Self Study: Why do we verify back when we have Variety Advantage?

We return to our series exactly where Barry Carter tries to plug a leak of his with the help of a expert poker player. Previously he solved how to play against a disconnected player, why we overshove AK occasionally&nbspand why our blocker lets us reraise against sturdy ranges.&nbsp

This was a 3-bet pot, 30 massive blinds effective and we are the Button obtaining been 3-bet by the Modest Blind. I put this hand in a solver and, as soon as once again, was confused by the line it took.&nbsp

We defend the three-bet with J Q and the flop comes 7 six five. The Modest Blind checks.&nbsp

In-game I bet this flop, I felt this was a great spot for a bluff. We have two more than cards and a backdoor flush, but far more importantly I felt like we had substantial range advantage on this flop, particularly following the verify. We have sufficient strong hands that I felt my hand made a great bluff.&nbsp

This is the GTO preflop three-betting range for the Modest Blind:

And this is the GTO preflop defending range for the Button:

Not only did the solver not bet my hand, it checked back pretty a lot every thing. It checked back most of the variety such as AA, TT, 89, 77, 66 and 55.&nbsp

I was completely shocked so several hands check back when, in my opinion, we have range benefit here. So I consulted my coach Dara O’Kearney for a line check:

Line verify time

Barry Carter:&nbspI understand why my own hand may possibly be a check back but why do we verify so several powerful hands? Shouldn’t we be piling in with lots of hands here?

Dara O’Kearney: We check these hands simply because we have very few hands that can stand a check/raise. Most of the hands we will force folds from have really tiny equity, largely just weak Ax or worse.&nbsp

We would have to fold most of our 9x kind hands to a verify/raise which would genuinely suck, so we protect the variety by checking sets, 98 and AA.

Barry Carter:&nbspBut the way I understood Range Benefit it meant that we can bet a lot here, because we have a lot of worth which also signifies we can bluff far more with hands like my own.&nbsp

Dara O’Kearney:&nbspOur Variety Benefit would be much more significant with 100 massive blinds exactly where the Little Blind can’t just verify/shove factors like QQ or KK. With 30 huge blinds deep they can just go with any over pair here.&nbsp

Barry Carter:&nbspSo distinct kinds of Variety Advantage match distinct stack sizes? Variety Advantage with mainly one pair hands is very good when we have shallow stacks, Variety Benefit with sets or far better work better for deeper stacks, and not necessarily the other way around?&nbsp

Dara O’Kearney:&nbspYes, when we are shallow with the kind of Variety Advantage you have we do not have the implied odds to continue chasing draws. Extremely deep you can float with gutshots or backdoor draws. You can even call with 1 pair hoping the guy will shutdown understanding you can hit your two outer to win a large pot. You can not do any of this when there is not much behind you.&nbsp

Barry Carter:&nbspSo if I flip it around, in a spot like this if I was the Modest Blind, a very good technique with a massive hand may well be to verify/raise when the flop favours the Button and they should be betting a wide range of hands?

Dara O’Kearney:&nbspCorrect. When you are shallow with a good hand on a board that is greater for your opponent, you need to go for a verify/raise.&nbsp

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Thoughts on the hand? Let us know in the comments: