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#034 – Want to Fight with Me About a Hand?
In entry #008, I described in some detail a hand that Mike Matusow played in the first FTOPS event, raising to steal with 9h-6h, then calling an all-in re-raise from one of the blinds. I haven’t spoken to Mike about the hand (though I may when I see him next) but I defended the move. I received several e-mails about my analysis.
This is a good use for the Blog Forum. I will open a Forum topic about it, repost my defense, and post the e-mails that commented/disagreed. (I’ve got permission to post one e-mail and am waiting on others.) I’ll defend my arguments, and I encourage others to express their opinions.
The Forum has just been put together for my use within the last couple days. I’m trying to make topics for each FTOPS event and include my posts, though I have not been thorough about it. (I’m usually posting, writing new posts, watching the action, and bombing out of the FTOPS event and a couple others while this is going on.) Maybe it’ll take some time before the Forum gets active; maybe it will never get active.
But I encourage the dialogue. I enjoy hearing from readers, even (especially?) when they have an opinion that differs from mine. My analysis of poker hands, it should be clear, is not presented from a perspective of expertise. I consider myself a student, not a teacher. I think I understand how to think about poker hands, but there is often more than one way to think about a hand. And, as happened in post #023, about the hand in which Jon Bloch busted from the PLO event, I can pretty easily miss things like counting the number of outs or (especially outside hold ‘em) misunderstand the strength of different hands.
I love the exercise of thinking through hands and exchanging ideas. It’s not the primary purpose of this Blog but because of the time I’ve spent learning from a number of professional poker players, it’s one where what I have to say should be of some interest, even if it’s not necessarily correct.
