How to Play Without FEAR

In today's addition of Man vs. Machine, we do a deep dive into one of the craziest hands played in poker streaming history and compare the analysis of Doug Polk vs. the solver.
Source Vid: • I Have POCKET ACES Wit...

[@scilles]

I was in the upstairs vip section of the HUSTLER watching this hand. Every table stopped play for this hand, and we watched Doug tank. When he said he was ready to fold, the air was sucked out of the room. Then, when he continued mulling over the decision and stated out loud he would draw for the 25% call, the room burst into cheers. It was magical.

[@rodpoker7119]

This is what poker has come to be? Whether to call with AA's. The Bed Music is so over the top. You started off your commentary with calling the guy a WHALE a “CRYPTO WHALE”. You make a 30 minute video of whether calling “crypto whale’s” all in with AA is a terrible play according the GOD SOLVER.... GTfO.... The agada that you and doug put yourselves through when you all clearly thought he was a "Crypto Whale". You all tranforemed the "WHALE" into a GTO machine.....LOL ...They used to call that SELF LEVELING in the day....hahahahahahahah

[@Ze.NiTH_]

Production is astounding. Information... overwhelming. But we are learning. Thank you senpai 🙏🏽

[@kinggrantking]

Absolute BANGER video. I like Doug's game and thought process quite a bit, and certainly wasn't expecting FE to tear into him for this, but wow. Watching the whole stupid stream on vacation I had no idea how close to GTO Doug was actually treading here, and the ability to find it AND stick to it in a 2M pot is unreal. Hearing, "call" might well mean you lose your money there, but hearing, "if I pull the red ace twice I call" should let you know you're at the wrong table.

[@DaftFader]

Yeah when doug was playing head up on poker stars he went up through the ranks gradually picking people off one by one and gaining an edge on them by playing closer to GTO than they were, and exploiting any weakness he found in their game that wasn't quite GTO. He's spoke about it before, and all but one person he had an edge on, this one guy would always wreck him in heads up, until eventually he figured out what he was doing, adjusted and finally got an edge on him, then the guy just quit playing under that account and didn't play against doug anymore. So he's really up there with some of the best players, and does know his stuff, especially when it comes to heads up play. He must of studied soo many spots to memory as well as figuring out why that spot does what it does to be able to achieve that, he was literally the best heads up player on PS for years. ;)

[@bcni4732]

no he referres to Kanu7

[@lokwidator]

Incredible video. I love how you finished it (knowingly or unknowingly) with the essence of Stoic philosophy: detach your mind from bad outcomes (because you focus on the process), accept the things outside your control (because you cannot change them), focus on yourself and trust your skills (because you dedicated yourself to self-improvement), and realise what is essential. Someone with this mindset is unbeatable.

[@Eric-tj3tg]

At the live moment (less delay) that Doug verbalized his intention to randomize that spot, I thought of THIS channel specifically, so good on you mate(s)! This was not at all a let down, and was very well done; thank you. Nicely played "Computer Polk"!

[@GLOWINTHEDARKCIA]

Doug is a man to be feared, there is no two ways about it.

[@evancravener6714]

I have been watching training/poker videos probably since 2015 and this is the best video I’ve ever watched. You are truly one of a kind FQ. Love the content.

[@ludo_poker]

Been watching many poker analysis videos in my life. The editing here and the final comments put this one easily in Top 3 of all time.

[@nickl2870]

one of the few instant-thumbs-up channel for fear of forgetting. absolute vibe of a poker content creator. class/knowledge/comedy.

[@mindsetofpoker9463]

Finding equilibrium isn’t the hero we need right now, he’s the hero we deserve. ❤

[@kitoushi66]

Great video. I love seeing Dougs thought process validated by the solver. Keep bringing the heat.

[@alangibson3685]

If you’re not familiar with this hero’s videos, become familiar. Incredibly well done imo and so grateful for the free education provided. I think I love you haha cheers man. Happy learning e everyone.

[@swagdeteriorating]

this Polk guy has a yt channel? I gotta check it out.

[@craigmason6142]

dude that was awesome. I just found your channel. What a great mix of technical analysis, production, and humor

[@almostthere9746]

You're late bruh

[@FloppedNutZzz]

My guy! This is the blend and hand we always needed from you! As always the best poker videos on KZbin ! 🙏

[@joseesquivel870]

That menacing music in the background just intensifies the vibe. Love the content

[@Frank7489]

Not the breakdown we deserved but the one we needed

[@scottmartin7874]

LOL the music is amazing --I tell everyone about this channel who will listen-PLEASE NEVER STOP

[@Bisirsky]

18:53 - huh, it reminds me of Max Payne cuts xD It's really astonishing how accurate Doug's understanding of frequencies is.

