[Closed] batosz

Hey batosz,

Welcome to this course, and obviously to Pokerstrategy! I'm really happy you're enjoying your stay here at our site. We pride ourselves in helping our members to the best of our abilities so if you should have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us!

This beginners course was made just for people like you! Giving you a solid grasp on various aspects of the game. I'm sure with hard studying you'll succeed in your goals.

All the best,

NIVEKii

Lesson 1 - Homework

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker?
Firstly, I just like the game: it is exciting, mathematical and psychological. The best possible combination. I also find it quite intriguing that it should be possible to master a game, where luck obviously plays and important role, to an extent when you can actually beat the game with a great certainty. Finally, obviously earning some money is quite appealing. I'd like to find out what I am capable of.

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker?
I haven't played that much to be sure. If I am winning I tend to play a bit loosely, I think, which sometimes leads to losing what I'd just won. This especially happens when I get a bit bored. Also, before reading a bit more about it, I tended to bluff more than I should have. (I assume sometimes it wasn't very credible)

Question 3: What does it mean to play tight-aggressive?
Playing tight means that we only plays carefully selected hands. This should help avoid tough situations. It also makes bluffs or continuations bets more credible. As far as I know a good player only plays 20-30% of their hands. Surely, the ratio changes from player to player. Playing aggressively means that most of the time we bet/raise/fold and not call and we try to take the initiative. We obviously fold when our hand is not profitable. We bet/raise to put our opponents under pressure, when it is harder for them to make a good decision. This is exactly when we make money - when our opponents make bad decisions, which is easier to achieve when they are under pressure.

Btw, thank you NIVEKii.

Also, can I do the course in anytime? And is it a problem that I started it a bit later than most people?

Good job! Homework #1 Done!

You can do the course homework whenever you have time, the same goes for exam.

It seems that you play too much towards instincts but which ain't that good. You might even have problems recognizing tilt. With tilt you in long run will definitely loose a lot money and rather try to avoid it. For example:
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.

Most of the other weakness you wrote can easily be fixed with you posting hands (analyzing your session). We will start writing feedback to your play. And usually negative feedback will put you into thinking phase and trying to fix all those leaks. It's almost the same as you loose money, you will remember it more than winning part.

Welcome to the Course and Best of luck! First points earned.

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?)

The Starting Hands Chart only provides a very basic strategy, which ensures that our play is not -EV. If we want to maximise our profit however, we need to deviate from the SHC slightly.

For instance, from late position or from the SB if no one entered the flop before us, we could raise with a wider range of hands (e.g. suited one-gappers, Ax, Kxs, offsuit connectors).

There is another profitable technique called isolation. In this case we have limpers ahed of us. If we bet them they will either fold or potentially call, in which case we have and advantage postflop. (we have the initiative and we are at position).

These are just two techniques that can be very profitable but are not included in the SHC.

There are varios other ways to deviate from the SHC profitably. Surely, all these require a better read on our opponents and knowledge about the table dynamics. Another very important factor to consider is the stack sizes. In general, smaller someone's stack the higher the fold equity they have.

I personally have just started to apply blind steals. The next step I would like to introduce to my play is isolation. Also, varying the bet sizes seems profitable as well. (I.e. bigger raises OUP. Quite often if I have a very high hand in late position it doesn't get paid because everyone folds to a 4bet. I assume 2.5/3 BB bet would be more profitable in some cases.)

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.)

From a blind steal...

I spent quite a lot of time looking for hands where I have doubts about my postflop play. Most of the times I realised if I had a mistake because the SHC always gives an answer. This hand I posted caused me some trouble to analyse, and I admit I didn't play it well.

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)

Using Equilab, I got 46.32%. I found this surprising first, but I think it only shows that AKo is not as strong a hand as I thought.

Just a quick update. So, I've played my first 1k hands this week, and so far I'm doing alright. I think most of the times my preflop play is alright, I probably attempt blind-steals with a bit too wide range of hands. However, I believe that my post-flop play is quite weak, I got into lot of big hands with marginal situations. It has improved in the last day or two, but it's still not the best.

Hopefully, on completing Lesson 3 it will improve.

Good job! Homework #2 Done!

Totally agree with you about the stealing ranges. They can be very easily be balanced with even wider range. Depending on the opponent you can as well put a wider stealing range. Against some shorties you can even steal with smaller raise. But don't overdo the stealing situations. Sometimes you might just put yourself into too many difficult spots if opening with marginal hands.

Isolating can be very profitable actually since people on lower stakes take the fast and easy line by just Fit/Folding too much. With that you will earn in long run a lot profit. Which means you can isolate with even wider range, sometimes even with the all range which you could limp.

Well, postflop play is always possible to get better with evaluating your sessions and obviously posting hands. Being active in the Hand Evaluation forums.

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