Litro

Really like this. First hand discussion was abit long but good tempo in the rest of the video.

I think the hand is played fine. The 5 on the Turn is not a fun one but I dont think its a fold w/AK.

I kinda wonder which value hands I would like to check/raise here and I cant find to many hands that I rather check/raise then CB. I don't really like the idea of the flop checking through... I rather bet with a big chunk (looking for bet, bet, bet with this specific hand) of my range as almost all hands in my range has a good amount of equity on this board and make sense c-betting with (and we have range advantage vs both players in hand). I'm also not very concerned to balance my checking range in this exact spot.

As played I think its pretty straight forward. I wouldent mind shove turn because the SPR is getting kinda awkward for bet, bet. And I think you have good foldequity.

I don't think MP has alot of AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT here. No 3B pre etc... But he has QJ, KQ, AQ, QTs etc that can pay you.

I like BigFiszh answer.
Ingame I would say that I probably would come to the same conclusion as you:
"well with what better hand do I ever end up here?" and don't think to much more about it. I would like to be able to inject the type of thought process that BigFiszh when I playing though. I do it when reviewing but not as good ingame...

A tip is to do some study with PIO instead of Flopzilla. A wonderful tool to help you answer your question and to make a sense of which type of hands you wanna but in each bucket. As BigFiszh says, the 2:1-rule (discussed alot in the book "Application of No-limit Holdem) comes through the assumption of perfect polarization. When we dident have solvers this type of simplification helped us to construct more "theoretical correct" ranges...

But now when we have software like PIO we can solve different situations and see how PIO construct the ranges and from there map a strategy from more black and white data and less assumption. Alot of simplification is still needed and we still make some assumption but we now have much more powerful tools, to answer the questions you are asking, then the theoretical concept of 2:1 (even though the arguments behind the concept is still very valuable to understand)

Another good data point is that you block hands in his bluffing range (missed diamonds). The line he takes XC/XR/AI is also very much underbluffed on 100 NL in most environments. You are also very likely to have an A as UTG PFR and i don't think that to many players are gonna look to try to bluff you off those hands. It is a tough spot because he has a significant range advantage. If you fold all your A here you can be exploited but I wouldent worry about that on 100 NL and just make a exploitative fold vs environment, especially when holding diamond blockers.

I like c-betting turn better then go to check-calling (if check/calling you put yourself in a awkward spot). You cant fold this hand on turn imo. You have to much equity vs his range (would be interesting to know what his BTN RFI % is). Bet flop, bet turn, bluff good cards on river, and value bet when getting there of course.

What would be your list on upsides and downsides of checking?
And what would be the upsides and downsides of betting in your opinion?

I wouldent 4B JJ pre vs a 6.3% range. Call is standard. Going for check/raise on turn is good. When checked back CO is very capped at 10NL. So valuebet river for sure. You are getting called by a decent chunk of his range. If he raise we are not to happy cause AQ is a likely hand in villains range and river raises are very unbalanced to value at 10NL. GTO is still call river but I would seriously consider an exploitative fold if raised (if I dont have any player specific river reads).

Not on all runouts of course. But your are at the absolute top of your range (assuming you 3B 99 and TT). So I would like to start increasing the size of the pot. I don't see any good arguments for slowplaying here, you will have many semibluffs that you wanna raise and you wanna charge CO drawing hands on this type of board imo.

Awesome video! Great work Nick.

This is a good advice, key is focus and learning/understanding. Next step is to learn to categorize your range in any give spot aswell. On every flop, turn and river you will have a range of:
1. Value hands
2. Bluffcatchers (medium strength)
3. Bluff/semi-bluffs to balance your value hands
4. Trash or folds.

Start your thought processes with your value hands. "What value hands do I have in this spot? And how do I wanna play them?" This makes it possible to start visualize how you wanna play the rest of our range.

The hands you dont fell you can play for 2-3 streets of value in the given spot fall in to category 2. When you know how many combos of value you have you know how many combos you wanna have in category 3 (so just pick the best ones for this in your range) a good rule of thumb is to have 2 bluffs for every 1 value hand on flop, 1.5 bluff for every 1 value hand on turn and 1 bluff per every value hand on river. Obs. This is a simplification but a good starting point for many situations.

What do you think he is raising with here? His check call on the flop is very strange to me. You would think sets would like to raise this board, bigger overpairs that slowplayed pre aswell. I guess he could check call TT, 88, AJs (if its in his range). But would he ch/raise that on turn? Either way you get a sick price on a call so it would be very bad for him to bluff in this spot because you gonna have to call with like every hand you bet the turn with. Just so unlikely that you are ahead here, so if we believe that villain has no bluffs here/worse hand - just fold. But if he ever do this with a worse hand or a bluff we have to call given the odds we are getting.

I think villain will bluffcatch you pretty wide here. I dont think you fold out that many Kx even. You have so many combos of missed low str8 and/or flush combos that makes more sense to bluff with, so when you bluff with this hand you are overbluffing. Another thing that works against you is that you hold the Ac which reduces his flushdraw combos that would fold to your allin. So I would say that this is spewy.

