0:35 - obvious raise

0:50 - don't lead that turn imo

1:48 - i call the PFR

2:55 - i prob raise a bit smaller (like 80)

4:15 - call

5:00 - check

5:55 - bet smaller

9:32 - call

9:41 - check

9:50 - call

10:05 - call

10:48 - bet bigger

11:55 - call

12:15 - call

12:30 - very bad c/r imo, just flat flop

at 26:40 where you flop a two pair and he cbets. wouldn't a flatt call be better since hes i might fold 5x or 6x and imo str8 draws to because of the queen so he can't have overcards ? or what was your tohught process in that spot ?

btw is it normal to be so tight oop?

Greetings Brilliant,

I want to laud your efforts at making useful, intelligible videos that offer practical advice to crush the low limits.  I've been experimenting with various strategies and find that I'm most comfortable with one that mirrors yours.  You do a good job of bridging the gap between the small ball approach of Cog Dissonance and a more dominant approach seen especially in older videos.  For example, many videos advocate a strategy whereby you generally change your opening size based on eff. stack sizes, generally w/ the 3x, 2.5x, 2x raise sizes.  I'm finding an approach similiar to yours works very well as you minimize your variance and simply wait for villain to make his critical, game-ending mistake(s). 

Furthermore, I like the flow of your videos and think you have very solid communication skills, which is the most important trait of a solid coach.  You communicate using natural language and have done a good job considering your audience.  I recently referred a friend to this site (who is new to HUSNG's) and have recommended your videos.  I think you offer pragmatic solutions to problems faced by low limit players of various backgrounds.

Jeffrey (who thinks you would constitute a great addition to the HUSNG team as a permanent coach)

BTW: Interesting hand with the A9o vs JT and 589 rainbow board.  I Pokerstoved it and it turns out it was a perfect 50/50 coinflip.

990 games 0.005 secs 198,000 games/sec

Board: 5c 8s 9h

Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied

Hand 0: 50.000% 50.00% 00.00% 495 0.00 { JcTd }

Hand 1: 50.000% 50.00% 00.00% 495 0.00 { As9d }

Greetings Aggsyb,

I just thought I'd chime in and ask if you could provide a rationale behind your alternate courses of action.  Obviously, you spent a lot of time evaluating this video as measured by the fact you inserted several specific times where you thought a different action was warranted.  However, I think it would be helpful if you explained why your substitute decisions are better.  As it stands, I'm simply reading 'Your wrong, you should call.'  There isn't any real evaluation IMHO.  And I surmise you could make convincing arguments in defense of your alternate actions.

Respectfully,

Jeffrey

Hi everyone,

@Aggsyb: I would really like the reasoning behind your different lines.

@brilliant:Could you please explain me in depth the A4s hand where you decided to let it go? When I found myself in this spot, I can't find enough reason to let this hand go (once I decide to bet) and shove. When I Pokerstove ranges, I am never in bad shape (give pot size). I think your fold is correct if you read villain doing this just with KKK or AK, but can we really narrow his range to that point?

Would really like to hear your opinion on your fold. Is it that simple that you think your ev is slightly minus?

"9:41 - check"

"10:05 - call"

"10:48 - bet bigger"

"12:30 - very bad c/r imo, just flat flop" (timestamp wrong?)

These are the only ones I disagree with, for those curious. Other spots I agree with commenter, and they make for some good discussion points about who's right :)

@ mersenneray:

9:41 - true, i guess cbetting is fine here

10:05 - i dont h8 folding either but i think it's ok to call

12:30 was wrong timestamp, meant 13:30

Gonna finish watching the vid later today and comment on other spots...watched up until about 15 mins.

13:30 can be fine depending on villain tendencies (which I didn't watch) :)

@ mers:

i absolutely disagree with the c/r at 13:30 against this guy.

10:48 - against him, i think i prefer betting bigger

@aggsyb : I'm going to look over those hands from your first post soon, and give comments. Although, instead of insisting that your lines are correct, by saying things like "call", "raise", etc, please give some reasoning behind your "opinion". This will make for better discussion between the members and will help me better respond to each of your hand comments.

