Episodes

Professional Poker Player and coach Matt Hunt found himself heads-up for a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2017, in one of the earliest “big blind” ante events in the WSOP. He enters the Poker GRID with a dramatic hand with ten-six offsuit, featuring critical decisions on all streets. Matt limps the button with Tc6s with just over 20 big blinds. The big blind, Spanish professional Mario Prats Garcia, checked his option. The flop was 7d 5s 4c, giving Matt an opened ended straight draw. The tur...

Two-time WSOP Champion Bill Chen enters the GRID to talk about a hand he played against the legendary Phil Ivey back at the 2010 World Series of Poker. They were heads-up in a 3K horse event, and the game was Limit Hold Em. The hand started when Bill raised his button, and Phil Ivey defended. Ivey then led on a flop of Ace Ten Deuce with two hearts. The hand only got more interesting on the offsuit nine turn. Phil bet again, and Bill Chen raised. Phil called and they saw a seven of hearts on t...

Terrence Chan steps into the GRID, not the octagon, to discuss a funny hand he played with three-deuce offsuit against Erick Lindgren, way back at the 2006 World Series of Poker. Eric posted his blind when he was actually under the gun, leading to a leveling war that escalated quickly. Chan speaks to how much poker has changed since then, and how lucky he was to be surrounded by brilliant people during the poker boom, from PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg to members of the “Math House” such a...

Four-time World Poker Tour Champion Darren Elias steps into the GRID to talk about a fascinating hand he played with ace-eight suited. In a first for the show, Darren’s opponent was an AI, Pluribus, as developed by Carnegie Mellon and Facebook to beat six max No-Limit Hold Em. The AI made an aggressive but low frequency play on the flop, which led to tough decision points for Darren on all streets. Through their hand analysis, Jen and Darren unravel his experience of playing thousands of hands a...

Poker coach and high roller tournament champion Sam Greenwood enters the GRID to discuss a high stakes hand with king-ten suited, held at the Triton Millions in July 2019. Sam was facing the tricky and outspoken Martin Kabrhel of the Czech Republic in a 3-bet pot, and as the board ran out, a hand that was decent on the flop started to look like a prime candidate for bluffing. Sam talks about how even the top players in the World have trouble executing solver strategies extrapolating that the fe...

Orlando based poker player and tech entrepreneur Femi Fashakin steps into the GRID to discuss a crucial hand from the largest poker tournament of all time, the WSOP Big Fifty. Femi won over a million dollars for topping the 28,000 player field, becoming the first Nigerian-born poker player ever to take home a gold bracelet. With the final table looming, Femi faced a double check raise, and was put to a decision for all his chips with king-nine offsuit. Femi and Jen talk about whether his story...

Georgina “GJReggie” James steps into the GRID to tackle the raggiest of aces, ace-six off and a tough spot in her biggest moment at the time as both a poker player and as a streamer. Georgina talks about how she found herself three-handed in a massive field event of the PokerStars Micromillions with thousands of runners. She held ace-six offsuit in the big blind and faced huge bets on both flop and turn as a thousand concurrent viewers watched- her largest ever stream audience by far at the time...

Former poker pro and Perpetual Podcast host Ben Johnson enters the GRID to throw us back to the European Poker Tour in Baden, Austria, in 2006 where he was heads-up for the EPT title. He held pocket sevens and as the pot bloated, Ben found himself in a pressure cooker as an overcard flopped and his opponent showed massive strength. 15 years later, Ben reveals that he was unhappy with how he played the hand, but happy with how he played the tournament, as he unravels some of the reasons for both ...

Dan Dvoress enters the GRID to discuss a hand from a Triton High Roller where Dan flopped quads and got a surprising amount of action. Dvoress is a Canadian pro with over 15 million dollars in live poker earnings. Just before recording this pod, Dan notched his highest ever live score, for 4 Million Dollars at the 250K buyin Super High Roller Bowl in the Bahamas. Before his live success, Dan was best known as a Run It Once coach and high stakes online pro, where he battled in various formats fro...

Three-time World Series of Poker Champion Ben Yu enters the GRID to talk about a pivotal hand in his life and career. He was up against Jonathan Little at his first WSOP final table in the 2010 Limit Hold Em Shootout. Yu, who held jack-eight suited, had tough decisions that were complicated by ICM, shallow stacks and the gravity of the stakes for Ben. Prior to the summer, Ben had found himself in a deep hole- he was broke and depressed. He explains to Jennifer how he slowly climbed out of his si...

Poker professional, “Raising the Nuts” vlogger and podcast host Trevor Savage enters the GRID to talk about a 2013 cash game hand in which Trevor held Six-Nine Suited. Trevor is a New Jersey based online pro, but he’s recently been crossing the bridge to play on PokerStars PA, so Trevor and Jennifer recorded this episode live in Philly. Trevor related a hilarious hand history ending in an epic call (in practice!), that illustrates his philosophy toward poker at the time. He and Jen discuss how ...

Andrew Lichtenberger better known as “Lucky Chewy” enters the poker GRID to talk about a dramatic hand with seven-four offsuit against Viktor “Isildur1” Blom. Held at the 2013 NBC Heads-Up Championship, Andrew and Viktor played a huge four-bet pot in which Andrew faced a tough flop decision. Andrew has over 10 million in live earnings and is both a World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker champion. A proponent of yoga and meditation, he is the author of Yoga of Poker: High Stakes Journey to F...

