Q&A with MrPillowtalk

MrPillowTalk

nicnicnic wrote:

does going out of a big live tourney effect you emotionally, how long does it take you to shake it off.

when you hit a downswing online does it effect your state of mind in everyday life, can you get moody with family/relationships/work or can you leave it at the tables

Going out of a live tourney bothers me more than anything else in poker, if I go deep then go out around the bubble or just in the money it can piss me right off for a couple of hours but then Im ok. The night I went out of the WSOP was the worst Ive ever been, I remember myself and Daithio talking about it at the time I didnt go near the rio the whole next day but after that I got over it and enjoyed railing Roundtower, KP and Robbie.

Downswings arent fun but I dont bring it into other parts of my life, I used to get annoyed and a couple of times took it out on my girlfreind etc but I dont anymore, the first time you lose a big chunk in a day is really tough, now if I get killed at the tables I dont let it interfere outside of poker. If I was depending on poker to pay all my bills it would probably bother me more.

MrPillowTalk

ianmc38 wrote:

You have an unnatural ability to accumule chips in well structured deep stacked big buyin events. What's your secret? Do you play more hands early on? Play tighter/looser? Play more hands in position? See loads of flops? Call raises with marginal hands in position? Pick specific opponents to play pots with?

I pick my customers quite carefully. I generally just play the cards for the first level and try and set up a table image and get a feel for how everyone plays.

In the first 3 levels I basically play it as a cash game as your deep enough to do that, so I play the same range I would if I was playing cash which means I do play more hands than later on obviously. However loads of players seem to think that because your deep its profitable to call a raise with crap. I play marginal type of hands but I still muck small suited aces and the same junk Id muck in a cash game. The biggest mistake I see from players in deepstacked tourneys is doing things like flat calling suited aces in the belief they can stack people off.

When the blinds catch up with the stacks a bit i.e. average stack is 35 - 55 bbs then I stop open raising a lot and start reraising the same range I would open raise with. I generally dont play to showdown that often. I like to have an aggresive preflop player on my table as they are usually a good means of surviving throughout the day.

Dont know if this is really a good explanation of what Im trying to say.

MrPillowTalk

Flipper wrote:

(1) Describe your typical day...

(2) You said in your blog that you're trying to lose weight... Join the club. How are you going about it? Any plan of action I should be aware of?

(3) Why is Dave Callaghan the jammiest man on earth?

1) Up at 7.30am out to a building site for about 8.15 then hit the office at about 9.30 - 10.00 work untill about 4.00 pm then I go out to the sites again untill about 6pm.

Home to my mothers for dinner then head home about 8.30, set out my day plan for tomorrow and then usually get a few hours online. Hit the hay about 1 - 2 am most nights

2) Im starting to cycle to work twice a week and playing 5 a side on Saturday mornings again.

3) The better you are the luckier you get, but yes I think his parents made some animal sacrifice to help before his birth.

MrPillowTalk

green123 wrote:

who are the best 4 or 5 players in the 20 40 game on tribeca ?
are you / will you play in it again ?
why did you stop ?
and your thoughts on clubber ?

LetsGamble is up the most in the game. Apart from him Nitemare1 is excellent. Alias, Sealey, Tommyboy, Clubber/Boycie and DrapedUp are all pretty good.

I played it last night and made about 7k.

Ive stopped playing it because Im playing quite poorly at the moment.

Clubber is good he is definately no value but he is so abusive to people it shows a lack of class really.

MrPillowTalk

eggie wrote:

E50 + 5 tourney

Player A: New to poker; previously limped with AA and check called to river on 8 4 2 rainbow board. Limped with AQ, AJ on button also.

Player B: Experienced aggressive player who likes to see a lot of flops.

Player C: Agressive, likes to check raise continuation bets, re-raise/bet to any weakness shown by opponents.

Player You (small blind 100)

Player E: (big blind 200) Fish, no idea of the fundamentals or any part of the game, limped/called with JJ on J high board and with A rag on KK4 board,likes the look of his cards, good enough for him, if not bin them.

A: min raises to 400 (stack 1.1K)
B: UTG, calls 400 (stack 3.5K)
C: calls 400 (stack 5K+)
45o (2.8K) calls 400
E: calls 400 (1.6k)

POT 2k; Flop 8 6 3 rainbow

A: leads for 500 (200 behind)
B: calls
C: calls
push or fold and why?

Actual hand played out. Reveal all later. (edit to put in blinds)

What a very strange hand.

I wouldnt have called preflop btw.

Now I would flat call barring no other reads, if I thought B or C were weak here I would push, Im not folding for 500 thats for sure.

