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Sharkline Poker Drill your A-Game
Beating NL25 6-max online, 100bb deep. Preflop ranges by seat, the flop as bettor and caller, the turn and the river — and 37 lessons to carry to the table.
Updated 30 September 2026 · written with Claude Fable 5.1
Grid conventions, and the exploits that are here on purpose.
This is a complete baseline for beating NL25 6-max online: what to play from every seat, and what to do with it after the flop. It is built for one pool of opponents, and it says so wherever it departs from theory. Three ways in:
One warning. The charts are the default and the notes on opponents are the edge. A chart followed against a player it was not built for is a leak with a good excuse.
Every "the pool does X" in this book means the typical NL25 player online — written at the GGPoker tables, but he sits at every site — not a solver, not a professional, and not the one aggressive regular at the table. The card is a model: the well-documented tendencies of micro-stakes online pools, consistent with the hands this book was built from. It is not a GG database. Treat each line as a direction to expect, not a number to trust, and check it against what you see (below).
Check it yourself. GG allows no outside trackers, so the evidence is its own Smart HUD across many opponents, and showdowns. Four things settle most of this card: fold to c-bet (the model says 50–60%), fold to 3-bet from the Button (55%+), 4-bet (under 4%, and what they show when they do), and what a river bettor turns over when called. If the players you meet run far from those, the reasoning in this book still holds and the specific frequencies need adjusting — the notes on opponents throughout say in which direction.
Every grid is the standard 13×13: pairs run down the diagonal, suited hands sit above it, offsuit below.
At NL25 vs loose-passive players: drop the coral bluffs against people who never fold, and add those hands back as value instead.
These charts are not pure solver output. The differences below are intentional exploits for the NL25 GG pool. Written down so nobody "corrects" them back into theory and loses money.
It folds to you and you're not in a blind. Raise or fold — never limp.
The size and the range are one decision. A 2.5bb open needs the blinds to fold about 64% of the time to show an automatic profit; a 3bb open needs 68%. Four points sounds like nothing, but the bottom third of the Button range — Q5s, K8o, 98o — only makes money because the price is cheap. Open 3bb and those hands flip from slight winners to slight losers, so a 3bb scheme has to trim the Button to roughly 40% to stay consistent. Every chart in this part is built at 2.5bb; that's what makes them correct.
What the extra half blind buys — and doesn't, at NL25. Against the blinds it buys folds. The NL25 big blind doesn't fold more to 3bb than to 2.5bb, because they weren't computing pot odds in the first place — so you pay 20% more per open and receive nothing for it. Against the fish who calls anyway it buys a bigger pot with your good hands, which is real, but you also play a bigger pot with your marginal ones, and out of position from the early seats those give it back.
Rake nudges the same way. GG takes a percentage of the pot up to a cap. The cap only helps in big pots; the small and medium pots that opens create pay the full rate, and a bigger open makes more of them. It's a nudge rather than an argument, but it points at 2.5.
Never size by hand. "3bb with a strong hand, 2.5bb to steal" tells the regs which one you have. The right form of that instinct is strong range, bigger size — choose the size for the seat, not the cards. That's why the small blind opens 3bb: out of position against one player, you want folds, and the whole range takes the bigger size.
Is 3bb a mistake? Applied consistently with a suitably tighter range, no — the EV gap is fractions of a big blind per hundred hands, and 3bb from LJ/HJ with 2.5bb from CO/BTN is a scheme plenty of winning low-stakes players use. The mistakes are 3bb with the wide Button range, and varying the size by hand strength. This doc uses one number so there's nothing to get wrong.
Tightest seat — five players behind you. Note the suited-ace gap: ATs+ opens, A9s–A6s folds, then A5s–A2s opens again. That's not a typo. The wheel aces have straight coverage and blocker value the middling suited aces lack, and they're the hands you want to hold when someone 3-bets you.
↑ back to indexOne seat later. The gap closes — every suited ace now opens — and the suited band thickens down to K9s / Q9s.
↑ back to indexEvery suited ace, most suited kings, and a real block of offsuit broadways. Position starts paying off weaker hands.
Why the suited floor jumps around: a suited hand earns its place two different ways, and the chart uses whichever is stronger. High card — K7s opens on a king and the second-nut flush, with no straight potential at all. Connectivity — 97s and 86s open on straights and disguise, with no high card worth mentioning. The hands that fold are the ones with neither: Q7s, J7s, T7s and T6s are too weak to make a top pair you can stack off with, and too disconnected to make a straight. That's why the floor reads K7s, Q8s, J8s, T8s, then drops back to 97s and 86s — it isn't a typo, it's the two routes meeting in the middle.
↑ back to indexEvery pair. Suited hands taper by rank as well as suit — all Ax/Kx/Qx suited, then J4s+, T5s+, 95s+, 85s+, 74s+, 64s+, 53s+, 43s. Suitedness is worth ~2–3% equity; it does not rescue a four-gapper. 83s and 92s fold.
Offsuit runs A2o+, K8o+, Q9o+, J9o+, T9o, 98o. Offsuit connectors and broadways beat bottom-tier suited gappers — T8o opens, 83s doesn't.
↑ back to indexSomeone limped in front of you. The most common spot at these stakes.
Someone limps and you want a bigger pot, heads-up, in position, against a player who has already announced a weak passive range. Two rules: never overlimp behind, and raise bigger than a normal open — limpers call too much, so the size is there to charge them, not to fold them out.
Sizing — start from your normal 2.5bb open, then:
| Situation | Raise to |
|---|---|
| 1 limper, in position | 4bb |
| 1 limper, out of position | 5bb |
| 2 limpers, in position | 5bb |
| 2 limpers, out of position | 6bb |
Rule of thumb: +1bb per limper, +1bb if out of position. Against a limp-caller who never folds, size up further with the value hands and drop the thinnest hands from the range rather than trying to blast them off.
Four or five players still behind who can wake up. Isolate tight and value-heavy — you get position over the limper, not over the field.
Fewer players behind, so the suited aces fill in and the offsuit broadways start coming along.
Best case: guaranteed position all hand against a passive player. Wide — but note it's narrower than your BTN opening range. Two blinds still act behind you and the limper isn't folding, so the pure trash that opens profitably does not isolate profitably.
↑ back to indexForced money, out of position, and — in the BB — closing the action. Different enough to live together.
Folded to you with one player left. Raise or fold — no limping in the baseline. The range is the Button with two corners trimmed: you're out of position for the whole hand against a big blind who, at NL25, defends wide and rarely folds to a c-bet, so the weakest offsuit (K8o, 98o) and the suited junk that only opens on the Button (Q6s and below, J6s and below, T6s and below, the low gappers) come out. Every pair, every suited ace and king, every offsuit ace, and the offsuit nines from Q9o down all stay.
Size 3bb, not 2.5. Out of position you want the BB to fold more and the pot to be smaller when they don't. It's the one open where the bigger size is right by default.
↑ back to indexSmall blind vs a limper: tighten to roughly the Cutoff iso chart and size to 5bb. You'll be out of position for three streets and the BB is still behind you. Thin isolations here are where money quietly disappears.
