My interview with Christian Soto provided all of that at a critical moment, coming just hours after one of the more frustrating poker experiences of the year. By chance, we’d been seated next to each other late on Day 2 of the WPT Main Event at Maryland Live! After crushing for much of the day, I made a critical mistake and lost more than I should have with AK vs AA, which resulted in a smaller cash than I’d anticipated. Talking through and laughing about the day’s events with Christian was great fun and great medicine, and judging from the audience response, it seems to have made for a great listen as well.

Happy new year everyone! Thanks for spending some of 2017 with us, and we look forward to sharing more great poker stories with you in the year to come.

Tommy Angelo and Carlos Welch are among my all-time favorite guests, so getting them together on one show would have already had the makings of greatness. But what made it all the greater is that we got to record this in person, from Tommy’s suite at the Rio, which always makes for better on-air rapport. Tommy told stories from the pre-boom WSOP era and even engaged in a bit of honest-to-goodness poker strategy talk. The only thing that could have been better is if Nate had been able to join us in person rather than via Skype. I definitely missed seeing him in Las Vegas this summer.

Getting to enjoy the Thinking Poker Podcast as a listener, without have been involved in its creation, is a rare treat for me. So it’s possible that I’m biased, but I loved listening to Nate and Matt Sienkiewicz, who first appeared on Episode 103, talk about the movie Mississippi Grind and Nate’s then-recent experiences playing poker in Biloxi. It’s full of colorful characters and funny stories, most notably Nate getting berated by Sam Grizzle!

I’m embarrassed to admit that I made an error that I’m sure is as familiar as it is unwelcome to folks with disabilities. In retrospect, I think I came into my interview with KL Cleeton assuming that he would be defined by his Spinal Muscular Atrophy. I was operating on an assumption something along the lines of “This is just some guy who likes poker who got a freeroll from Daniel Negreanu to play the WSOP Main Event because his disability makes for a compelling story.”

Well, to call KL Cleeton “some guy who likes poker” is like calling Kobayashi “some guy who likes hot dogs”. In our conversation, he exudes passion for the game in a way that almost no other guest has. His disability certainly makes him unique in the poker world, and we talk plenty about that, but at other times the conversation is just pure poker geekery. It was a really enjoyable talk that gave me a new appreciation for how significant poker-as-recreation can be in a person’s life.

Multiple episodes got more than 40,000 streams/downloads, which is simply mind-boggling. We celebrated our 200th episode by revisiting a bunch of friends old and new, welcomed some A-list guests including Phil Galfond and Talal Shakerchi, and were invited to battle a cutting-edge poker AI.

When I think about my very favorite episodes from the year, though, it’s not usually the biggest name guests or most valuable strategic insights that stand out for me. Rather, it’s the moments where I felt the most rapport with our guests. Those are the interviews that feel the least like work, the sort where the time just flies by and you hope the hour will never end (and in fact, these conversations do often end up lasting more than an hour).

My fear is always that some of these episodes get overlooked by sporadic listeners who may not recognize the guest and thus choose to skip the episode for that reason. So, I want to take these last few days of 2017 to count down the episodes from this year that I personally enjoyed the most, in the hopes that it will prompt some folks to go back and listen or re-listen.

Coming in fifth place is an episode from early in the year, our interview with Kyle Loman. Like many of my favorite guests, he was recommended by John the Lawyer (himself one of my favorite guests). Kyle’s is a tale of coming-to-terms. He talks about riding high on the wave of the early poker boom but eventually crashing. We discuss how he made peace with grinding $1/$3 no-limit when he used to travel the world playing $10K tournaments. It’s an inspiring and human story of battling with one’s ego, a battle that ought to resonate with any poker player at any stakes.

It was a great experience in a lot of ways, but one that I want to highlight as to do with the Thinking Poker Podcast. One of our goals from the beginning was to showcase a much broader spectrum of perspectives on the poker world than one typically sees in poker media. We wanted to talk not just to famous players but also to recreational players, to “workaday” professionals, and to people who work around poker as dealers, journalists, etc.

It amazed me, when I stopped to think about it, just how many former podcast guests were at Maryland Live for this event. I hate to do this because I’ll probably leave one off, but off the top of my head: Sam Grafton, Olivier Busquet, Elena Stover, Chase Bianchi, Clayton Fletcher, Christian Soto, Matt Berkey, Christian Harder, and Ari Engel all played the tournament. Martin Harris covered the event for the WPT, Joe Giron was taking photographs, Nicole Rejiester was dealing, and of course Matt Savage was there running the show. So not only were there so many former guests there, but they represented so many different facets of the poker world, which made me feel like we’d really done what we set out to do.

Another of out goals – mine, anyway – was to make new friends and compel myself to spend more time interacting socially with more different people, which is the kind of thing that I know is good for me even though I don’t always make time for it.

Christian Soto is a great example of a friend I met because of the podcast, and it was a lot of fun playing with him on Day 2 of the event. We both busted around the same time, with good but not great results, and neither of us felt great about how we’d handled a few key spots. I know I, for one, lost a good deal of sleep thinking about what I could/shove have done differently with AK, and woke up this morning feeling somewhat morose.

Fortunately, Christian made time to record an in-person interview with me before his train back to New Jersey. Laughing and talking through hands with him was exactly the boost that my spirits needed, and an hour and a half later I was in a great mood (though sad to leave him at the train station!). Poker, especially tournament poker, really can be just brutally taxing, and I’ve found the best remedy is to talk about those feelings with someone who knows them himself.

So, on that front as well, mission accomplished. I can’t wait to share our conversation with you on Monday. Thanks Christian!

I’m selling action in the WSOP Main Event, in increments of 1% or 5%. Mark-up is 2.0 for increments of 1% ($200 each), or 1.8 for increments of 5% ($900 each). These prices are based on what my action sold at in last year’s auction. My goal is to have approximately 33% of my own action in this tournament.

Please also be aware that my winnings as well as any payments I make to you may be reported to the IRS, and you will need to provide address, social security number (or equivalent, for non-Americans), and any other information required for this purpose. This isn’t information that I need in advance, but in the event that I need to pay out profits to you, it’s information I’ll need to collect before paying out your share of the winnings.

If you’re interested or have questions, please leave a comment here or write me at andrew (at) thinkingpoker net.

For the first time in a while, my girlfriend is here with me. Understandably she wasn’t interested in spending the summer in some sad, low-end studio apartment of the sort I’ve rented for past WSOP trips. But she also wasn’t interested in some luxury one-bedroom condo – she wouldn’t be my girlfriend if she were! #nitcast

Her suggestion was that we rent a house instead. I was a bit reluctant, because I didn’t have any clear idea of who would occupy the other bedrooms, but it looks like it’s going to work out well. Dara O’Kearney will be here for most of the summer, and then a variety of friends and students will rotate through the third bedroom over the course of the series. I’ve often said that one of my biggest regrets is that I never did the whole “rent a house with a bunch of other players and spend the summer immersed in poker and learning from each other” thing, and this is the closest I’m likely to get.

It’s what I think of as a typical Las Vegas house: newly built, blandly functional, and fundamentally cheap beneath a facade of luxury. I’ve always said that Las Vegas is a microcosm of everything that’s wrong with America.

Speaking of which, the house is in a little gated community that, judging by the packet of rules that was waiting for us when we arrived, seems to be governed by an aggressive Homeowner’s Association. Though ridiculous (No fake plants of any kind on exterior property! No decorations except for American flags or appropriate holiday decorations that are promptly removed!), none of these seems likely to affect us except for aggressive street parking restrictions which could be an issue because the house has a two-car garage but we’re likely to have three cars here at various times (returning again to the theme of everything that’s wrong with America). In all likelihood we’ll just be able to get a visitor parking permit and it will all be fine, but I’ll feel better once that’s sorted out with the landlord.

Anyway, on our first night here, I dreamt that a high school friend of mine, his family, and his dog (I don’t know where that last part came from, as he doesn’t have a dog and never has) came to stay with us. Also my boyhood dog, Paul, was alive and with us. My friend’s dog ran away, and while we were out look looking for it, Paul made a mess of the living room carpet.

We found my friend’s dog, but it escaped again while we were cleaning up Paul’s mess. This time a community security guard brought the dog back to us with a stern warning and also a referral code for a doggie daycare, in the style of the “Girls Direct to Your Hotel Room!” cards that are omnipresent on The Strip, because of course this is Las Vegas and even in your dreams everyone is getting a kickback.

I woke up enough to realize that my pounding heart was just the result of the dream. “None of that really happened,” I reassured myself. “The dogs haven’t gotten out.” Then I woke up a bit further and remembered that there are no dogs here and Paul has been dead for 15 years.

Happy WSOP everyone!

For the first time ever, there will even be t-shirts available for purchase! There’s one design, but it’s available in a number of different colors & styles of t-shirt, including ladies cut, and sizing details are included on the order site.

IF YOU WANT A SHIRT YOU GOTTA ORDER ONE!
We’re asking folks to pre-order so we get the right number of shirts and sizes for folks that want one. We won’t be ordering very many extras to avoid waste, so if you want a shirt, order now! The deadline to order is Wednesday, June 14.

PICKUP ONLY
Shirts will be available for pickup in Vegas during the WSOP. If you won’t be in Vegas, we will NOT be mailing t-shirts at this time, but if we get enough interest we’ll put some items online for direct sales. If that’s something you’re interested in, please let us know here: https://goo.gl/forms/18PWzHn1DrDCoaII3

PAYMENT ON PICKUP
Shirts are $20 each, and you can pay cash when you pick them up. The easiest time to pick them up will be at the meet-up, but they should arrive around June 19, so if you’ll be in Las Vegas for the second half of June but not the Main Event, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a way to get you your shirt.

Cliff’s Notes: Selling action in a full slate of Las Vegas summer tournaments. Increments as small as 1% are available, with discounts for larger pieces. I run my packages a bit differently than most, so if you’re interested, please read carefully: 

This Google spreadsheet lists all of the tournaments that could be played on the stake, but there are no guarantees. I’ll collect money up front that hopefully will be enough to cover the entire summer, but depending on how things go there’s some chance that further investment will be required in order to have a piece of some of the final events. Any unused buyins will be returned along with your share of winnings at the end of the series (mid-July).

This package does not include the WSOP Main Event. I will be selling that separately and posting details in the next few weeks.

In the left column are the events I’m more likely to play, on the right are other possibilities. Even among those on the left, some are much more likely than others. The idea is, on any day that I feel like playing a tournament, to have an easy answer to the question, “What is the best tournament to play today?”

Largely for my own reference, tournaments with multiple flights are generally listed more than once. Any flight for any tournament on this list is authorized, even if that particular flight isn’t explicitly listed. In other words, if I only listed Flights A – F for the Planet Hollywood event, but I end up playing Flight G, that will still be on the stake.

I’m going to start by collecting money based on $40K worth of buy-ins. That’s a pretty conservative number, but again, there is no guarantee that this will be enough to cover all of the events, so additional investment could be required if you want a piece of the later events. I’ll keep you updated on progress throughout the summer.

Mark-up will be 1.3 for pieces smaller than 5%, and 1.25 for 5% or more. That means each 1% share is $520 up front, and each 5% share is $2500. I’m looking to sell 50% of the package, and 35% is already sold as of this posting. I will update when sold out.

Please comment here or email andrew (at) thinkingpoker (dot) net with questions or if you’d like buy a piece.

Terms:

1. Several of these events are re-entries. I will not forfeit a stack in order to re-enter on a subsequent flight, except in an extreme circumstance where I believe this decision to be +EV for the stake (and not merely for my own hourly rate). This would require the stack to be quite miniscule and the value of playing another flight quite high, a situation that’s unlikely to arise.

