Hi Matt - who is your favourite poker professional and do you especially enjoy watching players with a similar style to your own?
For what it's worth, it was great to meet you and pick your brain, especially at the UKPC earlier this year. It was good to get some hands-on advice from someone who knows how to play this game. You're a top bloke mate, and I wish you every success on the felt.
What is your live record like? Do you think your game/style works just as well live as online? I'm sure I heard you had a few binks when you went over to Vegas with some of the Sky guys. Why don't you play cash? Is it just because you find it less fun? Can you ever see yourself putting in any kind of proper volume playing cash? Posted by Lambert180
I haven't played loads live. I won a Vegas package on sky which gave me a nudge to play more live. I did really well in Vegas getting a couple of small cashes and chopping the Rio $135 daily deepstack twice. I do like playing live but it is expensive with high variance compared to playing online. I do want to play more live and will be playing in the Sky 6max later in the year. I haven't cashed in a UK live comp yet so I need to rectify that asap! I haven't a big enough sample size to really know how good my live game is and whether my online game will be suited to live. I did do well in Vegas and my game has come on loads since Vegas mainly due to work I do with Marc Wright so I feel with some volume I can get some live decent live scores.
I have never really got into cash, I think part of it was having early success with MTTs and being comfortable playing them that I have never seriously played cash. I am one of the best at live drunk cash though (just ask Tommy!) I cant see myself putting in serious volume playing cash atm but you never know what the future will bring.
matt you've mentioned icm in the past. how big a consideration is it in making correct decisions late in MTT's and do you do in game calcs or review after tournaments. any good resources you can recommend?
you're quite well known on the site now, do you think players avoid getting into pots or do you find peeps like to try and take you on?
what are your chatbox skills like? the rock for example has took chat box agression to the nth meta level. do you ever get involved?
Hi Matt So a player is just about to start an MTT, what 3 tips would you give him/her on how they should approach the tournament? (assume a standard freezeout tournament) Posted by jdsallstar
Play in position as much as possible Be aggressive - If you can be the aggressor in pots you can control the action and win with or without a hand Enjoy yourself, at the end of the day its a game and we all started playing it to have fun!
hi, another non related poker question here, obviously ive seen you on sky channel before and seen your physique, is it true you used to be a gymnast? Posted by 10bb4life
As Matt will be quite busy I'll help him out with this one and take some of the strain. Matt, you are most welcome.
Another one for you - how did you get into poker and how did you become the player you are today? i.e. self taught, books, coaching etc etc, and have you always played a similar style?
I remember a mate said to me ages ago about how he enjoyed the gme so much more before he understood winrates.
Playing HU SnGs for instance is great thinking some nights you can win £50 in a night playing £5 games but when you learn more and realise a 5% ROI is pretty sick, so you'd have to be crushing the games just to be winning 26p per game!
Transfer that to MTTs... do you think a lot of cash players play MTTs for the fun/glory/a break from the cash grind? I ask because if you take a £33 main, and a good player who usually plays 100/200NL who has a 20% ROI in MTTs.... that means he's spending an average of probably 2-3 hours to win £6.60 when he could win that alot easier just replacing that 1 MTT with 1 more table of cash. Of course it's nice when the score comes but in reality that's what you're winning longterm everytime you play, right?
You can see on WWSA or my diary the blow up I had in the main. Luckily all my other tables were cash so I was able to just stand and close down the session...
When you've got a full grind going on, 12-20 MTTs (or whatever u do), and you get a couple of proper horror hands whether it be nasty coolers very deep, blows ups from yourself, bad beats etc, how do you cope with trying to carry on with the rest of your tables and still play well?
Hi Matt, I hear you also back some players as well as playing yourself... -How has it gone so far? -do you back many players? -how do you choose players to back? which do you prefer to use when playing, a booster seat... or childs desk, so your feet reach the floor? Posted by chicknMelt
I back a handful of MTT players with Marc Wright. The guys are well known by us so no trust issues (which is key in a backing relationship). The key with backing is understanding the variance and providing good coaching to your guys. Both Marc and I are very well experienced at MTTs so we understand the variance side of things and Marc deals with the coaching for the guys so they are lucky enough to have one of the best MTT players/coaches in the country helping them.
I like to stay grounded so always use a childs table!
