5:02am: Today’s live session was definitely not easy money. It was a table full of local sharks, and had it not been for the amount of trouble I went through today in order to play live (which I won’t get into), I would have sooner turned around and went back home for a full heads up sng session.

I decided to stick it out, and in doing so I decided that I was going to have to mix things up a bit today because everyone at the table knew what my usual gameplan is. Today was a day where I only played hands in position, and I picked up a bunch of small pots by playing the button and the cutoff very aggressively. The plan worked to perfection, as no one really caught on to what I was doing.

Then, there was this one hand where I made a “blocking raise” preflop of $15 with Ac9c from middle position. I knew I wanted to see the flop, however I knew if I just limped, someone was going to make it at least $25-$30 to go. Whenever I enter the pot there, I usually get a lot of respect, so everyone (5 people) just called and we see a flop of 7c 5c 2d. The guy first to act folds unprevoked (checked out) and the action was on me. I decide to bet $30. The man to my left (loose/passive) calls $30, one guy folds, another guy folds, and the LAG player on the button makes it $130 to go. I thought about pushing right here, because I did have two overs and the nut flush draw, but I wanted the third guy in too so that I’d have better odds for the hand to hit. For that reason, I decide to just call the $100 and so does the man to my left. The pot is now $480 going into the turn.

The turn is a very beautiful card for me: Jc, giving me the absolute nuts at the moment.

I thought that if I checked it at this point, there’s no way in hell someone else would bet a scary card like that on a flushed-out board without a flush themselves. Even a set would probably take the free card here, and try to pair the board cheaply. Keeping these things in mind, I decided to lead out pretty strong ($300) hoping and praying that someone else had completed the flush OR that someone would figure, “there’s no way he could have a flush here, he would have checked. Who in the hell leads out when they hit the flush?”.

Unfortunately, no one had a flush and no one figured any of that stuff I mentioned above. Everyone folds, and I take down the pot as it stood at that point.

The rest of the night was just maintenance and picking up small pots, as I mentioned above. After a 5.5 hour session, I decided that I was indeed lucky to be up nearly $400 in a very “sharked out” game so I took my loot and left with the intention to continue my session via heads up sngs when I arrived home.

In regards to my online mini-session, there is nothing significant to report other than those who ran better than me, won the match, and those did not, lost. This enabled me to finish 3-2 on the night, and hopefully tomorrow I will be able to play a longer one. Here is the last hand from the last match I played (against a pretty solid player), for those who are interested:

PokerStars Game #18736711128: Tournament #95280719, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2008/07/11 - 05:58:10 (ET)
Table ‘95280719 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: prodigies (1000 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (2000 in chips)
prodigies: posts small blind 15
trujm: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Qc Js]
prodigies: raises 60 to 90
trujm: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [Kc 3c Ts]
trujm: checks
prodigies: bets 90
trujm: calls 90
*** TURN *** [Kc 3c Ts] [Ad]
trujm: checks
prodigies: bets 240
trujm: raises 720 to 960
prodigies: calls 580 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (140) returned to trujm
*** RIVER *** [Kc 3c Ts Ad] [8s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujm: shows [Qc Js] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
prodigies: shows [Qs As] (a pair of Aces)
trujm collected 2000 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2000 | Rake 0
Board [Kc 3c Ts Ad 8s]
Seat 1: prodigies (button) (small blind) showed [Qs As] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) showed [Qc Js] and won (2000) with a straight, Ten to Ace

More later..

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

4:33am: This isn’t easy to do guys, but it’s always nice to celebrate it when it happens. Here’s to staying on top of your ‘A’ game, focusing, and not letting anything stand in your way:

Now bring on the downswing! (just kidding). Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

3:02am: The biggest battle you face at the tables, espcially heads up, may not even be against your next opponent. Instead, your toughest competitor might be you. Everyone’s got an achilles heel. That is, something that “sets them off” into self-distruct mode sending them downspirling in slow motion with seemingly no way to stop it.

For example, you’re about to put someone away in a $20 husng; they have 280 chips to your 2720. You pick up A10off on the button, so you just put them all in hoping to get a call. You get the call you want, and they turn over the hand you want - J10off - but the RNG lets them off the hook when the flop brings the unfortunate Jack. That’s actually OK, because you’re still at the point where you can maintain your composure and put them away.

