Gray-haired poker TRs: Living the WSOP dream

To conclude the above post, I have a plan. And I love it when a plan comes together.

Permission granted to be less than perfect

I started watching Matt Affleck training videos tonight on pokercoaching.com.

Specifically, play from the big blind.

I'm not going to take you into the tall weeds on these videos. There are a lot of solver charts, and for me it is a slow grind. For example, on a video I have only watched 15 minutes of so far, it took me an hour to get through because the solver charts posted with Affleck's commentary take me quite a while to absorb and take notes on. If I were to simply watch it straight through without pause I don't think any of it would sink in. If I were to start posting detailed thoughts on specific Affleck training videos, it would be a very different (and by very different, I mean really boring) vibe than what I have tried to create in this thread.

I think the Affleck stuff is interesting in a highly technical way, but that doesn't lend itself to the kind of writing (interesting, fun to read -- I hope that's what you think) I have been providing in this thread.

That said, if there is anything that fits this thread, I will share.

And I do have something to share. Affleck said something that in the ever increasing GTO/solver world of poker nonetheless offered a practical, highly real world, nuanced insight.

Affleck at the start of a training video: “We’re going to look through a lot of charts today. The key is to not memorize these charts. Memorization on these charts is kind of complicated. What you’re trying to do is learn different hand classes, what your overall strategy is at certain stack depths and memorize that way. That way when you’re presented with a situation you can make a better educated guess of what you’re supposed to do with your hand. Not just blindly trying to memorize the charts.”

I found this interesting because while it seems clear that Affleck has a level of memorization/comprehension of the solver charts that most poker players will never master, he understands his audience and essentially grants permission to students to aspire to an understanding of the solvers in a general way rather than tell them to seek a measure of rote memorization that strikes me as unattainable.

The goal is Game Theory Optimal. The goal is not Game Theory Perfection. I take the term optimal to mean "the best or most favorable for a given situation." It doesn't mean you run a million simulations and memorize every single detail to determine the closest to perfection decision for every possible hand in the decision tree. We are human beings. We are not super computers. I found Affleck's quote to be freeing.

1) Always leave on q high note

2) I quit golfing before I found poker. So, I can't say from experience. However, I've heard good things about the poker games you stumble into at the course.

You can't get better playing against people who play poorly

Let's talk about Global Poker.

Last time I wrote about it, I had learned a couple of things: 1) Gold Coin (fake coin) play was horrendous and not worth my time, and 2) Sweep Coin (actual value) play was not difficult for me to navigate.

So I've just played Sweep Coin tournaments since, and I've learned a couple of things: 1) Sweep Coin play at the smallest stakes is still pretty horrendous and not worth my time, because 2) Whenever I am dealt A-A or K-K opposing players either give me all of their chips, or a ridiculous bad beat ensues. The bottom line is I don't think think this is helping me improve.

Let me give you an idea of the last couple times I've suffered bad beats. I'll make it quick, but I'm trying to give you an idea of what I am seeing.

I am dealt K-K and a bunch of chips go into the middle. The flop is something like 8-5-2 rainbow. All of the rest of the chips go into the middle and villain shows 5-6 suited. The turn is a 5 to give villain trips.

Another time I am dealt A-A in the big blind. The dream. There are five limps ahead of my action and I raise 6x. I get one caller. the flop is 4-9-J. I figure no point in getting cute and I lead out with a bet. Villain overjams for a massive, massive, massive amount of chips. I am pretty sure I am beat, but I want to test out my theory about the quality of opponents I have been facing, so I call simply to get the information. Villain turns over 9-J off suit for two pair.

I could give more examples, but enough with the bad beats. No one wants to hear bad beat stories. The point is made.

I don't care about the bad beats. That's poker. What I do care about is the quality of the competition and whether it allows me to be tested in order to get better. The answer is pretty obvious. When I am getting dealt monsters I am either getting unjustly rewarded by people who blast off their chips with nonsense for cards, or I am suffering bad beats against people who have (pre flop) nonsense for cards given the betting action and somehow "get there." I don't see how either outcome helps me get better as a player. I am beating this game and I have no doubt I can continue to do so, but I don't see the point in continuing down this path. So far I have rarely been up against players who I found tricky and difficult to play against.

