100nl Heads Up Video

[tony89]

Hey folks,

I made a video of myself playing 100nl heads up but don't really want to post it on 2+2 as I don't want the other regs at my stakes to see how I play. So I'm going to post it here and on the ukstudentpoker website instead. All thoughts/comments are appreciated. Let me know what you think of my play and also whether you liked the video in general or not. If theres a decent amount of feedback I'll probably post some more videos in the future... if not I'll just post them on 2+2 instead (which again I don't really like doing.) Heres the link:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=50FGUE8Y

Cheers,
Tony.

[Birkin]

Thanks for this, I'll watch it later today and give some feedback. I'm sure most of the advice you'd get from 2+2 would be awful anyway.

[Birkin]

Thanks for the video. You articulate your thought process better than most people I know, and it was useful watching you play.

Here are my thoughts, they might be a little poorly worded because I wrote them while watching.

Q4o - i think a flop raise to 18 (3x) is better, a small raise makes it easier for him to bet/3bet with air.

KK - prefer a flop bet because you want to bet your entire range on this board to avoid becoming predictable, and keeping your range for cbetting in 3bet pots wide. Clearly when he has A7 we can now 3bet a lot wider for value.

Like the idea of watching his other tables, can make a bluff/3bet him if he has a hard decision on other tables.

Don't really like cbetting AQJ flop, especially seeing that he will c/r any hand with +6 outs. I agree that if you bet the turn we have to bet the river, but i'd probably wait till I know him better to see his tendencies.

KT on QTT66 - Betting small seems good because you can rep a small blocking bet and get him to spew over with his air.

Q9 on QT473- I think betting the turn is good not only for the reasons you said but also when you check back your range is basically air that's giving up and a load of bluff catching hands, which allows him to value bet thinner on the river. Given his hand its kind of irrelevant, but my point is just that checking the turn removes all good hands from your range except maybe the nuts. Betting the turn is also good for metagame because it helps keep your barrelling range merged.


88 - flatting flop and checking turn seems good. You can lead the turn if you've been floating a lot to get him to hero call with A hi or a middle pair.

KJ on Q4TTQ. I don't really think Qx is in his range all that much as I'd expect him to lead the turn with it the majority of the time. Tx is a possibility but I also expect him to bet that too. I don't expect him to valuebet A hi here (he'd probably c/c), so I think flatting is the best option as we beat a lot of hands that he bets here (55-99).

[tony89]

Hi mate, thanks a lot for the reply and analysis I found it very useful and I realise its pretty time consuming to do. Here is what I think about your thoughts:

Q4- I kind of disagree, I think once I raise he will play pretty straightforward regardless of raise size. If he was bluffing he will fold and if not he will call and we have achieved the same for cheaper. Even most fish are not so spazzy as to bet/3bet with air in this spot early on.

KK- yeah agreed completely.

AQJ - yup I agree it wasnt a very good spot to c bet. My turn/river bets were maybe a bit of fancy play syndrome as at these stakes its usually not that smart to try and get someone off their hand when their range comprises a lot of 2 pair hands (even if the relative strength vs what i'm repping is just a bluff catcher.) Also, I think maybe I should have changed plans on this river as it does improve his hand fairly often A10 J10 Q10 are all very reasonable for him to have. Meh I don't know I'm pretty undecided about whether I like my play here.

K10 - with hindsight I actually disagree. I think the small bet was good with the straight vs my first opponent. But in this situation, the villain most likely has: a flush, qx, 6x, bluff(ace of diamonds high probably.) These are all hands he probably thinks are strong enough to call a bet regardless of the size with (apart from ace high obviously) and I don't think the bet size will really induce too many bluffs in this specific spot as I did at the time.

Q9 - I agree completely about keeping barrelling range merged as a general theoretical consideration although Im not sure its too relevant in the average game. I don't really follow why "removing all good hands from my range" would be a problem when checking the turn... My main consideration in this spot would be 1. is the opponent going to be stubborn with 10x on the turn but more likely to fold it if I check turn/bet river. 2. is he the type (usually a fish) to try some wacky reverse float and call flop and lead river as a bluff when I check turn showing weakness. Given this opponent I agree turn is probably closer to a bet than check.

88 - calling flop, then leading the turn here is kind of interesting as it might get more value from a person who (unlike the opponent) is pot controling with 7x on the turn. However, it kind of over reps our hand as 4x and I would expect it to get a tonne of respect the first time we do it.

