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

Cool, been waiting all morning to watch this. Really enjoyed the last episode, hopefully this one will be as good.

Another great episode , NinjaDolphin ftw !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jecLf2kkX64

I'm gonna watch the video tonight, i saw the youtube though.

When I heared your voice, i imagened you as a blondie ... sry

I kinda like your new nickname. Sounds familiar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jecLf2kkX64

Please try to remember the coffee before making videos with Baluga.

Great episodes so far, and i'm 100% sure the future episodes will be awesome too.

Time Link to 00:16:25

What do you think of this spot on table one here? This is a classic fish line - once we check they bet small (min bet in this case) then pot the next street regardless once you only call. I guess the board pairing isn't great but generally what do you think the best line is here given our holding (55) or if we have a hand that has little equity - say overs on this board. If we have little equity are we just better raising the min bet? Can we call the turn bet with a hand with showdown value - like the 55 if he has a full stack intending to call small river bet or fold to a big one or is it just not worth it?

(This is all assuming we check, which I appreciate we didn't intend to here).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jecLf2kkX64

Bad man.

lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jecLf2kkX64

barryg1 creepin'

This series is SO DAMN GOOD. It's like worth the Deuces Cracked subscription ten times over in itself.

After watching this I fire up HEM and check my biggest lost pots:
FPS... FPS... Fold... FPS... FPS... Why am I betting here?... FPS...

Speaking of Joe The Pro, is he ever coming back?

Baluga, what are your thoughts on opening smaller when we are OTB vs the blinds, since we are probably going to be stealing a lot and folding to 3Bs out of the blinds? I see NinjaDolphin still hitting the pot button in these situations and I usually don't bet pot in this situation unless there is a really loose/passive fish in the blinds.

Kristy, the spacebar will pause your VLC player. So when Baluga says pause all you have to do is hit the spacebar. Just thought it might make it easier on you during these videos.

Kristy, the spacebar will pause your VLC player. So when Baluga says pause all you have to do is hit the spacebar. Just thought it might make it easier on you during these videos.

Pressing space again will, of course, resume the video.

Baluga, what are your thoughts on opening smaller when we are OTB

I noticed Kristy mostly mashing the pot button pre-flop. I think this goes hand in hand with Balugas basic strategy of extracting value. We want to charge as much as we can for value, and pay as little to bluff, as possible. Our range is still betting for value OTB.

It may also simply be a simplification, for sake of training a beginners pre-flop game, and maybe we'll see different bet-sizes being discussed later. Baluga mentioned adjusting to better players in this video, and bet-sizing might play into that.

I'm gonna watch the video tonight, i saw the youtube though.

When I heared your voice, i imagened you as a blondie ... sry

Lol, I thought the same thing hehe

Now it makes sense when she said she's talked to a lot of pro's before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jecLf2kkX64

haha awesome

cool video but i think kristy has an obvious bet-size tell. she bets huge on turn/rivers with made hands and bets half-pot with non made hands or hands she would fold to a raise.

i think this is fine as she is playing abc vs fish but still, something to note.

^
Again, I think this is all according to plan. I think it's pretty obvious that BalugaWhales coaching method of introducing new concepts one at a time, building on the fundamentals, is working very well. And it's been said so many times in the video that this is done on purpose, because the fish won't exploit her. And there are basically 90%+ fish at micro stakes.

Awesome series ! Very entertaining, fun and extremely resourceful.

Keep it up !

Time Link to 00:51:13

On the bottom right we 3 bet pot from the BB 140bb deep with 88 against a SB open. I can see how we are ahead of our opponents open range, but I would like to discuss our plan when called. Are we just getting value from our opponents c/f on most flops and if that is the case why did we choose a hand like 88 to do this with?

I tend to play pretty passive pre with hands like 99ish-22 in position facing a fullstacked preflop open and would like to hear when I should consider doing otherwise. Thanks!!!

