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

Baluga , great video as usual.

I think it's safe to add to all your assumptions about micro and small stakes "regulars" (that they're going to call 3bets OOP , if they 3bet a lot they prob have a card rush etc.) that they're all over-relying on their HUD (without noticing sample size and stuff) just like what Kristy did on the first AK hand where the guy was 11/11 or smth , or when the guy 4bet bluffed without any history and we shipped 88. (OMG! guess16 3bets 60 percent!) Same at the 2nd AK hand when the guy cold 4bets from the btn.

Time Link to 00:11:45

Anything wrong with flatting w 98d (bottom left) on the button here? Just seemed like a quick fold, was there some other thought process on why this was folded?

Time Link to 00:53:19

A8s top left table - can we really 3 bet this for value Vs the super fish given that he has only raised 3% PF? I know he seems to have played 100% fit or fold so far but I am never sure of the best plan here post flop when he inevitably calls and donks say and A high board or checks when we've missed and have little equity - say a J73r board.

EDIT: Watched and of course SB 3bets and fish folds to the half pot cbet on a low board....

Oh Kristy - had to say STR80 before someone beat me to it.

Time Link to 01:00:18

88, bottom left corner. Was calling okay because we could 4-bet for value, or because we couldn't? It was kinda hard to hear you.

Baluga , great video as usual.

I think it's safe to add to all your assumptions about micro and small stakes "regulars" (that they're going to call 3bets OOP , if they 3bet a lot they prob have a card rush etc.) that they're all over-relying on their HUD (without noticing sample size and stuff) just like what Kristy did on the first AK hand where the guy was 11/11 or smth , or when the guy 4bet bluffed without any history and we shipped 88. (OMG! guess16 3bets 60 percent!) Same at the 2nd AK hand when the guy cold 4bets from the btn.

I'm starting to think that overreliance on HUD is something that I should be coaching/teaching for SSNL students. There are simply more regs than there used to be, but they still aren't v good at poker and I think your point is v valid (and a change from the way things used to be).

Which, of course, is not to say that the game isnt still very, very beatable.

Andrew

I just started watching this series, and I was wondering if her success is pretty common compared to most of your other students? She obviously is smart because she asks very good questions, and I can't believe that after 5 weeks she's playing .5/1. Does this happen a lot? If so, I would like to sign up for coaching with you. I am 100% serious.

Prob a dumb question, but why is it illeagal to look up an opponent on tableratings in session?

how come kristy's bet size in general went from pretty big in all previous videos to all small in this one? I think this is the wrong adjustment. you should still flex your bet size vs the fish still but betting half pot always vs reg doesn't seem like a good way to get value or make them fold either.

Time Link to 00:00:00

This stuff is golden! But you have to do something about the ninja in the ninja dolphin picture it looks like his junk is hanging out

I just started watching this series, and I was wondering if her success is pretty common compared to most of your other students? She obviously is smart because she asks very good questions, and I can't believe that after 5 weeks she's playing .5/1. Does this happen a lot? If so, I would like to sign up for coaching with you. I am 100% serious.

http://www.deucescracked.com/coaches/BalugaWhale

Just started playing cash games after playing tournaments for years. I love this series - I was playing TAGish but am now a lot more aggressive, and doing a lot better.

Still have a bit of work to do on the "if they raise, they have it bit" but I'm getting there.

Thanks to you both.

how come kristy's bet size in general went from pretty big in all previous videos to all small in this one? I think this is the wrong adjustment. you should still flex your bet size vs the fish still but betting half pot always vs reg doesn't seem like a good way to get value or make them fold either.

I watched this yesterday, so my memory isn't crystal clear, but I think she was betting 1/2 pot mostly in 3bet pots. Half pot (or just slightly over) should probably be the standard in 3bet pots - it's still ample to get the money in by the river, yet gives you a better price on your bluffs with air. Obviously the player, board textures, and stack sizes should all still come into play.

I love this serie and Kristy learned a lot, she plays much better now

What regulats, most of them are +/-, plays 8-12 tables, ABC poker with hud, To much players thinks with a hud i am good forget it. have to much boards combinations, , but i love to play with out, my thoughtprocess.

Everybody need to learn to beat the regulars, i am that learning also because this time we have more regulars then fish.
Works plan a not to this regular then we go over to plan b or c

I'm starting to think that overreliance on HUD is something that I should be coaching/teaching for SSNL students ???????????????

overreliance means that take not to much value from your hud?

sorry for that question because my motherlanguage is not english


thks

Thailand baby ballinnnn

Time Link to 00:44:48

So if you are 4b calling 22 why not just increase your FE and 4b jam?

