Matt Vaughan (Poker Vlogger) - Ask Me Anything - Including Hand Analysis

[Matt Vaughan]

Hey everyone, my name is Matt Vaughan, and many of you will actually know me from years of posting on the forum. Lurker since 2008ish, and poster since 2011ish I think.

I'm a poker pro, vlogger, and coach, and now a CardsChat Professional. I'm so excited to be back on CardsChat in an official capacity. If you'd like to take a look at what I do day to day, the best places to find me are:

https://www.youtube.com/MattVaughan

• Poker vlogs weekly
• Streaming online play once a month or more during online WSOP

Matt Vaughan on Twitch

• Very occasional streaming if I get bored of YouTube streaming

https://www.youtube.com/CardsChat

• Strategy and hand review videos monthly
• Streaming Q&As and play & explains occasionally

Live Online Grind: ... Don’t Get In An UPROAR About It

• Progress thread I've maintained on and off for years
• Looking to maintain it with somewhere between daily and weekly posts (more of a check in)

I'm also on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as mEVpoker, so feel free to drop follows or questions any of those places.

Last but not least... I'll be in this thread! :angel:

The purpose is to give you guys a platform to ask me strategy questions, send me hand histories, or just gain insight into the mind of a pro poker player and content creator...

I'll respond to every question here, but the best hands and questions sent in might make it onto a YouTube video!

I'm looking forward to interacting with everybody here and elsewhere on the internet. Ask away!

 

[Propane Goat]

Congratulations on the promotion Matt!

I had a question regarding the amount of effort and learning that it would take an average person to consistently make money in online poker today vs. during the Moneymaker boom.

I've heard from some sources that it's much harder to get to that breakeven point and become a winning player today than it was back then due to fewer fish at the tables and smaller/more segregated player pools and wanted to see what your opinion was.

 

[Debi]

So glad to have you back in the forum - this will be an amazing thread!

 

[Debi]

Were you comfortable vlogging from the start - or were you nervous at first?

 

[DaveE]

Nice to see you in this position Matt. I recently watch your $100K youtube vid, what a ride that was

You've been a member of this forum forever. :top: My question is, would be willing to give free MTT coaching to WVH if he wanted it?

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Congratulations on the promotion Matt!

I had a question regarding the amount of effort and learning that it would take an average person to consistently make money in online poker today vs. during the Moneymaker boom.

I've heard from some sources that it's much harder to get to that breakeven point and become a winning player today than it was back then due to fewer fish at the tables and smaller/more segregated player pools and wanted to see what your opinion was.

Thanks! And great question.

I had a super long reply written out but then my computer crashed and didn't save it so I'll try to be a bit briefer and still capture what I had written.

In the Moneymaker era everything was largely based on experience, intuition, and adapting to your opponents. There were very few resources, so you either went it alone or found friends to figure it out with.

Today, there are tons of resources: poker forums, youtube channels, training sites, books, solvers, and other poker software. So the barrier of entry to building a rudimentary, but solid foundation to your game is much lower. The time required to get there is lower, but I would say the effort is probably substantially higher because a lot more goes into that foundation than it used to.

But overall a lot of this is moot because why you play the game should dictate how you approach study, volume, etc, and the key to finding happiness in this game usually means a sweet spot where you make money that influences your life in a positive way, but where the swings don't hurt you too much mentally.

This means most people aren't trying to radically rise through the ranks, and so achieving a breakeven to profitable win rate is more achievable for most rather than for those interested in climbing to the nose bleeds. However the win rates are also capped a lot lower which means you can't make tons just multi-tabling 25nl like you potentially could back in the day.

Thanks for your question!

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Were you comfortable vlogging from the start - or were you nervous at first?

Definitely nervous! When I first started it was because I was quitting my traditional 9-5 to pursue poker (playing, coaching, and content creation) and figured it might be a cool story, plus a fun way to keep a bit of a "journal" for myself.