I dont see how B or C are living up to your desciption of them thats whats making the hand difficult to know wheither to call or push.

MrPillowTalk

fuzzbox wrote:

1. Why dont you post more interesting hands here ? Do you feel that it will give too much away? Do you really believe that, or are you just lazy :-).

2. How often do you play and how many hours do you tend to log?

3. Do you prefer live or online?

4. How do you control your tilt?

5. What stakes did you start at and how long did it take you to get the hang of it?

6. Did you have an "epiphany" moment where lots of things started to make sense?

7. Jeep or sports car?

1) I generally know where I went wrong on a hand, and usually if Im unsure I have about ten pro players on my msn I can quiz quite quickly. Also I am lazy and should probably post more hands.

2) I play about 5 days a week for a couple of hours or more. I dont really know how many hands I log, I dont play more than 2 tables at a time usually. I bought my current laptop xmas before last and its my only computer with poker tracker I have 62k hands logged on it.

3) I have more fun live, allthough for paying the bills online is the only man.

4) Ive been struggling with this lately I used to just not tilt, I try to quit if Im having a shocker. How do you deal with it?

5) Started at .25/.5 and .5/1 moved up and down between there and 2/4 for the guts of a year before taking a shot at 5/10 and havent really looked back. I lost about 500 - 600 dollars before I started to win/break even. I wasnt a total novice when I started online though, I started in home games around Sutton and Howth one in particular that I played every Thursday for a couple of years before I found online poker.

6) I realised that the players at the mid higher stakes arent as good as I thought they were. When I changed how I played AK it dramatically reduced my variance.

7) I drove a toyota landcruiser for four years and at the moment drive an audi tt quattro, but I want to buy an X5 at some stage this year so I guess Im a jeep person. I had some amazing adventures in my jeep I once drove allong the dart tracks from baldoyle to howth in the middle of the night, and nearly toppled it on Deer Park golf course doing "nighttime safari" lol. I also used to start at The summit inn and cut the engine once I hit 60mph in the jeep and see how far I could coast in "stealth mode" lol yes definately a jeep person.

MrPillowTalk

lenny_leonard wrote:

1. What are the qualities, both technical and otherwise, that you need at the higher levels (10/20+)?

2. Related to Q1, are there any qualities that you need at higher levels that are worthless at < 2/4.

3. What areas of your game do you consider weak(er)?

4. A while back you started posting some pot-odds questions which inferred that you don't rely too much on maths in your game. Is that the case?

And a question you can avoid if you want, as I'm abusing the well here to get some personal feedback:
5. In the IPC way back in August we shared tables for maybe 10-12 hours. Did you pick up on any really obvious weaknesses in my own tourney game? Be as harsh as you like!

1) Probably the ability to adapt your game to different styles of opponents. At the higher stakes you can keep running into the same guys over and over, and you need to be able to expand your thought processes a couple of levels and be prepared to go with your reads.

2) I dont know if any are worthless the above one has limited value as a good basic strategy of play should be sufficient to beat the lower stakes.

3) Like I said earlier Im calling on the end too much, I probably have in general too much calling station tendancies.

4) Funny as it sounds I actually have a maths based degree and am currently doing a further also maths based degree but its true working out the prices isnt my strongest point. I rarely work out the exact price Im getting but I know generally wheither Im getting the right price to call or whatever intuitively.

5) You played a good solid game from what I saw and made a good call with ace high to split a pot with me. You probably played a little too tight at times, if I remember correctly you had Neill Kelly and another very aggresive guy on your left and you folded to them in a few hands where I couldnt work out what you were betting for if you wouldnt call their reraises which were likely to follow, but I have no idea what you had.

MrPillowTalk

halibut2 wrote:

Are u a legend/superstar or is it just my opinion?


edit, have u ever been barred from a casino?

Im pretty sure everyone thinks that, your not alone

Yes I am at present unwelcome in a number of gambling establishments I maintain that I was not at fault for any of these barrings, and as I recall the last time it was YOU that got barred not me.

What happened to the New York chick did you blow it again lol.

MrPillowTalk

pok3rplaya wrote:

1) Have you ever played High Stakes poker on a site other then tribeca? If so, how do you think those games compared to the standard of play at tribeca 10/20 and 20/40?

2) Who are the top 5 regular players at tribeca 10/20?


Also I don't want to hijack this thread but any disagreements we may have had on here we're purely poker based. I hold no grudge against you in any way.

