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Where's your POKER head at?

2010-03-10T15:45:48+00:00

Obviously you can not win every day but it certainly seems like you should. After all you put in a ton of work and you study your game but ultimately you are still only going to win a small percentage over 50% no matter what. So how do you keep your head straight?

Four things to keep your emotions in check

Keeping control over your emotions is obviously a very important part of what we do as poker players. One thing I will typically do is re-evaluate as I am playing (admittedly hard to do since you are not particularly objective). Obviously Bluffware makes this easy by simply looking at the hands you are playing as they are coming into the software in real time, soon there will be graphs that will make this even easier. Here are 4 things you can do to keep your emotions in check.

1. Take a short break. In the heat of the battle it feels as if you are trapped in front of your computer and it is difficult to leave. Here is my advice, if your instincts are telling you to walk away do not wait for your blinds, just leave.

2. Are the game conditions REALLY that optimal. Let's be honest, if a guy snaps your Aces off with a set of deuces it blows but does that really mean that he/she is the spot you are looking for? I would contend that most games on a scale of one to ten, ten being the most fishy, we will often stay in games that are about a three or five when those games can be found around the clock. So be aware to the fact that the spot that you are in might not be optimal and since that spot is available all the time just go do something else.

3. I have specific times I will not typically play. I do not play once my kids are at home because they can cause ITS (instant tilt syndrome). I also do not play before I go to bed, those nasty two outer nightmares just suck. I also tend to play sessions less than two hours long because I am prone to headaches with anything longer. All of these change given optimal conditions but optimal conditions are not typically found when you are stuck 4 buy-ins.

4. Play when you feel confident. While nothing can kill a good day like a few bad beats it is also easier to shrug off losses when you are mentally feeling well. After 100,000's of hands your poker game should become instinctive, most of the situations you will face you will draw on experience. So to have clarity of thought is really important and I think if you were to journal how you felt before you sit down you would find that you do best when you are in a better mood. That is not an accident. While most people would agree with what I am saying few do this (including myself, so I am going to re-start this as part of my blog).

Do you need a psychologist?

I have played poker for a living and trust me when I say this to you most of those people are miserable from day to day. To be truly good at poker requires a level of introspection that will make you distant from your real life. For most of us poker might not even make the top 5 of the things most important to us, so why would you ever play in sub-optimal conditions? Do not say because it is fun because if losing is fun to you then you might need a psychology forum.

Life is too short to spend doing things that make you miserable

Said simply if at the moment you sit down you are not frothing at the mouth ready to play your best game and find the best games to make the most money then you are doing it wrong. While pot odds and situational play are very important part of your journey those parts because instinctive over time. The journey that you will be on for the rest of your poker life is the one with your head and emotions. It also happens to be the part of poker that will most help you with the rest of your life as well.

Annie Duke wins the 2010 NBC Heads Up Championship

2010-03-08T14:51:58+00:00

There are a couple of things that I think need to be said first given that the title pretty much gives away the purpose of this article. Annie Duke is a great poker player if you define great as being much better than the average poker player. Many people have issues with her being regarded as poker royalty when in fact she does not play as often as many other female players but if you think Annie Duke is a bad poker player you are dead wrong. I think people confuse a few issues when talking about Annie, they mix their personal feelings or what they believe her reputation to be into a distorted reality. As much as people hate to admit it Annie Duke is the best female poker player at the moment and this win cements that. Make no mistake about this, Annie Duke winning this event is phenomenal for poker, it just also happens to be great for Annie Duke (which a lot of people are uncomfortable with).

Tournament Poker requires you to get lucky occasionally

I am not an Annie Duke apologist but people complaining about one or two beats she put on people along the way either do not understand the nature of tournament poker or just want to hate for no reason. To beat the people that she beat along the way was an amazing feat. In fact, it was not that long ago that Erik Seidel was regarded as one of the best No Limit Holdem tournament players in the world. What a lot of people do not know is that Erik was Annie's financial backer through a good portion of her poker career and I am sure it will be a big part of the broadcast how good of friends they are. Actually to say they are good friends really does not explain it properly, when other people questioned Annie's talents Erik never did and always believed in what she could become. I am certain that was not lost on Annie as she claimed the trophy.

