Cobra Kai

interesting article but reason you guys wont win at micros is cause there is lot of collusion. What i was doing against it is 2 guys tend to float the flop and if you check the turn one of them will pot bet bluff the river. But i started checking the turn with the nuts and caught a lot of these guys bluffing not only with bad hands but complete air no eq straight up floats to see saw me out of hands. It goes on almost every table at micros. The reason they do this at micros and not higher levels is cause the players are so bad they can make more money. At higher levels the players don't make as many mistakes so my guess is they do the collusion at micro level for that reason. Unless your playing zoom don't play micros plo or save up enough money to at least start at low stakes.

Nick has no clue. There is guys who do have a clue he is just not one of them he talks about poker improperly like a lot of guys do on run it once. Every time they do a bad play they start making excuses how its gto theory and its obvious poor decision. Sauce is the real deal though. Always loved his content. He should make his own poker training site. I can't even argue about one of his decisions. He thinks about poker properly and makes the right decisions. Its work of art. The rest of these guys I have watched make ton of mistakes in their vids and they don't even realize it. If you try to call them out on it they defend their bad play. Sauce will admit when hes wrong and think about it. Its why he is a great player he doesn't let his ego get in the way of being a better player. I followed sauce play for over 10 years. Guys a great player. But Nick has no business teaching poker he needs coaching and needs to learn to apply what he is taught properly which he doesn't do. Sorry but thats the truth from what I saw.

Nick got mad and frustrated when i showed all the info and said I am done with this guy and banned me. He had no counter argument he realized he was wrong but hes not going to admit to it to a student that had paid him 5k in coaching. He banned me cause I made him look like an idiot. That is why i got banned. I have no reason to lie. he can fool that donk over paying him for coaching but not me. My opinion is very relevant. Your opinion is not cause you were not there when he banned me. And you act like you are Nick like you have the same mind. Like your his soul mate and his bottom bich. Your obviously biased cause your in love with him so your opinion is irrelevant. When someone takes another persons side who was not their he is irrelevant its like when Judge Judy kicks out peoples friends out of court room who didn't observer the situation. But go ahead sell that run it once so galfond will give you high 5. I am just being honest with what happened and that is what is relevant in life is honest feedback. Not every comment trying to sell a product. People are tired of sales pitch crap. They want the truth. And that is what I am giving for people to get good at poker.

I play bots every day.Merge banned my account for beating bots and not telling them I knew they were bots. They said I was cheating cause I knew they were bots and not reporting them. Go figure. I can beat most of them but there is a few I can't beat on ACR that have much more aggro style very unpredictable that make crazy hero calls. They also mix in limping pre and fold to raise about 90% of the time. But the bot puts me in a lot of tough spots and hero call way better then the other bots. My guess is they will get tougher as years go by where they wont be beatable and you will see them every where and take over online poker. Why I moved over to PLO. There is bots playing PLO too but they aren't as good as the NLH bots. Once you start beating the bots they sit out wont play you no more I guess until they get a update haha.

Ya most of what is in his hud should be put in the 2nd pop up. Looks like heads up hud

Saying xr would be terrible or its impossible for betting to be bad is being very narrow minded. Seems like you got to much ego to actually be logical about what I am saying. There is no terrible play when someone checks back and their range is capped and you decide to rep a nut range. To say a raise is terrible os absurd. I look at what is the situation and what is the best way for me to react to win this hand not what my hand is necessarily. You look to much at your hand. Its not just about what we are repping but also what he is repping and how to counter what he is repping to make the most profit.

These were the leaks that I had that was destroying my win rate. Maybe you should filter these spots. Prove me wrong though I like to be wrong so I learn. Post a graph you calling a raise op with a marginal back door equity hand over 1k hand sample at the same limit and show me your making a profit. If you can your better then everyone. If you said well our stacks are deeper so I think calling is worth gambling in this spot even though its -ev spot then id give you some credit. You sound as if you think this is profitable to do op. It is 100% never profitable in a vacuum. Show me you can profit calling with small pair on the turn op going to the river with no draw equity. Show me I am wrong here.

My comments plain and simple to help this player. If he is unsure best way to figure it out is filter all these situations and see for himself. Thats how we grow and learn as players.

Ya but Pio doesn't work against certain aggro players that don't like aggression back at them. You can't call down with middle pair against an aggro player with no equity in your hand. You might as well as fold cause he just gonna barrel. And if he has a high fold to flop raise even though pio says to call with middle pair its a great spot to raise. Worse will fold but our middle pair wont get to realize its equity often enough to pot control unless we have good equity to go with it. Even if on QT2 he has say AQ he calls raise and we have JT we do still have outs to improve and with no back door equity I am raising this flop against an aggro player who cb 80% and barrels 60%. Now hands like 99-33 wont get to realize its equity or suck out. Hands with back door equity now have to fold like A5hh with back door hearts and back door straight draws now has to fold to flop raise.

