Poker Video: No Limit Hold'Em by Gman (High Stakes)

Well, this should be good.

Great video, really looking forward to the next episodes.
Why do you 3bet small pocket pairs so often?

Time Link to 00:10:56

this is def not a good board to check back a hand as strong as QT - it is near the top of your range in a situation that should have you c-betting a lot of your air. check back A5 or even 77 (i would personally bet all of these but given that you like checking back a lot you should check back those hands) and bet your queens. the biggest mistake a good player is going to make against you when they're OOP in a single raised pot is either calling you down to the river too lightly or shelling off with a bluff they start on the flop.

Time Link to 00:13:03

raise>fold>call imo

That was awesome, looking forward to pts 2 and 3.

Time Link to 00:50:26

You say you get paid a lot in this situation, and he makes a disciplined fold because 'you don't represent anything'. Would you ever bluff in this spot (against a player on his thought level), he knows you don't represent anything, but you know you don't represent anything, and he knows you know you are not representing anything... So it would be really stupid to bluff, and his fold would be pretty standard.
or can this go a level deeper for villain while you aren't that deep? (he thinks you are bluffing a ton here because you know you are never bluffing here because you are representing nothing; while you are thinking you are never bluffing here because you don't represent anything. Or is that railheaven material).
I'm clearly a level 9000 thinker obv

Time Link to 00:13:29

this is def a cbet, hes gonna call w any Ahigh+
i usualy check this back only when the guy its a fitorfold nit postflop.

Great video, really looking forward to the next episodes.
Why do you 3bet small pocket pairs so often?

Ty. I have discussed this a bunch in other videos, but to put it simply, I think 3 betting 22-55 has a higher EV than flatting when playing against an opponent who folds to a reasonable amount of 3 bets (60%+).

For one, these hands are generally fairly easy to play in 3 bet pots in that you either flop a big hand or your hand is only a bluffcatcher/air. Also, these hands are great ones to 5 bet shove for equity reasons.

In single raised pots, it is often difficult to win with these hands. In the 88% of the time you don't flop a set, the vast majority of those flops will not be profitable to c/c because a) he sometimes already has the best hand b) He can easily blow you off your hand on later streets and c) He almost always has at least 25% equity even if he is behind.

With that said, I still flat small PP sometimes and often against players who don't fold to 3 bets. In that case, I turn these hands into bluffs some % of the time postflop.

this is def not a good board to check back a hand as strong as QT - it is near the top of your range in a situation that should have you c-betting a lot of your air. check back A5 or even 77 (i would personally bet all of these but given that you like checking back a lot you should check back those hands) and bet your queens. the biggest mistake a good player is going to make against you when they're OOP in a single raised pot is either calling you down to the river too lightly or shelling off with a bluff they start on the flop.

I agree w/ this mostly. Yes I will c-bet my air v often here, and I very rarely look to check back hands near the top of my range in single raised pots. Against a good opponent, I will check back a hand like TPTK+ essentially never w/o a good reason, a hand this strong maybe 5-10% of the time, and check back a weaker Q maybe 15-20% assuming he isn't doing anything too irregular.

I think there are def situations (which coincidentally come up in parts 2 and 3) where checking back really strong hands not only has merit but can be best. You will see later on in this match he starts betting virtually every turn I check back and overbetting every single river. In these situations, I think it's pretty important that I check back hands that are ahead of some of his likely thin value betting range in that spot. The problem w/ a hand like 77 or worse in that situation is he's v v unlikely to value bet worse there, so our hand is essentially the same as a much weaker bluff catcher aside from some additional equity we have in the pot.

There are also a lot of regulars on these Q52r boards who v v rarely c/r w/ air, and as such their c/f range there is very high. Yes he will peel w some Ax some % of the time and a few other hands, but giving him an opportunity to make a 2nd best hand/bluff the turn has a lot of merit imo since much of his range whiffs this board.

I guess overall we see it a little differently in that a) I think he has less hands willing to call 1 let alone 2 or 3 streets than you do and b) I think many good players don't even c/r bluff this texture often and if they do, it's one they will shut down on the turn a good amount because there hand is often one w/ minimal equity against our flop b/c range

Thoughts on all that?

raise>fold>call imo

Def thought about that, but forgot to mention it in the video. I kinda feel like my longterm image sucks a little too much to make this play, but I def agree raising and folding are >> than calling here.

You say you get paid a lot in this situation, and he makes a disciplined fold because 'you don't represent anything'. Would you ever bluff in this spot (against a player on his thought level), he knows you don't represent anything, but you know you don't represent anything, and he knows you know you are not representing anything... So it would be really stupid to bluff, and his fold would be pretty standard.
or can this go a level deeper for villain while you aren't that deep? (he thinks you are bluffing a ton here because you know you are never bluffing here because you are representing nothing; while you are thinking you are never bluffing here because you don't represent anything. Or is that railheaven material).
I'm clearly a level 9000 thinker obv

Good question. And unlike some HS players, I put lots and lots of stock into leveling. My experiences are that with the image I often have, even v good players have a lot of trouble folding in this spot because a) I'm just so crazy! b) I don't rep anything and c) He really can't decide what level I'm on. FWIW, against most avg./above avg regulars, I will almost never bluff here.

Once I notice a tendency for my opponent to fold when I don't rep anything, then yes I will start bluffing more often in these kind of spots.

this is def a cbet, hes gonna call w any Ahigh+
i usualy check this back only when the guy its a fitorfold nit postflop.

See lengthy explanation of me defending my honor above

Thoughts on all that?

I am with you that there are a few situations where it's best to start checking QT (and that it's prob going to be the right adjustment in the next cpl of videos), I just don't think you had that really good reason to start doing it at this point in the match and usually won't against most good players early in a match.

Also - the reason a lot of regulars v v rarely c/r a dry board like this with air is that you're not c-betting enough. The fact that they are checking and folding a flop like this often is not necessarily a bad thing for you and definitely not unrelated.

I am with you that there are a few situations where it's best to start checking QT (and that it's prob going to be the right adjustment in the next cpl of videos), I just don't think you had that really good reason to start doing it at this point in the match and usually won't against most good players early in a match.

Also - the reason a lot of regulars v v rarely c/r a dry board like this with air is that you're not c-betting enough. The fact that they are checking and folding a flop like this often is not necessarily a bad thing for you and definitely not unrelated.

Agree that in that exact spot, it was probably unnecessary to check there. Not exactly sure if your basing my lack of c-betting on this vid or a bunch of them, but on a texture similar to this I am cbetting air essentially 100% until given a reason not to. I always yell at my students for checking in these spots w/ air w/o solid rationale.