I have been spending the majority of my time playing live recently and would like to address a couple of things that I keep seeing over and over. This may seem simple to some, but I want to stress the importance of having strong fundamentals and not taking these things for granted. I am trying to reach the longtime recreational players who feel they don’t need to improve or don’t know how to go about it as well as newer players who have yet to see the light.

In my opinion, there are way too many players who have far too little of an understanding of the importance of stacks and position when making decisions in poker. Obviously, most players would like to have a good hand and may fold a while trying to get one, but when they get a good hand, how much of their decisions are based on the stacks and positions of all of the players in the hand? How often could they have won the hand without a showdown?

I would think that in many spots, they should be able to play the hand without needing good holdings. If focusing on the play, they should be able to find good spots to play aggressively without needing a big hand. Important to consider are the stack size of the Hero and the Villain, the position of both, and what the stack sizes and position allow you to do.

To give an example, I am referring to the fact that if they have fewer than 15 big blinds, most people are generally shoving. With fewer than 20 big blinds, most people are rarely 3bet/folding. For example, late in a MTT, a big stack can torture medium stacks with raises because they shouldn’t ever want to stack off light when there are shorter stacks in play. These are just a few of the things I am referring to when I mention the importance of stacks and position.

Let me give a vague example. Let’s say it’s 300/600/75 in a $300 MTT and the Hero has 40 big blinds and is sitting to the left of an aggressive Villain who also has 40 big blinds and has been opening a bunch of hands. He is playing aggressively, but has shown that he will fold to 3bets fairly often when out of position.

It only makes sense that in this scenario, the Hero should try to pick a few spots to 3bet this Villain light. Both players have decent stacks, but if opening light, a 40 big blind stack won’t want to call off too many 3bets light. The Hero’s holdings almost don’t matter if he thinks his 3bet will get through a good percentage of the time.

If the Hero’s read is correct, the Villain will fold to the 3bet a lot. Also, for the times the Villain raises, it gives information to the Hero and narrows the Villain’s range. Narrowing ranges helps in scenarios where we choose to 3bet with hands like A-Jo against a Villain who plays a little snug and folds the lower end of his range but 4bets A-Q+. It saves us from the scenario of paying off a better hand on ace-high flops.

Since the read is that the Villain folds weak holdings to 3bets out of position, the Hero can get away from his hand, as the plan should be to 3bet/fold. Another bonus is the majority of the time the Villain decides not to fold, he will flat and the Hero’s c-bet will win the pot. Aggression is generally the way to go.

The problem I see way too often is players getting fed up with an aggressive opponent and their defense is to flat and try to hit flops. Obviously, that is not ideal because if the Villain is aggressive, the Hero will end up folding to the Villain’s c-bet most of the time they miss the flop, which will be often. A couple of other choices are to float and reevaluate on the turn or raise/fold the flop, but neither are very good options.

Now, I would like to give an example of a hand where my decisions were made based on stack sizes. In this example, I am playing in a $350 buy-in $50,000 guaranteed tournament. The blinds are 100/200 and I have an 8,000-chip stack. 8,000 at 100/200 is a decent stack, as it’s 40 big blinds and we should have plenty of chips to play with. But, here is an interesting situation to think about: we are in the cutoff and the Highjack, who has been playing average but we have no big hands to judge reads from, opens to 3x, or 600 out of a 9,000-chip stack.

Now, it’s on me and I have 4-4. I would like to flat and set-mine, but I know in this scenario, it is -EV to pay more than 5% of the effective stack to set-mine; 600 is 7.5% of my stack. On top of this, there are no antes, so the pot isn’t sweetened at all. We have position, but we should know that we are going to fold to his c-bet almost every time we don’t get a 4 on the flop. In this scenario, I think many players will forget to take notice of the whole situation and will make a small mistake by flatting to set-mine for a bad price. If we are aware of the stack sizes and how we should act, we can make better decisions.

In the next example, I am playing a $1/$2 cash game live and am sitting with $300. I am in the big blind with 7-6hh. The player in the HJ+4 limps with $200 behind. Then, there is a fold and the player in the HJ+2 makes it $12 with $87 behind. Everyone folds and now it’s on me with the HJ+4 and the raiser left.

I see a lot of players trying to peel this flop, but paying 12% of the effective stack to flat in this scenario can’t be profitable in the long-run. I think way too many players see 7-6hh and the minimal impact $10 more will have on a $300 stack. But, they are failing to realize the mistake in paying that price when the result will be the Hero check/folding the flop most of the time. Now, if we can decide that the limper is also going to flat a huge percentage of the time, we may be able to get closer to +EV, but I think we are still not getting a good enough price.

Obviously, in the first scenario, some may find a reason to flat, as some feel you can set-mine up to 10% of the effective stack. And in the second scenario, some may find enough equity to call if they think the limper comes in. I want to say my point is a little less about these exact scenarios and a lot more about thinking and making sure your decisions include a lot more than your holdings. Good luck everyone!

This article was written by John cracker9ball Reynolds, who hails from Tulsa, Oklahoma. If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information, contact him at variance101@gmail.com or visit Variance101.com.