YinYangS

just read an ebook titled, "Easy Game" and read again some of the chapters from the "Poker Mindset"

from now on, i'll dedicate 1 to 2 hours per day just for studying only.

hands for analysis:

• NL10 SH, TT on 3bet pot
• NL10 SH, 88 against midstacks

easy game!!! (i'm just psyching myself up ok? hopefully it would really be an easy game soon)

Call20 in 3bet pot:
Practically you have to know few things in this spot.
a) Total Pot (already inside - bets, blinds, raises, etc)
b) Villain Stack & Raise
c) How much to Call

And then you practically do almost the same as with the Call20 rule in just Raise pots. For example:
We raise $4, Villain 3bet $12, blinds $1,5 = Total pot = $17,5
Villain Stack & Raise - Stack $100 and raise $12.
Then we have to see how much does villain have left? 100-12 = 88
We have to Call $8

Which means = (Total_Pot+Villain_Effective_Stack)/To_Call = ~13,2:1 odds. For perfect 3bet odds we would need ~15:1.

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

You must have patience and not overwhelm yourself with those questions. Everything comes with time. Maybe it's even better that you stick longer in those smaller stakes and has a reason for it. Do you want to fix most of your leaks on smaller stakes or move up the limits and loose on higher stakes by having those basic leaks. Which is better?

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?

It's really hard to find a way to work on your mindset. What might help is setting goals and plans. Like 30k hands per month, 1hour of poker on tables, 1hour of learning, 1hour of posting hands/analyzing. Usually setting a plan and trying to follow it might work. So you can't flee from the play. ♦

i'm now at NL25 based on the 30-buy-in BRM!!!! hehehe

i started with $500 this August, and reached $750 by:

• $40 won from tournaments and sit&goes
• $160 was from FPP bonuses and VIP bonuses
• only $50 from cash games. wooooottttt

oh wells, i'll start with NL25 tomorrow. i hope there would be no reason for me to go back to NL10. so i hope to say goodbye forever to NL10 hehehehe ♦

thanks for the advises coach!

here's my homework. but i still copied most of them from my previous homework, hehehe ♦

Question 1: What do you think you could play differently than how it is 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 are to be played?)

• AQ - instead of just calling with it on the blinds when all players called, i would raise it even if OOP because it's a strong hand preflop. Except probably if the caller is from early position then i would just call it down.
• Depending on opponent, if the preflop raiser is from late position especially from the button, i would have this kind of 3-bet range: AJ+, 99+
• On micro limits, I would usually fold QQ from 3-bets depending on my reads
• 22 to 99, i would usually still call with them preflop on early positions. the idea for me is that, i need to see as much flops as possible with these small pockets in order to hit that 12% chance set on the flop

Question 2: Post a hand for evaluation where you have a question regarding your pre-flop play.

• NL10 SH, AKs vs 3bet from midstack

Question 3: What is the equity of AKo against the top 5% range? 5% means: 88+, AJs+, KQs, AKo (You can either calculate this yourself or use an equity calculator such as the PokerStrategy.com Equilab)

• i used equilab. it says AKo has 46.43% equity

hi coach!

here is my graph and report.

yeah, i know. the graph looks nasty and i'm not a consistent winner yet. but hey, i started cash games this august only, hehe ♦

coach, please comment on my report and what leaks you think you found in it. hehe

Good job! Homework #2 Done!

Any kind of PPs are actually the most profitable hands which will be earning you the most money. So rather those smaller PPs fold from UTG but any other ones you can easily even raise it up if we are talking about FR. Although even those smaller ones are playable, just keep track on them.

Seems that you are Calling too many 3bets. For example with hands like AK and etc, you even don't take into account against what kind of opponent you are playing?

Also the CBet success seems to be a bit too weak. Of course it ain't bad or anything but it's pretty much the lowest good CBet Success %. You have to find better spots/opponents to Cbet.

About the position stats I'd say that they are pretty much going as they should. From UTG you open less, play less hands and the more later it goes the more you start playing. Exactly how it should look like. Although seems like you loosing a lot from the blinds but on those smaller stakes I guess you just not defending too much or other option could be that you do defend too much and not doing that great.

Hopefully you enjoy the School so far. Some more points earned.

back to NL10 for me......

and i lasted only 3,000 hands for my first shot at NL25. sigh. i lost the 4 buy-ins stop loss i alloted myself to go back down. it's due mostly of bad calls and bad plays on my part and i admit that. so there's still a lot of learning to do and hopefully i could grind back to the appropriate buy-ins i need for NL25 again.

see you soon NL25!!!! i'll be back not with more arsenal but simply more discpline!!!

Wohoo! At least you have discipline! That's the most important! Moving up and down is actually very important. Some are only able to move up but if they have to move down they are just starting to tilt.

Homework 3!

Question 0: Download and install the Equilab.

• Done a month ago!

Question 1: You are holding KQ. What is your preflop equity against an opponent who has 33? How does the equity change on the following flop: J53? (Tip: you can use the Equilab to help you with this task)

• KsQs has 50.40% preflop equity against 3d3c.
• it will have 26.46% equity on that flop.

Question 2: What would you do in the following hand? (Remember that it is important to explain your reasons, simply posting "Fold" or "Call" is not sufficient)

• if we're up against a set, we have 19% equity to make a flush on the river. calling additional 22cents on a 91 cents pot give us, 22/(22+91) = 19% pot odds. that means we should call.
• if we've up against a straight, then we have a bit larger equity and the more reason for us to call.

