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

to the guys expecting 6max--

don't worry, I will be releasing some 6m content this season. I wanted to try my hand at HU ( this is my first HU video), and I think it turned out alright (If a little bit hectic and helter-skelter, which could definitely be improved for my next vid).

Also, as someone who plays HU, 6m, and full ring, i'd recommend learning all three types, as understanding each context will help your game in all areas.

Andrew

Can you expand on yout turn check/call on the left table? You say he is often VB which sounds odd in my mind. I dont understand why we call and was just hoping you could help me clear things up in my mind. Thx

we call because
A) we have a lot of equity when behind (and also we can reliably get stacks in given the HU context)

B) we sometimes have the best hand on the turn, and he sometimes decides not to bluff the river.

C) its good to not c/f our entire range after we c/r the flop.

hope that helps
Andrew

A few times you floated or considered floating a flop raise in a 3-bet pot out of position (AK on QJXr, KT on QQ9). What do about jamming in this spot? What would you do w/ a value hand on these boards (AA, AQ etc.)? I usually ship my entire range that I'm going to continue with in these spots. Seems to me like we're in no-mans land when we flat.

on dry boards, there's nothing wrong with calling OOP because our opponents range is polarized between strong value hands (the ones that will continue to value-own themselves) and bluff hands (that are usually drawing dead and we don't want to reraise).

we'd want to shove when our opponents range has equity, or when they're raising for thin value and then planning to get to showdown later (the former is far more likely than the latter)

Andrew

No disrespect but I have to say I am quite disappointed that this is HU after I read this;

FRIDAY
NoahSD/BalugaWhale 6max
6max NL strategy from our 2 best 6max NL Producers, alternating each week.

Was looking forward to some Baluga 6max on the solo tip. Maybe next time.

i guarantee you'll learn a ton from this video and i haven't even watched it yet. please guys, don't pigeonhole yourselves; HU videos are great for your 6-max game.

i guarantee you'll learn a ton from this video and i haven't even watched it yet. please guys, don't pigeonhole yourselves; HU videos are great for your 6-max game.

I know that and will definately watch the vid but given the pre-vid hype of 6max was a little let down.

Here is a .exe to set up your FTP skins for their new software.

http://static.deucescracked.com/joe/DC-Gray-V0Fb.exe

Just DL, and run the program.

-Joe

ship the mods!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Must say I am disappointed as well. 6max content, especially from Baluga, is always great stuff and it seems it is getting harder to find. I know this vid is probably good as well, but slightly disappointed.

I hate learning about poker from Baluga!



p.s. You 6 max kids, watch it and tell me you don't learn at least something that will help you out...

this vid disappointed me.

Time Link to 00:13:52

while I agree that his flop and turn peel with KJ are pretty bad, I kind of feel like your turn betsizing cost you the pot. If you bet a little more (like around $100) something that looks like a more reasonable bet I feel like you get considerably more respect. Considering that the only Ax hand in your range is probably AT I think villain is assuming that he might have as many as 10 outs on the river and you are giving him better than 4-1 on a call. I'm not really sure what your line reps other than AT, and as an aggressive player you can have so much other stuff in your range that suspicious villains are going to call the turn light.

TBH I would almost prefer a check back on the turn which reps Tx or a mid pair that got scared, and then bluff the river if he checks it to you. That being said I can see a lot value to betting the turn if you would minraise some A4, A2s etc on the flop, I just think you need to bet more to fold out his weak holdings that have you beat (like small pairs GS or KJ KQ that are peeling).

pretty weird spot though since we pretty much dont ever expect villain to show up with KJ or KQ there.

Time Link to 00:16:02

I really hate the 4bet size, and am not a fan of the 4bet at all. After we've just shown the propensity to call a little light in 3bet pots, spew a little postflop, and run big bluffs this is about the perfect situation to call pf and raise a rando flop. We just got dealt the nuts, villain 3bet us again, and we haven't 4bet once the entire match and then we 4bet to waaaay over pot. So our hand doesn't look like a bluff (its almost a committing 4bet), we aren't giving him much room to shove over top, we aren't giving him odds to peel with KQs or AQs or stuff like that and villain just showed us that he may be overvaluing his outs and likes to make suspicious light peels. Instead we 4bet in a spot where we should be getting a lot of respect just when we don't want it.

I really like a flat in this spot and min raise pretty much all flops. and if you decide you want your first 4bet to be for value then I'd probably make it something like $96 and see if we can get him to call OOP or shove 88+ and AQs into us.

Time Link to 00:36:58

i think this is a great spot to take a LHE concept and apply it to NL. There are lots of times when great LHE players will raise the river with an Khigh hand when they think their opponent is bluffing because they think that their opponent could be bluffing with Ahigh but can't call a raise. In this case villain could be making that min raise with any paired holding or 7x just trying to end the hand on the flop, and if we assume he folds all of those hands to a river bet it may be more profitable to bet somewhere bewteen 1/3 and half pot on the river in order to make sure all of his weak value hands fold. Unless villain is making this flop play with KJ or JT (which seems unlikely) he shouldn't really have any value hands that can call us on the river. as well as the fact that we shouldnt expect him to bluff so there is no point in trying to bluff catch with AK.

my initial thought on the hand was to check the river as well, but after seeing the KJ hand, and some of the other non-standard lines that villain has taken I think we can rep some strength on this board, he can't, and we'll get a fold more than enough for the river bet to be profitable.

either that or I'm the master of results oriented thinking LOL.

NL strategy from our 2 best 6max NL Producers, alternating each week.

I really agree, two best MSNL coaches by a mile for me! Also would like 6max but will watch this too to improve my 6max game

Time Link to 00:34:54

Sorry messed this post up see below

Time Link to 00:34:54

Here you are about to start talking about range manipulation but a hand comes up and you never get back to it. Could you please cover this in your next vid or write a post about it.

Cheers

Wow that 4bet with AA early on is really really bad. Both the size and the fact that you 4bet at all.