Stacking Off With Stackoffski

I use Poker Free Hud. It displays the number of hands, VPIP, PFR, AF. That's enough info to work the player types out.

For example:

VPIP 25, PFR 20, AF 20

Pink, LAG preflop, passive post flop.

This player is a 3/bet 4/bet monkey preflop. Post flop he tightens up evidenced by his low overall AF. So hands I would normally fold against tighter or more aggressive payers post flop, are calls against this player. If he checks I make a steal attempt, or value bet .

Another player type:

VPIP 40, PFR 3, AF 50

Dark Blue: Loose passive preflop/ Aggressive post flop.

Raise him for value preflop, and call him down if you beat most of his value range. This player tends to bet all draws to the river, and made hands such as bottom pair, small pockets.

Originally posted by Stackoffski

Have you ever seen somebody making so much monies in 1 single day?

Yes. Me, today

But I have no right to say anything after black weekend ♦ ♦

I hope to see more and more graphs like that from you!
See you at the tables?

Originally posted by arthurbentley
I use Poker Free Hud. It displays the number of hands, VPIP, PFR, AF. That's enough info to work the player types out.
...

Ah yes, together with the stats there is more/better info.

I use some stats as well, I have Holdem Manager small stakes, so I just use their HUD.
I use just few stats, but I like to have 3bet in there. AGG%/AF I will add when I have more hands on people, only have preflop stats for now.
#Hands/VPIP/RFI/3bet

I only don't get the 3bet/4bet monkey stuff where you get that info from but that's okay ... my average PFR is 20.0 haha and I don't consider myself a 3bet monkey.

Originally posted by miropro
I hope to see more and more graphs like that from you!
See you at the tables?

Yes, me too, and yes

Hit 20K hands:

Only -6.12 bbs/100 (EV) and even three times as much for reals!

But we need to have faith in the from-fishy-to-sharky-rebirth-proces!! I am reborn now as a sharky, but I've been a fishy for such a long time, man, I am just starting to learn how to be a sharky. I'm just a little sharky and need to grow now. So I can catch the big fishes.

I know I tried to quit poker in the past, but I always seem to come back to it, at least for a little while. So now that it is clear I won't quit playing this game, but are only taking breaks from it, I better not be losing money with it.

I have good faith things can turn around quickly now, unless I get unlucky, then there is no chance anymore. But I need to play more hands!! Well it's good that I took it easy for while because I was changing my preflop ranges and my postflop game. But now I am starting to get the hang of it, I really need to make some volume. (and not just 1-table). Time is precious.

Okay, to me!

Oh and I am playing nl$5 again as long bankroll allows. $2 tables really feels like a waste of my time and I am not enjoying it. It feels like a worthless grind. Time is precious. So I much rather play high stakes poker at the $5 tables where I somehow do care about winning.

Hey Stackoffski,

First of all I would like to say, nice blog you have there, enjoyable to read it. So keep it up mate
When it comes to your results, well I've never been a great cash game player, but I learned a thing or two. I had the same exact thing when I started, red line all the way up, blue line all the way down. Personally for me, it was over calling/over bluffing rivers. For most of the times, these could be your leaks:
1. Over bluffing the river. It's hard to bluff if your opponent has range advantage over you, so studying and understanding ranges could give you a better idea on when to bluff.
2. Over calling river bets. Usually at micro stakes, if someone is betting multiple streets, it's usually for value, people tend to under bluff at NL2/NL5 and play pretty face up, so making tight folds is a good idea. Again, studying ranges, and evaluating how the hand is being played out, could be an easy fix for this leak.
3. Too large sizing for a river bet. If your opponent has a marginal hand they won't be calling a big bet on River, so sizing down your bet could increase your profits. E.G if you have a TPTK in a 3bet pot, it's unlikely you will get called for a big bet by river a hand you beat, so choosing an optimal sizing based on what you assume villain could pay you off with a 2nd pair or weaker pair. Or if played OOP, check to them and give them a chance to bluff.
4. Let your opponents keep bluffing. Don't check/raise flops/turn's when you have the nuts unless villain you assume villain has a strong holding he would call you off. Again, studying ranges and having optimal assumption on your villain's holding on flop/turn would help you evaluate these spots much better. E.G. if you assume villain is betting with A high, don't raise for protection, as long as you are ahead of your villain's range.
5. Balance your 3bets preflop. Don't always 3bet AQ/AK or KK/AA. Especially if you are IP, it will make harder for your villain to realize his equity and put you on a specific range.
I hope these tips gave you an idea what leaks to search for, obviously none of them are 100% accurate for your case, but were for mine, so I'm just sharing my experience. Best of luck at the tables

