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
Gareth Chantler is back in South America, and he’s chronicled the start of his journey, in Cartagena, Colombia, for the PokerStars blog. I can’t recommend it highly enough, it’s literally the best poker narrative I’ve read in years. In a few hundred words, the author tells you a lot … 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 … Read full post
Thanks for all the comments on this week’s What’s Your Play? from the Borgata Poker Open. Sorry I was late in posting this, I ended up making a last-minute trip to see my family for Thanksgiving. I also played the $1000 Pittsburgh Poker Open all day yesterday and will hopefully … 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
Sorry for the delay, new podcast episode should be up tomorrow. Here’s something to keep you busy in the meantime.
Shortly after dinner break at the $2500 Borgata Poker Open, re-entry period is over. Table is reasonably tough for this event, we’re ten-handed with three opponents I consider competent and … 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
My latest article for the 2+2 Magazine, An Old School Home Game, is a bit of a departure from the standard fare. It’s about a very interesting home game to which I was recently invited, and while it contains some strategy content, even that is mostly concerned with the … Read full post
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Gareth Chantler will be a familiar name if you’re a regular “What’s Your Play?” participant. He’s the guy whose comments always knock it out of the ballpark and make you feel like an ass for posting anything different. If that’s … 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
Early in the $320 6-max WCOOP event. Hero has been an unremarkable TAG so far, and Villain even more so. Villain, over a small sample of hands, is 15/10 with 22% Attempt to Steal.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (6 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
SB … Read full post
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Martin Harris is better known in the poker world as Short-Stacked Shamus, author of the Hard-Boiled Poker blog. Martin is also a freelance writer, contributing to both Poker News‘ WSOP coverage and the PokerStars blog, and an adjunct associate professor … Read full post
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 $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
After bubbling the final table of the $300 2x Chance, I took the rest of Tuesday off, choosing Boardwalk Empire and the last of my Quebecois microbrews over the $1K NLHE. So, I woke up refreshed and ready for a long day on Wednesday, which is what I got … 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
This is the first match of the $700 Heads Up NLHE WCOOP event. Villain is Liv Boeree. This is one of the first hands of the match, so nothing significant has happened yet.
Liv and I have actually played together before, in last year’s WCOOP and in the 2008 WSOP. … 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
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I’m very excited to announce this new podcast hosted by myself and my friend Nate Meyvis. Our objective is to provide insight into the strange and fascinating world of poker, its culture, and its people. We’re going to talk about strategy, current … 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
With no poker to play until the 5PM $1000 NLHE WCOOP, I made a second trip to the Jean-Talon Market. Perhaps I burned up all of my run-good, because I found a bike at the second Bixi station on my route, which was a far sight better than the … 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
My first few days in Montreal felt like summer. They were hot, sunny, and sticky. Autumn came suddenly over the weekend, though, and it feels like it is here to stay.
I woke to grey skies on Saturday morning. With the $109 NLHE WCOOP starting at 11, I had time … 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
The PLO8 WCOOP event began at 6AM my time on Thursday. I tend to wake early anyway, so I didn’t set an alarm but expected to be up in time to late register it. By 7:30 I was at my computer with coffee in hand. I didn’t even realize it … 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
I arrived in Montreal just before 1PM yesterday, eager, despite last year’s frustrations, to get started on my WCOOP grind.
This was my first time flying into Canada, having previously driven across the border. No exaggeration, there were easily 2000 people in line at passport control. This was … 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
The next seminar in the Thinking Poker Tournament Seminars series will be Big Bluffs: Recognizing, Creating, and Taking Advantage of Good Spots. The seminar will be conducted over Skype from 10AM – Noon Eastern (New York) time on Saturday, September 1.
These seminars are pre-scheduled, small-group discussions focused on … 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
My latest poker strategy article, “A Different Kind of Slowplaying“, is now appearing in Cardplayer. Here’s a little taste of what you’ll find there:
Particularly in big-bet games like no-limit hold‘em and pot-limit Omaha, failing to build the pot and missing out on a bet are potentially very … 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
Last weekend I played at the Aria poker room for the first time. I used to enjoy playing at the Venetian, but for a variety of reasons, not least Sheldon Adelson’s opposition to online poker, I was looking for a new favorite room. Aria seemed to be the place … 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
Thanks for all the comments on this week’s What’s Your Play?
I consider the nut flush draw one of the most interesting hands in no-limit hold ’em. Not only is it almost always an excellent semi-bluffing hand, but under the right circumstances it can be quite good at bluff-catching … Read full post
This is from one of the early $2000 SCOOP events. Villain is new to the table, but I don’t recognize him, which says something in a $2000 online tournament (though not a lot, since I’m hardly a regular these days).
PokerStars – $2000+$100|700/1400 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 … 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
Thanks to everyone who commented on the river action of this street-by-street What’s Your Play?
This spot demonstrates the dangers of wistful thinking at the poker table. You must be rigorous in thinking about your opponents are actually likely to have and do rather than what you would like … 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
I’m just going to give the turn action and skip straight to the river. It’s not entirely unworthy of debate, but I do think it’s almost always correct to bet the turn.
Villain (UTG+1, 45K stack) is probably mid-30s, part native Hawaiian and part mountain – he’s a big guy, … Read full post
Thanks for all the comments on the flop discussion. And here’s a link to the pre-flop discussion as well, for those who are curious.
Gareth gets a lot right in his comment, but we disagree that, “this is a spot where one could in fact go for three streets … Read full post
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
My latest poker article, Scare Card, is now appearing in the July 2012 edition of Two Plus Two Magazine. I hope you’ll find the thesis thought-provoking:
… Read full postin certain circumstances, a “scare card” such as a third flush or straight card can actually generate action from hands that would not
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
I’ve just published two new poker strategy articles, both of which are available to read for free! Beginning and immediate players should check out “Calling is Not a Compromise” in the pages of Cardplayer magazine. This article addresses one of the most common errors in thinking that I see among … Read full post
I would argue that an Ace is the worst possible turn card. In addition to giving Villain the lead if he held AA, it’s a scare card to some portion of his range and also a card he expects to be scary to some portion of Hero’s range. In other … Read full post
Thanks for all the comments regarding the flop check-raise, and sorry again for the delay in getting this next post up.
This is another close decision. Holding the nuts, our goal is of course to get as much money into the pot as possible. Villain’s kind check-raise leaves us … Read full post
Thanks as always for your comments on the flop action. I think just about everyone was on the right track in terms of how they were thinking about Villain’s range. So let’s discuss our options.
Checking
As is generally the case in deep-stacked situations, the answer isn’t real clear … Read full post
PokerStars – $2000+$100|30/60 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com
BB: 9,290.00
UTG: 9,903.00
UTG+1: 11,228.00
Hero (UTG+2): 10,517.00
MP: 7,131.00
MP+1: 11,411.00
CO: 14,790.00
BTN: 6,490.00
SB: 9,240.00
SB posts SB 30.00, BB posts BB 60.00
Pre Flop: (pot: 90.00) Hero has Qh Qs… Read full post