Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Ryan Hall has a full-time job teaching high school in Ontario, but that hasn’t stopped him from staying on top of the MTT world for six years and counting. Ryan has amassed more than $2 million in online winnings and an FTOPS title playing mostly on weekends and school holidays. In this interview he talks to us about teaching Earth Sciences, balancing that with his family and poker career, and his brief foray into staking (including some of his former students!).
Ryan is an instructor at PokerXFactor, where the code HALL4995 will get you $70 off of your sign-up fee. You can follow him on Twitter @RGHall (NOT RyanGHall as I mistakenly said on the show).
Strategy Segment Hand History
Gareth Chantler submitted the hand for this week’s strategy segment, all the way from Chile. The game was (approximating based on exchange rates) $2/$4 no-limit hold ’em.
Pre-Flop: UTG and UTG+1 limp. Hero overlimps UTG+2 with 88. BTN limps, SB raises to $26, BB and first two limpers fold, Hero calls, BTN calls.
Flop ($90 in pot): QQ9r. SB checks, Hero checks, BTN checks.
Turn ($90 in pot) QQ98r. SB bets $50, Hero calls, BTN folds.
River ($190 in pot) QQ98K. SB shoves for $270. Hero folds.
Timestamps
32:28–A no-limit hand from South America: Gareth makes a full house in a tricky situation.
1:09:01–Interview with Ryan Hall, high-school teacher and MTT expert.
2:02:21–Good-bye! Please rate and review us on iTunes.
So … as an amateur and a non-drinker I found it interesting that you react so differently between:
1. Vilain A plays badly by having tells allowing you to make amazing reads vs. his range, and thus. giving you a huge edge.
2. Villain B plays badly by having poisoned himself, allowing you to get a significant edge by playing mostly ABC.
…in the first case it’s 100% ethical and advised to make sure what you do does not make the player aware of what is happening, but in the second Nate would even consider just leaving the table to help villain out.
To me it seems like villain B has a much better chance of working out why he’s losing on his own (or a friend being able to point it out to him), has a much simpler way to fix his leak and might well be giving up a smaller edge vs. hero. He’s also much more likely to give his money to other players or random house games if hero doesn’t take it.
For me it’s a matter of consent. I think that there’s a moral difference between simply playing with someone who, admittedly, made the decision to get drunk and play poker, and trying to coerce that same person into remaining at the table. I don’t think my own actions went very far down the “coercion” road, but I do think that was the path I was on. I don’t think that whatever else he would do with his money has much/any moral relevance.
If he isn’t a gambling addict, then I’d say Villain B meets the threshold for consenting to participate in the game, and for the same reason that I’m not under any obligation to tell him that he defends his BB too often to a raise, I’m not under any obligation to inform him about whatever tells he may have.
Ryan seems to place a very real value to ‘teaching’ the children in his school. Yet when the idea of ‘teaching’ poker comes up, it seems the value equation goes waaaay down.
Strange to me. I would think that teaching science to children would be little different than teaching any other subject.
Teaching science as opposed to poker might even be “on a totally different scale” to quote Andrew — but in the other way perhaps?
I could envision where a skill at poker might transfer very very well to life in general. Risk/reward, incremental improvement within a competitive pool, increased observational awareness, people skills, etc. Surely these skills, which could be enhanced through a poker education might be more valuable in life than ‘science’ per se. I am not trying to say that learning science, with the associated skills of learning ANY subject is not worthwhile….. rather just surprised to see such a huge divide between an academic subject being taught as opposed to a hard skill (which I would equate more with a ‘trade school’)
Perhaps it is our own innate prejudice toward poker being exposed. Societal mores can come out in the strangest ways (not saying here, just in general)