But what happens when the situation happens not once, but twice? - and in an even MORE unlikely way. The blinds are now 50/100, and you have 2100 to your opponents 900 and pick up 10 10 in the big blind. Your opponent open shoves, which makes this an easy call and then flip over A2. Beautiful, right? Not so fast. The flop is: K K 3. Still looking good? How about the turn (Q)? Is that a good card? Almost never. Especially in this case because it allowed a Q to hit on the river, counterfeiting your two pair and giving the underdog with A2 the winning hand.

The question is: how do you handle things like that when they happen to you? How is one supposed to take it when it happens over, and over and over again. Here are a few steps to stomaching the sometimes seemingly never ending barage of SICKNESS that happens in heads up sngs (while still in the match):

1. Take 10 seconds, breathe, and look away from the screen. Remember that at the end of the day, it is still just a game and it is for this particular reason that we have bankrolls: so that we don’t have to get sick when things like this happen. It is also the same reason we preach “volume, volume, and more volume”.

2. Remember that if the best hand always held up, no one would ever play. I once heard a proposal for a game variation of Texas Hold Em where the hand would be over on the flop. This was literally one of the dumbest things I had ever heard, and clearly conceived by someone who is so emotionally scarred from getting drawn out on, that he had to invent his own little world where the best hand always wins.

3. Believe in the RNG in the long run. Yeah, yeah - you hear it all the time: long term. You hear it so much, that you’re sick of hearing it, but it’s completely true. Take it from someone who has played nearly a million hands in poker in his life. “Long term” can seem EXTREMELY long sometimes, but the numbers always even out in the end.

4. Do not melt down. There’s a tendency to compound the problem by taking out your frustration on yourself. For some reason, we love to play the victim in life whenever we can - and once a night has gotten terrible past the point of no return, people have a tendency to just “blow a fuse” and not care anymore. Whenever you feel yourself START to get at this point, it’s time to stop. Seriously. Do not register for any more heads up sngs until you’ve completely regained your composure. Also, do not lie to yourself: only you know deep down if you’re just fooling yourself into believing that you’re in the right mindset. Trust and honesty with yourself in these moments is key.

On the other hand, if you happen to be in the middle of the match, you need to do the best you can to emulate the mindset you were in when the match first started. A fresh mindset has been the base of many of my comeback victories, and there’s no reason you can’t do the same.

5. Regain your composure, and finish the guy off. He’s gotten his money in bad at least twice now, which means he’s a good candidate to give these chips back to you. Be patient, don’t rush it, and find another good spot to get your chips in. Not to get all “hollywood” and “cliche” on you, but I believe Mickey told Rocky in one of the movies that every good fighter has one good round left in him. He says, “get up, you son of a bitch! fight this guy hard! cause Mickey loves you!”

In short, don’t let yourself be your worst enemy. In playing heads up sngs for a living, you will find over time that the only person who can beat you is you. Know your weaknesses, be honest about it, and whenever you feel yourself sliding into the dark place, jump out before the water gets too deep.

2:28am: There’s all kinds of good runs in poker; Good runs with preflop cards; Good runs with opponents; Good runs with cards postflop; Good runs in race situations; Good runs with people just handing you the match. You get the idea. Right now, I’m on a good run in just about every single way I just mentioned.

Not to take anything away from the quality of my play, but I’m either off to one of the best starts even conceivable after moving up in limits (to $100 husngs from $50), or I’m just getting extremely lucky. I’d like the think it’s the former and not the latter.

