High Stakes Strategy Poker Forums

Oh, FBP, Vanessa's SN story is in her bio on our Coaching page.

I've been coached for a few months now, mainly just sweat sessions and sending him hands every now and then - it's been going really well, but have been thinking if I could be using the coaching time more effectively. I've heard people recommend having questions ready to ask the coach, but I find it really hard to even think of a question as they seem too broad of a topic to discuss well - 'how do you play 3bet pots OOP' or too much of an it depends answer - 'how do you play AK in a 3bet pot OOP when the flop comes low'.

What do you think the most common 'mistakes' students make with coaching, as in under utilizing the service offered like not sending enough HH's to the coach, not asking enough questions, etc

Also what format do you normally coach in and which formats do you usually prefer (sweat, video review, HH review, mix of all, etc)

And lastly, nice job with the site. Your ideas and content are miles ahead of everyone else.

thanx,
mitch

Thanks mitch.

The most common mistakes my students have made are not sending me enough hands or questions between sessions, bar none. You have such a valuable resource available and for free! and some of them still are too lazy to do any work during the week.

I'll relate it to a lacrosse analogy, or any sports analogy for that matter - if you want to get really good, just practicing with the team while you're in season is not going to cut it. You have to put in the extra work throwing the ball off the wall on your own or in the gym or dribbling with your left hand, whatever.

Now with that said, it's still the coach's duty to help the student know how to ask important questions and help them help themselves get better. And I think a lot of today's coaches are somewhat inefficient at this, and also at structuring effective coaching programs. This is my pet project and I expect that all of our coaches will be coaching much more efficiently within a few months through a blend of sweating, video review, homework assignments and theory discussion. I generally coach via sweat but I try my hardest during lulls in action to talk about everything and anything related to helping that student get better faster.

I'm actually headed out to do some work with Tommy Angelo in a couple of weeks about that specifically, and verrrrry excited about it.

The advice I'd give to you: coaches are poker geeks. They like talking poker. It's tough to explain "how to play 3-bet pots well OOP" like you said. So bring a few HHs where you've played 3-bet pots out of position to the session, and let them geek out.

This is sweet getting a personal response from Krantz. This question is not as good as the others, but...

I am 5/10 reg, and your post about checking to induce vs different players(good vs bad)... well lately, i've been betting rather then letting people bluff me, because I always think i'm getting bluffed. For example, if I cbet and get called and I have mid pair, i will bet turn only for the fact b/c if i check and they bet i feel that most of the time i am getting bluffed out of the pot (i call turn, then usually c/f river when they fire again).

I am having a hard time balancing checkingg to induce bluffs with medium hands like this.

I guess it's not a good questions, more of a statement lol...

anyway, can i be ur next student haha. ok well great site anyway, looking forward to some 'new' type of poker input...

This is sweet getting a personal response from Krantz. This question is not as good as the others, but...

I am 5/10 reg, and your post about checking to induce vs different players(good vs bad)... well lately, i've been betting rather then letting people bluff me, because I always think i'm getting bluffed. For example, if I cbet and get called and I have mid pair, i will bet turn only for the fact b/c if i check and they bet i feel that most of the time i am getting bluffed out of the pot (i call turn, then usually c/f river when they fire again).

I am having a hard time balancing checkingg to induce bluffs with medium hands like this.

I guess it's not a good questions, more of a statement lol...

anyway, can i be ur next student haha. ok well great site anyway, looking forward to some 'new' type of poker input...

Start looking people up more often on the river, then. Don't be afraid to put your stack in. But if you're wrong, think about how they're going to view you moving forward. They probably won't be bluffing you in the future as much, since you look like a calling station, so that's a consideration you should keep in mind when trying to find balance.

And the best way to balance yourself is to have more information, and you get that info by getting to showdown.

I want to take a different line here before I ask a theory question (so don't feel like you have to expand upon this too much).

I am curious on what your thoughts are psychologically by generating wealth playing poker (and obviously poker related ventures).

