I'm just cross-posting this from another thread in-case you guys don't go into the one I replied with this.

Basically, I am talking in the thread about the differences between recording live play video's and using a hand history replayer.... but I felt that I should put this hand up as it is real interesting and could very well give you some good insight.

"Let me take for example a private coaching session I did yesterday. We were looking at HU sngs, and I encountered a very interesting hand during live play. Blinds were 15/30 and we were both around starting stack of $1500.

The general gist of it was that I 3 bet to 270 after the button open raised to 90.

The flop came J 8 5 with 2 hearts, and I checked. The button checked back.

The turn came 4h and I checked again. The button made a bet of 190 and obviously with my nut flush draw getting such good odds I called.

The river bought a non heart 8 and I checked. The button bet 420 into and 880 pot and I tanked and called. He showed KQ with the Kh.

During the hand, I kind of semi explained my reasoning to the student, yet due to timebank etc, I couldn't really disect the hand with him. I basically made the point that continuation betting on this board isn't great because of the texture. I said that I was just wanting to get to showdown as cheaply as possible and kind of explained my reasoning for the river call.

After the match had finished, I loaded the replay of the hand up and went through it from start to finish.

I obviously check the flop because of board texture, but when he checks behind, we can take from his range a number of hands. He was a solid enough player and this was a $55 buy in so it is extremely unlikely he is slowplaying JJ, 88 or 55 on this board. The same goes with random J hands such as AJ-J8

Along with these hands, I felt safe to take away from his range anything lower than J8 and A8 downwards along with random 5 hands.

Also, I felt I could take away hands containing 2 hearts, 910 or 67. Again, I felt it highly unlikely he call with these preflop (with the exception of hands such as KhQh which would have bet the flop) or even if he did I thought he would be the flop. Why? Well he knows I am a solid player who with a decent hand, ie. overpair or pair of jacks or even flush draws etc, I would be the flop.

So we then come to the turn 4h. Why bet here? The only hand I actually see betting at this point is pocket 4s. Again, could be unlikely he called the 3b with 44, as generally calling 3bs with small pp's vs an opponent who isn't 3 betting way too much can be a mistake 50bbs deep as you are pretty much set mining. Obviously we are still calling with our nut flush draw getting great odds.

The river 8 meant nothing really. As we have said already, not many 8X hands are in his range. I did actually say to my student on the turn that the Khx was a possibility.

I was also asked why I wasn't considering other pocket pairs. And I explained like this -

Pocket 6s upwards in this situation, I think, shove pre flop a lot of the time. Pocket 5s downwards I think fold more often than not.

Even still, we have discounted anything above 10s really as they would likely bet the scary flop.

Any other pair, on this type of board, played by a thinking player, will be just happy enough to get to showdown.


So you should be able to see the difference here. Even though you can't see it in video format, you can see the difference between how I could explain it live, and how I can thoroughly explain it through a replayer."

Amazing.Lots to think about in this game Frank