How To THINK In Poker 

Is there any possible way here that the Hijack had a hand that didn't contain an ace when he called the river?

Listening to these interactions shows me how much more I have to learn to become a better player.

Life finds interesting ways to test your patience sometimes.

The more I think about it, the $200 bet on the river wasn't that bad. If the HJ has a suited weak Ace, he probably won't call an almost pot size river bet. He bet the flop with the weak ace to find out where he was. When everyone called he shut it down and it checked through on the turn. By it checking through, it probably confused him. When you then put out a small bet on the river, he figured maybe I have this one. The cap betting brings in weaker hands like a weak suited Ace, because the HJ knows that it can't get bumped up again.

When Bart says here "I think you may be over-thinking " I feel like he can say that often in these calls. I also feel very few of the callers accurately describe their villains. This guy way overthinks.

This was an awkward call...I felt like the caller was way over complicating this at 100 BB effective

5:48 "It's better to take an exploitative approach and bet AK while checking AA, KK and QQ" : actually that is the exact GTO strategy.

I think the call was actually pretty chill. It seems like he’s trying to voice what he was thinking and then when Bart picks it apart it’s easier to put what he was thinking and the obvious play together. Although he was rambling a bit. Haha

I feel like this guy thinks Bart called into his show and he’s the one giving the advice

Bart should have just conferenced in Effective Stack guy and let them debate the hand. Totally +EV move and Bart could have just watched some Netflix.

Earned my sub. The thought process laid down cleared up so many things for me.

It's 3/5 just bet your value hands and be done with overthinking.

Dude kept saying "we" like he and Bart were co-instructors. Too funny. Guy should listen to the intro and realize that Bart is the owner and lead instructor of Crush Live Poker.

Classic case of fancy play syndrome. Usually it ends worse. Guys like Bart sometimes forget people really dont think or know what the fuck is going on a lot of the time. I know a lot of "regs" that are not thinking about action behind them they're stuck on their 2 cards and nothing else.

I think, therefore, I JAM!

If you check flop with AK the best play in live poker is to just min raise then jam turn.

If you’re gonna call Bart, can you just let him talk? We wanna hear Bart.

Glad Bart called in to this guy's show, he should do it more often. You know, for the listeners. 😏

Highjack has a good ace, I'd bet on AQ or AJ, maybe A10. And he tells himself that he was "priced in" to call the river when he just has a hard time folding when he's beat.

That flop over call says strength to me if I’m one of the other players. I think turn check is a mistake with his remaining stack. I would’ve tried to bet a small amount on the turn maybe 200-300. Hopefully set up a river shove that’s getting called by a weaker ace! Again GREAT content! I love it!

Capped or spread-limit games like this are particularly suited for playing short stacks, meaning ~40 BB. Think about the 4-bet cap dynamic in the context of only having 25-50 BB to start with. The more restrictive the buy-in, the more it makes sense to buy short. To compensate for the short buy, it's possible to play a higher level, eg $2/5 & $5/10 can both be played with $500 buy. It's noteworthy that ~50 BB was the typical default buy-in in the old days before capped buy-ins were a common structure. Eg, players would typically buy for $500 in a $5/10 NL or PL game circa 1980. Against tough players, 50 BB is enough. Since buying in deep wasn't an advantage vs. the field, anyone buying deep was likely a fish or outsider at least. If a fish got winners, or shows up and buys deep, sharks would match stacks, but the regular sharks weren't buying in deep vs. each other to start the game.

How you not get all the money in with toptop vs someone who has top pair, when there is 375 pre in the pot and you have 550 left, is really amazing. Definitely an accomplishment. Surreal call.

May I respectfully make a suggestion for these videos? Having folks call in for a stream is great - it creates content and you get lots of fodder for analysis. But, for the YT videos, I think they'd play way better if instead of listening to your callers, we listened to you exclusively. You could quickly & efficiently summarize the hand scenario, and eliminate the back & forth with your caller, get rid of misunderstandings, etc., and move on to the meat of the video - the hand problem. I really dig your content so please do not take this feedback in the wrong way, I mean it only in the way that I think it could make your content even better. Cheers!

How to think in poker, or, How to overthink with only 100bb's in poker

Title should be: How to Misplay AK on Every Street

learned lots. thanks.

Prob A-5 Suited imo.. with backdoor draw on the flop. Guy prob thought you were bluffing as you went with such a small sizing pre, and checked flopped. As played it’s possible for you to not have an ace, and he makes crying call on River. Again, I do think as you mentioned the 15 dollars pre was a tell- suited wheel. Was hoping to get numerous callers so if he connects, he gets paid. Nice hand

18:24 through 18:36 sums up the caller and Bart's state of minds ✌️

why even play poker if 4-bet is capped. Kind of a confusing betting structure. Does it mean if say I have a marginal hand in a late position, i can min 4-bet the 3-better and cause a multi-way preflop action and try to suck out...

If you can't get re-raised off your equity you can 3bet a lot wider in theory preflop. A hand like JT or 98 loves the fold equity that a raise gives but hates getting shoved on.

