Rihard4a

Welcome to the Course and Best of Luck Rihard4a,

If you want to know my tip then I'd strongly recommend in the beginning play tracked, cause you get a lot great content which is very important for beginner. You wont find it nowhere else. Afterwards the content goes even better and you will recognize yourself actually how many good diamond rank videos there are.

Hopefully you will enjoy around here. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask, we will be around for you. Meanwhile good luck on tables, we will be waiting for your homework.

You can start with your 1st Lesson:
Lesson #1

The whole course plan:
Overview of Beginners Course

Best Regards.

Lesson #1

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker? (Be as vague or specific as you want with this one, but try to think of all the reasons and elaborate on them.)

Money is the main reason why I play poker. Before in terms of money I though that I would be like Daniel Negreanu playing high stakes cash games, being a famous poker jedi master, etc. But now some things in my life have changed and I would need the cash from online poker tables to kinda add some more funds to my wedding next year. The more money, the better wedding probably will be. And only after that I would strive to become one the best of the best of the best. But apart from all that, I really poker as a game, as a sport. I am a very competitive person, I love competition, the adrenaline when competing. Hopefully this answers the question.

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker? (What are the mistakes you know you are making during your games? Are you playing while you're tired? Are you tilting easily? Want to see the showdown too much? Write down as many as you think are affecting you.)

The main weakness of mine is being unable to fold good looking hands sometimes after the flop, or even before... Like, I might have AJs in early position, I would just raise 2x or 3x and then someone after me would go all-in, I might just snap call and lose everything just because someone would hold AK, AA, KK or QQ, or even AQ... Yes I play sometimes tired after work, I but still feel concentrated when I play, I always concentrate when I do something, especially for sport. I don't tilt that easy, I have very good nerves and I am very calm as a person, I don't get offended if someone trash-talks in the poker chat, because I respect other people opinions and just pass them by. Also very hard to fold a hand when I have AKs while on the turn having a possible flush on the river, and someone just goes all-in and I might call just to see the river card and hope to win, probably and idiotic way to play.

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.)

After reading the articles, for me tight aggressive is when you wait for the goodie cards to come up in your hand and bite into the pot while having a good use of your position. Like an assassin, you wait fortunate moment and strike your target giving him no chance of taking you down. It is effective because when you strike, you strike hard and your enemy won't even know what hit them.

Good job! Homework #1 Done!

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.

Definitely don't raise smaller just cause you have a weaker hand, from EP rather keep your sizing the same. We don't want to get called too loose and want to keep all kind of hands the same amount. Not rather too strong hands too big. Balancing is very important even on lower limits cause there are still some regular players who understand that. But of course from late position I do agree that it's still possible to raise smaller if we have some maniac 3betting a lot of hands to give us better odds to Call.

Playing tired can cause a lot problems. Usually you are moody when tired and get easily angry. Which means you get tilty that brings towards you playing less your A-game. Also lets not forget that you ain't concentrating enough and watching the game which is the worst part. You have to find a way to adjust to tilt. For example against tilt:
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.

Also I really like your approach to poker, that's actually a true grinder should look like and a good player. Instead of calling other bad players names or teaching them how to play you should be rather concentrating on your game. There is no need to tell bad words to those who don't understand the game, just let them stay calm. They will rather leave the table if you start to call them names and teach too much. Respect every player on table as they would be equal.

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.

Originally posted by veriz

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.

Tight-aggressive rings a bell for me when I was reading about 8 player types, reminds me of the Rock. Mostly because of this part of the article:

You play tight.
You play aggressive.
You play in position.

Which kind is like the Rock, you wait for the position and the good hand, and then attack.

Thanks for the great feedback. I am going to post some hand once I figure out how to get them out from Poker770 history, for some reason SideKick didn't see me playing any tables on 770.

Lesson #2

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?)

