That's amazing.

I got 2 royals in the first 2 years I started playing it, about 5 years ago? Have not gotten one since.

rppoker,

Thanks for the thread, it's a lot of fun. You've gotten quite a following. Ever expect that your thread would attract this kind of audience?

Hey, at least we're not like the audience in Young Frankenstein.

I didn't really know what to expect when I started writing this. The writer in me thought I could create something interesting, but the poker player in me was a little worried that I might get dismissed because of my poker inexperience.

I worried for nothing. Everyone has been really supportive and very kind.

I have taken the approach I used to take in my prior career as a sports writer/columnist. My attitude back then was I would look for stories that interested and entertained me and write accordingly, and if I entertained myself I felt confident it would be entertaining to readers. That's what I've tried to do in this thread.

I think that the poker ecosystem is incredibly full of vast story telling opportunities, rich vibes, colorful characters and the ever dangerous Poker God of Variance that can rain hellfire on a table. I think it is a target rich environment for a writer who knows how to be a story teller.

I have tried to find a proper mix of story telling some of the time, and strategy/pokernerd GTO/math/range creation the rest of the time. Given that my audience is 2+2, I think it is +EV that I try to strike a balance between the two. In the end, though, I go back to if I write in a way that entertains myself, I think it is most likely that I will entertain others as well. I hope 2+2 agrees.

You have a good balance - I don't subscribe to many threads here but this is always interesting.

Game Day. Week 1 of the college football season. I absolutely love this time of year. Love! LOVE!!!!!!! As hobbies go, the only thing I currently love more than poker tournaments is college football.

My Michigan Wolverines play Fresno State tonight at home. Normally I would go to this game with my college roommate NextDoorLou because I love the opening game since it figures to be hot weather, which I love. Wearing shorts in the heat is a great alternative to being bundled in multiple layers and a winter jacket later in the season. Plus, the game is at night. Under the Lights, which is electric in The Big House. But I'm not going because I am going to next week's monster home game against Texas, and I abide by my self-imposed rule of not going to games two weeks in a row since I don't think that is fair to Mrs. rppoker.

My plan is to go to the following home games:

Texas. Currently ranked #4 in the nation. Big non-conference game. I think College Game Day will be in town.

USC. I'll also be attending the reunion this weekend on campus of The Michigan Daily, the student newspaper I worked on as a sports writer all four years I was in college.

Michigan State. Rivalry game. I have to choose between this and the Oregon game. While the Oregon game is the better opponent, MSU is a rivalry game. On paper this is a coin flip -- A-K vs. Q-Q. The tie breaker is good friend ToothBrushSteve from Pennsylvania is going to the Michigan State game and will hang out with me and NextDoorLou that weekend.

Northwestern. Nothing special about this game. It just works for my schedule.

Although my focus will be heavily spent watching college on TV and in person the next few months, I will continue to study poker and posting in this thread. College football will not interfere with my ability to study late at night throughout the week all season. I actually have a big chunk of poker copy to post in the next day or so once I do a final proof reading of it, but that will have to wait until I am done watching today's full slate of college football games. Today's focus is on Georgia-Clemson (unless Michigan is able to defend its national title successfully, I will need Georgia to be a blocker to a possible Ohio State championship run), Miami, Fla.-Florida rivalry game in the late afternoon window, and then Michigan's game at night (can they find a functional quarterback to go with an otherwise stacked roster?).

Prepping/studying for the 2025 WSOP
Inside the Mind of a Pro: 2023 WSOP videos

I am taking a break from GTO study/GTO Wizard/charts for a little bit. I am kind of burning out on this type of studying, and I have stumbled across a different way of studying that is very different. I have become aware of the “Inside the Mind of a Pro” video series in which Winamax poker pros have a WSOP tourney of theirs shot by cameramen and then they provide their thought process on every decision they make in the hands shown.

They don’t show every hand in the tournament, but they show a whole bunch with their thought process dubbed over the video of the hands. Hearing their thought process is a completely different form of studying for me than GTO charts, but it definitely has a lot to offer in terms of studying. I have now completed the entire 2023 WSOP videos in this series. There is one tournament each by five different pros.

My favorite videos were by João Vieira. Initially, what I liked about the early portion of Vieira’s videos is how he observes the cards his opponents display at showdown and uses the information to develop player profiles and hand ranges of these opponents. There is one opponent who is playing massively LAG in the early stages as though he has an imminent plane flight to catch. The opponent is playing a Maniac style with bad cards and he isn’t interested in folding. Vieira recognizes this incredibly early, widens his range to try to play a bunch of hands against the Maniac. Vieira has weaponized this approach very quickly in the very early stages of the tournament and he wins multiple huge pots against his opponent’s pure air. Vieira seems to recognize this before anyone else at the table does, he is willing to embrace variance by opening up his range, and he stacks his overly aggressive opponent.

While this particular opponent was too wildly reckless, the player to Vieira’s immediate left is very tight and he identifies this and adjusts to it quickly and relentlessly. Later in the video this tight player makes an extremely light call against Vieira, and Vieira recognizes that this player has grown tired of folding to Vieira’s raises. Vieira’s tells himself to adjust and start proceeding with caution in terms of bluffing this player.

This seems like a Masterclass in identifying different opponents’ styles quickly and adjusting accordingly all at the same table. Against another player, he deduces from his opponent’s poker mannerisms that this player is not a poker pro. Vieira is constantly observing and constantly putting the information he gleans to good use. In one instance he sees a player put out five 100 chips instead of one 500 chips and makes a mental note that this seems like more of a rec move since a pro would put in a 500 chip. Everything is assigned meaning. I know that this is something every player should be doing, but the way Vieira does it in these videos seemed especially impressive to me.

Also, he seems to have a lot more thoughts going through his head in his videos than was the case for the other pros in the 2023 version of this series. The thinking struck me as more high end. For example, he defends from the big blind and a flop comes out that is very similar flop from an earlier hand against the same opponent in a similar situation, and he builds upon the previous hand to guide him on this hand.

Not everything works out for him. In a hand against Isuldur, Vieira has Kc-7d and defends his big blind. The flop is 5d-3c-3d. Vieira leads out and Isuldur calls. The turn is 10c and Vieira decides to overbet and represent a 3. He bets 130% to, in his words, represent the 3 and only the 3. Isuldur calls. There is a lot more of Vieira’s thinking than I have described (what his bets should get to fold, what hands will call, blockers, etc.). As he awaits the river card, Vieira’s says he can bluff diamonds and clubs if either gets there. The river is 4d. Vieira decides to represent the flush, plus he notes that a lot of other strong hands got there. He decides to bluff 2/3 pot representing, he says, a 3, a flush or a straight. Isuldur doesn’t buy what he is selling and raises. Vieira says, “The party’s over” and folds. Vieira says, “I like these lines. These lines are good. I know how to play these lines. Not a lot of people do.” While his aggression did not work, this shows the kind of heart, the kind of aggression on a board that smashes the BB’s range, aand the kind of creativity to try to win chips without cards that I still do not attempt often enough.

In another hand where he gets to the river with only middle pair, he asks himself, “What can I beat?” I don’t ask this question often enough here. What can he realistically have that I can beat? I tend to ask the question, “What beats me?” I need to ask both questions. Another thing I take from his videos is I am too quick to fold. Even when he folds, he still works the problem, still analyzes what he can realistically beat in addition to contemplating what beats him. He is a thinking poker player. I can learn a lot from him. At the same time, he is thinking at so much higher a level than I am capable of right now that I am delusional if I think I can replicate all of the rapid fire thoughts that go through his head.

He is the type of player who finds a lot of uncommon lines, finds ways to manufacture chips without premium hands. He is constantly hunting for weakness, constantly searching for bluff opportunities. Even when he bluffs off most of his chips with second pair medium kicker and a busted flush draw against Isuldur’s top pair (aces) with medium kicker, he put Isuldur into the blender and into a long tank before Isuldur makes an uncomfortable but correct call. “You live by the sword, you die by the sword,” Vieira philosophizes after the hand. “This is what I expect. I expect him to suffer a lot, sometimes call, sometimes fold.”

Viera’s gets his last 3 BBs in with A-J offsuit and is called by an old-timer who is eating a bag of Cheetos. Vieira wonders if he gets the bag of Cheetos if he wins the hand. (By the way, who eats Cheetos while playing poker? Talk about likely to mark cards.) Vieira loses to Mr. Cheetos’ K-Q when a K hits on the flop, and he is out.

Vieira is the type of player who seemed to build big chip stacks at my tables in the 2024 WSOP. This is the type of player I aspire to become, but I am nowhere near being able to pull this off right now. Vieira got knocked out with the blinds only at 400/800/800 so he didn’t last very long. As Vieira leaves the venue he says, “I like my bluff. I think it’s good. I think when you can put your opponents on weaker parts of their range, and you can put the pressure, and for them to call, they have to suffer a lot, I think you always win.” This is a philosophy I want to remember. Even though Vieira did not last especially deep into this tourney, I learned a ton from the videos.

I wish he had lasted longer because I found his style of play to be fascinating and eye opening in terms of the spots he took that I would not have even considered. I will probably rewatch these two videos again at some later date.

I also liked the Mustapha Kanit videos. What I liked most about Kanit’s videos is he ran very deep so there is a huge volume of hands. Kanit has seven videos from his tourney, so I get to see his thought process throughout a wide variety of stages of the tournament, as well as very different stack depths of his as his stack ebbs and flows. I don’t think Kanit is thinking at quite the same high level as Vieira, but the sheer volume of hands in Kanit’s deep run allows me to see good thinking amidst a lot more ebbs and flows for a longer period of time than I saw in Vieira’s shorter tourney run in his videos – seven Kanit videos versus only two Vieira videos. To be clear, Kanit’s thinking is good, just in my opinion not at the super high level I perceive Vieira to be at in his videos.

