Author Archive
Giving a poker training site a try
I recently joined Cardrunners after reading a bigaboom’s related post on 1/13 and threads on 2+2 about training sites. I’d like to share my early impressions.
First off, what I was looking for…I am mostly a live holdem tournament player who is looking to gain some knowledge that can be translated to live cash games. If I learn enough to hopefully be profitable, I’d like to play more holdem online (I used to play holdem quite a bit online, but have found a more profitable game). I currently play $.50/1 or $1/2 PLO online, and I hope the training site will also give me a new edge there. Like I said, I am most experienced (and profitable) in live tournaments, so I will eventually take a look at their MTT section, but I haven’t done that yet, since that’s the area where I need learn the least.
Tennis and poker?
I heard a funny story on a poker podcast recently. There were so many tennis players at the Aussie Millions (The Austrailian Open is taking place just a couple miles away from the casino) that reporters were hanging around the casino looking for tennis pros to interview. One of them thought Phil Ivey was James Blake. Pretty bad, huh?
Not long after, I heard an interview with Vanessa Selbst. She talked about playing tennis at MIT before becoming a poker pro. She’s not the only one to convert tennis skills to poker playing. Patrick Antonius, Gus Hanson, Hasan Habib, and David Benyamine all used to play tennis. If you log on to pokerstars, there’s a good chance you’ll see Boris Becker’s intense (and slightly creepy) mug at the bottom of your screen.
Ouch
I’ve been running pretty bad online in PLO lately. This hand sums it up pretty well. I had been playing pretty tight, saw this as a chance t steal preflop, but after the flop I liked my hand. Top two pair with the flush draw as either a back up or as insurance that the flush is less likey to come for someone with higher clubs. Was this bad luck, or am I just a big ol’ donkey? Now that is the question.
dealing with annoying smooth callers
As a woman tournament player, I encounter guys trying to push me around a lot. One of the most common moves I see is the repetitive smooth call with position. Some macho guy sitting one or two seats behind me will smooth call my raises time after time, because he thinks he can outplay me after the flop.
Hangers
One of the best things about playing poker for a living is that I have time to do a lot of volunteering. This week, I am in Iowa volunteering for a presidential campaign, so I haven’t had much time to play cards. A friend of mine is meeting me at a small casino in Riverside, IA tonight to celebrate New Years, so that should be fun. Many of the locals here in the tiny town where I’m staying say it’s a nice little casino. I can’t wait.
