07 Mar 08

We have another Black Member!

In less than two years Martin aka TTSIP earned over 500,000 StrategyPoints, giving him Black member status. Good enough for a short interview with him.

» INTERVIEW

The 21 year old student is now among the few No-Limit players in this very exclusive group. "It's a cool feeling to throw thousands accross the table" he said in our interview. Since his promotion, TTSIP has made the leap to NL1000 - and will naturally continue up. Read on for an interview with our newest Black member!

PokerStrategy: TTSIP, congratulations on your Black member status! Please tell us a little about yourself.

TTSIP: Thank you very much. My name is Martin, I am 21 years old and am in my third semester of studying economics at the Erfurt University of Applied Sciences.

Black Member
In mid 2007 we introduced a new status: Black member. This group is exclusively reserved to PokerStrategists who have gathered over 500,000 lifetime StrategyPoints. Not only is this status kept for life, it also regularly grants access to exclusive events and more, such as the Black member parties


PokerStrategy: Would you say you are more of a semi-professional student, like many of our top players? Or are you active on the side and see poker "only" as a hobby?

TTSIP: Well, I would say I'm a semi-professional player, simply because I don't play poker just for fun. That's where it doesn't qualify as a hobby anymore. I'm just looking for a chance to continue earning money through poker.

PokerStrategy:

TTSIP: I had decided last week to take a year off of my studies to play poker full-time. But after thinking it over I realised this: If I play for an entire year full-time, and make more money than the last two years combined I will lose my motivation to finish my studies. Thus I decided to re-register for next year in order to pass my four remaining exams to complete my studies.

PokerStrategy: Such a decision would make many poker players' mums proud. And with good reason: you managed to break the 500,000 StrategyPoints mark even with studies on the side. You'll probably be staying at PokerStrategy for quite some time, could you tell us how you first came to our favourite card game?

TTSIP: Like many others, I originally played StarCraft/Brood War. A real-life frien, with whom I always played a few rounds in the evenings, told me about PokerStrategy, and how it was really cool and a lot of money could be made there. At first I was a little skeptical (like everyone, probably), but after reading through the site and the PokerStrategy concept, I was convinced that the game could be beaten with skill. Seeing mid- and high-stakes players earning lots of money reinforced my belief that it really worked, so I started learning the game despite the realatively sparse articles back then.

PokerStrategy: You started off playing Fixed Limit, and "only" played on the lower limits, right? When did your ascension to higher stakes begin?

TTSIP: Right. I thing a big part of my poker career (about 8 months) was spent at the lower limits. My biggest mistake at the time was improperly balancing playing and learning. Indeed, I played too much and didn't study the game enough. Because of this I was just a marginal winner at all the low limits. I don't remember how many BB it was exactly (Unfortunately I don't have the databases anymore), but I think it was around 1BB/100. The rise up to 10/20 went smoothly and I also beat that limit pretty well. 15/30 however was a very big problem for me - like for many other players. I finally broke even on that limit after about 75k hands and then jumped directly up to 20/40. That didn't go much better. After the umpteenth downswing in my Fixed Limit career at 20/40 I decided to switch over to No-Limit.

PokerStrategy: So did you move over to NL just because of the downswings, or were there other reasons? How did you cope with the change and at what limits did you begin playing NL?

TTSIP: Actually, I took two shots at NL. The first was after a long downswing at 10/20. I was just frustrated by the 700BB loss and needed a change, so I gave NL a try. Since it was apparently much easier to beat than the mid stakes, I wanted to take a shot. After quickly reading through the content (still sparse at the time), I move through NL100 SH. I beat that limit for about 6PTBB and also won at NL200 for about 30k hands at 7PTBB. In hindsight, I must say I was on a very big upswing, since I played - contrary to now - a very nitty 15/12 style and only played very fishy tables. It was enough for that limit though. After this first experience, I decided to pursue my original goal again: 30/60. I was almost there when I got a nice 300BB downswing at 20/40. Normal variance. It doesn't bother me that much, even though variance is significantly higher than in NL. Therefore I decided to permanently move to NL and I began 12-tabling NL400.

