10 Mar 08
Posting, talking, reading, evaluating
Praios made it to the No-Limit High Stakes with a lot of commitment - although his career didn't start optimally. After the 25-year old reached the BlackMember-status from PokerStrategy he answered a couple of questons for us.
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| » INTERVIEW |
PokerStrategy: Hi praios. Please tell us a little about yourserlf.
praios:
I am a 25 year old graduated economist. Yes, I guess its hard to
believe, but I really do have a degree in business sciences. At
first I tried to work as a controller, but I got rejected everywhere
- despite my good degree. In my free time I like to do a lot of sports,
preferably martial arts (Jujutsu, Taekwondo) and all kinds of card
games: "Doppelkopf" skat and obviously poker.
PokerStrategy: You probably played skat and "Doppelkopf" before you joined PokerStrategy right?
praios: I
learnt skat and "Doppelkopf" from my dad when I was about 12 years old. I didn't
go to any tournaments because it basically was like prize skat. You can only
win stupid non-cash prizes like a goose and there are a lot of elderly people playing. We had quite a few homegames though =). I remember a
time where my brother, a friend of my brother and I played skat every
day after school. We took all the money from the friend of my brother,
which turned out to be his confirmation money. His dad finally
intervened and prohibited him from playing with us!
PokerStrategy: Sounds like a lot of fun and it becomes very clear where your affinity towards poker is from. Do you have a history as an esport player as well like the other blackmembers?
praios: I
played Counterstrike. I was active in clans and we participated on LAN
parties in our area where we could achieve some good results. A few
first places on a smaller LAN parties with about 100 people present. It was never
enough for the top-clans, but I'd say that I was pretty good at Counterstrike.
| BlackMember |
 We
introduced a new status in the middle of 2007: BlackMember. Only
PokerStrategy players who have accumulated over 500.000 StrategyPoints
can enjoy this status. This status does not only last a lifetime but it enables the player to take part in regular events organised by PokerStrategy and more. Learn more about these exclusive
events: |
praios: I
started poker when a friend of mine suggested opening a playmoney-account on Everestpoker. I could increase
my playmoney chips further and further. At some point I watched reportage about the German poker championships on DSF where Korn also
appeared. He advertised PokerStrategy in the interview and I thought
that it sounded pretty interesting. I signed up, passed the quiz and
started (as usual back then) playing fixed limit.
It went really well in the beginning. I worked my
way through the limits and received the additional $100 in bonus. After 40 days I was forced to play FL 50c/$1 because you weren't allowed to play on
the beginner tables anymore. The FL 50c/$1 limit was the
lowest one on PartyPoker back then. Unfortunately I lost everything
apart from 5 dollar. In my desperation I started playing no-limit with
the bigstackstrategy. (Luckily microlimit-tables were introduced at
this time.) It went uphill from this moment (with a few downswings in between) and I could rebuild my bankroll quickly. Now I am playing
NL1.000 and higher.
PokerStrategy: Even though the start surely wasn't optimal: A very nice success story. You even published NL5.000 videos on PokerStrategy. Would you say that this is your home limit or did you have to move down in limits recently?
praios: No,
I have never had to move down to a lower limit. I still play NL5.000, but in comparison to
the regulars, I only play if there are good tables and some fishes
about. As this doesn't happen very often on this limit you won't find
me there very often. I think one reason why I am so successful
is because of my good table-selection. I consequently avoid the game
against regulars as long as there aren't any fish at the table. I think
you only have a marginal edge, if you have one at all, and increase
your swings playing all available tables, regardless of the players playing
on them.
PokerStrategy: So you think there is a large skill difference between NL2.000 and Nl5.000. What makes the regulars on NL5.000 so much better?
praios: I
think the largest skill differences are from NL200 to Nl400 and from
Nl600 to NL1.000. Nl2.000 is a lot tougher than NL1.000. The regulars on NL5.000
aren't that different to the ones on NL2.000 in my opinion.
Poker is a game where the one who makes the least
mistakes wins. The higher you move up in limits the less people make
mistakes. Furthermore, good regulars are a lot more resistant to tilt
and play just that little bit better in tricky situations than the
players on the lower limits. On NL5.000 you meet worldclass players
like Brian Townsend etc., against whom it is very tough to play.
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praios: I post hands, I talk to good players about some hands, I read strategyposts in the forum, I evaluate hands from other players and watch a lot of videos.
PokerStrategy: What do you do about psychology and tiltresistance? Is the sport an important balance for you?
praios: Yes, that is true on the one hand. On the other hand I like to reach my personal limits. Sport makes this possible. Furthermore I like to keep in shape rather than having a figure of a typical computer nerd or something similar.
Apropos tiltresistance: I find learning to cope with tilt is a slow process. When I still played NL400, I had pretty tough tiltsessions. This doesn't really happen to me anymore. It probably depends on the personality though. Some people who are a little cholerically assessed probably tilt quite a bit more. Unfortunately those players never make it above NL400 because you can extract a lot of money from these players =)
You could view poker as a kind of therapy to strengthen your own personality concerning patience and stressresistance. Sport is really good for clearing your head after a losing session.
PokerStrategy: It does seem to work for you anyway. What are your goals for the near future?
praios: I don't really have concrete goals in the sense of "I have to do this and that". It would be great if I could continue to play poker like I did the last three months... This is a goal I guess =)
Apart from that I haven't really taken up anything specifically.
PokerStrategy: Another goal should be to visit the BlackMember-party on the fifth of April! You will be one of the few No-limit-players there, however from experience, there won't be many theory discussions there.
We wish you all the best until then!
praios: Thanks a lot. I am 90% sure that I will be at the party. After all I have to get my suit as well. I would also like to greet some of my pokerhomies who accompanied me in my poker career so far and supported me along the way! I greet snog, lance, and don perignon.
PokerStrategy: Thank your for the detailed interview, praios.
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