0:35 - obvious raise

I disagree that this is an “obvious raise” on hand #1 of the match against a fish oop. I would probably raise this sometimes, depending on how I’m feeling, but most of the times I’m going to check back KQ here and see a flop oop, trying to develop reads vs this fish in a limped pot. Sometimes its OK to go into a limped pot with a strongish hand, which is almost likely the best hand here, and see try to find out how he plays oop. Maybe later in the match, with more reads, I will raise KQ here to like 4 or 5 bb oop, but that is After I get reads on his button play.

0:50 - don't lead that turn imo

I somewhat disagree here, leading this turn is fine imo. It folds out a lot of his equity share. Also, I don’t really expect most fish to have an ace here, because they usually raise an ace on the button hand #1, which is the population tendency, so I see him folding to this bet a ton. Also, checking the turn is fine, I’m not saying that I ALWAYS lead turn here with KQ, but I decided to in this spot, and it’s not an awful play against the general population of fish, given that its hand #1, and I don’t expect him to have an ace here very often. 

1:48 - i call the PFR

I disagree again. I’m really not calling Q9os much against a fish for a 3bb raise this early in the match without oop reads at the moment. Sure, you may say, “how are you going to develop oop reads when you don’t call much oop”. And my response is, there are hands that I’m going to be calling with oop, to develop reads, but Q9os in the very beginning will not be calling a 3bb raise from a fish. That’s my game, that’s my style, and I’m not going to change that. I mean, if you feel comfortable flatting Q9os for 3bb raise oop, by all means do it. But it is not my tendency to do it, oop vs a fish, for a 3bb raise on hand 4.

2:55 - i prob raise a bit smaller (like 80)

Not sure I see much of a difference here between raising 4bbs, as you suggest, or  5bbs, like I did. We’re just nitpicking here imo

4:15 – call

Again I completely disagree with flatting  K10 here when he pot donks for the third time this match (might have been the second time, but not sure, since I just went to the timestamp). If I had a hand like j10, 10 9, 10 8, etc, aka a weaker ten, I would just flat. But imo, I am willing to whole heartedly get k10 in here against a fish, and im raising his donk with K10 here all day, and snapping a shove. He can, and WILL, get it in with a lot of worse tens. This type of player will also get in some flush draws, by spazzing, with hands like 87clubs, 98 clubs, 97clubs, etc etc. Again, if you feel comfortable flatting K10 here, by all means do it. But I’m raising his pot donkbet all day here.

5:00 – check

I finally agree with you lol. I would check behind here, if I could play this hand again.

5:55 - bet smaller

Meh, I feel there are soooo many draws that will call this nearly pot size bet ALL day. Also, hands like 10x, which called my initial check raise, are not folding to this bet, even though an overcard came. Also, the bigger bet induces turn shoves from KQ type hands, who decided to peel my check raise and now hit top pair great kicker. Maybe a smaller bet keeps in a hand like 5x, but other than that, I think I set up stacks for a PERFECT pot size river shove, by betting this big on the turn. If he calls the turn, there’s 940 in the pot, and I have 915  left in my stack. This will make for a perfect river shove on any non K or 5 river imo.

9:32 – call

I don’t mind depending K6os to a minraise. I also don’t mind folding it. It’s sort of a preference thing. If you feel comfortable flatting K6os oop to a minraise, by all means do it.

9:41 – check

Not sure why you would check here? Like just take a small stab and take it down a ton.

9:50 – call

When I said before that I don’t mind calling K6 or folding K6os oop, I def am not gonna be flatting K2os oop. But once again, if you feel comfortable flatting a hand like this, go ahead. It’s a personal preference. And it is not set in stone that you MUST flat hands like these.

10:05 – call

I don’t mind either flatting 45os here, or folding it. I’m not sure either one of us is right here. Once again, you can flat these types of hands if you feel comfortable doing it.

10:48 - bet bigger

I like the 100 size bet here. It gets all Ax hands to call, Kx hands, and maybe some weird mid pocket pairs like 77 or 88 or 99 to call. Maybe a bet of 140 does the same, so perhaps a little bit more value can be achieved, but I don’t hate the 100 chip bet here.

11:55 – call

Here we go again with K5os. Like I said before, if you feel comfortable flatting this, go ahead. I just don’t think it’s necessarily wrong to fold this oop against this opponent type.

12:15 – call

I actually agree with you here. And I like flatting a hand like Q8 better than a hand like k2os. I feel the Q8 plays better due to its connectedness. So yes, if I could play this hand again, I would flat Q8os to the minraise oop.