Hi Matt - I think you play anything from £11 - £110 buy ins on here. Do you notice a difference in the standard of play across the different buy ins and do you play differently depending on buy in? Do you make notes on players whilst playing loads of tables or do you not have the time? Is notes on players important to you? Do you play cash for a change? Cheers Greg. Posted by GREGSTER
There is a difference between the stakes but it isn't as big as people think. A lot of people grind sky as their main site so play similar to myself and play mini then £11bh to roller so there is a lot of the same faces. I do have some notes on players, a lot of my notes are not written down but just from playing the same players. Notes are really useful but must be used carefully. Players amend their game so I use game flow in conjunction with notes to make decisions.
What's the most amount of buyins you've ever spent on a standard structured Sky rebuy tournament? How long would you need to go without a score to consider yourself on an MTT downswing? (hypothetical obv, I know it hasn't happened yet) How do you rate your mental game? In a big 30/40+ MTT session on a Sunday for example lots of weird and wonderful stuff will be happening from MTT 1, bad beats, near missus, blow-ups, bubbles, wins, periods where you can't win a hand, can't lose a hand etc. How easy is it to stay as close to your A game as possible for the remainder of the session whilst all this is going on? What's the key to doing so? Just experience? Favourite Chinese takeaway order? Posted by DOHHHHHHH
I think I have done £150ish in an £11r before! A lot of my best results have been in rebuys so I will "invest" a lot at times to get a big stack as historically this has helped me to get decent scores.
At the start of the year I went through a bad spell for about 6weeks or so, I was playing ok but running well in small buy in games and badly in the roller/£55's. This hit my profit line pretty bad. Due to the number of runners on sky and size of the player pool over the last 2 years I haven't had many bad runs as I know most players and your aren't trying to wade through monster fields like on some other sites where you can beat 10k players and still not get a monster score!
I have been playing poker for maybe 10 years now so I have a lot of experience which helps you cope with the beats a bit more. For every beat you get, you will put one on someone else. Some Sundays can be painful when you are running bad and cant get any stacks going but it only takes one score to make it a good day so as long as I have a table left I have hope. I back some players with Marc Wright and some Sundays can be particularly hard when everyone in the group is running bad. This happened a few Sundays back, but as I said, it only takes one tournament and I went on to win an $11r for $3k so a bad day was a good one for me and some of the other guys got scores as well. I think the most frustrating days are when you get a lot of stacks but no big scores/when you make errors. You cant win every tournament so sometimes getting a min cash is a good result or say laddering a couple of extra spots on a ft is the best you could have done. Some days the deck smashes you in the face and you win but haven't really played all that well so you cant be results orientated and need to analyse your game irrespective of your finishing position. You can remove as many errors from your game as possible and this is why I do a lot of work on my game. I get a lot of coaching from Marc Wright, within the stable we analyse hands and discuss spots. I also go through hands/spots with sky regs (and even ask TommyD from time to time) to get their views.
As much as you try to stay on your "A" game you cant always play your best so sometimes you need to cut your session a bit short and dereg some tournaments. I definitely think experience is key though and helps get you through painful sessions along with a good group of players to chat to on Skype etc to keep motivation levels up.
I prefer Indian takeaway to Chinese, fav dish would probably be duck in pancakes or crispy chilli beef.
what do you think seperates the best tournament players from winning tournament players? Posted by The_Don90
End game is key, MTTs are all about top 3 spots and laddering. You cant win every MTT so you need to pick spots and ladder up where possible but know that its all about getting top 3 spots as that's where the big money is. Regarding end game, some people take too many risks, others not enough. Getting the balance right is crucial!
I think the best players are always looking to improve, some winning players are just happy they are winning.
well without blowing 2 much smoke up ur backside i have to say you are probably the toughest player to play against in mtts, you have played me quite a bit so obviously u wont wanna tel me some of my leaks that are exploitable cos its -ev for you but can you give me one piece of advice for me to improve on, il just use it when u arnt at the table :-) Posted by THEROCK573
You have a very good game and unless I have a decent stack I don't get in confrontations with you. TBH, I cant think of anything off the top of my head.
hi, another non related poker question here, obviously ive seen you on sky channel before and seen your physique, is it true you used to be a gymnast? Posted by 10bb4life
How many tables do you play on average and how do you manage your session? ie. With tournaments there comes a point you don't want to reg another, so do you just then play through each tournament till you're only on 1 table left?
