Poker Video: No Limit Hold'Em by jk3a (Mid Stakes)

Time Link to 00:00:19

*LC* the deuce w/ the pegleg and parrot made me speew cofee all over the monitor. Love it. *LC*

hey jk3a, nice video

but your AQ calculations are way off imo, I didn't see any KQ, KJ, KT combinations in your Shortstack pushing range, as well as QJ, JT type off stuff which def. is in shortstackers pushing rang BvB...

given this the AQ call is ++ev

cheers

I didn't see any KQ, KJ, KT combinations in your Shortstack pushing range, as well as QJ, JT type off stuff which def. is in shortstackers pushing rang BvB...

He was a half-stacked fish, not a shortstacker. I think JK3A's analysis was good in that I would expect him to shove premiums + pairs + spazzes, so whether it's a call or not is dependent mostly on how much he will spaz here.

Time Link to 00:41:55

Jared - the AQs Vs river jam hand. You discount the possibility of the flush to some degree because some of the time he would shove the turn. As you have a 3/4 pot sized stack behind and your hand looks more like a decent pair/something with good showdown value, given your call of the flop raise, that he may think he has no FE here and choose to take the free card? Or is jamming the turn pretty standard here (with almost any FD) for a guy who looks fairly laggish over a small sample at 3/6? This might explain the timing of his actions too: "do I have FE here" (turn) & "does a jam look bluffy and likely to get paid Vs good opponent or do I bet smaller as it looks like he has some showdown value" (river).

Do you think if you were the villain and had say KhQh jamming the turn is good? How about AhJh? I am confused here as to the best option as with AhJh you (villain) almost certainly have the best hand and the NFD so value betting the turn and/or river would make sense but jamming will only get called by better (33/67/QQ+ - all of which you could have in theory, with little history) but with KhQh jamming if you believe you have some FE makes sense, checking if not? Sorry - bit of a tangent here I know but I have trouble in these spots with draws on the turn where villain (in this case you) is good, tricky and looks like he has some showdown value.

Jared - the AQs Vs river jam hand. You discount the possibility of the flush to some degree because some of the time he would shove the turn. As you have a 3/4 pot sized stack behind and your hand looks more like a decent pair/something with good showdown value, given your call of the flop raise, that he may think he has no FE here and choose to take the free card? Or is jamming the turn pretty standard here (with almost any FD) for a guy who looks fairly laggish over a small sample at 3/6? This might explain the timing of his actions too: "do I have FE here" (turn) & "does a jam look bluffy and likely to get paid Vs good opponent or do I bet smaller as it looks like he has some showdown value" (river).

Do you think if you were the villain and had say KhQh jamming the turn is good? How about AhJh? I am confused here as to the best option as with AhJh you (villain) almost certainly have the best hand and the NFD so value betting the turn and/or river would make sense but jamming will only get called by better (33/67/QQ+ - all of which you could have in theory, with little history) but with KhQh jamming if you believe you have some FE makes sense, checking if not? Sorry - bit of a tangent here I know but I have trouble in these spots with draws on the turn where villain (in this case you) is good, tricky and looks like he has some showdown value.

whether or not jamming the turn is profitable with a flush draw is simply a FE calculation.

Set x = FE, pokerstove our equity when called, and let's do some math!

x(pot) + (1-x)[(win%)(pot+jam) - (lose%)(jam)] = 0

After you've done that, put together a flop calling range. See how much it differs from a turn calling range by counting all the combos and that should give you an idea of how much FE you might have.

That said, you can't include tons of AK/AQ combos in a flop b/c range because most players are just more likely to jam/fold those. And in general, there won't be tons of hands that call flop raise and fold to a shove on a blank turn.

Time Link to 00:04:58

1st hand:

You've just said that you chickened out and I immediately stopped the video, so I don't know his hand yet.

When I saw this rivercard my spewtarded mind insta-thought "Overbet JAM!!!"

I think a "normal sized" bet will get looked up at least some of the time by the hands you mentioned (and I agree that this is his range pretty much), but I think a jam here should yield if not exactly then at least close to 100% FE.

Agree?

