31 Jul 09

Diamond Interview Series: opal99

We finally got him: the monster grinder opal99 has been tracked down and caught for an interview. Find out more about his daily schedule, his goals and his grinding secret in this week's Diamond Interview.

It took me a while (mainly because he was playing 22h/day) but I got him. They say the hunt makes the prey worth more (actually only I say that, I guess), so this would mean that opal99 is now that much more precious, right? Also I added pictures of robots because that's how I (we) imagine him. The interview was huge and took quite a while, which is why the PokerStrategy.com profit went down by 25% yesterday.

PokerStrategy.com: Hi opal, and thanks for finally taking some time for me and your legion of fans. For those who didn't start worshipping you yet, how about a small intro from yourself? That should be enough to make them want more.

opal99: Thank you for choosing me and I'm sorry I wasn't available earlier. I'm almost 24 year old guy from Slovakia who likes poker, sun, beer... Put all three together and you'll realize how lazy I am. I've been member of PokerStrategy.com since February 2008 and played FL since the beginning. My current limit is 5/10 and I'm reg-fish since I joined Mansion. That's probably everything about me..

"I don't even know why I chose Fixed Limit..."

PokerStrategy.com: Lazy? If we look at the rankings and the amount of StrategyPoints you make each month, I would have a different opinion, and by different opinion, I mean you're a god damn poker machine. But why did you choose Fixed Limit as your main poker type?

opal99: I have no idea to be honest. Back in then, I was in UK and found PokerStrategy.com while browsing some Slovak poker forums. It was just random click during the registration I guess ;) And about laziness: feel free to check my last month's activity and you'll notice I made almost all points in about 8 days, because I had to to not lose my VIP status on Mansion.. and it's almost the same this month..

PokerStrategy.com: The question on everyone's mind is: how do you do it? Seriously, how do you manage to get this many points in this little time? Does your day have 24hours like everyone else's?

opal99: In fact, it's not that hard if you play all available FL SH tables (up to 14) from 2/4 to 5/10.. But it's better these days as there's decent FL traffic so I can play only 5/10 and make about 4k points per day easily in just about 6-8 hours. I remember almost 6k points day when I had to play and it was only in 10 hours. As I said, I'm lazy to play more :) I didn't play for almost 3 weeks in June because I didn't feel like I should.. The sad is I can only  dream about win rate similar to my paid rake.

PokerStrategy.com: Do you have some sort of warm-up phase before you sit at the PC? Maybe some voodoo or dead rabbit's foot? Cause that would explain a lot.

opal99: I should try it maybe. It can be the key to winnings.. I don't understand one thing: Why do you still think I'm somehow hard-working person?? 95% people reading this are MUCH less lazy than I'm. If I wasn't, you'd see me playing 50/100 4 hrs/day for real money.

Also he's playing on iPoker

PokerStrategy.com: We simply like to believe you make so many StrategyPoints because you are working hard on your game. This gives us all the hope that some day we will be like you, so this is just our consolation. Since you seem to play like a beast, do you have some sort of goals set? Do you want to take over PokerStrategy.com or something maybe?

opal99: lol. A few days ago I talked to TheLastNail about my poker "career" and how I wasted my last 7 months. Simply said, I didn't work on my game at all since I recovered from bad downswing in the end of the last year. This must change or I should quit poker.
My only goals are to work on my game (FL SH) again, start to play (seriously) NL and move to NL completely (more or less) in October. FL on these stakes is just not profitable enough in my opinion and because the edge is so small here, you must be very good to earn something. And because I'm not, I'm going to try something else as soon as I get big bonus on 1st of October. Anyway, if there are any PokerStrategy.com shares to sell, let me know.

PokerStrategy.com: I will talk to Yoghi and see if you two can team up and buy the 51% share package - would be interesting. You're somewhat a student at this point right? How does poker fit in your daily life, presuming you don't have kids to feed and debts to pay to Ukrainian mobsters...

opal99: I would have to sell kidneys from all my relatives + all potential unborn children to get money for that, but will consider it. About my studies.. There's not much to say as I'm on combine form of it, so I don't spend so much time being there. It's been a while since I started and if I keep this attitude, I'll be student in my 30 for sure! But it's still fun, so why not? Ukraine is just about 80 km from my current place so don't make jokes, ok?

80% chances to see opal99 at the Black Member Party

OK guys, you just go ahead and fire up that barbecue. I gotta clear this bonus first.

PokerStrategy.com: Well if you will go to the next Black Member Party, chances are you will meet our Ukrainian colleague, Boris, who will take good care of you - I just had to mention that. Speaking of which, the Black Member Party is going to take place soon. What are your plans for it? Will you bring me something special?

opal99: It's quite possible I'll join you in Berlin, but have to think about some nice present for you.. few hot chicks for a night could make you happy, but I won't get more than 2 tickets so it can be problem. It all depends on how my personal life will be affected by upcoming moving abroad and related stuff. I'd say you have 70-80% chance to see me there.

