In this video Aaron plays 2 tables of $100 NL heads up on PokerStars and records his commentary in real time. He is able to talk about the adjustments he's making as the match gets more aggressive and the assumptions he can start to make as the match goes forward. As an added bonus, he introduces (or reintroduces) two words to his (and your) vocabulary: "janky" and "fly"!
you 3-bet what I would call (for my own game and ranges) a pretty unpolarised range. Obv 89o isnt the nuts HU but I tend to think it has too much value not to call with, so am I over/under valuing it?
Watching the video I kept thinking how I would adjust vs you. My thoughts were to stop 3-betting you so often and cr more flops with draws/overs/mades (basically anything with a bit of equity). How would you adjust vs yourself (sort of weird question, but could beuseful if I ever make it to hsnl!).
you 3-bet what I would call (for my own game and ranges) a pretty unpolarised range. Obv 89o isnt the nuts HU but I tend to think it has too much value not to call with, so am I over/under valuing it?
Watching the video I kept thinking how I would adjust vs you. My thoughts were to stop 3-betting you so often and cr more flops with draws/overs/mades (basically anything with a bit of equity). How would you adjust vs yourself (sort of weird question, but could beuseful if I ever make it to hsnl!).
if someone is opening 80% of their hands I disagree
so I think there is a cut-ff and plenty of times when this hand is playable.
i think you'll be burning $ defending 98o vs players who open 100% of buttons if they're even remotely competent, the positional disadvantage is just too big to be playing a hand that flops so poorly OOP without the lead
you 3-bet what I would call (for my own game and ranges) a pretty unpolarised range. Obv 89o isnt the nuts HU but I tend to think it has too much value not to call with, so am I over/under valuing it?
Watching the video I kept thinking how I would adjust vs you. My thoughts were to stop 3-betting you so often and cr more flops with draws/overs/mades (basically anything with a bit of equity). How would you adjust vs yourself (sort of weird question, but could beuseful if I ever make it to hsnl!).
Stu.
I think that you may look at a situation in HUNL and decide that something seems +EV but you are missing how difficult things are to play OOP. For instance, calling 89o OOP will certainly result in you being involved in (slightly) more pots where your opponent has a worse hand than you if they are opening 100% of buttons. So, getting 2 to 1 you might want to call. Certainly that would be the correct limit play (I don't think you fold very many BBs at all in limit because you're getting 3 to 1 immediate and the implied of getting outkicked or making a dominated pair just isn't nearly as daunting... but I digress).
In HUNL though, the amount of money that your opponent chooses to put in will be so much more when he flops that better hand (with Q8 or whatever that dominates you) than when you flop that better hand (and he's got 85 or something) that you will wind up being in real big trouble. And yes, given that he is in position, he frequently gets to choose the size of the pot and there's not much we can do about that if he's competent.
So where is the cutoff? Some people defend T9o, I usually start at JTo, although some people even fold that. The reason I choose to 3-bet with 89o over JTo is that my opponent is probably defending 100% of broadways to my 3-bet but is probably not defending K8 and A9 unless they are suited. This gives me less dominated hands so it winds up with me getting stacked less often in that fashion. My adjustment then to people who are not 4-betting me a lot but calling wider becomes to start 3-betting a less polarized and stronger range that includes good broadways.
Very good video Aaron, I don't normally like HU videos since I don't play too much HU but this one was just awesome. Really clear explanations and a great video!
Couple of questions:
-at about the 6 minute mark the splasher hand what do you think his range for raising the flop in that spots is? Do you think it is merged w/ like AJ and stuff? And also after you flat isn't your range pretty exploitable since you won't have THAT many aces in your range and you will be c/f the turn a ton?
-what are your thoughts on villain's 4bet sizing -> from 9$ to 21$ ? Would you consider flatting some 4bets? If so what kinda hands are you looking to flat his 4bet?
-at about the 11 minute mark you snap fold 22 to a 3bet. Don't you think there is some EV in flatting?
-also villain is 3betting a shit ton, what do you think think about making it 2x, 2.5 instead of 3x?
Very good video Aaron, I don't normally like HU videos since I don't play too much HU but this one was just awesome. Really clear explanations and a great video!
Couple of questions:
-at about the 6 minute mark the splasher hand what do you think his range for raising the flop in that spots is? Do you think it is merged w/ like AJ and stuff? And also after you flat isn't your range pretty exploitable since you won't have THAT many aces in your range and you will be c/f the turn a ton?
