Hi Ruben, thanks for the question. I completely understand your line of thinking here and this is exactly how I used to see this hand before I got more involved in studying post flop play on a deeper level.

I want to discuss a term that many out there haven't heard of called minimum defense frequency (MDF). This is a very important concept because it's the mathematical value of how often we should theoretically be continuing to against a bet size (whether its by calling or raising) so that we are not being exploited by our opponent in a given situation. The formula for finding the MDF is 1-(bet size/total pot size after the bet). In the example from this hand our MDF would equal 1-(600/600+1395) or .70 which means in this specific hand we should be continuing with 70% of our range in order to not be exploited by the villains bet sizing. It's important to note that this is a theoretical value so in many situations it will be quite difficult to actually reach this in any given hand, but we should consider this as a threshold that we would like to get close to when thinking about what % of our range wants to continue in a certain spot. So if 70% of our range wants to continue in this spot and we have 24% equity against the range we assigned to our opponent and only need 23% to make this a correct call on the flop, then we absolutely should be including this hand in our defense strategy on this board.

The fact that we have the nut backdoor flush draw as well as potentially an overcard to the board against a very aggressive opponent means that on certain run outs we will be able to apply pressure given his very low likelihood of having a flush based on his range when the board does run out with another diamond. We also have the potential to win the hand when he check/ gives up on later streets given the fact that this board actually smashes the range of hands we would likely be defending with against a 3 bet including all the broadway hands, so he should be proceeding with caution on later streets once we do call a flop bet. There certainly will be turn cards that we won't be able to continue against further betting, but that doesn't mean calling on the flop isn't the optimal play.

I know I didn't explain this concept in the video, mainly because its a fairly advanced concept that probably would require at least an entire video focused solely on it, but I hope this explanation makes sense and will help you look at post flop decisions a little differently in the future. I will likely put together a video on this topic soon, as it is very important to grasp and it is far different than most players approach defending ranges.

This is a situation where I would be happy to raise large and get the pot to heads up if possible, but I understand that perhaps at these stakes this play won't work quite as well given the tendencies of these players. I do sometimes find myself wanting to take the approach I would take against very skilled players against recreational players out of habit, and I agree that maybe this isn't the best course of action. We have to make adjustments when we play at different stakes, even if this leads to us taking what could be a sub optimal line against the general population, because player tendencies are so much different when playing at different stakes. Thanks for the feedback, and I will consider this a lot more in the future when dealing with approaching these lower stakes.

Good question, when I have under 20bbs I generally like to make my open sizing smaller to risk less of my stack with my raise folds and prefer 2x-2.2x, I also think that since our range is stronger when raising with this stack size its ok to go smaller despite the fact that it may entice the bb to defend at a higher frequency.

If we do choose to raise here we need to use a sizing that will hopefully get the pot heads up since our hand doesn't do particularly well post flop. Our sizing should be around 5x-6x and if we raise to this size we are committed to calling the 2nd limpers shove but certainly would fold to the original limper if he shoved.