In Romain Lewis’ videos, he has one hand that left me in awe. He has a very difficult call to make. It is a call I not only would not have been able to make, but it is a call that I would not have even thought to consider. On the river (I believe) he works his way through the hand. He does so quickly from where I sit, but he does so with easy calm. He is like Neo in the Matrix fighting at warp speed to an observer but with ease through his eyes. Lewis goes through all of the possible hands that can beat him. He tallies the combinations of these hands. It is a lot. He seems headed to an easy fold. But then he rapidly lists all of bluffs his opponent could reasonably have had that did not get there. He tallies all of the combinations of these hands. He determines that there are enough combinations of bluffs that did not get there to justify the call. He determines this and he comes to the conclusion that he has enough equity to make the call. He calls and his hand is good. I didn’t even see that this was a possible spot to consider. On top of that, I could never have worked my way through the problem and done all the math in anywhere close to the speed in which he completes this task. He says as he’s working the problem that he is going to need some time here, but from my perspective his brain is like a super computer going at warp speed. This is not something I can do right now. It gives me something to aspire to. The first step is to recognize that this is even a spot to work the math. I didn’t see it. Step two is to tally the number of combinations of realistic hands that can beat me. Step three is to make the list of bluffs that did not get there and then figure how many combinations of these hands there are. Step four is to determine if I have enough equity to make the call. This is a daunting task to me.

What I really like about hearing all of the poker pros thought processes throughout these hands (bet/call/raise, sizings, ranges, etc.) is I try to contemplate what I would do and then compare it to what the pro does. And if the pro does something different from me, I think about what I can learn from this.

This series reminds me of something from the poker training site I used prior to my first WSOP trip in 2019. The training site I used back then was Tournament Poker Edge. My memories of this are five years old, but my recollection is that my favorite videos kind of followed the style of “Inside the Mind of a Pro.” My very favorites were by Bigdogpckt5s (Casey Jarzabek) when I believe he had the camera on for his entire deep runs in some tourneys (I think Sunday Million online tournaments) and he shared his thought process on every hand. The other videos that really stood out to me were some videos that I think may have been called Sticking it to the Man, in which site co-founder Derek “Killingbird” Tenbusch turned on the camera to a tournament he played in, the hands would unfold and Marc “aznAllin007” Alioto pulled no punches and mercilessly critiqued Killingbird’s play on a decision-by-decision basis (they seemed like they were good friends on the videos so Alioto’s relentless coaching to be more aggressive seemed playful and did not come across as mean-spirited). I think they did this a couple of different times on the site. I learned a lot by watching these hands play out and learning from the thought processes given. And it’s a lot more interesting than just crunching GTO charts.

Now that I have finished the 2023 series of videos from “Inside the Mind of a Pro” I think I will next dive into the more extensive 2022 series. I’m sure I will eventually return to GTO Wizard as well as my current poker training site (Pokercoaching.com), but for now I am going to spend more time on “Inside the Mind of a Pro.”

To find the entire “Inside the Mind of a Pro” series go to https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...mnS7d1bsbBRQGn

Next stop, the 2022 WSOP "Inside The Mind of a Pro" series

I am going to continue using the “Inside the Mind of a Pro” series as a study guide, but I am going to change things up a little bit. For the 2023 “Inside the Mind of a Pro” series, I watched all of the videos relatively quickly, taking relatively few notes and mostly writing an overview of my thoughts on the series for this thread.

What I am going to do with the 2022 “Inside the Mind of a Pro” series is to slow down. When I see a hand that I find significant, I will rewatch it and take notes. Then I will re-read my notes and give my own thoughts in this thread. These hands will be selected for a wide variety of reasons: 1) It is similar to a hand I struggled with at the 2024 WSOP, 2) It is a line that I like but one that I probably would not normally think to take, 3) A hand that I disagree with, 4) etc., etc., etc. Put another way, they will be hands that I think I learned something important. They will be hands that get me to think about a lot more considerations than I did at the 2024 WSOP. To grow as a player, I need to slow down my decision-making process and work my way through the problem on a much deeper level. I need to do more than decide to bet, call or fold. I need to do more than decide on a bet sizing. In addition to these decisions, I need to answer the question of why.

When I post, I will do so one video at a time instead of just one post for the entire 2022 series.

I think this has the possibility of being better for me than just using GTO Wizard to study (although I will eventually return to GTO Wizard study). The reason I think using the “Inside the Mind of a Pro” series could be better for a couple of months is I think it will get me thinking on a deeper level. GTO Wizard drills present a hand, and I play it. Then GTO Wizard critiques each decision on each street, and when I get it wrong it tells me what the more GTO approved betting decision is. This is a valuable tool. However, what it does not do is tell me the reason behind each decision. It just says I should have check/called instead of donk betting, or it tells me that I should have bet 700 chips rather than 2,100 chips, or it tells me that I should have folded rather than call, etc. It doesn’t tell me the reason why. It doesn’t tell me what range of hands to put an opponent on. It doesn’t tell me about what kind of read it has on a specific opponent’s opening ranges or style of play. “Inside the Mind of a Pro” gets into all of these other considerations.

On a separate note, I just realized a few days ago that my one-year subscription to the poker training site I have been using will expire in a few weeks. Having completed the massive MTT Masterclass as well as a lot of the bigger multi-part series, I realize there is still a ton of content remaining. That said, I have completed all of the low hanging fruit. So while I think there is plenty of value remaining, I don’t think it will be anywhere close to 100% of my ongoing poker studies. I am starting to branch out. I wrote the training site’s support department a few days ago, and they confirmed that the discounted price I received a year ago is available to me for the upcoming year. Based upon that, I will renew for another year. A year from now I will determine if I continued to use the training site enough to keep it or graduate from it.

2022 Inside the Mind of a Pro/2024 Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me)
Davidi Kitai #1 (WSOP $5,000 6-max)

After the river. He has Ac-6d. The board is 5s-7c-8s-2c-2d.

Flop was check/check/check Turn Kitai bets half pot and gets one call.

After the river card, Kitai says: “I don’t think I can get him off many pairs, two pairs. I sometimes have the best hand. Even if I think he’d bet lots of his draws himself, I still don’t think I could fold out much with a bet. I don’t think he’ll fold any hands that beat me. So we’ll hope we have the best hand.”

The betting goes check/check Opponent has Ks-2s. Three of a kind.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “The key sentence in Kitai’s quote above is, ‘I don’t think he’ll fold any hands that beat me.’ I don’t ask this question of myself enough. I typically look at this decision through the prism of, is my hand strong enough to bet. While that is certainly a consideration, it is not the only consideration. Given that in this hand hero has ace high, which is an unmade hand that on occasion might be good, if it seems unlikely that a worse hand will call a bluff bet then the consideration of how do I get to showdown in the cheapest manner has to be weighed.”

………….

HJ (Maria Ho) opens 1,000 (BB is 400). CO who has been very tight raises to 3,200
Kitai (in the blinds) has 10h-10d

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “This is the hand in my 2024 WSOP that I had the most difficulty playing. In my mind it is too strong to just limp and try to set mine, but it is also a hand that flops extremely poorly. Given that two players are already in the pot in this particular instance means maybe it does make sense to just call and set mine. My difficulties deciding how to play 10-10 tended to be either in an unopened pot or against just one opponent, so this hand being three-handed is different. But I am still very interested to see how it plays out.”

Kitai: (sighs) “Tough one to play here. I’m definitely not folding. I’m plenty deep to go set-mining. Do I wanna cold 4-bet this? I’m not sure. I can give him credit. I haven’t seen him 3-bet. He might really have it. I will just call.”

Kitai calls the CO 3-bet. Maria Ho folds.

(Before the flop) Kitai says: “What I don’t like about this call is that he’ll usually put me on this kind of hand – 9-9, 10-10, J-J sometimes. Sometimes K-Q suited, A-Q offsuit.”

Flop is Jh-Qh-Qc.

Check, check.

Turn is 7h

Kitai: “The 7 of hearts gives me a flush draw. I think when he checks back (the flop), he’s always checking his strong hands like A-A, K-K.”

Check, check

River is 8d

Kitai: “There’s no value in betting. I don’t know what worse hands he could call with.”

Kitai checks.

Kitai: “But if he bets here, I don’t really know what he could be bluffing. He could’ve played a hand like A-J, A-A, K-K like this. It’s pretty standard. But if he has pure bluffs like A-5 suited, hands like this that he’d 3-bet, he could go for a small bluff.”

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “After the flop of Jh-Qh-Qc, Kitai is losing to A-A, K-K, A-Q suited, Q-Q, J-J. Even losing to A-J suited. Only think ahead of in CO’s likely tight 3-betting range is A-K. Yes, there are a lot of A-K combos, but nowhere near enough combos to add up to the huge amount of combos of hands that beat 10-10. I just don’t see a tight opponent like this three-betting preflop with A-5 suited. The turn and river don’t change anything. I don’t see the point of considering a bluff after the river because the only worse hands that might call are A-K, and I don’t think A-K calls. So in my mind, I am simply hoping to get to showdown as cheaply as possible (i.e. hoping for check check).”

CO bets 5,000 into 8,200.