@Pokerlogical "Of course there are exceptions but most of the time it's true for example russians are grinders, holds true about 9/10 times so when I see a russian raise my cbet I know he has a set 9/10 times so there is no need to call him."
You cant be serious? haha. You are just trolling.

You will not 3Bet to much by 3betting AKs, in any position. There are reasons to call in some spots vs very particular players, but in general you will make alot more money 3betting this hand from all positions.

You are right, didn't notice he didn't have a full stack to start with. In this case go allin with QQ-AA they are all the same.

You seem to put way to much focus on what country players are coming from. I think these kinds of prejudices will work against you. Which country he comes from has absolutely nothing to do with if he is a regular player or not. If players only push all in with AA then fold. But Im pretty sure this is not the case. Population push wider and at 2 NL you can see all kind of spazz so I would 100% call the all in here.

I'am not gonna go in to 3Bet discussion pre but what do you mean with "maximum 3bet frequency"?

As for the flop I approach it with starting to ask myself "How do I wanna play the top of my range?".

In this hand we have TT and 88 as the value range (assuming you 3bet QQ pre?). On a wet board I like to raise the flop in position + villain hits this board hard so I wanna make sure I get max value. The next question is which hands we wanna bluff with as a balance. I think you can go either way with your ranges here, almost all hands in our range should hit this board someway. I think I would choose to put AdKd in my calling range cause I dont wanna get it in vs villains value range and I dont wanna be forced to fold out all the equity this specific hand has. I rather bluff with AKo or other gutshots.

In short I think its to tight to fold QQ here. Sure you block some of his draws but that doesn't mean that his range is set only. He calls pre from BB which means he has a wide range = he gets to flop with many combos. His value raises (2 pair +) is 12 combos if he never 3 bets JJ pre. Villain has atleast 20 combos of flushdraws and around 12 combos of OESD + Gutshot w/backdoor draws. So he has alot of good semibluff hands.

We also have backdoor str8 and flush draw to redraw vs villains value range. So if villain has any bluff range we cant fold here.

"but what about AA without diamond? Is it push?"

There is no real difference between AA and QQ in this spot. Pushing all in makes no sense with either hand. Just call flop and let him bluff turn aswell, and ship it on good turns and reevaluate on bad turns.

Cant see many bluffs that get played like this by villain. River bluff is not the most common on lower stakes. 3x and 55 also make sense for him to have and play this way. Without any reads on opponent being overaggro I would fold here. Even though it's the top of our range. I probably would have bet turn though.

Hi.
Done 10 min so far. Here are my comments.
Ah8h 1:32:
Squeeze or fold imo. Bet turn after checked floped. Bluff raise river – he has alot of missed draws and few Tx or better after checking flop.
QsJh 2:42:
Why are we double barreling Q high with no draws or overcards to the board? This seems to loose to me.
AcQc 4:44:
I think I would check back flop and attack the turn instead. Most of your value hands will only be able to get 2 streets of value vs his range in this situation. So I rather play turn and river in situations like this. This way I feel I can control the hand in the best way, and big reason is also that I think my opponent makes more mistakes on the later streets.
QhKd 7:27:
KQo is abit loose 3B. It’s a ok/good hand to 3B bluff with and the population on 25NL probably dosent defend enough vs 3bet. So it is probably profitble if we continue postflop with caution the times we get there.
Qs5h 7:48:
You are better of folding these types of hands. It’s a nightmare to play OOP and it favors the IP player so much. Even though you probably has the best hand on the flop a decent shunk of the time the IP will be able to force you off your hand so often and his bluff will also very often draw out on you. It’s a spot where everything is working against you. You will be ”overfolding” but I wouldent worry about it.
KcQc 08:17:
Calling the flop OOP vs 2 players (one who have a reshove stack) with K high is not a great thing. Whats your plan for the turn and river? I wouldent mind a ch/raise here – you have all the sets and some combodraws. And continue barrel on +equity turns.
KhTc 10:10:
What are we trying to get value from when betting turn? When we know that we gonna have to check almost every river if we bet and get called, and it’s unlikley that our opponent has a draw (most likley betting flop), I prefer to check here and bluffcatch/thin value betting river instead.

I do think he for sure can have some Jx here. QJs-AJs are hands I see players call with CO vs UTG. So I do think we have to count these combos as at least possible. The logic is the same as Zoty describe though. Most players will end up on this river with some kind of made hand. The only non-pair hand I can see CO have here is a passive played KQs or sticky AcQc. Sets and 2 pair I think raise on flop or turn. So do villain turn made hands in to bluffs? Then we need to call. We probably wont make much money on it though.

"Maybe Iformulated orotection badly. I just wanted to say that in case SB has sth like Gutter or OESD it would be good for my hand to charge him in case My hand is ahead of BBs range. Thats what I ment with protection."

