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

I wanted to post up some notes on this episode as I feel there were some spots I didn't go into enough detail on. That's to be expected for a first attempt and I believe I improve on this in later episodes. I wanted to make sure I recorded more or less straight away and I didn't do any trial runs. I feel this gives a more natural feel to the sessions and also ensures there's going to be a few mistakes in there too. This is something I feel pretty strongly about, in that if you watch the better video producers you will see that they make a number of mistakes during live play videos. What separates them is that they are very quick to pick up on, discuss and rectify these mistakes. It's an approach I'd like to humbly try and emulate. What you will also find is videos where producers have gone out of their way to record a session that has no surface mistakes, which means they have recorded hours and hours of footage just for that sweet spot and that ultimately does a disservice to the viewer.

Small spots:

-I'm aware I got the board wrong when making a note early on where villain donks OOR with a gutshot.
-03:15 table 1, could have called the A7s when deep with SB.
-21:25, table 3, BTN call is probably too loose vs good reg/potentially strong range UTG and solid/tight blinds, I prefer a 3bet or fold.
-In hand where video stops we have NFD on non-paired flop/get it in

Detailed spots:

-KQ vs rivered FH:
Why can we not easily put villain on a FH? His flop bet size is too small, my range is wide and he's giving me incredible odds to peel (which on this flop is v bad), but there's also the fish left to act who is going to potentially put a lot of money in the pot with an even wider range. So, when PFR bets that amount his most likely holding is a pair, draw or air, a range we're barely vulnerable to, plus we want the fish to continue.
Why is it unlikely we have a better FH on the river? Vs his flop sizing we would raise the flop. We're also likely to have 3bet preflop with a hand that would have a better FH, but once we bet the river we are very likely to have straights and flushes, way way more combinatorically than any hand he should be worried about and given we have no history he shouldn't expect me to be able to fold them on the river.

-AT vs turn donk:
All things considered this could be a mistake on my part, I prefer a call to bet some rivers, but lets examime the spot as is. There's no need for him to value-donk a card I should barrel with plenty of air, plus will value bet many worse combos, there's few draws for him to protect vs, I'm very often firing 3 as a bluff on this board and donking turn or check-raising turn prevent me from doing so. Saying I will bet some rivers and also that he's not folding when he calls the turn seems like a contradiction and didn't quite come out right: We're raising the turn so that he can fold/be a fish and call with worse (we don't know anything about villain, which also means he has no reason to believe his donk will induce anything). OTR we can bet the nuts and we can bet Ax, not worried about villain playing AQ or JT (folds the flop) that way, wouldn't have been worried he played KQ that way but knowing the results clearly he could have.

i'd be interested to know your pf flatting ranges. like i saw you flats a4s on the button with one caller v utg open but folding 22 to single raise pre early int he vid (albeit oop). any explanation or words on that? id be interested to know your small pair strategy (particularly when you suggested open folding 33 to reg sb v bb)

i'd be interested to know your pf flatting ranges. like i saw you flats a4s on the button with one caller v utg open but folding 22 to single raise pre early int he vid (albeit oop). any explanation or words on that? id be interested to know your small pair strategy (particularly when you suggested open folding 33 to reg sb v bb)

In the hand with A4s there is also a fish in the pot, I'm going to have a much wider range (esp OTB) in that scenario. We want to play as many profitable spots with the fish as possible. The 22 spot is a situation where assumed good reg opens IP, we're in SB with 22 and assumed good reg is in the BB. Very few good things can happen by calling, we're going to get squeezed a high % of the time and it's not a hand to backraise with or call. Postflop we're going to miss most of the time and the reg(s) are going to be playing close to perfect IP. If we hit a set our implied odds are shallow vs good players who are capable of getting away from hands and is going to put a lot of pressure on our range of small pairs (you can think of it as similar to why we would call 22 vs a nit who 3bets a tiny range but fold it vs a good agro player who 3bets a wide range). I dislike 3betting small pairs but if I'm going to do it it's often from the SB in a situation where we can't call profitably.

When constructing my flatting range I want to be in position as often as possible, or at least closing the action. The spot is going to have to have some very favourable variables to be flatting weak hands OOP (fish, reads, stack sizes, some combination thereof). I want to have a range that I'm going to be able to turn into bluffs more easily, this is why I'd rather have a suited connector than small pair though of course we can do it with any range it always helps to have more backdoor equity.

