Poker Video: Limit Hold'Em by Entity (Micro/Small Stakes)

I've only listened for few minutes right now, but I gotta say that I love the setting of this series. I think many aspiring players can relate to these problems and struggle with somewhat a similar situation. Think of a result graph with huge downswing at around one year of playing. It's like a valley of death from which it is very difficult to climb out. You've ran out of steam from the original enthusiasm and have first serious doubts of self-confidence.

Up until that, you've always thought of yourself as a newbie and haven't had trouble with poor results. After a year of studying you think that you should be crushing the games and suddenly are not. It's a tough spot psychologically and I assume it's pretty much what this series is about.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the first episode and, of course, further episodes. Gotta love the new series format.

First of all, Rob, great job on the addition of graphics.

I'm going to add a few links here which I think might be conducive to a more enriched viewing of this video.

14:14 - I'm of course referring to the classic Ed Miller post Why you guys aren't crushing these Microlimit games...

~20:00 - Just FYI we are seeing a partial picture of my old hand history database. The tool Rob's using, Hold 'Em Manager, was not compatible with all of the hand histories I sent him (IIRC it couldn't read Prima HH's).

~25 - Rob mentions the new Tommy Angelo book.

26:06 - I mention opportunity cost. I'm not an economist, but my understanding of this theory as it applies to poker is as follows:

Let's say we fail to value bet the river with a hand that expects to win 60% of the time when it is called. In other words, we are passing on a bet where we have a 20% edge. We 'lost' this opportunity to make money.

Opportunity cost tells us that that is the same as placing a bet knowingly giving up 20% to the house or someone else. Both situations - failing to bet with +EV and betting with -EV cost us the same amount.

I would love to see a series like this for no limit. Actually I didn't notice it was limit until about 45 minutes in, heh.

Good video. I always enjoy videos on coaching sessions, and I am glad it was made into a series.

I think that PH fits the profile of a lot of players, so it is easy to relate the information to one's own situation.

I would have liked to seen some hands selected ahead of time for the video. Also, I think that the video would have been better if you had taken 10-15 minutes to talk some things over before filming, rather than doing it during the episode.... but it's not that big of a deal really. The video was over an hour anyway so it probably did not take away from the content much.

I had one question. I have heard so much good things about the "Robusto" series, but I have only ever seen the ABCs of Robusto on the site. Are they some old vids that are not up?
I would like to watch these.

Thanks and good work.

Looking forward to next week

Also, I think that the video would have been better if you had taken 10-15 minutes to talk some things over before filming, rather than doing it during the episode....

Heh, we talked for about 20-30 minutes before the video began. I wanted the viewers to get an idea of who Pygmy was so that they can identify with him a bit more, so I cut it like this. Over the next couple of episodes you'll see a bit more of a plan as we work from generalities to more specifics like blind defense and other pretty topical situations so there'll be a little more focus though each one of these is still going to be done in a mix between casual conversation and in-depth analsyis.

The Robusto series is a whole bunch of vids I did moving up the limits at $.5/1 through $3/6 or so and they'll be put back up on the site within the next few weeks once we've got all the production stuff settled.

Rob

Also, I think that the video would have been better if you had taken 10-15 minutes to talk some things over before filming, rather than doing it during the episode....

Heh, we talked for about 20-30 minutes before the video began. I wanted the viewers to get an idea of who Pygmy was so that they can identify with him a bit more, so I cut it like this. Over the next couple of episodes you'll see a bit more of a plan as we work from generalities to more specifics like blind defense and other pretty topical situations so there'll be a little more focus though each one of these is still going to be done in a mix between casual conversation and in-depth analsyis.

The Robusto series is a whole bunch of vids I did moving up the limits at $.5/1 through $3/6 or so and they'll be put back up on the site within the next few weeks once we've got all the production stuff settled.

Rob

Cool. Its not problem about the the convo in the vid. Since the video was long it made up for the extra time. I liked the feel of the video. Very nice work.


That would be great if the robusto vids got put up, I have heard nothing but good things about them.

Rob I just want to say I am blown away by this vid.

That would be great if the robusto vids got put up, I have heard nothing but good things about them.

I have heard so much about these Road to Robusto videos. Please, put them available as soon as possible. Please.

really great vid, and a very good start to a series.

Nice video!
I was having trouble with the stats window on the .mp4 format. It was a bit pixelized and I had to strain a bit to see the numbers, when you talk about PFR percentages and stuff. If you are going to focus on a stat, could you highlight or enhance it in the video? Thanks.

Nice video!
I was having trouble with the stats window on the .mp4 format. It was a bit pixelized and I had to strain a bit to see the numbers, when you talk about PFR percentages and stuff. If you are going to focus on a stat, could you highlight or enhance it in the video? Thanks.

Hmm. I will probably produce this next video larger than the first one though so that should help a lot -- what I will probably do is produce the video as a full-sized (I record these at ~1200x900 I think) and then also produce the ipod format because I think there's a lot you can glean from just the conversation, but then you can also watch the full version when you want to see the specific statistics in question.

Thanks for the tip.

Rob

Finally got around to watching this.

Rob, you are goooooood at teaching. The nuts. Pygmy, you are gonna get gooooooooooooooood.

Finally got around to watching this.

