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- 🇮🇱IL · Games#843K to 10K
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Est. listeners per new episode within ~30 days
1.5K to 5K🎙 Weekly cadence·103 episodes·Last published 6mo ago - Monthly Reach
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3K to 10K🇮🇱100% - Active Followers
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900 to 3K
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PZ103: Persistence, Real and Fake, with Nate Serisky
Dec 21, 2025
55m 17s
PZ102: Jason Su Wants to Unmisreg You
May 16, 2025
48m 15s
PZ101: Sara O’Connor Does Things
May 6, 2025
46m 10s
PZ100: Poker as Social Good, with ChipXtractor
Mar 13, 2025
1h 24m 15s
PZ99: Jambasket FAQs, GPIs, MTTs, & LOLs
Feb 3, 2025
1h 02m 36s
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| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/21/25 | ![]() PZ103: Persistence, Real and Fake, with Nate Serisky✨ | poker strategyvariance+3 | Nate Serisky | Wynn | — | Nate SeriskyT.S. Eliot+5 | — | 55m 17s | |
| 5/16/25 | ![]() PZ102: Jason Su Wants to Unmisreg You✨ | mental gamepoker+5 | Jason Su | The Joy of Poker | — | mental gamepoker players+5 | — | 48m 15s | |
| 5/6/25 | ![]() PZ101: Sara O’Connor Does Things✨ | pokerinterview+3 | Sara O’Connor | A New Queen’s Guide to Poker | — | pokerSara O’Connor+3 | — | 46m 10s | |
| 3/13/25 | ![]() PZ100: Poker as Social Good, with ChipXtractor✨ | pokersociability+3 | Steve Catterson | Red Chip Poker | South PointJewel | pokersocial good+3 | — | 1h 24m 15s | |
| 2/3/25 | ![]() PZ99: Jambasket FAQs, GPIs, MTTs, & LOLs✨ | poker cultureonline poker+3 | Jason Burge | Global Poker AwardsSessions | — | Jambasketonline poker+3 | — | 1h 02m 36s | |
| 1/8/25 | ![]() PZ98: Behind the Facade of Poker Education✨ | poker educationwinning strategies+3 | — | Poker for Dummies | — | pokereducation+3 | — | 1h 02m 53s | |
| 12/23/24 | ![]() PZ97: Relax, Greg Porter is Not a Poker Pro✨ | poker culturemental game coaching+3 | Greg Porter | — | — | pokerGreg Porter+6 | — | 49m 37s | |
| 12/13/24 | ![]() PZ96: Cloud Yells Back at Norman Chad✨ | poker commentarysocial media+3 | Norman Chad | Gambling Mad with Norman ChadYouTube+2 | — | pokerNorman Chad+5 | — | 58m 09s | |
| 10/13/24 | ![]() PZ95: Greg Vail, Split Pot Expert✨ | poker theorysplit pot games+4 | Greg Vail | Scoop!: Big O and PLO8: Winning High Low Concepts for the Hold’em Mind | — | pokersplit pot+5 | — | 49m 53s | |
| 9/6/24 | ![]() PZ94: Brent Jenkins is That Guy✨ | straddlepoker+3 | Brent Jenkins | The Anti-Straddle Manifesto | — | straddlepoker+3 | — | 55m 46s | |
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| 8/26/24 | ![]() PZ93: Alvin Behind the Scenes | One of the common twists of fate in poker is the change in personal relationships on account of strategy and results. At one point now nearly forgotten, the entrance of Alvin Lau into the Red Chip Poker forum caused a whole chain of events to unfold. One end result was the rise of Alvin’s first poker teaching and programming, Overnight Monster, as ambitious RCP and other players flocked to his initial offerings. This established Alvin as a strong coaching prospect for low stakes online players. The forum feuding and questions of etiquette in turn led me to become more independent, as I could not deny Alvin’s superior strategies and reasoning in the forums. This interaction later became a series of interviews with Alvin which would become the most popular of the Poker Zoo’s first episodes, as we both agreed and sparred over a whole series of subjects and ideas, from Pluribus to race identity. Today Alvin returns after several years in the Texas poker scene. It’s been a minute for sure, and he’s changed quite a bit: our far-reaching conversation reflects both personal and professional changes. As a coach who has a very straightforwardly successful and straightforward program, he has become popular with those who are absolutely committed to moving up fast online and live. While coaches and players do grumble about their competition behind the scenes, Alvin belongs in a special tier of slightly less-known experts you can count on probably better than anyone in poker yet are still accessible, a unique tier that includes player/coaches like Upswing’s Gary Blackwood, Peter Clarke of Carrot Poker, and now Marc Goone of Hungry Horse. While Alvin had earned a reputation as a difficult person to deal with, relationships work both ways; I was not persuaded his apparent harshness was always unwarranted. Further, his many success stories bely the trouble he’s run into – even with students from my own community. He has also had an obviously huge impact on the vlogger with the highest number of subscribers ever – Wolfgang. We talk extensively about Alvin’s work with Wolfgang today. Being the coach of a near-celebrity poker player means the spotlight is on the student. Alvin, however, is more than ever okay with that, even writing about it on his Youtube page. Yet that’s not the real surprise today, because Alvin discusses a likely reason he has sometimes struggled in the coaching relationship, despite his passion for it: autism. Does this self-diagnosis resolve everything? Alvin, a fierce solver and simplification advocate at the time, was hard on RCP and on a semi-related book project. Under the weight of Alvin’s public fire, the project collapsed, and the forum was retracted as RCP reorganized itself to catch up with the times. Was Alvin unnecessarily cruel or was he just stating the facts, an inevitable agent of the marketplace of ideas? Through the lens of his diagnosis, it was neither. Instead, it was the manifestation of indifference or unawareness of social behaviors that is often the outcome of his condition. I’m not a fan of the medicalization of personality issues that seems to plague contemporary society and especially parents – why can’t he just have these traits without a diagnosis – but it struck me during our talk that if a diagnosis of a trait can bring understanding and peace to a person, and even change their behavior for the betterment of all, who am I to question the label or the process? Our talk goes quite a bit beyond this and Wolfgang, as we get the real deal on the state of Texas NL, the real reason not every great poker mind plays high stakes, and even some strong live poker tell stuff. I hope you enjoy Alvin’s return. A few links: Alvin mentioned Wolfgang’s ownership stake in Home – The Fort Card Room Alvin on the Poker Zoo. The post PZ93: Alvin Behind the Scenes appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
