World Class Poker Professional , Jonathan Little, addresses some of the most common thing Poker Players are struggling with.

• 3-Way flops
• 6 Handed Play
• Basic Tournament Strategy
• Beginner’s Book
• Big Blind Antes
• Bubbling
• Cash Games
• Deep Stacked
• Efforts are not Paying Off
• Finish Tournaments
• How can I grow my Backroll
• How to play when players fold too often
• Keeping my Chipstack
• Mental Game
• Overbets
• No-Limit with a max bet
• Patience
• Play too Loosely
• Reading People
• Sit N’ Goes
• Strong Players
• Tilt – when I lose with a Good Hand
• Too Impatient – Push Too Much to Early
• When to Play Flips

Have something you are struggling with, send an email to support@pokercoaching.com and we’ll see if we can help.

Deep Stacked

Hello Jonathan. in one of your First group webinars pokercoaching.com sb limp strategies deep stacked you talk about limp strategies from sb when deep stacked. Limp fold limp Call limp raise.  But what is deep stacked. ? Until which effektive stack size can I use the ranges?

There is no clear definition, but likely something like 50 big blinds or more.

Big Blind Antes

I’d be really interested in your thoughts about the play with Button Ante/BB Ante – how does this change your game and what you’d suggest to adjust?

If there is no video or article yet I’d really love it if you can share your ideas with us about that topic!!

It doesn’t change much of anything besides the amount that is in the pot, just as it changes when there are fewer players at the table. Also, when you are super short, you should be a bit more aggressive, but really, it simply does not matter.

It doesn’t matter who paid the ante. That money is dead. All that matters is how much money is in the pot before the action gets to you.

Cash Games

Appreciate if you can direct me to all relevant materials/products related to cash games?

Beginner’s Book

I’ve played Texas Hold’em maybe a dozen times over the past decade, so I’m almost a complete novice.

I was looking for a good beginner’s book to learn from and Annie Duke recommended yours.

How to play when players fold too often

In Vegas I scoped the 2-5, sat down briefly, but found everyone sitting on their chips…raise and all fold.. raise,1 caller, continuation bet, fold
So, I go to the 1-3 and raise $20 getting 3 or 4 callers and that’s where I play. So how/why do I move up if this is typical?

It sounds like you found a much more difficult game than you are used to. If everyone folds too often, you make small amounts of money each time you raise and then they fold. I used to make about $150/hr by playing $10/$20 in a super tight game. I would raise and either pick it up preflop or get one caller, and would then win more than my fair share of the small pots postflop. That is actually great, because there is no variance. No variance is sweet!

3 Way Flops

Navigating 3 way pots post flop

6 Handed Play

My issue now, is that I’m playing on a site which features a lot of 6 person tables. I am having trouble putting my opponents on ranges when there are only 4-6 players. It seems like I’m either folding way too much, bluffing way too much, or making bad calls based off of bad reads.

If I play at a full ring game, I can still do some work, but for some reason, the short-handed games are causing me to break even, slowly leak out money, or drastically go up and down. It’s like I’m shooting in the dark, often times because the UTG position is also the Button… what do I do, or how should I treat that?

I feel like the right play is to tighten up, but there’s so many spots in small stakes that you can capitalize on and exploit, it makes it hard to fold that much.

Basic Tournament Strategy

What are some basic game strategy you come into for these tournaments?

Also another problem I have is I just don’t believe a lot of peoples hands strength, I get into trouble by betting into them because I don’t wanna give up my position.

I approach tournaments using a fundamentally sound GTO strategy and then adjust to take advantage of the mistakes I see my opponents making.

As for not believing your opponents have reasonable ranges, you should play fundamentally sound until your opponents prove their ranges do not contain enough bluffs, or perhaps you should initially assume that if your player pool does not bluff often enough. Good luck!

Jonathan Little

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Bubbling

I continue to bubble/approx bubble big $ tourneys. Regardless of field size it seems to happen quite often.

A lot of people have told me that means I’m really good, but I see it as the opposite. Any tips on how to avoid that or perhaps you know why it keeps happening ? (Ie. playing too much to finish ITM vs to win?)

You should rarely be bubbling unless you have a decently large stack and are pushing around the other large stacks. It likely means you are playing too tightly, or too manically. You should be happy to approach the bubble with a decent amount of chips or be out most of the time.

