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

Time Link to 00:12:33

It's mostly academic to be sure, but there are a bunch of scenarios heads-up where you don't have 16% equity... AA v. A6o = 6.4%.... Tossing in ANY number of random hands for the other opponents' holdings only decreases its equity... But finding yourself in a multiway limped pot with AA out there and A6o is rare enough. (FWIW, 72o is only 11.8% HU vs AA, and about the same vs. KK down to 88...)

When you make the comment on the sb limping in with 5 to 1 odds, it is true that there aren't any hands you should fold to those odds if you are going to see the turn and river. The odds become smaller if you just see the flop

Time Link to 00:37:48

Can you go over what happened here with the AKo? Why did you open for 5x instead of 4x? He basically limp, clicked it back with a 60bb stack.

I think not folding AK preflop may be one of my FR leaks, so maybe you can go over some other situations where you fold AK preflop?

Time Link to 00:46:42

Hmmm. Is the min-raise iso OTB ever really strong? Isn't he often trying to see a 4 card flop with a speculative hand?

Why not 3-bet to 6bb and fold to a shove? If he flats, it's pretty easy to play postflop with a SPR of 2.5

Time Link to 00:48:44

Would all your over-bets be for value at these stakes? It seems like it should be as exploitable as that sounds.

The AK fold looks iffy. While a limp3b is generally the nuts for a fullstacker, we have blockers to AA/KK, and semishort stacks can show up with Axs in that spot. Should be an easy shove imo.

Hi R.E.
I noticed that you played very tight in this video. I was surprised to see you fold AKo and KQo while in position to the bettor. Also, I did not see you going after any Ax-suited hands.

Just curious whether you played tight...just for this video series...or if that is how you normally play these type of hands.
Thanks.

When you make the comment on the sb limping in with 5 to 1 odds, it is true that there aren't any hands you should fold to those odds if you are going to see the turn and river. The odds become smaller if you just see the flop

It's going to depend a ton on how well you can hand-read postflop and how prone you are to stacking off with good, but not great hands. The issue with 100BB play is that the RISK: amount of $$ that we have to lose (our remaining stack) is quite large compared to the REWARD: amount we can win (the pot). If we find ourselves in spots where we're limping in because we're getting fantastic odds, but we're stacking off with hands like bottom 2 or TPTK on a regular basis, your winrate will take a huge nosedive.

Would all your over-bets be for value at these stakes? It seems like it should be as exploitable as that sounds.

At the micro stakes, without reads, I would say that the VAST majority of my bets will be value bets, until I'm shown that villains are capable of being bluffed. The kind of player that's going to be able to adjust to my bet-size AND exploit it is either going to have moved up fairly quickly or will be playing too many tables to really notice. To be honest, you could play pretty straight-forward at these stakes (maybe bluffing 5% of the time) and show excellent profit.

Hi R.E.
I noticed that you played very tight in this video. I was surprised to see you fold AKo and KQo while in position to the bettor. Also, I did not see you going after any Ax-suited hands.

Just curious whether you played tight...just for this video series...or if that is how you normally play these type of hands.
Thanks.

My general strategy and the strategy I advise to newer players is pretty different for a few reasons.

1) At these stakes, unknowns are a lot more likely to be loose-passive.

2) At these stakes, I have no real reads on people. One of the reasons I've been fairly successful at small stakes is that my game is highly adaptive to the players around me. Barring good reads, I tend to default to a tighter style, aiming primarily for value and pot control.

3) I think it's much more likely for thinner plays to be misapplied (especially with bluffs at the micros) so the style I'll play here (or anywhere where I'm readless) will be tight, for the most part.

If you guys have specific hands to discuss, please post timestamps! Issues like stack size, players behind, and table dynamic play a part in these decisions and I don't always have the opportunity to voice everything that goes into a decision. Also, I might just make a mistake, in which case I'd like to go over why I think (in retrospect) that I didn't like a particular play I made and discuss a better alternative.

