fordey33

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.)

1.To win money and move up the levels.
2. The challenge.
3. The feeling whe nyou have the nuts lol

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.)

Slow playing good hands like pocket Aces and getting to the river and loosing and then knowing I shouldn't have slow played them!
Not knowing what to do if I have a hand that gets re-raised pre flop after I have raised.
Not concentrating, letting mind wander.
Not been aware of my postion at the table.
Not taking into account other players stats ie am I in showdwon with fish, tag etc

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.)

I think tight aggressive is a player who is not entering into many pots and play about 20% - 23% of their hands voluntarily. When they enter pots they will preflop raise and not just limp into the pot. They will bet on the turn if they have a good hand and get out of the pot if they haven't got a decent hand. Generally don't bluff and slow play hands.

Welcome to the Course and Best of Luck. Good job! Homework #1 Done!

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.

Lack of concentration is a common leak for beginners. They just play with music, watching TV, reading forums. But those kind of distractions really will just make you loose more money. Ain't ya there for win money? So act like that and force yourself always close all kind of distractions and try to stay concentrated on the tables. Everyone will find their own way how they are able to concentrate more.

Position is the most important thing in poker. That's as well the reason why actually our chart advices to play less hands OOP and rather more hands IP when it will be much easier for you. You will face way too many hard decisions, could be very expensive leak.

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.

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. Some points earned.

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?)

Pocket 9 in late position could be raised rather than called if there is a tight player in the big blind and all players have folded up to that (steal the blind)

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.)

If you have QQ then raise in late position and get re-raised should you fold, raise,re-raise or is it correct to go all in against a fairly loose player?

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.)

46%

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 tight opponents who give up their blinds either preflop or postflop, why not to adjust? Against some shorties you can even steal with smaller raise, for example 3xBB. But don't overdo the stealing situations. Sometimes you might just put yourself into too many difficult spots if opening with marginal hands.

But you don't even have to steal only 99 but also other PPs. I'd actually steal/raise with all the PPs from LP. And maybe even loosen up to some broadways.

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 School so far. Some more points earned.