The GRID is back just in time for the Main Event bubble, and an appropriately timed interview with Dara O’Kearney, professional poker player and three-time author, most recently of Endgame Poker Strategy: The ICM Book. 

Dara tells Jennifer about a hand from a decade ago at a tournament in Dublin which was modeled after the WSOP Main. The villain was David Lappin, who is now Dara’s co-host on the popular Chip Race podcast. The critical hand came early in the event when Lappin opened in early position, and Dara three-bet the button with K6s. The flop came Ace-Jack-Ten rainbow with the ace of diamonds. Lappin check called a c-bet to see the turn, a 7 of diamonds. Dara bet again on the turn, and when the river bricked, he emptied the clip. Lappin faced a tough decision with a very strong hand, and if you’re a loyal GRID listener, you may have a guess as to how it turned out. 

After contemplating the hand, Dara and Jen speak more generally about suited kings, and how they tie in to some of his books and thoughts on ICM pressure.  Jennifer puts Dara on the spot about a controversial part in his book related to Phil Ivey. Jen quotes third World Champion Jose Raul Capablanca: “In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else” as they dive deeper into the most common misconceptions about ICM as well as what amateurs often get right about ICM and bubbles. 

At the start of this episode Jennifer reveals a new edition of her book, “Chess Queens” is now available for pre-order, tying into her conversation with Dara on his books, Endgame Poker Strategy, Poker Satellite and PKO Poker Strategy.  Dara breaks down promotional strategies from pre-orders to effective titling to SEO with Barry Carter, his co-author on all three books. 

Find out more about Dara on his blog, twitter and books page. You can listen to the Chip Race on soundcloud, and find his co-host’s GRID episode here. 

Support the GRID by pre-ordering Jennifer’s new book on Bookshop, B&N or amazon. 

Now that Dara O Kearney has clicked off K6s, there are 110 spots left on the GRID. You can now find previous episodes using our new Episode Finder.