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Poker Video: MTT/SNG by Soepgroente (Mid Stakes)

Time Link to 00:55:31

I think this UTG shove for 15bb is weaker than you make it out to be. People jam AT-AQ here, too, because they don't want to raise-fold or deal with a flat call.

At 150/300, yes, at 15/30k almost nobody jams AT or AJ like that (would be pretty awful to jam AJ there), and a lot of ppl will raise/decide AQ. I'm sure it happens, and I'm also sure I must've had a read that this guy was solid/tight/scared and this 15bb jam would never be AJ, otherwise I'd stick my chips in

Time Link to 00:40:47

I keep being amazed at how terrible calls people make if I bet small in a spot like this. My image is fairly similar to yours, and when given five to one a call villains just click the call button with any showdown value without thinking it seems. While by betting big they start looking at the board and all the combos that have them beat and that they don't want "spew" a big portion of their stack.

Thank you 4 the videos, vingtcent, as someone who has just started to take MTTs more seriously i find them enlightening (especially the parts where you talk )

I was surprised how happily you get it in in the A6o-hand (46:00) and consider it a "massive cooler" afterwards. To me cbet/call seems +EV given your image, but still thin and high variance (and we're more or less busted if we lose). Which of his combos do we crush exept the spew like QJcc or so? With these stacks and you opening superwide he may shove hands like 65s, 76s pre expecting a ton of folds (?), so its hard to find a worse 6 in his c/shove-range. Most of his 3s probably go into the muck pre, A3s i would also expect him to shove. You focus on the fact the he should not have many kings, but what counts is what he actually has and not so much what he should have. You say yourself that many people do not shove KJ even if they should.

Still I see you open a lot and cbet with a very high frequency, so this must be a cbet/call - if there wasnt any decent alternative. But doesnt the Ad in our hand cry for a checkback and then call all Turns and many Rivers? That way we get some chips from his bluffs, may outdraw his better hands and never risk our tournament life. I dont need you to explain to me that you can profitably cbet/call this, but i dont quite get why you prefer it over the alternative play. Ok, if this was the daily 100+r or something, just cbet/get it in and come back tomorrow if things dont work out. But deep in one of the few big ones with a healthy stack i would glance at my Ad and take the route with less variance.

Maybe you can say a littlebit about the 87o-4bshove at 53:30 and the underlying principle. As I understand whenever youre the bigstack deep in a tournament and have started to open very wide, you more or less relentlessly 4bshove on those guys with like 30BB who can still 3b/fold, right? How comes this never backfires (at least not in the videos I've seen)? Shouldnt the villain in this hand and all the other guys at the table not dramatically open up their 3b/call-Valuerange vs you? That way you would find yourself frequently getting it in bad.

I was surprised how happily you get it in in the A6o-hand (46:00) and consider it a "massive cooler" afterwards. To me cbet/call seems +EV given your image, but still thin and high variance (and we're more or less busted if we lose). Which of his combos do we crush exept the spew like QJcc or so? With these stacks and you opening superwide he may shove hands like 65s, 76s pre expecting a ton of folds (?), so its hard to find a worse 6 in his c/shove-range. Most of his 3s probably go into the muck pre, A3s i would also expect him to shove. You focus on the fact the he should not have many kings, but what counts is what he actually has and not so much what he should have. You say yourself that many people do not shove KJ even if they should.

Yeah, for the same reasons he doesn't shove any of the other hands you mentioned. It's hard to put him on a range, if he only ever has KQ and KJ and folds or shoves the rest of the hands that want to get it in on that board preflop I'm exploiting him massively with my preflop raise/cbet combo. If he ships wide enough to combat my range I have to get 2nd pair top kicker in imo. I just prefer not to let 9T have its equity. Also if he wants to get in 76 and more overcards hit on the turn I may lose a ton of value. Obviously the "massive cooler" comment is a bit joking/sarcastic. These hands are always a bit stupid, cause if he has 76 I look like a genius and if he has KQ I look like a moron.

Still I see you open a lot and cbet with a very high frequency, so this must be a cbet/call - if there wasnt any decent alternative. But doesnt the Ad in our hand cry for a checkback and then call all Turns and many Rivers? That way we get some chips from his bluffs, may outdraw his better hands and never risk our tournament life. I dont need you to explain to me that you can profitably cbet/call this, but i dont quite get why you prefer it over the alternative play. Ok, if this was the daily 100+r or something, just cbet/get it in and come back tomorrow if things dont work out. But deep in one of the few big ones with a healthy stack i would glance at my Ad and take the route with less variance.

