Shakedown

Some of you are probably aware of this controversy already, but in the Full Tilt Poker lobby, heads up tables are currently displayed in alphabetical order. What this means is that whoever is lucky enough to get Table Acre or other names that occur early in the alphabet have by … Read full post

Close Call

Villain on my right is kind of a fish, his turn lead is definitely strong. The guy on my left is a pretty decent reg, a bit on the TAGgish side in general but has a propensity to play back at me. I think he dislikes me, I probably said … Read full post

Hand Reading With the Stars

We’re starting a new series on Poker Savvy Plus called Ask the Pros where members submit hands they’ve played for review by myself or one of the other PSP instructors. If you’re a member and have any hands that you found interesting or tricky, please send the hand history to … Read full post

After You

Verlyn Klinkenborg, who regularly contributes interesting and well-written little essays  to the New York Times Op-Ed page, writes today about four-way stops and what a surprisingly successful tidbit of human cooperation they are:

What a four-way stop expresses is the equality of the drivers who meet there. It doesn’t

… Read full post

The Re-Squeeze

A commenter on yesterday’s re-squeeze hand remarked that even at high stakes he felt like Villain would pretty much always have AK when he overcalled the first pre-flop raise and then shoved over a re-raise and a call. Having just played this hand, I couldn’t resist posting it:

PokerStars No-Limit … Read full post

Of Course I Snap-Call

Villain, a decent reg, ridiculed my call here, but I think he was just tilted. I need less than 40% equity, and while he can maybe have QQ here, I’d say he has KK+ and AK pretty much never (note that he’s the second caller of the initial raise).

PokerStars … Read full post

Gogo Wireless on AirTran

I’ll tell you up front that I hate flying AirTran. The flights are late, the seats are cramped, and the snacks suck. However, they offer wicked cheap flights even at the last minute, so I find myself flying with them from time to time. Since hearing that they now have … Read full post

PLO-Style

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (5 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) ($400)
UTG ($400)
MP ($300)
Button ($414)
SB ($425)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 10, A
2 folds, Button bets $12, 1 fold, Hero calls $8

Flop: ($26) 6… Read full post

Disciplined Check

My range for 3-betting an UTG raiser from UTG+1 isn’t going to be all that wide, and by the river, AK is probably closer to the bottom of it than the top:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $50.00 BB (6 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($4925)
Button ($6246)
SB … Read full post

February

With another month behind us, it’s time to review my progress towards 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 any real job I could
… Read full post

Interesting Value Check

I was playing some rush poker the other day when this hand came up against allinstevie. I recognized him from MTT’s and sit-and-go’s and quickly wrote him off as just another tourney donk. He went on to show me that he had a little tricky in him:

Full Tilt No-Limit … Read full post

FTOPS $500 NLHE Main Event

The FTOPS main event started at 3PM PST. I busted the NAPT around 3:20 and booked it back up to my room to late register. Obviously immediately after experience some bad luck in a big live tournament, I wasn’t in a mindset to play the best poker of my life, … Read full post

NAPT Day 2 (Busto)

My starting table had not a lot of chips but a couple of notable players, including Owen “ocrowe” Crowe, Andrew Chen, Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo, and Lauren Kling. We broke after less than an hour, but I still managed to play a few interesting pots. Also, a very friendly reader … Read full post

More NAPT Day 1 Hands

75/150 I limp UTG with Ac Qc. Folds to the SB, who completes, and BB checks.

Flop Js Td 9s. Checks to me, I bet 300, SB calls. I think he can have any pair and even a few draws that I’m beating.

Turn 2d. He checks, I bet 900 … Read full post

NAPT Venetian Day 1

The table started out pretty soft, with only two players I recognized at the table. Unfortunately, Jon “fatalerror” Aguiar and Bill Chen were on my immediate left. Bill didn’t get involved in too many pots, but Jon sure did.

Early on, I raised 55 on my CO and called a … Read full post

I Guess This Counts as a Bad Beat?