See this is the stuff PIO don't know. It raises a certain range vs a players range which is correct. But it doesn't know how a player responds to a flop raise they aren't going to play the way PIO would play to a raise. Some over fold some call some bluff reraise. So we need to think outside the box. So instead of just thinking pio says to fold here or call and if hes aggro we need to fold this turn we should think we have decision to either fold or RAISE vs this player and check his raise to fold stat. Just because you have middlish doesn't mean we can't ever raise.The guy that will do anything in any spot is a much tougher opponent to play against for an aggro player. I understand what your saying in the video but we should always consider all options to win a hand even with middle pair. We should wait a minute I know PIO says to call but in this spot against this aggro guy does he fold to a flop raise often enough that raising is more profitable? Then we can say well we should raise our middle pair with not much equity because we will fold to turn barrels and his tendency is to barrel and we can win the pot on the flop quite often.

I know in the video your saying to make move on the river with middle pair but again its a mistake to let an aggro player realize all his equity to the river and we are risking now our entire stack to run a bluff when we can do it on the flop and risk less. I don't think middle pair is a great hand to bluff raise with on the river.

Pretty much done with texas holdem moved over to PLO. I fell into da PLO trap =). Its like heroine. 5422 at beginning of video is fold for me at plo50. I learned hard way just have to fold these out cost to much rake.

A joke? Why cause its 1 table? This is to me his best video I have seen. If you want entertainment value and seeing 1000s of hands thats fine but you learn a lot more playing fewer hands and focusing on 1 hand at a time and going into deeper analysis. I learn a lot more when Phil goes over each situation in detail on each street. It makes me realize the stuff I am leaving out to make a decision. I know its not as fun to watch but its about becoming a better player. And if you don't agree with his plays post your thoughts so we can get different perspectives on playing these situations instead of just saying is it a joke. Thats kind of tilting you leave a comment and we have no clue what your talking about.

Its weird spot. People think they need to play tighter and wait for big hands. But reality if they are bad pre they are bad post. So I would play tighter range op but when I have position I would play more wide range. If you hit big they will pay you off more often then not so you don't have to have a great starting hand. Plus you usually get to get in pots at cheap price since nobody is really 3b or iso raising like on a tough table would. U want to see a lot of boards against these players ip and op play much tighter range.

Villain (young kid, still needs to go through puberty, playing bad but running hot)
Hero ( mature world class player with hair on his chest)
I would cb the flop and see what develops. On the turn it depends what they do on the flop. If one caller I think i fire the turn again and if he just calls the turn I think id go all 3. If he is the bad player the villain guy maybe just give up on the turn. Bad player usually means calling station. If you dont think he will fold the turn no reason to bet.

19:26 your getting to cute checking the flop against an aggro player. We will be cb all our air on this board. So we need to cb KK here. We only block KQ he has AQ, KJ QTS etc. Its only 4 handed. He will hit some flush draws we can charge and even if he has some small pair he will call one. Checking we get to let him do whatever he wants and we cap our range. We look very weak and now face a tough 3 barrel. I dont' mind doing this with QQ with Qd or 55 or 33 with diamond. AQdd would be a great hand to check to him with so we aren't in this terrible spot by the river. to go with our checks with middle pair. ANd against this particular kind of player that likes to barrel hard I dont mind check calling the flop with suited Ax dimaonds and suited Kx diamonds and just barrel flush draws that have low show down value. I just the KK is to vulnerable of a hand we only block a K high flush draw and KQ combos which is not really a reason to check here imo. Its not about just what hands your blocking but what kind of spot yourself in on future streets. Unless you hit K on the turn or river 3 barrels is tough to go against with 1 pair. I don't mind his bluff you rarely ever have a flush or premium hand by the line you took. But he can have one. You don't have to bluff every time with only blockers. If you did your not bluffing enough.

28:25 your spot on with betting that river. I see people check call with AK and go auto check on river and its great bluffing spot cause they most likely check the turn with marginal hand they want to see river with. the J is perfect card to bluff they are barreling draws with J on the turn. I thought you were going to bet to show us how its done. I was going to say nice play. But either way love the logic how you talked through this hand. These are great spots where people if they thought a little bit more about the hand they could bluff and make a little bit more money. And you let randy win! Can't let my coach win. Punish him! Nanobroko!

