Why Go All-In Here? Unpacking This Ace King Spot

In this video, we dissect the decision-making process behind an all-in move with Ace King that could be somewhat ambitous on this particular board. Bart explains why he the decision he would have made in this spot is clear cut. This hand unfolds in a live 1/3 cash game, and we break down each step to understand why going all-in was not the optimal play. Whether you're a seasoned pro or an aspiring poker player, this analysis will provide valuable insights into advanced poker strategy.
Join us as we explore:
The thought process behind pushing all-in with AK on this specific board.
Key factors to consider when making river decsions in live cash games.
Critical poker tips that can elevate your game to the next level.
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0:00 - Intro
1:17 - Preflop
2:54 - Flop
5:49 - Turn
9:58 - River
14:30 - Hero Decision
17:03 - Reveal
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[@CrushlivePoker]

See 15:25 for why the caller's "combo bet" doesn't add up

[@KenDavis-uo8kq]

have you ever covered raising flop or turn to get better draws to fold?

[@lgf2202]

It didn't make sense that he thought he could get a small flush or straight to fold, but get called by a worse two pair. That's mind boggling to me!

[@KenDavis-uo8kq]

@@lgf2202 🤪🤣

[@Chemissed-qc1bt]

This is why Bart is the best. He's such a patient teacher, he pushes his callers to think for themselves and when they sometimes go astray he is always nice about it and supportive (even if his face expressions say otherwise). I like it, he could get more clicks by blasting callers but understands it's wise not to!

[@datsumcrzysht]

He’d get more clicks but less people calling in.

[@330miggs]

15" POKER HAAAAARRRRDDD

[@evrenturan3674]

Fish on fish violence.

[@tipsy09]

Squirt squirt

[@jbbruno8115]

Haha - love that. Basically

[@hjburke]

Love barts facial expressions here. Good vid. Good teaching.

[@mikehamilton367]

15:10-15:30 has to be one of the best examples of all time of Bart's pained face that just screams wtf are you thinking!!

[@dan22482]

15:10-15:30 😂

[@ruudbakstra1805]

😂

[@jameswinters4501]

Is this call from rush hour in Vietnam? Whats with all the honking?

[@justinhart7172]

This is why you have to be so careful folding top of range vs unknowns or recs .. they never cease to amaze

[@alexanderchacko8269]

These videos are so cool, such good insight into thought processes!

[@losyart]

Its actually hilarious that somebody so clueless who said no way you have flush and put you on 1010 actually folded his hand lol

[@ryanmundt8489]

Just FYI proper notation on pocket 10s is TT not 1010, sorry it’s a pet peeve of mine 😂

[@well.thy.one.]

@@ryanmundt8489TeNtEN

[@timohettinger9178]

@@ryanmundt8489 TENS = 1010, JECKS=1111, QUAYS=1212, KAYS=1313, ACES= 1414 - TENKS for CUMIN!

[@JohnSmith-nx7zj]

I don’t find it hard to believe V had AK. But the river jam was horrible. If you absolutely must have some bluffs here, surely AsQx is a much better option?

[@skoomymooms8845]

With deeper stacks I would guess a solver could have a jam frequency here balancing nut flush with nut blocker, but I find that maybe even hard to believe because of AK showdown value, but here villain is getting decent enough pot odds that they should be defending down with a much wider portion of their range. Like Bart said I don't even know what hands are bet folding here. I would never expect to get better to fold or worse to call.

[@TheNow_Now]

Yeah usually 'bluffs' are hands at the bottom of your value range. Here, that would be like AQo/AJo, with As, also blocking a straight.

[@UberFubar75]

Gutsy move dude!! Not my play but glad it worked 😀 This is the quality of opponents at that level. Can I come play there? Lol

[@ZenMadmanPoker]

My first instinct was that this river jam is certified bananas, but somehow caller's line is more or less solver approved (by GTOBase, 200bb deep). But that's against a river donk range of Ax flushes (which caller blocks), 6x flushes (which mix call and fold against the jam), and 9s9x/7s7x (which are bluffs and fold). Still feels like a square call, since better can't be expected to fold, worse can't be expected to call, and AK is only 4 combos (and shouldn't bet/fold, but apparently did). Anyway, this hand is weird AF. (Solver takes b33 on flop and b75 on turn, then faces pot-sized donk on river with similar amount back to the hand as played.)

[@timbok83]

Can someone explain to me how this is a 100% Never raise/jam river yet villain is dumb for folding when he sensed it wasn’t a stone bluff? Caller thinks they’re betting for value. Villain senses this. Folds, knowing it doesn’t feel like a flush, which means it’s probably sets for value since AK is so blocked but *could* occasionally be AK. If hero should never rip with top two pair there, villain is right to fold since AK is bare bottom of hero’s range.