As I see it, I have two choices: 1) move up in stakes on Global Poker, or 2) stop playing on Global Poker.

I'm not really sure which I'll do. For the time being I am going to immerse myself in pokercoaching.com training videos targeting the parts of my game that need the most work. Professor Matt Affleck will be my guide.

I'll decide somewhere down the road what to do (or not do) on Global Poker.

Changes, changes, everywhere changes

The last 24 hours have been interesting regarding my vision for my future.

Business update

The last of my office buildings for sale is under contract and going through the due diligence period. During these last 24 hours there has been a lot of positive movement on negotiable details. We are down to one last piece of due diligence to get agreed upon, and I am pretty sure this is not going to be a deal breaker. Once this last item gets resolved, it should be smooth sailing to get to closing. My life looks like it is about to get a whole lot easier. I am very excited about the prospect.

Golf update

I went to the driving range again today. I left work early (around 4:30 pm) to go hit golf balls (I normally end my work day at 6:00 pm, but that seems to be changing). The woman in charge of the golf shack recognizes me from earlier in the week and is already talking to me like I’m a regular. Again, I get a small bucket of balls. Again, I choose to hit off the grass rather than off mats. The good news is unlike a few days ago when I hit golf balls in sizzling, brutal 93-degree heat, today it is only 73 degrees. This makes a huge difference for me and I get through the entire bucket without having to take any rests.

I have improved slightly from earlier in the week. During my first attempt at the driving range a few days ago I had only one, maybe two, shots that made me proud. Today, despite hitting into a fairly significant wind, I count nine shots where I make great contact for good distance and directional accuracy. Shots that feel good immediately and sound good when the club strikes the ball. Nine highly successful shots out of a small bucket of balls is hardly a lot, but it’s a lot more than my prior outing. I’ll consider this a win.

Once done, as I walk toward my car, I can feel aches and pains throughout my body. All on the right side of my body, which I’m guessing is the side that works harder for a righty hitting a bucket of balls. It’s not debilitating pain. It’s old man aches. It’s I’ve suddenly started using muscles that have been laying dormant for years discomfort. These muscles wipe the sleep out of their eyes, wonder what the reason all of the activity is happening out of nowhere, and complain that at age 63 things are supposed to be far more relaxed. I take a couple of Motrin when I get home, and this helps.

The other bit of golf news is I have made contact with the second golf pro I contacted after getting ghosted by the first pro I left a couple of phone messages for. Pro #2 asks me if I want a 30-minute or 60-minute lesson. I opt for 30 minutes. No sense overdoing it during my first lesson. I figure there are so many things wrong with my swing that it is best to start slow and fix only one or two things in the first lesson and build up slowly to the total swing overhaul that I strongly suspect I need.

Poker update

On the poker front, I am cruising through big blind defense training videos with an eye on WSOP 2026. In one video, Matt Affleck is making the case for playing a massively wider range of hands than what I am doing.

Then Affleck makes a point that bridges the gap between his recommendation and what I am willing to do. He starts a point by saying that “versus a single raiser, make sure you are not over folding your Big Blind.” To be sure, I intend to widen my range. But I’m not going to widen it as far as Affleck has been proposing. Affleck goes on to say that “if you are not comfortable post flop, eliminate the borderline defends until you are.” Eureka! This makes sense to me. I will widen my range somewhat and get comfortable with it over time. Then I will widen it some more, and get comfortable with that. And then widen it some more. And maybe at some point I get close to the range Affleck (as well as GTO Nation) calls for. It’s like what I said about my golf swing in the context of taking golf lessons when I said I want to work on one or two things initially, get comfortable with the changes and then and only then will I make changes to additional parts of my swing that need to be overhauled.

I think trying to go full blown GTO right away would end in utter disaster. Crash and burn. I think the better way to go is to overhaul my big blind defense range gradually and slowly work my way up to wider GTO approved hands.

To give an example of what I am talking about, Affleck talks about Big Blind defense with 20 BBs versus an early position 2.2 bet. Affleck says that every suited combo should be calling except for a handful of suited hands that should be raising. He wants me to call or raise every (EVERY!!!!) suited hand. As in, I should even call with 2-7 suited. I’m sorry, but I am not prepared to go that far right now. In these bottom-feeder suited hands I am going to go with Affleck’s Plan B, which is, “if you are not comfortable post flop, eliminate the borderline defends until you are.” Here’s the thing, I am not uncomfortable playing post flop. I am, however, uncomfortable playing post flop with 2-7 suited.

