Now through the end of 2018, I’m offering 25% off custom strategy videos when you purchase two hours or more. That’s two hours for just $150!

Get the most out of your poker study time with a poker strategy videos custom-tailored to your needs. If you play online, I can review a database or hand history for you, identify your specific leaks, and suggest study material to help you plug them. Even if you don’t play online, I can review hand histories from live play, answer your questions thoroughly, and help you focus your independent study on the most important topics for your improvement.

You can find more details and a full-length sample video at https://www.thinkingpoker.net/coaching/poker-coaching-programs/custom-video-review/. To purchase your videos, comment here or email andrew at thinkingpoker dot net.

My new Fundamentals of Game Theory course is a series of lessons to introduce you, step by step, to fundamental game theory concepts and help you apply them to real world poker situations. This course is not about trying to memorize and implement solver solutions in your actual play; it’s about studying solutions in order to learn the core principles of optimal play, so that you can recognize and exploit opponents who play sub-optimally.

There’s no predefined starting point. I’ve created a series of scaffolded lessons that start from zero and build up to analyzing a full solver solution for a common flop situation. Where we start in that progression will depend on how comfortable you already are game theoretical concepts.

Every session is built around a toy game or scenario that you’ll attempt to analyze and interpret for yourself and then discuss with me over Skype. All lessons can be completed with any GTO solver, though I’m best prepared to help you with either CREV or Pio. The first few lessons can even be completed with the free version of PioSolver.

For questions, more information, or to sign up, please comment here or write andrew (at) thinkingpoker (dot) net.

Timestamps

0:30 – hello
34:19 – strat

Strategy

Hand 1

Hand 2

Hero opens to $35 with 8d 7d UTG, called by MP and BB.

Flop ($105) AQ6dd. BB checks, Hero bets $50, BB calls.

Turn ($205) 2c. BB checks, Hero bets $200, B calls.

River ($605) 9h. BB checks, Hero shoves ~$900.

Get the most out of your poker study time with a poker strategy videos custom-tailored to your needs. If you play online, I can review a database or hand history for you, identify your specific leaks, and suggest study material to help you plug them. Even if you don’t play online, I can review hand histories from live play, answer your questions thoroughly, and help you focus your independent study on the most important topics for your improvement.

You can find more details and a full-length sample video at https://www.thinkingpoker.net/coaching/poker-coaching-programs/custom-video-review/. To purchase your videos, comment here or email andrew at thinkingpoker dot net.

Many of you are familiar with my videos on Tournament Poker Edge. Video training sites like TPE offer a tremendous amount of knowledge for a very low price, and I’ve been a member of many over the course of my career.

The real barrier to learning everything you need to know from subscription-based sites isn’t cost, it’s time. There are so many great videos out there that it’s hard to know which ones will best meet your needs, and it’s a real bummer to spend your valuable time watching one that doesn’t address your needs or is just plain bad.

These personalized videos offer the best of both worlds. Like subscription-based sites, they’re a lot cheaper than one-on-one coaching, but they’re a far more efficient use of your time because they are tailored specifically to your needs.

To learn more or to commission a personalized video, please visit https://www.thinkingpoker.net/coaching/poker-coaching-programs/custom-video-review/.

Here’s a full-length sample of what I can offer. It’s an actual video that I created for one of my students. Whether or not you have any interest in commissioning a video for yourself, I hope you’ll find it valuable!

Each program includes comprehensive worksheets to test your understanding of key concepts from the videos and your ability to apply them in new contexts. There’s plenty for you to work on in between sessions, and we meet only when you’ve made what progress you can independently. Then, you get targeted feedback from me about how well you’re understanding and using your new skills, plus specific advice about what to study next.

The Crushing Live Cash Games program is designed primarily for players struggling to beat the $2/$5 no-limit level and move up to $5/$10, though there’s room to adapt it for people who play higher or lower. It costs $1000 – the price for five hours of custom coaching – and includes seven hours of coaching, three months’ access to my Tournament Poker Edge videos, and a syllabus to guide your independent study between sessions and after the package is complete.

The Dominate Donkaments program is designed primarily for online tournament players, though there’s room to adapt it for those who play live tournaments. As with the other program, sessions are built around specific skills, but these skills are addressed in the context of hand history review from your tournaments. It costs $900 – the price for four and a half hours of custom coaching – and includes six hours of coaching, three months’ access to my Tournament Poker Edge videos, and a syllabus to guide your independent study between sessions and after the package is complete.

I don’t have a lot of recent online cash game experience, and I’m not generally offering coaching for online cash game players right now. If there’s a specific reason why you think I’d be a coach for you anyway, feel free to contact me and we can discuss it further.

If these sound appealing to you, you can follow the links above for more information or to sign up. If you want a better idea of what coaching with me would be like, Andre Coimbra posted some videos of our sessions on YouTube. In addition to being highly educational in their own right, they’re a good example of what you can expect.

This is nearly two hours of free strategy content! If you find it helpful, you can find many more of my poker strategy videos on Tournament Poker Edge, and you can even procure some one-on-one coaching for yourself!

I’ll also add that this video (and many of my coaching sessions) was made with the help of two free and very useful programs. I replayed Andre’s hand history in Universal Replayer and shared my screen with him using join.me.

The program is designed for no-limit hold ’em players currently playing at the $1/$2 or $2/$5 level who would like to improve their win-rates and/or move up to bigger games. If you’re already successful at $5/$10 or above, I may be able to help you as well, but we should talk about at first, so email me and then we’ll go from there.

