tieppofer

Homework #1

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker?

To make money and be the best. I love playing cards, I always have and I always will, so why not get some money doing what I love? And the thing that makes poker so special is that's not only about luck or skill, it's about people, it's about knowing yourself and your opponents.

Also, when people ask you "what do you do for a living?" it would be pretty awesome to be able to say "I'm a professional poker player"

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker?

My main weakness is not being able to fold some hands when I'm out of position simply because I haven't had a good hand for a while or I think I know what my opponents are thinking/doing, I don't do that too often, but I lost a few bucks because of that (I've been really working on that). My post-flop game is also not that great, not online at least, I do hold some hands more than I should 'cause sometimes I don't really know what the best decision is (also working on that). I do not tilt too often since I stopped playing during late nights and learned sometimes it's better to turn the computer off and do something else.

I think that's basically it.

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

Playing tight aggressive basically means playing only with strong hands pre-flop, putting pressure on your opponents... basically it means to make things work your way.

It works because in poker (and, if you think a little more, in life itself) being aggressive (when you have the range to do that, of course), making things work your way and make as little mistakes as possible is the secret to win. Being passive is basically giving permission to people put you under pressure and a person who's under pressure doesn't really know what to do and makes a lot of mistakes. As a poker player you can't really afford to do that, actually you are the one that has to put pressure on your opponents and playing tight gives you strength to do that with little chance of going broke.

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

Great time to change your view of poker. ♦ To take it more seriously and maybe even earn something extra with it.

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.

Another option against tilt is to set yourself shorter sessions which might avoid you from tilting. If you playing longer sessions then it's more likely that during that session you can get upset. So work on your game and try to find out what makes you tilt and try to fight against it.

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.

Well, I have been playing a good amount of hands considering the time I have (played about 2500+ hands since I started the course), I also have been studying, I just bought The Poker Blueprint and I think it's gonna help me a lot (I still don't have the book here, but I bought also the ebook.

That's my graph for the week, it could be way better, but I had a genius idea and decided to play while I was drunk... That cost me a a few big blinds (about 2,5 BIs :p). But, well, I'm having a good run I think.

Most of my bad decisions were made post-flop, but I worked on the mistakes I made, hopefully I'm not going to make the same mistakes again.

Homework #2

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

Well, I think I can 3-bet with JJ on late positions (also the coaches told me so), besides that I work pretty much as the chart goes. What I don't like is playing 22-55 and I think I can raise with 77+ on LP when I have one or two limps.

Question 2: Do you have questions about your preflop play? Post your hand for evaluation.

I don't have any questions about my preflop play per se, I think it's pretty solid considering I play it really standard... I have a question about min-raises though, when I used to play SSS the brazilian Coach (latini) said I should consider any min-raise preflop as an extra limp... Does it apply to BSS? Don't remember seeing it on the articles or videos.

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

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

Terrible session... the RNG didn't help me much today, that plus some terrible plays (I'll post the hands to evaluation on next homework) and the session was ~150 BB down, so I thought it was better to take a break

Well, that's poker...

Good job! Homework #2 Done!

At least nice graph. You can always take a look at your beauty if you get a downswing. It will motivate you grind more. And tell you that actually you can do good as well in poker.

Well, I think I can 3-bet with JJ on late positions (also the coaches told me so), besides that I work pretty much as the chart goes. What I don't like is playing 22-55 and I think I can raise with 77+ on LP when I have one or two limps.

Depends a lot, against a tight opponent you can't really 3bet for value with JJ. Cause if you get 4bet from him you will very often face a stronger hand. So I would try to keep an eye on that.

I don't have any questions about my preflop play per se, I think it's pretty solid considering I play it really standard... I have a question about min-raises though, when I used to play SSS the brazilian Coach (latini) said I should consider any min-raise preflop as an extra limp... Does it apply to BSS? Don't remember seeing it on the articles or videos.

Yeah, you can easily apply this way and raise it up with the hand you would be raising usually. Easy and simple rule. Kinda the same as postflop if you face some min-donk or something similar "we CB there - aka raise him".

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'll be sure to keep an eye on that. I took a lil' time out of poker during this weekend, I also started reading Tri Nguyen's Poker Blueprint. Still not so many hands played, about 3250 hands and about 570 BB ahead

I'll post Homework #3 soon.

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♠?

Preflop:

       Equity     Win     Tie
UTG    50.78%  50.40%   0.38% { KsQs }
UTG+1  49.22%  48.84%   0.38% { 3d3c }

Flop:

Board: 5♦J♠3♠
       Equity     Win     Tie
UTG    26.46%  26.46%   0.00% { KsQs }
UTG+1  73.54%  73.54%   0.00% { 3d3c }

Our equity drops almost 1/2

Question 2: What would you do in the following hand?

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...?

Well, we face 2 situations here:

1. The villain just hit a straight or is playing the draws, considering we have a clean draw we have 9 outs, 4:1 odds. Our pot odds are ~4,13:1, easy call.

2. The villain has a set, in wich case we have to discount the 6♣ and the 3♣ giving us 7 outs and 6:1 odds... we can call if we think our opponent is loose enough and will put more money in the pot.

We could consider our overcards and a 4 as extra outs, but I don't really like it

Question 3: Do you have questions about your postflop play? Post your hand for evaluation.

I have question about how I played this KJo and about this ATs with a Nut Flushdraw.

Cheers

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!

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

Well, this is the most recent one:

NL2 - KQs TP + FD

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

I did those evaluations a few days ago, hope they still count

Evaluation 1

Evaluation 2

Question 3: You are on the flop with K♠Q♦. The board cards are J♠, 9♣, 8♥, and your opponent holds 7♣7♥. What is your equity in this spot?

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

Cheers

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.

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

NL2 - A9s

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

AK vs AT6 by Imimba1

Nl2: Kt by dzintars2

Tough situation, I would raise for protection, I dont wanna see a 3, a J, a T or a :diamond:, and the raise could protect me against hands like Q+:diamond:x or 3x, specially against the BB who plays a little loose. A call for pot control can also be considered, but I don't really like it, it doesn't make my style. The only thing that is out of question is folding.

I made a call against a loose opponent, the board was quite good for me. I would probably X/R, the opponent is quite aggressive, so the X/C wouldn't be the best idea imo considering that his range is quite large and he could hit something like 2 pairs or even a bigger pair. I wouldn't donkbet either, don't see me folding to a raise and I don't really like 3betting here... So X/R is my choice

Well, I haven't been playing a lot of hands, still have only about 6.5K hands played but I think i'm in a pretty good run, specially for the last couple thousand hands, I've been reading The Poker Blueprint and it helped me a lot.

This is my graph

Hopefully I can finish the course on NL5

Good Job! Homework #5 Done!

What a nice graph, I really hope you keep it this way and don't fall down when you face a downswing. Remember there is always a downswing after every upswing! Be ready for it and prepare yourself. Well done once again!

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.