Good day poker peeps sky with Smart Poker Study along with the guys from Rec Poker.

I was on their show just the other day right before Christmas and they were gracious enough to give me the video and the audio from the episode.

So I'm sharing that with all of you this week.

In this episode we talk about smart goals for 2025.

Smart is an acronym, S M A R T Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound.

So we talk about making smart goals.

We also talk about what to do when you face those nasty three bets.

Remember that three bets are the bane of two bets, so it's good to brush up on some of that strategy.

We also get into a lot of other little things and a little game of stack, study or stake.

So they give me three different poker coaches and I talk about who I would choose to stack, who I would study with, and who I would stake in a game.

Okay, let's just get right into it.

All right folks, well you know you're in for a treat when you hear that tune because it's time for another week of the Rec Poker Podcast.

I'm this is the Chats edition.

We also have a Forums edition every week where we're just talking strategy.

I'm your host for both Jim Reed Bluffsterini in the home game and at Rec Poker Gym on socials and I have the best freaking job in the world talking poker with my friends here on the REC Poker Podcast every Monday night at 7:30 Eastern Live on YouTube.

You can join us every week for free and maybe win a prize even not just for showing up.

Now we're going to talk to Sky Matsuhashi.

I'm so excited to be bringing him in.

And just a moment.

First, I'm pleased to mention that we're brought to you by Running Aces, the official sponsor of the Rec Poker Podcast and we're going to be having some fun with them at the end of January.

So stay tuned for the end of the show to get some details about Rec Poker weekend at Running Aces.

Most of what we do here is free.

We're a largely volunteer based organization, so we depend on support from our sponsors and from our Premium members.

Some premium members like a few new ones, Gerard Lolly and Tom Foster.

So thank you Gerard and Tom.

I think these two fine gentlemen took advantage of the naughty or nice sale throughout the month of December and so they typed in the word nice at checkout and got their first month for only a dollar.

It's nice to be nice, but if you've been naughty I mean you never know what happens when people are naughty.

But thanks for being nice Gerard and Tom and thanks for being premium members here at Rec Poker.

Now they let me host the show on Monday so get used to hearing my voice.

But I am just one small cog in the Rec poker machine.

I'm joined by a group of wizards each and every week.

We're on a short list of wizards.

This week I am be joined only by our sit in producing co host John Somsky.

John, welcome to Rec Poker.

Tell the world all about you.

I am John Somski, also known as pokergeek MN everywhere and I organize our.

Home games and does a crack job at it.

Coming up to another end of a year with I don't know, 500 and something home games that our members took, took part in here at Rec Poker and won a bunch of prizes and had a lot of fun doing it.

It's just one of the perks of being a member here and I want to you you can get a free membership anytime.

All it takes is an email address and a smile.

But if you want to try out our premium membership, all you have to do is make a donation to your local food bank for any amount and send us the receipt and we'll send you a complimentary for your first free month of membership here at Rec Poker.

So it's never a bad time to help out your local food bank.

So give it a try now.

We got them folks.

We got him back.

One of our.

I, I don't know, I didn't do any math.

I hate doing math.

I didn't do any math before the show.

But Sky Matsuhashi, a regular guest, certainly a recurring guest on the Rec Poker podcast.

Sky, how many times have we even had you on by now?

I do not know, but I'm definitely a friend of the show.

I love your guys's podcast.

I love you guys specifically.

So yes, I'm happy to be back.

Well, that's so sweet.

And you know I'll tell our listeners at home if you're, if you like Sky Matsuhashi, you got to check out the Smart Poker Study podcast.

You gotta check out his YouTube videos.

He's been a longtime friend of the show, a longtime friend of the recreational poker world.

In fact, way back when, before I even joined Rec Poker and I was still mucking around in Poker Tracker trying to figure it out the first time.

Sky was so generous at the time, I was a regular listener to his show and would write in and we would correspond to a email and he'd help me out on how to, like, work in Poker Tracker and find out some of his secrets.

So, sky, it feels like so many years later, you're still firing on all cylinders.

Uh, how.

How do you keep coming up with great stuff and keeping it fresh and keeping it fun and, like, do you still love it?

It's like, what's.

What's the secret behind this success?

Great question.

Yes, I do still love it.

And it's so interesting.

When I started the website, smartpokerstudy.com, it was just gonna be a blog with some videos and stuff.

But then I got into it, and it's.

It's an interesting thing when you start creating things.

You get more ideas to create more.

And then when I started the podcast, I thought, well, I can probably pump out a hundred episodes and.

And then I've talked everything.

Poker at that point.

Right.

Like, that was my idea, you know, before I started the podcast.

And then by the time you get into it and I'm.

And if you guys don't remember, and most of you probably don't, when I was.

I did the podcast for about a month or so, and then I said, you know, I need to get better at this.

I'm gonna do 30 days in a row, one podcast per day.

And I forced myself to really come up with ideas, do a ton of podcasts.

I did that.

But then ever since that point, like, the ideas are flowing where literally, I have a Google spreadsheet with 30 different, like, podcast ideas that I've never fully implemented, haven't taken the time to actually do commit to script and record and everything.

Easily 30.

I have at least 40 videos, YouTube videos that I can do.

I just need to push myself to actually get it done.

But it's just.

It's just weird how when you start to become creative, you create your own thing, you build your own business.

It just leads to more ideas, things that you can do, but there's just not enough time in the day to do it all.

Yeah, yeah.

While you're a busy guy, but your.

Your passion shines through.

I'll just remind our YouTube chatters if you're chatting along.

I like Scott Lum and Stuart Carriage and DJ and a few other fun folks in there.

If you've got any questions for sky, feel free to type them in.

Yeah.

Scott says you're one of his favorite poker podcasters, at least ones that don't care as much about sandwiches as yours truly.

Yeah, listen.

Yeah, I can only be good at one thing.

It's poker or sandwich making and I made my choice and I stand by.

So I also want to remind our YouTube chatters we're going to be giving away a prize later in the show, so stick around to support a local food bank.

And we're looking for some names to put sky in an uncomfortable position in Steak Study Stack.

So feel free to fire your your your guesses in there, your suggestions for players names.

And finally I'll just say that if you anyone wants to send us a donation through the YouTube chat, through a super chat, we share a portion of all those donations with a local food bank.

So your support is appreciated.

There's all right, so sky, we had you on last year and we talked about smart goals.

Smart.

And we made a couple goals for ourselves for the year.

We talked about why it was important to have particular types of goals.

And it's so funny.

As you and I were emailing earlier this month to set up this interview, one of our regular members DJ was posting in the forums, hey, I'm just listening to the episode with sky about smart poker goals.

Should we have him back on this year?

And I was like, oh my God, it was just meant to be so cool.

That DJ is actually in the YouTube chat today and of course, if you have any questions for sky, type them in there.

So first of all, going back to that episode last year, we talked about smart goals.

We both made some goals.

We talked about what we were hoping to get out of the year.

I guess my first question to you is, did you get to Japan for a month in June as planned?

Yes, I did.

Me and my wife and boys and my dad, the five of us went to June.

Wow.

And that was, it was incredible.

Or not went to June.

Went to Japan in June.

Absolutely loved it.

