What are you thinking? Or better yet what you should be thinking as a hand plays out

There are many factors that you should be thinking about but let's narrow that down to just one topic right now.

Equity

If a player shoves their shortstack into your hand and you look down at AKo, then player flips over their QJo....then you have 65% Equity in the hand. I'm not going to go into calculations here but you don't have to worry about those either....spend some time with your friend PokerStove, work on ranging your opponents and make a more educated decision at the tables.

Fold Equity

Simply put the equity gained due to the chance your villains will fold. This goes hand in hand with 3 betting. (For an excellent video on this watch Chimp Greg's 3 bet video http://vimeo.com/3310149) If a player proves to be weak/tight proving not to bet or call unless he has a solid hand then you get more fold equity, however for a strong/aggressive player the opposite is true hence the 4 bet. Be aggressive in fold equity situations, practice what you learn, this does work, sure every situation is not going to play out to your favor, but if you get this principle down and use it you will have more top finishes.

Let's say your opponent at blinds 5,000/10,000 raises 24,500 2 off the cutoff, and he has 195,000 behind, a VPIP of 37(Voluntary money put in pot % using programs such as poker tracker, holdem manager) And a PF% of 26 (Preflop raise percentage) You have 32BB from the small blind and are sitting on AJs, hand doesn't really matter here as your basically trying to get villain to fold and not go to showdown. This is a good situation for your 3 bet but how do you give the perception of fold equity. Bet a little more on your 3 bet...sure your not going to fold a 4 bet shove with your stack given your opponents semi wide range but to give yourself the best chance of not seeing a flop be comfortable betting around 100k or a lil more...this will give the perception to the villain that there is no way this guy is folding after putting so much of his stack in. And for the most part he's right but if his stats were a lil different and we did this then we do still have the option of folding after a 3 bet, were just working for perception. After all if you fold you still have 20 or so BB what do you have to lose? Some chips...What do you stand to gain? A possible win!

One Love

What do you think? Poker College?

So your friend went to college for 8 years now he has a Phd in Archeology...What do you do with that? I'm not sure but I'd like to have a Phd in Poker. Something I could use, a degree with all the courses being relative to a poker career. You would never here I hate math when will I ever use that to be a journalist type conversation from your peers. You wouldn't have kids not going to college because they make too much money from poker, some could jump from high school straight to working as a professor of an accredited poker college.

I think with all the training sites out there a new twist would be for a group of some of the greatest poker minds getting together, coming up with a curriculum and setting up online/brick n mortar courses with real Associate, Bachelor, Master, and Doctorate degrees.

Not just a 2 week crash course a real 1/2/4/6 year school. with online/brick and morter classrooms, real tuition cost, and student loans etc.

I think it would be great for something like this to come to realization.

How great would it be to have courses such as:

Odds and Probabilities 101 (3) credit hours
Independent Chip Modeling 103 (3) credit hours
Psychology of Poker 211 (3) credit hours
Micro Ring Game Theory 75 (3) credit hours
Creative Writing The Poker Way 10 (3) credit hours
Live Play Analyses a course in Relevent Psychology 15 (3) credit hours

Would be a dream semester...there is so much knowledge out there and the Professors would make good money from the tuition but also after they bring their students to fruitation they can have the option to back your action and work as your mentor/life coach etc. and really bring you to the best possible player you could be.

I've already got the ideas running just someone make it happen...I want a sticker on my cars back window that reads...University of Poker, What could the mascot be? hmmm Anyway would be a great idea for the ballas to get together and make this happen.

One Love

When it comes to poker what car would you be?

Would you win races with your Lotus Elise, battle the best/tough terrains with your Jeep Grand Cherokee, be a rock like a Chevy Silverado?

Personally I think we should all strive to be Range Rovers, however late in tournaments it would help to be that Lotus.

There is a possible 1,326, 2 card combinations that every player starts with. You know what separates the great players from the sheep? The ability to deduce what opponents whole cards are by assigning their opponents a range of possible hands. How much effort have you given lately to working on this aspect of your game? Sure you might snap off a shove in the bb from the sb in a turbo with K2o but do you know why your doing it? Do you know the equity you gain or lose by doing so?

Pokerstove is your friend....use it.

Range reading should be on the forefront of our thoughts when it comes to poker. I'm currently working with ICM's (Independent Chip Modeling) to get a better grasp of what + equity situations really are, and the more I learn the more I realize just how little poker knowledge I really have. There is so much information and so many tools out there which are free yet players rarely use. Seek them out spend an hour or so a day using them. It might initially seem like information overload but eventually at least I hope...we will get it.

