Discover the Secret to Maximizing Your Big Hands

[@drfunkinstein1]

Classic $2/5 hand. Opponent limp/calls AK suited preflop with 2 other players in the hand rather than squeeze because he's scared to get in a big pot without hitting his hand. Then he turns his hand into a bluff after missing the flop. Then he makes the nuts and bets way too small for value on the turn. Then tanks on the river before shoving when the hero pretty much has to call an all in at that point.

[@CrushlivePoker]

This has to be one of the most bizarre outcomes we have ever had on a call-in. I stand by this result being a 1/1000 scenario based on the action. Also 13:48 😂

[@squallloky]

That's a weird preflop line, never underestimate old asian dudes

[@billstevens5277]

Speaking of the best players know how to maximize the pot and when the opponent is second best, Villain here is one of those best players.

[@squallloky]

@@billstevens5277 the sarcasm is high

[@JMTavares7]

1/1000 might be over-stating it. I feel like the most frequent hands that show up in low stakes that fish absolutely cannot have given their previous actions are AA and AK. AA because they "never get any action when they have aces" and AK because "whenever they raise with it they lose, AK looks good but never wins" That being said, obv nothing hero can do but those are my 2 never say never hands.

[@Dynamice1337]

In the low stakes games I play in, these clowns play AKs or AKo very passively in many positions. AK is their preferred "trapping hand". They flop top top and let you bet AQ or AJ into them when they have shown zero strength and then pat themselves on the back for winning a baby pot. I have learned to be cautious when one of these players who I've seen check call to the river with AK makes a big bet at the end in a spot where AK is the nuts or near nuts. Some people play really badly and they only way you can lose to them is big value bets (against most loose passive players big value bets print money when you make strong hands). They are never going to make big value bets and they know that you will. If you get a read on how these players play you have to adjust.

[@lv20213]

This whole time I am thinking villain going to show J10 or 44, but as soon as the caller said the guy started acting I started to become worried. An older asian guy at my local casino did the same to me when he had the nuts.

[@degreek21]

Sam Bankman! You cut off your perm, and are now a poker pro! I want my investments back!

[@gailmargret23]

Dude looks nothing like SBF

[@blakefredrickson6506]

To be even more specific, I’ve learned “lead” to mean when the OOP player bets into the previous round’s aggressor. Or in less endearing terms, a lead is just a donk bet. So if I raise preflop from MP and the BN calls, it wouldn’t be a lead for me to bet the flop. It would just be a c-bet. Or in this video, Villain bets the turn after raising on the flop. That’s not a lead either. It’s also just a c-bet.

[@lilwoozyvert3635]

“Honey, he double overlimped called me with Ace King!! Can you believe it?!?”

[@varunbaid1]

Bro,, the comment is becoming a spoiler as it's the 1st comment visible,,

[@karlinchina]

Right when Bart said he can't have AK, I thought to myself, no, that's never an assumption I make at live 2/5. If you know nothing about a player and they call your bet, just give them at least 5 combos of AK.

[@Trust_but_Verify]

Would that have make you fold at the river?

[@karlinchina]

@@Trust_but_Verify No, it doesn't affect the outcome of this particular hand. But I agree with the caller that flop should be larger, though I'd probably go half pot, and I agree with Bart that the 3bet should be larger to fold out marginal hands that have about 50% equity against us.

[@Jermo484]

Okay, but it's utterly irrelevant. People dumb enough to play AK this way are also the types of idiots going broke here with AJ, KK and all sorts of other hands they shouldn't go broke here with, not to mention the many combos of very strong hands they maybe should like 44, JT, QJ. Even if they CAN have AK, it's absolutely wrong to not get it all in here.

[@JohnSmith-nx7zj]

@@Jermo484not to mention 98. Could easily imagine he limp calls with all offsuit combos of that.

[@ticenits1926]

When holding King high you should really look to keep your opponents range wide with a smaller bet, not keep their range tight with a big bet ensuring that you're always getting it in behind

[@noThankyou-g5c]

i dont get it, did he limp pre? or did he straddle?

[@PokrRat777]

I'm never putting someone on AK here unless I know them very well. I would lean towards jamming the river against most players because I think the smaller size tends looks too "value-y" while someone can talk themselves into bluff catching your jam with two pair.

