I was playing a regular at 10/20 HU a few days ago. I got in a river spot where I decided the best move was overbet bluff, and because I was feeling goofy I decided to bet $1 less than his entire stack. To my surprise he shoved all in. I was now faced with an odd situation. I was bluffing but I was getting 4000 to 1 odds on the call. Although the situation was comical, it represented some thoughts I had been having about playing well and being confident.

When I am on my game I make a lot of very good big folds and a lot of very good big bluffs. When I’m off my game, these moves elude me. But what is different when I playing well and when I’m playing medicore? A lot of it has to do with confidence. I am getting 4000 to 1 odds on calling an all in. The amount I absolutely positively have to be sure he didn’t misclick or do some sort of odd spazz is absurd. This is representative of making good plays in poker. A lot of the time I am in spots where I’m pretty sure my opponent isn’t bluffing so I should fold, but decide to call because I’m not sure how good my reasoning is. Confidence means you believe in your own ability to think well. Can you make that good bluff that no one else would ever think of making? Can you make a big fold even though you have a very very strong hand?

This concept isn’t just important when it comes to playing, but also when it comes to getting better. I don’t know if any one factor caused me to go higher up the ladder of stakes than 98% of other poker players who put in the time and effort I did (-1% to appear less cocky), but I’m pretty sure there is one factor that was instrumental to my propulsion: Playing like I knew what I was doing, even though I sometimes didn’t.

This is what I mean by playing like I know what I’m doing. Every time I sweat a player during a coaching session, they generally refuse to make a decision without my okay. “Is this the correct play?” They ask me.

“Fuck if I know.” I think to myself, half meaning it. Getting good at poker isn’t about making the correct play, it is using and integrating the correct logic. Doing something that happened to be correct doesn’t mean you did that something well. In my best months as a poker player, I was doing shit that was so far away from what everyone else was doing that my winnings were the only thing keeping me sane. I took a huge leap. I saw a reason to play totally differently than everyone else was, and even though I really wasn’t sure these differences were correct, I stuck to them. I made huge folds, bluffs with no equity, and extreme adjustments. I was considered a crazy player in the forums, terrible by some. But a year later, my play from one year ago doesn’t seem so crazy.

I didn’t end up folding the infinity to one odds call, but it reassured me of something important. Do not be afraid to do something no one else is doing even if you are not sure it is correct. There’s a thin line between stupid and genius. And the more times you walk it, the more you will be able to walk on the good side of it.

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while, I’ve been playing a lot with little success in the WSOP. My saddest moment was building a decent stack in the 10k plh last sunday, then getting it in pre at 2:30 am with KK against AA from the loosest, worst player i’ve seen in a while. That being said, I still almost folded because of how he was after he shoved. Oh well, I can’t complain I’ve still done very well overall.

Now, concerning the title of my post. I played in the 10k Headsup holdem about a week and a half ago, a tournament I was very excited for because the structure is advantageous for someone who knows how to play hu cash and hu sngs. So I’m waiting at my table a few minutes before the tournament starts when, lo and behold, Tom Dwan sits down at the seat across from me. With the exception of Phil Ivey, this may have been the worst possible draw I could have had. But I was excited at the opportunity to play and all-in-all I felt that I held my own pretty well. I had one big bluff that I was proud of:

Durrr was actually playing pretty nitty, I had been winning many pots and I had got him down to 20k when we started at 30k. He had checked behind 6/7 flops that he raised pre, so I felt I needed to incorporate some sort of leading range. A few hands before, I lead KJ after calling pre on a 28T flop and he called, I shut down and we checked it down. I showed my KJ. Now he raises pre about 22k deep with 300/600 blinds and I call with a6o. Flop comes 953 two tone. Given that I had just showed air when leading, I felt he wouldn’t think I’d lead air again. I decided right then to just triple barrel lead. I lead flop, he called. Turn was a J, I lead again, he calls. River is a J and fds miss. This I thought was a great card for me, because although I didn’t think he’d out me on a bluff, he did see me have overs when I lead before so it could be in the back of his mind. I shoved for about 18k in a 12k pot and he folded relatively fast. He told me later he had 9x, which is definitely a big fold.

Then came one of the most interesting hands I have ever been involved in. Several hands later he has about 18k or so, same blind level. He raises and I call with JT. Flop comes Aj7 two tone. Now he had been cbetting with a higher frequency then usual lately so I suspected he would actually triple barrel a lot. He cbets and I call. Turn is a 6 blank. I check and he checks to my surprise. The river is an 8 of hearts completing the flush. Now I check thinking he’ll probably just cback with a hand similar to mine. There’s about 7k-8k in the pot and he shoves for about 15-16k! My first thoughts are this.

