Huge congratulations to Gareth Chantler for chopping last nights $215 Knockout tournament in the Turbo Championship of Online Poker. He locked up $97,000 plus another $1000 in bounties, and the best part is that the only reason he played the tournament is that he was assigned to cover it for … Read full post
I finally got around to writing my first article for Martin Harris‘ new project, Learn.PokerNews. It’s called Play Your Cards Close to Your Chest, and it deals with a common beginner’s mistake:
… Read full postOne of your first goals at the poker table should be to ensure that your opponents
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John the Lawyer left a profitable legal practice to play poker professionally. He cut his teeth in the big game at Foxwoods playing against, among others, a young Vanessa Selbst. In this interview, he shares his thoughts on live poker, home games, … Read full post
In February of 2011, after a year and a half without a permanent residence, I began thinking of settling somewhere again. My girlfriend and I returned to Boston, where we’d lived for five years, where my poker career had blossomed, where I’d founded a non-profit organization that I eventually handed … Read full post
Q:I love the podcast. I especially like the strategy segments that look at situations that recur fairly frequently, and have you guys discuss to death the various possibilities, and what factors can push the decision one way or another.
I have a hand that I played last night that … Read full post
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Richard Veenman is a Dutch fixed limit hold ’em player with a lot of charisma and a big personality. At the start of 2014, he retired from both professional poker and PokerStars Team Online. In addition to the difficulties of balancing a … Read full post
On Friday nights, when there’s generally a bigger-than-usual hold ’em game at my local casino, they also get some PLO action going, which is nice because sitting in a $1/$3 PLO game while I wait for a seat is a lot more interesting than sitting at $1/$3 NLHE and it … Read full post
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Andrew and Nate ring in the new year with a discussion of goal-setting and their own resolutions, both in poker and in life. Plus how to take notes in live poker, first impressions of the (relatively) new poker room at the Maryland … Read full post
We’ve recently gotten some cool emails from listeners describing when, how, and why they listen to the Thinking Poker Podcast. What about you? Is it part of your weekly routine? Are you a binge listener? Do you use it for entertainment or to warm up for a session at … Read full post
My latest poker strategy article, Semi-Bluffing the River, is now appearing in 2+2 Magazine. It deals with trying to bluff people off of chops:
… Read full post“I was far from confident that I could move either of them off of the second nuts, but it didn’t matter, as I was guaranteed
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Keone Young, prolific actor and poker player, was our guest on Episode 50. Due to some technical difficulties, part of our first interview with him was unusable, and we ended up recording a new interview that differed in many ways from … Read full post
One of my students sent me a fun little brag hand and gave me permission to share it here. I should say that he’s relatively new to poker but seems preternaturally talented at reading people’s physical behavior. As you’ll see, he references it often here, and it’s not something we’ve … Read full post
Thanks for all the comments on What’s Your Play? Miracle Turn. Ironically, Gareth, in his excellent comment, takes my oft-referenced Value Targeting concept to task for its lack of nuance when I made this post specifically to demonstrate a more nuanced use of it! Â “Normally I think the Brokosism … Read full post
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Joe LaPinta is a professional poker player who won the recent WSOP circuit event at Harrah’s Atlantic City. Of course it takes more than just a tournament victory to score an appearance on the Thinking Poker Podcast, but Joe is also an … Read full post
Game is $5/$10/$20 no-limit hold ’em, effective stacks are at least $10,000. Villain is extremely nitty, but it’s paying off for him because he keeps coolering people who can’t bring themselves to fold when they’re obviously crushed. He doesn’t seem intimidated by the stakes exactly – he bought in for … Read full post
I’m really impressed by the comments on What’s Your Play? Bad Runout for an Overpair. I was actually reluctant to post it so soon after begging for more comments, because it seems like the biggest reason people have for not commenting is a concern that they don’t have … Read full post
Good buddy Nate just published a list of some of his favorite books he read in 2013, which prompted me to want to do the same. Only one or two of these was actually published in 2013, but they’re all relatively new, and they’re all books that I read … Read full post
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Andrew, Carlos, and Sean share stories from their recent trip to Atlantic City. There’s plenty of strategy, from small-stakes cash game hands to big decisions in a six-handed bounty tournament and the $2700 Fall Poker Open Main Event. Plus the Nitcast … Read full post
The game is $5/$10/$20 no-limit hold ’em, and it’s playing pretty deep. Villain 1 has $8K, Villain 2 has $5K, and I cover both.
