SimplifyPoker.com

 Barry and I just launched our new site

https://simplifypoker.com

You can sign up to our free newsletter there and find lots of free stuff.

Who is the guy in small print on all your books?

Barry Carter is a writer and certainly not a professional poker player. He is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and co-authored the best-selling Mental Game of Poker with Jared Tendler. He approached Dara about possibly writing a book on satellites, given Dara was widely considered the authority on the format.

The Origin Story

That book became Poker Satellite Strategy, a book which not only allowed thousands of amateur players to qualify for large events but also significantly increased the traffic to satellites live and online.

We quickly realised we had a natural partnership when it came to creating strategy content. Barry would come into a topic knowing (sometimes less than) nothing about it, whereas I was the expert. I would share with Barry everything I knew about a topic, then Barry would attempt to create a draft of a chapter from that knowledge. When it became clear that Barry had missed the point several times on important lessons, we would hash it out again, and again (with lots of verbal and occasionally physical abuse). Eventually, when it got to the point that Barry was able to communicate my ideas with authority, we knew that we had boiled down the information to a level which our target audience would understand. Barry served as a stand-in for the audience and was not afraid to ask the questions others would be embarrassed not knowing.

This became a winning formula and after several books had been released, we got a sense of who our target audience was. Smart recreational players and professional players who, for whatever reason, felt they had been left behind in the modern solver era. Players who had perhaps been winning players before, but have struggled in recent years to stay profitable.

Our work is best described as simplifying the complex lessons from solvers in a way that anyone can understand, without having to spend 30 hours a week in front of GTO Wizard. It worked for Barry, who is by no means a crusher but has been a consistent winning player online ever since working with me.

That is the mission statement of Simplify Poker, whatever your level, our content is designed to save you time and stress trying to make sense of the modern game. You don’t need to feel left behind anymore and you can get back to winning ways in no time.

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Tournament Poker Study Simplified explained

 Barry and I just released Tournament Poker Study Simplified. It's a new video course which breaks down the fundamentals of poker while also giving you a framework for how to study poker on your own, without a coach.

Since I started writing books, demand for my one-on-one coaching has skyrocketed, so much so that I often have to turn away a lot of potential new clients. 

Whatever level they are, I always like to start with the fundamentals: GTO, exploits and ICM. What I often find after working with a client for a while is they are often missing these foundational building blocks which would allow them to study on their own.  

The course replicates the process I go through with my one-on-one clients and Barry sits in to play the role of the student. We cover all the major aspects of poker including

• Preflop opens, flats, 3-bets and defends
• How to study post flop hands
• How to play different board textures
• Bet sizing strategy including leads and overbets
• Turn and river play
• Blind vs Blind
• Bubble and final table bubble play
• Short, Medium & Big stack ICM strategies
• Final table strategy
• Exploits and node locking

Barry and I have released a number of free extracts from the course on our YouTube channel:

• An overview of the contents
• When to limp the small blind
• How to analyse a poker hand

We have over 20 hours of video and we will be updating the course in the future with more stuff. This is all for a fraction of the price of my private coaching (if you are one of my existing students, please message me for an exclusive discount code). 

In addition to all of that, for a short time only you will also get our three exclusive webinars on Milestone Satellites, Mystery Bounties and playing soft live fields, for free! 

My hope is that by the end of this course, you will not only have developed a solid understanding of the fundamentals of poker, you will also have developed a framework for how to study poker alone, without the need for a coach. 

Next up

Since Vegas I've been concentrating on content (have also started on the next book with Barry in addition to completing the course) and coaching, but I have another solid three and a half weeks of live poker coming up starting this Friday. I'll be playing the Dublin Poker Club 1k, the Irish Poker Tour Lunasa Lunacy in the Green Isle, then it's a full two week in Barcelona for the EPT stop, topped off by a week at The Festival in Malta. Hope to see you there at some point! 

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The most important spots to study

 Many of my students don’t quite know how to study on their own, but an equally big issue for them and most poker players is knowing what to study. There is so much information out there that parsing out the most important lessons for your own game is a minefield. 

The biggest mistake you can make is to study the cooler type hands that lead to the biggest pots. Aces vs Kings, or set over set, feel important but in reality they play themselves. 

