DaPhunk

The course is great ! Keep going !

Thanks EnterG.

So I read the articles and watched the coaching video with my gf (although she was playing at the time so I don't know if she heard any of it, except the word 'practically' that came up once or twice)

I did not read the articles mentioned in "7 tips to become a successful player" because I think they are going to come up later.

Before I answer the homework questions I would like to quote something from one of the articles that I would like to take away with me on managing your time and having a plan for your poker study;

How might such a plan look like?

If you spent three hours a day developing your game, you could divide your time up like this:

1st hour - theory:

• Read article / column
• Study hand evaluations / take part in discussions
• Watch video
• Attend a coaching

  2nd hour - practical:

• Play a session

  3rd hour - theory:

• Do a session review
• Analyse any problems you identify from the review
• Post some hands that gave you trouble on to the hand evaluation forum
• Search for some content about these problem areas (3-bets, blind defense, draws etc.) and work on them

The following day, start again from the beginning. This will give you an ideal combination of practical, general and specific theory, directly related to your problems.

That sorted I shall answer the questions!

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker?

Poker is fun and I enjoy it. However I would like to get back to a level where I can actually make some decent money at the same time. It has been a couple of years since I was at that level though and my poker-theory is a mishmash of different thought process levels.

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker?

I have a great many weaknesses some I am conscious of and others not. Overly Nitty BRM, underconfidence, other mindset issues, giving my opponents too much credit/ assuming they are better than they are. The list goes on.

Overall my current greatest weaknesses are not playing enough, wasting time, and given my ability to control losses from tilt I need to learn the skill of uber aggressive BRM and couple it with a realisation the money in my bankroll is not yet mine and just a tool that I need to play with.

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

To play tight aggressive is to use a style of selected and carefully picked aggression. With well selected ranges we are able to use our aggression to pick up a lot of good pots at showdown and in the correct spots at non-showdown.

As a TAG we will try to utilize position and initiative as much as possible where our aggression will favour us more, rather than digging ourselves a hole. Examples of using position will come in the form of BB vs SB, BU vs CO or HJ and an example of initiative is SB vs CO where we can 3bet more marginal holdings in order to gain the advantage of initiative to outweigh our disadvantageous position.

Hope that read wasn't too long, see you all next time!

Ok, continuing from my previous post, I need to construct a better way of learning and improving. I've been reading about the mental game and have come across the process model. I want to model an approach for every session on this;

I'm not entirely sure what the best way to prepare is though. Possibly watching a medium stakes player perform with a calm relaxed mindset could help get me in the zone. We'll see.

I keep on reading about the mental game.

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

Great to have you here, even though it's for beginners people don't really understand the value of Locker Room. Even if you are more advanced player, why shouldn't you just post your results here and ask people about your thoughts. The way you taking it right now is really amazing and proves that you have really big interest in poker, want to get better and want to beat the game hardcore. Neither you ain't allowing yourself a lot mistakes but rather trying to understand them. Very good attitude!

I am pretty sure it's great to have such a GF who also likes poker. Always great to have a hobby with your GF with you can share your thoughts. Hope she will still have interest in poker after couple of months and downswings. Good luck to her!

One of the things I have used for my game-plan is that I am not always starting my session just straight away. I used to start with some video. It really gives you nice boost for your game. For example nowadays there are even 15 minute videos. Watch one of them and then you will have huge motivation to go for a grind. Even looking for a grind and a nice game.

I have a great many weaknesses some I am conscious of and others not. Overly Nitty BRM, underconfidence, other mindset issues, giving my opponents too much credit/ assuming they are better than they are. The list goes on.

Nitty BRM isn't really a weakness but what I'd advice to do is taking shots. Not opening all new limit tables but just very few. 1-2 tables is enough and getting the understanding of the raise/CB sizes. This also puts us into more secure play on the old regular limit.

With other weakness you have so far I already understand that you are working with them. As for example posting hands, getting more volume and also having a specific game-plan.