[@MrJoosebawkz]

26:27 as a beginner. I know this is obvious but I needed to hear this. hopefully I can actually take this attitude back to the tables. for whatever reason I can do this in PLO cash and NLH tournaments but the second I get into a NLH cash game I let everything get to me. Instead of trying to force everything to go my way I just need to be ready to capitalize on the opportunities that present themselves. over time that’s enough 😤

[@Dementia.Pugilistica]

Yup. You'll find you play better when you're removed emotionally from the results because instead of focusing on things like "NO heart!" You're thinking "what do I do if flush draw completes?" And it seems less like the universe is fucking with you and more like you're in control. Everyone is a great poker player when analyzing someone else's play - imagine if you could be that same caliber of player when the cards were dealt to you?

[@randallpaguio6433]

As a beginner you shouldn’t be worrying about the technical side of the game, it will only hurt you!

[@MrJoosebawkz]

@@randallpaguio6433 I’m not using solvers ir anything too advanced for me yet but i think it’s important to have some kind of fundamental baseline. I’ve mostly been studying finding equilibrium’s video series on teaching his gf how to play. It’s definitely helped me quite a bit. Im also not a total beginner like it’s not like I just started playing a weak ago. Its been a few months. I understand all the fundamentals inside and out so its about time I start working on my range analysis

[@colematthies5676]

@dougpolkpoker You did everything right, that’s a win in my book, way to play man ! You played great, despite whatever result came

[@209twitch]

Your videos are always great but I think this is one of the best I’ve seen since the Polarization video with iceman and Stefan

[@Lichtinsicht]

i really liked that u just let him do the comentary on this one for the most part and just highlighted the combos he was talking about. the ending though gave me goosbumps!

[@LevelofClarity]

I’ve been waiting for this analysis. Awesome! Fantastic work, as always.

[@UpswingPoker]

Thanks for showing our articles in this video!

[@scottywayne]

Brilliant as always. Thanks again. Love the channel.

[@daikusan55]

Great video!! It's amazing he came to the right decision in terms of strategy and made it really entertaining at the same time.

[@nickdealy6686]

Also, I like to check for protection at showdown sometimes (a lot) & check-call the river so as to avoid them thinking I'm capped if/when I go with a thin value/blocker bet, & yes, Doug went big; I know, but I am just attempting to learn anything & everything @ this point in my poker life.

[@tommyallen5761]

Nice video. I ran a sim with fewer sizes allowed and marginally wider ranges and it called down 29% on the river.

[@dwarner9158]

We’re here for the entertainment, not the percentages. Take care

[@cassurai]

@@dwarner9158 We're here for the percentages

[@shwnmnstr77]

@@dwarner9158 definetly here for the percentages

[@sebidiaz]

@@dwarner9158 Here for the percentages.

[@BaneWilliams]

@@dwarner9158 Did you really just watch a video pretty much entirely about percentages and come to the opposite conclusion? Wow my dude.

[@jimk.4701]

On the other hand, LSG Hank is Asian hahahahaha

[@pepruiz5813]

Love the video and love the dark knight theme in relation of what it means to play good poker regardless of the situation. Also to note that AQ is probably a good bluffcatcher also bc hanks range is gonna be wider and might have some Q9s and Q8s

[@aramsarkisyan8061]

I think the main question here is whether you think Doug may have AQ within his line. Not in the sense of "correct" GTO play, but rather perception by Hank. If he does, then I think bluffs become quite probable, as Hank understands that the majority of the Doug's range folds to the raise: AA, KK, AQ. Total of 24 combos or 18 from Hank's perspective. Even if you take only 50% of AQ playing like that, you still get 13.5. Plus Doug may have some AK bluffs you might want to get rid off. On the other side calls are 10J, which considering Doug's line are likely suited and still may have played differently, 88, QQ (which also may have played differently). Considering probability of lines that's probably a total of about 7 hands. In that sense bluffing becomes quite a good option. And considering lots of possible candidates for that (all the flush draws, suited 56, may be 67 of hearts or clubs, 77, QJ, Q10 suited or even QK) you probably would like to call it. However if Doug thinks that Hank is not considering him having AQ with that line (which he probably shouldn't), then Hank's bluff from decision standpoint becomes quite unlikely too narrow, and may require some blockers.

[@illsided]

So Doug played the hand perfect

[@OGRE_HATES_NERDS]

3:22

[@TheTree1]

Ly

[@assassinato_]

If you believe in the theory of parallel worlds, then in every fourth universe Doug Polk makes this call on the river to this cool music❤‍🔥

[@Locke19901]

"Out Asian" the kid before... hahaha... well played.

[@noodles6175]

Honestly GOAT shit from both FE and clearly also Doug with his thought processes in the hand (river bet sizing excluded possibly...)

