» Hunter 'BeachJustice' Bick Interview

Hunter 'BeachJustice' Bick, 28, represents an important part of the poker population. A solid mid stakes winner and poker professional who balances his playing with coaching and teaching others. We are accustomed to hearing about those whiz kids that shoot up out of nowhere to make millions almost over night, but they are a rare minority and can often flame out just as easily. While he has won as much at $100k in a single month or had $25k days, the typical monthly totals are more modest. Hunter is married and lives in Charlotte. He makes a good living from playing, but it often goes under the poker media radar. He has spent the last few months building a new training site, DragTheBar to continue to hone his teaching and business skills. We thought it was a good time to understand his perspective about the game.

Welcome to Poker Curious, Hunter. Describe the life of a successful mid stakes grinder. How do you approach your day or week?

These days I set aside the morning (if there’s any left of it when I get up) and afternoon for Drag The Bar work and then take a break and/or get a workout in. After that, I’ll check out the games and if they look good I’ll play 1k-2k hands. If not, then I’ll work on more DTB stuff and wait for heads up action. On the weekends I’ll play as much poker as I can when the games are good.

You mentioned game selecting as being essential to your success. Walk us through your process of game selection.

I think game selection is crucial because a large part of your win rate comes from weak players who make huge mistakes. But I do spend most of my time working on beating good players, because you play more hands with them, and all those marginal spots add up to a big difference in the long run. I keep money on all the U.S. friendly sites so if the games are not very good on one site, I can look elsewhere. I also have a huge Poker Table Ratings buddy list that I made from their biggest losers list so I know when my boys are around.

What if any software do you use to analyze your game during and after a session?

Just Hold’em Manager to look at any hands I may have screwed up and Pokerstove when I need to look at ranges and equities.

What do you consider the state of the games that you play in predominately these days?

I frequently read people saying that NL Hold’em is “solved” or that it's “dying.” I’ve been hearing that for 3 years and think it's hilarious that people are still saying that. NLH 6max is very beatable and beatable with different styles. I think the reason you read those posts is because people spend so much time and energy trying to level each other with pre-flop 4bets and shoves, that they end up taking lots of coin flips pre-flop instead of worrying about out-playing their opponents post-flop, which is where the money is really made.

What do you consider your greatest strengths and weaknesses?

I think my greatest strengths are making accurate assumptions about my opponents and their ranges. From that, I’m able to be creative and win pots that I have no business winning. I don’t play more than 6-10 tables because otherwise I can’t develop the same understanding of my opponents ranges, and then I can’t make late street bluffs nearly as profitable. My biggest weakness is my attention span, I have ADD so I can’t stay focused for more than 2 or 3 hours. So I just play shorter sessions and take more breaks.

What mistakes do you find many low stakes players make that will prevent them from achieving their dreams of making a living from poker?

Speaking from my experience and what I’ve seen in my students, low-stakes players generally are too optimistic in their assumptions of their opponents’ ranges. That leads them to paying off in spots they shouldn’t and bluffing at the wrong times. They also aren’t as used to thinking creatively and going against the common poker-forum wisdom when the situation calls for it. Lastly, they often do not maximize the value of having position.

Describe your approach to coaching poker.

My goal when I’m coaching is to help my students and Drag The Bar members build a winning thought process by teaching them how to tighten up their assumptions, read hands better, and be more creative. To be very successful, every poker player needs to develop his or her own style, so I show them how to think about the situations better and help them build their own winning thought process. I don’t try to teach them to play my exact game because a lot of the things that work great at $5/$10 don’t apply to $.5/$1 or $1/$2. But I definitely show them how I think as a way to strengthen their decision making against the opponents in the limits they play. I feel like when you make sure you are teaching a good winning thought process, the student is able to improve and think about the game better on their own.

A while back, you were an instructor at StoxPoker, what caused you to want to start your own training site?

Being a part of StoxPoker was a great experience for me as I really developed as a coach during that time. The guys there are awesome and I consider a few of them to be lifelong friends. But starting my own site gives me the opportunity to have a lot more creative control and approach teaching differently.

What has it been like to develop a new training site from scratch?

It’s been incredible. Growing DragTheBar from a conversation to a full functioning training site has been a lot of fun. It’s pretty amazing how much goes into a website, a lot of the stuff on the tech side I had no idea about before, so I’ve learned a lot. I’ve also been lucky enough to meet some very talented people and hire coaches who are great guys and are all passionate about teaching poker.

How does DragTheBar plan to differentiate itself?

We want top level poker training to be accessible to even micro-stakes players. We don’t have a sign-up fee and we have several ways to earn free memberships by raking as little as $200 a month, and multiple months can be earned by playing more. Quality content and training is very important to a player’s growth and we want to make it available to the players who may need it the most.

What types of videos will you be doing or what particular area do you like to focus on in your instruction?

DragTheBar will be focusing on cash games and multi-table tournaments. I personally will be making a lot of 6max NL and heads up NL cash videos. Those are my favorite games because ranges are wide and you can really put a lot of pressure on people, and that’s always a good time. There’s nothing better than watching a guy run out his time bank and end up folding, you know you’ve stressed him out and that the decision will be bothering him for a while.

How do you manage your life in poker with your marriage and other significant relationships?

My wife is great, she pushed me to play professionally when I was in banking and hated my job, she even helped clear bonuses back when there were so many I couldn’t get to all of them. So there’s not a whole lot to manage fortunately, we both work at home so we have the same hours, and that makes the sometimes bizarre poker schedule no problem.

Moving forward, what are your aspirations in the poker world?

On some level I’d like to win a bracelet or major tournament, even though tournaments are not my favorite game. I think it just comes from when I tell people what I do. I’m sure every online pro has had this experience, people look at you like you just told them you sell drugs, and they think you are going to end up in the street or in prison. But if you say you’ve been on TV (I haven’t) or won a WSOP bracelet (I wish), then their eyes light up and suddenly you’re a genius. The 180 degree flip people do when you mention a TV appearance is hysterical.

Other than that, I just love playing poker and am thankful to be able to do it professionally. It's my dream job, so my long term goal is making sure I always enjoy it and that I can always make strong money from it. If I make it to the highest stakes that would be cool, if not, that’s OK too.

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

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

My wife has heard me say “Ship it” in my sleep, so I’m going with that.

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

Trading, it’s a similar thought process, that’s assuming there’s not a strong self-employment option. Its hard to imagine having a boss again.

If you were on death row, what would be your last meal?

Lobster, and several mojitos.

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

One of my first students came to me as a break-even online player. He hated his job, and I knew what it was like to get up every morning to go to a job that wasn’t mentally challenging. After 10 months of working together, he was winning at 3.5ptbb and able to quit his job and play professionally. Being able to help someone escape a job they hate and become self-employed through poker was really rewarding. So I guess I just want to have been known for being a tough competitor and a good coach.

Read the Poker Curious review of DragTheBar

 

Read fellow DragTheBar instructor David 'Heyimdro' Rowan's interview.