Shuttled

Hey Shuttled

Nice work on signing up for the beginner's course and congrats on completing your first homework. I think it's really cool of you to take the course despite being a solid winner at nl50. Hope all goes well. Bogdan, the coach that will be checking your homework, will be by in the coming days.

Regards,
Luke

Hi Joris,

Great work with the first homework. It really shows you put in a lot of effort.

It sounds like most of your weaknesses, as identified by you, have to do with your mental game.

Thus I highly recommend that you dedicate some time to work on them and these forums (as well as videos/articles) have a lot of material on the subject.

Best of luck,

Bogdan

Hey Bogdan,

Yeah I think you are right, I am planning for this month to work on my concentration problems (any tips?) as well as the beginners course and more pokerstrategy articles. You guys have so much information available, it would be a shame not to use it!

And the plan for next month is to start on "The mental game on poker" from Jared Tendler, I've heared this is a great book to work on your mental state and to improve your c-game, where I think I have the most to improve.

In the meanwhile I hope to grind my way up to a decent bankroll for 50nl before the end of the year, because next year I want to start my Supernova challange grind.

Homework lesson 2:

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

I think the chart is really tight and I would adjust my calling or raising range a lot depending how loose or tight the opponent is.

The biggest difference I think is in late position (depending on the opponents behind you) open a lot more hands to steal the blinds. For example:
- the button plays 12/10 I would open the CO like I was on the button.
- I'm on the button and the blinds both fold 80% of hands I would open almost any 2 cards.

(I'm playing 6max zoom btw)

What I don't like about the chart is that it suggests to openlimp small/medium pp's, because I think you just can't get away with it anymore.

Question 2: Do you have questions about your preflop play? Post your hand for evaluation.
I have just looked trough my HM2 database from the last week to find some hands I wasn't sure about.

Hand 1&2: AQo spots

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

46.32% against this range. (used equitylab for this)

Hey, already for some time after I posted my homework I didn't get a reply on my post is there a reason for this?

Anyway I wanted to post a graph of my last 6k hands. (I know it's a small sample but I would like to see what you think about it)

I am trying to open up my game more (especially preflop), because I think a lot of people at 25nl don't play back well to agression. They either fold to too many 3bets (free money) or start to 4bet you really light and instafold to 5b-shoves. Or in the best case start to call your 3bet OOP and c/f if they miss the flop.

Here are my stats over these 6k hands:
VPIP: 26,9
PFR: 22,8
3Bet: 11.4
bb/100: 15,1

Any other interesting stats I should post?

Hi Joris,

For improving concentration I recommend trying to remove all distractions as well as trying to keep your sessions shorter so you can keep your concentration level. Generally you lose concentration as you get tired or bored of an action.

Good job on the 2nd homework as well (I missed the post for some reason) but everything looks good.

And good job on the last 6k hands. You graph looks really good although it seems that you are very aggressive at non showdowns which get your red line higher than your blue. So this may be a problem moving forward as you may be spewing a lot of money.

Currently I am working on getting platinum status to join the december bootcamp, I'm About half way at the moment. Concentration is going well while playing and I am practicing to try and stop playing when I feel that I don't play my best.

Homework week 3:

Question 0: Download and install the Equilab. (You can download the Equilab for free here: PokerStrategy.com Equilab.)

Done

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

Preflop : 50.78%
Flop : 26.46%

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

Hero : Call

The total pot is: 0,25 + 0,22 + 0,44 = 0,91
Amount to call: 0,22
Pot odds: 0,22/0,91 = 4,14

Assuming the villain has a 4 in his hand and hit a straight hero needs to hit his flush to have the best hand.

Odds to hit the flush = 4:1

Pot odds > Odds to hit the flush, so we get the direct odds to hit the flush, this alone is a reason to call. Another plus is that on the river when hero hits the flush he can win another bet of villain most of the time (adds implied odds).

Question 3: Do you have questions about your postflop play? Post your hand for evaluation. (Post your hand in the hand evaluation forum and provide a link to your hand in your private thread in the Locker Room.)