When in a hand what are you thinking about? You might be on autopilot, looking at the newest stories on yahoo, watching Anna Kournakova grunt on TV (which isn't bad to watch) but this really doesn't help your bottom line when it comes to poker. You should remain focused, use your HUD's get to know what all the percentages mean. Focus on what a bet, check, raise mean from your opponent and assign the villain with a range of hands, and don't be afraid to go broke acting on it. If you range your oppenent correctly you will win money over time. Will your reads always be perfect? Not a chance, but you will be thinking on a whole new level at the tables and you will in turn gain more confidence in your reads, and the majority of the time if you pay your dues to hand ranging you will be spot on.

You ever wonder how Annette_15 won a $4 180 tournament as a challenge without looking at her whole cards...that's right she played the whole tourney blind....it's because she has mastered the art of hand ranges, and bet/timing tells, not to mention positional advantage.

When it comes to poker be a Range Rover and you will eventually crush your villains.

One Love

Back in the days when I was young I'm not a kid anymore

But some days I sit and wish I was a kid again. Do you remember what life was like before poker consumed hours upon hours of your day? No feeling hungover regretting drinking as much as you did on a Friday Night. Actually excited to sit at home on a Saturday and watch Saturday Night Live. Going outside to play Basketball, Football, Baseball etc. with the neighbors was our priority. Sure occasionally we'd stay inside playing video games every once in a while trying to beat the next level of Final Fantasy or figuring out new moves to use as fatalities on Mortal Kombat, but for the most part the outdoors is where we wanted to be. What happened?

We lost balance, we get grown and we tend to forget how to really relax. I spent over 14 hours yesterday revolving in some form around poker, went to the gym and then my day was over. Where is the fun in that? Sure I'm driven to become a better player but at what cost?

Most of us have pipe dreams of big dollars and poker success but what are you willing to pay for that? I've heard countless people say I love this game and with conviction no less. In my opinion your career/hobbies don't define you as a person, atleast they didn't when we were kids, Why now? I'm in like with poker but I sure as hell don't love it.....I hate it at times but I keep at it, tirelessly trying to improve to be the next poker success story. Will this happen? Maybe for most it will not. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with putting in long hours at the felts but for your health and well being I believe you should plan scheduled days off. Hang with friends/family make your days off count, don't just sit around and watch 5 hours of US Open footage...really make it count.

Find balance in life and poker, be honest with yourself about your abilities, study the game like it's an advanced statistics college course but I urge you to find hobbies outside of poker....Learn a musical instrument, rent some movies, figure out how to cook a new recipe and invite friends over to enjoy, go to the beach/park and throw the frisbee around, join a softball or volleyball league, go to a comedy show etc.

Find balance and enjoy life a little more and I think it would be safe to assume your poker playing will get better. Poker is a game of skill so work hard at developing that skill but take time for yourself, you don't have to put aside all your childish ways (1 Corinthians reference) for even if your 70 or 80 it's still okay to act childish when letting loose, after all that's when we were carefree and had the most fun right?

One Love

Let's have a look at the secret to winning turbo sng's

Others at the felt have figured this out and I can't seem to wrap my mind around it but here is the secret...

You must learn the art of winning the constant 2 and 3 outer...

Sure you think your going to win a nice pot leading you down the road to the final table shoving your KK....But not yet....you were UTG and the button wakes up with a real hand...sigh just your luck. He has the one had that beats you...you watch him shove to isolate and watch in horror as he exposes the dreaded A4o. Are you kidding me, damn everytime I pick up a weak hand like KK someone wakes up with a monster. Wait your not dead on the flop just yet....here's the turn.....bingo you lost again.

Or...you shove a meager JJ and unfortunately you awoke the monster again...1 off the button you see the crushing 66.....well needless to say you know you lost at the river, it was destiny.

How did these players learn the winning secret? Can someone teach me please? I mean with 2 outs at the villain having a substantial 8% favor over your 92% dog and with 3 outs your a 13% dog to the villains 87% favorable outcome.

Where does one learn the art of constantly winning 2 and 3 outers....I'm not sure but if you learn how then you will soon be crushing this game like no other.

One Love

Put your poker books down for a bit and take note....

Before you turn the page of another poker book trying to gain some insightful knowledge on how to improve your game, stop, put the book down and pick up and read, not just read, but READ Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

Many of us have read the book The Art of War at some point but did you really read it?

This book applies to many facets of life...career, sports, and most certainly poker.

I urge you to read the book, highlight key quotes/points and study, then apply. You will not view poker the same as you do now. And in turn think about the key points of The Art of War as you study your game and think of practical terms on how to use your newly gained knowledge.

Here are some sample quotes to get you thinking about how this could apply to poker:

"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him."

"If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected."

"the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to w in or lose."

"He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign."

"The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him."

Good luck on your journey!

One Love

As an adult we tend to forget our start.....

Myself included. A vast majority of us were Boy Scouts at one time and yet we don't live the way were were taught. Do you remember the Boy Scout Oath/Promise....

