Just over a week ago I had the chance to go to Vegas for Annie Duke's Epic Poker seminar. In a word, it was AWESOME.
Check-in was Friday night, with a full day of poker planned for Saturday. I decided to goof around a bit in the poker room Friday night and ended up donking off $100 pretty quickly in a $2/$4 limit game. I immediately changed to the $1/$3 no-limit game and my fortunes changed as well. I played the hand of the night pretty early. I called a $10 pre-flop raise with 77 and three of us went to the flop. The flop came 979 for a flopped boat for me and I was able to get all my money in on the turn. Just to make sure I was good, I rivered a 7 for quads and a $50 high-hand bonus. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful and I ended up cashing out for +$74 on the night.
The next day I had breakfast with Mom and headed off for the noon start of the seminar. The two-hour classroom portion of the seminar was based on Annie Duke's book, Decide To Play Great Poker, obviously, and she pointed out that she would be focusing on pre-flop decision making, as she would need three days to cover everything she writes about in her book (a three day poker seminar with Annie Duke? Where do I sign up?).
I've read Annie's book, but there were times my brain would sort of "tune out" what I was reading. There is a lot of game theory in what she teaches and at times it can get sort of complicated in regards to the multiple levels of thought you have to put into the game. Luckily, she taught this seminar as if none of us had read the book. She was able to illustrate and reinforce what I had read in the book and all of a sudden it just "clicked" in my brain. I could clearly see the benefits, but more importantly, the detriments of playing certain hands in certain situations - hands I typically played as if they were the nuts.
No wonder I haven't become a winning poker player in almost ten years of playing this game.
We broke for lunch, got our gift bags with a sweatshirt, hat, and copy of Annie's book, and then reconvened for the practical portion of the seminar. For this, Annie brought in four poker pros to sit at the table with us and deal while we played hands and then discussed the decision-making process behind everything we were doing. This portion of the seminar was, quite simply, worth every penny. The pros were Annie (@AnnieDuke), Ali Nejad (@Ali_Nejad), Matt Glantz (@MattGlantz), McLean Karr (@mcleankarr), and Tim West (@TheTmay).
Matt was first up at my table. For those of you who may not know, Matt is one of the pre-eminent mixed game players in the world. He was a little nervous at first, admitting that it was probably his first time dealing cards and definitely his first time teaching, but once he started talking about the game he loves, he got totally comfortable.
McLean was next at the table and his genuine enthusiasm for the game was infectious. When someone would ask a question about how to play a hand, he wouldn't discount the proposition, but typically answered with something along the lines of, "Yeah, you could do that. And then maybe if he bets into you on the turn, you can come over the top and crush him. That's what's so great about his game, there's no one way to play a hand." His enthusiasm was made more legit when, before leaving our table, Matt had told us that McLean is one of the "great young minds" in the game.
Annie, Ali, and Tim all rotated through our table as well, and all with the same message: making a good decision before the flop will make your decisions throughout the hand a lot easier, and that's what you want. It was really great to get five different perspectives on the same thing and see how you can take different routes to reach the same goal.
This was an absolutely incredible seminar. And if there were ever another one, maybe covering post-flop play, I wouldn't hesitate to make my way back out to Vegas for it.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Epically Excited
So I'm sitting around my mom's house after my de-herniation surgery and I'm scrolling through Twitter. I casually mention the Living Social deal for the Epic Poker League (@EpicPoker) and poker training by Annie Duke (@AnnieDuke) on Dec. 9th and 10th. I mention that it seems like a pretty good deal for two nights at the Palms, four hours total of poker training, entry into an Epic satellite, and various other little "gifts." Honestly, I'm just making conversation. My mom looks me dead in the eye and says, "You want an early Christmas/birthday present?"
Is that a real question?
I scoffed and said that plane tickets were probably outrageous, as the event was only a week away. Mom said that if I paid for the ticket, she'd buy me the package.
So of COURSE I checked. And of COURSE the tickets were still affordable. And of COURSE I'm going.
I've recently made a conscious effort and taken necessary steps to try to make poker my life. I want to make a living playing the game and I want to make a living writing about the game. Hell, I even have a part-time financial backer. This trip seems like the perfect storm of serendipity-ness. Serendipitiousness. Serendipiocity. You know what I mean.
Not only do I get world class poker training from Annie Duke, but Ali Nejad (@Ali_Nejad), Matt Glantz (@MattGlantz), and McLean Karr (@mcleankarr) are also part of the teaching roster.
