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

Interesting you say there's no big difference between 2/4 and 3/6. I found the exact opposite. At 2/4 half the regs are 1/2 2/4 regs while at 3/6 half the regs play 5/10 too. The ones that don't play 5/10 are the better 2/4 regs. At 3/6 all the mediocre 2/4 regs are filtered out. So for only a 1.5x stake increase you get a huge bump in skill. Going from 6/10 to 5/10 on the other hand is a very small skill jump because lots of fishes like playing 5/10 instead of 3/6 because it's a prettier number. There are more 5/10 games running than 3/6 games in general which allows for some better table selecting. I find the average 5/10 table I'm on to be about as hard as the average 3/6 table I'm on. So you might as well jump straight to 5/10 from 2/4 since you get roughly the same skill level opponents only the jump in $ is bigger so can make more money.

mmmm i'd say he's trying to lure you into 5/10 games, except you're freaking ansky

Interesting you say there's no big difference between 2/4 and 3/6. I found the exact opposite. At 2/4 half the regs are 1/2 2/4 regs while at 3/6 half the regs play 5/10 too. The ones that don't play 5/10 are the better 2/4 regs. At 3/6 all the mediocre 2/4 regs are filtered out. So for only a 1.5x stake increase you get a huge bump in skill. Going from 6/10 to 5/10 on the other hand is a very small skill jump because lots of fishes like playing 5/10 instead of 3/6 because it's a prettier number. There are more 5/10 games running than 3/6 games in general which allows for some better table selecting. I find the average 5/10 table I'm on to be about as hard as the average 3/6 table I'm on. So you might as well jump straight to 5/10 from 2/4 since you get roughly the same skill level opponents only the jump in $ is bigger so can make more money.

You might be right overall, I am just observing what I have seen recently. Seems like every game is the same, random collection of 5 mediocre to good regs, and 1 fish.

Time Link to 00:01:54

Upper Left Table.
thats a pretty dry board and i think villain cbets here like 100%, why not call?
overcards, which villain might barrel, will improve our equity or give us a pair and he might CF some lower cards.

Upper Left Table.
thats a pretty dry board and i think villain cbets here like 100%, why not call?
overcards, which villain might barrel, will improve our equity or give us a pair and he might CF some lower cards.

I don't disagree too much, then again I am basically calling 100% if I am calling QJ here w/ no bdfd.

Time Link to 00:01:51

Hi Dani, table 3 you checked back Q8s on Q99 after you opened in co and SB flatted you.

Are you doing this because,
-"Way ahead Way Behind" since you don't think you'll get 3 street of value?
-possibly the backdoor hearts is making you want to check

Are you doing this with TT and JJ in this type of spot, or do you de-polarize your c-betting range?

-Thx.

Time Link to 00:33:55

Great video as always.

With the KT on table 2, could you please explain your reasons for calling his bet on the turn? It's 3way so I would think that his range for leading out doesn't contain a lot of air and you only have 4 clean outs.

Time Link to 00:10:11

I realize that it's hard to represent AK, AQ, AJ, AT etc. but I still don't see how this isn't profitable to bluff this river. I think there are a lot of random Ax hands that would've taken a stab on the flop, shut down on the turn, then value bet the river. How would you play A2-A7s? Probably the exact same way.

If you're looking at it from his point of view, even if he has a hand like T9ss, it's very hard to come up with many hand combinations that he has beat. The only thing bluffs you can theoretically have here are some random K6s type hands (which I'm sure you're folding a good majority of the time in the first place) and the few combinations of pocket pairs.

Time Link to 00:02:17

Hey ansky you seem to call a decent amount of 3 bets IPO. You called a 3 bet w/ 9Ts here. I personally probably 4 bet more than call 3 bets 100bb deep. What is your general strategy to calling 3 bets IPO 100bb deep?(Obvioulsy its going to be dependent on the villian)

Hi Dani, table 3 you checked back Q8s on Q99 after you opened in co and SB flatted you.

