Sprattel

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker?

I do not coop well at all with being awake the time of the day that an employer would need me to be. I am a night person, I can't fall asleep when I should and can't wake up the time I should to be able to have an ordinary job. on top of this I have insomnia. This is really tearing me out. For example I am sitting here at 5:40 am doing this homework, I haven't gone to bed yet.

And I don't want anyone to force me into doing something I don't want to do for a salary that is way too low.

How do I solve this? I become my own boss And playing poker would allow me to do this. What could be better than to live a life of freedom?

I know this is optimistic thoughts but there is no way of finding out if it is possible without trying.

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker?

I think I need more time by the tables to figure this out. I'd like to think I am good at controlling my emotions, or rather that I don't get affected very easily.

The only thing I know for sure is that I can improve my knowledge about the game. learn more strategies, charts etc. by heart.

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

A TAG player is simply a player who is very selective about what cards he play, also knows the difference between the cards that looks like good cards to play and the cards that actually are good to play.
And when he pick up cards worth playing he plays them aggressively to get as much money out of the hand as possible.

I have a little question.

While reading the article about the 8 player types this line about Rocks struck me as a bit strange: If he calls your pre-flop raise you can almost always take down the pot with a contibet.

If a Rock called my raise pre-flop wouldn't he have a very strong hand? And with such a strong hand wouldn't he call or even raise my contibet?

Question 1: What do you think you could play differently than suggested in the BSS Starting Hands Chart and why?

The chart has been designed to be easy to understand and remember for beginners and I think that it is doing a really good job with that.

However there is some things that isn’t quite optimal. The chart is a bit passive at some places. “Suited face cards” in middle and late position should according to the chart be limped which for those hands is a pretty passive way of playing them. It doesn’t fully live up to the TAG playing style.

Another thing is that it puts together hands with very different strength in the same groups. Like in the group “Suited face cards” KQs is put in the same group as JTs even though they vary very much in strength. This also applies to the group “Low pairs” where there is a big difference between 99 and 22.

Following the chart also won’t give you maximum EV at all times. The chart never tells you to do something that is negative EV, however, it rarely or never is the optimal way of playing the hand either.

The chart also excludes important information like your opponents playing style, stack, history and the size of their raises. This is information that can be used to maximize you EV.

The positions are generalized. Positions like UTG1 and UTG3 is put under the same category, “early position”, but there is a difference between them, as well as with other positions.

Question 2: Do you have questions about your preflop play? Post your hand for evaluation.

I don't have any hands to post, I have never done that before so not 100% sure how to but I will look into that more later on, for now I'm good. I can post the hands I have questions about later in the thread.

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

I had a bit of a problem with this one since I hadn't read anything about it and I had never calculated equity before but I did my best to try to figure it out. I downloaded the software and then I peeked at how the other students had done it. after some messing around I got this result:

Equity Win Tie
UTG 46.32% 37.92% 8.41% { AKo }
UTG+1 53.68% 45.27% 8.41% { 88+, AJs+, KQs, AKo }

Welcome to the Course and Best of Luck. Good job! Homework #1 Done!

Guess you also have some problems with tilt as I can read, 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.

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.

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.

While reading the article about the 8 player types this line about Rocks struck me as a bit strange: If he calls your pre-flop raise you can almost always take down the pot with a contibet.

If a Rock called my raise pre-flop wouldn't he have a very strong hand? And with such a strong hand wouldn't he call or even raise my contibet?

Yes, it means that he is very often playing Fit/Fold, so when he hits he continues and if not the folds.

Good job! Homework #2 Done!

Also about hand posting it's quiet easy, there is even a help for you here:
https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=145658

About other part I see you already have done some adjustments into your play and it's definitely very good. Chart is anyways just for the beginning to understand the poker basics about preflop & postflop play. How else you can learn the game while playing less hands of course, you will face less marginal situations and wont loose a lot money at the same time rather saving some money.

About Question #3:

       Equity     Win     Tie
UTG    46.32%  37.92%   8.41% { AKo }
UTG+1  53.68%  45.27%   8.41% { 88+, AJs+, KQs, AKo }

Hopefully you enjoy the School so far.

Thanks.

This course is great.

I have started to use Elephant and it is working nicely. But it would be great if I could learn more about the software. I don't know what the different stats mean. So is there an article or something about it? I was tipped about an article during a coaching session but that was for silver status members and I am not able to get there quite yet.

BTW great video you recommended about how to post hands for evaluation, it wasn't very hard after all.

I will try to get the third homework done soon.

Doubt that there are any articles for Bronze. But why don't you just play tracked since the lower limits it's much more profitable to play tracked and read the articles.