Casual fans vs Hardcore fans

To the casual poker player one of the world's best known poker players just won one of it's premier events. To the die hards Annie won a second title that was invite only. The heads up tournament yearly comes under scrutiny for the invite process that rewards players on cache rather than accomplishment. Critics will say that both of the people at the final table probably would not have made it given their recent results. Ultimately though you can like or dislike Annie, that is your choice, she is tireless in promoting herself as a brand. That is a good thing for poker. She is also very tapped into Hollywood and that should get her even more coverage on the late night shows and the various reality television programs that she pops up on. Which is also good for poker.

Annie Duke is in fact the Best Female Poker Player

When it is all said and done more than half of the population of the world is under represented at the poker tables. So someone needs to carry the crown of "Best Female Poker Player", if you think someone else can carry that better than Annie Duke you just have not been paying attention.

Poker Payment Prosessing issues have players on Tilt

2010-03-01T17:22:31+00:00

According to this article on naplesnews.com a man has been arrested but at this point has not been charged with a crime. I think we can all see the writing on the walls on this one, the man apparently was pretending to be a real estate buyer when it looks like he was a payment processor for one or more online poker sites. Which puts him very much in the cross hairs of FBI agents for at least bank fraud. Personally this does not look like a UIGEA related crime because if he was indeed processing "poker only" transactions that would not reach the bar for the Department of Justice to prosecute. When the DOJ has been asked in the past they very succinctly have said that the bar for prosecuting online gambling crimes is crossed when you "take bets". Online poker companies do not take bets, they charge a fee to host their games. That is part of the reason everyone is so mad. The approach of the US government up to this point seems to be focused on stopping the flow of money coming into the United States when in fact there is no specific law prohibiting that. Not even the UIGEA goes that far (or at least that is the interpretation most people believe). Simply put online poker companies are in a gray area that has caused them to resort to desperate measures to get players paid.

Things are likely to get worse before they get better

In December the UIGEA rules were delayed in an effort to get meaningful regulations passed to define what is and what is not "unlawful gaming". While poker legislation is caught in a quagmire related to Health Care Reform poker players are being bounced around as "friendly fire" in a war on online gambling that is mostly undefined at this point. As a general rule when a law like this is about to be enacted there are some "warning shots" that are sent before the actual legislation is passed to put some teeth in the law. I fully suspect that will be the case as we approach June and likely could get worse as the regulations become defined.

Players need to expect to be inconvenienced

The simple rule of any business is that if you give the customer an expectation and you do not live up to it there will be hell to pay. I think that is what is happening in this case. It should be an expectation from online poker players that they will likely be inconvenienced at some point as it relates to receiving their money. I fully expect that over the next few months and years that the poker rooms to address these issues best will be the clear leaders as we move forward. For players though it's not realistic to think there will not be problems occasionally and I think if poker rooms were honest about that they might be surprised at the response they would get.

Intrastate online poker initiatives

Interestingly enough the Poker Players Alliance is opposing most intrastate legislation at this point because it does not foster competition. It's no real secret that many of the big online poker companies at this point support a more holistic solution from the federal government which would likely include sites like PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker or UltimateBet. Less competition from online poker sites is not a good thing and could likely result in higher fees and smaller game offerings. In addition to that any intrastate initiatives will almost certainly make playing online poker illegal unless it is done within the very constrained offerings from the states themselves. With states hurting for money and looking for some way to cover their budget deficits look for legislation like this to get some serious attention somewhere and it will be interesting to follow the effect on the online poker ecosystem.

This could not come at a worse time

With the economy down and by most accounts (including mine) the games are getting tougher online this type of information is the last thing we need. Casual players want to be able to deposit and cash out easily. So ultimately the game that we all enjoy might just be compromised by the casual player being inconvenienced. The regular players though need to realize that is just part of the reality they will have to accept. For a lot people though the line between casual play and regular play is often blurry and might get worse with fewer new players showing up at the tables.

Life is a game, Poker is a guide to that game

2010-02-06T20:29:06+00:00

When you think of all the things that have stopped you from reaching your full potential as a person those are likely the same things that have stopped you from becoming successful as a poker player. Both games are very simple; they require logic and control of your emotions. Most people playing the game are often better than you are; the thing that separates the bad from the great is a plan.

