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Jordan Young has been a professional poker player for well over a decade, but only somewhat recently has he hit a stride that seems attainable. We talk about bankroll management, painkiller addiction, the Solve for Why Academy, and how to get under … Read full post
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Talal Shakerchi just might be the best amateur poker player in the world. Playing as “raidalot” on PokerStars, he’s won, among other things, the $10,000 Spring Championship of Online Poker Main Event. The hedge fund manager discusses what may be driving PokerStars’ … Read full post
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Gareth Chantler, who first appeared on Episode 6, once again graces us with his presence. This time around, we discuss James Joyce, Syria, SCOOP, and, begrudgingly, a bit of Limit Hold ‘Em strategy.
Timestamps
0:30 Hello and welcome
52:44 Strategy
Links… Read full post
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Carlos sits down in-person with Nate and Andrew to talk about putting happiness, rather than profit, front and center in his poker career (though of course winning tends to make one happier than losing!). Then the three discuss a hand from a … Read full post
The first High event I played was the $2K 8-max. I once again found myself bet-folding a strong hand on the river to a strange raise that represented only an improbable value hand or even more improbable bluff:
PokerStars – $2000+$100|200/400 Ante 50 NL (8 max) – Holdem – 8 … Read full post
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The SCOOP is underway, and so Andrew and Nate grab time to record when they can, with Andrew playing a $200 PLO8 event during the show! The two discuss the various ways to run bad, some hands that arise as Andrew plays, … Read full post
The High event I planned to play on Wednesday was the $2K re-entry. As with several of the other mid-week $2Ks, though, it was shaping up to be a small and tough field. The re-entries really compound that, because the best players are far more likely to re-enter than the … Read full post
The Day 2 restart for the $2000 Sunday Million (you can find Day 1 hands here) started at 11:30, so my plan was to sleep in, make breakfast, take a walk, pick up something for lunch, and then late register the morning tournaments when I was ready to … Read full post
The day started off not much differently from the last. I busted the $2K Warm-Up with Queens on the big blind versus Aces on the button, though with 100 BBs there was once again some question as to whether I could have gotten away from it. The Villain was Randal … Read full post
Today was the most frustrating day I’ve had so far, though I suppose that’s in part because it comes on the backs of several other frustrating days. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, because I know I’ve said this here before, but I can swallow my share … Read full post
I intended to play the $1K Big Antes event as well, but I didn’t realize (or more precisely, had forgotten) that it was a rebuy. Initially I thought that I hadn’t presented it as such to my investors, and consequently didn’t register for it, but then one of them pointed … Read full post
I’ve made a few attempts to study this game and talked it over with some intelligent people (most notably on Episode 58 of the podcast), but I’ll admit that I’m still not as certain as I’d like to be about the correct adaptations for this game. I mean, … Read full post
I didn’t post yesterday because nothing much of interest happened in the Super Tuesday, and I didn’t want to bump the new podcast off of the top slot on the blog. Speaking of which, if you skipped it because you didn’t recognize the guest, do yourself a favor and go … Read full post
I decided to unregister the Low buy-in heads up event, because heads up really isn’t a game I can autopilot in the corner of my screen the way I’ve generally been doing with the Low events, and I didn’t want to be distracted from a $700 heads up match by … Read full post
As I now live on the west coast, I decided to do Vancouver instead of Montreal for my online pokering. I’ve barely been here 24 hours, and the weather has been beautiful, but I do miss the familiarity I have with Montreal, and the ease of getting around the city … Read full post
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Nate and Andrew discuss strategies for the World Series of Poker that will assist you both on and off of the felt, and they also break down a hand from Nitcast favorite Gareth Chantler and another from the PokerStars Sunday Million.
This … Read full post
Sorry for the lack of updates. I’ve just been playing all day every day, but I’ve decided to take today off so here’s the rundown:
Monday
I played all three of the Action Hour tournaments. For those who don’t know, these are tournaments where the blinds go up very quickly … Read full post
I’ve got about 23K coming back to a 1200 BB, and it’s going to be my turn to pay the blind, so it’s going to be touch-and-go from the beginning. It’s nice just to make a Day 2 though!
It restarts at 5, though I’ve already begun playing because the … Read full post
There were a lot of interesting hands from this, more than I have time to post here (keep an eye out, though, TPE members!). This was probably the most critical. Thanks to more than a bit of good luck, I’d run up quite a stack, good at my high point … Read full post
As much as I love the SCOOP, I skipped it last year to play more of the WSOP instead (not that they overlap, but I can only afford to spend so much time focused more-or-less single-mindedly on poker), and it was looking dicey for this year as well. Then, a … 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’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
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
When I first posted our tentative Europe itinerary, a lot of people questioned why we were spending so much time in Amsterdam. Well, there are only so many countries from which one can easily play on PokerStars.com, and we found a pretty sweet apartment in Amsterdam that we could … 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
High
I busted the $2K turning top pair into a bluff in a blind battle. I thought he was probably light on the turn, so I called planning to call blank rivers. His sizing on the river, combined with the fact that I felt I could represent a flush draw … Read full post
I know where I’ll be May 8-22: PokerStars is guaranteeing $45 million in prizes over the course of two weeks in the third annual Spring Championship of Online Poker. They’ve released the schedule, and just looking at it gets my adrenaline rushing. There are so many tournaments that will … Read full post
Certainly an above average year in tournaments, with an FTOPS win, a WCOOP final table, a SCOOP final table bubble, and a top 100 finish in the WSOP Main Event. No room to complain about anything here. My true ROI is probably in the … Read full post
We played four rounds today. The first one started at 13:00 and I finished a little before 20:00, though many tables were still playing for some time thereafter.
