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

first!

The video starts fast forwarding around the 18 minute mark for me.

Seams great but the stream goes into fast forward at about 40 minutes.

me to

The video starts fast forwarding around the 18 minute mark for me.

me too

mine started to fast forward :S then when i paused and pressed play again it went back to 18m then went to start.
it was a shame, cuase i was really enjoying it

I've got the same problem here, video starts to fast foward around the 18 min mark.

Guys be more specific about your problems so Rob/Rusty can diagnose the problem. What versions of the file are you getting these errors with?

Hope y'all enjoy the series. I filmed the first ep while I was at home visiting family so I was a bit distracted and feel like the next few episodes are much better on my end. Regardless, I think Andrew and I have some good discussion and we hope you guys get a lot out of hte vids.

Around 18 minutes the audio is muted but the video itself is running.
I downloaded the mp4 file.

I'm updating the MP4/Flash version right now -- looks like something went wrong in the transcoding/conversion of it. WMV seems to work fine from what I can tell, please confirm if you get a chance. Conversion should be done in about 20min.

Rob

My .wmv file went fine... very nice series, looking forward for new episodes...

Vid has been re-transcoded and re-uploaded. New version looks great to me, LMK if you guys spot anything though.

Rob

Balugawhale is the nuts! I should tape everything and just sub-consciously listen to it while I sleep. What a motor mouth!
22 minutes in to the video and I will now give it top stars.

Now, does this guy know all the poker situations by heart or what!

Balugawhale is the nuts! I should tape everything and just sub-consciously listen to it while I sleep. What a motor mouth!
22 minutes in to the video and I will now give it top stars.

Now, does this guy know all the poker situations by heart or what!

Yeah I'm pretty impressed by his flow and the amount of depth that he gets into. This is going to have to go down as the most advanced $25NL video ever, IMO. Nice work, steve+baluga.

downloaded wmv and it only downloaded the first one minute and cut out..also why is the picture not as clear as some other vids

downloaded wmv and it only downloaded the first one minute and cut out..also why is the picture not as clear as some other vids

Just re-download. There aren't any problems with the WMV, so there's something on your end that interrupted the download for some reason.

The picture isn't as clear because the student (JLee) recorded 4-tables at 50% the resolution of normal, probably because he was recording on a smaller screen or a laptop. Steve tells me most of the vids in this series are larger, but it's the same way things worked with King for a Day or Hoodie Wars, where re-recording we're limited to the original quality that people submit, so it's not 100% in our control.

Rob

yes the mp4 file is now working properly.

btw I really liked the intro.

entity, thanks for the explanation. Once again the content and amount is awesome with dc and so is the support..thanks

Tuba and baluga thank you both for video review definitely some great concepts. On the pocket 77 hands where i squeezed against a guy who was opening large range in steal position I was just looking to take down the pot where he is folding almost all of his range. Are you ever squeezing hands like this against loose opener as unlikely either player is paying off flopped set? Typically i would call with this hand here. Probably misapplying concepts seen in video.
A10 hand definitely was raising for value against player who is stealing 45% of the time, post flop i was definitely lost so i guess calling/folding is better pre flop.

Thank again guys

Jlee

rofl at the intro, very nice job

awesome vid

5 stars

I think a couple of times you attribute stats from his HUD to the wrong players. Not that that is very important. Anyway...

Amazing video. I think I'm gonna have to re-watch it and take notes on all the concepts Baluga was talking about. That dichotomy between pre-flop ranges and post-flop ranges (the A8 v 48 discussion) is something I haven't heard articulated that well even though it is something people probably intuitively know. An absolute tonne of info in here

goddammit, nobody can be this good at internetpokers

Balugwhale (and credits to Steve also) is da bomb, man that guy can explain things and more worthfull i guess, he makes you think hehehe, one one, one day i will have the monies to hire Balugawhale as a coach! Amen!
Great great series again by Deucescracked!

that 99 hand was so great to look at, i mean most of the people tell us lowlimit players , "no set, no bet"! Great insight!!!

great video.

This video should be the inaugral entry into the DC Video Hall of Fame. Baluga's commentary is amongst the best I've heard from any training site.

This was really awsome, so much indepth analysis
Steve and Beluga are the nuts!
thnx for this,

balugawhale + tubasteve FTW!!! great insight, clear exlanations, I loved the video!!!

Yeah yeah yeah, Baluga is the nuts but what makes him interesting is, judging by a lot of internet posts at 2+2 is that his, similar to Chaostricize, ideas are pretty controversial. Not all people agree with these guys. They seem to have a special take on NL. I am sure Krantz and Whitelime are like top of the food chain but these guys somehow can express the thought process to the top level.

