Often, when I’m in a smaller stakes game waiting for a seat in the bigger game to open up, I use it as an opportunity to practice my discipline. Generally it’s easier to pick up physical tells, betting tendencies, etc. in smaller stakes games, and rather than acting like it’s … Read full post
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Nicolás “Nico” Amaya is a professional heads up hyper-turbo sit-and-go player. He’s also an industrial engineering student, an entrepeneur, and a former member of the Spanish national ski team, and we talk to him about all of those things. Nico has … Read full post
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André Coimbra is a member of PokerStars Team Online and the 2009 Magic: The Gathering World Champion. In 2013, he withdrew all but $100 from his PokerStars account, asked support to reset his VIP status to Bronze Star, and set about trying … Read full post
This week’s What’s Your Play? highlights an important point about how to integrate an opponent’s physical tells into your decision-making process. Contrary to what Hollywood would have you believe, it’s not something that you can do in a vacuum: TeddyKGB didn’t eat the Oreo, he’s bluffing, call him with Ace-high!… Read full post
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Something different today: Andrew interviews his grandmother about her brother, a 400-pound cross-dressing stand-up comedian with a love for all things gambling. The result is a moving, inspiring portrait of a life well-, if strangely, lived. Plus, some exciting announcements!
Tubby Boots … Read full post
I’ve always done well in live cash games, but prior to Black Friday I didn’t play them all that often, and I do think you encounter a somewhat different player base in live games than you do online. As you may have noticed from the hands I’ve been posting, I’ve … Read full post
Edit: Just realized the first paragraph of this post disappeared for some reason. Rewriting it now.
In his opinion, Hero hasn’t been that aggressive, but that isn’t how this loose and passive $1/$3 no-limit hold ’em table sees it. I’ve mostly been doing pretty simple stuff, bombing it preflop against … Read full post
Thanks for the comments on this week’s WYP, everyone. You all seem to agree with my thinking during the hand, which was that Villain’s line just doesn’t make sense. People often use that as an excuse to call, since they can’t put their opponent on a value hand, but … Read full post
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John Wray, co-creator, director, and co-writer of The Micros, talks about the origins of the show and his early vision for it. We also delve into John’s own origin story, from his studies at film school to his stint at Disney … Read full post
I arrived at my local card room expecting to play the usual loose-passive $1/$3/$6 game. Instead, there were two full tables of $5/$5 running with a substantial waiting list. I sat for over an hour in a $1/$3 game before a seat in the must-move game opened up. When I … Read full post
Wow, thanks for all the comments on What’s His Hand? Nit vs LAG! For whatever reason this post generated more guesses and discussion than any other WYP. And sorry for the delay in getting results up – I just ran out of time yesterday.
Hero’s Hand
I’ll start by … Read full post
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Derek “Killingbird” Tenbusch is a founder and owner of Tournament Poker Edge, the video training site for which I now make videos, and a host of the Tournament Poker Edge Strategy Podcast. Tournament Poker Edge Live and The Chirp Herm … Read full post
Thanks to those who commented on this week’s “What’s Your Play?”. I think this may have been the liveliest discussion yet, and I’d encourage everyone who hasn’t to read those comments, because I think those conversations are at least as valuable as what I’m going to say here.
I’ll … Read full post
Live $10/$25 NLHE cash game at the PCA, playing seven-handed at the moment. I haven’t been involved in many pots but may have an aggro image anyway because of a hand that went to showdown where I raised K6s, bet a backdoor flush draw on the flop, barreled a turned … Read full post
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I took my seat and immediately recognized Lee Markholt two seats to my left and Dani Stern two seats to his left. I never learned the names of the rest of my opponents, but they proved nearly as capable, and it was probably one of the toughest tournament tables I’ve … Read full post
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Russ Fox is an Enrolled Agent and author of the Taxable Talk blog, which often addresses issues related to poker and gambling. With Scott Harker, Russ is the author of Why You Lose at Poker and Mastering No-Limit Hold ‘Em, and … Read full post
Q:Game is 2/5 and involves three players:
A-$350(SB)
B-$500(hero, MP)T/T
C-$650(Button)
action is limped by1 player(B) to Button that raises to $25, folds to BB and he re pops it for $85 total… now here is the question, given a hero read of extremely strong ranges on at the … Read full post
Not too much controversy surrounding this week’s “What’s Your Play?”, but interestingly I think it nevertheless generated some of the best comments. Nearly everyone advocated folding, so let’s start by considering the alternatives:
Shoving
Hero risks, roughly, 800 to win 1750, so we’d need 46% equity against his calling … Read full post
Edit: Villain is the BB (the $3 blind).