I feel like that reads like a commercial, but I don't care. I'm fricken' excited.
In addition, numerous poker media types will be converging on the Palms that weekend for all of the Epic Poker festivities, and this is what I'm really looking forward to.
A while back I tweeted to a few writers and photogs and asked if they had any words of advice for someone wanting to break into the industry. The first response I got was from Jessica Welman (@jesswelman), Managing Editor of BLUFF Magazine and WPT reporter. In a phrase, her advice was "don't expect it to be easy, work hard, get lucky." Fair enough. A couple others tweeted their agreement with her, but added nothing themselves.
Then I got a response from Jennifer Newell (@writerjen), writer for Epic Poker, amongst other publications, and this one was much more in depth. She asked about what I'd done so far and what my specific interests are. She told me to keep blogging to build an audience and email poker websites and ask if they need part-time help. Bingo. She even did me a solid and followed me on Twitter and has re-tweeted a couple of my blog posts. Awesome.
So, needless to say, between all the poker lessons and poker playing and running around introducing myself (without seeming like a stalker) to poker media types, this weekend should be full of fun and excitement and has a lot of potential for changing my future.
Is that a real question?
I scoffed and said that plane tickets were probably outrageous, as the event was only a week away. Mom said that if I paid for the ticket, she'd buy me the package.
So of COURSE I checked. And of COURSE the tickets were still affordable. And of COURSE I'm going.
I've recently made a conscious effort and taken necessary steps to try to make poker my life. I want to make a living playing the game and I want to make a living writing about the game. Hell, I even have a part-time financial backer. This trip seems like the perfect storm of serendipity-ness. Serendipitiousness. Serendipiocity. You know what I mean.
Not only do I get world class poker training from Annie Duke, but Ali Nejad (@Ali_Nejad), Matt Glantz (@MattGlantz), and McLean Karr (@mcleankarr) are also part of the teaching roster.
I feel like that reads like a commercial, but I don't care. I'm fricken' excited.
In addition, numerous poker media types will be converging on the Palms that weekend for all of the Epic Poker festivities, and this is what I'm really looking forward to.
A while back I tweeted to a few writers and photogs and asked if they had any words of advice for someone wanting to break into the industry. The first response I got was from Jessica Welman (@jesswelman), Managing Editor of BLUFF Magazine and WPT reporter. In a phrase, her advice was "don't expect it to be easy, work hard, get lucky." Fair enough. A couple others tweeted their agreement with her, but added nothing themselves.
Then I got a response from Jennifer Newell (@writerjen), writer for Epic Poker, amongst other publications, and this one was much more in depth. She asked about what I'd done so far and what my specific interests are. She told me to keep blogging to build an audience and email poker websites and ask if they need part-time help. Bingo. She even did me a solid and followed me on Twitter and has re-tweeted a couple of my blog posts. Awesome.
So, needless to say, between all the poker lessons and poker playing and running around introducing myself (without seeming like a stalker) to poker media types, this weekend should be full of fun and excitement and has a lot of potential for changing my future.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Always Learning
It had been a while since I played any tournament poker, so the day before Thanksgiving I went up the hill with a buddy to jump into a daily donkament. I use that term affectionately, but with a $60 buy-in, 20 minute levels, 8,000 in starting chips, a $10 dealer add-on for 5,000 chips and basically a who's-who of local poker players who are just killing time, it amounts to nothing more than a non-deepstack semi-turbo. But, it's a nice daily tournament in a clean poker room with competent dealers in the box.
However, this story isn't about tournament structures or even me winning the damn thing. This is a story about learning more about myself, a goal I have for every session I play whether it's cash or tournament. The only way I'll get better as a player is to learn more every time I sit down at a table.
The bonus chips we received at the beginning of the tournament allowed me to play around a little more in the early stages than I usually do. And based on what I learned, I think I know why the pros like deep structures in tournaments.
At 25/50, an older gentleman in early position raised to 200. Two players called the raise and I joined them with K4hh, my thinking being that if the flop hit me hard it would be well-disguised, and if it didn't I could get out relatively cheaply.
The flop came 10JQ rainbow, but one heart. The old man led out for 400 and the first two callers folded. I called. I could run through the math to rationalize my decision, but I just wanted to see a turn card. And I didn't like the way the old man looked at me.
The turn was a Q and the old man checked to me. At this point, if I'd had my druthers, I probably should have bet, repping the Q. As it was, I was happy to see a free river.
