I sometime think my brain is completely ****ed up. I can’t focus on one thing at [a] time. <div class="source">babar86</div>   I haven’t read a book in years, I can only read articles. […] I’m distracted basically instantly and have no short term memory. <div class="source">jimmyvjv13</div>   I was told [by my doctor] that if I choose to play online poker as a full time career, I will likely die...
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So it’s time for the three-week followups. If you’re just joining us in our program, I’ll get you caught up. A few weeks ago I did a drawing for free public coaching sessions, and posted them publicly. Now, three weeks later, I’m following up with them to see if their poker games have improved, and what we can do to sustain positive changes going forward. Well, I recently finished the...
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Strap in, because it’s time for coaching session #3. João is an MTT grinder whose average tourney buyin is around $150. He’s a strong player online, and even took 2nd in several of this year’s SCOOP events, but his primary issues were in live poker–particularly, he wanted to make the transition to playing more live tourneys. His challenges were that he got bored easily, would get anxious when his stack...
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Hey guys, Have had a number of people tell me they got a lot out of hearing the first coaching session I did with Scott C. Well today I finished my first session with the second candidate, a grinder from Belarus named Yaroslav. Yaroslav is an online HU $200NL-$1000NL grinder who wrote in telling me that he had a lot of anger and tilt issues. He said he was a...
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Hey guys, So the applications came in, and I selected a few people for the public coaching sessions. Thanks to everyone who wrote in! I have a few big names in store for the public coaching. It’s going to be exciting, so stay tuned. I’m going to be posting the coaching sessions one at a time. You’re likely to pick up a lot of the techniques and resources I use...
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Hey guys, For the next two days, I’m going to be accepting applications for public coaching sessions. If you’re interested, here’s how it works: [Note: the window for this has now passed. I’ll be posting a follow-up very soon!] [video] Write in an application (subject: Application), and just tell me a little bit about what games you’re playing and what you suspect your mental weaknesses are. I’ll accept (probably) three...
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Diogenes of Sinope was the father of Cynicism, an ancient school of ascetic philosophy. It’s easy to talk abstractly though. I like to imagine him: tattered clothes, tangled beard, a scraggly old man. In Athens, Diogenes was known unaffectionately as “the Dog.” He lived in a discarded wine tub, which he kept out in the marketplace. He possessed nothing more than his staff and cloak. He once had a wooden...
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I am sitting on a porch, and next to me is an old man—grayed hair, sun-beaten skin—rocking back and forth in his chair. That man is me. That is, he’s the old man I will one day be. He is looking off in the distance, smiling. Why is he smiling? Because he’s lived a full life. I can’t even imagine how much more he knows than I do. All of...
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Hey guys, I’m currently doing a forum Q&A on PokerVIP.com, as well as an interview that should be going live soon on their site. Check it out, and maybe pop in with a post or two if you have any burning questions for me! Forum Q&A Link [video] [video]
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Hey gang, Wanted to feature a really in-depth interview I did on Quoracast with my old friend Jeff Meyerson (also known as Crablar back in the day). We discuss in detail my early poker years, living with Dan “Jungleman12” Cates and Ashton “ASHMAN103″ Griffin, and the infamous Million Dollar Bet. Give it a listen, and subscribe to Quoracast if you enjoy it! Link to part 1 of the interview Link...
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Hey gang, Today (after a brief hiatus due to illness), I bring a new video where I explore the innumeracy bias. The central question I explore is this: are our minds naturally built to think in terms of probabilities and ratios? (They’re not, it turns out.) And if not, then what, as poker players, can we do about it? [video] If you have any questions, thoughts, or reflections, please leave...
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The poker community, momentarily breaking character, has been reflective lately. It all started with Joe Hachem lamenting the decline of poker at the hands of new-school players. Phil Galfond then weighed in with his thoughts on how to bridge the gap between new and old-school. Finally, Daniel Negreanu went on 2p2 to chide new-school players for not preserving the fun of the game; he imagines “a world where players think...
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Lately, I’ve been thinking about the infamous “million dollar bet” I made back in 2011. Today, I thought I’d repost the original story on this blog so it’s all here in one place. I was originally planning to rewrite it, but I’ve decided instead that I should post the whole thing unedited. It was very raw when I wrote it, and that rawness comes through in the writing. It’s an...
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Today, I’ve got a special treat: I recorded a preview of the audiobook! Hear a great section from the book, “Tilt: the Customer is Always Right,” which teaches how to play optimally against a tilting player. Of course, you also get to enjoy my chocolatey voice in its full aural deliciousness. It’s okay, it’s not weird that you like it. It just makes you more of a man. [video] Hope...
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I was in a coffeeshop a few weeks ago browsing the internet, when I came across this article by Glen Whitman called “The Two Things.” In it, he recounts the story of the Two Things. A few years ago, I was chatting with a stranger in a bar. When I told him I was an economist, he said, “Ah. So… what are the Two Things about economics?” “Huh?” I cleverly...
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What’s the secret to playing pocket jacks? This is probably one of the most common questions in poker, and yet no one seems to have come up with a satisfactory answer to the question. Here, I’m going to examine why that is, and give you my own take on the answer. [video] If you guys enjoy this format, please leave a comment and let me know! Or if you have...
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My first ever purchase as a poker player wasn’t made with money. It was made with FPPs. About a year after I started playing poker, I was $3/$6 reg with over $70,000 to my name, and I decided to cash in my FPPs on Pokerstars to buy an iPod. I was 16 years old, and my parents didn’t have the slightest idea that I was a poker player, much less...
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Today I’ve edited and cleaned up a post that I wrote many years ago. Back then, I was a solid 3/6 6-max grinder. I was the biggest winner on the PokerStars 6-max games and put in tons of volume, but I could never move up to 5/10. Every time I tried, I’d get smashed and would return to 3/6 to retool my coffers and try again. This was really disheartening,...
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