| 8/14/24 | ![]() PZ92: Malmuth on Gambling | The Poker Zoo continues its latest revival with an interview on a key poker subject: the quantification of winning and losing in games of chance. Going to play a session of poker is gambling, guest Mason Malmuth asserts unambiguously, but the question becomes more interesting and complex over the horizon of time. In fact, the answer now can change – or may not, depending on your expectation. A new edition of his Gambling Theory and Other Topics covers this and all kinds of other poker statistics concepts. It seems like a forgotten essential text because the questions and the math don’t change, nor has the community really added much to Mason’s work that started back in the 1980’s. Gambling Theory and Other Topics has been very helpful in creating my current article series on playing live one three. The interplay of expectation and standard deviation was not previously clear to me before, especially as forum posters continuously toss around arbitrary sample size requirements and myths about “variance.” The final section of the book is unexpected, however, being a long series of short reviews on poker and gambling books. As I went through some of the reviews, I realized how valuable this summary is, should anyone want to get a picture of the history of poker strategy. That said, there are two key books (and maybe others) that are not in the reviews, unless I’m mistaken. The first is Easy Game by Andrew Seidman, probably the finest of all poker general strategy books in overall quality and influence. It’s somewhat dated now because of the precision of today’s tools, but Seidman’s thinking process and his teaching knack remains unmatched. Second, Let There Be Range by Tri Nguyen and Cole South similarly shared high stakes high ideas in the transformative years of modern no-limit. This was a breakthrough read for many. Thanks to Poker Zoo member Kent D. for reading the book with me and preparing questions. Thanks also, of course and as usual, to Dean for putting our podcast together. Now go find some peppers! The post PZ92: Malmuth on Gambling appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
| 8/5/24 | ![]() PZ91: The Marc Goone Challenge | Poker pro and instructor Marc Goone has created a bit of a stir in saying he can beat the low stakes, specifically his local 5/5 game, for at least $100 an hour. Interestingly, it’s been done and is being done – the shock is not actually the number but how few do it or challenge themselves to get there. On today’s Poker Zoo I get the details on the challenge (he’s already well into it) and find out why he thinks he can take the lead in the under-appreciated, temporal excellence of the modest and modest-stakes crusher. After all, if you are good – like Marc is – you don’t hang around here, right? We also go over Marc’s coaching and staking program, Hungry Horse. He’s not the only one out there providing this exact kind of poker education. More and more of your opponents in the low to mid stakes are part of programs or study groups or professionals. That’s the inevitable effect of time, inflation, and shrinking cash game liquidity. Players move down or laterally, looking to find the existing soft games. Hungry Horse is just that, hungry, and is gathering and focusing many names you know on grabbing more dollars. Marc’s recent tweet about content creators being fish probably hit all too close to some client homes. Part of Hungry Horse’s marketing is Marc’s appeal to younger players. With his tattoos, mustache and opinionated yet mildly ironic attitude, Marc presents the slimmer, more contemporary face of live poker, a scene which is often otherwise filled with alternating slobs, fitness lifestyle freaks, untrustable social media baiters, and withdrawn or tempestuous shitregs. Hungry Horse is not aimed at the average the aging boomer or gen-x player who no longer studies and still identifies with a fat accountant’s inexplicable tournament run, but at those who still want or need a growing future in poker. Of course, much of the appeal, as with everything, is in the presentation. Surrounding some intriguing tactics in Hungry Horse’s free Youtube videos are all the classic hits of strategy adjustment: nihil novem sub sole. A few extra notes: it’s worth listening to Charlie Wilmoth’s six month fall from grace and his subsequent time at the $5 games, in a series of podcasts focused on a major, attitude-changing downswing. Moreover, Charlie coaches for Hungry Horse, if I am not mistaken. My latest series on a similar challenge contains some data and statistical stuff that might be of use. Further, a Zoo podcast with Mason Malmuth on those ideas is done and is being produced. Here’s the Aero vlogger I mention who is having big success in my player pool. His style doesn’t look as sustainable as Marc’s but on the other hand, demonstrates the money available and is an argument in Marc’s favor for succeeding in the challenge. Lastly, check out Limon’s interview with Mike Basich, another known crusher of the California five-dollar games, and how he does it. It’s interesting to listen to how little things change, despite solvers and data and all the stuff with which we scare ourselves. The post PZ91: The Marc Goone Challenge appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
