I arrived in Las Vegas last night. The descent and landing were rough thanks to currents of hot air rising up from the scorching city. It was also a clear flight, though, with spectacular views of Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, and the whole majestic desert landscape.
Gareth Chantler, whom … Read full post
My latest poker article, Scare Card, is now appearing in the July 2012 edition of Two Plus Two Magazine. I hope you’ll find the thesis thought-provoking:
… Read full postin certain circumstances, a “scare card” such as a third flush or straight card can actually generate action from hands that would not
Last year, I addressed the ethics of a women-only event at the WSOP. In classic Thinking Poker fashion, I wrote a long, formalistic, and in some cases legalistic argument in defense of the event and, at least implicitly, critical of the men who insist on playing:
… Read full postSegregation is reprehensible
This isn’t my proudest hand ever, but I do think it’s interesting. I never had much of a plan beyond the current street, which is why I say it isn’t my proudest moment, but I do think that each street has the potential to be profitable in a vacuum. FWIW … Read full post
The next event in the Thinking Poker Tournament Seminar series will take place on Tuesday July 3 from 9 – 11 PM eastern (New York) time. Designed for players planning to enter the World Series of Poker main event, it will cover subjects such as:
Sorry for the long silence. It’s the same old story: too much fun in Europe, not enough time, and too many cheap vacation rentals without internet access. Hopefully I’ll have oodles of juicy WSOP content to bring you soon.
A few people have asked why I’m not not in Las … Read full post
I haven’t played poker since the end of the SCOOP. This morning I had a little time and played about an hour of Rush. The hotel internet left something to be desired, so I just played two tables. The combination of not having played in a while and having no … Read full post
Liesse
We took a bus to the Keukenhoff with the intention of visiting the world-famous tulip garden. Before going in, however, we rented bikes intending to spend an hour or two riding around the nearby tulip fields, but we ended up enjoying the ride so much that we never got … 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
Thanks as always to the commenters. Got fewer than usual, so I’ll take as a sign that people are getting sick of this particular hand 😉
Youngifted1 puts it simply and succintly: “a set of queens is too strong here not to bet”. Although our opponent knows we’re capable of … Read full post
I enjoyed meeting all of the other Team Online members at the PCA this year, but Richard “Tzen1” Veenman was one of my favorites. As you might imagine, these grinders were not the most extroverted bunch. It generally fell either to Adrienne “talonchick” Rowsome, the only woman among us, … 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
Hi everyone! Just posting quickly to acknowledge that I’m late on getting out the results for the current What’s Your Play? We extended our stay in Paris to five days, but of course that is still not nearly enough time and we have been running around like crazy, with no … 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
This is another photo dump/trip report from my travels in Europe. If you didn’t like the last one, you’ll probably want to skip this one too.
Emily and I were already planning to be in Amsterdam for the entirety of the SCOOP because of the sweet apartment we were … 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
This is going to be a blockbuster photo dump without too much commentary and with zero (well, almost zero) poker content. If you don’t give two shits what some guy you don’t know is doing on his vacation, then you can go ahead and skip this post now.
Alkmaar
Our … Read full post
After the popularity of the What’s Your Play? Street-by-Street in the WSOP Main Event edition, I’ve been on the look-out for another hand to present in the same way. In one of the first SCOOP events last Sunday, the $2100 SCOOP-2-H, I believe I found a good one.
I’m the … Read full post
The weather in Berlin looked iffy, but after nearly an hour on the train to Oranienburg, the sun was shining and the sky was a clear and beautiful blue. Foregoing the bus, we had a nice stroll of about 1.5 miles through quiet suburban streets.
We later learned that prisoners … Read full post
My latest poker strategy article, Worrying About a Raise, has just been published in the May issue of Two Plus Two Magazine. Broadly speaking, it’s about how to assess the merits of pot control vs. hand protection and building the pot:
… Read full postA mistaken check can be expensive. Not only
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
Thanks to everyone who commented on last week’s “What’s Your Play? Four Flush on the River” post.