Yeah I started out on Prima and lived in the 5/10 and 10/20 there back in the days when prma was where all the Scandie action was at. I then played the 10/20 dollar and sterling games on Crypto for a long time I only started playing tribeca last Febuary/March and stayed around as at the time there used to be at times the weakest 10/20 games on the net as all the tough players from other sites didnt like the 75bb cap, for a while that game was poker heaven.

Back when the 10/20 ran all the time it would have been Sealey, Clubber, Arne, Me, Thea and Soxy. I havent played it in a while Robin was doing well there lately.

I know its all poker based I dont hold any grudges so no worries.

MrPillowTalk

Shortstack wrote:

1: Rocky or Tyson?

2: Why Pillowbiter - do you have secret latent tendancies we need to know about?

3: Who has impressed you in a live tournament

4: How would you play AKo on a Q64 rainbow board, you have raised to 100 preflop and have one caller on the button with 800 behind?

5: Do you treat UTG at a 6 handed table the same as if you were 3 from the button at a full table?

6: Why do you drive a girls car?

1) you know the answer to this one.

2) the only thing you have to worry about is Catherine dumping you to chase me

3) Ivey and David Williams were great to watch during the wsop, Roundtower's fearless play also impressed me. Thorsen impressed me and whenever I play with Andy and he runs everyone down its marvelous to see. I tend to be impressed by players who really take control.

4) Completely depends on the villain, usually bet 150, sometimes check fold sometimes check push.

5) No I play alot more aggresively in the latter scenario, I usually have a hand to play utg.

6) Because its not a girls car, and I couldnt afford a 911.

MrPillowTalk

pppspecial wrote:

what was the first thing that came to mind when u were going the toilet in the caravan that morning in scarborough when u looked down???

why is smurph sleeping in the toilet?

MrPillowTalk

Mr. Flibble wrote:

Did you build your roll mainly live or online?

Did you start off grinding small cash games or playing tournaments?

Did you have any early successes which catapulted your roll and confidence or was your trip slower and steadier?

How long have you being playing semi-seriously?

If I were to buy 1 million euro lotto tickets would I make more in the long run buying them with the numbers in sequential order or try to have an even spread, or is the EV the same? If they are in sequential order and I got all the numbers right on one I am likely to get 5 correct on a number of other tickets too, but I am more likely to miss all the numbers and get nothing.

I built it online entirely.

Both I used to do well in the tourneys on Party I made the ft of the 500k on Sunday twice and the 200k once but never managed better than 7th.

Back when my roll was about 4 or 5k I took a shot hu against a guy I knew was dreadful sitting at 5/10 I made 5k that day which at the time was huge for me I was working part time as a barman and it was a heap of money to me. Ive been bust a few times but allways rebuilt quickly it was a steady enough rise.

Semi seriously 3 - 3and ahalf years I suppose, I sort of allways took it seriously even when I was playing live games a couple of nights a week I kept a job in a pub in Howth purely so I could get into a game that used to run after hours that some of the local publicans used to play in.

I have no idea.

MrPillowTalk

RasTa wrote:

What do you treat yourself to from winnings?(United games for mise)

Will United beat Spurs tomorrow? Scorecast plz

I dont treat myself as such, Ive paid a chunk off my mortgage, bought a nice car bought my girlfreind a nice car, traveled to places like Vegas etc.

I was at the Portsmouth game last week I try to get over to 4 or 5 games a year but that was only my second this season, I will probably go to the Bolton game on Paddys weekend.

We should beat Sours tomo 2-1 or 2-0 Rooney is scoring again allthough I would have liked to see him rested at Watford, if Rooney and Ronaldo play well we will win.

MrPillowTalk

kincsem wrote:

Why do you play?

For the money.

Sometimes live its for the craic.

nicnicnic

MrPillowTalk wrote:

6) I realised that the players at the mid higher stakes arent as good as I thought they were. When I changed how I played AK it dramatically reduced my variance.

.

can you elaborate on this, how used you play AK and what change you made



btw great job on this

Lafortezza

How likely are you to quit job completely and play poker full time?
What's stoppign you from doing it right now?

Do you think you could stick with and enjoy 25-40 hours of online poker a week?

MrPillowTalk

nicnicnic wrote:

can you elaborate on this, how used you play AK and what change you made

I started to flat call with ak pre flop if the pot was hu, made it more profitable and less variance playing ak out of the blinds. I still reraise it in position usually but against an aggresive player will call about 50% of the time instead of raising. I thought I was losing a lot of value by not raising it but you actually gain from the extra action you get from worse aces on ace high flops.

MrPillowTalk

lafortezza wrote:

How likely are you to quit job completely and play poker full time?
What's stoppign you from doing it right now?

