Q+A with Marty Smyth

bohsman

As agreed to in the congrats thread...

Usual rules, no flaming etc.

Well done Marty, loads of great results over the last few years, especially the bracelet...

1) What result have you been happiest with over the last few years?
2) Rooming with KP - never again?
3) What games are you mainly playing at the moment?
4) Tournament plans over the next 12 months? Big assault on next years WSOP?

Good luck Marty, this should get you used to blogging/posting on forums by the end of the week. Heres a link to Nicky Powers well btw just to show how they usually work http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055224072

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

RichieLawlor

Its been rumoured that you only had a % of yourself in the 10k omaha, did you feel the need to sell off some to lessen the buy in or was it % swaps with other players

nicnicnic

good man for doing this Marty I'll be in later when i think up a few awkward ones for ya

con_leche

I played with you on some of the feeder tables at the Irish Open this year, as you were waiting for a bigger game, and have to say you were a gentleman at the table.

1. How did you learn PLO?

2. Favourite PLO starting hand?

3. What stakes PLO cash have you played on line?

4. At what stakes online do you think a balanced re-raising range become essential in PLO?

5. Were there any live PLO players [tournament or cash] that you thought were on another level?

6. Most memorable PLO cash game hand?

The Tourist

- Give us a summary of how your cork main event went last weekend (key hands, table dynamics etc).

- What do you do to adjust when you get moved tables in a tourney, eg to a table that is playing much looser than your last one. Also, how long does it take you to adjust?

Thanks.

jbravado

Have you ever considered " giving up " poker? following this what was your lowest point through involvement with the game?

Have you ever felt that your choice of proffession has let or embarrassed family or loved ones?

What are your poker ambitions for the future?




Thanks for doing this-should be great.

The Tourist

nicnicnic wrote: »

good man for doing this Marty I'll be in later when i think up a few awkward ones for ya

Thought you'd still be on holidays . Wp.

MrPillowTalk

1) ODea Vs Black in an ultimate fighting cage match, who wins?

2) How did Boyles manage to get you on the advertising hoarding at the recent Arsenal game? Word is Sunderlands new away strip will have a full picture of your mug on the back instead of numbers any truth in this?

YULETIRED

I dont know how the frowny got onto my post....above..^^

congrats on putting Ireland on the more recent WSOP bracelet map..

if you had to play a well known pro HU for rolls, who would it be?

have you ever lost your rag at the table....details?

what is the most creative ginger name you've been called ?


those gay photos looked cringey to us hetros, which of that lot gets drunk the easiest ........my guess is Eoin

how would you describe yourself as a poker player....eg..tag, etc

....someone else can ask you the fav things Qs




















nothing to se down here"

connie147

Hi Marty,
Should be a great thread to read!!

I must say I thouroughly enjoyed the FT experience of the WSOP omaha tourney that you won, (I was there with my wife Patricia in the midst of the Irish "mob"). Do you think anythink could surpass that moment for you in your future playing career? (if it was that good for us, I cant imagine how good it was for you).

I played with you last Friday in the ME of the Macau festival. You seemed disinterested in the event, but maybe I was wrong in my assumption. I know you were on a little holiday and took in the tourney as part of it. Was it a case of get a stack and take it seriously or lose my chips and head to the bar?

Best of luck in your well. You deserve all the credit your getting. Top-man.

Connie.

rag2gar

I rememeber one of your earliest interviews before the Irish Open was at your first appearance at the Ladbrokes Poker Million. In the interview you said winning a million ie the final "wouldnt really change anything", how was this so?

Based on this comment I assume you were already making a comfortable living thru online poker. Where did you cut your teeth as it were? Omaha or NLH? Cash or tourney? What stakes/table ie 6/max, heads-up 2/4 3/6 etc

In the past did you always exercise propare bankroll management? Did you take risks en route to where you are now?

Which is the best discipline to learn poker ? Cash or tournaments ? Which do you prefer?

What advise would you give to a new player startng out?

Who would you consider to be the best players/toughest opponents in A)Ireland B)Europe C)the world?

Out of the Irish Open and the 10k PLO you commented on your blog that the WSOP meant more to you? What was your reasoning behind this?

Have loads more qs but I figure you will have lots more to answer so I'll leave it at that. Tyvm for doing this, you are a lege of Irish Poker and prob the best player in Europe at present, wp sir!

TripleAce

-[FONT=&quot] - [/FONT]Do you also play Online MTT? Are you as successful Online as you are live? (not in terms of absolute earning, but as general tourney results) . What are the main adjustments you make to your game when you play Online vs Live?

Thank you.

marty smyth

holy chit... i wasn't expecting this many questions... i might need to take on staff.
i'll make a start anyway and see how it goes. i'm gonna be keeping most of my answers short and i'll try to answer everything to start with. i might need to re-assess that policy after a while tho depending on volume of future questions. if i answer anything and u want me to explain it further then u can say so, but bear in mind how much i'm trying to get thru.
also, i'm gonna just work through them in order, so if i go past ur question its cos i missed it accidentally so let me know

BigCityBanker

Good luck in the well.

