troutsmart

I always check locations of players I'm playing with to see if they're neighbors. If they're chatting a lot, it is fairly obvious that they aren't trying to hide the fact that their friends. However, if they both sit quietly and notice suspicious behavior, I take note. I play online with several friends quite frequently and can assure you that no collusion takes place among us. However, I'm ever aware and concerned of the suspicion other players on the table may have. I value my integrity highly and it would definitely concern me if it was questioned. That said, I became concerned recent

I have a hard time staying focused online as I like to read a lot and constantly find myself distracted. I don't know what edge I'm giving up, but wouldn't be surprised if it isn't significant. I three table, so what I'm giving up is greatly magnified. Fortunately I'm a tight-aggresive player, so I'm not directly involved in many pots. I'm definitely missing out on information on players in between hands, which I must correct. On top of that, I cannot play longer than 2 hour sessions usually or 6 table hours when online. I wish I could play more, but find my focus rapidly decline and t

I didn't mean to dis on your area, but provo was like a little stepford town to me back then, I was in my teens and had been born and raised in California. I remember it being beautiful though, snow covered mountains all around you in the winter, best skiing I've ever had!I didn't take any offense whatsoever. I laughed at the comparison of Provo and Stepford, as I can definitely see that. By the way, I love California. Hard to top it for weather, mountains, beaches, and culture. I always enjoy my vacations and eagerly anticipate my next trip to the beach.

Almost every tournament I've done well in, I've had to make at least one huge comeback.Thinking back over any wins I have and top finishes, I cannot discount an element of luck. The wins I've had have mainly come from behind. Several times when we've been three handed, I've been the guy looking for that one hand. I think i've been fortunate in this area in that when I've picked up a solid hand, they've held up for the most part. Not always, but I'd say I'm running better than odds. Funny as it sounds, I don't really mind being short stacked as the other players tend to count you out and

One problem trout. This wasn't a bluff at a "dry" side pot. After the preflop action the side pot was the same size as the main pot. A dry pot bluff is when two players call an all-in and there is no side pot yet and one bluffs to win a $0 side pot. That is the single worst move in tournament poker. In this case the guy bluffing wasnt so bad since there was a significant side pot being played and it wasnt like it was a final table where your getting knocked out made a huge difference. I appeciate you pointing that out as you are correct. You accurately describe a dry pot bluff. This was ex

hadd pocket aces busted in a multi table tourney left me with 25 in chips and after an unbelievable number of double ups came in 3rd. probably my luckiest yet.I learned my lesson not to discount the guy with just a few chips left. Too often it seems those few chips have lots of babies and next thing you know you have a civilization of chips attacking you.

140 players down to 14 and the big blind was only 100? Never seen that before, must have been extremely long rounds or something, huh? That isn't a typo. I didn't inform you that this was one of the most interresting tournament structures that I've seen. Everybody started with T100 and the blinds were $1/2. It stayed at that level for over 1hr.30m., during which you were allowed to rebuy up at T150. Well, this option created lots of chaotic hands early on with people going all in on garbage so they could rebuy. To give you an example, on the very first hand, a guy tripled up holding mid

I'm playing a live tournament sponsored by a business in which there is a prize pool of $2200. 140 entries. 14 players left and I'm short stacked after loosing a big pot that could easily qualify as another post. Not into bad beat stories, so I'll spare you the details. We'll just say it was one of those 1 in 1000 beats. Anyway, I'm short stacked with T500c. I'm in MP. Big blind is 100. UTG raises to 300. He plays a lot of pots, often aggresive pre-flop, but passive post flop. UTG +1 calls. He is the chip leader and isn't folding at this point in the tournament. It's folded to me a

I'm playing a live tournament sponsored by a business. 140 entries. 14 players left and I'm short stacked after loosing a big pot that could easily qualify as another post. Not into bad beat stories, so I'll spare you the details. We'll just say it was one of those 1 in 1000 beats. Anyway, I'm short stacked with T500c. I'm in MP. Big blind is 100. UTG raises to 300. He plays a lot of pots, often aggresive pre-flop, but passive post flop. UTG +1 calls. He is the chip leader and isn't folding at this point in the tournament. It's folded to me and I look down at A :club:T . This mig

www.poker-babes.com is a good blog of a female prop player in LA. Not a dirty site for anyone decieved by the name. She's describes her thoughts of key hands she encounters during the day, which is quite informative. She is also well aquainted with many top pros, who often give her feedback on her hands, which she passes on.

I'm a flyfishing snob who frequents the river and likes to think that he is as smart as a trout, which isn't saying much. I came up with the name when I needed to create a personal email account. Everything I kept picking was taken, and then I started playing around with various combinations of words that I thought fit my character or interests. I ended up with Troutsmart. I originally wanted RiverRat, which I was often called growing up. I would then have a name that fit both poker and flyfishing. Until I find a suitable poker nickname, I'll remain Troutsmart. I could use "the saint" w

I'd have to agree with most of the lists created based on tournament results recently. Players such as Negreanu, Juanda, and Pham weren't at the top of the POY race without cause. I do think that Ivey is being left off too many lists of the top 8, if we are going to create such lists. Granted, he wasn't anywhere near the top of the POY standing, but he doesn't really play many events outside the WSOP. I think sometimes we the outsiders underestimate the difficulty in making final tables of these deep events. A top player has very small odds of making the a final table, let alone winning.

I don't know how much golf and poker are related, but Daniel is reminding me a lot of a Tiger, Vijay, or Ernie. He just gravitates to the top.Congrats Daniel. I'm amazed!

My largest fluctuations have certainly occured playing shorthanded or heads-up. As far as your bankroll, I would be concerned about the NL, though a competant player can usually do well in low NL. 1/2 NL is beyond a $600 bankroll, even for a skilled player. Generally it is recommended that a NL bankroll consist of 1500x the big blind, so $3000 for 1/2. A skilled player can get by on maybe a 1000x, but it's definitely sketchy going below that.Anyhow, you seem to be a solid player based on the many posts I've read by you, and I've learned quite a bit reading your posts. I'm sure the downswi

Having not played with any of the players at the top of the online game such as Gummybear (Bigglesworth), Neverwin, Spiritrock, etc. , I cannot make anything above an observed guess. Gummybear is very impressive to me, as is Magicpitch. I use to enjoy watching Eric123 play, but haven't seen him around pokerstars for a while. I know he recently turned 21, so perhaps he's playing more live games. Does anybody know where Eric123 has gone?

I'll readily admit that I'm "new" to the poker world. My experience with poker growing up mostly related to being embarrased that I didn't know what hands beat what when we played at scout camp. I was more interested in fishing, so I never gave much thought to it.Early in 2003, I was dealing with a great deal of insomnia. After watching 3 movies one night, I wondered what to do next. I saw my roommate had left out a small poker set and deck of cards on the table. I proceeded to play around with the deck of cards. I only knew of 5 card draw, so I dealt out 5 cards to 5 imaginary players

Twenty-six years on earth. Can't account for the rest.

The play you describe is what none other than Phil Hellmuth pioneered. This point is referenced by Barry Greenstein on his website analysis of Phil. For this to work, you must have superior ability to read an opponents hand. Before Phil, though I'm sure he wasn't the first, most played a strong flopped hand in protective mode, betting enough that any draw would be making a mistake to call. Phil reasoned that if he in fact knew that a player had a draw, and didn't put him on a set (in this example), he could bet small amounts that would keep a player in a pot. Just like you've said, he be

I didn't see the flush draw. So you actually had more outs than I thought. Still, I wouldn't be too confident if a heart had come out on the river with my highest ranked heart being a 9. The fact that he was just calling your bets meant that he either had overcards or a draw (or both), so it wouldn't have been inconceivable for him to have higher ranked hearts. If he would've raised you at any point, that speaks like a high pair (for example if he would've raised you when the King hit on the turn). The fact that he never raised you, IMO, makes your 9 flush outs highly suspect. All outs are not

jakoye responded:After he called your pot-sized bet on the flop, I don't see how you can throw more money into this pot. MAYBE if you have a shot at winning the pot with overcards alone, but you didn't have big cards and were pretty sure that he did. So you end up betting half your stack on a stone cold bluff with only a gutshot straight to rescue you. Not good. If anything, the size of your bets might have encouraged him to call. Why would you be making such large bets with a made hand? If you had a straight, most likely you'd bet smaller in the hopes of encouraging a call or even a raise. Yo

That would be a heck of a match. I don't have a pick as it is probably as close as it can get in any kind of professional match-up you could dream up. It would take hundreds of these matches to get any real accurate idea of who was outplaying who.But, hypothetically, if they were to do this just once. $1 million dollar buy-in, so it hurts. I don't agree with the idea that the structure be 20k/40k. This would essentially make it a standard buy-in cash game. It could be over quite quickly set up as such. No, let's make this a marathon. Make endurance a factor, which from what I understa

If you didn't feel good about it, then laying it down was probably the right move. However, as I'm sure you realize, not raising with KK was definitely a mistake. Home games are great fun. Last night I had the chance to play in a little game much like the one you describe. I was familiar with half of the players as we've played together quite a bit. However, there were a couple of new faces. This is why I love poker, all the different personalities you run into on a table. Seated across from me is the young kid, maybe 18. He works with half the guys at the table, and makes more money t

If you bet the flop always after having raised preflop, nobody can really put you on a hand unless they reraise you and see your reaction. I'd say the real dilema occurs on the turn. Let's say you have A K in lp and raise the pot after 3 limpers. 4 players see the flop of T 7 Q . With 4 players it is unlikely you still have the best hand. However, if it is checked to me, I'm still going to bet. If it is bet in front of me, I'm going to raise. Some might not agree with this play, but I find it better than either checking, or calling. I'm actually hoping a player does have a hand l

I'd recommend absolute poker. They offer a few freerolls that can actually translate into cash that you can use in their cash games. After you've won some money in the freeroll, you can make a deposit for $25 via money order (something you could possibly do). A friend and I challenged ourselves in November of 2004 to see who could do the most with nothing. I won $17 in a freeroll, which I took to the micro limit games. He won $5 and took it to the micro limit games. I chose to strictly follow a bankroll guideline of 400 BB. He chose to be a gambler and started off playing 10c/20c. As

Regarding your question about bankroll. A 300-500 BB bankroll is needed in limit play. For No Limit, it is recommended that you have 1500x the big blind or 30 buy-ins. For example, in a $1/2 no limit game, you would typically buy in for $100. 30 buy-ins= $3000. Using the 1500x rule. $2 big blind x 1500 = $3000. Notice the difference between limit and no limit, in limit the bankroll refers to the Big bet on the last two rounds of betting. In no limit, your bankroll is based off the big blind.Hope this helps.