Matt Vaughan (Poker Vlogger) - Ask Me Anything - Including Hand Analysis

[Matt Vaughan]

I'm loving seeing all the questions, guys! I was grinding super hard the last week or so, so I haven't been as active as I'd like. Hoping to be a bit quicker on the uptake going forward!

As a quick aside, I've created my first video for CardsChat, so you can keep an eye out for that. It will be published in its own thread and I'll link that here.

I'll also soon start creating videos for some of the hands that you guys post in here, so keep 'em coming!

Hi!
I retired early a couple of years ago try to play a week or so a month in tournament poker and see if I could be successful.

I really want to get started doing video blogs etc of my travels for poker including some video of the area, the people and specific hands.

I really have no clue how to start as far as the technology side goes. Any tips you can give me?

Thanks!
Chris Read

Thanks for the question, Chris! The crazy thing about making videos these days, and in particular, vlogs, is that you don't need an amazing setup to get started.

I started with my smartphone only and free iMovie software on my laptop. The key is to just get started and learn how to make better content, more so than getting a super nice or expensive setup.

I would say as long as you have a smartphone made in the last few years, just use that for filming, and get your feet wet editing with whatever free software you prefer. Then if you really enjoy it you can decide if you want to upgrade, down the line. (But I STILL use my iphone for the vast majority of my filming.)

 

[Matt Vaughan]

What would you say is the most important habit to cultivate to improve your poker game?

This might sound a little hokey, but I think self reflection is the most important habit. Constantly asking yourself what you're doing well, what you can improve, on and cultivating brutal (but fair) honesty with yourself will take you incredibly far in poker and beyond.

I think that you can do okay in poker without it - some players even very high up in the game delude themselves all the time - but you will generally cap yourself much lower than your theoretical ceiling unless you can be consistent with this.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Hello Matt

I was wondering what your starting hand range you would recommended for $3 sit and go's 9 handed at 888poker.
I struggle with the 40/20-5 and 60/30-5 levels because I think I want to steal too often.
Can you help me?

Elmer

Hi Elmer! Unfortunately I'm no sit n go expert. I'd recommend most likely asking Dara O'Kearney for a deeper answer in his AMA if you want a more technical answer.

But zooming out a bit, it's important to realize that you shouldn't be playing the exact same preflop strategy and ranges in a sit n go at all stack sizes. You may start the sit n go reasonably deep, but toward the end most players will likely be fairly short, and ICM will start to dramatically impact these moments as well.

If you're solely talking about spots where everyone at the table is 40bb+, then you might be able to "standardize" your ranges pretty well, but as soon as you start varying the stack depths for the whole table, or even individuals, things can change.

In particular though, as you get shorter, the more high cards matter and the less connectedness matter. This is because you'll be all in more often when short and that means we have to care more about the all in equity of our hands than our ability to realize equity postflop with those hands.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Hi Matt,

I was wondering what you thought about not betting the river when you're pretty sure you're ahead, so that you can go to showdown and get a look at you opponents cards?

Many people recommend value betting to pressure your opponent into either folding or paying you off, but sometimes I just want a better idea of their opening range. I've done this both in MTT's and micro-stake cash games. Is this a good strategy? Thanks

Hey ebazynski, I can totally see why it would be tempting to do this.

However you should have a good default understanding of what your typical opponents' ranges look like. If you don't, you need to study more and/or observe your player pool more effectively.

You may say "Matt, what if they are not like the typical player in my pool?" But players will fall in a distribution around the average. Most of the time, they will be close to the average. Occasionally, they will be far from the average.

In the instance where they are actually far from the average, the information itself is valuable, but you will get this information quickly, without sacrificing value in any individual hand.

In the instance where they are actually close to the average, the information itself is not that valuable (since you basically already have it), and you are likely sacrificing significant value in the present hand if you pay for this information (that isn't that worthwhile anyway).

