Who’s Better at Poker: Americans or Europeans?

追加: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]The Euros are coming. They're invading our fish filled, friendly, fruitful poker games with their formulaic filibustering and [ __ ] it all up. But are Europros actually even better than Americans? Today we're going to find out. I'm going to pit a poker pro and a content creator from the other side of the pond, aka London, against a poker pro and a content creator from right here in Los Angeles. We're going to put them through six hands, walk us through their thinking, and track the results along the way. This is going to be like the Boston Tea Party if Boston was Los Angeles and tea was poker chips. So, basically the same. By the end of this video, will you have the definitive answer for who's better at poker between Euros and Americans? Absolutely not. But you will get to see two pros from two different parts of the world walking through their thought processes in the exact same spots you play every session.

[00:00:50]So, will the European invasion hold up?

[00:00:53]Should the rest of us be packing it in and learning how to filibuster ourselves? Actually, wait. Hold on. Is the UK even part of Europe anymore? Are they their own thing? Eh, who cares? Who will prevail? The Euros or the Red, White, and Blue? Let's meet the players.

[00:01:09]Well, hello to the people watching. My name's Leah, but you might know me as Leah Hates Poker Online. I am a poker player from the UK, currently living in London, and I just quit my job in January to pursue this as like a full-time career. So, maybe I'm like a self-proclaimed pro player, but actually, uh, the skills need a bit of work, but hopefully, um, you guys can see how, you know, quitting and going full-time has improved my skills over the last few months.

[00:01:35]>> I think it's awesome that you just quit to go full-time and then your name is Leah Hates poker.

[00:01:39]>> Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people say that to me, like, are you considering changing your name? like Leah hates poker. That's so strange. But it's like obviously satire on the fact that it's more I love to hate the game. You know, it can be very rage inducing. So yeah, I mean maybe one day if I like win the main event, I could change my name to Leah Loves Poker, but we'll see.

[00:02:00]Hi, I'm Liliana, also Flop Era Poker on Instagram. I play mostly like $5 pine levels in LA. Midstick cash game player, that's me. I also make content and I know Mark.

[00:02:13]>> Wow. And would you consider yourself a pro? You're a pro now at this point.

[00:02:16]You're a pro.

[00:02:17]>> I don't know. I don't ascribe to that label personally. I feel like I'm just an unemployed person who plays a lot of poker and like profits from it.

[00:02:26]>> Okay. What if you look up on the definition of what is a poker pro? An unemployed person who plays a lot of poker.

[00:02:33]>> Yeah. I like study a lot too and I think about poker all the time.

[00:02:37]>> Mhm. You're like in the shower. You're like, "Oh, damn. I I play like 140 hours a week a month. I mean, >> okay, >> maybe I'm a pro. I don't know. We'll see. Before we jump into the hands, very quickly, I have to emphasize these are all hypothetical madeup fictional hands for educational purposes only. I made them up in my head in the shower. No gambling is taking place. So, all of these hands are made up and for educational purposes only. Thank you.

[00:03:06]All right. So first hand here we are playing 25 and we're going to open on the button to 25 dollar hairs and the big blind a recreational player is going to defend. Flop comes jack 86 all clubs and now the big blind is going to donk into us for $25.

[00:03:23]Well, um I mean I think that when players typically donk then they haven't really got that strong of a hand because why would he donk a flush in this like example like you want to make sure you can get as most money out of a flush and there's not much urgency if you have locked the flush. So it just seems strange that someone would would donk if they did have that. So to me it feels like one pair plus flush draw sort of hands. Like he might have a jack but he might have also a club in his hand. Same with an eight or a six. I don't think I'm super scared of the flush as is, but I mean, you could definitely have a pair as well. Well, I've seen a lot of uh like videos online where people might like raise in a spot where someone's just donked into them. I mean, our hand is a bit strange in that obviously we don't have a club. We do have a pair, but doesn't feel like super comfortable to raise. Uh so, I probably just call >> Oh, okay. Nothing wrong with that. And now the turn is You're going to love this turn. You're going to love this turn. It's the best turn in the deck for you. A three of diamonds. Ah, okay.

[00:04:20]>> And now the big blind dunks for 50.

[00:04:22]>> Yeah, it just feels like he might just be clicking buttons like half pot half pot bet is pretty strange. Like I would expect if he did have a flush like this is a complete brick of a turn. So he should really be sizing up like probably a lot bigger than what he has right now.

[00:04:36]Again though it doesn't feel like super comfortable because we only have a pair.

[00:04:39]We don't even have top pair and like I don't know what we're really drawing to that would be like we've got a bluff catcher, right? We've got an eight.

[00:04:46]We've got a bluff catcher and a good kicker. But I mean, in live poker, I might be tempted to like continue, but I think I would like fold a lot of the time.

[00:04:55]>> Well, you got to decide cuz this is this is a live poker hand. So, like the people at the table are going to get mad at you if you if you don't decide.

[00:05:02]>> I would fold.

[00:05:05]>> Fold.

[00:05:05]>> Yeah. Okay, cool. So, when players donk, uh, it tends to be a pretty weak range.

[00:05:11]Um, like a draw, like a single club hand, maybe some weak hand like an eight. I'm going to be calling here with the intention of obviously turning my hand. Um potentially I guess I don't need to turn. Well, if I have an eight, I'm just calling here and seeing what he does on the turn or she what he or she does >> or a robot. A recreational robot poker player. The turn now is an offsuit three and the big line don again for $50.

[00:05:36]>> Okay, cool. So, when they don twice, I don't think it's as capped of a range.

[00:05:40]They could be donking like weak flushes here. So, I'm between folding and calling. Um, I think I'm going to just call one more time and see what they do.

[00:05:48]If they triple off on the river, I'm definitely going to be folding my hand.

[00:05:52]I don't hate folding here on the turn either, but let's just call one more.

[00:05:55]>> Call the river is You're going to love it. You're going to love it so much.

[00:05:58]Offsuit deuce.

[00:05:59]>> I can't wait. Okay.

[00:06:00]>> And now the big blind dunks 4100.

[00:06:03]>> Okay. Yeah, that's well played, sir. I don't think they have many bluffs here and uh I'm just going to be folding my hand.

[00:06:10]>> Any reasons behind that? Yeah, I mean like I could turn my hand into a bluff and like raise to try to get them to fold weak flushes, but I just don't think that's going to work. I think when they donk three streets on a monotone flop, it's just going to be a lot of flushes. And yeah, I think just folding here is a better play than trying to show a hand bluff. I think they just are going to get pretty sticky. They're not going to want to fold a flush. And yeah, see you later.

[00:06:33]>> He says good fold. Good fold.

[00:06:35]>> Mhm.

[00:06:35]>> And he shows 97 with a club.

[00:06:37]>> Oh, he got me.

[00:06:38]>> Good. He got you so good. I don't even know how good he got you.

[00:06:41]>> That's all right.

[00:06:42]>> Do you want to know what he has? Cuz he he says good fold.

[00:06:44]>> Okay, what's he got?

[00:06:45]>> He has 97 with a club and a spade.

[00:06:48]>> See, I thought he might have a club.

[00:06:51]>> He does have a club. He's got a club and he's got an open ender.

[00:06:53]>> He does have a lot more equity than we have, I'm assuming. Mhm.

[00:06:57]>> So, I don't know. Maybe it's a bad fault. Maybe it's a good fault. What was the river? What the river have been?

[00:07:02]>> I'm not telling you the river. I'm just >> I can't rabbit hunt it in this game.

[00:07:06]>> Oh, the river is a deuce of spades. Wow.

[00:07:09]Okay.

[00:07:10]>> Well, he was going to bet 100 on the river.