Hand 3

Hi Joris

Glad to hear things are going well.

Good job with the homework.

I generally recommend looking at odds in the % form because it's easier to use that while playing.

So for example we need to call 0.22 to win 1.13 so 0.22/1.13 * 100 = 19.5%

Odds to hit a flush, if all outs are live, are 9 * 2 so about 18%.

So pot odds are not actually in our favor but we do have implied odds.

Yeah I agree that it is easier to work with pot odds in %. I definately have to work into implementing this into my game. Because now most of what I do when drawing is guessing (instead of calculating odds). Here I could have potential leaks when I look at implied odds or direct odds.

Homework week 4:

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

TT vs flopraise

Question 2: Evaluate one of the hands submitted by other members.
JJ vs Fish Nl25

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?

Used equilab for this one, we have an equity of 41.41%

Homework week 5:

Question 1: Post a hand for evaluation where you have based your decisions on the stats of your opponents.
K9s profitable 5b?

Question 2: Evaluate one of the hands submitted by other members.
NL10 SH Zoom AQ 3bet pot

Question 3: Consider the following situation:

$10 NL Hold'em (7-handed)

Stacks & Stats:
UTG ($10)
MP ($8)
MP2 ($9)
CO ($10)
Hero($10)
SB ($10) (17/13/2.6/24/1212) [VPIP/PFR/AF/WTS/Hands]
BB ($10) (27/9/2.0/29/333) [VPIP/PFR/AF/WTS/Hands]

Preflop: Hero is BU with 6Diamond , 7Diamond
4 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, SB calls $0.40, BB calls $0.40

Flop: ($1.20) 3Diamond , 3Heart , TDiamond (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($1.20) JDiamond (3 players)
SB bets $1.00, BB calls $1.00, Hero...

What action would you take, and why?

Raise to $4, the only hands that beat us are 33, TT and JJ and a higher flush. At least JJ would have been 3bet preflop some of the time by either player. So we think we are ahead here and want to raise for value.

We also want to protect our hand since we only have a small flush and charge draws to a higher flush. We want to make it enough so they can't draw profitably.

If we make it $4 they need to call $3 to win $6,20, which is about 2:1 or 33%. They have 7 outs on the river (as we hold 2 of the flushcards) which is about 15%. So they won't have a profitable call.

If they hit we won't call another bet and they won't have any implied odds.


Question 4: Consider the following situation:

$10 NL Hold'em (8-handed)

Stacks & Stats
UTG ($8)
MP ($10)
MP2 ($9)
MP3 ($6)
Hero ($10)
BU ($10) (25/21/3.8/26/1250) [VPIP/PFR/AF/WTS/Hands]
SB ($10)
BB ($10)

Preflop: Hero is CO with JHeart , JSpade
4 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, BU 3-bets to $1.30, 2 folds, Hero calls $1.30

Flop: ($2.75) 6Heart , 9Spade , TClub (2 players)
Hero...

What action would you take, and why?

I would actually 4b/call here most of the timeCO vs BTN against an aggressive opponent. (But I would ofcource use 3b/4b/5b stats for this as well)

As played I would check/call here. With a check-raise you are overrepresenting your hand and can expect to only get called by stronger hands. And a check/fold here is just too weak with an overpair.

About the turnplay:
I would c/c here when comes a 7,8, T or Q for additional outs, c/r when comes a J and C/F when comes a K,A,T or blank

Note:
A line you could take against a passive opponent is to donk here, they will call their medium strength hands and raise their strong hands and fold their missed hands. Their range will be pretty face up. But in this case our opponent has an AF of 3.8 and we don't want to bet/fold our overpair here.

Good job with the homeworks, keep it up.

As far as the equity/pot odds in % goes I do agree that you would want to get familiarized with it and apply it in your daily game.

Some helpful tips:

A bet of 1/2 gives you 25% pot odds (before rake)
A bet of pot gives you 33% pot odds (before rake)>

Thus a bet between half pot and pot will give you between 25 and 33% pot odds.