In some certain hands when 2, 3 or 4 people limp before me and I have the position on them I might limp with mediocre hands, for example like suited connectors or one gaps, or suited ace high cards and hope to hit the flop and then re-evaluate strength of my hand on the flop and react appropriately. In this case also I should play accurately and do not over-bet or over-play my hand in case that someone could also hit a monster which would just suck me out. As now, I more easily fold cards like AJ before flop, I have a question like if I raise with AK and some re-raises me with like a minraise, should I just call, raise or fold? Or just go with the gut? I would fold to an all-in after my raise, but what to do with the minraise?

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.)

From these hands that are already evaluated, I would like to hear an opinion on my preflop play. Am I doing the right thing?

KK NL2 did I play the hand correctly?
AKs
Such a ruining river card, or did I play wrong?
Bad play JTs

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.)

I hope this is the correct answer to the question.

       Equity     Win     Tie
MP2     8.50%   1.70%   6.80% { AdKh }
MP3    20.44%  20.05%   0.39% { AsJs }
CO     37.85%  37.80%   0.05% { 8d8h }
BU     24.75%  24.61%   0.13% { KdQd }
SB      8.46%   1.66%   6.80% { AcKs }

Lesson #3

Question 0: Download and install the Equilab. (You can download the Equilab for free here: PokerStrategy.com Equilab.)

Check

Question 1: You are holding KQ. What is your preflop equity against an opponent who has 33? How does the equity change on this flop: J53? (Tip: you can use the Equilab to help you with this task.)

My equity in this situation is 50.78% vs. 49.22% with KQ suited. Post-flop my equity changes from 50.78% to 26.46% vs. 73.56%.

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 AJ
5 folds, Hero raises to $0.08, BU calls $0.08, SB folds, BB calls $0.06.

Flop: ($0.25) 263 (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...?

In this scenario I would fold, because the equity of my hand is about 49% and there is a big chance that the villain has hit the nuts on that turn by hitting the straight, possibly by holding pocket fours. Although there is a chance to hit that flush it is safer to fold and save some of that bankroll to win more later on.

Question 3: Do you have questions about your postflop play? Post your hand for evaluation. (Post your hand in the hand evaluation forum and provide a link to your hand in your private thread in the Locker Room.)

Here are some hands.

AA big time
pocket 5s
rockets again
AQ ship it in

Good job! Homework #2 Done!

Suited Connectors can actually be a very strong hands. They have very good implied odds in multiway pot and as well we could even play them more aggressively and take the initiative and isolate. Therefore I don't even mind you playing them. Lower suited connectors ain't very good for isolating but those higher ones something like T9s+ you could easily even start isolating.

I have a question like if I raise with AK and some re-raises me with like a minraise, should I just call, raise or fold? Or just go with the gut? I would fold to an all-in after my raise, but what to do with the minraise?

Depends a lot on the opponents stack, what kind of guy against we are. A lot of factors. But most likely we can't fold vs just a min-raise so therefore we are still calling if we assume he has a stronger range.

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.

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!

Thanks a lot for the detailed replies and explanation! I am glad that I am making the progress! Since I started this course I have noticed big difference in my play and by playing cash games I do notice an increase in my overall skill in poker. Tried to play couple of freerolls on Poker770 and placed all payed places. So really digging this course! Great experience!

Originally posted by Rihard4a
Thanks a lot for the detailed replies and explanation! I am glad that I am making the progress! Since I started this course I have noticed big difference in my play and by playing cash games I do notice an increase in my overall skill in poker. Tried to play couple of freerolls on Poker770 and placed all payed places. So really digging this course! Great experience!

Wow, that's great to hear! Especially if you see progress already in your game with so little time, imagine after few months or even a year?

I'm going to strive to progress to the max!

Lesson #4

Question 1: Post a hand for evaluation in which you have the initiative postflop. (Post your hand in the Hand evaluation board, and provide a link to your hand in your private thread.)

