I don't give this quiz to anyone as part of the application process. All my application questions are just about who someone is as a person. I acknowledge that almost any really good player won't want staked so I don't bother to learn how far along they are poker-wise, I just accept that I will teach them.
I just threw up a few questions for people to answer who thought that winrates beyond theirs were impossible. I keep hearing how a winrate over $50/hr at $2/$5 is impossible. Great, so everyone with a $50/hr winrate should know everything there is to now about poker. Lets see if they even know some really basic stuff...
FWIW, I think these should be answered very easily. Anyone I stake will snap know questions like these for their stake.


If you need reads on the player, describe what reads you need and how different reads would effect your decision. Obviously a very open ended question.

1/2 fold without more info. 3 I am going to try and get vill to fold or make the best hand. In a vacuum I bet 180 flop and probably check back unimproved this shallow, although 3 betting smaller could fix this. I'd much rather be able to 3 barrell against 99-JJ. 4 is tough for me because pf is the weakest part of my game. Obv really matters if we have history, but I'm going to assume we don't. I try not to get too fancy in these spots but stack depth and some idea of his 3 bet % which should be pretty high here. Also need to know how original raiser will react esp to a call nothing worse then cold calling and having OR rip it in or even fold kinda sucks. 5 seems like its impossible to play vs that scenario so either pot control smaller or larger so he can't over bet stuff. Anyways heard action in Maryland live is super good esp the Plo games might have to go down there should have some free time soon.

i dont play poker for serious business anymore but i wanna try

1. fold
2. fold
3. it didnt say stack depth but we're taking it to barreltown fairly often here without reads
4. i don't think i would be 4betting many hands at all tbh, lets keep the fish in and have a disguised range that includes monsters for BTN barrelbro
5. we can't. PLAY GOOD THO.



howd i do

That was such a good quesadilla, worth putting up with angle shooting imo.

1. Really don’t like calling such a big open OOP with a hand that doesn’t dominate nor play particularly well against two players with strong ranges. I think fold is probably the most profitable vacuum play, but one could make a good GTO argument for 3betting. If we are gonna have a raise/fold range here, it should definitely include AQ.

2. Fold or 3bet. Probably raise since 1. villain opted for a smaller sizing, 2. the pot has lots of dead money in it, 3. We block villains’ continuing ranges (especially original PFRer), and 4. we have a decently playable hand if called.

3. Against a complete unknown young guy I think I bet flop for protection and barrel board with big cards. Probably not going for 3 streets on 335r2r9. Against a guy who I think is likely to make moves (too often), I may check and call down on some run outs.

4. Gotta weigh the profitability of keeping the rec in with your strong hands vs bloating the pot against the reg. If the rec is so bad that flatting AA is likely to be the best vacuum play, then I wouldn’t have a 4betting range. Though if the rec is SO bad that he is likely to cold call our 4bet with trashy hands then I would 4bet a strong, linear range, with hands that play well in a 3way 4bet pot. If fish is likely to fold, I’d 4bet narrow and polarized (with my bluffs being hands like 78s, A5s).

5. You can’t. Call with a frequency that makes their bluffs neutral EV and do it with hands that block their value range.

I read this one on 2p2 somewhere. Lmk if anyone has a link. Something like:

Guy c/c flop and offers the bettor to chop the pot. Better declines. Turn is dealt, guy c/c again and then offers the same deal. Still no. River is dealt. Guy then c/c all in and offers the guy a chop a third time. Bettor was bluffing all along and says yes and then the caller shows an even worse hand.

thats my story. it was julian v. the shaky asian (cant remember his name now). i cant remember what thread i posted it in. prob my #2000. it was epic.

what is OMC?

old man coffee

Its actually Old Man C0ck

I demand that story. NOW!

Q5 is fun. You can't exploit with your calling tendencies. The fun thing is that if he's overfolding his value hands vs river raises you could start exploiting him by raising more

Bingo

ahh. well jrr63 is more old man scooby snack than old man coffee ime...

I thought that hand was between Julian and Wan?

Shaky Asian = Mike, no?

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wrt that quiz, there is not enough info provided (you are never readless in live poker) imo. also different players (OMC vs YIK let's say) command way different amounts of respect with their re-raises, so hopefully the exercise is just to get a glimpse of one's thought process and not to see if they actually get the answers "right". Another note on that quiz: people seem to make the 7x open a lot stronger range than the 4x. I don't play those stakes but that's a pretty curious assumption imo.

limon- would you ever stake/train a stable of live cash horses? y or y not?

thx

scenario:

You are playing this nice 50ish guy hu 10 20. It's gonna take A LOT for you to ever lose to him (these edges are rare in live hu obv). You felt him. He wants to borrow 2k to keep playing you. He's a 5-5 recreational reg who hasn't been around forever. He only played 10-20 in the first place cuz he loves your gamble/clownish behavior. He saw you borrow 5k from a kid you don't know too well hours earlier after said kid got there against you in a big pot and left you with a baby stack (your roll is at other casinos/the bank).

Do you loan him the 2k to keep playing you?

Man it's good to be DGAF

How on earth did you get a middle aged 5/5 rec player to play 10/20 HU?

FWIW I would not have provided the initial $2k but I think this is a simple sensitivity table of how big your edge is compared to how likely he is to pay you back. So put in a (very) simple example if you both sit with $2K to start and you are a 90% favorite to end up with all the chips and he has a "make good on personal loan" frequency of 90%, your EV is +$1,420.

There would also be a secondary analysis of how likely he is to pay you back compared to how much he loses. (i.e. he pays back $2K 90% of the time but $10K 10% of the time).