Baby steps before giant steps is going to be my approach. But I do intend to take steps.

One additional thing Affleck calls for is more three betting than I am doing. In particular, I think I should be three betting from the big blind more often than I am doing against late position opening bets. Not saying I should go crazy, but I think I should be three-bet bluffing with a certain, appropriate range of hands more often than I have been doing. This I think I can implement to my game right away.

Turning crumbs into gold: The right result at the wrong time

After studying for a couple of hours tonight on my poker training site, I got bored and decided to play a tournament on Global Poker. As I wrote recently, the poor play at the level I had been playing was not helping me get any better, so tonight I took a small step up in stakes. A very small step up. From a 1 Sweep Coin entry fee to a 3 Sweep Coin entry fee tournament.

The players were definitely better. Not elite by any stretch of the imagination, but people weren’t setting their chips on fire when dealt nonsense.

There were 98 players, so 15 cashed.

I was cruising along nicely when I played a hand for most of my chips on a coin flip. I lost the coin flip and was down to two Big Blinds with 31 players remaining. And then something happened that I’ve never experienced in my still young poker playing career. I caught lightening in a bottle and spun it up. I finished in fifth place for a whopping payout of 39 Sweep Coins. I probably could have folded my way to fourth place, but the blinds were really high and I was playing to try to win. I had something like 9 or 10 BBs, I was on the button, and it folded to me. I had K-2 suited and went all-in hoping to simply win the blinds. Unfortunately, I ran into a big hand (I don’t remember what my opponent had as I wasn’t taking notes) and I got bounced out of the tournament.

I have now taken the 5 Sweep Coins I was given for signing up for the Global Poker site and turned it into 56.13 Sweep Coins.

I kind of hate to have used up my “spun it up” on a Sweep Coin tourney. This is the kind of thing best saved for the WSOP. Still, it was kind of fun to experience.

I just remembered a fun hand from the tournament above.

I was in the big blind. Someone min raised from middle position. I defended my big blind (thank you Matt Affleck).

The flop was 4-4-10. Villain as the pre flop aggressor should not have had a 4.

I, on the other hand, as the Big Blind defender could definitely have had a 4. I didn't have a 4, but that is not the point. I don't remember what I had, but that also is not the point. I had completely missed the flop, but I thought to myself, if I had a 4, how would I play this?

Out of position, I checked. Villain bet. I check raised. Villain folded.

I was pretty proud of myself.

Congrats on the office building deal getting done!

I think you should approach your blind defense very thoughtfully. Yes, it’s possible to overfold. But the opposite, playing too loose from the blinds, is a much more dangerous leak.

I played lots and lots of low stakes cash hands online. You can view your winrate by position. I was winning at a good clip,

And I was HEMORRHAGING win rate from the small and big blind. Playing out of position is a HUGE disadvantage.

So folding too much from being OOP isn’t really that bad a thing.

Good advice. I am going to do my due diligence on big blind defense and study the heck out of it. That said, once I have done so then I have to decide how much I want to use this style. I definitely overfold from the blinds. I need to widen my range some. But my guess is I won't feel comfortable going all-out GTO with a mega wide calling range in the big blind. Playing good cards in a disciplined manner has worked pretty well for me given my inexperience. Up until now I have viewed folding preflop from the big blind with bad cards to be saving chips, not losing them. Like I said, I need to open up my range some, but you raise an excellent point about not overdoing it.

I think I need to make small tweaks, not a massive overhaul. I'm prepared to go through the process in my 2026 WSOP prep work, study a lot and then make small adjustments. Massive adjustments seem like a recipe for disaster. I have a lot of time between now and the 2026 WSOP to try to find the sweet spot.

One last interesting hand from last night's tournament.

I had just made the Final Table. I think I was 8th in chips. The blinds were becoming a problem for me. I needed to at a minimum steal some blinds, and at a maximum a double up would have been ideal. In other words, I needed to turn up the aggression. I was the button and I was dealt K-Q off suit. This seemed like more than good enough to try to get it all-in pre flop.

