Charlie Carrel: Let's look at Rampage. This is the one that everybody's been waiting for, and this is the one that I generally don’t know anything about. I've just heard things—I've heard that he lends out money too easily. I've got my own story, which I'll share at some point in the video, about me getting scammed kind of recently as well.
I’ve heard that he’s punting, but I need to see it for myself. Sometimes it's intelligent punts, and I don't trust other people (generally) to tell me what's good and what's not.
Hand #1: Rampage vs Matt Berkey
So he’s buying in for $100,000 against Phil Ivey. I assume this is going to be a time he tries to play well.
Okay, so they’re playing a version of Squid Game. Funny story: I played Squid Game for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It’s an amazing game. Essentially, it's a stand-up game or a nit game, and I was coaching Squid Game for like months before that because I coach people in the super high stakes private game scene— that's kind of my specialty these days.
Rampage: "We need to win or else I owe the table $4,500. So there’s a $400 straddle. The hijack calls, the cutoff calls, the button calls, the small blind calls, and I call with in the big blind since I'm supposed to see a lot of hands."
"We’re going to go six ways to a flop of with two spades.
Action checks to me, and I think a raise here for protection makes sense. Honestly, it would just be great to win the pot right now with a , but I might hear some resistance if this opponent has me beat. I decide to raise it up to $4,000.
Then, Berkey in the hijack suddenly wakes up and three-bets me to $10,000."
This is where it gets a little scary. This is where I would hope that the video is about to say, “And we’re on to the next hand,” because anything else would be abysmal. This is probably going to be a punt.
"God, man, was he really in the weeds the whole time with a ? He’s known to be super aggressive."
Wait, what do you mean in the weeds? He limped pre-flop and then just three-bet the flop? This isn't in the weeds. It's not like he was sitting there like a Vietnam army sergeant for four days straight in camouflage gear, being like, “Oh, we’ll get him one day.” He literally just played a normal hand. He can have anything here; he can have King-Ten, King-Jack, King-Nine, whatever.
"I’ve just have no idea how crazy people are going to be to overplay their hands, and I’m just confused with the introduction of a brand new version of poker I’m not familiar with. Starting with $30,000, I just have to 4-bet jam my entire stack."
I've chosen a great video to start with, guys. I mean, we can already rate the hand out of 10. The hands over, like, we know what happens. We know that Berkey is going to be like, "Call," and Rampage is drawing pretty much dead.
This is so bad. Wow, against Berkey as well! It’s not like he’s doing this against someone else; he’s like, "I’m gambling to give him action!" Wow, that’s bad. What are you doing, Rampage?
Oh, he's lucky Berkey doesn’t have a boat when he three-bets the flop. What’s going on? Rampage said, “Hey, bro, I've got a King,” and Berky's like, “Doesn’t matter to me, I’m raising.” What’s he going to be doing this with? He’s barely going to be doing it with a flush—probably not even with a flush. It’s literally only a King or a boat. This is burning $24,000!
Jesus, I can see why you guys wanted me to watch this; this is outrageous!
"Grinding low stakes and then losing $30,000 within minutes of sitting down is truly horrendous. Honestly, I wanted to leave immediately when this happened. I'm uncomfortable playing a new game I barely know the rules to. I thought about leaving within 30 minutes, but that would be in poor taste."
Hand #2: Rampage vs Matt Berkey
"A bunch of people limp, and I decide to raise it up to $3,000 on the button with . Finally, a premium hand that I can play normally and hopefully get this monkey off my back about this squid game. Berkey, who’s been tearing it up at the table at this point, makes the call.
And we’ve got some action! We’re going to a flop of with two diamonds. My opponent, Berkey, leads out for $900."
Wow! That’s kind of a sexy lead by Berkey. I don’t know how Berkey plays; I thought he was more GTO than this. The $900 lead in my head, when somebody does this, they never have a 10. They never, never have a 10!
If somebody good did this, I’d be like, “Okay, there’s probably some shenanigans going on here.” It tells me they probably aren’t folding. People don’t usually do this and fold to a raise. In low-stakes games, when people lead out on these kinds of boards, they’re usually just bluffing if it’s heads-up.
