Poker Video: No Limit Hold'Em by sthief09 (Micro/Small Stakes)

awesome

I really like this format.

this is the best format ever, hopefully more vids will be made in this style

sweet, glad you guys like this. there is one more like this that will be for 200nl.

also, sorry about the audio quality. we're trying to figure out what the problem is.

Hey, this is awesome stuff.

One minor lol tho, in the hand where you advise against raising up the T7hh from the hijack with a 50 VP$IP on the button you somehow missed the fact that hero had just stacked that guy and he had left the table, so in fact hero is now in the cutoff raising a 22.5, 23, and 23.5.

Great video though, keep it up!

enjoyed the vid

one thing tho. at around 21:00 hero had QTs against a fish in the blind, isolated preflop & the flop came rags. You said hero showed good restraint by not cbetting the flop, and the rest of the analysis was based on this, but he did cbet the flop.

Indeed this is my favorite format. Please do more of these.

5/5 for this video and I've only had time to watch half of it.

I think this is the best possible format for coaching/review/sweat type videos. It worked better than one of the others I saw, where students were asked to comment while the coach was playing, leading to a lot of timing out and rushed situations.

Here, the video's done in advance so the play isn't influenced as much by the reviewer and it also let you pause and go into much more detailed analysis of some trickier spots.

Bonus its NL50 and also 4 tables

I didn't like this video too much.
First of all the technical difficulties. The sound quality is bad and the play is not in real time. That does not allow us to see any timing tells and generally it is difficult to follow the action on all the tables (also lot of table changes, stats popping up, sudden cuts in the middle of hands etc.) Then you seem to miss the action at some hands and comment on them anyway (e.g. T8 hand where the button sits out, QT hand). Perhaps 4 tables and super speed is a bit too much?
Concerning the play there are some comments I didn't agree with like completing the SB with KJ when the button limps, calling raises in position with JQ and KQ etc., no 3bets, calling 96s against a bet and a raise on a 9 hi flop. But then suddenly T9s is a solid hand UTG?
In my opinion such videos only make sense when you are sweating the player. He can explain why he plays in a certain way and you get some kind of discussion going.

really like this particular video and more importantly really like the concept of the video, would love to see many of these across limits and poker variants

Bro, he did cbet the flop at 20:50 He bet 3 into 3.5.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with this cbet though.

better than any Cardrunners video i have ever watched

regarding the c-bet that he made when I thought he checked (where I said he showed good restraint), I agree it's fine. at some point you have to show players like that that you're capable of not betting every time they check to you, and I thought that was a good time to do it. it was a very dry board, so if I noticed he bet, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have commented, because betting is fine and standard on such a dry flop. but it's a spot where it's good to sometimes check vs. someone who's almost always calling with A high and often with K high. so since again, at some point we have to not c-bet, I felt like this was a good time to check. And checking the flop in no way means you forego your chance to take the pot down.

I still bet the river, but it's not "trivially easy." His most likely hand is a flopped pair, and a small (~1/3 pot) bet should get him to pay off. Anyway, not sure how this slipped through, and I apologize for that.

I noticed the T7s hand when I was giving it a final run through. The button was actually in the hand with like 5 or 10 BB, but insta-left as soon as he folded. I didn't think it was worth editing in the audio there, as it's usually pretty noticeable when I do that and try to only do it when I 100% need to. If the button wasn't in the hand, I agree shawn, good spot to raise with tight players behind.

I didn't like this video too much.
First of all the technical difficulties. The sound quality is bad and the play is not in real time. That does not allow us to see any timing tells and generally it is difficult to follow the action on all the tables (also lot of table changes, stats popping up, sudden cuts in the middle of hands etc.) Then you seem to miss the action at some hands and comment on them anyway (e.g. T8 hand where the button sits out, QT hand). Perhaps 4 tables and super speed is a bit too much?
Concerning the play there are some comments I didn't agree with like completing the SB with KJ when the button limps, calling raises in position with JQ and KQ etc., no 3bets, calling 96s against a bet and a raise on a 9 hi flop. But then suddenly T9s is a solid hand UTG?
In my opinion such videos only make sense when you are sweating the player. He can explain why he plays in a certain way and you get some kind of discussion going.

Timing tells are definitely important, and you're right that speeding up the video makes that tough to notice, but it enables me to fit many more hands into a given period of time, and minimizes the amount of sitting and waiting people do for the next interesting hand to come up. For this series, my goal has been to cram as many hands as possible. Watching hands play out helps gain experience without playing, and more importantly sharpens your hand reading skills.