I generally tend to isolate larger to start building the pot...especially if I have a hand that (I think) dominates my opponent's limp/calling range. Some other reasons for betting larger (either in this situation or others)

a) Our opponent has a wide calling range (that we beat) and we're betting for value

b) Our opponent has a tendency to call on this particular street, but fold later in the hand. (For example, if someone is limp/calling with 40% of their hands preflop and then folding to cbet 90% of the time on the flop, I might just iso them to 6-7 bb just so that when he folds the flop, we win a bigger pot)

c) Something we didn't really cover (because of lack of reads) is that if we're aiming to bluff and we think that our bet size will drastically affect his calling range, then we should bet larger. (For example, we think our opponent will call a 1/2 pot bet with any overs or piece of a J 5 2 rainbow board, but only call a pot-sized bet with TP. Given the range of hands we get to fold with the psb, we should definitely opt for that size) However, as with any bluff, we need to know our opponent knows where the fold button is.

defenestrate, please give a link to the HH? In general, I'm going to avocate avoiding really thin spots like this without reads because there are lots of better spots to get our money in.

Clambake, you're definitely right on this one.

I really appreciate the time you guys take to watch, read and comment here! Thank you so much!!

defenestrate, please give a link to the HH?

My post had a link. I also asked a few more questions about AKo preflop.

Can you also talk about the 99 hand, which I feel you may have misplayed. Or maybe I'm just FPSing.

RE thought the vid was good, lots of new students looking for FR material alot of the stuff here is outdated.

you can right click on the sort bar in stars and you can sort multiple options (wait list and vpip and players and stakes)

My post had a link. I also asked a few more questions about AKo preflop.

Can you also talk about the 99 hand, which I feel you may have misplayed. Or maybe I'm just FPSing.

In the 99 hand, both players check the flop and then the villain leads the paired turn. In my experience, this means one of two things.

1) Villain is bluffing. If he is bluffing, then he's probably folding to a raise.

2) Villain is value-betting. If this is the case, his range is (in my estimated order of frequency) 2x, Tx, Ax, OPs, PPs. We beat the smaller PPs and Ax. To boot, these hands are (IMO) fairly unlikely to call a raise and have very little chance to improve over our 9s.

Regardless of what type of bet this villain is making, our best line is to call unless we have a solid read that he'll call a raise with a worse hand.

On the river, he's seen two people call his bet on the turn, and the river hasn't really changed anything. I expect that a villain's range for betting the river in this scenario (ESPECIALLY after two people have shown interest) will have 99 beat way too often to justify a call, and we still have a live player behind whose shown interest.

In the AK hand a few things are happening.

1) A shove risks 5.85 to win 7. Let's assume that he never folds to a shove. In this case, we need to have 45% equity against his calling range, which doesn't happen until we put a hand that we dominate in his range. (like AQo). Since I have no reads on the villain, my default is going to be assuming that he has what he's repping until proven otherwise. Is it conservative? Yes. However, routinely exposing our stack (or large percentages, thereof) without reads to back up a decision of that weight will likely affect our winrate, variance, and tilt.

As for times to fold AK preflop, they definitely exist and tend to revolve around situations where peoples' range are likely to be their tightest. For example:

We open UTG and a tight player 3bets us from MP1. Unless our image is insane, I'm going to fold quite a lot...especially if I don't have a crazy image or hyper-aggro dynamic with the villain.

We 3bet MP raise from the CO (again with a tight image) and a tight player makes a cold 4bet from the SB. Here, the tight SB is putting in quite a considerable amount of money (usually at least 25bb) with only a 1/2 bb investment in the pot. In a spot like that, a tight player's range is very likely to be KK+ and we can fold.

Time Link to 00:36:52

From which pocket pairs do you recommend calling a raise from HJ-BU when you are in the blinds?

Further is calling every pocket pair (from HJ to bb) when someone raised from MP good or does is depents on the type of player?

Also in multiway pots can you call every pocket pair profitable?

Last pocket question: when stealing with a pocketpair and you get a resteal from a person who folds ~70%+ of the blinds is it +ev to call that resteal for example: you steal for .3 and bb resteals for .9 (he's full stack).

