How did you get your start in poker?
My curiosity in poker began with ESPN’s television coverage of the World Series of Poker in the early-mid 2000s. The broadcasts fascinated me and I was always interested in learning the strategy and reasoning behind everyone’s bets but didn’t have a clue where to start until I met my best friend Ben Lefew during my sophomore year at the University of Illinois. Ben was already a very experienced and skilled poker player and after hearing about my interest in poker was happy to take me under his wing, tell me what to read/study, and answer any questions I had as I began my online poker career.
We usually ask people to take us through a typical day at work. Do you play every day? If so, do you prepare? Can you take us through an average game-day?
One of the most appealing aspects of being a professional poker player is the freedom it allows me. This freedom generally means that[amazon asin=B0003I68RS&template=*lrc ad (right)] there is no typical day as a poker player: one day I might spend my time playing a tournament at the World Series of Poker – this means I must be there at a certain time (usually noon) and am subject to the schedule of the tournament for as long as I survive in the tournament (generally two hours of play followed by 15 minute breaks repeated throughout the day for a total of 10 hours of play). The next day I might opt to play a cash game where I can show up and leave as I please – if I am having a poor day or just not in the mood to play, I can leave within an hour of sitting down; conversely, if I feel in the zone I can stay as long as I want. The next day (or month …) I might wake up not feeling like working and decide to relax or work on one of my other businesses.
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made during a poker game?
From a financial perspective I’d say refusing to chop the remaining prizepool when I was heads up (one player away) from winning a World Series of Poker bracelet in a $1,500 event in 2009. The difference in prize money was about $235,000 and my opponent was willing to give me the lion’s share of this as I had more chips than he, but I was confident in my chances and decided to gamble instead of locking up a bigger payday. I ended up losing after one unlucky hand (my AQ vs his AK) and one bad beat (my AJ vs his A5) which netted me $150,000 less than I would have earned if I agreed to chop.
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