Dusty Schmidt is a legendary online grinder, having racked up over nine million hands in his five-year career without ever having a losing month – take his poker advice and start winning today
Dusty Schmidt’s latest book, Don’t Listen to Phil Hellmuth: Correcting the 50 Worst Pieces of Poker Advice You’ve Ever Heard, sets out to disprove some of the greatest fallacies in poker (and not just those stated by Hellmuth). Dusty’s criteria for choosing misconceptions for his book (co-written with Paul Christopher Hoppe) were simple: ‘Are they costing people money, and can we prove it?’
As he explains, ‘The common perception of what constitutes good play is based almost entirely on what comes from the mouths of prominent names. Despite this advice being flawed, misapplied or flat-out wrong, much of it represents the foundation of what we think we know about poker. The book is meant to question some of the things we consider fundamental about the game.’
So, to give you a taste of Dusty’s myth-busting logic, we’ve picked out some of the choicest cuts from his new book in these exclusive extracts.
‘Preflop play doesn’t matter’
Some people will tell you that no-limit hold’em is a postflop game. That preflop doesn’t matter. Like many misconceptions, there is an element of truth here and a blatant fallacy. The truth is that playing well preflop will not automatically make you a winning player, and making some mistakes before the flop won’t prohibit you from making money. Preflop is not everything.
But these same players who claim ‘preflop doesn’t matter’ have spent dozens of hours designing their preflop three-betting, four-betting, and shoving games. They’ve sat down and calculated the equities and equations. So which is it? Is preflop barely worth a thought, or does it demand dozens of hours of study?
There is only one round of betting before the flop, while there are three streets after, so it¹s easy to say that postflop play is more important than preflop play. Fine. You’ll spend hundreds (or even thousands) of hours working on your postflop play.
But while preflop is only one of four rounds of betting, it happens to be the first one. Your preflop strategy determines what range of hands you take to the flop. It also affects the size of the pot and which hands you should commit with postflop. Preflop sets things up for your postflop play. So yeah, it’s important. It matters.
‘Pick a style and stick with it’
Picking a style and sticking with it doesn¹t make much sense. Every decision you make at the poker table should be based on what you think will win the most money. It’s okay to deviate from your ‘standard’ play when the situation demands. In fact, that’s the best way to play. Here are a few considerations that should affect your range:
There is a big fish at the table.
When there is a truly awful player at the table, you should do everything you can to get into pots with him. Get in there and take the bad player’s money
There is a raise in front of you and the bad player is in the big blind.
This is a fine spot to do some looser cold-calling. You’re less likely to get three-bet (squeezed) by any good players behind you because they should prefer to just call with their playable hands in an attempt to extract more money from the fish after the flop.
The blinds are super tight.
You can play more marginal hands, particularly from late position, when the blinds fold too much. When there¹s free money out there, you should take it.
You are in the cutoff and the button is weak/tight.
When the button is going to fold to your raise 95% of the time preflop, it’s almost like you get the button twice per orbit. You can open up your cutoff range considerably.
You have been playing unusually tight.
If an early position player has been opening a lot of pots, you can three-bet light and get much more credit than you usually would. This concept only applies against opponents who are paying attention. It’s generally best to save this play for times when you have a little something for back-up, like suited or connected cards, or an Ace or a King in your hand.
The player behind you is awesome.
This can be a world-class player or just someone you feel has a good edge on you. There¹s no need to seek a struggle with players who are better than you. You can’t be afraid to take advantage of the bad players just because someone scary is sitting behind you, but when the bad players are out of the pot, you should be too unless you have a strong hand of course.
‘The key to getting paid off is playing loose so no one can put you on a hand’
Some of the best players in the world play looser than the vast majority of other good players. There is often a drive to emulate them. Perhaps this stems from hero worship, or perhaps from the misconception that playing so loose is what makes these players great. This is backwards. Great players often play loose because they’re great. They’re not great because they’re loose. In other words, they can get away with playing many weaker hands preflop because their world-class postflop skills allow them to make up so much ground later in the hand. That’s half the story.
The other half of the story is that they’re frequently playing with considerably deeper stacks than the typical online game allows. If you gave these players stacks of just 100BB, they would have to play much tighter, simply because there is less room for postflop manoeuvring. The fact is, with 100BB stacks, tight is right.