Ten-handed live $1/$3/$6 game. Hero is the only player at the table with a pre-flop raise percent greater 5 (it’s close to 15). As such, I’m perceived as an insanely aggressive bully even though I’ve mostly shown big hands in big pots … Read full post
China Paul
I played some $1/$3/$6 last night. China Paul was already in the game when I got my seat, sitting two to the left of the player who’d spearheaded last weekend’s sit-out. After half an hour, I was about to tweet that they were coexisting peacefully when suddenly … Read full post
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Leo Wolpert, a true grinder and a good friend, joins us on the 10th episode. Leo has a WSOP bracelet, a law degree, a Quiz Bowl pedigree, and a Jeopardy! appearance to his name, and he finished 50th in the 2012 … Read full post
My latest poker strategy article, Capping Ranges in Live Poker, has just been published in 2+2 Magazine. Using examples from the Borgata Poker Open, I demonstrate what you can get away with when your opponents are kind enough to broadcast the upper limits of their hand strength via bet … Read full post
I’ve just published a review of Jonathan Little’s Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker Volume 2. Here’s the synopsis:
… Read full postThe book is subtitled “Stages of the Tournament”, but fewer than half of the book’s 270 pages are dedicated to this topic. Ironically, much of the book addresses topics on which Little
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Lee Jones joins us on the show to talk about the past, present, and future of poker and PokerStars. Lee’s an interesting guy with an interesting story, and his PokerStars blog is pretty interesting too. You can learn more about the Rec.Gambling.Poker … Read full post
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Ben “NeverScaredB” Wilinofsky is an MTT superstar with an EPT title and over $3 million in online tournament cashes, but that’s not why we asked him to come on the show (though it is why we asked him to stick around for … Read full post
Edit: Wow somehow this was up for more than three days without anyone asking what my hand was? Sorry I forgot to include it, as I hinted in some of my responses to comments, it was kind of relevant. I had AJo, so two blockers to some hands I thought … Read full post
Q: My son and I have different opinions on a hand I played this week and would love to here your take. The game is live 1-2 and I have been running crazy good and only showing down big hands. My stack is at $1200.
Villan is young aggressive and … Read full post
Thanks for all the comments on What’s Your Play? Out of Position With a Flush Draw.
Pre-Flop
A few people questioned/criticized the pre-flop call, and rightfully so. I don’t think it’s bad, but it’s literally marginal, meaning it’s a close decision that’s extremely sensitive to small changes in a … Read full post
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Does Vanessa Selbst really require an introduction? Not only is she a graduate of Yale Law School and a member of Team PokerStars with two WSOP bracelets and a two-for-two record in the NAPT Mohegan Sun, but since recording this interview, she … Read full post
In my essay Gray Friday, I talked about how online poker has contributed to my increasingly heavy reliance on the internet:
… Read full post“The more time I spend on the internet, the more disdainful I become of the physical world. I work online, I play online, I shop online, and I
If you’ve been following my WCOOP posts, then you know that there were definitely times when I got impatient and tried to force things: questionable bluffs, ambitious value bets, spazzy shoves, excessively heroic calls, I made every mistake in the book at some point in the … Read full post
My latest poker strategy article, Winning in a Tight Game, is now available from the Card Player website. As the name suggests, it draws on some of my recent experiences in nitty live games to talk about how and why such games can be profitable:
… Read full post“I was up nearly
The last Friday of WCOOP was also my birthday. For the second year in a row, I spend it in a foreign country playing a card game online. Specifically, this was my 30th birthday, and while I don’t generally put much stock in such things, it would’ve been nice if … Read full post
The $300 NLHE started at 6AM, so I let myself wake up whenever I woke up and then late registered it. I mentioned having a bit of a revelation on Sunday that I wasn’t adapting well to the amount of 3-betting I was encountering in these tournaments. I think I … Read full post
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Edit: Sorry, I didn’t properly embed the file last night. The player/download tool on this page works now. Not sure how long it will take for the change to propagate to iTunes. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Our guest this week is Jason … Read full post
Thanks for all the comments on this week’s “What’s Your Play?”. You all asked some thought-provoking questions as well, and I’m sorry that I haven’t responded to all of them. Hopefully this post will address the ones I’ve missed.
