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

first

Wilt, with the A9o 3b at ~5 mins, couple questions:

1) Are we 3betting A9 basically because it's one of the better hands we're not calling with, and domination isn't really an issue because a competent player there isn't flatting AT, and will more likely 4b other hands that dominate us?

2) On the A46r flop you cbet IP, rather than checking back, because we'd bet our air here/its where our perceived range is widest and so we're most likely to get looked up light, and checking back basically makes our hand face up as something with some sd value vs someone we think can actually read hands. Am I right in thinking that on that reasoning vs that villain on that board we should also cbet KK then? What about QQ/JJ etc? Where would the cutoff be?

If the villain wasn't a reg and wasn't observant, i.e. lets say they were fishy, and won't necessarily realise that our range is narrowed to hands with sd value if we check it back, does a check back become any better? If so why?

Edit: Vid so far looks pretty awesome. More Wilt please.

Live Play Session by WiltOnTilt = The Nuts!!

<3 WoT. More live vids please. Maybe more tables though?

Sweet video. I really like your rant in the end where you think that NL6max players should try out some different games to avoid getting burned out. I totally concur and started taking up PLO this week and it's really really fun. I'm back to where I was a couple of months ago when I could just grind grind grind for a whole day and still sit with a smile on my face.

So if you feeling burned out or just having a hard time putting in the hours at the tables, try a different game, weather its HU, PLO, Hi/Lo or even Razz.

Looooooooooooooooooooooooollllllll

always thought it was "Meet Ur Wallet"

Nice vid Aaron. As someone else said, it'd be cool to add another table or two for a live session.

I thought the AA spot BvB was pretty interesting and agreed with you that he's like never bluffing although I don't see how we can really fold espec since you were trying to rep that you were barreling.

I thought the JT hand seemed spewy cbetting into two people on AJx board. I'd def like to hear your thoughts on that hand.

Nice guest appearance Jared, lol. Obv you cold deck someone after being at the table for 3mins!

you can get rid of the HEM HUD problem by clicking HUD options > Player Preferences > uncheck Fix my stats position

really nice vid WoT!

VICTREE HAS NO FEARRRRRRR

When it folds to you in the SB and you go for a steal of the blinds, you raise 3x. Is there any specific thought process behind the bet sizing?

I have heard some other highly regarded poker minds (Isaac Haxton comes to mind) advocate raising bigger when you're out of position in a blind vs. blind situation to discourage people from playing back by either calling or re-raising with as wide a range as they probably should. It also makes it easier for you to play postflop because their ranges, theoretically speaking, aren't as wide with a 4x raise compared to a 3x raise.

Can you please comment on this?

Wilt, with the A9o 3b at ~5 mins, couple questions:

1) Are we 3betting A9 basically because it's one of the better hands we're not calling with, and domination isn't really an issue because a competent player there isn't flatting AT, and will more likely 4b other hands that dominate us?

2) On the A46r flop you cbet IP, rather than checking back, because we'd bet our air here/its where our perceived range is widest and so we're most likely to get looked up light, and checking back basically makes our hand face up as something with some sd value vs someone we think can actually read hands. Am I right in thinking that on that reasoning vs that villain on that board we should also cbet KK then? What about QQ/JJ etc? Where would the cutoff be?

If the villain wasn't a reg and wasn't observant, i.e. lets say they were fishy, and won't necessarily realise that our range is narrowed to hands with sd value if we check it back, does a check back become any better? If so why?

Edit: Vid so far looks pretty awesome. More Wilt please.

joliq - excellent questions!


1) Yes you pretty much got it. I'm basically never flat calling this hand, so we don't stand to lose any potential post flop value from 3betting it. It is one of the best hands we're generally not flat calling (ATo I'm pretty not flatting that much either, but I would more often than A9) and yes I'm not too awful worried about being dominated when I get called out of position for those reasons you stated. The other nice thing is just a little bit of card removal that helps us not get 4bet quite as much (not a huge consideration, but every bit helps!)

2) Yes, in general vs the regulars and people I think can read hands I prefer cbetting TT-KK there as well because I expect to get c/c'd a fair amount on this fairly dry board where many people might perceive my range as polarized to TP or nothing. If they defended a pocket pair vs my 3bet pf, i'd never expect them to fold it on the flop either so it's the best way for me to extract value out of worse hands by betting.

