Interview with Rodney Blackwell, @tshirtforums, winner of last weeks #tpt.
Q1. Share with us a little about who you are?
I'm a 35 year old father, husband, and old school web geek who loves t-shirts. I run a few websites here and there :) Notice how I left poker player out of that list ;)
Q2. When did you start playing poker?
I started playing poker in high school during the early 90's. Back then it was mostly home games for spare change. Ahhh, the good ol' days.
Q3. What is your favorite poker game? Why?
With the popularity of Texas Hold'em, most home games these days tend to turn into a hold'em tournament. I've found myself recently getting nostalgic for the old "junk" home games like "acey deucey ", "follow the queen " and "baseball ".
Q4. Do you play in many poker tournaments? Is so, where?
No, not really. Just TPT and the occassional Sit N Go on FullTilt or PokerStars.
Q5. What is the most valuable poker lesson you've ever learned?
That Ace Queen is not as good of hand as it seems :)
Q6. Did you have a strategy when you play the #tpt?
Strategy, smategy. I mainly wanted to have fun. Of course, the fun is increased when you place in the money, so I try to play well enough to stick around for a while.
Q7. Were there any hands that you recall in the #tpt which were key to you winning?
Nothing worth writing home to mom about. In fact, a couple of the hands that helped me stick around were probably bad calls on my part. After I lived through those two and picked up some chips, I went back to a more sane strategy of play.
Q8. Do you have any advice for those who play in tournaments overall?
Keep having fun! Unless you're doing it for your livelihood, in which case, you don't need my advice.
Q9. Do you have any poker goals?
I would really love to play in the World Poker Tour one year. I think it would be a great experience to hang in Vegas, experience the tourney, and see how far I could go.
Thanks for your time and congratulations again!
Showing posts with label tpt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tpt. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Interview with last week's #tpt winner Rhoegg
Interview with last week's #tpt winner-Ryan Hoegg
Share with us a little about who you are?
I'm 29, and married with three children. I like to write software, and I also make a living doing it.
When did you start playing poker?
April 1, 2007 (I just checked). I joined Full Tilt because I was curious after seeing it on TV a few times, and played play money. It took a few months to learn the game, and I decided to deposit $80 when I got up to 2,500,000 play chips.
What is your favorite poker game? Why?
I play No Limit Hold 'Em almost exclusively. I am starting to learn Razz now, and will learn another variant once I play that profitably.
Do you play in many poker tournaments? If so, where?
Yes, I play a lot of multi-table tournaments on Full Tilt and PokerStars. I am trying out Cake Poker recently, and have played a few live tournaments as well.
What is the most valuable poker lesson you've ever learned?
Move up in stakes carefully! I'm still learning this one. If you play a lot of MTTs, there will be times that you win big and you find yourself with a bankroll several times the one you've been playing. It's tempting to move up and play a lot bigger than before. If you try it, be very disciplined about dropping back down when you start losing. Which you probably will. Surprise, the players at higher stakes are better than the ones you've been playing against!
Did you have a strategy when you play the #tpt?
When we got down to the final table I started using twitter for a kind of table banter. I thought it would be fun to see if anyone changed their play because of my tweets. I'm not sure if anyone did, but Street 3 started answering me.
Were there any hands that you recall in the #tpt which were key to you winning?
There were several times I won a race when it counted. I doubled up when it was 4-handed with 10-2 against A-3 of spades on a flop of J-10-2 with two spades. That put me in a good chip position for the rest of the tournament.
Do you have any poker goals?
I'd like to keep having fun playing, without going broke. I'd also like to learn a few more games; stud and omaha look interesting.
Ryan, thanks so much for taking the time to be interviewed. Congratulations on your victory!
Share with us a little about who you are?
I'm 29, and married with three children. I like to write software, and I also make a living doing it.
When did you start playing poker?
April 1, 2007 (I just checked). I joined Full Tilt because I was curious after seeing it on TV a few times, and played play money. It took a few months to learn the game, and I decided to deposit $80 when I got up to 2,500,000 play chips.
What is your favorite poker game? Why?
I play No Limit Hold 'Em almost exclusively. I am starting to learn Razz now, and will learn another variant once I play that profitably.
Do you play in many poker tournaments? If so, where?
Yes, I play a lot of multi-table tournaments on Full Tilt and PokerStars. I am trying out Cake Poker recently, and have played a few live tournaments as well.