Overall my current greatest weaknesses are not playing enough, wasting time, and given my ability to control losses from tilt I need to learn the skill of uber aggressive BRM and couple it with a realisation the money in my bankroll is not yet mine and just a tool that I need to play with.

Over-aggressive BRM might be at some point too dangerous, especially if you move too high. Have seen enough of my students burning their money and then even can't move down the limit. Rather have nitty BRM than over-aggressive without even being capable of running it nor able to deposit money back.

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.

Thanks for your comments Veriz. I have a short post of goals/ targets. I outline my Idea for an aggressive shotting BRM having I think finally understood the value of a more aggressive approach by someone who is able to respect their plan.

GAMEPLAN AND GOAL TIME

Very Long-Term Goal;

The hard to imagine future

• Become a quality based player. 4-6 table style rather than 10 to 24 mass-tabler. Become a moving target and all that jazz.
• Become a long-term winner at MSNL (NL200) and grind out a ... meager living :f_confused:?

Short Term Goals/Targets;

The easier to imagine short-term

• 10k to 20k Hands per week on normal tables. (not too few or too many)
• Post 5 HH's per week. 1 Interesting hand per day.
• Follow Gameplan for each session; 15-minute warm-up, play session, analyse aftermath. (Evaluate improvements etc later)
• Keep track of mental/poker game improvements.
• Keep track of new/developing trouble areas.
• Rest! Get a good amount of rest and don't burn out etc

BRM Concept (multi-limit);

Please note these ideas are not meant for beginners. If you are new to the game you definately want a more conservative approach.

• Very Aggressive BRM requires 2 to 6 tables played only.
• Shotting concept states that when I have 15 BI for a new limit (NLSH) I have to take a 2 to 5 BI Shot, depending on the quality of tables I can find.
• Strict 2 BI Stop-Loss for sessions on shotting limit.
• Transition into playing only at higher limit by 25 BI.
• Moving up requires a reduction in the number of tables played.
• For Confidence reasons If I fail 2 shots I will earn 2x the amount needed for the next shot and cash out 1/2 to bank account, use 1/2 for the next shot. This way I am earning money for myself not just burning it all on shotting. (It would be good for me mentally if I learn to do this)

A final word;

Well, that's it actually. I welcome comments on things I may have missed. I'm pretty happy with everything I've written so far. Short-Term targets are crucial I think and I've tried to work everything together to keep my long-term target in mind.

I have cashed almost everything out at the moment and have $80 or so (although I will get $600ish back from FTP soon it seems). At any rate though I shall start my journey on NL5.

You have great plan overall, although I might not like the aggressive BRM, 15BIs might work for lower limits but definitely not higher one.

At least you have some money left. Those withdraws sometimes kill us but we have to live with them cause our bills also have to get paid. Hope you get back on track and wish ya good luck with it.

Wow, been super busy recently, My girlfriend goes home tomorrow I guess that will leave me with nothing to do except poker soon haha.

On Monday, the battle for climbing back up the limits commences!

On a side-note, my own starting "success" has been beaten - When I finished clearing my starting $50 I wasn't back up to what I started with, but when my girlfriend finished clearing hers she was up at almost $90! Her Low point was also higher than mine at $28 instead of $12. (I was playing SSS not BSS though)

Originally posted by DaPhunk
Wow, been super busy recently, My girlfriend goes home tomorrow I guess that will leave me with nothing to do except poker soon haha.

On Monday, the battle for climbing back up the limits commences!

On a side-note, my own starting "success" has been beaten - When I finished clearing my starting $50 I wasn't back up to what I started with, but when my girlfriend finished clearing hers she was up at almost $90! Her Low point was also higher than mine at $28 instead of $12. (I was playing SSS not BSS though)

Hehe, well even a new player can in first place be doing better cause variance is huge and you can easily start with upswing but you meanwhile maybe with not running very good.

Good luck with grinding up da money. ♦

Well, the GF decided to just play poker for fun and not do any studying which is fair enough ♦ I lost some incentive to post here as I originally intended to go through the lessons at the same time as her.

