[Coaching] No-Limit [Expert] with benjo

October 8th
Played a session NL400 on stars. Unfortunately i wound up loosing 2 stacks. I feel like ive been pretty carddead. i lost the only 2 big pots i played

1)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3296715
In my opinion a standard cooler.Villain was running some tight numbers (17/16). Anyways NL400 is already a pretty aggressive limit and we started this hand 5 handed. Villain can have a pretty wide range here. Not only will he fold a lot but also pay off with worse TT/JJ/AK. Queens are definately strong enough to go with here.

2)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3296758
This one is bit more thin. Villain was pretty aggro,playing 25/21,stealing pretty much always first in on the button. I already reraised him a couple of times and he already 4bet me once succesfully. Given this history i think 9s are strong enough to go with here. Hell rarely pay off with worse. Sometimes however he will feel commited with hands like Ax o/s , 88 and sometimes well flip when hes got overs. He might also be bluffing and planning to fold against a shove.
Plus if we fold here we pretty much give villain the chance to continuesly push us around and due to the given reasons its a good spot to make a stand

nice review, almost feel like I didn't miss much
I'll definitely try to be there next time.

October 15th
Finally had a good session, wound up winning almost 3 stacks.

Here are some of the most important hands.

1)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3328213
PF: 8s,definately strong enough to open with.
Flop: bottom set, standard cbet
Turn: definately bet. there are lots of draws. plus theres a good chance villain picked up a 2pair hand like QJ,KQ or improved to a comob draw. so we should give him a chance to raise and we can get it in. if beat we still have 10 outs.
River: flushdraw gets there. still we dont want villain to check back Kx or 2pair hands. so we bet for value. villain shoves on us for a bit more than a minraise,i think its been 185 more. i pretty much never see him bluffin here given the fact that we are getting great odds and have shown a lot of strength. plus why should he turn twopair/toppair hands into a bluff and with what else does he call flop and turn besides a flushdraw.

2)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3328253
This one happended right after this hand. In the 2nd hand villain called our cbet with A hi. Afterwards we gave up cause we had not outs and i put him more on at least a 1pair hand like 98,T9,78 etc...
Due to that weve been in a good spot with our JJ. We raised pre and bet the flop like we did in the A2s hand. Thats pretty standard anyways. However now we know that villain is calling our cbets very light. Therefore we dont wanna give him a chance to potcontrol the turn with weak madehands. Plus our line might a look a bit bluffy, because now we know that villain calls cbets light. Given that it might be tempting for him to call us down with any pair on ragged board like that so we just bet all 3 streets for value...

Octobre 22nd

played almost 500hands on 2/4 sh @ stars. wound up winning ~$330

even though i suffered to some beats in the beginning

1)
Party Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: $421
Hero (BTN): $532.10
SB: $447
BB: $154.90
UTG: $138.60

Pre-Flop: T♥ Q♥ dealt to Hero (BTN)
2 folds, Hero raises to $12, SB folds, BB raises to $20, Hero calls $8

Flop: ($42) Q♦ 9♦ 8♥ (2 Players)
BB bets $44, Hero raises to $328, BB calls $90.90 and is All-In

Turn: ($311.80) T♠ (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($311.80) 6♦ (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $311.80 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed T♥ Q♥ and LOST (-$154.90 NET)
BB showed A♦ 2♦ and WON $308.80 (+$153.90 NET)

2)
Party Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $400
Hero (UTG): $535.10
CO: $682.60
BTN: $205.15
SB: $346

Pre-Flop: A♥ K♦ dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $12, 2 folds, SB calls $10, BB folds

Flop: ($28) T♥ K♠ A♣ (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $22, SB raises to $60, Hero calls $38

Turn: ($148) 8♠ (2 Players)
SB bets $80, Hero raises to $463.10 and is All-In, SB calls $194 and is All-In

River: ($696) 7♣ (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $696 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed A♥ K♦ and LOST (-$346 NET)
SB showed Q♣J♠ and WON $693 (+$347 NET)

it looked so much like QJ but i just didnt know how to fold top2 here.

