Thanks for joining me today part two of our series on pseudo connectors. Yesterday,
if you missed, it was a pseudo connector primer. Today we're gonna
be talking about some pseudo connector basics. Like I said yesterday, there'll be
some overlap. Hopefully you'll hear some new stuff as well. There's only so
many different directions and angles you can take on pseudo connectors without doing deep dives,
and I just can't really do deep dives here on the podcast. Very
difficult to do. Of course, we do deep dives over on the patren
should you like to check that out. It's Low Limit Cash Games dot Comlow
Limit Cashgames dot Com. We'll talk more about that at the end of the
pod. And shall we Let's jump into suit and connector basics today. So
I'm gonna have a few talking points today and we will try to work through
them efficiently and quickly. Some of the stuff we talked about yesterday, we'll
try to maybe talk about it differently today or expound on it today. We'll
see how it goes. Number One, when you're playing suited connectorditional awareness is
just key. Like positional awareness is key all the time, Like if you
don't understand the importance of position and poker. It's something I highly recommend that
you do some studying on so that you have a better understanding of it.
Understanding positional awareness at the table will greatly improve your bottom line to make you
a much better poker player. But this is never more important than it is
with pseudo connectors. So for the most part, you want to always be
playing suited connectors in later positions. Now, I know people say, well,
you need to have them in your raising range from no no in this
position or that position. Yep, maybe with some frequency. I guess it's
okay raise student connectors under the gun. But I'm going to tell you right
now, you try playing pseuded connectors under the gun and see how hard it
is to make them profitable. So there's this theory which I guess is maybe
more than the theory. I don't know, but there's this theory that you're
kind of looking to break even with pseudo connectors, and then what you gain
from them in terms of people paying you off when you have better hands because
they know you're capable or having hands light this actually makes your other hands more
profitable. I don't know if one hundred percent agree with that. Maybe at
some of the higher stakes against much better players, that may be true.
At lower stakes, I would say pseudo connectors absolutely profitable hands, but they
got to be played correctly, and position awareness is hugely key, like just
play them a ton right, a ton from the button, or even cut
off right later positions. It's important to have much as much information as possible
for you make your move. And so the thing about suit of connectors,
if you only win with them when you hit right, well you're just not
gonna hit every time. But if you can add some wins and when you
didn't hit, you're going to increase the profitability of playing them. And how
do you most easily add wins with p sudo connectors when you don't hit,
that's have position on your opponents, because then you have perfect information about what
their hand is, how strong it is, what they're doing, and so
you'll just pick up pots uncontested. Sometimes when you didn't flop anything, no
hand, no draw it of nothing, you just get to do a little
thing called bluffs. And I'm not a proponent of a ton of bluffing at
low stakes, certainly is the time and a place for it, and having
position is the place number two suit of connector basics today is you need to
have an understanding of pod odds. Be aware of the pod odds. Pseudo
connectors they have high implyed odds, but implytids don't matter. If you don't
have deep enough stacks, right, the cost you hey isn't justified by the
potential payout, then you just need to fold. Now. People ask me
all the time for rules, like what's the rule, what's the rule?
What's the rule? Like, there's the long standing rule about set mining being
ten to one. I don't necessarily agree with that. I think it needs
to be more than ten to one unless you are specifically in position so that
you can win with your pocket five sometimes without flopping a set. I guess
the same. You know, general concept applies to pseudo connectors, like if
you're in position, like if you're getting fifteen to one in odds, I
mean, I think that's fine. So what does that mean? Well,
that means if you're putting ten dollars in the poet, you need to have
one hundred and fifty dollars stacks, right. If you're putting twenty dollars in
the pot, then you need to have three hundred dollars stacks, so you
know, this is a good starting point, but out of position needs be
even deeper. You need to be getting twenty to one right, twenty to
one or something, because it's going to be so hard to win when you
do wind up stacking somebody. The more you stack them for compensates for all
those other times that you lose or break even or miss or even worse,
get reverse implied addit and they have a higher flush or something like that.
So you need to be deep. Stacks need to be deep. You don't
need to be in here, you know without proper implied odds and stack sizes
are a huge part of that. Number three on the list today is being
aware of player tendencies like I see people try to take this formulaic approach to
sudit connector. As a matter of fact, I had a discussion with the
guy he's probably been two weeks or three weeks ago now where he's talking about
he's always He's like, I always raised your three bet with a suite connector,
so I'm gonna play him. I'm always raising them or three betting them.
