Jennifer Shahade

1 week ago | thepokergrid.com | Jennifer Shahade

Jennifer welcomes poker dealer and writer Jeffrey San Gabriel on the GRID to talk about dealing a famous hand at the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event. The fateful four-bet hand featured Will Berry (in the hijack) and Adrian Mateos (on the button). Jeffrey dealt a flop of Q♦️4♦️ 2♣️ and Berry bet 425,000 into a pot of 1.36 Million chips. Mateos called. The turn was the 10 of spades and Berry bet 1.3 Million into 2.2 Million. After a little thought, Mateos folded.

1 week ago | jenshahade.substack.com | Jennifer Shahade

A toddler beating Usain Bolt in a race. A kindergartener writing Shakespeare. A chess streamer rated 600 playing a majestic series of precise moves. It’s so absurd, it’s funny. If everyone cheated like this it would be super easy to catch. But that’s what happened in Pogchamps 6, a star studded online chess event won by English Premier League footballer Ebere Eze.

2 weeks ago | thepokergrid.com | Jennifer Shahade

Today we welcome to the GRID poker pro and a Global Poker Award winner Xuan Liu. Xuan is a powerhouse on the felt, earning over 2.4 Million dollars in live tournament earnings, including final tables at EPT San Remo and the PCA. Now she is a regular in high stakes cash games and streams all over the globe, including this hand, played at the WPT World Championship at the Wynn. The Squid game was in play, also known as the Stand-Up Game.

3 weeks ago | jenshahade.substack.com | Jennifer Shahade

Time seems to slow down as you get lost in a chess position. It feels like seconds have passed, till you look up and see your fifteen minutes are up. Losing the sense of time can create an addictive flow state. Or it can be a burden: playing chess well requires so much time. What if time became the goal itself? A timed chess contest becomes a chess time contest. Chess masters Tunde Onakoya and Shawn Martinez took on that challenge, from April 16-20, right in the center of Times Square.

1 month ago | jenshahade.substack.com | Jennifer Shahade

I love tactics that involve pawn promotion. In the transformation of the weakest piece to the most powerful, so many counter intuitive moves become viable. And in this way, such tactics are akin to sacrificial checkmates. If you can make a queen, you can give up (almost) everything. And in Ju Wenjun’s case, staying the Queen (again) also meant converting her share of chess queens. Take this analysis variation from Ju Wenjun’s 8th round game against Tan Zhongyi.