Kitai: “Oh man, this isn’t easy. I have to figure out his bluffing combos. What could he 3-bet with? Hands like K-4 of spades, K-6 of spades, K-9 of spades. Suited hands with a king or an ace. With a little bluff at the end. At the same time I’m repping a lot of 10-10s, 9-9s. I don’t have many airballs, so he could expect me to call. I’ve been pretty active the whole time. I don’t think this line is a bluff. I’ll observe him a little. I see his carotid artery’s going nuts. But it doesn’t mean a whole lot. I want info I can use later. He doesn’t need to bluff often to make this call profitable. I don’t think I’m good. But I want info on this tell that I picked up on him. This will really help me down the road. Even if I think this call is slightly -EV, I still wanna call. It’ll give me good info for the future. It’ll really help me. Alright. A gift for you.”

Calls.

CO has A-A.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “As tight as CO has been I don’t think he 3-bet pre with A-rag suited, K-rag suited. A more aggressive player, sure that is a possibility. The table captain, sure. But a very tight player, I don’t see this as likely. Possible? Sure. Likely? No. As for making the call for information on a tell, a 5,000 chip call when the blinds are only 200/400 seems awfully expensive. Too rich for me. That’s a lot of chips. Ten percent of starting stack. Getting information has value, but not this much value. Too many chips to likely give away for information that I might not get to use against an opponent that for the most part seems to be playing fairly straight forward. Against a table maniac maybe you make the call because a) a maniac might have complete air, weaker air than hero has, and b) information about a table maniac has a lot more value than information about what seems to be a straight forward player.”

Kitai: “It’s not a great call, but it will help me in future hands. It showed me something really important that could help me. He has a lot of chips, so this kind of info is important.”

…………..

Kitai opens 2.25x with Kc-9c, SB and BB call.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “This is the type of hand that I tend to be too afraid to open with from early position because unless I flop a flush draw, I am uncertain where I am in the hand. Even if the flop is king high, an opponent can have a bunch of kings that beat me. So if even a flop giving me top pair is potentially scary, I do not love playing these hand from earlyish position, even though I know I should. In this instance the tournament is 6-max, so it is apples to oranges compared to the full ring tourneys I play, I am still very interested to see how Kitai plays this hand.”

Flop is As-Kh-3h

Kitai: “The flop isn’t anything crazy. But I think I prefer c-betting. I have to range c-bet on this flop. I have such a range advantage. I’ll c-bet small as I could with my really strong hands. But could I get calls from worse hands? From time to time I think I could get calls from worse kings, from flush draws. They could sometimes call hands with like Q-J of spades, J-10 of spades with the gutshot since they’re getting a good price, they could call suited Broadways or J-10 with a heart”

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “I don’t disagree with a small open. I also would not disagree with a check call. We’ve flopped too much to just check/fold. But any more heat on the turn or river is going to be difficult for me to withstand.”

Kitai bets 800. Small blind calls. Big blind calls. Kitai: “That’s not ideal.

Turn Qh

Kitai: “The turn is the worst, the queen of hearts. I’ll just check back.”

SB checks, BB checks, Kitai checks.
River is 2d

Kitai: “I don’t think I’m good here. I’m not good.”

SB checks, BB checks.

Kitai: “A bet wouldn’t represent anything. I’m giving up.”

Kitai checks.

SB has Kd-5d

BB has Ah-5c

BB wins.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “I wish Kitai’s opponents had shown some aggression, since that is the scenario I have difficulty with on a hand like this. I wouldn’t have liked to see how Kitai would have responded to some aggression on a hand where he flopped a decent, but not amazing, piece of the flop.”

……………….

Table is playing very, very tight. Kitai notes he gets to play a lot of hands. I never had a table this tight at 2024 WSOP.

UTG opens to 1,200 (blinds 300/500)

Folds to Kitai in BB. Kitai has Kd-9d. He notes that his opponents is playing a few too many hands in a loose passive manner. Kitai raises to 4,800. Opponent folds.

Kitai: “Yeah, he folds. He plays lots of small pots. I have to get him out of his comfort zone.”

Inside the Mind of an Amateur: “Same K-9 suited hand as above. This time, however it is not three-handed. This time, however, villain takes the betting lead. Hero 3-betting is not something I would have considered, but I see the merit of trying to push an opponent around. This is not a hand I am comfortable with three-betting, but I think it is something I need to try on occasion.
That said, I didn’t come up against too many loose passive players like this particular villain in my 2024 WSOP. This worked in 2022 in this particular hand, but based upon my small 2024 sample size, the players at my tables who raised UTG weren’t folding to a big blind 3 bet. I don’t see me making this move a lot, especially as active as Kitai has been against an uber tight table, but I do think I need to make this kind of move more often than I do. Preferably against an open that is later than UTG, however.”

………..

At end of level 4 Kitai is barely above his 50,000 starting stack. He has 51,700. As many hands as he won in this video, I am surprised he doesn’t have more chips. The loose river call he made when he thought he was beat, but he wanted the information on his opponent so he called, probably had a lot to do with this. My guess is Kitai must have had some other hands not shown in this video that must not have worked out.

I just thought I'd provide a little context for how I approached my previous post (as well as future posts) regarding a single video of "Inside the Mind of a Pro."

Step 1: Watch a video (typically 45-60 minutes running time). I watch a hand and if it has something that interests me, I mark down the time stamp, the blinds, the action throughout the hand. As for what qualifies as being of interest to me, it is usually a spot where the pro gets involved in a hand with cards I may not have played in the past but need to consider moving forward, a thought process I want to try to get comfortable incorporating into my game, or a hand I would play differently than the pro did. Just because I disagree with the pro does not make me right. It very likely makes me wrong. But I am transparently sharing my thought process and hopefully over time the growth of my game.

Step 2: Once a realize it is a hand I want to study, I type up the basic action of the hand.

Step 3: I write down a brief synopsis of my thoughts on the hand.

These three steps take about two hours. I will usually stop at this point, and come back fresh the next day with a fresh outlook. Next ...

Step 4: Rewatch the video, and on each hand I have tagged with time stamps, I go to the hand, make sure the action I typed up the prior day is accurate, and then type in the quotes from the pro giving their thought process throughout the hand.

Step 5: After rewatching all of the hands from a video that will make the cut, I re-study the hands and decide what my take aways are, and where appropriate, add my "Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me)" thoughts on the hand.

Step 6: Edit the entire wall of copy, taking out quotes from the pro that are unnecessary or seem too obvious so as to make it more readable to 2+2 viewers, and possibly tweaking my thoughts one last time. The purpose of tweaking my thoughts is not my attempt to look brilliant all the time, but rather is my attempt to tweak what I hope to learn from the hand and evolve my game. It is not meant to get a high score from 2+2 readers. It is meant to try to recognize lines that I previously would not have attempted in the hopes that I recognize these lines when they come up in an actual tournament. It is my attempt to build up muscle memory of approaches that may be foreign to me now but with practice may be spots I attempt at WSOP 2025.

I would say each post using these steps will represent about 4-6 hours of study and writing. I do not include every hand from each "Inside the Mind of a Pro video." I only include the hands that I think I have something to learn from.

In some (many? many!) cases, what I write may very well show that I still have a lot to learn. Something I am very committed to in this now 700+ posts and counting LVL trip report/blog is my willingness to share what I get wrong, even if it is embarrassing to me. I think doing so makes this shared journey on 2+2 more authentic. Poorly played hands on the actual felt or misguided poker thoughts from my study sessions will not get swept under the carpet. You will see the good, the bad, and the ugly. Hopefully over time there will be a lot more good and a lot less bad and ugly.

In all cases, everything I do outside Las Vegas (MTT tourneys in non-Nevada casinos, endless studying from my Chicagoland home) is done with an eye on the 12 days I will annually spend at the WSOP in Las Vegas. That is why I will continue to post 12 months a year in this LVL trip report. For 353 days in the year I prep for Las Vegas and the other 12 days in the year I will play in Las Vegas.

I'm looking at you WSOP. I'm thinking about you WSOP. I'm obsessed with you WSOP. I close my eyes and I am in the Paris ballroom stacking chips in June/July, competing against the best, dreaming of beating the best, hoping to get there on the river against the best. The path to glory is paved with hard work. I'm a long shot for immense glory, but you can place your bets confidently that I will put in the hard work. For me, the hard work is the reward. I embrace the hard work. I devour the hard work. I savor the hard work. I'm like a dog with a bone. Just try to get it away from me. Not a chance.

As always, thanks to those of you who choose to come along and ride shotgun with me on my poker/WSOP journey. I'm having the time of my life.

2022 Inside the Mind of a Pro/2024 Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me)
Davidi Kitai #2 (WSOP $5,000 6-max)

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “This first hand, I was initially interested because hero has the bottom end of premium. Six-handed this is the equivalent of an unopened pot when in middle position. This is uncomfortable for me, but I know I need to bet in this situation. As the hand plays out, it really isn’t all that enlightening until the river card when villain makes a bet that I would approach very differently.”

Blinds 300/500/500

Kitai has As-10h UTG + 1 and makes a 1,000 bet. BB calls.

Flop 6c-7c-4s

Kitai says, “This flop hits his range harder because he defended his blind. His range is more nutted. I’ll check back.”

Check/check

Turn is 5d

Kitai says, “His defending range is a little tighter, especially versus UTG(+1). But on this card he’ll bet his whole range.

BB bets 900, Kitai says “If he has to bet anything I don’t know if he’ll continue betting. I prefer calling. I often have the best hand versus random Broadways, cards he could bluff.”

Kitai calls. Pot is 4,600.