Ya his call even on the turn is pretty bad with the first hand 9Ts. The way I look at it is to shove for value a lot lighter on the river. So even JJ should be a shove vs this particular player. Hes calling that wide we actually want to not 3b him with polarized range and 3b more with our merged range. So 3b this guy with 78s is not just profitable. So I would not 3b him with A2s blocker I would do it with ATs+ so when he does call with TJs and 9Ts over 87s hes crushed. It works really well against these guys who make bad hero calls with marginal top pair hands 3 barrels. Truth is he never made a mistake. You did assuming he understands hand ranges like you do and that he would know your range would be more value heavy. Ego gets in way of a lot of guys I talk poker with and I tell them the real mistake was them thinking opponent thinks like they do and they flip out on me that I am saying they made the mistake. Math wise they made mistake but this is a game built around how the opponent thinks first. Everyone thinks differently and not understanding the psychology of how a player thinks is the real mistake. +EV thing to do is note situation for future reference.

2:26 its more +ev to raise here. he raising the btn they will cb a wide range here. And he will barrel any equity picked up. This is a great spot to raise. We could have the best hand we block 33, K3s that he might raise pre. Also what I like is we can barrel any back door straight or flush draw and even push him off K. And they will cb a lot here with any pair 55-QQ all of those as protection bet and will fold quite often when we raise. I don't understand the call when your not gonna realize equity very often op in this spot and we have a ton of back door flush equity and we block set and some 2 pair combos. I think this is a mistake I see quite often is people hope to realize equity with small pair and they auto mode call here without thinking about the opponents range that is beating us that will fold out. I agree with calling one with no much back door equity but on this board with a lot of back door equity its perfect spot to raise and i don't even raise big I just make it 2.5 to 3x on the flop. I get tons of folds in this spot because we are not doing it often only when we have a lot of back door equity and its dry board.

12:15 is easy fold with the A4s. Your calling the flop on 2T5 with A4s with just back door flush draw op? You should be telling him not to do this and his range is much stronger from co vs ep raise. And we are op on top of it. He has TT here sometimes He as 22 and 55. . He can do whatever he wants on the turn he can check back or bet. And that hits his range pretty well. He has a lot of pocket pairs in that spot he is not even on the btn. His range stronger then btn range. I know we can have over pair here but when someone raises an ep cb from co they are usually pretty strong. There is just not many bluffs on this board. Very dry flop and his range is going to be weighted more to value hoping we have an over pair and even if hes bluffing he just going to barrel any over card with QKs. Our hand is way to weak to float here for this to be +ev spot. If we are ip i get it and on the btn where he cold calls much wider range but op this not going to show a profit. I am trying to word this nicely but to even consider floating is getting to cute and its leaking money away. Especially at micros. And i don't like the sizing again. I like it if it was 22T then ya go ahhead 1/4th bet. But this kind of board just do normal cb 1/2 to 2/3 or your just asking to get raised with back door draw and even T wont want to give you cheap turn.

7:41 the AJo cb on 972 should fo check I disagree with betting. We have 2 overs but no real equity and i dont 'even like the small cb your just asking to get raised in this spot. And now a hadn like 8T or TJ type hand just blew you off the best hand. The villain will know that his his range hits hard so ya he can raise big hands here but also a lot of his weaker range thats going to raise that has no show down value. I really doubt he has big hand when he raises its more bluffs. They will trap with big hands on that kind of board. I know its good t ocb and take it down but when we have show down value that is beating a lot of his range that can't call a raise with no equity to go with it we are gonna end up folding the best hand quite often. So imo its easy check back with the AJ. I understand people want to play like sauce or do what pio says but this is a spot to check back we want to realize our equity not bet and face a raise with maybe the best hand. We want to think about our range and his range and what he will do with his range on that board.

6:45 of video I fold the 89o its easy fold especially at these micros with only 100 bb effective stack depth. If we are deeper again I would call 120 to 130 bbs deep and I know its 3 way but again a spot to marginal and its not +ev over the long run unless stack depths are deeper. We just wont hit often to show a profit.

the A3o I think can be called since stacks are deeper. But i would only call if its opponent we can realize our equity. If he has high cb and barrel I would fold. Against a player who plays more honest post flop it worth gambling when we are around 130 bbs deep. I think people look to much at hand strength from each position and its sort of a mistake. The first thing we want to look at with marginal hands is how deep we are heads up with someone and also how he play post flop. These are spots you can win big and give big boost to win rate or lose small pot. These are the spots that give me higher win rate opening my range a little more vs deeper stacks. But at micros maybe its fold due to rake. I would still call and see a flop. 3b would be horrible cause he has position and playing deeper opponent will float a lot more to try hit big with gut shot and bluff if we have to check. So i think callling is optimal vs a more straight forward opponent post flop.