Really good vid. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Yeah yeah yeah, Baluga is the nuts but what makes him interesting is, judging by a lot of internet posts at 2+2 is that his, similar to Chaostricize, ideas are pretty controversial. Not all people agree with these guys. They seem to have a special take on NL. I am sure Krantz and Whitelime are like top of the food chain but these guys somehow can express the thought process to the top level.

yeah esp when you start mentioning stuff like calling raises preflop from the blinds, OMG WE CANT DO THAT WE'RE OOP!

yeah esp when you start mentioning stuff like calling raises preflop from the blinds, OMG WE CANT DO THAT WE'RE OOP!

yeah Tuba, I think I actually hear a "thud" when Baluga hit you on a head when you made a fool of yourself...Just kidding...it's all good.

This vid pretty much blew me away. The understanding and chemistry between you guys is amazing, really learned alot in this vid! Keep em coming, and WHACK EM'!

This is an amazing video. Really looking forward to next eps.

Yeah, it's like Martin and Lewis...

Good videa, but the audio of balugawhale kinda sucks. Sounds like a very low bandwidth audio stream or something like that.

Great idea, more of this!

Good videa, but the audio of balugawhale kinda sucks. Sounds like a very low bandwidth audio stream or something like that.

next 3 vids are already recorded and are much better. we were both at our parents house on break from school for this ep, hence the poor audio on his end.

Great idea, more of this!

oh dont you worry theres a whole season ahead!

also i can't quote everyone but thanks for all the positive feedback guys!!!

sup fellas.

I normally wouldn't watch a video made at limits as low as these, but I am sure glad that I did. I definitely took stuff away from this video, and I really just can't even imagine how awesome a video at higher limits will be. If you guys decide to hit up the 200NL level for one of these coaching tree episodes, holler at me for a submission.

thanks though and nice work both of you

Roy

best micro/small stakes NL video ever! really fantastic. thx guys

balugawhale is a pimp

Just over halfway through I started to hear a strange popping crackle sound.
Nothing wrong with the vid apparently, it was my brain frying with information overload.

I am going to try to ingrain the stuff about "not believing" and "not value betting" enough in to the remaining mush.

Just over halfway through I started to hear a strange popping crackle sound.
Nothing wrong with the vid apparently, it was my brain frying with information overload.

I am going to try to ingrain the stuff about "not believing" and "not value betting" enough in to the remaining mush.

I will have to rewatch as all I remember is tuba saying "Yeah i dont know what he is doing here"
Or baluga going "Not betting here is pretty bad"

very very nice video

However i am not really agree whith that BalugaWhale said about the limped pot with 72o on board 732 two tone against 2 opponent, especially after what he said with the 99 on QJ7 flop
The protection is more important in the second spot (any random card over hte 7 can suckout us), and a bet have more value(we have top pair vs third pair), whereas we are only slightly less likely to take the pot down (yes it is 3way, but it's a only a limped pot and the board don't fit the "high card area"), so i think the second spot it's an easy bet too.
I don't see why the second situation have more RIO, basically in both we don't put more money in the pot after the flop bet.

wow baluga is absolutely amazing. i'm very fortunate that i didn't stop video when i saw it was 25nl
i mean the commentary is just sick! looking forward to the next episodes for sure !

sup fellas.

I normally wouldn't watch a video made at limits as low as these, but I am sure glad that I did. I definitely took stuff away from this video, and I really just can't even imagine how awesome a video at higher limits will be. If you guys decide to hit up the 200NL level for one of these coaching tree episodes, holler at me for a submission.

thanks though and nice work both of you

Roy

tyty and we already have all the member submissions, but never fear b/c here is the progression for the rest of the series:

ep 2: 50nl 6-max
ep 3: 100nl 6-max
ep 4: 50nl FR
ep 5: 100nl FR
ep 6: 200nl 6-max
ep 7: 200nl 6-max
ep 8: 400nl 6-max

One of the best videos I've ever seen. Excellent explanations of fundamental concepts. The quizzing of tubasteve/the viewer is really helpful.

WOW! Great Stuff!

Thank you Belugawhale, and Tubasteve for this excellent coaching video.

I felt like back in school and wanted to start taking notes

Oh cool a baluga video at 25nl how delightfully useless!

this is good shit.
thanks for making it.

Oh cool a baluga video at 25nl how delightfully useless!

STFU. GTFO.

Newbies *sigh*.

awesome vid

Oh cool a baluga video at 25nl how delightfully useless!

oh cool losingdonkey posted in my thread without watching the video first, how delightfully awesome!

I think its awesome how baluga puts steve on the defensive and makes him look like a newbie
If every other vid in the series is as good as this my head is gonna implode.

Jesus. Fantastic video.

Oh btw,

what dos George Lucas say to you stealing the chewbacca sound for Balugawhale in the intro

"goddammit, nobody can be this good at internetpokers" sums it up.

Wow. Just wow. This is a steep hill to climb, indeed. It is pretty inspiring.

Oh btw,

what dos George Lucas say to you stealing the chewbacca sound for Balugawhale in the intro

LOL. Rusty (our coaching ninja/guy who does a ton of the video production now, also someone who studied Marine Biology) asked me when he produced this vid "what kind of whale is that supposed to be? It sounds more like a Chewbacca."

Rob

great stuff, someone said this was good and I almost skipped it when I saw it was 25NL but decided to give it a chance. Very glad I did and it's definitely a series I'll continue to follow. The format is great because there are so many things to think about in certain spots and we get to see the gap between a winning small stakes player and the guy who has taken the step that so many of us are trying to but haven't gotten there yet. A lot of times I would agree with Steve as it went along and then Baluga would say something and it was cool because I wouldn't have thought of it that way. Or I would disagree with Steve and then Baluga would agree too It's great to see how I can work on my play in "standard" spots in which I may be missing a bit of value or paying off too much against the wrong guys. Can't wait for the next one

there's one thing i don't understand at all.
Pretty early steve says that by raising bigger OOP the smaller your positional disadvantage is.
Isn't this somewhat contradictory, because we all know that you make bigger mistakes OOP. And the bigger the pot is the bigger your mistakes are. Am I right here?
How can you explain this?
If I'm right than calling is theoretically also better than 3betting when defending your blinds from the perspective of your positional disadvantage????

The video stops and goes back to the beginging at about the 8:30 mark.

The video stops and goes back to the beginging at about the 8:30 mark.

It's not the video, it's that your connection somehow got reset while streaming the video. Reload and try watching again. We're looking into why this has been happening more recently but don't know yet; for now the best answer is to download the downloadable versions using a download manager like http://www.freedownloadmanager.org

Rob

balugawhale rulez

there's one thing i don't understand at all.
Pretty early steve says that by raising bigger OOP the smaller your positional disadvantage is.
Isn't this somewhat contradictory, because we all know that you make bigger mistakes OOP. And the bigger the pot is the bigger your mistakes are. Am I right here?
How can you explain this?
If I'm right than calling is theoretically also better than 3betting when defending your blinds from the perspective of your positional disadvantage????

the lower the stack to pot ratio, the shallower the stacks play, meaning the less correct it will be for your opponents to try and hit flops since we cut their implied odds. also since the pot is bigger and we have less behind, our decisions become easier as we can commit lighter.

great stuff, someone said this was good and I almost skipped it when I saw it was 25NL but decided to give it a chance. Very glad I did and it's definitely a series I'll continue to follow. The format is great because there are so many things to think about in certain spots and we get to see the gap between a winning small stakes player and the guy who has taken the step that so many of us are trying to but haven't gotten there yet. A lot of times I would agree with Steve as it went along and then Baluga would say something and it was cool because I wouldn't have thought of it that way. Or I would disagree with Steve and then Baluga would agree too It's great to see how I can work on my play in "standard" spots in which I may be missing a bit of value or paying off too much against the wrong guys. Can't wait for the next one

glad you liked it sir

and yeah, i definitely felt like a noob while making this vid, but afterwards my brain just started crankin and all the stuff we had talked about in our coaching sorta started to flood back to me, and i think the later ones are even more thought provoking.

Don't normally post comments, but this was outstanding - probs the most useful uNL vid Ive ever seen.

I'm glad you guys have enjoyed this video. It only gets better.

A quick note-- just because the limits start low, or because episodes 4 and 5 will be full ring, doesnt mean that the concepts won't apply to your game regardless of what limit or game type you play (whether HU, 6max, or FR). Relearning FR helps my 6max game in ways. Practicing 6max helps my FR game. etc. etc.

This video is awesome, I really liked the way you talked and explained tought this video

Looking for this serie for sure

Thanks to you 2

Very interessting

Fantastic stuff. You WILL beat NL25 after watching this.

When you say you dont want to raise stuff like A8off cuz they arent gonna go anyway when raised, what about hand like AT-AQ off, doesnt the same logic applies? Or is it ok because of the times they call with dominated hands?

the lower the stack to pot ratio, the shallower the stacks play, meaning the less correct it will be for your opponents to try and hit flops since we cut their implied odds. also since the pot is bigger and we have less behind, our decisions become easier as we can commit lighter.

so basically your argument outweighs the argument that you make more mistakes OOP and that with a bigger pot your mistakes become more severe?
I'm so interested in that, because it really helps me to decide when to 3bet or just to call OOP; ...or what is theoretically better...

Don't normally post comments, but this was outstanding - probs the most useful uNL vid Ive ever seen.

+1

Got to say I love this approach to coaching. It's sometimes too easy to hear the correct way of thinking, and think "OK", then for it not to sink in. For real beginners (aka, 'me') there's nothing better than hearing the incorrect answer, which is then developed towards a better way of thinking. This episode's right up there with the whitelime-v-pr1nyraid challenge where they compete to be the best HU coach

the lower the stack to pot ratio, the shallower the stacks play, meaning the less correct it will be for your opponents to try and hit flops since we cut their implied odds. also since the pot is bigger and we have less behind, our decisions become easier as we can commit lighter.