Flop Action
This was probably a tough hand to analyze … Read full post
My latest poker strategy article, Telling a Story With Your Value Bets, is now appearing in the 2+2 Magazine. Drawing on examples from the WCOOP, it explores the corollary of that old saw about telling a story with your bluffs:
“if you wish to get maximum value from your … Read full post
This was actually the third Sunday of the WCOOP, but since I didn’t get to Montreal until Tuesday of the first week, it was my second. It was also my thirteenth day without a break, which would have been a lot for me at any point in my career but … Read full post
Round 1 vs. Liv Boeree
I wish I had a specific example of this to give – perhaps the hand below will serve – but I got the distinct impression during our match that Liv was capable of playing extremely well but had for some reason decided to treat me … Read full post
Unfortunately there’s been a delay with the next episode of the Thinking Poker Podcast, which was scheduled to be the subject of today’s blog post. I’m not sure when that will be available, so until it is, I’ll continue my chronicle of the WCOOP.
The only WCOOP that I … Read full post
I’ve gotten pretty far behind on my daily WCOOP/Montreal reports, but now that the series is over, I’ve got more time (and not so much else to blog about!), so let’s pick up where we left off. My last of these posts dealt with Wednesday September 12, so we’ll … Read full post
I began Day 2 of the $300 2x Chance WCOOP as 3/22 and was pretty pumped about the idea of making the second WCOOP final table of my career (the first was a 4th 3rd place finish in the 2010 $500 1R1A event). After an early run, I ended … Read full post
After a frustrating Sunday on which I didn’t always play my best, I seriously considered taking Monday off. I had, after all, played poker, often a lot of it, every day for the past 12 days. But the weather was less than ideal and I didn’t have that much else … Read full post
This week’s “What’s Your Play?” was a little light on comments – have I been giving you too much to read lately?
Most people have advocated calling pot odds, but seeing that you’re getting a good price is only half the work. You still have to be able to put … Read full post
Wednesday started with the $200 Ante Up. My first cooler was similar to the A2 hand I posted yesterday, in that it may actually have been possible to get away more cheaply if I’d hero-folded to an awfully suspicious check-raise:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 5/5 Blinds 30 Ante … Read full post
The only WCOOP I played on Monday was the 4-max, which is always a wild and crazy time. I stayed out of the fray for a bit, but sooner or later a draw comes along that simply bets to be played aggressively. I don’t hate my line, but I think … Read full post
Thanks for all the comments on Part 1 of the WCOOP “What’s Your Play?” After my own thoughts on the hand, I’ll post flop results and the next decision point.
BB’s Range
We must begin our analysis of this hand by recognizing that BB is all-in and we are playing … Read full post
Saturday’s storm brought on a precipitous drop in temperature that was immediately noticeable on Sunday morning. I like mornings, especially Sunday mornings, and I like Autumn, especially when the air is crisp and just a little chilly. I made coffee and took a walk.
Though it was nearly 8:00, the … Read full post
This hand is from Sunday’s $530 WCOOP Second Chance tournament. We’re not particularly close to the money. Table isn’t great but the structure is and there is one big soft spot to Hero’s immediate left.