One full month there, a week in Tokyo, and then three weeks like traveling throughout the rest of Japan.

Well, central Japan, and just had a really good time visiting family, seeing friends I hadn't seen for years and years.

And so that was a goal that came true.

And I can't remember what we discussed exactly last time, but we had planned the week that Covid hit, March of 2020, we were going to go to Japan that week.

Covid hit.

We canceled our plans.

Thankfully, we got a refund on our tickets.

Right?

Because at that time they were refunding everybody because who knows, who knew what the world would be like.

We got a refund, but then we had to postpone our trip for four, for four entire years.

But it was so super worth it.

And we're happy we did it.

Nice.

I'm glad to hear it.

Now, one of the reasons that came up in the episode is because we were talking about having goals throughout the year and how it made sense to kind of break them up into smaller goals because it was hard, hard to reach, hard to achieve year long goals.

It's really, really easier to kind of set yourself short term goals that, that stack up.

So why don't, why don't we just start, why don't you just talk a little bit about as a refresher.

So what are smart goals and why do you find that this is like the most effective way for you to achieve your dreams?

Yeah, absolutely.

SMART is an acronym standing for specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time bound.

Those five aspects should be a part of any goal that you set.

And you hit the nail on the head, Jim.

One year long goals.

I really can't think of any year long goals I've ever hit.

You always have, like at the beginning of the new year, you have your resolutions, things that you want to do for the next year.

And those are kind of goals that people set.

But nobody hits the gym three times a week, every week for an entire year.

Right?

Nobody stays away from alcohol every single day for the.

I mean, some people do, obviously, but like it's really hard to hit your goals for an entire year.

So I've decided to break my goals down.

Like I have these dreams, these things that I want to achieve for one month or a year, but I break my goals down and I make them as smart goals.

But I do it one week at a time and it's really helped me achieve my goals.

Like right now I have a goal.

I want to make a new course for the Poker Forge.

And the course is called how to Steal More Pots.

I've been wanting to make this course for like two years, I really have.

But I just could never get around to doing all of the videos that I felt necessary to make the course.

So what I did, I set a goal for myself every week.

I'm going to work with the Poker Forge.

We're going to do a workshop twice a week where I cover a strategy video, a review video, and a quiz video.

Not that I cover, I actually record the video with my members in taking place, in chat.

They're asking me questions, they're answering my questions, and then I'm recording it on a week by week basis.

So I have this goal of making the course.

It's going to take 10 full weeks, but if I just say I'M going to make this course sometime this year in 2024.

I won't achieve it, but by making it specific and measurable.

Like every single week, strategy review and a quiz, doing it with my students.

And it's time bound.

Like, I'm like, literally every single week I'm doing it.

We just finished our third week.

Right now I'm actually able to.

And I know I will achieve the goal of creating the course because I've set a structure in place for me to get there.

And like I said, just setting.

I'm going to make this new course.

It never works out.

I mean, maybe it does, but it takes 6, 8, 12 months to get it done.

Now you talk about kind of structure and I'm well, don't let me poison the well here.

What other kind of structure do you find is helpful to you when it comes to getting the most out of your time?

Are you a time blocker?

Are you like a space blocker?

Are you a list person?

Are you a routine person?

What are the other ways that you kind of restrict your.

I'm not going to call you lazy.

I'm lazy and unmotivated.

And if I don't, like, have a path to follow and some guide rail, some guardrails to keep me on track, I stray.

So what works for you in that way?

How do you focus yourself?

I am a list person every single day.

This is my list right here for today, my no Stress Monday list.

And I called it no stress because I realized from watching a lot of different videos, the thing that causes stress in your life is having to do a to do list that you never get to.

Right?

And.

And so I decided I always had a list of things to do and I would give myself on a Monday, I'd give myself six things.

I would only get three of them done.

And then I'd be so stressed.

Oh my God, now I got to do these other three on Tuesday.

But that pushes back this other stuff I want to do.

So I created my no stress list.

And I'm.

I'm only putting things on the list that.

That need to get done in the order that I need to do it.

And I'm allowing myself to.

If I don't get something done, ah, so be it.

I don't get it done.

But I tried to put the first three things on my list are the key things that need to be done that day to get me to where I want to go.

So, for example, like today, the first thing on my list was my next podcast goes Live So the podcast 521 went out today.

Awesome.

Got that done.

And that really like one of my goals for this year, and one of my goals is just to build my YouTube audience.

So every podcast has a YouTube video associated with it.

Well, getting this video done today leads me to my ultimate goal of just growing the podcast to 20,000, 30,000, ultimately, like a hundred thousand subscribers.

Right.

But I haven't set that as a goal.

That's more like a dream I want to achieve.

My weekly goal that I set for myself is I will make one YouTube video every single week until I get to that goal.

So I know if I just keep doing, if I keep at it, plugging away every single week with my no stress list and putting that as one of my tasks, I'm going to eventually get to my goal.

And so that's.

That's how I do it.

I'm a list guy 100%.

And I've got some comments in the YouTube chat.

So Scott saying that's why he loves your content.

He chunks it down big strategy ideas and makes it simple to focus on specific areas that are critical to our game.

He says better to focus on.

On one area than to work on than taking, like, a scattershot approach to learning.

Yeah.

100.

So, Sky, I.

I'm afraid I.

I'm a less evolved version of you then, because I am, like, I never get to the bottom of my list.

And it's.

It stresses the hell out of me.

Like, this is like the number one cause of angst in my life.

And like, you know, I don't know.

I've got.

I've got what I.

I've got, like, what I feel like the priority items, the things that are on fire.

And then just like a bunch of other things, like, I really have to do this week.

And then like, some great ideas and wonderful things I'd really like to do if I had time with some of them are, like, really good, but I cannot freaking get to them.

So how do you.

How do you make peace with that, though?

Like, how do you have all.

Because you're like me.

I know you have a million great ideas, and it's not like it's great to have them in a spreadsheet or like a Google Doc or something like that.

But, like, how do you not stress over not getting the stuff done that you'd like to get done?

So two aspects to that.

The first, you're right.

I have a ton of ideas, and I'm sure you do too, but I've realized and I'VE trained myself to believe this and to.

And to.

And to know this.

Ideas are a dime a dozen.

A billion people had the idea for Uber before.

Whoever created Uber came along and did it.

Your idea, just having it doesn't mean crap.

I have These ideas for 30 or 40 different podcasts and videos.

Those don't matter.

What matters is action and getting stuff done.

So I don't worry about all these ideas.

And like you said, Google spreadsheets and whatever.

I have a billion emails that are.

That are saved for myself and spreadsheets with lists of things that I want to do and I just don't.

I haven't gotten to them.

But I do realize the second aspect to this is.

And that's why I created my no Stress, no Stress Monday, no Stress Tuesday.

Every day I write down no Stress.

It's because I allow myself to just let those ideas be ideas.

They don't need to be out in the world.

If I really loved him and if I really thought it was a great idea, I would get to work and implement it right now.

And so that's why, like, on my no Stress Monday, the podcast, going live, the workshop I did today, and then preparing for this podcast with you, those are the three most important things because they needed to get done today to achieve my ultimate goals.

Right.

Everything else on my list.

