Punters Lounge Players: Interviews

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This thread will contain all the interviews done with Punters Lounge poker players. My aim is to give more of a platform for the poker players on PL to get them more recognition and give us a bit more insight into their successes. Some interviews will be small, focussing on a particular tournament they've been successful in and other interviews will be longer with more in-depth strategy discussion etc. Hope they're informative and enjoyable :ok

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Re: Punters Lounge Players: Interviews Interview with Rivrd about his superb result here and other strategy chat: Q: Legendary Pl'er Rivrd, you have such consistent results over a long time-span, what keeps you motivated? Rivrd: My motivation is that there is always room for improvement and each game throws up its own challenges, i have many flaws in my game but have been working hard on a few over the last few months which has shown improvement more recently in some results. Q: Looking at your great $4.6k win in the 888 $30k challenge were you hanging into the money or circumstances saw you go down to just 1.5bbs? Rivrd: Very rarely will i try to hang into the money, i had lost a couple of flips which had caused me to get short stacked i had noticed in this case that it was right on the bubble and for time of play was worth hanging in until it popped. Q: It must have been quite a series of all-ins to get back into it, were there any memorable hands? Rivrd: The bubbled had popped and was just a matter of getting the chips in in the right spot. In this case there were 2 raises before me and i had J Q all in and felt that i would be pretty much have live cards. i was up against A 10 and A K and was lucky enough to hit a set of Qs. Five hands later i had pocket 9s and shipped that in to get called and i rivered a fullhouse. I made a couple of steals from then, and then the hand that moved me back up was my KK v AK which held up and then doubled further up with a set of 4s against a call from a player with A9. Q: With tournaments being so top-heavy how do you generally approach a final table? Rivrd: I'm never afraid of bubbling a final table but often if im in a good position i will let the aggressive players take each other to make a ft which often happens. Q: Were you a bit more relaxed for this final table as you had come back from having a ‘chip and a chair’? Rivrd: My only thoughts were winning once i was on the final table i had a half decent stack but there were still a couple of decent players to get through and also the calling stations that were ultra agressive. When it got down to 4 players it was a matter of sustaining an equal amount of chips and not to drop to low. Q: What was the heads-up battle like and is it somewhat harder to finish second than say fourth for example due to getting so close but missing out? Rivrd: Was short and sweet really, the calling station had knocked the other 2 players out and he was about 8/2 favourite in chips, i bthink i made a shove with A9 and he called with Q7 and spiked his Q. Was happy with the result one that i had satellited in for $10 and also for coming back from the dead. Q: Anything else you'd like to add? Rivrd: Is to never give up, and also to never be afraid of bubbling before the money or a final table. Keep up the great results mate, I’m sure this will be the first of many chats :)

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Re: Punters Lounge Players: Interviews Interview with Marek76 who topped the PL winners list for January with over $10k in winnings, we talk about that and also some strategy chat. Q: Being the biggest winner in January, what drives you to achieve that level of consistency, is it the competition, money, or something else? Marek: I’m a competitive type. Be it foosball table, a game of chess or poker, rest assured I don’t take prisoners. I’m there to win it. :) the money is an equally important factor, I’m not going to deny that. Q: And how long have you been playing poker with the kind of consistency we saw in January? Marek: I’ve been playing poker for good few years, but earlier on it was literally just a hobby, a way of spending spare time. I only started looking at it more seriously slightly more than year ago. I basically play when I have time. I start playing a MTT when I know I have spare 4-5 hours ahead of me. No point staring playing a tourney if you know you need to step out in two hours. Q: Do you study tournament strategy often and if so, what do you consider a key component of a successful tournament player? Marek: I don’t have much spare time but do occasionally grab a poker book or study other player’s move during tournaments. I can recommend Gus Hansens’s book ‘Every hand revealed’ where he comments in detail on every hand he played during 2007 Aussie Millions. He happened to win that tourney. Q: The 20^th Jan was an incredible day for you, $4.8k in winnings is that your most successful day or just a normal day in the life of Marek? Marek: Not a normal day for sure. I’ve never I finished two MTTs on 1^st and 2nsd spot on the same day before. I woke up fresh as a daisy and full energy that day. It goes to show that there’s no replacement for a good night of sleep. Q: So often you made deep runs last month, what stands you out from the vast majority of tournament players who struggle? Marek: I started to work on my patience in tournaments. Many players simply get bored or impatient after 3 or 4 hours of play. Often when they hit the cold streak and don’t get any decent cards to play with or don’t even get a chance to raise the pot cos there’s a 3bet and 4bet in every hand that’s where they start to make strange moves, like limping or calling a raise with Q9o out of position. I try to avoid doing that. Q: Do you have any strategy tips for players looking to make deep runs like you do? Marek: As I said before, be patient, play one hand at a time. Plus, make notes on other players if you can. Also, it’d be wise to invest some money and purchase supporting programmes available (ie. Holdem Manager, Sharkscope). Make no mistake, all successful MTT/cash players use them, why give them a handicap? I only started to use Holdem Manager this week, time will show if this can improve my results. Tip of the day though would be that morning/early afternoon tournies (at least on PS) are much softer that the evening ones. You get my drift :) Q: What are your future hopes and goals in poker? Marek: I’d love to win a live tournament; the adrenalin rush must be 10 times bigger compared to a victory in a online tournament. Best of luck to you all at the tables! Thanks again, hope you can continue the rest of the year like you've started :ok

