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

Baluga - you don't have to beat around the bush, just tell 'em already. The key to NLHE is making flushes, and you can't do that as easily with offsuit cards.

I disagree you can make 2 flushes with offsuit cards and only 1 with suited. Didn't think of THAT now did you?

This was a very interesting video with intersting concepts and another style of playing as used to see.
Hope to see more from you.

im not trying to be a dick here, i really liked the video.
if you came into this session readless, i dont see how you can categorize him as passive and non bluffy after the basically first thing you see him do is pot it into 2 players not as pfr and then just check fold turn. this shows he was at least semibluffing the flop. That combined with the unlikelihood of him having 888 or TTT cause of your holding and how often he really pots it with a strong made hand on that board which is one that hit your UTG raising range pretty hard. im not that familiar with this - but i think youre getting better than 2:1 on the turn and given how drawy the board just got and how likely i think he is to ship in AJ+ i thinks its a really easy bet/call.

I've been wondering if and when you'd do a ghost vid. definitely worth the wait. really high quality vid and looking forward to future ones.

startrak-
haha dont worry man, in my view youre not coming off as a dick. Now, to your points--

you may have noticed I didnt play with a HUD. That's because I don't play with a HUD, i get my reads from easier stuff. For example, with this particular villain, I had played one orbit and he had either limped, minraised, or done both in that one orbit before i started recording. I think he may have been on another table with a half-stack as well. Right off the bat, my read is going to say "passive" until proven otherwise.
I think his potting into 2 players is either top pair, a monster, or air. Had the pot been HU, i wouldve raised here and tried to get it in with an A, but with the fish behind it seemed better to call and see the turn (hoping the fish came along). Once the turn card comes, and he checks, I think his most likely hand is now an A (which i'm pretty sure he won't c/r unless he 2pairs on the turn), followed by air, followed by monsters. If i don't think he c/r air or an A (which is apparently where we disagree), then i have to fold if he c/r.
Another thing to think about is to consider the equity of his hand vs mine. If he has, say AJo he has 8 outs. That's best case scenario. If he has A7 with a FD, he has 23 outs and is a favorite vs me. My point, as i tried to explain in the video, is that just being ahead most of the time isnt enough-- the equity has to work out. And, in that case, I'm pretty sure it doesnt, as i'm drawing close to dead when behind, and hes always drawing live.

Say this is his range for check shoving the turn, you still have odds to call. You might not think he ships AQ/AJdd on turn, but I gave him calling every A8o preflop, its still not even close. you have to remove AKo in this range for it to be close, and even then shouldnt this be swayed towards a call and the proper adjustmest can be made after that considering how close it is, he is a fish and might spazz out even though hes passive and how likely it is that you make a mistake by folding?

this is prolly a dead topic right about now, so agree to disagree and thanks for taking the time to answer.

Text results appended to pokerstove.txt

1,320 games 0.005 secs 264,000 games/sec

Board: Ac Td 8s 6d
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 42.500% 42.50% 00.00% 561 0.00 { Th8h }
Hand 1: 57.500% 57.50% 00.00% 759 0.00 { TT, 88, AKs, AdQd, AdJd, ATs, A8s, Ad7d, Jd9d, AKo, ATo, A8o }

from my microstakes experience and coaching, i agree with the statement in the video that most people dont bet/fold enough against passives. also, great vid overall, very interesting way to think about the game and its actually caused me to remember some stuff from our coaching that got buried a long time ago!

Watched the first half of this during breakfast, def liking the discussion of image and 3betting. I think you did miss some obv opens in LP, however I am pretty sure you normally make these. I know from experience that when making a video, especially when you're deep in thought trying to explain something, you can make some little mistakes on the tables that you normally don't. I have noticed this in my videos, as I will get lazy with bet sizing, or just autofold some hands because I am all wrapped up in my oration. Good video Baluga, looking forward to future vids!

I enjoyed this video very much and hope you make another one soon. What you talk about in this video is something that I've been intuitively trying to do at lower stakes (not as much because even regs are making a lot of preflop mistakes) and your commentary help develop my thought process into something more tangible.

People bring up the T8 hand and say check/folding the turn is bad (maybe it is maybe its not) but the KQ hand where you fold the flop and ran into two sets was pretty sick. That's a spot where I pretty much always call because, hey, I has TP2K against bad players and I'm getting like 32450926435874 to 1 lolz.

Also the hand where you fold TPWK on the T9x board to the overbet from the player that had overbet AA earlier in the session was example of a hand I sometimes call when I'm not playing my A game. Its something that I think a lot of lower stakes players struggle with and that's folding hands that have very poor relative value against villain's range of hands.

Sometimes I have to tell myself, folding is ok, they give you a fold button for a reason, use it!

One of the better videos i think on the site. Only thing negative i could say is i think u raised the buttton to tightly. Saw u fold like A9o and k8o etc on the button whivh should be ez rasies IMO. Other wise great video

I haven't really watched the video yet but I trust it's a solid vid, thanks for making this baluga.

I have to be a nit here, the end of one of your replies,

remember guys, this is NO-Limit, and the blinds don't really matter.

I have to disagree with this wholeheartedly. When it all boils down to it, I'd think our goal would be exactly that: winning the blinds.

sure AMT. on its most basic level, poker is about winnning the blinds. If there were no blinds, nobody would play without AA.
So lets compare limit and no limit. In limit, you risk a small amount for a potentially huge payoff with little drawback when you steal the blinds. risking 2 small bets to win 1.5 small bets is a good deal.
in NL, the game is about implied odds and reverse implied odds. Winning 1.5bb is nice, but not really the goal. CTS wrote once that he doesnt play loose from the button to win the blinds, he plays loose from the button to play pots with the blinds. So basically, i think winning 1.5bb is nice, but I know that the really important stuff happens postflop.
Thus, when I fold a hand like K8o, its very much on purpose-- that hand sucks horribly to play postflop, even if i can make 1.5bb by taking the blinds.
On the other hand, Q9s should have been an obvious raise and i dont know why i missed that.

goldseraph is right by the way, its easy to make small mistakes while youre trying to explain larger concepts.

Very good video, enjoyed it alot. Good discussion, you convey your thoughts well. As far as missing some opens, I think that's just because your busy discussing things and just miss it. I notice if im on the phone or whatnot I'll play tight and miss those just from being kind of distracted, not a big deal.
Edit: I also think 2 tables is perfect for videos, any more is too many, and one is too few, imo.

That was like the Citizen Kane of poker videos, really great stuff.. I think of all the vids I've seen I got the most out of this one.. and that's saying a lot since there weren't that many post flop spots.. I really like how you explained image and what to do against different player types and will try to implement that next time I play, thanks for a great vid.. more plz.

Very interesting concepts, you also explain really well. The second you started about how is my equity when ahead vs equity when behind I instantly thought about the overpair vs big draw/set situation where most of us (or I at least) still instantly stack off. I've seen this in other vids the "He has a draw here a lot" mentality even though it's a flip against a combo draw.

I still sometimes have issues with my image if I get a run of good/decent hands, where my image gets influenced by my cards rather than myself actively controlling image. I think should adjust quicker and possibly stay away from marginal spots.

Great way to put into words what we lower stakes players still try/think about/experiment with. Keep 'em coming.