A: Your guess is correct. That doesn’t mean that I don’t see a use for such a thing, but it’s a personal decision. Ideally you would be unaffected by short-term losses, but if you believe you will play less well after losing $X, then I can see why you might want to bring no more than $X with you.

There are some opposite considerations as well. I think that people who bring only one or two buy-ins with them are creating unrealistic expectations for themselves and causing themselves to be extra risk-averse (and tilty, after losses), because they know that even a small loss will require quitting.

I try to keep enough in my box at the casino so that even if I’m having a bad night I’m still not close to running out of money. but that does require trusting oneself not to tilt it all off. You can find more on this concept in Tommy Angelo’s article Enough is Not Enough.

This is our final episode on the iBus Media Network. The Thinking Poker Podcast will once again be available on its original feed, which you can subscribe to here, by using the links on the right-hand side of this page, or by searching Thinking Poker Podcast in your podcast player of choice.

One of your first goals at the poker table should be to ensure that your opponents never know what you have. Even after the hand is over, it’s generally better to keep the cards face down unless you have to show them, but during the hand you should always do your best to keep your cards a mystery. This may seem obvious, but there are situations where many players intentionally try to “announce” their hand to their opponents with their bets.

As it happens, though, my own contribution is overshadowed by that of Tommy Angelo. His piece is also a good read, but the best part about it is the accompanying graphic, so I’m not going to post an excerpt here. Go check it out for yourselves.

The good news was that, no longer constrained by a 90-minute window for dinner, I was able to get a proper dinner with my friend Shorty (that’s his 2p2 handle – a few of you old-school MTT forum folks may remember him).

Like many people nicknamed Shorty, he is in fact quite tall, which had a lot to do with us becoming friendly. If I recall correctly, we first met at at Foxwoods when he staked me in a tournament there to entice me to come play it and meet him in person. He’s a working stiff and only gets out to Vegas for a few days each summer, so ordinarily my odds of running into him again wouldn’t have been great. However, because he’s so tall, if he’s anywhere in the WSOP area, there’s a good chance I’m going to spot him.

I felt bad asking him to cram into the passenger seat of the Nitmobile, the Mazda 2 I ended up with when I reserved the cheapest class of car available from Enterprise. Thankfully he was good-natured about it, and perhaps taking the tiny vehicle to be indicative of my pecuniary status, insisted on picking up the tab, which is no mean feat when you’re dining at NOBU.

I really do feel fortunate to know so many people who are in or passing through Vegas this summer. For me there’s no better relief from the frustration and stress of tournament poker than spending time with a new or old friend. A cold IPA and Game of Thrones is a close second, but I just watched the season finale last night so I’m going to need more friends!

The next day I didn’t play any tournaments, but I did follow Ed Miller’s advice that I really ought to be playing the cash games while I was in town. I spent the afternoon in a boring and not very good 5/10 game at Aria, where I got off to a good start but finished the session very slightly down after running into unlikely monsters and possibly getting bluffed off of TPTK. My net loss for the session was less than $200, which is literally nothing at 5/10, but psychologically it would have been nice to book a win after whiffing all the tournaments I’d played so far.

Once again relief came in the form of dinner with a friend. This time it was a new one, a student of mine whom I’d never met in person. He was an interesting guy and took me to a very interesting place, an Italian-Japanese fusion trattoria in Chinatown.

As much as I joke about nitting it up and free meal equity, I usually insist on paying when I meet up with my students. This guy got the jump on me, though – I had some trouble finding the place, so he had a few minutes before I arrived to pay the waitress in advance, which fact I didn’t realize until she suddenly showed up at our table bearing change. I guess I got outplayed. The student becomes the master.

Thursday I took as a true day off, no poker at all. Well, I still wrote about poker, but I didn’t play. I did wake up early enough to stroll through a nearby park before the oppressive heat of the day set in. I also went swimming and got a surprisingly good $20 massage. It wasn’t the best massage of my life, but it was damn good for about half of what I’m used to paying even after I left a 100% tip (which is not beyond the pale – though it’s advertised as a $20 massage, a 50 – 100% tip is expected, and it’s still a great value at that price). And yes, you are reading too much into “surprisingly good” – pretty sure those massages cost more than $40.

Timestamps

0:39 Hello and Welcome: Playing poker with a dead man
12:00 Strategy: Playing a big draw on the turn
47:40 Interview: Jared Tendler
1:11:17  Book Club: The Mental Game of Poker 2 with author Jared Tendler

Strategy

$1/$2 NLHE Hero opens to $16 with 6s 4s, BB calls.