Villain 1 is a professional and the toughest of my opponents in this game. He’s far more situationally aware than most and reads hands pretty well. … Read full post
Thanks for the many, many responses to this week’s What’s Your Play? It occurs to me, in retrospect, that I was fishing pretty hard for compliments with the way I worded my post. Well, I’m glad that I got them, and that so many people enjoy the WYP posts! I’ll … Read full post
Q:Â Remember years ago the training websites were saying we want to teach you to not become a “robot” and think about decisions. Wouldnt that be more of the exploitive strategy and now people almost want to play like a “robot” with game theory. Do you find that is happening … Read full post
Sorry gang but Nate and I are taking our Christmas break a little early. We plan to have new episodes out each Monday for the rest of the month, but there won’t be one tonight. If you’re really jonesing for the show, consider listening (or re-listening) to one of my … Read full post
I haven’t posted one of these in a while because participation in the last few was kind of lackluster. If you enjoy these sorts of posts, please comment on this one, even if you don’t have anything to say about the hand, just so that I can gauge the level … Read full post
Sorry I’ve been so long in getting this up. A lot of people expressed interest in it after I posted about Day 1, which I appreciate.
My Day 2 starting table was probably above average. It featured Harrison Gimbel (youngest ever winner of the PCA main event, now 23) … Read full post
Nate and I were flattered to be nominated for Best Podcast in the 2014 Bluff Reader’s Choice Awards. Hopefully this will prompt some new listeners to come check out the show, and with nearly 100 hours of content out there, it might be hard to know where to start.
In … Read full post
My latest poker strategy, Analyzing Heads-Up Play From the 2013 WSOP Main Event Final Table, is now appearing in the December edition of 2+2 Magazine. It specifically focuses on the perils of what I call a “weak pot control” strategy where the pre-flop raiser attempts to check back all … Read full post
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Andrew’s friend Miklos is on the show this week to talk about the Hungarian poker scene, his recent deep run in a Super Knock Out tournament, and strategy adjustments more generally for tournaments with large bounties. This episode is extra-heavy on strategy, … Read full post
Happy Cyber Monday! Far be it from us to contribute to the seasonal frenzy of consumerism, but if you’re going to be doing any holiday shopping (or any other shopping for that matter) on Amazon anyway, there’s a free and easy way to support the Thinking Poker Podcast in the … Read full post
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Jonathan Bredin is an Australian aspiring professional poker player who won the recent ANZPT Queenstown event. He also has cerebral palsy, which made recording an audio interview with him somewhat complicated. We ended up having a text-chat conversation with him about his … Read full post
I’m skipping ahead a bit in time here in my chronicling of Carlos’ and my trip to AC, but there are a few of you with a financial interest in this, so I figured you’d want to know how it’s going right away. Also, Carlos and I recorded a … Read full post
After the boys went to sleep, Carlos and I stayed up well into in the night talking with my cousin. As I suspected, he and Carlos hit it off well. Both share a desire to live frugally and thereby give themselves the economic freedom to live somewhat unconventional lives. I … Read full post
If you’re in or around Atlantic City this weekend, don’t forget to join Carlos, Sean, and me in the Borgata cafeteria tomorrow. We’ll be there 10AM – Noon:Â https://www.thinkingpoker.net/2013/10/atlantic-city-nitcast-meet-up-november-23/
I picked Carlos up at the airport, and with a few hours to kill before dinner, we decided to … Read full post
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Nate’s away this week, but Leo Wolpert and Andrew take advantage of the opportunity to answer some listener questions that have been lingering for too long in the mailbag queue.
