[Closed] Chromehead

Hey Pete,

Welcome to the NL Beginners Course!

You certainly couldn't have came to a better place to help you get your head around cash games.

SNGs and Cash differ in so many ways and I am sure with plenty of hard work and dedication to the school program you will learn plenty and become a successful cash player as well.

As for you're question, I will ask one of the guys to come in and answer it for you as soon as they can.

Wishing you every success and hope you enjoy the course

Kind regards,

Gary

Hello Chromehead,

Yes, it will be possible to watch the coachings later on.

Best regards.

Thanks Gary and Veriz, for making me feel welcome, and with the coaching recorded I will be able to watch these when I can.
I have now watched the first coaching and the introduction to the BSS school .I notice that the starting hands ranges you use are looser that in the sit and goes style tables, even though it is considered tight aggressive style. Is this because the game is played a lot more after the flop?

Here is the homework for the first lesson:

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker? Of course I am very attracted by the money and I like winning at things I play, but I also like the idea of improving my mind and learning the analytical skills that other players use.
I also like the social aspect, I live in England and I am also a member of other forums which hold get togethers , and we try to qualify online for the same live tournaments so we can meet up, and share bad beat stories etc. I would like to learn the skills used by a good cash player, both online and live as tournament poker is limited in that very few people playing can win ie: 100-10000 start and 10-15% get paid, but if you are winning at cash someone at any table goes home a winner , or if online, turns the table off up.

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker? I think one of my major weaknesses seems to be not being able to put opponnents on a hand/range of hands especially when the flop is not hitting me and not coordinated and then knowing what to do about bets after that.I can't see wether I'm ahead or behind in the hand, I seem to win small hands after the flop and lose bigger hands. I think I handle tilt fairly well as i can be patient , but sometimes catch myself playing against particular opponents because i just lost to them, and thats definately tilt, so if that happens i just try to turn off that table next time the blinds come round.
Question 3: What does it mean to play tight-aggressive? This is playing a smaller range of higher cards than the average , so that when you get them you know you are above the average range and so it is right to bet heavier for two reasons,
1. If you have the better hand you get more in the pot to win,
or
2. Everyone else folds leaving you to collect whats already in the pot.

This may be just the blinds though, so I have one question already. Is it more aggressive in the long run to min raise or call with AA and KK and try to get people to raise after you? I often do this in sit and goes if there is a loose aggressive opponent.

Cheers, Pete.

Hello Chromehead,

It was pretty much a intro Coaching. I will stick to the basic BSS chart in future.

Most of the weakness you wrote can easily be fixed with you posting hands. We will start writing feedback to your play. And usually negative feedback will put you into thinking phase and trying to fix all those leaks. It's almost the same as you loose money, you will remember it more than winning part.

But I'd still give you a small tip about tilt:
Easiest wait 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 wanting. Some may put it higher, some lower. And after the stop you can easily just spend some time with evaluating your play.

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

Thanks for the tip about stop losses Veriz. Can you use it the same as you would for share trading to lock in profits, that is, for instance: on a single table ( which is all I'm playing until I get to a level I consider winning) of NL4 if I get to say $8, say that if I go back down to $5 after a hand, then I should be leaving the table to lock in profit?
I'm not talking about not using my stack during a hand, but between hands if I've lost some of my profit .The short stack strategy I read when joining the site had you leaving after being 25 blinds up, but I don't think you can maximise your profits that way.
What do you think?

Question 1: What do you think you could play differently than how it is in the BSS Starting Hands Chart, and why?
Definately, for blind stealing purposes, if I am in late position I think it is profitable to open raise with a range including Ax and suited Kings, and maybe higher one or two gapper suited cards .This needs to be against tight blinds, not very loose aggressive players , or calling stations who call anything.
The idea is to get them to fold, but in case they call , still have decent equity against their tighter range.If called you have the initiative, and are in postion on them, so can re-evaluate on the flop, to see if you are likely ahead or not.

Question 2: Post a hand for evaluation where you have a question regarding your pre-flop play.
Here's 2 i did.

