ILX Poker Players Unite

we need legal online play in order to usher in another poker boom

the other day I listened to a podcast which argued that the biggest change in understanding between now and 20 years ago is in how much variance there really is, especially in PLO where it's possible to have hot or cold streaks which last years. ultimately he says that in the pre-online era it really wasn't possible to play enough hands to get a good handle on who the best players really were, and that virtually every "pro" who played big and made a lot of money pre-Party Poker was either rich enough to ride out the variance or just started on a heater. he thinks there were probably dozens of potential Tom Dwans and Junglemen out there but few of them ran as good as they did where they could really commit themselves to the game. definitely rings true for me at least, had I not run well my first few months playing online I probably would have given it up within a year. poker is so uniquely frustrating when you're on an extended downswing, it just feels like there's nothing you can do but give up.

whenever this thread pops up I end up watching an hour of poker highlights on Youtube and I don't know why - I haven't played a hand in a decade and I was absolutely terrible even among friends who were also bad, I don't have the attention span to play cards for more than like 20 minutes at a blackjack table.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDt90EyZnWA

incredible - was laughing throughout the entire section with Hellmuth and Gus. though his math on the Gus Hansen section is way off - that only applies if you get called by everyone, and if you did technically you'd only have to win once to win the tournament. I would guess just blind shoving every hand in a 6 person sit n' god you'd probably have like a 6-8% chance of winning it all.

god I used to love watching this stuff in college. better than any game show if you ask me. watching these dudes in the WSOP go on 3 day heaters, suddenly finding themselves at a featured table and allowing themselves to think just a little about the possibility of a big payout and some TV fame, only to get doinked by an 8 on the river. after which the camera just lingers on their face as they realize they will almost certainly never have this opportunity again. tough to watch I guess but still, great people-watching. also so many of them were massive dicks so it was easy to figure out who to root for.

https://philgalfond.beehiiv.com/p/elephant-poker-room

galfond could certainly use an editor, but I completely agree. doug is an amazing player and peerless analyst (when he puts work into it…he doesn’t prep as much for his videos these days) but he’s a bully and his non-analysis videos suck

Charlie Carrel is an antivaxxer who I had to block because he shares too much LibsOfTikTok bullshit, seems like one of the last guys who should be talking about "empathy". Regardless Doug is a total dick whose brain has been infected by YouTube disease, he's a great analytical player but shockingly unnuanced when it comes to any other topic.

the JNandez thing was real bullshit too, I primarily play PLO these days so I know his stuff pretty well, dude definitely seems legit to me. Doug feels like he's trying to be some Fantano-type personality whose appeal expands beyond poker while JNandez really is all business. dragging his name through the mud was a real dick move.

I like Galfond, like DNegs he seems like one of the actual good guys in poker, but yeah that sure was a lot of words

just catching up on this doug polk is a bull story ten months later and i dont think its necessarily wrong that doug is a bully but i think theres some nuance missing in galfonds essay and other talk ive seen on the situation which is that matt berkey is a weird dick whos always "speaking his mind", prob a bit of a cry bully sitch going on here, got into a beef with doug which i dont totally know the origins of but i remember he said he was gonna play in a game doug was playing in and was talking shit like these math guys may be good online but get them on the felt where im king and well see whats up and then backed out, so berkey is beefing with doug hes pretty unlikable not totally honest he runs a coaching site thats prob not very good and doug is like this guy sucks i hate him which is a not unreasonable conclusion, but he doesnt really consider his position of power or maybe he just thinks its cool and good that hes powerful and its his right to crush berkey, whatever it is he obvs took it way too far and deserved to be called on it, but berkey jumped in the octogon and got wrecked too

i watched an episode of that show where the players wear headphones to block out the sound so they can talk about the hands while they play and berkey and his protege were on and they were just not cool or nice guys very arrogant and lame, so i can understand how when a guy who sucks steps to you its just insulting, even by poker standards they came off as notably low quality guys

wait a sec what is this show, feel like even if you can't hear exactly what people are saying there are still all sorts of tells you could pick up just hearing a guy talk about what he's actually thinking in a hand

I agree most big name poker players are arrogant and obnoxious, comes with the territory I guess. I mean the way the game works even the best players still lose a ton so maybe they always feel like they have something to prove. Polk in particular is a guy I wouldn't mind never seeing again.

its called poker out loud, pretty cool idea, they dont really get top players on there tho, i mean theyre much better than me but still would be cooler to hear the top guys

really been enjoying nick shulman and brian rast commentating on the last triton series

yeah the triton broadcasts are top notch