[@user-qk6og1hy3u]

Barts the best.

[@darren352]

Your many 'puzzled' faces from 15:08-12:25 .... PRICELESS 😆😆😆

[@theWATRpodcast]

8:43 for players that don't pay attention to pot size, how can we use chip spiking to our advantage?

[@finalflameKorisky]

Im just glad that when hero revealed the river and told what villain did i knew the right answer was to call.

[@NorCal_Poker]

This play was the definition of fancy play syndrome (I know from experience)! I think you would’ve heard from AT & KT probably folds on turn. So he should only have flush or QJ 😬

[@jacobpage410]

A good old fashioned value bluff!

[@JQpoker]

Very interesting merge spot here. I wouldn’t do this against fish but against a thinking player, he could be bet folding QJ. But those same players are probably also folding K10. With $1/3 players not folding flushes I think it’s just too shallow but I don’t hate the idea

[@qlow5956]

Typing during the river action: I'm snap folding against the river bet. At higher stakes (even 2-5), a jam can get everything to fold with a +EV frequency. But that $200 lead screams that 1) Villain is confident he's ahead, and 2) Villain is ready to play for stacks even if he loses some of that confidence to a raise. So no point in calling to lose $200 or raising to lose even more. Snap fold. Typing during the reveal: WTF?? I clearly have no idea what goes on in low stakes players' heads.

[@tipsy09]

Like Bart says sometimes “value owning yoruself”

[@philip-op6de]

Sometimes you find some good players at low stakes but most the time these low stakes players have no strategy and are just putting money into the pot 😅

[@nuklearwinter2892]

QJs is going to check raise the flop a ton, and KT isn’t likely to be likely in his range. Most likely hands for V are Txhh hands like JThh, QThh, T9hh and random flushes like 45ss.

[@Jermo484]

I'm not sure there are that few Qxss here. It was CO vs BU and he raised so small pre, I'm calling with Q9s for sure at least and plenty of 1/3 splashy fools are playing any suited Q they raised. Still a pretty trivial just call, though.

[@seslocrit9365]

3x isn't small...

[@Jermo484]

@@seslocrit9365 230 BBs deep live? It's tiny. You should be calling a massive percentage of what you're opening with when facing a late position 3 bet that small. That's why a lot of people use 4x in position, 5x out of position 3 bet sizing.

[@StanBarkington-bt7fu]

He can also have Q9 of spades

[@spaffron4285]

That shouldn't be calling a 3bet pre but weirder things have happened

[@StanBarkington-bt7fu]

@@spaffron4285 yeah but it’s a 1-3 game and c/o opened for $10 so it was just $20 to call. Smaller games are riskier because people open with a wider range.

[@nuklearwinter2892]

Likely to check raise flop though with Q9ss

[@jbbruno8115]

They say 2 wrongs don’t make a right. Classic example. If villain thought AK was good (and didn’t give hero something like AT) then why not lead out or CR the turn? Why wait to make this play on river? And ‘hero’ jamming may have worked out - but only because villain was SO lost. Kudos to @evrenturan3674 for his ‘fish on fish violence’ comment. To the caller - glad you won. NOT trying to mock you. Just PLEASE understand the jam on river is not the right move

[@qsdailydose8970]

Bart do you like a 100% c bet heads up in position ???

[@joncorb540]

100% frequency or 100% pot size bet? Either way, no.

[@qsdailydose8970]

@@joncorb540 frequency small 1/3 bet

[@kevinm.6855]

I hate these call ins. This caller still has no clue his bone head play got him half the pot. "I wanted to get 2 pair to call and flushes to fold" can't make this up.

[@3h4bMusic]

😂😂😂

[@gabrielrockman]

Why would you go larger in position with the preflop 3 bet? I would think that you want to go larger out of position to get more folds, whereas in position you want to see the flop more often.

[@TheTree1]

Do you wanna make the pot bigger when you have the positional advantage.

[@gabrielrockman]

​@@TheTree1 I want to play more pots when I have position. I'm much happier to take down the pot preflop when I am out of position.

[@jacevincent2574]

it's not that you want to go larger IP compared to OOP, but factoring in the positional advantage he prefers to go more than 3x to a small open raise so that the pot is larger. Absolute bet sizing exploits are a part of this, when you're playing higher stakes its all about relative pot size, but in low stakes you can be pretty sure your opponents will call/4! the same range if you bet to 30 or if you bet to 35-40. If you can bet 40 and get the same calls while IP, it's a good thing to size up.