It for sure was, but I didn't have as much of the skills required to make content consistently at a high level, and one of my biggest gaps was camera comfort. It's VERY different speaking to a camera than to a friend, and it really shows in my early content.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Nice to see you in this position Matt. I recently watch your $100K youtube vid, what a ride that was

You've been a member of this forum forever. :top: My question is, would be willing to give free MTT coaching to WVH if he wanted it?

Thanks Kcanuck!

Hahahah I would be willing to entertain something like that if I could use it for content and WVH was willing!

 

[David macdonald]

Congratulations Matt on making poker a success for yourself.

I am a small streamer and I am slowly building my followers, I am trying to learn more as I go along, I do need to focus more time into study than playing which is probably my downfall.

I have recently got access to a preflop solver called floptimal thanks to Debbie at Cardschat, I definately need to study more game theory, think I will dedicate one full day per week to poker study.

Its good to see a CC member on here that has done well, gives me some hope for the future!

Good luck, maybe see you at the tables.

 

[David macdonald]

Matt I really like your layover it looks cool with the greeen lines moving around the camera box ect, I need to learn how to make mine look better on twitch, just unsure how to do that?

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Congratulations Matt on making poker a success for yourself.

I am a small streamer and I am slowly building my followers, I am trying to learn more as I go along, I do need to focus more time into study than playing which is probably my downfall.

I have recently got access to a preflop solver called floptimal thanks to Debbie at Cardschat, I definately need to study more game theory, think I will dedicate one full day per week to poker study.

Its good to see a CC member on here that has done well, gives me some hope for the future!

Good luck, maybe see you at the tables.

Matt I really like your layover it looks cool with the greeen lines moving around the camera box ect, I need to learn how to make mine look better on twitch, just unsure how to do that?

It takes a lot of work. I paid someone on Fiverr to make the overlay (which is fully static), and then I just decided what other aesthetic pieces I wanted to add and took care of that myself. I use Streamlabs OBS for my streaming software, and that works pretty well for me.

The rest is just a long history of messing around with design tools and having an eye for design in general. A lot of it comes with time and experience and just being willing to have fun with it! My first few Twitch overlays were awful lol.

 

[David macdonald]

It takes a lot of work. I paid someone on Fiverr to make the overlay (which is fully static), and then I just decided what other aesthetic pieces I wanted to add and took care of that myself. I use Streamlabs OBS for my streaming software, and that works pretty well for me.

The rest is just a long history of messing around with design tools and having an eye for design in general. A lot of it comes with time and experience and just being willing to have fun with it! My first few Twitch overlays were awful lol.

Ok thanks Matt mine are pretty crap too lol, Looking to re do it again soon.

 

[David macdonald]

When you say fully static what do you mean by that ?

Thanks

 

[konatus]

How to become a good MTT poker player?

 

[dallam]

Hi Matt,

I'm Jani, spending most of my poker time playing tournaments on PS. There you can see every stats clearly, I have some theories and because of that some questions about it.

I do see that online poker' MTTs back up those who tend to play many hands, they will have simply more action hands as time goes on and passive players maybe don't. Do the levels (micro-high) have an actual number of parties we should play?

Another thing is that bad beats are always included, and we could be really glad if we survive them with the less chips loss. Should we really afraid of them if we can minimalise the amount of lost chips, or statistically there's also a ratio we can follow in online poker. (I believe it can be)

One last question, which is really pokerstars specific. So many times I set up to see players from countries. I recognised when most of the players from your country standing great or amazing, at certain stages you can/will loose flips or parties and if they are standing poor or out you can hit it more easier. Can it be a thing that somehow the software try to balance the number of players country-specific as well when it comes to ITM, big results etc.?

These 3 are my most interesting observations through the years maybe you can strenghten me that the numbers can be extended areas like these.

Thank you for carying for the members here, good luck on your fields.

 

[David macdonald]

Hey Matt, I finished creating my own animated overlay looks pretty cool. You inspired me to do this.

Thanks

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Hey Matt, I finished creating my own animated overlay looks pretty cool. You inspired me to do this.

Thanks

Amazing, David! Taking that first step to just DO IT is most important, so well done.

Hi Matt,

I'm Jani, spending most of my poker time playing tournaments on PS. There you can see every stats clearly, I have some theories and because of that some questions about it.