What is the most valuable poker lesson you've ever learned?
Move up in stakes carefully! I'm still learning this one. If you play a lot of MTTs, there will be times that you win big and you find yourself with a bankroll several times the one you've been playing. It's tempting to move up and play a lot bigger than before. If you try it, be very disciplined about dropping back down when you start losing. Which you probably will. Surprise, the players at higher stakes are better than the ones you've been playing against!
Did you have a strategy when you play the #tpt?
When we got down to the final table I started using twitter for a kind of table banter. I thought it would be fun to see if anyone changed their play because of my tweets. I'm not sure if anyone did, but Street 3 started answering me.
Were there any hands that you recall in the #tpt which were key to you winning?
There were several times I won a race when it counted. I doubled up when it was 4-handed with 10-2 against A-3 of spades on a flop of J-10-2 with two spades. That put me in a good chip position for the rest of the tournament.
Do you have any poker goals?
I'd like to keep having fun playing, without going broke. I'd also like to learn a few more games; stud and omaha look interesting.
Ryan, thanks so much for taking the time to be interviewed. Congratulations on your victory!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Interview with winner of #tpt @mac_zealot
Interview with last week's #tpt Winner
Share with us a little about who you are?
Well, my name is Brian Hughes. I live and work in Hanover, NH, at Dartmouth College. Dartmouth happens to also be where I graduated from, back in 1989/90. I had spent a little over a year working as a student computer consultant and pretty much fell into my first job right after I finished up. I've been working there, since then.
When did you start playing poker?
I've pretty much been around poker just about all of my life. Back when I was a kid, growing up on Long Island, my mother moved back in with her parents (my grandparents) when I was 3. My grandparents used to host a weekly home poker game, which they did pretty much all the way through my college graduation. I think my grandmother taught me the basics of poker when I was about 9 or so and I played a bunch while I was attending Dartmouth in the late '80s, but I didn't start playing NL Hold'em until around late 2001, back when Pokerroom.com started getting popular.
What is your favorite poker game? Why?
Hmm... I'm not sure I have a favorite. I try to play all the usual forms, but No Limit Texas Hold'em is definitely my best game. It's the one that I've studied the most and put the most time into improving, but I'm also a pretty big fan of Pot-Limit Omaha.
Do you play in many poker tournaments? Is so, where?
Yes, I play in live tournaments, quite regularly. In addition to taking one to two trips out to Las Vegas, each year for the past few years, along with a few trips to Foxwoods and Turning Stone Casino (in upstate NY), as luck would have it, poker is legal in New Hampshire! I'm a fairly well known regular in 3 or 4 of the poker rooms that operate in the state and try to play every weekend, bankroll permitting, of course. :)
What is the most valuable poker lesson you've ever learned?
Wow. I don't know if I could single out any one lesson, but I would have to rank understanding proper bankroll management, even when I don't always practice it, pretty high up on the lessons learned list. Fortunately, I've only gone "poker broke" a couple of times, not actually broke.
Did you have a strategy when you play the #tpt?
Not right at the start. My initial plan was to test the waters with a few hands to see if I could pick up some chips. Turns out that didn't go as well as I wanted and was actually one of the short stacks early on. But I got a couple of good hands in the mid stages which really let me open my game up and I pretty much used good pre-flop aggression, and catching some hands in key spots, to outlast everyone at the final table.
Were there any hands that you recall in the #tpt which were key to you winning?
I have to say that there were 2 hands that really stood out for me. The first was in the mid-late stages, when I was around the chip average, with $3145, it's 100/200 blinds. I had been pretty active at the table, raising before the flop. I'm in the SB with 66 and it's folded all the way around. In the BB is cprpoker, who is a good player, but hadn't had much to play, so he'd been folding behind my raises most of the tourney.
I raise to $600 and cprpoker, who has $2820 behind his $200 BB, pushes all in. I think for a bit and put him on making a move, since I'd been so active, but this looks like a great spot for me to possibly double up, to a really healthy stack, and get a good player off my immediate left. So I type into the chat "lets race" and call. Fortunately, cprpoker has 33 and my hand holds up for a really nice pot.
The second hand happened, right towards the end, when we were 3 handed. I finally picked up pocket aces, in the BB. I just called Street3's pre-flop raise, the flop came out K high, he shoved, I called and had way the best of it, since he didn't even have a pair, yet. I had Street covered, my hand held up and put me in a great spot to go heads up with jordie21. I didn't realize it was only going to be 2 hands of heads up, but I had the chip lead when jordie21 re-raised all in, pre-flop. I called with A Q, he had 8 8 and I flopped a Q.
