Episode Seven
Episode Seven
DeathDonkey puts his lessons into practice with matches against four different unknown opponents. Watch as he categorizes them and attempts to quickly break down their strengths and weaknesses to figure out how to best win all their gold!
tags: mano a mule deathdonkey heads up huhu hu lhe ipod friendly $8/16 limit hold'em adjusting to opponents
This Series: Mano a Mule
DeathDonkey covers the fundamentals of HU LHE play, dealing with a variety of opponent types and unique situations. From loose passives to maniacs to tough heads up specialists, DD will make you a force to be reckoned with.
Previous Video: Episode Six | Next Video: Episode Eight
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Comments for Episode Seven
- markuisis
- Deuce High
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8 posts
Joined 01/08
hey deathdonkey u rock and are as cool as a dead donkey.
- jajvirta
- Deuces Full
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615 posts
Joined 03/07
It seems like being able to capitalize on the (possible) mistakes of players featured in this video takes a bit more than 20 hands. The villain can get away with spewing on the big streets if the cards co-operate just a bit.
- tubasteve
- Deuces Full
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845 posts
Joined 11/07
i tuned in for a bit of this today and WOW i have a lot to learn about HU limit holdem. better load these onto the ipod!
- iplaylimit
- Set of Deuces
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456 posts
Joined 04/07
DD rocks... I have learned so much from this series.
Any chance of making more than 8 episodes? :P I know I'm greedy
- MickeyWins
- Quad Deuces
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1223 posts
Joined 07/07
Excellent Video DD,
and excellent series also, I realize we haven't seen eye to eye on a lot of things in this series, but I hope you understand, That those differences and the following discussion are what makes for the best learning....at least for me....thank you DD....
1) When facing a SD bound opponent:
a)Should we tend to put in less action early(preflop or on the flop)
as we may be the one folding before river?
b) Can we carry this idea as far as limping more preflop instead of raising everything?
c) can we reverse this idea, and put in way more action early vs a fit and fold flop player, and/or a less SD bound opponent?
7:25....we have AJ ..we cap preflop, bet flop...board is 9 Q 9 3
the turn decision is my question. you mention betting for value.
I was thinking a check behind get to SD was better.
As can we fold to a turn raise here in such a big pot?
Am I missing something here?
46:17....Excellent read followed by a excellently played hand(bluff), that even some strong players would have given up on before the river.
And I have a concept question on bad cards on turn and river(BTRC...bad turn river cards), something I have started working on.
In HU when both players are playing almost every hand, and also peeling flops very thin. Can we put much weight into BTRC cards, even when those cards seem very connected to the flop?
Wouldn't the BTR concept be more applicable to 6 max or full ring games?
- DeathDonkey
- Founder
- Quad Deuces
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1798 posts
Joined 11/06
Hi Mickey,
1) a and c I agree with and are a good example of poker theory at work. At the highest level there are sort of two varieties of good player (though obviously they all have unique tendencies), 1 likes to bloat the pot early and then try to get his opponent to make a folding mistake, the other plays a bit more straightforwardly early in the hand and then tries to get a lot of bets from an over aggressive opponent (I guess you could call this a trappy style). I fall into the second category but there are very tough players who play more the first way (and probably have higher variance).
1) b. is possibly correct in theory, but I think the problem with it is many people are completely incapable of winning their share of pots when they limp in. I think this has to do with what Tommy Angelo calls our "bread and butter" situations - basically where we were the last aggressor on the previous street and our opponent checks to us. We are extremely comfortable when this happens because it's happened so many times before to us. Changing that momentum preflop is usually disastrous because we just aren't used to that style, the ramifications of the smaller pot, etc. Additionally, from a theory point of view, if you are often playing bigger pots out of position than in position, you are going to have a tough time, and the limpy strategy does exactly that.
AJ hand: Well with the bloated pot due to preflop I felt like I protection was more important than normal, also I just felt strongly that my hand was good so I wasn't overly worried about a CR I guess (I know that's sort of a cop out answer, sorry about that).
46:17 bluff hand: thanks, I was pretty proud of that one. One thing about making the videos that isn't really something we can solve is I feel I lose a bit of my instinctual ability when doing the commentary, probably because I "logically" talk myself out of things that my subconscious would have me correctly do. When I am playing fast on my own I often make plays that have no real "logic" other than my batting average is pretty good. While I'm disappointed I can't totally convey these things in my videos, I just chalk it up to the value of experience and something people will learn on their own after a lot of hands.