[@kineahora8736]

On this J-high reasonably connected flop, i am gonna be c-betting 70-75% size heads up, and a bit smaller 3-way, probably $60 here, with my value hands and draws. i think on a JT board two-tone im gonna have enough natural draws that i won’t need to include too many unnatural bluffs, but definitely A4 of diamonds will be in my c-bet range. Against a wild player if i make a block size and get a raise, ill just call off with very good equity and look to realize my equity. whereas with a crappier draw, i might go for the 3-bet bluff Turn: you have to raise to get it in on the river-i think you size so that you can pot-size jam the river, so raise to about 300

[@Jermo484]

Seriously, anyone who thinks you shouldn't raise river or should fold to the 3-bet is insanely bad at poker. The villain here played AK in truly the worst possible way every single time the action was on him besides checking the flop in flow initially. This line is a set, two pair, missed clubs, the same straight or worse basically every time. I bet someone could go their entire lives without ever seeing someone limp/call a premium hand, min check-raise with a gutter on the flop, lead/call turn with the nuts and lead river again on a brick.

[@chaybro1]

I think this is interesting, Bart, to your point it’s all about maximising best hands against 2nd best and if you play from V point of view this hand is a train wreck.

[@vidteacher]

Classic Hollywood tank shove. The only thing surprising about this (in hindsight, of course) is that this wasn’t a 1-2 game with that move. Too bad that wasn’t the 6c on the river…

[@Stockhandle123]

So aggressive guy who has been running over the table limp calls with AK OOP pre and just calls a raise on the turn with the nuts on a draw heavy board? Something does not compute these are the actions of an aggressive player?

[@ijustwannaleaveacommentony6511]

chinese

[@ticenits1926]

The fact that the caller doesn't even understand the difference between a cbet and a donkbet means we need to take a lot of his description of players with a grain of salt.

[@jeffshackleford3152]

​@@ticenits1926meh, that is kind of semantics here. He might be nervous or said the wrong thing. I wouldn't be too hard on him personally. I sound like a bumbling idiot when I try to explain certain things about poker to people.

[@sr4087]

Love the pop up lesson back links; thank you

[@Melodika.Sounds]

Why would he take the min size with AK hh with no back door hearts on the flop I’m so confused

[@karlinchina]

Gutshot and two overs and an unexpected hand, plus he thinks people cbet with Tx or an underpair that will fold to a small bet. I don't play that way but it does work out sometimes.

[@Melodika.Sounds]

@@karlinchina but then he min clicked you either call or go bigger

[@karlinchina]

@@Melodika.Sounds Yes, what Bart said. I'd go 225

[@travelingbee1779]

Great story about Tampa. 0:42

[@fenikstechnologies1173]

Agreed. Who cares. He's "never" supposed to have AK with this line. He only ever gets paid against K9 or a set. The tank/shove act at the end is always concerning, but meh, gotta call.

[@FrasierFanMSU]

I had someone limp-call preflop and then turn over JJ on the river once, and I could not have been more surprised if the cards had turned into birds and flown away.

[@karlinchina]

Happens all the time

[@ashypharaoh8407]

JJ sucks

[@truth1013]

Was your hand played in Michigan? I just did that to a guy, flop the set and got it all in by the river.flop was A Jack 8 ..his Ace King was crushed he couldn't believe I had Jack's

[@FrasierFanMSU]

@@truth1013 It was in Michigan! But my hand was QQ (he did flop the set, but he proceeded to slowplay it to death and didn't win much).

[@jeffshackleford3152]

​@@truth1013yeah bro, fish will die on the AK hill.

[@gobbs1451]

Love the content

[@adcscooter4517]

The best poker room I ever played in was a dog track in Jacksonville, FL.

[@KyprosEc]

Yup, I'm felted there.

[@davidstud3952]

I know tons of guys playin AK like that pre so I do give some combos into an unknown's range

[@jaketaylor3129]

You still gotta call but youre only 3 bet shoving ak there. It looked so much like the hero had AK.

[@jamesjones2675]

Thank you

[@Mathemagical55]

Caller stacks off 260 BBs, behind on every street, and yet thinks "villain played it worse".

[@whevans]

was basically a flip post-flop, pre-turn

[@alexnielsen769]

I think a decent amount of people limp with AK however if he did raise his draw on the flop AK either would've been denied equity or folded but maybe I'm not maximizing value.

[@sneakkyz3696]

I mean honestly I'm ready to get stacks in on this flop

[@Stockhandle123]

Yeah but just calling isn’t bad there is no way to misplay this flop as long as you don’t fold.

[@sneakkyz3696]

@@Stockhandle123 true. I'm just saying I'm ready to play for stacks here. If I have to rebuy I have to rebuy, it is what it is.

[@Stockhandle123]

@@sneakkyz3696 yeah listen I’m ready to get it in on the flop as well. All I’m saying is calling is fine too.

[@AT-bw4cm]

@@Stockhandle123 I don't think so. Older Asian dudes are known for making large protection bets. The 2.5x raise screams weakness. 3bet and take it down.

[@JohnSmith-nx7zj]

@@AT-bw4cmI was thinking the opposite. If he was bluffing he’d go larger. Figured the small raise meant value. Either way, I don’t hate the flop call.

