In general, I think it’s important, for meta-game reasons, to bet hands like this on the river (see my article Value Flows Downstream). If you aren’t betting the second nut full house here, then it will be very difficult for you to take advantage of your position on boards like … Read full post
I distinctly recall telling one of my students in our most recent session, “Don’t try to bluff a guy off of top pair or an overpair. People just don’t like to fold them.” So of course I go and try it in the donkfest that is the Sunday Million:
Poker … Read full post
A lot of weakish players will broadcast their hand strength with their bet sizing especially when in position on the river. Thus, I sometimes like to check to them without a specific plan. Instead, I want to see what they do and then decide whether to raise for value, raise … Read full post
Full Tilt Poker, $25/$50 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
Hero (BB): $5,498
SB: $5,674
Pre-Flop: 9
9
dealt to Hero (BB)
SB raises to $150, Hero raises to $498, SB calls $348
Flop: ($996) T
7
Q (2 Players)
Hero checks, SB … Read full post
Imagine that you are riding on the subway when a disheveled man wearing dirty clothes and a long, unkempt beard boards your car and begins to rant about how aliens got him and are coming for you too. He is crazy, you think to yourself, and probably you avoid … Read full post
I first read David Sklansky and Ed Miller’s No Limit Hold ‘Em: Theory and Practice over a year ago, when I was just starting to play cash games seriously. I recall thinking that it was good but not great and then reconciling it to my bookshelf as I spent the … Read full post
As I move into higher stakes games, I’m constantly reminded of a poker principle that’s been important all along: you make most of your money from playing with bad players. When I sit in a 25/50 game, it’s because there’s someone at the table (or more than one someone, if … Read full post
You know you’re in for a rough time when the Sunday Majors haven’t even started yet and you’re already ready to tear your hair out. I was just thinking yesterday how lucky I was to experience so much positive variance in my first shots at the big games. I was … Read full post
My latest article, entitled Your Opponent’s Arsenal Part 2: Turn and River Play, has just been published in the March 2008 edition of Two Plus Two Internet Magazine. This article is the sequel to last month’s Your Opponent’s Arsenal Part 1: Flop Play and my thirteenth for the … Read full post
Best month ever!
At that start of the year, I set some year-long poker goals for myself. So far I’ve played too many tournaments and not enough hours, but my hourly rate has been so good that I’m getting by anyhow.
I averaged 17 hours a week, only 2/3 of … Read full post
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $20 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com
MP ($1394)
CO ($1202.10)
Button ($2459.50)
Hero ($2030)
BB ($1224)
UTG ($3402.50)
Preflop: Hero is SB with 9s, 8s.
UTG raises to $60, MP calls $60, 2 folds, Hero calls $50, 1 fold.
Flop:… Read full post
This article slipped past me while I was on vacation, but thankfully I was able to catch it on Professor Nesson’s blog, eon. Apparently, the provision of Governor Patrick’s casino bill that would criminalize online poker, about which I wrote to him in opposition, is finding itself with … Read full post
Terrence Chan recently made the humorous observation that not only is the hand reporting from major poker tournaments largely inaccurate (this is well-known) but that the reporters tend to reconstruct the details in ways that make “name players” look good. He cites two recent examples from his own experience, one … Read full post
I’m just back from three wonderful days at the Grand Canyon with Emily. It really is an amazing place. I’d been once before, about fifteen years ago, but didn’t remember too much about it. We took a lot of pictures, some of which I’ll post here soon, but trite as … Read full post
I recently came across this pretty amusing collection of quotes about why work sucks. The one they ranked 10th was actually my favorite and comes from one of my favorite writers:
“It was true that I didn’t have much ambition, but there ought to be a place for people without … Read full post
An illustrative S/8 hand I played recently:
Hand #15452617704
7 Card Stud *High-Low* ($10/$20), Ante $1
*3rd Street* – (0.60 SB)
somebody: xx xx Ah___raises___calls
foucault82: 4d 4h 4s___raises
badabang: xx xx Jc___folds
luckymonkey9: xx xx 7c___folds
Jshorts7: xx xx 5d___calls
umhmm: xx xx 3h___folds
*4th Street* – (6.90 SB)… Read full post
In Pot Limit Omaha, hand values tend to run close, which means that people often do not fold to re-raises. Consequently, a lot of players will never reraise without Aces, and any time you do re-raise, your thinking opponents will put you on Aces. By occasionally re-raising with other hands, … Read full post
I flew into Las Vegas last night for a hastily scheduled vacation. I may be the only person in the world who comes here in order to take a break from gambling. This afternoon, Emily and I are leaving for three nights at the Grand Canyon. That means I likely … Read full post
On the night of the O/8 FTOPS, I decided to play some O/8 cash as well and came upon what seems to be a pretty common profitable spot in low limit O/8 ring games:
Poker Stars
Limit Omaha Ring game
Limit: $5/$10
9 players
Converter
Pre-flop: (9 players) … Read full post
This is a post from a few month’s ago from the blog of University of Chicago economist and author of Freakonomics Steven Levitt, but I just came across it and thought I would share. Levitt is a poker enthusiast currently working on the use of online poker statistics to resolve … Read full post
Poker Managers Hall of Famer Matt Savage, writing for Pokernews, reports that in a recent lunch with WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel, he learned of some of the rules changes that will be in effect at the 2008 WSOP:
… Read full postOne new rule that I like is Rule #36 which states:
Back in December, I made a post about sitting briefly with Mike Matusow in a 25/50 6-Max NLHE game. It was one of the first times I played that high, and it ended with Mike stacking me when he flopped trips against my KK in a re-raised pot.
