The Well: El Diablo

[Georgia Avenue]

ELd:
A lot of your advice appears to be: tighten up...specifically if you are LAGing around and getting picked off for a while and the table thinks you are a loser.
Do you mean, play fewer hands, or just play more straightforwardly? I mean, should I just limp 89s or A5s on the BTN or in the CO with two or three limpers, or just go ahead and raise like normal? Should I stop calling raises in pos. with speculative hands since I'll have to flop a monster to make them work? Or is this an advantage of my image? If the answer is: "it depends on the table"...what do specific kinds of tables require in this situation?

It seems like you got serious about poker a bit later in life. As an almost 30 yr old, I feel like I'm at a disadvantage to the younger players (18-19) who got started on the internet. Is this true or just self-deprecation?

Speaking of which, how important do you think ego is in poker? I find myself degrading my plays and abilities a lot...is this helpful to my development, harmful, or both?

Going back to the advantages of being a young guy...I may find myself without a job or any responsibilities in a few months, and with a small nest egg...Is going pro at my age more reckless than a younger man doing so, or at about the same level of hubris?

Finally, related to that, is the pokerboom in danger of busting because of A. government interference, B. Any other reason?

Thanks a lot for your hard work on these forums,

--GA

[doc_1982]

Why do you play, and advise people to play, tag when it seems like most of the successful young players now live and online play very laggy? Personal preference, or do you believe it to be better?

Who was the first to start responding to your posts with "masked man,"?

Why do you like the foreman so much? Most people i know who like and know good food hate it.

[poincaraux]

El D,

Thanks for doing this.

1) Can you give some examples of ways in which smart SSNL players don't really seem to understand the game?

2) Have you looked at any of the posts in the SSNL Master Sticky thread? Can you give your thoughts on any of them?

3) Do you have any good examples of putting people on an exact hand that you can share, maybe from memory, maybe from a PM? Preferably, ones where you were helping someone and they had an "AHA" moment.

4) Have you ever read anything on here and said "wow, that's super insightful. I'm surprised that the poster didn't hold it back?" If so, what was it?

5) I've seen you say that you'll answer just about anything poker-related on these boards. What sorts of things won't you discuss (frequencies? player specific actions?)? How important do you think those things are, and how would you suggest that other players go about figuring them out?

6) You said "I think varying lines and being fluid with your frequencies are the most critical things in the big games" in an earlier post. Can you give some general thoughts and some general trends that are both obvious and non-obvious as well as an example or two?

7) Have you been to The French Laundry yet?

8) If you were aging a barrel of scotch for 21 years, what kind of wood would you age it in (you can limit this to a specific type of scotch)?

9) If I want to get better at poker, what sorts of questions should I be asking you that I probably won't ask?