Railbirds Interview

This is an interview that I did with Railbirds.com a few hours after my elimination on Day 7. No beautiful women in this one but it is much less rushed than the others so I’m able to answer questions in more depth:

 … Read full post

WSOP Day 6 Miracle

I owe you guys an apology. After sending a mysterious tweet from the table claiming that it was “literally a miracle” that I didn’t bust on a particular Day 6 hand, I took my merry time in providing any explanation and actually posted the hand in BBV before posting it … Read full post

Classic Story: Can’t Put Him on a Hand

Whenever we get a lot of new visitors at Thinking Poker, and probably a lot of people who haven’t read my more monolithic trip reports (understandable), I reprint select stories that are buried in much longer narratives but that I consider among my best. This article is part of that … Read full post

I Just Won $160,000

I started to title this blog something about getting eliminated or finishing in 53rd place but that’s an awfully pessimistic way of looking at it. I just won $160,000. I cashed in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker for the fifth time in six years, a feat … Read full post

WSOP Day 5

Just a quick update to say that I survived the day with a little shy of 1.6 million chips. I think that’s a touch above average. In some ways it wasn’t a real significant day. I won a sizable pot early on with a set vs. an overpair, but other … Read full post

Day 3 Table Draw

Thanks to Dana Rossi for posting this in the comments.

Deepak Bhatti	77,510	Pavilion / 42 / 1
Paul Farmer	77,700	Pavilion / 42 / 2
Ryan Hall	94,300	Pavilion / 42 / 3
Vladislav Varlashin	111,000	Pavilion / 42 / 4
Lonnie Heimowitz	90,000	Pavilion / 42 / 5
… Read full post

Interesting Day 2 Happenings

Ethics for Sale

Some of you may have heard that Phil Hellmuth overslept yesterday morning and was getting blinded off in the tournament. Apparently Mike Matusow called security at Phil’s hotel and got them to enter his room and wake him up. I didn’t know any of this at the … Read full post

Day 2 Table Draw

Just published, thanks to Kevmath for getting this out in the Twittersphere so quickly!

Sorel Mizzi 47900 – ie imperium ie famous multi-accounter and also frontrunner for last year’s player of the year
Andres Rodrigues 24125
Lauchlin McKinnon 35100
Claudio Rinaldi 63900
Russel Rosenblum 36975 – final tabled the main … Read full post

World Series of Poker 2011 Main Event

I’m about to leave for the airport, and it occurs to me that I haven’t actually posted about my Main Event plans! I’ll be at the 2+2 party tonight and then playing my first day on July 9th, Day 1C. I’m in Vegas until at least the 12th, hopefully longer, … Read full post

Game Theory at the Gate

CNN reports that,

The Transportation Security Administration stood by its security officers Sunday after a Florida woman complained that her cancer-stricken, 95-year-old mother was patted down and forced to remove her adult diaper while going through security.

At least from what I can tell from this article, the entirety of … Read full post

Mailbag: Check-Raised on the Flop

(I’ve made blog posts out of responses to reader-submitted questions before, but it never occurred to me to actively solicit such questions for a regular feature until now! So welcome to the first Thinking Poker Mailbag, and please read on for information about how to submit your own question!)

Q: … Read full post

On Not Protecting

Here’s an archived hand that illustrates a key point from my Betting for Protection article. The idea is that you don’t have to worry about protecting against a draw if you expect your opponent to bluff very often when he misses his draw. Essentially your implied odds from catching bluffs … Read full post

Happy 40th Anniversary, War on Drugs!

Today marks the 40th anniversary of President Nixon’s declaration of “war on drugs”, a quagmire that has proven far more expensive and deadly than the Vietnam War that he inherited. Put simply, the war on drugs is an ongoing decision to address America’s drug problem as a fundamentally criminal, rather … Read full post

Tales From a 7-11: Customers

One of my co-workers introduced me to the workplace cliche that “this job wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the customers,” which in my naivete I believed to be both original and uniquely applicable to my job. Today, instead of a single story, I’m going to share a … Read full post

Dealing With a Bad Table Draw

Now that the WSOP is in full-swing, many players will be taking a shot or two at events well above their usual buy-in levels. This can be a great opportunity, because the $1000 and $1500 NLHE events attract hundreds of players weaker than what you’d see in an average $20 … Read full post

Backing and Bad Deals

Although I’ve occasionally sold action, I’ve never had a long-term backing deal, and I’ve never wanted one. I have a few horses but I’m generally very reluctant to stake anyone else. My thinking on this is as follows:

To the extent that the backer has an edge on a deal, … Read full post

Extra Credit

Here’s an interesting hand that one of my students shared with me. We’d been working on bet-sizing, and his assignment for the week was to find spots to under- and over-bet the pot.

