Zoom poker strategy 6 max. Zoom Poker: the right game strategy

A new type of poker is gaining momentum and is becoming increasingly popular with many players around the world.

Modern poker is a sea of ​​opportunities combined with an ocean of offers, new products and promotions. One of the most striking breakthroughs in the gaming industry was Zoom Poker. Though zoom poker considered a relatively new development of the world famous PokerStars company, it managed to win the hearts of many poker fans. It is worth noting that a few years earlier a similar product called "Rush Poker" was introduced by Full Tilt. However, the hard times that the poker room was going through, being under the auspices of the previous owner, prevented it from completing the implementation and promotion of this development. This allowed the poker giant PokerStars to bypass its competitor and promote its product profitably.

Given the fact that Zoom Poker is very fond of micro-stakes fans, a well-known professional cash player and coach of the DragTheBar website will share his advice on the rules of poker game. Nathan "BlackRain79" Williams. According to him, there are no fundamental differences between regular and zoom tables, but there are still differences in strategy. It is about them that we will talk in today's article.

information gap

To begin with, let us recall that hallmark This type of poker is relatively low probability of meeting again with the same opponent at the same table. The thing is that after discarding a hand, the player is dealt another one at a completely new table with a random composition of participants. By resorting to mathematics, you can calculate the percentage of randomness. For example, if we talk about the player pool at NL2, then its figure does not fall below the mark of 500 people even during periods of low activity. Thus, we can assume that the chance of a re-encounter with a certain opponent at 9-max tables is approximately 1 in 55, and at 6-max tables the probability of such a meeting decreases to 1 time in 83 hands,

Poker strategy against the unknown

In fact, the existence of the randomness factor in poker means that you will always be playing against a random set of opponents, and you will have to play a huge distance in order to form a reliable and up-to-date base of HUD stats on your opponents. However, do not forget that your opponents are in a similar situation. Therefore, do not miss the opportunity to use the information gap for your own benefit. Aggressive style early game play will allow you to get past your opponents before they gather the necessary information and begin to adapt to your style of play.

As a rule, at the beginning, many show tight game by playing exceptionally strong hands and watching the action. In turn, opponents are counting on the fact that you will also use a similar poker strategy. Here's a tip for you: take advantage of their naivete and pull off an unexpected trick like bluffing a 4-bet or raising on the river in the very first hand. It's no secret that HUD stats are not very popular with microstakes players. However, if you do happen to run into a statistician, do your best to confuse your opponent and not let them know that your Zoom Poker strategy is based on fine tuning skills.

nit festival

The low win rate in zoom poker is due to the dominance of the tight style of play. A significant breakthrough in this innovative discipline was the “quick fold” button. Its main purpose is the ability to instantly fold hands, without waiting for the end of the current distribution, and receive new ones until the player collects a relatively decent combination in his opinion. The mere fact of the existence of this button created the prerequisites for the prosperity of the tight style in the game at the zoom tables. In fairness, it should be noted that this innovation has not bypassed recreational players. This gave them the opportunity to fold weak hands, which helped improve their level of play and increase their win rate. Of course, no one is saying that the fish will stop losing at a distance, although this innovation will still allow them to cut their losses.

Exploiting the Nit Style in Zoom Poker

As you may have guessed, even fishy opponents were able to master the nit style, but this is not a reason to leave zoom poker. Tight opponents are also exploitable. As a rule, the regulars of these limits are ordinary multi-tablers demonstrating ABC poker. Therefore, the loose-aggressive line of play will become the most effective weapon in the fight against advanced fish. How is it implemented in practice?

1. Steal blinds more often . It's a good idea to expand your open-raising range in any position and at the same time reduce it to the size of a min-raise, which will allow you to reduce the risks in spots when you open with controversial hands.

2. 3-bet and 4-bet more often . Most Zoom Poker players give up their cards easily unless they hit the nuts, so a little patience and aggression can help you win a lot of pots.

3. Call preflop. Any sane poker player would not 3-bet with a weak hand, a good alternative would be to call preflop in position with a wider range of hands and exploit the opponent's weaknesses on the next streets. There are three ways to implement this move:

float on the flop with any equity and bet to check the turn

raising on the flop with two overcards, pairs and draws

bluffing on the river, provided there is a dangerous card that closes flush draws, straight draws and broadways

conclusions

Zoom Poker, like any other discipline, has its pros and cons. Among the advantages is the speed with which the player folds his hand and gets into a new hand at a completely new table. Paradoxically, the same advantage also has the other side of the coin - speed like a magnet attracts crowds of multi-table nit regulars and juicy fish. Therefore, even a skilled LAG is unlikely to be able to boast of huge earnings in zoom poker. On the other hand, you don't have to waste your precious time looking for mouth-watering fish.

