Patching21

Welcome to the Course and Best of Luck Patching21,

Hopefully you will enjoy around here. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask, we will be around for you. Meanwhile good luck on tables, we will be waiting for your homework.

You can now start with your 1st Lesson:
Lesson #1

The whole course plan:
Overview of Beginners Course

Best Regards.

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker?

I think the main reason is that I enjoy playing poker but just cause I enjoy it doesn't mean I'm gonna be happy giving away hard earned cash every month. I don't like being rubbish at anything which is a reason for taking the course. I would like to get to a stage where I can play NL30 profitably which I will happily spend on tourney entries. I do not need/want or think I will ever be capable of playing poker profeesionally.

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker?

I think my playing style is probably "overly tight, slightly passive". I suspect my overly tight preflop range leads to me being very easy to read post flop. Another weakness is is that I always play with my laptop infront of the tv. I make notes on starting hands but seem unable to categorise players into certain styles but even if I could I wouldn't know how to adapt my game to suit.

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

Playing tight agressive means that you are selecting a strong starting hand range preflop and playing agressive post flop which means making raises and not taking the option of checking or calling. By choosing to play a strong preflop hand selection you are already better off than a lot of other players starting hand selection which gives you a distinct advantage. By being agressive post flop you are putting people under pressure which results in them being more likely to make more mistakes. When players make more mistakes than us we profit

Quick question, I have $60 on Betfair and was planning on playing 6max 4NL but a bit concious I have only 15 BI's. Do you think this will be okay or should I only sit with $3 per table or sitting with $4 on 10max table?

Good job! Homework #1 Done!

Most of the weakness you wrote can easily be fixed by posting hands (analyzing your session). We will start writing feedback to your play. Usually negative feedback will put you into thinking phase and trying to fix all those leaks. It's almost the same as you lose money, you will remember it more than winning part. By this situation it's gonna be that negative feedback you gonna remember and try to avoid them next time.

Also rather follow the chart at first point and it may look tight for you but what's the idea of following the chart is that you will learn the basics of preflop & postflop play. With time you will loosen up your range whenever you will feel be experienced enough for it.

What about tilt? Do you adjust something against it? For example:
Easiest way to fight against tilt is to set up stop-loss technique. Which means if you for example have lost more than 3BIs for a session then you just stop the session for some time. The BI amount is set up from your own results. Some may put it higher, some lower. Also after the stop you can spend some time with evaluation part to become better.

Tight style is usually called playing selected hands. Like following the Starting Hand Chart. Aggressive should be also pretty clear that already the word says how you should be playing. But the problem playing aggressively is that you have to watch that you don't play too aggressive. Find good spots, find good targets. About The tight-aggressive strategy you can read in this article: "What is the Big Stack Strategy?"

Hopefully you will enjoy the Course.