His reads here were that the BTN was a weak regular and the BB was on the … Read full post

Tales From a Summer Camp: The New England Seashore

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 of minority youth from low-income backgrounds, but there were a … Read full post

Poker News You Can Trust

Amidst all the bad news in the online poker world these days, there is one development that I find very exciting. Two news sites have launched recently, both promising to cover the online poker industry without the conflicts of interest that come from accepting advertisement from the industry itself.

I … Read full post

WSOP Plans

Surprise, surprise, I’m just now making plans for where I’m going to be and what I’ll be doing a few weeks from now! I’m going to the Rio for the first week of June to hit a few of the WSOP prelims, specifically:

June 2: Event 4 $5000 NLHE

June … Read full post

He Should Have Barreled

Found this sort of interesting hand while randomly perusing the database. I don’t know for sure that I would have folded to a turn barrel, but I think Villain definitely ought to bet, and if I know that he isn’t betting this, then folding 88h on the turn is easy:… Read full post

An Early Poker Lesson

My father was generally the parent more interested in playing board and card games, including poker, with my brother and me, but this particular story involves my mother. I meant to post this on Mother’s Day but didn’t get around to it (I did call her from Madrid, though).

Most … Read full post

I Forgot It Was Sunday

Without online poker to order my life, the days just run together. Sunday in particular used to be a day that would almost invariably be given over to poker. But I just now realized what day it is today, and that I won’t be playing the Sunday Million, and that … Read full post

EPT Madrid River Bluff-Call

There’s a full trip report in the works, but for now, here’s my favorite hand that I played in the EPT Madrid main event:

Blinds are 150/300/25. The UTG is a very aggressive young Scandinavian with a huge stack. He opens to 750, and I call in the CO with … Read full post

I’m Still Alive

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 coaching students lives in Madrid and is also a very … Read full post

… and Done.

Andrew busted at EPT Madrid shortly after the dinner break Day 1A.

I expect he’ll post a more thorough recounting tomorrow, but he did have a Spanish friend relay the busto hand info for me to share –

It was shortly after dinner break, with blinds at 300/600, Andrew had

… Read full post

EPT Madrid Grand Final

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 Grand Final as part of their prize package.

In … Read full post

Gray Friday

My current 2+2 Magazine article, Gray Friday, is one of the most personal I’ve published. It’s about what was going through my head around the time of the online poker indictments and by extension a reflection on my relationship to online poker in general:

It still seems surreal to

… Read full post

How to Float a Good Player

Dipping into the archives to bring you some poker content…

Villain and I were starting a game. He’s pretty solid and not someone I’d ordinarily go out of my way to play heads up, especially not at 2/4 where there’s easier competition available.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $4 BB (2 handed) … Read full post

Product Review: EVO Vertical Mouse

A few months ago, I began to experience pain along the top of my right forearm. Insert your masturbation jokes here, but realize that this is the arm I use for directing my mouse, and as a professional online poker player, I was spending hours every day moving and clicking … Read full post

Tales From a Summer Camp: Bad Idea

(Sorry for all the low-content posts lately, I do plan on getting some more poker-related stuff going soon. For now, enjoy the filler!)

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 … Read full post

Selling EPT Madrid Action

I’ve made a last-minute decision to play the EPT Grand Final in Madrid. I’ll be starting Day 1A on May 7th. A friend who used to play in my old high school home game way back when is going to join me for the trip, so it should be fun … Read full post

Thinking Poker Home Game Final Results

In light of recent events, I’ve decided to end the Thinking Poker Home Game tournament series early. Americans are still allowed to play for play money, and I thought about finishing out the series that way, but I think there are too many people who just aren’t going to be … Read full post

Coaching Prices Dramatically Reduced!

