The 2nd-Barrel-theory part 1

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The 2nd-Barrel-Theory Part 1

from MiiWiin

Today we want deal with the most complicated yet the most useful tool in no-limit hold'em - the 2nd Barrel. We will discuss why we should use it and in which situations we shouldn't use it. In this article we will look at the theory and the general framework of the 2nd Barrel. Next time we will analyse specific situations by using some specific examples.

What exactly is a 2nd barrel?

Practically it is a bet on the turn after we have made a continuation bet on the flop as the preflop-aggressor. You can fight about the definition of the continuation bet as well as the 2nd Barrel. Is it a bluffbet or a valuebet if we hit something?

On the turn we mostly have one of the following four situations:

1.) We have a monsterhand (e.g. set, straight, flush)

We mostly think that we are ahead on the turn and want value from our opponents. Needless to say, we bet, hoping to move all-in later. At same time, we protect our hand against possible draws. Our line should be bet/call or respectively bet/3-bet.

2.) We have a good made hand or a weak made hand (e.g. overpair, TPTK, middle pair)

We have a vulnerable hand with showdown-value. We bet the turn as well because we want to know where we are at (=> informationbet) and protect our hand against drawing hands (=> protectionbet). As we are ahead against any draws this is a valuebet. If someone raises (respectively checkraises) on the turn, we mostly have to fold because we won't be ahead very often. Furthermore these hands have little chance to improve (respectively are dominated already) because they usually just have 2-5 outs, which won't be clean outs most of the time.

3.) We have a draw on the turn (flushdraw, OESD)

After our continuation bet on the flop we either have a draw on turn or have had it on the flop already, but we are still unimproved. In this case, our bet would be a semi-bluff, which profits from the foldequity and the chance to hit our hand on the river.

4.) We have missed the flop and the turn completely

After we have made a standard continuation bet on the flop, we are unimproved on the turn as well only holding ace high in the best case. Furthermore we hardly have any clean outs for improving our hand on the river. In this case, a turnbet bet would be a second continuation bet. This time it would be a purebluff-bet though. This bet is mostly made to make our opponents fold and lives of the foldequity only.

We will define examples 3.) and 4.) as a 2nd Barrel understanding it as a purebluff-bet or a semibluff-bet.

Now you can ask yourself why we should fire a 2nd Barrel at all. Then again you don't ask yourself whether to make a continuation bet on the flop that often either. Roughly estimated, you can make a continuation bet in over 80% of the time in a heads up. It is a profitable bet because of the foldequity alone.

However, on the turn this willingness to win the pot unimproved by pure aggressiveness is much less. There are many players who always bet the flop but nearly always give up the turn.

Which problems arise due to this?

No matter what players are sitting on the same table, every player pays attention to what is happening at the table in one way or another and remembers specific moves. This attention is mostly drawn to hands which are played together. If we raise preflop / contibet the flop / check/fold the turn three times in a row within a couple of minutes against the same villain, he will remember this line no matter what kind of player he is according to his stats.

We will analyse against which opponents a 2nd Barrel is more likely to make profit a little later. You can already guess that a 2nd Barrel against a calling station is not very profitable.

Lets assume this villain is a calling station and we have lost the hands mentioned above. Now we raise another hand preflop... what can we expect?

Villain knows that we give up on the turn quite often. He therefore sees a chance to win pots against us. He can either calldown with a weak hand, because he might think that we are basically raising any2 or he can try to make us fold by betting small amounts on the turn. Passive players who don’t want to invest a lot of money into the hand commonly make these probebets on the turn. It basically is a kind of float, which we have contributed to with the past couple of hands. Ultimately this bet isn't all that stupid because we are still unimproved and have to fold on this small bet.