[00:07:11]>> Yeah. I mean, how are we calling? Well, we might be able to call down with an eight. It's a bluff catcher.

[00:07:15]>> It's a bluff catcher. So, Leah's hand here. I really like the call on the flop. Exact same move I would make. I just thought there wasn't really enough consideration about what is our opponent's range. And considering all the options here, she does end up folding on the turn. Liliana's hand here, what I thought she did well was she just starts ranging immediately. And you hear her also considering all the options just starting all the way on the flop and on the turn. She's just walking through all the options. What happens if I call? What happens if I raise? What happens if I fold? Etc. She's she's considering all of the options here. One little nitpick in Liliana's hand here, and again, this isn't really a thought process thing. This is more of a calibration thing. When her opponent bets on the river, she assigns him a stronger range than I would give this player after they go donk donk donk for halfp pot, half pot, half pot. I would just think they're full of it quite a bit. But Liliana does assign them a stronger range when they triple barrel.

[00:08:07]And I think that's okay. Okay, that's just a calibration thing. And calibration is a knob that can be dialed, right? And I often hear players say, >> "Well, in my games, it means something slightly different when they do."

[00:08:16]>> Okay, that's just calibration. And if the calibration is different, then we can just adjust that knob. So, I think my and Liliana's calibration differs slightly on this river. I think this is more full of [ __ ] than she does, obviously. But, you know what? I can't really go too hard on calibration cuz this one's just more of a matter of opinion rather than thought process. But I do like the way Liliana played this hand up until the river. Kind of the clue that I thought was glossed over that I thought was a little bit more important here. When our opponent doubles the size of the previous street on each bet, in my opinion, just makes it a little bit more likely that they are bluffing because generally when players are bluffing, they want to get the bet out there faster. They don't want to be the guy sitting there thinking about it trying to come up with the exact perfect size because the pressure is on and they don't want to seem like they're taking too long to work up the courage to make a bluff.

[00:09:00]Whereas when they have value, they don't really care and they'll try to come up with the perfect size to eek out the right amount of value out of you. So generally when I see this double the size, double the size, double the size type pattern, more weighted towards bluffs. And there's really nothing in this hand starting with the flop donk that is indicated to me that this opponent does have a strong range. So results after hand one, both players lose a few big blinds here. Leah down 50 bucks, Liliana down 100 bucks because she did call the turn and then fold the river. We're going to move along. We're moving along to hand two. All right, guys. Look, I know it's real easy for me to sit here and critique other players thought process, but I want to give both of these players credit cuz it is hard, right? When the pressure is on, when the shot clock is on, it is hard to walk through your thought process in real time. And that's one of the things we realized, right, when we first started coaching players is just giving them a bunch more information doesn't necessarily translate when they're sitting at the table and they have to be ranging and considering all the options and asking the right questions to get to a good decision very quickly at the table. So that's why our 5day base camp isn't just a bunch more information that we pile on your plate, right? We've had to learn the hard way, right? Our first couple years coaching, just because we were decent at poker didn't mean we were good at coaching. We sucked. We sucked our first couple years. And our players just they weren't getting results. We were just banging our heads against the wall. We were giving them all this information. Why could they just not follow it? And it finally clicked right when we realized they didn't need more information. We need to be able to hear them think out loud. We need to be able to hear the actual thoughts going through their head when the pressure is on when they're in a hand. And if we can work on that, then that's what can actually translate to the table. So that's what we work on during our fiveday base camp. We put you in the hot seat. We hear your thought process out loud. We help you sculpt it. We help you rebuild it from the ground up. And look, 5 days of this is powerful, but it's not going to turn you into a wizard, right?

[00:10:37]It's not some magic pill that's going to have you crushing after 5 days. That's why we give you two months of support on the back end, hand history, feedback, study groups, twice weekly live coaching, because we realize this stuff is hard. It does take some time to implement. So, it's a 5-day sprint and two months on the back end where we're still in your corner working with you multiple times per week. So, if any of that sounds interesting at all, check out our 5day base game.

[00:11:02]Next hand, we're sitting super deep here. $3,400 effective playing 25. Under the gun is going to open. The cutoff's going to call. We're going to squeeze on the button with pocket kigglies. And the original opener is going to fold. And the cutoff is going to double flat here.

[00:11:17]So, we called the initial open. Now he's going to call our three bet. We're going to a flop which is jack 75 with a couple of diamonds and the cutoff is going to check it over to us heads up in a three bet pot.

[00:11:28]>> Well, I think we have the best hand a lot of the time. Having the king of diamonds, I think it's a very powerful card as well. When he's calling the three bet pre, it feels like he has a lot of suited hands, but he can't have suited diamonds with the king. So, I think it's good to have the king of diamonds here. Could have something like ace queen, ace queen off suit. You could have king jack um suited but not with the diamonds. Maybe he has the back door flush draw. Um but I think our hand is very strong. So I would bet like a third. So like I can't do mental maths.

[00:12:01]Um 80.

[00:12:02]>> You know, you can always just turn to the dealer and say dealer divide the pot by three and tell me what that is. And they're forced to tell you. At least in America. I don't know if it works out.

[00:12:10]>> Does not work in the UK. No, they cannot tell you anything. They can just spread the pot around.

[00:12:15]But 80 is probably more.

[00:12:17]>> He says, "Leah, I'm going to make you hate poker because he check raises now to 250."

[00:12:24]>> Okay. I mean, the only hands I'm really scared of like pocket sevens, pocket jacks. Like I think pocket sevens or jacks can call, but I don't think jacks is like calling the open from the low jack. Like I think that's going to three bet a lot of the time. So feels like it could be pocket sevens if he does have like a strong hand. But I guess he could have some flush draws as well. So, I would always call the race.

[00:12:46]>> Cool. We're going to call and we're going to a beautiful turn, which is a What is the turn? The turn is the 10 of diamonds.

[00:12:55]>> Okay, >> so the front door flush does come in.

[00:12:57]>> Mhm.

[00:12:58]>> And now our opponent checks.

[00:13:00]>> Interesting.

[00:13:01]>> These are fun, right?

[00:13:02]>> Yeah, these are fun. I would I think I'm still betting. As I said, we have the king of diamonds, which I think is a good card. I mean, he could still be like scared of a flush. I don't know why he would check, but I think Kings is still strong enough to bet. Like, he can raise the flop with like ace jack with the ace of diamonds. So, I think that we could still go for value when he checks the turn. So, but I don't think we should bet very big. I think we're very small small still. Like the turn is I guess quite dynamic. Like it does bring in the flush draw and it brings in some other like weird stuff like I mean I don't think he has many like straight draws, but I think I would go like 250.

[00:13:40]250.

[00:13:41]>> Yeah, >> he says call >> like straight away.

[00:13:43]>> Well, maybe about 8 seconds. Now, the river is an offshoot deuce and he checks.

[00:13:50]>> Okay. Well, this player raised on the flop, so I feel like he would raise the turn if he did have a flush. I guess we're still a little bit scared of the possibility as like pocket sevens, but I think it'd be quite quite nitty to not go for some value. This is my weakness is when I'm on the river and I am trying to figure out like how thin we can go for value. I mean, if I had like ace jack with the ace of diamonds and I would go for value. So, it feels like I have kings here, then I should go for value as well. So, we've got How much have we got behind?

[00:14:23]>> 2.8K. You could bet 2.8K if you would like.

[00:14:27]>> No, I don't want to go all in. I don't think I would bet half pot 600.

[00:14:32]>> 600.

[00:14:33]>> Yep.

[00:14:34]>> He says if you got it, you got it. and he sides and he calls.