Jennifer brings author and poker afficianado Helen Ellis into thepokergrid.com to talk about a hand that symbolized her rebirth in poker and writing in 2015. Helen held 78 suited and was facing a tough line-up at a poker tournament at the Borgata. Helen is the author of American Housewife (2016) and Southern Lady Code (2019). Jennifer and Helen talk about her long writing draught in her 30s, and how her own story may inspire poker players on a downswing. They also discuss the rudest things to d...

Author and tournament reporter Martin Harris steps into the GRID to talk about Jack-four suited, a hand that stuck out to him in a statistical analysis from a blog over a decade ago titled “169 Ways to Showdown.” Martin also encountered J4s in a recent professorial home game in Charlotte, where he teaches a class at UNC on Poker in American Film & Culture. He is the recent author of Poker and Pop Culture: Telling the Story of America’s Favorite Card Game. Martin is a reporter, blogger and writ...

Jennifer welcomes Canadian poker pro Peter aka “Apathy” Jetten to thepokergrid.com. Jetten has nine million dollars in live cashes, including many recent big scores from the Triton series. Today’s hand comes from the Main Event of the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Montenegro, where Peter faced Steve O’ Dwyer in a nail biter blind versus blind spot with ten-eight offsuit. Jen and Peter discuss what he misses most about his early days of online poker, his worst decision of the year, an...

Author, podcast host and investor James Altucher steps into the thepokergrid.com to discuss eight-five offsuit, a hand he played two decades ago at the Mayfair Club in New York City. He also explains why eight-five was so important to his overall poker strategy. James hosts the popular “The James Altucher Show” and has written 20 books including Choose Yourself: Be Happy, Make Millions, Live the Dream. James also loves games, is a US Chess Master, and played poker professionally for a year. Al...

Mike Glick, better known as “Mike the Hat” is one of the best and most successful American poker players you may not have heard of. He rose from No Limit Hold Em cash games in the east coast to become a regular in the highest stakes mixed games at Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio. Today he talks to me about a storied high stakes NLHE hand against previous GRID guest Chris Kruk, where Mike held the queen nine of hearts. Mike made a surprising play that had the other regulars in Bobby’s Room, includ...

Three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, World Poker Tour Champion and renowned poker commentator Nick Schulman enters the GRID to click off a challenging combo, jack-four offsuit. Nick played the fateful hand in a New York City homegame about a decade ago, where the stakes soared to 400/800 and night turned to morning. As the three-bet pot against “Brooklyn Issac” bloated on all streets, the hand took a dramatic twist. Nick and Jennifer also talk about what he misses about New York ca...

Poker player Joshua Abady comes on the GRID to talk about a hilarious hand with queen-jack suited at the Colossus at the WSOP that ended in dramatic confrontation. Abady explains how he uses his extroverted personality to make live poker more fun, and to occasionally make big exploits. Josh, who is 25, also talks about why he got into poker, his early approach to the game, and how to grow the game to more players in his demographic. Josh is a New York City based former scholastic chess champion...

Eight-time Russian Chess Champion, beloved commentator, and poker aficionado Peter Svidler enters the GRID to talk to Jennifer about an “accidental NLHE” hand while he was waiting for PLO on RunItOnce. Peter held the ace-seven of diamonds, and as the pot swelled, he takes us through his discomfort in NLHE, as opposed to his favorite game, PLO. Peter also talks about what makes him so good at chess, the importance of memory and chess, why he prefers PLO and the influence Phil Galfond has had on ...

Muskan Sethi comes on the GRID to discuss a thrilling televised hand against Mike “Timex” McDonald on the PokerStars TV show the Shark Cage. Muskan held Jack-nine offsuit in position, and faced crucial decisions on all streets, with an extra strategic element in that a called bluff would send her to an in studio “Shark Cage”, while successfully bluffing a better hand would send Timex to the Cage. Jennifer and Muskan talk about how the hand and her experience on the show propelled her to a profe...

High stakes tournament player Dan Smith comes on the GRID to talk to Jennifer Shahade about a pivotal hand against Reiner Kempe with pocket sixes at the 2016 Super High Roller Bowl, a $300,000 poker tournament with a 5 million dollar first prize. Dan, who has won more than 27 million in live poker tournaments, including a WPT title and a runner-up finish in the 2016 WSOP One Drop, talks about how he handles high pressure situations and disappointments like bubbling. Dan also talks about some of...

Notes: The GRID welcomes Matt Berkey, the founder of Solve for Why and a frequent player in some of the highest stakes cash games in the World. He comes on the GRID to talk to Jen Shahade about the largest pot we’ve covered yet, against Dan “Jungleman” Cates on Poker After Dark. Berkey held queen-five offsuit on a queen- seven- nine rainbow flop, and gives listeners some insight into the difficulty of and focus required to play a weak top pair in a multi-way pot against elite competition. Matt ...

Carlos Welch is a poker player, coach and writer for PokerNews and Tournament Poker Edge. He’s known as the “man in a van”, as he travels from stop to stop in pursuit of stretching his poker success with both skillful play and frugality. Carlos talks to Jen Shahade on the GRID about a hand against “Phil Laak” in an online WSOP bracelet hand with king-queen offsuit. In this hand, Welch tried to play a more theoretical or “GTO” style than he is used to from his bread and butter games. They discu...