Poker Articles

By Lenny

To turn pro, or not to turn pro? Whether to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or seek safety in a full time job? Ah, but in that dream of poker riches, what beats may come, ay there’s the rub. Ok, enough of the soliloquy. Stuart “Zpaceman” Taylor has been playing poker at a very high level for some time now, but it has always been a supplemental income for him, albeit a very profitable one. He was recently offered a full time consulting job based out of Dubai which would provide him a comfortable living, but most likely cut him off from his love of poker. What’s a man to do? Well it helps when you go out and win the Stars $100 rebuy twice in one day.

He had been a freelance consultant for some time now, although recently the majority of his income has been from poker. The full time job with the consulting company would take up at least 50 hours a week, and the legality of gaming in Dubai was also a question mark. When he crunched the numbers Zpaceman was very confident he could maintain an expectation in poker well above his earning potential with the consulting company. As he tried to puzzle out his dilemma, Zpaceman turned to the community for help with the question, “Should I turn pro?”

As usual the community came through with a lot of great advice for and against, but when it came down to it, the decision was his and sometime in the 15 minutes between the end of the first $100 rebuy on Tuesday and entering the second, he had made up his mind.

Lenny: So, you entered the second $100 rebuy of the night, did you have any thoughts of taking the night off to celebrate and enjoy your win?

Zpaceman: After I checked all the responses to my turning pro post I basically decided to turn pro at that moment, between winning the first and starting the second 100R that night. I didn’t just jump to that conclusion when I won the tournament, I looked at what that win meant for my stats. It gave me a ROI of over 200% on Stars over the last 6 months when I have been playing essentially full time.

Lenny: Tell me a little bit about that first win.

Zpaceman: Well, I had chopped the $100R three times previous to this, including the time in the Atlantis lobby, but I hadn’t won it outright. When we got heads up w each had about 600k in chips and prisca proposed an even chop. I felt good about my situation and I wanted to go for the win, so I declined.

Lenny: Back up a little, how did you get to the final table?

Zpaceman: The first hour went badly. I was seated with Imper1um to start and we always do one or two all-ins blind just to get things going. I lost and I was in for 9 buy-ins at the break ($909), and I only had 7.4k chips. As usual I tightened up after the break and stayed close to 7k for the next few levels.

Then I changed gears at the 200/400/50 blind level and got up to 11k or so. My big break came shortly after that when I there were two allins in front of me and I woke up with AA. I pushed and was up against JJ and 77. My aces held, although a guy behind me said he folded QQ after my action and a Q came on board. After that it was fairly easy to get down to the money. I picked my spots and I was especially aggressive reraising pots.

I did have some tough opponents along the way, bdbeatslayer and basebaldy to name a couple. I made the final table along with bdbeatslayer and another very tough opponent IslanderT.

Lenny: How did the Final Table go down?

Zpaceman: IslanderT busted both the 8th and 7th place finishers putting him up to 400k, but I had position on him and was reraising him mercilessly. I eventually took the chip lead away with 400k to his 260. Then I knocked out bdbeatslayer and had a big chip lead four handed, but I took a few hits from joachin68 who doubled through me two or three times.

I wasn’t too concerned with joachin68 or prisca, but IslanderT definitely had me worried, and he retook the chip lead. He had basically 50% of the chips in play 4 handed.

Lenny: When IslanderT got the chip lead again did you sit back a bit?

Zpaceman: No, I kept up my aggressive play throughout the final table. I was lucky to pick up QQ against IslanderT’s open shove of AJ and I hit a set, giving me the chip lead once again. After that IslanderT lost a couple more hands and busted 4th. I really liked my chances to win after that.

I finally got to bust out joachin68 after quite a few tangles. I was just a little bit ahead with AA to his J8! That left prisca and myself with even stacks and I declined his offer to chop. The first hand we played he reraised me off my Q8, giving him a pretty good edge in chips. I came back a bit later when I open shoved my 10c9c and he called with A5os. I spiked a ten to gain a commanding chip lead and I knocked him out a few hands later for my first win.

Lenny: What would you say were the keys to your win?

Zpaceman: I won through 3 key factors: no fear of rebuys during first hour, tight play in 2nd hour, gear changes to aggressive play after that, and getting steadily more LAG as the blinds went up.

Lenny: What about your second win?

Zpaceman: I haven’t requested the HH for that, or really gone over it yet. The field was much tougher in the second tourney, as it usually is for the later one. I again finished the rebuy period with barely more than a minimum stack. I don’t remember all the swings that got me to the final table, but probably the only hand worth talking about has already been all over the message boards.

I open raised with J10o and Rekwob repopped me allin. I sensed weakness and put him on either a small pair or a bluff. I took what was most likely a coinflip for most of the chips and play and I got lucky.

Lenny: Do you often take big chances like that?

Zpaceman: I believe in making a read and following though with what your gut tells you to do. If his 33 was face-up with the chips in the pot as they were I would still make that call. Heads Up is special and I'm by no means an expert, but you can't sit around waiting for premium cards.

Lenny: So, you are going pro. Turning down a full time consulting gig and a guaranteed 100k is pretty bold.

Zpaceman: Firstly, my heart wasn't in it, but also, and this is the key point: my working hours/salary gave an equivalent hourly rate of earnings that was around 1/4 of what I'm currently making playing poker (based on my last 4-6 months results).

Lenny: That’s a pretty big paycut. I hope your current results keep up for you.

Zpaceman: Well, obviously I don’t expect to win the 100R everyday, but if I even maintain an ROI that’s half of what I've made over the last few months it will be a very nice living. Plus there's the bonus of live tourneys. I think I'm going to do the Caribbean Poker Cruise and hopefully EPT Monte Carlo in the next few months, then there's always the WSOP this summer.

Lenny: Do you have a satellite strategy, or will you be buying in directly?

Zpaceman: I really want to win the Monte Carlo package. It’s my number ome goal for the next few weeks. I am not worried so much about the WSOP as I will be playing plenty of side events while there any way. If I don’t win the Monte Carlo package, but I do win more than I expect at cash tourneys then I'll do just like I did for PCA and buy-in with MTT winnings. I don’t understand the people who win lots of money online but are reluctant to buy in directly to live tourneys.

The lobby at Atlantis was priceless. Going to a live event like PCA gives you moments like watching a bevy of top-ranked players railing a fellow P5er at the FT of the Stars Million.

I really enjoyed meeting Stuart “Zpaceman” Taylor in the Bahamas, and I wish him all the success on his new career in professional poker. To paraphrase Robert Frost: Two roads diverged in a wood and Zpaceman took the one less traveled by. I hope it makes all the difference.