Sigm4

Hey Sigm4

Welcome to the beginner's course and welcome to pokerstrategy.com. Have you heard of our free money offers? if not they are definitely worth investigating.

Bogdan (our beginner's course coach) will be with you in the coming days to check your homework.

I hope that you enjoy poker as much as you enjoy chess because imo (based on my albeit limited exposure to chess) they are very similar games.

All the best,
Luke

Hi Legand,

Yeah, Chess and Poker (and Backgammon in that respect) seem to be games that attract the same players. Nakamura, Grischuk and Bacrot are some famous chess players that tried their luck in the poker world.

Anyhow... I was surfing through the website looking for some basic coaching material on how to approach the freerolls because I wanted to start off here on a low risk level untill I absorbed enough material about "the real stuff".

Is this (playing freerolls) a good way to start off and practice or do you guys recommend something else? To start playing on cash tables with the big stack strategy for example. I have the feeling that playing freerolls is a complete different game.

Quote:"In the early stage of a freeroll you will not be able to thin the field of players by making a normal raise. And even with two aces you don't like the situation when four opponents see the flop with you. Therefore if you have a strong starting hand you should go all-in before the flop." Unquote

The thing is, I would much rather prefer to first master the skills and then go crab the money and it seems that playing freerolls that way would give you bad habbits (like playing for play money)

What do you guys think of that?

Regards,

Sigm4

Hi Sigm4

In my opinion with the freerolls you do have to be very careful because the type of players are not going to be typical players that you'll see in real money games so it might be a bit of a shock. You might need to be careful of the tendencies you will develop in playing these freerolls also. Having said that though freerolls seem to be good bankroll builders because you don't invest any money in to them but can stand to gain. In the early stages I definitely advocate being tighter because a lot of guys spew all in with trash hands and you'll often times be in a 4way all in which is unfavourable.

At any rate I think you should get started on your homeworks because Bogdan will be able to help you through some of the early material and answer some of these questions along the way. Good luck on your way up the stakes sigma

Regards,
Luke

Hi Sigm4,

Welcome to the course.

Congrats on finishing your first homework assignment.

If you are prone to tilting I recommend having a stop loss and a set time frame for your sessions (and be able to quit when feeling the tilt coming on board).

I too play(ed) chess and during my highschool/uni years I was big into it (but a lack of time + people to play with put chess lower on the priority scale).

As legand has mentioned I think that playing freerolls is not necessarily the best thing you can do with your time.

Playing 2nl (or 5nl based on your BR) while doing this course would be much better in my opinion.

Best of luck,

Bogdan

Hi there guys,

Thanks for the tips! :-)

I did earlier today a poker session at a NL2 cash table. I checked the Hold'em Manager to review the session but I am not quite sure what to look for really.

1) How can I upload these results from the Hold'em Manager to the forum so you guys can comment?

2) Which statistics are usefull to start with and how should I adapt my play at the table accordingly?

Best regards and keep up the good work!

The approach you guys have works very motivating!

Sigm4

1) You don't need to upload an entire session but rather specific hands you have played.

If you go here: How to use the hand evaluation forum TinoLaan posted some guides on how you can do that

2)I would recommend to keep it simple at first. You would want VPIP, PFR, 3-bet, fold to 3-bet, cbet, fold to cbet and aggression. Once you understand these you can add more.

Best of luck,

Bogdan

Question 1: What do you think you could play differently than suggested in the BSS Starting Hands Chart and why? (Are there any hands you would play differently? Do you have a problem or question about how a specific hand or hands should be played?)

The SHC only gives a simplistic view on whats going on at the table. There are very different types of players, different stack sizes in different positions and that too influences our play. It's all about maximizing the expected value of our plays.

Imagine a very loose players raises in front of us preflop and we are holding JJ on the BU with two very tight players on SB and BB. The SHC says we should fold but in reality we have a good chance that our JJ are way better so folding would certainly NOT be the best option. In this case I would consider raising.

If my preflop reraise with QQ in early position is 4betted by a very tight player (a rock), chances are that I am facing KK or AA so going all in doesnt look so appealing anymore. I would probably just call and see what the flop brings. If the aggression keeps on coming I might even fold.

Big ranges are sometimes treated to much the same way. JTs is not KQs!

A9o is always to fold following the SHC! Guess these hands can be played pretty confidenty too, especially in late positions.

Question 2: Do you have questions about your preflop play? Post your hand for evaluation. ( Post your hand in the Hand evaluation forums and provide a link to your hand in your private thread in the Locker Room.)

1st hand were I play JJ using the Call20 rule...
Nl2 Jj 09082013
2nd hand where I intuitively played outside scope of SHC...
NL2 QJo in SB

Question 3: What is the equity of AKo against the top 5% range? 5% means 88+, AJs+, KQs, AKo.

Using the Pokerstrategy Equilab I found that against that range, I get 46,32% equity (37,92% wins and 8,41% ties).

Just wondering, because you mention ... How do we calculate such calculations for a bunch of ranges manually?

Regards

Sigm4

Hi Sigm4,

Congrats, homework #2 is now complete.

I agree with your responses to Q1 and I like your analytical approach. You always want to be flexible with your ranges and it always depends on the villains at the table.

RE Q3: you can estimate your equity in spots like this rather than calculate it (you do not have time to do that at the tables). For example two overcards vs a pair is usually 50/50.

Best of luck,

Bogdan