Question 3: Post a hand for evaluation where you have a question regarding your post-flop play. (Post your hand in the hand evaluation board, and provide a link to your hand in your private thread in the Locker Room)

• NL10 FR, QQ vs 3bet from NIT

i decided to go to FR for now. variance seems more controllable and had a good start with it earlier so might as well continue with it tomorrow.

going PRO is a long long road. hehehe

i'm so lazy lately, and my volume is very low. i've been thinking a lot lately, even considering going back to MTTs. but i decided to continue on with my cash game journey.

i played NL10 6max today, and played only 6 tables, wherein i could see all the action. i only played around 600 hands but what i can say is, seeing all the action makes a huge difference!

i was only breakeven today but i was satisfied with my plays and i think i learned a lot. i'll improve and improve my game each day starting with the basics.

GG! i'll play DOTA for now. hehe

PS: i hope HM2 gets released soon. i already purchased HEM 1 small stakes and once HEM 2 is released, i will get that 500 SP bonus, go to gold for a month and take a hell advantage of it. hehehe

Good job! Homework #3 Done!

About Question #3:
There are few situations on turn:
a) If we take just odds for the FD and we take into account that all our odds are clean. There 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. Which means that 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! Some more points earned.

i decided to go to FR for now. variance seems more controllable and had a good start with it earlier so might as well continue with it tomorrow.

FR is easy and simple. Just playing straight forward you can easily earn money. Good luck with it.

i'm so lazy lately, and my volume is very low. i've been thinking a lot lately, even considering going back to MTTs. but i decided to continue on with my cash game journey.

Maybe try setting a plan? Like today I am going to play 1k hands or like 1h+1h sessions or whatsoever.

GG! i'll play DOTA for now. heh

Hehe, DOTA is fun. I play sometimes LoL. Although like after every 2 months once or so. ♦ I'd rather donate my time into poker and make some money with it. ♦

PS: i hope HM2 gets released soon. i already purchased HEM 1 small stakes and once HEM 2 is released, i will get that 500 SP bonus, go to gold for a month and take a hell advantage of it. hehehe

Well, I am not really sure about HM2 but HM1 is just the nuts. Hopefully they will build something nice into HM2 as well. Right now there ain't anything what makes me wow.

i'm tilting.... that's why i made my homework. i lost 3 buy-ins in just an hour.....

is cash games really for me? or am i more suited for SnGos and MTTs? should i force myself to learn cash games when i'm more confident with SnGos and MTTs???

hayz... here's my homework 4 coach!

Question 1: Post a hand for evaluation where you have the initiative post-flop. (Post your hand in the Hand evaluation board, and provide a link to your hand in your private thread.)

• NL10 SH, AKo in 3bet pot
• NL10 SH, TJo vs loose player

Question 2: Evaluate one of the hands submitted by other members. (Choose a hand from the Hand evaluation board and post your own evaluation in the thread. Post a link to the hand you have evaluated in your private thread. You can evaluate as many hands as you want, but try to choose hands not yet evaluated by other users first.)

• NL6 KK

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?

• My equity on that spot is 41.41%.

i forgot and now i reminded myself one of my principles - that above anything else, mindset is the most important - and one of the critical factors to succeeding.....

i'm more relaxed now.

Good job! Homework #4 Done!

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.

That's totally true that mind-set is very important. Without it you wont become a good poker player anyways. If you tilting or either way are too impatient it will be hard to become a good player. Unless you really spend time to learn yourself and fix those leaks.

About SnG/MTT it's really hard to say. Some like to stick to them, some still switch to cash. Really depends on the variant you like the most. If you really feel that SnG/MTT suits you much more then nobody holds you playing CG. You can always switch if you feel for it.

Hopefully this wasn't too easy homework for you. Some more points earned.

hi Coach!

sorry, i haven't been really doing my homeworks lately. i'd been concentrating with 6-max SnGos and have been doing really well with it.

i think i was able to improve my SH SnGo after learning a bit of playing SH cash games. but for now, i can really see myself moving smoothly up the ladder in SnGos.

just an update.

Hello YinYangS,

That's good with the course, you can do whenever you want to the homeworks. Don't worry about it. If you like sngs then go for it. Although my advice would be still to stick to one variant and try to learn it properly. Maybe if sngs suit you better then try sgns for a while.

Best Regards & Best of Luck @ SnGs.

hi Coach!

i'm back! i'm here again because i'll give cash games another kick. since i'm gold now, although just temporarily, i had access to a lot of articles and been reading them.

SnGos was going well for a while until I can't I can't seem to win anymore. yeah, had a taste of variance and stuffs. here's my graph and stats:

why i'm back to cash games? i figured there's less variance in cash game because there are more variables one can control. in SnGos, when it comes to push stages, it comes down a lot on luck. and so fishes gets to have a chance to be lucky more often.

also, i figured if i invest lots of time studying, i can crush cash games soon. and sometimes, it's all about the right mindsetting.

here's my graph recently in cash games,

i'm proud with how i'm starting again. but i know there's still lots of leaks to be fixed.

so here I am again, i'm in your care.

Great to have you back. Hopefully you enjoy the content of Gold? Especially the videos.

Somehow I like cash more, I guess it's the thing that I can always leave the tables whenever I want but in SnG you just have to play till it's over. ♦ But of course they are fun as well.

Seems like you had really nice run and played really solid poker. Well done!