I think the Ivey interview is like poker, trying to piece things together with incomplete information. One of Ivey's strengths in the past is he seemed to have no visible weaknesses on or off the table (apart from his liking for craps, which often got mentioned). He has just done an interview with Barry Greenstein, where Greenstein is saying he kind of expected to be going to Ivey's funeral five years ago because of Ivey's lifestyle, so I am guessing that may have been drugs, or possibly drink. But whatever it was, it is good to see Ivey working to replace the bad things in life with good things in life like friends, family, meditation and actively seeking a peaceful life.

That also is like what I like about Joey's journey, he and Polk used to be crazy about the Vegas pool parties, the girl grind and poker world, then they realised that is all just a repeating circle that doesn't lead anywhere, so have been trying to find other things in life that are more rewarding. Polk has dipped his toes back into the poker world recently, so interesting to see the likes of Joey, Ivey, Polk, learning how to live a well balanced life and learn what to avoid from their past.

Phil Ivey showing us Podcast Rungood is still a thing.
Great conversation, great tournament

This was the most shocking comment Joey made during the tournament:
https://clips.twitch.tv/ShakingRelat...DLJO4xCl47knTS

Blasphemy!!!

I have purchased Joey’s book Chasing the Poker Dream off of Amazon. Have read it twice and this is my review/opinion/elaboration on some ideas in it.

1. Joey makes the guarantee that if you don’t get $10 value from the book he’ll refund you the cost. I purchased it as wanted to support the podcast but I easily got $10 value period!

2. IMO I think Joey could have written the 40k words (in relation to the conditions of the prop bet that preceded the reason for the book existing) solely focussing on the 2012 period of his career. For those unaware, Joey went off the rails and blew most of his poker bankroll being undisciplined. It was touched upon in the text but I feel he only skimmed what happened. He might not want to remember the details but I would love to hear/have:

HH eg’s from said sessions
Info about #of tables/opponents
Daily results
Emotions/thoughts during sessions
Emotions/thoughts outside of session (assumption being that are incorrect)
Incorrect thinking about spots/opponents
Regrets/opportunities missed
Lessons learned/improvements/positives to take from the experience
Info/data gained/foundations built in this time that could build on/have built on

3. I think Joey mentions Phil Galfond beat him up at the tables at this time. Well at least he returned the favour by becoming a regular on the podcast and being 1 of the best guests. Whoever else took a lot of $ off of him owes the podcast at least 1 ‘conversation’?

T.B.C.

4. The range analysis HH breakdown is definitely a section I will go back to down the road when I am a better PLO player as I feel there is a lesson I currently am not totally grasping. I’m not a million miles away from it but still it eludes me

5. The chapter called Poker Questions to ask yourself is an interesting 1. There are 2 parts in the chapter where Joey makes a long list of questions you can ask when playing a session. My initial reaction to these are that, even though they are good/useful q’s I get the feeling that they may be extraneous rather than essential. Joey spends a lot of the book discussing how to think about poker eg during a session. I can’t help feeling that trying to assess/answer these q’s especially when there’s clearly more important info to be processing may be a drain of resources rather than a help.

(But I would like to return to this opinion AND the individual q’s in the future to see whether i’m Wrong.)

6. The ranges sub-section of the above chapter and the note-taking section both include some v interesting 6-max theory that I haven’t come across before in print. (Though poker books have not traditionally been my main content consumption with poker learning.)

7. In my next post I will paraphrase 8 or 9 ideas Joey had in the book. They specifically apply to what I need to improve so even though I am sure Joey may not want me to put the ideas out there in this way I want to save my thoughts on each Joey point for posterity. (And like I said they apply explicitly to me and my progress so he can’t hate on that if it makes me a better player.)

a) you have to have the discipline to make the correct decisions.

b) (linked with a)) weaker players have a tendency to take the route with the least variance.

c) when you are obsessed it implies hyper-responsibility and complacency involves compromising on/deflecting responsibility.

(I disagree with this. There’s 2 parts: first, obsession has no direct link with responsibility. The closest you can get is having the clear intention to be aware of the responsibility, identify it correctly and shoulder it. Secondly, you can be obsessed with slightly the wrong things. So for poker (and Joey kind of touches upon this) you could be obsessed to the level of commitment/passion with 50% of the skills necessary to master the task =/= you are on the right path to being a great player. You may be learning v useful skills but the learning is probably inefficient and possibly as useful for success in another field as it is for poker success. Yes you are obsessed yes you are being responsible but only with tangential or priorities/attributes lower down the list of what’s essential.