2. Decisions about which of the listed tournaments to play and whether to enter late will be at my sole discretion. There’s a real chance that, if I bust a Primary tournament early and it is not a re-entry, that I will late register one of the Secondary tournaments. If I do so, I may reduce the mark-up on that event, but that will be at my discretion.

3. My winnings as well as any payments I make to you may be reported to the IRS, and you will need to provide address, social security number (or equivalent, for non-Americans), and any other information required for this purpose. This isn’t information that I need in advance, but in the event that I need to pay out profits to you, it’s information I’ll need to collect before paying out your share of the winnings.

4. Payment can be made via Venmo, customer-to-customer bank transfer (I have accounts with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Capital One 360), in-person deposit into my Wells Fargo or Bank of America account, or cash in Vegas if you can get it to me around the start of the series. Paypal insists that I pay a 3% fee on this sort of transaction, so I’m inclined not to use them, but if it’s your only option we can discuss it. I will do my best to pay you back in the same form in which you paid me, but especially in the happy event that I owe you a lot of money, I can’t guarantee that.

5. Only the tournaments listed on the linked spreadsheet are part of the stake. Any other cash games or tournaments I play during this time, whether or not they are part of the WSOP, will not be paid for using stake money, nor will stakers be entitled to anything I win in them.

6. Sponsorships, promotions, and anything else I receive as a result of playing these tournaments will not be shared with stakers unless they are funded from the prize pool (I don’t believe there’s anything that fits this bill, but I could be mistaken). That’s right, if I make quad jacks, I’m keeping the jerky for myself!

Please let me know if you’re interested or if you have any questions. Thanks as always for considering it!

Please share in the comments here or by emailing andrew (at) thinkingpoker (dot) net. We’ll read some of our favorite responses during the show and may even invite you to discuss your comment on the air with us!

It started nicely, with a trip to visit some old friends. As much as Emily and I have enjoyed living in San Francisco, there are some downsides, most notably the fact that most of our family and friends are on the east coast.

Conveniently, we’re from the same suburb of Baltimore, so it’s easy enough to visit with both of our families during our time there. (Also conveniently, my mother lives about 20 minutes from Maryland Live!)

After a few weeks of that, though, it was time to see some friends who are a bit more far-flung. Two of my best friends from college are married and living in New York with a two-year old daughter. We were able to join them for some camping in the Adirondacks that they already had planned, which was a lot of fun.

From there, we drove to New Hampshire to see my best friend from high school and his family. Although we weren’t camping “with them” per se, their son now lives in what used to be a spare room, and rather than staying at a hotel, Emily and I camped because #nitcast. We were in a state park just across the river in Vermont, and it ended up being a fun spot for all of us to hang out.

The plan was for Emily to put me on a train to Montreal on September 1st and for her to drive back to Maryland. As I was buying my train ticket the night before, I realized…

Emily was a lifesaver here, finding a regional passport office in Vermont that just might be able to get me a new passport before the holiday weekend. The next day, she turned around and drove me three hours back in the direction we’d just come from, to St. Albans, on the Canadian border.

Thankfully, it was a beautiful morning, and despite the stressful situation, we were able to enjoy the drive. There are, after all, worse fates than taking an involuntary tour of the Vermont countryside in late summer.

The people at the passport office were fantastic, and amazingly, I had a new passport in my hands about three and a half hours after I gave them my paperwork. St. Albans was a nice little town in which to spend an afternoon while we waited.

I actually had to do something similar, though not quite so dramatic, when I got this passport ten years ago. I won a satellite to EPT Barcelona and then realized I didn’t have a passport and needed to get one in the next two weeks! Fortunately I lived in Boston at the time, so there was a regional passport office quite close to me where I could get one expedited.

Crossing the border is always a source of some anxiety for me, not because problems are likely, but just because they are possible and if for some reason some power tripping border agent decided to turn me back, it would really suck. We got one of the nicer agents I’ve dealt with, though, and she sent us through without any problems. She even let us keep our bear spray, which technically you are not allowed to bring into Canada, even though you can buy it in Canada.

Our next adventure began when we arrived at the Airbnb I’d booked for my first two nights in Montreal. Because I added those two nights, before the start of the WCOOP, after booking the rest of my stay, I wasn’t able to get them at the same apartment where I am now. And because I expected to be by myself, I went for a cheap place and didn’t do as much research as I would have if I’d known Emily would be with me.

But now Emily was with me, and of course because this was Montreal, the woman I was renting from was a smoker and the place reeked. Emily is allergic to smoke, so we had to find a hotel, and we weren’t able to use data on our phones in Canada, so we were huddled on the tiny back patio behind the apartment using the Wi-Fi there to find another place to sleep.

Thursday ended up being a long day, though we did eventually end up in a comfortable and not terribly expensive hotel by the airport. It wasn’t an exciting place to spend the next day, but it got the job done, and I was able to get some coaching in before WCOOP started, which was a priority for me.

On Saturday we were able to get in to the Airbnb where I am now, and from there everything went pretty smoothly. As much as I enjoy being in Montreal for COOPs, I always feel like I’m missing out, because there are so many good restaurants and fun-looking bars around that I don’t have the time or inclination to go to by myself. Well, we were able to get in four great meals at charming neighborhood bistros before Emily left town, and I even got to introduce her to my Montreal friend Luis!

She left Tuesday morning, and I’ve been focused on poker ever since, though I’m trying to go easy, as the series is only going to get more intense and I don’t want to wear myself out early. Yesterday I finished early after busting the heads up event in Round 2, so I got to hang out at one of those hip bars with Luis. The weather was perfect and we got a seat outdoors, which made for an awesome evening.

Poker-wise, things are off to a good but unspectacular start. I’ve cashed several events already, made two Day 2s, and even Zoom is going well. I’ve played a bunch of interesting hands that I’ll start posting as time permits.

Unfortunately, this does mean there won’t be a new podcast today, and probably not this week. We’ve got good stuff on the horizon, though, so no worries about that!

Speaking of the podcast, congratulations are due to Tony Dunst, our guest from Episode 90, who just won his long overdue first bracelet in a $1000 no-limit hold ’em event.  Way to go Tony!

There was such a great mix of types of teams! Of course in some cases it was just a few great players who happened to be friends playing together, but lots of people were playing with family members (George Danzer, his girlfriend, and his father were at our table for a while!), and in perhaps my favorite story from the event, Niall Farell, who lost heads up to Safiya Umerova in the $1500 no-limit shootout, tweeted “If you can’t beat them…” along with a picture of a registration receipt for a Niall/Safiya team for this event!

I wouldn’t be surprised if, for many of these teams, this was the only WSOP event they played, which means that the event was also successful in bringing in new players. There was a lot of joking and speculation about whether the event wouldn’t ruin friendships or even marriages (someone tweeted that he hoped it wouldn’t be the end of the podcast!), but from what I observed, everyone, from the most recreational players to the most serious pros, seemed to be having fun.

My girlfriend raised an interesting point that hadn’t really occurred to me: this event gives recreational players the opportunity to enter a WSOP event for less even than the $500 Colossus. Ordinarily, if four friends wanted to pool their money to enter a $1000 WSOP event, only one of them could actually play, and although this does happen, it’s surely a bit disappointing for the other three. The team event enabled all four to get a taste of the WSOP experience for a cheaper price than they could anywhere else.

You might think that because it’s a bracelet event and there are also a lot of grinders taking it very seriously, that might ruin the fun for the amateurs, but that doesn’t seem right to me. I don’t imagine those folks enter an event like this thinking they are favorites to win it. In many cases, I imagine they want the full WSOP experience, they want a taste of the competitiveness and the famous pros as well as the kids in sunglasses and hoodies, etc.

All in all, it seemed a resounding success to me, and I can’t wait to play it again next year. My only regret relates to Tommy Angelo’s famous proclamation that the pleasure:pain ratio is all out of whack in a poker tournament. I misplayed two hands that resulted in our elimination, and I can say that it hurts a LOT more knowing that your mistakes brought an end to the fun for you and your friend.

Sorry Nate! Thanks for playing with me, and we’ll get them next year!

My Personal History with Full Tilt Poker

I had more than $60,000 on Full Tilt Poker on Black Friday, and although I eventually (after more than two years) got it all back, for a long time I had no idea what was going to happen to it. And I was one of the lucky ones: there were people with a lot more than that jammed up, and there were people with less who needed it more. Although I would have rather had that money earning interest somewhere, neither my life nor my bankroll were badly affected by not having access to it.

That’s absolutely not to say that it wasn’t a lot of money to me. It was and is a significant chunk of my net worth. As many of you know, though, I try to live well within my means (#nitcast), so it wasn’t money that I needed to pay my rent nor even to be adequately bankrolled for the games I wanted to play.

What upset me most was the gall of the whole thing, how they stonewalled and lied to us after Black Friday, even as it slowly became clear that Full Tilt did not have our money, and that the reason they did not have our money was that they had mismanaged it, making reckless loans and paying out huge disbursements to shareholders. As far as I’m concerned, getting my money back after two years didn’t make any of that go away, and it didn’t make us square. I’m holding my breath for any further compensation, but I’m not eager to welcome Ferguson and Lederer back into the good graces of the poker world, either.

I’ll admit that I don’t know Ferguson’s exact role in what went wrong before and after Black Friday. That’s not willful ignorance: there’s just not a lot of hard information available. According to Mike Sexton, whom I do consider to be a broadly reliable source, Ferguson actually did more than any of the other principals at FTP to help protect and restore player balances.

That’s to his credit, but it doesn’t change my opinion that he played a role in screwing me and took home millions of dollars in the process. As a member of the Board of Directors, he had an obligation to ensure the safety of player deposits, and he didn’t do it, and although he may have lost or given back some of it, I believe that there is to this day there’s money in his bank account that isn’t rightfully his.

I’d more or less put all of this behind me, until Lederer and Ferguson summoned up a new batch of gall and decided to start making noise in the poker world again. Lederer recently claimed “full responsibility” for Full Tilt’s failure, though that doesn’t seem to entail any monetary sacrifice on his part.

Ferguson Arrives

As far as I know, Ferguson has never made any kind of public statement about Full Tilt and certainly hasn’t offered a public apology. I knew that he would be been around the Rio, and I even passed him in the men’s room once, but it never occurred to me that he would land at my table. I assumed he only planned to play a few of the higher buy-in events. What he was doing in an $888 tournament is beyond me.

When he arrived at the table, it was a shock. I couldn’t believe it was happening. I had no idea what to do. No real good could come from confronting him: what did I think, that he was going to cut me a check on the spot? That he was going to break down in tears and confess to everything? I knew that it would only upset me and distract me from the game. Besides, was I just going to attack him out of nowhere? How do you start that conversation?

Still, it irked me that he was able to pony up to the table like it was no big deal, like bygones were bygones, like he was just another poker player. I’d been vocal on the internet about how Full Tilt players were never made whole – was I just going to sit there quietly when I finally had the chance to confront one of the owners directly?

My hands were shaking and my mind was spinning. I could hardly pay attention to what else was going on at the table. Thankfully, my stack was short enough that all of my decisions were binary and didn’t require much thought.

I remembered some wisdom I picked up from Tommy Angelo, though I’m sure it’s not unique to him: forgiveness isn’t something you do for the person you’ve forgiving, it’s something you do for yourself, because anger and bitterness are poison and you shouldn’t keep them inside of you.

What did I really know about Ferguson’s side of the story? I was rushing to a judgment that, though I had a high degree of confidence in it, was not 100%. Maybe he really was some hero operating behind the scenes. It wasn’t likely, but it was possible.