That said, if you have a short stack near the bubble, the highest EV play is to ensure you get in the money as opposed to going for the win.

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Efforts are not Paying Off

Finish Tournaments

I’m struggling to finish tournaments strong I tend to fizzle out towards the end and really would like coaching

This often happens for one of two reasons. The first is you may be playing too tightly, making it difficult for you to get ahold of chips. If you find that you are often one of the short stacks, it is probably for this reason.

Alternatively, you may be playing way too aggressively, resulting in you paying off the tight players or short stacks unnecessarily.

It is also worth noting that it is simply tough to win a tournament. When there are 25 players remaining, you are 1 in 25 if you are break even, and perhaps 1 in 15 if you are world-class. That isn’t too often!

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How can I grow my Bankroll?

I have a very small bank roll (under $50) and I want to get to the point were I can make a living playing poker. I have been playing $1 sit and gos on 888 and I have been doing well though ever since I started doing the pokercoaching.com quizzes I have been overthinking everything. I am so much better than my opponents, but I keep tripping myself up to the point now were I am royally confused and don’t know how to win at $1 sit and gos any more.

This is not me complaining about the quizzes, honestly, I love them and have started playing them for hours every day and will continue to till they are ingrained into my head, I just dont know how to adjust to actually build a bank roll to win at $1 sit and gos and its so demoralizing.

Keeping my Chipstack

Mental Game

No Limit with a Max Bet

My local (Colorado) casinos have a Gov’t imposed maximum bet limit of $100. The casinos host both NL $1-$3 and NL $2-$5 games. The rules are that no bet/raise can be > $100. For example if player A bets $25 then player B can raise to $125 and player C can then re-reaise to $225.

Do you recommend playing in a game with a $100 raise limitation? If yes, what strategies should I study to be positioned to beat this game?

I do not. Spread-limit games are not common at all anymore and therefore I have not studied them. I imagine they mostly play like no-limit except you will often be getting better odds with your draws due to people betting only $100 into a $500 pot. Sorry I can’t be more help!

Overbets

My biggest problems are dealing with overbets, and playing shorthanded in cash games (like when it’s down to 3 or 4 players towards the end of the night). Thanks for asking!

Dealing with overbets is an interesting topic because it depends on the opponent’s strategy. If the opponent plays perfect GTO poker, you should defend at the minimum defense frequency, which is 1-(their bet/size of the pot after the bet), so if they bet $100 into a $50 pot, it is 1-(100/150) = .33, meaning you should call with 33% of your range.

That said, many players use overbets only for value or only as a bluff. In small stakes games, I imagine most overbets will be for extreme value, allowing you to fold more often than the minimum defense frequency. I personally use overbets way more than I “should” as a bluff because people tend to fold too often, making the bluffs quite profitable.

As for playing short handed, it is the same as playing at a full table. Your cutoff range 4-handed should be essentially the same as when you are playing 9-handed. That said, many players drastically over-compensate because they think they have to “gamble” more short handed, which is simply not true. If you are playing with lunatics, you can be somewhat patient while still giving a bit of action, resulting in most of the big pots being shipped your direction.

What I’m honestly struggling with in poker the most is patience. I’m working daily on the habit of getting better and only playing the right cards in the right position at the right time (my best of knowledge) and have most definitely improved my mental game but this is honestly where I have the biggest issues and taking my biggest losses where I see a large pot and not realizing if I’m out of position or against bigger stacks I’ll commit with a mediocre pair or suited connectors not factoring that I’d be in early position after or against a stack that would leave me empty or other factors I should think through before making a move.

It sounds like you simply must learned to be disciplined. This takes practice and determination. Know that you will fail at pretty much everything if you do not make good decisions. Lacking patience ensures you consistent make bad decisions.

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Reading People

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Sit N’ Goes

I was wondering what tutorials you have for Sit N Goes? I’m mainly a tournament player (and have a lot of your products) but have recently decided to play some sit n goes to build up a bankroll for those tournaments. From what I understand sit n goes are a little bit different when only the top 3 get paid and the goal is to win but Im assuming shoving spots are different than MTT which I usually play. Are there any videos I can watch or suggestions?

Strong Players

I struggle putting strong players on a hand. It seems they bet with anything and it can be quite expensive to feel them out. This forces me to play sub optimally just to avoid them.  It works out fine in low stakes but kills me in the larger events.