1.) PartyPoker $25 NL Hold'em (6 handed) HandRecorder v0.9b

Stacks & Stats
MP ($25)
UTG ($25)
BB ($25)
SB ($25)
BU ($25)
Hero ($25)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A , 2
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.00, BU calls $1.00, 2 folds

Flop: ($2.35) 4, 7, J (2 players)
Hero bets $1.75, BU calls $1.75

Turn: ($5.85) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BU bets $2.00, Hero folds

Our image becomes worse and worse by doing this; villain will basically make fun of us by betting small amounts on the turn. With retrospective effect villain will call a lot more hands preflop including our continuation bet on the flop.

We are stuck in a circular flow, which not only harms our image but also costs a lot of money. What can we do about it?

The easiest possibility would be not to raise that much against callingstations and to play tighter preflop. Since the continuation bet has a negative expected value in this case, we could also choose to not use it as often aswell. The third possibility in this situation is firing a 2nd Barrel.

Due to our image, the calling-range of villain has become much larger so that our fold equity for a 2nd Barrel on the turn should be much larger. Even if we should avoid a 2nd Barrel against loose players, it is a useful tool in this situation.

Furthermore we should consider the fact that we will hit the flop well sometimes and want to get paid off. If we play check/fold and only bet the turn if we have a strong hand we will become readable for a calling station as well and we will loose value in the long run.

Our opponents:

I think the example above showed you when to fire 2nd Barrel, even though a calling station isn't one of our main targets. It is the opposite.

As we have defined above, a 2nd Barrel is either a bluff bet or a semibluff bet. Both live of the foldequity substantially. As a matter of course, the foldequitey shrinks immensely against very loose players. Both callingstations and maniacs belong to this group of players.

Both types of players don't fold their hand quickly. Calling stations call us down a lot while the others try to bluff us out of the hand. Our fold equity will in turn be relatively small. Important stats are "went to showdown" and the "fold to turnbet" and obviously any other standard values with which we classify our opponents.

According to this, 2nd Barrels are more successful against LAGs, TAGs and obviously Rocks. We can mostly expect a higher fold equity because we know that these opponents can fold many hands on the turn as well. On the other hand you have to be aware that these players tend to be thinking players. In order to calculate the success of a 2nd Barrel in this case, we have to take four more factors into account: Our image, the board, our range and the range of our opponents!

Our image:

In the beginning we looked at the example with a callingstation. In that case, our image was an important criteria as well. Basically it should be clear that we could achieve more fold equity if we play tight. The looser we appear, the less chance of succeding with a 2nd Barrel exists.

It should also be clear that we couldn't bet the turn at will even against opponents who are more suited to play against. Especially against thinking players, the frequency of a 2nd Barrel is very important. If we played a few strong hands before and didn't come to a showdown, other players might think that we are playing very aggressively. They don't know that we were actually holding strong hands. If we have played a lot of hands the last few minutes, we should take a step back. In turn we can play more aggressively if we have played check/fold on the turn a couple of times. We will be getting a lot of credit for our 2nd Barrel.

The board, our range and the range of our opponents:

The board and the hand, which we want to represent are also important. If the board is very drawheavy you have to decide whether you have a lot of fold equity on the turn or not. If, for example, we have an ace-high-board on the flop, we can absolutely represent TPTK. If we believe that our opponent could be holding a drawing hand, a 2nd Barrel is a good idea because it can't really be called profitably.

You have to take into consideration whether villain will believe that we have a strong hand after the ace hits on the turn. If he is very attentive, he will know that we would contibet the flop with overcards as well and we could have hit the turn. Especially with such scarecards, you should think about whether your opponent will believe that you hit that card. It is basically 3rd level thinking which is necessary when using 2nd Barrels against good opponents.

A drawless board is much better though where we can expect that villain calls a middle pair once in a while. A 2nd Barrel is usually a profitable bet in these situations because a good player will rarely calldown with a middle pair to see a showdown.

Exactly these thoughts are immensely important: What kind of hand is villain holding? Which hands does he call the flop with but folds on the turn? Does he want to float against us? We will discuss these questions using some specific examples next week.