[2026 BEGINNER'S GUIDE]Simple modern strategies to beat the lowest stakes online

Originally posted by shooshte
Hey, question about 3-betting vs steals and 4-bet bluffs. How do we play these hands when we get called and hit post-flop?

Spoiler

An example of this would be this hand:
GG Poker - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 104.5 BB
SB: 110 BB
BB: 100 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
UTG: 102.5 BB
MP: 90.5 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
CO: 206.5 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 3)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A♦ 2♦

fold, fold, CO raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, fold, fold, CO calls 6 BB

Flop: (19.5 BB, 2 players) 7♦ 6♦ K♣
CO checks, Hero bets 6.5 BB, CO calls 6.5 BB

Turn: (32.5 BB, 2 players) 9♣
CO checks, Hero bets 21.5 BB, CO raises to 191 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 67.5 BB and is all-in

River: (210.5 BB, 2 players) 8♦

CO shows J♦ T♦ (Flush, Jack High)
(Pre 44%, Flop 22%, Turn 27%)
Hero shows A♦ 2♦ (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 56%, Flop 78%, Turn 73%)
Hero wins 206 BB

Playing according to the strategy (if I understand correctly), I have a made hand (flush draw), so I should be calling the turn shove. But I don't think that calling is the correct play here, at least not when thinking the hand trough.

Is playing these hands post-flop too advanced for this beginner strategy or is there a "simple" way to evaluate playing post-flop?

Hello shooshte, in the future please don't leave any results in your hands. That only leads to result-oriented evaluation, which we don't need

To A2s

Originally posted by shooshte
Another example of getting called after a 4-bet bluff for my previous question:

Spoiler

GG Poker - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players

BTN: 100.5 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 3)
SB: 88.5 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
BB: 410.5 BB
UTG: 101 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 1)
MP: 117.5 BB
Hero (CO): 101.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has J♣ J♦

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, BTN raises to 7.5 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 22.5 BB, BTN calls 15 BB

Flop: (46.5 BB, 2 players) 4♦ 3♥ T♠
Hero bets 23 BB, BTN calls 23 BB

Turn: (92.5 BB, 2 players) 9♦
Hero bets 46 BB, BTN raises to 55 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 9 BB

River: (202.5 BB, 2 players) 7♠

BTN shows K♠ K♥ (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 81%, Flop 92%, Turn 95%)
Hero shows J♣ J♦ (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 19%, Flop 8%, Turn 5%)
BTN wins 198 BB

To JJ

I have now removed two mistakes from the English strategy text.
At "Step 3.1.1: You've reraised preflop (Reraised/3Bet Pot) and are playing In Position!"
The turn/river now says:

Regardless of the number of opponents, we only bet hands from the Made Hand category for 2/3 pot or go All In - depending on the remaining stack and pot size. Everything worse is played Check/Fold. If an opponent raises, we go all in, except with draws. Draws on the turn are only called if the raise is not greater than 2.5x.

And at "Step 4.1.2: You've reraised against a 3Bet (4Bet) and are playing Out Of Position!" I changed the wrong betsize to the right one on the flop:

If playing Out Of Position (OOP) with only one opponent, we bet 1/3 PSB with every Made Hand. If the opponent raises, we go All In with every hand from the "Made Hand" category. Worse hands are folded.

We check/fold our bluffing/worthless hands except on boards with or :Kx:, those are also Cbet to 1/3 PSB with our worthless hands.

in the future please don't leave any results in your hands. That only leads to result-oriented evaluation, which we don't need

Also we don't have that post-showdown information at the moment when we have to make that decision in question. So I think it is more relevant and more similar to the real gameplay moment, if we leave the results out, when posting hands for review.

Yes, good point

I just wanted to leave a post here so that I can find the thread more easily.
This strategy works so well on the small limits. I refer anyone on the internet who has problems to the beginners course from pokerstrategy. Unfortunately, many people don't want to know anything about it and just laugh at the topic. Instead, total beginners buy gtowizzard or expensive courses and rarely get any further with them.

