What separates a low-stakes grinder from a high-stakes crusher? Today, we're going to find out. I'm going to take three poker pros—one who plays low stakes, one who plays mid-stakes, and one who plays nosebleed high stakes—and have them play the exact same four hands to get a peek inside their heads and see just how differently they think about poker. First, let's meet the players.
Introducing our participants:
Brantzen
"My name is Brantzen, and I'm based out of the California LA area. I play the $5/$10 at the Gardens, which has an $800 cap, so it plays more like a $5/$5 than a $10/$10 right now. I'm going the content creator route, so I'd like that avenue to build. Yeah, a lot of times I've relied a lot on poker. You have the best shorts, man; they're so clean and well-executed. I can tell you put a ton of time into them. I enjoy just being creative and different. I love poker, and it's fun to have fun, especially in a short format of 60 seconds. I'm not going to go into crazy hand analysis, so let's just have fun with it."
Tommy
"I'm Tommy, and I'm from Hong Kong. I've played full-time poker in my car for a year, $5/$10 in US dollars, or exactly $6/$12. I heard that you were going to be coming to America, traveling to different poker cities across the country, and making a vlog on the Hungry Horse channel—is this true? Yeah, that's true. I'm going to travel to the US and explore different casinos there with Hungry Horse."
Gethen
"Hi guys, my name is Gethen, and I am the co-owner of Hungry Horse Poker. I have played as big as $400/$800, $1,600 in my life."
First Hand
For this experiment, I'm going to walk them through pre-flop, so they all get to the flop in the exact same way. Then, they will talk us through their thought process post-flop for each street. They will have a one-minute shot clock to make their final decision for each hand. I have built out contingencies for every scenario that is likely to occur. For example, if the hero bets less than $500 on the flop, the villain will check-raise 3.3x, or if the hero bets greater than $500 on the flop, the villain will check-call.
Alright, let's jump in. We are playing $20/$40, and we are 11,000 effective with the villain, who is going to be in the cut-off. The villain opens to $120; this is a recreational player, and we three-bet on the button to isolate and get the pot heads-up against the rec with King-Queen of Spades. He is going to call. Now, the flop comes Queen-Jack-10 with a couple of Hearts.
Our opponent checks it over to us, and this is the first decision point. So, 1 minute—Ready, set, go!
Brantzen
Yeah, so my first instinct on three-bet pots is that a lot of times post-flop, I'm going smaller sizings. Normally, I'm playing less big blinds effective, so I'm much shallower than this. However, I will take a larger sizing if it's going to be a more connected board. I'm going to take smaller sizings on dryer boards. Here, it's a pretty heavily connected board, and if I'm betting here, I'm going to be betting a little bit bigger. I'm not going to be going like a quarter pot or a third pot or something like that. I'm going to go a little bit bigger—honestly, probably going like 50 to 60% pot. So, I'd go maybe $450. Here, with top pair and an open-ended straight draw, in position, I think I'm going to go a little bit more than half pot. Okay, so $450—Final Answer.
Brantzen bets $450. Opponent check-raises to $1,500.
Ready, set, go! I already don't love it. I don't think I'm going to be folding here. I think I'm going to be re-raising here. I'm not going to be putting in the three-bet; I'm just going to call and see the turn, hopefully improve. But I'm already starting to feel a little uncomfortable here, so I'll call. Yeah, call.
Turn ($3,860, effective stack $9,100):
The opponent checks.
My first instinct is to check back and see the river. I don't think he has a flush here; however, he could be trying to pot control with a number of two-pair hands—say he had Queen-Jack, 10-Jack, or something like that. Mostly, I'm looking to check back here and see the river. I'm looking to pot control at this point, even on the river, and I'm not going to be looking to go for a ton of value here. So, I'm going to check back.
River ($3,860):
The opponent checks again.