Nonetheless I didn't stop studying the game or watching videos and I've recently delved into time management which I think is a big problem for a lot of poker players. Just in case my input can on the off-chance help some beginners I have decided that as part of my Poker Business plan to update this thread at the beginning of each week. (Either Monday or Tuesday).

My Lesson; Goal Setting

I am of the opinion that it is of great benefit to set goals, not just in poker, but in life. I've set goals before in poker but never in life and I never quite followed through because I didn't break goals down into small enough chunks. I recently did some research and came away with some lessons.

So without further ado, here is some of my own, personal advice on goal setting;

The last few of these steps are to help your subconscious process your goals. If you imagine having achieved your goals it will really help you.

I shall share one or two of my own goals with you in order of importance;

1. I am a thoroughly organised individual and I use my time very efficiently.
2. I am earning $5k a month
3. I am partially fluent in Spanish (I need subtitles with films)
4. I can do a handstand without a wall! (and other cool stuff)
5. I work then I reward myself with good leisure time. In that order.

Next time I shall go through either some of my "how" steps, or I shall outline my new time management system. I will also be doing the course homework

Hope you enjoyed reading. Till next week, good luck at the tables!

Hello, want to say something about spotting somewhere I can hopefully spot leaks or improve my game thanks to some of Jared Tendlers words.

Played a session last night, I shall quote a skype chat with a poker buddy;

"Me!: Feel like I just played pretty badly in a session
Me!: probably due to one hand in particular, but generally I think I felt a bit out of my depth. Felt like I kept being raised everywhere and i was losing control
Me!: If I felt like that its probably a pretty good session to look"

I was thinking it would be a good Idea to look through the session and analyse this one in particular because my feeling of tilt and anxiety was showing me where to look for my errors!

My poker friend had this to add;

"Poker Buddy: "22:48 Me!: but generally I think I felt a bit out of my depth"
it's an illusion, and it's really important to realise that
Poker Buddy: you're not out of your depth at nl5
Poker Buddy: that's pretty much impossible"

I find this a pretty motivational comment and it reminds you that how you perceive things in a poker environment can always be a bit skew. I think I can say that, for a lot of players there will be something odd and different in their mindset whilst sitting at a table compared to analysing a Hand-History.

Sometimes it helps to remind ourselves that our opponents aren't necessarily owning us or picking on us. They don't know we just moved up or havn't played in a while. We have our targets at the table and we are probably not one of theirs.

All this said, I intend on reviewing every hand of this session on my analysis days (I saved the session to my hard drive so can review it in its own database), however for now I shall just post the hand and one subsequent that where the main factors for me feeling out of my depth. Both hands are against

Hand 1)
Villain is 29/20 on 59 hands with 11% 3bet. He has 8 AF and really high aggression frequencies in this small sample. (i.e. 8/11 on Flop and turn, 6/10 River)
Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $5.26
Hero (BB): $5.00
UTG: $3.00
CO: $23.95
BTN: $5.00

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BB with Q Q
1 fold, CO raises to $0.15, 1 fold, SB calls $0.13, Hero raises to $0.62, CO calls $0.47, SB calls $0.47

Flop: ($1.86) 3 J 8 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.00, CO raises to $2.10, SB folds, Hero calls $1.10

Turn: ($6.06) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $21.23, Hero calls $2.28 all in

River: ($10.62) T (2 players - 1 is all in)

I seriously considered folding flop to this min-raise. I would have been much much happier if he'd just shoved then I could have called. His preflop/flop line screams JJ to me but then another mental game issue takes hold, I don't trust myself and decide to bluffcatch call, C/C Turn.

Hand 2)
Villain is 15/9 player on 98 hands. High aggression flop and high donkbet but again limited sample.
Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $6.45
Hero (BB): $6.16
UTG: $12.85
MP: $3.34
CO: $13.57
BTN: $3.92

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BB with K A
2 folds, CO raises to $0.15, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.46, CO calls $0.31

Flop: ($0.94) K 3 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.60, CO raises to $1.50, Hero calls $0.90

Turn: ($3.94) J (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $1.40, Hero folds

This is where I feel like I fell apart. I don't know if I'm logically playing the hand anymore or just letting my emotions get to me. I think due to the last hand I'm just thinking he raises sets only but its too exploitable to fold so I call, then on turn I just feel lost and C/F.

