---

Poker Video: No Limit Hold'Em by inavacuum (Micro/Small Stakes)

It's important to realise that reducing variance and earning the most money are not the same thing. In most situations 4betting the JJ will return more money because you earn so much each time the 3bettor folds. When you cede the initiative OOP it makes life difficult. Most good regs will not (or should not) alter their cbet size based on the texture of the flop no matter if they have an overpair, the nuts, or a draw (unless they're playing against a fish). I would play JTs the same way as the 65s in that particular situation.

Time Link to 00:21:02

Hello,

I'm often a little unsure as to what the best play is and why, in situations such as this where I hold 2nd pair type hands as the PFR OOP. On the one hand, by betting, I realise it may be hard to get called by better, and I'm really not in love with my hand if I get raised, even though it may in fact be good. On the other, if I check I'm always worried that it turns my hand face up and may just set me up to put money in, to be barrelled off it by the river. Alternatively, should the flop be checked through, our hand can worsen relative to the board or villain can just take a free card which could improve his air hands.

Is the situation just villain dependent? Vs. a villain who likes to bluffraise flops and is aggro IP do we just have to be willing to c/call down and make some hero calls? Against a passive player who won't bluff when we check surely it will just be easier and more +EV for us to just 'capitalize on the dead money' and c-bet. We also have the potential to turn our hand into a bluff on some cards.

You mean if you held something along the lines of 87s in this spot? There are a few options. If here we had 8h7h we could bet and realise that any turn heart is a good barrel card. The other 87s are probably still in a bet in that those hands improve far less often and we'd like our opponent to fold right now - though of course we can still get value. I'd be less likely to bet something like A7/K7 as those just don't really need to bet and serve much better as bluff catchers than the weaker 7x. There's not a whole lot of turn cards that we can turn our hand into a bluff on in this particular case (Jx, Tx and spades all help our opponents range, low bricks are no good to barrel) but often this will be true and times we bet a weak 7x we can start bluffing on the turn.

Ah, OK - I'm clearer now. When I posted, I was thinking of any 7-x hand but actually I see your point about the merits of playing A7/K7 for a c/call, rather than c-betting.

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Time Link to 00:28:30

Thats confusing. in the KQs hand we just called, when in position and were likely to have the best hand even though we didn't. (which is irrelevant). Yet we 3-bet 65s in the cutoff, when against an agro. surely its better to call and hope to intice the blinds along as 65s is a hand that plays much better multiway...

Great vids by the way...

Time Link to 00:45:08

That line is crazy, absolutely nuts. I think to do this you have to have a great read on the player. even if he has nothing like expected, there is nothing to stop him just going for it on the river, with nothing, and you cant call. Not being a 100NL player, perhaps i wouldn't know but for me this is just crazy. Very impressive when it comes off. Also, i dont see why we wouldnt shove the turn with AK. Weaker kings would have to call and if he has a set or something he is going to shove the river anyway. Unless you feel he would bluff the river, but i still would shove AK on this board.

I know im late to the thread but new to the vids.

Loving the series, inavacuum....

Thats confusing. in the KQs hand we just called, when in position and were likely to have the best hand even though we didn't. (which is irrelevant). Yet we 3-bet 65s in the cutoff, when against an agro. surely its better to call and hope to intice the blinds along as 65s is a hand that plays much better multiway...

Great vids by the way...

We're closing the action with KQs and are very likely to have the best hand - this is a great situation for us, our range is under-repped and we're guaranteed to be in position. It would also be a disaster for us if we got 4bet. I'd rather 3bet worse hands and better hands, though I have no problem 3betting this hand sometimes. I would 3bet the offsuit version more often. With 65s we want to avoid a squeeze and we want to avoid being OOP to the BTN. We also want to play with the betting lead vs villain with a hand that should do well vs his calling range, whilst our perceived range will still allow us to bluff big card boards that miss our hand.

That line is crazy, absolutely nuts. I think to do this you have to have a great read on the player. even if he has nothing like expected, there is nothing to stop him just going for it on the river, with nothing, and you cant call. Not being a 100NL player, perhaps i wouldn't know but for me this is just crazy. Very impressive when it comes off. Also, i dont see why we wouldnt shove the turn with AK. Weaker kings would have to call and if he has a set or something he is going to shove the river anyway. Unless you feel he would bluff the river, but i still would shove AK on this board.

I know im late to the thread but new to the vids.

Loving the series, inavacuum....

It's certainly possible to get looked up by weaker Kx via shoving the turn, but I would expect better players to be able to find a fold there with most TP hands. If we have history that suggests he thinks we're going to shove a wide range of semi-bluffs on the turn then I'd actually like to shove strong made hands to get called by his Kx, but typically I expect players to fold. Yes, he will bomb the river sometimes, but if we consider that a good % of the time he's not going to and we can bluff+20% of the time we improve then I think it's the most profitable line overall. I don't remember if I mention this in-video but it also helps that the only missed draws we should have are backdoors, the flop straight draw comes in and we hold the 8x part of it.

It's certainly possible to get looked up by weaker Kx via shoving the turn, but I would expect better players to be able to find a fold there with most TP hands. If we have history that suggests he thinks we're going to shove a wide range of semi-bluffs on the turn then I'd actually like to shove strong made hands to get called by his Kx, but typically I expect players to fold. Yes, he will bomb the river sometimes, but if we consider that a good % of the time he's not going to and we can bluff+20% of the time we improve then I think it's the most profitable line overall. I don't remember if I mention this in-video but it also helps that the only missed draws we should have are backdoors, the flop straight draw comes in and we hold the 8x part of it.

Thanks for the quick reply. and the explanation, dont mean to sound a pain, i just was confused by a few things...
thanks a lot.

Wow this series really opened my eyes for cash games, bc i am a creative individual by nature, and i was stuck playing the ABC game, sensing that there must be something else to it, even in the lower stakes.Great series Inavacuum, hats off to you.