» Ask a Pro chat interview with PC pro Rex55

Welcome, Rex55,  to Poker Curious' first Ask a Pro chat.  Each member's question and Rex55's response is posted below.

OaksProp asks -  I'm curious as to what bankroll requirements you set yourself. Especially in Stud, and split games. How about donkaments?

For limit games, like Stud, Stud8, Razz, Limit Hold Em... I would recommend at a minimum 200 Big bets in your bankroll. For tournaments, which is what i'm assuming he meant by donkaments, I follow the 2% rule. Which means I wont buy into any tournament that would cost me more than 2% of my entire bankroll. So if your roll is 2000, the highest buyins you should be playing are 5/10 Limit, and nothing higher than a $40 MTT. Here's a link to a great bankroll management article posted by Chris 'Fox" Wallace an instructor on PXF http://www.pocketfives.com/poker-articles/basic-bankroll-management-2425952

XPOKERCHIC asks - Do you think that bankroll management is the hardest part of being successful at poker?

I think it is one of the hardest things to manage consistently, because at times we can become emotional about poker, and its during those times our bankroll takes the hardest hits. If we don't control that emotion. But if you follow the strict guidelines that are recommended, they are set up to avoid going bust.

swa22 asks - With your initial deposit of $200, what format and buy -in did you set your sites on to grind? SnG's or MTT's? 45/90/180's?

This is a tough one to answer because when i deposited the $200 it wasn't representative of my entire roll. I had a live roll that I had been grinding playing in AC, so even if I lost the $200 I had the option of depositing more. So when I first started playing online, I started with cash games because that's what I was used to playing in AC. But I quickly realized that the swings were extremely volatile with online cash, because now I had the option of playing many tables at one time and everything moves much faster than a live poker room.  That's when a good friend recommended to me that he thought I would be good at online tournaments. That they would be less of a risk ..and something that I could invest less for a greater return. So I started by playing $26 MTTs and experimenting with different playing styles. I would practice playing tight and practice playing loose... passive... aggressive... etc. About a month later I started seeing very good results

swa22 asks - How many did you play per day/week...Did you have set goals of how much you wanted to make per day/week/month? 

In general, even 3 years later, I'm not a high volume players,,, When I first started i played around 2-3 tournaments a day. If you go to the site http://officialpokerrankings.com and go back to my early months, you can see exactly how many tournaments I played and the progression of results that I started to see. I didn't have a set goal of how much I wanted to make per day or per week because I didn't want to focus on the monetary results. At that point I just wanted to adjust into online poker and strengthen my tournament game.

swa22 asks - What goals for a beginner SnG grinder @ $2.40 or $5.50 would recommend aiming for day to day-week to week?

Your short term goals should be coming up with a comfortable volume and working on improving your game. Dont worry so much about your profit on a day to day basis. Long terms goals should be to focus on being profitable and assess your results after you've played a good sample size. Then see if you're ready to move up or continue to grind those limits. I think its damaging to fixate on a monetary number, because if you dont meet that expectation you could be upset when you in fact could have played perfect that day.

XPOKERCHIC asks - What type of people do you coach? Rich kids, average joe? I am really interested in getting some NLHE coaching but can't afford it right now. Other than reading books and practicing, what other avenues should I be trying to improve without one-on-one coaching?

With regards to coaching... I coach a wide variety of players from low limit grinders to higher stakes tournament players. What I would highly suggest is watching good players, like railing your favorite players from the beginning to end of a tourney. Having a small group of buddies you can discuss hands and strategy with. Reading well written blogs about poker strategy and poker psychology. Studying hand histories of good players posted in forums. And if you could afford, I would highly recommend joining a training site like PokerXFactor.

XPOKERCHIC: When you coach, r u coaching for live play or online or both?

Just for online.

jamesjw007 asks - So I -may- come into about $200 from some unexpected funds coming in.  What tables should I start at?  Should I do matrix tourneys?  Should it be single tables?  What range should I play in $1 tourneys, or $10?

Based on the bankroll guidelines we spoke about earlier, you can play up to a buyin of $4... If you want to be really strict about it would recommend not playing anything higher than $2 until you book a couple of cashes. In regard to what you should play, it depends on what your strength is and what you've been successful with in the past. Some people are better at single table SNGs while others do better in multi table sngs. A lot of people play the Matrix SNGs because they are lower variance. So I would come up with a game plan, say you decide to focus on single table SNGs. Pick a limit, a $1 or $2 buyin... then start visiting forums and working on your SNG strategy. I would definitely not recommend putting $200 into cash tables, as it can disappear very quickly. Unless you plan on properly grinding at micro stakes following proper bankroll guidelines. But i'm pretty sure your interests is in MTTs and SNGs, James?

jamesjw007 asks - is there any software that you personally use or recommend, or is it all done in your head - calculating pot odds and implied odds etc.?