And actually, I didn't give myself anything on the list besides those three things because those are the most important things and I want to get them done.

If I gave myself the other three things that I want to do tomorrow and Wednesday, even on Christmas Day, Wednesday or Thursday, then I'm just going to create stress for myself.

I try to keep to my list the things that need to get done today that I know I can get done today.

All right, well, I like it.

Man, I'm jealous.

I mean, that sounds great.

I.

I do.

Like, this isn't about me.

I.

This is.

We're interviewing you.

But, like, you really struck a chord with me here.

Like, I do get a lot of anxiety about, like, emails I haven't responded to.

You know, like, I'm one of the point people here at Rec Poker, so when people need stuff, they reach out to me.

And I know I've got, like, a backlog of things I'm supposed to be, like, getting to people.

And, you know, there's this adage, if you, if you want to know what's important to someone, observe how they spend their time.

Right.

Which you're kind of getting at there.

It's like, people spend their Time on what they're passionate about.

And I feel like.

I don't know, I just feel like.

I just feel like I'm letting people down all the time because I'm just not getting to these things that I know I'm supposed to be doing.

Is that kind of a similar.

Like, do you have that as well, or am I.

Am I taking this in a different.

In a different direction?

No, I do have that in a similar fashion, but I guess I do sometimes feel like I let the podcast audience down if I don't do as good on a podcast, or I'm letting my poker forge audience down by not creating new videos or whatever for them.

But for the most part, I've tried to rid stress out of my life by I'm not letting myself down.

Like I said, I kept the three things on my list that I knew needed to get done today, and I had the time to get them done.

Now I feel great, right?

This is the last thing on my list.

Being here with you in a fun podcast.

I'm not actually doing heavy lifting, any heavy work right now.

And then.

So I allow myself.

I give myself the freedom to just not feel that stress.

And that's one of those things.

Giving yourself permission to.

And just.

And so when you give yourself permission to not get things done, you kind of don't let yourself down.

Now, like, I only put the things on my list that I knew I needed to get done.

And one thing I want to mention, and I can't remember if we've discussed it before, is I use an app called habitica, habitica.com habitica.com and it's a way to gamify your life.

So I have all these things I want to do, like my daily morning stretch, taking vitamins, drinking water, creating something.

Getting to Inbox zero, like you had mentioned, right?

Emails, not responding really bums you out and you feel like you're letting that person down.

Getting to inbox zero, all of those things.

At habitica.com, you create daily task lists, and then when you get them done, you check it off and you get points.

You get experience or mana, and you use that mana to buy equipment and stuff, right?

So it's a way to gamify the tasks in your life.

And I've been using habitica.com for like, five years now, and I absolutely love it.

It helps me stay on track and get stuff done.

So that's one small recommendation for you.

All right, I appreciate that because, yeah, I'm.

I find that, like, time Blocking, you know, being.

Being like.

What's the word I'm looking for?

Being loyal to my list and.

And that kind of thing.

And like, you know, just doing the things that are the most important in time you have available.

But I like.

I mean, we all do need help with that kind of stuff.

So I think having a good system, having a good program, there is something very satisfying about crossing things off a list.

I will say that's definitely.

There is.

No, I love it.

Like, I have.

I write my list in pen, all these small items, and then I have a lovely black Sharpie.

Yeah.

Cross.

I made it feel so good when I cross off with a Sharpie.

That's nice.

Yeah, I'm more of a pen scribbler over.

I don't know if you can really see it, but same, same kind of idea.

It does look nice when.

When you get to just make all that black space on there.

Yep, yep.

All right, so let's bring it back to poker a little bit.

So one of the goals that you shared with us last year was to play a hundred thousand hands online.

And you broke it down.

You said, I'm not going to just make that my goal.

I'm going to give myself 10,000amonth for 10 months.

I'm going to take July off and I.

Or June off, because the trip.

And I know there's going to.

Something else is going to come up that's going to derail me.

So I'm going to set myself that target of 10,000 hands a month.

And I'm not gonna do it every month, but I'm gonna get to a hundred thousand hands in a year.

That's the goal.

Do you know if.

If you have or not?

I know we're not quite through the year net, but yet.

But have you been tracking that?

Yes.

Well, yes and no.

So no, I have not hit that goal for the entire year.

And like.

Like you had said, like, I knew that things would derail me going to Japan for entire.

For an entire month.

Right.

But so so far, for the year, I have played 48,000 hands.

But here's the thing.

In February, a realization came to me.

I hit my 10,000 ish hands in January.

Right.

But then I realized that I was playing terribly because I was trying to fit in too many hands.

I would open up ignition, play four tables, and then I would also open up ACR and play one table at the same time.

I was just.

Just spreading myself too thin, just trying to get that number of hands.

So in January or.

No, in February, I said, no, nix that goal.

We're done with the number of hands.

My new goal is 365hours played because that is so easy to control.

So if I play an hour, one table or two tables or four tables, it's still an hour.

That's the controllable part.

I'm not trying to force in too many tables.

I mean, I guess I could try to force in too many hours, but I didn't have to do that, right?

With, with so many days for the year.

So with cash games and tournaments, I have hit my 365 hour goal.

I don't know what I'm at or what I'll end the year, but my guess is around 383 90.

So I, I hit the minimum.

Like I hit the goal of the later goal.

I said in February.

Nice.

And I think, you know, when we get new information, of course we should, you know, revise our, our goals.

I guess.

There's nothing explicitly in the smart poker in the smart goal system about like, like sticking to it if it's a bad idea or something like that.

Exactly.

So the R in smart is relevant at the time.

In, in when we said that last year, right.

100,000 seemed relevant.

I wanted to really work on my skills, play a ton of poker, develop myself as a player and as a coach by practicing a ton of strategies.

And so that was relevant at the time.

But then I realized that maybe I'm getting older and I can't focus as well on three or four tables.

I play two tables so much better than I play on four.

I'm making better decisions, making more money, making better reads, better exploits, that it just, it made more sense.

It's more relevant to me as a player now as opposed to being.

What's his name, Nano Noko, back in 20, 2012 or whatever, he would 20 table and, and just crush it because he was younger and he could do that.

Right.

I'm not Nano no Ko.

I've.

I used to be able to play four tables very well.

Or maybe I thought I played them well.

Maybe I wasn't as good as I thought.

But then now I realize no, two tables is my sweet spot and I basically just stick with that.

So I guess I could set a goal of 50,000 hands for the year.

But I still like the hour league or an hour a number of hours goal.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's cool.

And I think, you know, you really avoided the tail wagging the dog there too, right?

Because like the purpose of the goal is for this.

You Know this bigger picture.

Dream of being better at poker and being a more profitable player.

And, like, you're doing that much more effectively at two tables than at four or six or whatever.

Yeah.

And, yeah, I think that makes.

That makes perfect sense.

So, you know, I'm.

I'm a.

I'm a structured guy as well, and I do kind of get into that spot where it's like, oh, but I said I'd do this, and so I really have to do it.

But it's like, well, does it actually serve what you're working on here, or is it just some, like, dogmatic, arbitrary choice that you're.

That you're making to follow?

Yep, that's the key thing.

Does your goal serve a purpose in your life?

Does it get you to where you want to go on your poker journey?