Again, my first instinct is to probably check back here. Even sitting here with top pair and the villain showing some weakness, I think they can still have some strong hands and be scared of the flush or straights. I'm just trying to think of what I'm going to get value from. They check-raised us on the flop with King-Jack or King-10, but I think it's pretty thin. I don't know how much I'm really going to get called by that many weaker hands. So, I'm just going to check back.
Tommy
Yeah, the villain is a fish, and with three-betting him pre-flop, and then the flop comes Queen-Jack-10, and the flop is pretty good for us. For this flop, I want to see my entire range here as we are very deep, but it's a three-bet pot, so the SPR is low. This move is to make the fish raise his set or even some slow-played Ace-King there. Yeah, so I'd like to keep his weak range here and then make him raise his strong range here.
Tommy bets $300. Opponent check-raises to $1,000.
So, what's his range here? He can have a straight, Ace-King that he called us pre-flop, and then he can have sets—pair Queen-10, Jack-10, 10-Jacks, or even Queens. He can also have Nine-A suited, so he can have the straights and he can have the sets. I can't really think of his bluff here because, as a fish, their check-raise is very under-bluffed. We still have a straight draw, yeah. So, the turn may come Nine or an Ace, and I can re-evaluate by his action. So, I would like to continue here; I would like to call.
Turn ($2,860):
The opponent checks.
Okay, okay—feeling checks the turn, so I assume that he got no flush here. He will continue betting the turn with his Ace-King of Hearts, 98 of Hearts, so his range right now is straight, Ace-King, and those two pairs and sets here. I can check to realize the river or I can bluff with my hands representing the flush. On this hand, because feeling is so tight right now, based on his action on the turn, so I would like to bet here and set up a large bet on the river. I've got 9.6k behind; I would bet like 2,000 here, and the pot will be 6.8k.
Tommy bets $2,000. His opponent calls.
River ($6,860, effective stack $7,600):
The opponent checks.
I'm a bit regretful now on my sizing on the turn; I should have bet half pot—yeah, like $1,500 on the turn—and set up an even bigger size on the river. $1,500 on the turn, that the pot will be $5,800, and we've got like $8,000 left. Yeah, so for now, if I had bet $2,000 on the turn, I am still shoving because I don't think his straight or sets are going to call. But small on the turn, like half pot, is a better play.
Tommy moves all-in. Opponent folds.
Gethen
Alright, well, this is actually quite a tricky flop texture. I think people don't necessarily always fast-play two pair when Ace-King is obviously there. I would say King-Queen is probably a two-street hand. I think probably targeting pair plus draw—obviously some flush draws, maybe hands like Ace-Jack, 10-9, stuff like that. Given that most of the range I'm going to be targeting is going to be more inelastic on the flop and turn and maybe quite price-sensitive on the river, my immediate instinct here would be to pick a flop and turn value size rather than, like, say, flop and river. I think really the question is what size gets them to raise with straights and sets. The pot is $860; maybe $350-$400 is going to be my default bet size unless this player is particularly sticky. I'm going to go $350 on this flop.
Gethen bets $350. Opponent check-raises to $1,150.
I think check-raises on straightening boards where Ace-King is there are definitely going to be under-bluffed. I think this is a texture where they find all of the good hands to raise, and maybe the bluffs are less obvious. I think a lot of the bluffs are going to be hands that they feel pretty comfortable calling, like Ace-X of Hearts, and maybe hands like 10-Nine. I think with our equity and this deep, potentially with some bluffing equity and opportunities on future streets, I'm pretty uncomfortable three-betting this hand because I'm really just representing Ace-King. And again, getting fish to fold hands like King-9 is not my favorite. So, I think I'm going to want more information.
I think I'm going to proceed with a call, recognizing that I'm probably just going to fold on blanks if I face a barrel. I think I'm going to have pretty good bluffing opportunities on certain runouts. I think with this hand at this depth, I'm comfortable just calling and evaluating the turn, planning to bluff versus some checks and on some certain runouts.
Turn ($3,160, effective stack $9,450):
The opponent checks.
