Poker IQ test

[noble007]

At www.donkeytest.com there is a free high stakes poker IQ test, which is actually pretty good.

I did pretty crap & got 102, but Greenplastic (I got the link of his blog) was like 140 something...
I would be interested to see how some of the higher stakes players here do.
As for myself it said my positional play & medium to low pair play was good.
But that my high pair, blind play & pot odds stuff was bad.

The reason I put here is because we all posts hands where we had to make marginal or tough decisions & alot of the questions they put together are really marginal & it would really help me to understand where I went wrong.

I'll start with 2 of the earlier questions in the test. (Is this copyright infringement??)


2. 5/10 NL. 9 handed. A good mix of aggressive and passive players, 3 poor players and 4 pros. 2 players are new to the table and have only played a few hands. You're UTG with: KJ offsuit

What should you do?
A)Fold
B)Call
C)Raise
D)Raise 1/3, fold 1/3, call 1/3
E)Raise 50%, fold 50%
F)Raise 80%, call 20%

3. 25/50 NL. 9 Handed. You're on the button with: 10 10

A tight aggressive player in middle position raises to $200. You choose to call on the button, and relatively tight short stack with $1,500 in the big blind pushes all-in. You've seen him do this only with big pairs and AK or AQ so far.

The middle position player thinks and folds. What should you do?

A)Fold
B)Call

4. Tournament. Blinds are 200-400 with 50 antes. You have 4,000 chips. 9 Players. Everyone has you covered.

UTG limps in. You've seen him limp in early often, and many times fold to a raise. Seat three limps. Button limps.

You are in the SB and have: A8 offsuit

What do you do?
A)Push all-in
B)Fold
C)Call
D)Raise to between 1500 and 2500

My answers were

Q.2 b)fold KJ offsuit UTG 9 handed
Q3. b)fold
Q4. a)push all in

I would be interested if any your answers were different, I will post more questions tomorrow, trust me they get a bit harder. (Well 4 me anyway)

[gabe]

fold
call
fold

i got a 138. there was a thread in the community forum about this test.

[griffey24]

fold
call
fold

i got a 138. there was a thread in the community forum about this test.

why call the 1010 hand if we're at best a coin flip?
why fold the A8 hand?

I had the same answers as you noble.

[gabe]

call TT because of pot odds

fold the A8 because we know nothing about the limpers behind (seat 3 and the button)

[noble007]

Thanks for the clarification gabe, I checked out the other thread you mentioned but they didn't analyse any of the hands.

[cjs55]

I know I'm not a good tournament player...but damn.

"Your Tournament Play score of 12% is significantly lower than your average score.This score is better than 0.68% of all persons taking this test."

I still got a 101. If you take that category out of the equation I did well, so at least I can be sorta happy with my ring game play. And I don't think I'm THAT bad of a tournament player. I mean, Wow. No more tournies for me.

Looking at one of the questions now...

With the TT pot odds really justify it?

I'm not a great player so maybe I'm just bad doing these calculations.

you're calling 1300 to win 3275 if I'm doing this right.

if say half of the time you're 20%, and half of the time you're a little better than 50%.

20% of 3275 is about 650, so -650 ev.
a little over 50% of 3275 is 1700, so +400 ev.

That doesn't look very good to me.

[nutsinho]

I got a 134

[benny999]

I know I'm not a good tournament player...but damn.

"Your Tournament Play score of 12% is significantly lower than your average score.This score is better than 0.68% of all persons taking this test."

I still got a 101. If you take that category out of the equation I did well, so at least I can be sorta happy with my ring game play. And I don't think I'm THAT bad of a tournament player. I mean, Wow. No more tournies for me.

Looking at one of the questions now...

With the TT pot odds really justify it?

I'm not a great player so maybe I'm just bad doing these calculations.

you're calling 1300 to win 3275 if I'm doing this right.

if say half of the time you're 20%, and half of the time you're a little better than 50%.

20% of 3275 is about 650, so -650 ev.
a little over 50% of 3275 is 1700, so +400 ev.

