Andrew Seidman Poker

4/7/2022

Andrew Seidman Poker

The general problem with poker books that teach exploitive strategy is that they are easily dated. The once ground-breaking tactics outlined in Doyle Brunson’s Super/System no longer win big money now that the majority of poker players understand the logic behind fast-playing draws.

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Andrew Seidman Poker

The recently released third edition of Andrew “BalugaWhale” Seidman’s Easy Game is a welcome response to this problem. Seidman not only updates his advice for contemporary game conditions but also corrects a few of his own earlier mistakes and re-explains some material in light of his current thinking about the game. The result is substantial value added to what was already an exceptionally good no-limit hold ’em cash game book, one of the few offering really high-level insights to experienced players.

Andrew Seidman poker tournament results, including recent cashes, lifetime winnings, WSOP and WPT stats. Andrew Seidman Moves into Six-Figure Territory WPTDeepStacks WPTDeepStacks Thunder Valley Season 2017-2018 1B 400/1200/2400 Joe Nguyen Lays One Down WPTDeepStacks WPTDeepStacks Thunder Valley Season 2017-2018 1A 0/75/150 Matt Berkey Chips Up Main Tour WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Season 2016-2017 1A 50/150-300 Shooting Star Marvin Rettenmaier Eliminated by Andrew Seidman.

Although the first section of Easy Game is entitled “Basics”, this is not a book for beginners. The material is well-explained but far from easy and would almost certainly fly over the head of anyone remotely new to poker. This section might best be considered an introduction to advanced poker thinking for those who have already progressed beyond what they can find in mass-market books.

Andrew Seidman: First and foremost, against a weaker opponent, I'm probably not looking to bluff too much because I'm going to end up at showdown. So if I flop a draw, I'll just call an. A Course in Power Poker by Doyle Brunson. Use the book to help you understand the intricacies of poker. In this great book, Doyle explains the techniques and strategies of the game and explains the original and effective tricks of the game. This book is also the most complete and accurate poker statistics. Easy Game by Andrew Seidman.

In what I can only assume is an attempt to render complex “basics” more comprehendable to these readers, Seidman actually oversimplifies central concepts like reasons for betting. The nit in me wanted to insert a series of objections and clarifications, but the pragmatist recognizes that this choice makes sense. There’s enough uncertainty and situational thinking in high-level poker that newcomers need some clear, actionable advice to anchor them as they find their way. It only gets more complicated from here.

Seidman warns as much, telling readers, “don’t expect a lot of math, but do expect intricate descriptions of difficult subjects.” This is fair warning to readers of this dense, fast-paced book. Even after mastering the “Basics”, readers will have to work hard to keep up with the “Advanced” section, which dives headfirst into the complexities of “Street Projection”, “Pseudo-Thin Value”, and “Showdown Theory”.

This is genuinely high-level stuff. I won’t claim mastery of everything, but it’s rare that I come across big no-limit hold ’em concepts that I’d never heard of or thought about myself. Easy Game contains several, including a very useful distinction between passive and aggressive dead money and some great insights into overbetting and underbetting, concepts on which I considered myself well ahead of the curve.

The other half of the author’s warning – “don’t expect a lot of math” – is the book’s only true weakness. Seidman’s explanation of why a certain play is profitable is rarely more than hand-waving in the direction of the math involved, most of which is not actually that complicated. He misdefines balance as betting an “equal number of value hands and bluffing hands” and is downright dismissive of Heads-Up Displays and their related statistics. It seems to be the case that Seidman himself has achieved great success without these tools, but writing them off as unimportant is dangerously naïve.

Aside from this and the author’s moderately irksome name-dropping of the well-known players with whom he’s played and exchanged ideas, there’s not a lot to complain about. Seidman writes smartly and succinctly, which makes for a dense but readable tome that’s 136 pages long in PDF form.

There’s no filler here. If anything, Seidman could be accused of writing too little on tough-to-understand concepts. Everything you need to understand it is there, but most of it requires multiple re-reads to grasp fully.

The unique format of this, which includes all of the original text plus new additions and commentary from the author, is itself a sort of rereading. The ways in which Seidman’s thinking has changed and developed is interesting in its own right, generating a value to the whole that is more than the sum of its parts.