NL4 K6off SB to BB Preflop

NL4 88 preflop blind on blind

Question 3: What is the equity of AKo against the top 5% range? 5% means: 88+, AJs+, KQs, AKo? 
46.32%
from equilab:

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

Question: I don't have a hud/stats,but do you actually see preflop calling ranges this tight when you are playing? Or is it just an excercise in making sure we can use the equilab?
I think a more realistic minimum calling range preflop is : about 10.7%
22+, AJs+, KQs, AJo+, KQo
against this range the AKo is slightly ahead with a 52.67% equity.

Good job! Homework #2 Done!

In BSS you can play as long you want and as how many BBs you have. Although for the beginning I would rather advice not to play 200BB deep. When you get more used to the postflop play and also having better BR then why not even to play deep-stack.

Totally agree with you about the stealing ranges. They can be very easily be balanced with even wider range. Depending on the opponent you can as well put a wider stealing range. Against some shorties you can even steal with smaller raise. But don't overdo the stealing situations. Sometimes you might just put yourself into too many difficult spots if opening with marginal hands.

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

Question 1: You are holding K♠ Q♠ . What is your preflop equity against an opponent who has 3♦ 3♣ ? How does the equity change on this flop: J♠ 5♦ 3♠ ?
Using Equilab I see it is 50.78%
Equity Win Tie
UTG   50.78%  50.40%  0.38% KsQs
UTG+1  49.22%  48.84%  0.38% 3d3c

So basically preflop is a coinflip situation.

Once the flop comes: J♠ 5♦ 3♠ our equity in the hand drops considerably. We need to improve, but the 3 of a kind is a made hand so using the equilab again we see a total equity of 26.46%

Equity Win Tie
UTG   26.46%  26.46%  0.00% KsQs
UTG+1  73.54%  73.54%  0.00% 3d3c

Even if we hit a flush with a spade the board can pair to give the opponent a full house.This shows how strong a three of a kind on the flop is.

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!)
No Limit hold'em $2 (9-handed)Players and stacks: UTG: $2.00
UTG+1: $2.08
MP1: $1.92
MP2: $1.00
MP3: $3.06
CO: (Hero) $2.08
BU: $2.00
SB: $2.00
BB: $1.24
Preflop: Hero is CO with A♣ J♣ 5 folds, Hero raises to $0.08, BU calls $0.08, SB folds, BB calls $0.06.
Flop: ($0.25) 2♣ 6♦ 3♦  (3 players) BB checks, Hero checks, BU checks.
Turn: ($0.25) 5♣  (3 players) BB checks, Hero bets $0.22, BU raises to $0.44, BB folds, Hero...?

Preflop the raise in late postion is called by the BU, and completed by the BB, so they probably bot have top 10% hands but not QQ+ pairs or AK+ or I think they would raise, but including any pair for value.The flop comes very draw heavy but nobody bets.On the turn we (Hero) have a flush draw, this gives us 9 outs , but we have to discount the 6♣ and 3♣ in case of button having three of a kind,making a full house.There is also a gutshot straight draw, but we will not win with that, just possibly split the pot, and in the case of a 7 in BU's hand lose.
This leaves us 7 outs , this means we have odds of roughly 6-1 to make a flush. As we only get 4-1 pot odds under normal conditions the odds make the call not worth it , unless the implied odds are taken into consideration. Can we expect more chips in the pot on the river?
As the Button is aggressive on the turn can we expect a bet or call on the River?
As there are only 2 clubs on the board I think a river bet would be called. We need $0.41 to make the odds, but I'm confident he would call a half pot bet of $0.55-$0.60.
So: I would call the Turn bet $0.22 and re-evaulate on the river.
If a club comes we check raise, (the button may have a lower club flush) unless it is the 4♣ , completing the gutshot on board, and our flush, when we jam the pot all in, hoping he does too. An Ace or Jack maybe worth a call in case the Button has an over pair and doesn't improve. Any Diamond, or 3 or 6 we check-fold.

Link to hands for evaluation:

Top Pair Top Kicker, could I have got more?

TT against 4 players on the flop

https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=150909

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 #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.