And finally, one more advice from a professional - do not limit yourself to reading literature and posts on your favorite forums, the information space is replete with an abundance of interesting and useful educational poker videos that will certainly contribute to the formation of your gaming image.

Zoom Poker is a new direction of online poker cash games, "tailored" specifically for those people who do not like to wait. If you have finished playing your hand and don't want to wait for your opponents to play the hand, then the button Fast Fold (Fast Fold) will instantly take you to a new one. Theoretically, this way it is possible to increase the number of hands played per hour, by 400%.
© PokerStars.com

Hello friends and girlfriends!

Today Sandrix will tell (and show) you why you should pay close attention to the well-known Zoom Poker, and maybe even completely switch to it from the disciplines familiar to you today.

Disclaimer: the article will focus on low limits (up to NL25 inclusive) in the format 6-max, although most of it is true for other limits and formats.

The essence of zoom poker is that a pool is automatically formed from several hundred limit players, the participants of which are then randomly (or almost randomly) seated at the tables of the selected format (6-max or full-ring) for exactly one hand. At the end of the hand (or by pressing the quick fold button), the player is automatically moved to the newly created table with the next random opponents from his pool.

Here, the most talkative PRO explains well in the language of Shakespeare:

In short, innovation in all fields (once was), a revolution in the world of online poker and all that. Well, now let's move on to the main, more prosaic and practical part of this article. To the reasons why you should look in the direction of this very zoom. So,

The first and main reason is "rakeback" - more hands are played per hour in Zoom Poker

One zoom table allows you to play non-stop about 300 hands per hour (on "regular" tables this figure fluctuates around 75), so the developers' loud statements about a 400% increase in your distance per unit of time are not so far from the truth . Simple arithmetic tells us that on 4 zoom tables in this way you can win back on average 1000-1200 hands per hour, not really straining at the same time, in contrast to the mental tension in the "classic" mass-multi-tabling, but we'll talk about this later.

I said exactly at 4 tables, because at the time of writing, zoom only allows 4 entries in one pool by default. I.e, only 4 tables of the same type of poker can be played at the same time in a single format(say 6-max NL25). At the same time, no one forbids connecting additional limits or switching to the same full ring. However, practice shows that not every modern adherent of the Nanonoko cult can master even 8 zoom-tables at the same time.

Be that as it may, what does this reason tell us? The fact that even in draconian conditions, with virtually no rakeback, every weakly positive or even near-zero regular still has the opportunity to feel the depth of the phrase "live on rakeback" precisely thanks to the zoom (especially in cheap China!). After all, every self-respecting Jew knows: more hands per hour = more rake (and "rakeback" respectively).

Thus, if you manage to maintain your usual win rate (which will be discussed later), then you will earn more money in zoom thanks to all sorts of Stars "stellar" and other bonuses, because you will earn significantly more FPP-shek in the same time, what regular tables would play. Oh how.

The second and non-obvious, bankroll reason is that you need fewer buy-ins to play at PokerStars Zoom

Unlike multi-tabling in normal mode, when a significant part of the bankroll is distributed between 9-16 tables, from the previous paragraph about 4 tables in the zoom follows the nuance that you actually need less limit buy-ins to comfortably roll this format, because for each of the tables you can take initially , maximum 100bb each (or 4 full stacks).

Many of you have probably come across a situation when you sit on one of the tables and stupidly can not buy more, because the entire bankroll in the room is "smeared" on the rest of the tables. And here you need to look for which table is better to close in order to buy on the current one, time and focus are lost. One disorder and nerves, in general.

In zoom, most adherents of aggressive bankroll management will appreciate the moment that you can keep no more than 20 buy-ins of the working limit and feel at the same time like Sheinberg in his bosom (with a positive win rate, of course). On average, no matter which BRM you use, you can follow a simple rule: 1 zoom buy-in = 3 buy-ins of "regular" poker. That is, if your usual BRM is 60 bi, then for the zoom you will need just those same 20 bi. And this is, one might say, a relatively conservative BRM.

