Poker Video: MTT/SNG by IWEARGOGGLES (Mid Stakes)

swsweet

Finally!!!

I never really played tournaments, and probably never will, but this was quite interesting/entertaining.

yay shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip

At 17:00 you have a suited king on every table

Superb video - very insightful and entertaining. As a tournament player I obviously really appreciate to have this kind of content on the site and look forward to the continuation. In terms of possible improvements, I think it would be helpful if you could bring in the lobby windows now and then and comment on issues such as structure, average stacksizes, number of players left etc. But thats just a minor issue. Excellent job!

Is there something I'm missing or are you playing two accounts?

Is there something I'm missing or are you playing two accounts?

The lower left table is on Pokerstars

Watched your vid earlier tonight and it inspired me to try out some tournament play. I normally only play cash games and just occasionally wander of in to the dark side. I threw up a couple of low buy in tournies and it ended with me winning the 7.5k guaranteed on iPoker for 2.4k so I thought that a thank you would be in order so here it is. Thanx

Nice debut vid. The commentary was well detailed and articulated. Are there any plans for an ongoing series in the works or are we only looking forward to some Ghosts in the near future?

TD

really liked it . Hope it wasn´t your last video for deuces cracked.

It would be great if you would cover more on early game building up and what your thoughts are on different table dynamics in that respect, especially when you find yourself at a table with a few notable pros such as apestyles and pearljammer that I noticed at your Stars table.

TD

Enjoyed the video, I picked up a lot of little insights into how tournament players think about the game. But rather than just seeing play from random stages of tournaments, I really would like to see a "donkaments for dummies" type of series where you explain overall strategy, early game, mid game, end game, adjustments, etc. like AMT did for single-table tournaments. And you could really emphasize the differences between cash play and tournament play, since most of your viewers here have a strong cash background.

What's frustrating for me is that it all looks so easy to play with the big stack, but how the hell do you get the big stack in the first place? I always get stuck in that 15-25bb range where it feels like I can hardly play any hands, and then my stack just dwindles until I have to shove crap and I go out near the bubble, or mincash at best. I think my MTT approach is just not effective and I need to throw it out and relearn from the basics like I did with cash when I switched from live to online last year.

Fiiiiiinally an MTT vid. I hope this is the first of many.


A few questions:

- Around 20:00 on the upper left table, you fold A7o and then talk for a while how you think it was a bad fold and how minraising there would be better. I really think folding here is best. If he's got a more marginal hand like 55 or KQs, he'll probably just openshove rather than make a raise of 60% of his stack or so. I don't play many tourneys anymore, but wouldn't you think this raise size shows more strength than weakness regarding his opening range?
Also, if you 3bet, assuming everyone else folds, you're risking about 32k to win 44k. So you'd have to be a 42% favorite here to show a profit. Do you really think you have that much equity against his opening range? Here's a range of a tight villain opening in MP:

Text results appended to pokerstove.txt

145,545,840 games 0.015 secs 9,703,056,000 games/sec

Board:
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 30.510% 29.45% 01.06% 42859928 1546400.00 { Ac7h }
Hand 1: 69.490% 68.43% 01.06% 99593112 1546400.00 { 55+, AJs+, KQs, AQo+ }



- At 46:00 on the bottom right table, you muse about your QTo hand how if it folded to you, with those stack sizes you'd openraise. However you mention that if justakid69 had about 2k in chips (instead of 5910), you'd just openshove QT. I really can't see how that play can be optimal since he would have a 25 bb stack. Seems like a pretty bad risk/reward ratio.


- At 1:02:00 on the upper left table, you say how you're quite sure your cbet is being bluffraised on the A44r flop when you have 57s. Your options here are obviously 3b or fold. However, you only talk about 3bet shoving, not 3betting any other amount. Would you ever 3bet the flop here to ~290k and obviously fold to a shove? I mean your 3bet size is kind of irrelevant because of implied threat. If he just calls getting ~3:1 at this point, you're obviously done with the hand as well. I guess the important dynamics here are a) how you would actually play a hand like AQ or even KK here, b) if you two have any history where you were caught making a cheap 3bet bluff postflop in the past, c) if no history, if he thinks you're capable of 3bet-bluffing cheaply here, etc. I don't know, after he raises this flop with such a polarized range, 3bet bluffing a small amount seems pretty enticing.


- You keep mentioning how people are too tight as tournaments progress, but doesn't tournament theory kind of dictate this is proper strategy? I imagine there are plenty of times you can pass up slight +cEV because it's deeper in the tourney and the call is probably not +$EV since each chip gained is worth less than each chip lost. For example: If I'm confronted with an openshove and it's folded to me in the BB w/ A6o. I assign villain a range and determine that I'm 38% against that range and I'm getting 2:1 odds. However, I'd be forced to call 60% of my chips off. Yes, the call is +cEV because 38%>33%, but is folding here really suboptimal?

