Well, the thing is: I won't be able to play any serious games for another month or two and I miss the HUHU. I also want to keep my mind sharp so when I start playing again I don't have to go through that painful re-learning process where you keep saying to yourself, "Oh yeah, now I remember why that's a bad line."

I realize some may feel it's poor form to post any HULHE strat, but I honestly don't belong to any study groups or private forums at this time so I figure fuck it, I'm just gonna do it. Maybe my play isn't as good as I think it is, and you'll all get a good laugh out of it.

I used the Yebsite versus Druff match as a vehicle for this review. The video is embedded below. My only reason for choosing this match is because I knew it was available and I remember from watching it previoulsy that there were a lot of spots I had opinions on.

Finally, I'm not pretending to be a coach or an expert, and I don't wish to give that impression. Druff's accomplishments in the poker world far exceed my own. If anyone disagrees with any of my comments, I would really appreciate any feedback and maybe we can get some discussion going on some of the hands.

So far, I've reviewed the first 30 minutes of play. Depending on what happens with this thread, I may or may not be encouraged to continue working through the video.

GL at the tables.



~01:16 I like Druff's play. I think Yebsite's flop trey w/ 55 is pretty bad. He has close to 0% FE versus better hands and very few worse hands are calling. Even when Druff is drawing, he will typically have an equity edge.

~02:01 I agree with Druff that he likely has the best hand on the turn, especially since you would expect a player who treys 55 to also raise the flop with a stronger draw. I'm not sure there's a lot of value in the bet, however. Checking to induce is likely the better play.

~2:19 Folding T5o otb is pretty tight for HULHE.

~3:19 Agree with Druff that limping the btn is a bad strategy in LHE. There are a ton of different ways to play these spots from the bb. I don't mind checking back such a weak holding and leading the flop is fine precisely for the reason Druff states. A c/r might be sexier as it gets more money in the pot.

~04:11 I like the play of the hand. I think Druff's comment that he should have bet the turn, while correct from an FTOP perspective, is kind of results-oriented. Nothing wrong with keeping the pot small and trying to induce a river bluff on a tricky board texture that some opponents will get kind of crazy with. The flop peel with K5o is better than it looks. Assuming a conservative 75% btn opening range and 100% c-bet on that flop, you have about 45% equity in the pot and decent sd value.

~6:11 Another really tight fold with 69o otb. Playing a lot of hands IP is a good thing -- it makes you difficult to read, you have some FE pf and many opponent's will c/f a majority of missed flops and you ofc have a positional advantage postflop.

~06:25 Pretty tight fold from the bb w/ Q2o. Theoretically, if you're folding this hand, you are defending less than 69% of your bb's. It's true that such hands are harder to play postflop but part of HU play is learning to make marginal decisions OOP and this hand has a lot of high card value and makes good pairs (tpwk or bpgk).

~07:17 T2o is another really tight btn fold.

~7:42 The turn spot is kind of tricky from Yebsite's perspective. It's okay as a thin value bet as he still beats any other pair. It's a gross spot when raised because against a player you have little info on, you likely have to call down. I'm kind of torn. Checking back to induce a river bet saves you from a potentially tricky turn spot. Alternatively, if we are going to bet the turn, I almost think we should bet the river as well. An argument for the latter would be that Druff would have 3-bet pf with almost any hand that makes 2pair on that board and the 5s is usually a brick. Could be an interesting hand to analyze further.

~8:19 Druff plays a lot tighter in this match than almost any other HU player I have ever studied. 69o is almost always a defend unless the IP player has a ridiculously tight opening range and even in those cases you could argue that you have decent enough implied odds.

~8:55 I barrel turn some % of the time but it's another example where you rarely if ever get value and you almost never fold out any better hands (maybe a handful of weak Kings depending on the opponent). It's somewhat opponent dependent but if you can get a guy to bet the river a lot, then there's actually more value in inducing that bet.

~9:07 K2o is an incredibly tight fold in the bb.

~9:33 Q3o is another really tight fold. By this point in the match, Yebsite should be considering opening nearly 100% of his btns. He obv doesn't know what hands Druff has been folding but he will have noticed the high frequency by now and should be adjusting accordingly.

~11:12 3-betting AJo pre is obv a fine play. Just a very quick note that some very good players almost never put in a 3! pf (especially if the betting is capped and they feel their opponent is capable of hand reading) as a way of disguising their range and also allowing them to represent a wider range when c/r'ing the flop. Alterntively, you can balance your 3-betting range with hands that your opponent would expect are a part of your calling range. In some cases, one strategy is more effective than the other versus particular opponent types (who may respect one line more than the other leading them to play fit or fold on the flop).

~11:48 With bpwk, I think Druff is better off trying to induce bluffs. Basically, the math for LHE suggests that if your opponent will continue putting in bets UI, inducing bluffs is more profitable than protecting your hand. Although Yebsite's flop trey is okay (especially if Druff is going to be c/r'ing bp), I would be on the lookout to see whether he balances this play or waits for the turn to raise his strong made hands.

