I owe too much to 2p2 to not have gone into the well. Seems like a good time for giving back, it being the holidays and all.

Also, all of my roommates and other friends are away celebrating x-mas with family and I have nothing to do other than sit here and be Jewish.

Well thought out questions will be met with well thought out responses.

I know this is supposed to be about you, but what do you think of my game in our time played together?

Total hands played this year?
Amount won this year?
Average hours per day spent playing?
What are your goals for 2008?

Nice, I've always respected your play. What path did you take to get to where you are and how did you start out? i.e. did you grind up from the low limits and how long did that take you.

Also what do you feel was your toughest limit to beat as you were moving up and why.

ive never played with you i dont think, but ive always respected you a bunch.

list some of your poker "epiphanies" that you have had over the past several years. what do you think your best strengths are as a player? your weaknesses?

sickest bluff youve made in last 6 months? sickest call?

Assume an unknown TAG villain opens from the CO, folded to you in the BB with KhQh - standard 3bet? Assume you cold call, flop comes 7h 5h Js - merits of bet/3betting flop? Do you c/raise flop? Assume you c/raise - do you jam any turn?

Simple situation but I just wanted to address the logic behind 3betting a hand like KQ or AJ pre-flop against a normal TAG without history - is playing a big pot OOP against a normal TAG's 3bet calling range going to be profitable with these hands? (not implying it isn't necessarily) As for flop - doesn't c/raising and jamming turn if he flats let him play his top pair or overpair hands perfectly against you? Whereas bet/3betting isn't great since he will likely be commited with any hand that raises your donk unless he's bluffing or messing around with mid pair or something. Thanks.

is it true u called down 3 streets with k high once? did he show u a full house?

1. Describe me as a player, but in a poem.

2. Why did you seek out coaching with Tommy Angelo, and what was it like?

3. What do you think you do better (in poker) than anyone in the world?

Can you tell me a bit about Urindanger's and Genius28's game (without giving away too much obviously)? I've always been curious about these two. Can you talk about the other nosebleed reg's games as well, but I'm most curious about the aforementioned Uri and G28.

Is this OMGclayaiken or that mod in NVG?

OK, I never ask questions in these and I'm not sure how much you'll be willing to reveal, but I'll try anyway:

1. Which of your regular opponents do you find the toughest/have the most respect for?

2. Any chance of seeing some PT screenshots for the year? I'm not so much interested in $ won but in things like WWSF, W@SD, aggression and so on. Maybe one filtered for 5-6 handed and one for HU?

3. PokerEV game analysis graph? :X

4. Everyone always asks this, but what do you think are the biggest differences between the really good nosebleed players and your average 25/50 regular? Is it just small details?

5. Make some more CR vids!

I'll think of some better ones later.

Mr Galfond,

Love watching you play and i would love to see a few more CR videos from you.

My Q is how do you decide optimal bluffing frequency, i read your "gbucks" article and im trying to employ a few of the concepts into (50nl and 200/500nl live ) my game but i just wondered how you decicde how often you are gonna bluff particular opponents? I tend to bluff a lot of rocks using a game theoretic style, ( betting pot sized 33% air, 67 % nuts) and at the mo got mixed results, tend to get looked up real light - which can be good )

So my question is, what are your river bluffing ranges (im assuming ~0% to ~45%), how do you decide how often an opponent is bluffable and how do you ensure your bluff/nuts ratio is randomized against tough opposition to make you inexploitable?

TOP PRIORITY QUESTIONS:

- Do you agree with the idea that 1 or 2 tabling higher stakes will help your growth as a player better than multi-tabling medium/lower stakes?
- What dictates your decision to quit/go on with any given session?

LOW PRIORITY QUESTIONS BUT I'D STILL LIKE AN ANSWER:
- Why "OMGClayAiken"?
- Why did you check top pair to Eli Elezra after you raised on a KQx board with 2 hearts, this one has been driving me mad since I bet out 10000% in these situations because so many worser hands are calling and giving free cards seems bad.
- Can you make another CR video?

Thanks for doing this. I have a pretty boring one but I'm still curious. I'll think of something better later

If you were to 4-table 0.5/1 6max (mostly seeking out full tables, so no HU etc) on full tilt or stars for 10k hands, what do you imagine your stats would look like? vpip/pfr, maybe WWSF and aggression numbers or something if you have an opinion on those. Your goal is to maximize your winrate, maybe you're doing a propbet of some kind. Does the answer change significantly if you change it to 0.10/0.25? To 3/6?

