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

I wanted to post up some notes on this episode as I feel there were some spots I didn't go into enough detail on. That's to be expected for a first attempt and I believe I improve on this in later episodes. I wanted to make sure I recorded more or less straight away and I didn't do any trial runs. I feel this gives a more natural feel to the sessions and also ensures there's going to be a few mistakes in there too. This is something I feel pretty strongly about, in that if you watch the better video producers you will see that they make a number of mistakes during live play videos. What separates them is that they are very quick to pick up on, discuss and rectify these mistakes. It's an approach I'd like to humbly try and emulate. What you will also find is videos where producers have gone out of their way to record a session that has no surface mistakes, which means they have recorded hours and hours of footage just for that sweet spot and that ultimately does a disservice to the viewer.

Small spots:

-I'm aware I got the board wrong when making a note early on where villain donks OOR with a gutshot.
-03:15 table 1, could have called the A7s when deep with SB.
-21:25, table 3, BTN call is probably too loose vs good reg/potentially strong range UTG and solid/tight blinds, I prefer a 3bet or fold.
-In hand where video stops we have NFD on non-paired flop/get it in

Detailed spots:

-KQ vs rivered FH:
Why can we not easily put villain on a FH? His flop bet size is too small, my range is wide and he's giving me incredible odds to peel (which on this flop is v bad), but there's also the fish left to act who is going to potentially put a lot of money in the pot with an even wider range. So, when PFR bets that amount his most likely holding is a pair, draw or air, a range we're barely vulnerable to, plus we want the fish to continue.
Why is it unlikely we have a better FH on the river? Vs his flop sizing we would raise the flop. We're also likely to have 3bet preflop with a hand that would have a better FH, but once we bet the river we are very likely to have straights and flushes, way way more combinatorically than any hand he should be worried about and given we have no history he shouldn't expect me to be able to fold them on the river.

-AT vs turn donk:
All things considered this could be a mistake on my part, I prefer a call to bet some rivers, but lets examime the spot as is. There's no need for him to value-donk a card I should barrel with plenty of air, plus will value bet many worse combos, there's few draws for him to protect vs, I'm very often firing 3 as a bluff on this board and donking turn or check-raising turn prevent me from doing so. Saying I will bet some rivers and also that he's not folding when he calls the turn seems like a contradiction and didn't quite come out right: We're raising the turn so that he can fold/be a fish and call with worse (we don't know anything about villain, which also means he has no reason to believe his donk will induce anything). OTR we can bet the nuts and we can bet Ax, not worried about villain playing AQ or JT (folds the flop) that way, wouldn't have been worried he played KQ that way but knowing the results clearly he could have.

i'd be interested to know your pf flatting ranges. like i saw you flats a4s on the button with one caller v utg open but folding 22 to single raise pre early int he vid (albeit oop). any explanation or words on that? id be interested to know your small pair strategy (particularly when you suggested open folding 33 to reg sb v bb)

i'd be interested to know your pf flatting ranges. like i saw you flats a4s on the button with one caller v utg open but folding 22 to single raise pre early int he vid (albeit oop). any explanation or words on that? id be interested to know your small pair strategy (particularly when you suggested open folding 33 to reg sb v bb)

In the hand with A4s there is also a fish in the pot, I'm going to have a much wider range (esp OTB) in that scenario. We want to play as many profitable spots with the fish as possible. The 22 spot is a situation where assumed good reg opens IP, we're in SB with 22 and assumed good reg is in the BB. Very few good things can happen by calling, we're going to get squeezed a high % of the time and it's not a hand to backraise with or call. Postflop we're going to miss most of the time and the reg(s) are going to be playing close to perfect IP. If we hit a set our implied odds are shallow vs good players who are capable of getting away from hands and is going to put a lot of pressure on our range of small pairs (you can think of it as similar to why we would call 22 vs a nit who 3bets a tiny range but fold it vs a good agro player who 3bets a wide range). I dislike 3betting small pairs but if I'm going to do it it's often from the SB in a situation where we can't call profitably.

