David Lappin

There is perhaps nothing more satisfying in poker than watching your opponent fall into the trap that you carefully set....

When two elite players are seated together late on in a tournament, it is often wise for them to steer clear of one another. This is even more so the case if they both have big stacks. That being said, sometimes butting heads will be unavoidable. That is what happened in the later stages of a $700 WCOOP event when high stakes pros...

When two friends clash at the poker table, it generally goes one of three ways: Some friends go after each other relentlessly; Others (consciously or unconsciously) try to avoid each other; And some just play their game and let the cards fall where they may. I ended up in this situation when I squared off vs my podcast co-host and friend Dara O’Kearney...

To mark the beginning of the 2021 World Series of Poker (which started yesterday), today's article zooms in on a key hand from the 2017 WSOP....

Heads-up for the WSOP Main Event title. A bracelet and $2.5 million on the line. The poker veteran in a sharp suit, shirt unbuttoned, bedazzled with chains. The accountant with the implausibly perfect name, wearing a beige Poker Stars baseball cap and sunglasses. A bluff that will change the poker world forever....

When your opponent either has the nuts or nothing, it can make sense to bluff- catch with a marginal hand. Today's hand is an example of such a situation. In October 2018, The Battle of Malta boasted a then-record field of 3,816 players. British tournament specialist Andy Hills made it to the final table but, on his way there, he faced an excruciatingly difficult...

In 2016, the $111,111 WSOP One Drop brought out a who’s who of poker’s elite. A stacked final table boiled down to two of the greatest players in the game’s history. With $3 million banked, Dan Smith and Fedor Holz took their seats to play for an...

In November 2018, the Unibet Open took place in my hometown of Dublin, Ireland. Home advantage meant I was familiar with more of my table mates than I normally am on the live circuit. Late on Day 1, I was moved to the TV table, where I got into a very non-standard hand with Richie O’Neill, a regular on the Irish poker scene...

Tom ‘Jabracada’ Hall is one of the most fearsome online and live poker players that the UK has ever produced. He is also one of the most ICM-aware opponents you are ever likely to face. That expert knowledge often comes to the fore on final tables, when ICM considerations play a big part in ultimate decision making. In 2019,...

I've got an interesting hand for you today, folks. Three huge factors were at play in this one: A $25,000 buy-in online is just about...

For my fifth strategy article, I thought I’d put myself on the chopping-block and breakdown a hand from the 2018 Irish Open. I made the final table of the ‘JP Masters’, eventually finding myself heads-up against breakout poker star and WSOP Main Event 8th place finisher Jack Sinclair. The hand is the poker version of a game of ‘cat...

Dominik Nitsche is considered by many to be one of the best tournament players in the world, and for good reason. In his career, the German native has amassed $18,649,880 in live tournament earnings, including 4 World Series of Poker...

Have you ever been scared money? It can do funny things to you. Some players adjust too aggressively and fire out loose 3-bets and 4-bets, afraid to trust their postflop skills. Others get too timid and look for reasons not to put chips in the pot....

Half-man, half-machine, Steve Austin was the original six-million dollar man. With superhuman strength and speed, he battled evil for the good of mankind. (I feel like I’m showing my age here!) In this hand, Daniel “Jungleman” Cates is a modern-day Steve Austin, his superhuman brain...

Half-man, half-machine, Steve Austin was the original six-million dollar man. With superhuman strength and speed, he battled evil for the good of mankind. (I feel like I’m showing my age here!) In this hand, Daniel “Jungleman” Cates is a modern-day Steve Austin, his superhuman brain...

One of the many common cognitive biases is commitment bias. In short, commitment bias is our unwillingness to make decisions that contradict things that we have said or done in the past. In poker, that is commonly expressed as the feeling of being committed to a pot into which we have invested. Good poker players are good at dampening the effects of...