Take The Three Days To Better Holdem Challenge

One of my best students a while back asked me for more homework. Yes, you heard me right, more homework. With an attitude like that it's no surprise that his bankroll is climbing steadily every week and he has run into very few problems he can't deal with. I was on my way out of town for three days, and the poor guy has ADD, so I knew I had to keep him busy or he would get bored and do something foolish with his bankroll. I came up with three days worth of work that turned out to be a great learning experience not only for him, but for me as well. It's an exercise I still use for myself on occasion, and one I have given to many of my intermediate students since.

I hope this little exercise does you some good, to be honest, I think it's pretty hard to go through it and not learn a little something. Remember throughout the three days that you aren't necessarily going to make money during this exercise. It's about spending a couple of days improving your game for the long haul, so you should play at limits that you can easily afford. However, you should also play somewhere within reach of your usual limits, and at games that are fairly typical, so that you gain information that is useful in the games you normally play. Switch tables a few times over the course of the day as well, so that you can see the effects of what you're doing on different table compositions and opponents.

Day 1 --

Today you will not call a single bet. Whether you have the perfect flush draw and the obviously correct play seems to be to call with a field of three opponents or you're in great position to slow play you still won't call. You may only raise or fold. After a few hours of this you will notice the effect it has on your opponents. They will be wary of you, giving you your draws for free more frequently and many of them will avoid playing pots with you. This will make for easier folds against some of your opponents because you will know if they are in a pot with you that they have a real hand.

At the end of this exercise you should be more comfortable with ratcheting your game up into high gear when necessary, and you will be equally at ease with slamming on the brakes in the middle of a hand. Your opponents however will not be comfortable at all. When you add the ability to call bets on occasion back in to your game you will have it firmly in your head that calling is the last option you should consider, and you will only call a bet when it is obviously the best choice.

Day 2 --

Today you are tight. Not tight like folding a suited Ace in middle position but tight like a clenched fist. You will not defend your blinds without a serious hand. You will play only AA, KK, and QQ in the first few positions. In late position you may go down to 99 or AQ if no one is in the pot before you. You won't play AJ at all unless it's for free in the big blind, same thing with 88. You will not call a raise with anything but AA or KK, and you will let AK go to a raise whether it's suited or not. Get comfortable; you're going to be folding some hands, so you might as well watch your opponents in preparation for Day 3. You will find your opponents once again fear you. Some of the more observant ones may comment on how tight you are right away.

It may surprise you if you are usually a fairly loose player, but you will probably make money today even though you won't play very many hands. If you are playing online and tracking your stats you should playing less than ten percent of your hands, maybe as few as 5%. By the end of the day you will be more patient than before, and you will have a better understanding of the value of tight play. Hopefully you will be more selective with your starting hands for the rest of your poker career.

Day 3 --

You will be best off for today if your playing style is a combination of the past two exercises, but today isn't about playing style at all. For today, you will keep perfect notes on your opponents. Your play will be based entirely on what you know about your opponents. Your bluffs, your value bets, and your tough folds will be based entirely on who is in the pot with you and what you have observed about them.

If you are at a brick and mortar game you will keep mental notes of every opponent at the table. You aren't there to play poker, although you are doing that as well. You are at the table only to observe your opponents; a people watching exhibition, if you will. You will form a picture of how each player plays, what they do in certain situations, and why they do it. Your task will be easier if you try to form an understanding of who each opponent is and why they do the things they do rather than remember hundreds of specific situations.

If you are playing online you will play only one table at a time and you will have the notes box for each player open next their seat at all times. Just leave the boxes open and enter in information as you notice it. You should be entering information on at least one opponent on every hand, and soon after a player sits down you should have a good idea as to what kind of player they are. Are they tight or loose, passive or aggressive, tricky or straight forward, and are they paying attention to the other people at the table or are they simply playing their own cards?

By the end of this exercise you should be able to bluff raise profitably against certain players, and throw away top pair easily against others. You will know when to scare opponents off, and you won't make the common mistake of trying to bluff the calling station. Your opponents will have many different ideas about you because you will play differently against each of them. The calling station will see you as being very aggressive, while the tricky player will be afraid of you because his tricks will usually fail. The only players who will know anything about you will be the other players who are as observant as you are, and even those players will know that you are not to be toyed with.

Putting it all together -- Once you have been through all three exercises, think about how you felt during each one. If one of them was easier for you than the others that should give you an indication of where your strength is, and that style is likely to be the best place for you to make money. If one of the exercises was particularly hard for you, think about why. It may be a part of your game that you have neglected. If you can find the place where you excel and improve a part of your game that is weak, accomplishing both in three days, then the exercise is well worth your time.

Take The Three Days to Better Holdem was written by Chris "Fox" Wallace and is a valuable lesson in the strategies and techniques outlined in the Free poker lessons found at www.getpokerskills.com

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