I have had free coaching from a friend who plays 25/50 (and has been playing hi stakes for over 2 years) for a while now. However, since he recently moved back to the east coast from the west coast, he is no longer up as late as he used to (he pretty much gave me free coaching late at night when there were no hi stakes games and he was bored.) Since I have gotten something for free that normally costs his other student $750/hr, I have become rather jaded when it comes to the thought of paying for coaching. Given that I was beating 1/2 for 4bb/100 over a sig sample size who would you recommend as a coach assuming that I am looking to max my ev. Also, consider that I am not looking for someone who will explain a cookie cutter method. I am looking for someone who will show me the correct methodology when it comes to thinking about the game.

How did you decide to move up levels. Did you wait for certain # of hands at x ptBB/100 or did you just go by bankroll at X buy ins or something else?

Is it fine to be a loser in nonshowdown pots(NL50/100) if you make it up and then some in pots that go to showdown? How would I make more there, bluff more call more bluffs or something else?

You're probably gonna want someone that crushes MSNL/HSNL then, the first person that comes to mind is DJ Sensei, but shop around. See who all you can find as a coach and read some posts of theirs and all that. I'd recommend Greg but he's not taking new students due to the WSOP.

Just take shots when you feel ready and have like 20 buyins or something to where you can absorb a 3-5 buyin loss. If you drop a few buyins, move back down and grind and try again.

Also, you're gonna be a little bit of a loser in non-showdown pots at least in comparison to higher stakes because people just don't fold as much; this explains your showdown winnings being pretty high. Just try to work on betting in position where you'd normally check behind and do small things like that to experiment with where you can take pots down and where you can't.

You have KQo from the small blind, table folds around to button who raises standard 4x BB. Do you 3-bet, cold call, or fold?

Assuming villain is standard TAG playing 25NL (between 18/16 and 22/19)

Call almost always. 3betting bloats the pot with a marginal hand and with no history we're not gonna get too much value from worse hands. Folding is too weak because we're doing good against a random TAG that is opening the button. I call with almost all broadways except KT.. I defend with KQ, KJ, QJ, JT and QTs but fold QTo as a default. After I get reads that can definitely change depending on a few things in their postflop game and how much they call 3bets preflop, but as a default I'd say calling is good.

What would you advise a 2p2 microstakes player to do with all of those broadway hands in that situation. Assume BB doesn't squeeze with too high of a frequency.

Is HM head and shoulders better than PT? Why?

There's so much to take into account at a poker table that it can sometimes be quite overwhelming, So

1. What do you think are the best notes to take on opponents beyond just labelling them as lag, tag etc.

2. Can you tell us some of your thought process during a hand.

And on a different topic:

1. What do you think of the HH thread replies in SSNL, i.e are there a lot of bad responses, information, advice etc.

Hm? Call. =)

I like it. Fast results for all reports and a bunch of filters so you can find out everything you could ever want to about a hand or group of hands.

1 - Hm.. let me find examples of notes on some regulars for examples, that'd be easier than describing what I note.

Noting specific tendencies that will help in future hands that aren't standard, hope that helps, it's really hard to explain what to note.

2 - My thought process basically consists of narrowing hand ranges to as small as I can, and there's a bunch of ways to do that. Figuring out peoples' calling ranges preflop and their 3betting ranges helps a lot. Once you get preflop out of the way and you have a basic range, you can further narrow their range by if they c/c, c/r, lead or any action they do. Once you get their range pretty narrow, you can figure out whether to 2 barrel the turn as a bluff or check some kind of marginal hand to get value on the river.

For example, I raise in the CO, and a 20/17 calls in the SB with a weak player in the BB. He most likely doesn't have TT+, and his range weights more towards a small pair, some kind of SC or a hand like QT or something that plays well against the fish. BB folds, and flop comes T85dd, we bet and he check/calls.