The third and important reason is time-saving: Zoom Poker makes it easier to organize your game session

The zoom mechanics are such that, unlike regular tables, where you are actually tied to a lineup/position/fish/etc that is good for you (and therefore cannot flexibly manage your time), here you absolutely do not depend on anything. Non-poker friends unexpectedly came to visit? I clicked on the sit-out in the zoom and went to hang out with the corefans. Wife urgently asks to fix the outlet? Put the same tick and strengthened . Remembered an urgent matter during the session? Well, you get the idea.

By the way, it is the zoom that gives the freedom that the cashiers love to sing about, extolling themselves over the MTT-"slaves" who, by the nature of their activity, need to sit without stopping, sometimes for several days in front of the monitor, without closing their eyes. So, a cash game at regular tables is essentially no different from many hours of tournament vigils, because in the event of a forced break, you are likely to lose your place at the table (and miss out on profits). But what is most annoying of all - then you will again have to painfully look for a suitable table for yourself ... In a zoom, such a problem cannot be, by definition.

The fourth and ambiguous, table-selective reason: No one will be able to "hunt" you at PokerStars Zoom

From the previous paragraph about finding tables, we smoothly move on to one of the most vital aspects of online poker (and all poker in general) - the choice of the game. As already mentioned, in zoom there is no such possibility by design, however, in addition to the obvious minus, which is the inability to intentionally sit down in a pose to the fish, there is also a not so obvious, but no less positive reverse side of the coinflip: more advanced and advanced ® sharks of your limit will not be able to sit down to you! That is, the absence of a bamhunt in zoom works both ways (and don't fool yourself with the thought that it's cooler than you - only regular eggs nl100500k).

As for the rest of the table selection criteria, you still have notes, zoom, and dynamics at your disposal. Yes, dynamics. Do not believe those recreational players who say that it is absent in the zoom. It's there, just in a slightly different form. To feel it, you need to play a more or less sane distance there (at least 100k hands), so here without examples, guys, do not blame me.

Plus, save on specialized software like TableScanTurbo, which a zoom player needs like a trout's eighth fin.

Reason five and underestimated, win rate: At Zoom Poker, many people play too straightforward

Despite the fact that zoom is already a hundred years old at lunch (not to mention its older brother with ), people at the lower limits still have not adapted to the new format for themselves, playing exclusively on the card and not really thinking about the ranges of opponents. In general, a looser game in zoom is our everything. Even in their WODs on the strategy of zoom poker, that some of their ranges can only be useful in zoom, especially at small stakes, where the rake charged is higher and, accordingly, the money won by aggressive 3-bets and 4-bets is an additional increase to the win rate, because banks are not subject to rake preflop. So that.

In addition, as experience shows, such a format of fast poker, which is zoom, today is a great option for idle pastime for your favorite office workers from the European region. In other words, it’s much more “fun” for an average fish to fold and immediately start playing the next hand, washing the whole thing down with Friday beer, rather than sitting and waiting for the remaining five avatars at the table to figure out which of them is more skillful postflop. And if we add to this the fact that today you can play zoom even from a mobile phone ...

In general, I hope that you have caught my point and will no longer be afraid of sinister stories from familiar nits, they say, there is no one to make money on zoom, the ratio of fish / reg is worse than usual, and in general, they say, online poker is dead. Now I will prove the opposite to you by my own example.

The sixth and unexpected reason, Sandrix's: 6bb/100 - real win rate at NL25 in Zoom Poker 6-max per 100k hands

In preparation for this article, I as an experiment zoomed out 100,000 hands last month at NL25 6-max at PokerStars. The limit was chosen from the standpoint of bankroll management, and also based on the fact that it is with NL25, in my opinion, in today's realities that you can start earning more or less adequate money "for life" (although jedem das seine, of course). Played 4 tables, about 2-5k hands a day (not every day of the month, missed). The results, as they say, are "on the scoreboard" in front of you (clickable):

From about a third of the segment, he significantly changed the game, starting to experiment much more aggressively with constant 3bet / 4bet / 5bet wars preflop against most regs, finding himself in a lot of ambiguous situations postflop with marginal hands. Toward the end of the segment, I went even deeper into this matter (the red line began to slowly rise from the bottom of the chart). However, as someone local at Pokeroff aptly pointed out, the game is the best training for the game.©

Let's move on to statistics. Here is a set of my main indicators for the specified segment:

Well, in terms of positions:

In general, ask your questions in the comments to this post if you have any. Finally, if all my attempts to convince you of the cumulative pluses of the zoom turned out to be in vain, I suggest that you familiarize yourself with the opinions of those who are able to earn their bread with sprats on an ongoing basis, and not just as an experiment like all sorts of apstric sandrix.