Do you think it's a bad idea to tangle with other good players at the tables, even if you have a big stack? I used to have too big of an ego and would often try and out-play those at the table I thought were good players. But I've since changed that because I don't think it makes sense to try and take marginal edges against good players when you can take bigger edges against the less good players at the table. But yet when I've watched some live tourneys you do see some good players getting into pre-flop raising wars with each other - some of these players get very good results so they must do something right.
Real question is Would you be able to get out of a well? ha ha :-)
Has a betting mistype or a misclick ever affected your session as a whole instead of just one tournament? (Obviously now it's probably standard but thinking back to earlier days)
Why MTTs, and not cash? (Apologies if this has already been asked)
When was your first real breakthrough as a winning player and how much of a confidence boost was this?
Comments
For what it's worth, it was great to meet you and pick your brain, especially at the UKPC earlier this year. It was good to get some hands-on advice from someone who knows how to play this game. You're a top bloke mate, and I wish you every success on the felt.
I have never really got into cash, I think part of it was having early success with MTTs and being comfortable playing them that I have never seriously played cash. I am one of the best at live drunk cash though (just ask Tommy!) I cant see myself putting in serious volume playing cash atm but you never know what the future will bring.
you're quite well known on the site now, do you think players avoid getting into pots or do you find peeps like to try and take you on?
what are your chatbox skills like? the rock for example has took chat box agression to the nth meta level. do you ever get involved?
Play in position as much as possible
Be aggressive - If you can be the aggressor in pots you can control the action and win with or without a hand
Enjoy yourself, at the end of the day its a game and we all started playing it to have fun!
What is more satisfying for you?
Final tabling , say , 4 MTT's in a week and winning £1k
or
Winning one for £1k.
Playing HU SnGs for instance is great thinking some nights you can win £50 in a night playing £5 games but when you learn more and realise a 5% ROI is pretty sick, so you'd have to be crushing the games just to be winning 26p per game!
Do you ever think about winrates and think urgh?
I like to stay grounded so always use a childs table!
I rarely play cash.
I think I have done £150ish in an £11r before! A lot of my best results have been in rebuys so I will "invest" a lot at times to get a big stack as historically this has helped me to get decent scores.
At the start of the year I went through a bad spell for about 6weeks or so, I was playing ok but running well in small buy in games and badly in the roller/£55's. This hit my profit line pretty bad. Due to the number of runners on sky and size of the player pool over the last 2 years I haven't had many bad runs as I know most players and your aren't trying to wade through monster fields like on some other sites where you can beat 10k players and still not get a monster score!
I have been playing poker for maybe 10 years now so I have a lot of experience which helps you cope with the beats a bit more. For every beat you get, you will put one on someone else. Some Sundays can be painful when you are running bad and cant get any stacks going but it only takes one score to make it a good day so as long as I have a table left I have hope. I back some players with Marc Wright and some Sundays can be particularly hard when everyone in the group is running bad. This happened a few Sundays back, but as I said, it only takes one tournament and I went on to win an $11r for $3k so a bad day was a good one for me and some of the other guys got scores as well. I think the most frustrating days are when you get a lot of stacks but no big scores/when you make errors. You cant win every tournament so sometimes getting a min cash is a good result or say laddering a couple of extra spots on a ft is the best you could have done. Some days the deck smashes you in the face and you win but haven't really played all that well so you cant be results orientated and need to analyse your game irrespective of your finishing position. You can remove as many errors from your game as possible and this is why I do a lot of work on my game. I get a lot of coaching from Marc Wright, within the stable we analyse hands and discuss spots. I also go through hands/spots with sky regs (and even ask TommyD from time to time) to get their views.
As much as you try to stay on your "A" game you cant always play your best so sometimes you need to cut your session a bit short and dereg some tournaments. I definitely think experience is key though and helps get you through painful sessions along with a good group of players to chat to on Skype etc to keep motivation levels up.
I prefer Indian takeaway to Chinese, fav dish would probably be duck in pancakes or crispy chilli beef.
I think the best players are always looking to improve, some winning players are just happy they are winning.
When I was a lot younger I was a gymnast