Until it wasn't.

UTG bet. UTG+1 raised. Suddenly my K-Q didn't look as ferocious as I originally thought. It folded to me and I had to make a decision. K-Q might very well have been the best hand I'd be dealt for awhile. I thought, if I fold and then go card dead I might regret letting K-Q go. That thought did not last very long. After maybe a second or two, I scolded myself. The aggression from UTG and UTG+1 meant I was very likely dominated. K-Q may have looked pretty, but I folded.

UTG and UTG+1 played a big hand and got down to showdown. UTG had A-K off suit. UTG+1 had A-Q off suit. My K-Q off suit would have been close to stone dead. Both of my cards were no good since I would have been outkicked.

Sometimes making the proper decision to fold feels as good as scooping a big pot.

Gloom and doom

Well, today really went from very nice to completely terrible seemingly out of nowhere.

My day at work was peaceful. Not a single problem to have to deal with. I left work early at 4:00 p.m. and then, KABOOM, everything blew up.

I went from work to the office of my chiropractor/sports medicine doc for therapy on my right heel. It has been bothering me for the last month or so. I've been getting therapy three days a week for a couple of weeks. We've eliminated about 85% of the pain, but we can't seem to get the final 15% to go away. I'm getting frustrated. Still, this is hardly the end of the world.

From there I head home. We are going out for family dinner. Right before we are about to leave for the restaurant, I remember that an e-mail I was expecting hadn't come in when I left work. I check, and the e-mail has arrived. It has to do with the air conditioning unit (something about the chiller unit) in the last building I have up for sale. Actually, we are under contract and (I thought) we only had one last due diligence item to get through about the building's tuck pointing prior to closing. In my mind, the likelihood of the deal going through was 98%. The e-mail potentially changes everything. I thought the air conditioning issue was going to be a minor repair. The e-mail advises me that it is going to be a major project. The price quote is a big number. Obviously I am either going to have to pay for the work to be done, or take the dollar amount off the sale price of the building. That issue I can resolve. It's bad medicine to have to take at the last second, but I can swallow it. Not happily, but I can choke it down. The bigger concern is whether or not this will spook the buyer. Because the e-mail arrived after business hours on a Friday, there is no way to do damage control with the buyer right now. It will have to wait until Monday morning. Sigh.

We head off for dinner. I don't mention the bad news to any of my family. No reason to put a damper on the mood. I get to the restaurant and I see a parking spot right in front. The spot is to my right. I am about to turn into the spot, when one of the valet guys passes me on my left, goes past the spot I am about to turn into and then goes into reverse like a movie stunt driver and steals the parking spot from me. WTF!!!!

I get over it. Dinner goes fine. Mrs. rppoker and I get home and play our dog Astro's favorite game -- Monkey in the Middle. Astro lives for this game. It's his favorite part of every day. Playing with Astro puts me in a better mood.

Later in the evening I watch some more Matt Affleck defending the blinds training videos. I feel a sense of gloom and doom. One thing becomes increasingly clear: There is no way in the world I will be making the calls as wide as Affleck is suggesting I do from the big blind pre flop. But it gets worse. I watch a training video about the big blind facing a continuation bet in which Affleck is talking about all of the hands people miss value on by folding. And it's not like he is talking about middle pair. He is talking about hands that have backdoor outs. I see this and think that calling a continuation bet with nothing more than a backdoor flush draw or a backdoor straight draw is only going to get me in a world of hurt. What I see is the opportunity to bleed chips with nothing more than the hope of a runner-runner miracle. What Affleck sees is value. He sees it. I don't. I have no doubt that for a player of Affleck's caliber this all is perfectly reasonable. But I am not of Affleck's caliber. Suddenly I find myself looking into the poker abyss. I think I may have to break up with Matt Affleck, poker coach. Time to employ the "it's not you, it's me" breakup speech.

Bummed out that my WSOP 2026 study blueprint is imploding before my very eyes, I decide to play some tournaments on Global Poker. I proceed to play worse than I can ever remember. I play impatient poker, which is not like me. I am bluffing too much. I am forcing the issue too much. I don't show discipline when I get lowish on chips. Twice I get knocked out of tournaments when I badly overplay A-J and run into A-K and K-K. It's bad luck to run into hands that dominate me, but it's bad play to be all gas and no breaks as I lose way more chips than was necessary.

