Svarthjalmar

Well, I decided to spend the night relaxing with my wife last night. Maybe I can get in some hands after work tonight. Anyway, I did read the last of the articles and watch the videos (a little left to watch from the coaching, but getting there).

So I figure I'll do the homework now.

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker?
First of all, I really enjoy it, and I want to get better. Second, I'll admit that I wouldn't mind making some money. I guess a pipe dream would be to have a significant amount set up at some point, but realistically I would at least like to be able to use some of my poker earnings to allow myself some luxuries here and there.

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker?
I think I need to play a bigger volume to know for sure, but I think I have two main weaknesses. First of all, I think I'm a bit impatient. Not so much when playing, but certainly when it comes to variance. After a losing session I tend to feel a bit hopeless. I always quit when I feel I might be tilting (if I bust out of a SNG and feel frustrated, I don't open up another one, and if I start getting mad at the cash tables I stop playing).
My other big weakness is related to this. I think I'm a bit too nitty with my bank roll. As soon as I lose a bit, I quit, and as soon as I'm up a bit I like to quit while I'm ahead. I think I need to learn to relax a bit more and stop being so result oriented, just focus on making +EV decisions. This is probably something that I can only fix through experience, I would imagine.
I think I also need to work on my aggression a bit.

Question 3: What does it mean to play tight aggressive?
Playing TAG is choosing your starting hands carefully, playing strong hands, preferably in position, and playing them aggressively. This is the optimal way to play the micro stakes, since there are a lot of calling stations and maniacs that can't be bluffed off pots, so your hand needs strong showdown value (unless you have a good read and have reason to believe you have fold equity). I think there's a fine line between TAG and nit, mostly having to do with aggression (3betting, Cbetting and so on).
As I said above, I think I need a bit more aggression. I'm good with the tight bit, but sometimes I think I could play a little more aggressively. Again, I need to find the time to put in enough hands to properly analyze this.

Well, back to real life, and I'll finish watching the first coaching session as soon as I can. So far I love it. Great job, Veriz!

Cheers!

On second thought, I won't play after work. Already feeling tired. This is another problem I have. I try to play when I'm tired (and sometimes having a beer - I've stopped that now). Problem is, I have a job, two kids, my wife is a full time student, and I'm also a part time theatre director, which takes up a lot of time. So usually I only have time to play late at night, and I tend to be a bit tired. I'm working on rearranging my schedule so I can make more time for playing poker. Anyway, probably won't have time to play until late tuesday night (I have plans every night this week, except friday, but some of those engagements might end early, so I'll try to play then). I'm going to try to study in the mornings (more likely to work) so I have more time to play at night. Even if I only get a half hour in, it's better than nothing, I guess.

Well, better get to work. I'm going to watch a video or two after I'm done, but I won't get to play.

Played a short session (139 hands). Got pretty frustrated after losing two pots in a row and decided to call it a night. I'll post some hands tomorrow. Right now I just want to have a beer and go to bed.

G'night, everybody!

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

Well, I wouldn't really say that you have to do something against it if the tables are nitty. It doesn't always mean that they are good players. But try to table-select more, there should be enough of good tables on low-limits.

Impatience is actually a huge leak for a lot of poker players. You have to find yourself a way how you gonna ignore it or make it disappear. Try every time remind yourself! Forcing into your life to be more patient in any activity you do, not only poker. Force! Force! Force! Always remind what you came to do and the patience will just help you earning more salary not the opposite. The more you practice, the more you will get used to it and even at some point realize that you even ignoring it.

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?"

Oh and sorry for not answering you right away, sometimes might take some days for me to answer. Don't worry, I will answer anyways. Good luck on tables!

Hopefully you will enjoy the Course.