I’ve had to make a few good calls here and there (see below), but for the most part, people have been just giving away money (also see below), which is something I totally didn’t expect at this level. Here are three hands that are pretty much a microcosm of my experience in the $100s so far:

Donation #1:

PokerStars Game #18546608093: Tournament #94271041, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2008/07/03 - 02:02:41 (ET)
Table ‘94271041 1′ 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: smartass2007 (900 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (2100 in chips)
trujm: posts small blind 10
smartass2007: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Ac Ad]
trujm: raises 40 to 60
smartass2007: calls 40
*** FLOP *** [5d Ah Qd]
smartass2007: bets 100
trujm: calls 100
*** TURN *** [5d Ah Qd] [Kh]
smartass2007: bets 100
trujm: raises 260 to 360
smartass2007: calls 260
*** RIVER *** [5d Ah Qd Kh] [8h]
smartass2007: bets 380 and is all-in
trujm: calls 380
*** SHOW DOWN ***
smartass2007: shows [8d Kd] (two pair, Kings and Eights)
trujm: shows [Ac Ad] (three of a kind, Aces)
smartass2007 said, “lol wow”
smartass2007 said, “nh”
trujm collected 1800 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1800 | Rake 0
Board [5d Ah Qd Kh 8h]
Seat 1: smartass2007 (big blind) showed [8d Kd] and lost with two pair, Kings and Eights
Seat 2: trujm (button) (small blind) showed [Ac Ad] and won (1800) with three of a kind, Aces

Donation #2:

PokerStars Game #18546642807: Tournament #94270330, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2008/07/03 - 02:05:42 (ET)
Table ‘94270330 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: rydog012 (1255 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (1745 in chips)
rydog012: posts small blind 15
trujm: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Qs 7s]
rydog012: calls 15
trujm: checks
*** FLOP *** [6s 4s Ts]
trujm: checks
rydog012: bets 60
trujm: raises 120 to 180
rydog012: raises 120 to 300
trujm: raises 1415 to 1715 and is all-in
rydog012: calls 925 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (490) returned to trujm
*** TURN *** [6s 4s Ts] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [6s 4s Ts 7d] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujm: shows [Qs 7s] (a flush, Queen high)
rydog012: shows [Js Kc] (high card Ace)
trujm collected 2510 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2510 | Rake 0
Board [6s 4s Ts 7d Ac]
Seat 1: rydog012 (button) (small blind) showed [Js Kc] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) showed [Qs 7s] and won (2510) with a flush, Queen high

Donation #3
(had to REALLY think about this one before hitting call):

PokerStars Game #18547386631: Tournament #94274799, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2008/07/03 - 03:18:19 (ET)
Table ‘94274799 1′ 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: trujm (1650 in chips)
Seat 2: tywebb004 (1350 in chips)
tywebb004: posts small blind 15
trujm: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [6s 7d]
tywebb004: raises 60 to 90
trujm: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [As Ah 6h]
trujm: checks
tywebb004: bets 90
trujm: calls 90
*** TURN *** [As Ah 6h] [3c]
trujm: checks
tywebb004: bets 270
trujm: calls 270
*** RIVER *** [As Ah 6h 3c] [5s]
trujm: checks
tywebb004: bets 900 and is all-in
trujm: calls 900
*** SHOW DOWN ***
tywebb004: shows [4c Td] (a pair of Aces)
trujm: shows [6s 7d] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
trujm collected 2700 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2700 | Rake 0
Board [As Ah 6h 3c 5s]
Seat 1: trujm (big blind) showed [6s 7d] and won (2700) with two pair, Aces and Sixes
Seat 2: tywebb004 (button) (small blind) showed [4c Td] and lost with a pair of Aces

As stated above, I really had to think about the last hand before I called. My initial read was KQ (possibly KhQh), and in the end I stuck to that read. Turns out I was slightly off, but my read on the weakness was correct.

Anyways, this concludes the night. 4-1, and now 28-7 overall in the $100s. For > 40% roi. This is great and all, but unfortunately the only place to go from here is down. But I’m ready - bring it on!

Graph Updates:

If you have the bankroll to move up to the $100s, maybe you should try it out. Maybe not as many sharks as you think?

*EDIT*, 7:13am: Couldn’t sleep so I decided to play another game, and I won - so that makes me 5-1 on the day.

*EDIT*, 9:45am: Still can’t sleep and played another one and won. 6-1 on the day now.