- What has been your biggest poker epiphany?
- Biggest Influence on your poker career?
- If you could do it again, what would you do differently? i.e. play a specific hand differently, dont get involved in poker etc.
- One exit hand that you wished you had won, from any tournament.
- What makes you uncomfortable at the table? i.e another specific player having position on you, stack sizes, stakes etc.
- what is your biggest leak? what was once your biggest leak that have since corrected?
- what is the most common mistake that you see players making that they shouldnt really be making?
- what would you change about poker in Ireland?
- If you could trade either the IO or the PLO Bracelet for any other title, which one would you trade and for what title?
- What is the sound of one hand clapping?
- If it takes two men, threee days, to walk backwards into eternity then how long does it take Oliver Twist to pick a pocket or two?
- When you were 3 handed at the FT in Vegas there was a 10 minute break and ppl were just hanging around chatting, at one stage, mid sentence you paused and looked at John O'Shea (dagunman) and said "holy ****, do you wax your chest?".... how upsetting was it for you to learn that a guy who masquerades as man with an unblemished record of heterosexuality may actually be hiding something in the closet. If you hadnt won the bracelet do you think you would ever have forgiven John for upsetting you and potentially putting you off your game like this? It wouldnt have been much of him to ask to button up the shirt?

I look forward to reading this thread when I get home at the weekend.

yeah-buddy

Do you play poker online?
If so what site do you play on(can you play on other sites excluding boylepoker) and what tournaments do you play?

marty smyth

bohsman wrote: »

As agreed to in the congrats thread...

Usual rules, no flaming etc.

Well done Marty, loads of great results over the last few years, especially the bracelet...

1) What result have you been happiest with over the last few years?

looking back now the bracelet without a doubt... my poker mil 2nd place last year was a a big relief at the time tho as i was running really bad for 6 months before it

2) Rooming with KP - never again?

lol we'd a great time in the house and most of the time people just slept where they fell. anyway... after the first few nights when i rejected his advances he stopped trying to sneak in with me during the night.

3) What games are you mainly playing at the moment?

i've played about 10 hours online since may, and that was only cos i had to make training videos for a new site i'm involved with. for the last few years, ive been playing between 5-10 and 50-100. i'm not convinced i'm good enough to beat the bigger games anymore and when i do start back, which i'm going to soon, i'll be playing 5-10 mainly for a while, maybe even 3-6

4) Tournament plans over the next 12 months? Big assault on next years WSOP?

i've just been thinking bout this today actually. gonna be very busy indeed between mid-sept and xmas... wsope/london ept omaha events, few irish tourneys, amsterdam, maybe warsaw and budapest epts, gukpt final, pokermillion semi and hopefully final. in january, galway then aussie mils and then a couple of months off after that to travel in oz. not thinking as far ahead as wsop next year, but probably similar to this year - 30k in buys-in or maybe a little more.

marty smyth

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to do this.

- What did you do with yourself before poker? Could you / would you want to ever go back to it?

- How long have you been deriving your sole / the bulk of your income through poker?

- In terms of your poker history, did you have an individual moment or session where it clicked with you that you could make it in the game - or was it more a gradual progression?

- Do you punt on things away from the table (table games / horses / general sportsbetting)?

- The one time I played at the same table as you was in a €1k tournament in Drogheda a short time after you won the Irish Open. I noticed that you seemed kinda disinterested - like you were not really paying attention outside of your own two cards. It of course seemed perfectly logical that you would have a tough time knuckling down for a three day event at those stakes so soon after such an incredibly significant result.

Which leads me to my question. After the huge results you have had, how long on average has it taken you to get the head back on track and playing your best? Is this something that has gotten easier for you?

- i went from being a student, and although i'd worked a few jobs b4 that they were only temporary things and never would have turned into a career (i hope) so there isn't really anything to go back to

- 6 or 7 years

- about 6 years ago when i'd been playing for about a month or 2 online on ladbrokes - i wasnt that good then but the standard was terrible. that was when i really started making good money - more than a good job would pay, and then i started to think that it could become a career for me. i still thought the whole online poker thing would fizzle out after while tho and i'd have to find something else

- i punt on all of those, but i try not to play table games for bigger than fun sized stakes. i've been making a profit on sports/horses for the past few years.

- i wouldn't say that i would be disinterested in a smaller tournament. i may have seemed that way that day, but i probably seem that way in the early stages of big tourneys too. i know there's more skill when the blinds are small, but i get a bit bored too. i cant really be arsed with deepstack tourneys, but if i'm still there once it gets close to the money then i think i step it up a gear in terms of effort

marty smyth

RichieLawlor wrote: »

Its been rumoured that you only had a % of yourself in the 10k omaha, did you feel the need to sell off some to lessen the buy in or was it % swaps with other players

i thought i was value in the omaha, but not huge value, so i was happy to play it as a 5k tournament and sell off some. i think i'm much more value in the main event (depite not having done well the 3 times i played it) so i wouldnt be selling %s in that - in fact if the wsop main event was a 20k buy in with the same field of players then i'd be happy to pay the full entry. having said that, the wsope is a 20k buy in, but i wont be playing that as i dont think the field represents value

for the record btw, i sold 42% and swapped 5%. ive read a lot of different reports.

pokerkingsni

Where did you learn the game? Living in Belfast what were the options to play live poker?

