Heads-Up with New Jersey Online Poker Player Mike Webb (cantbeatyou)
Mike Webb (mikewebb68on PocketFives, pictured), who mostly plays under the screen name cantbeatyou, loves the fact that regulated online poker has launched in New Jersey. With close to $500,000 in tracked online cashes, he has already made several final tables since the November launch. He won the WSOP.com $5K Guarantee on December 30 for $1,325 and, the same week, came in fifth in the WSOP.com $10K. Prior to Black Friday, his biggest score took place on Full Tilt Poker, coming in second place in the $75,000 Guarantee for a little over $21K.
PocketFives: Give us your thoughts and experiences of regulated online poker in New Jersey.
Mike Webb: I am extremely excited about it. The gray market sites, although I had some success on them, all had one or more major flaws, in my opinion. And I never kept much money on any of those sites out of fear of another Full Tilt situation. Now, I can play on a variety of excellent sites, confident that my money is secure.
PocketFives: What are your favorite New Jersey online poker sites to play and why?
Mike Webb: WSOP.com is my favorite since the poker interface is top-notch. They’ve run excellent promotions ($250K freerolls? Outstanding!) and the rewards program is simple and straightforward. But, I play on Borgata/PartyPokerand 888 Pokeras well. I haven’t played on Ultimate Poker much, but I might now with the new NO-verlay promotion. I’m just delighted as a US player to have so many quality choices again!
PocketFives: To what do you attribute your current online success?
Mike Webb: As a recreational player whose opportunities to put in volume are limited, I am nowhere near some of the best New Jersey PocketFivers who seem to run deep night after night, but any success I do have is attributable to one thing: training.
I had some success pre-Black Friday, but despite far less volume, I have actually had better results post-Black Friday solely due to joining a training site. It can be a humbling experience, though. I thought I was a decent player, but learned right off the bat that I was far from decent, and I continue to learn to this day. I highly recommend that everyone spend money on a good training site or coach; it may be the best ROI you ever experience!
PocketFives: Since the launch of regulated online poker in New Jersey, what has been your most memorable cash or win?
Mike Webb: Most certainly my ship of the WSOP.com daily $5K. I had actually taken the $5K off my schedule since it ends so late, but I had been running deep in almost everything I played for about a week, so I decided to give it a shot. Well, I found out that you don’t mind the middle-of-the-night finish to the tournament when you win it!
PocketFives: How did you get started in poker originally? Why was it appealing?
Mike Webb: I actually started out in live poker in Atlantic City in the mid-1990s when they pretty much only spread Stud, and I was one of the worst Stud players on the planet! However, I did have a love for the game and certainly a desire to learn and improve.
With increasing job and family responsibilities, I drifted away from live play, but continued to watch poker on TV, fascinated by the WSOP and other events where people would win large sums of money from a game I never even played back in Atlantic City: No Limit Hold’em. I still had no time for live poker, but eventually came to realize that online poker was far less of a time commitment. I took the online plunge in 2009 and never looked back.
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