It's Gobbo's World. We’re just living in it. In the world of online poker, there are many success stories, but few have done more in a shorter time than Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke (pronounced "Fricky"). After watching gobboboy terrorize his tables in the Bahamas, I wasn’t at all surprised to see him atop the chip leaders of the Aussie Millions. He plays with a ruthless combination of aggression and cold hard calculation. Every chip is accounted for and every out considered, and he does it all at lightning speed. Jimmy Fricke’s second-place finish at the Aussie Millions last week netted him just shy of $800,000 US, a score most players can only dream of. <READMORE>

Lenny: When did you pick up poker?

gobboboy: In march of 2005. I started playing .5/1 LHE on Party as a “job.” Some of my Magic friends got me into it.

Lenny: Did you ever play Magic the Gathering competitively, or just for fun?

gobboboy: I played in Pro Tour qualifiers but never made it to the Pro circuit.

Lenny: Were you successful in poker right off the bat?

gobboboy: I sucked badly. But I luckboxed my way to a 2nd place in a $20 MTT for $3500.

Lenny: And was that your start?

gobboboy: Well I went back to limit and sucked. Then I started teaching myself how to play MTT's on a separate bankroll of $10. I started playing the 45 man $1 SNG's on stars and then built from there with small freezeouts and rebuys. And gobo was born!

Lenny: did you ever dip back or you mean you built up from that $10?

gobboboy: Once I started playing the low limit rebuys it was a steady climb. I had a really bad downswing a few months ago but I won a few big tourneys to pull me out of it. I also started playing PLO and in the last few months have been crushing.

Lenny: Pot Limit Omaha, tourneys or ring?

gobboboy: The first tournament I ever won was a $20 PLO tournament on stars, but recently I've been playing shorthanded PLO cash. The games are very soft.

Lenny: What do you plan to do with this big score? Anything outside poker?

gobboboy: I don’t know. Get a nice place. Live comfortably. That’s all I want from money, the rest I can do without.

Lenny: Do you plan to buy a house?

gobboboy: Nah, just rent. I'm way too young to settle down right now.

Lenny: What do your folks think of poker?

gobboboy: My dad didn't like it at all because he thought there was no way I could be successful enough to make dropping out of college worth it. Now, after this [Aussie Millions] he realizes that I'm actually damn good at it. My mom came around pretty quickly. So they're both good with it now.

Lenny: So, let’s talk a little poker. You just finished 2nd in the Aussie Millions, what was the field like?

gobboboy: Terrible. No one had any clue what they were doing. They aren’t aggressive, just calling stations and they overvalue hands while deep, even the pros. A lot more loose passive players than weak tight, I’d say.

Lenny: How did that affect your aggressive style? Did you tighten up at all?

gobboboy: No, I just saw a lot more flops in position and made looser calls because I had higher implied odds.

Lenny: you mean you weren't raising it up pre, just seeing flops?

gobboboy: Oh, if I came into a pot preflop, I raised. I limped behind limpers sometimes and a few times I open limped in the CO or on the button against aggressive blinds. In general you can call a bad player’s raise because you know they are on a big hand and will pay you off if you hit.

Lenny: Do you see any difference between live and online?

gobboboy: Live is so much softer. People are weak-tight and the antes are bigger, so the variance is lower because you can play smaller pots. Online you have to resteal more, which means a lot more chips are thrown around between good players.

Lenny: Would you say your expectation is higher live?

gobboboy: Yes, for sure. There is a lot more dead money and I can focus a lot better. Online, one tabling is unheard of. Your hourly rate might be higher as a result of 8 tabling or whatever, but I think focusing on one game is underrated.

Lenny: Online players have been looked down on by the live pros for a long time, it sounds like you have more respect for the online pros.

gobboboy: Oh, obviously. I was saying that all week [in Melbourne]. They don't understand so many things. They think they're better than the math. Live reads or tells aren't nearly as important as people think. Every time you hear about an awesome read, they're not telling you about when they read them for weakness, made a huge call, and lost.

Lenny: Which big name pros do you respect?

gobboboy: Ivey, Cunningham, Juanda, Neagreanu is pretty good but has a bit of an ego. Eric Seidel’s late game looks damn good, but in the early stage of the tournament he looked terrible. He just made bad plays, in my opinion.

