This week we have an interview with FTR member and FTOPS Event #12 winner Chris Olson. You can find the audio here. Solid quality this week.

Podcast 

The text is below.

We’re here with 21 year old Chris “ilikeaces86” Olson. Chris has been playing poker professionally for three years, and is a top tournament and high stakes cash game player. He started out in low stakes cash games, but after winning Super Tuesday on [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/reviews/Online-Poker-PartyPoker.php]Party Poker[/url] in 2005 for $32,000, his career was jump started. His most recent achievement is winning FTOPS Event #12 for a quarter of a million dollars. For all the ladies listening, unfortunately Chris is married. He has been a poster at FTR for 3 years. You’ll find him playing in all the big online tournaments as well as cash games all the way up to $40,000 buy in No Limit.., and with that lets welcome Chris! Can you hear me okay?

Chris Olson: Yeah, how are you doing ?

DS: I’m doing well. So I would just like to talk to you about your recent win in FTOPS event #12. Before you entered Event #12, what was your general outlook?

Chris Olson: I was actually… I was kind of really pessimistic about tournaments at that time because for the last year or so I’ve just ran absolutely terrible on the multitable tournaments I’ve played online so… I was a little bit pessimistic and I was actually trying to get Rob, who is Bmxicle on FTR, to stake me but he didn’t stake me and I think he’s a little dissapointed of all that now…

DS: (laughs) I’m sure he’s really dissapointed.

Chris Olson: (jokingly) Yeah he’s probably crying off in corner…

DS: (laughs again) So there are a lot of different strategies people use in rebuy events: Some people go crazy at the beginning and some hang tight. What’s your general strategy and why do you do it?

Chris Olson: I’m fairly tight, I’m just looking to take advantage of other people who are willing to gamble early. They’re just going to increase my expectation or whatever you want to call it in the tournament. So I’m playing pretty tight, its full ring. I’m probably playing slightly looser than I would in a full ring cash game, but I’m probably playing on average a lot tighter than the rest of the table at that point. I don’t tend to… you know throw fifteen buy-ins into a rebuy tournament or anything like that.

DS: Right. Okay, so how did things start off for you in the Event #12

Chris Olson: It started off pretty well. At then end of the first hour I think I had probably about nine or ten-thousand chips after adding on which was above the average, and I was happy with that. From there I was just looking to keep playing well and make it deep in the tournament.

DS: When did things start to look like you may make the final table or even win the event?

Chris Olson: Well with about 100 people go, maybe a few over 100, I don’t remember the exact hand but somehow I got knocked down to 4000 chips. The blinds I think at that time were somewhere around 500 – 1000. So it wasn’t looking too pretty at that point. I actually didn’t know I was going to final table it until about maybe an hour later when I had the chip lead and I thought there was a good chance I had going deep in the tournament.

DS: So when you got the chip lead did you, you know, tell your wife, call up some friends and tell them what was going on?

Chris Olson: Yeah you know I did the classic AIM everybody you have on your list and tell them to come rail but at that point it was really late. It was probably maybe 2:30 in the morning so not everybody is up but my wife was actually asleep. She had clinicals the next morning for her nursing school at 6:00 AM so…

DS: Uh-huh, so it was kind of just you alone right there

Chris Olson: Yeah, there were a few loyal railbirds but my wife wasn’t one of them.

DS: So you reach the final table, and you’re 3rd in chips but you’re not that far away from the chip lead, you’re only about 200,000 chips from the chip lead. At first glance how hard did you think the final table would be based on the players.

Chris Olson: Well at first glance I thought it would be a pretty tough final table, there were a lot of good players that I recognized. I don’t play as many multi-table tournaments as I used to but I still knew a lot of the names either from poker forums or just the few of the multi-table tournaments I play in general. I knew that they would be tough and I just told myself that I’d play as well as I could and whatever happened happened.

DS: Well I did some research and the final table actually consisted of 3 top 100 multi-table tournament players according to pocket fives, one high stakes cash games player, and one top sit-n-go player who recently got the Porche on [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/reviews/Online-Poker-PokerStars.php]Poker Stars[/url] through FPPs. So, I mean…

Chris Olson: Yeah, are you talking about DDBeast?

DS: Right. Yeah, that looked like one of the toughest I’ve ever seen in an online tournament. You know?