0:30 – Hello and welcome; impressions of WSOP final table
18:23 – … Read full post
Well, after posting two instances of getting away very cheap from second-best hands, I finally outdid myself this week. In my defense, I’d been outflopped or turned by unlikely hands more than a few times this session, and worse I’d paid off when I should have known I was beat … Read full post
I just published a review of the first volume of Jonathan Little’s Secrets of Tournament Poker:
… Read full postSecrets of Professional Tournament Poker Volume 1Â is a dangerous book because it has the potential to lull inexperienced readers into a false sense of understanding. Only the simplest of concepts are explained in
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Roy Bhasin is a professional poker player and a member of PokerStars Team Online who specializes in pot-limit omaha cash games. He talks to us about how he got into poker, how he got into PLO, and how he got into self-improvement … Read full post
My latest poker strategy article is now appearing on Cardplayer.com. Entitled “Own Your Bad Play“, it’s about how to make the most of your mistakes at the table:
… Read full postWhen you make an uncharacteristically bad play, you’ve given your opponents misleading information about what to expect from you in
I folded a hand this week that was reminiscent of one I posted last week. The villain in this hand is literally the tightest and most straightforward player I’ve ever encountered. His first, second, and third objectives at the table are simply to win the pot when he believes … Read full post
My latest video series is going up now at Tournament Poker Edge. It’s a hand-for-hand review of a $200 WCOOP “Sunday Warm-Up”. The notable thing about this tournament is that I late registered and had 30 – 40 BBs for most of the tournament, and I think I exhibit … Read full post
Recent podcast guest Keone Young found out the hard way. That’s what you get for calling my 3-bet with K6 offsuit, fish!
Don’t worry, folks. It’s all part of the show!
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Johannes Levemann is the head of Research and Development for the Snowie Group one of the creators of PokerSnowie, a neural net that has over the course of several years supposedly learned to play a nearly unexploitable no-limit hold ’em game. We … Read full post
My latest poker strategy article, He Has to Have Something, is now appearing in the November 2013 edition of Two Plus Two Magazine. It deals with a bit of sloppiness to which even otherwise good hand readers often fall prey:
… Read full post” The bottom line is that you need to
We were playing a $2/$5 game with a mandatory $10 straddle. A couple people limped, and then a tight and straightforward player raised to $60 with about $1000 behind. I had a pretty maniacal reputation and so was pleased to find a pair of Kings. I raised to $160, everyone … Read full post
Credit goes to my girlfriend for both the idea and the execution (and the photo, for that matter). You can’t really see it in this picture, but in dim lighting I looked pretty damn old.
Edit: Shrunk picture to fit on page.… Read full post
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It’s time again to catch up with our old friend Gareth Chantler. From Trondheim, Norway, he tells us about his new job as a Full Tilt Poker blogger and gets Triple Draw advice from Nate Meyvis. Plus Zoom/Rush Poker strategy, Ricky Gervais … Read full post
We’re interviewing a pretty strong PLO player tomorrow (Tuesday) night, and I totally forgot to prep for it. Let’s turn that into an opportunity: what do you want to hear about the game? Leave your questions as comments here and we’ll try to get to as many of them as … Read full post
Daniel Negreanu just won WSOP Player of the Year for the second time. That’s a great accomplishment, he’s a great guy who’s great for poker, and I’m very happy for him. But it doesn’t change the way I think about him as a player, and I doubt it changes the … Read full post
Carlos Welch, Sean Lango, myself, and hopefully some other podcast luminaries – though unfortunately not Nate – will be meeting up on Saturday, November 23rd at 10AM in the cafeteria area in the basement of the Borgata. If you’ve never been there before, there’s an escalator near the … Read full post
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Dave Thornton is one of the principals at SkillInGames and OneBillionHands, a recently-launched site with access to, well, roughly one billion hands’ worth of anonymized hole card data from real money online poker games. We talk about where these hands came … Read full post
Notice that I begin this hand with about 21 BBs. I’d often 3-bet larger than this from out of position, but here I’m not that worried about pricing something in. There aren’t many hands that can take advantage of those odds to play perfectly against me. At least as often, … Read full post
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Shane “Shaniac” Schleger was our very first guest, and he’s had quite a year since he last talked with us. From getting married to getting turned away at the Canadian border to final tabling the WCOOP Main Event, he shares the … Read full post
Before there was PokerStars or Planet Poker or any kind of online poker as know it today, there was the World Rec.Gambling.Poker Tournament, still played to this day by email over the course of several months. Registration for this year’s tournament is now open at http://www.wrgpt.org/registration/. There’s no money … Read full post
Thanks to everyone who commented on my first WCOOP review hand. Among other things, it helps me realize how the hand looks to people who don’t already know the results (though some of you probably assumed them from the way, and indeed the fact, that I posed the question). … Read full post
I’m reviewing my play in the WCOOP and figured I’d bring you all into the conversation for a few of these spots. This one was from a $200 6-max, I’d been at the table less than an orbit so no reads or history with anyone.
