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

Thanks for including my background picture a ton

Thanks for including my background picture a ton

Ha, I told you it'd appear a ton!

Time Link to 00:10:45

I'd be really interested to know what other people would do in this situation.

i think what josh says about preflop is really good. consider some alternate plays - limp, MR or, gasp, fold! this kind of hand is pretty mediocre against a very loose player UNLESS he is super passive or just incredibly straightforward. you miss the flop a lot and, based on reads, you aren't going to be able to get to SD or win the pot easily. i'd much rather have Q7s or something than 65s v this player.

on the flop, i'm not thrilled with the idea of 3betting the flop. against these aggrotards, you really need to be putting the last money in. i suppose you could 3b and blindly jam the turn, but i'd much prefer peeling and jamming any turn card. you can't c/jam only clubs/7x. you're calling too much on the flop to do this.

MR turn with 65s isn't a bad idea for the same reason that i expect to get called (by a lot of his air) if i 3b the flop. it offers him a great price and probably never loses him.

i think what josh says about preflop is really good. consider some alternate plays - limp, MR or, gasp, fold! this kind of hand is pretty mediocre against a very loose player UNLESS he is super passive or just incredibly straightforward. you miss the flop a lot and, based on reads, you aren't going to be able to get to SD or win the pot easily. i'd much rather have Q7s or something than 65s v this player.

on the flop, i'm not thrilled with the idea of 3betting the flop. against these aggrotards, you really need to be putting the last money in. i suppose you could 3b and blindly jam the turn, but i'd much prefer peeling and jamming any turn card. you can't c/jam only clubs/7x. you're calling too much on the flop to do this.

Been thinking about it a lot, I almost am leaning now towards c/jamming any turn. I think he's so bluff heavy here.

I'd be really interested to know what other people would do in this situation.

VS this type of villan I would fold pre, I want a tp type hand that i can just call him down with, like K8, Q9 etc. So for me high cards are much better here.

When we start to fight fire with fire I think we are falling into his trap when we do it with 6 high

on the flop, i'm not thrilled with the idea of 3betting the flop. against these aggrotards, you really need to be putting the last money in. i suppose you could 3b and blindly jam the turn, but i'd much prefer peeling and jamming any turn card. you can't c/jam only clubs/7x. you're calling too much on the flop to do this.

it's fair to say he may peel too often against a 3-bet. a pot 3-bet is about half stacks so it wouldn't shock me if he peeled that AQdd. there's still the option of shoving or putting in most of the effective stack too. it may get him off A-high gutters or bottom pair.

I didn't think of the idea of 3-bet smaller/close eyes/shove turn. I prefer that to calling and check/jamming. the problem with that is it's entirely based on the assumption that he will barrel the turn frequently enough with some bet/fold hands. if he's not doing that often enough, it's a disaster. if you have confidence that most players who fit this description will follow through with air then obviously it's fine.

it's possible for chk/shove only good cards to be the best play. since we're just basically guessing his bluff frequency on the turn, the nice thing about that is if (1) he always bluffs turn cards, then when we do get to c/r it's hugely +EV even if we only do it around 30% of the time, or (2) he rarely bluffs the turn, we can steal it on the river when he checks and still have decent equity when we c/r the turn and get called.

best play by villain turn tendency:
1. Bluffs frequently - c/r any turn
2. Bluffs infrequently - don't c/r bluff the turn or only c/r bluff better turn cards. bet the river when he checks the turn behind.
3a. No idea - c/r turns that give us greater equity, otherwise c/f. if he checks back, bet the river.
3b. No idea - 3-bet the flop

and again, I may just fold the flop because I'm still not convinced there's a legitimate read here and the risk/reward is just not very good.

yup! all of that looks pretty solid. on the whole, though, if his flop range is really light, which we seem to have reason to believe, than almost any of our continuing plans should give us

1) some opportunity to exploit this
2) some additional info for future spots

It’s funny, before I sat down to watch this video I had, what was one of the worst session 6max I had in my life. I lost about 11 stacks and about as many sets (except for one always as a huge favourite on the flop or turn). I lost almost every flip, I hit the wrong outs in the wrong situation, I couldn’t win a big pair vs. smaller pair PF allin and I lost quite some big pots with strong overpairs on rather safe boards. I felt bad and had the feeling to lose the confidence in my play, but it wasn’t that bad as it felt half a year ago, when I had my last downswing. It might be, because I pretty much was crushing nl50 and nl100 in the last months, but I think it’s more because of what Josh said. You are getting used to this kind of stuff. We underestimate what a huge part variance plays in that game.
Review your hands, take some time off, if you don’t feel like playing at all or still feel tilted, but you have to return to tables and put in more volume as soon you in the right state of mind. I think that’s the best way to regain confidence. The longer you stay away from the tables the more your confidence suffers and the more you start to questions yourself. Losing 6 stacks is part of the game. So is losing twice as much. Especially when you play vs. a lot players, who know the basics of the game a least.