The reason you do not stick to a plan

Simply put you are afraid. When I began playing poker full time I left a job where I was very successful. My boss did not seem surprised at all, after all, I walked in his door not two years before that and blew the doors off, I did things others were scared to do. I failed often but when I succeeded the payoff was typically worth it. As you read this there will be a few types of people that will internalize this differently. Some will find the idea of facing their fears inspiring and will likely take steps towards finding their own plan. Whether they succeed or not will be wholly dependent on a tenaciousness to take on daily challenges, either at the poker table or in a boardroom. While there are degrees to the other group of people most fall in the category of reading something like what I am talking about and thinking something like “I can’t achieve that”. Their excuses often fall in the range of resources, education or access. The truth is different though.

Freedom to Fail

They are simply scared to fail. At it’s heart people succeed or fail based on the plans that they create and an intensity to follow and adjust those plans as different opportunities present themselves. The life of a poker player is very attractive not because it’s easy, it is actually quite hard and it is getting harder every day. While many people blame training sites, books or software on why they are failing the real reason is that they have not adjusted their plan to the circumstances and others have.

In March of 2005 I was at an interesting crossroad. I spent most of 2003 and 2004 pursuing my dream of playing poker for profit. Note that I did not say that I was pursuing the dream of winning the world series of poker or playing nosebleed games. To a certain extent I was intimidated to dream that big but when the opportunity presented itself I took that shot. I am a Forty One year old man with a wife and two kids, trust me I was scared of failure. It was that fear that kept me on a path of discovery that would not allow myself to fail.

At the same time I was involved in the poker industry as a consultant and then later on as an affiliate. While most people dreamt of great riches and fame that just was not part of my plan. Being good at poker provided me with access with influential people and I used that access to develop some of the businesses I own now, bluff.com being the best and biggest of all of the ideas I have had up to this point. When I decided to focus more on my business projects than poker it took a lot of people by surprise. I did so for a few reasons:

1. There seemed to be a gaping hole in customer relationships on the internet. This was not exclusive to poker but that was the industry I was in.

2. The focus on content was blinding people to what is really important to poker players. Namely tools that make their experience playing more enjoyable.

3. To be the best I would need to seek out weak opponents. That was getting harder to do in poker (and I knew that trend would continue, at the time I was playing $50-$100 no limit) and many of the people in the poker industry are risk averse, so it seemed like a good spot.

4. Lastly, it was respectful to my family and children. I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by people that support me with few conditions. I wanted to reward them by honoring our relationships. Beating Phil Ivey in Bobby’s Room is not near as important as developing my relationship with my wife and children.

How I got here

When I was 19 I sold fresh shrimp that I had flown up over night from Louisiana in the local farmers market. I had just gotten out of a business that cost me about a year of my life. That failure was intense and personal, many days I went without eating, virtually every day I was all in. So from that experience I learned that being all in was foolish. I learned bankroll management when I was 19 and at that point I had not played one hand of poker in my life. The shrimp business quickly failed but that time I had a job, which allowed me to have more than one meal a day. I also met my wife about that same time. The next ten years were a series of failures and successes that where punctuated by many people who care for me greatly telling me to stop doing whatever I was doing and settle down. Their advise came from a good spot but I just did not care about their opinions.

See what you want and ask for help

The biggest key to advice is who is your advisor. If you want advice on how to become an open heart surgeon asking a lawyer will not help you. Seems simple right? Well it’s not. Most of the people that will give you the best advice in life will not give it freely or randomly; you will need to seek it out. You will often need to pay for it or put in a lot of time and research to fill whatever niche you are trying to fill.

It was not easy to go from selling shrimp on a street corner to being part of a team that is developing some of the most interesting tools within poker. The journey was fraught with wild failure and wild successes. Both have come from a place that is not very sexy at all, hard work and discovery. All of the things I have encountered made me the person I am today. Poker is just a small part of that but if you think of what it takes to become a good player many of those traits are found in my journey. One last thing, if you are not good now you should see yourself as better than you are in whatever you do and do not be scared to pretend you are already there when you are on the journey. It’s called faking it until you make it and anyone that has succeeded in anything is great at it. See yourself as the person you will ultimately become and the pieces come together a whole lot easier.

Playing Ace King in Cash Games

2010-01-22T19:52:05+00:00

To my mind Ace King is possibly the easiest hand to play in all of poker, assuming you are focused on making the correct decision. Now remember that I am talking about cash games, Ace King is a different beast in tournaments because if you stack off in a tournament you are done. Let's run through a few scenarios, I am going to focus on 6 handed play because poker is about isolating and picking up pots that were not supposed to be yours, it is hard to do that in a 9 handed game.

