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

Time Link to 00:02:22

I would say 3betting J7s is not acceptable here oop with your screenname. I'm pretty sure villain is going to know who you are, going to assume you are 3betting light a lot, and is willing to give you a lot of light action.

Would you be able to outline why on the river with J's on the Tc8c9s2c3c (with a Jack of clubs) board we're raising for value? 1:05:38 (sorry unsure how to timelink) It just seems unlikely anything worse will call bar a hero call?
Without any history wouldn't it be better to flat and get information about how the villain plays and use that accordingly.

Also at 58:10
with the As5s on the J32r board, could you explain why check calling here is a good option, when he cbets he's definitely repping a strong range on that board considering there are 4 people in the pot, even though our draw is concealed it just seems given the strength of his c betting range and how unlikely we are to hit our gutter/backdoor draw on the turn or river (thats assuming he checks back the turn) and combined with us not having the fold equity for a out of position float (due to having a stronger range than in a heads up pot) or chasing our gutter/bdoor flush draw it seems like the better option is to fold.

00:43
That turn bet-call with QJ on Q923 board against loose-passive turn c/r was just something awful... Isn't that the easiest fold ever?

1:06
That river raise with J high flush to 4-flush board was wayyyy too thin IMO, I think villain is folding anything worse than K high flushes (and maybe that too!) there. We have no reason to assume he would call river raise with sets or straights.

We're very good against his donking range (and also get to see what he had there), but I think we're totally crushed against he's bet-calling range.

1:05:38 (sorry unsure how to timelink)

Please watch this video on how to leave time-lins with the new Flash Player: http://www.deucescracked.com/videos/866-Using-the-Flash-Video-Player

regarding the JJ hand,

i expressed my hesitations about whitelime going for value that thin, but if i had to justify it, i'd say this:

this villain's line indicates a strong hand on the flop and not a draw, which almost inherently means that (unless hes got AA/KK/QQ) our flush is the best hand. We expect this player to be call-happy, and if we're guaranteed the best hand and our opponent is guaranteed to have a strong made hand on the flop, its worth a shot.

still v v thin, prob too thin.

good video. why has Emil switched back to this avatar again, some metagame behind?

btw, theres no sound at outro (~last 40 seconds)

btw, theres no sound at outro (~last 40 seconds)

You aren't missing anything here, BalugaWhale was having tech problems and didn't do a signoff for this week.
-Rusty

Time Link to 00:29:19

Hey Baluga, really enjoying the video and the series so far.

I'd just like to ask you what you think of US OBAMA's play in this spot? You mentioned (I think) that 64s was too weak of a hand to defend pre-flop which I agree with, but how do you feel about his post-flop play? I don't like it to be honest and I'd like to know how you feel.

It seems to me his raise on the flop only folds the air part of Emil's range, and despite us jamming with 22 it's one of very, very few hands Villain gets value from. Having made the inital decision to raise the flop do you think he has to call it off? It seems to me that Emils range crushes 64s here, but I don't know if he would proceed the same way and shove with say JJ-AA or sets.

Though I guess you'll have to be playing back a good amount if you're defending 64s, it seems to me calling would be a better play despite the obvious merits of folding out Emils equity share. It seems like Villain just didn't want to play a turn because there were so few good cards for him. I'd like to know if my thinking is way off and what you think of the hand.

Cheers, looking forward to seeing more vids from you!

Time Link to 01:00:54

Hi BW,

Really nice vid.

About the QQ on AT5 flop, you say that vs a bad player, bet or check doesn't really matter, but vs a good player you would almost always bet, because it would be too easy for him to valuetown you on turn and river because you're not going to fold and he knows that.

Aren't both good and bad players going to call the flop with a T?

Because whether you bet or check, you're going to have to put in money on 2 streets generally anyway if you want to go to showdown: Checkcallcall, betcheckcall, betbetcheck.

I would really like to hear more about your reasons to bet the flop, as opposed to checking it.

And what about the argument that betting won't fold out better, and using that money to call a turn bet that could be a bluff?

