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Due to some logistical conflicts we found ourselves without a guest this week, but what you get instead is lots of strategy talk and a cameo from Gareth Chantler. Here’s what to expect and when:
0:23 — Hello! Nate on preparing … 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
This happened the same night as the first one. The $1/$3/$6 game is up and running again. There are a couple of limps, so I limp behind with 85s in the HJ. The CO limps, the BB completes, and then the $6 blind (not sure what to call that) … 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
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
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
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
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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Edit: Top card on flop is Ad, not Kd. The latter is in my hand. Thanks to Lacroix for pointing that out, and sorry for the significant error.
The most important information is repeated here, but here’s a link to the pre-flop thread if anyone wants to see it.
Villain … 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
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
Thanks for all the great comments on the first post in this series of street-by-street What’s Your Play? posts. I think the discussion of whether to 3-bet and why was one of the best discussions we’ve had. Not coincidentally, I also think it’s very close. When deep you generally have … Read full post
High
Never really got anything going in the $2K. Played one interesting hand that you’ll see in a “What’s Your Play?” feature, but other than that pretty much just grinded down to half starting stack then got it in on a flip and lost.
Medium
Kind of interesting bustout hand … Read full post
Well, I’m late and doing a half-assed job on top of it. Guess I’m really adapting to life in Europe! But seriously, sorry I’m so late in posting results for the EPT Berlin Wha’ts Your Play? There are just so many better things to do here in Berlin besides blogging! … Read full post
Sorry I’ve been slow to report on this, but sadly it’s because I didn’t have much to report. After a relatively uneventful Day 1, I busted on the last before the end of level 8 (with two still to go before finishing for the day).
I busted after 5-bet shoving … Read full post
Edit: Villain 1 has me covered – think he had like 50K. Sorry I forgot to mention that important detail.
It’s Day 1 of the 5000 euro Main Event of EPT Berlin. Hero (me) has recently moved to a new table and been quiet in his first few orbits. Only … Read full post
This week’s question is in response to the recent “What’s Your Play? Street-by-Street at the WSOP Main Event” feature. In the river results post, I compared calling with a low full house on the river versus shoving with it. Because it was the WSOP Main Event, I argued, “I’d … Read full post
Finally took a break from gallivanting around Prague to try out the new Zoom poker. It’s a lot of fun, pretty much identical to Rush though if anything a touch slower, but still pretty great. Unfortunately I didn’t adapt well to the nittiness of a small-stakes full-ring game and lost … Read full post
Thanks to all the commenters, and especially to those of you who contributed to all three parts of this special multi-street “What’s Your Play?” With regard to the river action, WPS22 encapsulates the situation well:
… Read full postI think he could easily be value betting a weaker hand than yours, but
My latest poker strategy article, Surviving a Multi-Day Tournament, is now appearing in the April 2012 edition of Two Plus Two Magazine. The intention of this article is to get beyond cliches about “valuing your tournament life” to some in-depth advice about how, when, and why survival should factor … Read full post
We slowplayed the flop, we raised an arguably scary turn card, and now it’s time to talk about what to do on the river in this third and final installment of “What’s Your Play? Street-by-Street at the WSOP Main Event”.
It’s early on Day 5 of the WSOP … Read full post
Thanks to everyone who commented on Part Two of this special street-by-street “What’s Your Play?” Like it or not, Hero checked the flop, and now we’re faced with a small bet on a turn card that makes a lot of straights and flushes possible. Because of that, JeanNoel asks, “I … Read full post