3h

There is now a straight on the board (3-4-5-6-7).

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “Now is where it gets interesting. It is very possible that the board will play for both players. But BB stabs at taking the whole pot. “

Kitai says, “Eights make a straight. Of course he has eights in his range, but he could have so many other hands.

BB bets 3,100.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “This is where it gets interesting. I have no problem with the BB trying to rep an 8 for a higher straight. But I disagree with the sizing. I think 3,100 as a bluff into a pot of 4,600 is not big enough to push Kitai off the hand. I think villain needed to go bigger. Probably much bigger. At a minimum I think he needed to bet pot (4,600). In fact, I think a case can be made for making a polarizing bet of 130% (6,000). That is what I would have done. That is something that could possibly get Kitai to fold. As played, I would snap call the 3,100 bet if I were in Kitai’s seat.”

Kitai says, “I think he has so many other hands that I can’t fold. This call is too +EV.”

Kitai calls.

Villain had 9h-10s. He was bluffing and they chop the straight on the board.

……………

Blinds 300/500/500

Button raises to 1,200

Kitai has 5s-5h in SB. He says, “Calling is standard. But I prefer 3-betting. This hand plays a little bit better heads-up.

Kitai raises to 4,800, and he wins pot.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur: “In the past I would not have played this hand anywhere close to how Kitai does. I probably would have just called. Instead, Kitai raises. He does this to chase the big blind away since 5-5 does not play well three-way. I would not have thought about this in the past, but it makes so much sense to me. I also like the 3-bet against a button raise that very well could be light and because a 3-bet has a chance to win the hand immediately, which is ideal since 5-5 rarely flops well. Obviously, the likelihood that the button has bet into an unopen pot light from the button is somewhat villain dependent, as in is villain aggro or tight? But even a tight player is likely to try to steal the blinds from the button of an unopened pot with a light holding. Also, 3-betting here is a step toward sending a message to opponents that they open light at their own peril when I am in the blinds. The 3-bet here with 5-5 is the type of play I have to take advantage of more often. The other thought I have is this table is so much more passive than anything I faced in the 2024 WSOP. I’m not sure this 3-bet gets through at tables I played in during WSOP, in fact it wouldn’t against a lot of opponents I faced, but if he is going to raise from SB I also like that he went 4x instead of 3x. Again, this is a sizing I probably would not have considered in the past even though I believe my poker training site Masterclass calls for this sizing in this exact position.”

Kitai says, “This table folds to a lot of 3-bets. They really do.”

………..

300/500/500

Kitai has Kh-4h from UTG and bets 1,000.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “Again, this is 6-max so Kitai’s UTG raise is like a middle position raise 9-handed. I would not bet with this hand from this position. I suspect GTO says it is OK to open with this suited hand, but I’m not comfortable doing so. I think this is a hand that will either win me a small pot, or it will get me in trouble and lose me a bigger pot. I mean, let’s say the flop is Ks-7h-2d. That’s a pretty good flop for K-4, but I’d still be concerned that I am outkicked here. This is not a play that I am going to try to introduce into my game right now. The only instance I suppose could get me to bet here is if my table is as incredibly tight as Kitai’s table is in this video, something I never saw at the 2024 WSOP.”

Kitai: “I’ll keep on opening everything.”

BB calls

Flop is 3h-8c-As.

Kitai: “I have a range advantage on this flop. I think from a GTO perspective it’s good to c-bet big on Ace-high boards. I have such a big range advantage. To get max value starting on the flop. But I’m trying to play as low variance as possible. I’d rather go for a small sizing. Keep more hands in his range so I can double barrel.

Kitai bets 700, BB calls. Pot is 4,200.

Turn is 4d.

Kitai says, “The 4 on the turn improves my range a bit. But I’m still behind often. I’ll size up and try to get him off an 8. For sure. Maybe off an Ace. I’ll bet just over half pot.”

BB checks. Kitai bets 2,500. BB calls.

Kitai: “I don’t know if this is an amazing play. When he calls, it’s usually with an Ace. He has lots of Aces.”

River is 8d (pairs the board).

BB checks, Kitai checks.

BB has Ah-7h and wins.

Kitai says, “A-7, of course. Oh, man. I think I should’ve c-bet big on the flop. Either triple barrel. Three big barrels, flop, turn, river. That’s a good line. Or I give up after the flop.”

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “I would not have played this hand. I’m not being results oriented here. Although I am trying to open up my game wider than I currently play, I am not good enough to be as aggro as Kitai is in this video. It puts me inside the blender too much in hands where I do not have the experience to know where I am in the hand. For my level of play, this seems like a hand I would rather not play as I am most likely to win a small pot or lose a big pot. GTO may say to open with this suited hand, but I am not good enough to take absolutely every spot GTO says to bet. When I try to widen my opening range with GTO approved raises, I am thinking Kh-10h and maybe Kh-9h, not Kh-4h. As I am still swimming in the shallow end of the pool in my attempt to improve, I need more connectivity in a suited hand than Kh-4h possesses which is a hand the advanced swimmers can play in the deep end of the pool. I’m not there yet. One last thing, if I did play this hand and if I did bet the flop and got called, I would have given up on the later streets and would not have bet on the turn like Kitai did.”

……………

300/500/500

HJ raises to 1,000. Kitai is next to act and calls with 7s-8s on button. SB calls.

Kitai says, “8-7 of spades. A perfect hand to defend on the button. Perfect, I can crack a big hand with this.”

Flop is 6c-Qd-Ad.

Kitai: “Definitely not my flop.”

Check/check/check

Turn is 2c.

Kitai says, “Well, when they check they never have an Ace, but I’m not bluffing this spot.”

Check/check/check

River is 2d

Kitai, “If they check again, I’d be tempted as they’re supposed to value bet a Queen.

SB and HJ both check.

Kitai says, “A small bet wouldn’t be bad. It has to get through 30 or 20% of the time.”

Kitai bets 1,800. Small blind snap calls. HJ folds.

Kitai mucks. He doesn’t want them to see what he has, so SB does not have to show.

Kitai: “No big deal. I like these small bluffs that can be profitable long term and help give me an image that’s a little crazy, which will help me get paid when I hit a big hand.”

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “Initially my thought was I don’t want to call the HJ bet with 7s-8s from the button since there are still two players left to act. Initially I wrote down that I would be more comfortable making this call from the SB or BB. As I spend more time thinking about it, I think I should be OK making this call from the button. Although I have to make the full call, doing so from the button will give me position throughout the hand. That is valuable with a hand that is either going to completely miss the flop and lose a small pot, or it will smash the flop and potentially win a huge pot. Calling from the SB and BB are also fine since the call is cheap given the chips they already have in the pot. But the reason I have included this hand is I absolutely do not put enough emphasis on the value of the button with cards that have the potential to flop huge. This is something I need to work on. The way the hand played out after the flop is not all that significant, but the button call is why I included this hand.”

…………

400/800/800

CO raises 1,600. Kitai is on the button with As-9h, and he 3-bets to 4,500. CO folds and Kitai wins the hand.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “I include this hand because, like the hand above, it shows Kitai getting involved in a hand with less than premium holdings because he has the button. As I said, I think I need to open up my play a bit on the button because of the power of position. I am a little less certain doing so with this hand. Whereas the previous 7s-8s hand has the potential to flop huge and crack an opponent’s big hand, in this hand As-9h does not have the potential to flop as large. Even if you flop an ace, you have a kicker concern against the opening bettor’s range. Maybe this is why Kitai 3-bets from the button here, whereas he just called from the button in an earlier hand with 7-8 suited. Maybe the take away with A-9 unsuited is that it is strong enough to try to take down the hand without seeing a flop. He does have 100 BBs, so he can afford to make a move. I am not sure I would be able to pull the trigger on the 3-bet here. Against this table that has been so passive I understand why Kitai kept his foot on the gas pedal and raised. But my experience in the 2024 WSOP is that a 3-bet here would have been unlikely to force the original bettor to fold. And if that’s the case, A-9 offsuit is highly unlikely to flop spectacularly well. I’m less sure about 3-betting from the button with A-9 off than I was about calling the 7-8 suited hand from the button. I am interested what the rest of you think about this hand.”

2022 Inside the Mind of a Pro/2024 Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me)
Davidi Kitai #3 (WSOP $5,000 6-max)

I’m not sure if I’ve said this or not, but I am not including every hand from each video. I’m just choosing the hands that I think have something I can learn from. This is the opposite of edited TV coverage of the WSOP in which big hands versus big hands and horrific bad beats are what tend to get shown. I am more interested in tricky, more modest hands that are playable but can be challenging to navigate.

……………

HJ opens to 1,600. Kitai is next to act and has J-J.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “Good. While 10-10 is the hand that I have the most difficulty with playing, J-J is still tough given that an overcard will very frequently show up on the flop.”

Kitai: “I’ll play it a little tricky with a call.”

The button calls.

Kitai: “I’m crushing the button’s range. … Don’t put any big cards out there.”

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “I would have 3-bet with J-J, especially given how timid the rest of this table has been playing. From a learning perspective I’m hoping for a big card to appear on the flop. I want to see how Kitai plays when there is an overcard.”

The flop is 10d-4h-8s.

Kitai: “That’s a great flop for my hand. Great flop. I’ll try to get value from 10’s.”

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “That’s too bad. Even I know how to play jacks on a 10 high flop.”

Kitai bets 2,800 into a 6,800-chip pot. BTN folds. HJ calls.

Kitai: “He calls, nice. He can have 10s but he can also have 9-8, 8-7, 9-9.”

