ASB 45

This is my latest poker project (well, besides grinding 10/20 live so that I can move up to 15/30 and 20/40).

In the meantime, one of the areas of my game that is lacking is a very high aggression game. I made a couple twoplustwo posts about it (Micros and Small Stakes Short-Handed) which will provide some background thoughts.

After spending some time reflecting on how I might extend my play to include a high-aggression game, I have decided to start the ASB-45 project. My current ASB is at 35, which is a little too low given that I'm only playing 1/2 6-max. I *should* have an edge on these players which would allow me to play more hands. My goal is to get it up to 45, which is an increase of 30%.

My current steal range looks a lot like that in Stox's book:

CO: 22+, A2s+, A5o+, K7s+, K9o+, Q9s+, QTo+, J8s+, T8s+, 97s+, 87s, 76s = 28.5%
Button: 22+, A2s+, A3o+, K2s+, K9o+, Q5s+, Q9o+, J7s+, J9o+, T7s+, T8o+, 97s+, 98o, 86s+, 75s+, 65s = 40.0%

I must be looser than this as one expects to have more CO steal opportunities than Button stealing opportunities, implying that your ASB should be closer to the CO value than the Button value. Here's how the numbers break down (out of 34242 total hands):

CO steals: 1022/3435 = 29.8%
Button steals: 998/2287 = 43.6%
Overall: 2020/5722 = 35.3%

How can I push my ASB up to 45%? We will start with the assumption that the CO steal to Button steal ratio remains at 3:2. This will help me to balance the two types of steals. I would like my button steal range to be about 50%, which implies that my CO steal range needs to be about 41.7%.

Using the Stox ranges at a platform, I have decided to go with the following ranges:

CO: 22+, A2s+, A2o+, K2s+, K7o+, Q5s+, Q9o+, J7s+, J9o+, T7s+, T8o+, 97s+, 98o, 86s+, 76s = 37.6%
Button: 22+, A2s+, A2o+, K2s+, K5o+, Q5s+, Q7o+, J7s+, J8o+, T7s+, T8o+, 96s+, 97o+, 86s+, 87o, 75s+, 76o, 65s = 50.2%

I am not intentionally going to make any other changes to my game. I'm not going to change how I think about blind defense, overlimping, or iso-raising. Those things will come later.