I signed up today with a new instructional site called Poker Savvy. They seem to have some kind of affiliate program, a forum, some strategy articles, and links to humorous poker videos, but I haven’t investigated any of that yet. I really just wanted to see videos from 2+2 … Read full post
From the outset, Andy Bloch’s chapter on pre-flop play for the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition suffers from a mistaken objective. Bloch proposes to study pre-flop strategy like chess openings, which I take to mean that he is going to develop a coherent set of balanced raising, re-raising, … Read full post
Happy New Year!
Yesterday, I reviewed my 2007 goals and whether I’d achieved them in the last year. Today, I’m going to set some new poker-related goals for 2008. If you’re a serious poker player, I think that you ought to do the same.
Last year, I set a monetary … Read full post
Apparently this is their 3rd appearance, but I just happened to come across my friend Tony (Bond18 to the online poker world, George Dunst to the federalis) and his girlfriend Celina Lin in a new feature called “He Said, She Said” on Poker News. In today’s edition, they … Read full post
This time last year, I set four major poker goals for myself. It’s time now to review and evaluate the year in light of those goals:
Goal 1: Make $X Playing Poker Failed
Sorry, but as usual, I don’t want to specify my exact goal or my exact income. I … Read full post
This was my bust-out hand from yesterday’s $300 weekly on Poker Stars. This is a minor point, but there’s almost no downside to doing it, so it’s worth considering:
Poker Stars, $300 + $20 NL Hold’em Tournament, 300/600 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
BTN: 9,634
SB: 30,900… Read full post
The Razz chapter of the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition is presented in a unique way, with Michael Craig summarizing, narrating, and quoting a conversation between Ted Forrest and Huck Seed. Given my extensive involvement with competitive debate, it’s probably no surprise that I find this a very … Read full post
Poker Stars has recently decided to extend its ban of Josh Fields, known to the online poker community as JJProdigy, from their online poker site to the annual live tournament they run at a Caribbean casino/resort called Atlantis. I’ve got a few thoughts on this that I’ll offer after a … Read full post
I just found an old note to myself to blog about this old Salon article called Requiem for a Poker Game. The author’s point is an interesting one: the current poker boom, fueled largely by the game’s presence on television and the internet, have also changed fundamentally the nature … Read full post
Stud/8 is one of my favorite poker games, and Ted Forrest’s Stud Eight-or-Better chapter in the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition highlights many of the game’s most interesting, and potentially profitable, facets. Stud/8 is a complex game, with a huge variety of situations that can arise, which makes … Read full post
Yesterday’s Boston Herald, prompted by today’s opening of The Great Debaters, included a short feature about the Boston Debate League. Frankly, I was a little disappointed by the article’s length. The reporter spoke with myself and several of the coaches in the BDL, but the article mentioned only … Read full post
That guy who I quit abruptly yesterday came back today and dropped another three stacks or so to me. We played for a good three hours, and he was definitely playing a little better than yesterday, though he was still far from tough. Ironically, he was at his most challenging … Read full post
I saw The Mouth sitting with a full stack at a 25/50 NLHE table along with a guy from my buddy list. The waiting list was 7 deep, but I hopped on anyway. I’ve never played with Mike Matusow myself, but I know people who will join games they don’t … Read full post
Poker has been getting some largely positive publicity in the mainstream media lately thanks to Professor Nesson and the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society. First came a New York Times article entitled “High Stakes Poker as a Learning Tool.” Then came the Economist with its article, “… Read full post
To his credit, David Gray’s Seven Card Stud chapter in the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition is actually about tournament strategy. Even when introducing basic concepts such as starting hand selection, which he is wise to do given that most of his audience will likely come from a … Read full post
