Tidway442

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker?

Originally it was just a way to be social. I've always enjoyed card games and dice games and poker gave me the opportunity to do it regularly and to make friends.

However the more I learn, I have to be honest and say that I would love to do it to make enough money to be able to do it as a living.

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker?

Online I would definitely say tilting. I don't tend to tilt as much live but online if I lose a big hand (usually if it's my fault) I tend to lose a lot more over the next few hands. Another would be playing slightly too passive. Knowing that chances are I have ther best hand but being scared to bet or raise.

Question 3: What does it mean to play tight aggressive?

A tight aggressive player is one that would only play the premium hands or at least hands that are recommended by a hand chart but when they do play and they hit a decent hand on the flop (or even pre-flop) they will raise and re-raise as much as possible in order to win those big pots

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

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.

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.

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?"

Hopefully you will enjoy the Course.

Question 1

The first would be playing pocket pairs from early position. I understand the theory behind the call 20 and that the reason you would fold 99 UTG is because any re-raise would need to be folded. However if the table is limping a lot you could obviously limp and hope it gets round or if the table is tight you could raise knowing you'll only get one caller and re-evaluate on the flop.

Also suited one gappers are missing completely. I think these would be good to raise with if its folded round to you and you're in LP

Question 2

The only question I have at the moment is about folding QQ or JJ pre-flop. I understand the reasoning behind it. Most players in the lower limits only re-raise with AA or KK and you are therefore behind and should fold.

However i find that a lot of the time when i three bet (with hands other than QQ or JJ) I get either called or it just folds round and I win the pot uncontested. But whenever I get QQ or JJ its like they know and i get re-raised (my raise size is always the same so its not that.) I fold the first time and maybe the second. But the third I might get impatient and re-raise or shove. Sometimes I'm behind and sometimes I'm ahead.

Anyway my question is this realistically should you be trying to get it all in with QQ hoping someone is re-raising with worse or is sticking to the plan and folding always better in the long run?

Question 3

AKo would have 46.32% equity

Sorry for delayed answer, I have been moving to new country so it did take me to set up everything at my place, now I am back and starting to evaluate the homeworks.

Good job! Homework #2 Done!

Playing PPs can be in long run be very profitable, we could even say that you earn the most money with them (except of course KK/AA strong hands ♦). You can always try out either you play them profitable or not by check the programs either you are doing great on early position with PPs or not and base according to that. Although the problem with playing them, especially from EP if you playing FR is the case that you wont always play them profitable and very low ones I would even advice to fold as 22-55 and raise it up like 66-77+.

The only question I have at the moment is about folding QQ or JJ pre-flop. I understand the reasoning behind it. Most players in the lower limits only re-raise with AA or KK and you are therefore behind and should fold.

Yeah, of course it's possible to fold. Depends a lot against which guy we are. Vs a nit we might even threw away vs just a 3bet if it's also huge size.

Anyway my question is this realistically should you be trying to get it all in with QQ hoping someone is re-raising with worse or is sticking to the plan and folding always better in the long run?

Depends a lot on many factors, vs what stack, which position, what kind of opponent and so on. There is no "simple & easy" follow that line in poker.

About Question #3:

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

Hopefully you enjoy the Course so far.

I'm enjoying the course very much. I found the lesson 3 coaching session very interesting and as a result I now understand my last question about folding QQs preflop so much better. In fact the whole lesson 3 was very interesting. Hopefully if I can use implied odds correctly I can make a nice profit at the table.

Question 1

Your preflop equity is 50.78%. The opponents equity is 49.22%. It is basically dead even.

Once the flop has come your opponent has flopped a set and you have flopped the second nutflush draw. Your equity is 26.46% and the opponents equity is 73.54%. Which means you will win 1 time in 4.

Question 2

I would definitely call if you assume you have 9 clean outs. You would need odds of 4:1. In this case you are getting odds of 4.14:1 so you can call getting the correct pot odds.

If you assume your opponent has a set here and therefore would need to discount 6c and 3c you would need odds of 6:1. Which is not the correct pot odds. You would need an extra $0.41 in the pot for this to be a correct call. This would only be about a third of the pot (includin the $0.22 if you called) on the river. So I think you are getting the correct implied odds as even if your opponent thinks you are on a draw you should be able to get a call of one third pot on the river.

Question 3

Here is my hand for evaluation. The guy in the SB was raising quite a bit. Any pocket pairs, AK, AQ. That was the reason for me calling the raise. Once he bet on the flop I was just hoping he was overplaying KK or QQ. I didn't really think he had hit a set on the flop (unless he had AA) and I wasn't too worried about the straight or flush draw. Do you think I should have raised the flop to find out where I stood and do you think I should have gotten away once he bet all three streets?

Overplayed AK

Question 1

set over set

Question 2

nl2fr J9o

Question 3

Win 41.42%
Lose 58.58%

Question 1

My HEM isn't working properly at the moment. I'm using a tv as a monitor and the configuration is all off. It's not lined up with the names and i can't make out most of the stats. So I have posted just a normal hand that bothered me and if I can get it all sorted I will post one where I used stats to make my decision

nl10 KK

Question 2

0.05 NL Pocket Aces

Question 3

When the flop comes down we have a flush draw. Everyone checks and the turn is a diamond giving us a flush. Unfortunately the two other players now get active. With a potential flush out there the SB leads into two players. A sign of strength. By his stats I would say he was a fairly tight player and not overly aggressive postflop so his bet here shows even more strength. It also seems by his WTSD stat that he does mind folding hands. These stats are based on quite a large sample so could be considered reliable.

