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

frist...?

edit: I just made me a bacon sandwich to celebrate this glorious feat

awsome series, can't wait to watch this!

darn i'm at work and already watched a vid during working hours
really looking forward to this vid though!

this one I just have to listen, the table mod and client is so uggly and busy it is giving me headache.

I'm going to start watching this right now.

Remember this one? "Your momma's so dumb it takes her 2 hours to watch '60 minutes'" Well, I'm not yo mamma, but I had to rewind so many times to grasp all this content it took me about...well... 2 hours. Really great stuff....

Wanted to say that this is best series I have ever seen. I am a recreational player at ssnl. It has not been much fun since legislation. This series has opened my mind to a whole new approach and it has been fun again. I am not sure if it is the format, the teachers, or combination that is perfect for a player like me. I like how Baluga questions standard plays. Sometimes he corrects which is great. However, I like how even if he is asking rhetorically, he wants to get Tuba and us a viewers to think deeper behind the correct plays as well. Keep up the great work and I hope to see more from Baluga in the future.

I have a question about 3-betting OOP. You mentioned in Episode 2 that 3-betting OOP (for preflop image) against a light stealer who calls much 3-bets IP we also need a playable hand postflop to create postflop image, so any ace-rag suited, SC's or high card hands.

In this episode you mentioned that 3-betting with T9s was not good, bc the hand has much postflop value, so I am right that against people who folds much 3-bets IP it is better just to flat call to get much of that hand postflop?

gbucks is from phil galfond, not wiltontilt

http://www.bluffmagazine.com/magazine/%27G-Bucks%27-Conceptualizing-Money-Matters.-Phil-Galfond-985.htm

here is the link to the article for anyone that hasn't seen it

really like the video

Hey tuba/baluga (wow this rhymes
once again to the T9s hand which you prefer flat calling by far (at least it sounded like that).
You said that this hand has much more value postflop than preflop.
Although i agree i want to state that one of the biggest "parts" of postflop value the implied odds are.
I'm sure you can play it profitable OOP, nevertheless i think that you don't have such great implied odds vs. a BU opener (he was like 18/16, so a button steal of 30 or more is very likely). In addition your opponent MUST be weak/tight-passive as the aggressor postflop to make calling profitable (otherwise you'll often get into marginal situation where you have to fold often (e.g. Overcards are on the board/ he calls your c/r...). So, as long as you don't have a fishy opener who goes crazy with his TP your value actually comes from "stealing" the pots postflop. Why don't we just 3bet then? If his postflop tendencies in 3bet pots are similar to what they are in raised pots you can make a lot (more) BB by 3betting+cbetting him.
In the end i like to state that i'm not critizing your call, however, you should consider 3betting as well as it can be much more profitable than calling. (This is the case when a call is only slightly +EV - which by the way is often when calling OOP - and you get more value by bluffing your opponent: he folds lot to 3bets/cbets).
As you can see the situation is - oh wonder - very often much more important than the cards itself. (you'll probably say that i could 3bet w/ any 2 then, like it was mentioned in dozens of threads. However, you can only defend your blinds to a certain degree, otherwise they would play back at you too often. Now it's up to you if you want to use T9s in a 3bet pot or 75o).

I like your series much but i love discussing these spots even more. I hope both of you will comment my thoughts as im really putting much effort in making the best decisions.
-cobby

hey cobby--
against somebody who plays badly against 3-bets, i agree that we should be 3-betting/c-betting to take advantage of that.

but let me ask you this then--
against a player who will play bad postflop and preflop
your hands are:
AQ
A6s
T9s

imo each of these is easy to play preflop. im not denying that 3-betting T9s could be more profitable in vacuum, but try to think about the game on the whole; if 3-betting is profitable with T9s, it probably is with J4s, but we can't 3-bet both every time.
see what you can make of that

gbucks is from phil galfond, not wiltontilt

http://www.bluffmagazine.com/magazine/%27G-Bucks%27-Conceptualizing-Money-Matters.-Phil-Galfond-985.htm

here is the link to the article for anyone that hasn't seen it

really like the video

did i say it was from WOT? cause i def knew 100% before this vid that its phil galfond. i think i referenced WoT's video where he goes over Gbucks.

