Poker Video: Limit Hold'Em by BigBadBabar (Mid Stakes)

Great opening..Great title. Don't play limit but I had to look.

Time Link to 00:47:52

I think you have to open this always heads up... even given that you think he might be good or even a hu specialist, folding this hand gives up way too much vs his range for continuing to a flop

I think i probably like a value bet on the river. its a little thinish, but he just doesnt have a better hand than you here. he doesnt have any Kings, probably no 7's (maybe some) and the Jack is pretty bricky.

I like the way you played that hand.

Time Link to 00:05:13

Why don't you just b/f the turn? It seems like a spot where you're either ahead and your hand is pretty vulnerable or you have 1-2 outs against your opponents ranges. By checking it seems like you get him to play pretty close to perfectly here, checking back his draws and worse pairs (KQdd,JTdd,KJdd, 99,TT) and valuebetting sets and Axdd.

re: KQ on the A82hh board

I'd fold and feel pretty good about it. The problem is, of course, that when we're behind, we're way behind and when we're ahead, we're only slightly ahead so we need to have the best hand a ton of the time in order to continue. As you say, we don't really have enough information to determine how often we're ahead, but against an unknown that number is certainly not going to be high enough.

PROTECT YOUR PEANUTS FOO

I think you have to open this always heads up... even given that you think he might be good or even a hu specialist, folding this hand gives up way too much vs his range for continuing to a flop

I think i probably like a value bet on the river. its a little thinish, but he just doesnt have a better hand than you here. he doesnt have any Kings, probably no 7's (maybe some) and the Jack is pretty bricky.

I like the way you played that hand.

yea i agree - if i were at a huhu table i'd open it no problem but then sometimes playing hu at a 6m or fr table and those other ranges start to creep in

Why don't you just b/f the turn? It seems like a spot where you're either ahead and your hand is pretty vulnerable or you have 1-2 outs against your opponents ranges. By checking it seems like you get him to play pretty close to perfectly here, checking back his draws and worse pairs (KQdd,JTdd,KJdd, 99,TT) and valuebetting sets and Axdd.

does the fact that it's 3handed vs hu change anything for you? i feel like hu this would be a neat line (that i didn't even think of at all) but with the 3rd guy in it complicates things for me.

re: KQ on the A82hh board

I'd fold and feel pretty good about it. The problem is, of course, that when we're behind, we're way behind and when we're ahead, we're only slightly ahead so we need to have the best hand a ton of the time in order to continue. As you say, we don't really have enough information to determine how often we're ahead, but against an unknown that number is certainly not going to be high enough.

agree; for some reason it took me like two minutes to verbalize this

ty

PROTECT YOUR PEANUTS FOO

+1

also i would like to state for the record that my river bet with TT on the QxxxA mw pot when someone donks, bets turn, then checks the river, is very bad.

does the fact that it's 3handed vs hu change anything for you? i feel like hu this would be a neat line (that i didn't even think of at all) but with the 3rd guy in it complicates things for me.

hum... maybe this is a product of not being in a lot of 3 handed spots, but I'd think the fact that the pot is threehanded and we've shown so much strength would make villain play even more honestly. I'm not sure though.

also i would like to state for the record that my river bet with TT on the QxxxA mw pot when someone donks, bets turn, then checks the river, is very bad.

If the pot were smaller you might fold out a queen but with 2 people in I don't think you'll have much if any fold equity to fold out a hand. If you're ahead and someone has a missed flushdraw they'll fold to a bet but the result will be the same as checking, any hand with showdown value they'll call.

If you know you're going to showdown if no club hits the river would a turn raise make sense? then you represent a strong hand which goes along with your preflop raise and when an A or K hits the river you might have some fold equity vs the QJ.

If the pot were smaller you might fold out a queen but with 2 people in I don't think you'll have much if any fold equity to fold out a hand. If you're ahead and someone has a missed flushdraw they'll fold to a bet but the result will be the same as checking, any hand with showdown value they'll call.

If you know you're going to showdown if no club hits the river would a turn raise make sense? then you represent a strong hand which goes along with your preflop raise and when an A or K hits the river you might have some fold equity vs the QJ.

meh i mean i thought about a turn raise but i don't know if i really like it. no queen is ever folding, imo. if he has a monster i get 3bet which sucks because i don't want to raisefold the turn for the same price as peeling and maybe calling one bet on riv to sd anyway, when he may 3barrel a missed fd

meh i mean i thought about a turn raise but i don't know if i really like it. no queen is ever folding, imo. if he has a monster i get 3bet which sucks because i don't want to raisefold the turn for the same price as peeling and maybe calling one bet on riv to sd anyway, when he may 3barrel a missed fd

i should have recognized his river check for what it was - a defensive, "i'm showing down for one bet" check

Time Link to 00:19:42

yeah the TT hand id just check behind , dude is never folding Qx and always folding bricked clubs. I understand the argument for betting as bluff but vs two guys here it just doesn't work one of them is snap calling Ax or Qx. I like the turn Fsdr only if it were HU on the turn.

lol i showed up late to the TT party.

Time Link to 00:25:53

scare cards on the K67r are 5xTx4x9x , not so much Kx6x7x this is of course if he thinks above level 0.