Can you estimate your pot odds when facing a 2/3 pot bet? Can you easily calculate what your pot odds are for a 2/3 pot bet?

To first answer your question, I think it goes like this:
he bets 2 into 3
so you have to call 2 to win 5
which is 2/7 = ~28,6%

It has been a while, I haven't really focussed on the beginners course lately. But I have decided I want to finish it, so here is my homework of week 6:


Question 1: Post a hand for evaluation where you have either a) freeplay, b) slowplay, or c) multi-way pot situation.

NL25 zoom - 3way with gutshot

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

25n AKs 3bet pot

Question 3: Consider the following situation:
$25 NL Hold'em (10 handed)

Stacks & Stats
UTG ($25)
UTG+1 ($25) rock
UTG+2 ($25)
MP1 ($25)
MP2 ($25) LAG
MP3 ($25) maniac
CO ($25)
Hero BU ($25)
SB ($25)
BB ($25) calling station

Preflop: Hero is BU with QHeart , JHeart
5 folds, MP3 raises $1.00, CO calls $1.00, Hero calls $1.00, 1 fold, BB calls $1.00

Flop: ($4.10) 3Heart , JClub , ADiamond (4 players)
BB checks, MP3 checks, CO checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($4.10) QClub (4 players)
BB bets $2.05, 2 folds, Hero...?

What action would you take, and why?

Call, the BB bets into 4 people, he likely has an ace or better. (flop he would most likely check to the agressor) Even though he is a calling station, I doubt he would call your raise en check/call a riverbet with Ax as you show so much strenght. Also if you raise and he 4bets you have to lay your hand down.

I think you can just go for 2 streets of value and either call turn and call river (unless a 4straight comes on the board) or call turn and bet river if he checks.

Good work with the latest homework.

You are correct with your calculations and when you play at the tables you don't really need to worry about exact numbers as long as you can guesstimate (be within a few %s of the actual number).

Question 1: Post a hand for evaluation where you have played on a 6-max table (short-handed).

AK

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

Set on drawy board

Question 3: Consider the following situation:

$10 NL Hold'em (6 handed)

Stacks & Stats:
UTG ($10)
MP ($10)
CO ($10)
BU($10)
SB ($10)
BB (Hero) ($10)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5heart , 4heart
2 folds, CO raises to $0.40, BU calls $0.40, SB calls $0.40, Hero calls $0.40

Flop: ($1.60) 3spade , 2Heart , Qheart (4 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.20, CO Raises All-in, BU calls All-in, SB folds, Hero...

What action would you take, and why?

Fold, there is a good chance that one of the villains has a higher flushdraw and against this we only have a backdoor straightflushdraw to win.


Question 4: Consider the following situation:

$10 NL Hold'em (6 handed)

Stacks & Stats:
UTG ($10)
MP ($10)
CO (Hero) ($10)
BU($10)
SB ($10)
BB ($10)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Aclub , Kspade
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, BU calls $0.40, SB calls $0.40, BB calls $0.40

Flop: ($1.60) Aspade , 4club , 4diamond (4 players)
SB checks, BB bets $1.20, Hero...

What action would you take, and why?

Call, board is so dry and we have position, we can call any turncard again and decide on the river if we want to fold to a triple barrel.

Hi Shuttled,

Good job with homework #7.

Glad to see you participated in the hand evaluations by providing a response to someone else.

Keep up the good work and don't forget to update us on your progress at the tables as well.

Best regards,

Bogdan

Cheers Bogdan,

As far as the tables concerned, I tried to set up to go for SN this year, but by pushing it too hard early and having a 25 bi downswing. (basicly my graph went 45 degrees up at first and after just down down down) This due to playing too many hands that I'm not used to and bad run of cards didn't work out.

The good news is that I noticed already after a few weeks that a volumegoal isn't working for me atm I get back to working a lot on my game instead of playing volume.

Also today I had a coaching with Shevtshenko, which was absolutely great!

Will be back soon with week #8!

What limits were you trying to achieve SN at?

I think that SN should be a secondary goal to one that's more qualitative (like improving your game).