You may be right about the conversation, but this particular person wasn't interested in being in a video. That would've reduced the number of hands we're able to go through also. Entity and I did that for I believe episode 3 of my first season series, and we were only able to go through 4 or 5 hands. Great, in depth analysis, but again that moves away from my goal of showing tons of SSNL hands.

And regarding your hand comments, it's hard for me to find them all without the times, but yes all those things sound fine to me. The 96s was a minbet and a raise. A minbet is closer to a check than a bet, especially from such a loose cannon. Rarely is it a sign of strength. If there's something in particular you don't agree with, I'd be happy to defend it here if you provide the time or the entire hand.

thanks for the critiques. they are much appreciated, and I hope you like the rest of the videos more.

I also liked the format of this video or rather the concept.

Concept of recording the play in advance and afterwards coment on the intresting spots, gives more intresting situations explaned (in some detail) in a shorter time then compared where we comment live while playing (and sometimes dont even get time to take the action planned because timer runs out while explaining the reasoning behind the desicion).

Better video as a base next time and it will be excelent.

I liked the format and content a lot. Very practical, realistic advice on those common, "simple" situations that basically decide your winrate. Look forward to the next in the series.

I very much liked the characterisation of a blind battle: "more like a HU match than 6-M". I'd never thought of it in those specific terms, but it's a great macro approach to it.

On the downside, sound was a bit wonky for me too, but no big deal. And it would be good if the tables were identified 1,2,3,4 in commentary.

I really liked this video, also because you came across situations where I find it difficult to play. I take some notes and learnt a lot! Keep up the good work! Especially finding the good situations with nits behind you and a donk in the blinds, good stuff!

I have some questions, or people can answer them too ofcourse

I see calling in position with hands like JTs/QKs etc, I normally fold them against TAG, because I have always learnt these are reversed implied odds hands, which can cost you lots of money, on flops like K high. Of course, I can fold these kind of hands on the flop when I am suspicious. Is this a big leak? What about low suited connectors?

My next question is can you recommend me something how to improve in reading players, like that play with, minibet flop and turn/push river. I always fold that, because I think he is playing some obvious monster. And the hand in the blind battle with KQ, and c/r all-in by the SB. You just explained me this is e easy call against a TAG, i would come up with these ideas of: I showed strength, raised him made a cbet, how can he think I dont have a good hand. He must have me beat. I try to understand these kind of plays.

Against those TAG regulars at 50NL at FTP, do you suspect those player understand all the aspects you were telling about? For example, calling a raise while he has a LAG next to him, do these player take these things into account? How much credit do you give them, because they (and I) are still playing on microlimits.

Thanks!

sick video

I really like how you speed up your videos to the interesting bits.

Keep them coming!

very nice video, thnx for that.
im interested to know if review peoples videos for a fee, as a coach, or do you only make these for the site?

+1 on this concept/video

+1 on this concept/video

FYP

+2

30:23 QJs - what do you think of a check here given that donkus has already limped and our hand plays decent multiway? How easily do you think Donkus could call our raise with some crap? then what do you think of our spot?

Also interested in some of what sweetysven said.

isnot it better to fold Q9 on the QJT board?tho the good odds i think only the 8s can be real outs if none of them flopped the stone cold nuts

good video btw!

Great work !!! Thanks for it, sthief09. Hope to have more time to watch other videos here.

45Min JJ. I think we should fold here just like you said, because villain is 3betting from the blinds and probably has a strong range. Still I was amazed how you advocated folding when we have an overpair on the flop. I think that is really weak. If we're going to call we're always stacking off here

35.50min TT. I would 3bet here also. Solid advice. As played the flop call is standard, but I would raise the turn since those bets are never a strong hand. I know we're kind of turning our hand into a bluff, but I would raise and try to get him off jacks, QQ, KK. I think your advice to fold is weak.

Teh series has been very good, but I think you have some bad advice on this one.

I don't understand why you suggest raising so much in a SB vs button limp situation. I mean he had some decent hands like A10o QJs - which you even raise UTG. I agree the raise was a bit small I would raise it to like 2.50 but why 7-8 BB? I mean button limp is such a weak play I think you don't mind playing the pot with quite a decent hand, and you say you want people to FOLD. Isn't that like turning a decent hand into a bluff PF? You might as well do it with 72o.. And don't understand why you would build a big bot because of that raise, I rather think you build big pot when you raise to 7-8 BB and the button calls you..

Time Link to 00:54:13

Really good video.
Something I want to note here is that I think you are giving some of this guys too much thinking credit.
That 30/20 is prolly not on 2nd level and analysing that situation that badly for sure

great vid,, love the speed