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

This video is simply amazing in it's thought and usefulness in common situations. It's clearly the best of the series and basically reminds you of why alot of Cardrunners is sucking lately because you never get so many AHA moments in single videos.

There were so many spots i run into in these aggressive games and dealing with ranges and you gave me a ton of confidence.


BTW at 41:06 i love your shove. His raise is not a tipping point raise. I think if he's raise/calling he makes it like 400-425 but 375 is like the minimum to raise. Maybe it's spewy.. I don't know...

I don't like his PF call with 66 unless you have a dynamic. I would assume in an 8 handed game your 3bet % vs a reasonable UTG raise is fairly strong even. When you are squeezing the frequency is so low that i wouldn't think his call is very profitable.

What do you think of TheDutch4141s minraise and 2.5x raises? In the world of 7-11% 3betting you basically define ranges similarly but get more drawy hands calling you in POS but if you have postflop skills what does this matter?

I've tested out the adjustment and i notice aggro 3betters seem to call a bit more IP and OOP. Any comments on it?

I use the minraise vs 20x stacks and the 2.5 vs aggro 3betters. Otherwise i stick with 3x

Finally its here! I thought ringmaster was going to be 7episodes long but so nice episode 8 is finally here.5 stars immediately!

i really like this video, most of the points are just brilliant. I also like your blog and think you have good hair, etc etc. Like the Wire too, great show, BUT........


i think you jacked up that aces hand pretty bad. I do it all the time as well and its so easy to see when someone else does it*. you raise 3x and get called by everyone and their grandma and the dog, and the cat. then you get a two flush board with broadway cards. at that point I think its best to just accept that your aces are really not worth much, even more so when its bet and raised behind you when you check. I mean that board just smacks their preflop calling range right in the grill, they know your likely holdings and are saying they can beat that by their actions, right, they're betting into a four player pot with a pre/f UTG raiser and dont think twice about it, you just have to be crushed, right?

I never play this high, so if im way off or not seeing why its a closer decision please comment, always looking to debate and learn from better players than me

*by "it" i mean fail to recognize when circumstances have turned your aces to dust value wise

In the TT hand at 25 mins, do you think the river is a good spot for the villain to turn his hand into a bluff? Would you make the same (transparent?)valuebet against a good reg and how would you react if he raised?

Thanks

In the TT hand at 25 mins, do you think the river is a good spot for the villain to turn his hand into a bluff? Would you make the same (transparent?)valuebet against a good reg and how would you react if he raised?

Thanks

I mean lets say villian hand has more SD value, 6s or 8s. Actually a better question might be "if you are villian when do you stop calling and start turning your hand into a bluff?, 9s, 10s?"

i really like this video, most of the points are just brilliant. I also like your blog and think you have good hair, etc etc. Like the Wire too, great show, BUT........


i think you jacked up that aces hand pretty bad. I do it all the time as well and its so easy to see when someone else does it*. you raise 3x and get called by everyone and their grandma and the dog, and the cat. then you get a two flush board with broadway cards. at that point I think its best to just accept that your aces are really not worth much, even more so when its bet and raised behind you when you check. I mean that board just smacks their preflop calling range right in the grill, they know your likely holdings and are saying they can beat that by their actions, right, they're betting into a four player pot with a pre/f UTG raiser and dont think twice about it, you just have to be crushed, right?

I never play this high, so if im way off or not seeing why its a closer decision please comment, always looking to debate and learn from better players than me

*by "it" i mean fail to recognize when circumstances have turned your aces to dust value wise

Well obviously part of the problem is that I checked first to act, which pretty much tells my opponents I'm out of the hand. They can then assume that AQ is the nuts (or KK if someone flatted it!) and also now have more reason to be playing their draws aggressively. A big part of checking my hand in the first place was because c-betting more or less turns my range face up and can make it tough for me to make any decisions if I face heat. Checking can clearly lead to those tough decisions too, but I'll usually wind up in comfortable spots.