4:23 its either a check raise which I like best or check fold. The only hand he is calling a check raise with is hand like JJ. He pretty much isn't repping anything. Even a back door flush draw probably cb that flop. So at this point when checks back bets the turn his range is weak but its possible he still betting a better hand we can make better hands fold with a check raise doesn't matter ifh e calls we have plenty of rivers we can bluff with. But his range is capped ours is not. So its either imo a check raise check fold. Say he is betting AT here on the turn and we call he has double gutter and 2 overs. 8 wont get to realize equity enough to profitably call here imo. I think ita great spot to check raise. I know it sucks we don't have equity but it aspot his range is weak enough we will get more folds by just raising the turn.

at 11:00 of video we see the all in with pair and open ender i thought equity would be about the same but villain only has 37% equity against Phils hand if anyone wants to know. Surprises me hes pretty much crushed the hands look so similar.

It must be hard to do a video and play at the same time on multiple tables. Now I think about it its definitely takes the focus down a notch trying to entertain the audience and also focus on the tables. When I play I even put in ear plugs to drown out any sort of noise. I notice Phils decisions are much more precise and clear on 1 table. Great video. Also easier for me to focus on what he is doing. Would like to see more of these. More important on the thinking process then play 100s hands to entertain the audience imo. Anything over 2 tables is just to much info at once coming in.

All just move up then and play 2 tables. Ty for response. I am showing decent profit but its annoying to have all in ev line 5x what my profit is. I feel like I am over playing on the flop to much with my stronger range which is costing me probably a lot of my rake. Would like to see a vid on what hands we should wait to turn before raising. Sometimes all have top 2 with like T7 on T73 in 3b pot and all raise they reraise im all in and they have like AT89 and I realized my hand is not that great and I feel like an idiot. Especially when I have 200 bb stack I feel like i played it wrong cause I am scared to see bad turn card. Coming from holdem top 2 your supposed to get it in. It rarely holds up when i raise and they jam in like 3b pot. Sometimes all have bottom set and board super wet and i have no blockers to strong equity hands and it makes me wonder if I should see one more street first in spots like that. But I hate seeing bad turn roll off. Feels like I am making it easy on my opponent to let him realize his equity. I know i need to slow play some of these spots but I don't know the best spots to do it. I know finding spots like this could reduce a lot of the rake as well instead of just bloating every flop with a strong nuttish range. I notice in midstakes plo vids the players are a lot more patient on the flop. They trap more. Giving examples of when to do it and compare a hand u would not do it and why would help a lot on how I can think about these spots in the future.

at 44:00 I like raising the flop on the left what cards are we gonna barrel on the turn if he calls flop raise? I know diamonds but any paired card or A or 4? I am not sure if flush card would be good card to barrel i would guess that would be more of his flop raise calling range and less of 2 pair sets and straight draws. But we do have heart blocker. Feels like the hearts would be bad barrel.

44:44 This is the hardest part for me transitioning from texas holdem is not firing the K on the turn. It seems like such a great barrel card but i gone through my hand history they have that dam K almost every time and have some 2 pair hand.

36:59 I don't like his bet sizing on left table. He should be going 2/3 to 3/4. . Our utg range hit that flop pretty well when 1/2 pot bet it just looks weak and I think gives villain more incentive to call and float with weaker range. Dry board i get it 1/2 pot but on more wet board that would hit us a lot harder we are not 1/2 the flop with our value range. So it just imo looks suspect to cb 1/2. I would do this bet if i had top set and nut flush draw where i 1/2 to get opponents to float cause they tend to think its weak but outside of super nutted high equity spot that we wont be in very often our value range is gonna go 2/3 to 3/4 no reason to 1/2 here

38:15 his check on turn is terrible when the board pairs we can take villain pretty much off any draw and pair with a good size bet/ then he pots river after checking the turn hes repping nothing except 5s full. No way we are checking the turn with the nuts on a board that wet very often. Its just not believable. I woudl snap him off with any pair here especially when he pots it and repping the nuts. I would have to see he can check back the turn with boat or 3 Ts on board that wet. Wow it worked I am surpised... I still think betting turn is better I think we get same result

Play tight range and print it up on your printer of what to open in each position. ONly play 1 table until you can memorize the ranges then slowly add more tables. You will lose lot of money if you bluff to much( it takes advanced thinking to run proper bluff), call down to much with marginal hands and draws ( new players don't understand the thinking needed to make proper hero call), and play to wide of range ( wider you play the more marginal spots your in which advanced players can handle). IF your not sure to play a hand or 3b if your out of posiition just fold and take more chances in position. If your in position you have an edge. Get holdem manager or poker tracker study your hands and opponents hands you notice win every day and are tough to compete with. After you get in like 300-500k hands maybe ask around for a cheap coach that doesn't charge high hrly rate to fix up some of your leaks. You do that I think you will be fine. Its not hard to make money at poker its following the proper process and being patient. I didn't do that and it cost me way more money then it should of because I was impatient.