Thanks

it was nice,
interesting to see how to top players can agree or disagree. I believe whitelime must have had good reasons for what he was doing.

Makes me believe there are no absolute answers how to play poker

Hey Baluga, really enjoying the video and the series so far.

I'd just like to ask you what you think of US OBAMA's play in this spot? You mentioned (I think) that 64s was too weak of a hand to defend pre-flop which I agree with, but how do you feel about his post-flop play? I don't like it to be honest and I'd like to know how you feel.

It seems to me his raise on the flop only folds the air part of Emil's range, and despite us jamming with 22 it's one of very, very few hands Villain gets value from. Having made the inital decision to raise the flop do you think he has to call it off? It seems to me that Emils range crushes 64s here, but I don't know if he would proceed the same way and shove with say JJ-AA or sets.

Though I guess you'll have to be playing back a good amount if you're defending 64s, it seems to me calling would be a better play despite the obvious merits of folding out Emils equity share. It seems like Villain just didn't want to play a turn because there were so few good cards for him. I'd like to know if my thinking is way off and what you think of the hand.

Cheers, looking forward to seeing more vids from you!

hey, the geek-

pair + OESD + BDFD is flipping against an overpair, so given that the pot is very large, a lot of emil's range folds to a raise (thus theres a lot of dead money), a small portion of emils range is both worse and ships (as what happens, so call it thin value), and even when we get it in we're not in bad shape, its an easy raise/call with the 64s.

Andrew

hey chinz,

agreed that the QJ call is pretty bad, I said so in the video.

I also thought the JJ flush hand was way too thin at first glance, but after thinking about it I think it's not terrible against this opponent who might actually call us with some worse hands.

Andrew

Great BW as always. Nice to see vids like this, where very good players show/tell different lines.

I also thought the JJ flush hand was way too thin at first glance, but after thinking about it I think it's not terrible against this opponent who might actually call us with some worse hands.

I don't think he's ever calling us with anything non-flush, the villain was somewhat loose and obv bad, but not someone who's completely clueless.

I agree that we should be good there almost always, but I still see no value in raising. I could easily see him folding the nut-straight with rivered Q high flush there, so I'd believe that even some hands that beat us could actually fold.

If we didn't have a flush, I would like the raise as a bluff, but not for value with J high flush. That could maybe be better against someone who's a thinking player and understands that whitelime knows he shouldn't have high flush there like ever.

It's not terrible, because we should have the best hand, but I still think that we are beat like 95% of the time when we are called so I don't see any value in that.

hey, the geek-

pair + OESD + BDFD is flipping against an overpair, so given that the pot is very large, a lot of emil's range folds to a raise (thus theres a lot of dead money), a small portion of emils range is both worse and ships (as what happens, so call it thin value), and even when we get it in we're not in bad shape, its an easy raise/call with the 64s.

Andrew

Cool, thank you. I thought Villain only had a gutter but I still didn't realise just how much equity his hand has against an overpair.

One more question, how can you be so sure we are never being bluffed on this type of board texture? If Villain perceives us to be 3 betting light (and seeing as its Whitelime who he's playing against he almost certainly does) is it not somewhat likely he's making a small bluff raise on a board where a huge amount of our range has missed?

Or do you feel that even if he is it's a thin shove and it's better not to make those kind of thin plays without better reads or history?

Thanks again,

Geek.

some familiar spots. good video/series so far guys.

Cool, thank you. I thought Villain only had a gutter but I still didn't realise just how much equity his hand has against an overpair.

One more question, how can you be so sure we are never being bluffed on this type of board texture? If Villain perceives us to be 3 betting light (and seeing as its Whitelime who he's playing against he almost certainly does) is it not somewhat likely he's making a small bluff raise on a board where a huge amount of our range has missed?

Or do you feel that even if he is it's a thin shove and it's better not to make those kind of thin plays without better reads or history?

Thanks again,

Geek.

against certain players and/or at certain times whitelime's shove is totally fine. I just didn't happen to think this was one of those times based off the apparently fishy tendencies previously seen by this opponent.