Okay, range probably going to be straights, sets, maybe occasional two pairs. Since I did pick $350 on the flop, I don't think there's going to be a ton of flushes. I think aggressive players who do check-raise flush drawers on this flop this deep are going to continue with a bet again on the turn. So, I'm expecting their range to be a lot of two pairs, sets, and straights. I'm going to think about turning this hand into a bluff. This deep, I think if I was shallow, I'd probably just try and realize my equity with my open-ended straight draw and probably check back.
But I think at this depth, I'm pretty interested in turning this hand into a bluff because I don't think I have really any showdown value. So, I'm trying to think about sculpting the SPR. The nice thing about being this deep in this bigger game is I probably don't need a giant river SPR. I think something around pot on the river, maybe even slightly less, given the dollar figure I'm thinking. I'm probably going around $2,500 on this turn with the intention of bluffing everything but a non-pairing river. I think I'm going about $2,600.
The opponent calls.
River ($8,360, effective stack $6,850):
The opponent checks.
What is their range? Well, I don't think many of the straights and sets and two pairs are folding on the turn. My intention was to get them to the river with that range. I've set up an SPR that I would be uncomfortable with in a smaller game. I think in a bigger game, dollars just speak more than big blinds. Don't really think I have any showdown value. I had a plan on the turn; happily, this river isn't really changing anything. I think again I would just test my working since I've got extra time. I'm very confident that my plan was to shove. I think I've managed the SPR okay; maybe I'd like a little bit more back.
Perhaps I've got a little bit greedy with the "get them to call twice and fold in the biggest pot," but I think the dollar amount here is enough. I think particularly on a board that Ace-King is so obviously there, don't really see any other viable options. I don't think a small bet achieves anything; don't think checking back. I think I'm just putting the money in and hoping that I can get a tank fold.
Geten moves all-in. Opponent folds.
Second Hand
Alright, next hand here playing $20/$40 once again. We are 6,000 effective this time. We're going to open on the button to $120 with . A fish in the small blind is going to call, and a nitty pro, kind of a tight player who's definitely more on the conservative side, is going to come along in the big blind as well. So, three ways to a flop—Ace-Queen-Nine. It checks over to us on the flop; we've got top pair.
Brantzen
Here, having top pair for me on three-way hands or more, if there's multi-way, I typically play pretty face-up. I don't do a lot of airball bluffing with top pair. I don't love my kicker here with an 8, but I think I can still bet. I'm probably not going to go too big in a multi-way pot—might go like $120-$150 here. I'll go with $150 here.
Brantzen bets $150. The small blind folds, the big blind calls.
Turn ($660):
The opponent checks.
So, after I make the bet on the flop and then get called, I think the villain could have a number of draws here and Ace themselves, depending on how aggressive they are too with the number of their Aces. If they're someone who three-bets all the time with Ace-Jack, Ace-Queen, 55—a lot of times that they don't even do that here in at $20/$40—they should be. So, our Ace is decent here. I think I'm going to check back though, still bluff-catch if they decide to lead a lot of rivers. It depends on the river.
River ($660):
The opponent checks.
I mean, the only thing I'm really going to be getting value from is probably some Queen-X hands, and only if I go super small. To be honest, I really don't mind a check back here just because I don't think I'm going to be getting called by much worse. A worse Ace is possible, like A-5, A-6, A-7, something like that, A-4. I'm probably just going to check here or bet super small, but I'll probably just check.
Tommy
So, I think for the small blind and big blind, their range is like connectors or Broadway offsuit, pocket pairs, and that's a range I don't think my hand has three-street value. I would check this flop because my kicker is not that good. I could also bet to charge the flush draw, but I'm fine with checking here because sometimes the fish on the small blind or the trying rack on the big blind can have flat some Ace-Jack, Ace-10. Yeah, so I want to see their action on the turn before I do my betting. We are going to check.
Turn ($360):
The small blind checks. The big blind bets $250.