Time Link to 00:35:00

You don't 3bet A5s from sb vs btn because you are both very deep and you dont want to play it OOP or you just dont like to 3bet this hand?

I think it would be fine to 3bet there.

why do you think it is a bad idea to play at stars? and what site would you recommend?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think I said it was a bad idea, I think I said I don't know why people do. I can understand if people are going for SNE and if they find Zoom fun/profitable. I don't know why people would choose Stars if those variables were not true. If there is a compelling argument I am missing, then I'll be happy to eat my words. As for where to play it really depends, it's a long, subjective topic and I don't really want to go into it in this thread. In general I would say if the person is playing small stakes or lower, to go where-ever they can obtain the best rakeback or equiv. If they are playing midstakes or higher they should go where-ever they can obtain the highest winrate.

Thanks for the vid, vacuum, I look forward to getting more interesting analysis in your future videos as I think you have a good understanding of the game but also recognized you missed some opportunities to go into deeper discussion. I also appreciate you're wanting to put out honest first take videos allowing for yourself to make mistakes and be open to correcting them during play.

Just curious about your thoughts on timing. You often act very fast and just from a meta standpoint I was wondering to what degree you factor timing into your play. I think in one BvB you had 96 in the BB vs a SB open and decided against 3 betting and instead chose to flat because you took too long to act. If that's the case why would you not slow down your overall play? (Just an aside: I really don't think it would have mattered much there ).

Thanks again...

What happened at 34:10 with 88 at bottom left? Couldnt you have the best hand there a decent amount of the time since u played it the way u did

What happened at 34:10 with 88 at bottom left? Couldnt you have the best hand there a decent amount of the time since u played it the way u did

I don't think it's possible I can make a profitable call there vs a competent opponent. The turn is such a bad barrel card for him that he should have very few to no bluffs in his range (he has opened, cbet flop, is cbetting turn when video picks up). My range looks like exactly what it is once I peel the turn and I don't think he expects me to fold the river often. Villain should value bet 88 and better and have very few bluffs, which leaves 88 as a pretty poor hand to call with. The river Qx doesn't effect anyone's range in this particular spot.

Thanks for the vid, vacuum, I look forward to getting more interesting analysis in your future videos as I think you have a good understanding of the game but also recognized you missed some opportunities to go into deeper discussion. I also appreciate you're wanting to put out honest first take videos allowing for yourself to make mistakes and be open to correcting them during play.

Just curious about your thoughts on timing. You often act very fast and just from a meta standpoint I was wondering to what degree you factor timing into your play. I think in one BvB you had 96 in the BB vs a SB open and decided against 3 betting and instead chose to flat because you took too long to act. If that's the case why would you not slow down your overall play? (Just an aside: I really don't think it would have mattered much there ).

Thanks again...

In the regular games I play I am pretty consistent with timing. Making a video probably made me want to get all the actions out of the way and concentrate on discussing the spots. I also don't mass table and don't play against many villains who do mass table so tanking in spots is far more unusual than it would be on Stars NL200 I would assume, where I agree with you in that the timing on the 3bet would not have mattered at all.

Time Link to 00:04:12

Just nitpick about your note. You typed the board as 42TTA with villain holding A2. The board was 34TTA. I only mention this because he called flop and led turn with a gutshot (ie. basically air/ no SD value), whereas on 42TT he has bottom pair and could play differently w/ his weak SD hand. Either way, hilarious line by villain

Read the OP!

Read the OP!

My bad!

Time Link to 00:18:58

Isn't it better to check back with the kings on the Axx board? I mean it will very hard to get value from practically anything when you bet there. Or are you assuming that he will call with worse pocketpairs there? For the playability of the hand a bet is probably best though, but still don't you think there could be more merit in just checking?

And as for the preflop 5bet, is that your standardsize when you are not 5bet jamming instantly?

Isn't it better to check back with the kings on the Axx board? I mean it will very hard to get value from practically anything when you bet there. Or are you assuming that he will call with worse pocketpairs there? For the playability of the hand a bet is probably best though, but still don't you think there could be more merit in just checking?

And as for the preflop 5bet, is that your standardsize when you are not 5bet jamming instantly?