@hands:
65s: As mentioned, just dump 65s PF vs. such an aggrotard. I’m pretty sure calling with it oop is a -EV play for 99% of all players out there vs. such an aggressive player. OOP you need some kind of hand strength to support you in combating his aggression. In truth even his wide range is ahead of 6h.

35s: I don’t like the 3bet vs. a 17/13 unless he has a really high fold to 3bet. If I read your HUD correctly you only have 24 hands of him, so it might be ok as a bluff, but let’s say you have 200 hands and he remains to be a nit. You only should 3bet these hands, when this guy has a high fold to 3bet and or at least a high fold to cbet in 3bet pots. Most of the money you make will be off his PF folds or his flop folds. I don’t think it matters much that you 3bet rather tight as Josh says. After 24 hands this guy can’t know that and he seems to be a nit. You don’t have to get involved with 53s vs. a rather strong range unless you have some reads that 3betting and cbetting is actually +EV vs. this opponent.
On the turn I wouldn’t take a check call line. Check raising might be ok, because it would fold out many better hands and he might call with AKs, KJs. But I think firing a second barrel is better. Consider the typical range of a rather tight player:
He might peel your cbet with some of his small PPs and with all his gutters and better draws. Allowing him the chance to check back all these hands on the turn is a mistake. Even vs. an aggrotard, who floats every flop I would fire a second barrel, just because he could be very well bluff with a better hand he actually might fold to your second barrel. Additionally many cards could hit the river you have to check fold. In this case you got the best river card to hero call, but any non heart 9-A is a pretty bad card. Even when the river brings a good card you don’t know, if this guy ever bluffs in that spot, so hero calling could be a major mistake. Donking the river after checking the turn isn’t a great option either, because he might get suspicious with JJ or 99 and look you up. After all bad-mediocre players like to see a showdown.

66: Bet/Bet/Bet.
Everything else is just fancy play vs. a 16/12. Remember even rather bad nitty players like to call, if they have something and the board doesn’t look too scary. He is not going to fold TP and he might call two bets with a pair of nines, 87 and 1010+. Unless you have a very, very solid read he is floating with air and turning air or second pair type hand to a bluff on the turn, there is no reason to check the turn. On top of that this guy might fold everything up to a weak king, when you check raise, but would call two more barrels with it, just because check raising looks so much stronger than betting.

A10s: If you have never seen this guy betting the flop multiway oop and all of the sudden the turn small with less than a very strong hand, you have to get very careful. Strange betsizes of regulars on these stakes most times mean they have a very strong hand, so strong they actually think about how to extract the most money out of you, (because they don’t have to weigh in the option to fold their hand, which clearly helps your thought process in the limited time frame of online poker).
I would still call the turn, but I would check behind the river, because it’s highly unlikely he has a flush or a nine in this spot (or any other hand he calls with). You might feel dumb, when he shows KJs, but you still gained a lot of information. On the other had you feel pretty good, when he shows you a boat and you only paid a couple of bucks to find out he likes to peddle the nuts (and probably is barreling too many weak hands).


I want to add two more things:
1.) Ingame I have made (and in the heat of the battle I might still make) the same mistakes you did. It’s part of becoming a better player. So don’t feel bad about it.
2.) Pls don’t hide the results. I think it’s very important to see what villains showed up with and to discuss what we can learn from it to beat him, when a similar spot comes up.

Thanks for the interesting hands!

Hi Tolp

It's killing me not to look. But in general, I'm not sure how May has gone so far. I feel like I'm playing good. I'm just hoping for a good surprise at the end of the month. As said in the video, it's pretty hard to ignore the results, but at the same time, it makes very little sense to be checking through a session or after a session because in the grand scheme of things, the relevance of 1k-2k hands is minimal, I just need to keep reminding myself. But as said, so far I haven't looked.

65s - Unfortunately it's not in my nature not to go to war with these aggrotards. But I admit, I would prefer something a lot more playable. I was floating the flop with the intention of c/jamming the turn, and I stand by that. It doesn't make a lot of sense to 3bet the flop. We wouldn't with KK. Folding it pf makes me feel a bit sick to tbh, but I see how vs this guy, we're just gonna be getting 3bet a ton. Vs this opp, I think we're better off just running to another table. Which I think I did. I really don't agree with the philosophy of make a hand and get paid, 'cos thats pretty difficult to do. His wide range is ahead of 56, you could argue he is raising for value OTF. But he doesn't know that, his hand is unlikely to be able to take the heat. I would estimate his bluffing frequency is around 80%. I don't know a lot about him, but I would imagine he is very imbalanced. Would probably be cool to sit on his left, to put him in some tough situations.