Cheers, Eoin.

marty smyth

con_leche wrote: »

I played with you on some of the feeder tables at the Irish Open this year, as you were waiting for a bigger game, and have to say you were a gentleman at the table.

1. How did you learn PLO?

2. Favourite PLO starting hand?

3. What stakes PLO cash have you played on line?

4. At what stakes online do you think a balanced re-raising range become essential in PLO?

5. Were there any live PLO players [tournament or cash] that you thought were on another level?

6. Most memorable PLO cash game hand?

1. the hard way... by getting spanked in the jackpot in dublin until i worked out how to win at it

2. when my opponent has bad Aces and i have 4 random cards reasonably close to eachother and we are both fairly deep. i dont really have one favourite hand myself.

3. if u mean what is the highest stakes?... i think £25-£50 or $50-$100 is as high as i've played with any regularity - possibly one or 2 spins at $100-200.

4. to be honest im not sure i even understand that question fully... which is maybe why i've been struggling recently

5. i was sat beside a young girl called vanessa selbst in the first PLO event i played in vegas - she went on to win it. it's hard to draw conclusions from 1 days play, but i'd certainly never been more impressed by any omaha player. apart from that, i've played against lots of cash players who i consider to be better than me, but i wouldn't necessarily say 'on a different level'

6. this was the biggest pot i'd ever been in at the time - i've played a couple of bigger pots since, but this feels like the biggest pot because it was bigger relative to my bankroll at the time.

dont remember exact hand but it was def 25-50 and we were 22k deep, and there was 150 in the pot on the flop.
we somehow managed to get it all in on a JT5 flop with me having JJ and nothing else, and him having 789 and nothing else. turn 4 and river 6 making him a str8, which i didn't see at first because i was watching for something close to a J or T

marty smyth

The Tourist wrote: »

- Give us a summary of how your cork main event went last weekend (key hands, table dynamics etc).

- What do you do to adjust when you get moved tables in a tourney, eg to a table that is playing much looser than your last one. Also, how long does it take you to adjust?

Thanks.

really not much to say about the cork main event... the first big pot i played was after an hour when i had about 12-13k left and that was when i busted.

i called a preflop button raise from dave c for 350 with Ad3d. then a tight player (gary mc lovin) made it 1100. dave called, so i called too for value to try and out-draw him. flop T83 with 2 diamonds and we got it all in. i was happy to get it in and either bust or go to the bar. no disrespect to the tournament btw... i'd play the hand in the same way in an ept- well after the flop anyway.

when i get moved to new table i'll prob play tight for the first couple of rounds until i get an idea what is going on. i not sure if i do anything to adjust to a new table as such. i just take each hand as it comes and factor in all the information i have, but that can change from hand to hand even at the same table with people busting and people winning and losing pots and how they are reacting - and also it can change depending on how i've been playing and whether i think thats likely to alter other players' perception of me at the time, so i suppose in effect i adjust my game slightly every single hand

marty smyth

jbravado wrote: »

Have you ever considered " giving up " poker? following this what was your lowest point through involvement with the game?

Have you ever felt that your choice of proffession has let or embarrassed family or loved ones?

What are your poker ambitions for the future?




Thanks for doing this-should be great.

- not really... i had a pretty small bankroll for a while just b4 i came 2nd in the 2007 poker mil, but then i knew there was a good chance i'd get a big cash injection from that. even if i hadn't, my first course of action would have been to step down a few levels or try playing live cash games instead rather than just give up poker.
also, even though my poker bankroll was getting very low, i'd invested a lot of money - not enough to live on forever by any means, but i owned a decent house and an apartment with no mortgage, so i knew that even if i had to get back to reality and get a 9-5 job, i'd still be in great shape relative to how i had been when i started in poker.


- not lately. my parents etc have been totally happy with what i do for the last few years because of the reasons mentioned in the last paragraph above. like a lot people tho, when i started gambling in my late teens / early 20s, it was a problem for me, so yes - there was some embarrassment back then i'd say.

- my main ambition is to make enough money to be able to quit playing and retire. i don't think i'd ever want to quit totally, but i'd like to be in a position where i could just play occasionally for fun.
having said that, if i could get to that point by winning a few more big tournaments along the way then that would be ideal as its a helluva buzz.

eagle eye

Hi Marty, and again congrats on the bracelet and a wonderful 18 months in tourneys as well.

I only played with you once and it was in Cavan in 05, you weren't happy with me when I doubled up a shorty called Stephen McClean:D. I was only new to the scene at that stage and I thought you were a very focused player, you seemed to be watching everything. I have spoken to you once or twice since then and you seem to be a very decent bloke. Best of luck with this, and for the future as well.