| 3/1/24 | ![]() PZ90: Sklansky Goes Bumhunting | Legendary poker theorist and writer David Sklansky joins us on the Zoo. We discuss Twoplustwo Publishing’s new book, Small Stakes Hold’em: Help Them Give You Their Money, an already controversial strategy work by David and his business partner Mason Malmuth. Freshly published in January 2024, the new book focuses on adaptive play in the softest small-stakes games and against the absolutely worst players. “When I started to play these games,” David writes in the book’s introduction, “which are the large majority of poker games spread today, it was shocking at how badly many of the players played, and this included many opponents who were regulars in these games. A book wasn’t far off from there, especially as Mason was already in the Vegas low-stakes scene and was seeing many of the same things; here’s his PZ interview. Early versions attracted attention on Twoplustwo thanks to some provocatively strange hands that were unsurprisingly misinterpreted; even Bart Hanson, king of live poker training, when correcting a forum statement about wide ranges, felt further compelled to drop some literalist outrage as well as scold Mason over a nitty drawing recommendation. On one hand, everything is fair game, and the examples were not perfectly representative, as David explains in our podcast. On the other, a little unfair given how many ideas Bart (and all of us) has cribbed from the old theorists – think of all those endless podcasts on set mining, implied odds, and effectively value betting that derive straight from Sklansky and Seidman. Ideas, especially in books, are best understood as questions to be discussed. Instead, we have social media, whose arc is short and bends toward conflict. It definitely didn’t go past me that many of the experienced posters in the book’s forum thread didn’t seem to understand certain poker fundamental ideas. One recurrently loud poster kept challenging Sklansky on the expected value of a hand multiway, not understanding where EV comes from or how the game might differ from the “allowed” calls in a solver abstraction. Now what was interesting was that this player is a studied one, a student of the solves and the population data. He probably is quite the online threat. Yet when his conversation extended itself to why we open and to what size, he revealed only further misconceptions. The urge to assume prolific poker authors don’t have some slight idea about what they are doing is odd to say the least, and the ability of players to play in certain environments without knowing what is going on underneath is a fascinating surety. These short interactions demonstrate an interesting leak in today’s poker education culture: we love the model and its outputs, while we are quickly losing track of the theory. The model is not theory; we improve theory from the model’s outputs, but the model is itself mute and is only possible because of theory. Consider how often smart players say to study the big picture, not every detail; what do you think that is really all about? Yet aspiring players immediately run home to check their lines against GTOW, the seductive application which has become as much of a soothing AI doll for regs as it is a strategic tool. Further, consider how often someone in your Discord starts a foolish statement with “in theory we should,” then goes on to refer to some obscure spot in a solve output. No, theory explains the data and is enhanced by the data; we can’t even get out of first gear when we talk so rashly and incorrectly about first things. Small Stakes Hold’em: Help Them Give You Their Money is a book of theory and the attendant primitive math of proofs and samples and suggestions. It is often exploitative and so the examples can look ugly- yet how else would such a word and action perform? The elegant totality of GTO solutions is not replicated here. However, that doesn’t mean theory is not at work in every single spot. In fact, many of the hands are simply unmodeled spots that the reader is not used to seeing. At one point David gets impatient with me as I bridge the gap between his exploit and generally good play. When he the general speaks of GTO, he’s more focused on the big picture of what it is and what are its tell-tale effects; I’m the tired grinder and poker coach who needs to unite disparities into clear directives for myself and the platoon. I find this book to be enjoyable, but you will need an open mind to have that experience. There is a great deal of poker irony in reading about doing some stuff exactly the way many of us learned to avoid; pot-builder anyone? Limp-fold sound good to you? I don’t want to do everything it says, even with bad players as the target, but in taking the ideas on, I get a better understanding of why. If you, on the other hand, are like the posters in the thread, if you need examples of absolutely replicable plays, as the posters or Bart want, you may not like it so much. There is a lot to read; its contradictions must be reconciled; its arithmetic must be tested. Of course, there it is, another big picture: poker books are not out of fashion because you can’t learn from them, they are out of fashion because they are not content. Content has a play button. Content is the waking dream on tap. We are in the prime era of content because we are pinnacle consumers. Books, on the other hand, perform more awkwardly than content. Books demand your full attention and worse, they unfairly demand that you wake up, all while their requisite quiet and solitude also put you to sleep. Books are difficult because they are storehouses of ideas, even storing wrong ideas that must still be dealt with. A book sits in front of you like a dusty ammunition box, one loaded with danger and pain to your mind. You let your books sit there, you let that ammo go unspent, because there are other buttons more safely pushed. Just put on a poker vid or vlog, my dear shitreg, you deserve a nice, long break, don’t you? Yes, you’re just running bad, that’s it. Our book today is merely a poker one, but the principle remains. We’re a silly industry and we think about silly things, but we’re still a part of a greater culture and its greater trends. I spent some of today in minor horror at the suggestions of our poker betters that they would simply back-channel solve the inconveniences of our annoying democratic processes; yet we openly wonder why we can’t have nice things in the greater society. In other words, even studying to beat the spots at your one-two game can be a stimulating if not enriching experience. The mind must work on something and should generally start where the stakes are small. Sklansky and Malmuth provide some guidance for doing exactly that, as usual. Here’s the Poker Stories interview with David that I mention. Thanks for listening. The post PZ90: Sklansky Goes Bumhunting appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
