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 … Read more…
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 … Read more…
Just as a quick follow-up to yesterday’s review of GoGo Wireless on AirTran, I thought I’d let everyone know that the free wireless internet at Boston’s Logan Airport is also quite suitable for poker playing: Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $80.00 … Read more…
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 … Read more…
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 … Read more…
I was curious who ended up winning the NAPT Venetian which I played last weekend and had to google the name “Tom Marchese”. Not only did I learn that he plays online as kingsofcards, a tough regular whom I avoid … Read more…
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 … Read more…
I’m playing the 5k Venetian Deep Stakes/ NAPT tournament today, headed down right now to get started, there will be updates on Twitter, you can view them here.
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. … Read more…
Yeah, a little sad that we have to ask directly, but Thinking Poker currently has a grand total of 19 friends on facebook, making us look bad in front of our close friends and family, who coincidentally, make up a … Read more…
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 … Read more…
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, … Read more…
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 … Read more…
We 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 … Read more…
I’ve always been impressed with the customer service at Poker Stars: the seed with which they respond to issues, the frequency with which they solicit and act upon player input from sites like 2+2, and their general willingness and creativity … Read more…
I’ve got myself a nice little room at the Atlantis Resort and Casino. I’m only on the third floor, so the view sucks, but I’ve got a little patio that’s large enough for a table and chairs, whichis kinda cool. The … Read more…
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all enjoyed yourselves responsibly last night (and last year, for that matter), and that you are striding confidently forward into a new year. Yesterday, I revisited my 2009 poker resolutions. Now, it’s time … Read more…
Nearly a year ago, I set some poker goals and resolutions for myself for 2009. It’s time now to review those goals and my progress towards them: Resolution One: Keep Grinding NLHE Cash Games This is my bread and butter … Read more…
Unfortunately, they were both in PLO8 events with fewer than 200 runners. But I was 5/135 in the $100 and 2/180 in the $200, so not too shabby, and it was fun. The heads up was interesting in the $200, … Read more…
I’ve been spending most of my time these last few weeks camping, most recently at an amazing site in Arches National Park, and emerging only occasionally to play poker and catch up with the outside world. Annoyingly, this means I’m … Read more…
“Super Satellite Buy-In: $665.00/$35.00 USD 585 players Total Prize Pool: $389025.00 USD Target Tournament #201001051 Buy-In: $14130.00 USD 25 tickets to the target tournament Tournament started 2009/11/01 18:00:00 ET Dear foucault82, Congratulations – You have won a package for the … Read more…
You may have seen David “Viffer” Peat on High Stakes Poker. He just sat down at one of my tables tonight and wrote this in the chat: richreich: checks Viffer said, “omg” joe E scar: bets $120 Viffer said, “just … Read more…
…and it’s not even that close: Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $80.00 BB (5 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com BB ($19098.50) Hero (UTG) ($16000) MP ($16538.30) Button ($16485) SB ($15277) Preflop: Hero is UTG with K, K Hero bets $280, … Read more…
Edit: On further reflection, I actually think his call is OK. He needs barely 33% equity, as he probably isn’t behind the SB caller, and my range is likely weighted towards the strong draws, against which he is a slight … Read more…
Evidently there was a glitch on Poker Stars heads up Sit-and-Go’s that enabled players to start a new game using the “Rematch” button even if they did not have sufficient funds in their accounts. What you see here is a … Read more…
Wicked Chops Poker is reporting that, with 2400 players left in the main event, Phil Ivey accepted a $20K wager from Andy Bloch at 99:1 that he would win the main event. Now that he’s made the final table, Bloch’s … Read more…
Maryland-based freelance reporter Bill Ordine recently penned an article for the LA Times entitled “Poker Professionals Ante Up for Charity“. While it’s primarily about high-profile projects like Ante Up for Africa and Bad Beat on Cancer, he uses yours truly … Read more…
Just finished up the first break of the day, Andrew is down to 26k after a couple hands didn’t get there. Table is much less intense than days 1 and 2 though, so we’ll see. Updates on twitter fairly regularly, … Read more…
Don’t recognize any names, which is a nice change of pace: Toriani, Keith 110,200 BR224 1 Lezcano, Ed 23,900 BR224 2 Hai, Le 113,100 BR224 3 Brokos, Andrew 92,200 BR224 4 Phung, Steve 26,500 BR224 5 Bykov, Andrey 27,500 BR224 … Read more…
It was a grueling day at what even PokerNews called the “Table of Death.” Except for the guy on my right, I probably had the worst seat at the table, too, with Luca Pagano on my immediate left and Isaac … Read more…
Andrew is actively twittering away, view notes at www.twitter.com/thinkingpoker. He’s in decent shape, but at a tough table. The pros beat him to the dead money early on and then the 2 fish that busted were replaced by more pros.