[@TheTree1]

@@gabrielrockman yes so you're not very good i got it. Im not guessing here im telling you the answer. You can listen or you can ignore it your choice.

[@markwinchester5434]

@@TheTree1 solvers do increase 3bet and 4bet size when OOP, this isnt news. When you are OOP, solvers prefer to reduce the SPR and get more fold equity pre flop. So yeah u dont know what ur talking about actually

[@livelivingpoker]

Did the editor fall asleep at the graphics wheel?

[@stephanie4205]

I was wondering if it was just me lol

[@oldmanriver2721]

Don't fold top two pair if it makes you visibly upset.

[@joet7760]

I would think 67 of spades or Jack queen of spades would have raised the turn. I wouldn’t give him a flush drawer here having the king blocker. I would’ve jammed. I have not gotten to the reveal yet, but that is just my thinking.

[@KenDavis-uo8kq]

Could have but I’d probably just sigh call

[@TylerDelCotto]

Can’t say that he thinks the the opposition thinks he doesn’t have a flush, but then on the same street say his rise means he could have the nut flush

[@mrhumble2937]

Don't know results but I'm folding. He bet cuz he didn't want u to check back.

[@JohnSmith-nx7zj]

19:31 “what would you have done with a set of tens…without the ace of spades” This ain’t PLO, hard to have a set of tens plus a nut flush blocker 😂

[@clementl.784]

Your comment is dumb af lol... He was just stressing the fact that TT is even stronger hand, but lacks the nut flush block.

[@stevenundisclosed6091]

Hero has an open invite to all my home games.

[@ZenMadmanPoker]

Villain too, though, right?

[@fernandotamblay8072]

Live poker is not dead

[@davidculhane4388]

If villain is a decent player, jamming as a bluff with the but blocker isn't that bad of a play, but I'd certainly prefer to be deeper behind. The whole combo bet thing is stupid. It is the most counter-intuitive thing I've ever heard of. Nobody is going to fold with a better hand but call eith a worse.

[@joncorb540]

But why bluff with this strong of a hand?

[@UURevival]

In a small stakes game $365 is a big bet no matter the pot size.

[@BenjtheStation]

“My strategy here was to get flushes and straights to fold and two pairs to call”… LMAO what!?

[@danielmeuler2877]

Maybe if the Hero has 400$ more in his stack, he can use this Ace of spades as a Bluff but jamming at this stack size is not getting anyone off a hand that beats the hero. This is a Crying Call. edit: "If that's True"... I feel the same way you do Bart.

[@qsdailydose8970]

I like a check back here on the turn

[@ichirorightfield]

You are going to have the best hand here a huge % of the time. It’s a very wet board. What if villain does have QJ of spades? Just let him get there? Got to make this dude pay. Go big. 75 80% ish

[@qsdailydose8970]

@@ichirorightfield I just like checking back top pair a lot especially after a c bet for pit control but also because fools always lead river thinking I’m weak and I usually call

[@joncorb540]

On a double flush and straight draw board? That's criminal. You need to get value from worse hands before they potentially shutdown on the river. Maaaaaaybe if villain is some maniac who you know will bluff big if he senses weakness.

[@britishbulldogish]

Why are there none of these fish in Europe. My 1/3 game plays like Bellagio 10/20.

[@mrhumble2937]

Why didn't he 4 bet ak. Weird

[@fireinfireout]

The background noise in this call is terrible.

[@thakurv1]

56 spades , 76 spades. He’s not folding a flush

[@jasonfarkas6878]

The logic here is mystifying. He claims the raise was so that worse two pairs might call and straights and flushes would fold. You can't have it both ways. If he's calling with worse two pair then all his straights and flushes call, too. Unless this is the magical unicorn bet that makes all worse hands call and better hands fold.

[@007420ish]

what a silly poker room where $100 was white, $25 was purple, and $5 was yellow, if the manager was not smart enough to go with the standard colors then there is no telling what rules were not followed. JMO AK worked out here but I would never consider a shove there, more like a crying call. but it's poker it's better not to understand too much stuff lol.

[@TheTree1]

This dude is in the muck

[@conornocherpoker7887]

Disagree with Bart when he says that villain won't donk bet river with KT. KT blocks AK and KK so CO could be repping the flush to bluff AA KK AK, but will also get value from AQ/ AJ especially with a blocker.

[@Dexerion]

We say “don’t be results-oriented “but the exploit of play of this player versus a known opponent made for the better result. Just shows you how you have to be GTO and exploitative at the same time to be good. It’s hard to quantify the exploit.

[@opinion3742]

He didn't have ace king

[@thaThRONe]

Man both these players are bad. Why are people turning 2 pair into bluffs?

[@drewferguson8324]

This is….awful.