| 1/7/24 | ![]() PZ 89: Porter Returns & 2023 Poker Review | OOP Oberleutnant Greg Porter returns to the Zoo pod for an update on his successful career as poker pro. I can’t believe it’s been six years! Time has really flown since the early days of our little group and teaching community. Greg is an indispensable and senior member of said little community. He runs the OOP training games, providing high-level poker feedback, and specialized coaching. Greg edits my more challenging pieces and, more importantly, provides timely puns in the Poker Zoo chat. On today’s episode, we hear about his games, and in particular about the influence of the Stand-up Game on mid/high action. We then go through some of the highlights of 2023 in poker, the year of Doyle’s departure, Berkey’s ascension, and the long-needed return of produced poker content. Speaking of, here’s that opinion piece where I called for the return of production and writing to poker media. After a short mental game interlude, we get into some hands from his local games. A previous episode with Porter. Here’s today’s hands discussed: Hand #1 10/25 6.3Ke 8h s5 75 s6 c s2 c 88ds Ac5d4h s2 x/f s5 100 s6 c 6d s5 275/c s6 1100 Jh s5 x s6 5025ai Hand #2 10/20/40 8Ke 8h s7 130/c s8 c/c s1 650 AJss Qs9d8s s1 600 s7 c s8 f 8h s1 x s7 x 2c s1 x s7 2500 Best wishes in 2024. The post PZ 89: Porter Returns & 2023 Poker Review appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
| 10/23/23 | ![]() PZ 88: Washington State Poker with Mannes N | It’s been a long time since I played in Washington, but the scene continues to evolve, however strangely. See, it’s all about the weird rules and regulations. Podcast guest Mannes N. gives us an update on the state of the games. The most important details are the rules for the tribal casinos and the rules for non-tribals, which are particularly hard on the poker player. To complicate matters, the tribes have basically quit the poker business, taking the big bets with them, and forcing all the traffic into small rooms around (but not within) Seattle. Basically, that’s why Eric Persson, owner of many of the small poker rooms, can punt your rake money off at a surprising rate. It’s a great time to own a poker room in Washington State. Mannes regularly plays at the Caribbean and Fortune rooms, two of the most popular in the current Seattle poker market. He occasionally posts on his “Owlkeeper” blog about poker, mainly tournament trips to Vegas. Here’s a post regarding the local games. Living in the Raleigh, NC area, Mickey and I started to frequent bar league freeroll tournaments (lots of fun) and landed in our first home game, a low stakes NL progressive-blinds game upping the blinds every 30 minutes. My first live cash tournament was at Mirage, 2009. I fearfully deposited the $85 buyin and with about 23 runners won the event for something like $575. Needless to say I had no idea what I was doing, played like a passive nit and ran well. In the second part of the pod, we go over a couple hands under the Spread Limit regime. HH #1: – Cardroom: Fortune Renton, 3/5, buyin cap 1,000, betting cap 300. Discuss the 300 constraint and if/how it should influence play. – Stack: 1080 (216 BB) – Setup: 8 handed, Villain is Vpiping higher than most of the table, no prior history – Hero is in S4, Main V is S5 (using the S1=Small Blind convention) Preflop: – S3 limp/call – Hero S4 with A6hh 20 – Villian S5 call, V’s stack covers me – Pot 60 after $8 rake Flop: 652 with one heart – S3 check/fold – Hero S4 check/call – S5 40 – Pot 140 Turn: Qh – Hero S4 check/call – S5 80 – Pot 300 River: offsuit 8 – Hero S4 check/ action to be revealed – S5 250 HH #2: – Cardroom: Caribbean Kirkland, 1/3, buyin cap 590, betting cap 300. Caribbean recently became part of Maverick gaming owned by Eric Persson of high stakes cash game infamy. The clientele is generally older than that of Fortune, it also gets some of the local tech crowd. – Stack 515 – Setup: 7 handed, early in the session – Hero is in S2 (bb) Preflop: – S4 10. This is “Jack” a 70-ish fun player who was once ejected from another cardroom for smuggling hard liquor in his “water bottle”. Likely playing a linear range with a short stack of approx. $110. – S7 call, s approx $400. When he sat down he was introduced by someone else as an “action player” and seemed to live up to the tagline so far. – Hero S2 with AQo call – Pot 30 after rake Flop: A86 rb – Hero S2 check/ call – S4 20 – S7 call – Pot 90 Turn brick – think it was a 2 – Hero S2 check / 165 – S4 40/ call for approx 80 all in – S7 call/call leaving 200 behind – Pot 500 River 5 – Hero S2 check/ action to be revealed – S7 200 all in Mannes is also a thoughtful commenter on my blog, I want to thank him and all those readers who like to leave their thoughts – kind of the whole point, some would say. The post PZ 88: Washington State Poker with Mannes N appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
| 10/14/23 | ![]() PZ 87: Enrico Camosci’s Tournament Focus | The poker world loves tournaments in the 2020’s. Online, tournament culture is vital and MTT-heavy while cash game action stalls. GG has challenged Pokerstars with huge tournaments series. U.S.