Hey guys,

I'm on a plane and haven't been part of this community in way too long, so I thought I'd do an AMA. Feel free to fire any questions about the main event, my poker career as a whole, or my personal life (within reason).

I played with you all of day 3 and some of days 5 & 6 (black beard and glasses), on your left 5 & 6. Dont really have any questions, just wanted to say congrats and that you were a pleasure to compete with. I was rooting for you, nice work!

Hey Ian! Enjoyed chatting with you; you played well. Funny how we played together 3 different days, and there are some people who made the final 18 who I didn't play with at all

What % of your ME did you own?

And congrats! There was a small thread going for you here in NVG

Ya, would have liked to be there but the cards finally stopped falling my way...what are you going to do now that you hit the jackpot?

No questions but we've played probably 15-20 times in plo, mostly at aria in the last couple of years.
You've always been super nice to everyone at the table, and played super fast (which i really appreciate)I hate the way most pros these days act at the table,and while you play super solid and extract money from the games, you've never been bad for the game.More pros could learn from that.

Congrats on the score

You're an easy guy to root for Alex. Congrats on the run.

Can you give a quick backstory on opening your pizza place. Did you always have visions of opening multiple locations or did it start as a labor of love? Lastly, what are the best combo of toppings on a pizza? Enjoyed your main event run, congrats!

If you were to go back to grinding 5-10 live, what would your post-rake hourly be?

Don't particularly want to share the exact % but I'll say that it was between 35 and 70 (not necessarily in the middle) :P

And thank you! It was a fun run, I miss the days when 2+2 was truly booming but glad to see that it's still going strong.

How does it feel to know that 2 days ago I was reading your live poker advice thread you wrote 10 years ago and you have no idea who i am. I also read it 10 years ago when you first wrote it.

Hey Borg, definitely introduce yourself next time, I'm sure I'll recognize you by face. And I appreciate the kind words. I've always thought that it's possible to be super friendly and fun at the table, while still being a ruthless competitor. To me the idea that these things are mutually exclusive is odd. I've always played fast, so at this point that's just habit; I understand some people like to think and be deliberate, but I think it's gone a little too far in recent years, and I'll always advocate for faster play. At the end of the day, I really enjoy playing live poker so being social at the table just comes naturally. I appreciate some things innovative poker room managers like Jimmy up at Peppermill have done - in his case, not allowing headphones - to make the games more fun for everybody.

What was your main game you grinded prior to this score? What will change in your approach to poker now that assumedly you have a much much bigger financial cushion?

Thanks Christian, we've only met / played together a few times, but obviously I've known of you / played online against you for a while. You seem like a class act and I enjoy your threads / takes on the NBA. See ya around

Looking at my lifetime numbers at that stake, it's around $110. But a lot of that sample came in a time when games were softer, and played more to my strengths (deep stacked, multiway single raised pots). Hard to say today. If I just jumped right in with no preparation, I think I'd be a marginal winner - maybe $25-45 an hour. With some preparation, practice and experience, I'd imagine I'd get up to $60-80 or so. But at the end of the day, I just don't enjoy NLH nearly as much as the other games. I love the action of PLO and the people it attracts, and I love playing mixed games, where the game is always changing, and you have to adapt your brain, think on your feet, and stay sharp. Over the last 5 years or so, only about 5% of my poker volume has been at NLH. And if I'm speaking frankly, a lot of the NL regs these days aren't as fun to play with as they used to be. Part of that certainly is because they've gotten better and tougher! But the social/fun aspect of the game seems to be on a decline. Again I look at people like Jimmy and places like Peppermill Reno as exceptions to that norm. And of course there are a lot of private game politics going on that are sadly making public casino games worse.

As much as I've veered away from NLH, the main is a different animal. Easy to say fresh off a 3rd place finish, but I will always enjoy playing the main event more than I enjoy anything else in poker. The camaraderie, buzz, and excitement is through the roof. People are genuinely happy just to be there. The tension is palpable. The entire poker community is watching, even when they've recently been knocked out. Each day has it's own feel. The opportunity for using psychology is through the roof - everyone reacts differently to such a monumental tournament, and you can see who is breaking down and who is holding strong as it gets deeper and deeper. The combination of camraderie mixed with intense competition really gets my juices flowing

It was cool hearing that they talked about that thread on the stream. I really enjoy writing and that was maybe the best piece of writing I've done when it comes to poker so it's cool to hear it's getting so much support. I wonder if the character types in it hold true today?!

