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

TYTY for the live play DJ

oh great!
been waiting for a live episode!
thanks DJ!

great as usual

Thanks!

I think a live episode does a good job at illustrating the frequency you can use these plays you show in the earlier videos. I think it is easy for watchers after seeing the previous episodes (and Unconventional Wisdom) to go crazy trying to outread and outplay their opponents in spots where it simply is a very poor idea, just because outplaying people is very cool.

DJ, why are you just GoldStar on Stars? Do you mainly play on Full Tilt?

DJ Sensei,

You call a button raise from KiWiKaki with Ac9c in the Big Blind. Flop is 5d Tc 7s and you check fold. That seems weak to me. Ac9c is way ahead of his range isn't it?

That flop looks like it would miss both of you quite often and you could take away the pot if you catch a gutshot or flush draw or pair on the turn.

on minute 1:45 secs you squeeze a mp1 raise with a AQs the hud showed this guy have a pfr of 10 obviously the sample size was really small but do you think spots like this against 9-12% preflop raisers are really profitable or its marginal ev+?
because i would rather squeeze against 13-15% kinda guys

I like seeing a mixture of live play vids and hand history review vids. It's important to see some live play, because you get the whole context. When you're just looking at a single hand in isolation, you don't know what other factors (game flow, image, etc.) might be affecting people's ranges, except in a very general sense. And like others mentioned, it gives us an idea of the frequency which you are making moves, etc. Also, most importantly for me, getting to hear your thought process in real-time when you're having to make quick decisions, is really valuable. Don't worry about not having many interesting hands come up in an hour; I actually thought there were plenty, but even when there is dead time, you can fill it up by talking about other stuff like you did here.

Do you recall what time of day/night it was when you made the video? Those tables are soooo bad. If that's what it's like at 3/6 all the time, I don't see how anybody makes any money there. I'm a big nit about table selection, but at 100NL and 200NL I generally will only stay at tables where there is at minimum a fish in one of the 3 seats to my right with at least a half-stack. And I'm usually able to keep 14-16 such tables going at almost any time of the day/night (obviously certain nights I can be even more selective than that). It's hard to find the motivation to try and move up when I'm making a good hourly rate where I'm at and the higher games appear to be that much tougher. Tell me it's not always that bad!

Oh yeah, how close are you getting to moving up to 5/10?

DJ, why are you just GoldStar on Stars? Do you mainly play on Full Tilt?

Nah I've been playing all the FR for this series on stars, its probably just a monthly thing since I haven't played much yet in June. Before that I didn't really have a ton of hands on the year either. I'm not a sick volume grinder like most of the regs

DJ Sensei,

You call a button raise from KiWiKaki with Ac9c in the Big Blind. Flop is 5d Tc 7s and you check fold. That seems weak to me. Ac9c is way ahead of his range isn't it?

That flop looks like it would miss both of you quite often and you could take away the pot if you catch a gutshot or flush draw or pair on the turn.

I'd probably play back against a lot of dudes, but he's better than most and seems to somewhat have it out for me (as you can clearly see throughout the video!) so I don't expect it to be too easy to show down a winner.

on minute 1:45 secs you squeeze a mp1 raise with a AQs the hud showed this guy have a pfr of 10 obviously the sample size was really small but do you think spots like this against 9-12% preflop raisers are really profitable or its marginal ev+?
because i would rather squeeze against 13-15% kinda guys

I'm pretty sure its profitable to squeeze there. Maybe not if there wasn't a caller in the pot, or if it was an earlier position raise. Sample size definitely makes a difference, too, as I noted.

Do you recall what time of day/night it was when you made the video? Those tables are soooo bad. If that's what it's like at 3/6 all the time, I don't see how anybody makes any money there.

It was midafternoon on a Thursday, so probably not prime time, but yea, the games are often that tough. Honestly, I think its very difficult to maintain a high winrate at 3/6. Even most experts would probably have a higher hourly rate playing 2/4 most of the time imo!

