The GRID podcast returns to our regular programming by welcoming a very special guest: International Memory Grandmaster, Yanjaa Wintersoul. Yanjaa, the first woman to become a Memory World Champion, talks about how memory tricks  apply to poker, chess and trivia. The conversation is anchored by Yanjaa’s first poker tournament, the 2022 World Series of Poker…

As we approach the PokerStars Players Championship, we welcome our Platinum Poker Hand winner, Matt Glassman. Matt kicks off the episode with a riveting reading of his award winning essay, “Jack-Three Offsuit and the Monster Ballads Poker Game.” Then Jen and Matt move on to discuss what makes a great home game, how to teach game…

Welcome to a very special episode of the GRID, where the winner of the Platinum Poker Hand competition is unveiled. Over 70 entrants from all over the United States and Canada, competed for the delicious prize, a 30K package to play in the PokerStars Players Championships, set for the Bahamas in January 2023. After narrowing…

In a special episode of the GRID, Jennifer invites high-roller regular Victoria Livschitz, for her very first podcast appearance. Victoria has had an extraordinarily successful career as a tech entrepreneur, and aptly for this pod, her biggest success was an early cloud computer leader called the GRID dynamics. She started touring the high roller circuit…

We interrupt our regular programming for a HUGE announcement. The GRID is giving away a Platinum Pass worth $30,000!! One lucky, and talented, listener from the US or Canada will be going to the Bahamas in January, to play the PokerStars Players Championships.  To win, tell us your #PlatinumPokerHand, a memorable, funny or entertaining hand…

Jennifer Shahade invites Wey “CRAIBaby” Xie to the GRID. A high stakes online player who has battled and won with the best players in the World, Wey Xie talks about a pivotal hand he played with Ace-Queen offsuit on PokerStars. 150 big blinds deep in 1K NL, The hijack opened to 2.7x and Wey Xie…

Jennifer Shahade re-releases her 2019 episode with 3-time WSOP bracelet winner and star commentator Nick Schulman. Nick, consistently ahead of the curve, played a big pot with jack-four offsuit in a NYC underground cash game.  She also touches on the current scandals that have shaken the chess and poker worlds. For more on Jennifer’s thoughts, check…

Matt Matros, three-time WSOP bracelet winner and three-time author enters the GRID to discuss a fascinating hand with ace-nine offsuit, also featured in his new book, The Poker Brain: Improving Your Process Through Optimal and Exploitive Thinking. Matt opened the hijack, deep in the money of an online bracelet event, and was called by poker pro…

Yosha Iglesias, a poker player, chess master and coach, enters the GRID to talk about a long-awaited hand to be clicked off the GRID: Ace-King offsuit. She throws us back to the boom days of poker in France, where she found herself as a chipleader in an MTT at her college bar. In  a dramatic three-bet…

Poker coach, player, and renowned author on mindset and strategy Tommy Angelo enters the GRID to talk about a thrilling—and then not so thrilling—hand with ace-three suited. This hand throws back all the way to 1995, to a riverboat game on the Mississippi in Saint Louis, where Tommy found himself in a multi-way hand with…

The multi-faceted Philly poker pro, Mike Shaw enters the GRID. The rock star, restaurant manager and mixed game proponent brings a hand from the very first live poker tournament he played, in 2004. He held King-Seven offsuit in a pivotal moment heads-up at the Binion’s Casino in Las Vegas. Though it wasn’t the World Series…

Jennifer Shahade welcomes fellow PokerStars Ambassador Keith “Accidental Grenade” Becker to the GRID. Keith, who also goes by whoopsboom brings a hand from the PokerStars PA Winter Series, where he captured an event win in the final stretch. In his GRID moment, Keith had king-ten offsuit, with no heart. In an iconic spot about 45…

This bonus episode of the GRID offers a fascinating discussion between Jen Shahade and quant sports trader & US Chess expert Ella Papanek. A recent graduate of Harvard University, Ella works at the Susquehana International Group (SIG), a global quantitative trading firm in the Philly area. Her interests span from chess to poker to sports, and of course-…

Jennifer welcomes Amanda Botfeld, author of “A Girls Guide to Poker” to the GRID. Amanda discusses a hand from the tag team event at the World Series of Poker, where she paired up with the man who taught her poker 15 years earlier: her dad. The heart-warming duo came in third place, cashing for 50K…

In a bonus holiday episode of the GRID, Jennifer introduces listeners to International Master Rusudan Goletiani. Goletiani is a three-time World Youth Champion, a two-time Olympic medalist and a former US Women’s Champion- she took Jennifer’s title in 2005.    In 1992, Rusa fled her region of Georgia, Abkhazia, due to war. She explains the…

Jennifer welcomes a very special guest to the GRID, a prolific podcast host who captures the voice of a peripatetic cash game pro: DGAF. DGAF, as he calls himself, is the creator of epic “Sessions” podcast, with over 700 episodes, and the founder of Poker Rags. DGAF brings the hand that hooked him on No Limit Hold Em…

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….

