S.M.S.

good video Alien.

4-48 left
Please tell me are hands like Ks876$ss aren`t good enough yet to 3bet vs 65% btn range?
Do you want to restrict rundowns in your 3bet range to nut suit or more coordination?
Would you consider 3betting such hand in a worse pool?

Thanks.

Amazing content for 10/month.
Questions go later ;)

nice vid Gary.
37-25 left table
Do you cbet 44 small 100% on 952r. Split cbet sizes?
Seems a texture where BB would have a reasonable c/r freq.

Thank you Ben.

In terms of optimal vs exploitative, I also moderately disagree with the assumption that both players in the hand were either attempting to play optimally or exploitatively. It just isn't the case that high stakes players know exactly what equilibrium strats are at every node and then make perfectly calculated deviations to exploit some small errors of their opponent. It's a lot more chaotic and mistake prone than that.

Yes, I understand this ofc. I havent elaborated my point in original post in order not to make it huge. My point was coach should be focussed not on plain overview of equilibriums (especially when we can see signs players in the hand dont follow it for w/e reason) but rather on analysis of deviations we observe in actual hand and on potential adjustments we could make to increase EV against these deviations.
(in some PIO videos coaches come close to this level maybe including some of your videos)

Another thing is such videos might be evaluated higher than 100/month which is fair enough and debatable.

Chris 11-40 22 hand vs SSick
why are you saying BB shouldnt C/R A7 3way? Do you imply your c/c range is too strong so that ev c/c > ev c/r for him? Otherwise seems to me a standard C/R for all std reasons -- hes ~65-70% 3way and probably 85% vs OR HU (75% HU vs you based on fact you said you peel pre a lot vs that OR) especially with his stack size.

no no I said "pretty bad", not "super bad", you made another mistake.
In fact I would never dare to call your plays "super bad" :)

Tyler do you agree 1st hand overbet K8s is pretty bad either?
You shouldnt be super polar when BB is at such nut disadvantage so you should either at least have some equity or have positive removal effect on opponents range but this K8hh seems worst possible hand to pure overbet bluff. I mean you block all possible weaker hands he c/f ott (K-high floats, variety of missed BDFDs, weaker pairs with TK) and very few Ax+ on other side.

I`ve got its a video about overbetting randoms on anonymous site but even this case this one seems out of line given you could have chosen ton of other hands to do it with.

Thanks.

Yes maybe so or maybe they overfold turn and yet donk overbluff river using bluffs of worse quality and/or turning hands into bluff which they shouldn`t turn into a bluff leaving themselves with river check range full of {missed FDs, weak_pairs} or {sets} (and obv never fold). :)
But its difficult to consolidate all this valuable information and structure it in a way which makes it easy to use in practice.

14-50 QQ44$ss

Leo, Im really confused the way you played the hand.
Do you overlimp bc you are OOP to OL?
Limper seems 35/7 guy and QQ44$ss will have good visibility postflop.
Would you raise a bit tighter like QQ88$ss+?

Why don`t you bet turn when you could follow on so many rivers?

18-50 KJ93$Ds
You cbet half pot one of better 9x in a spot where you don`t have range advantage otf vs tight SB range not nut advantage.
You have slightly more A9+ and ~same rate of Ax.

I doubt half pot cbet nets there (you have 22% vs $FI15!$3b4o) unless he overfolds. Guess smaller sizing exploitatively could perfrom better but Im confused you block KK,JJ and dont need much protection.
Seems a decent hand to check back along with worse Ax and some KK-TT.

Please elaborate what you aimed at in this spot.

20-30
We could only guess what will happen when BB will strat to C/R turns with more (flushes/blcokers)+2p as an adjustment. River play will introduce uncountable amount of variance and will be really funny to watch. ;)

29-30

"99,88+fd" probe/calling turn shouldn`t be too surprising - its very small part of our range and our best bluffs when straight get there on the river.

Holding FD makes BTN raising range even more sets/2p heavy and gives us some equity obviously (which might be not enough vs raising range) but we improve expectation bluff donking straight completing rivers (or use these hands to improve EV of our VR - probably more correctly). Seems a standard way of constructing equilibriums.

Nice video.

Thanks for efforts mate.
Nothing personal in what Im going to say but my point is I think this video can be barely classified as "elite" level.
I havent watched any of your other videos and dont insist you`re necessarily a bad video producer, I just saw an interesting topic from unknown (for me) coach and thought I could have learned smth new and I have an issue with how this video was made (structured).

