How to be a Balla

[Matt Vaughan]

If we're not making mistakes, we're not learning.

Fwiw I call there, but also fwiw it's cause I'm a noob, not cause I'd be making the right call Though I am hand-reading in a much more concrete way these days

 

[TylerN]

Nah it's clearly a call

What you doing to work on hand reading?

 

[benevg]

Nah it's clearly a call

What you doing to work on hand reading?

the most important thing i find is actually making notes. "(not) aggro w/ FD" is one of my standard notes these days once you see a couple hands go to showdown, you can make much better reads later...

and other than that - i really am finding baluga's chapter on hand reading very instructional go look it up if you have not read it before.

 

[OMGITSOVER9K]

Tylers ballin with that AK

do people 5b stack worse at FR on your site?

 

[youregoodmate]

Tylers ballin with that AK

do people 5b stack worse at FR on your site?

I hope 50NL isnt that nitty. What stakes do people start getting stacks in light?

 

[OMGITSOVER9K]

dunno I'd ask Acky/Deco for stars since he plays highest, I just flat AA/KK etc IP vs EP raises from regs that fold to 3bets a lot and 3bet light a ****load IP.

 

[vanquish]

i remember at like .5/1 FR stacking off w/ AKo pre was borderline suicide, then at like 2/4 people would be shipping it with TT+, AQ+. i guess that's considered "light"

 

[TylerN]

the most important thing i find is actually making notes. "(not) aggro w/ FD" is one of my standard notes these days once you see a couple hands go to showdown, you can make much better reads later...

and other than that - i really am finding baluga's chapter on hand reading very instructional go look it up if you have not read it before.

I did read it before! But I've forgotten it a bit

Tylers ballin with that AK

do people 5b stack worse at FR on your site?

Because Lock doesn't have a big player field, you develop a lot of history with basically all the regs since your playing with them on a daily basis so ya people stack worse on Lock

This is HU so obv different but it's the most recent hand I could find

Revolution Gaming Network - $0.50 NL (9 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: $50.75
Hero (SB): $52.25

Hero posts SB $0.25, BB posts BB $0.50

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.75) Hero has Q:heart: Q:spade:

Hero raises to $1.17, BB raises to $3.34, Hero raises to $9.00, BB raises to $50.75 and is all-in, Hero calls $41.75

Flop: ($101.50, 2 players) Q:club: J:spade: 8:club:

Turn: ($101.50, 2 players) 8:heart:

River: ($101.50, 2 players) 8:diamond:

BB shows A:diamond: T:heart: (Three of a Kind, Eights) (Pre 28%, Flop 25%, Turn 0%)
Hero shows Q:heart: Q:spade: (Full House, Queens full of Eights) (Pre 72%, Flop 75%, Turn 100%)
Hero wins $101.00

 

[pocketehs]

I did read it before! But I've forgotten it a bit



Because Lock doesn't have a big player field, you develop a lot of history with basically all the regs since your playing with them on a daily basis so ya people stack worse on Lock

This is HU so obv different but it's the most recent hand I could find

Revolution Gaming Network - $0.50 NL (9 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: $50.75
Hero (SB): $52.25

Hero posts SB $0.25, BB posts BB $0.50

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.75) Hero has Q♥ Q♠

Hero raises to $1.17, BB raises to $3.34, Hero raises to $9.00, BB raises to $50.75 and is all-in, Hero calls $41.75

Flop: ($101.50, 2 players) Q♣ J♠ 8♣

Turn: ($101.50, 2 players) 8♥

River: ($101.50, 2 players) 8♦

BB shows A♦ T♥ (Three of a Kind, Eights) (Pre 28%, Flop 25%, Turn 0%)
Hero shows Q♥ Q♠ (Full House, Queens full of Eights) (Pre 72%, Flop 75%, Turn 100%)
Hero wins $101.00

Im def not playing 50nl but I feel like villain calling off with ATo here is so bad. Maybe someone could explain a bit better but are you really ever going to ship HU with like 77-99 or any worse aces for 100bbs?

 

[youregoodmate]

Im def not playing 50nl but I feel like villain calling off with ATo here is so bad. Maybe someone could explain a bit better but are you really ever going to ship HU with like 77-99 or any worse aces for 100bbs?

I guess this really depends on history, but yeah I know what you mean, is A10 ever getting called by worse here?

 

[WVHillbilly]

I guess this really depends on history, but yeah I know what you mean, is A10 ever getting called by worse here?

