Poker Video: No Limit Hold'Em by sthief09 (Micro/Small Stakes)

It was a fun experience making this video, and Josh's commentary is excellent. I made a couple of mistakes (hey I'm only human!), and I do some things differently than most of 2p2 which could generate some interesting discussion. So let me know if you have any questions or comments!

52:04 Table 4

Josh,

you are putting villain on quads and quads alone here??? Don't misunderstand me here, I'm snapfolding this aswell but mostly because there are a lot of boats in his range aswell with 8x or 66+ which have me beat. I'm also not convinced that 1/4 Stack donkeyfish will raise pp's 100% of the time pre.

Wow, I had stopped the video to make this reply and just a few seconds later villain shows the 3, so I guess your read was spot on, but anyway: Do you think he takes this line with a 3 only?

I think this is your best video by far. Screw you for not picking me for the series . At around 48 minutes, you mention that 35s is bad because you have no high card value with a fish in the blinds. Do you also advocate folding 65s or 89s? They basically will usually flop 2nd or 3rd pair too. Just wanted a little more clarification on that one.

I like how detailed you are in analyzing the situations. You remind me of CTS and how he pours on all the different lines based on slightly different circumstances. I sure get alot of useful advice for my whole $30 a month. You make good videos sir and I can tell that you are committed to making a quality product.

awesome vid

This series gets better and better. Loads of interesting situations again, top notch explanation.

Josh, I have a question about preflop raise sizing. You mentioned that on a site without a bet pot button like PokerStars, you'd probably open 4x from UTG/MP and 3x from CO/BTN. The idea to be able to call more light three bets IP because many players will make their three bet in relation to the size of your raise, and to make our blind steals cheaper.

My question is, if it's US doing the three betting, should we just raise to a 'normal' three bet size to prevent them from benefiting from this? For example if someone opens for 2x or 3x from the button and I want to three bet from the blinds, should I just make it 12 or 13bb like I would if they opened to 3.5x?

52:04 Table 4

Josh,

you are putting villain on quads and quads alone here??? Don't misunderstand me here, I'm snapfolding this aswell but mostly because there are a lot of boats in his range aswell with 8x or 66+ which have me beat. I'm also not convinced that 1/4 Stack donkeyfish will raise pp's 100% of the time pre.

Wow, I had stopped the video to make this reply and just a few seconds later villain shows the 3, so I guess your read was spot on, but anyway: Do you think he takes this line with a 3 only?

thanks for the timestamps guys. this is one of those spots where people are just always going to have an absolute monster. maybe I overstated how often he has quads. he might have "only" AA or KK some of the time. and there's always the small chance he's bluffing. but there are just some lines that you'll see sometimes and it's always a monster. just like when a fishy player c/c the flop and check-minraises the turn. it's just almost always the nuts or close to it.

I think this is your best video by far. Screw you for not picking me for the series . At around 48 minutes, you mention that 35s is bad because you have no high card value with a fish in the blinds. Do you also advocate folding 65s or 89s? They basically will usually flop 2nd or 3rd pair too. Just wanted a little more clarification on that one.

I have all the emails saved for everyone who emailed me, and if I do this again you'll have first priority. I wouldn't be surprised if I wind up doing this type of thing again. I'm really enjoying it.

against a loose range that can actually be a big difference. first off, when you're shorter, hot-and-cold equity is going to matter a lot more. when you're 4 buyins deep, you're almost never getting all the money in, so having a hand capable of making a strong hand trumps having good equity. 43s can make a disguised wheel, giving it some added value, vs. a hand like KJo that's almost always going to have to play for pot control. when when you're short, like in a tournament, you're getting all-in more often, so the value of the hand is going to run a lot closer to its actual equity.

also, against a loose range, which is going to include small sc's, A-rag, maybe even complete trash, 2nd pair is going to be a pretty strong hand, especially with some backdoor draws. 98s will often flop middle pair, while the 53s is going to flop 3rd pair more often than not. and 98s is a lot more likely to flop some extra outs with a draw than 53s. if you flop a flush draw on a Q72 flop and you get it in for 20 or 30 bb, the 98s will often have some pair outs, since hands like A7 or 76 won't hesitate to stack off that short w a flush draw on board.