Hi greatpk, thanks so much for your post!

You are so right about a lot of things. After letting my stats reviewed a lot of those things appeared to be the case.

1. Over bluffing the river.
I would not know about this one. My guess is I don't bluff often enough as I almost never 3barrel at $5nl. But I am not too concerned with that for now if that is the case. But it is something to look at in the near future.

2. Over calling river bets.
Yes this is certainly the case. Recovering from this. When in doubt call has become when in doubt fold. ♦ It was not that drastic, but I called way too often when I thought somebody was bs-ing me. Now I just think whatever you played really weird and/or really bad, you probably have something or picked up something, fold, next hand.

3. Too large sizing for a river bet.
Maybe this is the case as well. I know it used to be worse though. I am adding more checks into my game to let them bluff. But I need to keep remind myself, otherwise I keep forgetting about this one.

4. Let your opponents keep bluffing.
Probably you are right here! I am not trapping enough!!

5. Balance your 3bets preflop.
I mainly 3bet for value, but my 3bet range is a lot larger than AQ+ and QQ+, depends on position of course. I don't know if I am balanced but I am playing large pool zoom and these opponents fly by. I do mix it up more against regular opponents, but still mainly for value and in position. I think I 3bet enough though, otherwise I am 3betting the whole time

---

Thanks man, you gave me some stuff to think about and it also makes me think I am probably on the right way with what I am doing now.

Yeah like I said, I need to play a lot more hands so we can see the results.

It is interesting because I had the opposite river problem -- my bet size was too small.
The problem there is that opponents would have called bigger easily.

The trick is to determine how "elastic" the players range is.
The more elastic, the more he can call.
If opponent can call with a very wide range, and can call a big bet, then make that bet.

The worst mistake I made (and still make) is to bet small -- or even check -- to try to get a passive player to bluff.
They might call wide, but they rarely bluff

Keep on keeping on!

It is interesting because I had the opposite river problem -- my bet size was too small.
The problem there is that opponents would have called bigger easily.

Hey vorpal, but did you also had same thing that your red line was sky rocketing, but your blue line was all the way down?

My red line was positive, but not rising steeply.
My blue line was also not rising steeply.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
My red line was positive, but not rising steeply.
My blue line was also not rising steeply.

I see. Well I just shared my personal experience, of course it could be completely different for him, but maybe there's something he can take away from my mistakes and check if he can improve at any of these spots
Bet sizing it self is very tricky as it's not easy to guess what kind of a bet your opponent could call with like top pair weak kicker for example, so you gotta experiment with the population I would say.

I did not feel very well yesterday and I didn't really play. Today I want to play at least 2K hands ... which is a lot for me. I'm not 4-tabling. Mostly 2 or 1 tabling. But I can probably add another one now that I am playing tighter preflop and postflop.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
It is interesting because I had the opposite river problem -- my bet size was too small.
The problem there is that opponents would have called bigger easily.

The trick is to determine how "elastic" the players range is.
The more elastic, the more he can call.
If opponent can call with a very wide range, and can call a big bet, then make that bet.

I's difficult sometimes against passive opponents to determine how strong they really are if they are only calling ... sometimes they are stronger than you think, but there is no way to tell.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
The worst mistake I made (and still make) is to bet small -- or even check -- to try to get a passive player to bluff.
They might call wide, but they rarely bluff

Haha recently I checked the river oop because there where 2 Queens on a dry board and I thought he had one. But haha ... I had flopped a set .... so: check! Let him valuebet or bluff! But what did he do? Check back with 3 Queens ...

