Ianmc38 in the well

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can you take us through the hand you played in Kilarney teamevent ?
the one where you had the chiplead with 14 to go.

it starts with something like :
i had 89 on the button...

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LuckyLloyd wrote:

Yay!! This will be great I bet!! Good luck living up to mine though, fish.

- How did you start playing? Why? Was it live or online first?
- Did you start winning right from the off?
- How long was it before you you started to read about the game, browse online forums and think "skill game - need to study"?

I first started playing with a group of friends, the usual €10 rebuy with drinks/spliffs in someones house. Myself and one of my mates started to win the games quite regularly. Then the stakes started going up a bit and we played some €50 games. This was after about 6 months. I remember playing a hosue game somewhere on the North side where we had 18 players buyin for €50 each which I ended up winning. €600 was huge to me back then and it's probably the point at which I became really interested in the game.

I started playing online soon after, completely clueless about the game and never even having heard the term bankroll management. I Started off with $400 playing 1/2 which I spun up into a few grand.

Pretty soon after I'd started playing online, I found the boards poker forum and started to realise how huge and complex a game poker is. It had never struck me before that the came had so many intricacies and was so in depth. When I first started reading the forum, I was absolutely clueless and made some really embarassing posts in strategy threads. One particularly cringeworthy one is Fuzzboxes 6 max cash games advice thread. I feel embarassed reading my replies in that! Boards then had a placebo affect whereby I found 2+2 and poker books and started to play a ton of hands online.

LuckyLloyd wrote:

- Things are going well for you now - and you have worked hard to get here. Assuming the games online never dry up entirely - do you think that you could do this long - term? Or do you definately intend to revisit gainful employment in the future?

At this moment in time I hope to never have to work again, certainly not for anyone else. I hope to do a lot of investing over the next few years and hopefully retire by the time I'm 30!

The thing with most career jobs is they don't inspire me in anyway. I find most office jobs mundane and repetitive. I also hate 9-5 hours as I'm a creature of the night and don't like the idea of having to go to bed at 11PM so that I'm fresh for the office in the morning. The one thing I do miss about my job is the general comradery that you get in an office. Playing poker full time means you spend alot of time in isolation whcih can get slightly depressing at times. I usually keep myself busy though, so it doesn't really have an adverse affect. If I was to look for a full time job, I'd probably go back to Uni and do a few courses in music with a view to getting some kind of job in the industry.

LuckyLloyd wrote:

- Do your friends and family "get" that poker isn't gambling? Are you completely honest with people who aren't Peter about the levels you play at, etc?

My Dad is fine about it. My mum eventually came around to it. My sister is clueless and calls me Gamblor. My mum was really annoying when I first left my job as she had this idea that I could lose my entire roll in one bet or that GJP could go bust and I'd lose all my money. I spent about 4 hours one night explaining everything about the game of poker to her; EV, bankroll management, game selection etc. Now she's cool with it mainly because she knows I've been doing quite well financially as well as being happier than ever in my personal life.

LuckyLloyd wrote:

- Why don't you put more stuff on your blog?

Mainly laziness. I just cant motivate myself to update it half the time. I hate posting stuff that I'd find boring and I used to do that all the time. Now if I think of something funny or quirky then I'll lash it up there else it goes untouched.

LuckyLloyd wrote:

- Do you envy players who aren't as good as you, or put in as much work big donkament scores?

I assume you've mean who've had big donkament scores? Nah I dont really envy anyone else who's playing poker. Brian Townsend maybe, but that's for obvious reasons. I'm extremely happy with what I do and if someone I know gets a big score in a tourney, I think it's great regardless of whether I rate them as player or not.

LuckyLloyd wrote:

- 2 SE regulars from when you played cash who you wouldn't want to your left? 2 SE regulars who you would pay to have sitting on your right?

I'll think of more later.

2 to my left I would say Simon Kelly when he's playing well. Jbravado the same. Sammy has the potential to be one of the finest players in the country if he could just get some emotional control and tighten up a small bit.
Also, Eamon (BuChan) deserves a mention. Another player with great potential. Also Mark from the jackpot always impressed me when I played with him.