This cloud has a silver lining for those of you who have been considering coaching: my time right now is worth a lot less than it was last week, and consequently I’m cutting the price of my coaching in half! Effective immediately, individual coaching is $150/hour with even deeper discounts … Read full post

Black Friday: My (Non-)Thoughts

I want to begin with appreciation and an apology. I’m flattered that so many people have been eager to hear my thoughts on the recent events that rocked the online poker world, and I’m sorry that this post is going to disappoint you.

The truth is that I don’t know … Read full post

Single Draw Winner Take All This Sunday

Edit: Well this was a little premature. In light of recent events I will in all likelihood not be able to play in the Home Game this Sunday. Unless Stars automatically unregisters me, my dollar will stay in the prize pool, so phat overlay for those who do play!

Sorry … Read full post

Bluffing With Two Pair

I think Villain’s turn range consists of bluffs, flushes, AQ, sets, and perhaps the occasional 43 or AJ no spade that is raise-folding. I think it’s unlikely that he’s raising a singleton spade, as without a pair he’s setting himself up to get blown off of the draw and with … Read full post

NAPT Day 3 Update

The day started well enough. My table couldn’t be called “soft”, but given the overall tough field, I imagine it was one of the more desirable tables. We were supposed to be playing 8-handed, but my table consisted of me, three primarily live players of varying skill, and three online … Read full post

NAPT Day 2 Update

I started the day with 30K, quickly ran it up to 80K, dropped back down to 40K, ran it up to 130K, dropped down as low as 36K, then quickly ran back up to 140K and finished the day with 127,200.

Despite the swings, it was actually a really boring … Read full post

NAPT Mohegan Sun Day 2

Didn’t get the table draw until the very last minute, but here it is:

1 Richard Woodall 81,000
2 Andrew Brokos 30,800
3 Mario Nagel 18,600
4 Douglas Johnson 33,000
5 George Kalaitzis 37,000
6 Mike Beasley 34,300
7 Cliff Josephy 32,100 (JohnnyBax)
8 Chris Bonita 24,500
9 Tony Cousineau … Read full post

NAPT Mohegan Sun Day 1 Update

Day got off to a good start: I made some big hands and won some big pots during levels 1 and 2 to go on break with about 50K. I’ll post more details after the event is over but basically I played a couple of pots in position against Carter … Read full post

Playing NAPT Mohegan Sun Today!

Today marks my first public appearance sporting the PokerStars Team Online patch (assuming I successfully meet up with  fellow PSTO’er Kevin “WizardofAhhhs” Thurman, who is supposed to have some for me). I hopefully won’t be able to post a blog update until tonight, so if you want the play-by-play, be … Read full post

Sunday Nittaments

I was tweating yesterday about some big folds that I made in my Sunday tournaments. At least one person expressed interest, so here are the two biggest.

Villain was 11/8, and I’d been reasonable to tight, though admittedly my Team Online avatar does seem to make people a little suspicious:… Read full post

6-Max NLHE Shootout Results

Congratulations to Pokerpaulmd and Piefarmer, who chopped the $5.50 NLHE 6-Max Shootout Home Game yesterday. Rjtii finished 3rd, and Jeppe18 came fourth after surviving the many bad beats I put on him at our starting table to eventually triumph over me in the heads up. The other final tablists were … Read full post

Home Game Shootout Today!

Sorry it was late to show up in the lobby, but the $5.50 6-Max NLHE Shoot-Out is taking place as planned at 16:30 today in the Thinking Poker Home Game. Club ID# 312467, ID Code “foucault” to join.… Read full post

Slowplaying

My latest poker strategy article, Slowplaying, is a meditation on a variety of topics related to slowplaying: what it costs you, when to do it, which types of boards and opponents are best, etc. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction:

“[Y]ou must weigh the advantages of slowplaying against what … Read full post

Brutal Disconnection

The field in the $1050 PokerStars Super Tuesday had been whittled down from 394 to 28. With 10 BB’s, I wasn’t in great shape, but I had a fighting chance. And then the internet at my apartment went out. I tried the usual disconnecting and reconnecting, but it didn’t fix … Read full post