Ask Evan Jarvis Anything About Learning Poker!

[Evan Jarvis]

thanks for sharing!

did not know about you, I will be checking your videos later! been looking for new poker content and lessons for a while!

hope it's worth it!

gl gl

Thank You FF2586!

I always appreciate when new people choose to watch my videos

I know there's a lot of content out there you could spend your time watching and I'm grateful that you're choosing to invest some time with me.

I promise you won't regret it
Enjoy!

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Hi all

I have 250 bucks saved and I'm looking to play in a cash game of 1 dollar/2 dollars, min buy in is 50 bucks, max is 250. So, I'm looking to invest all my money.
do you think 250 is enough or do I need more in order to avoid risk of ruin?

You may run very hot and spin up a stack, but most likely yes you are flirting with an extremely high risk of ruin. All it takes is one killer hand and you'll be out of the game.

I would advise you to look for a game with a $20-$50 max buyin (at most) with that bankroll if you want to protect from risk of ruin.

To play in a live 1/2 game like that ideally you want AT LEAST $2k bankroll.

Whatever you choose to do, I wish the best of luck :saint:

 

[ekgbeat]

@ Evan, awesome AMA. I have a couple of questions about poker math when playing live poker at a casino.

1) When playing live, is your basic process for doing math at the table (your step by step process).

2) What are the main math concepts that everyone should do live?

3) What are you tips and trick for doing the math quickly while playing live? Any mental math site that you used in the past?



Thanks for doing this, and I look forward to your response. Do you think about getting on Twitch again?

 

[efranto2286]

Hello how to know when to get up from a table cash me past that come with $ 20 at a cash table e succeeded in reaching $ 200 and it's hard to get up to the point and I lost everything

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Hello how to know when to get up from a table cash me past that come with $ 20 at a cash table e succeeded in reaching $ 200 and it's hard to get up to the point and I lost everything

This should help ease your concerns

Another thing is to ensure you have at least 40 blinds to play the game. Anything less is likely going to leave you with nothing.

so if the big blind is $2 you want to start with AT LEAST $80, and ideally something more like $200-300.

You won't multiply your buyin as much this way but your wins will be more consistent and you'll lose your stack much less often as you become comfortable playing deep stacked.

This video will help with that part of the equation

Good luck!

 

[Evan Jarvis]

@ Evan, awesome AMA. I have a couple of questions about poker math when playing live poker at a casino.

1) When playing live, is your basic process for doing math at the table (your step by step process).

2) What are the main math concepts that everyone should do live?

3) What are you tips and trick for doing the math quickly while playing live? Any mental math site that you used in the past?

Thanks for doing this, and I look forward to your response. Do you think about getting on Twitch again?

Thanks EK, glad you're enjoying the thread! It's a lot of fun and I'm learning a lot too!

1) I always keep a mental count in my head of the bet size preflop, and then multiply it by players. Then i track each bet and add it as I go. It's a good way to stay engaged with the game (always present to be counting) and also ensures you're only remembering 1 number.

Note: I am rather gifted at basic math so it comes easily to me, if it doesn't to you then just practice your times tables a bunch and it will become more natural. I do this every hand.

2) Block out everything else, put all your attention on the game, keep yourself present, watch the action. If you can't recall what previous showdowns were or who has been winning/losing the last 5-10 hands you're not paying attention. All your profits in poker come from being in tune with what's going on.

Next up, don't try to get fancy, keep it simple and you'll usually get the money in the end.
Finally, be PATIENT, don't be in a rush to win, and don't go into a session expecting to win x$. This puts artificial pressure on yourself. Just play the game as it comes to you and be grateful that you get to play this wonderful game. That helps me keep in a positive state.

3) Same as I mentioned above, practice times tables, kumon math, khan academy, any basic math method will give you all you need. No need for advanced combinatorics tbh.


Hope that helps and thanks for asking such a great set of questions!!!

 

[ekgbeat]

Thanks EK, glad you're enjoying the thread! It's a lot of fun and I'm learning a lot too!

1) I always keep a mental count in my head of the bet size preflop, and then multiply it by players. Then i track each bet and add it as I go. It's a good way to stay engaged with the game (always present to be counting) and also ensures you're only remembering 1 number.

Note: I am rather gifted at basic math so it comes easily to me, if it doesn't to you then just practice your times tables a bunch and it will become more natural. I do this every hand.

2) Block out everything else, put all your attention on the game, keep yourself present, watch the action. If you can't recall what previous showdowns were or who has been winning/losing the last 5-10 hands you're not paying attention. All your profits in poker come from being in tune with what's going on.

Next up, don't try to get fancy, keep it simple and you'll usually get the money in the end.
Finally, be PATIENT, don't be in a rush to win, and don't go into a session expecting to win x$. This puts artificial pressure on yourself. Just play the game as it comes to you and be grateful that you get to play this wonderful game. That helps me keep in a positive state.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwmfN_ELsjA&list=PLBrNnyWekagMm7W5FhyJsu7EBZKq7s_m8&index=8&t=0s

3) Same as I mentioned above, practice times tables, kumon math, khan academy, any basic math method will give you all you need. No need for advanced combinatorics tbh.


Hope that helps and thanks for asking such a great set of questions!!!

So many gems in this post, and thanks for the reply. New to the YouTube channel so thanks for sharing that. Lots of useful videos on there so I'll be tuning in.

 

[invnto]

About flush draw!!

Hi!!
I'm a beginner in online poker. I have a doubt regarding the strongest hand.

Suppose all 5 cards on the board turned out to be suited cards. I have a straight draw. The villain may have either 2 pair or a straight draw.

Will the pot spilt ?

 

[MoneyBuysHappiness]

Hey Evan,

These will be my first ever questions on the forum as I’m barely getting around to theoretical poker as opposed to plain ABC poker. These questions are the ones that have really boggled my mind when trying to wrap my head around this concept.

I have yet to understand when people say that they would have to turn their hand into a “bluff” when they actually have the nuts. Say you have QhQd and the board is 4s7h3s7dQc. Hero is the BB playing against UTG+1. You have the nuts here but I was listening to a podcast that said you would have to turn your hand into a bluff to lead out here. I don’t get why you would have to turn it into a bluff when you really have the nuts.

The other concept I don’t quite understand is when people say, “If I bet here only stronger holdings that have me beat will continue...” but what if I don’t bet? Will I be losing value? Do I ever bet? When do I bet to allow weaker hands to continue?

I appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions or anyone else that would like to chime in. I feel a little lost to concepts such as these, but feel hopeful that I have some knowledge to even begin to ask some of these questions. Thanks in advance! I’ll stay tuned for an answer

 

[Artbart805]

Multi day tournament, bagged chip event

Heading for a multi day tournament, stage one. Runs for about 7 days, survivors go to day two with chip stack.

Beside the advise of survive day one! Lol. What can you supply,
I satellite into this one, but that seemed too easy as the field was Soft and I got lucky.

 

[Chibude4040]

I am new and play freerolls. Where do I need to start to switch to a game for money? which books to read first, which teacher to look for?

 

[Evan Jarvis]

I am new and play freerolls. Where do I need to start to switch to a game for money? which books to read first, which teacher to look for?

For tournaments the best free path I can offer is to visit my website http://gripsed.com and signup for the free tournament training package. It's a 30 day program focused on tournaments and it's free.

From there if you want more advanced materials I can point you in the direction of a couple of great programs in the price range of $50-$200.

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Heading for a multi day tournament, stage one. Runs for about 7 days, survivors go to day two with chip stack.

Beside the advise of survive day one! Lol. What can you supply,
I satellite into this one, but that seemed too easy as the field was Soft and I got lucky.

Main thing is to play your game, remain patient, be attentive and stay confident.
The more you believe in yourself and the more attuned you are to how people are playing, the more likely you are to find the RIGHT SPOTS to make plays... the confidence is what will allow you to follow thru on them instead of saying 'it's a good one, but i'll wait for a better one'

Also watch the bubble and the payout structure. A lot of times people want to make day 2 really badly even though the money is still far away. If this is the case take advantage of the 'fake bubble' by amping up your aggression and going after the blinds.

If however day 2 is basically in the money, then consider being a bit more cautious (stack size dependent of course.)

I wish I could type it all out, but there's so much to tournaments and stack sizes so here is a program from me and one from my coach that will each give you 5 hours of pure gold

Mine - https://pokermarket.net/collections/most-popular/products/gripsed-poker-essentials-bundle

My Coach's - https://pokermarket.net/collections/most-popular/products/master-tournament-poker-in-one-class

Good luck at the event, have fun out there!

And never forget the basics

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Hi!!
I'm a beginner in online poker. I have a doubt regarding the strongest hand.

Suppose all 5 cards on the board turned out to be suited cards. I have a straight draw. The villain may have either 2 pair or a straight draw.

Will the pot spilt ?

That is correct, in no limit hold'em if the best 5 card hand for both players use all the community cards (the ones on the board) then it is indeed a split pot.

This is not the case in Omaha however where each player must use 2 cards from their hand and 3 from the board :tomato:

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Hey Evan,

These will be my first ever questions on the forum as I’m barely getting around to theoretical poker as opposed to plain ABC poker. These questions are the ones that have really boggled my mind when trying to wrap my head around this concept.

I have yet to understand when people say that they would have to turn their hand into a “bluff” when they actually have the nuts. Say you have QhQd and the board is 4s7h3s7dQc. Hero is the BB playing against UTG+1. You have the nuts here but I was listening to a podcast that said you would have to turn your hand into a bluff to lead out here. I don’t get why you would have to turn it into a bluff when you really have the nuts.

The other concept I don’t quite understand is when people say, “If I bet here only stronger holdings that have me beat will continue...” but what if I don’t bet? Will I be losing value? Do I ever bet? When do I bet to allow weaker hands to continue?

I appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions or anyone else that would like to chime in. I feel a little lost to concepts such as these, but feel hopeful that I have some knowledge to even begin to ask some of these questions. Thanks in advance! I’ll stay tuned for an answer

Great questions, and thank you for making my thread the first one you chose to post in. I am truly honored by it

Turning a made hand into a bluff: This is when a player takes a made hand (pair, trips, boat) that is UNLIKELY TO BE THE BEST HAND and tries to bet the opponent off a better hand. Usually this is done in position when the player can take a free showdown by checking back the river, but it can also happen in other cases.

The specific example you used sounds like your podcasters were being a bit dramatic. The only hand that beats QQ there is 77 (the absolutely nuts) and thus there is no way a bluff targetting 77 would ever be successful. If a straight flush was possible, they could turn the QQ into a bluff to rep the straight flush, but again it's highly unlikely it would work.

Generally something like 76s turn into a bluff to fold out a straight would be more appropriate. Or turning AA into a bluff to fold out trip 7s. But the particular example you said, yea, it makes no sense and you're right to be confused. (Sometimes people with theory happy and use words inappropriately just so they can sound smart )

The second one about value betting, the idea is whenever we bet we force our opponent to reduce their range (also known as narrow their range), sometimes this lead to them only having better hands than us. In those cases to 'get value' we're better served to check back, keep weaker hands in their range and try to induce bluffs from those hands rather than forcing them to fold with a bet.

The one exception is when not many worse hands will call (say 89s on 8532) but you want to protect yourself from getting outdrawn by something with 6-10 outs. In this case you may bet 'for protection' even tho no worse hand will actually call the bet.

This video should help

And for specific sizing and a bit more on the range narrowing/keeping it wide

And if you really want to go deep on those 2 I recommend Matt Janda's newest book, he has a really good breakdown on all the reasons to bet or not bet and great examples

https://www.amazon.ca/No-Limit-Hold-Advanced-Players-Emphasis/dp/1880685590

Hope that helps!

btw, who's podcast was it?

 

[DAVID KEHRER]

Just wondering is it me or the big play in nl holdem chase the flush been getting killed on river for last four months.

 

[Chibude4040]

If i have bankroll 100$ what limits can i play?

 

[Evan Jarvis]

If i have bankroll 100$ what limits can i play?

Technically you can play whatever you want... but to be responsible playing $2-5 tables would be the safe route and playing $10 tables would be the aggressive route. (this applies to both cash games and sit n gos)

If you are ok to reload take the more aggressive route, if you want the money to last all year for sure and avoid going bust then take the conservative route :flute:

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Just wondering is it me or the big play in nl holdem chase the flush been getting killed on river for last four months.

I think it's just you David, but sometimes these runs happen and they tend to stick out in our minds.

Selective memory bias is worth looking into for understanding, and also just knowing that losing/pain/emotionally charged events tend to stick out more strongly in our memories

Hope it turns around for ya!

 

[Amanda A]

Hi Evan,
You are the best! I learn so much from watching you play. Saw you playing on twitch and noticed your HUD only becomes visible when you do a mouse roll over. I would love to do this with my hud but can't find the setting and it's driving me crazy! I use HM2, is that what you use? Thanks!!!!

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Hi Evan,
You are the best! I learn so much from watching you play. Saw you playing on twitch and noticed your HUD only becomes visible when you do a mouse roll over. I would love to do this with my hud but can't find the setting and it's driving me crazy! I use HM2, is that what you use? Thanks!!!!

Thanks Amanda You're pretty awesome yourself!

The setting I have for pokertracker 4 (I'm not sure if HEM has an equivalent feature)

Hud -> Edit Hud Profiles, choose the Profile you use at the top. In the Table Groups section choose the group that you want to be transparent until moused over, click on it on the left hand side, change to Group Properties and change Display Type from Normal to Lower Opacity Until Mouseover

As for the stats I have on the HUD, this is my cash game HUD and the only stats I like to add to tournament hud is RFI by position. (Most of the time I don't even use many of the stats, and that's why the HUD is invisible most of the time. I like my decisions to first be made based on positions, gameflow, timing, as so on, whereas the stats are the second thing I check in close situations (I found in the past when I did the opposite I made a lot of mistakes because I didn't have a large enough sample to really be relying on stats on very rare situations.)

 

[deeznutzz]

Hey Evan,

I just wanted to take a second to thank you for everything you do. For you to give so much of your time to help other poker plays improve their game is really a awesome thing. I was reading through this entire post and the thing that stood out to me was that not only did you respond to everyone's questions but you took the time to give in-depth and detailed answers in every one of your responses. I hope you realize how much all of your work is appreciated. I'm at a relatively early stage in my poker journey were my wallet couldn't support hiring a private trainer. For a while now I've been using your videos and articles to grow my understanding of the game which has really improved every aspect of my poker game. I still have a long way to go but thanks in large part to you Im heading down the right path. So please keeping doing what you do for as long as you possibly can because you really are helping so many people. Thanks again.

 

[Juli]

Fear of Failure

To what extent do you think the fear of failure can hinder your best performance in the game?

Happy Saturday everyone!

 

[Amanda A]

Evan, thanks so much for the info and kind words. You put a smile on my face (not easy in NY right now with all the virus fears, plunging markets and general end of the world vibe). I'll check out HM2 and look for it where you said and if they don't have it I'll tell the HM2 people on the forum they better add it or I'll be switching to PT4 ha ha.

 

[Evan Jarvis]

Evan, thanks so much for the info and kind words. You put a smile on my face (not easy in NY right now with all the virus fears, plunging markets and general end of the world vibe). I'll check out HM2 and look for it where you said and if they don't have it I'll tell the HM2 people on the forum they better add it or I'll be switching to PT4 ha ha.

My pleasure Amanda, it's important to remember positive things during these otherwise stressful and highly distracted times. It's a great time for online poker at least right?

I'm fortunate to be writing you from an ashram right now where we are working daily on our practices, our inner strength, our faith and our love. It seems that when we tune into these things no amount of fear can shake us from this deep and stable place.

for the record, I too am down a big ole mountain on the market, but this is the variance of the game (as it is in poker), and so long as we are playing that game, and our game of life according to write principles, then with patience and in the long run everything will work out just fine. :idea:

God bless Amanda (or replace with whatever word of your choice)