I think I can get called from worse if he correctly assumes I bet my entire range on that flop. With stacks I can also turn my hand into a bluff later if we decide it's appropriate. He's not calling off 300+ bbs with A8. It's tough to have a standard size in that spot because stack depth is almost never that deep unless you regularly play those particular tables. A slightly bigger size could be better if we wanted to be as balanced as possible but with no history I don't mind having a non-standard size, the aim being to give him plenty of room to rebluff parts of his range and call OOP with the entire rest of his range.

Hey you mentioned doing videos with more tables to avoid dead spots. I just wanted to leave some feedback that I really like the 4 table format. I find it gives me more time to think about what is happening. I am not watching these videos for entertainment, I am trying to learn. And 4 tables is perfect for me. Of course I am sure there are people that would prefer 6 tables, but for me 4 is perfect.

Well, the next video is 6 tables. But luckily for you the 3rd episode is 4 again!

Time Link to 00:33:19

why do we fold A9o here. Just too weak utg?

Time Link to 00:45:52

reasons for folding KJo here?

Nice vid, but please try to speak up a bit. You sound like James Hartigan doing the Sunday Million highlight show.

Hey you mentioned doing videos with more tables to avoid dead spots. I just wanted to leave some feedback that I really like the 4 table format. I find it gives me more time to think about what is happening. I am not watching these videos for entertainment, I am trying to learn. And 4 tables is perfect for me. Of course I am sure there are people that would prefer 6 tables, but for me 4 is perfect.

The good thing about 6 is that we get to see more interesting spots. You can always pause the video to absorb all the info if you want to.

Btw I really enjoyed the video. Thanks for doing these.

Nice video!
KQ vs. rivered Full House: Do we really have to bet the river here?
I don't see him calling with any worse hand since the flush arrives and the board paires.

Nice video!
KQ vs. rivered Full House: Do we really have to bet the river here?
I don't see him calling with any worse hand since the flush arrives and the board paires.

We don't have to, but I expect an unknown player to make enough mistakes to call with worse. Vs a player we know a lot about/have history with it may be a definite check or a definite bet.

why do we fold A9o here. Just too weak utg?

Definitely, it's too weak from MP also.

reasons for folding KJo here?

This spot is closer, but on tables where only good regs are left to act I'm happier to fold. On that table it's just good regs except for one player who we thought might be a fish but is turning out not to be and he is IP. What we find in this scenario is that the good regs IP are going to have a strong range they play well postflop, putting pressure in the right spots and not making mistakes. It's not like one of them is going to call with KT and put all the money in with TP, such that the straight up value of KJo is diminished. I'd rather have T9s. The good regs in the blinds will have a very tight calling range and a potentially liberal 3betting range. Yes, we can 4bet bluff, but opening MP specifically so that we can sometimes 4bet the blinds isn't a strong case for an open.

Table 1 14:00 – T8s Don't you think you should make bigger x/r given stack size? Which hands you would (or wouldn't if it's easier) continue bluffing OTR?

Table 1 17:40 – AKo What would be your play on turn if you were villain (having 77)?

1. You could make it a bit bigger because of stacks, sure, but I'm not trying to setup to put villain to a 300bb decision on the river because I just think that's unnecessary and possibly unrealistic (including if we were going for value). I'm bluffing a lot more often than value raising, obviously, so I tend to keep a fairly uniform sizing regardless of stacks (within reason, vs regs). The smaller we're able to profitably bluff, the better.

2. It really depends on how I view BTN. Betting turn and river could be pretty good vs a lot of regs. Vs fish/stationy regs giving up is fine.

RE: KQ vs. rivered FH hand

why not raise the flop? you said to keep the fish in but wont fish come along anyway if they have anything and isnt iselukus going to be strong/continuing when donking this 3way on this board?

Very good question. UTG is cbetting, not donking. When he opens UTG and cbets that small on the flop it's tough to put him on anything but a range of hands we are invulnerable to (there is a problem with this though, in that the fish can have a range we are highly vulnerable to, which should be factored in and wasn't). I agree that there's tons of hands the fish is never folding and my preferred parlay was to raise PFR's turn cbet and have the fish continue/PFR do whatever he likes, I feel we are more likely to get fish's entire stack this way. A flop raise vs PFR depends how important it is to not turn our range face up (we have no bluffing range with fish left to act), which may not matter at all here, especially with PFR playing exploitably and there being no history. It could better to raise the flop and I could be convinced that it's just the most profitable play regardless of other factors.

Table 1 14:00 – T8s Don't you think you should make bigger x/r given stack size? Which hands you would (or wouldn't if it's easier) continue bluffing OTR?