If the answer is no, change goals, it's your goal.

Who cares if you told the rest of the world?

Right?

Yeah, it's whatever helps you as a person, as a poker player, in this instance, improve, and that's what you want to pursue.

I love it.

All right, well, we're going to talk a little bit about strategy, but first, I just want to wish a happy birthday to Michael Babker, who is our volunteer technical director.

God bless this guy.

He's been a premium member since forever, and a couple years ago, our.

Our technical director had to step aside.

He was taking on some cool new stuff, and Michael stepped in to just kind of keep us going.

And for the last while, he's just been our.

Our man.

He's been our man to turn to.

He's been our port in storm.

Every time we have something come up that is above my technical acumen, which is basically everything.

He is.

He is the guy that we talk to, and it's his birthday this week, so I want to just say thank you, Michael.

We could not do what we do without you.

You're so generous with your time and your expertise, and so happy birthday, buddy, and hope you have a wonderful holiday.

And yeah, just thanks again for.

For all that you do.

Happy birthday, Michael.

Mm.

Great guy.

So, sky we talked about.

A lot of our listeners are tournament players.

We've been kind of doing more of an emphasis on cash over the last couple of years, because as you as.

Oh, it's the.

It's the best.

I mean, it's just the best.

But when one thing, one major difference in tournament and cash play is stack depth, when you're playing cash, typically, you're going to be much more deep stacked, and that means that certain branches of the decision tree are a little more nuanced than others.

So you and I were talking before the show and we talked about what's, what's one way, what's one way we can kind of get at that.

And we talked about responding to three bets.

Now, in tournaments, when you're facing a three bet, stacks are getting short.

Typically it's going to be, you know, fold, call or jam with not a lot of call based on implied odds and that kind of thing.

When stacks get deeper and in a cash game, incentives are kind of different.

I think there's more room for four bets that aren't all in.

There's more room for more speculative, more speculative calls.

So I really want to just kind of pick your brain a little bit.

So let's, let's just start very generally, what are the factors that people should be considering when facing three bets?

Well, the first thing is the three bet didn't just happen out of nowhere, right?

You open raised.

Before you open raised, you should have looked ahead at the other players still to act engaged.

Okay, is this a three bet bluffer, this one, this one, this one who is a three bet bluffer.

So before you open race, if you have all three bet bluffers still to act, this guy's three betting 13%, this one's 12%, this one's 8%, right?

You should probably narrow your range so that you can better defend against those three bets.

So, and especially, well, I shouldn't say especially cash games and tournaments when you open raise in a tournament.

But the last three players, they're all aggressive and they all have 13 big blinds.

Somebody's going to three bet shove, right?

You need to narrow your range to expect that.

The same thing in a cash game when you have those aggressive players, you know, think about that ahead of time.

You can narrow your range so that you have more hands to defend their three bet.

So you're calling or four betting more often.

Or you also, you could potentially increase your, increase your raise size, make it four big points, throw them off their game.

Oh my God, this guy suddenly raised it to four.

What do I do?

I can't three bet bluff.

And that's too much.

You know, there's different plays.

And because it's cash, if all those three players still act, you're in the cutoff, the button.

Small blind, big blind.

They are all aggressive.

They all love 3 betting.

Get off the table, get onto a new table, right?

So you don't just face a three bet out of nowhere.

But let's imagine you made your raise, you thought about those opponents, and before you raise, you kind of, you need to make a plan.

If he three bets, I'll do this.

If he does this, I'll do this.

If the three bet.

So you want to think about your opponents, you want to think about their player type.

What have they 3bet in the past?

What 3bet hands have you seen them make?

What is their 3bet percentage?

Because we're online players we're looking at, we notice when someone's a 3 better at 2% over 500 hands.

When someone's a 12% over 500 hands, we kind of have different ideas what to expect if they are an honest three better.

So you know they're doing with ace, king and pocket queens and better just get out of there.

If stacks are super deep and they make it only seven big blinds, sure, maybe you can call with a little room to maneuver post flop, and maybe you can exploit them.

But for the most part, if they're being honest, just get out of there.

You only open raise a 2.5 or three big blinds, you don't need to fight that, especially if you're out of position against that player.

But now if they are a three bet bluffer, you've seen them three bet with ace, five with eight, seven with pocket sixes in the past.

Now you have a decision.

Should you call and play them post flop with whatever your hand is, or can you for bet bluff in general you want to, especially in the micro stakes, which is what I coach you want to for bet bluff very infrequently.

Actually, in today's workshop, we did a little math with my own database and we found that I am three bet bluff, four bet bluffing with the opportunity to for bet only 3% of the time.

So when somebody three bets me, literally one out of every 33 times, I'm three bet bluffing 4%.

I'm four betting for value.

So the other 93% of the time I'm either calling or folding versus three bets.

And so assess their player type what you think they are making their three bet with.

So ask yourself poker's ultimate question, what are they doing this with?

Put them on a range and think about it.

Now, if that's tough for you to do in the moment, the next time you're studying, find hands where you face the three bet and ask yourself every time you get to that point when you face a three bet, what's he doing this with?

And then build a range in Flopzilla Pro, like start to train yourself to think about their ranges.

Just that, you know, a lot of players are 3 betting with all the broadways king 10 off suit.

Even if they think you can fold all the Broadways suited aces off suit aces because it blocks you from having pocket aces, ace, king.

They're also doing this with like suit suited connector 7, 6 suited because they think, ah, if I flop a flush draw plus a, plus a straight draw, I can really socket to this guy and push him off on the flop.

Right.

They're, they're going to get aggressive with those speculative hands later on if they hit a draw.

So put them on a range and then, and then decide what you would do versus that range.

And it's quite often going to be folding.

I tell my students when you face a 3 bet, it's totally fine if you're folding 60% of the time or greater.

Because the thing is they are showing you their three bet is trying to tell you that they have a strong hand.

Sometimes they're bluffing, sometimes they do have pocket aces.

You need to have a good grasp on the situation before you call or before you four bet.

Now, a lot of players call three bets way too often.

In general, you want to call at the top of your opponent's range.

So if they're three betting all the suited aces, maybe you can call with ace, queen and ace jack and ace ten which is ahead of their ace five and their ace four.

Right.

You don't want to call with king jack because all their aces beat you and their king queen beat you and all their pocket pairs beat you too.

Just don't do that.

But king queen might be an okay hand to play.

But before you call, have a plan on how you can steal it post flop.

So you want to understand your opponent and understand their post flop weaknesses.

Is he flop honest?

Are you calling in position?

And when he checks, you can bluff on the flop and take it down or is he turn honest?

So you're going to call his flop C bet.

And as soon as he checks on the turn, you're going to bet at the next opportunity.

Have a plan to steal before you click that call button.

Because the aggressive poker is winning poker in general, when you call, you're playing losing poker and you're just hoping to lose less than than you would just folding that hand right there.

So those are my, I guess there's a lot of different tips thrown in there, but that's generally how you play against three bets.

Yeah, I like that a lot.

This concept of there being just sort of there's there.

There are situations in poker that are inherently not profitable.

Playing out of the blinds is one of them playing.

And like, you know, the best players in the world might be winning players in the small blind or the big blind, but honestly, I doubt it.

