Poker Video: Stud/Stud 8 by blumpster (High Stakes)

Great vid after watching the 30/60 one.

Gogo blumpster!

Great Video Blumpster.

A couple of questions:

- 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.?

- A couple of times you call on the river stating that your opponent could be raising w/ just a low. I know raising with just a low is good for deception value to get payed off when you have a good scooping hand, and also to bluff an opponent off half the pot when he has a weak high hand. Are there situations/ opponents that are preferable to do this against?

- 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?

- At 55:00 you get CR'd holding (63)47J by xx339 after you capped 4th. He has to assume you will be checking back a ton and he doesn't have the best of equity anyway vs hands you would be capping 4th with. Is his play here with trip 3's reasonable, and if so, how?

- 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.

- A couple of times you call on the river stating that your opponent could be raising w/ just a low. I know raising with just a low is good for deception value to get payed off when you have a good scooping hand, and also to bluff an opponent off half the pot when he has a weak high hand. Are there situations/ opponents that are preferable to do this against?

I would advocate raising whenever you have your opponent board locked, meaning that it is impossible to have you beat. Sometimes it looks silly because it is obvious your opponent has a full house or whatever, but you have nothing to lose. But I was just mentioning this as something to keep in mind, because you need to that if your opponent can raise with impunity with a lock low, you can't fold your modest high hand. It becomes less clear if he does not have you board locked, and there you need to apply hand reading to decide whether your should call his bet.

Also, one obvious but sometimes overlooked fact about stud/8 is that you cannot have both a low and a full house. So if you have something like a flush and a low, it's almost impossible for you to be scooped. Certainly you are happy to put in bets with this hand, but this fact makes it safer to put in even more bets. I hope this makes sense.

- 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.

- At 55:00 you get CR'd holding (63)47J by xx339 after you capped 4th. He has to assume you will be checking back a ton and he doesn't have the best of equity anyway vs hands you would be capping 4th with. Is his play here with trip 3's reasonable, and if so, how?

Well, that player and I have some history, so I think his play was okay because it was him and it was against me. But I totally agree that my range of hands (lots of straight draws, sometimes higher trips) will often take a free card or have him crushed. So it seems like betting out makes more sense for him.

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

Beginner question here. Why is the 256 starting hand at 20:33 into the video a fold? Is this a routine fold because of the 2 gap and the Ace having completed or can you make an argument for a call? There's one Ace and one Four out so the cards don't look that dead to me.

Beginner question here. Why is the 256 starting hand at 20:33 into the video a fold? Is this a routine fold because of the 2 gap and the Ace having completed or can you make an argument for a call? There's one Ace and one Four out so the cards don't look that dead to me.

I think I folded mostly because I was focusing on the other table. Calling is certainly fine.

I would advocate raising whenever you have your opponent board locked, meaning that it is impossible to have you beat. Sometimes it looks silly because it is obvious your opponent has a full house or whatever, but you have nothing to lose...

I am assuming this is still a yes, but does this also stand true at the lower limits where raising will often increase the rake paid?

Time Link to 00:05:31

if there is no action before you would you raise this hand and try to pick up the ante's? And obviously your hand has some high hand value as well as being able to improve to a scary looking low board.. Just curious if you would normally raise here or just wait for a better spot..

Great Vid.. Very good analysis on all the hands...!

Time Link to 00:20:31

This 25/6 is a fold? I am just shocked to see that it is a fold. I know an Ace raised... is this standard. Please explain this fold for me. Thank you.

This 25/6 is a fold? I am just shocked to see that it is a fold. I know an Ace raised... is this standard. Please explain this fold for me. Thank you.

The hand is close to a call. Blumpster was raising on the other table, not sure if he saw the dead cards and situation, but it cannot be a terrible fold as the Ace raised to our immediate right with a 4 and a 2 left to act. If the 4 was live, I would call for sure. Going to say Blump didnt see the situation completely and err to fold as the Ace raised while he was playing the hand on the other table.