Homework #3

Question 1: You are holding KQ. What is your preflop equity against an opponent who has 33?

UTG 50.77% 50.39% 0.38% KsQs
UTG+1 49.23% 48.86% 0.38% 3d3c

How does the equity change on this flop: J53?

UTG 26.46% 26.46% 0.00% KsQs
UTG+1 73.54% 73.54% 0.00% 3d3c

Question 2: What would you do in the following hand?

I would fold. I think our opponent is holding a 4 making him a straight. We have a flush draw but it is not very likely that we will hit on the river. It's not good to chase after cards for such a high price.

Question 3: Do you have questions about your postflop play?

Not yet. So far I have been able to see myself what I have done wrong in my hands, but as soon as I get unsure I will ask.

Good job! Homework #3 Done!

About Question #1:
Preflop Equity:

Equity Win Tie
UTG 50.78% 50.40% 0.38% { KsQs }
UTG+1 49.22% 48.84% 0.38% { 3d3c }

Postflop Equity:

Board: J♠5♦3♠
Equity Win Tie
UTG 26.46% 26.46% 0.00% { KsQs }
UTG+1 73.54% 73.54% 0.00% { 3d3c }

About Question #2:
There are several occasions on turn:
a) If we take just odds for the FD and we take into account that all our odds are clean. Which means:
Total Pot = $0,91 ; We have to Call = $0,22 -> According to that it means we are getting ~4,16:1 odds. For flushdraw we would need 4:1. Which tells us that we are getting perfect odds.
b) If we consider the opponent having sets here:
Which means we have to discount outs, for example 6:c and also 3:c. Which means we have 7 clean outs so that means we need 6:1 odds. That tells us that we need ~$0,41 on river to make it profitable. If we expect the opponent being loose enough and being able to pay us no-matter what then we can do the Call here properly.
c) We might even have overcards as outs or even 4 as a out:
Although this kind of situation ain't that likely. I'd rather discount that one and either pick a) or b). Most likely towards Call.

You are doing great progress, keep going!

Here is a hand I posted in the hand evaluation forum: https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=975198#post97519 8" rel="nofollow ugc" target="_blank">AA folded NL2

Originally posted by Sprattel
Here is a hand I posted in the hand evaluation forum: https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=975198#post97519 8" rel="nofollow ugc" target="_blank">AA folded NL2

Well done, how do you like Hand Evaluation forums so far?

Originally posted by veriz

Originally posted by Sprattel
Here is a hand I posted in the hand evaluation forum: https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=975198#post97519 8" rel="nofollow ugc" target="_blank">AA folded NL2

Well done, how do you like Hand Evaluation forums so far?

It's awesome. It's a really good tool, even if you evaluate your own hands after each session you can become blind to certain things. then you, and others, can help me see those things. Since I got that advice from you I am always thinking about making the right bet sizes

Very good! Just continue posting and I can guarantee you that you will become a lot better player.

I am sorry for being absent so long but numerous things have stopped me from being active with the poker playing. But here homework #4 goes

Homework 4.

Question 1: Post a hand for evaluation in which you have the initiative postflop.
NL2 AA

Question 2: Evaluate one of the hands submitted by other members.
A6s 031212

Question 3: You are on the flop with KQ. The board cards are J, 9, 8, and your opponent holds 77. What is your equity in this spot?

Board: 8hJs9c
Equity Win Tie
UTG 41.41% 41.41% 0.00% { KsQd }
UTG+1 58.59% 58.59% 0.00% { 7h7c }

I also have a question about my free starting capital at PartyPoker. Since I have played so little lately I am pretty far from releasing the money. If I am not able to reach the 100 points I need to release it all will I still be able to get some of it or is it all or nothing?
I read that if you earn 1 point in one day you will get 10 extra points but I am guessing that those 10 extra point can only be used on this site to reach a higher status and not for releasing the bonus, is that correct?

Thanks for helping me become a better player

Good job! Homework #4 Done!

No worries about being absent, that's why this course is good, you can always come back when you want.

This weeks homework was a bit easier. But the idea of that is to help you go through last weeks stuff if you didn't go through everything. Or either way maybe even read some more articles, watch some videos and of course attend in the coaching. What will also help for your game is the evaluation part of other members hands and of course posting your own hands.

If you have interests you could try calculating the equity with a formula which you can use even on tables(either playing online or live poker):
(Amount of outs x 4) – (Amount of outs – 8) = Your Equity

About Question #3:

Board: J♠9♣8♥
       Equity     Win     Tie
UTG    41.41%  41.41%   0.00% { KsQd }
UTG+1  58.59%  58.59%   0.00% { 7h7c }

Hopefully this wasn't too easy homework for you.