So, below you will find the opinions of professionals about the Zoom format.

shatkhi (low stakes plus regular):
The advantages of the zoom are obvious - no need to waste time on the select, many hands per hour. But this is balanced by the main minus - the lineups are very dense, the average level is higher than at the usual tables of the corresponding limits ("although the fact that the fish are tighter does not mean that the win rate ceiling is low - you just need to play loosely and steal small and medium pots" - note from jjjean).

Ivan Demidov (WSOP 2008 vice-champion):
Zoom is perfect for workouts. High level of play, many hands per hour, plus it's very convenient that you can sit down at the table within a second and leave just as quickly if you need to.

PekarStas (coach, regular):
Zoom poker is interesting to me only from the point of view of playing with an iPad. It so happened that I do not share the Starz policy in many matters, but I cannot deny myself the pleasure of playing in my free time from the iPad. It's great to kill time on the road or lying on the couch by playing 4 zoom tables or even a zoom tournament.

Here are a couple more zoom reviews from foreign colleagues:

Pavel "Verneer" Nazarevich (famous coach, regular, author of books):
Zoom tables: Much easier to start/end games and thus a superior option for people without a lot of time. Some fish might like it less since they don't have time to develop reads and establish dynamics with their opponents. Regular tables: If you find a fish at one of your tables, you don't get moved the next hand. On the other hand, if you are multi-tabling, starting/ending sessions takes significantly longer.

TimeMojo timing tell program developer (regular NL200):
Zoom is a great platform for players who are looking to improve their games and move up in stakes. While playing fewer tables, the player can focus more on each hand without being distracted by others. The dynamic of being with different players in different positions in every hand is good for mental development as well. Timing tells tend to be more reliable in zoom games because your average user is playing fewer tables. Players tend to perform all of their 'standard' actions quickly, while non-standard actions like bluffs or strong hands are more likely to be deviated from their normal quick timing range.

Well that's all. I hope that now I have managed to convince at least someone who has mastered this wall of text, if not to go, then at least try Zoom. And if so, then as a postscript I will put you the right music to which you need to ride in zoom. The song, by the way, is called Zoom - My Soul:

It's no secret that every year poker becomes more and more aggressive. Knowing the starting charts and having the guts to put two barrels into a bluff is no longer enough to keep making decent money. Someone is looking for and finds new games, many are persistently improving their skills in familiar disciplines. Today we will talk about a well-known variation of hold'em - 6-max games. This article will be useful both for those who are going to play 6-max all the time, and for players who are experiencing problems while the tables are just gathering and they are forced to play with incomplete lineups for a while.

In recent years, 6-max poker has really caught on. Full ring games (9 or 10 players) were the norm, and indeed remain if you play live, but the world of online poker is dominated by 6-max. And that's why you need to know the right strategy to win these games.

The basic strategy for 6-max poker is to play looser than you would at a full table (VPIP). 20%), and make more bluffs and call wider. This means that in a 6-max game you should be playing a lot more speculative hands like suited connectors and suited aces. But the best 6-max poker strategy still depends on which players are at your table.

6-max poker. Starting hands.
The first big adjustment you need to make if you're moving from 9 or 10 player games is to understand that at a 6-max table you need to open and play more hands. Let's start by talking about some accurate starting hand ranges.
At a full table, I usually suggest playing about 15% of all the hands you are dealt. Here's a rough visual representation of what it might look like:

Yes, of course, this is an average spectrum. You have to be mindful of position and play more hands from late position and less from early position.

However, at a 6-max poker table, I generally recommend playing 20% ​​or more of starting hands. Once again, here's a rough visual representation of what it might look like:

Again, please don't try to play these exact starting hands in any situation. This is just an example. The key here is that whatever hands you play at a full table, you need to add some speculative hands if you decide to start playing 6-max.
For example, by comparing the two charts above, you can see that aces up to Ax5x are picked in the full ring. However, suits Ax4x, Ax3x and Ax2x are also selected on the 6-max range. This is what I mean by adding some "speculative hands".

Here's another example: Let's say full game you raise on the button with KxQx, KxJx and KxTx. Well, if you start playing 6-max, it would be a good idea to start raising with Kx9x and possibly Kx8x in this position.