Do you have any poker goals?
I don't know if I have any specific goals, really. Obviously, I'd love cash big, or win (naturally :) a big money tournament. But I know that's somewhere down the road, when I'm in a better bankroll position to take that kind of shot. However, I know I still have a lot to learn and plenty of leaks to plug.
Brian, thanks so much for taking the time to share your story with us. Thanks!
-Mitchell
Share with us a little about who you are?
Well, my name is Brian Hughes. I live and work in Hanover, NH, at Dartmouth College. Dartmouth happens to also be where I graduated from, back in 1989/90. I had spent a little over a year working as a student computer consultant and pretty much fell into my first job right after I finished up. I've been working there, since then.
When did you start playing poker?
I've pretty much been around poker just about all of my life. Back when I was a kid, growing up on Long Island, my mother moved back in with her parents (my grandparents) when I was 3. My grandparents used to host a weekly home poker game, which they did pretty much all the way through my college graduation. I think my grandmother taught me the basics of poker when I was about 9 or so and I played a bunch while I was attending Dartmouth in the late '80s, but I didn't start playing NL Hold'em until around late 2001, back when Pokerroom.com started getting popular.
What is your favorite poker game? Why?
Hmm... I'm not sure I have a favorite. I try to play all the usual forms, but No Limit Texas Hold'em is definitely my best game. It's the one that I've studied the most and put the most time into improving, but I'm also a pretty big fan of Pot-Limit Omaha.
Do you play in many poker tournaments? Is so, where?
Yes, I play in live tournaments, quite regularly. In addition to taking one to two trips out to Las Vegas, each year for the past few years, along with a few trips to Foxwoods and Turning Stone Casino (in upstate NY), as luck would have it, poker is legal in New Hampshire! I'm a fairly well known regular in 3 or 4 of the poker rooms that operate in the state and try to play every weekend, bankroll permitting, of course. :)
What is the most valuable poker lesson you've ever learned?
Wow. I don't know if I could single out any one lesson, but I would have to rank understanding proper bankroll management, even when I don't always practice it, pretty high up on the lessons learned list. Fortunately, I've only gone "poker broke" a couple of times, not actually broke.
Did you have a strategy when you play the #tpt?
Not right at the start. My initial plan was to test the waters with a few hands to see if I could pick up some chips. Turns out that didn't go as well as I wanted and was actually one of the short stacks early on. But I got a couple of good hands in the mid stages which really let me open my game up and I pretty much used good pre-flop aggression, and catching some hands in key spots, to outlast everyone at the final table.
Were there any hands that you recall in the #tpt which were key to you winning?
I have to say that there were 2 hands that really stood out for me. The first was in the mid-late stages, when I was around the chip average, with $3145, it's 100/200 blinds. I had been pretty active at the table, raising before the flop. I'm in the SB with 66 and it's folded all the way around. In the BB is cprpoker, who is a good player, but hadn't had much to play, so he'd been folding behind my raises most of the tourney.
I raise to $600 and cprpoker, who has $2820 behind his $200 BB, pushes all in. I think for a bit and put him on making a move, since I'd been so active, but this looks like a great spot for me to possibly double up, to a really healthy stack, and get a good player off my immediate left. So I type into the chat "lets race" and call. Fortunately, cprpoker has 33 and my hand holds up for a really nice pot.
The second hand happened, right towards the end, when we were 3 handed. I finally picked up pocket aces, in the BB. I just called Street3's pre-flop raise, the flop came out K high, he shoved, I called and had way the best of it, since he didn't even have a pair, yet. I had Street covered, my hand held up and put me in a great spot to go heads up with jordie21. I didn't realize it was only going to be 2 hands of heads up, but I had the chip lead when jordie21 re-raised all in, pre-flop. I called with A Q, he had 8 8 and I flopped a Q.
Do you have any poker goals?
I don't know if I have any specific goals, really. Obviously, I'd love cash big, or win (naturally :) a big money tournament. But I know that's somewhere down the road, when I'm in a better bankroll position to take that kind of shot. However, I know I still have a lot to learn and plenty of leaks to plug.
Brian, thanks so much for taking the time to share your story with us. Thanks!
-Mitchell
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