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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 WSOP main event. He’s also got a few hands from the Palms Heartland Poker Tour event for our strategy segment!
0:21 — Hello!
6:00 — Leo Wolpert on living in Vegas, staying sharp at poker, law school, Quiz Bowl, Jeopardy! strategy, and more.
47:30 — Strategy with Leo: two hands from the Heartland Poker Tour. Brief reflections on the psychological challenges of cash games.
1:31:58 — Interview recap.
1:37:16 — Good-bye! Please rate and review us.
We’ve had some requests for hand histories corresponding to the strategy segment since the action can be hard to follow.
Hand 1
Blinds 600/1200/200
UTG (80K) opens to 2600, MP (80K) flats, Hero (75K) raises to 8600 with Kc Qs in middle position, folds back to UTG who calls. MP folds.
Flop (22,500) Qc 6d 2h – UTG checks, Hero checks
Turn (22,500) 6c – UTG bets 9100, Hero calls
River (40,700) 3d – UTG checks, Hero bets 18,300, UTG shoves for 50K, Hero folds
Hand 2
Blinds 150/300
Joe Tehan opens to 700 in HJ, Hero (55K) calls Kh Jh in CO, SB (35K) calls, Bernard Lee calls in BB.
Flop (2800) Qh 7c 6s – Hero bets 1400, SB calls, others fold
Turn (5600) 3h – SB bets 2000, Hero raises to 5600, SB calls
River (16,800) 8d – SB checks, Hero bets 12,300, SB folds
Great podcast – my favourite one so far, I think – particularly as I have kind of (and at a much lower level in both cases) made the opposite journey to Leo, having gravitated from poker into quizzing over the last year or so, so it was a fascinating interview all round.
My only complaint is that I wanted the three of you to continue your hand analyses for a lot longer than you did – although I appreciate that you have time constraints and that a three hour podcast is possibly not advisable. I do love the strategy segments, though.
Glad you enjoyed the show! I hadn’t thought much, really, about the relationship between poker and quizzing skill-sets; it was fun to do so.
Sorry we didn’t give as much strategy content as you wanted! But I’m glad you’d rather have more than less.
Thanks again for having me on. I’m too much of an egomaniac not to listen to my episode; so you can imagine how flattered I was to hear your kind words.
Oh, I’d also like to make a correction: when I said Brad Rutter, I meant Roger Craig. Not to take anything away from Brad Rutter, who bossed it up on Jeopardy, but Roger Craig is the guy who went all-in for most of his daily doubles.
Great podcast – very informative.
Leo, re: your not knowing anything about bridge, I had wondered about this prior because 3 top bridge players in the world have the last name Wolpert – Gavin, Darren, and Hazel. They are from Toronto and 2 of them recently came in 2nd in a world championship. I had wondered if you were related to them.
Dana–
I don’t think I’m related to them, though the last name Wolpert isn’t particularly common so it’s possible I’d run across ’em if I wandered the family tree far and wide enough.
As for bridge, a ridiculously good bridge player/teacher (Greg Humphreys) tried to teach it to me over the course of an afternoon. It didn’t stick. It’s still as inaccessible to me as, say, Mandarin (the language, not the hotel I’m too cheap to stay at).
Bridge is tough to learn in one session – I tried to teach friends like that once and failed.
Funny you mention Greg, he built one of the main bridge web-sites that I frequent (http://bridgewinners.com/profile/greg-humphreys/) which is owned by Gavin Wolpert and Steve Weinstein (thorladen). Bob Ciaffone and Steve Zolotow have written bridge articles for that site. A year ago I saw Steve Z. in the Venetian poker room, and surprised him when I told him I enjoyed the bridge article he just wrote for them.
My favourite episode so far. I had no idea EMO was Leo all this time.
Oh I had forgotten what I came to post. I had stolen some hours reading Fast and Slow a few months ago at a Chapters. So this episode reminded me to buy it for my kindle. DK has some really good lectures on Youtube fwiw as well for anyone interested.
Gareth–
I really enjoyed your episode as well. Not sure how I’d survive in South America (despite having a minor in Spanish), being an internet addict is probably the largest of my many obstacles to traveling. I look forward to reading (and perhaps hearing) more from you!