The usefulness of Play Money

As I always say "Un chirurgien doit se pratiquer sur des cadavres avant d'opérer des vivants." Which could be translated as "A surgeon must practice on corpses before operate on living people."


This is entirely true and that describe my view on Poker playing. If you needs several hours, months, and years of formation to be able to exercises a craft or a profession. Why it should be otherwise for Online Poker? Poker playing is all about the Money! The level of knowledge of the average poker player is higher than ever. Regular online poker players certainly have hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of play as experience. How can you survive if you jump head first into the shark infested sea of online poker? How can you succeed without losing your shirt?

Since the level of Poker playing is so high right now. I feel that I need to practice, study, and specialize to be any good and profitable at Poker.

My game of choice, as you may know reading this blog, is Heads-Up Fixed Limit Texas Hold' Em Poker. Right now I'm playing (practicing) at Pokerstars (the best place ever to play any kind of poker). I climb the level  How can you expect to be lucrative at the lowest money tables if you can't rules the fake money tables?

I'm currently on a 1,000,000 Play Money Challenge.
I started with the usual 1000 chips given by PokerStars and I will climb my way step by step to the top.

• Only playing Heads-Up Limit Hold' Em on Pokerstars.
• Starting from the buttom of the ladder at 10/20. 
• Playing each game with 20 Big Blinds to the finish.
• Taking a break after losing a game/stack.
• Needing 400 Big Blinds to play at a level.
• Return to the preceding level when I'm not satisfied of my playing.
• Writing everything on paper (stack, number of hours and hands played, level, comments & impressions of the days) after each day. With weekly, monthly, and yearly total.

Discipline, strict money/bankroll management and a lot of hours of practice and hands played.

Here is the required chip bankroll needed to play at each level.

1. 10/20 = 1000 chips
2. 25/50 = 20,000 chips
3. 50/100 = 40,000 chips
4. 100/200 = 80,000 chips
5. 250/500 = 200,000 chips
6. 500/1000 = 400,000 chips
7. 1000/2000 = 800,000 chips

Here above is my can't miss plan to my Heads-Up Limit Hold' Em domination.

What's yours? Do you have a plan?



Deposit $20 and get $20 free to play with at PokerStars

The Evolution of Poker: from Super System to math PhD

Just like any other thing, Poker has evolved. Just look at the following citation to give you an idea of the situation.

"Back in the day when we wrote Rounders, if you'd read Super System you had an edge over 80% of the players in card rooms and 99% in home games. Now that book and books like it are the basic education that every player has, along with their PhD in math or game theory and a few million hands under their belts." 
 -- Screenwriters of Rounders, David Levien and Brian Koppelman


http://www.pokernews.com/news/2013/09/screenwriters-david-levien-and-brian-koppelman-on-runner-run-16240.htm

NASH EQUILIBRIUM Game Theory for Fixed Limit Heads-Up Hold' Em

Transition from No-Limit to Fixed-Limit
Adapting the Nash Equilibrium for Heads-Up LIMIT Hold' Em


Since our concern here isn't Heads-Up No-Limit Texas Hold' Em but Heads-Up Fixed Limit Hold' Em the number of effective BB (Big Blinds) will be different.

On PokerStar the minimum required stack to play

HU NL HE  40 BB

HU FL HE     5 BB

According to this, we need 8 TIMES less money to play Limit Holdem than we need to play No Limit.

So the 20+ BB mentioned above would be reduced to 2.5 + BB in a Fixed Limit game.  Well... ???? I'm not so sure about the correlation between the two.

A more realistic and representative stack is 100 BB in no limit vs. 20 BB in fixed limit as suggested on Pokerstars.

With that being said: 
HU NL HE  20 BB = HU FL HE  4 BB

I have to admit that I feel pretty naked at 4-5 BB.

The following is copy-and-paste general information about the HeadsUp Push/Fold charts and their usage for Heads-Up No-Limit Hold' Em. For the original source, I encourage you to click the links of the source at the end of the explanations. 

Keep in mind that the explanations below were deviced for HU NL HE. So divide the numbers by 5 to give you an idea of what it could be in Heads-Up LIMIT Hold' Em.



General Information

The charts show the Nash Equilibrium solution of the heads-up push-or-fold game. This is a simplified game where the SB is only allowed to go all-in or fold, and the BB can either call or fold when facing a shove.
It is important to keep in mind that this is not the solution for the full game where limps and smaller raises are also available. The push-or-fold solution is generally assumed to be very close to the solution of the full game up to around 8bb. In practice the strategy can likely be used at least until 10bb without being too exploitable.

Usage

The tables show the highest effective stack size in big blinds where a hand can be pushed or called. Values bigger than 20 are only displayed as 20+, which means the hand can be played for any stack size of 20bb or less. (Playing push-or-fold is typically only recommended up to around 10bb, depending on the situation. Using push-or-fold for >20bb is almost certainly a bad idea.)
Some hands have gaps in their pushing strategies, they are marked with * and the details are displayed below the charts. For example 63s is included in the pushing strategy for stack sizes between 7.1 and 5.1bb, and stacks below 2.3bb.