12:30 - very bad c/r imo, just flat

I have to think about this hand more, and discuss it with others, and get back to you. But my initial thought is that check raising here is not “very bad”, as you say it is. It may be bad, it may be good, I will have to think about it further. But imo it is not “very bad”.

Overall, thanks for going through all these hands, and making comments. It shows that you are taking the time to think about hands, and that is one of the best ways to improve. Even though I disagree with like 75% of the way you would play these hands, it is very good that we are both thinking critically and trying to find optimal lines vs specific opponents.

at 26:40 where you flop a two pair and he cbets. wouldn't a flatt call be better since hes i might fold 5x or 6x and imo str8 draws to because of the queen so he can't have overcards ? or what was your tohught process in that spot ?

btw is it normal to be so tight oop?

Hey  happy, thanks for  the question on the hand.

The reason I raise there, is to get value, and to set up a bigger bet on the turn, and eventually a shove on the river. If he is donkbetting here with Qx, and I raise, he is pretty much 3betting allin all day, and we get it in as a huge favorite. If he is donkbetting a draw like 78, 47, 34, 48, etc etc, we are charging this draw to continue, and we are even hoping that he 3bet semibluff shoves the flop, in which case we are snap calling obviously. If he has a strange hand like AK, a lot of times they will 3bet shove the flop with two overs, and we get allin in great shape. Also, notice that I raise very smallish, only 100 chips more. This was partially designed to keep in hands like 6x and 5x here. I don’t think a fishy player is pretty much ever folding 6x here for 100 chips more, and they are most likely going to be calling with 5x as well, for a 100 chip raise. Seeing that he ended up folding to my smallish raise of his donkbet, I now put him on complete air. It looks like he was just trying to stab at that dry flop. Once I raise small, he was done with the hand. So I think in situations like these, be more willing to stay aggressive, betting and raising, rather than just flat calling. In general, it is better to be playing your strong hands fast, as compared to slowplaying them. Sure slowplaying can be useful in certain spots, but for the most part, don’t fall into the trap of slowplaying a lot of your bigger hands.

Also, to answer your question about being tight oop. It is def better to be tighter oop than in position. You want to be using your button to your advantage, and not allowing your opponent to use his button  to his advantage. That means playing more hands from your button, and playing less hands when he has the button. In my game, I am generally tighter oop than most professional heads up sng players. That is just a personal preference that I have, and it works for me. I would suggest, for your game, to find out how comfortable you feel playing oop. The more comfortable you are, the more hands you can play. It’s not that I’m saying that I’m uncomfortable playing pots oop. I just feel that my button play is super strong, and thus I play a ton more in position, to take advantage of my strength.

Greetings Brilliant,

I want to laud your efforts at making useful, intelligible videos that offer practical advice to crush the low limits.  I've been experimenting with various strategies and find that I'm most comfortable with one that mirrors yours.  You do a good job of bridging the gap between the small ball approach of Cog Dissonance and a more dominant approach seen especially in older videos.  For example, many videos advocate a strategy whereby you generally change your opening size based on eff. stack sizes, generally w/ the 3x, 2.5x, 2x raise sizes.  I'm finding an approach similiar to yours works very well as you minimize your variance and simply wait for villain to make his critical, game-ending mistake(s). 

Furthermore, I like the flow of your videos and think you have very solid communication skills, which is the most important trait of a solid coach.  You communicate using natural language and have done a good job considering your audience.  I recently referred a friend to this site (who is new to HUSNG's) and have recommended your videos.  I think you offer pragmatic solutions to problems faced by low limit players of various backgrounds.

Jeffrey (who thinks you would constitute a great addition to the HUSNG team as a permanent coach)

BTW: Interesting hand with the A9o vs JT and 589 rainbow board.  I Pokerstoved it and it turns out it was a perfect 50/50 coinflip.

990 games 0.005 secs 198,000 games/sec

Board: 5c 8s 9h

Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied

Hand 0: 50.000% 50.00% 00.00% 495 0.00 { JcTd }

Hand 1: 50.000% 50.00% 00.00% 495 0.00 { As9d }

Hi Jeffrey,

Thank you so much for your comment. I really appreciate it. Also, with regard to the friend that you referred, feel free to tell him to private message me if he has any questions. I know that beginning a career in husng can be tough, and it’s always good to be in contact with players who have been doing it for a while. In fact, when I started  two years ago, my learning process would have been sped up drastically if I had a site like this to learn from. So hopefully he takes full advantage of the videos on this site, and the contacts that he will be able to make with some of the coaches. I look forward to answering any questions that he has.

