Poker analysis

So, 14 hours into this experiment, what have I learned? I lose money with one pair, and I seem to show it down more often than I probably should.  I appear to pay a river bet almost half the time, which is absurd once you see my stats. I have previously played high pairs against…

I buy a lot of poker books, as you can tell from my Amazon wishlist.  I actually often buy books that are ahead of where I am in poker skills.  I don’t mean that I don’t understand them.  On an intellectual level I do.  But experience counts for a lot in poker.  And for me,…

I babysat for Sarah and one of her fellow mom drinking buddies this weekend and then after they got home, I hit the Big Game slightly before midnight.  I arrived to a table of six morose people playing $2/$5 No limit Hold’em, maximum buyin $1,000.  Two guys were racking up around $5-6,000 in chips and…

I seem to have developed a leak in my game.  I realized it when I made the same mistake both in live poker and online in corresponding No limit cash games. The leak is that I seem to be assuming people are bluffing the flush on the river.  A quiet better who calls me on…

I’ve started to pick my poker carefully.  I don’t mean picking games that are only so easy that I can beat, but picking games online that I can’t find in real life.  Like Omaha/8.  As the kids say, "It’s hard out here for an Omaha player", and finding a a varied selection of O/8 games,…

So my trip to HORSE night was a success.  And I’m going to violate the first rule of HORSE night, which is don’t talk about HORSE night. I was correct about having an edge over most of the players there.  Getting good cards didn’t hurt either.  One of the players, who I’ve noticed tilts pretty…

My favorite hand of the night at my last game at the Factory was in fact one I lost, but I loved it, and it caused me to do some analysis that shows what a great opportunity it is.  The host of the game (who reads this blog) and I were in a hand together. …

[If you have a chance, go see Bradley’s rationalization about why he was right to shove $250 into a $29 pot with a 1.5% edge, a response to my analysis that this is too much volatility for his own good.  Obviously, if the volatility bothers you enough to post on your blog that it bothers…

People usually use the phrase "risk versus reward", but if you’re a careful poker player, I suspect you don’t really think too hard about the reward.  Also, if you play small stakes like I do where your normal everyday income far outpaces your poker bankroll, then you don’t care so much about the reward as…

Matt Matros is one of the poker writers I enjoy reading the most.  His recent analysis of why you should push in with a pair of Queens early on in the tournament against someone holding Ace-King is smart.  Here’s the gist: You wade through all the railbirds and all the media and finally locate your…