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Clayton Fletcher, professional poker player and comedian, talks about growing up in a poker playing family (his mother is also a professional poker player!), how his two careers complement each other, and what he’s learned from each. Then, we talk about the strategic implications of playing against world-class players in a tournament with a generally soft field.
Clayton first came to our attention when he mentioned our show on Dennis Has a Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @claytoncomic and learn more about his upcoming shows from his website. Be sure to hit him up on Twitter if you want to check out the Clayton Fletcher Show at the New York Comedy Club.
In the opening, we mentioned a few of our past episodes, specifically our interviews with John the Lawyer and Ben Wilinofsky. The Premium Podcasts are available at www.nitcast.com.
Timestamps
0:30 – Hello & Welcome; Andrew gets shunned
14:36 – Interview: Clayton Fletcher
59:01 – Strategy: Clayton Fletcher vs the World
As much as I like your interviews with “big name poker pros”, I think I get more enjoyment from hearing from people that are operating on the edge of the poker limelight. You’ve found some really interesting guests that I’d barely heard of before, and Clayton “Fisher” Fletcher was especially good.
This week’s strategy section was also top quality. I got so engrossed that I didn’t notice my train had gone two stations past my stop! I guess that’s a recommendation, or possibly a cry for help. 😉
Very enjoyable episode – both the interview and strategy discussion.
Clayton – I’ll definitely come to one of the shows at the NY Comedy club sometime. My wife and I love that part of the city – lots of good Indian restaurants around there, it’s right off the FDR and you can find plenty of free parking on the weekends (#nitcast)
I’ve performed improv comedy a couple times at the PIT, which is two blocks west of the NY Comedy Club – right in between the two is a great gelato place that’s only open in the summer.
Dana that is cool about the PIT! A very close friend of mine has been involved with them for 9 or 10 years now, and I’ve actually played guitar there as part of a house band a couple of times. Seems like a Thinking Poker/PIT meetup could almost start brewing…
Hey Sean – We should definitely do that on a night where your friend is performing.
Dana, how is it that all your go to landmarks are restaurants yet you are not overweight like I am? Maybe it’s because Indian food and gelato are not as fattening as the crap I eat.
Clayton, I hope to meet you in Vegas this summer. I’ll be staying 3 blocks from the Fat Burger and the playing tournaments 2 blocks from the Heart Attack Grill.
Carlos – I small ball my calories on weekdays so I can over bet the weekend.
I’ll be in Vegas June 6 to 10, probably playing the 1500 on the 7th – if you’re out there then I’ll treat you to dinner one of those nights.
I really enjoyed the interview, thanks.
Here are the two threads relating to the hand (loved Clayton’s descriptions of the groupthink):
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/87/high-stakes-mtt/pre-flop-squeeze-spot-tough-shorthanded-table-lapc-event-27-a-1334020/
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/87/high-stakes-mtt/lapc-1-100-squeeze-got-called-now-what-1336760/#post38688600
Obviously results only tell a partial story, but nevertheless they tell us something. What conclusions can we draw from them?
– even good players can’t fold overpairs
– smart players recognise (as I think Nate said) it’s 2014 and even the nit in seat 6 knows to raise with junk sometimes (but even so, do we have enough ‘junk’ to make TT a call?)
– smart players know recognise the sort of adjustments people make against them
– something about the post flop action tips our hand (related to the above point)
– something else?
– something else?
Ian: thanks for those links. For whatever it’s worth, I’m now quite convinced that if you don’t pick up specific physical or similar information between preflop and the turn, it’s very hard to fold TT on the turn:
(i) That board causes lots of junky hands to pick up equity that encourages barreling;
(ii) Players who would have very tight ranges preflop often check hands like QQ and JJ somewhere, and (for different reasons) also check hands like top set and AA.
I’m still not saying it’s an easy call, but I do think you have to trust your opponent a lot to make the fold with TT here *given that you called with it before the flop*.
Yes, point (ii) was one of the ones that occurred to me. And the *given you called preflop* is a big conditional.
In general I liked the discussion of standard play versus picking spots. I think it highlights a big haziness in what people mean by standard play – does it just mean playing with solid hands preflop and not betting too much without the goods/decent equity (which is of course highly exploitable), or does it mean some sort of attempt at optimal play (which of course no one really has too much clue about).
Yes. Well put. (Though top players do have *some* clue about optimal play.)
When I used to be in the business of taking notes about online opponents, I had a note that was shorthand for, roughly: “fold, fold, fold, fold, go nuts with A8o”. It’s a very common way to react to being in tough aggressive environments–and one of the worst. (Which of course is not at all to say that this is what Clayton did.)
Enjoyed every moment of this episode. It was a dream come true for me to talk poker with people I respect so much. The discussion was lively and thought-provoking. And I think we even got a few laughs in there too. Hope to see you all in Vegas!!!
I literally (lol) got chills up my spine when you described reading the Ed Miller books meticulously.
Your responses had tons of subtle bits of wisdom throughout the interview. I hope you become a frequent guest.