Flop Tc 8s 5h ($33 in pot). Both check.

Turn 3s ($33 in pot). Villain bets $17, Hero…

Book Club

Next week we’ll discuss Chapters 3 and 4 of The Mental Game of Poker 2, pages 57 – 117

Timestamps

0:36 Hello and Welcome
23:30 Strategy
50:15 Jussi Palomäki
1:49:10 Outro

Bookclub

Overview of two important concepts from Jared Tendler’s The Mental Game of Poker. Next week, we’ll discuss  Chapters 1 and 2, pages 1 – 57, of The Mental Game of Poker 2.

Strategy

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold’em – 10 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $200.00
BB: $200.00
UTG: $80.00
UTG+1: $80.00
UTG+2: $200.00
MP1: $80.00
MP2: $80.00
Hero (MP3): $300.00
CO: $80.00
BTN: $80.00

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is MP3 with 5 3
2 folds, UTG+2 calls $2, 2 folds, Hero raises to $8, 2 folds, SB calls $7, BB raises to $20, 1 fold, Hero calls $12, SB calls $12

Flop: ($62.00) A 4 2 (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets $40, UTG+2 folds, Hero raises to $130, SB calls $130, BB raises to $180, Hero calls $50, SB folds

Turn: ($552.00) T (1 players)

River: ($552.00) 8 (1 players)

Final Pot: $552.00

Hero shows 5 3

BB shows K K

Shoutout

Thanks to my friend Jennifer, a brain scientist of a different sort who was nevertheless very helpful in preparing for this interview.

Timestamps

0:30 Hello and Welcome
1:50 Strategy
25:03 Mailbag
41:00 Book Club: Elements of Poker with Tommy Angelo

Blinds 300/600/75.

Hero is in the BB with a stack of 27,000, and the chip leader is in the SB. It’s folded around to the button (whose stack is about twice that of Hero) who raises to 1500. The SB (the chip leader whose stack is about 4 times that of Hero) 3-bets to 4000. Hero has AhAc, and after considerable thought (a player not in the hand called the clock on Hero), Hero 4-bets to 8000. The button folds, and the SB (the chip leader) calls.

Hero has 19,000 left, and the pot contains 18,175. The flop: Ad 2h 3d. Hero goes all-in for 19,000, and the SB folds.

May 1 – None
May 8 – Chapters 1 and 2, pages 1 – 55
May 15 – The book as a whole, with guest Jared Tendler
May 22 – Chapters 3 and 4, pages 57 – 117
May 29 – Chapters 5 – 7, pages 119 – 171

If you’ve got questions for us or for Jared, you can post them as comments here, you can email us, or you can tweet them @ThinkingPoker.

Strategy

This week’s hand has actually been on the blog before, in Sylvain’s WSOP Trip Report. Here’s Sylvain’s description of the hand and relevant history:

The day started out pretty well. The table was not easy, as it would be expected early on in the series in a 6 max tournament, but also was not impossible to navigate. I promptly established a very aggressive image and was able to work my stack up from 4500 chips to 14k by the 3rd level when poker pro and amazing player Justin Bonomo sits down two seats to my left. At that point, it is me against 5 pros and I admittedly get a bit nervous and decide to nit up and tighten up my game. That plan quickly goes out of the window when I notice that Justin is running over the table. I decide it is only fair that I give him a bit of resistance and the following few hands happen:

Blinds are 75/150 and Justin opens UTG to 350, btn flats and I decide to 3bet KQo to 950 from the SB. With 8k behind, Justin asks if I have him covered then shoves after looking at my stack and realizing that I don’t. I fold. I really didn’t like the idea of playing KQo with him OOP. So either I take it down pre or fold to his 4bet like I did.

Still at 75/150 He opens UTG to 350, it folds around to me and I 3bet AQo from the SB to 925. He folds.

At this point, I would say we have a little bit of history, and Justin and I are both sitting on 14k. Still at 75/150 It folds around to me on the btn and I open KJo to 300. Justin 3bets to 950. His 3 betting range here is very wide imo. He’s seen me be pretty aggressive even against other players at the table so could really do this with lots of different things. I also have blockers to his value range so decide for a small 4bet to 2025. Obviously ready to fold if he 5bets. He flats. Flop comes J107r and he checks to me. Given the flop texture decide for a rather large bet and cbet to 3625. He jams with A10 for middle pair, we hold and double up and bust him in the process.

