Just a few weeks ago, we published a post on precautions to take when considering playing in a live poker venue. Wow, that seems so long ago. Today most of us face life-altering restrictions on our choices, albeit in the service of the critical cause of keeping the most vulnerable among us safe. The team […]
The past few days have brought staggering announcements regarding attempts to minimize the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Some travel between the US and Europe has been suspended. Many colleges are closing campuses and moving to online coursework for the remainder of the semester. With the discovery of Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert’s contraction of […]
The past decade has brought a wave of books, articles, and videos
about applying Game Theory Optimal (GTO) strategy to poker. There are reams of
mathematical calculations to support the potential usefulness of GTO-based poker
play. There are also highly skilled professional players able to execute at
least some of the strategies to positive effect. In a game of […]
The APT team has recently returned from our annual sojourn to the WSOP in the dry heat of Las Vegas. The highlight of our trip was the APT Meet-N-Greet held at Tommy Rocker’s located near the Rio, the WSOP host casino. APT members from all over the country attended. In fact, we even had international representation, […]
Tournament poker is full of tense and highly charged moments. And no stage of tournament play is more tense than the bubble. Playing for hours only to bust just short of cashing is profoundly frustrating. Conversely, the mental and physical relief felt after surviving a tournament bubble is rewarding in and of itself. Importantly, there […]
Absolutely nothing?
Does this paraphrase of Edwin Starr’s classic song War apply to tournament poker? Let’s see if you can relate to this experience. You’re in the first level of a 30 minute blind tournament where everyone starts with 200+ big blinds. In early position, you look down at AA, and raise 5x. You get 5 […]
The Moneymaker Effect. Even the casual poker player or fan immediately knows the backstory and the impact of that phrase. One day a recreational player wins a $86 satellite into the WSOP Main Event, and ends up winning it all. In the process, he defeats a couple of the biggest names in poker, and fuels […]
The WSOP Main Event always provides intriguing hands that generate considerable discussion. In 2017, Vanessa Selbst nearly got away from an Aces full of 7s boat on Day 1. Selbst correctly assessed that Gaelle Baumann had quads, identifying the only other possible holding as A7 of hearts. Selbst struggled for a while, wanting to find […]
James “SplitSuit” Sweeney is one of those poker gurus who can make my head hurt… in a good way. In his APT webinar last week, he examined optimal betting frequencies and value-bet-to-bluff ratios on each street. It made complete sense. Watching him wield Flopzilla to build specific pre-flop ranges to decide specific value hands and bluffs […]
In the middle of a tournament you defend your big blind to a raise with gapped suited connectors. You flop your straight draw. Great, you think, but now what do I do? Donk bet into the pre-flop raiser to show strength? Check-raise? Check-call? Check, and see if there is an empty cash table seat because […]