Like I said in the video, I think that folding is probably the better option but that many of the factors in play make it closer and closer to a ship, which is why it was an interesting hand. I could easily have been up against AQ and AhXh in this spot were it to have been somehow repeated with our hands randomized among those in our range, but this time the news wasn't so good.

I mean lets say villian hand has more SD value, 6s or 8s. Actually a better question might be "if you are villian when do you stop calling and start turning your hand into a bluff?, 9s, 10s?"

1) I would certainly valuebet this against good regulars, they are often just as likely to look me up with any pair. The best ones will be able to laydown on the end but most regs are callstations nowadays.

2) I don't think I really like turning smaller pairs into bluffs in this spot. For one I could easily show up with a hand like Ax that got tricky and checked the flop (I think there was a lot of discussion in this series about how checking flops as the raiser with a range of stronger and weaker hands makes you tougher to play against, this would be no exception). Additionally, I'm probably going to look up a regular if he raises the river here. Against an unknown probably not, because I don't generally credit an unknown with being able to turn made hands into bluffs in spots like this.

If he had a hand strong enough to raise river for value, he very likely would have made an effort to build a bigger pot earlier, thus his river raising range is skewed towards bluffs (mostly little pairs or maybe something like KJ/KT, unless he's some sort of insane floater guy .

What do you think of TheDutch4141s minraise and 2.5x raises? In the world of 7-11% 3betting you basically define ranges similarly but get more drawy hands calling you in POS but if you have postflop skills what does this matter?

I've tested out the adjustment and i notice aggro 3betters seem to call a bit more IP and OOP. Any comments on it?

I use the minraise vs 20x stacks and the 2.5 vs aggro 3betters. Otherwise i stick with 3x

Pretty sure I spend a fair amount of time in an earlier episode discussing preflop raise sizing, but I don't remember which one offhand. In any case what I settled on was minraising from BTN/CO and 3xing it from everywhere else (including SB unopened). If there are more shortstacks involved I'll minraise from middle position too, but probably not from early position.

2.5x may be a little more ideal even, but for one I think the difference is probably super marginal, and it requires a lot more typing/clicking if you don't have an AHK script or something (which I'm lazy about). When you're playing 8+ tables, every additional required input can matter.

Pretty sure I spend a fair amount of time in an earlier episode discussing preflop raise sizing, but I don't remember which one offhand. In any case what I settled on was minraising from BTN/CO and 3xing it from everywhere else (including SB unopened). If there are more shortstacks involved I'll minraise from middle position too, but probably not from early position.

2.5x may be a little more ideal even, but for one I think the difference is probably super marginal, and it requires a lot more typing/clicking if you don't have an AHK script or something (which I'm lazy about). When you're playing 8+ tables, every additional required input can matter.

Yes i did watch your episodes on it i just wondered if you had any comments on Dutch4141 specifically if you had played with him enough to see any 'flaws' in his strategy.

I also appreciate your AA hand even though people say you botched it. Let's face it we're all here because we are decent or good winning players who make mistakes. When an instructor shows is arguable whether or not it is a mistake it actually gives me more confidence in the instructor than if he just shows hands where he "pwns n00bs". It's these tricky spots that we are losing money daily.

Time Link to 00:20:34

what if villain had overbet the pot in this spot on the river, say $380 or so, would you have folded or would this look even bluffier and you would have still looked him up? Just wondering about spots where I could use an overbet bluff and wondering if it will only work against mediocre handreaders or if it would also work against good handreaders like yourself. I mean your range is also defined as pretty weak, but I'm not sure if just showing massive strength is enough when villain can only really rep four hands (88, 66, 45, 9T, and I guess maybe slowplayed quads).

