On one hand you have someone who played and studied a specific format for most of his playing career and was the self proclaimed “best in the world at it.” On the other hand, you have me who has a total of approximately 6 weeks total playing this format in my 46 years on the planet. He will try to tell you he hasn’t played in a couple years so that somehow evens the playing field, but I haven’t played this format in about 10 years, and when I did, it was for approximately a 6 week period. It was shortly before Black Friday. So let’s not kid ourselves with the false narrative that this is a lev ..read more

A few hours ago I got a call from Seth Palansky informing me that there was an error in the calculation from the WSOP POY point totals accrued during the Las Vegas leg. Apparently, they credited me with a cash in an event I didn’t cash in, the $1000 NLH Online Event. Those events typically take longer to process and add to the site because screen names need to be verified to figure out who the person is that played. Approximately 213 points were awarded to me in that event. No one knew of this error that affected mine, and about 15 other players POY score until after the WSOPE leg in Roz ..read more

I recently tweeted out the question as to whether or not people think it’s cheating if a player in the United States circumvents the TOS of a site and uses a VPN to play online poker on their site. The majority of respondents (76%) to the poll don’t think it is unethical or cheating. So what are we talking about here? If you follow the letter of the law, breaking the rules is cheating. The next question for me is, who exactly are you cheating? You are cheating the US Government who is unjustly infringing on your ability to sit on your couch and play online poker. An argument can be made ..read more

I’ve been involved in poker since the late 90’s and have worn several different hats throughout that period, most notably as a professional poker player. In my teen years, I helped run a game in a private club which also included running “The Sheet.” The sheet was a credit line we gave to players when they went broke in the game and wanted to keep playing. One thing was always understood about the sheet, you were going to get stiffed on occasion, but it was still worth having. Mostly, it was the losing players who borrowed money on the sheet, and because they were given this credit line it hel ..read more

Have been thinking about poker tournaments and how much they have changed over the years. In some cases for the better, but in other cases I’m not so sure. I started on the tournament circuit in the late 90’s and every tournament felt special to me whether it was a $100 buy in at the Commerce or a WSOP event. Heck, I felt that the one table satellites in the late 90’s were prestigious and filled with big name players. There were no small buy ins, the lowest being $2000 so buying into a $200 satellite was still very much a big part of the WSOP experience. Of course, that’s all changed now with ..read more

Recently I posted a tweet that was way too harsh in tone and the responses were predictable. I was referring to negative traits of certain poker players that aren’t a good addition to the game. Nick Jones pointed out that my tweet was actually contributing to one of those traits, being a hater or complainer. I realized he was right so I chose to delete the tweet and phrase it in a more positive tone, instead focusing on what attributes make a player attractive to a game. Negative Traits: Winner Slow Quiet Nit Hater Positive Traits: Lose Money Act Quickly Be friendly Be Generous/Give A ..read more

Right around this time of year is when I typically like to map out what my summer might look like, including most all events I may play depending on how I’m doing. For example, I may have something on the schedule that would appear to conflict with another event, and in that case, I would only be playing the secondary event if I was eliminated from the first one before late registration closed. I do not “double dip” and play two stacks. I haven’t done that even once in about 5 years. I used to do it occasionally when there were big bracelet bets on the line for Phil Ivey and I, but since the ..read more

I’ve watched every minute of every game and have a really good idea as to “how they are doing it.” 1. System- this team plays like no other team in the league. Using a basketball analogy they essentially play a full court press all game on defense, and a transition fast break team on offense. If they kept a stat for the quickest team in the league that causes a turnover then moves the puck up ice, no other team would be close. They play an up tempo high variance game and constantly are looking for odd man rushes that lead to lots of high quality chances. Most teams win the puck, possess it, l ..read more

So in my last blog I covered a few key hands I played on day one and figured I would share some more that I jotted down to look at for review later. During the final table I didn’t really record any hands as I was focused on getting the job done, but on day two there were a few interesting spots I found myself in: HAND ONE Blinds 6k-12k Stack depth 150 bbs Ivan Luca raises middle position to 26k I call with 22 from the next seat and it’s heads up to a flop: 3h 5s 6d Luca bets 30k I raise to 95k he calls Turn: 3s check check River: 8c he checks, I bet 400k and he folds 99 Thoughts- This flop g ..read more

I haven’t done one of these blogs in ages where I go over my day with you all, but felt inspired to do so after my first day of play here in the Bahamas for PCA 2018. I just wanted to share a few key hands from the day: HAND 1 Level 1 Blinds 500-1000 Ante 100 Stack depth 250 bbs Koray Aledimir raises under the gun at a 7 handed table to 2500. It folds around to me in the big blind and I re-raise to 13k with As Qs. Koray called. Flop: Js Th 5d I bet 7k on the flop and Koray calls. Turn: 9c Check, check. River: 6s I bet 100k Koray tanks for a while, using a time bank extension and then makes ..read more