Calling
I want to begin my analysis by quickly ruling out calling as an option. Virtually every hand Villain would have called to the river now beats us: middle pair … Read full post
Q: My question is about calling UTG open raise (say 3.5X) on the button with small pairs (say 22 – 55). Unless UTG will stack off with one pair it doesn’t seem profitable to set mine. Say UTG has AA but will only lose 40 in a single raised pot, … Read full post
Part of the impetus for Emily’s and my Europe trip is a friend’s wedding, to be held this June in a small town in Germany called Diez. Since we needed to bring formal wear for that anyway, we decided to dress up for the opera in Prague as well (there’s … Read full post
Happy Queensday everyone! Queensday is a huge national celebration in the Netherlands that falls on the day of the previous queen’s birth (the current one was born at an inconvenient time so they continue to celebrate on the last day of April). Last night was a huge city-wide party in … Read full post
Some of you may remember this e-mail that I received last year seeking staking advice:
… Read full postI am 24 years old and I live in Henderson, NV. Following the shut down of service to US players on Pokerstars I decided to play a few live tournaments. I instantly final tabled two
This is a continuation of my recent Czech Mates post, which you might want to read for context before beginning this one.
Getting Out
The idea of taking a regional train from Prague out to a small town and then finding our way on foot to a castle sounded intimidating, … Read full post
Despite my previous rant about the tourist’s dilemma, Emily and I did do a few more classically tourist things in Prague, like the castle,
the Charles Bridge, and the St. Vitus Cathedral. Even at the opera, the audience seemed to consist mostly of tourists. Neither of us had ever … 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
Q: My guess is most people (including me) don’t play 89suited (67,910,10J) the right way…
20BB 89 suited on button vs 3x raise?
40BB 89suited on button vs 3x raise?
100BB 89 suited on button vs 3x raise?
200BB 89 suited on button vs 3x raise?
What about 89s on … 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
One year ago today, the Department of Justice unsealed its indictments against PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Ultimate Bet/Absolute Poker. It’s been a tumultuous year for me, but not necessarily a bad one. As I predicted in an article entitled Gray Friday, “This catastrophe is forcing me to confront … 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
Easter is a beautiful time to be in Prague, except for the weather. On Easter Sunday, temperatures dipped below freezing, but the atmosphere was otherwise festive. In public squares around the city, vendors set up stalls for weeks-long Easter markets where they sell painted and carved eggs, hot wine, various … Read full post
…because I am lost! Actually I’m just trying to find a restaurant near the Frankfurt train station. We found it, but it was closed, so we ate cold sandwiches sitting on the floor of the train station. Yummy!
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
This week’s Mailbag is a follow-up question to an earlier Mailbag about stack sizes. I gave a short answer to the question in the comments section of that post, but now I want to elaborate a bit:
Q: Thank you for your response, I agree now that setting goals … 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
Q: I have seen a french poker video in which 2 players discuss about a hand played by one of these player on a french online tournament (6max, buy in 100€).
This is the hand :
Blinds 250/500 ante 60.
Hero is the CO with AcTs.
utg folds.
utg +1 … Read full post
I just published a review of Bennett Onika’s “Unleash Your Hidden Poker Memory”. Here’s the short version:
… Read full postThis is why Onika’s lack of poker expertise is such a problem: it’s the only thing he’s really bringing to the table. You’d probably be better off learning memorization tricks from one
This week’s “What’s Your Play?” is a little different, in that it’s the second in a series of three posts about the same hand. Rather than asking you to discuss a plan for the entire hand, I’m going to give you the action through the turn and then ask for … Read full post
For those who haven’t heard (mostly non-American readers, I would assume), Trayvon Martin was a black teenager killed by what seems to have been an overzealous neighborhood watch volunteer. He was walking near his father’s house, talking on his cellphone and carrying a soda and a bag of candy, when … Read full post
Thanks to everyone who commented on Part One of this street-by-street “What’s Your Play?” series. Even if you didn’t, please check out the results of the flop action and feel free to chime in with your opinion on how to play the turn.
