YinYangS

Hi Glen,

Welcome to the NL Beginners Course!

I am sure with plenty of hard work and dedication we can help you to achieve all your goals

I wish you the very best of luck throughout this course and hope it helps you in becoming an even more successful cash game player

Gary

gogogog looking forward to you graduating.

would be nice to be able to discuss hands / strategy with a fellow filipino over skype ♦

Originally posted by dwyt84
gogogog looking forward to you graduating.

would be nice to be able to discuss hands / strategy with a fellow filipino over skype ♦

sure!! ♦

nice to see you here Yinyang.

gl with your goals! im sure with enough stubornness you will achieve them. you will be crushing nl100 in no time

Originally posted by purplefizz
nice to see you here Yinyang.

gl with your goals! im sure with enough stubornness you will achieve them. you will be crushing nl100 in no time

yeah, i'm very stubborn! hahaha ♦

Originally posted by YinYangS

Originally posted by purplefizz
nice to see you here Yinyang.

gl with your goals! im sure with enough stubornness you will achieve them. you will be crushing nl100 in no time

yeah, i'm very stubborn! hahaha ♦

i can tell

i'm not proud of my plays this past two days. i'm not able to maintain my concentration. probably because there are other things on my mind.

nevertheless, i'm someone who doesn't get discouraged easily and i will do my best to achieve my goals!!!

hands for analysis:

• NL10 SH, AA against ME
• NL10 SH, QQ on riverbet nasty board
• NL10 SH, QQ overpair vs 3bet-cold-caller
• NL10 SH, ATs top pair, vs cold caller
• NL10 SH, AA vs midstack lowboard

must apply the power of now at all times. it really helps especially on the gut feeling calls and folds.

i have been reading this a lot in the forums but haven't really understood it much.

how do you know if you can call based on the Call20 Rule for pockets?

let's say in this situation,

BTN: $18.72
Hero (SB): $10.65

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is SB with 7 7
3 folds, BTN raises to $0.30, Hero calls $0.25

(10.65-0.05) / 0.25 = 42.4, which means i'm well within the call20 rule. is my calculations correct?

how about here??

Hero (MP): $10.00
CO: $11.44

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is MP with 2 2
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.30, CO raises to $0.90, 4 folds

(10 - 0.3) / 0.6 = 16.17, i'm not in the call20 rule which means i should fold right?

does this mean pockets are not profitable to play by calling a 3bet after you raise in a 100BB deep stack??

Originally posted by YinYangS
i have been reading this a lot in the forums but haven't really understood it much.

how do you know if you can call based on the Call20 Rule for pockets?

let's say in this situation,

BTN: $18.72
Hero (SB): $10.65

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is SB with 7 7
3 folds, BTN raises to $0.30, Hero calls $0.25

(10.65-0.05) / 0.25 = 42.4, which means i'm well within the call20 rule. is my calculations correct?

how about here??

Hero (MP): $10.00
CO: $11.44

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is MP with 2 2
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.30, CO raises to $0.90, 4 folds

(10 - 0.3) / 0.6 = 16.17, i'm not in the call20 rule which means i should fold right?

does this mean pockets are not profitable to play by calling a 3bet after you raise in a 100BB deep stack??

whatever villain bets you x20 and see if it equals his remaining stack size. The implied odds makes up for the time when you flop set and he folds/you fail to stack them/you fold coz you miss.

i hope i dont confuse you more by contributing here.

the call20 rule basically assumes that the call is profitable because there is enough money in the villain's stack to pay you off when you hit your set.
thus, it assumes that you have decent implied odds for it-- therefore it works best in:
- FR games
- multiway pots (because there is greater likelihood that someone would hit a hand he will want to continue with)
- opponents with strong range (eg if villain opens in utg, you can use the rule and expect to get paid more often)

i personally prefer to play the 77 more aggressively against a std bu opener (meaning i would 3bet it), especially as he is most likely stealing, has a weak range, and thus wont give you action even if you hit your set. it would be a value 3bet for me and i expect to be ahead most of the time. i also would force him to give up his initiative and his equity (if fe he had 2 higher cards like J9 which is a pretty std openraise from the button)

your example #2, yes you will definitely need to fold 22 to that 3bet. the flop will bring 3 overcards which you will be unhappy with. he is in position which makes it really hard to play unless you hit perfectly. it will be hard to extract value from him oop. the times you hit (and not get paid off) will not compensate for the times you need to check/fold there.

hope that helped. ofc veriz will add the more correct opinion there.

btw you havent done your Homework 1 yet

Originally posted by purplefizz
btw you havent done your Homework 1 yet

oh, where's homework 1? hahaha

haha seriously? you know you've joined the beginner's course right?
didn't you wonder what everyone else was doing?
i swear i posted this yesterday! here it is:

Course overview

then go to Lesson 1 ♦

now chop chop! your classmates have submitted theirs already

Here's my Homework 1!

i kinda cheated a bit by copying most of my answers from my previous locker room. hehehe ♦

Coach, i hope you could especially comment on the weaknesses i've mentioned. thanks!

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker? (Be as vague or specific as you want with this one, but try to think of all the reasons and elaborate on them.)