85% the HJ had an Ace with mediocre kicker. Makes no sense to not have an Ace.

I’m at 5:33 of the video… Our hero 4 bet AK suited to $125 with a stack of about $650 and got 2 callers. The flop is A 7 3 rainbow… why is there another 16 minutes of this video?? Lol… Pile it in, lets goooo!!!

i play in washington state, and its capped at 500 a bet, same with the 3rd raise closes it preflop. and i have exploited this with a few small raises in front of me, i raised again with pocket 10s, so AA or KK couldnt reraise again and i could setmine. Which i did, hit top set and all the money went in on the flop in front of me

OMG JUST STUFF IT IN DUDE this bet has to get called 3 times as often as the shove to be profitable and jesus you talk a lot

I’m not sure how well the concept of playing GTO applies here. You’re playing seven handed, some kind of weird rules spread limit that may have influenced the pre-flop action/ranges, and of course as always your opponents are probably not playing close to GTL at all. You label them as basically rec players. I know that talking about GTO is all the rage in poker these days, but it won’t really translate to dramatic gains under circumstances for which it was not designed. This hand seems to simply play out along very basic fundamental lines. The pot is huge and you got one of the best flops you could get. Your opponents are probably going to be reluctant to fold. Just start putting the money in. Bet 1/3 on flop and the rest on the turn.

Stay Hard Bart. !

dumb question: why are we not worried about A7 or A3? Are we just assuming those hands are out of the range due to the preflop action?

This hand took way to long to review, bcuz the caller is more interested in explaining his thought process, than he is interested in learning from Bart. This caller would drive a poker coach crazy if he ever paid for lessons

"It's absurd" lmao fr. Just bet 125 on the flop lol. Fancy play syndrome strikes again.

I’m pretty sure that when you cold 4bet you don’t put a5s into that range. You use hands like aq. Because you don’t have a 3bet flat range so it’s better to block QQ AA and have two overs to JJ-10s

Desperation bluff, LOL Bart, I played full time in LA, 5-10 from 2010-2019. CC, Bike, HG, etc

Its clear this player was putting at least one of fhem on kk or qq. So does "HE" fold the river if it came Q or K

I'm terrible at knowing what to do against unpredictable, probably at least partially drunk, recreational players. I know the bad beats are seared into memory, but it sure seems that I lose more to runner-runner drawouts than I win by inducing marginal calls. Appreciate your instruction!

The flop check may have gotten an extra $125 of value from the button, but likely lost $250 from the hijack. The caller displayed some fancy play syndrome by overthinking things way too much.

Need to employ the mute button more on some callers...

Mr. Bart.. Thank you Sir

Check raise then jam on the flop

For someone who "thinks" about the game soooo deeply, nothing the caller said made any sense, and he himself admitted this throughout the call. Geez just let Bart talk, that is why you called isn't it.

Arizona casinos are now NL.

as played, have to check raise all in on that flop... otherwise bet flop then go from there, this guy is overthinking his hand, with the added info that these two guys he's up against are loose players...i'd def check raise that flop as played, but prefer to bet flop small value like and go from there

This is a great example of over-analyzing and over-theorizing a simple hand... just bet!

why is A3 or 33 not in consideration?

worried about 77 or A 3 any suited

i'd make a c-bet of a bit over 1/2 pot against 2 villains here, hoping to get called by AT+ (perhaps suited with clubs or diamonds) and possibly smaller pairs for at least one street. betting 1/4 pot against 2 villains is asking for trouble, and you might get put into a bad spot if one of them blasts it.

Me and this dude think so much differently I’m not sure which one of us is the fish. I’d 4bet to 175, not my ideal situation but given the cap and knowing you’re likely to get called because of it. That being said when someone raises to 15 which is 1/50 starting stack you have the odds to call with so many suited connector and aces I think the size is awful. The 3bet size is even worse because he gives the raiser odds to call with so many of his hands. Then with a bigger pot size which happens anyways in this case I’d always check and hope that someone might call down the delayed bets with a ace hoping I have kings. I don’t know man sounds like everyone is completely out to lunch this hand.

Seems like trying to reinvent the wheel. 4-bet AKs, flop top top on the driest imaginable board, c-bet flop, jam turn, and then rake in the chips!

It was an easy double up had he played right

Okay I know CLP focuses on live poker, but as far as an MTT goes; are we ever not getting it all-in with AK? Is this a flip we should always be willing to take? Or are there spots we should be playing it down? Money bubble/ICM not in consideration, fairly early in a tourney by the way. Little more context; Hero is 57bb effective. EP raises 3x, 1 caller, hero in the CO with AKo 3bets to 10bb, folds to original bettor who rips 60bb in, I call (he has QQ and we do not improve and get stacked).

Great job,as usual. FYI my "Like" made it 800 on the nose! Lol

Why is it always the worst players who call people “bad” and “recreational”. The way this guy thinks about his range and the hands is downright horrible, desperation bluff, and calling over calls with QQ lmao....

That hurt

No way HJ had KK or QQ. At worst at worst AT, AJ is the likely hand imo.