For $900, ordinarily the cost of six hours of coaching, you get seven hours of one-on-one coaching plus some other valuable goodies:

• Free! Diagnostic (1 hour): We begin with a detailed analysis of the game(s) in which you play regularly to determine who plays there, how do they play, who gives you the most trouble, and who makes the biggest mistakes. The session concludes with a discussion of commonly encountered situations designed to assess how you currently think about the game and where you have the most room for improvement.
• Hand Reading (2 hours): Practice my simple but effective hand reading technique and tailor it to the players in your game. Poker is easy when you know what your opponents have!
• Maximizing Value (2 hours): Improve your winrate by raking bigger pots when you have the best hand. Learn how to build big pots when you have the nuts and squeeze extra bets out of thin value hands.
• Attacking Weakness (2 hours): Bluffing is an underappreciated tool in loose games. Contrary to popular wisdom, big bluffs can be extremely profitable in these games. Learn how to analyze your opponents’ mannerisms and betting patterns for weakness and how to push them out of the pot.
• Free! Video Integration: The Crushing Live Cash Games course builds on material presented in my Tournament Poker Edge videos. You get three months of free access to those videos, enabling our sessions to be tightly focused on how to adapt and apply these skills in the games you play.
• Free! Independent Study: After each session, you’ll receive a list of recommended reading, viewing, and exercises to expand your knowledge of the content, apply it at the tables, and prepare for the next session.

If you’d like to sign up or discuss the program and your particular needs further, please get in touch!

Oh and if you’re a tournament player, there’s a discount for you too.

• Designing a broad strategy for the day;
• Assessing a new table;
• Survival and playing conservatively;
• Dealing with amateurs
• Dealing with world-class players;
• Managing table image;
• Nutrition, hydration, and urination strategies;
• And more!

The 2012 tournament will be my seventh World Series of Poker main event. I’ve cashed 5 times in the past 6 years, with 3 finishes in the top 100 and gross winnings of over $500,000. This tournament is truly unique among poker events, and I have a lot of thoughts to share about how to approach it successfully.

Cost is $150/person, and registration is capped at five participants. The seminar will be conducted over Skype, so you’ll need only a Skype account, a microphone, and headphones to participate!

To register, please e-mail andrew@thinkingpoker.net with subject line “WSOP Main Event”. If you have questions or ideas for future seminars, please leave them in the comments section below.

A: Very good question. As with many tough decisions, this one is easier if you think in terms of not just whether or not to continuation bet with the cards you currently hold but what your plan will be for the entire hand. How you would play other hands in the same spot is also an important consideration.

Let’s start by thinking about JT. Two-pair is a strong hand, even on a flop like this one where it’s nowhere near the nuts. Depending on your opponent and how the board runs out, I can certainly envision scenarios where you’d be looking to bet three times for value.  That’s a reason to bet now, because you can’t bet three streets if you don’t bet the flop.

Of course, there are lots of turn cards that will greatly reduce the value of your hand. I’m thinking especially for an A, K, Q, 9 or spade. That might sound like a reason to check and wait for a safe turn before building the pot. However, these cards are bad not just because they potentially give your opponent a better hand but also because they make the board scarier for hands you are beating. AJ will almost certainly call a bet on the flop, but it may fold if the turn is a spade. The fact that board could get worse for you is a reason to bet now, before that happens. So my default play is to bet JT on this flop, even though it is in some sense a medium-strength hand.

With As Js, on the other hand, I like a check. Granted you have a lot of equity with the pair + flush draw, but I see two important considerations:

1. You ought to continuation bet almost all of your flush draws on this board. Thus, when you do check behind, spades become excellent bluffing cards for your opponent. Flush draws that also have some showdown value, which in this case is really only pair + flush draw, are the most obvious ones to check. This isn’t nearly enough to alleviate the problem of exposure to bluffs on flush card turns, but it helps.

2. Part of the reason As Js is a good candidate for (1) is that, although you have a lot of equity, betting doesn’t dramatically affect that equity. In other words, you don’t cause hands with a lot of equity to fold, nor do you cause hands with very poor equity to call, particularly not across multiple streets (worse pair + draw combos being the only exception). This by itself isn’t a reason to check, but it is a reason why you aren’t losing terribly much if you choose to include this hand in your checking range for the purpose of (1).

This is a step in the right direction, but it’s actually really difficult to balance both your betting and checking ranges. You simply don’t have enough big hands to distribute across both ranges. In Easy Game, Andrew Seidman actually advocates giving up on this goal entirely and continuation betting everything. In my opinion this is an extreme response to a problem that few opponents are good enough to exploit, but it’s an interesting idea that may have more relevance against really tough competition.

If you’re interested in learning more about this kind of “value planning” and the process by which you decide which streets to bet and why, there’s still space available in next week’s Maximizing Value seminar.

Do you have a question for the Thinking Poker Mailbag? Please leave it as a comment below!

These seminars are pre-scheduled, small-group discussions focused on the most common mistakes and skills gaps that I see in my NLHE tournament students. Each two-hour seminar costs $150 per person and is capped at five participants, to enable individualized attention and opportunities for everyone to ask questions and participate in discussions. The content is prepared and the discussion facilitated by me- it’s like an interactive poker video! Best of all, this is my second time offering a seminar on this topic, meaning that the material has been revised and refined with experience and feedback from past participants.

Please note this is an Intermediate to Advanced seminar. In other words, even relatively advanced players will benefit from this unique take on how to think about extracting value, but the pacing will be such that intermediate players can follow along comfortably. We will assume that you’re comfortable visualizing both your own and other players’ ranges and thinking about how your actions will influence those ranges. The seminar will help you practice and refine these techniques, providing mental shortcuts and a thorough process for determining the most profitable way to play strong hands in a variety of contexts.

