There are two things I don't discuss at the poker table: politics and religion. I'm going to extend that rule to the poker forums. :-)
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This is a pretty in-depth Q and we're actually discussing doing another AMA of just these Q's. There are a lot of ways. The most popular and effective include hand history reviews where I load both my and the student's hand histories into a replayer and discuss every aspect of every hand played throughout a tournament. I'm also working on an A-to-Z training manual that I'm going to use for long-term students and multi-day live poker seminars that I'll eventually be running. I do most of my coaching in NL tournaments but can also do NL cash and PLO tournaments/cash. As my PLO/OFC game gets better and better I'll start advertising PLO/OFC training.
Taking into consideration that you like training/coaching ...do you get the same rush from getting a newbie to make it big in the poker universe as you do for example from winning a poker event (not counting the money part)? ;)
I hang out with Matt Salsberg, Steve Gross, Amanda Baker, Amanda Musumeci, Joe Cappuccio, and Matt Iles a lot. Every single one of my poker friends has said something that has influenced my game at some point so it's difficult to say. Mark Vos and Dustin Dirksen were HUGELY influential to me early in my career whether they realize it or not. I started chatting on AIM with both of them around 2005 when online poker first became popular and they were killing it. I'd occasionally ask about hands but it was mostly general poker advice from them that helped me a lot, and just talking to them motivated me to believe that it was something I could really do. So thank you to them.
Unfortunately, the people from FTR have just informed me that the server is now going to need to be rebooted because it keeps crashing from what they claim is all the people waiting to read my answers. lol Thank you guys, and sorry! They want to put the rest of the AMA on hold until later this week, but I'll be back and will do my best to finish answering everything posted.
This has been a spectacular AMA so far; we will have to reconvene after we address some capacity issues – a huge testament to the quality of this AMA. We will announce the date shortly and Matt will come back and finish answering posts. Thanks a lot, all, and stay tuned!
Matt,
Thanks again for doing this ama and sorry about the issue with the servers.
What time does this start?
Any minute! This is going to be great!!!
Matt is going to be here in about ten or fifteen minutes!
vamos Matt vamoooooos :)
sup Matt, what is your favourite grinding food? Pizza for me! any1 else?
I go to NJ at least 2x a year to visit family, play Borgata events, go to Rangers/Giants/Yankees games, and go to Great Adventure. I miss being close to my family the most but I still make sure to see them plenty. Aside from that the proximity to NY is the thing I miss the most especially since my sports teams are there.
I want to go to Bora Bora and will probably be going there for my honeymoon. Such a quiet little spot and SO far from civilization. The moon would be cool as well but is slightly out of my price range.
I would probably have to go back in time to the 60's and 70's since I'm a hippie at heart who just missed the boat. Not even sure where the best place to be a hippie was back then, but I imagine it was somewhere in the mountains, so that's where I'd go. I'd also be very interested in going forward about 100-200 years and checking out NYC (if it's still there, sigh).
Yes I did pretty well for WCOOP, thanks for asking. I won my PCA package, the Tilt Super Sized Sunday $635 for $44k, and made some other final tables including a few in the Stars $109+rebuys. All in all I think I was up a little over $20k.
Yeah, I play a pretty healthy schedule while playing WCOOPs to try to reduce variance. I've been trying to find my perfect amount of tables to maximize return without taking too much attention away from the most important events and I think that's right around 8-10 tables for me even though I can max out at around 20 MTT's as long as none are HU, PLO, mixed games, etc and most are full-ring NL.
I'd say my biggest leak when playing live is just getting bored too easily and not paying attention as much as I should to every hand, although I'm trying to get better at it...without popping pills/ADD meds like so many pros have started doing nowadays.
I tend to stay away from home games in general especially since I don't play much cash.
I still play at Borgata at least 1-2x a year for the big main events that don't conflict with any other tournaments or other things going on in my life.
My favorite casino to play in is the Borgata in AC but the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, MS comes close because they have that true sense of down home Southern hospitality that you don't see almost anywhere anymore, let alone in a casino.
