Poker Video: No Limit Hold'Em by tubasteve (Mid Stakes)

#1

I always wanted to do this...

As they review the play in this video they reach the height of the coaching tree and it has a wonderful view.

<3

BalugaWhale and Tubasteve wrap up the season with a 4-tabling video of 200nl

400nl, right? =)

This has been an awesome series.

I try to learn something new every day and lately most of the stuff has come from Balugawhale - today's tidbit:

- 3betting: polarize in pos and don't polarize oop against good players - against bad players don't polarize at all.

This has been a great series; the format has lent itself very well to opening discussion and theory conversation without being distracted by actually playing. It has also been good to see a regular playing the games, rather than a coach applying there method to a different level; due to this, I felt really interesting discussion came up, rather than simple points about the play.

Heres hoping we see a Coaching Tree series 2. Major props to Baluga and Steve, for making the series so good.

Great series! The sound quality from Baluga is a little tilting though...

this was definitely my favorite series this season.

pretty much the best series ever.

"polarize in pos and don't polarize oop against good players - against bad players don't polarize at all." Can you explain this a little more Baluga?

xerocat-
i can, but id rather have you try to figure it out on your own

also guys i want to apologize about the sound quality, i have no idea why this has occurred over the last two episodes. We actually did a number of test records before this episode and it seemed fine. I'll continue to try to work on improving this to make sure its not an issue in the future.

Andrew

watching the stream the audio is very choppy.

audio is at times hard to tolerate. if you listen to it before releasing it, and the audio has problems, i personally would prefer you delay the release and fix the audio.

I'm by no means an expert but I have noticed during sweats and such that switching off as many applications as possible helps keep skype bump free.
For example during a sweat I might hear those Skype "hiss pauses" but when my student closes the poker client to look at HEM its as clear as a bell.

Anyhow, the series has been superb and I really hope to see more of it next season.

audio is at times hard to tolerate. if you listen to it before releasing it, and the audio has problems, i personally would prefer you delay the release and fix the audio.

as baluga said we did some tests and everything seemed to be fine.

SS: i had everything closed on my computer except the applications i need, and had just restarted.

everyone: i listened to the vid a bit before we submitted it and the audio clears up a lot after the first several minutes from what i could tell. i don't know why it is so choppy for the last couple of videos but i thought this weeks was much better and that the episode/content was too good to scrap.

thank you all for watching, i had a lot of fun doing the series!

I can not wait until the next season. This videos are absolutely invaluable and by far my favorite videos. I would love to see you two do another session, as well as two different people doing it.

To: DeucesCracked Management//Recruitment//Whoever the Hell Handles Season 2 Negotiations


PLEASE, please, re-new this series for a second go-around. In my mind, this series combines two of the best teaching/learning aspects that a video can offer. The first being, a review of someones play that is a regular at their stakes//trying to improve & move up to the next level, with good analysis of their mistakes and of what they can do to improve. Secondly, two people making the video, whenever there are two minds going through a video a LOT more interesting discussion will come about, and pretty much nothing is missed. It's a really good way to get the other talking and thinking in a way that is overall more helpful to the listeners.

Do the deed.

Again, great series and great job Baluga & you too Tuba. Really enjoyed it and heres to sincerely hoping you pick this up where it left off (200NL-400NL-600NL).

Roy

The thing I liked most was that Baluga was like actually coaching tubasteve, he asks him constantly questions, we answer them inour minds (at least i did), tubasteve answers them, we agree or not, and then baluga gives his opinion. That was a great chemistry that created a great learning experience on its own.

does that makes sense?

nice, video with very interesting comments.

To: DeucesCracked Management//Recruitment//Whoever the Hell Handles Season 2 Negotiations


PLEASE, please, re-new this series for a second go-around. In my mind, this series combines two of the best teaching/learning aspects that a video can offer. The first being, a review of someones play that is a regular at their stakes//trying to improve & move up to the next level, with good analysis of their mistakes and of what they can do to improve. Secondly, two people making the video, whenever there are two minds going through a video a LOT more interesting discussion will come about, and pretty much nothing is missed. It's a really good way to get the other talking and thinking in a way that is overall more helpful to the listeners.

Do the deed.

