Poker MIT - Lecture One
Poker MIT - Lecture One
Poker MIT - Lecture One
S50 LECTURE 1
Monday, January 14th, 2013
Day
Speaker
Location
Will Ma
10 - 250
Will Ma
10 - 250
Bill Chen
10 - 250
Jennifer Shahade
32 - 123
Matt Hawrilenko
32 - 123
E62 - 276
E62 - 276
Charles Nesson
E62 - 276
Tournaments
Cash Games
Goal is to survive
Goal is to kill
More variance
Less variance
Fun?
Work?
Fixed situations
GRADING: PASS/FAIL
Pass / Fail. I have set up a private home league
for MIT 15.S50, on Pokerstars. To pass, you
need to attend at least 6 out of 8 lectures and
accumulate 10 points playing online poker
tournaments in the league.
If you took the class last year, instead of the
lecture attendance requirement, you are required
to accumulate 20 points while achieving at least
1.00 PPG (points per game) at the end.
There are no PSets or Exams.
DONT WORRY
SOCIAL EXPERIENCE
You can click "Standings" in Pokerstars to see
how you are doing.
I hope that this casually competitive league is an
enjoyable social experience for the whole class.
I hope no one is uncomfortable about their results
being public.
I hope you end up meeting your online opponents
in real life.
This is why I will make sure to ask for peoples
names in class! So that you can find them the
next day and say, Wow you make a sick bluff
against me!
LISTENER?
I encourage you to register for the class (no extra
work if you were already going to play anyway).
If you are NOT registered for the class (or have
dropped the class) but DO play in the online
league, please send me an email explaining your
situation
ATTENDANCE TRACKING
Aguilar Fitzcheung: Chris
Fu Lee : Hellen
Li Shoyombo : Eric
Shrestha Zhao : Swati
PRE-FLOP PLAY
Min{ your stack size, Max {stack sizes of players who havent yet folded} }
NAMES OF POSITIONS
Going all-in here is reasonable even though we have 21BB, since we are
only wagering up to 12.5BB (the Big Blinds stack size).
Sure, we could have wagered our entire 21BB vs. UTG+1 or UTG+2
making it too much to all-in, but UTG+1 and UTG+2 have already folded.
Even though Lojack has 16BBs, his all-in is acceptable, since he is only
wagering more than 15BBs against one person (the Button).
However, I would still say his Effective Stack Size is 16BB.
UNDERSTANDING EQUITY
The probability that you win the pot at
showdown, assuming no player folds.
Its an expectation over two (mostly independent)
probability distributions:
HIJACK (3 TO BUTTON)
SMALL BLIND
Lets compare opening from the small blind to
opening from the button.
Opening from the small blind, you have to get
through one fewer person
You also have to wager less to raise, since half a
bet has automatically been put in already.
However, you are out of position.
All in all, these factors balance out and you can
open the same range from the small blind as you
would from the button.
The fact that you are out of position hurts less
and less as stacks get shallower.
ALL-INS
However, the % of hands you can all-in from the
Small Blind is vastly different than the % of
hands you can all-in from the Button, when you
have less than 15BB.
In fact, when its folded to you in the Small Blind,
it can often be a good strategy to shove as much
as 20BB, just to avoid playing out of position.
ANTES
An extra small bet that EACH player must put
into the pot EACH hand; these sum to around a
big blind
Come in during the later stages of a tournament;
inexistent in cash games
This gives you SO much more incentive to try to
steal the blinds, since now essentially
EVERYONE posted a blind
Dont think of antes in the pot as just the blinds
are bigger, since you dont have to raise (and
risk) any bigger to steal the blinds
PREFLOP ALL-INS
Assume that there are antes now!
This is reasonable since usually all-in situations
only arise in the later stages of tournaments, by
which antes have come in
When you are at 15BB, go all-in with exactly the
set of hands you would open (this is not a good
approximation, but it will have to do for now).
As your stack gets smaller, you increase the % of
hands with which you go all-inbut the increase
is slow until you get as low as the 5BB areawe
will look at this more in a future lecture.
QQ vs AJo: 71.7%
QQ vs AJs: 68%
QQ vs AQs: 65.7%
88 vs A2o: 70.2%
33 vs A2o: 68.8%
A>B>C>D
AB vs CD: 60/40
AKs vs 76s: 61.1%
AKo vs Q7o: 67.7%
AC vs BD: 60/40
AD vs BC: 60/40
15BB: 6.2%
10BB: 13.4%
5BB: 33.3%
10BB: 28%
5BB: 50.4%
AND THIS
AND THIS
ANALYSIS
Need to call ~8BB to win a total pot of ~22.5BB
(10+10+1+0.5+1)
Only need 36% equity
You definitely have this with ATcc, so youre
basically committed
Your equity against 66+,AJ+,KQ is 39%
(Pokerstove)
THE POINT?
ANALYSIS
Need to call ~ 17BB to win a total pot of ~ 40.5BB
(19+19+1+0.5+1)
Need 42% equity
You definitely dont have this, so you can escape
and fold
RE-RAISE SIZING
DISASTER!
CALLING ALL-INS
COOL FACTS
ANSWER
COOL FACTS
ANSWER
COOL FACTS
ANSWER