That doesn't look very good to me.

you gotta weight it to AK/AQ more, because there are more ways to make those hands then there is for a pocket pair.
I dunno exactly how many more combos there are, but pokerstove says TT is 40% vs a range of AQ+,TT+

[elipsesjeff]

4 is a pretty easy push.

[noble007]

Nice score nutsinho
It said I played over pairs bad, here i called all in but is it better to fold.

11. 5/10 NL Cash game. 9 handed. Everyone has about $1,200. UTG raises to $50 and gets two calls from solid tight aggressive players.

You are in the BB with:
KK

You re-raise to $250 and get three callers.
Flop is: Qd, 8c, 3h
You bet $300 on the flop. UTG player calls and a middle position player moves all in for $750 more. What should you do?

Call all-in
Fold

[griffey24]

Can someone help me figure out the thought process of this hand. I completely stalled on it:

Tournament. Blinds are 300-600 with 75 antes. 9 handed.

SB is a well known tourney pro and has 60,000 chips. A weak tight player UTG with 100,000 chips limps and SB completes. Big blind with 12,000 chips checks.

Flop:


Blinds to UTG who bets 3,000. SB calls and the BB min check raises to 6,000. UTG min re-raises to 12,000. After long consideration SB calls, and the big blind calls all-in.

Turn:


SB checks. UTG checks.

River:


SB bets 10,000 into the 40,000 chip pot. UTG quickly calls. What did all three players hold?

SB had AA, UTG has a flush draw, and BB holds a set.
SB had a draw, BB had two pair on the flop, and UTG has AA.
SB had a set, BB has 99+, and UTG has flush draw.
SB had two pair on the flop, BB has a draw, UTG has A8.

[Ash256]

131

[griffey24]

Nice score nutsinho
It said I played over pairs bad, here i called all in but is it better to fold.

11. 5/10 NL Cash game. 9 handed. Everyone has about $1,200. UTG raises to $50 and gets two calls from solid tight aggressive players.

You are in the BB with:
KK

You re-raise to $250 and get three callers.
Flop is:
You bet $300 on the flop. UTG player calls and a middle position player moves all in for $750 more. What should you do?

Call all-in
Fold

You didn't show the cards on the flop, but I remember it being Q high.

I also called all-in. I don't think you can fold here cause of potodds.

You are calling $750 into a huge $1900 pot, so you only have to win this 28% of the time. I think we see AQ often enough to make this call. I'm not too worried about UTG, I think we're ahead of his range.

[Numbr2intheWorld]

Can someone help me figure out the thought process of this hand.

SB had AA, UTG has a flush draw, and BB holds a set.
SB had a draw, BB had two pair on the flop, and UTG has AA.
SB had a set, BB has 99+, and UTG has flush draw.
SB had two pair on the flop, BB has a draw, UTG has A8.

SB had a draw, BB had two pair on flop, UTG has AA.

4 is a pretty easy push.

yes, i think so too.

[noble007]

Thanks griffey, in response to the hand you posted, someone better like Gabe may point out where I went wrong but I just looked at those options mainly from the point of view of the sb - the good tourney player.

1)SB had AA, UTG has a flush draw, and BB holds a set.
2)SB had a draw, BB had two pair on the flop, and UTG has AA.
3)SB had a set, BB has 99+, and UTG has flush draw.
4)SB had two pair on the flop, BB has a draw, UTG has A8.

1)Even pre-flop we can deduce that the sb probably didn't limp AA from the sb for obv reasons so 1 is out. (oop, 1 limper, bb gets to see free flop.)
3)Sb had a set is unlikely as he acted like a calling station on the flop which indicates a draw & if he had a set he would have bet the turn for sure
4)Sb had 2 pair is a bit closer, but again he would probably figure he is ahead of utg & raise him on the flop or turn not when a draw card hit.

So that leaves the only option as
2) SB has a draw which is exactly in line with how he played the hand, then moving on BB had 2 pair which also makes sense given his raising on the flop & getting all in, then UTG had AA which tight players often do in tourneys hoping for a raise behind them & given him being weak & the action on the flop he thought he might be beat & just wanted to see a cheap showdown & was willing to call any reasonable bet on river to see if his rockets were good.

