Are you as amazed as I am at the durrrr fanboyism?

Do you think you would still be able to breathe today if you had never met durrrr?

Could you post the first thing that comes into your head when staring into durrr's eyes?

I can't make much money on passive investments from what I can tell. I bought some houses, they lost tons of value (arguably won't over the long haul but I am not a huge fan of paying down mortgage interest hoping the market booms). I invest a little less than half of my money in index funds and a hedge fund with people I like. I agree the utility between 3m and 1m is huge, but it isn't that case that u can just ship it in a fund and make 10% a year, or even 5% per year from what I can tell.

I like learning new things, and the best way to learn about business is to get involved. It is high risk, sure, but if I busto all of them it won't change my life, and if one of them does well it could be pretty huge. At the worst, I gain some valuable insight into startups as well as each sector I am investing in. This is probably not the best use of my money, but I like getting involved rather than kicking back and hoping the stock market prints some.

Matchbook did a 1k freeroll a long time ago for some football game. I shipped it and ran it up to like 20k betting random stuff. I think the biggest bet I made was 5k on an MMA fight. I lost. Then matchbook shut down to US people so it's like I never made a bet at all.

I don't watch many youtube videos, sometimes music before spotify. I don't really watch music videos but sometimes people will aim me links for funny clips.

edit: a lot of documentary type stuff is in youtube format so I guess I can count those.

Barcelona is probably my favorite city in Europe, but if you want to work on your Spanish you are better off going to Madrid. Catalan is the primary language in Barcelona.

Question: I remember you said that you had talent to play college baseball before you blew out your arm. Would you give up all your money and current lifestyle to become a career AAA/fringe MLB pitcher?

Is there a thought/theory/idea about poker that you have or had that you kind of kept to yourself, whether it was because you thought you would be ridiculed early in your career or thought it might be silly and just decided to not tell any of your poker buddies about but deep down might have thought it was quite profound? This could be about the nuts and bolts of the game itself or bigger picture.

I limp a lot of buttons, it tilts a lot of people. Before it was cool, I used to 3 bet like 40% of my buttons in 6max (not kidding). I would usually bet ¼ pot on the flop after being checked to (often called gay-bet or more recently raptor-bet). People got better about dealing with this, but 3 years ago it crushed. Lots of donkament players are doing this now but reraising small to entice a call, then doing a small bet on flop to let the other guy spew or fold.

Not really. I don’t know what I was thinking. Raise PF is pretty standard. Flop cbet is pretty standard. When he check raised small, I felt he was airy a lot so it felt like a good spot to make a reraise. He called and I got scared so I checked behind the turn hoping to hit 2 pair or trips. My 3 could also be good against his float, as he would do that sometimes with A high thinking I am full of ****.

On the river, something about his sizing and timing made me feel like he had an airball. He usually reraises stuff like KT+, so I didn’t think he had something like that. K9 or worse he would probably check call the flop instead of making a goofy small check raise, which could put him in a really nasty position playing for stacks oop. If he had an 8, I didn’t think he would turn it into a 23.5k bluff, as I would fold a K pretty much zero percent of the time, and would call with a 9 that I hit a decent % of the time. I figured the only hands he would bet in this spot were pure air no pair stuff and 2 pair or better, and I felt he had lot more janky no pair hands in his range than 2 pair +. Like I have said earlier, when I get curious, I click call. I do think this is one of the cooler hands I have played in my lifetime.

I mean, I think you can have a huge roi playing the 1500 mtts in the wsop, and the 10k main event, and some others. That being said, the $/hr is VERY small compared to even mid-high stakes cash games. I also think the 10k fields are much less riddled with fish than they were before. Almost everyone is at least not a complete idiot, and when stacks are shallow, if they figured out how to raise and shove sometimes, it isn’t easy to crush them. Couple that with travel costs, large rake, etc, they just aren’t as profitable as many other options. I agree that I am always happy when a tourney guy busts and comes to play cash games, but most tourney guys are way worse at cash games comparatively.

No. I don't know that much about Aejones and Ike, I haven't played either of them much HU, but I feel pretty confident in my HUNL game vs PA, less confident vs Ivey. Certainly neither have a huge edge on me. I would be happy to 4-6 table either of them at 50-100 right now, but I am not really itching to grind 500-1k against them in case I am wrong.

Probably, but he is really tough so I am not sure.

Most regs have figured out how to adjust to it. I think the actual raptor bet is when I reraise preflop in position, get checked to on the flop, and fire out 1/5 or 1/4 pot. This causes most bad players to fold if they have nothing, check raise if they have nothing, or call if they have medium strength hand. Usually, a 3/4 pot bet on the turn gets them to fold anything that can't beat top pair. I printed money for like 18 months doing nothing cool other than this. Also, I occasionally DO have a big hand and go on huge heaters when regs get annoyed at the 3 bets.

