The Grid is a 169 episode poker hand scavenger hunt hosted by chess champion and PokerStars pro Jennifer Shahade. Jen interviews poker players about dramatic hands they’ve played, aiming to fill out all 169 possible starting poker hands, from the worst, seven-deuce offsuit to the best, pocket aces.
The Grid 094 ft. Julie Anna Cornelius – Queen Ten Suited
Oct 14, 2025
Show notes
Jennifer brings the radiant Julie Anna Cornelius, known as “LuckyJadeJules”, to the GRID for a long-anticipated appearance. A force of nature on and off the felt, Jules brings a hand from the RunGood Stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where she found herself heads-up for a Main Event title. After battling back from a deficit heads-up, Jules found herself about even in chips with her opponent Abbas Pasha. With effective stacks around six million at 75K/150K blinds, Abbas opened the button to 300K. Jules three-bet to a million chips with Q10from the big blind, and saw a flop of 953 . She continued for one million and Abbas called. The turn brought the 8. With around pot behind, Jules shoved with her flush draw and gutter, for one of the biggest pots of her life. With dozens of friends and supporters cheering, Jules recounts what the big heads-up battle meant to her, and why it was such a perfect poker moment, even though she ended as runner-up.
Beyond her success at the poker tables, Jules is a former ballerina and a runner, and one of the most personable players on the tour. She shares how she’s found success in various areas, from taking up running later in life, to making friends everywhere she goes. They also talk about the upcoming NAPT in Las Vegas.
Now that Jules has discussed Queen-Ten suited, there are 81 hands remaining on the GRID. Browse other hands and see what’s left at: https://thepokergrid.com/episode-finder/
The Grid 093 ft. Cindy Spier – Queen Seven Offsuit
Sep 25, 2025
Show notes
Urgent care physician and poker player Cindy Spier enters the GRID to discuss one of her impressive tournament victories. At the Senior’s Event at a WSOP circuit event in Pompano, Florida, Dr. Spier held Queen Seven Offsuit, once known as the “computer hand.” Three-handed for the ring, she was in the big blind facing a raise from the chip-leader. She three-bet her with queen seven offsuit and continued to play with the type of ruthless aggression which has earned her nine live tournament victories, for an incredible first place rate of over ten percent. In 2025 alone, she has won three WSOP Circuit rings.
After Jennifer and Cindy go over the hand, Cindy gives some insight into her success as a doctor and the decision-making skills and mindset tips she is able to transfer over to the poker table. A member of Jaka Coaching and Pocket Queens, Cindy also talks efficient study tips for busy adults.
Now that Dr. Cindy Spier has ticked off queen-seven offsuit, there are 82 hands remaining on the poker GRID. Browse other hands and see what’s left at: https://thepokergrid.com/episode-finder/
The Grid 092 ft. Alex O’Brien – Ten-Eight Offsuit
Sep 06, 2025
Show notes
Jennifer Shahade welcomes author, poker player, science writer and commentator Alex O’Brien to the GRID. The two break down a hand from Jennifer’s final table at the Women’s Summer Festival, where she held Ten-Eight Offsuit in the big blind. The table had been nine handed for over an hour, and when the button opened, Jennifer made the ambitious call. When the flop came J9A rainbow, she check called a bet with her straight draw. A brick four completed the rainbow and after the action went check check, a deuce on the river came, leaving Jennifer with a choice: give up or bluff with her ten-high?
Alex and Jennifer also revisit a hand that they played together at the tag team event of the WSOP, where they played as the “Write-Offs.” The conversation also touches on Alex O’ Brien’s book, The Truth Detective: Lessons from Poker on Risk, Reward and Imperfect Information, and what it can teach us about the bluff to value ratio in life and in poker.
The Grid 091 ft. Claudia Salinas – Pocket Kings
Aug 10, 2025
Show notes
Poker player and Innocence Center lawyer Claudia Salinas enters the GRID to talk about her very first livestreamed hand. Claudia’s friend Veronica Brill called her in as a last-minute replacement for a Ladies Night game at the Commerce casino. While engaged in client calls right up to showtime, Claudia arrived on set a little nervous to play with pros like Caitlin Comeskey, Christina “Baby Shark” Gollins and Tiffany Michelle as well as Veronica herself.
Facing Kasey “PokerMomma” Lyn Mills and Veronica Brill, Claudia found herself in a three-pot with pocket kings. And the news kept getting better and better when a king and two deuces hit the flop. Watch the hand here:
Claudia and Jen discuss the hand, and then move on to a deep dive into Salinas’ work as a lawyer at the Innocence Center to help free the innocent and the wrongfully incarcerated. Claudia also talks about her upcoming poker charity tournament All in for Justice on October 2nd, which also happens to be International Wrongful Conviction Day.
The Grid 090 ft. Nick Walsh – Pocket Nines
Jul 25, 2025
Show notes
PokerStars Ambassador Nick Walsh enters the GRID with pocket nines, a dramatic hand that marked the beginning of passion for the Spin & Go format, a three handed turbo poker tournament with randomized prize pools. Nick was in a rush to grab dinner with his then girlfriend, when he decided to play just one more spin. And all of a sudden, he was playing for $150,000.
After discussing the pivotal hand, Jennifer and Nick discuss the strategy and mindset required for spins, and their veiled complexity. They also debate whether most players perform better or worse when they hit a high multiplier, or play for larger stakes than normal.