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “In addition to the hands Kitai mentions, I think HJ can also have 8-8, J-9 suited. As for the hands Kitai says villain can have, I think he has 9-8 and 8-7 suited, but I’m not as certain he would have bet preflop with those hands unsuited. It’s possible.”

The turn is 3d.

Into a pot of 12,400, Kitai bets …

Kitai says “I’ve been aggressive the whole time (throughout the tournament). He might expect me to bet lots of not-so-great hands. I’ll size up.”

Kitai bets 7,500.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “In this spot I would have sized up, but for an entirely different (quite possibly wrong reason). At this point I would feel I have been very fortunate to have seen both a flop and a turn in which there have been no over cards to J-J. At this point my thinking is, let’s take the hand down right now and deny villain his equity if he has over cards. Whereas Kitai is betting this way to induce action due to his image, I am playing scared and just want to win the hand right now without any river angst. I’m not saying I need to get reckless if we see a river and an over card shows up, but I have got to stop playing scared of potentially bad river cards that may or may not be turned over. Up until this point in the hand I’m not sure this hand was worth including in my post, but my thinking on the turn makes me decide to keep this hand in the post.”

HJ snap folds.

Kitai: “Too bad.”

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “I would have been thinking, ‘Great, I dodged a potentially bad river card and won a nice pot.’ Again, I have to stop being so skittish. I have to stop just wanting to have the nuts in order to comfortably bet. Obviously, I bet in hands without having the nuts, but I have to expand my willingness to embrace spots where my edge gets a bit thinner.”

…………

Kitai is UTG with Qh-8h.

Kitai says, “I will open. I’ll keep up this aggressive strategy of opening lots of hands.”

Kitai bets 1,600.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “Keeping in mind that this is 6-max, I will view this UTG open as though it were a middle position open in a nine-handed tourney. I will be honest, I’m not comfortable opening Qh-8h in that position. I’m just not ready to play this wide open. Especially since my tables at the 2024 WSOP were so much more aggressive than this 2022 table. Qh-10h, yes that I could open with, but I don’t have the experience to happily navigate the land mines of playing Qh-8h post flop.”

BB calls. He has been defending quite a bit.

The flop is Qs-Jc-As.

BB checks.

Kitai says, “I have a huge range advantage on this flop. I will c-bet.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “My thought process on this flop is completely wrong. I am thinking I will call a BB bet, or if the BB checks I will check back and then raise after the turn assuming the turn is a blank. My thinking is if BB goes check on the flop and check on the turn, then my middle pair is highly likely to be ahead. I have got to stop playing my actual hand and start playing my range. I would not have opened preflop from UTG with Qh-8h, but if I had then I have to remember that my ‘range’ – not my cards -- connects extremely strongly with the flop.

Kitai bets 1/3 pot. 1,400 chips into a pot of 4,400.

BB folds. Kitai wins the hand.

……………

Cutoff opens to 2,000.

Kitai has Kh-8h.

Kitai: “He raised the short stack’s BB. … It’s a perfect spot to 3-bet. I like 3-betting hands like this, and it’s a good spot.

Kitai 3-bets to 7,500.

Inside the Mind of a Poker Amateur (me): “No way I am 3-betting here. This is one of the tightest tables I have ever seen. No way cutoff is opening light given how aggressive Kitai has been. There will be better opportunities to manufacture chips.”

The BB shoves all-in for 25,700. The cutoff folds.

Kitai: “How much? I’ll calculate my odds. I think it’s close, and I have to call. Pretty sick, I don’t wanna call. Hands like this usually have 40% equity vs. his shoving range. I have 35-40% equity. He’s not shoving garbage either, but he’s still seen me 3-bet too much. He may even shove 7-7, 6-6, hands like that. He could shove A-J, A-Q. 25,000 is some thirty blinds. I think I’m getting around the right price. 18,000 more to put in. I think I’m close to getting the right price. Let me calculate it. 18,000. There’s the dead money from the open. I have to call. 18,000 to win 55,000. I’m getting 1 to 3. This is so close. I also need to think about this strategically. Do I want to take this spot or not? I don’t mind having him on my left. Calling definitely isn’t super profitable. It’s slightly +EV. But I can wait for another spot. I don’t really want to play high variance. Especially because he can shove hands like K-Q, which would really suck for my hand. OK, you know what, I’m folding.”

Inside the Mind of a Poker Amateur: “This is a clear fold to me. The BB has 32 big blinds. There is no reason for him to pick this spot to blast off that many big blinds with a 4-bet all in unless he has the goods. This player has not given any indication that he has a 4-bet bluff preflop in his arsenal. Yes, it’s unfortunate to have already put 7,500 chips into the pot and then fold, but calling her would be a case of taking a small misstep and turning it into a more substantial misstep. Of lesser concern, but still worth considering, is the fact that knocking the BB out of the tournament is not necessarily a great thing. This is the most passive table I’ve ever seen. Kitai is running them over. Knock out the BB and maybe he gets replaced by an aggro killer. If I have a big hand then sure I try to knock the BB out, but why try to knock him out with suspect holdings in which both results are somewhat undesirable (i.e. either lose a bigger pot than necessary, or rely on luck and deliver a bad beat but open up a seat for a more dynamic player to come along). I’d rather take the small loss by folding, but avoid a -EV call and maintain a table dynamic that is heavily in Kitai’s favor.”

Kitai folds.

Kitai: “No need to play big pots like that. I have a nice stack. I don’t need to gamble right now. It’s too early in the tournament for that. I have a good image. I’ll find good spots. I’ll get paid off when I hit.”

………

Kitai is UTG+1 and opens to 1,700 with Qd-Jh. BB calls.

Flop is 10d-7d-10c.

Inside the mind of a poker amateur (me): “Good, another decent but not premium hand I struggle to pull the trigger on a raise in an unopened pot. That said, it is amazing how infrequently this table is playing back at him. Plus, he missed the flop so I get to see how he navigates.”

Kitai: “I have backdoors. I think it’s OK to c-bet this. You know what, I’ll play it tricky. I’ll check back.”

Inside the mind of a poker amateur (me): “I’m not good enough to factor in backdoor possibilities on a hand like this. Backdoors to me in this spot mean I need to hit runner-runner cards which seems like a good way to bleed off chips with nothing but hope. Hope is not a plan. While backdoor possibilities add some value, it’s not a huge amount of value. I get that GTO wizards can factor in backdoor possibilities, but I’m not a wizard. Yet. Some day maybe.”

It goes check/check.

The turn is 5c.

BB bets 2,000. Kitai calls.

Kitai: “Something tells me he could have draws. I’m usually good vs. his defending range. I don’t wanna fold this.”

The river is 7h. There are two pairs on the board.

It goes check/check.

BB is 6c-3c. BB turned a flush draw but after the river has 6 high. Kitai wins with Q high.

Inside the Mind of a Poker Amateur (Me): “I’m not good enough to have made the call on the turn with a hand that had absolutely nothing going for it. Yes, Kitai played the man and the man’s range from the BB on the turn decision, but in my thought process that was really calling thin. I also think I just fold preflop if I am BB with 6c-3c. I mean, yeah, it’s suited. But it’s also only 6-3. Of course, maybe I fold way too much in the blinds when I have rags. I’d rather save the 900 chips than play a suited 3-6 against an aggro opponent who is going to keep putting me to the test with his unending raises.”

………..

Maria Ho busts. Kitai surmises that she must have been card dead since she hardly won any pots.

…………

Inside the Mind of a Poker Amateur (Me): “As I watch hand after hand of Kitai running over the table with his aggression, I am starting to feel like there is not a lot more to learn with the current table dynamic, because he is betting at times for no rhyme or reason other than the fact that this table will not play back at him. It is a parade of folds against Kitai’s bets. Where was this much passivity at my tables at my 2024 WSOP tables. Heck, even all of my 2019 WSOP tables were way more aggressive than Kitai’s opponents so far.”

Kitai says, “I think I have the highest VPIP at the table. And a high aggression frequency.”

…………..

Blinds go up to 500/1,000

Kitai has Jh-10h UTG and bets 2,000. BTN calls. SB calls.

Flop is 5s-5c-9d.

SB checks. Kitai bets 2,600.

Inside the Mind of a Poker Amateur (me): “The small blind and BTN have more 5s and 9s than Kitai does. On the other hand, betting pretty much everything seems to have been working this entire video, so why stop now?”

Both players fold.

Inside the Mind of a Poker Amateur (me): “I do not understand why this table is not playing back at Kitai. He is playing a ton of hands, betting relentlessly and almost never getting punished for it. If I were him, at this point I would be raising if I were dealt a paper clip and a piece of lint until the table finally decides to do something about it.”

………….

Blinds are 500/1,000

It folds to the small blind who calls. Kitai is in the big blind and has Kc-2h.

Kitai says, “I’m raising blind vs. blind. I don’t wanna let him limp too often.”

Inside the Mind of a Poker Amateur (me): “At my 2024 WSOP, this situation almost never took place. There was too much aggression for everyone to fold to the small blind. At my recent tournament at Hollywood Casino in Aurora, IL this hand played out where it folded to me in the small blind (I forget what I had) and I called. The BB raised and I folded. I thought to myself, if this happens again I will 3-bet with pretty much my entire range. The spot never happened again. Regardless, in Kitai’s shoes here I think to myself that he should raise. When he says he will raise, I stop the video. I ponder how big the raise should be. Normally, he raises 2x but I think in this specific spot he should raise bigger. I am certain GTO strategy calls for a bigger bet. I think to myself he should go at least 3,500 and maybe 4,500.”

