» Martin 'DrGiggy' Giguere Interview

Martin 'DrGiggy' Giguere, 21, is a young aggressive cash games specialist hailing from Quebec City, Canada.  He started focusing on $100 NL cash games in early 2007 after a $5k score in a tournament and has never looked back. He plays with a unique ultra aggressive style that has seen him rocket up the cash levels to playing predominately $5/10 and $10/20. He has won over $500k in his short career playing online. He is an instructor at Bluefirepoker, the training site that launched in the spring of 2009. He is also an avid hockey fan and golfer.

You have had a very rapid ascension in the poker world and are known for your ultra aggressive style.  How would you describe your approach at the table?

A lot of my game style revolves around getting other players out of their comfort zones... I try to push them to the limit, and see when and how they start to react to my non-stop aggression. From there I readjust my plan and switch gears as optimally as possible. Of course it doesn't work every time, and my style in itself is kind of exploitable if I'm against very good players, so I still have to be alert and keep readjusting to every opponent specifically.

I believe that even though this aggression can very well be learned by someone who puts in the effort, you still need a minimum of natural aggressiveness, that I'd call a "killer instinct", to put in into practice. It's all good to know when and why a move should be made, but if you're naturally scared to pull the trigger it just won't be as effective.

My greatest strength is probably my hand-reading, which is more than essential to play an aggressive style.  My greatest weakness definitely is the fact that I have problems playing my A-game 100% of the time, and my B and C-games can be laughably bad at times. I've been working on that a lot though, as I understand it's one of the most important skills a poker player must have.

I do use a HUD when I play, but basically don't rely on it at all... the only things I look at normally are the VP$IP and PFR of a player, just to get a reminder of everyone's approximate preflop range. I definitely base my reads a lot on feel but don't take as many notes as I should, I guess I just have a great memory for that. I really believe a lot of players should concentrate more on trying to analyze how their opponents think, instead of trying to know what's their turn raise % with a backdoor double-gutter on odd days.

What is the state of $5/10 and $10/20 games you play in these days?

I know that this will sound arrogant but I'll say that they're in very great shape... even though it's sometimes filled with regulars, most of them are full of leaks or just flat out bad. Don't get me wrong, they probably still grind a small win rate, but poker is far from dead when you see guys at these levels make as many mistakes as they do, and someone starting a career right now can still aspire at quickly playing some high stakes if he's confident enough.

There's obviously still a healthy dose of fish for everyone to get their daily meals and to keep the weaker regulars in the game... the only thing that could basically kill the games are the *beep beep beep* shortstackers/ratholers, and even though some efforts have been made to erase them (like FullTilt's deep games), I still think a lot more could be made as they're blatantly bad for poker in the long run.

I think the "how many buy ins" thing is totally personal... on my part I basically need an infinite bankroll to move up because it stresses me a lot and I know I couldn't deal with having to move down. But if all of this is not a problem for you, I believe that trying to move up as quickly as possible (given that you're confident in beating the upper limit) is definitely the optimal way to go, as long as you set yourself a strict limit for moving back down.

As far as dealing with swings and variance goes, I honestly pretty much suck at that. Even though I'm still working on that a lot and I'm getting better, I still have problems feeling good when I book a losing session, which might explain the fact that I just play until I break even, leading to the most epic robustos. I certainly wouldn't recommend that to anyone though, and I think getting tricks like stop-losses and stuff like that is once again 100% personal.

I basically always loved to share my thoughts with other people, and I thought that Bluefirepoker would give me a very good tribune to do so (and I was right). As for the whole "why teach the fishes how to play" debate over training sites, I feel that if I don't do it someone else will, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon.

That definitely would be the positive feedback I receive... hearing people tell me that I really helped their game and/or entertained them always makes my day. And I think it's been quite a success so far, as I'm really focusing on the quality of the videos, which has showed in all the reviews I got. I did choose Bluefirepoker because that's a big part of our mentality, as a small group of top notch pros we really put a lot of effort in creating GOOD content, not just creating content. That means you'll see stuff there you wouldn't see anywhere else, especially from a guy like Galfond."

I wouldn't really call hockey a "passion", as I can barely skate in real life... let's say I just love to watch sports (and gamble, *wink wink*), and hockey is by far the most popular thing up here. I do seriously love to play golf though, and let's say that in the state that I'm in right now, poker is just the perfect "job" for all my other passions. That is because I just have total freedom over my playing hours (if I decide to play at all), which allows me to basically do everything I want whenever I want. I'll also go ahead and say that this whole freedom thing is by far the best aspect of playing poker for a living.

Winter sucks. Seriously, I just hate the horrible cold up here, even though I wouldn't see myself living anywhere else. I figured that a second home in Florida would be the perfect compromise, and that it would also allow me to play golf all year long. I also see it as an investment, as it's definitely a great time to buy that kind of stuff.

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

I don't have any specific goals to be honest... I just want to keep playing as long as I have fun doing it, ideally long enough to pile up enough money for not having to work if I don't want to.

Be sure you love the game before launching yourself fully into it... not only like it, LOVE it. Because otherwise you'll put way too much time and effort into something that will hurt your overall happiness. Even though you might make some nice monies, you won't find yourself any more happy for it.

If you do love the game though it's totally another story, as everything you'll do to get to a high level won't feel like a burden, and it will just all come by itself. Every single successful player I know had at least a period of time in their life where all they could think about was poker, they'd breath poker and talk poker and don't give a shit about anything else.

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions, Martin.  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?

Under the G is the new cut-off

Pumpkins investment

Subway, I wouldn't want to screw my body before dying, as it's been used to eating only that for the past couple of years

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

My "Most Improved Odor" trophy

Read the Poker Curious Bluefire Poker review