The nice way to put it would be that I decided to take the high road. Maybe I just chickened out. But I decided not to say anything to him and just focus on playing cards.

That peace lasted for a few minutes, until another player at our table was eliminated. After gathering his things, the young man reached out to shake Ferguson’s hand. “It’s an honor”,  he said. “Glad to have you back.”

That was the final straw, but it was also the icebreaker I needed. “I don’t agree with that, for what it’s worth,” I declared to the table at large. “Anyone else here have money on Full Tilt Poker?”

No one responded. I didn’t know whether the answer was no, or whether I was just speaking so agitatedly that they couldn’t understand me. I locked eyes with the guy who looked most like a former online player. “Did you have money on Full Tilt?”

He removed his headphones. I asked him again. “No,” he told me. I could feel my face reddening. Ferguson still hadn’t said anything, but I certainly had his attention.

“I had $60,000 locked up for over two years,” I said.

“And did you get it back?” Ferguson asked me, as though that would make everything OK.

“That was $60,000 I couldn’t access for two years. No interest.”

“Sorry about that. But you got it back?”

Finally, someone else chimed in. “I had over $9000 in bonuses that I never received,” he said.

“But you got the balance back?” Chris asked.

“No,” I interrupted. “You asked whether we got paid back. The answer is, we got some of what we were owed.”

We just stared at each other for a few seconds after that. There was nothing more to say. I sat back down. My hands were still shaking, and my face was burning, but it was a relief to say something to him.

I’m relieved that I didn’t say anything nasty, and I truly don’t wish him harm or misfortune. But for him just to return to the poker world like nothing happened feels like a denial of all of the harm that Full Tilt did to so many individuals and to our community in general. When I saw him literally being welcomed back, I felt compelled to offer a counterweight to that sentiment.

Ferguson Departs

Ferguson had late registered, so he was playing a short stack. The first time he shoved, it was for about 8BBs in middle position. I was holding A4s in the CO and briefly considered calling him, but I realized my emotions were getting the best of me and folded.

A few orbits later, he jammed 6BBs UTG, and I was in middle position with ATo. This, I decided, was a call. Not a spite call, just a good call. I called.

The Ace came right on the flop, and it was still good on the river. I’d busted Chris Ferguson. He tapped the table, looked me in the eye, and nodded at me. “Good luck.”

I nodded in acknowledgment and quietly stacked my chips.

To place your bid, head to StakeKings!

Be sure to check it out at https://www.thinkingpoker.net/2014/07/episode-87-mike-goleafsgoeh-leah/.

Edit: Whoops, I actually had this file all along, Sean sent it to me before he left (though next week’s episode will go up Tuesday morning for the reason I gave here). Sorry Sean!

See you there!

Don’t forget to comment on the Hand of the Week!

Gamble Gamble

It worked out well that we were going to skip this week, because I was busy winning the $1000 Battle of the Bay tournament at Lucky Chances last night! This annual event is the premier tournament at what is now my local casino, so although I’ve been playing cash there exclusively, I decided to make an exception for this.

I played Day 1A on Saturday and got off to a very nice start but eventually lost most of my chips with QT vs 99 on a J9x flop. The guy min check-raised the flop, took about forty seconds to call my shove (nitroll, not slowroll), then bragged to the guy sitting next to him that he knew I would shove because I was too aggressive and that’s why he raised me.

A few hands later I shoved my last 4.5 BBs with 73o on the button. This one was debated a bit on Twitter, and I agree that it’s not a shove in a vacuum, but I crunched some numbers on SB/BB calling ranges and feel good about jamming any two there. I beat the BB’s K4s, and he muttered something about “nice catch”, to which I responded, “Is this your first time playing poker, sir?”

This is really out of character for me, and I’m ashamed to tell you about it. In my defense, I wasn’t feeling well, but I also think tournaments, especially live tournaments, bring this out in me. I’m trying to play fewer of them for that reason.

To paraphrase Tommy Angelo, the pleasure/pain ratio is all out of whack in a tournament. I can shrug off a loss of a couple thousand dollars at a $5/$10 game with literally no problem. I’m not just putting on a stoic front, it truly doesn’t affect me, at least not until it happens a few sessions in a row. But there’s something about a tournament, the “one-and-done” nature of it I think, encourages that kind of emotional investment that, at least in my opinion, is really undesirable.

The pleasure I get from playing cash, especially a deep-stacked cash game, is akin to the pleasure of solving a puzzle. I enjoy the challenge of trying to construct the perfect ranges for a given spot, there’s a much stronger correlation (though far from 1:1, of course) between the quality of my decisions and the outcome of a given hand or session, and during and after the experience I feel stimulated intellectually.

The appeal that tournaments hold for me has a lot more in common with gambling. There’s certainly nothing more exciting in poker than getting deep in a big tournament, but ultimately it feels like I’m just chasing a high when I play them. That said, there are some really high-value tournaments out there, too good to pass up, and this was one of them.

Sunday Funday

I was sorely tempted not to re-enter on Sunday. As I mentioned, I was (still am, in fact – staying up late last night didn’t help) under the weather, and the tournament started at 9:30 AM. On top of that, I really had not enjoyed my play on Saturday at all. Ten-handed poker with shallow effective stacks and small antes (e.g. 200/400/25) is almost entirely devoid of strategic depth. It’s mostly just a game of waiting for cards. That’s not to say there’s no edge there, just that the edge doesn’t come from anything interesting. I don’t find it stimulating, I find it annoying and boring, which of course undermines the patience that is paramount in such a structure.

So, I nearly didn’t return on Sunday. One of the factors that put me over the top was that I really wanted to meet Neil Blumenfield, who is apparently a regular at Lucky Chances tournaments though he and I have yet to cross paths in person. He wasn’t there on Saturday, so I figured he would surely play Sunday.

He didn’t, but I did, and first place was a fine consolation prize. I got off to a good start, winning some big pots in the first level and winning a big one with 55 vs AJ and 54 on a J54 flop. I eventually got involved in a three-way all in that ended with my KK losing to QQ, and then it was back to grinding a short stack for me.

For all my disparagement of short-stacked poker, it turns out there are some big edges to be had when your opponents aren’t accustomed or adapting properly to it. The thing about a flagship tournament like this is that it’s a major event for a lot of the people playing it. They either won a satellite or ponied up the $1000 as a one-time splurge, and they’re risk averse in a way that you simply can’t afford to be when you’re grinding a 20BB stack. This enabled me to pick up a few pots I had no business winning and stay afloat despite dry spells and bad beats/coolers.

Triple Barreling Off a 20BB Stack

The best example was towards the end of the day, when our table was eight-handed. Blinds must have been 1200/2400, and the player on my right open limped off of a stack of 55K or so. There was nothing suspicious about this – even at this late stage, plenty of people were limping. I made the questionable decision to limp behind with 8s 7s and 48K in the hijack. I’m still not sure this is good, but I believed I could get away with it because everyone was so passive with regard to raising pre-flop, and I expected a big post-flop edge to compensate for the times I would have to fold to a raise (and, of course, the fact that I was putting in 5% of my stack with 8-high and no chance of winning pre-flop).

The action folded to the SB, who completed. The BB checked, so four of us saw a Qh 7c 3h flop. When everyone checked to me, I bet 4500, about 1/3 of the pot. This was primarily a protection bet, though it was already in the back of my mind that it might also become the first leg of a three barrel bluff.

The small blind and the MP limper both called, and the turn brought an offsuit 9. They checked to me again. In a heads up pot, I would have considered checking and trying to show my hand down, but with two people calling there was little chance my 7 was good. It might sound ridiculous to talk about running someone off of top pair with 20 BB effective stacks, but it seemed very plausible to me at the time. That’s how scared everyone was playing. They were all terrified to slowplay with a flush draw on the board, so their calls could only indicate a lack of confidence or an extremely strong hand, to which my 7 was a significant blocker. I bet 11K, still a small fraction of the pot, but I wanted to be sure to leave myself a meaningful river bet. They both called.

The river was an off-suit A (I would have given up a heart). They both checked, I jammed my last 30K or so, and they both folded. And that’s how you triple barrel off of a 20 BB stack in a multi-way pot.

Another Cheap Steal

The other fun one from Day One began with me opening 22 from the CO. The button and SB called. I don’t remember the level, but there was about 26K in the pot on the flop, which came AJ5. We checked it around. The turn was a 4, and the SB bet 6K, hardly a show of confidence. I also thought it was quite unlikely that the button was slowplaying anything. Everyone had been playing so straight-forwardly that I expected to get way too much credit for a monster, simply because no one else in the tournament seemed willing to take a line like this as a bluff, so I raised to 22K, and they both quickly folded, the SB flashing KJ as he did so.

After that I was card- and spot- dead for the rest of the night and ended up squeaking into the money with 123K and blinds about to go to 5K/10K. That’s not as bad as it sounds, as the average was about 200K, and only 43 players remained, with 40 to be paid. Still, my aspirations for Day 2 were not much higher than surviving the bubble and collecting enough of a prize to cover train fare, meals, and my two buy-ins.

I wasn’t alone in this regard. Another player, who actually had far more chips than I did and ultimately bubbled the final table, opened the pot on one of the last hands of the night. After he won, his wife scolded him from the rail, “Don’t play anything until you’re in the money!”

Please also be aware that my winnings as well as any payments I make to you may be reported to the IRS, and you will need to provide address, social security number (or equivalent, for non-Americans), and any other information required for this purpose. This isn’t information that I need in advance, but in the event that I need to pay out profits to you, it’s information I’ll need to collect before paying out your share of the winnings.

I’d already picked up on the fact that he knew what he was doing, but this was confirmed when he posted on 2+2 to brag about a crazy pot we played together that resulted in me opening JJ UTG and putting in 300 BB pre-flop against his QQ in the big blind. He had over 15K posts on there, though the majority seemed to be in the Puzzles and Other Games forum.

He’ll probably read this post, so I don’t want to go into a ton of detail about why I played it this way, but here’s the hand:

Blinds 5/10/20. I open Js 9s for $60 on the button, he makes $200 from the SB, others fold, I call.

Flop Kh Qs 6d. He bets $200, I call.

Turn 8c, we both check.

River As, he bets $400, I make it $1100, he agonizes and folds. I’m embarrassed to admit that I showed the bluff for no real reason other than to brag (which is of course the main reason I’m posting it here as well).

I’m selling in increments of 5%, with each 5% costing $1954.15. This includes a 10% mark-up. Obviously that’s a lot to invest in a guy you’ve never met based on a blog post, but I’ve run packages like this before and can provide references, if you’d like, to attest to the fact that you won’t have to worry about me scamming you.

If you’re interested, please comment here or e-mail me at andrew(at)thinkingpoker(dot)net and I’ll send you some more details as well as a spreadsheet with all of the events that could be included in the package.

And even if you won’t be investing, I hope you’ll enjoy following along – the blog should be a lot more active when I’m back on my online grind, starting May 10!

If you can’t make the live stream, Gareth also reports that,

Unrelated to that I am going to appear on SkySports’ SkyPoker show in London on Thursday January 29th. If you’re in the UK you can watch it at Sky 861, but I think the link below will also show it. It’s a 5 hour show, I think from 1900 to 2400 UK Time. Hair, makeup, the whole thing.

http://www.skypoker.com/cms/poker_live_tv.shtm?dcmp=p_tv_865

For the poker lover in your life, don’t forget about the many fine offerings at www.nitcast.com. In addition to the WSOP Premium Podcasts and the first two volumes of The Thinking Poker Diaries, there are going to be more premium podcasts hitting the virtual shelves very, very shortly.

Happy holidays from Nate and Andrew!