There is a lot of poker software available, and a lot of my friends do use it, however I don't use any software. When it comes to poker I'm not very mathematically minded. I can calculate simple pot odds but a lot of my decisions are based on intuition and feel for the situation. I found a good a link for you with an article and a pot odds calculator, which explains how to use it... http://www.pokertips.org/simulator/odds.php Also through poker curious there are links to various websites that can explain pot odds in much greater detail than I can here

JackDogWelch asks - 1.) What do you suggest as an optimal strategy for these freerolls we're playing every weekend? 2.) How do you suggest we attack a bounty when we have the opportunity?

Regarding freerolls.. Early on in any MTT structure, I think "tight is right". Stick to solid starting hands and play them aggressively when you have them, extracting as much value as you can. I would not recommend slow playing in freerolls because most players are playing quite loose to get a stick, you can exploit them when playing strong hands, so get your chips in. Regarding a bounty it depends...If the bounty is in a freeroll when the actual bounty is often more than first place prize... I would widen my range of hands when playing against the Bounty. I would also try to isolate the bounty player as much as possible and try and get the hand heads up. But however, if the Bounty is in an MTT, for example the red pros on FTP. Then I would not go out of my way to get the bounty because your tournament life is much more valuable than getting the bounty

Smilie asks - When playing LIVE poker, which type of players do you really want to get a read on? Plus which famous poker player do you really want to knock out lol ?

Formulating a read at a live table for me has become vary natural, because I spent my first few years as a poker player in the poker rooms in AC. A lot of what I learned came from sitting there watching players and overhearing conversations. But I would say when you get to a live table what I would recommend is focus on one player for an entire lap, and zero in on what they're doing. Are they folding a lot, raising a lot, calling a lot, etc. How long do they take? How do they bet?... Then correlate everything they're doing to when their hand actually gets to showdown. Then you can connect how they play weak hands and how they play strong hands. I think one of the most important things to live success are the reads you make on your opponents, because its so easy to do when they're right in front of you. Too many players when they play live focus only on the cards they are being dealt.

As for who I would love to knock out, I would have to say my friend Gus Hansen. He always makes fun of me saying he can't wait to knock me out in a live event, so its going to be pretty sweet when I actually do it to him =)

BloodRiv asks - What elements do you look for in a cash game. Does the money behind each player matter much or simply the players in the game and your history with them.

The money behind each players doesn't matter because I very rarely play NL cash online. My preferred cash games are limit games mainly Razz and Omaha. So when I play those games, I try to avoid strong regulars.

BloodRiv asks - When you find yourself inside a bad run of MTTs, do you drop in volume or keep plugging forward with the same schedule.  Do you every decide to take time off away from poker simply to recharge or do you only take time off when running poorly?

When i'm running really bad in tournaments, I sometimes drop in stakes and wait til I hit a score to boost my confidence. But it really depends, I've been playing for so long that if on any given day If i'm not in the mood to play I won't and if I feel like i'm ready to play my A-game then I'll play my regular schedule.I think its important to be in tune to where you emotionally are before you start a session, and as long as you are playing your A-game as often as you can then the bad run will end. We aren't robots, we are going to affected by the bad beats and the bad runs. Its a rare person that isn't affected and I'm definitely not one of them. So you just have to able to recognize when you're not playing your A-game, and either don't play or drop down in buyin level.

swa22 asks -  I find one of the biggest adjustments in playing online poker has been the "fatigue" factor , from of sitting in front of a computer for hours...something that is new to me since I've bever had an "office" job before.  How to do you maintain your physical health? Do you work out before your daily grind?

In general, I like to get outdoors and do something active. Whether its taking Bindi to the dog park, doing yoga in the morning, or playing tennis. But there are definitely stretches I go through when I do neglect that. I think its so important when you're playing poker professionally, especially online poker when you can become lost in the computer, that you make time to do other things.

swa22 asks - I've also found my diet has been affected...skipping or rushing dinner while playing a MTT.  What type of diet do you maintain while your playing?  I've been trying to eat more fruit as a snack while playing instead of the multi-grain chips from Costco I've become addicted to...  Do you stay away from "energy" drinks?

