Niman's XStorm 400NL Review (2)

Discussion for Niman's XStorm 400NL Review (2).

Nice video, many interesting spots.

I don't agree with calling 65s oop after 3-betting to 9 BB and facing a 21 BB 4-bet with ~100 BBs against a common nl 400 reg.

in my opinion, the 4-bets got much smaller just because they are not exploitable without having a read of a big leak of the oponent or having done groundbreaking analysis of such situations. the intrinsic problem with flatting 4-bets oop is that it is MUCH easier to play correctly as the 4-better than it is for the oop caller. There has to be a huge skill difference ("huge" relative to the evened out skill field at nl 400) for it to work or a really well thought out balanced flatting strategy, which is far from as trivial as you make it sound.

To throw in some numbers: 65s has 33% equity vs a common 4-bet range in that spot. we have pre-adjusted pot odds of 28%. I can not prove it, but i assume any winning regular on nl 400 has the skill needed to neglect the 5% points of equity-disadvantage with his range against (almost) any other reg on those limits. Furthermore, the 4-bet was not close to a minraise, which would have been 15 BB. If the 4-bet size was 18 BB then i would agree with you. The pre-adjusted pot odds we had would be 24%.

tompoker, I disagree with you pretty strongly here. The very reason that four-betting small became en vogue was because it was game theory optimal when the response was a fold or a shove. Obviously, if your opponent is only going to fold or shove to a bet, then the smallest possible bet is optimal. In order to combat this intrinsically incorrect strategy of min-raising, one must have a calling range. In this case, 65s will play well against a minimum raise. When your opponent gives you something close to 3-1 in direct odds with a hand that, when it flops well, will have way over 35% equity against premium hands (draws by themselves will be around 35% against AA, and we have to factor in when we flop two pair or trips, or when they have only AK and the like). So even if you just call the four bet and then check-shove when you flop two pair, trips, or a good draw, your equity is far superior to just folding getting 3-1. This is a very common mistake made by otherwise good players. It is very incorrect to let opponents get away with min four betting, as that enables them to increase their four bet bluff frequency. You must have a calling range - and a hand that flops well and will almost never have domination issues is perfect for that.

Thank you Niman. I much appreciate your answer to that topic, which bugs me for a while now. Is there a tool out there which tells me how often a certain hand flops certain hand strengths, for example how often will i flop a flushdraw, trips with 65s etc.? Otherwise i will do that by hand. Thanks again