Hand values post-flopThe goal of today is to examine which hands we are comfortable committing our entire stack either on the flop, turn or river depending on how deep we are.We are also going to examine the mistakes players make.

Hands most commonly seen post flop

• Set• Two Pair• Overpairs• Top Pair• Top pair week kicker• Middle Pair

Cash games 100bb deep+• What are the main mistakes?• Stacking off with over pairs or top pair on low/harmless flops. For instance you raise with AA and get a

caller in the blinds. The player appears to be a tight solid abc player. The flop comes 348 rainbow. Our opponent checks, we bet, and our opponent calls. The turn comes a T, we bet again and our opponent raises. This is a horrible spot to shove all in. We only ever get called by a better hand. Generally 33, 44, 88 and sometimes TT.

• This is knows as the Baluga Whale theorem: “You should strongly re-evaluate the strength of one-pair hands in the face of a raise on the turn.

• Why is this? Mostly because one pair hands rarely ever raise the turn. Consider if our opponent had A8 or AT. Would they really raise the turn? Probably not.

• This is because in cash games which are deep stacked, stacking off with over pairs and one pair type hands is horrible. We rarely ever get called by a worse hand!

• Top pair weak kicker, for example JT, on a J84, we play for a ton of pot control. We will check behind a ton of flops to keep the pots small.

• Middle pair is a non brainer, people rarely have trouble with this! You really shouldn’t get into trouble with this hand. We play this hand to pot control/bluff catch.

• Two pair is slightly trickier to play. Two pair really depends on our opponent. Stacking off with two pair 100bb+ is ok. Your opponent can often have a worse two pair, but sometimes they will have a set/straight etc. It also depends on what two pair we have, top two pair > bottom two pair. However we will practically never fold top two pair (unless the board is flushing with 3 or 4 cards to a straight).

• So, generally committing our entire stack with one pair type hands is horrible and should be avoided. Generally pots of 30-50bb are good. However, should you be playing a super idiot who shoves with bottom pair, please do stack off with top pair.

• This means that we generally look for a hand like a set, straight flush before we commit our entire stack.

Early stages of tournament 60 – 80bb• Again much of the previous slide is relevant. Stacking off with one pair type hands/ over pairs is

acceptable, especially if we are close to 60bb. However, here it is much more opponent dependant. • We are still playing top pair weak kicker for pot control. However two pair is definitely going into

the pot.

• Middle stages 20 – 60• Here stacking off with top pair/over pairs is perfectly fine. We will be called more often by over

pairs, or top pair/middle pair/flush draws/pair + straight draws.

• Less than 20bb• Here we are shoving most pocket pairs in pre flop (in position) and most high cards (in position).

Top pair is a monster with this stack, anything else is just amazing.