The best strategy when playing Bonus Poker is knowing how to bet and when to bet, all based on what cards you may have and what possible hands you may receive. These include doubling up when there. Another strategy tip for Texas Holdem that is specific to tournaments is to defend blinds extremely wide. It all breaks down to simple math. If you face a small raise and have dead money in the pot (antes), you are getting insanely good odds and should defend any playable hands.
Today you'll be playing a common tournament spot where you defend the Big Blind with a 20BB stack by calling against a late position open raiser.
Since the Villain has the stronger preflop range as the raiser and your range is rather weak and capped because you just called preflop, you should check to the raiser on the vast majority of flops. Given that both ranges are fairly wide, you should continue on the flop against a c-bet with many hands, including just overcards with a backdoor draw. Domination of your one pair hands should be less of a concern since the stacks are so shallow.
As always, pay close attention to blockers. When a card you hold blocks a key value hand that Villain could hold, you should be more likely to continue against their aggression. For example, if it takes two cards to make a straight and you hold one of those cards, it makes it more difficult for your opponent to have a straight.
In general, you should check-raise against their c-bet with two categories of hands: low equity backdoor draws (that you would fold to an all-in), and high equity made hands (that you would call versus an all-in). In other words, your check-raises on the flop should be polarized between weaker hands and stronger hands and not include medium strength hands that would be put in a difficult spot if they faced an all-in.
When you do check-raise on the flop and Villain calls, be sure to size your turn bet so as to leave a meaningful bet for the river. On such shallow stacks, you should always plan ahead to make sure both your turn and river bets make the best use of your remaining chips.
Finally, don't be afraid to use smaller bet sizing when out of position on the river with both some strong hands and medium strength hands and a few bluffs as a block bet and value bet. You can often set the price of showdown and extract some additional value from Villain with this sizing.
To access the free five hands, visit this page.
Regular play on the WPT GTO Trainer will help you adjust your decisions closer and closer to GTO strategy.
You don't have to be the world's best player to use GTO Strategy, and thanks to the WPT GTO Trainer, now you don't have to buy expensive software or have expert level knowledge to study GTO.
Why use the WPT GTO Trainer?
The WPT GTO Trainer lets you play real solved hands against a perfect opponent in a wide variety of postflop scenarios for cash game and tournament play.
If your goal is to be a tough poker player then you should try the WPT GTO Trainer today.
Register a free account here (it only takes your e-mail address to begin) to play hands and see true GTO strategy in real-time.
The WPT GTO Trainer has over 4 billion unique solved flops, turns and rivers that are fully playable.
As you make decisions in a hand, you receive instant feedback on the specific EV loss (if any) and Played Percentage for every action you take as compared to GTO strategy.
The full selection of scenarios for the WPT GTO Trainer are only available to members of LearnWPT, however we're giving PokerNews Readers free access to the Trainer on a regular basis with the WPT GTO Hands of The Week.
Use this series of articles to practice the strategies you learn on LearnWPT (or at the table) and test your progress by playing a five-hand sample each week.
Texas Hold'Em Bonus Simple Strategy
I've wanted to make a simplified Texas Hold'Em Bonus strategy for a while, for the occasional trips to Vegas, and for the occasional person looking for it. The first strategy I posted was way too complex to remember, and was only useful as a reference guide. While the game ideally returns a -2.037% EV, and my old complex strategy returns -2.3%, the new simple strategy below returns a respectable -2.9%.
The best strategy when playing Bonus Poker is knowing how to bet and when to bet, all based on what cards you may have and what possible hands you may receive. These include doubling up when there. Another strategy tip for Texas Holdem that is specific to tournaments is to defend blinds extremely wide. It all breaks down to simple math. If you face a small raise and have dead money in the pot (antes), you are getting insanely good odds and should defend any playable hands.
Today you'll be playing a common tournament spot where you defend the Big Blind with a 20BB stack by calling against a late position open raiser.
Since the Villain has the stronger preflop range as the raiser and your range is rather weak and capped because you just called preflop, you should check to the raiser on the vast majority of flops. Given that both ranges are fairly wide, you should continue on the flop against a c-bet with many hands, including just overcards with a backdoor draw. Domination of your one pair hands should be less of a concern since the stacks are so shallow.