My least favorite place to play is Foxwoods even though I had my 2nd biggest score there. The funny thing is I almost never had that score because I didn't enjoy being in that casino and had played about 5-6 WPT series and probably 40+ tournaments with a single cash for $5k. I was probably down $50k+ there and swore I'd never go back. I planned to skip the 2009 WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals event but then won the Tilt $1k for ~$85k and took 13th in the WPT Bellago Festa al Lago event the week before so I was too hungry and booked a last minute flight. I ended up finishing 3rd for $266k which was my biggest score until I almost won my bracelet this summer.
I'll be playing a bunch of WPT's including LAPC, Bay 101, Bellagio, and Borgata (January main event and April $15k Championship which will replace the Bellagio $25k). Possibly the Florida ones as well. I'll be playing PCA but am probably going to skip European events for a little while and spend more time with my fiancée in Vegas. Of course I always say that and them find myself in Amsterdam at my friend's house booking flights all over Europe for EPT events, so we'll see how that ends up.
Too late! Gg, gov't.
And like I said earlier in this thread, I try to avoid talking about two things in the forums and at the poker table: politic and religion. In fact, I avoid discussing it with people in general unless they're my best friends AND I know that they're open-minded regardless of their stance.
I've been involved in a lot of backing deals in my life, both being backed and backing a stable of other players. This is more of a book that could be written than an answer to a question, but I'll break down the two main types of arrangements.
Makeup deals: A backer has all action for a horse in agreed upon stakes/events. They split long run profits 50/50 in most cases but it can vary. The horse never "owes" the backer the money they lose, but must continue to give action to the backer in the agreed upon events if they keep playing. If the horse loses the first $100k in buy-ins and then scores for $200k, the backer gets the first $100k in back buy-ins ("makeup") and the other $100k gets split 50/50 between the horse and backer.
Piece buying: I often do this for the rare $25k events that I think have enough value to be worth playing. I'll invest ~$5k of my own and sell the rest of the action at a 10% markup, or "1.1:1". That means that since my edge is presumably more than a 10% ROI in the long run in the event, it's profitable for a buyer to purchase a piece at higher than face value. So instead of selling 1% of a $25k for $250 at face value, I can sell it for 10% more, $275. Typical markups run from 0-30% but a top-level player selling for great value tournaments like WSOP 1k-1500's can demand markups of 50% or higher since their ROI will often be 100%+. The net result is that other people get a fast and profitable gamble that they do little to no work on while I get to keep more than 20% of myself for the $5k that I invest and it works out for everyone.
Freerolls are an extreme example of this. If I sold 91% of myself in the tournament at 1.1:1, I could "freeroll" 9% of the action. This is often frowned upon because people want you to have "skin in the game" so that they know you'll try harder. However people often freeroll friends who can't afford the buy-in 20-33% in an event if they don't want to have to enter a makeup relationship and have that type of commitment. Essentially they're buying all of the remaining action at a markup (freerolling someone 20% is like buying 80% at 1.25:1 or a 25% markup, freerolling 33% is like buying 67% at 50% markup).
That should be enough to get you started. :-)
lol My Dad was a computer programmer back in the 80's when computers were weird and scary to the average person, so I actually started learning how to type when I was about 3 because my Dad taught me how to play video games on the computer when he wasn't home. He was a smart man!
Hello Matt!
Thanks so much for doing this again :)
are you in London now? for the EPT? Have you ever won a WinTheButton tournament? and shootout?
The long run in tournaments is probably more live tournaments than a human could realistically play in years, which is why live tournament variance is so high and backers are often needed. I think online you would need at least 1000-2000 tournaments to really get a good sense of what a player is capable of.
Just about, it's one of the reasons that I love doing training. I couldn't have been prouder when I watched Amanda Musumeci make her deep run in the WSOP ME and take 2nd in the biggest WSOP $1500 of the year the following series and watching Mike Frazin, who's in his 50's, take down the WPT Regional $2k event in FL for well over $100k was an incredile feeling as well.
