Diamond Interview Series: awishformore

awishformore is not like the other Diamonds. Actually, all of our Diamonds have something special, and he is no exception. He created his Black Member Party #7 challenge blog where he promised to join us by becoming Diamond until the party and did it. By playing NL 25 SSS. Enough with the intro, here is awishformore!

PokerStrategy: Hello, awishformore, and thanks for joining me in the Diamond Interview Series. Let's start with something easy: a short intro from you.

awishformore: I hate these kind of questions ;). I'm Max from Luxembourg, and back when I was still going to school, I studied computer science.
Now, I work occasionally here and there, play a lot of poker, help friends out with their companies and I'm also thinking about picking up psychology studies. Other than that, I like to jam on my guitar or go out to party with friends.

PokerStrategy: Wow, nice to have a Luxembourg citizen interviewed. Basically I know about 2% of that population now, right? So how did you get into poker in the first place? Did you find it or did it find you?

awishformore: It's more like 0.0002 % actually ;). Well, back in the "old days", I used to play a lot of Starcraft and some shooters online, and I also hung out on the usual IRC channel.
In some channel, I picked up some talk about PokerStrategy. I signed up and surely enough donked the few dollar away quickly. About 2-3 years later, the huge poker boom started with Moneymaker's big win in the WSOP, and I started playing in pubs because of the easy money. I never stopped since.

PokerStrategy: I will refrain from talking about StarCraft, since I will use up all the interview space. I can only say it's good to see another one of my kind here - especially a Diamond. Well, let's tell the people about your rank: why did you become Diamond and most of all, how did you get to Diamond?

awishformore: Well, it all started during a pause from online poker, when I read about the BM Party in Hamburg. It is my girlfriend's favourite town, so I started pondering whether I should try and get Diamond to take her there for a nice weekend.
When SoyCD talked to me about it, too, I decided to go for it. I had been Platinum playing SSS, SnGs and BSS before, and at one time, I was playing so much that I realized I could actually get Diamond in SSS NL25, so I deposited and my challenge to get Diamond before the BM Party was born.

PokerStrategy: That's the interesting part - you made it to Diamond by playing NL10/NL 25. What bankroll did you have for this? Did you go busto at any point during your challenge?

awishformore and girlfriend

awishformore: I started with about $150. At some point of the challenge, after moving from NL10 to NL25, I was suffering a real downswing - at the same time, PartyPoker reduced the points awarded on NL10 to a third.
I thus decided to deposit part of my live bankroll for the time being so I would be able to complete the challenge on NL25 without worrying about going busto. Luckily, it went uphill from there and I was able to more than triple that investment :).
PokerStrategy: You're the living proof that one can become Diamond member even with a low bankroll - congratulations! And since you made it to Diamond in time for the Black Member Party, you also had the chance to meet some of our Diamonds and party with them. How was this whole experience for you?

awishformore: Well, on the first evening, we were bar hoping and I was having a great time initially, but then I suddenly had real stomach problems. While I was doubting it came from the alcohol, I still decided to get sleep to be fit for the real BM Party.
Unfortunately, it turned out I really hadn't been drinking too much but had food poisoning instead. I left the BM party at 11, before it really started, and was really disappointed. Now, more than a week later, I'm still not entirely cured, so it was really bad timing.
I guess I'll just have to be Diamond for the next BM Party, too, in order to make up for the missed night :P. My girlfriend shared the same fate one day later, so I guess we ate something bad on our way to Hamburg. A real shame.

PokerStrategy: I can only say I'm looking forward to seeing you at the next Black Member Party because I enjoyed having you around! Since you mentioned you played NL 10 / NL 25 for the challenge, what exactly do you play in general? What kind of tables and formats do you usually go for?

awishformore: Well, I don't really play online any more, but back when I played a lot online I played BSS up to NL50, SSS up to NL100 and SnGs up to the $16 Turbos, all full ring, mostly on PokerStars. My next project is to learn the basics of Fixed Limit and build enough bankroll to establish myself in NL50 Heads-Up - I took some shots there, and it really seems to fit me.
Until I get the time to do that, I will keep playing live NL200 and NL400 in casinos and home games from time to time, and some MTTs like the 200 person $250+50 this Saturday (wish me luck :P).

