High Stakes Strategy Poker Forums

Jay, just a comment more than a question.

I think HU is the truest form of poker. It would be really cool if a member could send you a HH from a HU session and throw it into a replayer and have you analyze and provide feedback. Charge based on number of hands or something. I would be willing to pay for this type of service.

Giants!

This would be sick and I agree about being willing to pay for it (as long as my little roll could handle it).

Terrific site so far. Thanks.

Question: Do you have any general advice about finding folds when you should? I find myself sometimes calling/floating with a marginal hand planning to take it away on the next street if the guy checks, BUT, my hand improves AND he fires again.

For example, I call with 2nd pair top kicker, turn brings me the NFD and the dude fires big again. If I shove I think he's likely to call with most of his double barrel range, but now my hand is too strong to fold (or is it?). So sometimes I'll shove, sometimes call. On the river I may even improve more making 2nd best hand when an ace rivers.

Or, you decide to check to induce but as the hand develops, he keeps firing, the board changes, and you are uncertain. You were using his aggression against him by letting him bet, but at some point you think, "well crap, now I'm in a bad spot".

Anyway, not really looking for specifics on the examples (unless that helps you answer), just generally how do you think about finding a fold versus playing for stacks in these tough/marginal/stupid spots that seem to happen all the time?

I guess I'll kind of rephrase my earlier question. Do you have any tips on learning how to play your A-game or close to it a higher percentage of the time, and avoiding completely stupid stuff when playing worse than your A-game?

Edit: Oh, and thanks for doing this, there's been some interesting posts in this thread.

I'm sure KRANTZ has a good answer to this. I just want to plug Tommy Angelo's book because it's an awesome read so far and addresses this question in very good detail. In fact, the sections on A-game through C-game improvement and Quitting are my favorite parts.

http://www.tommyangelo.com/buy_EOP.html

Tommy's book is the best poker book I've ever read, and is the most useful to someone who has moved past the stages of needing a preflop starting hand chart or information on hand rankings.

I actually just spent 2 days being coached by him in San Francisco - will be writing about that in my blog when I've got time to digest everything.

Needless to say, you need to buy this book.

Jay, just a comment more than a question.

I think HU is the truest form of poker. It would be really cool if a member could send you a HH from a HU session and throw it into a replayer and have you analyze and provide feedback. Charge based on number of hands or something. I would be willing to pay for this type of service.

Giants!

This would be sick and I agree about being willing to pay for it (as long as my little roll could handle it).

Heh... I would love to but my time is limited and I already have a long wait list for coaching and a tight schedule. Also, the problem with HU hands is that so much depends on the flow of the match that you would need to post a succession of hands to get the best advice from the toughest ones.

I agree with you that HU is pure poker -that's why I'm doing a series about it for Season 2!

PS feel free to post hands in the forums, HU or otherwise, and I'm happy to respond now and then in my spare time

I guess I'll kind of rephrase my earlier question. Do you have any tips on learning how to play your A-game or close to it a higher percentage of the time, and avoiding completely stupid stuff when playing worse than your A-game?

Edit: Oh, and thanks for doing this, there's been some interesting posts in this thread.

I might as well just reiterate, read Tommy's book :-)

Someone showed me you are the best world player in online poker.

So my question is, since you seem to have a lot of money, what do you plan to do in future ? (except DC web-site of course ! )

Btw, I find excellent some people of your strengt come in topic as little as small stakes

Many of us coming up the limits used to watch PF crush the 25-50nl game UB ~ dude was sick !
What happened to Prahlad ?
12 months ago high limit action on FT was in full flow ~ now it seem's to trickle, has the money moved over to B&M action ? or do you have it all ?
have you tried to transition over to B&M if so has it been smooth ?

Who online impress's you ?

and what pokerbooks do you own ?

Terrific site so far. Thanks.

Question: Do you have any general advice about finding folds when you should? I find myself sometimes calling/floating with a marginal hand planning to take it away on the next street if the guy checks, BUT, my hand improves AND he fires again.

For example, I call with 2nd pair top kicker, turn brings me the NFD and the dude fires big again. If I shove I think he's likely to call with most of his double barrel range, but now my hand is too strong to fold (or is it?). So sometimes I'll shove, sometimes call. On the river I may even improve more making 2nd best hand when an ace rivers.

Or, you decide to check to induce but as the hand develops, he keeps firing, the board changes, and you are uncertain. You were using his aggression against him by letting him bet, but at some point you think, "well crap, now I'm in a bad spot".

Anyway, not really looking for specifics on the examples (unless that helps you answer), just generally how do you think about finding a fold versus playing for stacks in these tough/marginal/stupid spots that seem to happen all the time?