To my right would have to be Hector/Michael jackson and the waiter who plays in the Jackpot who works in Bliss. Cnat remember his name. Tadgh would be in my top 5 too.

Glowingmind wrote:

Odd/old one for ya.
This is going back a year or so i guess, so i'm not sure if you'll remember. Tourney in the SE (i believe it was a thurs double chance) - Board is KK6xx - You bet on the river. Other player mumbles and turns over his hand to show KT. His hand is ruled dead/folded and you muck, and the pot is awarded to you.
An argument follows where he claims he said call, dealer didn't hear him - he was in seat 1 or 2. I was in seat 8 and didn't hear him either.

Now the question - you said you mucked 66 - did you, or were you trying to make him think the mess had actually saved him some chips?

Yes I remember that hand so unbelievably clearly. I had 66. kate was the dealer in question and the ruling was in my favour albeit maybe a dodgy one. But yeah I had a 666.

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AKQJ10 wrote:

Good luck Ian.

You planning on trying to qualify for any major tournaments this year?

I dont plan on it immediately but I often jump into a satellite if I see there's one on. I'm thinking about playing in one of the Asian Poker Tour events seeing as I'm in Asia.

How many tables do you play online?

I play 2-8 depending on how I'm feeling/playing. Usually 4.

What was the toughest level to breakthrough online?

I never really had any huge problems at any levels. I strolled through .50/1 and 1/2 and have played 2/4 full time for ages in spite of being way overrolled for the game. My lifetime winrate at 2/4 is 8bb/100 over 80k hands.

Do you have any particular goals as such?

Pokerwise? I'd like to earn a rake load of money, invest most of it and then live off the investments. I dont really have any aspiarations to win the WSOP or anything like that. Just to make bundles and bundles of cash.

I've had reasonable success online but have never had any online what would be your biggest piece of advice for a new online player?

Dont play too loose. Buy and use pokertracker and pokerace hud. They're invaluable tools. Using and understanding pokertracker is so important as it really shows up any flaws in your game. I usually go through every key hand after a session and see if I could have played the hand any better (both for hands I won and lost).

Did you start playing poker during or after college, did it affect your college at all?

I started playing during college, but I never played it seriously until I finished my masters in 2004.

What was your best experience in poker?

I've never really had one defining moment as such. The best thing for me is waking up everyday having had a good nights sleep and doing what I want, when I want to do it. I work when I feel like it and I make good money tax free with not too much effort. I'm happier right now than I've been at any other point in my life.

What was your worst experience in poker?

Qualifying for the Grosvenor Poker Tour event in Luton, turning up late and not being allowed to play. Luton is such a grim palce that it really annoyed me. Other than that, one of countless nights on tilt in the emporium when i dropped more than a grand to brutal players.

Dont you wanna know how sick Jbravado really is in the next well?

I think he'd make a very interesting well. The darker side of gambling. Lol.

Sneaky question, but why do you think you beat the players you play with regularly? What do they do that they shouldn't, what do they not do that they should, and what do you do better than them?
I'm not sure if it's possible to answer that properly and you mightn't want to, but just interested

maximusdecimus wrote:

hi ian
what do you prefer playing holdem or omaha in terms of enjoyment and which do you think your better at?

I love both games. I'd say I enjoy holdem more, but I like playing Omaha for a change of scenery. I'd say I'm better holdem player simply because I've played way more NLHE over the last 2 years than I have PLO. That said, I beat the PLO and O8 games I play online quite comfortably and havnt encountered very many players who I'd rate very highly, especially at O8.

I think o8 (on ipoker) is the game with the worst standard of players. In all my time playing it, I've only playe done person who actually had any grasp of how to play the game.

maximusdecimus wrote:

In the foreseable future do you see your sole income coming from poker?

Yes. Until my investment portfolio is so large that I dont have to worry about playing poker to pay the bills.

maximusdecimus wrote:

Who is your favourite pro player and why?