[griffey24]

Can someone help me figure out the thought process of this hand.

SB had AA, UTG has a flush draw, and BB holds a set.
SB had a draw, BB had two pair on the flop, and UTG has AA.
SB had a set, BB has 99+, and UTG has flush draw.
SB had two pair on the flop, BB has a draw, UTG has A8.

SB had a draw, BB had two pair on flop, UTG has AA.

I am assuming that we can rule out option 1 and option 3 cause we would expect a raise from SB with AA in the blinds, and a raise from BB with 99+ in the blinds.

If utg is weak tight then we can assume that he wouldn't bet and 3-bet only A8 on the flop, so that rules out 4?

So the only possible option is 2? Is this the thought process that people are generally making to come to an answer on these kinds of things, or am I way off here? thanks!

Noble - sorry for hijacking!

[jackvance]

Agreed with Griffey's analysis.

[thinkinbig]

This my 1st FTR post after one year as a lurker. This forum has helped me greatly, and I will introduce myself this weekend.
My answers (which i believe are correct, btw, are, in order:
Q2 A. fold
Q3 B. fold
Q4 D.raise to between 1500 and 2500

Q2 - At the level I play at, I would limp this hand here and see what develops. I would then play very cautiously unless I caught 2 pr or better. i wouldnt commit too much to hitting my pair in a contested pot.
Against 4 pros, however, I'm definitely gonna fold this hand OOP.

Q3 - The pot odds do NOT justify calling here, although the math is too complicated to compute precisely at the table, it is an intuitive fold for me.
We are gonna be paying 1300 to win a 1925 pot (SB25, MP200, BB 1500, and our 200). that is 67 1/2% or about 1 1/2 to 1. If we assume his range includes AA, KK, QQ, that is 18 hands at 20% probability; his range also includes AK & AQ - 36 hands at about a 52% probablility. This converts to a weighted 40% win rate. If we plug in a 10% Harrington bluff factor, we can still only expect to win roughly 50% of the time, so we would need about 2 to 1 to make calling a valid option. Am i right?

Q3. D I'm only 10BB here and at the next raise of the blinds, I'm in deep trouble! It is time to take action and this is an excellent hand and position for what Raymer calls the stop-and-go play. With all limpers and only the BB yet to act, there is a reasonable chance I could win at showdown, but my goal is to take down the 2050 of dead money in the pot an increase my chip stack by 50%. An all-in has a strong chance of being picked off by a strong hand or a big stack sniper with a small or medium pair. I'm gonna raise about 4 1/2 BB or about 1750. My OOP raise has got to be respected, but if it gets called, I'm pushing my remaining 2250 chips in regardless of what flops, representing AA or KK, while my stack is big enough to get even a good hand to fold to that kind of pressire.

[jackvance]

Q3 - The pot odds do NOT justify calling here, although the math is too complicated to compute precisely at the table, it is an intuitive fold for me.
We are gonna be paying 1300 to win a 1925 pot (SB25, MP200, BB 1500, and our 200). that is 67 1/2% or about 1 1/2 to 1. If we assume his range includes AA, KK, QQ, that is 18 hands at 20% probability; his range also includes AK & AQ - 36 hands at about a 52% probablility. This converts to a weighted 40% win rate. If we plug in a 10% Harrington bluff factor, we can still only expect to win roughly 50% of the time, so we would need about 2 to 1 to make calling a valid option. Am i right?

There is something wrong with your math, probably because you're mixing percentages and ratios. Anyway, you have to call $1300 to win what will be a $3225 pot or 40.31%. So if you win more than 40.31% of the time, you should call.

AA,KK,QQ,JJ: dealt 48 ways, your win% is 20%
AK,AQ: dealt 64 ways, your win% is 55%
Weighted win% is a dead even 40%.. so it seems calling and folding are about even.. if there are bluffs/squeezes in his range calling is a def go.