Pocket Jacks hit the straight on the turn
AQ ship it in

Question 2: Evaluate one of the hands submitted by other members. (Choose a hand from the Hand evaluation board and post your own evaluation in the thread. Post a link to the hand you have evaluated in your private thread. You can evaluate as many hands as you want, but try to choose hands not yet evaluated by other users.)

Here is my evaluation of a hand played by Alleen86.
NL4 Sh Going broke with AQs

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

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

Gonna take a bit break from the course as my girlfriend arrives today and gonna spend couple of weeks together, maybe I'll find some time to play poker and do the next lesson. Would like to see evaluation of the last homework!

Good job! Homework #4 Done!

Have fun off-poker, let me know as soon you are back or post the next questions/homework.

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.

Lesson #5

Question 1: Post a hand for evaluation where you have based your decisions on the stats of your opponents. (Post your hand in the Hand evaluation board, and provide a link to your hand in your private thread.)

As the elephant isn't working, I analyzed this hand using my own assumptions.
Ace Jack suited

Question 2: Evaluate one of the hands submitted by other members. (Choose a hand from the Hand evaluation board and post your own evaluation in the thread. Post a link to the hand you have evaluated in your private thread. You can evaluate as many hands as you want, but try to choose hands not yet evaluated by other users first.)

Nl10 A8

Question 3: Consider the following situation:

$10 NL Hold'em (7-handed)

Stacks & Stats:
UTG ($10)
MP ($8)
MP2 ($9)
CO ($10)
Hero($10)
SB ($10) (17/13/2.6/24/1212) [VPIP/PFR/AF/WTS/Hands]
BB ($10) (27/9/2.0/29/333) [VPIP/PFR/AF/WTS/Hands]

Preflop: Hero is BU with 6 , 7
4 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, SB calls $0.40, BB calls $0.40

Flop: ($1.20) 3 , 3 , T (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($1.20) J (3 players)
SB bets $1.00, BB calls $1.00, Hero...

What action would you take, and why?

In my opinion the best move here is to shove all-in. It will build fold equity and most likely will be the best made hand, though there is a slight chance to be beaten with higher flush. And in this situation I have about 70% equity to win the hand.

Question 4: Consider the following situation:

$10 NL Hold'em (8-handed)

Stacks & Stats
UTG ($8)
MP ($10)
MP2 ($9)
MP3 ($6)
Hero ($10)
BU ($10) (25/21/3.8/26/1250) [VPIP/PFR/AF/WTS/Hands]
SB ($10)
BB ($10)

Preflop: Hero is CO with J , J
4 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, BU 3-bets to $1.30, 2 folds, Hero calls $1.30

Flop: ($2.75) 6 , 9 , T (2 players)
Hero...

I would bet just about 3/4 of the pot to identify where am I standing with my hand. If I get called or raised I might consider not to continue the hand, because that would show that my opponent has a monster pocket pair.

Good Job! Homework #5 Done!

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.

Lesson #6

Question 1: Post a hand for evaluation where you have either a) freeplay, b) slowplay, or c) multi-way pot situation. (Post your hand in the Hand evaluation board, and provide a link to your hand in your private thread.)

should've done value on the river

Question 2: Evaluate one of the hands submitted by other members. (Choose a hand from the Hand evaluation board and post your own evaluation in the thread. Post a link to the hand you have evaluated in your private thread. You can evaluate as many hands as you want, but try to choose hands not yet evaluated by other users first.)

nl2 hero KK

Question 3: Consider the following situation:

$25 NL Hold'em (10 handed)

Stacks & Stats
UTG ($25)
UTG+1 ($25) rock
UTG+2 ($25)
MP1 ($25)
MP2 ($25) LAG
MP3 ($25) maniac
CO ($25)
Hero BU ($25)
SB ($25)
BB ($25) calling station

Preflop: Hero is BU with Q , J
5 folds, MP3 raises $1.00, CO calls $1.00, Hero calls $1.00, 1 fold, BB calls $1.00

Flop: ($4.10) 3 , J , A (4 players)
BB checks, MP3 checks, CO checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($4.10) Q (4 players)
BB bets $2.05, 2 folds, Hero...?

