When I Was A Donk With Ben Palmer

In this series, Card Player asks top pros to rewind back to their humble beginnings and provide insights regarding the mistakes, leaks, and deficiencies that they had to overcome in order to improve their games.

Although Ben Palmer rarely travels for poker tournaments these days, the Las Vegas resident remains as one of the most frequent cashers on the circuit, having made the money nearly 180 times since 2010.

Palmer now has more $1 million in career live tournament earnings and another $2.5 million online. His most notable live result was winning the $5,000 event at the 2008 Festa Al Lago Classic at Bellagio for $189,975. In 2011, he took third in the $2,000 buy-in FTOPS event, cashing for $310,862.

Here, Palmer talks about taking an online tournament concept into the live arena.

“I can’t really remember any specific hands that I messed up too badly because I try not to dwell on things like that. I really focus on learning what I can from the mistake and then moving on from the actual details. I don’t let that stuff eat me up inside.”

“One general concept that I grew out of was the tendency to use a lot of unexploitable shoves. It was a move that was popularized by Dan “djk123” Kelly in online tournaments. In certain situations, by moving all in, you take away all of your opponents options and limit them to just calling. And in order for them to call you, they usually need to have a big hand.”

“It’s an incredibly effective move. Let’s say it folds around to you in the small blind. You can effectively move all in for 20 or so big blinds with any two cards and that move will show a profit in the long run.”

“But what I learned switching to live tournaments is that, just because these unexploitable shoves are a plus expected value (EV) move doesn’t mean there isn’t another move that is even more plus EV. Because players are human and can make a lot of mistakes, there is often a better, more profitable option that just moving in and risking all of those chips.”

“You can’t just always take the unexploitable lines and expect to win the tournament, because those opportunities don’t always come around enough to stay ahead. Sometimes you have to get creative with your lines in order to get maximum value, even if that opens you up to the possibility of getting outplayed.” ♠