PokerStrategy.com: Well, as long as you bring me something... I got this curiosity: do you, as our little poker icon, have one or more poker pros which you just absolutely love or hate?

opal99: I'm maybe the only poker player who don't care about high stakes pros, WSOP, EPT and TV shows at all. It doesn't affect my play, my win rate and my attitude, so why should I care about someone I won't play against in near future. I may tell you 3-5 names I know but I'm not able to say anything about them. Only the boku's challenge impressed me lately.

PokerStrategy.com: Hmm, well boku is your SnG counterpart basically. Speaking of which, do you have any particular challenges going on lately? If not, would you consider challenging the other members to something like, who gets to Black Member status first?

opal99: I wanted to win TOP250 in April but gave up after massive downswing after few days. Anyone who want to challenge me is welcome, but I'm not in mood to do anything like this now so you'd have to wait few weeks. BM status could be nice goal and doable this year if I get some motivation, but it (probably) won't happen as I'm going to switch to NL and won't grind until I reach some real limit.

"I will give MTTs a shot"

It learned to adapt to the jungle environment too...

PokerStrategy.com: Ah yes, switch to NL... Your countryman TheLastNail will probably help you with that and also maybe you see TwiceT driving around (cause you know he's doing this weird road trip throughout Europe, where he's some sort of Poker Samaritan, since he's giving free poker coaching in exchange for something not yet revealed – we like to assume it's something hilarious). Would you also consider playing large online and/or live tournaments? Look at Yoghi for example - he might need a fellow PokerStrategist to accompany him.

opal99: TheLastNail is the reason I decided to give NL a try. He should visit me next month to coach me a bit and to crush some casino-fish. I remember like he almost quit poker back in March while being on NL50-100 and look where he is know. It's great what he accomplished in such short period of time and I'd like to follow his steps. I missed the opportunity to meet TwiceT while he was with TheLastNail but we will get the chance in future I hope. About live MTTs: why not? I'd like to visit some new places, know new people and have fun, but it's not the goal for me.

PokerStrategy.com: Would be nice to see you in a live event and I guess I speak for everyone when I say it would be even nicer to bust Hellmuth in a WPT or something, just for the ensuing drama. And since you mentioned TheLastNail and TwiceT, which members and blogs do you find interesting in our community and why?

opal99: Except those two, I like TerrorBlade's and Waiboy's FL blogs, because of their attitude to this unhealthy form of poker. miskokvo's one is great too - it's fun reading and I remember his ultra-hard grinding episodes and him being so happy with $12/hr on $3.8.. He's going to play $75 SNGs soon and earn some serious money - must read blog for beginners.
Others good ones are Snodreliss' Gerv's and DaPhunk's. About members: Dippy19helped me a lot in the past but we're not in contact these days, the same applies for our boss SoyCDand all my respect for our Fixed Limit coach Cornholio. Can't name everyone obviously. Of course, I forgot our HU hero Yoghi!

"Stop saying poker is rigged!"

Ok, I think I'm gonna play a few hands today...

PokerStrategy.com: Blasphemy! Thou shall always mention Yoghi! Since you're pretty much a star in Slovakia (you're a star there, right?) and you most likely meet crazy fans asking for autographs, what would you advise players out there that are just starting out? Besides "Say NO to drugs".

opal99: You're right.. those crowds of fans everywhere make me sick. That's why I'm moving to Czech republic soon. I have only two recommendations:
1. BRM - who don't know why, should quit poker or work on this the most important skill;
2. stop thinking about rigged poker.
It's simple as that. :)

PokerStrategy.com: But Titan Poker IS rigged! Everyone knows that! Oh well, let's leave poker for now. Where does this username of yours come from? Were there 98 other users who took 'opal' before you?

opal99: It's shortcut from my last name and since we had 4 Pavol's in class, this became my nick and few people know me just as Opal now. There was one 'opal' registered here and I was too tired to think about other nick, so I typed 99 what's my date of birth. No story behind.

PokerStrategy.com: The way you put it sounds like you were born in '99, which would mean you're 10 at the moment. Just to clarify this: his birthday is on the 9th of September (09.09), PokerStrategy.com does not support child labour/online pokering. Anyways, what do you do besides poker in general? Got any particular hobbies or something?

opal99: I like squash a a lot, in-line skating, I play tennis quite rarely and fell in love with bowling lately. In fact, I'm lazy to do other things but this is going to be changed very soon! And I collect beer cans! In general, I like any sport, just don't do them a lot now..

PokerStrategy.com: Yeah well I guess you can be Diamond AND collect beer cans + play bowling. I'm not judging you. Well Ok, maybe I am... I think you should go back to grinding because I kept you long enough. Before you leave, is there anything you want to add? Maybe a shout-out to someone, a question to me, a suggestion for a next Diamond to be interviewed, or all of the above. The choice is yours really.

opal99: You should bring me some Spanish beers to next BM party. ;) Next interviewed diamond should be frzl, Amirapuatoor smidlo.. or all of them. I don't have a question for you but I will prepare some for BM party for sure.

PokerStrategy.com: Sounds good. I will try to track these guys down and force them to do nasty things. I will also interview them. Ok, that's basically it, so thanks for your time and enjoy your grinding there!

opal99: You're welcome. Thank you for the opportunity! It's been a much longer interview than I expected so it'll be long night. Have fun!