VIDEO DISCUSSION: no eff eks 1 - Absolute $25nl HU (deep + short stacks)

[Trikkur]

**THIS THREAD IS FOR DISCUSSION OF no eff eks 1 - Absolute $25nl HU (deep + short stacks)**

I play two tables of $25nl HU on AP (Cereus) and tangle with a variety of opponents. I face 4 different short stacks and one huge fish that buys in for 200bb. It's a good example of how to play a LAG game HU at the micro stakes. Video is about 50 minutes in length, it's in WMV format, and the file is ~66mb in size. Unfortunately the screen got cut off a bit on the right side, but you don't miss anything important. Watch it for strategy content or watch to critique my play, either way I'll be happy... enjoy!

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Please leave any comments or questions to the video creator below.

[Boofhead]

Thanks man, really enjoyed this video and would love to see some more.
I'm looking to build my roll starting at 25NL HU.

Could you help me out in picking a few sites to bonus whore 25nl HU? Obviously Absolute poker.

Or is it too slow going bonus whoring at only 25nl?

[no eff eks]

Hey man, really glad you like the video. As far as bonus whoring... It's mainly a thing of the past these days, especially for US facing sites.

IMO Absolute Poker is your best bet (30% rakeback and a VIP system that isn't as good as Stars that's about it's only competition imo).

Check your PM's.

[Boofhead]

The PM's musn't be working because I have no PM's

Well I'm an Aussie player so I don't have to worry about that stuff.

[no eff eks]

Heh, well I had typed out a response to your PM and then apparently forgot to send it. Sorry.... I'll try to get around to responding (again) in the next few hours.

[chinz]

You shouldn't be playing someone with less than 50bb if he 3bets 50% of hands OOP. You are just gonna get into sick variance war and with that short of stacks you both probably end up losing.

You should consider limping from the button when someone 3bets you all the time, if you are not defending hands like T8s to (almost) min-3bet.

Overall your biggest leak seems to be playing too much suited hands and too little highcard value hands like KTo against shortstacks. Against 50bb KTo is a lot better hand than 56s.

---

Ok... the actual hands next:

Your stacking off with K4 in the beginning was a big spew. You are flipping against one hand and losing to everything else he could have.

5:00
You fold 22 when shortstack 3bets you (and it's first hand of the match). That is easy shove, you have at least 50% of FE and you are flipping most of the time when he calls.

5:25
You have KTo and you fold, when you should bet thinking "should I call or 3bet?". The 45 VPIP (around 30 VPIP on the BB) style that many good players use against unknowns includes defending with T9o+, J9o+, Q9o+, K9+ and A8o+.

9:50
You fold TJo from the BB, because he's not deep. When his button VPIP is 100 and he plays bad, I am calling and playing for stacks (35bb) with a top pair.

10:00
6QQ4 board and you check with 84o. You are not probably getting any value by betting (except from A highs) but you should defend your hand.

11:20
That K-high should be insta-fold with no better reads, you seem to think that for a long time. He might have something like K-high flushdraw with better kicker or pair+draw that missed, even if he wasn't valuebetting all streets.

13:45
You have 2nd pair no kicker and bottom pair doubles on the turn... You say you are "shoving for value" with FD as a help... That is a huge spew. Think about it, if he has a hand, it is either better 2nd pair, bottom pair, top pair or overpair. Every single one of them beats you, and all the bluffs/draws are folding to a shove.

You say "I think it's just a cooler" when you basically donated your stack to him with a (very bad) bluff. You haven't seem him bet with air even once and you assume that he 2 barrells you with air?

15:00
Villain has 50VPIP from the button and you cbet 5TQ monotone flop, which is crushing his range. Works this time, but this is actually a good flop to check behind, especially when you have showdown value.

16:30
"If I spike trips or two pair, I'm getting all of his chips, I mean, he's never folding once he 3bets preflop" WTF? How did you come up with that? He hasn't been showing down a single weak hand (with a lot of action) when you get to showdown.