1) I was pretty sure he’d triple barrel a flush draw
2) He doesn’t know this, he could think that he can rep a flush.
3) It looks like I have exactly what I have and its hard to believe he thinks ill call with it.
4) I have the Th which blocks some of his nut hands.

Now against calling:
1) He had been playing nitty the whole time and this is probably because of his image from TV.
2) He has overbet a lot on TV, he probably assumes i’m a person who has seen this and will want to call.
3) I thought he’d triple barrel bluff his air so how does he have air.

But I felt the former arguments were stronger. I said “call.” If I lost, I expected to see T9 or 88, maybe a flush. Durrr says “I have an Ace” and flips over A2.

On the rail Danny, who’s watching the match, says, “Oh. My. God.”

I’ll admit it, I basically got owned. I eventually lost to Durrr, but even disregarding that hand, I have to say I was really impressed. His demeanor at the poker table is almost perfect. All he did was sit up straight and stare at me as I made every decision, even when he was thinking of what he was about to bet he looked at me, only pausing briefly to smoothly toss a carefully constructed bet into the pot. He has just become a very good live poker player. Gl to you Durrr, I’m cheering for you to win a bracelet.

One of the best assets I have had as a poker player is connections with very good poker players. This sort of connection is not uncommon for online players; they normally at least have one friend who is very good at poker. However, even though picking the brain of a great poker player can be a tremendous benefit to your game, not everyone approaches it in the correct fashion. They ask questions, but they don’t ask the right questions.

Because of poker forums, or maybe just sheer laziness, online poker players have come to a specific way of learning how to play poker that’s flawed. This way of learning goes something like this: Player A plays hand, Player A posts hand on poker forum, Players B, C, and D chime and with answers like “fold” “call because he knows you have nothing” “raise because his range is weak.” Player A then agrees with one of the answers and now knows the right way to play that hand… probably.

Later, Player A may complain to me that he isn’t learning anything, that the answers to his hands are getting shorter and shorter and he hates that everyone’s so lazy. What he doesn’t realize is he’s the one who’s lazy, or shortsighted, or both. The fact is that there are so many ways to ask a question on a poker forum, besides using hand histories, but because that’s all he sees he assumes it’s how all the great players learned how to be so good, but it’s not. I was thinking of this the other day when I was talking to my friend Sauce about Fullring and I was talking about UTG. I explained to him that everyone raises really light UTG and I wasn’t sure how to take advantage. I told him that many players will raise UTG with about 15% of hands, almost never 4bet a 3bet, and play relatively tight besides sometimes calling pairs thinking they may have set value and sometimes weird hands like ATs. From this, we talked about different options and I learned a lot about how a great player decides what to do preflop given a range. If I we’re to take a standard poker forum approach to this question, like posting a hand where I reraise bluffed, got called and then didn’t know what to do on the flop, I would have never learned as much as I did. Sauce might have posted, but he would have just said “cbet” or “I wouldn’t reraise pre.”

And this is my point, it’s not that good players don’t want to reveal information to you, or they’re lazy, or they have some conspiracy against all poker players to try and keep them dumb. It’s just that most question they get are dumb (even though in your mind it seems smart, and it might be if you weren’t posting the hand history but instead just posing a question). Because poker isn’t played in a vacuum, it’s a big math problem that everyone will be happy to help solve for you if you just ask them to. But you’re not, you’re showing them a hand history and then asking them to read your mind and extract your reads that you didn’t actually mention. I realized that every single person I know who struggles with poker has not once shown me anything more than a hand history or asked me anything more specific then “how do you beat aggressive players?” If you ask more pointed questions, I think you’ll find that great players will be more than happy to give you very correct, very in-depth answers.

On another note, I’m playing the 10k hu today and hoping for an all-twin final table.

Max and I are in the HU WSOP tournament today. $10,000 buy in. My guess is if the tournament is a full 256 players, first prize is going to be around 550k…. I’ll settle for that . Max and I are hoping to be heads up at the final table, although it would take an absurd stroke of luck both bracket wise and winning wise.

