DrRaab

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

Was really sad that ENG didn't win the penalties, started good but end up bad for their side. Was good game though!

Playing tired can cause a lot problems. Usually you are moody when tired and get easily angry. Which means you get tilty that brings towards you playing less your A-game. Also lets not forget that you ain't concentrating enough and watching the game which is the worst part. You have to find a way to adjust to tilt. For example against tilt:

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?"

Hopefully you will enjoy the Course.

Question 1: What do you think you could play differently than suggested in the BSS Starting Hands Chart and why? (Are there any hands you would play differently? Do you have a problem or question about how a specific hand or hands should be played?)

Open wider/tighter on the button depending on how the SB and BB play.
Player depending again, don't always shove preflop with AK.
If there is one limper behind you, raise instead of call to increase deception with pocket pairs
Also i'd open with suited 1 gap cards from late.
KQs i wouldn't always call with a raise and a caller (player and raise size dependent)

Question 2: Do you have questions about your preflop play? Post your hand for evaluation. ( Post your hand in the Hand evaluation forums and provide a link to your hand in your private thread in the Locker Room.) unfortunately my poker tracker ran out yesterday so cannot get at it until i get paid from work. However i'll describe how it went-

Hero AKo utg- opens 8c
Villan BU- raises to 16c
Hero - raises to 64c
Villan - min raises
Hero just calls. I thought i was going against atleast Kings.

Question 3: What is the equity of AKo against the top 5% range? 5% means 88+, AJs+, KQs, AKo. ( You can either calculate this yourself or use an equity calculator such as the PokerStrategy.com Equilab.)

Equity Win Tie
UTG 46.32% 37.91% 8.40% AdKh
UTG+1 53.68% 45.28% 8.40% 88+, AJs+, KQs, AKo

Good job! Homework #2 Done!

Totally agree with you about the stealing ranges. Against specific opponents we adjust, either wider range or tighter range. Against some shorties you can even steal with smaller raise, for example 3xBB. But don't overdo the stealing situations. Sometimes you might just put yourself into too many difficult spots if opening with marginal hands. As for example stealing too many hands from SB and being out of position.

About AK hand I can just say you have to be ready to analyze it even more than any other hand. Way too often I see in the forums where people just overplay it and see it way too strong hand which it actually ain't.

But otherwise your thoughts seems to be reasonable, we will figure out what we can fix in your game in the future.

Would be nice if you posted hands into hand evaluation forum, did you also try out HM2?

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 cannot decide whether to try it or not due to all the talk about the bugs etc, i know its another free xamount of days but is it worth it with all the problems other people seem to have!

Another note, i have gone back to normal poker after a stint on zoom so i have more of an idea about using stats. However as i usually can only get in say 100-200 hands in a session is it ever worth taking much notice of them due to the small sample size. Usually my opponents are not even 100+ hands as a lot stay for about 40 then leave. Will do the next homework later as unfortunately i am required to play three tennis matches today! one down, two to go...

Originally posted by DrRaab
I cannot decide whether to try it or not due to all the talk about the bugs etc, i know its another free xamount of days but is it worth it with all the problems other people seem to have!

Another note, i have gone back to normal poker after a stint on zoom so i have more of an idea about using stats. However as i usually can only get in say 100-200 hands in a session is it ever worth taking much notice of them due to the small sample size. Usually my opponents are not even 100+ hands as a lot stay for about 40 then leave. Will do the next homework later as unfortunately i am required to play three tennis matches today! one down, two to go...

Well, then it means that you haven't played enough of hands. The sample should come with time not after a week.

Good luck with tennis, do you play professionally?

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.)

Equity Win Tie
UTG 48.76% 48.37% 0.39% KQs, KQo
UTG+1 51.24% 50.85% 0.39% 33

J53

Equity Win Tie
UTG 6.14% 6.14% 0.00% KQs, KQo
UTG+1 93.86% 93.86% 0.00% 33

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 AJ
5 folds, Hero raises to $0.08, BU calls $0.08, SB folds, BB calls $0.06.

Flop: ($0.25) 263 (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...?

I would call as it was only a min raise which makes the pot odds 4:1 and the odds of hitting the flush are also 4:1.

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.)

How do i link a hand from the evaluation forum?

Good job! Homework #3 Done!

There is a button for it "Add Link" and there you can add it. It's near the buttons where you have Bold/Italic and etc.

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!

Ah i see why i went wrong on question number 1. I only play tennis recreationally, took it up way to late to do any more than that. However im at a reasonable standard! Hopefully my links work!

Question 1: Post a hand for evaluation in which you have the initiative postflop. (Post your hand in the Hand evaluation board, and provide a link to your hand in your private thread.)
https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=196505

Question 2: Evaluate one of the hands submitted by other members. (Choose a hand from the Hand evaluation board and post your own evaluation in the thread. Post a link to the hand you have evaluated in your private thread. You can evaluate as many hands as you want, but try to choose hands not yet evaluated by other users.) Nl2 JJ

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?

Board: 8hJs9c
Equity Win Tie
UTG 41.40% 41.40% 0.00% { KQo }
UTG+1 58.60% 58.60% 0.00% { 7h7c }

Good job! Homework #4 Done!

Tennis is fun, although I haven't played it for long time. When I was younger I used to play it a lot. ♦ But now I guess can't even handle the ball anymore, rather have been playing basketball/football on those past years.

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.

