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I just watched the first episode of Poker After Dark featuring Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Huck Seed, Tom Dwan, Brian Townsend, and Andrew Robl.

Interesting Observations/Opinions:
-Johnny Chan cautiously plays JJ utg. Limped, ckd behind Durrr on 7/7/4 board, flat called Durrr on turn, flat called river. He’s made this play on tv a bunch, folding AA on pair boards to strength, ck calling KK’s and AA’s OOP. He doesn’t want to go busto with these hands, and keeps the pot as small as possible when out of position and during early levels of tournies.

– Internet Connection – on a lot of the hands, the 3 ‘internet’ kids generally looked around, mostly toward each other, seeking approval or reaction on the hand that just went down. Probably a carry over from the instant message habit – always looking for other thoughts on a particular hand. Most of the expressions were ‘Did you just see that?’ or ‘What kind of line was that?’

– KQ suited in position – K/4/3 board, Dwan preflop raiser, ck raised flop 3x ish, Robl called in position, 8 turn, Dwan bet again, Robl lost in the hand, calls again. Dwan value shoves on river J, hoping to get a call from AK or KJ…Robl folds the KQ, loses half his stack – Dwan shows a 3, and “looks like he’s gonna puke” so says Ali-wood Nejad. Eh, marginal spot from Robl. But it’s easier to say when you can look at all the hole cards.

– Old guard v. New Youth – interesting dynamic, and it generally seems as the older players are looking to play cautiously hoping the young ‘reckless’ players make big mistakes on later streets. I’m not sure this is the best strategy against a guy like Dwan – who is looking to play flop, turn, river as well. But I guess it depends on who the favorite is on the flop…and that depends on position most of the time. Young players are tough to play against because they haven’t gotten comfortable with money/fame/status type stuff yet. Dwan recently said in an interview that given 3/1 odds he would risk 1/2 his bankroll on that gamble. Logic being: if the shot doesn’t work, he can always grind back the 1/2 he lost, with minimal risk of going busto. You need gamble in you – or else you become predictable.