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

yay FR
baluga 4tw!

@the AKdd Hand on top left in the beginning:
villain is a aggressive and good regular. he is definetly aware of balancing and stuff, therefore i try to mix up/balance my check-folds with c/raises from time to time.

@minute 53 (A5o against nit) :
the guy posted and raises his post usually 100% of the time so i tried to take it away against a random hand. by the way the guy played his hand on the flop and turn i pretty much knew his hand was very marginal (cause he is playing his monsters the same everytime).

Anyone having trouble downloading this ?

Another awesome coaching tree FR video. Hope there's more Baluga/Kai in FR day's future.

the concept of 3 betting KK being thin is truly eye-opening, ty for another great fr vid.

Baluga, only half way through the vid and already loving it as always. Please don't stop being reduntant! I love that you take a concept and explain how you can use your position and your opponents actions, and use the other side of the concepts against them. Love the idea of the KK 3betting being "thin" and using the suited K5 to open VP and cooler opponents and putting them on MAJOR TILT. Please keep the FR vids coming! Those of us that are trying to grind love this material!

the concept of 3 betting KK being thin is truly eye-opening, ty for another great fr vid.

I just want to amend this include that I mean 3 betting an ep raiser is thin.

Baluga, only half way through the vid and already loving it as always. Please don't stop being reduntant! I love that you take a concept and explain how you can use your position and your opponents actions, and use the other side of the concepts against them. Love the idea of the KK 3betting being "thin" and using the suited K5 to open VP and cooler opponents and putting them on MAJOR TILT. Please keep the FR vids coming! Those of us that are trying to grind love this material!

thanks! it should be noted, though, that Kai was the one who brought up the tilting effects of 3-betting some junky cards and getting lucky.

actually, during this video i was really pleased with the discussion kai and I got into. imo, one of the better coaching tree vids from either last season or this one.

Andrew

Awesome you and Kai could do a vid every day and I'd be happy!
One little complaint, the tables look really blurry and ugly , having trouble reading stats/sn's, etc.

nice video as always!

99 hand on the co vs me in bu (QQ): i think flatting there is the best line because these aggro party short stackers like udo kiessling will often squeeze push and i thought u will then often shove 88+, AQ+. and if he doesnt squeeze, its also ok to play QQ ip.

btw: hu > sh > fr
when do we get to see a hu vid by the one and only balugawhale?!

[quote]thanks! it should be noted, though, that Kai was the one who brought up the tilting effects of 3-betting some junky cards and getting lucky.

Sorry, didn't mean to give you credit for Kai's remark. I know the
6-maxers hate when you play FR but those who have been grinding out our bill money each money really appreciate it. After watching your 6max play, I played some but lost, not really comfortable there yet but still trying. But the thing I loved about it is that it's paid off tremendously in my FR game. Please keep them coming. Would REALLY LOVE to see a FR series with you and Kai, would be great for your followers. Thanks again!

Baluga + Kai = The Dream Team

Seriously the interaction adds so much compared to a live play vid with a single coach (even if that coach is baluga )

Baluga + Kai = The Dream Team

Seriously the interaction adds so much compared to a live play vid with a single coach (even if that coach is baluga )

PLEASE GIVE US A COMPLETE SERIES OF BALUGA/KAI, especially for all of us full ring players who really struggle with limited vids. PLEASE!!!

Anyone having trouble downloading this ?

Yeah, I don't see where download button is.

nice

btw: hu > sh > fr
when do we get to see a hu vid by the one and only balugawhale?!

lol for whatever reason i still don't consider myself good enough at HU to really be making videos, even though i will play almost (impt. almost) anyone HU these days. it doesn't make sense.

maybe i need to just be brave and risk giving you guys some lousy HU info haha

Andrew

PLEASE GIVE US A COMPLETE SERIES OF BALUGA/KAI, especially for all of us full ring players who really struggle with limited vids. PLEASE!!!

+1

that KK discussion didnt really make sense to me, and it did.
At the lower stakes people continue with a lot more garbage.

I do agree once I get 4-bet and I have kings, the change that the other guy has AA are pretty big,
but what if we flat against a tigher regular and now the board comes 1098,

whats the plan?
There are way more hands that beat my kings now. 10s, 99s, 88s and Aces.
He could have Jacks, Queens, or even 77s, but how do we know?

The guy isn't betting from UTG, he is betting from MP, and 13/11 isn't really nitty, it's tight, but his range from there is way wider.

So what then? We raise him on the flop and we get re-raised? is it jacks? is it a set? is it aces?
Or do we decide to call down with our kings? What if the action igoes like this:
bet, bet, shove?
with a 109843 board? and no flush
Do we fold (because we shouldn't pay of with our overpairs), do we call?

What is the action goes: bet pot, check/raise?

The ideal situation for me, it seems, is making KK always a small ball hand where the max you win is 20/30bb with this flatting KK pre strategy?

I really like the concept of flatting KK but it seems to me it would get me in a lot of trouble post flop

PLEASE GIVE US A COMPLETE SERIES OF BALUGA/KAI, especially for all of us full ring players who really struggle with limited vids. PLEASE!!!