In a first part of a video you express your own thoughts on all actions in the hand which is ok when youre a better player but it seems its not the case since we discuss a hand between two great regs who used to play a lot against each other. Thus considering they have some dynamics youre unaware of I think its fair to say its quite irrelevant what you think discussing this hand "in vacuum".

In second part you plug std PIO sim for this spot.
Ok, we figured OOP should have 2 sizings otf, should check few hands and C/R-ing KT+fd isnt part of solid strat in vacuum but once again those guys dont play in vacuum.
And when Wookies still C/R KT were getting a solid clue he most likely isnt trying to follow std strat so from this point going deeper into this PIO sim makes zero sense. But even if it is you still havent shown how much OTB deviated from optimal strat when you given him just one flop option - smallish flop sizing he actually used. I mean its quite likely his smallish sizing is part of multi-sized flop strategy but we would never know now.....

My point is there is a lot of such videos lately and I think we should change something bc such videos don`t reach the actual goal of the whole thing - to educate people who watch these video. More so often they are misleading, read - people pay money to become worse.
Maybe its an issue with specific format and going deeper into one hand reqiures more efforts compared to cursory HH or deep run review.

I think we should make requirements tighter or change the structure of videos rating system.

Obviously there are great ELITE video producers like Krab, T.Forrester, Sauce (maybe some other guys); guys who often do very good videos - Apotheosis, Sam Greenwood, D.Dvoress (and some others Im sure I forgot) but besides them we have a lot of coaches and not so much quality content. I liked very much Eliaz Gutuerrez stylish videos and whilst we can argue how much educational value these videos contain but at least theyre quite unique, vell made and entertaining.

So maybe RIO should introduce more fomats and/or assign these "deep dive" type videos to best coaches only but as it is now system isn`t balanced and probably exploits customers and good coaches who are still motivated to make good videos.

Hope Phil will take it into consideration.
Maybe in today realities it becomes less relevant but then Phil should make a respective statement.

Once again - nothing personal Juan.

Turn seems a decent card for you (as well as K and A) bc OOP c/f some AJ!s otf.
And interesting fact is flush turn cards doesn`t reduce IP equity/EV at this stack depth (probably bc OOP c/c lower FDs rate otf in 3bet pots).

Don`t like river shove when its based solely on bet size despite the fact his ranges is quite undefined for you and uncapped but I agree he chosen weird sizing w/ QQ what makes your river shove even more questionable.

Quite cool vid as always.

13-50 KT hand
You don`t lead turn when middle card has paired ott. Is it mainly opponent, your hand or a texture?

15-30 Js8x on A62ss9s
You c/c flop and c/f turn w/o paying any attention to this spot.
Its possible you improve and he gives up often enough to justify flop c/c but Im curious if the plan was to play it straight forward or there was something else?
It seems a good turn card for your range and good turn semibluff candidate, guess you could c/c turn as well (but I also don`t love it).

23-20 JJ on T8xA vs Oborra
Im glad my general thoughts on the spot match yours however I think you missed VB otr.
Do you think its viable to b/c turn when youre against 50bb stack (wtf?) who doesnt fold to cbets at all (which screams IM THE BOSS)? I mean do you expect to have solid rate of turned TPs in your distribution? Maybe JJ isnt best hand (blocking J9,J7,QJ), maybe QQ,KK perform better.
I think given specific villain would float turn w/ AT,A8 like always and amount of Ax he will have otr is really questionable (compared to tons of Tx,8x) you should have bet river.

34-00 65 on 432ss
My first thought was you can go even larger (~2psb) otr what youve approved later in your analysis and PIO confirms this as well. (assuming BB C/R most straights and sets before river but come to the river w/ most of 4x incl. 43s,42s, Q4) And yes 65 os the hand which is most interested in betting super large but according to PIO we shouldnt have many thin VBs otr bc:
a) most of good Qx, AA-QQ check back flop
b) BB will have 30%-35% of TRIPS+ on that runout

Thus we`ll have few valuebetable Qx and even AA can VB only if BB would have river lead range (which he should generally).

Cant see much on screenshot here but just gives you an idea whats going on. Maybe you did your own research and got different results.

dark red is 2psb; next is 1.5psb, next is psb.

@AJ on AT4 flop C/R sizing

On a board that is lockdowny and with a small stack to pot. I don't think there is much benefit in raising larger than 33% pot or so, even vs my small bet.

PIO disagrees w/ you however.
I capped BB range removing PPs and most Ax w/ some good broadways and if we cbet range 1/4psb then the C/R sizing villain has chosen actually seems optimal.