On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.

I made it to First Class Rank before I hit High School then all of sudden it wasn't cool to be a Boy Scout anymore...Cool? Why? I wish I stuck with the progam and became an Eagle Scout. How many of you watch Bear Grills or Les Straud (Spelling?) and watch as a man to see how a man survives different situations?

Do you do your best? When it comes to poker how many times do you wake up sit at your computer and hope and dream that you have a big score...sure maybe it will happen but did you realistically prepare to become your best for that day? Last night I broke out some nostalgiac books...Harrington on Hold em End Game, and Skalansky Theory of Poker...There is so much advice to reference that we tend to forget in our busy day to day yet we tell ourselves...I'm due for a big score. My question is are you due? Make yourself due, give yourself the best chance to be due.

To do my duty to God and my country. Do you act faithfully at all times? Most peopel have good intentions but intent without purpose doesn't get you very far. I'm not claiming that we all become soldiers but do please support your troops. Make a random phone call or send an email to a buddy or family member that is fighting the good fight for us to enjoy the liberties we have come to take for granted.

To help other people at all times. Help someone reach their full potential, help your neighbor who is building a new deck, help others with unselfish intent, why? Because it will increase the value of your life and if you pay it forward you will someday, wakeup with a smile because you gave something of yourself without the intent of getting something in return. Before you know it if you are in a time of need others will be more willing to help the hand that helped them.

To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight. Do you take care of yourself? Do you do mental excercises such as reading etc.? Do you lead your life in a morally straight way? Innocence seems lost when we hit adulthood. There is nothing more vibrant or innocent than a child. Why do we do some of the things we do as adults? Lie or fib as some would call it, find ways to scam money (rolling degenerates), Eat fast food constantly? Our parents for the most part would never allow that. Most workouts now consist of 12 oz curls, when we were kids you'd have to fight me to keep me inside and sedentary. I have degrees in computer science, business, and communication yet I too have found myself starting over on the mentally awake task which is why I have decided to start a blog and to read more than I have been doing. I spent hours a day as most of you in school and once we become adults most tend to stick with what they know and quit learning. Why? Knowledge is the power that seperates successful individuals from individuals who have yet to reach their full potential for the most part.

One Love

For those that ball or claim to...What makes the difference? Please discuss.

Many of us have been playing poker online about the same time....following the Moneymaker win and the hoopla surrounding it, about 6 years, yet you ballers have found a way to take the game to a whole new level.

What makes the difference here between a winning player at the low and mid stakes to a crushing player at all stakes? What is it you have done to get to where you're at?

I'm sure that for some it was winning a big payout tourney but that doesn't make a player a true baller...consistency, endurance/stamina/staying power, adaptation etc downswings/upswings, doesn't matter, relentless desire to improve and succeed at the highest levels imo make a baller.

Change is apparent...I remember when I started you couldn't pay me to play turbos because I didn't understand why these would be +EV or yet what +EV even meant, now I'll play 25 at a time. I started playing just 1 or 2 tables yet now I'm playing on 4 lcd monitors and pushing for supernova status, early on I never thought of bankroll management or playing staked/staking others...Change just happens when you let it I guess.

Now there are so many tools that become 2nd nature and at one time seemed so hard to adapt to...ie Pokerstove, PokerTracker, TableNinja, HoldemManager, strategy forums, Using HUDs, video training sites etc.

Some step into high level cash games, big buy in tournies, live tournements etc. and simply crush the game and build a fat piggy bank. Sure lacking respect for money is a good trait when your not a degenerate gambler but someone who knows why they are playing the games they are playing, and why a pot is just a pot not a new car in the back of your mind.

So how much time and dedication does this really take, is it luck? Perhaps but luck is when preperation meets opportunity. For those grinders that think the day stops when they close their last table..you have it wrong, that's when the day really starts....

For example you want to be a doctor...great! So what do you do to get there and stay up your practice, medications, laws, etc. Sure you go to work everyday after years of study with no payout but now your done with that and you have your own practice and are making some good money to pay back those student loans, does this mean you made it? Well kind of but the real question is do you have staying power which takes relentless hours of study not for a degree but so you can be the best practicioner you can be, stay up on hippa compliance etc.

The ballers have this figured out imo, they study their game, discuss strategy with their peers, fixing leaks finding new edges to push for that slight edge that can bring them a win not just a final table finish. I mean you ever watch a baller towards the end of a tourney...usually the most active and often the most successful finishes...sure moving up in payouts for most of us is on our mind but then we are just sheep to those that push edges risking failure to make a bigger success of their time, and to be honest without the cards falling our way when we are up against a baller we really have no shot, the baller makes their own shots.

So what's the secret? What do you ballers do that the average winning player does not? How much time do ballers dedicate away from the tables working on their game? What have you found to be the best way to improve your game? Please discuss....I'm sick of being a sheepish player!