If you don’t have the first book yet, now is the time to pick it up. It’s on sale for just $0.99 at www.nitcast.com through the end of the weekend!

In the meantime, you need to check out this great article from Carlos Welch, where he talks about cruising Las Vegas with some folks that regular podcast listeners and blog readers will recognize: Keone Young, Piefarmer, and Breyer. Needless to say, I’m beyond flattered to see this blog credited with bringing them together, though I’m also grateful to them and the many other regular commenters here who have contributed to this sense of community.

I know that posts here have been scant since WCOOP ended. Now that I’m more settled in San Francisco, I expect to resume more substantive posting. Thanks to you all!

When an apartment comes on the market, the owner or realtor usually hosts an open house, and attending is generally your only shot at securing that apartment. Even if you decide immediately that you like a place and hand over a check, credit report, and application on the spot, you end up in a pile with several others, only one of whom will be chosen. There’s no question of visiting several apartments, considering multiple options, and then choosing your favorite. In all likelihood, your favorite was snatched up before you got to your next open house.

The upshot of all of this is that Emily and I were forced to make a high-stakes decision quickly, under pressure, and with incomplete information.

It was a tough interview, for us and I imagine for Shane as well. He alluded in past interviews to mental health issues (that may not be the he way he put it, but it’s the best way I can think to put it right now), and he seemed depressed when we spoke to him this time around. Nonetheless, he was his usual forthright self, and we had a good conversation about the challenges of finding direction and meanin ing life, how poker affected him for better and for worse, and many other things. I say that it was a tough interview because, for me and I think for Nate as well, it was upsetting to hear our friend suffering and to feel powerless to help.

Recording the interviews is generally my responsibility. I use two programs for this, including one that is supposed to record my Skype calls automatically. It didn’t start as it was supposed to, and I failed to notice that it was not running.

I did remember to start the other program, but for some reason it recorded only my voice and not Nate’s or Shane’s. The same program failed during our previous interview as well, but I relied it on for this one nonetheless.

So there is no new episode this week, and it’s my fault. I’m sorry to our listeners but especially to Nate and Shane. I don’t consider the time wasted exactly, but I do feel bad that we won’t be able to share our conversation with the audience for whom it was intended. We’ll have a new episode next week, and hopefully it won’t be too long before you hear Shane’s voice on the show again.

Apologies for the delay. I can tell you, though, that Nate and I are both very excited about this interview, which could be released as soon as tomorrow (Wednesday). Ben proved to be an ideal guest, not only a smart and charming poker player but also a life nit and a student of philosophy!

In today’s post I want to bridge the gap between these issues that are of obvious interest to poker players and other political topics that may not seem directly poker-related but that still have some tangential relationship to poker players and the decisions that we make about where to play. These are topics about which poker players are likely to have divergent opinions, but I think that they merit more discussion than they get in the poker world, both over the table and elsewhere.

The opposing argument here is the “I come to the poker room to play poker, I don’t want to hear anyone talk about politics” attitude. Your decision to play poker at a particular venue is political, it has political consequences, and I see no reason why these consequences shouldn’t be legitimate topics of conversation. Choosing to ignore or refuse to discuss these consequences doesn’t make you apolitical, it just makes you ignorant.

The following is something like a case study. It’s an example of how poker players can’t just avoid politics, though we can and too often do ignore them. My stance on this specific subject is not a strong one, and I have myself played at these poker rooms before, though it always made me uncomfortable and I’d prefer to avoid playing at them again. I use it rather as an example of an issue that I think some but not all poker players would care about if they were forced to think about it. My point, overall, is that discussion in the poker world ought be more, not less, overtly political than it currently is, and the following is a small contribution thereto.

Playing Poker at Dog and Horse Tracks Subsidizes the Racing Industry

Many poker rooms in the US are at dog- or horse-racing facilities. Often, when seeking legislative authorization to introduce poker and/or casino gambling on their premises, the owners of these facilities explicitly argued that the racetrack alone was no longer economically viable and that other forms of gambling were needed essentially to subsidize the industry. Playing poker and otherwise spending money at these facilities is very directly supporting the racing industry, even if you don’t actually place any racing bets. The Florida Times-Union reports that,

The “decoupling” movement has created an odd alliance between racetrack casino operators, who see the races as a burden, and animal rights groups out to end greyhound racing altogether, much as they succeeded in outlawing cockfighting several years ago.

“When decoupling passes, it will lead to a slow and gradual end” of the industry, said Carey Theil, executive director of the anti-racing group Grey2K USA.

Dog racing’s troubles also could be a preview of things to come for the horse racing industry, which in some states has identical laws tying it to casino gambling. Money bet at thoroughbred tracks dropped from just over $15 billion in 2003 to less than $11 billion in 2013, according to the Jockey Club, an industry clearinghouse.

Though stronger financially than dog racing, horse racing is also far more expensive to stage, and only a handful of the biggest tracks are profitable without casinos to support them.

Some within the horse racing industry see decoupling laws as a threat to their own sport.

“They could set a dangerous precedent for all breeds of racing,” said Lonny Powell, the CEO of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association, who worked for years as a regulator of dog races.

In Florida, casino owners and animal welfare advocates have actually gotten together to support a bill that would decouple casinos from race tracks, a move that would likely be the death knell for the racing industry in that state. This should give you an idea of the importance of casino patrons to the continued viability of the race track at venues where the two are coupled.

Animal Lovers Should Have a Problem With That

I realize that some people just don’t value animal welfare very highly, and I’m not going to argue that point right now. Judging by the number of “look at my adorable dog” posts I see on my Twitter timeline, I suspect that many poker players do not want to subsidize animal cruelty and have just never really thought about or been pressed on the topic. According to advocacy group Grey2KUSA,

“To racetrack promoters, dogs are short-term investments. Even the fastest dogs only race for a few years, and are expected to generate enough profit during that time to make up for their total costs. The pressure to generate profits can lead to negligent care. Adoption groups often receive dogs in a general state of neglect, including dogs suffering from severe infestations of fleas, ticks, and internal parasites. To cut costs, dogs are fed raw 4-D meat from dying, diseased, disabled and dead livestock. This meat is deemed unfit for human consumption. The quality of veterinary care a dog receives can also be compromised by financial considerations.”

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that,

horse racing continues to wrestle publicly with a drug culture that its officials concede has badly damaged the sport. A New York Times investigation in 2012 showed how a pervasive drug culture, encouraged by trainers and aided by veterinarians, put horses and riders at risk. The Times found that 24 horses a week died at American tracks, a rate greater than in countries where drug use was severely restricted.

These are at the very least problematic industries, and as far as I know there’s been virtually no discussion among poker players about boycotting events at these facilities, although in my opinion there’s more of a case for that than for boycotting the Venetian and other Adelson properties.

Not Talking About Politics is Political

This is a political issue of the sort that could prompt someone to say, “Shut up with your bleeding heart politics and just play poker.” Then again, bringing the issue up at a poker table could easily bring the issue to the attention of someone who does care about it and who will change his behavior accordingly. Thus, the call not to talk about politics is also a call to keep this person in the dark, which of course serves the interests of the racing industry, which would rather not have people talking about issues such as doping or the disturbingly high death rate of their animals.

I’ve gone into detail on this one, but there are similar issues related to many poker venues. Animal lovers might also think about the treatment of captive marine mammals before playing the PCA at Atlantis. Indian casinos have their own set of complications, as I’m sure do most casinos.

It’s easy to shrug and say, “I’m just here to play poker, none of that is my concern.” But should we? And more to point, should we chastise those who do not?

I’ve read a lot of commentary on Olivier Busquet and Dan Colman’s t-shirts from the EPT Barcelona Super High Roller final table, and I was fortunate enough to discuss the issue at length with Olivier himself as well as with the always-thought-provoking Nate Meyvis on Episode 92 of our podcast.

Olivier conceded that he and Dan didn’t choose the best topic for breaking the ice, and I am sympathetic to the argument that they didn’t choose the best forum either, but I nonetheless respect the attempt and am deeply troubled by those who would assert that politics has no place in poker. These critics paint politics either as a matter of mere opinion to which everyone is entitled or, worse, a hobby or niche interest that people can reasonably choose to just not care about.

When politics is narrowly construed as liberal vs conservative, Obama vs Romney, then I can understand why many people see little point in engaging with it. But politics is much bigger than that: it’s about all sorts of decisions, made (or not made) by a variety of people in many different positions of authority, some far away but some as near as the brush stand. No one is an expert on all of these topics, and very few are experts on any of them, so there’s no sense in saying that only experts have the right to speak on them.

Professional Poker Players Are Not Rodeo Clowns

Robbie Strazynski claims that “Recreational poker players turn to poker for a break from everything else going on in the world. They also watch poker on television to see POKER, not politics.” Setting aside the impossibility of this warrantless assertion being true of all of the millions of recreational poker players in the world, Strazynski seems to believe that this is a good thing and that the role of the professional poker player is to provide this distraction.

That’s certainly not how I see myself, and Busquet also took issue with Strazynski’s assertion that, “Professional poker players play the game to make a living; not to make a statement, political or otherwise.”

Personally I’ve found studying poker to be extremely valuable to me in my decision-making and my general outlook on life away from the poker table. I’ve learned to think more clearly and rationally about certain things, had thousands of lessons in accepting with equanimity that which I cannot control, and become more familiar with mental biases to which all humans are prone.

I’m not delusional; I realize that people read this blog and listen to the podcast first and foremost for entertainment. Nonetheless, I hope that I present poker in a way that highlights the many positive habits of mind it can cultivate. And though I try not to go overboard about it, I don’t think I’ve been shy about overtly political posts. Sometimes they’ve dealt with policies directly related to poker and casinos, other times they’ve used poker as a frame for thinking about other political issues.

No Politics At the Table?

Many of Busquet and Colman’s critics invoke a supposed injunction against discussing politics at the table. Strazynski repeatedly emphasizes that he is all for political discussion on poker blogs, etc., and Victoria Coren claims that, “No politics or religion at the table” is “an old, old unwritten rule of poker.”  That’s never been my experience, and even if that has been a tradition in some circles, it doesn’t follow that that’s how it should be.

Many people, myself included, would argue that television’s ability to serve as a mindless distraction is its worst and most insidious quality. I support televising poker, but I don’t support catering to the lowest common denominator in order to make poker programming more appealing to a particular subset of the viewing public.

One of the other arguments against political discussion at the table is that it can be a divisive, polarizing topic that undermines camaraderie. Then again the same could be said of sports, and that’s certainly a popular topic of conversation.

I agree that poker’s ability to get people of different ages, ethnicities, socio-economic backgrounds, and nationalities sitting together around a table is a remarkable thing. It seems a waste, though, to bring these people together and then insist that their conversations remain tepid and apolitical. Why should they not discuss weighty subjects on which they may disagree? Disagreement does not have to mean contentiousness, and besides poker tables often turn contentious for reasons that have nothing to do with politics.

Political “opinion” also isn’t (or shouldn’t be, anyway) an opinion in the same way that my favorite color is an opinion. Politics ought to be a debate, and people ought to actively investigate positions that they don’t fully understand but are not inclined to agree with. Being open to hearing out the opinions of others, and learning to express your own opinions in ways that make them appealing to people who don’t already agree with you, are important skills that are rapidly eroding in the age of the internet.

As Rob King says, “I am of the view that politics is a major part of everyday life. I was raised in a political household where politics were part of the daily discussion at the dinner table. I really can’t understand why people are afraid of talking about such politics more. It’s as though people are unaware that political decisions impact the average person’s life in a massive way.”