Are you doing this because,
-"Way ahead Way Behind" since you don't think you'll get 3 street of value?
-possibly the backdoor hearts is making you want to check

Are you doing this with TT and JJ in this type of spot, or do you de-polarize your c-betting range?

-Thx.

While with TT and JJ it can become a problematic spot if it comes brick, brick, and he bets both times, it is usually an easy call if you have Q8s.

It's important for a number of reasons to have Qx here in addition to TT, JJ, and random give ups.

Hey ansky you seem to call a decent amount of 3 bets IPO. You called a 3 bet w/ 9Ts here. I personally probably 4 bet more than call 3 bets 100bb deep. What is your general strategy to calling 3 bets IPO 100bb deep?(Obvioulsy its going to be dependent on the villian)

Well... Just think about how difficult opponents who play lots of pots vs you in position are to play against.

The problem with 4b too much IP is that you have an inherent advantage which you are giving up, both because you lessen the chance of a flop happening, and just because you prefer to have a deeper stack to pot ratio (to a point).

Great video as always.

With the KT on table 2, could you please explain your reasons for calling his bet on the turn? It's 3way so I would think that his range for leading out doesn't contain a lot of air and you only have 4 clean outs.

You're not wrong, and it's certainly not a call necessarily. I figured I had a good shot of winning the pot on the river if he checked though, as there aren't really THAT many bluffs he can put me on if he checks the river.

I realize that it's hard to represent AK, AQ, AJ, AT etc. but I still don't see how this isn't profitable to bluff this river. I think there are a lot of random Ax hands that would've taken a stab on the flop, shut down on the turn, then value bet the river. How would you play A2-A7s? Probably the exact same way.

If you're looking at it from his point of view, even if he has a hand like T9ss, it's very hard to come up with many hand combinations that he has beat. The only thing bluffs you can theoretically have here are some random K6s type hands (which I'm sure you're folding a good majority of the time in the first place) and the few combinations of pocket pairs.

Pretty thin range of Ax that I can have, especially because he expects me to also always bet the A8 A9. I felt like he was probably a pretty good reg at the time, and I think he'd realize how few hands I can ever be valuebetting.

While with TT and JJ it can become a problematic spot if it comes brick, brick, and he bets both times, it is usually an easy call if you have Q8s.

It's important for a number of reasons to have Qx here in addition to TT, JJ, and random give ups.

Ok thank you.

Here's one argument about calling 3bets oop:

From a theoretical point of view, if you have no calling range then villain should reduce his 3bet size at least to the point where you start to have one. So it should be optimal to have a calling range, but that's conditional on his 3b size - if it's large enough it may well be optimal to only fold/4b.

I like your format but you could maybe turn off the sound and at the same time maybe choose a default seat.
These 2 things would make it a lot more better for the people watching it.

squeezing the 22 from the BB when its only 2.5x, 1 caller + 1 post has to be pretty bad imo, calling is definitely profitable here.

yeah dont know why you would squeeze 22 in that spot, it plays easy post and you get good odds. I'm also doubting the results of some coaches here, because a lot doesnt seem to win if I check PTR or so. Can you show graphs or so from lately? No offence.

I like the small 4b ip, i always get a lot of calls. On what kind of range do you put people when you dont know anything about there calling range yet when they are calling?

squeezing the 22 from the BB when its only 2.5x, 1 caller + 1 post has to be pretty bad imo, calling is definitely profitable here.

You are definitely right, I do not do this as a standard.

yeah dont know why you would squeeze 22 in that spot, it plays easy post and you get good odds. I'm also doubting the results of some coaches here, because a lot doesnt seem to win if I check PTR or so. Can you show graphs or so from lately? No offence.

I like the small 4b ip, i always get a lot of calls. On what kind of range do you put people when you dont know anything about there calling range yet when they are calling?

So, you saw my ftp ptr?

I have said the following many times, but I suppose I'll say it again.

