Professional poker player and lawyer Kelly Minkin enters the GRID with a hand she played with King-Eight Offsuit at the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event. It was her second deep run in the Main, having finished 29th in 2015. 

She fielded a big stack for most of this event, where she earned the nickname “Machine Gun Kelly” for a particularly sharp calldown. She also encountered some setbacks, and at the time of her king-eight hand, she was down to 18 big blinds. She opened on the button with K8o. The big blind defended and the flop came A hearts Q hearts and an offsuit three. Kelly put out a small cbet when the stakes suddenly escalated. “I felt I could read his mind”, she told me as her opponent put in the check raise, “and that he didn’t have anything.”

Kelly elaborates on how she reads people at the table, and how it can pay off in the courtroom as well. She also explains her commitment to studying math despite her very intuitive play at the table. She also talks about her work outside poker and law, from her charity work with the Landen Lucas Foundation to painting.

Kelly has over 1.5 Million Dollars in live tournament earnings and was the 2015 GPI Female Player of the Year. She’s also a partner at the VerStandig Law Firm, which specializes in gaming related law.    

Her insightful and popular twitter account is @The_Illest and she’s also @the_illest on Instagram.

Now that Kelly has covered king-eight offsuit, there are 122 combos left on thepokergrid.com.

Subscribe to the GRID here, and look for video replays for most episodes on Jennifer’s YouTube channel. 

The post The Grid 047 ft. Kelly Minkin – King-Eight Offsuit appeared first on The Poker Grid.

Author, coach and poker pro Michael Acevedo enters the GRID to talk about a hand that changed his life. The hand, in this case, was played by high roller beast Stevie Chidwick. Michael was a last minute invite to a study group that went over a high stakes sit and go hand history of Stevie’s. In the critical hand, Stevie called with 82o in the big blind against a button open. He faced a bet on a flop of Queen-Seven-Eight two tone, along with turn and river barrels. “If you’re folding there, you’re folding too much”, Michael blurted out. The room went silent. Later, Stevie and Michael independently confirmed his gut instinct, and Michael was invited as a regular, and core member of the star studded study group, which also included Apestyles and Elio Fox.

Michael’s background in physics and infographics allowed him to both learn the math behind poker game theory quickly, and to represent it beautifully for effective study. Michael and Jennifer discuss his concept of “equity buckets” and an iconic blind vs blind spot where eight deuce gets a rare chance to shine. They also discuss why Acevedo asserts that the essence of game theory is exploitation, and why he doesn’t think you can learn modern poker by “trial and error.”

Michael has over 2 Million dollars in online cashes and is the author of a renowned poker book, Modern Poker Theory: Building an Unbeatable Strategy Based on GTO principles. You can find him at @GTOPoker on twitter and Instagram and at twitch.tv/gto_poker.  

Now that Michael has covered eight-deuce offsuit, there are 123 combos left on thepokergrid.com.

Subscribe to the GRID here, and look for video replays for most episodes on Jennifer’s YouTube channel. 

The post The Grid 046 ft. Michael Acevedo – Eight-Deuce Offsuit appeared first on The Poker Grid.

Twitch streamer, SCOOP Champion and PokerStars Ambassador Fintan “EasyWithAces” Hand enters the GRID to talk about two pivotal hands with ace-ten offsuit. In a rare live poker appearance, he reached the final table at the 2017 Irish Open as chip leader. But as his stack dwindled, he looked down at ace-ten off in the Big Blind. Moments later, as his family arrived to rail his big event, he found himself facing a decision for most of his chips.

Fintan also touches on a tough spot with the exact same holding three handed at the 2020 SCOOP event he won for over 70K.

Fintan talks about his work with BBZpoker and the strides he’s made toward understanding what he needs to work on, and how to do it. He also gives his thoughts on what an aspiring streamer should focus on. They also talk about Fintan’s burgeoning passion for chess, which he started to take more seriously in August after an invite to chess.com’s popular POGChamps.

Fintan Hand

You can follow Fintan on twitch, twitter and Instagram. And watch the poker inspired chess lesson that Jennifer gave Fintan here.

Now that Fintan has covered ace-ten offsuit, there are 124 combos remaining on thepokergrid.com. 

The post The Grid 045 ft. Fintan “EasyWithAces” Hand– Ace-Ten Offsuit appeared first on The Poker Grid.

Professional poker player and yoga instructor Mandy Baker throws us all the way back to 2005, where she played her first 10K at the World Poker Tour in Foxwoods. Mandy thought she detected an excellent squeeze spot before even looking down at her cards: Jack-Five Offsuit. Mandy explained to Jen how this dramatic hand had ripple effects in the tournament and even in the years ahead.

Mandy also gives some insight into poker strategy from back in those early days of the Poker Boom and her journaling and yoga habits.