I do want to emphasise the importance of responsibility as I find it’s probably something i’ve Neglected or ran away from and the outcome is clear to see if you saw my life )

d) Joey hates folding rivers. So, in all river situations you find yourself in across a session, what hands -call -fold -raise? (Is there a calculation to tell you the right move???)

e) ask yourself: what have I done wrong and how do I get better? (In good or bad spots/positions.) Ask: how do I exploit [this]?

(paraphrasing Joey)

f) if someone tells me x is -bad -non-optimal, I look for a scenario/as many situations where it isn’t/expand the # of situations where it has been but doesn’t have to be/develop a way where it becomes -good -optimal for me.

g) (Know what adjustments are required/) improve from watching other players in real-time (> knowing how to adjust to (weaker) players after going away and thinking about how to.) Followed on from this thought: observe your opponents. Make necessary adjustments/consider why opponents strategy has been adjusted.

h) The best players shake off losing streaks like it’s nothing. Weaker players use downswings as an excuse to take time off. Follow on: in a -upswing -downswing the better players build the habits of playing and working on their game. The weaker players do the opposite which leads to them having no idea how to work through adversity.

i) opportunity cost: to play poker or not? ((Is it time where you) should pursue another larger goal instead?) Thinking about all the smaller sub-goals/opportunities you might have when doing something else you have to give up (without even being aware of what they may be) by choosing to commit to your poker goal.

My follow on q: to achieve poker success, are the (sub-)goals you have (or may not have explicitly) mapped out ‘right’/efficient?

To sum up:

as you can see I personally got a load of ideas from reading the book so grateful Joey wrote and released. (I also have got as much from listening to the podcast over the years.)

The 1 negative I have (and I am sure every other reader with a critical eye would say the same) there is a lot of duplicated material, filler and a decent editor would have made the book 20k-25k words in length. But to be fair it was quickly written and I clearly got my money’s worth!!!

wait wtf. Joey has a book?

Wrote it for a prop bet I believe

Indeed: https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Poker.../dp/B01N4U3V6T

One of the reviews references the prop bet, too.

I was hoping there would be one negative review from an "MPostle, Sacramento, CA" but nooooooo.

When is the Tom Dwan podcast?

I want to save a few more quotes from his book though this time word for word:

I love the process of doing much more than I enjoy planning or studying.

Almost every high stakes poker player I know is a big degenerate when it comes to money.

T.B.C.

Can you elaborate more? Sounds interesting

I believe that no matter what decision I make... I will make the best out of my situation and maximise it to its full extent. In a way, this belief works against me in some ways. I think that I might not put my full effort into things sometimes because I believe that I will be happy and make the most out of wherever I am in life.

I would like to think that I would have success on any timeline and embrace whatever position my life is in.

I believe that I am capable of making the most out of any situation that I put myself in.

the majority of times I've lost, it was... not applying any proper strategy to my gameplay. I've also developed tricks over the years to help me regain confidence quickly and get back moving forward.

The fearlessness to push every edge in every spot, and steal every piece of equity, large or small that is there to steal.

the high stakes guys I've talked to seem to have several traits that are almost always the same. The first being 0 fear of -going broke -of betting 10x the pot as a bluff so long as they think it's the right play... the ability to adapt/counter plays a huge role- when I'm watching the highest stakes I'm sure they are playing a different game in their heads than I am watching in mine-

Control- the ability to make good decisions when you are feeling positive or negative emotions.

My ability to always make ($) back allowed me to easily get to the point where I felt like I had to make it back.

Ways to pay more attention... try to figure out what a certain opponent... is doing each hand.

I think the best way is to not only think about why you lose the hands you lose but also think about why you win the hands you win. (Specifically vs the great players: you will be confused as to why you can't win consistently and often you haven't built up a habit of figuring out why you win.)

(Regular tables vs zoom) The fun players aren't able to play as tight, making their EV much worse in many spots and your ability to capture that EV in those spots increases.

Was looking for the Cumicon podcast on YT and could not find it. Does anyone have a link? Did he ask for it to be removed?

Its removed, reason being, unknown

Eta?

I agree. Excellent. Ivey Poker God!!!! Fine job Joey!!!!!!

Yes, very fun. Honest and he really gave his thoughts on PLO and his passion for the game. Loved it.

Says he will be doing a podcast with Landon when he is back in Vegas

Whatever happened to the dawn podcast? Thought it was due a week after the Ivey one.

Dwan said something that the triads didn't like so the podcast got pulled.

When Dwan was commentating with Joey he said something like oh yea waiting on it to be sent to me to look over, so if i had to guess with Joey being in Mexico taking break + Dwan taking 10 years for a HU challenge it might be awhile before its approved to be uploaded