Poker Out Loud: Episode 4

This post was originally published on March 4, 2020, on my personal website, Lukich.io. I have since consolidated all of my poker-related content by reposting it onto Solver School.

The 4th episode of this season of Poker Our Loud was released last week. If this is your first time on my site, I’ve blogged my filming experience after each episode comes out. You can read my previous posts — one, two, and three to catch up.

I have mostly focused on my gameplay and perception of the overall game flow. But I’ve also tried to follow the other action and storylines throughout the season. It’s been fun to watch, especially since I forgot most of what happened. We filmed in October, so while I remembered the larger hands in detail, many small and mid-sized pots are more blurry.

In this week’s episode, we finally see some fireworks. It signified a turning point in the session, in my opinion. While there were interesting hands played throughout the first few episodes, we hadn’t seen any huge pots to this point. For the most part, everyone stayed relatively in line. In other words, the session went exactly the opposite of how I expected it to go.

I watched seasons 1-3 of Poker Out Loud over five weeks to prepare. Most nights, I watched an episode and listened to the corresponding On Second Thought Podcast afterward. Listening to some great players walk through their range construction processes with wider ranges for large pots was helpful for me to build a structured protocol for analyzing a spot in detail.

But more to this point, I looked to these three seasons as a cue for how to prepare for the gameplay. I wanted to prepare a strategy different than the normal one I deploy in my local $5/$10 game. And the first three seasons were full of action, so I anticipated this one to play similarly.

At this point in episode 4, we had played about 20 hands over 3 hours. The initial adrenaline rush was long gone. Our energy was draining, and we were all starting to get tired. I’m sure I’m not the only one having a harder time focusing on making good decisions. I only had 1-2 playable hands in the first few episodes to amplify things, so I was becoming a little more disengaged.

The KQo vs J9s hand that Berkey and Chris K played stuck out as the turning point when the action started loosening up and chips started flying around more. It was a highlight moment. It was also close to where I could start getting more involved — although I’m pretty sure I will be in the two upcoming episodes. I won’t spoil the hand or the rest of the episode — if you haven’t already, you can watch it below.

You can catch the latest episode every other Friday by subscribing to the S4Y channel on YouTube. Here is this week’s episode in full:

This week, I was still quiet. I played one hand, which shouldn't be in my preflop range construction, much like the K9o hand from last week. Unlike last week, I didn’t see the flop as I folded to a 3-bet behind me.

The action in the hand was as follows:

• Chin opened from UTG to $25

• I called from the HJ with 53s

• Chris Price 3-bet the SB to $125

• Both Chin and I folded

It’s a seemingly simple hand that is interesting when examining range construction deviations. Here is my standard range from this formation at an unknown table.

By default, it’s a linear 12% 3-bet range with 11% more width in a calling range. While it would be wide against a normal UTG open, it’s important to note that we’re playing 6-handed. This means the UTG is the LJ, or middle position in a full-ring game. Because of that, I think I can play a wider range, 3-betting more linearly.

My natural range against Chin’s open is wider here. 2 points, in particular, will cause me to deviate wider than my normal strategy in this spot:

• Chin opened to 2.5 BB instead of the 3-4 BB that everyone else was opening for. Since I’m getting a better price on a call, I can expand my calling range in position to include more hands with good playability.

• I had already planned to expand my ranges by about one pip in this session with the anticipation of everyone else playing wider ranges on the show.

Even with those 2 points, 53s is probably slightly too loose to play here, particularly with aggressive players behind me. Despite all of that, I’m going to defend my play here.

Unlike last week’s K9o, I think there’s a way to construct a flat call range also to include some back 4-bets. 53s is not one of the hands that I would back 4-bet. It’s clearly at the bottom of my range. But I will pair them with bigger hands like AA or AK. I’ll sometimes expand this all together to take a flat-only strategy against a UTG open. As a result of keeping these bigger hands that can back 4-bet in my range, I can widen my flattened range more.

I will include this range deviation in very specific games. The games must be active with other players who are very capable, understand range construction, and will actively be trying to determine my strategy. I will not play this way in the typical $5/$10 game I play at the casino. But in this environment, I think this component helps me against thinking players.

If I can show up in situations with hands that my opponents won’t expect, it increases my deception value and their ability to range me effectively. My opponents may then start extrapolating my strategy based on these different plays. If I can balance these deviations, I can exploit some image biases they may have. Finally, I can potentially set myself up for future spots where I have the top-of-range.

In December — a couple of months after filming Poker Out Loud — I attended the S4Y Elite Academy. During one of the days of gameplay, I was in a similar situation with the opposite end of my range and chose the same deviation:

By retaining AK in my flat range, I put myself in a great spot to back 4-bet and easily take down a decent-sized pot.

This play is very dependent on table dynamics and the specific players in the game. Deviating based on game flow is an area that doesn’t come naturally to me. I like process and data. Stepping outside the box is not in my wheelhouse. So, I constantly need to work on this facet of my game to grow and develop as a player. It’s also one of the areas where S4Y has helped me the most.

Back to the 53s spot — I’m at the bottom end of my range with this particular hand. But, if I’m going to construct the top of my range with some strong hands, I should also include the bottom of my range to round it out. I’m sure there’s a good argument for expanding outwards to the lower-suited Kx hands, but I prefer the small-suited connectors when I’m expanding my range through the passive game tree. I think the Kx-suited hands play better when we’re the aggressor, not the defender.

I think 53s is fine to include for a few reasons:

1. Chin’s raise size is small, so I’m being laid a very low price. Since this is the bottom of my calling range, I can easily let it go if it gets 3-bet behind me. I will need a bottom of my range to fold to 3-bets, which falls within it. As demonstrated above, my range will be protected with stronger hands.

2. If I end up in a heads-up situation against Chin, it’s not bad. I’ll continue in the pot in position with an SPR of 60. The depth will be very hard for Chin to put a ton of pressure on me unless polarizing actions occur. If he is going to do that, he will have to narrow his range significantly, shedding a large portion of his range in doing so.

3. If multiple people see the flop, it’s more likely that I’m the only one with lower cards. 53s can play fit-or-fold very cheaply this deep and win large pots when we hit trips or better against overvalued top pair / 2-pair hands.

4. If we make it to the showdown, it creates the image biases I mentioned above. This allows me to set up future possible plays to back 4-bet later in the session, like the AK hand above.

Here was my analysis of the hand in real-time:

I like my explanation before and after. I think it’s fairly consistent with what I wrote above. Overall, I think I played the hand ok. And when I say okay, I mean somewhat close to an EV of $0. It’s probably marginal, but I feel good about my postflop skills that I won’t over-invest in the pot unless I flop good equity with my hand. Most importantly, I believe I’m constructed well enough that I’m going to have a good sense of my ranges, from the top to the bottom.

To catch the latest episodes, subscribe to the S4Y channel. Stay tuned for the next one, dropping on Friday, March 14. I’ll have a recap of that episode on here a couple of days afterward.

If you have any comments or thoughts, please feel free to leave any comments below. You can also contact me at [email protected] or on Twitter or YouTube through the links in the footer below.

-Lukich