To register, please e-mail andrew@thinkingpoker.net with subject line “Maximizing Value”. If you have questions, please post them here, as others may be wondering the same things. And if you have suggestions for future seminar topics, please post them here as well!

I got an IM yesterday from a student who’s worked with me for a few months. He is originally from Paris, and though he now lives in Manhattan, he played this hand at a French casino while visiting his mother for the holidays. It couldn’t be a better example of what I’m trying to help my students achieve, and I am really proud both of this student and of the progress he has made:

[12/22/2011 8:38:16 PM] Student: dedicated a call to you tonight!
[12/22/2011 8:38:44 PM] Foucault: i’m intrigued
[12/22/2011 8:39:02 PM] Student: haha, ok, 6max french tournament.
[12/22/2011 8:39:24 PM] Student: 400/800/75
[12/22/2011 8:39:29 PM] Student: i have 36k
[12/22/2011 8:39:40 PM] Student: huge stack to my right has around 70k
[12/22/2011 8:40:22 PM] Student: the previous hand was me and him BvB and I shoved on his cbet with an open ender. he folded very frustrated saying “next time you’re getting called.”
[12/22/2011 8:40:32 PM] Student: type of guy who if things don’t go his way, you’re a bad player.
[12/22/2011 8:40:49 PM] Student: so the following hand he opens to 2400 in the CO and I have A8ss in the btn.
[12/22/2011 8:41:08 PM] Student: pretty sure that a 3bet would get be very little respect and woudl lack fold euiqty, i decided to flat.
[12/22/2011 8:41:15 PM] Student: flop comes K5K
[12/22/2011 8:41:27 PM] Student: and he bets 1400 into 6000
[12/22/2011 8:42:14 PM] Student: his range in the co is too wide to put him on a K right away but I don’t think raising him here is going to achieve much.
[12/22/2011 8:42:30 PM] Student: and i’m getting obv getting a good price so I peel one.
[12/22/2011 8:42:39 PM] Student: turn a 7d
[12/22/2011 8:43:09 PM] Student: he now bets around 8500 into 9k.
[12/22/2011 8:43:44 PM] Student: i have 30k behind roughly and start to think about his line and how it doesn’t make sense for him to do this with a K.
[12/22/2011 8:44:23 PM] Student: the small bet on flop and huge bet on turn seems fishy so I decide to call assuming i’m good and ready to call or check back a lot of rivers.
[12/22/2011 8:44:52 PM] Student: river 10h and he shoves.
[12/22/2011 8:45:15 PM] Student: i tanked for about 5 mins. eventually deciding that he either had a full house/AK or air.
[12/22/2011 8:45:57 PM] Student: I think he checks all his PP, all his 10 (J10, Q10..etc…)
[12/22/2011 8:46:10 PM] Student: obviously values his K10 but i don’t think that big.
[12/22/2011 8:46:28 PM] Student: and certainly doesn’t value a pair of 7’s or 5’s. not good enough.
[12/22/2011 8:46:53 PM] Student: So I call and he inta mucks.
[12/22/2011 8:47:04 PM] Foucault: did you show?
[12/22/2011 8:47:11 PM] Student: i did
[12/22/2011 8:47:13 PM] Foucault: you have to
[12/22/2011 8:47:14 PM] Foucault: that is so badass
[12/22/2011 8:47:21 PM] Student: i thought he was gonna kill me.
He finished 15th in the tournament after shoving A7 into AQ, which I’m sure was disappointing for him. Still, calls like these are their own reward. You can tell just from this snippet of conversation how sophisticated his thought process was and how excited he was to make the right play when it required something as courageous as calling three barrels for his whole stack with no pair. Hands like these you remember for the rest of your career.

Tres bien!

Thinking Poker Tournament Seminars are pre-scheduled, small-group discussions focused on the most common mistakes and skills gaps that I see in my NLHE tournament students. Each two-hour seminar costs $150 per person and is capped at five participants, to enable individualized attention and opportunities for everyone to ask questions and participate in discussions. The content is prepared and the discussion facilitated by me- it’s like an interactive poker video!

Participants will learn how about alternatives to the continuation bet, how to deal with donk bets, when to slowplay, and how correct flop play varies with stack and pot size. My Flop Fundamentals video series will be required viewing in advance of the seminar, because everything we discuss will build on those concepts while getting more in-depth and sophisticated. Playing common flop spots well is essential to tournament success, so you don’t want to miss this seminar!

To register, please e-mail andrew(at) thinkingpoker (dot) net with subject line “Advanced Flop Fundamentals”. If you have questions, please post them here, as others may be wondering the same things. Also please leave a comment if there’s a topic you’re interested in or a time that would be better for you- there’s plenty of flexibility to accommodate everyone, I just need to know what you want to see!

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 300/600 Blinds 60 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t18593)
UTG+1 (t57136)
MP1 (t20999)
MP2 (t33621)
MP3 (t39979)
CO (t23378)
Button (t20626)
Hero (SB) (t31712)
BB (t17235)

Hero’s M: 22.02

Preflop: Hero is SB with 3, A
3 folds, MP2 calls t600, MP3 calls t600, 2 folds, Hero calls t300, BB checks

Flop: (t2940) 8, 5, 9 (4 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, MP2 checks, MP3 checks

Turn: (t2940) Q (4 players)
Hero bets t2805, 3 folds

Total pot: t2940

Results:
Hero didn’t show 3, A.
Outcome: Hero won t2940

Of course this principle has implications when you’re on the other side of the equation as well:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (6 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) ($444.85)
SB ($400)
BB ($390.60)
UTG ($742.60)
MP ($557.25)
CO ($791.90)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 10, A
2 folds, CO calls $4, Hero bets $16, SB calls $14, 2 folds

Flop: ($40) 8, 2, 6 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($40) A (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $24.50, SB raises to $82, Hero calls $57.50

River: ($204) 8 (2 players)
SB bets $151, Hero calls $151

Total pot: $506 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had 10, A (two pair, Aces and eights).
SB had 5, 5 (two pair, eights and fives).
Outcome: Hero won $503

Want to learn cool tricks like this? Sign up for the next Thinking Poker seminar, which addresses the always difficult Playing Out of Position.