Book Club

We discuss Part 1 of Elements of Poker, from page 1 to 84. A few people sent questions and comments after we’d recorded – we’ll discuss those next week, along with pages 85 – 174 (Parts II – V). For more of Andrew’s thoughts on how to read the book, check out Idealistic Extremes.

Timestamps

1:02 Hello and Welcome. Andrew is still in the WRGPT.
5:22 Strategy: WSOP 6-Max hand
38:22 Book Club: Part I of Elements of Poker

Nope, this is just his way. He goes on like this for at least an hour, “Two hours of these fucking cards,” “What am I supposed to do with these shit hands?”, “Un-fucking-believable”,  “Can’t you deal me anything I can play?”, hanging his head and cursing to himself, angrily throwing his cards away out of turn, occasionally storming off from the table to go kick the wall. While he’s gone, some of the regulars talk about how he was hear last weekend putting on the same show.

The player on my right, in between the Tilt Monkey and me, leaves, and another guy, probably in his late 50s or early 60s with a Lou Reed leather jacket look going on moves into the vacant seat. The next time Tilt Monkey starts muttering under his breath, Lou asks him, “What’s that?”

Tilt Monkey looks up. “Huh?”

“I couldn’t hear you, what did you say?”

“Nothing.” His face is red and he looks miserable.

“Hey are you alright, buddy?” Lou asks with faux-genuine concern.

“No I’m not alright. Do I look fucking alright?”

“Whoah, what’s the matter?”

“I been getting my fucking ass kicked.”

Lou looks shocked. “What? Who kicked your ass?”

Tilt Monkey glares at him. Feigning ignorance, Lou forges ahead. “What happened? Who kicked your ass?”

“They’ve all been kicking my ass.”

“Oh you mean in the card game.”

Tilt Monkey lowers his head and returns to cursing his luck.

Lou looks around the table, shaking his head. I’m not the only one stifling laughter. “You all need to stop kicking this guy’s ass,” he scolds us.

It’s the same business when the Tilt Monkey wins a pot. “Finally. About fucking time. Gimme that pot. A fucking pot. One fucking pot in an hour.”

Finally another guy at the table has had enough. After losing to the Monkey and getting this act, he tells him to shut his fucking mouth and stop whining. Soon both are on their feet pointing and shouting at each other. The floor intervenes and tells Tilt Monkey that one more comment and he’s getting thrown out.

To his credit, he settles down well after that and swallows a lot of abuse without saying anything more. People at the table are talking about him like he’s not there, and if I can hear it he can hear it, but he doesn’t react.

It helps that he’s winning now. A few hours later he’s actually up and in better spirits, actually chatting cordially with Lou. “You work out at the Y? I teach right around the corner from there.”

“Oh yeah, where?” Lou asks.

“At the community college,” the no-longer-tilted monkey tells him.

“What do you teach?”

“Statistics.”

Ultra Death Men provided this week’s music, including the song “Orel Hershiser” that closed out the show. If you want to hear more of their stuff, their digital album Muscles is available for download for a price of your choosing from the Ultra Death Men bandcamp page.

Thanks to everyone who’s listened so far and especially to those who’ve e-mailed with comments and suggestions. We’ve integrated much of your feedback into this week’s show, so please keep the e-mails coming.

The Thinking Poker Podcast is now listed in the iTunes directory, or you can subscribe directly. Enjoy!

Click here to read my full review!

How I Made My First Million From Poker is all over the map. It’s a memoir, it’s a strategy book, it’s a poker lifestyle book. This jack of all trades is a master of none, though readers who can get past Tri Nguyen’s off-putting persona are likely to find enough helpful advice to warrant a modest sticker price of $47 for paperback or e-book. All in all it’s a 6/10.

You can read the full review here. If you read the book, please let me know what you think. By the way, using my affiliate link will save you 10%, so be sure to do that if you buy it!

Busted third to last hand of the night, been going back and forth a lot for the last half hour about whether I like my call, but we´ll get to that in a second. Table draw was OK but my seat was rough, had the only two truly good players at the table both on my immediate left. One of them busted the other, which I was happy about until that seat was filled by Scott Seiver. Even in position, that guy is tough to play against.

I played what I think was a very good TAG game for most of the day and hovered between 90-120% of the average. With about half an hour to go, my table broke and I moved to a much softer table which unfortunately was next on the break order.

Third table was tougher than the second but softer than the first, though again my seat wasn´t great. To my left was a kid who exuded competence and was sitting on more than twice the average. I could tell from the way the table was responding to him and talking about him that he´d been very difficult to play against.