Sooooooooo I finished page 2 questions and it still won't let me load page 1. :-( Guess I'm going to have to try again later and finish those.
do you play or watch Starcraft at all? if so, games one day?
These answers are the same both online and live...
There are theoreticals like if everyone at your first table in the WSOP ME goes all in on the first hand and you have AA in the BB, you should fold because your ROI is so high that you shouldn't put yourself in a spot where you'll bust on the first hand the vast majority of the time even with AA. However, these ridiculous hypotheticals never happen and most people who fold AA pre in an MTT are making a huge mistake, like people who do it to avoid $ bubbling. There are other theoretical spots where you should fold AA in MTT's because of ICM reasons at a final table, but again, it's something that would rarely actually happen.
It is often correct to fold AA pre in satellite tournaments when you have enough chips to lock up a seat, however.
Highs: Traveling to tons of awesome locations and meeting some of the coolest people I could ever possibly meet. Winning tons of money and making WPT and WSOP final tables. Being homeless at times (no house/apt to worry about or rent to pay).
Lows: Dealing with nearly quarter million dollar downswings both financially and psychologically while trying to continue to play my best game. Not making WPT and WSOP final tables (in most events I play). Being homeless at times (stuff in storage, no sense of home).
I played a long session of 25-50 (cent) limit hold'em w college buddies and won $4.25. I'd never been so excited to win so little money, and with such a slave wage hourly rate to boot...but I was VERY excited about it at the time and immediately hooked.
I LOVE NL MTT's (the capitalization of "love" seems less powerful since the rest of the sentence had to be capitalized, but anyway) but am also starting to fall in love w PLO, especially PLO MTT's. So I think it goes 1) PLO MTT's 2) NL MTT's 3) PLO cash 4) OFC 5) Mixed games
Nope, but I do offer hourly one-on-one coaching for $150/hr and am working on a multi-day seminar/training camp.
Create my own obv. Would take over Batman for the sick whip and cool toys and because I'd have the sickest roller coasters at Six Flags. If I could have my own super power I'd be the "Karmic Corrector." I'd find the people who have let money turn them into gigantic douchebags, strip them of everything, and leave them penniless in the street while giving their money and belongings to good people and families in need.
I've done a lot of work with Habitat for Humanity for a long time and was the VP of Habitat for my college. I even ran a (probably illegal) charity poker tournament to raise funds for them at my college. I've also started volunteering at Threesquare food bank in Vegas and will be doing some work with Habitat Vegas soon. I love Habitat because they provide incredibly low-cost housing to people in need and I've always like supporting food banks because it's important to help our fellow man fulfill this most basic need without having to beg regardless of what their financial situation is.
The Charity Poker Tour is a bunch of ideas that I've had for a long time to have a series of charity events that are built into series' on the tour to make it convenient for pros to show up and support various charities while bringing amateurs out to support the causes and play with the pros. As much as I love the WSOP, dealing with Caesars means TONS of red tape as I found out years ago, and now that they have One Drop I'm drawing dead on that front. I partnered with a group of people and created/submitted a proposal to the WPT when they were trying to figure out how to move forward with their planned charity initiative. Unfortunately they decided to go in a different direction with it. Hopefully I can make something happen with it in the near future.
1) The key is to not get frustrated and instead enjoy the challenge while trying to find the best way to counter their strategy. In this case, a combination of not betting with crap in the first place and betting with the intention of 3betting as a bluff more sounds about right.
2) I jokingly say that some people's faces tilt me and people who sit there and stare a lot especially with their mouth open are kind of annoying but I rarely ever really let anything get to me when I play, especially something that minor.
3) I used to let other people get to me and would occasionally get into it with people who act like dicks at the table or say something stupid to me but have slowly phased that out.
4) I called Sorel Mizzi a cheater at the table and he lost his mind and challenged me to a fight in the parking lot. He didn't debate the validity of my claim, though...
Sure. I taught Amanda Musumeci how to play tournaments in 2007. Since then she has done well online, been sponsored by Bodog, and had this impressive list of cashes (http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=194849) including a 62nd place finish in the WSOP main event for $130k and 2nd in a $1500 WSOP event for almost half a mil.
