Episode #145: Kill Everyone author Steven Heston
MAIN TOPIC
Steven Heston (Kim Lee), co-author of the latest Kill Phil book Kill Everyone, joins us to talk about how applying equilibrium thinking can improve your tournament game, especially on the bubble. Click here to listen to the show.
OTHER TOPICS
Go to school: If you have $850 burning a hole in your fanny pack, check out the U.S. Poker Tour's first "Q-School" at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas May 11-16.
Go shopping: Chris used his time off to clean up the Ante Up! Store. Buy something.
Go to the movies: The Grand debuts this weekend, and 21 is in wide release.
Go get a life: Chris whines yet again about The Best Damn Poker Show.
Red Sox gambling: Jonathan Papelbon cleaned up playing cards on the team's flight to Japan.
Will the madness stop? Once again, the heavy hand of the law (or risk management) has denied a worthy charity of money that would have been raised in a poker tournament. The victim this time? Nourish International, a charity that would have benefited from a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tournament that the college's lawyers advised shutting down. Boo. Click here for CardPlayer's story.
Tampa Bay Poker Replay: Derby Lane offers a ladies tournament, and Tampa Bay Downs, Tampa Greyhound Track and Sarasota Kennel Club are doing World Series of Poker qualifiers.
One Minute Mystery: Columbo decides to swing his big stack around, pushes all-in, runs into Kings, but spikes a Queen on the river.
HAND OF THE WEEK
Chris has had plenty of time to play poker during his recuperation, so he offers up a no-limit hand that's the root of the latest in a looooooooooooooooong line of recent epiphanies for him.
In a $1/$2 no-limit cash game on FullTilt, he's dealt As-9s on the button. With one limper, he raises 4x and gets heads-up.
The flop: 9h-4s-5s.
It's checked to Chris, who bets $10, which is called.
The turn: 2d.
His opponent bets out $7, and Chris, sensing weakness, raises to $30. His opponent then shoves, which would put Chris all-in. Trusting his read, and considering his outs if he was wrong, Chris makes the call.
His opponent had flopped a set of 5s, the spade doesn't get there, and Chris goes broke.
The epiphany? He needs to stop making these borderline calls. He wasn't even getting 2-to-1 on his money.
NEXT WEEK'S SHOW
Omaha.
- SCOTT
Christopher Cosenza is co-host of the longest running poker podcast on the planet, Ante Up! He started playing poker seriously in 2003 and his favorite players are Phil Ivey and Kenna James, though he tends to act like Phil Hellmuth if you make a bad play against him.
Scott Long, Ante Up!'s other co-host, is the author of the monthly Bet on It column in tbt*. He began gambling way too young (don't tell the fuzz!) and in the seventh grade, named his state "Gambleland" for a school project (State Animal? Loan shark, of course).
Just thought I'd comment on the hand of the week...
- I like the squeeze preflop, that way you're raising to iscolate and try to get HU in position against the limper, or even take it down there. You're also 5-handed so you're almost playing this for value, and that definitely can be part of your range to raise with there.
- I like the "c-bet" on the flop. ;) (Continuation betting is defined as "When a player bet out or raised during a prior betting round, the act of betting out again."), which is exactly what he did. It is a bit small, though, only like half the pot. It's hard to tell, though, he could find that weak or he could find that strong. Even make it like just over 2/3 pot. I realize you bet small because you weren't afraid of much etc., but he might pick up on that and put you on a monster.
- I also like the raise on the turn, he's been calling you down so far, so I think you have to do this for value. Also seems somewhat like some kind of draw, so get some money in while you can. I like the call you made as well, you've still got quite a few outs if he has a decent hand. I'm not sure if he'd play a set this weak on this scary of a board OOP, either. Unlucky I guess, we'd probably all think you played it well if you had the best hand there, though, it's kind of hard to judge the hand in hindsight.
PS: The cards wouldn't have been the same regardless of whether he raised etc., as the RNG on FTP doesn't decide what the card(s) are going to be until all of the avtion is completed. Since a different action would have changed the timing (even ever so slightly), you will probably get a completely different flop. Just FYI.
PPS: I believe Full Tilt has like 15 seconds in your time bank to start, but it accumulates as you play at the table longer. Just another FYI.
Posted by: renegades8 | March 23, 2008 at 07:10 PM
Am I the only one that thinks the Kim Lee interview at one point, sounded like the part in the Princess Bride with the Iocane powder. . .lol?
Posted by: Matt | March 24, 2008 at 12:56 PM
Too bad there wasn't an antidote for that interview, huh, Matt?
Posted by: Chris Cosenza | March 24, 2008 at 01:41 PM
I liked Nash Equilibrium discussion, as I majored in Economics at school. The example he gave you of the robbers is the classic example that is tought to everyone.
About the hand of the week; looking at it from the villain's side ... I love that weak lead on the turn. I use it all the time, and it works surprisingly often. Whenever I have a pretty strong hand heads up, and I bet really weak, it either confuses the hell out of my opponent or puts them on serious tilt. One of my favorite moves is to minimum bet the river when my opponenet has been leading the whole way. For example, I'll bet 2 bucks into a pot over 150. A surprising amount of the time, the opponent will push his whole stack in when I have the nuts. Ship the sherbert to herbert.
I guess the opponent thinks I'm trying to mock him with the min bet. Egos are a beautiful thing when you know how to manipulate them.
Great show.
Posted by: Berliner77 | March 24, 2008 at 02:11 PM
Chris,
You know what part I'm talking about, correct?
I appreciate you guys getting him on show for an interview, but I was waiting for an "inconceivable" to pop out of his mouth. :)
Posted by: Matt | March 24, 2008 at 03:54 PM
Hey Guys... I got 48 bananas waiting to ship out to you.. I need an address to send them to. I've email ed you guys a few days ago and called the hotline with no response. (the hotline call was last night so I don't expect an reply right away.. heh.)
Posted by: StatikKling | March 27, 2008 at 02:34 PM
Hey guys,
I'm a bit behind at the moment but I thought I would write in about the hand of the week.
At the levels I play at a min raise or min bet on a board with potential draws is usually made by a donkey that has 2 pair or a set and doesn't want to lose you. They ignore the draws on the board and will pay you off if you hit. If you call them down with your draw and shove if you hit they will almost always call. If you miss your draw fold on the river as whatever they have beats top pair.
I've read a really article where an online player looked at all the times he had been min raised and most of the time it was 2 pair or trips.
Since putting this into practice in my game I've noticed a serious upturn in results.
Min bets no longer bother me, I make a note of it and call along with my draws. If a donkey min bets and does not protect his hand, he will also donk off his chips when I hit.
Hope this helps, love the show.
Posted by: Actinolite | March 30, 2008 at 04:42 PM