Great video, hope to see more from you. Do you think you can post your HUD-setup?

At about 22 Minutes you have 99 on the bottom left table. You decide to 2barrel the J63A board. I really don't understand why you 2barrel that board.
II am pretty sure that very worse Hand fold. But no Jack will ever fold there... I wouzld like it a lot more if you'd ship the River. If you had air I do like your play but 99 has decent showdown value... I am a cashgame player so I am not totally sure but is he ever folding better on the Turn?

Enjoyed the video, I picked up a lot of little insights into how tournament players think about the game. But rather than just seeing play from random stages of tournaments, I really would like to see a "donkaments for dummies" type of series where you explain overall strategy, early game, mid game, end game, adjustments, etc. like AMT did for single-table tournaments. And you could really emphasize the differences between cash play and tournament play, since most of your viewers here have a strong cash background.

+1 I would love some sort of powerpoint series about how your play should change in the different stages. Especially when I have less than 40 BB with no antes or I have 16-25 BB stack in the ante period I feel I make too many mistakes.

Luke I've been curious about 2 situations that came up in the video and your choice made sense but I'd like to know which factors make you lean one way or another.

1. When to shove vs. raise call it off. I used to always shove because it was easier but lately I've been raising small and calling as wide as I thought I could based on the restealer because it gives me a chance to raise like 80% on the button and CO when I have a stack...but a lot of times all I have are preflop stats and I dont have enough hands for 3bet% to be reliable so its hard to tell who won't resteal without a top 10 hand.

Also when you're deep enough to have an option when to 3 bet small vs. shove. I like to 3 bet small when it is less than 30% of my stack, should it be less than 30% of their stack as well to make it a better option than shoving? Which generally get more credit? I find these rarely get called unless the player is pretty bad so it's tough to figure out which is better and why.

Some kind of hand replayer or ask Goggles series would be great as a next step if not an MTT for Dummies series

I never really played tournaments, and probably never will, but this was quite interesting/entertaining.

hah I'm an idiot. I dont think I was all there... Thanks ;D

thnx for MTT vid. please do more and talk about shove/fold game a lot

At 46:00 on the bottom right table, you muse about your QTo hand how if it folded to you, with those stack sizes you'd openraise. However you mention that if justakid69 had about 2k in chips (instead of 5910), you'd just openshove QT. I really can't see how that play can be optimal since he would have a 25 bb stack. Seems like a pretty bad risk/reward ratio.

I was wondering this too. Open shoving for 25BB is much looser than I would be... There aren't even antes at this point... I mean, it would be hard for him to call off all of his chips and i'm sure he'd fold A LOT, but still, is the risk/reward really worth it? You can't do this all that much before you start getting called down lite, right?

Anyway, love the video, and I agree with others that a powerpoint/MTT's for donkies vid or two would be cool to see. Also, it seems like the tourneys you are playing have better players than say a 10 dollar MTT. Am I wrong in assuming this?

Edit: Also, in your HUD, do you display stats for all hands you have on a player, or only for the current level, or what?

At ~21:00 you have JJ in the bottom left table. You 3-barrel and get smooth called. Flop comes with an Ace and you bet about 55% pot. How often does Villian call/raise here? How often does Villian show up with an Ace-rag or Ace-Face here?

The suit was a nice touch, well worth the wait. As someone who doesn't have much experience playing tourneys I found this to be entertaining and helpful although some parts were a bit above my head.

On a side note more jokes please.

I have downloaded the MP4 twice and there seems to be no sound after about 35 mins. Is that just me?

Any suggestions?

Thanks

I just checked the downloads were incomplete. No harm no foul. LOl

series please! good vid. I think u should deffo shove 57s though, embrace the variance imo.

Nice video, thx, good to see some MTT action on DC

Fiiiiiinally an MTT vid. I hope this is the first of many.


A few questions:

- Around 20:00 on the upper left table, you fold A7o and then talk for a while how you think it was a bad fold and how minraising there would be better. I really think folding here is best. If he's got a more marginal hand like 55 or KQs, he'll probably just openshove rather than make a raise of 60% of his stack or so. I don't play many tourneys anymore, but wouldn't you think this raise size shows more strength than weakness regarding his opening range?
Also, if you 3bet, assuming everyone else folds, you're risking about 32k to win 44k. So you'd have to be a 42% favorite here to show a profit. Do you really think you have that much equity against his opening range? Here's a range of a tight villain opening in MP:

Text results appended to pokerstove.txt

145,545,840 games 0.015 secs 9,703,056,000 games/sec

Board:
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 30.510% 29.45% 01.06% 42859928 1546400.00 { Ac7h }
Hand 1: 69.490% 68.43% 01.06% 99593112 1546400.00 { 55+, AJs+, KQs, AQo+ }



- At 46:00 on the bottom right table, you muse about your QTo hand how if it folded to you, with those stack sizes you'd openraise. However you mention that if justakid69 had about 2k in chips (instead of 5910), you'd just openshove QT. I really can't see how that play can be optimal since he would have a 25 bb stack. Seems like a pretty bad risk/reward ratio.