Lenny: Like what?

gobboboy: He open limped from the CO with 85o against bad players in the blinds. He just made way too many moves on the first day. I just didn’t like his play, but he abuses aggressive players (like me). Once the antes kicked in he played very well.

Lenny: How did he “abuse” aggressive players? By trapping?

gobboboy: He was reraising in position. He may have just had hands but I doubt it. Then good players adapt to that by 4 betting him, like I did with the Qh5h hand. I didn’t show that to say, “OMG I BLUFFED A PRO.” I wanted to send him a message that I knew he was restealing, and that I had him outchipped by a lot and he should just let me steal the blinds. He stopped after that.

Lenny: Is being table captain important to you?

gobboboy: I usually don't try to be.

Lenny: I mean, do you invest any ego in it? Or are you just trying to control the table?

gobboboy: Oh hell no, no ego. Poker isn't personal at all. If I think someone's better than me I throw away hands. I didn't call raises from Gus [Hansen] with suited connectors in position because I know the implied odds weren't there. It’s just spew. I did the same with [Patrick] Antonius.

Lenny: You mean you stayed out of hands with those two?

gobboboy: Yes. You can get chips so many other ways. One thing that people have to learn about live nitty players is this:

If it folds to you on the button deep in a tournament every single time and you raise every time and every time the guy in the bb turns over his garbage and says "Stop raising my blind, I know you have trash!" and he REALLY starts to tilt, do it every time and don't stop. He will NEVER play back at you light. If he reraises you, he has a hand. Period.

Lenny: nitty=bad?

gobboboy: Being a nit, you know, playing WAY too tight. If you only raise with the goods deep in a tournament, you're playing badly.

Lenny: Did you have any mentors, or would you say you are mostly self-taught?

gobboboy: I'm self taught in tournaments.

Lenny: Do you read poker books at all?

gobboboy: I read most tournament strategy books just for the overview. In my opinion, you should learn tournaments by just playing a hell of a lot of them. That's what the $1 and $2 tournaments on stars are good for.

Lenny: Do you think there's any fundamental difference between poker at the micro level and the level you are currently playing? Or is it only levels of refinement?

gobboboy: It’s just refinement. You just have to get better at reading hands and such. When you're playing at the micro level, your implied odds are so huge because if you make any sort of hand you can stack someone very easily. Then once you get really deep you just play aggressively and learn how you can make people crumble under your will. [insert evil laugh here]

Lenny: How important would you say your climb up the ladder has been to your poker education?

gobboboy: It's very hard to see how you progress as you're doing it. I can tell very little different about the way I think about things now compared to two years ago, but it's obvious that I'm 100x the player I was then. It helps to have someone who can make things clear to you along the way, but as long as you stay focused you'll get better even if you don't know you're getting better.

Lenny: If someone had offered to stake you after your initial success, do you think that would have helped or hurt your game in the long run?

gobboboy: Hurt. I hate staking and backing. It’s easier if you're just playing for your own money.

Lenny: If you could have a piece of 5 online pros for the next year, who would you choose?

gobboboy: rizen, bax, zeejustin, steven paul ambrose and strassa if he played more. I have no idea if strassa will even play the WSOP this year. Assuming all those people played every hold'em event as the World Series, it’s not even close.

Lenny: This is something I want to ask- in a constructive way. How would you say poker affects your health/lifestyle? Are you physically active?

gobboboy: I'm a fatass, that's pretty well known. That's just bad habits by me though. That would be just as true if I weren't in poker. I obsess over whatever I do and I don't like exercising, but now that I'm getting a little more well known I'm getting sick of people finding the one fault they can. If I get thin, they can't say anything.

Lenny: It seems that you have made a lot of very good friends who could care less what you look like, so F the haters.

gobboboy: Well, I don't want to die before I turn 21, and it is inconvenient sometimes. I bought a treadmill. I should use it. I am going to start running/walking half an hour a day.

Lenny: You could probably 4 table at the same time.

gobboboy: That would be awesome!

It is amazing to think about, but it is possible Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke has already played as many hands of poker in the past two years as “Amarillo Slim” Preston has in his whole life. Obviously quantity doesn’t automatically mean quality, but when you consider the focus and depth of reasoning with which gobboboy plays every hand, it’s no wonder he’s come so far, so fast.

P.S. In case you were wondering, the gobbodance theme song is “Cotton Eyed Joe.”

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