For the small blind, I don't think they're interested in the pot because they check, so they don't have something like Ace or strong combo draws. For the big blind, he bets like two-thirds pot—it's a big bet. As we checked the flop, we gave them rope. He could be betting with some combo draw like Jack-10, should it be Jack-10 of diamonds and Jack-10 of hearts, 54 of diamonds, five-four of hearts—those hands. So, since I've checked the flop, I would like to call, and if value the river. So, we call; the small blind folds.
Tommy calls. The small blind folds.
River ($860):
The opponent checks.
I like to feel about targeting his King-10 combo draw on the turn—that his a King on the river—and some Ace, yeah, and some top pair. Betting large here doesn't achieve that, so I would like to bet like $250 to $300.
The opponent calls.
Gethen
Well, my default on these high boards is going to be quite a lot of like big bets or check. I don't think our hand really falls into that. I think this is a board where, with the flush draw and the Queen and the Nine, there's just like quite a lot of middle pair, bottom pair, drawers that I can target with a smaller size. I might deviate away from my big bet-check strategy here, particularly with a fish in the small blind who's probably going to be pretty sticky, and I suspect that the big blind's going to play pretty straightforward. I'm pretty tempted to just pick a small size here. I think what's the part—like $360 might have gone even slightly bigger pre. I think I'm probably looking at like $125 to $150, just targeting like weaker Aces, some flush draws, some gut shots, some straight draws, Queen-X.
Small blind folds, big blind calls.
Turn ($610):
The opponent checks.
The pot is around $600. I think they probably have pretty much all the weaker Aces, a ton of draws, a ton of pair plus drawers. The question is what do I want to target? Well, those drawers feel very inelastic. I think if they do have a hand like Queen-X with a flush draw or Ax of diamonds, I'm probably going to target that with a pretty big size. It feels thin; I may barely cut myself occasionally. What's the biggest size that they call with draws here? I was trying to make Queen-X; I'd probably be in about the 2x pot. I think I can probably bet $1,200 here with the intention of checking back a lot of draw-completing rivers.
Geten bets $1,200. Villain calls.
River ($3,010):
The opponent checks.
Alright, range is a bunch of Aces that I chop with. I think maybe one or two, maybe Ace-10 off that I lose to, maybe a couple of straights with hands like Jack-10. I think trying to raise or three-bet occasionally with that lot of one pair, King-X, which a flush draw, Qx, 9x, draws with a pair—pots like 3-ish thousand. What happens if I bet really small? Doesn't sound like the player I'm inducing against can I be aided that fold and chops? That feels pretty interesting to me. I think if they tank hold the turn, I think they have more A-S-X than I'd be more incentivized to bluff the river to fold out chops. If they quickly called the turn, I'm leaning towards probably checking back. Pretty interesting to bet like $300 or $400; think against a fish I would do that against the tri, I'm probably just checking back.
Third Hand
Alright, alright, next hand here playing $20/$40 once again. We've got Jack-Jack in the cut-off. We open to $120. The villain in this hand is going to be an aggressive recreational player in the small blind. He three-bets to $500. Just a couple of notes on this player: he is a thinking player, he is capable, he is not a pro, but he is quite aggressive, especially if you give him rope. He will put in a lot of money as a bluff and for value. One other note on this player is he is just kind of playing the seven-deuce game, even though the table is not playing the seven-deuce game. He loves to bluff with seven-deuce, have seen him just three-bet with seven-deuce off quite a bit, just because he thinks it's funny to show the bluff. So, he can have some seven-deuce when he three-bets.
We are going to call here with pocket Jacks, going to a flop, which is 10-9-3.
Now the aggressive villain bets $375.
Brantzen
After the small blind bets, I think either calling or raising are things that I'm both thinking about. Clearly, we're not folding against somebody who is going to be blasting, somebody who could be having seven-deuce and bluffing quite a bit. I'm just going to call here.
Turn ($1,790):
The opponent checks.