Big blind vs a limper (someone other than the SB — for the SB, use the blind-vs-blind chart): you close the action and can check for free, so raise only hands that genuinely want a bigger pot — roughly the LJ/HJ iso chart plus the suited aces — and check everything else. Don't inflate a pot out of position with hands that were happy to see a free flop.
Same price as vs the Button, a far stronger range coming at you. Defense is call-heavy and narrow: every pair to JJ, suited aces, suited broadways to K9s / Q9s / J9s, connectors to 54s, and the offsuit broadways that aren't dominated to death — AQo down to ATo, KQo, KJo, QJo, JTo. The 3-bet is QQ+ and AK for value with A5s / A4s as the only bluffs.
What folds and why: everything with a weak kicker and no connectivity. K8s, Q8s, J8s and T7s call vs the Button because a 46% range is full of worse kings and queens; a 15–20% range isn't. Offsuit below ATo and KJo folds for the same reason — you're dominated, out of position, and the pot is small.
Read: against a Lojack or Hijack who opens 25%+, defend with the vs-Cutoff chart — a loose early opener is a Cutoff in disguise.
↑ back to indexBetween the two. Against a ~27% range the suited hands widen a lot — K5s+, Q6s+, J7s+, T6s+, and the gappers down to 53s / 43s — because a suited hand's flush and straight equity is real against a range that's mostly high cards. The offsuit widens only a little: A7o+, K9o+, Q9o+, J9o+, T9o, 98o. Value 3-bets start at TT and AQ; the four wheel aces are the bluffs.
That asymmetry is the whole difference between this chart and the Button one. Vs the Button you add offsuit junk because their range is junk too; vs the Cutoff their range is real, so the offsuit line barely moves while the suited line drops several rows.
Read: a Cutoff opening about 15% is an early opener — use the vs-LJ/HJ chart. A Cutoff opening 40%+ is a Button — use the vs-Button chart.
↑ back to indexYou're getting a price and closing the action, so you defend wide: every pair, suited hands down to 43s / 53s / 63s, and offsuit down to A2o, K7o, Q9o, J9o, T9o, 98o. The 3-bet is polarized — premiums for value (teal), suited wheel aces and K9s as bluffs (coral).
What folds and why: the suited junk — 72s, 83s, 92s, the low deuces. Suited doesn't rescue a hand with no straight coverage and a 7-high flush. K8o and A4o are better defends than 72s: they flop top pair against a 46% Button range, they have showdown value in check-down pots, and 72s has neither.
3-bet size: 4× their open — you're out of position. Vs 2.5bb that's 10bb; vs a 3bb open, 12bb. One size for value and bluffs.
Why ~50% and not the 55%+ solvers defend: a rake adjustment, and a choice rather than an oversight. GG's rake is heaviest in small pots and BB defense creates exactly those. The width came off the bottom of both corners — the suited junk (72s, 83s, 92s, low deuces) and the weakest offsuit (K6o and below, Q8o, J8o, 97o, 87o) — ordered by hand strength, not by suit.
Vs. a station: delete the coral entirely and move those hands into call. Bluff 3-bets need folds to exist.
Vs. a tight Button — one opening about 27% — use the vs-Cutoff chart.
No cold-calling. You're out of position against the opener and the BB can squeeze you off a flatted hand — a small pot, no initiative, no position, and a player behind who can raise. So both charts below have no blue at all: teal and coral 3-bet, everything else folds.
Sizing is 4× their open, since you want fewer callers. Vs 2.5bb that's 10bb ($2.50); vs a 3bb open, 12bb.
Tight, because their range is — but not as tight as a pure 3-bet range would be, because there are no calls here. The hands you'd flat in position against an early open (99, AJs, KQs, AQo) have nowhere to go from the small blind except into the 3-bet or the muck, and mucking all of them gives up too much. So: 99+ and AQs+ / AKo for value, and AQo, AJs, KQs as coral — 3-bets that fold to a 4-bet, win when they fold, and play fine when called. A5s / A4s / A3s are the pure bluffs.
Vs the Lojack specifically — a genuine 15% range, or an early opener you've seen show up tight — drop 99, AJs, KQs and A3s. That's ~5%, which is the right number against the strongest open you face.
Wide, because the Button is stealing and folds to 3-bets more than any other seat — the one spot where the doc's usual "keep the bluffs thin" default is wrong. Value runs down to 77, ATs, KJs, QJs, ATo and KJo — hands that are behind a Cutoff range but comfortably ahead of a Button range. Bluffs are the wheel aces plus A9s / A8s, K9s / KTs / QTs / JTs, T9s through 76s, and QJo: blockers and connected hands that play fine when called, which they will be. Roughly 2:1 value to bluffs.
Vs the Cutoff drop the thinnest value (77, 88, ATo, KJo, QJs) and the weaker bluffs (A9s / A8s, K9s, QJo, KTs / QTs / JTs). That's ~11%, which is where SB vs Cutoff should sit. Vs a station on the Button — someone calling 3-bets with half their range — drop the coral entirely and 3-bet only teal: bluffs need folds to exist.
The one exception: set-mining against a fish who opens wide and calls too much. That's the only time flatting the SB is right, and it needs a real hand — 99 and below, not suited broadways.
Folded to the small blind happens about once an orbit, so this is as frequent as BB vs Button — and it plays nothing like it. Their range is wider and weaker than any open you face, you have position for the whole hand, and the price is worse (3bb open, so 2bb to call into 4). The answer to all three is the same: 3-bet far more, and call the rest wide.
The 3-bet is twice the size of any other BB chart and half of it is bluffs — the small blind folds to 3-bets more than any other seat, because they opened light and know it. Value runs down to 99, ATs, KJs, QJs, AJo, KQo. Bluffs are the wheel aces, K9s / K8s, 76s / 65s, and KJo / QJo. The calling band is the Button chart plus 87o and a few more, since you have position this time. Same junk folds: 72s, 83s, 92s, the low deuces, and offsuit below K7o.
3-bet size: 3× their open — you're in position. Vs 3bb that's 9bb ($2.25). Vs a 2.5bb open, 7.5bb.
At NL25 half the small blinds complete rather than raise. You can see the flop for free, so the question is only raise or check: raise the hands that want a bigger pot in position — 44+, every suited ace, K8s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T9s / 98s / 87s, A8o+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo — and check everything else, including the small pairs and suited junk that are happy to flop for nothing. Raise to 4bb ($1.00). Against a limper who never folds, raise the same hands bigger, don't add thin ones.
↑ back to indexCutoff opens, Button flats, you're closing the action with 1.5bb to call into 6.5 — a great price into a bad structure: three-way, out of position, against a raiser and a caller. The chart is built for that spot; vs a Lojack open plus a caller, take out the weakest suited gappers.
Overcall the hands that flop big multiway and are cheap to give up: every pair to JJ, suited aces, suited broadways to K7s / Q8s / J8s / T8s, and the connectors and gappers to 43s. Offsuit almost entirely folds — AQo, AJo, KQo are the only ones, because top pair with a middling kicker into two players is exactly what loses money here. The Button's flat is capped (no premiums), so those three are usually good when they connect.