These feelings of confusion and feeling lost or out of my depth help me identify that these are spots in need of improvement and the session in general needs improvement. I didn't realise before but my own "negative" mental feelings are actually good because they are telling me what to work on. The 3bet spot differences in SH, HU and what I was playing before (FR Zoom) are so completely different it may come as no surprise that I am feeling a bit overwhelmed

Another long post, I seem to be using this more as a blog, but It feels helpful to me

Setting goals can be very useful, as long you also try to follow them. Setting up goals and too difficult goals my turn you down emotionally so rather set those goals which you are able to achieve as well. For example $5k/month goals is really long-term goal and it's not that easy to achieve. Takes long time to get there and also decent limits, I'd say even towards NL200+ at least.

Seems like you have some kind of serious need to always take a look what opponent does on the turn. ♦ If you get raised you donate the money into him on the flop and fold the turn, though you know that he is going to barrel it almost always. So therefore rather instead fold it directly on the flop.

@veriz yea I agree about the goals thing. Those goals I put down are some of my 1 year goals, I'm working on 1/2 month and 1 week goal system as well. Also my $5k a month goal isn't exclusive to poker

with regard to that second hand it seems to me a little bit like some promotional material I saw for one of the LeatherAss books where they say "Call now and re-evaluate" advice can be flawed

Also, as it is now Monday I am here as promised and as part of my weekly goals to do something.

Homework #2

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

First of all, I do not limp which is suggested for some pocket pairs. This is because I am putting myself on the back foot if someone chooses to isolate me and it is nearly always the sign of a weaker player. Oh i like open-completing SB even less.

Secondly I adjust my stealing percentages a lot. For example If I am BU and I add the SB and BB fold to steals and get a result of 180 I will be stealing ATC if I think the metagame allows for it. I do not steal wide at all on SB however unless I have determined for sure that the BB is incredibly exploitable and nitty which happens sometimes.

I also 3bet lighter than the SHC in general and very opponent specifically. I also call very opponent specifically, not only preflop based but also considering postflop. This is so that I can take advantage of tighter/looser opponents and get more value as well as more fold equity. I put opponents into tougher spots and make them more liable to make mistakes.

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

At the moment I do not have that many questions. I have been working on my blind play, 3bet play and 3bet calling play recently through a combo of videos, reading and discussion with friends. I am in the practice phase of implementation and am not yet polished in this regard.

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

If you plug this range into the equilator you get 46.324%.

Good job! Homework #2 Done!

About limping well depends what limit you are playing and of course what kind of skill you have. The more advanced you are the more likely it would make sense to open-raise with any PP, limping is just for beginner's to take an easy step.

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.

Guess 3betting is really a powerful weapon if you use it correctly and in correct spots. Though try not to overdo and still try to understand against what kind of opponents you are doing it. Guess you should have covered a lot of this topic anyways yourself so I don't need to go into details.

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.

Thanks for the reply Veriz. I'll get started with the next homework on Monday

A brief pre-session look at two marked HH's from last month!

This is something I am now trying to do before most of my sessions. Very simply looks through two marked hands from last month and estimate in "vague" hand groupings (as I should in game) a villains range, and also estimate my own perceived range.

Well, lets go!

Hand 1

In this hand villain is a 45/8 player on 231 hands. He has 2.3% 3bet, 60%(15) f2cbet, 1/3 fold to turn barrel so far and roughly 45% flop aggression, 30% aggression on turn and river.

Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $4.98
UTG: $5.30
MP: $5.00
CO: $7.92
Hero (BTN): $5.14
SB: $11.98

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BTN with K 9
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.12, SB calls $0.10, 1 fold

I open BU to standard steal size villain calls. All sorts of Ax, Broadway combos, pairs Suited connectors and the occasional slow-played monster.

