[Closed] Akm247

Lesson 1:

Read the articles:

The rules of Texas Hold'em - I skimmed through this because to be completely honest I know the rules and there was nothing there I did not understand.

What is the Big Stack Strategy?

From this article I derived that one must play tight, position and aggressive. More importantly that we must follow Bankroll Management and this can account for at least 50% of your success in Poker.

I downloaded the Starting Hands Chart and a concept I was not familiar with is the call 20 rule - my interpretation is that your opponent must have at least 20bb in his stack to pay you off should you hit a set or such? Is this correct?

7 tips on How to Become a Successful NL Player

Here I need to go over the article again - there are articles within the articles and I would rather not conclude until I fully read and grasped them all.

I'll continue where I left off;

7 tips on How to Become a Successful NL Player

This also recommends reading 5 articles;

i.) How can you protect your money from tilt?

This is an underestimated point in my opinion, because tilt can so easily be a subconscious state of mind. You're 3bet shoving with AJo because 'villain must be bluffing with worse' when in fact you've just had some bad beats and don't realise you're not focused.

A good point the article makes is that we can be inbetween cool and calculative or totally stressed - I think that the concentration required is nothing without consistency of ensuring that you maintain it. An area I have got better at is NOT playing when I do not feel I am totally focused.

ii.) Mathematics of Poker: Odds and Outs

So I have a couple of questions about this article - An OESD has 5:1 odds from Flop to turn BUT 2:1 from Turn to River - why is that?

Also, can the 4 2 rule be a useful application? On flop multiply your outs b x4 to see the percentage and on turn x2 to see the percentage, a point to note is that the more outs you have the less accurate the equation becomes. For example 8 outs for OESD on flop would be 8 x 4 = 32%

Another point from the article - a very valid point - is your discounted outs. But how often do we assume the worse? For example we are drawing to a straight and hit but our opponent completes the flush? How often can we assume that he's made the flush - can we call down thinking we are beat or think that in the long run the flush will not have always been completed?

iii.) Mathematics of Poker: Implied Pot Odds

A lot of speculation involved with implied odds as far as I can gather. Something I wanted to confirm is my understanding of odds in relatino to fraction & percentage - My interpretation of this is for example 4:1 is also one fifth and thus 20%. I think that is correct but would appreciate it if you could point out if I am mistaken.

iv.) After the flop - you have the initiative

A point made to keep things organised and simple in this article is categorising your hand on the flop into one of 5 hands;

Worthless hands - Overcards that miss flop, low PPs with overcards on flop.

Weak draws - Gutshots or Back Door draws.

Strong draws - OESD, Flush Draws

Medium made hands - TPTK/TPGK, Overpair

Strong made hands - Made hands from Two Pair+ on dry boards.

Rules of cbetting

1. - Always make a contibet with a made hand, top pair or better. Your goal: protect your hand and get money into the pot.

2. - Always make a contibet with a strong draw when facing a single opponent. This is a semi-bluff; you can either win here and now by forcing him to fold, or your hand can get better on the turn/river if you get called.

3. - Never bluff against more than two opponents with a weak hand.

The interesting thing about point 2 is that by betting you have 2 ways to win the pot instead of checking which only gives you one way to win and a chance of being forced out of the pot yourself.

Further to these rules the article points out that when looking at the flop you must ask;

Can you represent a hand?
Could your opponents have hit the board?

With bet sizing, I am with half pot for a dry board and 3/4 for drawier board.

v.) The 8 Player Types - How to Get Their Money

The article is pretty straight forward, however I do not see much difference between a weak tight player and a nit. TBH I am happy to categorise them as the same type of player.

Hello AKM247,

Welcome to the course and Best of Luck in it.

I see you are doing a very nice conclusion from all the articles. Very nice work you are doing. Lets hope now we will see some homeworks done as well.

Best regards.

Week 1 - Homework

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker?

I am motivated by two reasons - first is obv. to crush at a game I enjoy playing, it's much more fun when you're dominating. Secondly, to be crushing also in order to make £$€

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker?

Lack of concentration which can in turn lead to mistakes & losses.

Being a bit too loose at times

Calling with bad odds/pot odds

3bet shoving Nut Flush Draws on flop :-s

Checking the balance too often during a session & being too short term result focused

Not properly applying what I learn - this is obv. the worse weakness/leak since there is no point is learning things if you do not put the theory into practice!