4:16pm: Perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of heads up poker online is the presence of tells on both sides. Think about it, how many times have you possibly tipped off your hand in the last 6 months or so by betting/raising too fast, too slow, or perhaps by not raising at all? Let’s take a look at which tells are obvious, how you can spot them and also how to conceal these tendencies. Keep in mind these tells are what I call “level 1″ tells, which operate under the assumption that your opponent doesn’t know that you know these are tells. An example of a “level 2″ tell would be something from the perspective that your opponent knows that you know quick betting indicates weakness, so they will quick bet a hand in strength to intentionally give off weakness.

1. Weakness Tells

• Quick bets. Like I mentioned above, those who bet their hand rather quickly are usually holding nothing more than one pair. Betting so firm, so fast is an attempt to communicate to you, “my hand is so strong that I don’t even have to think about betting”. Good players can see through this, and will usually make a play or, at the very least, optimize their play for what they assume their opponent is holding.
• The min bet. Don’t worry if you think that someone is only doing it to trap you with an attempt to force you into a raise. In all likelihood, the person you’re playing is not thinking that much, so if you need to raise for value, don’t be afraid to do so. Also don’t be afraid to try an take the pot from someone who keeps doing it repeatedly.
• Overbetting the pot on the FLOP. When I call this a “weak tell”, I might be using the term loosely, but I consider one pair to be a weak holding postflop, so by definition this tell is spot on. Notice that I emphasized the word flop, which we will get into later. In this case, usually when people overbet the flop, they are usually holding a pair, but are not necessarily looking for a call and are usually dreading a shove. If you can beat one pair in this spot, you are nearly going to be good 100% of the time in this spot.
• Quick checking. Usually when someone checks very quickly, they just want to move on to the next hand. When someone takes less than a second to check, I will usually take a stab at the pot - with probably a 66% success rate, which gives me good faith in this as a tell of weakness.

2. Strength Tells

• 4x raise preflop. Some things in life are given: death, taxes, and the fact that when someone raises 4x the pot preflop, they are probably holding a small to mid pocket pair. People usually raise more with hands that are harder to play, so they really don’t feel like seeing a flop with hands like this most of the time. A lot of people have trouble playing 77-JJ, and they’d much rather take it down uncontested because they won’t know what to do when overcards come out. Only problem with this method is that they will either win a small pot, or lose a big one. Pay attention to this next time because if you have QQ+, you can shove and will almost always get snap called by someone who is behind 4:1 who assumes you have AK or AQ.
• Long delays followed by betting. When people do this, it’s usually an attempt to communicate to you that their hand is weak enough that they need time to think about betting. When someone does this, I try to stay away unless I’m confident my hand is stronger.
• Preflop limp re raises. You’ve got KJoff in the big blind. Your opponent limps, and you want to make him pay for it, because after all you’ve got a pretty good hand heads up. That is, until he comes back over the top after having initially limped into the pot. If this happens, odds are your opponent perceives you as aggressive and knew you were going to raise pre flop. He also doesn’t believe you will have the disclipline to lay down a marginal hand in this spot - which you should - because he is more than likely not bluffing.
• The huge river overbet. Ever find yourself in a situation where the pot is like 150-250, and all of a sudden, randomly on the river your opponent fires out like 540 into a relatively small pot leaving you wondering what in the world is going on? After all, you just rivered two pair - this seems like an easy call, right? Wrong. More often than not, your opponent is holding a minimum of top two in this situation.
• “Just calling” on every street, followed by a huge bet/raise on the river. Good players will do this when they are weak because they will assume that you will assume that you have just been slowplayed, and are attempting to get you to lay your hand down. Most of the time people aren’t this advanced, and being as such you really have just been slowplayed. It’s probably a good idea to lay your hand down in this spot.

If you find yourself doing ANY of the above, drastically cutting these tactics out of your play can work wonders for improving you ROI. Good players can spot these things, and even sometimes average players. What I used to do is to keep a bunch of small post it notes next to my monitor, and anytime I caught myself giving off a tell, I would make a note on my monitor to make a conscious effort not to do it the next time. Tells are nothing more than bad habits, and most of them come natural. This is why you have to literally go out of your way not to do some of these things, until eventually — not giving off tells has now become a good habit for you.

Spotting these basic tells can also improve you ROI much the same way. Since we can’t see things such as facial expressions and body language online, we have to use the only tools we have at our disposal, such as timing tells and betting patterns. The tells listed above are very basic and are only a small part of equation, hence the name “level 1″ tells. Stay tuned later on for some tells on a more advanced level.