Kitai bets 3,500 and the small blind folds.

…………..

Kitai has 2d-2h from UTG. He opens to 2,000.

Inside the Mind of a Poker Amateur (me): “He is UTG in a 6-max, but in the context of the 9-handed tournaments I play let’s say he has bet from middle position. UTG when 9-handed, I fold 2-2. From middle position in an unopened pot, I think in the past I would have limped, but I am starting to think differently recently. I think it is better to open with a bet. This way I have two ways to win the pot. The first is to set-mine. The second, when I miss the flop, is to bet my range and play as if I have a big hand. Perhaps not every time, but a decent portion of the time. Obviously, this strategy is table/opponent dependent, but I think this is a way to play 2-2 that I need to get comfortable with.”

The HJ and BB call.

The flop is 7d-Qh-8h.

Kitai: “This flop hits their ranges too hard. I won’t c-bet it.”

Inside the Mind of a Poker Amateur (me): “Contrary to what I just wrote, I would not bet here with 2-2. The idea with betting 2-2 preflop is to either take down the pot right away, or get head’s up. If I am head’s up, then I would bet ‘as if.’ In other words, bet ‘as if’ I have A-Q. But against two opponents, I’m not so eager to take such an aggressive line.”

Kitai and BB check. HJ bets 5,000 and takes down the pot.

Kitai: “He bets pretty big. Easy fold. … He doesn’t worry me. He hasn’t been caught bluffing, not even a small one. I love having a player that doesn’t bluff much to my left.”

………..

Blinds are 600/1,200

BTN opens to 2,400. Kitai has 8c-7c in BB.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “The BTN recently seems to have run a ballsy bluff on Kitai. I say ballsy because he only showed one card, so the other card is an unknown. In this spot I think a call makes sense. I’ll either lose a small pot or win a huge one if I flop big.”

Kitai raises to 9,000. BTN folds.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “Against this passive table the raise makes sense. Although, the BTN is new to the table and early indications suggest he might have more gamble in him than the rest of Kitai’s opponents all day. Against the players I faced at the 2024 WSOP, this bluff probably would not get through more often than not. That said, I criticize myself for not even giving consideration to a 3-bet. A bluff was at least worthy of some thought. I was too quick to just think call. This is a leak in my game. I am way too quick to make decisions without taking the time to think of possible alternate lines.”

Go big or go home

As part of my ongoing studying for next year’s WSOP, tonight I was surfing around the training site I subscribe to, which is PokerCoaching.com.

I clicked on to a class titled “How To Play Tournaments!” It looks like an almost six-hour session of online play by Bert “Girafganger” Stevens. I immediately see that he has four different tournaments on the screen. I am about to bail, because I don’t like watching multi table videos. I find it difficult to keep up with table dynamics. I prefer single table videos where I can totally focus on everything that is happening.

Before I can exit, however, I hear what Stevens says in the first seven seconds of the video, which is, “I’ve got a bunch of tables, and we’re trying to bust or double.”

This stops me in my tracks. I practically hear angels singing. I have seen the light!

This is precisely what I have been trying to get my arms around in my live tournament experiences. For me, playing in live poker tournaments has been about how much I love just being at the table, playing poker, making decisions, experiencing the thrills of winning a big pot or executing a successful bluff. I just love being at the table competing. I even love watching what is going on in hands that I am not in. While this passion is exhilarating, it is also a leak of mine that I know I have to battle.

I hate getting knocked out of a tournament. Not because it means the dream of winning the whole tournament is over. Not because it means I don’t get to cash. I hate getting knocked out of a tournament because it means I don’t get to play anymore. It feels like NFL cut day where a player is told to see the head coach and bring his playbook. Thanks for the effort, but you don’t get to play anymore.

I don’t want to bust, because that means I don’t get to play anymore. I know this attitude is holding me back. It is an attitude that allows me to consistently last double-digit levels at the WSOP but fall short of the money. It is an attitude that allowed me to cash once in the 2024 WSOP, but I made the money with only table scraps of chips.

I have to be willing to take more of a go big or go home attitude. But I don’t want to go home. Stop it. Stop it! STOP IT!!!!!

This is the reason I have decided to embrace rebuys when the 2025 WSOP rolls around after being so opposed to the concept during the 2024 WSOP. I think being willing to rebuy will allow me to embrace some spots that I backed down from in the past.

Over and over, I saw poker pros build big stacks at my tables at the 2024 WSOP only to get knocked out well before I eventually got eliminated. At the time I thought they imploded because they were reckless. What I now realize is that the fearless willingness to push the envelope, to push thin edges, is how they run deep.

“We’re trying to bust or double.”

When I play, the thought of losing a hand with mediocre holdings goes against my instincts. Running a misguided bluff and losing makes me feel bad, makes me feel like I am bad at poker. But if I don’t take the chance that a bluff will fail, then I never allow myself to win chips because a bluff succeeds.

As I type this, I recall an event from some 20 years ago when my daughter was an elite soccer player at a very young age. She was playing for a high-level travel soccer team. In one game, her team lost by a goal. She played extremely well and really stood out, but on a couple of break aways she shot wide of the goal once and hit the post on another. As we drove home, she was quiet. Then she said that she let her team down, that she lost her team the game. I responded by paraphrasing a quote by college basketball icon John Wooden.

I said, “Who do you think makes the most mistakes in a game, the best player on the team or the worst player on the team?”

My daughter said, “The worst player on the team.”

I said, “No. The best player on the team makes the most mistakes.”

“How?” asked my daughter.

I said, “The best player on the team makes the most mistakes because they have the ball all the time. They make the most great plays, but because they do so much they also make the most mistakes. But a great player makes a lot more great plays than mistakes. The worst player on the team hardly ever has the ball in a game. As a result, they don’t make hardly any mistakes, but they also don’t make any great plays because they hardly ever have the ball. They don’t do anything.”

My daughter was silent for a few seconds. Then she said, “That makes sense. I like that. I make more mistakes because I make so many great plays.”

My young daughter, all of nine years old at the time, quickly got the concept, embraced the concept, was emboldened by the concept.

I’ve got to learn to do the same.

I hear “we’re trying to bust or double” in the recesses of my brain. That doesn’t mean going all-in on the first hand of a poker tourney, but it does mean I need to push the envelope more than I do. I need to be more willing to make mistakes because I am more willing to look for more spots where I can make great plays.

No poker studying for a few days. I'm driving up to Ann Arbor for the Michigan-Texas football game. Number 3 versus number 10 in the nation. Big game. I'm excited. Should be a tremendous environment at the Big House. Even though there were big graduation losses from last season's national championship team, Michigan is loaded everywhere except at quarterback, which is a concern. I'll post pictures.

On the road to Ann Arbor for the Michigan-Texas football game

The trip from Chicago to Ann Arbor was mildly interesting. Nothing earth shattering but the start of the road trip is enjoyable.

Before I hit the road I stopped at a mini mart/gas station for a doughnut and milk. I took a doughnut from the section marked Boston Cream, my favorite. I get in the car, start driving, and I take a bite of the doughnut and … what the f%#k … there is jelly on the inside. Someone moved the doughnuts. I still eat it.

Traffic getting out of Chicago is its usual mess because of construction, but I knew that would be the case.



Finally, I get outside of downtown Chicago and traffic starts moving. Quickly I sense chaos on the road ahead of me. I am in the far-left lane, and I can see cars ahead of me swerving like crazy to get out of the center lane. Pretty quickly I reach Ground Zero and see the problem. There is a parked pickup truck in the center lane. The back of the pickup truck must have opened somehow. There were four mattresses in the back of the truck originally. Now there are only two mattresses in their original spot. The owner of the vehicle is frantically and unsuccessfully trying to juggle the two errant mattresses. He is having a hell of a time trying to restore the mattresses to their original location, all the while other cars are whizzing past him on both sides.

The doughnuts are out of place. The mattresses are out of place. Nothing is as it should be.

Eventually normalcy returns. Still about a four-hour stretch of driving ahead of me.

I invent a new game. The Billboard Vice Game. Last year when I drove up to Michigan games, I noticed a huge influx of Cannabis billboards. The Billboard Vice Game will have the Mount Rushmore of vice: Booze, drugs, sex and gambling. Let the count begin.

When all is said and done, drugs (cannabis) are the big winner. There must have been 30 or so cannabis billboards. Eventually I stopped counting. Based upon this small sample size, it would appear that the War on Drugs has been overtaken by a cease fire between the DEA and the World of Cannabis. My favorite billboard proudly announced, “All the weed you need.” I didn’t get a photo of that sign, but there were plenty of others I did. A couple of fun ones (“Free weed” and “Your favorite mom and pot shop.”





Booze is the runner-up in the Billboard Vice Game with maybe 15 signs, mostly for vineyards to go with a couple of local craft beer ads and a local whiskey company.

Third place goes to gambling with maybe 8-10 signs with Battle Creek’s Firekeeper Casino doing the heavy lifting. I can see me playing at Firekeeper at some point in the future if I can find a way to tie it in to a Michigan football weekend. The Mega Millions lottery has a billboard as does a different casino than Firekeeper whose name I forget.







Last place goes to sex. There is signage for three different adult superstores/sex shops. There is also a billboard for a striptease club.