Do you think you could stick with and enjoy 25-40 hours of online poker a week?

I work in a family business there is zero % chance of me ever quitting to play poker.

I know plenty of millionaire builders and very few millionaire poker players this is the main reason I wouldnt stop working, also I know Im not the greatest poker player in the world and am unlikely to ever become the best but I will keep trying.

I could stick it I think, there are plenty worse jobs, I dont know if I would enjoy it indefinately.

RoundTower

thanks for all the compliments but you're still getting the bops treatment here.

Do you think it's a bad idea to risk all your chips on a draw in a poker tournament, especially early in the the first few levels?

Several noted professionals have commented on how they fare better against stronger opposition. Do you find this is true for you?

Do you consider yourself a lucky player? If you think of the four or five biggest pots you've ever played in cash games -- or the most crucial points in tournaments -- have you been lucky or unlucky overall?

Do you know how to play mythical or klag? Would you like to play some time?

What table selection techniques do you use while playing online?

Suppose you are playing a heads up cash game with blinds €1-€2, and €200 stacks. You are on the small blind and you get dealt AK. While you are thinking about what to do you accidentally flip over your cards and your opponent sees them, however you are still allowed to play the hand. Should you go all in? Or fold and wait for a better spot? Would it ever be better to do something like raise to €7, just to mix up your play?

Hawk Eye

MrPillowTalk wrote:

I had some amazing adventures in my jeep I once drove allong the dart tracks from baldoyle to howth in the middle of the night.

Wtf, I live in Baldoyle and never heard of anyone doing something crazy like this. Would have been funny if you missed the exit at the lodge and got stuck turning.:D

BTW did you go to St Fintan's?

ditpoker

MrPillowTalk wrote:

We should beat Sours tomo 2-1 or 2-0 Rooney is scoring again allthough I would have liked to see him rested at Watford, if Rooney and Ronaldo play well we will win.

lying on a public forum is disgraceful... this is bad advice from pt. :mad:
no one mention the arsenal youth system to me!

MrPillowTalk

RoundTower wrote:

thanks for all the compliments but you're still getting the bops treatment here.

Do you think it's a bad idea to risk all your chips on a draw in a poker tournament, especially early in the the first few levels?

Several noted professionals have commented on how they fare better against stronger opposition. Do you find this is true for you?

Do you consider yourself a lucky player? If you think of the four or five biggest pots you've ever played in cash games -- or the most crucial points in tournaments -- have you been lucky or unlucky overall?

Do you know how to play mythical or klag? Would you like to play some time?

What table selection techniques do you use while playing online?

Suppose you are playing a heads up cash game with blinds €1-€2, and €200 stacks. You are on the small blind and you get dealt AK. While you are thinking about what to do you accidentally flip over your cards and your opponent sees them, however you are still allowed to play the hand. Should you go all in? Or fold and wait for a better spot? Would it ever be better to do something like raise to €7, just to mix up your play?

1) Depends on how big the draw is, how likely villain is to fold, how big an advantage doubling up early will give me over my table. In general its not usually a good idea to risk all your chips on a draw at any stage in the tournament unless you have good fold equity, your stack size dictates you must, or you are playing opponents far better than you are.

2) No Id rather play bad players all the time.

3) I consider myself lucky, but in the biggest cash pots ive played and during points in tournaments I have been more unlucky than lucky. Nearly every big tournament Ive played last year I got quite unlucky when it mattered.

4) No I dont know how to play, yes I would like to learn.

5) Try to play the tables with the least good regulars. Or if the games dont look great I just choose the ones with highest average pot and players per pot.

6) I would fold, allthough I suspect a mathematical calculation can be carried out to identify the correct ammount to raise.

MrPillowTalk

Hawk Eye wrote:

Wtf, I live in Baldoyle and never heard of anyone doing something crazy like this. Would have been funny if you missed the exit at the lodge and got stuck turning.:D

BTW did you go to St Fintan's?

I was in St Fintans primary for a year, but I went to secondary school in Mount Temple. Yeah it was hillarious doing it.

MrPillowTalk

ditpoker wrote:

lying on a public forum is disgraceful... this is bad advice from pt. :mad:
no one mention the arsenal youth system to me!

If we lose to Spurs I shall not be best pleased.

roryc

What was the most annoying thing i did to you in school

BigCityBanker

Eoin, fair play for this.

What is the most common mistake you see people making at a poker table?

What mistake do you most commonly make?

What makes you uncomforatable at a poker table? i.e. another player having position, etc etc..?

How is your bankroll management?

Who is the worst regular player at the high stakes? What platform?