Blinds 250/500/50, I raise to 1250 with KJo UTG+2, Rousso calls, BB who does not seem very good calls. Flop AQ8r, BB checks, I bet 2600, they both call. Turn 6 completes the rainbow and this seems like a good spot to barrel, as I think it´s very tough for anyone to call with less than two pair. I bet 8800 leaving about pot behind in my stack. Rousso tanks and calls, BB folds. River K and I check not because I think I´m good but because I think she made her commitment decision on the turn and isn´t folding. She says, ¨Please don´t have Ace-King¨ as though I´d check that.

“AQ is good,¨ I tell her.

She shakes her head and looks nervous, so even though I´m sure I´m beat I show. She has 86o, so essentially she hit a 5-outer on the turn.

Next hand I have KJo again and raise to 1250 again. I think choosing to make a marginal raise immediately after a frustrating loss was probably the biggest mistake I made in this hand. Tough player on my left calls, someone else calls, BB calls. Flop Kc Qh 6c, I check, guy on my left bets like 2/3 pot, the other two fold, I call. Turn 4h, I check planning to check-raise all-in but he makes a suspicious face and checks behind. I put him on a straight or flush draw.

River 9h completes JT and backdoor hearts, which aren´t entirely impossible for him if he has like Ah Th. I don´t think he bluffs much if I check, so my options are either check-fold or bet. I bet 4500, which was less than half-pot. I had it in the back of my head that this might be a better way to induce a bluff than checking, but I wish I´d thought more about what I would do if raised before I bet.

Villain thought for a bit and shoved, it was about 13K more for me to call to win like 33K. Obviously JT got there so the question is how often he shoves busted draws. Like I said before, I had the impression that the whole table was intimidated by him, which leads me to think that he would bluff pretty often vs. a blocking bet. The guy on my right actually called the clock on me, which I don´t know where that came from because we were playing a fixed number of hands before stopping for the night anyway so it really didn´t affect him at all for me to take my time. Anyway I obviously ended up calling and was shown Jc Tc, so I´m still not sure what to think about that one.

I´ll post more of a trip report soon, but wanted to get the results up there now. Thanks to everyone who was following along and especially those of you who bought action, sorry I couldn´t bring you a better result.

The very first essay is a reflection on the author’s experiences as a junior tennis great in downstate Illinois. In that part of the country, wind was a huge factor in the game, and Wallace attributes much of his success to his ability to deal with the concomitant frustrations more coolly than his better-prepared opponents could:

I, who was affectionately known as Slug because I was such a lazy turd in practice, located my biggest tennis asset in a weird robotic detachment from whatever unfairnesses of wind and weather I couldn’t plan for. I couldn’t begin to tell you how many tournament matches I won between the ages of twelve and fifteen against bigger, faster, more coordinated, and better-coached opponents simply by hitting balls unimaginatively back down the middle of the court in schizophrenic gales, letting the other kid play with more verve and panache, waiting for enough of his ambitious balls aimed near the lines to curve or slide via wind outside the green court and white stripe into the raw red territory that won me yet another ugly point. It wasn’t pretty or fun to watch, and even with the Illinois wind I never could have won whole matches this way had the opponent not eventually had his small nervous breakdown, buckling under the obvious injustice of losing to a shallow-chested “pusher” because of the shitty rural courts and rotten wind that rewarded cautious automatism instead of verve and panache. I was an unpopular player, with good reason. But to say that I did not use verve or imagination was untrue. Acceptance is its own verve, and it takes imagination for a player to like wind, and I liked wind.

I don’t know how I missed it the first time around, but I think the parallels to tilt in poker are clear.

After that I just quit. When you’ve been playing badly, I think it’s important to recognize and learn from your mistakes but also to find something that you did well and take pride in that, so that you don’t get too down on yourself. So, I took pride in quitting well. (Thanks, Tommy Angelo).

Usually I try to leave my frustrations at the table when I quit, but tonight I couldn’t (still can’t, really, which is part of why I’m writing this). I paced around my apartment for a while, complained to my girlfriend, and then went for a walk.

It’s cold, windy, and snowy in Boston right now, but once you get past the unpleasantness of that, it’s actually quite pretty as well. We live in a picturesque neighborhood, and the streetlights shining on snowy brownstones is lovely.