Thanks.

whose tougher heads up, phil ivey or sbrugby?

favorite movie?

sickest hand/best poker story?

I don't want to do this for everyone who asks, especially since I play against many of them, but since you seem like a good guy and you asked first:

I don't think I know your thought process well enough to comment on it, and I think that's the most important part of a poker player. I believe many different styles of play can be successful. You seem smart, but I would need to read more of your posts or maybe watch some videos on you new site (yw for plug) to get a good feel for the way you think about the game.

Overall, I think you're a good player. I assume you want to know how to get better so I'll talk about what I think your leaks might be. I hope it doesn't make you think that I think you suck.

As far as style, and I know that this will shatter the hearts and explode the heads of many a 2p2er and CR member who don't think this is possible, I think you're too aggressive.

THB, it makes you annoying as hell to play against, and your style will tilt and beat up on a lot of weak to decent players. However I think that it's not optimal game theory wise, and top players in bigger games can exploit it.

Having an AF as high as yours, there are too many spots where you are representing such a small range (hand combo wise) of legit hands.

So like, HU, you raise, TAG calls. 5k stacks

Flop is Q74r

TAG c/r your 250 to 850

I think that you should be calling this spot with most of your range that you want to continue the hand with. (depending on your opponent) You can rep a much wider range of hands that way.

I think, correct me if I'm wrong, that you would 3bet this flop with many hands that you'd continue with.

(I started with another hand example that I need to think about more and hopefully post later)

In the same vein, you cbet too often. (again, fine v weak to average players)

There are probably a lot of spots where (I think) you cbet with midpair or AQ high against a player who is calling every better hand, and folding or raising almost every worse hand (which you have to fold to).

Cbetting with these types of hands might be profitable in a vacuum (but might not be) just because of how often it works, but they make your cbetting range to heavy in hands that have to fold to a raise.

I would imagine there are a lot of spots that you bet or raise with the best hand in a spot where checking behind makes more sense. Spots where worse hands can't really call, but might pay off a bet later,or bluff/vb too thin. Also spots where you can't stand a raise.

A lot of players have the problem of betting or raising just because they think they have the best hand. That's not enough reason to bet. I don't know if you have that problem in your thought process or not.

I'd guess that your style is the result of being a tournament player (I was too). The gap concept gets drilled into our heads, and rightfully so. Tournaments demand a high AF style.

Hope that was helpful. If for some reason you want it deleted let me know, or a mod if it's too late.

OH, you 3bet too much HU too.

I honestly keep terrible track of hands. My PT acts up a lot and I'm too lazy to fix it.

I do know how much money I've made, but I don't want to discuss it. I'm sorry. The last few months have been crazy though. A $600k downswing followed by a long breakeven stretch, followed by a $1.3m upswing, followed by a $450k downswing. I need to start playing lower I think.

As far as hours, I have a very obsessive personality. I often will go for about 4 days to 2 weeks playing 8-14 hours most days. Sometimes I'll play less than four hours over two weeks.

The most important thing I've learned is that until I'm in desperate need of money and have to grind a bunch, forcing myself to play is always a bad idea. Both financially and emotionally.

I'm looking to buy a house/condo in 2008. I want to spend time with family and friends, stay in good shape (I've been working out steady for about 7 weeks now and it's been really helpful). I want to keep working on my game. I think lately I've just assumed I was good and didn't question enough. No monetary goals. There's too much variance in the games I play to make reasonable goals.

(I'm trying my best guys, be patient)

why are you such a nit?

edit: also if you write a poem about krantz can you make it a haiku pls?

Planning to ever quit poker? Any other aspirations?

Best and favourite posters on 2p2? (Mainly active ones to some extent, not the old dinosaurs that havent caught up with how the game has evolved.)

holy ****, have we played together more than I think we have, or have you watched me in games in the past or something?

Thanks a lot for the response, its very comprehensive obviously, but I think a lot of the things you mentioned were far more characteristic of my game 6-12 months ago- mainly the cbetting thing and to some extent the marginal hand thing... though we have been playing a lot together lately so maybe im wrong.

And your last sentence is def the most true of everything.

also, regarding the hand example, i'd say if you chnaged the flop to 2 of a suit, or Q56, you'd be 100% right. In the example you stated I disagree somewhat.

edit: and obv its not an always 3bet type thing, id say i call more often then i 3bet on those boards w/ AQ+, but i do sometimes 3bet.

jman, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on the differences between solid winning 10/20 or 25/50 players and solid winning nosebleed players.