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Poker Video: Limit Hold'Em by Deepsquat (High Stakes)

Welcome to the team man! Excited to watch!

Welcome!

http://www.deucescracked.com/videos/11991-Episode-One?seek=589

9 minutes 50 in, talking about having a wide calling range in the big blind versus an UTG open. I know we get really good odds on the call - my concern is that we get a little bit of the flop and end up putting in a lot of bets versus a monster hand. I guess we are going to end up folding a lot of flops?

I agree we can very often get dominated with weak kings and queens - but isn't this even more true with weak aces? Any ace with a kicker worse than, say, a 9, has a good chance of being dominated.

Edited to add link.

Welcome!

9 minutes 50 in

Check out how to leave a time link: Watch this short video.

That will be much easier for the coaches to find the hand and answer your questions, thanks.

LOL at the series title! Love it.

So we are calling all the hands we are going to play in the BB v a SB open

http://www.deucescracked.com/videos/11991-Episode-One?seek=1620

Its true that SB is normally going to cbet so we can guarantee the bet going in there. Isn't it also true that if we 3 bet preflop, we can guarantee an extra bet going in then? I guess the way its played we do information hiding benefits.

The flop comes 88K rainbow and we raise our monster hand at once. I understand the arguments for this, but I wonder how we go about constructing the balanced ranges. I assume these need to be done in advance - its too much to work out at the table.

We need some value hands to wait to the turn to raise. As far as I can see we have pocket pairs, eights and kings that we could do this with. So, do we raise the very best hands - say big pocket pairs, kings and eights - on the flop and leave the rest for the turn?

We are going to need some bluffs on both the flop and the turn. How do we go about deciding which hands to bluff with? On K88 there aren't a huge number of obvious semi-bluffs Should we be doing it with our weakest hands that we don't mind folding with, or perhaps hands with some backdoor outs?

I think constructing balanced ranges, especially on boards without obvious draws (and also low card boards where we often have overcards), is important but difficult. Its something I feel I need to do better but its difficult to work out how to go about this, so I would be grateful for any advice......

Hey guys, thanks for watching!

Welcome!

http://www.deucescracked.com/videos/11991-Episode-One?seek=589

9 minutes 50 in, talking about having a wide calling range in the big blind versus an UTG open. I know we get really good odds on the call - my concern is that we get a little bit of the flop and end up putting in a lot of bets versus a monster hand. I guess we are going to end up folding a lot of flops?

I agree we can very often get dominated with weak kings and queens - but isn't this even more true with weak aces? Any ace with a kicker worse than, say, a 9, has a good chance of being dominated.

Edited to add link.

Yeah we will be c/f alot of flops, especially vs UTG specifically but we are getting a good price and unless we are being complete morons postflop I think it cant be a big mistake, if at all.

Its a spot where you arent going to be making money, we are just trying to minimize how much we lose.

Ill be tightening my range vs a good player obviously and more likely to widen vs a bad one pf but still playing all Ax

I feel that people are prob a bit too tight in the BB but i have no idea how to prove it

And we will have to c/c alot as there just wont be enough hands in our range to kr for value vs his range.

We will have to mix in some turn semi-bluffs to balance the value hands we wait till turn with (Notice I advise waiting till turn alot with all of our continuing range vs UTG)

In regards to Ax hands, we are never going to be in too bad a shape postflop for the reason that many UTG players open every Ax, like A4s etc. So hands like A5o etc are going to be ok alot of the time. This is diff to Kx, Qx hands where they may only open when kicker is 9 or 10+

So we are calling all the hands we are going to play in the BB v a SB open

http://www.deucescracked.com/videos/11991-Episode-One?seek=1620

Its true that SB is normally going to cbet so we can guarantee the bet going in there. Isn't it also true that if we 3 bet preflop, we can guarantee an extra bet going in then? I guess the way its played we do information hiding benefits.

The flop comes 88K rainbow and we raise our monster hand at once. I understand the arguments for this, but I wonder how we go about constructing the balanced ranges. I assume these need to be done in advance - its too much to work out at the table.

We need some value hands to wait to the turn to raise. As far as I can see we have pocket pairs, eights and kings that we could do this with. So, do we raise the very best hands - say big pocket pairs, kings and eights - on the flop and leave the rest for the turn?

We are going to need some bluffs on both the flop and the turn. How do we go about deciding which hands to bluff with? On K88 there aren't a huge number of obvious semi-bluffs Should we be doing it with our weakest hands that we don't mind folding with, or perhaps hands with some backdoor outs?

I think constructing balanced ranges, especially on boards without obvious draws (and also low card boards where we often have overcards), is important but difficult. Its something I feel I need to do better but its difficult to work out how to go about this, so I would be grateful for any advice......

Ill prefice this again by saying that I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with 3betting pf at all. In fact, if villain is opening 75% and play fit or fold vs a 3b then its probably optimal.

