Thinking Poker

Not many people have worked harder than Gloria Jackson to get a poker career off the ground. She left school with only an 8th grade education to take care of her family, but later went back to get a GED and enroll in college. With a little help from her sister Chantell and her friend Brendan Shiller, she details her journey from nanny and housekeeper to praline peddler to home game chef to poker professional. 

Support the podcast, get daily strategy discussions, *and* be eligible to win a one-month subscription to GTO Wizard by subscribing to Thinking Poker Daily. 

Gloria Jackson

Gloria Jackson is a mother of five and a 10+ year professional poker player.

Twitter

Carlos and Andrew present and reflect on clips from the first four hundred episodes of Thinking Poker, with an emphasis on memorable characters and early predictions.

Episode 2: Tommy Angelo
Episode 6: Gareth Chantler
Episode 10: Leo Wolpert
Episode 21: Tubby Boots
Episode 25: Ed Miller
Episode 29: Carlos Mailbag
Episode 39: Carlos Welch
Episode 42: Faraz Jaka
Episode 47: Bluffcatching
Episode 50: Keone Young
Episode 53: Dave Eggers Rant
Episode 59: Sean Lango, bank robbery, and travel lentils
Episode 67: Gareth’s big win
Episode 70: Jen Shahade
Episode 125: Angela Jordison
Episode 128.1: New Theme Song
Episode 131: Dara O’Kearney
Episode 139: Craig Savage Mailbag
Episode 189: Will Kassouf
Episode 196: Jamie Kerstetter
Episode 200: Andrew & Nate on Carlos
Episode 219: $600 Phone Bill
Episode 230: Christian Soto
Episode 243: Jamal Hanson
Episode 247: Maria Konnikova
Episode 249: Dick Carson
Episode 260: Teeth are not for biting
Episode 330: Jane Hitchcock
Episode 337: Betting into draws
Episode 350: Keith Dunlap
Episode 356: Uri Peleg
Episode 355: Carlos predicts bracelet win

And here’s the picture of Andrew with Jamal Hanson:

In the second half of this epic interview, Justin Arnwine speaks with Carlos and Andrew about merit, representation, and gatekeeping; riding poker’s emotional rollercoaster, recovering from frustration; and why high stakes games attract too much attention.

Be sure to listen to Part 1 of Justin’s interview if you haven’t already. You’ll also want to hear our interview with Justin’s wife Caitlyn Cobb.

Support the podcast, get daily strategy discussions, *and* be eligible to win a one-month subscription to GTO Wizard by subscribing to Thinking Poker Daily. 

Justin Arnwine

Justin Arnwine is a writer, gambler, independent scholar, and activist famous for his Hello Kitty attire. We spoke with his wife Caitlyn Cobb on Episode 397. 

Twitter

Link

In the first installment of this epic, four-hour interview Justin Arnwine discusses his poker career, his Hello Kitty wardrobe, and the influence of his mother, a civil rights activist and attorney.

Justin’s Hello Kitty Everything music video

Barbara Arnwine in action

Support the podcast, get daily strategy discussions, *and* be eligible to win a one-month subscription to GTO Wizard by subscribing to Thinking Poker Daily. 

JUSTIN ARNWINE

Justin Arnwine is a writer, gambler, independent scholar, and activist famous for his Hello Kitty attire. We spoke with his wife Caitlyn Cobb on Episode 397. 

Twitter

Link

Once homeless, Caitlyn Cobb now grinds ApeStyles videos and recently shipped over $170K for her second-place finish in the Potomac Winter Poker Open. She shares her extraordinary poker journey with Carlos and Andrew, plus the hassles of staying in shelters, the joy of learning about Black history, and more. You can find Caitlyn’s poker tweets plus a month’s worth of Black history celebration at https://twitter.com/TheCaitlynBot.

Support the podcast, get daily strategy discussions, *and* be eligible to win a one-month subscription to GTO Wizard by subscribing to Thinking Poker Daily. 