Probably using 2/3+ psb as only option for turn and river wasn't the best idea in order to construct a good equilibrium.

Ben, you snapfolded A2s several times vs UTG/MP openings.
You don`t consider them as light 3bet candidates at all?
What hands suit better then iyo?

New term I learned is "stackoffable" hand <3

good video Sam.

29-40 you peeled 2.25x opening vs 20bb BTN w/ 65s out of SB and shortie behind. Have you ran PIO preflop sims on such spots or its more of a experience plays? Because frankly Im unsure its +ev calls considering everything. Do you peel them all? Would you peel hands like 86s, 97s as well (which arent worse than 65s)?
I conceed its viable to peel some of this hands at low freq but if you peel them all it implies you should call some stronger hands (like KQ or AJ) to make SCs realise more equity.

Ott Idk if protection is big issue w/ your hand (after he B/C flop) and you should shove. I think there is a good chance you fold out some better hands when you jam.

33-00 Hard to call that flop C/R sizing too large vs your 1/4 cbet when hes laying you 3.5/1 to call and his TPs has (18%-28%) solely vs his value range (VR) and even mid pairs easily reach required 22% barrier vs whole (any sort of balanced) flop C/R range. Combining it w/ the fact how it is hard for BB to have legit VR in that spot making it smaller makes little sense since he most likely wont be able to maintain defend freq required to deal w/ all that flop 3bet shoves he would invite.
And yes I think AK-AJ should 3bet shove a lot even vs "larger" C/R sizing.
What do you think?

50-20 77 BTN-CO 30bb deep
If you 3bet to 30k even having plenty of bluffs (10-12% total 3bet range) SB yet cant go wider than 88/AJs/AQ (in fact 88 is -ev 4bet jam) assuming 25% CO OR range and this case you should call 99+ vs SB. Guess some COs open more or maybe math is different in HRs ;) Seems marginal 3bet shove spot at best specifically w/ 77 at this depth bc both SB and CO would play quite well vs it (should always fold 66 but shouldnt fold 88 (SB might)).

3bet/x seems best.

I initially thought SB can 2barrel small all A-highs ott, actually just some best A-highs at equilibrium (and BB doesn`t do much turn raising) but even this case BB calls turn w/ all good Q-highs and most good J,T-highs.
Betting small yourself 3rd time is still ~ +0.5bb better than checking.

Funny thing is spade makes it a worse bluffcatcher but its exactly spade which makes it best and highest freq 2barrel hand (among combos of similar rank) and implies most of your 7x will have a spade otr.

You say (in game):

I think its river situation which is relatively unimportant to defend accurately.

above:

What if villain's weakest hands (as determined by previous street decisions) overlap with some of our potential bluffcatchers?

Doesn`t it mostly relates to your ~0 ev bluffcatchers in equilibrium (which becomes -ev when opponent starts to turn SDV in a bluff) and decent +ev catchers (which beat that SDV) should still call?

Ive got you found yourself in a vague spot but it looks gross as played. Looks like you underrep to hero fold later bc you dont care about defending hands which are less than a boat.... for some uncertain reason :)

Nice video.

Sammy, why cant he overbet every Ax:xs after you check 3 times especially considering you say yourself you expect him to check back more Ax ott than he should?
I don`t get the call either.

At 31:00 you certainly turned flush in a bluff esp considering SPR otr.
No matter how we construct his river overbet range he doesn`t call enough worse to make it +ev despite your correct comment you have very good equity vs his whole overbet range.

NFs can be value crai, vs some ranges its viable to value crai worse than NF w/ quite low freq but even this case PIO suggests doing it w/ smth like K5s (where villain overbet a lot of flushes and should/could call worse occasionally)

Thanks for video Chris.

17:30 AQ on K52hh
Seems a weird 1/4pot cbet 3way w/ no backdoors.
I assigned BTN 8% capped flatcall range and our CO range doesn`t have neither equity nor nut advantage ( sets - 2% against 3% and TPs - 14% / 18%) (equities - 35%/37%/27% co/btn/bb).
Looks awkward spot to apply "cbet range" strat (which you essentially imply cbetting this hand) given how often one of them will proceed and you say some really weird things starting at 17:40 "I think 5 and 2 are impossible to hit.... our hand is most likely to be good... just betting and protecting our equity is best...."

I would check it quite often even if I opt to cbet close to range. AQ has 32% 3way and youll get raised ~35-40% by one of them and they both fold around ~20% which is less than what you need and your turn plan is give-up unless you improve right so I really dont understand you decision. Maybe you could elaborate.