Squeeze QQ+, AK and AQs for value — the caller can't have a premium, and the opener's range is a Cutoff range. A5s / A4s are the bluffs; keep it to those two because you're asking two players to fold, not one. Size 5× the open (4× out of position, plus one for the caller): vs 2.5bb that's 12bb ($3.00). Hands that would 3-bet heads-up but aren't here — TT, JJ, AJs, AQo — overcall instead.
↑ back to indexBoth halves of the raise-war, and what to do when it comes back at you.
When you're the in-position 3-bettor, your range depends mostly on how wide the opener is — not on whether you're in the CO or on the BTN. These two grids are your references; the seat difference is a small tweak (noted below).
Sizing — as a multiple of their open:
| Situation | 3-bet to |
|---|---|
| In position | 3× |
| Out of position | 4× |
| Any caller already in | +1× per caller |
Vs a 2.5bb open that's 7.5bb IP, 10bb OOP. Keep one size for the whole range — value and bluffs both — so you aren't giving away your hand with the bet. Against a player who calls 3-bets far too wide, size up with value and simply cut the bluffs rather than trying to find a size that folds them out.
Their range is strong, so you tighten and polarize: value is JJ+/AQs/AK, bluffs are the suited wheel aces, and you flat a small band of pairs (set-mining) and suited broadways.
Read: against an early opener who folds to 3-bets more than half the time, AQo moves from call to 3-bet — it wins now, and folds to a 4-bet.
Their range is weaker, so value widens a lot — TT+, AJs, KQs, AQo all become value 3-bets — and you add a couple more bluffs (A9s, K9s). You can also flat more suited connectors in position.
Read: against a station, the bluff 3-bets (the wheel aces, A9s, K9s) call instead — no fold equity, and they play fine.
CO vs BTN — the seat tweak: on the Button you close the action, so you can flat a hair wider. In the Cutoff you still have players behind who can squeeze, so lean slightly more toward 3-bet-or-fold. Same chart, minor adjustment.
Squeezing — when someone has already called. Both charts above assume a single opener. Once there's an opener and a caller, tighten toward the vs-tight chart and cut the bluffs. The caller has capped their range by not 3-betting, but at NL25 they've also shown they don't fold — and a bluff needs two folds instead of one.
Size up (the table above: +1× per caller) and treat it as a mostly-value spot. The exception: squeeze wider when the caller is a passive fish and the opener is a reg who'll fold — you're isolating the fish, which is a value play, not a bluff.
Vs. a fish: cut the coral bluffs, keep the value, and flat to set-mine.
When they 4-bet. A chart that tells you what to 3-bet but not what to do next is half a plan. Facing a 4-bet at 100bb:
Stack off: QQ+, AK. Call: JJ and AQs, and only on the Button where you close the action. Fold everything else — including all the coral. The wheel aces were 3-bet to win the pot right there; once they 4-bet, that's gone and they're a 5bb loss, not a call.
The NL25 read that matters: this pool 4-bets rarely and almost always with a real hand. A 4-bet from an unknown here is worth more than a solver's mixed strategy — fold JJ and AQs too until you've seen someone 4-bet light.
You opened, someone 3-bet. Which chart applies depends on how wide you opened — a Lojack range is already strong and condensed, a Button range is mostly hands that can't continue. The second thing that matters is where the 3-bettor is: in position behind you, or in the blinds.
4-bet sizing — as a multiple of their 3-bet:
| Situation | 4-bet to |
|---|---|
| In position | 2.2× |
| Out of position | 2.5× |
As a multiple: 2.2× their 3-bet in position, 2.5× out of position. Vs a 7.5bb 3-bet that's roughly 17bb IP, 19bb OOP; vs a 10bb 3-bet from a blind, 22bb IP. At 100bb this leaves a stack-to-pot ratio where you're committed with the value hands — which is the point. Don't 4-bet small enough to price them in.
Your range is already tight, so the 3-bettor is representing a lot. Value is QQ+/AK — JJ is a call, not a 4-bet, because it's beaten by everything that continues against a 4-bet. Small pairs fold: set-mining needs implied odds you don't have out of position against a 3-bet size.
Shown as the out-of-position baseline (a CO or BTN 3-bettor). If it's a blind 3-betting you, you'll have position postflop — add 77, 66, QJs and JTs to the calls.
You opened wide, so most of the range simply folds — that's correct, not a leak. But you're usually in position against a blind 3-bettor and getting a price, so the calling range is broad: pairs down to 22, suited aces, suited broadways, and the good suited connectors. AQo is the only offsuit hand that continues.
Read: against a nit who has shown down a premium after every 3-bet, the coral 4-bets and AQo fold. Against a frequent 3-bettor, JJ and AQs move from call to 4-bet value — this applies to all three vs-3-bet charts.
The NL25 adjustment that matters most. This pool 3-bets too little, and when they do it's usually a real hand. So against an unknown: drop the coral 4-bet bluffs entirely and tighten the calls. A player who has 3-bet you once and shown down a premium is telling you to fold AJs, not to find a hero call.
The exception is the aggressive reg who 3-bets your Button opens relentlessly. That's who the coral exists for — and against him, JJ and AQs become value 4-bets, and you widen the calls too rather than only 4-betting, since 4-betting alone lets him fold and keep printing.
Dominated offsuit broadways don't call 3-bets. KQo, AJo and ATo look playable and are the fastest way to lose a big pot to a better ace or king — against a value-heavy 3-betting range they're crushed by exactly the hands that 3-bet. They're folds in both charts by default, and only become calls in position against someone 3-betting far too wide.
The chart above assumes you have position on a blind. This one is the other common case: you open the Cutoff, the Button 3-bets. Their range is wider than a blind's — the Button 3-bets ~8–10% of hands against a Cutoff open — but you're out of position for the whole hand, and that matters more. Continue with 24% of your open: 4-bet more, call less.
4-bet QQ+ and AK for value, A5s / A4s as bluffs — same as the early chart, because a wide 3-bettor is also a 3-bettor who folds to 4-bets. Call JJ / TT / 99, AQs / AJs / KQs, and AQo. The calls are narrower than the in-position chart on purpose: ATs, the suited connectors and the small pairs need position or implied odds to be worth it, and out of position against a 7.5bb 3-bet you have neither. AQo is the one offsuit hand, and it stays only because a Button 3-bet range has enough AJ / AT / KQ in it to make top pair good.
4-bet size: 2.5× their 3-bet, out of position — vs 7.5bb that's 19bb ($4.75). Against a Button you've seen 3-bet three times in an orbit, JJ and AQs move from call to 4-bet value.
↑ back to indexOpen sizes. Every chart is built vs a 2.5bb open. A fish who opens 4bb is charging you nearly twice as much for the same pot, so defend the top two-thirds of the chart and 3-bet to the same multiple (4× = 16bb OOP). A min-raise does the opposite: defend wider than the chart, roughly one more row of suited and offsuit hands, and 3-bet the same hands to 3× / 4× of 2bb.