[@altcome]

nice video, love the ending editing lol

[@Cobusftwmahoniez]

Coming back to this video all the time ^^ so well made

[@BSweetVideos]

Great video. Doug has been getting peppered on livestreams, but there's no doubt that he's a phenomenal poker player by his thought process. Just needs to run better.

[@BillsFan2024]

Just found this channel... I am absolutely excited to check out this information. I doubt you see all the comments... But maybe someone could tell me what I should do or get if I want to start studying like this? I want to take my game to the next level but Im not sure how to study. Is there a free app I could download or something?

[@blakemeyerson6083]

Amazing work.

[@jakepokervegas]

This is a piece of art! I want to marry Doug Polk and you! Jajaja... Please don't stop to do these videos!

[@jean-christophenobert9825]

Amazing work. Well done!

[@Bigfootbert85]

Great video and absolute class of Doug to add his thoughts 🔥🔥

[@SpectreXS]

Amazing analysis!

[@jaeshbalachandran5766]

At 12.20, when Doug breaks the river down, doesn't AJ block AA and AQ as well? Also i feel like Hank having Ax diamonds here also blocks alot of the bluffs that Doug has here going 3 streets. Hes definitely going to be cbetting small alot, and hes almost always going to continue turn when he picks up his diamond draw and hes going to almost always fire river when he misses. But also hank having the J diamonds blocks one of the biggest value combos that Doug takes this 3 street line with. Given that theres so many competing and contradicting points which stand out, how would you weight all this information and decide which way to go ? Is it just about approximating combos ?

[@vzg3679]

Doug is mostly folding those hands so you dont want to have an ace in your bluff

[@kindnesslove5482]

Great video. And I love credit given, when credit is due.

[@passenger128]

Great content, thank you!

[@golddamagesym4126]

So I pay for a subscription with gtox to try it out - and I can't get to using the hand matrix the way you can in the video. It's very frustrating. What do I have to do to get to what you're doing in the video . . .where I can plug in ranges . . .. flop . . . analyze . . .and move to turn and river?

[@nunodjehuti]

15:02 I find it weird the dealer intervention - would they block wesley from choosing a card if the hand was always losing?

[@robinschmitz6538]

This, is a fantastic comment. I would agree that here the backroom oversteps and i get that they want to prevent more drama but create it. Here you can see that doug is to imersed to realise and do the exploitiv play but i dont think that we could find a human to be that quik witted in this scenario.

[@nunodjehuti]

@@robinschmitz6538 you kind of see something going on in his brain/face when it happens for a fraction, but I guess he disregarded it

[@andro99991]

The problem is, Doug had said before intervention that the card draw would be 100% binding so even if he realized his hand wasn't losing he still had to go through it and fold if there was As.

[@nunodjehuti]

@@andro99991 I see, you are correct, I missed that. It does get accepted by the dealer after confirmation of binding and they could even show their cards.

[@Cowtymsmiesznego]

@@nunodjehuti Nobody knows at that point who has the winning hand. The production only gets to know the cards after a long delay.

[@GameingForDumbies]

One of the greatest games I’ve watched live

[@qwertyuiop3656]

Epic video! I hope Doug sees this!

[@eb3433]

The visibly undeterred call down was the true hero here. It takes even more balls to call than it is to punt shove river.

[@cypherchaos]

Brilliant video! Thank you!

[@Kyle_Lucca]

amazing video well done

[@belossii]

sound from Nolans Batman 3lgy, amazing

[@DaftFader]

Doug looks traumatized doing his hand review on that hand lol.

[@nikolaydanshin8149]

great that channel has grown that much

[@BillsFan2024]

Its weird because in Tournaments im checking my aces there almost 90%+ ... And I even like checking in cash games too, but lately ive been trying to get out of my comfort zone and trying to attack scarey spots where u might get reraised. Im basically check calling any size bet that isnt 2x or higher.

[@Johnny-cz2wv]

Yeah thats poor play

[@vzg3679]

Tournament play might be different bc ICM puts you in a very weird situation on the river facing a reraise with any range

[@loafes1352]

You’re also basically never playing this many big blinds deep in a tournament, except perhaps very early on

[@damienadam5997]

The cut at the end 🥹🥹😱😱😱❤

[@summonedskull98]

damn your videos are top notch dude, well done and thank you

[@andersongomez636]

Wow 😮top video very very high level and entertainingat the same time

[@asherreich9820]

That was a beautiful hand of modern poker.

[@mikepostleisinnocent2861]

Why do you discount Tom's limp so much? When the ante is 3x the BB having a limping strategy is a viable strategy and I would treat it as an open.