Question 1: Post a hand for evaluation where you have based your decisions on the stats of your opponents. (Post your hand in the Hand evaluation board, and provide a link to your hand in your private thread.) QQ

Question 2: Evaluate one of the hands submitted by other members. (Choose a hand from the Hand evaluation board and post your own evaluation in the thread. Post a link to the hand you have evaluated in your private thread. You can evaluate as many hands as you want, but try to choose hands not yet evaluated by other users first.)
hand evaluated

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?

The SB betting into two opponents on the turn does show a reasonable amount of strength. However our flush isn't very strong and i would favour a call. See what card the river brings, if its another diamond then check fold. Calling would stop bloating the pot and keep weaker hands in. Where as a raise would keep stronger flushes and potential full house

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 bet due to our weak overpair. If we get raised its a call however there are quite a few cards we dont want to see/go broke as he may push with AK AQ

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.

Ah i go through patches of playing different sports, used to play a lot of cricket and do road cycling and motocross. Now i have just started playing tennis again and downhill mountain biking. I lack the height to be good at basketball, however it is fun to watch! You don't happen to watch American Football? i have got into that in the past year.

Poker
One problem i seem to be having is when trying to steal the blinds with weaker hands i get completely lost when im 3bet. I Call when its a pocket pair, but never too sure what to do when its a hand such as KT im just thinking about being too readable. Are there any articles on how to deal with being 3bet?

Originally posted by DrRaab
Ah i go through patches of playing different sports, used to play a lot of cricket and do road cycling and motocross. Now i have just started playing tennis again and downhill mountain biking. I lack the height to be good at basketball, however it is fun to watch! You don't happen to watch American Football? i have got into that in the past year.

Poker
One problem i seem to be having is when trying to steal the blinds with weaker hands i get completely lost when im 3bet. I Call when its a pocket pair, but never too sure what to do when its a hand such as KT im just thinking about being too readable. Are there any articles on how to deal with being 3bet?

Hey mate, unfortunately I am not really active of watching sports. I watched the EURO football. But I am pretty sure it's really nice there.

Calling 3bets you have to drop, cause those kind of moves will make you lose tons of money, from my experience being as a coach I can assure this happens to a lot of players. Not only bad/good/beginners but also even regular players. So watch out, rather fold it or even maybe 4bet/Fold would be better.

About 3bet there are definitely articles/videos but not for your given rank.

Question 1: Post a hand for evaluation where you have either a) freeplay, b) slowplay, or c) multi-way pot situation. (Post your hand in the Hand evaluation board, and provide a link to your hand in your private thread.)

K9

Question 2: Evaluate one of the hands submitted by other members. (Choose a hand from the Hand evaluation board and post your own evaluation in the thread. Post a link to the hand you have evaluated in your private thread. You can evaluate as many hands as you want, but try to choose hands not yet evaluated by other users first.)

KQ

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?

I would call the turn bet and see what the river bought- Raise would only single out stronger hands such as KT AQ etc. Calling also controls the pot. Fold is out of the question as the hand is too strong. For a calling station to bet it does show a sign of strength

Sport wise im pretty much the same! 5 minutes of watching sport i want to go out and play it haha!
Well done with completing your masters and getting your 40,000th hand post!

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.

Thanks for the congratulations.

Any tips for how much loose should i play as i have not attempted six max.
Can i open utg with AT/A9?
3bet with more marginal hands, especially in the blinds?
Open Bu with hands like K2 if they are playing tight?
only cbet semibluff as players are more likely to call due to unlikelyness of you having a hand compared to full ring?

These are what i've jsut come up with, any other tips from going from full ring to 6max would be appreciated before i dive in!

Full Ring
one problem i have with AK is when i raise against a standard opponent slightly looser than a tag and he flats the three bet- I then miss the A or K on the flop as it comes say

Q6Q

If i fire a cbet and a blank comes should i 2nd barrel to still represent strong hand-

AK seems to be the most troublesome hand to play- from the outlook it seems strong but you only hit it 30% of the time- the rest you just have Ace high

Can i open utg with AT/A9?

Not really, especially not A9o. ATo or whatsoever on the UTG mainly depends what kind of opponents we have for example sitting on the blinds and etc. Factor how good you are postflop, understanding the board. Mainly when you are opening such hands you are very often going to be dominated by better Ax hands.

3bet with more marginal hands, especially in the blinds?

Not really, cause you will get less respect in 6max. You have to watch out, especially on lower stakes where you get called VERY easily.

Open Bu with hands like K2 if they are playing tight?

If you have guys who fold a lot to blind steal then sure why not. But also try to understand that and not just cause you have the BTN. Could easily be way too loose range to open.

only cbet semibluff as players are more likely to call due to unlikelyness of you having a hand compared to full ring?

Yes, you are more likely getting called in SH. Also played back against you, you have to prepare for that and maybe even Check/Fold more often than in FR games.

6max has huge variance, get used to it and be ready to take it as a man. ♦

one problem i have with AK is when i raise against a standard opponent slightly looser than a tag and he flats the three bet- I then miss the A or K on the flop as it comes say

If the guy has very loose range then we could easily even consider CBetting very dry boards where we assume we could be ahead with our Ace high. But usually those guys will have a PP range which calls against you and you wont have much fold equity there.

If i fire a cbet and a blank comes should i 2nd barrel to still represent strong hand-

If we are CBetting the flop then very often we have to 2nd barrel it to get rid of some floats and weak PPs. We ain't going to end up with huge profit by just CBetting once. Instead just Check/Fold the flop.

Thanks for the long reply! After i posted asking about the opening ranges etc i found the whole ORC for 6max! i'll give it a go in aday or so. Why is it they call more often?