KJ - I don't agree that he would lead the turn very often with Qx. I don't necessarily think it would be a bad play with say AQ if he happened to flat preflop as I will pot control this turn a lot. However, donking into the person who has the betting initiative is really not too common a play from an average regular and I would expect 90% of players to take this line with qx hands. I agree he can have counterfeited pairs sometimes but i think calling is pretty optimistic in this spot so would just fold.

Thanks again for taking the time to watch/analyse, let me know if you disagree with what I'm saying here. Also, if you can be bothered making a video is a pretty useful way to improve your game, and if you posted it here I would return the favour of watching/analysing. I use the program camtasia, theres a free trial and its pretty easy to use but if you are interested but can't work it out, let me know and I'll show you how it works.

Cheers, Tony.

[Birkin]

"Q4- I kind of disagree, I think once I raise he will play pretty straightforward regardless of raise size. If he was bluffing he will fold and if not he will call and we have achieved the same for cheaper. Even most fish are not so spazzy as to bet/3bet with air in this spot early on."

Yeah I agree on reflection. I think if there's history or you think you're going to be playing someone a lot, then the bigger betsize is probably better because then you can bet bigger when you actually have a hand to avoid giving off betsizing tells. Against someone with no history, a smaller bet is probably better.

"AQJ - yup I agree it wasnt a very good spot to c bet. My turn/river bets were maybe a bit of fancy play syndrome as at these stakes its usually not that smart to try and get someone off their hand when their range comprises a lot of 2 pair hands (even if the relative strength vs what i'm repping is just a bluff catcher.) Also, I think maybe I should have changed plans on this river as it does improve his hand fairly often A10 J10 Q10 are all very reasonable for him to have. Meh I don't know I'm pretty undecided about whether I like my play here."

The river is a very marginal spot. Its weird because you really don't want to go to showdown and give him so much info on your hand. I think in that hand a boat is definately his most likely hand, as I doubt he'd raise Kx for value.


"K10 - with hindsight I actually disagree. I think the small bet was good with the straight vs my first opponent. But in this situation, the villain most likely has: a flush, qx, 6x, bluff(ace of diamonds high probably.) These are all hands he probably thinks are strong enough to call a bet regardless of the size with (apart from ace high obviously) and I don't think the bet size will really induce too many bluffs in this specific spot as I did at the time."

Good point, I agree its hard to induce on this board. Definately can't check river imo.

88 - Yeah it was hypothetical just saying when you have a history of floating or being aggro on the turn.

KJ - its a hard spot, in game i'd probs fold, but I'll have to think about what his range could be later.

I'll probably make a video at some point, but I can only 2 table 6max because I won't be able to talk through everything if I play more. A 6max video is bound to have a lot more boring gaps so maybe I'll record a session review with some interesting hands or something.

[alanlittle577]

Hey man, really liked the video, hope you can post some more. I agree with alot of what you have said although i disagree with you on the 57 hand. Although a hundred hands isn't a very large sample, you stated that he had a high check raise percentage and when you bet that flop i feel any a8,a7 etc is normally going to check raise to take the pot down there, or find out were he is. Once he just calls i think something like q10,q9,j10,even a slow played k10 is much more likely. Therefore once the 10 hits on the turn i think you have to either give it one more shot (i don't think he can just call here with a weak ace) or slow it down. Once the ten hits the river, i feel there is just too many hands here that he going to call you down with to make this a profitable play. Obviously i don't play these stakes so my thinking could be very flawed. I play mostly heads up online so it would be great to see some more videos in the future.

[tony89]

Hi alan,
Thanks for the reply/analysis. You're right about the 57 hand in so far as it was not great spot to bluff a random 100nl reg. But more because people tend to be calling stations with top pair/2 pair no matter what its relative strength is. I disagree that he would be likely to check raise a8 or a7 on the flop though. "Taking the pot down" is not too big an issue for him as he is either way ahead or way behind most of the time with top pair on an ace high board. Generally check raising ace high boards with weak/mid aces is a play that is made by either really bad or really good agro players but most peoples standard is to check call so ax is definetely a big part of his turn range. Thanks again for the analysis, I'll probably make a 200nl video over christmas and hopefull be able to make a 400nl one in a few months if things go to plan/I continue to have no social life. It would be cool if you or others could post videos too though and I'd be well up for commenting on them.
Cheers,
Tony.