I recently played hand in a $2,200 turbo event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure that I think is quite instructional. It demonstrates two key concepts that you must master if you want to succeed at poker tournaments:
Avoid playing gigantic pots without the nuts
Constantly analyze your opponent’s range and figure out how to best take advantage of it …
Two Key Tournament Concepts Read More »
The following hand illustrates a common leak that many amateur players have in their poker strategy. When they face the least bit of resistance, they fold all but their best hands. With blinds at 250/500-75 with 25,000 effective stacks in a $500 buy-in tournament, the cutoff raised to 1,200 and our Hero in this hand reraised to 3,000 with Jh-Jd on the button. Only the cutoff called. …
Don’t be a pushover Read More »
At a European Poker Tour event, I played a fun hand with pocket Jacks that stirred up quite a bit of discussion. …
Fun spot with pocket jacks Read More »
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 »
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