I always looked at it like, I get to invest 10bb with whatever hand I want. If they want to mess with me, they have to put 100 in. Most people, at least 3 years ago, adjusted by just getting in 66 or better because it was ahead of my 3 bet range. I don't think this was the best way to deal with it. I would just fold my K3 stuff, but I would get in all my better hands and be way ahead. Some people struggled with adjustments, though it works much less well today from what I can tell. I did a couple cardrunners videos where I went into this in much greater detail.

I had a pretty large number of sessions grinding 5-10 and stuff trying stuff out where I would downswing 6-10 buyins 3 betting every hand for an hour, then cool off a bit and go on massive 30-40 buyin heaters when people thought I was still in crazy mode. I don't really have 1 mode and like to switch up my ranges a lot.

I think someone asked this earlier, but I'll answer with how I feel right this second.

I don't know that I ever had an AH HA! moment, but I often woke up thinking "is this it? this is my life?" and not being particularly satisfied with it. There were a ton of things I wanted to do and experience that I simply wouldn't do if I didn't get out of my house and away from my computer. The biggest motivator isn't like, the love of doing all these other things, or something. I am motivated by my future self, looking back on my current self. I want to be proud of myself reflecting on my life, knowing I didn't pass up too many opportunities for memorable experiences. This is probably not the best attitude, but it is sincere.

Thanks for doing this well, youve definitely been an influence on me as a player and have been someone ive looked up to when i was starting up.

For someone who has played for such a long time and has done so as their source of income, how have you managed to maintain a competitive interest in the game? I find myself not getting excited or even interested in playing anymore except for the monetary part of poker, so besides taking a break from the game and coming back refreshed how have you managed to keep the drive to play an improve?


what are 3 things you want to do or accomplish before you bite the dust and why?


Youve said youve done alot of travelling etc. Do you think this has helped you figure out what you actually want to do with your life in the "real world"? I'm in my 3rd year of school and still have no clue what I really want to do beyond that.


Thanks again

I think ansky is pretty good, maybe doesn't get a ton of lough. He does some pretty smart, tricky stuff. I have no idea how he is perceived in the community, probably reasonably highly. We mashed heads a couple times.

Um... I feel comfortable at the bellagio because I have spent like 80% of my live poker cash game hours there (possibly more). Most of the places I have travelled to set up temporary tournament rooms and no1 really knows what is going on, so I don't generally enjoy the whole poker experience there. I'm sure there are much better places to play, but I like the B. I ran really good this summer at the Rio, but playing big stakes there is a pretty brutal experience.

2 players over rated by 2p2?
2 players under rated by 2p2?

What do you think is the main thing Durrr and Galfond have learned from you?
You from them?

What was your total life worth when you 1st took a shot at $3/6? $25/50? $200/400?

If you had to start over from $1000 but you still had the skill you have now what would be your approach to get to 1mil. Games,tables,bankroll management etc. How long do you think it would take you?

When you were building a roll and waiting headsup was there any huge donations you remember such as a random fish dumping off $80k at $25/50 hu when you only had a $200k roll?

Finally have you ever played on the Ipoker network or Microgaming network and under what names?

No, but it was pretty easy. I have had a couple HU matches where it felt really easy and I made more money. The chess bet actually took some time to set up. Certainly not difficult, but not the easiest it has ever been (This is far from being a complaint).

Of course I could, I have already done it. It would probably take a pretty long time these days. 1-2 NL is tough I am probably down like 30 buyins there.

These are Phil’s words, and I am paraphrasing. One time, I had a really tough river spot facing a pretty big bet. It felt so close between calling and folding, I didn’t know what to do. I told Tom about the hand and he said ‘easy shove’. My head exploded. (This was probably like 2005 or something before people were good at NL). Tom was really far ahead of the curve for a long time in NL.

I would have taken more shots sooner, and run better during them. Seriously though, I was slow to give up SNG’s. I missed out on a lot of the party poker cash game craze because of it.

No. I was back in school and didn’t even sweat the matches (was taking a semester off poker).

Durrrr. Other than him, there is a gigantic list of 2p2ers. Like 10 people in the sttf forum from way back in the day (a lot of them switched over to cash). I probably talked more poker with TheUsher (Alan Sass) back then than anyone else. After switching to the cash game world, I learned a ton from Z and Hac, and a lot from talking with Phil.

I don't know how amazed you are, but if anyone has earned poker fanboyism, it is Tom Dwan.

It seems likely.

I generally don't gaze longingly into the eyes of men. I think my last encounter staring into his eyes he was check raising huge in the 5k 6max plo event this summer with the nuts, and I put the rest in with the second nuts and a gutter redraw. I think that pot gave him the chip lead and left me with like 15x.

what were your reasons for making videos for CR? Did you have a piece of it? Would you do it again if you could go back in time?

awesome well and your chess bet best durrr is one of my fav