Scenario One:

You are in late position with a raise in front of you, no matter the opponent you should raise here. Re-raising (or 3 betting) does a few things for you it allows you to take control over the hand, a large percentage of the time your opponent will not 4 bet you, so every time they fold you have won a pot without making your hand and every time they call you are rarely worse than 45% to win the hand. Over time that percentage play equals big dollars.

Scenario Two:

You are out of position, say under the gun or in the blinds and someone in late position has raised. If you profile that player simply they should be opening with a pretty big range of hands that they would be willing to lay down against your aggression. Personally I like overbetting the pot slightly to sway the odds in my favor a bit. Even with that you should still hit the hand a good amount of the time and for anyone that calls behind with a hand like 88 or 99 you will make their lives miserable and statistically their edge would be nullified by the fact that they likely will not 4 bet you with hands like that, so even a board like Q 10 4 is almost impossible to call with. Statistically you are right to push against any 4 bets but I would say you want to be wary of your stack size compared to your opponents. Open shoving with both you and your opponent very deep is akin to playing BlackJack and that is not what we are trying to do.

To Continuation Bet or not to Cbet

In scenario one you are going to want to cbet almost all of the time, while you will run into a few check raises and such overall the play should be profitable enough to make it every time. In scenario two I would suggest taking board texture into account but I would still cbet 90% of the time at least.

Protect your hand

Poker Pros have a saying "don't go broke with just a pair". Most people playing Ace King play it way too passively hoping to not get stacked. Which is exactly why they get stacked. When you are three betting and making continuation bets the pot is getting big enough to fight for, I am not saying to call with Ace high but if you hit a pair you have to have a stone cold read to fold that hand because you could have your opponent dominated completely.

If you did not hit and you get called just fold

Lastly fold if you have cbet and you get a caller but you have not hit an Ace or King. You will almost always need to play to get lucky and simply put you do not have the odds to make that call typically. I will say that if you are in position you should continue betting a good majority of the time, this makes it very difficult for weaks holdings to call you out of position.

I'll try to add to this article as question arise so feel free to use the comments section to ask anything. I wrote this article for beginning players, as always in poker "it depends" applies, so keep that in mind as you move higher up the poker ladder.

Can you turn a profit playing poker at the micro-limits?

2010-01-13T16:58:10+00:00

This might surprise a lot of people but I do not think that you can or at the very least it is extremely difficult. I think there are many factors why this is the case.

The rake is big factor at the Micro Limits

For one, the rake is a factor in these games and micro-limit players pay the highest rakes on percentage of anyone on any poker site (I am sure there is an example somewhere this might not be the case but that would be rare). Said simply poker sites believe that micro limit players are the producers and the depositors, so they take as much as they can while the have you. Also they need to do this because most micro limit players also get substantial bonuses and they need to offset some of those costs.

First time players costs themselves value by not shopping around

Secondly, a good many micro limit poker players also take free money deals with no rakeback, we have sort of a hybrid model to that but if you are a site that gives free money it's particularly difficult to give both because almost everyone loses (trust me if anyone ever says to me "thanks for the free money deal but I would rather play with my own money if you can put me on rakeback now, that would be done in a second). Let's take Doyle's Room as an example the difference between someone getting 33% can keep them afloat. Rakeback also works well for depositors, if you have an account with $13 in it and you have a choice of where to deposit the answer should always be to deposit on the site you got the rakeback. We all know that people do not do that though for various reasons, software, blind levels, gold stakes, raise or fame programs. I was just talking to someone that wanted a transfer and I told him that he would have to wait as I do not transfer out of accounts that I am winning on, we are all superstitious but to be superstitious at the cost of benefits is silly in my opinion.

Morton's Theorem

Lastly and maybe most importantly micro limit players are awful, they are so bad you can not even remotely figure out what they are doing or calling with. Something that is particularly applicable to this idea is Morton's Theorem, back when Andy Morton was alive (he died in a motorcycle accident as I recall) limit poker was the game. The games he played in were very loose with a lot of players. The idea is basically when there are more players in a pot fewer people are making the wrong decision. Applied to No Limit games I think Morton's Theorem is given steroids, most micro limit players are not playing bad hands aggressively they are playing them passively hoping to hit whatever trash they have. Which is very difficult to read if you are playing mostly ABC poker. While Short Stack Strategy counters this a bit in SSS you are going to get the true odds in every hand you play because you have very little bluff equity.