Example

SB (9.0bb): T3s
BB (6.0bb): Q2o
The effective stack size is the smaller of the two, before posting any blinds. So the relevant stack size for both players in this hand is 6.0 big blinds.
To find the strategy for SBs T3s, check the green area (suited hands) of the "Pusher" chart. The value for T3s is 7.7bb, and since that is larger than the current effective stacks the hand is a push in the Nash Equilibrium strategy.
To determine if the BB should call with his Q2o, check the orange area (offsuit hands) of the "Caller" chart and locate Q2o. The value there is 5.6bb. The effective stacks in the current hand are larger than the value for Q2o, so this hand is a fold in the Nash Equilibrium strategy.

http://www.holdemresources.net/h/poker-theory/hune/usage.html
http://www.holdemresources.net/h/poker-theory/hune.html

http://www.thepokerforum.com/joebenik8.htm




I have included the following chart analyzing the game play of Hyperborean and the legendary Polaris.



http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/heads-up-holdem-solved-1379043/index5.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris_(poker_bot)

http://www.computerpokercompetition.org/index.php/competitions/participants/93-participants-2013?showall=&start=1

http://www.headsupsitandgo.com/

Strategy to finish off an opponent

You see, when you have a big chip lead in heads-up
action, the first secret is YOU MUST ATTACK.

To get a perspective on this, think about how you
play when you're the SHORT STACK...

You're prepared to go all-in as soon as possible,
right?

Well, you must use this to your ADVANTAGE when
you're the big stack, and PUT YOUR OPPONENT ALL-IN
right away... rather than the other way around.

When you have a big chip lead, YOU must be the one
to create "coin-toss" situations... and fast.

A coin-toss situation is when both players have
virtually equal odds... and the winning hand is
determined by whatever the flop, turn, and river
cards are.

In heads-up poker, any starting hand with a FACE
CARD is playable. Or any pocket pair. It's that
simple.

If you've got a big chip lead on your opponent and
he CHECKS or LIMPS-IN (calls the blinds), then you
should IMMEDIATELY put him all-in.

He wouldn't be checking or limping-in if he had
ANYTHING DECENT at all...

If he folds, you've stolen the blinds from him,
which is crucial. If he calls, you've created a
"coin-toss" situation.

Odds are you'll win at least one out of every two
coin toss situations. Or at the very least, you'll
win one out of three.



Push or Fold:

Ax  Kx
Qx  Jx
T8  T7s
98s
22+

(103/169 = 60.95%)


Here's a basic summary of the "rules" you should
follow when playing heads-up poker with a huge
chip lead. When I say "huge", I'm talking about
10 to 1 or more...

And that's the exact moment when you MUST PULL THE
TRIGGER AND WIN THE GAME.

If you don't, the chip stacks can quickly even out
again and you may lose your chance forever.

Anyway... here are the RULES you should follow with a huge chip lead (10 to 1 or more):

1. Any starting hand with a face card or any pocket
pair is good.

2. You should either FOLD or go ALL-IN every time.
Nothing else.

3. Force COIN-TOSS situations... In other words,
leverage the 50/50 ODDS as much as possible. Do
this two or three times and you will almost always
win the match.

4. If you're playing against a tight player, it
will be even easier. Keep going all-in on just
about every hand and let the blinds eat him to
death.

Read and re-read those four principles and you'll
be prepared the next time you make it to a
heads-up match.


Push or Fold:

Ax  Kx
Qx  Jx
T8  T7s
98s
22+

(103/169 = 60.95%)


50/50 ODDS means:

Ax  Kx
Q5  Qxs
J7  J5s
T8  T7s
98s
22+

(91/169 = 53.85%)


> 50% odds are:

Ax  Kx
Q6  Q3s
J8   J6s
T9  T7s
98s
33+

(86/169 = 51% of hands)

http://www.cardschat.com/f11/how-beat-short-stack-heads-up-61283/
http://www.thepokerforum.com/joebenik8.htm

http://books.google.ca/books?id=ix4HeDVvgIYC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=finish+a+short+stacked+opponent+in+heads+up&source=bl&ots=DMnInk7bxP&sig=WSx8q9SQBDv0GZsSn6FvbVNvtBs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VnR-U-KRCOqH8AHhjoDABw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=finish%20a%20short%20stacked%20opponent%20in%20heads%20up&f=false

Loose Aggressive Unpredictable

LOOSE

AGGRESSIVE

UNPREDICTABLE






The three cornerstones that must be part of your game. You must play:

Loose – Always pre-flop and usually post-flop against the majority of opponents.
Aggressively – You need to play with frequent (but not mindless) aggression.
Unpredictably – Against all but the very worst opponents.

Get these three things right and you have the core of a good heads-up game.


http://www.internettexasholdem.com/?Itemid=766