Also I want to add I really love the series! Keep up the good work

Time Link to 00:50:40

Would you sometimes bet your OESD here? Nobody shown intrest in the pot and you prob got outs to like the 3xQ and 8xOESD.

From which pocket pairs do you recommend calling a raise from HJ-BU when you are in the blinds?

Further is calling every pocket pair (from HJ to bb) when someone raised from MP good or does is depents on the type of player?

Also in multiway pots can you call every pocket pair profitable?

Last pocket question: when stealing with a pocketpair and you get a resteal from a person who folds ~70%+ of the blinds is it +ev to call that resteal for example: you steal for .3 and bb resteals for .9 (he's full stack).

Also I want to add I really love the series! Keep up the good work

Hi Tover! I'm glad you're enjoying the series and asking questions. If you're thinking about calling any raise with a pocket pair, here are some things to consider:

a) their range: If their range is really wide (let's say the opener is 15/13 and steals 40% and is in LP) then the chance that he has something strong enough to pay us off big if we DO hit is pretty low and I'll be less likely to cold-call with the sole intent of set-mining. 3betting or calling with the intent to play aggressively on good board textures can definitely be profitable IF we have enough reads on his postflop play/affinity for folding to a 3bet.

b) number of villains: If there are a bunch of cold-callers (especially loose-passive ones), I'm happy to call with any PP to set mine. If the people who are calling are very tight and are calling to do the same thing I am, I'll be less likely to call with the smaller pairs, simply because if the stacks go in, it's likely I'm against a better set.

c) position: out of position I'll be less inclined to call unless my opponent's range is really tight and I know he'll stack off with an OP regardless of board texture. In position, we'll have some opportunities to float and take the pot down, or get checked to and we can bet and take it down, so I may be more inclined to call.

With regards to calling 3bets with that specific price, I'll be willing to call if I know my opponent has a tight range (again, banking on implied odds) and will definitely be more willing to call in position. Calling 3bets out of position is something I'll do if the price is really good (20-1 implied) or if I think I can soul-own my opponent OOP (which is very hard to do).

Would you sometimes bet your OESD here? Nobody shown intrest in the pot and you prob got outs to like the 3xQ and 8xOESD.

My main concern with leading the turn was that the players behind both looked really passive and I was out of position on both of them. In spots where we're considering firing a draw, we need to weigh positional advantage, fold equity, and pot equity. In this case, we were OOP against both players, and had very little pot equity. Throw in the passive opponents and it gets a bit hairy (especially since we'll be check-folding rivers that we miss, based on the board texture). Now...if we had flopped an OESD on the flop and the villains looked more capable of folding, I'd be firing out with higher frequency.

Time Link to 00:24:05

You have to raise here, AQ, KQ obv QJ aren't min betting here, Jx, TT, 99 or 77 will take this weird min bet value line, anyway they aren't going to show up here in a limped pot, maybe QJ but he ain't min betting that, that leaves Jx or pp TT or lower, a small raise here to 80/90c here is always getting called and give you an extra 7/8 bb's.
And if he has a Q, it's nearly always worse than yours, AQ, KQ, QJ aren't taking this line.

Edit: If we have AQ lol u nit (ofc you would never end up here with AQ, as you would always raise on the button with that hand)

You have to raise here, AQ, KQ obv QJ aren't min betting here, Jx, TT, 99 or 77 will take this weird min bet value line, anyway they aren't going to show up here in a limped pot, maybe QJ but he ain't min betting that, that leaves Jx or pp TT or lower, a small raise here to 80/90c here is always getting called and give you an extra 7/8 bb's.
And if he has a Q, it's nearly always worse than yours, AQ, KQ, QJ aren't taking this line.

