Pocket Aces; A Poker Player's Guide to Playing Tough Boards

[@bsheaves]

Pretty creative bluff by our villain. Got kinda unlucky that our hero hit pretty much the best hand he could ever have given the line

[@Stockhandle123]

I don’t like bluffing the ace.

[@hoopaholik91]

@@Stockhandle123 It's a high card but it's pretty much a blank when it comes to hero's range. Hits his AQ and AA hands but a lot of the range is going to be pair+draw hands like QJ, 9T, etc. Sizing probably doesn't need to be that big though.

[@founik]

@@Stockhandle123 I don't mind it. By doing this you signalize that Ace doesn't change your hand strength, which makes you very polorized towards sets and better, JT very likely. As was said here, I think it was a good, creative bluff. Maybe I think you need to go bigger to fold out 2 pairs and some sets. Tough question whether anybody is folding top set. The bluff could have been even more evil if villain checked, hero would bet for value and then villain would x/r all in. In that case I might be even folding a top set.

[@Stockhandle123]

@@founik I don’t remember the hand but I’m basically always right so i stand by what i said. 😀

[@adamseidel9780]

I kinda thought there would absolutely be some bluffs like this in there. Didn’t see J6, tbh, but definitely some paired bingo draws, 108 suited, etc type stuff in there. Considering you beat a big chunk of the value range it’s a square call. I’m just too skeptical that J10 doesn’t start leading on the turn a lot of the time. In villains spot, how does 7 help hero’s lead range enough where you can play the nuts for a check raise?

[@JohnSmith-nx7zj]

In the discussion on the turn about all the straight combos and sets villain might have once he check raises… It was never mentioned that villain checked the turn after hero checked behind on the flop. Surely at least some % of the time some of those nuttish type hands lead on the turn instead of going for a check-raise?

[@captzachevil]

Yeah when you're looking for ways to pick off bluffs it's important to think about what experience tells you about what players who actually have it would do on this turn. The answer in most cases for this hand and board is that they would bet turn.

[@Gos1234567]

Yes and i think that for bluffing betting out is better here as when Hero bets he know most likely has a hand as a bluff would been done on the flop

[@freddiehavens9066]

I love the thumb nail graphics, including the Phillies hat. Is that Bart or a pro graphics person doing those?

[@kineahora8736]

Seems to me the river doesn’t require any thought-just a straight call. Villain has basically tons of straights and bluffs. A very polar range and a very polarizing size, and hero has the absolute top of his range on this line-it’s just a call & hope.

[@pot_kivach160]

H absolute top of his range could've easily taken his stack to absolute bottom of V stack! Only thanks to his wrong play, and unluck of V this did not happen.

[@ishkabibblemoskowitz2899]

Hell yeah. I'll see ya Parx on the 24th.

[@NewEnglandFish]

I saw this on the livestream and it made me laugh because I got into an almost identical hand in online play literally the night before right down to the 1.5x pot bet on the river (albeit in much lower stakes). I find that good villains in the blinds last to act will sometimes get extremely creative with their lines because of how insanely wide the calling range will be preflop. There are SO many bluffs villain can have here. The caller is absolutely right though at the end where he says his set has essentially the same value as ace queen. I even argue that you can say the same thing about ace king. At least in this hand, villain is repping a straight or nothing.

[@GregoryZ75]

No, sets shove for value here, esp QQ. Because Hero almost never has straights in that spot and w that line.

[@NewEnglandFish]

​@@GregoryZ75 I feel like villain's sets lead out the turn after it goes check check. I agree hero almost never has straights given the line but I don't see sets checking twice with this board and then checkraising the turn.

[@calfan8838]

More than looking for bluffs here, I’m thinking there are plenty of combos where V is value-owning himself. In addition to sets of 7s, 8s, or 9s, it would have shocked me if V showed up with Ah8h.

[@nicrobinson482]

probably would've bet the flop

[@phil3038]

@@nicrobinson482 using that logic, J10 must also be discounted

[@philbrockwell1835]

Where can I get one of them fish fryers?

[@williammccabe2129]

Even before the reveal, I put V on a hand like T9 or 76, i.e. a hand that had show-down value but was turned into a bluff. The key for me was V's turn action. If he had a straight or set, he would've led the turn instead of check-raising, because it was so likely that Hero would've checked back. The 7 turn only made the board more scary for an UTG opener, so the V would've bet the turn (with all his nuttish hands) to prevent it getting checked through.

[@JohnSmith-nx7zj]

Yeah I feel they really glossed over that. I’m certainly not checking that turn with straight. Except maybe exactly JThh

[@cnyjay]

This is a fun hand. Interestingly, it could be discussed in almost the exact same way without even knowing Eddie's cards or the board.

[@gregmajewski3406]

Uh what?

[@cnyjay]

@@gregmajewski3406 Even though Eddie makes a good hand on the River, the whole time he seems to be "playing the player" and so his actual holding and the board don't matter so much.

[@pot_kivach160]

@@cnyjay very true! Edy played as if he had 9T and being scared all the way from flop to river. Just called river believing V was bluffing. Which it happen to be truth. However, there was no bluff indicator whatsoever. The way he played, V could've had a straight.

[@Gos1234567]

agree lots of bluffs out there,any hand with a T makes for a decent bluff and of course flugh draws,be more interesting if he didnt hit his ace though

[@ryanyuan9183]

What if he push all in like 3x or 4x on the river

[@MyComedyStore]

I wouldn’t be worried about 10-6 or 5-6 … maybe 5-6 suited. It’s still probably just a call because its very unlikely the villain has a set that he can call a jam with.

[@Kal-Reegar]

I range villain as 5-6 and 10-6 suited, all JT combos, some weird bluffs and some worse value. I’m not thrilled but definitely calling the river. There are some Ax of hearts hands we beat as well as 7x or 8x with hearts that may turn the river in to a bluff.

[@JohnSmith-nx7zj]

@@Kal-Reegarhe gets to the turn with all those 24 straight combos you mention I agree. But do all 24 of them then check the turn? Surely plenty of them bet for value/protection? There’s so many bad river cards on that board.

[@happytrailsgaming]

He was on the straddle though

[@bobloomis246]

I was thinking the guy finally hit the river with his A-10 and went nuts.

[@peterzerfass4609]

Why wouldn't villain reraise the turn with low 2 pair (87s or 97s)? UTG range has lots of hands like AA, KK, AQ, KQ, JJ which will all call and villain blocks 99/88 and 77...and the only stronger 2 pair is 98 (Q9, Q8, Q7 is unlikely to open UTG) and the only other hand he's really screwed against is QQ (and he's not drawing dead against JT).

[@JohnSmith-nx7zj]

How could villain reraise the turn? Hero bet, villain check-raised and hero called.

[@nicholassmith6701]

Is it to late for me to become a CLP subscriber so I can get in on the Friday 2/24 event at Parx?

[@patrick_kyker]

What happens if H doesn't hit a set on river.

[@johnnyboychess]

When I see an oversized pot bet around 1.2-1.6x pot… it’s almost always a bluff. Could be a semi bluff but almost always a bluff

[@likemostthings]

this doesn't seem like too much discussion is required. Set of aces is effectivly 2nd nuts unless dude calls 3X preflp with 5/6 or 6/10. (which I guess he kind of did) In a cash game not many people would fold that unless they had a hard tell on the player.

[@pot_kivach160]

4:53 why checking flop back?

[@pot_kivach160]

5:51 here is the answer!!! 😂

[@tonytaranto7886]

I had him on J 6 ♠️ pre flop 😏 Super easy read 🙄

[@martinlopez4929]

Stopped at the c/r on the turn. Seems to me that Hero is playing the hand backwards. I would bet the flop (we don't have the Ah) and check back the turn... EDIT: Some of the player profiling I hear is dubious at best. Early in the call Hero says that V is not a fish. Then V tables... J6. Hmm.

[@pot_kivach160]

Agreed: horrible play by H, and V entering with J6s OOP, too loose. However, V knew who he was against, so he relied on his skills. And it would've worked, had the river was anything but A!! 😂 . Edit: if H bet the flop, there would not be turn!!

[@moaf2padventures757]

@@pot_kivach160 what are you two talking about?? villain is in the straddle, ofc hes defending J6s to a 3x raise last to act with the dead blinds in there.

[@pot_kivach160]

@@moaf2padventures757 I ran it few times now...and could not figured out the position of the straddle? Graphics said that H is UTG, so where is the straddle? Somewhere between bb and UTG? Thanks for heads up, though.