Pretty depressing, huh?

Just surviving at the micro limits is a great accomplishment

In my opinion every poker player is in a race for survival, simply being able to play poker on a consistent basis without having to deposit like a funnel puts you way ahead of the game. If you would keep track over millions of hands you would see that there really are almost no winning players at micro limits. Part of that is obvious too, the winners move up. Which is why I am writing this, while it is important to move down when you are running bad it is probably more important to make sure you move up. You are in a race where almost no one wins but it is indeed possible to win. So that is the good news.

So what should you conclude from what I am saying? You should be trying to play with fewer opponents because that is where some of your edge lies. You also need to be playing at sites that give you good value, all three of our free money sites are great sites in this regard, once you graduate from free money to rakeback you will see that the value at both of these sites will help your profitability. To a certain extent our site kills the fun of poker because it makes you focus on the parts of poker that are yucky, like what you are doing wrong. When you were a losing poker player there was no pressure, I have people say this all the time after they go on tilt and go broke "I am hopeless, thanks for the opportunity but I am just not good enough". What they are really saying is "I like the idea of being a winner but frankly it's too much pressure". You know what, that is legit folks and I know it more than anyone though even if you are a depositing hobbyist you should still be looking for value (more value than a just a deposit bonus, most rakeback plans give you both, all of ours do at least). If you are not having fun playing poker you should not be doing it but I can tell you personally that winning is a lot of fun. While it is a difficult path it is worth it, you will just have to trust me on that.

The Poker Rules, Rule 1 Do not chase away the Fish

2010-01-08T22:58:09+00:00

When I first started playing I was in my early Twenties, I read most of the books by David Sklansky and that alone gave me a pretty big edge in the game. My play was kind of "nitty" but I was a slight winner from day one. It was very odd back then though poker was not popular with young people at all, typically I was 10 years younger than anyone in the games. The games were friendly but none of us were friends. I literally do not talk to one person that I used to play poker with and in fact the home game that I used to play in I was "disinvited" from once I started winning big. Early on my biggest problem was that I would lose my temper I remember one night very well. The scenario was basically this, there were about 8 of us, 2 were decent, 2 were o'kay (this was the group I was in) and 4 losers. At one point I was down a good bit and the biggest loser hit a miracle card on me and I flat lost it. Not like people lose it now, mostly cursed just loud enough for people to hear it and then I committed the cardinal sin I carried on about the miracle out letting the fish know that he made a very bad play statistically. I knew I had done something real bad immediately, everything got quiet and the game broke up soon after that. One of the two winners was asked to have coffee with me, so I met him the next day. I knew what he was going to say but it surprised me a bit how far it went. He basically said "look, you are OK, you aren't great, you have emotional problems that I am better off not helping you with", "basically what I am here to tell you is that the guys don't want you in the game for a few weeks and if you do that again you are gone for good". Wow, I mean wow, it was such a bad play clearly a guy should be able to get a bit worked up a bit, right? He continued to let me know that it was not the blow up it was WHO I blew up on that set people off. This guy was down big, like one celled organism big. To have a guy like that in your games just does not happen often. He also seemed to have an endless amount of money, there were a few just like him too, though not quite AS bad.

The maturation of a poker winner

I think about that moment a lot because if I had not listened I almost certainly would not be writing this now. Something really changed inside me too, I had good days and bad days but at that point the money was just not that big. Eventually I became one of the top players in most of the local games. As that evolution happened I began to see myself as more of a host for the games rather than some silly version of a shark that everyone seems to aspire towards. Thing about sharks is there is only one at the top of the heap and that son of a bitch best not break a fin or his ass is toast. It really is better just being part of a fun environment where people feel like gambling. That's how hustlers make their money in poker.

Which of course brings me to online poker. Their are seemingly no etiquette rules at all in online poker. More disturbingly though is how the good players feel it is their right to berate losing players when they make a bad play.