Thinking Poker Tournament Seminars are pre-scheduled, small-group discussions focused on the most common mistakes and skills gaps that I see in my NLHE tournament students. Each two-hour seminar costs $150 per person and is capped at five participants, to enable individualized attention and opportunities for everyone to ask questions and participate in discussions. The content is prepared and the discussion facilitated by me- it’s like an interactive poker video!

Participants will learn how to defend their blinds against late and early position raisers, how to deal with post-flop aggression, and how to pull-off the ever-vexing donk bet. In addition to the seminar itself, all participants receive a syllabus of recommended study materials to help prepare for the session and apply newly acquired skills in their future play.

To register, please e-mail andrew(at) thinkingpoker (dot) net with subject line “Playing Out of Position”. If you have questions, please post them here, as others may be wondering the same things. Also please leave a comment if there’s a topic you’re interested in or a time that would be better for you- there’s plenty of flexibility to accommodate everyone, I just need to know what you want to see!

A: Good question, this is something I’ve been working on recently. My process is still very much a work in progress, but I’ve put a lot of thought into it that would be helpful to others so I figure I might as well share with you where I am now. It draws on two major sources: what Jared Tendler calls the Adult Learning Model and some things I’ve picked up about teaching and learning from my time in education.

Unconscious Competence

I haven’t read Jared Tendler’s The Mental Game of Poker in its entirety yet, but a friend of mine has it so I’ve flipped through it and we’ve discussed it a bit. One thing Tendler emphasizes is that your ultimate goal should be to learn new concepts so well that they become second nature to you. He calls this “Unconscious Competence”. When a concept is in your Unconscious Competence, you implement it correctly without even thinking about it.

Concepts enter your Unconscious Competence via Conscious Competence. That is, you must first actively work on implementing a concept correctly. Only with this kind of deliberate, targeted practice will it become second-nature.

The catch is that our conscious minds are easily cluttered, such that most people have difficulty working actively on more than a few things at once. Trying to do too much risks doing nothing well and consequently learning nothing well. So it’s important to be focused and deliberate about what you are working to improve at a given time. We all have many leaks, but we don’t do ourselves any favors by trying to plug them all at once.

Leak Finding

The process that I use now, both in my own continuous improvement and with my students, is to start by identifying one or more leaks that you would ultimately like to plug. This moves those concepts from Unconscious Incompetence, things you didn’t even know you were doing wrong, to Conscious Competence. You are now aware of the things that you need to fix.

It’s best to be as concrete and specific about this as possible. So rather than saying “I need to stop continuation betting so much”, resolve to “Decrease my flop continuation bet frequency by 10% by identifying spots where it’s best just to check and fold.”

This is a step to take totally independently of playing. You might review your own hand histories looking for mistakes, share some hands with a friend, post hands on a message board, use a program like Leak Buster, or hire a coach to help you identify things you need to work on. It’s unlikely that you would come up with a very good list just by sitting down, playing, and thinking to yourself “I should really work on that” any time you believe you make a mistake. You need a more objective, holistic, and big-picture perspective, and it’s worth devoting some time away from the table to developing this.

Studying

The next step is to study, slowly moving from Conscious Incompetence to Conscious Competence. Now that you know what you don’t understand, you can work on understanding it better. This is the time to read poker books and strategy articles, watch videos, discuss concepts with friends, or work with a coach, depending on your needs and budget. Again, this process takes place largely away from the table, though I do think it makes sense to include this as part of a pre-game routine- more on that in a moment.

Practicing

Once you’ve done your studying and know what you are supposed to do, it’s time to get in there and practice doing it. Remember, the key here is not to do it all at once. If you need to work on continuation betting, then read up on the subject, resolve to work on that, and set some goals for your next few sessions. Accept that you may continue to make some mistakes with regard to bluffing the river or 4-betting pre-flop. Those might be things to work on next, but for now set one goal and stick to it until you see progress.

Pre-Game Routine

Many of the teachers I respected most followed a common formula: Tell them what you’re going to teach, teach it, and then tell them what you taught. It’s good for student and teacher to be on the same page about their goals, even when you occupy both of those roles yourself. I also think that it’s good to have some sort of pre-game routine, a set of things that you do before you start playing that prepare you to perform at your best and learn from your play at the same time.

Some of these things might include meditation, visualization, or other exercises that tell your body and your mind that it’s time to set aside whatever you’ve been working on and thinking about in order to focus on poker. Your routine may also include practical things like getting a bottle of water and a piece of fruit to keep handy when you play, emptying your bladder so you won’t need to interrupt your session, and/or locking your children in a sound-proof closet so that they won’t disturb you.

Whatever else you do, you should also review your goals with yourself. You can’t control whether you win or lose during a session, so that shouldn’t be your benchmark for success. Instead, if you’re working on continuation betting less often, then you should resolve to check-fold in a few spots where you previously did not. If you do so, then you can consider the session a success no matter the monetary result. Thinking about what you want to do and how you are going to do it ahead of time will help you to play the way you want when it counts.

Post-Game Analysis

Set aside some time after you play to review how you played. A lot of people will tell you to look at biggest pots won and lost, which is a fine habit, but I also think you should look specifically at how you performed with regard to your goal. If you’re working on continuation betting, filter your database for spots where you had the option to c-bet and then review those pots. Make note of both the ones that you played well and the ones that you did not.