I'm generally not looking for reduced variance, that just makes me play too weak/suboptimal. Also, I run good so I like flipping. And we're not out if we lose this hand!

Maybe you can say a littlebit about the 87o-4bshove at 53:30 and the underlying principle. As I understand whenever youre the bigstack deep in a tournament and have started to open very wide, you more or less relentlessly 4bshove on those guys with like 30BB who can still 3b/fold, right? How comes this never backfires (at least not in the videos I've seen)? Shouldnt the villain in this hand and all the other guys at the table not dramatically open up their 3b/call-Valuerange vs you? That way you would find yourself frequently getting it in bad.

I kinda soulread these spots to be honest. I have a couple of standard things I see that are true for a lot of weaker players, I can't publically give those reads away though I'll tell you the theory behind it though. When you raise a ton people will get sick of you, and raising a ton will only work if you read your opponent correctly. If I'm up against a good player I can't do that and I just fold my 78o and ship whatever top % of my range I think is appropriate, but against weak players I might fold AJ sometimes and ship 78o another time because of dynamic/betsize/timing reads etc. Obviously it does backfire sometimes, but it's entertaining when your A4o binks an ace against their kings too. And they're not going to be 3bet bluffing you anymore after you've shown a 4bet shove for a big amount with K6 suited. It's kinda hard to explain and I've only recently changed a bunch of stuff about my game, but think of it this way: I can play solid and have 70% equity to get my 10k chips to 18k chips (say I blind down a bit while I wait for a flophit) or I can play like a monkey and get it in for 40k chips with 35% equity.

The main idea is that weaker players look at a 30-40bb stack late in a tournament and don't want to get it in with AQ or 99. They do see me raise a ton and they're like "well he raises so many weak hands, I'm going to bluff him this hand". But it's hard to pick up JJ+/AK so if they don't widen their valuerange they polarise themselves. The key to beating a guy that 2b/4bets everything is to just start 3bet/calling ATo and 66, but people don't do that deep in the warmup. Instead they 3bet a pretty hand, or something with blockers, or even worse, 3bet AJo cause it's so far ahead of my range and then fold it when I ship.

I keep being amazed at how terrible calls people make if I bet small in a spot like this. My image is fairly similar to yours, and when given five to one a call villains just click the call button with any showdown value without thinking it seems. While by betting big they start looking at the board and all the combos that have them beat and that they don't want "spew" a big portion of their stack.

Hmm, I find that I actually get a good amount of herocalls for the bigger betsizes too. But I agree in this particular spot a smaller bet is probably better. People just don't wanna fold anything getting 4 of 5:1. But it's hard to be results oriented on hands like these unless he actually calls a big bet with a superweak hand, maybe he just had ace high and was trying to hit or w/e and wouldn't call any sized bet.

is this Jake Cody?

Me? No, I'm flattered though.

Time Link to 00:27:20

The blinds have to be playing really badly for this kind of push to be profitable.

I think this UTG shove for 15bb is weaker than you make it out to be. People jam AT-AQ here, too, because they don't want to raise-fold or deal with a flat call.

Fold can't be that bad, because you have to commit your whole stack against players to act. Since you have blockers, you only run into AA/KK about 5% of the time, but that is significant, because the side pot will often be larger than the main pot.

Time Link to 00:38:46

I think this is a pretty clear spot to value bet. I am a little bit unclear as to why we only talk about "good" preflop hands being in his range. He can easily have 86 on the river... potentially 75 that was freaked cuz the flush got there and wants to c/c.. a slowplayed 4 thats worried about the flush etc. Not sure at this point that we have a read on msroj enough to say that hes not playing weakly deep in a big tourny. Unless hes a reg Id be putting quite a number of hands in his range that have us beat. But at the same time there are indeed way more hands that villain can have that we beat and may call a bet... 6x range is pretty wide considering all he did was defend in the BB pre.

Time Link to 00:43:49

This is the same villain that called UTG+2 with a 20xBB stack with A4s. What do you think hes defending in the BB? Id guess >50% of hands.. This is a clear cbet not because he can have a lot of small pairs and AT and whatnot but more because he can have 56o A2o 74s and have whiffed completely. Our hand isnt really strong enough to bluff catch since most of his range will have 6 outs vs us and we are unsure what his turn/river tendencies are with a lot of his range so we just cbet to pick up the dead money. When he folds I'm pretty convinced that we nearly always had the best hand here.

just want to add that getting insights into your thought process or just hearing you talking about the game is just as interesting as watching 2 hot chicks making up in front of you... for every passionate poker player... excellent series!