As I started walking, this crazy thought went through my head: “I hope nobody tries to mug me tonight, because I’m really in the mood to punch somebody, and I don’t think that would end well for me.” I don’t know why that occurred to me; despite the weather, plenty of people were out on a Friday night in Boston, and I wasn’t wandering through dark alleys or anything. Plus I probably wouldn’t have done it anyway, but I was feeling a little bit crazy.

Troubled by that thought, I decided to turn it into something positive instead, so the next crazy thought that occurred to me was that I should go make somebody’s night by dropping $20 on the first panhandler I saw. I was mulling over whether I should actually do this when as if on cue a guy asked me for change. I paused, started to reach into my pocket, and then realized I only had a couple of ones on me.

“I’ll get you on the way back,” I told him, which I think tilted the shit out of him because he started calling after me, “I’m looking for work, too! I’m a certified electrician!” He said some other stuff that I couldn’t hear. There was an ATM on the corner, so I got some cash, folded up a $20, and dropped it in his cup. I could tell he was a talker and I really wasn’t in the mood for conversation, so I tried to just keep walking, but he must have checked immediately to see what I gave him because he started shouting “Thank you!” at my back.

There’s a coffee shop right across the street that has really good-looking baked goods I’ve been wanting to try, so I stopped in to buy a cookie but all they had left were some dry looking scones. Could I run any worse? So I left there and walked a few more blocks to the Whole Foods, but they didn’t have much of a selection either. I wasn’t particularly proud of myself for wanting to drown my sorrows in food, so I bought a muffin that I didn’t think I’d like, ate a few bites, and threw the rest away.

Then I walked home, still feeling frustrated, and so here we are.

Cliff’s Notes: I ran bad and played bad but at least I quit well. Then I went for a walk and tilted a panhandler but made it up to him. Then I bought a muffin but didn’t eat it. Cool story, bro.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($985)
CO ($1946.25)
Button ($1000)
SB ($1142.55)
BB ($1154)
Hero (UTG) ($2331.75)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Q, Q
Hero bets $40, 3 folds, SB raises to $88, 1 fold, Hero calls $48

Flop: ($186) 2, 9, 8 (2 players)
SB bets $58, Hero raises to $143, SB raises to $306, Hero calls $163

Turn: ($798) J (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: ($798) 9 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $222, SB calls $222

Total pot: $1242 | Rake: $3

Results:
SB had A, A (two pair, Aces and nines).
Hero had Q, Q (two pair, Queens and nines).
Outcome: SB won $1239

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($955)
SB ($1978.25)
BB ($1000)
UTG ($1765.55)
MP ($1139)
Hero (CO) ($1715.75)

Preflop: Hero is CO with K, K
UTG bets $28, 1 fold, Hero raises to $88, 1 fold, SB calls $83, 1 fold, UTG raises to $244, Hero raises to $1715.75 (All-In), 1 fold, UTG calls $1471.75

Flop: ($3529.50) J, 10, 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($3529.50) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($3529.50) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $3529.50 | Rake: $3

Results:
UTG had A, A (two pair, Aces and twos).
Hero had K, K (two pair, Kings and twos).
Outcome: UTG won $3526.50

These next two were bad enough that I quit playing, recognizing that I was no longer on even my B-game:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($2144.50)
Hero (Button) ($2165)
SB ($1828)
BB ($1344.35)
UTG ($2047)
MP ($1994.50)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, 10
1 fold, MP bets $40, 1 fold, Hero calls $40, 1 fold, BB calls $20

Flop: ($130) 10, 7, 5 (3 players)
BB bets $60, MP raises to $140, Hero calls $140, 1 fold

Turn: ($470) 7 (2 players)
MP checks, Hero checks

River: ($470) 2 (2 players)
MP bets $420, Hero calls $420

Total pot: $1310 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had A, 10 (two pair, tens and sevens).
MP had J, J (two pair, Jacks and sevens).
Outcome: MP won $1307

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (5 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($1209.50)
Button ($315)
SB ($2098)
BB ($1466.50)
Hero (UTG) ($1000)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Q, A
Hero bets $35, MP raises to $120, 3 folds, Hero raises to $315, MP raises to $1209.50 (All-In), Hero calls $685 (All-In)

Flop: ($2015) K, 7, 3 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: ($2015) 6 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($2015) J (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $2015 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had Q, A (high card, Ace).
MP had K, A (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: MP won $2012

The ironic part is that when I looked at my results for the night, I was actually down less than $2000. In other words, at the time that I first started feeling like things were going badly for me, I was actually still ahead for the session! I wasn’t actually having a losing session at all until I started tilting.