My questions

1. You have had a lot of success in holdem tournaments and the big one in the wsop in Omaha. Whats the biggest difference in playing tournament Omaha and tournament Holdem'?

2. Name the final table that you would not like your chances at in a HA game?

3. If you had a choice between playing only one of Omaha or Holdem for the rest of your career which would you choose and why?

4. Which has an softer field, an ept or wsop event of similar buyin?

5. Do you set targets for youself or just go day by day?

6. What do you think is your biggest strength in Poker?

Thats all for now, might have more later. Again best of luck with this?

marty smyth

MrPillowTalk wrote: »

1) ODea Vs Black in an ultimate fighting cage match, who wins?

2) How did Boyles manage to get you on the advertising hoarding at the recent Arsenal game? Word is Sunderlands new away strip will have a full picture of your mug on the back instead of numbers any truth in this?

there are a lot of factors to consider... how drunk is O'Dea? would andy's buddism get in the way of him delivering the killer blow if he had O'Dea pinned to the ground? i assume u mean O'dea jnr btw? maybe i'd go

8/11 O'Dea v Black 6/5

- i hear boyles are in talks with niall quinn right now to get the ground re-named 'the marty smyth stadium'

marty smyth

i'm taking a break for a few hours... might be on later to answer a few more. this is fkin scary though - every time i try to answer someone i get 2 more email alerts about new posts... back in a while (or possibly tomorrow)

marty smyth

YULETIRED wrote: »

I dont know how the frowny got onto my post....above..^^

congrats on putting Ireland on the more recent WSOP bracelet map..

if you had to play a well known pro HU for rolls, who would it be?

have you ever lost your rag at the table....details?

what is the most creative ginger name you've been called ?


those gay photos looked cringey to us hetros, which of that lot gets drunk the easiest ........my guess is Eoin

how would you describe yourself as a poker player....eg..tag, etc

....someone else can ask you the fav things Qs

- tony bloom... because with the size of our rolls i'd be getting odds of about 500/1

- not that i remember. i've got a bit upset with people online although that's pretty rare these days too... not because they've put a bad beat on me or anything like that, but because i really can't stand the way people think they can just say whatever they want online without ever having to deal with the consequenses. something that winds me up no end is when someone wins a big pot and then needles the guy who lost (unless there is a bit of previous between them). when stuff like that happens i might react a bit. i shouldn't react though because it doesn't do any good.
i've had people say stuff like 'i honestly hope u and your family get cancer' just because i put a bad beat on them. i'm aware that when someone says something like that, they probably don't really mean it, but it's inexcusable. if it happened in a live poker room then they would probably be banned, and possibly badly beaten up. anyone who would say that without any provocation is a piece of **** and i think the sites should come down hard on them, and i don't just mean a chat ban...
see i've lost my rag just talking about it

- i'm not ginger... i'm strawberry blond

- robbie taylor, although that's probably why he doesn't drink very often

- i'd say it varies... maybe tight passive early in tourneys and tight aggressive later on. in cash games loose aggressive at small stakes and tight aggressive higher up. tight passive if i'm playing too high in a crazy game.

marty smyth

connie147 wrote: »

Hi Marty,
Should be a great thread to read!!

I must say I thouroughly enjoyed the FT experience of the WSOP omaha tourney that you won, (I was there with my wife Patricia in the midst of the Irish "mob"). Do you think anythink could surpass that moment for you in your future playing career? (if it was that good for us, I cant imagine how good it was for you).

I played with you last Friday in the ME of the Macau festival. You seemed disinterested in the event, but maybe I was wrong in my assumption. I know you were on a little holiday and took in the tourney as part of it. Was it a case of get a stack and take it seriously or lose my chips and head to the bar?

Best of luck in your well. You deserve all the credit your getting. Top-man.

Connie.

- i think the only thing bigger is the wsop main event, but i think maybe, like a lot of things, the first time u win a bracelet might be the best. i can't see how the atmosphere could have been any better and it's hard to imagine how i could have had a better experience. i'm pretty sure that in many years time when i'm finished playing poker, i will look back on that as my fondest memory. obviously there are other tourneys with bigger first prizes, but u wouldn't get an atmosphere like there was that night at any EPT or WPT final table

- it was a bit like that i suppose. i was never going to throw my chips away just so i could get to the bar, but i was playing a lot of pots and i was definitely happy to get them in when i felt i was even slightly ahead or else close to 50-50 if i was behind... which was the case in the hand i went out. i think also because i'd picked up the trophy for the omaha event, i kinda felt like i'd done ok for the week, even though it wasn't for much cash.

nicnicnic

good stuff Marty

would you back the ugly one in the photo to win the wsop ME this year at 5/1



whats your view on poker players picking there noses when getting there photo taken

Biggest bet sports/horses

other then me whose the toughest opponent you have faced in a NLH tournament


Any plans to play WPT events this/next year

Flipper is my favorite player whose yours

marty smyth

rag2gar wrote: »

I rememeber one of your earliest interviews before the Irish Open was at your first appearance at the Ladbrokes Poker Million. In the interview you said winning a million ie the final "wouldnt really change anything", how was this so?