Stack depth. GG tables at NL25 carry plenty of 40–60bb stacks. Facing a 3-bet at 50bb, the hands that live on implied odds — small pairs, suited connectors, ATs — lose their reason to call: there isn't enough behind to win when they hit. Drop them and play 4-bet-or-fold with the top of the chart. The same logic runs in reverse: against a 50bb stack, your own set-mining calls are worse.
Limp-raises. A limp followed by a raise over your iso is a premium at this level almost every time — QQ+ and AK, occasionally a fish with AJ. Fold everything but QQ+ / AK; don't call to see a flop.
Every hand you flat preflop, pulled out of the charts above so you can see the calling band on its own. Same data — these can't drift from the source.
You call when you're in position or closing the action, with a hand that's too good to fold but would become a bluff if you raised it. Everything else is raise or fold.
The test for any hand: would a raise here be a bluff?
Where you never call:
Pairs, suited aces, suited broadways to the nine, connectors, and six offsuit broadways. Nothing with a weak kicker — the opener's range is too strong to be flopping worse.
The suited hands widen sharply, the offsuit hardly at all. Compare the bottom-left corner here with the Button chart below: that's the rake-and-domination trade-off in one picture.
The widest calling range you have. Closing the action at a price, so pairs, suited hands with straight coverage, and offsuit down to K7o and 98o. Dimmed cells are the 3-bets.
In position against the weakest opening range you face. The band looks like the Button chart with the top carved out — those hands 3-bet here.
Overcalls only: pairs, suited aces, suited connectors and gappers, three offsuit broadways. Compare the offsuit corner with any heads-up chart — multiway is where offsuit broadways go to die.
Cutoff or Button facing a Lojack/UTG open. Pairs to set-mine, suited broadways, AQo. Their range is strong, so this stays narrow. Lean toward 3-bet-or-fold in the Cutoff where a squeeze is possible.
Cutoff or Button facing a Hijack/Cutoff open. The suited connectors and middling suited aces join, plus KQo, AJo, ATo — offsuit broadways are fine to flat here because you'll have position for the whole hand.
Out-of-position baseline. JJ–88 and five suited broadways. If a blind 3-bet you and you'll have position, add 77, 66, QJs and JTs.
Usually in position against a blind. Pairs to 22, suited aces to A6s, suited broadways, connectors to 54s. AQo is the only offsuit hand. Against an unknown who has shown down a premium, tighten toward the early chart.
Out of position vs a Cutoff-or-Button 3-bettor. Three pairs, three suited broadways, AQo. Everything that needs position or implied odds is gone.
↑ back to indexYou raised, one player called, the flop is down. Whether to bet comes first; how big comes second. Everything here is heads-up unless it says otherwise.
The flop in six lines
Flop · Rule 0
Single raised pots — you opened, someone called, nobody 3-bet. Sizing only matters once you've decided to bet at all, and that decision is the one that leaks money. Everything below is the flop.
A bet needs a job. Get called by worse. Fold out better. Or charge a draw that would otherwise see a free card. If your bet does none of those three, check. That's the entire test.
The default
Heads-up, in position, on a dry high board — bet. Small, and with most of your range. You raised preflop, so you hold more strong hands than they do, and they have to fold a lot of air. This is the profitable auto-pilot. The rest of this section is the exceptions to it.
How often, by board and position: one table, in Rule 1 — it gives the frequency and the size side by side, because the same thing decides both. The short version: on a dry high board in position, bet nearly everything, small. Everything else is lower.
| Opponents | Do this to the Rule 1 number |
|---|---|
| Heads-up | Use it as given |
| Three-way | Cut it to the top of your range — the multiway section has the lists |
| Four or more | Bet 20% or less, made hands and real draws only |
Every extra opponent cuts the frequency hard. Someone almost always has a piece.
Why position lowers it at all. In position, checking is nearly free — you get a free card and act last on the turn, so checking back a medium hand costs almost nothing. Out of position you get neither, so you can't bet as wide: betting into position with a marginal hand means facing a raise you can't answer and a turn you'll have to guess at.
Six reasons to check instead
1 · The board hits their range harder
You open the button, BB calls, flop is 7♥ 6♥ 5♦. They hold 87s, 65s, 44, 66. You hold overcards and broadways. Being the preflop raiser does not transfer to every board — check the whole range and take a free card.
2 · Three or more players
Someone almost always has a piece, so there is little to fold out. Bet made hands and real draws. Check everything else.
3 · They don't fold
Against a station, a bluff has one job left and he isn't doing it. Bet for value or don't bet.
4 · Your hand wants to show down
Second pair on J♣ 9♥ 5♦, or ace-high on a board with draws. Worse hands fold, better hands call. Betting only isolates you against the hands that beat you. Check and win at showdown. (On a dry high board ace-high is the exception — there it bets small along with everything else; Rule 1 has the lists.)
5 · Monotone flop
9♥ 6♥ 2♥. You rarely hold the flush, they call with any single heart, and your fold equity is near zero. So don't bluff it. Made hands are the other story — top pair still bets small here, because a third of his one-heart hands get there for free. See Rule 1.
6 · They attack c-bets
Some NL25 regs raise small c-bets relentlessly. Against those, check back your medium hands and let them bluff into you.
In position vs out of position
In position
Bet wide, bet small
Checking is cheap — you get a free card and act last on the turn. So check back your medium hands happily, and bet a wide range small on boards that favour you.
Out of position
Bet narrower, with a plan
Checking invites a stab, and you can't take a free card. So every check needs a plan attached: check-call, check-raise, or check-fold. Decide which before you check.
The out-of-position trap: top pair with a weak kicker on J♠ 9♠ 5♥ from the small blind. You bet, get called, and now every turn card is a problem. Check-call keeps the pot small and lets them bluff their misses.
Three questions, in order
| Ask | It decides |
|---|---|
| Does this board favour my range or theirs? | Whether to bet at all |
| How many opponents? | How often to bet |
| Is there a draw a big bet would punish? | How big — see Rule 1 |
Note what's missing: "how strong is my hand" is not one of the three. Your hand decides whether you're betting for value or as a bluff. It does not decide the size.
Flop · Rule 1
The most common mistake is picking a size because your hand is strong or weak. The board decides the size. Your hand only decides whether you bet.
Dry board — nothing connects
Bet 25–33%
K♠ 9♥ 4♦ · A♣ 7♠ 2♥ · Q♦ 8♣ 3♥
No draws exist, so there is nothing to charge. You hold more strong hands than they do, so a small bet folds their air just as well — and costs 40% less on the times they don't fold.
Wet board — draws everywhere, and it's yours
Bet 66–75%
K♠ Q♠ 5♥ · A♠ J♠ 8♦ · Q♥ T♥ 7♣
Flush and straight draws will call anything cheap. Here a big bet actually buys something: it makes their draw a losing call. On a wet board that's his (7♥ 6♥ 5♦) you mostly check — and bet this size only with the hands listed under that board below.
The test: ask "is there a draw on this board that a big bet would punish?" If no — bet small. If yes — bet big. One condition: the board has to be yours. Draws on his board (7♥ 6♥ 5♦ after you opened the button) are not yours to charge — that is Rule 0, reason 1, and the answer there is check.
