Heads Up With a Psychopath

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

Book Review: Elements of Poker

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

Rural Schools

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

Book Review: Savage Inequalities (Part 4)

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

It has been 25 years since Savage Inequalities was first published, and there have been some changes. Schools are still funded primarily by local property taxes, guaranteeing that wealthier school districts will produce better educated children. However, the federal role in education has greatly … Read full post

JP OSU Mugged for 30K in Melbourne

This is why I’ve always taken my WSOP winnings as a check rather than cash or chips. From the Sydney Morning Herald:

“A professional poker player who was robbed of about $30,000 in winnings in Melbourne’s CBD this morning believes he was targeted by his assailant.

American Jason Potter, … Read full post

BDL in the Herald Again!

The Boston Herald ran an article today that was (half) about the Boston Debate League and an event we had yesterday in honor of MLK Day. This time they ran a nice photo of one our debaters; the lack of a picture was one of my disappointments from the last … Read full post

Book Review: Professional No Limit Hold ‘Em

Writing a book about poker strategy that will be both correct and useful to inexperienced players is a big challenge. Beginners need straight-forward, practical, concrete advice that they can apply at the table. But poker, and especially no limit hold ’em, is a game of “sometimes”, “unless”, and “it depends”. … Read full post

Marty Walz on Internet Gambling in MA

Some time ago, I posted a letter that I sent to my elected officials in Massachusetts concerning pending legislation that would simultaneously legalize casino gambling and prohibit internet gambling. I received a response from Governor Patrick, but it was so vacuous that I didn’t even bother posting it. It stated … Read full post

Book Review: Savage Inequalities (Part 3)

Part 1

Part 2

One thing I admire about Kozol is that he is much more upfront about his agenda and the sacrifices required than are many other advocates of reform. He admits that, “Attorneys in school-equalization suits have done their best to understate the notion of ‘redistribution’ of resources. … Read full post

Book Review: Savage Inequalities (Part 2)

The argument can be made, sometimes convincingly, that many forms of inequality in the US result at least in part from poor choices on the part of those who hold the short end of the stick. That argument absolutely disintegrates in the context of education. Not only is it patently … Read full post

Book Review: Savage Inequalities (Part 1)

I’m a voracious reader, and it’s not my intention to write a review of every book I read. Having just completed Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools, however, I am moved to record some thoughts here. It turns out I have a lot of thoughts, so I’m … Read full post

Deeeeeeeeeeeep Hands

Here’s a series of hands I played with a pretty big fish in a recent 3/6 NL game on UB. By the end, we were both 500 BB’s deep, and I ran a huge bluff on him that culminated in a 250 BB river shove with 9-high. Enjoy!

It Begins… Read full post

Big Bad Laydown

It’s pretty rare that I’m folding 99 pre-flop when I have 15 BB’s, but here, there were a lot of danger signs:

1. The UTG Limper

It’s far from a guarantee, but at this stage of the game, there’s not a lot of open limping, especially not UTG. So I’m … Read full post

Book Review: Tournament Poker for Advanced Players

Though many books have been published on the subject since, David Sklansky’s Tournament Poker for Advanced Players (TPFAP) has been the definitive text on tournament poker theory since its publication. Two Plus Two Publishing seems to have had two goals in mind for the new material included in the just-released … Read full post

Pivotal Sunday Million Hand

I lasted about 6 hours in the most recent Stars Sunday Million, mostly with a big stack, though I didn’t even end up making the money. But here was a key hand that came up a few hours in. Pay attention to the CO’s stack:

Poker Stars, $200 + $15 … Read full post

Face Lift for the Website!

Since I was without blog for the last few days, I finally got around to giving the website a face lift and updating it with a lot of new material. It’s all stuff that’s been published in the blog already, but much nicer looking and accessible than it was. I’ve … Read full post

Sorry for the Downtime

Sorry for the recent downtime, apparently my domain name expired on January 2nd and despite the assurances of three different tech support people from Ipower, it was not actually renewed. I’ve renewed it this morning and was warned it would be 24-48 hours before the site was back up, but … Read full post

Tricky PLO Spot

Full Tilt Poker
Pot Limit Omaha Ring game
Blinds: $3/$6
6 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: $676.15
UTG+1: $598.20
Hero: $658.70
Button: $535.30
SB: $110.95
BB: $251.10

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is CO with :td :as :qs :qd
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to $21, Hero calls, Button … Read full post

Not This Time

When I’m not tilting, I tend to give these turn min-check-raises a lot of credit, maybe too much. Here, it just didn’t seem that plausible for him to have a set. TT is possible I guess, but he’s probably 3-betting QQ pre-flop, and 44 just got way less likely. Maybe … Read full post

Poker Savvy Plus

I signed up today with a new instructional site called Poker Savvy. They seem to have some kind of affiliate program, a forum, some strategy articles, and links to humorous poker videos, but I haven’t investigated any of that yet. I really just wanted to see videos from 2+2 … Read full post

Book Review: Play Before the Flop

From the outset, Andy Bloch’s chapter on pre-flop play for the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition suffers from a mistaken objective. Bloch proposes to study pre-flop strategy like chess openings, which I take to mean that he is going to develop a coherent set of balanced raising, re-raising, … Read full post

He Said, She Said

Apparently this is their 3rd appearance, but I just happened to come across my friend Tony (Bond18 to the online poker world, George Dunst to the federalis) and his girlfriend Celina Lin in a new feature called “He Said, She Said” on Poker News. In today’s edition, they … Read full post