Based on this comment I assume you were already making a comfortable living thru online poker. Where did you cut your teeth as it were? Omaha or NLH? Cash or tourney? What stakes/table ie 6/max, heads-up 2/4 3/6 etc

In the past did you always exercise propare bankroll management? Did you take risks en route to where you are now?

Which is the best discipline to learn poker ? Cash or tournaments ? Which do you prefer?

What advise would you give to a new player startng out?

Who would you consider to be the best players/toughest opponents in A)Ireland B)Europe C)the world?

Out of the Irish Open and the 10k PLO you commented on your blog that the WSOP meant more to you? What was your reasoning behind this?

Have loads more qs but I figure you will have lots more to answer so I'll leave it at that. Tyvm for doing this, you are a lege of Irish Poker and prob the best player in Europe at present, wp sir!

- i think i said that if i won the million, it wouldn't really change my lifestyle that much, it would just be an extra bit of security. before the final i'd been winning consistently for about 4 years - i'd already bought an apartment and probably had a bankroll of 2 or 300k which was plenty for the games i wanted to play and for the lifestyle i wanted... i already had enough cash that i didn't need to worry much about what i spent on everyday stuff or on clothes or eating out or even holidays... so really i couldn't see what difference to my lifestyle at that time that the money would make if i won. i'd just have stuck the million in the bank or invested it in some way, so in a way i'd have been back to the same bankroll i had before, but of course with a bit more security for later in life.
of course at that time i wasn't thinking about what impact winning a big tournament like that means to your profile in terms of sponsorship etc. also i thought there'd be easy money to be made online for years to come... i didn't realise it would get so much tougher.

- things were different when i started playing online. there weren't heads up or 6 handed tables back then and at the very start when i first played on ladbrokes there was only fixed limit, and no tournaments of any kind. i'd been making a bit before in dublin and in small home games in the north, but when i started online i played a bit of 1-2 and 2-4 stud and some small fixed limit holdem. then they introduced NL cash games and i moved to that as that was the form of poker i was familiar with from playing in dublin. there was only 1-2NL to begin with, then they introduced 2-4 then a few months later 3-6 and then 5-10 etc, but at the time all the players who had been playing at the previous level just moved up to the next level once the table was created so in effect it was the same game, same players, same standard, but with higher blinds. eventually they introduced omaha, and tournaments and i diversified into those too.

- i didn't think about bankroll management at all back then. i was playing 5-10 when i had 10k in the whole world. i was very lucky that i had a bit of a head start on a lot of the players who were playing on the net at the time, and there were so many bad/inexperienced players around it was hard to go bust.

- small sit and goes are a good idea when ur starting off i think, as u need to exercise different styles at different stages of the tourney, and there is such a wide range of players that u encounter, all with different styles and different abilities and u can pick a lot of stuff up from the winning players and hopefully learn from the mistakes of the losing players.

- i much prefer tournaments at the minute

- be very careful with your roll and don't be in a hurry to move up the stakes even if ur winning. be honest with yourself if ur losing - it's very easy to find excuses and think u've just been unlucky. if ur losing over a long period of time, its highly unlikely that its just a bad run of luck, even if it does seem like that

- hard to say as there are different type of poker.. holdem, omaha, cash games and tournaments, and u can further separate those into live and online. liam flood's record in TV 6-seaters is as good as anyone in the world, but he wouldn't be a great cash game player. and there are lots of good cash game players who don't do much good in tournaments.
in ireland, people like andy black, liam flood, scot grey, padraig and donnacha seem to have been around for ever and there's obviously a good reason for that. there are loads of great young players making serious cash who aren't as well known as they play mainly online and i'm not going to single any of them out. if u really want some names i think the best omaha players in the country are tom hanlon, cooney, dave c, and dennis winters in no particular order. donnacha's been making money for years in cash games, tournaments, holdem and omaha, and does well live and online, so if u want an all rounder u wouldn't do much better than him.
in england i think ram might be the toughest i've played against, and richard ashby has the annoying habit of totally destroying you but still always leaving you feeling that u've been unlucky and u'll get him the next time.
internationally, i'd just be naming players on reputation... i don't really watch a lot of tv poker so i've seen very little of guys like phil ivey, but i'm sure he has to be a strong contender for the world's best player.

- it was more about the experiences i had while i was winning each event. the irish open was unbelievable, and i'm immensely proud to have held the title. when i was heads up in the IO however i don't think i fully realised how big winning actually was. when i was in HU in vegas though i was fully aware of the enormity of what i was playing for. every poker player in the world dreams about winning a wsop bracelet (ideally the main event but for me this was number 2) and i knew this might be the only time i would get a chance like this. also as u'll see on tv when it's shown, the atmosphere was absolutely unreal. all things considered, the omaha just felt that bit bigger than the irish open did. having said that i don't think any other tournament outside a wsop bracelet event would ever mean more to me that the irish open win.