So here are the rules:

If you are a big winner you are the host at every game you play in, you likely know who the winners and losers are. It is your responsibility to not only make players feel welcome but to also make sure that no one gets out of line. It is very common for me to speak up when someone starts railing on a fish for some bad play, typically the person berating them is not nearly as good as they think they are and so I try to calm them down. That does not always work and in fact some of them will say something to the effect of "what business is it of yours what I say to someone, you weren't even in the hand". Which leaves the door wide open for me to say to them "look, that guy probably has a wife 3 kids and 2 mortgages, just like me, he sat in this game to get a break from life's reality", "there are enough douchebags in real life he does not one here". Often times the guy I am defending will say something like "thanks Beanie, I only have one mortgage and no kids but yeah, that guys a douche". In live games I am always the one buying drinks and straddling, not because I want to get people drunk, they were going to get drunk anyway it is the atmosphere that it creates that is important.

If you are a slight winning player just shut the fuck up and wait to hit your sets or whatever it is that nits do to past time. Do not tap the glass while people are actually trying to gamble.

If you are big loser you can literally say or do just about anything you want, just keep depositing.

It's easy to look at Phil Hellmuth and see that as an excuse for your bad behavior just remember that Phil is the meat in virtually every cash game he sits down in.

Poker Bankroll Guidelines

2009-12-07T21:48:29+00:00

The biggest issue that I hear about from everyone on this site is bankroll management or holding onto a bankroll. So I wanted to write up some of my thoughts in that regard and tie it into some various strategies that I propose to people.

Starting off with Short Stack Strategy

Firstly let me say that you should do what you feel comfortable with and play the games and style that will help you win the most. Unfortunately for many of you that path is not clear at this point. So when you start off with your first bullet of $10 I would recommend the minimum buy-in at .01-.02 (which is .40). The reason is simple, with this short of a bankroll I think it is important to get some hands in and see a lot of situations. I doubt there will be a great deal of learning but the more poker hands you see the better. I also think you would be smart to start off at 6 max tables, I suggest this because people do not adjust well at these limits. Just sit back and wait for the hands and go all in. You should also play two tables if you can, that will help you with your patience. Once you double up leave the table.

Here is a guide as good as any I have seen related to short stack strategy (remember the simple rule with SSS is that you should have the best hand when the cards are turned over, if you find that you do not you should re-evaluate).

If you want to play sit and go's use this guide with the same idea.

There are a few schools of thoughts when it comes to buy-ins, amounts of buy-ins is a reason so many players are playing Short Stack Strategy at the moment. Basically they do not have a lot of money and are not in a position to maximize their earning rate.

The 20 buy-in approach

The turn and burn approach is 20 buy-ins, this approach is when you assume you are much better than the levels you are playing and you want to move up quickly. Using short stack strategy that would mean you would need to have $8 to play .01-.02.

Here is a simple guide:

At .02-.04 you will need $16 to consider playing this level. Your next step up is .05-.10 at $40. Which means that .10-.25 needs you to have $100 bankroll. This also means that if you dip below the 20 times mark it is time to move down. I would imagine many people here have dipped their toes in that water with nowhere near that amount only to find themselves on tilt and broke soon after.

For moving through the levels this is the approach I would recommend especially once you have a bankroll of $100 or more because you can move down so easily.

Playing with a Full Stack

There are typically two types of tables online, for our purposes we are going to be concerned with normal stack tables or tables with 100 times the buy-in. Once again using .01-.02 as your guide you will need $2 at each table. So if you take it one step farther you will need $40 to have a sufficient bankroll for .01-.02 if you are going to play full stacked poker. Playing full stacked is something you should be doing when you feel like you are one of the best players at the table. You should be comfortable playing aggressively and taking control of pots. Playing full stacked is unlike SSS in the fact that you do not necessarily need the best hand pre-flop.

Cheat sheet:

.02-.04 means you should have a bankroll of $80 to sit and play the game. $200 for .05-.10 and so on. Likewise to play .25-.50 you need $1000.

These are not suggestions, these are rules to live by if you want to maintain a bankroll. The 20 buy-in approach is very aggressive and really is meant to be used as you are moving up the ladder. There are schools of thought that would suggest 30 buy-ins and while that is the amount most quoted I would suggest that is not far different from the 20 buy-in approach.

The 50 buy-in approach

This approach means that is where you are planning to stay for the rest of your life. While you certainly could blow through that amount you probably would not, you would just step down for a bit (that is why I think poker bankroll requirements are mostly irrelevant). If you settle in at a level with 50 buy-in's that means that you have won most of your money at that level. Once you are over that benchmark you have the option of trying to move up but more likely the best approach is to cash out and take some of that money off of the table.