Again, great series and great job Baluga & you too Tuba. Really enjoyed it and heres to sincerely hoping you pick this up where it left off (200NL-400NL-600NL).

Roy

I'd love to make another nl400 or nl600 vids.

dam, i was gonna give my props on what a great job u guys did here, and finish it off cleverly w/ 'does that make sense?' why'd u have to beat me to it, marigo!?

pretty much the best series ever.

"polarize in pos and don't polarize oop against good players - against bad players don't polarize at all." Can you explain this a little more Baluga?

Agree.

Baluga I'm going to start doing this but I'd like to know why

To: DeucesCracked Management//Recruitment//Whoever the Hell Handles Season 2 Negotiations


PLEASE, please, re-new this series for a second go-around. In my mind, this series combines two of the best teaching/learning aspects that a video can offer. The first being, a review of someones play that is a regular at their stakes//trying to improve & move up to the next level, with good analysis of their mistakes and of what they can do to improve. Secondly, two people making the video, whenever there are two minds going through a video a LOT more interesting discussion will come about, and pretty much nothing is missed. It's a really good way to get the other talking and thinking in a way that is overall more helpful to the listeners.

Do the deed.

Again, great series and great job Baluga & you too Tuba. Really enjoyed it and heres to sincerely hoping you pick this up where it left off (200NL-400NL-600NL).

Roy

+1

I wanted to ask about the c/c, donk line you spoke of. When we take this line and villain flats us on KJxx and the river blanks how do we plan to proceed? Is this and easy value bet?

If we havent taken the line before and villain is an aggro non-believer type are we leaning towards getting it in vs a raise on the turn?

Andrew, tuba - well done boys.

Agree.

Baluga I'm going to start doing this but I'd like to know why

If you get the right answer/reason individually and without help it will stick to your mind hopefully for good and you'll be able to better apply the concept.

The thing I liked most was that Baluga was like actually coaching tubasteve, he asks him constantly questions, we answer them inour minds (at least i did), tubasteve answers them, we agree or not, and then baluga gives his opinion. That was a great chemistry that created a great learning experience on its own.

^^^ This was the number one reason I liked the series, hopefully we'll see a Coaching Tree Season 2 w/ more of this, ya know what I mean...

xerocat-
i can, but id rather have you try to figure it out on your own

The way I understand it as stated is that we're playing the top and bottom of our range IP against good players....very strong hands and hands with no calling value (as bluffs). OOP we're not going to be trying to open the bottom of our range. Vs bad players, it doesn't matter, we can get value with the QT, Q9, A9, etc hands, hands in the middle of our range.


I am probably way off, and if I am, someone correct me. I'm really not confident that I understand what that means exactly. We can't play the middle of our range against good players IP? I think it's something I understand, just the way it's phrased is making it a bit confusing.

My fav series on DC so far.

Great content and format. Just hope that equally good offerings await in the next series.

Feel free to keep giving me these reminders of why my money is being well spent DC.

Happy customer.

vn video!

one question: the TT hand on the 988 board.. whale says that we should make our range as hard to play against as possible which makes sense of course. why shouldn't we consider to 4bet the board smallish to something like $120? by calling on the flop we actually remove all the air-hands out of our range, combined the possible mistakes we can make by calling/folding certain turns.. however, if we 4bet we still could be bluffing and induce rebluffs (yeti-theorem iirc) plus we give villain a shove or fold decision so he can make mistakes against our range

BalugaWhale,

Can you talk a little more about playing hands multiway wish fish and regs?

I think I understand the idea in general, but how do you play mediocre hands after the flop. Say you flop top pair OK kicker and bet the flop and both opponents call n a wet board. If the fish has position on you do you bet and check if the reg has position on you?

This series was really good, I vote for The Coaching Tree part 2.

Thanks.

To: DeucesCracked Management//Recruitment//Whoever the Hell Handles Season 2 Negotiations


PLEASE, please, re-new this series for a second go-around. In my mind, this series combines two of the best teaching/learning aspects that a video can offer. The first being, a review of someones play that is a regular at their stakes//trying to improve & move up to the next level, with good analysis of their mistakes and of what they can do to improve. Secondly, two people making the video, whenever there are two minds going through a video a LOT more interesting discussion will come about, and pretty much nothing is missed. It's a really good way to get the other talking and thinking in a way that is overall more helpful to the listeners.