If you 4b and he thinks you might be doing it light he has a non 0 chance of 5bing something like 22-77.

Compaired to if we 4b jam he is likely to fold those hands.

Im sure you know the benefits/problems w/ 4b jamming small pp there. But can you give a little more insight as why you would rather 4b/call a 5b than 4b jam.

I understand the fact that we want to balance. But cant we just exploit him by 4b jamming hands like that until he see's us 4b jamming 22 here and then make the adjustment to balance our 4b jamming range by now doing it w/ AJs type hands as well (since he might think we have a small pp and call w/ KQ type hands).

Sorry I mainly play HU so 4b jamming AJs to balance the fact he has seen me do it w/ 22 is a real thing I do (assuming we have a good 4 & 5b dynamic). Not so sure how it corrilates to 6m.

Dallas!!!

yes.

So if you are 4b calling 22 why not just increase your FE and 4b jam?

If you 4b and he thinks you might be doing it light he has a non 0 chance of 5bing something like 22-77.

Compaired to if we 4b jam he is likely to fold those hands.

Im sure you know the benefits/problems w/ 4b jamming small pp there. But can you give a little more insight as why you would rather 4b/call a 5b than 4b jam.

I understand the fact that we want to balance. But cant we just exploit him by 4b jamming hands like that until he see's us 4b jamming 22 here and then make the adjustment to balance our 4b jamming range by now doing it w/ AJs type hands as well (since he might think we have a small pp and call w/ KQ type hands).

Sorry I mainly play HU so 4b jamming AJs to balance the fact he has seen me do it w/ 22 is a real thing I do (assuming we have a good 4 & 5b dynamic). Not so sure how it corrilates to 6m.

yes.

So you like 4b shoving better than 4b/calling it off?

Time Link to 00:57:55

How can we automatically assume that a light 3bettor is also a light 5bettor?

It seems to me that calling a shove with AJ at 100NL when the only read you have on someone is that they are 3betting light is probably a bad idea. This is especially true if we have never 4bet someone before which Kristy didn't do to that SeaGhost guy that Andrew first thought was the 3bettor here. I think most SSNL players are not at the level where they can 5bet light but I could be wrong.

IMO the only time you could start calling 5bet shoves against SeaGhost in this spot is if you noticed that his 5bet shoving frequency was very high like it was when FoxwoodsFiend was 5betting Andrew and/or you saw a showdown where the guy 5bet shoved a light hand. Please correct me if I'm wrong though.

Time Link to 00:57:55

see above post

Time Link to 01:02:54

What factors would make you want to raise the flop with 88 here? And if you do decide that raising is best, what factors do you consider about your opponent when determing whether to call a shove or to fold to a shove?

Awesome vid BTW, I learned a ton Keep'em coming.

damn. I fired up this vid at the library thinking to myself... I'll watch a couple of minutes while I wait to get settled into studying. 1:05 later I'm done watching the movie vid
Nice video series, I hope I can find time to watch the whole thing, and very nice coaching baluga.

Time Link to 00:32:36

This is the second time in a row on the bottom left table where the villain has raised a 1/2 pot cbet bvb(we folded the 1st time)...so I would definitely weight his range more toward bluffs (esp since he made it $11 this time instead of $12 - saving money on his bluffs??).

If that's the case...wouldn't a c/r river line possibly be the best way to play the hand? Would a small inducing raise on the flop possibly be good/better if we think that he's just going to give up on pretty much any turn/river other than a club?

I have a question on the end of this vid where you said if we call IP with 88 and flop is T65ss we should raise the cbet.

Could you go into this a bit more?

If we hit a flop of 267 should we bet raising/getting-it-in as a standard?
What should we be looking for if we need more information on make this decision?

I have a question on the end of this vid where you said if we call IP with 88 and flop is T65ss we should raise the cbet.

Could you go into this a bit more?

If we hit a flop of 267 should we bet raising/getting-it-in as a standard?
What should we be looking for if we need more information on make this decision?

great question.

basically, we want to be raising into equity in general. So, if we have 88, our opponent has AK, he still has significant equity (unlike when we have a set, where our opponent has like no equity). So, the real questions I'd ask would be:
1) how wide was his range preflop (if it was super tight and i was looking to flop a set, well, I didn't, so i'm just going to fold)
2) How often does he c-bet air on the flop? (if the answer is "often", I should never be folding provided the answer to #1 was "wide")
3)what will he do with air to a raise on the flop? (if i think he shoves somewhat often, easy raise/call)
4) what will he do on the turn with zero-to-some equity? (if he barrels a lot, then calling flop and shoving over his turn bet seems best).