My first opponent was by far the toughest. He’s a regular with a in biggest NLHE games on Poker Stars, not as … Read full post
I played both the 250 and the 2500 but not the 25K. Go ahead, call me a nit.
My first opponent in the 250 was absolutely awful. He played 63/1 over the course of the match (he open limped his button when he didn’t fold it) and played pretty badly … Read full post
I like PLO8 and know a bit about it, but I’m far from an expert. I also played the $100, in which I was surely a favorite, but the 1K had a surprisingly competent field (or maybe not so surprising- I mean it was a 1K). Not that there wasn’t … Read full post
I ended up doing quite well in this one, finishing 5th out of more than 1400 runners. On the whole it was a lot of fun to play so short-handed and I felt I played well, but a monumental error in my final hand left a bad taste in my … Read full post
Last night, as I was sleep-deprived and caffeine-jittery and getting deep in the $300 SCOOP 4-Max, I was also on the phone with Mike Johnson and Adam Schwartz, hosts of the 2+2 Pokercast on which I am this week’s feature guest! You can search for it on iTunes or listen … Read full post
Between the deep stacks and the very short-handed tables, I was really looking forward to this event. I’ve actually missed both Sundays of the SCOOP, but I made sure I was around for this one.
Needless to say, it was a tough field. My first few tables actually weren’t bad, … Read full post
I played the SCOOP Large Ante $150 and $1500 events yesterday, not even realizing what they were until the tournament started. What a lot of fun! I think formats like this are awesome because they separate the people who understand poker from those who have a robotic, if successful, strategy. … Read full post
A third of the year is officially behind us. Am I 1/3 of the way to achieving my Yearly Resolutions?
Goal 1: Average 15 Hours/Week Playing My “Regular” Games
I’ve found that 15 hours/week enables me to earn a pretty healthy income, far more than I could make at
I played all three tournaments: the $10K, the $1K, and the $100. Each was what I expected it to be. The $100 was monkeylicious. The 1K was soft enough for the buyin, certainly weaker play than would be found at a 5/10 cash table or a weekly 1K tournament. The … Read full post
I didn’t play the $25K, but the $2500 was plenty big enough for me. Emily and I even rearranged Easter brunch plans so that I could play it, which turned out to be a huge disappointment, as I lasted fewer than ten minutes against AJKHoosier1, my first round opponent. Obviously … Read full post
I hate and suck at FLHE, so I didn’t play this one. I just wanted to give a big congratulations to Terrence “Unassigned” Chan, who won both the $500 and $5000 tournaments. I had the privilege of meeting, playing with, and losing a big pot to Terrence in Barcelona. … Read full post
This was a pretty cool event, with one of the deepest structures in the SCOOP. The buy-in sizes were a little awkward for me, though, and I ended up playing only the $200, figuring that the $20 was too small and the $2000 (effectively $6000 with the rebuy and addon) … Read full post
I had some fierce competition in this one, but I guess that’s to be expected in a 5K. There was dpeters17, Timex, psyduck, and Poker Savvy’s very own Christian “charder30” Harder, but the player who ended up giving me the most trouble was a Pocket Fivers guy named Wretchy. I … Read full post
I made a decent run in the $500 6-max on Wednesday, and though I didn’t do as well in the $5K, there were interesting hands from both, so I’m going to do two different posts.
I lost about half my stack early on in the $500, but managed to recover. … Read full post
Unlike most players, I enjoy Razz. Yeah, it can be infuriating, but it’s also kind of elegant in its simplicity. I spend most of this tournament catching well, so even though I didn’t cash, it was fun. The only really interesting hand to come up was this one, where I … Read full post
Once upon a time I considered myself a pretty decent Stud/8 player, but I’ve probably played fewer than 1000 hands in the last 6 months. Consequently, $1500 was a little more than I wanted to put behind my skillz. I did play the $150, though, and had a good time … Read full post
Edit: Fixed title. This is SCOOP, not FTOPS. Was tired and tilted last night when posting this.
I was really looking forward to this event, as I’ve been working on my heads up game of late. I played both the $1500 and the $150 and had reasonable tough first round … Read full post
I was going to play the HORSE event, but the buyins just didn’t line up right for me. The 10K was out of the question, even the 1K was a touch high, and the $100 was too small for me to add two hours onto what was already a potentially … Read full post
I even knew they were putting a cap on registration for these, but I waited until the last minute to register anyway. Both the $150 (at 1000) and the $1500 (at freaking 100) buy-in events were locked, so I played the $15 for a lark. I don’t know if it … Read full post
I hate turbos, but they are quick, so I chose to play the $15 and the $150 but not the $1500. Sure enough, within an hour I was reduced to push/fold on both tables. I actually picked up a lot of big hands in the $150, but it didn’t do … Read full post
Thankfully the cash games I was playing on the side went well, because the tournaments did not. I played the $50 and $500 rebuys, but decided to skip the $5. I was thinking it might be fun to play despite the small stakes, but then I saw that there were … Read full post
To top off a great weekend, I played and won my second $2000 satellite to the $10,000 WCOOP main event. The first one I played, which I replayed for Poker Savvy Plus, had only 9 runners and paid one seat plus a lot cash. This one got 52 runners, paying … Read full post
From the $530 WCOOP:
7 Card Stud High-Low ($40/$80), Ante $8
50outs (Seat 1): $2,650
sunrise100 (Seat 2): $2,395
foucault82 (Seat 3): $3,426
BabyGrand (Seat 4): $3,605
lock (Seat 5): $1,333
Siren (Seat 6): $3,538
bjbwc (Seat 7): $3,972
Islandrob1 (Seat 8): $2,991
3rd Street – (1.60 SB)
50outs: xx … Read full post