Table 1 17:40 – AKo What would be your play on turn if you were villain (having 77)?

Sorry, I forgot to answer the 2nd part of question 1. I assume you mean what cards and not which hands? If you did mean which hands let me know and I'll try and re-answer.

Tx, 8x, 7x, 6x, 3x, 2x + any diamond.

I have a suggestion!

If there's some interesting spots you want to go over, you can just leave the last 10 minutes of the video for hand review instead of writing about the hands in the forum.

Anyway good stuff, watching now.

Thanks

You bring up some good points, solid.

There was one hand in the beginning of the video (if I recall correctly..) where you called QTs bvb vs a 3bet against some tagish player. How is your reasoning in this spot? Can you really profitably call here without any history/reads?

And as for postflop, you c/folded Kxx (with one FD out) with a BDFD. If you fold this flop what board textures would you continue on?

Great video btw! Looking forward to the next one.

I think you can call profitably if you can reasonably expect to be able to bluff in enough situations. Villain seemed like a solid reg, so I am assuming that would be true. The board coming down dry K high is a pretty bad situation as it doesn't connect strongly with our 3bet-flatting range. We obviously don't have AK/AA (even if these are in our range, villain doesn't know/care/believe), which leaves us having KQ/KJs and then a range of weaker pairs that can't stand being put all in OTR and a range of bluffs. I don't like floating OOP to try and backdoor something, calling to CRAI everytime we turn a FD would just be bad (in that it's not going to work often enough to be profitable). Raising OTF is fairly face up as air. I would much rather bluff a flop like 67Jtt with no FD or BDFD than a dry K high flop with a FD or BDFD.

Alright, so in general then you prefer to play back (by floating?) on (dry) boards where there are no draws out?

And how about when you hit your top pair (Qx/Tx)? I assume you are just c/calling, unless it is a very drawheavy board?

It gets hard though, if overcards comes OTT/OTR imo. Lets say flop is T52r and you elect to c/call. Turn is a king. You check and villain bets and now (assuming we have no reads/history with the particular villain) what do we do really? At this point we haven't been able to gather any info on villains barreling tendencies so we just have to proceed by "guessing" whether or not he barrels light.

That cant be that good right? Or is your default assumption here always that a solid reg always bets his entire bluff/semibluff part of his range so that you can profitably call down, justifying the call preflop?

I would float dry boards sometimes. I dislike raising dry flops for obvious reasons. We can sometimes be very unbalanced and raise dry flops to make unthinking players fold, or raise dry flops to get value when weaker regs just assume we have nothing because we're raising a dry flop, but these strategies won't be a good long-term plan vs the better regs.

In your example my default would be to keep calling on the Kx turn. An Ax turn would be a bit worse (because both of us have more combos of Ax than Kx OTT) and I'd rather have some reads beyond "he's a reg" to continue. On some boards/streets I would be looking to turn a QT type TP into a bluff.

Can you give any example of a spot where you would turn QTo into a bluff, when hitting your tp OTF on later streets?

I wouldn't call a 3bet pre with QTo unless the circumstances were exceptional, so lets assume QTs. There are tons of variables and possibilities. If we're turning TP into a bluff it helps if we're deep, but here's one example that could play out for at 100bbs. We call QTs vs a 3bet OTB. Flop is T 7 8tt, villain bets 1/2 pot, we call, turn is 6o, villain checks and we bet, river is 5f, we bet.

Where can I get your Stars table/cards mod?

I didn't use any mods, it's all just from the built-in Stars table modder. Options>beta options>table themes.

Time Link to 00:39:26

I really dislike your river bet sizing with your straight his river range for calling is pretty much a few fullboats(not many considering how passive he played)flushes, and a few worse straight(he may even fold a 8 because you have 100% value range) this makes me think that you should have ether bet really small or even checked.

Even against a calling range of AdKd, 98s and 99(the other 66% of the full boats he playes faster to be super conservative) you are a 57%-43% dog.

Re-evaluating I do think a flop raise is best overall, as discussed somewhere up the page. But taking the hand as played I'm actually fine with the river sizing, it's what I would bet if I were betting(bluffing) and I do want to have a betting range there. If it's a situation where my range is totally capped and I've either got the nuts or air or the nuts or the nuts then I don't like having a betting range (unless it really is the nuts, in which case having the nuts compels us to bet).