Another fantastic vid. I love this series! I am looking forward to the move up in stakes to msnl as the players are faced with more 3-bets. Also, I thought corsakh played pretty damned well, just from his ssnl posts alone I knew he was good. I'm honestly surprised he's not already playing mid-stakes himself, although I'm sure you guys have him on his way.

hey cobby--
against somebody who plays badly against 3-bets, i agree that we should be 3-betting/c-betting to take advantage of that.

but let me ask you this then--
against a player who will play bad postflop and preflop
your hands are:
AQ
A6s
T9s

imo each of these is easy to play preflop. im not denying that 3-betting T9s could be more profitable in vacuum, but try to think about the game on the whole; if 3-betting is profitable with T9s, it probably is with J4s, but we can't 3-bet both every time.
see what you can make of that

I'm sure it is profitable w/ J4s vs. the right player.
I'm thinking about the game on the whole; i think this should have been very clear after you read my post with all the variables i took into consideration. So yeah we cant bet J4s and T9s at both times. If we 3bet AK-AJ/TT+/KQ for value, what would you like to 3bet? T9s or J4s (btw. i love 3betting suited aces in the blinds, but that was not the point i was adressing - which was that you need specific circumstances to make T9s more profitable calling than 3betting (see above))

Great work guys. I love the way you both discuss why something is done and against whom. It's like listening to a couple of great fighters, watching film, and breaking down why a jab, and what follows, is important and how it sets up the knockout, without getting yourself knocked out...

Love it!!!!

Balugawhale, I hope you are well again and make a lot of money in pokah as well as blog-posts and ghost-videos.

Sorry I couldn't watch this video, the mod was just so mad.

This is absolutely the best series i´ve ever seen on any site !!!!

I'm really learning a lot from this series. This is a great format. Excellent work gentlemen.

In 65s hand I wanted to play pots with the blinds and simply missed there was a short fish behind. Flop check was dynamic and player based. The guy on the button is not dead money and he is going to make my life miserable is I bet this flop and the fish folds. And I expect him to think I give up and stab at it with a high frequency. Similar logic applies on the turn. Once he checks the turn behind, I expect him to have marginal SD value and VB the river.


In regards to J9o, I think it has plenty of high card value vs a shortstack. And you would be surprised how often people fold their BB here.


QJ I think your overestimating his tightness and gbux equity. For a real size bet I absolutely agree and would muck very quickly. But it was only half pot and I am sure he is not sizing his bets to shove the river. He is just weak or milking with the nuts. Does this range seem reasonable?

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 28.084% 28.08% 00.00% 519 0.00 { QsJh }
Hand 1: 71.916% 71.92% 00.00% 1329 0.00 { TT+, AsKs, AJs, KJs+, AJo, KQo }


I like 3betting 99 vs a fish but not with this stack size OOP. Gonna be an extremely high variance sticky flop spot most of the time. Not saying its EV-, saying I can convert it better by flatting.


I'm not gonna go deep into T9s again. I still think its perfectly fine. Very opponent/dynamic dependent. Certainly EV+. And I question my ability to make much calling profit vs a competent tag. Marginal at best.


ps And WTF at folding premium connected broadways like Q9o vs a fish button limp and a random hand getting 5 to 1 in the SB.. OMG NITS

This series is absolutely bad-ass. I've learned more listening to Baluga Whale talk about pokers than just about anything else I've done with the game. TubaSteve does a great job also as the straight guy -- kudos to both the guys for their work on this.

Not to be redundant, but this series really is awesome and I too have learned a ton from Baluga Whale and Tuba.

Baluga- What does your coaching program look like?

In 65s hand I wanted to play pots with the blinds and simply missed there was a short fish behind. Flop check was dynamic and player based. The guy on the button is not dead money and he is going to make my life miserable is I bet this flop and the fish folds. And I expect him to think I give up and stab at it with a high frequency. Similar logic applies on the turn. Once he checks the turn behind, I expect him to have marginal SD value and VB the river.

Note to the producers: This hand occurs at the ~24 minute mark

As played by hero, wouldn't it be good to at least think about c/r'ing the river (or c/c'ing at least)? To me it seems villain took a stab at the pot after we decide not to c-bet and when he checks back the turn seems like he's "giving up". In that case he will rarely call hero's v-bet but he might talk himself into trying to take it down with a bet himself.