If I know he is aggressive with draws on the flop I can eliminate most suited connectors except maybe 76 that wanted to peel a street because usually he's gonna raise a flush draw because of how hard it'd be to get paid off when he hits and he's almost definitely leading or check/raising a set... so his range is further narrowed down. So now his range is something like 99, 77, 98, T9-TQ, 76s (not dd). I'd wanna fire with all of my air hands and my second-pair or bottom pair hands to get him to fold out a weakish TP or middle pair, and check my good hands so he can call on the river.

This is a really basic example but you can kinda get the point.


Also, with the SSNL hands, there's way too many people that give one-line answers that aren't qualified to do so. That's all I'm gonna say about that issue.

backstory?

Start around post 130 in this thread: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...d.php?t=220459

Here's another one for you: can you discuss as you move up limits, how important it is to play the player and not your cards.

Reason I'm asking is because when I first started playing 25NL I was bluffing way too much, trying to outplay people and I realized "dude, people at this level are just looking at their cards". So now I pretty much play my cards (and take different lines based on how aggro they are )..but I definitely don't get to like 3rd level thinking at 25 NL lol.

I'm wondering at what level do people start going to that next level where they are thinking about more than just their cards so you can open your game up a little more and make moves because "you know that they know..." and so on...

THac you are the MAN! Alpha baby. Definitely one of my favorite posters. Next time you decide to drive 8 hrs to Turning Stone or FW (Don't worry about getting carded), LMK.

When do you turn 21? How many hours after that will you be in Vegas?

Do you hate the Celts because you hate good defense?

You said that uNL was more aggro on FTP compared to Stars. Would you say the same about NL200 - NL600?

Approximately how many BB's did getting to the 10th Prestige on CoD4 cost you?

QDoba is basically the best burrito restaurant, correct?

What's your favorite beer? Oh you kinda answered this, nm. Uh, what's your favorite Kool-Aid flavor?

Have you always had good emotional control? If not, how did you develop it?

HU4PLAYMONIEZ?

thats why we invited him, duhhh

Hi,

Really enjoy reading your well. thanks for doing that.

Many things really got my attention reading through the thread.

First, you said you were unsure if training site were holding back things. You then said that they produce a lot of SSNL grinder. Would you say that for someone like you at 2/4 training sites are not usefull? I am member at stoxpoker and I don't feel like the game they are playing during the video is that difficult to grasp and I am unsure if that game would beat 5/10. What's your thought on that issue.

You also basically said that you can learn to play by the book up to 1/2 after that you need a little something. Is that little something what sites are holding back (new vision - concepts of poker, unknown thougt process)? If it is not then what is needed to beat MSNL eventually? I might think that it is that little zone where you can closely follow the flow of the game. Comments?

Do you think coaching is a nice opportunity at uNL or is it more for stronger player while we can still learn from coaching site. Do you thing that coaching is that usefull because it enables us to gain that little something I talked about earlier.

On a similar line, I am a decent NL50 grinder looking to move up and willing to put effort into that.

Rate those buy: PT3, HM, coaching (what kind of coach?), coaching site (I think you were suggesting DC?), data mining service, table selection sofware.

Rank those way of learning: posting on 2+2, sweating, getting sweat, reviewing session, video on coacing site, reading articles, (any other you might think of and sugger).

Though on weed?

Amazing post Thac, something that all uNL'rs should read...

Hey Thac, I noticed you saying that learning to b/f instead of c/c is something was a "aha" moment for you. Could you give us some more insight as to what you mean?

Do you mean b/f > c/c on the flop and turn? What about the river? If you have a hand with showdown value (ie TPGK), and it gets to the river, do you advocate b/f instead of c/c? I know this is kind of vague, but I've read a ton about "pot control" etc. and I'm wondering how this fits in to b/f > c/c.

Thanks

at what level so far have u had to use the most deeper level thinking and range calculations? and whats the highest level u think u can just totally autopilot now successfully?

I've said this somewhere in the previous posts I'm sure, but poker's still the same game when you move up. Play the exact same as you did in the level before until you have a good reason not to. Why would you bluff so much just because you moved up? There's no reason to change your game if it worked for you at nl10.