Like, if anyone filters their hands in Poker Tracker four, they're going to see that you're, you're losing playing in the big blind.

You're probably losing playing in the small blind.

And that's just because if you folded every hand from the big blind, you'd be losing 100 hands per hundred.

You'd be losing 100 big blinds per hundred hands.

So if you're only losing 50, that means you're actually winning back 50, which is great.

Only losing 50 or like 30 in the big blind is fantastic, same as in the small blind.

And facing three bets is just one of those situations where, again, if you filter your, your database, I'm sure you'll find that as a whole, facing three bets, like, it's very difficult to be a profitable player.

So you're really just kind of like fighting, fighting back.

Matt Affleck.

An interesting thing to go along with that, filtering your database.

If you filter your database right now for making the three bets, you are probably going to find it positive, positive 200 big blinds per 100 hands, 300, 450 big blinds.

Those profits when you, when you three bet, those are coming from the players who are calling you or 4bet bluffing when they shouldn't.

Right.

So they would be better off against you because you're a winning player.

When you're making the 3 bet, they'd be better off just getting out of there.

You're like, they're winning 450 big blinds on average, or 450 big blinds per hundred hands, which means they win 4.5 big blinds every time they three bet.

If you're the one calling them, you're handing them 4.5 big blinds.

You're better off just folding and losing that 2.5 or three big blinds you already put in.

Yeah, I love that.

I was talking to Matt Affleck about this recently because we were doing some coaching stuff leading up to the wpt, and he said, you know, if, if you.

The reason that we call three bets is mostly because we are losing less than just by folding in, in the, in the grand scheme of things.

And so that's definitely true.

Like, that's going to be more true when you're in position.

It's going to be more true when you have a Post flop, skill, edge.

But like if you're getting three bet by a better player than you and you're out of position, like that's a.

Unless you have a very strong hand, I mean, you should probably just fold and yeah, it's just, you know, the reason people 3 bet widely is the same reason that they see bet widely.

It's because, like, it's a bread and butter spot.

You know, I don't want to take your word for this, but like, it's one of the ways that we create bread and butter situations for ourselves.

They're inherently profitable.

And so sometimes it's just the price of playing poker is that you're going to fold to some bluffs, you're going to fold to some three bets, you're going to fold to some C bets.

They're allowed to not have it all the time and it's still correct for you to fold in those circumstances.

So but let's say maybe we are in position or maybe we're out of position, but we feel like we have an edge on the table or against this particular opponent.

So we're going to call this three bet because even if we still lose money doing it, we're going to lose less than just by folding.

Are there characteristics of the hands that we want to call with as opposed to the hands that we want to bet or for bet and.

Or sorry, that we want to fold or for bet and like, what are those kind of characteristics that make them hands that we'd rather call with than take these other actions?

So if you would rather call, we.

Can get at it the other way.

We could say, like, what are the good four betting hands?

And then all the other hands that we're not folding are the calling hands.

But what are the kind of hand qualities that make hands good for four betting or good for calling or good for folding?

So in general, if your value for betting, like you think your opponent can come back over the top with worse or call you with worse, that's generally queens, kings and aces.

That's it.

If you are bluff for betting, it would be ace, king, ace, queen, ace, jack, ace, ten suited, because you want that suited power.

They're also connected.

It gives you a little bit more equity in case they call your 4bet.

But also those hands block, pocket aces, kings, Queens, Jacks, Tens, Ace, King, Ace, Queen, Ace, Jack, Ace, 10.

The most likely calling hands that they have versus your four bet.

Now, all of the other hands and some of those hands I just mentioned, like pocket queens, that would be fine to Call because you want to slow play your opponent.

You know he can bluff three streets, so you got a superior hand.

Let's call, let's not see an ace or a king on the flop and let's call him down.

So there are those potential plans, right?

But that is all player dependent.

You're thinking about your opponent when it comes to specific hands that are worthy of calling a three bet, just, just on hand strength, not thinking about your opponent.

You think about mid pocket pairs, eights, nines, tens and jacks.

And then you're also thinking ace, king, ace, queen, ace, jack suited and king, queen suited.

Like if we just think about hand strength, that's it.

Because you want your hand to be at the top of your opponent's 3 betting range.

That doesn't mean necessarily above it.

You don't necessarily always want to call with pocket aces.

But as long as they can be three betting a lot of weaker hands than what you're calling, you at least have that mathematical advantage against their range of three bet hands.

If you kind of take away aces, kings and queens, right, that they're 3 betting you with.

So those are the decent hands to call.

But I know Matt Affleck and a lot of coaches will say we're calling here so that we don't lose this much in the long run, right.

If we're always calling this hand, we're not losing the three big blinds we already committed.

We're only losing 2.2 big blinds.

That in itself isn't a good enough reason to call right now.

I am not going to face this spot a million times in my poker career.

I might face the Queen 10 suited, open raising and facing a three bet from this type of player 1,000 times.

Right.

What I'm more concerned with is right now I hold queen 10 suited.

This player 3 bet me.

Is there any reason that I should continue with this hand?

Can I make money?

Can I push him off?

Is there a way I can steal the pot later?

And if everything is ugly, if he's in position, he doesn't have any post flop weaknesses.

He seems to bet and then barrel.

I'd rather just fold the queen 10.

Even if I against some other players, I might make that call.

Or like I said earlier, the king, queen and the ace jack.

If those are sometimes worthy of calling, sometimes they're not.

You just get rid of them if you can't see away.

Because when you call with those weaker hands, you're really hoping to hit the flop or you're hoping to find a bluffing Opportunity most likely with king, queen and ace jack.

You're not going to hit anything.

The flop is going to come nine high, you're going to check, he's going to see bet, you're going to fold.

Right.

You're not going to hit a flush draw or a straight draw most likely.

And then so you want to see a way, some kind of post flop weakness that your opponent has.

Maybe he's flop honest, maybe he's turn honest, maybe he makes bet sizing tells when he bets a quarter pot.

Oh, you know he's weak because you've seen him bet 3 quarter pot with top pair, top set, 2 pair in the past.

Right.

So if you see a way to potentially bluff him later, depending on what the flop is, that's the time to call, not just on your hole cards.

All right, well I've got one more follow up strategy question for sky and then I think we're going to make a few goals of our own, some smart goals of our own for 2025.

So if you're in the YouTube chat, I'd love to know what your goals are for 2025.

And if you're listening at home, you can either tag me on socials at Rec Poker Gym or send me an email Jim Rec Poker and let me know what your goals are.

I think one thing that helps a lot is accountability, is even just writing them down, saying them out loud, sharing them with a friend or a coach or a mentor or a colleague or something like that, like a study buddy, having made it a little more real by not just having it in your mind in some way.

So I do encourage our YouTube chatters.

We got about a dozen folks in here, some are already starting to roll in with some goals.

Type them here.

And like I say, if you're, if you're listening at home, also put them in our forums at Rec Poker.

They're free forums.

They've also got a very active and encouraging Discord channel.

So I'd love folks to go and put some goals into the Discord and then we can review these as the year goes on and kind of help each other stay on track and, and become successful.

And so John Thompson, I'm going to be asking you too, so I'll give you a little time.

