foucault

When you are playing with deep stacks, all of your bets need to be larger than they would be in the same situation but with shallower stacks. This is especially true when you are out of position. The value of position increases with stack depth, so with a hand like QQ you want to get as much in pre-flop as you can to negate your positional disadvantage. I'd probably make it $60 to go pre-flop, as even at that price Villain is getting pretty decent implied odds. This is a good flop for you, not only because you hit your set, but because there is also a very plausible second best hand for your o

I should be on my way to the Rio right now, preparing to nurse a sickly stack into a monster as I did on Tuesday. Instead, I am sitting in front of my computer trying to decide how to explain to all of you how it all came crashing down.Yesterday morning, I felt on top of the world. I had undecupled my chips on Day 2 of the World Series of Poker and put myself in great shape to go deep at the biggest poker tournament of the year. Within a few hours, I’d have $20,000 locked up and a shot at much more. My starting table was going to be tough, with at least two strong players I knew fairly well fr

I'm raising this pre-flop very often depending on who and how deep the limpers are. Villain's showing a lot of strength leading into a field from OOP on a coordinated flop, so I don't really like the flop raise, especially if you aren't going to know what to do when he 3-bets. You're setting yourself to play for stacks, but I doubt you have anywhere near the equity you need to do that, since the range of hands with which he's going to get it in for $1600 generally leaves you drawing to at 8 to 11 outs, not 14. I'd just call flop, but as played, go ahead and stick it in now. Consider it good me

Every restaurant I've been to at Mandalay Bay has been expensive but worth the price if you're looking for a special meal. Restaurant RM has some of the best seafood (and service) I've ever had. There's a lot of exotic options available, but my waiter was very helpful in suggesting something I would like based on what I told him about my tastes.I recently ate at Aureole which also had some good seafood appetizers and entrees. They have a seven course, $125 tasting menu or a fixed $75 menu where you get to select an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. I was there with a party of four, and all

Barry and goleafsgoeh were the two players who most concerned me at the table, and with one gone and one crippled, I was ready for total table domination. Except that we didn’t get to play even a single hand after the second break. No sooner had the tournament director announced “shuffle up and deal” than a guy known as the Grim Reaper, because he walks around breaking tables, deposited an armful of plastic chip racks in the center of our table and started passing out new seat assignments. I will say, though, that it was a pretty cool feeling carrying four full racks of chips across the conven

The Day 2 report turned out to be really long, even by my standards, so I decided to break it into two parts. I should be able to post the next one tomorrow.I ended my Day 1 report by bemoaning my measly 30,000 chips but predicting that, “A lot will depend on how things go in the first few hours. If I can get off to a good start, I could easily double or triple up and be right back in contention.” Let’s just say I got off to a good start.I was in the 1 seat, to the immediate left of the dealer, at my starting table. In the 2 seat was a young, pretty woman of Indian descent named Jigna. She was

I had an absolutely huge day today. Went from 30K to 344,100, and yes, I was the one who busted Barry G. I will be posting a write up, but I'm not sure when I'll have time to put it together. I'm very flattered that you all have been enjoying them, though, it means a lot to me.Re: stereotyping, it's more useful in some cases than in others, which is actually what I meant to convey when I first brought it up, but if you treat a random 60-year old dude in a golf hat the same way you treat a 20-something in a Poker Stars hat in the absence of any other information, well, then you're making a big

Quick update: Looks like I've got Barry Greenstein to my immediate left at my starting table tomorrow. Hopefully this will at least make for interesting reading, though I'd rather have an easy double up.Wish me luck!

Sorry about that. River was an off-suit 7, not a diamond. Villain had open-ended straight flush draw that turned into two pair, there was no flush possible on the river so I had second nuts.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.I posted that KQ one. Mostly I'm just referring to steal raises and continuation bets, not multi-street bluffs. When those aren't working and you aren't picking up hands that can stand some heat, you bleed chips pretty quickly.

(Disclaimer: I write these reports primarily for friends and family, most of whom don't know much about poker but enjoy following along with me at the WSOP. Some of this will be a bit pedantic to experienced players, but hopefully it will be an enjoyable read anyway) I left the house around 11AM on Friday bound for the Rio and the main event of the 2007 World Series of Poker. Vegas is experiencing record highs for the weak, with the thermometer topping out near 120 degrees. It's enough to leave me sweating after a two block walk to the car. As I cruised up I-15 with A/C on full blast, George

I am both pretty good at poker and kind of arrogant, so it is rare for me not to be one of the best players at any poker table and even rarer for me to admit it. In yesterday’s $5K 6-max event, I was not one of the best players at my table. I probably was not even in the top half.While waiting for the tournament to start, I recognized Grayfx (from the 2+2 forums) walking into the Poker Kitchen. We caught up for a minute, then headed into the Amazon Room, where he introduced me to Bond18, who to my great disappointment was not wearing one of his trademark suits. His shirt had buttons on it, tho

Jordan,Shoving = worse hands, most of which have <10% equity, fold, and better hands stack youI wouldn't "fire" a paired river, I would check-raise.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed them. The 2006 TR, along with a bunch of other stuff I've written, is on my website at http://www.thinkingpoker.net/

Thanks, thanks, thanks, and yes. :-)