So overall you don't want to deviate from what you believe the right play is just to "get information" rather than value. This is a really common mistake, and you'll see it in other areas too, like where people "raise for information" to get get confirmation of whether their hand is good or not. But if their opponent folds, their hand is good. If their opponent calls or raises, their hand isn't good.

You see the problem here as well I hope: they've sacrificed basically the full value of the hand here just to find out the value of their hand!

 

[fundiver199]

Hi Matt

Great to have you here as a new CC ambassador. I watched your first Youtube video and saw, that you want to do hand history reviews. This hand has already been posted to the forum, but its a fun one, and I would love to hear, what a professional player like you think about it. Its the second hand from a 16,5$ turbo PKO on pokerstars. Since its so early, everyone obviously still has the starting bounty, which is worth 3,75$. Opponent was an unknown. Never played with him before.

PokerStars, $14.70 + $1.80 - Hold'em No Limit - 15/30 (4 ante) - 9 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat - https://www.cardschat.com/hand-converter.php

UTG: 4,711 (157 bb)
UTG+1 (Hero): 4,996 (167 bb)
MP: 4,996 (167 bb)
MP+1: 5,000 (167 bb)
LP: 5,358 (179 bb)
CO: 4,996 (167 bb)
BU: 4,981 (166 bb)
SB: 4,966 (166 bb)
BB: 4,996 (167 bb)

Pre-Flop: (81) Hero is UTG+1 with A♠ 8♠
1 fold, Hero raises to 90, 6 players fold, BB calls 60

Flop: (231) 9♠ J♠ A♥ (2 players)
BB bets 116, Hero calls 116

Turn: (463) T♦ (2 players)
BB bets 232, Hero calls 232

River: (927) T♠ (2 players)
BB bets 4,554 (all-in), Hero calls 4,554 (all-in)

Total pot: 10,035

Showdown:
BB shows T♣ Q♣ (three of a kind, Tens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 44%, Flop: 19%, Turn: 16%, River: 0%)

UTG+1 (Hero) shows A♠ 8♠ (a flush, Ace high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 56%, Flop: 81%, Turn: 84%, River: 100%)

UTG+1 (Hero) wins 10,035

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Hey guys, thanks for throwing those hand questions into the mix as well! I plan to get to those very soon, and potentially make one or more of the responses into a video, but in the meantime, enjoy this thread for the video I made going more in-depth on the question from Dallam!

Do Poker Sites Favor Players from Under-Represented Countries? (VIDEO)

 

[fundiver199]

ut in the meantime, enjoy this thread for the video I made going more in-depth on the question from Dallam!

I think, you make some very important points about confirmation bias in that video. Confirmation bias can make people believe in theories like "certain countries get favoured" or "the big stack get favoured", which is bad enough already. But it can also lead to theories like "my AK always lose", which can then make people afraid to play AK the way, they know, the hand should be played. Or outside of poker it could be "my relationships never last", which can then become a self fulfilling profecy. Looking forward to more great videos from you

 

[jmg199]

I feel like it'd be beneficial to get a professional's opinion on my aggression level in this situation. Second biggest stack with seven left in a 9 person sit & go.
Hopefully all the information you would need is included in these 2 screenshots as I didn't want to post a whole set of pics. I can post the hand information in a different format if that would be beneficial.
They initially raised 2 BB's preflop which lead to me as the SB calling along with Big Blind
After the flop, I did a full pot donk bet which the BB folded to and the original raiser reraised into me.

Pushed all-in after the reraise and they called.
I was rather confident when both of my cards paired up with the flop, and I bet heavy to knock them off of a straight draw. Them having the ace seemed highly likely to me and I figured they may have also paired up with the Jack or Queen.
I sort of discounted the possibility of them flopping right into the straight.

 

[Vilgeoforc]

Hello. Such situation. MTT tournament, middle stage. I have 10 big blinds, button position. The highjack player also plays all-in with 20 big blinds. With what percentage of hands should I call this player's shove if he is known to shove every second hand (50%)?

