Friday, January 18, 2013

More Thoughts on Deconstruction

Am I going to BET this flop or check?

Well, where does my holding fall in the ranges of my possible action? For example, if AK is at the TOP of the checking range, but in the middle of my betting range, I am better off betting.... hmmmm... perhaps this is too awkward to be used as a axiom.

Sometimes I think we (I) forget the simplest mantra of poker for post flop play:

"Does he fold a hand better than me? Does he call with a hand worse than me?" In those cases, bet. I recall Phil Gordon used to expound a variant of this (which I done like at all), "Am I ahead? Bet. Am I behind? Check". I think he might have been oversimplifying for the medium he expressed this to/in, but its awful if taken at face value.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

ERMEGERD! POST!

So its been a while since I wrote something, anything, about poker. I still play twice a month, buts its rare that something interesting comes up that isnt a rehash of a previous post or simple remembering something.

But I recently saw two things that I deem interesting:

1. Tim Ferriss. I read his book 4 hour chef, which I enjoyed. What I enjoy most of all is his glorification of shortcuts. It's not just the complete lack of guilt over it, it relishing in finding a way to learn a skill without having to learn all the "noise" that comes with it. [note: Truly not a paid ad, the link is a courtesy.]

He has an interesting section on Deconstructing the success of others. My favorite, converted to poker context would be, "Which pro has a huge amount of success, who shouldn't?" Is the biggest possible name here Gus Hansen or is there a better fit? I've read his books, watched him play, and I am continually amazed by Gus' play style. If what Tim professes is correct, Gus is the type of player we should be studying for shortcuts.

2. JCarverPoker's CAKE series of videos which consistently reminds us of things we may already know, but in context of the moments they happen.

When can we call a three bet with 33? When the opponents range is NARROW, not wide. Great stuff. [again I feel the need to say this due to my lack of recent content: The link is a courtesy.]

In other news: "PokerStars Confirms Agreement to Purchase New Jersey Casino". I talked about this even prior to Black Friday (when Harrah's decided to go private). THIS is the future of online poker... STATE regulated gaming for INTRAstate online gaming. i.e. you can host an online poker room to service states where you have a brick and mortar casino. That is the regulatory "neck to choke" that he government 'needs'. It only takes one deal to open the flood gates.