Poker player and crypto assets trader @blaissezfaire joins us to explain what exactly crypto assets are, why the poker world went crazy for them in 2017, and what the future may hold. Timestamps 0:30 hello 11:08 strat 28:13 chris Links … Read more…
This was the second Sunday of WCOOP. There was actually a $1050 6-max that I ended up skipping. It started several hours earlier than everything else I wanted to play, and it didn’t seem quite good enough to build my … Read more…
Friday the 8th was an off day for me. I ran some errands and also went for another ride on the P’tit Train du Nord bike path. The weather was gray and intermittently rainy, as it had been since our … Read more…
Thanks to everyone who participated in the inaugural Rate Our Play. I’ll take the blame for the low attendance, as I haven’t been actively blogging lately. That should change once WCOOP gets underway. DP1: Uncontroversial. DP2: Uncontroversial at this stack … Read more…
This is an article I wrote a while ago for 2+2 Magazine. Posting it here now so that I can link someone to it. My favorite feeling in poker is making some huge, heroic call on the river with a … Read more…
Sorry everyone, time got away from me today, I’ll post the new episode tomorrow. It’s a good one!
This is a continuation of the Hand of the Week. Discussion of the flop action, which I imagine will surprise some of you, can be found here. Turn discussion is here. Blinds are 50/100, Villain has about 20K (starting stack), … Read more…
Dara Kearney and I yesterday released a joint review of a hyper turbo tournament that he won on PokerStars. Most of you probably know, by now, that I’m raising money for the Bay Area Urban Debate League and will release … Read more…
Brian Koppelman, co-writer of the legendary poker film Rounders, joins us to talk about his contribution to the poker boom, his continuing love affair with the game and its culture, his creative process, and even David Foster Wallace! Brian is … Read more…
Thinking Poker Podcast co-host Nate Meyvis just published his first e-book, and it’s a humdinger! He reviews every hand he played on Day 1 of the 2014 WSOP Main Event, and you’ll see not only his own thoughts on each … Read more…
Q: Is there anyway to quantify the difference in value between a 2-gapper (4-7) and connector (4-5)? I understand a 2-gapper can only make a straight two ways and a connector can make it four ways … do you just … Read more…
Thanks to everyone who’s participated in the Hand of the Week so far. Today’s post deals with the flop play. This is from the $700 NLHE 1R1A WCOOP event. Blinds are 350/700/85. It’s well after the rebuy period but not particularly close … Read more…
Thanks to everyone who’s participated in the Hand of the Week so far. Today’s post deals with value betting the river. Hero is UTG+2 with a $2500 stack, and most of the table covers. Action folds to Hero, who opens to $30 with 8s … Read more…
Nate, Carlos, Andrew, and hopefully some special guests as well will be at the Gold Coast bowling alley from 10AM – Noon on July 6. If you suck at bowling, don’t worry – last year, no one actually played! It’s … Read more…
The latest Thinking Poker Podcast hasn’t been released yet. When it is, I’ll post an announcement here, but it will be available only from PokerNews. We’d had trouble finding a guest, it was a busy week for me, and we … Read more…
Recent podcast guest Keone Young found out the hard way. That’s what you get for calling my 3-bet with K6 offsuit, fish! Don’t worry, folks. It’s all part of the show!
This time it’s my fault. Not sure when it will be up, but it’s going to be a good one. We’re talking PLO8, with an emphasis on hands from my recent near-final-table in the $1500 WSOP event. Sorry for the … Read more…
Thanks to everyone who commented on What’s Your Play? Overpair on Dry Flop. I realize that in some sense this isn’t a very interesting spot, because nothing out of the ordinary has happened and I’m not going to advocate some … Read more…
Our editor checked his laptop on a recent flight; he arrived at his destination, but his bag did not, so no editing got done today. We hope to get the podcast up tomorrow – I may even edit it my … Read more…
Nate and I are both busy with family and travel this week, so there’s no new episode of the Thinking Poker Podcast. We’ll be back with a new episode next week. Merry Christmas!