It’s certainly common for players to discuss poker-related politics, such as a change in rake structure, minimum or maximum buy-in, or other policies at the room where they are playing. They may also discuss policies at competing poker rooms, live vs online poker, or legislation likely to affect poker and gambling. Obviously the UIGEA and the Black Friday indictments were both common topics of discussion at brick & mortar poker rooms.

More to Come

I realize that I’ve stacked the deck here by drawing on examples that have a clear and direct relation to poker. In the second part of this post, though, I’m going to look at a few examples that bridge the gap between niche interest for poker players and broader political issues. These are topics that in my opinion ought to be discussed much more than they are in the poker world.

Their execution may have been imperfect at best, but rather than chastising Busquet and Colman for not doing their part to anesthetize television viewers, we ought to take the opportunity to discuss what is the proper relationship between poker and politics.

I got some writing done yesterday, played a short cash session, and met up for dinner with friends Nate, Nico, Soeren, and Breyer, who all played yesterday, and Jeremy, a regular podcast correspondent whom we met at Saturday’s get-together. The cash session went great and put me in a good mindset for today. I made some good value bets, pulled the trigger on some big bluffs (was 50/50 on those, which is actually a fine ratio, and I think the one that didn’t work was nonetheless an uncontroversial spot to three-barrel), and just all around played well.

My phone battery has been a little unreliable of late but hopefully I’ll be able to entertain and inform on Twitter and bring you a happy update here tomorrow. On that note, I’m not sure about the others, but Nate finished Day 1 with over 70K, a well-above-average stack.

(i) I need paperwork from backers (just a SSN or TIN, really) if I cash;
(ii) 5% minimum, though I have no objection to people subdividing a 5% among themselves as long as I only have to deal with one person;
(iii) Any endorsement money, prop betting money, or other money I make on the side because I play in the tournament is mine to keep.
(iv) I can receive and send money with BoA, check in the mail, cash in Boston, or cash / chips / tournament lammers at the Rio July 2-4. I’d rather get the money beforehand because it’s one less thing to worry about while I’m traveling.
(v) I’m allowed to make swaps, sell small pieces to family and close friends, etc.; that is, although I’ll have significant skin in the game, I don’t want to create the appearance that I’m only selling/swapping 60%.

It restarts at 5, though I’ve already begun playing because the Super Knockout events began at 2 and you don’t want to late register those! I’ve already ensured that the $215 won’t be a distraction from my Day 2…

For those looking to sweat, my screenname is “foucault82”. Hopefully I can provide more than a few minutes of entertainment.

I booked my accommodations on AirBnB, as is my wont. I decided to be forthcoming about the purpose of my trip in my initial contact with potential hosts, as they usually ask eventually anyway and it helped to explain my nitpicky questions about workspaces and internet quality. This led to some unexpected hostility when, after explaining that the apartment wasn’t available, a woman unnecessarily added that besides she was “not particularly interested in this type of work/energy in my home.” In ten years of playing poker, this literally the most negative comment I’ve ever gotten, so I guess I’ve been running hot.

Thankfully, others were more gracious, and I ended up renting an apartment from a woman who both found a monitor I could borrow and began her initial response to me with “Pro poker player, that’s cool!”

I’m currently in the Philadelphia airport, awaiting my connecting flight to Montreal. My stomach is roiling a bit with the usual flight-day combination of too little sleep and too much caffeine combined with a special anxiety that will be alleviated only when I am safely in Canada and no longer reliant upon the arbitrary whims of a border agent. Not that I should or ever have had a problem entering the country, but it still sucks knowing that the possibility exists and I’m powerless to do anything about it.

I won’t be able to stay through the main event, but I should be able to get ten full days of poker (I’m taking at least one off). That should mean a bit more of the online poker content that’s been largely lacking from this site since I was last in Montreal in September. Stay tuned!

I limp TT UTG+1. CO limps behind, SB makes it $75, BB calls, I call, CO calls. Flop 7s 5d 4d. SB checks, BB checks, I bet $200 into $300, everyone calls. I’m pretty confident at this point that SB has an overpair, which more likely than not at this point is better than mine, and the other two are either drawing or have a made hand no stronger than one pair (or both, of course).

Turn Kh. SB bets $500 into $1100, BB folds, I make it $1800 with about $4000 behind, CO instantly shoves his whole stack in which is about $1500, the other two fold. He was so confident getting it in that I thought maybe my read was off and he’d slowplayed a set or straight but nope he flipped over K7. If CO isn’t randomly improved by a turn card that the vast majority of the time does nothing for anyone, then I’m pretty sure I get SB off of the winner right then and there. This is sort of the cash game equivalent of finding a great cold 4-bet spot in a tournament just to have the BB wake up with AA.

You might enjoy looking at my tweets from yesterday, I met some characters. I don’t have time today, but I’ll try to write a bit more about specific hands later this week and maybe talk about them on a future podcast as well.

Here’s one quick brag: there’s an older guy on my right who’s been playing pretty quiet and nitty, though he’s clearly starting to get fed up by my bullying him on the final table bubble. He open completed the small blind, I raise 3x with K2o, and he calls. Flop AQ8 checks through. Turn 4 checks through again. River 8 he bets about two-thirds pot.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense but he also doesn’t seem like a guy who bluffs much and I do tend to look that sort up more than I should. One thing about nitty players is that they do tend to check pretty strong hands on early streets, especially if they think you’re aggressive. It’s a moral thing for them, I think. They want to punish me.

Anyway, while I’m pondering the call I count out calling chips and Villain does a really blatant thing where he acts like he’s eager to turn over the winning hand. It’s so straight-out-of-Caro that I actually wonder for a moment whether it could be a reverse tell. Then I decide I’m being silly and call. He shows nine-high and calls me a psychopath (good naturedly) when I show the winner.I’m turning into a proper live pro!

1. I was better than I usually am about looking left but still not nearly good enough. It was unbelievable how many people were telegraphing their actions. One guy even counted out chips and stacked them on top of his cards when he was going to raise. He was also the only guy at my starting table wearing sunglasses. Wouldn’t want to give off any tells!

There were at least five instances where I made a play based on what I saw behind me – either folded a marginal open or raised a hand I would have folded. And that’s despite the fact that I was looking left less than half the time. Granted I usually play with slightly tougher competition, but I’m starting to think doing this consistently should be my single biggest priority in terms of skill development.

2. At the very least, I need to look right. There was an incident later in the night when I tried to min-raise Q6o from the cutoff with a short stack in the big blind. I threw out the raise, then the dealer showed me that someone in front of my had already opened for 3x. With 2/3 of the raise I already out there, I had to call. Then the button called behind me, the big blind (a very good player) shoved, and the original raiser folded. I was getting better than 2:1 and was sure a shove would drive out the button, so I shipped it and sucked out on AKo. Needless to say, a lot of heads exploded over that one, and it was great for my table image. I think only the big blind and one other player at the table realized what happened and why. Explaining yourself in this kind of situation is one of the stupidest things you can do (other than not realizing there was a raise in front of you!), and I see it constantly. Own your bad play!

3. I got a double up from a usually-nitty player who has a long-standing dislike for me. With about 25BBs, I min-raised AKo, the small blind called, and the nit called from the big blind. I checked back an A73r flop three-ways. The turn was a 9, SB checked, BB bet about 1/3 pot, I 3x’ed him, SB folded, BB tanked and shoved with 66.

A while later I was back down to 24BB, and the same guy opened limped in middle position. The SB completed, and I shoved KTo. To my surprise, the nit called, and then the SB instantly shoved for a lot more. Nit went into the tank, and after about two minutes looked like he was going to call so I clocked him just in case that would change his mind. He got really upset, called me a “fucking nit”, and then said “let’s go” and called with TT. SB had QQ, and I spiked the K. Nit went on to berate me for “getting it in bad” with Q6 and KT.

The Q6 hand notwithstanding, I hadn’t been making wild shoves or anything. I don’t think I’d been all-in pre-flop at all, so I have no idea why people were limping TT and QQ on my big blind.

Play resumes at Noon. I’ve got 84K, average is about 120K, blinds 1K/2K/300. There’s 35 players remaining and I think only final table pays so still a ways to go.

1. The early days of the 2+2 MTT forum

2. Creating a more efficient marketplace for selling action

3. Competitive climbing

4. Hero checking

Post your guesses as comments below, and again, please don’t post if you already know who it’s going to be.

If you’re a member of Tournament Poker Edge, then you’ll also want to check out my new theory series on bluffing. Like my hand reading and value betting series, it’s a combination of slide show and hand examples.

If you aren’t yet a member of Tournament Poker Edge, you can sign up here!

In the meantime, here’s a little game we can play. I’ll give you some clues about the guest, and you try to guess who it is. Topics of conversation include:

a) how playing multi-table tournaments can make you a better turbo sit-and-go player

b) selecting a charity and donating money

c) living with a romantic partner who is also a professional poker player

Sorry for the (likely) delay!

If you don’t know who Gareth is, start by listening to our first interview with him. If you find his story compelling, and I think you will, he’s been on the show a few more times and also written some very enjoyable pieces about his travels for the PokerStars blog.

Happy holidays!

Simply being in contention for it was proof enough of that. Actually winning it doesn’t make him the best of the best, nor even the one who played the best this year. There is no objective way of measuring who is the single greatest poker player, nor for that matter is there even such a thing as “the single greatest poker player.” What the various Player of the Year rankings actually measure is which of the best players in the world have been running hottest of late and also playing the most aggressive schedules.

I imagine they’re good publicity for the game. Sports fans like rankings and statistics, and they give television commentators something to talk about and tournament administrators something to promote. Such rankings have even proved a good way to translate daily happenings in the poker world into the kinds of items that can get a little traction in the mainstream media.

I’ve got nothing against such rankings as a publicity tool, but as a player, I don’t care and I don’t think they actually measure anything important in a particularly meaningful way. So I have to laugh when I see players who are clearly ego-invested in seeing their name move up a notch or two on those scales or getting into heated arguments over how exactly those rankings are determined or which bracelets are “real” bracelets, etc.

It reminds me of Lisa Simpson’s anxiety when Springfield’s teachers are on strike and there’s no one to pat her on the head and tell her what a good student she is: “Look at me! Grade me! Evaluate and rank me! I’m good, good, good and oh so smart!”

Poker frustrates our innate sense of justice. People – maybe Americans especially? – like to see a clear correlation between skill, hard work, and success. It doesn’t always happen that way in poker, and even the best sometimes doubt themselves. I can understand the desire to have some objective, external assurance that you really are one of the best. I just don’t think such a thing is possible, and it surprises me to see players who surely know better acting as though these rankings were anything more than an extremely rough approximation whose primary objective is to serve the agendas of media organizations and tournament organizers, not to settle the unsettleable argument about who is really the best.

If you’re not able to make it to the meet-up, but you’re going to be in Atlantic City, Carlos and I will be there actually from the night of Wednesday the 20th through at least Monday the 25th. So let us know you’re out there, and find a way to say hi even if you can’t make the meetup.

Edit: Busted within two minutes of publishing this. Ivey opened from the button, I jammed T8s from the BB, and he had Queens.

PokerStars – $2 NL FAST (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 299.68 BB
Hero (SB): 210.95 BB
BB: 48.52 BB
UTG: 212.99 BB
MP: 100 BB
CO: 116.12 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Td Qd
fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 7 BB, fold, BTN calls 5 BB

Flop : (15 BB, 2 players) 7c 9s Kh
Hero bets 9 BB, BTN calls 9 BB

Turn : (33 BB, 2 players) Ad
Hero checks, BTN bets 22 BB, Hero raises to 62 BB, BTN calls 40 BB

River : (157 BB, 2 players) 3d
Hero checks, BTN bets 76 BB, Hero calls 76 BB

BTN shows Ac Ks (Two Pair, Aces and Kings) (Pre 60%, Flop 80%, Turn 91%)
Hero mucks Td Qd (High Card, Ace) (Pre 40%, Flop 20%, Turn 9%)
BTN wins 307.6 BB

John “KasinoKrime” Beauprez, winner of the 2013 $5000 pot-limit omaha $1500 no-limt hold ’em 6-max WSOP event, will be our guest on Episode 43 of the podcast. In addition to talking to him about his poker career and the excitement of winning his first bracelet, we’ll also talk PLO strategy.