EDIT: also I really hope you'll get into some fun spots with mdm13 in this video. We'll see...

1st hand:

You've just said that you chickened out and I immediately stopped the video, so I don't know his hand yet.

When I saw this rivercard my spewtarded mind insta-thought "Overbet JAM!!!"

I think a "normal sized" bet will get looked up at least some of the time by the hands you mentioned (and I agree that this is his range pretty much), but I think a jam here should yield if not exactly then at least close to 100% FE.

Agree?

EDIT: also I really hope you'll get into some fun spots with mdm13 in this video. We'll see...

I think overbetting is def good, I don't think you need to jam though.

That said, you can't include tons of AK/AQ combos in a flop b/c range because most players are just more likely to jam/fold those. And in general, there won't be tons of hands that call flop raise and fold to a shove on a blank turn.

Thanks - will play around with the calcs.

The quoted part above is why in villain's eyes I thought your perceived range for b/c flop was probably a lot more made hands and therefore maybe why he might tank check back turn with a FD and shove when hit. I thought he would be more likely to bet a J on the turn rather than check and shove it on the river? Interesting anyway!

Good vid and looking forward to the series.

Isn't Mbolt1 a stoxpoker coach?

Isn't Mbolt1 a stoxpoker coach?

it appears he is, knowing he's likely very good makes me like calling down even better

mbolt1 plays very solid, he is a huge winner according to PTR,

jk3a I love the vid, especially the math part!

looking forward to part 2.

Time Link to 00:07:48

What about just jamming here? You are saying you are committed, so why not try and get value from the parts of his range that will call, flush and straight draws, but just c/f most rivers.

Time Link to 00:33:47

jk3a-

a decent msnl reg is repping inducing hands on this very special board texture and, given the current metagame in this spot, is presumably pretty balanced with it when we don't have any history yet. given that there is pretty widespread knowledge about the metagame in this spot, the fact that villain is raising this particular board does suggest that he is thinking this way here. if you had JJ here, a b/c would kinda suck a lot against villain's inducing hands because you risk overrepping your hand or you are letting what i assumed to be a narrower range of bluffs suck out (even tho this is probably restricted to Qx/Kx and not quite as much Ax [people 4bet bluff those more pre] but that is still decent equity). you also rep more bluffs when you 3bai which is the same as saying that he is inducing here. by the same token, flatting here looks retarded. if villain is inducing here, he is also very aware that flatting from you looks so stupid. that is what makes his raise ridiculously strong as a bluff in the current metagame against someone who is thinking. bluffing here is probably way better than raise/call with medium hands+ at msnl right now. but we should probably assume he is not bluffing without having some idea that he thinks anything about your game yet.
fwiw, if villain thinks your flat is some percentage of big hands (since JJ shoves almost always) and some percentage of hands repping big, he should probably be checking 100% of his big hands on the turn. don't know what he should do with bluffs though.

What about just jamming here? You are saying you are committed, so why not try and get value from the parts of his range that will call, flush and straight draws, but just c/f most rivers.

def think jamming is ok, i'm just assuming that he makes more mistakes vs two smaller bets but that certainly could be untrue depending on how he views each betsize

a decent msnl reg is repping inducing hands on this very special board texture and, given the current metagame in this spot, is presumably pretty balanced with it when we don't have any history yet. given that there is pretty widespread knowledge about the metagame in this spot, the fact that villain is raising this particular board does suggest that he is thinking this way here.

describe in detail exactly a) what inducing hands are, b) why this board texture is very special, c) why you would assume an unknown is well balanced here, and d) what is the pretty widespread metagame knowledge.

if you had JJ here, a b/c would kinda suck a lot against villain's inducing hands because you risk overrepping your hand or you are letting what i assumed to be a narrower range of bluffs suck out (even tho this is probably restricted to Qx/Kx and not quite as much Ax [people 4bet bluff those more pre] but that is still decent equity). you also rep more bluffs when you 3bai which is the same as saying that he is inducing here. by the same token, flatting here looks retarded. if villain is inducing here, he is also very aware that flatting from you looks so stupid.