-so much for short answers

marty smyth

TripleAce wrote: »

-[FONT=&quot] - [/FONT]Do you also play Online MTT? Are you as successful Online as you are live? (not in terms of absolute earning, but as general tourney results) . What are the main adjustments you make to your game when you play Online vs Live?

Thank you.

this time last year i would have said that i did much better online, and at that point i had definitely made more money online. since last summer though i've really found it tough online.

i very rarely play tourneys online as i get very bored, but i used to play tourneys on ladbrokes occasionally and i think in terms of the amount that i entered, my results would have been as good as anyones. i never done much good on stars though, although i don't think i really give the sunday mil my full attention because of the time it starts and how long i know it is going to take... i'm always trying to bust or get a big stack. i'm going to start playing more online again soon on boyles, and i'm definitely going to be playing more tournaments than i used to. i'm not really sure what adjustments i make between online and live. i find i'm able to get a better idea of my opponents style and abilities more quickly in live games, which is a big advantage, so perhaps in live games i might tend to 'play the player' more and maybe online i play more by the book. i don't really know though, i'd have to think hard about it to answer it properly.

marty smyth

BigCityBanker wrote: »

Good luck in the well.

- What has been your biggest poker epiphany?
- Biggest Influence on your poker career?
- If you could do it again, what would you do differently? i.e. play a specific hand differently, dont get involved in poker etc.
- One exit hand that you wished you had won, from any tournament.
- What makes you uncomfortable at the table? i.e another specific player having position on you, stack sizes, stakes etc.
- what is your biggest leak? what was once your biggest leak that have since corrected?
- what is the most common mistake that you see players making that they shouldnt really be making?
- what would you change about poker in Ireland?
- If you could trade either the IO or the PLO Bracelet for any other title, which one would you trade and for what title?
- What is the sound of one hand clapping?
- If it takes two men, threee days, to walk backwards into eternity then how long does it take Oliver Twist to pick a pocket or two?
- When you were 3 handed at the FT in Vegas there was a 10 minute break and ppl were just hanging around chatting, at one stage, mid sentence you paused and looked at John O'Shea (dagunman) and said "holy ****, do you wax your chest?".... how upsetting was it for you to learn that a guy who masquerades as man with an unblemished record of heterosexuality may actually be hiding something in the closet. If you hadnt won the bracelet do you think you would ever have forgiven John for upsetting you and potentially putting you off your game like this? It wouldnt have been much of him to ask to button up the shirt?

I look forward to reading this thread when I get home at the weekend.

- What has been your biggest poker epiphany?

no idea... maybe just recently, when it suddenly hit me that maybe i should stop selling off %s of myself and just stick to a few swaps

- Biggest Influence on your poker career?

per werner svesson - a swedish guy who i used to play in the same games as when i started online. in my opinion he was totally different class to anyone else at the time and took a lot of money from me, but i was making more from the others at the table, and the stuff i learned from him was invaluable

- If you could do it again, what would you do differently? i.e. play a specific hand differently, dont get involved in poker etc.

i wouldn't lend out money

- One exit hand that you wished you had won, from any tournament.

pokermillion final last year maybe - it's a tournament i'd love to win

- What makes you uncomfortable at the table? i.e another specific player having position on you, stack sizes, stakes etc.

getting into pots deep-stacked with someone who i consider to be better than me

- what is your biggest leak? what was once your biggest leak that have since corrected?

i was quite a sick gambler 15 years ago and everything was a leak really but not a huge leak as i didn't have much money to lose and there's only so much debt u can get into at that age. i still play table games the odd time, but not often and i don't consider it a problem that i need to give up.

- what is the most common mistake that you see players making that they shouldnt really be making?

tilting and playing higher than they should in cash games where they are the value at the table.

- what would you change about poker in Ireland?

legalise it in the north

- If you could trade either the IO or the PLO Bracelet for any other title, which one would you trade and for what title?

i'd trade either for a wsop main event bracelet... that would be the only thing. and i'd probably trade the omaha bracelet actually - i'd be happy with one bracelet and one IO title, and if u have to have one bracelet then the ME is bigger.

- What is the sound of one hand clapping?

- If it takes two men, threee days, to walk backwards into eternity then how long does it take Oliver Twist to pick a pocket or two?

if he was picking the pocket of a certain irish poker player who got robbed twice in the same night in vegas this year, then maybe it would only have taken him a couple of hours.

- When you were 3 handed at the FT in Vegas there was a 10 minute break and ppl were just hanging around chatting, at one stage, mid sentence you paused and looked at John O'Shea (dagunman) and said "holy ****, do you wax your chest?".... how upsetting was it for you to learn that a guy who masquerades as man with an unblemished record of heterosexuality may actually be hiding something in the closet. If you hadnt won the bracelet do you think you would ever have forgiven John for upsetting you and potentially putting you off your game like this? It wouldnt have been much of him to ask to button up the shirt?

i wasn't upset at all - i was just wondering why i never thought of it b4... i could do my back and shoulders while i was at it. far from putting me off, i think it actually spurred me on to victory, as i was thinking if i won then i'd get the number of his beautician and give myself a nice treat afterwards...

marty smyth

yeah-buddy wrote: »

Do you play poker online?
If so what site do you play on(can you play on other sites excluding boylepoker) and what tournaments do you play?

of course i can play on other sites, but why would u want to?
seriously - yes i am allowed to play on other sites, but if i am playing on the i-poker network then i play on boylepoker. i've hardly played anything online at all in the last while, but i'll be playing a good bit this month, mainly cash, although i'll be playing in some bounty tourns on boyles as well.