~13:02 Folding is fine but the oop player should consider bluff raising some % of these dryer flops.

~13:46 OOP c/r's are super questionable. Obv it's great when they work out and you get extra value, but it's pretty costsly when your opponent checks back. It's somewhat player dependent but unless you are extremely confident that your opponent will b/c AND call a river bet UI, I think it's usually better just to bet.

~14:21 In this case, I think Druff's c/r is okay since he's getting called by almost ATC. Yebsite's 3-bet is okay as a free card play, but if he had barrelled the turn I wouldn't have liked it. And, again, we have yet to see him take this line with a strong made hand. One question to consider from Druff's perspective otf is how often your opponent will barrel the turn with his missed overs. Taking a broader veiw of the hand, you may sometimes get more value by allowing your opponent to continue barreling while simulataneously avoiding a raise on the turn when behind.

~15:04 One of very few siuations where I might check back the flop. The bb caller flops a piece here often and even though our equity isn't bad when bet/calling, we seldom if ever have an edge. Obv it's kind of transparent if we only bet these textures when we hit, however, so I think we should be betting some % of the time versus observant opponents.


~16:09 I don't like Yebsite's 4! w/ K5o, in part because I don't think it's a hand that plays well in a bloated pot and also because this is only the second time Druff has 3! if I'm remembering the action correctly. Even though it's a big pot, I also dislike calling Druff's flop raise since (a) it's not a texture most players will bluff and (b) off the top of my head, I don't think K5o has enough equity at this point in the hand. As played, I wonder if he should be raising the turn. Given the action and taking card removal into consideration, Druff's range is weighted toward flopped pairs or draws. There are actually very few combos of hands that Yeb is losing to at this point.

~16:15 I open T4o.

~16:26 I would defend Q5o.

~16:37 Depending on the opponent, I don't mind folding 43o. Anything in the bottom 10% is a wash at best against all but the worst opponents and I like to preserve the illusion that I'm just running hot.

~16:52 I would defend 92s.

~17:15 I'm undecided about Druff's flop raise. I tend to just smooth call a lot of flops IP, in part because I like to raise the turn a lot, but maybe I miss some value and cheaper bluff opportunities because of that. In this case, it's also a 3! pot so I think Yeb's range hits the K more often and when he has a club it probably beats our 8. I also think he's somewhat more likely to blindly barrel the turn after treying pre. In general, I think that's just a population tendency. I think maybe Yebsite can just b/f the flop. Although I think on two-tone or rainbow flops you usually have decent enough pot+implied odds to peel for a gs, when you get raised on a mono flop your opponent holds at least one club often enough that you're really only chasing 3 outs. Against any halfway decent opponent, I agree with Druff that the clarkmeister bluff is never going to be profitable in this spot. I will usually try it against an unknown in the husngs, however, and without doing any hard math on my results, my experience seems to be that it works often enough.

~18:05 One thing I haven't put enough thought into since I tend to be a smooth caller in the bb is how best to mix up one's pf 3-betting range. IIRC, Druff has only 3! twice so far and both times with a really strong hand. Should he consider a 3! with T7o? Why or why not?

~19:06 This is probably getting somewhat redundant, but I would defend 95o as well.

~20:21 I would defined 96o ofc. If I'm following the game flow correctly, it does appear Yeb has adjusted to Druff's tight blind defense and is opening more loosely than he was at the beginning of the match. Although I wouldn't be playing as tight as Druff regardless, he should be adjusting by calling a wider range and maybe playing back on some flops.

~22:38 In general, I don't mind firing the turn again with a big Ace. I don't agree that the reason is that we don't want to give a free card, though. IMO it's for value because you get called by any worse A, many K's and often enough even big Q's. A couple of things that might disuade me in this case: (a) Yeb has been 3-betting pretty wide so maybe he doesn't have as many of those combos in his range and (b) he seems to be aggressive enough that bluff-inducing lines will prove profitable.

~23:24 I think Yeb should be raising the flop almost always oop with a hand like K5o. Again, you're just taking such a big risk of letting the turn check through. As played, he should def fire the river. There are some draws that missed but the stronger ones probably fire the turn trying to fold out bw gutters or other loose peels and the board ran so dry you can get looked up light a lot.

~24:20 I open 85o.

~24:44 I open T4o.

~25:01 I defend T6o.

~25:36 With absolutely no sd value on the turn, I probably fire again with my gutter hoping to fold out gutshots and loose peels.

~25:46 I defend 54o.

~26:32 I don't like Yeb's river donk. Another spot where you're hardly ever getting value or folding out a better hand.

~26:51 I like the 3! with T8s. I suspect Druff should have been doing a little more of this.

~27:28 I disagree with Druff when he says he doesn't get called by worse if he raises the Ace. I think most flopped pairs will call down and the board offers a decent number of draws. I guess it's close since it was 3-bet pf, but we've seen Yeb's 3! range isn't necessarily especially tight or A-heavy and you have to take card removal into account.