The structure is very favorable to us because of our experience with both HU cash and HU SNGs. In our matches, we start with 120bbs and the blind levels go up every 20 minutes. I feel like at basically any blind level I am going to have a significant edge on whoever I’m playing. Versus a guy with HU SNG experience, I will be very good against him deep. SNG players do not tend to polarize enough and make big enough folds when they are deep. On the flip side, if I play someone who is better than me deep, I still feel like I’ll have a big edge late game. In late game the math is not intuitive at all. Good cash game players will have no idea what they should be reraising and what they should be calling reraises with 25bbs or less.

The tournament starts at 5 PT so feel free to rail! Updates to come tomorrow.

This screenshot says it all. I probably played 10 hours today, which is the most poker I have played in a day ever. The chemztry saga continued, I played extremely well, and ran hotter than a super red giant. I made 43k off of him at 10/20 (the other 2k was off a different player). The problem I played another player who was a big fish and ran colder than the moon, lost 42k. Thankfully for me but not so thankfully to my buddy, I only had half my action at 25/50. So overall, it was a good day, but it could have ended up as an insane day if I also got lucky against the fish.

I’m not going to lie, I am tired and have really bad carpal tunnel. I’m not going to play for too long tomorrow, I need to do some errands and I could use a day break to feel any control in my life. I do feel very very good about my HU cash game, I feel like I’m playing amazingly and that the second half of this year could be special.

Here’s some of my favorite hands of the day.

Full Tilt Poker Game #21649554184: Table Bald Eagle (heads up) – $10/$20 – No Limit Hold’em – 0:15:28 ET – 2010/06/16
Seat 1: chemztry ($4,334)
Seat 2: Mirttinur ($18,966.25)
Mirttinur posts the small blind of $10
chemztry posts the big blind of $20
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mirttinur [5h 3h]
Mirttinur raises to $60
chemztry raises to $200
Mirttinur has 15 seconds left to act
Mirttinur calls $140
*** FLOP *** [3s 2d 7c]
chemztry bets $245
Mirttinur calls $245
*** TURN *** [3s 2d 7c] [Qh]
chemztry bets $570
Mirttinur has 15 seconds left to act
Mirttinur calls $570
*** RIVER *** [3s 2d 7c Qh] [4d]
chemztry has 15 seconds left to act
chemztry bets $1,670
Mirttinur has 15 seconds left to act
Mirttinur raises to $3,340
chemztry: AHAHAHAHAH
chemztry folds
chemztry adds $351
Uncalled bet of $1,670 returned to Mirttinur
Mirttinur mucks
Mirttinur wins the pot ($5,369.50)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $5,370 | Rake $0.50
Board: [3s 2d 7c Qh 4d]
Seat 1: chemztry (big blind) folded on the River
Seat 2: Mirttinur (small blind) collected ($5,369.50), mucked

Full Tilt Poker Game #21647377235: Table Courtney (heads up, deep) – $10/$20 – No Limit Hold’em – 22:13:04 ET – 2010/06/15
Seat 1: chemztry ($8,339)
Seat 2: Mirttinur ($7,224.50)
Mirttinur posts the small blind of $10
chemztry posts the big blind of $20
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mirttinur [7c 6c]
Mirttinur has 15 seconds left to act
Mirttinur raises to $60
chemztry calls $40
*** FLOP *** [Qd 8c 2s]
chemztry checks
Mirttinur bets $75
chemztry raises to $272
Mirttinur calls $197
*** TURN *** [Qd 8c 2s] [Ks]
chemztry bets $457
Mirttinur has 15 seconds left to act
Mirttinur has requested TIME
Mirttinur raises to $1,620
chemztry has 15 seconds left to act
chemztry has requested TIME
chemztry calls $1,163
*** RIVER *** [Qd 8c 2s Ks] [Qc]
chemztry checks
Mirttinur has 15 seconds left to act
Mirttinur bets $3,850
chemztry has 15 seconds left to act
chemztry has requested TIME
chemztry calls $3,850
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Mirttinur shows [7c 6c] a pair of Queens
chemztry shows [Ac 2c] two pair, Queens and Twos
chemztry wins the pot ($11,603.50) with two pair, Queens and Twos
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $11,604 | Rake $0.50
Board: [Qd 8c 2s Ks Qc]
Seat 1: chemztry (big blind) showed [Ac 2c] and won ($11,603.50) with two pair, Queens and Twos
Seat 2: Mirttinur (small blind) showed [7c 6c] and lost with a pair of Queens