[@moaf2padventures757]

@@pot_kivach160 yes ofc, thats the only place it could be. sb, bb, straddle, utg. the game is 10-10-20. villain is in the straddle and put 20 in blind mandatory pf. defending J6s is pretty standard.

[@pot_kivach160]

@@moaf2padventures757 that must be something new (??). Never heard of straddle as a position??

[@SoulfightPoker]

Yeah against a solid player you just can't fold here obviously. Against a straight forward fish I think you could start folding here though against this sizing, then against probably 75% or less you can pretty easily raise, against check I think you can start taking like 1.5x-2x pot against a fish's set/2 pair cause they're never checking straights. Then the sick bluffs would probably be T9s/T8s vs a fish blocking sets in this line for like 3x or even 4x all in, maybe you just continue checking turn with those though, and the fish would have to check-raise turn with 2pair after you checked back flop. against a solid player I think TT/JJ if you ever have them in this line would be best bluff shove on river, pretty cool spot, poker is a great game

[@mrhumble2937]

Wait when you going to be in Philly?

[@moaf2padventures757]

he literally said exactly when hed be at parx in the first minute of the video even down to the specific hours of the day.

[@mrhumble2937]

@@moaf2padventures757 only caught it at end thanks

[@mrhumble2937]

Sometimes I think pocker is just guessing. Trying to use the little info but still guessing.

[@chrisko6439]

It depends on the players you are up against. You can't put very bad on hands, because they don't have any reasoning for playing a hand other than they wanna play.

[@EricA-xd9fn]

You're not wrong. Human behavior is erratic, but *over* *time* tendencies become apparent. It's not "one size fits all".

[@Adam-fb5nt]

it is the art of educated guessing. As Bart once said, if there was no luck involved, bad players would stop playing, which would make it unprofitable.

[@pot_kivach160]

H guessing is what he puts himself on. If played differently, he would've not needed guess.

[@ashypharaoh8407]

Funny you say that because the origin of the word "read" (like how we get a "read" on a player) is "guess"

[@patrick_kyker]

This is like every hand of PLO I've ever played. Except V has a straight.

[@grandpatzer]

T6s seems pretty wide to me to put in villain’s range. But then again, villain had J6s

[@happytrailsgaming]

He was the straddle

[@davidn82]

I once had a hand with flop of 77 10 and I had aces, turned an ACe, both opponents had a 7

[@likemostthings]

this comment kinda deserves the classic 'cool story bro'

[@Savsal12]

Came here to say that.

[@ashypharaoh8407]

I once had a hand with flop Q Q 2 and I had AQ. My opponent had Q2o

[@captzachevil]

I don't think the hand as it ran out is all that interesting. The ace on the river makes it a clear call. More interesting thought excercise would be what one might do if the river was anything other than an ace?

[@brandonbailo2457]

I put villain on 8/10h Almost sure he had a 10 in his hand

[@ashypharaoh8407]

J6, a day that will forever live in infamy

[@here7036]

This dude sounds so much like the great Eddie Pepitone...

[@461oceanboulevard]

This hand story makes no sense. Why would villain reveal? I’ve never seen a failed bluff reveal J high at these stakes.

[@Tomatolover120]

I thought *maybe* he had 10 J, but I wouldn't fold pocket aces on this board. Would have just taken it as a beat if he did and moved on.

[@pot_kivach160]

Typical example how wrong play of one player H can make the opponent throw tonnes of chips in H hands. 😂🙄

[@leonardmccannon3136]

It’s a pretty good bluff all things considered. If the hero had AK in this spot - which is the more common situation - it’s going to be very tough to find a call. I presume that if the villain could put the hero on top set, he might have bailed on the idea of running that bluff.

[@johns783]

the villain absolutely could have put him on AA, though not exclusively. Nothing about this action hides the fact that AA was in his range all the way down. But you are correct, he could have had lots of other stuff that would fold, too. AK and a bunch of available two pairs would have been tougher calls.

[@Mr--Pineapple]

Why would AK have called the xr on the turn?

[@tehblogger]

just snapcall the river, this isn't any kind of decision. We can never raise and can never fold!

[@moaf2padventures757]

yes ofc. the river raise vs call discussion was more about if villain bet like 1/3 or 1/4 pot or something. obviously for 1.5x pot call is the only answer here.