53s - OTT I beat some of the hands you mentioned, I understand they have really good equity vs my exact hand. There's a good chance he's value/protection betting OTT with a PP, but OTR. It seems super unlikely. Why would he bet a small PP to get my to fold a FD? You've contradicted yourself a bit, by saying good players like to see SD. I would imagine with 88-99/JJ he would check behind river. Even marginally Qx hands are likely to check behind. So that basically leaves the nuts, his range is pretty capped IMO, going by population reads, I would expect him to 4bet get in QQ, or a bluff. It's pretty hard to make the nuts, so more often or not I think he's likely to bluff with KJ,AJ, or another heart draw.
Thanks for your honesty. The ATs hand is pretty weird. I've been talking at length about it with a friend. We done some maths and came to the conclusion of value betting just over $3. People won't be able to fold trips or an OP, plus the unlikely event he does have a flush.

Whats results do you want to know?

65s - Unfortunately it's not in my nature not to go to war with these aggrotards. But I admit, I would prefer something a lot more playable. I was floating the flop with the intention of c/jamming the turn, and I stand by that. It doesn't make a lot of sense to 3bet the flop. We wouldn't with KK. Folding it pf makes me feel a bit sick to tbh, but I see how vs this guy, we're just gonna be getting 3bet a ton. Vs this opp, I think we're better off just running to another table. Which I think I did. I really don't agree with the philosophy of make a hand and get paid, 'cos thats pretty difficult to do. His wide range is ahead of 56, you could argue he is raising for value OTF. But he doesn't know that, his hand is unlikely to be able to take the heat. I would estimate his bluffing frequency is around 80%. I don't know a lot about him, but I would imagine he is very imbalanced. Would probably be cool to sit on his left, to put him in some tough situations.

the fact you wouldn't 3b KK means you should be more open to 3b 65s.

don't make decisions based on how you feel - use logic. the ranges you play preflop are not linear by strength. 65s makes sense as part of a range that will have semibluffing hands and whatnot v regs and more passive fish, but against this guy who will apply a ton of pressure and not fold, it's just going to be a pain in the ass.

the fact you wouldn't 3b KK means you should be more open to 3b 65s.

don't make decisions based on how you feel - use logic. the ranges you play preflop are not linear by strength. 65s makes sense as part of a range that will have semibluffing hands and whatnot v regs and more passive fish, but against this guy who will apply a ton of pressure and not fold, it's just going to be a pain in the ass.

That'll just mean my 3bet is very unbalanced here? Logically, I'm not sure I'm going to be 3betting anything here? Since game flow dictates he is going to bet the turn with a high frequency.

I wish I would be able not to look at my results  Good job!

65s – I see you reason for check jamming the turn. It definitely not a bad choice.
I know it’s hard to make hands, but you could call with some Kxs or Qxs hands and start bluffing/value betting and bluff catching. Depending on the players behind you can start to call and 3bet a ton IP (although that’s difficult here). You also should start to 3bet a ton from the blinds (I would 3bet A8s for value against this guy). I think going to war by calling OOP with 6h and try to flop or turn some equity to re-bluff is a bad idea vs. these kinds of opponents. Remember, you always can tighten up. Most times these aggrotards don’t care and stack of light anyway. At the end of the day vs. these guys you want to win the big pots, let have them some small ones. The opposite is true for nits. We want to win as many small pots as possible and only stack off with the nuts.

Recently I played vs. such an aggrotard and got bluffed a ton and lost about 60BB to him check folding most flops and a couple of small bluffs, which didn’t work. I tightened up and stacked him deep twice with KK, PF allin and won my 60BB back plus 200BB more.
We have to accept that sometimes these guys run hot and if they do it gets pretty ugly. So I think it’s not a bad idea to just leave, if you don’t feel to play back OOP.


53s – Maybe my explanation was a little bit confusing or you misinterpreted me. I don’t think he is going to bet with a PP, he is going to check it behind on the turn. But OTR he might click call, if you decide to donk a brick, while he most likely would fold a PP to a second barrel.
As I’ve said, I think your hero call is ok on this board, because even a nitty player might bluff in this spot. But there also a lot of very tight players, who don’t 4bet QQ PF and who don’t bluff the turn with KJ or AK. They simply check these hands behind as they would do with 88-99/JJ and a weak Q. So why not betting the turn to fold out all PPs and get value from his draws? A check/call line just makes sense, when your hand is pretty strong and not likely to be outdrawn and villain is pretty aggressive. Neither is true here, so giving him a free card is a little disaster.

A10s – Yeah, betting $3 is definitely better than betting bigger. Still, I don’t think villain has trips or a flush very often in that spot.

I’ve written bad to mediocre players (this also includes some bad nits and regs) like to see a showdown, when they can get to one cheaply and/or board isn’t too scary (like in the 66 hand). That’s why I would always bet a 2 on the turn in the 66 hand, because nothing has changed, but might consider checking an A. Simply because this guys is rather calling a river bet than a turn bet with Kx, when an A turns.


I would like to know the results of all reviewed hands. In the 65s hand the aggrotard had AQs. As far as I remember you didn’t mention the other results.
I hope your results are very green in May! I have to win back 11 stacks before my colour changes ;-)