[@patrick_kyker]

People always talk about the crazy maniac player but you got to look at content is he stealing uncontested pots or is he three betting pots when there's a lot of action.

[@duckduckens4164]

I'm a well rounded player, but I try to avoid getting involved in big pots with mediocre hands..... just seen sooooo many times, these types of scenarios.

[@marcotagliani3385]

mediocre hand? with the second nuts?

[@baosommurr4566]

What some ppl don't understand about lower stake is ppl limp with monsters. We dont have to play these opponent like bots who's playing optimal

[@toddpyke5331]

Love the hands Bart. How do we tell the effective stack? I feel it depends on who’s the effective stack is depends on their play. If you can double your stack OOP well done to you, dealer can burn.

[@EfficientRVer]

I'm going to have to swing by Chasers and say hi sometime. Maybe convince you to try Mohegan also. While I agree that the line is rarely that of AKs turning the nuts, it is also by far not the line of a wildly LAG old Asian guy running over the table. Either hero was wrong about villain's true style, or (like me) villain can play several styles to try exploiting individual opponent styles/weaknesses. Targeting the "chip leader" based upon what you've seen in one session, is very often a mistake. Pay attention, play your game, mix it up a bit, and hope they don't figure out YOUR tendencies, otherwise you can have a really bad day. SIDE STORY When I first (2005) played in casinos, there was a game at Foxwoods (4-8 LHE) where half of the table always thought, for months on end, that the guy who was almost always the biggest stack, was just a lucky, old, LAG Asian fish. He was actually the shark. How do I know that? By paying close attention for many entire sessions. It's not easy knowing how a good Limit player is doing, because they add onto their stacks all the time, or not, to make counting their stack pretty useless. But it can be done, especially combined with counting their win/loss in every pot. Big workload in Limit, to get very valuable data about a specific opponent. Likewise with "Match the Stack" NLHE, while it's child's play to see how an opponent is doing in capped NLHE. When a player would yell at the old guy for sucking out, he'd give a fishy explanation of why he played the hand that way, when there were actually good reasons (which he knew) why he played that way. His acting was made easy by actually being offended that they thought he was a bad player, so he wasn't having to act to seem angry. He just had to act to play dumb and give a bad explanation appearing to defend his play, while to reinforce their view of him as being a terrible player. LHE has no buy-in cap, and you can add on anytime. So, he'd also reach into his bag every hour or so and act like he's sneaking on another stack of chips to make it look like he's winning. He'd do that regardless of whether he was winning or losing that day. He could be sitting there with $600 of $2 chips, and if anyone said he had $200 when the table opened, so must be up $400, three guys would chime in, "Nah, he's probably in for $900. He keeps pulling chips out of his bag." He loved that it created the false table image he wanted, but in another way he hated being called a loser. After I moved up, I would talk to him about all this, and he liked that someone noticed how good he was. It turns out he made 25% more than I did at that game, and he said that there was a similar gap between me and the best other regs. I'd never bothered figuring out exactly how good or bad the great majority of players in that game were, because it really didn't matter. You could just play a solid game and take their money, some more than others, but none were a threat. Some of the money they got from fish, would move up the food chain to us. Some would be their own profit. BACK TO THE HAND I think villain's bet-shove range on this river versus this hero, is only AK, because even another K9 will almost always just call the raise. THAT is what makes it 1 in 1000, the fact that you almost never get shoved on in that spot after your raise, because they almost never have AK after taking that line. It's similar reasoning to what you're always saying about check-fold being the right play, where you have the winning hand when it goes check-check, nobody is calling with worse, and you rarely have the winning hand when the opponent raises. Results-wise, both players got the same result as playing the hand better and more quickly. It's a cooler, just played strangely. The exact type of straight over straight hand that we've all lost with K9, Q9, J9, T9, and 98 countless times. Plus 9x if you're a real fish. Long story short, villain was almost sure hero had AK, K9, or 98 after the flush missed and hero raised. What's left to do but some acting while deciding whether to minraise vs shove with the nuts? The slow play on earlier streets was probably just knowing that when hero is strong, the money will go in. He didn't feel he had to take a conventional line to get the money in, and he was right. Even preflop, he probably knew that with hero on the button, if the button raised while dominated, he wouldn't even need to limp-reraise to get the money in if he ended up being ahead on all 4 streets, which turned out to be the case. K9 is more dominated by AK than even K2. The wider you go to punish limpers, the more they're able to punish you even worse when you both hit. Friends don't let friends get stacked with the K9 straight.

[@aeconiglio]

This is the most well thought out reply I've ever seen. Kudos, man!

[@blazeron12]

It's not a lead if you are in position as the PFR.

[@andrewlange1886]

One eyed jacks, Sarasota

[@patrick_kyker]

How the hell do you put somebody on a AK when they check raise that flop with no heart?