Ahlberg, Tom Vasa Sweden 5,200 B29 2 Boyette, Robert Archer FL 38,950 B29 7 Brokos, Andrew Catonsville MD 16,350 B29 5 De Bon, Cedric Suisse Switzerland 22,725 B29 9 Levy, Grant Sydney Australia 52,225 B29 8 Ludovic, Lacay Paris France … Read more…
Andrew moved to a softer table and is up to a comfortable 45k at the dinner break. They are only playing four 2-hour levels today, instead of the scheduled 5, so they’ll come back from dinner at a little after … Read more…
Andrew is at a meh starting table with a good player on his left. For those not following the twitter, here are the updates so far: 3:35pm Fish wins huge pot off of best opponent. this is a very very … Read more…
My girlfriend’s been working tremendously hard on a redesign of the Thinking Poker blog/website, and it’s going to be going live tomorrow. By the time many of you read this post, it may be live already, in which case, don’t … Read more…
3875 coming into the break. Were playing 200 400 when we resume. Level 3 I got into some good spots vs the fish (there are 2 now). Once had three to a low flush that turned into a 7 low … Read more…
Up from 4500 at the start. Table isn’t particularly soft. There’s one very loose player on my right but otherwise everyone seems solid. I’ve had some strong hands, including rolled up 7s that only got half of a small pot … Read more…
Legendary 2+2 poker author David Sklansky was recently the victim of a home invasion robbery committed by what appeared to be several armed individuals. According to the local NBC affiliate, “‘The guy burst into the bedroom, it was dark but … Read more…
So apparently Vegas isn’t quite as dead as I thought and waiting until the day before my arrival to make hotel arrangements was not wise. The Rio is booked solid until Tuesday, so I’m spending my first three nights at … Read more…
Yesterday’s New York Times ran an article about how poker players are using Twitter. I can’t say it’s particularly thorough and insightful, in fact it seems to be based almost entirely on an interview with Joe Sebok of Poker Road, … Read more…
Sorry for the recent lack of updates, but I haven’t been playing all that much. Since I’ll be in Vegas soon and devoting myself to poker nearly 24/7, I’m trying to get some other stuff done right now. Speaking of … Read more…
As a first step towards a larger blog/website revamping, I’m finally moving away from the awful Ipower company that’s been hosting the blog. This should be a smooth transition that doesn’t result in any downtime, but nothing with them has … Read more…
May was a solid month, though a bit bittersweet because it started off phenomenally and then took a pretty sour turn. I can’t complain about the bottom line, but let’s see what kind of progress I’m making on my yearly … Read more…
Congratulations to Poker Savvy’s Dani “Ansky” Stern, who finished fourth for better than half a million dollars in the special $40K NLHE WSOP anniversary event. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t even realize he was at the final table. … Read more…
Big congratulations to my friend and former student Todd, who just won a $12K WSOP package in a Poker Stars $10 rebuy satellite. Just days after completing my inaugural group seminar, he effectively quadrupled his bankroll. Naturally I take full … Read more…
That’s right! My thousands of Finnish readers will be thrilled to learn that select articles from my archive will now be available in Finnish at Pokerisvut. Currently appearing: Tuottoisia virheitä (Profitable Mistakes). I don’t speak a word of Finnish, but … Read more…
I won and lost a lot of money in April. I finished the month with a decent though not spectacular bottom line, but given what I spent on tournament buy-ins (thank you very much, SCOOP), I’m impressed that I was … Read more…
God I hate fucking tournaments. Been playing since 4:30, made it deep in yet another Sunday tournament, and out to another bad beat. Granted, it was a pretty thin spot, but that makes it only moderately less annoying. I had … Read more…
