Universal Elements

Question 1

What is the difference between A, B, and C-game?

Answer 1

A-game is when you’re playing your best and feeling your best. B-game is everything between A and C-game, it’s not your best and it’s not your worse. C- game is anytime you know you have played badly.

Question 2

Explain the idea of lopping off your C-game.

Answer 2

Lopping off your C-game is when you continuously improve your A-game so that over time, your C-game (worse game) is not as bad as it once was. As well as thinking of situations that may be more conducive to C-game play such as tilt or fatigue, and how you would/should play in those situations, if at all.

Question 3

When you are winning, and you reach a point in the session when the happiness you will gain by winning more money will be much less than the pain you will endure if you lose, what should you do?

Answer 3

QUIT

Question 4

How do you build up the skill of quitting-well when you are stuck?

Answer 4

Take a lot of breaks. If you take a lot of breaks, and you do it the same whether you’re ahead or behind, whether you feel steady and stable or tilted and toppling, then you will build up quitting strength much more quickly than if you think of quitting as something that happens only once per session. There is money to be made when you quit well and your opponents don’t.

Question 5

What is the difference between sets, sessions, and breaks?

Answer 5

Sets are the amount of time between sitting down and standing up and is typically an hour long. Give or take a little is fine but a set longer than two hours is never fine.

A session is a group of sets in time. Long sessions are fine as long as you are fine and are done in sets.

Breaks are the time in between sets. Use breaks to remove yourself both physically AND mentally from the game. Practice taking many breaks.

Question 6

What is reciprocality?

Answer 6

Any difference between you and your opponents that affects your bottom line. From food selection to hand selection.

Question 7

Why is it that you can make money by managing your bankroll better than your opponents?

Answer 7

Because players usually don’t play well when they are low on money; most play best when they have no financial worries. Reciprocality.

Question 8

How big should your bankroll be?

Answer 8

About 10 times your normal big loss.

Question 9

How does your level of play when you are stuck, affect the amount of money you should take to the poker room?

Answer 9

if you play well when you are stuck, you should take way more money than you think you will need. If you play really bad after you get stuck beyond a certain amount, then you should only take that amount.

Question 10

When you need some advice about a poker decision, who should you ask?

Answer 10

“The Professional.”

The Professional is immortal, unless he goes broke, in which case, he dies. If he takes a job, he dies. If he takes a loan, he dies. If he takes a gift, he dies. If he in any way acquires money that did not pass through a poker pot, he dies. These conditions cause The Professional to see every decision as a poker decision. The Professional is all meta-game, all the time.

Question 11

When calculating your poker earnings, what must you be sure to include?

Answer 11

Your expenses, i.e. tips and rake in order to figure out your true earnings.

Question 12

Imagine that a line extends from each live hand to the pot. A line also extends from you to whoever you are talking to. How do you decide whether it is ok to continue talking?

Answer 12

If your talking line intersects any of the live hand lines, stop talking immediately. Also, never talk to someone who has a live hand.

Question 13

Explain the concept of giving protection to other players.

Answer 13

You give protection to other players by not acting out of turn in any way; movements, speech, action.

Question 14

What is the definition of tilt?

Answer 14

Any deviation from your A-game or A-mindset, however slight or fleeting.

Question 15

What are the three dimensions of tilt and what questions do they pose?

Answer 15

Frequency - How often do you deviate from your A-game?

Duration - How long does it last?

Depth - How far below your A-game do you go?

Question 16

What are the three big causes of soft tilt (tilt not caused by an emotional reaction to the cards or players)?

Answer 16

Fatigue, running low on money, and distraction.

Question 17

What is Betting Reciprocality?

Answer 17

Betting reciprocality is the difference between your betting decisions – raise, bet, call, check, and fold – and theirs.

Question 18

How do you create a Position Reciprocality advantage?

Answer 18

By acting last more often than your opponents, i.e. folding more when OOP.

Question 19

What is the worst position at the table?

Answer 19

The Small Blind, even with the discounted price because you are paying to act before everybody else.

Question 20

What are the negatives to playing suited/connected hands OOP?

Answer 20

It costs more to draw to hands OOP and when the draw does get there, you earn less on average.

Question 21

What does it mean to be gobsmacked in a poker hand?

Answer 21

It’s when something happens to you that you weren’t ready for, and you needed to be.

Question 22

What does it mean to make an anticipation mistake?

Answer 22

Whenever your opponent(s) takes an action that catches you by surprise, you made an anticipation mistake. Aim to be ready for everything.

Question 23

What is the worst anticipation mistake you can make?

Answer 23

In a headsup pot, when you bet or raise, your opponent can only fold, call, or raise. If he folds, your next betting decision is not until the next hand. If he calls, your next betting decision is not until the next street. If he raises – and only if he raises – you must act now. That is why, when you bet or raise, there is strategically nothing to anticipate except a raise, and therefore, if you have not anticipated a raise, you not only made a mistake, you made the only mistake possible.

Question 24

A good ___________ foresees all pertinent paths without attaching to any of them.

Answer 24

Anticipator

Question 25

What is the optimal seating position in regards to tight/loose players sitting in relation to you?

Answer 25

If you have two tight players to your left, it doesn’t matter where the live players are because if the tight players fold, you can get the button from the hijack, the cutoff and keep your own button which means the loose player(s) will always act before you.

Seat selection is a perpetual process. When a seat comes open in your game and you don’t change seats, you are choosing to stay in the seat you are in. You just made another seat selection decision.

You don’t want to be directly in front of the live player because you lose a lot of your positional advantage.

Question 26

If you enter a game and there is a row of open seats in front of the live player, which seat should you take?

Answer 26

The furthest one from the live player, that way when the next player joins, the number of hands you act after the live player doubles.

Question 27

One common word:

You are not ________ to play bad just because they are playing bad. You are not ________ to tilt on the grounds that anyone would tilt after the terrible luck you’ve had. You are not ________ to play a marginal hand as a reward for folding correctly before the flop many times in a row. You are not ________ to call all the way when you know you are beat, just because you have a big pair in the hole. And no matter how good you play, or how bad they play, you are not ________ to win. If you have time and money, you are ________ to a seat at the table. That is all.

Answer 27

ENTITLED

Question 28

The Professional does not run ____ or run ___. He does not pleasure himself or torture himself with arbitrary time frames and accounting. He just plays.

Answer 28

GOOD, BAD

Question 29

What are the two main reasons that high stakes games are tougher than low stakes games?

Answer 29

The players adapt faster, and when they tilt, they recover faster. In order to be better than the rest, you need to adapt faster and recover faster than they do.

Question 30

What must you remember about streaks?

Answer 30

They don’t exist…they are all in your mind; either in the past or the future. All that exists is the present hand you are playing.