PokerStrategy: Wow, best of luck with that MTT on Saturday and keep us posted on your evolution. I'll be railing you though that might actually have the negative effect ;) And since you seem to like live poker more, let's hear your opinion on the "live vs. online poker" debate.

This picture makes no sense

awishformore: Well, in general, I think the skill gap between bad and good players widens tremendously in live poker and there are aspects to live poker you don't have in online poker. If you take two players who have the same skill level online, for instance, it's possible that one of them is vastly superior to the other in live poker due to his experience and good use of reads and tells.
The contrary can be true, too, though. If you have two live players who perform equally well, one of them can be much better online than the other because he bases his live play on a research, education and probability foundation, while the other plays based mostly on experience and on his reads by adjusting to the opponent. I think the combination of both is what really allows you to use the whole spectrum of skill.

PokerStrategy: Do you have a poker god? Is there a famous poker player that you respect in particular? Also, is there a pro that you just hate?

awishformore: I think this answer is not very popular, but I used to be a huge Phil Hellmuth fan. I always thought his reading ability was amazing, but I think he has lost his touch over the years. Daniel Negreanu is really impressive, too, and both Tom Dwan and Gus Hansen always impress with their dominant loose aggressive style.
There are a lot of other good players, and I really believe you can learn a lot from watching all of them, pick up parts to improve your own game here and there.
About the hating part...there are a few very annoying players, but I guess that's part of their game, tilting the opponent and provoking reactions. So you can't really blame them, if they manage to annoy me, they do something right at least.

PokerStrategy: Well it's a known fact that you cannot hate Daniel Negreanu - it's physically impossible (I tried). Which is your favourite learning method, by the way? Strategy articles? Videos? Coachings? Hand Discussions? Where did you learn most of what you know today?

awishformore: That's a really hard question. Articles are good to learn new stuff, basically, so you know that there is something like that and that you can use it. Once you have all that stuff in your mind, I think videos are by far the best way to learn how and when to put that knowledge into practice, so I like them best.
If you deal with only the articles too much, it will become hard to get away from standard play and establish your own style. You should never underestimate reading a good poker book to widen your horizon or just trying out new stuff live at a table, though.

PokerStrategy: Interesting. We'll make our video producers work harder from now on. Let's leave poker for the moment and let's move to the daily life issues. How does an ordinary day in your life look like? What do you have to do and what do you like to do when you're not playing poker? You mentioned something about a guitar...

awishformore: The great thing about my life at the moment is that I don't have a "typical" day. My girlfriend works shifts, so I pass time with her whenever I get the chance. Usually, my day is a mix of: writing stuff for PokerStrategy, playing the guitar/piano and writing some music, going jogging or to the gym, playing poker, cooking something nice and going out and passing time with my girlfriend - in no particular order. From time to time I also work on some programming project, but it's become less.

PokerStrategy: I like your lifestyle. Don't change it (well maybe the cooking part). Since I may have forgotten to add something, now is your chance to help me set things right. Is there anything else you would like to say? Give a shoutout to someone? Give an advice? Anything at all?

awishformore: I want to give a shoutout to erptech, DaPhunkand the other Diamonds I had the pleasure to meet at the BM Party. I hope we can catch up on partying together next time when I'm a bit fitter ;)
Also hi to Steve, Yves and Sascha - my best friends and poker buddies! Who do you call? Donkbusters! :D

PokerStrategy: Ok, I hope they will read this (I will make them). Thanks for your time and best of luck in the future (especially this Saturday)!

awishformore: Oh, well I guess I better warn them. Thank you too and take care!