Yesterday I wrote about a hand I played vs. Jonathan Jaffe, someone I’ve played poker against for years decades (god I am old). I had a sense of his play style; he was always a max exploit player who put lots of pressure on you, but he is not all gas, no brakes. He is a very creative player who takes you down odd lines and is capable of showing up with a bluff or the nuts in almost any line. It’s been very fun to read him document his rise in poker on his Substack Defining Edges, because while I never regularly played his main game, Heads Up Sit n Gos, reading about his unique style of play from his perspective confirmed the broad strokes of what I knew about his game, while also giving me a lot more information about his approach to poker, as well as his life and his background.
There are people I have played so much poker with that I have spent more time with them than with friends I’ve known since high school, and I do not know the answer to questions such as “Do you have any siblings?” or “Are you married?” In Jon’s case, I know he has a wife and kids, I do not know about any siblings … I sure hope I did not forget about any references to his siblings in his Substack, and I know he has some great stories about his dad in there. It’s nice to get a full portrait of someone I’ve spent so much time with but know relatively little about. All of this is to reiterate my endorsement from yesterday: If you want to read a well written series about Jon’s rise in poker, if you have nostalgia for the early Wild West days of online poker and want to read war stories, or if you want to see some introspection from a high stakes player or you want to mine some gems that can help you with your own mental game, subscribe to Jon’s Substack.
Today’s hand is a very creative hand Jon played vs. Aleks Ponakovs at the $150k Final Table in Jeju. He discussed the hand with Dan Dvoress and Nick Petrangelo on the GTO Lab podcast in an episode I’ve yet to watch, because I want to give my analysis before hearing Jon and Co.’s thoughts, but if you want to watch it before reading my thoughts, I am not going to stop you. Watch it here.
Triton SHRS Montenegro 2026 $150K NLH 10th Anniversary Special – Event #12
(50k/100k/100k) (SB/BB/BBA) It is 4-Handed
1st: $3.027M, 2nd: $2.103M, 3rd: $1.390M, 4th: $1.088M
Aleks Ponakovs (4.48M) makes it 200k, Jean-Noel Thorel (4.03M) folds, Jon Jaffe (3.98M) calls A♣️J♣️ in the SB, Matthias Eibinger (2.5M) folds in the BB.
Flop (600k) K♥️T♣️4♥️: Jon bets 100k, Aleks makes it 450k, Jon calls
Turn (1.5M) 9♠️: Jon bets 100k, Aleks calls
River (1.7M) 6♥️: Jon bets 650k, Aleks folds 7♣️6♣️