Rob, you are goooooood at teaching. The nuts. Pygmy, you are gonna get gooooooooooooooood.

Thanks man -- definitely appreciated. My usual strategy (as you well know from listening to me talk too much about tech shit, I'm sure) is to just talk and talk and talk until everything is exhausted and I feel like our heads will explode. Hopefully it comes across well.

Rob

I am watching the series.. have watched about 3-4 episodes already.. and am going back to the beginning now. I love it. Very good instruction/insight. The only thing that strikes me as odd is that the student is said to be struggling at the microlimits, yet when you are commenting on his stats, i am seeing a winrate of over 2.5 BB/100 at he 1/2 level over 23k hands. That doesn't seem like struggling to me. And he is over 3 BB/100 over the 33k hands in the stats that are up. Granted, he is only beating 2/4 for 1.13 BB/100, but it is only 4k hands, so this doesn't mean anything.

Not complaining. I love the series and hope to learn a lot from it.. just thought that was interesting.

Hi imnuts4u, I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the series.

In episode one we show an incomplete view of my database. At the time Rob and I recorded this video Hold 'Em Manager was still a very new product. It did not yet support hand histories from all the sites, so Rob was only able to resconstruct a portion of my database.

But the bigger factor is that we never showed a shot of the database filtered for the post-UIGEA period (and as you know part of the impetus for this series was my struggle in the post-UIGEA climate).

PT database filtered for 10/13/2006 (the day the UIGEA was signed into law) to 12/31/2007:
5,300 hands at -0.23 BB/100.

Granted that's not terrible, but it's sure not good. And if I went back a little before the UIGEA I think that would also be pretty underwhelming. As I state in episode 1, I was hitting online casinos pretty hard before the UIGEA. During that time I didn't play much poker and my game definitely slipped.

Then the UIGEA passed and the games got tougher. Adding that to my rusty game and I really felt like the game had passed me by when I went back to it a little more seriously. I know the idea of the micro game passing someone by may sound silly, but I really was struggling to be competitive.

In any event, even if I was break even or so, I really wanted to elevate my game and I felt I needed some help to do that.

I gotcha That makes sense now, knowing that the DB we saw was not necessarily reflective of your overall game at that point.

Anyway, I am in a similar situation to the one you were in (break-evenish at the same stakes). So, I enjoy the series and hope to learn right along with you.

GL and thanks,

'nuts

i found the discussion about the 98s hand that you over-limped and the 76s that you over-limped to be very interesting. basically, Entity recommended iso-raising w/ the 98s and mucking the 76s. i posted a hand today where i was on the BTN w/ 97s and the CO open-limped. i was thinking about this discussion when I was deciding how to play the hand. i thought, "well, 98s is an iso-raise, but he said that was his cut-off point so this isn't good enough", then i thought, "well, 87s he mucks unless there are two limpers"... but my inclination would naturally be to over-limp. the vast majority of those responding to my post opted for over-limping... most saying they would w/ 76s and 98s as well. oink was the only one who advocated for a fold... until he saw that the blinds folded too much, and then he said a raise might be ok.. but marginal..

anyway, this ideal of iso-raising w/ 98s and mucking 76s to a single limper is def. not the recommendations you'd get from the majority. made me think of all types of like situations.. just an example (could come up w/ hundreds i suppose)... how do you play KTo or Q9s or 33 from the BTN or CO after a loose EP open-limper.

just an interesting discussion b/c Entity is def. thinking "outside the box" (prolly a good thing).

just for instance: LEADER on 2p2 posted a Beginner's starting hands chart. and it calls for over-limping in the CO vs. 1 limper w/ 66-22; A6s-A2s; Q9s; JTs-J9s; T9s-T8s; 98s

and then it calls for over-limping in the BTN vs. 1 limper w/ 55-22; A6s-A2s; Q9s; JTs-J8s; T9s-T8s; 98s; 87s

interesting. seems as though if Entity is iso-raising w/ 98s, then he is surely doing so w/ many of the other hands in this range.

imnuts,

The biggest variables here are how the limper will play vs you when you raise vs when you limp, and what the blinds will do. Your hand strength is really the least important part of this equation -- I'll raise J8o when I think he folds a ton postflop and I'll fold 98s when I think he calls down to the river always. I'll limp 98s or 22 when the blinds are loose and everyone gives too much action postflop, but I'll fold them when the situation is just slightly different.

The box you want to get outside is thinking about what you're holding, and thinking about regardless of what you're holding, what the likely outcomes of your action will be. Then figure out how your holding plays into those actions and what you should do with it according to that plan.

Rob

Welcome to the Master's Program at Poker U. This is why the games keep getting tougher. lol

Nice post, Rob. Very nice.

just one question, slightly off topic but - the HEM replayer used by Entity in these series is like supercool compared to mine, although I use the latest version of HEM (1.05.09). Is there some special replayer plugin or whatever, that Entity is using here, or HEM replayer simply got worse since then??

Is there a video series like this but starting with microlimits ie no higher than NL25?

Is there a video series like this but starting with microlimits ie no higher than NL25?

QuadDeuces, I think the series Real LIfe Micro NL Grinder: Unlimited Texas Hold 'Em is what you're looking for.

You can easily find season one by sorting from the series link on the video page. They're in the middle of season two now.