The Well: El Diablo

[Grifter]

In reading your Mid and High stakes posts it seems to me that you excel at hand reading. People here have said that this is the key concept in moving up. Could you expand on how you read hands. Perhaps you could post a hand or two and give your thought process in hand reading. This is an area in my game (and many SSNLer's games) that could really use a boost.

Non-Poker: top five novels... and three favorite porn stars.

Thanks for doing this, it's really cool of you.

[jdefoe]

How can I become the next El Diablo in terms of playing skill?

[toybux]

1) Everyone always tells us to improve our hand reading by trying to 'think visually' each hand regardless of if we are in it or not. Do you have any other advice to improve hand reading in general?

2) What are some plays that you think can be profitably used at SSNL that generally aren't?

3) Could you maybe write us a quick one or two paragraph bit that tells the story of your poker career?

4) How did you get to be so cool?

[ilya]

first off, thanks for doing this ElD.

do you think it's a good investment for a relative beginner (little cash experience, but a solid track record beating low-buyin SnGs over a large sample) to play perhaps too agressively preflop, say open-raising hands like 76o and Q8o in the CO, in order to see more flops and gain postflop experience?

how do you handle getting 3bet by the PFR when you raise the flop with a draw? e.g. you cold-call a PFR with 89h. flop comes AhTd6h. He leads for 2/3 pot you raise and he makes a small 3bet, giving you direct odds to draw. Do you take the odds or shove it in to ensure you get more action those times you have a set or 2pair?

what are you cold-calling standards in the SB and BB when you have good relative position on the raiser? Say an EP/MP player raises and one or two players call behind him. I presume you would call with any small pair in the SB, but would you also play hands like 76s or A8s? Are you more likely to call against an EP than an MP raiser?

say you've been raising a lot preflop and betting a lot of flops but between missing most of the flops hard and getting floated/raised, you haven't been taking down many pots. how do you adjust to having developed this kind of weak image? for example...say there's a guy to your left who likes to cold-call your raises in position. do you tighten up because he's been emboldened and figures to feel comfortable floating/putting pressure on you? or say you flop a marginal hand like TPNK from the BB....something like J4 on a J55 flop. the button limped and the SB completed. do you play this situation differently depending on your table image?

how do you handle missing the flop with AK on rag/paired rag flops? say you raise UTG and get a CO caller and the BB also calls. the flop is 852 and the BB checks. or the flop is 883 and the BB checks. what if you're HU OOP? It seems strange to cbet when few/no better hands will fold and observant players may use worse hands to put a move on us, cos really no matter how wide our open-raising range is we're likely to have missed the flop. And even if they don't the worse hands that fold often have few/dominated outs.

finally...i think it's better not to use PAHUD when starting out. do you agree?

[BeerMoney]

Diablo:

1.) Undergrad, rice, where for graduate?

2.) What'd you get on your SAT'S?

3.) Were you popular in HS?

4.) Who are your favorite posters on 2+2?

5.) Do you like black girls? I'm not talking Tyra Banks either..

6.) How much can you bench?

7.) How regularly did you get plastered in College?

8.) Who have you won the most money off of in poker?

9.) Are you a better poker player/theorist than most 2+2 authors?

10.) Who is your fav. 2+2 guy in real life?

11.) Whatever happened to you hanging out with that woman who was a model whose bf died in Phuket? Was she more beautiful than you could ever imagine?

12.) What do you think of me?

13.) Has 2+2 helped your poker skill?

14.) Which poker 2+2er do you hope goes bust?

15.) What is your ideal woman?

16.) Ever been in a fight?

17.) Favorite book/author?

18.) Favorite person on any Real World season?

19.) I dislike your use of the adjective super, I feel its often used by the educated elite/wanna be... Agree/disagree?

20.) What's your style in NLH?

TYVM.

[EMc]

EL D,

Thank you for doing this. It takes a lot for me to scream holy crap, but this did it.

1) Do you enjoy your work on the internet?

2) Player you would least want to play HU?

3) Favorite Mainstream concert attended?

4) Favorite Album

5)At what point do you feel as if it is time to take a break.

6) Strasser vs. HEK- your pic

7) Vehicle Chooser or Poker Skins?

8) Suggestions for running cold?

[epdaws]

1. What is your political affiliation?

2. You would legalize which of the following: gay marriage, marijuana, hard drugs, prostitution

3. What is your favorite kind of wine? (We're talking vinifera, not winery) What is your favorite winery?

4. Rank the following flicks in order of greatness, best coming first: Swingers, Best In Show, Defending Your Life, Waiting for Guffman, The Constant Gardener

5. What is the biggest factor in success for entrepreneurs?

6. Gas station cappucino or Starbucks Uber-Grande cappucino?

7. While real estate is generally considered to have diminished in appeal, what is your opinion of investing in waterfront real estate, namely lake or ocean properties?

[mosuavea]

Masked Man,

Why is OOT going downhill (or all non poker forums on 2+2) ?

What kind of whisky do you recommend for a semi n00b?

Is beetz a tool?

Your thoughts on why most SSNL have troubling moving up in levels?

[Grunch]

- What kinds of adjustments do you make when there is a good lag at the table, assuming that for whatever reason you cannot or will not change tables?

- What kinds of things do you take in to consideration when deciding how to play a draw?

- Is there any consistantly bad advice you see on these forums you would like to identify & correct? Is there any particularly good advice you think should be more strongly advocated?

- Would you be willing to participate strat advice more often to SSNL?

- What is your opinion on the current state of the SSNL forum or the no-limit strat forums in general?

Thanks.

[theben]

Where did you get the mask and costume from? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]