Jennifer Shahade welcomes Qiyu “Nemo” Zhou to the GRID. Nemo is a former World Youth Chess Champion, a streamer at twitch.tv/akanemsko and a professional e-sports player at Counter Logic Gaming. Since turning 21 in January, she has been sprinkling more and more poker into her main menu of chess and league of legends.  She even won a…

The GRID welcomes best-selling author, mathematician and professor Jordan Ellenberg, author of the new book, Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy and Everything Else. He is also the best-selling author of How Not to Be Wrong, a Math Olympian and a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Though Jordan is…

In a special bonus episode of The Grid, we welcome one of our most extraordinary guests ever: Holocaust Survivor, author and 1956 French Women’s Chess champion, Isabelle Choko.  Born on September 18, 1928 in Lodz, Poland, Isabelle Choko was two weeks away from her 11th birthday when Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Isabelle…

Jennifer brings longtime friend, a master of many games, Jonathan Corbblah on to the GRID. He talks about a dramatic hand with nine-five suited in a private game at the Hamptons, where his new opponent confused him to the very last moments of the hand.  Jonathan speaks about how his psychological approach helps him in every…

Jennifer welcomes poker player, survivor all star and tech executive Shirin Oskooi to the GRID.   Shirin brings us five-six suited, a combo she loves both for its chameleon-like preflop qualities, and a pivotal hand she played at the Wynn when she was new to poker. She held 56 of diamonds in the big blind and…

In a special bonus GRID, Jennifer Shahade shares an episode of her chess podcast, Ladies Knight, featuring author, psychology PHD and poker champion Maria Konnikova. In researching Konnikova, Jennifer realized that all of her books have natural overlap with games, starting with Konnikova’s premiere book, Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. Mastermind shows how anyone can…

Faraz Jaka, a professional poker player with over 11 million dollars in winnings, enters the GRID with a crazy hand with queen-three offsuit. Faraz throws us back to the 2010 North American Poker Tour in Foxwoods, where he played a hand that PokerStars included in their “Greatest” collection. Matt Glantz opened and Jaka three-bet from the…

World Poker Hall of Famer Linda Johnson enters the GRID to talk about a hand she played against Antonio Esfandiari at a World Poker Tour event a decade ago in Los Angeles. Linda defended six-deuce of diamonds in the big blind and flopped bottom pair on ten-four-deuce with two hearts and one diamond. As Antonio…

Poker host and life coach Lee Davy steps into the GRID to talk about a critical hand in his career with ten-eight suited, in a 1K tournament in Blackpool. Lee was working on the railway at the time, but was also in tens of thousands of dollars of gambling debt for horse racing and sportsbetting….

Author, coach and poker pro Michael Acevedo enters the GRID to talk about a hand that changed his life. The hand, in this case, was played by high roller beast Stevie Chidwick. Michael was a last minute invite to a study group that went over a high stakes sit and go hand history of Stevie’s….

Twitch streamer, SCOOP Champion and PokerStars Ambassador Fintan “EasyWithAces” Hand enters the GRID to talk about two pivotal hands with ace-ten offsuit. In a rare live poker appearance, he reached the final table at the 2017 Irish Open as chip leader. But as his stack dwindled, he looked down at ace-ten off in the Big…

Professional poker player and yoga instructor Mandy Baker throws us all the way back to 2005, where she played her first 10K at the World Poker Tour in Foxwoods. Mandy thought she detected an excellent squeeze spot before even looking down at her cards: Jack-Five Offsuit. Mandy explained to Jen how this dramatic hand had…

Three-time WSOP Champion Joe McKeehen steps into the GRID to talk about a hand from the World Poker Tour final table at Rolling Thunder in 2018. The 2015 World Series of Poker Champion rivered the nuts with queen-ten offsuit, in a riveting hand that captured the imagination of the poker world.  The flop was Ace of hearts,…

This week we welcome Soheb Porbandarwala to the GRID. The 30-year-old poker pro has been successful in both live and online poker, winning millions of dollars and five WSOP circuit rings. He came on the GRID to talk about a quite legendary hand with Queen-deuce offsuit, that took place at a WSOP circuit event in…