I'm kind of with cobby's first post on this point. Is it really correct to engineer big pots just to simplify the decision OOP?? Surely you're just happy when you get into that spot to have an easier decision, but why go out of your way to get there in the first place?

I used to almost intenionally commit myself to the pot to make AI choices easier, until I realised it's less stress to always aim for small pots in marginal spots, and save big pots for when you're more confident you're ahead.

I'm kind of with cobby's first post on this point. Is it really correct to engineer big pots just to simplify the decision OOP?? Surely you're just happy when you get into that spot to have an easier decision, but why go out of your way to get there in the first place?

our decisions get easier as our opponents make bigger mistakes. not mutually exclusive!

guys, let me simplify this question youre having about raise sizes OOP

the more money behind in stacks means more reverse implied odds. the less money behind in stacks means less reverse implied odds. our reverse implied odds are worst when we are out of position. thus, making a larger pot OOP preflop reduces our reverse implied odds postflop, compensating for the increase of reverse implied odds due to our positional disadvantage.

in the grand scheme of things, though, you can pretty much raise to 3.5bb or a PSR utg as a standard. I do.

Great vid, can't wait for the next ones.

That was a great vid. Having read the thread in 2+2 about CR v DC, I opted to join DC and have been thoroughly impressed; the content in this video is excellent and really illustrates how evaluating your options can improve your decisions.

I do have one question though - when playing yourselves (Baluga and Tuba), how do you ensure that you make the 'correct' decision based on the information in front of you? Early in the video, Tubasteve advocated c/f'ing the 99 on JQx board and Baluga instantly said, no I would bet; it felt like Tubasteve was on autopilot and Baluga snapped Tuba out of it. How do you stop the autopilot option? Do you have a mental checklist before making a decision? Do you ask yourself a question before taking an action?

I feel like I autopilot sometimes and make poor decisions because of it and watching the vid has opened up new thoughts but I need to ensure that I can apply these correctly while playing. Analysing hands in PT or on forums is all well and good but I need to do it consistently at the table!

Also, this vid is tremendous and the format is excellent. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

EDIT: First Post \o/

Don't normally post comments, but this was outstanding - probs the most useful uNL vid Ive ever seen.

Seriously, by the end of this I was stunned speechless by information overload. Now I find out it will cover NL50-NL100 AND full ring...just epic.

I'd actually planned to watch it more for entertainment than info because I was too tired to play. But, after 15min I'd had to pause/rewind 5 times and the half-page notepad I use for noting timestamps was already crammed with info. I'll be re-watching ep1 on the weekend & this just shot to the top of my must watch list for the season.

One of the best videos I've ever seen.

+1
Can't wait for the next ones

Good stuff.

I do have one question though - when playing yourselves (Baluga and Tuba), how do you ensure that you make the 'correct' decision based on the information in front of you? How do you stop the autopilot option? Do you have a mental checklist before making a decision? Do you ask yourself a question before taking an action?

I feel like I autopilot sometimes and make poor decisions because of it and watching the vid has opened up new thoughts but I need to ensure that I can apply these correctly while playing.

EDIT: First Post \o/

Its like boxing or any martial art. In the ring, when you are fighting, you do what you are trained to do. In the ring you wont try any new moves or do anything complicated. You will do the basics that have been hammered into you. Thats why repitition of the basics (keep your gloves up) is so important.

For me its the same with poker. When you are playing you can only do what you have been trained to do. Dont expect to come up with ninja decision trees on the fly. Rather make mistakes, analyse them, watch videos about them, write about them, make them again, analyse them again, rinse repeat. Eventually those things become reflex and your autopilot gets a level up.

So my answer to your Q is level up your autopilot through training away from the table and analysis of your play at it.

Guys, just wanted to say that this is one of the best video's I have seen so far on DC.

Much good karma to both of you for making this.

Its like boxing or any martial art. In the ring, when you are fighting, you do what you are trained to do. In the ring you wont try any new moves or do anything complicated. You will do the basics that have been hammered into you. Thats why repitition of the basics (keep your gloves up) is so important.

For me its the same with poker. When you are playing you can only do what you have been trained to do. Dont expect to come up with ninja decision trees on the fly. Rather make mistakes, analyse them, watch videos about them, write about them, make them again, analyse them again, rinse repeat. Eventually those things become reflex and your autopilot gets a level up.

So my answer to your Q is level up your autopilot through training away from the table and analysis of your play at it.

