Polished Poker Vol. I Study Group

[eBuddy]

I will start off with the relatively simple examples of how I played my Aces. I have grinded online, but in these hands, I was playing 2/5 live with effective stacks of $500. I had

UTG and I almost always raise when I open, but in this hand, I opted to balance and limp instead. As I was hoping for, LAG raises on the puck (button) to $30. Then TAG on the BB squeezes to ~$90. Now normally, I would 4-bet with Aces to put more money into the pot and try to get heads-up, but I opt to play balanced deception in this hand and just flat.

With a $272 pot, the flop is something like

BB bets ~$180. Normally, I would value raise with AA since there are possible draws and I am against two villains, but I again opt for balanced deception and just flat. BB ends up putting me all-in (AK), and I take down the pot of over $1,100! A 5/10 regular waiting on the 2/5 table said he did not put me on AA and said, "Well played."

About an orbit or two later, I have

again in EP. This time, I raise to $20. Villain in LP min-raises to $35. Normally, I would re-raise only a small amount, not wanting him to fold. I again opt to balance by playing the same hand differently and overbet to ~$140. He calls, probably not putting me on AA. I value bet on the flop, he raises all-in (KK) and I stack him. I cash out with over $1,600 to go for a meal break with friends. Obviously, trying to play balanced against regulars doesn't always turn out as well for me, but those losing hands are for later examples.

Homework assignment... find some hands you feel you played with balanced deception and explain why you did.

 

[aCutAbove]

Hi John and everyone.

Sorry for butting in here, I downloaded the original ebook as soon as it hit Hem. I read it straight through in one sitting.
I was stunned by the quality as i have a shelf full of books with far less useable content, they cost me a small fortune and a large chunk of my micro roll.

I want to join in and catch up here but i can't open the ebook. It tries to open with Kindle but it's not in my kindle library?? i don't remember it downloading as a kindle book either. Adobe can't read it?
Any suggestions anyone.

Cheers.

 

[John A]

I will start off with the relatively simple examples of how I played my Aces. I have grinded online, but in these hands, I was playing 2/5 live with effective stacks of $500. I had

UTG and I almost always raise when I open, but in this hand, I opted to balance and limp instead. As I was hoping for, LAG raises on the puck (button) to $30. Then TAG on the BB squeezes to ~$90. Now normally, I would 4-bet with Aces to put more money into the pot and try to get heads-up, but I opt to play balanced deception in this hand and just flat.

With a $272 pot, the flop is something like

BB bets ~$180. Normally, I would value raise with AA since there are possible draws and I am against two villains, but I again opt for balanced deception and just flat. BB ends up putting me all-in (AK), and I take down the pot of over $1,100! A 5/10 regular waiting on the 2/5 table said he did not put me on AA and said, "Well played."

About an orbit or two later, I have

again in EP. This time, I raise to $20. Villain in LP min-raises to $35. Normally, I would re-raise only a small amount, not wanting him to fold. I again opt to balance by playing the same hand differently and overbet to ~$140. He calls, probably not putting me on AA. I value bet on the flop, he raises all-in (KK) and I stack him. I cash out with over $1,600 to go for a meal break with friends. Obviously, trying to play balanced against regulars doesn't always turn out as well for me, but those losing hands are for later examples.

Thanks for sharing. Are you doing a good amount of limping this game to want to create a balance for a limping range? If there's a lot of limping in your game, I would presume it's soft enough that you wouldn't want to.

 

[John A]

Hi John and everyone.

Sorry for butting in here, I downloaded the original ebook as soon as it hit Hem. I read it straight through in one sitting.
I was stunned by the quality as i have a shelf full of books with far less useable content, they cost me a small fortune and a large chunk of my micro roll.

I want to join in and catch up here but i can't open the ebook. It tries to open with Kindle but it's not in my kindle library?? i don't remember it downloading as a kindle book either. Adobe can't read it?
Any suggestions anyone.

Cheers.

Thanks for the compliment. I'm hoping that this + the workbook is going to have a lot of important information you're not going to find in typical poker books you'd have to pay for. I'm hoping that because it's free people don't over look it. I guess I could start charging $50 or something like some of these other guys.

 

[rhombus]

Thanks for the compliment. I'm hoping that this + the workbook is going to have a lot of important information you're not going to find in typical poker books you'd have to pay for. I'm hoping that because it's free people don't over look it. I guess I could start charging $50 or something like some of these other guys.

Didn't some of the pros charge up to $2K for ebooks. As a pro would you ever consider that a reasonable price.

PS I read chapter 9 last night and noticerd a couple of typo/errors should i post in this thread or just PM you so you can edit when you get a chance

 

[A9ofHearts]

Thanks for the compliment. I'm hoping that this + the workbook is going to have a lot of important information you're not going to find in typical poker books you'd have to pay for. I'm hoping that because it's free people don't over look it. I guess I could start charging $50 or something like some of these other guys.

Well thanks for doing it for free

 

[jcdagenius]

is this group on Skype?

 

[John A]

Didn't some of the pros charge up to $2K for ebooks. As a pro would you ever consider that a reasonable price.

PS I read chapter 9 last night and noticerd a couple of typo/errors should i post in this thread or just PM you so you can edit when you get a chance

Anything is reasonable if someone will pay for it. These guys can charge whatever they want, but would never pay for it. And I've paid near that much per hour for coaching in the past.