To be honest I wouldnt really have a favourite pro player. If I had to name someone it would probably be Patrick Antonius, just because he's sh*t cool.

maximusdecimus wrote:

Who do you think is the best live cash game player back here in dublin?

HalfBaked on boards is definitely one of the best regs. His instincts for the live game are second to none. He has a sick ability to read people and pick up weakness.

there's another guy who plays in the Jackpot who lurks on boards. Cant remmeber his name though, but that he played as MickOHora on tribeca. I was always impressed with his play both in holdem and omaha cash games.

maximusdecimus wrote:

Which poker books if any have you read and would recommend to players looking to develop their cash game?

Doc Farrell will kill me as he gave me a library of poker books which i severely neglected. I've read Harrington on Holdem 1 and 2, the Theory of Poker by sklansky, No Limit Holdem Theory and Practice by Sklanksy and Miller (i think they were the authors anyway) and the Book of Bluffs.

Harrington on Holdem was great when I first read it, as it was the first poker book id ever read and I was still fairly new to the game at the time. I'd recommend that to any novice though it is aimed at tournament play.

I think reading forums and posting hands on boards and 2+2 as well as playing a load of hands online is a much better learning tool than any poker book.

Gholimoli wrote:

can you take us through the hand you played in Kilarney teamevent ?
the one where you had the chiplead with 14 to go.

it starts with something like :
i had 89 on the button...

Well I actually had 8s9s UTG. Blinds were something like 1k/2k and I made it 6k to go with a stack of about 80k.

Folded to the BB, a lady who i'd been running over at a previous table. She was quite tight, but a bit of a donk and the likes of QJs would be a monster to her even if there was a bet in front of her. She just had me covered.

So anyways, the flop comes AcJc6c. She checks. I bet 10k. She looks back at her cards and calls. So I'm now thinking she has Kcx, maybe slowplaying the nuts. The turn is a brick 5 giving me a gutshot. She checks and I fire out 30k. She agonises for ages and eventually calls. So now I'm thinking she has KcKx or QcQx, as she'd definitely have crai on the turn with a made flush or AxKc. The river is the gin card for me. An offsuit jack. The perfect card for me to bluff as if I was semi bluffing wiht a jack on the flop and turn ive now hit trips. She checks, I move all in for 40k. She thinks for about 8 minutes and calls with KK sending me to the rails. Everyone including me was flabberghasted at the call. I'm pretty happy with how I played it as I had her range perfectly, I just chose to bluff a calling station who had 2 pretty looking kings that she couldnt fold which she was calling down in the hoipe of hitting her flush with! The most annoying part was later on I said to her that I'd gone quiet in the hand in spite of incessant speechplay throughout the rest of the days play. She then started telling people that she'd got a read off me because I'd gone quite! grrr.

Also tell about something hugely degenerate you've done, doesn't have to be poker

con_leche wrote:

Can you describe a hand from early on in your playing days, where you felt afterwards you had made real improvement, or that was particularly special at the time.

I cant think of anything right now. One thing which is more sitautional rather than being had specific is playing JJ and QQ in position to a 3bet. Back in the day I used to 4 bet those hands all day. I still do occasionally both for value and metagame reasons, but I think calling with those hands is a much better play in the longrun.

con_leche wrote:

What is your favourite film and why?

That's a really tough question as there are so many. Amadeus would be pretty high up the list. It's just the perfect film. F Murray Abrahams performance is absolutely breathtaking. The music, the acting, the camera shots. It's a must see movie for anyone, although it's about 3 and a half hours long.

Others high up on the list are Amarcord and La Strada by Fellini (genius), Goodfellas, Amelie, American Beauty (though the last time i watched it I wasnt really feeling it anymore). Also a notable mention to Citizen Kane which was way ahead of it's time. The first time I saw the movie I thought it was the greatest piece of cinema ever produced and the ending was pure genius.

con_leche wrote:

Do you use 2p2 for investment advice?

Thank you, and have a nice trip.

I've browsed the forums but havnt really taken anything out of it as yet. I was planning on putting something up on the boards investment forum soon enough as I'm pretty clueless when it comes to investing.