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The Course notes

poker

Notes from Ed Miller's The Course. WIP

#Part I: The 30,000 foot view

##The Many Forms of No-Limit Hold'em

  • online is much tougher than live (live has more hobby players)
  • everyone playing live poker at a casino is bad, don't listen to them
  • it's easy for real skill to be masked by luck on a day-to-day basis: to be confident in your skills you need to be able to justify your decisions to yourself

##Where Does The Money Come From

  • from opponents who play too many hands. you must raise to fold better hands or get called by worse hands, to exploit players who play too many hands 
  • by the river, most people actually play too few hands, even if they play too many hands preflop
  • so you must know when to get out of the way, once your opponents have folded down to too few hands

Each skill is designed to ensure: 

  1. you attack players when they play too many hands
  2. you get out of the way when opponents strategies leave them with only strong hands 
  3. you're not caught playing too many hands yourself 

#Part II: Beating Live 1-2 Games

##Skill #1: Play a Simple and Effective Pre-Flop Strategy

  • hitting flops is not how you make money
  • postflop, opponents strategies will vary a lot. but preflop, most opponents will play too many hands 
  • play hands that have equity-when-called1 on a wide range of boards (showdown equity + fold equity) 
  • these include suited cards that are either connected or are both big cards

suitedness is super valuable: 6% chance to hit a flush is a significant edge: 

  • the hands you do hit a flush tend to let you win larger pots
  • it gives you the opportunity to semi bluff with a draw because they have good equity-when-called

only enter a pot preflop by raising:

  • raising bloats the pot, which compounds your opponents errors 
  • it punishes people for playing too many hands 

Ranges 

Early Position

Everything before BB, SB, BU, CO

Open (14%):
  • 22+
  • ATs+, KTs+, QTs+
  • A2s-A9s
  • JTs-76s
  • AKo, AQo

Note that AKo and AQo are the only unsuited hands here

Facing a tight raise:

3bet: AA, KK, A5s Fold: AQo, A2s-A9s Call: 22+, ATs+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs-76s, AKo

Facing a loose raise:

3bet: AA-QQ, AK, A2s-A5s, T9s, 98s Call: everything else in open range

Cutoff

Open (22%):
  • 22+
  • A2s+, K7s+, Q9s+
  • 43s+
  • 53s+
  • ATo+, KJo+
Facing a tight raise:
  • same as EP facing a tight raise
Facing a loose raise:

3bet: JJ+, AKs, A7s, A5s-A2s, T9s, 87s, 54s, AKo Call: AQs-A8s, A6s, K9s+, Q9s+, JTs, 98s, 76-65s, J9s-86s, AQo-AJo, KQo

Button 

Open (33%)
  • 22+
  • A2s+, K2s+
  • Q5s+
  • J7s+
  • 43s+
  • 53s+
  • 96s+
  • A7o+
  • K9o+
  • QTo+
  • JTo

Summary

  1. play tight
  2. avoid strength
  3. attack weakness
  4. dont try to make hands
  5. choose hands that have equity-when-called
  6. defend blinds against steals, not strong raises

multiway pots

in games that are more loose and pots get big preflop, focus on hands that get there faster rather than take time to develop from draws (ie high cards over connectors) 

  • can even add offsuit high cards and remove lower suited connectors

**

##Footnotes

  1. Showdown equity: chance your hand will win at showdown if rest of the board runs out. This is the percentage often displayed on poker videos

    Folding equity: the chance you get an opponent to fold when you run a successful bluff

    Equity-when-called: Total equity your hand has after your raise is called. Includes the sum of your showdown equity and folding equity should you choose to bluff later streets ↩