Villain is 17/15 with 10% 3-bet and 29% Attempt to Steal. Strictly speaking he’s not … Read full post
Friday was to be not quite a day off from poker but a light day. I planned to play only one WCOOP event, the $320 NLHE with 10-minute levels that started at 5 in the afternoon Montreal time. On a whim, I also late registered the Big $150 that started … Read full post
With my first tournament, the $320 Ante Up, not starting until 11, I had a leisurely Wednesday morning. It was a beautiful day, bright and crisp, and The Plateau, the neighborhood where my Montreal apartment is located, looked lovely as it woke up. My street is lined with trees through … Read full post
The second and, unfortunately, final installment of my 2012 WSOP trip report is now appearing in the September issue of 2+2 Magazine. As you might guess from the fact that this is the final installment, frustration is the guest star of this report:
… Read full post“The frustrations with which I still struggle
Tommy Angelo’s second book, A Rubber Band Story and Other Poker Tales, is an eclectic collection poker writing from one of the game’s most beloved authors. Because A Rubber Band Story spans more than a decade of Angelo’s career and runs the gamut from fiction to advice to memoir, … Read full post
On behalf of myself and TaddisvonBaddis, the Hero in this week’s hand, thanks to everyone who commented on this week’s What’s Your Play?. I really wasn’t sure what to tell him about the hand, and the comments here were a big help.
On the face of it, this is … Read full post
This hand was submitted to me as a Mailbag question, but after wrestling with it for a while I couldn’t come up with a great answer, so I’m going to crowdsource it. Here’s all the info I have, as provided by the Hero:
Event 1 of a WPT series at … Read full post
Q: While reading Sylvain’s discussion of his hands with Bonomo, I wondered how best to handle such an aggressive player. Sylvain described his style of pushing back against the aggro. I wondered if you can ever counter aggression with passive play, such as calling multiple streets. Then, near the … Read full post
Sylvain is a friend and occasional student of mine whose praises I’ve sung on these pages before. At my request, he wrote up a trip report from his time in Las Vegas during the WSOP prelims, in which I was staking him. Asshole that I am, I’m just now … Read full post
The full report from my first day of play at the 2012 WSOP main event is now appearing in Two Plus Two Magazine. It contains both strategic insights and a few anecdotes about the crazy stuff you’re pretty much guaranteed to see in that tournament. Here’s a little teaser:… Read full post
I take responsibility for the dearth of comments on this week’s What’s Your Plan?. Not only did I initially fail to include Hero’s hole cards in the post, but I also left off the actual action from the list of possibilities for which I requested your plans. I do … Read full post
Edit: I’m such a spazz! Sorry I had JJ. Don’t know why I can never get the details right on these on the first try.
It’s the last hand before dinner break on Day 1 of the $5K main event of the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza. Here’s our cast of … Read full post
My latest poker strategy article, Defending Your Button, is now appearing on CardPlayer.com. If you struggle with deep-stacked play in cash games or in the early stages of a tournament, then this article may help you to gain an understanding of where value comes from in such situations and … Read full post
Edit: Changed flop so that I have the nuts on the turn. Thanks to goldhawk for pointing out the error. I quadruple-checked that I would have the nuts if I hit my hand, so I think it’s a lot more likely that I misremembered the flop now than that I … Read full post
Thanks to everyone who commented on the original post.
I can understand the desire to check here, but I do think it’s a mistake. WPS22 puts it well:
… Read full postI don’t see how you can check. It’s obviously profitable to make marginal hands put more money in against your AK
Today was ultimately a very good day – I finished with 83,900, nearly 3x the starting stack and more than 2x the average at day’s end – but it was much more stressful than I’d prefer Day 1 of the WSOP to be. I lost both pre-flop all-ins I played, … Read full post
This isn’t my proudest hand ever, but I do think it’s interesting. I never had much of a plan beyond the current street, which is why I say it isn’t my proudest moment, but I do think that each street has the potential to be profitable in a vacuum. FWIW … Read full post