poker tournament strategy – Thinking Poker

Episode 402: Matt Glassman and Tommy Angelo

Andrew — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 15:41:34 +0000

Matt Glassman discusses his prize-winning poker essay and how he prepared to take on the best players in the world in the PSPC $25K. Plus a bonus interview with Tommy Angelo discussing his new article How to Meditate While You Play Poker.

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MATT GLASSMAN

Matt Glassman is an avid card player and a Senior Fellow at Georgetown University’s Government Affairs Institute adept at explaining politics through the lenses of game theory and card strategy.

Matt is a frequent Thinking Poker guest who first appeared on Episode 191.

TOMMY ANGELO

Tommy Angelo has been practicing and coaching painless poker for decades. His many books and videos are seen as essential teachings for any serious player. Tommy’s site is tommyangelo.com.

Tommy is a frequent Thinking Poker guest who first appeared on Episode 2.

Episode 376: Dan Schorr

Andrew — Mon, 09 May 2022 23:20:22 +0000

Writer, poker player, and former sex crimes prosecutor Dan Schorr joins Carlos and Andrew to discuss preparing for his first WSOP Main Event, game theory in the criminal justice system, and his new novel The Final Table.

Support the podcast and get daily strategy segments from Carlos and Andrew at www.patreon.com/thinkingpokerdaily.

Dan Schorr

Dan Schorr is a former criminal prosecutor and municipal inspector general. He is also a poker player and the author of the political thriller The Final Table.

Episode 363: ICM with Dara O’Kearney

Andrew — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:37:25 +0000

Irish poker pro and long-time friend of the show Dara O’Kearney joins Andrew to discuss his new book, Endgame Poker Strategy. The interview is packed with strategy discussion of final table play, ICM, and related concepts, plus a little James Joyce at the end.

Andrew also has a new book out: Essential Poker Concepts.

You can support the podcast and get daily strategy segments at www.patreon.com/thinkingpokerdaily.

Dara O'Kearney

Dara O’Kearney is a professional poker player from Dublin, Ireland. He hosts the The Chiprace podcast and is co-author of Poker Satellite Strategy, PKO Poker Strategy, and the new Endgame Poker Strategy.

Strange Stop and Go

Andrew — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:02:29 +0000

Let me say up front that I don’t think I played this particularly well. Nevertheless, I think there’s some interesting discussion to be had here.

This hand was from the Poker Stars $500 weekly. Villain is Roothlus, a very successful MTT pro who teaches at Poker X Factor and is sponsored by Ultimate Bet (but let’s not go there right now). He’s smart but definitely on the TAG/nitty side. He knows and respects me and probably has a good idea of how I expect him to play. MP is a random fish.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 530 Tournament, 100/200 Blinds (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t11755)
SB (t7968)
BB (t9775)
UTG (t28380)
UTG+1 (t7255)
Hero (MP1) (t21954)
MP2 (t8381)
MP3 (t11250)
CO (t6950)

Hero’s M: 73.18

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with A, K
2 folds, Hero bets t555, MP2 calls t555, MP3 raises to t2300, 4 folds, Hero calls t1745, 1 fold

Flop: (t5455) 7, 9, Q (2 players)
Hero bets t19654 (All-In), MP3 calls t8950 (All-In)

Turn: (t23355) Q (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t23355) 8 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t23355

Results:
Hero had A, K (one pair, Queens).
MP3 had 10, 9 (two pair, Queens and nines).
Outcome: MP3 won t23355

Clearly I was way off on his range, but for whatever reason I was near certain that Roothlus also had AK here. Stack sizes are all wrong for a traditional stop-and-go, plus there’s the problem of the third player in the pot. Here, though, I am not trying to fold out better hands post-flop, but rather fold out a chop. I have no problem with MP coming along, in fact anything he continues with when I call but would fold to a shove is probably to my benefit anyway.

Because it looks like I’m trying to drag MP along, my flat call has to look really strong to Roothlus. Not that AK isn’t strong, but I think it looks even stronger than that, like exactly KK/AA. Granted that’s not really consistent with open shoving the flop, but remember I’m only trying to get him off of AK here. I think it’s a tough hero call to make, and in fact he tanked for a really long time before calling with T9.

Still, I think it’s more effective to check the flop, maybe even check-raise all in. The risk there is that Roothlus bluff shoves or pot commits himself with something he would have folded. Really though, I think I just look too strong for him to bet even a pretty good hand like AQ, let alone a bluff. Checking flop and betting turn looks a lot more credible as a monster and is probably what I should have done.

More importantly, though, I should have just shoved pre-flop. If he’s showing up here with T9, I can’t afford to let him see a flop and I can’t afford to let him fold dominated hands like AJ when he whiffs the flop.