John is the author of PLO QuickPro, a hefty soup-to-nuts strategy book. We considered featuring PLO QuickPro on a month-long bookclub, but ultimately decided against it on the assumption that the $300 price tag would be a barrier to participation for a large percentage of listeners. Instead, John has made one chapter of the book free for readers of this blog to download, and we encourage you to read it before you listen to our interview.

It’s worth noting that although featuring a book or author on the show doesn’t necessarily constitute a recommendation thereof, speaking for myself, I’m nearly finished my first read-through of the book and have found it quite good so far. I’ll be publishing a review in the next week or so.

If you have suggestions for questions either about John or about PLO strategy, please leave them as comments here and we’ll consider them for the show.

If you’re interested in the position, please email us at podcast at thinkingpoker dot net. Responsibilities and perks of the job include:

– Editing one episode, roughly two hours in length, each week
– Flexible hours!
– Work from home!
– Modest compensation!
– On-air talent who are extremely receptive to suggestions regarding how we can make your job easier
– Access to bonus “behind-the-scenes” banter too raunchy for the airwaves
– Networking opportunity with two rising stars of poker media

Where: Rio Convention Center Starbucks (the one closer to the WSOP area, not the one on the casino floor)

What: Sip coffee, tea, or tap water (nitcast FTW!) with Thinking Poker Podcast hosts Andrew Brokos and Nate Meyvis. Stop by and say hello or hang out for two hours and chat.

Whether you live in Las Vegas, are playing the main event, or just happen to be in town, we’d love to meet you. Blog readers, by the way, are welcome even if you’ve never listened to the show. There’s no need to RSVP, just stop by and say hi. We’ll be the dorkiest guys in the room, can’t miss us.

I really appreciate everyone who was cheering here, on Twitter, etc., and I hope I’ll be able to deliver another nice sweat for you all in the Main Event next month. I won’t be playing any poker between now and then, but I’ve still got plenty of WSOP stuff to write about so you should continue to see new content going up here.

Also for reasons having nothing to do with this, this week’s podcast is probably going to be a little late going up, most likely not until Thursday. It was recorded last week, so there won’t be any PLO8 talk, but you can definitely look forward to hearing that next week! Nate’s got a great head for the game, he was a big help to me in preparing for the final few tables, and we’re going to try to get a good guest for the subject as well. Stay tuned!

Today is the $1500 PLO8, the last WSOP event I’m going to play before the main. Although the series hasn’t been kind to me so far, I’m optimistic about this event because I really enjoy playing PLO8, and the potential edge over players who don’t know what they’re doing is enormous. I may well have a larger edge in this tournament than in any other that I played.

So I just want to assure everyone, particularly those of you with a financial interest in the outcome, that I am pumped and ready to play my best today. I was not at all tilted by losing a huge coin flip in last night’s $1K, and after the tournament was over I came straight  home and went to bed so I’d rested for today. I most definitely did not go on an all-night bender and wake up 27 minutes ago on a golf course in Henderson. I am feeling fresh and in a good place mentally and physically.

Let’s do this!!!!

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.

I encourage you to take this opportunity to get caught up on older episodes. If you’re looking for gobs of strategy, you can’t beat our Ed Miller interview. If you like memorable characters, you might enjoy listening to my grandmother talk about a 400-pound cross-dressing stand-up comedian who never met a track he didn’t like. For a great combination of both, check out Oliver Busquet Part 1 and Part 2.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but I’ll be in Las Vegas tomorrow, and that should provide plenty of fodder for great content going forwards.

Sorry for the delay in the WYP results, should have them up tomorrow.

The only complication is that a good friend of mine had the nerve to schedule her wedding, which is taking place on the east coast, right in the middle of the series. But that’s OK, I’ll probably be ready for a break by then. I plan to be in Las Vegas from the last weekend in May, which is the opening weekend of the series, through June 20. Then I’m going to fly to the east coast, go to the wedding, spend some time with my family, spend some time with my girlfriend, and return for the Main Event. Most likely I’ll stay in Vegas through mid-July, hopefully because I’m still in the Main but if not the Main Event of the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza should be a good tournament as well.

I just finalized renting a small, one-bedroom condo after the owner confirmed that the dog currently renting it will be out by late May. You read that correctly – the owner is putting up a friend’s dog at the condo while the friend is out of town. Las Vegas is a weird place. Anyway I know that sharing a house with a bunch of other poker players is a big part of the WSOP experience, but I like having my own space and at this point in my career I don’t really have an obvious “crew” to stay with.

Nate and I are kicking around the idea of arranging a Thinking Poker Podcast meetup in early July, when he will also be in Vegas for the Main Event, so we’ll keep you posted about that. Regardless, if you’re going to be out there this summer, drop me a line and hopefully we can at least shake hands – I expect to be pretty busy

This is a tentative schedule I put together for myself with the help of SpaceyFCB’s spreadsheet. I’m sure I won’t end up playing all of these events, hopefully because I go deep in a couple of them but also because I’ll probably want more time off than what I’ve built into this schedule. I tried to target the juiciest events, which are the low buy-in weekend tournaments, and a few that are unique/fun opportunities (the mix-max, the PLO8). Most of these are WSOP events but a couple are Venetian DSEs.

Please join me in congratulating Andre! If you listened to his interview, then you know that this couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, and that all of the proceeds from his $100K challenge are going to charity.

After that I was in New York for a few short but great days visiting two good friends who are also among my oldest poker friends from my first home game. It’s funny, Logan and his wife Jen were two of my best friends in college, and I used to stay at their apartment on the Upper West Side when I visited New York and just visit for an evening with Darren, whom I met through the aforementioned home game and knew much less well. Then Logan and Jen moved into a smaller apartment, while Darren bought a house in Westchester and had kids, so now I end up staying at Darren’s house when I go to New York and only get to visit with Logan for usually one day of my trip. It was nice that this time Logan and Jen spent a night at Darren’s house as well, so we had ourselves a little slumber party.

It was also nice that there was a direct flight from the Westchester County Airport to Nassau this morning, so although I had to wake up at 5AM I didn’t have to deal with any JFK craziness. Thankfully the flight was largely empty, because what passengers there were proved exactly what I expected from the Westchester Country Airport. This one family, whose members were straight out of central casting for The Sopranos and Jersey Shore, more or less turned the middle of the plane into their private lounge.

Other than that the flight was fine, and because Miklos was a supernova when he won his satellite, I got to take a PokerStars limo to the Atlantis, which was far nicer than the cabs bearing the scars of multiple collisions that I’ve taken in past years. I shared the limo with two Russians and a Venezualan, evidence of how international this game and especially this particular tournament have become.

Since checking in, I’ve already caught up with two of my favorite PokerStars employees and received a special emeritus invite to the Team Online social hour tonight. In a big improvement over past years, PokerStars is setting up its own wireless hotspots, which though not a lot better in quality than the hotel internet will save me about $100.

While sitting in the PokerStars lounge writing this very blog post, I told a German satellite qualifier that no, the seat next to me was not taken. A moment later he took his headphones off and told me that he thought he recognized me voice. Turned out he was listening to the latest Thinking Poker Podcast at that very moment!

He wondered off to watch the High Roller, and I’d just returned to writing when two drunk blokes sat down and asked what I was writing. I got to talking with them and they encouraged me to come drinking with them, but I had to turn them down so I can go eat and then catch up with my friends from Team Online. It was probably for the best, because even though they were a few drinks ahead of me, I still doubt I could have kept up with them!

Please let me know what you think, and if you have suggestions for future videos, by all means let me know about those as well!

I decided, at the last minute as usual, to play the PCA. I’m selling action in the $10300 main event at 120%, with a discount for buying 10% or more.

1% = $123.60
5% =  $618
10% =  $1200 (116.5% markup)
50% = $6000 (116.5% markup)

Please email me at andrew@thinkingpoker.net if you’re interested or have any questions.

“Oh yeah, I heard his ban was up.”

I was curious to ask who this guy was, but about that time, my seat was called. I left the table and didn’t think much more about it.

The $1/$3/$6 was in rare form, with no fewer than four players imbibing heavily. After about an hour, one of them begins speaking angrily to the floorman. “Don’t fucking bring him over here. I don’t care. I don’t give a fuck. Just don’t seat him here.” A few others nod in agreement. I have a feeling I know what this is about, but I don’t ask, and another half hour goes by.

Here comes the part I’ve never seen: a seat opens up at the table, and the floor announces “Paul for 1-3-6”.

“If he sits down, I’m out,” declares the angry guy. He’s been drinking, and he’s always angry, so I don’t make too much of that. But then the table joins in with a chorus of agreement.

“Me neither.”

“I’m leaving if he sits.”

Paul takes his seat, and no fewer than seven people rack up their chips. They’re asking me and the one other guy who didn’ t leave, “Are you leaving? Are you going to play with him?”

I’m all for collective action as a means of enforcing the social norms of the largely governless poker world, but I’d like to at least know what I’m shunning the guy for, and no one will tell me. They keep telling me he’s annoying to have at the table, but this game is full of antisocial personalities, and I’ve never seen a reaction like this. As @DougLeePoker responded when I tweeted about this incident, “meanwhile @howardhlederer is eating lobster tail in bobby’s room, laughing it up with the boys.”

Paul refuses to play three-handed, so we’re left without a game. Finally he goes back to his $1/$3 seat and our game fills back up. It’s mostly new faces and all the big drinkers are gone, so it’s not half the game it used to be.

While we’re waiting to restart, I finally corner one of the regulars and drill him for information. “What is it about this guy?”

“He’s just really annoying to have at the table.”

“There’s gotta be more to it than that. Plenty of people are annoying, but I’ve never seen a whole game break up like that. What does he do?”

“Anything a guy can do to be annoying in a poker game.”

“Does he cheat?”

“No it’s not that. He just like… like he takes a really long time to act, he leaves the table constantly, etc.”

“That’s it.”

“Well, like… OK one time he shit his pants at the table. Like on purpose.”

“What?”

“Yeah, stuff like that.”

The game was starting back up, so I didn’t have time to follow up on what other behavior exactly could be considered comparable to that. I never learned why China Paul was banned from the casino either, but I’m guessing it involved abuse of staff because no one from floorpeople to dealers to waitresses seems to like him. Now that he’s back, maybe I’ll have the chance to find out for myself. Or maybe he’ll never be able to play in the big game again.

This decision is also important because it is the first court of consequence to issue a ruling that will have any precedential effect. To date, the handful of court “wins” for poker have all been issued by state district courts whose decisions have no binding or persuasive effect on other courts. Every appellate court to date has ruled against the “poker is a skill game” argument. But federal district courts occupy a unique spot in the legal authority realm. Federal district court decisions of consequence are “reported” (officially published) and can be cited as authority in other cases just like appellate court decisions. These district court decisions are not binding on other courts as an appellate decision would be, but they are often looked to as persuasive authority by appellate courts confronted with developing areas of the law. Having a thorough, well-crafted judicial opinion on the merits of the “poker is a skill game” argument on the books, so to speak, lends a certain gravitas to the argument which can bolster that argument if and when it is considered by other courts.