Caitlyn Cobb

Caitlyn Cobb describes herself as a force that makes change. Caitlyn is the former Coordinator of Public Education for @NationalHomeles and Social Media Director of @TJC_DC.

Twitter

Link

Sam Grafton joins Carlos and Andrew to discuss moving up to the nosebleeds, staying competitive with the best players in the world, the politics of the super high roller circuit, and of course some literature recommendations:

Deborah Levy
Jorge Amado
W.G. Sebald

Support the podcast, get daily strategy discussions, *and* be eligible to win a one-month subscription to GTO Wizard by subscribing to Thinking Poker Daily. 

Sam Grafton

Sam “SquidPoker” Grafton is a long-time professional poker player who now travels the world on the super high roller circuit. He is also a video producer for Run It Once. Sam has previously appeared on Episode 75 and Episode 144.

Twitter

Jamie Kerstetter joins Carlos and Andrew to talk WPT, WSOP, commentating, and the politics of high stakes cash game streams. Plus Andrew offers an overview of turn strategy.

Support the podcast, get daily strategy discussions, *and* be eligible to win a one-month subscription to GTO Wizard by subscribing to Thinking Poker Daily. 

Jamie Kerstetter

Jamie Kerstetter is a poker player and commentator and the Creative Producer at WPT Global. She previously appeared on Episode 136 and Episode 196.

Twitter

Link

Poker lover LoriAnn Persinger won a social media contest that earned her an entry into the $10K WPT World Championship, ultimately finishing 30th for $119,000! She speaks to Carlos and Andrew about the experience plus her long love affair with poker, her history in poker media, her string of game show victories, and more.

Timestamps

11:39 WPT World Championship
28:29 Game Shows
56:22 Fitting the Profile
1:23:00 Rapid Fire
1:47:27 Diversity Benefits Everyone
1:56:20 Introverts
2:07:08 Living in Las Vegas

Links

GTO Wizard Blog
LoriAnn on Celebrity Name Game
Poker News Audition
Lake Elsinore Interview

LoriAnn Persinger

LoriAnn Persinger is a poker lover, Navy veteran, and serial game show champion with a history in poker media.

Twitter

Poker theorist Tom “tombos21” Boshoff joins Andrew and Carlos to geek out about everything from how solvers work to when ICM becomes a factor in tournaments (it’s sooner than you think!), balancing ICM and stack dynamics in PKOs, and so much more.

Tom’s article about ICM
Tom’s video about ICM
More free strategy from Tom and Andrew

Tom Boshoff

Poker theorist Tom Boshoff is the head of content creation for GTO Wizard.

Link

Computer scientist and poker player Ben Kushigian talks to Carlos and Andrew about the limitations of poker solvers, what we don’t know we don’t know about them, how they could be improved, the potential for open source solutions, and more. Plus, he’s got an interesting spot from a satellite bubble for the strategy segment.

Weird GTO Wizard node

Open Source Solver The github repo is https://github.com/b-inary/postflop_solver. This is the backing solver (so no user interface). There are two user interface versions:
+ https://github.com/b-inary/wasm-postflop+ https://github.com/b-inary/desktop-postflop And here is a link to comparisons between postflop solver and different solver techs: https://github.com/b-inary/wasm-postflop#comparison This is the paper that it’s based on: https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.04040 Strategy 5 players remain, 4 get paid $55+5 tickets, 1 gets $8 (so we’re on the ticket bubble). This spot seemed like a crucial moment where I had the opportunity to eat some variance but with high payoff. Hero (BB): 5.61 BB
UTG (UTG): 12.86 BB
CO (CO): 2.22 BB
BTN (BTN): 4.5 BB
SB (SB): 12.8 BB

5 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Dealt to Hero: Kc3h
Dealt to CO: ???
 fold, CO raises to 2.12 BB and is all-in, fold, fold, Hero ???

BEN KUSHIGIAN

Ben Kushigian is a poker player and computer science PhD student.

Twitter

Link