The reason I love writing about poker is it’s very much writing about life. If you don’t have your life in order, you will not play winning poker. Unless your training is simply impeccable, you will fly off the handle at some point. It takes years and years of deliberate study to get your game …
You raise from the button in a tournament with J-10o. The big blind calls after a couple of seconds. You are both 60 big blinds deep. The board comes 8h-4h-3s. He checks to you. You bet half-pot, about three big blinds. He calls. The turn is the 9 of clubs. He checks to you. What …
I’m playing in the WPT Borgata Open. A player I’ve always considered tight opens from UTG+1 to 2.5X the big blind. In the time he and I have played, I have never once seen him bluff. I have instead seen him pot control constantly. It seems like the worst thing that could ever happen to …
The most dangerous bluff in No-Limit Hold’em is the 3-bet bluff out of position. You could have a great career without hardly ever doing one. However, if you have a guy who is perpetually opening on your blinds and you’re in a tournament, there can be some great opportunities to 3-bet bluff. This is what …
If I say, “Mary had a little ______.” You are going to think, “lamb.” There’s no amount of meditation or positive thinking which could get you to not think of the word “lamb” there. This is what happens when people tell themselves, “just don’t tilt.” It’s like trying to not think of the word “lamb” …
I simply do not believe that every single preflop raise should be 2X. Or 2.5X. Or 3X. Take your pick. I talk to many pros these days who insist on one single raise size. Do you have one single continuation bet size? One single turn bet size? Do you always bet the same amount on …
“I believe a man is a professional when he can do what needs to be done no matter how he feels within. An amateur is an amateur in his attitude emotionally. A professional is a professional in the way he thinks and feels and in his ability to execute under the most trying conditions.” “[Think …
“Alex, how do you play poker?” My friend asked me this with a smile while we were on a business call. On my podcast, we have an old joke. Whenever someone asks a question that is extremely broad, we call it a “how do you play poker?” question. It’s a fun way of saying, “how …
The biggest problem with most poker players is they don’t actually want to win. They think they want to win, but what they truly want is to play perfectly. They never want to fold and be shown a bluff. They never want to bluff and be caught. They want to feel good about themselves, and …
Okay, I’ll admit it: I don’t know if poker is a sport. If you can do it with a beer in your hand, I don’t know if it qualifies as a sport. That said, I always think of tournament poker as an endurance sport. Jump to: Pretend the Tournament is Lost Lift Weights Drink a …
One of my greatest frustrations with poker training is how overly complex it is. I’m guilty of this as well. If you watch my early training videos, I was needlessly detailed. Like a kid talking about his favorite toy, I would go through each number on my HUD that I could use on any particular …
Let’s put you in a situation: You are on the button with A-Qo. It’s folded around to you in a $100 buy-in tournament in your local casino. You raise. Dustin Richards is in the big blind. He’s a nice guy. He works in waste management. He likes cards and sports, but this isn’t his obsession. …
“The one thing I hate about training videos is they always assume I’m playing some high stakes game,” my student says to me. “In every training video I see it’s folded around to the pro, he raises, and only the big blind calls. It’s just this perfect world. Yet, when I go play $1.00/$2.00 live …
“My biggest problem lately is how bad I’ve been running.” “You’re not running bad. You’re playing bad,” I say, as I peel through their statistics. As you can imagine, this conversation doesn’t always go swimmingly. Yet, it happens quite often when I’m coaching. People will come to me hoping they can get some new plays …