What action would you take, and why?

Equilab calculates 84% chances to win the hand. But I think would be better if I would raise him to protect my hand of possible flush on the river.

Board: A♦3♥J♣ Q♣
       Equity     Win     Tie
BU     84.01%  83.40%   0.60% { QhJh }
BB     15.99%  15.39%   0.60% { 22+, A2s+, K2s+, Q2s+, J2s+, T2s+, 93s+, 84s+, 74s+, 63s+, 53s+, 43s, A2o+, K2o+, Q3o+, J5o+, T6o+, 96o+, 86o+, 76o }

Good Job! Homework #6 Done!

About Question #3:
Two lines can quickly be discarded here: fold and raise/fold; your hand is simply too strong for those alternatives.

It's hard to assess whether you should put in a raise here. When a rather passive player decides to bet into three players while being out of position, it does look strong. It's more likely an indication of a made hand than that of a draw.

A raise naturally protects, but you run the risk of isolating yourself against very strong range. Which weaker hands could your opponent possibly continue playing here?

The deciding factor finally comes in the size of the pot. This tiny pot simply isn't worth putting yourself into a tough spot where you could potentially end up risking your entire stack. A raise would be overplayed here and pot control takes the precedent over protection.

Best of Luck on the tables and with the Course.

Lesson #7

Question 1: Post a hand for evaluation where you have played on a 6-max table (short-handed). (Post your hand in the No Limit: Hand Evaluations forum, and provide a link to your hand in your private thread.)

pocket Jacks SH

Question 2: Evaluate one of the hands submitted by other members (Choose a hand from the No Limit: Hand Evaluations board and post your own evaluation in the thread. Post a link to the hand you have evaluated in your private thread. You can evaluate as many hands as you want, but try to choose hands not yet evaluated by other users first.)

sb AQ, PF,F play

Question 3: Consider the following situation:

$10 NL Hold'em (6 handed)

Stacks & Stats:
UTG ($10)
MP ($10)
CO ($10)
BU($10)
SB ($10)
BB (Hero) ($10)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5 , 4
2 folds, CO raises to $0.40, BU calls $0.40, SB calls $0.40, Hero calls $0.40

Flop: ($1.60) 3 , 2 , Q (4 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.20, CO Raises All-in, BU calls All-in, SB folds, Hero...

What action would you take, and why?

In this situation I see an easy fold. Because CO and BU went all-in it is most likely that someone has a set, or a better flush draw than hero. So the we have left only with 6 outs because we have to discount the A and 6 .

Board: Q♥2♥3♠
       Equity     Win     Tie
CO     22.38%  21.66%   0.73% { random }
BU     22.38%  21.66%   0.73% { random }
BB     55.24%  54.55%   0.69% { 5h4h }

Question 4: Consider the following situation:

$10 NL Hold'em (6 handed)

Stacks & Stats:
UTG ($10)
MP ($10)
CO (Hero) ($10)
BU($10)
SB ($10)
BB ($10)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A , K
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, BU calls $0.40, SB calls $0.40, BB calls $0.40

Flop: ($1.60) A , 4 , 4 (4 players)
SB checks, BB bets $1.20, Hero...

What action would you take, and why?

A re-raise is an appropriate action in this spot, because the BB might with mostly any Ax hand and by having the best kicker for Ax hand we are most likely to win the pot unless someone has flopped a set or even a boat which is less likely.

Board: 4♦A♠4♣
       Equity     Win     Tie
CO     58.98%  57.53%   1.44% { AcKs }
BU     14.99%  13.81%   1.18% { random }
SB     13.02%  12.75%   0.27% { random }
BB     13.02%  12.75%   0.27% { random }