One Love

Stop...Before you play your hand....think why am I doing this?

Seems simple....but it's a real question we should all be asking ourselves...

So many factors go into every raise/bet/check/fold situation that we really should focus on the why of what we're doing. What's your position, what's your stack in relation to the blinds, how tag or lag are the players left to act, what are their stacks plus about 20 more quesitons you should be thinking about.

Is your goal to steal the blinds/play a big pot/use pot control to manage a hand/ or wait ugh oh I just got reraised from the SB all in and I'm in the cutoff...Ugh what could this mean? Does SB really have a hand? Am I above his range? Why am I in this pot to begin with...I snap call with my JJ, damn he has QQ, I was 60 BB deep why did I do this? Prolly because I wasn't thinking about the big picture. Sure JJ looks pretty and SB has been fairly active but should you really be risking a deep stack on this exact hand?

This situation comes up often and it's this kind of situation that should easily be avoided. Why have your hand on the trigger...take your time and THINK through the situation...It's early let it go...you can't win every pot and when your deep pot control is very important to protect your stack. There will be plenty of opportunites that warrant shove fold and much better spots to get your chips in...Don't be afraid to play post flop.

Basically if your shorter say 20BB or so it's an easy call why? Because you made the decision to play for your stack as soon as you put chips in the pot..there is no situation where you should be raise folding here. Your goal should be live or die.

This is just a small example of a situation where a lot of low level thinking players go broke...Was the SB even justified in shoving 60BB? No but you can't control what he did you can only control how you reacted.

Moral here is to think through hand situations and what your trying to accomplish...there are plenty of fishes that play without thinking...do your best not to swim in their school.

One Love

How do you approach your day when you plan on grinding hours on end?

It's Sunday and you have the go ahead from the girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, husband etc. to make a day out of playing poker. A full day with no distractions, just a day for you, your computer, and thousands of players at the virtual felts. You didn't go out with friends or family the night before and you got up early eager to play....feeling good.

So how do you approach the day of all days, your day?

Do you just register for whatever tournament that is here or there or do you have a structure? If you have a structure then your ahead of the game. Organization = Clarity and Clarity = Focus.

A typical structure that proves successful for me is to have a spreadsheet of what tournaments I'm going to play and to not deviate from that list. Once I have this completed I cook a good breakfast, stock the mini fridge with my meals for the day, make sure my desk is clean and that the T.V. even though it's getting to be football season is off (no worries most have Tivo these days)

Once this is complete I go to the gym to work on my fitness goals, build some lean muscle and do a crazy HIIT cardio session, sit in the sauna for 30 minutes focusing my mental energy on the day that is about to take place.

Shower head home, take a 30 minute power nap, get my headphones and ipod ready, make a cup of coffee and it's go time.

The only thing I'm focusing on is a day in my man cave, me myself and poker....

Having a structured routine will help you in your poker journey, don't slack in this department, feeling good makes playing good even more sweet, well that and a big Sunday score.

One Love

Bad Beats, Frustrations, Breaking mice, and Chillin out

I think I'm going to try and make atleast one thought provoking post a day if not for you the PTP the community then for myself as it keeps me thinking about poker even when it's hard to keep focused.

I just busted the 10R 1 place before the money...It was a rough poker session with no results. I could have waited another hand but I want to win not cash so I took a situation where I was fairly certain I was getting a fold and suprise a bad call and a bad beat took me out of the running.

This happens far more than success but it's how you handle defeat that will keep you going towards your goal of crushing tournaments.

How many of you have broke something, maybe a body part, maybe a laptop or mouse, or yelled at your significant other to vent when you know you are on life tilt and it's nobodies fault but lady luck on the last hand, or was it. Don't bring your negativity toward someone else....focus.

How many times have you seen a pitcher ridiculed because he lost a save? It could be his fault but the team put themself into that situation and then the pitcher takes all the heat for a team failure..is that fair? No.

Noone and I mean noone in poker cares about others bad beats...why would we? It happens, deal with it. Get better, play better, but guess what, it's still going to happen. Losing sessions will always be there as long as you play this game no matter how good you get.

Will better preperation get you there? Yes. Is losing a tournament a big deal an hour or so after it happens? Not really. Look over your hand histories in a reviewer and plug the leaks in your game so you are more prepared next time.

Taking out your frustration in a non constructive way is worthless....does it really make you feel better? For some maybe. But that still isn't going to win you that last hand.

Complaining, yelling, breaking things? How bout go for a run, forget then spend some time working on your game for the next session. If you still get mad over bad beats well....play more. Be happy you got your chips in good and that's all you can do on that last hand. If it works out....great, If it doesn't which will most likely happen 40%, 20% of the time then move on and let it go.