PokerStars – $200+$15|250/500 Ante 60 … Read full post
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Keone Young is a character actor whose decades-long career has spanned television, movies, theater, and even video games. He’s also a serious poker player and a regular contributor to the comments section of the Thinking Poker Blog. He joins us to talk … Read full post
Just wanted to let you know about some recently published stuff you might be interested in:
WSOP 2013 Trip Report, Part 4: The Main Event – Unfortunately this is a lot shorter than it’s been in past years, but I did get to play a pretty famous player: “Usually, tough … Read full post
In retrospect, I think that What’s Your Play? Turned an Underfull was a poor choice for this feature. The things I have to say about it are much too specific to a certain type of player, and to make matters worse I didn’t establish very well in the original … Read full post
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Sean Lango is the editor of the Thinking Poker Podcast and a member of Palmyra, the band you’ve been hearing on the show for the last few weeks. He’s also a professional musician who supplements his income with poker. We talk … Read full post
This is another $1/$2 Zoom hand. Villain has TAGgish stats over a small sample, 21/18 with a 3-bet of 11, with all of his 3-bets so far have come from the button or the blinds. Hero’s own stats are actually even tighter than that, though I don’t have any insight … Read full post
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After some brief reminiscences, Nate and Andrew dive into a strategy-rich show. Even if you’ve never heard of Courchevel before, you’ll want to hear what it can teach you about poker in general. If it piques your interest, you can read more … Read full post
Sorry for the short notice, but I made Day 2 of the $2000 NLHE event, which has just restarted for the day. Foucault82 is my screenname on PokerStars, if anyone wants to sweat. I have 90K and the average is 130K. It looks like I’ve got Johnny Lodden to my … Read full post
Only six comments on this week’s What’s Your Plan? – did I confuse everyone by posting it on Tuesday? That said, they were all very high-quality comments, so thanks to those who participated.
Pre-Flop Planning
“Which” makes the very good point that we ought to have a good idea of … Read full post
One of the biggest leaks I see, especially but certainly not exclusively among tournament players, is a failure to build big pots with big hands. I made a series about this called Getting Paid for Tournament Poker Edge that I think is worth watching even if you aren’t a tournament … Read full post
I had a note that Villain will fight back in position in a 3-bet pot, which explains at least some of this hand. And if his range on the river is all combos of AK, 77, 99, 86s, and T8s, then this is actually a good call. In practice, I … Read full post
This is from the Sunday $500 on PokerStars, a tournament that tends to draw a field of MTT specialists of varying skill. In the first hour, Villain 1, in middle position, has played 16% of his hands, 12% of them as the pre-flop raiser, and mostly in late position. Villain … Read full post
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Carlos Welch was one of our most popular guests, and he’s back to talk about his new life as a professional poker player. Find out why he didn’t move to Jamaica, what he’s doing instead, and how he’s dealing with a downswing. … Read full post