I'm pretty close to 5/10, but I'm not sure how much time I'll have to grind what with the world series and all, so I mayyyyy just jump to 5/10 ahead of schedule for the sake of teaching yall as much as I can. I feel like at this point I've got a pretty good grasp of what 3/6 is about and how to beat it as much as you can, but its definitely a lot of work to win enough money there to move up in my challenge!

A few questions about the last hand in the video:

If you don't remember, you flat a raise with AQ, odd stack 3bets, you call.

1) Do you really think that his range is so narrow that you cannot shove preflop? I am personally making a fist-pump back shove.

2) On the flop, I'm looking to c/r and get stacks in ASAP. By calling and then folding the turn you are putting him squarely on AA/KK/AK, so if that's the case, shouldn't you fold preflop? And If you think that his range is wide enough preflop to include a lot of bluffs that you think he will cbet with and then give up don't you think that it would be best to jam pre because he is going to win on the majority of flops.

Thanks.

couple of quick thoughts midway through the vid:

the AQo hand where you 3bet from the SB and then fold to the stealer's 4bet: if villain is playing so 4-bet/fold nitty shouldn't we be flatting against his much wider stealing range and allowing him to value cut himself with worse Qx and Ax hands? Or is this villain calling a wide range of 3bets, but rarely 4betting? I don't see that player type often but I guess that could justify 3bet/folding the AQ instead of flatting or 3bet getting it in.

in the JJ hand UTG where the tag-reg 3bets you from LP: If villains range is so tight that JJ is behind shouldn't we be able to call and profitably set-mine/ expect him to give up with AK on some flops and we'll win some pots at SD? It seems to me that most of these TAG regs aren't going to 3bet AK and then just barrel their stack in regardless. So if we give him a range of QQ+ and AK we can probably setmine and plan on calling a reasonable bet on non-AK flops.

so far really enjoying it.

oh and I probably wouldn't fold the AQ at the end of the vid, but I'm a POW against the fish in those spots, and I always assume they might lose their mind/have worse often enough to get the money in. Maybe it's a leak, but I can't think calling off the final 42bb or so is that bad in that spot.

Great Live vid... one week live and one week hand history would be great I think...

furthermore I think u have to stack off the last AQ hand on that flop almost all the time...

DJ,

Thanks for a great video!

Could you talk a bit about your 3b sizing (sorry if you had it somewhere and I missed it). I noticed that you mostly make it about pot-sized (4x). If you were to 3b more frequently and have more bluffs in your 3b range, would you make it smaller, like 3x or 3.5x?

Also, would you think pot-sized 3b are more common for Full Tilt with its pot-button than for PS? It seems to me that many regs on PS are raising smaller.

The QQ flat call in the BB:

Why do we decide to check the river? A fish will not turn his hand into a bluff and put us into an difficult spot very often. His range includes a lot of weaker pairs. So a small value bet or block bet seems good to me.

DJ,

Thanks for a great video!

Could you talk a bit about your 3b sizing (sorry if you had it somewhere and I missed it). I noticed that you mostly make it about pot-sized (4x). If you were to 3b more frequently and have more bluffs in your 3b range, would you make it smaller, like 3x or 3.5x?

Also, would you think pot-sized 3b are more common for Full Tilt with its pot-button than for PS? It seems to me that many regs on PS are raising smaller.

To be honest I don't really spend much time worrying about 3bet sizing. I've gone between 3x and 4x in the past, and I don't think it really makes a huge difference. It makes sense that if you 3bet more you should make it smaller, and if you 3bet less you should make it bigger, but other than that I'd just play around with different sizes until you find one that you like.

And yes having a pot button certainly will lead to more potting.

The QQ flat call in the BB:

Why do we decide to check the river? A fish will not turn his hand into a bluff and put us into an difficult spot very often. His range includes a lot of weaker pairs. So a small value bet or block bet seems good to me.