Poker professional K. L Cleeton aka “highhands89” steps into the GRID to talk about a hand from the 2017 World Series of Poker with jack-seven suited. Cleeton got into the $10,000 buyin event via a video contest hosted by Daniel Negreanu. The crucial hand, which took place on day three of the WSOP saw Cleeton…

Professional streamer and former poker professional Stephen “Jorbs” Flavall steps into the GRID to discuss a hand he played with four-deuce offsuit over a decade ago. It was a homegame that he thought would be casual, but he walked into a competitive vibe. When he opened with one of the trashiest hands in poker and…

World Series of Poker and EPT Champion Liv Boeree joins Jennifer Shahade on thepokergrid.com to discuss a hand history with ace-seven offsuit on the bubble of the UK Millions in 2020. Liv, who has been focusing on her YouTube channel and speaking career recently, was playing after a long hiatus. She found herself with top pair and a weak…

David K Lappin comes on thepokergrid.com to discuss a hand with pocket fives, that was set in Vegas in the 1980s at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino.  David wrote the hand for a script in his life as a screen-writer long before he became a poker professional and podcast host. The hand itself puts listeners in the classic amateur’s quandary: you…

For the GRID’s first anniversary episode, Chris Moneymaker tells a hand he played soon after his WSOP Main Event victory, against movie star Ben Affleck. The 25/50 No Limit Hold Em Cash game was hosted in 2003 at the Palms Casino, back when the hotel had a poker room. Ben was opening, calling or raising…

ESPN Anchor Kara Scott steps into the GRID to talk about a dramatic three-bet hand from the 2009 Irish Open, where she held seven-six offsuit. Kara ended up winning over $400,000 at the event a life-changing amount of money which relieved her of her debts and took her in a new direction. Kara, now an…

Professional Poker Player and coach Matt Hunt found himself heads-up for a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2017, in one of the earliest “big blind” ante events in the WSOP. He enters the Poker GRID with a dramatic hand with ten-six offsuit, featuring critical decisions on all streets. Matt limps the button with Tc6s…

Two-time WSOP Champion Bill Chen enters the GRID to talk about a hand he played against the legendary Phil Ivey back at the 2010 World Series of Poker. They were heads-up in a 3K horse event, and the game was Limit Hold Em. The hand started when Bill raised his button, and Phil Ivey defended….

Terrence Chan steps into the GRID, not the octagon, to discuss a funny hand he played with three-deuce offsuit against Erick Lindgren, way back at the 2006 World Series of Poker. Eric posted his blind when he was actually under the gun, leading to a leveling war that escalated quickly. Chan speaks to how much…

Four-time World Poker Tour Champion Darren Elias steps into the GRID to talk about a fascinating hand he played with ace-eight suited. In a first for the show, Darren’s opponent was an AI, Pluribus, as developed by Carnegie Mellon and Facebook to beat six max No-Limit Hold Em. The AI made an aggressive but low frequency play on the…

Poker coach and high roller tournament champion Sam Greenwood enters the GRID to discuss a high stakes hand with king-ten suited, held at the Triton Millions in July 2019. Sam was facing the tricky and outspoken Martin Kabrhel of the Czech Republic in a 3-bet pot, and as the board ran out, a hand that…

Orlando based poker player and tech entrepreneur Femi Fashakin steps into the GRID to discuss a crucial hand from the largest poker tournament of all time, the WSOP Big Fifty. Femi won over a million dollars for topping the 28,000 player field, becoming the first Nigerian-born poker player ever to take home a gold bracelet….

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…

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…

Three-time World Series of Poker Champion Ben Yu enters the GRID to talk about a pivotal hand in his life and career. He was up against Jonathan Little at his first WSOP final table in the 2010 Limit Hold Em Shootout. Yu, who held jack-eight suited, had tough decisions that were complicated by ICM, shallow…

Poker professional, “Raising the Nuts” vlogger and podcast host Trevor Savage enters the GRID to talk about a 2013 cash game hand in which Trevor held Six-Nine Suited. Trevor is a New Jersey based online pro, but he’s recently been crossing the bridge to play on PokerStars PA, so Trevor and Jennifer recorded this episode live in Philly….