My attention leaves billboards for the last hour of my drive when I get a call from my friend Superman. We used to work for the same company back in my sports writing days. Superman has endured and survived more health woes than a dozen people could live through. If a cat has nine lives, then this cat is on life #20. My friend Superman has dealt with one serious illness after another, and nothing can kill him. He seems to be indestructible. He spends a large portion of the calendar year at Mayo Clinic, participating in one medicinal clinical trial after another that might potentially help his many health woes. The benefit of participating in these clinical trials is that if a medicine helps Superman, he gets to continue using it even though it has not yet been approved for mainstream usage. Superman and I always talk when I drive to Michigan games since I have plenty of time to talk during the drive. We refer to it as him riding shotgun with me. We start our phone call an hour and a half later than we originally intended, because whatever medical appointment Superman has had this morning ran late. You get state-of-the-art treatment at Mayo, but patience is a good quality to have when it comes to schedules. Like we always do when we talk, our conversation starts with Superman updating me on the latest ebbs and flows in his health. At one point, I ask him how many surgeries he’s had. He says he’s had 14 major surgeries and 6 minor surgeries. What Superman calls a minor surgery is something you or I would consider to be major. So, 20 major surgeries. What is amazing to me is the always upbeat approach Superman has when it comes to the avalanche of medical problems he has to endure. It is inspirational. His super power, besides the fact that nothing can kill him, is the way he is able to maintain such a positive outlook in the face of unrelenting medical tribulations. After about 45 minutes, Superman has to leave for another medical appointment. Normally our phone calls last three hours when I am driving to Ann Arbor. We make tentative plans to talk again in a couple of weeks when I drive up to the Michigan-USC football game.

I get to my hotel, and I check my text messages. I see a message from one of my best friends who is close to being hired by a small but growing chain of restaurants. They have asked him to do a site visit to one of their restaurants near where I office and provide a secret shopper report. My friend asks me if I’d like to go to lunch with him as a secret shopper. I say of course. This sounds to me like we get to be secret agents. I’m going to be a secret agent. I like the way that sounds. I like it a lot.

Once checked in and unpacked, I call my college roommate NextDoorLou so he can come pick me up for dinner. As always, we go to Buffalo Wild Wings. Outside of the WSOP when all bets are off, I try to limit myself to four Dr Peppers a week (sugar is very, very bad says Mrs. rppoker). Normally I have reached my limit by Thursday. This week I showed discipline and I’ve only had two. That means I get to order a Dr Pepper at Buffalo Wild Wings. I also order my usual of 10 traditional wings heaped with sticky, messy garlic parmesan sauce. I also order fries. I skipped lunch on the way up today, so I am still hungry after the main course, and I order a piece of cheesecake topped with caramel sauce. This dinner has been a caloric, cholesterol time bomb. This, combined with football games on all of the TV sets, has me feeling fat and happy.

NextDoorLou drives me back to my hotel. I turn on the TV and, damnit, the Green Bay-Philadelphia NFL game is on Peacock, which my hotel TV does not get. No big deal. I watch the BYU-SMU college football game which is highly competitive and goes down to the wire. BYU wins, which makes me happy since my best friend in high school went to college at BYU.

I’m excited for tomorrow. Michigan-Texas is a game between two top 10 teams. Michigan is about a touchdown underdog, but my Wolverines did not show much of their offense last week. Tomorrow will give me a better idea of whether their QB play can be good enough to take advantage of their elite defense (which has three potential first-round players for the 2025 NFL draft).

The other big deal for tomorrow is this will be the first time I have been to Ann Arbor since Michigan won the national championship last season. There is national championship gear to be purchased. I’m not normally much of a shopper, but I intend to do damage with my credit card tomorrow.

Today is the least I have thought about poker in a long time.

Hook ‘em Horns!

Near Irving Park Road, huh? Back in my post-college days, the young woman I was seeing lived off I-94 & Golf Road (?) in Skokie. Seems like I went past Irving Park when visiting, but it's been a million years ago.

Best of luck to Superman. Rochester is nice the six months/year it's not snowing.

A day filled with loss

I wake up to my cell phone alarm clock going off at 8:15 a.m., which is early for me, but the Michigan-Texas football game I am here to see is in the early window of games. I check my cell phone intending to see if there are any text messages for me. On the Facebook icon on my phone, I see that there are a bunch of Facebook notifications. I click the icon and I see truly horrible news.

My high school friend MarathonBob died in an accident yesterday when his bike was struck by a car. I call him MarathonBob because he ran in 75 marathons in his lifetime. In high school we were in the same graduating class and were teammates on both the cross country and track teams during our four years of high school. Our senior year we were on the varsity two-mile relay team during track season. Bob ran the third leg, and I ran the anchor leg.

While we did not stay in touch after high school, we would later become Facebook friends. News like this that comes out of nowhere hits hard. It is difficult to place in perspective. On the one hand, we had not seen each other in decades. On the other hand, for four formative years we saw each other almost daily at distance running practices, in locker rooms, at cross country and track meets, at each other’s houses.

In the here and now, I force myself to shower, get dressed, and go downstairs to wait for NextDoorLou to pick me up for the football game. Although Lou did not know Bob, he is a willing set of ears to hear me tell about Bob. I should feel excitement for the football game. Instead, I feel immense sadness over the death of a long-ago friend. Just two days ago I saw a post on Facebook that had Bob in a picture with a couple of friends. Today he is dead. It is hard to get my arms around.

Under the circumstances, I don’t feel much like waxing poetic about being back in Ann Arbor, walking to the Big House, taking my seat at the game.

I’ll just fast forward to the fact that my Wolverines lost 31-12 to Texas and were at no time competitive in the game. I know I promised to post pictures, but they don’t seem appropriate in a post like this.

Today sucked.

I’m sorry for the loss of your friend.

Wow, what a hard thing to wake to. Sorry for your loss.

TJ and golddog, thanks for the kind words. I appreciate it.

I just got home from the five-hour drive from Michigan to my Chicagoland home. I'm wiped out.

2022 Inside the Mind of a Pro/2024 Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me)
Davidi Kitai #4 (WSOP $5,000 6-max)

Michigan didn’t suffer a bad beat against Texas. More like, beat bad.

I have a weak-and-a-half until I go out of town again for a combo work/Michigan football trip. That mean’s just one thing.

Back to the poker grind. Back to trying to improve my game for the 2025 WSOP. Back to studying spots in the Inside the Mind of a Pro series.

We left off at the end of episode 3 of Davidi Kitai’s 2022 WSOP $5,000 6-max. Time to crack open episode #4. Interesting hands only. Trying to improve, not fan boy watching A-A versus K-K. Still Day 1. Kitai has a 70 BB stack. Blinds 600/1,200.

………

Whereas the table was incredibly passive in videos 1 and 2, and most of 3, a newcomer toward the end of episode 3 has started firing back against Kitai’s very wide and aggressive 3-betting range. He loves to talk about hands after the fact. On the first hand of episode 4, Kitai 3-bets with K-3 suited. Mr. Talkative 4-bets with 7-6 suited and takes it down. “He’s the only dangerous player at the table,” says Kitai.

This is 6-max, so it is easier to make a move like this than in a full ring game, but this is a move I never tried at the 2024 WSOP. It is something worth considering from late position against a foe who is 3-betting way too wide. I don’t see myself going hog wild with a play like this, but once in a while it is certainly worth doing. I want to be able to find more spots than I did in my 2024 WSOP. I certainly found bluffs with some unmade hands that had decent equity, but 4-betting light was not in my arsenal.

…………

Blinds go up to 1,000/1,500

…………

Kitai has 6h-6s. He opens to 3,000.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “A hand like this, I always just limped in the past, but I am coming around to the thought that I should raise instead if I am first into the pot so my range is not capped. I know it’s easier to make this play in 6-max, but in a full ring game when I am in middle position I think I need to be willing to be more aggressive than a limping strategy.”

BB calls.

Flop is 4d-5h-8s.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “Nice flop for sixes. When I play sixes, the flop typically is full of Broadway cards. I wish big cards had hit here so I could see how Kitai would have navigated the hand. On this flop, I’m thinking he should play it somewhat aggressively. He has second pair and a gutshot, which is about as good as you could hope for with sixes. On the other hand, BB has the nut advantage as played since this flop really smashes his range.”

Kitai says, “The flop isn’t bad for my hand, my range. He has a range advantage, but I still got a piece.”

It goes check check.

Turn is 4h.

BB checks.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “I think Kitai has to bet at this point. His opponent has played it passively and the board is about as good as sixes could hope for.”

Kitai says, “I can bet this time.” He bets 3,500 into an 8,500 pot. “I could’ve checked back a big overpair, so I still represent strong hands. But I’ll check back and give up weaker hands, so I’m pretty polarized. I have value. I’m betting.”

BB calls. 15,500 in the pot.

River is 5s. Two 4s and two 5s on the board.

Kitai says, “Another 5 on the river, which isn’t great because I was getting lots of value from 5’s. 6-6 blocks some of his draws too.”

BB bets 16,000.

Kitai says “He’s understood he could bluff on this card if he bets it pretty big. Oh, man. This sucks.”

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “As I see it, Kitai loses to a BB 4 or 5, all of which are in BB range. On the other hand, BB could be betting a weak Ace thinking it is good. BB could have unsuited A-2, A-3, A-6, A-7, A-8, a bunch of missed heart draws. Kitai also beats 2-2, 3-3. Does BB really have that many Ace high hands? With an Ace, wouldn’t he have 3-bet Kitai pre flop given how aggressive Kitai has been playing? A call does not have to be correct very often to be profitable, but BB has a ton of 4s or 5s. Sitting in front of my laptop I think I would call, but on the felt I think I would fold. Tough spot.