Plz to be using the flash player and copying a timestamp link! Its really hard to go back and find hands, especially in a liveplay video. And the flash player is the coolest thing ever.

couple of quick thoughts midway through the vid:

the AQo hand where you 3bet from the SB and then fold to the stealer's 4bet: if villain is playing so 4-bet/fold nitty shouldn't we be flatting against his much wider stealing range and allowing him to value cut himself with worse Qx and Ax hands? Or is this villain calling a wide range of 3bets, but rarely 4betting? I don't see that player type often but I guess that could justify 3bet/folding the AQ instead of flatting or 3bet getting it in.

Yes theoretically we should flat if he's 4betting more than calling 3bets, but for one there are almost no players in these fullring games who 4bet very often, and secondly we didn't have enough stats to really tell one way or another.

in the JJ hand UTG where the tag-reg 3bets you from LP: If villains range is so tight that JJ is behind shouldn't we be able to call and profitably set-mine/ expect him to give up with AK on some flops and we'll win some pots at SD? It seems to me that most of these TAG regs aren't going to 3bet AK and then just barrel their stack in regardless. So if we give him a range of QQ+ and AK we can probably setmine and plan on calling a reasonable bet on non-AK flops.

Setmining is ok if the price is right, i'm not sure if it was though. And especially with hands like JJ it'll be hard to get away cheaply, we're definitely gonna lose at least one more bet to overpairs on most boards. Lots of these nits won't even 3bet AK in that spot, or perhaps they do but we don't really know one way or another.

A few questions about the last hand in the video:

If you don't remember, you flat a raise with AQ, odd stack 3bets, you call.

1) Do you really think that his range is so narrow that you cannot shove preflop? I am personally making a fist-pump back shove.

That seems super spewy without reads that he'll squeeze super light and/or call it off with worse. This isn't a 6max game!

2) On the flop, I'm looking to c/r and get stacks in ASAP. By calling and then folding the turn you are putting him squarely on AA/KK/AK, so if that's the case, shouldn't you fold preflop? And If you think that his range is wide enough preflop to include a lot of bluffs that you think he will cbet with and then give up don't you think that it would be best to jam pre because he is going to win on the majority of flops.

Your logic here is faulty imo. I think most of his air range will bet the flop and give up when called, so c/c c/f is pretty reasonable. Also, c/r flop won't get called by worse probably, so that seems bad as well. Getting it in pre is also bad because he'll only stack off better.

DJ,

Thanks for a great video!

Could you talk a bit about your 3b sizing (sorry if you had it somewhere and I missed it). I noticed that you mostly make it about pot-sized (4x). If you were to 3b more frequently and have more bluffs in your 3b range, would you make it smaller, like 3x or 3.5x?

Also, would you think pot-sized 3b are more common for Full Tilt with its pot-button than for PS? It seems to me that many regs on PS are raising smaller.

i'd like to hear dj's thoughts on this as well. I tend to 3bet smaller when I have position especially when 3betting a late position open when I have both a wider 3bet value range as well as more bluffs. I tend to 3bet more (pot or pot+1bb) when OOP (LRR or from the blinds) or when 3betting from EP and I want to insure I don't give villains set-mining odds.

also I tend to 3bet smaller against villains that fold a ton pf and 3bet larger for value against villains that rarely fold to my 3bets.

DJ what are your thoughts on 3bet sizing and how would you vary your size by position and against certain players?

I posted earlier that I don't really think 3bet sizing is a huge issue one way or another. Obviously you want to size your 3bets to capitalize on the weaknesses of your opponents. If they fold too much, 3bet smaller and more often. If they call too much, 3bet larger and less often, etc. IP I'd probably 3bet smaller and OOP I'd make it bigger, but I don't vary it that much.

