Tony Guerrera

Poker Writer Tony Guerrera

Tony Guerrera grew up playing five-card draw poker for pennies against his grandfather, and during his freshman year at Caltech, he played in a dealer's choice game that happened occasionally amongst his friends. Tony is very competitive, and he was always serious whenever he played, but he cites his first trip to Commerce Casino in the summer of 2002 as his introduction to serious poker. He played $1-$2 limit hold'em, bought in for $40, and lost it all. Though he lost, he knew that he had a big intelligence edge over everybody at his table.

From that point forward, Tony dedicated himself to doing whatever it took to improve his game. It didn't take him long to become a consistent winner in the low stakes limit hold'em games at Commerce, and just before Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 WSOP, he began transitioning from taking regular trips to Commerce and The Bike to playing an increasing amount online. This was excellent timing, because Moneymaker's victory would bring hoards of unknowledgeable players (all hoping to become the next Moneymaker) to the online tables.

One table became two tables; two tables became three tables; three tables became four, and Tony began enjoying considerable success multitabling online poker. And though he stayed true to his limit hold'em roots, he began playing an increasing amount of no-limit hold'em (cash games and tournaments).

After succeeding in fullhanded games for about a year, Tony began exploring the world of shorthanded no-limit hold'em. He started off by four-tabling shorthanded $25NL games at Party Poker. Using a relatively straightforward, tight-aggressive game, he was still able to do quite well, and he moved up the ranks. Around the time he was four-tabling $100NL games at Party Poker, he read Supersystem and did much thinking about the game away from the tables.

Tagged "Too Tight Tony" by his friends, he took everybody by complete surprise with a seemingly maniacal approach he took in a shorthanded home game. After that, he realized that a calculated loose-aggressive approach could yield substantially higher profits than the standard tight-aggressive-wait-for-cards game preached by the pundits.

Willing to take some short-term losses in the anticipation of greater long-term gain, Tony moved back down to the shorthanded $25NL tables at Party Poker...and he found immediate success. He quickly moved back up, and within a few months, he was four-tabling the shorthanded $400NL games at Party Poker.

All of poker, but especially shorthanded poker, is about adaptation. After having considerable experience as both a straightforward player and an extremely aggressive player, Tony's biggest strength is his ability to play a wide range of styles.

Tony Guerrera and Killer Poker

A few months after Tony had established himself in his online shorthanded no-limit hold'em groove, John Vorhaus (a good friend of Tony's) asked him to contribute some material to Killer Poker Online 2 (Kensington 2006) about the use of player tracking software when playing online (see Appendix B). Vorhaus and his editor at Kensington liked the material very much, and Appendix B in Killer Poker Online 2 ended up throwing Tony in an entirely new direction.

A few months after writing the appendix for Killer Poker Online 2, Tony landed a book deal to write Killer Poker By The Numbers (Kensington 2007). After finishing Killer Poker By The Numbers, he co-authored Killer Poker Shorthanded (Kensington 2007) with John Vorhaus. Both Killer Poker By The Numbers and Killer Poker Shorthanded are on shelves now, and he's now working on Tournament Killer Poker By The Numbers. Additionally, he writes countless strategy articles for various websites and magazines.

There are great poker players, highly analytic people, and good writers, but Tony is unique in that he is all three.

In addition to all the writing he does, he runs www.killerev.com - a resource for those looking for great poker writing and excellent rakeback offers for playing online poker. It's also a place where people can contact him, ask him questions, and become students of his (he currently coaches players living all over the world). He also hosts a weekly show, Killer Poker Analysis, at www.roundersradio.com (Fridays from 5:00PM-6:00PM Pacific Time).

He doesn't play nearly as much poker as he used to, but that doesn't mean that he's rusty. For example, at the end of 2006, after having written two books, he played extensively for about a month on Party Poker (right before they closed their doors to US players). During that month, Tony eight-tabled single table tournaments several hours a day, and his performance ranked him among the top 200 single table tournament players at Party Poker according to www.pokerprophecy.com.

Tony loves poker, but he’s also looking to branch outside the world of poker. He’s currently uncertain where his first move will be, but he knows that it will involve fun, exercising some intellectual muscle, and contributing something towards the proverbial “greater good.”