Sorry but i think this is bad advice (if i understand right what you say ofcourse). Not adjusting on the fly = death imo. Doing anything at the table by reflex is bad.
How do you stop autopilot? Just start thinking. Play less tables for a while and think through every single spot. What's his range? How affect board texture to his range? How affect to your hand? What do you want to achive? What will you do if he call/raise/donk? What will you do if a certain trun/rivercard comes? With what hands will he pay you off? How many streets will he pay? With what hand will he bluff? How's your hand looks like? How would you play the nuts in the spot? How many times have you air in the spot? How should you change your bet size based on the circumstances? And many many many more things to consider just in a single hand, on a single street.
What you can/should do away from the table is thinking about type of hands (beyond session review, leak finding, etc). How can i play a mid suited connector profitably? Where the value come from with them? What kind of board am i looking for with it? What's a good situation with a suited connector? And at the tables you can ask yourself: Is this a good situation to a suited connector? If no (how) can i adjust to keep play profitable? What's his range? How affects board texture........
I hope you get my point!

Outstanding video!

I have just watched Baby Steps and From the Ground up and liked both series. But got to say: This vid is the burner! Watched it twice and still don`t have all the informations sunken in
BalugaWhale is just WOW! Pitty he is so expensive
And Steve of course does a great job too.Your approach to the game is a little different but I believe a pretty solid one to grind yourself through the microstakes.
When i read that you will cover now higher limits and FR i first was sad since i am playing NL25 and don`t think the play on Nl100+ can be applied to it but probably, the now seen given (and the respond of BalugaWhale taken), it will still help me.
I just have the worrie that it might confuse me and that then, back at the nl25 table i mix up concepts which are good for midstakes but not as appropriate (or say: not max. EV) for lowstakes. No need to worry?

So much conceptual stuff jammed in, this needs to be re-watched.

Baluga you do a great job of explaining all the concepts and more
importantly which are the more relevant at the time that leads to
the best course of action.

Q for BalugaWhale and Tubasteve:

2:46 ( -> 12:45 ) 99 on QJ7 flop OOP vs loose passive

I understand why we bet and what to do on the turn(at least I think
I do).

But if he was still loose but more aggro, what's the plan on a (blank)
turn? Say he was the type to sometimes float and bet turn 1/2pot.

Do we just have to give up OOP with horrible
RIO situation with 3rd pair or throw in an occasionally b/f as their floating too much?

Does the board and our position/opponent just make our options limited?

Great series. I really like the "student/teacher reviewing recorded sessions" format. And yes, Baluga is awesome at explaining things in clear terms. Tuba, I got luv for u too, don't worry! lol. Anyway, first of all, yeah, you guys seemed to be looking at the wrong stat windows for several of the players, not that I think it made much difference, but it was a little confusing. Finally, I have a big question. Where's the luv for 2nl, 5nl, and 10nl?? I haven't seen any videos for anything less than 25nl. Why is this? I'm just starting out, and I'm much more comfortable risking 2, 5, or 10 dollars instead of 25, 50 or more. Ok, that's all. Thanks for all that you DC guys do! =)

Just watched this and had to add a 5 star rating and a comment to BalugaWhale who was amazing.

Only got through about 5 hands in the hour but the depth of the conversation was amazing.

I think you should give BalugaWhale a series where you just prompt him with some random poker question and see how long and how in depth he can go before running out of things to say

I think you should give BalugaWhale a series where you just prompt him with some random poker question and see how long and how in depth he can go before running out of things to say

thats like...exactly what we're doing though

Maybe no one saw my earlier question, but I am wondering where's the luv for 2nl, 5nl, and 10nl?? I don't see any videos for anything lower than 25nl. Why is that??

Maybe no one saw my earlier question, but I am wondering where's the luv for 2nl, 5nl, and 10nl?? I don't see any videos for anything lower than 25nl. Why is that??

The concepts are going to be very very similar to $2nl, $5nl, $10nl. I'd recommend looking at From the Ground Up and Baby Steps to find some great materials/advice for those limits even though the levels tubasteve and n0whereman play are higher than the limits you're specifically looking at. In order to become the best player possible you're going to want to learn about the how and why and not specifically the what -- so while you may be looking for a $2nl vid, you really should be looking for videos that cover basic concepts like hand selection, pot control, and basic handreading against loose passive opponents. In order to give you the best advice possible, we try to match up our instructors to levels that are as close to what they are familiar with ("teach what you know"), so without any instructors really playing a ton at those levels, it would be disingenuous for us to try to coach specifically to those games. That said, I still really think you can get the most out of watching $25nl-$50nl vids and applying those concepts to the games you're playing in.

hope this helps,
Rob

I have questions about a few of the hands that were not commented on in the video. They are as follows:

38:00 88 in the BB. Should we have lead out on the flop instead of check/folding and why?

47:45 K7s in the CO. Could we ever raise an unopened pot like that instead of folding and why?

50:40 KQs in the BB. Should we have checked the flop instead of c-betting and why?

55:25 T3s in the BB. Should we have bet at any point in that hand instead of checking it down and why?

1:09:55 K8s in the BB. Could we ever 3bet or call in that situation instead of folding and why?

1:14:50 65s in the BB. Could we ever 3bet or call in that situation instead of folding and why?

That's all. Thanks again.

