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

Hey Baluga great video, ty!

2 quick questions:

1) When you iso-ed the UTG SSer with K4s, you are folding if he limp reraises? and do you think iso-ing there is +EV not knowing his limp reraising frequency. Or is the assumption always that a professional SSer limping under the gun is weakness?

2) Your K2s UTG hand vs. KentheCow- had you turned a heart or a straight what would be your turn line? I'm thinking leading is best because he is probably never bluffing the flop and checking the turn allows for him redraw out on . . .yes? Actually I think leading is the only play so could a case be made for ever checking there? I'm thinking no unless the player is some super aggro bluffy fish . . .

Thanks,

CE

OMGOMGOMG nothing better than being away from DC and teh internets for a couple days and coming back to find a baluga video

I'm only half-way through atm but I had a question that I wanted to get out. Disclaimer: I play FR NL100 and just starting to venture into 200, so I admit I don't understand the dynamics of this specific situation that well.

The K8 hand where you flop top and bottom after raising from UTG and getting called by CO; is this really as standard as it seems? The guy seems loose/passive/bad so far, so I see why value-betting all the way is good. He could def have turned a worse 2 pair. Besides like T9 though, what hands do we really expect him to stack here? Is he really calling down all the way with KQ after we raised UTG and bet every street? Clubs and the JQ OESD both got there, so not only is he less likely to stack light but we are also more likely to beaten. If I get flamed for this fine, but I'm confident that whatever the right thing to do here might be, it is a marginal spot and one worth discussion at the very least. Obviously c/f at this point seems super weak, but I also hate shoving it in when we could so easily be beat and as far as I can tell there are very few worse hands that call.

consuela-
"the guy seems loose/passive/bad so far" followed by "is he really calling down all the way with KQ?"

yes he is. Probably a lot of other weak stuff. Obviously I'm not elated if he goes all-in. But i'm not folding.

canis-
i think he wasn't a pro shortstacker but i'm not positive, i don't remember the hand can cant check right away. yes im folding to a shove.

also id still check the turn against ken, he's likely to continue to value bet a lot of his hands despite the board becoming stronger i.e. sets and straights.

canis-
i think he wasn't a pro shortstacker but i'm not positive, i don't remember the hand can cant check right away. yes im folding to a shove.

also id still check the turn against ken, he's likely to continue to value bet a lot of his hands despite the board becoming stronger i.e. sets and straights.

If he is a pro SSer do you iso him? (I think he is)

So whether to check the turn here is villain dependent and I don't know his tendencies and you do. So if the turn is heart you are checking because you think he still bets- I guess you CRAI? If he checks behind and the river bricks but doesn't pair and you have the nut flush what is your bet size? Are you leading or would you go for a check raise on the river? What if you make your straight on the river? I guess you lead?

Sorry if I'm asking too many questions but more often than I like I find myself choosing the worst line in these situations.

Thanks

Nice vid baluga.

You cbet pretty big sometimes on dry boards like at 54:00 you cbet 25 into 30 with KJ on Q33 against a shortstack. Doesn't this go against the concept of leverage? I don't think it matters too much if you bet 20 or 25, depending on the player.

Btw, in the 3bet pot hand with 88 vs QQ. That's a spot where I would bet the turn hoping he puts me on a float and is planning to call or check-raise. What do you say to that, am I just leveling myself with such a play?

Nice vid baluga, i think your general style and handreading are amongst the best iv seen on here, i think only DJ Sensai has an edge on you fwiw. Couple of things i noticed. You mentioned you thought your raise sizes on the flop were quite small, but i though they were generally pretty large. Impressive the way you kept a level head when running pretty chilly.

Also, with regard to the passive players that check/min raise your flop bets, this seems to be happening with more and more frequency on my tables and i really struggle to combat it with 100bb stacks. How do you adapt correctly if you suspect mr. passive might be moving? It took me a long time to learn to just say no to marginal spots but do you preter bluff3betting more/checking back more flops/ floating their flop CR in any kind of preference. Or is folding and letting them have it ok most of the time?

Real annoyances were the out of synch sound, your microphone and (sorry) your laugh, u gibbering monkey lol. nice vid.

hey baluga,
i know ur good and everything but can you use a hud nextime so i can see whats really going on at the tables?
not many of us (viewers) are experts and almost all of us are using huds so please use one nextime!

yeah, please explain why you talk about leverage so much and then bet near ps conti bet on a dyr flop where betting 1/2 to 2/3 ps woul achieve exactly the same result

np fish

Would have liked to hear more about leverage in postflop situations. For example if we make a bet on the turn which leaves villain with just half a pot sized stack then we leveraged his whole stack, right? But did we really? If the board is dry he can just call with a wider range and fold the weakest hands to a river bet so we do need to risk our whole stack if we're bluffing, which is the exact opposite of leverage.

On a more drawy board, with a flush draw for example, villain might want to shove any made hands he wants to continue with. But in reality we're not going to bet a flushdraw on the turn if it only leaves villain with 50-100% of the pot behind. So again what stops a competent player from assuming he's WA/WB and just calling most of the time?

argghh h stupid mexican internet. i wrote a whole response to some questions and it got lost. im going to write it out again but more briefly.

danndann-- No HUD on its way cause I don't have one. sorry.

everyone asking about c-bet sizes and leverage
1-- laziness and the effects of playing at a different level, both completely my fault.
2-- betting slightly too big on the flop isn't that big of a deal so long as we think the guy is likely to call and not to raise. sacrificing leverage is only really really bad when the other guy is in a raise/fold type of spot and thus you lose the extra money when he raises and you fold. However, if he's likely to call, its not SO bad because A) you can draw out and win a bigger pot, and B) you can make him fold and win a bigger pot. leverage is most important in spots where the guy is reduced to 2 out of his 3 choices (raise or fold).

betting big on the flop on Q33 can be good against guys that will peel one with 88 then fold the turn...ty for free money!

What was interesting was that when Balugawhale was vbetting he didn't stop at river when the flush draw got there, he stacked off "well if the flush got there it got there what can you do" (~17min K8 2p). So in general if there is a PSB or less left should just stick it in there ie we are committed.

actually ulkis it really depends more on how many worse hands he can call with. If i had a worse hand than K8 i may have opted to c/f the river.

KK hand. This hand interest me because you make the comment that check raising the turn is too strong and you will get called only by sets and trip 6's. If that assumption is true than are you check raising this turn with missed overcards considering his range contains very few combinations of sets and 6x? Should you not be bluffing more in general if you find yourself commenting that only a small subset of hands will call in a given scenario?