Previous GRID guest Nick Schulman, who took an adjacent hand, won the event to become the youngest ever WPT champ at 21-years-old. Mandy talks about a hand she played against Nick, and how she felt after he won the event. Mandy, who satellited into the event, described literally rolling around in hundred dollar bills after her mincash.

Mandy and Jennifer go on to discuss Mandy’s list of “the most talented poker players”, the perils and blessings of call-out culture, and implicit bias. Mandy has had an incredible record at the World Series of Poker Ladies Event, and she talked to Jen about why she enjoys that event so much.

You can follow Mandy on her website https://www.amandabakeryoga.com/, on twitch on https://www.twitch.tv/RosalinaSky and twitter @Mandy22Baker. https://twitter.com/mandy22baker

Now that Mandy has covered jack five offsuit, there are 125 combos remaining on thepokergrid.com. 

The post The Grid 044 ft. Mandy Baker– Jack-Five Offsuit appeared first on The Poker Grid.

Investor, poker player, movie producer and new author Bill Perkins enters the GRID to discuss a high stakes hand he played against Antonio Esfandiari in 2018, on Poker After Dark. Antonio, a close friend of Perkins opened after an UTG limp, and Bill called, holding Ace-Eight in position. The limper folded but the blinds came along to see a 10  8  6 two club flop in a four way flop. Antonio c-bet and everyone called to see a turn, which brought the brickiest of bricks, the deuce of hearts 2 . At this point, Perkins leapt to action, putting in a hefty raise against Antonio’s bet. The blinds folded and another six, bringing a third club came on the river  6 . Bill overbet and Antonio tanked and said “donation because I love you” before reconsidering and tanking some more. On this episode, Bill forgot the outcome of the hand, but Jennifer revealed it to him!

Bill talks about what he learned from Antonio as a poker player, and his realization he needed to tweak some things in his game to balance his tendencies on TV.

They go on to discuss Bill’s new book “Die With Zero: Making the Most From Your Money and Your Life” and the concepts that poker players can most easily apply from the book. Bill explains how he wrote Die With Zero to encourage more people to live deliberately, spending money efficiently through various phases of life.

Bill also talks about his current stay in Italy, where he’s celebrating with his new fiancee. He’s also traveling with Dan Bilzerian- both Dan and Bill have both been playing a lot of chess on the road, and Jen and Bill  discuss his own passion for the game as well as speculate on various time odds games against World Champion Magnus Carlsen.

You can follow Bill Perkins on twitter @bp22 and learn more about and order his book on diewithzerobook.com. Videos mentioned in the episode include Doug Polk’s recap of this hand, and Zachary Elwood’s analysis of Bill’s early televised hands.

Now that Bill has covered ace-eight offsuit, there are 126 combos left on thepokergrid.com.

Join our mailing list or subscribe to stay posted on the GRID. Also sub to Jen’s YouTube channel for a new format: video highlights of select episodes including this one.

The post The Grid 043 ft. Bill Perkins– Ace-Eight Offsuit appeared first on The Poker Grid.

Three-time WSOP Champion Joe McKeehen steps into the GRID to talk about a hand from the World Poker Tour final table at Rolling Thunder in 2018. The 2015 World Series of Poker Champion rivered the nuts with queen-ten offsuit, in a riveting hand that captured the imagination of the poker world. 

The flop was Ace of hearts, five of hearts and a seven of spades. Joe explains why he decided to float with queen ten, even lacking a flush draw or a backdoor. The offsuit jack on the turn gave Joe a gutshot, so he bet when checked to. He rivered the stone nuts with a black king.  When Joe’s opponent, Ian Steinman tanked to Joe’s jam on the river, Joe explained to Jennifer he thought Ian was contemplating an excellent fold with ace-king. Instead, his opponent folded a hand that was even far stronger- pocket kings.    

Joe goes into depth on how a fold like that can influence table dynamics, and why hero plays like that are a major component of the poker dream. They also discuss Doug Polk’s video recap of the hand, titled, “The #1 Mistake Poker Players Make.”

Joe has over 16 million dollars in live event cashes. In addition to his 2015 WSOP win for over 7 million, he also won a bracelet in the 2017 10K Limit Hold Em Championship for over 300K. Joe added a third in between the recording and publication of this interview, with a win in the $3200 NLHE High Roller for over 350K. He’s a coach with Chip Leader Coaching.  

Now that Joe has covered queen-ten offsuit, there are 127 hands left on thepokergrid.com

Looking for ways to improve your financial decisions through poker? Check out Jen’s PokerNews article on “Lessons from the GRID” and sign up for our GRID mailing list.

The post The Grid 042 ft. Joe McKeehen– Queen-Ten Offsuit appeared first on The Poker Grid.

