Phil Galfond's Philosophy (5)

Digesting. Probably gonna earn me another BB/100 for each time I watch it. Made me think about the game like I used to, before grinding took it's toll. And I don't even play HU. Standout series. Well worth the BFP membership alone. Brilliant.

best video out there! 4 sure! cmon guys dont post it on pokertorrents and we can be rich :P

btw this is great philosophy: always looking for the free direction, the free space. that makes this video so great, imo. thx a lot Phil.

hey phil, im on my biggest pokerpause ever, just cause I really enjoy watching your vids more than actually playing.... I guess what I like about poker most is thinking and learning, and now I can take my time and without stress enjoy the aha-experienses that I get from almost everything you guys put out here.... The hole philosophy-serie is great and easy to comprehend, this one I think is the best so far tho.... thanks a lot for some amazing work - maby one day Ill teach you music in return :)

great vid, this is what i signed up for

hi phil great video thank you. i have a kind of off-topic question... how did you get hold of that full tilt hand replayer version which you use in this video? is it just available for download somewhere?

Nice vid, Same question than Pokerswans about the FTP replayer !

I am one of those players that you mentioned that has a somewhat profitable way of playing but who is not actually thinking very far. I guess this video made me realise more then ever that i really know very very little about poker and about all the things that i should be thinking about. This will be the year that i will learn to play poker, thanks Phil.

Incredible great vid -> will make me in the future think much more about ingame and offgame how to exploit Villain`s "another" ranges...^^

Thank you very much, rly fantastic work;)

One more or less offtopic question or at least not rly related to the topic of this video:

Min. 6: Example (T6s):

When we would imagine that this is 6max in a BTNvsBigB-scenario where ranges are of course much more narrow than HU -> hence C/R-ranges are also more narrow (maybe TPGK-hands, NutFDs, Combodraws, sets and some Bluffcombos with (Backdoor)EQ)

thanks for this, great and helpful video.

I didn't watch it yet, but will this strategy work for sit n go's?

Phil, thanks for the vid. Vs someone checkraising a lot and balanced on Q63ssd, do you advocate cbetting 77 (with the intention of barreling for value) and J7dd (with the intention of barreling as a bluff a lot)? Doesn't it get suck to get raised of those hands 25-30% of the time? Wouldn't we rather check back J7 and give ourself the ability to hit a J, 7, or a diamond? Same question for hands like KsJ (every A, K, J, T, spade improves our hand on the turn). I tend to check back a lot vs frequent checkraises, with a cbet% of probably around 40 or 50 (all the hands that are happy vs a checkraise, and all the pure air/hands that don't improve on a lot of turns) but checking back the hands with backdoor draws. Ofcourse it sucks when the turn comes a 2, they donk and I have to fold, but a lot of the time I improve on the turn and can play fairly well. I guess I'm asking 'do you think the loss you take when he checkraises you when you have a hand with potential that has to fold is less than the amount you win when he checkcalls you with his weak range (or folds in the J7 case)?' Which you probably do, considering you'd cbet 77 and J7dd, but just checking.

This is absolutely excellent. I never looked at it from this perspective.

as with all your philosphy vids, this was awesome Phil, what i signed up for. 

2 questions:

1. for the example of playing against the guy who has a small yet balanced turn betting range, one of the adjustments was to call the flop lighter. How do we play against this guy once we've called the flop with some weak showdown value, the turn goes check/check, we check the river and he bets (and his river betting range is pretty balanced)?

In other words, if he's betting the river with his strong hands that he checked the turn with and betting some bluffs and giving up with others, is there any way to exploit that or do we just have to call sometimes and fold others?

2. Would taking a check/call flop, lead turn line with a balanced range have merit against this guy?

Thank you in advance, Phil

phil please listen to the comment about publishing a chart certain blanks ommited and then maknig a video on it. I feel like this would be extremely helpful for many HUPLO players such as myself because it is an amazing way to help identify leaks. It also would help immensely in piecing together information in ways that are very useful in situations encountered every day on the tables. as an aside this was an AMAZING video, please do more of these. p.s. i dont know if you remember but we met in vegas on day 4 of the main event, u told me that 4betting wider to increase variance in huplo against an opponent who is 3betting a ton may not work well. I decided not to pay much attention and ended up going on the biggest downswing of my life. If we ever talk in person again ill be sure to follow your advice a little more strictly

Nice vid. I wish this was the way I thought about every hand. There has to be a way to get in this pattern. Thinking about metacognition, maybe we could develop a strategy to consider during in the moment decisions. I used to use hold em manager to detail where a player's tendencies were way outside the norm. I would then paste those in the player notes. Too time consuming though. There may be a way to create a study tool as some have suggested. I agree with not letting these concepts out of the blue fire community.

Probably the best vid I've ever seen.

thx a lot Phil !!! great video

could we please hav some philosophy PLO!!! such a great series and imo what makes BF stand out from the rest!

he talks to so much and rambles its hard to keep up with what he saying. he goes into so much detail it actually makes it sound more difficult.Then i try to play like he says and i get crushed every single time. Its confusing me.

what i dont understand the videos is betting into a player like that whos aggressive on a board you know they love to raise. so why would you bet with a pair of 6s on a draw heavy board and over card when you know for sure hes going to raise. 10 2 3 flop, 9 2 2 or 3 4 8. They raise every time because they have usually 2 over cards or a pair and over card and they know there hand can improve and get folds from ace high, and small pocket pairs and even like over cards. Thats what i dont understand he still bets in the video and folds to the raise. If you know there going to raise why lead? Is that just for balance with your made hands? Against players like that you really dont need balance. Your strong hands they will still raise those boards. Its like addiction for them low board they believe they have to raise.

I understand it now i just have to rewatch it a few times. What if a player mixes up how he plays really well. like tom dwan i seen him check the nuts 3 times check raise the river. Or he will have top pair and check back the flop or soemtimes lead the flop and check the turn. Or i seen him go for check raise on teh flop with air. his lines are always different. Say you cant really pick up a read on what he has during play. If there really tricky do you just go back to basics and play more of a abc style since you can't get a read on them and just bet when you have a hand and give up when you dont while hes trying all these tricky creative things or do you start betting and raising them to see where your at in a hand? Or do you just get really aggressive and go into attack mode like isildur and put him into guessing decisions? Sometimes im trying to figure out what there range is, what they are trying to do and once i figure it out they switch gears and they have different hand ranges and now there bluff raising me on the turn and the pattern changes. then i get confused on what my game plan is. I seen some guys start off nitty then get ultra aggressive and some guys start off aggressive and get nitty. Or some play different after they won money and get more aggressive and some get more nitty. I saw phil ivey do it this guy i think his game was deterimis or something like that. The guy limped every hand called any raise and saw flops. He beat ivey out of 300 k. Then ivey came back next day and won it all back.i can't believe someone can beat the best playing in the world by limping 100 percent of hands and calling 100 percent. It didn't make sense to me but i watched it he beat ivey basically post flop but 2nd time around ivey completely crushed him. it just goes to show its not easy to adjust especially when they are tricky or style you haven't really scene. So i was wonder what best method to take while your trying to figure them out.