Other Books by David Apostolico
Tournament Poker and The Art of War
Machiavellian Poker Strategy
Lessons from the Pro Poker Tour
LESSONS FROM THE Felt
Advanced Strategies and Tactics for No-Limit Hold’em Tournaments
DAVID APOSTOLICO
LYLE STUART
Kensington Publishing Corp.
To my beautiful wife and three wonderful boys.
No matter what happens on the felt,
I can’t wait to come home to them.
Contents
Foreword by Matt Lessinger
Acknowledgments and Trademarks
Introduction
Getting Started
Home Game
Freerolls
Playing Online
Brick-and-Mortar Single-Table Sit and Go’s
Position Is Critical
Rebuy Tournaments
Satellites
Hand Analysis
Maximizing Profits
Make a Plan and Stick with It
Every Chip Counts
Playing a Large Stack
Critical Points
Defending Your Blinds
How to Fight Aggression
Aggression—the Great Equalizer
Do Not Let Winning Mask Your Sloppy Play
Pulling the Trigger
Play This Hand
Eliminating Opponents
Hypotheticals
Two Questions
One Joke
Deal Making
The Business of Poker
Gambling vs. Expected Value
Negotiating the Table
A Lesson from Cash Games
Tells
Put Yourself in the Mind of Your Opponent
The Mental Challenge
Poker Etiquette
Sprezzatura
The Best of the Blog
Glossary
Recommended Additional Sources
About the Author
Foreword
by Matt Lessinger
It’s 2006, and poker is everywhere. Everywhere! It’s staggering! I can barely turn on the television, turn on the radio, or open a magazine without getting a dose of Texas Hold’em. And everyone is playing it. Whether it’s wealthy businessmen in the glitzy Las Vegas casinos, old-timers in their local card clubs, or college kids in front of their computers, everyone has a poker story to tell. Hell, you can’t swing a dead cat nowadays without hitting some poor schmuck who just took a bad beat and wants you to know all about it.
For those players who need to improve (i.e., all of us), there’s tons of poker advice out there, and sometimes it’s tough to sift through it all. In my opinion, if you’re going to read a book about poker, you should choose an author who has experienced the game from a wide range of perspectives. You need someone who has been where you’ve been and has felt your pain. You need someone like David Apostolico.
What I like best about David’s writing is how easily the pages turn. He does not throw a lot of dry theory at you. Instead, much like my Book of Bluffs, he asks you to learn by example, and the broad scope of his examples is quite impressive.
As you’ll see from the wide variety of hands he describes, he has played in all sorts of venues, for all levels of stakes. He’s played in home games, in bars, on his computer, and, of course, in casinos. He’s played everything from a freeroll for $100 to World Series of Poker events with $1 million prize pools.
Regardless of the location or the amount of money at stake, he has managed to turn every game into a personal learning experience. And now in writing Lessons from the Felt, he has done an excellent job of passing his knowledge on to you. No matter where you play, or for what stakes, you will find in his experiences something you can identify with.
This book is chock full of lessons, just as the title promises. But if you’re going to take one thing away from this book, I hope it comes from the "Two Questions" chapter. Namely, never forget that poker is a game of luck in the short run but skill in the long run. Only losers blame their cards. Winners create opportunities with the cards they’re dealt. And by the time you’re done reading this book, he’ll have you thinking about the many ways to create those opportunities. Do yourself a favor, and pay attention.
Matt Lessinger, a longtime professional poker player, is the author of The Book of Bluffs: How to Bluff and Win at Poker. He has written for Poker Digest and currently writes for Card Player magazine and the Online Poker News. You can visit him at www.mattlessinger.com to learn more about him.
Acknowledgments
To Richard Ember and the entire Kensington team for their continued support for my projects.
To my agent, Sheree Bykofsky, who as always knows how to play to win.
To Matt Lessinger for his support of this book.
To Kristen Hayes, a long overdue thank you for the awesome cover designs for all of my poker books.
To Phil Laak, for reading an early draft and offering his support.
To Christian Galvin, Derek Scott, and Travis Cabe for sharing some interesting hands.
Trademarks
All terms used in this book that are known, or believed, to be trademarks or service marks have been either capitalized or appropriately noted with a ™ designation. Use of a term in this book (whether designated with a ™ or not) should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.
Introduction
This book started out as a follow-up to my previous book Lessons from the Pro Poker Tour. Lessons from the Pro Poker Tour was largely dedicated to hand analysis from select events played on the Professional Poker Tour®—the first series of tournaments limited to the top professionals in the world. I was fortunate enough to gain an exemption into a couple of the events and both played in and witnessed a number of tremendous nuanced plays that could make or break tournaments but did not necessarily make for great television. This book was originally envisioned as primarily a hand-analysis book composed of hands played at every level of Texas Hold’em tournaments. It became much more than hand analysis, although lessons were still taken from tournaments at every level, as well as additional sources.
Poker is a game of never-ending learning. No matter how much you play, you can still learn a great deal