Edit: If we have AQ lol u nit (ofc you would never end up here with AQ, as you would always raise on the button with that hand)

The main issue in this hand is that given the board texture, and given that we lead the flop and then raised his turn bet, his range for calling a raise is pretty narrow. The Qx part of his range is doing very well against us and I think that the chance that he limps Q9 is fairly slim. I also don't expect him to call often enough with Jx to make raise profitable. We also have no fold equity vs better hands, so in my opinion, calling is going to show better profit than raising here. If we assume his range for taking this line so far is

connectors, one gappers, and 2 gappers that have an 8, Q, or J
9T
slowplayed OPs and full houses

we're actually behind. Throw in the fact that many of those worse hands will fold to a river raise (especially since we've already raised his turn bet), and we see that raising is only going to cost us money in the long run. I'm not saying that he never calls a raise with a worse hand, it's that worse hands don't even make up enough of his range for leading, let alone calling a raise. Let's say we make it $1.40 (roughly 1/2 pot) We're risking 1.40 to win 3.85 (we're getting about 2.75-1 on our raise) so when he calls, we need to be good more than 27% of the time for our raise to show a profit. I don't see that happening.

Hey its glitter from Grinder School. A video be made from two different sites at the same time. Now I know there are to many training sites out there! : (

How did you get the gold cards and the table for DC?

Thanks for this video loving it so much.

Where can I actually find a full list of glossary for online poker abbreviations? You guys are using so much abbreviations that I don't understand what you guys are saying so please help me with that.

Also, what software are you using there? are there any software like that for MAC?

I use Holdem Manager both for the HUD (heads-up display)and the tracking. I'm not sure whether or not there's a version for the MAC, but I assume there is. As for abbreviations, which were you specifically unsure about?

Hey RE-

I just finished watching the FRB series last week and wow. Great series and this particular video has been very helpful. Can't thank you enough for taking the time and effort to put this series together.

Okay, enough of that. Now for the questions. I am finding myself in a lot of TPTK situations with AKo and AQo that are extremely hard to get out of. Seeing you fold AK in this vid was sort of a wake up call but I feel like i'm losing value some of the time when I fold strong hands PF. What are your suggestions for TPTK or TPGK situations against a fish (lets say an 80/20 or 50/10) who shove the turn or river? Will they always be shoving with their best hands in these spots? I'm struggling to get a grasp on the mentality of a fish. Seems like I always run into the top of their range and then TILT.

Time Link to 00:35:13

Would it be better to check call the river to him here? That way he can bluff his missed spade draws. I feel like the only thing calling your small value bet is a bricked A high flush draw, a weaker K that chops, or some weird slow play with 3 jacks. This would also allow you to get to showdown for roughly the same price as raising, with worse hands in his range. What do you think?

Would it be better to check call the river to him here? That way he can bluff his missed spade draws. I feel like the only thing calling your small value bet is a bricked A high flush draw, a weaker K that chops, or some weird slow play with 3 jacks. This would also allow you to get to showdown for roughly the same price as raising, with worse hands in his range. What do you think?

The part of villain's range that we're aiming at with this small value bet consists of small-medium pocket pairs (with a spade) that may think we're making some goofy bluff on the ace. If we check this river, it should be with the intent to fold, not call. It's really tough for him to have total air here (something like T 9, maybe) and since a lot of his non-flush hands have some SD value, I think it's unlikely he's bluffing when he bets the river. Betting for this size and checking folding are probably about the same EV-wise (I think betting small is a bit better) but as a default, in close spots (especially in the micros where people are much more prone to making bad calls than bad raises) I tend to just bet/fold for value.

Hey RE-

I just finished watching the FRB series last week and wow. Great series and this particular video has been very helpful. Can't thank you enough for taking the time and effort to put this series together.

Okay, enough of that. Now for the questions. I am finding myself in a lot of TPTK situations with AKo and AQo that are extremely hard to get out of. Seeing you fold AK in this vid was sort of a wake up call but I feel like i'm losing value some of the time when I fold strong hands PF. What are your suggestions for TPTK or TPGK situations against a fish (lets say an 80/20 or 50/10) who shove the turn or river? Will they always be shoving with their best hands in these spots? I'm struggling to get a grasp on the mentality of a fish. Seems like I always run into the top of their range and then TILT.