PokerStrategy: How did you get the NL theory at the time? Articles, books, discussions with other players, hand evaluations?

TTSIP: I learnt everything from the PokerStrategy forum. I haven't ever read a book and probably never will, because in my opinion they just aren't necessary. Until recently, I learned exclusively from the articles and videos and, most importantly, the hand evaluations. And I got to understand a lot more aspects of the game, like on which boards fold equity is big enough for a bluff-raise, and so on.

PokerStrategy: And how are you doing for the moment? What limits did you reach?

TTSIP: It's going great for the moment. I beat NL600 for 4.2ptBB over the last 53k hands and am currently attacking NL1000+. However it's too early to tell whether I can beat the limit, since I'm more or less break even on the first 5k hands, but that's with a 48% W$SD. So I think that with good table selection, I will beat NL1000.

PokerStrategy: Very nice. You are currently ranked 18th in the Top 100 promotion, and are quite active. How much time do you invest per week into poker, and how much will you play in the future?

TTSIP: When I play, I play a lot and for long periods. On average I play about four times per week for eight hours 6-9 tabling and I spend about one hour per day working on my game. I am going to take coaching from a NL1000+ player soon, in order to gain whatever edge I can to beat the limit.

PokerStrategy: On what sites do you play, and why?

TTSIP: At the moment, only PartyPoker. I just feel well there, I have good reads on most of the players, good rakeback, cool Deuce parties, there are a lot of fish and I like the software - until they started this tournament advertising, which messes up my betpot script. I also tried out Titan poker. It is certainly very fishy, but the software annoys me. The noises, the non-scalable tables and so on - it just makes me tilt. So I quickly came back to PartyPoker

PokerStrategy: Let's have a brief foray into the future: What are your mid-term goals, since you will establish yourself on NL1000 in the short term?

TTSIP: I will already be very happy once I beat NL1000, as this was my original goal. And I am now very close to it. It's a great feeling to throw thousands across the table! I think that I'll grind NL600/NL1000 for a long time - until I have the bankroll for NL2000. Since I stick to a 100-stack bankroll management, it can take a long time. Long-term my goal is of course to beat NL5000.

PokerStrategy: In the meantime there will be another Black member party - at which you must be present, of course. Are you looking forward to meeting the rest of the top players, or do you already know most of them?

TTSIP: Yes, of course I'm looking forward to it. I already know a part of the players from Munich from the 1st party. Unfortunately I was already wasted because of a previous party, and only spent two hours over there.

PokerStrategy: Do you have any tips for our beginners and advanced players - or errors that you have to learn not to make in order to move on in your poker career?

TTSIP: The most important thing in the beginning is to concentrate more on the theory than on the games. The sooner you learn the theory, the faster you'll make progress. Remember that every hour you spend playing badly is an hour wasted. When I look at the beginner hand evaluations, I can only advise you to listen only to the professional hand evaluator, and not the other beginners, who are often plain wrong. One must know exactly why certain actions are taken in a hand. Always try to learn what is still unclear and you will eliminate the leak from your game.

PokerStrategy: Thank you very much for the interview Martin. Would you like to add anything?

TTSIP: You're most welcome! Hi mummy =). I am very grateful for the opportunity that PokerStrategy gave me and all the other members. I am someone who had to make do with very little money per month, which wasn't that bad - but with money it's just great. PokerStrategy gave me the opportunity, through basic concepts and strategies and no physically strenuous work, to earn a lot of money. I am very grateful for that. And I don't understand the people who accuse PokerStrategy of being greedy, and just looking for profit, etc. Of course PokerStrategy is a company, and thus looks to make money. But without them, one could never progress so quickly! Oh, and I wish a very succesful poker career to my brother and my mates Kai, Hanner, Peps, Sense, Robbe, Silvana and Erdnuss!

PokerStrategy: We wish you much success at NL1000, and hope that you will be present at the next Black member party.