Andrew Lichtenberger better known as “Lucky Chewy” enters the poker GRID to talk about a dramatic hand with seven-four offsuit against Viktor “Isildur1” Blom. Held at the 2013 NBC Heads-Up Championship, Andrew and Viktor played a huge four-bet pot in which Andrew faced a tough flop decision. Andrew has over 10 million in live earnings…

Jennifer welcomes Canadian poker pro Peter aka “Apathy” Jetten to thepokergrid.com. Jetten has nine million dollars in live cashes, including many recent big scores from the Triton series. Today’s hand comes from the Main Event of the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Montenegro, where Peter faced Steve O’ Dwyer in a nail biter blind versus…

Mike Glick, better known as “Mike the Hat” is one of the best and most successful American poker players you may not have heard of.  He rose from No Limit Hold Em cash games in the east coast to become a regular in the highest stakes mixed games at Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio. Today…

Three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, World Poker Tour Champion and renowned poker commentator Nick Schulman enters the GRID to click off a challenging combo, jack-four offsuit. Nick played the fateful hand in a New York City homegame about a decade ago, where the stakes soared to 400/800 and night turned to morning. As…

Poker player Joshua Abady comes on the GRID to talk about a hilarious hand with queen-jack suited at the Colossus at the WSOP that ended in dramatic confrontation. Abady explains how he uses his extroverted personality to make live poker more fun, and to occasionally make big exploits. Josh, who is 25, also talks about why…

Eight-time Russian Chess Champion, beloved commentator, and poker aficionado Peter Svidler enters the GRID to talk to Jennifer about an “accidental NLHE” hand while he was waiting for PLO on RunItOnce. Peter held the ace-seven of diamonds, and as the pot swelled, he takes us through his discomfort in NLHE, as opposed to his favorite…

Muskan Sethi comes on the GRID to discuss a thrilling televised hand against Mike “Timex” McDonald on the PokerStars TV show the Shark Cage. Muskan held Jack-nine offsuit in position, and faced crucial decisions on all streets, with an extra strategic element in that a called bluff would send her to an in studio “Shark…

High stakes tournament player Dan Smith comes on the GRID to talk to Jennifer Shahade about a pivotal hand against Reiner Kempe with pocket sixes at the 2016 Super High Roller Bowl, a $300,000 poker tournament with a 5 million dollar first prize. Dan, who has won more than 27 million in live poker tournaments,…

Notes: The GRID welcomes Matt Berkey, the founder of Solve for Why and a frequent player in some of the highest stakes cash games in the World. He comes on the GRID to talk to Jen Shahade about the largest pot we’ve covered yet, against Dan “Jungleman” Cates on Poker After Dark. Berkey held queen-five offsuit on…

Carlos Welch is a poker player, coach and writer for PokerNews and Tournament Poker Edge. He’s known as the “man in a van”, as he travels from stop to stop in pursuit of stretching his poker success with both skillful play and frugality. Carlos talks to Jen Shahade on the GRID about a hand against “Phil Laak”…

Poker player and writer Aleeyah Jadavji talks on the GRID about something many poker players aspire to: a triple check raise in serious competition. She talks to Jen about unlocking the rare play with ace-jack suited, and why it’s important to incorporate new lines to invigorate your game. Aleeyah is on the Pokernews editorial team…

High stakes heads-up player Jake “Jllama” Abdalla talks to Jennifer Shahade on the GRID about a shocking rendition of eight-deuce suited against Phil Ivey. The 2015 No Limit Hold Em hand was played as part of an eight-game mix on PokerStars, a typical battlefield for Abdalla and Ivey.  Jake and Jen talk about how the…

Greg Shahade takes listeners on a trip down memory lane as he reviews a hand with his sister, GRID host Jennifer Shahade from a $200 Sit n Go from 2005. In the hand, he made a call with Ace-Nine suited that ignited a furious debate between math and feel players on the two plus two…

World Series of Poker bracelet winner and 7-time WSOP final tablist Ryan Laplante enters the GRID with a tough spot with King-Queen suited, in one of his favorite events of the year, the 10K Bellagio Five Diamond event in Las Vegas. Ryan talks about how excitement to turn a flush on a paired board changed…

Poker pro, commentator and everyone’s favorite twitter follow, Jamie Kerstetter talks to Jennifer Shahade about the most coveted poker hand, aces.  Jamie tells a dramatic story from a decade ago, where she bamboozled an opponent with aces in a large pot. The aftermath ended in a true “walk of shame” for the villain in the…

Kevin “Barewire” Rabichow, high-stakes online player, coach and heads-up specialist, talks to Jennifer Shahade about Ten-Five offsuit; a riveting heads-up hand from 2013. Kevin talks about “King of the Hill” dynamics, and how the hand may be played differently today. He also talks about a few common pitfalls that snare some tournament players when playing…

In the premiere episode of The Grid, Jennifer Shahade interviews Lex Veldhuis, poker professional, twitch.tv streamer and PokerStars Ambassador. Lex kicks off The Grid with a hand from 2007, where he held king-four offsuit. Lex and Jen talk about why the hand stands out in his memory as a turning point in his mental game….