4:01am: There’s a trend going on in heads up sit n gos. By lately, I mean within the last 8 months or so. I believe it is a function of people attempting to lower their variance and clean up their game. For the most part, the number of people who push all their chips in on a draw has gone down significantly.

I am basing this observation over the last 750-1,000 heads up sngs I’ve played. As recently as a year ago, and more noticably the year before that — you could fill your tank up with gas within a week if you had a dollar for every time that one of your opponents put it all in on a draw.

Why the recent change? Have people finally realized that flush draws only hit 1/3rd of the time? Did they finally crunch the numbers on open ended straight draws? Is it no longer thrilling to them? And more imporantly… is this a good or a bad thing for you and me? I don’t know the answers to the first four questions, but to the last one I say that it’s not necessarily a good thing. In general, I find that people realized that there’s no need to gamble to this extent in heads up sit n gos in order to turn a steady profit. In MTTs? Sure. In heads up sit n gos? Not so much.

This is not to say that no one is gambling, or that no one puts it in the middle on a draw. It’s just simply an observation that it doesn’t happen as much as it used to. Regardless of whether or not your opponent is doing so, always remember this: it’s always better to draw against better players, meanwhile taking the inferior players to a place I like to call “value city”.

7:31pm: This topic is one of the toughest situations in all of texas hold em, and especially in a heads up format because you see more of these situations than you would at a 6/9/10 handed table. Should you fire the final bullet after all the cards have been dealt? What factors decide when it’s right and when it’s wrong? Is it instinct, math, or psychology? No matter what the answer, simply put: if you fail to assign correct values to hands (especially on the river), you will fail at poker.

We’re all guilty of missing the river value bet in some way, shape or form — myself included. On the other hand, we’re also been guilty of betting hands that we shouldn’t. In playing heads up sngs, we simply play too many hands to get it right every single time. While mistakes are inevitable, what we can seek to do is cut down on them significantly and make sure that our play on the river is as accurate as possible in such a manner that it’s not a leak in your bankroll.

There’s four ways to make mistakes on the river:

• Betting when you should be checking
• Checking when you should be betting
• Betting too much
• Not betting enough

Let’s take a look at one example of each, and determine which one of the four is most detrimental to your bankroll.

1. Betting when you should be checking

   This one should be relatively easy to fix. This is because it’s easier and less risky to stop betting than it is to start. This is also the mistake most people will readily admit to making. The fix is relatively easy; Simply tune down the aggression factor a little. One of my favorite pieces of advice to people regarding poker is: “You can only gonna get called if you’re beat”.

   For example, you hold 2c2d and the board came out in this order: 2s3s4d, Turn: 5s, River 10s. You’ve bet every stage of the hand up to the river, and your opponent has just called you up until that point. I’ve seen so many people bet their hand in this situation, and while I will yield while it is “read dependent” at times, long term it’s simply not a winning play to make a bet here. Sometimes your opponent’s hand has more ways to beat you than it does to lose, and in these situations you should cease betting. You’re beat here if your opponent holds a spade (9), an Ace (3 [discount As]), or a Six (3 [discount 6s]). That’s immediately 15 cards that your opponent has two shots at having (one for each hole card). In addition to all of this, your opponent could also have 33, 44, 55, or 10 10. Add in all of that, and you are reduced to nearly 50/50 odds of your hand being good. Value bets in this spot rarely make sense.

2. Checking when you should be betting

   This is perhaps the hardest of the four to fix because there are so many factors that go into doing it correctly. Missing value bets on the river has long been a thorn in many a poker players’ side. Let’s run through an example of a situation where a value bet should be made where a check is often the play.

   Equal stacks (1500), and you hold AdKc on the button, and you raised preflop to 60 (from 20). Your opponent (who very rarely draws) called, and the flop was AsKd4c. Your opponent checks, and you bet 100 on the flop, and your opponent simply calls. The pot is now 320. The turn brings Jh. Once again, your opponent checks and you bet a good portion of the pot (250), and your opponent once again calls. The pot is now 820. The river is Qd, and your opponent checks to you.

