What Michael Addamo does differently

Students ship me fascinating fingers they see on reside streams to ask my opinion on a regular basis. For the final yr I’d say nearly the entire fingers I get despatched are ones performed by Michael Addamo. 

Clearly Addamo is crushing all the pieces proper now in poker with a hyper aggressive type that features a lot of overbets and plenty of bluffs. Most gamers assume he’s an uber exploitative participant that leaves himself open to counter-exploitation. 

I’ve studied lots of his fingers now and chances are you’ll be shocked to find that he’s really taking part in nearer to GTO than most would assume and definitely greater than a few of his elite tablemates. He does deviate, however when he does he deviates for good cause and nonetheless based mostly on a strong GTO methodology. 

Let’s have a look at this basic hand from PokerGO to see what I imply:

In the hand Jake Schindler opens UTG with QQ and Addamo 3-bets from the Big Blind with 78, Schindler calls. The flop is 75Okay and Addamo bets 19,000 right into a 57,500 pot, Schindler calls. The flip is 6 and it goes verify/verify. The river is Okay, Addamo checks. Schindler bets and Addamo verify/raises. 

While this hand may appear wild on each avenue, consider it or not it was solely the very last motion the place Addamo deviates from GTO. The 3-bet preflop with 78 was permitted because it gave Addamo board protection. The continuation guess too as a result of Addamo has vary benefit. The verify/verify on the flip is permitted as a result of Schindler has extra fingers helped by 6 and vary benefit shifts in Schindler’s favour, regardless that the particular card helps Addamo. 

On the river, Addamo is meant to verify/name as a bluff catcher. It’s solely now that he begins to think about his hand exploitatively, accurately reasoning that Schindler probably has a hand like TT-QQ that does not wish to name an overbet.

One ‘pip’ away from GTO

I’ve written about the fitting fingers to verify/elevate bluff on the river with. They are fingers with some showdown worth if it goes verify/verify however have a blocker if Villain bets. 78 is a kind of fingers, it blocks the nut straight and sevens filled with kings.

The solver prefers A7s & A6s for the verify/elevate bluff as a result of they block boats and Ace King, which is a much bigger a part of Schindler’s vary. 

While it is a deviation (the solely deviation) from GTO, it nonetheless follows the ideas of GTO. It will not be a wild stone known as bluff it’s based mostly on GTO logic. I think Addamo is aware of his opponents will over fold right here (they’re purported to bluff catch with TT-QQ among the time) and he is aware of that he’s deviating from GTO. 

I’ve checked out a lot of Addamo fingers and he solely actually ever deviates by one ‘pip’. If a hand is a elevate 20% of the time, he’ll elevate it nearer to 100% of the time, however he will not elevate a hand that ought to be checked. If K6s is an open, he may open a hand like K2s, however he will not open some rubbish like T5s. 

He at present will get away with homicide on the nosebleeds as a result of no person needs to play enormous pots in opposition to him. The Addamo story might finish along with his opponents finding out him far more than I’ve and counter-exploiting him, identical to many aggressive gamers earlier than him have been discovered. But he could also be one of many exceptions that stands the check of time, as a result of the best way he performs is way nearer to GTO than his critics admire. 

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