It seems sort of obvious when you think about it, however, the vast majority of people I start coaching would check A9 in this spot for "pot control/deception" even though you don't really want to control the pot vs villain's likely range and it's not very deceptive vs anyone who can read hands :-)

Now, as always, there is a downside. The downside to betting hands like KK-TT is that villain can make a cheap checkraise and potentially blow us off our hand if we're betting those types. We have to ask ourselves "how often is villain calling us light out of position with the intention of checkraising air/dry boards?" If we've been 3betting relentlessly and we feel villain is about to play back at us then we need to do one of two things:

a) check these hands behind because we don't want to be put into a tough situation in exchange for likely not winning any more $ on the hand unless villain makes a retarded bluff

OR

b) we go ahead and bet with the intention of calling a raise. bet/calling KK on a board like this gives people the willies :-) but if we have reason to believe those above considerations about how much villain is getting sick of us, there are spots where his range now becomes very polarized (esp if it's at the point where we feel he's 4betting AQ for value too) when he checkraises there and now we can use that against him.

The last line of defense you should consider using if you much prefer checking back A9o is you should check back air on these boards sometimes to represent showdown value in order to make a delayed cbet. This type of bluff works very well against competent players and doesnt work at all vs donkeys... which brings me to your second question...

If he's not a reg and not observant, is it better to check behind? The answer is yes it might be. If you have reason to believe the guy is a tournament player, he might very well interpret your check behind as a hand that is giving up (I learned this from IWEARGOGGLES this week in a tournament coaching session we had!). For some reason, tournament players view these types of spots differently than good cash game players, so in that sense a worse player could try to make an ill advised bluff against you (when you check) and therefore net you more money (these same players might be making ill advised pf calls with pocket pairs to set mine oop, but will just muck when you cbet a board they dont hit). So certainly these are things to consider.

WoT

edit: omg that was long... tl;dr!

Nice vid Aaron. As someone else said, it'd be cool to add another table or two for a live session.

I thought the AA spot BvB was pretty interesting and agreed with you that he's like never bluffing although I don't see how we can really fold espec since you were trying to rep that you were barreling.

I thought the JT hand seemed spewy cbetting into two people on AJx board. I'd def like to hear your thoughts on that hand.

Nice guest appearance Jared, lol. Obv you cold deck someone after being at the table for 3mins!

Hey thanks. I'll go ahead and add a couple more tables for the next one. 4 should be a bit better.

As for the JT cbet, again it sort of relates back to my general feelings on the A9 hand. We bet to protect our hand, we bet because second pair figures to be the best hand there and we can get called by worse. I think checking is also OK, but we're basically giving up and we don't stand to make much more money on the hand that way. Are we going to fold to a cbet on a blank turn (how often is someone going to bluff there)? If not, we do the same by just betting the flop with the added benefit of allowing ourselves to turn our hand into a bluff later if we want to. If we are folding to a turn bet, then our hand isn't much better than complete air on the flop and it seems like an "ok" flop to cbet air on.

Certainly let me know if you have some logic that I missed so we can discuss it further. Again I don't hate checking, but in terms of my overall gameplan I like having fluid ranges in most situations as I feel like it makes it harder on my opponents to make cheap bluffs against me.

WoT

you can get rid of the HEM HUD problem by clicking HUD options > Player Preferences > uncheck Fix my stats position

really nice vid WoT!

ah yes, that was the problem. Thanks for pointing that out and thanks for watching and commenting on the vid!

VICTREE HAS NO FEARRRRRRR

Ya know, I have been putting a LOT of thought into that hand in the past couple days. I think his river shove is super sick nasty against good players. His bluff only has to work 50% of the time and I nearly folded a hand that is very close to the top of my range. If we're only calling with QQ/JJ there then his bluff is hugely profitable against the right players. His bluff is super reckless against the vast majority of players at 5/10nl but against good, hand reading regs I think it's a super sick play.

Ultimately, looking back on the hand, I think a huge part of the reason he can shove there is my river bet sizing. When I'm betting 375 into 430 it looks very much like I either have AQ/KK/AA/boat/air and if he thinks I can fold a the first 3 sections of that range then his shove is hugely profitable. The entire way I was trying to bet amounts that made my hand look "barrel-y" such that he would call down with like 88 polarizing my range, but wow when he shoved I wasn't really expecting it.

My hats off to victree there, he made a sick sick play and it almost worked. It's a real thin spot for me for sure to make a call there without being pretty certain he is capable of bluffing in that spot, because most people are not.

WoT

When it folds to you in the SB and you go for a steal of the blinds, you raise 3x. Is there any specific thought process behind the bet sizing?

I have heard some other highly regarded poker minds (Isaac Haxton comes to mind) advocate raising bigger when you're out of position in a blind vs. blind situation to discourage people from playing back by either calling or re-raising with as wide a range as they probably should. It also makes it easier for you to play postflop because their ranges, theoretically speaking, aren't as wide with a 4x raise compared to a 3x raise.

Can you please comment on this?