If he is capable of hand-reading at all he should think I'm raising a lot here preflop (my BU steal is 45%) and I have tons of Ax, suited Kings, broadways, connecters etc.

Flop: ($0.29) J J 3 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

I am surprised to see I check here, Its probably going to be a meta-game thing with me cbetting a lot or seeing he likes to call down Ahi or something. When I check rather than betting it will be invariably because I do not feel I will generate enough fold equity with a double barrel which is what I'm often going for when any T, Q or 9 comes on turn.

My flop-check range will now look like something that has some showdown value, 3x 55, A6, OC+noheart. It is unlikely that I am slowplaying here.

Turn: ($0.29) Q (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Villain checks which makes me think he is either trapping, has mediocre showdown value, lowpair or Ahi or he wants to C/R with a draw. The other possibility is that he has read my flopcheck as a value-hand that won't fold to a turnbet and is giving up.

This turn should be a good bluff-card for me and I have a gut-shot to go with it. Even after missing flopcbet I should be able to take down the pot easily enough to justify my bet versus his weak showdown to giving up range.

Again meta-game active table image or something is probably the reason for my check. I either think I have not enough fold-equity, suspect a trap, or believe I can showdown my Khi to win the pot.

River: ($0.29) T (2 players)
SB bets $0.14, Hero raises to $0.40, SB calls $0.26

On river villain bets and I put his range as being some slowpayed Jx or FH, Qx or a Tx that hit river. There is almost no AK in his range, I block K9, and there is no so much 89 either. I feel weak Qx, Tx or underpair is the majority of his range so can throw in a small raise.

My river raise looks slightly retarded as I have about the only hand that would do it. I'd cbet TT, AK QT Jx 33 etc and its also very unlikely that I wouldn't have bet this hand on flop or turn. I think its understandable for villain to call QT Tx or Qx here.

Hand 2

BU is 25/14 on 454 hands with 29% BU steal, 62% foldto3bet (1/2 on BU). 54% fold to cbet 35% agg freq flop, 29% turn, 23% river.

Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $12.68
UTG: $6.10
MP: $2.68
CO: $2.00
BTN: $12.87
Hero (SB): $7.32

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is SB with Q A
3 folds, BTN raises to $0.15, Hero calls $0.13, BB calls $0.10

I assume BU steals Ax, all PP's, all broadways all SC's, 75s+ and maybe K9s or something.

My normal play is to 3bet, I have no Idea why I didn't. I think that's a mistake and can't really think of a meta-game reason why it isn't. He has 0/13 4bet.... Maybe I just didn't like have AQo instead of AQs?

As played my hand looks like one or two Axs I didn't 3bet pre, some broadways, no traps, mid-pp's, and some SC's.

Flop: ($0.45) 5 A 7 (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, BTN bets $0.30, Hero calls $0.30, BB folds

Villain bets a large majority of his range from decent Ax through to FD's, Sets, broadway+backdoor, two-pair, underpairs. Vs two players he may check weak Ax and some lower pairs.

when I c/c I probably look like some Ax, passively played SD or weak FD/ FD+pair. My C/R flop is 5% and raise cbet is 10% thats probably a bit low really so apart from sets and strong FD's villain likely can't knock much out of my range here.

Turn: ($1.05) J (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $1.00, Hero calls $1

Villain makes a polarising potsize bet. Very strong draw, made hand or big bluff. Options include 55, 77, AJ, AKc, KcT, KcQ and then random cards he's decided to go crazy with.

When I c/c I still look like I could have a potential drawing hand, but also AQ AT A9, scared passively played 2-pair. Set, Flush are starting to seem more unlikely.

River: ($3.05) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $1.45, Hero folds

I look like I'm trying to get to showdown with weak-ish Ax or have missed and given up with a draw.

Villain makes what looks like a clear valuebet 1/2pot vs the check to try and extract value from my AQ AT A9. I think the weakest he might bet here is AK, and his range then goes up to two-pairs flushes and sets.

