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

So can we assume that he plays polarized now? I guess that K9s is the top of his folding range and he fights back at our steals/isolation raises by polarizing. And if he indeed is polarizing i guess we should back down at our stealing and depolarize our 3betting range against him?

I'm assuming the guy with the K9s is depolarizing. A hand like 76s would be polarizing.

If he's polarizing, we should call his 3bets lighter. If he's depolarized, we should 4bet lighter and call less lightly.

Andrew

First post. Good job bw and nd. The finale is a grand slam. I'm glad I stuck through the rough spots in the middle.

I love the discourse between Andrew and Kristy. She was just the right level of knowledge and newbness to probe Andrew for the correct way to think about situations, and expose some real jewels of knowledge.

Awesome. Thanks a lot guys!

I really enjoyed this series. I think I will watch it again -- now that I know the ending.

It was fun watching the angles of aggression and bet-sizing. Often, I would be thinking, "No Kristy, don't raise that much! Your hand isn't strong enough." But often, to my surprise, the other guy would fold. My style is that "other guy", fit-or-fold.

Really looking forward to the next Baluga series. This series here will be tough to outdo.

Bet/fold, to call the turn and have a 9 splash on the river, most of his draws picked up a pair somewhere along the way.
Andrew

Andrew, I want to summarize what I understand of the situation. And follow up with some questions.

1) At this point our read is that villain is a loose aggressive regular.

2) Our hand is effectively AA against him. Because villain has a high three-bet %.

3) On the flop if we get raised, we can assume he has 2 pair, a set, straight, OESD, or a combo draw (pair + gutshot). Stove range is "77-33,98s,76s,65s,54s,43s,98o,76o,65o,54o,43o". So if we get raised on the flop, we are a 55:45 dog and we have to fold. He also flats sometimes with the same range to balance his calls.

4) On the turn, nothing changed. We are still a dog against that range. If he raises we have to fold.

5) You've already said that bet-folding a brick river is correct. And check-folding or bet-folding a draw completing river is correct.

Now for the questions:

1) So we raise the very top of our range. A good player flats on the button. A medium coordinated flop comes out. And now we have to bet-fold three streets against him. In other words, the only hands we can give him action with are two pair or better. Surely, this is very exploitable?

2) Isn't this an extrapolation of the cts suggestion -- check-fold the flop?

Kristy and Baluga thanks for the series. I really enjoyed it. It's amazing to me that when I listen to Baluga explain the logic for the QQ hand being a check fold on the river it makes perfect sense. Yet I know being in the spot I likely make the same mistake. It's one of the big leaks I'm trying to fix in my game. Not calling off the rest of my stack when I know I'm behind just because I already put a lot in. (AA vs. an obvious made hand too many times!) So I can definitely relate, Kristy. At least now I know we will (hopefully)both make better decisions in the future! I learned a lot in the series and look forward to another. Best of luck to you Kristy, I hope you keep moving up fast!

Andrew, I want to summarize what I understand of the situation. And follow up with some questions.

1) At this point our read is that villain is a loose aggressive regular.

2) Our hand is effectively AA against him. Because villain has a high three-bet %.

3) On the flop if we get raised, we can assume he has 2 pair, a set, straight, OESD, or a combo draw (pair + gutshot). Stove range is "77-33,98s,76s,65s,54s,43s,98o,76o,65o,54o,43o". So if we get raised on the flop, we are a 55:45 dog and we have to fold. He also flats sometimes with the same range to balance his calls.

4) On the turn, nothing changed. We are still a dog against that range. If he raises we have to fold.

5) You've already said that bet-folding a brick river is correct. And check-folding or bet-folding a draw completing river is correct.

Now for the questions:

1) So we raise the very top of our range. A good player flats on the button. A medium coordinated flop comes out. And now we have to bet-fold three streets against him. In other words, the only hands we can give him action with are two pair or better. Surely, this is very exploitable?

2) Isn't this an extrapolation of the cts suggestion -- check-fold the flop?

if a regular bluff raises the flop, or the turn, or the river, then we're not b/f.