Underneath the texture rule
Texture is a proxy. What it is really measuring is who holds the advantage, and there are two kinds:
| You have | Bet |
|---|---|
| The stronger range overall | often, small |
| More of the nuts, but not the range | rarely, big |
| Neither | check |
range advantage sets how often · nut advantage sets how big · neither means no bet
Dry high boards favour the raiser, which is why they get small frequent bets. Low connected boards favour the caller, which is why "wet means bet big" does not apply when it is his board. The countable question: of the strongest hands this flop makes, who has more of them? On K♠ 9♥ 4♦ you hold every AK, KQ, KJ and KK — that is yours. On 7♥ 6♥ 5♦ he holds the 87s, 65s, 44 and 77 — that is his.
Monotone splits in two, and the halves point opposite ways. Bluffing there is close to hopeless — any single card of the suit calls you, so your fold equity is near zero. But a made hand must still bet, because a third of his one-suit hands get there by the river for free. Don't let "check monotone boards" become the rule for your good hands too.
Rainbow means no flush draw
Three different suits on the flop — a flush is impossible. All a big bet does is fold the worse hands that were going to pay you.
The full picture — how big, and how often, by board:
| Board | Size | Bet, IP | Bet, OOP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dry high, rainbow K 9 4 · A 7 2 · Q 8 3 · yours | 25–33% | … | … |
| Paired K 8 8 · Q 5 5 · A 6 6 · yours | 25–33% | … | … |
| Wet, high K♠ Q♠ 5♥ · A♠ J♠ 8♦ · Q♥ T♥ 7♣ · yours | 66–75% | … | … |
| Middling, connected J 9 5 · T 8 6 · Q 9 6 · even | 50% | … | … |
| Low, connected 7 6 5 · 8 7 4 · 6 5 3 · his | 66–75% | … | … |
| Monotone A 7 3 · K 9 5 · 8 6 2, one suit · nobody's | 25–33% made hands only | … | … |
The frequencies are computed from the hand lists below and the opening ranges in Parts II–IV: the share of the hands you opened with that bet on that flop. Heads-up; the multiway section has its own numbers. Read the "yours / even / his" tag first — that's what sets the row.
Which hands, on each board
The table says how often. This says what. Three flops per board that play the same way — the highlighted one is what each list below is written for. You opened the button and the big blind called. The out-of-position block is you opening the Hijack with the Button calling — and every out-of-position check comes with its plan attached.
The checks are always the same two families. Hands that already win at showdown, and hands that can't bet twice. On his dry boards only the first family exists — everything else bets small. On the boards with draws, both families check, and that is where the frequency drops.
Flop · the exception
Rule 1 says half-pot is almost never correct. That's aimed at the reflex — reaching for it on every board without thinking. There are four spots where it's genuinely the best size.
1 · The board really is in the middle
J♣ 9♥ 5♦ or T♠ 8♦ 6♥ rainbow. Draws exist, but weak ones — gutshots, overcards, backdoors. A 33% bet lets a gutshot call cheaply. A 75% bet folds every hand that was going to pay you. Half-pot is the honest middle because the board is honestly in the middle.
2 · More than one opponent
Fold equity splits across players. Against two callers on a dry board, a 33% bet folds almost nobody — each of them only has to be right once. Half-pot is the smallest size that still asks a real question of three players; on wetter boards multiway goes bigger still.
Everything else in this part assumes one opponent. With more, you need a bigger size for the same fold equity and you bluff far less. The multiway section has the full treatment.
3 · SPR is about 3.5 and you want to stack off
Three half-pot bets, called each street, puts in exactly your whole stack — no awkward jam, no leftover few blinds on the river. This is the one worth memorising.
0.5 × (1 + 2 + 4) = 3.5 pots
| Stack behind | Bet each street | Streets to all-in |
|---|---|---|
| 1.5 pots | 50% | Two |
| 3.5 pots | 50% | Three |
| 7 pots | 75% | Three |
4 · Thin value on the river
You beat their bluff-catchers but lose to anything better. 75% folds out the second pair you are trying to get paid by. 33% leaves money on the table. Half-pot maximises calls from worse.
What this is not for: a dry flop. K♠ Q♥ 8♣ rainbow is not middling, and half pot is the reflex size there. If you can't name which of the four cases above you're in, you're in none of them.
Flop · iso pots
Someone limped, you raised, he called. The most common flop at NL25 after the big-blind one — and the easiest to play badly, because everything you learned about c-betting assumes an opponent who folds. This one doesn't.
1 · Bet for value, not for folds
A limp-caller's range is small pairs, weak aces, suited junk and offsuit broadways — capped, because anything good would have raised — and it does not fold to one bet. So the bluffs come out: air, ace-high on dry boards, bare draws. What is left bets bigger, because he calls anyway: one size up from the Rule 1 number on every board.
2 · When he raises, he has it
A passive player who limp-called and then raises your c-bet is not bluffing. Not on the flop, not on the turn. Fold everything except two pair or better and the draws with fifteen outs. Top pair top kicker is a fold to a limper's check-raise — this is the single biggest saving in this part.
3 · When he bets into you
A small lead ("to see where he is") is usually a weak pair or a draw: raise your top pairs and better for value, call with your draws, fold the rest. A big lead from a passive player is a strong hand. Believe it.
4 · When he calls twice
Flop bet called, turn bet called: he has a pair and he is not folding it. Do not fire a third barrel as a bluff. Do fire it for value with top pair good kicker or better — a station pays three streets with second pair, and that is where the money in these pots is.
What changes from the normal c-bet lists, and nothing else does:
| Board | Hand | Vs a caller | Vs a limper |
|---|
Plus the sizes: dry boards 40–50%, middling 66%, wet and low boards 75%. He calls anyway, so charge him.
Out of position against a limper — you isolated from the blinds and he called — the same lists hold, and the same four rules. The one addition: check-call your medium pairs rather than betting them, because a raise from him is the one thing you cannot answer, and out of position you will face it more.
Lessons from this part
Flop · multiway
Everything in this chapter so far is heads-up. Add one more player and one thing changes: someone always has something. Every rule below follows from that.
1 · Bet the top of your range, bigger, and bluff almost never
Fold equity roughly halves per extra player, so a bluff that needed one fold now needs two. Meanwhile your value hands get paid by two ranges instead of one. The answer is the same shape as the iso pot: bluffs out, thin value out, and what is left bets a size up. On a dry board that is about a third of your range; on a middling board, a fifth.
2 · "Top pair" means top pair, good kicker
Heads-up, top pair with any kicker is a value hand. Against two players it is a hand that is often already behind and rarely improves. Bet it once with a good kicker; check it with a weak one and let the others show you what they have.
3 · Draws call, they don't bet
A draw multiway is worth more than heads-up — the pot is bigger when it comes in and there are more players to pay you — but as a semi-bluff it is worth less, because it will not fold anyone. So: check or call with your draws, and bet when they arrive.
