Hey Matt, I know you play other sites and wondered if you had any big scores elsewhere before you joined sky. The reason is i noticed that amongst the bigger winners of the last few years You/Tommy/Divs mtt wise you all started out struggling on here. -£1800 in sng/mtts for yourself over 1400 games which hopefully you won't mind me saying but you then came 2nd for 4k in a tourn and basically never looked back. Just some comparisons tommyd and divs were similar but respectivly 4200 games each-ish. Think that win gave you a massive confidence boost or just variance ironing out ? i just find it remarkable how when some players get that one mtt win they then pile in with another monster score or just motor on full steam ahead. Proudest ever win ? i no from experience mine isn't even my biggest score...not even close. Was a pleasure to meet you at UKPC even though i wanted to not like you through sheer jealously of your recent success. Do you play live tournies much ? plans in them for the year ? I didn't know you have coaching by mark (very shrewd) - improved your game alot ? Maybe I'll message him Edit* a former total player way past his glory days informed me my post looks like a rubdown. I assure you it's not to any of you it's just a pattern I've noticed. Posted by Nutter5932
Firstly, I didn't see what you said as a rub so now the answer.
Before I started winning on sky I was and have been a consistent winner on stars. I play on different sites and you need to adjust your game to different sites. I struggled for a long time to adjust to sky. Something clicked on sky and I haven't looked back since. It took me a long time to adjust to playing styles on sky and to make appropriate adjustments for the lack of antes.
I think the big win for me was the WSOP package one. Following that win I made a some really good friends (Marc/Tommy/Kev (Oldboy271)/Ryan). Also it allowed me to appear on the show and brought some credibility to my family of the thing I had been spending so many hours playing. The brand of sky helped move my part time hobby from something my family didn't talk about to something they were very proud of telling their friends about!
Also, I won a massive pot against Beaneh early on (he had blockers to the only hand I could call with......I wasn't folding top set....from speaking to Ryan/Nick he took it well!).
I am very good friends with Marc and he has improved my game loads. The way he explains things and thoughts he has continues to take my game to new levels and shows me how much I still have to learn from the game!
*trying to work out which player past his glory days you are talking about!
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. Posted by Slipwater
At the end of my sessions I used to rail certain players and I learned lots from watching them. Guys like Moorman1(Chris Moorman) /Dean23Price (Marc Wright) /Imdanuts (Chris Oliver) etc.
These days, being able to rail Marc and see hole cards or ask what hands he has is really valueable and you can learn so much.
In Response to Re: Matt Bates In The Well : At the end of my sessions I used to rail certain players and I learned lots from watching them. Guys like Moorman1(Chris Moorman) /Dean23Price (Marc Wright) /Imdanuts (Chris Oliver) etc. These days, being able to rail Marc and see hole cards or ask what hands he has is really valueable and you can learn so much. I guess it was ok to meet you too! Posted by MattBates
there graphs could do with some work!!! i have some random questions if i may, do you drink much alcohol and if so wots ur favourite tipple? have you been arrested on many nights out? whats your favourite film? and finally you are on the final table of the sunday million, you are heads up evenly stacked with ur opponent, ur opponent happens to be sky reg, uve had a beer with him many times at spts and u get along really well and u would consider him a friend, u have a big edge on him though and have no idea how hes luckboxed his way to heads up, he wants to chop the prizemoney, yes or no???
1 How often do you update your notes and do you use the colour notes.
2 When nearing the final table do you target other big stacks to build a healthy lead or the smaller stacks trying to ladder (non bounty hunters )
3 How many bb can you let yourself get down to before its shove any two ip in bounty hunters as you will be called very light.If there not doing it already.
What situation would you need to be in order to go 'pro'? After a big score? Or do you think that being 'semi-pro' allows you with more freedom in how you play/stakes/aggression etc. If you could go back to the start of the WSOP ME 2 years ago and had to give yourself 1 sentence worth of advice, what would it be? What night of the week is your favourite for Sky MTTs? Families/friends thoughts of poker? Posted by scotty77
If I had a normal job then I would have thought more about going pro however as I said in another post I work for a company owned by my family and I so that changes things. At the moment I can play part time and help the family build up a business during the day so that works well (albeit it can be very tiring). If I got say a £50k bink I would have to think about things though!
