Thinking Poker

Ryan van Sanford (@RyanTYFL on Twitter) is an active member of both the Tournament Poker Edge and the Thinking Poker Podcast communities. At 20 years old, he’s new to the live tournament scene and just had his first big win in a preliminary event at WSOPc-Choctaw. The Colorado resident talks about launching his career on the US-facing sites, cutting his teeth in live poker, and how he motivates himself to study and improve. We also discuss angle shooting, counterfeit chips at the Borgata, and strategy.

Timestamps

:30 – Hello & Welcome; counterfeit chips at the Borgata

14:54 – Mailbag: going vegan and going sober

18:03 – Ethics: angle shooting and poker celebrity

28:45 – Interview: Ryan van Sanford

58:13 – Strategy: dealing with a donk bet on the turn

John the Lawyer left a profitable legal practice to play poker professionally. He cut his teeth in the big game at Foxwoods playing against, among others, a young Vanessa Selbst. In this interview, he shares his thoughts on live poker, home games, game selection, the evolution and state of no-limit hold ’em, how to deal with collusion, and more. Plus Andrew and Nate talk about whether to fold Aces in a satellite.

John recommends reading Unbroken, watching Jiro Dreams of Sushi, and learning from Carlos Welch‘s latest Two Plus Two article. If you enjoy John’s stories, check this one out too.

Timestamps

0:30 Hello and Welcome

6:50 Treating Opponents with Respect

12:09 Strategy: Fold Aces?

25:29 Interview: John the Lawyer

Richard Veenman is a Dutch fixed limit hold ’em player with a lot of charisma and a big personality. At the start of 2014, he retired from both professional poker and PokerStars Team Online. In addition to the difficulties of balancing a day job with a serious poker career and his decision to retire, Richard also discusses the Dutch poker scene, how he got started, why he never followed the crowd to no-limit hold ’em, and what representing a poker site meant to him.

You can follow Richard on Twitter @tzen1 and read his blog, in English, at http://www.tzen1.com/. If you’re disappointed that we didn’t talk limit hold ’em strategy with him, you can get your fix with videos like this one at Poker School Online.

Timestamps

0:30 Hello & welcome: How cold is it?

4:51 Strategy: Set mining against tough opponents

43:45 Interview: Richard Veenman

Andrew and Nate ring in the new year with a discussion of goal-setting and their own resolutions, both in poker and in life. Plus how to take notes in live poker, first impressions of the (relatively) new poker room at the Maryland Live!, how to take advantage of weak players trying to play well, and even a bit of PLO8 strategy.

The organizational tools Nate mentions are Trello and Getting Things Done by David Allen, which we also discussed with Roy Bhasin.

Keone Young, prolific actor and poker player, was our guest on Episode 50. Due to some technical difficulties, part of our first interview with him was unusable, and we ended up recording a new interview that differed in many ways from the first. A lot of good material was left on the cutting room floor along the way, so we’re now bringing you some of our favorite unused moments from that original interview.

All that, plus strategy discussion of when to play for stacks in a sidepot. For most poker strategy, be sure to check out the articles Nater and Andrew will be posting, starting with Nate’s Seven Attention Targets for Beginning Poker Players, on the new Learn.PokerNews.Com site brought to you by Martin Harris.

Timestamps

0:30 Hello and welcome

11:28 Strategy: Stacking Off in a Sidepot

36:03 Keone Young

Joe LaPinta is a professional poker player who won the recent WSOP circuit event at Harrah’s Atlantic City. Of course it takes more than just a tournament victory to score an appearance on the Thinking Poker Podcast, but Joe is also an active member of the Tournament Poker Edge community and an avid podcast listener. In fact, just a week before his victory he was at the Nitcast Meet-Up at the Borgata.

It turns out Joe has a pretty interesting story as well. Not even a year into his career as a professional poker player, he’s already experienced tremendous success and luck. Neither seems to have gone to his head, though, and Joe proves to be an entertaining and gracious guest. If you’d like to get to know Joe better, you can follow @Joesmoe87 on Twitter.

Andrew, Carlos, and Sean share stories from their recent trip to Atlantic City. There’s plenty of strategy, from small-stakes cash game hands to big decisions in a six-handed bounty tournament and the $2700 Fall Poker Open Main Event. Plus the Nitcast Meetup, Andrew and Carlos are mistaken for bank robbers, Sean and Andrew engage in high-level psychological warfare, and Carlos sets a new standard for nittiness.

Andrew’s friend Miklos is on the show this week to talk about the Hungarian poker scene, his recent deep run in a Super Knock Out tournament, and strategy adjustments more generally for tournaments with large bounties. This episode is extra-heavy on strategy, so you might find it helpful to reference the hand histories below as you listen.