I'm not on a good enough connect to go back and watch the video, I don't remember this hand though.
-what are your thoughts on villain's 4bet sizing -> from 9$ to 21$ ? Would you consider flatting some 4bets? If so what kinda hands are you looking to flat his 4bet?
I think it's a little small but generally okay. He can get away with 4-betting pretty light at this size unless I'm flatting with a good range and/or shoving real light and I prefer not to do either of those things unless I just make my 3-betting range wider for value (Which I did). I might flat with KQ or KJs if I 3-bet them, I also might flat with decent size SCs if I 3-bet them and thought he was light enough.
-at about the 11 minute mark you snap fold 22 to a 3bet. Don't you think there is some EV in flatting?
Not unless we're like 120+ bbs deep. That used to be a relatively small leak of mine, he'd have to be playing pretty poorly for me to think calling there is okay, and he's not, he's active, which means that I should be calling with more hands that flop some equity and not hands that are hit or miss and don't have any blockers or anything.
-also villain is 3betting a shit ton, what do you think think about making it 2x, 2.5 instead of 3x?
It would have been a good adjustment that I didn't make because I preferred to ramp up the variance in a 100 NL video so you guys can see what happens if I don't take the low variance, usually most +EV route.
about 8 or 9 minutes in you talk a bit about how you dont wanna 3b/5b small pps (44 in this case) as thin value/ an adjustment to his range, but are eager to get in ATs and then later in the video ATo. Isn't a hand like ATs gonna have a lot more post flop playability than small pps, and thus a hand we'd rather keep in our flatting range? A lot of the time wen we flat 44, we just fold to a flop cbet since we have 3rd pair, have little equity, cant get to SD easily, and cant really rep anything with a ch/r, where as AT will make more top pair hands, and hands that can ch/c QJx turn checks thru, and we make a lil river bet (similar to the QJ on ATxxx towards the end of the vid), as well as being able to ch/c down on 993 type boards.
Given that they have about the same equity vs a wide 4b range, shouldnt 22-66 just get 3b/5b?
Also, the villain in this video didnt really flat 3bs as much, so we arent really worried about getting called oop with 44 and brling boards w/o much equity, yea?
What is your main purpose to 3bet so widely as a bluff ? To be able to get in preflop AT+ over his 4bet bluffs profitbly?
Also what is your gameplan if your 3bet got called and you have a shitty hand(or something that missed), and your opponent likely gona call you down (or float) with almost anything (i know its somewhat board-texture dependent)? I mean you have to Cbet as a bluff a ton with your hands oop.. and being a novice i dont see where the profit comes from.
What is your main purpose to 3bet so widely as a bluff ? To be able to get in preflop AT+ over his 4bet bluffs profitbly?
Also what is your gameplan if your 3bet got called and you have a shitty hand(or something that missed), and your opponent likely gona call you down (or float) with almost anything (i know its somewhat board-texture dependent)? I mean you have to Cbet as a bluff a ton with your hands oop.. and being a novice i dont see where the profit comes from.
Thomas
The profit either comes from him folding immediately preflop or him folding on the flop (or turn or river, although that is much more opponent specific, usually it is just based on him folding pre or to a c-bet on a dry board). Most importantly the profit comes from the additional action that I get on my big hands in the future. With every 3-bet bluff I widen his range to play back at me, etc. Also, by 3-bet bluffing I'm sort of forcing him (if he has any aggressive bone in his body, trust me though, some people just don't) to fight back by doing things light himself to fight for the blinds and button opens, etc. (it's hard to make a hand in NL, so if he doesn't do this, likely I'll be able to win some free money without showdown).
about 8 or 9 minutes in you talk a bit about how you dont wanna 3b/5b small pps (44 in this case) as thin value/ an adjustment to his range, but are eager to get in ATs and then later in the video ATo. Isn't a hand like ATs gonna have a lot more post flop playability than small pps, and thus a hand we'd rather keep in our flatting range? A lot of the time wen we flat 44, we just fold to a flop cbet since we have 3rd pair, have little equity, cant get to SD easily, and cant really rep anything with a ch/r, where as AT will make more top pair hands, and hands that can ch/c QJx turn checks thru, and we make a lil river bet (similar to the QJ on ATxxx towards the end of the vid), as well as being able to ch/c down on 993 type boards.
Given that they have about the same equity vs a wide 4b range, shouldnt 22-66 just get 3b/5b?