If you’re going to continue working on the same concept during your next session, then save one or two examples of hands where you implemented it well. As part of your next pre-game routine, look at these hands to remind yourself both what you’re striving for and that you are capable of it. It’s important to build up your confidence before you go to play, so I think it’s much better to frame it positively (“I can do X perfectly, I’ve done it before, and I’m going to do it today”) rather than negatively (“OK idiot, you always X, but none of that today! You can’t afford to keep making that mistake!”).

Where to Start

This turned into a really long post with a lot to take in. I do think that having a process is important and it’s worth investing some time in getting it right, but it shouldn’t be such a big project that you don’t know where to start. Remember: anything is better than nothing, so you can start just by picking something you want to work on. Find and read one article or strategy thread about it, or maybe watch a video. Then before your next session, take a few minutes to think about what you’re ready to start doing differently as a result of your studying. Play your session with that in mind, and afterwards review a few key hands and think about how you did. What did you do well, and what do you need to keep working on next time?

Now you’ve got the ball rolling. Keep using that process and slowly build on it if there’s more you’d like to be doing. Maybe even subtract a thing or two that isn’t working for you. Just start being a bit more deliberate and thoughtful about your learning and see what feels right. That’s what I’m doing!

Do you have a question for the Thinking Poker Mailbag? Please leave it as a comment below!

These seminars are pre-scheduled, small-group discussions focused on the most common mistakes and skills gaps that I see in my NLHE tournament students. Each two-hour seminar costs $150 per person and is capped at five participants, to enable individualized attention and opportunities for everyone to ask questions and participate in discussions. The content is prepared and the discussion facilitated by me- it’s like an interactive poker video!

Participants will learn how to identify a capped range, how to set-up a multi-barrel bluff, how to choose the best hands for bluffing, and how to size bluffs for maximum profitability. In addition to the seminar itself, all participants receive a syllabus of recommended study materials to help prepare for the session and apply newly acquired skills in their future play.

To register, please e-mail andrew(at) thinkingpoker (dot) net with subject line “Big Bluffs”. If you have questions, please post them here, as others may be wondering the same things. Also please leave a comment if there’s a topic you’re interested in or a time that would be better for you- there’s plenty of flexibility to accommodate everyone, I just need to know what you want to see!

Edit: Fixed the subject line for the e-mail.

His reads here were that the BTN was a weak regular and the BB was on the loose-passive side (30/4 or so pre-flop):

No-Limit Hold’em, $1 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

BB ($60.80)
UTG ($119.40)
MP ($125.70)
Hero ($109.70)
Button ($103.65)
SB ($38.75)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Kc, Td.
2 folds, Hero raises to $3, Button calls $3, 1 fold, BB calls $2.

Flop: ($9.50) Jh, 2h, 4d (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $6, Button calls $6, BB calls $6.

Turn: ($27.50) 6c (3 players)
BB checks, Hero checks, Button checks.

River: ($27.50) 5h (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $55, Button folds, BB calls $51.80 (All-In).

Final Pot: $134.30

Results in white below:
BB has Qc Jd (one pair, jacks).
Hero has Kc Td (high card, king).
Outcome: BB wins $131.10. Hero wins $3.20.

I like this as an overbet spot because both players are likely to have a pair but neither is likely to have a flush. Even before seeing results, I told him that of the two, he ought to be a lot more worried about getting called by the BB than by the BTN. Not only is BB’s relative position better but he is also less more likely to do something spazzy like check a flush or call with toppest pair.

My only advice for playing the hand differently, and what I think makes the hand interesting, is that I think Hero should have shoved for ~$100, enough to put BTN all-in, rather than betting half that, which was half of BTN’s stack but enough to put BB all-in. What’s cool about this is that, assuming I’m right that BTN calls basically never, Hero isn’t really risking twice as much even though he’s betting twice as much. The real threat of a call comes from BB, who can only win $51.80.

It will look to BB, however, as though Hero is risking $100. Presumably BB is not a good hand reader and won’t realize how rarely BTN can call this. Thus, Hero gets credit for making a $100 bet even though his true risk is closer to half that.

I want to take this opportunity to address a blog post that I promised frequent commenter/home game player Kevko I would comment on quite some time ago (sorry Kev):

Then I began losing. I was blaming bad luck, other bad players, or just whatever it was that seemed to be going wrong that day. This led me to begin really studying the game. I read books and articles, forums, and even subscribed to PokerVT (Negreanu’s training site) for a while.

It seems like from that point on I have never really been able to get my game on track. In fact, the more I studied and learned, the more my results fell off. I know sooooo much more about poker now than I did then but it seems like my level of performance is deteriorating. Well maybe not deteriorating but leveling off. Is there a point where playing mathematically “correct” poker impedes your ability to get into the groove?

A lot of my students come to me with experiences like this. They feel like studying, reading, videos, and even coaching has disrupted their “natural rhythm” and now although they no more they have conflicting ideas in their heads and feel like they actually play less well.

I believe that my style of coaching is a powerful remedy to this problem. Usually what’s happened is that you’ve got a lot of information from a lot of different sources and you haven’t sorted it through it yet. Some of it could be simply wrong, but in many cases it’s a matter of not understanding the nuances that help you to figure out what is best in a given situation.

My general philosophy of coaching is to help you improve your thought processes rather than tell you how to play specific hands or situations. This means that my goal is to help you realize all of the things that you should be considering during a hand, to consider those things more quickly and effectively, and to get you in the habit of doing so consistently and instinctively. You learn how to synthesize information and think through situations in terms of strategic objectives rather than just a few new moves to your game in isolation.