Part of the problem is that the Global Poker tournaments do not give a lot of chips to begin with, each level is really short, and the blinds become an issue fairly quickly. I'm not sure if I was playing so quickly because of the turbo-ey structure of the tournaments, or if the cause is me trying to find too many spots to be aggressive. But for whatever reason, I am not showing the discipline online that I do in live tournaments.

I think I need a new 2026 WSOP preparation road map.

TJ gives good advice. I try to remember that if I'm not getting caught bluffing once in a while, I'm probably not doing it enough. OTOH, if I'm not folding the best hand once in a while, I'm probably playing too loose.

Hard to find that exact sweet spot of just enough bluffs and minimize the latter.

Poker Lite

Today I am going to do Poker Lite. Let my head clear a little.

That doesn't mean no poker on a Saturday afternoon. I spend 45 minutes on poker, but that's all. I remove the Matt Affleck big blind defense videos from my to do list. Too advanced for me. I replace it with a pokercoaching.com five-part series on bluffing by Jonathan Jaffe, Jonathan Little and Tristan Wade. I don't watch it right now, but it is next up on my viewing agenda. It's a small start toward a new WSOP 2026 road map to improvement/success now that I have just torn up my old road map.

I play a six-person (3.3 Sweep Coin entry fee) winner take all sit'n'go just because. It's not my usual choice to play a tournament. I don't know why I played it other than it was set to start 30 seconds after I looked at what was available to play. I crush the competition and win 18.48 Sweep Coins. Despite donking off a bunch of Sweep Coins yesterday when I was playing bad, today's victory brings me to a new high-water mark of 61.71 Sweep Coins on Global Poker (up from the 5 that I received from joining the site two weeks ago).

Despite the win, I still feel like Poker Lite is the choice for this afternoon. I decide to read a book instead. I choose "We Want Bama" which is about Alabama's 2020 college football season. I'm getting excited that college football (which, blasphemy, I love even more than poker) is just a few weeks away from starting. To the backyard I go with Astro in tow. I pick a comfy chair where I will read. Astro jumps up on his favorite chair, which he has used so much over the years that we have had to duct tape it to keep Astro from falling through.

I know this makes you uncomfortable, but would encourage you to reconsider giving up on this just yet. Remember you’ve got 10+ months to the next World Series which is tons of time for you to make major transformations in your game, just like you did last year.

Reading back your hand histories at WSOP, I think big blind defense is where some of your biggest leaks happened when you gave up hands too quickly. You’re feeling very uncomfortable with the idea of floating a backdoor flush draw, backdoor straight draw? Great, a $3 tournament is the perfect place to try it and see what happens (which is why playing online is so useful!). If it blows up in your face, it’s only $3.

I’m about 25 years younger than you, but I was in your shoes when I dove back into taking poker seriously in the pandemic after a post-Black Friday hiatus, and I also thought the strategies felt way too loose and crazy. But learning how to play correct ranges pre, Cbet and properly defend the big blind is how you will boost your expected win rates when you go to WSOP next year.

This is my long, roundabout way of saying don’t get discouraged: you’ve shown you’ve got the poker skills to learn this stuff even if it feels like you don’t.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just when I thought I was out ... they pull me back in.

I had to call an audible today. I was planning on hitting golf balls, but my back is acting up so that is out. I have not finished reading the book "We Want Bama," but 100 pages in I'm not that entertained so that is out.

I am about to open up a poker training video, but I flip on the TV and I stumble across coverage of the U.S. Open Ultimate Championships. Given that I played ultimate frisbee for the University of Michigan and after that I was on the "B" team for Windy City (the reigning world champions at the time) I am excited to see ultimate on TV. ESPN2 and ESPNU have coverage of the mixed (coed), women's and men's championship games. I catch the end of the mixed competition won by Ann Arbor, who I obviously was rooting for as a Michigan grad. I watch all of the women's and men's title games. My poker studying will be delayed until later tonight.

I don't understand why ultimate frisbee doesn't get more TV coverage than it does. It is nonstop action.

Small hands pre flop, big hands later on

I have been dealing with a weird dynamic in online play on Global Poker.