My Year in Poker

This time last year, I set four major poker goals for myself. It’s time now to review and evaluate the year in light of those goals:

Goal 1: Make $X Playing Poker Failed

Sorry, but as usual, I don’t want to specify my exact goal or my exact income. I … Read full post

Book Review: Razz

The Razz chapter of the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition is presented in a unique way, with Michael Craig summarizing, narrating, and quoting a conversation between Ted Forrest and Huck Seed. Given my extensive involvement with competitive debate, it’s probably no surprise that I find this a very … Read full post

JJProdigy Banned From PCA

Poker Stars has recently decided to extend its ban of Josh Fields, known to the online poker community as JJProdigy, from their online poker site to the annual live tournament they run at a Caribbean casino/resort called Atlantis. I’ve got a few thoughts on this that I’ll offer after a … Read full post

Book Review: Stud Eight-or-Better

Stud/8 is one of my favorite poker games, and Ted Forrest’s Stud Eight-or-Better chapter in the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition highlights many of the game’s most interesting, and potentially profitable, facets. Stud/8 is a complex game, with a huge variety of situations that can arise, which makes … Read full post

Hallelujah

That guy who I quit abruptly yesterday came back today and dropped another three stacks or so to me. We played for a good three hours, and he was definitely playing a little better than yesterday, though he was still far from tough. Ironically, he was at his most challenging … Read full post

Merry Christmas, Matusow


I saw The Mouth sitting with a full stack at a 25/50 NLHE table along with a guy from my buddy list. The waiting list was 7 deep, but I hopped on anyway. I’ve never played with Mike Matusow myself, but I know people who will join games they don’t … Read full post

Book Review: Tournament Stud

To his credit, David Gray’s Seven Card Stud chapter in the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition is actually about tournament strategy. Even when introducing basic concepts such as starting hand selection, which he is wise to do given that most of his audience will likely come from a … Read full post

In Good Company

As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t put much effort into promoting my blog as a money-making vehicle. I’ve browsed some of the literature on search engine optimization and such, and while I find it interesting/impressive that some people are essentially able to be professional bloggers and earn a living off … Read full post

The Great Debaters (Trailer)

I got to bring about 70 students, coaches, administrators, and supporters of the Boston Debate League to a special advance screening of The Great Debaters last night. Judging from all of the clapping, laughing, and even cheering I heard, it was a huge hit, especially with the kids. Fewer than

… Read full post

Cash Game Stop ‘n ‘Go

Tournament players will probably be familiar with the “stop ‘n go” technique, named by none other than Greg Raymer back before he won the WSOP and was just a 2+2 poster called Fossilman. What he envisioned was a situation with the following conditions:

1. you are out of position, usually … Read full post

A Different Kind of Lucky River

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 0: berg5528 ($2465) –
Seat 1: maxEmus125 ($3546.50) –
Seat 2: Lent53 ($5583.50) –
Seat 3: _BeWater_ ($2660)
Seat 4: urbandb888 ($3215.70)
Seat 5: keep00 ($1929.50)

PRE-FLOP:

maxEmus125 posts small blind $10
Lent53 posts BIG blind $25
Dealt To: urbandb888

FOLD … Read full post

UBOC Main Event

This was a $1000 tournament with a great structure, as the other UBOC events have had. It also got over 800 runners, which is more than twice what I predicted. We started with 500 BB stacks, but I managed to blow about half of mine early with a pretty thin … Read full post

EPT Dortmund Satellite

Although I’m running pretty low on cash on Poker Stars of late, I did have some $W sitting around, and since I don’t actually have a conflict with the European Poker Tour Dortmund event at the end of January, I decided to play a satellite. We started off 250 BB’s … Read full post

UBOC Event 10

I was looking forward to this $500 6-max event more than any other in the series. UB tournament players suck, they suck even more at 6-max, and most of them have no business spending $500 on a poker tournament. But apparently they can kick my butt anyway.

I picked up … Read full post

UBOC Event 9

This $200 NLHE tournament was over in like 20 minutes. I 3-bet a CO raise with AhKs in the SB, guy called. Flop Js 3 4h, I bet, he calls. Turn 9h, I pot it cuz that’s what they always do when they have an overpair and a third flush … Read full post

UBOC Event 8 Final Table

After two days off, I came back to the UBOC with a bang last night, final tabling the $200 PLO8 event. There were nearly 400 runners, which surprised me, because in general even UB’s NLHE events don’t get that many runners. Predictably, only about 10% of them had much idea … Read full post

This is What I’m Talking About

It’s not a pure whine, cuz I think the river bet is maybe a little interesting and worth discussing, but jeebus. This is with about 80 left in the FTP Sunday Mulligan, and my current stack good for top fifth of the remaining field.

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold’em Tournament, … Read full post

UBOC Events 4 and 5

These took the place of the usual $200 and $500 tournaments on UB yesterday. I never got off the ground in the first one, just lost a ton of medium-sized pots, then the blinds got big and one of my shoves got snapped off.

In the $500, I doubled up … Read full post

UBOC Event 3

I haven’t set up Poker Tracker Omaha to record UB HH’s, so this is from memory. But it was a PLO tournament, and while I’ve been doing well in 6-max PLO cash games, I don’t have a lot of full ring experience. I still think I was playing pretty well, … Read full post

UBOC Event 2

This was an amazingly deep tournament, and I’m really disappointed not to have gone further in it. It was a $100 rebuy where $100 buys 2500 chips, and with blinds starting at 5/10, were sometimes 500BB+ deep when we started. Of course many players didn’t rebuy, but a few did. … Read full post