Interview with Adam Junglen

2009-11-30T20:46:33+00:00

On Sunday, November 15 2009, Full Tilt Poker ran their FTOPS Main Event which generated a $2.7mm prize pool. Adam Junglen managed to cut through a field of 5,471 players to finally agree to a 3-way final table chop earning him $290,419.

Adam has been making serious moves within the poker scene since July of 2007 when he took down the PokerStars Sunday Million. He has had several TV appearances at live events since then, and this recent score bumps his total poker earnings to over a million dollars. Adam has a Full Tilt sponsorship and is a trainer alongside Daniel Negreanu at Poker VT.

He has accomplished all of this at the age of 22.

We wanted to find out what makes this poker prodigy tick and we were fortunate that Adam was gracious enough to grant us this interview.

BLUFF.COM: Tell us about the FTOPS tournament. It attracted quite a field and it was a long tournament. How did you stay focused throughout the tournament?

ADAM JUNGLEN: I was out of all the other Sunday tourneys by 11pm EST and one-tabling the FTOPS main for about 10 hours. When we got down to the final 100 players, I had every table open and was extremely focused. It was the biggest FTOPS main event to date and 1st was almost half a mill. I knew I had a good chance at a big score and that's more than enough to keep me focused for such a long time.

BLUFF.COM: What was your general strategy throughout the event? Do you get involved in many pots early to try and take advantage of the weaker players, or did you find yourself waiting for big hands?

ADAM JUNGLEN: I was just constantly adjusting to the variables throughout the tournament. I thought I played really solid.

BLUFF.COM: Do you feel you were lucky, unlucky, or fairly average with regards to the hands you were dealt and the way the cards fell during the tournament?

ADAM JUNGLEN: It'd be tough for me to tell I was unlucky after taking 3rd/chopping. When a good player is playing well, mixing it up and getting dealt good cards it's pretty tough to beat.

BLUFF.COM: Heading into the final table, did you know any of the other players remaining? Did that effect your play?

ADAM JUNGLEN: Nope, didn't know any of the remaining players.

BLUFF.COM: What was your strategy during the final table inflection point? I imagine that the prize money would have a much more significant psychological impact on your competitors -- did you capitalize on that idea and apply a good deal of pressure?

ADAM JUNGLEN: I took advantage of the final table bubble and the "six figure bubble" which was when there were 6 players left.

BLUFF.COM: Tell us a bit about how the final table played out. Any big hands that are memorable?

ADAM JUNGLEN: It was actually quite strange how the cards fell at the final table. I was open raising my fair share of pots and won mostly without showdown. I don't recall knocking anybody out, just going in 2nd/3rd in chips and maintaining until we got 3 handed.

BLUFF.COM: When you got down to the final three you all managed to agree to a deal. What were the factors weighing on your mind during this time?

ADAM JUNGLEN: I had a little less than a quarter of the chips in play, another player had a little more than a quarter, and the 3rd player had more than half the chips in play. With the original payouts being $232k, 325k and 467k, our chip count % was $290k, 316k, 390k, leaving $25k on the table to play for. I thought it was pretty fair. Even though I have a lot of confidence in my game, it's shorthanded 30bb poker. Anything can happen. Getting $60k more than 3rd and 35k short of 2nd seemed reasonable.

BLUFF.COM: When and how did you start playing poker? Was there somebody who introduced you to the game?

ADAM JUNGLEN: I started playing poker when I was 16. I was over at my friend's installing a computer drive and they were playing poker. My friend paid me $15 for the favor, and then I played in their $5 tournament and won. The next day I went out and bought a bunch of books on poker.

BLUFF.COM: How has poker changed since you started playing?

ADAM JUNGLEN: The game is always evolving, the average player is much better and the stakes available are ridiculous. I remember when $2/4NL with a $200 max buyin on party poker was the biggest game. Now they're playing $500/$1k 200bbs deep!

BLUFF.COM: After general tactics and strategy, it seems to me that most of my energy has gone into improving in the areas of bankroll management and mental/emotional control. Does that statement fit for you as well? What areas of your poker game do you find yourself working on?