Thanks! Also, sorry for the delay in replying...it's been a bit nutty here. I generally give turn and river raises respect until I have reason to do otherwise...especially if we've been aggressively betting from jump. If we look at things from a theory standpoint, as we continue betting, our range gets more and more narrow (and usually stronger). Our range for firing the third barrel on the river is stronger than our range for barreling the turn is stronger than our range for cbetting the flop (usually). So when our opponent opts to raise a later street, he's doing so after having seen us act with strength for 3-4 streets (including preflop). Now...if we see some wacko who's raising every turn and river with trash, then we should be willing to stack off lighter and deal with the variance.

Time Link to 00:17:37

Hi,

I just started watching this series as I'm probably lacking a lot of fundamentals, so far looks very good.

When you table select here, many of the high saw flop % tables are filled with 30-60bb buyin players. How do you think tables with these player types goes fits with your rather tight strategy ? I obviously haven't made it further in the video but my thinking is that you will get into a lot of marginal and none standard spots vs those players. Like preflop 3bet and shoving ranges and postflop betting/raising/calling/folding ranges as well.

Without more general information about these players I adapted the passive until proven otherwise" strategy, but the price you are getting postflop when raised will often be so good that it's mathematically correct to shove with any piece of the board though it's range wise will often be a mistake.
Like, because of their shallow stack you need to make calls that you would not make vs full stack players.

TBH I have no idea if I'm way off or it's not a concern at all, but I tend to think that good players make adjustments in their preflop as well as postflop ranges vs these players.

So please if you think it's important to know some basic rules then please write a little about overall adjustment vs short-stackers.

There are a lot of different things going on here so I'll try to address them individually.

a) If our opponents are short, we should focus more on isolating and playing hands that can flop TP and overpairs. If our opponents are short and stack off lightly, then we rate to do amazingly well because our commitment decisions will be much easier. Say we open to 4bb and get called by a 35bber. We're going to have a low SPR (around 4, depending on whether they had blind money in) which is optimal for committing our OPs and TP hands.

b) The price we're getting when raised has to be related to our equity in the pot. Let's say a 40bber limps in and we make it 5bb with AsTc and he calls. The flop is Ks Td 9h and we bet 8 into 11.5 and he shoves. Our action is totally dependent on what we think his range is for shoving. First we have to calculate the equity we need to call.

We're calling 27 into a pot of 54.50 so essentially, we're getting 2-1 and need 33% pot equity to call.

Ranges: We'll do a few of these

a) really tight range: Remember that the fact that someone calls light doesn't mean they're going to raise light (usually it's the exact opposite). If his value range is TP or better, we're screwed and should fold

Text results appended to pokerstove.txt

64,350 games 0.032 secs 2,010,937 games/sec

Board: Ks 9h Td
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 13.193% 13.04% 00.15% 8393 96.50 { AsTc }
Hand 1: 86.807% 86.66% 00.15% 55764 96.50 { TT-99, AKs, KTs+, QJs, T9s, AKo, KTo+, QJo, T9o }

b) reasonable range

Text results appended to pokerstove.txt

118,800 games 0.016 secs 7,425,000 games/sec

Board: Ks 9h Td
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 37.388% 37.14% 00.24% 44126 291.00 { AsTc }
Hand 1: 62.612% 62.37% 00.24% 74092 291.00 { JJ-99, AKs, A9s, KTs+, Q9s+, J9s+, T9s, AKo, A9o, KTo+, Q9o+, J9o+, T9o }

If we think he'll shove with his pair/draws and such, we have a call (albeit a thin one).

To be honest, a lot of what we do is the same. Figure ranges, calculate equity, and maximize (to paraphrase from PNLHE vol 1). The main things to consider against these shorter players involve commitment decisions (which come a LOT sooner) and realizing that your implied odds are not as good (so you shouldn't be calling raises from these players with suited connectors and sometimes not even with small pairs). Aside from that, just try to know as much as you can about their ranges and spank them!

thanks

Couple spots I got questions about. First of all your CBET oop with KQ on the 10 high board @31:41. Can you explain that? That and your play with 10's oop on the K7K board with 2 players behind @25:46? Curious because I find myself just giving up alot of the time in spots like these.