vs. top 40% of hands:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 60.614% 59.55% 01.06% 1974074848 35286172.00 { 44+, A2s+, K2s+, Q4s+, J7s+, T7s+, 97s+, 87s, A3o+, K7o+, Q8o+, J8o+, T9o }
Hand 1: 39.386% 38.32% 01.06% 1270373352 35286172.00 { 98s }

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 63.800% 63.27% 00.53% 2236075172 18739514.00 { 44+, A2s+, K2s+, Q4s+, J7s+, T7s+, 97s+, 87s, A3o+, K7o+, Q8o+, J8o+, T9o }
Hand 1: 36.200% 35.67% 00.53% 1260641256 18739514.00 { 53s }

My question is, if it's US doing the three betting, should we just raise to a 'normal' three bet size to prevent them from benefiting from this? For example if someone opens for 2x or 3x from the button and I want to three bet from the blinds, should I just make it 12 or 13bb like I would if they opened to 3.5x?

I asked krantz this on one of his video threads. I used to overbet out of position more and more as stacks get deeper. he seems to be against that, so I'm experimenting with not overbetting much. I think much of the same applies when you're facing a minraise as when you're facing a 3.5x raise with 200bb stacks. I'm not 100% sure of what's best, but these are my thoughts (note this deals with being out of position only).

there are 2 issues here, and they kind of push us in opposite directions. let's say we hit the pot button. opponent opens for 2x, we pot it from the sb. that's 7 bb's. vs a 3x it's 10, and vs. a 3.5x it's 11.5x. potting vs the 3x and the 3.5x is ok (maybe a bb too small), as he's not getting a great price to call and try to take it away. but vs the minraise, making it 7x, costing him only about 5% of stacks is too small. so we'd like to make it bigger.

BUT the problem is you're risking more to win the same amount. if you make it 11.5x vs a minraise, you're risking 11 to win 3.5. if your opponent had opened for pot, you'd be risking that same 11 to win 5. since your main goal in 3-betting light is just to take the pot down, the actual price you're getting to steal the pot is going to be very important. the worse price you're getting, the more you have to tighten up.

so I think it lies somewhere in the middle. you might want to add 1 or 2 bb to avoid giving him a good price and good stacks to try to take it away (good stacks for him because he'll be able to make lots of small flop raises which put a ton of pressure on us, since the pot is smaller and stack/pot ratio becomes bigger). so vs. a minraise, I think 8.5x-9x is a good amount. making it 8.5x in the sb, you're offering 8 to win 3.5, or about 2.3-1, which isn't a bad investment at all. it's actually about the same as if you were to re-pot a 3.5x open (would be 11-5 or 2.2-1).

I suspect adjustments become a lot more important too, since your opponent will be in a more attractive spot since like I said, he'll be able to bluff raise flops cheaply. if he's calling you and playing back a lot, then cut down your range, make it a little bigger, or be more willing to stack off postflop. if he's folding a lot, or just calling and trying to hit flops, then keep pounding away. same goes with deep stacks, though with deep stacks I think it's definitely smart to tighten up out of position.

Josh,

Thanks very much for your detailed reply.

I like the advice to three bet oop to approx. (pot+1bb), it makes perfect sense. I always felt a bit odd making such a large overbet previously, since the risk didn't seem worth the reward.

I'm interested in the effect of larger stacks on three betting in general. It seems intuitive that we should probably three bet light OOP less often when the stacks are deep (say 200bb+), since our opponent is more likely to call thinking they have better implied odds? Am I on the right track here?

But what about three betting light IP (say vs. CO from the BTN)? Presumably we should be widening our three betting range the deepr the stacks and play more suited connector type hands to take advantage of our position? I'm just kind of working on the assumption that position becomes more valuable as the stacks get deeper?

Thanks for your help.

Josh, The J7s hand on J-6-6 around 69 minutes on table 1 you advocate checking the turn. If we c/c the turn surely we just end up in a similar spot on the river, or do you think he will only bet with his flushdraw once?