Thanks for taking the time to do this Phil.

A. You mentioned that you're a passive person by nature (I'm in this camp as well). Do you think this has helped your game in any way?

B. Can you describe the biggest differences in your game moving from mid stakes (2/4-3/6) to high stakes (20/40+)?

C. Favorite band?

I'm just a SSNLer, so you don't have to answer this if you don't want.

But what's the deal with 2% milk?

when you mucked the hand on high stakes that would have split you the pot, did you know right away or did you actually figure it out when you spoke up. gabe kaplin made it seem like you knew but you didnt want to look stupid. it didnt look that way to me. just wondering.

Hello there!

So I don't really have a specific question for you. I'm working on a project (documentary film) about young successful poker players who started off online. I'm interested in speaking with you further about this. Send me a private message if you're interested and I can give you some more details
Thanks Jman!

~Nicole~

ITS A TARP!!!!

"Meeting Tom (durrrr) was a huge part of my move to high stakes play. He opened my mind to thinking about situations completely differently. I remember one time when he was discussing a hand with h@ll in front of me, where he had something like weak top pair and was facing a big river bet. He was like, 'I think a call is better than a fold' and I thought to myself, 'yeah I agree' and then he said 'but I would shove' and I exploded. I realized that you should think of every possible option you have in nlhe. You usually have a ton of them."

can you describe how he/you think about situations completely different from most people? example? and an explanation for shoving the tp weak kicker?

What does it take to beat the high stakes games, what attributes muswt one have to be able to beats these games on a reguler basis?

Realy enyiod your videos on cardrunners , can we expect more in the future?

What notes do you have on cts?

Are there players you are trying to aviod on the tables?

hmmmm do you mean "TRAP" ? Or is TARP some poker term I'm not familiar with? Not actually sure how it could be a trap. But I'll let Phil decide lol.

Sorry this is off topic guys...I was just told this is a no no on this board

K back.

Unfortunately I don't save most of my hands. I remember a big call I made against a Ziigmund overbet river shove with TT or something. I know it was posted on 2p2, so if someone finds it, that'd be cool. I know I've made bigger calls than that, but I don't remember any specifically.

As for bluffs, I don't make many sick bluffs. I'm sure it was some river c/r, but I don't specifically remember any.

I'm sorry.

thx for the detailed replies. i'll think of them as your holiday gift to the community

I 3bet this maybe 80% of the time. I change this % A LOT with further reads.
Assuming stacks are right for it, my standard line is to c/r flop, hoping to fold out midpairs and get it in with 9s8s type stuff. I would shove most turns. I sometimes call for deception, and I would lead sometimes, but it looks a little transparent to lead 3bet this flop. I think it's fine since you're rarely far behind with KQhh, but with say, well, 9s8s I would expect to be called too light and not have a ton of equity.

Against some players, you're 3betting to get them to call with worse hands. Against some, you're 3betting just because they fold a lot and you'd rather take down the pot or find out you're behind than play a hand OOP (Also these hands strengthen your 3betting range so it isn't just junk and monsters). Against some players who 4bet a lot with a balanced range, and don't call quite light enough, it's better to call hands like these.

As for the flop, you're thinking about it wrong I think. You're thinking that he's gonna play his overpair perfectly. You're right. It's pretty easy to play an overpair in spots like these. You aren't gonna make money very often with a draw OOP v an overpair. bet/3betting and c/r'ing (c/c too) are to get money out of (or fold out) other hands in his range. You're trying (with the more aggro plays) to either get it in with worse draws, fold out as many made hands as possible, or get it in flipping. You might opt to c/c against some players who will either define their hand on turn and let you bluff the river often, or who might rep the flush and bluff off their stack if it hits.

I don't remember specifically, but I'm sure I have.
Probably

np, good questions.

Some more strengths/wekanesses I thought of:

I do get upset when I lose a lot, like most people, but I almost always wake up the next morning and am 100% fine. I don't know why it happens to me, but I'm very thankful that I can do it.

I'm also not as overconfident as most players (I guess this is just my opinion obviously, but I'm right). This is kind of a strength and a weakness. It makes me get upset with myself easier because I relentlessly question myself as a player when I lose. It's bad to lack confidence when you play.

On the other hand, since I question myself a lot, I often improve my game and don't go on autopilot very much. I see a lot of players, once they reach the top, just assume that they have it all figured out and seemingly stop trying.

jman,
to what extent do you think you will be successful in life given your laziness? is your world view currently almost entirely selfish? (when i am realistic, mine probably is at the moment but that could easily change).

given that you are smart, logical, and understand people well, you should be able to achieve anything you want in life; what would you consider the most awesome possible thing (for you) that you could achieve (but may not, through your own apathy)? are you happy living a life of upper class 'moderation' or do you want to do anything that you would personally consider 'significant'? when i say awesome btw i don't mean awesome to other people, i mean for you personally.

Thanks for the reply

I agree with your comments but had a question about this statement. Are you saying that better hands 4bet and therefore you are ahead if he calls? Also, how do you define "ahead" in terms of pre-flop equity - to me, I would consider it to be the fact that if we play a big pot against his pre-flop range - I am likely to be ahead - for instance he would flop a worse top pair and felt it - is this true for KQ - is he calling pre-flop with QJ or KJ and felting a K or Q high flop? (not saying he isn't necessarily)

I think this might be a leak in my game since I have always been reluctant to 3bet KQ or AJ, sometimes AQ pre-flop, without history of either light 3betting or light 3bet calls. My logic is that his 3bet cold calling range includes hands like AQ, KQ, AJ, sometimes AK and sometimes QQ-AA, along with mid PPs or SCs. Against this range, I feel like the only way I'm getting it in ahead on the flop is if he is semi-bluffing which will likely have good equity against me (this may be a result of me playing lower stakes and therefore not seeing quite as many 3bet pot shenanigans though). I would appreciate you correcting my assumptions which you think are wrong, such as maybe not having to get it in on the flop in order to extract the value of 3betting these hands or not overestimating the tightness of people's preflop 3bet calling ranges. Thanks again.

