California Justin Kuraitis - What is 2-5 No Limit Player in Poker Game

California Justin Kuraitis level of cash games, is the beginning point where a significant amount of money can be made. At lower levels, the lack of stack depth and higher relative rake, cut into profits to a large degree. An intelligent player at these stakes in poker can make enough money to grind out a living if need be. Through countless hours playing in these games, I have recognized a few key traits that are possessed by the best players, at these stakes.

1) This was the structure used when I came up playing and I have a lot of experience

2) There are specific adjustments that must be made to maximize your win rate in these games, due to the shallower stacks.

Some of the topics I will be covering will include: calling too much pre-flop, value betting, recognizing player types, avoiding fancy play, limping and 3 betting.

The ability to recognize player types that you will encounter in these specific games, is critical in determining the correct strategy. By correctly identifying player types, we can play an exploitative strategy that in most situations is the most profitable. The most common player type encountered will be the Loose Passive (LP) recreational player. This player type limps into many pots pre-flop and rarely shows aggression without a strong holding. These are the most profitable and lowest variance players to play against.

The LP players that you encounter are very single minded thinkers in poker. They focus on their hand and not the opponents. Absolute hand strength is more important (one pair, two pair, straight) than the relative strength of their hand. The key strategy to exploit these players is that you can be very aggressive. Due to their lack of aggressiveness, there is little reasoning behind pot controlling weak hands or draws. There is also little fear of folding equity incorrectly in a hand, since most aggressive action is an indication of superior strength. Bet folding hands on turns and river, become your biggest money maker. You are able to go for more semi-bluffs and thinner value versus these players due to lack of aggression.

 

Common player type in these games are the Tight Passive (TP) grinders. This player is similar to the LP, but is very selective in the type of hands played. AJ off-suit is an easy fold under the gun for this player. This player tends to play very fit or fold with hands such as pocket pairs and suited connectors. Like the LP player, this player shows little aggression with out a strong hand. A three-bet pre-flop is likely a big pocket pair, or a check-raise is an indication of a flopped set. The main difference is that the TP player is playing a tight range pre-flop. With a tight range, he will flop stronger hands and be able to continue on more flops. We want to have a lower continuation bet percentage versus this player, then the LP who is more likely to miss flops with a wider range. An example may be a TP player calling my early position range and the flop coming KQ5.

 

The Gambler is playing many hands, just like the LP, but is coming in for a raise pre-flop. The Gambler is there for entertainment and lacks patience and discipline of a LAG player. The Gambler doesn’t like to be bluffed out of pots, thus we should resort to less bluffs and thinner value bets versus this player. The Gambler will be playing very wide ranges pre flop, thus they will miss lots of flops. They will use their post flop aggression to make up for missing flops. They are likely to have a very high continuation bet frequency, thus we should fold less flops versus this player.

 

Simple concept, but many players fail to properly categorize players when first sitting down at the table. Throughout the first 20-30 minutes in your session, you should be focusing on players learning their style. Also remember that players change their style throughout the session. Continuously have a mental checkup on how players are playing every couple of orbits. Recognize how players change in style when losing money, winning money, of facing a bad beat. All players will react different and your ability to recognize and adjust will translate to more profit. You can also use player types to help with your table selection, which is very important.

Justin Kuraitis - Ways to Improve Your Poker Game with Poker Copilot

Justin Kuraitis guide to analysing your hand history with Poker Copilot. Make sure you have plenty of hands in your Poker Copilot database first. Choose first if you are focused on your cash game skills or your tournament skills, your Hold’em or Omaha game, and your preferred table size. All the instructions here assume you are analysing 6-max No Limit Hold’em cash games.

1. Set the Filters

In Poker Copilot’s filter, set table size to 6 Players Max, and set game type to No Limit Hold’em. If you believe your playing style has changed a lot in recent months, consider setting the date to 6 Months.

2. Check Your Preflop Aggression

New poker players are scared of raising. They tend to call which is an easy way to lose money. If your hand is worth playing, then you should often raise. If it is not worth playing, you should fold. Beware the temptation to call.

3. Check Your Positional Awareness

Poker players soon learn to be more loose, the closer they are to the dealer button. When in the button you get more information before making a decision; conversely when you are under the gun you need to decide with less information than any other player. The number you see next to each position is how often you put money in the pot from each position. The number should be consistently decreasing as you move away from the button.

4. Check Your Blind Stealing

Blind stealing, if done well, is highly profitable. When you are on the button, and every one has folded before you, you have a blind steal opportunity. Many players are timid at blind stealing. If in doubt, try to steal. Do this often, and you’ll have an extremely high “big blinds won per 100 hands” for blind steal attempts. 20 times, 50 times, even 100 times your normal win rate is common.

5. Check Your Blind Defending

Consider only the hands in which you are the big blind, and are facing a blind steal attempt. If you folded your big blind every time you were in this situation, you’d lose exactly one big blind per hand, which is a precise average of 100 big blinds/100 hands.

How to check if this is the case.

l In Poker Copilot’s filter bar, select More -> Advanced -> Steal -> Had Opportunity to Defend the Big Blind Against a Steal Attempt -> true

l In Poker Copilot’s left hand menu, select Position

l The “by Position” table will show exactly one row. This is a summary of all your blind defence attempts.

l Find the Avg Win (BB/100 Hands) column.

6. Check How You Play Pocket Pairs

Remove all filters except 6 Players Max and No Limit Hold’em. From the Leak Detectors select Pocket Pairs. Click on Start for Ring Games.First column make sure AA through 88 all show a VPIP of at least 85%. Less than that means you are too timid with these powerful hands. AA, KK, QQ should all have a VPIP close to 100%.

In the second column, you want an extremely high ratio of PFR to VPIP. These are raising hands, not calling hands. You should have a positive value for Big blinds won/100 hands for every single pocket pair. If there are exceptions, then you’ve got a big leak. Over the long run, you should not be losing money from any pocket pair.

7. Check How You Play Suited Connectors

Here you want to check that you are not overplaying suited connectors. It is too easy to misread these as powerful hands. Being connected only adds roughly 2% to your chances of winning, so don’t, for example, get too attached to T9 suited. The percentage should quickly drop for VPIP and Preflop Raised as you move down the list of suited connectors.

Check your Big blinds won/100 hands. AK is a premium hand, and you should have an extremely high number here. For other hands, look for any with a big loss. Consider folding these hands more often.

8. Check Your Continuation Bets

A continuation bet is when you continue your preflop aggression on the flop. You should be doing this the majority of the time. You want to make your opponents uncertain about their hands, even if they hit the flop. If you don’t have a good reason for checking on the flop after being the last to raise preflop, then you should be betting.

When an opponent calls your preflop raise and sees the flop, they are probably going to miss the flop roughly two-thirds of the time. Furthermore they probably think you've got a good hand. Your continuation bet gives the impression that your hand is good and you've hit the flop. It is an intimidating move and should be part of your poker toolkit.