Poker Articles

John "JohnnyKran" Kranyak is a 23-year-old world class bridge player from Cleveland, Ohio.  I went to high school with him and can recall many of his stories about traveling the globe playing bridge.  I especially remember the story about Amsterdam.  At the time, I had little knowledge of bridge and had minimal exposure to poker.  No limit hold'em hadn't boomed yet, and all I really knew was that John was exceptionally good at a card game called bridge. 

Flashforward several years.  I have been playing poker for some time, have had relative success, and dream of one day playing poker for a living like so many others.  Imagine my surprise and excitement when Wein informed me that my high school classmate who I haven't seen in over 5 years had just won $217,280 in the 2007 Borgata Main Event.

My first reaction was, "Kranyak plays poker!?"  And then it seemed so obvious to me.  He is an elite bridge player.  His experience and talent must have translated over into hold'em.  I soon learned that he was "JohnnyKran" on PokerStars, and that he was enrolled in this thing called 'thor-mentoring.'  I eventually contacted Kranyak and had a chance to catch up with him and talk poker.

It turns out that thor has been mentoring him for one year now.  In that time, he has had immediate success that is likely indicative of things to come.  In addition to the huge score he had in the Borgata Main Event, he also won $170,639 in the 2007 WSOP Event 38, a $1500 buy-in NL hold'em tournament.  On PokerStars, he has had significant results while putting in almost no volume.  He initially learned through cash games and is really just now beginning to dedicate more time to tournaments.

It's very clear to me that Kranyak's years of experience at the bridge table, analyzing, reading people, and discussing hands and situational plays before and after matches, has been the single most important factor in his rapidly progressing poker career.  I spoke with Kranyak and asked him about the connection between bridge and poker.  He had this to say:  "Bridge is very helpful in getting certain reads on people.  I have been reading people throughout my bridge career, so doing the same in poker comes naturally.  Hands are based on who has what, so you have to pay attention.  Often times when someone is not paying attention for instance, it is a tell he has nothing." 

Kranyak had more insight to offer:  "It is important to recognize patterns and what has gone on before....the way you may have played a hand in the past against a certain opponent will affect how you play it in the future."  The idea of how you approach any given adversary then led us to the topic of deductive reasoning.  This is a concept that most of us are quite familiar with but don't use nearly as often as we should.  Kranyak described to me the importance of thinking about what your opponent could have, asking yourself questions such as, "if he had this hand, how would he play it? How has he played it thus far?  What hands can I rule out now?"  In bridge, when a player leads out with a certain card, it gives you valuable information about what else he may or may not hold.  This process of gathering information can be directly applied to poker by paying close attention to betting patterns, amounts, and tendencies.  We also talked about recognizing spots, having a general sense of what is going on at the table, and using logic to win money. 

While talking to Kranyak, I got the impression that I was speaking with a highly-experienced player, and I had to keep reminding myself that he had only been playing poker seriously for one year, even if it had been with thor as a mentor.  It takes so much time and effort for the majority of us to be able to paint a clear picture or put together a story during a given poker hand.  Often times we will be missing a piece of the puzzle, only to realize our mistake later on while going through a hand history.  I believe that bridge has helped Kranyak and many others in processing all of the facts correctly.  Bridge players, especially those that are of a world-class caliber such as Kranyak, are able to analyze the information encountered in any given situation and then formulate a logical and profitable line to take.

Before finishing my conversation with Kranyak, there was one last thing I had to know.  I said to him, "So what's it like having thorladen as a mentor??"  His response was this:  "It's great knowing I can just ask thor what the right play is and it's usually automatic for him, but at the same time he is open-minded about other opinions.  I guess I just respect his thought process in poker and bridge, and it's great having him make me a better player." 

Thor told us in Part 1 that it is important to have the mind thinking in a direction that is expansive.  It's reasonable to think, or at least consider, that playing only poker can be restrictive in terms of our ability to do just that.  Our minds can become too focused on a certain mode of thinking or way of interpreting information.  Playing other games in combination with poker, though, can possibly help us see outside the box and realize angles that we may not have otherwise seen.  In essence, it can help us plug in the missing pieces to the puzzle, or unscramble the story that doesn't quite make sense.  What is true in life and also in poker is that perspective is infinitely valuable.  For some of us, it may just be worth it to gain some perspective by crossing over the bridge.