Full Tilt Poker Game #21649873089: Table Courtney (heads up, deep) – $10/$20 – No Limit Hold’em – 0:35:02 ET – 2010/06/16
Seat 1: chemztry ($10,333)
Seat 2: Mirttinur ($3,063.50)
Mirttinur posts the small blind of $10
chemztry posts the big blind of $20
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mirttinur [Kh Jh]
Mirttinur raises to $60
chemztry raises to $200
Mirttinur calls $140
*** FLOP *** [Qd 9h 6s]
chemztry has 15 seconds left to act
chemztry checks
Mirttinur bets $200
chemztry has 15 seconds left to act
chemztry raises to $757
Mirttinur has 15 seconds left to act
Mirttinur calls $557
*** TURN *** [Qd 9h 6s] [9c]
chemztry has 15 seconds left to act
chemztry has requested TIME
chemztry bets $723
Mirttinur has 15 seconds left to act
Mirttinur calls $723
*** RIVER *** [Qd 9h 6s 9c] [5c]
chemztry has 15 seconds left to act
chemztry checks
Mirttinur has 15 seconds left to act
Mirttinur bets $1,383.50, and is all in
chemztry has 15 seconds left to act
chemztry has requested TIME
chemztry folds
Uncalled bet of $1,383.50 returned to Mirttinur
Mirttinur mucks
Mirttinur wins the pot ($3,359.50)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $3,360 | Rake $0.50
Board: [Qd 9h 6s 9c 5c]
Seat 1: chemztry (big blind) folded on the River
Seat 2: Mirttinur (small blind) collected ($3,359.50), mucked

I busted out of another tournament. At first, I got very frustrated because the last few days I felt like I had been running really bad, including the aforementioned tournament, where I was all in on the turn with AT vs T8 on a T675 board and my opponent spiked an 8 on the river. I feel like I have a good perspective on poker: The results are out of my control, and whether I win a lot of money is entirely dependent on how many hours I put in, in good games. (i.e. enter a tournament). This helps me deal with the unavoidable fact that I will have one or two month streches where by the end of it, my poker account balance will read the same or lower numbers that it did a month or two ago.

Luckily, I am doing well online this month to offset my live tourney losses. I have found myself in a running HU match at 10/20 with a player named chemztry. We have played 4k hands over the past 3 days. During the 2nd day, I think I ran the baddest I’ve ever run in terms of BBs than I have ever run in a HU match. Nonetheless, chemztry is playing well. The way he plays is really a very good counter to my habits as a poker player. Here are some well played hands by both me and chem.

Full Tilt Poker Game #21592246631: Table Deerbrook (heads up, deep) – $10/$20 – No Limit Hold’em – 17:17:43 ET – 2010/06/13
Seat 1: chemztry ($3,186.50)
Seat 2: Mirttinur ($3,975)
chemztry posts the small blind of $10
Mirttinur posts the big blind of $20
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mirttinur [Tc 9h]
chemztry raises to $40
Mirttinur raises to $180
chemztry calls $140
*** FLOP *** [4d 7s 5s]
Mirttinur bets $220
chemztry has 15 seconds left to act
chemztry calls $220
*** TURN *** [4d 7s 5s] [Jc]
Mirttinur has 15 seconds left to act
Mirttinur bets $580
chemztry has 15 seconds left to act
chemztry calls $580
*** RIVER *** [4d 7s 5s Jc] [As]
Mirttinur has 15 seconds left to act
Mirttinur has requested TIME
Mirttinur bets $1,620
chemztry has 15 seconds left to act
chemztry has requested TIME
chemztry calls $1,620
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Mirttinur shows [Tc 9h] Ace Jack high
chemztry shows [8h Jh] a pair of Jacks
chemztry wins the pot ($5,199.50) with a pair of Jacks

Full Tilt Poker Game #21623418135: Table Thank (heads up) – $10/$20 – No Limit Hold’em – 22:20:16 ET – 2010/06/14
Seat 1: chemztry ($5,341.50)
Seat 2: Mirttinur ($9,533.50)
Mirttinur posts the small blind of $10
chemztry posts the big blind of $20
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mirttinur [Qs Js]
Mirttinur raises to $60
chemztry raises to $220
Mirttinur calls $160
*** FLOP *** [Ks Ac Qc]
chemztry has 15 seconds left to act
chemztry bets $325
Mirttinur calls $325
*** TURN *** [Ks Ac Qc] [3d]
chemztry has 15 seconds left to act
chemztry bets $787
Mirttinur has 15 seconds left to act
Mirttinur calls $787
*** RIVER *** [Ks Ac Qc 3d] [7s]
chemztry has 15 seconds left to act
chemztry bets $2,341
Mirttinur calls $2,341
*** SHOW DOWN ***
chemztry shows [Th 9h] Ace King high
Mirttinur shows [Qs Js] a pair of Queens
Mirttinur wins the pot ($7,345.50) with a pair of Queens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $7,346 | Rake $0.50
Board: [Ks Ac Qc 3d 7s]
Seat 1: chemztry (big blind) showed [Th 9h] and lost with Ace King high
Seat 2: Mirttinur (small blind) showed [Qs Js] and won ($7,345.50) with a pair of Queens

