Top 6 Creature Comforts of an Ideal Poker Room
Poker rooms vary substantially in how they cater to the comfort of players. The venues themselves range from plush card rooms in casinos, to dedicated poker clubs, to smaller charity card rooms, and underground rooms. Each has its own unique set of features and services. Some have nice wide tables, ample space to walk around, and good lighting. […]
Personas Non Grata
Player typing is covered in every beginner text on poker. In most texts, some version of a 2×2 matrix ranging from tight to loose and aggressive to passive is outlined. In others, like Arnold Synder’s bible on how to play short format tournaments, The Poker Tournament Formula, a wide variety of sub-types are identified, from Ball-Cap Kids to […]
Taking Action on the Clock
Last year the WPT introduced an action clock for its Tournament of Champions. This new addition to the game was welcomed by many players tired of suffering through tables with a habitual slow player. Before finalizing their decision to use the clock, the WPT took a live poll of players at a different event to get their thoughts on the […]
Tournament Structure: What’s Your Platonic Ideal?
Daily no limit hold’em tournaments have seemingly unlimited structures. Among the poker rooms and casinos within a 2 hour drive from where I live in Massachusetts there are numerous options. In a given week I can find a tournament that varies on pretty much any dimension: freeze-out vs. rebuy; add on sizes; blind levels from 15 […]
Poker Players’ Other Talents
Last week I read that Vanessa Rousso is putting out an album, and is apparently one of Las Vegas’ top electronica DJs. This caused me to reflect on the number of top poker players that have found success in other venues. I’m not talking about those players who moved into poker after successful careers in other games like chess […]
Top Four Reasons I Love Poker
I love poker. Even more, I love being a woman who plays poker. I enjoy tournaments, I enjoy cash, I’ve even been known to put my money down for the insanity of a live Sit ‘n’ Go. Given my location in eastern New England, I mainly play in a local 25 table card room. A couple […]
Bad Habits in the Face of Good Advice
A good poker book is always a gift. While I have read many that cover theory, math, and hand analysis, the ones I have found potentially most useful focus on enhancing the physical and mental approach to the game. Recently I found myself nodding my head in hearty agreement with numerous excellent points made by Patricia Cardner […]
The Current State of Online Poker
Any poker player over the age of 25 (and some younger) remembers poker’s Black Friday. On April 15, 2011 the lights went out on online poker as we knew and loved it. Some of us lost not only our in-home access to 24/7 poker, we also lost whatever money we had earned or invested in […]
Welcome Our New Ambassadors
Hello. We are Heather Allen and Paul Gearan and we are very pleased to introduce ourselves…drum roll please…as your new Advanced Poker Training Ambassadors. We’ll be posting on this blog, helping with outreach to members and partners, and doing any number of odd jobs that the APT hierarchy deem worthy of our pay grade. We […]
A Common Man’s Brush with Poker Royalty
Destiny. Can one really be destined to be a poker champion? As if somehow the universe requires it to be so, and free will or bad luck cannot interfere? I know it seems overly dramatic to say this, but somehow deep down, I don’t think any of us had any real doubts that Qui “Tommygun” […]