[@Cowtymsmiesznego]

Probably because he doesn't have preflop ranges for such a spot

[@chrisclark2452]

Excellent work 🥇

[@jackripper8337]

Doug is so insanely good... he gets to this river.... in this spot... with this hand.... facing this action having never seen it before and comes within 5% of the actual solver answer... amounts to little more than a rounding error here...

[@pokematt]

Fire video! Love your content!

[@travistowell7149]

Great video

[@Mrperson662]

Idk how you’re even good here 1/8 times lol. What a beast

[@ZenHolisticFitness]

It was such a crazy bluff that hank is an instant legend for it.

[@whereismymind1]

love the dark knight vibe!

[@Roman7C]

Thanks, rly great video!

[@nickdealy6686]

Why not an OVERBET on the turn? You have to charge these floats, middle pairs, draws, etc. I would never, ever question Doug's analysis; I'm just wondering?

[@alessandrociulla5168]

my guess is because we are out of position and Villains range is not that capped

[@8eadsy]

Best video yet

[@thejulien911]

Such golden content

[@rosin4260]

got my sub sir, ty for the insight

[@samwisegametree]

Yes, but... If in theory your combo is a 0EV call, and it's highly likely the spot will be underbluffed by your human opponent, you can happily overfold. In other words we are assuming that calling is -EV in this situation. Folding because the EV is superior to calling does not mean you are doing it out of fear. And who's to say that it is not the fear of folding that inspires you to start thinking all the thoughts about what combos you'd rather have or not have, etc., or using the RNG. It's a horrible spot, and kudos to Polk for keeping the thoughts going when most of us would have a brain melt, but the argument of the video is a bit flaky, I think.

[@eb3433]

The visibly undeterred call down was the true hero here. It takes even more balls to call than it is to punt shove river.

[@SolvingLivePoker-sh9pp]

We could apply this logic to all bluff catching spots and just always fold because humans will almost certainly under bluff compared to solver. Almost no one finds the bluffs a solver does. However, humans do find bluffs that the solver folds. So we have to consider that as well. Also, the call would have to be close to zero EV in equilibrium for it to move into -EV when V under bluffs. You can get away with folding your bluff catchers that are indifferent. I.E. calling *and* folding are at or close to zero. But you can't start pure folding hands that have much more than zero EV just because villains are under bluffing. They would have to be severely under bluffing to bring the EV of calling close enough to zero to be indifferent and allowing us to auto fold them.

[@shynepo3]

Regardless of what ppl say about Doug, he’s a beast at this 2 card pokers

[@davidstud3952]

Out-Asianing Rampage is not easy but Hank did it! 👍👍

[@almostthere9746]

This video deserves so many more views buts thats not what us wizards 🧙‍♂️ need

[@ifeelhalfnaked484]

Wrong title maybe it should be written

[@honeriley]

Good content. Fwiw, on this particular day Doug was the one who'd been playing like a crypto whale not LSG Hank. LSG Hank has been one of the most solid players on Hustler comparable to someone like Aussie Al. LSG Hank used his image well.

[@andrewmitchell402]

You Sir are a Sensai to follow

[@CzechRaiseCharles]

Most underrated poker channel in the game!

[@PhoenixTTD]

People don't understand that being rational is a skill that turns into a habit. Doug is rational if he is playing poker or debating with Charlie etc. He doesn't sacrifice his intelligence out of fear or other pressure.

[@mrhumble2937]

Did Doug look this up before the video? He was pretty on point.

[@SolvingLivePoker-sh9pp]

He literally talked his way through it live on stream and decided to call 25%. Even if he checked the solve later, he verbalized most of his strategy live.

[@mrhumble2937]

@@SolvingLivePoker-sh9pp I'm talking about the other things.

[@Cobusftwmahoniez]

This video is so sick :D

[@bovinejangles]

Hank is indeed Asian and that is very important analysis in this hand 😂

[@DaftFader]

"Solvers are a greedy bastards!" xD

[@AK-zo1xt]

Great contents

[@guanaco103]

You have to have no regards for money to do well in poker, I think Doyle said that

[@doublea975]

Really nice !

[@PhoenixTTD]

The cost of GTOx is illegible in the FAQ.

[@Trizzer89]

Doug is definitely one of the best of all time

[@themonaghan999]

Doug the supreme leader

[@Psyshe92]

I can see that outro in a batman movie

[@fritzjrpreimess1973]

I think in his inexperience he thought he d bluff thinking 10,J. J blocker. but that never would of got there.. But what do I know..

[@H1ghL1ghT1]

Pure gold.

[@carlosvilleda284]

It's a good fold thou

[@EpicNoobPwner]

I think the regs who snap fold to the river jam in this spot are gonna be making more money in these super soft games

[@cryptoartist5167]

Is this a poker channel or a Jaws scene

[@jonnyramos7413]

lmao doug sent the call