17:05
You open AQo to 3bb when you open all the weaker hands to 2bb from the BTN.

21:45
You don't raise KTo from OOP when he limps, uou should. KTo is a strong hand against his raising range, even more so against his limping range. You also have FE.

24:25
You call OOP with 37s against shortstack, when you should be folding regardless of the stacks.

25:10
You were thinking about donking, but decided to check-call which is very good. You are missing value (and getting owned by better hands) if you donk this one.

26:40
He hasn't shown any interest to winning the pot, so I would semibluff with my openender here.

28:10
He had 9 high and a gutshot, standard call to a shove...

32:35
You should bet the turn with 2nd pair A kicker.

34:20
"I don't think he's folding enough BB to make opening K3 profitable" or something like that. You have the position, so as cwar (if I remember right) has said: "if someone flats every time, I open every button". While that might not be the case, any Kx or Ax is worth opening against someone who is not folding preflop. You have his range crushed (and he gives you 1-2 streets of value with 2nd or 3rd pair).

36:40
Rake is not capped yet and he is just about never calling with worse... You should check-call instead of check-raising. 47 also goes well along his line, he didn't cbet the flop because he had an openender etc... So you have almost zero value in raising, but you might valuetown yourself and/or just lose more in rake if he has 4 too.

40:05
You seem surprised when your 4th pair is good when he minbets the river. He has minbetted every single river so far and the previous time he had J high. That is a snapcall, not some "ok, let's see what he had" call.

44:40
He hasn't been raising you too much and even if he did, he could have hit the A. I would just fold my 2nd pair with weak kicker on the turn. Even the draw (KQ) got there. But anyway, you were right, nh

When he raises the flop and he calls, that A is actually a decent card for him to barrell... It wasn't as bad as you say.

46:50
Excellent check-back against this opponent on the flop. Nice turn card btw.

47:30
Bet the turn for protection and value against this villain.

48:00
He did THE EXACT SAME line last time when he had top pair on the paired board. I would snapfold this. He hasn't made a single "normal sized" river bluff yet. I know it sound VERY weak to fold this, but he hasn't shown any tendancy to bluff like this. I was thinking to myself "he MUST have an ace here" when you were flipping the coin.

48:50
Flush draw got there, 2 doubled up -> if he hit the flop at all he beats you now. He also hasn't been betting big on the river as a bluff. Easy fold... as you finally did.

50:00
No, you really SHOULD NOT cbet this flop. He's very passive so you can probably get two free cards. And he's fold to cbet is 20% and your 8 high is never good here. You are losing money by cbetting this.




PS. Specially when you are playing regulars or otherwise nice opponents, it's very polite to let them know 5 or 10 minutes before you are leaving.

[no eff eks]

Didn't notice this post, but I'll give a detailed response later. A couple things stick out though...

First - stacking off with TPNK on the first against a random donk that bought in for the min is a lot more standard than I made it seem in the vid. If you fold here that's pretty bad.

Second - 4-bet shoving 22 is massively -EV on the very first hand against a complete unknown that bought in for the min. Almost all these guys are complete stations and they are only 3betting a very strong range. You have basically zero FE here, and you're in horrible shape against their range.

Third - you mention a hand where I say something like "I'm going to call his 3bet because when I smash the flop I get all his chips", and you say that doesn't make sense because "he's only shown down strong hands". Do you realize why you completely contradict yourself here?

Fourth - You call the hand where I double up the maniac with bottom pair + open ender (or was it a FD?) a huge spew... I'm not sure what you're putting him on, but the vast majority of his range on the turn is complete air when he takes this line. When I say I can't decide whether to shove or call for value it means I think I'm ahead of his range -- I really don't see how you could disagree when this guy had been extremely aggro and basically suicidal the entire match. A winning 200nl HU reg agrees with my analysis of this hand fwiw.

I don't really remember a ton of specifics from this video, so like I said before I'll respond with my detail later.

Thanks for watching, and thanks for the detailed comments. I really do appreciate it even if I sometimes don't agree with your analysis.