Ike is a fantastic 6max player and I do agree with him in theory that raising to 4x out of position there sb v bb is better than 3x'ing it like I was doing. I think the amount of benefit in practice is unclear, but certainly if my students wanted to do it as a standard I would not object. I think you can take it a step further and simply vary your opens against each player more so than just against everyone. Vs a 15/10 nit reg I'd much prefer opening to 3x, but vs a 23/19 tough aggro reg I would agree there is probably a good amount of benefit to making it 4x _IF_ it really discourages them in practice. The thing you would have to be careful of is those players that say "well there's an extra $10 in the pot for me to steal and I know he plays tight to 3bets oop so that's even more of a reason to pop him."

I see you're opening those bad offsuit aces like A9 from MP. I think krantz and whitelime even fold these in the CO, so that's saying something right. Do you have a different take on these hands, or was it just table conditions?

Also, about your KQs fold against the shortstacker early on, I would've probably called there. You didn't even consider it, so do you think it's bad? I think there's still some room to play postflop, plus it feels dirty to fold KQs to a CO raise.

I see you're opening those bad offsuit aces like A9 from MP. I think krantz and whitelime even fold these in the CO, so that's saying something right. Do you have a different take on these hands, or was it just table conditions?

Also, about your KQs fold against the shortstacker early on, I would've probably called there. You didn't even consider it, so do you think it's bad? I think there's still some room to play postflop, plus it feels dirty to fold KQs to a CO raise.

i agree that i probably should not have folded the KQs pf. That was a mistake.

i'd be really really shocked if jay or emil folded A9o in the cut off. i'd lay like 10:1 saying that isn't the case.

opening trash aces in UTG+1 is not something I normally do. If I did that in the vid it was probably because they were letting me get away with raising wide ranges or the table was down to 4/5 handed, but if you put the time stamp i'll go back and look at that exact part of the video again to see if i recall any specific reasoning.

Thanks for watching!

nice video wilt. i like the live format as i think there's a bit more accountability and authenticity to the dialogue

Loved this video, the first that made me think "this guy is a great player", not sure if I haven't given your other videos a chance. Specifically the two spots (so far) I've loved were that you VB A9 on an A hi board in a 3bet pot and stated why, and then when you took a note that a player "VB to protect", which is very cool and opens up some other alternative lines.

why did jk3a sit wiht 20BB'? Just wanted to sit with WoT?

why did jk3a sit wiht 20BB'? Just wanted to sit with WoT?

i have fanbois near and far

Great video, Wilt, very instructive, id love to see more. Finally someone playing 5/10 with 100BB stacks.

In one of the smaller hands i have trouble to understand what youre doing.

Around 27:00 you coldcall KQs in position, peel on Axx Flop, Turn T, opponent checks. Why did you bet? There seem to be very few better hands folding, no worse hand calling. In case were ahead villain is most probably not going to bluff the river and in case were behind we have some outs.

At 4:30 you 3bet OTB vs a CO opener with KTs, why are you doing that ?
I think it's a hand that have a lot of calling value, i don't think it's ahead of villain's calling range and if we expect him to fold a lot why to choose this hand ?

i agree that i probably should not have folded the KQs pf. That was a mistake.

i'd be really really shocked if jay or emil folded A9o in the cut off. i'd lay like 10:1 saying that isn't the case.

opening trash aces in UTG+1 is not something I normally do. If I did that in the vid it was probably because they were letting me get away with raising wide ranges or the table was down to 4/5 handed, but if you put the time stamp i'll go back and look at that exact part of the video again to see if i recall any specific reasoning.

Thanks for watching!

Ok looking back, you didn't actually open it, but at 2:20 you say that opening A9o there is borderline and you elect to fold it because of the SS behind you. I tend to think that that's just an easy fold, even 5 handed against what seem to be tight players.

I will try and find a bit of video where krantz or whitelime folds A9 in the CO. I'm pretty sure it exists, because I used to open these hands and then thought wow if krantz doesn't open these I probably shouldn't either. Could be that I'm confused though with someone else.

no questions, just wanted to add that I like ur style!

btw: you should go back and check jk3a's chat on the AQ hand if you haven't already, made me lol

hmmm, it seems I'm acting like a fanboy here, but I say fck it and post it anyway

At 4:30 you 3bet OTB vs a CO opener with KTs, why are you doing that ?
I think it's a hand that have a lot of calling value, i don't think it's ahead of villain's calling range and if we expect him to fold a lot why to choose this hand ?

certainly a valid question. These types of hands in general probably do play better for a flat call than a 3bet, but I think they also play fine for a 3bet in position as well. When we're called oop it's not like we're going to be dominated all that often (is he really calling AT, KJ, etc oop? if so that's fine too because he's going to get in trouble vs most of the rest of my 3betting range!). Certainly a flat call is good as well, provided we don't have aggro guys behind us who will likely squeeze with a high frequency. I didn't have much in the way of stats on the guys behind us, however I do know bufo in the big blind is a good aggro reg and he can certainly squeeze it up a lot in the bb.