Chris Olson: Yeah, it was definitely an extremely tough final table at least from the looks of it. The way it played out just from the cards I got… some other things that went my way it didn’t end up being the most challenging feeling final table.

DS: Yeah. Okay so…

Chris Olson: But…

DS: Okay continue, sorry.

Chris Olson: But I mean it was a tough final table, I mean SirWatts I know is a good MTT player. THE__D__RY, THE__D__RY he plays a lot of high stakes SNGs and he’s also a really good high stakes MTT player. I didn’t know potroast or whoever the other player at the final table was. And I knew DDBeast.

DS: As we got more and more short handed, you know 5, 4, 3 players left, do you feel like you had a bigger edge on the table or did you feel that you were worse off?

Chris Olson: I definitely felt like I had a bigger edge on the table the more shorthanded it got. Just from all my experience playing cash games. I don’t know a lot of those multi-table tournament players do play a lot of cash games. I mean I’ve put in well over a million hands of mid-stakes no limit games online and I don’t think that any of those MTT players have put in that many hands of cash games. And we were actually playing fairly deep, I think the stacks were anywhere from 40 to almost close to 100 big blinds for a lot of the final tournament if I’m not mistaken.

DS: Okay, so you end up getting heads up with probably the best player at the table besides yourself of course, THE__D__RY and you actually have a huge chip lead on him about 4 to 1. Do you think at this point when you have a 4 to 1 chip lead on this guy that you’re just going to take the first prize home?

Chris Olson: Oh yeah, I definitely thought right away when I got heads up with the chip lead that it was all over and then it got a little scary actually but…

DS: Right so you…

Chris Olson: We could talk about some of the hands if you want us to.

DS: Well I was looking at the hands and you get all in in it seems like some pretty standard situations. One where you flop a flush draw and an overcard versus his top pair and you don’t win that one. And also another one where…

Chris Olson: Yeah…

DS: Well you can talk about that one if you want.

Chris Olson: That was kind of an interesting hand because I had been watching THE__D__RY when there were about two or 3 tables to go. From what I had seen when he would call a preflop raise without three betting preflop he tended to lead a lot more flops than your average regular. So I wasn’t sure with what types of hands he was leading. So it was pretty standard just to raise and get it in when at that point he only had somewhere around 20 big blinds.

DS: Right. I thought it was a pretty standard play myself. There was another hand where you get it all in with top pair with a worse kicker than THE__D__RY had, who also had top pair. But both of them to me looked pretty standard. At that point THE__D__RY actually took the chip lead, so I’m wondering were you freaking out at that point like, “how is this happening” or did you keep your cool?

Chris Olson: Yeah well when the final table started I just thought to myself, “I’m going to win 250 whatever thousand.” Then when he wins those two hands and he gets to a little over the chip lead, I think to myself, “Man, I gotta take this down dude.” We’re playing for somewhere around $90,000 difference between first and second. So actually when he pulled just barely ahead maybe by a few hundred-thousand chips, after that point for a while he just let me take down a enormous amount of small to medium sized pots. He was limping a lot preflop which was kind of awkward at least for me since I don’t see that all that much in cash, someone who just limps every hand on the button. In general he was letting me take down a lot of small-medium sized pots.

DS: Okay so eventually luck did turn in your favor, but you ended up winning on a pretty bad beat where you get it all in, 44 versus his 55, and you win it all. So how do you think this win ranks all time for you, in your entire career?

Chris Olson: Oh, it’s definitely in my biggest win ever. I don’t think I was as happy after this as I was after my first Super Tuesday win, just because at that point I had only been playing poker for maybe a year and now I have played poker for over three years. I’ve had some pretty large swings and won a lot of money, so it just didn’t seem as much life changing even as $32,000 did in 2004 or 2005.

DS: So let me ask you a question. What sounds better, a quarter of a million dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars?

Chris Olson: Definitely a quarter of a million dollars. I just like to use the word million whenever I can talking about…

DS: I think I agree about that. Alright, so now we’re going to move onto the lightning round of the questions. I’m pretty much going to ask you a bunch of pointless questions and just answer them as fast as you can. You ready?

Chris Olson: Yep.

DS: What’s your favorite Casino?

Chris Olson: Probably Caesar’s. I liked their poker room in Vegas the most. I don’t know if they had the best games but it was my favorite for aesthetics.

