The point of this experiment is to find out how simple, or difficult it is to get a full stack in vs another full stack in a cash game at the standard (100bb) and deep (200bb) levels. First lets assume the bare bones method. I will explore whether a line of bet/bet/bet will be able to get a stack in the middle. For simplicity sake i will assume a blind vs blind hand with a preflop raise to 4bb. This is what i often raise to at 25nl oop.
Preflop (obb)
Raise 4bb
Call 4bb
Flop (8bb)
Bet 8bb
Call 8bb
Turn (24bb)
Bet 24bb
Call 24bb
River (72bb)
Bet 64bb (all in at standard level)
Call 64bb
Showdown (200bb)
So in this hypothetical pot where we bet pot on every street it is very easy to get 100bbs in the middle by the end of the hand. However, I generally only bet out between 2/3pot-pot when cbetting and betting on various streets. This betting line looks like this:
Preflop (obb)
Raise 4bb
Call 4bb
Flop (8bb)
Bet 6bb
Call 6bb
Turn (20bb)
Bet16bb
Call 16bb
River (52bb)
Bet 48bb
Call 48bb
Showdown (148bb or 74bb each)
It is impossible to get 100bb all in by the river on a bet/bet/bet line when betting less than pot on every street. The exponential increase of the pot based on chips put into it on early streets is too great. This is why cbets on the flop are often too small. If in the previous example, lets assume i bet 6bb into 8bb on the flop and then proceed to bet pot on every street:
Preflop (obb)
Raise 4bb
Call 4bb
Flop (8bb)
Bet 6bb
Call 6bb
Turn (20bb)
Bet 20bb
Call 20bb
River (60bb)
Bet 60bb
Call 60bb
Showdown (180bb or 90bb each)
Not betting that 50 cents on the flop prevents me from getting a whopping 20bbs, 5 bucks into the center by the river. Granted this is only 10bb a player, but the point remains. A half pot bet will on the flop will slaughter any hope of getting 100bbs on the river.
So now i have proved, as we all basically knew: it is very difficult to get a standard stack into the middle of a heads up pot and downright impossible for a deepstack.
Assuming we are playing the epitome of a passive player, one who will never raise, we have two options to attempt a stacking. Our first path is to play a 3bet pot. The larger the pot preflop the easier it is to get a stack in postflop. Therefore an important thing to keep in mind when playing with passive fish who will call down 3 streets with weak holdings is to 3bet often. If there is a limper or blind who is itching to call me down on 3 streets with an unimproved middle pair i want to get that pot as big as possible to accumulate max value out of top pair.
Our Second and somewhat scarier option is to play a multiway pot. A second villain calling preflop and on the flop should bloat the pot enough for us to get our stack in. This is obviously a dangerous situation due to having to fade to villains.
The third option is to devise a line which includes a checkraise. Unfortunately this plan has two potential flaws. Firstly, a weak passive villain may find a checkraise very scary and get out of the way costing us value and also, this villain may not want to bet himself. The checkraise plan obviously fails if the villain doesnt bet and we end up costing ourselves not only one street of missed value but the size of the pot remains the same, instead of nearly trippling, so our turn or river bet will be much smaller.
Thats all for now. I know this might be kind of basic or obvious but i like getting it on paper so to speak. Next time i bring this up i will try to talk about some lines and such. Id like to become comfortable with basic lines to take when betting. Please comment with any thoughts.
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