Why don't you just b/f the turn? It seems like a spot where you're either ahead and your hand is pretty vulnerable or you have 1-2 outs against your opponents ranges. By checking it seems like you get him to play pretty close to perfectly here, checking back his draws and worse pairs (KQdd,JTdd,KJdd, 99,TT) and valuebetting sets and Axdd.

Yeah, I'm with BBB - I think this has some validity HU for sure, but 3 ways on the turn here I have trouble seeing any line being better than x/f. Also, it hurts us to not have the Q in our hand (though I think it's still a fold with it.

Way to come in third.

Time Link to 00:11:22

The biggest factor for me here is our poor relative position. I'm much more interested when in goes raise - cool call pre as I'll likely get to close the action on the flop as well.

Yeah, I'm with BBB - I think this has some validity HU for sure, but 3 ways on the turn here I have trouble seeing any line being better than x/f. Also, it hurts us to not have the Q in our hand (though I think it's still a fold with it.

Way to come in third.

Man, I feel like c/f is the worst option since unknown villain could easily have non Ax flush draws and overpairs we beat in his range.

Time Link to 00:17:38

I dislike your river bluff with TT quite a bit. The pot's way too big to ask Qx to fold. I view this bet as an inverse freeroll.

Time Link to 00:22:33

I was surprised to hear you considering folding the AJ here. If he always fires the turn, so much the better for our IO. If he sometimes checks on scare cards our IO isn't as good but then we also get a free card on a K/Q.

Time Link to 00:25:56

I think the scariest cards are the 9/8 because now the only semi bluffs he expects us to have paired up. As an added bonus we 'improve' to 10 outs against his paired hands.

I think you covered his range well and I tend to agree with you on that.

Time Link to 00:43:17

And then you found six dollars.

Time Link to 00:47:05

Wow you did that guy pretty dirty cracking his kings with 88 and then picking up KK to bust him out when he held 88. By the way I think your flop 3b was a bit questionable in the first hand. I just didn't feel like villain was getting impatient / stacking off - I really felt he had a big hand.

Time Link to 00:49:29

Really good river vbet here based on what you know / suspect about him and given the history of the TT hand.

Time Link to 01:00:14

Yep - river sexy was the first thing I thought. But expect him to fold a ton unless you get really lucky and he has JTs.

Nice, I like videos with lots of dots. I can't wait to watch!

Yeah, I'm with BBB - I think this has some validity HU for sure, but 3 ways on the turn here I have trouble seeing any line being better than x/f. Also, it hurts us to not have the Q in our hand (though I think it's still a fold with it.

Way to come in third.

lol yeah

me: sb is butchering something that i beat
sb: orly

I was surprised to hear you considering folding the AJ here. If he always fires the turn, so much the better for our IO. If he sometimes checks on scare cards our IO isn't as good but then we also get a free card on a K/Q.

yeah i don't end up folding here but i wanted to talk about it a little bit because lately i've been trying to treat my overcards hands as not all created equal, and try to find some nuances in em, etc. maybe that's just being overfancy. i do tend to peel almost any two overs here almost always.

And then you found six dollars.

nh

Wow you did that guy pretty dirty cracking his kings with 88 and then picking up KK to bust him out when he held 88. By the way I think your flop 3b was a bit questionable in the first hand. I just didn't feel like villain was getting impatient / stacking off - I really felt he had a big hand.

yeah if i recall correctly i didn't pay a lot of attention to the pf in that hand. in retrospect given what we know about him and his passivity i think you're right. it's really hard for me to play it any differently though, if that makes any sense. like pf okay i've got value in all spots i think, and then on flop the other dude is trapped in there, etc

Yep - river sexy was the first thing I thought. But expect him to fold a ton unless you get really lucky and he has JTs.

which hand do you mean here?

which hand do you mean here?

Time stamp messed up - try this one.

Time stamp messed up - try this one.

OMG YES, absolutely river c/r, was so mad that i saw it and then didn't do it

Time Link to 01:10:16

you say that you shouldnt call a bet on the river here because he missed value bets. isnt that more of a reason to call a bet here?

like, he isnt betting a 9 or a 7 on the river, he'll probably bet an Ace
so he either made 2pair/straight, or is making a bluff with a draw...

I feel like when he bets his range is so polarized that we need to look him up

you say that you shouldnt call a bet on the river here because he missed value bets. isnt that more of a reason to call a bet here?

like, he isnt betting a 9 or a 7 on the river, he'll probably bet an Ace
so he either made 2pair/straight, or is making a bluff with a draw...

I feel like when he bets his range is so polarized that we need to look him up

i know what you're saying, and definitely in theory he's polarized between nuts/bluff, and vs an aggro guy who is induceable, i would consider calling. but most of these lp bad fr guys are polarized on the river, yes, but it's almost always to a value bet and rarely to a bluff. he can also "bluff" with better hands here which would suck, or just bet because he doesn't know why. the pot is also tiny which is another incentive not to call as i don't think i'm good often enough.

