Episode link: https://solveforwhy.io/programs/poker-out-loud-season-2?cid=2036706

Poker Out Loud was created by Solve For Why, an advanced poker training company. Solve For Why’s founder and lead instructor is Matt Berkey, a long-time high-stakes poker professional in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Poker Out Loud is a unique approach to poker training and entertainment. Top poker professionals play a cash game format, while all wearing noise-cancelling headphones. Before their actions, they speak their thoughts out loud, revealing to the audience their thought process and reasoning behind each poker decision.

At this No-Limit Texas Hold’em table, the stakes are $5/$10, and the players all have 100% of their own action. While nobody in the game is a skilled lip reader, everybody has been asked not to look at their opponents as they verbalize their thoughts. When the action isn’t on them, music fills the players’ ears to ensure they can’t overhear any information being shared.

In Episode 2, the action ramps up as the players adjust to their opponents’ behavior and pick up some hands worth throwing money at.

After looking down at two Jacks on the button, Jordan Young opens to $50, called only by Matt Hunt in the small blind, who holds J-10 offsuit. Hunt walks us through his choice to peel, mentioning that Jordan’s an action player who’ll be opening the button extremely widely.

The flop brings Ac7d4s, and action checks through, with both players concerned about the other’s range. The Qs falls on the turn, reducing the strength of Jordan’s pocket pair and giving Hunt a gutshot to the nuts. Having picked up equity, Hunt fires 60% pot, and Jordan releases the hooks, worried that Hunt has an Ace or a Queen too much of the time in this spot. “That has to be the weakest anyone has ever played two Jacks,” he says.

In the very next hand, Christian Soto opens AJ offsuit to the tune of $40 under the gun. Kelly Minkin resists the urge to 3-bet from the hijack, instead just calling with QJ suited, and Jordan comes along, too, with A-10 offsuit in the cutoff. The flop is As7h3c, and Chin acknowledges that the board favors his range significantly before betting one-third pot.

The turn adds the Qh, and Chin goes for an exploitative check versus Jordan specifically. The river is the 6c, and Chin bets about quarter pot—$55—hoping to induce a bluff. Jordan goes for a massive raise to $580, and Chin calls fairly quickly, saying that Jordan lacks value combos.

“That was weird,” he says, as the dealer pushes the pot in his direction.

As of the end of this episode, Chin finds himself in the lead, sitting on $3.8k, with Berkey at the bottom with $2.5k.

You can watch this episode in full, along with every other episode from all seasons of Poker Out Loud, at solveforwhy.io. Be sure to use promo code POLBLOG for 25% off your first month!