So I would think in this case you have diminishing returns with each $2K provided.

Deadwood is the greatest television show ever, period, and as great as Breaking Bad is, it is not even close. I was reading your post, and waiting to see you mention Deadwood. I am simultaneously jealous of/and happy for you because you haven't seen it yet.

If you can get through the first two episodes, and get used to the vocab and grammar, you will be hooked until the end of the last episode. Then comes the inevitable sadness, that it actually over. As close to Shakespear as tv gets. Enjoy.

I guess there are two aspects, finance and ethics:

Financial considerations:

As Avarita said, it becomes a question of % likelihood of repayment vs amount loaned. My long term experience with letting guys play "on the book" is quite varied - some guys are as good as gold, some guys are worthless as ****, and many guys are gold for a while until they reach a threshold where they suddenly turn to ****. And the trick is identifying the gold category vs the **** category in the beginning and monitoring the gold category over time looking for signs of turning to ****.

So which category is this rec V? You say he's been around the games in that casino at least some - probably not his first rodeo borrowing money, so do you know others he has borrowed from, and how promptly they were repaid? How much has he been good for in the past? If no one is there whom you know with this info can the Rec provide names of folks you can check with?

After a playing with him long enough to stack him a couple of times you probably have an idea what he claims to do for a living (and for an income stream to finance his poker habit). Does it seem plausible that his claims are valid and that he can afford to lose more money and still pay it back? Does he have the vibe of a desperate degenerate who has passed the "threshold of misery" or that of a guy who does not seem particularly bothered by a couple of k?

You do need to set a ceiling based on your judgement (and references if available) but I'd probably risk another 2k at least.

Ethics:
You know the "risk management" stuff as well as anyone, so is the question also addressing the morality of "taking more candy from a baby"? Assuming the guy does not appear to be a down and outer who's not going to be able to feed his family because of what he loses to you I'd not feel bad about him losing another few K (again of course assuming he likely can/will pay you back).

i'd give the guy 2k more.

i did this with an older guy about 8x in a row for $100 each at a home game shortly after black friday when $100 was probably at least as much to me then as $2k is to dgaf now. Everyone else had left and the sun had been up for a few hours and we played heads up no limit triple draw deuce until he owed me about $1k.

It took a few months and a lil back and forth but he eventually did pay me back completely and we are still friends - another benefit of doing this it may also provide chances for future action with the same guy or his friends since you were so cool with him and you now know each other better than randoms.

Also obviously im assuming that you had some kind of read on his character/general degeneracy level that he wasnt a total scumbag or you wouldnt have considered it in the first place.

ya, its mike. i cant remember **** anymore.

irt the quiz, ya, i assume its more about thought process. but who knows? maybe chad has locked down answers, it will be a fun conversation.

in my younger days I ran private games and just tried to crush all the people I invited. It was my warped form of a poker house. i dont think I could do chads form, not now at least, ive seen too much. my trust gene is gone. its possible people in los angeles poker are just far scummier than maryland. in a casino open 11 months most prob hanvnt hit rock bottom yet. the amount of work it would take to keep from getting robbed blind (including the house) wouldnt be worth the profit imo.

pretty much my list exactly. scary. i like boardwalk empire but it is sorta slow. I like house of cards but im into inside politics stuff.

Did any of you watch "Carnivale" - an HBO series that was the feature series before Deadwood?

It was a drama/supernatural thriller about a Carnival with very unusal aspects, featuring a villain who was kind of the prototypical devil masquerading as a Christian evangelist.

It's the only series I've every bought to watch again.

Grunched

Fold. Out of position versus an unknown who raises UTG, AQ is not doing too well, and with only 4.5 SPR we're going to get stuck to any top pair hands, which don't do too well vs UTGs range.
Depends a lot on how the previous hand played out, my default would be to fold, but if villain had a strong hand last hand, I like making it $120 and expect to take it down usually. If villain had 99-JJ last hand than I fold. Playing very tight post if I get called by UTG.
Folding is better than the other options because we are only 500 deep and will be playing a $100 pot if we call, so unless we flop two pair plus we aren't going to have odds to continue with our draws very often, and our top pairs out of position will not be the best hand by the river very often, and will be difficult to get value from.
I bet $140 for value and street projection reasons. Barrel 2/4/Q/K/A assuming complete unknown, versus lots of competent but not amazing regs I barrel any low card.

Rec players don't often open light, and in general call too much so I'm assuming good regs range is all value here. Lighter rec player is opening and how fit or fold he is playing post determines how wide that value range is. Sizing of 3bet matters a lot too, if it is like 70-80 than seems more isolation, 100-120 more value-y.

Assuming tight raising range from rec player and 90 from the good reg, 265 would be my sizing with A2s-A5s, AA. Flatting JJ-KK, AK, AJs-AQs KQs
Assuming we never have villains value range beat, and we always beat his bluff range. Pot is 100, villain bets 200, to be perfectly balanced would be betting 2 bluffs for every 3 value hands. The only way to exploit them would be in other hands - since they are putting the nuts part of their range in overbetting, when they make a different sized bet they are less likely to have the nuts, and their other ranges become unbalanced. If we are deep enough, we can start jamming over different sized bets with blockers to the nuts plus our nuts/second nuts range.

If we tweak the parameters so we have them beat 10% of the time, then depending on the amount behind we can jam a range that makes them indifferent to calling or folding and exploit them that way, and we can manipulate our range on earlier streets so we don't end up in the position where villain has a large range that has us beat always on the river.