Should we really be 3betting that much at 50nl and why? I don't think i've ever seen this much 3betting at micro stakes video before..3betting 77 in mid position, 3 betting A9 like every time, 3 betting small pockets etc.

Maybe it's just because i'm not very confident at 3bet pots, i just get called, then check-minraised or something on the flop that i've missed and feel pretty lost. Should confidence effect those decisions or should we just start getting ourselves in those spots?

At 7:00 with K9s the student is saying "we have so much pot equity". Thats wrong IMHO, because the 7h on the Turn is a blank and our FD equity got cut into half.

Time Link to 00:02:01

The only animals on Earth that have sex for pleasure?...

I hate to brag (or question what YOU'RE upto Baluga...) but, uh, I know of at least a few people who are doing it for more than the passing of haploid cells in the hope of sexual reproduction ^_^

<bio_rant>

In all honesty, it's more correct to say that dolphins might be the only other animal other than us that is driven to sexual behaviour not by instict alone but by a conscious urge to enjoy the pleasure, rather than just following an instictual drive to fufill sexual activity (some conjecture in amongst this, I had to research this for a uni project a while back).

Also, wiki has something to say about all this;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sexual_behaviour#Sex_for_pleasure

</bio_rant>

... This might have gotten more detailed than required, but it's 4am and I might have had a glass or two of wine ^_^

Should we really be 3betting that much at 50nl and why? I don't think i've ever seen this much 3betting at micro stakes video before..3betting 77 in mid position, 3 betting A9 like every time, 3 betting small pockets etc.

Maybe it's just because i'm not very confident at 3bet pots, i just get called, then check-minraised or something on the flop that i've missed and feel pretty lost. Should confidence effect those decisions or should we just start getting ourselves in those spots?

I agree, I raise hands like this and then I'm stuck on the turn because im raising hands that don't flop draws or TPWK? i mean is 77 just a bluff here? is there more value just calling with it and hoping for a multiway pot? I'm very nitty with my 3 bets though.. and even now when im expanding my 3 bet range its from the btn when co steals

Time Link to 00:42:33

On the upper right table, why do we 3bet 77 here? I think it has something to do with the stack sizes, but could you elaborate on why exactly this is?
If we were 100bb deep here we should flat call, right?

Time Link to 00:06:00

Hey guys..good work

Q: If you do infact check the turn here because you haven't got enoough FE...this is a spot where I struggle a lot...because say then he pots it...I find it really difficult to fold because of my flush draw...but at the same time I know if I miss the river then I've basically lost lol...how do you make a decision once he bets the turn? (I don't have a clue about maths)

Thanks Joe

Time Link to 00:26:13

Can I ask on this A7s hand...we raise the limper..cool...we flop an Ace and obviously bet for value and then get min-raised...as we call this I imagine we're wary of a set right? So when the 6 comes off it's pretty unlikely he's got quads...and it's checked to the river which would be surprising if he's doing this with a set of threes...can't we bet for value on the river here? I guess when we check and he shoves the river it's a fold because he wouldn't bet an underpair with the Ace up there...but what's beating us here? Am I wrong in thinking not much?

Cheers Joe

We only flop a set 1 out of 8 when we just flat call a raise, and we give the opportunity for other people to squeeze us and we don't want that, do we?
If we happen to flop a set and we chk/raise or whatever, how many times do you get payed off?! So just flat calling is more an -EV spot then +EV in my opinion.
We also want to control the table at full speed, we want to be the agressor, we want to control the pots, we want to get in the other poeple there mind.
I think some people need to come out of there shell.

a minraise on the flop is more a semi-bluff or a bluff, but not most of the times a set? At least not on the site I play

Should we really be 3betting that much at 50nl and why? I don't think i've ever seen this much 3betting at micro stakes video before..3betting 77 in mid position, 3 betting A9 like every time, 3 betting small pockets etc.

Maybe it's just because i'm not very confident at 3bet pots, i just get called, then check-minraised or something on the flop that i've missed and feel pretty lost. Should confidence effect those decisions or should we just start getting ourselves in those spots?

