do you use much software away from the game to help you study and learn, like flopzilla or whatever? How highly do you rate those things as a learning tool/what programs would you recommend?

If he's really only raising 9% of hands from this spot preflop you can comfortably fold and just avoid playing pots against that guy and still profit (this advice isn't for everyone, others might understand that this is a guy that you can bluff a lot and that's fine to do so but if you aren't really clear as to why that is I don't suggest doing it).

The way that you played it is absolutely fine, but river is just a fold. He has 44 probably 99% of the time.

Personally I don't use flopzilla. If I want to know my equity in a spot against an opponent's perceived range I might pop it into pokerstove occasionally, but I just don't really do a whole lot of mathematical analysis. I've always based my play off of sound logic and that has led me down the right path. The math is still certainly important, but it's just one of many variables for me to consider over the course of a hand.

is it very important to be confident with all the math to beat bigger games and move up?

Whats your screen name?

villain is 19/16/3agg/66fvcb/40fvtcb over 1.8K hands


what do you think about this tripple?


Pacific $100.00 No Limit Hold'em - 4 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $137.01
Hero (CO): $270.87
BTN: $107.61
SB: $369.24

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with T J
Hero raises to $3.50, BTN calls $3.50, 2 folds

Flop: ($8.50) 9 7 K (2 players)
Hero bets $5.50, BTN calls $5.50

Turn: ($19.50) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $16.50, BTN calls $16.50

River: ($52.50) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $37.50

Understanding combinatorics is a necessity, however understanding mathematics is not.

I win at almost 8bb/100 and I have trouble with simple addition sometimes.

It looks like you are bluffing for the sake of bluffing here and don't exactly have much of a plan. I doubt you get many players to lay down KJ or KQ here which are villains most reasonable holdings.

I'm sure you could figure it out if you really wanted to.

Poker is not about Math. Its about cojones.

How do you go about learning combinatorics? Is it something you try to memorise or do you count them in game? or do you do something completely different?

Apart from an ace, what would be a better river to bluff on? Also would this be much better if i was UTG instead of CO?

I'm not a great person to ask this question because like I said, I'm very poor with mathematics. I just know that when I'm holding a AK on K84 that my opponent will also have Kx 12% of the time (the same percentage of flopping a set).

It's more like, how many hand combos make up your opponent's value range versus their bluffing range if they c/r on something like Ad7d6c? 3 combos of 66, 3 combos of 77, 1 combo of 89dd, 1 combo T9dd... etc. I don't treat it like an exact science, but it's stuff that I would make a lot more mistakes if I didn't know it.

An ace isn't really even a particularly good card for you to bluff against all but very weak players because it's a perceived bluff card.

Your bluff would certainly be better on a heart river, and yeah sometimes an ace river for the reason that if you barreled turn with like AQhh now you made a pair of aces on the river. All I'm trying to say about that is yeah an ace is kind of an okay card to bluff but still not the greatest one because you have a ton of other random semi bluffs that still miss.

I probably would just c/f the river unimproved.

Ahk, so you're kind of counting them in game?

I don't actually count, I just have an internal radar that estimates the frequencies with which my opponents will show up with different parts of their range pretty well. There's no other way I can explain it really.

villain 26/8/4agg/raise cbet 2/6 over 350 hands



Pacific $100.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

CO: $104.47
BTN: $107.18
SB: $100.50
BB: $55.44
UTG: $111.26
Hero (MP): $102.88

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is MP with Q A
1 fold, Hero raises to $3, CO calls $3, 3 folds

Flop: ($7.50) Q 5 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $5.50, CO raises to $12, Hero calls $6.50

Turn: ($31.50) J (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $89.47, Hero calls $87.88 all in

I think i understand.

i'm currently playing 4tables, my goal is to play 40k hands a month, do you think i should start working on playing more tables or do you think i should stay at 4 for as long as i can?

I dunno what to tell you here. I'm not sure there is any specific good advice as to what to do in a spot like this. I'll tell you the things that I would focus on though:

He's only raising 8% of hands preflop so this fish is likely the type who is not happy to put a lot of money into the pot by raising unless he has something pretty good. Given that, you did say he had a high AF and that he has raised c-bets previously, so that original read might not necessarily be true.

Given he raised your 5 to 12, I'd generally expect most fish to raise smallish on the flop with a 5 and bigger with a flush draw. This is right in the middle so its hard to tell.

Barring any other reads I probably just look at this spot and think "well, this guy is very prone to putting a lot of money in the pot by me betting and him calling, and additionally he's probably less likely to raise to try to bluff me so I suppose I can let this go and wait for another spot". But if I already thought he was getting out of line I'd never fold here.

villain 24/20/2agg/fvcb 0/1 over 100 hands

another triple

sorry if i'm posting too much ****

Pacific $100.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $53.98
SB: $147.36
BB: $50.00
UTG: $131.05
Hero (MP): $123.85
CO: $106.80

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is MP with K J
1 fold, Hero raises to $3, CO calls $3, 3 folds

Flop: ($7.50) A 3 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $5.00, CO calls $5

Turn: ($17.50) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $14.50, CO calls $14.50

River: ($46.50) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $32.00,

Why has discussing hands with others helped you improve so much vs. watching videos, analyzing your play, etc.? What should I be focusing on when discussing a hand with someone?

Complete unknown sits down at your 6max table and posts from MP, he openshoves his 87bb. Everyone folds to your BB. What's the worst hands you call with?

1. Is the reason that we can bluff this player because he seems to play straight-forward and will probably fold often without a strong hand when faced with aggression and put into marginal situations?

2. On the river what would you say villain's range is and what are we hoping to get called by? I'm trying to understand why the bet-sizing is good.

I like this one because it's so uncommon that your opponent is holding any diamonds in this spot. If the board was Ah3c2s-4d-6d now I don't like it nearly as much because he gets there with all his Axdd combos.

In contrast you have all diamond combos when barreling the turn, so this one I think is good.