For this the K on the river might actually be a bad card for us since it's expected to hit our range more than his but then he might have taken his stab with a hand like KJs/KQs and if we c/r him our line makes like zero sense.

Am I an FPS-tard thinking like this or is there merit to at least consider checking the river?

Sugar Nut

The turn card improves his range a lot and is pretty bad for mine. Hence the assumption that he would DB his air and check marginal SD behind.

I dislike this series more and more, so many ppl are actually going to learn what hands to play preflop and what hands to 3bet -.-

Against a 18/16 guy that is c-betting very infrequently i would never call T9s or almost any other hand OOP. Think that is cinda ABC? Nut sure what you are talking about Baluga.... Sure T9s is great to call but you cant rely on implied odds alone from a nit???

Against a 18/16 guy that is c-betting very infrequently i would never call T9s or almost any other hand OOP. Think that is cinda ABC? Nut sure what you are talking about Baluga.... Sure T9s is great to call but you cant rely on implied odds alone from a nit???

One more thing i dont understand is you discussion in the beginning regarding T8o and A6o. Sure you are going to be able to fire more second barrels with T8o but you are going to be winning a shitload of more showdowns with A6o where you dont have to fire a second barrel and also pick of tons of bluffs with it?

at 47:30 you guys are talking about post-flop play with the hand where we call a 25/11's 3bet with AQo. i just cannot see how calling pre-flop is a good idea, but u guys never mentioned it.
otherwise, another excelent vid. thnx guys

sry for double post, but there doesnt seem to be an edit button.
im interested to know what balugas action would be if corsakh had 9Ts in the small blind instead of the BB and either a decent reg or a tag fish in the BB.

This is a really great series guys, thanks so much.

I have to ask though, please consider aesthetics to a small degree when choosing the next video. It is really hard to look at that layout. I literally am getting nauseous watching this, but I can't turn away!

I love your series, but I would love to hear you talking more about your concept of 3betting, probably in one of the next episodes.
Yesterday I played this hand:
I reraise a guy who seems to be LAG and opened from the CO from the button with 96 and he calls.
Flop comes AQ4 with 2 hearts. He CR me all in, so I have an easy decision in that spot. What if I have AJ, A10, A6 etc, how do I continue with these hands postflop if my opponent gives me more action than I want? 100BB stacks, so I have probably like 70BB behind.
I know that it's hard to answer that question in general, but I'd just like you to talk about that some more, because I think these spots are really important to play well, because you play for big pots.

Baluga and Steve,

This series and the 109s hand made me realize that a series dedicated to flatting hands from the blinds and how we should play on what textures vs. what opponents would be v v valuable.

Baluga and Steve,

This series and the 109s hand made me realize that a series dedicated to flatting hands from the blinds and how we should play on what textures vs. what opponents would be v v valuable.

HELL YEAH!

+1

to broaden the scope a bit, some kind of a "how to play from the damn blinds" series would be pretty awesome.

Outstanding piece of work. I like that kind of tree. Ty for the serie.

I am extremely lazy about typing things into these forums, but this video featuring Baluga is the nutz. Many players are talented and successful poker players. Beluga whale is like a Phd in poker giving you all the answers to questions of strategy and tactics. He is a articulate and intelligent conveyor of ideas instead of a mystery monger. Please continue to develope more content featuring him.

Hey guys... I just want to say thank you to BalugaWhale for this concept. I used to bet like half pot, and call that a value bet, haha. This is a value bet!!



Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN/SB): $65.85
BB: $77.65

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN/SB with 2 2
Hero raises to $2, BB calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.00) 3 2 3 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $3.50, BB calls $3.50

Turn: ($11.00) J (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $7, BB calls $7

River: ($25.00) Q (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $53.35 all in, BB calls $53.35

Final Pot: $131.70
Hero shows 2 2 (a full house, Deuces full of Threes)
BB mucks Q J
Hero wins $131.20
(Rake: $0.50)

Question Baluga, change that T9s hand to T8s, same play?

(assume 100bb stacks vs. relative unknown)

Its been awhile since anyone reply here. Hopefully someone does.

In the video they said 3-better Ax is much better. But how are you planning to play when u hit top pair? Getting it in or folding to aggression?

Thanks another great video.

Regarding the T9s hand.. so if we don't 3bet, we would just call OOP? Isn't it better to just fold? There doesn't seem to be much room for anything but c/f on a lot of flops if we call OOP..

Like if it's A K 5 two tone giving us the flush draw, what are we going to do? If we semi bluff, if we get raised we'll have to get it in against someone with a TPTK or two pairs.. is this really ideal?

Please correct me if I'm wrong.. but doesn't folding or turning your hand into a bluff by 3betting seem like such a better option since we're OOP?

Love this series, great commentary

Omg i could listen to ye guys talk poker all day !! unbelieveable understandin of the game , its truely awesome and very inspiring , so much to be taken from 1 of these videos in the series alone , great stuff guys

Unbelievable series, just re-watched it. I never comment, but the content here is too damn good. Good work!

lil bit of nostalgia about iq being in ipoker network, want a rakeback there in ipoker
these series

btw, i knew about gbucks, but when i heard baluga saying about gbucks theory, i kinda didnt get it and thought, who the hell is Gebox?

Time Link to 00:57:19

This discussion about not 3-betting T9s in the blinds...is this specific to low stakes only? Because I know every good player at high stakes certainly has sc's in his 3-betting range from the blinds, no question. I assume we are saying it's bad in lower stakes because we do not fare well against villain's calling range, T9s does not play so well in 3-bet pots, and if we are doing a 3-bet b/c villain folds a lot, why not 3-bet A7o since our hand is a bluff anyway? Furthermore, T9s has good value as BW delineates, in a raised pot-we can bluff a lot, we can make strong hands and c/r and overpairs and top pairs go too far, etc. Is this thinking about correct?

This series is the nuts. I have like 2 - 3 times as many notes in the videos from this series as from other series ^^
What about doing a 3rd season? I'd definetly watch ;D

Time Link to 00:12:09

JTo:



What if the fish would have been more aggr.?

Would it be very pew to bluffraise the river (3x) vs. busted Draws and sometimes he might fold a 8x-hands (rarely, I know) or underpairs...?

I mean,
vs. a fish cbetting flop, then checking back the turn is a very common spot.
Here you will be faced with a riverbet in >90%.
When they have a wide callingrange on the flop and a high Bet_River_OOP vs. missed 2ndBarell_Stat, they will have lots of times air in their ranges, exspecially on wet boardtextures, where everything is busted on the river.

Our only standard counterstrateg is to call with SD-Value.

But couldn`t we also start to rebluff with a particular Frequeny?

Time Link to 00:20:09

That depends on the opponent:

Vs. a few weak Tag-fishes with a low WTSD, you can just bet large on turn + river b/c they are never top of their range here and will fold very often on the river.

Checkingdown with the intention to C/F of course is also ok.
Imo the worst line here would be,
Stab turn - C/F River.

Time Link to 00:23:56

65s:

I have a problem to open here from UTG, just b/c the deepstack will less frequentlycall as MP vs. UTG-open.
The most action in form of a coldcall preflop, you will get here from the Shorty-fish.
Obv. 65s sucks here -> here I would prefer to open AT/KTo.

Of course there is another fullstacked fish in the blids, but as I said, the shorty Co-fish will coldcall here imo too often.

Another point:
Wouldn`t it be better to targe the fullstackfish in the blinds with big cards, even when you are IP postflop?

To advocate here a openraise with a small suited Connector in order to targe the fish seems to b a little bit against the general ideas/concepts which you taught us.

Time Link to 00:05:14

Here with KJ Baluga says we'd be in a reverse implied if 100bb deep. But even against a loose passive oponent? I totaly see this point vs a TAG or a nit tohugh

Horrible HUD, great video though

Time Link to 01:03:38

Probably bad timing for this? but how do you comment without having to comment from the timeline link?
Thanks. This vid was great I learned alot, Baluga Im still watching all your vids and I have not found one I have disliked yet. Keep it up!

Time Link to 00:38:14

Table 2 with KQ. Surely this villain is barrelling any broadway not just KQ. I would not be surprised to see villain show up with AJ+ here. I feel that some players play tight but once they play a hand they do so weirdly. 1/2 pot, 1/2 pot, check looks exactly like AK or similar strength hands. Obv KQ is the top of his bluffing range but its not the bottom of his overall range.