Virtually any of the book’s fifty-two chapters could be improved with more examples, but Easy Game is already far longer than your average poker e-book, and it certainly would have been a shame if these examples came at the expense of additional new material. Moreover, the final chapter discusses twenty-seven example hands that tie together the book’s many concepts and demonstrate how they play out at the tables.

Andrew Feldman
Residence	London, United Kingdom
Born	16 July 1987 (age 33) Watford, England
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)	None
Final table(s)	None
Money finish(es)	1
European Poker Tour
Final table(s)	1
Money finish(es)	4
Information accurate as of 2012.

Andrew Feldman (born 16 July 1987, Watford) is an Englishpoker player. He started playing poker on the Internet when he was 18 through his older brother and then received sponsorship from Full Tilt Poker.

Poker[edit]

Feldman won his first televised 888 UK Poker Open tournament, winning $250,000 at the age of 19 in November 2007, beating Gideon Barnett heads-up with king–four off-suit against Barnett's ace–king, as a four came on the turn.^[1]

He was signed by Full Tilt Poker in April 2009.^[2]

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In October 2008, Feldman and Robert Williamson III became the largest winners in the *Party Poker Poker Den: Big Game III* cash game, racking up a profit of $63,350^[3] by winning an $80,000 pot against Finnish pro Juha Helppi.

Feldman has played high-stakes cash games in Melbourne, Las Vegas and Monte Carlo. In 2009 and 2010, Feldman participated in the Full Tilt Million Dollar Cash games that were held in London and Melbourne with a buy-in of $100,000.^[4] However, the following year, Ivey and Feldman clashed again in a pot where Ivey re-raised Feldman pre-flop with Queen-four off-suit and managed to make Feldman fold King high on the turn, which happened to be the best hand.

Feldman was scheduled to play High Stakes Poker season six in 2009, but he failed to make an appearance on the table due to last-minute replacements.^[5]

Feldman plays tournaments, and in May 2009, he final-tabled by coming 7th in an EPT €25,000 buy-in, receiving €79,000. A year later, in March 2010, Feldman came third in the €5,000 Heads-Up Tournament in Monte Carlo, losing to French player Elky and collecting €30,000 in the process. A few months later, Feldman again came 3rd in the $25,000 highroller in Kyrenia, Cyprus, winning $124,400. The following month in London, Feldman played the £10,000 WSOPE Heads-Up High Roller and came third once more, losing to the eventual winner, Gus Hansen,^[6] where Feldman's pocket tens failed to beat Hansen's King-Jack. Feldman cashed for £96,212.

Feldman entered the $10,000 Aussie Millions Main Event in 2008 and 2010. In 2008 he finished 58th, cashing for $25,000, and two years later he won $50,000, finishing 24th. In January 2011, Feldman participated in the $100,000 High Roller alongside 37 other players—including Asian billionaires—creating a prize pool of $3.8 million. Feldman got knocked out to the eventual winner, Sam Trickett, who held pocket aces. A few days later, Feldman a $250,000 tournament with 19 other participants. Feldman finished in 7th place, where his pocket nines ran into David Benyamine's pocket kings.^[7]Erik Seidel went on to defeat Trickett heads-up, collecting a first prize of $2.5 million.^[8]

In October 2011, Feldman came fourth in Late Night Poker, cashing for $30,000. He was knocked out by Rob Okell. Feldman competed in the Party Poker Premier League Mixed Championships at the Playboy Club in Mayfair, London, competing in Texas Holdem and Pot Limit Omaha. Feldman finished second, winning $65,000 when he raised all-in against Andy Frankenberger heads-up with King-Queen against Frankenberger's King-Ten. A Queen came on the river to give Frakenberger a straight and win the title with a first prize of $100,000 and leaving a crying Feldman utterly distraught.^[9]

As of 2012, his accumulated poker tournament earnings total $1,029,358.^[10]

The Secret Millionaire[edit]

On 24 June 2012, Feldman appeared on Channel 4's programme The Secret Millionaire.^[11]

References[edit]