[thinkinbig]

Yes, I stand corrected, jackvance. Interestingly, if we remove the bluff factor from the equation (assuming villain would never bluff here, my closest calculation is a rough win rate of 43%, and so the correct answer is CALL. This calculation is way too close to figure out in an actual game situation, so most players would fold or call based on their intuitive response. Also the margin of difference is slight enough so as to not stistically impact a player's overall win rate. Therefore I would rate it a bad test question by which to judge a players overall skill level - my answer would be "too close to call". But I concede a serious brainwarp in my original calculation, and you are right.

But I'd be much more interested in your analysis of my answer to question 3.

[elipsesjeff]

Q3. D I'm only 10BB here and at the next raise of the blinds, I'm in deep trouble! It is time to take action and this is an excellent hand and position for what Raymer calls the stop-and-go play. With all limpers and only the BB yet to act, there is a reasonable chance I could win at showdown, but my goal is to take down the 2050 of dead money in the pot an increase my chip stack by 50%. An all-in has a strong chance of being picked off by a strong hand or a big stack sniper with a small or medium pair. I'm gonna raise about 4 1/2 BB or about 1750. My OOP raise has got to be respected, but if it gets called, I'm pushing my remaining 2250 chips in regardless of what flops, representing AA or KK, while my stack is big enough to get even a good hand to fold to that kind of pressire.

So if you're pushing any flop why would'nt you just push preflop? More FE and you can't fold preflop if you're put allin. You overestimate the weakness of guy's hands in this spot of the tourney. Figure your M for this question and its probably one of the easiest of the quiz.

Also, I got a 117 the last time I took it.

[jackvance]

But I'd be much more interested in your analysis of my answer to question 3.

I just did that.. but in case you mean question 4, I fold, the limpers scare me. Then again, I don't play many tourneys.

[thinkinbig]

Good question! I read an article somewhere (I believe by Raymer) on the stop-and g0 play being more powerful in this situation than just pushing all-in when in the blinds or UTG. At lower stakes levels, an all-in by a shorter stack is MORE likely to get a call IMO than would an OOP raise. Additionally, since the flop is 2 to 1 against improving Villain's hand, my flop raise is very likely to induce a fold if he hadn't previously folded.

I made a similar play just the other night from the BB with TT. I was at 10BB and I knew that the blinds would change. When i made my first 'pump', I reduced the field to a single caller from UTG with a large chip stack. The flop hit a J overcard. After i put in the rest of my chips, there was a long wait for him to fold. He showed me his A-J fold. There is no doubt in my mind that he would have called a pre-flop all-in. Another player may have called with his hand........but I can't imagine A-Q, A-T, K-Q or an other non-monster standing up to my continuation semi-bluff.

So i believe it is a better move and more powerful than a straight all-in. They seem to attract calls at low limts if you are on a 10BB type stack. This probably merits it's own discussion topic, I didnt mean to hijack this topic with my 1st post response, but i would be interested in other opinions on this. More than just the test score (I was pleased) I found the test to be very thought provocative, which is why i came out of lurker status.

[jackvance]

Unbelievable you got him to fold TPTK with 10BB..

[thinkinbig]

Yup, I was very suprised myself........maybe it was my table image......lol.

[elipsesjeff]

Yup, I was very suprised myself........maybe it was my table image......lol.

Or he's just really really bad.

[thinkinbig]

Yes it was a live home tourney against a player i intimidate. I eliminated him the last time we played. 90+% would have called with his hand I'm sure. The fact that he folded was irrelevant (and detracted from) my duscussion of the play and therefore I shouldnt have mentioned it.

[cjs55]

My OOP raise has got to be respected, but if it gets called, I'm pushing my remaining 2250 chips in regardless of what flops, representing AA or KK, while my stack is big enough to get even a good hand to fold to that kind of pressire.

Is it really? It seems like you'd want to be able to at bet at least close to the pot on the flop to try to take out draws with the stop and go. 2250 into a 5000 pot is pretty weak. I'd call that with a pretty good draw or a decent hand any day.

4000 in a 5000 pot will make people lay down those decent hands and draws that you need them to lay down to make the stop and go profitable. Right?