Month: August 2011

Card Player Interview

Card Player magazine just published an interview with me for their “Capture the Flag” series. It was actually conducted soon after the WSOP, which is why there’s so much talk about that and the comparison between tournaments and cash games.

For example:

BP: Can you give our readers a sense

… Read full post

More Than One Way to Skin a Fish

I expected my American coaching business to dry up after Black Friday. Of course I did lose some US online players, but I also got some new students who were mostly live players. Interestingly, these haven’t generally been online players “making the switch” but people who have always played live … Read full post

Key Hands From the Sunday Six Max

I had a very frustrating 11th place finish in the $150 6-max today. Lost a huge coin flip. It’s a good thing that’s the last thing I was playing because it was the most frustrated I’ve let myself get in months. Anyway, here are two key hands.

CO was a … Read full post

Mixing It Up

Been playing some 8-game mix lately. I’m pretty sure the games are good but I am not so it all evens out! Here are two of the best hands I played yesterday (sorry for the lack of conversion):

PokerStars Game #66507871933: 8-Game (Hold’em Limit, $10/$20 USD) – 2011/08/24 22:27:27 MT … Read full post

Immaturity

I was glued to the recent Girah/Jungleman/DogisHead scandal(there are a few threads on the subject but this is the most recent). I read every interview and every statement from the “suspects” within minutes of its release. I’ll admit that I do enjoy a good scandal, but what was really … Read full post

That Condor Owes Me Some Money

Some of you may have seen on Twitter that about two weeks ago, my building lost power and consequently internet while I was still in two tournaments. If I’d been playing exclusively cash games, I would have just quit for a while, but I had a couple hundred dollars in … Read full post

Sunday Nittaments

Pretty sure I’ve used that title before, but that just goes to show you what a nit I can be in these silly tournaments. Check out this one, where I 3-bet-fold AKo with a 21BB stack. UTG+1 is very active but seems good. I previously 3-bet him from the button … Read full post

What’s Your Play? Rivered a One-Card Flush

Hero and Villain are heads up on four tables at Villain’s request. Villain bought in short at all four but promised not to quit no matter how big his stack got, and he’s been true to his word. He’s not a professional but has proven surprisingly capable. He is playing … Read full post

Fun Police

Another great song by SrslySirius

With regard to all the controversy about the WSOP prioritizing ESPN’s interests over those of the players, I do want to ask, “Why shouldn’t they?” I certainly don’t like it and think it is pretty bastardly, but the truth is that they have a monopoly … Read full post

Queen-High Call

Unfortunately I was the victim of this one. Honestly I don’t think his river call is too good. If diamonds miss, he can snap-call, but a huge chunk of my range just got there. It’s possible he didn’t think I would value bet a flush, but I absolutely would. The … Read full post

Wow, Eh?

We woke up early on Thursday morning with plans for an all-day hike in a nearby alpine meadow, but we were looking at the worst weather we’d seen since we’d been in Canmore. Massive gray clouds were hanging over the mountains in all directions, so much so that at their … Read full post

Mailbag: The Last Bet

Q: I have a question about your article “The Last Bet“.

It is a very interesting article and I want to thank you for that and for your website. I read a lot of books about poker and learned a lot, but since I read your articles and … Read full post

The Road to Canmore

I know I never finished my Montreal story but it just feels like really old news now so I’ll just give you the short version. Emily and I were in Montreal for about two weeks, and while it was a nice city in a lot of ways, it wasn’t what … Read full post

Sunday Decompression

I played five tournaments yesterday and whiffed them all, nothing remarkable about that. And it wasn't a particularly frustrating day or anything, cash games went well so I was up despite the tournament losses. What was remarkable was that after a long day of playing, I had a ton of awesome hiking opportunities to choose from just a few minutes' drive from my home. What's more, the new Euro-friendly schedule on Stars suits my preferred playtimes perfectly. I can start playing between like 11:00-14:00, play for several hours, and have time for an hour or two of hiking in the evening. Right now it's staying light out until ridiculously late, like 22:00, so there's plenty of hours in the day. After yesterday's session Emily and I hit the trail. We bootlegged it a bit to get on top of the canyon wall for a vista of Grotto Lake with the Canadian Rockies in the background. Then we hiked through a canyon (the creek was running extremely low) to a small waterfall, which seemed a good turning around a point. It was a very fine way to decompress from a long three days of poker!

First Day at the Office

I got to my new home in Canada about a week ago (more on that soon) but just this morning got a legit bankroll onto PokerStars, so while I’d donked around a bit in small stakes games, I was thinking of today as my first real day “back to work”. … Read full post

Congratulations!

Just received this e-mail, which made my day:
Hey Andrew,
I just placed 2nd in the Florida State Poker Championship last night. It was my first 5K-live event (played a bunch in the 1K-2K range at the WSOP / Borgata earlier this year) .
As I was reflecting on my
… Read full post