The thing about playing someone for 4000 hands is you basically have a page full of reads on your opponent and know exactly how they play. Your ostensibly then going to start having sick calls, like these ones. The winner of long heads up matches are generally going to be who adjusts better to the way the other person is playing. I think I am adjusting better than he is, so we will see if things swing my way the next couple of matches. Right now I am down about $12,000.

Wish me luck.

In last weeks hand, Sixth ended up calling with KT. Not sure if his thought process was good or he just decided he had two pair and wasn’t folding, but obviously my bluff didn’t end up being very good.

10 handed, 5k FR event. UTG is David Benefield, who has just been playing nitty and straightforward, opening very little and 3betting almost none. UTG +1 is 35-40 year old dude seemingly from LA, has surprisingly opened a lot but has not 3bet that much, but certainly not as low frequency as some old nit.

Effective stacks 19k. 100/200 blinds.

Bene opens UTG to 600, LA dude looks at his cards, and in about 8 seconds raises to 1600. Folded to me in HJ. I have KK. I look at LA dude and hes not even looking at me, refusing to pay attention to any other action. He also seems extremely tense.

I call the 1600. Thoughts?

Everyone else folds, Benefield calls.

Flop comes 874 rainbow. Benefield checks, LA dude semi quickly bets 2800. I look at Benefield and its unclear whether he is thinking of continuing or not, he certainly doesn’t look like he is going to snap fold.

I call/raise/fold?

So I bubbled the 1500 6 max today, but it went well overall. Hopefully I can save my luck for a bigger event. I am 0-3 so far in tournaments, but at the same time I feel like I’m getting a better hang of it. I’m feeling a lot more comfortable after a shift in perspective. Basically, I realized the way I’m going to win the most money is if I approach the table like a scientist, someone who is analyzing everything as thoroughly as possible and doesn’t care whether they win or lose. Before this change I was freaking out everytime I put a lot of chips in the pot, because it could mean me winning or losing the tournament. Now I’m feeling calm. This helps me be able to remove myself from the situation and analyze the hand objectively.

The 6 max tournament I played today were a lot tougher than the full ring tournaments. More online players and MTT pros, who actually know how loose to call preflop shoves and 3bets versus short stacks. Nonetheless, I have still felt like I have played better than everyone else I have played with so far. I am getting more and more confident in my ability to read peoples body language; you can tell a shit load by just looking at someone for 20 seconds, i.e. are they comfortable? confident? are they not focused on my actions? etc. This gives a player a gigantic edges on others if you aren’t giving off tells or people are not seeing them. I don’t think a lot of online players get this. I was playing at a table with two online MTT pros, both of which seemed like good players. But when they acted and thought about the hands, they never looked at anyone else, they just stared right down at their chips like there was no other information to be extracted besides the basic analysis of the hand.

Despite the 0-3 in live tournaments I am up a good amount this month online. Most of it has come from HU cash. I am certainly playing very well in HU cash but not quite my A+ game. At the same time I’m feeling more and more comfortable with HU SNGs. I’d like to put in a lot of volume this month, make around 200k vpps and catch up with the SNE race. Hopefully, I’ll have a big tourney score, but even if I don’t my online winnings have already paid for this trip and more.

So as most of you know already, I placed 2nd in WSOP event 8, $1500 holdem, for approximately 350k. To say the least I’m stoked. In the tournament I came back many times from a very shortstack, battled with Phil Hellmuth, and ended up, at one point, dominating the final table before having a few unlucky hands and eventually losing on a good call from my opponent for 2nd place.

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For those of you who are ADD and can’t bring yourself to read my day 1 tournament summary, I’ll give you the cliff notes. I’m 11th in chips (a 91.7k stack) after day 1 of the $1500 holdem wsop event #8, there are about 400 people left. Notable players also still in the tournament are the infamous Phil Hellmuth and Jean-Robert Bellande.

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