3)
Party Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: $100
BTN: $598.40
SB: $534.30
BB: $380
UTG: $92
Hero (MP): $414.70

CO posts $4
Pre-Flop: 2♦ A♦ dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $16, CO calls $12, 3 folds

Flop: ($38) A♣ 7♥ T♣ (2 Players)
Hero bets $24, CO raises to $84 and is All-In, Hero calls $60

Turn: ($206) J♣ (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($206) T♠ (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $206 Pot ($3 Rake)
CO showed T 9 and WON $203 (+$103 NET)
Hero showed 2♦ A♦ and LOST (-$100 NET)

4)
Party Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: $303.30
BTN: $548.40
SB: $400
BB: $158.60
UTG: $406
Hero (MP): $580.65

Pre-Flop: A♠ 6♠ dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $12, CO folds, BTN calls $12, SB calls $10, BB folds

Flop: ($40) 9♣ A♥ Q♥ (3 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $24, BTN calls $24, SB calls $24

Turn: ($112) 6♦ (3 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $70, BTN calls $70, SB calls $70

River: ($322) T♥ (3 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks, BTN bets $200, 2 folds

Results: $322 Pot
BTN showed and WON $519 (+$413 NET)

reviewing this hand im pretty sure that i was behind on the flop ahead on the turn and again behind on the river

5)
Party Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $441.30
UTG: $566.40
CO: $400
BTN: $400
Hero (SB): $472.65

Pre-Flop: 9♣ 9♥ dealt to Hero (SB)
3 folds, Hero raises to $16, BB raises to $28, Hero calls $12

Flop: ($56) 3♦ T♣ 6♣ (2 Players)
Hero checks, BB checks

Turn: ($56) 6♦ (2 Players)
Hero bets $40, BB calls $40

River: ($136) 7♥ (2 Players)
Hero checks, BB bets $36, Hero calls $36

Results: $208 Pot ($2 Rake)
BB showed A♥ Q and LOST (-$104 NET)
Hero showed 9♣ 9♥ and WON $206 (+$102 NET)

it just a look like exactly what he had from the turn.i think i also pointed this out while playing the hand

Novembre 12th

lol
here the only big hand i played today. villain has already done this donk shove into me once. i folded than because i had air. plus in an other hand he shoved TT on a 652 board over a $20 Cbet for almost a stack.
So we know that he does it frequently and we know that he doenst necesarrly has to have the nuts for that. so we call and obviously run into the nutstraight after he chased his gutshot on the flop =(

Party Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $646.35
BB: $400
UTG: $647.70
CO: $847.95
Hero (BTN): $529.45

Pre-Flop: 2♥ 2♦ dealt to Hero (BTN)
2 folds, Hero raises to $12, SB raises to $20, BB folds, Hero calls $8

Flop: ($44) J♥ Q♦ 2♠ (2 Players)
SB bets $16, Hero raises to $60, SB calls $44

Turn: ($164) T♥ (2 Players)
SB bets $566.35 and is All-In, Hero calls $449.45 and is All-In

River: ($1,062.90) 4♠ (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $1,062.90 Pot ($118.90 Rake)
SB showed AK and WON $944 (+$414.55 NET)
Hero showed 2♥ 2♦ and LOST (-$529.45 NET)

November 26th
Unfortunately i cant serve u guys with hand histories since my holdem manager decided to destroy itself instead of updating so i did not import any handhistories.
However the session was pretty decent and i think i wound up winning a bit. Unfortunately i lost a big pot though where i opened AKo. A bad player called and a regular in the blinds squeezed. I decided to make reraise and call a shove instead of shoving immediately because people rather put it in when they have the chance to shove rather than calling of their entire stack.
However i made a bet sizing mistake here. I opened to 14 which is standard(NL400), got squeezed to ~56 and than i made it ~162 which is way to big because i was in position and the amount made it pretty obvious that i commited myself since its way more then a third of my stack. I shouldve made it around ~110 in order to give the illusion that a shove over my raise still has foldequity. And if called i can still just jam every flop when checked to.Looking forward to my next session,regards

December 10th
oooohhh what a horrible session. unfortunately we faced very aggressive opponents and had to put it in preflop very thin twice.
To make it short we wound up with TT against AQ in the first hand and with AQ against 88 in the second one for a whole stack each. Both flips lost
Two more intresting hands:
1)
Great spot,we pick up AA after a limp so we isolate. Well we tried to...
since everyone except SB overcalled. On this flop i think if we bet we almost overrepresent our hand or basically turn our hand face up cause we would never bluff bet on a cordinated board like that into 4 opponents. So we check and see what happens,maybe it goes bet-raise or bet-call and we can fold our hand. Or the shortstack jams it in and if noone calls we can look him up. We pretty much only do good against his shoving range.
However turn brings a four straight and first player leads ,easy fold..
Party Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $470
BB: $439
UTG: $996.60
Hero (MP): $465.80
CO: $112
BTN: $394

