If you get a kick out of poker nicknames, this article is for you. If you enjoy the whimsy, transience, and candor of our peer-given monikers, then read on. If, on the other hand, you find names such as Uncle Stinker and Vinnie Beans to be neither amusing nor intriguing, then you might as well
Dear reader, This is an excerpt from Elements of Poker. (Now available in audiobook) Tilt has many causes and kinds, but it has only one effect. It makes us play bad. It makes us do things we wouldn’t do if we were at our very best. And that’s how I want to define it,
Mechanics Rule #1: Do not move the button. Rule #2: Post your blinds when you should. Rule #3: When you have a live hand, place your phone face-down on the table or rail. Rule #4: Your cards should be visible to everyone always. Rule #5: Do not impede the dealer with your chip stack.
Every year, on the Fourth of July, your friends and neighbors gather in your well-provisioned back yard to enjoy a warm afternoon of laughter and food. Unless, of course, the sky turns into water and falls, in which case your 40 guests hustle into the house and gaze through your windows at the downpour. Which
“If you ask for a dealer-button change, you might be tilting.” “If you make a short buy with $1 bills, you might be tilting.” “If you decide to check-raise that lag fool one more time because there’s no way he can have it *again*%@!&!!, you might
Ever heard of Jeff Foxworthy? He’s a comedian who did a bit called, “You might be a redneck if…” In his skit, he fires off one-liners, like this one here: “If you cut your grass and find a car, you might be a redneck.” Here’s another: “If you’ve ever been too drunk to fish, you
Dear reader: In this Painless Poker excerpt, I propose an idea to the characters at the Painless Poker Clinic, and we bat it around. “You know what?” I said. “Let’s change things up and talk about betting strategy.” I leaped up and to the chalkboard. “At last,” Alf said, and Charlie rubbed his hands. “Keep in
“I would rather go naked than wear the coat the world has made for me.” Novelist Dorothy Allison wrote those words, and my sister Judith sent them to me, lettered and framed, when I became a Professional Poker Player. That was in 1990. I was 32. This was Jude’s way of saying, “I get it.
When you lose a soul-crushing pot, your mind is like a boat. A boat on a lake. A lake that just had an island-sized boulder dropped in it. The splash from the boulder was huge, and now you are being tossed about harshly by the waves. Understandably, you think the problem is the boulder. You