And like always, I really am glad that you enjoyed the video J.

And that hand, A9 vs JT, pretty sick that it comes out to exactly 50%, a true coinflip lol!

Hi everyone,

@brilliant:Could you please explain me in depth the A4s hand where you decided to let it go? When I found myself in this spot, I can't find enough reason to let this hand go (once I decide to bet) and shove. When I Pokerstove ranges, I am never in bad shape (give pot size). I think your fold is correct if you read villain doing this just with KKK or AK, but can we really narrow his range to that point?

Would really like to hear your opinion on your fold. Is it that simple that you think your ev is slightly minus?

Hi crstn,

First of all, if I could play the hand again, I would check back the flop here. Getting check raised allin with that hand, or effectively check raised allin when he bets like 675, is brutal. So in a 3bet pot, I would just go ahead and check back the flop, if I could play the hand again. If it were just a normal raised pot by me, I would cbet all day, because the pot on the flop would have been smaller, and it would have been easier to call a smaller check raise.

As to my decision of letting the hand go, I just honestly thought I could wait for a better spot vs this fishy opponent. And, tbh, I found that spot a little later in the match, when he shoved KJ on a Q32 board, when I had QQ, so it worked out well.

I mean, if he has AK  there, we are crushed, drawing to a flush for most of our chips. This is obv a bad spot to be in. If he has some hand like Kx, (not K7 or K5 which would be two pair), we have 3 Ace outs, and 9 flush outs, so we are almost coin flipping. Against this player, there’s no reason to get into a coin flip for stacks, when you could most likely find a wayyyyy better spot later in the match. And lets say he has some hand like 87 hearts or something weird like that. We would still be in sort of a coin flip situation. The only hands we crush are smaller flush draws, and that is such a small portion of his range. So in total, the reason why I folded was to wait for a better spot later in the game vs a fishy player, rather than taking a gamble this early in the match.

@ Brilliant27:

I really don't want to go over all the hands in detail but generally i think you do a few things fundamentally wrong:

a) your pre flop ranges (esp oop) are way too tight

b) your sizing is very transparent in alot of spots

c) you take too passive routes alot and then do weird aggro stuff (like the c/r with 45s on K43xhh i believe it was)

@ aggsyb

a) I do agree that i play tighter oop than most, just a personal preference.

b) against fish, I don't think using exploitable bet sizing tells really matters. In fact, I think its better to play more straightforawrd vs someone who isnt paying attention to different bet sizes on diff textures.  

c) I do take passive routes against fish in Certain spots. I will not disagree here, it is just part of my game vs these types of players.

a) it might be your personal preference but that doesnt make it more +EV than wider pre flop ranges

b) i'm talking in general, not vs specific fish

c) again, talking in general terms

Brilliant: By 4:15 I think the commenter means bet/folding A4cc in a 3bet pot on Kc7c5d (needing 40% equity), which I thought was one of the most questionable plays.

I also have questions about a mantra you've used throughout the comment section: "you can make the other play if you feel comfortable doing it". I happen to strongly agree with you and disagree with the commenter about playing 45o OOP - I don't think if he's comfortable, he should be doing it at all. If the commenter said "you should call ATC OOP", would you say you can do that if you're comfortable? I guess what I'm getting at is that even though developing your own style and strategy is important, isn't there a lot of the time where one play has better equity than another play?

For example, let's take the very first hand, with KQo. It's true that whether you check behind or raise, you can incorporate it into a broader style and affect your equity with other hands throughout the match. Playing smallball, for example, can get your opponent really frustrated at how slow the match is going, and spew really hard. But would you agree that just in that first hand, raising has some expectation, and checking behind has some expectation? If so, do you actually think checking behind has better expectation in the hand, or do you do so because you like the affects smallball has later in the match?

The stated reason you gave for checking behind was to develop some reads: But how about reads about his limp/calling range, his limp/folding range, his reaction to c-bets in position, his tendencies in raised pots, and all of that? Isn't that developing some reads, too? Why are those reads less important than how he plays in limped pots?