Couple spots I got questions about. First of all your CBET oop with KQ on the 10 high board @31:41. Can you explain that? That and your play with 10's oop on the K7K board with 2 players behind @25:46? Curious because I find myself just giving up alot of the time in spots like these.

WRT 31:41: With overs, a backdoor straight draw, and a fairly dry board texture, I think cbetting here is fine (especially against an unknown). Most players at these stakes are playing fit/fold postflop so unless the board texture connects really well with their calling range, and we have little-no hope of improving on later streets, then cbetting is fine.

WRT: 25:46: Cbetting here should be fairly standard for value. We're very likely to have the best hand here and can expect at least one street of value from 7x and smaller pocket pairs. There's also the added benefit of getting a hand like AJ or QJ to fold here. While we're ahead of those hands (AJo has about 24% equity here and a hand like QsJs has about 28%) getting them to fold their equity share is always nice.

WRT 31:41: With overs, a backdoor straight draw, and a fairly dry board texture, I think cbetting here is fine (especially against an unknown). Most players at these stakes are playing fit/fold postflop so unless the board texture connects really well with their calling range, and we have little-no hope of improving on later streets, then cbetting is fine.

WRT: 25:46: Cbetting here should be fairly standard for value. We're very likely to have the best hand here and can expect at least one street of value from 7x and smaller pocket pairs. There's also the added benefit of getting a hand like AJ or QJ to fold here. While we're ahead of those hands (AJo has about 24% equity here and a hand like QsJs has about 28%) getting them to fold their equity share is always nice.

Thanks for answering my questions. On the 10's hand if we fire a cbet and get called are we done with the hand or would you double barrel it? Say if a 9 dropped on the turn.

Thanks for answering my questions. On the 10's hand if we fire a cbet and get called are we done with the hand or would you double barrel it? Say if a 9 dropped on the turn.

Depends on whether or not I think I can get another street of value. If I can, the main question is how to get it. Given that KK79 is fairly dry, I'd rather check and go for value later.

How many hands does the information given by the poker site during table selection include?

sofocused: I think it's really tough to assess which play is better in a vacuum, but I'd lean more towards a bet than a check because I think it's more likely that an unknown at these stakes will call with worse than bluff with worse.

taxi, I honestly don't know the answer to that.

Time Link to 00:44:10

At table 4 , why did you fold the AQ? I mean yeah he probably had some kind of pair , but since the bet is so small i think he had in the best case TT , and the bet is low compared to the pot , you could have called to see if you make a pair , it was cheap.

In case someone already asked about this situation , i'm sorry , i didn't have time to read the comments so far

No worries. I think all options are somewhat viable here, but I have preferences and opted to fold in this spot. I'll go over each of our choices.

a) We can call. Calling here is a float, really. We're hoping that he's making some feeler-type bet with a hand like 56/45 that he's going to check-fold on the turn whether we hit or not. We're getting better than 4-1 on a call, but we're drawing to 6 outs (meaning we'd need about 8-1 on a call) and if he does have this kind of hand, then he's not paying off a value bet if we hit an A or Q and we have no implied odds. The problem with this is that the player has been passive up to this point and I think he'd be check/calling with this kind of hand more often than not.

b) We can raise: Again, we're thinking this this is a feeler-type bet with a hand like 56/45/66-99 and we stand to either take the pot down or get called out of position and either hit an A or Q to make the best hand, try to apply pressure on later streets, or get to see a free river. I like this play a lot (and mention it as viable), but this particular villain didn't seem like the type to lead with a hand like this (I thought he was more likely to check-call with it) and I weighed his hand more to TP hands that he was value-betting.

c) We can fold. Here, we're thinking that he's betting for value. Not a monster, but very likely something like TJ/JQ/KJ/(maybe) AJ. Calling puts us in a quandary because if we improve, it's likely that the pot won't get really large unless he's improved to 2pair. I also think that trying to get unknowns to fold top pair in the micros is a good way to lose money.