ADAM JUNGLEN: Maintaining a high level of confidence that doesn't reach the realm of "cockiness." I suppose that'd go under "mental/emotional" control.

BLUFF.COM: When did you become a Full Tilt red pro, and how has that experience been for you?

ADAM JUNGLEN: Thanks to being mislead by my former manager, I'm not actually a red pro on FTP, although I am sponsored by them. I wear the logo and am compensated with extra rakeback and other incentives. I used to be way too concerned with sponsorship and let it affect my game. I'm confident if I keep putting up big results I'll be red soon enough. It all happened just after my 21st birthday.

BLUFF.COM: What about training at Poker VT? How is that going?

ADAM JUNGLEN: It's going well, you'll be able to find a video reviewing the FTOPS main event on there in the very near future. It's been great to work with such a talented group of poker players.

BLUFF.COM: Who are your best friends in poker now, and how has that changed (if at all) over the years?

ADAM JUNGLEN: When I was 18 and the only place in the US I could really play was Turning Stone in NY. There I met a bunch of 2+2er's who are still playing and still killing it. I met Ray Coburn, Shaun Deeb (both of which have been my roommates before), Randal Flowers, Matt LeGarde, Jimmy Fricke, and a lot more. Since coming into poker I've become good friends with Daniel Negreanu as well.

BLUFF.COM: How do you perceive that your friends and family feel about your success in poker?

ADAM JUNGLEN: I know my family is really proud of me. They're my biggest fans, and it means a lot to me that they're supportive. For the most part my friends are the same way.

BLUFF.COM: What do you think is in store for the future of poker in the USA?

ADAM JUNGLEN: Based on the fact that the UIGEA was recently delayed, I'm trying to stay positive about the future.

BLUFF.COM: How has your experience been traveling to the various life events on the circuit? Do you enjoy it/plan on travelling much in the coming years?

ADAM JUNGLEN: I do enjoy traveling outside the US for poker and really have been fortunate to experience as much as I have at my age. I skipped Europe this past fall (the last 3 years I'd traveled outside the US for tournaments since I was under 21), but I do still plan on making it back to Europe/Australia/Canada for big events in the future.

BLUFF.COM: What does your poker setup look like? What kind of computer(s) do you use? What software/tools do you use?

ADAM JUNGLEN: I have a windows based desktop with a 30in monitor alongside a 21in vertical monitor. I play a lot on my macbook pro too. I have most of the popular tracking/stat software (PT,stove, etc), but don't religiously use them.

BLUFF.COM: What were the most influential books or resources that you used when developing your poker skillset?

ADAM JUNGLEN: Talking with players better than me. The 2+2 forums.

BLUFF.COM: Finally, what advice would you give to our readers that would like to emulate your success in poker?

ADAM JUNGLEN: Realize there's always more to learn in this game. Stay persistent and work hard.

Isildur1 - The Ultimate Calling Station

2009-11-27T17:12:59+00:00

I am not sure why but it feels like in poker you need to join a support group if you are a caller. I mean every book out there tells you to play aggressive and there is a stigma to winning from behind. No one is playing those small edges more than Isildur1(rumored to be Viktor Blom) at the moment. While he was crushing the biggest games for a short while lately he has fallen back a bit. So it would be easy to say that he was just running good. If you look at our biggest monthly hands the ones that he wins he often comes from behind, much more so than other nosebleed pros from what I have seen.

It's not just Pot Limit Omaha

I can just hear a lot of people out there thinking that it makes more sense because he is mostly playing PLO. Of course that is part of the answer but you really do not see the other pros coming from behind near as much. Which leads me to believe that what they are doing is incorrect from an equity standpoint. It is my belief that at the high levels what really separates the great from the very good is they are willing to call. When someone calls you and you need to sweat two cards a lot of the time you might just find that you want to look for an easier spot.

Durrrr did it too

Like Durrrr I see Isildur1 going through extreme boom and bust cycles. One thing both have shown is that they will continue to play when their decision making is questionable. So it would be easy to point to those cycles and say "see, calling is bad". My retort to that would be that calling is bad when you are playing marginally.

Missed Equity

Poker used to be about big edges because those edges were out there. There was no need to gamble even with the correct equity because other better opportunities existed. With poker players getting better over time I think what you will see is that the people willing to take these small edges will overpower their opponents much the way Isildur1 has done when he is playing his best.