Thanks for all the commentary! It's been great to read.

^^^my thoughts exactly on the KQo hand

fwiw i think you're right about folding the 45o hand now as well

Brilliant: By 4:15 I think the commenter means bet/folding A4cc in a 3bet pot on Kc7c5d (needing 40% equity), which I thought was one of the most questionable plays.

Hi mers, thanks for the comment. I am interested on seeing your thoughts on the A4cc hand. If I could play the hand over again, I think a check back on the flop was best, because getting check raised allin and having to fold there is pretty meh. Do you agree that checking back the flop there is best, or was a bet ok? Also, as played, it is a fold after he check raises right?

I also have questions about a mantra you've used throughout the comment section: "you can make the other play if you feel comfortable doing it". I happen to strongly agree with you and disagree with the commenter about playing 45o OOP - I don't think if he's comfortable, he should be doing it at all. If the commenter said "you should call ATC OOP", would you say you can do that if you're comfortable? I guess what I'm getting at is that even though developing your own style and strategy is important, isn't there a lot of the time where one play has better equity than another play?

For example, let's take the very first hand, with KQo. It's true that whether you check behind or raise, you can incorporate it into a broader style and affect your equity with other hands throughout the match. Playing smallball, for example, can get your opponent really frustrated at how slow the match is going, and spew really hard. But would you agree that just in that first hand, raising has some expectation, and checking behind has some expectation? If so, do you actually think checking behind has better expectation in the hand, or do you do so because you like the affects smallball has later in the match?

The stated reason you gave for checking behind was to develop some reads: But how about reads about his limp/calling range, his limp/folding range, his reaction to c-bets in position, his tendencies in raised pots, and all of that? Isn't that developing some reads, too? Why are those reads less important than how he plays in limped pots?

Thanks for all the commentary!

Yes I agree with you that a lot of the time, making one play has better equity vs another play. And I def agree that a 54os call oop is not going to be the best equity play. I guess I worded it wrong by saying “you can make the other play if you’re comfortable doing it”, with that particular hand. But hands like KQos on hand #1 of match vs fish, I still believe that, even though raising is the best equity play, it fits into my overall strategy, like you said, for me to make this play on hand #1. I do, like you said again, “like the affects smallball has later in the match”. I may be losing equity by not raising it on hand #1, as little equity as that may be, but I feel like some of the equity can be gained back later in the match, by incorporating my overall strategy.

And it is def important to find out “about reads about his limp/calling range, his limp/folding range, his reaction to c-bets in position, his tendencies in raised pots, and all of that? Isn't that developing some reads, too? Why are those reads less important than how he plays in limped pots?”. Not that I am minimizing the importance of the reads as well. They are all def important. Its just hard to find a balance between developing these reads on hand #1, and developing reads in a limped pot. Its kind of like, if you do one thing, ie limping, and find out info on that, you are missing out on info on the other thing, ie raising. Its just a hard situation, but imo, developing reads about how they play in limped pots may be more useful later in the match, as the blinds get higher, simply because we are checking back oop preflop a bigger % of hands than we are raising when button limps. So having the opponents tendencies in limped pots is slighly more important, imo, than in pots where he limps and we raise. I could be wrong about this, but that’s my opinion. Would love to hear your thoughts about which read is more important.

Again thanks for the comments/questions, it enabled me to think a lot about this situation. And thanks to aggsyb as well, for bringing up some thoughts on certain hands.  

nice video brilliant27, keep it up and post some more videos when time allows you. glgl

I have a question related to
~~~~
Its just a hard situation, but imo, developing reads about how they play in limped pots may be more useful later in the match, as the blinds get higher, simply because we are checking back oop preflop a bigger % of hands than we are raising when button limps. So having the opponents tendencies in limped pots is slighly more important, imo, than in pots where he limps and we raise. I could be wrong about this, but that’s my opinion. Would love to hear your thoughts about which read is more important.
~~~~
I very often struggle to understand the importance of gathering these kind 'early game limping' reads; especially if you take into account the rather widespread awareness of effective stacks that almost every player seem to take into account if you take wathever post on this forum or 2+2.
Maybe my experience is biased or I do not pay enough attention ...
Do you want to expand a little bit about this concern?