Pre flop, I am not getting a ton to work with. I haven't been dealt aces or kings in what seems forever. I have been dealt queens a normal amount. But no jacks. I also have not been dealt hardly any A-K or A-Q. I keep getting dealt A-J, which has been getting me in trouble. Really getting dealt two cards way below expectation.

Yet for as poorly as I am running in pre flop holdings, I am running great on the flop, turn and river. It feels like my straight draws and flush draws are getting there well above expectation.

At times it is difficult to stay patient pre flop when the cards aren't coming, but it sure is fun when you get there post flop and on the turn and river. It's not just me either. It seems like in hands I'm not in, other players are making straights and flushes on Global Poker way more than I saw at the three WSOPs I have played at.

It's too small a sample size to read anything in to it I imagine.

The latest poker thoughts to percolate in my head: Am I a mad scientist, or am I a mad lunatic?

As I was playing in some tournaments tonight on Global Poker, I felt a concern tug at me. The levels go by really quickly. Way faster than in brick and mortar tournament structures. Faster by a lot. Faster the way your TV looks when you hit the fast forward button on your remote control several times. As a result, I think I am playing too fast and pushing what I believe to be really tiny edges too quickly and aggressively online in terms of my preparation for WSOP 2026 specifically and live poker settings in general. I keep catching myself being all gas no breaks from time to time online and it gets me in trouble. I realize I need to ramp up my aggression and loosen up my approach some in live play, but online I go too far at times. It's difficult to find the proper balance.

Moving forward I think I am going to utilize Global Poker mostly to try out new concepts I learn from my training site studies. This will likely be -EV for my Global Poker "bankroll," but I really see Global Poker as a training tool and not a money making enterprise. For example, tonight I burned through a few entry fees because 1) I continued to be card dead, 2) I got it in good several times and lost, and most importantly/dangerously, 3) I was trying out new things. Trying out new things was the point of the exercise, but not surprisingly the results were rather topsy turvy. More turvy than topsy.

On the negative side of things, my attempts to utilize what I have learned from my poker training site about big blind defense along with implementing a post flop strategy where I gave increased consideration to back door possibilities did not go great. Not a surprise given I have just started studying the concepts in greater depth than ever before. The slight widening of big blind defense had some successes and some failures. I can see the necessity of doing so. The highlight of the night was calling an early position min raise with Q-9 suited (not sure I would have done so in the past, although it would have been close), the flop was Q-10-9 rainbow and I got three streets of value to scoop a big pot. Playing more sticky when there were back door possibilities went especially poorly. I felt like doing so led me to bleeding more chips than I would have in the past when I would have simply folded a street earlier. I found myself in situations where I felt I didn't know what I was doing.

On the positive side of things, I am part way through a training video on finding turn bluffs, and twice I found turn scare cards that didn't help me but hit my perceived range and I took down the pots with audacious bluffs holding little more than a pair of giant balls.

Obviously all of this trial and error is a case of you've got to break some eggs to make an omelette. Tonight I mostly made a mess. It's a process.

I've got a bunch of live tournament opportunities available to me within driving range during the next 10 months leading up to WSOP 2026 (WSOP circuit events as well as other tour events), so I need to be careful that I don't let bad turbo-ey online habits infect my live play. In other words, in online play push the envelope trying new stuff, but don't fully implement these new concepts in live play before I have some mastery of them.

I also notice that my belief systems are changing like the wind. As I am trying to learn new concepts, I find myself believing in one course of action, then I think maybe that is entirely wrong, then I think well maybe there was some merit to the original belief system, well maybe that's not right either, well maybe ...

By trying to learn foreign concepts that seem counter intuitive, at times I find myself thinking I'm not sure which way is up and which way is down.

Kind of walking a tight rope doing this. I suspect there may be (and by may be I mean there definitely will be) some short-term failure in an effort to become better when all is said and done. I'm taking it as an act of faith that this will eventually be worth it. It's kind of like a successful PGA golfer who decides he needs to make some changes in his swing to raise the possible ceiling of accomplishment to greater heights, but in the short run it wreaks havoc on his results. Tiger Woods famously did just this throughout his career.