Andrew

Time Link to 00:58:00

We heard Andrew's side. Would like to know Emil's reason for leading out A5ss on J42s.

Time Link to 01:03:48

Why bet the flop here? I usually check back and think it's a pretty standard play. When you get c/r'd on the flops you don't love your hand. While you do get called by worse, I'm not sure how much equity you have. Since you do have the Jc in your hand, there are also less turn cards to worry about and since you do have such a strong draw it would be pretty bad to be blown off your hand on the flop by a large check raise

Why bet the flop here? I usually check back and think it's a pretty standard play. When you get c/r'd on the flops you don't love your hand. While you do get called by worse, I'm not sure how much equity you have. Since you do have the Jc in your hand, there are also less turn cards to worry about and since you do have such a strong draw it would be pretty bad to be blown off your hand on the flop by a large check raise

we bet the flop because the vast majority of hands that will call our c-bet we are ahead of, and whichever hands he has that are better we're still drawing very live against (except QJ, which can be discounted due to how many J's we have).

In short, we bet the flop for value.

Andrew

we bet the flop because the vast majority of hands that will call our c-bet we are ahead of, and whichever hands he has that are better we're still drawing very live against (except QJ, which can be discounted due to how many J's we have).

In short, we bet the flop for value.

Andrew

Most hands that will call us are pair draw combos or big draws with overs and these cards have significant equity against our hand. Having JJ w/the Jc is nice b/c it eliminates the strait combinations and strait flush draws but I don't know that its enough to make up for the times we get checkraised by 2 pairs, sets, and the occasional strait. Combine the times we get checkraised for value with the small equity advantage we have against these draws that call and I don't know how much value we really have on our bet.

Since we do have the Jc we definatly want to see the turn card and if a set makes a big c/r on that flop can we still profitably call? I'm not so sure. Does your play change b/c we have the Jc as opposed to JdJh?

Time Link to 00:43:31

I would like to see you going more in depth with the concept of floating vs raising the flop.
We have an another example in this video at 51:15 but I think it will be interesting to have a video from you focused on the best move to make with hands like theses: float, raise the flop or maybe check/raising due to our position.

Hey Andrew. I have a question about about bet sizing in relation to the draws in villain's range.

I apologize in advance for not using the time line feature. Anyway, at about 18:00 min, lime had JdTd in a blind v blind.

Flop was J48tt pot was $11.40....

lime cbets and gets called....All is well.

Turn is 6d and the board is now Jc4h8h6d....lime bets $26 into a pot of $30..

You mentioned that villain has lots of draws so we can get called by a decent portion of his range and then c/c the river. Don't you think that lime's bet size greatly limits the frequency that we get called by the draws in his range ????

Thanks for the vid and the input.

Btw, the reason I don't use the timeline feature is that when I watch the vid that way I seem to encounter a lot of connection probs that are incredibly annoying.

Thanks again.

Hey Andrew. I have a question about about bet sizing in relation to the draws in villain's range.

I apologize in advance for not using the time line feature. Anyway, at about 18:00 min, lime had JdTd in a blind v blind.

Flop was J48tt pot was $11.40....

lime cbets and gets called....All is well.

Turn is 6d and the board is now Jc4h8h6d....lime bets $26 into a pot of $30..

You mentioned that villain has lots of draws so we can get called by a decent portion of his range and then c/c the river. Don't you think that lime's bet size greatly limits the frequency that we get called by the draws in his range ????

Thanks for the vid and the input.

Btw, the reason I don't use the timeline feature is that when I watch the vid that way I seem to encounter a lot of connection probs that are incredibly annoying.

Thanks again.

Hey man,

I love where your head is at. A little smaller on the turn seems totally reasonable (although the bigger the pot on the river, the more likely he is to bluff at it, so it could kinda work both ways).

Andrew

good video. why has Emil switched back to this avatar again, some metagame behind?

btw, theres no sound at outro (~last 40 seconds)

The venus flytrap is back!

We heard Andrew's side. Would like to know Emil's reason for leading out A5ss on J42s.