#2

On the 99 hand with one limper getting squeezed by the shortstacker. What frequency would you expect a solid reg to limp behind you with strong hands attempting to induce a squeeze from the button or blinds?

I instinctively thought the pushing 99 advice to be kinda wild but I am a nit at heart.

I have a general question for Baluga. In all the full ring coaching tree videos I've watched you've recommended calling a lot with suited cards etc. This kinda goes against the general consensus where it's considered optimal to have your vpip and pfr as close together as possible. If we're calling so much isn't our vpip going to end up being about twice, or more, the size of our pfr?

I have a general question for Baluga. In all the full ring coaching tree videos I've watched you've recommended calling a lot with suited cards etc. This kinda goes against the general consensus where it's considered optimal to have your vpip and pfr as close together as possible. If we're calling so much isn't our vpip going to end up being about twice, or more, the size of our pfr?

Not about to try to answer a question for Baluga as he's my idol, but IMO,
but calling more, especially w/pos in FR, will show a better return long term than trying to feel that it's a must to raise or fold with suited hands and small pocket pairs. Too many times I find that if I try to "make" my stats "fit", I get myself into too many bad spots. You wind up reraising at times you should be set mining, etc. Then on a rag flop, villian is simply going into check/call mode and you pay off loosely. That's one aspect that I love about Baluga's play is that it's not based on stats, it's based on making the best decision at all times. But from a Full Ring player for over 4 solid years now, it's better to call behind, and can still float flops and take pots away after turn/river passive play from villian, or cheap showdowns. But I'm not a stats player either. When I try to "force" my stats, it usually results in giving away bigger pots than my hand can justify. Not to say that the occasional reraise isn't best, but that's also been established by my image that I will call behind w/ more marginal hands. Therefore, when I do reraise PF with PP's or suited cards, it gets much more respect. That's my 2 cents worth. Would love to hear Baluga bash all of my points now lol. Take Care.

Baluga I had a question I recently watched a new bottom set vid and a spot came up, where he had AA in the c/o got called by btn(complete unknown only 5 hands in) they were both 100bbs deep. Flop comes T25ssc bottom set bets 2/3 pot and gets raised. He calls turn is a 6c and he says that he will check shove the turn, but I'm a little torn because you say that c/f is better there. For the reason that usually he is not betting a draw in that spot he will check back, if it checks back do u like c/c the river right?

I have a general question for Baluga. In all the full ring coaching tree videos I've watched you've recommended calling a lot with suited cards etc. This kinda goes against the general consensus where it's considered optimal to have your vpip and pfr as close together as possible. If we're calling so much isn't our vpip going to end up being about twice, or more, the size of our pfr?

who said it's optimal to have our vpip and pfr be the same? to me, arguing for that implies that you don't think playing postflop is more profitable than just 3-betting preflop, which either means A) your opponents play awfully to 3-bets (calling and c/f constantly) or B) you're not very good postflop. or a combination of the two.

in short, who cares whether or not I'm playing 28/18, 20/19, or 48/36, if i'm playing correctly?

Andrew

Baluga I had a question I recently watched a new bottom set vid and a spot came up, where he had AA in the c/o got called by btn(complete unknown only 5 hands in) they were both 100bbs deep. Flop comes T25ssc bottom set bets 2/3 pot and gets raised. He calls turn is a 6c and he says that he will check shove the turn, but I'm a little torn because you say that c/f is better there. For the reason that usually he is not betting a draw in that spot he will check back, if it checks back do u like c/c the river right?

this is a complicated question since I haven't seen the video and don't know the specifics. if it was vs someone who i thought might be aggressive, and if i didnt have either of the suits of the flop's FD, i'd probably reraise and get it in. If neither, I'd probably call, and then it'd depend a lot on the turn card as for whether or not i'd c/r all in or not. The thing about AA is that it beats all slowplayed overpairs and has sick equity against worse hands like the NFD or TPTK. That's significant. If i had QQ there's much more of an argument for c/f the turn, but i'd still probably not c/f the turn, i might c/c turn and c/c river, or i might c/c turn and c/f river, or i might do something else. sorry that's so vague. if checked back on the turn i'd probably bet most rivers for value.

Andrew

First hand Aks:
how do u balance your c/f on this flop. I would love to get some content to this situation. I think we can balance our check folds with such hands “pretty” good. The problem with c/r such hands is that we balance our checks but we don’t have a bluff c/r range.
If a tag checks this flop its nearly 80%-90% a check/fold. With AKs we dont have to "protect" – we don’t really mind to see a free turn do we?. If villian checks behind he is almost always weak. We can get him of his pokets on later streets most of the time. Also I think the most tags will bet this flop after pfa checks to get him fold his equity share with overcards ‘cause its so often a check/fold. So we don’t miss value. Of cause we bet against a pocket witch isn’t a set 4 value ‘cause we a slightly ahead, but I guess he will bet/fold a lot of more pokets than he will call -> we get much more value from pockets.

sorry 4 my english i'm from germany - I hope u get what i'm talking about

You do know that the last post here was 11 months ago right?
Great series though ,hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.