Well, I mean that's I mean that's okay, provided that every time
you raise your three bet you just coincidentally have a good opponent for that who
has who has you know raised you or you know who you're calling or whatever
those type situations. But I would say primarily with three bets, right,
if you're gonna be three betting, and this is just where it comes in
hugely opponent like, you need to know who your opponent is, right,
So Suda connector's fair way better against opponents who will pay you off when they
have pocket aces or top pair of top kicker, et cetera. When you
hit your hand, the best players in the game can make folds and get
away from hands like that. So if you're in there thinking you got imply
to odds against a pretty good player and so you don't need you know that
much implied odds stacks eye and stuff like that, I mean I would say
that you're wrong because they're going to get away a lot more. On the
other hand, if you understand who your opponent is, and he's this knit
who once he gets aces, he's probably just gonna stack off with them on
the flop or the turn or whatever. I mean, this is a great
opponent to get in there with the six five suited or whatever, absolutely amazing
opponents for that. That's just for playing the hands now, deciding whether the
three bat or not. Like if one of these knitty knitty players who you
know, they're just raising aces or kings and stuff like that, and you
pick up, you know, just the eight seven suited on the button and
you're thinking about three bet, I wouldn't three bat that player. I mean,
they're super strong, probably just gonna come over the top of you.
And there goes your implied odds. You have to fold or worse, you
decide to just call anyway, and now you don't have the implied odds and
you can never make it profitable no matter what. This puts you in a
weird spot. So just you know, know your player, know who the
players are that you're targeting and that you're planning on getting into the hand with,
and let that guide you as to how you act when you Pseuded connectors
as important for understanding player tendencies understanding board texture, right, so postflop you
really need to have some kind of decent understanding of board textures, especially how
it relates to pseudo connectors. So just remember when you're playing pseuded connectors.
You're in there trying to make some straight trying to make some flushes. You
want to flop a combo draw, maybe flop two pair. So always be
evaluating how well the board matches up with your objectives. Don't forget what your
objectives are, right. Don't pile money in the plot because you flop third
pair and you can't get away from it. I see people lose money with
pseudo connectors all the time because they flopped second pair or something. They have
no redraw, they flopped second pair with no flush draw, no straight draw,
not even a back door, and they're just in there stacking off because
they don't think their opponent can have much anything. Meanwhile, their opponent has
kings. You know, that's not why you're in there with the pseuded connectors.
You're in there to make big hands of big draws and get paid and
never lose sight of that. Get away from your hand when that doesn't at
align with what your goals are. Number five on the list today. Post
flop aggression. Don't be overly aggressive post flop if you miss. If you
got the betting lead pre flop, and you can continuation bet on favorable flops
for your range. That makes sense, right, pretty easy to do that,
as you would do with a wide variety of other hands as well.
So it's kind of like you know, range bets. Favorle is providing a
super multi way either like your head's up or what I call low states heads
up, which is you and two other players. You know you can if
you have eight seven suited, you can sure continuation bet on you know,
ace king five when you're the pre flop progressor and evaluate turns and rivers.
But you also can be aggressive when you barrel really strong turns and combo draws
as well. So this is another you know, way to be a really
aggressive post flop with pseud of connectors. This is kind of what they're built
for. It's dream spots, and it's better to let the hand go if
you just don't flop big hands or draws. You know, I'd say,
even if the board is unfavorable for your opponents, sometimes maybe just better let
it go. There's certainly times you can get in there and try to get
folds. I say, primarily heads up probably the way to do that,
but you know, post flop progression when it's warranted. But super passivity and
folding when it's not and you need to be able to distinguish between the two
or elseudo connectors is going to cost you a ton of money. Number six
is handreading, specifically trying to put your opponents on a range of hands that
will help you understand how to proceed. It's going to help you evaluate whether
your flush or straight is likely the best hand if you hit. I see
a lot of times people don't understand that their opponents just have a lot of
full houses, like a lot of full houses, and they're trying to hit
us straight, or they don't understand when their opponents have hands that could definitely
be nutted with straits, and you know, maybe it's going to be difficult
to hit the flush. And the times it comes into too few, I
would say more importantly trying to hit the straight when a lot of your routes
are dirty. Right hand reading understanding sports. There's a lot of understanding the
board as well, but for sure hand reading, like you need to be
able to understand what kind of range your opponent has. Like too many times
I see when people get over flushed in the hand because they were oblivious to
the fact that better flushes existed, and this comes from paying attention being able
to range opponents. Well, this is a skill that develops over time,
but there's certainly ways you can start getting better at it immediately, and that's
paying attention to action and bet sizing pre flop and on flops in across the
other streets where it matters, right, So being aggressive pre flop and postflop
on favorable boards will help you get better flush draws to fold for example.
This is one of time to talk about aggressive aggression, but you also need
to have some decent handreading skills and know when your beat or know when you're
drawing nearly dead, and knowing when it's just not a favorable time for you
to continue, because God, I see people losing with suit of conactors so
many times when they don't need to. Uh. We talked about suit of
connectors as a basic concept for balance, balancing and range. I don't want
to say a lot more about that. I think covered quite a bit yesterday
and we've talked about it some today. But you know, uh, you
don't want your range to be predictable to opponents, like you don't want to
start being perceived as the tight guy that just always has the nuts, like
they need to understand that you'll be in there with some other hands and balance.