Conclusion;

Wow, it took a lot longer writing that out than I thought it would but there is an example of what I try and do before a session. Regarding my play in those hands I'm not sure it was the best. It seemed to me in the first hand I would have had a higher ev betting on flop or turn and in the second I put myself in a horrible situation by not 3betting preflop and let the opponent put me to a decision rather than putting him to one.

Comments are obviously appreciated along with suggestions on how I can refine this pre-session warm-up to think about max-ev lines while in game. In-game being the operative words.

Good luck at the tables yall

Homework #3

Question 0: Download and install the Equilab.

I already have the PS Equilator..... For some reason I don't have Pokerstove installed on my computer.....

On an unrelated note I kind of want Flopzilla......

Question 1: You are holding K :spade:Q :spade:. What is your preflop equity against an opponent who has 3 :diamond:3 :club:? How does the equity change on this flop: J :spade:5 :diamond:3 :spade:? (Tip: you can use the Equilab to help you with this task.)

Preflop;

My guess; Before I check on Equilator I seem to remember that a pocket pair has somewhere around 52% versus Overcards like AK or KQ. If I was to give a range I'd probably guess 51% to 53%? Anyway its very close to a 50/50.

Equilator; When I put it into Equilator it reveals I completely forgot that KQ is suited right here and as such is the slight favourite with 50.78%. If it was KQo it would indeed have been 51.868% in favour for 33.

Postflop;

My guess; Villain hits a set and we have an FD. We have 7 outs because we discount the 5 as it full-houses villain up. That gives us roughly 28% equity to hit our Flush by river.

We also have outs to win if two J's or 5's come down as we will hit a higher Full house. That could add 2 to 4% to our total right?

Overall I make a guess of 30 to 32%, lets say 31%.

Note- I don't know how to discount for a paired river so I didn't do it. Removes a % or two perhaps?

Oh and I don't see how we could make a tie either.

Equilator; Well I'd say that I was a very long way off with my guess as the answer is 26.465% equity for our hand.

This I put down to 1) I didn't deduct any % for paired river. 2) I added too much for our backdoor full-house 3) I forgot the easy %equity aproximation method over-estimates equity from flop and under-estimates from turn.

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 :club:J
5 folds, Hero raises to $0.08, BU calls $0.08, SB folds, BB calls $0.06.
Flop: ($0.25) 2 :club:6 :diamond: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...?

Answer;
Preflop; we are on CO which is a stealing position. If we are applying an aggressive stealing strategy I do not like a 4bb open. I use 3.5bbUTG, 3bb MP,CO, 2.5bbBU and 3bbSB. This is however partly because I am preparing myself for higher stakes.

Flop; vs unknowns check is fine, if we have reads on villains a different line may be possible.

eg 1) Two incredibly weaktight villains who each have 65%+ fold to cbets. I might think of making a cbet here just over half-pot and give up on turn. I don't think this situation actually comes up much for me.

eg 2) One weaktight opponent and one who calls many flops but folds often to second barrel. In this spot I like cbetting with the backdoor FD and OC's. When called by opponent 2 I barrel any T or higher, maybe 9+ and any club. When the overcard pops on turn I am not stopping on river when he peels as I think he will often be considering turn as "the new flop" in that case.

Turn; we bet and get raised.

We have to call $22 into a $91 pot and have effective $170 behind.

We have 7 very clean flush outs and 2 not so clean. So 14 to 18%ish to hit a flush.

We have 6 not so clean outs to top pair. up to 12% extra outs vs his "moves"

and we have up to 3 potential split outs in the non-club 4 so that would be at 6%ish to have a straight on the board where we don't hit a flush.

That is the quick assessment of what we have right here if we are behind. Between 14% and very rarely 35% of rivers could go right for us. Now we have to assess villain range.

Hand is FR vs a full-stacked villain so even though we play CO vs BU I think things are going to be a bit tighter than otherwise, but we'll see.

If BU is a typical FR2 nit I'm not even sure he's 3betting QQ+ AK every time but for simplicity I'll say he is.