   At this point, many people would check out of fear that their opponent holds a ten. While it might backfire on you sometimes, it’s better to bet here than check. Let’s look at why:

   Your opponent rarely draws, which usually means their hand is made when they bet or call. If your opponent called you on the flop, it’s a good indicator that they were holding an ace, or a lower two pair (first scenario being more likely). The only way your hand wouldn’t be good at this point is if they happened to be holding A10. Assuming that the first card they are holding is an ace, from an “outs perspective” their second card now has 4 outs to beat you. Add to this the fact that your opponent has checked to you, and slowly but surely you start to realize that it makes more sense to bet here rather than check. Your opponent will more than likely also not put you on a 10, and will often call with a slightly weaker hand.

   Since you bet every stage of the hand, and are continuing to fire on a scary board, your opponent might also incorrectly assume that you are weak. Level 1-2 thinking is that betting means weakness and checking means strength. If your opponent subscribes to this theory, then you will probably get a call here with a weaker hand.

   Also, in this spot many times your opponent will call you out of plain curiosity. Since you fired 3 bullets, and since they probably aren’t putting you on a ten here, your opponent might call just to see they are beat. I can’t tell you how many times my opponent calls and flips over a pair of kings in this spot.

   We now have 3 instances where betting produced a positive result, and one where it produced a negative result. The negative result causes you to to lose the same as you gain when a positive result is produced, therefore your opponent can hold a ten 25% of the time or less for this to be a winning play, and realistically the odds of your opponent holding a ten here are considerably less than 25%.

3. Betting too much

   This is simply a case of assigning incorrect values to hands. If you price yourself into calling when your opponent shoves, then you have to be sure that the hand you’re pushing with is considerably more likely to be good than not. One of the biggest makes my opponents make is overvaluing weak hands (such as 1 pair, bottom two pair, or the bottom end of a 4 card straight). You can generally get a “feel” for what hand strengths are worth over large sample sizes. This may seem overly simplistic, but it’s true: big hands should win big pots, and small hands should win small pots. If you’re only holding a pair, and the pot is slightly bigger than it usually is when you’re holding a pair then you might want to reconsider the amount your fire on the river, if at all. To cure this, simply take 5-10 seconds before you bet and ask yourself, “what is this hand really worth?”

4. Not betting enough

   This one is a mystery to me sometimes. There are times when you know you will get paid if you bet huge, but some still chose to under-fire on the river. Here is a classic example:

   You hold 7d8s. The board reads: 2c3s4d5h6c. You’ve bet out on every stage of the hand, so your opponent has a significant amount invested in the hand. The play here is to push — nearly every single time. Your opponent will usually call to chop, and even if they aren’t calling to chop they will almost certainly call you to win (so they think) with a single seven in their hand. There’s no reason why you should let them off the hook with this kind of board with that hand, and you stand way more to gain by them calling and losing the whole match than you do if you bet not as much and lure them into a call they normally wouldn’t make.

Which one of these mistakes is most detrimental to your bankroll? They are all really bad, but all in all I’d have to say #2. This is because it’s the hardest to correct. You have to be very honest and critical with yourself in evaluating your river play. Think about chips you’ve wasted in your life on the river card. Sickening, huh?

2:29pm: Part 1 discussed how motivations behind listening to music can effect a poker session in a +EV manner. We also established that the motivation most likely to product positive results is “to motivate” and “to stimulate the mood”. No matter what your musical preferences, it’s hard to argue against rock and hip hop for this specific purpose. Below is a short list of some songs that you should consider loading up on your Ipod before starting your poker session — because they motivate AND stimulate the mood.