I couldn't agree more with the bolded.
We havent battled a ton, but i'm pretty sure you'd recognize me.

Actually I do have a couple of questions- when Dario gets all in with aj pre vs ensen's 66 you're one card away from a 2 million dollar pay jump and being heads up for the bracelet.You're pretty even keeled, but that's also a massive pay jump which you aren't used to.Do you think it affected your play at all after? I'm not saying you played better or worse after that hand as I didn't watch much of the final table but I'm just curious.

I've also overheard you mentioning mix games at the table. What do you think the best way to learn them is?

I primarily played PLO at the Aria - $5/5/10 ran every day, and in the fall and winter months, $25-25 and $25-50 was running a few times a week. Games ranged from somewhat stale to amazing, but were almost always playable.

I still intend on playing a lot of PLO but this certainly gives me more financial freedom. I'll probably be able to take a little more time off poker this summer, guilt-free, and maybe do some travelling both for poker and for leisure. One big change is that I'm planning on heavily focusing on tournaments next summer during the WSOP. Most years I play 10-12 events, but next summer I'm anticipating a schedule of 30 or so tournaments, including the $50k PPC, which I've always wanted to play. While playing PLO cash might be the better hourly rate approach, I've grown to love competing in WSOP events - particularly the mixed game events. My schedule will probably include 3-5 PLO events, 3-5 NLH events, and then the rest will be all mixed games.

I'm really the distant third fiddle when it comes to the pizzeria - but of course I like to give them exposure when possible. My role was predominantly just as an investor, though I did live with the two main guys in Toronto when they were opening their first location. The impetus came from a scouting trip the two of them made to Brooklyn, coupled with the knowledge that Toronto didn't have great by-the-slice pizza options. They always planned to add at least one new location, but I'm impressed with how quickly they've gone from 1 to 5. My favorite NoBro pizza is the white pizza, which consists of mozarella, garlic ricotta, arugula, and lemon vinaigrette. And thanks for the congrats, it was a blast as you might imagine!

I told my rail, and I mean this, that once I hit the $500k jump, I stopped thinking about the money (of course I was still thinking about ICM etc). While $6m is obviously a lot more than $4m and $4m is more than $500k, I'd already earned enough to where it was a significant bankroll infusion, and at that point I just wanted to focus completely on playing the best tournament I could and treating the stakes like it was the big $55. So when Dario binked the river, I really didn't think about the extra $2M much, just about what his new stack was, and the tournament adjustments I needed to make. Money to me is just a means of freedom - I've never been super obsessed with having a ton of money, and in terms of the way I'll live my life $4M and $6M are probably pretty similar. I am a watch guy though, and I might have splurged on a super nice one if I got top 2 . No I don't think Dario winning that all-in had any effect on my play.

As for getting into mixed games, I'm a pretty big believer in trial and error and learning by playing. I recommend starting at a stake where you can afford the swings, and trying a bunch of funky things to see what works and what doesn't. Try to figure out what the big winners are doing but more importantly why they're doing it. And for online resources, I have two ideas. The first is jllama's series on mixed games, which in my mind is the best video resource out there. The second is to re-watch PokerStars high WCOOP and SCOOP final tables. Pause the video when needed and try to predict the action. If someone does something unusual and they're a good player, try to understand why. I only recently started using this method as a resource, but I've found it to be invaluable - and the bonus is, it's free.

GG, easy guy to root for. We played a bit in the hyper streets back in 2011-2013 (slayerv1fan), didn't realize you had switched to the live grind. GL in the future!

What kind of winrates do you think are reasonable in these PLO games? Congrats on the score!

Firstly congrats on your score.
Second any baller items on your shopping list? New car ect
Thanks Billy.

Alex,
Congrats on the score! What advice would you give to someone wanting to learn mixed games that lives in the US without access to games online?

Hey man, we definitely battled! I've always been a live/online hybrid but the later stages of my career have definitely been much more in the live arena. I enjoy the social aspect, the psychology, the live read stuff, and playing deeper stacked. I'm also more patient live and less prone to tilt. TY!