Kev, I don’t mean to answer your question by saying, “Buy my coaching”. It certainly is something that you can sort through yourself. The trick is to do what I help my students to do: boil it down to concepts. Understand the purpose behind what you are doing. If a book says that you should bet in a certain situation, ask yourself why? What does that bet accomplish? Then think beyond the book and ask, “Is there a better way to accomplish that objective? What would I do in a slightly different situation? What sorts of hands are best to bet, and which hands would I rather check?”

I don’t believe that poker players have an innate style that is inevitable thrown off-kilter by learning more about the math and strategy that underlie the game. There may well be an adjustment period as you add new concepts to your game, but ultimately I think that understanding poker at a deeper level is necessarily beneficial.

Helping students to achieve this deeper understanding so that they understand what works about the way they already play and how they can enhance and improve their games is what my coaching is all about. And now, for a limited time, you can get in on it on the cheap.

These rates could go back up again at any time, so contact me right away if you’re interested!

My only regret is with regard to the last question they asked me, about discussing a current controversy. I paused for a long time trying to choose something good, and then I got self-conscious about how long it was taking and just started talking without really organizing my thoughts. Turns out they edited out the pause anyway, so I wish I’d just taken my time and given a more well thought out response. You can find a more thorough explanation of my take on the ethics of endorsing a certain disreputable site on the premier edition of the Poker Ethicist.

Check me out and please let me know what you think. You should really listen to the whole show, but my interview starts when they return from the break around the 50-minute mark.

I recently posted about Setting Effective New Year’s Resolutions for Poker Success. Today, I’m going to start sharing my poker-related resolutions.

Goal 1: Make Some Money

Dolla dolla bills, y’all.

Average At Least 20 Hours of Poker Each Week

This is a step up from last year, but I can do it. I’m going to cut myself some slack on a few other fronts (not that I hit those goals last year) to hopefully free up some more time for actually playing this silly game.

I’m also going to be more flexible about the types of games I can play. One thing I want to do is learn some new games, so as long as I’m playing, I’m not going to worry about which game or how big. There’s really no danger of me not playing enough NLHE to earn a solid living.

Average At Least 5 Hours of Coaching Each Week

I didn’t do it last year, but I want to try again. I make more money playing than I do coaching, but it’s something I enjoy. I’ve made some friends through coaching (hi guys), and it’s nice to occasionally be in a cooperative relationship with another poker player rather than always being out to take everyone’s money. I guess I could go the Stoxtrader route and do both, but that’s not my style.

I’ve started scheduling coaching sessions in two-hour blocks, which I’ve found to be a better use of both my and my students’ time. Five hours a week means two sessions each week plus the prep and follow-up that goes along with them. Actually that would be closer to six hours, so I’m giving myself a little wiggle room here. Two sessions per week shouldn’t be that hard, though.

Towards this end, I’ve begun offering discounts for students who purchase multi-session poker coaching packages. This was something I was opposed to doing for a while, but it’s something that a lot of people ask for, and it should keep my coaching load more predictable. If you’ve been thinking about coaching, check out the new poker coaching offerings and drop me a line.

Produce At Least 4 Videos Per Month for Poker Savvy Plus

Poker Savvy Plus is a great place to work. They give me a lot of freedom to make videos that I believe will be interesting and helpful, and they are very supportive. The community there is great, and I want to start participating more actively in the forums so that I can get to know people and what they are looking for in their videos. To keep things fresh, I also want to start innovating some new types of videos and soliciting suggestions for videos more actively.

Read more in Part 2: Publish!

As I recently mentioned, some old friends came out to Seattle to visit us over the weekend. We had a great time camping on Orcas Island, hiking, kayaking, drinking beer and making S’mores (the secret ingredient is Hershey’s Special Dark instead of milk chocolate bars), and then to top it all off, we tried some outdoor rock climbing.

My girlfriend and I took an introductory indoor climbing class a few years ago but have done virtually nothing since. Our friends have recently started climbing regularly at an indoor gym but had no outdoor experience, so while they were more advanced than we, all of us were new to “real” rock climbing.

We had a guide to set the ropes, show us the routes, and belay us. He offered some instruction, but not as much as I was expecting. Mostly he just turned us loose on the wall and let us figure it out.

As I’ve been doing so much poker coaching lately, it was an interesting experience for me to be on the other side of the teacher-student relationship. The courses we climbed were tough by a beginner’s standards but clearly a cakewalk for an experienced climber. I couldn’t help but be aware that I was getting stuck and complaining about an inability to find a foothold in spots were a seasoned veteran would see dozens of places to put his feet.

There’s really a different way of seeing that comes with experience and expertise, and we certainly see that in poker. A good poker player can spot so many things that a weaker player cannot: opportunities for multi-barrel bluffs, for thin value bets, for floats. In short, better players see value where others do not because, among other things, they know how to look ahead to future streets and bluffing opportunities.

I also found that climbing rewards the same Zen-like indifference to failure that I strive for in poker. My first time up the wall took nearly 45 minutes because I was terrified of slipping and wanted to be certain of every step before I took it. Of course, when climbing you are securely roped in, so there’s really no danger in falling off the wall- it’s actually kind of fun! On my final climb I summited the more difficult route that had thwarted me on my second climb by throwing caution to the wind and just stepping up anytime I found a crack to jam one of my feet into. Naturally I slipped off and had to swing back to my place a few times, but more often than not I surprised myself by keeping my feet and securing a new, higher perch.

