1. lol Magic River. I definitely had my suspicions too at one point, Some of his plays seemed insane. He obviously knew what he was doing, then he would reraise on the turn on a board like 7894, when i or another opponent obviously had the nuts. It would all go in. He'd have a set and it would always pair the board. Seemed weird. He eventually lost a load (mainly to me), and hasn't been back to Betfair since.

2. Crypto, Betfair and Full Tilt have 95% of my play.

3. lol Chufty asked me that too. Nope it ain't me, wander why people keep asking. Thing he said in the chat he was me or something.

4. Not play the K2 against Marcal Luske in EPT Monte Carlo season 2. That was my tournament to win.

1. Limping is fine as long as you never plan on passing to a single raise.

2. It depends whether you prefer to control the pot and keep it smaller. If you do then its fine.....

3. Yes but not so much as i used too. I've had some sick losses drunk, the drunk sessions are about once every couple of months now thank god.

4. Dogs

5. Wow too many.... probably Lord of the Rings.

thanks, this thread is very interesting.

MagicRiver is playing on Stars now apparently - i forget his name, il find out and post it up later if I can.

StevieG is a seriously good aggro shorthanded player - he trys not to play 25/50 prefering to stick to 50/100 and 100/200 when it runs - the guy has had some ill winning shorthanded sessions and is definitely one of the best, if not the best players on the network.

Thanks for doing this Ben, just a few questions:

1) Do you weigh the same as Pommo?
2) Likewise, is Dubai double your weight?
3) If you were to race Gryko over 200m, who would win?

1) Pre and post flop. I often try and reraise preflop to isolate one player when the table is 5-6 handed (preferably in position)

2) MilkyBarKid. I haven't played there for a while though.

1) Dunno. Got loads of people i hang around with at tournaments and chat to on MSN.

2) I've played with nearly all the most "famous" pros at some point. I remember having Doyle Brunson at my table in the first tournament i played in Vegas, and he's a living legend.

3) I generally play more when i'm on a downswing to try and fight my way out of it.

4) Yeh BadBeat back me. They basically give me $100k a day across whatever sites i want to play, and i get a percentage of what i win which is heavily weighted in my favour. I've won maybe three times this year than in 2007 so it must work well for me.

5) I buy percentages in quite a few people when i play live tourneys. I tend not to lend people money because i hardly ever get it back.

6) Try and play alot of Heads Up just for the experience. It forces you to make alot more marginal decisions, and you get a much better sense of when to bluff/valuebet etc. Often you'll find yourself in HU situations in 6 handed games, where you can use the experience you have gained.

7) It was a tough decision because Betfair sponsored me for over two years which was great. We couldn't agree on terms of the new contract, and they are/were going down the route of young tourney pros (Annette, Sorel and John), and i guess i'm more of a cash pro.

8. I'd love to have 3-5 more years winning online at around the rate that i do now. Though this year has been amazing, and i doubt i can win the same amount unless i play higher stakes. If i did have 3-5 more great years, i'd probably then just play the odd tourney or cash game for fun.

I'd still love to win an EPT, WSOP or a WPT event. I did well in tourneys for a couple of years, and not so great for 18 months, i'm sure my time will come.

"2)Who is the worst famous pro u've played live or online?"

I think you read "most" here Ben so you might want to answer that again?

As i said in the previous guys questions, in ten years i hope to be playing poker just when i feel like it for a bit of fun. I love playing poker, but its definitely more fun to play once a week, rather than for 30 hours. I'd still play big tournaments as well i'm sure.

Around 10% of players at 25/50+ are good, the rest are differing degrees of bad

Yeh the intersting news. Well there was something in the pipeline, but i got sidetracked. It's something that may still happen in the future...

Nope, and i should be sponsored next year for tournaments anyway. I wouldn't be interested in a $ per hour/rakeback deal even if it was offered.

hehe I'm not sure i'd be a very good coach even if i tried. The only way i could do it is if someone sat and watched me for a few weeks. The closest i come to coaching is sneding mates copies of all the hands i've ever played (around 320,000)

I'll play anyone at 25/50 50/100 HU. I'm lucky that i've never found anyone thats beaten me over a decent sample of hands. If i did i'd like to think i'd quit them...

If i take a shot at 200/400 HU i'll play anyone. I don't mind the real LAGs like Durrr and Ziggy because even though they are top players HU, i'll drop two buy ins max, whereas i can run good against them and they are willing to drop alot more.

Yeh i'd like to have a crack at them, maybe i will in December when i allow myself $200-300k to play big. I'd be more inclined to play the $500/$1000 HA if it ever runs....

The questions on ambition were only half-answered I feel, you only told us about your ambitions with poker playing. Do you have any other passions that you will persue when you reach your goal? Any business plans or perhaps go back to school?

Hi, have you ever used a hud when playing omaha online?

Thanks.

1/ Do you tone down your aggression when players start tilting bad.

2/ do you 3 bet with a pot sized bet. how much of pot do you bet on flop after 3 betting.

3/ have you ever gotten yourself in a hole as a result of poker

4/ greatest bluff

5/ greatest call

6/ if u went busto now, what would you do if you had $1000 to your name. no house,backers,etc. what stakes start at or quit poker and get a job.