Over 300k hands on PTR, many of which were in very tough high stakes games, I am up in bb/100. I am massively down at nosebleed games, of which I had a very small % of myself. Aside from that, as you can see, I am a 50 BI loser at 25/50 HU, over 50k hands. Much of those losses are against extremely good opponents, including probably -150k against 1 person. For a long time I played exclusively HUNL at 5/10+ for a living, and I got arrogant. At a certain point people started studying harder and getting better, and I got punished, because I was complacent. At some point, I stopped playing a lot of HU and focused on 6m and PLO.

As you can see from my PTR, I have very good 6m NL results, which is the subject of this video, so I don't know why you'd question my results. If I lost a million playing 7 card stud, but won 500k playing O8, would you question my ability to coach O8? If this were a HU video, I'd have a much different response. I'd tell you that my results are not good at HU recently, and to decide based on my content if you think the video is worth it or not.

This is also including all the hands which were played as run it twice on FTP. I am a big winner at showdown, and usually a loser at non SD (especially in PLO). PTR did not record any RIT hands. This means that a large % of my SD hands were completely lost, and for the most part represented winning bb/100 hands.

So, you can take an intelligent look at what you see on PTR, and see that I am a massive winner at the game which I am making a video of, or you can simply look at the number at the top and choose to ignore everything else.

Time Link to 00:02:58

buttom left - 55
do you think just folding the flop would be bad? we are folding close to every OC if he bets it and even if he 2nd barrels we are folding most of the time. even so our odds might justify a call, I think it might be tough to get to SD with our hand, so folding > calling?

(don't think it has a hugh impact on our winrate, but that's a spot I might be giving up a little bit to often)

Time Link to 00:08:22

top left - You say his flop play with 22 on 356 was perfectly fine and that you do it sometimes as well, why is that? Also, when you're looking to 3b smaller pairs from the blinds vs flatting them, what do you look for?

buttom left - 55
do you think just folding the flop would be bad? we are folding close to every OC if he bets it and even if he 2nd barrels we are folding most of the time. even so our odds might justify a call, I think it might be tough to get to SD with our hand, so folding > calling?

(don't think it has a hugh impact on our winrate, but that's a spot I might be giving up a little bit to often)

Eh. Id fold if it were different positions, i think that's a little too tight for bt vs co. Don't forget i can bluff a lot of turns too. ie, i cked back on a 3, but if it's a 7, 8, or T, and he checks, I probably am going bet/bet as a bluff.

top left - You say his flop play with 22 on 356 was perfectly fine and that you do it sometimes as well, why is that? Also, when you're looking to 3b smaller pairs from the blinds vs flatting them, what do you look for?

He can't really call twice with 22 on basically any turn cards, and I have a minimum of 6 outs. I think he should have gone raise/ bet bet, but his line isn't a disaster or anything. Theres a good chance he turns a higher profit by raising vs my overcards than by calling, even if I just usually fold when I only have 6 outs.

Regarding your 2nd question, it's usually with your pairs that you can't call with, and vs opponents who 4b bluff a lot and you need to expand your 5b range from just value hands.

very hard to follow the action with no preferred seat and avatars on, takes effort to find out where you have a hand.

Time Link to 00:10:54

How is Cbetting with 2s standard here? Pretty bad board, and you have close to zero Turn cards you can bluff . So when you get called here which Im sure you will a decent amount your sorting lighting money on fire. Arnt we bluffing preflop with 2s, Expecting to get alot of folds? So when we get called shouldnt our game plan be vs most villians to shut down on all but the best of boards to CB?What I usually do is ask myself where am I making money here with my 3B is it pre? Post? Both? I think you get my point. I guess my? is why is it standard to CB here?

I know it has been stated, but yes please have a preffered seat. It is extremely hard to follow the action, and you have so much to offer, I find myself searching for table, and not focusing as much on what your saying.

As for results, you could be a loser, and I would still want to watch your videos, as you have some very good insights. Also you communicate extremely well.