According to AI Overview: "Tiger Woods' golf swing has evolved significantly over his career, with notable changes in tempo, stance, and clubface position. Initially, he favored a deliberate tempo with a pause at the top of his swing, but as he aged and gained strength, his swing became faster and more aggressive, with less reliance on timing. His stance and grip have also changed, with variations in width and strength over time. Furthermore, his clubface position at the top of his swing has shifted from a closed position to a more square or even open position, particularly in his later years. These changes reflect his efforts to adapt his swing to his physical development, injuries, and playing style."

I always thought it was unbelievably courageous (or stupid had it failed) that Woods, while clearly the best in the sport by a wide margin at the time, would nonetheless deconstruct his game in the pursuit of even greater glory. Trying this could have destroyed Woods' game, but instead it worked out magnificently. The risk he took was immense.

To be clear, I am not saying I am Tiger Woods (my current attempt at a poker transformation is more In The Woods than Tiger Woods), but I think the point is valid that in order to have a break through at any level, sometimes you have to take one step backward before you can take two steps forward. At least that is the hope. And while I have said before in this thread that hope is not a plan, I nonetheless am taking a leap of faith that this pays off.

A great way to study poker

It's a beautiful (albeit pretty hot, which I like) Saturday afternoon. Given how much I hate the cold and snow of Midwest winters, these hot summer days are to be embraced. My back is giving me slight problems, so I rule out hitting golf balls.

I decide to put in some hours studying poker, but I'm not doing it indoors. So I make the executive decision that Matt Affleck and I are going outdoors in my backyard for today's poker training video (big blind on the turn after check calling).

Outdoor poker rules. Or at least outdoor poker is the nuts when you don't have to worry about your cards blowing away.

It's time to shake things up

I need to find myself a game. I need to get myself in a casino, seated at a poker table. I need to to touch the felt, touch the chips. I need to look my opponents in the eye, make live reads and decide whether to fold or check raise. Heck, I even miss the sound of chips being riffled.

Why? I'm getting tired of the poker studying grind. Not tired as in, I'm never going to study again. Tired as in, I need a break from the training videos and charts. It's time to get out and play some actual poker at a casino. Alas, my most geographically desirable casinos don't offer NLHE tournaments. That means it's time to get out my road map, it's time to leave the state of Illinois, and it's time to find some NLHE tournament poker action.

I contemplate my options. I make my decision. I make my reservations. I'm heading to ...

I plugged my poker plans into an artificial intelligence app and this is what it spit out:

More details to come ...

Have car will travel (Part 1 of 2)

OK, I think I am done with Global Poker. I am still highly profitable on the Sweep Coin (real money value) section of the site, but I just don’t see how it is helping me get better as a player. Actually, I think it is probably making me worse. You don’t start with enough chips to get any real play. Plus, each level lasts next to no time, especially if someone at your table is not paying attention and slowing down play. Simply put, these online tournaments don’t even remotely play like a nicely structured brick and mortar tournament. Plus, the quality of play I have faced does not come close to approximating the caliber of play I have seen at the WSOP. Opponents are either handing me their chips, or they are cracking my aces with 3-9 off suit. What am I actually learning here? I know my sample size is still small, but I don’t think the site is helping me grow as a player.

I am reluctant to go to other real money, gray-area online poker sites since a) they are illegal (sort of?) in Illinois and seemingly operate through a loophole that seems like it could be shut down at some/any point, 2) they are unregulated, 3) I have trust issues as to whether I believe everything is 100% above board (God mode scandals of the past), 4) I have trust issues as to whether I will always be able to pull my money out if I build up a big online bankroll (Black Friday), 5) I suspect there’s no way to keep opponents from using solvers, poker software, charts, etc. in game, and 6) bots. That’s a lot of online poker potholes to navigate. I think I’ll pass. At least for now. I can always revisit my thought process sometime down the road.

OK, so for the time being online tournament poker is out as a learning tool.

That leaves studying. Which is fine, but, if that is all I do over the next 10 months, I am going to get burnt out long before WSOP 2026 arrives. Especially since I am graduating to increasingly technical, dull but more advanced solver-heavy training videos. It seems like the more I progress, the more boring the training videos become.

That just leaves one thing to do …

… road trip.

Poker road trip.