Cool, this is raiseing for value (to get called by worse hands). And is ofc totally fine reasoning. =) And this would mean that we put KQ in our "value hand" category as I mentioned in my answer. If you are up against passive/recreational players this might be the most optimal strategy. Raise on turn to get value from draws and worse 1 pairs with the intention to check back river.... I like it against passive players. Against better players they can put us in a world of hurt though, cause we don't have the nut combos like the sets and str8s but they still can. So in this case I like call more. :) Nice hand

"If you prefer a call, what size would you call on a blank River like the 2h?"

On a brick river nothing has changed and this becomes abit player dependent. But in general KQ is in top of your range on river 2h and should be used to pick off the missed draw bluffs. On 10NL some players overvalue there QJ and QT hands in this situation as well. So I would call any standard sized bet.

Hi Hans.
As a start I think that the check-back on flop is correct. :)
On the turn my reasoning would go like this:
The flop got checked through: Which are the strongest hand in my range I got to turn with like this?
Stong value hands: Q7,Q8,Q9...
Medium strength hands: AQ, KQ, QJ (if not bet on flop), Q5s, Q4s....A8, A7, K8,K7, J8,J7
Draw hands: The suited diamond combos that didn't bet flop.
Trash hands: 22,33,44, AK etc. total misses.

So how do you wanna construct your range here? My suggestion would be:
Raise your strong value hands, balanced that range with a balanced amount of your drawing hands. And call your medium strength hands a.k.a bluff catchers.

Thinking that you need to "protect" your hands is a dangerous logic. To raise and call allin would be a huge mistake.

Another way to approach the situation is to ask yourself "what do I accomplish if I raise? Which of my opponents hands will continue and which hands will I fold out?"

If the answer to this question is: I will not fold out any better hands then mine and worse hands will fold. Your raise is not doing anything else then cost you money, you are not getting value from second best hands and you don't get value from bluffing your opponent of better hands. You only lose value in the case your opponent has you beat. So in this hand, will you fold out better hands then KQ? No probably not... Will you get some second best hands to call? Depending on the villains, maybe. Some pair plus draw hands for example. But the risk is bigger then the reward I would say because SB is still left to act and could have slowplayed a nutish hand. And BB can also have a strong 2 pair hand (I think sets and str8s bets on the flop).

Hope you find this helpful.

My raiseing range here would consist of nutflushes and As semibluffs. 9c9s is not a hand you wanna build a big pot with against UTGs range. 9c9s is crushed by UTG c-betting range vs 2 IP players (overpair+ or 2 overcards with higher spade draw). In this situation (as Zoty pointed out) i think we should fold. If it was heads up it depends on the playertype of UTG, i most likely call the flop and go from there.

I see your point but I think your focus is misplaced. In a situation where you have the nuts on a board where villain has many second best hands that will be able to call 2+ streets, your focus should be to maximize profit from this part of villains range. Think of it like this: when you bet smaller to extract value from AK in this spot you give up value from all the other hands in villains range that would call a bigger bet. In short I'm pretty sure that the value you gain from getting AK to call is far less then the value you loose from the other hands in villains range. When we choose our betsize the aim should be to maximize profit from villains entire range. And its important to see the difference between this and maximize the % of hands villain will continue with. Hope this make sense. :)

I need alot of information/history vs a player if AQo is for value here. Its very thin if it is. I think raise is better then call aswell, but AQo is a bluff though imo. Most often I fold AQo here, reason being that very few players in the playingpool on 25 NL bluff 3bet in CO vs MP.

Postflop I think AQ is a bluffcatcher. You are playing it more like a value hand though. What are you getting called by on river that is worse then AQ? Do you think villain has AJ here hand call a 3-barrel in a 4-bet pot?
And if you are go all in on river as a bluff, what hands are you targeting? I guess AK? I dont think you have any fold-equity vs any better hand then yours.

Imo this hand was overplayed, alot. Both of your ranges is very narrow in this scenario and it's a situation where you won't make better hands to fold and won't be called by worse (in the case that your opponent is a decent thinking player). My approach would be to get 1 street of value vs his KK/QQ/JJ.

Versus a passive fish/calling station I would bet larger to try to extract as much value as possible. He will have alot of hands that hit this board that he is gonna call with. And seeing him call down with AK here is proof of how insanely wide he is calling. Calling station is not sensitive to betsize, his range will be quite inelastic. I would bet around 2.15 on flop and 4.15 on turn or something.
And as you already mentioned. Super passive guy starts betting = no bluff.

+1. Low connected boards heavily favor the player in position. The reason for this is that its so hard to defend medium strength hands by ch/calling OOP when so many scare cards can come on the turn and river. And so many bluffs in the IP range will be able to outdraw us. For this reason the IP player often have a profitable bet with close to 100% of his range. With other words IP should C-bet this board alot and thats why a large check/raiseing range also is good for this type of boards when your OOP.