-facing ACR continues to thrive. As for the live scene, everyone is amazed at the action, with WSOP and WPT now vying almost non-stop for your dollars; did I see they were bringing back the NAPT? I give in. Today we talk with one of the best in tournament poker, Enrico Camosci, and hear what it takes to rise to the top of the MTT food chain. Enrico has had a huge 202o’s so far, with an online bracelet and multiple big results, leaving him with about $2.5 million in online wins. In Spring he took third for a massive score at the EPT Monte Carlo high roller; maybe that’s why he’s even started to scale back the grind and hang with the live whales. Despite his success, the only way you may know him is that Enrico was the televised victim of a curious slow roll that got a little attention in 2021. Not really sure what Sam Grafton is thinking here. In this interview I didn’t focus on results and trophies too much, but process. I wanted to hear how Enrico got to the top of the (specifically Euro) MTT world, and so I asked a lot of questions about what he does. In general, it sounds like an intense dive into specific spots but also returning to the spot later, in cyclical fashion, is his studying and coaching key. It’s certainly true that two weeks on a single board BU V BB is going to yield a lot of fruit, for instance, but you must also come back to it to truly own the knowledge. I’m thinking he’s doing it right. If I study like him, can I be a thirty-year old vacationing in Paris, tired from beating the games in Monte Carlo? Definitely. Once a novelty, there is now even a school of thought that tournaments have more complexity than cash games; with changing stacks, levels, and tougher competition, I think they may be right. Hope you enjoy my first chat with Enrico. You can find him on Insta, and also contact him at his in-development coaching site, MTTgod. The post PZ 87: Enrico Camosci’s Tournament Focus appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
| 9/22/23 | ![]() PZ 86: Richie Brodie | Vegas is home to more than just gaming, it is home to the history of those games and to those who created that history. Richie Brodie, lifelong “poker bum,” has played with all the greats, from Doyle and his “southern” crew, to the Mayfair’s Erik Seidel, to California’s rising 1990’s NL scene with Bobby Hoff and Barry Greenstein (along with an apparently more reluctant Dan Harrington). Today we hear his story and the story of a whole age of poker, from the pre-internet obscurity of the late seventies to a comfortable seat at the Sahara deepstack game of the Covid era. Richie starts in upper New York but is soon drawn to the Nevada games, led by his older brother, a gambler and expert sports bettor. I say Nevada deliberately, as there is a great deal of less-told history surrounding Reno, Tahoe, San Jose, and the rest of western cards; Las Vegas just wasn’t the only place. As Richie emphasizes, the games moved, and the players followed, from famous rooms to forgotten obscurities. (One of the casinos Richie mentions, Harvey’s in Tahoe, was even bombed.) It sounds like a lot of fun: a bunch of guys who love poker gathering at Caesar’s Tahoe for two weeks of around-the-clock-play. Think again. This is serious business. The approximately 100 entrants in the casino’s third annual Superstars of Poker tournament huddle intently around the fifteen tables in the roped-off tournament area. Their concentration is so intense it is nearly impenetrable. Neither the smoke hanging heavy in the air nor the persistent clanking of coins in nearby slot machines is enough to jolt the players out of their poker-induced trance. A television broadcasting a college basket all game goes unnoticed for hours. Finally, a passing cocktail waitress turns it off. from the Reno Gazette-Journal, “Poker More Than a Game for Tournament Players,” probably early 1990’s For point of reference, when Richie first started playing seriously in the late seventies, David Sklansky, with whom he would soon be playing against, had just published Hold’em Poker, one of the first modern poker books. Doyle Brunson’s Super System would not appear until 1979. I think I missed some questions that poker players would like – the real details of the games, and I mean down to the nitty gritty: what were the sizings, how many players per hand, and such. We know Bobby Hoff introduced a lot of three betting, but what about the others? Yet Richie hints at the answer during the interview, “in reality,” he comments, “the games haven’t changed that much, but the number of players who know what they are doing has.” I think we know what that means. Enjoy this interview full of poker history. The post PZ 86: Richie Brodie appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
| 8/31/23 | ![]() PZ 85: Gerard Moves On | Picture late 2019. Britain was finally Brexiting, Trump was somehow still presidenting, and general protests for a more liberal, freer society were happening all over the world- remember Hong Kong? Remember life before mask and vaccine discourse? That’s when I last talked with Gerard S., aspiring pro and studied player who had worked with a number of noted pros and organizations, including Fausto Valdez and Solve For Why. Gerard had a poker blog, a girlfriend, a residence in sunny Florida, and was finishing up a year cleaning up at live ring games and MTTs. Then it happened: Covid went from zero public awareness to a full-blown hysterical crisis that would shape the next decade. Covid would also trigger a sequence of events that changed everything for Gerard and his poker life. Soon he’d be signed up with Poker Detox and battling not only to beat the games, but to understand them at a new level, all while making rent. Today, we find out where he’s at and what he’s learned. As any poker player will tell you, a significant element of skill is involved in winning at the tables long-term. However, it’s also important to acknowledge the role luck plays in poker too. We have zero control or say over the poker hands the dealer gives us. Nor do we have any control over the community cards dealt on the flop, turn and river. These variable outcomes can cause short-term volatility in your poker results, known as variance. Game selection has a major bearing on the cause of variance in poker. If your preference is to enter vast, multi-table tournaments with fields of hundreds or thousands of players, it’s fair to say your poker bankroll will encounter immense variance. That’s because these big-field tournaments carry so much volatility. If you’re playing for hours or even days, it’s possible to experience run-good and then run into the brick wall of a downswing and be knocked out before you’ve even made the money. -from “What is Variance in Poker?” by poker.org The Poker Zoo often visits with Coaching for Profits players, check out episodes such as Episode 43: Luka turns to CFP and Nick Howard Episode 40: Coaching for Profits with KYT Episode 36: Odb_Blackbaron/DLF on CFP PZ 71: More Coaching, More Profits, with