Poker Stars, $300 + $20 NL Hold’em Tournament, 500/1,000 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
MP2: 27,401
CO: 95,299
BTN: 29,780
Hero (SB): 28,070
BB: 25,954
UTG: 20,960
UTG+1: 15,156
UTG+2: 21,026
MP1: 46,580
Pre-Flop: (1,950) J
J
dealt to Hero (SB)
2 folds, UTG+2 calls 1,000, 3 … Read full post
Marc Fisher, who blogs for the Washington Post, just wrote about a group of debaters from the DC Urban Debate League who were invited to a special screening of The Great Debaters, like the one that I attended on Tuesday and the one that I am attending tonight, but were … Read full post
As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t put much effort into promoting my blog as a money-making vehicle. I’ve browsed some of the literature on search engine optimization and such, and while I find it interesting/impressive that some people are essentially able to be professional bloggers and earn a living off … Read full post
I got to bring about 70 students, coaches, administrators, and supporters of the Boston Debate League to a special advance screening of The Great Debaters last night. Judging from all of the clapping, laughing, and even cheering I heard, it was a huge hit, especially with the kids. Fewer than
Tournament players will probably be familiar with the “stop ‘n go” technique, named by none other than Greg Raymer back before he won the WSOP and was just a 2+2 poster called Fossilman. What he envisioned was a situation with the following conditions:
1. you are out of position, usually … Read full post
Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners
Seat 0: berg5528 ($2465) – 
Seat 1: maxEmus125 ($3546.50) – 
Seat 2: Lent53 ($5583.50) – 
Seat 3: _BeWater_ ($2660)
Seat 4: urbandb888 ($3215.70)
Seat 5: keep00 ($1929.50)
PRE-FLOP:
maxEmus125 posts small blind $10
Lent53 posts BIG blind $25
Dealt To: urbandb888
FOLD … Read full post
This was a $1000 tournament with a great structure, as the other UBOC events have had. It also got over 800 runners, which is more than twice what I predicted. We started with 500 BB stacks, but I managed to blow about half of mine early with a pretty thin … Read full post
Although I’m running pretty low on cash on Poker Stars of late, I did have some $W sitting around, and since I don’t actually have a conflict with the European Poker Tour Dortmund event at the end of January, I decided to play a satellite. We started off 250 BB’s … Read full post
My UBOC final table earned me a quick mention (by screenname only) in the official Ultimate Bet blog:
“Speaking of winning the Sunday Guaranteed…didn’t “urbandb888″ win that back on November 4th? Why, so he did!”… Read full post
I was looking forward to this $500 6-max event more than any other in the series. UB tournament players suck, they suck even more at 6-max, and most of them have no business spending $500 on a poker tournament. But apparently they can kick my butt anyway.
I picked up … Read full post
This $200 NLHE tournament was over in like 20 minutes. I 3-bet a CO raise with AhKs in the SB, guy called. Flop Js 3 4h, I bet, he calls. Turn 9h, I pot it cuz that’s what they always do when they have an overpair and a third flush … Read full post
After two days off, I came back to the UBOC with a bang last night, final tabling the $200 PLO8 event. There were nearly 400 runners, which surprised me, because in general even UB’s NLHE events don’t get that many runners. Predictably, only about 10% of them had much idea … Read full post
Harrah’s has released the schedule for the 2008 World Series of Poker. There’s not a lot of information about the structures of the preliminary tournaments, but since they are almost all listed as 4-day events, it’s hopefully more generous in the past. Looking over the schedule now, there’s a … Read full post
It’s not a pure whine, cuz I think the river bet is maybe a little interesting and worth discussing, but jeebus. This is with about 80 left in the FTP Sunday Mulligan, and my current stack good for top fifth of the remaining field.
Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold’em Tournament, … Read full post
These took the place of the usual $200 and $500 tournaments on UB yesterday. I never got off the ground in the first one, just lost a ton of medium-sized pots, then the blinds got big and one of my shoves got snapped off.