Also, the villain in this video didnt really flat 3bs as much, so we arent really worried about getting called oop with 44 and brling boards w/o much equity, yea?
It's possible that 44 does better against 99+ AQ+ all in preflop. despite the card removal effects of the AT. I don't have pokerstove on this computer so I'm not sure, my gut would say it's relatively close. The difference is that 44 is a nightmare to play postflop OOP in a 3-bet pot. You have very little card removal/blockers, you only hit a set one in 7 or 8 times, and you have a LOT of trouble just getting to showdown unless you're playing the worst player in the world (or the most straightforward). With AT, we make many more draws that have equity, flop a pair something like a third of the time (and it's often the highest pair on the board!) and frequently have something as simple as "overcards" which gives us a good opportunity to multi-barrel. Against someone who is calling wide, I'm much less worried about us being dominated if he calls our 3-bet because he will call with a lot of other aces and a lot of other tens that I dominate myself (and 4-bet a lot of hands that dominate me, but the match was playing aggressively enough that I thought he was 4-bet bluffing a lot).
In 3 bet pots I believe you c bet 100% of the time. Is this your standard, and can you explain why? Any merrit for a slowplay? Say you have the board locked up such has AA on a82 flop how would you proceed throughout the hand assuming your 100bb deep and want to get all the money in.
In 3 bet pots I believe you c bet 100% of the time. Is this your standard, and can you explain why? Any merrit for a slowplay? Say you have the board locked up such has AA on a82 flop how would you proceed throughout the hand assuming your 100bb deep and want to get all the money in.
Against almost all opponents I would still just c-bet. There are some c-bets and some opponents which I will choose to check-call on and some opponents where I would check- give up on some board textures (additionally, with the right stack sizes I would CR some flops as the preflop 3-bettor).
For the most part though, betting makes the rest of the hand easier to play, especially if you bet a small amount. Against someone competent, they will read your continuation bet on the A-hi flop as something that you do 100% of the time with both good and bad hands-- so they will be likely to bluff raise or float you and you will get a bet in with top set in a spot that you need to build a pot.
Anyways, the pace of this match was alot faster than I'm used to. I liked your comment about how this probably favors you in terms of adjusting based on gathering info more quickly. It brings several questions to mind:
In high stakes games, is the play usually this fast? Are there certain opponents who you feel you really have to slow down to think against?
If the villain in this vid would have slowed down, would you have too? Is it common for mid-high stakes players to deny action to ppl who play too slow?
And how valuable is it to work on playing better, faster? Obv you'll get more hands in but there must be a tradeoff in diminished skill at that speed. Personally if I played you or another high stakes reg at this speed I'd def get crushed and turn my hand face up way too often. At slightly slower speeds I feel like I can protect my ranges, and perhaps more importantly at small stakes, exploit villains.
Anyways, the pace of this match was alot faster than I'm used to. I liked your comment about how this probably favors you in terms of adjusting based on gathering info more quickly. It brings several questions to mind:
In high stakes games, is the play usually this fast? Are there certain opponents who you feel you really have to slow down to think against?
In high stakes matches you get eaten alive if you have to slow down too much to think, or if your rushed decisions aren't good ones. I like to think I have been the benefactor of that more than the victim, but it has definitely worked both ways. Sometimes you're flustered and getting adjusted to as soon as you do something, where your opponent isn't nearly as easy to adjust against.
If the villain in this vid would have slowed down, would you have too? Is it common for mid-high stakes players to deny action to ppl who play too slow?
With fast tables and whatnot there isn't that much opportunity to play slow, especially multi-tabling. I have quit people in the past if I was one tabling them and they were just taking too long (and I didn't have action on other tables).
And how valuable is it to work on playing better, faster? Obv you'll get more hands in but there must be a tradeoff in diminished skill at that speed. Personally if I played you or another high stakes reg at this speed I'd def get crushed and turn my hand face up way too often. At slightly slower speeds I feel like I can protect my ranges, and perhaps more importantly at small stakes, exploit villains.
In just about anything, you will get quicker at it the more you do it (although I can think of at least one thing this definitely isn't true for). Your mind just adjusts faster and decisions become more second nature. There is a book called Blink which I read the first half of a year or more ago. It deals with how often you make your best decision with your first instinct in the blink of an eye because your mind processes all this information that you don't realize it is processing (the book is a psychology book but is popular among poker players for the obvious correlation).