DS: Favorite beer?

Chris Olson: Ah, my favorite beer. It would probably have to be… Maybe just a Leinenkugel’s, whatever one they’re brewing at that time of the season.

DS: I have never tried Leinenkugl’s maybe I’ll have to try it. Favorite Book?

Chris Olson: Favorite book. Um… I’ll just have have to say anything written by ?Khan? ?Engleton? He wrote a whole historical fiction series on Caesar, and now he’s writing another series on another historical leader whose name is slipping my mind. Oh, Genghis Khan. So I love historical fiction books by him.

DS: Interesting. Favorite tournament player besides yourself?

Chris Olson: Huh… We talking online here?

DS: Any, live or online.

Chris Olson: I’ll have to go with [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Phil-Ivey.html]Phil Ivey[/url] just because he is so successful.

DS: Favorite Movie?

Chris Olson: My favorite movie is probably Gladiator.

DS: Favorite classic video game?

Chris Olson: Just the original Mario Bros. for sure.

DS: Solid choice. Favorite poker Hand?

Chris Olson: Obviously pocket aces, I mean my name is I like aces I gotta stick with that.

DS: Yeah I guess I could have guessed that one. Favorite possession? Like a car or computer.

Chris Olson: My computer, it’s just what I do all my work on.

DS: Favorite song to grind to poker to?

Chris Olson: I don’t listen to music when I play in general….

DS: Oh you’re the second… that’s interesting.

Chris Olson: So I’ll have to say my favorite song is silence.

DS: By who?

Chris Olson: Just… silence.

DS: (laughing) Oh, okay. I’m sorry about that. Very interesting choice. So now my final question is, and you probably saw this coming, what do you plan on doing with the money that you won?

Chris Olson: I plan on… Before now I’ve been mostly playing 5 – 10 online, and I plan on playing 10 – 20 and 25 – 50 when the games are good. So I’ll use a little bit of that to just keep more money online, and the rest I’m just going to take out and save and I’m going to be buying a house here pretty soon. So that’s what I’ll use it for.

DS: Alright, sounds good. Well good luck in the future and I hope to see you at another big final table soon.

Chris Olson: Thanks

Podcast with Shaun Deeb

DS: Hey all, this week we have Shaun Deeb with us. Shaun is a tournament professional. When Shaun turned 18 he immediately started playing online. He got hooked immediately and ended up dropping out of school to pursue a career in poker. Shaun is probably best known as being one of the original massive multi tabling sit and go players. Now you’ll find him in big live tournaments, trying to win the [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/reviews/Online-Poker-PokerStars.php]PokerStars[/url] tournament leaderboard, or even dabbling into some mid to high stakes cash games. And with that let’s welcome Shaun Deeb, Shaun you there?

Shaun Deeb: Yep, I’m here

DS: So you actually started college but decided to drop out to focus on poker. Do you regret that decision at all and do you plan on going back?

Shaun Deeb: I really don’t regret it, and I think maybe later on in a decade or something I’ll go and get a degree but there’s no point right now.

DS: How did your parents handle you dropping out?

Shaun Deeb: Well of course they were skeptical at first, but you know, after being pro for awhile, getting more exposure, making a lot of money, they came around.

DS: You used to play as many as 30 tables at a time of SNG’s. How has the ability to act that quickly helped your poker game?

Shaun Deeb: It’s good because I know my immediate gut reaction right away, then I have time just to recheck everything, it’s good to know your immediate reaction and then adjust your plan as the hand goes on.

DS: You are part of a team called “wafflecrush.” For those who don’t know the name, can you explain what you are and what you do?

Shaun Deeb: Yeah, it was formed originally by myself and Thayer, and then later Vivekpsyduck joined in, so as of right now we have a lot of horses who are doing well at losing a lot of money for us.

DS: (Laughs) But you think prospects are looking up?

Shaun Deeb: Oh yeah for sure, I think we have some great horses, and I have a lot of confidence in their game. It’s just a matter of time until variance evens out.

DS: How has having a good group of poker friends helped your improvement?

Shaun Deeb: Well I mean I wouldn’t have been anything I am now if it wasn’t for having good friends early. If I didn’t go to Turning Stone and meet some of the top online players, I didn’t even know who they were at the time and wasn’t even playing tournaments then, so they helped me plug a lot of leaks when I was really spewy.