Question 3: What does it mean to play tight-aggressive?

In general, Poker players can be any combination of loose or tight whilst passive or aggressive.

To be tight means to invest money only with a small premium range of hands as opposed to being loose and playing more hands.

To be aggressive is bet/raise instead of check/calling. I think the reason that this is the best method is because by bet/raising we have TWO ways to win a pot - best hand at show down OR forcing other/better hands to fold - whereas with check/calling we can only win by having the best hand at show down

Good job! Homework #1 Done!

Kinda common problem the "lack of concentration". It's not only you but a lot players do have the same problem. Obviously it might be fixed with time and experience but the question is if you are going to make it so? Try to force yourself into the play by that I mean not directly force. But always as you see you are not concentrating enough then try to find a way to put that into your mind that you aren't here to just have some fun and play but rather make some money. Didn't you mention that in your 1st answer? With time you will get used to the concentration and will be kinda standard for you. Even for example trying to understand more the opponent ranges and stuff.

Most of the other weakness you wrote can easily be fixed with you posting hands (analyzing your session). We will start writing feedback to your play. And usually negative feedback will put you into thinking phase and trying to fix all those leaks. It's almost the same as you loose money, you will remember it more than winning part.

Well, at least now we have a great course which may lay you into a good way to use the learning stuff good enough. Also of course helps you to do it even faster and help you if you have any questions.

Best of luck in the Course! First points earned.

Lesson 2

1. Read the Articles

The 8 player types - How to Get Their Money

There is one point I did not mention on my last summary of this article, how to deal with TAGs;

In general, when playing against a TAG you can say:

* He isn't your opponent.
* Concentrate on the real fish.
* If there aren't any fish at the table, try your luck in other waters.

I noticed a lot (even @: NL4) that many regs will not pay me off with worst hands as weaker players would. When I sometimes sit at a tables I can see all the regs I recognise and no weak players, but perhaps as a pride thing I stay at the table. It's not that I will loose my stack but I will not win anything either. I think I need to be looking for tables with weak players more conciously.

How to Play Before the Flop

I have been playing SH so there are various things I do differently from the SHC, namely play a looser range, maybe even too loose As well as this I 3bet light much more since other palyers are also opening looser.

My raise when opening is 3bb - I have been reading different opinions on this, Harring ton 6max Cash Tables book mentions an argument for different raising size based on position - 4bb early, 3.5bb mid, 3bb CO & 2.5bb BU raising. Not tried it but possibly something to look into.

I think I will post something on this in BSS Discussion forum and see what kind of ideas/reactions I see. I also wanted to read up on this in Veers thread about Micro stakes.

Whatever I decide I think is fine so long as I am reviewing correctly and posting hands in the forum for review by coaches. I definatyely need to do this more. One thing that I will allow myself a pat ont he back for is going through the hand evaluation forums and reading hands and feedback. I think it's a vital part of development. To know how other palyers are playing and thinking. io believe that Poker is developing much faster than people realise, more players are learning instead of just spewing and keeping still (not developing) is like moving backwards in my opinion.

Mathematics of Poker: Odds and Outs

I read this in Lesson 1 and posted my thoughts in the BSS discussion forum and got some interesting feedback/thoughts. In all honesty I have yet to reply, shift work makes it so hard to committ time

"So I have a couple of questions about this article - An OESD has 5:1 odds from Flop to turn BUT 2:1 from Turn to River - why is that?" A question I asked in my last post on this topic has now become clearer, we have 2 chances to make out draw on flop but one on turn

I plan to review the bnosu amterial seperatly but for now this is my analysis of articles mentioned.

Notes on videos and coaching to follow, then the beloved homeword ♦

but perhaps as a pride thing I stay at the table

Trust me, not worth sitting at a table which is full of regs. ♦ Although I doubt that this gonna happen very often @ NL4. Most likely most of them have leaks which you can abuse.

4bb early, 3.5bb mid, 3bb CO & 2.5bb BU raising

Well, obviously it will be great idea to do so on higher limits. But on lower limits I'd just raise it standard size. We are mostly raising anyways for value and our value hands only.

So I have a couple of questions about this article - An OESD has 5:1 odds from Flop to turn BUT 2:1 from Turn to River - why is that?

It's not actually from Turn to River but Flop - River. Which means 2 cards are to come. With first one is just 1 card to come.