Great vid after watching the 30/60 one.

Gogo blumpster!

- At some point in the video you talk briefly about playing a 3 flush w/ 2 low cards. Could you talk a little bit about these hands; situations you would play them/ not play them etc.?

Great question.

The very most important thing is that your suit needs to be VERY live. The less live your suit the stronger your hand needs to be. For example, I'd say something like (K2)A is playable even if there are 2 hearts out, but something like (8Q)3 we would want no other clubs out. Also keep in mind how live your big pair outs are. Be more inclined to play the weaker of these hands when you can potentially steal the antes or limp behind limpers, rather than call raises or reraises or have aggressive opponents behind you with strong door cards (read: aces and other wheel cards).

The next thing to consider when we have 2 low cards and 1 high is the door card. This is very important. If I have the high card up, I want to be in a situation where I can represent that split pair. In this spot, it is preferable to be heads up against a low hand. A multiway pot is also okay provided it is relatively cheap. But I would rarely play this against a bigger door card (or especially an ace). If they think you are a good player, it will be evident you have a 3-flush rather than a pair, and you become very readable. If you have the low card up (and this is preferable), you can play your hand like a low hand. If you often semi-bluff raise with your good low combo draws, you will get paid off when you make your hand because they will not give you credit for a made flush.

Lastly, I would stress that you do not have to see the river if you pick up the 4-flush on 4th street. Especially in multiway pots, it can become very expensive to draw (4bb/card at times...), and often you will be drawing at half the pot. Even heads up, against a strong low board like (xx)345 you should consider folding hands like (K8)72T on 5th street. Think about pot odds, think about what your board is, and what your opponents think you have.

- At 13:58 you are bet into by xx57 holding (JJd)3d9d with what appears to be 3 busted lows behind you. You elect just call assuming the players behind you will drop out. What would your play be if one of the players behind you caught well? Does it make a difference if it's a scary low (suited) vs something like an offsuit 8? What if a player behind you caught something like a suited Q or K?

That was a tough spot. If multiple players had caught well, I would have folded. Recall that the pot was small since it was just a limped pot. If I was up against 57o and something like 28o, I could see putting in a check/raise to force the 28o to fold or call two bets with clearly the inferior hand (assuming the players' positions allowed for this). But yes, there is a huge difference between low boards like 27o and 45 suited.

Blumpster-

I really like your videos and your approach to stud8. Please keep them coming. a series maybe...please?

Around 19:00 - The Aces full hand on 6th against 423 and open KK boards.

You opt to bet out and explain your thinking very thoroughly. I can see why you did this, you just don't want to miss value on that st. and, as you say, a lot of good things can still come of it.

However, I think the best play there is to check. The 423 is going to bet there a lot, whether as a bluff or for low value. It looks like you could easily have a flush draw and maybe a low draw that bricked with a paired 5. On top of that the KK could even raise trying to push you off your flush draw with his 2 pair leaving it open for you to smash them. Or if the 423 does check, communicating he hasn't made a low yet, the Kings could easily bet thinking he's good for hi and trying to get you off any draws.

I think with these boards it's so rarely checked through that you can safely check here for the check raise. When you bet out you're representing that you have at least Aces up, right? If the 423 does raise is it really correct for the KK to call two bets cold with the action in the hand up to that point? I guess it also depends on how tight or passive the KK player is, but against those hands for half the pot, I don't know if he's got the right price for two bets. If the 423 has a good low and wants to keep him around he may not raise to push him off especially if you have already represented your hand as a strong hi hand.

If this makes sense, I see the line you took of betting out a little more risky of losing the Kings to a two bet from the 423 with a made low or risking the call/call where we can smash with a multiway check raise enough of the time to risk it being checked through a small portion of the time.

Just my thoughts I guess. Random afterthought: if you do check and it gets bet/raised back to you, would you ever consider just calling on 6th in the hopes of getting in more bets multiway on 7th? I assume not, since it just misses too much value on 6th, but maybe you'll surprise me here. Isn't it possible though, that if you check raise/3bet here and the 423 caps it the KK could possibly get away from his hand knowing he's got to be behind for half the pot?

Great spot for your in depth analysis though, thanks for that.

-steve