[00:14:37]>> Okay, cool. So, I think when players double flat, they have a lot of pocket pairs. They have like suited broadways, sometimes suited connectors, but not as often here. We're super deep, so my incentive is just to like put as much money in the middle targeting diamond draws, maybe some gutshots, Jack X. I think they're going to be pretty sticky here. Also, if they have like pocket pairs like eights, 9, 10, I want all of those hands to continue here. So, I think we can like size up a little bit here. Like not go for the standard third, but go a little bit bigger. I think they're going to call like a pretty much all their hands for 125.

[00:15:13]>> 125. He says, "Lanna, I would like to play for just a little bit more. Not a lot more, but he makes it 375."

[00:15:19]>> Okay, cool. So, when they check raise here, I think they have obviously they have sets. They have some diamond draws.

[00:15:26]Yeah, I'm going to continue pier, but already not feeling super great about my over pair.

[00:15:33]>> Call. I believe this is 975. Turn now is a 10 of diamonds. Bringing in the front door flush. We love it. Right now, he checks.

[00:15:41]>> Okay, cool. So, when they check it over to us, I don't think they have a flush hardly ever. Sometimes they will like they're checking to check raise. Um, but then we'll just fold. Um, then they can have sets and some maybe strakes that got there. I don't think even like single pair hands like ACEJ are really going to be um check raising. So yeah, I'm just going to start turning my hand into a bluff here. I have a redraw available as well. Um so I want them to continue with all of their sets and maybe some like two crit they have. Uh so if we go 600, I don't think they're folding any of their sets. Um so yeah, let's just uh that feels Yeah, that feels good. Let's go >> 600 and a call. And now the river is an offsuit deuce. And he checks it over one more time.

[00:16:27]>> Okay, cool. So when he checks it over to us again, like I feel pretty good. We are just going to be sending it with our hand. We give oursel a pretty good SPR um on the turn. We put in 1,000. We have 2.4 uh into 2100. So yeah, I'm going to just be sending all of the money in here.

[00:16:47]>> All in. He thinks and thinks and thinks and finally says, "You got too greedy. I just can't call this.

[00:16:52]>> I got too greedy." and he shows pocket sevens and he uh he throws him into the muck disgustingly.

[00:16:56]>> Damn, nice.

[00:16:58]>> And he gets up and walks away from the table and says, "They always get so lucky.

[00:17:03]>> They always get there." Yeah. And I show him the king of diamonds. I'm nice cuz he got sevens.

[00:17:08]>> He has sevens. He has exactly pocket sevens.

[00:17:11]>> Ah, well, I thought he might have that, but you know, >> you were right. He has seven.

[00:17:15]>> No, but I feel like, you know, there's not many combinations of pocket sevens like in the deck. I mean, I didn't think he had pocket fives or jacks. So, I mean, it just feels like we're just going to go break a lot of the time when we have kings, like an over pair. It feels like a cooler. I don't know. Could we fold? Do you think we can fold or not bet this?

[00:17:31]>> We'll talk about it later.

[00:17:33]>> Okay. Thoughts on Leah here? I thought on the flop, she got a little bit lost in the weeds, you know, getting really dialed in on specific combos, on blockers, stuff like that. We're in a wide versus wide consideration three bet. I want to be a little more general and a little more efficient and try to just keep my opponent's range in buckets, right? Well, I think they can have some under pairs to the jack x.

[00:17:53]They can have some jackex. They can have some flush draws, right? Just a little bit more general instead of well, my opponent can have queen jack of hearts, right? And when Leah does get check raised here going to the turn when it checks over to her, one of the things I noticed was she kind of put the action before the thought here. instantly coming out like I want to bet and then kind of supporting that action with reasons instead of walking through, hey, what happens if I check? What happens if I bet small? What happens if I bet large? And more importantly, what is my opponent's range after they check raise the flop and then check on this turn?

[00:18:26]So, I think that was a pretty important thing that she missed here on this turn.

[00:18:30]And then getting to the river, Leah does elect to value bet thinly. And look, I'm a big fan of value betting thinly, but I think the question that she missed, the overarching question here is what are we targeting when our opponent check raises the flop, check calls the turn, and then checks on the river. And I'm not saying there's zero hands we can target here.

[00:18:47]But I just thought we could have been a little bit more dialed into that question here on this river before we do decide to value bet because I think in a three bet pot, opponents are under check raising. We're not going to see them check raise with top pair nearly as much in a three bet pot. And if our opponent does have top pair, are they even calling a bet on the turn when the flush comes in after they check raise on the flop and now calling another bet on the river when all the obvious draws have got there? If they even do have hands like ace jack or queen jack or something like that here. Whereas when Liliana got checked on the flap here, you hear her immediately go to what is my opponent's range and just really dialing in, really honing in on what she believes her opponent's range is and more importantly carrying that range over to the turn. So when her opponent checks the flop and then checks the turn, you talk about why she doesn't think her opponent's going to have a lot of flushes, but why her opponent could have quite a lot of sets going to this turn. And she does something super interesting. She thinks not only does she not have thin value here, she doesn't really even have showdown value in a three bet pot here on the turn. So, she elects to start turning her hand into a bluff. Just realizing that these stacked ups are so deep that she's probably going to be able to get a hand as strong as pocket sevens to fold by the river if she applies the pressure and apply the pressure she does. I think Liliana really really creative line in this hand and really strong job of carrying the thread of ranging her opponent from the flop check raise all the way to the turn and coming to a really creative decision frankly on the turn really quickly. So after hand two we see Liliana really start to pull into the lead here, winning a large amount by turning pocket kings into a bluff, whereas Leah decided to go super super razor thin with pocket kings and she gets value owned in that last spot.

[00:20:29]Hand three. We're 1,200 effective in this one. And a pro is going to open on the button. We're going to three bet in a small blind with ace five of clubs.

[00:20:36]Pro's going to defend. King 95. So we flop bottom pair here in a three bet pot as the aggressor.

[00:20:42]>> Well, yeah. I mean, it's a king high board, so it's always going to favor our range more than his. Like we have ace king and he probably doesn't have ace king. We have all of the strong king x hands. So on a king high board like I'm always see betting a third. It's like 60 is what I would bet. 60 y >> and he is going to call. Now the turn is a four bringing a back door diamond draw. So walk me through what you're thinking here on this turn.

[00:21:09]>> But it feels like when he calls flop like he's got something like is it quite a dry flop when there's no flush draws and there's like a limited straight draws like I guess he could have jack 10 or queen jack like these weird gut shots which obviously he's always going to call that on the flop. We have a pair, which is nice, but I mean it's like a lot of the time he's going to have something when he calls. I think I would just check.

[00:21:32]>> Okay, we check. You sure?

[00:21:34]>> Yep.

[00:21:34]>> We check and he bets 220.

[00:21:38]>> I fold.

[00:21:39]>> Fold. Any reasoning behind it?

[00:21:40]>> Our hand is not very strong. We have a pair, but it's third pair. And I mean, he's called a three bet pre, so he's not got nothing. I mean, he could have like the straight draws that I said like jack 10 or queen jack, but he could still just have a king or even stronger like pocket nines or pocket fives. I think we can have better spots, so might as well fold.

[00:22:02]>> He's not going to tell you cuz he's a pro, >> is he? Okay, >> he's not going to tell you, but I can tell you cuz I know what he has.

[00:22:06]>> Oh, no. Does he have a straight drawer?

[00:22:07]Okay, cool. So, we're in a wide vy configuration here and I'm just going to be checking my range over to the pro.

[00:22:15]Um, I don't think they have as many sizing tiles as other players. uh just yet, but yeah, just going to be checking over and seeing what they do.

[00:22:21]>> And he is going to check back. Now, going to the turn, we have a four of diamonds bringing in a backdoor flush draw.