"I find this to be super weird, but with my hand, I’m happy to make the call for this price, hoping to either improve or probably expect to have the best hand at some frequency. So we see the turn, which is the . Berkey now puts in a check, putting the option on me. With my hand, no option besides a check makes a lot of sense."
I’m not a big fan of this; I think if Berkey's going to do this, he probably just has to go for it on the turn. Rampage is just going to have a high so often. He can still have Queen-Jack and things like that, but he’s probably just going to raise the flop with those hands a decent amount. So yeah, I don’t like this from Berkey.
"I also have to understand that when I check here, Berkey will also realize that I might not have too strong of a hand and just bet massive on the river. But we’ll face that decision if it comes back to it. I check back with my Ace-Queen, I've got some showdown value. I think betting doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Now the river comes, and it’s a ."
Interestingly enough, Berkey now knows what Rampage has; he knows he has a high. There’s almost zero doubt in his head, so now he gets to play perfectly against Rampage on the river.
"Let’s see if Berkey—oh my God, yes. He does exactly what I was afraid of."
Yeah, that’s what I would do as well. Even worse, a very creative line from Berkey.
I'm going to give this like a 9 out of 10. Even though I disagree with the turn check, the fact that he's now doing this on the river makes more sense. He’s taking this line, maybe even a 10 out of 10, honestly. It's just a very creative non-GTO line. I’m really surprised by this from Berkey; I thought he was a lot more balanced. I haven’t really seen him play too much, to be fair. Rampage has played this completely normally so far, so everyone’s doing good, but this is a very specific play against Rampage.
If someone’s going to make this a hero call and feel like they don’t want to be bullied, it’s going to be Rampage.
Oh, he did it in the dark? Alright, that’s feel play. Damn, Berky, that’s wild. So what Berky’s doing here—sorry to, you know, take a peek behind the curtain—sorry about this, Berky. He’s trying to look mildly suspicious and a little bit suspect without overdoing it. So watch his body language here; he’s going to try to look confidently fake and subconsciously nervous.
The quick eye movements try to look a little sneaky. Very, very good anti-lives, fake life tells—reverse life tells.
"So I end up just folding with the intention of hoping to play more."
I like the play from Berkey; it's very creative, very, very creative. I think, you know, results-wise, he could have gotten more, but whatever hands survive. Luckily, it was just the right decision. Good job, Rampage; you played the normal hands. I’ll give that hand from Rampage a good 8 out of 10.
Hand #3: Rampage vs Matt Berkey (Again)
"A couple limpers. Berkey in the cutoff raises to $5,000. Here’s the crazy thing about the dynamics: because of the Squid Game and how hot Berkey's been running, he could win an extra $22,000 just by winning this specific hand."
Oh.... that really sucks. Picking up here is the nuts—like the absolute nuts.
If it’s this part of the Squid Game, if he gets a certain amount of hand wins within a certain timeframe, he gets ridiculous amounts of money. —you probably just have to shove, by the way, because Berkey's going to be doing this with anything.
Whatever Rampage does here, probably calling is fine, and probably shoving is fine.
"Action folds to me, and I don’t know what to do. How incentivized am I to block Berkey from winning this $22,000?"
It’s not so much about blocking him; it’s the fact that Berkey's going to be doing this with like, King-Deuce offsuit, because he needs to win this hand.
"So I’ve got to do something. I don’t really win anything extra on top, but is good enough here versus whatever he could be raising with? I mean, it seems like it’s a pretty decent marginal strong hand. King is good to have; it could be ahead of a lot of the Queen-highs and Jack-highs and could be flipping with some pocket pairs."
Live Commentator: "But no, Rampage... justifiably, not believing that Matt Berkey."
No, actually, I think he played this well. This might look stupid, but I think he played well.
"Oh my God, come on! Are you kidding me? I’m playing a $60,000 pot with about 40% equity—not the spot you really want to be in!
We decide to run it out for two boards. There is chance at chopping first flop is Ace-high. Man...this is truly.... truly horrific!"
This is why I like to run games or host games with the Squid Game. You have to think on my feet. This is why I like to run games or host games with the Squid Game. GTO nerds are not good at thinking on their feet; they’re just good at regurgitating GTO things. This is why the Squid Game is so cool
"I’m feeling super down, and I'm starting to get up now. At this point, I just rage-quit the lobby here."
