DrDunne

You and I are going to play NL500 heads up soon. Prepare well.

NL1K actually.... if you can't handle the heat GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN

See you on the tables

@DrDunne "if you can't handle the heat GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN" you were definitely watching xfactor last weekend ♦ lol

pahahah! i actually watched it last night, my friend's mum had it recorded lol

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker?

poker is cool ♦ but seriously, i enjoy the game very much. i like the feeling when i win a hand and i enjoy being rewarded for making the right decisions. i really would love to make some $$$ playing the game so i won't lie; money is a big motivator. at the same time, however, it is a very big hobby of mine now (even though im not a very good player) and so it is something i do and something i think a lot about. i find it enjoyable, i like the challenge, i like the nerves and i like winning!

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker?

obviously as a beginner i tilt easily. if i start the day off and play break even for 2000 hands i tilt, if i win and then lose it to a few bad beats i tilt, and if i start the day and lose consistently i obviously tilt. what happens when i tilt is i feel down and i feel like statistics are out to get me and i often start rationalising bad plays which means they go unseen when i think back over my session.

another problem is i overplay marginal hands. pocket pairs 99+ i tend to overplay (in different ways). i get too attached to AA/KK, i often don't know how to play 99-JJ and i get very stuck with AK. i noticed i made the majority of my (small) winnings from sets and AA/KK preflop along with stronger hands. also from TPTK and someone calling down on a draw, but often i find it hard to lay down a hand like TPTK when i've gone so long folding, so this is another problem i have.

i'm a little stuck as to how far to push my hands and i am a little confused about 3betting preflop. i'm also not too good at mathematics so i need to improve with that too. oh and i'm waaay too results oriented - i always hover my mouse over the elephant tooltip in the taskbar and i always shoot to make a certain amount. this is bad! and when my br takes a hit i really tilt.

generally i have many many holes in my game and this is why i have decided to join the BSS school because i understand the importance of going right back to basics and starting fresh.

Question 3: What does it mean to play tight-aggressive? (Describe in your own words what playing tight aggressive is, and why does it work.)

playing tight = playing a 'tight' range of hands, or selecting a very narrow (~10%) range of hands to enter the pot with. playing aggressively = taking this tight range of hands and betting out with them. instead of limping or calling, which would be passive play, the idea is to lead the table and be the one to set the standards and to put the other players at the table to an important decision for their chips.

this style of play works because poorer players generally play too many hands and like to see cheap flops by simply limping in or calling a raise. with this type of broad range of hands it is difficult to be certain that if you hit, you have the best hand. on the other hand, with a tight range of hands you can be sure that when you do hit you will almost always be ahead and can bet out (continue the aggression) for value, depending on the opponent(s) you face and the board texture and its relationships with the cards you hold and the possible range of your opponent(s). this style of play exploits the weaknesses of your opponents, such as playing too many weak hands, limp/calling too often (where they will often miss and have to fold to a cbet).

Hello DrDunne,

Guess a lot of players are playing poker because of money. A lot of good chess players even switch to poker just because of that.

Easiest wait 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 wanting. Some may put it higher, some lower. And after the stop you can easily just spend some time with evaluating your play.

It's a common leak for beginners to overplay their marginal hands. This will definitely be fixed with time and experience. One option would be more active on the hand evaluation forums and try to get the understanding even faster.

Good luck in the Course. Earned your first points.

Question 1: What do you think you could play differently than how it is 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 are to be played?)

i know from some coachings that it's better to open with all pocket pairs from all positions (i may be wrong but this is what i've been doing recently) rather than limping and calling a raise.. however if IP and there are a few limpers already im sure it's okay to limp behind and if the situation arises, call a raise according to call20.

i know the shc doesnt take into account the tendencies of other players, like you could be up against someone who open raises 6BB every hand regardless of position. it could be profitable to loosen up against this opponent and obviously play differently than what is advised on the shc.. another example of adjustment is that the shc also advises a steal with Axs from BU, but if you know the blinds to be very loose and aggressive (probably maniacs at the micro stakes) then it is probably +ev to tighten up and steal with less hands. on the other hand if they are extremely tight you could probably steal with any two cards against them, and even if they call they probably miss the flop and so check/fold to cbet and you pick up the pot.