[@duckduckens4164]

The dog tracks are where it's at!

[@jimallinx]

The hell was villain doing lmfao. So annoying when they accidentally maximize their value with nonsense plays

[@lakerfan1855]

It is, but just have to remember they are losing players.

[@squallloky]

I was wondering why there was no 3bet on flop so much lol

[@ticenits1926]

Why would you 3bet the flop? You just make worse hands fold and better hands call or ship, the exact opposite of what you want.

[@squallloky]

@@ticenits1926 You can pile money with lots of equity, put pressure on medium strenght hands and he reps absolutely nothing in this spot by min clicking it. A 3bet is a good play. If the guy had used a larger "for value" sizing, I would agree. But these weird "feeler" raises are usually what they are: medium to low strenght. Fish plays pretty honest.

[@Oatriumph]

"how much you got?"/shove might be a tell.

[@mrhumble2937]

Do you have to answer what you have left.

[@jonathanspincken5657]

727 Tampa fla yeaaaa

[@serial38]

I absolutely agree with your reasoning, but on this occasion, is the shove from the villain ever a bluff here? That spot is massively underbluffed and we don’t have the nuts. Although it unlikely he has the nuts I think we should be more careful.

[@jonathanspincken5657]

Gandy blvd st Petersburg Derby lane

[@ashypharaoh8407]

I hate 3-gappers for this reason. You can never have the nuts except with AT

[@ticenits1926]

You don't play hands like this because you expect to flop big, you're simply exploiting your opponents weaker calling range.

[@ashypharaoh8407]

@@ticenits1926 Honestly, thank you. My hesitance to play these hands is probably because I'm still a weak player. I have a lot to learn obv

[@duckduckens4164]

The hardrock here in Tampa. Is a horrible room....

[@johng603]

Poker time

[@bobloomis246]

Weird slow roll. Guy takes 2minutes to call 600 when he has AK and the nuts?

[@CN4891-c1z]

No, he tanked before shoving all in for more remaining chips.

[@patrick_kyker]

Was the villain's cousin dealing?

[@MrStevie57]

So the Chinese guy was all an act on the river haha.

[@Trust_but_Verify]

We need to get a translation of what the guy was talking to himself about.... "I got the nuts, how do I make him call my all in..."

[@MrStevie57]

@@Trust_but_Verify haha yes.

[@musicthatnopwn]

This man is the Chael Sonnen of poker

[@PeterChessPupil]

he's the Daniel Day Lewis of being Chael Sonnen.

[@andyv123]

One rule I have in poker is I never play 3 gappers😊

[@conorm2524]

Not even in SB vs BB?

[@jaketaylor3129]

He have 89?

[@officeofpeaceinformation5094]

Villian Leads River He’s never folding Just jam

[@duckduckens4164]

TGT is a great room. Worst players! Easy money!

[@ant4007]

a lot of people like to trap lol

[@topthecat2259]

The Asian guy got max value plus the slowroll😅

[@martindim7182]

Not a slowroll if he is a rec. In his mind, he believes if he pretends he doesn't have the nuts then the Hero might call more easily. He doesn't understand the Hero most likely never folds here. Lots of regs have lost the ability to appreciate what rec players are going through 🤔😳

[@toddduchesne1749]

You have to be aware of this when you play marginal hands like K9.

[@chevelle1]

🎯 K-Js sure. K-10s marginal. K-9s fold.

[@onlyweatherlol93]

Nothing to see here. Just a results oriented phone call. Based on the line taken by villain, calling the shove on the river isn't a mistake. Just take the cooler and move on

[@fanfan7848]

The flop decision is interesting

[@Chino-bk9fd]

this was just sad

[@actuallynotsteve]

Only at preflop but already a case of "why are you raising two limpers huge pre with K9?"

[@CrushlivePoker]

It's close but no terrible, imo.

[@fenikstechnologies1173]

You can ISO two limpers with K9s. It's at the bottom end, but it's still fine. Standard open for 2/5 live is $15-25 depending on table. So, nothing wrong with $30.

[@Stockhandle123]

I like the raise pre and i also like 3 betting flop.

[@antisan]

Ok nit

[@ChrisM-wv4gs]

Even at stakes where people are likely over calling

[@beck204]

Why did the guy tank with AK? Does he know poker? It’s an unbeatable hand.

[@wackedupYUMYUMS]

Hollywood

[@Dynamice1337]

He's acting to disguise the strength of his hand and make it look like he has a difficult decision. Good to remember if you decide to bluff. Lot's of people go into the tank for a long long time before jamming or raising a nutted hand. It can be a tell sometimes if you see them do it enough and they only do it when bluffing or nutted.

[@GWrench9]

Why am I not surprised Bart got caught up with the Asian Persuasion? With or without papers?