"Because, you know when the vibes are just off and you’re feeling super negative and nothing is going right? You just kind of know you’re going to lose. That’s me right now. I’m really over this. I don’t think this is going to go very well, and I’ve dusted $60,000 in less than an hour. I don’t have my head screwed on at all.
So, congratulations to Berkey! I’m calling it a day because he’s going to scoop the second board. I know I wasn’t going to win this one at all. There’s supposed to be another stream tomorrow with the same stakes and everything, but I don’t know how I feel about all of this, so we’ll just see how it goes tomorrow."
"Oh my God, guys! I just got a text—Phil Ivey is playing today! I don’t think I can say no to this game, so we’re getting ready. I’m going into the Strip, ready to gamble. Let’s go! I've got $200,000 left.
Now, it’s time to pony up and play with one of poker’s all-time greats. I’m nervous and anxious."
Yeah, playing with Ivey is kind of cool. I’ve played against Ivey a few times—played against him in a $100K tournament; I vlogged it as well, but I was so bad at YouTube that I only got like 20K views on it. But I played in a $100K tournament against Phil Ivey—this was pretty cool! If you get a chance to play against him, in my opinion, he’s the most fun person to play against in the world.
You can disagree with me in the comments, but I think Phil Ivey is the all-time great.
So far, Rampage is not doing too many huge mistakes, but that Queen-Seven at the beginning is just so, so, so bad. I know that a lot of people seem to think that Mariano and Rampage grinded their way up from $1/$3 all the way up to these stakes. They didn’t—definitely not. They made money through their channels and whatever else, but you can’t play like that and get your way out of the mid-stakes.
"Let’s strap in because I clearly don’t know how to play this game, but with in the first hand, I limp in on the button for $200. Berkey and Phil Ivey make the call and check."
You said that so casually! Why are we limping on the button?
"So first of the night, we’ve got an opportunity to go up against Berkey and Phil. The flop comes with a flush draw. Berkey checks, and Ivey bets out $500. With a pair, it seems pretty standard to put in a raise, so I make it $2,000. Surprisingly, both opponents call, which gets really tricky here."
Charlie asks "Ivey... what are you doing?"
"I’m not sure what they both could have in a limped pot, but we’re off to a turn which is the.
So a lot of things complete—flushes, straights—and when action checks to me, I am not going to put a dime into the middle. I check this one back."
"The river comes, and it’s the. Berkey checks."
Charlie – "I think Ivey is going to win this pot, isn’t he? He’s just going to find a way to win this pot."
"Now Phil decides to take the initiative and fires out $7,000. Man, that’s a pretty huge bet, and I’m immediately put to the test here from hand number one for a pretty large decision."
Ivey's just got the perfect run out to bluff. It makes sense if he’s calling the flop. If he has some good reason, his opponents are getting good odds on the flop. The is pretty irrelevant. I’m losing to 6-7, losing to maybe two pair. He probably doesn’t have two pairs; he’s really repping a straight or a flush. What are his bluffs? Name one—Queen-5 offsuit. If he has Queen-5 offsuit, then he’s got loads of bluffs, but we don’t know he has Queen-5 offsuit. So yeah, fold!
"With Berkey left to act behind me, this makes this spot a little tricky. And of course, with the Squid Game on, honestly, it feels like every decision I make is the wrong one. That’s a really awful mindset to be in. Either I call and look foolish, or I fold and look foolish."
I really resonate with that. 99% of the time, I don’t have that mindset, but when I do, I’m just like, “I need to not play poker right now.” If something weird has happened in my personal life and then I play poker, sometimes that happens.
If you can identify when that’s happening to you and just get up from the cash game and leave, play another day—sometimes it happens over weeks or months for people. That is what makes someone a fantastic long-term poker player. If you can be the person that plays when they're on their A-game, plays on their B-game, but when they’re on their C, D, and E-games, they just take a day off, take a week off, go sunsetting in Majorca or whatever, then you’re going to be the person that wins in the long run.
"It really boils down to, of course, I make the fold and look foolish. Berkey also folds his King as well, so obviously it was a pretty difficult spot to be in with just a King. Phil looks like a genius bluffing two people off of top pair, and at least I get a front row seat to the legend at work."
