Interview with Johannes 'SeriAce' Vogel

In keeping with his EPT Barcelona Qualification, we have an interview with our successful no limit community member SeriAce.

PokerStrategy: Hi Seri. Please introduce yourself for those readers who may not know you.
SeriAce: I'm Johannes "SeriAce" Vogel, I'm 20 and I come from Hilden near Duesseldorf. For the stalkers: exact address by inquiry only!

-PokerStrategy: How and when did you start playing poker?
SeriAce: I started poker in the middle of February 2005. I came to poker through Korn. I was playing Brood War at the time and a nice guy by the name of „Milchmann“ told me that an ex-pG'er [editor: pG = a former eSport team] was giving gifts of $5 to people on a poker site. I played a few days with playmoney and then ask Korn if he would give me $5 too.

PokerStrategy: It's been a while since then, are you making a living from poker now? If so, when did you make this decision and which limits have you mastered?

SeriAce: Yes I do live from poker. When I started saying that I'm a poker pro, well I'm not exactly sure anymore =) I dropped out of trade school and was looking for an apprenticeship or a place at another school. I played a lot of poker then and climbed the limits pretty quickly, even cashing out from time to time, but I always shied away from making a career out of poker.

Anyway I just kind of fell into it and at some time or other made the decision. I moved into my first apartment and since then I've officially been a poker pro =) When I started looking for appartments I was still playing fixed limit 10/20. I was on a huge downswing- losses around 15000 and a bankroll of just $2000 left =) And that was when I had already been living with a friend of mine for 2 months and still wanted to cover living expenses with poker.

Luckily things picked up pretty quickly in no limit games.

PokerStrategy: What does your normal day look like? What are your hobbies?

SeriAce: I wish I could say I get up in the morning, go jogging for an hour, then play 9 hours and go to the fitness club in the evening...

The truth: I sleep 10-13 hours, shower, hunch over my computer or hit up the couch for some TV. I skype with some people and in the evenings I sometimes go out for billiards or drinking. Here and there I head to Wiesbaden for some live poker. Oh yeah, and sometime in between I play anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours of poker =) If I start with one session and tilt then I can sometimes play 8000 hands that day to break even =)

PokerStrategy: You say you switched from fixed to no limit a while ago, how did you make that decision during a downswing?
SeriAce: Pure despair =) My nerves were really shot after I had gambled away most of my BR. Before that I had never played no-limit seriously but when I did, it always went well and I had fun. In tournaments it went well too and since I had nothing left to lose...

I played like a wild beast for 3 months. I won back all my losses and even had a nice little sum on top. In hindsight I regret not making the switch a lot earlier.

PokerStrategy: And since you've already mentioned tilting – how bad are you and what have you tried to do about it?
SeriAce: I've been able to reduce the tilting somewhat. Earlier I was CONSTANTLY tilted. In the meantime I've gotten it under control, but it's still too much. I can play nice and calm the whole time, even in the face of a bunch of bad beats, but then a key-hand comes and I go overboard.

5 days ago: The session got off to a terrible start with a couple bad beats, then I got 2-outed and BAM – a VPIP above 50% for 5000 hands and over 30% pre-flop raise, and then opening up a calling station post-flop... I managed to tilt away $10000 in one day on NL600 =)

In hindsight it was extremely foolish and I swore to myself that I would never let it happen again etc...But I notice from time to time that it's getting better and I'm tilting less.

PokerStrategy: How's it going, then, in cash games (when you aren't on tilt)? What limits are your hangouts?
SeriAce: Right now I'm grinding away on NL600. I had two runs on NL1000 that both ended on tilt and after losing 15-17 stacks I had to drop back down. I feel good on NL600, though, I can almost run on autopilot. The opponents are MUCH worse than on NL1000.

Up til now I haven't noticed any sharper difference in skill between limits than between NL600 and NL1000. NL1000 is 95% TAGs or good LAGs. I think I could win on NL1000 if I could keep brining my A-game, but I don't always do that – and that's something that I, as a poker player, should really have more mastery over =)

But when I do bring my A-game I feel like a lesser demi-god of poker =) I don't even need to make a profit, it's enough for me to see that I'm making good decisions. When I get beat by a gutshot, it's just bad luck.

PokerStrategy: You're well known for in the community for winning tournaments. What are your greatest successes to date?
SeriAce: My greatest successes are in cash: There are two. Twice I won around $16000, my only two wins over 10000. Then there was a second place in a rebuy tournament, that was around $9000 – and the EPT Barcelona package of just about $9000 value. Those were the biggest things, there have been a lot of other smaller wins.

My most important success: I'm proud of the back-to-back final tables in a $30 rebuy tournament. I found it was a nice accomplishment. And: that my heart didn't explode after the hour of short stack bubble play for the EPT qualifier!

PokerStrategy: How many tournaments are you playing now? Is it more fun than cash games or does the money do it for you?

