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Poker Video: No Limit Hold'Em by sthief09 (Micro/Small Stakes)

Time Link to 00:22:34

I know his c/r is pretty small, but would it be bad to just fold on the flop? Isn't his range for c/ring such a board in those positions just sets+ and hands like 9 8 ? To me, his c/r just looks really strong with BB still left to act. Maybe I'm too pessimistic
Great video btw.

Time Link to 00:23:39

Hey Josh,

how do you feel about the villains play on this hand? I think preflop and flop are fine, but in villains position on the turn I'm often confused. With a set on a 4 to a straight, 3 to a flush board I'm usually completely lost. I think we kind of have to bet the turn as we don't want the board to get even more gross and there may still be value from 2 pair, but what do you do if you get shoved on or called? Say the river is a 3o it seems pretty hard to shove for value?

Time Link to 00:27:43

Would you generally recommend folding 44 vs a BTN open?

In this instance the opener is like a 58/19 fish or something, would you advocate calling against him? What about against a regular?

Time Link to 00:45:32

could you expand on why you would raise AA if you were villain? If he has something like AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ, wouldnt flatting to let him catch a pair/potentially barrel be better? If he has QQ, then you might lose action on a K, 6, J or an unlikely A, but not everytime on all of those cards.

great video and tyia

I know his c/r is pretty small, but would it be bad to just fold on the flop? Isn't his range for c/ring such a board in those positions just sets+ and hands like 9 8 ? To me, his c/r just looks really strong with BB still left to act. Maybe I'm too pessimistic
Great video btw.

It's one of those spots where it just feels weak or premature to fold, but I definitely wouldn't have an issue with just mucking on the flop. We raised UTG and I think it's likely he wouldn't even c/r JT. Against the range of better made hands and strong draws, we're pretty crushed. I can get behind a flop fold. Not much good can come out of calling and seeing what happens on the turn.

Hey Josh,

how do you feel about the villains play on this hand? I think preflop and flop are fine, but in villains position on the turn I'm often confused. With a set on a 4 to a straight, 3 to a flush board I'm usually completely lost. I think we kind of have to bet the turn as we don't want the board to get even more gross and there may still be value from 2 pair, but what do you do if you get shoved on or called? Say the river is a 3o it seems pretty hard to shove for value?

That is truly a gross spot for villain, especially with the shallow stack-to-pot ratio.

In my mind, there are 2 options: bet small as he did, or check. Neither option is great and he's out of position, so it's picking the best of a bunch of bad options. Problem with checking is it obviously provides no fold equity, and it gives free cards to weak hands that happen to have equity (to a chop or 1-card flush). He might find himself priced in, drawing to his boat, and if ahead might find himself getting bluffed on the river.

A small bet has value (hero called AT), and I don't think he gets pushed over too often. Straights likely don't raise because there's minimal value in a raise and they might be drawing dead to a flush. Flushes might decide to slowplay. Even if flushes do raise, that's fairly rare considering 3 big diamonds are out and hero raised UTG. Overall, a raise isn't that common.

A big consideration is whether hero can turn that AT into a bluff if checked to on the river. If not, then I really like betting that 1/3 pot amount, and deciding to put no more money in the pot if the board doesn't pair on the river.

Would you generally recommend folding 44 vs a BTN open?

In this instance the opener is like a 58/19 fish or something, would you advocate calling against him? What about against a regular?

I'd play it against a BTN fish or tagfish for sure and I'd play it against a BTN TAG if a fish is in the BB.

Being in the SB vs. a button open, it's probably the worst spot for a pocket pair. First off, you're out of position and not closing the action. If you're squeezed even 5% of the time, that's enough to turn a marginal winner into a loser.

Also consider that a typical button open is a very wide range and if you do flop a set, it's somewhat rare that BTN will have a hand strong enough to stack off with.

Other considerations:
- how good is the open-raiser? the better he is, the worse it makes your hand.
- how good are you at playing out of position? if you're very good at stealing pots and picking the right flops/turns to check-raise, then you can create enough profitable spots to make up for the lack of implied odds.
- multiway pots: obviously makes these hands more profitable. it's a parlay of sorts. it's much more likely that 1 of 2 villains will make a strong 2nd best hand vs. your set than 1 of 1 villain.

some people say almost never fold pocket pairs, and instead 3-bet them if calling is -EV. I don't think that's a great reason for 3-betting someone if 3-betting other weak hands isn't profitable there. I do think folding can be ok.

could you expand on why you would raise AA if you were villain? If he has something like AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ, wouldnt flatting to let him catch a pair/potentially barrel be better? If he has QQ, then you might lose action on a K, 6, J or an unlikely A, but not everytime on all of those cards.

great video and tyia

there are clear upsides and downsides to both raising and calling. I've definitely done both things in similar spots, and it's often a result of reads and history. if you've been caught bluff-raising flops against villain, it's a good time to raise. if you've been caught floating recently, then that's a reason to call. if villain is known to be aggressive and will bet many turn cards, then that's a reason to call. little reads like that can quickly change it from a raise to a call, and vice versa.

but absent any reads or history, I do like a raise. it's true that those broadway cards may turn top pair, but that's not as often as you might thing. villain needs to both have that hand and turn a 6-outer. if even 50% of his range is overcard hands, and 14% of the time he turns top pair, this happens only 7% of the time.

the #1 reason I have for raising here is that I think you can get stacks in vs. JJ+, and TP is going to be willing to put in a lot of money as well. Those hands make up a bigger proportion of his range than usual since he raised UTG. A 1 pair hand like AA here is going to get weaker and scarier as the board develops so I'd prefer to just push my edge right here against most people.

but as I said, there are definitely factors that will make me want to call. I think it's close.

