I recently had the pleasure of playing in the European Poker Tour series in Barcelona, Spain. My trip started out horribly, with me losing with numerous three-of-a-kinds and two-pairs. However, I maintained my sanity and ended up making a deep run in my last tournament of the series, a €2,200 deep-stacked event. …
Slow Playing when Short Stacked Read More »
Day 1 of the 2017 WSOP Main Event went about as well as possible for me. I correctly assessed most of my opponents’ tendencies and played a strategy designed to take advantage of their mistakes. I called down the overly aggressive players with a wide range and made big folds against the straightforward players when they decided to put a lot of money in the pot. I ended day 1 with four starting stacks, 211,300, which was good for fourth place in my portion of the field going into day 2a. …
Folding a Flush in the WSOP Main Event Read More »
The World Series of Poker Main Event is upon us, so today I wanted to share a key hand I played in the 2014 WSOP Main Event that propelled me into cashing for $22,678.
On Day 3, I had 100,000 chips (we started the tournament with 30,000 chips) at 2,000/4,000 blinds with a 500. I was fortunate enough to wake up with A-A on the button. Everyone folded around to me and I made my standard raise to two big blinds, 8,000. …
Fun hand from the WSOP Main Event Read More »
A while back I had the opportunity to play in the €5300 European Poker Tour Malta main event. Things were going reasonably well. I had built my 30,000 starting stack up to 80,000 when the following hand took place. My opponent in this hand is a world-class player who regularly takes creative betting lines. While he generally plays a tight, aggressive strategy, he is certainly capable of getting well out of line if he thinks the time is right. …
Tough spot against a creative player Read More »
The following hand is from a $1,500 buy-in World Series of Poker event. Up until this point, I was extremely card dead. I actually only played three pots that went to the flop in the first three hours of play. When you happen to get relatively few playable hands, it is usually a good idea to attempt an intelligent, well-timed bluff, especially if your opponents realize that you have been tight and will give you more “respect” than usual. …
I recently played an interesting hand in a $1,500 buy-in live tournament. Everyone started with 15,000 chips at 50/100 with hour-long levels, meaning there was lots of time to hang out and wait for strong hands. I realized that everyone at my table was implementing that strategy so I quickly adjusted and decided to attempt to steal every pot once it was clear no one was interested in winning. This allowed me to double my starting stack within three hours with almost no risk, which is always an amazing result. You will find that when you are constantly pushing your opponents around, your observant opponents will eventually assume that you are overly wild and may adjust. …
Playing fast and slow Read More »
I recently witnessed this hand in a $1,000 buy-in even that clearly illustrates a flaw in many amateur players’ poker strategies. With blinds of 200/400 with a 50 ante with 23,000 effective stacks, everyone folded around to the button, a reasonably tight player, who raised to 900. The player in the small blind, we will refer to him as Hero, called with 3c-3s, and the big blind, an unknown player, called as well. …
Set turned into a bluff catcher Read More »
I recently traveled to Hollywood, Florida for the 2017 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open. The venue is amazing and I had a lot of fun. I started my trip off losing almost every pot in a $2,000 turbo. When that happens, do not become discouraged and instead realize that quite often, you will not get anything going in a poker tournament. After that, I built a large stack (eight starting stacks) early in the $3,500 WPT event but lost about 20 hands in a row to fall short of the money. Again, don’t get discouraged! …
My 2017 WPT Tournament of Champions Bustout Read More »
The World Series of Poker is right around the corner, so today I am going to share with you a hand from the WSOP two years ago where I managed to not go broke with the second nut full house. When you find yourself in a situation on the river (where the vast majority of amateur players play in a blatantly straightforward manner) where you face a polarizing bet, meaning your opponent either has the nuts or nothing, conserving your stack is of the utmost importance, even when you have a premium hand. …
Not going broke with a full house Read More »
One of my students recently played this hand that illustrates a key concept that you must master if you want to succeed at no-limit hold’em. With blinds at 50/100 with 20,000 effective stacks early in a $500 buy-in tournament, a player who is known to be a loose, splashy calling station raised to 300. My student called on the button with 7s-6s. The blinds folded. …
Playing junk against calling stations Read More »
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