Two quick thoughts. For one, I think you are underestimating online poker as a learning tool. It's still poker, even if it's a bit more fast-paced than a WSOP-tourney with 1 hour blind levels or whatever. If anything, I think it could be a good learning tool for you to navigate short stacks and how to get proper value versus fish who play too many hands. And both of these seems to be areas where you (in my humble opinion) could use some more practice in from what I have seen in your HHs.

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Regarding studing, I want to give my usual shoutout to 'Crush Live Poker'. If you are bored with advanced solver material, I think it would be great for you. Both because you can listen to a lot of the material on podcasts (easier to consume), and because Bart is very good at repeating things over and over again. This works very well for my scatterbrain, who can quickly forget something I have only heard once.

And while his material is heavily focused on cash games, I still think it applies well to tournament play as well. It won't help you with 20 bb stack play, but it will help you learn how to get more value in hands, and give you some good ideas on how to play various draws more aggressively etc. Furthermore, even though it's a podcast about exploiting live players, Bart also brings in a occasional theory material as well. Definitely enough of it to where I don't feel lost in regards to knowing which lines that solvers prefers etc.

In short, I think it would be a more enjoyable way to learn poker compared to watching videos with German instructors showing a solver chart and babbeling about 'here, we have ze 27% 3-bet with thiz combo, und I will randomize by looking at ze clock'.

Have car will travel (Part 2 of 2)

As it turns out, the Major Series of Poker the Tour (MSPT) is scheduled to be in my neck of the woods very soon. Well, sort of my neck of the woods. Like an hour from where I live under normal driving conditions, but the highway running through Chicago is under massive construction, so maybe two hours to East Chicago, Indiana where the MSPT is scheduled to have a series of tournaments at the Ameristar East Chicago August 12-17. (Editor’s note: As I always do, I am writing/posting after the fact, so there’s a slight time lag)

It just so happens that the entire first floor of my house is being painted that week, so it’s a good time to Get out of Dodge (old school reference, see https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/get_out_o...). I run my poker road trip idea by Mrs. rppoker and she is fine with it. She and our dog Astro will hang with my older daughter while I am gone.

I check out the MSPT schedule, and I see my sweet spot. The first two days. Tuesday, August 12 has a $300 Epic Stack Kickoff NLH with a 50,000 starting stack and 30-minute levels. The next day there is a $300 Ultimate Stack NLH with a 40,000 starting stack and 30-minute levels. Nice structures and I’ll only be gone from home one night (two days).

I figure on Tuesday I will wake up early, drive to the tournament, play poker that day, stay overnight at the Ameristar Hotel, wake up, play tournament poker again the next day and then drive home whenever my tourney is done.

To quote Bill Murray of Stripes movie vintage, I’ll zip in, I’ll zip out …

I make my hotel reservation, and I am seemingly set.

Then, a speed bump. I go to my first golf lesson. If you have been following along, you know I have recently taken up golf again for the first time in several decades (I previously stopped playing 30 years ago when my oldest daughter was born). My kids are grown up, so I have started hitting golf balls again at the driving range. And by hitting golf balls, what I really mean is I have been creating giant divots on the grass portion of the local driving range. I have completely forgotten how to hit a golf ball.

So, I go to my first golf lesson today, and the golf pro is great. He identifies just a few things -- 1) my pre swing set up is too far from the ball and my knees are bent too much, 2) my back swing is not rotating properly, 3) I am swinging too fast on my downswing, and 4) I am not turning my hands over enough on my downswing -- and almost immediately I experience tremendous improvement. I’m not saying I am ready to win a local golf tournament, but my progress is massive. I am making good to great contact on almost every shot, and around 60% of the shots are straight. How come poker improvement is not this simple?

Tired but pleased, I drive home and am pulling into my garage when I clip my car into the side of the garage door opening’s wall. Stupid, stupid, stupid! The results are a bunch of scratches and a rear side bumper that is hanging a bit loose. My daughter’s boyfriend zip ties it so it doesn’t fall off, but driving with this on the highway/tollway to Indiana probably isn’t a great idea.

Have car won’t travel?

I am not going to be denied. I go online and I make a car rental reservation. Have car will travel.

I am excited. The MSPT at the Ameristar Casino/Hotel in East Chicago, Indiana may lack the glamour of the WSOP at the Paris/Horseshoe Casinos in Las Vegas, but I am about to be back in the poker arena again. Right where I want to be.