Hey all,

For those who don't know me, I am a mid-high professional hu player. Like probably all of you guys, it has been a tough year. FT/abs stole my monies and the games are drying up. I'm also in mid-transition to another career (opera singer) that is going very well but not able to support me fully quite yet. In the meantime, I want to get back to basics and focus on the part of my game that has always been weaker: GTO play, particularly in the middle-game. I've incorporated a lot of Phil's ideas into my game such as checking the flop and optimal river bluffing and folding frequencies, but I am really looking to build the tools to do it on my own. And that means tackling the Mount Everest of poker books that has been gathering dust on my shelf: Mathematics of Poker by Smarty mcCalculuspants.

I'm looking for a small strike force team of 6-8 people to infiltrate MoP disguised as math experts, seduce it and force it to reveal its secrets. Headsup experts (100k+ hands of experience) at any level with a good math background are welcome. The commitment would be once a week we would talk about it and bring to each other various hands or problems or general theory to discuss. One example: you 3bet preflop and bet flop against a perfectly exploitative opponent. What is your turn GTO strategy in a 5bet pot on various board? I have a vague idea of the correct answer based on intuition and messing around in pokerstove but would love a more specific mathematical approach.

We could also discuss shorthanded play later on but for now I would like to keep it simple.

PM me if interested.

Zach

Not anywhere near qualified and dont know anyone who is but sounds very interesting and GL to you

Gild, what its the purpose, besides the intellectual challenge?
I am not being sarcastic with this question.

umm to get better and make more monies? Sorry if that wasn't clear. Also, who knows what happens when you get some smart poker players in a room. Maybe we will spit out the next great Canadian screenplay. I actually had a short story dream the other day and wrote down a synopsis that maybe we can flesh out into a decent scifi movie. It is like Dark City meets Everybody Loves Raymond.

In sum, I still think there are monies in this game for those of us who can play it. Waiting on 6 sites I can still get in 12-15k hands a month of hu which is about what I was playing anyways back when games grew on trees and is enough for me to live comfortably. Poker is transitional for me. That doesn't mean I can't keep improving and learning to squeeze more juice out of this dry lemon.

I've played 100k+ HUHU over the years. I am not a math genius. However, I am now dancing around on Canadian soil so perhaps this will make up for the math part...

Ya kahn you are definitely welcome. Got a solid group now. I am on the road now with spotty internet, but will pm back everyone in the next few days and get something started in the next week or two. I don't anticipate adding new members in the middle of it so that means it will close in a few days.

300k hands playing mid/high stakes. I'm interested

I hope this goes well. I'm not too cool for school or anything. I just can't commit to anything right now. It sounds like a great idea and it would have been nice just to get to know some of you guys better.

Alright, there are 10 people in the study group:

veganmav
freshuuuuuiice
imfatandugly
rigmeariver
brassmonkey
armor32
abracadabraa
kahntrutahn
cazj88
MEMEMEMEMEMeeeee

Very stacked group imo. Looking forward to this. I will send out some mass pms in a bit and we can set up a skype/vent group for sometime early next week. I am thinking once or twice a week during afternoons EST when the games are slow, but due to time zone differences for a lot of us I am open to suggestions. For the first group I will bring a few situations in I'd like to discuss using MoP and then we can get started on the book-learning in the weeks to come. Ideally we would have 4-6 people at least at every session and people could bring in specific problems or hands that they had questions on.

I would want to focus on the most frequent spots where there is a lot of room for error. Example of a few things I have been working on:
-vs. 25-30% 3bettor, what is fold/call/raise flop ratio on the flop.
How does it change when you go from wet to dry boards. How does it change as 3bet loosens or tightens pf. Are there flops where you should never raise.
-bet/call pf, you are in BB. Assuming no donking vs. standard tag, what is GTO c/f, c/r,c/c on wet to dry boards.
-Should you ever 3b or cap the flop in a 4b cap game? I don't as my standard play.

High five! Looking forward to it.

Yep, me too. Should be good.

ok pms sent. Tues/Thurs 3pm EST meeting. Also, we need to get on email asap because twoplusto group pming is like pulling teeth.

Room for 1 more?

Looks like a bunch of t-rexes hoping that the age of dinosaurs will reign again...

artist's rendition of hu skype braintrust: