Coach blog

[laughisnot4sale]

Hey, everybody. My name is Eugene, I am 39 years old.
I've been playing poker since 2006, coaching since 2009.
It all started with potlimit 9 max tables on ongame with Doyle Supersystem, then there were husng's, then spin's.
In parallel all this time I played mtt online and offline.
The last few years coaching took up most of my time and I played very little. After I quit my job as a coach at the mtt fund where I was working, I realized that coaching others for such a long time caused me fatigue and burnout, and I actually want to start playing on my own again. Since I've been playing online (80/20) most of my life, I don't want to go back full time, I want to go back to offline cash and play there for a while and then decide if I have the energy and desire to keep playing or if it's better to quit altogether, since 20 years is still a long time=).
In this blog every 3-4 days I will post texts that I wrote for training others (originally in Russian, translated into English), also, if it goes, I will start to write new ones. To each text, and maybe separately, I will post the analysis of 2 hands from HH of guys I trained or train.
Why am I doing this? To give something away to get something.
Feel free to ask questions

 

[laughisnot4sale]

Any postflop decision in poker, in any discipline, should be based on analysis, which consists of 3 stages.

The first step, the most important one, is to formulate your opponent's range(s).

When you analyze the sessions played and analyze the hands after the fact, focus your attention on this. It's much harder to do all this in live, in a time crunch, especially in Hyper disciplines. But you need to realize that this is the whole skill of a strong player. With the experience of sorting out hands, you will also see serious progress in the moments of the game.

The second stage. It is necessary to correlate the strength of our hand with the range of the opponent.

A big mistake beginners make is that. That they make different actions with hands, which in essence do not differ from each other (or practically nothing, or very little different) in relation to the range of the opponent's hand. Although, often quads have no difference with a pair, relative to the opponent's combinations.

Example: Pushfold stage. The effective stack is 16 BB.
We made a preflop raise with a KQ hand to our opponent, who 3bet push with a standard range of HU/Spin's at this stack depth.
FLOP - AAK.
In this particular hand, our K pair is no different from the virtual possible quads or full (if we had pocket KK/AA or AK). There is no difference for the simple reason that we are “hitting” the same opponent's range (or with minimal differences).
There are many much more “subtle” situations that require analysis in additional programs (Flopzilla, etc.).


The third stage. Making an optimal decision. Bet/Raise or Call or Fold, depending on the situation. In live, if there are doubts/uncertainty, you should always play as safe as possible: instead of betting - check; instead of raise - call; instead of call - fold. Mark the hand and sort it out after the fact.


Briefly:

1) Set the opponent's range.
2) Relate the strength of our hand to the opponent's range.
3) Make a decision.

 

[laughisnot4sale]

iPoker - 250/500 NL (7 max) - Holdem - 7 players
Hand converted by Holdem Manager 3
MP: 94,255 (188.5 bb)
CO: 109,400 (218.8 bb)
BTN: 104,662 (209.3 bb)
SB: 98,075 (196.2 bb)
Hero (BB): 97,325 (194.7 bb)
UTG: 98,783 (197.6 bb)
UTG+1: 97,575 (195.2 bb)

7 players post ante of 75, SB posts 250, Hero posts BB 500
Pre Flop: (pot: 1,275) Hero has
5 folds, SB raises to 1,500, Hero raises to 4,500, SB raises to 9,000, Hero calls 4,500
Flop: (18,525, 2 players)
SB bets 12,967, Hero calls 12,967
Turn: (44,459, 2 players)
SB bets 22,229, Hero calls 22,229
River: (88,917, 2 players)
SB bets 53,804, Hero calls 53,054
Results: 195,025 pot
Final Board:

Spoiler

SB shows : (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 43%, Flop 25%, Turn 18%)
Hero shows : (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 57%, Flop 75%, Turn 82%)
Hero wins 195,025

The first mistake is choosing the size of preflop 3bet: the bigger the opponent's stack, the wider and more expensive he calls, the bigger the size of his bet or raise, the more often he calls, if it's ko mtt and the op's stack is bigger than ours, he will call wider because he can win bounty (the bigger the bounty, the wider it is profitable to call). Fish psychology - the beginning of the tournament, I want to play and participate in as many hands as possible - he will call more often.
Another problem with small 3bet is that it creates the illusion that an opponent can 4bet wide= overestimating a hand like JJ. Like “what if he bluffs” or “what if he 4bets AJ” etc.
The total 3bet size here should be in the neighborhood of 15 bb.
4bet without notes on op is a super strong line, especially at the beginning of the tournament (you have no info), so without chip coverage there is no sense to move all-in, because in the best case there will be a flip, or would be strongly behind (AK, AQs, JJ, QQ, KK, AA) = call default, but based on the range, JJ should just be moved into the category of hands to catch a set + small flop cbet call, on a suitable board and folding on the turn.
What does the evaluation of this hand look like “in my head” in the form of a quick analysis of the op's range.

Preflop raise 3bb - the range is stronger than usual, as the average player opens 2bb.
4bet pre - confirming the strength of the range and significant strengthening = AQs+, JJ+.
Flop cbet 66%+- - tight sizing = another confirmation of strength (as the field doesn't bluff with tight sizing, especially on dry boards) = JJ+ = pass flop.

 

[laughisnot4sale]

Winamax - 700/1400 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by Holdem Manager 3
MP: 99,840 (71.3 bb)
CO: 122,174 (87.3 bb)
Hero (BTN): 146,142 (104.4 bb)
BB: 250,151 (178.7 bb)
UTG+1: 59,243 (42.3 bb)
UTG: 155,427 (111 bb)

6 players post ante of 160, BB posts 1,400
Pre Flop: (pot: 2,360) Hero has
2 folds, MP raises to 2,968, fold, Hero raises to 8,400, fold, MP calls 5,432
Flop: (19,160, 2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets 9,580, MP calls 9,580
Turn: (38,320, 2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets 19,160, MP raises to 81,700 and is all-in, Hero calls 62,540
River: (201,720, 2 players)
Results: 201,720 pot
Final Board:

Spoiler

MP shows : (One Pair, Eights)
(Pre 44%, Flop 41%, Turn 39%)
Hero shows : (Two Pair, Tens and Eights)
(Pre 56%, Flop 59%, Turn 61%)
Hero wins 201,720

The same mistake here, the size of the 3bet is too small + the hand is not jacks, and in general if the opponent folds - we are happy, but if he wants to play, let him call more = 8bb.

Analyzing the range of op “in my head”.
Pfr range of HJ = Pairs, all Ax, all Broadway, any suited connectors (medium with one gap, small without).
The whole top range raises or pushes on 3bet, only weak aces and a part of mixed broadway like J10o, Q10o will be discarded from the remaining hands.
Flop = medium connectors hit, Broadway hits partially (QJ, J10s) = you need to cbet with a bigger size, because these hands will call any bet, and small pocket pairs or Ax, which missed, will not call anything + with a small cbet size, the opponent reaches almost on direct pot odds with a hand of QJ type, even conditional KQ becomes profitable to call because of the implied odds.
Flop Call Range: some sets raised already here, since the cbet is small and the opponent will think that it is necessary to accelerate the pot = 50/50, the same applies to TPTK or two pairs 108s = 50% sets + 50% TPTK + 50% two pair + TP weak kicker + any match like 89s,78s + all pocket pairs, since cbet is small + any broadway with two overcards.

Turn: check-raise or re-raise line on the turn is very strong (According to reserch the field does not play bluffs and semi-bluffs on the turn almost never (if it's fish) and rarely if it's reg abi 50 or lower), especially when the opponent has a short stack relative to Hero (if the opponent covers strongly and if the Hero has a lot of bounty, he can shove some strong draws here) = in KO tournaments it will be called more often and wider = sets are still left + the opponent could hit a set of 4s on the turn, two pairs left = fold.

 

[Station_Master]

iPoker - 250/500 NL (7 max) - Holdem - 7 players
Hand converted by Holdem Manager 3
MP: 94,255 (188.5 bb)
CO: 109,400 (218.8 bb)
BTN: 104,662 (209.3 bb)
SB: 98,075 (196.2 bb)
Hero (BB): 97,325 (194.7 bb)
UTG: 98,783 (197.6 bb)
UTG+1: 97,575 (195.2 bb)

7 players post ante of 75, SB posts 250, Hero posts BB 500
Pre Flop: (pot: 1,275) Hero has
5 folds, SB raises to 1,500, Hero raises to 4,500, SB raises to 9,000, Hero calls 4,500
Flop: (18,525, 2 players)
SB bets 12,967, Hero calls 12,967
Turn: (44,459, 2 players)
SB bets 22,229, Hero calls 22,229
River: (88,917, 2 players)
SB bets 53,804, Hero calls 53,054
Results: 195,025 pot
Final Board:

Spoiler

SB shows : (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 43%, Flop 25%, Turn 18%)
Hero shows : (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 57%, Flop 75%, Turn 82%)
Hero wins 195,025