Time Link to 00:16:34

This sort of spot (the TT hand) is really always tough for me. Do you have any more advice on how to handle it? First of all, the 4 is actually not really a blank, sadly. The guy in the small blind cold-calling preflop and calling the flop actually has a lot of stuff around the 63 in his range (straight draws, pairs, gutshots, etc) that now just improved, and plus there is always expert slow play.

Is folding the flop bad here? I feel like that's what I usually wish I'd done after the hand.

Time Link to 00:37:20

In the same breath you said you'd check/raise an open ender and that would be reasonable, and that you'd check/raise a ten because your opponent would be like lol he has an open ender like 98 and call you down with no pair. I'm confused.

This sort of spot (the TT hand) is really always tough for me. Do you have any more advice on how to handle it? First of all, the 4 is actually not really a blank, sadly. The guy in the small blind cold-calling preflop and calling the flop actually has a lot of stuff around the 63 in his range (straight draws, pairs, gutshots, etc) that now just improved, and plus there is always expert slow play.

Is folding the flop bad here? I feel like that's what I usually wish I'd done after the hand.

i like a flop fold and i now think, some time after the fact, that it's definitely the best play. calling in this case just put me to tough decisions later in the hand and then i lit a bet on fire on the river on a silly bluff. i can easily be up against someone (donker or other person) with a queen, in which case i have two outs really. someone can easily have a flushdraw (donker or other) in which case i lose 1/3 of the time. several overcards can come. it's a spot where the RIO is too high.

In the same breath you said you'd check/raise an open ender and that would be reasonable, and that you'd check/raise a ten because your opponent would be like lol he has an open ender like 98 and call you down with no pair. I'm confused.

in the JT hand? well my point is basically that if i'm going to peel this flop then i need to substantiate/justify it by getting frisky on some turns. in this case i would do it when i pair up and also on some turns that give me straight draws. i don't know whether or not my opponent is going to call me down when i c/r the turn in any one specific spot.

i don't know what his hole cards are obv. if i knew, i could play this and many other hands much better than i currently do!

but i want my handrange when i c/c c/r here to be something besides {monsters}, because it puts my opponent in a difficult position in a big pot, where he can't play well and easily vs me because he doesn't know what i have. all the outcomes are basically good for me both immediately (if they work or i bink) and/or in long-term meta stuff (if he looks me up or calls me down with a better hand). i don't expect to get rebluffed ever on this turn either.

to put it another way, don't you checkraise flops with both pairs and draws? if so, why?

Time Link to 01:05:41

In this KTs hand you say that sometimes you have the best hand. I don't disagree, but does that really help if you're not getting to showdown UI like ever?

This is something I struggle with a lot. I justify pieces of equity that I have (such as "maybe the best hand") that just aren't realizable in the current situation. Do you have any advice for handling situations like that? The first time I realized this I was talking with Captain R about getting check raised with like JJ on a board with one over card in a live 20 game. Most of the time you're crushed. You could have the best hand, but if you're not calling 2 more big bets to prove it that doesn't really matter.

Time Link to 01:06:13

I posted before watching you finish the hand and you touched on what I was saying. Basically you didn't have odds to peel the flop there if you weren't getting to the showdown or even just the river on brick turns.

in the JT hand? well my point is basically that if i'm going to peel this flop then i need to substantiate/justify it by getting frisky on some turns. in this case i would do it when i pair up and also on some turns that give me straight draws. i don't know whether or not my opponent is going to call me down when i c/r the turn in any one specific spot.

i don't know what his hole cards are obv. if i knew, i could play this and many other hands much better than i currently do!

but i want my handrange when i c/c c/r here to be something besides {monsters}, because it puts my opponent in a difficult position in a big pot, where he can't play well and easily vs me because he doesn't know what i have. all the outcomes are basically good for me both immediately (if they work or i bink) and/or in long-term meta stuff (if he looks me up or calls me down with a better hand). i don't expect to get rebluffed ever on this turn either.

Thanks for explaining in more detail, makes perfect sense. And re: the TT hand I agree that just folding the flop is probably the play. I find that one of the things I do when playing poorly is call too many flops and end up in silly spots like this where the pot is big and I have a pair and well why not put some more chips in. Thanks BBB, great video.

In this KTs hand you say that sometimes you have the best hand. I don't disagree, but does that really help if you're not getting to showdown UI like ever?

This is something I struggle with a lot. I justify pieces of equity that I have (such as "maybe the best hand") that just aren't realizable in the current situation. Do you have any advice for handling situations like that? The first time I realized this I was talking with Captain R about getting check raised with like JJ on a board with one over card in a live 20 game. Most of the time you're crushed. You could have the best hand, but if you're not calling 2 more big bets to prove it that doesn't really matter.

who says i'm not ever getting to showdown ui? i agree it's not super common, but i think if we have an opponent who will crbarrel all his draws and pairs, then KT here is a fairly similar hand to say AK on this board texture, right? online games are more aggro than live games - i show down ace high with regularity online, and quite rarely live.

I posted before watching you finish the hand and you touched on what I was saying. Basically you didn't have odds to peel the flop there if you weren't getting to the showdown or even just the river on brick turns.

yeah, i think either fold flop, or call flop call turn, are two better lines in this spot