I used to make it extra-large from OOP because I wanted them to fold more often, but then I realized that I probably would just as soon have them call with worse hands so I stopped doing that.

What program does DJ Sensei use? I'm thinking of purchasing one and I'd like your opinions on the best I could find...

What program to do what?

min 36:30 AA I really think you get valuetowned at best... you say when you only call the flop it looks super strong and will never be a bluff.. but isn't his call on the flop the strongest line ever? and then his 60$ turn bet.. I really think with a good solid read its possible to fold the turn but I am not sure... it felt so much like a set. and what's the advantage in shoving the turn instead of calling and calling a river? do you ever think he will call a worth hand on your turn shove? in this spot its really sad that you don't have a huge database because with a good sample and a small raise cbet it can be possible to find a fold.

Poker tracker... there's hundreds out there, I'm just curious on your choice and why, I find that it helps a lot to have the most statistics possible... especially preflop raise % and 3bet fold % etc

Poker tracker... there's hundreds out there, I'm just curious on your choice and why, I find that it helps a lot to have the most statistics possible... especially preflop raise % and 3bet fold % etc

Ahhhh, ok. I use Holdem Manager and I'd highly recommend it. In this video I'm actually on WiltOnTilt's computer, and thus using his HUD which I presume he has tuned for heads up play, but it has most of the main stats I look for. Little bit of a sample size problem, but thats ok as its important to learn the right assumptions about relative unknowns.

min 36:30 AA I really think you get valuetowned at best... you say when you only call the flop it looks super strong and will never be a bluff.. but isn't his call on the flop the strongest line ever? and then his 60$ turn bet.. I really think with a good solid read its possible to fold the turn but I am not sure... it felt so much like a set. and what's the advantage in shoving the turn instead of calling and calling a river? do you ever think he will call a worth hand on your turn shove? in this spot its really sad that you don't have a huge database because with a good sample and a small raise cbet it can be possible to find a fold.

I wasn't happy about it, but I think that I'm gonna need a better reason than that to fold aces on a K32r board. I guess I could call the turn to rep a bluff that turned into a backdoor draw, but I'm still stacking off the river regardless.

Time Link to 00:24:21

Around 24:20 the top left table with the late position 4 bet and you have aq. You said in a 6 max game you would play this hand but this game is 5 handed at the time. What is the difference? Also, why doesn't the play earlier where you tried to defend your small blind against him by re-raising him and he 3 bet you and ended up taken the pot away carry enough weight to play this hand? My thoughts are this guy is loose and AQ is a 5 bet here. He is playing every table you are which usually means he is skillful enough to be 4 betting light. If you were playing this table only might you have played the hand differently? I seen you couldnt wait to get to the table where you flopped the flush. Or, is there something else Im not getting that makes you play the hand differently? Sorry for posting to older videos but first time I have seen them and appreciate your time if you are able to respond. Thanks

Around 24:20 the top left table with the late position 4 bet and you have aq. You said in a 6 max game you would play this hand but this game is 5 handed at the time. What is the difference?

Fullring players are fullring players even when the table gets shorthanded. The best ones adjust a lot to it (i.e. loosen up both preflop and post), most won't.

Also, why doesn't the play earlier where you tried to defend your small blind against him by re-raising him and he 3 bet you and ended up taken the pot away carry enough weight to play this hand? My thoughts are this guy is loose and AQ is a 5 bet here. He is playing every table you are which usually means he is skillful enough to be 4 betting light. If you were playing this table only might you have played the hand differently? I seen you couldnt wait to get to the table where you flopped the flush. Or, is there something else Im not getting that makes you play the hand differently? Sorry for posting to older videos but first time I have seen them and appreciate your time if you are able to respond. Thanks

Pretty sure AQ is right on the border of this decision point. It probably wouldn't have been a bad ship, but its far from a fist-pump. And when I have limited information, I often tend towards a conservative line.

I'm loving this so far Sensei, I need to watch the full series and post some questions.