Heather, Author at PokerPilgrims

A Chat About Omaha Poker Training

June 8, 2020June 8, 2020 Heather Leave a comment

As we have mentioned previously, Paul and I do some writing and other work for Advanced Poker Training, an excellent poker training website created by Steve Blay. After two years of development, this spring Steve launched a new poker training site to help players learn how to play PLO well. Omaha Poker Training has some of the same great features as APT, including a choice of 9-max or 6-max PLO cash games and multi-table tournaments.

The wide range of OPT game options allows you to customize training to target your home game, local card room, or even a $10,000 championship event at the World Series of Poker. Opponents can be selected from easy, moderate, or expert play in order to model training at a level that is right for the individual’s typical circumstances. You can even set starting hand ranges that are particularly troublesome so as to focus and improve on the exact situations currently causing you difficulty at the tables.

Recently, I sat down with Steve and talked to him about his love of chess, programming, and poker. I also asked him about Omaha Poker Training (OPT) and its development.

Interview with Steve Blay on Omaha Poker Training

Heather: When did you start playing poker and what drew you to the game?

Steve: I remember playing a lot of poker with my brother Allen in college, and never realizing how much skill there was to it. It wasn’t until I saw a special about Phil Hellmuth on TV, and I was stunned. You mean this is a skill game? Here’s this somewhat nerdy looking kid, who dropped out of college and went to Las Vegas and beat all those guys from Texas with cigars in their mouths. I want to be that guy! I bought David Sklansky’s “The Theory of Poker” the next day.

Coping with the Challenges of Remote Work

April 14, 2020April 14, 2020 Heather Leave a comment

Paul and I have been working remotely for close to 15 years now. We love working from home and can’t wait until we can take our remote work on the road when we start our poker pilgrimage in just a couple of years. A couple of years ago we wrote about all of the things that we love about working from home, as well as some of the challenges that we encounter. Now that so many of us have abruptly transitioned to working from home, we thought that it would be helpful to revisit some of the challenges of remote work and share how we cope with them.

COVID-19 has also thrown in the extra double-twist for many of us of working from home while your kids (and your significant other) are all sharing the same space 24-7. I thank goodness that Paul and I are currently residing with a 16-year-old and a 20-year-old, who are generally self-sufficient. I feel for those of you trying to work alongside 6-year-olds and 10-year-olds. You deserve a medal.

5 Ways to Beat Poker Withdrawal

March 30, 2020March 29, 2020 Heather Leave a comment

This month, in one fell swoop, we lost our two favorite activities: live poker and travel. Fortunately for us, we had just finished our latest poker journey. COVID-19 restrictions came mere days after we returned from a trip to Florida in which we visited five new poker rooms (Room reviews to come. So far we have shared our thoughts on Silks). In fact, we were sitting in the Tampa airport waiting for our flight home when we learned of the first coronavirus victim in the state of Florida. We also may have ignored our better selves and played one last tournament in New Hampshire before that state closed its poker rooms. Happily, we’re now two weeks out from that tournament with no ill-effects. Unless you count poker withdrawal.

It didn’t take long for the withdrawal set in. We watched with a mixture of horror and relief as first Connecticut, then Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and finally Las Vegas shut down all live poker rooms. Horror, of course, because – NO POKER! And relief, because we would have struggled to make the right decision, was poker still an option. Hopefully, we would have done the smart thing and stayed home. I’m glad that we didn’t have to find out. As Paul says, can you imagine an activity more conducive to spreading disease than live poker? I kind of never want to touch a chip again.

The Best Way to Plan a Poker Vacation

February 10, 2020February 10, 2020 Heather Leave a comment

While we patiently await our poker pilgrimage, we try to explore new poker rooms and parts of the country whenever we can. Last winter we visited South Florida and Key West. This month we will be visiting the Tampa Bay area. And hopefully later this year we will have some time to check out the Philadelphia poker scene. We have perfected a system for identifying areas we would like to visit, researching them, and planning our poker vacation. So here we present the best way to plan a poker vacation. Read More

CardsChat Interview with Debi O’Neill

February 4, 2020July 9, 2020 Heather Leave a comment

CardsChat offers a variety of services to recreational poker players including news, resources, and a wonderfully friendly online forum. This week we had the pleasure of speaking with CardsChat’s long-time Forum Administrator Debi O’Neill. We interviewed Debi to learn more about the site’s offerings and about future directions for CardsChat.

Interview with Debi O’Neill of CardsChat

Heather: CardsChat has been around for about 15 years now, is that correct? Tells us a bit about the history of CardsChat? How was it conceived and by whom?

Debi: Yes, we celebrated our 15-year anniversary this past September! CardsChat was launched in 2004, it was right before the big poker boom when online poker was in its early stages. Players were looking for places to discuss poker and Nick wanted to provide them with a great site for that, where a friendly poker community could be formed.

Author: Heather