Part Time Poker just published a short interview with yours truly. I’ve generally shied away from doing a lot of self-promotion, but this was a fun and original set of questions. They also persuaded me with liberal doses of flattery: … Read more…
My fellow Poker Savvy Plus pro Christian “charder30” Harder is at the TV table (final 6) of the World Poker Tour $25,000 Championship event at the Bellagio! According to the WPT, Christian comes in at a distant second with 7.5 … Read more…
I hate and suck at FLHE, so I didn’t play this one. I just wanted to give a big congratulations to Terrence “Unassigned” Chan, who won both the $500 and $5000 tournaments. I had the privilege of meeting, playing with, … Read more…
March came in like a lion but went out like a lamb. I was within a few hundred dollars of even, then dropped 10K on the Bay 101 WPT. I don’t regret it, though. It was a fun experience (the … Read more…
For the second time this year, I’ve dug myself out of a big old hole. Let’s hope it’s the last (that I need to). Here’s the hand that did it: PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $50.00 BB (5 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter … Read more…
For those who didn’t see Calmer’s comment yesterday, I didn’t last long at all on Day 2 of the WPT. My table was fairly tough, not that it mattered. There were a few, young internet players who seemed pretty tough, … Read more…
February felt like (and was) a pretty awful month, but I did actually win some money. Just not nearly enough to make up for January. After the first week, I was in black and then some, pretty much right where … Read more…
This afternoon I got an e-mail from Ultimate Bet reminding me that I still have a $.26 in my account and suggesting some things I could do with it, like a $.02 tournament. They only let you cash out whole … Read more…
What a month. It started out well enough, and after about a week and a half I was well on my way to a very solid January. Then all hell broke loose, and I lost heavily for the rest of … Read more…
Resolution One: Keep Grinding NLHE Cash Games This is my bread and butter game, and even if I don’t do anything to improve, just maintaining my current winrate and putting in hours will be very valuable to me. Of course … Read more…
Having already posted an analysis of last year’s resolutions (One, Two, and Three), I’ll turn now to some year-end miscellany: Largest Pot Won Though I played as high as 50/100 last year, my biggest win was in a recent 10/20 … Read more…
At the beginning of last year, I set some poker resolutions and goals for myself. It’s time now to see how I’ve fared during the course of 2008. I’ve already posted about my resolutions to Focus on Short-Handed No-Limit Hold … Read more…
At the beginning of last year, I set some poker resolutions and goals for myself. It’s time now to see how I’ve fared during the course of 2008. Yesterday, I posted about my resolution to Focus on Short-Handed No-Limit Hold … Read more…
At the beginning of last year, I set some poker resolutions and goals for myself. It’s time now to see how I’ve fared during the course of 2008. Resolution 1: Focus on Short-Handed NLHE Cash Games I pretty well kicked … Read more…
The cheating scandal at Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker made national news yesterday with an article in the Washington Post and a segment on CBS’ 60 Minutes. There was a lot of doom and gloom predictions about what this coverage … Read more…
I hope all the Americans and anyone else who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a nice time. I’d like to express my gratitude to everyone who reads and/or comments here at thinkingpoker. It’s enormously gratifying to know that there are people … Read more…
I thought this new layout would kill two birds with one stone, both giving the blog a fresh look and fixing the font issue I’ve had for the last few days. Apparently only the former was successful. Sorry, I’m still … Read more…
Poker buddy, former student, and regular reader Diego (rvrmonkey ronfezbuddy for those who have been owned by him at the tables) welcomed his second child, Dahlia, into the world yesterday. She’s cute and all, but this pretty much dooms any … Read more…