WOW simply amazing, best vid i have ever seen on this site and its at my stakes....NH

great video.., baluga expresses himself very well and explains things easy and clearly.. tx for the great vid
p.s. steve, you're ok as well

I just want to clarify what was said about not raising A8o from the cutoff with 2 loose passive players in the blinds. When you have players in the blinds playing over 40% of there hands do you not want to steal with any ace rag from position,but any pocket pair and suited connector/gapper is fine? I still find it strange you would lay A8o down when you're so far ahead of the donks range and could get value from his middle pair.
Can someone just go over this once more so my tiny brain can fully understand it.
Thanks.

Excellent video you two definitely have some chemistry going that adds to the video. Thanks for a great video.

Awesome video, and also very funny intro

pretty funny dynamic between the two of you

--

Tuba: "Yeah, I think with the K T 8 rainbo.."

Baluga: "Stop, I'm talking"

Tuba: Stunned silence

Baluga: "So.. yeah, as I was saying, I think with the K T 8 rainbow.."

lol

Bit behind on watching this but worth the wait. This is one of the sickest vids I've seen. Great stuff and a ton of info in a short space of time.

i rly hate tubasteve and balugawhale, i wasn't going to renew my yearly subscription to DC, and use that money for a coach and renew in a month or two... now, im just going to have to use my beer money to pay for the coach, and i really, REALLY like beer.

great job guys

Best vid i've seen on DC about SSNL. I feel like i learnt more from this vid than any other poker material i have seen, read or heard. Thank you.

Great job guys.

I know this is old but I was just rewatching some of my favorite videos and tried using the notetaking and other methods Wiltontilt talked about in Haj School and its crazy how much good stuff and great poker theory there is in the coaching tree videos and you realize it even more when you're actively thinking and notetaking.

Really cool stuff.

Just seen it for the first time. This video is the stone cold nuts.

Sick good. Best live play video I've ever seen

Just stumbled upon this series after going thru Road to robusto and alot others and this one really blew my mind. My jaw is on the floor and I have no idea of what to do with all this information - massive overload!
This is the bomb! I will be re-watching this series many, many times.

Time Link to 00:41:39

pretty old thread but,
AT hand, in villain's shoes how would you play his hand? You are 2buyins deep, so id assume you d call with T8s in position. He flopped top pair with a flush draw, so you have to call a flop bet and the turn one; and when you get to the river its very unlikely that you're behind, cuz your opponent has to 3bet A2s, low pairs which is very unlikely someones doing that at this level or some suited tens and theres only 2 of them left in the deck so there are very few combos of that; so hes probably value betting big overpairs here often. Cuz you talked about this spot as him calling too lightly pre and post flop, maybe you/I got something wrong?

pretty old thread but,
AT hand, in villain's shoes how would you play his hand? You are 2buyins deep, so id assume you d call with T8s in position. He flopped top pair with a flush draw, so you have to call a flop bet and the turn one; and when you get to the river its very unlikely that you're behind, cuz your opponent has to 3bet A2s, low pairs which is very unlikely someones doing that at this level or some suited tens and theres only 2 of them left in the deck so there are very few combos of that; so hes probably value betting big overpairs here often. Cuz you talked about this spot as him calling too lightly pre and post flop, maybe you/I got something wrong?

I just re-watched this video and had the same thought. I can't see where this player made any kind of big mistake with T8s. /shrug

I saw this series ages ago but have decided to watch it all again. Anyways, I don't know how to do the time-stamp but it's roughly at 52:00. The scenario is pretty self explanatory, you don't really need mch context.

Hero is dealt 77 in the SB, the CO opened to pot and the button called. You both(Baluga and Tubasteve) agreed that squeezing here is terrible. I didn't really think you explained why that well.

Is it because our hand has better post-flop equity than it does preflop? Thsi was the logic that I felt that you were using. If we 3-bet here (squeeze) we should know that we are 3-bet bluffing and merely trying to take down the dead money. Is that sooo bad? 77 looks and plays better than say 22 or 33 but when we miss most flops and are OOP, we are forced to check-fold a hell of a lot of the time. Also, when we manage to flop a set, we are still OOP and getting stacks will not always be easy.

Is my thinking backwards here? How am I meant to think about this spot?

I saw this series ages ago but have decided to watch it all again. Anyways, I don't know how to do the time-stamp but it's roughly at 52:00. The scenario is pretty self explanatory, you don't really need mch context.

Hero is dealt 77 in the SB, the CO opened to pot and the button called. You both(Baluga and Tubasteve) agreed that squeezing here is terrible. I didn't really think you explained why that well.

Is it because our hand has better post-flop equity than it does preflop? Thsi was the logic that I felt that you were using. If we 3-bet here (squeeze) we should know that we are 3-bet bluffing and merely trying to take down the dead money. Is that sooo bad? 77 looks and plays better than say 22 or 33 but when we miss most flops and are OOP, we are forced to check-fold a hell of a lot of the time. Also, when we manage to flop a set, we are still OOP and getting stacks will not always be easy.