I guess my role as a coach is to give you guys an idea on how to play vs very good players. Very good players are good at gathering information and using it effectively. I think it was bryce who said something along the lines of " Poker is a game of information, you give information, your opponent gives information, the person who uses it the best usually wins the $$"

So along those lines, the more information we can withhold from our opponent, all things being equal, the more we profit. Its not quite as black and white as that, but it gets more that way vs the better opponents you play.

Regarding the BB spot specifically, like you said its simply about info hiding. We 3bet pf we get the bet in then, but we also advertise to our opponent that we hold top 30% of hands (or whatever your 3b range is). If we call preflop we are telling villain nothing, and we still get the bet in on the flop.

The other consideration is the hands we can rep postflop.

If we usually 3bet top 35% or more and we hold a hand like 65 and decide not to 3bet pf and flop comes, say, A87 our ability to be strong on this flop and others is hard to rep. We 3b 77,88, good Ax, A7 and A8 usually.

So theoretically, we can bluff more on flops when we dont 3b pf because we will have more value hands in our range and theres nothing villain can do about it.

But like i said, theres nothing wrong at all with 3betting pre. The info leakage by 3betting pf isnt that bad. Not like when we 3b a UTG opener from the BB. This is just someting ive been playing around with and thought it would make for some good discussion

So we are calling all the hands we are going to play in the BB v a SB open

The flop comes 88K rainbow and we raise our monster hand at once. I understand the arguments for this, but I wonder how we go about constructing the balanced ranges. I assume these need to be done in advance - its too much to work out at the table.

We need some value hands to wait to the turn to raise. As far as I can see we have pocket pairs, eights and kings that we could do this with. So, do we raise the very best hands - say big pocket pairs, kings and eights - on the flop and leave the rest for the turn?

We are going to need some bluffs on both the flop and the turn. How do we go about deciding which hands to bluff with? On K88 there aren't a huge number of obvious semi-bluffs Should we be doing it with our weakest hands that we don't mind folding with, or perhaps hands with some backdoor outs?

I think constructing balanced ranges, especially on boards without obvious draws (and also low card boards where we often have overcards), is important but difficult. Its something I feel I need to do better but its difficult to work out how to go about this, so I would be grateful for any advice......

Good question about the AA on K88 too.

Balancing here is hard (as it is in many spots) I think board texture will play a big factor.

Ive discussed this exact spot with a friend of mine recently who i respect greatly.

I think we are wanting to be raising our big hands straight away, hands like sets, two pairs etc. These are the hands we want to raising the flop, get 3bet and then we can raise turn. We lose too much by slowplaying here when SB's range is so wide he will be checking turn alot (or should be)

We also want to raise our decent draws now too to balance this. They obviously value from taking the pot down now or on the turn seeing as they generlly cant call down ldo.

Id also raise some good 2nd pair hands too, maybe Ax kicker as a guide.

Hands to slowplay are prob hands that are happy to raise turn but not wanting to build a massive pot. So maybe a TP good kicker. A hand where if you raised the flop, you prob wouldnt be raising again unless you improved.

In regards to the AA hand, i think its a good hand to raise with and hope for more action. Apart from KK and 8x, we will never have a better hand. We are hoping to get more action from a decent Kx obviously.

Where a hand like KQ/KJ might be a good slowplay here as if we raise the flop and get 3b, we arent really ever raising again.

Exploitively, I tend to raise my BD draws immediateky on dryer boards like this. So a hand like 97s with a bdfd + bdsd might be good. But you will find that you can take the pot away alot by calling here and betting when checked to.

Thats a rough giude, but its very opponent specific. If villain monkey barrels every turn then we may want to delay more value hands and raise our weaker BD draws immediately knowing he wont be c/f the turn.

Hope that makes sense

Time Link to 00:46:51

Hi there, good stuff I liked the video and you put up some interesting points.
Just got a question on this hand.

As a default on the river with our A2s on this JA872 board my inital thought was I'd probably just call the river here and would have considered folding to the 3bet if I was to raise because there shouldn't be much we beat if he does 3bet unless the guy can't hand read or overplays horrendously though it turns out if I did find my fold button I would of made a huge mistake there as this guy did overplay (though I would likely have just called the river).
With a read he overplays or can't hand read I'd be fine with c/r A2 on the river since I can comfortably call the riv 3b and know I'm good a decent amount but I'm not sure how good our equity is vs reasonable hands to c/r the river.

Hold'em Simulation
95 trials (Exhaustive)
board: jdad8s7h2h
Hand Equity
AA,jj,88,77,AK,AQ,AJ,AT,A8,A7,j8,j7,87,9t 46.32%
ac2c 53.68%

That seems to be it though that might be extra bad for us due to having all his best hands in there. I guess if we chuck out some of the strong hands that may 3b the flop and add an extra strong AX for hands he can call the flop and raise the turn with we could push it up further: (I took out AJ, JJ and 88, added A9)

Hold'em Simulation ?
91 trials (Exhaustive)
board: jdad8s7h2h
Hand Equity
AA,77,AK,AQ,AT,A8,A7,j8,j7,87,9t,a9 35.16%
ac2c 64.84%

So this seems to be our most optimistic equity so our true equity I would think should be somewhere in the middle, maybe around 60%.