[00:22:30]>> Okay, cool. So, when a pro checks back on this board, I think it's like pretty capping here. They're going to be cetting a lot. Um could definitely have some traps. They could have some like showdown value like a hand like ace queen, ace jack that I think is likely they're going to check back a lot of their showdown value again on the turn and then potentially gives us a chance to value bet our pair on the river. So I'm going to be checking again.

[00:22:51]>> We check and he goes 120.

[00:22:54]>> Okay, cool. So when he picks this size on the turn, I think it's like a pretty strong range. A lot of like king X that checked on the flop. Maybe some turned diamond draws. I am between calling and folding. I don't really see any reason to check raise and turn my hand into a bluff. Um I think folding is like probably okay here with just third pair.

[00:23:14]So is calling. I think they're going to be pretty transparent on the river with their sizing. But 120 into 180 is yeah just not really a size that I think they put a lot of bluffs into. So I'm actually just going to fold >> fold. He's not going to show you cuz he's a pro. But you can flip over his hand if you want. No one's going to punish you.

[00:23:33]>> Honestly, I doubt that they would kick me out of the casino. They just get double slap all the rest.

[00:23:36]>> Well, you flip it over. He has Jack 10 of diamonds.

[00:23:39]>> Jack 10 of diamonds. Okay. Turned. Yeah, >> he got you good.

[00:23:43]>> He got me good.

[00:23:45]>> The first hand you named is exactly what he had. Jack 10 of diamonds >> is what he had. So, he did pick up uh back door flush draw on the turn, but yeah, he did have he had jack 10.

[00:23:53]>> I feel like I'm I if you watch like all of my videos, then you would know that I'm like I air on the side of passive a lot, which is like something I'm trying to work on in my game, especially in the games that I play. like at one two they don't really bluff. Like one two players don't really bluff. So it's trying to like get my head around when I do move up stakes like there are going to be players like that player who is a pro who's going to bet his draws. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's a fine fold still with a five.

[00:24:20]>> So I really like how Leah was thinking about this flop. I like that she elected to come out with a sebat here. And you guys have probably heard me talk about well out of position. I'm just checking my range quite a lot of the time against fishy recreational players. Well this isn't a fishy recreational player. We are playing against a pro here. And part of the reason why I like to check my range against fishy players is they tend to overstab. They tend to not protect their check back range. And they tend to telegraph their hand strength but their sizing when they do stab. A pro is not going to be doing any of those things if we check to them when we're out of position. So how I like to play against pros in these spots is I just simply ask where is this particular player on this particular board going to make the most mistakes. Right? If the board is a king high dry board in a three bet pot, generally a pro is not going to be overstabbing if we check to them. They may be overfolding if we see bet though.

[00:25:05]So they're probably going to make more mistakes if we see bet and if we check.

[00:25:07]Now if the board is six high with a flush draw out there, well maybe they will overstab if we check to them. So maybe on that type of board I may be checking my range. So that's how I kind of like to simplify. I really like how Leah was thinking about range versus range. What I think is much more important against a pro than against a recreational player. On the turn here, she decides to check it over and facing a bet here. you know, the first hand she kind of talks about is, "Well, my opponents could have some broadways like Jack 10 or queen 10 or whatever." So, she does the ranging, but then she doesn't really consider all of the options here. She just kind of says, "Well, you know, I'm going to fold here and then starts to support that decision once again instead of really considering, well, what happens if I call?" Right? She doesn't really go through the list. She doesn't give herself the option. She comes to a decision and then kind of supports that decision with reasons. Liliana does elect to check here. I don't think this is a huge mistake. We do have showdown value. We can check call one here. I just against a pro, I kind of like to simplify and either be betting my range in spots or checking my range in spots.

[00:26:06]In on this particular board, I just think range betting is going to be pretty good against pros. So, I'm just going to bet my entire range here on this board. Liliana does check, which I think is okay. I don't think this is some type of egregious mistake. Right now, on the turn facing this stab, you hear Liliana talk about, well, if they use a smaller size, maybe they're more cap. I don't necessarily think this is true against pros, right? Pros aren't going to be as transparent with their sizing as recreational players are. The way I would kind of approach this hand if I was playing this spot is I would just start off with a range bet. I would be checking with this particular hand on the turn and just expecting to check call quite a bit on the turn because my opponent will have tons of hands if floated on the flop. Hands like 6, seven, 7, 8, queen 10, jack 10, queen jack. just a ton of hands with no showdown value that are going to be stabbing when we check on the turn, when we look like we give up. The other interesting thing here that I think happens against pretty solid players is they're not going to go thin for three streets all the time with a hand like king jack, king 10, maybe even king queen, the board is dry. It's relatively static. Players don't want to value own themselves against a hand like pocket kings or aces or ace king or whatever.

[00:27:18]So, I think what happens a ton is when they have a hand like king 10 or king jack, they check back on the turn. So when we do see bet the flop and then check the turn and they stab, I think it kind of polarizes their range where they're basically saying, "Hey, I've got king queen plus or I've got air." So I think it makes our hands decision really, really easy. Makes this hand really easy to play for us. We see bet the flop. We check call the turn and then we check evaluate the river.

[00:27:41]Probably check calling quite a bit. Just kind of walking through how I would think about this spot holistically.

[00:27:45]Okay, so relatively similar results on the third hand. We see Liliana, our American pro, is still way out in the lead after three hands with three hands to go.

[00:27:56]Hand four 25 1k effective hero. We make it 25 in the cutoff with 65 of diamonds and the button and the big blind. Both recreational players are going to call a flop. You're going to love it. I know you're going to love this flop. Ace9 deuce rainbow.

[00:28:12]>> Oh, cool.

[00:28:14]The big blind checks it over to us. But we're three ways here.

[00:28:18]>> I would check.

[00:28:19]>> Any reason behind that?

[00:28:20]>> I just think that when we're in multi-way ports leading out or like sebetting, I don't know. It just doesn't feel like it's winning a lot of the time. Like he could have anything. The button could have anything. So why open up the action for him to like why blow the pot and bet into it if there's still someone to act who? We have absolutely like no idea what he might have. So, it just makes sense, I think, to check to the button and see what he does.

[00:28:43]>> Well, the button says check is good and he checks. Now, the turn is a five of clubs, giving us third pair here. And the big blind checks it over once again.

[00:28:54]>> See, now I want to bet um which I think you can check a lot of the time and maybe be good. Like I this is my thought process is when the big blind checks the turn, he doesn't have an ace. He probably doesn't even have a nine. Well, he might have an nine, but I just don't think he has an ace. Um, cuz he's going to bet that a lot of the time on the turn, like once I check and the button checks the flop. So, and I don't think that the button ever has an ace because he should really be betting his ace X on the flop. Um, like why go to the turn with two people? Doesn't really make sense. Like especially if there's like a weak ace, which I imagine he does, like when he doesn't raise pre. Um, so you want to get like some protection maybe against that. I don't really know. So I would expect him to bet basically an ace on the flop. So when he doesn't then I can rule that out and then the big blind doesn't bet. So I rule that out. So it makes me think, okay, both of them are showing some weakness and I have some value now. So I can maybe bet and just take it down now. Um so I would bet half pot like 40 40 >> 40 button calls and the big blind folds.

[00:30:03]So we are heads up to the river. river is an off suit 7. Walk me through what you're thinking on this river.

[00:30:10]>> Um I think this river shouldn't really change much. Um I think 86 gets there. I mean does he have that? Maybe he's what you said these are like recreationals.

[00:30:22]Um but I don't expect it to like strengthen either of our hands like very much. Maybe it's better for in position.

[00:30:29]Feels better for in position than out of position. Um, I think that I would It feels like if I bet then I'm turning it into a bluff. Like I'm turning my pair into a bluff and we block the straight, which might make it a good bluff candidate. I think if we bet he can fold a nine. If we check, he's just going to check a nine. So maybe it makes more sense to bet. You couldn't have just like given me the nuts on the river.

