Poker Video: Limit Hold'Em by DeathDonkey (High Stakes)

Wow nobody said that one word when someone post in the beginning of a thread yet. Good deal. Great work in this series, guys.

These videos make me realize how bad at poker I am.
DD and mike are amazing

River in the A8s hand is a check. Even if he has all his Ax hands and only Ax, its still A2 A3 A4 A7 vs A9 AT AQ AK. I do think he has a pair here a decent amount too so you don't have great equity vs his calling range on the river. Also, I'm not a fan of capping preflop.

About the KQ hand:

You mentioned the fact that there is little to no bluffing value in betting the turn since any a high will be calling down because of the wheel draw. I was a bit surprised that none of you mentioned that by the same token your opponent (who we know is a thinking player) has little incentive to be bluffing you because once you check your hand looks a lot like a (weak) A high. It seems to me that in this kind of situation there's always some kind of leveling game going on and I would enjoy some more discussion about how to handle spots like this. My default line would probably be b/f turn, c/f brick river in this particular hand, based on the thought that villain wouldn't bluffraise turn very often (not expecting me to bluff and not expecting me to be folding A high or better). But I don't know, maybe folding to a turn raise is too weak considering that we're likely to have 6 outs against Jx?

Forgot to include the timestamp. It's around 42:00.

"I didn't realize my play had changed" = I didn't realize I was tilting
Happens to me all the time!

In that KQ hand, I am inclined to check/fold the river against a strong opponent. I cannot completely fault the call down because we were not sure just how good AngusMcG was, given some of the perhaps overaggressive lines ("spews") he had taken earlier. If I were playing that session, that specific hand would have a big impression on me and I would think "he's a good player who probably thinks that I'm a good player too", since we're betting our better aces on the turn for value. There were earlier signs too, of course, that AngusMcG was a good player, but this example would take the cake (pun intended!).

Amazing series guys.

I was immediately able to take some things away from this episode beyond the usual top-notch content that takes a lot of consideration and practice. In this case it was primarily because of the psychological aspects and discussion and how it pertains to one's gameplay that came up in this episode. Specifically at about the 30:00 minute mark when Mike and Chris talk about the ability or need to actually just hit the fold button at certain times in a session due to various gameflow circumstances. Despite how you might feel you match up against the other players your game just isn't where it needs to be right then and it might take folding some hands to get there. I felt it was really important to mention and apt for the circumstances in the video.

It's something some of us may or may not do already depending on how much we are focused on the game we're in, but it's something I realized I was doing last night, I think appropriately, when nothing was working and a couple people seemed to have my number. I wasn't doing it because I saw it in the video but having just heard the discussion it certainly made me more conscious of my actions. That's something that I think is so valuable for me that I get from these vids and DC as a whole, being more conscious and aware of all aspects of what's going on in the game.

When we're on top of this aspect of the game and able to reassess and adjust to the changing situations and to not only our opponents' play but their mindsets as well, to me this is some of the most valuable stuff discussed in this video, this series and all the others series as well. The "what's really going on here and what's the best line I can take" kind of thinking and discussion. On top of DD's awesome content I really appreciate what Mike l. has brought to this aspect of the series and this video especially, even when his reads are wrong.

Along the same lines of being aware at the table I noticed last night in the seemingly rare 5/10 game at stars that dropped to 4 and 3 handed for an extended period of time nobody really adjusted to the different dynamics in the shorthanded play, especially during the first 5 or 6 hands. I think this transition period is such an incredible value spot when people don't realize two or three players are sitting out or left the table. If you can adjust quickly and they don't it can mean a lot.

Forgive the ramble or if this is all a bit newbish but I've only been playing about a year and just now really getting into LHE, so when I have these small moments of poker enlightenment when things make sense they seem worth writing about.

Hi again guys. AngusMcG here.
Thanks again for another great video. I learned alot.
On the KQo hand: You seem to always be betting all better hands then A9. (Any pair, any draw, the better aces... Remember c.betting flop and turn with AJo after capping in a 3way pot on a 95x-ish board. I guess that was in the back of my mind, making it a nice valuebet. You never checked to me with the best hand when you were in the lead. The only other hand I can remember you checking to me, was JT on K82 7, where I bet-called you down with AT. Your checks smelled funny :-)
Keep up the great work, looking forward to seeing more from you!