4 · Facing a bet three-way, you need a hand, not a price
The "any pair, any draw, any ace" rule for small bets is heads-up only. A bet into two players is top pair or better, whoever is still to act: with a player behind you, or closing the action after a caller, call with top pair or a real draw, raise two pair or better, and fold the rest. The three-way caller lists in Part VIII have it board by board.
5 · A raise multiway is the nuts
Even more than heads-up. Someone who raises into two players is not bluffing at NL25. Two pair or better continues; everything else folds, top pair included.
What changes from the heads-up c-bet lists, and nothing else does:
| Board | Hand | Heads-up | Multiway |
|---|
Plus the sizes: one notch up on every board, as in the iso pot.
Iso pots that go multiway
You raised over a limper and the big blind came along too, or the limper and a second one called. Nothing new: it is the multiway list above, and the limper is still the player who does not fold. Bet the top of your range, a size up, and check everything else.
Limped pots
You checked your big blind behind two limpers and see the flop for free, three- or four-handed, with nobody having claimed anything. The pot is tiny and everyone has junk, so play it in one line: bet two pair or better and the real draws (a flush draw, an open-ender), fold to any real bet without one, and never bluff — limpers call. A small bet from a limper means less than a raise would, but a raise means exactly what it always means multiway.
Four or more players: the same rules, harder. Bet two pair or better and nothing else; treat any bet into you as a big bet; treat any raise as the nuts. At that point the flop plays itself, which is one reason the preflop charts keep these pots rare.
Lessons from this part
You called preflop and the flop is down: from the big blind, in position, and in the 3-bet pots where the stacks are already half in.
Flop · facing a c-bet
You defended the big blind against a Cutoff or Button open — one of the charts in Part IV. The flop came, you checked, he bet. Out of position, no initiative, and a decision that comes up more often than any other postflop spot in 6-max.
The most common leak at NL25 is folding here too much. Most players fold to a c-bet well over half the time, whatever its size. Against a third-pot bet you need about 20% equity to call. A pair of fours has that. So does a gutshot. The player who folds those is paying the raiser to bet, every hand, forever.
Five rules for defending
1 · The price decides most of it
A small bet (25–33%) needs about 20% equity to call. A big bet (66–75%) needs about 30%. That gap is the difference between "any pair or any draw" and "a real hand". Read the bet size before you read your cards.
2 · His board or yours?
Same question as when you are the bettor, reversed. On a dry high board he bets nearly everything, so his bet means little — call wide, raise only with two pair or better. On a low connected board he bets only his strong hands and good draws — but you hold the straights and sets, so raise more and call less.
3 · Raise with two kinds of hands
Two pair or better, and the draws that win two ways — a pair plus a draw, a flush draw plus a straight draw, an open-ender on your board. Raise to 3× a small bet, 2.5× a big one. Nothing in between: a bare gutshot, a bare middle pair, calls or folds.
4 · Never call the flop without a plan for the turn
Out of position you cannot take a free card. If your call only makes sense when he checks the turn, it does not make sense. Every call below comes with an implicit plan: call once, and fold to a turn barrel unless something improves.
5 · The flop is where they bluff. The turn is where they don't.
The flop c-bet is the most-bluffed bet in the NL25 pool. The turn barrel is the least. Defend the flop by the rules here, then treat a second big bet as the value it almost always is.
Board by board
Same six boards as the aggressor part, again three flops each with the highlighted one carrying the lists. Each has two blocks — against a small bet and against a big one — and each block sorts your whole range into raise, call and fold. The percentage line above each board is computed from the ranges in this book: the share of the hands you defended preflop that continue against each size.
Against a small bet the numbers sit near 75% on most boards, which is the theoretical minimum defence. Against a big bet they sit near 30%, well under the theoretical 57%. That gap is deliberate: the pool bets big with hands, not with air. Against a known aggressive player, add bottom pair and the gutshots back into the calls.
Adjustments
Against an early-position opener
His range is stronger and he bets it less often, so his bet means more. Drop the weak pairs and the ace-highs from the small-bet calls, and drop middle pair from the big-bet calls. Everything else holds.
Against a station
He does not fold, so the raises that were half bluff — open-enders, bare flush draws — become calls. The value raises get bigger: 4× his bet instead of 3×. He will pay it.
Against a player who c-bets every flop
The lists above already assume he bets too much. If you have seen him fire at five flops in a row, add the ace-highs to the big-bet calls and raise your top pairs on his board — he is betting a range that cannot stand a raise.
Facing a c-bet in position
You called a Cutoff or Hijack open on the Button, or a small-blind open from the big blind. He bets from out of position and you act last. Everything above still applies — the same six boards, the same raise / call / fold logic — with one shift running through all of it: position makes calling cheaper, so you call more and raise less.
Why. Out of position, calling a draw commits you to guessing on the turn; raising takes the guess away. In position the call is the plan: if he checks the turn you see a free card or take the pot with a bet, and if he bets you still have a price. That one fact moves a handful of hands from raise to call, and a few from fold to call.
What changes, and nothing else does:
| Board | Vs | Hand | Out of position | In position |
|---|
The float
The one in-position play that has no out-of-position twin. Call a small c-bet with two overcards or an ace-high, planning to bet when he checks the turn. It works because an out-of-position c-bettor who checks the turn has usually given up — and because you would have folded those hands out of position. Don't float with nothing: the hands that float are the ones that can also just make top pair.
Big blind vs a small-blind open
Same lists, wider. His opening range is the widest you face and his c-bet is the least believable, so if anything, call the small bets even more freely, and raise your top pairs for value against his small ones.
On the numbers you will see inside: against a small bet you continue with nearly everything — often 90–100%. That is not looseness. The range that calls an open in position is pairs, suited broadways and suited connectors, and on most flops all of it has a pair, a draw or two overcards. A strong range facing a small bet folds almost nothing; that is what makes small c-bets into a strong range a mistake.
Facing a c-bet three-way
The Cutoff opened, the Button called, and you overcalled in the big blind with the BB vs open + caller chart. You check, the opener bets, and the Button calls. You close the action — and everything you know about defending against a c-bet heads-up is now wrong, for one reason: he bet into two players, and one of them called. Nobody does that with nothing at NL25.
Why the heads-up lists fail here. The heads-up small-bet rule — any pair, any draw, any ace — works because a lone c-bettor bets almost his whole range, so your bottom pair beats his bluffs and your ace-high has showdown value. Into two players he bets top pair or better (that is the multiway c-bet list, and the pool plays it by instinct), and the caller in between has a pair or a draw. There are no bluffs to beat, so the hands that only beat bluffs fold. The size of his bet matters less than usual: a small bet and a call is still two players with something.
Two pair or better raises. Top pair and the real draws call. Everything else folds.
That is the whole spot. A raise into two players says two pair or better, so the overpair and the pair-plus-draw hands call instead — they keep both players in with worse. The draws call at either price because the pot is bigger when they arrive and two players can pay them: a flush draw, the nut flush draw and an open-ender. A gutshot, two overcards and ace-high fold; they needed a fold or a free card and get neither. Second pair and bottom pair fold: they are bluff-catchers, and nobody is bluffing.
