Tournament player, backer, poker coach, Budapest

This article is courtesy of 2CardsCollege Pro Poker Training.

I think I’m an incredibly boring person.

A few months ago, I would wake up at 3:55, know the Big $75 was starting in 5 minutes and just stay in my pajamas, start playing, not eating, not washing, not seeing daylight, not approaching the game correctly at all. At the end of the day, if a professional athlete acted the way I did then, there is no way they could ever be successful.

Somebody asked me what else I like to do besides poker. And I was like errrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I’ve surrounded myself with poker players. It’s my choice. I’m happy about it and understand it’s a big ingredient to my success.

It is good to have balance. I know that. it’s just tough, you know?

As the guy who plays great, I want to be accepted as the crusher. I want Timex to sell me at higher markups than others. I want to be #1 in Fedor’s power rankings. I want Martin Jacobson to message me before the Main Event and ask to swap 2%.

People are really bad at reading.

Sometimes people say so much bullshit
that I don’t even know how to start the answer.

I was giving private coaching last year. The guy was great, but didn’t have people to speak poker with, so I added him to the group. He wasn’t supposed to get videos and seminars, but just be able to speak about hands. He ended up posting 2x more hands than anybody else, got all the videos, and came to the seminar. Now, he wants more. I’ll give him a 1,000,000 % refund, no problem. That’s $0 x 1,000,000.

Karma will prevail; it always does.

I don’t want to moan and you don’t want to hear it. That’s fine, just one more brutal Sunday.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

I had some demons in the back of my poker mind like probably every poker player has. It’s hard to accept that you did something terrible. I have perhaps shut off things in the back of my head that I wasn’t proud about. There are about 5 river calls that were having a huge effect on me. I needed to conquer them, but to do that I needed to face them.

I want to tell you how exactly I feel about poker from a day-to-day point of view. I will go from being happy to sad within 24 hours, but that’s life, right?

30 minutes into the taxi journey to the airport I realize I’ve left $50,000 on my window shelf at home and not only need this for the trip, but the cleaner was due in 30 minutes who I don’t know or trust. We turn around, I get the money, say bye to the cleaner on the way out, and change into trousers from the shorts I was wearing. Back into the taxi, money hidden obviously, and the taxi driver looks at my trousers as if, “Are you ****ing joking me?”

One night I was in the Rio, Corona in one hand, Vodka Cranberry in the other, coming off a Chinese game and about to head out to a club. It was my 5th or 6th night out in Vegas and they had all been really heavy. I went past the SNG area and saw Wushu and Martin Finger grinding away. They were still going really strong, grinding away when the schedules were weak on certain days. It made me feel so amateur. It’s no surprise that these guys are the ones I should be trying to emulate.

To be successful
you have to find success, be around success, and spend as much time around success as possible. You have to learn from success, and that’s the only way you will get to the top.

This summer, I’ve probably wagered over $200,000 betting. Don’t worry Mum, that’s not as bad as it sounds. I’m actually up in the trip from gambling.

Choosing the best way to be at the table. Negreanu-style, talking to everybody, speaking when it’s his decision, speaking when others are thinking, no headphones, and basically very involved. Mercier-style, don’t speak, but if anybody speaks, just have flowing conversation. Kitai-style, speak to nobody, look like an ice cold killer, have headphones in, and be very unapproachable to others.

Why do you think fish prefer MTTs to cash? Usually something magic happens in one of them.

I have enormous respect for the bad players. I really do spend most of my time talking to them.

I remember the first time I played a $10k. I’ve busted day one. It was in Vienna and I remember super vividly how I felt in the train station. I was sitting there thinking, “Jesus ****ing Christ. I just played a $10k tournament!”

I don’t understand how people can say I’ve run like god. There are so many guys who only play Sundays who have made more money than me.

You can check Sharkscope and we can deal on skill.

SCOOP packages are funny. I posted my markups first and then everybody decided to just use the same ones.

It’s crazy how regs are taking developed strategies and using them in the wrong place. Using incorrect sizings with their whole range and randomly deciding to lead flops or turns with no good reason.

Way better to be a nit than a snazzy regfish.

The good thing about MTTs. Let’s say your hourly is $100/hour in cash games and $90/hour in MTTs. In MTTs, you’re locked down playing 10 hours so making $900.

I prepared for Sunday almost like it was a champion boxing fight. I didn’t play for four days, had hypnotherapy with Elliot Roe, and knew exactly how I was going to approach it. I slept perfectly, ate well, dressed properly. After 2 hours, I had smashed my only mouse and threw a dart across the room into the wall.

It’s important not to be a glory guy. You can turn up on Sunday and play for the big bucks and the glory, but you gotta turn up first thing on Monday and be in the early $8+R if you want to pay the bills.

There’s a really nice saying in poker: We either win or we learn.

I run the bar with Argentinian guys and the word has gotten out. All the Spanish and Argentinian tourists know we have this bar and come. It’s been crazy, crazy successful. It seems like poker, hard work trumps all.

If it’s a bad spot to 3-bet, it’s a good spot to 3-bet. Open tight, 3-bet light.

I’m going to start Twitching.
Watch me to find the official slowroll list and the secret behind when to press all-in on Full Tilt.

I was 19 and in Grosvenor in Newcastle. I played their nightly games, 10-30 pound games. GUKPT arrived and I was in the rail looking for some tables. There was this emo-looking kid with his hood up and big black fringe coming out of the side of it. I went behind him and saw him 3-betting on the button. I literally could never imagine this being anything except QQ-AA; I mean he was a young player and he must be good if he put up £1,000, right? Good players would only 3-bet premiums here.

He peeled both cards back and I remember it clear to day: he had A-8o. I almost fell over the rail. I had never played online really. I mean I’d played a bit and won a bit, but I was just playing super tight and playing my hands very honestly. This was my first ever a-ha moment.

I really, really love poker.

Sometimes I’m such a drama queen.

I told myself 4 hours ago when I was 1 tabling the Big $55 that if I came in 10th, I would jump off the balcony. Cyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa