Worst Bad Beat I Ever Saw

Two guys, I have no idea what their names were so let’s call ‘em Ching and Gerry. Ching was a young Asian kid with shades, spiky hair and leaked aggression out of every pore. He’d been playing off and on at our room and had a lot of guys intimidated. Gerry was a thirty-something regular in the room. He played a decent game, lost more than he won but won enough to keep coming back. The game was no-limit hold ‘em with $5 - $5 blinds and a $1500 max buy-in.

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The Slow Play

A friend of mine, let’s call him Zorro, is a frequent contributor to our poker chat room. Zorro signs off all his emails with the line “more money has been lost than won by slow playing big hands.” It’s a good line. I’ve read it now maybe a thousand times and am impressed by how firmly my friend clearly believes this is gospel.

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The Gambler’s Fallacy

You’ve probably never heard of the gambler’s fallacy; if you have, go click on another link. If not, read on because if you don’t know you have likely fallen into its trap and it’s costing you money. The gambler’s fallacy is a condition that besets nearly everyone at various times in their lives. However, as befits the name, it is famously frequent in gamblers and it is, of course, a fallacy. It was discovered by psychologists and has been a topic of study for decades and the “ol’ perfesser” here is going to give a lecture on it. Get out your notebooks.

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Post-flop Play – VI

This is the last installment in our extended discussion of the psychological nuances of NLHE, the game designed to be played after the flop. In the early years when few played NLH, the conventional wisdom was only see a flop with a premium hand. David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth became the most respected teachers in the game because they understood this principle first and developed it to a higher degree than anyone else.

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Post-flop Play – V

Okay guys, we’re back ruminating on post-flop play. Today’s thoughts are driven by a burst of testosterone. Not quite sure why but maybe ‘cause I thumped some fish last night and I’m stoked. So, let’s begin with the obvious: Grow steel cojones. In virtually every competitive enterprise aggression carries benefits. One of my favorite lines comes from the inestimable Mike Caro, “aggression is rarely wrong in poker, and when it is, it isn’t wrong by much.”

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