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

Wow, what a Monday lineup! Anyone else feel like it's Christmas today? This has been a great series, looking forward to this one.

Kristy,

I think it's very brave of you to broadcast the most brutal session you've ever played. I'll admit it was hard to watch in some places but it reminded me of some sessions I've had that I looked at after and thought 'wtf could possibly have gone through my head to do that' which made me smile.

In terms of poker, I'm really not liking these 1/2 pot cbets you've been making. There was a hand where you opened UTG w/ KQ and cbet QJxtt for 8 into 16, this wasn't the only example but it illustrates the point. I really think your standard should be something closer to 2/3-pot as half pot really interferes with your ability to build the pot over the coming streets, whether bluffing or value betting.

I am a monkey aggressive bad player when tilting too.
I think that it could be alot worse at least the times you were contemplating it or did it you had some equity - the next level of tilt is just to playback with everything.
I think it is accurate to say that without image or history most 1-2 players are not playing back at you without decent history with you. So I think that those regulars would be likely treating you as an unknown in many respects and not getting outta line.

there my thoughts fwiw

Sick beat being a 1/2 reg and not luck boxing into this vid.

Kristy, you have nothing to feel bad about, just a standard part of the learning process. It's easy to focus on all the things that go into making the correct decisions when things are going well, but when you are tired, and you lose some pots, especially when those pots represent more of your roll than you are used to, reverting to trying too hard to win is common. One of the biggest factors I use to determine if I'm going to play or not is how rested I am. I really struggled with playing bad when I was tired b/c I want to play all the time, so now if I'm not 100% I use the time I would be playing to work on my game or if I really want to play, I drop down in stakes. So, don't be discouraged and keep up the good work.

everybody makes mistakes, I've had tons of sessions where ive spewed way more, and far more severely.

Keep up the good work, 1/2 is a bit of a tougher game. But once you get used to it you'll realize its not much tougher then .5/1 or .25/.5

ps im glad that unlike you I've never had to broadcast my bad sessions on a poker training website and try and justify my bad plays. That takes guts.

Thanks for the support guys.... haha if you guys have read my last blog, this is the session I was talking about.

Last Blog

After I played the session, I obviously knew it was the worst poker I've ever played, and of course I thought about scrapping the tape and recording a new one, but I didn't think that would help me, or anyone else who was watching. I signed up for this knowing that I'd put myself in a vulnerable spot.

Phatmanrivers -- Good advice. My thoughts were that half pot size c-bets in three-bet pots would be ok because I could get stacks in by the river if I wanted to since there is so much money in preflop. Do you still think I should be making it more?

DiggerTheDog -- Yeah, good point. I'll keep that in mind when I put in my last 1-2 sesh for the last episode

Jsturm -- Haha yeah where were you? I was just giving away money Thanks for the comments

PATheDeuce and CDoubleU -- Thank you

Great episode Kristy and Baluga. U probably helped more people by showing mistakes made than just showing a good session. I ve enjoyed all 7 episodes but am curious why u picked 6 man ring instead of 10 man ring?
does deuces cracked have any 10 man micro limit cash episodes. are there advantages to playing 6 over 10 man . thanks.

Horrible Hank

Time Link to 01:55:19

This is hilarious - it's like you were watching my session yesterday - I can do all 3 at once. Bad aggressive mode 60%, call station mode 30%, super-nit mode 10% (probably because it's the least expensive - hard to lose a ton of money doing that).

Kristy, let's be positive here!! While you were discussing the bad plays, I saw a ton of hands you played perfect. Once "the process" is applied you'll make $$ on the "bad" hands too.

Although you spewed off a few chips here I think you have done fantastic across the series so far, I hope I can do as well.

Kristy,
....I really think your standard should be something closer to 2/3-pot as half pot....

Hi Kristy,
It did seem to me that the betsizing changed when we arrived at the $2nl stake. You dropped your normal betsize down from what you were doing before (constant 2/3-pot bets) down to a different standard (1/2 pot bets). I am guessing this might be because the money is bigger and more intimidating. You definitely kept cbetting/3betting (aggression), but with lesser relative $$. I noticed this right away.

But regardless, a super congratulations for stepping up to the plate! More than any other video, I was really looking forward to this one. When this video didn't show up last week, I thought you may have backed out of the $2nl challenge. Baluga promised "disaster" and "fun" (and learning).

Hat off to you! You inspired me to give it a try (someday soon). After all, if a "girl" can do it, why can't I? Just kidding! I'm sure it also helps knowing that Baluga is going to review the session. Lucky you!

Really enjoy this series!

regarding the 1/2 pot bets. The correct adjustment in villain's shoes is to call more, since he is getting better odds. This means that against a thinking player we need to bluff more in later streets as his range will be wider and he'll have more hands that will fold but bluff if you check.

i.e. if we plan to bet once and give up, 1/2 pot is better against someone who plays fit-or-fold. But a lot of people will peel with stuff like overcards+backdoor and letting them do that (check-folding after one stab) is giving away money. Against those people we need to either bet bigger, or barrel more.

There's also a lot of players who will have a level-1 gameplan of the sort "I have second pair, so I'll call one bet and fold to the second". Against them we profit more by betting big with our whole range, since what they put in the pot is effectively dead money that we can take later.

solid vid as always + great content

BUT

The difference between when kristy/and we see it und Baluga sees it and talks about it, gets really annoying with time. I find it at times hard to follow btw dont (directly, takes a short time^^) understand where we are in the vid^^. And so its pretty hard to focus.

Maybe iam the only one, but i already didnt liked it in the last one.

I go into super nit mode when I'm running bad. What are some suggestions to deal with changing mode when you get frustrated or is running bad?

Hey for future videos could you try to normalize the volumes a bit? Kristy is like 10x as loud as Baluga and it's impossible to find a balance where I can hear Baluga and Kristy isn't shockingly loud.