The author’s conclusion seems to be that this is a symbolically important win, but it’s limited in scope and won’t have a lot of immediately practical implications. Not exactly what you wanted to hear, perhaps, but probably a lot closer to the truth than what you may have read elsewhere.

To be honest, I’m not that picky. Game selection matters far more to me than anything else, but I did enjoy a lot of the little niceties: friendly staff, competent dealers, good food delivery service available, and proximity to the outside world (I like to get some fresh air when I step away from the table for a break). I never waited long to get seated in a 2/5 or 5/10 NLHE game, though I did arrive a bit in advance of what I assume is peak time. There weren’t generally 5/10 games going in the early afternoon, but often one started not long after I added my name to the interest list (coincidence, I’m sure!).

There were a lot of regulars playing there, but though many of them looked and talked as though they were good, I found that most exhibited some pretty flawed thinking if I played with them for long enough. For example, there was one young guy with massive biceps who seemed to know everyone there.

I limped UTG with 99, there was another limper, he made it $50 on the button, the blinds folded, and both limpers called. Flop came A84r, I checked and called a bet of $80, and the other limper folded. We both checked a 4 turn, then I checked again on a Q river. He bet $170. I was probably calling anyway, but his bet came so quickly that I doubted he was going for thin value with a Q, so it was an A or nothing. Nothing about his demeanor suggested strength, so I called. He looked a little annoyed and said, “You got it,” then he really got flustered when I showed my 9s. “Unbelievable,” he said, shaking his head. “You can’t bluff anyone in this game. I can so easily have AK there.”

I work hard to remain unflappable at the table, but it was hard to resist cracking a smile at that last comment and how much ignorance it revealed. Of course the fact that he could have AK there is hardly a reason to fold getting nearly 3:1. More amusing was that I don’t think he would have been so bothered if I’d called him with like A3. I suppose the latter has a blocker to his precious AK, but in both cases I’m only beating a bluff. The fact that he was more concerned about the absolute strength of my hand than about my perception of his range was telling.

The other humorous guy was perhaps the most obvious tourist I’ve ever played against. He couldn’t have fit the stereotype better. From the moment he sidled up to the table, he was trying to look cool and show off his knowledge of live poker protocol, a classic case of “the lady doth protest too much.”

“So what’s the buy-in here, guys?” The dealer told him $200 – $1000. With a flourish, he pulled out a big roll of 100’s but put just $300 on the table. So much for looking cool. “Do I have to post? I can just come in? Is the button allowed to straddle?” Nothing he asked was unreasonable, but something about the way he asked suggested that he cared more about showing off that he (thought he) knew what questions to ask rather than about the answers to those questions.

Did I mention that he had his girlfriend with him? I don’t approve of that (If you’re new here, seriously follow that link. It’s one of my best poker stories). She sat in a chair just behind him but demonstrated no interest whatsoever in the game. She was buried in an iPad the entire time he played.

He dusted off that first $300 quickly, getting all-in on a KJx flop. Another J came on the river, and he frantically inquired of his opponent, “You got the Jack?” His opponent showed KJ, and he made a big show of taking the loss with equanimity. “Oh nice hand sir! Of course I’m going to go broke there. Can’t do anything about that. Nice hand, sir, nice hand.” There was another big show as he took out $300 more and called for chips, as per Caro’s Book of Poker Tells.

My hand against him began with me opened to $15 with 9c 8s in the CO. The tourist called on the button, and the big blind called. I bet $30 on a Kh 9h 2h flop. They both called. There was now $135 in the pot and $220 in the tourist’s stack. The turn was another 9. BB checked, I bet $75, and then the tourist went off on a little act. He sighed, counted out chips for a call, pushed them back and forth a bit as though he just couldn’t decide whether to call or fold, then decided that perhaps he should go all-in. BB folded.

Now it was my turn to sigh. He just gave off literally the oldest tell in the book, but I was getting 3:1 with about a 20% chance of improving to a full house on the river. Even a small risk that I was wrong in my read would be enough to justify a call. I called, and of course he had the nut flush.

In retrospect I hate my call. Not only was this one of the most blatant tells I’ve ever seen, but there’s also at least as much of a chance that he’s holding a made full house as that he’s holding a hand my trips beat. Oh well. At least he only had $300!

Gareth Chantler, whom you may know from CardRunners or from his frequent comments here at Thinking Poker, picked me up at the airport. I’ve known Gareth for over a year and we’ve spoken by Skype many times, but this was our first in-person meeting.

He was kind enough to drive me to Whole Foods, enabling me to get some milk and fresh fruit. I can’t tell you how great it is not to be wholly dependent on the Poker Kitchen and the Rio’s many fine (LOL) eateries while I’m here. I didn’t buy too much because I was expecting to have to cram things into the minibar fridge or failing that set up a makeshift freezer with the help of the ice machine, but it turned out there was actually a mini fridge in my room so that was a nice surprise.

I was also surprised to find a coffee maker, something I’ve never before seen in a Las Vegas hotel room. Not that I want their shitty coffee, but having a way to make hot water means I could have brought dehydrated backpacker meals and my own coffee along with my French press coffee mug. I nearly brought the coffee just because I hate Starbucks and resent the hell out of having to pay them $3/cup for my dark addiction, but it’s just so unlike the penny pinching Caesar’s Entertainment to provide anything for free that I figured no way in hell there would be a coffee maker. The whole thing made a lot more sense to me when I saw the sign that “K-cups” (the little pre-measured packets of coffee that you have to use with this machine) are available in the minibar for the low low price of 3 for $8.

I’m not anti-balling quite as hard as I did at the PCA, but I did bring cereal, peanut butter, jelly, packets of tuna fish, granola bars, and a few other snacks with me. Along with the milk, bread, and fruit I bought last night, I’m well-stocked to provide a lot of my own meals.

Gareth and I planned to eat dinner at Lotus of Siam, but finding a one-hour wait, we went across the street to another Thai place that emphasized its many vegan and vegetarian options. Komol had perhaps the largest menu I’ve seen at any restaurant ever, but the food and service were both quite good.

So was the company. Gareth is a fascinating guy. After dropping out of college for the third time and increasingly depressed by the harsh Canadian winter, he decided, as he put it, “to take responsibility for my own happiness” and moved to Peru. He paid the bills playing both online and in Peruvian casinos, sometimes from rented apartments and sometimes from the common room of hostels, first from Lima and then from Cuzco. His travels took him to Trinidad and then back to his native Ontario, where he spent several weeks practicing in live poker tournaments before moving on to Las Vegas for his first ever WSOP.

Having just returned from Europe myself, I was eager to talk travel with him. We discussed the stress and exhilaration of fumbling through unfamiliar situations, the best way to eat guinea pig, and the time that he was mistaken for a member of the Campus Crusade for Christ and invited back to the dorm room of another member for some gay porn. His observations about America were consistent with those of many people I met in Europe, namely that it’s a lovely country but that everyone here is really very fat and the murder rate is simply unbelievable. In short we had a great time.

Still feeling the effects of jet lag from my return from Europe, now supplemented by another three-hour shift from the east coast, I went to bed early and woke up early. The professional poker player is a nocturnal hunter, so I took advantage of the early hour and entered the $550 10 AM mega satellite. Sure enough the field was super soft, though it probably would have been anyway. The tournament was a success in the sense that I got my run bad out of the way, so now I’m ready to take on my 7th WSOP Main Event!

A few people have asked why I’m not not in Las Vegas now playing more of the series. In addition to the fact that Las Vegas is one of the last places I’d want to be in the summer, one of my best friends is getting married in Germany, and I’m his best man. He insisted on scheduling around the WSOP main event, but I couldn’t very well ask him to schedule around the whole series!

The wedding is today, and then I’ll be back in the US just in time to fly to Las Vegas for the main event. I get into town on July 6 and play Day 1B on July 8. If you’re going to be around and interested in meeting up, drop me a line at andrew@thinkingpoker.net. I don’t know how long I’m going to stay out there, so I don’t want to make any promises, but I always enjoy meeting up with blog readers when I can.

Hope to see you soon!

I am 24 years old and I live in Henderson, NV. Following the shut down of service to US players on Pokerstars I decided to play a few live tournaments.  I instantly final tabled two Bellagio WPT $540′s back to back.  During one of those deep runs I was offered, by another player in the tournament, to join his team of players that are backed.  I had made out plans and set out a schedule of tournaments over the course of the summer only to find out that the backer of their team just went on $400k downswing and they are not adding any new players.

Now I am stuck in a bad spot, I am scrambling to find any sort of staking/coaching deal for the summer and I do not know anyone in the poker world….  Any help you could offer, even if just some words of advice, would be greatly appreciated.

My suggestion to this player was for him to focus on the games he could afford on his own bankroll rather than entering into a staking relationship that would have constrained his options. After hearing that he final tabled the first Venetian event and had a few other good cashes as well, I concluded that, “it looks like he’s going to be alright.”

How right I was. He recently got back to me with a pretty extraordinary success story:

I’m not sure if you remember me, but… I had originally emailed you asking for staking/coaching or just any advice that you could give me. I wound up having a very solid series without needing any kind of backing. After the series I moved up to Canada to maintain Supernova Elite status on Pokerstars….

I recently came home to Chicago to play live tournaments, for the first time since the series, at the Chicago Poker Classic. I won ‘Player of the Turbo Series’ (winning a car that I took $30k cash option for) and ‘Overall Player of the Series’ (for $50k in cash).

The combination of skills that I have obtained from grinding online, and my many years of dealing poker and playing live have made for a great mixture of skills that make me a beast in live tournaments. I’m absolutely giddy about the WSOP being just around the corner, and I want to take my game to the next level and maximize my chances of success and making a run at a bracelet.

I’ve been watching your training vids since I was a broke noob, and reading your articles and blogs as well. I really like the way that you go into such depth explaining even just a single hand of poker…. Again I ask for just any bit of advice you’d have for someone in my situation. Last year when I asked the same thing I was a good player playing with a limited bankroll. This year I am fresh off of 10 months of very hard work online, with a nice bankroll, and my confidence has me believing that I can win every tournament that I play.

I’ve already written back to him, but I want to post a bit of advice here. Obviously this player has had a ton of success recently, more than could be attributed to luck alone. In other words, he’s clearly a talented tournament player.

It’s important, however, not to get overconfident. He’s surely had more than his share of luck as well. There’s always room for improvement no matter how good you are, and even the best must work hard to stay on top of the game.

It seems like this player is taking the right message from his recent success: he has skill and talent that is well worth investing in. He’s taking the right approach by being inspired to play more and study harder rather than resting on his laurels.

As a blogger, I love hearing from people who have found my writing or my advice helpful. Hell, just knowing people read at all is nice. If you’re a reader, I’d love to hear your story: how you got into poker, how you’re improving, what you like most about the blog, constructive criticism, and by all means your proudest poker accomplishments!

You can leave comments here or contact me directly. Please let me know if you don’t want me to share your story, because I’m looking for a few more good ones like this to post.

The title of this post is in German because that’s where I am right now. My girlfriend and I have just embarked on a three-month Europe trip. My inability to play online poker has become a convenient excuse to travel the world, spending several months first in Canada and now in Europe. As far as occupational hazards go, these aren’t so bad.

In a sequel to my Gray Friday article entitled Three Days in Madrid, I described meeting two new friends after a last-minute decision to play the Grand Final of the European Poker Tour. Appropriately, both Soeren and Nico are also coming to Berlin for the EPT, and I hope to see both of them today. Nico and I traveled to Cannes for the WSOP-Europe a few months ago, but this will be the first time I’ve seen Soeren since Madrid.