That said, call is certainly fine and perhaps preferable later in the session where I've already established an aggro, 3betty image. Early on when I expect people to give me some credit, I don't mind 3betting it.

Great video, Wilt, very instructive, id love to see more. Finally someone playing 5/10 with 100BB stacks.

In one of the smaller hands i have trouble to understand what youre doing.

Around 27:00 you coldcall KQs in position, peel on Axx Flop, Turn T, opponent checks. Why did you bet? There seem to be very few better hands folding, no worse hand calling. In case were ahead villain is most probably not going to bluff the river and in case were behind we have some outs.

I'm having a hard time finding this hand but I'm pretty sure I remember it... it's the one where we ended up checking it down on the river vs AJ right? The reason I bet there was to cover all of my bases. I didn't want to end up checking it down vs some small pocket pair and losing at showdown whereas I could simply bet to take it on the turn. Betting the turn affords me the benefit of being able to bluff the river if a good card peels off...so while checking back to get to showdown with king high has some merit, in the games today where people are value betting thinly and almost always betting 3 streets with top pair for value, I think we can kind of cover all our bases by betting the turn and occasionally bluffing the river when our read deems it necessary.

no questions, just wanted to add that I like ur style!

btw: you should go back and check jk3a's chat on the AQ hand if you haven't already, made me lol

hmmm, it seems I'm acting like a fanboy here, but I say fck it and post it anyway

haha... thanks for the post gring000h, i appreciate all my fanbois, even ol' jk3a :-)

Aaron, I rly enjoyed this vid - especially the thoughts at the end -- they hit home for me! I'm going to practice what you said.

[awesome 3bet pot stuff]

WoT

edit: omg that was long... tl;dr!

In the scenario where we do cbet like A9, or say KK there (and obviously assuming that the conditions are those in that scenario since that's why we're doing it) what's our plan on a blank turn? I guess that's the next question, I tried this line with the bet vs a a decentish reg today, in a similar spot, as an experiment, but felt a bit lost on the turn. Like as far as I can see they're betting their strong hands and their floats, so I don't see a c/r working much, I'm not sure when a bet folds better/gets called by worse, check calling seems to be asking to get towned/miss value and check/fold seems like we'd be folding the best hands to a float a lot?

Great video WiltOnTilt! Really enjoyed it! More of these please!
Couple of questions though:

1) MIN6 - the A9o hand - Isn't the turn a valuebet? You could repp air quite well. You said the K turn is not a good card b/c KK is ahead now but KK is a small percentage of his range there. Most of the time people 4bet KK looking to get it in. Also by taking the bet - check - bet small line your hand looks "valuebetty". And the bet - bet - bet/check would look more nuts/air.
So what I am trying to say is that you will most likely get only 1 or possibly 2 streets of value from a hand like JJ so isn't it better to be the first two when your range can include more bluffs? Also it helps to balance the times where you DB air. Or you would also take the bet - check - bet small line w/ a bluff? So maybe you could expand a little bit about your decision to check the turn.

2) MIN17 - the A7o hand - You bet the K 8 5 monotone flop and barrel the offsuit ace on the turn. And villain c/r the turn and you fold. You say that the turn helps your range and makes his range weaker so when he c/r he has you beat a lot. But what hands could he have there? What is he repping since there are not too many hands that he can slowplay on that flop except the flopped nut flush. Another hand he might have is A8s but there are only 2 combos of those. Could you expand a little bit on your thought process please as it looks like a call on the turn? And also folding TP there isn't really exploitable?
Would you continue in the hand if you had As7d? And if the answer is yes would you call a diamond river? Or your are just calling in hopes of him checking the river when you hit and checking back and winning the hand?

3) MIN20 - the JTo hand - Would you call a shove by the shortie if the BTN folds to your cbet (w/ JTo)? And what is the weakest hand you would call a shove by the shortie? (in the scenario where the BTN folds). In the scenario where the BTN flats I guess A2s is the weakest hand for calling right? (after the shortie shoves)

Live Play Session by WiltOnTilt = The Nuts!!

QFT!

Great vid wilt please keep this 6max stuff coming.. especially 5/10 3/6 at stars would be awesome.

haha jk3a slowrolling the shortstacker was funny.

I forgot to record the time but on the left table the fishy guy who bought in for 876.89 raised UTG and you folded A10s otb. I think villains stack was around ~500 at this time, is he too short to 3bet there?

This is a spot where I'd prob iso the fish and play a pot with a decent Ace in position, just wanted to check though

really good video wilt, your a great teacher.
that thing you said.. something like: "vs someone who plays his own hand you can c-r dry boards that u can't rep much on to a small amount something like 2.3x so he only has to fold 50% of time or something"
that really opened my eyes. thanks you