I do see that online poker' MTTs back up those who tend to play many hands, they will have simply more action hands as time goes on and passive players maybe don't. Do the levels (micro-high) have an actual number of parties we should play?

I think you're asking about different styles of poker here, and is it better to play more hands, or fewer? This is a pretty deep question but the root of it is: How many hands can YOU play profitably, or at better than 0 EV? In general, if you can play a hand without losing EV by playing it, you always should.

Figuring out what hands you can play profitably isn't easy. Some websites have preflop ranges published that you can work on memorizing so you can use them. They are going to be profitable if you play postflop more or less perfectly. So it isn't necessarily the best thing to do immediately. Transitioning toward optimal ranges should be an ongoing process in my opinion.

Another thing is that bad beats are always included, and we could be really glad if we survive them with the less chips loss. Should we really afraid of them if we can minimalise the amount of lost chips, or statistically there's also a ratio we can follow in online poker. (I believe it can be)

Bad beats are unavoidable in poker. There is no magic solution to make sure you're always on the correct end of big hands. Variance is part of the game. Losing hands is part of the game.

One last question, which is really Pokerstars specific. So many times I set up to see players from countries. I recognised when most of the players from your country standing great or amazing, at certain stages you can/will loose flips or parties and if they are standing poor or out you can hit it more easier. Can it be a thing that somehow the software try to balance the number of players country-specific as well when it comes to ITM, big results etc.?

These 3 are my most interesting observations through the years maybe you can strenghten me that the numbers can be extended areas like these.

Thank you for carying for the members here, good luck on your fields.

If you are playing on a reputable poker site like Pokerstars, whose random number generator is licensed and approved, there is nothing unfair ever going on with flips. They are not "trying to make certain players win" or make sure different countries or player types are represented.

 

[jsnake716]

Hey everyone, my name is Matt Vaughan, and many of you will actually know me from years of posting on the forum. Lurker since 2008ish, and poster since 2011ish I think.

I'm a poker pro, vlogger, and coach, and now a CardsChat Professional. I'm so excited to be back on CardsChat in an official capacity. If you'd like to take a look at what I do day to day, the best places to find me are:

https://www.youtube.com/MattVaughan

• Poker vlogs weekly
• Streaming online play once a month or more during online WSOP

Matt Vaughan on Twitch

• Very occasional streaming if I get bored of YouTube streaming

https://www.youtube.com/CardsChat

• Strategy and hand review videos monthly
• Streaming Q&As and play & explains occasionally

Live Online Grind: ... Don’t Get In An UPROAR About It

• Progress thread I've maintained on and off for years
• Looking to maintain it with somewhere between daily and weekly posts (more of a check in)

I'm also on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as mEVpoker, so feel free to drop follows or questions any of those places.

Last but not least... I'll be in this thread! :angel:

The purpose is to give you guys a platform to ask me strategy questions, send me hand histories, or just gain insight into the mind of a pro poker player and content creator...

I'll respond to every question here, but the best hands and questions sent in might make it onto a YouTube video!

I'm looking forward to interacting with everybody here and elsewhere on the internet. Ask away!

Hey Matt,
Happy to see you with a sponsorship. I was watching your vlogs , awhile back. I have not been watching lately, BUT that has nothing to do with you. I have not been playing as much and that is when I used to watch the vlogs, going to try and jump back in, anyway , hope to see you post some information for the masses . Good Luck!!

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Hey Matt,
Happy to see you with a sponsorship. I was watching your vlogs , awhile back. I have not been watching lately, BUT that has nothing to do with you. I have not been playing as much and that is when I used to watch the vlogs, going to try and jump back in, anyway , hope to see you post some information for the masses . Good Luck!!

Thanks so much!! I'm going to be pumping out a lot more content very soon and I'm super pumped for it.

 

[akmost]

Hey Matt , I will post a hand for analysis , it's about a $1.10 regular speed on ACR , I don't know if you like the small buy ins because people random clicking a lot there(and me) but I guess there is some ICM considerations etc. We are at the final table and we are facing a river lead shove for our tournament life.