Question 2: Post a hand for evaluation where you have a question regarding your pre-flop play. ( Post your hand in the Handevaluation forums, and provide a link to your hand in your private thread in the Locker Room.)

2nl, fr, QQ OOP vs 3bet

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)

off the top of my head i'm thinking it has about a 45% equity because AK against QQ is about 45% (as far as i remember).

equilab says that against a 5% VPIP, AKo has 46.32% equity.

NL1K actually.... if you can't handle the heat GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN

Let's play nl10million HU4rollz. I'll sell my parent's houses for some big blinds first.

10 million is a little too much for me, maybe 5 mil would be more reasonable. i will have to dress in drag, marry a rich older man and kill him for the inheritance so it might take a few years but your on.

Good job! Homework #2 Done!

Playing PPs can be in long run actually be very profitable, we could even say that you earn the most money with them. You can always try out either you play them profitable or not by check the programs either you are doing great on early position with PPs or not and base according to that.

Also that's totally true that SHC doesn't adjust at all against different type of opponents. We can only do that by ourselves. That's why actually SHC is just a guide how you can play your hands but it's not a must that you have to follow it.

Hopefully you enjoy the School so far. Some more points earned.

10 million is a little too much for me, maybe 5 mil would be more reasonable. i will have to dress in drag, marry a rich older man and kill him for the inheritance so it might take a few years but your on.

You could avoid the dress up if you could find a rich old woman to marry ♦

LoL, nice chat is going on guys. :>>>

Originally posted by Maniatrix

10 million is a little too much for me, maybe 5 mil would be more reasonable. i will have to dress in drag, marry a rich older man and kill him for the inheritance so it might take a few years but your on.

You could avoid the dress up if you could find a rich old woman to marry ♦

I hope I find her first ♦

You could avoid the dress up if you could find a rich old woman to marry ♦

why didn't i think of this.... and matel i didn't know you were a lesbian!

lol veriz i wouldn't be surprised if you posted that and then went off to play some 5,000,000NL HU ♦

Unfortunately I am not playing that high. But obviously I wish I would or I wish I would be skilled enough to do that in near future.

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 the following flop: J :spade:5 :diamond:3 :spade:?

a guess of my preflop equity holding KQs against pocket 33 = 48%
equilab says that my preflop equity with KQs against p33 = 50.78%

(i thought i would include my estimates with things like this because i probably won't have time mid-game to calculate it so i want to get a feel for equities.)

on the following flop, the equity changes to 26.46%. we actually only have 8 clean outs to draw to the best hand and have to dodge the board pairing. obviously if we hit our flush then we can win but if a 5 comes out then while we make our flush, our opponent's hand improves to a full house and beats our flush.

Question 2: What would you do in the following hand? (Remember that it is important to explain your reasons, simply posting "Fold" or "Call" is not sufficient)
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 :club:.
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...?

the button flat calls us as does the BB. we don't hit much at all on the flop except for a backdoor NFD. there are straight possibilities and we get to see a free turn card which then gives us 9 outs to the NF.

when we are check-raised on the turn i think it shows some strength however since he check-raises the minimum he is in fact giving us a little better than 4:1 pot odds which means that we can chase our draw profitably - not only this, but we can safely say that since his check-raise shows some strength we may even expect another bet on the river even when we make our NF, meaning that our implied odds are increased since he probably wants to go broke if he does have a straight.

so after seeing that we are getting the correct pot odds to profitably draw to our nut flush, i would call.

Question 3: Post a hand for evaluation where you have a question regarding your post-flop play.

2nl, fr, 99 - flopped set on a wet board

Welcome to our beginner course Lewis! Good luck on your journey!

thank you ingrid!