I’m very blessed to be a coach on QuintAce because of how easy they make it for me to find leaks for my players in the Chasing Poker Greatness (CPG) community.
A player joins QuintAce. They join the CPG community. The CPG community plays hands on the platform. QuintAce analyzes the CPG community’s collective data and sends me their biggest leaks. I make videos and create drills to help my peeps plug their leaks and improve their winrate.
Easy peasy.
The top 5 leaks in the CPG community this week are big, easily correctable, and almost certainly universal mistakes related to playing out of the blinds & straddle in 3 blind + ante formats.
Here they are in no particular order:
- Leak #1: 3b sizing
- Leak #2: Missing VPIPs (cold-calls and 3bs) from the Big Blind
- Leak #3: Missing 3b’s from the straddle
- Leak #4: Not defending wide enough from the Straddle
- Leak #5: Missing defends facing an in-position four-bet
Before we dive in I want to briefly explain why adding a straddle and antes demands such big strategic shifts:
In a normal format you’ve got 1.5 big blinds of dead money (sb + bb). When you put the straddle on and force all players to ante 0.5 bbs, now every pot starts with 7.5 bbs worth of dead money. That jump from 1.5 bbs to 7.5 bbs in the pot has huge strategic implications.
With so much more money to fight for, opening ranges get much wider which subsequently increases the frequency of your defends vs. 2b, 3bs, 4bs, and 5bs. Now, onto the leaks.
READ MORE: The Art of Straddling – Decoding Poker’s Most Misunderstood Move
Leak 1: Poor 3b Sizing
Three-bet sizes in these games are a different animal. They’re bigger than a two-blind game, they shift based on the open size, and they shift based on whether you’re in the small blind, the big blind, or the straddle. Due to all of these different moving parts, it’s best to simplify.
When a player opens to 5 bbs, QuintAce mixes its 3b sizing between 18 and 22 big blinds from the small blind amongst a variety of hands. I personally wouldn’t try to hit these mixes and would just settle for a single 3b size right in the middle at 20 bbs (a clean 4x).
From the big blind the optimal sizes trend bigger, 21.5 to 30 big blinds. I would once again split the difference and land on a static 26 bbs. And Quint’s suggestion from the straddle is the biggest one of all, averaging out to 36 bbs against the same 5 bb open.
Voila, there’s your cheat sheet for hitting the right 3b size against a button open when you’re in the blinds/straddle.
SB = 20 bbs · BB = 26 bbs · STR = 36 bbs
Leak 2: Missing VPIPs from the Big Blind
From the big blind facing a button open, you’re supposed to be three-betting about 17% of your hands and cold-calling another 12%, which means you’re supposed to defend about 29% of the time. This is a LOT of hands!
Let’s start with that 3b number, because 17% is well above what a normal game wants. In a normal game a very aggressive 3b frequency is 12 to 15%. At 15% you’re really getting after it.
In this format, sticking to a normal 15% is a little too tight. Here you’re 3betting hands down to A8o, splitting call/3b with suited connectors, and 3betting your strong suited Broadways pure. It’s a huge jump from what feels normal.
Now the cold calls.
With one player left to act behind you (the straddle), your instinct probably says to play 3b or fold like you would from the SB in a 2 blind game. In this case, your instinct is leading you the wrong way because the extra dead money forces you to play more hands.
Your cold-calling range goes down to hands like Q6s and T7s, your suited gappers, every small and medium pocket pair, and offsuit Broadways are getting into the mix. It’s way wider than what you might expect and it’s really easy to miss some of these VPIPs.
Leak 3: Under 3betting From the Straddle
From the straddle your 3b frequency drops from that 17% in the BB to about 11%. But 11% is still a lot of hands. You’re supposed to find 3bets with suited gappers like 97s, T8s, and T7s as well as hands like AJo.
Humans naturally miss 3b’s in this format for the same reason they under 3b in a normal game: there’s a strong pull to just call, see the flop, and then play the hand from there.
It feels safer.
But by doing so you’re leaving EV on the table by letting your opponents over-realize their equity as well as their position advantage by missing these 3bs.
Leak 4: Not Defending Wide Enough From the Straddle
Defense ranges get MUCH wider when you’re closing the action from the straddle: against a wide button open you’re getting laid about 4.2-1, a far better price than the big blind gets back home in a normal game.
When the button opens to 5 and you’re in the straddle, you’re calling 3 bbs to win 12.5 which is an INCREDIBLE price. It’s 2026 and pot odds still matter, so when you’re getting a price like that, you gotta get in there and battle. Against the button you’re calling around 68% and 3betting 11%, which means you’re defending about 79% of your hands!
If under the gun opens instead of the button, you’re facing a tighter range so you 3b less frequently but you’re still defending a ton. You’ll flat hands like 83s and 72s. Even one gap offsuit hands like 53o get to defend.
Here’s how I actually learn these STR defense grids instead of memorizing a different strategy vs. every preflop open seat. I learn the loosest in-position opener (the button) and the tightest (under the gun), then estimate everything in between.
Against a hijack open, for example, I’d guesstimate I’m somewhere in the middle, so calling around 63% and 3betting maybe 4 to 5%. And when I check that against QuintAce it holds up:
63% Call · 4% 3b
You don’t need to memorize 5 charts, only 2. Just anchor the two ends and fill in the middle.
Leak 5: Defending vs. an In-Position 4b
This one is quite sneaky, and I’ll be honest, I might be part of why it’s the biggest leak in my community because I was butchering this spot when I first started training these spots. It’s just not intuitive.
Look at how light you’re supposed to get it in after you 3b the SB and face a BTN 4b.
A5s-A3s are jamming at a decent clip, putting the money in more often than not.
Pocket nines just flat the 4-bet. Tens and up are getting in there. AQo mixes call, fold, and jam. And AQs is a pure get-it-in.
Same story from the BB. Facing the 4b, A5s-A2s are jamming, and pairs down to about 66 are getting it in. Every pair from 66 up is getting it in at some frequency.
AQo almost never folds, and AQs is again your stack-off threshold. Just how often you’re supposed to stack off with hands like AQs, and sometimes even 66, was the biggest thing I took away from going through these leaks.
Now go plug your leaks!
Those are the top five leaks the CPG community is making on QuintAce right now. If you’re grinding Club WPT Gold or WPT Global, I’d bet good money you’re making some of them too, in games where the chips really matter.
I’ll be posting drills for every one of these five spots so you can practice them directly on Quint instead of just reading about them.
Join the CPG community on QuintAce
Head to quintace.ai, click the communities tab, and join the CPG community. Can’t wait to see the progress you make, and can’t wait to dive into the next batch of leaks once these are sealed.
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