Andrew

Seriously we need more of this...

if a regular bluff raises the flop, or the turn, or the river, then we're not b/f.

Andrew

So we take notes on the regulars and keep track of who's capable of bluff raising. But against an unknown as the board developed, bet-fold flop and turn, check-fold or bet-fold river?

So we take notes on the regulars and keep track of who's capable of bluff raising. But against an unknown as the board developed, bet-fold flop and turn, check-fold or bet-fold river?

probably, or b/c flop is an option too against an unknown (who might be capable of bluffing or v-betting thinly).

Andrew

Hey guys!

Thank you so much for watching. I have learned soooo much from Baluga, and I'm so excited about poker. I can't wait to see how far I can take it.

Here's a blog I posted about it, and included one question for Baluga which is the following:

---Baluga, after a lot of discussion in Ep 7, I’m still a little confused as to what our general bet sizing should be for a c-bet in a three-bet pot? In single-raised pots, I'd do 2/3 and then in 3 bet pots I was doing half pot bets like in Ep 7. Then people were saying I should do two-thirds pot. In Ep 8, I increased my c-bet size a little. What do you think?

Thanks!!

Hey guys!

Thank you so much for watching. I have learned soooo much from Baluga, and I'm so excited about poker. I can't wait to see how far I can take it.

Here's a blog I posted about it, and included one question for Baluga which is the following:

---Baluga, after a lot of discussion in Ep 7, I’m still a little confused as to what our general bet sizing should be for a c-bet in a three-bet pot? In single-raised pots, I'd do 2/3 and then in 3 bet pots I was doing half pot bets like in Ep 7. Then people were saying I should do two-thirds pot. In Ep 8, I increased my c-bet size a little. What do you think?

Thanks!!

I mean, depends on:
-- player type (bad players valuebet as big as you think you can, bluff as small as you think you can, etc)
-- stack sizes (deeper means you can go bigger, not that you have to)
-- board texture/history/etc etc etc

BUT

I'd say given a regular and 100bb stacks, probably 1/2 pot is probably good. At this point, really, bet size is almost entirely for show-- our opponents draws are rarely more than 0EV, so we don't really worry about giving too good pot odds. pretty much just minimizing our own aggressive dead money in general, so small is good.

I think, haha.

Andrew

Spectacular educational content. Andrew (et al), thanks.

Kristy, let me borrow one of your bracelets some day.

Great vids Baluga...

Can you explain your bet size concern and decisions? utg $10,cutoff $10 BB $2...she is OOP so pot size raise would normally be about $42; Kristy bets $38.

Thanks

I"m curious about this as well.

Time Link to 00:52:52

You say here that with our QQ we have to fold once we bet and he raises. However, earlier, you say we can bet small/call if he turns a hand like 88 into a bluff.

If we bet 75/fold and bet 50/call, where is the threshold for folding vs. calling.

Also, how often are regs raising a river like this as a bluff w/ a marginal hand that has no value vs. our represented range after we bet and at what stakes to players start pulling moves like this in a well thought-out way?

Andrew, I want to summarize what I understand of the situation. And follow up with some questions.

1) At this point our read is that villain is a loose aggressive regular.

2) Our hand is effectively AA against him. Because villain has a high three-bet %.

3) On the flop if we get raised, we can assume he has 2 pair, a set, straight, OESD, or a combo draw (pair + gutshot). Stove range is "77-33,98s,76s,65s,54s,43s,98o,76o,65o,54o,43o". So if we get raised on the flop, we are a 55:45 dog and we have to fold. He also flats sometimes with the same range to balance his calls.

4) On the turn, nothing changed. We are still a dog against that range. If he raises we have to fold.

5) You've already said that bet-folding a brick river is correct. And check-folding or bet-folding a draw completing river is correct.

Now for the questions:

1) So we raise the very top of our range. A good player flats on the button. A medium coordinated flop comes out. And now we have to bet-fold three streets against him. In other words, the only hands we can give him action with are two pair or better. Surely, this is very exploitable?

2) Isn't this an extrapolation of the cts suggestion -- check-fold the flop?

The cts story was in a 4way pot, for one thing...