My main thoughts are how you are viewed in society (most people are less likely to tell the truth when asked what we do for various reasons), how you are viewed by family, etc. Obviously the majority do not understand, and we are on the flip-side seeing it is being entreprenurial, but this has to weigh in your thoughts and life atleast occasionally.

Hi, Quick questoin, on a prior post you said "On minbet-overbet: Unexploitably valuable."

What is a minbet-overbet?

Hey,

What are your thoughts on moving from FR to 6m? What should I work on fixing up? I am generally the most aggressive person at a FR table, and I wouldn't be going for this style at 6m, but what are some hints and tips for someone moving from FR to 6m

Thanks!

i've been playing mainly 5/10 for quite a while now, the switch from 3/6 was the longest and most difficult for me in my poker career. anyway, i've been feeling very comfortable at it and am finally relying on my reads to a much larger extent than ever before, which i take as a good sign. one thing i seem to notice about a lot of good players (yourself included) at 10/20+ is they seem to be very proficient at heads-up play. i've been avoiding as it seems like heads-up is more stressful/tilting than 6-max play and wonder if you would consider it helpful (to any degree) as i continue to move up in stakes.

as a kind of follow up, if i do decide to work on my heads-up play would you recommend focusing specifically on it or would mixing it in with 6-max be viable?

any tangents or other advice you'd like to give me specifically (i know we haven't played together in quite a while) would be much appreciated.

jkratzer

I want to take a different line here before I ask a theory question (so don't feel like you have to expand upon this too much).

I am curious on what your thoughts are psychologically by generating wealth playing poker (and obviously poker related ventures).

My main thoughts are how you are viewed in society (most people are less likely to tell the truth when asked what we do for various reasons), how you are viewed by family, etc. Obviously the majority do not understand, and we are on the flip-side seeing it is being entreprenurial, but this has to weigh in your thoughts and life atleast occasionally.

Well, it's a lot easier for me than it might otherwise be because I had 3-bet and now DeucesCracked to show people and say "I run this." But people still ask stupid questions like "Oh can you gamble on your site?" or messier ones like "aren't you encouraging people to gamble?"

I supposed I'm used to brushing it off and being amicable because it's just too damn hard to explain everything and make people understand. My really close family and friends get it - others don't necessarily need to. Maybe I got accustomed to being cool with that because I majored in Screenwriting and dealt with a ton of equally annoying questions like "what are you going to do when you graduate, though?" or "shouldn't you just go to med school?" or "so how's that screenplay coming?"

Not gonna lie - I used to be much more embarrassed to tell people I played cards for a living. Now though, I've found that I have much better balance in my life and do lots of things that don't make me feel like such a degenerate, AND I'm a lot better at explaining what I do, that it doesn't bother me and if people don't get it and ask the stupid questions. I just rely on my textbook ways of answering them.

A related aside: last night Chuck and I gave a speech at my high school about the International Baccalaureate program. We mentioned in the speech that we started a start-up consulting firm. An auditorium full of parents would not like to hear we founded an online poker training network. And then we had 2 sets of answers when talking about it to our old teachers: a. the vague answer for the people who wouldn't really get it - that we were doing Internet media, or b. the real answer for our favorite teachers who were smart and knew that well yeah, even if they didn't understand poker and variance and that it's not traditional "gambling", they knew that we're smart and know wtf we are doing.

So I guess the way I approach this is try to find a balance. Find enough people who can understand and then try not to give a cat's meow about anyone who doesn't. Simply because, well, I was a donkey once and it took me YEARS not to be, and I simply don't have enough time to teach them not to be!

Hi, Quick questoin, on a prior post you said "On minbet-overbet: Unexploitably valuable."

What is a minbet-overbet?

Oh man, Dean might be mad I'm giving too much away here... but OK.