Time Link to 00:43:02

to defend villains call, and I'm not saying it's great, if he believes that you aren't squeezing light (which you probably shouldnt be squeezing too light since he is UTG+1) and gives you a range of AQs+ and JJ+ and occasional air then he can call partly as a setmine and partly expecting to be able to win the pot via his positional advantage. If he also would flat 99-QQ in this spot he can put you in a lot of tough spots just by flatting your c-bet on dry boards or making the minraise like he's done here. If we assume he's a relatively TAG winning FR reg than his pf call of your 3bet can rep as much strength as your 3bet. So with that in mind his positional advantage is fairly valuable assuming he can play well postflop. He doesn't really have to plan on getting it or giving a ton of action on a lot of dry boards, he can plan on flatting cbets frequently with all of his calling range and you'll often be in a tough spot on the turn. If you double or triple barrel you'll often just be barreling into an overpair, and if the board comes out Ax Kx he can usually just give up without a set.

obviously you can adjust by squeezing lighter so that his setmining value gets worse and it becomes harder for him to play on a lot of boards, but against his UTG tight range i'm not sure this is a profitable adjustment.

just my opinion, but I think his pf call here is pretty good if he plays well postflop and he assigns you a tight 3bet range.

EDIT: the best adjustment to make his call bad is to 3bet bigger imo. Since you are OOP and have a hand that really would like to just take down the pot pf and not have to play a big pot OOP against a villains tight range I would consider making it $160-180. That cuts down his implied odds on setmining, and will further define his calling range (generally 99-QQ with the occasional AA, KK or AQ+). I think your slightly underpot 3bet would be better as a slightly overpot 3bet. but its a minor adjustment and I'd like to hear arguments for making it smaller.

what if villain had overbet the pot in this spot on the river, say $380 or so, would you have folded or would this look even bluffier and you would have still looked him up? Just wondering about spots where I could use an overbet bluff and wondering if it will only work against mediocre handreaders or if it would also work against good handreaders like yourself. I mean your range is also defined as pretty weak, but I'm not sure if just showing massive strength is enough when villain can only really rep four hands (88, 66, 45, 9T, and I guess maybe slowplayed quads).

Depends a lot on the opponent. If I had more respect for him I'd lay it down more often, expecting to be shown a value range knowing I was capable of big calls. If I thought he was a spewbox, I'd call more often expecting the logic of "he's probably super weak so I'll just overbet and he has to fold". If he was a fish I'd probably fold because I don't expect them to be capable of overbet bluffing in spots like this.

to defend villains call, and I'm not saying it's great, if he believes that you aren't squeezing light (which you probably shouldnt be squeezing too light since he is UTG+1) and gives you a range of AQs+ and JJ+ and occasional air then he can call partly as a setmine and partly expecting to be able to win the pot via his positional advantage. If he also would flat 99-QQ in this spot he can put you in a lot of tough spots just by flatting your c-bet on dry boards or making the minraise like he's done here. If we assume he's a relatively TAG winning FR reg than his pf call of your 3bet can rep as much strength as your 3bet. So with that in mind his positional advantage is fairly valuable assuming he can play well postflop. He doesn't really have to plan on getting it or giving a ton of action on a lot of dry boards, he can plan on flatting cbets frequently with all of his calling range and you'll often be in a tough spot on the turn. If you double or triple barrel you'll often just be barreling into an overpair, and if the board comes out Ax Kx he can usually just give up without a set.

obviously you can adjust by squeezing lighter so that his setmining value gets worse and it becomes harder for him to play on a lot of boards, but against his UTG tight range i'm not sure this is a profitable adjustment.

just my opinion, but I think his pf call here is pretty good if he plays well postflop and he assigns you a tight 3bet range.

Perhaps, but I think I'm still going to have the best of it postflop because of my sweet skills (unless his plan is basically to just minraise/get it in on any low board, in which case I guess I should just tighten up my range and valuecrush him)

The last hand you played 57s raised from utg, Q87 2 club flop. Do you think he shows up with any busted draws on that river? If so a check might be better than a bet given that he should value bet any Q himself so the only hands you get value from are 99 TT and JJ vs all the flush draw and strait draw combos that now have nothing.

Time Link to 00:35:00

Hey, DJ. Great series. Nice use of Tommy's quote here. Yes, "the decisions that bother us the most matter the least" fits very well. What he means is the arguments are often a waste of time because the return is so low. I might have seen this as one of those rare folding AA spots, but I appreciate your logic for your decision.

I learned a lot from this series. Well done.

Wayne