Is my thinking backwards here? How am I meant to think about this spot?

saw this series ages ago but have decided to watch it all again. Anyways, I don't know how to do the time-stamp but it's roughly at 52:00. The scenario is pretty self explanatory, you don't really need mch context.

Hero is dealt 77 in the SB, the CO opened to pot and the button called. You both(Baluga and Tubasteve) agreed that squeezing here is terrible. I didn't really think you explained why that well.

Is it because our hand has better post-flop equity than it does preflop? Thsi was the logic that I felt that you were using. If we 3-bet here (squeeze) we should know that we are 3-bet bluffing and merely trying to take down the dead money. Is that sooo bad? 77 looks and plays better than say 22 or 33 but when we miss most flops and are OOP, we are forced to check-fold a hell of a lot of the time. Also, when we manage to flop a set, we are still OOP and getting stacks will not always be easy.

Is my thinking backwards here? How am I meant to think about this spot?

saw this series ages ago but have decided to watch it all again. Anyways, I don't know how to do the time-stamp but it's roughly at 52:00. The scenario is pretty self explanatory, you don't really need mch context.

Hero is dealt 77 in the SB, the CO opened to pot and the button called. You both(Baluga and Tubasteve) agreed that squeezing here is terrible. I didn't really think you explained why that well.

Is it because our hand has better post-flop equity than it does preflop? This was the logic that I felt that you were using. If we 3-bet here (squeeze) we should know that we are 3-bet bluffing and merely trying to take down the dead money. Is that sooo bad? 77 looks and plays better than say 22 or 33 but when we miss most flops and are OOP, we are forced to check-fold a hell of a lot of the time. Also, when we manage to flop a set, we are still OOP and getting stacks will not always be easy.

Is my thinking backwards here? How am I meant to think about this spot?

saw this series ages ago but have decided to watch it all again. Anyways, I don't know how to do the time-stamp but it's roughly at 52:00. The scenario is pretty self explanatory, you don't really need mch context.

Hero is dealt 77 in the SB, the CO opened to pot and the button called. You both(Baluga and Tubasteve) agreed that squeezing here is terrible. I didn't really think you explained why that well.

Is it because our hand has better post-flop equity than it does preflop? Thsi was the logic that I felt that you were using. If we 3-bet here (squeeze) we should know that we are 3-bet bluffing and merely trying to take down the dead money. Is that sooo bad? 77 looks and plays better than say 22 or 33 but when we miss most flops and are OOP, we are forced to check-fold a hell of a lot of the time. Also, when we manage to flop a set, we are still OOP and getting stacks will not always be easy.

Is my thinking backwards here? How am I meant to think about this spot?

Hi Pokerfarm, next time you should just PM one of us if you have a question in the forums rather than post a few times.

As for your question, the simple matter is that 77 doesn't play well in 3-bet pots. When you reraise pocket 77 there is almost no flop you can bet and expect to get called by worse, so 3-betting a hand like 77 is only a good idea if you expect your opponent to 4-bet a lot, allowing you to profitably 5-bet shove as a semibluff.

In a single raise pot it is significantly easier to get to showdown with 77 than 22 as we are able to bluffcatch more often without the weaker parts of our opponents range having so many outs (like A5s type stuff). We also don't just have to play fit-or-fold, we can c/r bluff certain boards just as we would with 22-33 if we think we have little showdown value yet also think our opponents range is wide on the flop.

One last thought, in the actual hand we were also multiway, giving us much better implied odds to flatcall with any PP. If I missed anything perhaps Baluga will chime in...

very nice video, great stuff!

49:00, JJ on a QQ5 flop, OOP. What do you do if you lead the flop and get 3bet. Because you talk about bet flop, bet turn and if you get raised, its an easy fold. I agree but what if the vilain 3bet you on the flop? Is it a bluff most of the time, a Q, a PP? I suck in this spot because imo, its a call but what to do on the turn after calling the flop 3bet...check call, check fold, lead again...?

I do have one question though - when playing yourselves (Baluga and Tuba), how do you ensure that you make the 'correct' decision based on the information in front of you? How do you stop the autopilot option? Do you have a mental checklist before making a decision? Do you ask yourself a question before taking an action?

I feel like I autopilot sometimes and make poor decisions because of it and watching the vid has opened up new thoughts but I need to ensure that I can apply these correctly while playing.

EDIT: First Post \o/

Its like boxing or any martial art. In the ring, when you are fighting, you do what you are trained to do. In the ring you wont try any new moves or do anything complicated. You will do the basics that have been hammered into you. Thats why repitition of the basics (keep your gloves up) is so important.

For me its the same with poker. When you are playing you can only do what you have been trained to do. Dont expect to come up with ninja decision trees on the fly. Rather make mistakes, analyse them, watch videos about them, write about them, make them again, analyse them again, rinse repeat. Eventually those things become reflex and your autopilot gets a level up.

