Month: January 2020

The Grid 028 ft. Georgina “GJReggie” James – Ace-Six Off

January 31, 2020 Jennifer Shahade 0:44:04

Georgina “GJReggie” James steps into the GRID to tackle the raggiest of aces, ace-six off and a tough spot in her biggest moment at the time as both a poker player and as a streamer. Georgina talks about how she found herself three-handed in a massive field event of the PokerStars Micromillions with thousands of runners. She held ace-six offsuit in the big blind and faced huge bets on both flop and turn as a thousand concurrent viewers watched- her largest ever stream audience by far at the time.

Jen and Georgina also talk about how she’s preparing for the PokerStars Players Championship in August 2020, which features 100x the buyin of her previous biggest live entry. She also gives some insight into the poker community on twitch (“the best ever” in her words), and explains how she worked with fellow PokerStars streamer PyeFace, to award two Platinum Passes via the “Dare to Stream Challenge.”

They also touch on Georgina’s blog, where she digs deep into the emotional complexity of reaching a career goal concurrent with a difficult time in her personal life.

Georgina is a member of Team PokerStars, where she streams at twitch.tv/GJReggie. You can also find her on Instagram, twitter.com/GJReggie and her blog https://gjreggie.com/  

Now that Georgina has covered ace-six offsuit, 141 combos remain on thepokergrid.com. 


The Grid 027 ft. Ben Johnson – Pocket-Sevens

January 22, 2020 Jennifer Shahade 54:00

Former poker pro and Perpetual Podcast host Ben Johnson enters the GRID to throw us back to the European Poker Tour in Baden, Austria, in 2006 where he was heads-up for the EPT title. He held pocket sevens and as the pot bloated, Ben found himself in a pressure cooker as an overcard flopped and his opponent showed massive strength. 15 years later, Ben reveals that he was unhappy with how he played the hand, but happy with how he played the tournament, as he unravels some of the reasons for both his mistakes, as well as his rapid ascent in the poker world.

Ben talks about his brief foray into day-trading after Black Friday. Though he did not find success in the field, learning about efficient markets helped prepare him for a Eureka Moment: Chess needed a weekly podcast featuring top players and personalities from all over the World. While poker has dozens of great podcasts, Ben found a legitimate gap in the market, which has since also populated by the US Chess suite of podcasts, including Jennifer’s monthly chess pod, Ladies Knight. Ben gives aspiring content creators advice, and explains how becoming a dad helped him reach out through his introversion.

James Hartigan and Lee Jones called the final table, at a high production and energy level of contemporary poker events. Jennifer and Ben contrast that with the way chess events were covered 15 years ago and compare other overlaps and differences between chess and poker.

Ben is also a National chess Master and many time member of National Championship chess team, Masterman, where he was Jennifer’s team-mate. He’s also a practicing chess coach and proud dad. Find out more about Ben on his podcast page, Apple and twitter account.

Jen and Ben have already shared three guests on their respective pods, James Altucher (Perpetual link), Peter Svidler (Perpetual link) and Greg Shahade (Perpetual link).

Now that Ben Johnson has covered pocket sevens on thepokergrid.com, there are 142 combos left on the GRID. Follow the journey on our website and join our newsletter here.

Some good news: We are semi-finalists for the Global Poker Award for Best Podcast, so if you enjoy the show, please vote at this link https://www.globalpokerindex.com/awards/podcast-of-the-year/ (optimized for a PC).



The Grid 026 ft. Dan Dvoress – Ace-Five Suited

January 9, 2020 Jennifer Shahade 47:41

Dan Dvoress enters the GRID to discuss a hand from a Triton High Roller where Dan flopped quads and got a surprising amount of action. 
Dvoress is a Canadian pro with over 15 million dollars in live poker earnings. Just before recording this pod, Dan notched his highest ever live score, for 4 Million Dollars at the 250K buyin Super High Roller Bowl in the Bahamas. Before his live success, Dan was best known as a Run It Once coach and high stakes online pro, where he battled in various formats from cash to hyper sit n gos.

Dan also talks about why he loves poker so much, the #1 mistake poker pros make when using solvers, and why ace-five suited really is the “Magic” Hand. 
Jennifer takes some audience questions, including those from fellow pros Sam Grafton, Max Silver and Timothy Adams, who ask Dan about a wide range of topics from becoming the best possible cyborg to archery to nicknames. 

You can follow Dan on instagram and twitter @DDvoress. Photo by Neil Stoddart
Now that Dan has discussed ace-five suited, there are 143 combos remaining on thepokergrid.com. 

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