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

not totally

i'd love to hear what your definition of "initial advantage" is.

Well I'll try my best to explain what I mean:

When I say "initial advantage" I'm thinking of two aspects:
1. Very often we do not 3b for value. So when we do not 3bet for value we are instead 3betting as a bluff/semi-bluff and basically try to take down the dead money with the biggest part of that being the initial raise.

Once we establish an image of giving up on a lot of boards when checking as the PFR, villain will (should?) be able to profit from the fact that our flop actions (on certain boards) give away our actual hand strength.
That again should lead to villain calling more 3bets (esp IP) against us because it is now more profitable for him with the given information which inevitably leads to our 3bets being less profitable on its own (than with a more balanced CBing/ flop continuation approach).

2. "Initial advantage" also relates to flop CBing for me.
If we CB the flop as the PF raiser we still have the possibility to get villain to fold a better hand (for example if we CB the 954ss flop we might get AhQh or 33) to fold. (We also risk getting bluffed by worse hands when we always check with the intention of giving up but I'm not sure whether that is a factor here...).
If we have an unbalanced continuation range in this situation we are basically giving up this advantage for the time being.

Seems like if he's going to flat our 3-bets incredibly wide, we could start c-betting more? valuebetting more thinly?

Andrew

But these are "only" adjustments to a situation that we created by not having a balanced flop continuation range to begin with, no? So wouldn't it be better to not let this situation arise in the first place instead of adjusting once it has occcured?

Thanks for taking the time for this little discussion Andrew! Please don't hesitate to let me know when my thought process is messed up somewhere along the way, I really appreciate the effort you put into making your vids and into the discussion afterwards!

And also sorry for my post getting so long...

fold equity refers to getting your opponent to fold an actual hand, not to folding his air. So, while we have less fold equity, there is also more dead money to collect.

If someone's calling your 3-bets OOP, depolarize, c-bet then and v-bet them mercilessly, if they play back too much then stop c-betting as much, pretty simple.

c-betting and giving up when called in a 3-bet pot is NOT burning money, like all things, it simply depends.

Andrew

Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Thnx very much for explaining.

Well I'll try my best to explain what I mean:

When I say "initial advantage" I'm thinking of two aspects:
1. Very often we do not 3b for value. So when we do not 3bet for value we are instead 3betting as a bluff/semi-bluff and basically try to take down the dead money with the biggest part of that being the initial raise.

Once we establish an image of giving up on a lot of boards when checking as the PFR, villain will (should?) be able to profit from the fact that our flop actions (on certain boards) give away our actual hand strength.
That again should lead to villain calling more 3bets (esp IP) against us because it is now more profitable for him with the given information which inevitably leads to our 3bets being less profitable on its own (than with a more balanced CBing/ flop continuation approach).

2. "Initial advantage" also relates to flop CBing for me.
If we CB the flop as the PF raiser we still have the possibility to get villain to fold a better hand (for example if we CB the 954ss flop we might get AhQh or 33) to fold. (We also risk getting bluffed by worse hands when we always check with the intention of giving up but I'm not sure whether that is a factor here...).
If we have an unbalanced continuation range in this situation we are basically giving up this advantage for the time being.



But these are "only" adjustments to a situation that we created by not having a balanced flop continuation range to begin with, no? So wouldn't it be better to not let this situation arise in the first place instead of adjusting once it has occcured?

Thanks for taking the time for this little discussion Andrew! Please don't hesitate to let me know when my thought process is messed up somewhere along the way, I really appreciate the effort you put into making your vids and into the discussion afterwards!

And also sorry for my post getting so long...

1) your goal of balancing is only appropriate when your opponents are balanced. If your opponents are unbalanced in one direction (which they invariably will be), your response is to unbalance yourself in the other direction.

2) it is possible to do what youre suggesting, to balance many different ranges, but its very difficult, and against all but the most elite players it's unnecessary.

Andrew

Hey Andrew,

thanks a lot for your reply!

Time Link to 00:53:57

Why do you think Xcalling is not a option here>? You say that the guy is likely to be a fish more reason to believe he will bluff Spades here right?. Another ? would be is why do you assume he has run down apair?
I would think there are still alot of spade hands that completely bricks the river. I.E J9s,10Js 78s etc.etc.
Its a hard spot for sure but Im not totally convinced that a Chk call line is out of the ? here. BTW I loved this video I joined about a month ago and started watching all of your older videos for some strange reason. Last 2 days have been watching your new ones, very big difference on your skill level. I love the improvements whale! Keep them coming.

Time Link to 00:55:19

Ughh I should have listened to another 20 seconds before I posted, That does make alot of sense that he probably doesnt wanna risk a big bluff there. Not sure why I didn't think of that lol. But I still think Xcallin is probable, possibly not though... I might just be spewing in those spots. Still if you have anymore reasons though on why he wouldnt bluff missed spades on the river I would love to hear it. I think with the board putting a possible str8 out the fish is more likely to bluff, just from past experiences I guess.