[00:30:56]>> No nuts.

[00:30:58]>> Um, I'm going to bet. I'm going to bluff this. So, I'm going to turn my five into a bluff, I think, with the six blocker.

[00:31:05]And I am going to bet pot 155.

[00:31:11]>> 155.

[00:31:13]>> Call.

[00:31:13]>> Okay, cool. So, on ace night deuce rainbow, I think people are going to be checking a lot of their ace x. Um, don't see any reason to put money in the middle here. So, I am just going to check to the button.

[00:31:25]>> And he checks it back. And now the turn is a five of clubs bringing in a back door flush draw and the big blind checks again.

[00:31:33]>> Okay, cool. So, uh, when the big blind checks, I think they're pretty capped.

[00:31:37]Um, I think button is still uncapped.

[00:31:39]They could be checking back a lot of their ace X here. If I bet here, am I going to get called by worse? Like, yeah, I could charge some club draws.

[00:31:48]Um, also, it's like some protection from my hand from like two random overs. If I bet here, I'm probably going to check a lot of rivers. Just trying to get to showdown value. Um, I think my hand is good for one street. So, it's either bet here or bet the river. And actually, honestly, I think it's a little bit too thin. And I'm going to check again.

[00:32:04]>> Check. Button bets 30 and the be blindfolds.

[00:32:07]>> Okay, cool. So, I think when the button bets 30, they could definitely um be just stabbing when it gets checked to them twice. They could have some club draws. I don't think they're going to necessarily bet a 9x. Maybe sometimes, but I'm going to call here.

[00:32:19]>> Call. pot is 135 and the river is an offshoot seven and we check. Now the button bets 70 >> $70 here. Okay, cool. So what's the range when they bet 70? I think AX maybe goes a little bit bigger. Are they double barreling with any other worse singled pair hands? I don't think so.

[00:32:41]Maybe the best hand they have here is like ace 10 or ace8. And I think calling here is not going to be super profitable. I don't really want to fold.

[00:32:50]I do think that we can get them to fold a lot of their like single pair hands here just by check raising the river. Um this size is uh like the 3/4 size is just a lot of value um and not a lot of bluffs. So yeah, Colony doesn't make a ton of sense. Yeah. And I just don't think they take the sizing scheme with two pair. They're going to start betting on the flop with a lot of their two pair. A7 is probably going to go a little bit bigger on the river here. So, I do think we can get them to fold all of their weak AEX hands by turning our hand into a bluff here. So, they go 70 into 135. If I wanted them to call with Ace8, I think I would go maybe 300. Do they call with Ace8? They might start getting a little bit um scared at that.

[00:33:33]So, that's kind of a good size to bluff.

[00:33:34]We're going to go a little bit bigger just to ensure we get the fold. And if we make it 475, let's make it 525. And I don't think they're gonna call with it.

[00:33:44]>> 525. And he looks at you and he lets out a chuckle. Grabs one chip and says, >> "Uhoh, >> if you would have bet 500, I would have called."

[00:33:53]>> And then he folds. I literally have on my sheet here. Calls up to 500 on the river.

[00:33:58]>> I'm cutting it kind of. If I said 475, I would have just the rest of this. So, he was definitely calling. And he shows ace six of clubs.

[00:34:07]>> Ace six. All right.

[00:34:09]>> Got it through. Well, I need to be going a little bit bigger with my bluffs.

[00:34:12]>> Yeah, that was very close. We were right on the precipice there. You got it. You got it through by $25.

[00:34:17]>> Eek.

[00:34:18]>> Okay. Uh, that was creative. I like that.

[00:34:20]>> Well, I don't think we're winning.

[00:34:22]>> We are not winning. He has ace six of clubs.

[00:34:26]>> I don't think he's ever folding an ace.

[00:34:28]So, and the A6 is good, too, because he does block the straight, but I mean, I don't think we have that that many times.

[00:34:35]>> A six of clubs. Got He got snapped. I think we got snapped on this.

[00:34:39]Wow, >> I got snapped. Yeah, these are we we could talk about this after, but these are the boards I feel like where they do check back asex sometimes. Sometimes sometimes. Okay, my thoughts on Leah's thought process here on the turn. You hear her just kind of come out and decide that she's going to bet and then she comes out again with reasons to support why she's going to bet. You hear kind of a reoccurring pattern. And to be clear, I think even a lot of winning players do this, right? They just come to, hey, I'm going to bet. and they come up with the reasons why they're going to bet instead of stopping, pausing, and considering all of the options in front of them. And she kind of supports her decision to bet with the button never has an ace, which I disagree with because in my opinion, the spot where recreational players do check back top pair occasionally is number one, when the board is dry. Here we go. Ace9 deuce dry. When the board is static, well, it's ace high. The nuts probably aren't going to change. The board is static.

[00:35:26]And number three, when it's multi-way, they check back top pair more than if it's heads up, right? So in this spot, I do think the button has a lot of ace, right? So I disagree with the calibration here. But I also disagree with the reason behind betting. Even if we think the button never has an ace in a million years, it's not really a reason to bet 5x here because the button could still have 9x. They could still have pocket eights, pocket sevens, right? So I don't really understand the point of this bet. Is it for value? Is it for a bluff? I don't really understand why we would be betting a five here on this turn. Now she does get called. We go to the river and now she bets again. And this time you hear her kind of work through her thought process. Now she's kind of switched it up. Now on the river she is bluffing and trying to get a nine to fold. I just thought there was kind of a lack of carrying the thread from the turn to the river. I think the turn we were kind of betting for protection and now on the river we're betting as a bluff. And that's not to say we can't shift course during a hand and turn a hand we were betting for thin value into a bluff or turn a hand for showdown value into a bluff, right? I'm not saying that. I'm just saying things kind of shifted real quickly. There was nothing drastic that happened, right? We didn't get check raised. It wasn't like an extremely nut-changing card, right? All that happened was we bet and then we got called and all of a sudden we went from, oh, we're betting for protection to, oh, we're bluffing, which I thought was a pretty drastic shift here. I really like how Liliana decided to check this turn and facing a bet. She decided to call.

[00:36:45]Now, in this spot, I actually I actually at this point may decide to start going for the check raise right here, right now on the turn. And the reason why I might start going for the check raise right now on the turn is because sure, our opponent can have a bunch of draws here. They can have some air that they're just monkey stabbing after it checks to them twice, but also they could have some 9x. They could have some ax that check back the flop. And the thing is, even though we have showdown value, we have a pretty high conviction here that our opponent probably doesn't have a hand like pocket 9, pocket deuces, ace9, ace deuce, right? Even if they're going to check back some ax on the flop, they're probably still going to bet when the SPR is infinite, when they have two pair, when they have a set, right? So, our opponent, in my opinion, is relatively capped. And the time to start considering turning showdown value into a bluff is when we're not going to run into a whole [ __ ] ton of brick walls. And we have a bunch of money behind to put the fear like Wolf Gang has in every hand he plays into our opponent, right? So, I might consider starting with a check raise right here, right now with a goal of, hey, our opponent can put in a bunch more money with their draws here on the turn. And then, as long as those draws brick, we get to win this hand. And our opponent's going to put in more money with AEX right here, right now on the turn, then we get those hands to fold on the river. And if I got 9x, we get into fold right here, right now. So, a bunch of good things that could happen. But Liliana does call getting to the river.

[00:37:55]Aha. Now she realizes, okay, yeah, we're ahead of some stuff, but we're not ahead of everything. And I do think our opponent's relatively cap. She finds the check raise on the river, which I think really, really nice and creative line.