Overall I'm not sure. C/ring the riv may well be best, maybe I'm just calling the riv because I fear being put to the decision of what to do when 3bet but with no read on my opponent overplaying/spewing I don't see much we beat vs the riv 3b since I don't think most people would 3b 78, J8, J7 on the river since they've not really pulled ahead of anything that c/r the flop. 82o/72o is mostly folding pre-f and most people arn't c/ing 82s or J2 on the flop and if they are then thats all J8/J7/87 beat on the riv apart from maybe some fancily played AK/AQ.

For you do think it was a clear c/r on the river? I'm just not really sure.

I think whether or not to call the 3b is close.

Thanks for doing the calcs, i think we can prob throw in a few more combos of weaker Ax which you will see people raise the turn with enough on a drawy board when I dont 3b preflop... but it still makes it close.

I still like a kr on the riv, we do have a slight equity edge, and although we should be thinking about what happens if raised i dont think we should refuse to raise in situations purely out of fear of being 3b.

I dont think we ever show up with too many stronger hands here on the riv than aces up so i call...

Its not very scientific but if the strongest hand we can have is 2 pair and villain knows this, then *in theory* he has a profitable 3b with all his missed draws when we cr.

You will be suprised how many times you see even somewhat solid regs go beserk with J8 here on the riv vs a cr.

Im suprised how close the spot is actually, thanks again for calcs

Time Link to 00:16:31

Hi DS. Enjoyed watching the video.

The concept of having a check back range on the flop was new to me. If I understand you correctly, you are sometimes going to be doing this with hands that you would not like to face a flop c/r, but have a reasonable number of turn cards to improve, for which you could raise a turn bet ?

Do you know how often you might check back the flop in position after raising pf ? Also, which turn cards other than an 8 would you be planning to raise a turn bet in this ATs hand ? How about if you improved to a decent draw on the turn, say like a flush draw , would you then be planning to call a turn bet as opposed to raising ?

Hi DS. Enjoyed watching the video.

The concept of having a check back range on the flop was new to me. If I understand you correctly, you are sometimes going to be doing this with hands that you would not like to face a flop c/r, but have a reasonable number of turn cards to improve, for which you could raise a turn bet ?

Do you know how often you might check back the flop in position after raising pf ? Also, which turn cards other than an 8 would you be planning to raise a turn bet in this ATs hand ? How about if you improved to a decent draw on the turn, say like a flush draw , would you then be planning to call a turn bet as opposed to raising ?

Hi fantam,

Thanks for the question.

Checking back flops becomes more important in wide range situations, such as BTN vs BB.

BTN may open 50%+ and BB should prob be defending 60+% as a very rough guide. Numbers may vary depending on player and opponent.

Essentially when we have a wide range, we just arent going to hit enough flops to be able to continue if villain choose to kr.

There are certain boards that are much worse for us than others. For instance, if we open from the button and flop comes 765dd, that will generally be not the best flop for our hand given the range we will probably open with, so an astute or aggressive BB can attack us if we are cbetting 100%.

The basic theory is, the wider our range, the more we can *theortecially" be exploited by kr so we need to look into having some hands we can check back on the flop.

I will prefice this by saying that there are many BB's that will simply c/f so much of there range or will play so transparently against you that cbetting 100% is profitable. Imo, this wont be the case against most good players at higher stakes.

The kinds of hands and boards we chk back should of course be balanced, or we can be counter exploited by villain barreling bad turn cards for our range.

For instance, if we are only chking back hands like A/K high on 765 then and 4,3,8,9 is a super profitable turn card to lean into us. So we want to have some hands that can stand some heat too.

Ill prob go through it in future videos/series in greater detail, but theoretically we prob wont to make villain indifferent to betting/checking/check raising/check folding.

If we are never ever folding to his turn lead, then he has no incentive to bet as a bluff on the turn
If we are always betting the turn when he checks to us, he can kr us alot.

And so forth.

Finally, its important to be positionally aware. I dont see alot of value in checking back much UTG vs BB for instance. The ranges are alot different there. We have a much narrower/stronger range so checking back hurts us more than helps us as there are so many boards where villain just cant attack us enough to hurt us due to the strength of our range.

Let me know if that doesnt make sense

Time Link to 00:24:09

Ty for your deteailed response above which made sense.

In this QJ hand you provide another example of not c-betting the flop after raising pf. However, now you are out of position and check call the flop in a wide range blind battle.

As before, you explain that you need to include some hands in your flop checking (& calling) range, which would be strong enough to (check) raise the turn for balance to prevent your opponent from easily value betting you on the turn.

This may seem obvious, but I just wanted to check my reasoning. Am I correct to think that you would not consider check raising the flop with a good hand for the same reason because this would not balance your flop c/c range ?

In that attempting to check raise the flop would be a different action to check calling and simply create a flop c/r range, which would be unlikely to benefit you as the pf raiser ?