The only WCOOP I played on Monday was the 4-max, which is always a wild and crazy time. I stayed out of the fray for a bit, but sooner or later a draw comes along that simply bets to be … Read more…
Thanks as always to the commenters. Got fewer than usual, so I’ll take as a sign that people are getting sick of this particular hand 😉 Youngifted1 puts it simply and succintly: “a set of queens is too strong here … Read more…
Hi everyone! Just posting quickly to acknowledge that I’m late on getting out the results for the current What’s Your Play? We extended our stay in Paris to five days, but of course that is still not nearly enough time … Read more…
This is a continuation of my recent Czech Mates post, which you might want to read for context before beginning this one. Getting Out The idea of taking a regional train from Prague out to a small town and then … Read more…
It eventually disappeared, but initially I noticed an interesting pattern in the comments that this week’s “What’s Your Play?” received on Thinking Poker vs. Card Player. The vast majority of the early posters on my website argued for an admittedly … Read more…
Well this is embarrassing. After arguing with several posters who insisted that I didn’t provide any sufficient information about my opponent in this week’s “What’s Your Plan?”, I went to post results and just realized that I actually did leave … Read more…
Just updated the WSOP Europe Trip Report post with pictures! Check it out!
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 … Read more…
One summer during college I worked at a day camp for kids from Cambridge. Most people know the city for Harvard and MIT, but actually a good chunk of it is projects and other low-income housing. The camp consisted mostly … Read more…
Sorry for the long silence- I’ve just had better things to do than blogging while I’m in Madrid. I’ll be home on Thursday and should return to a normal blogging schedule not longer after. It turns out one of my … Read more…
Andrew is playing EPT Madrid’s Main Event today, dubbed the Grand Final for the EPT series. Madrid’s Museo del Prado by marcp_dmoz Main Event winners from each of this year’s other EPT stops are given an entry into this 10,000 Euro … Read more…
It’s one of the hallmarks of the Sunday Million that interesting hands just aren’t likely to come up. This is owing both to the remarkable weak players, against whom fancy play is largely a liability, and the shallow structure, which … Read more…
Had my deepest run ever in the Stars Million tonight, but it still wasn’t quite good enough. After 7.5 hours, I finished 69th out of nearly 7000 runners and earned less than $2000 for my trouble. I really don’t recall … Read more…
My stepfather found this in a published book of poetry. I really hope this was self-published, as I rejected better poems from my high school’s literary magazine (thinly veiled brag/beat). I swear to God I have reproduced every forced rhyme … Read more…
Here’s a cool little toy that will help you create anagrams from your name or whatever other words you choose to give it. Definitely check out the advanced features, there are a lot of good ways to narrow down the … Read more…
Nat Arem, creator of ThePokerDB, has a new project called Poker Forum Traffic. It tracks some statistics about how active various poker forums are. Naturally 2+2 is way out in front. Kinda neat to see how active some of these … Read more…
Apparently I can post from my phone. Perhaps there will be scant updates from the road after all. I'll have to get faster at texting though….
I was initially disappointed to see that FTP had eliminated its $4/$8, $15/$30, etc. deep stack tables. Then I saw that they’d replaced them with deep-stacked versions of “regular” games like $5/$10. What a brilliant idea! The action is much … Read more…
If you’re looking to get started in poker, whether live or online, no limit hold ’em tournaments are a great diving off point. They are exciting, easier to learn than many other forms of poker, and less demanding of skill. … Read more…
There’s not much similarity to these hands aside from the fact that they both involve playing KT in the Stars $300. This one might seem like kind of a crazy fold: PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em Tourney, Big Blind is t250 (9 … Read more…
Cardplayer recently posted a very interesting and informative interview with Phil Galfond, who posts as JMan on the 2+2 Forums and plays as OMGClayAiken in the biggest NLHE games. There were a few points I found particularly noteworthy: 1. Phil … Read more…
It’s funny but not really surprising that even many good players succumb to a certain fishiness. Virtually anyone’s natural inclination is against folding. You’re guaranteed to lose- how much fun is that? The first big step that any player has … Read more…
For some reason, FTP has a $54321 guaranteed tournament today where everyone started with 4321 chips. I played this hand about three hours in. I got an unlucky flop, but I thought this was kind of an interesting play: Full … Read more…
This is a pretty consistent problem for me: Poker StarsPot Limit Omaha Ring gameBlinds: $2/$46 playersConverter Stack sizes:UTG: $302.70UTG+1: $361.75CO: $338Foucault: $400SB: $76BB: $304 Pre-flop: (6 players) Foucault is Button with 2 folds, CO raises to $12, Foucault calls, SB … Read more…
Apparently this is fake, pretty funny though.
