This hand illustrates a common mistake that small stake no-limit hold’em cash game players make on a regular basis. With blinds at $1/$3 with a $300 effective stack, an unknown player called $3 from the cutoff. The player on the button, we will refer to him as Hero, called as well. Both blinds elected to see a cheap flop. …
Deciding when to slow play Read More »
In small stakes games, it is not uncommon to face opponents who think it is a good idea to limp in with a wide range of marginal hands. While this is almost certainly an indication that you are in a profitable game (because limping in is usually the sign of a weak player), you must be careful to not fall into the trap of overvaluing your marginal made hands once numerous players see the flop. …
Today I am going to share a hand with you that I played last year in the $1,500 buy-in Monster Stack WSOP event. This event was different from other $1,500 events in that each player started with an overly deep stack. This was third hand of the day 1.
A 35 year old guy who I did not know raised to 525 out of his 15,000 stack at 100/200 from middle position. Everyone folded around to me and I called with 4c-3c from the big blind. …
No one wants to quickly bust Read More »
While playing in the $2,700 buy-in Borgata Spring Poker Open Main Event, I found myself in a tricky spot on the river that I would like to share with you. My primary opponent in this hand is a 50 year old player who seems to be somewhat loose and passive. He also seems to overvalue most of his premium hands, which is a common trait most amateurs display. …
Bluffing off my stack at Borgata Read More »
Last year I had the pleasure of traveling to Deauville, France to play the European Poker Tour series. Deauville is a beautiful city that looks like it is straight out of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Fortunately I made a deep run in the €10,000 buy-in high-roller event, which is always nice. I had a huge opportunity to do well in the event but I lost a few coin-flip situations as soon as we got in the money, killing my chances. …
In October 2016, my Global Poker League team, the Las Vegas Moneymakers, were sitting at the bottom of the America’s division despite my best efforts and winning record. With only three weeks of play remaining in the season, we needed to win all three games of our weekly heads-up match to not be mathematically eliminated from payoff contention. We were told that we would face Phil Galfond, one of the biggest winners in all of poker. I was away on a vacation when I got the news, walking through the streets of Budapest with my wife, and told her that whoever was put in to play Galfond was going to get murdered. A few minutes later, our team manager Chris Moneymaker texted me and told me that I was going to be our team’s savior. All I could think was “It looks like I am going to be the one who gets murdered!” …
Learning from my mistakes in the Global Poker LeagueRead More »
Learning from my mistakes in the Global Poker League Read More »
This hand is from the $10,000 buy-in Bellagio cup event that takes place near the end of the WSOP. The field is usually quite soft because many pros are still in the WSOP main event, or so worn out from the series that they skip this tournament. This event is effectively acts a “last chance” high roller tournament. Day 1 did not start off too well for me. After grinding up my 40,000 starting stack to 60,000 by winning lots of small pots, I lost a big hand with A-A versus J-J in a 4-bet pot when my opponent rivered trips. This left me with 30,000. …
Taking a Trip to Valuetown Read More »
This interview originally appeared on the FloatTheTurn.com blog.
Albert: Jonathan, rebuy tournaments, where players could re-enter immediately after busting out, right at the table and in the same seat, or purchase more chips when they were short, were popular 10 to 15 years ago. But now, they have largely been replaced by re-entry tournaments, where you can re-enter, but will be assigned a new seat, and where you cannot add-on chips when you get short stacked. …
My thoughts on re-entry tournaments Read More »
The following extremely interesting hand example is featured in my book Jonathan Little on Live No-Limit Cash Games, Volumes 2: The Workbook. It took place in a live $10/$20 no-limit hold’em game. Leading up to this hand, I had been fairly loose and aggressive, although certainly not crazy.
I raised to $60 out of my $8,000 effective stack with 2c-2d from second position at an eight-handed table. Only the Hijack, a loose, aggressive guy, and the Small Blind, a tight, aggressive kid, called. …
Folding a set on the turn Read More »
This summer at the WSOP, I decided to spend a bit of time away from the tournaments playing $10/$20 no-limit at Bellagio. After a few hands at the table, a Spanish kid to my left commented about how he didn’t like that I was writing down my hands in my notebook. It clearly had him rattled. He proceeded to play in a maniacal manner and bluffed off over $5,000 to me over the next hour. He was tilted. To be fair, I showed down decently strong hands, so he probably didn’t think I was outplaying him, but instead was lucky to make some strong hands. (I was actually lucky that he kept trying to bluff me!) …
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.