Northernplan

Hi northernplan!

Welcome to the Beginners Course!

You've come to the right place to help you improve and become a winning player

Don't forget to post your homework to get the ball rolling!

Wishing you every success,
Gary

Typically I started this course then became ill, but as the saying goes "I am back."

Here is the Lesson 1 home work

Question 1: What is your motivation for playing poker?

My motivations for playing poker are

1.) Make some money. How much initially I want my bank roll over £100 that isn't a huge increase but it would mean I have started winning more consistently in the low stake poker rooms.

2.) The challenge I like the competitiveness of poker and the buzz I get whilst I am playing.

3.) Fun. I cant think of a batter way of passing time other than playing poker

Question 2: What are your weaknesses when playing poker?

My weaknesses are:

impatience, I have been winning reasonable consistently in the micro stake rooms. I play to my strategy then do something stupid, play a hand I shouldn't and ignore what the play is telling me. Then I will lose a chunk or all my winnings.

I sometimes get tilt, when I make stupid mistakes, but this is something I have been working on and is improving.

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

Playing Tight aggressive is when you do not play a lot of hands, only your good hands with a chance of being a winning hand. IE playing tight.

However when you do play a hand you play it aggressively, raising and putting your opponent under pressure.

The reason this is a good strategy is that you reduce the risk of losses by playing tight and the maximise your winnings by playing agressive when you have a good hand.

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.

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.

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.

Impatience is actually a huge leak for a lot of poker players. You have to find yourself a way how you gonna ignore it or make it disappear. Try every time remind yourself! Forcing into your life to be more patient in any activity you do, not only poker. Force! Force! Force! Always remind what you came to do and the patience will just help you earning more salary not the opposite. The more you practice, the more you will get used to it and even at some point realize that you even ignoring it.

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.

Hi, Thanks for that Veriz. I am finding the course interesting. The knowledge is great and it is good to get feedback from others. It also gives you the opportunity to stop and look at yourself and your play.

I had already started playing shorter sessions and a sliding stop loss. I read recently that some tables frown stating it is bad etiquette to play short sessions and take winnings early. Is that right?

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?)

I started reading Hellmuns book, Playing Poker Like a pro and there is a lot of cross over in the material, which is good. From my limited experience I have found the SHC is a great starting point, but quickly realised that there is more to winning than the cards and position. Taking into account the style of the other players and their position. allowing me to maximise the expected value and maximise the winning.

As a session goes along and I learn to read the other players I have then found I will play weaker hands that are listed in the SHC as hands to fold. This being based on the style and position of the other player(s)

For example 0.2/0.4NL I have tonight played suited cards with a gap against a loose aggressive. I noticed that they would call or small raise me or other players then fold later or loose. When I was in the late positions I would raise using the guidelines learned in the course up to now. The player would then put in a big raise Often I pick up doubles or flush and could follow the hand through. The danger is not reading the situation right or getting carried away and not reading when to fold.

I hope that makes sense? It is play that wouldn't be suggested by the SHC but can increase you winnings and range of winning hands.

Question 2: Do you have questions about your preflop play? Post your hand for evaluation.

At the moment I don't have any questions about specific hands.
My question is not just regarding pre-flop, but does apply to it. In the course it suggest a level of raising. 3 x BB + one for each call. Should you be flexible in the amounts you raise? If you raise the same amounts each time does it become a tell. Are you giving info away by playing the same all the time?

Question 3: What is the equity of AKo against the top 5% range? 5% means 88+, AJs+, KQs, AKo.

Equity Win Tie
UTG 46.32% 37.92% 8.41% { AKo }
UTG+1 53.68% 45.27% 8.41% { 88+, AJs+, KQs, AKo }

Regarding question 3 I asked and was given the answer, but I couldnt find explaination.

Good job! Homework #2 Done!

I had already started playing shorter sessions and a sliding stop loss. I read recently that some tables frown stating it is bad etiquette to play short sessions and take winnings early. Is that right?

Umm, why should be bad to play shorter sessions? You just play several of them and might avoid even to tilt you.

Yes, your thoughts seem to be realistic but in the future on which you can concentrate on is the stealing ranges and especially having a wider range from the late position cause it's very powerful position and you may even earn the biggest profit from there if you play it correctly.

Same applies for isolating which is another powerful weapon which we are going to use the better we get. It allows you to take the initiative and very often make even people either fold preflop or postflop by CBetting.

My question is not just regarding pre-flop, but does apply to it. In the course it suggest a level of raising. 3 x BB + one for each call. Should you be flexible in the amounts you raise? If you raise the same amounts each time does it become a tell. Are you giving info away by playing the same all the time?

Usually I'd advice use standard raise size as 4xBB + 1xBB each Call. Not sure thought which articles advices the 3xBB to raise. On higher limits of course we gonna change that but we don't need to change it on lower limits. Because on lower limits we will be usually raising strong hands mainly and which is for value, so we want to force them to make mistakes.

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 }

the equity is enough to explain it.

Hopefully you enjoy the Course so far.