SeriAce: Ok I have to say that when I read posts from the PS „high rollers“ saying poker is no fun, I can't quite understand it. It's mostly the money that drives me too, but I love the game in and of itself, especially the no limit variant. I like squeezing every happy drop of information out of the hands and making the right decision. It drives me, too.

So in response to the real question: I play the bigger buy-in tournaments in the evening a lot, but not regularly. Fun in tournaments is that kind of thing. If you play just 1 or 2 tournaments, they're boring in the beginning phases since I play really tight and fold almost all of my hands. As soon as it goes ITM and further, I get this little shot of adrenalin if I have a chance at the big money =)

However: Cash games are way more profitable than tournaments, so really I probably play tournaments more for fun and to look for that adrenalin high.

PokerStrategy: One motive for this interview is the already mentioned EPT Barcelona Event. Please tell us how you qualified for it.
SeriAce: Oh I've got miamivice [editor: a poker player from Hamburg] to thank for that. I've been chatting with him over IRC-query for a while now and he tipped me off that a $475 qualifier for the EPT Barcelona event was starting in a few minutes. I registered for it spontaneously. I think there were around 250 participants (don't hit me if i'm totally wrong). In any case, the top 12 were to get a package for the EPT barcelona event with a value of some $9000. This included a 5000 euro buy-in, $1000 spending cash and 5 days in a 4 star Hilton (I'm looking forward to that).

I just played normally and all at once I was in the top 13, in the bubble! At the time I was REALLY worked up, just before I was well above average and I could have gotten seat just by sitting out. Of course I went up against the chip leader in two hands and took a stiff one-two to the jaw=) The bubble play went for more than an hour and I was the short stack for almost the whole time – the other 12 were just waiting for the short stack to get knocked out. You have to imagine that the 13th place gets $700 and the other 12 get 9000, a huge gap.

Once I was all-in as the short stack: TT vs. AKs – COINFLIP. My nerves were so shot, and the turn/river cards are revealed so slowly on Stars, but the poker god smiled upon me. Just ONCE I got to win a coin toss at an important juncture. The game went on a while until the next to last in chips went all-in with KJ vs. A9. The flop was a king and I was swearing up a storm, but the redeeming ace came on the turn and the river was a blank. God I was glad =)

PokerStrategy: What are your expectations for this tournament? You have proven your skill online, do you think you have a chance offline against the pros?
SeriAce: I seriously believe that there are some online players that are better than the well known pros on TV. Ok, how do I say this...I'm convinced I have an edge in the tournament, that is I have a positive expected value.

But the game is still poker, anything can happen! And in such a short timeframe as you find with a tournament, luck plays a substantial roll in the outcome. So, I don't EXPECT anything from the event, but the 5 days in the Hilton Hotel in Barcelona and the fact that I'm playing my first big offline event are enough to make me look forward to it with uncommon zeal.

PokerStrategy: Do you expect to be nervous? Where and how much offline/casino experience do you have? Have you played tournaments too or just cash games?
SeriAce: I don't think i'll be nervous. Well, if the poker goddess is feeling generous and I get to the final table then I'm sure my heart will jump up in my throat. But I take just playing along there pretty casually.

I've played mostly cash games in Casinos, in Wiesbaden or in Amsterdam. As far as offline tournament experience I've only played the rookie tournaments in Wiesbaden, but I only play to get a seat faster for the cashgames (tournament players get bumped up in the waiting list above those not in the tourney).

Oh yeah, I have played a 50€ rebuy tournament in Amsterdam. Some friends of mine and I went there the day before and bought in, since we were told these things always sell out fast. Anyway on the next day we left from Duesseldorf, but then decided to head into Duesseldorf for some Pizza Hut – what we didn't realize was that it was just about time for a traffic jam in the city. Long story, short point...

We arrived in Amsterdam 1.5 hours after the rebuy and addon phase. The first hand was K8 in the BB, 380 chips left. One early raiser, I push, he calls and shows KK...good game. Afterward I tilted some money on a 5/5 NL cash game =)

I must say: Up to now I'm a fat loser at offline cashgames, surely 7000 or so in the red =)

PokerStrategy: Are you doing anything special to prep for the tournament or playing offline – for example hiding your tells?
SeriAce: Yeah, I'm going to buy some shades with proper UV protection, and that'll be it =)

PokerStrategy: The I wish you a lot of luck in Barcelona and a good time at the Hilton. Do you have anything else to say or greetings for anybody?
SeriAce: OK, first I want to say something about poker: If you want to learn poker, think about the game for yourself and think about certain hands. Don't try to learn it just through books and articles. Actively thinking about it yourself is the best method.

And shout outs go to: Tobsen, error, miamiVice, DasFleisch, FenixGuy, Mihau, cuQa, bert, xblood – I'm surely forgetting a few people, but holler at them too! And to everybody on the PokerStrategy IRC channel.

Interview by havox