Thanks for efforts, Chris.

8:30 spot
How wide do you think bring-in would 2bet your raise considering you opened directly into him? I guess your range should be quite wide, I probably would 2 bet even his exact hand (which has 61% vs random 2; 58% - w/ 2x blocker) but unsure what is considered as std? I know limit players generally play a bit tighter.

So when he leads 5th hes almost always have 8 low draw and assuming he never bluffs well have ~67% on 7th which means technically its a value bet and he would have to defend some Q-low (being aware our range is wide on 3rd and both us got rough runouts which means equities will be close) otherwise its super profitable for us (by limit games standards) to float 6th and bluff 7th.
On 7th he needs to defend 85% (6/7) to avoid explotation and we beat 1- 0.33/0.85 (62%) of his gto defence range.
I dont mind check-back if he doesnt 2bet much pre but if he 2bets his best 8 on 3rd (which are 43 8 and better after he led 5th on Ace) then there will be even less 986 low which have us beat.

Thanks.

17:50 right A5s on Q53r SB-CO 3way
Your thoughts on the decision w/ A5 made me think about your general SB strat 3way there.

I guess youre saying you c/r 2p+ (sets+ eff-ly) bc you dont want to weaken your c/c range which seems reasonable but maybe 3way its less of a concern and I think your good TPs (KQ,AQ) want to C/R 3way vs small cbet on Q53r even vs close to optimal CO small_cbet frequency.
CO reps very wide range (which have poor equity vs your KQ) and 3x,5x will be a big portion of BB c/overcall range thus BB will be allowed to capture some pot share when you just c/c top end of your range.

But I agree if c/r 2p+ for value only you don`t need to C/R A5.

8-33
Yeah, I also thought after turn check back we won`t have ton of flushes.
And many of 4x we cbet large are dd combos which are removed by river card.

If this chat is fee free should just ban the troll. (he`s probably on a mission)
Otherwise its weird spot, guy seems really unsatisfied with his life or amount of attention he gets.

Latter case Nick`s "Achieving higher balance" blog is specially for you.
Humble yourself and enjoy it, it will be a big help.

I was just talking about general approach, its not result of deep research for specific spot.
We used to bet 1/2 pot in the past but then realised 1/2 sizing is rarely correct/best play.
Smaller sizing implies higher frequency and put more pressure on overcards and weak pairs; larger sizing represents stronger range and implies you would often put stack in on the river which put pressure on overpairs and weaker draws.

1/2 bet allows opponent to release overcards more easily and he still gets good price w/ his draws and better hands.

@9:30 AJs
I like your fold w/ when its specifically BB & OR players yet to act. BB will have fair share of Qx and OR still have JJ, KK,AA in his range most likely.
Yes bettor bets small (which is arguably he shouldn`t do) but RIO seems a bigger concern.

@16:00 109ss:
Good flop c/c hand w/ BD and GS. Youll have worse GS to c/r and wont have J3o pre and 73o most likely vs reg opening UTG.
Its ok to lead on that turn card vs UTG but sizing should be smaller or larger which depends on what you`re trying to exploit.

@22:00 A9s:
Always nice to check such spots w/ software periodically. I ran some sims and agree w/ your summary.
vs 30% CO range 3b/c is around +1.5bb-1bb while calling barely performs so well w/ regs behind and its not just preflop, we also realise less equity post. (I got ~+0.8bb w/ optimistic assumptions on R)

Thanks for video Chris.

What tourney is this?

Good video Chris. Thanks for efforts.

Phil ,thanks for decent video series.

37min
AK75 on A726 in 3bet pot
I like your thoughts its an awkward spot and we don`t have many/any b/f ott so I was wondering if removal effects should affect our logic behind constructing turn ranges.
I guess if we float flop and pot turn w/ all draws 3bettor gets incentive to check flop stronger.
IF its the case then we should check back some weaker hands ott. Then we would have hard time defending rivers when the board wont change thus I guess we should protect them by checking stronger sometimes.
Is it relevant for this spot or do draw heaviness of the board and nature of PLO already male it less of concern (bc our weaker hands will be quite different and will already kinda cover us on most river runouts)?
Is specific hand is the one you would always pot ott?

42:30
AKT6 on AKTK
Like your thoughts on the hand but dont understand check back w/ specific hand.
Doesn`t not blocking diamonds and straights more relevant here to keep betting (and get 2nd street of value ott) than blocking small part of his worst boats which still can pay us off river?

Thank you.