Hand #1

Poker Stars $337.50+$337.50+$25.00 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t20/t40 Blinds – 9 players

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: t5575 139.38 BBs

BB: t1578 39.45 BBs

Hero (UTG): t16441 411.02 BBs

UTG+1: t7259 181.47 BBs

UTG+2: t15340 383.50 BBs

MP1: t6600 165 BBs

MP2: t5446 136.15 BBs

CO: t18489 462.23 BBs

BTN: t5802 145.05 BBs

Pre Flop: (t60) Hero is UTG with 5 5

Hero raises to t120, UTG+1 calls t120, 2 folds, MP2 raises to t400, 4 folds, Hero calls t280, UTG+1 calls t280

Flop: (t1260) T 5 7 (3 players)

Hero checks, UTG+1 checks, MP2 bets t590, Hero calls t590, UTG+1 raises to t1360, MP2 folds, Hero calls t770

Turn: (t4570) A (2 players)

Hero checks, UTG+1 checks

River: (t4570) 8 (2 players)

Hero bets t6000, UTG+1 folds

Final Pot: t4570

Hero mucks 5 5

Hero wins t4570

Hand #2

Poker Stars $337.50+$337.50+$25.00 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t20/t40 Blinds – 9 players

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

MP1: t5795 144.88 BBs

MP2: t1578 39.45 BBs

Hero (CO): t20511 512.77 BBs

BTN: t5219 130.47 BBs

SB: t16320 408 BBs

BB: t7500 187.50 BBs

UTG: t4696 117.40 BBs

UTG+1: t18549 463.73 BBs

UTG+2: t4342 108.55 BBs

Pre Flop: (t60) Hero is CO with Q 3

4 folds, MP2 raises to t100, Hero calls t100, BTN calls t100, SB calls t80, BB calls t60

Flop: (t500) 6 4 6 (5 players)

SB checks, BB checks, MP2 checks, Hero bets t200, BTN raises to t640, SB raises to t1160, BB folds, MP2 folds, Hero folds, BTN calls t520

Turn: (t3020) Q (2 players)

SB bets t1180, BTN calls t1180

River: (t5380) 3 (2 players)

SB checks, BTN bets t2779 all in, SB calls t2779

Final Pot: t10938

BTN shows 6 5 (three of a kind, Sixes)

SB shows 6 5 (three of a kind, Sixes)

SB wins t5469

BTN wins t5469

 

Hand #3

Poker Stars $337.50+$337.50+$25.00 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t100/t200 Blinds + t25 – 9 players

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG+2: t17401 M = 33.14

MP1: t11618 M = 22.13

Hero (MP2): t25162 M = 47.93

CO: t8496 M = 16.18

BTN: t5456 M = 10.39

SB: t7750 M = 14.76

BB: t8236 M = 15.69

UTG: t29060 M = 55.35

UTG+1: t6132 M = 11.68

Pre Flop: (t525) Hero is MP2 with 6 6

4 folds, Hero raises to t400, CO raises to t1200, 3 folds, Hero raises to t20000, 1 fold

Final Pot: t2925

Hero mucks 6 6

Hero wins t2925

Hand #4

Poker Stars $337.50+$337.50+$25.00 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t400/t800 Blinds + t100 – 9 players

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG+2: t20487 M = 9.76

MP1: t11789 M = 5.61

MP2: t17468 M = 8.32

Hero (CO): t74422 M = 35.44

BTN: t32415 M = 15.44

SB: t23745 M = 11.31

BB: t10744 M = 5.12

UTG: t8806 M = 4.19

UTG+1: t48259 M = 22.98

Pre Flop: (t2100) Hero is CO with 5 5

4 folds, MP2 raises to t17368 all in, Hero raises to t33936, 3 folds

Flop: (t36836) 7 4 A (2 players – 1 is all in)

Turn: (t36836) 8 (2 players – 1 is all in)

River: (t36836) 5 (2 players – 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t36836

MP2 shows 9 9 (a pair of Nines)

Hero shows 5 5 (three of a kind, Fives)

Hero wins t36836

Hand #5

Poker Stars $337.50+$337.50+$25.00 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t400/t800 Blinds + t100 – 9 players

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: t20599 M = 9.81

SB: t996 M = 0.47

BB: t70380 M = 33.51

Hero (UTG): t103535 M = 49.30

UTG+1: t20985 M = 9.99

UTG+2: t22807 M = 10.86

MP1: t66867 M = 31.84

MP2: t46364 M = 22.08

CO: t44447 M = 21.17

Pre Flop: (t2100) Hero is UTG with J K

Hero raises to t1600, UTG+1 raises to t4400, 5 folds, SB calls t496 all in, 1 fold, Hero raises to t72000, UTG+1 calls t16485 all in

Flop: (t44366) 8 6 J (3 players – 2 a[...]

Jonathan Bredin is an Australian aspiring professional poker player who won the recent ANZPT Queenstown event. He also has cerebral palsy, which made recording an audio interview with him somewhat complicated. We ended up having a text-chat conversation with him about his career, his recent victory, and how his disability affects his game, for better and for worse. Recent guest Roy Bhasin was kind enough to read Jonathan’s part of the transcript aloud so that we could record it.

We also answer some follow-up questions about the recent PokerSnowie interview and a listener question about calling for a chop.

Timestamps

0:30 Hello and Welcome

6:50 PokerSnowie Follow-Up

26:45 Strategy: “Probably Going to Chop It”

42:15 Interview: Jonathan Bredin via Roy Bhasin

Strategy

Game is $.25/$.50 NLHE with $30 effective stacks. There are several limps, and Hero limps T9o on the Button.

Flop ($3 in pot) T88r. SB bets $2, BB raises to $4, Hero calls, rest fold, SB calls.

Turn ($15 in pot) 8. SB bets $6, BB calls, Hero calls.

River ($33 in pot) A. SB checks, BB shoves $15, Hero folds

Nate’s away this week, but Leo Wolpert and Andrew take advantage of the opportunity to answer some listener questions that have been lingering for too long in the mailbag queue.

0:30 – Hello and welcome; impressions of WSOP final table

18:23 – Playing Kings

42:17 – Barreled on a paired board at the Lil’ One for One Drop final table

1:07:40 – Game selection: tournaments vs cash games