I agree 3betting 77 to an UTG open is terribad, IMO. If a 7 doesn't hit the flop, we've committed 36 big blinds in a spot where when the SB shoves, we have to fold.

I'm surprised you didn't talk about that hand at all, Baluga.

I agree 3betting 77 to an UTG open is terribad, IMO. If a 7 doesn't hit the flop, we've committed 36 big blinds in a spot where when the SB shoves, we have to fold.

I'm surprised you didn't talk about that hand at all, Baluga.

Can someone clarify the reasons behind 3 betting this..

Really good stuff discussing Barreling conceptually.

Thanks for another great episode. 5 stars stuff!

Time Link to 00:30:29

AA hand, you said we have 9 outs against QJ, did you mean on the flop? or the turn.

i counted 12 outs after the turn.. so looking back im sure you meant the flop. my bad

Balugawhale,

You talked a lot about the concept potEquity+foldEquity = betting the turn. So if you have pot equity and fold equity enough, you should bet the turn. That is totally clear. But what about making the pot bigger when you have a draw that is likely to get paid off when hit on the river? Building the pot to let your opponent make a much bigger mistake on the river when we hit our draw.

For example, if we checked the turn on the 5579dd board with Kd9d against the fish, the pot on the river was like ~20bb, we hit the flush on the river, we bet about 18bb, and he calls. He loses 18bb on the river.

Now, if we bet the turn, 15bbb or something, the pot is 38bb and we're betting 35bb, he is losing 2 times the amount he would lose in the situation where we check the turn.

Of course we're not always hitting our flush, but on the other hand: we DO have some fold equity on the turn.

What can you say about that? (Maybe it's some simple math)

Time Link to 00:17:16

You didn't talk about TT hand here. You just said it is good to fold on flop, but not many reasons were explained. Villain seems aggressive regular, who will bet 100% of his squeeze range on this board. Is there any difference if we have JJ-KK?

Time Link to 00:28:20

AA hand bottom right. What do you think about check/shoving this board? Is it any good? Against what kind of opponents we should do it or what reasoning? And what kind of range? I think whitelime talked about spots like where the bad board for c-betting come and we check/fold a lot, we can also have some hands we check/raise or shove in 3bet pots.

I agree 3betting 77 to an UTG open is terribad, IMO. If a 7 doesn't hit the flop, we've committed 36 big blinds in a spot where when the SB shoves, we have to fold.

I'm surprised you didn't talk about that hand at all, Baluga.

Very good video & series. Have to agree with guys, too many 3bets imo, 77 (UTG) & 88 (BB vs SB) is useless imo ...

Maybe very good table selection, becuase any of those guys didn`t adjust (no 4bets), but we just turned so many hands into a bluff (PF).

Very good video & series. Have to agree with guys, too many 3bets imo, 77 (UTG) & 88 (BB vs SB) is useless imo ...

Maybe very good table selection, becuase any of those guys didn`t adjust (no 4bets), but we just turned so many hands into a bluff (PF).

we weren't bluffing with any of those hands.

Andrew

Thank you Andrew for your response. I`ve checked those situations again & sometimes it seems to me, that we have to fold to 4bet preflop, but we still make a 3bet ...

With 77 we are over 200bb deep, so I can understand it, but I think there was one 88 3bet dunno how deep.

I`ll check other parts Thank you, there is sooo many informations in your videos!

Thank you.

Viktor

first of all, great great videos!!

comments on the 77 hand would be great. In my world it is a mistake to 3bet them here

Time Link to 00:23:23

In the AK cold 4-bet hand in the bottom left hand corner at the time link above, why would we shove over villain's c-bet? That makes no sense to me.

I agree that we're not folding ever given the pot size, but when we shove the flop, we give villain a reason to fold hands we beat (i.e. TT-QQ), and snap us off always with hands that beat us (i.e. KK+) or chop with us (i.e. AK). Aren't we just manipulating his range in the worst possible way? I don't see how our raise is for value or for a bluff, unless we think we might get him to fold some chops.