how does calling with JJ overrep our hand? what alternative are you suggesting? you should choose a better word than retarded next time you post. Again, what exactly do you mean, "it looks stupid."

that is what makes his raise ridiculously strong as a bluff in the current metagame against someone who is thinking. bluffing here is probably way better than raise/call with medium hands+ at msnl right now. but we should probably assume he is not bluffing without having some idea that he thinks anything about your game yet.

you just said he was well balanced and now you're saying we should assume he's not bluffing?

fwiw, if villain thinks your flat is some percentage of big hands (since JJ shoves almost always) and some percentage of hands repping big, he should probably be checking 100% of his big hands on the turn. don't know what he should do with bluffs though.

raise flop/check turn with big hands def has alot of merit but i'm not sure if we think so for the same reasons.

Nice vid a mate.

describe in detail exactly a) what inducing hands are, b) why this board texture is very special, c) why you would assume an unknown is well balanced here, and d) what is the pretty widespread metagame knowledge.

a) AK+ (or more realistically 3x+ since AK is probably 4betting pre)
b,c,d) a small raise on this flop has close to the same metagame implications of raising A22r. if villain thinks it is optimal to raise/call TT on 663 here, he should think it is optimal to do the same with 3x and AA as well. he is inducing rebluffs from what is commonly a wide range preflop even from unknowns these days. the level 1 metagame that he is referring to in order to decide that inducing is best here is that a level 1 villain flats something like 88 on this flop, and 4bets something like AA pre. if a level 1 villain didn't 4bet AA pre, which definitely happens, we could certainly see a level 1 villain flatting this flop with AA for whatever reason. i'm not super worried about that though because it isn't a shit ton of combos. villain likely perceives that it is likely that hero is aware of this and villain can use this fact to induce. i don't play msnl, but i'd think that it'd be a stretch to assume hero wouldn't very often be thinking about this at msnl. having no history is the assumption im using to claim that our msnl villain is more likely to be inducing here than bluffing. by well balanced i do moreso mean 'not ridiculously unbalanced' like at 25nl where our villain only has nuts or air here which is awful and has no basis in logic. also the fact that it is a small raise is important in talking about his range this way.

how does calling with JJ overrep our hand? what alternative are you suggesting? you should choose a better word than retarded next time you post. Again, what exactly do you mean, "it looks stupid."

without history, i think that a flat polarizes us. a raise on this paired flop represents to me, for the reasons i stated above, a range of hands that are inducing which should logically be something like 3x+ (the logic im using is that if raise/call is optimal with TT then raise/call is optimal with 3x). so we should just jam TT right? we get value from the hands that villain is inducing with that we are ahead of while flatting risks confusing villain a ton and losing action. and pretty critically, we don't want to be outdrawn if we think villain's bluffing range (which i think ought to be non zero on the flop) disappears after we flat. if we flat and this gets villain to see two cards with his air and weaker made hands he is basically playing perfectly.

so in this way a flat to me means that we have either a value hand that realllly doesn't mind letting 2 cards frequently roll off like AA/6x (even if it is less +ev than just jamming the flop which is in debate now) or something like AQ exactly.

and still without history, we should just not be flatting any value here imo. if we were able to develop the history for a calling range in this spot it could be a different story, but this hand is without history and i believe that what is commonly known about 6max nlhe at msnl today is what determines this.

you just said he was well balanced and now you're saying we should assume he's not bluffing?

if villain has a small number of bluffs which is the idea im proposing, he can be balanced here.

raise flop/check turn with big hands def has alot of merit but i'm not sure if we think so for the same reasons.

what is your thinking about raise flop/check turn

j3ka, thx for efforts and work, your videos are great. Esp loved the SSNL 4 tabling series. Moar of these please! love your calm analytical approach a lot gj

we don't want to be outdrawn if we think villain's bluffing range (which i think ought to be non zero on the flop) disappears after we flat.

this is why flatting can work very well with AQ because lots of players just stop bluffing once we call. fwiw, I would more than likely jam my mid range value hands like TT-QQ on the flop as a std and yes that makes my flatting range unbalanced, but prob doesn't matter much.

raise/flop check turn: assuming we have top of our range it's good because sometimes people will bluff river if we check behind and we usually stack the made hand part of his range that would call the turn anyway

nh sir, loved the play/math format, very interesting.

this is an awesome video. great coach. <3

Liked this video a lot! Good work.
One minor question: What statt do you use for 2barrel? I can't find it in my HM. Is it turn continuation bet or something?