I wish my eating schedule was better than it is, I normally always have a good breakfast, because many times I'll get swallowed up into MTTs and I wont have time to make a proper lunch and dinner. No I don't drink energy drinks. I've never even had a Red Bull... lol

swa22 asks - If and when you play cash games, do have a formula in mind to stop when your up or down?

If the table is good and I'm winning, I'll stay. If the table is good and I'm losing, I'll stay as long as I feel the loss isnt affecting my decisions. But I have struggled with this in the past.

MinCashFTW asks - Who are your favorite tournament players to watch, rail, and learn from?

Chris Moorman, JohnnyBax, PearlJammer... and I used to watch Annette_15 a lot. But most times, I'm usually watching my friends play.

MinCashFTW asks - How much has your tournament game changed since you initially started playing online?

After a few months of playing online, I had a very solid foundation. Since then my style has constantly changed because poker is always evolving. Even today, everyday, I still study poker. I watch at least one training video a day, and Im constantly working and brainstorming on things I can do to improve my game. It's important to stay one step ahead of your competition.

MinCashFTW asks - What are your favorite player blogs to follow?

Assassinato, Phil Galfond, Daniel Negreanu, David Benefield, Justin Bonomo, Brian Townsend... I'm really a blog junkie, I follow so many...And of course I read through all the member blogs here at Poker Curious.

Micdiddy asks - How do you go about changing your game up if you find a leak or want to change styles? For example, do you say "In one tourney today I will 3b lighter or steal more blinds and see how it goes, but in all the others I will play the same style I am used to," Or, "I think I have to do X,Y, and Z to get better, so first I will work on X, then when I have that down I will work on Y, etc." Or something else completely different?

I have a bunch of notes on my desk that I scribble on... so that during a tournament I can remind myself of the things I've been thinking about that I want to try
Rex55: I would recommend for any tournament player to always experiment, try things that are out of your comfort zone. It helps overcome the fear of making plays and you'll learn a lot from putting yourself in different situations.

XPOKERCHIC asks - Rexy do you watch your stats during a tourney?

No I never do. I wouldn't even know what they meant if I looked at them, lol.  I think its damaging to a poker player to become too fixated on numbers and math, and I say this because I know a lot of players that get attatched to the math and numbers of it and it inhibits them from getting creative an unpredictable. For example, a program like ICM or PokerStove might tell you that a play is profitable, while that play might NOT be optimal for that exact situation. If that makes sense...

RossG asks - Where do you see yourself in 5 years time? What would you do it poker ceased to exist tomorrow? Do you intend to keep playing poker as your career forever or do you have a get out plan?

I'm too spontaneous to know where I will be in 5 years... But I don't see myself playing poker forever... Im hoping within 7-10 years time I can walk away and start a different part of my life. For example, i'm very interested in international medical aid, once a year I go to India and volunteer. I always thought that poker would be a great vehicle to get me to a point in life where I can invest my winnings into something im passionate about. And if poker ceases to exist today, that's where I would put my full time towards.

swa22 asks - any designs in playing in the WSOP next year?

Yes I will be at WSOP next year

thepokerchamp41 asks - i've watched you play. you are nasty. how do you win like that? 

There's been a lot of hard work behind the player that you see at the tables today. And that work is still in progress.

imthatkid asks - I just wanted to know how you would play a big stack in middle to late stages of a tournament.  Do you put people to the pressure and bully people out of pots or do you simply play tight aggressive poker?

How I play is directly related to the flow of the table... if the table is playing tight then I am very aggressive. If the table is playing loose then I tighten up. Poker is so situational that you can't have one formula, the key to success is to able to change gears based on what is going on around you.

Kidtampa415 asks - what was the most influential thing to help you come out of a severe downswing? How do you remain focused?

When I've been in a severe downswing, my friends have been really influential in keeping me focused and giving me the confidence and reminding me that i'm a great player and the bad luck will turn. Personally, I'm way too competitive and determined to let a downswing completely knock me down.

XPOKERCHIC asks - How do you handle an aggressive player to your left?

I tighten up, I wait for a hand that im ready to trap him with. Because if you have an aggressive player to your left, it would be silly to keep raising and folding to his aggression.

XPOKERCHIC asks - how do you play trips on the flop if it is rainbow, ie: slowplay?

If i'm against a tight player, i would prefer to slowplay, because I would know they need a pretty big hand to put any chips in the pot, so I would give them a free card hoping they improve on the turn. But normally, if i'm against an average to loose player, I like to start building the pot to extract value from my hand.

You guys had some great questions, lets do this again in a few weeks.

Thanks for your time, Rex55.  We appreciate your insight and your taking the time to share it with members.

A less edited chat log of the Ask a Pro chat can be found HERE.