 

[Debi]

What are your plans for the wsop - how many events will you be playing? Are you going to participate in any other events during that time?

 

[Tammy]

Hey Matt! I have some questions that we didn't get a chance to ask in the podcast, so will drop some in here. Let's start with this one:

From CRStals:

Your biggest live score in your career occurred this year at the Venetian DeepStack $1100 back in June. What was different in this tournament (besides winning it) versus other deep runs you had that you feel contributed to your victory?

 

[Tammy]

If you guys haven't seen Matt's episode of our CardsChat Poker Podcast, check it out!

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Hey Matt! I have some questions that we didn't get a chance to ask in the podcast, so will drop some in here. Let's start with this one:

From CRStals:

Your biggest live score in your career occurred this year at the Venetian DeepStack $1100 back in June. What was different in this tournament (besides winning it) versus other deep runs you had that you feel contributed to your victory?

Fun question! This tournament (and the whole series I played this summer) was very different from previous ones in the sense that I'd done TONS of work on my game leading up to it, and more than juts study, I'd played something like 1,000 - 1,500 online tournaments during lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.

This primed me to be a lot quicker on automatic line spots, pick better sizings, and overall allowed me to save cognition for tougher spots. I still made mistakes, but on average they were smaller mistakes and further apart than normal. Plus my standard of what constitutes a "mistake" had shifted a lot closer to better play. Meaning even these "mistakes" I was making weren't as bad as in the past.

Basically lots of study and lots of volume leading into that event gave me a lot more confidence, skill, and ability to execute.

 

[Tammy]

Fun question! This tournament (and the whole series I played this summer) was very different from previous ones in the sense that I'd done TONS of work on my game leading up to it, and more than juts study, I'd played something like 1,000 - 1,500 online tournaments during lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.

This primed me to be a lot quicker on automatic line spots, pick better sizings, and overall allowed me to save cognition for tougher spots. I still made mistakes, but on average they were smaller mistakes and further apart than normal. Plus my standard of what constitutes a "mistake" had shifted a lot closer to better play. Meaning even these "mistakes" I was making weren't as bad as in the past.

Basically lots of study and lots of volume leading into that event gave me a lot more confidence, skill, and ability to execute.

Hard work and perseverance pay off! Love it.

Here's another question for you:
"You are an active vlogger - what do you think is the biggest reason that you have become such a popular personality through your videos? "

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Here's another question for you:
"You are an active vlogger - what do you think is the biggest reason that you have become such a popular personality through your videos? "

Haha awww shucks. You guys are gonna make me blush.

But I think in general I had a couple advantages. I got into the poker vlog space well before most people so I had "first mover advantage." I got to ride the wave of the space growing bigger.

And then on top of that I was one of the first vloggers in the space to actually spend more time on the hand analysis. That's what mostly drew people in to me and helped me build an audience.

Also just wanna let you guys know I've actually recorded 3 breakdowns for the 3 hands that were posted above. I apologize for the delay on that, but I encountered technical problems recording them while traveling. BUT all three are recorded now and will probably be dripped out as content on the YouTube channel in the coming weeks! Thanks for your patience

 

[fundiver199]

Hey Matt , I will post a hand for analysis , it's about a $1.10 regular speed on ACR , I don't know if you like the small buy ins because people random clicking a lot there(and me) but I guess there is some ICM considerations etc. We are at the final table and we are facing a river lead shove for our tournament life.

Preflop: IMHO this OR is on the wider side but the line up wasn't super aggressive.
Flop: Standard cbet with the range advantage , this time I made it bigger in order to build the pot with this beautiful flop // I decided to just call his check raise , I think I don't have any reason to jam here
Turn:A little scary card plus I wanted to pot control and decide on the river
River: Seriously I don't know. I won't try to talk about value/bluff combos because I am not that good.