I see. Well I just shared my personal experience, of course it could be completely different for him, but maybe there's something he can take away from my mistakes and check if he can improve at any of these spots
Bet sizing it self is very tricky as it's not easy to guess what kind of a bet your opponent could call with like top pair weak kicker for example, so you gotta experiment with the population I would say.

It helped me and maybe some other people too.

Bet sizing is super board-dependend as well, especially at the river, because there is 'more' board.

This is all tied in with hand-reading, or range-reading!
I think that is the aspect I love the most about poker ... putting people on a range of hands. I like it when I am possible to narrow the range down to just a few hands and am right!
(Play enough hands and it will happen from time to time :f_biggrin::f_biggrin::f_drink:)

Originally posted by greatpk

5. Balance your 3bets preflop. Don't always 3bet AQ/AK or KK/AA. Especially if you are IP, it will make harder for your villain to realize his equity and put you on a specific range.

Its very bad advice. It may make sense in MTT where you have low SPR, but not in 100bb+ cashgames. It makes even less sense in high rake environment like nl2. Random flatting premium hands can hurt your winrate a lot. Keep in mind that seeing fold to 3bet is not bad result at all. For example lets say villain opens 3bb, you 3bet, he folds and you get 3+1,5=4,5bb for free. In comparison I'm winning with QQ on average 2,88bb per hand so +4,5bb in hand is really great. Rake on nl2 is so high that you actually shouldnt want to flat anything unless there is fish in blinds. Only position in which you can consider sometimes flatting AK or QQ is BB but only against early positions(EP/MP).

Oh I thought he meant with balancing the 3bet-range that I should 3bet more than just AQ+, not to flat those hands, but now I'm not sure ...

Anyway, this is good advice as well:

Originally posted by EmiyaKiritsugu
...Rake on nl2 is so high that you actually shouldnt want to flat anything unless there is fish in blinds. Only position in which you can consider sometimes flatting AK or QQ is BB but only against early positions(EP/MP).

Sometimes you can flat instead of 3betting when there is a fish in the BB which you would shut out with a 3bet.

But for the majority, 3betting is the way to go with this high rake!!
A lot of people don't 3bet enough. Maybe I could 3bet more as well, my average 3bet is 8.8. I mainly 3bet for value, but sometime it's thin value. I don't really 3bet with a polarized range here.
Value and semi-bluffs EmiyaKiritsugu would call it ..

Originally posted by greatpk
Hey Stackoffski,

First of all I would like to say, nice blog you have there, enjoyable to read it. So keep it up mate
When it comes to your results, well I've never been a great cash game player, but I learned a thing or two. I had the same exact thing when I started, red line all the way up, blue line all the way down. Personally for me, it was over calling/over bluffing rivers. For most of the times, these could be your leaks:
1. Over bluffing the river. It's hard to bluff if your opponent has range advantage over you, so studying and understanding ranges could give you a better idea on when to bluff.
2. Over calling river bets. Usually at micro stakes, if someone is betting multiple streets, it's usually for value, people tend to under bluff at NL2/NL5 and play pretty face up, so making tight folds is a good idea. Again, studying ranges, and evaluating how the hand is being played out, could be an easy fix for this leak.
3. Too large sizing for a river bet. If your opponent has a marginal hand they won't be calling a big bet on River, so sizing down your bet could increase your profits. E.G if you have a TPTK in a 3bet pot, it's unlikely you will get called for a big bet by river a hand you beat, so choosing an optimal sizing based on what you assume villain could pay you off with a 2nd pair or weaker pair. Or if played OOP, check to them and give them a chance to bluff.
4. Let your opponents keep bluffing. Don't check/raise flops/turn's when you have the nuts unless villain you assume villain has a strong holding he would call you off. Again, studying ranges and having optimal assumption on your villain's holding on flop/turn would help you evaluate these spots much better. E.G. if you assume villain is betting with A high, don't raise for protection, as long as you are ahead of your villain's range.
5. Balance your 3bets preflop. Don't always 3bet AQ/AK or KK/AA. Especially if you are IP, it will make harder for your villain to realize his equity and put you on a specific range.
I hope these tips gave you an idea what leaks to search for, obviously none of them are 100% accurate for your case, but were for mine, so I'm just sharing my experience. Best of luck at the tables

this is very interesting and relatable.