A minbet-overbet is a two-street move, typically begun on the flop, where you minbet the flop, and when called, overbet the turn.

i've been playing mainly 5/10 for quite a while now, the switch from 3/6 was the longest and most difficult for me in my poker career. anyway, i've been feeling very comfortable at it and am finally relying on my reads to a much larger extent than ever before, which i take as a good sign. one thing i seem to notice about a lot of good players (yourself included) at 10/20+ is they seem to be very proficient at heads-up play. i've been avoiding as it seems like heads-up is more stressful/tilting than 6-max play and wonder if you would consider it helpful (to any degree) as i continue to move up in stakes.

as a kind of follow up, if i do decide to work on my heads-up play would you recommend focusing specifically on it or would mixing it in with 6-max be viable?

any tangents or other advice you'd like to give me specifically (i know we haven't played together in quite a while) would be much appreciated.

jkratzer

<3 the SN.

Did you read the Jman well in HSNL on 2+2? What he says there about looking at learning heads up as "practice" is something that I've been saying for so long. You can definitely mix it with 6-max play but make sure you're able to focus - you'd probably have to play fewer tables altogether since it's harder to concentrate and develop good reads. I can still only play maybe 3 HU tables max and not sacrifice anything. I'd also play lower stakes than you normally do since shit can get insanely swingy. And I think it's very very very, extraordinarily useful for improving hand reading at 6 handed games and making you more comfortable with how to respond to lots of aggression in awkward spots. HU spots are the most awkward you can get.

There's something I wrote for the articles section of this site called "pr1nnyraiding: a heads-up strategy" that pretty much sums up how I think about heads up. It's a bit vague and is a work in progress but if you read between the lines it could open up your thinking, I think, specifically because I know you're (or used to be) a bit on the nitty side! Don't know if that still applies to you but I do remember when we used to play together that I thought you were a really good poster and had a good mind for all things poker - but then didn't take much advantage of that at the tables. Like if I were you, and I had the image you did, I would have used it to try to run soooo many more unorthodox bluffs. If it doesn't apply anymore, ignore me, but that's what I used to think.


Something I also recommend that sounds a little crazy is playing without stats when you first start learning. It helps to map certain player styles to your subconscious and hones your intuition quicker without having to rely on stats that can often turn out to be meaningless heads up.

With that said, just because they're making fewer mistakes doesn't mean they still don't make a lot! It amazes me how bad some players will play, even at 25/50 and higher. Respect your new opponents but don't treat them with reverence they don't deserve - every hand is just 2 cards to each player, 5 cards in the middle, and a whole buncha fun little decisions.

Hi! I wonder if there's any common misstake alot of otherwise solid regulars on 5/10 and higher makes? Obv. different players make different misstakes, but is there any misstake you feel that alot of players make in general? Thanks!

With that said, just because they're making fewer mistakes doesn't mean they still don't make a lot! It amazes me how bad some players will play, even at 25/50 and higher. Respect your new opponents but don't treat them with reverence they don't deserve - every hand is just 2 cards to each player, 5 cards in the middle, and a whole buncha fun little decisions.

Hi! I wonder if there's any common misstake alot of otherwise solid regulars on 5/10 and higher makes? Obv. different players make different misstakes, but is there any misstake you feel that alot of players make in general? Thanks!

Many of them have glaring timing tells.

When do you opt to cold call a raise preflop (IP or OOP) instead of folding or reraising?

When do you opt to cold call a raise preflop (IP or OOP) instead of folding or reraising?

A lot depends on who the raiser is and how he'll react to my reraise. If I think I'll get 4-bet a lot, then I'll reraise way more often with hands that I'm comfortable playing to a 4-bet and call with the rest. If I think he will call lots, then I'll reraise more because I put him at such a huge disadvantage postflop being first to act without the betting lead in a bloated pot.

If I have a read that the raiser gets too attached to his pots, I'll call more often than I reraise because I can induce a lot of bluffs postflop when I hit something.

If the raiser is nitty, I call more than I reraise because he's going to fold a ton and repop me with his big hands. That's no fun.

If I'm in danger of getting squeezed from the blinds, I'll reraise more than I call, because I don't want to burn money by having to fold to a likely squeeze.

And then sometimes I'll get tricky and just call with big hands in position, for a mix of the aforementioned reasons.

But that's most of what I'm thinking about when deciding what to do. Of course, sometimes I'll do something out of character for balancing's sake, too.