ITT-Pat

Great replies so far. Cant think of much now apart from:

Who have you found to be the best 'character' you have met on the poker scene?

Sparks43

will u still play any thing on ladbrokes eg sunday 100k , poker million sats ,omaha cash


is macadonia gone if so i will miss 1 of the best players ive seen and someone who inspired me to keep plugging away online

absolutly chuffed you have done so well in the last 18 months keep going as i want to beat you heads up in the open next year

marty smyth

pokerkingsni wrote: »

Where did you learn the game? Living in Belfast what were the options to play live poker?

Cheers, Eoin.

i'd always played poker since i was very young and played in small home games with friends in belfast through secondary school and university. it was only when i started playing in the jackpot in dublin that i learned holdem and omaha and that was were i continued to play until the internet started getting big. there have been a few illegal clubs that have came and gone in the north, but at the minute there are only 2 decent legit ones that i know of and they are both quite far from where i live.

glenjamin

Just a couple of quick Qs, if you don't mind Mr.Smyth?

1- Would you ever feel comfortable enough to sit down and play the 'big' games in Vegas now that your're the PLO champ?

2- Did you find that reading books and forums on poker helped your game. Or was it all down to your sheer experience of sitting down playing at a casino learning from your own mistakes?

3- Now that your're financially secure would you ever consider going on the tournament trail playing tourney after tourney in search of more 'bling'? i.e. WPT/EPT titles, WSOP bracelets.

4- Hows your Stud/Razz and Hi/Lo game?

Cheers and congrats again...

marty smyth

eagle eye wrote: »

Hi Marty, and again congrats on the bracelet and a wonderful 18 months in tourneys as well.

I only played with you once and it was in Cavan in 05, you weren't happy with me when I doubled up a shorty called Stephen McClean:D. I was only new to the scene at that stage and I thought you were a very focused player, you seemed to be watching everything. I have spoken to you once or twice since then and you seem to be a very decent bloke. Best of luck with this, and for the future as well.

My questions

1. You have had a lot of success in holdem tournaments and the big one in the wsop in Omaha. Whats the biggest difference in playing tournament Omaha and tournament Holdem'?

2. Name the final table that you would not like your chances at in a HA game?

3. If you had a choice between playing only one of Omaha or Holdem for the rest of your career which would you choose and why?

4. Which has an softer field, an ept or wsop event of similar buyin?

5. Do you set targets for youself or just go day by day?

6. What do you think is your biggest strength in Poker?

Thats all for now, might have more later. Again best of luck with this?

1. not being able to bluff/steal blinds as much in omaha

2. i think i heard recently that HA stands for holdem/omaha? if this is true then probably a really loose aggressive table with the likes of ram, devilfish, gus hansen, annette obrestad, andy black, a drunk padraig, a drunk alan betson and a token scandinavian player... how would u know what anyone had when there's 6 to every flop...

3. omaha. i prefer the game and it's growing all the time.

4. from my limited experience, the wsop main event has many more bad players than epts, but the standard in some other wsop events with 5k or 10k buy ins is pretty similar to epts.

5. i don't really set target for poker in regards to what i would like to win although i might set a target like say - playing at least 80 hours online in a month and not tilting. i have an idea of what i would be happy to achieve in any month or year or any series of tournaments etc, but luck plays such a big part in short term poker that u can't really set targets and be too surprised if u don't make them.

6. i really don't know. i'm quite patient, but not as patient as i could be... quite disciplined, reasonably good at thinking my way through hands, but again there is room for improvement in both those. maybe my biggest strength is that although i might not be the strongest in any one department, i don't think i really have any major weaknesses.

7. u shouldn't double up players like steven mcclean

marty smyth

nicnicnic wrote: »

good stuff Marty

would you back the ugly one in the photo to win the wsop ME this year at 5/1



whats your view on poker players picking there noses when getting there photo taken

Biggest bet sports/horses

other then me whose the toughest opponent you have faced in a NLH tournament


Any plans to play WPT events this/next year

Flipper is my favorite player whose yours

- he's the only one i've heard of so 5/1 mightn't be the worst price in the world... having said that - if i remember right though, he wasn't good enough to beat the fox even though he'd 2 aces and he got it in b4 the flop... so that wouldn't exactly be championship form.

- frankly, i don't think there's enough of it. there's too many poker players going around in nice clothes these days shaving their chests and the like. i'd like to get back to the days when we were free to pick our noses and not wash for a few days without feeling embarrassed.

- my biggest lift was somewhere between 60 or 70 sterling if i remember right.. the bet actually paid more but i layed some off... and it was an injury time goal from solomon kalou

- in terms of toughness the rest pale into insignifigance after u. i really didn't like having alan betson sitting after me when he used to play.

