PokerTableRatings

In Part 1 of the interview with Rohan “RAIDERDUCK_” Aldridge, we chatted about who “RAIDERDUCK_” is as a person. In Part 2, we chat more about the game of poker, and talk some strategy and guidelines that make for a winning poker player.

PTR: One of the terms most talked about at this year’s World Series of Poker was the term “poker pro.” Of the 57 bracelets that were awarded, several players indicated in their bio sheet that they were a professional poker player despite the fact that they have no live tournament scores or television appearances. For players like yourself that make their living playing poker but aren’t recognized by most other players and fans of the game, does this give you an edge at the table?

RAIDERDUCK_: The term “Poker Pro” is incredibly widely used these days and it does not surprise me at all that many of the bracelet winners have had no television appearances. There are several types of poker professionals – they may differ in game types, stakes, live or online, ring games or tournaments, and countless other factors. There are also a huge portion of people who play poker but spend significant time on other things such as sports betting, media work and marketing, running coaching sites or rakeback sites, and staking other players.

So, taking all that into account, there is obviously a massive spectrum of poker professionals – and it takes a very specific type of professional to have any chance of reaching any recognition in the “real” world at all. There are very few poker players in the world that are recognizable by non-poker players. The very few players I’m talking about are names such as Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow – I.e. the Old school TV pros that either have excellent records in live tournaments, or are consistent high stakes players and have got a lot of media attention that way. These are really the only players that are going to be noticed by a casual fan of the game. Beyond the ESPN TV broadcasts, there is of course an entire underworld of wonderful and brilliant players – the low to mid stakes grinders online, the live cash game professionals who have no interest in tournaments or the limelight. These are the people that make up far beyond the majority of all players, and they are all making an incredible living doing so without the slightest hint of recognition by anyone in the real world.

Players who make their living playing in a live ring game will generally not be known by anyone apart from the other regulars in the same game, and the same goes for the online grinders. Anonymity is even greater for the online players, as you can play alongside someone every day for a year and have no idea about their real name or even what country they are from. Before my recent media attention, I definitely would not have been expected to be recognized by anyone who I did not know previously. I do not believe this has given me any form of edge at a live event, for example if I was playing at a live WSOP event, I would not have been any different to 90% or more of the field – a sea of anonymous, predominantly internet players that have never seen each other before. From my live poker experience, there seems to be maybe one player I recognize from every four tables – whether it is a TV pro, or a well-known player online.

PTR: What is your take on the calibre of your opponents as you move up and down in stakes? Are there really weaker players at the smaller stakes? And at what levels do you see the biggest change(s)?

RAIDERDUCK_: Game difficulty can vary so much depending on not only the stake, but what day it is, and what site you’re playing on. As I moved up through the limits, I found that the games didn’t change that much in terms of difficulty, but the overall style of play was different (i.e. more aggressive, people check raise more, or whatever). I’m sure they did get more difficult also, but it’s hard to measure as I was improving as a player also, so my win-rate never changed all that much.

These days, I don’t think there’s too much of a difference when comparing say 10nl to 25nl, or 100nl or 200nl. I don’t feel I’m qualified to comment on differences between the mid and high stakes games. I think one of the hardest things in moving stakes is not the actual difference in player skill, but the difference in money. If someone has played a certain stake for a long time and then moves up, it’s going to be very tough psychologically to all of a sudden be dealing with double their usual money on the table, as well as having to adjust to a new player pool and a game that potentially plays very different from their previous limit. I was recently sweating a friend who plays 25nl and although I was only looking at a small sample, I was shocked at how solid some of the players seemed to be. I certainly noticed a big improvement at those limits since I played them a couple of years ago. Having said that, it’s definitely not all doom and gloom. There are still plenty of fish at every level, right up to the nosebleeds.

PTR: In your blog on LifeFish.net, you’d mentioned your struggles with your late weekend gigs with your band (“Something Like This”) and the lack of sleep that you get. Do you feel you’re at a disadvantage when you play a session on days after you play a gig?

RAIDERDUCK_: My band plays almost every Friday and Saturday night so I definitely don’t have a sleeping pattern for optimal poker playing during the weekends. I’m not sure I can call it a disadvantage, because I choose to be in the band and perform at those times. The main problem is that I’m playing up for the majority of the night, so I tend to have a massive sleep in the next day, so I lose very valuable hours in those playing times. I go into detail about this on one of my latest blogs, but in short – its negative poker EV to play gigs…but its definitely plus life EV.

PTR: What immediate and long term goals have you set for yourself as a player?

RAIDERDUCK_: One thing I will say about goals is that I will never set hard and fast monetary goals – I think these add unnecessary stress to a game that is stressful enough by itself. Short term goals that I set monthly are normally volume related. For example in August my poker goals are

- 100k hands minimum
- Take regular breaks during sessions
- Study 1 hour for each 4 I play
- Don’t get tilted by beats/people in the chat
- Minimise distractions like browsing and msn

I won’t go into detail on my long term poker goals, but they include things like keep my bankroll under control, pay down my mortgages, keep improving as a player, and keep a balance between poker and other activities.

PTR: For those players aspiring to follow in your footsteps, and play online poker professionally, what advice would you give?

RAIDERDUCK_: There are a million things that could be said here! I am of the belief that if you are of average intelligence and work hard at anything 8 hours a day, you can make a living doing it. Poker is no exception. Having said this, very few people have the personality required to be an online poker professional. Although many people like poker, when it gets to crunch time, not many are willing to put in the effort to grind through that breakeven stretch, or have the mental strength to study after a long losing session, or be able to have the discipline to drop down limits during that downswing.

If you’re considering being a poker professional, my advice is as follows. (Note – I’m not going to say stuff like “don’t tilt”, and “have good bankroll management”, these are sub-traits of having the correct personality for poker)

- Make sure you love poker, like I’m not just saying that – for realz you have to love poker and love playing poker. There are very few successful grinders that don’t.
- Get a real job first. Experience the workforce and play poker on the side for at least 1 or 2 years. If you are still winning and you still enjoy poker after the 2 years, then go for it.
- Similar to above, play a huge sample before taking on poker full time. There are so many occurrences of a 21 year old binking a tournament, next month their featured in a poker magazine saying “yeah, I knew I was never cut out for a 9-5 job”. Give me a break! Don’t be one of those guys. Play a big enough sample so you experience both sides of variance.
- Realize poker is not a get rich quick scheme. Yeah, it looks great on TV when you see a WSOP winner holding up bundles of cash, but in reality, no matter how good you are, this probably won’t happen to you. It doesn’t mean you can’t be a pro, but you have to realize that 99% of the time, poker is a quiet, potentially lonely, unglamorous grind.
- Keep a balance in life. Don’t become so obsessed with playing and studying poker that you lose your other hobbies, friends, and social skills. It’s an addictive game, but it’s important that when things aren’t going great with poker (inevitable for even the best players), you need somewhere else to turn and other things to do.
- Have a group of friends, or at least a mentor. It really helps to have people there that you can share hands with and talk strategy with. Poker friends are very valuable because they can understand emotions that are experienced only by poker players, whereas you can’t expect a “real life” friend to be able to empathise with you when you’re talking about your 50k breakeven or 15 buy-in downswing,
- Probably most importantly – Make sure you have the correct personality for poker. This means having a long term focus, excellent money management skills (life-roll), a stable mental state, being able to handle having a volatile income, a logical thought process, and a never ending dedication to improvement and learning.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 29th, 2010 at 6:36 pm and is filed under Featured Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.