To my surprise, responses to this … Read full post
Q: I recently read Andrew Seidman’s response to a question about the key to become a winning poker player. His statement was simple and direct: “Don’t pay off.”
This advice hit me right in the face, given how frequently I look up a big river bet even when I’m pretty … Read full post
My girlfriend and I have been without a permanent residence since September 2009. First we were drifting around the continental United States. More recently, we were in Canada. Now, we’re going to Europe.
I’ll be playing some poker, both live and online, but that’s really not the primary … Read full post
This week’s What’s Your Play? is a little different, in that it’s the first in a series of three posts about the same hand. Rather than asking you to discuss a plan for the entire hand, I’m going to start the discussion with a flop decision. Of course you may … Read full post
My girlfriend and I went to a farm today with our friend Sukaina and her two sons, Zain and Kyrus. Sukaina, as you might guess, is of South Asian ancestry, but her husband is a pasty white guy not unlike myself, so their boys have a mixed complexion. Their father … Read full post
Thanks to everyone who commented on What’s Your Plan? Boated Up in a Blind Battle. The most recent comment is also the one that most closely resembles my own opinions, so I’m going to start with what Rant2112 said:
… Read full post“Most of Villain’s range on the turn consists of bluff
Q: Hero and Villian are chip leaders at the table, everyone else is in the 5-15bb range. Both are most active players at the table, Villian continuation bets approximately 65-70% of flops.
$400 +40 tournament
Final Table. 6 remaining
Blinds 1,200-2,400 w/300ante
Villian (57kstack) raises utg to 8k
Folds to … Read full post
I’ve now got another video up with Poker School Online, the PokerStars training site. This one focuses on mid-stakes no-limit hold ’em and specifically on hand reading, so it’s a nice option if the last video I posted was too basic for you. Again, if you like this, please … Read full post
Villain is an unknown who seems to play reasonably well. No idea what if anything he knows about Hero (me), but I did have my PokerStars Team Online red spade at the time this hand was played.
For those who have difficulty seeing suits, they’re not terribly relevant here. Hero’s … Read full post
PokerStars’ Poker School Online recently released a video that I made for them quite some time ago (as evidenced by my introduction of myself as “one of the newest members of Team Online”). It’s very basic, strategy-wise – I’m playing one table of $.05/$.10 6-max NLHE – but if that’s … Read full post
Thanks to everyone who commented on this week’s What’s Your Play, which dealt with playing out of position in a big pot against the chipleader at the final table of a daily live tournament. We’ve already said that it’s best not to end up in this spot by not 3-betting … Read full post
Q: I’m curious to hear your take on dealmaking generally and on a deal I made recently at the final table of a live tournament. Blinds were 5K/10K/1K. Payouts were $3000 for 1st, $1600 for 2nd, $1000 for 3rd, and $700 for 4th.
There was talk of a chop, but … Read full post
A friend shared this hand with me, and I thought it was a solid example of a good, creative line. The small bet on the flop helps him draw cheaply, establishes who if anyone is interested in the pot, and depending on what happens with regard to (2) possibly sets … Read full post
Edit: Hero holds Qh Th. Thanks to Georgios for pointing that rather significant omission!
This is a key hand from the final table of a tournament a friend recently won. It was a $125 freezeout at Aria. Hero is in his late 20’s and has been playing aggressively and … Read full post
This is a guest post from a friend of mine who just won his first live tournament last week. It was a $125 freezeout at Aria. He sent this to me in an e-mail and was gracious enough to permit me to publish it. There’s some interesting stuff in here … Read full post
The exciting (?) conclusion of my 2012 PCA Trip Report has just been published in the February issue of 2+2 Magazine. Regular readers of “What’s Your Play?” will recognize a few of the hands, but there’s plenty of new content for everyone, plus it turns out the Mizrachis’ mother … Read full post
