Tavore

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker?

In short, I guess I could say I play poker to win. I started playing because I love the complexity and skill involved in the game, one of my key motivating factors is improvement it is for this reason that I keep investing time and money into my game, hoping to keep chipping away at my knowledge and eventually become skilled. I hope to get to the point where all it takes is a chip and a chair.

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker?

I find self analysis difficult so I'll paint in broad strokes here: I think I play overly agressively. I know for a fact that playing online I feel rushed and tend to make a decision without thinking of the ramifications on future streets or thinking about the equity of my investment into the pot. Generally I will end up all in whilst dominated with what I thought was a strong made hand i.e. 2 pair or an overpair. I find that bad all in calls are the majority of my losses. Added to that I have genuine trouble extracting value from strong made hands when I'm in a pot as my opponents get out generally on the flop. This combination has me playing backwards to the small pots for small hands rule and I'm having a lot of trouble reversing it.

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

Tight agressive can mean a lot of things and interpreted from mindset to statistics. It can be your VP stats in conjunction with your VP/PFR and CBet, it can be the attitude of playing solid hands in position rarely varying from suited connectors (with the right circumstances) the right face cards and set mining (a concept I also have an issue with) and following them up agressively (with bets and raises to extract value) when you have a hand worth playing.

Sorry if this is too verbose, I'm trying to put down enough info without writing a novel

Hey Tavore

Welcome to the beginners' course. I'm sure you will find the curriculum very helpful. Bogdan will come by in the coming days to mark your homework. All the best with the course.

Regards,
Luke

Originally posted by Tavore
Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker?

In short, I guess I could say I play poker to win. I started playing because I love the complexity and skill involved in the game, one of my key motivating factors is improvement it is for this reason that I keep investing time and money into my game, hoping to keep chipping away at my knowledge and eventually become skilled. I hope to get to the point where all it takes is a chip and a chair.

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker?

I find self analysis difficult so I'll paint in broad strokes here: I think I play overly agressively. I know for a fact that playing online I feel rushed and tend to make a decision without thinking of the ramifications on future streets or thinking about the equity of my investment into the pot. Generally I will end up all in whilst dominated with what I thought was a strong made hand i.e. 2 pair or an overpair. I find that bad all in calls are the majority of my losses. Added to that I have genuine trouble extracting value from strong made hands when I'm in a pot as my opponents get out generally on the flop. This combination has me playing backwards to the small pots for small hands rule and I'm having a lot of trouble reversing it.

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

Tight agressive can mean a lot of things and interpreted from mindset to statistics. It can be your VP stats in conjunction with your VP/PFR and CBet, it can be the attitude of playing solid hands in position rarely varying from suited connectors (with the right circumstances) the right face cards and set mining (a concept I also have an issue with) and following them up agressively (with bets and raises to extract value) when you have a hand worth playing.

Sorry if this is too verbose, I'm trying to put down enough info without writing a novel

Hi Tavore,

Welcome to the course.

Congrats on finishing the first homework and I appreciate the effort you have put into writing your answers.

Starting your career over aggressive is arguably better (in my opinion) than starting it on the passive side. Generally speaking passive players have a hard time becoming aggressive while the aggro players can tone down easier.

I'm looking forward to seeing hands/homeworks from you and helping you move up the limits.

Best of luck,

Bogdan

Hey guys, I recently destroyed my small bankroll (10bi's) on full tilt (I was tilting, not playing on full tilt poker) wondering why I can think I know about the game and lose so much.

So I kept watching videos, re-reading articles etc over the last week and decided that I'm being persistent: buying a bigger bankroll (25bi's) for mental comfort more than anything, taking a decision based approach to evaluation as opposed to a results based approach and I've set some restrictions on my environment such as 1 hr sessions once a day with no music and 4 tables (I work out I can play almost 2k hands a week with this systematic approach)/

Long story short, with two bad beats my first session was successful, I felt I minimised my mistakes and kept a level head and a good thought process throughout the game and over the 250 odd hands I made 11.6 bb/100 so I'm hoping that by focusing on my decisions and looking for correlations in my cash results and hand history I can improve my game faster.

Below are links to the 10 hands I uploaded from my last session, I'm going to try and review and upload after every session and I'll be watching lesson 2 videos tommorow for homework

99 050813

AKo 050813 (3)

77 050813

T8o 050813

Qq 050813

Jj 050813

AQo 050813

66 050813

AKo 050813 (2)

AKo 050813

Just some more hands from today's session:
JTs 070813
88 070813
AQo 070813 (2)
95o 070813
66 070813
Kk 070813
AQo 070813
www.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=268817
Tt 070813
Aa 070813

Hi Tavore,

I was able to review some of the hands you posted. I am looking forward to your questions on them.

I am also glad to hear you've made some changes to your game and I have to say that 10 BI was a small bankroll to begin with.

So this 25 BI should help you and keep you going longer.

Keep up the good work,

Bogdan

Hihi, a quick update first, in the last three days I've gone from a win rate of 15bb/100 and had two massive losing sessions putting me down about $20, $15 after I used my rakeback bonus. at the moment I've played 5k hands and I'm losing at a rate of about 20bb/100.

Homework 2:
Q: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?
A: I think suited connectors should be given a bit more leeway, they play a lot like pocket pairs in that you can stab at the pot with them in position and you have an idea of where you're at straight on the flop, however, playing draws is more difficult than check folding when you miss your set. I also have an issue with 'mid' pairs my question is what do you do with them if your opponents show weakness then resistance and bet you later streets, do you assume you're beaten or call for some showdown value?

Q:Do you have questions about your preflop play? Post your hand for evaluation
A: My two main issues is flat calling with JJ, QQ in 3bet pots, do you 4bet shove or flat call and hope for a happy turn? also similar for AJ+ do you fold call or raise if your 3bet gets raised? (assume TAG opponent and you're in position

Q:What is the equity of AKo against the top 5% range? 5% means 88+, AJs+, KQs, AKo
A: AKo gets 46.35%

Hi Tavore,

Good work on your second homework.

How did you lose the last few buyins that brought you down?

Coolers, setups or tilt? Or a combination of them?