• Money - I see poker as a good source of income. Since it's partly gambling, the possibility to lose money is there. But the possibility to win tons of money is also there. Since I've recognized it as a skill game, i know i can money in it in the long term as long as i do my best in every situation. Average wage in the country is not more than $300 a month. On the other hand, earning atleast $1,000 a month in poker is perfectly achievable. And the best part is, it does not stop there.
• Challenge - I'm a very competitive person. I thought poker was simply gambling before. After watching an episode of WPT, it gave me an entirely new perspective of it. I noticed that there were people who was able to win a tournament several times despite the huge number of people. I thought, "If poker is simply gambling, it's a bit impossible for someone to win and earn money from it consistently. There must be some skill and strategy involved. And if there is, i have this principle that if someone can do it, hey we're both humans right?, that's a good enough reason for me to say i can do it also!" You could probably imagine the rest of the story. I researched about it. Had fun with play money. And last October 2010, I deposited my first real money account.
• Desire to be Unique - I want to forge my own road in life, one that is rarely taken, one that is rarely recognized, and set off to prove myself and make a great story. I'm 21 years old. I enjoy the thought of being different from others. In this gift called life that is given to us, I believe we should spend it to the fullest, and enjoy it as much as we can.
• Freedom of Time - Who doesn't want to play/work whenever you want? Who doesn't want to rest whenever you want? Poker is one of those careers that offer such freedom and flexibility. I can't be any happier to have such control of my time.
• Be the 1st Filipino PokerStars Pro - Yes, I want to be one. Have you noticed there's no such thing from the Philippines yet? A bit far-fetched I admit, but hey, that's why it's called a dream.

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker? (What are the mistakes you know you are doing during your games? Are you playing while tired? Are you tilting easily? Want to see the showdown too much? Write as many as you think are affecting you.)

• Money Conscious - i think this is still one of my biggest problems. it's hard not to think about money when i'm actually playing with it. but i'm improving on this day by day. but if you have any suggestion on how i could go more effectively with this, i would appreciate it much.
• Having a hard time folding a good hand - especially TPTK (AK,AQ) and overpairs. what should i tell myself to remind me to fold on such spots?
• Don't know when to bluff - the usual bluff i do is the continuation bet bluff. other than that, i don't know how and when to bluff on turn and river. i think i rely too much on the HUD stats. but using the stats, how could i use it to know when i can bluff?
• Stuck at bronze - my PokerStars account is not tracked. i want to reach Gold status again or ever better so that i could read articles, watch videos, and overall, IMPROVE. any suggestions on what other ways i could improve?

Question 3: What does it mean to play tight-aggressive? (Describe in your own words what playing tight aggressive is, and why does it work.)

• It means playing only a certain percent of hands, depending on position, and ALWAYS raising when first to act to get initiative on the flop. Also playing monster hands aggressively by 3-bet and 4-bets. Then having a good percentage of CBets depending on opponent and the texture of the board. And usually leading out when hitting Top Pair with especially Top Kicker. And of course, extract as much value from opponents with made hands with combination of value bets, floats, 3-bets, and slow-plays.
• It works because showing aggression in poker creates pressure. And pressure allows opponents to make mistakes, and that's where we profit from. It further works because we are not afraid to build pots, and aggression with combination of initiative wins pots. Even small pots when consistently won builds up a profit for a good player. Plus, by being selective with our hands preflop, it avoids getting into marginal spots where it is hard for us to make a decision.

Hello YinYangS,

About the money. Is it either that you don't take it as money? Or are you rather money-scared and act accordingly your money?

Folding TPTK - practically ask yourself what do you beat. But of course as I would tell anyone else that posting always helps to get those kind of leaks fixed. How else you gonna fix the leak if you don't get critical feedback? After critical feedback our mind ("ego") starts to fight against it and wont do such Calls anymore.

Bluff? Why do you even want to bluff? I would turn to more bluffing on higher limits rather than smaller stakes. Unless you playing NL100? Of course bluffing is an option but as well you have to know your opponent not just do it against some random station. Stations are the worst targets to pick to bluff.

The best idea is to deposit or put your money into those sites like PartyPoker. Which has the great freerolls for like 10k and so on. Even 888 has a lot of those promotions. Take them if PS gives you the free money. :> First place got like $2k and even a $15k WPT package last freeroll I was playing at. And yes even I did play for the WPT ticket. :>

The higher your rank is the better stuff you will get. In future there might be even running very good courses which I would recommend taking part of. As I guess you have seen already that you have learned at least something with the last project.

Welcome to the Course and Best of luck! First points earned.

Also did you understand about the Call20 rule? If not I can give you few examples.

Originally posted by veriz
Also did you understand about the Call20 rule? If not I can give you few examples.

please give me examples. particularly when i have pocket and i'm the initial raiser, and someone 3bets. how do you calculate Call20 there?

Down 5 buy-ins today.... help..............

Hands for analysis,

• NL10 SH, AKs on 3bet pot, flush draw + gutshot draw
• NL10 SH, AA on 3bet pot
• NL10 SH, QQ facing 3bet on new villain

any suggestions how i can move up to NL25? who says crushing the micros are easy?? how?!!!!!

Originally posted by veriz
About the money. Is it either that you don't take it as money? Or are you rather money-scared and act accordingly your money?

i think i'm money-scared.

when i lose buy-ins, i sometimes can't easily get over it. i can stop myself when i know i don't have the good mindset at the moment to play. but i need to have a good mindset ALWAYS to put in volume. which means when i lose, i must forget it immediately and think every hand as a new hand.

the same goes when winning, sometimes, i want to protect it. then i know i don't have a good mindset already then have to stop......

suggestions?

lost another buy-in today, HELP!!!

hands for analysis

• NL10 SH, AA against limper
• NL10 SH, odds to call
• NL10 SH, AKo vs 3bet IP
• NL10 SH, 66 set vs possible straight
• NL10 SH, JJ vs 3bet from midstack
• NL10 SH, QQ lowboard 3bet pot
• NL10 SH, 78s trips vs bad river