Playing loose is fun. It’s great to imagine that you can find ways to outplay your opponents postflop. But are you really so much better than your opponents that you can get away with playing inferior hands on a regular basis? If you are, fantastic. Get in there and make some money. But there’s a good chance you could make more money by reining it in a bit and adding tables. Make sure that if you’re playing loose, you’re doing it for the right reasons.
‘The small blind is impossible to play’
Every time you take a flop from the small blind, you’ll be out of position. This makes marginal hands difficult to play. You also don’t have the luxury of closing the action like you do in the big blind. So yeah, the small blind is tough to play. But it¹s not impossible. Not if you make it simple. Why play those marginal hands when you know you’re going to be out of position? Why cold-call against button opens just to watch the big blind squeeze you out of even seeing a flop? Don’t do it. Keep it simple.
When you’re in the small blind against an open raiser from any position other than the button, you should play similarly to how you would from the big blind. When you are facing a button open you should usually reraise or fold, since the threat of getting squeezed is now quite high. You should usually three-bet all pairs, all suited Broadway hands, K-Qo, and A-Jo+.
That’s your basic value range. Against a more aggressive opponent you can widen this value range. When the button four-bets, you should be willing to ship it in with tens and better, A-K and A-Q. This assumes that stacks are about 100BB deep and the button is not overly passive. There are two situations in which you should consider cold-calling against the button: when you have a pocket pair (or other strong implied-odds hand) and the big blind is a big fish, or when the big blind is a big squeezer.
‘I have to bet this flop because I don’t want to give up’
Stabbing at the pot when you¹ve raised before the flop is a natural thing. It’s almost an emotional thing for many players. ‘Good players try to pick up pots that no one wants,’ they think. ‘That pot is mine. I’m going to take what’s mine, put pressure on my opponent.’ Continuation-betting is often profitable, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best play.
At the heart of this matter is a false dichotomy: you can either c-bet the flop with your air, or give up. That’s the mindset of many otherwise good players, but it’s dead wrong. Just because you check the flop doesn’t mean that you¹ve given up your right to attack the pot. Instead of c-betting, you can wait for an opportunity to do something more profitable later.
The moral of the story is not that you should avoid c-betting. You should c-bet a lot, but pause to think about why you’re firing off that continuation bet on this exact hand against this exact opponent. C-betting should not be a reflex, it should be a decision. It’s often a profitable option, but instead of asking yourself if it’s a profitable option, ask if it’s your most profitable option.
‘Make all preflop raises the same size’
The theory here is that, by always raising the same amount, you guard against leaking information about the quality of your hand. But we can do better. Many factors come into play when deciding how to size your raise.
Are there short stacks behind you?
Some players like to simplify the game by playing with the minimum buy-in, often 20 big blinds. Make your raises smaller, this makes their short-stacking strategy less profitable. It also costs less when you open and then fold to their reraise.
Are there big calling stations in the blinds?
If so, you should make your open raises a bit larger, as they will be calling with a weaker range. By raising more, you bloat the pot and allow yourself to get more value on every street.
Are there very aggressive players in the blinds?
When the blinds like to reraise a ton, min-raising can be a good option. Your opponents may call more often, but that’s okay as you¹re getting a better price on your steal. They may also reraise a bit less frequently, since they’re getting a worse price on a re-steal with less money in the pot.
Do you have an edge on the blinds?
When you¹re on the button and the blinds play at least as well as you do, it¹s another good spot to min-raise. You’re effectively cutting the stakes against the good players.
Do the blinds call a lot preflop and fold a lot postflop?
If so it gives you a huge incentive to make some slightly larger raises. Don¹t make your raises so big that the blinds start folding a bunch. You want them to call so you can pick up a more profitable pot after the flop.
Are there limpers ahead of you?
A common practice is to add one blind to your raise size for every limper. But when the limper is a big calling station, you can often extract more value after the flop by raising a bit more before the flop. Your postflop bets can be progressively larger on each street with the larger preflop raise.
Can you safely juice the pot?
When you have a small pocket pair or suited connector, it can be tempting to make a small raise after a few players limp in. This is a horrible idea in tough games, since the blinds are so likely to squeeze you out of the pot. By raising, you also reopen the action to the limpers, who can now reraise themselves.
‘Don’t Listen to Phil Hellmuth – Correcting the 50 worst pieces of poker advice you’ve ever heard’ is available from Amazon UK and Amazon.com.