… is that they reward monkey bullshit. And that’s the good and the bad thing about them. A skilled player has a smaller edge because the monkeys are rarely making that big of a mistake if they stick their whole … Read more…
Been meaning to post this, it’s Bill’s response to my review of his e-book, How to Beat NLHE 6-Max Cash Games: Thanks for reviewing the book. I won’t comment on everything — you have some valid points although I do … Read more…
The well-known 2+2’er and high-stakes no-limit player FoxwoodsFiend announced yesterday that he is quitting poker: The truth is I want to do something important with my life, and I don’t think poker’s that important or meaningful. Given that I eventually … Read more…
Paul Smith AKA UCLABruinz, shown here with his daughter (yes his head really is that huge), just took down a $2000 Bellagio prelim event for $203,495. I’ve known Paul for a while through the 2+2 forums, but I first met … Read more…
Two of my students have recently started poker blogs that may prove worth following: Korako RC Swanson Neither has posted too much yet, but hey, they are learning from the master, so something insightful is bound to trickle down!
Just found this sweet, kind of random video over on the GPSTS blog:
Here’s a tricky little play I made early in tonight’s session. I’m going to try using an embeddable replayer that one of my readers suggested to me, but if you have trouble watching it, please leave a comment to let … Read more…
Sorry for the recent silence. I was in Chicago with some of my debaters for the Chase Urban Debate National Championships. I thought I’d have internet access, but the new laptop is giving me trouble already. Anyhow, regular posting will … Read more…
I’ve mentioned from time to time how annoying it is when people “hit and run”, or win a big pot and quit immediately. Although it can occur at any table, it’s especially annoying when playing heads up because the game … Read more…
I’d been playing this short stacker heads up at 10/20 NL. He was pretty bad, but I was going to need to make a hand to bust him. Finally, I got AKo and made my standard $60 raise. He shoved … Read more…
I wonder if this is a record- I got and hit and run five times by the same guy tonight over the course of about three hours. On several occasions, he bought back within the same amount of money he … Read more…
I distinctly recall telling one of my students in our most recent session, “Don’t try to bluff a guy off of top pair or an overpair. People just don’t like to fold them.” So of course I go and try … Read more…
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $20 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com MP ($1394)CO ($1202.10)Button ($2459.50)Hero ($2030)BB ($1224)UTG ($3402.50) Preflop: Hero is SB with 9s, 8s. UTG raises to $60, MP calls $60, 2 folds, Hero calls $50, 1 … Read more…
This article slipped past me while I was on vacation, but thankfully I was able to catch it on Professor Nesson’s blog, eon. Apparently, the provision of Governor Patrick’s casino bill that would criminalize online poker, about which I wrote … Read more…
In Pot Limit Omaha, hand values tend to run close, which means that people often do not fold to re-raises. Consequently, a lot of players will never reraise without Aces, and any time you do re-raise, your thinking opponents will … Read more…
This is a post from a few month’s ago from the blog of University of Chicago economist and author of Freakonomics Steven Levitt, but I just came across it and thought I would share. Levitt is a poker enthusiast currently … Read more…
Sklansky on Poker has not aged well. This isn’t to say that any of its content has been proven wrong, only that more recent publications and the resurgent popularity of big bet games have rendered much of the material irrelevant. … Read more…
I was already enjoying The Onion article “Local Girlfriend Always Wants To Do Stuff” when I came across this passage: Maas’ obsession, however, has shown no signs of abating, and on Sunday she volunteered herself and Bertram to walk their … Read more…
Full Tilt Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 4 PlayersLeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter Hero (BB): $807UTG: $400BTN: $599.40SB: $415.50 Pre-Flop: 5 4 dealt to Hero (BB)UTG folds, BTN calls $4, SB raises to $17, Hero calls $13, BTN calls … Read more…
These were all against a strong but possibly over-aggressive opponent: Full Tilt Poker, $4/$8 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 4 PlayersLeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter UTG: $1,325.80Hero (BTN): $1,910.90SB: $1,626BB: $1,600 Pre-Flop: 3 3 dealt to Hero (BTN)UTG folds, Hero raises … Read more…
Gary Wise has a great column for ESPN about the whole JJ Prodigy incident and the consequences of his being allowed to play at the Aussie Millions (my summary, for those not familiar with the situation): “Cheating, unfortunately, is inherently … Read more…