Likewise in poker you have to be willing to attempt some risky things if you want to get better. I’ve made plenty of bad bluffs, value bets, calls, etc., but overall I feel like my willingness to try new lines and experiment has helped me to improve. I’m not saying you should go making plays willy nilly that you suspect to be bad, but you shouldn’t let the fear of getting called stop you from pulling the trigger on a bluff if you think it’s close. Learning to see all of your options and having the courage and the confidence to act on them is what will get you to the top of the mountain.

This is especially important in one-on-one poker coaching, because it is a highly critical process. That is, I teach by criticizing, hopefully in a very constructive way, the play and thought processes of my students. Unlike my experiences teaching debate, where I was often dealing with audiences who would be the first to admit that they had virtually no prior knowledge of what I was teaching and so no pre-conceived notions to cling to or defend, when coaching poker I am dealing in a subject in which my students are already well-versed. My job is not to teach them something entirely new so much as to refine and in some cases correct things they already know or think they know.

It is difficult for anyone, no matter how open-minded and confident, to handle criticism. Even when students understand and agree with my critique of a hand, they sometimes feel the need to explain or defend themselves anyway, as if to say, “OK, yes, I see now that that is best, but I guess what I was thinking at the time was….” This is a perfectly understandable reaction and, if anything, a failing on my part.

I take my coaching very seriously, I care about the development of my students, and I believe I am always a good coach. I do my best to listen, to explain myself clearly, to answer questions patiently, and to guide without being heavy-handed. But there are a lot of good coaches out there, I’m sure.

When I am at my best, when I am offering great coaching, I am helping my students to circumvent their natural resistance to criticism and to re-thinking. I am creating an atmosphere that is conducive to open-mindedness and creativity. New ideas and information come across as eye-opening rather than threatening. Ideally, this is role I believe a coach ought to occupy, that of the guide rather than the advocate.

Get high-end coaching on a small-stakes budget with my new SSNL Group Seminar.

I’m going to be conducting a series of seminars on small-stakes 6-max NLHE that will help you shore up your fundamentals and learn to deal with the tougher competition at $1/$2 NL and above.

These small group (4 students max) sessions allow smaller stakes players to receive in-depth instruction at a fraction of the price of individual coaching.

For more information or to register, please visit my coaching page or e-mail me.

In all seriousness, though, Todd’s a bright, hungry player, and he definitely had a big score coming to him.

It’s been a big month for my former students, with Diego also winning a WSOP package and final tabling the FTOPS main event. I wish I could play so good. I guess those that can, do…

By the way, I’ve just wrapped the first group seminar, which went very well, and I only have one individual student at the moment. So if you’re interested in coaching, this is a good time for me to pick up a few new students.

Cost for individual lessons is $250/hour. I probably won’t run another group seminar until after the WSOP, but when I do, cost will likely be $100/student/hour. I generally aim to work with students for 5-10 hours over the course of a few weeks, and the lessons are designed to run very efficiently. There’s a lot of content packed into every session, ensuring you a ton of value for your money.

I’d say my target audience is cash game players currently playing smaller stakes (50NL-400NL) who want to transition into bigger games. I can help you think about your game in a new way, identify leaks, and deal with the tough spots with which the more difficult opponents at higher stakes will surely confront you.

Hit me up at foucault82 (at) yahoo (dot) com if you’re interested. Tell me a little about yourself, what you currently play, and what your goals are. Of course I’m happy to answer any questions as well.

This is my bread and butter game, and even if I don’t do anything to improve, just maintaining my current winrate and putting in hours will be very valuable to me. Of course I do want to get better, but my general focus will be on playing rather than doing stuff to improve (posting hands, watching instructional videos, etc.).

Also, I’m not going to worry too much about non-NLHE games. I tried to do it last year, but it didn’t prove too productive. I’ll play/study them when I feel like it, but it’s not going to be a priority. I’m confident in my ability to pick them up quickly should that become necessary/desirable and I choose to devote all my time to it, such that I don’t think I need to prioritize working on them now.

Goal 1: Earn $X in NLHE Cash Games

It’s very tough to predict or control what you earn playing tournaments. With cash games, though, it’s mostly a question of game selection and putting in hours. My goal for 2009 is to earn in NLHE cash games what I made playing any form of poker in 2008, so that anything from tournaments is just a perk. Hopefully this will help me to keep my focus even if I do make a big tournament score, since that won’t count towards the goal.

Goal 2: Earn Supernova status on PokerStars

This shouldn’t be tough, and I’m already off to a good start. Basically I need to earn 100,000 VPP’s (PokerStars’ frequent player reward) over the course of the year. Having earned 3200 already, I’m on course to do this by September.

Last year, I played on Full Tilt almost exclusively because they have rakeback. My understanding is that the Stars VPP program is actually worth more if you devote the time to getting into the top tiers of it, though. Plus bigger games seem to go more frequently and are maybe a little softer.

There are a couple of drawbacks, though. For one thing, I have way more money on FTP than on Stars and it’s not that easy to reload. At the moment I’m mostly grinding up my balance playing 5/10 full ring games, and that’s going OK, so hopefully this won’t be a barrier. But I’ve already passed on a few potentially good 25/50 games for lack of funds.

Also, Stars doesn’t have Deep tables, which are getting really popular on FTP. They do have some tables with a 50BB minimum buy-in, which helps with the short-stacking problem, but I really like playing deep. There are a lot of regulars who can handle a 100BB stack very well but make mistakes playing 200BB deep. Since the bigger games are comprised mostly of regulars, that makes a big difference.

Still, I don’t think Supernova status will be tough to get, so I’m going to go for it. The next level, Supernova Elite, require 10 times as many VPP’s, though, and I don’t think I have any prayer for that.