We'll do one more strategy question with, with sky first.

So Sky, I, I like this idea of like I'm in this spot right now, I'm holding these cards right now.

I'm playing this opponent in this hand right now.

I'm not going to Worry about sort of like the, the long term, play this a million times the same way.

One thing that I kind of feel brings some tension into that is like, let's talk about the lower pocket pairs.

So you talked about middle pocket pairs.

And I'm, I'm a rec player and baby, I love flopping sets.

It's just like it, it puts a smile on my face.

It's really the only reason I'm a profitable player is because I flop way more sets than I should.

So I have trouble like drawing a line.

It's like, oh yeah, I should be calling with like sevens, eights, nines here, but I've got pocket fives and like the, the math, I'm just as likely to hit a set of fours as a set of sixes, as a set of twos, as a set of nine.

So like shouldn't I really just call?

Can I just call with the low pocket pairs here too?

So I guess.

Two questions.

Can't we just call with the low pocket pairs too?

And also like, is it why, why do these low pocket pairs get no love?

Why?

Why?

Is it just because they're going to get like set over set or, or two pair counterfeit?

More like why?

It doesn't seem fair, it doesn't seem right.

Yeah, I never worry about set over set because you just can't, you can't account for that.

The, the idea, I don't even know what on getting set over set, but that's happened to me so many times.

Don't worry about that at all when it comes to the math for set mining.

So I always tell my students, players call way too often with pocket pairs for too big of bets to hit a set.

And that's where a lot of their preflop calling comes from.

And especially when it comes to calling three bets.

If you filter in your database for holding deuces through just say sevens, calling a three bet, you're most likely going to find over a large size database, 10, 20, 50,000 hands or more, you're going to find that you're losing money with those calls.

You're better off just folding all of those calls.

And what I tell my students is you want to have 20x implied odds.

When somebody open raises for 3 and then you only have to call 3 to win.

Well, that means you only need 60 big blinds behind absolutely worth set mining in that instance.

But when you open for three and they make it 10 now you have to call seven, but most of the time you don't have 140 big blinds behind to try to win.

And the reason why you want so many so like such high implied odds of 20x is because sometimes you hit your set and you get beat by a higher set or flush or a straight or something, you lose money.

Sometimes you hit your set, you bet and they just fold because they had ace high.

They ain't got nothing right.

So you don't always make a ton of money when you hit your set.

You want that high implied odds and that also forces you to to fold more often.

And especially at the micro stakes when maybe you haven't developed post flop skills for bluffing and stealing, check raising, probing, floating, donk betting and stuff.

You're only relying on hitting a set that only happens 9% of the time, 1 out of 11 the other 91% of the time.

Wait, I think I'm backwards.

It happens 11% of the time, one out of nine that you hit your set 89% of the time, you miss and you check fold, right.

You're better off not risking that additional six or seven big blinds, calling a three bet and just playing tight folding, getting rid of that three big blinds instead of trying to hit hit a set that only happens 11% of the time, whereas the other 89%, like I said, you're just check folding.

Earlier today, the podcast you reminded me of this.

The podcast I released today was on preparing for a live session by playing an online full ring game.

And as I was recording the podcast, I was just simply demonstrating playing a full ring game online to warm up for the situation that you're about to encounter in the local card room.

And it was just the craziest thing.

This guy open raised for 2.

This guy 3 bet to 5 big blinds.

I was in the big blind, he made it too small.

A super big mistake that you see in the live felt and in full ring games or in micro six games.

I had pocket deuces.

I called for only four more big blinds times 20, at least 80 big blinds behind.

I had 100, he had 120.

There was plenty of chips behind, right?

I hit a set on the flop.

I check raised him, he went all in.

He had pocket kings and he made such a big mistake.

And I understand that feels so good when you hit your set and you crack a pair of kings like that.

But most of the time that just doesn't happen and you just end up check folding.

And that's why like following that 20x rule, some coaches will tell you follow a 10x rule, follow a 12x, but I just know from all the students that I've taught, calling is a super big reason for their losses.

Let's just cut it.

Let's, let's have you be more restrictive in your calls and follow that 20x set mining rule.

Now that 20x also applies to like calling with suited connectors.

7, 6 suited preflop.

You don't want to call just because he 3 bet and you go, oh my gosh.

7, 6 suited jack, 10 suited.

I might hit something awesome on the flop.

I may hit a flush draw.

What are you going to do with that flush draw?

You just going to check, call two streets and then fold when you don't hit on the turn.

Are you capable of getting aggressive and bluffing him when you have your flush draw?

Right.

So you want those 20x implied odds behind for sure.

Yeah, I love that.

That's fantastic.

All right, I see some people are starting to type in some goals here.

Why don't we go first here on the panel.

Let's put, let's put John Somsky on the spot.

It's been a while since we made John feel uncomfortable.

John, what, what are your poker goals for 2025?

Well, you know, I've been relatively busy in 2024, so my goal is to actually just play.

About the only poker I have played is our home games.

So I've been to the card room only when we had the rec poker invitational here.

So I actually want to this next year get out and actually play some, go to the card room again and get used to playing again.

Okay, so John, when you say that's your goal, the way you said it, it's more of a dream or a wish.

Right.

Let's try to give you some time constraints.

Like is there a day of the week where, you know, every Thursday at 4pm you can go hit the card room from 4 to 8.

Like can you set some kind of a, like, you know, a time restraint, I guess.

Right.

Time bound goal for yourself.

Something that you could do every week that you know, you could do to get you in the poker room during the week.

It's going to be tough, but I can probably do the planner on weekends.

So, you know, and I would think it start off simple and easy to make twice a month.

Like make it two weekends a month.

That'd be great.

Perfect, perfect.

So I would recommend something like the first Saturday and the third Saturday of every month or the second and fourth Saturday, whichever one you want.

From 10am to 2pm I'm gonna go hit the card room, play that local $50 tournament, whatever it ends up, what, you know, whatever it is for your local card room and make that a goal.

Put it on your calendar, tell your wife, ask her for permission, obviously.

Right.

But make that a goal on a, on a, on a bi weekly basis every month.

And if you end up liking that and it works for January and February, maybe you'll increase it to three Saturdays in March and then four Saturdays starting in April.

Sounds good, but get that wifely permission, of course.

Yes.

Yeah, that's right.

John and I both have very supportive poker wives, so I'm happy to, happy to report.

Good.

Mine's actually kind of similar.

So my goal, my goal when we talked last year was to play just to play live poker once a month, just to knock the rust off.

Because I, I, where I live, you can't play a lot of poker.

And I travel for poker.

I have a great life.

I'm in Ireland and Vegas and Minnesota.

But every time I go, I'm like, nervous and rusty and my mechanics are bad and, you know, like, when I get a good hand, it's obvious.

And so I want to just, that was my goal for last year.

Just play live poker once a month.

I think I, I, I think I actually did.

They opened a card room near my house, which, the rake is abysmal.

I, I hate to, I hate to give them my business.

It's 10% up to $20 at every stake on every pot, which is about four times as much as they pull out of in Las Vegas.

But, but I think I, I think I did.

I think my, my goal for this year is I'm also gonna try and, like John, most of the online poker I play these days are in our home game club on Tuesday nights and maybe a couple Saturdays here and there.