It's a really dry board with no draws so we're pretty much only going to get called by pocket pairs and a J, and even pairs < J might fold b/c of how strong my lead looks. On top of that, we have a backdoor nut flush draw, gutshot to a straight, and an overcard, so if we hit a 3, spade, or A on the turn we can bet again. You also want to be able to balance a bit and lead strong made hands in spots like this sometimes. This is the perfect hand to semi-bluff with.

Some thoughts on the JcJx river raise for value.

1) I think it's thin but I do think against this loose opponent, we are good > 50% when called on the river.

2) Given his flop/turn line, and river bet size, we are virtually never beat here. The only hand we are really worried about is QcJx and that is combinatorically unlikely given we are holding 2 J's.

3) I think in spots like this where someone makes a really weak bet on the river and you have a non-nut hand that is likely to be best but you don't think he'll call the raise, you should be going animal with your bluffs. If you really think he might fold the Qc, you should just be terrorizing this guy. From my experience though, people will make poor calls on the river.

4) I don't think this is that important of a consideration in this particular spot, but against really good regulars, it's excellent for metagame when he sees you raise the Jc for value in a spot like this. Now, the next time his hand is somewhat faceup as a weak value hand, you can bluff raise him so much more effectively because he knows you can have a really wide, thin, value range.

Some thoughts on the JcJx river raise for value.

4) I don't think this is that important of a consideration in this particular spot, but against really good regulars, it's excellent for metagame when he sees you raise the Jc for value in a spot like this. Now, the next time his hand is somewhat faceup as a weak value hand, you can bluff raise him so much more effectively because he knows you can have a really wide, thin, value range.

unless he's really good in which case he rebluffs you often after you've shown a wide, thin, value range. but most people aren't prepared to turn their weak-value hand into a 3-bet river bluff shove quite yet.

Would you be able to outline why on the river with J's on the Tc8c9s2c3c (with a Jack of clubs) board we're raising for value? 1:05:38 (sorry unsure how to timelink) It just seems unlikely anything worse will call bar a hero call?
Without any history wouldn't it be better to flat and get information about how the villain plays and use that accordingly.

Because given the previous action he is v v unlicky to have a hand with a Qc, Kc or Ac. That means you can raise the river to get some calls from a hand like TT or a straight because he assumes you can be raising this river as a bluff.

It's a really dry board with no draws so we're pretty much only going to get called by pocket pairs and a J, and even pairs < J might fold b/c of how strong my lead looks. On top of that, we have a backdoor nut flush draw, gutshot to a straight, and an overcard, so if we hit a 3, spade, or A on the turn we can bet again. You also want to be able to balance a bit and lead strong made hands in spots like this sometimes. This is the perfect hand to semi-bluff with.

I was just about to argue that aswell.

I think TT folds this flop. The only handss we can concievable bluff here are A5,A2s,65s. The rest of the time we have TP and sets.

I really like his flop lead and I think we get a ton of fold equity.

IMHO The raise with JJ in that hand is a total spew.. I think he is never calling with worse even though he is bad..
And also I don't agree that given the action he is unlikely to have a better flush, given that he is sort of bad he might miniraise the flop with wider range that you assume, I've noticed that such players like to c/miniraise with flush draws..

Hi Baluga,
i really like your thoughts about the polarizing 3-Betting Range IP and depolarizing 3-Betting OOP vs. decent players. However, i'm quite unsure about Betsizing concerning Preflop 3-Bets. Normally i just 3x it IP and 4x it OOP, but unfortunately there is no GT-background in my mind. Which approach do you take when it comes to Betsizing(3-Bets Preflop) (shorter stacke / 100 BB deep / deepstacked play)

Time Link to 00:10:21

Suited maybe, but in a tough game where getting squezed or called and will be playing a hand OOP against an utg and btn, so relative position also bad making this a fold 9/10 times for me

Time Link to 01:07:27

Will us ever call a weaker hand here??? Or ist it just to fold out higher flushes?

Time Link to 00:22:59

You say too thin to bet the river - what about hands like 66-99 that the villain treats as a bluff catcher?