Balancing your range with suited connectors is good from that, but you want
to do it in a smart way, right, not in there with every
position or every suit and connector. But you know, lad positions, adam
to your raising range, adam in with some three bets and stuff, and
you know, to kind of temper out the tiers you range. You still
want to get too crazy with it, and people see that you're in there
with a variety of hands other than what here is. He's got aces or
kings or as king or queens again, and it will help you get paid
more when you have monster hens for sure. Just to touch on a little
bit from playing from them early because I stin't think you should play suited connectors
very much early, but one of the tricks to make sure you don't play
them too much. But maybe you can play them some like under the gun
one for example. One of the good things you can do have a favorite
suit, have a favorite suit or what I call my aggressive suit. So
for me, my aggressive suit of spades almost always. Sometimes I'll change it
up, but if your aggressive suit of spades, and you get a suited
connector under the gun one and it's you know, seven six of hearts.
He's folded seven six of diamonds. You've folded six seven six of clubs.
You folded, but you pick up seven six spades. It is now our
aggressive suit, which means we're now raising with to connectors twenty five percent of
the time that we have them early, which greatly limits, you know,
how much exposure we have with them from bad positions. Last, we're gonna
talk about bluffing us Suit connectors is bluffing tools based on board texture and stuff,
mainly when you have position. And we talked about this a little bit
earlier, but pseudo connectors become so much more profitable when you're a positioned and
this is why I advocate almost exclusively playing them when you're going to be in
position, because when you're out of position, you're really kind of limited to
just hitting a hand, and it's really hard to hit a hand. It's
really hard to hit a big draw in position. You know, Bluffing is
kind of your backup plan. It allows you to win more often without having
to hit a straight or a flush or a combo draw or a straight flush
whatever stuff will like a flop. For example, let's say you flop a
straight or flush draw and you're in a position when you had to call the
flop and stuff to raise it. So for whatever reason, let's just say
this is an example of bluffing. This is just one instance, one instance.
I have a lot of different opportunities, but you're just gonna throw this
one out here because they jotted it down for whatever reason. You're you're it's
in this position where you have to call flop with it like a gut shot
for example, right, and maybe it's you have two overs in a gut
shot, so which is probably one of your better gut shots. Now,
if your opponent's range is rather condensed, the two overs don't matter because you're
two overs probably still worthless. But say you find yourself in this position and
you just call flop or whatever, and then on the turn either the middle
card or bottom guard pairs, and maybe you gather from your opponent's bet sizing
on the flop now that maybe they're not all that nutted. Maybe you know
they have a much more limited range of hands that are good. I mean,
this might be a good time to either if they checked, you bluff
as a bet because as a prep caller you could sure have middle pair or
bottom pair and now have tripped up on the turn, or if they bet,
depending on how big the size of the bed is, etc. You
may want to put in a three bet or a raise because then again,
a lot of times if their range is more capped than not, you will
affect some folds, and the times when you don't get folds, you still
have the outs that you had already, which isn't a ton, but at
least it's something. So bluffing is a part of playing suited connectors, but
it's not a huge part, but it is a small part that adds to
the profitability of pseudo connectors. We're gonna wrap up this episode here on pseudo
Connector basics. I hope you've heard some tidbits of information or some things that
maybe have ever thought about before. It's by no means exhaustive in nature.
We definitely didn't get down in the minutia. I mean I could probably do.
I could probably do ten one hour long videos on playing suited connectors and
still not get as deep in the weeds as would be necessary to really try
to help somebody master them. But we've given you like what I call launching
points. Right, So I remember a lot of time on a plane and
this thing will go off in my head or somebody say something, we go,
well, I never thought about it that way, and some of go
off your head and you start thinking about it, developing it, exploring it,
and they saying, you know, you're learning to get better and applying
new concepts. So hopefully you come away with something like that from this episode
as well as yesterday's episode. If you missed it, I invite you to
go back. And just lastly, I'm just gonna take a brief moment.
We're going to talk about a ton today, but if you want to come
over and just hang out with a group of people who are crushing one,
two, one three, and we have quite a few of them. Our
discord is pretty active with people who are like some of the best players I
know are now in my discord, which is kind of interesting because I know,
especially a couple of them, like a year ago, weren't that great
of players and a year later, you know, every time we talk about
hands or strategy or something, you know, the things they say and their
advice. It almost perfectly mimics mine, like they've come such a long way.
It's such a good group. So you get all the training stuff with
the that comes along with the Patreon and it's all kinds of video training,
you know, podcast, We got quiiteboard presentations, we talk about different tools
and all these type things. But the Discord is just huge too, so
you get invited over the Discord. It has access to all the channels where
we can tell a good strategy, channel to hand history channel, et cetera.
Lolimit cash games dot com if you want to check that out Low Limitcash
Games dot Com. Maybe you want to train one on one. I think
I have a slot open for that. I know somebody signed up yesterday and
that may have been my last slot. I'm not sure, but if there's
a slot open for that, I keep it very limited. That way,
I'm always available to talk and help, like I'm not swamped. I don't
have assistance and I don't have secondary coaches. It's all me. You get
full access to me. Low Limit cash Games dot Com. There's a part
three coming tomorrow if you would like to be around for it. We're going
to wrap up this suited Connector series for you with the ten Commandments of Suited
Connectors, and hope you will join me here then