Poker Nugs

Let's have a reporter's notebook style post, with a bunch of unrelated tidbits:

_ Bart Hanson is back on the podcast scene with his new show, Deuce Plays, which replaces Cash Plays. The third episode just came out Tuesday.

_ When in doubt, usually choose an aggressive line rather than a passive line, Krantz says in the first episode of Deuce Plays. It's simple yet solid advice.

_ Listening to Phil Galfond in this week's episode of the 2+2 Pokercast reminded me to refocus on hand ranges. It's too easy to make assumptions about opponents' hand ranges rather than slowing down and thinking hard about them. Galfond also recommends pondering how you would represent the opposite hand of what you have when deciding how deceptive you want to be.

_ When you want to bluff with a naked Ace of a flush draw's suit on a twotone flop, you need to be raising a bettor rather than being the initial bettor yourself, says Vanessa Selbst in Ms. PLO. If you keep betting out, it's too likely you'll be called down.

_ Selbst also suggests playing your opponent's hand first, before playing your own hand. This advice works for both no limit hold'em and PLO.

_ If you open under the gun and get 3-bet by an aggressive button, you can 4-bet lightly because your position represents so much strength, says Whitelime in the second episode of Deuce Plays.