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Re: Punters Lounge Players: Interviews Interview with Fenners after his excellent second place for $9.9k from a $1 buy-in. Q: One dollar into $10k, that’s a nifty way to kick off the year, does this result change your poker plans for the year? Fenners: Not really I always bank 90% of any wins over $1000 to pay for hols and nights out etc so will continue to play the same tourneys. Q: Can you identify any key or interesting moments during the tournament, as with 13k runners there must have been some huge pots? Fenners: I called an all in with AA after the rebuys finished and another 4 people called all with bigger stacks than me and for once it held up which put me in a strong position. Q: I imagine the structure was pretty fast, but were you able to play much post flop? Fenners: Before the rebuys finish its pretty much all in or fold and you have to win the coin flips after the rebuys its different because your $1 gets you 30 000 chips as opposed to 1500 during the re-buys. Q: And what was the heads-up battle like? Fenners: The heads up took over an hour for 2 reasons ,firstly my opponent was chinese and roughly typed he was happy to split as we had similar chips but didnt know to make the deal as his english was so bad ,took about 30 mins for me and the 20 watchers trying to explain what to do,without any success. 2ndly after 58 levels the blinds dont increase from 500 000/1 000 000, and we both had 400 mill at the start. Q: What advice would you give for people playing these small buy-in but very top heavy tournaments? Fenners: Just go for it early on set a limit of $5 and go/call all in with any pair AK AQ AJ suited connecters anything that takes your fancy till you get to 40k in chips then just play premium hands(AIPF) till the add on and 70k was enough for me to come 2nd. A week later in same tourney I was chip leader after add on with 375k in chips and came 7th for $1800 Thanks for your time, gl for the rest of the year! Thanks also and good luck to all PLers.

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Re: Punters Lounge Players: Interviews Interview with Andybell666 about his exotic trip to the Bahamas after his PCA package win. Q: Your PCA package win was a couple of months ago now but how was the experience? Andybell666: The experience was awesome….I have played quite a few live $$$ mtts (including WSOP) and met many of the pros before but I must admit I was surprised about how nervous I was to start with. Poker a side it was an awesome trip – you can’t really go wrong as you get guaranteed good weather in the Bahamas and the lifestyle is so laid back! Q: Where would you rate the Bahamas on the scale of places you’ve been in theworld, would you recommend people try hard to qualify for it next year? Andybell666: As previously mentioned – it is amazing. I am pretty well travelled and yes – it was good to visit so I can say I have been but unless I am playing poker there again I doubt I will be back as it is pretty far and awkward to get to. Also, poker aside it is pretty much for honeymooners and couples. Also, everything is that little bit pricier than most places so you need cash and to have a really good time you need a bucketful of cash! Q: We know you like to enjoy yourself, any stories or events away from the poker that stand out from your time in the Bahamas? Andybell666: Let’s just say that I made a lot of new friends…..especially three lovely girls from NYC. It really is not the party island that you may think and hence we had quite a few chilled out nights….don’t get me wrong –drunken – but nothing crazy. Q: I noticed in a picture of you observing Mercier and Veldhuis’s table, but you weren’t wearing any shoes, were you hustled out of them? Andybell666: Ha! This is not nice – but I actually get really sweaty feet when things get a bit tense in live poker and hence I quite often wear flip flops and go for a little stroll over the plush carpets to cool them down! Q: What was it like to play with the famous names? Were they intimidating or have much banter? Andybell666: I have played several WSOPs before and been lucky enough to play with famous company so it does not bother me too much – but I still do find it all a bit fascinating. This particular occasion was a lot different as there was such a high concentration of them so they ended up just chatting amongst themselves. Mercier and Racener ended up just playing hours of chinese poker on their ipads! Q: With the tournament being so PokerStars centric, were their pros cliquey or are they down to earth and approachable? Andybell666: I think a little – it was a bit like Team Pokerstars vs the rest – the pros were constantly moaning about the rule etc….It was very Pokerstars centric and if I am being honest a little impersonal compared to other tournaments I have played. Maybe I just need to win big and become famous too! Q: How tempted were you to cash in the $20k prize or was it in the T&C’s that you had to play? Andybell666: Not tempted for one second actually. This was an opportunity of a lifetime and it so happened that I was kinda going to be in the neighbourhood anyway (NYC – if you call that close). I actually had the full $$$ in my account at one stage and could easily have kept it. Q: Did you feel some extra pressure as some PL members had pieces of you? Andybell666: Yes if I am honest – more than ever as this was a large sum of money. It certainly played on my mind a few times during the day – especially at the start. There was no way I was going to take huge risks early and bust out to let them all down. Q: Anything else you’d like to add? Andybell666: I am now addicted to rum! Thanks for your time and good luck for the rest of the year!