However, if we just call instead, and we are ahead, it's very unlikely villain will outdraw us (he'll usually have 2 outs with TT-QQ or 3-6 outs with some Ax hand), and we can often get a call from a worse hand like QQ if we value bet a later street if he checks. Obviously our plan is that if he shoves the turn, we're calling, anyway.

Isn't calling the flop planning to call turn or value bet later ourselves more +EV than shipping the flop?

Edit: I just resumed the video, and yeah, a minute later he folds, and you're guessing he tanked with a hand like QQ and folded.. that's exactly what I was thinking about.. that doesn't seem so great.

Did we expect him to call with QQ when we jam? I expect him to fold that. We're not all that shallow here. In addition, our flop shoving range is going to be super nutted here.. it's not like we have random combo draws in our range after we call a cold 4-bet. I think we're overrepping our one-pair hand, which looks a lot more like 99 or KK than AK when we shove.

Time Link to 00:25:54

With the A7s facing a min raise after the c oop, on the A36r brd, vs. a bad player I agree that calling is good, and that any further action I should shut down. However, knowing this, isn't this creating dead money, since you said anytime you put money in pot with the intention to fold to further action, that's dead money?

Time Link to 00:56:51

I finally understand polarizing and depolarizing, isn't depolarizing also called merging? Very good, clear explanation. Yet another ahaaaaa! moment for me, and I like how you explain why we are polarizing, because when opponent raises he's making us bluff a hand with equity, like when we 3bet QJ and fold after a 4 bet pre or bet our FD on turn and fold to a raise, making us fold with a hand with equity. I think I got it.

I see the advantage of polarizing when player raises, because it takes us off a hand with equity, but what about when player folds. Is it because we don't have potential to stack'em when we hit the river and that's why if player starts folding in these spots we should also start polarizing??? Thanks.

Time Link to 00:57:20

when polarizing on turn, you said we check back our "good stuff" and bet our weak hands, aren't we also betting our "great stuff." And when you say good stuff are you talking about FD's, mid pair with draw, maybe even top pair on a scary brd, while betting the top of our range relative to the board?

Time Link to 01:00:46

Another question, you said with a hand like a K hi FD on the Turn, vs. bad passive players you are still inclined to check the turn at these stakes. Isn't this a polarized range?

But, vs. a regular at these stakes you would be more inclined to bet the FD on the turn, this being a depolarized range, is it because he's less likely to raise us off and also we save our bluffs or in this case our semi bluffs for better players since the BAAAAD ones never fold, am I right... I think I'm starting to get the depolarized concept, but when you say not to bet the Bad players on the turn with FD it kind of threw me off as I thought we were keeping our depolarized range. If its not depolarized, would you just say a "value bet range" on the turn vs the bad players and not even throw in polarized or depolarized. I hope I made sense.

Time Link to 00:47:49

why is it good to 3 bet 44 here.....

When do i 3 bet small pocket pairs?....Of course when both are super deep then its good...so when u hit u can get stacks in....

But i mean otherwise......like in this spot...Balugawhale suggested Kristi should 3 bet them.....So thats the question then....when do i know when to 3 bet small pairs?

At the end you say...at low and mid stakes we are going to Depolarize...What does that mean?

I only know that in terms of....Depolarized 3 betting is with like AA, KK and so on and polarized 3 betting is with Q10, J10 and so on....

Could you please explain what you mean ...in the context you used it.

Thank you

Polarizing is simply betting with both extreme ends of your range, where as depolarizing or merging is betting with your entire range.

Polarized range:
|||---------------||||

Merged (depolarized) range:
|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|

So if we're going to depolarize our range, we're going to bet with all parts of our range, not just our very best and very worst hands. The reason we do this is because people love to call at these limits, so we can make bets with 2nd pair type hands and still expect to be called by worse.

Polarizing is simply betting with both extreme ends of your range, where as depolarizing or merging is betting with your entire range.