Never getting called by better but it can get better to fold. Just depends on how often he thinks Tyler is 4bet bluffing there and how many better Aces he thinks Tyler calls the shove with. Remember when he does get called he'll usually have 30% equity with the Ace.

 

[OMGITSOVER9K]

its not the point..

villain didn't call off, and hero can have light 4bets here a lot since its HU.

he's not shoving for value.. but i dunno if he ever gets better to fold that 4bets pre since we're not like 4bet folding AJ type hands too often. (just feels like his mistake is just compiling by 3betting a good flatting hand, unless Hero flats 3bets IP a lot making the 3bet for value)

if you're only stacking AA/KK pre then people can 4bet your 3bets like 100% and show profit surely?

5bet shoving pairs is better than absolute bluffs because when you're called you're flipping with AK/AQ and have equity vs bigger pairs. I remember Vanessa Selbst explaining that as part of her reasoning in that LOL hand vs Kevin Macphee in the EPT.

Tyler is that 4bet size standard (HU, FR/Short-handed) or just to make it easier for him to 5b jam over?

edit:

Never getting called by better but it can get better to fold. Just depends on how often he thinks Tyler is 4bet bluffing there and how many better Aces he thinks Tyler calls the shove with. Remember when he does get called he'll usually have 30% equity with the Ace.

this as well (the 30% bit) but I figured Tylers 4bet calling AQ/AK ands flatting all his other A's so either he's calling off or he has worse.

 

[pocketehs]

its not the point..

villain didn't call off, and hero can have light 4bets here a lot since its HU.

he's not shoving for value.. but i dunno if he ever gets better to fold that 4bets pre since we're not like 4bet folding AJ type hands too often. (just feels like his mistake is just compiling by 3betting a good flatting hand, unless Hero flats 3bets IP a lot making the 3bet for value)



edit:

this as well (the 30% bit) but I figured Tylers 4bet calling AQ/AK ands flatting all his other A's so either he's calling off or he has worse.

screwed up and misread the hand. feel like an idiot now. I understand a little bit better why the villain would do this then. Tell me if Im wrong but by him shippin the AT he has the initative and would put Tyler in a tougher spot with his weaker 3-bet hands like 77-99 but it just happens that tyler had the higher part of his 3-betting range?

 

[OMGITSOVER9K]

4bet hands dude

but I dunno how often Tylers 4betting 77-99 really.

which is why I hate his shove..

maybe there's a dynamic, Tyler already said there's loads of history between regs.

 

[TylerN]

Well I wouldn't be 3b/f 77-99 since I can flat so it wouldn't be a tough spot

Edit: ill expand on this in a bit but im grinding and shouldnt be on here

 

[TylerN]

Tyler is that 4bet size standard (HU, FR/Short-handed) or just to make it easier for him to 5b jam over?

I made it that size due to the small 3b because of my small open and I feel I would be getting exploited if I made it my standard 11-12

 

[youregoodmate]

Never getting called by better but it can get better to fold. Just depends on how often he thinks Tyler is 4bet bluffing there and how many better Aces he thinks Tyler calls the shove with. Remember when he does get called he'll usually have 30% equity with the Ace.

Yeah, I think any hand ahead of A10 is 4 bet calling and any hand behind will be 4 bet folding, so the A10 shove just seems spewy.

 

[hackmeplz]

There's just no possible way shoving AT can be good there. If he's gonna get spewy he should just call the 4b given he's dominating a decent amount of tyler's 4b bluff range.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Nah it's clearly a call

What you doing to work on hand reading?

I assume this was, in fact, directed at me?

You are like 10x the hand reader I am, though I am improving tremendously. I had been reading some stuff about it (need to get on track and start reading Ed Miller again), but the biggest things for me were painting broad categories to put opponents in to, and actually making sure I am focusing.

When I focus I hand-read, when I don't, I play with too much intuition/too quickly. But saying opponent is loose/tight preflop has helped me a ton. Creating villain cold-calling ranges for different types of players pre has helped me to have a much better starting point for hand-reading in tough spots. Some players I still have to shrug and say they can have ATC pre, b/c often we just don't KNOW their ranges. Not so goo about note-taking after SD yet, but as was said, taking notes helps to construct a framework for a preflop range (and ranges in different spots).

