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1. Focus on Ranges, Not Specific Hands
When playing poker, you should always assign a range of hands to your opponent, and then narrow that range as play progresses. Many players instead put their opponent on one specific hand (which is often quite likely) and then presume they have that hand every single time. The problem with this is that most players play many hands and types of hands in the same manner, making it impossible for you to pinpoint exactly what they have. For example, you should often play your best made hands and strong draws in the same way (pushing money into the pot). If your opponent puts you on either a specific made hand or a draw, they will be wrong a large amount of the time, resulting in them making poor plays.
2. Do Not Get Fancy
While there is plenty of room for creativity in poker, you should rarely (or never…) make plays that are extremely out of line. For example, if someone raises before the flop, you should essentially never 3-bet with a trashy hand like J-4o, 10-2o, or 7-2o. These hands are so terrible to the point that it is impossible to play them in a profitable manner unless your opponent raises with far too many hands preflop and will fold almost all of them to a re-raise. Instead, when you choose to get out of line a bit, use hands that are on the cusp of playability, like J-8s, 10-9o, and 7- 6s.
3. Use Intelligent Preflop Raise Sizes
Many players choose their preflop raise and re-raise sizes by copying what their opponents do. That is a horrible strategy though, because most poker players do not win at poker. Instead, you should choose your bet and raise sizes based on strong GTO principles and how the winning players play. For example, in many
small stakes live cash games, players raise to 5bbs or more whereas in reality, the ideal size is often 2bbs or 3bbs. Just because everyone makes a mistake does not mean you have to as well.
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