This one of his first 4-bets, but this guy was very aggressive with his 3-bets pre-flop, and I had an inkling he was light. My hand isn’t a bad one to jam pre-flop, but I decided just to call and check-shove if I caught any piece. A gutshot, an overcard, … Read full post

FTOPS Event 12: $1000 NLHE

Story of the FTOPS for me for as long as I’ve been playing it: I went deep but not quite deep enough. After nearly 7 hours, I took 37th and won less than 4 buy-ins. My bust-out hand was pretty standard, shoving 33 from the SB over a button raise … Read full post

A Set, a Big Bet, and a Board That’s Wet

Villain’s flop bet, representing 75% of the pot and about 15% of the effective stacks, puts me in an awkward spot with my whole range (and is therefore a good one). Actually, I can play good draws pretty easily by making a pot-committing raise, but with say one marginal pair … Read full post

Poker Stars F40 Milestone Hand

I’d noticed but not paid much attention to the fact that Poker Stars is approaching its 40 billionth hand dealt and having a promotion where they award cash prizes to all players dealt into certain “milestone hands” along the way. Lo and behold, I happened to get dealt into one … Read full post

Pwning Leatherass

Many of  will have heard of this guy Leatherass, who plays just an absurd number of tables for an absurd number of hours every day. He plays pretty big stakes, mostly 5/10 and 10/20, and while he’s not one of the better regulars, he probably makes more than just about … Read full post

FTOPS Event 2: $240 PLO8 Knockout

Edit: Yeah, I’m an idiot. It was late when I posted this, and I did in fact calculate my pre-flop equity rather than my flop equity. I’m actually a 2:1 dog here, which is more what I expected. Thanks to qanda201 for pointing it out in the comments. I thought … Read full post

Wazzup bawaa?

I played this guy bawaa heads up on a couple of tables the other day. He played well and it was a wild match, with me taking an early lead, then getting stuck 6-7 buy-ins, then clawing my way back to even. After more than 1000 hands, I was up … Read full post

LOL Shortstacks

The thing about these professional short stackers is that they suck at playing post-flop. That’s why they buy-in short in the first place, after all. So my strategy is to make small pre-flop raises against their blinds. They win less when they shove on me, and if they really want … Read full post

Level 2 Bet Sizing

This is a blatant example of a guy who is thinking about my hand and what he wants me to do but not about what I will be thinking or what his hand will look like to me:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (5 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool … Read full post

Owned Again

I posted the other day about a sexy river check-raise that resulted in my opponent abruptly quitting on me, up about a buyin and a half. He found me Sunday and we played two tables of heads up for 4-5 hours. Initially, I was owning him. He was opening 100% … Read full post

January

One month into 2010, it’s time to review my progress towards 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 any real job I could get,
… Read full post

The Perils of Tilt

I believe I’m generally pretty good about not tilting, but for whatever reason some stuff was getting under my skin the other night. I felt like I’d been losing a lot of pots to bad luck, and though it’s hard for me to keep accurate track of how I’m doing … Read full post

Review: Rush Poker

Full Tilt Poker recently introduced some new small stakes tables in a format they call “Rush Poker”:

Available exclusively at Full Tilt Poker, Rush Poker* is the ultimate high-speed poker experience.

This new poker format is designed to minimize your wait time between hands and keep you in the action.

… Read full post

Yeah, I Hit and Run

When starting a session last night, I noticed that there were two 40/80 games going with several players whose names I did recognize. That’s usually a good sign, so I snatched up the last open seat at each and played a few hands while googling the unfamiliar screen names.

It … Read full post

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Truthfully, I don’t think I played this very well, but the results are pretty cool!