DS: What do you think you do differently than other players you play with that separates you?

Shaun Deeb: I guess you could say it’s the old phrase I don’t have any respect for my tourney life, I don’t give a shit, if I bust I have another tourney to run so it doesn’t matter if I bust.

DS: Many poker players have went through staking deals and had it blow up in their face, but you on the other handled it pretty well. How successful has staking went for you and what advice would you give to those wary about it?

Shaun Deeb: Well it hasn’t been successful yet, but I know it will. I mean, you just know who is a winning player and know there edges, and you have to just keep putting them in tournaments where they have large edges and wait for that big cash where you’re going to get all your money back and then some. As far as advice (for someone who would want to do this type of thing), I recommend having a large bankroll. If it wasn’t all of our money together and just one of us on our own, there’s no way we’d be able to stake as many people or put them in the high buy in tournaments we are putting them in right now.

DS: So ummm are you coaching these people? Are you staking them for online tournaments? Or how about live tournaments?

Shaun Deeb: Well pretty much a little bit of everything. Well I started coaching some of them, Vivek and others have coached some different ones, some didn’t get coaching at all as they really didn’t need it. We stake online, live, some just online, some just live, some both. We try to cater to the strengths of our horses.

DS: Every super hero has his weakness… Is black jack your kryptonite?

Shaun Deeb: Uhhh Blackjack and a few other things. Luckily, I ran really good in it and it actually expanded my bankroll instead of ruining it like it should’ve.

DS: You have probably played more low stakes 180 man SNG’s than anyone else on the planet. First off, how does it feel to hold that honor?

Shaun Deeb: You know what I’m really proud of it. Consider I’ve played $4 180’s for 24 hours against Mr. Smokey and won a prop bet there. Who can say they have won thousands of dollars from $4 180’s? Most have only played a couple hundred.

DS: More seriously, what is the key to beating low stakes SNG’s for a solid winrate?

Shaun Deeb: Just play really tight… I mean you can play super exploitable at those stakes, you don’t have to get in to fancy play syndrome, just play your stack sizes and your hands. So just sit back and wait for them and don’t do something stupid and try to outplay them, you’ll just get yourself into trouble.

DS: Right now you mostly travel and play poker, is that a dream come true?

Shaun Deeb: Honestly I never even fathomed I’d be able to do this. I wanted to travel a bit but I never thought I’d be able to go to the destinations I’m going to or enjoying it as much as I’m able to.

DS: You accomplished an amazing feat last year: winning the [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/reviews/Online-Poker-PokerStars.php]Poker Stars[/url] Tournament Leader Board and therefore winning a free trip to [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Monte-Carlo.html]Monte Carlo[/url]. How do you feel about such an accomplishment?

Shaun Deeb: I think the package is worth $20k and climbing. When I got the email from Stars I had just busted out of an EPT event, I think it was Australia, and I was kind of miserable about live poker. So it was nice to get that email saying here’s your free trip to go to [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Monte-Carlo.html]Monte Carlo[/url] as I was planning on going anyways…

DS: Woah wait, so you had no idea you were going to get a free trip to [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Monte-Carlo.html]Monte Carlo[/url]?

Shaun Deeb: I had an idea because I got to know tnetter who won it the year before because we were on the same world cup team, and he told me he got one. But it was never stated anywhere that you get a free [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Monte-Carlo.html]Monte Carlo[/url] package if you win, I was never told that until I got that email. But now Stars TLB has really publicized what you get so I’m excited to go for the repeat!

DS: Oh cool, so earlier you told me your favorite live poker story, I was just wondering if you would share it again?

Shaun Deeb: Oh yeah, this is from Turning Stone six max tournament. I was playing aggressive but some kid came a little late and sat to my left. And he kept threebetting me every hand so I was getting really frustrated and my stack bled down to 7 or 8k, so I tightened up and waited to play back at this kid. I just wanted to tilt him as much as he was tilting me. So I get KK in the CO and raise 3bb to 150, and he had threebetting me everytime I raised from the CO, but this time he flatted me, which really was a surprise. The BB came along as well. The flop was 99T rainbow, I bet 325 and they both called. I was ready to go into c/f mode as I felt like one had me beat but then I hit my two outer on the turn, which completed a QJ straight and a flush draw on the turn. I bet out 700 and button raised to like 2200, BB folded and I called and checked river in the dark knowing he’d bet his entire range on the river whether he had a draw, K, etc. River was like a 6 and he asked for a count and bet like half my stack and then I tanked for 15 seconds and shoved. He thought about it and folded (Shaun thought he was acting with a bluff), later I found out he had trips and he was pretty pissed off that I completely owned him.