Calling range - 22-JJ AQs-ATs, ATo-AQo, KTs, KJo, QTo, JTs+ A9s. SC's unknown but for the time being I'll say none not mentioned here.

Villain misses an in position bet on flop so 22, 33 and 66 become a lot less likely as well as all his FD combos and to a lesser extent 88 through JJ.

We bet our turn FD and he raises, I think he is representing 55 here as I feel he might get trappy with 44 (not sure why) but that is also possible. He might also be raising for a free showdown with 99 TT or JJ. There is also KT :club: QT :club: and possibly an extra Q9 or K9 draw there.

Looking at this range and the fact we have 24% pot odds with $170 extra behind I don't think I even need to calculate our implieds to say that this should be a clear call. Lets break it down;

1) The "value" part of his range is likely very small
2) We have better equity against the semi-value part of his range that we may even have direct pot odds to continue against.
3) We actually beat several of his draws and will easily get our stacks in vs those hands.
4) What I didn't mention is that I still don't want to commit by re-raising here thus Isolating ourselves against his better hands. I instead like calling here while we get an excellent price and then raking in the money on the river.

On blank rivers I think there are still villains out there who just give up a lot of worse hands than ours so we probably have to C/F. Otherwise it should be pretty obvious what to do given the action.

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

I currently have a very low river aggression% at 23% overall. On the BU its even as low as 16.6%. This is pretty terrifying for me as I think a stat this low on opponents is an amazing read to have on what he bets river with. I'm clearly only valuebetting river which is not going to be good for me as I move up.

As a result I watched some river theory videos and read up a little bit on river play and I gave myself this simple task for my last session; Just barrel river one time when you have a draw that did not hit and next session try and find a better situation to do the same.

This hand is the result

Thats it! Long time done on this homework lol. Sleep tight all!

Good job! Homework #3 Done!

Flopzilla is a great program. Have been using it quite a while and helped me around with specific stuff I need it for. Though the main problem I still use it of course Equilab, Equilator is kinda oldie and not doing the same stuff as Equilab.

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!

Thanks! I downloaded Equilab and the "equity tester" seems quite interesting to me. I already seem to be able to make pretty close guesses to Equity but if I could work out how to make some sort of training system I may be able to improve the speed of my calculations for multi-tabling.

Now I can make an update I think I shall simply copy a short "intro" article I made for my personal little poker game book. The follow up article is to do with sizings and has some very general spots in which to start adjusting your ranges. (followed by 5bet shoving math)

My Intro to 3bet/4bet and 5bet play

Before talking about 4bets and 5bets I should first mention 3bets.

Why do we 3bet?

Here are 3 possible reasons;

• We want to get value with a great hand
• We want to resteal a player who opens and folds a lot
• We want to change the momentum and make an opponent fold postflop

When we simplify, this becomes two reasons. We 3bet for value or as a bluff/semibluff. The wider our villain raises preflop, the wider we will want to 3bet him. However we have to remember something;

We should think not only of increasing our value-range, but also our bluff-range. (or vice versa) Otherwise we can start becoming unbalanced and potentially exploitable.

4betting;

We should now think about basing our 4-betting on the same two simplified reasons we came up with for 3betting;

• For Value
• As a bluff/semibluff

Again, the wider villains range becomes, the more we will want to widen our range. When we widen our range we should add both semibluff hands and value hands.

5betting

When 5betting we can follow the same reasons as we did with 4betting.

Note that if we have 100bb stacks a 5bet is normally going to be an All-in. This will change the basic profit equation for restealing as all hands have some equity to win.

Expected value of 5bet =
Amount in pot to steal * %time he folds
+ (All-in potsize/2) * %time we win
- Amount we risk with 5bet * %of the time we lose when called

Right, that's it for today, See you next week for the next homework!

Hello,

My name is Bogdan and I am the coach that will be taking over this section (from Veriz).

Before the end of the week I will be able to come in this thread and respond to you. Please stay tuned

Best regards.