The BB just calls. He seems to be a bit looser preflop and not very aggressive postflop so a call here doesn't necessarily signify weakness he could easily have a flush as well although more likely have two pair or A :diamond:x or K :diamond:Q or Q :diamond:K or even just K :diamond:x

However with a bet and a call in front of us a 7 high flush doesn't seem too appealing now. There are a lot of cards on the river that would scare us. Another J, another T, another diamond. The best options would either be to:
a) raise and hope that we get to see a cheap showdown. The draw back with this is that even if one of these scare cards doesn't come if the SB leads again we will face an even bigger bet which leads to an even more difficult decision.
b) this leads to option b, go all-in. This takes away any bets on the river that would worry us. The problem is we can have 0% equity at this point.
c) call for pot control and hope to get to a cheap showdown. It could get checked all round but even if the SB decides to lead again it will be a smaller bet than if we'd have raised and got a call and this makes a decision easier.

I think the best option here is to call for pot control and re-evaluate things on the river.

Question 4

We have hit an overpair to the board against a really aggressive player. His raise preflop could signify AK or AQ or 88+. . The aim here is to try to get the player to bluff at the pot. We have 3 options
a) We could lead here and donk. This could lead to a raise in which case we could re-raise or a call in which case we are building a nice pot. One draw back though is that this could lead to a fold and against such an aggressive opponent we don't want that
b) we could check hoping for a cbet in which case we could raise
c) we could check hoping for a cbet in which case we call hoping to induce another bluff on the turn.

I would check raise. He's loose and aggressive enough to call or raise again and although it could generate a fold against such a player we want to build the pot so if he tries to bluff again on the turn he will have to bet that much bigger

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 #2:
There are several occasions on turn:
a) If we take just odds for the FD and we take into account that all our odds are clean. 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 so that means 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, keep going!

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.

If you have interests you could try calculating the equity with a formula which you can use even on tables(either playing online or live poker):
(Amount of outs x 4) – (Amount of outs – 8) = Your Equity

About Question #3:

Board: J♠9♣8♥
       Equity     Win     Tie
UTG    41.41%  41.41%   0.00% { KsQd }
UTG+1  58.59%  58.59%   0.00% { 7h7c }

Hopefully this wasn't too easy homework for you.

Good Job! Homework #5 Done!

About Task #3
It's a very close decision: does protection or pot control weigh heavier here? Do you want to protect against hands like 3x or A:dx and K:dx? Or do you want to control the pot size and try to induce a bluff on the river in case there is no T, no J and no additional ♦?

Raise/fold is out of question - with the given pot size and the good made hand you have, it can't even be considered.

In case you decide to go broke, you can't really be blamed either. It's not a sign of weakness that the rather tight small blind decides to bet into two people here, though. I would say a call is to be slightly favored, while the many outs against you are annoying. The big blind who calls rather loosely speaks in favor of a raise/broke again. Both options are finally considered equal, which shows - all things considered - how close and full of variance these spots really are.

About Task #4
You've called pre-flop and then hit a good board. You basically have two choices now: either you assume that your opponent will go broke loosely or puts you on a bluff often and you thus check/raise - or you play check/call in the spirit of way ahead / way behind. The problem with the latter is that there are a lot of cards you don't want to see in the later course of the hand. All in all, it depends on your balancing as both lines make sense under certain circumstances.

A check/fold would be really pointless, of course. It's hard to say whether you should donk-bet here; donk/fold can be discarded as that would turn your hand into a pure bluff and your opponent would interpret this as weakness and start raising you out of flops with hands like AK/AQ/air. So, if you want to donk-bet, it has to be a donk/3-bet.

Good luck on tables and with the Course.

Question 1

Slowplay flopped full house

Question 2

NL10 QQuads

Question 3

You need to consider what hands would make the BB (a calling station) bet out into 3 other opponents. 1) If he had AQ on the flop he could check being a calling station but once the Q hits giving him two pair he starts to get aggressive. 2) KT would have given him a gutshot on the flop which he would likely check against 3 opponents but definitely bet on the turn. 3) If he's a calling station he probably wouldn't bet a flush draw 4) thats leaves a pair plus a straight draw he has just picked up like KQ or QT but again a calling station is unlikely to get aggressive with a middle pair hand.

It's very likely we are behind here and as always we have three choices a.fold or b.raise and fold to a re-rasie c. call and re-evaluate on the river

I think folding would be a little two nitty here. While there is a chance we are behind, two pair is too strong to fold to a 1/2 size pot bet on the turn. Raising would protect against any draws but I don't think you'd get called by worse drawing hands and only isolating against stronger made hands. It also over inflates the pot making a call on the river much more expensive. if we were to just call here we could call a bet on the river for a lot less and also might give us a free showdown. So I think a call here would be the best option

Good Job! Homework #6 Done!

About Question #3:
Two lines can quickly be discarded here: fold and raise/fold; your hand is simply too strong for those alternatives.

It's hard to assess whether you should put in a raise here. When a rather passive player decides to bet into three players while being out of position, it does look strong. It's more likely an indication of a made hand than that of a draw.

A raise naturally protects, but you run the risk of isolating yourself against very strong range. Which weaker hands could your opponent possibly continue playing here?

The deciding factor finally comes in the size of the pot. This tiny pot simply isn't worth putting yourself into a tough spot where you could potentially end up risking your entire stack. A raise would be overplayed here and pot control takes the precedent over protection.

Best of Luck on the tables and with the Course.