I'm really not clear on your question about bad turn and river cards. Good players strike a balance between not missing value bets for fear of scare cards, and recognizing when a particular card changes everything about the hand. For a great demonstration of this (hehe sneak preview) my episode 8 has a lot of situations with board-changing cards and how I adjust to them mid-hand. For example within 15 min or so of each other I call down with king high on a scary board and fold top pair on a not-nearly-as-scary board. Check it out Wednesday :)
-DeathDonkey
- MickeyWins
- Quad Deuces
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1223 posts
Joined 07/07
DD...thanks for the long reply.
I wanna try to be more clear on my BTRC(bad turn,river cards) question.
Reading boards and making decisions on future(turn,river) streets,
using which cards show up on those streets as a factor in that streets decision.
I am thinking this works best in 6 max and full rings games, because the flop peels are more predictable and not as thin(generally speaking).
EX...in a 6 max or full ring game a Ace showing up on any street is a bad card. Cause it usually hits villains range hard. HU this is not the case as villain is playing almost any two cards and is peeling very thin on all streets. Granted the connectivity to the flop cards is also important.
HU EX:...board is QcJsTs...turn is 9s....a bad card, I agree. But not nearly as bad as it would be in a 6 max, and in a full ring game its a horrible,(more) FOLDABLE card.
In HU the villain could just as easily be holding J5 or T6, or 95s for that matter.
I guess what I am saying is, BTRC lose much of their meaning in HU poker...do you agree?
HU is more of a theory, metagame game, exploit opponents stray from "perfect play"...game.
(and frankly, probably the best place to start learning poker.)
- Raist0000
- Pair of Deuces
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133 posts
Joined 07/07
The last comment from mickeywins is very interesting. Do you really think that HU is the best place to start learning poker? I never heard that kind of comment from anyone, so I assume it's false, but who knows...?
- muscleandmoney420
- Deuce High
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16 posts
Joined 01/08
at 9 minutes you induce a bluff on the river against opponent 1 saying your hoping he picked up 2 fives against your 2 9s (+board pair) so when u induced the river bet you then called. why not raise? seems like the way to get max value since the portion of the time hes slowplaying an ace seems pretty small, enough that the times he hit a 5 or a 6 (as u mentioned) and calls down (or calls down with an even worse hand) the raise to make it more profitable than just calling.
here is hand history: hero in sb calls DD checks w/ 97o flop: A9A hero checks villain bets. turn: 6 both check. hero checks villain bets hero calls. so why call when u almost certainly have him beat? why not raise?
why is calling down the bet the best play?
- DeathDonkey
- Founder
- Quad Deuces
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1798 posts
Joined 11/06
Hey muscle,
I think you are probably right in retrospect, at the time I was thinking he was probably bluffing very often and would have a hand that couldn't call a raise, or the fives, so yeah I probably should have raised. Certainly there was some chance he had a nine with a better kicker but its not that likely that he'd check the turn of course. Re-reading the hand after this much time since I played it I agree it was a mistake.
-DeathDonkey
- muscleandmoney420
- Deuce High
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16 posts
Joined 01/08
Hey muscle,
I think you are probably right in retrospect, at the time I was thinking he was probably bluffing very often and would have a hand that couldn't call a raise, or the fives, so yeah I probably should have raised. Certainly there was some chance he had a nine with a better kicker but its not that likely that he'd check the turn of course. Re-reading the hand after this much time since I played it I agree it was a mistake.
-DeathDonkey
o boy i feel smart now! lol :D
great series thanks. has definitely improved my game tremendously
- Rapala
- Deuce High
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3 posts
Joined 05/08
Great video as usual. At around 9:00 you have 97 on a AA9 board after villain limped in, u check call, check turn trying to induce more bluffs, he checks behind and on the river it's AA965. you check again, he bets and you elect to call. I think check raise, folding to a 3 bet could be a good play here, since you're ahead sooo often. (he limped in preflop so he's got the A close to 0%)
- Rapala
- Deuce High
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3 posts
Joined 05/08
oops, I've just seen this hand has already been mentioned ;)