I was/am having a similar tendency on my red line, but it seems since we brought it up and Stackoffski shared his positional results there has been an adjustment on my game more or less on the principles you are mentioning. It might be a placebo effect but I think it's visible also on the red/blue lines angles.

Hi I was thinking off you when he posted this. I thought should I go and tell him?
But then I thought nah... ♠_biggrin:♠_drink:

Oh and my red line is now perfectly flat for a while and the EV-line goes up a little bit, Showdown-line still going down but slightly, definitely a change ... although very small sample .. you wil see next time!

Originally posted by Stackoffski
Hi I was thinking off you when he posted this. I thought should I go and tell him?
But then I thought nah... ♠_biggrin:♠_drink:

Oh and my red line is now perfectly flat for a while and the EV-line goes up a little bit, Showdown-line still going down but slightly, definitely a change ... although very small sample .. you wil see next time!

you should have! we are partners in crime in this.
On the other hand I always read this blog so I would have bumped into it anyway.

Looking forward to the update

Originally posted by EmiyaKiritsugu

Originally posted by greatpk

5. Balance your 3bets preflop. Don't always 3bet AQ/AK or KK/AA. Especially if you are IP, it will make harder for your villain to realize his equity and put you on a specific range.

Its very bad advice. It may make sense in MTT where you have low SPR, but not in 100bb+ cashgames. It makes even less sense in high rake environment like nl2. Random flatting premium hands can hurt your winrate a lot. Keep in mind that seeing fold to 3bet is not bad result at all. For example lets say villain opens 3bb, you 3bet, he folds and you get 3+1,5=4,5bb for free. In comparison I'm winning with QQ on average 2,88bb per hand so +4,5bb in hand is really great. Rake on nl2 is so high that you actually shouldnt want to flat anything unless there is fish in blinds. Only position in which you can consider sometimes flatting AK or QQ is BB but only against early positions(EP/MP).

Yup
When you take down a hand pre-flop, it is rake free, so the more you do this the better off you are.

If you're going to "balance your ranges" by flatting AK, AQ etc, then it makes most sense to do it multi-way, since you need to flop something encouraging. The exception is if you can squeeze -- then again, you want to take it down pre-flop, but for more $

Originally posted by EmiyaKiritsugu

Originally posted by greatpk

5. Balance your 3bets preflop. Don't always 3bet AQ/AK or KK/AA. Especially if you are IP, it will make harder for your villain to realize his equity and put you on a specific range.

Its very bad advice. It may make sense in MTT where you have low SPR, but not in 100bb+ cashgames. It makes even less sense in high rake environment like nl2. Random flatting premium hands can hurt your winrate a lot. Keep in mind that seeing fold to 3bet is not bad result at all. For example lets say villain opens 3bb, you 3bet, he folds and you get 3+1,5=4,5bb for free. In comparison I'm winning with QQ on average 2,88bb per hand so +4,5bb in hand is really great. Rake on nl2 is so high that you actually shouldnt want to flat anything unless there is fish in blinds. Only position in which you can consider sometimes flatting AK or QQ is BB but only against early positions(EP/MP).

Could be very true what you're are saying, I am no longer a cash game player. What I meant is, have more or less a balance with your 3bet range, like don't always 3bet for value, add some hands for 3bet bluff's like A5s for example. Hands that have potential to out flop your opponent, but are behind his opening range. If I'm not mistaken, I read that in cash games, you want to have wider 3bet range than your calling range, especially from CO/BTN positions.