But really, understanding how different players weigh their preflop calling ranges has helped me cbet so much more effectively. For example, people calling 10% preflop raises are going to be extremely heavily weighted toward low and mid PPs. When certain players raise certain board textures I can say without a doubt it's a set and get away from stupid AA etc.

In terms of postflop, it's tough because I still sometimes try to use my own logic and apply it to my opponents range, when that player clearly doesn't think the way I do. But I'm getting much better - at this point need to start trusting my reads.

I also had made a couple vids of me playing 4nl a few months ago, and talking out my thought process. I watched them this week and hand-read/critiqued myself and also got to see some of my progress, which was cool. I find it way more helpful to practice hand-reading "in real time" while watching a vid (or sweating, hint hint), rather than doing it with a HH - it's so much more realistic and similar to actual play. I feel like a lot of times people actually over-analyze HHs, or at the very least, go through thought-processes that I personally would never have time to go through at the table.

If you want to talk hand-reading or sweat sometime lemme know. I need study help all the time.

 

[TylerN]

Forgot to update yesterday's session

Only 1.3k hands up 1.5bi so pretty disappointed with my volume but only had the morning to grind and as I've said before, when there's like 6 tables running its tough to have a good h/hr. Think it was 650h/hr yesterday

Didn't have any tough spots at all and didn't even get any full stacks or lose 100bb, just a pretty solid session overall and I really feel like this thread and the advise has helped me a lot already. Posting stats since the revelation in about 2-3 days depending on my volume.

Yay for fish but this is also something I recently heard in a vid where maybe awhile back, I would have just shoved over his flop donk, but by raising to whatever he has left it doesn't look as intimating as say a complete shove which would have around 40ish and could induce more calls since they may think its not as much put to the rest of their stack in

Revolution Gaming Network - $0.50 NL (9 max) - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: $27.40
UTG+1: $13.50
UTG+2: $15.00
Hero (MP): $50.00
MP+1: $22.60
CO: $29.15
BTN: $21.35
SB: $49.50
BB: $25.61

SB posts SB $0.25, BB posts BB $0.50

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.75) Hero has A:spade: K:club:

UTG raises to $1.75, fold, fold, Hero raises to $4.70, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, UTG calls $2.95

Flop: ($10.15, 2 players) 2:heart: 5:diamond: K:diamond:
UTG bets $5.08, Hero raises to $25.00, UTG calls $17.62 and is all-in

Turn: ($55.55, 2 players) 9:spade:

River: ($55.55, 2 players) 9:heart:

UTG shows Q:diamond: K:heart: (Two Pair, Kings and Nines) (Pre 26%, Flop 17%, Turn 7%)
Hero shows A:spade: K:club: (Two Pair, Kings and Nines) (Pre 74%, Flop 83%, Turn 93%)
Hero wins $52.80


Oh and I'm in between classes atm so going to grind again in about 4hrs!!! arty:

 

[youregoodmate]

Well the villain couldnt have played this much worse ^ you probably just took his whole roll.

 

[fp35wj0]

nice job.

 

[TylerN]

Sorry for the lack of updates been really busy and only have grinded then had to be somewhere, but will do a brief update now.

Played 3k hands since the last update and up 3bi's so things have been going pretty well

What do you guys think about this

Revolution Gaming Network - $0.50 NL (9 max) - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): $50.00
SB: $10.58
BB: $26.34
UTG: $59.81
UTG+1: $58.92
UTG+2: $63.00
MP: $53.90
MP+1: $47.50
CO: $50.00

SB posts SB $0.25, BB posts BB $0.50

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.75) Hero has 5:heart: Q:heart:

fold, fold, fold, MP raises to $1.50, fold, fold, Hero raises to $4.50, fold, fold, MP raises to $10.00, Hero raises to $50.00 and is all-in


He is 15/12 with ft3b 70% and 4b 12%. We had a huge amount of history that day since we started tables together HU and had an interesting preflop dynamic going where we were 4betting a lot. This carried on across the other tables and he had been 4betting me at least 3x's in just an hour. We have 27% vs a calling range of JJ+,AK. Thoughts?

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For my asian followers

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[youregoodmate]

I guess if you're prepared to shove when he 4 bets everytime then I dont mind the 3 bet as much. Q5 isnt really ideal for this though, I say fold it and wait for a pair or Ax to do it with.

 

[WVHillbilly]

Don't bluff 3bet it if you know he's likely to 4bet. You should certainly expand your value 3bet range but I don't think you can go quite as far as Q5s.