Yatahay Network - 12000/24000 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 30.96 BB
SB: 9.98 BB
BB: 34.66 BB
Hero (UTG): 32.42 BB
UTG+1: 23.36 BB
MP: 19.39 BB
MP+1: 59.59 BB
CO: 19.22 BB

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has J♦ Q♦

Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1 BB

Flop: (5.5 BB, 2 players) 6♦ T♦ Q♥
BB checks, Hero bets 3.63 BB, BB raises to 10.01 BB, Hero calls 6.38 BB

Turn: (25.52 BB, 2 players) A♠
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (25.52 BB, 2 players) J♠
BB bets 22.53 BB and is all-in, Hero ?

You commented in the past again in a Hand Analysis question of mine and I really appreciate your thoughts and your time. Hope you find interesting this spot as well!

Thanks a lot!

Matt analysed this hand on Youtube now:

 

[akmost]

Matt analysed this hand on Youtube now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXOsGfdR2UI

Thanks for the heads up @fundiver199!

Here is the complete action for my posted hand , Matt told at the end of the video that he was curious about the opponent's holding!

CardsChat Poker Hands Converter


Thanks again!

 

[fundiver199]

Thanks for the heads up @fundiver199!

Here is the complete action for my posted hand , Matt told at the end of the video that he was curious about the opponent's holding!

CardsChat Poker Hands Converter

Thanks again!

So he was basically totally out of line check-raising you on the flop with just an overcard and some backdoors. I think, this validates Matts preference for getting it in on the flop, which would also be my preference. If he folds a hand like this to a flop jam, thats a fine outcome, because even just the overcard gives him decent equity, so you gain protection and avoid variance. It also discourage him from check-raising you light in the future. And if he has a hand like TT or QT, and you fail to improve, then it was just your turn to die. I would much rather go out of the tournament after getting it in with 40-45% equity on the flop rather than allowing him to get there with a hand like this and then pay him off on the river.

 

[akmost]

So he was basically totally out of line check-raising you on the flop with just an overcard and some backdoors. I think, this validates Matts preference for getting it in on the flop, which would also be my preference. If he folds a hand like this to a flop jam, thats a fine outcome, because even just the overcard gives him decent equity, so you gain protection and avoid variance. It also discourage him from check-raising you light in the future. And if he has a hand like TT or QT, and you fail to improve, then it was just your turn to die. I would much rather go out of the tournament after getting it in with 40-45% equity on the flop rather than allowing him to get there with a hand like this and then pay him off on the river.

I couldn't agree more with this ^ indeed , imagine it was the very first hand of the final table by open raising in the wider side UTG I was testing the waters of the line up at the FT . I wanted to play a solid pre flop game but also kinda have the ''control'' by being aggerssive but nothing of that happened. LOL
I took all my time bank and I made the call , the A on the turn was a huge damage for the action IMHO.

On the other side ok I do care about the outcome - I lost - but a review of my hand in a video by a pro? I love CardsChat , hope many other members benefit from those videos!

 

[LetterRip]

For final table ICM - what are the most important stack combinations/permutations to study? (Ie if 4 players and a distribution of 5/10/10/30 BB some orders of players might be more important than others).

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Glad you enjoyed the video guys! Yeah I'm of course not surprised to see a K - just an unfortunate spot. Results aside, I still like jamming flop, and I think his hand choice for check raising is actually ok since he blocks so many of your auto continues like straight draws, flush draws, KQ, etc.

For final table ICM - what are the most important stack combinations/permutations to study? (Ie if 4 players and a distribution of 5/10/10/30 BB some orders of players might be more important than others).

So first and foremost I would say study the spots that will have the most extreme divergence from chipEV. This will occur most when there are some hyper short stacks that look to ladder, but don't actually have a lot of ICM pressure on them, and some mid stacks that must, at all costs, outlast the short stacks.

I would say more so than specific orders of stack sizes, it's more important to study the incentives of each player/stack first, and then understand how these will interact with each other and the spots that will arise.