[00:38:06]She ranges right away on the river. She asked the inverse question. So, while I may have started the bluff on the turn, so I can apply all the pressure and put all the money in. Really like that Liliana found this big boy check raise on the river and punishes her opponent.

[00:38:21]All right, hand four. Leah losing a small one, Liliana winning a small one, and Liliana, the Americans kind of pulling ahead with this one here. The bloss from the other side of the pond are getting left behind just a little bit.

[00:38:35]Next one here, kind of our bread and butter. Single race pot. Heads up in position. We're going to open on the button with king jack. Big blind is going to defend. We flop top pair and the blade blind is going to check it over to us here on the flop.

[00:38:47]>> Okay. Yeah, I'm going to bet obviously I would go 20. Yeah, >> he calls.

[00:38:52]>> I'm feeling good about that. I'm happy that he's called.

[00:38:54]>> He has called. The turn is now a deuce bringing in a back door spade draw and he checks it over again.

[00:38:58]>> I mean, this is quite dry as a turn.

[00:39:00]Like he obviously brings in a back door, but doesn't really complete anything. I would bet on the bigger side. This I'm like torn between like two sizes that I would go. Yeah, talk to me about them.

[00:39:12]>> When I'm like addressing barreling the turn, I'm normally picking between like 80% board is like semicconnected, which I guess a flush draw could be considered like semi-connected or like a completely dry turn, then it go bigger, like 150%.

[00:39:26]So, it's more like do I consider this like a really connected turn card?

[00:39:30]Probably not. So, I want to go on the bigger side. So, maybe I'll bet like 130.

[00:39:35]>> Ooh, an over bet.

[00:39:36]>> We're over betting.

[00:39:38]>> And he is going to call. Oh, that's scary. Now I'm scared.

[00:39:42]>> Pot is now 350.

[00:39:43]>> Mhm.

[00:39:44]>> Best river in the deck. Can you guess what it is?

[00:39:46]>> Is it going to be a spade?

[00:39:47]>> It's an off suit ace.

[00:39:48]>> I mean, it's not the best.

[00:39:50]>> Maybe not the best. He checks it over.

[00:39:52]>> I'm going to take my jack to showdown.

[00:39:54]I'm going to check.

[00:39:55]>> Okay, walk me through that.

[00:39:57]>> I think that the big blind could have ace seven of spades. He could have that.

[00:40:04]very safe space.

[00:40:05]>> And then he hits a draw and then he goes, you know, he's going to continue if he has the nut flush draw on the turn. No, even if I over bet. So like when he calls my over bet, I think he's either got like a strong draw or he's got a strong hand. Like he might just have ace jack and he's like >> he might just have that and then we lose to two pair. It just feels like when the ace comes, we don't really get called by that much worse when we bet. Um then king jack like I think the bottom of our value range it might eek in there but not too sure. So yeah that's why I think like we'll just get to showdown. Maybe that's my like PTSD of always getting rivered coming in. But yeah. Okay cool.

[00:40:47]So on jack 7 rainbow I think they're going to have a lot of like gutshots that continue potentially even just sometimes they float with two overs. We have a strong jack. We want to be obviously value betting our hand. I think we can go 25 a standard 25 here.

[00:41:02]And they're going to continue with all of their gut shots and overs and things like that.

[00:41:06]>> Call. Okay. Two of spades bringing in back door flush draw. Any checks again.

[00:41:10]>> So, I'm going to continue betting here.

[00:41:12]Just think we can be getting a ton of value from weaker jacks. Maybe even some middling pocket pairs like eight signs.

[00:41:19]I think that they feel pretty good about their hand. They can have some turned flush draws as well. Do I care about the like gutshots and two overs? Not so much anymore. I think I'm just going to go for the like maid hands, the pairs, and the jacks. So, I think they're going to be pretty sticky here. If we go 100, are they ever folding nines? I don't think so. If I go 125, are they ever folding nines? Don't think so. Okay, let's go 125.

[00:41:43]>> 125 and a call. Now, the river. It's the river you asked for. If you've been praying for one river, this is the river you've been praying for.

[00:41:49]>> Give me a niece.

[00:41:51]>> And a tick.

[00:41:52]>> Okay, cool. So, they check to us again.

[00:41:55]Are they donking their asex maybe sometimes? I still think that they can have like jackex. I think maybe like pocket pairs, eights, nines, tens. They are going to be a bit elastic. I think that they're just not going to calm in their bet. But I still think I beat a ton of jackex like queen jack, jack 10 that's not going to fold for another street. I can't go super big obviously because there's an ace on the board. But if I wanted to get a jack to fold, I think I could go like 500 and they're folding. Even pot and they're folding. I really want to get called here just cuz I'm running into better hands sometimes.

[00:42:25]Like if they have a sex of spades, like they're just going to win every time I bet. So, I think if I go 200 is kind of cuspy. If I go 175, 150. If I go 150, I think they're just going to side call with a jack.

[00:42:37]>> 150. And he is going to call. And he says, "Huh, if you would have gone 175, I would have folded." And he flashes a jack and says, "You're good.

[00:42:46]>> Let's go. Let's go."

[00:42:48]>> You were so close there.

[00:42:49]>> This is why I like poker. Winning hands like this, like value betting the river and getting called by worse when there was an ace on the board.

[00:42:55]>> That was good. I said 175 with was my cusp right there.

[00:42:59]>> Damn.

[00:42:59]>> Yeah, you dialed in. Pretty dialed in.

[00:43:01]All right, guess what? You're going to win this one.

[00:43:03]>> Oh, >> you show your hand. He says you're good.

[00:43:05]And he flashes a jack.

[00:43:08]>> He shows queen jack.

[00:43:09]>> Queen jack. Well, I don't know that he's calling the river when the ace comes.

[00:43:13]So, I'm not sure that we get that much value out of betting the river.

[00:43:17]>> I like the overb. I like the over bet. I thought that was nice.

[00:43:19]>> Thank you. So Leah here, I kind of want to pick this one up from the river and and on the river once again, just not a lot of questions here about really what is our opponent's range and what happens if So the questions I'm asking here, first of all, I'm carrying that range street to street to street. So I'm not starting from scratch on the river. If I have my opponent's range on the turn as Jack X and maybe a couple straight draws and picked up a combo draw on the turn, well, I'm not starting over here on the river. I'm just carrying that through.

[00:43:45]And once I have that range, I'm just walking through like what happens if I bet small? What happens if I bet large?

[00:43:51]What happens if I check back? And then on the river, on every river, I like to add in that inverse question, right? If my opponent flipped over a hand like queen, jack, jack 10, jack 9, what size am I going to get that hand to fold? If I was bluffing, and I think maybe 175, 200, 250, something in that ballpark, right? We don't have to go that big to get Jack X to fold when an ace comes on the river. But that also means it's still a reasonable size bet. Still a halfp pot size bet. Maybe a little bigger to get Jack X to fold. So what does that mean? If our opponent's range is still a [ __ ] ton of Jack X, sure, they can now have some two pair. They can now have some ace jack. Sure, they can now have some A7 of spades or whatever, right? We're beat sometimes.

[00:44:29]But if their range is still majority going to be a bunch of Jack X, which are going to have a bunch of offsuit Jack X calling from the big blind pre flop, we can still target a bunch of that stuff on the river, right? If we're betting 175, 200, something like that to get that stuff to fold, can't we bet 100, 125, 150 to get the queen jack, jack 10, jack 9 suited, to get that stuff to call on the river? So that's what I would be considering here. That's why I think that inverse question is so damn important. Liliana is starting from the river here. I'm going to walk through what I like in a second. First one little nitpick. She does mention that her opponent may donk some strong hands when the ace comes. I would push back on that a little bit. When we over bet on the turn and we go 1.5, 1.7x, whatever it is on the turn, our opponent is way less likely in my opinion to come out and donk on the river when we choose a big size on the previous street. Right?