River in the A8s hand is a check. Even if he has all his Ax hands and only Ax, its still A2 A3 A4 A7 vs A9 AT AQ AK. I do think he has a pair here a decent amount too so you don't have great equity vs his calling range on the river. Also, I'm not a fan of capping preflop.

Agreed 100%

I really enjoyed mike's rant about always taking the aggressive line in shorthanded games, immediately followed by recommending a turn donk-check with a 4-high flush draw.

I really enjoyed mike's rant about always taking the aggressive line in shorthanded games, immediately followed by recommending a turn donk-check with a 4-high flush draw.

That was awesome and on point. Great turn check thoughts imo.

I don't have the quote exactly but "we now know he's thinking more about showing down and less about getting value from you" opened up like another chunk of my brain.

Enjoying these vids.

That was awesome and on point. Great turn check thoughts imo.

I don't have the quote exactly but "we now know he's thinking more about showing down and less about getting value from you" opened up like another chunk of my brain.

Enjoying these vids.

I'm all for a donk-check every now and then, but I try and reserve them for weak gutters where I can't really withstand a turn raise. Something like 54 on a 87Q flop.

With a 4high FD you really just have to plow through and continue with the bluff. Mike said himself that the guy peeling any two after being CR'd on the flop so it makes zero sense to check 4high to someone peeling their entire range.

I don't know, maybe he's just trying to play devil's advocate on every hand, but I think his advice has been pretty subpar/questionable throughout the series. I know he's primarily a live player, but he just seems out of touch with a lot of the situations that have come up so far.

Or maybe I just find myself agreeing more with DD because I play a similar LAGTAG style, and all of my experience is playing online 6max.

I think in general the play has a lot of merit on that specific turn card because it puts up some new gutshots and basically cuts the cost of your bluff (though you sacrifice some equity vs. a naked 6 outer clearly). I think not betting like and o/s 2 would be pretty close to a crime but he K makes J9 9T JT all suddenly love their hands a bit.

Plus in your example you are c/f'ing the turn not c/c'ing the turn, where donkey is c/c'ing his fd.

Is it me or alltimel0w is also very aggressive in 3betting when DD opens from SB? It didn't seem that there is any adjustment (or discussion) about that.

Is it me or alltimel0w is also very aggressive in 3betting when DD opens from SB? It didn't seem that there is any adjustment (or discussion) about that.

Everyone at mid to high stakes is very aggro in the BB when you open the SB, so I think Mike and I just sort of assumed I'd be getting 3 bet a lot. It's a tough problem of whether to consider open limping in spots like that.

Great video, interesting discussion. There's so much to think about, this is some really good stuff imo.

"basically the theme of episode 5 is DD paying off bets again thinly better hands that are all value-towning me."

i wanted to add an lol. It's fun listening to you guys.

Great discussion again guys. Allthough I was quiet shocked that DD actually turned out to be human. I have always though of you as a mixture of James Bond and Robocop.

My favourite quote was: "not that many wows after all". Nice to hear that Mike is as humble as a poker player should be.

I was wondering what you guys mean when you say "raise for value" on the flop. This expression is used with 87 on Q97 two tone, 4h3h on Kxx two hearts and QJ on T8x (if I remember correctly). When I stove I have trouble finding an equity edge in any of those hands vs a reasonable BTN range for alltimelow.

So I was wondering if you perhaps have another definition of value than the standard one (perhaps that they will call with hands that they fold on the turn eith > 0 equity).

Hi sushi,

Yeah good point on the "value" term but I think we just meant it as, we certainly didn't expect to get better hands ***with showdown value *** to fold. I mean the 43hh we are just expecting a lot of his range to fold, so it *is* a semibluff, but when you get ten high to fold or whatever you don't really pat yourself on the back too much, its more or less just expected. The pair of 7s example is more clear I think, in that we don't ever expect to get anything better to fold, so its just the strength of our own hand that we thought merited a raise. I admit sometimes I see thin value where there is none though

i know this is from other days of poker but i guess it is still relevant to our today games, in the first hand around 1min:11 89s from sb, flop comes K69r, you both talk about vilain's range and say he would probably raise his small pairs, and wait with his Kx to raise turn, and turn raise he would sometimes raise with draws. these assumptions are based on read? do you both think it is the right play, becasue to me that means he is unbalanced in his play, care to explain?

Fairly read based yeah, I like fast playing that board I think w whole range