To be honest, I can understand that to some extent. Our course is free, we have videos that say how good they are, etc.
If you really have no idea about the topic, then at first it sounds like the typical clickbait money-making strategies - "Use our free stock crash course to generate 5-digit sums within a few months!"
And things like that are usually rubbish and then demand money through the back door somewhere.

For someone who doesn't play poker, it's not really obvious that it's not like that with us and that the things we claim are true

Of course, we're not saying that you can make big money with the course. We're just saying that if you follow the course correctly, you can beat the beginner limits in online poker cash games. And that it's simply a good introduction to strategic play.

There seem to be several differences between the condensed pre-flop ranges and the
raw preflop ranges.

For example what we should call on the button facing a 3bet:

PREFLOP RANGES - INDIVIDUAL

Call BU vs 3Bet IP

I'm not sure how important these differences are but it would be nice if there were no contradictions.

Originally posted by DesertStingray
There seem to be several differences between the condensed pre-flop ranges and the
raw preflop ranges.

For example what we should call on the button facing a 3bet:

PREFLOP RANGES - INDIVIDUAL

Call BU vs 3Bet IP

I'm not sure how important these differences are but it would be nice if there were no contradictions.

Heyo DesertStingray these "Raw" Ranges are older ones - I will remove them when we do a chart update in a week or two with the minor tweaks from the OG German Guide

The ranges have been refreshed with minor tweaks and fixes!

Someone help with this hand. He gave me too much odds in the river, i payed because of it. But now i am thinking i was on a trap.

Obs: Whats is the best way to post hands from GGPoker here?

Hello ACM1986, I don't know how best to put GGPoker hands here. But the picture of the hand isn't a bad start.

About AKo:
Preflop
Not played correctly according to beginner strategy. In position we play a 3bet to 3x, not to 2.5x. So you should have raised to 45c here.

Flop/Turn
Played correctly according to beginner strategy!

River
Not played correctly according to beginner strategy. A high is not a made hand and is therefore folded against a bet.
But since the bet is very small and you only have to be ahead in ~14% of cases, against this small bet, if you take the rake into account, your deviation from the strategy is absolutely correctly played.
Your opponent can only have A high here, or sometimes with JTs an OESD that didn't arrive. On the flop, he may have called smaller pocket pairs like 55/66 and you are ahead against that too, on the river.

Well played!

Here i know that i had to raise turn, acording to the strategy. But with flush and straight on the board i thought that the raise would isolated this hands. So i called to keep bluffs and semibluff to call again river. But with this river i had to fold. Even with this board is better raise/shove turn?

Hello, sorry for the late reply to your hand. I'm usually active in the German community, but I'm still trying to help Lem0n out here.

About QJo:
Preflop/Flop
Played correctly according to beginner strategy!

Turn
Your bet is of course correct, as there are still plenty of worse hands, such as top pairs, flush draws, or combo draws (for example JT) calling you.
The opponent's raise is a strange amount of only double, but your adjustment is still correct here. It's better to just call. Any set, flush, or straight beats us. Even if he has a flush draw or combo draw in the range every now and then, we're behind against his range, which he would continue to play as soon as we 3bet.
Better to call and draw cheaply to our full house.

River
As every heart card beats us now, including the hands already mentioned, the fold is absolutely correct.

Well played!

Thanks Paxis, really helpfull.

A question about the strategy:

Step 3.1.2: You've reraised preflop (Reraised/3Bet Pot) and are playing Out Of Position!

Flop vs 1 Opponent
If playing Out Of Position (OOP) against only one opponent, we bet 1/2 PSB with every Made Hand. If the opponent raises, then we call every made hand. We call draws only if the raise is not greater than 3x. If the opponent checks the turn after raising the flop, we bet for 2/3 PSB with our made hands on the river and go all in against further resistance.
___________________________________________
We are out of position here and we cbet with made hand and oponent raise us 2x, then we call. On turn with made hand we bet again? Check? If we bet and he raises us, do we call?

