Very nice video with lots of good discussions!

Question: 57:10, Pygmy Holds AJo in BB against Rob's BTN raise and he just calls. Good or bad?

Man I'd answer this questions but i think we fight about this like 15 times lol

basically i 3-bet.

Veni, vedi, vici...latin for I laughed, I cried, I learned.

Another excellent video, guys. Sweet.

Mike, nicely done. I had the great, good fortune to play with Death Donkey and Joe Tall in a live 4/8 game at the Venetian with TT. I wish I could do it again, now. They've made me a better player and I probably would hold up slightly better, although I'd probably lose a LOT more money now than I did that night. I know how it feels to be up against these guys. It ain't easy on the gut, but it's great for the soul. You held up nicely.

CJ

:), :) this was fun to watch. Always love when poker-nerds argue aggressively over things like board textures to XR. Had the feeling some of the hand was a bit fancy played. But this was a good hour.

08:00 - Geo opens w/ K7s in CO and Joe defends BB w/ K5o. Flop is J75r and Joe c/c. I have been c/r in these types of flops most of the time. Is that a reasonable play here? (notwithstanding that DD says it shoulda been folded pre).

Calling with K5 is standard on the flop. C-'ring is thin and you'd have to ask yourself what you're trying to accomplish by doing so.

You are usually getting raised on the turn by 98, 86, and 64, and possibly other bluffs as well depending on what the turn is. You are getting raised for value by Jx+. Kx and below is folding, and Ax is probably calling down. So there's like 48 combos of bluffs, Therefore you can't fold to a turn raise. So by c-r'ing the flop you are hoping specifically that you will get an A high calldown, or to induce a bluff from a hand that you are just a slight favorite over. Or talking yourself into a fold which would be a terrible result. Check calling is really the way to go in this spot.


14:30 - Geo opens BTN w/ T8o and Chuck 3-bets from SB w/ J9o. Again, I was really surprised by the light 3-betting from the SB vs. steal raises. Makes me wonder if I need to take the corn cob out.

I don't think this is a good play but as long as it only happens rarely its great. The most important thing is be balanced and unpredictable. I'd probably wait for J9s to do it myself.


15:00/19:00 - A couple of loose 3-bets in position. 15:00 has Geo opening in MP and Entity 3-bets on BTN w/ K7s. 19:00 has Geo opening from UTG and Joe 3-bets w/ KTo. Now you guys have mentioned that your read on Geo was very LAGGY. What is your iso-raising range for in position vs. a LAG? Entity mentioned wanting 40% equity. That seems really loose. Is position worth that much? If blinds are calling stations, you tighten up a bit I would imagine?

I think the K7s is good and the KTo is too loose. KTo is in bad shape by an utg range of say, QTs+ and 44+ (which i would guess is my utg range.


25:00/28:00 - A couple of AXo hands by DD. 25:00 DD open folds A8o from MP. Is that a standard open fold? I have been opening w/ it. Too loose on my part? 28:00 Geo opens UTG.. folded to DD in BB who folds A7o. Just too dominated vs. a UTG open range to play for 1 bet OOP?? I have been calling pretty liberally here and think I am spewing.

Seems tight!!!

thanks for the reply guys. hope you don't mind if i do similar type posts in the future. WoT suggested in another post that this was the way to get the most value out of the videos.

I wanted to add a few of my thoughts on hands in this video.

~11 I 3-bet with A6o versus Joe's SB open.
I know there was some discussion of this in the video, but I just wanted to clarify. Joe is a better player than me so I wanted to capitalize on what figures to be an immediate PF equity advantage (before we can get too far into the hand and he can outplay me) and because I want to maximize my fold equity (again, ending the hand earlier is better for me as Joe figures to do better post flop than I do). 3-betting PF accomplishes both of these things. I also felt the other player's might tend to give me a little bit too much credit early on as no one except Rob had seen much of my play (keep in mind that although we're 11 minutes into the video we're like 2 minutes into the table play - I think this is actually only the fifth hand).

~14 I open 64s OTB
Again, I felt everyone may be thinking I was playing a little bit tighter early on than I actually was (Chris pretty much confirmed this during the video).

~20 I fold T9s in the CO to Joe's MP open
I make a comment that I later adjusted to Joe's light opening hands. This was not correct - I thought I later 3-bet him with the same hand, but this actually occurred when Chuck opened UTG and I 3-bet OTB with T9s. That hand occurs ~15 minutes into the second video (Chris says, "Look at Pygmy adjusting to your LAG-gy ass."). Actually I'm lucky since I now realize Joe showed that open and the Q4s from the same position to set up the fact that he played reasonable cards the rest of the time - I was fortunate to never be in a situation where I was trapped by the reverse-tell.

There are a few hands that stand out to me as spots I failed to adjust to the superior play of my opponenets:

~38 Rob opens TT in the CO, I 3-bet A8s in the SB, and Rob caps.
Flop is 542r and I c/c
Turn is a 4 and I c/c getting 6:1
I think this is a good peel in a normal 1/2 game but is a losing play against Rob. I was not getting sufficient odds because I had no implied odds (as Rob demonstrated by mucking when I donked the river 3). I would expect to get paid off by bad opponents 100% of the time there. Against Rob I should have folded the turn.

~47 I open ATo in the CO and Chris 3-bet KJo OTB
Flop is 994 ttone (we both have BDFD's) and I c/c
Turn is a T and I donk, Chris calls
River is an A and it goes check, check
I was obviously attempting to c/r here as most opponents will bet the ace whether or not they have it and then give a wtf call when I c/r (even if they have a hand like K high). Obviously Chris is smart enough to realize he has SD value with second nut no pair and realize there's no way I fold the river, so there's no point in turning his hand into a bluff.

~1 minute into the second video Chuck and I both flop flushes
I think my donk flop line works better again fish but I agree that I should have c/r-ed this hand.

~57 (back to video 1) Rob opens A9o OTB and I just call with AJo in the BB
Flop is K94 ttone and I c/c
Turn is Ko and I c/c
River is 8s (completing flush) and I c/tank/f
I know a lot of people think I should have 3-bet PF, but I don't agree for this specific hand. I'm facing a better player and the one at the table who knows my game best. As such I think there is some value to concealing the strength of my hand. A 3-bet narrows my range substantially and I believe Rob would put me on exactly the type of hand I had. Rob mentioned in the video that he liked my play in this hand - I'm not sure if this was part of it or not.