Now that … Read full post
I was sitting in a 50/100 NL game on Ultimate Bet with a full-stacked player against whom I felt I had a pretty good edge when who should come and sit us than poker brat Phil Hellmuth. Unfortunately, he only sat with $3000. If it weren’t for the other guy … Read full post
Sklansky on Poker has not aged well. This isn’t to say that any of its content has been proven wrong, only that more recent publications and the resurgent popularity of big bet games have rendered much of the material irrelevant.
The section “Sklansky on Razz” is certainly the best material … Read full post
The Gainesville Sun reports that
… Read full postJerome Anthony Henry, 48, of Seville, and Richard David Smith and Robert Erwin Ford, both 50 and from Palatka, were killed inside the structure, a former bar that officers said people had been using as the location for a “high-stakes” poker game.
All four men
The day started well enough. I began my Sunday earlier than usual to play the $240 knock-out FTPS event and the Poker Stars $2 Million Frequent Player Point tournament. I got up nice stacks in both, and did manage to cash for a few hundred in the FPP (though in … Read full post
Ray Zee, the author of High-Low Split Poker for Advanced Players, posted a brief response to my review of his book on the Two Plus Two forums:
… Read full post“tnx for the review.
i do believe all players would greatly benefit from the book. advanced or intermediate the most of course.
AT $2500, this was one of the largest buy-in online tournaments I’d ever entered, and the first two-day event. It had a great structure, with gradual blind increases every half hour and deep starting stacks.
I got a pretty good starting table, with the only names I recognized being a … Read full post
Ray Zee’s book is rightly called, “For Advanced Players.” Players new to Stud/8 or O/8 will need to find another resource, as Zee largely glosses over basic material in favor of advanced thinking and plays. Though occasionally scattershot and disorganized, his book contains a wealth of information for those who … Read full post
$200 6-max NLHE. Same old, same old. I’ve already posted most of the key hands on 2+2, and I don’t feel like re-converting them, but you can check out that thread if you want to see them. Two were kind of big folds, one was a bad beat/questionable call. It … Read full post
If you haven’t picked up on the pattern yet, last night’s $300 Razz tournament involved me running terribly against a bunch of atrocious calling stations. I’ll try to include some discussion on a few interesting spots so that this isn’t a pure whine. Oh and these aren’t necessary in the … Read full post
This was a $200 PLHE/PLO mixed event. I was thinking it would be pretty juice because of how poorly even some of the better hold ’em players would do in the PLO portion, and boy was I right. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much chance to push my edge. I lost … Read full post
Last night was the $300 rebuy 6-max. I was in for “the minimum”, meaning a double rebuy initially and the add-on, but I use scare quotes because soooooooooo many people weren’t rebuying. I was the only one to double rebuy initially at my table of six. Thankfully the others were … Read full post
Tuesday night’s $200 O/8 event was the best I’ve done in this year’s FTOPS, which just means I got to play for five hours and leave empty-handed. The play was atrocious, but it’s tough to do much in O/8 if you aren’t hitting flops. Once we got shallow, the willingness … Read full post
I’ve never played this tournament before, but since I was going to be playing the FTOPS anyway, I decided to give it a go. I’ve generally assumed it would attract a fairly strong field and be a high-variance, low-profit venture. But really even most good tournament players are people I … Read full post
I was already enjoying The Onion article “Local Girlfriend Always Wants To Do Stuff” when I came across this passage:
… Read full postMaas’ obsession, however, has shown no signs of abating, and on Sunday she volunteered herself and Bertram to walk their neighbors’ dog when they go on vacation next
Baltimore’s local NBC affiliate, WBAL TV 11, recently covered a Baltimore Urban Debate League public debate in honor of Black History Month:
… Read full postSome Baltimore city high school students said they believe there is a connection between crime and “gangsta rap” music, and the issue was hotly debated Tuesday among teenagers
This was a $1000 6 max, a great event for me, but it just didn’t come together. I was getting re-raised left and right, and I’m not sure if people were catching hands or just that stupidly aggressive but it made things tough. No particularly interesting hands, I lost a … Read full post
As the title suggests, Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman’s The Mathematics of Poker is by far the most mathematically rigorous poker book on the market. The mathematics to which the title refers is not the simple stuff, like calculating pot odds and counting outs; it’s the complex game theory that … Read full post
Edit: Mistitled, this was Event 9.