Haha, word. I probably won't be making any trips to TS or FW before I'm 21 (which is in September). I'm being hounded to go to the APPT Macau event and that's September 1-9, and at the end of September I'm going to VA to visit my best friend from HS, so maybe on the way back up from that I could swing by, I dunno.

I hate the Celts because they beat my Cavs, no other reason really.

I said SSNL was more aggro on FTP than at Stars so I assume uNL was. But yeah, there's not very much mindless 3betting preflop like there is at FTP, and people are just more likely to give up to aggression on Stars from what I've noticed.

Also I think getting 10th prestige on COD4 saved me a bunch of BBs because I was definitely downswinging while I did it.

Finally, I think you're pretty awesome too, but you need to get back on COD a bit more.

I don't like burritos/Mexican, but I heard Chipotle > Qdoba.

Favorite Kool-Aid flavor is black cherry, sooo good. I might make some tonight.

I definitely haven't had good emotional control all my life and just as recently as like 6 months ago I would get pissed and open-shove 100bbs at my normal limit. But in the last few months I've just realized how completely dumb it is, and how losing money unnecessarily to tilt is just stupid because I never feel better afterwards and so after that I just decided to make an attempt to never tilt.

I think sites are still good for nl400+ because I still learn something from a lot of videos, but what I meant to say is that once you get to nl200, almost EVERY regular is a member of a training site, so simply being a member of these sites isn't enough and you have to go the extra mile to really break past SSNL into MSNL. That's all that I meant by that comment.

As far as what's different about MSNL, there's so much more of a metagame approach to the games that just can't be learned by reading forums or books. Knowing how the game flow is going and how to interpret that to help decisions on later hands is just so key. Also, you can do some timing-tell things like when you get 3bet twice at the same time by the same guy, 4betting your weaker hand first to resemble strength and then 4betting your strong hand after that to make it seem like you want action on your first hand.. just little things like that that can't be taught by reading a forum and can only be processed in the moment.

Coaching is definitely profitable no matter what limit you are at. I have a student that I just had a lesson with this morning and he was winning comfortably and had a good basic grasp on his game, and since our first lesson I think 7 days ago, he's won 10 buyins and is just really much more knowledgeable about the game. Coaching is so crucial because like I said, more and more people are becoming members of poker schools, so you need to go that extra step to get ahead of them.

I don't know how to rate the first set of stuff because they're all so different but all are necessary, but here's my take on the second set:

1. getting sweat
2. video on coacing site
3. posting on 2+2
4. reviewing session
5. reading articles
6. sweating

Also, I'm indifferent on weed, never tried it.

On the river it depends on your opponent. If he's aggressive, checking to him is better, but a lot of people are too passive to bluff their missed draws so I think betting is better in a nutshell.. but checking isn't horrible by any means if you have reason to believe he's aggressive. I'd just rather bet and get calls from his tp and second pair hands that he might check behind.

I've had to think the deepest at nl600 just because the regulars are so good, but I suppose that's obvious to say that I think the deepest at the highest level I played. :P

I could probably autopilot nl200 successfully, I dunno about 400.. I don't really wanna try though because it's just burning money.

----

I'm pretty sure these are supposed to last 24 hours, but I'll still be around to answer questions if they get asked.. but the 24 hours is up and my day in the well is over. Thanks a lot for all the good questions, good luck uNL/SSNL on moving up and keep posting good hands and playing your best. =)

-Trevor

man thac u awesome at explaining ur thoughts.

when r u comin to visit?

wut should the title of mine, dawade, bevil, and pjo's blog for our month long advebnture be??

can i get the jumpmanHOLLA title back? if so wut do i need to do to get it?

Thanks for the compliment, I try.

Not sure when I'm coming to visit, I'm being a little girl about making plans and not following through with them, I wanna see how this month goes and then maybe in August?

Also your blog should be something like -EV at Life or something cute and derogatory with a poker term in it.

PM Ryan Beal for all title requests.

wut do i need to say in it for best chance to get it?? can i put u as a reference???