- no WTP plans whatsoever, but i wouldn't totally rule it out.

- same here

marty smyth

ITT-Pat wrote: »

Great replies so far. Cant think of much now apart from:

Who have you found to be the best 'character' you have met on the poker scene?

padraig or dennis winters

marty smyth

Sparks43 wrote: »

will u still play any thing on ladbrokes eg sunday 100k , poker million sats ,omaha cash


is macadonia gone if so i will miss 1 of the best players ive seen and someone who inspired me to keep plugging away online

absolutly chuffed you have done so well in the last 18 months keep going as i want to beat you heads up in the open next year

- i do still play a bit, very rarely indeed these days. i do have a look at the cash from time to time but the games always look tougher than they used to, and don't seem to run as often. i'll still wheel macedonia out for the odd tournament, but i can't really play satellites as if i qualified i'd be supposed to wear their shirt and that would cause problems with the deal i have with boyles. i'll certainly try to keep it going, and i'm not a greedy man - i'll be more than happy with a second place finish and half a million odd euros in the irish open.
what was ur name online btw - do we know eachother?

marty smyth

glenjamin wrote: »

Just a couple of quick Qs, if you don't mind Mr.Smyth?

1- Would you ever feel comfortable enough to sit down and play the 'big' games in Vegas now that your're the PLO champ?

2- Did you find that reading books and forums on poker helped your game. Or was it all down to your sheer experience of sitting down playing at a casino learning from your own mistakes?

3- Now that your're financially secure would you ever consider going on the tournament trail playing tourney after tourney in search of more 'bling'? i.e. WPT/EPT titles, WSOP bracelets.

4- Hows your Stud/Razz and Hi/Lo game?

Cheers and congrats again...

1. absolutely not - when i won the PLO it didn't make me any better than i had been the day before i played the PLO... it just made me a fair bit richer and a bit more well-known probably... actually i suppose it depends what u mean by big games. i wouldn't play something like 200-400PLO whatever the line up was, but i might play 50-100 or something if it looked fairly soft, although that has nothing to do with me winning the tourney.

2. i didn't read any books although i wish i had as it might have saved a bit of time. i learned from watching other good players and trying to work out what they were doing better than me and try to understand why those things made sense and understand what i was doing wrong and what i had to change. if i bluffed and someone called me with bottom pair i wouldn't just think - 'what a clown'... i'd think - what did i do in the way that i played the hand that made him think bottom pair was winning, then the next time a similar situation occurs i'd be better at navigating my way through the hand.

3. i pretty much am at the minute - not so much for the bling (although i won't lie and say that it isn't nice to pick up titles), but mainly because i have a sponsorship deal, and also because online has gotten tougher and i think i have a much bigger edge in live tournaments now.
even though i have a very generous budget from boyles, i won't be playing tourneys that i don't think are good value for me just because they're high profile.. i won't be playing the wsope unless i hear that the field looks a lot softer than last year, and i doubt i'll ever go to monte carlo for the ept final.

4. i'm pretty bad at all fixed limit games. i think i could hold my own at pot-limit omaha hi-lo.

marty smyth

i'm off to bed here. hope u's find a few interesting bits out of all this or at least get a bit of a laugh. i'm actually enjoying doing this although it's fairly time consuming, so i'll keep on for another while as long as u's don't mind me being a bit tardy with my replies sometimes. i'll be out of action all day tomorrow, but i'll get back into it for a while on wednesday if there are any more Qs.

gl for now.

Apathy

Can I go back in time and take that deal?

Apathy

Also important question! Will you also be having some kind of party/binge drinking while watching this on TV? I think we need to set up some drinking game rules.

I really wish "you'll never beat the Irish" wasn't such a damn catchy chant, I still can't get it out of my head.

pawningomaha

when's it due on TV?...or more like pokertube...

HoLLLLLaments

apathy on boards!

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

Flipper

Hey bud, fair play for doing this. Sorry I couldn't make it in to see ye this weekend; I just had tonnes on. Me and Louise were thinking of going to Belfast for a weekend soon so we'll play a round then if that suits you.

1) What kind of golf score are you shooting at the moment? I'm just breaking 100 so, how many shots are you giving me when I get to Belfast?

2) Would you back yourself at 2/1 in pool against Rob?

3) What's your favourite tourney on the calander both for quality and craic at the venue/city?

4) Do you ever see yourself getting into a business of some sort in the future? What have you in mind?

5) How many years do you think are left in poker being profitable? Do you think the chinese market will ever take to poker fully?

bops

Marty, Apathy, and now FLIPPER all on the same page - WOWZ!!

anyways, good stuff Marty, fair play for doing this - interesting read.

My question:

Poker & Family life - Discuss


cheers
bops

lillou

great thread marty!!

will there be an announcement when you are going to be a bounty on boyles?
will it be plo or holdem?
does the person who knocks you out get to keep the bracelet? (If not i'd be willing to swap you the cash bounty for it)