» David 'Heyimdro' Rowan Interview

David "HeyImDro" Rowan, 22, grew up in Alexandria, Virginia and currently resides in South Lake Tahoe, California. He left college early to pursue his dream of full time poker while allowing time for skiing and sailing.  While he began in cash games, winning the Sunday Mulligan in September of 2007 propelled David to focus on tournaments.  He has won the Nightly 100K on Stars and placed 4th in a couple big $1K events while racking up over $800k in lifetime tournament winnings. He is a lead instructor at the new training site, DragTheBar.

Was it a difficult decision when you decided to focus solely on poker, and not finish your college education?  What advice would you give other aspiring players who might consider that move?

I left school because I didn't like my school. I was at a fourth tier liberal arts school, didn't feel very challenged or stimulated by the academic material or my social surroundings, so I just focused a lot on poker. That's what was interesting to me and I felt like I had a knack for it. Granted, I had made a decent amount of money playing low stakes 6max cash at this point, I still planned on going home to be in a more familiar and comfortable environment, getting a job, taking classes and eventually transferring somewhere more ideal. It was at this point, without other obligations on my plate, that I really started to make some moves on the tables.

My mom, although supportive throughout my career, was apprehensive at first and didn't want to condone my poker playing by means of free room and board, so I asked for a grace period and moved out. I don't have regrets about leaving school, but I do wish I had finished the semester that was halfway done. Also, I definitely plan on going back full time at some point, and picking up a couple credits here and there before then.

My advice to players considering leaving school for poker is the classic cliche, "Do as I say and not as I do." I'll emphasize again that I left school because I didn't like school, poker was in the background. It's super important to have study habits, good discipline, and time management skills to play poker professionally, and it sure is nice to have the added security of a degree. I envy those successful players who stuck it out, juggling both college and poker, I think it's an impressive and admirable feat.

You started in cash games and now focus on tournaments.  How was the transition and why do you prefer tournaments?

The transition to tournaments was interesting. I got lucky early in my tournament career and hit a big score, and this actually kind of dictated the transition, which was a mixed blessing, because although it was great for obvious reasons, it was misleading as to the actual variance that a tournament player will experience. I definitely miss the flexibility of cash games, but I am more disciplined when it comes to grinding tournaments because, well, once I start a session I obviously have to finish. That was one of my problems with cash games, I wasn't as driven and my bankroll was somewhat stagnant as a result. I still play cash games some, especially when I'm traveling or at live events.

What particular informational resources, software resources, or people accelerated your growth as a player?

The poker forum at twoplustwo.com has been in and out of my career since the start, and that has always been helpful. The beginning spark that transformed me from a losing player to a winning player was a SNG video tutorial by a guy whose handle on stars is "gidders". He had several free videos on his site that just demonstrated the most basic TAG style of play, and once I learned that, I was off and running. Jon "Apestyles" Van Fleet has always been a good friend to me for years and always been generous with his knowledge and time. Matt "All_in_at420" Stout has also been a good friend of mine for some time. He invited me to room with him in Aruba shortly after I won the Mulligan, and there I met a plethora of other players and really got introduced to the tournament circuit. There are countless others in the poker world, but those are the two that stand out the most.

As your game improved, what changes to your game did you make that allowed you to climb the ranks and find more success?

My game, as is true for most winning players, is constantly changing. Poker is extremely cyclical, styles are constantly fluctuating and people are often experimenting with new strategies to try and get a bigger edge. It's hard to identify any specific changes, the most important one is just constantly being aware of what trends are popular, and for the most part, doing the opposite.

What is a typical poker day for you?  How do you select tournaments to play (how many, what buy in, schedule, etc.)?

This has always been a tricky thing for me, because there is so much value in a tournament like a $3+rebuys tournament, but the question I have to ask is, "Is the value of that tournament so great that it defeats the added focus that I can put into, say, a $100+rebuys tournament?" I am trying to focus mostly on higher buyin tournaments, up to $1,000, and taking shots at bigger events when they roll around. The trouble is that the fewer tournaments I play, the higher the variance I experience.

In your DragTheBar profile, you mention the challenge of bankroll management.  How do you manage your bankroll being a tournament grinder?

I have always been a firm believer of the 100x rule, and I've always been disciplined about playing within my roll. I will, however, take a shot at something that I'm not technically rolled for, but I make sure that it's an isolated thing, and not going to become a regular part of my schedule. I think taking shots can be very beneficial, just as far as getting more experience at higher stakes. You can always learn a lot from playing with good players.

