3 interesting hands from Bungakat and Spraggy study session

Twitch poker superstar Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg isn’t one to rest on his laurels as one of the best streamers we have in the game. He’s also working hard to ensure his poker game is as good as it can be, with the help of the BBZ team.

The proof is in the pudding. Spraggy’s recent results include a win in the $530 Bounty Builder High Roller for $21,543, a runner-up finish in a SCOOP $1K for $42,295, and plenty of other deep runs in big buy-in events.

BBZ recently released a study session on YouTube between Spraggy and BBZ coach Jargo “bungakat” Alaväli in which they go through one of Spraggy’s hand histories from a $109 Turbo event.

Here, we’ve picked out three interesting hands from varying positions and stages of the tournament to break down.

SUPER EARLY STAGES

The first hand we’re going to look at is one of the very first that Spraggy plays in the tournament.

He is dealt A♦6♠ in the small blind and when action folds to the player on the button, they opt to limp off an 81 big blind stack.

“Whenever people are limping, it’s typically a weak range,” says bungakat. “A lot of people are giving up a lot post-flop as well. So I like to isolate here quite wide, especially against weaker players, because I want to get this pot heads-up rather than let the big blind in.”

Bungakat suggests raising to 4x, but in the hand, Spraggy elects to complete with 73 big blinds and the big blind checks their option.

The flop comes 9♦A♥3♦, giving Spraggy top pair. It checks though and turn is the 2♦ which now gives Spraggy the nut flush draw.

“You need to start betting now, but I guess checking sometimes is fine,” says bungakat. Spraggy did check and the big blind led for 3 big blinds off a 67 big blind stack. The button then clicks it back with a raise to 6x.

With top pair, you might be tempted to raise in this spot, but with such a strong draw to go along with it, it would be painful to put in a 4-bet and then face a chunky 5-bet. Instead, it’s better to try and realise your equity. Quite simply, “Just call”, as bungakat says.

Spraggy does, as does the big blind, and the river is the 5♠. Both check to the button who fires again for 8x. “This is a spot where if he understands you still have flushes, I don’t mind turning a pair of aces into a bluff here,” says bungakat. “It’s hard to rep a flush here, but you have the A♦ blocker. As he’s limping and likely a weaker player, there’s probably zero chance he’s ever folding a flush.”

Spraggy agrees. “Right, I feel like a limp at this stack depth is not a constructed limping range strategy choice but just a guy who wants to see a lot of flops, so once a player like that min-raises the turn I have zero interest in trying to bluff them,” he says.

“Yeah, you don’t want to raise into somebody’s range that doesn’t have bluffs here,” agrees bungakat. Spraggy lets his hand go. Onto the next one.

PLAYING MEDIUM PAIRS ON THE BUTTON

In this hand, Spraggy is in the big blind with 78 bigs and 9♥9♠. The table is seven-handed and the lojack opens to 2x off a 29-big-blind stack. It folds to Spraggy and he makes the call.

“Jamming is fine, but I think 3-betting and calling off is fine as well,” advises bungakat. The solver shows pocket nines are mixing between 3-betting and shoving, and according to bungakat, calling is a little too weak with such a strong hand considering stack sizes.

The flop falls 8♥6♦A♣ and when Spraggy checks the villain c-bets for 2x. Both agree that calling is standard.

That’s what Spraggy does, taking them to the T♠ turn. The villain fires again for 4.69 into a pot of 9.38 and facing a double barrel, Spraggy lets it go,

“You can’t just fold now,” says bungakat. “With the gutshot, you have to defend here.”

You can make an argument that people aren’t finding broadway bluffs here and that his range is way too ace heavy, so you can start overfolding here,” says bungakat. “What’s his bluffing range? He’s not going to value bet 10-x here, but his bluffs need to be Q9-suited, J9-suited, and you’re blocking both. Some people might have 97, but other than that it’s going to be QJ, KQ, KJ, and K9. Most of those hands are suited. People don’t really continue barreling king-highs here, and if they don’t barrel king-highs, the frequency of bluffing QJ, for example, will go up.”

The problem is there are only 16 combos of that and he has a lot of aces still, so although bungakat is fine with a fold, he thinks you can still defend.

In the villain’s shoes on this board, Spraggy admits that with QJ, KQ, and KJ, he’s almost always betting the turn. Is that a mistake?

“Yeah, QJ is going to be problematic to bet the turn at a high frequency because you have a gutshot and eight outs, so what are you doing if the big blind jams? You’re going to lose all that equity. So I’d say QJ will mix into the checking range around 50%. I don’t mind betting bigger here if the big blind is passive and doesn’t have many jams.”

PLAYING PAIRS IN THE SMALL BLIND

In this hand, the cutoff makes it 2.2x off 54 big blinds and it folds to Spraggy in the small blind with 6♥6♣ and 47 big blinds. The big blind is short with just 15.5 big blinds.

“I’m ripping at 40 big blinds but I’m not sure about 50,” says Spraggy. Bungakat checks the BBZ charts and confirms that 50 big blinds are too much to shove with this hand.

“One thing to understand is that the EV between calling and 3-betting is going to be really close,” says bungakat. “People get so happy that the solver shows they can shove a hand like this, but the way I’m thinking about is: is this guy out of line? He’s supposed to open 36% from the cutoff, but I’m not sure he gets to open this much because of the short stack in the big blind.”

Solvers show that pocket sixes and pocket sevens are 3-betting at some frequency at both 40 and 50 big blinds, so with the short stack behind him, bungakat doesn’t mind going for a high-frequency 3-bet in this spot.

In the hand, Spraggy called and the big blind folded. The flop fell Q♠7♦7♥. Bungakat recommends check-calling, but that’s not an option as the cutoff checks it back.

The turn is the 2♠ and bungakat is indifferent between leading and checking. “I don’t think it matters,” he says. “Something I don’t see enough of in databases is probing (i.e. leading) on the turn.”

He then asks Spraggy if he believes the villain is ever checking back the flop if he has Q-x. “I’d imagine there’s maybe some checking back with some weaker Q-x,” says Spraggy. “For me, a check-back here is typically eights through jacks and a whole block of A-x, and I’m doing pretty well probing the turn against A-x hands.”

Bungakat responds with another question. Say Spraggy bet small on the turn and then bet small again on the river. What does his river calling range look like?

“He probably folds a lot of ace-highs and then just calls the pairs he checks back some of the time,” Spraggy answers. But according to bungakat, that’s over-folding.

“If you’re betting 2x into a 6x pot on the turn and then 3x into a 10x pot on the river when it comes a blank or a small card, people are probably still going to call AK, AJ, maybe even some A10, and people will also have deuces through fours that will call.

“If he has eights through jacks, it’s likely he’s going to bet either the turn or the river. But if he’s overfolding all A-x on the river when you bet small twice, you should probably double barrel, giving up on a river king or jack.”

In the actual hand, the turn checked through and the 6♦ landed on the river to give Spraggy a full house: sixes full of sevens. He leads 4.53x into 6.12x and the cutoff calls. Spraggy takes it down.

“Do you bet bigger here because he’s always calling ace-high?” asks Spraggy.

“First of all, my thinking is: how likely is he to bet eights through jacks here?” bungakat replies. “If he’s value betting those hands I want to go for a check-raise. But another question is, are you going to get value from that range? In higher stakes games I don’t mind putting it into my check-raising range, but against these guys, I’m probably just going to pot it and say deal with it.”