You want to think about the following:

1- What your opponent might have
2- What your opponent thinks you have
3- What kind of player he is
4- How the flop and turn affect all those considerations

For instance, you check and call a dry flop with 66 on 952 with a flush draw after calling out of the blinds preflop. He fires any number of turns - now you should be considering those factors when figuring out to do. Weight them - your hand might look weak, but that isn't as important as the fact that he is generally a loose and passive player. See what I mean?

Someone showed me you are the best world player in online poker.

So my question is, since you seem to have a lot of money, what do you plan to do in future ? (except DC web-site of course ! )

Btw, I find excellent some people of your strengt come in topic as little as small stakes

:-) Thanks for the compliments but I'm far from the best in the world. I think I can hang with anyone when I'm playing my A game, though!

At some point I plan on getting serious about a career in writing. My college degree was in Film/screenwriting, so that's what I ultimately want to do.

Many of us coming up the limits used to watch PF crush the 25-50nl game UB ~ dude was sick !
What happened to Prahlad ?
12 months ago high limit action on FT was in full flow ~ now it seem's to trickle, has the money moved over to B&M action ? or do you have it all ?
have you tried to transition over to B&M if so has it been smooth ?

Who online impress's you ?

and what pokerbooks do you own ?

It's believed that Prahlad is "poopers" on Stars, but I don't think that's been confirmed 100%. That rap he did for the WSOP a few years ago is awesome.

I think the FTP games will get better as spring and summer approaches and the WSOP draws closer. I'm fine with playing 10/20 or 25/50 when those huge games don't have soft spots in them.

Hate live poker. Too slow for me, and I don't like dealing with all the degens at the table. I've played now and then and am comfortable but I'm sure I still have many adjustments to make.

Urindanger, sbrugby, cts. Raptor (Aeron on FTP). Genius28. They impress me. Antonius. whitelime. Jman28.

Looking at my bookshelf, I own: NLHE TAP (sklansky and miller), Super System 2, Ace on the River, HOH 1 and 2, and Elements of Poker. I've read many, many more than those though.

Terrific site so far. Thanks.

Question: Do you have any general advice about finding folds when you should? I find myself sometimes calling/floating with a marginal hand planning to take it away on the next street if the guy checks, BUT, my hand improves AND he fires again.

For example, I call with 2nd pair top kicker, turn brings me the NFD and the dude fires big again. If I shove I think he's likely to call with most of his double barrel range, but now my hand is too strong to fold (or is it?). So sometimes I'll shove, sometimes call. On the river I may even improve more making 2nd best hand when an ace rivers.

Or, you decide to check to induce but as the hand develops, he keeps firing, the board changes, and you are uncertain. You were using his aggression against him by letting him bet, but at some point you think, "well crap, now I'm in a bad spot".

Anyway, not really looking for specifics on the examples (unless that helps you answer), just generally how do you think about finding a fold versus playing for stacks in these tough/marginal/stupid spots that seem to happen all the time?

You want to think about the following:

1- What your opponent might have
2- What your opponent thinks you have
3- What kind of player he is
4- How the flop and turn affect all those considerations

For instance, you check and call a dry flop with 66 on 952 with a flush draw after calling out of the blinds preflop. He fires any number of turns - now you should be considering those factors when figuring out to do. Weight them - your hand might look weak, but that isn't as important as the fact that he is generally a loose and passive player. See what I mean?

I do see what you mean and I think that's pretty much what I attempt to do when OOP. How about a spot where you are IP and your hand improves some on the turn, those are the spots that really mess me up (even though being IP should help). I guess it's sort of the same, but the fact that my hand gets a little better causes me trouble. Maybe I just need to be better at evaluating whether the turn card helped me ENOUGH to continue vs. his range/image.

Thanks.

I have been a live player only for 3 years up until a couple of weeks ago when I deposited some $$ on Full Tilt . I play 5-5, 5-10NL full ring in home games, underground games & casinos. I have watched most of your video's & like your aggressive style. My question is - in most live games, players tend to play more passive pre flop limping in with q's, j's & ak. Its not uncommon for 9 player to see a flop. The live player also hate to fold pre-flop, they will see a flop @ almost any price. They also tend to play poorly post flop. With that said, how would you play marginal type hands in position such as q-j(suited & not), a-10(suited ¬), suited connectors, a-j, mid pairs ect? would you still super agressive(raise) with multiple limpers or would you call try to take flops & outplay them? How would you play hands like a,q(suited & not), pocket j's & 10's out of the blinds with multiple limpers who wont fold? THanks

In general, when do you attempt to:

1. Widen your opponent's range
2. Narrow your opponent's range
3. Widen your range
4. Narrow your range

Thanks for all that you do on this site.

in phoenix for the super bowl guys, will get around to answering everything sometime this coming week

GO GIANTS

Krantz, you still get coached? After you playing nosebleeds, what can tommy teach?