So my answer to your Q is level up your autopilot through training away from the table and analysis of your play at it.

Sorry but i think this is bad advice (if i understand right what you say ofcourse). Not adjusting on the fly = death imo. Doing anything at the table by reflex is bad.
How do you stop autopilot? Just start thinking. Play less tables for a while and think through every single spot. What's his range? How affect board texture to his range? How affect to your hand? What do you want to achive? What will you do if he call/raise/donk? What will you do if a certain trun/rivercard comes? With what hands will he pay you off? How many streets will he pay? With what hand will he bluff? How's your hand looks like? How would you play the nuts in the spot? How many times have you air in the spot? How should you change your bet size based on the circumstances? And many many many more things to consider just in a single hand, on a single street.
What you can/should do away from the table is thinking about type of hands (beyond session review, leak finding, etc). How can i play a mid suited connector profitably? Where the value come from with them? What kind of board am i looking for with it? What's a good situation with a suited connector? And at the tables you can ask yourself: Is this a good situation to a suited connector? If no (how) can i adjust to keep play profitable? What's his range? How affects board texture........
I hope you get my point!

greenzulu, i think you made an EXCELLENT post here. a few days ago i watched episode 1 of the eightfold path to poker enlightenment, and in it tommy talks about improving your C game. to me, that is kind of what you are explaining in this post (autopilot might be B game ). and your boxing/martial arts "in the ring" metaphore was SPOT on.

Cernunnos, your post was very good too. i think you are describing A game here. "Play less tables" is EXCELLENT advice on how to stop autopiloting. you give many excellent examples of questions to ask yourself while in the ring, and the questions about "what will you do if" are very good to combat autopilot, because all these self questions require the hero to take time during the hand, which is limited, and you can ask the "what if" questions of yourself while the villain is using up their time thinking about their current action.

i guess i'm not adding anything. i just wanted to cheerlead for greenzulu a little

also, thank you beluga whale and tuba steve for making the vid.
and thank you very much KRANTZ for putting it in the Mirco 6max NLHE playlist.

Time Link to 00:14:16

In my opinion a lead is correct here, for value and dead money reasons, assuming that none of these guys bluffs us, because then we are in no reverse implied odds situation, because we can just fold when we get action.
If we give the nit a range of 99-22,ATs,QTs+,JTs,T9s,QTo,JTo
and the loose passive a range of 99-22,A9s-A2s,K9s-K2s,Q9s-Q2s,J9s-J2s,T2s+,92s+,82s+,72s+,62s+,52s+,42s+,32s,A9o-A2o,K9o-K2o,Q9o-Q5o,J6o+,T6o+,96o+,86o+,75o+,64o+,54o,43o,32o

and we assume that the nit folds if he has overcards with no fd or 22,55,66 (just for the sake of making the calculation easier, I know that we are ahead of those PPs
and the loose passive folds if he has no pair no draw then the probability alone that both guys fold is about 30% and if we think we lose our bet (as if we were bluffing) the other 70% of the time we're called, it makes a bet of 0,36$ breakeven which is almost half the potsize. Including that we are probably oftentimes ahead when called and therefore don't lose our bet completely, i think it makes a halfpot bet profitable, if we think those guys play fit-or fold here to halfpotbets and don't bluff us and we therefore don't put any more money into the pot, but can check it down and be good sometimes.

But since we don't know those ranges/these assumptions are valid, a check/fold might be good too, because our EV gained by betting here is very small i think -> really senseless post i just made

Time Link to 01:06:12

But, doesn't our positional advantage of 3betting on the button with hands that could be dominated offset our card disadvantage tremendously? If I 3bet KJ and he calls with AJ or KQ, we're both going to miss the flop most of the time and being in position means we're likely taking it down after 1 or 2 barrels.

Time Link to 00:09:11

OK so on the 99 hand, here is something that is kind of confusing to me. BW says the primary reason for betting is for "value", and then goes on to say that the times villain calls with better are counter balanced by the times villain folds. However, he rarely folds a better hand here, although he can call with draws.
Further, there are so few good turn cards for the 99 hand, the 9 of spades completes so many draws, an A or K hits so much of his range, etc... If villain calls, what can we do on the turn except c/ f? And if we bet and get him to fold, his hand was worse anyway. I do think a c bet is pretty good here, because c/c down to showdown seems bad, and c/f seems to be too weak/ exploitable. It's just that betting as default seems like the least bad option, although villain is folding worse, so this is not a "bluff" as such per se, and he mostly calls better or at least calls with Okay equity, and if he does call, how can we barrel the turn, or if we check the turn and he bets, how can we call? So, this hand just presents a paradox when viewed from the school of thought of "we either bet for value or as a bluff". I am inclined to think from situations like this that the concept that a bet is either for value or a bluff only is somehow erroneous? I mean a bet is basically bluffing with the best hand. And yet, seems correct here. Am I correct to think it is good sometimes to "bluff" with the best cards?