Luka V – Out of Position (persuadeo.nl) and others, including from a coaching perspective. Food in this episode: Hot Pepper Jelly 2 C Green Bell Peppers cut into pieces for the food processor 1/2 C Jalapenos, chopped – Seeds & webbing removed For a red version, substitute red bell peppers and just 1/4 C thai chilies Combine these in a food processor and mince accordingly Ingredients: Pepper mash from the food processor 5 3/4 C Sugar 1 C White Vinegar 1 Bottle Certo (or 2 pkgs) This is just Sure Jell or any fruit pectin Combine Pepper mash, sugar and vinegar in a sauce pan and boil for 5 min, then turn heat off and leave for 20 minutes. Add fruit pectin and boil hard for 2 minutes. Ladle into small canning jars (we use pint size) and can using typical water bath canning procedure. For a quick appetizer for parties, you can simply serve over a block of Philadelphia cream cheese. If you have access to a smoker you can take it to the next level by sprinkling some BBQ rub on the cream cheese and smoking it at low heat (190F) and then serve in the same way as above. Pepper Jelly also works well for Holiday parties (thus the red and green colors) on a charcuterie tray with other cheeses and ‘Nancy’s famous cheese ball recipe.’ 8 oz Cream cheese 1 C Colby cheese (grated) 3 oz Chipped dried beef (or country ham chipped) 1 t Garlic powder 1 t Onion powder 1 t Accent Outer covering: ½ C Walnuts, chopped 2 T Chives, chopped Mix all the cheese and seasonings together and form into one large ball or 2 smaller balls. Chill until ready to serve Thanks for listening. Be sure to rate the Poker Zoo on Apple podcasts or elsewhere. The post PZ 85: Gerard Moves On appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
| 7/28/23 | ![]() PZ 84: SDJen to Vegas Grinder | Swirling beneath the never explicit politics of the poker scheme is the treatment of so-called “recreational” player. A lot of condescending, hypocritical stuff is said every day, on every platform, by every talking head about this source of all poker income. Occasionally, however, that tension is resolved when one decides to stop donating and start taking his own, or in this case, her own. Jen Gianera is one of those players who decided to turn it around, and to great effect. Since taking on actual poker theory and not the Tips & Tricks clickbait that fuels the mediocre and parasitical poker training industry – APT is still, almost unbelievably, shockingly grabbing novice dollars – Jen has flown through the ranks and is now profitable at all the cash games stakes she has tried. Of course, nothing is that easy or simple. Jen already has the advantage of being both more hard-working and more curious than many poker players. She also has the time and leisure to play and study on her own pace, having retired to Las Vegas after a busy and successful career serving the law and the people in southern California. On today’s pod, we talk about her process of coming to be a winner. We go over the Las Vegas low-stakes scene, which has its hot and cool spots. Jen talks about the Sahara game, now coming to a pause after nice long run: can its success be duplicated elsewhere? (Unfortunately we missed covering her rungood at slots and such – how do they do it? No one knows.) We finish by reviewing an ambiguous spot from her run at the Monster Stack in this year’s WSOP – with competing incentives, how and why do fundamentals solve our problems for us when we are potentially destined to lose no matter what? Monster Stack WSOP 300/500/500 9 handed 50Ke me 5 1500 7 c 9 c (villain) 1 c QJss 2 c Flop Jc9s6d (8000) Xxxxx Turn Ts (8000) 1 3000 2 f 5 f 7 f 9 c River 4s (14,000) 1 6000/? 9 18,000 The post PZ 84: SDJen to Vegas Grinder appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
| 7/7/23 | ![]() PZ 83: Limon’s Back, For Now | Few are able to get themselves banned from social media sites like Abe Limon, guru of west coast live poker and advantage gambling. Our last pod with Abe was a little rough on the ears, so we make up for it this time with good conversation ranging from his online arguments, why the WSOP is not meaningful for poker, his take on abortion, and even to a little split-pot strategy sideshow. It’s incredibly funny to hear that Abe, while wandering the social mediascape in the midst of a lifetime ban from Jack Dorsey’s Twitter, found himself in Gab Social’s animism of Christianity, social conservatism, and white nationalism, one which operates under a flag of free speech. I’d really love to read those threads he speaks of and find the abuse he doled out, but it’s a hard slog and I’ll need a few more hints. Torba does seem to have absolutely scrubbed the @limonpoker handle, but what of his other ones? Censoriousness always sucks yet left and the right each appeal to its short-term utility far too often, and usually while professing the virtues of open discourse. The regrettable secret is that it’s hard to maintain and often plain bad for business. Further, as the curious “Carl Beijer” Twitter and Substack account has made clear there is a nice game-theory argument as to why the sides of a debate have a prisoner’s dilemma-like incentive to further censorship if one side is “cheating,” not to free us from it. The world may break everyone, as Hemingway wrote, but maybe their principles are what crack first. Briefly freed under Elon’s simultaneously more liberal but messier and controversial regime, he is presently serving another short ban. Why must he do this? Why can’t we all just get along? Because lies deserve “no quarter,” Abe explains, an old-fashioned and noble answer. Yet how do we know what’s a lie? What does he get to be so sure? One way is to set terms, and to bet on it, and that’s where, agree with him or not, Limon shines. It’s a good approach and one about which we in the poker world may claim some credit. When we close, it’s to talk about the same hand I discussed with Matt Ossi. I don’t describe it very well this time, as we talk mostly in useful generalities, but Limon bets in position and gets raised and reraised on these flops to a committing SPR: what to do. I also don’t do a complete job in describing the strategy, however. To be clearer, the flop bet is a potential