In the $500, I doubled up … Read full post
I haven’t set up Poker Tracker Omaha to record UB HH’s, so this is from memory. But it was a PLO tournament, and while I’ve been doing well in 6-max PLO cash games, I don’t have a lot of full ring experience. I still think I was playing pretty well, … Read full post
This was an amazingly deep tournament, and I’m really disappointed not to have gone further in it. It was a $100 rebuy where $100 buys 2500 chips, and with blinds starting at 5/10, were sometimes 500BB+ deep when we started. Of course many players didn’t rebuy, but a few did. … Read full post
Ugh, spent 8 hours playing today, and just about everything that could possibly go wrong did. Set under set in the Stars $300, K8< A8 on an 88J flop in the FTP $300, flopped nut flush loses to set in the PLO UBOC event, AT< A8 after AK< KK in the NLHE UBOC event, I lost a ton of big draw vs. strong pair confrontations (on both sides of the equation) at cash, etc etc etc. The only thing that prevented it from being my worst day ever was finding a known fish sitting alone at a 25/50 HU table. He never bought in full, but at those stakes, stacking a guy several times for 25 BB's adds up pretty quick. Sorry for the whine. … Read full post
Poker legend Chip Reese, considered by many to be the best poker player ever, died this week at the age of 56. He got a page-long obituary in the New York Times and a very nice memorial video from Cardplayer magazine. I never had the (mis)fortune to play against … Read full post
The Ultimate Bet Online Championship commenced last night with a $200 6-max tournament. The great structure and the 6-max format meant there was a lot of room for post-flop maneuvering, and I felt I played very well for most of the tournament. We started with a little over 600 players, … Read full post
I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about FIX, but my opinion after dining there last night is that it’s overrated and overpriced. I’m not generally particularly snobby about food or demanding about service, and though I like to eat out, I don’t go to expensive restaurants very often. … Read full post
Chris Ferguson’s introduction to the game of Pot Limit Omaha is strongly grounded in mathematics and game theory, just what you’d expect from the computer science PhD. It’s a little light on tournament theory for a chapter in a tournament strategy guide, but it does a very good job of … Read full post
I make a lot of continuation bets in PLO, but other than that, it can be tricky to pull off a bluff. The biggest mistake most players make is overvaluing hands that are strong in Hold ‘Em but marginal in Omaha, so once they call one street, they usually don’t … Read full post
Unlike most of the other chapters that the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition dedicates to games other than No Limit Hold ‘Em, Mike Matusow’s “Omaha Eight or Better” really is dedicated to tournament strategy rather than to the fundamentals of the game. Unfortunately, I ultimately found his few … Read full post
My latest poker article, The Myth of any Two Cards, has just been published in the December 2007 issue of Two Plus Two Internet Magazine. It’s about how a lot of tournament players rely too much on moves like the resteal where they just figure their opponent is … Read full post
I played this for a few hours last night, thinking the games would be softer than usual because of the current Five Diamond series they are running. Wrong. Almost everyone in the game was a regular, and although I was still one of the best players at the table, there … Read full post
I might as well disclose up front that I am not very good at or knowledgeable about fixed limit hold ’em. In some ways, that makes me unqualified to review a text on the subject, but it also plants me squarely within the target audience of Howard Lederer’s contribution to … Read full post
Sorry I don’t have an exact hand history, as this came from a heads up match on UB, which doesn’t write HH files to your hard drive, and on a computer without Poker Tracker. I was playing against an aggressive but not great player, and we had a history of … Read full post
Although retired FBI Special Agent Joe Navarro is the primary author of this book, the largest name on the cover is that of Phil Hellmuth. This establishes the tone of the entire book, whose very valuable core content is surrounded by an equal amount of fluff, hero worship, and self-promotion.… Read full post
Man I hate live poker tournaments. Only the biggest buy-in events have a reasonable structure, such that even when you’re playing for thousands of dollars, you don’t get a lot of room to play poker. But every now and again I tempted by them, because the atrocious play does kind … Read full post
Andy Bloch and Rafe Furst co-authored this chapter of the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition. It’s a solid if elementary introduction to pot limit for players of no limit hold ’em and outlines the basic differences between the games, though not in great detail.
They correctly identify … Read full post
Poker Stars
Pot Limit Omaha Ring game
Blinds: $2/$4
5 players
Converter
Stack sizes:
CO: $784.95
Button: $146.10
SB: $662.20
Foucault: $702.30
UTG: $397.40
Pre-flop: (5 players) Foucault is BB with :4s :2d :3s :5d
UTG raises to $12, CO calls, Button folds, SB calls Foucault calls.… Read full post
Richard Brodie’s contribution to the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition is a solid introduction to playing online poker tournaments. As is appropriate for the format of a relatively short chapter on the subject, he focuses on broad strategic concepts such as when implied odds, blind stealing, continuation betting, … Read full post
On Friday morning, we got the chance to explore the region of Zion called The Narrows that we had to pass on Sunday. As the name suggests, it’s a particularly narrow portion of the canyon that is both one of the most scenic and one of the most difficult to … Read full post
The plan for Thursday was to rise early, rent appropriate gear, and hike/wade Zion’s most famous region, The Narrows. Emily woke up not feeling particularly well, however, and so we nixed that and I got breakfast alone while she slept.