See my earlier comment about not having any time to do any of this kind of stuff, but I'm gonna try and play, I'm gonna keep playing in the, in the home game clubs as often as I can.

I'm gonna try and make one live event, whether it's cash games or tournaments every month in some capacity.

And I'm also gonna try and have one day, at least one day a month where I just turn off everything else and load up a bunch of tournaments and just, you know, pick a Sunday in every month and just, just like I used to do this, like, I would love grinding big schedules on Sundays and I was gonna once a month just load it up, have, have a fun time, sit back, crack, crack a beer after a couple coffees and, and try and take on, take on it like a Sunday schedule again and just get more, repeat.

I think that's it.

Get, get, get more, get more reps in and.

Yeah, so I'm looking forward to that.

I'm looking forward to that for sure.

Nice.

What about, what about you, Scott?

What are your goals for 2025?

I know you talked about building the YouTube channel and that kind of stuff.

Yeah, so, so, so two different goals.

The first one is build that YouTube channel every single week.

I am going to do the podcast episode will be a video as well, like I have been doing for the past six weeks or so.

And so like that is the goal.

I'm just going to continue doing that to build the YouTube channel.

The secondary goal will be to create this first course.

Like, like I'm doing.

Like you had mentioned, accountability, letting people know about your goals.

Well, I told my Poker Forge members I want to create this new course.

It's going to be 10 different stealing things, but we're going to do it together.

And by putting myself on a schedule, letting them know that every week they're going to get a workshop and then a quiz, it's forcing me to get this course done.

After this course is done mid February or so, I'm going to devise another course to be done somewhere in June or July and then I'll do the same thing again.

We're going to do workshops in May or April, May, you know, whatever the timeframe ends up being.

But I'm going to do two of those courses this coming year in 2025, along with those YouTube videos to grow the channel.

That's very cool.

So before we talk about some of the goals in the YouTube chat, that's actually a great segue.

You've got some great opportunities coming up.

I know the Smart Poker Study and the Poker Forge have been so wonderfully helpful to recreational poker lovers for years now, but you, you said that you had a little holiday deal for our, our Rec Poker members.

A New Year's deal, something like that.

Don't let me put words in your mouth.

What?

How can some Rec Poker peeps get more Sky Matsuhashi at some great discounted rate these days?

Absolutely.

So the pokerforge.com annual membership is going to go on sale from Friday, December 27th through Wednesday, January 1st for $300 per year.

It's usually $69 per month or $690 for an entire year.

So you're basically saving $390 right there for a one year membership.

You'll have access to everything in the Poker Forge.

And I don't.

I don't drip content out.

It's not like the first course is available this month, the second course next month.

All 10 courses, which the 10th is the one being built right now.

How to steal more pots course.

All 10 courses will be available from the very start for you.

You can attend all of the workshops that I put on twice weekly.

And you get access to all the bonus material as well.

You get access to me via email.

I also make videos at member requests.

When somebody sends me an email says, sky, I need help with this, I think to myself, ah, that's a great video.

I'm sure everyone else in the Poker Forge would like that too.

So I make that video, put it in the Forge, I help you out, and I help other Poker Forge members out.

So annual membership, $300 for all of 2025.

Nice.

Yeah, that's amazing.

And like I mentioned at the top of the show, you know, Sky's very generous with his time.

He's very accessible.

This is something that he really loves, and he's been doing this for a long time, and he's really, really good at it.

So I would encourage our listeners to go check it out.

Yeah, definitely.

And I encourage them, don't go directly to the pokerforge.com Jim.

You have a referral or an affiliate link.

And for everybody watching this, listening to it later on, I definitely want you to go through the REC Poker affiliate link so that they get a little bit of kickback from your membership through the Poker or to the Poker Forge dot com.

Yeah, thanks, guy.

I appreciate that.

So I'll make sure that that link is in the show notes for this episode.

And also, if you're a regular listener, I hope you sign up for our newsletter this week in REC Poker.

We call it Twerp.

And we've got some links in there as well, some great deals to work with sky and.

Yeah, sky, listen, we, you know, we don't.

We, we don't promote a lot of poker stuff here at REC Poker.

We've got a few learning partners that we work with, and it's really.

Because we respect what you guys are doing and we know that you're bringing great value to our audience.

So it's a pleasure to spread the word and I hope some folks check it out and give it a try.

And yeah, of course, obviously, please, we'd love it if you'd use our link that helps us out too.

So that would be fantastic.

All right, so let's let's just wrap up here.

We're going to talk about a couple of our, our members goals here.

So Eric Anderson, prolific poster, longtime member here, he's got two goals and I think I know the problems that you're going to have with them.

So the first is, and these are both have to do with our home game club.

So he wants to, he wants to make 12 Tournament of Champions and the way that you, the way that you win your way into the tournament of champions is you win one of our nightly home games.

So you, you'll have around 30 chances to do it throughout the, throughout the month.

And then the winners of each night are invited to a monthly tournament of champions.

And then his second goal is to hit the threshold of 50 lifetime wins in the home game club.

We have a special lifetime achievement award for members that do this.

So far I think only three or four, maybe four as of the last couple of weeks, four people have ever reached this.

And so it's very elite, very prestigious.

And Eric I believe is, is on the cusp already.

He's in the 40s so that, that's pretty exciting.

So Sky, I'm guessing that you're going to say these are not control, these are not goals that he can control.

Is that.

Yeah.

Take it from results aren't controllable but what you can do is control the work that you put in to achieve that goal.

So the first one was interesting.

Winning 12 of those to get to the further thing.

What I'd recommend you do.

Eric, and I know Eric, I think is a Poker Forge member as well.

We've been in contact for many years now.

What he needs to do is analyze the other strong players in these games, figure out their weaknesses.

So when you encounter them on that weekly tournament, you know how to exploit them and so have a plan in place.

Like Jim.

You're playing as Jim, right.

You know Jim's three weaknesses.

He calls too much, he set mines way too often.

He chases every draw.

I'm just kidding Jim.

But whatever it is.

Yeah, yeah.

Whatever his weaknesses are, you put yourself in a position to exploit that.

So if you know Jim is flop honest, he only ever see bets with top pair or the nut flush draw or nut straight draw.

You call him in position, as soon as he checks the flop, boom, you come out firing.

Right.

Plan for those exploits against the strong who you think are the strongest players.

Don't tell them that you think they're strong.

Don't tell Jim that you think he's a good player.

Right.

Let Him.

Let him develop an inferiority complex.

Let him think he's bad because you keep exploiting his weaknesses.

I love it.

There you go.

Good tips for Eric.

And Eric, keep it up, man.

You're a great member around here and I'm glad that you're working with Sky.

That's fantastic.

So from jd he says that the goals I'm struggling with to convert to smart are based around learning objectives, Tournament ranges by size and icm, pressure calling shove ranges, and the big one, recognizing flop texture and ranges in terms of who has nut and range advantage.

So those sound more like kind of study goals.

Yeah.

And those are so.

Yeah.

So for, for the smart.

Right.

Specific, like you want to learn that flop texture, who has the nut, who has the range advantage, kind of.

Let's just take that as an example.

