Poker Video: No Limit Hold'Em by Gman (High Stakes)

Time Link to 01:08:44

I feel the fake tilt river shove raise with the trip eights is sweetly done and would be a great addition to my game at the border between small stakes and mid stakes, but for a very very good high stakes player who is a poker coach to just lose it during an educational video like that? Beautifully told but it's not the most plausible story - it kind of screams premeditation.

these videos seem pretty nuts.
You did run like dog shit through out.

Made it more interesting and focused on post flop situations and bet sizing with out the hud.

far and away one of the best at articulating the subtleties of hunl. gman is a boss living before his time.

really enjoyed the series. keep it up

Gman: Thanks for the series - if my opinion means anything, despite not being a HU player. I find your deconstruction of range/action nexus very educational - despite your self-consious reservations about your style - it is my view as a consumer of alot of DC videos that your style is amongst the top -tier.

One or two non betting decision questions.

1. It was clear that you were frustrated with how you ran in this video. At some point in the series - you allude to being a perfectionist or very hard on yourself temperamentally. Whilst nowhere near in your league skill-wise - I suffer quite severely from catastrophic tilt issues which I think might stem from this mind-set. Bearing the above in my mind, my question is
How do you personally cope with variance and self-criticism?
Would you have ploughed thru this session, if it were not a video?
Do you have tilt issues now or in the past? What has worked for you?
2. Within a session review framework - what are the types of things you would note about this session? Clearly if you feel it is inappropriate to dissect Magic ninjas play, I understand - but some more general comment about some of the take aways you make from sessions like this.

I have many more questions but I will leave it at that.

Thanks for the series and thanks Magic ninja for showing your holecards.

I feel the fake tilt river shove raise with the trip eights is sweetly done and would be a great addition to my game at the border between small stakes and mid stakes, but for a very very good high stakes player who is a poker coach to just lose it during an educational video like that? Beautifully told but it's not the most plausible story - it kind of screams premeditation.

You def have a point there. Maybe banking before shoving the river would have been better.

far and away one of the best at articulating the subtleties of hunl. gman is a boss living before his time.

Quite the compliment man. Really appreciate it.

Gman: Thanks for the series - if my opinion means anything, despite not being a HU player. I find your deconstruction of range/action nexus very educational - despite your self-consious reservations about your style - it is my view as a consumer of alot of DC videos that your style is amongst the top -tier.

One or two non betting decision questions.

1. It was clear that you were frustrated with how you ran in this video. At some point in the series - you allude to being a perfectionist or very hard on yourself temperamentally. Whilst nowhere near in your league skill-wise - I suffer quite severely from catastrophic tilt issues which I think might stem from this mind-set. Bearing the above in my mind, my question is
How do you personally cope with variance and self-criticism?
Would you have ploughed thru this session, if it were not a video?
Do you have tilt issues now or in the past? What has worked for you?
2. Within a session review framework - what are the types of things you would note about this session? Clearly if you feel it is inappropriate to dissect Magic ninjas play, I understand - but some more general comment about some of the take aways you make from sessions like this.

I have many more questions but I will leave it at that.

Thanks for the series and thanks Magic ninja for showing your holecards.

Thanks for the kind words.

1. Although many of my character traits are well suited for poker, my need to be in control/desire to never lose are certainly a detriment in some ways. At some point, you just have to realize that so much of what is going on while playing is completely out of your control. All you can do when playing is give yourself the opportunity to make the correct decision on every street in every hand, a skill made easier by being a perfectionist actually The rest is out of your hands. And although that can be frustrating, I often remind myself the entire reason I've been able to find success at this game is because of the chance aspect. Poker's awesome combination of skill, chance, and gambling is what brings in so many weak players who would otherwise blow it at the craps tables.

In the past, I have had some tilt issues. But what worked for me was to just be really hard on myself after the session and try to calculate how much $ my lack of emotional control cost me. When you can convince yourself that you cost yourself around $25K because you aren't emotionally strong enough to deal with whatever negative variance, you learn to correct it real fast imo. Luckily for me, tilt issues are a much more minor problem now than a few years ago.

