Hello All,
Coming up next week is the October 8th Shareholder Poker Tournament.
Event Details:
📆 Tuesday, October 8th
🕖 Time: 7:00 PM PT
🃏 Zoom and Game Details To Follow
💰 $50 buy-in (send via Cash.app to @kmikeym)
SAVE THE DATE IN YOUR CALENDAR.
Until then I have a two articles to share with you and hopefully inspire you to be a better poker player.
J. sent me the following story:
The Russian Bot Army That Conquered Online Poker
The tl;dr is that a Siberian group built some poker-playing bots and made millions of dollars. What can learn from math-genius coders making AI poker bots?
Mastering the mathematical aspects of poker, including probability and game theory, is essential. The bots calculated optimal strategies based on millions of hands. To improve your skills you need to play more hands (like next week!).
The bots were designed to analyze opponents’ tendencies across thousands of hands. This means you should be paying attention to patterns in how your opponents play (especially Nick!) soyou can exploit their weaknesses.
The best bots adapt to different opponents and game types. Lucky for you, we play a single style (tournament) with mostly the same people. So you should be able to adapt your strategy based on the game’s flow and the playing styles of your opponents (see also Nick).
Next is an article combining two of my great loves: Poker and Tennis!
Watching tennis with Andre Agassi: Poker, intimacy, meat and potatoes at the Laver Cup
The tl;dr is Andre Agassi shares his insights into tennis strategy and psychology, and compares that mindset to a gambler. He discusses how he approaches the game, how he reads opponents, and the mindset needed to succeed.
What can we learn from Agassi’s gambler mindset about tennis in how we play poker?
Agassi emphasizes the importance of dictating the pace and creating a “narrative” in tennis. In poker, this means controlling the flow of the game by making deliberate plays and setting the tone for your opponents. Don’t let others (Nick!) dictate the action!
Agassi compares tennis to a “staring contest” where players wait for the right moment to strike. Similarly, in poker, patience is key. Wait for the hands and opportunities to make your move, rather than rushing in out of frustration or eagerness.
Agassi advocates for “controlled 85 percent aggression” during key moments. In poker, this might mean balancing aggression with caution—make aggressive moves but stay within a level of control that doesn’t expose you to unnecessary risk.
As we prepare to play poker next week, what can we learn from high level tennis pros and bots to make us better at poker (and life?). Well... more than you might think.