Kitai says, “He bet big, which is polarizing, but he has so many 5’s in his range. I was ready to maybe value bet the river. A hand like 7-5. He could have hands like 3-3, 2-2. What other bluffs does he have? Busted flush draws. He must think I’d never play a 5 like this, so he can bluff. OK, I’ll fold. He’s got me for sure.”

Kitai folds.

…………..

Kitai has 6c-6d and bets 3,000 from UTG. BB calls.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “Again, I like raising with 6-6 instead of limping. Doing so allows me to bet on an Ace high flop. I want to see big cards to observe how Kitai handles it.”

Flop is Ad-Jc-4c.

Kitai says, “I dominate his range on this flop, so I’ll c-bet. I size up on an Ace-high board to fold out most mid-strength hands.”

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “Kitai’s thinking is precisely why I think I should bet and not limp from middle position at a 9-handed table rather than limp. It gives me more ways to win the pot after the flop.

BB checks. Kitai bets 4,000. BB calls.

Turn is 2c. A flush potentially just got there.

Kitai says: “Is it a good card to barrel? He could have the Ace of clubs. Could he still have jacks? He can have certain Jacks. I prefer checking back and taking the free card.”

BB checks. Kitai checks.

River is 9c. Four to a flush. Kitai has a flush but not a great flush.

Kitai says, “Another club on the river. That’s good. I’ll have the best hand sometimes.”

BB checks.

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “I would just check it back. The 6 of clubs is good some of the time. But I don’t think a bet gets worse to call often enough to take the chance of getting check-raised by a better flush or a bluff. I know that I want to increase my ability to find thin value bets, but this seems too thin.”

There is 16,500 in the pot.

Kitai says, “Yes, I do have the 6 of clubs. Can I go for thin value? I’ll go for a small 5K barrel. Try to squeeze some value out.”

BB tanks.

Kitai says, “It could induce some bluffs. I’m a bit scared of that. Maybe I got too greedy. I feel like he’s thinking about raising here.”

BB raises to 23,000.

Kitai says, “Achh. He makes it 23K. I haven’t seen him bluff much today. I don’t know if I’ll be able to hero call. 5,000 really does induce bluffs. I represent what I have. It looks too much like thin value. He knows I’m tricky. I could do it with the Ace of clubs. It’s a good play with the Ace of clubs because he could value raise the King of Clubs or the Queen of clubs. This is tough. I don’t think I can call him. I have to give him credit. I’m still gonna stare him down. No need to play too fast. I don’t know. French players ... They see me as a hero caller. He knows I can call. Would he dare? Would he dare run this bluff? This river seemed good, but it’s not that good.”

Kitai folds.

BB shows his cards to the camera. Hard to see what it was, but he claims to have had Ac-10c. Kitai was drawing dead after the turn.

Kitai says, “I think I played it well, even if it didn’t work out. It’s good to be greedy, go for value. I think he’d look me up with two pair, getting a great price. I sometimes have stone bluffs. I think it’s okay to do versus players who aren’t capable of bluffing there.”

……..

Mr. Talkative in the HJ opens with a bet of 3,000. Kitai has As-Kh. At times these two have tangled.

Kitai: “A-K offsuit facing a raise from this tricky player. I’m 3-betting of course. I’ve 3-bet a lot. He might go crazy.”

Kitai bets 11,500. Mr. Talkative calls.

The flop is 6d-Qd-Kc.

Kitai says, “That’s not bad at all.”

From the Mind of an Amateur (me): “That’s unfortunate from a learning perspective. I wanted to see how Kitai would have played this had he whiffed on the flop.”

Kitai bets 8,000. Mr. Talkative calls. The pot is now 42,000.
The turn is 9s.

Kitai says, “9, that’s not the best card. I see him having a hand like J-10 suited, maybe Q-J suited.”

Kitai checks. Mr. Talkative bets 7,000.

Kitai says, “A small bet. Hard to fold to this small bet, but on the river I dunno what to do. He still has hands that beat me like K-Q, 6-6, J-10. What do I beat? Flush draws. I’m not sure I should call on a brick if he continues. He’ll never value bet worse.”

Kitai calls.

The turn is 10h.

Kitai says, “Oh, man. The 10 is no good. If he had a hand like K-J, he could’ve bet the turn to check back the river but now hit a straight. What the hell is this run out? Not good at all.”

Kitai checks. Mr. Talkative goes all-in.

Kitai moans and says, “I’ll still think it over a little. What an ugly run out. This 10 may have saved me, but … Oh, man. It’s a big pot. He’s a player who’s bluffed. Who’s very tricky. The issue is I don’t see a lot of bluffs in his range. I see hands like A-10 of diamonds, A-x of diamonds, 7-6 suited. A bit tricky, but he likes playing small cards. Like 7-6 clubs. He might have called the c-bet once. He doesn’t have many bluffs. He has lots of strong hands. I think he could shove his K-Q’s, his trip 6’s on the river. He has a lot of J of spades, even in his flop bluffs. If he floated with A-J, it’s not impossible. He has combos of Q-J that he could play like this: bet the turn small to check back the river. And combos of K-J, which would be the most likely, the most standard. Then J-10, which turned the nuts. That’s a lot of combinations. OK, ciao.”

Kitai folds. Mr. Talkative acts like he was bluffing.

Kitai says, “This psycho looks like he bluffed. Wow, this psycho bluffed. I was praying there’d be no 10 or Jack. … I don’t think I could have folded to him on a card other than a 10 or Jack. This guy is pretty sick. He’s very tricky. He never believes me. It was a good spot. It’s good to check the turn and induce bluffs, even if you can’t find many. He had a few back doors. He pretended to have that, the Ace of clubs. He may have floated the flop with a back door flush.”

Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me): “At first glance, this might look like a hand not worth writing about. Kitai 3-bets pre flop with A-K, gets called and then flops an ace. His decisions are pretty standard. But when the turn and river are ugly, top pair top kicker doesn’t look so good, when everything else got there by the river. Add to this the fact that his opponent has shown a willingness to bluff, and it’s a tough hand for Kitai. Against anyone else it’s probably an easy fold, but against a player who bluffs a lot it gets a little difficult to make the disciplined fold, which Kitai does. I found it very useful the way he talked his way through all of the hands that had him beat on the river. I don’t do this enough. I decide way too quickly. Even though Kitai was pretty certain he was folding, he still talked through the hand. I have got to do this more often.”

Kitai ends this video with over 110,000 chips.

Roadmap update

I am going to continue using the 2022 Inside the Mind of a Pro videos to study on my road to the 2025 WSOP.

However, I am not going to watch anymore 6-max videos since the WSOP tournaments I will play in will be full ring. There are a couple of full-ring tourneys remaining in the 2022 Inside the Mind of a Pro series from the 2022 WSOP. Once I have completed these, I am not going to watch the 2021 and earlier videos from Inside the Mind of a Pro. My reasoning is that even in the 2022 videos I have watched, the aggression seems much less than I saw at my tables during the 2024 WSOP. This sample size is admittedly extremely small, so I may be completely wrong, but that's my interpretation and I'm going with it.

As for the remaining videos I will watch, I am leaning toward not posting any more 2022 Inside the Mind of a Poker Pro/2024 Inside the Mind of an Amateur (me) content in this thread. There hasn't been any response in the thread to my recent postings, which is fine. But I take this to mean that LVL readers aren't that interested in this recent direction I have taken the thread. No reason to clutter up the thread with extensive content that does not seem to be connecting with readers.

This doesn't mean I will stop posting, but it does mean my posts will slow down in the near future since I will still be working my way through the Inside the Mind of a Pro series. Once I complete that, I will probably return to studying on GTO Wizard and PokerCoaching.com.

If I come up with any unique poker studying avenues like I have done with Inside the Mind of a Pro, I will share.

If I play in any live tournaments I will obviously post. There are some casinos with poker tournaments I may try to get to, although opportunities during college football season aren't plentiful. My friends know if they want to find me on a Saturday during the fall, I am in only one of two places -- 1) sitting in front of the TV on the couch at my home, or 2) sitting with NextDoorLou in our seats at The Big House in Ann Arbor, MI.

Possible venues for live NLHE tournament play that are geographically desirable include the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, IN, Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin, IL, Hollywood Casino in Aurora, IL, Charitable Games tourneys in the Chicagoland area, and FireKeepers Casino in Battle Creek, MI. This will most likely be in the winter and spring months, although there are a couple possible fall opportunities that I am trying to navigate.

As the 2025 WSOP gets closer I will share my plans. That will be followed by me posting my experiences from a two-week stretch playing in what I feel is the best poker tourney in the world. I obviously have no experience playing in any of the big tourneys outside of the WSOP to make comparisons, but the WSOP is my obsession, my pursuit of the Great White Whale to make a literary reference.

So, that's where I am in my poker journey. Time to keep my head down, my nose to the grindstone, and my enthusiasm high as I study, study, study my way toward WSOP 2025.

I'm still reading with interest but I haven't played a tournament since I lucked out and won a WPT deep stack event a few years ago. I'm strictly a cash player nowadays so not that interested in or qualified to debate tournament spots from a pro's video.

Looking forward to reports from any local area tournaments you play and of course to your WSOP journey next year,

I enjoyed your TR, but some of the study-related posts seem like they might be a better fit in the Poker Blogs and Goals sub-forum since they pertain to future plans and not necessarily an active trip.

As you look forward to the WSOP, I'll again encourage you to keep an open mind about other venues. The WSOP is a premium brand, but not all of its events offer a premium experience. There may be a random day or two during your trip when the most interesting NLHE event is happening somewhere else.