Wednesday is my favourite night as I love rebuy tournaments.
I feel I approached the ME well (I had the likes of you/Julian/Marc Wright/Tommy/James Raan/Sam Bayliss giving advice before the tournament and in breaks etc which was really useful). Part of the difficulty of answering this is I am a lot better player now than I was then. I think I could have been more aggressive on day 1 as my table was very good to be on and I could have chipped up to an even better day 1 stack to make it easier when I got harder tables.
A few of my friends play a bit of poker, most of my friends/family don't understand it. Winning the ME package helped legitimise what I do especially as I appeared on the show and the sky brand really helped. As I have been playing for so long I think they understand the skill vs luck side of things so don't see it as gambling now.
Hi matt, do you spend much time away from the virtual felt working on your game, given that you play considerable volume and work full time, also what advice would you give to rec players looking to improve their game. Finally whats more enjoyable, winning a tourney, or getting to tell tommy d that you won a tourney? Posted by david666
I surround myself with poker players (Skype/facebook etc) so this helps as I can go over hands with a lot of people, I think this really helps. Asking advice on hands on the forum can help too. I do HH reviews with Marc Wright and the guys we back. This is really useful and some of the strategy stuff Marc does on end game is worth its weight in gold. MTTs are top heavy so you need to have a good end game to make the big bucks. I have been called a luckbox by the odd player and I think this says it all
"I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."
For rec players, a good piece of advice that I heard is to have a reason for every decision you make. I would also say you need to always try and improve your game but most importantly make sure you have fun
Best moment was beating Tommy HU to win an MTT earlier this year, not so good moment was him beating me HU in an MTT. 1-1 ATM!
It was good texting him to brag I was on mini ft and last 2 tables in a UKOPS last week. Not so good when I finished 7th in the main!
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? Posted by Matt237
I would have to use some expert climbing skills to get out, probably in my current condition its a no!
Lambo posted saying he had misclicked, I did a similar thing, was deep in a Sunday tournament on another site and bet 96k rather than 9.6k. I still had a playable stack after but was probably $20k ftw, 100 players left so was pretty painful. It didn't effect my whole session but my mate who was round did get a shock when I shouted "fold you xxxxx (long abusive sentence)" The guy had flopped massive and called!
I originally went down the MTT route as I can only lose a set amount. I played a bit on party poker then moved to stars and managed to get off to a really good start playing MTTs with some decent binks and I was hooked! I played on sky (due to the tv aspect) and was a losing player for a while. My sky breakthrough moment was probably the WSOP win and after that I have had great success since. For a long time I didn't adjust well enough to playing styles on sky to the lack of antes 6max vs full ring
When I made appropriate adjustments it has lead to really good results.
Confidence and experience are really key in MTTs. Getting an early win on stars gave me great confidence then moving from a losing player on sky and winning regularly really helped my confidence. Having experience of situations when deep in MTTs is invaluable.
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. Posted by Slipwater
TY for the kind words, was good having a beer or 7 with you!
I do enjoy watching other players and I think you can pick up a lot from watching other players. As I said previously I would rail certain guys and I think that helps. What has really helped me even more is railing Marc and being able to ask him what he had in certain spots.
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? Posted by TeddyBloat
I haven't/don't use any calcs but ICM is really key, laddering is frowned upon by some. However if you can get a few up a few extra spots in a few MTTs each week, work out how much you are up by the end of the year! Key is getting wins and top 3's but for eg on a ft when you have a shortstack you must adjust your ranges otherwise you are burning money.
One of the best training sessions I did was with Marc where he went through a HH from an MTT he won and he explained his thought process. Basically he was bullying certain stacks putting maximum ICM pressure on them. Really opened my eyes to things. ICM is key, some people have no awareness of ICM and only look at their hands so you need to be aware of this when trying to put pressure on certain stacks.