23:55 is bet on the turn. And we can bluff lot of rivers any 3,7 or diamond. Id rather put pressure on his capped range then him doing it to us. I don't like being in tough spots. If we check back the turn we look pretty weak and if he has air he probably going to fire. But he also is going to fire some 2 pair combos cause our range is just to weak. I think it just puts us in a tough spot on the river when we check the turn. We don't really know where we are at and we basically in a tough spot to bluff catch with pair of Js and probably have to fold. He might even go for thin value with an over pair.

18:41 I think I am 3b there. Unless the utg always min raise pre I would expect him to have a weaker range when he min raise instead of 3x. I think i like 3b better. THe problem with calling is the bb price to call is way to cheap. And our hand is a lot stronger in heads up situation. I would of 3b there to a min raise from utg unless thats his normal raise size and he plays pretty tight from ep. Even if he 4b some AAxx hand we still good equity especially being ip. When they min raise utg its usually 2 pair hand they want to flop a cheap set with or some low run down cards. Once they miss their set they will fold especially on higher boards so I get a lot of folds to cb when they are op. Ya flop is now 2A2 we 3b cb 1/4th we win the pot quite often. He didn't cb the flop or turn so he didn't even have an A. Pretty sure he just had some 2 pair type hand he min raise utg with trying to flop a set cheap. We let him have his way and let bb get in cheap. I agree with your thoughts though if he did normal raise size utg and isn't to loose then I agree calling is better. Min raise meh I don't let them get away with that.

8:49 u don't like a check raise? I love that play if btn cb and sb folds. I am pretty sure the btn will cb air but also 99+ and if we raise he will be forced to fold out all over pairs with no draw equity. If we bet he will call all his over pairs with back door flush equity. I don't really like betting. And checking and seeing a turn is not the worst thing in the world. But we look super strong if we check raise the flop. We do have a blocker to set of 6s its perfect spot for check raise for me. Even if he calls or shoves unless he has a wrap we aren't in terrible shape.

Wait a minute your saying if btn bets 12 and fong raises to 37 you would shove? Thats a terrible play. Hes gonna have wrap city and we will be crushed. Or we are up against a set. One thing is fong will know the fact we are bb its going to hit our range a lot so for him to bluff raise with us in bb is reaching a little bit. He should know we might be going for a check raise ourself. He is going to be more value heavy imo in that particular spot. see at 13:55 he pot raise. My check raise strategy would of been much better idea. But fong raises I am done here. Hes not messing around in this spot.

16:00 469T ds is not a raise in the CO... Looks pretty but still to loose. To disconnected. I guess if the btn is tight and doesn't 3b to much its ok. Its tough to play your flopping a lot of marginal draws and 2 pair hands that may not realize their equity by the river against an aggro post flop player.

at 4 min your saying the A87T ss to the A is a raise. Its a fold. Even double suited only want to raise it like half the time. It is not as connected as it looks and we run into a lot of problems when we do hit a lot of 2 pair combinations and even some lower wraps might get us in some trouble. Only the nut flush draw really helps us. I have a starting hand chart for each position and even co only raise around 25% of the time. It looks pretty but its really not that great. Playing it op is pretty tough. So its more of a btn raise unless your world class player like galfond then I am sure he can make it a plus ev raise.

You said JJT4 ds is a call i agree its a better hand the A867 ss is to loose. But unless the raiser is raising around 30% or more JJT4 ds is a fold. That is to loose too. Your world class so you can get away with it but you have to remember we are not on your level. Its ok to call if they are really bad post flop. I can't believe I am more nitty then phil galfond. But tight is right. I call more with QJ99 or 7655 ds type hands that are more connected. Then i hit more flops and hands are much easier to play on a lot more board textures.

I did the calcs on Propoker Tools if opp has KK or TT and has top set we have 37% equity and no other draws. Now if he has top 2 with like KT we actually have 52% equity we are the fav. So even vs top set we still win a little more then 1 in 3 tiimes. And against everything else we are dominating.