[00:45:13]Maybe if you go 1/3 pot, quarter pot, whatever on the turn, I think that greatly increases the chance that our opponent comes out and dons. But generally, when we choose a big size, that drastically reduces the chance that they're going to come out and don even with strong hands. So, I would push back on that one slightly. But I do like that Liliana finds this thin thin thin value bet on the river. 150, the size we were talking about earlier in the Leah hand here, 150. Maybe the exact size I was talking about before to get value on this river. I really, really like that she's dialed in on this river, considering squeaking out three streets of value. Even if we do get value on sometimes, that's okay. Against recreational players, this is the move.

[00:45:48]This is the way to win the maximum amount of money. Really like the thought process here in this hand. All right, after hand five, Liliana still up in the lead, putting out a little bit more value in that last hand, getting the third street of Fin value from second pair on the river. If you guys are watching this, you're like, "Wow." Um, here's what I challenge you guys to do when we're walking through these spots.

[00:46:05]Pause it on the flop. Record your thought process out loud. Get out your phone and just record yourself talking through it out loud. Record your thought process. Play it back. Hear what that sounds like. Right. And if you would like help improving that, that's what we work on during our 5day base camp. You got us in our corner for those 5 days.

[00:46:19]Two months of support on the back end.

[00:46:20]If that sounds appealing in any way, shape, or form, check it out. Would love to welcome you in.

[00:46:26]All right, very last hand here. The cutoff is going to open. A button pro is going to three bet. And we've got a king queen of hearts in the big blind here.

[00:46:35]I'm a really big fan of playing four bet or fold when we have an open and a three bet in front of us and I like to go linear linear linear and when a button pro three bets cut off open probably going to be relatively wide so this hand going to fall into that range right I would much rather be cold for betting a hand like king queen suited than a hand like king six or king seven or whatever throw those ones into the muck right there's no point in mcking a hand like king queen and for betting a hand like king six right so we're going to for bet the king queen suited we put in the cold for bet and the button is going to call we go to a flop ace84 for rainbow. And we're going to start from right here on the fly.

[00:47:08]>> These are tough spots, you know.

[00:47:10]>> Yeah, I didn't want to make easy ones.

[00:47:12]>> This is tricky. Um Well, okay. I think we both got like very narrow ranges. I feel like when he calls our for bet like we're cold for betting, so we really have like ace king, kings, queens, ace queen suited perhaps aces. When he calls, it feels like he has well he could call with ace king off. He could call with pocket queens. He could call with jacks. He could call with ace queen suited. Don't think he's calling with ace queen off. I think he's going to rip it with kings. So, like it doesn't feel like too great to have a king or a queen cuz I feel like those are the hands that he's like not going to have like the strong like these aren't like super strong hands that he's going to have that include a king or a queen. But I feel like when like we do have the range advantage when we fall like we have aces, he doesn't. Well, maybe he does.

[00:47:59]Like I'm sure there's some pros that would definitely call aces pre. We have ace king. Also has a bit of ace king. I don't know. I feel like we've got to bet, but we're going to bet small. Is there a heart on the board or not? Do we have back door flush potentials? Is it the ace of hearts there?

[00:48:12]>> Okay, we'll give us we'll give us one art on the board. Four is a heart.

[00:48:15]>> That's nice. Um, no. I think I can still bet. I would bet like very small though, like 100.

[00:48:21]>> We go 100 and he calls. Offsuit seven.

[00:48:24]>> We're We're just never good. I mean, we're obviously never good. He's got an ace or he's got a bear. Are we willing to go broke with king queen? That's the question. I would check.

[00:48:34]>> He checks back.

[00:48:35]>> Interesting.

[00:48:36]>> River. Beautiful offsuit seven again.

[00:48:38]>> Not going to make it easy for us.

[00:48:40]>> No, >> he's not just going to bet the turn.

[00:48:42]>> Yeah, bet the turn. I can just fold really easy. Or I mean this is this has got to be one of the worst hands we get to show down with. Like when we're in a spot like this. So it feels like maybe we just have to bluff. But then maybe our story doesn't really make sense when we check back the turn. like he could have an ace still, but will he believe like I think he might have like queens and he's going to call a river bet because we didn't bet the turn. So, it just feels like we don't have an ace.

[00:49:09]So, I think the better story would have been if we barrel the turn and then go all in on the river, but we're here now with it.

[00:49:16]So, I don't know. My gut says let it go like just check and but that's my like passive side of my brain talking.

[00:49:24]>> Who will win? The passive side or the aggressive side?

[00:49:27]>> That's the question. Yeah. Like we just don't get here with like what much worse is what I'm thinking. Like this has got to be the very edge of range. And what else are we bluffing? Like we've got to have some bluffs, but then maybe it's hard for us to find bluffs. So then we should bluff even more when we're in this sort of position. Maybe they'll think that. So we've got got like quite a lot behind, but we could just rip it in. And then what's he going to call with? He's going to call with ace king.

[00:49:53]might look us up with queens or race queen. This is hard.

[00:49:56]>> Yeah, it's not easy.

[00:49:57]>> And I don't know like like I'm as I'm like learning more about the game, obviously I'm trying to learn GTO, which a lot of people have a strong opinion about that. Like you should not learn how to play GTO. You should learn exploitative plays. But this feels like we're just going on theory instead of like what I would do in reality. So maybe I think a shove would win sometimes, but we also have very bad hand. So I need RNG to tell me what to do.

[00:50:27]>> Yeah, that's the best way to decide in live poker. I use RNG all the time when I'm playing live.

[00:50:31]>> How do you do your RNG? I know some people look at clocks or some people like play with their chips. Funny.

[00:50:36]>> Well, I did a video. I uh I based it upon like the players underwear color that I was playing against.

[00:50:41]>> Nice. See, >> I made them show me their underwear.

[00:50:45]>> That worked out well. Um, okay. On >> one guy asked like when was the last time he pooped and I based it upon like the hour. Yeah, that's how I did the RNG.

[00:50:53]>> Wow. I might try that next time I go. I think that would throw him off.

[00:50:55]>> Yeah, it works really well. Yeah, it was it was like I wrote down on the piece of paper and then I asked him to write down when the last time he pooped was. And it was if it was before X hours ago, then I was going to make the aggressive action and it was less than I was going to make the passive action.

[00:51:09]>> That is brilliant.

[00:51:10]>> But you know what? I'm going to go against my passive instincts for the sake of um that this is an imaginary hand and no real money is on the line.

[00:51:20]>> Yeah. I mean, only 200,000 people are going to see this, so it doesn't really matter.

[00:51:24]>> So, they I maybe 200,000 people won't think that I'm a little wimp cuz I'm going to go all in.

[00:51:31]>> All in.

[00:51:32]>> I'm going all in.

[00:51:33]>> He giggles.

[00:51:34]>> He's got queens.

[00:51:35]>> He folds.

[00:51:35]>> Let's go. So the buttons three bet continue range I think is going to be pretty wide. They're going to be three betting that cut off really wide.

[00:51:42]They're like a recreational player. They have a ton of pocket pairs. They have even some like suited broadways that are continuing. I think we can start bluffing here. Let me think. If I check here, I think we just have to check fold our hand, which we don't necessarily want to be doing. So I think I'm just going to be seabbetting here and going pretty small. I want them to call with like um their pocket pairs and things uh that we can maybe bluff on later streets because we're pretty deep. So yeah, we're just going to continue for small here. Let's go 150. Yeah, into 525. Feels good.

[00:52:12]>> He calls. We go to a turn, which is a seven.