Yo Brian

1) I have a love/hate relationship with NLH. I actually think (well i would) that i’m fairly good at HU NL. I’ve played some very good players and my results against them are good when my head is right. Thing is if i don’t play my A game i’m terrible, and thats often the case because i often play Holdem when i’m tilted and can’t find action elsewhere. I do play Omaha Hi/Lo a bit on Full Tilt and sometimes HORSE.

2) I guess 10-15bb/100 would be the aim 4-6 handed.

3) Against average players i’d be looking at 20bb/100+ at Heads Up

4) Well i’ve only played Niki a small amount, he seems fine. He’s definitely loose aggressive, can’t really say how good he is. I did pretty well against IcallSoWhat at 50/100 HU. He was tricky for sure, and he is not someone i’d love to play every day. I think i caught him at a good time though after he was already on a $2 million downswing, and he seemed to tilt off money quite easily.

5) Not sure if i can find the stat in my Poker Tracker. I’d guess its around 30/40% though. I guess my range is almost any hand that isn’t in the bottom 20% of starting hands. I have lucky hands such as 3579 that i always reraise with preflop. I feel comfortable playing out of position with a huge range of hands i guess.

I min raise for a few reasons. It allows me to physiologically take control of the pot, and puts the emphasis on continuation betting on me which i like. It also tilts opponents as well as they think you are taking the p!ss if you reraise them nearly any hand. Plus, if they four bet you 100bb deep, you only have to call 15bb out of position rather than 27bb.

6) I hardly four bet bad kings even against a really loose opponent. I’m far more likely to four bet four pieces of paper that are double suited than any hand with a pair (unless its Aces). I rarely four bet in ring games without Aces, unless i’m tilted or playing smaller stakes.

In the example i guess when you 4 bet there i’m assuming both are going to call, the problem is that the SB may well actually have the Aces, so a hand like AKQJ DS isn’t going to look so hot when you get 5 bet for most of your stack. I’d probably rarely 4 bet in that spot.

7) I’d say i raise and fold to a reraise less than 5% of the time. I normally just autocall. I don’t even mind so much if i open with AKJ2 and a good tight player repots me from the button. I know my hand is probably in bad shape, but i’ll look to outplay him on the flop. I could easily just lead out for a decent bet on a 457 flop and take it down. The image of always having any four cards works well, because my opponents can’t define my range easily at all.

8) Probably even less than the answer to question 7

Thanks for answering the questions Ben, you're doing a great job with the well...
Man, your suggested win-rates for 3-4 handed and HU seem pretty ridiculous though; I've always thought that I gave people generous estimates when I said 6-10 bb/100 for 3-4handed and 10 bb/100 and higher for HU...

Anywho, another question: What hand (or type of hand) have you lost more money with than anything else? (i.e for me it's almost certainly double-suited kings that I can't force myself to throw away for some reason)..

Ben, are you talking about big blinds or PTBB?

I'm not in with all the slang. PTBB?

1 ptbb = 2 big blinds (200 @ 50/100 etc)

OK so i meant big blinds not big bets!

sick thread mr. grundy
what's the biggest downswing you've had in terms of buyins at PLO only? at what stakes?
what stop loss rule do you use? i've been using 5 a day
should 6max or HU be more swingy?
do you think 20 buyin downswings are INEVITABLE no matter how tight you are with game selection? i just recently had a 20-25 buyin downswing at 10/20 even though i'm probably the biggest HU PLO bumhunter there is.

I really dont' think it's possible to get 10ptbb 6 max unless you exercise some sick table selection. That or a lot of your six max is really 2 or 3 handed.

EDIT: nm, big blinds 10 is about right.

You seem legit but I swear you were playing like a ****ing moron when I made that blog...4-8 table 25.50 ha hu. PM me to set times.

Plz record this.

Is this the level to end all levels

Hi Ben.

great stuff so far


1, at ept dublin 2007 you had a hand with luca pagano early on, you made a great speech play ("so sick") before shoving and showed a the Ks when he eventually folded, flop was A 9 x with 2 spades - what did you have?

2, why do you hate shortstackers so much? It makes the game so much easier imo.

3, When you were taking shots was it always full buy in?

4, How did you feel about your game after luske took you to school in monte carlo? You should have won that tourney imo, sick call on the bubble with AQ btw

5, before you were backed at what point would you drop levels on a downswing, if at all? e.g. dropping 25 buyins of 50 buyin roll, i would drop down

6, any tips on controlling tilt? especially against ****ing morons HU

7, how often do you simply give up post flop after raising pre? any usual criteria for this?

8, Ever get sick of it?

cheers

You mentioned BadBeat stake you? Could you give more info on what they do/how they do it and whatnot.

I cant think of any other questions atm but i'm sure i'll come up with loads between now and the next time i check in with this thread.

It was actually you that kinda got me into poker through watching the tourny (was it william hill sponsored?) when you had Antonio Esfandiari and Lodden playing like crazy LAGs and making your life hell. I thought you did a good job and come across as a decent bloke fwiw.

I think the whole SNG/MTT type thing is on pokertube so if your interested then i'll come in and post the link for you.