Yes, PM me anything you find please. I re-worked some of it this week, but I've been super busy with some unexpected life stuff, so I haven't updated it on the server yet.

 

[eBuddy]

I open-raise most of the time, except occasionally with AA/KK/QQ in early position, hoping to open-limp/raise. I believe open-limping is a leak, but is very common in the live games I've played. Are you saying that I should (almost) never limp with AA-QQ in a limpy game and raise with them all of the time? Would you agree that if I think a hand is playable, that I should open-raise instead of open-limp, e.g., UTG with JTs, 55 or AJ (10-player table)?

Are you doing a good amount of limping this game to want to create a balance for a limping range? If there's a lot of limping in your game, I would presume it's soft enough that you wouldn't want to.

 

[John A]

I open-raise most of the time, except occasionally with AA/KK/QQ in early position, hoping to open-limp/raise. I believe open-limping is a leak, but is very common in the live games I've played. Are you saying that I should (almost) never limp with AA-QQ in a limpy game and raise with them all of the time? Would you agree that if I think a hand is playable, that I should open-raise instead of open-limp, e.g., UTG with JTs, 55 or AJ (10-player table)?

I wouldn't say to never do something, but unless you're trying to have a limping range, and looking to do it often, it wouldn't make sense to do and it's not really deceptive balance. But that's good that you're looking to play some hands different, and your opponent will have to consider that in other situations.

And yes, I would open raise or fold those mentioned hands at a 10 player table as a general rule. But nothing is static, and it might make sense in some spots to limp, but at most tables you're just going to be stuck calling a raise OOP with a perceived inferior hand range.

 

[John A]

Homework (if this applies to your games): Make sure you go through pgs 98-103. You want to make sure you understand your average equity on different board textures. Why? Because you want to put yourself in the most ideal bluffing and floating spots, and to make sure you aren't taking suboptimal lines based on your hand. I can't stress that enough, because if you get this section (which I'm telling you, no one has really broken down like this before, not looking for props, just letting you know you have info that a lot of people aren't really considering very well), you're going to have a really good understanding of how to play a lot of situations better than your opponents. So just make sure you spend some time on it, don't rush through it.

 

[aCutAbove]

make sure you spend some time on it, don't rush through it.

Will do, cheers John.

Huge congrats to LD wp m8.

(Insert envy icon,, lolz.)

 

[John A]

So what is one of the best boards to c/c with your air looking to most likely re-steal later?

 

[aCutAbove]

Coordinated or paired low board?

 

[Ohep1]

Thanks for doing this for free. Does it make sense to follow this, even though I would like to try out hunl and not 6 max?

Another question - the upcoming workshop - will anything be available online for us that live in Europe?

 

[A9ofHearts]

So what is one of the best boards to c/c with your air looking to most likely re-steal later?

If we are in position this would be pretty much any paired board that doesn't hit our opponents range much, right? Something Like QQ2 rainbow?

 

[rhombus]

If we are in position this would be pretty much any paired board that doesn't hit our opponents range much, right? Something Like QQ2 rainbow?

Wouldn't it be a low paired board 833 as their range more likely to have hit a higher than lower paired board

 

[jedimindpicks]

Ok well I just stumbled in here today but better late than never I guess.
Looking forward to following along. I take it Chapter nine is still the place to start? I reviewed most of this thread so far and thanks for the book btw.

 

[aCutAbove]

Any coordinated rainbow low hand or dry low paired board should be scary for opponents range and add to our fe?
Are we on the right track or should we show specific hands?

 

[Dom1]

I play mainly fr,i'm going over the equity on different boards(pg94+)
23% of hands would,in most cases be fairly loose.
Will the the equity change much if i use say a 14% opening range?
Also is this based on equity trainer in APD?
Thanks

 

[Dom1]

Can someone explain where the .43&.57 comes from in the calculation on pg97.
Is it our equity vs opponents cbetting range?

 

[aCutAbove]

Dom
How often and why we would fold to a re-bluff raise with his air?

Just a thought (guess?) I'm not quite with it either.

 

[aCutAbove]

I play mainly fr,i'm going over the equity on different boards(pg94+)
23% of hands would,in most cases be fairly loose.
Will the the equity change much if i use say a 14% opening range?
Also is this based on equity trainer in APD?
Thanks

The tighter his opening range the less equity we have?
Again just a guess/thought don't take my word for it. Wait for John.

 

[John A]

Well, this was a little bit of a trick question. The kind of air you have kind of makes a difference in what boards you'd be c/cing on and what your plan is. Based on having overcards though, in the book, the best boards are a paired low board and a coordinated low board.

Why is that important? A ton of reasons, but I'll give you one to start, and see if you can come up with anymore.

1) Having difficulty with opponents floating you a lot on these kinds of boards or raising you off your hands when they have position on you? Awesome... c/c with your air sometimes instead of c-bet on these board, and then lead the turn. Make sure you start mixing in some c/cing with your made hands against these opponents as well. Works pretty well. I'm understating that actually.

 

[John A]

I play mainly fr,i'm going over the equity on different boards(pg94+)
23% of hands would,in most cases be fairly loose.
Will the the equity change much if i use say a 14% opening range?
Also is this based on equity trainer in APD?
Thanks

23% from where though? At FR from the hijack on this is pretty typical. Actually FR players have higher CO opens that 6-max players on average. I've seen way too many stats with Leak Buster in my time that would just blow your head open.

And no, it's not based on APD at all.