This isn’t a secret. Not all experienced players who play poker on a regular basis or know how to play poker aren’t comfortable with deep stacks. A lot of them experience anxiety when playing with large stacks especially, if it is a cash game or a tourney where the stacks are high in comparison with the blinds and antes. This blog will be a tell-all tale with regards to the tips, tricks and the adjustments that should come in handy if you play poker with deep stacks.
Preflop Bet Sizings
Be it online poker or offline your sizing shouldn’t change if it comes to open-raising preflop. For instance, if you’re playing 100 big blinds deep and usually raise to 2.5 big blinds, raise to 2.5 big blinds only.
Also, your 3-bet sizes shouldn’t change as well, at most may be slightly bigger when you are in position. You will hold the upper hand if you are the 3-bettor in position as now you will be the last to act. The scenario will be a tough nut to crack for your opponent to deal with postflop.
However, if you are out of position your 3-bet sizes should be smaller. In a situation when your opponent with a 200 big blind stack is opening to 2.5 big blinds, for instance, then instead of the standard nine big blinds keeping it eight is recommended. Doing this will reduce the pot size mitigating the opponent’s positional advantage since now they win more of a smaller pot. It’s the same in a 4-betting scenario as well.
3-Betting Ranges
Don’t change your range when you 3-bet in position, all the major adjustments are going to be made by your out of position opponent. But, if you 3-bet out of position, there should be some changes to your 3-betting range:
In the beginning, it’s recommended to polarize your range more since you are using a bigger 3-bet size and you shouldn’t get into really big pots with your medium-strength hands.
Then aim to 3-bet with more suited connectors to improve your range’s board coverage. It will be less tedious for you on board runouts that aren’t great for your typical 3-betting range.
Even if you know how to play poker well you don’t want to be forced to call off 200 big blinds on the river with an overpair since it’s the top of your range on a 6 5 2 T 3 board. 3-betting with suited connectors becomes an adjustment that can be made to avoid this and other issues like this.
You should carry on to 3-bet with suited Ax hands as they remain goods since they can help you win big pots in flush versus flush situations.
4-Betting Ranges
During your 4-betting ranges, no need to raise light for value both in position and out of position, but for different reasons.
While facing a 3-bet in position, call often as by doing this your opponent will face a tricky postflop spot (playing out of position with a big stack-to-pot ratio). Hence, flat-calling the premium hands worse than KK (QQ, AK) can yield desired results. While facing a 3-bet out of position, flat-calling the premium hands worse than KK (QQ, AK) is what should work well.
Postflop Strategy
The most important postflop adjustment ought to be made whilst you’re in a 3-bet pot because the preflop raiser is out of position. This is the most crucial deep stack adjustment because this is in which the largest stack-to-pot ratio change takes place.
Since you’re so much deeper in these pots, you need to play a slightly more defensive strategy. This means you’ll have to do more checking, more calling, less betting, and less check-raising. This will be an especially valuable adjustment against aggressive opponents that will relentlessly attack your perceived capped ranges.
Since you’re a lot deeper in those pots, you need to play safe. Check more, call more, bet less and less check-raising. This can work wonders against other aggressive players on the table that will consistently attack your perceived capped ranges.