AdvancedTN1984

Hey advanced

Welcome to the beginner's course. That's an impressive start to the homework by the way. Bogdan (our beginner's course coach) will have your homework marked in the coming days. Good luck with the course and all the best with your goals. Should have nl25 beat in no time.

Regards,
Luke

Hi advancedTN1984,

Welcome to the beginners course.

I am looking forward to helping you move up the limits.

Considering the weaknesses you listed I think that starting with this course will help. For example the starting hand chart will help you with playing tighter.

I'm looking forward to your next homework (and questions).

Best regards,

Bogdan

Hi Bogdan,

Thanks for your help in general, since i started with posting hands my game is really improved i believe. But it can become better i think and since i am not losing money anymore @ showdown i am now losing some of my money @ non showdown. I will do a part of the homework lesson 2 this weekend. But one question about my graphs i have. It's really a general question and i have looked into it also quite a bit but i don't find the spots were i lose the money right now. My $ won @ showdown is quite good. But i am leaking money in my non showdown. A few things that i think that i can improve my money won at non show down is, stealing blinds, defend the blinds more active. Valuebet thinner. Preflop bluff 3bet more. Do I call too much 3bets, do i call too much flops and then fold turn or river. Lot's of things where i can leak money. This are just a few topics that come into my mind but maybe i miss something. How can i get a structural look @ this topic? And improve my flop,turn and river plays. How to get my filters in pokertracker adjusted so i can see where i am losing money? I'd like to hear your opinion about it:). Below is the result of last week.

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?)

The problem with this starting hand chart is that it is not defined exactly for all positions, it's just a rough guide. A good point of the starting hand chart is that it is tight, and tight is right, but i think it is missing some spots and is a little too tight.

I think that it is possible to open UTG AQs, that is not in the starting hand chart. This particular hand is suited and plays well if you know how to play it. Also UTG+1/UTG+2 you can open AQs. You still have a decent strong range. As discussed in this topic, the opening sizing you can have with this hand is 4bb because your range is this strong. https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=296222.

I agree that you have to fold your low pocket pairs UTG/UTG+1/UTG+2/MP1, because it is too much dominant if you got calld from other positions by villain. Also I want to discuss with which typical pocket pairs you have to call a UTG raise, does it start with TT+ or do we call smaller pocket pairs as well? If i am sitting in MP/CO/BU/SB/BB then i fold everything below TT+. In the starting hand chart you call from every position by the call20 rule, i think that this is not a good play. A topic about this subject will follow in future on the forum if i have an example. Because what do you do if there is a limper, a caller and you? Different things can happen.

I think you can open 66+ from MP2/MP3. In the starting hand chart it is calling 22-99. I think this play is too weak and indicating that you are a weak player and ready to get isolated by the regs. Also you risk it that you are dominated by better hands(just for the baby pairs(22-55)). The probability that you flop bottom set with sixes is just less than with the baby pairs so i prefer not to play the baby pairs.

CO/BU/SB you can open 22+, there are few players left to act after you raise so their range will be weaker and you are also able to steal the blinds some of the time. Or fire a c-bet on apprehensive boards but this will be a bluff. So I think this is the same as the starting hand chart and i agree with this.

From MP2 I open 87s+/AJ+/KQ+/87s+. In the starting hand chart you don't open this loose, the range there is something like AQ+, 22+. I think you have to loosen up a bit from MP2 and have more playability on different boards. You just miss too often with only strong high card hands and miss the spots where you can play with fish in position if they call from the blinds. The con is that you have a weaker range if you got callt from late positions and have to play more or less fit fold if you miss or have a hard time if you hit weak. The pro is that you are able to justify more c-bets on lowish connected boards.

MP3 I loosen up a little bit more but the same applies as with MP2. From MP3 I open 76s+/AT+/KJs+/KQo/87s+. It is weighted a little too suited hands because it is much easier to realize your equity if you hit the flop and can barrel the additional turns.

The same applies to CO. I open from CO 54s+,76o+,T8o+,J8+,QJo,Q9s+,K9s+,KTo+,A2+. In this spot you are particular interested in stealing some of the blinds against the tighter players. You like to play small pots against the fish in the blinds. Because you have position and don't want to miss this particular opportunity. The starting hand chart has included the small connectors but misses the offsuit version and misses the one gappers. I think that it is decent to play also the smaller boards from this position and aim for making straights/flushes with the small cards and play from the three streets left after the opening the pot.