Been too busy for the kinda weak events of the last few days. Looking forward to this week’s lineup though, starting with the $1K tomorrow night. I was rocking it pretty good tonight, winning some flips, stacked bigegypt in a big pot:
Full Tilt … Read full post
I like to walk, and I liked it even more when I was in high school, so I didn’t think much of it when George (not his real name) told me he was late because he chose to walk. George was one of the students coming on a Boston Debate … Read full post
Full Tilt Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
Hero (BB): $807
UTG: $400
BTN: $599.40
SB: $415.50
Pre-Flop: 5
4 dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, BTN calls $4, SB raises to $17, Hero calls $13, BTN calls $13
Flop: ($51) 9… Read full post
Lasted a little over three hours in the $500 HORSE, then made an illustrative Stud mistake:
FullTiltPoker Game #5166723748: FTOPS Event #3 (35825861), Table 26 – 500/1000 Ante 100 – Limit Stud Hi – 0:35:56 ET – 2008/02/08
Seat 1: zartarious (10,468)
Seat 2: WCJOKER (16,873)
Seat 3: Rambo no5 … Read full post
Grrrrrrrr I missed the PLO Bounty event, I didn’t realize it was an afternoon tournament. The $500 HORSE is tonight, so that’s what I’ll be playing instead.… Read full post
This was just a standard $200 NLHE event, but it attracted 5000 runners, more than FTP’s Sunday tournament. I got off to a slow start but eventually built up a big stack and was 55th with 2000 remaining. Then I lost 40% of it when KK< AK, stole some blinds, lost a third of my stack when 22< AQ, then got AK on my big blind, shoved over a button raise, and lost to KK. Tempting to rant about how stupid tournaments are, except that I lost to a lot of dumb crap at cash, too. Just idiots hitting every draw, random gut shots and crap. Also just getting cold decked. Sorry for the whine, but got some life tilt going on at the moment as well. Oh well, tomorrow’s a PLO tournament with bounties, that should be fun. … Read full post
Ultimate Bet sent me some gear today for making the final table of one of their UBOC events back in December. Specifically, I got a t-shirt, a hat, and a backpack. It’s all kind of low-quality (the hat size is adjustable with velcro), but the hat and shirt were made … Read full post
At that start of the year, I set some year-long poker goals for myself. One month into 2008, I’m pretty much on track, though it’s close and there’s plenty of room for improvement. I averaged only about 16 hours of playing per week, well short of my goal of 25. … Read full post
In his Closing Thoughts, Jeff Hwang comments on what motivated him to write Pot Limit Omaha Poker: The Big Play Strategy:
… Read full post“…nowhere in poker literature was truly useful instructions on where to start. Everybody says the same thing: Play four cards that work together, A-A-J-T and A-A-K-K are the
My latest poker article, Your Opponent’s Arsenal Part 1: The Flop, has just been published in the February issue of Two Plus Two Internet Magazine. This is the first of two articles that will examine how knowledge of your opponent’s post-flop strengths and weaknesses should influence your play on … Read full post
Urban debate got some national attention yesterday thanks to an op-ed piece authored by former debater Erwin Chemerinsky for USA Today:
… Read full post“Research shows that participation in organized debate leagues improves literacy scores by 25% and grade point averages by 8%-10%. And while many urban debaters come from schools where most
These were all against a strong but possibly over-aggressive opponent:
Full Tilt Poker, $4/$8 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
UTG: $1,325.80
Hero (BTN): $1,910.90
SB: $1,626
BB: $1,600
Pre-Flop: 3 3
dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $28, SB folds, … Read full post
Gary Wise has a great column for ESPN about the whole JJ Prodigy incident and the consequences of his being allowed to play at the Aussie Millions (my summary, for those not familiar with the situation):