[00:52:15]>> Okay, cool. So I'm thinking of like what my options are here. We could just try to bet one more street and then give up rivers to get them to fold like middling pocket pairs like tens, kings, queens, jacks. I think if we try to go for three streets with this bluff, they are just going to have two stronger range by the river. And so I think maybe my plan is that I'm just going to bluff on this street and then give up on future streets cuz I don't think they're going to be able to hang on if we go like 750 800 here. Yeah, I think they even fold like kings and queens for that size. I need to make sure that they fold those hands cuz I'm just not going to bet again on the river. Another option would be just to check and see what they do.

[00:52:52]But like again, we have like a no equity hand really. Uh it would just be checking to check fold here. So let's just try to get them to fold kings here.

[00:52:59]And I think they're going to fold. If we go 800, they'll probably fold all their pocket pairs.

[00:53:05]>> He folds.

[00:53:06]>> Nice.

[00:53:06]>> And he has pocket kings.

[00:53:08]>> No way. Wow. Wow. I'm showing him the king queen right now. And I'm letting him know that he's been bluffed.

[00:53:17]>> There you go. So, starting with Leah here. I like that she chose a small bet here. I thought she got a little bit caught up in blockers. It's like, hey, we block the pocket kings, the pocket queens, the hands that are going to fold, but also we got to carry that over. We also block the ace king and the ace queen as well that's going to call, right? So, like feel like sometimes people just get too caught up in this blocker nonsense was maybe the 17th most important thing. Do like that she checks the turn here and going to the river.

[00:53:45]You hear her talk about she has to bluff here. She has to bluff on this river.

[00:53:50]And guess what? Unless somebody's holding a musket to your head at the table, we don't have to do anything, right? We're not forced into any particular decision at any time at the poker table just because we saw somebody who can't even spell poker like Wolf Gang make some type of decision, right?

[00:54:02]There is no have to in poker. That's the cool thing about poker, right? So, my kind of push back on this river is would I like to bluff? Yes. Do we have to bluff? No. So, it's just kind of a nitpick with the language here. I'm going to walk through Liliana's hand and then I'm going to kind of give my thoughts on how I would play this spot because it is kind of tricky. So Liliana does see bat as well and then she likes to double barrel and gets the fold here.

[00:54:22]So let me kind of walk through what I would be thinking in this spot starting from the flop for bet pot where the pre flop four better ace high board. I like to start off with a really really small chat both of my bluffs and my value my whole range going small. And the reason why this is maybe 10% pot 15% pot something like this right picture this with me. Let's say we have a hand like pocket aces. We bet $50, $60 something like that on the flop. What's our opponent going to do with kings, queens, jacks, something like that. We bet $60 here, they're going to call, right?

[00:54:48]Which is really good for us when we have aces. Now, let's say we have a hand like king queen. What's our opponent going to do with pocket jacks when we bet $60 here, they're going to call, which is really good for our bluffs going forward when we have king high, right? We want jacks to stick around so we can get that hand to fold later, right? I'm just going to go very, very small with my entire range here on this flop. Maybe 50 bucks, 60 bucks, something like that.

[00:55:08]And then get to the turn. My entire range now, I'm going to check. Why am I going to check with my entire range here now on the turn? Because if I have a strong hand like pocket aces, well, we're not getting three streets most likely, unless our opponent does have the last ace in their hand. If they have ace king or ace queen, right? We're going to get all the money anyway. Even if we have aces here and we check and our opponent has ace king or ace queen, we're getting all the money. The SPR is two. Our opponent's most likely going to bet here on the turn, we can just check, jam, pile in all the money, right? But if our opponent does have kings, queens, jacks, whatever, and we have pocket aces, we're really only getting two streets, and we would sure as hell love for them to catch a miracle card and catch up here. So that's why I really like see betting small on the flop and then checking on the turn. Plus, what looks stronger to a good player? If we check on the flop, what do players like to do when they flop top set? Well, they generally like to check. Or if we see bet on the flop and then check the turn, what's it look like if we see bet on the flop and then check the turn to a good player? It looks like we're just see betting and then giving up like we're full of [ __ ] And in general, do not use this against fish. This is way too complex to use something like this against fish because fish aren't thinking not about like life in general.

[00:56:09]They're probably thinking about things like what time do I have to poop today?

[00:56:12]Should I go to the grocery store? What?

[00:56:13]They're just not thinking about poker.

[00:56:14]So, there's no reason to put that much thought into it. But in general against good players, the CB bet flop check turn line is just over overpowered. And what's really nice with pocket aces, we end up stacking ace king anyway. We end up getting two streets against pocket kings. We can just bet real small on the river. And then let's say the turn does go check and we get to the river with king high. Well, now we can just choose a little baby tiny scalpel size to get jacks, queens, kings, all those weak hands that floated us on the flop that would check back the turn to get to fold on the river. And if we do have pocket aces, well, we could go with another little baby block bet here on the river to try to get called by those hands like queens, jacks, kings, whatever. So, that's why I really like using this line on these ace high boards as the pre flop for better. A little bit of extra sauce for everybody watching from the cheap seats. All right, so after this last hand, is this going to be a resounding American victory? Does this answer the question that American pros are actually better than Europeans at poker?

[00:57:04]>> I hope that Liliana does a lot better than me. I mean, I've only been like playing poker for like a year, like consistently, I would say. I only learned the rules like 2 years ago in summer. So, I'm still like getting to grips with a lot of the like strategy behind this game instead of just like going on vibes. But, I think like some of my logic is there. Like I think I have quite a good foundation like of understanding but putting that into practice is probably where I find the most difficult especially when it comes to understanding like when I should go for value or like calling when I'm like love catching like stuff like that is quite difficult. So yeah maybe like I would give myself like a five out of 10.

[00:57:42]>> What about out of seven? Alex scale is a seven.

[00:57:44]>> Oh sick. But yeah that's all I have to say.

[00:57:47]>> Where would you be out of seven? Is that a three or a four?

[00:57:49]>> Yeah like a a three and a half.

[00:57:51]>> Oh that's cheating. Vic went out public and gray for a fool.

[00:57:54]>> Okay, four. All right, that's fair. How do you think you did?

[00:57:56]>> You know, I think I did okay. There were some hands that I really liked earlier.

[00:58:00]The first hand, I wish I had given more consideration into raising on the donk one on the uh monotone flop. And then when I had kings and I turned it into a bluff, I wasn't paying attention enough to SPR on the turn, thinking about how it would play out. I knew that we were deep and I knew that if I went like free force I'd probably have enough, but I should have explicitly had the thought of like if I go 600 the river will be 2.1 and I'll have 2.4 and yeah, so whatever. There's always uh ways to improve, but I don't think I punted really. So that's kind of nice.

[00:58:29]>> Yeah, he had kings by the way in the west end.

[00:58:30]>> Let's go.

[00:58:31]>> Got the kings old.

[00:58:32]>> What I would like to do is give a huge shout out to Leah and Liliana. Really, really hard to come on camera and elucidate your thought process in real time. Leah's just getting started in her journey and for playing for under a year so far. She's got an extremely impressive trajectory. I think she's got a long fruitful career in front of her, both playing poker and in the content arena as well. So, huge props to her for putting herself on the line, even though she's been playing for less than a year so far. And also, if you guys couldn't tell, we've worked with her before, brought her on the channel before, Liliana, just a really strong player.

[00:59:00]Now, went through one of our programs maybe several months ago, a year ago, I don't know, sometime in the past, but she's just continually improved and improved and improved. So, shout out to both of these players. You see the final results right here. Liliana coming out in the lead. If you guys would like our help, you want us in your corner working on your game just like we did with Liliana, check out our 5day base camp.

[00:59:18]Either way, hope this video turns you into the biggest boy possible. Thank you guys and have a gentle