DS: So that was actually Massimo from FTR, so I thought that was a cool story and awesome to hear that was your favorite live story.

(Two things Shaun didn’t include that Max told me. When Max was threebetting him non-stop at one point Shaun turned to him and said “Don’t you know who I am?” as a joke, but Max actually didn’t. Also, in an earlier hand Max made a sick valuebet with 99 on a JJTxx board, in which he fired a large bet on the river which Deeb promptly snap called with 88, amazed to see he was beat.)

DS: Okay so now we’re going to move to the lightning round. Pretty much I’m going to ask you a bunch of pointless questions and just answer them as quick as possible.

DS: What’s your favorite Vegas Casino?

Shaun Deeb: Rio

DS: Favorite beer?

Shaun Deeb: Crown Lager

DS: Favorite Book?

Shaun Deeb: To Kill and Ornthel

DS: Never heard of that before, whose it by?

Shaun Deeb: Actually its by my uncle, it’s about killing OJ….

DS: Oh! So this is just shameless self promotion?

Shaun Deeb: Pretty much (laughs), I’ve got to do what I can. There’s a couple of chapters that are based on stories by me.

DS: Favorite tournament player besides yours….

Shaun Deeb: Myself! Argh damnit, Betgo then, a 2p2 poster.

DS: Favorite Movie?

Shaun Deeb: The man who knew too little.

DS: Favorite classic video game?

Shaun Deeb: Like Baseball 2020 maybe?

DS: Favorite poker Hand?

Shaun Deeb: seven eight offsuit

DS: Uhhh any reason why?

Shaun Deeb: Uhh yeah that was in my early degenerate days, when I was 17 or 18 we’d go to my buddies bar and get drunk, and when we got back we would always do flips for $100, and I would always get seven eight off and win so I then called it the Deeb at my homegame.

DS: Favorite possession?

Shaun Deeb: Yankee hat for sure

DS: Favorite song to grind to?

Shaun Deeb: I don’t listen to music when I play, but I do have one thing, when I have my 1k final tables we do break out the jock jams.

DS: What are your plans for the future?

Shaun Deeb: Well hopefully run good at staking, keep playing poker, and traveling.

DS: Alright well thanks for the interview, wish you luck in staking and at [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Monte-Carlo.html]Monte Carlo[/url].

Shaun Deeb: Your welcome, maybe if we play together I’ll get to own you as hard as I did your brother.

DS: Haha, alright if we that ever happens maybe you will. (Too late: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/forum/so-glad-i-play-5-10-t65945.html)

FTR weekly interviews is back! This week we have a podcast as our interview. We’re trying out this new audio format with Max “Massimo” Steinberg, I think it came out really well, but I’m really sorry about the echo, we tried to make it stop but we couldn’t figure it out. After the first few minutes it is much more bearable if you can’t take it. This thursday were going to post another podcast of my interview with Shaun Deeb. No echo in that one (I’ve improved) and he’s a fun guy so you should enjoy it.

Massimo Interview

For those who don’t want the audio, here was the text.

DS: We are here with Max “Massimo” Steinberg. Max is a regular contributor to FTR, and currently plays mostly 2/4 No Limit 6 max cash games. Although Max may not be the regular high stakes type player we have on, don’t underestimate his skill. He has made over $50,000 in his career, nearly all of which has come in the past 6 months. With already $10,000 in earnings this month, a six figure year doesn’t seem to far away! And with that lets welcome Max Steinberg, thanks for doing the interview this week and trying out this new format with us.

Max Steinberg: Thanks by the way I play mostly 3/6 now!

DS: Ohhhh high roller!

DS: Tell me your poker story….

Max Steinberg: Basically it started out with Danny (ISF) and I would play a bunch of games at our friend’s house. Not just Texas but games like In between, hi-lo stud, Chicago, you know anything. We would basically take money are dad gave us and play with it. It wasn’t much. I don’t remember if we had any success or not.