Pre-Flop: A♦ A♠ dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG calls $4, Hero raises to $20, CO calls $20, BTN calls $20, SB folds, BB calls $16, UTG calls $16

Flop: ($102) 8♦ 6♠ 9♦ (5 Players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero checks, CO checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($102) 5♠ (5 Players)
BB bets $80, 4 folds

Results: $102 Pot
BB showed and WON $179 (+$159 NET)

2)
Theres not much to say about this hand.Everything is pretty standard to the river. Here some ppl might argue just to call but i dont see a reason for that since it looks just a lot like villain is trying to see a free showdown with a weaker Ace.We would lose a lot of value by not raising and granting A7-AQ a cheap showdown.
Party Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $341.30
UTG: $1,039.20
MP: $400
CO: $406
Hero (BTN): $533
SB: $400

Pre-Flop: K♠ A♠ dealt to Hero (BTN)
3 folds, Hero raises to $12, SB folds, BB calls $8

Flop: ($26) A♥ 5♦ 6♣ (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $16, BB calls $16

Turn: ($58) A♦ (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $45, BB calls $45

River: ($148) 3♣ (2 Players)
BB bets $88, Hero raises to $460 and is All-In, BB calls $180.30 and is All-In

Results: $684.60 Pot
BB showed and WON $681.60 (+$340.30 NET)
Hero showed K♠ A♠ and WON $191.70 (-$149.60 NET)

January 7th

Played about 600 hands on stars. unfortunately i have to say that the games on stars arent juicy at all. lots and lots of regulars and not many bad players. but maybe im also running really bad at table selection...

here are two intresting hands from the session:

1)
In this hand i 3bet a guy who used to minraise quite a bit. BB was new to the table and also overcalls.I think when ppl coldcall a 3bet like that their most likely holdings are TT/JJ/QQ the ocasional KK/AA and sometimes AK/AQ. So mostly premiums. Even though i flopped TPTK here im really not in great shape against BB's range.Im not a big fan of a cbet here because i basically have to fold to a check raise. However when checked trough on the flop i really think i can fold the turn even though im getting some good odds. BB's range is as stated pretty strong and if he missed with AK or TT theres basically no reason for him to bluff here cause the board can easily hit me OR mp. however i was to much of a station on the turn and on the river when i actually suck out against the ocasional KK/AA theres no way out against this 1/3rd pot bet
Villain had jax btw.

Party Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): $400
BTN: $400
SB: $430
BB: $400
UTG: $59.55
MP: $378.55

Pre-Flop: A♣ Q♥ dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, MP raises to $8, Hero raises to $32, 2 folds, BB calls $28, MP calls $24

Flop: ($98) J♠ Q♠ 8♣ (3 Players)
BB checks, MP checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($98) 7♠ (3 Players)
BB bets $40, MP folds, Hero calls $40

River: ($178) Q♦ (2 Players)
BB bets $64, Hero calls $64

Results: $306 Pot ($3 Rake)

2)
In this hand my QQ gets called in two places. I decide to cbet in order to protect my hand which could easily be good.Im also aware that im showing a lot of strength by betting into two ppl here. When just called BTN's most likely holdings are numberous flushdraws or a king, since i expect him to raise better hands cause a) i showed strength and b) the board is drawy.
However there are not to many kings in his range, AK hes probably raising preflop.Basically KQ/KJ/KT and not everyone overcalls there with KT/KJ.
So i went ahead and bet the turn aswell with the intention to fold to a raise cause theres always the chance of villain slowplaying. On the river my plan was to c/c because betting KQ/KJ/KT here would be really thin and BTN should realize that he should be glad to take the free sd.However if his FD is busted he might see an oportunity to bluff.
However he decideds not to with his busted AQss and i take down a decent sized pot.

Party Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (UTG): $474.95
MP: $1,221.95
CO: $411.60
BTN: $637.60
SB: $84.75
BB: $318.95

Pre-Flop: Q♥ Q♦ dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $16, MP calls $16, CO folds, BTN calls $16, 2 folds

Flop: ($54) K♦ 2♠ 5♠ (3 Players)
Hero bets $35, MP folds, BTN calls $35

Turn: ($124) 7♥ (2 Players)
Hero bets $72, BTN calls $72

River: ($268) 4♣ (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Results: $268 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed Q♥ Q♦ and WON $265 (+$142 NET)
BTN showed and LOST (-$123 NET)

January 28th

hi all,
played about 600 hands on FTP Nl400 and wound up winning around $80 or so, so basically an even session. I had one really intresting hand where i made a pretty sick riverbluff...