Top pair calls once, then reassesses
Against a bet and a call, top pair is a good hand that is often not the best one. Call the flop, and on the turn treat a second bet from the opener the way you treat any second barrel: the turn rules apply, and a weak kicker gives up sooner.
What changes from the heads-up big-blind lists, and nothing else does:
| Board | Vs | Hand | Heads-up | Three-way |
|---|
The multiway c-bettor bets a size up, so "small" here is 40–50% and "big" is 66–75%. The lists barely differ between the two: three-way, the bet and the call are the information, not the size. Monotone is the exception — a big bet there says flush.
If the Button folds
Same lists. The opener still bet into two players, so his range is the same tight one; you just have one fewer player to beat. The one hand that improves is top pair, which can now call a second barrel more freely.
The same spot from the Button, with the big blind still behind you
You flatted a Cutoff open on the Button with the IP vs wide opener chart and the big blind came along — which he does often, because his overcall chart is wide at that price. He checks, the Cutoff bets, and you act with the big blind still to speak. This is the more common of the two three-way spots, and it is the one the in-position lists above quietly assume never happens.
Same lists, one thing position cannot fix
Against a small bet, nothing changes: two pair or better raises, top pair and the draws call, the rest folds. Against a big bet you are calling without closing the action — the big blind can still raise, and if he calls you face two players on the turn. So a big bet also folds top pair and the bare draws (flush draw, open-ender). What still calls a big bet: an overpair, the nut flush draw, and a pair plus a draw.
What changes from the big-blind three-way lists, and nothing else does:
| Board | Vs | Hand | Closing the action | Player behind |
|---|
Lessons from this part
Flop · 3-bet pots
Somebody 3-bet, somebody called, and the pot is already sixteen to twenty big blinds with ninety behind. One number changes everything about how the flop plays.
Stack-to-pot ratio in a 3-bet pot
4 to 5
In a single-raised pot it is 15 to 20. Here a flop bet and a turn bet leave less than half a pot behind, so the river is an automatic shove — whatever you bet the flop with, you are deciding now whether you want to play for everything.
IP 3-bet to 7.5bb, called: pot 16.5, 92.5 behind, SPR 5.6 · BB 3-bet to 10bb, called: pot 20.5, 90 behind, SPR 4.4
1 · Decide on the flop
At SPR 4 there is no "bet the flop and see". Two bets of two-thirds pot leave about 45bb behind a 110bb pot; the river is a shove whoever makes it. So sort your hand on the flop into three piles: stacking off, one bet then done, and checking. Everything below is that sort.
2 · High boards belong to the 3-bettor, low boards to the caller
A 3-betting range is big pairs and big aces; a 3-bet-calling range is pairs, suited broadways and suited connectors. Ace-high flops hit the first. Low connected flops turn the second into sets and straights. The middle is close to even. That one line decides who bets and who calls on almost every 3-bet-pot flop.
3 · The stack-off list
Hands that get all-in on the flop or turn at SPR 4, against an unknown: sets, two pair, straights, overpairs, top pair top kicker on an ace-high board, and any draw with fifteen outs. Hands that do not, however good they look: top pair with a weak kicker, second pair, an overpair on a board with a straight already possible, and any bare eight-out draw. The pool's 3-bet ranges are strong enough that "top pair" alone is not a stack-off hand.
As the 3-bettor
You 3-bet on the Button, the Cutoff called and checked to you. Three boards, one decision each: bet or check.
Out of position as the 3-bettor — you 3-bet from the blinds and the Button called — the same lists hold with two changes. On the middling and low boards, check-call your overpairs instead of betting them: betting into position at SPR 4 with a hand that cannot stand a raise builds a pot you do not control. And the thin bluffs that bet in position after his check — a gutshot, two overcards on the middling board — check-fold, because out of position you bet before you know anything. On the ace-high board, bet everything small exactly as above. The hands that checked in position split the way every out-of-position check does: the pairs and the flush draw check-call one bet, the rest check-fold.
As the caller
You opened the Button, the big blind 3-bet, you called. He bets the flop. You have position and a range full of pairs and suited hands; he has the big cards and the initiative.
If you called a 3-bet out of position — you opened the Cutoff, the Button 3-bet — tighten every call by one notch: middle pair and the bare draws fold to a small bet (the nut flush draw, nine outs and the best overcard, still calls), and only the stack-off hands continue against a big one. You cannot see a free turn card, so a hand that was "call once and see" becomes a fold.
Lessons from this part
The flop sorts your hand. The turn is where the money goes in. The river is where you decide whether to pay. Principles, not lists — by the turn there are too many boards for lists, and a few questions do the work.
Turn · as the bettor
You bet the flop and got called. The turn card comes. One question decides most of what follows.
1 · Whose card is it?
The same question as the flop, asked again. An overcard to a middling board — a King on 9-7-4 — is yours: your range is full of Kings and his is not. A card that connects the board — an 8 on 9-7-4 — is his: his range is full of connectors and yours is not. A brick changes nothing, and the flop's answer stands. Barrel when the card is yours. Slow down when it is his.
2 · Turn bets are value or semi-bluffs, and they are bigger
By the turn his range has called once, so it is stronger, and the pot is bigger. Two things follow. First, the size: 66–75% is the default, up from the flop, because a turn bet is polarised — you have it or you are drawing to it. Second, what bets: value (top pair with a good kicker on a dry board, two pair or better on a wet one) and semi-bluffs (eight outs or more). Pure bluffs on the turn do not work at NL25. The pool calls the flop light and the turn honest, so a second barrel with nothing is paying for a fold that is not coming.
3 · A scare card is only scary if it is his
An ace on K-9-4 after you raised preflop is yours: bet it with the hands that were betting for value, and with the hands that just made a pair of aces. A third flush card when you do not hold the flush is his, whatever you have: check, and let him tell you. A card that pairs the board is usually nobody's — it changes nothing, and the flop's answer stands.
4 · With a medium hand, check the turn to get to the river
Top pair with a weak kicker, second pair with a good kicker: hands that are ahead of his bluffs and behind his value. Betting the turn folds the first and gets called by the second. Check instead, in position or out, and one of two good things happens: a cheap showdown, or a river where he has shown weakness and you can bet for value. This is "pot control".
Three normal bets in a single-raised pot
a third of your stack
Pot 5.5bb, 97.5 behind. Bet two-thirds on the flop, turn and river and get called each time: 69bb in the pot, 66bb still behind. Stacks do not go in by betting. They go in when somebody raises. So build the pot with one pair as far as the bets take it and no further — and when you hold the nuts, get a raise in on the flop or the turn, or the stacks will still be there at showdown.
In a 3-bet pot the same three bets are 100% of the stack, which is why Part VIII says decide on the flop.
Turn · as the caller
You called the flop. He bets again. The pool is not bluffing here, and your defence changes shape to match.
1 · Fold more than you did on the flop
The minimum-defence arithmetic that made you call the flop with any pair assumes he bluffs at the right frequency. On the turn at NL25 he does not, so the arithmetic does not apply. Continue with top pair, good kicker or better; with two pair or better against a big bet on a wet board; and with draws of eight outs or more when the price is there. Second pair, weak top pair against a big bet, and gutshots fold. That is the whole list.