It's tough when we're so deep like this. If we bet and get raised, and then face a barrel on the river, doesn't feel great. I am between things; I'm going to go for a bet. I'm going to bet about half pot; I'm going to bet, uh, $900.
The opponent folds.
Tommy
So, it's his range now—he got overpairs, of course, and he can also have tens and nines, sets, and also he can have two overcards. For the size, it's one-third—it doesn't really represent anything; it can be a made hand; it can be a bluff. For our hand, I think raising does it no good, so I will be calling.
Turn ($1,790):
The opponent checks.
Mhm, we have the best 10 here most of the time, but also, uh, a good player would have checked their overpairs here on the turn. The eight completes a lot of straights for us, but we got Jacks; we have the best blockers here. I can check, and I can bet here. I don't really think I need to bluff with my hand here, but I want to deny some high card equity here, so I would bet like half pot—yeah, $900.
The opponent folds.
Gethen
I think his range is probably pretty wide if you're going to include 16 combos of seven-deuce. I have a good knowledge of poker when there aren't weird side games that maybe he's playing or that the table is playing.
Like my thought process is well-drilled when I have a really good sense of like, "Hey, a fish plays like this; an aggressive fish plays like this." I think in this spot here, if he does have a bunch of hands like seven-deuce, raising doesn't make a lot of sense because I kind of want to let him have some rope and blast off Jacks—is yeah, slightly vulnerable against some of his two overcard hands. But also, this depth feels a little bit ambitious to try and put all the money in against an aggressive player. I tend to just give them rope; I think honestly, I'd keep it pretty simple—just call, evaluate turn.
Turn ($1,790):
The opponent checks.
I think when fish check on the turn here, they just have a capped range. I don't think they protect checking ranges here. I think greed drives a lot of their decisions; aggressive players when they have big hands want to get paid. I think this check signals a lot of weakness against a weak range. I think we have the best hand almost always, and against aggressive players, I'm looking to give them opportunity to make mistakes. And I think the play that gets probably the biggest mistake is a size that looks weak, and I think that would be probably something around one-third pot, giving him an opportunity if he does have a hand like King-Queen or seven-deuce to potentially put in a big raise to try and blow us off with what's perceived to be a weak hand. I think something around $600—really just the red rag to a bull. At this depth here, my intention would be to bet call.
Opponent check-raises to $2,500.
Well, we've got our check-raise again. It's important to continually re-evaluate. We thought his range was weak when he checked the turn. I think that obviously turn check-raises from most recreational players are under-bluffed. I think here, just a lot of good hands would just keep betting themselves, and therefore, I am skeptical about this range being particularly strong. That kind of rules out bet-three-betting, just given one—I don't think I am actually ahead of his value range, and I think that just immediately lets him off the hook with a bluff. It's going to be a little bit stressful on a number of different rivers, but I think at this depth here, I have to trust my read. I have to call. The nice thing about being in position is I'm going to get additional information on the river—information equals edge. I think I'm just calling here, do my best to put him on a bunch of bluffs. I'm not going to get too specific because again, I don't know where he's pulling those from. I think I'm just calling and evaluating the river.
River ($6,790, effective stack $11,625):
The opponent bets $7,000.
Uh, well, this adds a fun little wrinkle. I would say I'm immediately into my bluff-catching checklist, which is what is their range? Well, we thought there was a number of bluffs—well, some of those bluffs have got there, but I think a lot of the value hands on the turn that we would have expected a check-raise from don't love this card. So, I think he's either got there on the river or was bluffing. The question is, is he over- or under-bluffing? That's really where the money is. If I can recognize as a spot that is over-bluffed, I have an easy call with any bluff-catcher. If I think he's under-bluffing, then obviously this is going to be an easy fold. I don't think raising is going to make a ton of sense with this amount of stack depth behind. I think we really have only two options in front of us. I think a lot of the time people do just keep battling with seven-high. I think this is someone who saw weakness on the turn and went for it. I think I am putting the money in here with the phrase "show me something good," and we call, and he shows a Ace Queen—huzzah!
