Posts Tagged ‘Luca Pagano’

I’ve finally gotten around to adding some more of my poker strategy articles and World Series of Poker trip reports to the archive. The sad part is that my girlfriend/webmaster does all the work, all I have to do is give her the stuff when it’s ready to go up, and I can’t even be bothered to do that consistently. Anyway, here’s what’s new:

Hand Reading Made Simple- By far my requested article ever, this one outlines a simple method for categorizing an opponent’s hand as strong, marginal, or weak/drawing. It also explores some of the applications of this information in common no-limit hold ‘em situations.

Debunking Myths About Implied Odds- This poker theory article offers some new thinking about one of the most important concepts in big bet poker, especially no-limit hold ‘em, and debunks some common misunderstandings and mistakes.

Relative Hand Strength- This is one of the most advanced concepts I’ve ever explored in writing. It’s about learning to think about your hand solely with regard to its equity relative to your opponent’s range rather than how highly it ranks in the hierarchy of possible poker hands.  Read the complete post...

Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Ego and Variance

The most difficult thing about playing poker for a living, far more difficult than being good at cards, is dealing with the ups and downs. Although I’ve always ended up with a nice income at the end of the year, I have periods every year where it feels like nothing is going my way and I am losing tons of money. Even after experiencing them multiple times, I still find it difficult to keep a clear head during these “downswings”. This is probably due in part to the fact that for the last few years I have been playing ever higher stakes, meaning that each year brings the necessity of getting used to winning and losing larger sums.

Still, it surprises me a little that although I understand intellectually that poker is a game of the long run and that the results of a single day, week, or month don’t mean very much, emotionally I get stuck on these short-term results. After a good week, I feel like I am the greatest player ever. After a bad week, I often question all of my instincts and decisions, even though in both cases the cards probably contributed far more to the outcome than did my individual decisions.  Read the complete post...