2 · If the turn made your hand, raise
Your draw came in, or you turned two pair. Raise, and raise now. Slow-playing against a player who has just bet twice gives up the one street where he is certain to put money in, and the river card can kill your action. At NL25 they pay a turn raise with one pair often enough that it is never wrong.
3 · If he checks the turn, he has usually given up
A player who bet the flop and checks the turn is telling you something. In position, bet: the float from Part VIII completes here, and your medium hands become value bets against a range that just admitted it missed. Out of position, lead the river with anything you would have called with — he will not bet it for you.
4 · A raise on the turn means stacks
Because of the geometry above: a turn raise is the moment the stacks become reachable. Which means a turn raise from a passive player is two pair or better, nearly always. Against it, fold one pair. Every time. The exception is the aggressive regular who raises turns as a line — and you will know him by the time it matters.
River
No more cards. Every bet on the river is one of two things, and if you cannot say which, you should not be betting.
1 · The two questions
Would a worse hand call? Then bet for value. Would a better hand fold? Then bet as a bluff. If the answer to both is no — a worse hand won't call and a better hand won't fold — check. That is most rivers with one pair, and there is no shame in it.
2 · Value: bet thinner than feels comfortable
The pool calls river bets with any pair. So top pair, good kicker is a river value bet against a caller, and two pair is a big one. Size 50–75%: enough to matter, small enough that a pair still calls. Overbet only with the nuts against someone who has shown he calls anything.
3 · Bluff: only when the story holds and he can fold
Two conditions, both required. The story: you have bet the hand as if you had it, and the river card does not contradict you. The opponent: someone who folds. A station does not fold the river, and a river bluff into one is the most expensive mistake in this book. When both conditions hold, bluff big — 75% or more — because a small bluff gets called by the pairs you are trying to fold. When the flop bet was your last credible bet, give up and check.
4 · Bluff-catching: does he bluff here?
Facing a river bet, the price is not the question; his range is. The pool under-bluffs the river badly. So: call small bets with top pair or better, because small river bets are often thin value from hands you beat. Fold one pair to a big river bet from a passive player without a read, whatever the price says. And a river check-raise from anyone at NL25 is the nuts — fold everything but the near-nuts.
5 · The missed draw
You bet the flop and turn with a draw and it missed. Bluffing the river is right only if rule 3 holds — the story and the opponent. Against a caller, check and lose the minimum. You called with a draw and it missed: fold, and do not turn it into a bluff-raise. That play needs a fold from a player who just bet three streets, and at NL25 he has it.
What the pool does on the turn and river, in one line: calls the flop light, barrels the turn with value, calls the river with any pair, and never bluffs it. Every rule in this part is that sentence turned around: fold more to their turn bets, value-bet thinner on their rivers, and bluff almost never.
Lessons from this part
Charging draws, stack-to-pot ratio, and the tables worth knowing by heart. These apply on the turn and river as much as the flop.
Any street · Rule 2
This one costs real money, and it's easy to get wrong because a raise feels bigger than it is.
Why 2× isn't enough: they already have their bet in the pot. If they bet $15 and you raise to $30, you are only asking them for $15 more — while the pot has grown a lot. That's a cheap call.
Pot is $20, they bet $15, you raise. Here's the equity they need to call:
A flush draw has 19.6% with one card to come
Raise to 2× their bet ($30) and they need 18.8% — they have more than that, so calling makes them money. Raise to 3× ($45) and they need 27.3%. Now every call loses.
On the flop they have 35% with two cards — but they only get both cards if you let them. Raise the flop, bet the turn, and they are paying the one-card price twice. The 3× rule holds on either street as long as you keep betting.
If you want the formula:
Any street · Rule 3
SPR is just how many pots you have left behind you.
A small SPR is great news for your good hands — you get all-in without effort. It is bad news for your bluffs, because every bet is a huge slice of your stack on a hand you're about to fold anyway.
| SPR | Good hands | Bluffs |
|---|---|---|
| under 2 | Just get it in | Size down or check |
| 2–4 | Bet, bet, evaluate | Normal sizing is fine |
| over 4 | Build over three streets — but stacks need a raise (Part IX) | Room to apply pressure |
Worked example
You squeezed preflop against shorter stacks and got one caller. Pot 28bb with 50bb behind → SPR 1.8. A half-pot bet of 14bb holding no pair is 28% of the entire stack on a hand that folds to any call. A 30% bet of 8bb does the same job for 17%.
Lookup
When you bluff — how often must it work?
And the mirror of it: the share of hands they have to keep in order to stop your bluff being automatic. That second number is called MDF, minimum defence frequency, and it's just 100% minus the first.
| You bet | Must work | They must defend |
|---|---|---|
| 10% pot | 9% | 91% |
| 25% pot | 20% | 80% |
| 33% pot | 25% | 75% |
| 50% pot | 33% | 67% |
| 67% pot | 40% | 60% |
| 75% pot | 43% | 57% |
| full pot | 50% | 50% |
| 133% pot | 57% | 43% |
| 150% pot | 60% | 40% |
| 200% pot | 67% | 33% |
| 300% pot | 75% | 25% |
must work = bet ÷ (bet + pot) · MDF = 100% − that
Why small bets are so strong. Bet 25% and they have to continue with 80% of their range to stop you printing. That is genuinely hard, especially out of position — almost nobody defends that wide. It's the same reason this book keeps pushing you toward 25–33% on dry boards: it's not just cheap, it's the size they're least equipped to answer.
Two honest caveats. MDF assumes they bluff at the correct frequency. Most NL25 players under-bluff badly, so defending to MDF against a passive player just donates — fold more than the table says against anyone who doesn't bluff. And MDF is a river concept: on the flop and turn your equity and your draws matter more than the frequency. Use it as a sanity check, not a rule.
The flipside they don't use. The correct counter to a small bet is to raise it often, because a 25% bet risks little and folds a lot. Very few players at this level do. That's a leak on their side you can exploit — and one to watch for if you ever meet someone who does.
When they bet — what do you need to call?
| They bet | You need | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 1/3 pot | 20% | 1 in 5 |
| 1/2 pot | 25% | 1 in 4 |
| 3/4 pot | 30% | 3 in 10 |
| full pot | 33% | 1 in 3 |
How often does your draw get there?
| Draw | One card | Two cards |
|---|---|---|
| Gutshot (4 outs) | 9% | 17% |
| Two overcards (6) | 13% | 24% |
| Open-ended (8) | 17% | 32% |
| Flush draw (9) | 20% | 35% |
| Flush + straight draw (15) | 33% | 54% |
Shortcut: outs × 2 for one card to come, outs × 4 for two. The ×4 version overshoots above about 10 outs.
↑ back to indexEverything above, compressed to what you can carry to the table. One line each; the link goes to the reasoning.
Preflop
The flop, as the bettor
Iso pots & multiway
The flop, as the caller
3-bet pots
Turn & river
Any street
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