I’m currently on vacation, spending Thanksgiving with my girlfriend in Utah’s Zion Canyon. Yesterday, we hiked a beautiful trail called Angel’s Landing. Though most of it was paved, it was still strenuous at times, as were ascending over 1000 feet in about two miles of horizontal distance.
We departed from … Read full post
The $500 NLHE Main Event was yet another in a long series “close but no cigar” FTOPS finishes for me. We started with quite deep stacks, and so I came out of the gate swinging:
Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold’em Tournament, 15/30 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter… Read full post
Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
UTG+1: $1,960
UTG+2: $2,468
MP1: $2,114
Hero (MP2): $6,516
CO: $336
BTN: $1,092.70
SB: $2,411
BB: $2,543
UTG: $2,484
Pre-Flop: J
T dealt to Hero (MP2)
UTG raises to $70, 3 folds, Hero calls … Read full post
There are a lot of things I like about living in Boston that I didn’t like about the area where I grew up in Maryland. But I do miss my family, which particularly on my father’s side is very close, and nothing kills me like my 10-year old cousin Hannah, … Read full post
These hands were both against an absolutely atrocious player. The first one is pretty straightforward and solidified for me just how wide is range is going to be when he makes these stupid little 4-bets pre-flop:
Full Tilt Poker, $4/$8 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History … Read full post
I almost didn’t play the $500 HORSE FTOPS event last night because I was pretty tired, but generally the quality of play in these things is so bad, and the opportunity to play large-field, mixed-game tournaments so rare, that I didn’t want to pass it up. I had also forgotten … Read full post
Last night was the $300 rebuy with 6-handed tables, which is the FTOPS event in which I felt my edge would be largest. Though my finish wasn’t anything spectacular, I was quite happy with how I played. Here’s one kind of interesting hand:
Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold’em Tournament, 80/160 … Read full post
Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker Hand History Converter
SB: $1,408.50
Hero (BB): $1,525
Pre-Flop: 4 4
dealt to Hero (BB)
SB raises to $30, Hero calls $20
Flop: ($60) J 7 7 (2 Players)
Hero checks, SB bets $40, Hero calls $40… Read full post
The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing yesterday morning entitled, “Establishing Consistent Enforcement Policies in the Context of Online Wagers“. Annie Duke’s testimony has gotten particularly good reviews. It definitely helps to portray poker as a wholesome pursuit when a witness can open her testimony with, “As a … Read full post
The New Frontier was significant because it was the first of the ‘theme hotels’ that have become a Vegas staple.
My girlfriend was there in person and said there was like two inches of dust on the cars and sidewalk and everything in the vicinity and that the people nearby
This was a $200 PLO8 tournament, and needless to say there was some extraordinarily bad play to be seen. I ended up bubbling it, but you don’t care about that. Let’s look at some hands.
Coming Through the Back Door
Full Tilt Poker
Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Ring game
Blinds: … Read full post
These hands were all against StorkDelaMork. He’s a regular in the mid- to high stakes on FTP, pretty tight but also smart and capable of tricky play.
I Don’t Fold Sets
Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (BB): $3,374.50
UTG: $3,160.50… Read full post
Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (BTN): $3,400.50
SB: $2,154
BB: $2,077
UTG: $3,869.50
CO: $3,701
Pre-Flop: A T dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, CO calls $20, Hero raises to $90, SB calls $80, BB calls $70, CO folds… Read full post
Since I was away over the weekend, this was only the second FTOPS event I played. It was a $1000 NLHE tournament, and although I lasted about three hours, I really didn’t have any interesting hands come up. I ended up busting to this psychotic mouth-breather:
Full Tilt Poker, NL … Read full post
I spent the last few days in New Jersey and New York, visiting first a friend from high school who is now studying German literature at Princeton, then two friends from college who recently got engaged and are now living together in NYC, and finally having dinner at the home … Read full post
I’m in New York this weekend visiting my old friend and roommate Logan, and since two other players from the home game Logan ran for three years in Cambridge are also in NYC now, we were able to get a game going last night. We started out playing with $.50/$1 … Read full post