mistake, but calling off now expecting better than two-to one likely breaks even or is close- we’re behind overall but have a price. Bankroll matters and bomb pots put huge pressures on financially limited players. Limon isn’t one of them – should he have gambled with his whales or is making tough decisions with a good attitude still a part of a host’s gameplan? What additionally matters in this case is that when we do take our half we’re not the ones being quartered given our exclusive nut draw on top rather than commonly shared straights on bottom. Nuts Exclusivity is big in split pot games and is part of what makes this hand both marginal and compelling. Either way, my original point and one reason I contacted Abe is that I’d much rather not make this flop bet and instead use position against my opponents on the turn rather than have to gamble – in a way, this whole situation is about the difference between expected value and equity. Despite what they tell you, PLO, NLHE, and their bomb pot variants are deeply linked in themes and mainly differ only in micro-level implementation. If you struggle in one but not the other, it’s possible you don’t understand either one as well as you think you do. I will be offering Bomb Pot Deliverance, my strategy seminar on the subject, later this year. The class will clear up the basics of the game, delve into misunderstandings about multi-way action in all big bet flop games, and help make anyone competitive in them. Good luck in the series, and thanks to Abe for coming on the Zoo again. The post PZ 83: Limon’s Back, For Now appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
| 6/23/23 | ![]() PZ 82: Split Decision with Mathew “Clayvision” Ossi | Welcome back to the Poker Zoo, now a little long in the tooth but looking to finish strong. We never really left, of course, but I did need a personal break to focus on writing; Dean, my co-host and producer, was suffering a significant personal tragedy concurrently. So, a pause in the action. We persist now, and I am hoping to do about twenty more poker zoos before moving onto something different – consider this season two. Or maybe it’s season three… why do podcasts have seasons? To restart, I’m pleased to get back to our roots and talk to members of our poker community, always the primary and original purpose of the Zoo podcast. Mathew Ossi, aka Clayvision or Clayfish, has made big contributions in the OOP Discord for the past year. We’ll soon be talking to many of the original podcast guests and seeing how they are doing. With Mathew, I discussed the eternal question of learning poker, focusing on how mixed games can be a great help. Matt is strong mixed player but apparently aware of his weaknesses, mentioning to me after recording that “the real idea behind why O8 is one of my weaker games is because I feel I am misapplying concepts and missing details postflop.” With split pot games on the mind, we bring up the esteemed Greg Vail, including his surprising essay against bomb pots for no-limit games in the once-ambitious Stacked Magazine. We relate this and other ideas to an interesting bomb pot hand poker legend and troll extraordinaire Abe Limon played. In the second half we review two hands Mathew played, then close with some related thoughts on limping. Hand 1 150bb deep 8 players, 3 relevant in hand 1/2nl 6d6h BTN PREFLOP ACTION: limps to me I limp behind and it’s a literal family pot seems like a pretty standard loose passive 1/2 game at this point FLOP: 3s 5s 2c Action: SB bets 12, utg calls and I raise to 42, 2 calls TURN: 8c Action: I bet 65 and get 2 calls RIVER: 9d Action: checks around Hand 2 150bb deep 8 players, 3 relevant in hand 1/2nl 6d6h BTN PREFLOP ACTION: limps to me I limp behind and it’s a literal family pot seems like a pretty standard loose passive 1/2 game at this point FLOP: 3s 5s 2c Action: SB bets 12, utg calls and I raise to 42, 2 calls TURN: 8c Action: I bet 65 and get 2 calls RIVER: 9d Action: checks around To get in touch with Mathew, find him in the OOP discord group. Xavier “Vintage” Robles put together the ‘Vision’ photo art to celebrate Matt’s Las Vegas trip. The post PZ 82: Split Decision with Mathew “Clayvision” Ossi appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
| 12/27/22 | ![]() PZ 81: Family Business | Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! For our final episode of 2022, Dean and I talk shop and how it’s going for him. We discuss poker swings, education, and the unpleasant, hard reason why some players succeed while others keep running in place. The conversation branches off into the plan, or lack of, for the Poker Zoo. Oops, letting the outsiders know what we’re thinking. Then, Dean interrogates me over what’s behind my return to poker writing. Has the new stuff changed in tone from the old? Here’s a bit from Here and Back Again: So, instead of focusing on relationships, I have been determined to ride it and my mission here out, to lie in my bed like the cinema nouveau Samurai, rising only to carry out my task before returning to the literal darkness of my dwelling. I’d also hoped to leave sometime soon, to not commit, and that half-measure has influenced me, but a feeling has been coming over me that my life elsewhere is over. I dream constantly of my past, of my home, my friends and enemies, not as if beckoning a happy return but as if they have been sublimated into the challenges of the present. I almost fear sleep, knowing it comes at the cost of nightmares and memories I’d rather forget. It sometimes seems that I am always awake, always sore, and always tired. We went over some of the Sahara game experience on this episode, you can compare it to this talk with Dean from 2021. We close with a couple fun hands from Dean’s cash games. 2/5 8 handed $900 eff 3 (1000) b20/c 4 c/f 6 (900) r115 KKhd (260) 985ccs 3 (885) x/c 6 (785) b85 (430) Jd 3 x 6 x (430) 4s 3 (800) b175 6 (700) c ——————————————– 1/2 8 handed $300 eff 3 limps to me 1 (300) 1/r31 7 (450) c/c 8 (400) r15/c AQdc (99) Q78hhd 1 (270) b25 7 (420) c 8 (370) c (174) Qs 1 (245) b80 7 (395) c 8 (345) c (414) 5s 1 (165) x/shove 7 (315) x/f 8 (265) b125/c The post PZ 81: Family Business appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