Bottom line, I always seem to pick something up from your videos, and really that is one of the best complimants I can give.

You, DJ, MagicNinja, Nolan really are awesome.

I have questions about a couple hands:

1. Around 43:00, A8o in the CO on bottom-left. After you turn the ace you say on that you are going to check/call turn and river. This seems like a good plan for the turn and for most rivers, but I'm not sure about the Qs. After villain sees you c/c the ace on the turn, AND after the flush gets in, do you really expect villain to be bluffing here very often?

2. Around 48:00, QJs on BTN on top-right. You say the ace is a bad card to barrel, but it seems to me like a really good card to barrel. After villain 3-bets and then check-calls flop, I expect most of his range to be 55-99 and T8s, T9, JT, QT, maybe KT. Sure he might have SOME AJ-AK, but a) you have a Q and J blocker, and b) he might be likely to either cbet and barrel with those hands or just c/f flop, removing even more combos. So basically I think you can easily rep an ace by betting, plus you now have more equity with the gutshot, so it seems like a clear barrel spot to me. Your thoughts?

Here's one argument about calling 3bets oop:

From a theoretical point of view, if you have no calling range then villain should reduce his 3bet size at least to the point where you start to have one. So it should be optimal to have a calling range, but that's conditional on his 3b size - if it's large enough it may well be optimal to only fold/4b.

Great post man! I am wondering why nobody has responded to this? Is it standard or why no reply?

Anyway, very good vid Ansky, enjoyed it and learned from it!

I have questions about a couple hands:

1. Around 43:00, A8o in the CO on bottom-left. After you turn the ace you say on that you are going to check/call turn and river. This seems like a good plan for the turn and for most rivers, but I'm not sure about the Qs. After villain sees you c/c the ace on the turn, AND after the flush gets in, do you really expect villain to be bluffing here very often?

2. Around 48:00, QJs on BTN on top-right. You say the ace is a bad card to barrel, but it seems to me like a really good card to barrel. After villain 3-bets and then check-calls flop, I expect most of his range to be 55-99 and T8s, T9, JT, QT, maybe KT. Sure he might have SOME AJ-AK, but a) you have a Q and J blocker, and b) he might be likely to either cbet and barrel with those hands or just c/f flop, removing even more combos. So basically I think you can easily rep an ace by betting, plus you now have more equity with the gutshot, so it seems like a clear barrel spot to me. Your thoughts?

Please follow the instructions on how to time stamp in a question. It makes it easier for me to answer, and is better for anyone else trying to learn from your question.

As for the hands, A8 is probably close on a Qs river, but I still think I'd call. There aren't many better hands to bluff catch with. I also think c/r might be good.

The 2nd hand, you make some good points, I think he definitely has a lot of non ace hands. I think barreling there is a good option, (though certainly not a 100% thing).

8 mins vs me when i raise 22 on 653ss BTN-CO you have KK and call, ch/ch on 6x, you lead Qx

Do you ever check the river in your shoes or always bet ? I mean, its pretty likely i have nothing when i dont bet turn and when you said you were betting for value without hesitation i was sort of suprised, what sort of stuff are you expecting me to call ? Or does the fact that i rarely have much not matter since you expect me to rarely bluff when you check, leading you to bet in hope i make some retarded hero calls.

ty.

8 mins vs me when i raise 22 on 653ss BTN-CO you have KK and call, ch/ch on 6x, you lead Qx

Do you ever check the river in your shoes or always bet ? I mean, its pretty likely i have nothing when i dont bet turn and when you said you were betting for value without hesitation i was sort of suprised, what sort of stuff are you expecting me to call ? Or does the fact that i rarely have much not matter since you expect me to rarely bluff when you check, leading you to bet in hope i make some retarded hero calls.

ty.

Feel like I'd literally always bet if I had nothing, and this should be pretty obvious to you, so I'd expect sometimes to get hero called. I didn't really expect you to go bet/check/bet here on a bluff very often at all, so I decided to just bet.