The Well: ama0330

[ama0330]

A stranger is being shown around a village that he has just become part of. He is shown a well and his guide says "On any day except Tuesday, you can shout any question down that well and you'll be told the answer".

The man seems pretty impressed, and so he shouts down: Why not on Tuesday? and the voice from in the well shouts back:

"Because on Tuesday, it’s your day in the well"

_____

Hey guys, thought I'd take some "give back" time and answer any and all questions you might have about the great game of POKAH.

FWIW, I am currently destroying 50nl and am now taking very successful (fingers crossed) shots at 100nl. I could have waited till I was 200nl or something, but by then my opinions and game style will have changed. Given that most/a lot of you are playing 25nl or below, I think that doing this now, before I get any higher, will give you a good insight into a winning uNL'ers mentality.

Im gonna take a shower and make me some dinner, then I'll be around all night. Also, I have nothing to do at work at the moment so I'm good for a couple days, if you have any burning questions.

Fire away...

[wildzer0]

Thanks for doing this! What kind of thought process do you go through when putting a player on a hand? I play too loosely postflop because I tend to put people on too wide a range of hands - how do you combat that kind of thing?

[Panic__NL]

Great to see you do this Ama, very much appreciated!!!
In recent topics I posted you alwasys took the time to explain me some things I dont understand yet, thanks for that.

Now to shoot of the first question: What is crushing 50NL winrate wise? Why do you think you crush 50NL? Or better what is the most important quality a player should have to crush 50NL?
How did you become as good as you are that you are crushing it?
In general GIVE US SOME ADVICE?

[kylephilly]

Low suited connectors in position?
Approx % of call/raise/fold?

Do you ever just preflop call with AA in micro stakes?

What do you do against the minbet with a draw? with TP? with a big hand but air?

[TheDudeAbides]

Thanks for doing this! I have a few questions. Let's assume no reads for any situation.

1) How do you play mid-range pairs (8's - Jacks) OOP pf to a raise?

2) What about calling in position with a low pocket pair (i.e. villain raises 4xbb and you call with 66) and the flop pairs. For example:

I hold 66 and call a 4xbb raise in position. Flop comes 10 10 4 and villain bets.

3) How the hell do I play combo draws? Let's say middle pair with the 2nd nut flush draw. Or 4 to the straight with a pair. In position and OOP? Do you donk OOP? What to do if you get a call and the turn bricks?

I'm a limit convert, so any and all help would be appreciated! Thanks again.

[Gelford]

Yo .... Poker story so far ?


And what are your thoughts on The Ama Theorem these days (sorry, couldn't help myself [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] )

[relativity_x]

I'm glad to see you do this ama. I respect your opinion and contribution in uNL (one of the few). And I wish you luck at SSNL. I'll see you there shortly.

1) what do you think of my advice to posted hands in uNL?
2) How many BB/100 did you have at 25/50 NL? over how many hands each?
3) Will you consider doing a video of 50 NL and posting it in uNL?
4) How often do you push big combo draws in 50 NL with little FE (basically do you like to gamb00l)?
5) What's the range and most obvious hand this villain has at 50 NL: effective stacks $50, no reads:
Preflop:(0.75)
Villain (UTG) calls 0.5, all fold to us in BB with AA raise to 2.50, Villain calls 2.00

Flop:(5.25): T62 rainbow

Villain leads for 3, Hero raises to 9, Villain pushes all-in

6) same flop except we're btn and villain calls.

Flop: (5.25) T62 rainbow
villain check, Hero bets 3, Villain pushes all-in.

7)Show us one of your latest hands at 50 NL that confused the hell out of us. Give us your thinking all along the way. It would be good if you had meaningful stats/notes on villain.

8) What do you do IRL (work)?
9) What are your other hobbies?

[ama0330]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for doing this! What kind of thought process do you go through when putting a player on a hand? I play too loosely postflop because I tend to put people on too wide a range of hands - how do you combat that kind of thing?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is an interesting question. I think that over time I have developed a sort of "feel", where I dont really put someone on a hand, but rather I decide where I stand in the hand. This is basically what it is like to put someone on a range - you dont really say "well he has TT here" you say "well I'm in decent shape, or in really poor shape". If I feel like I'm in excellent shape and my opponent wants to play, I raise, or I'll just call if I feel a bit iffy, or I'll fold if I feel like I could never be ahead.

The process of actually putting someone on a hand for me is dependant on:

a) what I know of villain (pt stats, notes, general observations)
b) what villain knows of me (have I been bullying him? have we been tangling? what reason does he have to think he is ahead of me?

and therefore

c) what is villain most logically able to have here?

If someone with .85 AF shoves on you on the river, theres almost no chance he's bluffing. Putting someone on a hand is basically an educated guess, encompassing all the things I've listed above.

There's no real "formula" if thats what you mean, but sometimes you can say "he simply cannot be bluffing here" or somesuch, just because of what you know about how he plays. Of course there are lots of typical lines, like someone who checks two streets probably has nothing and you can take it on the river, someone who checks the turn through is marginal etc etc

[ama0330]

[ QUOTE ]
Great to see you do this Ama, very much appreciated!!!
In recent topics I posted you alwasys took the time to explain me some things I dont understand yet, thanks for that.

Now to shoot of the first question: What is crushing 50NL winrate wise? Why do you think you crush 50NL? Or better what is the most important quality a player should have to crush 50NL?
How did you become as good as you are that you are crushing it?
In general GIVE US SOME ADVICE?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm beating 50nl for 9ptbb/100 atm, over 15k hands. It's not much of a sample, I know, and I am running very hot. But honestly, I am very rarely challenged at 50nl. To answer your question, I think that I crush 50nl because I find that I am rarely put in a situation that I can't handle. Also, I find that I am able to pick holes in my opponents games, get max value, run credible bluffs, and confuse and pressure my opponents and manipulate them into doing what I want. I have developed my game in such a way that I can handle almost anything that a typical 50nl player can throw at me. Of course sometimes I am unpleasantly surprised [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Generally when I play 50nl I feel that I am +EV at any table I choose to sit at. That kind of confidence is new to me and I find it to be (mostly) justified.

I'll address the second part of your post a little later.

[VPIP100]

How come I dont see you at 200NL yet [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]?