DS: I think we did.

Max Steinberg: Well anyways, on our 17th birthday we asked our dad to deposit $50 into a poker site. And Danny and I shared an account. An important thing is we committed to our dad that if we lost this money we would never deposit ever again. We’ll just deposit $50 and have fun with it. So we could not lose this money or else we would never play poker ever again… err… well probably not. So we started out playing $5 SNG’s and $10 SNG’s. We didn’t have great [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Bankroll-Management-101.html]Bankroll Management[/url] nor were we probably winning players, so many times our bankroll was under $10. One time, it got down to $2 and Danny placed high in a $1 tournament and we won $27 or something. The second time we got down to $6… $8 maybe, and Danny decided to grind $2 NL all the way back up to $100. He was playing like 3 hours a day. So then we started playing $10 full ring.

Max Steinberg: So we go off to college together and we get more into tournaments. So Danny ends up satelliting into a high buy in tournament. So it ends up that we win it for $3,000 and it was exhilarating because Danny was watching me the whole time and on the last hand I ended up calling a bluff with King high for the win. So then we started playing 6 max cash games, and at the end of the second semester of freshman year we split up our bankroll, which was about 11k, and was playing 1/2 6 max. I kept moving up slowly and I’ve been doing well ever since.

DS: Last semester you took time off of school and became a professional poker player. What were your expectations for those few months and how well did you meet those expectations?

Max Steinberg: So I officially took my semester off in July, and my goal was to have a 50k bankroll before school started again. So I moved up to 2/4 and that month made about $10,000. Then I got off track a little bit, I partied a lot, and august and septemeber were actually losing months for me because I played a lot of HU and I wasn’t very good at it. October however I made 10k, and November I actually lost a lot of money mostly because I was just spending it on trips. I also lost another 3k at Turning Stone Casino. But December I made about 9k, and so far in January I have made 10k. So it didn’t go as well as I would’ve liked. I mean… what can you do, I mean I should’ve probably played more, you know, but what can you do.

DS: Given your experience, what advice would you give to low stakes players who want to go pro?

Max Steinberg: Well first off, have a partner to do it with, like I wasn’t living with anyone who was playing. Also, it’s hard especially when your parents don’t exactly support it and your friends don’t understand and support you. They just tell me “What are you doing? You have all this money and free time, Come on, what are you doing? Come out with us!” Also, make sure your in an environment where you can live really cheap so you don’t have to take out much of your roll for living. Also, don’t party too much because first off all your mind isn’t going to be good and second of all it’s a waste of time.

DS: How do you think your poker game differs from others you play with?

Max Steinberg: Honestly I don’t think I’m very good…. Haha just to state that off the bat. I’m not very good at taking money from regulars right now. But what I do do well is standard situations against donkey’s or even regs, I have a very good sense of what is the best EV move. I think that has really helped me get a decent winrate at higher levels. Though, I’m not a reg killer yet.

DS: I do think that is an aspect of good players games, a skill that people really underestimate.

Max Steinberg: I do too. I mean I’m still a solid winner at 2/4 and 3/6 where there are 3 or 4 regulars at every table. And there are people I play with who are better at getting me uncomfortable, my game out of whack, and are much better than I am. But they aren’t making as much money as me, because I’m way better at making decisions in standard situations.

DS: What concept or element of poker do you think is key to becoming a good player but is not something normally mentioned?

Max Steinberg: I think one of the things is confidence. One thing that goes along with it is thinking everyone sucks and you rock. Its not a personality trait I have, but it really helps because when you think that way your really thinking what is he doing wrong and how can I exploit that rather than oh my god he is beating me so hard what can I do, this guys going to own me… oh god. Sometimes I’ll get in those attitudes and it hurts my game. And another point is the standard spots, people really underestimate the importance of that. Poker is all about hand reading and decision making anyways, so that should be the focus of improving players. But there’s no hidden secret.

DS: Yeah… I agree with your point about confidence. I know when I move up I’ll get all freaked out and tell myself “Oh my God they know my hand, what am I going to do?” or “Oh my god my hand looks so weak they are making a move on me.”

Max Steinberg: Yeah and when your focusing on making the best decision all the time, you’ll play better because your mind is clearer and it will keep you off tilt.

