I played with Antonio Esfandari in the World Poker Tour Tournament of Champions the other day and every time I see him, I am reminded of the time I bubbled the $25,500 buy-in WPT Championship event in 2013 at Bellagio. The following is an article I wrote after that excruciating bubble. I didn’t particularly enjoy the experience. I hope you do! …
Revisiting a tough hand from a $25,000 WPT event Read More »
If you ever hope to become an excellent poker player, you must embrace the fact that you do not know the answers to numerous questions that constantly come up in poker. If you do not know something, as an active, engaged learner striving to improve your game, you should try your best to find the answer.
Most people simply read articles, books and poker forums, hoping to stumble upon the answers. While this is a reasonable initial step, it will not take you too far. In order to actually improve, you must find a group of like-minded peers who genuinely want to discuss your thoughts and questions. You should also hire a poker coach who can give you concrete answers to your problems. Once you figure out how excellent poker players tackle a problem, you should be able to notice where you lack knowledge and also learn how to figure out the answer. What makes an excellent poker player is not someone who thinks they know everything, but someone who has a broad base of knowledge coupled with the ability to solve almost any problem they encounter. …
Learning to think outside the box Read More »
It is well known that if you are not constantly improving your poker skills, you are falling behind. In this blog post., I will share with you 3 steps you can follow that will immediately help you improve your poker skills.
Step 1:
Record your play. …
3 steps to improve your poker skills by reviewing your playRead More »
3 steps to improve your poker skills by reviewing your play Read More »
Every time I do a webinar where members of my training site, FloatTheTurn.com, can log in and ask me questions, I find myself answering one specific question: “When should I become a professional poker player?” To hopefully avoid re-answering the same question again in the future, here are my thoughts on the subject.
Let’s assume you play $2-$5 no-limit hold’em at a local card room, which is about the stakes most people play who ask the question. …
Should you go pro? Read More »
In one word, my trip to the 2015 European Poker Tour series in Malta was “brutal”. In almost every event, I doubled up in the first two hours only to either get unlucky in a huge pot or go super card dead, eventually busting near the end of the first day. This lead to me having zero cashes in the eight events I entered. Despite the abysmal results, I am very happy with how I played and focused throughout the trip. …
Tough hand from EPT Malta Read More »
I don’t usually write about spots that come up infrequently but recently I witnessed this hand I thought was uniquely instructive. Everyone started with about 150 big blinds. Player A in 1st position raised to 3 big blinds, Player B, a good tight aggressive kid in 2nd position, reraised to 8 big blinds and Player C, a mediocre loose aggressive kid in 3rd position, 4-bet to 22 big blinds. …
Should you ever fold pocket Kings preflop? Read More »
This blog post will be a bit longer and more technical than normal but I promise, the payoff is worth it as this concept alone could easily take your game to the next level if you have the leak I am about to address.
I was recently having a discussion about whether it is better to try to get heads up with A-A or to try to keep opponents in the pot. …
Force them out of keep them in? Read More »
I was asked by a large number of my students to get some experience playing the small stakes live games so I could make a training product to help them crush those specific games. I did exactly that, and Strategies for Beating Small Stakes Cash Games was born. I owe a huge amount of thanks to everyone who inspired me to make this book! Thank you for making it the #1 Best-Selling Poker book on Amazon!
Today I am going to share a hand with you from a $1/$2 live cash game at Borgata, in Atlantic City. My table will populated with mostly 50-70 year old recreational players who liked to limp with almost their entire range of playable hands. When someone raised, it was usually to 6 big blinds, which typically resulted in everyone folding. Talk about a great game! …
Fun hand from a $1/$2 live cash game Read More »
In my new book, Excelling at No-Limit Hold’em, out of the 500 pages, quite a few are dedicated to in-depth range analysis. While most advanced players know how to put their opponents on a range of hands, it seems like very few of them actually get out of line and take advantage of their range assessment abilities. I recently played a hand in the $3,500 Borgata WPT event where I was fairly certain I knew both of my opponents’ ranges. The only problem was that one, if not both of my opponents had me in bad shape. …
Figure out their range (then do something about it!)Read More »
Figure out their range (then do something about it!) Read More »
Those who know my game well know I don’t particularly like to fold reasonably strong hands. While being a bit of a calling station works well against most good, aggressive players who almost always have at least some bluffs in their ranges, against weaker opponents who play blatantly straightforward and rarely bluff, calling down with good, but not amazing, hands can get you in a ton of trouble. …
Finding folds at the WSOP Read More »
Learn how to beat small stakes poker cash games and tournaments with these 2 books! These strategies will help you win more hands and make more final tables.