So did the AK WIN or not?

At 100bbs stack depth in a 4 bet pot multi way at low stakes, how the money doesn’t go in is beyond me with 2 callers. At that limit players just play the cards and don’t overthink so just exploit the shit out of them.

@CrushlivePoker Hi Bart, great video as usual. I have been watching your videos for some three years now and I have been working on writing a programme for a solver. In the past you have often mentioned Top Section and solver work where you have considered GTO solutions. My question is how exactly (do you understand) bet frequency is determined? Obviously, there is an inverse relationship between bet sizing and frequency, such that we use a large sizing at a low frequency - which, intuitively, makes sense; however, this does not explain how we determine the exact frequency. For example, on a dry flop of KK5 rb it is clear IP has a range advantage over the BB and can therefore bet with a high frequency. Pio suggests betting 97.5% (mostly for a 40% sizing). The question is how does one determine 97.5% is the optimal bet frequency? (why not 100% or 90%, or any other reasonable percentage). If anyone else knows feel free to contribute.

These hybrid games have confusing structures.

When ya level yourself Starting stack vs other stacks could of just ripped it in on flop

definitely a case of overthinking it...

You wish you could think as clear as Bart

He could have been bad enough to have AX where X = 8.... ;)

I couldn't hear what the pro was saying because of the rec player

I don’t think the caller was out of line as a know-it-all, but agree they are overthinking the spot. The whole volume bet discussion is a bit off. In a normal NLH game, you get to cbet a lot because you have a range or nut advantage. That’s not the case here because their ranges are uncapped due to the inability to 5bet. I don’t think you can bet too often OOP into what should be two pretty strong ranges.

Bet bet bet, that's it.

I just cannot get used to listening to callers who think they are Bart's clones. Hard to go around talking so much theory while butchering hands.

Classic example of caller thinking opponents are terrible when he is the terrible one

River shove all day. The caller justifying his weak ass bet on the river because he blocks most of their aces is a classic example of players overthinking blockers.

No impossible that HJ calls wo an Ace, the player of this hand is thinking too much for no reasons. If they are bad they are going to call AJ,AQ river even though u have no bluffs they dont pay enough attention to what happened on the play (4bet overcalling on A73), he is just seeing the immediate strentgh of his hand on this specific board (really dry).

I think this guy played it fine, Bart was being overly critical. If the villian is a shitty player he could easily have called on the river without an ace.

You called in, LISTEN.

OMG nice guy but totally over thinking a hand that plays itself. I disagreed with every street, no way he had KK,QQ ,JJ. sorry, that was cathartic tho. Ava good one!

Why couldn’t you turn kings into a bluff?

"I want you to be as hard as you can be" Uh....Ok. TMI?

Talk about overthinking the hand. This guy couldn't come up with proper bet sizes because he was trying to come up a thousand different hands that he could possibly have in this situation instead of what his opponents had. Bart tried to give h some clarification but all he seemed to want to is impress Bart and hear the sound of his own voice!!!

So tilting hearing this guy blabber on.you have more patience than me bart

He can bluff 45s. That is about it.

Guy on the phone needs to listen more and talk less. Thanks for the video, Bart!

I want you to be as hard as you can be, Bart. That's what she said. Or he, in the case of this young Padawan

is, is that... is, is that...

“You WOULD fold Kings or Queens here?” Is this a serious question dude... 🤦‍♂️

Hero doing too much haha. I get what he’s trying to do but A is calling as played.

If you're playing luck bucket Texas Hold 'Em, the only thought process you need to have is "let me get lucky tonight". There is no "right way" to play AK in any position because the people at the table add multiple variants up the wazoo!

Dudes thinking way too hard for a standard spot in a $5bb game

Bruh if you're calling to ask an expert, let him talk. shhhhh

Villain has AX. So obvious. Shoulda shipped it...

Hey Bart. Only saying this because I care about ya, how come your neck looks red a bruised. if there isn’t a reason for it and it’s mysterious to you, I’d go get it checked out. Could be lymphoma or something serious. I hope it’s nothing though man!

Wonder why you get called. Most of the time it seems a caller only wants to get (a) justification for his actions or ideas and be praised for what he did. Bart, please instruct your callers to listen, answer the questions you ask them, and not to analyze. Why does a caller tell the situation in his case is very different and that's why his strategy is better, if he wants your opinion? Why do we have to listen to a caller who comes up with stories and strategies that are the opposite of what he is doing? Probably the reason you only get man to call you. No woman would do this.

This guy sounds like scared money. Bought in as a short stack, 4-bets tiny and can't explain why, admits he should bet flop but then checks, finds himself in an awful spot on the turn that could have easily been avoided, then bets $200 into $750 leaving himself with $200 behind for.. what exactly? Some for the road in case he's beat? Beat by what?

What we learned in this video: dumb people talk a lot.

A lot of bad players call in to him.

I love Bart's content, but this was 22 minutes of yapping that needed to be around 14 minutes. Someone needs to move things along. This ain't a podcast.