I find some people avoid playing me and others call me really light as my reputation is I am aggro and always at it!
Rock has taken chat to new levels and I aspire to get up to his chat levels! I try not to get involved with chat box antics but at times I do and its normally tilt related!
Hi Matt, Thanks for taking the time to do this. 1 How often do you update your notes and do you use the colour notes. 2 When nearing the final table do you target other big stacks to build a healthy lead or the smaller stacks trying to ladder (non bounty hunters ) 3 How many bb can you let yourself get down to before its shove any two ip in bounty hunters as you will be called very light.If there not doing it already. Thanks Pat Posted by day4eire76
I don't use the colours. My notes aren't great, they are more mental notes as opposed to detailed notes on players. I find I tend to pick up a lot of table dynamics and I play by feel a lot.
If I have the CL I will pick on middle stacks and bigger stacks but it depends on how many bb's players have. With a lot of MTT experience you can pick up on spots to bully certain players/stacks and this helps you get the balance right between risking a good stack and maximising an ft stack!
I find its a mixture of how many bb you have and how many opponents have as its hard to make a light call when its a decent % of your stack. On sky you can get as low as 6bb at times, in other spots its more like 12bb.
In Response to Re: Matt Bates In The Well : there graphs could do with some work!!! i have some random questions if i may, do you drink much alcohol and if so wots ur favourite tipple? have you been arrested on many nights out? whats your favourite film? and finally you are on the final table of the sunday million, you are heads up evenly stacked with ur opponent, ur opponent happens to be sky reg, uve had a beer with him many times at spts and u get along really well and u would consider him a friend, u have a big edge on him though and have no idea how hes luckboxed his way to heads up, he wants to chop the prizemoney, yes or no??? Posted by THEROCK573
Never been arrested. Whisky is my drink of choice! Currently watching A few Good Men which I have seen a lot and do like it. Other fav films are the classics Die Hard/Back to the future/The Great Escape/
thanks Matt for the reply. 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? Posted by jdsallstar
Early on I was self taught. Watching other good players and discussing hands got me to a certain level. Recently working with Marc Wright has taken me to another level. This level has taught be better understanding of when/how to be aggressive. Over time my style has evolved, I managed to win with a shove/fold type early on and as I got more experienced things improved and now I have what I feel is a reasonable aggressive game! The key thing is to make sure your game is always evolving and improving
Hi Matt What is more satisfying for you? Final tabling , say , 4 MTT's in a week and winning £1k or Winning one for £1k. Posted by VespaPX
Depends on the fields and buy ins and how I played. Anyone can go deep in an MTT so it may be that I grinded really well in one MTT in a tough field or could be I put in a few good results which is always satisfying!
Bit of a long one this.... 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? Do you ever think about winrates and think urgh? Posted by Lambert180
A lot of cash players play MTTs for a shot/for a change to their normal game! I guess it breaks up what can be a mundane grind at times. In terms of win rates I look long term and you have to with MTTs especially when playing on the larger field sites. You will have days/weeks/months where you lose but you will have massive winning days when you bink say $5k or even $10k! As long as by the end of the year you have made a good enough hourly then that's all you need to worry about. The trouble is it is hard to know these figures unless you have a decent sample size and individual binks can materially effect them. A big part of MTTs is playing the big field competition and chasing that dream! I guess that's why I play the roller every week when I don't think I have cashed it yet this year!
Comments
Before I started winning on sky I was and have been a consistent winner on stars. I play on different sites and you need to adjust your game to different sites. I struggled for a long time to adjust to sky. Something clicked on sky and I haven't looked back since. It took me a long time to adjust to playing styles on sky and to make appropriate adjustments for the lack of antes.
I think the big win for me was the WSOP package one. Following that win I made a some really good friends (Marc/Tommy/Kev (Oldboy271)/Ryan). Also it allowed me to appear on the show and brought some credibility to my family of the thing I had been spending so many hours playing. The brand of sky helped move my part time hobby from something my family didn't talk about to something they were very proud of telling their friends about!