For example, in your 5/10/10/30 scenario, if the 30bb stack acts first, you have 10bb and are NEXT to act, you will need to be excessively tight because the 5bb stack can easily collide with the 30bb stack - they are the two with the least ICM pressure on them. Being at risk there can be disastrous.

Meanwhile in hands where the 5bb stack has already folded, you have zero chance of collision in this hand, so you can't be QUITE as tight.

Driving to the point of your question, I think one of the best ways to study ICM though is to actually permutate the situation wherever possible. Tweak starting stacks, tweak assumed ranges, etc. Great question!

 

[Matt Vaughan]

I feel like it'd be beneficial to get a professional's opinion on my aggression level in this situation. Second biggest stack with seven left in a 9 person sit & go.
Hopefully all the information you would need is included in these 2 screenshots as I didn't want to post a whole set of pics. I can post the hand information in a different format if that would be beneficial.
They initially raised 2 BB's preflop which lead to me as the SB calling along with Big Blind
After the flop, I did a full pot donk bet which the BB folded to and the original raiser reraised into me.

Pushed all-in after the reraise and they called.
I was rather confident when both of my cards paired up with the flop, and I bet heavy to knock them off of a straight draw. Them having the ace seemed highly likely to me and I figured they may have also paired up with the Jack or Queen.
I sort of discounted the possibility of them flopping right into the straight.

It's really hard to analyze hands without all the information like stack sizes, blinds, bet sizes, etc. I missed your post until now - something about how CC pulled me to the latest posts instead of my first unread ones - so sorry about that.

If you want to post the actual hand history that would be much easier for the future!

 

[fundiver199]

Do you like a call here late in a tournament with ICM considerations.

Ignition Hand #4374599752: HOLDEM Tournament #M-20210824193623 TBL#13, Turbo- Level 29 (12500/25000) [MVS] - 2021-08-24 23:11:17 UTC
Table Info: Version: 1, Type: MVS, Stakes: 12,500-25,000, Table: 000303B2-0, Buyin: $30+$3, TableType: MTT

Seat 140: Big Blind [ME] (699,645 in chips)
Seat 205: Dealer (635,764 in chips)
Seat 211: Small Blind (794,591 in chips)
Big Blind [ME] : Ante chip 2,500
Dealer : Ante chip 2,500
Small Blind : Ante chip 2,500
Small Blind : Small Blind 12,500
Big Blind [ME] : Big Blind 25,000

*** HOLE CARDS ***
HERO [ME] : Card dealt to a spot [Ah Qd]
Small Blind : Card dealt to a spot (XX)
Dealer : Calls 25,000
Small Blind : Calls 12,500
Big Blind [ME] : Raises 105,000 to 130,000
Dealer : Calls 105,000
Small Blind : All-in(raise) 767,091 to 792,091
HERO [ME] ?

Please note I do not have player tendencies much as this is a random pool on ignition. I have not seen this limp rereaise before from villain and I presume the button calling range to be weak. with 260 dead already from me and button I think this spot is close. However, I am not well versed in ICM perhaps this a punt due to that. It feels as if I am near the top of my range in this example and if I were to fold am I really only calling this type of line with AK JJ+? They payouts were roughly 600, 820, 1.1k . Villain has played relatively well up to this point with good aggressive play.

Matt made a video about this hand now:

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Side note, when you guys request hands to be reviewed, if you've already put them into the CardsChat replayer, please include a link to that so I can use it in the video.

It looks a lot nicer than the text on the screen! I won't look at spoiler until after I actually review the hand!

 

[Tammy]

Side note, when you guys request hands to be reviewed, if you've already put them into the CardsChat replayer, please include a link to that so I can use it in the video.

It looks a lot nicer than the text on the screen! I won't look at spoiler until after I actually review the hand!

This! It would be cool to watch the hand play out street by street.

Thanks for posting the newest hand review, fundiver! There is a new one coming soon.