This video was probably helpful to Lucas, but I didn't get very much out of it. A lot of the hands concerned loose marginal plays/flips/coolers in big pots.

I'd like to see more discussion on small/medium pots that dont get to showdown. Players talk about how opponents "fight harder" for pots at higher stakes. I assume this means fighting harder in pots where nobody has/reps much.

Time Link to 00:20:54

Hey stief cool video one question tho:

You say that you can call OOP with JJ if you think he is getting out of line cause you crush his range. I get this concept, but if he is getting out of line then a 4bet should also be profitable correct? So this kinda works both ways both in favor of being able to call and being able to profitably 4bet.

I geuss it then comes down to postflop playability? Like a pair of jacks is more stable then calling OOP with AQ cause you have to hit a board.

This video was probably helpful to Lucas, but I didn't get very much out of it. A lot of the hands concerned loose marginal plays/flips/coolers in big pots.

I'd like to see more discussion on small/medium pots that dont get to showdown. Players talk about how opponents "fight harder" for pots at higher stakes. I assume this means fighting harder in pots where nobody has/reps much.

I can understand why some of these vids might have a polarizing effect on some people, since we're trying to zero in on the guest's leaks, which may not apply to all viewers. Lucas was unique, in that he's actually stronger postflop than preflop, and most of the errors I noticed were him giving too much action preflop. I can totally understand why this would not apply to you and some others.

Fortunately, it's going to be rare in that regard. Most videos will focus exclusively on postflop play, and those videos should apply to the majority of viewers.

Hey stief cool video one question tho:

You say that you can call OOP with JJ if you think he is getting out of line cause you crush his range. I get this concept, but if he is getting out of line then a 4bet should also be profitable correct? So this kinda works both ways both in favor of being able to call and being able to profitably 4bet.

I geuss it then comes down to postflop playability? Like a pair of jacks is more stable then calling OOP with AQ cause you have to hit a board.

Yes, I agree with most of that.

The issue in that hand was that I didn't think he really crushed the BTN's range. I felt he had enough equity and playability to call, and felt that was more profitable than 4-betting. In that particular spot, UTG vs BTN, 4-betting might even be a losing play. In my mind, calling is slightly profitable there. I could even understand folding if the BTN is a really tough player.

Against a wider 3-bet range, and especially against someone who will 3-bet and stack off with hands like TT or AQ, I'd prefer to 4-bet JJ OOP. Calling will obviously be profitable too, but being out of position without the initiative is really going to limit the profitability of taking a flop. On the other hand, if he's known to flat TT and instead 3-bet junk like 86s, that can swing it to a call. So overall I think it's close, and factors like those I mentioned, and push it from a call to a 4-bet and vice versa.

Regarding playability, I find AQ or AJs to actually be more playable. On most flops that AQ "misses" it'll have enough equity to call or even semi-bluff/protection raise sometimes. when AQ hits top pair, you'll often get lots of action from bluffs or worse made hands. I often feel tied up with JJ-99. on many boards, it's tough to get value with a raise, so I end up calling multiple streets OOP which is not a profitable situation against most people, in general. even though JJ has an equity edge over AQ, the player with AQ, and position and initiative, is going to have the advantage postflop.

Time Link to 00:33:02

Does the fact that AQs=TT here make it an okay 4bet? The guy showed up with AK here, but it's not necessarily the bottom of his 5bet range, right?

Does the fact that AQs=TT here make it an okay 4bet? The guy showed up with AK here, but it's not necessarily the bottom of his 5bet range, right?

I crunched some numbers.

Assumptions:
- MP opens about 25% of hands and stacks off with about 10% of that range. we fold to his push.
- CO always folds
- BTN 5-bets with 1 of 2 ranges: AA-JJ,AK -or- AA-TT,AK,AQ
- if all-in, pot is raked $2 (don't know if that's right but it's important to count rake)

Net results:
Everyone folds: +$10
MP pushes: -$14.50
BTN pushes; we win: +$54.50 (including -$2 for rake rake)
BTN pushes; we lose: -$52.50

Breakeven squeeze rates for BTN:
Tighter BTN stack-off range: 9.85%
Looser BTN stack-off range: 11.92%

So villain needs to be squeezing with at least ~10% of hands here for us to profitably 4-bet. We have almost 200 hands of aggro postflop stats, so it's possible but probably pretty close.

After looking at that, I think I'd favor calling since I'm confident that it's +EV. It's close though, between all 3 options.