Preflop: IMHO this OR is on the wider side but the line up wasn't super aggressive.
Flop: Standard cbet with the range advantage , this time I made it bigger in order to build the pot with this beautiful flop // I decided to just call his check raise , I think I don't have any reason to jam here
Turn:A little scary card plus I wanted to pot control and decide on the river
River: Seriously I don't know. I won't try to talk about value/bluff combos because I am not that good.


Yatahay Network - 12000/24000 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 30.96 BB
SB: 9.98 BB
BB: 34.66 BB
Hero (UTG): 32.42 BB
UTG+1: 23.36 BB
MP: 19.39 BB
MP+1: 59.59 BB
CO: 19.22 BB

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has J♦ Q♦

Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1 BB

Flop: (5.5 BB, 2 players) 6♦ T♦ Q♥
BB checks, Hero bets 3.63 BB, BB raises to 10.01 BB, Hero calls 6.38 BB

Turn: (25.52 BB, 2 players) A♠
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (25.52 BB, 2 players) J♠
BB bets 22.53 BB and is all-in, Hero ?

You commented in the past again in a Hand Analysis question of mine and I really appreciate your thoughts and your time. Hope you find interesting this spot as well!

Thanks a lot!

 

[jgreenman18]

Do you like a call here late in a tournament with ICM considerations.

Ignition Hand #4374599752: HOLDEM Tournament #M-20210824193623 TBL#13, Turbo- Level 29 (12500/25000) [MVS] - 2021-08-24 23:11:17 UTC
Table Info: Version: 1, Type: MVS, Stakes: 12,500-25,000, Table: 000303B2-0, Buyin: $30+$3, TableType: MTT

Seat 140: Big Blind [ME] (699,645 in chips)
Seat 205: Dealer (635,764 in chips)
Seat 211: Small Blind (794,591 in chips)
Big Blind [ME] : Ante chip 2,500
Dealer : Ante chip 2,500
Small Blind : Ante chip 2,500
Small Blind : Small Blind 12,500
Big Blind [ME] : Big Blind 25,000

*** HOLE CARDS ***
HERO [ME] : Card dealt to a spot [Ah Qd]
Small Blind : Card dealt to a spot (XX)
Dealer : Calls 25,000
Small Blind : Calls 12,500
Big Blind [ME] : Raises 105,000 to 130,000
Dealer : Calls 105,000
Small Blind : All-in(raise) 767,091 to 792,091
HERO [ME] ?

Please note I do not have player tendencies much as this is a random pool on ignition. I have not seen this limp rereaise before from villain and I presume the button calling range to be weak. with 260 dead already from me and button I think this spot is close. However, I am not well versed in ICM perhaps this a punt due to that. It feels as if I am near the top of my range in this example and if I were to fold am I really only calling this type of line with AK JJ+? They payouts were roughly 600, 820, 1.1k . Villain has played relatively well up to this point with good aggressive play.

 

[saintsfangirl]

Hi!
I retired early a couple of years ago try to play a week or so a month in tournament poker and see if I could be successful.

I really want to get started doing video blogs etc of my travels for poker including some video of the area, the people and specific hands.

I really have no clue how to start as far as the technology side goes. Any tips you can give me?

Thanks!
Chris Read

 

[kltwomey]

Study and improving your game

What would you say is the most important habit to cultivate to improve your poker game?

 

[ElmerS]

Starting hands Sit and Go

Hello Matt

I was wondering what your starting hand range you would recommended for $3 sit and go's 9 handed at 888poker.
I struggle with the 40/20-5 and 60/30-5 levels because I think I want to steal too often.
Can you help me?

Elmer

 

[ebazynski]

River bets

Hi Matt,

I was wondering what you thought about not betting the river when you're pretty sure you're ahead, so that you can go to showdown and get a look at you opponents cards?

Many people recommend value betting to pressure your opponent into either folding or paying you off, but sometimes I just want a better idea of their opening range. I've done this both in MTT's and micro-stake cash games. Is this a good strategy? Thanks