This week we welcome Soheb Porbandarwala to the GRID. The 30-year-old poker pro has been successful in both live and online poker, winning millions of dollars and five WSOP circuit rings. He came on the GRID to talk about a quite legendary hand with Queen-deuce offsuit, that took place at a WSOP circuit event in Atlantic City in 2018. 

After getting to the bottom of how Soheb may have played the hand even better, he and Jen move on to topics such as super late entry, changing his youngest’s diaper while multi-tabling, and what he was going to do for work when he nearly quit poker. 

Soheb caps off his GRID interview with memories from another memorable score- while playing in an ACR MTT heads-up for six figures, he disconnected while holding a flush. His opponent, the Brazilian streamer “nelebo10” decided to sit out rather than steal his blinds and coast to a W. The karma seems to only continue for the Brazilian streamer who just final tabled a PokerStars Stadium Series event for over 50K. 

You can find Soheb’s results on HendonMob and follow him at @spewheb on twitter.

Now that queen-deuce offsuit has been covered on thepokergrid.com, there are 128 combos remaining.

Stay tuned on all our episodes and subscribe via your favorite podcast platform or email.

The post The Grid 041 ft. Soheb Porbandarwala – Queen-Deuce Offsuit appeared first on The Poker Grid.

Poker professional K. L Cleeton aka “highhands89” steps into the GRID to talk about a hand from the 2017 World Series of Poker with jack-seven suited. Cleeton got into the $10,000 buyin event via a video contest hosted by Daniel Negreanu. The crucial hand, which took place on day three of the WSOP saw Cleeton defending a raise from the big blind versus an open from top professional Harrison Gimbel. As the board double paired, K.L Cleeton kept a keen eye on what he could represent as he aimed to fulfill one of his goals for the event: bluffing a pro. In part due to this hand, Cleeton reached another goal and dream of many: cashing the Main.  

After an in-depth discussion on the hand, Cleeton explains how card-rooms and live events could make their tournaments more accommodating to players with disabilities. Spoiler alert: No ten handed play! They also talk about Cleeton’s poker training tool Range Trainer PRO and his work as manager of Learn Pro Poker.

Follow Cleeton on highhands89 on twitter.

Now that K.L Cleeton has covered jack-seven suited, there are 129 combos left on thepokergrid.com.

Subscribe to the GRID and sign up our mailing list here.  

The post The Grid 040 ft. Kenneth “K.L.” Cleeton – on Jack-Seven Suited appeared first on The Poker Grid.

Professional streamer and former poker professional Stephen “Jorbs” Flavall steps into the GRID to discuss a hand he played with four-deuce offsuit over a decade ago. It was a homegame that he thought would be casual, but he walked into a competitive vibe. When he opened with one of the trashiest hands in poker and proceeded to make bottom pair, the desire to enjoy a fun evening with friends dramatically collided with poker instincts.

Since the fateful hand, Jorbs has transitioned away from games like poker and chess into the games he streams on his channel, including Slay the Spier and Hearthstone.   

Jen and Jorbs talk about streaming for fun and as a business and he advises on how to focus on providing value, rather than obsess over growth.

Follow jorbs at twitch.tv/jorbs and https://twitter.com/JoINrbs  

Now that Jorbs has covered four-deuce offsuit, there are 130 hands remaining on thepokergrid.com.

Join the GRID mailing list here to find out about special promotions, new podcasts and GRID streams.

The post The Grid 039 ft. Stephen “Jorbs” Flavall – on Four-Deuce Offsuit appeared first on The Poker Grid.

World Series of Poker and EPT Champion Liv Boeree joins Jennifer Shahade on thepokergrid.com to discuss a hand history with ace-seven offsuit on the bubble of the UK Millions in 2020. Liv, who has been focusing on her YouTube channel and speaking career recently, was playing after a long hiatus. She found herself with top pair and a weak kicker on an increasingly scary board, but with shallow stack depth, she jammed her stack in.

 Liv talks about the emotional recovery in poker, and how it’s changed as her career flourishes beyond the game itself. They also talk about the collision of rationality and emotion on the bubble.

Boeree talks about her new YouTube channel, and reveals the intense effort that she puts into each segment as writer, star producer, editor and even director of photography! She pinpoints the video on the Doomsday Clock as a turning point in her presentation approach.

She also answers some burning questions from our listeners and explains why she loves bullet chess. Liv explains how much precision she’s been able to incorporate into her own life, a subject she explored in her Tedx talk “A Number Speaks a Thousand Words”. She also gave a TED talk on life lessons from poker.

You can follow Liv on twitter, Instagram, her website and of course, YouTube.

Now that Liv has covered Ace-Seven offsuit, there are 131 combos remaining on thepokergrid.com.

 Sign up for the GRID mailing list here. 

The post The Grid 038 ft. Liv Boeree – on Ace-Seven Offsuit appeared first on The Poker Grid.