never be afraid to make a play if you think it shows long-run positive expectation when I was learning poker I saw a lot of crazy players at high stakes firing three bets into a tough opponent with nothing check raising with bottom pair just some real wild stuff but these weren't amateurs making plays they were pros and there was a method to their madness well I was able to learn why sometimes it is correct about multiple times to being all-in with nothing I still didn't have the balls to go ahead and make those plays there's a reason you need to have a large bankroll to play poker sometimes the proper play is extremely risky and sometimes things backfire you need the cushion to absorb the hit so without further ramblings I introduce barrel theory in poker we will have squadoosh more often than we have a real hand bluffing is a necessary tool in a winning players arsenal however I want to stress small Bluffs are usually enough to get the job done in fact betting 3/4 of the pot on the flop turn and River is stronger and more likely to succeed than just over betting all-in on the flop where you know it seems kind of fishy and also you only have one chance to get your opponent to fold rather than three typically I don't advocate going for big Bluffs but as you move up limits there's no denying that this skill must be learned so how do we decide when it's right to go for the big Bluff well I think rather than asking when it's right to go for the big bluff the correct question to ask is who should we try to run the big bluff on as you already know from the playing the player section opponents come in many different types and each player in a category is still unique in their own way some nits play different than other nits in certain spots some dogs play different than other dogs etc but as a general rule when it comes to barreling by which I mean firing Bluffs I found that most players in their respective categories are similar in how they will fire with nothing and how many barrels they will call to keep you honest with a weak hand by which I mean calling without much of a hand just because they expect you have nothing and they're not going to let you just bet and make them fold every time you guys see a flop together so for the numbers I will give if an opponent calls one more barrel than what I have posted as willing to call then your opponent probably has a big hand he is not going to fold to another bet and you should just quit the bluff once they've called more than the threshold I hate giving up pots as much as the next player but you got it except that once the threshold has been met firing any more barrels is just burning money so we're going to go look at how many bullets each opponent type is capable of firing nits you know typically Nets have a one-and-done policy they will fire one continuation bet on the flop and if called they will shut down unless they have the goods so if they bet more than once they've probably got the hand tags will fire capable of firing two barrels these guys exercise pot control so often they will that to streets for value just as they would bet to streets as a bluff but 90% of the time that a tight aggressive player puts in that third barrel they've got the nuts especially if it's like a big over bet it's like never a bluff from a tight aggressive player loose aggressives they're crazy or capable of anything if you're thinking about calling their bats be prepared to call three of them because they fire fire and fire away whether they've got it or not they just they just don't stop and they don't just do it as a spew they're quite calculated and when they barrel bud they can fire all three streets with nothing a fish in a week tight we're going to do together no barrels that's because these guys are so passive that they just they'll only bet when they have something the only time these guys Bluff like ever is if there's like a draw on the board and you've bet the flop and they called most likely with the draw and you bet the turn and again they called most likely with the draw if you check to them on the river when the draw missed this is the one time that a fish real weak type player will try to bluff because they know that if they check there's no way they're going to win the pot and you know they just assume that your check means weakness even though you're just checking because you want them to Bluff and get some value from there nothing hand that you know they wouldn't call about with and finally we've got dunks not really too much to say dunks are more wild than legs I have infinite barrels posted because you just never know what these guys are going to do dunks are often easy money but because of the fact that they're willing to fire so many barrels the variance of playing against a donk is extremely high my one piece of advice when dealing with dunks because they love to just that and get it in with crap and sometimes get lucky if you get bad beat by one of these guys don't tilt because you should just be aware that that money is going to come back it's just a matter of time I almost never see a donk quit a game with more than zero dollars because they always just end up losing it eventually so don't start playing bad just because they suck out on you just just know the money's coming back so now we're going to look at how many bullets our villain is capable of calling to keep us honest for each player type so for knits I got zero because knits don't really call with nothing ever if they call your bed like your continuation bet they have at least a mediocre hand and you should probably abandon ship after the first bluff attempt fails unless you improve to something strong on the turn tight aggressives I got one barrel tight addresses like to keep you honest much similar to the knits one-and-done policy for betting tags have a call one time policy you know that was you always hear Antonio Spaniard saying all right call one time call one time the idea is they just want to call because the Collier flop at because they know that a lot of people like to Bluff the flop and they just want to see what you'll do on the turn so if you fire the turn they're probably gonna believe you have the hand because they're only going to call you once with nothing and because but if you check the product wrought steel it's so because of this you're going to have to mix in firing that second barrel sometimes to keep them honest with you as well sometimes you might want to check a good hand on the turn because you can expect that the tag is going to try to steal the pot from you when you show weakness after you fired your one barrel loose aggressives we've got three barrels this is because if a leg picks up a reed they're not going anywhere I generally try not to Bluff them because once I fire the first shell the second and third barrel are required a high percentage of the time you can't expect these guys to just give up to a simple bluff so if you're going to try to fight for that pot be prepared to fire away this is why I try not to get involved too much with loose aggressives because you know they play well and they're willing to make some big columns so try to avoid them but know that if you do get into a battle with them it's probably going to take all three shells to get them off their hand and sometimes that won't even work either so for fish I've got that they will call down three or four barrels with like any pair because they're just just bad players who just like to call their favorite thing in life so bluffing them is dumb just only bet against a fish for value there's like no reason to try to bluff them just just don't do it week tight similar to the nits and the tags they might call you light like one time but it's probably because they think they have the best hand these guys love to fold and usually the first metal get it done and if not the second barrel will definitely work unless they've picked up something really really strong and finally donks I've got a wide range how many bullets they're capable of calling because it depends on the donk donk scum in all different shapes and sizes and forms and whatever you just got to remember they're unpredictable I can't really make a generalization on this one you just got to kind of observe what kind of donk you're playing and you know get get some experience with them and see if he does ever folder if he's always calling down all the way to the end and adjust your play accordingly so just after looking at this stuff you might think that if we got a player who's only capable of calling one shell like a tight aggressive that it would make sense that we should always double barrel against them but that's that's not true because a lot of time they call the first barrel they're still going to have a hand in the case where we know they're only capable of firing the one shell which is more interesting example we think that all we have to do is always call that continuation bat and we can always steal the pot on the turn if they check like I said the tight aggressives try to do in theory it makes sense but if your opponent is a good player you have to give them credit most players will notice repetitive behavior and adjust to it if they see you always try in the same play they're going to employ a counter measure so it's not going to work as a beginner the the point of this lesson is just to simply make you aware of this stuff and how it applies to play when you get more experienced and move up stakes you'll learn to understand it how it works and apply it properly for now only playing the nuts is the safest way to make money there's no need to try risky plays to win faster don't try to force the action just let the game come to you just remember with some of the player types if you're planning to call a bet be sure that you are aware of the potential future bets to come especially out of position like calling a loose aggressive once to keep them honest and folding to a later bet that we expected because we know that they're capable of firing three barrels is a waste of money if you aren't prepared to call down as many barrels as they're prepared to fire at you just simply save your money fold to the first bet before the pot gets big you know low risk low variance we don't need to fight over every pot we just win our fair share and that's no problem when we're playing ultra tight and usually have the best hand anyway I hope you guys found this lesson interesting this Barrel theory was a concept I kind of formulated on my own I've never seen it anywhere else so I hope you guys get as much value using the theories as I did developing them Thanks