You have to make this adjustment for literally all situations in a 6-max game. This means expanding the blinds versus blinds opening range, early position opening range, 3-bet calling range, etc.
Why are the opening spectra wider in 6-max?
The reason why you need to play more hands in all situations in 6-max is very simple. Fewer people at the table means less chance of someone having something good.
If you remember just one thing from this entire article, let it be this: Most of the time in a 6-max game, no one really has anything very good.
Also, it's important to remember that the blinds are posted a lot more often in 6-max, which means you can't just sit around and wait for the nuts all day like you would in a full game.
Therefore, you will need to get into the game more often and mix different speculative hands to keep winning your fair share of the pots. In other words, you need to significantly expand your open-raising ranges.

Quick bonus tip:

There is actually an even easier way to understand when you are playing a 6-max game. Just imagine that you are playing a full table and the first three places have been removed (or the first four places if you are used to 10 hand games with live poker). It will immediately become clear to you what spectrum adjustments I am talking about - mentally shift the game position and act as usual. Open exactly the same range of hands as in middle position (MP) in a full game, and so on and so forth, from any other position at the table. This will quickly help you play the right hands in 6-max.
Because that's really all 6-max poker really is. So if you're playing preflop first in a 6-max game, just imagine you're playing a game with 9 opponents and three people have already folded to you.

Continuing bet more often in 6-max.
Post-flop, there are a lot of adjustments to make when you play 6-max. The most important is the need to bet more often on all streets after the flop.
And the main reason is that it's harder to get strong hands in 6-max. In general, people will play more hands, and therefore their ranges will be weaker on all streets post-flop. So, for example, in 6-max there is more chance that your ace-high on the flop is still the best hand. So you don't even have to think of your continuation bet as a bluff. Since there is a high probability that you simply have the best hand.

In 6-max you should bet the flop and keep barreling the turn and/or river more often than you would in a full ring. Your opponents simply can't have strong hands often enough to call you every time.
Redlines (or no-showdown wins) are much more important in 6-max than at a full table. Most pots are won because someone just wanted it more, not because they showed the best hand.

Let's take an example to better illustrate this. Here is a suitable distribution example:

Hero raises 3x from early position with AdJd
The nit calls on the button
Flop:3 d 6c 6h
Hero c-bets

The nit calls
Turn:2 h .
Hero???

We raise preflop with a strong suited ace in early position and get called by a nit on the button. His range has a lot of small to medium pairs here that he tries to hit a set with. He will also have some strong aces and a broadway that he was afraid to 3bet with.
Probable Villain Range: (22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99, TT, AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ)
We bet a standard continuation bet on this extremely dry flop, which shouldn't fit all of his non-pair hands. In particular, he is likely to fold all of his hands like AQ, AJ, KQ and KJ here.
Since this is a paired board, the chances of him having a trips/full house are very small. But we expect him to call with some of his small pairs like 44 or 55 and all of his middle pairs (77, 88, 99, TT).
When I play this flop with a nit, in a full ring I often just forgo a second barrel on a small blank card. But not in 6-max! Nits are constantly looking for a reason to get scared and fold their cards, so we boldly sculpt a second bet. It will be very difficult for your opponent to push his small or medium pair to showdown. I will also bet on any broadway card, such as (T, J, Q, K or A), and possibly some hearts. Be sure to check his Went to Showdown (WTSD%) stat on your HUD for more evidence of this.

Float more after a 6-max flop.
In addition to betting more often in a 6-max game, you should also float more often against your opponents. Let me remind you that a float in poker is simply a call to a continuation bet after the flop. And preferably in position in most cases, it will be much easier for you to control the flow of the hand.
Cause? Because, again, most of the time, no one actually has anything!
Also, floating is probably the best way to break the nits in today's small stakes games.
Very often you run into lower stakes regs who have a gap between their CBet% flop and their Turn CBet% flop of 20, 30 pips or even more. This is incredibly convenient for the exploit.
Here is an example of a typical hard 6-max reg at the micros these days.

This means that he will often make a continuation bet on the flop, but if he does not have a strong hand on the turn (which is the case most of the time), he will simply give up and give up the fight for the pot.
This gives us plenty of opportunities to win easy pots on the turn and/or river just by betting. Our real hand becomes almost irrelevant. The red line goes through the roof. Simple game.