Liked this video a lot! Good work.
One minor question: What statt do you use for 2barrel? I can't find it in my HM. Is it turn continuation bet or something?

That's the one.

And, great vid Jared. Really interesting spots/analysis.

Best video i've seen in quite awhile on the site.

good job jk3a, i appreciate it.

Time Link to 00:23:53

Is this really a good spot to semi bluff raise over his cbet?
I know its hard for villian to have anything in this spot but surly its hard for you to rep anything apart from a FD.
Would you expect a semi decent player to call with A high? and would it be correct to call with A high if he thinks your full of crap and have some form of FD?

Im also really bad with the math part. Would you be able to write down the formula's please?

Many thanks
B

Is this really a good spot to semi bluff raise over his cbet?
I know its hard for villian to have anything in this spot but surly its hard for you to rep anything apart from a FD.
Would you expect a semi decent player to call with A high? and would it be correct to call with A high if he thinks your full of crap and have some form of FD?

Im also really bad with the math part. Would you be able to write down the formula's please?

Many thanks
B

doesn't matter much that we can't rep anything, i would call some players with A high, yes.

as far as formulas go, i would encourage you to go back thru the videos and write them down yourself based on what I have or find the in Wiltontilt's math series.

I really liked this format. The math was very illuminating yet simple. More videos from jk3a, please!

jk3a, for the A2s hand vs the shortstacker. You said you prefer a check there and said that we could check fold. I understand c/f to a jam, but can we c/f if he bets something like 3/4 pot. Isn't our equity against his Ax hands (given our NFD) and other spazz hands too great to c/f here?

Also, how do you do your math estimates at the table? At the table, what made the A2s hand a call?

Thanks and great vid.

jk3a, for the A2s hand vs the shortstacker. You said you prefer a check there and said that we could check fold. I understand c/f to a jam, but can we c/f if he bets something like 3/4 pot. Isn't our equity against his Ax hands (given our NFD) and other spazz hands too great to c/f here?

Also, how do you do your math estimates at the table? At the table, what made the A2s hand a call?

Thanks and great vid.

sorry if i mispoke in the vid, but i would c/c most turn bets.

in game, just gueestimating really. we know our pot odds and we know the flush draw gives us ~20%, so I figured if it's a bad call, it's not by much.

Dear jk3a,

1st hand. I am not a HU player, so correct me if I am wrong.
I did not like floating the flop. Yes you do have Equity against his range, but I see few ways to win this hand without a hit.

On this board it is really hard for him to have air, his draws will often either second barrel, or check/call turns(but are protected because he does have quite a number of made hands that could play that way as well).

In this specific spot, I almost never see him folding on the turn, so a turn bet without a river barrel seems negative EV to me. However, in order to estimate what your value Range would be, I have to ask you which Qs you would raise on the flop and how low a pocket would you valuebet the turn with? Lacking HU experience, I would have raised QJ or better on the flop(the majority of the time) and probably valuebet 88 on the turn.

Thanks for the Video already. More comments will follow

Table 3, min 7, TT sqz vs Fish

While I understand your reasoning, wouldn't it be better to bet the flop a bit bigger, like 124? Then we could bet the turn similarly small as you did and possibly get him to call us lighter on the river, because of the small stack left. With the size u picked, I expect him to fold anything lower than an eight on the river.

Table 3, min 15:50, Q2s, two pair in blind battle

YOu say that it would make a lot of sense for him to fold QT, which I agree to. However, if we expect him to make a fold like that, what are you valuebetting against? Also, what is your Bluffrange in that Spot?

Table 1, min 33, Q9o, call down

In Mbolts shoes, I would have flatted TT+ quite a bit in that spot, and bet 3 streets 4 value with them agaisnt your check call.