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($1209)
MP ($1027)
Hero (CO) ($1302)
Button ($1490.75)
SB ($2925)
BB ($1748)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 6, … Read full post

Liv Boeree Pictures in Maxim Magazine

I had the pleasure of playing with Liv Boeree in the 2008 WSOP, spent basically an entire day sitting on her immediate left. Poker media are generally pretty quick to promote anyone who can handle chips and has two X-chromosomes as both ravishing and a competent card player, and it’s … Read full post

Sweet Post Oak Bluff

Note Villain’s stack size. The river bet isn’t actually pot, it’s putting him all in for about $90.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (5 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($350.45)
MP ($1448.75)
Button ($1268)
SB ($845.25)
Hero (BB) ($1000)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 2… Read full post

Poker Dreams

Even after days when I’m totally immersed in poker, it’s pretty rare for me to dream about the game (or to remember those dreams, anyway). I’m sure it’s happened before, but I can’t recall any specific instances. I had two such dreams last night, though.

In the first, I raised

… Read full post

LA Gangland Tours

The controversial LA Gangland Bus Tours, which for $65 a head takes tourists on a two-hour bus tour of Watts and South-Central Los Angeles to visit sites significant to the history of street gangs in the US, is scheduled to give its first tour this morning. The tour, led by … Read full post

The Racial Politics of The Blind Side

I’ve been vaguely aware of both the plot of The Blind Side (homeless black teenager from broken family is adopted by wealthy white family and goes on to play pro football) and the critiques of its racial politics for some time, and despite its unexpected box office success, I’ve had … Read full post

The Best Thing About Live Cash Games

Here’s a few miscellaneous hands I made notes to post about. These first two were from my first night here, at $5/$10 NLHE, and the last one was from today in a pretty nitty $10/$25 game with a couple tough players.

River Check-Raise

Two limpers, I complete J6s in the … Read full post

PCA Final Table

45 runners in the $500 PLO8 today, and yours truly managed to final table it, finishing 8th (we were playing 8-handed) for a whopping $875. Also at the final table was my friend and fellow Poker Savvy Plus instructor Tom Chambers, who finished 4th after a series of gross suckouts … Read full post

Hands From the 1K 6-Max

100/200, very young kid in CO opens to 450, I call with Js 9s in SB, relatively bad German calls in the BB. Flop Q c Tc 5s. I consider leading out but decide to check, and we check it through. Turn is a blank, I bet 750, BB raises … Read full post

Largest Live Pot of My Career

Playing in a pretty nitty 10/25 NL. UTG straddles for $50, gets two calls, I make it $275 to go with 7s 5s on my BB. Straddle folds, other two call. I’m playing about 7K, they both cover. Flop Qs 5d 5h. I bet $750, first player folds, the other … Read full post

Oh Live Poker

After two hours of 5/10 NL this evening, I was up about $800. By my rough count, I’d voluntarily put money into the pot 16 times, won 13 of those pots, and saw exactly 1 showdown. I was going to leave at the next time collection, but then I played … Read full post

The Babboon and the Grasshopper

Ever since reading Tommy Angelo’s excellent Elements of Poker, I’ve been working on keeping calm and focused while playing live poker. This is no mean feat: the pace is glacial and the company grating. There are a million reasons to zone out, wander around, or get annoyed with someone. … Read full post

That Was Quick

First hand of the day, I raise to 2500 UTG+2 with AKs. Older guy in the CO takes a minute to eye up my stack and think, then shoves some ridiculous amount like 35K. I’m pretty sure he has AQ, because of the hands he would monkey-ship, it’s the only … Read full post

Holy Shit PCA Day 2 Table Draw

Phil Fucking Ivey

Paul Carrillo

Stephen Baines

Lars Graf

Alan Complainsaw Kessler

Aaron Szerencses

Daniel Walter

Nam Le

Andrew Brokos

That’s right, I’ve got Phil Ivey on my immediate left. To be honest, I’m pretty excited to play with the guy, though I wish it weren’t in a 10K. At … Read full post

PCA Day 1

pcalogo2We started with 30K, I was up around 50K at my peak, had 30K with two hands left to go in the day. Got into a three-way all in holding 66 on a 5h6c8c vs. 74 and AcJc. The straight held, but I won a small sidepot against the flush … Read full post