So what hands should we float with in 6-max?
Of course, you should call (or raise) the flop with all your strong hands like overpairs, top pairs, flush draws, straight draws and two pair or better.
However, you should also be constantly floating many of your middle pairs, bottom pairs, gutshots and backdoors.
And just to be clear, I'm only talking about 100 big blind and heads-up stacks here. When playing with short stacks or multiple opponents, the strategy can change significantly.
But I hope the point is clear. In a 6-max game after the flop, you need to continue with a lot more hands. You can't just sit around and wait for the nuts all day.

Raise more after the flop in 6-max.
What you need to do more often in 6-max versus a full ring is to raise after the flop.
I have done a lot of research on HM2 about post-flop raising ranges for micro-stakes regs online. Most of them only raise 10% on the flop. This is pretty crazy because if you only raise the flop 10% of the time, it means you almost always have a set or monster draw. It's almost trivial to use against you.
I would recommend raising the flop a lot more often - at least twice, and raising more often on the later streets.

You should definitely keep raising with your sets and monsters. But you should also raise frequently with regular draws (flush and straight) and sometimes even two overcards and a backdoor.
Adding these types of hands to your postflop raising range will make it much harder to play against you because your opponents won't be able to put you on the monster every time and fold easily.
Raising more frequently post-flop is also very effective in 6-max because opponents won't have a strong hand to call as often. And even if they get stubborn with some pair, a re-bet on the turn and/or river is often enough to make them believe and give up.

Isolate recreational players more often in 6-max.
The last tweak you need to make for 6-max is to focus on the fish even more than ever. By that I mean that you have to isolate the fish with the tenacity of a maniac. Playing against fish is by far the best way to increase your poker winnings. There is no strategy on Earth that you will ever learn from any manual, video, book, or any coach that can even come close to a simple equation:Bad players = $ .

Even if you are in an uncomfortable position, try to use every opportunity. Recreational players are where the bulk of your profits come from, because they constantly make huge fundamental mistakes. They can also tilt like crazy.
So you can and should raise with an even wider range of hands than usual if the fish is limping. If I'm in position, especially on the button, then I'll be raising with almost half my deck when they try to limp.

Final Thoughts
The 6-max strategy in poker is not that complicated. It's really just an extension of your range in almost every aspect of the game. But it's important not to go crazy. Playing 6-max is still much closer to a full ring than, for example, to heads-up.
Over time, you will start to think more about the 6-max mentality. There are tons of easy pots that no one wants to fight for. And you don't need to have the nuts to start winning more of them!
Another great thing about 6max is that you play against the fish more often. Make sure you face them as often as possible and get them stacked earlier than other regs.

poker room PokerStars introduced a new kind of poker that definitely won the hearts of some of the players. In other words, this is a new type of poker from Poker Stars. In fact, this is a completely different game. Training at the Poker Academy includes training in fast poker.

Instead of posting blinds in a circle, Zoom Poker moves us around the tables randomly (one table in this game is actually a tandem of several hundred tables). Thanks to this, non-stop play is achieved. Now you do not need to wait, as before, until the opponents think, you can simply press the Quick Fold button, and we will immediately be transferred to a new table.

FROM Cu And BU we open with the widest range of hands, since now we have one of the main weapons in poker - POSITION. Playing with hands like 22+ , A2s+, A8o+, JT+, suited connectors 45s+.

In the case of a 3bet, you have the added option of calling a 3bet since you are in position and you can see what your opponent has done in front of your . Fold most of the time, as you will have a large part of your opening range from late position with medium-strength hands. Strong pocket pairs JJ+ and a good suited broadway AQs+ I would recommend not folding to 3bets and calling to play postflop, where these hands play pretty well in position.

So far, we've covered options for opening a raise if you're the first to act, or there were limpers in front of you. Regarding limps (entering the game first, not by raising, but by calling) - I do not advise, if you enter the game first, then either with a raise, or not at all. Cold call only go to a set with pocket pairs, but if there was a raise before you, call a raise, then it is quite possible to connect in addition to pocket pairs and suited connectors, in multipots they play well in position.

And the last 4bets. Don't make them bluff on garbage, it's painfully unprofitable (and unnecessary) in Zoom poker, especially at small stakes. Only bet them for value (against everyone: KK, AA, against loose opponents: QQ+, AK). Believe me, you will be paid in full, so there is no point in bluffing with 4 bets. He appears only at medium stakes: at least from NL100.