"But man, nice hand to Phil, starting things off in the wrong direction—getting bluffed."
I'm going to rate that hand like a 4 out of 10, because why would you limp pre-flop with ? Why would you do that? You should raise, and if somebody three-bets you, you can call.
The Squid Game is on; you're deep-stacked, just have a good time! Just raise it up, and then you don't let Ivy in there with Queen-Five, and just price him into outplay you pre. Just make it like 5x pre-flop to take down the blinds! You're playing the Squid Game, son!
"Then I pick up from early position. I limp here for $200.
I think having a heavy limp strategy is good here with the progressive game on, as it serves like a big anti."
I know what’s happened. He’s spoken to somebody off-stream; he’s messaged someone who’s very good at poker and said, “Hey, I keep dusting in the Squid Game. Help me,” and they say, “You could just limp a lot,” and he’s like, “Done!”
But the guy didn’t obviously coach him about when to limp! You don’t do it on the button with King-Ten offsuit!
"Anyways, a couple more limps follow suit. Now Dylan on the button raises to $2,500. Big blind makes the call. I, of course, call to set mine, and another person calls as well, so four of us go to a flop of rainbow.
Action’s going to check to the button. Dylan, who C-bets $3,500, and considering it's a multi-way board, you definitely have a case for calling or raising here."
You have a case for calling more so than raising. Raising is just like, I get it, but it’s a lot.
"Folding is out of the question when action folds to me, and I actually prefer a raise. I think my hand could use a lot of protection being multiway and being out of position.
You can see how this one is going to play."
Rampage raises to $10,000.
"We’re off to see a turn which is the ."
The Squid Game can do weird things to people.
The thing is, Dylan isn’t that incentivized to win the hand; he’s not that incentivized to win the hand. Hopefully, Rampage is just going to check-fold now and not outlevel himself again. But after that Queen-Seven, I’m really not feeling hopeful.
"The on the turn are overall pretty safe for me. I check, though, as I don’t think betting accomplishes a whole lot at this point.
Dylan bets out $8,000—a pretty small price to pay to continue. Although I’m not really loving the situation, it feels like a toss-up. I guess I’m getting a good price to spike a five on the river or hoping I'm still ahead, which is pretty wishful thinking, but I come along and make the call regardless."
There’s nothing like a good thought process of set mining before set mining on the turn. You’re sitting there on the turn thinking, “Well, I don’t think my hand's good, but what if I hit a set?” There’s still a card to come. “I might be getting the right price here; let’s put $8,000 in the middle because of that.”
"We’re off to the river now and it’s the . I check one more time, hoping to get to showdown. Dylan elects for $38,000 now.
Damn. The Ace is actually kind of an annoying card for Rampage, but not for the reason you think. The reason it’s annoying is that if Dylan were somehow bluffing the turn, the Ace is probably a card he would continue to bluff because it looks like Rampage has exactly what he has—like pocket eights or pocket fives.
Guys, let me tell you the reason [for the $38,000 bet]. Dylan's putting him on exactly the type of hand he has because this bet size is Dylan saying, "Rampage, you don’t have a Queen." If he thought Rampage could have Queen-Ten, Queen-Jack some decent amount of the time, he wouldn't go this size. It just wouldn’t make any sense.
He’s basically saying, "I think Rampage has pocket fives, pocket sixes, pocket sevens, pocket eights, pocket nines—and that’s kind of it—or maybe a three." Maybe something like Ace-Three. I think he’s going to call this size back because it’s going to look bluffy.
I hope Rampage is going to fold! I'm rooting for the guy.
"The normal person would snap-fold here, but I’m not quite sure Dylan is simply only representing that he has trips in this spot or better somehow, and the Ace actually isn't much of a concern to me at all. But on the flip side, I also think my hand has pretty good properties to go and bluff-catch here.
The only issue is that sometimes I actually lose to some of his bluffs like Ace high or pocket pairs?"
What is happening right now? There are two sentences there that are really giving me an insight into how he might normally play.
First of all, he said it’s got good properties to bluff-catch. If by good properties he means that there are indeed two cards in the game of poker, then correct! He blocks Queen-Five. You don’t even block Queen-Five suited, man. What do you mean, good properties?