“Cheating, unfortunately, is inherently human. We as a species are never wholly … Read full post
Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
Hero (SB): $2,330
BB: $1,770
UTG: $1,854
UTG+1: $2,227
MP: $2,000
CO: $2,018.25
BTN: $2,000
Pre-Flop: A
K dealt to Hero (SB)
5 folds, Hero raises to $80, BB raises to $240, Hero … Read full post
Until this year, I’d taken two shots at 25/50 NL games when I saw a fish sitting. It didn’t go well, as this post from last month documents. Anyway, Matusow was at three full ring tables tonight, so I had a seat and things went a bit better. I think … Read full post
I think I might be trying a little too hard to make thin value bets, especially when I’ve already shown a lot of strength. People are generally pretty reluctant to make big river calls in tournaments, which means they either fold or call with a better hand and crush me. … Read full post
PokerNews has a review today of the new poker tables at Mohegan Sun. As they point out, it isn’t a technically a poker room, as they are just electronic tables on the casino floor:
… Read full post“They have PokerPro™ poker machines. No dealers, no chips, no cash at the table, and no
Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 3 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
BTN: $2,573.50
SB: $2,737.70
Hero (BB): $3,441.50
Pre-Flop: T T
dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to $70, SB raises to $260, Hero raises to $591, 2 folds
Results: $590 Pot
Hero … Read full post
It’s got nothing to do with poker. But WJMN, a Boston hip hop station, recently interviewed me and a few students from the Boston Debate League. I’m only going to post my portion of it here, which is about 10 minutes long. I was very happy with how it … Read full post
Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners
Seat 0: VaMtnGal ($647.90) – 
– 
Seat 3: urbandb888 ($3836.55) – 
PRE-FLOP:
VaMtnGal posts small blind $10
urbandb888 posts BIG blind $25
Dealt To: urbandb888
CALL VaMtnGal ($25)
CHECK urbandb888
FLOP:
Pot: $60
CHECK urbandb888
CHECK VaMtnGal
TURN:
Pot: $60 
CHECK urbandb888… Read full post
I just saw him a few days ago and he didn’t say a word about this to me. Pretty sweet though!
More good press for the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, with PokerNews running a piece on them today:
“The Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society already has chapters established or planned at Harvard, UCLA, Stanford, Carnegie-Mellon, Cornell, Michigan, Tufts, Indiana–South Bend, and George Washington, and is looking to establish … Read full post
This guy wasn’t great, but he was better than I gave him credit for sometimes. In particular, he did a reasonable job of adapting to my thin calls and not bluffing in some obvious spots, which should have made me a little more reluctant to call him down in some … Read full post
There are probably better poker books out there, but I have never enjoyed reading one as much as I enjoyed Tommy Angelo’s Elements of Poker. It’s a delightful read, alternately light and weighty, funny and stern, but a lot of my enjoyment came from the realization that I was … Read full post
Too Thin
Full Tilt Poker Pot-Limit , $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com
BB ($386.55)
UTG ($428.05)
Hero ($986.50)
CO ($618.45)
Button ($249.30)
SB ($538.15)
Preflop: Hero is MP with 5d, 6d, As, Ah.
1 fold, Hero raises to $21, CO calls $21, 1 … Read full post
2+2 Internet Magazine recently cut a deal with a German poker website called PokerOlymp that allows them to publish German translations of articles initially written for 2+2. This is great for us authors because whenever they choose one of our articles, we get an extra $100 for no additional work! … Read full post
While reading a relatively unrelated opinion piece in today’s New York Times, I was reminded of a comment left by Jen on one of my recent Savage Inequalities posts. She asked whether Kozol addressed the question of inequality between states and pointed me to the condition of schools in … Read full post