Do the deed.

Again, great series and great job Baluga & you too Tuba. Really enjoyed it and heres to sincerely hoping you pick this up where it left off (200NL-400NL-600NL).

Roy

+1,000,000 This has been a phenominal series. More kudos to The Whale and TubaSteve. Please, Please, Please bring this pair back for a season 2.

TD

Andrew and Steve. Well done on a great series. I haven't finished watching it! But the 5 I have watched so far have been great. Look forward to seeing more of the same in the future......you guys Whack 'em hard.

AUDIO - is bad - please address

Andrew,

Most of it totally made sense.

Possibly the best video series ever made on any of the training sites.

I would love to see a season 2.

It would also be great to see a one-off video explaining in more detail how to play SCs from the blinds.

Why is this series awesome:

- two intelligent and well-rounded persons speaking, no drooling
- Baluga has the game solved, thus he's able to explain everything in a very systematic, yet simple way
- Tubasteve is a very good SSNL/MSNL player and can take optimal lines 95% of time, yet Baluga questions the remaining 5% lines and these spots are like.. HOT DAMN!
- format (semi-live action, pausing at interesting spots)
- meaningful limits for most players
- we see regulars playing, not some fancy hotshot stepping down for us peons

Thanks guys.

This is quite possibly the best series I've ever seen. Baluga is not just a great player but a truly great teacher. The interaction btwn the two is just superb, perfect learning environment.

The way I understand it as stated is that we're playing the top and bottom of our range IP against good players....very strong hands and hands with no calling value (as bluffs). OOP we're not going to be trying to open the bottom of our range. Vs bad players, it doesn't matter, we can get value with the QT, Q9, A9, etc hands, hands in the middle of our range.

I am probably way off, and if I am, someone correct me. I'm really not confident that I understand what that means exactly. We can't play the middle of our range against good players IP? I think it's something I understand, just the way it's phrased is making it a bit confusing.

Well I'll give my thoughts and maybe one of the authors or someone can clean it up a little.
First, IIRC, the quote is specifically talking about 3bet pots, which makes a big difference. Its not that we can't play the middle of our range vs good players when IP, its that there is more value in CALLING with those hands than 3betting. 3betting good players IP should be reserved for maximizing with our strong hands, or gaining FE and gaining control with the best hands we can't quite call with.
Against the fish its pretty clear. The call too much, so that means A) we should be 3bettingfor value with more medium strenth hands than against a TAG who won't pay off as light and B) Raising with weak hands (bluffing) sucks against people who call too much
The not polarizing OOP vs good players has me a little confused as well. IN PRACTICE this is what I do, but I'm not sure its for the same reasons exactly. Obv we raise big hands for value. I will often 3bet hands OOP I might call IP vs good players b/c I no longer have the advantages of having position on him and therefore can't play my hand as well. By 3betting I take the lead and I decrease the stack sizes relative to the pot, making things play out a little more straightforward. I suppose to put it in baluga terms I decrease his positional and skill advantages.
Basically I am just less comfortable playing OOP vs a good opponent who will put me in tough spots. The deeper the stacks relative to the pot and the less aggression I show him, the more he will be able to do this. It seems that HYPOTHETICALLY we should still be able to call bc it can't be a bad thing for him to be more likely to bet when we are ahead. However, even 2 random overcards have decent equity vs a PP and c/c lets him see more cards. More importantly, in practice, trying to c/c down 88 as the board gets uglier is going to just put you in some really shitty situations and nobody can completely read souls.

AUDIO - is bad - please address

Shut your mouth and open your goddamn eyes

I only made notes on the 2 FR episodes, now I am so behind schedule as I need to "transcript" other ones too. Perhaps I can also burn the audio to cd and just soak up the great wisdom while driving...

I do the exact same thing Ulkis. Scribble down notes on concepts and where they crop up in the videos. I then write them down in my neatest hand writing in my little book of Baluga wisdom.

I'm so anal at times lol

I would love to see a video between baluga and krantz debating.

great series, guys, thank you very much, and…

…if you do the next series mid-stakes like episode 8, I'll sell you my soul, if this is ok? especially if you invite krantz to strall in now an then?