However, if the answers are
1) wide
2) often
3) fold
4) give up often

then we should raise/fold the flop

heyo

wow that explained a lot of the underlying concepts that I was unsure/unaware of amazingly clearly. thank you.


would you say that this is a similar case in single raised pots?
eg we are on btn and call co open with 87s and flop 843-fd
a. would you raise there for the same reasons?
b. how about with 77 (similar but we have only 2 outs to improve if called)?
c. would you also do that oop with 87? 77?



sry one last thing -
for original question .. say he 3bets to 11 and we call
flop is 22bb .. he cbets 14 ... how much do you raise to with a low overpair there?

wow that explained a lot of the underlying concepts that I was unsure/unaware of amazingly clearly. thank you.


would you say that this is a similar case in single raised pots?
eg we are on btn and call co open with 87s and flop 843-fd
a. would you raise there for the same reasons?
b. how about with 77 (similar but we have only 2 outs to improve if called)?
c. would you also do that oop with 87? 77?



sry one last thing -
for original question .. say he 3bets to 11 and we call
flop is 22bb .. he cbets 14 ... how much do you raise to with a low overpair there?

minraise is the only raise size.

Andrew

assuming we do it in single raised pot also for same reasons (only not min raise) - right?

assuming we do it in single raised pot also for same reasons (only not min raise) - right?

a flop raised pot is a little different because calling becomes a much, much larger part of the equation.

Andrew

Time Link to 00:51:43

You say that 22 has basically the same all-in equity as long as we get it in pre. Did I get that right? But If I stove 22 against a range of 99+, AQs, AK I have 30% equity, whereas AK has 43%?

Time Link to 00:21:50

Table 3.. I like a second barrel there.

Time Link to 01:03:13

I think that ppl will bet shove AK very very very rarely there at nl100.

Time Link to 00:45:27

Okey.
I have question about AK and QQ+.
Why should we get money in there?
Most if these guys are 4betting AK and QQ+ and against that range our AK and QQ have around 40%.
Some money already in the pot doesnt make it up for it afaik.
?

4) what will he do on the turn with zero-to-some equity? (if he barrels a lot, then calling flop and shoving over his turn bet seems best).

i assume this is because he never bets the river unless he improves to beat us? i.e. if he never bluffs the river, then its good to shove and make him fold his equity?

but if he never bluffs the river, then cant it be good to just call the turn and fold to a river bet or check it back if he gives up? in other words, if we just call the turn, we are using our positional advantage to gain more information (seeing what he does on the river), and that allows us to play perfectly. so yeah we are giving a free card, but at the same time we never get it in crushed by an overpair. and yeah, we are allowing him to play perfectly too because he never bets unless he improves, but if he doesnt have a ton of equity (like if he only has 6-10 outs), does calling and using our positional advantage on the river have merits?

thanks

Time Link to 00:17:26

call 22 in the SB and fold to a c-bet on a really dry flop. this is not a good play right? is it best to c-c the flop or c/r? i always 3-bet or fold 22 in the blinds against late position opens. this because its going to be hard to play since it is not profitable to just setmine here. againt a tight range (UTG) i call because i suspect to stack of the villain sometimes when i hit my set and he's got an overpair/top 2 pair etc.

Time Link to 00:54:42

Can you please explain why you would 3B with A8s on THE BTN vs 40/2 after 70 hands. Clearly he is only raising big cards and pairs which all have us beat.I also would think That our fold equity is very low post since hes rarely folding his pairs. Any info would be much appreciated THX BW!
Great Vid so far BTW. 1more thing isnt this going against the process since we cant bluff (not many worse hands villain pfr's) and we cant get value
since again I dont see a 40/2 PFRaising A6s. Thanks Again!

Can you please explain why you would 3B with A8s on THE BTN vs 40/2 after 70 hands. Clearly he is only raising big cards and pairs which all have us beat.I also would think That our fold equity is very low post since hes rarely folding his pairs. Any info would be much appreciated THX BW!
Great Vid so far BTW. 1more thing isnt this going against the process since we cant bluff (not many worse hands villain pfr's) and we cant get value
since again I dont see a 40/2 PFRaising A6s. Thanks Again!