In terms of technical study, it’s much better to study things that come up a lot. So blind vs button, blind vs blind, single raised pots, continuation bets etc. Nailing your ranges from every seat, knowing your c-betting strategy, knowing how to pick bluffs – all the stuff that happens over and over again, that’s the most important thing from a technical perspective. You develop a muscle memory for this kind of thing.

After that, focus on your biggest leaks. You probably know what they are because they cause you stress, if not get a better player to sweat you to tell you what they are. Your biggest leaks cost you the most money and stress, and they feel good to overcome. Once you have fixed a leak, move onto your next biggest leak, and so on. 

Finally, I always say that students should spend a bit of time studying the things that come up less often but are important. Most notably this would be ICM and heads-up. The big spots happen less frequently, but any error in these areas is magnified. A punt at your biggest final table of the year might be the difference between a good and bad year for you. 

If you need help with this aspect of your game, stay tuned. Barry and I have been working on a comprehensive video course where we go through everything I do with my private students. We explore GTO, exploitative poker and ICM in more detail than we ever have and cover things we have not touched on in our books. 

If you struggle with knowing how to study, drop me a line and let me know your study leaks. We may be covering them specifically in our just released course. 

Until then, good luck at the tables.

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Monotone flops

 Monotone flops give my students the biggest headaches, and rightfully so, they are perhaps the trickiest boards to play in poker. 

Some broad characteristics I have identified about monotone flops are:

• There is no leading from the BB

• Bet sizes go down

• There is much more checking

• Most hands mix

To simplify, monotone flops see us play poker "with the handbrake on" where we take less aggressive actions, build the pot less, and largely try to get to showdown more. 

Why do we play more timidly when all the cards are the same suit? The main reason is that we could already be betting into a flopped flush. Our top pair might be no good and our flush draws could already be dominated by a made flush. When we bet big we are not getting flush draws to fold, we are just bloating the pot when we could already be crushed. 

In addition, there are so many board-changing turns and rivers. A fourth card of the same suit devalues so many hands. Pairing the board will sometimes reverse the fortunes for the player who was ahead.  

The natural impulse on monotone boards is to play careful anyway, and in this instance, it's good to follow your instincts. Monotone boards are under bluffed spots anyway in real life. Keep the pot small, try to get to showdown with the weaker portion of your range and keep the handbrake on. 

We are just putting together the finishing touches to a new video course which replicates how I work with my 1-1 students. As part of it we delve into every major type of flop including Ace high, King high, monotone, paired and more. We have over 20 hours of footage and it should give you a solid foundation for how to study without a coach. 

If there is a certain board type you struggle with, drop me a line and let me know. We may be covering it in our upcoming course. 

Until then, good luck at the tables.

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Why you should study Ace high flops

I am a big advocate of studying the most common spots in poker, which for the most part I mean things like Button vs Big Blind, Small Blind vs Big Blind, etc. 

What that also means is studying the most common flop types. Wet flops, dry flops, paired flops, monotone flops, etc. The most common flop type of all being Ace high flops.  

A lot of people say things like "Whenever I have KK an Ace always flops", to suggest they are unlucky. The reality is that it should happen a lot of the time. 

Ace high flops make up 21.7% of strategically different flops. They are the most common type of high card flop. It's not that an Ace is more likely to flop than, say, a Jack, it's just that when a flop has an Ace it is always Ace high. When a flop has a King, it is not always King high. King high flops happen 18.3% of the time, Queen high flops 15.2% of the time, and so on. 

If you have a hand like KK, it is slightly more likely than 21.7% of the time that an Ace will flop, because you have two unblockers in your hand. When you have an Ace yourself, it is much less likely that an Ace will flop, around 16.3% of the time, because you have an Ace blocker. 

The other, more obvious, reason why you should study Ace high flops is because every reasonable range includes lots of Ace-X hands. When an Ace comes on the flop you should have plenty of top pair and so should your opponent. That is not the case when a flop comes four high. 

Finally, there is just something different about how Ace-x flops play out in real-life games. Some recreationals overplay them, others overfear them when they have strong hands like KK or top pair with a weak kicker. 

Either way, study the flop types in isolation, there are differences between Ace high flops and King high flops, just as there are differences between King high flops and Queen high flops, that are worthy of a separate investigation. 