Andrew, tuba - well done boys.

Great series guys, got soooooo much out of it. Totally loved the dynamic between you guys.

I only made notes on the 2 FR episodes, now I am so behind schedule as I need to "transcript" other ones too. Perhaps I can also burn the audio to cd and just soak up the great wisdom while driving...

Done, took 2 days but I now have extensive notes on all the 8 episodes.

I believe for me personally this has been the best and most useful DC series so far.

Steve, when Baluga says it's correct to bet and asks you why, the right answer is always...value.

wow, this video was phenomenal, the whole series was legendary, but this video was the best imo.
what a great end to a great series.

there was atleast 3 really interesting spots that you went indepth with. the KJ on T8Jss discussion being my favourite, i learnt a great deal there. i just wish u took it a little further and discussed possible turn scenarios, but you cant do everything in 1 hour right?

really good job guys, i hope to god you make another series together.

YES IT MAKES SENSE!!! WOW DOES IT EVER NOW!!!!

And I don't just mean what Baluga says, thanks to this series I'm talking about f***ing POKER, period!!!

I was a tourney shove monkey for years and I was really struggling making the switch to cash. But I had many, many lightbulb moments during this series. Things just clicked in my head. Every time Baluga says 'does that make sense?' I'm like, 'ef me, does it EVER!!'

I watched the series in a week and the change in my game and winrate has been immense. But it's not just that, how I think about poker, and how I approach every street of every hand has changed. I was just sorta thinking about certain things wrong, but now I really feel like I'm on the right tracks, steered there by the superb teaching in this series.

Thanks guys, best thing I've seen on DC yet. Also just wanted to add another voice calling for a season 2...pleeeeeease!! And make it low-medium stakes again...we don't ask for much do we lol!

This is quite possibly the best series I've ever seen. Baluga is not just a great player but a truly great teacher. The interaction btwn the two is just superb, perfect learning environment.

I strongly agree and with the comments that this series needs to go for another season.

What I like is that Steve always seems to ask the question I want to ask or answers Baluga's question with the way I would. Then Andrew does such a good job explaining the answer with a deeper understanding of the concept.

They make a great teaching team.

Thank you! Excellent series.

I am bumping this because at some stage Balugawhale starts to discuss calling small pocket pairs and SC's in the blinds, he says it is ok to fold them if you don't understand why you should call with them. So it's ok to call with them if you understand why.

Then Tubasteve cuts in (big surprize!) and the topic is forgotten.

I'd like to hear Balugawhale finishing this topic. Thanks.

Time Link to 00:46:44

if the regular is to our left why should we check and let him bet?

pretty much the best series ever.

"polarize in pos and don't polarize oop against good players - against bad players don't polarize at all." Can you explain this a little more Baluga?

Thats a good question..

Ill take a shot at this....

Bad players will call you down with any trash....so the best strategie is to extract value from them the with strong hands.....theres no need to get involved with them in marginal spots....

with good players....its harder to get their money.....so 3 betting them.....playing back at them....and getting to them....helps.....

Also...when you 3 bet with marginal hands ....they will probably call with decent hands pre flop.....when u hit well....u can stack them off.....and as they are good...they are also more capable of folding post flop.....so theyll fold more to your c bet ....which is good for you....

This was a feeble attempt to explain.....Baluga. Is that close? Any tips.....advice is welcome! :-)

if the regular is to our left why should we check and let him bet?

cuz hes gonna valuebet the fish

"polarize in pos and don't polarize oop against good players - against bad players don't polarize at all."

I dont understand how you guys can watch 8 episodes of BalugaWhale's series and do not get this fully The main reason for not polarizing vs bad players though is obvious - they call too much so we dont need to have bluffs, we just need to widen our value range. Against good players as mentioned we should polarize our range in position cuz theyre likely to 4bet or fold to a 3bet when theyre oop, so we either would want to 3bet with hands were happy to 5bet/shove or hands wed fold anyway, like J4s. When we're oop vs. good opponent, hes more likely to call us and less likely to 4bet, thats why we need to depolarize our range and add there more hands we raise for value.