Sweat threads have always been an important part of the Pocketfives community. Whether you are doing it for a living or for fun, sitting in front of your computer playing cards can get a little lonely. Pocketfives is a place where people from all over the world can come together to share their love of poker. It also allows online friends to stay in touch, as well as for complete strangers with nothing more in common than being “P5ers” to come out and support each other deep in tournaments. “Come Rail if you’re bored” is almost the P5s rallying cry, and it has turned many an average final table into a raucous atmosphere of enthusiastic support for a fellow Pocketfiver. Such was the case for Sean “<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>” Doyle, when he announced his imminent FT to the community. <READMORE>

I believe it was P5s Admin Cal who once said, “There are no small rebuys on Stars.” <SPAN>Drtydwg0069</SPAN> made the final table of the $3 rebuy, and despite the small buy-in, there was some serious money at stake. Pokerstars runs two $3 rebuys daily with guarantees of $10k and $20k, but as usual with Stars, the actual prizepools are much larger than that. The two $3 rebuys today had prizepools of $33,735 and $46,266 for the afternoon and evening tournaments respectively. When <SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN> got heads up in the rebuy last month, he chopped it evenly for $4500. Not a bad night’s work, even for a school teacher who had to make due on very little sleep the next day.

<SPAN>Lenny: Do you play the $3 rebuy often?</SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: I usually play the $3 rebuy about 3-4 nights during the week. I had entered this one around 7pm, but by 8 I wanted to go to bed because I wasn’t feeling well. When I went to unregister the table had already opened so I was stuck. The first hour I was pretty irritated and before I knew it I was in for 14 rebuys, and I finished with the absolute minimum- two rebuys and an add-on for 5,000 chips. Before you know it, it was 3 am and I was at the final table, so I was feeling a lot better.

<SPAN>Lenny: When you finished the rebuy period with the minimum did you still have plenty of chips versus the blinds?</SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: Yes, the blinds were 75/150, so with 5000 chips I still had an M of 22-23, so not too urgent to move fast. Plus, with my image from the first hour they handed me chips pretty fast when I got some hands.

<SPAN>Lenny: Who first brought up the idea of a chop?</SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: It was kind of funny, neither of us were talking chop but everyone on the rail kept saying "email support, you guys should chop." He actually had about a 11 mill to 7 mill chip lead on me, so I was happy to get an even chop.

<SPAN>Lenny: Stars is pretty amazing, for a $3 rebuy you won $4500. </SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: Absolutely, when I started playing there my play at other sites dropped drastically for that reason alone. Stars is very customer friendly and has huge fields and prizepools for the lower buy-in player.

<SPAN>Lenny: How long have you been playing online poker?</SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: Probably about two and a half years. I started out playing low limit sitngos on Paradise. I was pretty successful, but it was when I began playing MTTs that I really got hooked. For about 8 months now I have been really working hard at getting better in that area.

<SPAN>Lenny: Do you stick to smaller stakes mostly?</SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: I used to play the Paradise $30 rebuy when it was the 50k guaranteed. Back then I thought rebuying 2-3 times was a lot! Now I see the advantage of having more rebuys and giving myself the opportunity to build a bigger stack.

<SPAN>Lenny: Is most of that money coming out to pay for holiday expenses or do you plan to add it to your roll?</SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: Most will be coming out for some expenses, but I do plan on leaving about 600-800 in. I usually keep about 300-500 in and try to withdraw when I can.

<SPAN>Lenny: So, what do you teach?</SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: I teach mathematics at the high school level. I am actually teaching some special education this year. It was not my certification but it has been a great experience.

<SPAN>Lenny: Wow, what has that been like?</SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: I have no experience in it, but I have good patience. I have enjoyed it quite a bit.

<SPAN>Lenny: Are they pretty high functioning kids, or does it vary?</SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: It is wild. They have a lot of attention issues which, as you can imagine creates disciplinary problems. I have some that are probably on too much medication and fall asleep in class as well.

<SPAN>Lenny: Do you teach one class of special ed and then regular classes?</SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: Right now, it's three math classes with special education students and then I run in school suspension for two periods. I think next year I will be moving to the junior high for just math.

<SPAN>Lenny: What is ISS like, are you in a public high school in a big city?</SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: No not really, we have maybe 800 students. We are about 40 miles west of Pittsburgh. In school suspension is a trip. It's pretty funny when these kids come in they are mf'n everyone in the school and nothing is their fault. They know I'm the wrestling coach though, so I don’t have many problems.

<SPAN>Lenny: What was the final table like, did many people come out to rail you? </SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: It was kind of funny because I always wonder if people respond to those threads. When I posted it took about two minutes and I had someone at the final table cheering. Then it became like 3-4 at a time and I would say about 10 different individuals stopped in to say good luck. It was encouraging and at 3-4am it gave me some extra motivation because it made me want to represent P5's.

<SPAN>Lenny: What would you say has helped your game the most?</SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: I read Super System about a year ago and most recently Dan Harrington's book on mid to late tourney strategy. It helped me tremendously on getting a bigger stack deeper in tourneys. I also remember reading Crazy Cypriot's article a few weeks back about table dynamics and adjusting to them throughout a tournament. That article has helped me a lot.

I have been thinking about this a lot recently. I am a wresting coach and I competed in wrestling at the Division 1 level in college. I always talk to my wrestlers about how confidence makes an average wrestler good and a good wrestler great. The same is true for a poker player.

Sometimes you can be cruising along and feel full confidence in what you are doing, in your plays and instincts and then you are moved to a new table and everything changes. Suddenly you feel uncomfortable and get out of your game. The less one here is that you have to adjust to the new table. You can’t keep making the same plays that put you in awkward situations. If you get frustrated and blow off some chips or tilt, the next thing you know you are on the rail.

<SPAN>Lenny: Do you get a lot out of pocketfives when it comes to strategy?</SPAN>

<SPAN>drtydwg0069</SPAN>: I truly enjoy the articles posted by the better players on the site. That one sticks out because I related to it. I feel like I preach some of these things to my kids but I wasn’t applying it to my own competitive nature in poker.

<SPAN>Sean “drtydwg0069” Doyle has a bachelor’s degree in Economics and is pursuing a degree in education as well. He enjoys poker and has taken his hobby very seriously, but he is also a dedicated teacher and coach. Sean is very representative of the average player who puts in a few hours a night, with an occasional long session when things go well in a MTT. Drtydwg0069 followed up his success in the $3 rebuy by final tabling a $55 6 handed tourney. He almost made it back to back wins, but as is often the case in poker, the cards did not fall his way. He ended up in second and took home $1800 for his efforts. Next time he is at a final table, I hope to be among the P5ers cheering him on to victory.</SPAN></READMORE>