The river came 9, making my straight. He bet, I raised, he said "You got there, did ya'?" and called. I was a little sheepish to turn my hand over, but I had the nuts, so whatever. He looked disgustedly at me, flipping over one of his cards, a jack, and mumbling something sarcastically about a nice call.
I learned two things on this hand: 1) The old man was willing to bet and call all the way down with 2nd pair, and 2) I had tilted him.
A few hands later I chased a flush draw against the old man and folded on the river when I didn't get there. This time he said very audibly to the player next to him, "See? He just chases everything." At that moment I made a conscious decision to play off of that table image, to run a long-bluff.
Not too long after, I ran a "fake chase" against the old man. I played the hand as if I was on a draw, and would have bet the crap out of it had it hit on the river, but it missed and I folded. However, not three hands later, I played a hand that was perfect for the set-up that had been happening.
The old man had been getting frustrated and, with blinds at 100/200, snap-raised from early position to 700. It folded around to me where I found JJ in my hand. I took this opportunity to play off the table image I had established, especially in his eyes, and I just called. Everyone else folded. The flop was all low. He checked the flop, I bet "on the come", he raised, I called. The turn was another number, he bet, I called. The river paired the board. He bet and I moved all-in. He snap called and flipped over his pocket 10s, thinking I had moved in on a busted draw. He actually cursed when I turned over my JJ for the winning hand. He couldn't believe that I had "woken up" with a real hand. I now had the table chip lead and felt like I had complete control over the table.
This was the first time I had stayed focus enough in a tournament to really be able to gauge how other people viewed me, and I was immediately rewarded because of it. It was nice to be able to add another weapon to my arsenal at the poker table and move on from simply "can my cards beat their cards." I'll look forward to playing in tournaments in the future that have a little "deeper" structure so I can continue to use my table image to my advantage.
However, this story isn't about tournament structures or even me winning the damn thing. This is a story about learning more about myself, a goal I have for every session I play whether it's cash or tournament. The only way I'll get better as a player is to learn more every time I sit down at a table.
The bonus chips we received at the beginning of the tournament allowed me to play around a little more in the early stages than I usually do. And based on what I learned, I think I know why the pros like deep structures in tournaments.
At 25/50, an older gentleman in early position raised to 200. Two players called the raise and I joined them with K4hh, my thinking being that if the flop hit me hard it would be well-disguised, and if it didn't I could get out relatively cheaply.
The flop came 10JQ rainbow, but one heart. The old man led out for 400 and the first two callers folded. I called. I could run through the math to rationalize my decision, but I just wanted to see a turn card. And I didn't like the way the old man looked at me.
The turn was a Q and the old man checked to me. At this point, if I'd had my druthers, I probably should have bet, repping the Q. As it was, I was happy to see a free river.
The river came 9, making my straight. He bet, I raised, he said "You got there, did ya'?" and called. I was a little sheepish to turn my hand over, but I had the nuts, so whatever. He looked disgustedly at me, flipping over one of his cards, a jack, and mumbling something sarcastically about a nice call.
I learned two things on this hand: 1) The old man was willing to bet and call all the way down with 2nd pair, and 2) I had tilted him.
A few hands later I chased a flush draw against the old man and folded on the river when I didn't get there. This time he said very audibly to the player next to him, "See? He just chases everything." At that moment I made a conscious decision to play off of that table image, to run a long-bluff.
Not too long after, I ran a "fake chase" against the old man. I played the hand as if I was on a draw, and would have bet the crap out of it had it hit on the river, but it missed and I folded. However, not three hands later, I played a hand that was perfect for the set-up that had been happening.
The old man had been getting frustrated and, with blinds at 100/200, snap-raised from early position to 700. It folded around to me where I found JJ in my hand. I took this opportunity to play off the table image I had established, especially in his eyes, and I just called. Everyone else folded. The flop was all low. He checked the flop, I bet "on the come", he raised, I called. The turn was another number, he bet, I called. The river paired the board. He bet and I moved all-in. He snap called and flipped over his pocket 10s, thinking I had moved in on a busted draw. He actually cursed when I turned over my JJ for the winning hand. He couldn't believe that I had "woken up" with a real hand. I now had the table chip lead and felt like I had complete control over the table.
This was the first time I had stayed focus enough in a tournament to really be able to gauge how other people viewed me, and I was immediately rewarded because of it. It was nice to be able to add another weapon to my arsenal at the poker table and move on from simply "can my cards beat their cards." I'll look forward to playing in tournaments in the future that have a little "deeper" structure so I can continue to use my table image to my advantage.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)