Polarized range:
|||---------------||||

Merged (depolarized) range:
|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|

So if we're going to depolarize our range, we're going to bet with all parts of our range, not just our very best and very worst hands. The reason we do this is because people love to call at these limits, so we can make bets with 2nd pair type hands and still expect to be called by worse.

I dislike your way of putting that.

Polarize

Good Bad
!!!!--------------!!!!


Depolarize

Good Bad
!!!!!!!!!------------

Yeah, fair enough, we're definitely not betting with the very bottom of our range expecting to get called by worse. Thanks for the correction.

Time Link to 00:37:21

your comments on getting those coolers (T9 vs KQ) are helping me get over my tilt problems

Time Link to 00:46:04

Table 2.
Is a 3b w KJo good here? You're really deep and he's gonna flat you IP a ton. Wont it be hard to play postflop?

It was 1 very interesting hand, but was skiped.We raised with TT on the Button and get 3 bet by regular.The flop came like A84rainbow and kristy called c-bet with TT.then Andrew said that he didn't like that flop call and then forgot to explain why.He said that TT call preflop is good because regular likes to 3 bet a lot of siuted conectors,so we are getting ton of value because we crush his equity wise..so far so good, but if he's c-betting 100% of his air on this flop ,ins't it a call for value with pocket TT?

Time Link to 00:14:40

Why are we betting with the 59o on the flop? Seems to me that this is a check behind situation because we have got some showdown value and there is not much value in betting. (only from flushdraws and straightdraws)

Time Link to 00:52:16

Funny listening to it now where Kristy says that she hasn't played very much HU at all, knowing that a few months later she scoops a HU mini FTOPS

Time Link to 00:17:49

Just love this part when you talk about collecting dead money. You really do make poker a "easy game" with your knowledge!

Time Link to 00:43:45

Hi Andrew,

You say that this spot (77 on J72r 3 handed in a 3bet pot - IP) is a good time to slowplay because:
- no need to build a big pot right now as it is already big
- we have no risk to be outdrawn on the turn.

I understand both reasons but I like to cbet anyway because
- I would cbet this dry board a lot as a bluff and betting still keeps my perceived range wide here.
- we are quite deep against the guy on our left

Don't you like this way?

Hi Andrew,

You say that this spot (77 on J72r 3 handed in a 3bet pot - IP) is a good time to slowplay because:
- no need to build a big pot right now as it is already big
- we have no risk to be outdrawn on the turn.

I understand both reasons but I like to cbet anyway because
- I would cbet this dry board a lot as a bluff and betting still keeps my perceived range wide here.
- we are quite deep against the guy on our left

Don't you like this way?

i think its close, but in retrospect I kind of like your thoughts here zitouni. if there wasn't a deep stacked guy, then i'd definitely check. but you're probably right, he's a little too deep for us to check.

however, if c-betting this board as a bluff is good (which it is imo), its probably not *great* to rely on c-betting for value as the best possible line!

Andrew

Love this series.... amazing stuff... should help me beat live 1/2 easily??? After Black Friday seems like only choice to build a roll....I wonder how 1/2 or 2/5 live would adjust from what we r learning in this vids? More tendency for limping/calling live... but less folding postflop I guess?

I remember years ago reading Super Systems before I had really even begun playing poker. Ive built up a pretty LAG style much like Kristy's cbetting many and barreling semi-bluffs to monsters. I could always move up through the micros fairly fast with this strategy except after a while I noticed where I was running hot at a table I'd start getting played back at. My problem was never depolarizing. I remember Brunson stating to change gears but it's hard to stop betting those LAG hands and semi bluffs that were killing the villains right before.

Depolarizing would definitely solve a lot of this assuming I'm understanding it right.

Awesome video and points from both BW and ND thanks!

Time Link to 00:57:10

Hi Baluga!!

I had a question about this polarize thing on the turn. Is this also true on the flop? i.e. I think about hands with good equity like NFD or so?

ya know what i mean