- At 1:02:00 on the upper left table, you say how you're quite sure your cbet is being bluffraised on the A44r flop when you have 57s. Your options here are obviously 3b or fold. However, you only talk about 3bet shoving, not 3betting any other amount. Would you ever 3bet the flop here to ~290k and obviously fold to a shove? I mean your 3bet size is kind of irrelevant because of implied threat. If he just calls getting ~3:1 at this point, you're obviously done with the hand as well. I guess the important dynamics here are a) how you would actually play a hand like AQ or even KK here, b) if you two have any history where you were caught making a cheap 3bet bluff postflop in the past, c) if no history, if he thinks you're capable of 3bet-bluffing cheaply here, etc. I don't know, after he raises this flop with such a polarized range, 3bet bluffing a small amount seems pretty enticing.


- You keep mentioning how people are too tight as tournaments progress, but doesn't tournament theory kind of dictate this is proper strategy? I imagine there are plenty of times you can pass up slight +cEV because it's deeper in the tourney and the call is probably not +$EV since each chip gained is worth less than each chip lost. For example: If I'm confronted with an openshove and it's folded to me in the BB w/ A6o. I assign villain a range and determine that I'm 38% against that range and I'm getting 2:1 odds. However, I'd be forced to call 60% of my chips off. Yes, the call is +cEV because 38%>33%, but is folding here really suboptimal?

Wow, thanks for a great response.

With respect to the A7 hand:

I think the range you plugged in was way too tight.

My still-pretty-tight-most-likely-hand-range-he'll-open-raise-and-not-shove:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 40.505% 37.75% 02.76% 128629208 9390141.50 { Ac7h }
Hand 1: 59.495% 56.74% 02.76% 193339005 9390141.50 { 22+, A2s+, K9s+, Q9s+, JTs, ATo+, KJo+ }

So if you assume he is open raising these hands then it is pretty close (but you're right, a fold).

I think while I was doing the video I was assuming that his open raising range would be the same as his shoving range. This is a bad assumption since a lot of players would never raise something like 9Ts with 7bbs. They'd 100% shove because if the flop is AKx they'll feel stupid and fold.

Now if I assign him an open-shoving range that I think is reasonable, this happens:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 43.378% 41.04% 02.33% 169369504 9634560.00 { Ac7h }
Hand 1: 56.622% 54.29% 02.33% 224026640 9634560.00 { 22+, A2s+, K9s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s, ATo+, KTo+, QJo }

That is just adding a few suited connectors and offsuit broadway cards. Do not forget that the situation is slightly different if you're in the BB rather than the CO because if you're the BB obviously you are last to act, and if you're the CO you still have 3 players behind you.

But yeah, I think this is a fold since he open-raised. I have a bad habit of just assigning shoving ranges when 4x-ing quite obviously changes his range. In my defense I'll say that I was clearly thinking properly while I was playing but not while I was dictating.


On to the QT hand. One thing that I try to do in my tourney game is to decrease variance. Basically, if it is slightly more optimal to open-raise than to open-shove (and win the pot uncontested much more often), I'll pick open-shoving every time. In this hand I would have to run #s to see if it is indeed a good open shove, but I think the previous sentence is the point I wanted to get across in that hand, not whether or not QTo is a super profitable shove. I think 25BBs is too big of a stack to shove profitably there anyways. Oh well.

57s hand. I appreciate that you mention 3-betting smaller rather than shoving over the flop raise but there really is nothing I can do in this hand that isn't insanely high variance. If it was an afternoon 100r or something with 150 players, there is a pretty good chance I would shove here, but getting deep in a 7,000 person tournament my hands are tied. The shove is probably reasonably profitable but not close to profitable enough for me to ever make it. I'm not going to say that I shouldn't c-bet as Ax hits my range more than his, but a bluffraise there is just a good play.