DS: Many people I interview note that close poker friends were instrumental in improving their games. How has having a twin who plays poker helped you improve?

Max Steinberg: Well, I mean, Danny introduced me to FTR. I originally posted as ISF but then made my account Massimo. One benefit is that we can talk about poker with someone all the time, like at lunch or whatever. Also, we’re both very argumentative so we really fight things out until we come to the correct conclusion… Or we’ll just ask Sauce123.

DS: You play on both FT and Stars. What do you feel are the positives and negatives of each site for a 6 max cash game player and which would you recommend?

Max Steinberg: Well both have their pluses. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/reviews/Online-Poker-FullTilt.php]Full Tilt[/url] has fishier games at night and Stars has fishier games in the morning. But Stars software is way ahead of [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/reviews/Online-Poker-FullTilt.php]Full Tilt[/url]’s. I have been 16 tabling recently and on Stars I have no problem but on [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/reviews/Online-Poker-FullTilt.php]Full Tilt[/url] I can barely reach 12. But uhhh, [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/reviews/Online-Poker-FullTilt.php]Full Tilt[/url] you can datamine though so it’s a lot easier to find fishier tables. Also, [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/reviews/Online-Poker-FullTilt.php]Full Tilt[/url] has [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Referrals/rake-back.html]Rakeback[/url], even though [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/reviews/Online-Poker-PokerStars.php]Poker Stars[/url] does have FPP’s. But seriously I think you should play on both, I don’t see why you wouldn’t. I have been 6 tabling 5/10 recently and I just open up the fishiest ones on each site. And I end up finding actual fish at each table, which is something many can’t find if they are just playing on one site.

DS: What efforts do you make to balance life and poker?

Max Steinberg: Well I really don’t (laughs). I wish I played poker more actually even though I do play a decent amount. I don’t understand why you need to balance life and poker. If you want to play poker 12 hours a day than do what you want, that’s balance. And if you don’t, that’s balance as well. As long as your doing what you want.

DS: Interesting…. Okay now we’re going to move on to the lightning round! I’m going to ask you a lot of quick questions for fun and just answer them as quickly as possible.

DS: What’s your favorite Vegas Casino?

Max Steinberg: I really like the Wynn and the [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Mandalay-Bay-Casino.html]Mandalay Bay[/url].

DS: Favorite beer?

Max Steinberg: Dos Equios Amber

DS: Favorite Book?

Max Steinberg: I don’t read many, but “The Things They Carried,” which is about Vietnam, and “This Boy’s Life” I really like which is actually a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio.

DS: Favorite FTR poster?

Max Steinberg: Uhhh, well I mean Sauce123 I really like, he’s taught me a lot. Actually, when Lukie posts I like it a lot too but he doesn’t post much anymore.

DS: Favorite Movie?

Max Steinberg: American Psycho, and actually recently I saw a movie called Atonement which is in theatres…

DS: *cough* Chick flick *cough*

Max Steinberg: Yeah, yeah alright, it is a chick flick but seriously it has the best cinematography I have seen in any movie. Not even close.

DS: Well alright, we’ll grant you a pass there. Favorite classic video game?

Max Steinberg: Super Mario 3, I also like Secret of Mana and FF7 and 3.

DS: Favorite Hand?

Max Steinberg: Ace-ten of clubs, also anything with an 8 I kind of like.

DS: Why Ace-ten of clubs?

Max Steinberg: Well because in tarot cards the ten of clubs is fortune.

DS: Favorite possession?

Max Steinberg: I don’t really have many but I’d say my laptop, as I don’t go anywhere without it.

DS: Favorite song to grind to?

Max Steinberg: I’d say any song from the album Southernplayalistikcaddilacmusik by Outkast, especially the song Southernplayalistikcaddilacmusik, it’s so awesome to grind to.

DS: Okay final question, What do you think your future is with poker?

Max Steinberg: I think it’s pretty unavoidable I’ll play poker professionally for awhile, maybe even for my life. It’s not like I’m going to take some entry level job somewhere. I think when I turn 21 I’ll probably switch to live tournaments. Maybe some coaching later when I get sick of playing a lot of poker, because that’s something I think I’d be really good at.

DS: Alright well thanks for doing the interview.

Max Steinberg: Alright your welcome!

DS: Okay… So next week we’re going to have Shaun Deeb on, so stay tuned for that.