01 February 2012

» Why you are not Jason Mercier

What is it that separates the best players in the world from the rest of us? You may be inclined to answer that it is their technical knowledge of the game and their fundamental skill sets that are practiced and honed over time to near perfection.

03 January 2012

» Average

There’s a scene in the film (of the book, no less) World According to Garp where the lead couple are viewing a house. As they do, a biplane crashes into the first floor, semi-demolishing it. Garp immediately buys the house: “Well, this is the safest house in America. What are the odds of something like that happening twice?”

01 December 2011

» The ins and outs of tournament grinding

A quick exercise to begin this piece. Picture in your mind’s eye a successful winning poker player.

02 November 2011

» Nick Wealthall on Muggles

I recently started watching the Harry Potter films in reverse order. I didn’t plan it; I went to see the most recent film when it came out because it seemed like the kind of thing that might come up at dinner parties. I realised that, having missed seven films and about 9,000 pages of stories, I might struggle to keep up. But I figured everyone who looked 12 years too old for their part must be a goodie and took it from there. Turns out it’s a pretty good system.

11 October 2011

» Spin it Up!

With money tight these days – global recession and all that – as well as the future of online poker being somewhat under the sword of Damocles – Black Friday and all that – it has never been more important than it is now to make as much money as quickly as possible. That’s right, you might lose your job tomorrow and online poker might implode the day after, so it’s absolutely vital that we get as much as we can out of this, while we can.

13 September 2011

» Slovenia Deep Stack

By Paul Jackson


I was really looking forward to going back to Slovenia for the D4 Events Mediterranean Deep Stack in the lovely Portoroz area of Slovenia. The tournament structure is superb, as is always the case with the D4 Deep Stacks, and this time I had with me a 20-odd player team of Bankrollsupply players, and also a couple of qualifiers who had won seats in the free-to-enter satellites on Poker Encore.

01 August 2011

» The Big Con?

Remember when cheats and swindlers used to be cool? We’re not talking super-user accounts or bots, or scuzholes that collude and chip-dump, we’re talking guys in zoot suits who said things like, “Never drink gin with a mark, kid. They can tell ya cut it.” We’re talking artistry and flair and savoir faire: proposition bettors like Titanic Thompson; the wisecracking lowlife gamblers of Damon Runyon novels; Paul Newman and Robert Redford in The Sting.

04 July 2011

» Poker, Self-Esteem, and the Accuracy of Self-Efficacy by Johnny Hughes

By Johnny Hughes


Titanic Thompson said, “To be a winner, a man needs to feel good about himself and have some kind of an advantage.”

01 June 2011

» Those Gambling O'Malleys – a short story by Johnny Hughes

By Johnny Hughes


Being an O'Malley, I was learning the grift by age 14 and I drove a car across Texas all by myself in 1937. You go ask any old person in the Southwest if they've seen my uncle Sky O'Malley's act and they'll remember and laugh. They had this ol' bi-plane during the Depression.

05 May 2011

» The Rush by Johnny Hughes

By Johnny Hughes


"The difference between a good player and a great player is that when a good player gets lucky, he'll win a big part of the table. When a great player gets lucky, he'll win the whole table." – Johnny Moss