Author Archives: Andrew Brokos

Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs

MTT confrontations between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations, compelling them to play extremely weak hands, often with a high stack-to-pot ratio. In this unfamiliar territory, intuition is a poor guide for valuing hands or thinking about which player should drive the action and why. In this article, we will explore the flop strategy for the Small Blind in limped pots: which flops are best for betting, which hands are best for betting, and which bet size(s) to use at various stack depths.

The Art of Learning Poker

In his book The Art of Learning, chess and Push Hands champion Josh Waitzkin describes a training process of “making smaller circles”. In the context of martial arts, this means mastering the essence of a particular movement with broad strokes first, in slow motion, then refining it in ever greater detail. Hopefully you won’t be punching anyone at the poker table, but the concept of making smaller circles can provide a framework for studying solver solutions, which contain an overwhelming amount of information. The key is to start with the big picture strategy for common scenarios and move into greater degrees of detail only when you have a handle on the underlying fundamentals.

Is Donk Betting for Donkeys?

“Donk betting”, or betting from out of position into the player who was the aggressor on the previous street, is a derogatory term originating in poker’s younger days, when such bets were considered the hallmark of a bad player, or “donk” (short for donkey). That stereotype is not without basis in reality: betting into the previous street’s aggressor is rarely correct, so when it is done, it is often done incorrectly.

Delayed C-Betting

This is a companion piece to Probe Betting. It stands on its own, but understanding how to play these scenarios from both sides will enhance your overall understanding of the underlying concepts. A “delayed c-bet” means checking the flop as the preflop aggressor, then betting the turn.

Probe Betting

As far as rules of thumb go in poker, “check to the raiser” is a pretty good one. The aggressor on the previous street generally has the more polar range and so more incentive to bet, while players who just called the previous street have mostly medium-strength hands and less incentive to grow the pot.

ICM and Blind Battles: The Big Blind

This is a companion piece to this article on the SB’s strategy for blind vs blind play under ICM pressure. In that piece, we saw that, though ICM incentivizes both players to avoid big confrontations, the BB has more leeway to grow the pot on early streets. Their position enables them to bluff, control the size of the pot, and realize equity more effectively than the SB, making it less dangerous for them to start growing the pot pre-flop.