When constructing my flatting range I want to be in position as often as possible, or at least closing the action. The spot is going to have to have some very favourable variables to be flatting weak hands OOP (fish, reads, stack sizes, some combination thereof). I want to have a range that I'm going to be able to turn into bluffs more easily, this is why I'd rather have a suited connector than small pair though of course we can do it with any range it always helps to have more backdoor equity.

Time Link to 00:35:00

You don't 3bet A5s from sb vs btn because you are both very deep and you dont want to play it OOP or you just dont like to 3bet this hand?

I think it would be fine to 3bet there.

why do you think it is a bad idea to play at stars? and what site would you recommend?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think I said it was a bad idea, I think I said I don't know why people do. I can understand if people are going for SNE and if they find Zoom fun/profitable. I don't know why people would choose Stars if those variables were not true. If there is a compelling argument I am missing, then I'll be happy to eat my words. As for where to play it really depends, it's a long, subjective topic and I don't really want to go into it in this thread. In general I would say if the person is playing small stakes or lower, to go where-ever they can obtain the best rakeback or equiv. If they are playing midstakes or higher they should go where-ever they can obtain the highest winrate.

Thanks for the vid, vacuum, I look forward to getting more interesting analysis in your future videos as I think you have a good understanding of the game but also recognized you missed some opportunities to go into deeper discussion. I also appreciate you're wanting to put out honest first take videos allowing for yourself to make mistakes and be open to correcting them during play.

Just curious about your thoughts on timing. You often act very fast and just from a meta standpoint I was wondering to what degree you factor timing into your play. I think in one BvB you had 96 in the BB vs a SB open and decided against 3 betting and instead chose to flat because you took too long to act. If that's the case why would you not slow down your overall play? (Just an aside: I really don't think it would have mattered much there ).

Thanks again...

What happened at 34:10 with 88 at bottom left? Couldnt you have the best hand there a decent amount of the time since u played it the way u did

What happened at 34:10 with 88 at bottom left? Couldnt you have the best hand there a decent amount of the time since u played it the way u did

I don't think it's possible I can make a profitable call there vs a competent opponent. The turn is such a bad barrel card for him that he should have very few to no bluffs in his range (he has opened, cbet flop, is cbetting turn when video picks up). My range looks like exactly what it is once I peel the turn and I don't think he expects me to fold the river often. Villain should value bet 88 and better and have very few bluffs, which leaves 88 as a pretty poor hand to call with. The river Qx doesn't effect anyone's range in this particular spot.

Thanks for the vid, vacuum, I look forward to getting more interesting analysis in your future videos as I think you have a good understanding of the game but also recognized you missed some opportunities to go into deeper discussion. I also appreciate you're wanting to put out honest first take videos allowing for yourself to make mistakes and be open to correcting them during play.

Just curious about your thoughts on timing. You often act very fast and just from a meta standpoint I was wondering to what degree you factor timing into your play. I think in one BvB you had 96 in the BB vs a SB open and decided against 3 betting and instead chose to flat because you took too long to act. If that's the case why would you not slow down your overall play? (Just an aside: I really don't think it would have mattered much there ).

Thanks again...

In the regular games I play I am pretty consistent with timing. Making a video probably made me want to get all the actions out of the way and concentrate on discussing the spots. I also don't mass table and don't play against many villains who do mass table so tanking in spots is far more unusual than it would be on Stars NL200 I would assume, where I agree with you in that the timing on the 3bet would not have mattered at all.

Time Link to 00:04:12

Just nitpick about your note. You typed the board as 42TTA with villain holding A2. The board was 34TTA. I only mention this because he called flop and led turn with a gutshot (ie. basically air/ no SD value), whereas on 42TT he has bottom pair and could play differently w/ his weak SD hand. Either way, hilarious line by villain

Read the OP!

Read the OP!

My bad!