Yes, and more last tip. About pocket kings. Do you always play them on the stack? In most cases, of course, yes. However, there are exceptions here too. For example, you have accumulated decent poker statistics on opponents (from 500 hands for each), and you, having received KK, you see the following picture: a VERY tight opponent with UTG raises (let's say his stats are 6/3), followed by a 3 bet from the same tight opponent with a 3 bet, 2-3%.

In this case, you can quietly fold their kings and not think about them, since in most cases one of the opponents will have exactly aces. In general, if you're facing a 4-bet from a very tight opponent, you might seriously consider folding pocket kings.

Today we present a series of articles for beginners. The articles are aimed at the lowest stakes players.

If you can't win even at NL2, then it's time to change something urgently. The series will consist of four articles in which we will try to teach you the basics of a profitable game in the most understandable way.

Why did we choose zoom poker?

Firstly, there is always a lot of micro-stakes action and you can always sit at the 9-max tables. At regular (not ) tables, you would constantly have to change tables and play 6, 7 or 8-max games.

Secondly, the speed of playing hands in fast allows you to get the necessary experience in the shortest possible time. Playing at one table is equal in speed to playing at four regular tables.

Why did we choose MS?

MSS (English middle stack strategy) is a strategy of medium stacks. Poker strategy, the main condition of which is that we will play with a stack of 50-60bb. The strategy of medium stacks can also be attributed to the game with 30-70 big blinds. But since we will be playing zoom, where buying is only possible from 50bb, we will also adapt the strategy for stacks of 50-60bb.

Start

Let's start by setting up the client. We will always be with a stack of 50-60bb ($1 - $1.2). We need to set up an auto rebuy in case of a loss (when the stack is less than $1). To do this, go to the client and find the Auto Rebuy (Ring games)... option in the Options tab. If the client is in Russian, then Settings > Autorebuy (Cash games)... Set up the right column so that if the stack is less than 50bb, auto-rebuy up to 50bb will work.

You can also set up an auto buy-in so that you do not have to buy a new one every time. Let Pokerstars always put you at the table with $1 in the stack. As soon as you increase your stack to $1.20, get up from the table and enter again with $1. The strategy only works within these limits.

bankroll

Drawdowns on nl2 are minimal, as the players around are very weak. For a comfortable game, we would advise you to have $30 - $50 in your account. But with a serious approach, even $20 should be enough, on nl2 there are rarely drawdowns of 20 buy-ins. How do you know that you beat nl2? If you win $30+ on nl2, you can be sure you're beating nl2. Beginners usually reach this milestone after 20-30 thousand hands.

Most mistakes are made post-flop. But many problems might not have arisen if it had been played well.

Preflop betting sets the tone for the entire action. Beginning players make a lot of blunders pre-flop, which leads to big losses on the following streets.

Below we give a plus -. But you should not take it as a dogma, it is possible and necessary to deviate from the charts at times. Their essence is to show novice players the approximate ranges played by a winning player.

Raising Preflop

When no one before us has entered the game with a raise, there is an opportunity to do it first. What hands should you do first preflop?

First, we need to figure out what position we are in. From different positions, we will raise with different hands due to the fact that we will have a different number of opponents behind us. For example, making from early we know that 7-8 more players are sitting after us. When raising from the small blind, there will be only one player behind us. Therefore, the probability of getting from more strong cards decreases. This is why we raise more often when playing in late position.

To keep all the training material to a minimum, we have put the raise chart in one table. In the table, all suited are in bold. The rest of the combinations are off-suit.

For example, we are in the middle position. According to the chart, you need to raise with everyone pocket pairs from sevens, AJ+, AT suited, KQ+, KJ suited.

Those hands that could be played in the previous position, we must play in ours. So in the position of the button or the small blind, we will play the entire filled range.

3-bet preflop

If someone has already raised before us, we either re-raise or fold. Calling in some cases will be profitable, but the article is aimed at beginners and we will not load it with unnecessary information. You can do without calling on nl2, especially on MSS.

There are two types of 3-bets, value bets and 3-bets. We will not talk about 3-bets, this is a separate topic that needs a professional approach. For beginners, the main thing is to learn how to make good value 3-bets.

What hands should you 3-bet with?

It all depends on the position of the opponent who raised preflop:

For example, if a player raises from middle position, then we will 3-bet him with all pairs of tens, AQ and AK.

The table shows the ranges of value 3-bets. This means that in the event of another reraise from the opponent, we go all-in.