We are just putting together the finishing touches to a new video course which replicates how I work with my 1-1 students. As part of it we delve into every major type of flop including Ace high, King high, monotone, paired and more. We have over 20 hours of footage and it should give you a solid foundation for how to study without a coach. 

If there is a certain board type you struggle with, drop me a line and let me know. We may be covering it in our upcoming course. 

Until then, good luck at the tables.

 

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How to study poker

In the last few years, I have been inundated with new students. They come to me for an array of reasons, but when you boil it down they are all looking for a framework for studying poker on their own. It can be overwhelming to know what to study and how to study the game. 

I have been working on a major project with Barry where we address this head-on, but until then here is a simple cheat sheet I use to study a hand in a solver like GTO Wizard:

Look at the preflop ranges first: Before heading to the flop, assess the preflop ranges. What are the shapes of both ranges. Are they polarised, linear, capped or condensed? What sort of boards favour each player? 

Look at the equities: Post flop the first thing to look at is who has the stronger range. Who has range advantage (the stronger range overall) and who has nutted advantage (the strongest hands)? Range advantage usually determines betting frequency, nutted advantage influences bet size. 

What bet size does the solver prefer? If you have done the first two steps, this question is easier to answer. Look at the predominant bet sizing and ask yourself what is influencing it. 

How does the solver pick bluffs and value? Your value determines your bet size for the most part. It’s more interesting to get into the weeds and look at which hands it picks as bluffs. This tends to be influenced by blockers, improvability and equity. Solvers like bluffs that block value and can improve, but they also pick low-equity hands for whom taking down the pot is a big win.

How does my opponent deviate from GTO? Once you have answered all that and have a baseline GTO response, the final question is to ask how you would adjust your strategy based on the real-life tendencies of your opponent.   

The above sounds overly simplified, but studying becomes much easier if you can break it down into manageable chunks like this. 

If you need help with this aspect of your game, stay tuned. Barry and I have been working on a comprehensive video course where we go through everything I do with my private students. We explore GTO, exploitative poker and ICM in more detail than we ever have and cover things we have not touched on in our books. 

If you struggle with knowing how to study, drop me a line and let me know your study leaks. We may be covering them specifically in our upcoming course. 

Until then, good luck at the tables.

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Irish Open and other threads

 In the run up to Irish Opens in recent years, I’ve taken to reposting one old Irish Open blog a day in chronological order. I noticed a few years missing, and my first thought was

“Hmmm. That’s weird. I guess nothing interesting happened at the Irish Open that year for me personally”

However, I just realised the reality is different. The missing years were the first years I was sponsored, and as part of the deal my blogs were moved to the sponsor’s site, or newsletters. These are now defunct, so I intend to dig out the old blogs and finally move them back here. 

This year’s and last year’s blogs are of course on VegasSlotsOnline, and will remain there as they pay for that privilege, but can be accessed through these links

Last year

This year

Other news

In other news, this blog recently passed a very special milestone, one million views, something I could never  have imagined possible when I started this blog (or even when I added a counter to start tracking views about a decade ago). I’m very grateful to all who have followed my journey down the years, and even more grateful to those who have helped me publicise it. With so much of my writing appearing elsewhere these days, I have definitely neglected this blog of late, but I don’t want to abandon it completely. 

I’ve already played way more live poker than I intended to this year, motivated to a greater degree than I’d care to admit by the fact the good start I made to the year on that front propelled me to the top of the GPI POY rankings for Ireland, and am intrigued to see how long I can maintain that position. For the rest of this month though the focus shifts to online poker (it’s Series season, and I’m particularly looking forward to the Chip Race series on Unibet), coaching, and content, before I attack on the live front again in June. 

Barry and I recently produced three new webinars, one on target satellites, another on mystery bounties, and a third on Exploiting Weak Live Fields, and we are currently working on a top secret project we are both very excited about, as well as a couple more book ideas.

Speaking of books, I had a couple of recent fun book signings, one up in Rinty’s place in Antrim, and the other with my friend Alex O’Brien in Malta.

Also while we were in Malta, Roland and Eric gave David and I our latest GPI award for the Chip Race.

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