The first mistake is choosing the size of preflop 3bet: the bigger the opponent's stack, the wider and more expensive he calls, the bigger the size of his bet or raise, the more often he calls, if it's ko mtt and the op's stack is bigger than ours, he will call wider because he can win bounty (the bigger the bounty, the wider it is profitable to call). Fish psychology - the beginning of the tournament, I want to play and participate in as many hands as possible - he will call more often.
Another problem with small 3bet is that it creates the illusion that an opponent can 4bet wide= overestimating a hand like JJ. Like “what if he bluffs” or “what if he 4bets AJ” etc.
The total 3bet size here should be in the neighborhood of 15 bb.
4bet without notes on op is a super strong line, especially at the beginning of the tournament (you have no info), so without chip coverage there is no sense to move all-in, because in the best case there will be a flip, or would be strongly behind (AK, AQs, JJ, QQ, KK, AA) = call default, but based on the range, JJ should just be moved into the category of hands to catch a set + small flop cbet call, on a suitable board and folding on the turn.
What does the evaluation of this hand look like “in my head” in the form of a quick analysis of the op's range.

Preflop raise 3bb - the range is stronger than usual, as the average player opens 2bb.
4bet pre - confirming the strength of the range and significant strengthening = AQs+, JJ+.
Flop cbet 66%+- - tight sizing = another confirmation of strength (as the field doesn't bluff with tight sizing, especially on dry boards) = JJ+ = pass flop.

I don't really.understand your comments
You seem to be critizing your own 3bet size, which is a super standard 3x IP. Preflop all looks super standard apart form the small 4bet size.

Not sure who is opening SB to 2bb at 200bb stacks but not a good player.

 

[laughisnot4sale]

I don't really.understand your comments
You seem to be critizing your own 3bet size, which is a super standard 3x IP. Preflop all looks super standard apart form the small 4bet size.

Not sure who is opening SB to 2bb at 200bb stacks but not a good player.

This is not my size, as i wrote, both those hands are from ppl, i coach.
If u have h2note, u can check researches about opening sizes of fishes and week regs, the most common size is 2bb

 

[Station_Master]

This is not my size, as i wrote, both those hands are from ppl, i coach.
If u have h2note, u can check researches about opening sizes of fishes and week regs, the most common size is 2bb

Ok fish and weak.regs makes sense.

I still can't see why you would go from 3bb to 15bb IP though, seems too big?

 

[laughisnot4sale]

Ok fish and weak.regs makes sense.

I still can't see why you would go from 3bb to 15bb IP though, seems too big?

You can not give implied odds for your opponent preflop same as postflop.
The more chips are in eff stack, more you loose.
Mathematicly you need "15x bb to call" eff stack, to make safe set hunting call pre, so you opponent is playing super+ev.
U make 9 vs 3, he needs to win 90bb if he hits a set, and u have around 200, sometimes there will be a cooler, some times you wil not pay, but it doesnt matter with 15x calculation.
And all this calculations are without a bounty, if he covers you, he win more.
So if you opponent is a regular, he should know this preflop math and he is playing +ev against your JJ.
And the second thing is, that if it is a fish, he will call maximum adequate size, 15x is fine.

 

[Station_Master]

You can not give implied odds for your opponent preflop same as postflop.
The more chips are in eff stack, more you loose.
Mathematicly you need "15x bb to call" eff stack, to make safe set hunting call pre, so you opponent is playing super+ev.
U make 9 vs 3, he needs to win 90bb if he hits a set, and u have around 200, sometimes there will be a cooler, some times you wil not pay, but it doesnt matter with 15x calculation.
And all this calculations are without a bounty, if he covers you, he win more.
So if you opponent is a regular, he should know this preflop math and he is playing +ev against your JJ.
And the second thing is, that if it is a fish, he will call maximum adequate size, 15x is fine.

I disagree, this is very dated thinking. Villain's range is much more than just pocket pairs.

 

[laughisnot4sale]

I disagree, this is very dated thinking. Villain's range is much more than just pocket pairs.

It is an exmaple against part of opponents range, same works with connectors, broadway and etc.
The main idea is, u cannot give an opponent odds to hit cheap smth, which will beat you. And more chips you have, more you can give away.
U can google smth like preflop implied odds and read about it.

 

[Jean-Guy]

It is an exmaple against part of opponents range, same works with connectors, broadway and etc.
The main idea is, u cannot give an opponent odds to hit cheap smth, which will beat you. And more chips you have, more you can give away.
U can google smth like preflop implied odds and read about it.

Seems to me that you are living in the past based on how you think poker. I’m sure CardsChat can bring you up to present time - modern - poker. As long as you are humble and keen. And why should you not be👍