2 - 0 to utd now.

I watched you quite a bit at the IPC and spoke with you a bit also about strategy etc.. Firstly, you will final table a big one shortly. Secondly, from what little chats we had in Citywest I picked up quite a bit from you - Would you play a live STT with some weaker players for say 50/100 (I reckon the winner should spend the cash on beer) and use it as a training session for them. NFR is waiting in the wings to be one of the more senior players.

Do you have any intentions to play the big live tourney circut a bit more? From what I can see you know you have the game to do well in them but its hard to expect to FT if you only gonna play 2/3 a year. (3 - 0 now) Maybe you play more but im not aware.

Is Cristiano Ronaldo a good thing for player of the year?

Are your screen names publicly known? I watch quite a bit of the high stake poker on Tribecca as I feel there are some nuggets to pick up. Id like to be able to identify you if they are known.

Cheers,

Noel.

RasTa

Was it Mr Hughes or Mr Hipwell who thought you maths?

kincsem

As a Spurs fan I'm saddened by the 0-4 result, but as Ronaldo now ties Drogba at 15 goals in the top-goalscorer market I might collect €2,600 (20/1).

MrPillowTalk

roryc wrote:

What was the most annoying thing i did to you in school

I dont think you ever did anything that annoyed me that much in school allthough Im glad you have calmed down, you were quite the hyperactive child.

MrPillowTalk

BigCityBanker wrote:

Eoin, fair play for this.

What is the most common mistake you see people making at a poker table?

What mistake do you most commonly make?

What makes you uncomforatable at a poker table? i.e. another player having position, etc etc..?

How is your bankroll management?

Who is the worst regular player at the high stakes? What platform?

2 - 0 to utd now.

I watched you quite a bit at the IPC and spoke with you a bit also about strategy etc.. Firstly, you will final table a big one shortly. Secondly, from what little chats we had in Citywest I picked up quite a bit from you - Would you play a live STT with some weaker players for say 50/100 (I reckon the winner should spend the cash on beer) and use it as a training session for them. NFR is waiting in the wings to be one of the more senior players.

Do you have any intentions to play the big live tourney circut a bit more? From what I can see you know you have the game to do well in them but its hard to expect to FT if you only gonna play 2/3 a year. (3 - 0 now) Maybe you play more but im not aware.

Is Cristiano Ronaldo a good thing for player of the year?

Are your screen names publicly known? I watch quite a bit of the high stake poker on Tribecca as I feel there are some nuggets to pick up. Id like to be able to identify you if they are known.

Cheers,

Noel.

Second time writing this post after boards ate it.

1) Most common mistake is people playing at all, most people just shouldnt play. Common playing mistakes are playing too wide a range from early position, playing too small a range from late position. Generally calling too much.

2) I call too much sometimes. I 3bet nits a lot and when I get 4 bet and know Im beat I call way too often to gamble just to try and bust them out of the game.

3) I am usually a bit nervous in tournaments untill I win a pot, then nothing bothers me really. Playing hu for huge money against aggresive players can be nerve jangling.

4) Its reasonably good, I know I have a tilt button so I dont keep that much online so if I go on monkey tilt I cant bust myself whilst steaming. Lately when playing the big games I go halfs on my action.

5) There are plenty of poor players but none stay long so there arent many regular losers, if someone is playing high stakes week in week out they are usually winning. Sometimes you get a fish who runs hot for a month or two thinks they are gods gift to poker then give it all back over the next month or so, recently a guy on tribeca ASchuler ran up to 50k and gave it all back and was very depressed about the whole experience, he was terrible but couldnt see it untill he went bust. The most regular losers at the higher tables on tribeca are pat12 and bobb, Im pretty sure I know who both are in real life.

6) I rarely play stts but if I was around Im sure Id do it, Dave Oc, Kp and Rob would be more use to you.

7) I think I played 5 big events last year, I made the final two tables in one but should have ft'd at least one of the other ones, I will probably play about the same ammount this year, its hard when your not totally committed to poker to work the time required for foreign festivals in to your schedule. I expect to win every tournament I play I really dont see the point in playing if you dont.

8) Ronaldo is the business this year, I will be inconsolable if we let him go to Madrid, it pisses me right off that he is only on £70k per week and deputy dog Rio is on £130k. 15 goals so far this season off the wing is remarkable.

9) My mrpillowtlk one was well known obviously, and amongst the other lads who play a lot online most of my screen names are known but they arent common knowledge. I dont generally like them being known because I dont really like chatting in the chat box too much, they arent secret though, ask me next time I see you Ill tell you them.