I am asking myself whether you would have check/called the flop with A7, and what your play would have been after hitting 2 pair on the turn, in case you did check/call the flop?

Dear jk3a,

1st hand. I am not a HU player, so correct me if I am wrong.
I did not like floating the flop. Yes you do have Equity against his range, but I see few ways to win this hand without a hit.

On this board it is really hard for him to have air, his draws will often either second barrel, or check/call turns(but are protected because he does have quite a number of made hands that could play that way as well).

In this specific spot, I almost never see him folding on the turn, so a turn bet without a river barrel seems negative EV to me. However, in order to estimate what your value Range would be, I have to ask you which Qs you would raise on the flop and how low a pocket would you valuebet the turn with? Lacking HU experience, I would have raised QJ or better on the flop(the majority of the time) and probably valuebet 88 on the turn.

Thanks for the Video already. More comments will follow

You make several assumptions that I wouldn't make readless. My reasons for assuming floating is +ev mostly relate to the idea of him having air a decent amount when he donks. I disagree that "it is really hard for him to have air." As I mentioned in the vid, I like betting the river as played.

Def raising KQ+ for the most part and def value betting 77+ if checked to.

Table 3, min 7, TT sqz vs Fish

While I understand your reasoning, wouldn't it be better to bet the flop a bit bigger, like 124? Then we could bet the turn similarly small as you did and possibly get him to call us lighter on the river, because of the small stack left. With the size u picked, I expect him to fold anything lower than an eight on the river.

With stacks, I actually prefer slightly bigger on flop and jam turn.

Table 3, min 15:50, Q2s, two pair in blind battle

YOu say that it would make a lot of sense for him to fold QT, which I agree to. However, if we expect him to make a fold like that, what are you valuebetting against? Also, what is your Bluffrange in that Spot?

I don't necessarily expect him to fold that hand, just think that he could fold it. It's much more likely that he folded a hand like JT, J9, T8, etc. Blind vs blind especially, people are very call happy, and given that we almost always have the best hand given the previous streets actions we should certainly value bet. People make "bad" calls all the time.

I love the Vid, have to go back to watching all your old ones...

doesn't matter much that we can't rep anything, i would call some players with A high, yes.

as far as formulas go, i would encourage you to go back thru the videos and write them down yourself based on what I have or find the in Wiltontilt's math series.

yeah, I also wondered about this one.
The reason why I don't really wanna 3bet here is that our draw is to good to raise/fold but too bad to raise/get it in. That said I think you fold out some weak pairs and obv. better highcard hands by raising but you can probably also fold out almost all of them by just floating and betting turn and/or river.
Another thing is that at least my floating range on this board is way wider than my raising range so keeping it as wide as possible seems like a good idea, no?
What would you have done vs a 3bet?

yeah, I also wondered about this one.
The reason why I don't really wanna 3bet here is that our draw is to good to raise/fold but too bad to raise/get it in. That said I think you fold out some weak pairs and obv. better highcard hands by raising but you can probably also fold out almost all of them by just floating and betting turn and/or river.
Another thing is that at least my floating range on this board is way wider than my raising range so keeping it as wide as possible seems like a good idea, no?
What would you have done vs a 3bet?

balance prob matters very little if at all vs that type of player. without any other history, call some 3bet sizes and fold to huge ones.

Time Link to 00:13:48

Hi jk3a, in the A2dd hand.This confuses me alot.

If there is a chance villain is shoving over us should we be -

a)betting bigger so that calling his shove gives us the right price vs a super tight range?

b)c/c'n and c/f'n unimproved rivers?

how would you work out which has the best EV?

Hi jk3a, in the A2dd hand.This confuses me alot.

If there is a chance villain is shoving over us should we be -

a)betting bigger so that calling his shove gives us the right price vs a super tight range?

b)c/c'n and c/f'n unimproved rivers?

how would you work out which has the best EV?

Think I said in video that in hindsight I think c/c is best. To figure which one is better is complicated because it depends on two unknown frequencies. How often he jams the turn and how often he jams the river after betting the turn (if he bets at all). You should try to mess around with some frequencies to see what you get.

ty for posting