18 June 2009
Computer Hand
Dear Dr Tom,
I’m playing a madman in a heads up cash game. He’s baiting me like crazy. Suddenly he says, “All in next hand!!!!” The hands are dealt and he insta-shoves. I have Q-8. Now, because I can be sure he’s doing this with a completely random hand, and because Q-7 is the median hand of all Hold’em poker hands, should I call?
Matty, North London
12 June 2009
Bubble Boy
Well, I’ve finished my first tournament in Vegas 2009 and there’s already a story to tell. I have a shiny new baseball cap with “Binion’s Poker Classic Final Table” stitched onto it. Is that the story? Yes and no. The real story is that I bubbled.
11 June 2009
The Long Road to Vegas
Hi everyone, and welcome to my Vegas blog.
This is my first post, and it’s so avant-garde that it’s starting before I’ve arrived. That’s because even before my first trash hand gets dealt and goes straight into the muck, I’ve got something I want to share.
09 June 2009
Headphones and Plastics
To win any tournament nowadays you need a lot of luck and you need to be running well. In the past it may well have been enough to avoid bad luck in order to prosper, but not any more. There are now so many good players and even the bad players tend to be aggressive these days.
05 June 2009
Pickleman – The Way of the Exploding Text Book
We’re breaking the first rule of Fight Club. Bluff Europe now has its very own Poker Academy, ever more training sites are springing up on the web, and there is now an established profession of “poker coach”. Opportunities to improve your game have never been so prevalent.
29 May 2009
Winner or a luckbox?
Dear Dr Tom,
Because of the luck involved in poker it can be quite tricky to judge your own true abilities. I know I’m up at my local casino, but I’ve only been playing there four or five hours a night, two nights a week for a year. Is this enough to call myself a winning player, or could I still be a lucky payer? How many hands do you have to play before variance evens out? Does variance EVER even out?
Darren K., Edinburgh
16 May 2009
Folding Kings
Folding Kings
Dear Dr Tom,
Dan Harrington says it’s crazy to pass kings pre-flop in a tournament, yet great players can do it. What are you thoughts on the matter?
Paul, Greenford
04 May 2009
Words of advice for young people
I recently noticed a very comparable position between my 15-year-old son’s experience with simultaneous equations and the way a lot of new poker players learn poker from the net and TV.
The Patience of Job
There’s a certain sense of inevitability about that next bad beat when you’ve had a run of seven beats in a row. You’re all in, the guy turns over a flush draw and you put your best sarcastic voice on: “I wonder if you’ll hit?” you say.
01 May 2009
Very Fishy
Dear Dr Tom,
I am a beginning poker player trying to get to grips with online play. Are there any poker sites that are particularly good for beginners? And is there any tuition software that you can particularly recommend?
Yours,
Fishy,
Cyberspace