Asked and Answered

I’m not going to answer TripJax’s questionnaire. I’m going to reply to Jordan’s answers to TripJax’s questionnaire. Jordan's answers are in yellow, my response is in red.

1. What is the biggest mistake people make at a NL table? I'm going to offer two answers. The first is playing too scared. You have to be willing to be aggressive. The second, which is related, is playing outside of your bankroll. You are going to take swings, and you have to be able to live through them. Those are good answers, but I’d have to add making poor bet amounts based on pot size/bet size/stack size.

2. What is the biggest mistake people make at a Limit table? Playing Limit at all. Yuck yuck yuck! Actually, I'm going to say adjusting to table conditions appropriately. It's very easy to tighten up when players are loose, but sometimes you are better off loosening up pre-flop to hit your monsters and get paid off. People who claim to hate limit expose themselves as poor poker players. Almost every genuinely profitable poker player I know plays limit. Almost everyone I know who plays no-limit exclusively is just dreaming about that big WSOP score in the future someday, as they piss away buy-in after buy-in at the $25 tables. When I was playing more seriously, (i.e. just for the money) I played limit poker in ring games almost exclusively. NL was for tourneys. There are obvious exceptions, but if someone claims they don't like a game, it's usually because they suck at it.

3. Why do you play poker? Because I can not Not play poker. I love the challenge, I love the game, and I love the fact that I can win money. Jordan needs a 12-step program. I play poker for one and only one reason. To have fun. I am in it for the entertainment value only. But the money is a nice side effect.

4. If you weren't playing poker, what would you be doing? Probably watching some bad television. Maybe doing some art. Probably Counter-Strike or some other online game full of cheaters and other losers.

5. What is your favorite poker book and why? Let's go with Caro's Book of Poker Tells, mostly because it is an interesting idea for a book and the pictures (from the 70s by the looks of the players) are hysterical. There is also a lot of good info in there, and many players haven't read it, as opposed to the Bible, Super/System. The real reason Super System is called “The Bible” is because it’s just like the real Bible. Very few people have actually read it, and of those, almost nobody understood it.

6. Who is your favorite poker player and why? Hmm. I have a lot of respect for Phil Ivey because he is just so damn quiet and intimidating. I will never have the quietness, but I want the intimidation part. Marcel Luske is my favorite, despite the retarded sunglasses thing.

7. Which poker player do you dislike the most and why? I don't really dislike any of them. Pussy. I dislike Scott Fischman because he’s a total douche bag.

8. Do your coworkers know about your blog? Actually, one of them does. I came out of the Blog Closet last week. Let's hope the person knows how to keep things quiet. I'm confident that he/she can. (I use ambivalent words so that if the Powers that Be do indeed know about this site, no one else will be implicated.) A few of my coworkers know about it, but don’t read regularly because if you’re not a poker player or a blogger, my blog is horrendously boring. Maybe even if you are.

9. What is the most you have won in a cash game or MTT (both live and online)? In a cash game, I won $650 at a 1/2 table. In an MTT, I placed 4th/1008 and won $650 also. I think the biggest single pot I won was around $500, and I have won $1250 in an MTT.

10. What is the most you have lost in a cash game or in one day total (both live and online)? I have lost somewhere to the tune of $350 or so, I think, live on one day, but it was part of a several day trip that saw me lose over $500. I lost $400 playing $3/$6 Limit once, that’s probably the biggest losing day proportionally.

11. Who was your first poker blog read? The Intrepid Card Player, although he is no longer blogging. My first was Grubby, because he did D.C. restaurant reviews and I grew up around there.

12. What satisfies you more, your aces holding up for a big pot or a bluff working for a big pot? Always the bluff. It's easy with Aces. [insert copyright symbol here] I need an “It’s easy with aces” T-shirt!

13. Why do you blog? Because of page rank. But really, because it gives me an opportunity to think and discuss poker when I am not able to play. As time has passed, it has also offered me a myriad of opportunities, like being invited to the All-In premiere party and meeting people to have a home game with. Those are the best perks to this hobby. I blog because it’s an outlet for me to try to be entertaining and funny for a few minutes. Also because I am an attention whore

14. Do you read blogs from an RSS reader like bloglines or do you visit each blog? I visit each blog, because, mostly, I think it is more personal and I can get a feel for a writer's personality by the site's design. I use bloglines, because it’s just way too much to read individually. I go to the site to leave comments. I love to comment, but not as much as Drizz.

15. Would you rather play poker for a living than do what you currently do for a living? Tricky one. My goal is to make the same amount doing both. Once a lawyer, always a lawyer. Hell No. Poker is way too tough a way to make an easy living.

16. Do you wear a tin foil hat on occasion? No, but I have a cowboy hat that I will not wear in public. I wear a beaten up old PokerSourceOnline hat, because it is 17% more effective than tinfoil for preventing bad beats.

17. If you had to pin it down to one specific trait, what does a great poker player have (or do) that separates them from an average player? An innate intelligence. Broad enough for you? A huge fucking bankroll.

18. Is Drizz the coolest person on the planet for naming his baby Vegas? Absolutely! I'm going to name my future kid Craps, and take the title of coolest person. Middle name will be Double-Zero. Nope! Maybe if he made it her first name. Girls can give up their middle name when they get married, so she has outs.

19. What is your primary poker goal and are you close to accomplishing it? Primary? I guess to earn the same amount of money playing as I do working. I'm not close yet. Other goals are to win $2400 this year and to play in a WSOP event. What did I say about NL players? My primary goal is to have fun, and I accomplish that almost every time.

20. What is your primary online site and why? Noble/Titan, I guess. I move around a lot, but I've always liked their games. Ask me again tomorrow, and I’ll have a different answer.

21. What site do you dislike and why? TripJax.com, for making me waste time on this post. Oh, you mean online poker site? Hollywood Poker. They can SUCK IT! Why? Because I can't seem to win there. Poker Sites are like my children. I hate them all equally.