He shows .
Hooray!
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Conclusions
- Brantzen, our low-stakes pro, played solid; he didn't really make any big blunders. He found a positive EV line in pretty much every hand, but he just maybe didn't always find the highest EV line.
- Tommy, our mid-stakes pro, found a couple of the more creative lines and found a higher EV line than Brantzen in a couple of hands, but didn't find the highest EV line in every hand.
- Gethen, our high-stakes pro, found pretty much the most creative, highest EV line in every single hand.
In the first hand, after calling the flop check-raise, Brantzen just kind of took his showdown value here on the turn and river and checked back. He did not find the creative line where we kind of turn this one into a bluff. Because really, once his flushing card comes in on the turn after the villain check-raises the flop and then checks the turn, we just don't really have much showdown value, even though we have top pair here. So, Brantzen just took his showdown value, checked back the turn, and checked back the river.
Whereas Tommy, on this turn, elected to start turning his hand into a bluff right away. He chose a relatively big size to get called by two pairs and sets. He left himself behind that big chunky overbet on the river and got the fold here from two pair gin.
Gethen played the same line as Tommy but chose a slightly bigger size on the flop, just realizing on this wet dynamic board that villains will fast-play even to a slightly bigger size. So, he went a little bit bigger on the flop; the villain check-raised a little bit bigger. Gethen called, and now here on the turn, when the villain checked, Gethen chose an even bigger size—$2,600 versus Tommy's $2,000. Just realizing that because the absolute dollar amount is so big, he didn't necessarily need to leave himself a big chunky overbet behind on the river, because $6,800 is a lot of dollars, and absolute dollar size starts to matter more than the relative size of the pot. So, on top of finding the bluff like Tommy did here, Gethen actually got more money in the pot before he made the villain fold.
In the second hand, Brantzen checked on the flop and then on the turn and river; he just checked back. He ended up chopping with Ace-5 of diamonds here, so he got in one street of value where he was ahead.
Tommy took a little bit of a different line; he actually elected to check back this flop here, he called on the turn, and then on the river, which was a King, Tommy correctly deduced that top pair is pretty much always going to be good here. The villain would just always come out and bet two pairs or a set or a straight on the river. So, Tommy actually went for thin value on the river, and although he ended up chopping the pot, Tommy a lot of the times would get two streets in this spot instead of one.
Finally, Gethen here also went for value on the flop, just like Brantzen, and he got called. And then on this turn, which brought in quite a lot of draws, Gethen deduced that his opponent is just going to have a lot of hands that are inelastic here—Ace-X of diamonds, Queen-X of Hearts, 9-X of Hearts, combo draw, etc.—just lots of hands here that his opponent is just not folding. So, Gethen went super thin on this turn and actually 2x potted this turn with top pair weak kicker, got called by worse, and then on the river, it went check-check, of course. He chopped with Ace 5 of diamonds as well here. Gethen found a bunch of extra EV in this hand that our low-stakes and mid-stakes pros did not.
In the third hand, both Brantzen and Tommy played the same way; they called the flop here, and then when it checked to them on the turn, both of them used a half-pot size, which is starting to be a pretty big size for the game—$900 here. And I had written in the contingencies here that if we bet greater than $800 on the turn, that villain will just fold; he won't start turning ridiculous hands into a bluff here because we don't give him rope.
They take a big size on the turn, whereas Gethen, our high-stakes pro, correctly deduced here on the turn that our opponent had a weak range after betting the flop small and then checking the turn. And if he bets small, he could either entice our aggressive rec opponent to float with overcards or even better, spaz and start turning some hands into bluffs. So, Gethen chose a very small size here—about one-third pot—on the turn to induce, and the villain ended up check-raising and then overbet bluffing on the river. Gethen snapped it off, and our opponent had Ace-Queen offsuit.