I started teaching Mike Frazin, a retired businessman, how to play tournaments in early 2010. Since then he has had a bunch of scores (http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=147406) including 2nd place in a huge Stars $109+rebuys for over $50k and winning a WPT regional $2k for $130k+. I think his DB list is missing a Bellagio $1k+rebuys win for $50k+ as well.
I also taught two of my best friends from NJ, Joe Cappuccio (Joey Capp/Cappuccio816) and Matt Iles (papamat25/I Pay Ur Rent), how to play and both have been very successful online players since. Both cracked the top 50 in Pocketfives rankings before Black Friday with tons of online scores including three outright victories in the Tilt $1k and one in Sunday $500.
Of course they had concerns, but by the time most of them were hearing that I was going pro I'd experienced a good amount of success, chopping a $560 WSOPC AC event for $34k and winning two $10k seats into the main event. My father was very opposed to me playing poker while I was a broke college student, but once I won that much money he even said he'd understand if I took time off from school to pursue playing poker for a living.
I have absolutely no regrets about my career choice whatsoever and if I decide I want to go get my MBA/law degree like I planned on I'll just finish my undergrad and do it. I doubt I'll ever regret that I didn't have to graduate college and take an entry-level job busting my ass in a cubicle for Merrill Lynch while going to grad school part time, which is where I was headed.
1) Football a bit and baseball a little but I channel most of my sports enthusiasm and attention towards hockey.
2) Starting to play roller hockey again. May get back into ice as well. Trying to start playing basketball but I suck and it's brutal sucking at anything I do.
3) Gretzky Messier Richter (can't choose)
4) No
5) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxE_oQBwrdU
1) Not sure what u mean. Playing Stars on your cell phone? It's awesome.
2) I'll have kids so hopefully I'll have a good cash game in my area I can play or will have good online action. I'll still be traveling for the big tournaments and playing a full WSOP schedule. I'll be playing a lot more PLO and mixed games and less NL tho.
3) Get massages!
1) The $10k PLO. I've near bubbled it the past two years, this year in spectacular fashion bvb with top pair and 2 flush draws in a 640k pot that would have put me in the top 5 in chips.
2) Rebuy NL tournaments.
3) Almost all of the NL and PLO ones.
4) I change the way I play against someone based on any factors that will influence the way they play. I don't care about anything they do away from the table and I don't make any adjustments based on them being female alone.
Thanks. I went through hell with the IRS and getting my tax situation straightened out after I was dumb enough to let myself get a couple years behind and was happy to share everything I learned to help make my friends' and followers' experience with the IRS a little less stressful.
I used to NEVER step on the cracks when I was little, but just for the hell of it and because I pretended I'd get sucked into them. I'm not superstitious. I'm up 2.5-1.5 in the dump/being dumped game and hope to never play it again. I would support my kids' decision to play poker for a living. I was 12 when I first kissed a girl. She's now dead. :-(
1) My house, even though it's not extravagant? So I guess it's my 2009 Mustang Convertible if you don't count that. I don't really buy anything expensive that's not necessary.
2) Martin Finger
3) I don't play a lot of OFC but have fun playing it with friends a decent amount. Unfortunately I let Matt Salsberg get better than me by practicing a ton so I have to work on my game if we're going to keep having our all nighters of OFC degeneracy.
1) There are definitely times where people do things and try to act in a way that's clearly over-the-top intentional and oversold.
2) Meh, the crappy battery life on my iPhone 4S is the only reason I might do it. I'm on the fence on whether or not to get the 5S. I think it's pretty ridiculous that we've become a nation that upgrades our phones every year or two. People in most countries tend to get new phones, you know, when they need them.
1) Wherever I'm winning is fine by me. I guess online? But it's close. I lead a much healthier (physically and psychologically) lifestyle when playing live, though.
2) Varies a ton. I probably only play about 25 hours a week nowadays.
3) Not really, I just always want to play the juiciest tournaments available.
4) Martin Finger. Philbort.