In the last year, Nico’s home country of Spain has adopted legislation restricting its citizens to playing on Spanish-only sites, and Soeren’s home country of Germany threatens to enact similar legislation. Back in the United States, the patchwork of pending legislation at the state and federal levels is too complex for me to keep up with it. Although the holy grail would be legislation welcoming PokerStars back into the US market so that US players could compete against the rest of the world, at this point even the creation of a US-only market would be a vast improvement over the status quo.

For now, though, I remain a poker nomad. I play the EPT Berlin on Monday and hopefully the rest of the week as well. Last night a former student who lives in Berlin picked us up at the train station and took us to dinner. Soon we’ll be on to Amsterdam, where I hope to meet another former student and also spend some time with Richard “tzen1” Veenman, a member of PokerStars Team Online whom I first met in the Bahamas earlier this year.

A long-time blog reader offered us a couch to crash on in his Paris apartment, so that’s where we’ll be after the SCOOP. Then there’s hiking in the Swiss alps, hopefully meeting a student in Switzerland while we’re there, and then on to a small town in Germany for the wedding of one of my closest friends, who asked me to be his best man on this date in 2011.

I still haven’t answered any of those big questions, but I’ve managed to orient myself and muddle my way through a messy situation by focusing on what’s important to me: relationships with family, friends, and my girlfriend; traveling, meeting new people, and having new experiences; and making the best of any situation in which I find myself, doing my best not to look to the past with resentment or longing nor towards the future with fear or anticipation.

How did Black Friday affect you? What has your life been like for the past year? How do you feel on this important anniversary?

As much as I dislike using -EV luck-based games as a source of state revenue, this seems like an especially asinine policy. It encourages the worst kind of gambling while creating fewer jobs and hamstringing Maryland’s casinos in their competition with those in neighboring Delaware, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

There are a few reasons why gambling-as-revenue-stream is bad public policy. First, decades of experience with the lottery suggest that it’s a regressive tax. That is, it draws a disproportionate amount of its revenue from the lowest-income households in the state. This is both bad for those families and for the economy in general, as additional money in their pockets is more likely to be spent in ways that stimulate the economy as a whole.

Don’t insult me with those ridiculous claims like “the money is for education!” Money is fungible, and education is already a high-priority budget item. Money raised from slot machines and earmarked for education is simply money that would otherwise have been diverted from some other budget item. The disingenuousness of this claim is jaw-dropping, and it’s even more appalling to me how many people fall for and parrot it. It’s like they understand nothing about how money works. Which brings me to my next point…

Gambling encourages bad decision-making and an undesirable outlook on life. You might be surprised to see a professional poker player saying that he opposes legalized gambling, but really I see a world of difference between poker, a skill-based and potentially +EV game, and slot machines, lotteries, etc. which are beatable only by cheating and generally a terrible decision for anyone to play. Poker at least has the potential to teach good financial decision-making. Its governing philosophy is that, as in life, your outcomes are in part a result of your decisions and in part a result of luck. Table games generally and slot machines in particular operate on a “roll the dice and see what happens” mentality, not the way a government ought to encourage its citizens to live and act.

It’s one thing to say “people are doing this anyway, let’s at least tax it”. I don’t generally believe the state has a right or obligation to actively prevent people from making self-destructive decisions, and I’m all for taxing them, which if anything ought to discourage them. However, it’s quite a different thing to actively encourage bad decision making. The Maryland Lottery’s slogan used to be “It could be you.”

Slot machines are about the least social games offered in your average casino, and they’re widely considered to be the most addictive. I’ve never played any non-poker game in a casino, so I’m not an authority here, but I can at least see the appeal of craps, where you’re interacting with other people and all getting excited about the same thing. People playing slots look like zombies, dead-eyed and lost in their own little world.

Finally, I realize that dealers are a relatively small percentage of the jobs created by a casino, but they’re also among the most lucrative. To the extent that casinos are sold as a job-creation strategy, which they often are, it makes no sense to me to restrict them to a form of gambling that creates fewer jobs.

My understanding is that these casinos are slots-only because, ironically, that was an easier sell to skeptical voters and politicians. The casino advocates were apparently able to sell slots as “gambling lite”, somehow less seedy than table games. I suppose the American public as a whole still has some negative associations attached to cards.

Meanwhile, people who want to play with cards and dice are still driving to neighboring states. As it happens, I’m headed to West Virginia when I finish writing this to play poker at the nearest casino that offers it. Though I won’t, I’m sure many others like me will drop a few dollars in the machines while they’re there. Ironically, slots were originally proposed in Maryland as a shot-in-the-arm for the horse racing industry, which was losing customers to Delaware tracks that also offered slots.

The whole thing just seems like a giant public policy boondoggle to me. A few developers and casino operators are playing poker, and they’re fleecing all of the legislators and voters who are simply gambling.

I know that there is zero chance of herding fifteen online poker pros into a conference room by 10AM, I tell myself that this is true and that I need not rush, but nevertheless I am there for our PokerStars Team Online meeting at 9:51. I just can’t help being early. This gives me nearly an hour to chat with the other “early” arrivers before we finally begin.

They are a formidable crowd. Shane Schleger was already an online MTT hero six years ago, when I was just starting to grind my way up. Today is January 6th, and he has already final tabled the Sunday Million this year. Mickey Peterson, on the other hand, arrived much later than I to the tournament scene but has already put up results that surpass both Shane’s and mine.

In 2009, Kevin Thurman set a record by earning 3,055,385 VPPs. That same year, I was down to the wire getting the last few VPPs I needed to cross the 100,000 mark and make Supernova. It boggles my mind that people manage to earn 1,000,000 in a year to make Supernova Elite, let alone that Kevin accumulated thirty times as many VPPs as I did.

Bjorn Schneider, sitting to Kevin’s immediate left, broke that record last month. The two of them just met this morning, though apparently they were on the same flight to the Bahamas. Bjorn was sitting immediately behind Kevin and listening to him tell his seatmate about “the guy who just broke my record”.

The two players at the table who are more my speed are Adrienne Rowsome and Richard Veenman, both of whom are, like me, mere Supernovas who play about twenty hours a week. Unlike me, however, they both have jobs outside of poker. We later learn that they are the only two working stiffs out of the fifteen of us.

Perhaps the most intimidating character at the table, however, is Anders Berg. Anders has a PhD in Pure Mathematics and three WCOOP bracelets. He also finished second in an event in last year’s WCOOP, narrowly missing a record-setting fourth bracelet. Anders is the oldest player in the room, but also one of the most fit. When he introduces himself, he rattles off numerous feats of athleticism alongside his academic qualifications. Though quiet and humble, he gives the distinct impression of having never done anything badly in his life.

Anders is hardly alone in this. The room is full of people who have excelled in other competitive venues besides poker. Andre Coimbra won the Magic: The Gathering world championships in 2009. Randy Lew was a nationally competitive video gamer before taking up poker. Several members of Team Online have a background in high-level chess, and no one is surprised when Anders Berg adds his name to this list.

Despite their geeky interests, these aren’t your stereotypical pasty internet nerds. Shane Schleger, Richard Veenman, Tyler Frost, and Diego Brunelli quickly find a common interest in tennis and arrange a doubles match for the next morning. In what sounds an awful lot like a hustle to me, Richard claims to be a beginner but admits to practicing tennis two and a half hours every day. Jorge Limon races rally cars, which he later tells me entails off-roading with modified street cars and which sounds pretty damn dangerous. Adrienne Rowsome is a serious yoga practitioner and plays slo-pitch softball, though her league seems to emphasize drinking more than any other aspect of the game.

I am struck by what a great job Pokerstars has done of selecting individuals who are serious about online poker but also well-rounded and interesting people. I am looking forward to seeing as much of them as possible during the week we’re about to spend together at the Atlantis resort (though I would have preferred not to have them sitting next to me in the main event, which is where both Bjoern and Jorge end up).

They are good players, to be sure, but they are not necessarily the best or the most famous on the site. This is the moment when the meaning of Team Online crystallizes for me: these folks are workhorses. They are driven, and they log serious volume online without putting the rest of their lives on hold.

Barry Greenstein and Daniel Negreanu fill an entirely different niche. They are superheroes, impossibly successful professionals to whom the average PokerStars player can look up but probably can’t relate. This isn’t to say that Greenstein and his fellow Team Pro members don’t work hard. I’m sure they do. I just think that they also possess some innate talent that separates them qualitatively from the vast majority of poker players, no matter how dedicated.

Every Batman needs a Robin. With a few exceptions (cough, Randy Lew, cough), most Team Online players represent attainable goals. They make good money, to be sure, but for most it has more to do with hard work than superhuman talent. Players who saw the red spade on my avatar sometimes told me, in accusatory fashion, that they’d never heard of me. I’m realizing that was kind of the point. Your average Team Online member is an ordinary person who’s had extraordinary outcomes by taking advantage of the game selection and VIP rewards available on PokerStars.

Spending a week with these extraordinary poker players is both intimidating and inspiring. On the one hand, their passion for poker is contagious. Each of them represents a unique twist on what’s possible with hard work and dedication. Then again, the shear amount of hard work and dedication required by some of their more impressive feats (Kevin Thurman tells me he played 24 tables, 10+ hours a day, 7 days a week for an entire year to set his record) is enough to make you run screaming for the nearest lazy river.

Thankfully the Atlantis has a great one of those, and my teammates do find time to float and enjoy the beautiful weather in the Bahamas. More than a few are anxious about falling behind Supernova Elite pace so early in the year, and swapping intelligence about where to get the best wireless signal during VPP Happy Hour is a popular topic of conversation. You can take the player out of the game, but you can’t take the game out of the player, and this bunch are players through and through. It was an honor to play alongside them, even if I didn’t meet them in person until our time together was nearly up.

47 2 Sam Greenwood 90.100

47 3 Eric Mizrachi 58.000

47 4 Andrew Brokos 38.500

47 5 Greg Gokey 31.200

47 6 Corey Burbick 50.000

47 7 Micah Smith 141.100

47 8 Maria Panyak 39.700

47 9 Martin Debruhl 61.500

I think this is a typical PCA table, in that it looks good (i.e. no names I recognize) until I start googling names and realize I’m with a bunch of internet wizards. The three on my immediate left in particular have impressive CVs. I don’t know much about Eric Mizrachi, but I think he’s the one with glasses. We’re a little poor in chips, but that won’t be a barrier to me doubling up ;-).

I played a funny hand against one of them. Blinds were 400/800/100, and I opened to 2000 with K9s in the HJ. He called in the BB and check-called 2400 on a T55r flop. We both checked an 8 turn, then he bet 5600 on a T river. I wasn’t 100% sure he wouldn’t value bet an A, but I doubted it. I did think he was capable of floating out of position, and this was an ideal spot for it. So I called, and he showed A3 and seemed surprised to win the pot. “I was trying to bluff you off a chop” he told me. Lovely.

I’ve got tomorrow off and am looking forward to finally getting outside after spending my first two days here indoors!

It’s a beautiful morning in the Bahamas. Walking around in the morning is a totally different experience, because they are empty except for some grounds crew and a few early risers such as myself. Later today there will be screaming kids and booming speakers, but right now it’s oddly serene.

I’ve got stuff with PokerStars all day today and then I’ll be playing the tournament hopefully all day tomorrow, which means I won’t be able to take full advantage of the facilities until Sunday. Of course I wouldn’t be here at all if it weren’t for those other things, so I can’t complain. I just hope the weather stays nice. One time!

Anti-Ballin’: I’m bringing a small pantry with me, because it kills me to pay $20 for a sandwich.

So wish me luck, and please be patient if the blog and Twitter feed are quiet. Historically the internet at Atlantis has been atrocious and expensive, so while I’ve pre-written a couple of posts, I may or may not be blogging from the Bahamas.