When I say that people play too tight late in tournaments, what I mean is that their preflop play is just far too tight. To jump around, yes you should always call A6o there with 38% equity. You'll still have chips if you lose, but assumedly (depending on exact stack sizes) it may open doors to more +EV opens you weren't able to make beforehand. It could also tighten other players' shoving ranges, etc etc. If you make a habit of passing of $EV edges preflop, you'll be the guy who wrote saying he always gets ITM with a short stack. If you make sure you're playing properly preflop, you'll build a bigger stack more often and be able to punish all the people who play poorly preflop.

Small example: Blinds are 1k/2k/200 in a huge $50 buyin tournament (I don't know 75 players left?) and you made the A6o call and you now have 80k. 2 hands later you're OTB with 36s. The SB has 42k and the BB has 39k. I raise to 5000 or something similar.

1) You have position.
2) They know you're capable of calling a shove with a close-to-optimal range.
3) They don't want to bust.
4) There is 1k + 2k + 1800 in the pot = 4800. A raise to 5200 would have to win the blinds approximately 50% of the time to be profitable. Just 50%! Nevermind the times you're called and flop well or just win with a cbet. A raise preflop is immensely profitable and you're able to raise because you made a good call with A6o.

Oh, one other thing to mention with the A6o hand. For simplicity's sake lets say the call costs you 50% of your chips and you have 20BBs. If you lose you have 10BBs. Would you say your equity in the tournament is twice as large with 20BBs as it is with 10? Just some food for thought.

Not sure if this is a bunch of mumbo jumbo but I'm going to make sure I talk more about open-raising with antes more in the next video. And, well, preflop play...that will be in every tournament video.

My first post ever.

Do you wear goggles when you play? If not, I'm going to be mighty disappointed.

"People do not want to get bad beated...which is so funny when you think about it."

It's as if you're talking to me directly! Haha.

Good video, looking forward to more!

I don't have any comments except for...

More please. We need more tourney vids here. It's the only thing that DC is sort of lacking.

A video with a hand replayer going through every hand that's not a no brainer from a particular tournament you went deep (won or final tabled or something close) would be pretty awesome.

Also what the guys above said about a "donkament for dummies (cashgame players)" series sounds interesting.

I really enjoyed the video, please do put the next one out soon.

Great video í just watched it for the second time. And i will watch it a third time. I'm like the other guy who's always short stacked near the bubble and almost never get's to the big money. So i know how to get thru the first and proberbly second hour but after that i'm lost. Wish you could make a video solving that! This first video already helpt. So thank you very much!

Great video í just watched it for the second time. And i will watch it a third time. I'm like the other guy who's always short stacked near the bubble and almost never get's to the big money. So i know how to get thru the first and proberbly second hour but after that i'm lost. Wish you could make a video solving that! This first video already helpt. So thank you very much!

Me too, I'm also always shortstacked nearing the bubble and never get a big payday. I would love for DC to make a video(series) about what general strategy you should play after 2 hours.
Also playing the bigstack and dominating the table, how do you do that?

Enjoyed the video, I picked up a lot of little insights into how tournament players think about the game. But rather than just seeing play from random stages of tournaments, I really would like to see a "donkaments for dummies" type of series where you explain overall strategy, early game, mid game, end game, adjustments, etc. like AMT did for single-table tournaments. And you could really emphasize the differences between cash play and tournament play, since most of your viewers here have a strong cash background.

What's frustrating for me is that it all looks so easy to play with the big stack, but how the hell do you get the big stack in the first place? I always get stuck in that 15-25bb range where it feels like I can hardly play any hands, and then my stack just dwindles until I have to shove crap and I go out near the bubble, or mincash at best. I think my MTT approach is just not effective and I need to throw it out and relearn from the basics like I did with cash when I switched from live to online last year.

+1

Very nice video. Being a cash game player who tries to learn how to play MTTs I found this format to be really great. I like that IWG showed a lot of interesting spots and tried to break them in a detailed manner. I'm definitely looking for more of IWEARGOGGLES vids and would really appreciate if the author described all the differences between cash and MTTs even more than he did this time=)

Also, about 75s (A44) hand. You excluded AQ out of his range. Is it mandatory for him to 3bet AQ vs your open 40BBs deep? I feel like he only gets action from the hands he is flipping with and ones that dominate him, am i wrong? Also, it is a nice spot for him to just call cause if any of the shorter stacks shove he will get to see your action first and will have an easy time calling them if you fold first. The only mislogical thing in the hand is him actually raising the flop with an ace. In cash game I think people will call with an ace like 95% of the time here, but dont know if this is true for MTTs. Could he be leveling you by raising because if he just calls you probably wont give him any action without a hand anyway, so by raising he expects to get bluffed on some % of the time and also you probably do not fold JJ-KK either?

It would be really great if you could reply to this and point out any faults in my reasoning.

I liked it. Im looking foward to watch a lot of your stuff and your/the game evolution within your vids.