You are a key member of the instructional team launching a new training site, DragTheBar.  What is the focus of this new training site, your role, and how will DragTheBar differ from what has come before?

Drag The Bar aims to be a complete poker training experience.  We don't think our members should have to belong to multiple training sites to get cash game and tournament coaching for example. Our goal is to be well rounded and provide exceptional content for all forms of poker. My role at the site is as a MTT coach. Drag The Bar will be different because of our aggressive approach to providing several opportunities for free membership and making the content accessible to a wide range of players.  For example, it will not be difficult for even a NL $25 player to earn his membership for free.

Online tournaments seem to be filled with better and stronger players more consistently. Do you feel online MTTs still offer an edge to your average mid-stakes/high stakes MTT grinder?

I think unquestionably yes. So many of the regular players tend to just auto-pilot their tournaments night after night. While this may be a winning strategy, I think it's extremely exploitable. People who want to take shots will do so, or will satellite into tournaments and will be way below the caliber of the field, and people will always have disposable income and want to gamble!

How do you handle tilt or long periods of negative variance?

This was actually one of the things that made me switch from cash games to tournaments. I didn't really tilt much, in fact, I think that was one of my strongest suits for cash games, but when I had bad losing streaks, I would be unmotivated to go and do other things, and sort of just lounge around until I was ready to play more. With tournaments, I know exactly how much I'm putting up and therefore stand to lose on a given day, and I find that way less stressful.

Are you more comfortable pre flop or post flop and which one of those is more important in present day online poker?

I'd say that I am equally comfortable, I guess. Which is more important depends solely on the depth of stack sizes. Deeper stacks generally require more skillful post flop play, and vice versa for shorter stacks.

What is your biggest weakness in poker? What is your greatest leak in tournament play?

Let me kill two birds with one stone here...I don't 3bet enough...but, like with all aspects of my game, I'm working on it!

In general, do you think people call too much or fold too much in online tournaments?

Completely player dependent, I think there are tons of players that fall into both categories, and I can't even begin to speculate at the breakdown.

What is the most overvalued hand in tournament poker?

I can't think of a specific hand per-say, but I can definitely say that I think less experienced players tend to play hands like suited connectors and small pocket pairs--hands that require large implied odds--too late into a tournament when the stacks dictate that it's not mathematically correct to do so.

How much luck do you think there is in tournament poker and how do you maximize the skill edge you feel you have?

The luck in poker is balanced out by a massive number of trials. The problem is that with tournaments, this could potentially take a lifetime to really balance out. Take for example the all time tournament money winners list. #1 is Jamie Gold, who probably doesn't have any significant scores other than the WSOP Main Event in 2006. #2 is Daniel Negreanu, who is undoubtedly one of the strongest high stakes MTT players around, and who stands where he does on that list because of a decade or more of strong finishes. My point is that it would take a long time for a player stronger than Jamie Gold to rank higher than him on that list, simply because of the nature of tournaments. As far as maximizing my skill edge, as I mentioned, I just have to constantly alter my game so as not to become predictable, which means putting in a lot of effort away from the tables to figure out what's working and what's not.

What are your aspirations in the poker world?

Honestly, I've always had the Barry Greenstein dream of winning enough money to both live comfortably and donate to worthy causes. This is easier said than done though, because at this time, I could certainly afford to give, and I do when I can, but it's easy to be selfish, and to want to think there is some finish line at which I will be able to just kick back but still be a generous and productive member of society.

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions, David.  Before you go, we have four fun questions inspired by Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio.

What is your favorite fun poker phrase/slang/acronym?

Easy..."ONE TIME!"

If the poker industry disappeared completely, what other career would you most like to attempt?

When I was at school I was pursuing a degree in psychology, and I definitely found that field interesting, so probably a career somewhere in that general direction. I have also worked part time as both a skiing and sailing instructor, and I really enjoy teaching just about anything, so I would consider that as well.

When your poker career is over, what would you most like to be remembered for?

Hopefully for just being a respectful and generous player. I hate the way that some players treat dealers and other players and things like that. I never want to be that kind of person. I'm not really into poker for fame, so I'm not hard pressed to win any big titles for the sake of winning a title.

 

Read the Poker Curious review of DragTheBar

 

Read fellow DragTheBar instructor Hunter 'BeachJustice' Bick's interview.