Resolution Two: Diversify My Income Streams

I laid the foundation for this last year, but I really haven’t capitalized on it yet. Now that I’m starting to get a higher profile in the poker world, I think there are ways for me both to generate passive income and to combine poker with some of my other interests, such as writing and teaching.

Goal 3: Monetize This Blog

I was surprised by how much I made off of blog ads last year with virtually no effort. In general do find internet ads to be tacky and intrusive, but in this case I am giving away a lot of very valuable information at no cost to you, so I hope my dear readers will understand if there are a few ads on the page. I’ll try to keep it minimally intrusive, and the plus side for you will likely be a nicer layout and better content. Expect to see a new look later this month.

Goal 4: Get Back Into Coaching

I’m not going to set an hourly goal for this because I don’t want to force it, but I think I ought to do some more coaching. With the right students, it is in fact very enjoyable and rewarding. Plus, Poker Savvy tells me I can offer my students a free three-month subscription, which hopefully will sweeten the value of the package without costing me any more time. I may also consider doing group sessions that lower the costs for any individual person while helping to get me an hourly rate comparable to that of actually playing poker. Expect to see more information about this soon.

Goal 5: Market My Writing

I’m still just doing the easy stuff, writing for the occasional people who approach me. I think I want to get my name out there a little bit more and publish in some more high-profile ways. I don’t know about writing my own book, but I’m in discussions with a well-known player now about contributing a chapter to a book he’s doing.

Resolution Three: Improve My NLHE Skills

This is a lower priority than just putting in hours. Then again, practice is the single best way to improve, so I want to do what I can to maximize the learning value of my time at the tables.

Goal 6: Use Poker Tracker More Effectively

I barely use Poker Tracker for anything beyond record keeping, and I know I’m only getting like 10% of its value. I often don’t even use the HUD because it distracts me when I’m playing a lot of tables. But I want to be able to do at least some basic evaluation of my play to try to identify some leaks, such as I found with suited connectors in one of my year-end posts. Plus I want to put together a HUD layout that is truly useful for me.

Goal 7: Finish the Year with a 4BB/100 Win-Rate at 5/10 NL.

This is somewhat beyond my control because I won’t play a large enough sample size (there are good players who have had 100K hand break-even streaks), but if I can maintain this win-rate, which I think is about twice what my “true” rate is now, I’ll be in great shape.

Goal 8: Play 50,000 Hands of Heads Up NLHE

If I’m not going to do PLO, heads up is probably the next best game for me to get better at. At stakes above 10/20, it’s often the only way to get action, and that’s even more true the higher you get. Not to mention that thinking through heads up situations makes you better at playing marginal hands in general. Maybe I’ll read and review Moshman’s new book as well….

Resolution 3: Diversify My Income Streams

I’m happy with how this turned out. I got into coaching, joined Poker Savvy Plus, and increased my income from poker writing (slightly).

Goal 7: Start making money on the blog/website. (Achieved)

I’m not making money, but at least I’m not losing it. I made about $15 off of the ads on the blog- not the old Google ads but the Amazon affiliate links on my poker book reviews. Obviously that’s not much but it was enough to cover the cost of hosting the blog, which was the goal. It makes me realize that if I were to put some effort into it, my site could be worth some money. Also the blog has generated some interest for my coaching and probably contributed to my getting hired by Poker Savvy.

Goal 8: Start coaching. (Achieved)

I dove into this pretty aggressively at the beginning of the year but didn’t find it as satisfying as I expected. It’s tricky to find a price that’s fair to the student but also worth my time relative to playing poker. To my knowledge, the students I have had have all increased their profitability and considered their lessons worthwhile. Still, the price remains a sticking point for a lot of potential students, which is understandable.

The thing is that for me to block off an hour of my time tends to be pretty disruptive of my schedule. Like if I have a four hour block when I might otherwise play poker, but a student wants a session right in the middle of that block, then it kind of screws the whole four hours. I get out of the zone and lose a lot of time in transition if I try to play for an hour, then stop and coach for an hour, then play for two more hours.

I do enjoy the personal interaction of coaching and I like seeing my students improve their confidence and their games. I’ll just need to keep working on the right formula. One thing that I think will help is that Poker Savvy is now allowing me to offer free subscriptions for my students. That will both increase the value of the package for them and give them access to a lot of my own thoughts on poker theory, freeing up their paid time to focus exclusively on their application of key concepts.

Goal 9: Affiliate myself with an instructional website. (Achieved)

Early this year, I did some guest videos for Poker Savvy Plus. Those proved popular, and I met with the entire PSP team while in Las Vegas for the WSOP. Starting in August, I became a “Core Pro” and now produce four instructional videos per month for them. I’ve done series on Flop, Turn, and River Fundamentals, on some of my deepest tournament runs, and am now in the midst of one on Full Ring play and one joint tournament video with Tony “Bond18” Dunst.

My familiarity with education and teachers has definitely been an asset. While I’m far from the best player on the PSP staff, my videos have been among the most popular- probably because of my ability to structure and explain important concepts.

Goal 10: Get a book deal. (Failed)

Meh. I didn’t really try at this, and I’m not at all sure I want to. The book market is saturated and poker’s popularity is already on the decline with the general public. I don’t think the kind of book I’d want to write would have broad appeal, and besides names seem to sell poker books a lot better than quality content. It’s just a ton of work for surely less monetary reward than actually playing poker and less “sense of accomplishment” reward than my work with the Boston Debate League.

I do appreciate all the people who have encouraged me to write a book, though. An ego boost is always welcome!

That’s the last of the resolutions. Tomorrow I’ll post some year-end miscellany: more stats, biggest pots won and lost, etc. Then on Monday I’ll have my resolutions for 2009. Hope the new year is treating everyone well so far- it certainly is me!