I. Rock

Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
Gary Glitter - Rock and Roll, Part 2
Phil Collins - I Can Feel It
Bon Jovi - You Give Love a Bad Name
Disturbed - Down With the Sickness
Earshot - Wait
Enter Sandman - Metallica
Fuel - Won’t Back Down
Queen - We Will Rock You
Vince DiCola - Training Montage
White Zombie - Thunderkiss 65
P.O.D - Boom
AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long
Linkin Park - Papercut
AFI - The Leaving Song
Saliva - Click Click Boom
EMF - Unbelievable
Bon Jovi - Everyday

II. Hip Hop

Trick Daddy - Let’s Go
Bonecrusher - Never Scared
Awnaw - Nappy Roots feat. Marcos of POD
Equalizer - Sam Spence Remix
T.I - Big Things Poppin
Three Six Mafia - Hypnotize Cash Money
Black Eyed Peas - Let’s Get it Started
B.G. - For a Minute
Kanye West - Stronger
Nelly - #1
Snap - The Power
Joe Budden - Pump it Up
DJ Kool - Let Me Clear My Throat
Eminem - Lose Yourself
Fort Minor - Remember the Name

There you have it. While this list couldn’t even begin to do the “pump you up” genre of music justice, it’s a good place to start in order to get your brain jogging. Start loading up your favorite mp3 player with these songs, and you are more likely to product some winning poker sessions because ANY edge in poker is crucial.

10:23pm: Professional poker players look for any edge possible to exploit their opponent, but finding an edge may involve nothing more than simply turning on the radio. But does this hold true for everyone? Does music really soothe the soul while playing poker, or is it merely a distraction? This isn’t as easy of a question to answer as you’d think because everyone listens to different types of music for different types of reasons. Let’s look at the different motivations behind listening to music, and whether or not it is conducive to playing a winning poker session:

• To Entertain:

  Music is a great source of entertainment, but this is not necessarily something we’re looking for while conducting business at the poker table. A wise person once told me (as you’ve probably heard before) “never mix business with pleasure”. If you listen to music while playing poker, doing so for entertainment is more counterproductive than anything.

• To Relate:

  People love to have things in common with other people. It’s very reassuring to know someone shares the exact same interests in you. Ever hear the lyrics of a song and think to yourself, “god that sounds exactly like something I’d say”? If so, that’s great, but that means NOTHING at the poker table.

• To Inspire:

  It’s great to be inspired, although this is still not applicable to the situation. To say that certain music inspires you is to assume that you are more likely to be in tune with the lyrics than the melody. You’re better served concentrating on the cards, rather than picking apart each song for meaning while playing poker.

• To Move:

  This is a bit of a no brainer, but dancing and poker don’t mix. Subtle arm movements, and moving to and fro while in the seat is OK. However, an all out choreographical assault on the dance floor (or living room floor) while playing poker is definitely not recommended.

• To Relax:

  Perhaps one can make the argument that relaxation is a good thing while playing poker, but that’s to assume that everyone is hard wired the same way. Some people prefer to be a little “on edge” while playing poker, as it helps them make more accurate decisions. After all, it might not be a good thing to be TOO relaxed at a poker table, right? Therefore, we can’t say with conclusive evidence either way that listening music to relax while playing poker is good or bad.

• To Motivate:

  Now we’re getting a little bit warmer. Poker is a game that must be played without fear, and the only way to lose fear is to lose your inhibitions. There are plenty of songs out there that motivate you to not only become a better player, but also a better person as well.

• To Stimulate the Mood:

  This is starting to make more sense now, isn’t it? I’ve said this many times before: poker is a game of mindset. Those who are able to control their mood and their emotions at the tables are much more equipped to win than those who lack such control. If certain types of music evoke certain types of emotions, simply figure out which emotions put you into the mindset that you need to be in to play winning poker, and you’ve got the recipe for success.

Now that we’ve established a couple of motivations that are conducive to playing winning poker, perhaps we need to establish some particular songs that may evoke these desires. Remember, the type of music isn’t important — only the motivation behind it. Part 2 will feature some particular suggestions from all genres of music.

1:54am: In my never ending quest to improve the site, I have implemented another change.

This time I’ve added something called “share this post”. This is a button added at the bottom of each post so that if you find the post interesting and relevant to you or any of your friends, you can now click the “share this post” button and can import any/all of your friends from multiple IM clients and social neworking sites. This is a very handy tool, instead of having to copy and paste the URL or the whole article itself, open your web mail client, compose a brand new email, paste it and press send. It also helps spread the word about HFL to others who have not seen our site yet.

All in all, I think this is a very nice feature, as it’s now easier for you to tell your friends about our site and our useful articles.