2. This is kind of hard to answer because I feel like I sort of answered this throughout the video. Yes getting to see his hole cards gives me new information, but it wasn't like he really did anything that surprised me much at all or would make me play any differently if we were to play again tomorrow. But I suppose that's mostly because him and I have such an extensive history that I already know his game very well. It's also a tribute to the fact that he clearly doesn't have too many exploitable tendencies. I'm sure I'd have more to say if this was the first time I had ever played this opponent.

Gman,

You are way too hard on yourself. Ninja played like a goddamn superuser. I wouldn't worry about losing a few buyins. He made some insane calls, most of which were bad either in a vacuum or based on the existing metagame. He just ran like god and was very lucky you never had anything, especially when firing his overbets.

Most importantly, the educational content is great and dc is lucky to have you.

Gman,

Ty very much for this series. It is very nice to hear the thought process of a winning player and is great value for a subscriber like myself.

After seeing the whole cards, what criticisms do you have for your own play at this point, and what do you feel this review has taught you about your own play?

Is there any feedback that other players have given you on any hands that have lead to any aha moments for you?

TY again if you get a chance to respond. Keep posting great vids!

Time Link to 01:10:09

Gman,
Do you really think its a huge fold by him with the TJ?,
I would almost never think anyone bluffs a river overbet like that.
What I wanna ask you is:
Are you surprised MagicNinja didnt call or would you be as surpriced vs a general 1knl player?

As always your videos are super good, a big reason why I sign up at DC.
DC: please more from Gman!

Gman,

Ty very much for this series. It is very nice to hear the thought process of a winning player and is great value for a subscriber like myself.

After seeing the whole cards, what criticisms do you have for your own play at this point, and what do you feel this review has taught you about your own play?

Is there any feedback that other players have given you on any hands that have lead to any aha moments for you?

TY again if you get a chance to respond. Keep posting great vids!

I've spent some time thinking about this question, and similar to the above answer where I said I really wouldn't have done too much differently, I don't really have many criticisms of my play that I didn't specifically mention during the videos (such as my call of his overbet w/ JT and my call in the 1st video w/ QT vs his Ax).

I mean I guess the one thing I could have done more is bluff in spots where I can't rep many hands, but there were at least a few times I can think of off the top of my head where he made big/incorrect calls in situations like that, so I'm not even convinced I should have done that more.

In the 1st part of the match when Krantz points out you need a really good reason to check back QT on a q52r ish board was an interesting point that I thought led to some good discussion.

Thanks for the feedback!

Gman,
Do you really think its a huge fold by him with the TJ?,
I would almost never think anyone bluffs a river overbet like that.
What I wanna ask you is:
Are you surprised MagicNinja didnt call or would you be as surpriced vs a general 1knl player?

As always your videos are super good, a big reason why I sign up at DC.
DC: please more from Gman!

You and Diodor are both probably right that for leveling reasons banking and making it 850 would have probably been better than shoving.

Looking back I guess I'm not that surprised he didn't call, but yes I think a std 1K player probably would have called there given the dynamic.

Glad you liked the miniseries

watching this video makes me physically ill because of the setups you run into. amazingly enough, you still maintain dicipline.

Time Link to 00:18:40

Summing up all your arguments, I fairly believe this is a fold instead of a call. If we take a closer look onto his shoves, he's either made ovebets with unpolarized ranges or simply bluff-shipped once or twice in spots where you seem to have at least a bit of a b/f-range. So for that reason and adding the fact that you showed up with a similar play I guess in P2 shipping TPGK on the turn in a reraised pot, combined with the read he'd b/c good draws on the flop already, we should rather fold more often than not imo.

Time Link to 00:23:44

You've been floating really a lot, not slowing much of your big hands and for the fact that you'd probably raise all good draws on the flop. Saying your range would be weak while calling the flop, your bet is even more polarized imo, so don't you think you might just rather delay-float in such a spot?