40/2 over 70 hands isnt enough to tell us anything other than "he's probably passive-bad", its not enough to say that he's definitely only raising premiums

Time Link to 00:19:57

Is there any hands we can get value from at river? My first thought would be that any hand that we have beaten folds this river (he would call with something like A9, but I think he would have bet that at some point..) so we gain nothing (except not having to show our cards), but we risk losing 60$ more for a slowplayed set or flush. I guess it's unlikely that he would have a monster, but could it still be more likely than him calling with a worse hand?

Is there any hands we can get value from at river? My first thought would be that any hand that we have beaten folds this river (he would call with something like A9, but I think he would have bet that at some point..) so we gain nothing (except not having to show our cards), but we risk losing 60$ more for a slowplayed set or flush. I guess it's unlikely that he would have a monster, but could it still be more likely than him calling with a worse hand?

people have a hard time folding hands.

Andrew

Great Video.I have a few ats:

1) At 22min-KQo hand-I understood it this way 'Suppose we have kq on a qxx flop and we bet and get called and the turn is an A,then if the flop has a flush draw possible then betting turn(small like 1/3rd the pot) n c/c blank rivers is good[Because villain had many flush draws in his range all of which are not nut flushes].However if it is a monotone flop and the turn is an offsuit A,then c/f is good because now your opponent has many Ax in his range since he has the nut flush draw many times rather than non nut flushes].'Did i understand this correctly.I actually rewinded the tape thrice and tried understanding it clearly but i am still not sure if i got this correctly.
2) At 39min-AKo we 3b/f vs a nit on the button and you said it is wrong because we have a small sample size.Is 3b/f AK correct if he was a nit over a big sample like 100 hands???I do that many times vs nits because i feel they will call with worse like AQ,KQs in position and maybe 4bet only KK+.Is this a big leak???

Thanks in advance.

1) sounds ab out right to me

2) not a big leak, 100 hands is not a big sample size though.

Great Video.I have a few ats:

1) At 22min-KQo hand-I understood it this way 'Suppose we have kq on a qxx flop and we bet and get called and the turn is an A,then if the flop has a flush draw possible then betting turn(small like 1/3rd the pot) n c/c blank rivers is good[Because villain had many flush draws in his range all of which are not nut flushes].However if it is a monotone flop and the turn is an offsuit A,then c/f is good because now your opponent has many Ax in his range since he has the nut flush draw many times rather than non nut flushes].'Did i understand this correctly.I actually rewinded the tape thrice and tried understanding it clearly but i am still not sure if i got this correctly.
2) At 39min-AKo we 3b/f vs a nit on the button and you said it is wrong because we have a small sample size.Is 3b/f AK correct if he was a nit over a big sample like 100 hands???I do that many times vs nits because i feel they will call with worse like AQ,KQs in position and maybe 4bet only KK+.Is this a big leak???

Thanks in advance.

tyvm.

minraise is the only raise size.

Andrew

b-dawg do you have any videos on turn/river play? I used to play 100% tournaments from £10 - £200 (once or twice £1k+) and am trying to get into cash games. I'm used to playing with a short-mid stack and squeezing/shoving preflop etc though tournaments have little turn and river play, and i often find myself at a bit of a loose end on the turn espesh when OOP. do you have any tips for turn and river play, espesh in big/3-bet pots when i've had a c-bet called and have junk etc. obv it's oponent spcific, but do you have maybe a check list of when to bet and when not to/some vids to watch focusing on it?

cheers, Dan

p.s much appreciated

What is the keep your head down line again?

What is the keep your head down line again?

draw heavy board, we have a very weak value hand (like 2nd pair weak kicker). we bet flop, we bet turn small, and then c/c river when all the draws miss (against a passive player). they'll check all their better made hands and only bet bluffs.

Andrew

Hi! Great video!

I was thinking about polarizing the 3b range against someone who 4b a lot and folds to a 5b shove.
If it´s the case that he only calls 5b shoves with QQ+, isn´t better to 5b shove with suited connectors, since they have a better equity against this range than a pocket pair?

Hi! Great video!

I was thinking about polarizing the 3b range against someone who 4b a lot and folds to a 5b shove.
If it´s the case that he only calls 5b shoves with QQ+, isn´t better to 5b shove with suited connectors, since they have a better equity against this range than a pocket pair?

You can assume he'll call shoves with AK also, which makes PP's start looking much better.

Andrew