I think of all the players i have played the last 3 years, you have come along the furthest since first playing you. When you and bass were playing hu, i couldn't wait to jump in against the winner because at the time i think he tilted you and it was a great situation either way playing. Since you went away and came back, I think you are 100x better than when you first broke onto full tilt and i think this is the best compliment a thinking player who is striving to be better can receive.

My question is about the stakes you play. Yours and mine mentalities have seem to diverted. You seem to be constantly trying to throw yourself into games you are barely rolled for. I used to be this way, but in the last year or so I think I have lost that need to play as high as i think i can play. Lets call it "gamble" I still enjoy poker but the first day i lost 100k i think really got to me. What is it do you think that constantly makes you want to play as high as you can? You said you really should play lower, but what do you think contributes to you always playing higher...is it ego to show you are best at the highest level, is it because losing and winning 10k or whatever a day at 25/50 no longer excites you? or is it something else altogether? I would like to regain that mentality of going for it in terms of higher stakes, and i think your answers might help me reflect on it. Thanks.

This is a sweet question. I'll get to it eventually but I wanna go in order.

Krantz's poem is taking a while.

jman,

Where do you see poker going in 5 years? Where do you think you'll fit into it then? Do you think you'll still be beating nosebleed games or do you think a younger, more talented crop of players will rise within a short period of time?

nice thread idea btw. I've always enjoyed playing against you even though you are one of the toughest.

Phil - From your other posts and this thread you seem really down to earth and humble with all of your success. I bet you're friends with a lot of other high stakes players, but you don't seem like the "Ship it Holla Balla" type.

Do you enjoy and/or try to live this type of life that this website seems to represent? Or are you detached from your income in letting affect your overall lifestyle?

Arrrrg.. Some really good games are going right now. Who knew there would be this many degens playing on Xmas eve?

I'm almost done with another big post, but it's gonna be slower guys.

JMAN: do you remember playing me HU on stars? (Please give me at least 1 comment) (sadly I did not know you nor 2+2 then) hahahhaa

This ended up being more like a tight ass rap than a poem. I hope that's okay.

KRANTZ

If you sit down in a game with a player like Krantz,
Chips are gonna hit the felt so hard the table might dance
Things are going pretty well, he's a fish at first glance
Realize 5 buyins later, you're the Bass like Lance.

Sure every now and then he gets his money in dead, yo
You look back at the hand and think, "**** where'd his head go?"
Yeah you might call him a monkey or an action junkie
Just make sure you call him when you need to stack a red pro

For those who play with him, if he's not playin nice.
I'll try to leave y'all with some solid advice.
If he's pushing you around and your stack starts to whither
Check back the nut flush. He'll check shove the river.

Holler

I decided at one point that it made so much sense to get a coach. I realized that I might be playing poker for a long time, so a slight boost in hourly rate would end up being a ton of money. I made a post in hsnl (i think) saying I was looking for a coach. EL D basically said Tommy /end thread. A couple people agreed and I went with him. The experience was overall very very good but not at all what I expected or thought I wanted. It sounds like a line from a movie, but I like to say that Tommy didn't teach me the things I wanted to learn, but he taught me the things I needed to learn.

A lot of people don't get the most out of coaching because they ask the wrong questions. I think a program like Tommy's, where he sets out a lesson plan and tells you what he knows you need to learn is much better. I know I've written about the experience in detail somewhere. If anyone can find it, I'd appreciate it. Otherwise remind me later in the thread to look for it somewhere.

Hold on. Almost done with this one.

Jman,

Could you talk a little bit about how you go about balancing your range from a strategic point of view? (perhaps in 3bet pots oop, for example?)

I feel like when people try to talk about balancing or playing unexploitably against good players it's mostly an exercise in assuming/talking out of their ass/trying to sound cool thinking they balance or "mix it up" because in their head they say "well i'm capable of checking back TP here" or "i fast play a set and draw so therefore i'm balanced" -- but I'm wondering if there's something specifically you do, either by the math of it or by analyzing hands later and consciously saying to yourself "although I have hand X here, he can put me on hand A, B, and C as well and based on the pot odds I'm offering him he's ****ed if he calls or folds"

If you do stuff like that, how do you go about organizing these thoughts and the math? Also how often are you going through this line of thought at the table?

Hope that made sense. Thanks for reading. You probably don't remember when we briefly met at the WSOP but I've always been a pretty big e-fan of yours ever since the g-bucks article.

Thanks,
WoT

In case people forgot:
(not past 6 months but past year)
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=659

SICK!

Call?

I don't really know tbh. I guess just the things I listed in response to jfish's questions about my strengths.

Actually, I have one.

I think I can understand and adjust to players very well. I can figure out how they think, and logically deduce the way to counter it pretty quickly. Actually, here... I've written a bunch of 'unreleased' stuff for a project I was working on. This is part of a series about adjusting to specific player types (this one is adjusting to the bad lag)
etc etc.