Time Link to 00:34:24

Interesting you check that specific hand. With regards to your flop c/r-range, you're value-range obv. hits that turn hard, whereas with bluffs you should be betting that card because it hits your range. So, don't you think it's easier to get one more street of value from a TP-type of hand, taking into consideration that many rivers might destroy the action and, additionally you would never bluff there?

Time Link to 00:45:30

I don't really like your check here. It's totally different from your check in P1 w/ Qx, as now there's tons of cards that you'll be facing a guessing game with and in fact you don't really want to calldown 8x on 2 OCs or tbh any other cards than 2-3-4. Plus, I don't see a reason to add a TPBK hand into your checking range, reducing your betting-range hardly to OP, 9x, air (which with equity, which you probably check back more often than not).

Really sorry for multiple posts, but I couldn't figure out how to refer various times to the timeline within one post.

Summing up all your arguments, I fairly believe this is a fold instead of a call. If we take a closer look onto his shoves, he's either made ovebets with unpolarized ranges or simply bluff-shipped once or twice in spots where you seem to have at least a bit of a b/f-range. So for that reason and adding the fact that you showed up with a similar play I guess in P2 shipping TPGK on the turn in a reraised pot, combined with the read he'd b/c good draws on the flop already, we should rather fold more often than not imo.

Remember, when I was playing him in real time, I couldn't be sure that I kept making good folds. Although his range is weighted toward some made hands more often than some, I still feel v comfortable w/ my play in this hand.

You've been floating really a lot, not slowing much of your big hands and for the fact that you'd probably raise all good draws on the flop. Saying your range would be weak while calling the flop, your bet is even more polarized imo, so don't you think you might just rather delay-float in such a spot?

I can't tell if you are talking about the left or right table. I think you are talking about the right, but I raised the flop instead of calling

Interesting you check that specific hand. With regards to your flop c/r-range, you're value-range obv. hits that turn hard, whereas with bluffs you should be betting that card because it hits your range. So, don't you think it's easier to get one more street of value from a TP-type of hand, taking into consideration that many rivers might destroy the action and, additionally you would never bluff there?

I think you mean my semibluffing range hit's that card hard. Aside from JQ, that card is kinda bad if I was value checkraising the flop. Yes you are right bluffing there is reasonable because it hits my range, but that card also hits his flop peeling range decently well too.


Overall, if we know he has Jx or Tx, yes betting is better. But we don't know that. If he has something weaker (and maybe Tx or even Jx) he will often fold, and we also can pot control a bit. The point is that on that texture given the way the action went Q9 is far from the nuts.

Clearly my opponent thought I would bluff on the river which is why he called, but yes betting is good in that some river cards will kill our action.

I don't really like your check here. It's totally different from your check in P1 w/ Qx, as now there's tons of cards that you'll be facing a guessing game with and in fact you don't really want to calldown 8x on 2 OCs or tbh any other cards than 2-3-4. Plus, I don't see a reason to add a TPBK hand into your checking range, reducing your betting-range hardly to OP, 9x, air (which with equity, which you probably check back more often than not).

Really sorry for multiple posts, but I couldn't figure out how to refer various times to the timeline within one post.

Theoretically I agree with the above. But MN almost certainly knows that and as such is fair less likely to put us on a TP hand than if he have Ax on A72r.

I am less concerned about making tough turn decisions than most in various situations.

I can't tell if you are talking about the left or right table. I think you are talking about the right, but I raised the flop instead of calling

You're right, sorry, I somehow missed the raise, which obv. has a big impact on the hand.

Overall, if we know he has Jx or Tx, yes betting is better. But we don't know that. If he has something weaker (and maybe Tx or even Jx) he will often fold, and we also can pot control a bit. The point is that on that texture given the way the action went Q9 is far from the nuts.

This is the case obv. but I can't see many hands you c/r on the flop with and wouldn't continue to barrel on this turn as a bluff, since it exactly improves the semi-bluffing range. On the level MN played I guess he'd rather think you know it improves your range and so you should continue bluffing. Which other hand would you play like that? Some c/f with air? I think this is one of the very very few spots he could actually tell what you held, but he called anyway.

All in all, a superb series with great input in the right spots. Hope there's more to come soon!!