As always, pay close attention to blockers. When a card you hold blocks a key value hand that Villain could hold, you should be more likely to continue against their aggression. For example, if it takes two cards to make a straight and you hold one of those cards, it makes it more difficult for your opponent to have a straight.
In general, you should check-raise against their c-bet with two categories of hands: low equity backdoor draws (that you would fold to an all-in), and high equity made hands (that you would call versus an all-in). In other words, your check-raises on the flop should be polarized between weaker hands and stronger hands and not include medium strength hands that would be put in a difficult spot if they faced an all-in.
When you do check-raise on the flop and Villain calls, be sure to size your turn bet so as to leave a meaningful bet for the river. On such shallow stacks, you should always plan ahead to make sure both your turn and river bets make the best use of your remaining chips.
Finally, don't be afraid to use smaller bet sizing when out of position on the river with both some strong hands and medium strength hands and a few bluffs as a block bet and value bet. You can often set the price of showdown and extract some additional value from Villain with this sizing.
To access the free five hands, visit this page.
Regular play on the WPT GTO Trainer will help you adjust your decisions closer and closer to GTO strategy.
You don't have to be the world's best player to use GTO Strategy, and thanks to the WPT GTO Trainer, now you don't have to buy expensive software or have expert level knowledge to study GTO.
Why use the WPT GTO Trainer?
The WPT GTO Trainer lets you play real solved hands against a perfect opponent in a wide variety of postflop scenarios for cash game and tournament play.
If your goal is to be a tough poker player then you should try the WPT GTO Trainer today.
Register a free account here (it only takes your e-mail address to begin) to play hands and see true GTO strategy in real-time.
The WPT GTO Trainer has over 4 billion unique solved flops, turns and rivers that are fully playable.
As you make decisions in a hand, you receive instant feedback on the specific EV loss (if any) and Played Percentage for every action you take as compared to GTO strategy.
The full selection of scenarios for the WPT GTO Trainer are only available to members of LearnWPT, however we're giving PokerNews Readers free access to the Trainer on a regular basis with the WPT GTO Hands of The Week.
Use this series of articles to practice the strategies you learn on LearnWPT (or at the table) and test your progress by playing a five-hand sample each week.
Texas Hold'Em Bonus Simple Strategy
I've wanted to make a simplified Texas Hold'Em Bonus strategy for a while, for the occasional trips to Vegas, and for the occasional person looking for it. The first strategy I posted was way too complex to remember, and was only useful as a reference guide. While the game ideally returns a -2.037% EV, and my old complex strategy returns -2.3%, the new simple strategy below returns a respectable -2.9%.
I made the strategy based on what I normally look for when playing Hold'Em carnival games (like Ultimate Texas Hold'Em). The most common cases are addressed, and I include some less frequent, though interesting situations that you'll probably want to know about. The strategy is actually very simple, and very easy to remember.
Ultimate Texas Hold'em Bonus Strategy
Bet | Requirements |
---|---|
Pre-Flop | Fold 23o thru 27o, else |
2x bet all others | |
Flop | Bet two pairs or better, else Bet your pair with any board undercards, else Bet your pair with any draw, else Bet bottom pair unless board suited, else |
Bet any combo flush and straight draw, else Bet 5th nut flush draw or better, else Bet an open-ended straight draw with both hole cards 8 or higher, else | |
Bet 2nd nut kicker against a tripped board, else Bet nut kicker against a paired board, else Bet 1st and 4th nut kickers against a non-suited board, else | |
Check all others | |
Turn | Bet your two pairs or better, except for a pocket underpair with no draws, else Bet your pair (except bottom or underpair) if not a scare board, else |
Bet nut kicker if the board is double-paired, else If not scare board, bet nut kicker with open-ended straight draw, or 4th nut flush draw, else | |
Check all others |
Texas Hold'em Bonus Poker Table Game Strategy
where 'scare board' means open-ended or 4-to-a-flush on the turn, and 'your' hand means your hand that beats the board.