FTP $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG: $264.90
Hero (MP): $400
CO: $640.55
BTN: $400
SB: $215.90
BB: $444.10

Pre-Flop: Q♠ J♠ dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $14, CO calls $14, BTN folds, SB calls $12, BB folds

Flop: ($46) 8♣ T♠ 2♣ (3 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $28, CO calls $28, SB folds

Turn: ($102) 4♦ (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO checks

River: ($102) K♥ (2 Players)
Hero bets $56, CO raises to $140, Hero raises to $358 and is All-In

on the flop i decide to make a loose cbet with overcards,gutshot and the backdoor flushdraw. this is obviously a bit loose but should get a good amount of credit. on the turn i pretty much decided to give up, but villain checks it back.
Since there is a good chance im planning a cr ai (cause i could easily have strong hand e.g. overpair) and the board is pretty drawy i expect him to have a draw a lot more often than a strong made hand.
On the river the king falls i decided to make a small bet, hoping to get him to fold his draws and stuff. however he raises. at this point im pretty sure hes not value raising unless the river improved him. Basically the only strong hand making sence here is KT. I figured he couldve tried buy the pot cheaply with a busted draw instead of giving up so i went over the top.
obviously this is the high variance line but i decided to mix it up a bit for the sake of the coaching

Hi, Benjo informed us that his NL Platin Coaching is taking a summer break on the next 3 mondays:
19/07
26/07
02/08
The next planned NL Platin coaching with benjo will take place on 9th of august.
However as a compensation we are offering something special to you on 26/07 and 02/08!
The coaching form will be a Public Private Coaching - one of our platin members is choosen to be a student and will be coached by our coach chappolini - whereas the crowd will be allowed to take part as listeners to this coaching!

See our thread: Platin members: win a free coaching!

I had the honour to take benjos place for today with a PPC.
Hope to get some feedback from you guys!

The coaching on Monday 16th has to be canceled because benjo hopefully performs well at the EPT in Tallin!

See also our news,tough benjo is not mentioned there:
http://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/world-of-poker/EPT-Tallinn-Day-1A-Allanon-Still-in-the-Race-Bongbob-and-Nazgul-Eliminated_35341/

The Coaching on Monday,8th has to be cancelled for private reasons.
Please check out our video-section until benjo returns on monday 15th.
For all pokerstrategists with platinum+ status we got for example this wonderful video by nanonoko: Midstakes with nanonoko

exams for our coach are nearing and so next monday's coaching unfortunately has to be canceled.
I hope you still enjoy our videos are, maybe the HU-matches between TwiceT and his victi... oponents in the League of Champions-Finals are something for you ?

Hi all,
unfortunately i have to cancel my next coaching on monday 20th.
im going to attend some christmas celebrations with friends from university.
besides monday i wont be seeing those guys for the next 3-4 weeks.
hope you understand.
merry christmas everyone and cu on the 27th

nice coaching nice thoughts...
keep it going benjo....
when will be next session?

Originally posted by intientus
nice coaching nice thoughts...
keep it going benjo....
when will be next session?

Thanks for your feedback, we hope you join in next week - it is on each monday, same time with some exceptions (holidays,exams,illness etc)

Hello,

Last monday I wanted to see this coaching session but I changed my mind when I found out that I had to install the Titan software to observe the tables and not the coach's cards.
In the Portuguese community, we use the free mikogo software. This way, the students have access to the image in the coach screen. It's much easier to keep track of the hands in play and we can see the HUDs and other info important to the decisions made.
It's just a suggestion but I think everybody would appreciate this upgrade.
Thanks.

bye

Originally posted by tfsantos
Hello,

Last monday I wanted to see this coaching session but I changed my mind when I found out that I had to install the Titan software to observe the tables and not the coach's cards.
In the Portuguese community, we use the free mikogo software. This way, the students have access to the image in the coach screen. It's much easier to keep track of the hands in play and we can see the HUDs and other info important to the decisions made.
It's just a suggestion but I think everybody would appreciate this upgrade.
Thanks.

bye

He tfsantos,

It's up to the coaches if they offer this additional service.
The disadvantages are that they are vulnerable to collusion and that this software is limited to 10 users/instance. I hope you understand that not all coaches are willing to offer this software.
PS: btw I think you should give the IPoker-Software a Go since it improved a lot in past time. You can use any IPoker-Skins software.