Carrot Poker School Grade 2

The Grade 2 poker course is a transformational intermediate-level program designed for students who already have solid foundations in poker and are ready to elevate their understanding of the game. It dives deeper into poker theory and advanced strategies, helping students understand the intricacies that shape successful decision-making at the table. Upon completing this course, many students report a complete revelation in how they approach the game and how their thinking shifts from a basic understanding of poker to a deeper, more refined skill set. This course comprises 11 in-depth videos totaling 10 hours of content, designed to provide you with a c roadmap for mastering poker strategy.

Course Overview and Structure:

This Grade 2 course assumes that you are no longer a beginner but rather a player with a solid understanding of poker’s basic mechanics. The course introduces you to concepts that move beyond basic hand rankings and starting hand charts, guiding you into the realm of advanced poker strategy.  Course’s core emphasis is improving your strategic thinking and decision-making, focusing on more sophisticated tactics like betting theory, value betting, bluffing, and exploiting your opponents’ tendencies.

Here’s an in-depth look at the key topics covered in the Grade 2 syllabus:

1. Polarising and Condensing: Introduction to Strategy Construction

The concept of polarisation is one of the cornerstones of advanced poker strategy. Polarising your betting range means making your bets represent either very strong hands or weak hands, while minimizing the range of medium-strength hands. This strategy helps to confuse your opponents and makes it more difficult for them to determine your exact holdings. Conversely, condensing your range involves narrowing your bet selections to more value-driven hands, leading to a more predictable, solid strategy. Understanding when to polarize or condense your range is crucial for mastering poker.

2. Value Betting and The Tier System for Made Hands

Value betting is an skill in poker, and it’s about extracting the maximum possible value from your strong hands. The tier system helps you classify your hands into different categories based on their strength. This tiered approach allows you to adjust your play according to your hand’s relative strength and the situation you’re in, thus improving your value betting accuracy.

3. Bluffing and Theoretical Fold Equity

Bluffing is an art that plays a major role in poker, and understanding how to bluff effectively involves recognizing the concept of theoretical fold equity. Fold equity is the likelihood that an opponent will fold to your bet or raise, and it’s a key factor in deciding whether to bluff or not. The concept of “world favourability” also comes into play here—understanding when external factors, like table dynamics or player tendencies, can make your bluff more or less likely to succeed. The course also introduces the concept of “tiers of bluff,” helping you classify your bluffs according to their strength and suitability for the situation.

4. Bet-Sizing Toolkits: Equity Before and After Betting

In this section, you’ll develop a toolkit for sizing your bets optimally in various situations. The course explores the impact of equity before and after betting, showing how to adjust your bet sizes based on the change in your hand’s equity after the flop, turn, or river.

5. The Out-of-Position Game

Playing out of position is one of the most challenging aspects of poker. This section explores how to manage out-of-position situations by teaching you the importance of urgency and slowplaying. Slowplaying involves underrepresenting the strength of your hand to lure your opponents into betting more. The course also emphasizes the need for a robust out-of-position strategy, meaning one that is difficult for opponents to exploit.

6. The In-Position Game

Being in position gives you a significant advantage in poker, and this part of the course focuses on developing a strategic approach to in-position play. You’ll learn to recognize investment ceilings, which are limits on how much you should continue to invest in a pot based on your hand strength and the texture of the board. Hybrid betting is also introduced, which involves combining value bets and bluffs to create a balanced strategy that keeps opponents guessing.

7. Facing Bets – Range Thresholds and Bluff Catching

This section is all about how to respond when facing an opponent’s bet. Understanding range thresholds helps you determine when you should call, fold, or raise based on the likely range of your opponent’s hand. Bluff catching is also a skill, and the course teaches you how to catch bluffs effectively by assessing your opponent’s betting patterns and ranges.

8. 3-Bet Pots – Building a Flop Strategy

In this section, the course delves into strategies for handling 3-bet pots, which occur when someone raises after an initial raise has been made. Developing a solid flop strategy in these pots requires an understanding of board texture and how it affects the strength of your hand relative to your opponent’s likely range. Knowing when to bet, check, or raise in a 3-bet pot can give you a huge edge in these situations.

9. Raising Flop, Turn, and River

The course concludes with an in-depth look at raising at each street—flop, turn, and river. Understanding when to raise at these different points in the hand is essential for constructing a well-rounded strategy. Each street brings new dynamics to the hand, and the course helps you navigate these stages with confidence, focusing on board textures, opponent ranges, and strategic considerations.

This Grade 2 poker course will give you the skills to adjust your play in a wide variety of situations, improving both your offensive and defensive strategies. Whether you’re learning to polarize your bets, value bet effectively, or play profitably out of position, the course provides the tools necessary to take your poker game to the next level. Upon completion, you’ll have a complete understanding of the strategic depth of poker, ready to implement these advanced concepts in real games with a high degree of success.