The same applies to BU. I open from BU 54s+,54o+,64s+, 97o+,J8o+,J7s+,Q8o,Q4s+,K2s+,K7o+,A2+. It's a little bit more expanded than the ORC chart. This is that i like to play more pots IP against the blinds. Those cards can connect with a lot of boards so in a theoretical sense you can c-bet 100% but i don't do it.....

From SB you have to play tighter, you are out of position for the rest of the hand and you have put in some money unvoluntarly but not as much as the big blind so you don't have to defend that much and on top of that the BB can reraise you so you have to be also able to defend that. So my SB range looks like, A2+, K9s+,KTo+,Q9s+,QJo+J9+,54s+,98o+,T8s+,T8o+. I disagree with the ranges for the blinds a lot on the SHC. This let's the opponent to steal too much of your blinds and it effects a lot of your winrate.

From BB I have a 3bet range and a calling range. It is not even in the starting hand chart so it's hard to compare without those ranges. My Calling and 3bet range also depends on position and has as basis GTO from the book Application no limit hold'em.

I hope my thoughts make some sense and if not i am happy to learn new ideas :).

Hey advancedTN1984

I'm glad to see you really put in a lot of effort into Q1 there.

A chart is made to be more like a rough guide as poker is not something you can just play following set rules (and if you do you won't get far). However, for someone that is just starting up it's perfect because it gives them a spot to start from.

Calling a UTG raise depends on a lot of factors such as your opponents, stack sizes and positions. Generally you can call to set mine if raises are not too large or stacks are not too shallow.

Once you are a more advanced player (like you) you definitely want to stop limping hands, especially as the first person in.

So yes, as you become a better player you want to look for spots to expend your range or look for alternative lines (raise vs call, 3-bet vs call, etc).

Originally posted by advancedTN1984
Hi Bogdan,

Thanks for your help in general, since i started with posting hands my game is really improved i believe. But it can become better i think and since i am not losing money anymore @ showdown i am now losing some of my money @ non showdown.

Your red line is actually showing really well for the limit you play so don't worry about that (as long as it's not straight at 45 degrees, like most people have it, it's fine).

At the lower limits you have to concentrate on making sure you valuebet enough, don't pay off, etc.

The sample is also important as 10k could be too small to see the real picture.

As far as filters go you can always look at filter by position, and then filters by call 3-bet, etc. But you need samples for this.

Ok, thanks for your help :-). Nice to know that i don't have too worry too much about that redline.

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.)

NL5 Zooooom preflop ranges AJs
NL5 Zooooom JJ

Those are about my preflop play :-).

Hey advancedTN1984

It looks like mbml answered your questions.

If you have any other questions feel free to post them here.

Hi Bogdan,

Yes I have many questions that are like that, i try to get a grip on preflop play and ranges special. But i think it becomes a little bit a big project.

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.)

AKo is performing not that well against that range.

       Equity   Winst   Split
MP2    53.68%  45.27%   8.41% { 88+, AJs+, KQs, AKo }
MP3    46.32%  37.91%   8.41% { AKo }

This means basicly that there must be some dead money in the pot if you want to jam it. Calculation for that is.
Required equity = price of calling / (pot size + price of calling)

Required equity*(pot size+price of calling) = price of calling
Required equity*pot size = price of calling - required equity*price of calling
potsize=(price of calling - required equity* price of calling)/required equity

Let's put some numbers in:
required potsize = (20-0.46*20)/0.46=23. So if someone instant shoves with an 8% range you can call if the pot total is 20bb if the pot is 23bb.
required potsize = (40-0.46*40)/0.46=47.
If you want to jam for 40 big blinds there should already invested 7bb, so after an open and you reraise you get the equity to jam. Bigger calls require more dead money in the pot and that's logical.

Interesting this means you can't shove AKo profitable in bigger pots with less dead money invested.

This is also why you can't really 3bet/5bet AKo in a spot where villain does not bluff 4-bet enough or stack off light.

So for example in a spot of 3 bb -> 10 bb -> 23 bb you can't really shove the rest of your 90 bb without a decent amount of FE (generally over 25%) or without him calling AQ type hands.