Also, I won a massive pot against Beaneh early on (he had blockers to the only hand I could call with......I wasn't folding top set....from speaking to Ryan/Nick he took it well!).
I am very good friends with Marc and he has improved my game loads. The way he explains things and thoughts he has continues to take my game to new levels and shows me how much I still have to learn from the game!
*trying to work out which player past his glory days you are talking about!
These days, being able to rail Marc and see hole cards or ask what hands he has is really valueable and you can learn so much.
I guess it was ok to meet you too!
Hart
Johnson Cahill Jagielka Baines
Henderson Gerrard Carrick
Sterling Rooney Sturridge
Wednesday is my favourite night as I love rebuy tournaments.
I feel I approached the ME well (I had the likes of you/Julian/Marc Wright/Tommy/James Raan/Sam Bayliss giving advice before the tournament and in breaks etc which was really useful). Part of the difficulty of answering this is I am a lot better player now than I was then. I think I could have been more aggressive on day 1 as my table was very good to be on and I could have chipped up to an even better day 1 stack to make it easier when I got harder tables.
A few of my friends play a bit of poker, most of my friends/family don't understand it. Winning the ME package helped legitimise what I do especially as I appeared on the show and the sky brand really helped. As I have been playing for so long I think they understand the skill vs luck side of things so don't see it as gambling now.
"I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."
For rec players, a good piece of advice that I heard is to have a reason for every decision you make. I would also say you need to always try and improve your game but most importantly make sure you have fun
Best moment was beating Tommy HU to win an MTT earlier this year, not so good moment was him beating me HU in an MTT. 1-1 ATM!
It was good texting him to brag I was on mini ft and last 2 tables in a UKOPS last week. Not so good when I finished 7th in the main!
Lambo posted saying he had misclicked, I did a similar thing, was deep in a Sunday tournament on another site and bet 96k rather than 9.6k. I still had a playable stack after but was probably $20k ftw, 100 players left so was pretty painful. It didn't effect my whole session but my mate who was round did get a shock when I shouted "fold you xxxxx (long abusive sentence)" The guy had flopped massive and called!
I originally went down the MTT route as I can only lose a set amount. I played a bit on party poker then moved to stars and managed to get off to a really good start playing MTTs with some decent binks and I was hooked! I played on sky (due to the tv aspect) and was a losing player for a while. My sky breakthrough moment was probably the WSOP win and after that I have had great success since. For a long time I didn't adjust well enough to
playing styles on sky
to the lack of antes
6max vs full ring
When I made appropriate adjustments it has lead to really good results.
Confidence and experience are really key in MTTs. Getting an early win on stars gave me great confidence then moving from a losing player on sky and winning regularly really helped my confidence. Having experience of situations when deep in MTTs is invaluable.
I do enjoy watching other players and I think you can pick up a lot from watching other players. As I said previously I would rail certain guys and I think that helps. What has really helped me even more is railing Marc and being able to ask him what he had in certain spots.
One of the best training sessions I did was with Marc where he went through a HH from an MTT he won and he explained his thought process. Basically he was bullying certain stacks putting maximum ICM pressure on them. Really opened my eyes to things. ICM is key, some people have no awareness of ICM and only look at their hands so you need to be aware of this when trying to put pressure on certain stacks.
I find some people avoid playing me and others call me really light as my reputation is I am aggro and always at it!
Rock has taken chat to new levels and I aspire to get up to his chat levels! I try not to get involved with chat box antics but at times I do and its normally tilt related!
If I have the CL I will pick on middle stacks and bigger stacks but it depends on how many bb's players have. With a lot of MTT experience you can pick up on spots to bully certain players/stacks and this helps you get the balance right between risking a good stack and maximising an ft stack!
I find its a mixture of how many bb you have and how many opponents have as its hard to make a light call when its a decent % of your stack. On sky you can get as low as 6bb at times, in other spots its more like 12bb.
No, I wouldn't chop.
Good work from me in not answering the Q!
2. Burger King
3. McDonalds