The Tournament Rules – A short (and cheap!) ebook outlining some default rules to use in multi-table tournies.

Blue Shark Affiliates – Become an affiliate for the official poker eyewear of the WSOP

PushFoldCharts.com - Short stack push/fold charts for unexpoloitable late tournament play.

Blind Straddle – A free, online poker & gambling magazine

Daily Exercise #25–”If this were an actual emergency you’d probably be pretty screwed.”

Today, you’re once again not playing poker. Every hand is actually a question on a quiz given to you by a poker backing site.  Your score on this test will determine whether they’re going to start backing you in big buyin TV tournaments.  And they don’t care whether you win or lose!  They are judging you solely on making good decisions.  They know that good decisions get the money in the long run.  Concentrate on making the correct decisions knowing they will be judged on that merit alone.

Let me explain.

Daily Exercise #24–”I used to have schizophrenia but we got better.”

At today’s session, you’re going to be completely detached, as if you’re just watching someone else play. You’re ghosting a student. Give that student advice and tell him how to play the hand as if you aren’t involved at all.  It’s not you playing, so no money is involved hand to hand, but your professional standing is on the line.  Make sure you give good advice and teach your student to make good decisions so he will continue to grow and improve as a player. 

Daily Exercise #23–”Somebody’s Watching You…”

Today you are being watched by the pro you respect the most. He is watching your play and deciding whether to take you under his wing and teach you and back you, but you must play well enough to impress him. He doesn’t care if you win or lose, he only cares about how well you play—you don’t want to disappoint him. At the end of the session, you should pay attention to how you might have played differently and what changes you can make to your game to improve based on the way you play when you know a great player is watching over your shoulder.

For today, watch each opponent carefully when it is their turn to act. You aren’t looking for a specific tell or watching a specific body part, though you should certainly use any tells that you see. For today you are just trying to get a general impression. This is a skill that seems like it’s going nowhere at first as you read people incorrectly and don’t see anything on most of the players at your table. Even when you think you know how a player feels about their hand you won’t always see a showdown to find out if you are correct. It’s also a skill that will only improve with practice, so you must practice even when you think it’s going nowhere and before long you will have a much better idea about what your opponents are thinking and feeling. Be patient and do this exercise a few times before you worry about results.

Daily Exercise #21 – “Push ‘em around.”

Today, you will learn your push/folds, and use them.  Go to pushfoldcharts.com.  Go to the Heads Up section.  Play heads up sit and gos using the chart there until you don’t have to look at it to know what the right move is.

Exercise #20 – “Acey Deucey”

Play in any Omaha Hi-Low game and you’ll see all sorts of crazy hands shown down.  And why not?  You start with 4 cards instead of two and you get to play for both sides of the pot!

In truth, tight is right in this action game, and even those of us who know this probably don’t play tight enough.  For today’s exercise find an O8 game live or online and only play hands that contain an Ace and a Deuce.  The other cards only matter as to whether you’re going to raise or call, and you can still fold the hand if it’s a completely dry Ace/Deuce out of position.  But those other hands—suited ace-treys, 2345, high pairs and rundowns, anything else that looks pretty—throw them in the muck.  You’ll definitely be throwing away some profitable opportunities, but I think you’ll be surprised by how easy it is to play post-flop and how little trouble you get yourself into.  It is often said that when you find yourself facing a tough decision late in a hand, it usually steams from a decision you made earlier.  Well, there’s no earlier decision than starting hands.  Make the right choice here and everything tends to fall into line.

Exercise #19 – “Know Your Enemies: Mark the Mouth”

You’ll be looking for mouth tells today. But not what someone is saying, but the actual physical shape and activity of the mouth.

Some common mouth tells:

• The Fake Smile – Bluffers like to fake smile to reassure you of how confident they are. Real smiles curve up at the corners of the lips and involve the eyes, wrinkling them into “crow’s feet.”
• Thin to NOT win – Thin, compressed lips indicates stress and/or low confidence.
• Pursed Lips – Disagreement.  Didn’t like the card that just fell.
• Lip Biting – Stress and concern
• Licking Lips – Pacifying behavior.  Concerned or fearful.

As usual, we recommend Read ‘Em and Reap: A Career FBI Agent’s Guide to Decoding Poker Tells by Joe Navarro as further reading on the subject of tells.