That's a specific.

You want to be able to see a flop and, and know who the collar or the razor, who has the.

The nut and the range advantage.

Right.

So what you need to do is find some study material, whether it's from me, another coach out there, upswing poker, has done tons of stuff on range and nut advantage.

They do GTO kind of studies and stuff.

And I've done not gto, but range and nut advantage and just Flopzilla analysis.

You want to find maybe three pieces of content, video podcast, three videos, a chapter, an article, whatever it is.

Your goal over the next three weeks is to study each of those things.

You watch it, you read it, you check it out, what, listen to it, whatever it is, a couple times that week you're taking notes and you're practicing everything that they teach you in that.

And then you're also going through your database, reviewing a ton of flops, figuring out flop texture, entering everything in Flopzilla Pro.

So your goal is basically a study goal.

This one topic for three weeks at a time with three different pieces of content, and you're studying it in every facet possible.

Plus you're also playing with purpose to analyze every flop that you see.

And if you do that for the three weeks for that one study technique, I guarantee you'll develop a ton of understanding, a lot of confidence around it.

The next three weeks, you hit your next study topic right there.

Yeah, fantastic.

We got some feedback from Eric actually talking about the frequency of set over sets in the long run.

So he says at a full ring table, you can expect to see set over set scenario roughly once every 1200 hands, assuming all players with pocket pairs always see a flop.

So then that's not there's.

Nothing to worry about.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's like it's gonna happen and you're gonna be the player with the bigger set as often as you're going to be the player with a smaller set too.

So it's like trying to devise a strategy for playing against pocket aces.

Like no, you're just not going to do well against pocket aces.

Spend, spend your study time more effectively on.

Exactly.

Other benefits there.

So.

Yeah.

Thank you, Eric.

We got one, one goal from Scott Lum here.

My goal is to move up to 35 in cash games for at least a third of my sessions by the end of the summer.

My plan is to study cash game content on the poker coaching sites I'm a member of and work on three betting and being three bet.

So is there anything Scott can do to, to make that a better goal or to give him a higher chance of achieving that goal?

Yeah, so, so that, that's a great goal, something definitely to strive for.

So basically you want to increase your winnings to increase your bankroll so you feel more comfortable at that higher stake.

Which is going to require two things.

Learning the new strategies, like you were saying, making three bets and facing three bets and how to, how to do those properly to make money.

But at the same time you also work on one of want to find and work on your leaks.

So what are the plays that you're making, the situations you get into where you're losing money?

Because the basic idea to get up to that $5 buy in or not $5 buying.

But you know the 25 that you had mentioned, you need to build that bankroll which means cutting your losses but increasing your winnings.

So you're building new skills, new strategies, new money making or new ways to make money and then you're cutting your losses right there.

So maybe every two weeks or so find a leak and then plug this leak the next week, learn on like a new pots, a new way to steal pots, a new way to exploit your opponents.

The week after that go back to leak plugging again.

Just do it, bounce back and forth and then you're going to just find that you're going to increase your win rate over time as you're learning these new strategies and everything and plugging leaks, your win rates going up, your bankrolls going up and you'll eventually be able to move to that new stake.

Fantastic.

And yeah, he follows up.

I think he's already taking some of that advice.

Scott says he's going to be playing more online.

So we can track his hands through poker tracker and have a more reliable way to review his play.

Find those leagues, see where he's losing money and.

And then plug him.

So good for you, Scott.

Sounds like you're, you're taking all the right steps and good on you.

So, sky, this is great, man.

We've already gone a little long.

I feel so thought grateful for your time.

I want to wish you and your family a very merry Christmas and very happy holiday.

But first we got to put you in the blender here with steak study stack.

So we're going to give you three names.

John Somski has been paying close attention to the suggestions from the YouTube chat.

You're going to select one that you'd like to stake in a poker tournament or cash game, one you'd like to study with for your own benefit, and one that you'd like nothing more than to just take all their chips at the table and just stack them.

John Somski, what are the three names that we're going to send Sky Matsuhashi's way?

Well, we have three that you should actually know, Sky.

So we have Nathan Williams, Barry Carter, and Alex Fitzgerald.

Okay.

Definitely study with Alex Fitzgerald.

Definitely.

I'm just, I have a piece of paper in front of me.

I'm writing down the names.

I can tell Nathan Williams.

You know, Nathan Williams is just like me, small and micro stakes coach and player.

I would rather stack him because my guess is Barry Carter plays in bigger games and he's probably a good player.

I'd rather stake him.

All right, there you go.

And there's nothing against Nate.

I love Nathan.

I had him on the podcast.

He's a really good guy.

I subscribe to his newsletter.

But I mean, you know, yeah, I'd rather stack him.

Yeah, well, we don't make it easy.

We, we, I love it when we mention the names and with the guests just like, damn.

All right, exactly.

That's what we're going for there.

All right, beautiful.

Well, sky, this has been a great interview.

If folks want more Sky Matsuhashi in their life, they can go to the Smart poker study podcast.

I believe the YouTube channel that, that is your primary one is also smart poker study.

There's the, obviously the poker forge learning community there and the wonderful training site that you run.

We'll put those links in the YouTube in the show notes for this episode.

Are you active on social media?

Are there other places that can people sign up for a newsletter?

What's the best way to get more in touch with Sky Masuhashi?

So the best way to get more in touch, smartpokerstudy.com on the sidebar or in the footer of the page, you can sign up for the newsletter.

I send out weekly, weekly newsletters to my audience.

And then other than that, like you had mentioned smart poker study on YouTube or the poker forge.com if you want like a online Microsigs cash game training membership site.

All right, well, I hope you have a fantastic start to 2025.

Thanks for coming back and being a great friend to the show.

Like I say, and it's just.

It's always a pleasure, my man.

Maybe we get to actually see if I ever get out to California.

Maybe we'd actually get a chance to have a couple two fisters and play some cards together.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Whiskey in one, beer in the other.

That's me for sure.

There you go.

I love it.

I love it.

Well, so speaking of that, are.

Do you.

Do either of you have a plan for Vegas this coming summer?

I'm.

I'm.

I'm the luckiest guy in the world.

I'm considering just selling a ton of action and playing the main and like, just getting down there a little early, but not doing a lot of other bracelet events and.

Nice.

Just maybe it might just.

I don't know.

Yeah, kind of.

I just.

Because I'm thinking about going.

I don't know.

Yeah, we'll see what the event schedule when it comes out, but I'm really thinking about going this next year because it's been.

I think I've taken off seven years and it's time for me to get back there.

Oh, that's cool.

I think.

I don't want to tell tales out of school, but our own Chris Jones is thinking about reemerging in the live scene.

He might come down this summer.

I've got talked to a couple other Rec Poker members that are thinking of circling a couple.

A couple of those, you know, 600, 800, 1100 bracelet tournaments that they have in late June.

So that would be very cool, man.

If we can get down there at the same time.

First rounds on me.

Count on it.

That'd be awesome.

I appreciate that.

All right, well, we'll stay in touch.

Sky Matsuhashi, thank you so much and Merry Christmas.

Have a fantastic holiday.

Yep.

Thanks, guys.

Merry Christmas to you too.

I'll catch you later.

See you, John.