Do i call this river?
When i have a Top Pair and the board has double cards, my hand is still a made hand or it turn into a worthless hand?

Originally posted by ACM1986

Spoiler

Thanks Paxis, really helpfull.

A question about the strategy:

Step 3.1.2: You've reraised preflop (Reraised/3Bet Pot) and are playing Out Of Position!

Flop vs 1 Opponent
If playing Out Of Position (OOP) against only one opponent, we bet 1/2 PSB with every Made Hand. If the opponent raises, then we call every made hand. We call draws only if the raise is not greater than 3x. If the opponent checks the turn after raising the flop, we bet for 2/3 PSB with our made hands on the river and go all in against further resistance.
___________________________________________

We are out of position here and we cbet with made hand and oponent raise us 2x, then we call. On turn with made hand we bet again? Check? If we bet and he raises us, do we call?

As soon as the initiative changes, you must continue to play the hand as the strategy dictates when the opponent has the initiative. This usually means that you check to the opponent if you have only called before and do not bet again immediately.
In the 3Bet pot you can follow "Step 3.2.1: You've called preflop against a re-raise (Also called a 3Bet) and are playing In Position!". This describes the game when the opponent is OOP, but you would play made hands, that are not monsters, for example on the turn as Call up to 2/3 pot. So the standard way of playing in your example would be that we first play Check/Call for 2/3 pot.
Of course you can always adapt to the situation and consider whether your hand strength is still good enough against the opponent's range to call again for 2/3 pot.
The opponents will not bet on the turn every time either.

Originally posted by ACM1986
Do i call this river?

Spoiler

When i have a Top Pair and the board has double cards, my hand is still a made hand or it turn into a worthless hand?

To JTo
Preflop/Flop/Turn
Played correctly according to beginner strategy!

River
We have a 2 pair in such a case. But we have to look at it in context and simply evaluate it as a top pair. Of course only if our pair is higher than the pair on the board.
In this case, if you follow the donk rule, it would be correct to call up to 2/3 pot. However, I would rather look at the rule that tells us up to what amount we can call on the river if the opponent has the initiative and bets the river. That would only be 1/2 pot size.

Our J is not a super strong top pair because we only have the T as a kicker. On average, we cannot call profitably way above 1/2 pot size. Up to 1/2 pot, but should still be a profitable call. The opponent can still have J9/J8/J7s. Every now and then he bluffs A/K high,with which he doesn't know how to continue playing on the river.

If your opponent bets 1/2 pot, this automatically means that you need 25% equity, ignoring the rake. So you only need to be ahead 25% of the time for your call to be profitable. If we add the rake, it should be ~27%. As you can see, you don't really need to be ahead very often for this to be a good call.
So you should have called on the river here.

Is this strategy possible in tournaments? Or only cash games? And is it useable in 9max tables instead of 6max?

I’ve been using it online 6max cash games and it’s been amaaaazing! But my friends want to do live tourneys and they also use 9max. Is this strategy still viable?

Originally posted by Maple33
Is this strategy possible in tournaments? Or only cash games? And is it useable in 9max tables instead of 6max?

I’ve been using it online 6max cash games and it’s been amaaaazing! But my friends want to do live tourneys and they also use 9max. Is this strategy still viable?

Hi Maple33,
Welcome to PokerStrategy.com

As you play an MTT, you go from playing a 100BB strategy, to hopefully playing a deep-stack strategy. If not, you're playing a mid-stack strategy, then worst-come-to-worst a short stack strategy.

There are other factors like ICM to consider in tournaments as well.

You learn the fundamentals playing cash games, to be sure, but the big money is in tournaments, and live is a whole different ball game.

Tournaments can be a fun social event, or they can be long and tedious, and a pain in the back.

Try a few.

Cheers,
VS