Now that Nick Walsh has discussed pocket nines there are 83 hands remaining on the Poker Grid. Browse other hands and see what’s left at: https://thepokergrid.com/episode-finder/
The Grid 089 ft. Kevin Rabichow– Six-Five Offsuit
Jul 07, 2025
Show notes
Jennifer brings WPT Champion, Triton analyst and renowned coach Kevin Rabichow to the GRID, to discuss a dramatic hand against Artur Martirosyan from this year’s 25K Heads-up WSOP event. A heads-up specialist with over 7 Million Dollars in combined live and online earnings, Kevin reveals his top exploits and what he’d love to see more of in future heads-up tournaments. He also explains why mid-stack can be the trickiest stack size, and in fact even more complex than the deep stack game.
In round three of the 25K event, Kevin found himself facing high stakes pro Artur Martirosyan, a three-time WSOP bracelet winner with over 26 million dollars in cashes.
The hand was played in the very first level, so they had starting stacks (600K) at the 1K/2.5K blind level.
Kevin opens 65o on the button, and Artur calls.
FLOP [632r] Pot= 12k
Artur check calls Kevin’s 8K bet.
TURN: [4t] Pot=28k
Check check
RIVER: [7x] Pot=28K
Artur checks, Kevin bets 21K, only to get checkraised to 132K. In the episode, Kevin goes into depth about his thought process, his post-hand analysis and his impression’s of Artur’s heads-up game.
Now that Kevin Rabichow has discussed Six-Five Offsuit there are 84 hands remaining on the Poker Grid. Browse other hands at: https://thepokergrid.com/episode-finder/
The Grid 088 ft. Katie Dozier– Five Three Offsuit
Jun 18, 2025
Show notes
Jennifer welcomes poet, host, chef, poker author and once mass-multitabler Katie Dozier to the GRID. Dozier brings a hand against Chris Moneymaker from a VIP PokerStars Sit N Go, from Katie’s days of strategizing how to squeak the most value out of her Supernova status. At the time, Katie held court on up to 50 tables at once as hotjenny314. In the hand against Moneymaker, Katie held only Five-Three Offsuit, but she was hungry for a bounty.
After discussing the hand, Katie generously shares two of her own poems, including Ten-Deuce Offsuit Rain, a tribute to Doyle Brunson. They also talk about what poetry and poker have in common, besides starting with the same two letters. For example, Katie points out that in ICM and in poetry word choice, the fewer chips or words you have, the more each increases in value. They also talk about how success in poker or poetry requires you become resilient to rejection.
Dozier was a member of the poker playing quartet the Grindettes. You can also listen to Jamie Kerstetter and Katie Stone on previous episodes of the GRID.
Now that Katie Dozier has discussed Five-Three Offsuit there are 85 hands remaining on the Poker Grid. Browse other hands at: https://thepokergrid.com/episode-finder/
The Grid 087 ft. Jon “Apestyles” Van Fleet– King-Eight Offsuit
Jun 06, 2025
Show notes
Jennifer welcomes the one and only Jon “Apestyles” Van Fleet to the GRID to discuss a recent hand he played with King-Eight Offsuit. A man who stood the test of time in the poker world, Van Fleet is a well known coach, author, streamer and last but not least, a longtime crusher online and live with over 23 million dollars in poker winnings.
The hand in question arose on a busy Sunday grind—Jon was streaming on https://www.twitch.tv/apestylespoker when a fun hand popped up. In the early stages of a 6-max $600 tournament, Apestyles (34300, 56 BB) found himself in the big blind with [8c Ks] facing a 3x raise from the small blind.
FLOP [4h 6c 6d] Pot= 4050
His opponent in the hand, who went by “btcfomo” bet 20% pot, which Apestyles called.
TURN: [Jc] Pot=5670
after which Apestyle called another bet, this time a 30% pot size bet.
RIVER: [4s] = 9138.00
btcfomo bet yet again, but this time only 10% pot.
Apestyles went all in for his remaining 28K.
But was the shove any good? As usual, Apestyles has thoughts.
Perpetually curious about poker and all its theoretical and practical intricacies, Jennifer and Jon speak about his longevity in the game, his upcoming course on systematic studying, and his passion for chess. They also dig into ChatGPT and a funny back and forth Apestyles had with the LLM on analyzing this hand for the GRID.
The Grid 086 ft. Arlie Shaban– Three Four Offsuit
May 27, 2025
Show notes
PokerStars ambassador and Ontario crusher Arlie Shaban enters the GRID to discuss a hand from his first major online victory, the Hot 22. Holding 34 offsuit, he hit two pair on the flop? and was yearning for all that money to go in. Would his growing twitch crowd get one of Arlie’s epic celebrations?
After the hand, Jen and Arlie discuss how to treat poker as a business, Big Brother inspired tips on how to nail a job interview, and extreme challenges. Arlie also gives insights into effective poker study techniques.
Jason talks about a hand in the early orbits of a $2.5k off strip side event. He defended the big blind with queen eight of hearts against a tough opponent in early position. They saw a flop with Jack of hearts five of clubs deuce of hearts. After check calling the flop, a queen of spades hits the turn, giving Jason top pair along with his draw. The river brought an offsuit six, after which Jason faced an unexpectedly large bet: 4300 into 5300. After pondering whether to call or fold, a third option occurred to Jason…
After the hand, they talk about some of Jason’s top tools for building presence and joy in his clients. “Being present is not a trait—it’s a skill”, Jason writes in the Joy of Poker.
Now that Jason Su has discussed Queen-Eight Suited, there are 86 hands remaining on the Poker Grid. Browse other hands and see what is left: https://thepokergrid.com/episode-finder/