| 11/11/22 | ![]() PZ 80: Fernando Talks to the Manager | Yes, the Poker Zoo returns amid the poker crisis, but not the one you think. Previous guest Fernando is back, troubled by developments on the casino floor caused by the lack of top-notch dealers. That doesn’t keep me, having restrained myself from much commenting during the most heated days, from getting his thoughts on the Hustler “cheating” scandal. Manager, please! We touch on all the aspects of the dealing issue, from the bomb pot explosion to the bigger economic picture and the labor shortage. When we move to the “cheating” blow-up, Fernando focuses more on the “marketable” aspect of the issue. It’s a touchy subject, one that is different from “marketing,” because looking more at the spectacle itself can seem to minimize what actually happened. However, when we accept that there was never more than a one-hands sample, and that there are no clear answers, we realize how wise this view is. The poker community leapt on the scandal and in most cases, not in good faith: a marketable moment, a moment for popularity and comment. We discuss this and few other aspects of the uproar, including the noxious “PokerKaren” account and others making scurrilous claims while riding the unending wake of the scandal. Sometimes we really do need a manager, it seems. Today’s episode is sponsored by Manscaped. Use ‘zoo’ as a discount code at checkout for twenty percent off, a free travel bag and anti-chafing boxers. If you do this in support of the Zoo, not only will I thank you, apparently your balls themselves will thank you. That’s a lot of thanks. Fernando’s blog, “Embrace Risk” is quietly one of the best remaining in poker. He focuses on the intersection of the market and our game, usually in very short form. Fernando also has a piece published on OOP. Fernando’s nascent Youtube channel is an introduction to options trading. The podcast people holler and whoop for blood, but that is not justice. The idea of punishing people on any side of the struggle, whether Kade, Bilzerian, or Kenney, for taking Nagy’s money, for watching poker streams but demanding the participants all file quarterly with the IRS and salute the flag, is on its face preposterous. Where does the money come from, after all? What feeds the beast? Yes, it’s from you, from the players who support everyone they shout down. From every scummy tournament grinder that ever chased down the dragon, every self-medicated bum-hunting buzzard, every upstanding bot-owner who avails himself of the ACR watering-hole. From every chatpro, every Twit, full of dread, who slavered over some outclassed woman abused by everyone else for some unknown and brief personal putsch. Public stream games exist because the economy has a gray zone: who do you think benefits, who is finding games, who is advertising their eligibility for the games that really matter? And who runs those games? – from “Higher Love” The post PZ 80: Fernando Talks to the Manager appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
| 7/28/22 | ![]() PZ 79: Fast Times with Slow Poker | The poker vlogging movement is only ten years old but has probably done more for keeping poker in the public eye than any pro celebrity of the era: the vloggers matter. It all mostly started with Tim “The Trooper” and few other experimenters and click revenue hopefuls (including the unfortunate Mark Ari). Then, the number rapidly expanded into the more popular second wave featuring the now ascendant Andrew Neeme and Brad Owen, who have been correctly rewarded with amazing gigs and business opportunities. Andrew’s production quality, including the drone footage novelty, changed everything with its electricity, tour of real Vegas games, and a personal story full of cosmopolitan interests. Almost immediately dozens of vlogs sprung up in imitation. However, the grass-roots nature of the product is gentrifying fast: I’m not even sure the most popular vloggers even do their own editing now. Big names like Daniel (who has an additional claim to being one of the first vloggers) and Doug participate in the vlogging scene, too. In other words, vlogging is a real and potentially profitable business, to the amazement of the old school curmudgeons, and helps connect poker to the short-form video, social media generations. The third wave, currently headed by Mariano, Ethan, (the revamped) Jaman, Greg, Lex et al – everyone knows them by their first names, that’s how influential they are in poker – comprises the largest number of vloggers yet and with more disparate styles. While I have tried some coverage, I can’t and won’t track them all, as I do for podcasts, but one of the best new ones has gotten my attention: Slow Poker. Jon – he’s still keeping his last name private for the moment – has a novelty take on the poker vlog, where he speeds up the action and narration, turning poker into a bit of a Youtube variety show. He hits all the jokes and puns he can and escapes long before you could ever get bored. This kind of production takes some editing chops beyond b-roll in the parking lot and a hand history template. Jon continues to work at it and each vlog is an improvement on the last: we likely haven’t seen his best work yet. On today’s Zoo episode, we discuss the origins of Jon’s vlog, the legendary 2+2 Vlog thread, as well as his enjoyable first trip to Las Vegas for the Series and some serious schmoozing and selfies. Jon also made it out to the Sahara game, which is vlog friendly. Hopefully he got some footage! (If you are a vlogger, consider booking a session.) We get in some old-fashioned strat as well. Here’s his two hands we went over: Wynn $2/5 Assume we both have $1,000 in stack. Hero in HJ with AsAc, raises to $15 CO calls, the rest fold Flop: 9h5c7h I bet $15, CO raises to $50, I call Turn: 2s I check, CO bets $80, I call River 6c I check, CO bombs for $400, I fold Sahara $2/3 CO ($900) raises to $10, BU calls Hero in SB with JhJd ($1,200) raises to $40 CO and BU call Flop: Jc9h3s I bet 50, CO raises to 150 I raise to 310, CO folds The post PZ 79: Fast Times with Slow Poker appeared first on Out of Position. | — | ||||||
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