents post flop, then 3-betting or folding will be more profitable for you at this point in your game. Your goal should be to continue to improve in your hand reading, board texture understanding, and profitable bluffing opportunities so that you can profitably flat call with a hand like KJo from the blinds.

Look at the pre-flop decision

Look at the pre-flop decision out of the blinds as a problem. How are you going to solve the problem? Are you going to flat call, and look for spots to outplay your opponent? Are you going to 3-bet and try and solve the problem by getting your opponent to fold pre- flop? One solution might be more correct for one player, and completely incorrect for another. You have to know your own game. If you are struggling with bluffing in the right spots, or aren't confident calling down against your opponent’s range of hands, then mix in more 3-bets and folds to eliminate scenarios where you're playing more of a check / guess game without positive results.