Oh, you're unblocking the bluffs. Fantastic! You're unblocking the Jack-Ten of clubs! We’ve got him boys; we’ve mathematically solved poker! What do you mean?
Secondly, no, you don’t lose to his bluffs! He’s not going to be bluffing pocket eights! He's not going to no— absolutely not! I'm glad that he opened up his thought process here. I'm sorry to rip into the guy; he seems like very humble, more humble than quite a lot of the poker players I’ve spoken about. He seems self-aware enough to know that he’s just getting annihilated in these lineups, but no, dude, just no. Just bad, bad, Rampage. Please make the fold!
"But here we are. I’ve got to make the right decision here, or else the entire session is just going to get screwed over, and the whole reason for playing this game goes down into the dumps."
Even the commentators are like, "Oh...."
Just a little hint as well. I really don’t want to rub salt in the wounds, but when you’re losing, don’t vocalize that you’re feeling down because then sharks smell blood. If somebody at the table is like, “Oh man, I’m running so bad. I’m just getting so tilted. I can’t play well today,” instantly, when I’m at the poker table, you know you have to kind of be a sociopath when you're playing poker: a little bit predatory.
You’re meant to be like, “Okay, I’m just going to crush this guy. I know exactly how he’s going to play now. He’s going to be too sticky in these spots, too foldy in these spots." Keep it to yourself! Stay strong! Your energy at the table is so important. If you act confident and act strong, people don’t mess around with you, but you have to put on an act at the very least.
"This is not what I want—a complete disaster, losing this massive pot, dusting off $60,000 in this hand, feeling all the embarrassment, the pain, the shame, regretting my decisions to come here today.
This is not a good spot to be in mentally, so I desperately need some momentum on my side here before I just start spiraling out of control."
You have to be like, “Damn it, cooler! Phil Ivey, I was coolered. Queen-Seven!”
There are a few more hands covered in Charlie's video, but we'll jump forward to his final words on Rampage.
Charlie Carrel: Guys, uh, Rampage is not very good at poker.
Sorry, dudes, I love you. I feel really like guilty just watching this. I feel like you're good at getting the emotions through the video, congratulations. I can see why people love your content—he's not very good. He's better than Alexander Wolfgang (Wolfgang Poker). Congrats on that.
I don't think he would be winning, like, 200NL online or 100NL online—like $100 buyins online. I don't know why he doesn't just get, like, hardcore coaching if he really cares about it. Here's the thing: you can get coaching from somebody that's very good at teaching live poker.
You can still punt around when you need to. It’s obviously what Mariano has done to some extent, although I think he could also do with more coaching. Then you know, “Okay, today I'm going to play really well. I need to win. I need to play well. I need to lock in.” Get some coaching, make sure you can do that. When you need to market, when you need to punt around, when you need to get invited back to private games, then you can do it very strategically, very specifically.
Skill Rating: I'm going to put Rampage above Wolfgang, but only just, in terms of his skill level.
Content Value: And in terms of who to watch to learn poker, I'll put him above Wolfgang again, but it's like the bankroll management stuff is really bad. But then, so is Cory Eyring. So you know, who am I? If I’m going to be consistent, I'll put him here. Yeah, don't punt like this.
At least he's making a point like, “Hey, this is really bad that I’m punting!” He's trying to be disciplined. His thought process really isn't very nuanced, I can tell just from the way he plays, I can tell from the way he speaks about it. I can tell it’s like he’s just looking for a place to punt. His mentality going into it is like a loser's mentality; he's not—he’s not got a strong energy at the table. He’s not—“I’m going to win! You need to be that person.” It’s like, “I’m going to win no matter what! I'm going to win this game!" Then if you lose, it's like, “Okay, whatever, it's a lesson. Next one, I'm going to play my best and I'm going to win.” It has to be that kind of killer attitude that you have at the table.
That’s what you need at the poker table. Find that inner confidence, Rampage, and everybody listening. When you're at the poker table, sit up strong, be confident. It’s so important! People take you seriously. They stop trying to mess around with you, and you take yourself seriously. Your mind will be more focused on making the good decisions.
Maybe there are better episodes of Rampage to do this.
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